Grasshoppeh1

+1

I noticed you're using mostly basic lands. Any particular reason for that? Moreover, do you need Yaviamaya, cradle of growth given your large amount of basics? I feel it's slight benefit of allowing your few non-basics to tap for green is outweighed by the potential of mana fixing the opponent.

I love fetches in Azusa, even Fabled Passage, as they give us a greater chance to utilize crucible effects. I take it, it's a tad too slow here? Even given your update stating how shuffling effects are crucial?

Moreover, if you love shuffling, how about Sensei's Divining Top? Since you run cradle, is there a reason there is no Mana Crypt, aside from Bane of Progress?

Like most Azusa decks, your primary strategy seems to be T&N into Avenger + Regal. But if they counter the T&N, given you run no Boseju, or stifle the ETB effects of either, you're SOL. Somewhat fringe and meta dependent scenario, I understand, but something to consider. I mention this as you only have 7 cards that draw you cards (including the cards that allow top deck land plays). Perhaps a Harmonize or some other cards listed like Boundless Realms (while not draw, thinning your deck dramatically is very very helpful, given a deck with primary basics)

You stated in your update: From the information given above, then it is in our best interest to figure out when the deck runs away with the game and to amplify that scenario. It seems that dropping.... Horn of Greed - You even mention that you always pull out ahead. It seems like you cut cards that help you win and you then cut those same cards as when you are in that winning position, they don't advance your position further. But without some of those cards, it becomes more difficult to get to that winning position in the first place.

Discussing draw further, green draws through either token swarm or creature power. You have Avenger + Scute for tokens and (up to) 6 creatures that have high power, biggest only namely Ulvenwald, which I don't understand in this build given you are utilizing primarily basics. If Ulvenwald's purpose is to tutor lands, why not get another land tutor such as sylvan scrying, nylea's intervention or many others?

Genesis Wave - With only 5 instants/sorcerries, why isn't this here? You don't need to dump your whole deck if not needed given you have no haste outlet like Akroma's or Concordant. I find it a very powerful value card. Or is it not added because you might draw yourself to death with Regal Force + Scute Swarm/Avenger?

Deserted Temple - For cradle (and politics)

I could be wrong as you know your deck best and how it functions. I would love to hear what you think of each suggestion

Profet93 Actually still in heavy prototyping. I started rebuilding the deck from scratch yesterday. Sorry in advance for the mess, putting together a bunch of the pieces again today.

I feel like my play group give me too much time to setup and there is not much in the way of heavy control around besides the occasional counter spell or Ghostly Prison. I will be honest, might even give me enough time to pull off a Helix Pinnacle.

Only reason I'm not running Mana Crypt, is I don't have one. I'm actually trying to acquire it. For the sake of building, accepted.

Genesis Wave is defiantly going into the deck

Horn of Greed Feels too powerful to cut, it's going back. You caught me in the middle of a full deck rebuild. It's not leaving :)

Deserted Temple is a good suggestion, accepted

Torn between Boundless Realms and Scapeshift. I want to run atleast one of them.

Sensei's Divining Top is a good suggestion, from my testing it feels a lot better than Sylvan Library. Tempted to put sylvan library on the potential cut list later.

Missed Fabled Passage! Thank you!

Ulvenwald Hydra feels good in the playground right now as a tutor for gaea's cradle or any other land I will be adding to the deck. In addition to that at any time there is a lot of flyers at my table. Tempted to keep him unless I can come to a better quick solution for flying like Whiptongue Hydra. Not sure yet honestly.

Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth will be needed, still sorting out the land base!

• Boseiju, Who Shelters All is going in for helping with tooth and nail
• Woodland Bellower feels like a natural fit,,, really good with Fierce Empath, "cute swarm" (Scute Swarm), Ramunap Excavator, Ulvenwald Hydra and Eternal Witness. Great combo with tooth and nail too.
• Keeping slyvan for the moment, I have a copy of life from the loam, not sure if I should run this yet. I'm tempted too
• Torn between Crop Rotation and Sylvan Scrying. This instant speed is nice since you can surprise your opponents, but without owning a Cavern of Souls and Glacial Chasm not being the deck,,, I think I favor Sylvan Scrying
• Tempted to add Greenwarden of Murasa for more tutor-able recurrence.
• Titania, Protector of Argoth Feels really good with the fetches, adding this
• World Breaker and Terastodon kinda fill the same role a lot of times for me. World breaker is slightly cheaper and it can come back.
• Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar feels like an auto add definitely if I'm dropping lands in both my grave and field.

• Cutting Burgeoning for the time being, feels like a dead draw right now. If I really ramp up how many cards I have in hand then it might be worth putting back in.
• Ancient Greenwarden is another crucible than can be tutored by fierce, adding it
• Life from the Loam was added to go with Sylvan Library

From the direction this deck is going big creatures seems fun, then we can focus on how we draw a bit later

Spoiler button was broken on my screen, repost of some of the changes.

CREATURES:

I thought about this and I play in two places, with friends and alone at a card store. Maybe the fatties should be replaceable. Have a set of 5 creatures I can swap out depending on the level of the play group. I could keep a set of creatures in my "sideboard" to swap out :)

For stronger creatures we can consider Emrakul, the Promised End, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. If I want to really win, maybe Blightsteel Colossus. Blight might drop in price soon if I wanted to get my hands on it.

Tempted to make some of the "weaker" creatures, Worldspine Wurm, Apex Devastator, maybe Darksteel Colossus

Interesting tech is probably Wolfbriar Elemental, card is often forgotten about. A 4/4 creature + 6 2/2 wolves for 10. 16/16 for 10 and scalable. Give it haste and you have a wincon. I'm unsure how risky Concordant Crossroads will be in my area, but Akroma's Memorial is pretty safe.. if anything a removal magnet.

I don't seem to have the manabase to run Kozilek, the Great Distortion yet since it specific requires colorless. This would need to be worked on.

Given the setup I could just put in Rampaging Baloths

Boundless Realms > Scapeshift in this build given your lack of card draw and high basic count and low nonbasic count. Assuming you add nonbasics in the deck, unless one of them is Field of the Dead, I would still choose boundless realms over it. Scapeshift is nice though, having a cradle already on field and using scapeshift to get field and other lands to get a bunch of zombie tokens so cradle can tap for mana, keeping your tempo.

Sylvan Scrying > Crop Rotation as sylvan actually gives you a land instead of replacing one. Moreover, it isn't susceptible to blue counterspells.

Life from the Loam is pretty good with all the fetches

Greenwarden is a nice card. I always T&N for Greenwarden + Ulvenwald, getting T&N back to hand and cradle to field. Next turn I cast T&N for Avenger + Eternal Witness, then same turn cast T&N again.....the value!

Titania is nice, I like her.

Worldbreaker > Terrastodon as Breaker is cheaper to cast, doesn't provide tokens and exiles instead of destroy. Whether its so they don't recur it again and again, or if it's indestructible, breaker proves invaluable. Being able to recur itself makes it great. Lastly, in my build, Eye of Ugin makes it cost 5 and it is a Sanctum of Ugin target to tutor for other Eldrazi.

You have a lot of ideas, you need to think about how you want your deck to win. For me, I usually do the T&N loop as described above or a big G-wave and then try and draw into an Akroma's Memorial.

Regarding Eldrazi choices, I wouldn't add Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre as costing 11 mana just to destroy (not exile) 1 card before it inevitably gets exiled itself just seems weak. I like the other Ulamog better as it is cheaper and exiles 2 things. While no annihilator, exiling top 20 of their deck is still powerful.

Profet93

I might keep Scapeshift for now and cut later if needed. Being a mathy guy I understand deck thinning is a fallacy unless it is mass. Even if I was to net 7 cards by grabbing gaea's, fetch, fetch, fetch it is only increases what I want to get by a few percent until later. Drawing is much more power in terms of probability. If I need to I will cut scapeshift. Mind you it does add up, 2% better 3 draws later is 6%.

Yeh that makes since for Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger over the other one. The removal is valuable in green compared to just a single destruction. If I go the eldrazi route him and Kozilek, Butcher of Truth are really good.

Will think about wincons over night, kind want to have an array of options that way I get to one eventually. Different ways to play is not bad, cute swarm, tooth and nail, land drop creatures, crater, fatties,,,, vorinclex into Helix Pinnacle and become the target of the table lol

Saying that, I need GAASsSs, draw, cards. 15 slots left currently not including big fatties. Probably should focus on getting more cards into hand. Researching green card draw, added a bunch to the maybe board. Need to think about this.

Temporarily in the IRL deck I've replaced Mana Crypt with Jeweled Lotus until I can find one...

Did a bit of Brainstorming last night

Potentially Temur Sabertooth might be good in my playgroup due to the amount of removal and ability to setup.

Rude Awakening + Temur Sabertooth + Eternal Witness + 11 mana == infinite mana and bounce/infinite ETB. Temur Sabertooth, plus any of my ETB or cast cards gives a lot of utility including extra draw, recurrence, removal, spot protection from removal.

I think this card is worth a shot with the amount of mana I have available most times. For the sake of theorycrafting we have to try it!! Who knows maybe if I wanted to go the jank route this would make Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Helix Pinnacle or Aetherflux Reservoir viable as a non-attack wincon. Testing needed,, wanted to vorinclex in my collection anyways.

For classic wincons,

For creatures, I feel like I could hold a sideboard of 15 fatties on me and swap them in and they would all feel equally viable. That said Kozilek, Butcher of Truth felt irreplaceable and thus is getting a perm mainboard. Prevents milling, draws cards, threat/wincon, resets my deck, nice with Life from the Loam.

Vorinclex like I've mentioned before accelerates the deck and give me more time. It's more of enabler than a combo piece itself. Potentially Defense of the Heart might work here too if I hadd him. It would also open up potentially a new archtype if I went with Aetherflux Reservoir + Temur Sabertooth.

As for the draw situation, we could build around it or just go with the classics.

Adding Guardian Project to the maybe board along with Beast Whisperer. They're not as "fast" as the other options, but guardian often times is a Harmonize or better and beast whisperer is tutorable draw!

Some classics are: Garruk, Primal Hunter which is a "5 mana draw spell", Shamanic Revelation is another Regal Force that works with tokens! Rishkar's Expertise is another garruk that has a ~70% chance to hit another spell. That percentile is potentially amazing due to the composition of the current deck.

On the fringe for: Zendikar Resurgent, vorinclex slowing down opponent's in that slot feels better as a mana doubler, and I could just play Guardian Project earlier if I was after the draw. This card feels like it's in a weird place. Might turn out to be just an expensive harmonize. Momentous Fall, I don't know how I feel about this yet. Generally it says, 4 mana sac a creature draw 2-6 cards. Feels like a card I would play when I'm ahead, not to get ahead. That said I could say the same for anything else that is not an etb draw, regal, or harmonize.

Next step I guess is to make a couple "Packages" and see how they fit the deck.

Honestly, there is no point in not trying those cards in a live environment, let's add a bit more utility and a couple large creatures then try this in some games!

Added the cards mentioned above, in addition dropping in TEMPORARILY AS PLACEHOLDERS Beast Within, Apex Devastator, Beacon of Creation, Kozilek, the Great Distortion.

Let's have our first game this weekend. I will be testing the deck our to see what it feels like it needs and report back.

Let the games begin >:k

Removing aetherflux after some testing, not a viable combo unless there was something like a creature that did that

Played a bunch today and here is results of changes.

Changelog:

• -1 Apex Devastator to sideboard, moved to sideboard to swap out with blightsteel/eldrazi for newer players
• -1 Temur Sabertooth, removed due to the amount of cardraw available. I feel I would rather draw than bounce.
• +1 Blightsteel Colossus to maindeck, Blightsteel is a counter to my local playgroup. We've got a lifegain deck and one deck running Pariah and Pariah's Shield. Along with Akroma's Memorial and Finale of Devastation this is my nuclear option.
• +1 Bala Ged Sanctuary  ^Flip, land and recurrence is very valuable.
• +1 Mirrorpool, ehh fine seems ok to drop a copy of a big creature that does something,, what's the worst that can happen? :)
• -1 Mana Crypt to maybeboard, don't have one is the only reason. If I can get one,, maybe?
• +1 Jeweled Lotus, replacement for mana crypt... Now let me tell you,, jeweled -> azusa --> lotus cobra --> two fetches --> Tooth and nail.. That was a quick game!
• +1 Maze of Ith, This is at tech, really aggressive in my area! There are some cases it's death to not have an air blocker!
• +1 Petrified Field, Testing it at this time, not sure how to abuse it yet
• +1 Momentous Fall, Does not feel as bad as I initially thought. Use this defensively often times.
• +1 Cryptic Caves, niche card testing it out. Turns your crucibles into three draw for 3 mana + land drops.. 3 mana draw 3 cards... seems decent
• +1 Thespian's Stage, what does it do? answer: yes
• -1 Beast Whisperer, I have enough creatures, but the costs are too high
• +1 Zendikar Resurgent, replacement for beast whisperer, has the potential to double mana while going off
• -1 Guardian Project, same problem as beast whisperer
• +1 Return of the Wildspeaker, another large draw effect to combo off of to replace guardian
• +1 Inkmoth Nexus, bad habits die hard, keeping one in deck for "that guy" at the table.
• -1 Field of the Dead -> maybeboard, only reason I'm taking it out is I don't own it. Dropping it into maybe board

Other Thoughts:

• Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is here to stay. When you go off with a large draw dropping him is amazing. He will give you enough mana to combo off and finish on the stop at times. He's also a good target for Natural Order.
• After drawing 10 cards and drawing into Rude Awakening,, it has a new place in my heart, seems to be a keeper
• Once I hit 25 basics, I think I can just win the game. The amount of basics should stick between 24-26 and 45 lands in total to facilitate the engines. If we're slightly under half I think we're good.
• Kodama of the East Tree was potentially good enough to combo off a large draw with vorin, need to test this more!

Thinking of Cutting:

• Beacon of Creation --> , requires more testing due to new landbase

Why the sideboard was added:

• Core creatures for swapping on the sideboard are Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Kozilek, the Great Distortion, Blightsteel Colossus, and Craterhoof Behemoth.
• Each of these creatures fills a different role. voice of hunger is a creature to combo off with on a large draw or to slow down my opponents. Butcher of truth fills your hand then wins by sacing against a single opponent or threating multiple attack if they don't sac a specific permanent (politics yeeehhh). Blightsteel teaches people that lifegain decks don't work against green edh.... craterhoof teaches people that lifegain deck's don't work against green in edh (AZUSA SMASH!!)... please stop playing lifegain decks in edh... Great Distortion draws and controls the game if your ahead.

If I'm playing against my friends then these are great. If we're trying to include someone I will swap them out for cards in the sideboard and leave in a couple.

Agreed with almost all the changes. Petrefied fiel works well with Realms Uncharted. In my build, I tutor for Eye of Ugin, Petrified, and whatever other 2 (usually cradle and deserted temple). I can use petrified to get the other land I wanted back. Not to mention that as a lands deck, you will have people wise up and destroy your lands, one way or another.

Rude awakening is BEAST! I'm so glad you love it. Combine it with cradle, deserted temple and a thespians stage to boot (dare I say, vesuva evil laugh). Lots and lots of mana as rude awakening makes all your lands creatures. Do note though, any lands that ETB that turn can't be tapped for mana once they are creatures as they are summoning sick, unless you have Akroma's or another haste outlet on the field. It's also nice after a big Rishkar's expertise to untap your lands in order to keep up tempo. It can even function as a wincon through beatdown late game should be. Overall, a versatile ritual

Interesting ideas some friends came up with, I'm already running the vorin, why not Void Winnower. Tooth and nail + Vorinclex + Void == a soft lockdown.

Another suggestion was to change the behavior of the deck to make the top end 5-8 mana only. He's argument was that a 6/6 on turn 3-4 is much scarier than a big creature on 5-7. The idea would be dropping recycle, helix pinnacle, squall line, more land drop cards, doublers. Then just play things like wurmcoil, batterskull, kaladat, and other middle of the pack creatures. Might make another brew to test this.

Still tinkering before any changes

I took Bane of progress and regal force out of my deck sadly because upon G-wave entering, Bane destroys Akromas so you can't swing for lethal. Regal Force is a mandatory draw, so you deck yourself out unless you somehow sacrifice a Shuffling Eldrazi with a High Market, Miren Moaning well, or another sac outlet. Thoughts?

Greater Good - Speaking of sac outlets, this one draws you a bunch of cards and prevents stealing/exiling effects

Song of the Dryads - Removal, particularly on opposing commanders. If they play black or red, they are unlikely to have enchantment removal. Even more fun is using strip mine on their "land" in response to their removal spell on song of dryads.

Nissa, Vital Force - +1 is to untap cradle for more mana (usually after drawing a large part of your deck with a big board state to increase tempo) or to untap strip mine and destroy anyone (or rather, the person) who will inevitably try to destroy her. Her ultimate costs 6 and she starts at 5. Her emblem is POWERFUL, but that's not why she's here. Her -3 is almost like a third recursion effect. Ultimate is just another potential benefit.

Your list should add more non basics, I think your mana base could add 2-4 more non-basics. If you do, you should consider the following...

Nylea's Intervention > Sylvan Scrying - Higher ceiling, more versatility. I get you can't cast this Turn 2 and then Turn 3 Azusa but I feel the benefits far outweigh the negative.

Field of the Dead + Snow-covered swamps = Tokens! Since they are black, regal force doesn't work, but shamanic revelation does. Moreover, they are just blockers and fuel for cradle. Never underestimate thespian's stage copying field so each land you play brings 2 zombies, with Azusa thats 6 zombies per turn. With cradle + field, you can bypass the tempo requirement of casting azusa to get more lands into play. I see you have exploration, so perhaps that aspect might not be beneficial all the time, nevertheless, it is powerful.

I would add every land in the maybeboard except Homeward path. Cuts would be maze of ith (unless meta dependent) and Dryad arbor. Arbor almost always dies and sets you back. Given he can't be tapped for mana the turn it comes down, it's usually not that impactful. Even with Green Sun Zenith.

I would cut Beacon of creation. I get it's cool with Regal force, cradle and yavimaya green land, but I never was a huge fan of it. How has it been in your experience?