Migration Path

Sorcery

Search your library for up to two basic land cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.

Cycling (, Discard this card: Draw a card.)

Discussion (49)

slashdotdash on Golos attempt II

1 week ago

Hey there Kronhamilton,

First of all, I like the improvements you’ve made to your deck. It’s already looking a lot slicker and I can see you’ve made some very fun looking changes to how the deck plays.

You’ve got a nice array of threats (I always love to see the Bringers and Ur-Dragon) and a decent amount of ramp which are both a big plus. Additionally, you’ve got the beginnings of some nasty graveyard synergy shaping up, which looks really, really cool as a sort of plan B.

That being said, I’d like to make a few suggestions to help guide you toward a more consistent and powerful Golos deck. Please remember that these suggestions are just my informed opinion, and that I totally respect whatever deck choices you decide to make. I really just want to help you get comfortable with deck building and learning what to look for in a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ card.

Broad Suggestions

I would encourage you to add 2 Lands, 3 Removal cards, and 8 Draw cards. I’d also think about adding 2 more Ramp cards, but that is less critical to the overall health of the deck. Your Threats look great and I think your Sweepers are also appropriate. Anything that synergizes with your graveyard backup plan is great.

There are a couple of things to think about as you play this deck; 1. “Am I happy or sad to be holding this card in my hand or drawing it off the top of my deck?” – If a card seems to constantly be ‘the wrong card’ for the situation, or you can never seem to cast it, or you always play other cards instead, or you tend to die while holding a certain card, then you probably want to think about how well that card fits in your deck and whether or not you should cut it or modify the deck to support it. 2. “What ongoing advantage does this card give me?” – Some cards seem like a decent card based on having decent power/toughness, a fair cost, and some neat keywords or abilities. Just having those upsides alone though doesn’t make a card truly powerful. Instead, try to think about what ways a card can synergize with your deck to create crazy effects or otherwise how it will become more dangerous as the game progresses (like a Quartzwood Crasher, Scute Swarm, or Giant Adephage). Additionally, try to find cards that do multiple things such as Chasm Skulker which gets bigger when you draw cards and also explodes into tokens when it dies, or even Ravenous Chupacabra which deals with a threat and also acts as a blocker when you are facing pressure. The key is finding a way to levarage the most amount of value in each individual card – even a 2 mana ramp spell will set you up to play all of your future spells 1 turn earlier than normal for the rest of the game, which can be an insane advantage when you think about it. 3. “Am I out of options?” – If you can’t seem to find a solution to a problem or you’re ‘running out of steam’, then it is likely that you need more card draw and more ways to create ‘engines’ that accrue value. An example of an engine would be Fertilid + Evolution Sage or Rampaging Baloths + Elemental Bond or Kruphix, God of Horizons + Victory Chimes or Atraxa, Praetors' Voice + Ajani, the Greathearted or Anointed Procession + Endless Ranks of the Dead or Search for Azcanta  ^Flip or Deadbridge Chant or Mind Unbound, etc.

Ramp

Your ramp looks pretty good with 10 dedicated Ramp cards. I’d suggest adding 2 more Ramp spells to really help speed things up early. Examples would be Kodama's Reach, Llanowar Elves, Wild Growth, Farseek, Rampant Growth, Springbloom Druid, etc.

Ramp - 10

• Fertilid

• Palladium Myr

• Solemn Simulacrum

• Cultivate

• Arcane Signet

• Commander's Sphere

• Ketria Crystal

• Raugrin Crystal

• Savai Crystal

• Sol Ring

Not Ramp

• Azusa, Lost but Seeking - you don’t have enough land + card draw to really capitalize on Asuza’s ability.

• Empowered Autogenerator – this card is vastly too slow to be considered a true Ramp card. At best I would call it a ‘Ramp Support’ card, because it is there to slowly help you in the late game, not propel you in the early game like a true Ramp card (Rampant Growth, Farseek, Fertile Ground, Llanowar Elves, Wild Growth)

Draw

Overall, I think your card draw package needs a little bit of love. I want to note I see a lot of ‘looting’ effects like the ones on Teferi, Master of Time or Obsessive Stitcher and while these cards are great for a graveyard strategy they still don’t count as card draw. I’d keep most of these ‘looting’ type cards, but try to find cards that get you about 2 or 3 cards such as Harmonize, Concentrate, Escape to the Wilds, Urban Evolution, Moldervine Reclamation, Deathreap Ritual, Recurring Insight, Mind Unbound, Underworld Connections, Cloudblazer, Mulldrifter, Drawn from Dreams, Return of the Wildspeaker, Harvester of Souls, Momentous Fall, Dream Trawler, Keeper of Fables etc.

Draw - 2

• Bringer of the Blue Dawn (nice)

• Reconnaissance Mission

Not Draw

• Barrin, Tolarian Archmage – drawing 1 card does not really count. If anything, Barrin is like slow, bad removal for dealing with your opponents’ stuff temporarily. If you’re interested in reusing Golos’s land finding ability I would recommend playing Soulherder instead.

• Solemn Simulacrum – He has sort of ‘incidental value’ with his death trigger but doesn’t actively net you a bunch of cards like Keruga, the Macrosage or Beast Whisperer. Sad Robot is still great though.

• Titanoth Rex – still keep this guy because he is a threat that isn’t dead in your hand on turn 5.

• Void Beckoner – same story as the Rex

• Teferi, Master of Time – Teferi’s great, but he is really at his best when you’ve got 4-7 card in hand so that you can throw a bunch of big threats to the graveyard and hopefully draw a reanimation spell. Other than that, Teferi isn’t going to refill your hand so he doesn’t count as true draw.

Removal

Your removal package looks like it needs a couple more additions to keep your deck responsive and able to handle imminent-doom type threats. It is worth noting that cards like Blatant Thievery or Mythos of Illuna can save you in certain situations, but be wary of their crazy mana costs and the fact that they are not instant-speed answers. Examples include Mythos of Nethroi, Beast Within, Price of Fame, Reality Shift, Terminate, Return to Nature, Putrefy, Utter End, Eat to Extinction, Murderous Rider, etc.

Removal – 4 (aim for 7)

• Mortify

• Despark

• Barrier Breach

• Disenchant

Cuts

There are several cards that I would consider cutting first when modifying the deck.

• Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast - he relies very heavily on luck and only interacts with creatures. This makes him good with only 30% of your deck. Additionally, Lukka can’t ‘protect’ himself like Garruk can (making tokens to block for him), nor does he have an immediately accessible removal ability like Teferi. Overall, Lukka is interesting but a little lacking in consistency, defensibility, and power.

Azusa, Lost but Seeking – you don’t have enough land + card draw to really capitalize on Asuza’s ability. Yes, you can use the double lands (like Gruul Turf) to bounce a land to hand and then play that land with Asuza, but realistically that’s such a narrow and relatively tame synergy (in this non-landfall deck, that is) that you would be better off playing a Farseek or a Rampant Growth or even a Fertile Ground.

• Sparkhunter Masticore - This little fellow has a major drawback and no seriously crazy abilities that make him worthwhile. Yes he can deal with planeswalkers, but so can a Murderous Rider or an Eat to Extinction. Yes he can be an indestructible 3/4, but you have to pay 3 mana just to make him indestructible. Under normal circumstances that’s 6 mana for a 3/4 that dodges death one time - a 3/4 just isn’t fantastic. The biggest bad news about this robocat is its “additional cost to cast” ability which means that even if you hit it with Golos’s ‘Rainbow Wheel of Death’ ability, you still have to discard a card for a 3/4. I just honestly think you’d rather have a removal spell (Beast Within, Mythos of Nethroi) instead of this cat any day.

• Pursued Whale - While this whale is kinda cool and he does force combat, he is just sorta expensive for what he does. 7 mana for an 8/8 is pretty standard and giving your opponents tokens (that they could just attack you with or sacrifice to an effect) can be a bad idea in some situations, such as when they have an Beastmaster Ascension or a similar effect on the field. While his semi-hexproof ability (3 more mana to target) seems nifty, that is one of the only really powerful highlight abilities of this card, meaning that ability is protecting a relatively low-powered card. A couple immediate alternatives come to mind for me; Geode Rager to force combat AND keep you safe, and Dream Trawler for a flying, hexproof, lifelinking, card drawing threat.

• Renata, Called to the Hunt - She just isn’t fantastic. You aren’t playing a devotion centric deck in which she might become a 10/10, and your strategy doesn’t really care about 1/1 counters either. I would consider replacing her with a Harmonize or another 3 or 4 drop with more impactful abilities. Heck, even another reanimation spell could be nice like Unburial Rites or Grave Upheaval since your deck seems to have some tendency to but things in the graveyard for later.

• Lorescale Coatl - Cards like this (or his bigger cousin Chasm Skulker) are really designed for “wheel decks” that play “wheel effects” like Windfall or Reforge the Soul. He is fine, but really not much better than that. If you want a threat that can grow faster and do more important things, try Managorger Hydra or even Scute Mob.

• Colossification - This aura is too expensive, taps your creature down, and worst of all is an aura. Auras are generally quite bad because your opponent can destroy your creature and the aura attached to them with one spell – and odds are they’ll do that because it is usually too juicy not to. The fact that you can’t attach Colossification and attack immediately means that your opponents will have a full turn to deal with it before you get a chance to use it (and keep in mind your Colossified creature needs to survive 3 opponents’ turns!). This means you’ll most likely run out of cards in a hurry without accomplishing anything.

• Door to Nothingness - Unlike Progenitus, you can’t reanimate the Door, nor can you get its full value off of the Rainbow Wheel of Death. The only time this card does anything at all is when you literally have 10 mana of the exact color combination necessary to use it. It’s still your call, and I know some people make it a goal to Door their opponents, but be warned: you probably don’t have as much ramp as you need to make this work well. I’d consider supporting this crazy cards (and your many expensive threats for that matter) with a few more ramp spells – Boundless Realms, Migration Path, Circuitous Route, Kodama's Reach, Explosive Vegetation, Zendikar Resurgent

• Azor's Gateway  ^Flip – This card belongs in a very specific variant of Golos. That variant is the Minamo, School at Water's Edge Golos deck which also runs stuff like Vizier of Tumbling Sands, Fatestitcher, Kiora's Follower, and other payoffs like Jegantha, the Wellspring, or Captain Sisay. Especially considering that Sanctum of the Sun (the flip side) adds X mana of only 1 color, I think this card is just rarely going to work like you want it to unfortunately.

• Lathliss, Dragon Queen - Basically, you only have 3 other dragons in the deck so I would either exchange a bunch of cards for more dragons or cut Lathliss, since she will rarely be able to use her best ability (5/5 tokens). Keep in mind, you could also run a bunch of cards with the ‘changeling’ keyword if you wanted to get really funky, in which case you may as well also play stuff like Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, Reaper King, Crested Sunmare, The First Sliver but that’s a very slippery and insane slope that I’m not sure you want to get sucked into.

Summary

Nice changes Kronhamilton, I can see that your deck is really starting to shape up as a rampy graveyard-mingling Golos deck, and that’s really cool. I encourage you to try and pay attention to what situations you find yourself in, as that’s often the best way to tell what cards you need to cut or add to the deck for it to work best. As a default, I’d consider making a few of the changes I mentioned in the Broad Suggestion section, as those changes should just generally help with your deck’s consistency.

Please do let me know how you decide to tune your deck – it’s really fun to watch honestly, and I’m always down to help advise you. Other than that, take care and enjoy Golos!

Best,

-Slashdotdash

VexenX on [[Primer v3.5]] - OM_RATH!!! (M21 Update!!!)

3 weeks ago

Sorry for the delay with this post, and the pending update. My wife and I just welcomed a new addition to our home, so needless to say things have been a bit busy. I will also be moving to a new house next week so It might be a week or two before I get to the update. For now I will at least give you my thought on the comments, as well as the deck changes that I have landed on!

I think I will start with the changes that you will see in the update because that is the core of the conversation right now.

• Force of Vigor OUT FOR Ancient Greenwarden - Although removing Force is going to upset some people, I have been generally underwhelmed by the card. Sure, free removal sounds great but I generally play this deck in a turbo aggressive way. Sure, Force might be a better card, but doesn't really follow the way I have constructed the deck.

• Return of the Wildspeaker OUT FOR Valakut Exploration - This appears to be a clean card-draw upgrade to me. Although this new inclusion might not be the great card draw in the deck, I do think I will feel right at home here.

• Steely Resolve OUT FOR Nahiri's Lithoforming - With this update the deck will now have 17 total creatures, and 4 different cards to tutor them out. With that being said, Steely Resolve has turned into a dead card next to Sylvan Safekeeper, who can be tutored out very easily. Adding in Nahiri's Lithoforming was a no-brainer to me. Sure, it is a "bad" Scapeshift, that still makes is a really good card.

• Ranger's Path OUT FOR Three Visits - I know, about time! The only complaint I expect to hear is why I didn't cut Migration Path instead. The simple answer is because I think the added cycle is better then being able to find my non-basics. Shoot me lol.

• Myriad Landscape OUT FOR Field of the Dead - Another overdue change. The value behind a hoard of "free" expendable tokens is just nuts. Whoever at Wizards though it would be ok to put this kind of value on a land has my thanks!

• Mountain OUT FOR Snow-Covered Mountain - Goes along with adding Field of the Dead. I don't see the need to split the count of basics in half, all that Field cares about is have different names, and this deck ramps out basics enough that finding the snows will never be a problem.

• Forest OUT FOR Snow-Covered Forest - Same as above.

• Perilous Forays OUT FOR Moraug, Fury of Akoum/Valakut Awakening  ^Flip - Easily the biggest controversy right now. I think I can fairly say that no card in this deck has more of a conflicting argument on both sides of cutting and keeping a card in the deck then Perilous Forays. Some people wonder why it has lasted in my list so long, while others are baffled by the fact that I am removing it. That being said, I will give you my opinion this "iconic" Om_rath card. First, it is a sac outlet in a color combo that has few. Although this argument has merit, that is not why the card was in the deck. The reason the card stayed so long was the "feel good" of being able to sac Om_rath tokens over and over again while netting more and more tapped basic lands. The christmas land is when either Lotus Cobra or Amulet of Vigor were in play! Although I pulled this off a few times, it rarely won me a game. Second, the spell cost 5 cmc. This is the biggest draw back for me, it is a 5cmc spell that does nothing for me until I have 2-4 other cards in play. Third, paying 1 mana for the sac ability nerfs that card considerably. Yes, it would be broken if it was free, but there are plenty of free sac outlets that cost less mana. All of this being said, Perilous Forays is sitting the bench and is being slotted in as my playtesting spot. Essentially I like the look of both Moraug, Fury of Akoum and Valakut Awakening  ^Flip, but I am not in love with either on the surface. And before anyone else say it, no I do not think I can take out a land for Valakut Awakening  ^Flip, mainly because it cannot be fetched out. Moraug, Fury of Akoum seems amazing on the surface, but the deck has mainly stepped away from winning through combat. Ill let you know how testing turns out!

With all of this being said, Zendikar Rising has been an amazing set for us! The main problem is that the deck list is insanely tight now! Making cuts in the future is going to be a real headache! Also, the creature count is reaching a record number for us! If Wizards gives us a couple more creatures it might be worth considering different cards. Also, many of you likely noticed that I decided not to cut Genesis Wave, it has won me far to many games, and you guys talked me out of it haha.

Now for some of the comments that I didn't already address with my deck changes.

BenWin: I have to be honest, the Sekki, Seasons' Guide combo does not interest me at all. I don't like combos that include dead cards when you draw into them. I also am not a big fan of infinite combos, and my meta isn't either. Nevertheless, I definitely this the combo is powerful and you should add it to your list if it is your thing!

I think Skullclamp thrives more in decks that make small creatures that die on equipping. Having to rely on another card makes it much weaker.

Sylvan Scrying likely won't be coming back. Sure, is is nice to find Cradle, but I don't need it to win the game, or any other land for that matter. I have almost considered removing more non-basics to increase to total basic land in the deck. I haven't gotten to that point get though.

This might cause an uproar, but Sensei's Divining Top is overrated in my opinion. It is amazing in the right deck, but way to many people play it as the greatest draw card ever (maybe it is for Red and White decks). I have taken mine out of most of my decks and been trading them away at their overpriced $50 price tag little by little lol.

Daedalus19876: The Ashaya, Soul of the Wild combo falls under the same concept as the Sekki, Seasons' Guide combo for me. I think you could easily turn this deck into the Tooth and Nail and I win deck, but that is not what I am really aiming for here. If you build that type of deck fill free to post it here and share! I would definitely like to see how that looks!

_Arra_: I think Lithoform Engine is a good card an all, but not at all what this deck wants. This deck thrives off of the mass amount of triggers and activations we get, and doubling a single one will really not do much for us. All we need to do instead is pay an additional land.

TraceT: I actually do think Scute Swarm is right at home in this deck, but is unfortunately under the power threshold to even be considered for this build. I say play it if you think it would be fun and let us know how it goes! the same kind of goes for Impact Tremors, the right deck, but not quite powerful enough.

I think I got to everyone's comments! I will make sure to post the update ASAP. I start packing for the move tomorrow and should be all settled by next Sunday. Until then please let me know what you think about the upcoming changes, and I am grateful for all the support!

Rageinn on Whelming Wave - Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle

3 weeks ago

Cards to consider: Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner cheap usefull + draw engine Repudiate / Replicate make a cheap copy of your Stormtide or any other usefull Wash Out Just Dont pick green or blue +++ ALL PERMANENTS (lands to) Migration Path for Explosive Vegetation same but one has added cycling ( you never know )

Mayby trade off Deep-Sea Serpent and for ether Serpent of Yawning Depths or cheaper Mesmerizing Benthid deep sea is to dependant on combo pieces that may never get draw 3 under 6CMC and Stormtide 8CMC Same thing for Serpent of the Endless Sea but worth to wait keep as finisher

owenger on OVERplayed cards?

3 weeks ago

VampDemigod are you talking about Migration Path?

Optimator on Welcome to Gishathic Park

3 weeks ago

I would recommend more land-based ramp and fewer artifacts. Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Farseek, Rampant Growth, Explosive Vegetation, Migration Path, Harrow, Wayfarer's Bauble, and Thunderherd Migration are all good choices, with several more out there. Wild Growth and Frontier Siege are decent choices too.

Land-based ramp is always safest because of things like Vandalblast and Hour of Revelation, et al. Since you're running Green you may as well take advantage.

Mana dorks are usually fantastic ramp pieces due to their low cost and high speed, but a board full of dinosaurs will tempt wraths like crazy and you don't want to lose your ability to rebuild along with them. Also, you are aiming for the higher CMCs and dorks are better for getting 3-drops on turn 2 or 4-drops on turn 3. That said, I would still run the dinosaur-specific rampers for fun and flavor and Sol Ring for it's power.

I would aim for at least eight pieces of ramp, and probably closer to 10-12 considering how much dinosaurs and your commander cost. My brother has a good budget-ish list (Dig Up Her Bones) and Gishath usually gets whacked immediately due to the existential threat she poses to the table. As such, you should plan on your commander costing 10 mana a good amount of the time.

A fun piece of budget tech for Gishath: Nahiri's Machinations

_Arra_ on [[Primer v3.5]] - OM_RATH!!! (M21 Update!!!)

1 month ago

Hey BenWin, thanks for the shout out. As you wrote a long post I thought it fair I do the same in reply.

I want to respond to your comment as I think there is a lot you are overlooking in your analysis, most of which is on point. However, you mentioned a few cards now a couple of times so I want to break these down a bit as you have gone to the effort to write an extensive comment.

1. Firstly I'd like to address your comment on Burgeoning + Ghost Town which you've shown your self to be an big advocate of. These are great cards and on paper seem to be great additions to the deck as they appear to enable one of our main objectives which is landfall triggers. However, the reason I think these cards have fallen out of favour is because they're very situational. Let me expand on that. If you do not have an opening hand with Burgeoning and a number of lands and a way to refill your hand (a very specific situation) the card is lackluster. Yes it is great if our opponents are constantly playing lands and we have Ghost Town and Burgeoning but this is honestly rarely the case. They are a weak draw 90% of the time. Even with Burgeoning in our opening hand as we do not have built in card draw we stall. Even with the increased draw effects provided by Zendikar Rising I do not think it is worth the spots.

2. Calling the removal of Perilous Forays crazy talk seems strange to me. The CMC of this card is 5, ideally we want to wait until Omnath, Locus of Rage is out before we play it so dodge removal. Even more ideally we want Amulet of Vigor in hand/on the battlefield too. My second gripe with the card is that once we have ramped a couple of times, played land each turn and then got into a position to 'combo off' with Perilous Forays most of the time the number of basics in our deck barely makes it worth while as it effectively switches off all our remaining ramp spells. There have been so many times I have 'gone off' with Perilous Forays and not killed a single opponent and left myself in a worse position. In my experience as this deck has evolved, and I have actually been playing it weekly since BFZ launch this card no longer packs the punch it once did.

3. I agree with you on Force of Vigor, this deck is extremely lean on interaction and removal as it is. This card is too strong to exclude.

4. Regarding Ancient Greenwarden and Doubling Season being enablers for 'overrun' type strategy I can't disagree with you more on this. We want to make 5/5 tokens on mass as we want to either trigger Warstorm Surge, Terror of the Peaks or Where Ancients Tread and/or we want to sac then to Omnath, Locus of Rage to bolt our opponents to death. We need a critical mass of 5/5s so that we can deliver enough damage to face. Mass elemental tokens also gives us sudo protection from board wipes. I know you're playing devils advocate here but no, in my opinion these cards generate huge value for Omnath generally not for a specific strategy.

5. Your comment on Nahiri's Lithoforming I find interesting as this is exactly my point on Perilous Forays and Burgeoning but my opinion is that Nahiri's Lithoforming is a great card almost all the time whereas the other cards I have mentioned are not. This card is gas with Titania, Protector of Argoth on the battlefield, if we have a decent hand already we are 80-90% certain to have lands to replay or draw into a land recursion effect like Crucible of Worlds or Splendid Reclamation. Not as good as Scapeshift obviously but I think you are underestimating the power of the card. Of course, play testing will tell us either way and I'll be interested to see if this card doesn't work out, which is might not, but I think until another land-centric draw card comes out this one is going to do Omnath just fine.

6. I haven't decided whether I am going to play Roiling Regrowth yet but I don't agree with your pros and cons analysis. The assumption that is worse than Springbloom Druid I don't think is accurate. Instant speed is a premium and shouldn't be under valued especially if you're playing with a pod with interaction etc. Getting Omnath triggers at instant speed is great and you can dodge opponents interaction. Your comments on the 4cmc ramp spells, I think these cards are just fine and fair. Not exceptional but not bad, Migration Path with cycling is a nice bonus. If these 4cmc ramp spells were instant, what would you think then?

7. Moraug, Fury of Akoum might just a be great additional line this deck can take. If the board state allows for it Chord of Calling this beast into play on an end step might be game winning. I am really on the fence as I'd really want a haste enabler to really break the card but honestly it might be fine by itself.

8. I ran Tooth and Nail for a long time with various different finishers and yeah it wins but it is not that fun a victory unless you count the time I have Omnath and Titania out and entwined It That Betrays and Keldon Firebombers into play, that was fun! It really depends what you want from Omnath. Omnath isn't my competitive deck. It is my pubstompy deck to pull out when people are bitch about one thing or another. If I want to combo to win I play one of my other decks. Each to their own though. Tooth and Nail wins games its just not for me and Sekki, Seasons' Guide is pretty weak the rest of the times you draw it.

9. I think your comment on non basic land search is spot on, we need more. I just don't think that there is currently any ones good enough for the deck other than Crop Rotation and Scapeshift, we just need to wait for better non basic search to be printed. A 2cmc Crop Rotation would be nice.

10. My issue with Skullclamp and Sensei's Divining Top is that they are not actively winning the game. If I were to include Top in my deck it would more often that not end up being a 2 mana brainstorm as I would likely shuffle it away with a fetch. Green Red doesn't have the draw that other decks have that can really abuse Top, it ends up slowing us down. Skullclamp is great value but I just don't think we'e a Skullclamp deck. I'd rather the slot for something that is enabling a win by synergising with the rest of our deck, Skullclamp doesn't, it is just value. Sure you can play it but it is detracting from what Omnath is trying to do in my opinion. You're also going to get a lot more hurt from Null Rods and Collector Ouphes out there. We have an advantage that a lot of hate doesn't really effect us. Apart from Humility of course which kinda hard counters Omnath most of the time :(

All of this discussion is what makes Omnath such a great general as there are so many viable build options.

CaptCreek on XenagOH MY GOD

1 month ago

LOVE the list. As a fellow party animal, it's always awesome to see more Xenagos lists. The list looks super solid, though there are some little things that I think would be worth considering.

Despite being a removal magnet, The Great Henge is such a house in a deck like this. It's nice draw and "Ramp", depending on how early you can play it, and it also buffs up your creatures.

Sneak Attack is an absolute slam-dunk in a deck like this. Being able to sneak out 2-3 6+ drops onto the board to kill more than 1 player is such a good feeling (Imagine sneaking a Worldspine, Pathbreaker and whatever else, then pumping Ghalta off a Xenagos trigger and giving everything +30/+30 and Trample!).

Return of the Wildspeaker is another great draw effect, and it has the useful mode of pumping your creatures if you don't need the draw. Being an instant is super powerful too, and makes it a strictly better Soul's Majesty. It's also harder to get blown out by spot removal with Return because it checks the highest power of creatures, instead of targeting one creature, so you can still draw some cards if someone uses instant speed spot removal on one of your beaters.

Explosive Vegetation has become less attractive to me since the 4 mana slot is now home to so many better ramp cards, namely Migration Path. I'd rather have this since it has the added advantage of cycling away if you don't need the ramp at that moment.

This is absolutely personal preference, but 30 creatures is the bare minimum number of creatures I would be comfortable running in a deck like this. You have a good amount of tutors, so it's not as big of a deal here, but something to consider.

The new Radha, Heart of Keld might be the new Courser of Kruphix, if only because it doesn't make you reveal your top card to everyone. It's true that Courser is 1 color, but in a 2 color deck fixing shouldn't really be an issue. The fact that it can make itself into a big threat is also really neat.

Quartzwood Crasher could potentially be a replacement for Giant Adephage, since it's cheaper to cast and can make MASSIVE tokens since it checks each creature with trample. It will even make multiple tokens if you hit more than one player.

Skarrg, the Rage Pits is technically a worse KWR, but I like having as many ways to give trample as possible. I don't have any land tutors though, so you're probably fine without it.

I love gushing about Xenagod, but I'll reign it in for now. Most of these are very subjective (Except Sneak Attack...I reeeeeeeally love that card...) and overall the list looks badass!

(If you wanna peek at my list, here you go! Xenagos's Party Animals It's far from perfect, but I've been tweaking and tuning it for a while and I'm constantly testing new cards to see what works.)

BenWin on [[Primer v3.5]] - OM_RATH!!! (M21 Update!!!)

1 month ago

VexenX, I love the new conversation sparked by Zendikar Rising! When deck-building or adding new cards, I think it's important to revisit our win-cons. As it stands, I believe your deck has two types of win cons: burn and creature overrun. Ever since the removal of Akroma's Memorial and addition of Fiery Emancipation, I've come around to the fact that Burn is a more competitive win con. Would you disagree?

Next, since Omrath runs little removal, I believe that we should be in the mindset of designing a deck that works towards its strengths more than patching its weaknesses. This way, our goal should be to put pressure on our opponents and win as quickly as possible. You can see where I'm going with all this, as I am suggesting cuts to creature overrun enhancing cards and keeping/adding burn enhancing cards.

A few comments on your new card update post:

1) I 100% agree with Valakut Exploration. Although card draw is neat, you and everyone else on this page may be underestimating just how good the burn value can be! Because the damage is dealt to "each" opponent, we have a mini Purphoros, God of the Forge on our hands. Since Valakut Exploration burn is triggered by landfall, it works especially well with - you guessed it - Burgeoning + Ghost Town! And the more creature overrun enhancing cards like Doubling Season we slot out for cheaper draw-into-hand cards, the more smoothly Burgeoning works in the deck just by itself. And the more cheap draw-into-hand cards we have in the deck, the more likely we are to cast the cards we draw off of Valakut Exploration. Ahh!!! Okay rant done.

2) I feel like slotting out Perilous Forays is crazy talk. Other sac outlets need Omnath, Locus of Rage AND creatures to sac to take effect. Perilous Forays only needs Omnath, Locus of Rage in play - plus an upside of comboing off - plus an upside of working towards the burn win con.

3) I can see slotting out Force of Vigor. It is a flex card after all. Personally, I think 0 mana removal is too broken to cut through.

4) Ancient Greenwarden may be a godlike card, but I'd like to play devil's advocate and remind you that it is both expensive and plays towards a creature overrun win con just like Doubling Season. I respect and even back your choice to add this card, but I think it's just a little clunky and on the for-fun side.

5) Isn't Roiling Regrowth a strictly worse Springbloom Druid? Not that I'm against adding more cheap mana ramp, but I would personally add Springbloom Druid back first. For the record, I do agree with Ranger's Path being on the chopping block. Same goes for Migration Path. On paper they look just fine. In testing, I'd be happy to see one or both go.

6) I'm worried that Nahiri's Lithoforming may de-ramp us in some games resulting in an autoloss. The risk is too high for this card in too many hand states in my opinion.

7) I think Moraug, Fury of Akoum is a great reason to be back IN for the creature overrun win con. However, it benefits greatly from Doubling Season effects and doesn't synergize at all with Where Ancients Tread or sacrificing effects. This once again comes down to priority of win cons. If we're more in burn, which I personally believe us to be, than I would recommend against this.

Next, I'd like your thoughts on a few cards as additions to the deck if you wouldn't mind!

1) Full credits to _Arra_ and Rasaru (at least): Add Sekki, Seasons' Guide + Tooth and Nail. As explained by Rasaru, the combo goes as follows:

1) Play Tooth and Nail, paying it's entwine cost (9 cmc total - which is nothing for this deck)

2) Search for Sekki, Seasons' Guide and Terror of the Peaks

3) When they both hit the battlefield, Terror will see Sekki and trigger causing 8 dmg to a target. In this case, point that damage right back at Sekki.

4) Sekki will lose all of it's counters, creating 8x 1/1 faeries and going to the graveyard.

5) Terror sees these 8 faeries coming in, pointing this 8 damage at a player's face.

6) Then sac all 8 faeries to bring Sekki back. (Sekki's last ability is played from the grave)

7) Rinse and repeat for an infinite damage combo.

In my opinion, adding 1 card to the deck, Sekki, Seasons' Guide, isn't a tall ask for an extra infinite combo in the deck. We already have creature tutors, so Tooth and Nail isn't even required. But after the addition of Sekki, Seasons' Guide, adding 1 more card, Tooth and Nail, instantly wins us many games when we draw it for just 9 mana. Not only do I think you could cut Craterhoof Behemoth for this combo but Craterhoof Behemoth works towards a creature overrun win con, so I'd argue it's on the chopping block anyways! You could use Avenger of Zendikar and Purphoros, God of the Forge as backup Tooth and Nail targets for the burn win con. To take this one step further, with the addition of a card that can win us the game if resolved, why not run Gamble? Twice the chance to draw into a quick and easy win con with added upside of 1 cmc and flexibility.

2) Thoughts on Skullclamp? I think it's a disgustingly good card for draw and we already have sac outlets to trigger it.

3) Thoughts on re-adding Sylvan Scrying? Ever since the removal of Tempt with Discovery, I've been missing nonbasic land tutors. Lets compare Sylvan Scrying to Rampant Growth. Rampant Growth gives us 1 mana ramp for 2 mana to use as early as turn 3. Sylvan Scrying at the very least does the same if we search up Ancient Tomb. And I think it has so much more upside if we draw it mid or late game too.

4) Thoughts on Sensei's Divining Top? I think it feels great to draw in opening hand and makes early game even more consistent.

Thanks for your time in answering my posts. I know they can be a little long!