Species Specialist

Creature — Human Warrior

As Species Specialist enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.

Whenever a creature of the chosen type dies (is put into the graveyard from the battlefield), you may draw a card.

Discussion (48)

montanaflash23 on Saskia, the Amazon

2 weeks ago

Swaps:
Jungle Shrine --> Jetmir's Garden
Cemetery Protector --> Jaxis, the Troublemaker
Species Specialist --> Caldaia Guardian
Etchings of the Chosen --> Vampiric Tutor
Wedding Announcement  ^Flip --> Jolene, the Plunder Queen
Judith, the Scourge Diva --> Ognis, the Dragon's Lash
Raiders' Spoils --> Professional Face-Breaker

Stardragon on An Actual Ninja Phoenix Deck

4 weeks ago

Since you choose Desecrated Tomb and Tormod, the Desecrator why not Anax, Hardened in the Forge so you get a 1/1 bat, a 2/2 zombie and a 2/2 satyr when a creature dies or returns form the graveyard?

Some extra on death mileage particularly with your altar (I would consider Ashnod's Altar as well)- Pitiless Plunderer for more mana, Species Specialist or Dark Prophecy for card draw, Zulaport Cutthroat, Blood Artist or Bastion of Remembrance for some life gain/drain action or Butcher of Malakir and Dictate of Erebos so when you lose a creature they do too

I saw you have some recursion why not consider Return from Extinction and it's upgraded form Raise the Draugr? I would cut Exhume for one of these they cost the same and can bring back two phoenixes or ninjas and doesn't have the downside of letting your opponent bring a card back. and they cost less though they don't put on to battlefield so that may not be to your liking

Extra board wipes that won't hit your phoenixes (though will hit your ninjas) are Magmaquake, Earthquake, Faultline and Subterranean Tremors

More damage- Berserkers' Onslaught, Wound Reflection, Gratuitous Violence

Harder to block Phoenixes so you can ninjutsu even easier- Goblin War Drums, Intimidate, Cover of Darkness

Maybe Heartless Summoning-to make your commander cheaper to cast in the graveyard (the only time you should cast this from your command zone is the first time, and anytime is get's exiled as this way you can ignore the commander tax as much as possible)

And don't forget Fervor so all your birds are hasty and can attack as so as they on the field so you ninjutsu even faster

king-saproling on Rat King

1 month ago

You might like these: Thornbite Staff (equip to Gnawer, make infinite rats), Species Specialist, Skullclamp, Coat of Arms, Echoing Return, Smothering Abomination, Pitiless Plunderer

ghostfire86 on Chatter on My Fang

2 months ago

This should get you going

Needs desperately:

COMBO!- -Earthcraft and Squirrel Nest

-Ivy Lane Denizen and Scurry Oak

Redundancy-

-Doubling Season

Mana fixing and Forestwalk Enabler-

-Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth

Mana package-

-Golgari Signet

-Arcane Signet

-Fertile Ground

Anti-counter package-

-Allosaurus Shepherd

-Destiny Spinner

Draw package-

-Sylvan Library

-Phyrexian Arena

-Dark Confidant

-Dark Tutelage

Tribal-

-Realmwalker

-Bloodline Pretender

Could use:

-Sprout Swarm

-Tamiyo's Safekeeping

-Cover of Darkness

-Worm Harvest

-Drey Keeper

-Ravenous Squirrel

Sylvan Anthem

-Species Specialist

-Maskwood Nexus

-Creakwood Liege

Land count should come up closer to 33.

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Looking for a good card …

3 months ago

Ok, with more context, there are more cards I can suggest. Lurrus of the Dream-Den and Omen of the Dead are a pretty cool value engine. Gravebreaker Lamia is a version of Oriq Loremage. As you're also including , Doomed Traveler is perfect. To draw cards, I heavily suggest Grim Haruspex and/or Smothering Abomination. With enough tribal synergy, Species Specialist could work, as well. Oh, and Elenda, the Dusk Rose is just nuts. Bushmeat Poacher is another underrated card to draw cards.

SOTC on Chatterfang´s Karre

4 months ago

Hey Fridulina, what a cool deck! I love the theme; token shenanigans are a particular favorite of mine. As it stands, this deck has 105 cards - let's shave it down to a legal 100, and see if we can't make it a bit more focused to boot :)

Cards to Add
- Additional recursion and protection cards keep Chatterfang and your other combo pieces in the game. I have to say I love the addition of Gyome, Master Chef - he interacts excellently with all your deck's pillars, and keeps both you and your important creatures alive. Economical ways to keep your general around are Kaya's Ghostform and Aspect of Mongoose. The former recurs him no matter what; the latter keeps him from being targeted, and should he get board-wiped, you still get the Aura back! In a general sense, picking up a Regrowth is just an all-round good idea: you can go fish for anything you lose.
- Consider using Mycoloth, as it synergizes fantastically with this deck. As a mass sacrifice outlet, a big stompy creature, and a prolific token generator all in one, this Fungus has it all.
- Though expensive at , Nadier, Agent of the Duskenel can get huge real fast in this deck, and removing him only worsens your opponents' problem.
- For reliable card-draw, an Idol of Oblivion and a Species Specialist will do tons of work here. They also have supplemental uses in providing creature bodies to swing and block with.

Cards to add: 7

Cards to Cut
- I'd say Squirrel Sanctuary & Squirrel Nest don't really work fast enough to warrant their mana costs. Additionally, this deck doesn't exclusively lean on Squirrels but has a general token-value theme, diminishing the synergy they may have had in a pure tribal deck.
- Mitotic Slime is somewhat over-costed for its effect. If there would be a reliable way to keep sacrificing and recurring it, it would be quite a bit better.
- Avenger of Zendikar works better in a landfall or Plant deck; here it's a token maker that only occasionally buffs those tokens, provided it and they even stick around. For , that's not very spectacular.
- Sifter of Skulls and Golgari Germination both suffer from the 'nontoken' element in their rules text. While this deck is all about tokens kicking the bucket, you don't really want to lose any of your 23 creature cards - most of them only provide value while they are alive, and you want to save recursion for your commander.

On single-use spells in EDH
This deck runs into a problem many Commander players encounter: that of smaller, value-providing instants and sorceries underperforming in EDH. Cards like Read the Bones, Sign in Blood, Chatter of the Squirrel, Skeletal Scrying, Village Rites and Scatter the Seeds can be played only once or twice, unless your deck runs permanent-based recursion effects to keep bringing them back. As a rule of thumb for EDH, if you want to include an instant or sorcery, its effect should be at least one of these:

1. Dramatic: powerful game-changing effects, as on Kindred Dominance;
2. Permanent: ramp spells such as Three Visits are a good example;
3. Reactive: capable of selectively enhancing or protecting one of your cards, negating an opponent's (more expensive) spell - i.e. a Professor's Warning to stop a removal effect.

These criteria are born from necessity - in EDH, you don't have a single opponent to defeat, but three. In a two-player game, a Village Rites gives you a one-card advantage over your opponent - you spend one, and gain two. In a four-player game, with each of your opponents drawing a card for turn, you have accrued a one-card deficit.

With that in mind, I'd recommend culling the aforementioned instants and sorceries. This deck already has powerful card-drawing (Toski, Bearer of Secrets) and token-making (Chatterfang) effects available to it. Trust that they will do the job well.

Cards to cut: 12

Wrapping Up
And with that, we're down to 100! I hope this helps you streamline the deck, so you may overrun your foes with a horde of vengeful rodents. Good luck!

IHATENAMES on Trynn and Silvar

5 months ago

Thinking about this in parts. 1 you have to remember you are an aristocrat build all creatures are fuel for your engine. Hidden Stockpile is a overachiever in this type of deck. Brutal Hordechief can let you choose blocks why not just win also drain is helpful too. Corpse Knight sudo aristocrat. Dusk / Dawn refills your hand late game. All these types of lands no Field of the Dead??? I think Species Specialist sucks overall up to you if you keep it. Living Death or Command the Dreadhorde for mass reanimation for the win would be good. Also a personal favorite Peer into the Abyss and Mausoleum Secrets for instant speed tutor for most key pieces.

seshiro_of_the_orochi on Woman Tribal (Human)

7 months ago

This looks fun, good job. As mtobin said, Fractured Identity can't be in here. I assume you got a name mixed up?

Considering you're playing 20 legendary creatures besides your commander, Thalia's Lancers might be a useful inclusion. With all these tokens, Skullclamp would be great.

Species Specialist doesn't seem to be female, but is veeery powerful here.