Welcome to my humble deck. In this deck, I mainly use creatures with ETB effects, attack effects or token engines.
This deck will also help you as a list of creatures with various creature types for your own deck. At the end of the description is a list of all creatures I m using and their corresponding creature types. Its meant for convenience. It helps you and me, replace stuff way faster, without having duplicate creature types.
FYI this is not a tribal deck :)
Cards like Coat of Arms won't be your friends. Humans and Wizards are auto exclude due to our commander's creature types.
Our job is to ramp, until we can cast our Commander.
Then we need play creatures that will boost our board presence, or help us remove some threats. We can even duplicate mana dorks, to get insane ramp. This will help us recast our commander easily in case he gets removed.
This deck is all about abusing Volo's trigger to cast duplicates of monsters. Creatures with ETB effects are nice for this purpose.
I m using a lot of ETB triggers that bounce or destroy stuff (mainly creatures, artifacts and enchantments). Allowing us to deal with enemy threats, while keeping our aggression very high (cause of the creatures duplicating effect).
Some of the creatures when duplicated become a massive threat, if none of them is removed until next combat. For example, Kalonian Hydra duplicates the counters twice on both of them, and Pathbreaker Ibex buffs all creatures a lot more, if two or more of them are on the field.
I've also added some counterspells for protection or against enemy combo-threats.
Sometimes its wise to keep 1 ramp creature in hand, when you don't need more ramp at that time. It will help you recover from a board wipe later much faster.
Clone creatures may count as shapeshifter usually but after they clone a creature, they are not exactly that anymore.
So you might not be able to copy a creature spell, you have in hand, after that. Same applies when you steal creatures with Mind Flayer or Gilded Drake.
Be careful what you clone or steal.
I have added some creatures at the sideboard and maybeboard for you to choose and replace.
Please note if you decide to change some creatures, keep note of the creature types used in the deck already.
You shouldn't have more than 1 creature of each type preferably.
Creatures with many subtypes might force you to replace more than 1 slot.
Consider for example, replacing Ice-Fang Coatl with Sakura-Tribe Elder, if you like him more. However Sakura is a shaman as well, so you will need to replace any shaman you have (I don't have one atm in decklist).
Token engines that are creatures, are really nice for this deck and they work nicely with cards like Pathbreaker Ibex and Cultivator of Blades (lets say they are cheaper Craterhoofs, both in money and mana cost). Also they are a repeatable effect but they lack the haste.
I really need suggestions on token generators, for this deck. Preferably 3-7 mana costs. The more tokens the better. Leave a comment with your suggestion, please!
Keep in mind all your removals are creatures, so with your commander you can remove two threats. If needed you can hold on to them, if there is only 1 target.
If you have a 2 mana creature that can ramp, consider playing it early if you don't have another form of ramp.
Triumph of the Hordes, Pathbreaker Ibex, Consecrated Sphinx, Cultivator of Blades, Hornet Queen, Kalonian Hydra, Tendershoot Dryad, Wurmcoil Engine, Overwhelming Stampede, Earthshaker Giant and Cyclonic Rift are your main threats, that can win you the game.
Other good cards are:
Mind Flayer and Gilded Drake that can steal your opponents cretures.
Phyrexian Metamorph and Phantasmal Image that can copy creatures(also artifacts in case of the Metamorph).
Also Mulldrifter is great for draw. Always keep that after you play commander. Try not to evoke it, since for 2 extra mana you get two 2/2 flyers.
Many expensive cards can easily be replaced. Gilded Drake is probably the most expensive creature, so start with that.
Mox Diamond and Mana Crypt should also be replaced, if you wanna lower the budget. Also you can change the lands to lower the budget even more (e.g fetchlands and Ancient Tomb). Gaea's Cradle looks good here. Consider adding it, if you own it. Uber expensive card.
You can also replace or remove some counterspells that are a bit expensive (e.g. forces).
You can lower the deck's budget by a whole lot, if you do all of the above.
Sideboard contains some fog effects, some extra ways to deal with enchantments/artifacts and some extra creatures (even more in maybeboard)
The deck has only 1 win condition atm, lots of combat damage. And if needed you can infect with Triumph of the Hordes.
As an alternate win condition you can try milling with Altar of Dementia or self draw with Laboratory Maniac effects (Greater Good will be good there, due the vast number of creatures).
I like to keep my decks more fun and proactive than one-trick ponies, so keep that in mind (no infinite combos). I think its pretty competitive and more fun this way.
Infect creatures have the Phyrexian subtype so its hard to build around them.
I added some creatures that clone themselves on combat damage (on maybeboard). That might be fun especially since they already get cloned from our commander.
Soul-bond might be fun, since you can pair 4 creatures. That's why I added Wolfir Silverheart on sideboard. He adds a lot of power to the board, and can boost your commander's power toughness. I only replaced him with Qasali Slingers cause they can remove 3 artifact/enchantments when duplicated, and I don't have many ways to deal with enchantments. If you find yourself dealing with lots of enchantments/artifacts, there are some good creatures in sideboard (e.g. Reclamation Sage in place of Cultivator of Blades).
card:Pygmu Kavu in the sideboard can be fun, when you are playing with 3 opponents. Usually with 3 opponents, there is at least one guy playing black. Black decks usually have creatures, to sacrifice and stuff. Also its a Kavu creature type, which fits easily in the deck.
The number of lands its up to you. But i wouldn't lower it too much, definitely don't add more.
Try this deck and modify as you please. Hope you enjoy it. If so, consider upvoting. This will encourage me building more public decks.
Here is a list of all the creatures I m using and their creature types.
Acidic Slime Ooze, Amphin Mutineer Salamander Pirate, Birds of Paradise Bird, Consecrated Sphinx Sphinx, Crested Herdcaller Dinosaur, Cultivator of Blades Elf Artificer, Diver Skaab Zombie, Dungeon Geists Spirit, Fblthp, the Lost Homunculus, Gilded Drake Drake, Hornet Queen Insect, Ice-Fang Coatl Snake, Icefall Regent Dragon, Kalonian Hydra Hydra, Kiora's Follower Merfolk, Man-o'-War Jellyfish, Manglehorn Beast, Maraleaf Pixie Faerie, Mind Flayer Horror, Mulldrifter Elemental, Ornithopter of Paradise Thopter, Palladium Myr Myr, Pathbreaker Ibex Goat, Phantasmal Image Illusion,Prosperous Innkeeper Halfling Citizen, Qasali Slingers Cat Warrior, Solemn Simulacrum Construct, Somberwald Stag Elk, Spore Frog Frog, Stingerfling Spider Spider,
Tendershoot Dryad Dryad, Uktabi Orangutan Ape, Earthshaker Giant Giant Druid, Wall of Blossoms Plant Wall, Wurmcoil Engine Wurm, Phyrexian Metamorph Shapeshifter, Steel Hellkite Dragon.
