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Ursa Major *PRIMER*

Commander / EDH Bracket 3 Casual Midrange Mono-Green Multiplayer Trample

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Creature (34)

Land (35)

Sorcery (8)

Instant (6)

Commander (1)

Commander: Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma

Enchantment (10)

Artifact (6)

Welcome to Ursa Major !

Hi there! Welcome to the primer of this mono-green, battlecruiser deck, commanded by Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma. The high forests of Qal Sisma hide a terrible secret. Once, only the dragons living amongst their mountainous, tree-filled expanses reached sizes big enough to challenge any foolhardy hunters to the limit. That changed when a she-bear of stupendous dimensions chose them as her new home. Where she came from, and how she became what she now is, no one knows. One thing is clear though, she is respected by her peers; large creatures of every shape were attracted by her presence, by her ferocity and her power. A realm of sorts was established, one without borders, where all manner of powerful beasts lived separately but in mutual respect, … in some undefined way as a banded force as well. Now, their ire is fixed upon you, the one who is disturbing their peace and threatening their de facto leader, … their queen, if you will. Within moments, a sea of claws, scales, tough hide and teeth is going to be unleashed upon you. Brace yourself, for the waves to come! This deck is meant to be played in casual formats. It’s not meant to be used in a competitive fashion, but of course anyone is welcome anyone to try! Feel free to comment on anything you (dis)like throughout this primer; hopefully you will enjoy it!

This monster provides all of the deck’s strong creatures with some major perks. First off, she makes them cheaper to cast by a significant amount. That’s a major boon, considering green is already pretty good at ramping quickly. Her second ability is not to sneeze at either; a power/toughness boost plus trample to all attacking creatures on her side of the battlefield with power 4 or greater (which includes herself!). Finally, at CMC4 she is great value for mana and is therefore also relatively easy to recast.

The following ten parameters have been used to determine the strength of the deck. For each, a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad) has been allocated; when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck (maximum score is 50 points).

  • Mana: indicates the availability of mana sources within the deck.
  • Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
  • Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
  • Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
  • Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
  • Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
  • Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
  • Interaction: indicates how much this deck can mess with opponents’ board states and turn-phases.
  • Resilience: indicates whether the deck can prevent and take punches.
  • Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.

Mana: 5

This deck is pretty good at generating additional mana (next to the mana coming from lands). Conjuring sources for this, come in two major forms; creatures and rocks. Six creatures can be tapped for mana directly. Then there’s one creature that generates based on landfall and one that ensures that creatures dealing damage generate treasure tokens. This ensemble of generating power is augmented by five rocks.

Ramp: 4

Quite a few ramping resources have been made available, amongst which are two creatures (of which one is single-use and one can be used multiple times), an enchantment that allows extra lands to be played each turn and five ramp-sorceries.

Card Advantage: 5

In terms of card advantage, this deck really excels, especially for mono-green. One creature cascades many of its brethren onto the field, nine creatures, enchantments and sorceries provide conditional draw, three filter mechanisms allow for scrying and drawing, one creature allows for recurrence, four creatures and spells have been added for top-decking and one tutor allows me to search creatures.

Overall speed: 5

Though its average CMC is not exactly low, plenty of additional mana sources, ramp and a vast arsenal of draw (not to mention Goreclaw’s ability to cheapen casting) still allows this deck to take flight in a hurry. Once it gains momentum, considering the kind of raw strength/power it can make available quickly, it will be very hard to overtake by other decks (unless they’re very anti-creature/wipe focused).

Combo: 1

In essence, this build doesn’t contain any combos.

Army: 5

Significant power resides within this deck’s very large army of thirty three creatures. In terms of combat potential, some have been chosen because of abilities that would have a significant impact on the state of the battlefield (nine creatures), whereas others were chosen because they are powerful beaters by themselves (seven). The remainder of creatures mostly have a utility, card-draw or ramping purpose.

Commander: 5

Having Goreclaw around provides the deck’s controller with a massive casting edge, as she cheapens lots of powerful stuff. Yet this deck contains so many resources that not having her around is in no way a true loss.

Interaction: 2

As with most mono-green decks, this one is not meant for vast options of interaction. Of course it still sports some spells/abilities to destroy certain permanents (seven).

Resilience: 4

Aside from the deck’s vast army (which comprises many high-toughness creatures), five cards have been put in place to guarantee their summoning (by making spells impervious to counters) or make them stay around even longer by equipping them with hexproof. Another six cards were added to grant critters vast power/toughness bonuses or abilities that make it hard to block them, so that they survive their scraps with opposing creatures a bit easier.

Spellpower: 3

Seven of the deck’s creatures significantly impact the board-state as they grant abilities/bonuses to all of the deck’s other creatures. A few high-impact draw spells are also featured, as well as a very powerful combat booster (intended as a finisher).

Total power score: 39

Compared with the other single-color decks created on this page, this one is rated as one of the fastest, strongest decks. It contains plenty of resources, uses many multi-functional creatures to dominate the battlefield and is relatively simple to use. It’s not easy to deal with and houses many a threat against a multitude of different opponents.

How to win with this deck? Easy. Ramp a lot. Draw a lot. Cast a lot of angry, large beasts onto the battlefield and have them overrun the opposition until there’s nothing left but some bones and scraps of clothing. The most important adversaries of this deck, will be opponents that are either good at inhibiting attacks, creating pillow forts, focus on creature removal or have a knack for summoning large numbers of flyers. Hence, special attention should go out to decks comprised of mono-black or featuring cards from explicitly the Azorius-, Bant-, Orzhov-, Selesnya- and Witch-Maw guilds.

At least three cards in the starting hand ought to be lands (or two lands and a Arcane Signet, Mirri's Guile, Sensei's Divining Top or Sol Ring). It is sternly recommended not to start a game without this hand (even if one has to mulligan down to three cards). The ideal hand would also contain some additional ramp and/or low-cost draw options.

First things first; get casting resources in order. The resources with which one starts out games ideally matches the cards mentioned within the ‘Starting hand’ section, as well as mana sources like Elvish Mystic, Fanatic of Rhonas, Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar Elves and Selvala, Heart of the Wilds. Ramp options work just as well with cards like Augur of Autumn, Exploration, Nature's Lore, Rampant Growth, Sakura-Tribe Elder and Three Visits. Card-advantage resources for the early turn would preferably be cards like Beast Whisperer, Garruk's Uprising, Sylvan Library, Tribute to the World Tree and Vizier of the Menagerie. In some cases, it also really benefits the deck to have Concordant Crossroads onto the field early. Same goes for Growing Rites of Itlimoc  , as its transformed state provides lots of mana in one go and is therefore very useful to have from an early stage onwards.

With resources in place, the first ground-pounders can be put onto the field. Especially those that have a large impact on the board-state, in that they influence the abilities of all the deck’s other creatures, should get priority. This would include cards like Defiler of Vigor, Ohran Frostfang, Prowling Serpopard and Silverback Elder. With enough mana (which should be available by now), some stronger resources can also be brought online. This would include cards like The Great Henge, Karametra's Acolyte and Nyx Lotus. More expensive card-advantage stuff, in the form of Elder Gargaroth, Kodama of the East Tree and Soul of the Harvest could also come in handy at this point. Lastly, boosters that help out the deck’s critters in a grand way should be used. Amongst the most effective in its arsenal are cards like Asceticism, Unnatural Growth and Vigor.

While creatures are pounding the opposition into the ground, look for the means to close out the game. A great way to do that quickly, is by using a mass-draw spell like Rishkar's Expertise or Shamanic Revelation. Summoning the Apex Devastator can also be very effective as this almost guarantees the entrance of five strong creatures in a single go. Then there’s cards that bring welcome strength seemingly out of nowhere. Most notably Finale of Devastation.

Reliable sources of mana, and some utility:

The cards used to accelerate mana-availability:

The mechanisms that provide me with card advantage:

  • Apex Devastator: has the potential to summon five permanents in total.
  • Beast Whisperer: excellent draw enabler in this creature-heavy deck.
  • Garruk's Uprising: draw upon creature ETB.
  • Elder Gargaroth: aside from some creature token generation and life-gain, this beast allows for draw whenever it attacks/blocks.
  • Finale of Devastation: not just a superb creature-tutor, but a stupendously strong finisher as well.
  • Garruk's Packleader: every moderately strong creature entering the BF on this side, counts as another draw opportunity.
  • Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant: we’ve got this full hand of monsters, and it’s itching to be released onto the battlefield … in one go … for free.
  • Greater Good: creatures going down, can still be used to amp one’s mind.
  • Kodama of the East Tree: summoning doesn’t have to be expensive.
  • Mirri's Guile: gives options on what to draw every turn.
  • Ohran Frostfang: not just deathtouch for all the deck’s attacking beasties, but draw upon damage as well!
  • Rishkar's Expertise: draw a potentially humongous amount of cards and maybe even cast something for free!
  • Sensei's Divining Top: filtering and draw in a neat little package.
  • Shamanic Revelation: dependent on how well one’s doing with army-building, this card has the potential to lead to a phenomenal draw.
  • Soul of the Harvest: draw on another creature’s ETB.
  • Surrak, Elusive Hunter: they can target us, but only at the risk of us getting more options.
  • Sylvan Library: additional draw at the cost of some life; great in a pinch, especially since it’s allowed to look at what one draws first.
  • Vizier of the Menagerie: another resource we can use to top-deck summon creatures.
  • Worldly Tutor: superb, cheap-to-use tutors for any creature in the deck.

The way in which this deck says ‘No!’ to opponents:

  • Archetype of Endurance: only one side gets to benefit from hexproof, and it’s not you!
  • Asceticism: not just protection from spells, but resurrection at a small fee!
  • Beast Within: excellent multi-purpose removal for a negligible disadvantage.
  • Heroic Intervention: the ultimate protection for an army.
  • Krosan Grip: wipes out an enchantment/artifact without a chance for the opponent to counter.
  • Naturalize: anti-artifact/enchantment spell.
  • Prowling Serpopard: this deck’s summoning spells will not be countered.
  • Reclamation Sage: destroy a hostile artifact/enchantment upon ETB.
  • Ulvenwald Tracker: removal of annoying creatures.
  • Veil of Summer: blue and black are this deck’s natural (or maybe unnatural) enemies, this counters (almost) all their efforts for a turn!

From the forests of Qal Sisma … :

  • Defiler of Vigor: when one is out of mana, use life!
  • Jumbo Cactuar: massive strength, that’s deadly with a single blow if it has trample.
  • Quilled Greatwurm: even more scary than Vigor, as with this the creature that attacks and deals damage doesn’t even need to get blocked in order to upgrade itself.
  • Rhonas the Indomitable: with Goreclaw around, this deity is a powerful combatant!
  • Silverback Elder: permanent, non-creature spells beware, an old gorilla is coming to destroy you! Or … maybe not. Life-gain is fun too. Or top-decking for land for that matter.
  • Vigor: makes opponents think twice about attacking or blocking your army.
  • Yeva, Nature's Herald: the Elf that enables the army to be flashed in.

Miscellaneous spells and items that increase the deck’s strategic opportunities:

Appreciate the time you took to read this primer. Hopefully it was entertaining and useful to you. If so, feel free to leave a +1 and/or feedback of any kind in the comments below. Thanks again!

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93% Casual

Competitive

Revision 9 See all

(2 months ago)

+1 Jumbo Cactuar main
-1 Ulvenwald Tracker main