This is my Horde of Notions elemental tribal valuetown deck. In a sense, this deck functions like a toolbox control deck that uses various tools like Birthing Pod to answer any situations that may have arise. There are many sweet creatures that happen to be elementals at our disposal. Maelstrom Wanderer lets you accrue value over the course of the game, Muldrotha, the Gravetide lets you abuse your graveyard even further, Bane of Progress decimates the artifact/enchantment heavy board, Roil Elemental lets you steal creatures, and Avenger of Zendikar becomes degenerate once you're able to sac and recur it multiple times a round. Overall, I've really come to enjoy piloting this deck and it never gets stale for me.

Overview

Although this deck wants to exploit Horde of Notions graveyard recursion ability, it has the ability to play without it. You usually only want to play horde when you have the engine set up (sac outlet and an elemental). One of the great things about Horde is that its ability lets me cast elementals from my graveyard at instant speed since there isn't a stipulation clause as confirmed by the official rules. Sac outlets are very important in this deck as they serve as a way to let me recycle elementals since I can't use their evoke alternative cost using Horde's ability.

Strategy

Early game is all about ramping. Since the deck is very mana hungry, getting all of the mana required out by mid game is the goal. Early game aggro isn't our major concern as we run a plethora of answers that can deal with multiple threats at a time. Mid game is about abusing the value engine. We have several ways to abuse our elementals with sac outlets such as Ashnod's Altar and ways to continuously disrupt our opponents with cards like Crib Swap . This deck ultimately aims to survive and manage the board till late game where we have such insurmountable advantage over our opponents that we can swing for lethal or combo off.

Evoke

The evoke ability is pretty much unique to elementals and synergies with Horde's reanimation ability really well. One nuance about the evoke ability is that the creature is still in play when the evoke ability is on the stack. This means that you can sac it to e.g. Evolutionary Leap to get full value out of it.

Birthing Pod

This deck gels really well with Birthing Pod and benefits from generating immense value from it. As the game proceeds and boardstates are developed, we should look for opportunities to pod into the primary infinite combo consisting of Reveillark + Body Double with a free sac outlet (e.g. Seething Pathblazer) and Goretusk Firebeast (it's an elemental according to the oracle text). A more in-depth guide on the combo is in the next section.

Reveillark

There are several cards that works great with Reveillark . Since lark is able to bring back two creatures at a time, it can be pretty disgusting if there are ways to loop it multiple times (fortunately Horde can do that with ease). The most important creature that works with lark is Body Double which essentially goes infinite with another free sac outlet and lark in the yard (see next section for combo walkthrough). Voice of Resurgence becomes a token generation engine if it is looped multiple times. Fertilid lets me ramp more when recurred back with lark. Mulldrifter draws me cards with lark. Offalsnout turns into a graveyard hate engine. Fulminator Mage punishes non-basic land heavy decks. Nevermaker effectively nullifies an opponent's draw step. Goretusk Firebeast deals with planeswalkers as well as dealing direct damage to the face.

Synergies

The following are synergies that work well with Horde of Notions :

  • Crib Swap = Ability to basically reuse it over and over again.

  • Flickerwisp = Able to flicker anything in play with Horde of Notions to either save a creature from targeted removal or reuse ETB effects. E.g. ability to flicker a land to trigger Roil Elemental to steal any creature per turn or save a creature from removal.

  • Altar of Dementia + Nevermaker = This synergy basically is a hard removal. Altar's mill ability will be put on the stack first, followed by nevermaker's LTB ability which will be put on top of altar's ability on the stack. Therefore nevermaker's LTB ability will first put a nonland permanent on top of their library and altar will then mill it away.

  • Wilderness Reclamation = Allows us to basically double dip on Horde's activation and scales with more mana available.

  • Bloom Tender : It basically reads ": Cast an elemental creature card from your graveyard for free if Horde of Notions is in play."

Win Conditions

In a more casual pod, this deck is totally capable of just pure aggro beatdown since elementals can deal quite a bit of damage on their own. Since my playgroup plays decks in the focused/optimized range, I have to include infinites in order to compete effectively:

Elemental-based tribal Horde of notion builds are the most common theme players like to dabble on. However, a build solely focused on extracting value off of elementals are rare. Most builds include elementals that forces the deck into an aggro approach like Torrent Elemental and Wolf of Devil's Breach but I often find that they are a turn too slow without haste and doesn't provide an immediate impact. Elemental incantations like Guile is too mana intensive and is a nonbo with Horde's reanimation ability but is commonly included in many Horde builds. "Staple" cards that I've recently cut are Incandescent Soulstoke and Brighthearth Banneret since my build is pretty ramp heavy and find that both are pretty much low impact when I draw them. The next step is to refine my deck furthermore as more new sets are released. I'm looking for better elementals that works well with my pod lines as well as a more efficient replacement for Goretusk Firebeast in the Reveillark + Body Double infinite combo loop.

+1 if you enjoy the deck!

s

Suggestions

Updates Add

Comments View Archive

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Hi! Please consider becoming a supporter of TappedOut for $3/mo. Thanks!


Important! Formatting tipsComment Tutorialmarkdown syntax

Please login to comment

Revision 12 See all

(5 years ago)

-1 Cavern of Souls main
+1 Godless Shrine main
-1 High Market main
-1 Murmuring Bosk main
+1 Swamp main
+1 Tolaria West main
Top Ranked
Date added 5 years
Last updated 5 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

6 - 0 Mythic Rares

49 - 0 Rares

16 - 0 Uncommons

18 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.14
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Elemental 5/5 RG, Elemental */* GW, Plant 0/1 G, Shapeshifter 1/1 C
Folders My EDH Brews, Cool Ideas, Cool ideas, Great Ideas, Interesting Ideas, EDH Deck Ideas, Thematic, online list's for refernece, Decks to make, Kenrith, the Returned King EDH lists
Votes
Ignored suggestions
Shared with
Views