This deck is built around Aetherwind Basker. I've heard some people say it's not so good, and maybe it's not. But if it's jank, it's my kind of jank, that's for sure. A green trampler that can theoretically become absurdly large? Yes please. Sign me right up.
Obviously, if I'm going to go all-in on the lizard, I had to commit to making it big enough to one-shot people. That means making it into a 20/20 or bigger, to trample over blockers. The fact that it has trample makes the plan feel much better. The other challenges are living long enough to play it, finding the right pieces, and having the lizard stick around long enough to kill them. Here's how we do that.
The first part of the plan is making lots of energy and living. This is done mostly by playing lots of small energy creatures. They make energy when they enter and can block to keep me alive. Rogue Refiner also helps me out a ton by drawing me a card, helping me find the lizard and other pieces. Servant of the Conduit helps ramp, and Woodweaver's Puzzleknot gains some life to help the deck stay alive. All of these effects are doubled once a Panharmonicon is out, cranking up the energy production to maximum.
The second part of the plan is Gonti's Aether Heart. Why the heart over, say, Part the Waterveil? Because I really want to be able to spend the mana the turn before I take the extra turn. Here's the plan: Play Gonti's Heart, then play the Lizard, exile the Heart, and immediately one-shot them with the Basker. This way, they don't get a chance to untap with the Basker on the field, meaning they are much, much less likely to have removal available, and as an added bonus their blockers might be tapped down.
It takes 21 energy to exile Gonti's Heart and get the lizard to a 20/20. The lizard makes, at minimum, 2 energy for entering and attacking, plus 2 for each other creature I have out. That means I want to have at least 19 energy before playing the lizard. How easy is this? From testing, not too hard, and pretty easy in games where I find the Panharmonicon. The only real danger is if I'm forced to draw with Shielded Aether Thief repeatedly to find the cards I need, but it's better to have that option than to be stuck with no Basker and no way to find one.
That's the deck! More janky decks at our page Pure Jank
