How the deck works:
Make tokens, hit them with Polymorph, putting a huge creature on the field. Use tokens to chump block and counter spells to buy time to get your big guy out. Counter magic also protects your key spells and creatures. Your Plan B is to swarm the board with tokens and swing, alongside Lumbering Falls.
Card Choices:
Nissa and Awakening Zone - I like the new Nissa a lot (see image above). She does something very similar to Awakening Zone, but she can also pump tokens with permanent +1/+1s, which is a fairly decent plan B, or a good way to apply pressure and buy time to flip a Wurm. She can also buff Wurm tokens to 6/6, which is significant because they then outclass Rhino, Tasigur, and others. The ability to buff tokens makes Awakening Zone way better as well, hence the 3:2 split. I'm considering a 3rd Zone on the sideboard.
Polymorph and Proteus Staff - Staff is nice, because the effect is recur-able, but it's weak to artifact removal and Abrupt Decay. Both methods are weak to creature removal, because the opponent can Bolt your target. But we have ways to protect against this, namely Dispel and
Mizzium Skin
, the latter being nice because it's good with plan B in Overload mode, protecting our token army. These spells are also good at protecting our fatty once he's out. I may eventually replace Staff with Bring to Light, but that requires a very different mana base.
Worldspine Wurm - Okay, he's not Emrakul. He's better against Liliana otV, worse against Path to Exile, and not at all bad against most targeted removal. We also have sideboard replacements for different situations, like Craterhoof Behemoth (testing with new Nissa), Terastodon, and
Elderscale Wurm
.
Sleight of Hand, Sprout, and Peek - Serum Visions is expensive. And in this deck, SoH doesn't have a major downside, because there are always things we want to stick on the bottom of our library, like extra land and creatures. Peek rounds out the numbers so we have decent turn 1 plays. Along with Sprout, it gives us something to use mana on if we leave it available for a counterspell, but our opponent doesn't do anything we want to counter.
Compulsive Research and Peer Through Depths - I don't love CR's cost, but it really fits well here, as we have a high land count and occasionally have the issue of a big creature getting stuck in our hand. See Beyond remains under consideration as well. Peer helps us find PMorph, Sprout, or a counter, depending on what we need.
EDIT: See Beyond seems to fit the curve better. Sticking with it for now.
Dispel, Remand and Mana Leak - All great counters, but dependent on the situation. Dispel protects us from opposing counters and removal without leaving 2 mana up. Remand and Leak are more flexible, and better at disrupting the opposing game plan, but at greater cost.
Voidslime - A 1-of, fun-of. Sort of a wild card.
Pongify - This is actually one of the most versatile spells in the deck. It can destroy a problematic opposing creature at instant speed, or turn a plant token into a more effective blocker or attacker. One of it's best uses is to target your own Worm in response to Path to Exile.
Thanks for checking out the deck. Comments, suggestions, and +1s are always welcome!
