Tooth and Nail

Sorcery

Choose one --- Search your library for up to two creature cards, reveal them, put them into your hand, then shuffle your library; or put up to two creature cards from your hand into play.

Entwine (Choose both if you pay the entwine cost.)

Discussion (42)

Profet93 on Mina & Denn's Supermassive ZNR Update! | Primer

4 days ago

Beebles

I just read your update. WOW, I really do love your descriptiveness! It's one of the things that I admire most about you as a deckbuilder. Have you considered Deserted Temple in place of Spikefield Hazard  ^Flip/land? It can untap cradle, be used politically (has helped more than you would think, at least in my meta).

Why is Finale of Devastation under the "more lands" section? Perhaps I'm missing something obvious.

What is your meta like? I ask because I'm curious if you would consider swapping Terrastodon for Bane of Progress - Out of your 5 artifacts, top can save itself while compass turns into a land. The remaining artifacts, while helpful, are not crucial to your game plan. Your enchantments are a different story, but if you play against a lot of control, I figure it is worth considering. I see it is in your maybeboard.

How has the swap of adding in Terror of the Peaks and Warstorm surge been for you? Your deck seems to go tall and wide, mostly wide if I'm not mistaken. I can imagine it putting in serious work with something like Titania, Baloths, Scute

Nissa, Vital Force - Thoughts? It's ult is very easy to get, very powerful and relevant. It's +1 untaps cradle (albeit you probably wouldn't want to make it a creature unless you are going off that turn), makes strip mine/waste land a creature so if they threaten to remove Nissa you can blow up a land to make them suffer. Since it's an elemental it works with Angry Omnath. It can even make dark depths a creature (lol). It's -3 provides recursion for 75% of your deck. I find this card to be fun as I usually have a board with avenger + cradle, draw a bunch of cards into this, untap cradle, G-wave for the win.

Speaking of wins... Tooth and Nail? Albeit very expensive, might be worth considering. Avenger + Regal force is a fun time.

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

6 days 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.

enpc on Mono green v2

1 week ago

Stuff like Tooth and Nail is in there as a tutor more than for cheating creatures into play. Tutors are good. Tutors win games. Also, Ulamog is ok but Kozilek, Butcher of Truth is probably better for the same reason.

Profet93 on Xenagos' Big Stick Policy

1 week ago

Decimate - 4 in 1 removal

Life's Legacy - Draw

Tooth and Nail - Wincon/tutor

The Great Henge - Draw, lifegain, pump

Deflecting Swat - Counter counterspells, redirect targetted removal, draw, extra turns and more, for free!

Heroic Intervention - In response to removal

Momentous Fall - See above

Soul's Fire > Fling - Since you don't need to sac the creature as an additional cost which is noteworthy around blue. The difference is minimal, but should be noted.

Berserk - Don't worry, malignus doesn't have trample.... Greater Good - If you listen to any suggestion, this is it. The most important card in your deck, hands down. Draw a bunch of cards, filter what you dont need, all in response to removal. Can't get any better

I have some ideas for cuts and other suggestions should you wish. Be sure to let me know what you think of each one and if you want others :)

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

1 week 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!

tripod62 on Be Fruitful and Multiply

2 weeks ago

UPDATE

-1 Swords to Plowshares +1 Path to Exile

This change is minimal but I have been facing many ramp decks recently and the lifegain from Swords to Plowshares has been more relevant than I like.

-1 Sacred Mesa +1 Cathars' Crusade

Sacred Mesa can be a powerhouse but as the commander format continues to speed up it never seems to do enough when I get it into play. I have replaced it with a card that should have been in my deck years ago.

-1 Wolfbriar Elemental +1 Tooth and Nail

I can see Wolfbriar Elemental finding its way back in the deck if it becomes more focussed on generating large amounts of green mana. However, for now it is the casualty of Tooth and Nail which makes this deck more consistent and allows wins on the spot by grabbing Craterhoof Behemoth & Avenger of Zendikar

-1 Fresh Meat +1 Qasali Pridemage

The pridemage is easily tutorable removal in a deck with limited interaction. I found myself holding mana up for Fresh Meat that often would go unused when the wrath I was playing around never came. This change helps improve one of the decks overall goals of being more proactive.

-1 Llanowar Elves +1 Concordant Crossroads

I hate to see llanowar go but he's low impact and Concordant Crossroads is the opposite, allowing the decks combos to go off immediately and win before opponents have a chance to react. It is to be saved only for winning the game as it also gives your opponents haste.

enpc on Isochron scepter and dramatic reversal …

2 weeks ago

ClockworkSwordfish: I mean it is more mana intensive and you need at least 7 lands (which isn't hard if you're running land ramp) but Tooth and Nail was considered the 1 card combo for a long time since it tutored up all and assembled all of your win conditions. And in a removal light and/or counterspell light meta, it was a pretty rude way to win.

enpc on Isochron scepter and dramatic reversal …

2 weeks ago

Monomanamaniac: Unfortunately because you are casting spells, it does mean that dramatic scepter is suseptible to both ability hate but also storm hate, which has gotten me a few times before. But in a vacuum, it's one of the more compact combos.

I think the thing which makes it so strong is that it's such a low cost to entry on the combo - you only need 4 mana available to play and activate scepter which is super low. I used to run Tooth and Nail for Deadeye Navigator / Palinchron (with a bit of Rune-Scarred Demon enabling) in a Damia, Sage of Stone list which was good, but you always had to generate so much mana to so you could combo out with counterspell backup. With Scepter, a Mana Vault or Grim Monolith basically pays for the combo by itself and makes you mana positive.

The other thing I like with the combo is that there are replaceable pieces for it. I run the combo in my Thrasios, Triton Hero deck (alsongside Tymna) and I have Sigil Tracer who with Thrasios lets you copy Reversal on the stack. You can also use Nivix Guildmage or Izzet Guildmage in this role. But I was even toying with hte idea of using Isochron Scepter + Vitalize + Karn, Silver Golem as a janky combo in Selvala, Explorer Returned. I know it's not a great combo but it shows how you can adapt it so easily.