Scrounging bandar ftw - seriously! Say we miss the ballista and run out something like bandar, rishkar, and winding constrictor - during upkeep, we can remove 2 counters from our 3 counter bandar and pump rishkar by another 2 counters and constrictor by another 2 counters -
All of the cards in the deck aside from 3 fatal push pump our ballista, so it's not uncommon to have a 7/7 or more ballista turn 4, and if that doesn't win you the game, following it up with another 4 counters from Verduruous Gearhulk usually will.
Lifecrafter's awakening is a bomb - used as a combat trick it's almost always removal and more damage than your opponent was expecting, usually closing out the game.. and when it connects with walking ballista it's just ridiculous.
Hadana's climb also gives you a pretty straightforward method of ko'ing your opponent as early as turn 5, which is pretty nice.
Ajani unyielding gives us some card advantage if the game looks like it may actually go past turns 5-6. In their own way, each creature has to be answered in this deck or you'll pull too far ahead - whether it's ramp critters (servant and rishkar) - the tempo of dropping ajani or verdurous gearhulk a turn or two early is pretty hard to overcome, or the cat or the snake, which inevitably turn our ballista into a giant, usually by the time ajani drops your opponent is on the backfoot or should be on the backfoot. Since we're only running 7 non permanents in the main his + ability will consistently net you a card. The minus provides some answers that traditionally we'd need to pack a playset of vraska's contempts or castouts for. And of course, the ultimate will also pump ballista and close out the game.
The power level of the deck is actually pretty high and the synergy is there. The deck ramps (servant, rishkar, hadana's climb). Deck curves really well and the manabase feels right -
Always open to suggestions, but aside from Maulfist Revolutionary or Skyship Plunderer, I don't think there are actually any other cards that can buff the walking ballista
Maybe this is the new cat combo :)
Lastly and perhaps most interestingly, by running a mostly green deck splashing for a total of four colors we get access to a lot of very relevant cards in the sb. Don't get me wrong, this deck does what it does really well, but it is nice to have access to the best tools in the format.
