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[Primer] Karametra's Bounce House

Commander / EDH Bracket 4 Combo Competitive Forest GW (Selesnya) Indestructible Infinite Combo Primer Ramp

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Combo (25)

Value (5)

Control (4)

Lands (33)

Dork (8)

Protection (2)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Karametra, God of Harvests

Draw (9)

Tutor (9)

Explosive (4)

Maybeboard

Other (29)

Deck Strategy

Karametra, God of Harvests *f-etch* is a mid-tier commander that I have tried to make as competitive as possible, to an extent. I would say this deck is under the threshold of cEDH, but is a high end competitive deck for a more casual group that still wants to do gross things. Her ability allows all our low-cost creatures to net us land and opens doors to fun combos that I will discuss later in this primer. She also provides an indestructible body that can be used to block and provide relatively safe swings. Unlike some commander decks, we need to get Karametra out for this deck to effectively run. Luckily, most people at the table will not see Karametra as a high value target to remove or counter, so she will normally stay on the board the whole game. We run tons of mana dorks to get her out by turn 3-4. I'm running an enchantment and creature heavy build that focuses on ramping into our win conditions as soon as possible. We also run Academy Rector, which provides us with insane value if we can get her out early.


The deck has a bit of everything- ramp, removal, board wipes, protection, creature buffs, tokens, land utility, and combos. Most people look at this commander and assume its a "Ramp into big stuff" deck, but will be quickly surprised when they see any of our combos. This deck is built to be competitive while still being fun to play against. I purposely avoid not so fun cards like Iona, Shield of Emeria and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. I've made sections for general information, card choices, and final thoughts so please take the time to read them if you are interested in the deck. Also, please upvote the deck if you enjoyed!

The goal of the early game is to get Karametra, God of Harvests *f-etch* out by turn 3-4. Mana dorks, Lotus Cobra, Amulet of Vigor, and Oracle of Mul Daya will speed this up. Do not be afraid to use your combo pieces like Duskwatch Recruiter  orDevoted Druid because we can fetch Mistveil Plains with karametra to add them back to our library if they die early. Consider not playing sac lands until you need to- the more people know how this deck runs, the more they will remove our sac outlets. Don't miss your land drop for this though because we can tutor other sac outlets later. Once we land karametra, we need to begin tutoring for our combos and establishing card draw.

Continue to Midgame

Midgame for this deck starts the second karametra hits the field. I'm going to discuss 3 different scenarios:

  • **1.** You got a turn 3-4 karametra with a handful of creatures on the board (karametra is likely not active). You now need to search for your combos while getting as many karametra triggers as possible. We run tons of tutors and you should be trying to get Protean Hulk or getting the combo pieces directly with something like Uncage the Menagerie for 2. It is relatively easy to initiate a Whitemane Lion combo because we have many cost reducers in the deck; however, if you can reliably play Protean Hulk and sac it then you will go for Heliod, Sun-Crowned/Ranger-Captain of Eos to win with damage or Devoted Druid/Vizier of Remedies/Duskwatch Recruiter   to get all creatures in your hand with infinite mana. You will then play out all your creatures starting with Grand Abolisher to seal the deal. You can just finish with using your infinite mana to just ping everyone down with Walking Ballista.


  • **2.** You had a slow start and got karametra out later than anticipated. If you are being actively disrupted then you need to tutor Grand Abolisher to protect yourself. This deck is built to be adaptive and you will likely have to go for a later combo (see above) or go for surprise swing with Triumph of the Hordes. There are many instances to where you will need to tutor card draw rather than for Protean Hulk. You can also tutor Academy Rector for Zendikar Resurgent to stabilize.


  • **3.** Karametra is not on the board and you are being disrupted. This rarely happens because karametra is normally not the target for spot removal or counterspells due to her not being a top-tier commander. Luckily we do not need karametra for the infinite green mana and creature draw combo, and it is relatively cheap to get out. Ultimately, if your playgroup is shutting this deck down in the early game/midgame then you need to adapt the deck. I recommend Dragonlord Dromoka, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Gaddock Teeg, Boseiju, Who Shelters All, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, and other protection cards. You can easily substitute some of our more greedy cards to make a hate bears version of this deck (see 'Not your style?' below for an example).


    • Continue to Late Game

    Ideally, everyone should be wiped out during Mid game due to our combos. If your opponent stopped your combo or you simply could not kill the whole table then you need to settle in for a longer game. You need to get out Mistveil Plains with karametra and begin recycling the creatures you are losing.

    **As of 9/9/19 this primer has been drastically updated and improved to make it more competitive **


    Card Choices

  • 21 land targets for Karametra, God of Harvests *f-etch*
  • 4 fetch lands for double landfall triggers
  • 8 card draw sources
  • 3 tutorable infinite combos to give green mana for Duskwatch Recruiter   or Walking Ballista and a limited combo to pull out all karametra lands with Whitemane Lion that can be started with just Protean Hulk
  • Infinite creature casts with Aluren and Whitemane Lion/Kor Skyfisher

  • Academy Rector - Use High Market or Miren, the Moaning Well to sac it to pull out either Zendikar Resurgent for ramp/draw or Aluren to go for a win.


  • Arbor Elf - Great mana dork that works well with Zendikar Resurgent up for double mana.


  • Avacyn's Pilgrim - Basic mana dork.


  • Avenger of Zendikar - Used to combo with Craterhoof Behemoth, but also performs well alone with how many lands we drop.


  • Beast Whisperer - Great and relatively cheap card draw. Works well with our cheap creature base and Whitemane Lion and Kor Skyfisher. Keep in mind, it's effect is not a 'may' ability, and you will mill yourself if you try to combo out with this on the board.


  • Birds of Paradise - Another great mana dork with the bonus of flying.


  • Bramble Sovereign - Provides insane value with most of our creature base. Duplicating dorks helps with future infinite combos and helps ramp aswell.


  • Cataclysmic Gearhulk - A great boardwipe that is easily tutorable in the deck. I opted for a creature boardwipe over a sorcery for this reason.


  • Collector Ouphe - A strong stax card in the deck because we do not run any activatable artifacts.


  • Craterhoof Behemoth - The big boy himself. This is the primary way we kill the whole table. We have multiple tutors and ways to put him into play. Combined with massive creature base or Avenger of Zendikar, he is game ending.


  • Devoted Druid - Used to get infinite green mana with Vizier of Remedies. Alone it is a decent mana dork.


  • Destiny Spinner- Our deck runs an obscene amount of creatures and enchantments to boot. Spinner protects our casts while being cheap to play. Her active ability can also be useful with us running 7 enchantments (including Karametra). If we get infinite mana, this active could be a potential finisher.


  • Drannith Magistrate - Great stax piece that shuts down a lot of combo decks while not bothering us at all.


  • Duskwatch Recruiter   - Amazing card in the deck. This can either be used for our infinite combo to finish the game by pulling out all our creatures (see combo list) or can be flipped to combo with Whitemane Lion and Kor Skyfisher.


  • Elvish Mystic - Classic mana dork.


  • Eternal Witness - Green commander staple. Brings back anything that we need from the graveyard at a cheap cost.


  • Fierce Empath - Great tutor creature that we can use to grab Craterhoof Behemoth or Protean Hulk to try to finish out the game.


  • Fyndhorn Elves - Decent mana dork. Nothing to say.


  • Grand Abolisher - A necessity in the deck to help against more controlling and reactive decks.


  • Joraga Treespeaker - Great mana dork and becomes even better when leveled up because we have 13 elves.


  • Knight of the Reliquary - Use it to bring out Gaea's Cradle or any utility land (See notable combos). It can also get pretty big with us sacrificing lands and using our fetches.


  • Kor Skyfisher - Used the same way as Whitemane Lion to get karametra triggers and potentially go infinite with discounts or Aluren.


  • Lotus Cobra - Can carry the early game on its own. All of our commander triggers will net us a mana, fetches net two mana, and it opens us up for so many plays.


  • Mirror Entity - Can be used to buff all our creatures or can be used to generate infinite mana with Wirewood Symbiote/Priest of Titania. Activate Mirror Entity for 1 to make Wirewood Symbiote an elf to bounce itself to untap Priest of Titania. Recast it and rinse and repeat for infinite green mana.


  • Oracle of Mul Daya - Extra land drop and play with the top of the deck revealed. A perfect addition to the deck, and it is not going anywhere.


  • Priest of Titania - Amazing ramp because we have 13 elves. Also combos with Mirror Entity and Wirewood Symbiote.


  • Protean Hulk - We have three sac outlets with High Market, Natural Order, and Miren, the Moaning Well. We can get many Whitemane Lion casts (see notable combos), infinite green mana, or creature draw. We also get a freeDryad Arbor. You can grab Heliod, Suncrowned + Ranger-Captain of Eos + Dryad Arbor. Use the Ranger ETB to grab Walking Ballista, sac it to silence your opponents, and then play Ballista to win.


  • Prowling Serpopard - Helps protect our creatures from being countered. This is essential in control matchups.


  • Ranger-Captain of Eos - A great tutor for the deck that provides a silence effect when sac'd. Commonly used to grab Walking Ballista to go for a win.


  • Reclamation Sage - Great artifact and enchantment hate. Bonus points for being an elf and having synergy with Priest of Titania and Joraga Treespeaker.


  • Recruiter of the Guard- Amazing creature tutor and fits the deck well with us having so many targets (Whitemane Lion/Walking Ballista/other combo pieces). We can also abuse its ETB with many of our bounces.


  • Sakura-Tribe Elder - Used for early ramp. If not early, it will get us two land drops with karametra.


  • Tireless Tracker - One of the best early card draw we can get. We drop so many lands and can get so many clue artifacts. One of the MVPs of the deck.


  • Vizier of Remedies - Used to combo with Devoted Druid. It is relatively useless outside of this.


  • Whitemane Lion - Play it, get a Karametra, God of Harvests *f-etch* trigger, target itself, repeat. Works great with Amulet of Vigor or Lotus Cobra to get us more casts. Can go infinite with only Aluren to get us ETB triggers (see notable combos).


  • Wirewood Symbiote - Gets us infinite mana with Priest of Titania + Mirror Entity + Elves.


  • Yisan, the Wanderer Bard - Can assemble infinite mana by himself after just 3 verses. Grab Wirewood Symbiote, Priest of Titania, and Mirror Entity in that order. Tap Priest of Titania (need 3 elves total). You then activate Mirror Entity for 1, bounce Wirewood Symbiote with its own ability (it is now an elf) to untap Priest of Titania, cast Wirewood Symbiote again and loop to generate infinite mana.

  • Chord of Calling - Another card to get Craterhoof Behemoth or some stax when in a pinch.


  • Heroic Intervention - A very good reactionary card that is cheap to drop and leave mana up for.


  • Eladamri's Call - Great creature tutor card that adds the target to our hand to immediately be played.


  • Enlightened Tutor - Allows us to tutor for essential artifact and enchantments that are useful at any stage of the game like Aluren or Aura Shards.


  • Swords to Plowshares - One of the best spot removal cards we have access to.


  • Veil of Summer - A green staple in my opinion. We need to protect our combos and this provides one of the few cheap and effective answers to a control matchup.


  • Worldly Tutor - A staple tutor for every creature-heavy deck.

  • Finale of Devastation - Great early game and late game to finish someone. We easily pull out all of our lands with Karametra triggers that will allows us to have X equal 20+. This kills the table.


  • Green Sun's Zenith - Can get Dryad Arbor turn 1 or a Craterhoof Behemoth late-game to win. A very versatile card that can be used anytime in the game.


  • Natural Order - A cheap way to pull out our win conditions or a way to sac Protean Hulk.


  • Triumph of the Hordes - Amazing finisher for the deck. We cast many creatures and generate tokens, and this card gives us a surprise finisher that not many people expect.


  • Uncage the Menagerie - Allows us to grab combo pieces like Devoted Druid / Vizier of Remedies / Duskwatch Recruiter  

  • Aluren - A truly busted card with strategies that rely on creature casts or ETBs. This lets infinitely cast Whitemane Lion/Kor Skyfisher


  • Aura Shards - Gross artifact and enchantment hate card. This card can hands down destroy an opponents strategy if they use artifacts to ramp or for combos. Sometimes the tutor target for Academy Rector.


  • Earthcraft - Great for squeezing out as much mana as you can by using your non-mana dorks for mana. Goes infinite with Kor Skyfisher/Whitemane Lion if you stack the triggers so that earthcraft taps the creature before the ETB trigger goes off.


  • Growing Rites of Itlimoc   - A second Gaea's Cradle that is easy to flip in the deck. This card is incredibly strong in the deck.


  • Guardian Project - Great card draw at a low cost of 4 mana.


  • Zendikar Resurgent - Mana doubler and card draw is unbeatable. This is my first target for Academy Rector due to its massive value in a creature heavy deck.

  • Amulet of Vigor - Allows our lands that come from our commander to come into play untapped. Also works well with flashing Whitemane Lion repeatedly.


  • Cloudstone Curio - Play our 1 drop mana dorks and bounce them back to get cheap, effective karametra triggers.


  • Lifecrafter's Bestiary - Starting to become a green commander staple for me. Only 3 mana, lets you scry 1, and lets you draw a card for only . We are a creature heavy deck and this fuels us to keep going.


  • Ancient Tomb - Great early game ramp with a small cost. I tend to be greedy with using this, but it depends on the matchup. Will you lose to combos? Use it to ramp. Will you lose to aggro/burn? Use sparingly.


  • Dryad Arbor - Green staple. You can get it turn one with Green Sun's Zenith for 0. It can be a last second blocker, pulled from Protean Hulk for free, and shouldn't be forgotten when you go for a swing with Craterhoof Behemoth.


  • Gaea's Cradle - A true monster when it comes to ramp. I always tutor for this using Knight of the Reliquary or Crop Rotation to get a massive lead if possible.


  • High Market - Used to sac Academy Rector and Protean Hulk. Can also be used for small lifegain.


  • Miren, the Moaning Well - Used primarily to sac Academy Rector and Protean Hulk, but can be great lifegain in a pinch with us having so many large creatures.


  • Mistveil Plains - Tutorable with Karametra, God of Harvests *f-etch* and should be grabbed after getting all your dual lands. Use this to put creatures back in your deck for Finale of Devastation, Protean Hulk, etc.


  • Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - This deck loves devotion for our gods, and we can easily spam out creatures to make nykthos net mana. We also maintain devotion after board wipes with most devotion coming from enchantments.


  • Strip Mine - Used to hate out Gaea's Cradle, Kor Haven, Maze of Ith, and other busted lands that we don't like.


  • Yavimaya Hollow - Cheap to use and a land that not everyone notices. Just a great, value green land that regenerates.

  • Protean Hulk = Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Ranger-Captain of Eos (grab Walking Ballista with ranger ETB) for infinite damage
  • Aluren + Whitemane Lion/Kor Skyfisher/Cloudstone Curio = Infinite creature casts for Karametra
  • Heliod, sun-crowed + Walking Ballistafor X=2 = infinite damage
  • Mirror Entity + Priest of Titania + Wirewood Symbiote = Infinite green mana
  • Protean Hulk = Vizier of Remedies + Devoted Druid + Duskwatch Recruiter   = Infinite green mana to activate recruiter to draw every creature to play them. _Note: Devoted Druid can't have summon sickness and you should sac Protean Hulk at your opponents end step to do this combo.

  • Emeria Shepherd - Has the ability to pull out all plains with Sakura-Tribe Elder, but it is incredibly expensive and weak when alone. I had this in the deck for 2 years and I never tutored for it or actively looked to use this combo.


  • Sol Ring - I simply do not enjoy winning games because of this card. You can add Stony Silence to put people on your playing field too.


  • Rampaging Baloths - Decent landfall card, but too expensive and slow to get going.


  • Seedborn Muse - Great green card, but I have cut a lot of my mana dump cards and it became much more irrelevant.


  • Genesis Wave - A fun card, but not the most reliable for its cost.


  • Tooth and Nail - Too expensive and gets countered most of the time. Finale of Devastation has been a much better card for finishing the game while still being a good tutor early game.

    • Final Thoughts

    Strengths

  • Variety of creatures that can be tutored or cheated in when needed
  • Have the tools to potentially stop every deck archetype
  • Late-game value/recursion allows us to compete against control decks
  • Can reliably access our combos to finish the game
  • Not dependent on drawing lands
  • Can have unexpected wins with our game-winning cards

    • Weaknesses

  • Folds under counterspell heavy decks. If your meta has this issue then you can add in Dragonlord Dromoka, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Gaddock Teeg, Boseiju, Who Shelters All, etc.
  • Land hate can shut us down
  • Voltron with hexproof/shroud
  • Potentially slow start until we can play our commander
  • Strategies that use direct damage like Purphoros, God of the Forge and Nekusar, the Mindrazer

    • This deck focuses on mid-game value and using Craterhoof Behemoth,Walking Ballista, Triumph of the Hordes, casting all our creatures, or nuking people with infinite green mana. Winning this way isn't everyone's style, and there are wonderful people who have other versions of this commander that you should check out below:

  • Token/Landfall - Beautiful? Absolutely. Harmless? Definitely not by Mandalorian
  • Ramp/Combo - Karametra's Short-Term Memory by Beebles
  • Hatebears - ₮ⱧɆɎ Ⱨ₳₮Ɇ Ʉ₴ ₵ɄⱫ ₮ⱧɆɎ ₳ł₦'₮ Ʉ₴ by Enral
  • Enchantments - A Guide To Karmetra Enchantress by user:Simon_williamson
  • Flavor - Harvest Moon | Karametra Flavor EDH by Spootyone
    • At first glance you can see this deck is quite expensive. However, this deck can still be extremely powerful without costing you an arm and a leg. I'm going to list out some cards you can safely cut for cheaper alternatives and cards that are non-negotiable and should not be cut. ### Can be cut (Deck price: $1,700 -> $900)
  • Gaea's Cradle - Extremely powerful land, but is the most expensive card in the deck. You can simply replace this with another land of your choice and run Growing Rites of Itlimoc  .
  • Academy Rector - This was a tech choice that I made that is not essential to this deck. It has great synergy, and there is not many cards that replace it. Consider just adding a card of your choice.
  • Oracle of Mul Daya - Great for double land drops, but is by no means essential. You can add any card of your choice here.
  • Yavimaya Hollow - A good utility land for green that can be replaced with another utility land of your choice like Reliquary Tower or Arcane Lighthouse.
  • Savannah / Ancient Tomb - Can be replaced with a forest or plains and Temple of the False God.
  • Aura Shards - Insanely good artifact/enchantment removal, but can be replaced with Krosan Grip or Bane of Progress (at the risk of destroying our own stuff).
    • ### Can't be cut
  • Craterhoof Behemoth - This is an easy way to kill the table and is easy to grab with all out tutors. I would say do not cut this from the deck.
  • Protean Hulk - Not that expensive to get, but just wanted to emphasize that it is needed.
  • Amulet of Vigor - Extremely powerful at all stages of the game, but is regrettably more expensive because of its uses in other formats. Try to get your hands on this card.
  • Cloudstone Curio - Turns all our 1 mana dorks into flicker machines. This card is too good to replace.
  • Enlightened Tutor - I put this here because although it can be replaced with a cheaper alternative, you should seriously consider having these kind of tutors if you play EDH. These cards are essential in making decks run consistently.
    • This deck is constantly evolving, and I am open to any suggestions even if it means reworking the whole deck. I'm also open for any great combo that I can pull with Protean Hulk that isn't lame like mass land destruction with Acidic Slime. The suggestions don't need to be competitive, but can instead be additions that make the deck more fun or consistent. I will respond to every suggestions. The only thing I'm unwilling to do is change my commander. I know there are better selesnya commanders, but I love playing Karametra. Thank you!
    Please upvote to show your support!
    "I cast Whitemane Lion. Karametra Triggers."

    "I return Whitemane Lion to my hand."

    "..."

    "**I cast Whitemane Lion again.**"

    Suggestions

    Updates Add

    A Revival! — May 1, 2025
    Edit

    Currently working on bring back this deck after 5 years. I will continue to make edits and will update the primer when I'm finished. After all these years, this is the deck I want to remake.

    What you see now is the current draft that I'm playtesting. The deck is filled with creature based combos that can function independently without the assembled pieces. To see the combos and synergies paste the decklist into combo finder tool like combo-finder.com

    Deck Quality Updates — Feb. 12, 2020
    Edit
    Theros Updates — Jan. 20, 2020
    Edit
    Teetering on cEDH — Sept. 9, 2019
    Edit
    Deck Revamp — March 4, 2019
    Edit
    Update — Nov. 1, 2018
    Edit

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    Casual

    98% Competitive

    Revision 55 See all

    (2 weeks ago)

    +1 Allosaurus Shepherd maybe
    +2 Aluren main
    +1 Aven Interrupter main
    +1 Avenger of Zendikar maybe
    -1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking main
    +1 Beastcaller Savant maybe
    +1 Benefactor's Draught maybe
    +1 Blind Obedience maybe
    +1 Bristly Bill, Spine Sower maybe
    +1 Castle Garenbrig maybe
    +1 Circle of Dreams Druid maybe
    +1 Demolition Field maybe
    +1 Destiny Spinner maybe
    +2 Devoted Druid main
    +1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire main
    +2 Elven Chorus main
    +1 Emeria Angel maybe
    +1 Emiel the Blessed maybe
    +1 Galadriel's Dismissal main
    +1 Genesis Wave maybe
    and 40 other change(s)