Wilderness Swarm
Tiny Leaders
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The Deck Primir —April 25, 2015
The Core of the Deck:
So how exactly does this deck function. As I said you need to be able to create a superior board presence to even have a chance at winning. This board presence is created though our token generators. Though we have many spell that create tokens, those that can be reused are the most powerful as if left unchecked they will eventually create enough creatures to swarm our opponent. Our reusable token generators are:
and of course...
Marath, Will of the Wild *f-etch*
Brimaz and Precinct Captain pressure your opponents in the early game as they have to constantly deal with these threats that are generating more and more value. Wayfaring Temple has a similar purpose though he will more often than not imminently bait a removal spell even if we only have 2-3 other creatures as he can become unkillable in combat very quickly as we add more creatures to the board. Monastery Mentor and Young Pyromancer constantly generate value as we cast our removal and token spells. Kazandu Tuskcaller is a great lat game mana sink as the 3/3 elephants it creates are much more problematical than our usual 1/1 tokens. However the most powerful token generator in the deck is the combo: Hornet Nest + Marath, Will of the Wild *f-etch* . Hornet's nest alone almost immediately stops our opponent pressuring us as they have to gamble losing their board to the tokens it creates. However combined with Marath hornet's nest becomes incredibly threatening as we can just ping it every turn with Marath to create a swarm of tokens. Though Marath does lose counters during this process it is not uncommon or difficult to recast 2-3 times per game as we run 19 lands.
Though not as powerful as our reusable token generators, the one-time-use generators are still quite threatening. Blade Splicer creates a token that will eat most other creates in combat with its first strike ability. Martial Coup can spell death for our opponents if we can sweep away their blockers, though even if we cannot generate 7 mana to do so it is a fine card on its own. Dragon Fodder, Gather the Townsfolk, Hordeling Outburst, Krenko's Command, Raise the Alarm, and Tempt with Vengeance create a ton of tokens for chumping in the early game or for swarming in the mid-late game. Raise the Alarm even has the bonus of being a combat trick allowing you to ambush unwary X/1s. Tempt with Vengeance was also selected over Secure the Wastes as if your opponents take the tempting offer and you can drop a Goblin Bombardment you can create massive life swings and the tokens also have haste leading to some surprise attacks if your opponents don't take the offer.
The Removal:
Unfortunately, if we only created tokens we could easily be overwhelmed by larger creatures as we struggled to create a board presence as our opponents beat us down with their threats for the entire game. Though we will often chump creatures in the first few turns it is essential we are able to remove our opponent's threats once we have enough resources and mana to overwhelm the board. Our removal falls under two categories: Spot Removal or Stablizes.
The Spot Removal:
This removal is necessary to slow down our opponent's board development while we still conserve most of our mana to develop ours. It is also important to remember that unlike commander, in tiny leaders commanders can still be tucked with our Condemn.
The Versatile Removal:
These removal spells are often what stabilizes you board. Bow of Nylea becomes a potent removal spell as you opponents are eventually forced to block your attacking deathtouch hoard. The bow is also very useful when you an't attacking as it can get you ahead in races with its life gain, refuel you library with spells against control, or even just dump a lot of counters on Marath for his abilities. It is also important to note the combo of Bow of Nylea + Marath, Will of the Wild when you attack with Marath as during that combat you can use Marath to ping, and with deathtouch, destroy your opponents board. Martial Coup as already explained can completely stabilize you from unwinnable board states as it wipes your opponents board and forces you to deal with your new swarm of tokens. It should also be noted that Goblin Bombardment and Spear of Heliod, though the former is more often used for pushing in the last few damage or getting value off your opponent's removal spells and the latter is usually too expensive and clunky to use.
The Support:
Sometimes your tokens alone won't do enough work, they just need a slight push from the rest of the deck, the support. This deck holds many support cards that have many different purposes, be they anthems or regrowth, as discussed below:
Champion of Lambholt provides powerful evasion for your board that is fairly easy t trigger with the amount of tokens we create. However it is important to remember that your opponents could easily hold removal for the champion during combat to punish an 'unblockable' alpha strike to blow you out.
In is inevitable that some of our key cards will fall prey to our opponent's removal, and barring exiled cards Eternal Witness does a good job at bringing our cards back.
Goblin Bombardment serves two purposes: blowing finishing off our opponents or making use of our unusable resources. It is not uncommon to end games because your opponent chose not to block just enough creatures while forgetting that bombardment threatens to remove their last points of life. However the most common use of Goblin Bombardment is to turn cards our opponents have made useless or are about to remove into ping effects to either their face or their smaller utility creatures. It is also interesting to note that if an important creature of your is getting exiled by something like a swords you can sac it to the bombardment to later recur it with Eternal Witness rather than hopelessly look at it stuck in exile.
Intangible Virtue, Mirror Entity, Spear of Heliod,Sunblade Elf, and Wild Beastmaster give your creatures the little oomph they need to break through your opponent's lines. The vigilance of Intangible Virtue can be very powerful with the hornets from Hornet Nest. It is also interesting to note that Mirror Entity gains first strike from Blade Splicer due to its changeling nature. Wild Beastmaster can often end games if you can move 4-5 counters onto it from Marath.
Seeker of the Way Provides an some powerful life gain as that can keep you in the game against more aggressive decks.
The Sideboard:
Being relatively new to the format I am not sure I have quite made the most optimal sideboard choices but these have worked best for me so far:
Elixir of Immortality: Can keep you in the game just long enough against mill as they need to mill your deck twice. It is OK against control as it allows you to reuse your spells that get countered or removed.
Fiendslayer Paladin: Provides a decent blocking body against aggro decks while gaining some life in the process. The 'pro black spells' is also super relevant against heavy black control decks.
Krosan Grip: An uncountable naturalize shines against Geist and several control decks weakening or removing their wincons or retiring your creatures from o-rings, etc.
Luminarch Ascension: A ridiculous token generator against slower decks. Usually replaces Seeker of the Way in the mainboard for the grindier match ups. I would run this mainboard if it wasn't so terrible against aggressive decks.
Nyx-Fleece Ram: Gains me life against aggro and gets in the way of their threats.
Pithing Needle: Hoses quite a few combos and is just useful at shutting down several commanders. I am contemplating whether I should run this or something like Nevermore or Runed Halo.
Rest in Peace: Slows any graveyard shenanigans and also puts a stop to the Duskmantle Guildmage + Mindcrank combo.
Scavenging Ooze: More graveyard hate with some life-gain and a decent body attached to it.
Sudden Demise: Kills Geist and hoses monocolor decks.
Vexing Shusher: Stops annoying blue decks from disrupting us through those pesky counterspells.