Utopia Sprawl
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Alchemy 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
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Utopia Sprawl

Enchantment — Aura

Enchant Forest

As Utopia Sprawl enters the battlefield, choose a colour.

Whenever enchanted Forest is tapped for mana, its controller adds one mana of the chosen colour.

SaberTech on Mad World Rising

6 days ago

Thanks for the questions greyninja!

Grazilaxx is a remnant from an older, pre-banning of Dockside cEDH build for the deck. At that time in cEDH people were running Animar as more of a midrange deck because it wasn't fast enough for a turbo build to work well in the meta. I've kept it now that I run the deck as more of a Bracket 4 build and have to face off against more board wipes in the casual meta. It's mostly in the deck as another way of drawing cards to help recover but if an opponent would rather have me bounce back my creatures so that I can put more counters on Animar and get more ETB effects instead of drawing a card, then who am I to argue?

I've generally been pretty happy with Elvish Spirit Guide and Simian Spirit Guide. Like you pointed out, they help to increase the chances of a turn 2 Animar. There have also been times where I was digging through my deck with the help of something like Glimpse of Nature but have completely tapped out to do it. In those cases, having cards like the Guides, Lotus Petal, and Chrome Mox help to give free coloured mana that I might need to help close out the game. In cEDH the guides are a little more useful because they can pay for cards like Red Elemental Blast and Veil of Summer on their own but even in this build they can help to pay for a Wild Cantor or a Talisman so that I have blue mana up for counters to protect Walking Ballista. At 3 mana, the Guides can also be Neoformed into Ancestral Statue.

The 27 lands may not seem like a lot but some of the cEDH builds have even less. Animar doesn't really need many lands to go off considering the various cheap mana dorks and other ramp the deck provides. It is a bit tricky to go that low in lands and can require some aggressive mulligans to get a decent starting hand. While playing though, I've sometimes found that even just 27 lands can result in some mana flooding when I would really rather be drawing spells. The land count is something that you just have to experiment with for your own build to see where that sweet spot is for your own play style.

As for Utopia Sprawl, there are times where it has been a dead draw but it's not that often. Between the Dual Lands, Shock Lands, and Fetch lands in the deck it's not normally that difficult to get access to a land that counts as a forest on turn 1. Using Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth as ramp synergizes well with Arbor Elf and can also net extra mana with the help of cards like Snap, Deceiver Exarch, and Peregrine Drake.

greyninja on Mad World Rising

6 days ago

Looks fun! Love to see differences and similarities of the various Animar decks. Pretty sure I +1 years ago

Curious on your inclusion of Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar. Is it more for the first, or second ability?

How do you like Elvish Spirit Guide and Simian Spirit Guide? These are two I have considered myself, to try and get a turn 1-2 Animar. Worried I might just be hard-casting late-game for that +1/+1 on Animar though

27 lands - super aggressive! Do you ever find Utopia Sprawl to be a dead draw with no Forests?

If you have a chance, please take a look at my deck as well! I can see you commented back in 2015, but we've had updates since then ;)

SufferFromEDHD on Enchantment Recursion.

1 week ago

Lose the artifacts add Wild Growth, Utopia Sprawl and/or Fertile Ground. Possibly Stony Silence.

Extinguish All Hope > Blot Out

On Thin Ice, Oblivion Ring or Parallax Wave > Swords to Plowshares

kamarupa on Uren8

2 weeks ago

Oh boy. I have... uh... a lot of thoughts.

I'm going to start with ramp and mana base. I've been commenting something along these lines on a lot of decks lately. Ramp isn't much of a ramp if you're missing land drops regularly. Getting to, say 3 available mana on t2 is nice, but if you don't hit a land drop or dork on the next 3 turns, the ramp didn't really help. I'm generally not a fan of spells like Arboreal Grazer and even less a fan when there aren't a substantial number of lands in a deck to start with. At a mere 20 lands, you're going to be have to be very lucky to get both Arboreal Grazer AND 2+ lands in an opening hand. And even if you do, the likelihood of you continuing to draw lands just isn't very high. Basically, any effect that lets you "play an additional land" is just way too conditional to be consistent in my view, and therefore, I prefer to run with dorks and enchantments and rarely, rocks. You do have an enchantment that tutors you 2 lands, but at a pretty steep 4MV, I think it's going to function as much as a 'thinner' as it will a ramp spell. I do see some redundancy there with Prime Time, so I could see it be a useful spell. I should state that Prime Time isn't a creature I have much experience with, so I don't know much about what other spells synergize with it best, but I have a gut feeling that what you've brewed could have better synergy with it. It seems like it might be getting included because it's a well known and feared threat more than being a perfect fit. You also have Flare of Cultivation, which seems like your 3rd best ramp spell after your two dorks. While I like that you can cheat it into play, I don't like the required sac cost to do so as the only really good target is the Arboreal Grazer and that's just too conditional to be consistent. It's not a spell I have lot of experience with, and while I'm not a big deck thinner, I can't deny it has a lot of powerful potential. But I want more good targets for it, preferably ones that actually WANT to be sacrificed. The best part of your ramp is that you have 8 1MV dorks. Given your EXTREMELY high average MV of 4.35, I think 8-10 is probably the right number. To sum up, I would cut Arboreal Grazer and possibly reconsider both Prime Time and Encroaching Dragonstorm, either leaning into Prime Times most classically defined deck elements or cutting it. I'd try to find another 1MV creature for your Flare of Cultivation to target (6-8x 1MV non-dorks that want to be sacced) or I'd look for some other ramp choices. I'd also consider adding in something like Fertile Ground, or maybe Utopia Sprawl, as you do already have a good number of lands with the basic Forest type. If you do go for the Sprawl, then perhaps Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth might be a smart add. Finally, I'd like to see this deck reach for at least 22 lands if not 24. You've just got a hell of a lot of very high MV spells and these days I strive for 22 lands as my minimum. It's just more consistent.

Next, I want to follow up on some of what Balaam__ brought up - disruption. Disruption doesn't do much good in a sidebaord. It needs to be mainboarded or else your deck will not only end up unbalanced when sideboarding, but you'll also be tempted not to sideboard as much as you struggle to choose what spells to swap out of the mainboard. I believe almost all decks need at least 4x disruption spells in the mainboard, with 8 being best. Disruption comes in a lot of forms - counterspell is great, but I don't like tieing up mana playing the waiting game. Removal is classic for reason. Usually half of 8 disruption spells are a form a removal. Sideboards offer us different methods of removal so you can get past all the defenses opponents might use to prevent that removal. That makes sideboarding a lot easier to pull off, swapping removal for removal. I really like protection spells Heroic Intervention - while defensively, it can function like a counterspell, offensively it can do things counterspell can't. It largely comes down to preference, but disruption beyond removal is almost always essential. Of course, there's also discard, which is a solid choice, too, though I don't prefer it because it misses cards drawn after it's cast and so isn't as foolproof as a pre-emptive defensive play. I also like squeezing in 1x Fog spell when I can. I love the comedic flavor of it, but again, that's just my preference/sense of humor. Assuming you cut Arboreal Grazer, Flare of Cultivation, and at least a few copies of Encroaching Dragon Storm, even after adding 2x land, you should have room for at least 4x disruption spells in your mainboard. Incidentally, all these changes should also help bring down your average MV, which will make the deck not only faster, but more resilient as it will be able to respond to opponents.

One thing I do think you have right here is the number of creatures. But I'd like to see tighter choices that play off each other a bit more. I get that Prime Time and Flare of Cultivation support Ureni, the Song Unending, but at 3 copies and Legendary status, I'd want to solely focus on that creature or abandon that whole strategy - it's all or nothing with spells like that - run 4x of Ureni to maximize its odds it comes up when Breaching Dragonstorm when that hits. Maybe even look for spells that let you tutor it to the top of your library - Scheming Symmetry comes to mind, though I don't think that's exactly the right spell for this brew. Brainstorm might be a good option - not really a path to card advantage, but it would be useful in setting up Breaching Dragonstorm.

To return to Balaam__'s feedback, I also agree with him that Breaching Dragonstorm, especially at 5MV is too easy a target for opponents to thwart. I do think you've got enough ramp to hardcast some of your threats at least some of the time, but adding in a secondary (or even primary?) cheat-in spell would almost certainly make the deck more consistent. Elvish Piper, for example might be just as fast or even more consistent, though it wouldn't help with your big sorcery spells. Although I think this would be a significant departure from your current brew, Maelstrom Archangel would be a nearly identical backup to Breaching Dragonstorm. I'd probably go for 6-8 total "cheat-in" spells.

Overall, I feel like this deck isn't quite focused enough. It's not clear what it really wants to accomplish and doesn't seem completely committed to any one goal. At the same time, it also seems a little over-gunned - I sometimes say, "you don't need to bring a tank to a water-pistol fight to get a win" - when it comes to successful brewing, it's not the biggest threat that wins, it's the fastest fully effective one. So my broadstroke advice is to try to narrow the deck down to the core you really want to win with and try to support that core as much as you can.

I do love me some card advantage and I can see how Up the Beanstalk could have been useful here. As alternatives, you might consider Garruk's Uprising, Tribute to the World Tree, or even just plain old Harmonize

Sometimes I find I'll start a brew like this and realize I might have tried to squeeze 2 or more decks into one. It might be useful to fork this once or twice and explore different aspects in each fork. Make one with a lot more disruption mainboard, one with different ramp spells, one that really focuses on Prime Time, etc etc.

I hope some of this is helpful. I'm just spitballing off the top of my head. Don't take it as me being too critical. I'm really just throwing out the first thoughts that came to mind and I'm very likely to have missed nuances, etc.

Nicklaffy2302 on Raze, Rebuild, Reclaim

3 weeks ago

leovolt884_ I'm little embarrassed to admit I missed the Swamp part in Snuff Out, I appreciate you pointing it out! I enjoy your suggestions of Bayou Groff in place of Werebear, Utopia Sprawl, and Skyshroud Ranger. I've never been good at land base building / having an appropriate ratio, so I'm hesitant to include a third land colour.

I also have mixed feelings about Rubblebelt Maverick, but I think I want to see how he does first before replacing him.

Thank you very much for your thoughts, and I look forward to seeing your version if you do build one! :)

leovolt884_ on Raze, Rebuild, Reclaim

3 weeks ago

I may be stupid, but how are you casting snuff out?

In terms of suggestions you could probably go 20 or 21 lands in a deck where lands matter so much. I don't think Rubblebelt Maverick is actually helping that much to run 4 of it. I think what would be funnier is jam 4 Raze and run 2 or 3 Skyshroud Ranger or something of the same effect. Maybe make a small engine with Groundskeeper to return lands and then put them directly into play from your hand.

Another direction you can take it is just have one REALLY GOOD land and sacrifice the rest. Enchant a land with Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl and just focus on keeping one or two enchanted lands around and keeping your opponent down to one or two mana while you have 3, 4, or even 5. Stone Rain is also an iconic card. This deck seems to really want to play black. Bone Shards can help you bin an early land to play a turn 2 wurm. Village Rites is excellent card draw and can keep your hand full of lands for afforementioned Skyshroud Ranger type effects. Black loves to sacrifice for cheap and while Improvised Club is a great use for Akki Blizzard-Herder more sacrifice outlets would be more consistent.

I don't really like Werebear in this deck because I think it will just take too long for it to become a 4/4 and it isn't an effective beater if you have to end up using it for mana to cast anything. Maybe consider Bayou Groff or Burning-Tree Emissary. This deck looks kinda funny and it makes me want to make my own version

YouDontKnowMu on BlinkLantza

1 month ago

New modifications :

Also, I am seriously considering Utopia Sprawl instead of Patchwork Banner, anybody has an opinion on this ?

kamarupa on Population Bomb

1 month ago

I don't count mana dorks as lands. They are mana accelerators - they help allow you to have more mana FASTER, but aren't a 1:1 substitute. Dorks cost mana to cast, meaning you need [the right color] land to cast it (sans something like Black Lotus or Chrome Mox, etc). They also are easily removed and come with summoning sickness. More importantly, they only function as a "ramp" if you are able to make land drops every turn. You don't have to take my word for it - you can learn the lesson the hard way on your own. I certainly did. When I first started playing over 10 years ago, I was determined to ignore all rules of thumb and advice and run 16 lands with 8 ramps spells in my decks. And when it worked, it was great - 1xArbor Elf + 1xUtopia Sprawl + 1xForest and I was tapping for 4 mana on turn 3. But often, it stopped there because I wasn't making any more land drops. I could have been tapping for 6 mana if I'd have had lands to play on my first 3 turns, but instead I was gambling with my opening hand and putting all my proverbial mana eggs in one basket - and you can bet your bottom dollar my opponents took advantage of that weakness with removal spells all too frequently, leaving me 2 mana at the start of turn 4. And those were the good opening hands. On bad starts, I was drawing down to 5 or 6 just to get a land. Which is an even bigger gamble! Over time, my mana base kept creeping up. I tried playing decks of nothing but 1MV spells and 16 lands. I tried playing 1-3MV Elves with 17 lands. I tried playing 1-2MV Humans with 18 lands, then 19, then 20. Eventually, I started to learn - I need 22 lands minimum. 24 if I want to ever cast anything with a higher MV than 3. In a very rampy, low MV Elf deck, I think one could probably get away with 20 lands, but it would be not only leaving the deck exposed to creature removal, but also greatly limiting the viable spells to low MV. And I'll add, as little as I like it, it's good to have spells that cost more than 2. Not loads of them, but 4-8 3MV spells and 2-4 4+MV spells are often what pushes a deck over the top to get the win.

Maybe it helps to think of it this way - Ramp, no mattter the type, allows you to play more mana sources on a single turn. It only helps you if you can play a land every turn. Otherwise, it's just a riskier way to have the same amount of mana you'd have if just added more lands. The only possible advantage you get from playing a dork nstead of (vs in addition to, which is definitely an advantage) a land is that a dork can chump block. Which you probably won't get any mileage out of because tapped creatures can't block and if by chance you don't use your dork for mana and you do block, now you're out a mana source that you probably needed.

So again, if you want lots of mana sooner than you'd have playing 1 mana per turn, then include a ramp. If you want to mana-fix for multiple colors, use dual lands. If you want to consistently be able to cast spells up to 4MV, then you need 22-24 lands.

Also, having more spells won't make your deck work better. What makes a deck work best is having a stable mana base, consistently playing value-packed spells, disrupting opponent's strategies, and maintaining advantages (boardstate, card draw, lifegain, etc.) If a deck isn't managing to achieve an advantage, it's not for lack of cards, it's for lack of good cards/synergy.

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