GOAL OF THE DECK
Snake tribal!... but not really.
There are some snakes in the deck, but they're mostly just there to get Patron of the Orochi out quick. Patron of the Orochi is just a Seedborn Muse in the command zone, allowing for 5x your normal amount of tap abilities and mana. This does come with some heavy restrictions, though.
One, Patron's ability is tied to summoning sickness. This means that you either have to wait a full turn cycle hoping that nobody removes the 8 drop that will rain oblivion and a swarm of locusts upon them, OR you give it haste. Its no secret what this deck prefers. As such, the deck is chock-full of ways to let Patron hit the ground running, from Thousand-Year Elixir to Surrak, the Hunt Caller.
Two, much of the absurd amounts of mana that Patron produces have to go into instant-speed outlets. These mana outlets can take the form of card advantage like Duskwatch Recruiter
, or can outright affect the board, like through tokens. Cards like Ant Queen and Splitting Slime help create a threatening board in the span of one turn cycle. Mixed with cards like Cryptolith Rite and Citanul Hierophants, your creation of tokens can become exponential. The game typically ends with an Elder of Laurels or souped up Heroes' Bane, though in extreeeeme cases you can just punch everybody dead with pure 1/1s.
QUICK TIPS
INFINITES
- Temur Sabertooth and a haste enabler goes infinite with Patron of the Orochi if your Patron activations make more than 10 mana. Use 2 mana to return Patron and 8 mana to replay it. Since Patron is now a new object, you can use its ability again to generate 11 mana and repeat the loop.
YISAN
- Yisan, the Wanderer Bard works out so that in a 3+ player setting, one turn cycle after slamming Patron down gets you a Temur Sabertooth and the requisite mana. You can have as little as 5 mana available when you cast Patron and go infinite the following turn if you tutor for 2 mana dorks and Somberwald Sage, as well as have a land drop next turn.
SAKIKO
- Sakiko, Mother of Summer can act as a pseudo-ritual to cast Patron if you give it haste. Pay 6 to play her, equip Lightning Greaves, swing in to get at least 3 more mana, and you can now cast Patron by sacrificing her with mana left over.
SURRAK
- Surrak, the Hunt Caller can give haste to Patron, but only until end of turn. This means that you only get to untap all your things once on your turn, instead of the usual five. Surrak is still invaluable because it doesn't cost any mana to give haste the turn Patron comes down, and it can be tutored up as a creature. That said, its much more limited than Lightning Greaves would be. Try to use the mana you get from your one Patron activation to find a more permanent haste enabler.
SPICE I'M SURPRISED MORE PEOPLE DON'T PLAY
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Nullmage Advocate's seeming downside is actually the whole reason you play the card. Often, you'll only opt to give somebody interaction back if they'll point it where you want it to go. If you're in a situation that you need to destroy something with Advocate, odds are that the table is more wary of someone else and won't take much convincing to send their newly acquired goodies elsewhere. If you really don't like dealing with the political aspect of Commander, a neat replacement is the consistent Nullmage Shepherd, which can be better or worse depending on your perspective.
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Splitting Slime isn't nearly as popular as Ant Queen, which really surprises me. I understand that its not that old of a card, and thus isn't as well remembered, but the card is a house. It is the highest stat-to-mana-cost ratio of any repeatable token-producing card that I could find (6/6's for 6 mana), twice that of Ant Queen. Of course, Ant Queen makes more bodies in exchange, all of which you can Skullclamp. Different engines for different roles.
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Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro isn't exactly spice, but often gets overlooked in non-Snake-tribal decks. The Snake tribal bonus isn't even the main draw of the card. It's already at rate with popular ramp spells like Explosive Vegetation, and it just needs one other Shaman on board to be an insane ramp spell. You'd be surprised how many already good cards have the Shaman creature type, so reexamine your decks to see if Sachi could be worth a slot.
I'm also really biased and upset that Heroes' Bane doesn't see more play, but it's not all that good of a card, so you probably shouldn't include it in most of your decks.
DECK BUILDING
My idea behind the deck was to play a pretty standard green deck with some of the spice that you come to expect in Commander, and for the most part I think I succeeded. Of course, there are still issues with the deck.
I've noticed that the deck is a little lacking in interaction. This is pretty natural, since the deck is pretty proactive and green doesn't have much in the way of strong instant-speed removal. I am worried about how difficult it is to rebuild after a board wipe or other disruption. Patron of the Orochi is a whopping 10 mana after just one death, and it being the glue that holds the whole deck together means that it's vital that it stays alive.
I've experimented with protection spells like Heroic Intervention and Wrap in Vigor, since once Patron is active you always have mana open to interact with, but found them a little low-impact compared to the repeatable Soul of New Phyrexia. That said, I recognize that I need more interaction, so any suggestions for additions or cuts to help with that are welcome!
If you have any feedback, or see any obvious includes, feel free to comment them below! I don't think I've seen too many other Patron of the Orochi decks, so I'm eager to hear your take on the deck!
Nature's claim > Staff of Titania
