Yeva, Nature's Herald - Mono-Green Flash

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BlackbirdPlaysMTG
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Post by BlackbirdPlaysMTG » 1 year ago

Yeva, Nature's Herald - Mono-Green Flash


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Table of Contents



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A Short Introduction


Hey all :),


This deck has been heavily inspired by Iansisle's deck from the MTGSalvation forums. Sadly, the author seems to be inactive for a while now - the last post he wrote dates back to 2019. I really liked the Yeva, Nature's Herald deck that he designed and his general ideas for it, so I have used his list as a starting point for the creation of my own Yeva, Nature's Herald deck and tune it so it fits nicely into the meta that I play in. I already added some strong cards from (recent) sets like Circle of Dreams Druid and Heartwood Storyteller and made some changes to it after playing the list for an extensive amount of time.



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Commander/Archetype Analysis


Why Play Yeva, Nature's Herald?

Coming soon!


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Deck Philosophy



Coming soon!

Deck Attributes

Card Draw:
Resilience:
Ramp:
Cost:
Linearity:
Scare Factor:
Combos:
Difficulty:
Commander Dependancy:
Speed:
Interaction:



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Current Decklist


Decklist Sorted by Role and CMC

Commander

Approximate Total Cost:


Archidekt link: https://www.archidekt.com/decks/3002870 ... d_08102023


Yeva Main Decklist Budget Cuts

Yeva can be build on any budget. If you shave off the two most expensive cards - Gaea's Cradle and Survival of the Fittest - you have already lowered the price of the deck by roughly 66%! Are they good in the deck? Sure, but there are enough quality cards in green to fill in the void. In this section I will briefly go over cards that could be cut to make the deck more affordable, and give some suggestions for replacements.

What To Remove

  • Gaea's Cradle: I have been playing this list without Gaea's Cradle and it performs totally fine without it, especially if you do have Nykthos. Taking Cradle out already halves the price of the deck.
  • Survival of the Fittest: You can shave off another €150 by taking out Survival of the Fittest. Sure, it is a great repeatable tutor, but there are many green tutors that are more affordable.



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Yeva On A €-- Budget (WIP)


Yeva, Nature's Herald - €-- Budget Decklist (Sorted by Role & CMC)

Commander

Approximate Total Cost:


Coming soon!


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Piloting The Deck



Early Game: Turn 1-3

Navigating Through The Early Game

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What Cards To Keep In Your Hand?

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Midgame: Turn 4-8

Building A Boardstate

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Get Those Lands Into Play!

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Managing The Boardstate

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Endgame: Turn 9+

A Commanding Presence

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Overwhelming The Opposition

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The Art Of Tutoring

The Tutor Package

In this section of the primer, I will explain when to look for specific cards. Sometimes it is very obvious and other times it is a bit harder to figure out what to do with your tutors, leading to decision paralysis. I hope that this section will clarify a bit what I generally tutor for in different scenarios. During the game you are able to tutor for different creatures. Your tutor package consists of the following cards:

CardTutors ForHand /Top/Battlefield
Summoner's PactCreaturesHand
Crop RotationLandsBattlefield
Green Sun's ZenithGreen CreaturesBattlefield
Wordly TutorCreaturesTop
Fauna ShamanCreaturesHand
Finale of DevastationCreaturesBattlefield
Survival of the FittestCreaturesHand
Archdruid's CharmCreatures/LandsHand/Battlefield
Chord of CallingCreaturesBattlefield
Eldritch EvolutionCreaturesBattlefield
Fierce EmpathCreaturesHand
Natural OrderCreaturesBattlefield
Woodland BellowerCreaturesBattlefield

That is thirteen cards for tutoring purposes in total. During the game you are pretty likely to draw into one or more of them, especially with all the drawing that the deck is capable of. Any of our creatures enchantments could be a viable tutor target at one point in the game. So when do you tutor for what? Or do you perhaps need to hang onto a tutor for a few turns, so you can adapt to the ever-changing boardstate when it is necessary?

Some General Tutoring Advice

  • Try to memorize your deck!: If you manage to do this, it will become easier to ascertain what you want to tutor for in most situations!
  • You have Sythis on the battlefield, but no other enchantress: Time to search for another enchantress! Great targets for tutoring in the midgame.
  • Your opponents are aggressive on board: If you notice that you are getting attacked quite a bit, tutor for cards like Elephant Grass, Ghostly Prison or Sphere of Safety. This deck can struggle a bit with on board pressure from creatures and these cards are great at stopping your opponents from attacking you.
  • You are holding or drawing into quite a few lands: Great! You now need to find a way to get the lands into play and the deck has a small package to do just that. Tutor for Exploration, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove or Azusa, Lost but Seeking. This is a great way of getting a mana lead.
  • You are drawing into Crop Rotation or Sylvan Scrying: These cards only have a few targets, namely Hall of Heliod's Generosity, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Serra's Sanctum. You generally want to first get one of your big mana lands into play. When one of these is online, it is generally a good idea to tutor for Hall of Heliod's Generosity to fight enchantment removal from other players.
  • Your opponents are playing a scary threat: If you have a nice pillowfort set up it you might not want to deal with it. It is great if other players seem more scary than you, since it will divert their attention from you. If you are vulnerable though it might be a good idea to tutor for removal. It is a responsible play, though not splashy play.
  • Your opponents are playing a card that is able to deal with your enchantress engine: Uh oh. DANGER, DANGER. You need to deal with this as quickly as possible. Tutoring for removal is the way to go.
  • You have lots of mana available, engine and pillowfort are set up: Now is the time to tutor for winconditions (one of your token producers). If you have a pillowfort set up Luminarch Ascension can end the game quickly once it is online. For immediate impact it could sometimes be better to find Sigil of the Empty Throne.
  • Your opponents have scary haste/tap shenanigans: The deck has two specific answers for this to slow them down. Tutor for Blind Obedience or Authority of the Consuls.
  • An opponent is using countermagic: You will want to tutor for Destiny Spinner. This card shuts of their counterspells and can put some decent pressure on the board as well with her animate land ability.
  • You are in the midgame/lategame and you are not really being pressured: In this case, I like to tutor for either Mirari's Wake or Nyxbloom Ancient. These cards kick your deck into overdrive. Nyxbloom Ancient is especially powerful when you have a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or Serra's Sanctum in play. This means that they will tap for THREE times as much mana.
  • You have everything set up; your engine, mana, pillowfort and wincondition: In this case I like to hold my tutors. You might need it to deal with something later in the game, or perhaps someone plays a wipe and you have to rebuild.
  • You are aware that your opponents decks include specific cards that hurt you a lot: If you know that your opponents are playing cards like Aura Shards, it might be worth it to hold onto at least one of your tutors in the case these scary cards come online. You can also tutor for Seal of Cleansing and Seal of Primordium so you can deal with these problems at instant speed.



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Card Choice Discussion - Main Decklist




Interaction

An important part of your (creature) toolbox. You have answers to problematic artifacts/enchantments/creatures, big boardstates that are about to swing out at you and much more!
Interaction
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  • Bane of Progress: Bane of Progress is a great answer to artifact and enchantment decks. I play an enchantress deck as well and I dread it when this card ETBs. This deck plays only one artifact (Sol Ring) and a couple of value enchantments. It is annoying losing one or two, but it will hit many opponents a lot harder.
  • Beast Within: Mono-greens primary catch-all answer. Use this to get rid of must answer permanents. It is instant speed, so it fits nicely in the playstyle of the deck.
  • Caustic Caterpillar: Caustic Caterpillar is one of the few answers to artifacts and enchantments in the deck, something green is pretty good at. The great thing about Caustic Caterpillar is that it does not get hit by things like Hushbringer.
  • Kogla, the Titan Ape: Kogla the Titan Ape is one of the few answers that mono-green has versus opposing creatures. It also removes artifacts and enchantments when it attacks. Overall, a solid creature that is aggressively statted.
  • Loaming Shaman: Loaming Shaman is the answer to the graveyard shenanigans of our opponents. Through Yeva you can flash it in as a response to things like Animate Dead or graveyard loops. It can also be used to move key creatures (and possibly tutors) back into our deck so we can find them again.
  • Manglehorn: Mangehorn is great at slowing artifact decks and decks that play mana rocks down a bit. It comes with a nice 'destroy target artifact' ETB ability.
  • Reclamation Sage: Reclamation Sage is the standard-duty creature that destroys target artifact or enchantment. It is not fancy, but efficiently costed and an elf, which is relevant for some cards in our deck like Wirewood Symbiote and Priest of Titania.
  • Spore Frog: Spore Frog is one of the key creatures when you are confronted with aggressive opponent. You can flash it in when an opponent is about to take out a large chunk of your life total. It pairs nicely with Genesis - you can return it from your graveyard so you can use it once every turn cycle.
  • Terastodon: Great removal card that can target anything but creatures. It comes with a nice beefy body that can be used aggressively or defensively. You could even target your own lands if you need blockers in a pinch. The deck generates enough mana to cast this eight-mana elephant.
  • Timbermare: Timbermare is a strong card that basically does not see play in commander. It is pretty good in a flash-based Yeva deck though! It has a few uses. You can use it to prevent someone from attacking you by flashing it in before the opponents combat step, tapping all creatures. It can also be used to tap all creatures in the end step of the player before you, so you untap with your creatures on a board without any available blockers. Timbermare pairs nicely with Temur Sabertooth as you can use it multiple times per turn cycle if you have the available mana.
  • Ulvenwald Tracker: Ulvenwald Tracker is one of the ways this deck can deal with opposing creatures. If you have Yeva, Nature's Herald on the board you can take out most utility creatures from your opponents and the deck also plays bigger bodies to deal with bigger creatures on the board.


Draw

Drawing cards in EDH is good and this deck really values it. More cards means more deployable creatures, and more creatures means more snowballing until you can take the opposition out with Kamahl, Fist of Krosa or Craterhoof Behemoth!
Draw
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  • Beast Whisperer: Beast Whisperer is one of the creatures that reward us by playing creatures, something this deck really likes to do anyway - every time you cast a creature you get to draw a card.
  • Duskwatch Recruiter: Great manasink in this deck! This deck is able to generate lots of mana and has a high creature density. More often than not you will find a creature card in the top three of your deck.
  • Elvish Visionary: Elvish Visionary cantrips when she enters the battlefield. This card is pretty solid when you pair it with Temur Sabertooth and Wirewood Symbiote.
  • Evolutionary Leap:
  • Genesis Wave: You often have a lot of mana available and pumping it into a Genesis Wave is a great way to advance your boardstate. The deck constantly of mostly permanents (apart from the tutors mainly), so you will always hit a lot of stuff.
  • Glademuse: Glademuse rewards us for doing stuff in our opponents turn. He also awards cards to opponents who do the same though, so be careful.
  • Greater Good: Greater Good is excellent in a creature-focused deck. You can do a lot of stuff with this card. You could sacrifice creatures in response to removal or a boardwipe, or just sac a fattie (or Yeva) to cycle through your deck quicker.
  • Heartwood Storyteller: This card is a house. It will draw you a lot over the course of the game. Sure, your opponents will draw cards too but since our deck is mostly creatures we in particular won't feed many cards to our opponents.
  • Krosan Tusker: At first glance, this might seem like a strange inclusion. Why play a mostly vanilla 6/5? I like this card because it is a decent three mana play. Cycling it to draw a card and a forest may be a boring play, but I am never that unhappy to see it. You can also flash it in as a big surprise blocker or sac it to Greater Good.
  • Magus of the Library: It is pretty easy for this deck to stay around 7 cards in your hand, so drawing with it is not that hard. Otherwise, it is a serviceable dork.
  • Nissa, Vastwood Seer: This is a pet card of mine. I love, LOVE flipwalker Nissa. She is pretty solid in the deck. It is an okay turn three play that helps you hit your land drops and later in the game you can make decently sized blocker or just draw cards.
  • Primordial Sage: Primordial Sage is one of the creatures that reward us by playing creatures, something this deck really likes to do anyway - every time you cast a creature you get to draw a card.
  • Regal Force: Regal Force can draw you a lot of cards. Even if you play it on curve you can generally draw like 4-5 cards.
  • Soul of the Harvest: Soul of the Harvest is one of the creatures that reward us by playing creatures, something this deck really likes to do anyway - every time you cast a creature you get to draw a card.
  • Sylvan Library: A green staple. It's not a creature card, but it is just really powerful. In it goes!
  • Vizier of the Menagerie: Since about half of our deck is creatures, this card will be online quite often. Playing cards of the top is good. We also play quite a few shuffle and draw effects, which means that it gets reset quite often. I prefer it over Augur of Autumn, which could fulfil a similar role.


Utility

Our suite of utility creatures. These fill in various roles that are not found in other categories.
Utility
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  • Bramble Sovereign: This card can generate a lot of extra value by copying key creatures in the deck, like card draw creatures, mana creatures or even a Seedborn Muse! I think it is cuttable in this list, since we are able to generate a lot of value already, but it is just so much fun to play with.
  • Eternal Witness: A classic green recursion staple.
  • Genesis: Repeatable recursion that can be used to bring back our key creatures. He like to be pitched to Survival of the Fittest and Fauna Shaman, or sacrificed to Eldritch Evolution and Natural Order.
  • Invasive Species: This common is an excellent fit for the deck. If someone points removal at a key creature, you can bounce it back to your hand. Can also be used to recycle ETB effects.
  • Seedborn Muse: This card kicks Yeva into a few gears higher just by herself. Being able to play on every opponents' turn is just insane. She untaps all your (value) lands AND your dorks. If this card lands and sticks, and you have some form of card draw, you are in a commanding position usually.
  • Temur Sabertooth: Another key card. Temur Sabertooth helps us protect our key pieces, helps us to bounce back from board wipes completely unaffected (float your mana, let the wipe resolve and flash in Yeva + company again) and recycle ETB effects. He's also part of possible infinite mana combos (although this deck does not really capitalise on that).
  • Wirewood Symbiote: Wirewood Symbiote does a lot for a tiny one drop. He protects Yeva and key elves by bouncing them, and untaps your big dorks for additional mana.


Tutor

The deck is very toolbox-y, so these card let us find the right creature at the right moment. I am someone who likes to be flexible, so I included quite a few of them! I know this is not everyone's cup of tea (and some find it tough to decide what to get). See the section 'The Art of Tutoring' for some tutoring tips and tricks.


Finisher

These guys are the cherry on top. Once you have amassed a big enough boardstate, you can start swinging in for the win by stampeding over your opponents.
Finisher
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  • Craterhoof Behemoth: Craterhoof is the iconic green finisher. He boosts all your creatures by large numbers and gives them trample. When you play him, games are about to end.
  • Kamahl, Fist of Krosa: Kamahl is a strong finisher, since we produce so much mana. You will be able to activate his overrun ability multiple times when you swing for the win. There is also a meaner use for him: since he can animate any land you can also animate opponents' lands in response to a boardwipe, setting them back to the stone age.


Ramp

Ramping is important for most decks in Commander. This deck is very mana-intensive as we want to pump out creatures often or react to plays, so we need all the mana we can get.
Ramp
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  • Circle of Dreams Druid: This dork can tap for a lot of mana in this deck. Also synergises nicely with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Karametra's acolyte because of the three pips.
  • Elvish Mystic: A trusty dork to smooth out the deck. Great early, and cantrips cheaply later with all the creature-based draw. Can also pitch it to Survival of the Fittest.
  • Fyndhorn Elves: A trusty dork to smooth out the deck. Great early, and cantrips cheaply later with all the creature-based draw. Can also pitch it to Survival of the Fittest.
  • Growing Rites of Itlimoc: First it smooths out our game plan by finding a creature, and it flips with relative ease into another Gaea's Cradle. This card is good!
  • Karametra's Acolyte: Can tap for a lot of mana if we have a big board state. This card can generate even more mana than Gaea's Cradle in the late game!
  • Krosan Restorer: Taps for one mana, until you get out Gaea's Cradle or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Then it suddenly becomes one of the best mana dorks in the deck. Don't forget about the threshold ability!
  • Llanowar Elves: A trusty dork to smooth out the deck. Great early, and cantrips cheaply later with all the creature-based draw. Can also pitch it to Survival of the Fittest.
  • Priest of Titania: We play quite a few elves and our commander is one too, so this dork can tap for more than one usually.
  • Regal Behemoth: A mana doubler... on a creature! Regal Behemoth is a great card to flash in before we want to do mana intensive stuff. Be careful though, the effect only works if you are the monarch!
  • Sakura-Tribe Elder: Sakura-Tribe Elder never let's me down. Green staple (and most importantly, a creature).
  • Selvala, Heart of the Wilds: Selvala is pretty good. With Yeva out she taps for three minimum, she occasionally draws us a card and if you have something bigger out she taps for a lot.
  • Shaman of Forgotten Ways: Shaman taps for two mana, and has a very powerful ability. It can turn the tide of the game. Be careful when you play him though, as he might paint a target on your back.
  • Sol Ring: A true and tested commander staple. The first card we add to our decks, right? It's the only artifact I am running.
  • Voyaging Satyr: Taps for one mana, until you get out Gaea's Cradle or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Then it suddenly becomes one of the best mana dorks in the deck.


Land

Being in mono-green we can afford to run a decent number of non-basic utility lands. I like the amount I am running now, feels about right. Don't go too overboard and cut all your forests.
Land
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  • Blighted Woodland: Taps for a colourless mana, and we can crack it whenever we have mana left to ramp us ahead. Solid.
  • Castle Garenbrig: This land is great in a creature-heavy deck. We can tap five mana to generate six mana.
  • Command Beacon: If Yeva becomes too expensive, we can always use Command Beacon to return her to our hand and cast her for four.
  • Deserted Temple: Great in combination with Gaea's Cradle and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - you'll generate insane amounts of mana. Can also be used to untap War Room for extra cards or Yavimaya Hollow to protect your creatures.
  • 26 Forest: The backbone of our manabase.
  • Gaea's Cradle: Insane card, but it comes with a heavy price tag.
  • High Market:
  • Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: Probably the best land in our deck in the lategame. We have many cards with double pips, so it will generate more many than even Gaea's Cradle.
  • War Room: When we really don't have anything else to do or anything to respond to, we can always use the mana to draw a card.
  • Yavimaya Hollow: This card can save a creature from removal or prevent our opponents from removing our creatures in the first place.
  • Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth: Basically a forest, but it makes it so that our utility lands tap for green as well. Useful effect.



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Credit & Thanks



Coming soon!


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Primer History


Dear Diary,


Augustus 4th, 2022
I have been interested in mono-green decks for years now. In fact, my first deck was a Nissa, Vastwood Seer // Nissa, Sage Animist list. Over the past eight or so years I have played Nissa, OG Omnath, Yeva, Titania, Yisan and Azusa. A few weeks ago I decided to sell a part of my collection and upgrade my Yeva, Nature's Herald deck. I have been heavily influenced by a list that Iansisle created on the MTGSalvation forums. Decided to create a thread for it a few days ago, as I would like to update the original list with cards that have been coming out in the past few years.

October 9th, 2023
Been playing the list for quite a while now, so felt like updating this thread and deck a bit! I can really recommend this list to anyone who wants to play something green but slightly different and more interactive.



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Changelog & Set Reviews


Changelog

Changelog 09/10/2023
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The Changes:

REMOVED :fuming:
  • Bonders' Enclave: I rarely used the ability. I think having War Room in the deck is good enough. I have been valueing my forests lately.
  • Boseiju, Who Endures: I basically never used the ability, and I already have some ways in the deck to deal with artifacts, lands and enchantments. My only copy is currently in my Enchantress list.
  • Brutalizer Exarch: He has been solid and flexible in the deck, but he is a bit clunky. Sometimes the tutor to the top instead of to the hand really mattered.
  • Magus of the Candelabra: This card is only good with Gaea's Cradle or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, and I already have Voyaging Satyr, Krosan Restorer and Deserted Temple to untap my value lands. There have been so many games were I would have preferred it to be a normal dork. So, that is exactly what I took it out for.
  • Myriad Landscape: I really don't like lands that come into play tapped.
  • Tempt with Discovery: Some of my opponents are smart enough to tutor land destruction lands, so it became a lot less good. I think I will stick with just Crop Rotation. Tempt was also a bit off-theme I suppose.
ADDED :)
Changelog 02/03/2024
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The Changes:

REMOVED :fuming:
  • Protean Hulk: I can't really abuse the Protean hulk. It's okay in case of a boardwipe and I can sac it to Greater Good. That's about it.
ADDED :)
  • Archdruid's Charm: This card looks awesome. It does cost triple green, but we are in mono-green so even casting this on curve is possible quite a lot of the time. It can find me my quality lands, tutor creatures and act as removal for creatures/artifacts/enchantments in a pinch. Also, instant speed. Great addition!

Set Reviews


Set Review - ...
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*****Credit for this Primer Template belongs to all members of the Primer Committee*****
Last edited by BlackbirdPlaysMTG 3 weeks ago, edited 8 times in total.

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User avatar
BlackbirdPlaysMTG
Lost but seeking
Posts: 180
Joined: 3 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted
Location: The Netherlands
Contact:

Post by BlackbirdPlaysMTG » 5 months ago

Hello everyone! I decided to work a bit on this decklist and update the topic as it was a complete mess :rofl: . More topic updates will follow soon. For now, I want to post the recent changes I made to the decklist:

Changelog 09/10/2023

The Changes:

REMOVED :fuming:
  • Bonders' Enclave: I rarely used the ability. I think having War Room in the deck is good enough. I have been valueing my forests lately.
  • Boseiju, Who Endures: I basically never used the ability, and I already have some ways in the deck to deal with artifacts, lands and enchantments. My only copy is currently in my Enchantress list.
  • Brutalizer Exarch: He has been solid and flexible in the deck, but he is a bit clunky. Sometimes the tutor to the top instead of to the hand really mattered.
  • Magus of the Candelabra: This card is only good with Gaea's Cradle or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, and I already have Voyaging Satyr, Krosan Restorer and Deserted Temple to untap my value lands. There have been so many games were I would have preferred it to be a normal dork. So, that is exactly what I took it out for.
  • Myriad Landscape: I really don't like lands that come into play tapped.
  • Tempt with Discovery: Some of my opponents are smart enough to tutor land destruction lands, so it became a lot less good. I think I will stick with just Crop Rotation. Tempt was also a bit off-theme I suppose.
ADDED :)

User avatar
BlackbirdPlaysMTG
Lost but seeking
Posts: 180
Joined: 3 years ago
Pronoun: Unlisted
Location: The Netherlands
Contact:

Post by BlackbirdPlaysMTG » 3 weeks ago

A really nice tutor and removal spell all in one card came out in MKM, so I had to put it in. Traded one today :grin:.

Changelog 02/03/2024

The Changes:

REMOVED :fuming:
  • Protean Hulk: I can't really abuse the Protean hulk. It's okay in case of a boardwipe and I can sac it to Greater Good. That's about it.
ADDED :)
  • Archdruid's Charm: This card looks awesome. It does cost triple green, but we are in mono-green so even casting this on curve is possible quite a lot of the time. It can find me my quality lands, tutor creatures and act as removal for creatures/artifacts/enchantments in a pinch. Also, instant speed. Great addition!

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