Vines of Vastwood

Instant

Kicker {{G}} (You may pay an additional {{G}} as you cast this spell.)

Target creature can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control this turn. If Vines of Vastwood was kicked, that creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.

Discussion (50)

kanedotca on In His Belly

2 weeks ago

Mirage Mirror, Pattern of Rebirth, Garruk, Primal Hunter, Return of the Wildspeaker, Kenrith's Transformation, Chord of Calling, Gemrazer, Ohran Frostfang, Sawtusk Demolisher, Force of Vigor, Obscuring Haze, Ram Through, Rampage of the Clans, Thwart the Enemy, Vines of Vastwood, Tribute to the Wild, Rancor, Swarmyard, Monstrous Onslaught, Overwhelming Stampede, Roar of Challenge, Jeweled Lotus

MapPsycho on RAMos THE GATE

1 month ago

Love this build! As for protecting Ramos, Timely Ward, Darksteel Plate, Alpha Authority, and Vines of Vastwood are great for creature protection depending on the circumstances. Hope this helps!

TheVectornaut on When The Wall Is Up Against You

2 months 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.

bapple on No, that's not dead - it's resting (Arixmethes)

2 months ago

Wow, thanks for the great feedback! Some of the cards were considered (Aether Tunnel), while others are either new to me (Vines of Vastwood, cheap multipurpose!) or just not thought of (Hunter's Insight, so much draw...). Will definitely give your suggestions some thought - although some of them are to expensive for the deck (Berserk, yowza...!).

And although I'm a sucker for vague themes and tribal I'm now curious of how a more refined voltron deck would feel as of your suggestions.

Thumbs up to Rafiq. He's a stud. : )

DemMeowsephs on No, that's not dead - it's resting (Arixmethes)

2 months ago

What a cool deck! My deck, Double Trouble EDH ⫸PRIMER⫷, functions quite similarly with a lot of ramp and unblockable spells, so I may be able to give you a few tips! First thing, I would recommend playing a bunch more of unblockable spells. 6/100 cards aren't very reassuring, and there are many more of them that could prove useful! Infiltrate, Cloak of Mists, Canopy Cover, and Aether Tunnel are all pretty good as well! If you have the budget, Thassa, God of the Sea could work well in that regard too. I would also consider a bunch of more pump spells and a couple of neat draw spells. One of the best ones in this regard would be Berserk, basically a 1 hit KO, but as that may not be within your budget, I would look through the following: Blossoming Defense, Briar Shield, Groundswell, Hunt the Hunter, Might of Old Krosa, Mutagenic Growth, Seal of Strength, Vines of Vastwood, Favor of the Overbeing, Might of the Nephilim, Phytoburst, Titanic Growth, Invigorate, Might of Oaks, and of course the final two. Hunter's Prowess, and Hunter's Insight. If you have an unblockable spell, you can draw 12+ cards with arixmethes, and if you have some pump spells, that can be WAY more. Pump spells also increase commander damage, letting you reach your goal relatively quicker. While the pump spells aren't necessary, I think the draw spells would work wonderfully. For lands and ramp, I'll try to stick to cheaper things, so I think Exotic Orchard would work really well, since almost everyone nowadays plays in blue/green, and you'd have pretty great chances. As for ramp, I would definitely include Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Simic Signet, Birds of Paradise, Nature's Lore, Three Visits (It will be reprinted in commander legends for less than a dollar), Sylvan Caryatid, Explore, Growth Spiral, Emerald Medallion/Sapphire Medallion, Mark of Sakikoand as for non-budget options, Burgeoning, Exploration, and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds. I also do not think you really need the "fatties" section, as they don't directly contribute to the gameplan and they seem to be more of a flavorful aspect. Anyways though, be sure to check out some of my decks, hope this helps, and have a wonderful day! Happy tapping!

osiczym on Fast Aggro Mono-Green

2 months ago

Hi Reynan,

Thank you for all your advices! The idea is to make green deck really fast, to compete with red haste decks. That’s why I use Boggart Ram-Gang (they are 3/3 haste for 3rd rnd drop giving +3 devotion) and Llanowar Elves (giving 3rd rnd drop in second rnd, also I need much mana to cast multiple spells in round - I used to think like you and got rid of them once and it didn’t end well).

Barkhide Troll - it is really great creature, cause it’s 3/3 with potential hexproof in 2nd rnd. But I notices that in fact I always wait for 3rd, because I dont wanna lose him and always leave 1 mana for ability, which is annoying. I think I’m gonna swap it for Bassara Tower Archer as you said.

Witchstalker plays a different role than Silhana Ledgewalker. The first is 3/3, second is 1/1 and it is huge difference. It is not an aura deck, so it may lose firepower when I will do that. I was even thinking about adding something more powerful for him (e.g. Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig), but I’m afraid I won’t have much creatures to buff without worrying of destroying them by opp’s spells then.

Vines of Vastwood - yeah, they play very well! I agree I need more of them. Maybe I will remove Become Immense since I noticed I don’t have many cards in graveyard since my creatures don’t die easily.

Auras - maybe I’ll try for fun, but it’s just... I wanted to experiment with unusual approach to this deck, cause many people use hexproof+aura, but haven’t seen many very fast hexproof+buff decks :)

Reynan on Fast Aggro Mono-Green

2 months ago

Make a test taking off Barkhide Troll and Boggart Ram-Gang and putting 4 Slippery Bogle. Your spells are very low cost, so I don't see how Llanowar Elves are needed, try to get off them and use 4 Bassara Tower Archer, it seems she works a lot better than the troll, due she's constant hexproof and keeping good your green devotion. Witchstalker is a good option for sideboard, try to use 4 Silhana Ledgewalker, she's fasten and much more hard to be blocked. Vines of Vastwood are very good, try to use 4 of it, it suits well in any situation.

Is cool try to make mono colored decks. You can try an aura version from that deck using Blanchwood Armor, Boar Umbra, Elephant Guide, Sixth Sense, Spider Umbra... that's it!

RNR_Gaming on Atla Palani, Nest Tender

3 months ago

If you do decide to take multimedia advice throw in more buffs Gavony Township, Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers, Hashep Oasis, Skarrg, the Rage Pits, Ancient Animus, Dromoka's Command and Vines of Vastwood. Also, you'll need a shuffle titan like Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Dockside Extortionist, Academy Rector, Village Bell-Ringer and Dockside Extortionist to have the loop in your deck