Wall of Roots

Creature — Plant Wall

Defender

Put a -0/-1 counter on Wall of Roots: Add to your mana pool. Play this ability only once each turn.

Discussion (48)

Epicurus on Grandlandlord Radha *$50 Budget*

2 months ago

Hi there! I sifted through your list and chose 9 cards from amongst the higher price tags that I thought you could live without, then came up with 9 cheaper cards that seem to fit with what you have going here. I hope it's helpful

Cut:

• Dragonlair Spider

• Lord of Shatterskull Pass

• Ripjaw Raptor

• Sakiko, Mother of Summer

• Tilonalli's Summoner

• Evolutionary Leap

• Root Maze

• Wild Pair

• Sakura-Tribe Scout

Add:

• Battle Hymn

• Orcish Settlers

• Orcish Lumberjack

• Mulch

• Wall of Roots

• Stampede Driver

• Pyrostatic Pillar

• Sulfuric Vortex

• Vine Trellis

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.

DeltaMoth on 『Primer』Combo-Cades: The Wallmaster | EDH

4 months ago

DemMeowsephs

Thank you for your interest in our bible, we hope you enjoyed thoroughly!

On the topic of your suggestions, our deck currently has a dwindling amount of defenders as it is, taking one of them out is not entirely our prerogative, especially one as convenient as the high toughness and immediate mana gave by Wall of Roots.

Burgeoning and Exploration are both great cards, however, our deck is not land heavy as it is. This does not make them any worse as T1 plays, which means they earn a spot in the Maybeboard for further testing.

Thanks again!

DemMeowsephs on 『Primer』Combo-Cades: The Wallmaster | EDH

4 months ago

Yes Wall of Roots is a wall but I'm sure in most cases its more important to have something that gives you more color options, rather than just green, even if it is a wall. I was going to say Sylvan Caryatid but since you already have it Paradise Druid might be nice.

It also may be nice to consider cards like Burgeoning, Exploration, etc

DeltaMoth on Arcades - Quarantine King

4 months ago

Heyya Sheldaconda! Fellow Arcades user here, love the deck and the flavour! I have a few suggestions.

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Ensnaring Bridge: "Us advocates feel this overpass can't be overcome!"

The Bridge works in both ways, allowing us to attack under it with our 'low-power' creatures and stifling other players by not letting them over it. Note also the incredible card advantage of Arcades and his leagues of bulwarks may stymy you somewhat.

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Axebane Guardian: "Our efficient bane to our opponents!"

Axebane Guardian is similar to Overgrown Battlement in that it supplies a Cradle-esque effect dependent on the number of defenders you control. However, it adds any colour you choose, making it a defender all-star!

If you have enough defenders, Axebane goes infinite with High Alert. But as the deck is staying casual, you may want to omit this suggestion.

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Brago, King Eternal: "Blink and you'll miss him!"

If you do decide to swing in, Brago can be a big help with built-in evasion and the ability to flicker all our creatures (for draws off Arcades, the Strategist) and artifacts such as your Sol Ring for double usage.

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Static Orb, Winter Orb and Tangle Wire: "Our stacks of STAX will surely stack our odds!"

Various STAX card with various effects. They can play off your mana generating creatures as well as your artifacts. The best one for you here is Static Orb which shuts everyone down equally while you keep up strong creatures for big punts.

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Wall of Roots, Ulvenwald Captive  ^Flip, Sylvan Caryatid and Vine Trellis: "Our dorks draw for us and excel us forward!"

These dorks can trigger Arcades due to being defenders as well as tapping for mana or in some cases giving us immediate mana. They also play well with STAX cards that tap lands down as you won't need them anymore!

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I have many more suggestions, but this is all for now. If you like these and want more, say so!

Thank you!

ThisIsMyAccount on Remember to blink

4 months ago

The curve of the deck is a little high for what you're trying to do I think. Skittering Surveyor sort of helps speed things up but you only included one in this deck. Considering a green splash for Wall of Roots and Noble Hierarch to speed things up could help and also open up a more reliable Kitchen Finks as zapyourtumor suggested. You can flicker the Wall of Roots also so the 0/-1 counters never really matter.

Green also opens up Eternal Witness. Maybe even Reclamation Sage and Spike Feeder for the board.

ColFrogfoot on Combo Gak

6 months ago

Hey SueMe!

Yeah I love Nooze combo so far. I originally started with Dread Return for Eternal Witness for Victimize to get back Lord of Extinction and Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord. But I hated how much mana I needed to win out of graveyard and wanted something more efficient and less clunky-feeling. Nooze fits my style of play more.

Wall of Roots definitely has been an all-star even before I even realized it gives me a 0-open mana way to combo with Nooze, which made me love it even more lol. Yeah creatures that don't need to tap and create mana are pretty good IMO like Lotus Cobra.

Harvest Season use to not work for me as much as it does now. Now I find it fills out the curve pretty well and since the deck has so many many dorks I can actually produce a lot of mana early on. So sometimes I cast Hogaak, my draw spells might be like 4+ mana and this curves out nicely, but there are times I can't cast it for sure, it is usually one of the first things I would discard after discarding down to hand size after one of our draw spells. Although I'd say the reason it works out for me a bit more is because I have a lot of one drops. My list is sitting at 11 one drops so that might be a reason too.

Yeah Tymaret Calls the Dead I like. At least if I draw that it can basically cast Hogaak almost all by itself over a turn. Just helps me function a bit better from time to time.

Thanks for stopping by I always love commanders that are easy to recast if removed and your list made me realize Hogaak's potential after first seeing it on mtggoldfish's commander clash. :)

SueMe on Combo Gak

6 months ago

That's an interesting take!

Right off the bat, I can see that your build has a lot more wincons than mine. Necrotic Ooze isn't really my style, but the stuff is definitely solid, and I can see the appeal.

At first, when I saw Wall of Roots, I didn't realize it was for combo purposes. This seems like the card that no one thinks of playing when they're finding stuff to synergize with Hogaak, but there is synergy there. Having a mana dork that doesn't have to tap is something that Hogaak definitely needs more of. I suppose Devoted Druid can also help in that regard. Definitely cool stuff!

How has Harvest Season been working out for you? I've been doing some experimenting with it, and it never seems to work for me. It's most useful when you're casting Hogaak, but I find that I don't have 3 mana left over when I'm doing that.

I like your Tymaret Calls the Dead idea. Getting value over time is something that I'm not used to in Hogaak (even though that's what every other edh deck does ever), but this effect might have a home in Hogaak.