Saruli Caretaker

Creature — Dryad

Defender

{T}, Tap an untapped creature you control: Gain one mana of any colour.

Combos

• Intruder Alarm + Saruli Caretaker + Wall of Kelp

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (18)

BirdieGirlie on I wanna play Yu-Gi-Oh but WOTC doesn't let me

3 weeks ago

OMFG you're right, this is SO FUN!!! I've been playtesting this and have a few observations:

This deck needs more creatures. Citanul Stalwart and Fauna Shaman are your biggest MVPs. If you know of another card like Shaman, you should consider adding it it's fantastic imo. Shaman and Eldritch Evolution both require a sacrifice of a creature card and I found I was often lacking a creature to activate either ability. Stalwart and Springleaf Drum also require creatures (or artifacts) to provide you with emergency mana. If there was more material for those, this deck would be considerably faster.

I never saw The World Spell in any of my hands or draws while testing, and while it might theoretically be possible to hard cast it in a longer game, that just doesn't feel worth it to me. Reckoner Bankbuster is not a creature most of the time and that hamstrings the deck like I mentioned before. I'd get rid of both and add some combo of Jaspera Sentinel, Loam Dryad, or Saruli Caretaker. I'd also maybe get at least a couple copies of a less costed draw spell. Once you're set up with Omniscience, Harmonize is awesome, but not before, at least in my playtesting. Because you can't play it with Kona. Idk maybe I'm wrong.

Speaking ofOmniscience, for payoffs, might I suggest Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur? It's not that expensive, I'd only get one or two at most because of the no blue mana thing, and it really fits the YGO theme because it prevents your opponents from playing the game so hard! It also refills your hand so that you can keep on casting spells from your hand for free!

I've been looking for a new 60 card deck to play - maybe this will be it!!!!!!

dnthymamai on Obuun landfall

3 years ago

Nice budget deck! Besides from attacking with Kalamax in order to get him tapped, (because some times you will risk getting him killed) may I suggest these casual cards that also help ramp your mana: Saruli Caretaker , Jaspera Sentinel , Springleaf Drum and the not-so-great-at-mana-fixing, old Honor-Worn Shaku .

Moreover, the Crew mechanic is a free way to tap Kalamax and some great examples are: Smuggler's Copter , Aethersphere Harvester , Heart of Kiran , Cultivator's Caravan and maybe a Conqueror's Galleon  ^Flip for some late game options when you flip it over.

TriusMalarky on

3 years ago

If you want to focus on the high toughness aspect more, I'd recommend moving to a Walls list.

Walls wants to use the things like Huatli, Assault Formation and such to hit hard, but it also employs a High Alert + Axebane Guardian combo. With four creatures with defender in play, you make infinite mana. This shouldn't be your main plan, of course, but it is a very fun include that means that if the game goes long, and with a walls deck, it probably will, you have a big advantage.

You also get Arcades, the Strategist , who lets you draw a TON of cards and is just the best payoff for big butts period.

Walls you'll want to consider include Dragon's Eye Sentry , Excavated Wall , Jaddi Offshoot , Secret Door , Wall of Runes , The Birth of Meletis , Saruli Caretaker , and Portcullis Vine .

You also get to run the amazing Tower Defense . If you cast tower defense with a good board and High Alert/Arcades out, you sort of just win on the spot.

cheffireball on Balls to the Walls

3 years ago

Portcullis Vine is ok if your flooding, Saruli Caretaker and Tinder Wall can ramp, Tuktuk Rubblefort gives your walls haste to tap for mana faster, Winding Way and Lead the Stampede are great draw effects in green if your mostly creatures and last but not least Freed from the Real gives you infinite mana if you control a creature that taps for more than 1 blue (Axebane Guardian comes to mind).

I would cut Wall of Tanglecord and some of the burn spells. Walls that just block are really bad vs decks with board clears or non-combat wincons. And more than 1-2 burn spells are unnecessary for your deck to win. If you do add Winding Way or a similar card, consider Valakut Invoker or just big beaters like Boarding Party .

There is a popular pauper deck called "walls combo" that this deck is very similar to. Walls combo can go off turn 3-4 very consistently while also having a lot of defenders. Check it out: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/pauper-walls-combo#paper

whatqwerty on The New Most Competitive Modern Deck--Dryads

3 years ago

also Loam Dryad and Saruli Caretaker are on tribe ramp sources that can fix your mana

NobleRooster on Pick a Card

4 years ago

sergiodelrio thanks for the +1!

I think red is very helpful for the game plan: Kroxa is a powerful finisher, disrupts my opp's hand, and can be discarded to disciple -- to be escaped later. Escape is relatively easy because of all the looting and discarding from the main engine. Grim Lavamancer is similar: he feeds off of our graveyard, can deal with the board (especially with the rise of hatebears and 1-2 toughness creatures), and can also push through the last bit of damage with burn. Lightning Bolt can be tutored by discarding late game hand disruption that we normally hate to see, but converting a thoughtseize into 3 damage to the face is great! I also think that the red MDFC is better than green's, and is 2 cmc so it can be tutored or discard away easily.

There ARE some red picks which are not exactly competitive -- Squee and Ral Zarek. Squee is half meme half utitliy -- allowing me to repeatedly fetch any 3 cmc card -- but isn't actually that good except in very grindy matchups. Ral is a pet card for me -- I know he isn't good, per se, but he does provide some utility with his untap/tap ability, and again, with the rise of hatebear style low toughness decks, he kills a creature and then must be answered before he kills again, which can save me some life.

Fauna Shaman is a strong card, and I think a Sultai creatures toolbox deck would work really well with a Dsciple+Thopter engine! You would also have the option there of running Saruli Caretaker in place of Springleaf Drum. It's certainly a versatile engine that can fit into many decks!

TheVectornaut on When The Wall Is Up Against You

4 years ago

I have a lot of experience with mono-green Assault Formation in modern and legacy casual, so I'll toss in some of my thoughts.

Perfect curves certainly aren't necessary, but you should be able to accomplish something on each of the early turns of the game. More than just playing any old card, it should be something that fits in with your overarching gameplan. I agree with cutting Adventurous Impulse as a 1-drop for this reason. It can't get you Formation, Bow, or any other noncreature combo piece you happen to be running. I'd usually run a Llanowar Elves style dork instead in a ramp list. Still, in walls, I think there are even better options than that. My personal favorite is Traproot Kami since it adds an early defender to the pool and can become a serious threat with Formation if the game goes long. Plus, it works well with the lands-matter strategy that Oran-Rief Hydra is also part of. Other options I've had less success with are Jaddi Offshoot for life, Portcullis Vine for cards, and Saruli Caretaker for slow mana. On 2, Sylvan Caryatid, Gatecreeper Vine, and Wall of Roots are all ramp options, but you're probably fine with just Battlement and Vine Trellis. Wall of Blossoms, however, I view as a must-have if you want to maximize your mana without running out of gas. The ability to up the defender count while replacing itself is so good that I even run a playset of the slower Carven Caryatid too, but this could be excessive depending on the deck. The last defender I'll mention is Tree of Redemption. It's more expensive, both in CMC and in dollars, but it is an undeniable threat with Formation. Higher toughness also makes better use of tricks like Sheltering Word and Feed the Pack.

For the top end of the curve, you might actually be underestimating how much mana the ramp walls can net. With your current setup, you only need 2 of either Guardian or Battlement and 1 other wall to have 9-11 mana on T4. Removal is obviously the biggest obstacle to this being a reality but it seems like you're preparing for a counterspell-heavy meta in a big way. Either you use your protection on the walls and win with Formation when they stop your bombs, or they wait to remove the bombs and you have protection saved up to stop them. Honestly, it feels like you might have too much defense in the mainboard but I'll touch on that later. My point here is that you are likely to have more than enough mana to cast threats much more substantial than the Hydra, and that's without modifications to your suite of defenders. In the current version of my deck, it isn't strange to have a game like: T1-Forest+Traproot Kami, T2-Forest+Overgrown Battlement, T3-Forest+Wall of Blossoms+Axebane Guardian, T4-Forest+Genesis Wave for x=9. Oran-Rief Hydra is a totally fine card to top off at if you build around it, but right now I don't even see it being better than Terra Stomper in a lot of games (and Stomper even has built-in counter protection now that I think about it XD). To get more value out of the Hydra, I'd swap the cycling lands for cheap fetches like Evolving Wilds to double up on landfall triggers, and I might also consider some +1/+1 synergy cards in the vein of Hardened Scales or Hydra's Growth. On the subject of landfall, Vinelasher Kudzu is an interesting option that fits with the plant/wall cards, at least thematically. Mechanically, Undergrowth Champion, Rampaging Baloths, and Avenger of Zendikar are all probably better. I've already mentioned Genesis Wave, but some other options for finishers that I've seen are Archetype of Endurance, Hydra Broodmaster, Primordial Hydra, Vigor, End-Raze Forerunners, Colossus of Akros, pretty much any eldrazi, and any red x-spell that can target players. If you choose something with x in the cost, having Umbral Mantle or Freed from the Real to generate infinite mana is beneficial.

The last thing I'd like to talk about are your noncreatures. As I mentioned before, 4 countermagic blockers seems a little excessive in the main 60. I personally struggle much more with Path to Exiles, Fatal Pushes, and Searing Bloods than Counterspells on most days, so I'd usually prefer the Vines of Vastwood or the flexible Veil of Summer. However, I don't know what your meta looks like. If countermagic is a big problem, another way to get around it is to add in plenty of redundancy. Instead of running only 4 bombs, run 8 so 1 is more likely to slip through. Savage Summoning and Insist are fine answers, yet they run the serious risk of becoming dead cards if your opponent isn't playing blue. Of your instants though, Subdue seems to be the weakest to me. It looks like it will usually be a bad Awe Strike or an inverted Berserk that can't contribute to damaging the opponent. If you had cards to benefit from toughness outside of combat like Kin-Tree Invocation, it could at least serve a similar role to Glyph of Destruction in Wall of Blood/Rite of Consumption decks. The final card I might reexamine is Bow of Nylea. generally, mass deathtouch is at its best when you either have a way to force damage (like Lure or Thornbite Staff) or when you want to create a disincentive for your opponent to block (like when running a Curiosity deck. The thing about a high power is that it already allows you to kill multiple blockers and the thing about trample is that it already discourages single blocking. Deathtouch on such a creature is therefore a little redundant. Sure, it's better to have it than not have it, but it might not be worthwhile if it comes at the cost of 3 mana and a card. I'd want some concrete way to take advantage of the Bow's activated ability to justify running it. For example, my G/W enchantment lifegain deck from Theros standard used the gain 3 life ability to buff Ajani's Pridemate. In your case, the +1/+1 might be the best choice to build around since it can overlap with the Hydra's trigger.

ReOdip on Soul Sisters Machine Gun - Pauper (Update Friday!)

4 years ago

I too think that 8 drain dudes are too much: in my opinion you'll be good with just the 4 of Marauding Blight-Priest. You could add green to take advantage of Essence Warden and the mana dorks like Avacyn's Pilgrim, Loam Dryad and Saruli Caretaker: they could help swarm the board and ping the opponent faster (or just attack with a huge army of 1/1s lol). Green also gives you acces to card draw like Winding Way and Lead the Stampede. Some time ago youtuber CalebGannon made an Abzan Soul Sister list with this strategy: you could check his video to take some inspiration. Happy brewing! :)