Everything in this deck is a good card to play if you draw it. It's the premise of Jund with different colours. This deck is supposed to be super budget friendly and is pretty much only playable at kitchen table magic.
Let's start with our creatures. We run a fair few one-drops in this deck, and most of them are creatures.
First off, we have our good friend,
Wild Nacatl
. The virtues of this card are quite basic. It's cheap and it hits pretty hard for its casting cost, so it's a baby
Tarmogoyf
.
Our next one drop is
Warden of the First Tree
. Now, I know those hybrid mana symbols are a bit off colour, but it's usually pretty easy to hit with the lands in our deck. After all, that last ability only comes into play in the late game, and you'll have enough plains by then.
The last one drop is
Thraben Inspector
. It's got a good amount of toughness for the early game, and later on you pay a little extra for an extra card when you crack the clue.
The next creature is all the way at 3 mana:
Woolly Thoctar
. We only have one 2 mana spell in the whole deck, but because our 1 mana slot is so packed. Again, it's a big body for a cheap mana cost, so it does a great job here.
One of, if not the most important cards in the deck is in the four drop slot:
Bloodbraid Elf
. This card is so much fun to cast and then hitting something like a
Woolly Thoctar
, any of our one drops, or 2 out of 3 of our non creature spells to take massive board advantage. Cascade is incredibly powerful, and
Bloodbraid Elf
is possibly the strongest cascade card of all.
The other four drop creature is
Ranger of Eos
, and this is the reason we play so many one drops. It can tutor out whichever two you need at any moment and is a fantastic card advantage spell in general.
The final creature, and our big finisher in each game, is a big fat
Armada Wurm
. It does a great job at bringing the house down. 10 power for 6 mana is indescribably powerful, especially with trample. And when it's split across two bodies, if an opponent wanted to take both out, it would require multiple resources to complete. This is comparable to
Broodmate Dragon
in Jund, but that one has the advantage because it's easier to cast and has flying.
The next category is the non creature spells. There are very few in this deck, but all of them are vital to the plan.
Path to Exile
is the second best removal spell ever printed. If you have a smattering of extra money, you can buy
Swords to Plowshares
. Both take out a creature of any size for a single mana. that is insane!
Our next card is
Lightning Helix
. Solid card, hits anything we need, and gains us some life as a small bonus. Especially great against aggro decks.
The last card is
Garruk, Unleashed
, an all around great card to topdeck. When you have a creature but just can't get through, his +1 ability lets us smash in for a few points every turn. Your opponent got a nasty threat staring you down and you have no way to stop it? -2 for you. Even if you want to put a threat on an empty board, he does fantastically for us. And his ultimate ability is great in a deck with as many creatures as ours.
The landbase is a little messy, but it does the job well enough. 4 Jungle Temples, 4
Naya Panorama
s, and 4
Battlefield Forge
s, with the rest being a small grouping of basic lands.
Good luck, and have fun playing magic.
