The following deck is intended for Jim Boonie (or anyone else interested) only.
It's free! Real Estate! We're giving you lands! It's free. We're giving you a lot of lands. It's real estate. Free. It's free lands for you, Jim. This is free real estate! You gotta bring creatures, but the land is free!
ahem
Anyway, this deck focuses on, if you haven't gathered by the commander or the poorly executed parody, excessive amounts of mana ramp and landfall based abilities. And who better to helm such a deck than my new favorite merfolk friend, Tatyova, Benthic Druid. She nets you free life gain, and more importantly, significant card advantage. But she isn't alone in this prospecting land grab. She's got tons of friends to make sure you get the most out of your landfall triggers. Let's walk through the strategy.
The Strategies
As mentioned before, Tatyova is a big part of what makes this deck the powerful engine that it is, so you want her out as soon as possible. Ramp well enough and she'll be out turn two or three, which gets you way ahead of the game.
Now, as for Tatyova's friends, they come in two varieties; the hard working ones, and the brutish big boys. The small workers, like Grazing Gladehart, Chasm Skulker, Elvish Mystic, Walking Atlas, Rampaging Baloths, and Meloku the Clouded Mirror make sure you get the most out of your landfall triggers, netting you more life or getting you extra benefits, or just allow for more acceleration. Some will even bounce lands back to your hand, for more repeatable triggers. Other enchantments like Retreat to Kazandu, Retreat to Coralhelm, and Khalni Heart Expedition net you even more benefits, so try to get these out before you spill too many lands.
Tatyova's other friends are the big, brutish creatures you're going to be pumping your late game mana into. Hydras, like Lifeblood Hydra, Genesis Hydra, and Heroes' Bane, allow for huge mana dumps to swing in for a game winning kill. Other big creatures, like Pathbreaker Ibex and Stormtide Leviathan, are there to get you the needed power and protection to swing in with the team safely. Ant Queen allows for more mana dumping, giving you a sink that nets you some serious token protection.
This deck is thankfully packed with win conditions, which will be listed below.
-
Combat Damage (Tall): Cards like Stormtide Leviathan and any of the hydras allow you to swing with super massive creatures, that are nigh impossible to kill with combat damage. Stormtide is my personal favorite, as you can just keep swinging in without worry, and you can pump it up to some pretty impressive numbers.
-
Combat Damage (Wide): Alternatively, you can just send in the team for the kill. Rampaging Baloths, Meloku the Clouded Mirror, Zendikar's Roil, and Seed the Land can get you massive amounts of tokens. Throw down an Overwhelming Stampede with a big hydra out, and suddenly you have an unstoppable wave of creatures. Sylvan Awakening also turns your massive land count into heavy and indestructible beaters, for bonus damage.
-
Aetherflux Reservoir : This strategy is only suggested if you have more than 70 life, or are one of the last two at the table. You're going to be gaining tons of life, so why not use it to bolt someone for 50, straight to the face?
-
Hurricane: Green's answer to the ever popular burn. Use this at high life totals to kill off the rest of the table.
-
"The" Combo: This deck does run a single infinite combo that can be ended at any time. The basis of the combo is to play an infinite loop of lands using Meloku the Clouded Mirror + Retreat to Coralhelm + Sakura-Tribe Scout
. Scout can be replaced with Walking Atlas in this combo. Basically, the combo requires you have one land and the scout untapped. Tap the land for mana, and use the one mana on Meloku's ability, returning it to hand. Tap the scout to drop the land back into play, and use the Retreat to Coralhelm trigger to untap the scout. Rinse and repeat. Worst case scenario, this nets you infinite 1/1 flying illusions. Best case scenario draws you most if not all of you deck, allows you to play all your lands in one turn, gains you infinite 1/1 fliers and 4/4 beasts, and gains you ridiculous amounts of life. It's a tricky combo to set off, but it's so satisfying.
Anyway, that's about it. So get out there, have some fun, and just remember...
it's free real estate.
