Rootborn Defenses

Instant

Populate. Creatures you control are indestructible this turn. (To populate, create a token that's a copy of a creature token you control.)

Discussion (51)

Davinoth on Trostani's Eternity [Life Gain EDH]

3 weeks ago

     TheMeadiator: Thanks for the suggestions and upvote! It does tend to pop off pretty quick haha, with reasonably good recovery from wipes and no reliance on any one strategy to find a win. =)

     I really resonate with a lot of your suggestions! Wurmcoil Engine is one of my favourite cards (full stop haha) and originally had included Phyrexian Altar and Ashnod's Altar in the build with this type of token generation in mind. In the end I opted to play more around effects that produced tokens as a result of gaining life or instant speed activation. Alas, a great seller of the wurms is their wipe protection, something I was conscious of when veering away from that strategy, and included Hangarback Walker and Lifeblood Hydra for that kind of coverage. :)

     Heroic Intervention is maybe my only hard disagree. It can save my other permanents from removal and wipes for one less mana, so in that regard I consider it to be integral to the deck. However I've been seriously considering cutting Unbreakable Formation in favour of Rootborn Defenses if I can't find a way to include all three of them lol.

     Aura Mutation with Divine Visitation and/or Parallel Lives/Anointed Procession/Doubling Season is pretty nutty, and I highly recommend haha! I had originally cut Sundering Growth for Aura Mutation haha though I was thinking about cutting Aura Shards (less likely) or Dismantling Wave to put it back in.

     Sorry to hit you with the wall of text haha, great suggestions and thanks again! =)

TheMeadiator on Trostani's Eternity [Life Gain EDH]

3 weeks ago

This is so great! I really like Trostani. I made a wurm deck with her at the helm. Wurms have really great synergy with her because of their big butts and the propensity for breaking into tokens for her populate effect.

I don't know how you feel about wurms, but Worldspine Wurm is beautiful, and Wurmcoil Engine of course is good. Also Penumbra Wurm works well and is a bit more budget-friendly.

For additional populate effects (and therefore lifegain), you could look at Rootborn Defenses in your maybeboard instead of Heroic Intervention, Sundering Growth instead of Aura Mutation, and Growing Ranks is a really great enchantment that could replace more expensive duplicating spells if need be.

Anyway, really fun deck that looks like it could get out of control really fast.

TheMeadiator on Chorus of Wurms

3 months ago

Oh I definitely like Sundering Growth and Rootborn Defenses - those are great includes. I also like Second Harvest and Wurmweaver Coil . Definitely something to consider...

As much as I love Roar of the Wurm it does feel redundant with Crush of Wurms . Yes, it's cheaper, but if I'm spending all that mana on a sorcery, I may as well get 3 for 1, right?

The vanilla wurms are in there for curve and for things like Descendants' Path , and just so I don't get knocked around before I can come online. Wurms are not fast lol. Ideally, there would be better cheaper wurms, but most good wurms start at 6 cmc.

Thanks a bunch for the suggestions! I will definitely pick some of those up on my next order.

keltis on Chorus of Wurms

3 months ago

Seeing the deck laid out, a couple of things come to mind. — These cards fit with the Wurm + Token Theme . Symbiotic Wurm (not wurm tokens, but still a good boy.) Roar of the Wurm Wurmweaver Coil Second Harvest

— Treat things that generate Token Wurms as functional "creatures". That way, you don't have to slot in vanilla wurms, and can instead run a few more populate cards, or token mechanic cards.

— On Populate, easy replacement could be swapping Naturalize with Sundering Growth

— Predator's Rapport ... in your BEST case scenario, 30 life isn't anything to sneeze at. HOWEVER: if you aren't building around life-gain, it's not a great card on its own. Try Rootborn Defenses , which is super versatile on offense and on defense, and grows your army.

plakjekaas on Amass

3 months ago

If Dreadhorde Invasion made an army in your upkeep and put a +1/+1 counter on it, and in your following main phase you cast a Realmwalker , next upkeep Dreadhorde Invasion makes you put a +1/+1 counter on an "army you control". At that point you can choose to put the counter on the token, or on the Realmwalker . Do note that the Realmwalker will not gain Lifelink when it has 6+ power, only Zombie Tokens will.

"Be the target of a card with populate" sounds confusing, because populate doesn't target, as you can see on Rootborn Defenses . When you cast a card with populate, you may choose to copy your army token. You will create a 0/0, which will die as a state-based action, and trigger Blood Artist , for example. If you'd actually want multiple army tokens for some reason, you're going to need a Glorious Anthem of sorts, and then cast your populate card.

seshiro_of_the_orochi on The Last Samurai

5 months ago

I must have scrolled over them. Kicking Brass Herald for Formation seems fine. Maybe add in some more instants for more tools with sunforger?

Rootborn Defenses , Akroma's Blessing and Make a Stand seem fine.

Last_Laugh on Vampiric Domination

5 months ago

Not a bad start but there's 3 areas I immediately notice need some work. Finishers, draw, and board protection.

Finishers: First off, drop Cathar's Crusade and don't add Door of Destinies. Both do nothing for your current board, require gas after they come down, and require a hefty mana investment for an aggro deck. Shared Animosity , Reconnaissance (2nd post dedicated entirely to this card), Purphoros, God of the Forge , Cover of Darkness , and Mirror Entity .

Draw: Twilight Prophet , Skullclamp , Dark Prophecy , Greed , and Herald's Horn . I run all these in addition to what you already have.

Board Protection: Don't overextend into the first boardwipe and lose! Boros Charm , Teferi's Protection , Flawless Maneuver , and Scapegoat are your best options but there's also budget ones like Rootborn Defenses , Unbreakable Formation , etc.

Feel free to check out my list for ideas. Upvotes on any of my decks are appreciated. Edgar's Dega Vampires

ThrunTheTroll628 on Remember the Name: Extus, Oriq Overlord and Friend

5 months ago

Have you looked at populate cards? One you "wake" one avatar you can make another.

Ghired's Belligerence looks really good, Eyes in the Skies , Rootborn Defenses , and Wake the Reflections look passable, but I suspect not good enough.