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Little Arms, Big Aspirations

Commander / EDH Combo GW (Selesnya) Ramp

Droodkills

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Creature (41)

Land (34)

Enchantment (6)

Commander (1)

Commander: Yasharn, Implacable Earth

Instant (8)

Sorcery (7)

Artifact (3)

Maybeboard

Creature (1)

A sign hangs on the doorway.

.

Welcome to the laboratory.

Do not inquire how a species came to be.

None of these animals are for adoption.

DO NOT RIDE THE PONY

.

.

You decide to walk in.

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With the release of Unstable came with it one of Magic's most inventive mechanic ever printed: augment. A beautiful illustration of splicing together two creatures, one who helms the input and the other who determines the output, banished into the obscure realm of Unstable limited drafts and the occasional yearly get-together where everyone just happened to bring their nerf guns.

Seclude yourself no longer, my brothers! For today, we become more than our beginnings, our isolation from the hands of constructed players, from pack exchanges to land-dump fillers! We show ourselves in the beauty that was a set six years in the making, stripped from the whimsical nonsense that plagues the sets of un!

On a serious note, I fell in love with the augment mechanic from the Unstable set along with its championing commander, Dr. Julius Jumblemorph, hereas referred to Dr. Jubles, and I was saddened to see such an amazing idea only present in a joke set. I wondered to myself for the longest time what it would look like had the mechanic been released as a new set in an of itself (SIDE NOTE: Mutate was just released, which is not too far unlike this). Two years later, I have finally gotten off my butt to build the deck, and my lord has it been an experience. This deck utilizes the philosophy that the augment mechanic could have been legal in edh, and that if you remove the random and un-set-like elements from the cards themselves, create an experience unlike any other commander can create while feeling like genuine cards you would find in a new set. This means most of the cards are actually unplayable: Druid of the Sacred Beaker, for instance, would never exist in a real set. Similarly, die-rolling, while adjacent to coin-flipping, is not a regular occurrence in actual magic, so sadly this excludes the unironically best card of the deck, Adorable Kitten. A card like Clever Combo is fair game.

Obviously, this relies on rule 0. If your friends are buttmunchers who don't want you to play the deck, that is completely fair and valid for a game of EDH with established rules. Doesn't mean they're not buttmunchers.

If you're still here, you're the realest. This deck has been a serious deckbuilding inspiration, and I'm sure I will continue to work on it for the rest of my magic career.

This whole idea started out as a Selesnya value-train that used Dr. Jumbles over here to make big creatures with interesting effects, and used the combination of hosts and augment creatures to create unique scenarios in a casual environment. Oh, boy have we grown up since then.

This is a pretty dedicated combo deck, relying on tutors to pick out our specific combo pieces in order to win the game outright. Much of the old host-augment crew have since returned to their obscure role in drafts, but a few key selections have remained, namely the ones that have fast effects and that aren't limited in their number of uses (things like Robo- and Humming-, to name a few). Let's talk about why these made it:

So we have a super basic value host in the form of Wild Crocodile who is almost always paired with Serpentine. Honestly, this pair can be cut without too much recourse, but I like having it as a tutor option with Clever Combo as a 2-mana 4/4 with Dr. Jumbles out that draws me an additional basic land every turn. It provides just another output that feeds its own input, a commonality amongst the next few experiments.
The release of Strutting Turkey was the mobilizing factor that led me to build this deck in paper instead of some reclusive part of my mind. The augmenter of Monkey- combos with any sac outlet to provide an infinite looping of a 2-cmc creature, although sadly Selesnya is greatly lacking in this department. Sakura-Tribe Elder is the only card that doesn't super-suck, and Child of Thorns is the only creature that allows us to do infinite of anything that could actually win the game, which while not sexy, is workable. This is also the reason for the existence of Altar of Dementia as a secondary means of winning through this line. A card like Ashnod's Altar could also work, but requires an additional card to actually win the game, which I personally think is too much to ask for, but please prove me wrong.

I would Murder for a card like Mogg Fanatic. Or anything that at least costs 2 mana for Birthing Pod lines. Lord.

Oh boy. My favorite.

Now, upon first glance, it certainly seems like the combination of Half-Squirrel, Half- on an Ordinary Pony provides an infinite combo with any ETB creature, and upon this discovery this deck became my 'side-hustle' with none of my peers nor my beloved Teferi, Temporal Archmage being any the wiser. But you would be WRONG, sir! Somehow, these two friends managed to pass through (lol) SIX YEARS OF SET DEVELOPMENT without being discovered. Within a month the pony received an errata to only allow it to flicker non-horse creatures of whom did not enter the battlefield through this ability this turn, along with an 'Oops.' on its gatherer page.

These two are still incredibly strong and deserve to be recognized. Any creature that has a strong ETB goes beserk with these two, cards such as Woodland Bellower, Harmonic Sliver, Karmic Guide, and Sun Titan being flickered numerous times even on your opponent's turns can be the nail in the coffin for your opponents.

Angelic Rocket is a powerhouse at the end; assuming you have retained any of your augmenters or have the Pony loops going, the Angel allows you to rocket through your opponent's entire boardstate. It can also be used in very niche situations with another host that has Monkey- to blow up your own creatures in order to gain additional triggers.

Eager Beaver is much, much more complicated. In its simple use, it can combo with things such as Priest of Titania in order to produce oodles and oodles of mana. In this 'fair' form, it can be combined with Serpentine in order to just be a mana battery, of which this deck uses plenty. However, where things get complicated is with Birthing Pod.

Eager Beaver + Monkey- with Birthing Pod is not just a means of evolving creatures, but of tutoring up very specific lines that lead to getting the Strutting Turkey + Child of Thorns. Cards like Sun Titan and Karmic Guide bridge the mana costs in this deck and allow you to recoup low-cmc cards in the graveyard to get back to the 4-cmc for the Turkey. Eager Beaver + Half-Squirrel, Half- allows you to weave in a few untaps for lands to provide the mana to keep going with Pod. Woodland Bellower is the 6-cmc card that tutors up the green spirit. Tutoring up Hosts also allows you to trigger your commander and search for the appropriate hosts to stick onto. This little beaver was assuredly the last one I decided to keep, and it wasn't until the upgrades came in the mail that this little guy just turned this deck on its heels.

Because of the mostly-permanent nature of augmenting a host, it is vital to only combine creatures together in order to accrue the most potential usefulness in a game, which means realizing when you can use pieces to do other things. This is vitally true for Eager Beaver and Monkey- with Birthing Pod lines, as putting these two together means it is probably impossible to combo-off through the Strutting Turkey. However, the turkey CAN combo with the Half-Squirrel, Half- given that the creature will always be present in the graveyard as the ability goes on the stack, as the target needs to be present beforehand which means additional work needs to be done before Child of Thorns goes infinite this way, although not much additional. Sometimes you don't even want to augment your hosts with your commander; for example, Eager Beaver may not want to get an augment if you're about to blink it with the pony soon, which allows you to get an additional ETB effect from the Beaver. Knowing when and what to augment is critical.

Augments are considered creatures while in any zone, and have a generic p/t of 0/0 is they somehow find their way onto the field. This is very important for cards such as Fauna Shaman and Survival of the Fittest.

Dr. Julius Jumblemorph can get augments from your graveyard. He is also EVERY CREATURE TYPE; do not forget! This is critical to the success of the deck because staring at a board of numerous hosts + augmenters, a Birthing Pod and a suite of creatures, it may be hard to remember that your Gemhide Sliver allows you to tap your commander for mana, or that Elephant Graveyard allows you to regenerate him, or that Ordinary Pony cannot blink him.

Numerous cards in this deck are meant to protect your combo turn. Gaddock Teeg, Dauntless Escort, Flawless Maneuver, Heroic Intervention, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, even Thalia, Guardian of Thraben are all there to protect you. Of all the limitations the Selesnya colors present, they certainly have great protection spells; don't combo if you don't have a way to protect yourself! Augments are semi-permanent and having your creature killed in the middle of an attempt may prevent you from going off again!

Abilities are also going to be utilized on the stack VERY often. Knowing your triggers is vital to the functionality of this deck. For example, when you play Ordinary Pony with Dr. Julius Jumblemorph on the field, two triggers go on the stack at the same time. In order to produce infi-....numerous blinks, which ability do you resolve first? Which creatures in your deck can you tutor with Eager Beaver + Birthing Pod in order to produce a kill, given that you have cards such as Karmic Guide and Sun Titan to bring out?

Decisions like this are what makes this deck so complex and so special, and why I believe it deserves a rightful place in the EDH community. It provides extremely deep lines of play that reward proper execution and proper macro-decision making, as certain effects cannot be reversed. It's fun, it's unique, it's extremely entertaining to watch and play, it's my favorite deck.

Your commander is a Mistform Ultimus, which means he gains all the tribal benefits found inherently on certain cards, which is the justification for most of these choices.

General rules for mana-ramp: 1-mana ramp is the best, run all of that, bonus points for the elves that get an additional bonus from Priest of Titania. 2-mana ramp is great if and only if it produces 2+ mana at some time, and only if it curves into your commander on 4. Examples of this are Gemhide Sliver and Manaweft Sliver that allow you to tap your commander for an additional mana of any color. Priest of Titania counts your commander as well.

Harmonic Sliver allows you to blow things up with Dr. Jumbles, and Path of Ancestry allows you to scry with any creature cast using it.

Creature protection is key in a deck without counterspells and without black reanimation to back it up. Heroic Intervention, Flawless Maneuver, Teferi's Protection and Shalai, Voice of Plenty are just a few of the ways we can provide this backup. Special note goes out to the inclusion of Dauntless Escort for being both a tutorable green creature with Green Sun's Zenith and having a cmc of 3 or less for Woodland Bellower and Sun Titan.

After that, tutors are the name of the game, and we have almost all of them: Eladamri's Call, Green Sun's Zenith, Finale of Devastation, Worldly Tutor, Recruiter of the Guard, Clever Combo, Fauna Shaman, Woodland Bellower, Birthing Pod, and Eldritch Evolution. Sylvan Tutor probably makes the cut, I just need to figure out something to take out, probably Soul of the Harvest.

Selesnya is also known for it's hatebears, of which we have a couple: Gaddock Teeg, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Collector Ouphe. Scavenging Ooze could probably have a home here.

Alpha Status: Sometimes, you just get 'em.

Notable exclusions include Ashnod's Altar, of which I just don't believe is consistent enough and often breaks the curve off by a turn in order to put it down. Cloak and Dagger was a strong option for this deck that I believed just didn't make the cut. Linvala, Keeper of Silence along with many other powerful 4-cmc cards also were not included just because they conflict with the casting of my commander, who is essential in putting together many of the combos. Ephemerate is a card I am currently thinking about including.

A lot of this deck retains its big-green identity from previous itterations with cards such as Genesis Wave and Soul of the Forest that do need to be cut. I plan on sitting down and working on the cuts further sometime in the future, although recommendations are greatly appreciated.

No 'official' rulings of host or augment exist, but through the use of Gatherer and MaRo's twitter account, we can glean a good amount of information on the interactions these cards present. Please, feel free to tell me I am wrong, I am more than welcome to be, just provide some basis on your claims as most if not all of these come from some official source.

  • Augmenting is an activated ability from your hand. If the creature leaves the battlefield for any reason before the augment resolves, the augment goes back to your hand.

  • Augmented hosts are combined into a single creature, and are considered one creature for all purposes. They have the same CMC / devotion count as the host, and the original Power and Toughness is considered the Hosts + the Augment creatures. They remain combined while in ANY PUBLIC ZONE, which includes: battlefield, graveyard, face-up exile. This means if an augmented host is blinked by Ordinary Pony, it remains combined. If they are bounced to your hand, they are split apart as this is no longer a public zone.

  • Augments can be combined with unaugmented hosts anywhere on the battlefield, including your opponents.

  • Creatures that copy an augmented host copy the augment and the host abilities.

  • Augments are creatures. They have no casting cost, and therefore cannot be cast. If they manage to find their way onto the battlefield for any reason, they have power and toughness 0/0, which means they die. This will trigger anything that cares about creatures dying.

  • Augmenting a host is NOT a creature entering the battlefield, and do not trigger any such effects.

You may notice me speaking of the Half-Squirrel, Half- Ordinary Pony combo with the updated errata text as a definitive rule, when there is clearly an R&D's Secret Lair sitting right there in the land pool, clear as day with its bright red text. The reason this deck even exists is paramount to the discovery of the squirrel-pony and figuring out the best way to break it to make it a competitively-viable deck, so when the news of the errata came out I began scrambling to see if there was any other way to maintain the husk that was left behind.

I ran through some extremely complex lines with cards like Restoration Angel ping-ponging with the ETB triggers of the Pony to lead it to be another entity, allowing for the combo to exist cause 'what? no, I haven't targetted you this turn, that was the OTHER pony that did that', as well as weird Fiend Hunter + Pony lines that would just leave me with a real headache. Needless to say, this system was less than satisfying for gluing the purpose of the deck back together. However, not too long after, this innocuous, extremely obscure and devilishly simple land popped onto my radar that literally solved the problem with 7 words and almost no opportunity cost. I wondered to myself, am I really that desperate? Have I gone off the deep-end? Does this brake the careful systematic laws put into place to justify this deck of which I would already need to justify each and every time I brought it out? Would this upset the people I am playing with, that a card that rides the line of realism allows me to suddenly play an infinite combo that I tutor using my commander of whom I have infinite access to?

Probably.

It doesn't do anything.

You can't cut it, though. It's just a rule of the deck. Has to play a Wastes.

Anyways, you get to tell this nice story every time you play it.

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Casual

97% Competitive