Patron of the Orochi - The Cockroach Tron

[Rumpy5897]

2025 saw a pretty major dynamic shift in the group's play by virtue of reintroducing the fourth member, who spent the prior few years away. Said fourth member came with a Wort in tow which slotted in effortlessly into the big boy bracket. This led to the typical big boy game shifting from Aurelia trying to pacify the Patron keg into two separate kegs threatening explosion and Aurelia failing to keep up. My main threat is no longer getting zerged before I go off, now it's the other guy going off before me. As such, Jaheira's Respite became a natural cut for Lifestream's Blessing.

A couple months back the Wort friend did 21 goldfishes to evaluate how consistent his deck was. I figured I'd do the same, and pulled up 21 Patron hands to see what would happen. I've put plenty goldfishes on Patron over the years, but mostly to evaluate efficiency of setting up rather than taking them through all the way, so this was interesting.

21 Goldfishes

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T5 (sabertooth)
T6 (nemata, old school swarm)
T5 (earthcraft)
T4 (earthcraft)
T6 (sabertooth)
T6 (sabertooth)
T6 (earthcraft)
T5 (sabertooth)
T6 (selvala staff)
T10 (genwave, kept zero action hand)
T6 (earthcraft)
T5 (sabertooth)
T5 (staff, went to 6)
T5 (earthcraft)
T5 (earthcraft, went to 6)
T7 (sabertooth)
T6 (earthcraft)
T6 (sabertooth)
T5 (kamahl staff)
T7 (earthcraft)
T5 (sabertooth)

Of the 21 attempts, 3 failed to kill before turn 6, with the remaining 18 being a near even split between turn 5 and 6 plus a solitary turn 4 nut draw. Interestingly, most of the kills were off Earthcraft or Temur Sabertooth infinites, with the Selvala Staff setups being quite rare. It was also nice to see a single old-school swarm win sneak into there, I wish I kept tabs on how fat the lands were in the Earthcraft wins to see how necessary Ant Queen is.

And then Avatar hit, and now we have another Rampant Growth and another tall draw. The tall draw needs to go in for sure, having it be permanent-based is superior for Genesis Wave applications, but the redundancy creep I moaned about continues creeping - I need to evaluate if I'm happy with my Rampant Growth and tall draw density as is. An insane sentence to utter from the perspective of this deck's early years. In less dreary matters, Tectonic Split is a cute 1.5-times multiplier. Think I sit this one out, but it's a neat design, synergising with earthbending pieces that will never grace the 99 here.

Oh, also the returned fourth member seems to be on the cusp of drifting away again, so that will shift the play dynamic again. Should Jaheira's Respite return? Who knows!

[Rumpy5897]

The 2025 Update

Let's handily roll all of the prior year's musings into a single bunch of swaps.

The 2025 Update

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Out:

1 Green Sun's Zenith

1 Jaheira's Respite

In:

1 Nature's Rhythm

1 The Legend of Kyoshi

1 Green Sun's Zenith 1 Jaheira's Respite 1 Nature's Rhythm 1 The Legend of Kyoshi //Sideboard

To summarise, Nature's Rhythm > Green Sun's Zenith because it hits the bin, making it worth to cough up one mana more for it and be able to combo out with it. Situational meta card is situational and meta, comparably cuttable in the face of needing slots. Tall draws good, The Legend of Kyoshi being a permanent is good for secondary bits of synergy like being slammed in off a Majestic Genesis, the deck performed consistently in the 21 goldfish bout even prior to the swaps so this should probably be enough tall draw. Lifestream's Blessing never made it to the actual thread as a deck member, but it was honestly the weakest of the tall draw options. Costing five or less is awesome as you can dunk it in off Rishkar's Expertise and keep the chain going. Season of Gathering either gets you two more cards, or has some other interactive options I'm yet to use. Last March of the Ents is relatively likely to dunk in some bodies. By contrast, Blessing merely being instant speed is less of a benefit. Yeah yeah, there's technically the anti Patron whack clause, but as has been established it's not actually that relevant.

I figured I'd handle the new Rampant Growth in the only way I know how - by sticking goldfishes on it. The list is currently already rocking 12 sub-3-drop ramp options, which is a known good number for having access to one in the early turns of the game. I pulled up Cultivate and gave it the option to be anything it wanted to be from the set of itself, Rampant Growth or Explosive Vegetation. 30 goldfishes in, the Vegetation and Cultivate were neck in neck at 11 picks each, Rampant Growth was picked 5 times (mostly to rush out a 4 cost in the absence of a cheap ramp piece in the starting hand), and the card was ignored in sequencing three times. This is consistent with remarks in the thread throughout the years - the list doesn't do an amazing job drawing ahead of the Patron, so the extra land to hand from the Cultivate is quite nice.

In light of these tweaks, all primary categories of the deck are now below redundancy creep levels. This should reduce decision paralysis going forward.

[Avz]

I like your list and it's one of the first lists I looked at when making my version a couple years ago. The dedication to basically all forests is very commendable! I've been a big fan of Patron of the Orochi and have been upgrading, and icing him out over the last couple of years after switching off of Jolrael, Empress of Beasts.

There are a lot of similarities between our lists but also a lot of differences! I think the biggest difference is that I go for a storm style of win by chaining draw spells together instead of infinite combos. I basically always win off of either Aeve, Progenitor Ooze or Squall Line + Glacial Chasm. Storming off with mana and cards by saccing Patron to Momentous Fall [/card] then replaying it when I have a haste enabler is just so much fun haha. Interestingly, I think we have pretty similar turn structures with my list probably being about a turn slower in general.

It feels like you're not taking full advantage of being able to sneak Patron out at a reduced cost by playing more snakes. Reading through some of the previous discussions it sounds like you've already tested a lot of the options but I still find it surprising that things like Skullwinder, Orochi Sustainer, and Mutable Explorer don't feel good enough for you. Have you also thought about Woodland Guidance? You play a lot more land ramp than I do and have only forests so I feel like it would be pretty great. I also really like Early Harvest.

My list if you're curious https://archidekt.com/decks/9894402/patron_of_ramp

[Rumpy5897]

You're running a whole bunch of stuff that's been hovering on the putative include list for a while. The Squall Line plus Glacial Chasm finish sounds super cute, but less inherently tutorable and you need to actually sneak the Chasm in as well somehow. Do the Aeve wins largely depend on Concordant Crossroads?

My general issue with the snakes is that just rushing Patron out is not all that useful by itself. You need a sizeable mana pool to untap to reliably do stupid things, and while having Patron out sooner may help set that up, that's also inviting the pretty likely outcome of him dying somehow. I last gave Skullwinder a proper try in 2023, as documented in here (and read by you), and not a ton has changed since. That said...

I should have stuck my head in here sooner, as Marvel printed The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and flipped the deck on its head. Or, in practical terms, the silly card does what both Ant Queen and Nemata do in their specialised roles, but better than either. So I earmarked both for cutting, and was faced with an open slot. What to do with it? The standard ramp and draw options were available, as were the various perennial near-includes - Skullwinder, Heroic Intervention, what have you. As I haven't been Magicking a ton, I just kind of sat on the open question for a bit, waiting for inspiration to strike.

And inspiration seems to have struck in the form of Pia, Aether Ascetic. If I'm willing to play Planar Portal in here, then Pia with her reach of Earthcraft, Nyxbloom Ancient, a tall draw and Song of the Dryads to start is plenty. Now I'm stuck with a different pickle - do I carve out room for Concordant Crossroads?