The purpose of this deck is to make sure the board stays clear, or at least doesn't come swinging towards you. When the game gets into the later stages and you have more mana the gameplan changes, either drop bombs from your hand, grab bombs from your own graveyard, or steal your opponents' bombs from their graveyard.
Any good commander deck needs its fair share of ramp and any self respecting green deck would be remiss to not use the wonderful suite of ramp afforded to it. This particular ramp has quite a few pieces of ramp and one of the higher land counts of my decks because of the high curve, the ramp suite is as follows:
-Avacyn's Pilgrim, Elves of Deepshadow, and Birds of Paradise, I don't like cards like Llanowar Elves or Elvish Mystic in decks with multiple colors, I'm paying a green to get an extra green the next turn, while that's good in monogreen decks, it quickly loses it's value the more colors you play. Birds, Elves, and Pilgrim are better as they still serve as efficient ramp while also providing fixing, Birds is obviously the best but Pilgrim and Elves can get the job done in a pinch too as they provide another color other than green.
-Sakura-Tribe Elder, a staple in green ramp, the elder provides a potential chump blocker and awesome guaranteed ramp early game and can be reanimated for continuous ramp later in the game with Teneb, the Harvester if you have nothing better to hit with his ability.
-Wood Elves, kind of an underrated card if you ask me, in my playgroup at least. Wood Elves is able to hit Canopy Vista, Temple Garden, and Overgrown Tomb to provide good ramp and mana fixing and like Sakura-Tribe Elder, the elves can serve as a chump blocker and repeatable ramp.
-Sol Ring, the only mana rock this deck has, most green decks just don't need mana rocks as land-based ramp is just superior in almost every way however, the tempo swing from a turn one or two Sol Ring is just too much to pass up.
-Carpet of Flowers, thankfully I was able to get my hands on this beauty when it was cheaper and in my meta where blue runs rampant, the Carpet helps keep the blue decks in check while also providing excellent ramp. Dropping an early Carpet may end up causing your opponents to play fewer Islands in response but that actually isn't that bad as they are denying themselves access to more blue symbols, and as long as you're able to get two or even one mana from the carpet every turn you're already getting mana back on your investment.
-Utopia Sprawl, I absolutely love Utopia Sprawl in any multicolor deck containing green, while my deck Karametra Enchantresses and Friends would get more value out of Utopia Sprawl, it still provides excellent early ramp and fixing.
-Cultivate and Kodama's Reach two copies of amazing ramp and fixing? Yes please.
-Farseek is another excellent ramp piece as it's able to grab Canopy Vista, Temple Garden, and Overgrown Tomb, as well as any Forests in the deck.
-Lastly we have Skyshroud Claim, essentially a Farseek stapled onto another Farseek.
Next we have any equally important aspect of a commander deck, card draw. You may have a good bit of mana available to you thanks to the large suite of ramp spells but if you have an empty hand those lands are just sitting there looking pretty. With this in mind I tried to make sure to have a good set of cards to keep that hand full
-To start things off we have Harvester of Souls. The Harvester si great for a couple reasons, first of all, it gets you a card whenever another nontoken creature dies, which means that it cares about your opponents' creatures dying as well. This is great as a big part of this deck is removing your opponents' creatures. On top of that, Harvester of Souls is a 6/6 beater with deathtouch that feels great to reanimate with Teneb.
-Next, there's Soul of the Harvest, essentially the antithesis to Harvester of Souls. Soul of the Harvest is not only a 6/6 beater (this time with trample, much better compared to deathtouch when it's on a 6/6), but the Soul's ability triggers on a creature entering not being cast. This matters because it can net you a card after reanimating a creature with Teneb.
-Greater Good serves a dual purpose. First, it draws cards from sacrificing big creatures to it. Second, it lets you sacrifice big creatures with awesome ETB triggers as well as filling up your yard from the discard part of its ability, letting you pitch bombs or dead cards to the yard.
-Guardian Project in a singleton deck effectively reads "whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, draw a card." As stated above with Soul of the Harvest, it draws you cards normally, and lets you draw a card off of Teneb's ability.
-Mirri's Guile, while it doesn't necessarily draw you cards, Mirri's Guile lets you set up your draws to make sure you're getting the best draw every turn.
-Phyrexian Arena Life is a resource and we're going to use it! Phyrexian Arena provides early consistent card draw and is always a welcome card to be seen in your hand.
-Jarad's Orders let's you tutor up a valuable card to your hand and lets you pitch a bomb into the graveyard for later use, good value for the cost.
-Demonic Tutor another card that I'm thankful I was able to get my hands on without needing to spend too much money at the time, Demonic Tutor is easily one of the best and most efficient tutors available to EDH players.
-Rishkar's Expertise is a perfect fit for the deck. It cares about big creatures and by the time you'll be playing this card you'll likely have a card with at least 5 or 6 power netting you a good amount of cards. AAAAND on top of all of that you get to slap down a big creature for free, truly a fantastic card draw spell.
-Worldly Tutor honestly one of my favorite green instants in the game, Worldly Tutor can be used early game to help build a good board state or it can be used late game to get an important creature.
I've kept mentioning bombs and here we are, the bread and butter of this deck. Bombs are expensive creatures that have a good effect especially when they can repeatedly be triggered by reanimating them Teneb, let's take a look shall we?
-Let's kick things off with Ashen Rider. Ashen Rider is a flying beater that exiles any permanent when it enters AND leaves the battlefield, making this a primary target for sacrifice and reanimation.
-Next we have Avenger of Zendikar. The Avenger is a good body that has a great ETB effect that also feels amazing to repeat and abuse.
-This one is literally a bomb! Cataclysmic Gearhulk is effectively a toned down Cataclysm stapled onto a 4/5 with vigilance. Thanks to the relatively low artifact count of this deck, the creature you choose will always be Teneb and the artifact you will often choose will be the Gearhulk, getting you a 6/6 flyer and a 4/5 with vigilance. The best part of it all is that this effect is on a creature which means that it can be nearly endlessly repeated if you choose to sac the Gearhulk to its own ETB effect.
-The effect of Sepulchral Primordial is absolutely mouthwatering. An evasive 5/4 that lets you steal three other creatures? Holy crap this thing is good! And on top of it all, the Primordial's effect can be repeated if he finds himself in the yard.
-Terastodon is great removal on a really threatening body that puts your opponent in a tough spot. Do they let your 9/9 trampler stay on the field and threaten them with huge digits every turn? Or do they try to remove it and hope it doesn't get brought back and remove even more problematic permanents.
The other favorite thing this deck likes to do, make sure the board stays clear, with this in mind I tried to assemble a set of good and effective board wipes.
-One of the best ones we have at our disposal is Duneblast. Duneblast lets you keep Teneb on the field while wiping the rest of the board.
-Next we have Steel Hellkite. An evasive beater with the ability to repeatedly wipe an opponent's board is just fantastic.
-Austere Command is just great. It's a flexible board wipe that you can adapt on the fly to fit your needs when you cast it.
-Decree of Pain is just too good to pass up. If you hit a board with lots of creatures, the Decree serves as not only a wipe but also a hand refill.
-Life's Finale is one of my favorites in this deck. Finale not only cleans the board, but it also lets you put an opponent's problematic cards from their library into their yard, potentially denying them a combo and letting you steal big creatures later down the road.
-Lastly we have Wrath of God staple of white wipes, you can't go wrong with this card.
-Let's start with Noxious Gearhulk. Another evasive beater that has a super good effect that you want to repeat/abuse with Teneb.
-Next we have Ravenous Chupacabra. Effectively a cheaper Noxious Gearhulk.
-Reclamation Sage lets you get rid of annoying artifacts/enchantments with potential to be repeated.
-Oblivion Ring just lets you get rid of a pesky permanent for a while.
-Song of the Dryads is one of my favorite green auras, it lets you turn any annoying permanent into a Forest and if the aura gets to stick, that permanent often gets forgotten about.
-Anguished Unmaking, Utter End, Swords to Plowshares, and Path to Exile are all efficient removal that lets you exile especially problematic cards.
-Beast Within is just a solid removal spell for any permanent that needs to be taken care of.
-Curtains' Call is just great. Thanks to the multiplayer nature of commander, you'll often be paying 3 mana to off two creatures, and excellent rate.
Obviously you won't always be able to abuse
Teneb, the Harvester so it really helps to have some other good ways of reanimating bombs.
-First, we have Emeria Shepherd. Being able to resurrect cards at the drop of a Plains is a crazy efficient way of bringing back great cards.
-Sun Titan a vigilance beater that has repeatable recursion stapled onto it with enter and attack triggers is just great.
-Animate Dead is solid, efficient, and cheap recursion that lets you get back bombs for relatively little mana.
-Lastly we have Victimize. Speaking of solid and efficient recursion, Victimize lets you trade in one creature for two. Whether it's a useless 1/1 that wasn't doing you any good, or pitching a bomb for later use, Victimize is almost too good to pass up.
Our last category is utility, these are cards that provide extra value or tempo but don't really fit into any other category.
-A prime example is Fauna Shaman. Essentially a weaker Survival of the Fittest, what the Shaman lacks in value, it is considerably cheaper than Survival while pretty much accomplishing the same affect. Fauna Shaman lets you find a useful creature at the expense of one in your hand, most often you'll be wanting to pitch one of your Bombs into the yard in exchange for the creature you need at the moment, the creature you pitch will be available for resurrection with Teneb later
-Next up is Protean Hulk. When paired with a repeatable way of sacrificing or killing it, the Hulk is nuts as you're able to repeatedly grab stuff from your library and be able to reanimate the Hulk with Teneb to do it again.
-Shalai, Voice of Plenty acts as a good bit of protection for you and your board as well as being a good late game mana sink with her activated ability. One thing I've found is that Shalai draws a lot more attention than she's worth, often leading to her getting quickly removed, which isn't all that bad; better her than Teneb.
-Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is another card that will draw a lot of hate, and rightfully so. It messes with your opponents' lands while buffing your own. One thing you'll definitely want to do is either get him into the yard with Buried Alive or fetch him by sacrificing Protean Hulk to Birthing Pod. Bottom line is you never want to hard cast Vorinclex if you can help it.
-Birthing Pod is a great way to get creatures with good ETB's into the graveyard while simultaneously grabbing problematic creatures out of your library.
-Buried Alive lets you search your library for three bombs that you really don't want to hard cast and put them into your yard for later use by Teneb.
-Dictate of Erebos while this deck's focus may not be on sacrificing its own creatures a lot, it still does do it and having this effect at instant speed is super helpful, it also serves as another deterrent to your opponents from destroying your creatures.
The
Strionic Resonator is an interesting little card in this deck in that it allows you to copy Teneb's trigger and get an additional creature. It is important to note, however, that part of the effect triggered by
Teneb, the Harvester's ability is the option to pay 2B. So when you copy the ability with
Strionic Resonator, it provides you with two seperate chances to pay 2B and get one creature each time, and with this combo being rather mana intensive (costing you total of 6BB when all is said and done) it is very important that you make sure the two creatures that you get are worth the hefty investment.
