Ghalta Landfall
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Table of Contents
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Deck Overview
I'm a simple man. I ramp hard. I swing hard. When I swing with creatures, I swing with green creatures.
No creature is more green to me than Ghalta, Primal Hunger. His power and toughness ranks among the best in the format - he's a two turn clock without the need for auras or equipment. He tramples. He can reliably come out for a mere two green mana, regardless of accrued commander tax, by doing what green wants to do: playing creatures.
My efforts in deck construction were entirely about how to best guarantee Ghalta is always in play, in a way that was different from decks I saw on EDHRec. I decided I'd build a landfall deck, because most landfall cards, if not creatures themselves, create tokens that work toward lowering Ghalta's cost, or they put +1/+1 counters on creatures, doing the same. Landfall strategies are at their best with additional lands per turn, so I went hard into that as a strategy for my ramp.
Ghalta Landfall fetches and plays additional forests in addition to creatures and enchantments with landfall to overrun the battlefield. At a wrath-heavy table, your battlefield full of basic forests should remain untouched and more than sufficient to keep Ghalta in play.
No creature is more green to me than Ghalta, Primal Hunger. His power and toughness ranks among the best in the format - he's a two turn clock without the need for auras or equipment. He tramples. He can reliably come out for a mere two green mana, regardless of accrued commander tax, by doing what green wants to do: playing creatures.
My efforts in deck construction were entirely about how to best guarantee Ghalta is always in play, in a way that was different from decks I saw on EDHRec. I decided I'd build a landfall deck, because most landfall cards, if not creatures themselves, create tokens that work toward lowering Ghalta's cost, or they put +1/+1 counters on creatures, doing the same. Landfall strategies are at their best with additional lands per turn, so I went hard into that as a strategy for my ramp.
Ghalta Landfall fetches and plays additional forests in addition to creatures and enchantments with landfall to overrun the battlefield. At a wrath-heavy table, your battlefield full of basic forests should remain untouched and more than sufficient to keep Ghalta in play.
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Current Decklist
Ghalta Landfall
Commander (1)
Sorcery (9)
Artifact (1)
Planeswalker (1)
Enchantment (15)
Creature (29)
Approximate Total Cost:
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Budget Considerations
After taking a look at MTGNexus's price function in the thread builder here, the three cards below struck me as the prime offenders as far as budget unfriendliness goes. Doubling Season and Parallel Lives are already replicated within the deck as a card ability I was looking for a healthy threshold of. The Great Henge is just a nice value card that ramps and draws, which I was looking to do. Replacing any of the three ought not be too difficult, but you'll be losing some best in class card power in doing so.
- Doubling Season ~$85
- The Great Henge ~$65
- Parallel Lives ~$45
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Deck Strategy
Early Game Strategy
- Ditch any hand with less than two lands.
- Ramp till you can play a landfall token-maker.
Mid-Game Strategy
- Sandbag a landfall card or two in case of wipes, but generally landfall hard and ramp harder.
- Play Ghalta when you can.
- Swing lots.
Late-Game
- Ghalta Landfall wins via combat. Maybe that's commander damage; maybe it's going wide. You'll know when you've won. In the meantime, just keep doing and redoing that thing you do.
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Card Choice Discussion
Notable Includes
Includes
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- Exploration - Best ramp in the deck!
- Azusa, Lost but Seeking - Comes down late but catches up great!
- Titania, Nature's Force - Almost a new commander deck when I decided Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer was boring. Morphed into Ghalta.
- Ancient Greenwarden - My favorite of the deck's doublers category.
Notable Excludes
Excludes
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- Gaea's Cradle - This card single-cardedly redefines a scary board state when it comes to token armies. I'm ramping fine without it. Let's not invite a wrath.
- Craterhoof Behemoth - Again, there's a bit of flying under the radar at the heart of the deck, and Behemoth, rightly, changes the calculus opponents are making vis a vis threat perception.
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Credit & Thanks
A good local friend of mine - Mike Perez - has been running an Azusa deck for as long as I can recall. When I need help with green, I hop on Facebook Messenger and get it.
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Change Log
03/02/23
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03/01/23
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02/27/23
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*****Credit for this Primer Template belongs to all members of the Primer Committee*****
