Grothama, All-Devouring - The Maw of Oblivion

Kyra Warsong · Post by **Kyra Warsong** » 4 years ago

The Maw of Oblivion/Grothama, All-Devouring

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Commander Analysis
Deck History
Current Decklist
Card Choice Discussion
Grothama On A Budget
Deck Philosophy
Deck Strategy
Credits & Thanks
Change Log

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Introduction

I've always had a bit of a hipster streak - I like being different from everyone else at the table, and this deck fulfills that desire. It's pretty rare that I sit down with a new group and people don't comment on her. "Are you playing Voltron or Group Hug?" was one of my favorites. I guess its a little bit of a vanity thing, but it makes me feel good.

Is this deck the best deck in the world? ...Well, yes, but not because it's the most competitive. It's quirky and different, and might not be for everyone, but I love it, and I really hope you will too.

Oh, and don't mistake quirky for weak. This deck packs a punch, and can very quickly get out of control.

Grothama is an interesting beast. She's gigantic, but she doesn't have any combat abilities. Without help, she's not much better than a Gigantosaurus in a straight fight. Thing is, this deck doesn't fight straight.

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Commander Analysis/Why Play This Commander

Prothamas

-Do you like drawing cards? I'm not talking incremental advantage, here, we're talking "Where the hell is my Reliquary Tower?" levels of cards.

-If you enjoy a deck that takes a little bit of skill to pilot well, you've come to the right place.

-If you have an affinity for aristocrats-type strategies, you'll also find something to like here.

-Here there be monsters. If you prefer the quality of creatures over quantity, you'll feel quite at home here.

-"You've probably never heard of her, she's pretty obscure." Scratch that hipster itch!

Cons (I'll think of a pun for this later)

-If you like having a strong board presence, you probably won't have much fun here. This deck literally trades board presence for card advantage. It's not impossible to amass a strong board, but you'll have a much harder time than a conventional mono-green deck.

-You don't like flipping through a 20+ card hand. This isn't a sarcastic con, either, because it can get exhausting to have to evaluate that many possible lines of play, let alone to remember all the cards you're holding.

-You prefer a more straightforward approach to a game of Magic. The best lines of play often leave you in a worse board position than you had before you started, so it can feel like you're just shooting yourself in the foot if you're not familiar with how the deck plays.

Similar Commanders

Grothama is unconventional, she draws lots of cards, but she does it in a very different way than most other Commanders. If you do want to play a different commander or branch out from mono green, you could try one of these other suggestions.

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - Inarguably one of the most powerful green commanders, Selvala also cares about power and also draws cards. Theoretically, you could just swap her for the commander of this deck, but people know how scary Selvala is.

Azami, Lady of Scrolls - Mono Blue has a bad reputation for either being annoying, oppressive, or both, and Azami is no exception. It's very easy to pick up your whole deck and kill everyone at the table with it. Everyone knows Azami is good.

Prime Speaker Zegana - This commander is probably the closest thing to Grothama you're likely to find. Her draws key off of power, much like Grothama, and she's backed up by blue's countermagic and trickery.

Nekusar, the Mindrazer - If you prefer punishing your opponents for drawing, the Witch King has you covered. You certainly have a wider array of options in Grixis, but you're not playing Grothama, which is a distinct downside.

The Locust God - If you like to weaponize card draw to make a bunch of flying bugs, prostrate yourself before this deity. You'll be burying your opponents in grasshoppers in no time.

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Deck History

When Battlebond came out, I actually didn't pay much attention to Grothama. Over the last couple years I'd been having a crisis of identity in commander. None of the decks I had were satisfying me. I'd gone through half a dozen different generals, from Ghave to Bruna, and they all fell short, either under-performing, or winning in ways I found boring. So eventually I happened upon Jumbo Commander's Grothama video. When I saw the interactions Grothama had with Mossbridge Troll and Stuffy Doll, two of my favorite cards that I had purchased for a Varolz deck and a Queen Marchesa deck, respectively, over the last couple years, I knew I had to try Grothama.

In the beginning, I was trying very hard to leverage the idea of tricking people into killing their own creatures by fighting Grothama, but in most cases, I found that even if I could make her indestructible, they often found other ways to remove her and get their card draw anyway. A lot of the time, they just ignored trying to get card advantage entirely, which made a good portion of the cards in my hand dead. Since then, I have changed the way I think about Grothama, seeing her as a sorcery rather than a creature, and my list has shifted to have far fewer protection spells, replacing those with more universal options.

The first time I played Grothama I was about to win off a 79 card Psychosis Crawler draw - and I decked myself. Four of my first five games I ran out of cards. I needed a solution to this glaring weakness. Enter Wild Mongrel and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. I now had insurance against overdraw that I could activate at instant speed.

As I played the deck more, I found my ramp was too slow. Cultivate and Grow from the Ashes are good cards, but I wasn't keeping up with my faster opponents. I started swapping those cards for cheaper ramp that entered untapped like Nature's Lore, Primal Growth, and Wood Elves, so I could string them together instead of waiting a turn cycle. The deck started to get faster and lower to the ground. Bad starts still happened, but it was better than before.

I noticed Grothama often struggled with a small board presence. Killing your own creatures for cards often leaves you in a vulnerable spot. To mitigate this, I started running Thaumatic Compass, Mystifying Maze, and Constant Mists, to keep aggression at bay. I also brought in Ugin, the Spirit Dragon as a board wipe, which green has few of.

As I continued playing games, I realized I was not able to respond when my opponents dropped their gamebreaking plays. I started trimming ramp and creatures, and (I later realized) overcorrected into running too much spot removal. I started finding myself with 5 removal spells in hand and no ability to actually advance my own game plan. I think I've found the sweet spot at this point in the game, although green's creature removal is still very weak when compared to black and red. In place of the cut removal, I started running cards that developed my own game plan, notably Hunted Troll, and I'm keeping my eye open for future creatures that can kill Grothama on curve (go away, Nessian Boar, you don't count).

So where does the deck go from here? I don't know, but a recent development has made it much easier for me to attend Commander Night at my local game store, so I'm looking forward to grinding more games with Grothama, and plan to continue updating as new sets come out.

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Current Decklist

The Maw of Oblivion

Approximate Total Cost:

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Card Choice Discussion

Before I get into the specifics of card selection, I'd like to lay out a little bit of my methodology. I would prefer my cards to do something the turn they enter the battlefield, or to be cheap enough that I won't be upset when I'm inevitably blown out by a board wipe. I want to string my ramp spells together, so I tend towards spells that get lands to the board untapped. I'm starting to tip the deck more towards having lots of answers rather than a lot of ramp.

I'm also not fond of super expensive cards. Feel free to laugh hysterically, because I'm running Mana Crypt, and the card directly below this entry is Phyrexian Dreadnought. I'll try to provide alternatives to any card in excess of $15. You can also look at my budget decklist here.

Creatures

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Phyrexian Dreadnought - Oh my god, I have a copy of this now thanks to Squirrel Token! Aaaaah! You're a legendary creature, my friend 💖 Phyrexian Dreadnought is not without her flaws. Her triggered ability's oracle text reads "When Phyrexian Dreadnought enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you sacrifice any number of creatures with total power 12 or greater." Notably, this sacrifice effect lacks the word "other," meaning you can sacrifice Phyrexian Dreadnought to satisfy the "of total power 12 or greater" clause. This means that she is effectively a 1 mana sorcery that reads "sacrifice any number of creatures." She can be used to sacrifice creatures to activate death triggers, including Grothama's. In my experience, you will very rarely be playing her with the intention of her sticking around afterwards. Additionally, she is an enabler for a variety of tricks in combination with other cards. Here are some of the more notable interactions: PD + Selvala, Heart of the Wilds = 10 mana as early as turn 4. PD + Ram Through = 3 mana 12 damage to a creature/its controller. PD + Return of the Wildspeaker = 6 mana draw 12. PD + Greater Good = 1 mana (or 5 if you're playing them on the same turn) draw 12 discard 3. PD + Mosswort Bridge = 2 mana cast the Hideaway card. PD + Mossbridge Troll = 25/25 Troll. You can get a bit trickier when you add Emergence Zone to the mix; all the above interactions become instant speed, and you can also: PD + Traverse the Outlands = 7 mana for 12 lands. PD + Rishkar's Expertise = 8 mana draw 12 cast a 5 mana spell. PD + Pattern of Rebirth = 6 mana search for any creature and put it onto the battlefield. PD + Ghalta, Primal Hunger = 4 mana Ghalta on an empty board. All in all, I think that Dreadnought is flexible enough to warrant inclusion despite the fact that she's a dead card by herself. After all, so is Ram Through, but it's very good when it's live. Now, PD is also nearly $100. She can be replaced by small utility creatures like Scavenging Ooze or Veteran Explorer, and I don't think you'll suffer the loss much. She appeals to the tricky girl in me who just wants to do convoluted things with cardstock rectangles.
Noose Constrictor - Sometimes, you really just need to discard some cards, and Noose Constrictor does this job slightly better than Wild Mongrel. This little snake can become a rather big snake without too much trouble. It can bite a chunk out of Grothama, fuel part of a Mossbridge Troll growth, and let you recycle your graveyard into your deck with Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre.
Wild Mongrel - This is the second copy of Noose Constrictor, which was actually the first but is in my opinion ever-so-slightly worse.
Elvish Spirit Guide - Trade 1 card for 1 mana. This is provisional and we will see if it works okay.
Green Slime - The flexibility on this ooze is enough that I think we can overlook what I feel is generally an underpowered set of abilities. Green doesn't get to counter things, so even though the ability to interact on this is narrow, I still think it's useful. You can also just flash this in on defense, if you have to, and foretelling this on an early turn should be easy enough, although you'll telegraph this card's presence in your deck by doing so. I think that's fine, most people don't know all the foretell cards in the game.
Rhonas the Indomitable - There are very few three drops who can take out Grothama by themselves, much less live through the fight. The 4 power restriction should largely be a non-issue. It's also worth noting that he can offer trample, which gives him significant additional utility for us.
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - This is your ticket to infinite Mana with Temur Sabertooth, a haste enabler, and anything with more than 6 power. With your 7+ power guy and Sabertooth in play, cast Selvala and equip her with Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots, then activate her ability for 1 mana. This will produce 7+ mana, depending on the size of your creature. Now, pay 2 mana to activate Sabertooth, returning Selvala to your hand. Assuming you aren't interrupted at this point, recast Selvala and equip the haste enabler. Pay 1 mana and activate Selvala again. At this point, you can repeat the loop ad nauseum, say, 52 million times. Now, with your arbitrary amount of mana, if you have the largest creature in play, you can switch to bouncing and recasting that creature. Selvala's triggered ability will activate each time that creature enters the battlefield, drawing you a card. You can now draw your entire deck. With infinite mana and all the cards in your deck, you may now win at your leisure. Grothama, All-Devouring is a 10 power creature for 5 mana. On a lot of boards, she'll be the biggest thing around, which makes this 4 card combo a lot easier to pull off. Even if you don't go infinite, this can produce indecent amounts of fuel. At least the second best card in the deck. Good news, since I last edited this, Selvala has dropped significantly in price and is currently about $13 - pick this up! There are no direct analogs to Selvala. You could try some substitute like Soul's Majesty or Return of the Wildspeaker, but these obviously don't produce mana, let alone infinite mana.
Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma - All right, we've got ourselves an armored bear. Sans armor. Goreclaw is a big game, especially if we ramp her out early, discounting Grothama by 2 is a big deal, and she can put our lovely wurm into two hit KO territory. She's proved her worth several times and does absolutely deserve a slot.
Hunted Troll - One of the only creatures that can curve into and kill Grothama in one fell swoop, Hunted Troll is not without its disadvantages, namely the four faeries that perniciously pursue him. With that said, our harried hero is surprisingly resilient, and can even live through a fight with Grothama. Give the fliers to a friend or ally.
Temur Sabertooth - Temur Sabertooth provides a unique bounce effect in green, and combos with Selvala, a haste enabler, and any high power guy to make infinite Mana, but even without Selvala, Sabertooth is powerful. It allows us to reuse ETB effects, and serves as a non-fighting way to get Grothama out of play. He's got decent stats himself, and making himself indestructible is relevant more often than you might think.
Defiler of Vigor - We're running Vigor, so we really ought to defile that as well. In all seriousness, this punches above its CMC and pretty easily pumps any creature you have on board. I'm very excited by the idea of giving all my permanents one Phyrexian mana, that's delightful. Pumping your team each time you cast a green permanent can spiral out of control very quickly.
Freelance Muscle - We are always looking for more creatures who can kill Grothama unaided, and just this Rhino can draw us 14 cards! He admirably carries any of the delivery systems we have. It's worth noting that alone, he's an overcosted 4/4, but hopefully he'll never be alone for long given our commander.
God-Eternal Rhonas - Rhonas is still very effective as a zombie god. On coming down, he doubles the power (and notably not the toughness) of every other creature you control. This can turn Temur Sabertooth into a Grothama killer and give you a significant boost in the cards you draw with almost any creature. Grothama now punches as a 20/8, perilously close to a one-shot on a player. Beyond that, Rhonas is a five drop that can kill Grothama alone, and can be drawn again off of his own Grothama draw if you put his trigger on the stack first.
Psychosis Crawler - Most of the non-combat wincons go through this guy. Consequently, he will immediately draw fire from the table. Either drop him and go for the kill immediately, or sacrifice him to Greater Good.
Stuffy Doll - Along with Mossbridge Troll, this is the card that made me want to build Grothama. Fighting Grothama with Stuffy Doll domes a player for 10, potentially doubling her damage. Swinging in with this and a Berserking Grothama is 40 damage. In fringe situations this can dissuade your worst enemy, Blasphemous Act, from resolving.
Surrak and Goreclaw - A human bear! Surrak and Goreclaw mashes together two nice things in a trample and haste enabler. If you're in a situation where you have to decide what to cast first, Surrak and Goreclaw are usually the correct answer; giving haste to all of your subsequent creatures. They're also an excellent drop off of Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant, although ideally you cast them first and then Ghalta so she can swing too. The haste can also enable Selvala to trigger immediately on entering, which turns on the Sabertooth/Selvala loop for no additional management. They can't kill Grothama alone, but by goddess they can enable a lot of nasty plays.
Ulvenwald Hydra - One thing that this deck needs more of is unrestricted land tutors to grab that Reliquary Tower, Sanctum of Eternity, etc. By the time it comes down, it can usually fight Grothama and live through it, and slapping a Berserk on a Hydra is almost always a guaranteed KO.
Vigor - The way that Vigor and Grothama interact with the stack may require some explanation. During the Declare Attackers step of the Combat Phase, every attacking creature that isn't Grothama has a trigger that asks, "Would you like to fight Grothama?" Any creatures for whom you answer 'yes' go on the stack in the order you choose. The first creature to resolve will fight, dealing damage equal to its power to Grothama and taking 10 damage. This damage is prevented by Vigor's static ability and replaced with +1/+1 counters. The next fight triggers, meaning Grothama will probably be larger, and deal more to the second creature. This opens up a whole array of decision points for you as a player, both in who fights first and who you target with the attacking creatures. My advice is to start by fighting a 25/25 Mossbridge Troll, and then fight your creatures in order from next most powerful to least. Wait until you see the look on your opponent's face when you attack with a 35/35 Mossbridge Troll, a 40/40 Rhonas, a 44/43 Temur Sabertooth, a 46/46 Noose Constrictor, and a 48/48 Wild Mongrel.
Mossbridge Troll - Holy mother, that's an activated ability! With Troll on board, cast Grothama, tap Grothama, swing and fight Grothama, draw a quarter of your deck! Most astute players will see this coming a mile away, so the fact that he's protected from a whole class of removal really helps. He is the best target you have for Berserk.
Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant - If we're paying 8 for a giant dinosaur, I would like the dinosaur to do something like this. Obviously post Grothama draw is the absolute best time to drop this, when we can drop Vigor and a bunch of other creatures. Emergence Zone will let you just dump all your creatures into play at instant speed, which is very fun. If you drop Surrak and Goreclaw of of her, it is a legitimate line of play to also drop Phyrexian Dreadnought and sacrifice Ghalta to it. Ghalta also kills Grothama by herself, which is a basic requirement for an 8 mana creature. In a worst case scenario, she's still a big trampling attacker, so even if I'm paying 8 mana I'm not too salty about it.
Stonehoof Chieftain - This is the sort of 8 drop we want in this deck. Being a big resilient beater is almost enough, but this kills Grothama by itself, and can survive going Berserk. Draw 16, stick around? Solid staying power.
Kozilek, the Great Distortion - A 12/12 for 10 is not my favorite rate, but the real draw here is the ability to counter spells by discarding cards. Kozilek here is to lock up the game while you are holding a massive grip of cards and have a response to most anything your opponents try to take you out. It also just hits hard, which is where your 10 drop creature ought to be.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre - A bonkers expensive piece of spot removal, this is actually here to prevent decking, which is a frequent and real concern. You will usually want to discard him using either Wild Mongrel or Noose Constrictor. Dump him along with your other unnecessary cards, and his graveyard trigger will shuffle everything back into your deck. You can also just play him sometimes, unconditional removal is hard to come by in green, and obviously attacking with him really really hurts. Unfortunately, despite a couple of Master Set reprints, Ulamog still commands a price of around $25. You need a graveyard recycling effect in this deck, so passable sustitutes for this card could be Loaming Shaman or Repopulate. Neither of these cards are as easy to use as Ulamog, and require open mana or sorcery speed interaction, but they cost under $0.20.
Ghalta, Primal Hunger - I like that this lovely lady comes out on the same turn as Grothama for only 2 Mana. Swinging her into Grothama draws you twelve cards - that's all the endorsement I think I need. She can also close out the game in a pinch. Normally I'm against big bads that don't have anything else going for them, but 12 for 2 is an unbelievable rate.

Planeswalkers

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Ugin, the Spirit Dragon - This is a board wipe with additional utility. Wipe out colored permanents up to 7 CMC for 8 Mana. It's gotten to the point where I need two hands to count the number of times I've been saved by a top deck Ugin at a critical moment. Good news, everyone! Ugin no longer costs $70, instead costing about $18. That's still over our budget threshold, so possible budget replacements include Nevinyrral's Disk, All is Dust, Oblivion Stone. They're all expensive or clunky, but we are hard up for mass removal and need some of it.

Instants

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Berserk - This is a magical instant. One Green! One! With a slight nudge, single hit a player with Grothama. Draw 20 cards off Greater Good. The destroy downside can actually be an upside, and sometimes we can get around it with indestructible. This is a wonderful target to recycle with Eternal Witness in a Sabertooth/Selvala loop that will win you the game. Also, please note, there is a version of this card that costs over $300. Don't buy that one, the art is bad and you can't read the text anyway. Berserk has bounced back up to about $30, although the Secret Lair printing is right around our budget threshold at $17. It is not going to stay there, so if you can, get a copy. If you need a replacement I'd recommend Primal Bellow, which doesn't grant trample but might sometimes get you more than double power. If you're really missing the trample, Run Wild, Seedling Charm, or Unnatural Predation might be more up your alley, but I think Bellow is the best of them.
Crop Rotation - When the deck was initially conceived, this card was meant to search out Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. As it turns out, an essentially free spell that lets you get any land from your deck has a lot of tricky applications that shouldn't be overlooked. The most common is to grab Reliquary Tower after a big draw, but that's not the only thing you can do. If you need to punch through a line of blockers, go get Rogue's Passage. With 3 open mana, you can stop a reanimator deck in its tracks by grabbing Scavenger Grounds. If your opponent is abusing Gaea's Cradle, grab a Tectonic Edge or Ghost Quarter and put a stop to that. Do you want to get some value off an opponent's Cabal Coffers? Bring in Thespian's Stage and activate it on the end step before your turn. Tired of playing cards on your turn? Emergence Zone to play everything on the end step, or to do some shenanigans with Phyrexian Dreadnought. These are far from the only possibilities, you can customize this package for your meta and really make a ton of use out of this innocuous little instant.
Legolas's Quick Reflexes - This instant does quite a lot of work. It offers hexproof at instant speed and cannot be countered. The creature untaps and gets reach, so it can be used defensively, and when it taps it can bite a creature, be that an enemy creature or Grothama. It does almost everything.
Nature's Claim - I think that this deck needs cheap removal pieces, and it doesn't get much cheaper than one mana. In Commander I'm not even a little concerned about bumping an opponent's life up by 4.
Noxious Revival - Freely return a thing to the very accessible top deck. This deck runs off a few specific cards, and the additional revival will be quite useful.
Tyvar's Stand - God I love 1 mana instants! Tyvar's Stand is very flexible as a means of blanking removal, doing tricky combat, and pumping up any creature into a Grothama killer. Most of the previous cards in a similar vein have wound up being too situational, but I think this stands out by being moderately useful in a wide variety of situations.
Constant Mists - Fog is not a good EDH card. Make it more expensive and give it Buyback: Sacrifice a land, and suddenly this becomes a wall that some decks literally cannot beat. Because Fog isn't the greatest effect, most people won't see this coming. Now, once you've played it once, countermagic will most likely be imminent, but wouldn't you rather they waste it on a Fog than a real card?
Ram Through - This card is, at its floor, nothing, which sucks, BUT its ceiling is an insta-kill. Imagine, if you will, a 25/25 Mossbridge Troll. Further imagine swinging in and casting Berserk on it. Now, imagine even further dropping Ram Through targeting another player's 1/1 Goblin token. Even outside of that very achievable outcome, the midground is an okay removal spell. Also, toss this in the basket of uses for Phyrexian Dreadnought, which turns this into a very respectable 3 mana sorcery speed removal spell.
Archdruid's Charm - Yes, Halsin does make me feel things, thank you for asking. The Charm, like most Charms, is extremely flexible, serving as a creature tutor, a land tutor, a pretty bad creature removal spell, and a much stronger artifact or enchantment removal spell. Gloriously, this is an instant spell, offering many opportunities for sneaky applications. The only downside is that 3 green mana is a fairly intensive spell, but we are mono green, so it shouldn't be too tough to meet that requirement. The correct way to play this spell depends greatly on the situation that you're in. Post big draw, if you don't have Reliquary Tower, Crop Rotation, or Thought Vessel, use it to grab your Reliquary Tower. If your opponent is abusing a utility creature, I strongly advise using this to snipe that creature, assuming you don't have Song of the Dryads or Beast Within. If you can't deal with an artifact or enchantment with Nature's Claim or the two removal spells in the last example, use the Charm. The way you will likely be using this most is as a creature tutor, grabbing the other half of the Sabertooth/Selvala loop or getting Surrak and Goreclaw before you drop Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant and dump all the creatures on earth into play, or Psychosis Crawler before a giant draw.
Beast Within - Speaking of removing permanents, this hits anything. Lands, creatures, enchantments. Sure, they get a 3/3, but so what? Premium removal.
Entish Restoration - This is a slightly worse second copy of Harrow most of the time, and on days it isn't it's paying 1 mana for 2 mana. The 4 power requirement is not hard to fulfill, but I'd also just cast this as soon as you can. Harrow is a great card.
Harrow - This is sort of like paying 1 to get 1. Just a really solid ramp spell.
Return of the Wildspeaker - After a really long time I am finally giving this a try, because half of Rishkar's Expertise at instant speed feels too good to pass up. A lot of the motivation for this change is the inclusion of Phyrexian Dreadnought, which turns the two of them together into a 6 mana draw 12.

Enchantments

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Rancor - A card that should have been in this deck MUCH earlier in its inception, Rancor is good for all the obvious reasons. Trample, and you can just get it back when it goes to the graveyard. The extra power is lovely too. There's absolutely nothing not to like about this card.
Fight Rigging - Essentially a 3 mana hideaway 5, the extra counters it provides are a fringe benefit in my opinion. A lot of this card's value will depend on what you play off the top, but getting the cast trigger should be child's play.
Song of the Dryads - A premium removal spell in green, we can turn any target into a tree! This isn't permanent removal, unfortunately, but it is Permanent removal; switching off an irksome Planeswalker or an opponent's commander can be quite powerful; just be aware that's its vulnerable to removal itself.
Bear Umbra - The way that this deck operates is by swinging in, and untapping all your lands on a swing is incredibly relevant. This is also a safeguard for a creature you'd like to keep after it slams into Grothama.
Greater Good - The epitome of green draw power, Greater Good enables some of the more explosive Psychosis Crawler wins and speeds up your draws from Grothama.
Pattern of Rebirth - This is sort of like a single-use, more flexible Birthing Pod. We should be able to easily kill the enchanted creature between Grothama and the other sacrifice effects, and unlike Birthing Pod, we can grab any creature, regardless of converted mana cost.

Artifacts

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Mana Crypt - Okay, let's get this out of the way right now: Cutting this card will half the cost of this deck. DO NOT BUY THIS CARD SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS DECK. If you happen to have one lying around, this is a good place for it. It will drastically improve your early game, because a free Sol Ring is still good even if you lose the flip every turn for 5 turns. However, if you don't already have one, just put in another mana rock like Mind Stone, a cheap green ramp spell like Rampant Growth, or a Wayfarer's Bauble. The increased explosiveness is absolutely not worth $200.
Basilisk Collar - This is a good way to kill Grothama with a smaller creature. Grothama also wears it well, if you need to gain some life - it isn't too hard to gain 40 in a turn.
Consulate Dreadnought - So, this is a curiosity that tickles me. You can crew the Dreadnought with Grothama, then smash it into her; a giant wurm somehow piloting a boat into herself just tickles me. You need a little bit of a boost to take down Grothama, but it is such an incremental bump that I think this still deserves a slot. Combine it with Goreclaw or Sanctum of Eternity to get an early draw.
Shadowspear - An exceptionally cheap way to give a creature trample and lifelink, there's not much not to like about the stabby thing. It runs around $20, so if you're being budget conscious Loxodon Warhammer is very similar.
Sol Ring - If I have to explain this to you, we probably need to sit down and give you a full tutorial on how Magic: The Gathering works. All right. So, first things first, these strange rectangles... are called cards.
Emerald Medallion - This is arguably the strongest mana rock that we have access to. This natively puts you a turn ahead on mana, but if you are casting more than one green spell in a turn, that advantage increases with every additional spell. 15 spells in the deck are not affected by the cost reduction, but the meat of the deck, your 48 green spells, all benefit from it. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Medallion has crept up more recently and is now right around $15. You're not going to find a bargain that does all that in the budget price range, but if you can't get it replace it with another cheap ramp/rock spell. Three Visits might be more affordable now? Moss Diamond is another possibility.
Lightning Greaves - While the Greaves themselves need no introduction, it is worth noting that the draw engine in this deck triggers during combat, so being able to speed up your draw by a turn is invaluable. It's also a critical piece of the Sabertooth/Selvala loop.
Swiftfoot Boots - This deck likes Lightning Greaves so much it plays its slightly different cousin. Hexproof provides a slight improvement when performing Berserk shenanigans, but it does add 1 Mana to the Temur Sabertooth/Selvala loop.
Thought Vessel - There are presently two ways to get unlimited hand size in this deck. This is the most vulnerable of those, but we're still going to play it because we really want this effect. Beyond that, this is a good mana rock, low cost and relatively efficient.
Rhonas's Monument- This card is perfect for this deck. We get a cost reduction on the green creatures we have in this deck, and every time we cast a creature we get trample and a boost.
Sword of Feast and Famine - I think that it's fair to say this is at the very least one of the top two best equipment in Commander. It's very hard to beat the value of untapping all your lands on a successful hit. Interestingly, the Protection from Green is especially useful in this deck, because it means the equipped creature can fight Grothama with impunity, as all damage from her will be prevented. I initially didn't have this card in this deck, and my justification for that choice was, "but it's in my Oathbreaker deck, which is in a box on the bottom shelf of my game cupboard, not being played with." Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I should be playing my good cards rather than not playing them. The Sword commands a $50 price tag, and it serves a number of functions that are useful but not 100% necessary. Worth replacement equipment include Strata Scythe and Empyrial Plate, which will almost certainly draw you more cards, or Darksteel Plate, which will cover the angle that protection from green offers in this deck. You might also consider a mana accelerant like Zendikar Resurgent to fill the untapping lands function and get a little card draw on this side.
The Skullspore Nexus - What a delightfully perfect card for this deck! Firstly, this is probably never coming down for 8, most of the time it'll be 2, 4 to activate immediately. The power doubling effect is excellent by itself, allowing us to double cards drawn off of Grothama or just hit extraordinarily hard with the vast majority of our creatures. The Dingus creator is the real draw here, though. Just Grothama dying will produce a lovely 10/10 Dingus, and if multiple creatures die the resulting Dingus becomes significantly larger. This will also let you leave behind a board presence after turning your creatures for cards.

Sorceries

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Nature's Lore - If you're in mono-green, this is the version of Rampant Growth that you want to be playing. It doesn't get much more efficient than this.
Nostalgic Dreams - Often one will find, playing this deck, that you have a lot of cards in your hand, many of which are largely superfluous to your primary objective. This card lets you trade in ANY NUMBER of those for cards you may have previously lost. Do be aware that you discard before the spell resolves, so opponents can exile your graveyard or any number of the targets you've designated.
Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary - We love Regrowth! This is overcosted, but the flip side is just a land! It's lovely.
Skyshroud Claim - Better Explosive Vegetation.
Traverse the Outlands - It's actually quite difficult to exaggerate how powerful this effect is. Just in case you somehow missed it in the leadup to this card, Grothama has 10 power. There's very strong evidence that the player with the most mana will win the game, and this will put you almost a game ahead of other players. This is an anecdotal estimate, so take it with a grain of salt, but I think I can count the number of games I've resolved this card and then lost the game on one hand. This is the sort of card you want to cast off of Rishkar's Expertise. People don't often play mass land removal, so even if you get boardwiped you get to hold onto the gains you've gotten from Traversing.
Rishkar's Expertise - Our general has 10 power, and many of our other creatures aren't pushovers either. I think that would be worth it by itself, but then, for some unknown reason, you get to cast another card for free.

Lands

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Boseiju, Who Endures - The easiest include ever, Boseiju has absolutely zero opportunity cost. It's a land when you need that, and it's a Naturalize when you need that. Sometimes it's also better than Naturalize of you have one of the handful of legendaries we play. The $37 price tag reflects its universal playability, but it's by no means essential, so if you're looking to trim the budget, just play a forest.
Emergence Zone - A sneaky little card from WAR that I thought about briefly is getting a little time in the spotlight. It's pretty innocuous, a little colorless land, easy to forget about if it's in a small stack of colorless lands, but it can allow you to deploy threats quickly for cheaper than Yeva, Nature's Herald. Additionally, you can get this at instant speed with Crop Rotation and it's a green Borne Upon a Wind that doesn't cost another slot in your library. You can really pull some shenanigans if you use this with Phyrexian Dreadnought, that enables some very interesting interactions that aren't normally possible.
Ghost Quarter - In a deck that can't really take advantage of Gaea's Cradle or Itlimoc, we should definitely have more than one way to kill one. Ghost Quarter addresses that need. In a pinch, you can Crop Rotation for it to drop it at instant speed and kill it during an inconvenient phase, like the upkeep.
High Market - This is a great way to get rid of Grothama if you can't quite kill her in combat. The life gain is largely irrelevant, but it's an almost free sac outlet.
Lair of the Hydra - I love a land that's also a creature! The only thing I would change is making this come in untapped, but that's such a little thing. This adds to the variety of things you can fetch with Crop Rotation. You'll want to grab this on the end step of the turn before yours so you can untap and smash Grothama with your giant hydra. Also, remember this as a defensive card you can use to block if you're in a tight spot.
Mosswort Bridge - It's nice that this is easy to turn on. Worst case, it's a bad forest. Best case, 2 Mana for Rishkar's Expertise is fantastic. Note that the wording of this card removes timing restrictions, so you can use it to play the hidden card at instant speed unless it's another land.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - In my experience, this is okay. Unfortunately, we are almost always light on board, because we trade creatures for cards, so usually this nets you between one and three Mana. Nykthos is running $32 at this point, and I don't think this is critical; you can replace this with Temple of the False God, Castle Garenbrig, or Myriad Landscape are all worthy budget replacements, and if you really don't want to spend anything, play a forest. You'll not feel the loss much.
Reliquary Tower - This is probably the most important land we run. Unlimited hand size means more activities and less discarding. Absolute must. 90% of the time you will be getting this with Crop Rotation after a big Grothama draw.
Rogue's Passage - In a deck with giant beaters, sneaking past opponent's blockers can be invaluable. Most of the big guys here have trample, but Grothama does not.
Sanctum of Eternity - This card replaced Endless Sands, which I never activated once in the entire time I've had this deck. The idea is to pull Grothama from the field before an opponent's turn, preferably after dealing some damage to her. This also has some fringe utility for avoiding random instant-speed damage effects. We'll see how this works, but it must work better than a land I never activated, right? After playing for a couple of weeks since putting this in, I can confirm that it is much better than Endless Sands. This card is what you want to see when you're in a suboptimal situation where you can't quite kill Grothama with your on-board creatures. You'll usually end up drawing 6 cards with this, and you'll get to recast Grothama at no extra charge.
Scavenger Grounds - In mono-green, solid, quality utility is rather scarce, and this deck has almost no way to fight a reanimation strategy. Luckily, as a land, you can get this at instant speed with Crop Rotation and activate it the same turn you fetch it, expanding the Crop Rotation utility package that this deck is increasingly relying on.
Thespian's Stage - I think I'd rather this be Vesuva, but I haven't got one. On the flip side, you can change this if you don't have a good target when it enters and another presents itself. Unlike a lot of cards, a land is kind of innocuous, so you may be able to play it early, let someone forget you have it, and drop their Cabal Coffers.
Treetop Village - I'm actually surpised how useful this has been in a few jams. Very few people expect the mono green manland to chump their 68/68.
Wasteland - Sometimes you just need to make a land go boom. Wasteland is the premium version of this effect. There are a lot of worse versions of this effect that are available for much cheaper, and the more powerful the table you're playing at, the more likely you are to want the premium version. Tectonic Edge is one example of a significantly cheaper and slightly worse version.

Notable Exclusions/EDHrec Critiques

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In this section, I'd like to talk about some cards I'm not playing right now - not necessarily because they're bad (some definitely are, though). I'll also be analyzing the EDHrec top cards that I disagree with.

Sword of War and Peace - This is the other sword that I'd consider running here. The lifegain on this is the biggest draw to me. Lifegain doesn't win games, but it can keep you alive. Basilisk Collar is still probably better at this.
Ulvenwald Tracker - I feel that Tracker is an unfortunate instance of people searching the word 'fight' on Scryfall and coming across him and thinking, "Sure, why not?" The fact is, the Tracker does not synergize with Grothama in any particular way. She's not 'the fight Commander' just because she has the word 'fight' printed on her, and in fact if you use this to make Grothama fight your opponent's creatures, you'll be handing them cards. I know green has fairly weak creature removal, but this guy ranks low even in that regard.
Saber Ants - I ran the Ants for a long time, and they worked okay, but the fact is that a double-costed Broodhatch Nantuko that offers nothing other than 1 extra power is just a little too expensive. Between the aforementioned Nantuko and Druid's Call, I think we have enough of this effect.
Spearbreaker Behemoth - I think Spearbreaker Behemoth is a bit too expensive for what it does. Seven is a lot, and a seven drop that can't kill Grothama by itself is a little too weak. You don't usually want to keep Grothama from dying either, so there's not much to like here.
Pathbreaker Ibex - Again, I think this is a little too slow. It doesn't protect itself like Stonehoof Chieftain and while giving your team +10/+10 and trample sounds great, I don't think we go wide often enough for this to be more than 'pretty good'.
Impervious Greatwurm - We are never going to get him into play with convoke, our board is not that full, and while we could probably hard cast him often, I think he's still too expensive for what you get. Ghalta, Primal Hunger he is not.
Protean Hulk - If Temur Sabertooth cost 1 fewer mana, I would swap Tooth and Nail for this guy in a heartbeat. As it is, the Hulk can only grab some utility guys and Selvala, which is usually not enough to justify 7 mana.
Apex Altisaur - I'm not really sure why this guy exists? I guess he's a green limited boardwipe? He can't fight Grothama, costs 9 mana, and most likely fights until he dies. He's perplexing to me.
Foe-Razer Regent - Here is another creature who appears to think he's part of a fight tribal deck. Say it with me: Just because it says fight on Grothama doesn't mean she's a fight commander!
Baru, Wurmspeaker - Despite the appeal of making Grothama a 12/10 Trampler and making 6/46 Wurms for 1 mana, Baru doesn't actually do very much for our game plan. Grothama doesn't have any particular synergy with wurms, and Baru is very clearly angling for a position as The Wurm Commander. The first wurm you make can't even kill Grothama by itself. You can kill Grothama with the wurm and Baru together, but at that point you've spent 5 mana over 3 turns to draw 9 cards. That's just not a reasonable rate or speed.

Wishlist

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In this section I'm going to list some of the chase cards that I'm after for this deck.

The Great Henge - A phenomenal mana rock clocking in at a whopping $60, if you can get a copy of the Henge for less, do so. I feel like there's no way that this card isn't solid in this deck.
Strip Mine - Strict upgrade to Ghost Quarter. The card is available (theoretically) under the budget threshold, but supplied are limited.
Yavimaya Hollow - Something of a novelty, the Hollow would be a slam dunk instant include if it wasn't over $75. As it is, the ability to regen a creature isn't enough to warrant going out and buying a copy, but for sure run it if you have one already.
Boseiju, Who Endures - This makes me wish I'd cracked a couple backs of Neon Dynasty. It just feels like the easiest include in the world, worst case scenario it's a forest and is just really flexible removal in other cases. There's a reason it's $30, because it goes in every green deck ever created.
Hall of the Bandit Lord - This is under the budget threshold but just hasn't made it into the deck. There's really nothing not to like other than that it's a colorless land, which we are running a fair number of at this point. 3 life to make anything hasty feels like a really good deal, especially with how truly titanic our commander is. I could see this closing out 1-v-1 games really quickly, and hasty Grothama post board wipe feels extremely threatening.
Song of the Dryads - With Commander Masters release I am hoping to snag a copy of this. I'm split on whether this is slightly better or slightly worse than Beast Within, but I think we run both of those if we have access to them.
Force of Vigor - We are really trying to play every single card in the game that has "vigor" in its name, so we want this. On a more serious note, this is a stunningly good removal spell that is just free some of the time and is double Naturalize on a bad day. It's also like $20. Again, the wishlist is largely composed of the %$#% that's good in every green deck ever.
Barrier Breach - Some very solid enchantment removal for a comparatively low cost.

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Grothama On A Budget

When I first created this deck I committed to making what I felt was the sleekest, most streamlined, powerful deck I could within the framework of Grothama. I have not yet achieved that, in my not at all humble opinion, but I do have a very expensive stack of cards. Grothama, however, deserves to be accessible to everyone. I'm nothing if not a woman of the people. To that end, and with the advice of @SquirrelToken, presented below is a list of budget conscious swaps and a complete budget deck list. Obviously my lists are not the penultimate (despite the fact that I consider myself an authority on the big girl) and there are many options for each slot. I am more interested in you playing this wonderful deck than matching my list perfectly. You'll find some excellent suggestions throughout the comments on this thread, feel free to use them.

Building any deck on a true budget level is tough, because even $5 cards can significantly increase the cost of a deck, so it's extremely difficult to trim the deck down to sub $100 territory. In my opinion, the two cards that you should splurge on, in order, are Vigor and Berserk. These cards are both around $15, and so buying each will eat up $30 of a budget, but will significantly improve the deck and will definitely make things more fun for you, particularly Vigor. The list below has trimmed off every single card in the deck with a value over $5, and still comes in at just over $90. I'm hoping if you're on a budget you'll be able to beg a lot of the really cheap cards off of other players; I strongly endorse finding people with extensive collections and seeing if they'd be willing to cut you a good deal for the cards that are essentially bulk, or otherwise finding a way to avoid spending money on these cards that are not really worth much at all.

Budget Swaps

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Mana Crypt —>Wild Growth - Okay. There is no card that will do what Mana Crypt does. It's going to catapult you to the front of the game. With that in mind, it is entirely superfluous to the actual running of the deck. I chose Wild Growth as the replacement because it is the absolute closest you can get to the explosiveness at a dirt cheap price tag. My alternative pick is Rampant Growth, which is slower but more reliable, since a land can't be caught up in mass enchantment removal.
Phyrexian Dreadnought —>Utopia Sprawl - The Dreadnought is a shenanigans card. It's a little hard to nail down why it's here, because it doesn't do anything on its own but it does so many things with other cards. You're not going to find a little 1 drop that does all the strange things this does. My replacement pick, Utopia Sprawl, does none of those things, but is essentially a repeat of the first replacement. If you can't shenanigan, go fast instead!
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx —> Myriad Landscape - To be honest, Nykthos is a card that feels a little out of place in this deck. It's very obviously meant to be a Gaea's Cradle for nongreen decks. We don't really have a use for Gaea's Cradle, and Nykthos is a better choice for us, but to be honest, it's not really all that much more useful. My replacement pick, Myriad Landscape, can be used on its own as just a land, and can go get a couple. It's cheap, but a little clunky, less explosive, but more consistent.
Wasteland —> Tectonic Edge - Wasteland is just a very good land destruction land. Tectonic Edge is far more restrictive and slower, but it's dirt cheap.
Ulamog, The Infinite Gyre —> Blessed Respite - The big indestructible Eldrazi is expensive. Of course it is. Weirdly, we are playing it to discard it when we're comboing off with Psychosis Crawler to shuffle our graveyard back into our library. There are surprisingly few ways to reshuffle your graveyard in mono green. I've chosen the cheapest of them; not free, but for 2 mana you can do a passable imitation of Ulamog. The fog effect will not impact the Psychosis Crawler life loss, but be aware that you will not be able to close out the game through combat damage in the same turn you play this card. I have two alternative suggestions - Loaming Shaman and Primal Command. Loaming Shaman will serve as a blocker/Grothama chipper. Primal Command is significantly more expensive but quite flexible. I believe that Blessed Respite is the most mana efficient of these.
Boseiju, Who Endures —> Forest - Boseiju is a forest with all the upsides. You're not finding a zero opportunity cost removal land, so, just… Forest.
Sword of Feast and Famine —> Nature's Will - The Sword's best function is as an untapping lands utility on attacks. Nature's Will doesn't really get the creature there by itself, but it does give you a second source of untapping in addition to Bear Umbra.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon —> All Is Dust - Ugin is your board wipe. He's flexible, you can tailor the amount you take off of him to the threat your opponents have in play. Robbed of that flexibility, you are left with All Is Dust, which serves as an eminently reasonable board wipe in Ugin's absence.
Shadowspear —> Loxodon Warhammer - Shadowspear gives some really solid penetration to any big attacker. In lieu of that, you might instead play the Warhammer, a nearly identical equipment that is just a lot more expensive. If you don't care about the lifelink, my second choice for this slot is O-Naginata, which doesn't work for your smaller creatures, but if we're going offensive we tend not to go little.
Legolas's Quick Reflexes —> Gaea's Gift - It's really hard to overstate how powerful Reflexes is. It is incredibly flexible, and losing this piece means losing a lot of that utility. I chose Gaea's Gift as a replacement because it serves the function of protecting our creature from targeted removal, mass destruction, and combat damage, and also offering reach and trample, providing arguably the broadest protections and assets of the budget options available.
Berserk ---> Primal Bellow - Berserk is such a powerful card, losing it is a significant blow to the power level of the deck (and the fun! You draw so many cards with Berserk!). Primal Bellow is a significantly worse pump spell, but will usually get you a respectable buff for the same price. My alternative pick for this slot is Exponential Growth, which is much more expensive and cumbersome, but you might get to double the power twice!
Vigor ---> Dragon Throne of Tarkir - This is an exceptionally painful cut, and I believe if you spend any money at all on this deck, you absolutely ABSOLUTELY should spend it on Vigor. The Throne is far far worse; it's slow and cumbersome, costing 9 mana to do all of it in one turn. It becomes a little bit less restrictive once you've got it on board, and at a lower power level it'll get the job done. Upgrade this as soon as you can; if you're not playing Vigor you are missing out on arguably the coolest interaction with Grothama in the game.
Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant —> Tooth and Nail - Ghalta is sort of the 'flavor of the week' big splashy mythic that does a bunch of stuff right away. To be honest these are some of my least favorite sort of cards because they immediately establish you as the villain and draw a ton of hate. Tooth and Nail fills a similar gap, although in most cases I'd be going to get Selvala/Sabertooth and go infinite. I actually enjoy that even less than the big splashy mythic type of card, but it is cheap and it wins the game, as your 9 drop should.
Selvala, Heart of the Wilds —> Tanuki Transplanter - Selvala gives you a relatively easy path to a large amount of mana, and as such there is no direct analogue. Tanuki Transplanter is a good deal more expensive and is more restrictive as to when you can use it, and you can't go infinite with Sabertooth, but will still net you a really impressive amount of mana.
Constant Mists —> Tamiyo's Safekeeping - Fog is not a particularly good commander card, but I include it in this list because it can just absolutely shut down a combat only commander deck and can buy a ton of time to find a wincon when you're the target of the table's aggression. Now in this list we swapped Ulamog for Blessed Respite, so we do have a one-time fog in the deck, so we're swapping the Mists for Tamiyo's Safekeeping, another protection card for an important creature; the worst of the ones we're running, to be honest, but I think at these lower power levels it is okay to invest a little more heavily in protection spells.
Greater Good ---> Life's Legacy - Greater Good is the third card I would invest in. The draw power that it offers makes it exceptionally powerful, and as far as costs go, it is one of the cheaper cards on the list. If you are trying to shave the list down really low, we're going to try to trade that power for cost efficiency. Life's Legacy will give you a one-time Greater Good, so make it count.
Archdruid's Charm ---> Barrier Breach - In losing a very flexible instant, we're going in on raw value with Barrier Breach, which might be even better than the Charm in some situations.
The Skullspore Nexus ---> Momentous Fall - Skullspore was tailor-made for this deck, it interacts so incredibly well with this engine, and it is juuuuuuuuuuust over the budget threshold. We're exchanging that for another copy of Life's Legacy, since we've lost Greater Good, we're going to try to stack as many of this effect in the deck as we can.
Emerald Medallion ---> Rampant Growth - Emerald Medallion is cost reduction, which is not exactly ramp, but we're going to replace it with what is strictly a ramp spell. Arguably the most boring card possible, Rampant Growth is nonetheless reliable.
Lightning Greaves ---> Haunted Cloak - Wow, who knew this card was $5? They used to come in every commander precon. Our replacement still offers haste, and stacks on some trample as well.
Surrak and Goreclaw ---> Surrak, the Hunt Caller - We're losing the human bear too?? My goodness, budget really is tough, isn't it. We're going to just cut Goreclaw out of the equation and just stick with Surrak, who won't give all your creatures haste, but will give you a single instance of haste each turn most of the time.
God-Eternal Rhonas ---> Silvos, Rogue Elemental - We're losing a lot of our heavy hitters, so I think we're going to swap in Silvos, who is a very solid wurmslayer and will hopefully fill in the gap.
Noxious Revival ---> Regrowth - Noxious Revival is a free spell. Without this, we're just going to go for the most efficient version of this effect that costs mana.
Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary ---> Forest - Just cutting Recovery loses some utility, but if you're really aggressively cutting this deck down, just run a basic land.
Rhonas the Indomitable ---> Broodhatch Nantuko - We're really just getting rid of everything, aren't we? Woof. We're going to swap power for coolness instead and bring in an insect generator! Broodhatch's effect is fun, you get a bunch of insects, but with that in mind, the time you want to play it is late so you can hit Grothama and get a bunch of tokens; but the cost is such that you will naturally be playing it earlier. This leaves Nantuko in an awkward spot where the natural point of playing it is the worst time to. We're still going to play it because frankly we do need some early drops and we'll relegate the tokens to 'incidental value.'
Ghalta, Primal Hunger ---> Sekki, Seasons' Guide - Nooooooo c'mon, we're losing Ghalta too??? Ugh... This isn't really even much of a budget cut, since Sekki is like $1.50 less than Ghalta, but we really need something decent to drop on the top end now. Sekki is big and tough and recursive, so at least we'll be getting something as recompense for losing the big girl.

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Budget Decklist

The Maw of Oblivion Budget Style

Commander

1 Grothama, All-Devouring

Lands

25 Forest

1 High Market

1 Sanctum of Eternity

Artifacts

1 Basilisk Collar

1 Consulate Dreadnought

1 Sol Ring

1 Dragon Throne of Tarkir

Enchantments

1 Rancor

1 Wild Growth

1 Bear Umbra

Instants

1 Crop Rotation

1 Nature's Claim

1 Primal Bellow

1 Tamiyo's Safekeeping

1 Tyvar's Stand

1 Blessed Respite

1 Gaea's Gift

1 Ram Through

1 Harrow

1 Return of the Wildspeaker

Sorceries

1 Regrowth

1 Traverse the Outlands

1 Rishkar's Expertise

1 All Is Dust

1 Tooth and Nail

Approximate Total Cost:

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Deck Philosophy

This deck's philosophy might as well be "A card in the hand is worth ten on the board." We trade board presence for card advantage in about as direct a way as possible. Consequently, the correct plays often look bad, both to an outsider and to the player. You need to train yourself to think of your creatures as resources. For instance, you might think, "why don't I keep these Wood Elves back for chump blocking instead of running them into Grothama for an extra card?" and sometimes that will be the correct decision, but most of the time, turning that one power into an extra card is going to be more impactful in the long run.

This next part is critical, and I want you to repeat it as your mantra. DO NOT JUST CAST GROTHAMA AND LEAVE HER UNATTENDED. Your opponents will fight her, kill her, and draw a bunch of cards. Do not pay for your opponent's card draw. It will not feel good. Only cast Grothama when you can immediately take advantage of her 'leaves the battlefield' trigger. If you leave Grothama up, be sure you are doing so for a specific reason. Allowing opponents to draw cards can be a very powerful political tool, or can give them the ability to dig for an answer you don't have. Otherwise, hold her back until the opportune moment.

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Deck Strategy

The Core Mechanic

Mechanically, Grothama, All-Devouring is a very interesting card. She has two abilities, a static ability and a triggered ability. The static ability grants every other creature on the board a triggered ability that activates on the Declare Attackers portion of the combat step. As the creature attacks, it asks, "Would you like this creature to fight Grothama?" If the answer is yes, that fight is put onto the stack. The attacking player can choose the order in which these fights go on the stack, and in some cases the order will be very important, thanks to Grothama's triggered ability. When she leaves play, the ability checks "which sources have dealt damage to Grothama, how much damage has each source dealt to Grothama, and who owns each source that dealt damage to Grothama?" The total damage dealt by sources each player controlled is tallied up, and a number of cards equal to that damage are awarded to each player. Correctly stacking your fight triggers can allow you to overshoot Grothama's toughness and draw more than 8 cards. For instance, say you have an Ulvenwald Hydra at 7 power and five 1/1 Insect tokens. You swing with all of them, and put the triggers on the stack like this: Insect, Insect, Insect, Insect, Insect, Hydra. Barring any other interactions, the stack resolves in reverse order, so the Hydra deals 7 to Grothama, Grothama deals 10 to the Hydra, and the Hydra dies. Then, the first Insect deals 1 to Grothama, Grothama deals 10 to the Insect, and they both die, putting Grothama's trigger on the stack. You draw your 8 cards and then the rest of the fight triggers resolve, but since Grothama is gone, nothing happens. Now, 8 cards is a fine number, but say you stacked the triggers like this: Hydra, Insect, Insect, Insect, Insect, Insect. Now your five Insects fight Grothama first, dealing a total of 5 damage, and then the Hydra finishes Grothama off, and you draw a total of 12 cards. 12 > 8.

This is your deck's engine. You draw cards by smashing creatures into Grothama until she dies or leaves the board in another way (Sanctum of Eternity or Temur Sabertooth, for example). Many of your creatures will die, and that's okay because the cards they draw will lead you closer to victory, but with that in mind, creatures that can protect themselves like Hunted Troll are some of your biggest roleplayers, and you should keep your eyes open for them.

Mulligans

Mulligans are often tricky, regardless of the deck you're playing. In this section, I have some example hands from this deck generated by the Draw 7 function on the decklist above, as well as my verdict on whether or not we should keep that hand, and some thoughts on where I would expect the game to go from here, whether a card being changed changes the verdict, etc. I may update this periodically, so the list might get quite long, hence, the spoiler.

Mulligan Analysis

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Hand 1: Forest, Thaumatic Compass, Nature's Lore, Scavenging Ooze, Mana Crypt, Crop Rotation, Garruk, Primal Hunter.
Verdict: Keep. Full disclosure, this is more or less being kept on the back of Mana Crypt. This hand puts you at a minimum of 4 mana on turn 2. Open up with Forest, cast Mana Crypt, tap the two of them, cast Nature's Lore to grab another Forest, which will allow you to cast Thaumatic Compass. As I said before, Mana Crypt really opens you up to explosive Turn 1 plays. Now, if we convert Mana Crypt into a budget substitute, like Mind Stone, this hand becomes a painful mulligan - never keep a one-lander.

Hand 2: Nostalgic Dreams, Forest, Yeva, Nature's Herald, Stuffy Doll, Lightning Greaves, Tooth and Nail, and Forest.
Verdict: Mulligan. This hand is exactly the sort of hand that will have you motionless until Turn 4 or 5. Now, if Nostalgic Dreams were a Wood Elves, this becomes a much harder choice, and one that I might keep, and might be wrong in keeping.

Hand 3: Sylvan Awakening, Ulvenwald Hydra, Tectonic Edge, Beast Within, Thaumatic Compass, Ghost Quarter, Scavenging Ooze.
Verdict: Keep. I'm not too happy about this keep, but with a little luck we can start activating the Compass on Turn 3. Play defense, drop the Ooze, and hold out for that sweet, sweet Hydra.

Hand 4: Wood Elves, Forest, Temur Sabertooth, Forest, Forest, Stonehoof Chieftain, Stuffy Doll.
Verdict: Keep. This isn't the fastest hand in the world, but it does set you up to bounce and recast Wood Elves a little later. I think a turn or two of that will set you up for some good value.

Hand 5: Forest, Forest, Rishkar's Expertise, Crop Rotation, Rhonas's Monument, Forest, Beast Within.
Verdict: Keep. With a little luck, we set up for an X=10 Rishkar's Expertise. The path to it is a little convoluted, unfortunately - we'll be counting on at least one more land and the ability to keep Grothama in play for a turn cycle. This game will probably be an uphill battle.

Hand 6: Tectonic Edge, Forest, Return to Nature, Sol Ring, Lightning Greaves, Mossbridge Troll, Wood Elves.
Verdict: Keep. Turn 2, we'll be dropping Wood Elves, which puts us at 5 mana on turn 3. Now, we might be able to snipe someone for a cool 10 commander damage, but I think I'd like to hold out for Mossbridge Troll. With a little luck (which I say quite a lot), we can have a turn 5 Mossbridge Troll crashing into Grothama to draw 25 cards!

Hand 7: Consulate Dreadnought, Druid's Call, Noxious Revival, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Forest, Nature's Lore, Deglamer.
Verdict: Now, I know I just said don't ever keep a one-lander, but this hand could be amazing. You're counting heavily on a second land off the top, but - Turn 1, Consulate Dreadnought, Turn 2, Nature's Lore, then cast Noxious Revival for 2 life, putting Nature's Lore back on top. Turn 3, cast Nature's Lore again. Turn 4, with one additional land off the top, you're at 5 mana. Drop Grothama, pray she makes it around a turn, and on Turn 5, crew the Dreadnought with Grothama and cast Druid's Call on the Dreadnought. Swing in, fight Grothama, get your ten Squirrel tokens. If another creature comes up in there that you can cast, swing in with the Dreadnought and other creature, and draw 8+ cards off the Grothama fight. It's risky, but I might keep this one just to see what would happen.

Hand 8: Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Ulvenwald Hydra, Consulate Dreadnought, Forest, Loxodon Warhammer, Forest, Deglamer.
Verdict: Keep. On Turn 1, Consulate Dreadnought. Turn 3, Loxodon Warhammer. Given a couple more land, we can draw 10 on turn 5 or 6 by swinging the Dreadnought equipped with Warhammer into Grothama. This is likely to be a slow game, but that's the nature of Magic.

Hand 9: Thought Vessel, Forest, Sanctum of Eternity, Nature's Lore, Crop Rotation, Forest, Forest.
Verdict: This is a flood of mana, and I think I would ship this, however, I think you could justify keeping this due to the presence of Sanctum of Eternity. If you get a creature anywhere in the top 4 cards, this will set you up to swing something into Grothama and then bounce her, and draw a modest number of cards, which will hopefully allow you to dovetail into drawing more cards. Again, this is a risky plan, and if you draw a glut of land off of this, you're probably going to lose.

Hand 10: Thaumatic Compass, Reliquary Tower, Mossbridge Troll, Forest, Skyshroud Claim, Lightning Greaves, Forest
Verdict: Keep. While you're going to be ramping late, around Turn 4, you still have things to do with the Compass in the early game, and having the promise of Mossbridge Troll a turn or two early is very exciting. From there, you can be relatively sure of a 25 card draw.

The Early Game (Build Your Walls and Be Ever Vigilant)

There are two immediate objectives once the game has started, and which one you pursue is largely dependent on your opening hand.

Objective 1: Build a Pathway to A Big Grothama Draw.

If your opening hand contains ramp spells and creatures, you will likely be taking a more proactive role in this game. Your job is to get ahead on mana and stick a moderately large creature. This may take the form of curving Hunted Troll into Grothama - drop the Troll, next turn cast Grothama, go to combat, swing and fight Grothama to draw 8 - or swinging with two or three creatures like Solemn Simulacrum, Wood Elves, and Noose Constrictor, then bouncing Grothama with Sanctum of Eternity or sacrificing her to High Market to draw 5-7. It could also be the dream scenario of dropping an early Mossbridge Troll, tapping Grothama to make him a 25/25, and swinging him into Grothama to draw 25 cards. Just remember, sometimes you will have to sacrifice little creatures to draw a few cards, and sometimes you'll feel like you're overinvesting, paying the 5 mana for Grothama and then sacrificing 3 creatures to draw 5 cards. With this deck, drawing cards is almost always better than hanging onto small creatures. If you have the resources to start drawing, do so.

Objective 2: Lay Low and Wait for the Opportune Moment.

Frequently, you'll find that your hand does not lend itself to a quick start. Maybe you have a couple of ramp spells and 2-3 removal spells - lots of reactive stuff, but no gas. In this case, you're probably in for an uphill battle. Get yourself in the mindset of evaluating what your opponents are doing. Watch them closely, and build your board as you are able. At this stage, feel free to target your opponent's Sol Rings, Mana Vaults, or Mana Crypts. You will probably annoy the player you've targeted, but the others might even thank you for slowing them down. Be on the lookout for artifacts or enchantments that will make your life more difficult, like Bubble Matrix, Ensnaring Bridge, or Smothering Tithe, and get rid of them. This is also a good chance to make some allies - pay attention to who the big bad at the table is, and use your cards to curry favor with the others. A big part of this stage of the game will be balancing directing aggression away from you and making allies. Your sociopolitical acumen will be tested - make yourself non-threatening and helpful, and wait for the opportune moment.

The Mid-Game (Lay the Groundwork for Glorious Victory)

Okay, so you've survived the first few turns. Your pathway to victory will be an extension of your early game strategy. That being said, as the game opens up and you have more resources available to you, more potential avenues will open up. Flexibility is your friend. We're going to lay out two objectives that are tied to the ones above, and will be numbered accordingly.

Objective 1: Open Up Your Options.

At this point, the bigger you can make your hand, the better. A quick tip that holds true regardless of the stage of the game you're in, but is especially important in the midgame: Do not play your land as the first action on your turn. The reason for this is that if you play a Forest, and then get a big draw, and among the cards you draw is your Reliquary Tower, you will discard most of the cards you just drew. And cry. You want to hold out as long as you can for Reliquary Tower, and play it if it is among the cards you've drawn.
Now, if you've begun drawing cards, you should begin to lay the groundwork for your penultimate victory. There are two broad categories of win conditions: combat and noncombat.

Combat

The combat victory condition may seem simple, but it does require a certain amount of speed in a lot of formats. You're going to need a damage delivery device, namely one or more creatures, and a damage delivery system, which will actually let you get the damage through. Your best delivery device is Mossbridge Troll, which can become enormous with very little effort on your part, and protects itself from any removal that says 'destroy' on it. Giving Mossbridge Troll trample or sending it through a Rogue's Passage is devastating. Remember that you can activate the Troll more than once, meaning he can become a 45/45 with a second large creature, which should be able to crush anyone into dust assuming he has a straight shot at their life total. Mossbridge Troll pairs beautifully with your best delivery system, Berserk, which should have a similarly lethal effect when applied to most life totals.
Delivery Devices: Wild Mongrel, Noose Constrictor, Hunted Troll, Psychosis Crawler, Ulvenwald Hydra, Mossbridge Troll, Stonehoof Chieftain, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Ghalta, Primal Hunger, Freelance Muscle, Lair of the Hydra, Defiler of Vigor, Tyvar's Stand, and Grothama, All-Devouring.
Delivery Systems: Rogue's Passage, Loxodon Warhammer, Rhonas's Monument, Sword of Feast and Famine, Berserk, Vigor, Stonehoof Chieftain, Rhonas the Indomitable, Ram Through, Surrak and Goreclaw, Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma.
In the midgame, your goal is to assemble some combination of Delivery Devices and Delivery Systems, and maintain them until such time as you can perform your alpha strike.

Noncombat

Your noncombat victory condition is Psychosis Crawler. If you're planning on winning through noncombative means, your job here is to find your Crawler and hold onto him until the last possible second. It will become painfully obvious what you're planning once the Crawler hits the board, so you should cast it and kill everyone in one fell stroke. Obviously, many of the same tools you use in the combat method are useful here, as your primary card draw machine is Grothama - smash your giant creature into her and draw, dinging each opponent for 1 life per card. Other useful toys that are exclusive to the noncombat path are Greater Good and Rishkar's Expertise.

Objective 2: Establish Yourself

At this point, you're probably behind. To put it simply, you're going to try to get to Objective 1 of the early game here. Because you're behind, you can probably afford to be a little more reckless with your resources. Maybe you ditch your whole hand to get a 5 card draw off a Noose Constrictor smashing into Grothama, or maybe you just Greater Good the snake to Dark Deal your hand. You need to get the card advantage engine rolling, or you've already lost. Because you're going to be making what seems like bad trades, most of the other players will probably ignore you, maybe even throw you a bone. Your politicking in the early game is likely to be critical to your survival at this point; if someone's taken a dislike to you, you may need to be a lot more conservative with your creatures, but if that's the case, you're probably not winning anyway. The TL;DR of this section: Start drawing cards, any way you can.

Late-Game

This final section is going to be condensed down to a single objective:

Objective: Find A Way To Win

Revolutionary game theory, right? Depending on how well you've managed to set up, you'll either be winning by attacking with gigantic creatures or by drawing a ton of cards and draining everyone into oblivion with Psychosis Crawler. We're going to rehash a few things from previous sections here, but there is one very important combo that I want to talk about that looks convoluted but is much easier to pull off than you might think.

The Sabertooth/Selvala Loop

Temur Sabertooth + Selvala, Heart of the Wilds + Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots/Surrak and Goreclaw + A 7+/8+ Power Creature + 6/7 Mana = Infinite Mana. Here's how the combo plays out: With Sabertooth, your haste enabler, and a creature with at least 8/9 power in play, cast Selvala. Equip Selvala with your haste enabler for 0 or 1 mana (or just get haste with Surrak and Goreclaw) and pay 1 mana and tap her to get 7+ mana. Spend two of that mana to activate Sabertooth, and bounce Selvala back to your hand. Recast Selvala, equip the haste enabler, activate Selvala for 1 mana to get 7+ more mana. Repeat ad infinitum, gaining billions of mana. Now, assuming you have the largest creature, begin bouncing that creature and recasting it. Each time it enters the battlefield, Selvala's triggered ability will make you draw a card. You may now pick up every card in your deck. With every card in your deck and infinite mana, you should be able to find at least one way to win. You can recycle everything in your graveyard by discarding Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. Psychosis Crawler will kill everyone at the table in one shot. If Psychosis Crawler is exiled, your next best play is making all your creatures infinitely large tramplers and swinging at everyone, which you can do by casting Berserk, then recovering it with Eternal Witness, casting Berserk again, then bouncing the Witness with Sabertooth over and over. If you have Rhonas's Monument in play, you can do this with any creature in your deck to produce infinite power for all your creatures. If you're feeling really mean, you can cast, bounce, and recast Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre over and over to destroy every permanent your opponent's control, so even if you can't win that turn, they have no chance of rebuilding. These are not all the options, but at this point, you're in the Build-A-Wincon Workshop with a million-dollar gift card, so if you see another line of play, go nuts.

Vigor/Grothama Interaction

Vigor and Grothama, All-Devouring interact in a truly spectacular fashion. To review, Grothama's static ability reads: Other creatures have, "Whenever this creature attacks, you may have it fight Grothama, All-Devouring." Vigor's static ability reads: "If damage would be dealt to another creature you control, prevent that damage. Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each 1 damage prevented this way." Very notably, Vigor doesn't specify combat damage, meaning that the damage inflicted by Fight is prevented and replaced by +1/+1 counters. I'm sure you see where this is going, but let me spell it out anyway. When your creatures fight Grothama, they will deal damage to her, which will be prevented and replaced with +1/+1 counters, and she will deal 10 damage to the first one, resulting in them receiving 10 +1/+1 counters. The next fight, Grothama will deal 10+the original power of the first creature to the second creature, which is prevented and replaced with that many +1/+1 counters, and she'll receive damage equal to their power. So every creature that Grothama fights will result in more power for the next creature. Stacking the fight triggers correctly can radically change the amount of damage you are swinging at your opponents with. General speaking, you want to fight Grothama with your most powerful other creature first, then your second most powerful, all the way down to your least powerful; this will result in the highest amount of power across all your creatures. Now combat is often messy, so be attentive to the board state. There may be a good reason to stack those triggers differently, but most of the time you're going for raw power output. You will likely be burying at least one opponent on the first swing with Vigor in play.

If you're struggling to get your combo or absurd creature interaction online, you're still not out of the game. Review the midgame section where we talked about setting up win conditions - your goal now is to execute the one you've chosen. Organize your hand so you can keep track of your options; it's especially important for you to pay attention to what you can do on your opponent's turns, as in the late game you will need to move fast to avoid being cut off. Emergence Zone can let you circumvent the need to wait a turn cycle for your creatures to come off summoning sickness, and sometimes you can go search for the Zone with Crop Rotation, which is an incredibly cheap and powerful interaction, so watch out for that. Surrak and Goreclaw serve a similar function, offering every one of your creatures haste. Keep your opponent's boards in mind, and know what removal spells are in your hand, preferably by moving them closer to the top of your stack. It's also imperative not to leave Grothama unattended for a turn cycle at this point, as your opponents probably have plenty of options to use her as free card draw. I have faith in your ability to figure out how to win on your own.

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Credit & Thanks

Special thanks to Rumpy5897 for the meatiest critique of anything I've ever written - seriously, thank you. Extra special thanks to SquirrelToken for being a friend when I needed one and carrying the torch of this deck when even I'd set it aside.

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Change Log

This is incomplete, because I've lost some of my old data, but as much as I know will be catalogued here going forward.

Changelog Date

Show

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-Sylvan Awakening
+Sword of Feast and Famine
It's been way too long in coming, but I finally added Sword of Feast and Famine. Finally. I can't believe it took me this long.

-Heroic Intervention
+Pattern of Rebirth

-Polukranos, World Eater
+Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant

-Greenwarden of Murasa
+Ulvenwald Hydra
This was actually made on a lark on the way out the door to a recent game session, and it has been a boon so far.

-Endless Sands
+Sanctum of Eternity
Endless Sands is a trap. It's too expensive for what it does. Sanctum of Eternity, on the other hand, can salvage a lot of suboptimal situations where you're stuck unable to remove Grothama. The 'on your turn' restriction should not be a problem if you are playing the deck properly.

-Reclamation Sage
+Sylvan Awakening

-Acidic Slime
+Hunted Troll

-Viridian Emissary
+Consulate Dreadnought

11/2/2020
I've changed a couple of things with this deck, but I have not played a game of Magic in over six months. Once I get to play some more I will update these changes.

10/22/2022
- 2 Forest
- Veteran Explorer
- Solemn Simulacrum
- Thaumatic Compass
- Tooth and Nail
+Bala Ged Recovery // Bala Ged Sanctuary
+Lair of the Hydra
+Rancor
+Ram Through
+Defiler of Vigor
+Freelance Muscle

It turns out some of the old card from the annals of Magic's history are kind of underwhelming when looked at in the light of recent years. Not Tooth and Nail, though it's still excellent, it's just... Honestly a little boring. And expensive. Thaumatic Compass is just too ponderous and doesn't do enough.

10/28/2022
-Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant // Sasaya's Essence
+Rhonas, the Indomitable

10/30/2022
- Druids' Repository
- Deglamer
+ Green Slime
+ Fight Rigging

01/02/23
-Consulate Dreadnought
+Phyrexian Dreadnought

01/04/23
-Lignify
+Return of the Wildspeaker

04/29/23
-Back to Nature
-Scavenging Ooze
+Surrak and Goreclaw
+Consulate Dreadnought

05/19/23
-Seedguide Ash
+God-Eternal Rhonas

06/16/23
-Primal Growth
+Entish Restoration
-Wood Elves
+Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma

07/01/23
-Mystifying Maze
+Emergence Zone

10/21/23
-Yeva, Nature's Herald
+Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant // Sasaya's Essence

11/18/23
-Opal Palace
-Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
+2 Forest
Neither of these cards were doing anything, and were objectively worse than Forests. The +1/+1 counters were far less relevant than coming in untapped for green mana.

11/26/23
-Tooth and Nail
+Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant

12/2/23
-Druid's Call
-Garruk, Primal Hunter
+The Skullspore Nexus
+Kozilek, the Great Distortion

1/24/24
-Birthing Pod
+Elvish Spirit Guide

2/24/24
-Forest
+Boseiju, Who Endures

3/1/24
-Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant // Sasaya's Essence
+Song of the Dryads

3/14/24
- Eternal Witness
+Archdruid's Charm

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MeowZeDung · Post by **MeowZeDung** » 4 years ago

Here are two links that will help you out with beautifying your primer and getting it ready to apply for the primer tag:

How to Submit Your Thread for Primer Status
Primer Template

Sometimes the forum coding can be a challenge, so here's another one that's helped me out a bunch:

Guide to Using BBCode

One quick(ish) thing you could do to start with is to click "edit" on your OP, go through it and highlight every card name one at a time, then click the hover-over card link button (it's right below the italic symbol). Alternatively, you could just manually type the tag around the card names, like so:

Code: Select all

[card]Grothama, All-Devouring[/card]

Which comes out looking like this:

Grothama, All-Devouring

A last tidbit from me and my limited knowledge of this stuff: the cardimg and artcrop commands are cool and useful for primers.

Code: Select all

[artcrop]Grothama, All-Devouring[/artcrop]

=

Code: Select all

[cardimg]Grothama, All-Devouring[/cardimg]

=

Kyra Warsong · Post by **Kyra Warsong** » 4 years ago

Theros Beyond Death Update

Dryad of the Ilysian Grove - I think there's some merit here, but Exploration is a better card, and I'm not running that. Doesn't synergize with Grothama in any particular way.

Labyrinth of Skophos - Maze of Ith, this is not. However, I think this is a little more versatile, since you can target any creature, yours or theirs, and this could potentially be used as an offensive tool to remove a blocker from the path of your trampler, although Rogue's Passage is strictly better at getting damage through. I think it has potential and will try it out.

Nessian Boar - This guy is a trap. I know that the lure of getting ten cards off this guy is strong. The fact is, he's dreadful in any other situation, so please avoid him.

Nylea, Keen-Eyed - I think, yes. I don't know that I'll actually test her, because she's a little underwhelming when she's not a creature, but I think as an indestructible 5/6 for four, she's pretty good.

Nyxbloom Ancient - I do still think this is a little too expensive, but obviously tripling your mana is worth 7 mana. Sure, if you can get one.

Nyx Lotus - Comes into play tapped, I'm not too interested.

Shadowspear - Again, sure, if you get a copy. Nothing not to like.

Treeshaker Chimera - This is just too expensive for what it does. It does kill Grothama and nets you three extra cards, but it's still too much.

Rumpy5897 · Post by **Rumpy5897** » 4 years ago

Awesome! A Grothama deck, and all spruced up with the primer template. Submit whenever you feel comfortable with it, or I could provide some preliminary feedback if that'd be something you'd want.

I ran a Grothama deck for a while online in 2018, but my group vetoed it as it would go off very consistently in a near-identical fashion around turn five or six. Here's some stuff I remember from my build attempt that might be transferable here:

The most vital component to the deck doing its thing were the designated Grothama killers - the guys who would slam full throttle into the Hug Slug (looks kinda like a slug and you "hug" your guys into it) and live. You've already got some of those in Hunted Troll (MVP!), Mossbridge Troll and Stonehoof Chieftain, but I remember I went deeper with Silvos, Rogue Elemental and Sekki, Seasons' Guide.
At one point, Myojin of Life's Web was singled out as the grossest card in the deck as my playgroup started boycotting it.
The various OG green Gods are a useful thing to have around, they can sneak in some extra damage on Grothama (or, in the case of OG Rhonas, just take him down prematurely if need be).
Dragon Throne of Tarkir is essentially a second Pathbreaker Ibex, except without summoning sickness. Plop this down, massive groans all around, shuffle up.
Strata Scythe is a lovely piece of equipment, as there shall be forests aplenty.
This looks funny more than practical, but the deck's insane level of draw led to me running Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant. And flipping her consistently. And getting mega turbo'd as thanks.

Well, thanks for getting me to reminisce about this awesome legend. I honestly miss this deck - it reminded me of my super casual wurms + Blanchwood Armor pile I made back around 2004 as an introduction to the game, but actually EDH viable. Go forth and maintain Hug Slug awareness!

kenbaumann · Post by **kenbaumann** » 4 years ago

I enjoyed reading this. Looks like a fun non-Selvala but still stompy-and-stormy deck to run!

Kyra Warsong · Post by **Kyra Warsong** » 4 years ago

Rumpy5897 wrote: ↑
4 years ago
Awesome! A Grothama deck, and all spruced up with the primer template. Submit whenever you feel comfortable with it, or I could provide some preliminary feedback if that'd be something you'd want.

Thank you! Any feedback would be fantastic, I'd really like to get this approved on the first time around.

Rumpy5897 wrote: ↑
4 years ago
I ran a Grothama deck for a while online in 2018, but my group vetoed it as it would go off very consistently in a near-identical fashion around turn five or six. Here's some stuff I remember from my build attempt that might be transferable here:
The most vital component to the deck doing its thing were the designated Grothama killers - the guys who would slam full throttle into the Hug Slug (looks kinda like a slug and you "hug" your guys into it) and live. You've already got some of those in Hunted Troll (MVP!), Mossbridge Troll and Stonehoof Chieftain, but I remember I went deeper with Silvos, Rogue Elemental and Sekki, Seasons' Guide.

At one point, Myojin of Life's Web was singled out as the grossest card in the deck as my playgroup started boycotting it.

The various OG green Gods are a useful thing to have around, they can sneak in some extra damage on Grothama (or, in the case of OG Rhonas, just take him down prematurely if need be).

Dragon Throne of Tarkir is essentially a second Pathbreaker Ibex, except without summoning sickness. Plop this down, massive groans all around, shuffle up.

Strata Scythe is a lovely piece of equipment, as there shall be forests aplenty.

This looks funny more than practical, but the deck's insane level of draw led to me running Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant. And flipping her consistently. And getting mega turbo'd as thanks.

Thanks for all the card suggestions! Some of these I've considered, and maybe I'm a bit conservative in my deckbuilding choices, but I usually try to limit my 7 drops and beyond to an absolute minimum. I tend to be fairly stingy with my mana, so equipment that costs 6 or more to activate on the first turn usually gets cut too (I'm strongly considering cutting Loxodon Warhammer for something cheaper like Shadowspear). My absolute favorite suggestion is Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant, I'm almost certainly putting that one in.

Rumpy5897 wrote: ↑
4 years ago
Well, thanks for getting me to reminisce about this awesome legend. I honestly miss this deck - it reminded me of my super casual wurms + Blanchwood Armor pile I made back around 2004 as an introduction to the game, but actually EDH viable. Go forth and maintain Hug Slug awareness!

This is my favorite deck I've ever played, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who's had a great time with her. I shall spread the word far and wide, shouting from rooftops and overpasses the exaltations of the greatest gullet of them all!

Please ignore that last sentence. It's past my bedtime.

Kyra Warsong · Post by **Kyra Warsong** » 4 years ago

Commander 2020 + Ikoria First Impressions

Hello, everyone. I'm going to run down some of the mono-green stuff we're getting in the next two sets. There's probably going to be a couple more things worth talking about, but I'm excited, so here we go.

Commander 2020
Capricopian - There's an interesting dynamic here where you can put the impetus for choosing the target onto your opponents instead of you. I don't imagine that this will matter very often, and there are better X/Xs like Mistcutter Hydra. Still, this might go in the budget build someday.

Curious Herd - Now, this I like. You can get a decent amount of power at instant speed on curve before Grothama comes down. Sometimes it will be a dead card, which is a a very low floor, but the ceiling is also very high. If you've read through my primer you know I'm a sucker for instants, and I think I'll be testing this out in the near future.

Obscuring Haze - Fog is not a great effect in Commander. That being said, a Fog that only affects your opponent's creatures sounds delightful, and free Fog that does that sounds extraordinary. The mere existence of this card in your deck might allow you to be more cavalier about leaving Grothama unattended, as even tapped out you have a response to opponents swinging in and fighting Grothama. This card doesn't specify combat damage, which might be the first card like this to do so, so you can respond to certain effects like Brallin, Skyshark Rider's triggered ability in addition to Grothama fights. It also gives us another thing to worry about, since players can now respond to you fighting Grothama with this card and leave you in a very awkward position. Hopefully they forget that it's not just combat damage...

Ravenous Gigantotherium - I don't think this is worth what you pay, but I don't doubt it will infiltrate Grothama lists purely on the basis of the word 'fight'. We also tend to be light on board, although you could theoretically Devour Grothama after she's taken some damage. It still doesn't seem worth the price of admission.

Sawtusk Demolisher - Sorcery speed almost Beast Within stapled to a trample enabler seems to me to be a card worth looking twice at. I highly doubt that you'll be playing this as a trample 6/6 very often, it seems like it would be better suited for clearing out a troublesome permanent and giving Mossbridge Troll trample. I think this is good enough that I don't mind it not being instant speed, although it is castable at instant speed for its mutate cost with Yeva, Nature's Herald.

Ikoria
Titanoth Rex - This deck is in need of trample enablers, and I think Titanoth Rex is fine as far as that goes. I doubt he'd often end up coming down himself, but 2 mana to draw a card and give a creature trample seems decent.

Kogla, the Titan Ape - Look, I'm as big a fan of the Peter Jackson version of King Kong starring Jack Black and some other people whose names I don't remember, despite the 6-day long fight scene with the giant insects at the bottom of the canyon (honestly, at that point I was like, 'is the movie over yet, I've kind of reached my tolerance for this type of scene') as anyone, but I think that Kogla will probably be left out of Grothama. As far as spot removal goes, he's pretty dece, but I think he's held back a little by the fact that his Temur Sabertooth ability can only target Humans, which we have 2 of in the deck, and he's just shy of killing Grothama alone. I may be wrong about this guy, but I feel like he's still a little too expensive.

Gemrazer - Here's another neat guy. 3 mana, sorcery speed artifact/enchantment/trample enabler. I've got to say, I am digging all the trample mutate creatures. Like Sawtusk Demolisher, I doubt you'll often play him as a 4/4, but the addition of reach does make him a reasonable blocker in a deck that is very weak against flying attackers. I think I'll test Gemrazer as well, I have high hope for him.

Colossification - This does a very weak imitation of Mossbridge Troll. Tapping the creature makes this a hard pass for me.

Charge of the Forever-Beast - Much as this deck wants removal, I don't think we're at the level where we need something this conditional. It could have a place in the budget version, and I wouldn't totally discount it, but I don't think it'll make the cut.

Kyra Warsong · Post by **Kyra Warsong** » 4 years ago

Ikoria Addendum

Ram Through - This little instant snuck by me. I'm a sucker for a common instant out of nowhere. You may have noticed that I don't run any of the random 'fight a guy' type cards, and I still find the 'your opponent controls' clause a little annoying here, but the fact is that we are hard up for removal spells. The real meat of the spell comes when you use it on one of your tramplers, in which case, this becomes a potential second kill shot in a turn. If you've read my post above, you know Mossbridge Troll + Trample = Kill an opponent most of the time. Two mana can mean death for two opponents in this situation. This deck needs more ways to kill opponents outside of combat, and I'm thinking this is an excellent way to achieve that - at instant speed, no less! Worst case scenario, this card is dead in your hand, which is a low floor, but the ceiling is killing an opponent. This might be the sleeper hit of Ikoria.

Post by **SquirrelToken** » 4 years ago

Hi Kyra. Rumpy sent me here after I mentioned Grothama to him. Love your primer. One question for you - other than OG Rhonas, is there anything that you'd add if you had an infinite budget? Considered Song of the Dryads over Lignify, for example?

Kyra Warsong · Post by **Kyra Warsong** » 4 years ago

Hey, SquirrelToken! Thank you so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I've been thinking a lot about this question, and unfortunately, I don't think there's too much that is really exciting. Wasteland, Maze of Ith, Hall of the Bandit Lord, and Yavimaya Hollow are all cards that I've been interested in but have balked at the price tags. Nylea, God of the Hunt isn't exactly out of my price range, but getting to the point where I want to be really sure it's going to improve the deck by a measurable amount before committing. Oracle of Mul Daya, The Great Henge, Worldly Tutor, Natural Order, all of these card would probably make the deck more consistent and be worthy adds. I'm sorry I don't have anything super shiny and cool that isn't just generically good on this list.

Post by **SquirrelToken** » 4 years ago

Yavimaya Hollow was the one that sprang to mind as I mulled over the concept while at work. I think that I automatically upgraded your Ghost Quarter and Tec Edge to Strip Mine and Wasteland in my head. No need to apologize - I think that we were thinking along similar lines, and that's great! I'm going to build this in paper and give it a whirl.

I will keep you posted with two statistics:
1) Do I win at all?
2) Do I still have friends after playing this deck?

Edit: I had two more ideas - Asceticism and Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig [/card]. Asceticism might be a "cut for cost", but Yorvo seems like a cheap card that can get pretty big. Or is he just not good enough because he doesn't do anything besides get big?

Double edit: Concordant Crossroads?

Kyra Warsong · Post by **Kyra Warsong** » 4 years ago

Please do! I've said it before, this is my favorite deck, and if even one person picks it up because they read this I'm happy. Do keep me apprised of those statistics, I've not been able to play lately and would enjoy any stories you choose to sprinkle in with your stats.

Asceticism is an awesome card which I would totally play were it not in my wife's Omnath deck, which objectively makes better use of it. Yorvo is a little bit slow, I think, although three mana for a 4-5 power guy isn't bad. I think he might be a good one for the budget version of the deck, along with Steel Leaf Champion, Phyrexian Soulgorger and Ravaging Riftwurm.

Dunharrow · Post by **Dunharrow** » 4 years ago

I saw a Grothama deck about a year ago and remember how it just went crazy with card advantage. I picked one up for a future deck.
I remember thinking that I didn't mind so much since it was a free sac outlet for me. But then the Grothama pilot's card advantage spun out of control. They played Goreclaw to make Grothama a two-turn clock.

I have always liked Taunting Elf and similar effects, and have been waiting for a general that would drive a Lure.dec idea. Druid's call and Infiltration Lens are two of my favourite cards. But Grothama doesn't seem like a good candidate for a lure deck, since this approach seems much better.

Are there any times where Grothama does especially bad? Like maybe against a deck like Karador or Marchesa, the Black Rose who need sac outlets to work?

Artaud · Post by **Artaud** » 4 years ago

How about Rancor? It's harder to destroy than equipments and makes Gothama 2-turn clock. Surrak, the Hunt Caller is great haste enabler which proved it's worth in my Azusa (great second creature for T&N). I would also include more cheap ramp spells as your deck is mana-hungry and you have Grothama to refill your hand. Also Golden Guardian can be of some use or flavor choice at least.

EDIT: I don't like Veteran Explorer. It helps your opponents and green decks should be all about outracing your foes, not to give them mana to stop you.

Kyra Warsong · Post by **Kyra Warsong** » 4 years ago

Dunharrow wrote: ↑
4 years ago
I saw a Grothama deck about a year ago and remember how it just went crazy with card advantage. I picked one up for a future deck.
I remember thinking that I didn't mind so much since it was a free sac outlet for me. But then the Grothama pilot's card advantage spun out of control. They played Goreclaw to make Grothama a two-turn clock.

I have always liked Taunting Elf and similar effects, and have been waiting for a general that would drive a Lure.dec idea. Druid's call and Infiltration Lens are two of my favourite cards. But Grothama doesn't seem like a good candidate for a lure deck, since this approach seems much better.

Are there any times where Grothama does especially bad? Like maybe against a deck like Karador or Marchesa, the Black Rose who need sac outlets to work?

Goreclaw is a very powerful card, and I think it can definitely find a great home here. I wish (and this is definitely asking too much) that Goreclaw just made attacking creatures have trample so I could play her and immediately swing with Grothama or something. That said, I still think she's very good, and if you run her I have no doubt she'll win some games.

This isn't really my purview, but I I had a janky, silly Lure deck helmed by Sisters of Stone Death that used lure effects to steal creatures in a really convoluted way. It's not a great deck. I don't know if that's quite what you're looking for, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Yes, definitely. Grothama struggles really hard against decks that restrict attacking. Like it or not, attacking is necessary for this deck to function in most cases, although you can definitely still win in those situations. Another thing - playing this deck incorrectly has a higher cost than most decks I've played. If an opponent exploits a mistake, like leaving Grothama in the open for a turn cycle, you can give people huge draws for free, so it's just as important for you not to defeat yourself.

Kyra Warsong · Post by **Kyra Warsong** » 4 years ago

Artaud wrote: ↑
4 years ago
How about Rancor? It's harder to destroy than equipments and makes Gothama 2-turn clock. Surrak, the Hunt Caller is great haste enabler which proved it's worth in my Azusa (great second creature for T&N). I would also include more cheap ramp spells as your deck is mana-hungry and you have Grothama to refill your hand. Also Golden Guardian can be of some use or flavor choice at least.

EDIT: I don't like Veteran Explorer. It helps your opponents and green decks should be all about outracing your foes, not to give them mana to stop you.

Rancor is a wonderful suggestion, and I'm a little sad I didn't think of it myself. I need to pick up like six of those, I only have one and I've been passing it around between decks for years, so it didn't even occur to me to slot it in. Surrak is another card I'm hoping to get around to testing in the near future, although I wish it wasn't a single instance of haste at the beginning of combat and that I could use him for the Sabertooth/Selvala loop (I'm a choosing beggar).

Yes. I still hold that I'm likely to get more out of that exchange than they are.

Rumpy5897 · Post by **Rumpy5897** » 4 years ago

Ayy, Artaud reemerged

Been a while since I've seen you around.

Rancor is a brilliant catch. I actually apparently ran Surrak in my list, but I think I got more mileage out of him as a follow-up to a top-up, to get subsequent beefslabs rolling along quickly. The risk-averse way to deploy Hug Slug is as a main one setup for an immediate combat step kill and mega draw, so it'd take a hell of a lot of mana to also deploy a haste-needing killer on the same turn.

Imma double down on Myojin of Life's Web though. Paying eight, drawing copiously, and then removing the divinity counter whenever to deploy a disproportionate amount of assorted fat was pretty good. That said, I was quite beater happy, and would table kill off some form of turbo overrun. Still, if cheating in 20+ mana of bodies off a nine mana Grothama killer sounds at all relevant, give it a test.

Dunharrow · Post by **Dunharrow** » 4 years ago

Kyra Warsong wrote: ↑
4 years ago

Dunharrow wrote: ↑
4 years ago
I saw a Grothama deck about a year ago and remember how it just went crazy with card advantage. I picked one up for a future deck.
I remember thinking that I didn't mind so much since it was a free sac outlet for me. But then the Grothama pilot's card advantage spun out of control. They played Goreclaw to make Grothama a two-turn clock.

I have always liked Taunting Elf and similar effects, and have been waiting for a general that would drive a Lure.dec idea. Druid's call and Infiltration Lens are two of my favourite cards. But Grothama doesn't seem like a good candidate for a lure deck, since this approach seems much better.

Are there any times where Grothama does especially bad? Like maybe against a deck like Karador or Marchesa, the Black Rose who need sac outlets to work?
Goreclaw is a very powerful card, and I think it can definitely find a great home here. I wish (and this is definitely asking too much) that Goreclaw just made attacking creatures have trample so I could play her and immediately swing with Grothama or something. That said, I still think she's very good, and if you run her I have no doubt she'll win some games.

This isn't really my purview, but I I had a janky, silly Lure deck helmed by Sisters of Stone Death that used lure effects to steal creatures in a really convoluted way. It's not a great deck. I don't know if that's quite what you're looking for, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Yes, definitely. Grothama struggles really hard against decks that restrict attacking. Like it or not, attacking is necessary for this deck to function in most cases, although you can definitely still win in those situations. Another thing - playing this deck incorrectly has a higher cost than most decks I've played. If an opponent exploits a mistake, like leaving Grothama in the open for a turn cycle, you can give people huge draws for free, so it's just as important for you not to defeat yourself.

So you must really like Peacekeeper , eh?
Sisters of Stone death is on my radar. I think I even have one. I just don't want an 8cmc general for a janky deck. Glissa, the Traitor could work but I was planning an artifact build around her.

I also have a lot of green decks and want a different color combo. I do not have a monogreen deck, and I don't have a Selenya deck, and I don't have a Jund deck. I don't think the deck needs black, but I would like to play Gaze of the Gorgon if I could.
Grothama seemed like a good option but I am convinced now it is not a good lure general.

Kyra Warsong · Post by **Kyra Warsong** » 4 years ago

Rumpy5897 wrote: ↑
4 years ago
Ayy, Artaud reemerged Been a while since I've seen you around.

Rancor is a brilliant catch. I actually apparently ran Surrak in my list, but I think I got more mileage out of him as a follow-up to a top-up, to get subsequent beefslabs rolling along quickly. The risk-averse way to deploy Hug Slug is as a main one setup for an immediate combat step kill and mega draw, so it'd take a hell of a lot of mana to also deploy a haste-needing killer on the same turn.

Imma double down on Myojin of Life's Web though. Paying eight, drawing copiously, and then removing the divinity counter whenever to deploy a disproportionate amount of assorted fat was pretty good. That said, I was quite beater happy, and would table kill off some form of turbo overrun. Still, if cheating in 20+ mana of bodies off a nine mana Grothama killer sounds at all relevant, give it a test.

You're getting me closer and closer to giving it a shot, Rumpy. I'm definitely tempted. I've always been really cautious with the top end of my curve, but the payoff seems really good. I'm just imagining Berserking it, drawing 16 and dropping 5 guys on my opponent's end step.

All right, dammit, you've convinced me

Kyra Warsong · Post by **Kyra Warsong** » 4 years ago

Dunharrow wrote: ↑
4 years ago

Kyra Warsong wrote: ↑
4 years ago

Dunharrow wrote: ↑
4 years ago
I saw a Grothama deck about a year ago and remember how it just went crazy with card advantage. I picked one up for a future deck.
I remember thinking that I didn't mind so much since it was a free sac outlet for me. But then the Grothama pilot's card advantage spun out of control. They played Goreclaw to make Grothama a two-turn clock.

I have always liked Taunting Elf and similar effects, and have been waiting for a general that would drive a Lure.dec idea. Druid's call and Infiltration Lens are two of my favourite cards. But Grothama doesn't seem like a good candidate for a lure deck, since this approach seems much better.

Are there any times where Grothama does especially bad? Like maybe against a deck like Karador or Marchesa, the Black Rose who need sac outlets to work?
Goreclaw is a very powerful card, and I think it can definitely find a great home here. I wish (and this is definitely asking too much) that Goreclaw just made attacking creatures have trample so I could play her and immediately swing with Grothama or something. That said, I still think she's very good, and if you run her I have no doubt she'll win some games.

This isn't really my purview, but I I had a janky, silly Lure deck helmed by Sisters of Stone Death that used lure effects to steal creatures in a really convoluted way. It's not a great deck. I don't know if that's quite what you're looking for, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

Yes, definitely. Grothama struggles really hard against decks that restrict attacking. Like it or not, attacking is necessary for this deck to function in most cases, although you can definitely still win in those situations. Another thing - playing this deck incorrectly has a higher cost than most decks I've played. If an opponent exploits a mistake, like leaving Grothama in the open for a turn cycle, you can give people huge draws for free, so it's just as important for you not to defeat yourself.
So you must really like Peacekeeper , eh?
Sisters of Stone death is on my radar. I think I even have one. I just don't want an 8cmc general for a janky deck. Glissa, the Traitor could work but I was planning an artifact build around her.

I also have a lot of green decks and want a different color combo. I do not have a monogreen deck, and I don't have a Selenya deck, and I don't have a Jund deck. I don't think the deck needs black, but I would like to play Gaze of the Gorgon if I could.
Grothama seemed like a good option but I am convinced now it is not a good lure general.

I've actually never had the pleasure of meeting Peacekeeper, but yes, those sorts of cards are a plague on me. I do actually like having to fight through those sorts of challenges, because it means I have to think and try to figure out ways around it.

Sisters isn't a great card or deck, but it's one of those that has sentimental value to me. Some tech for your Lure deck: Engulfing Slagwurm. I'm sure you've thought of it already, but it's a hell of a good time.

Post by **SquirrelToken** » 4 years ago

Kyra Warsong wrote: ↑
4 years ago

Rumpy5897 wrote: ↑
4 years ago
Ayy, Artaud reemerged Been a while since I've seen you around.

Rancor is a brilliant catch. I actually apparently ran Surrak in my list, but I think I got more mileage out of him as a follow-up to a top-up, to get subsequent beefslabs rolling along quickly. The risk-averse way to deploy Hug Slug is as a main one setup for an immediate combat step kill and mega draw, so it'd take a hell of a lot of mana to also deploy a haste-needing killer on the same turn.

Imma double down on Myojin of Life's Web though. Paying eight, drawing copiously, and then removing the divinity counter whenever to deploy a disproportionate amount of assorted fat was pretty good. That said, I was quite beater happy, and would table kill off some form of turbo overrun. Still, if cheating in 20+ mana of bodies off a nine mana Grothama killer sounds at all relevant, give it a test.
You're getting me closer and closer to giving it a shot, Rumpy. I'm definitely tempted. I've always been really cautious with the top end of my curve, but the payoff seems really good. I'm just imagining Berserking it, drawing 16 and dropping 5 guys on my opponent's end step.

All right, dammit, you've convinced me

I just bought and traded for 8 of the last 9 cards for this deck, and now this

Sounds worth a try to me!

Artaud · Post by **Artaud** » 4 years ago

Rumpy5897 wrote: ↑
4 years ago
Ayy, Artaud reemerged Been a while since I've seen you around.

Hi there Rumpy

Yea, I posted some here and there but I'm not active as I used to be. I don't even play Magic anymore and it's not because of "pandemic situation" we have. Two small kids are sucking time and life out of me but I hope to have at least one sparring partner at home later after some "investment"

I'm still fond of deckbuilding though. Even if only on "paper".

3drinks · Post by **3drinks** » 4 years ago

So, I don't see it in the decklist, but I see it on Grothama's edhrec page frequently, and I'm of the opinion that it deserves a slot here, Dragon Throne of Tarkir. A massive, repeatable overrun effect, who cares that Grothama isn't attacking, that's one activated ability away from crushing death.

Post by **SquirrelToken** » 4 years ago

3drinks wrote: ↑
4 years ago
So, I don't see it in the decklist, but I see it on Grothama's edhrec page frequently, and I'm of the opinion that it deserves a slot here, Dragon Throne of Tarkir. A massive, repeatable overrun effect, who cares that Grothama isn't attacking, that's one activated ability away from crushing death.

It's in Rumpy's old list from Salvation, and I've definitely put a copy in my list.

One other sac outlet that I thought of last night was Phyrexian Dreadnought. Do some damage to Grothama but not enough to kill her? Dreadnought! Sac her and a chump or two and you've got a huge beater. Then you can recast her next turn and draw 12 cards. It's sorcery-speed, but I think it feels good.

Kyra Warsong · Post by **Kyra Warsong** » 4 years ago

3drinks wrote: ↑
4 years ago
So, I don't see it in the decklist, but I see it on Grothama's edhrec page frequently, and I'm of the opinion that it deserves a slot here, Dragon Throne of Tarkir. A massive, repeatable overrun effect, who cares that Grothama isn't attacking, that's one activated ability away from crushing death.

I used to run Dragon Throne of Tarkir. The reason that I cut it was that it was such a huge up-front investment to activate for the first time, I rarely managed to pull it off. Obviously, in the magical world of infinite mana you can do anything you like, but I do want to keep the number of cards whose cost is so high I won't usually be able to cast it unless I'm infinite to a minimum, hence my reticence to try Myojin of Life's Web.

SquirrelToken wrote: ↑
4 years ago
One other sac outlet that I thought of last night was Phyrexian Dreadnought. Do some damage to Grothama but not enough to kill her? Dreadnought! Sac her and a chump or two and you've got a huge beater. Then you can recast her next turn and draw 12 cards. It's sorcery-speed, but I think it feels good.

I had a Phyrexian Dreadnought back in the day, I traded it for something. Damn thing got real expensive since then. Do please try it out, I'd love to hear how it works.

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