After a small hiatus from EDH, I started to look for a new deck to play and tune. I've gotten a little tired of my Rhys EDH deck, not having as much fun playing it as I used to. My favorite deck of all time is (still) my Endrek
Sacrifice shenanigans deck (see sig), so natu
Rally I started to look in the direction of decks that had the same engine-y feel to it (see thread in strategy section).
After trying a slew of different suggested generals, and had fun, but nothing really clicked. Usually, if I don't like decks enough after a couple of games, I won't like them enough to keep around.
So, I started to look in a different direction: big, splashy effects. Maybe I just need a totally different style of deck to complement my Endrek deck.
Enter
Wort, the Raidmother. After a bit of searching and tweaking, I ended up with this list:
General1
Wort, the RaidmotherShe looked fun, and I hadn't seen a lot of Wort decks around (even back when I used to play a lot of EDH), so that appealed to me. Second, she looks like she can do busted stuff.
Ramp1
Nature's Lore1
Rampant Growth1
Kodama's Reach1
Cultivate1
Explosive Vegetation1
Skyshroud Claim1
Boundless Realms1
Animist's Awakening1
Mana Geyser1
Oracle of Mul DayaNot only does Wort cost 6 mana to cast, I'm planning to cast big things so I need a lot of mana. Plus, these can put the game into 5th gear fast when copied with Wort. I started by including the most obvious early/midgame ones and ended with 3 cards that can potentially go nuts when copied. Also, some obvious standbys.
Draw1
Harmonize1
Shamanic Revelation1
Collective Unconscious1
Reforge the SoulWith all the ramp, I'm bound to empty my hand fast. Oh, did I mention I was going the token
Route? When everything goes right,
Revelations and CU should draw me enormous amounts of cards.
Recursion1
Regrowth1
Recollect1
Restock1
Volcanic Vision1
Past in Flames1
Eternal Witness1
Sol RingThe biggest problem I always had with playing big-spell, lotsa-token EDH decks in the past, is that a single counter spell can sometimes ruin your day. Or, when someone plays a Wrath to wipe the board before you can do something fun with it. So, I built in some recursion. Incidentally, most of these can be copied. I think I will replace the Witness with something spell-based as well, although sometimes she helps with Convoke.
Copy1
Reiterate1
Pyromancer's Goggles1
Wild Ricochet1
Howl of the Horde1
Increasing Vengeance1
MirariWhat's better than having a big effect? Having more. Wort already does this well, these just make it ridiculous. With Wort out and one of these, a single big spell gets ridiculous.
Tokens1
Goblin Offensive1
Tempt with Vengeance1
Sylvan Offering1
Hordeling Outburst1
Krenko's Command1
Dragon Fodder1
Goblin Rally1
Empty the Warrens1
Siege-Gang Commander1
Krenko, Mob Boss1
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker1
Chancellor of the Forge1
Beetleback Chief1
Young Pyromancer1
Avenger of Zendikar1
Ant Queen1
Dragon Broodmother1
Dragonlair SpiderSo I mentioned tokens. I meant it. The deck contains a lot of token makers. The one-shot
Goblin makers become quite good with all the cards that do something with creatures, and they fuel Wort. I included a small
Goblin package, because I can, and because Krenko is ridiculous anyway. The headliners are the 3 spells at the top. With some help, these make for the most busted game-ending plays the deck is capable of. I'm not really sure what Kiki-Jiki is doing in the deck, but I might as well eh?
Stuff to do with tokens1
Purphoros, God of the Forge1
Craterhoof Behemoth1
Parallel Lives1
Doubling Season1
Mana Echoes1
Goblin Bombardment1
Earthcraft1
SkullclampWe've all seen these before. Hey, I didn't say the deck was super original. No need to explain these cards, I think.
Other big stuff1
Comet Storm1
Banefire1
Clan Defiance1
Rude AwakeningWith all the ramp and copying I will be doing, I need some more big spells. Some X-spells to either
Remove pesky creatures, or just point at someones face. Or multiple faces when copied.
Rude Awakening functions as a win condition on its own (it's not rare to have 30 lands in play), or as turbo ramp when copied.
Random removal1
Beast Within1
Hull Breach1
Decimate1
Blasphemous Act1
Chaos Warp1
Artifact MutationSince I'm a spell deck, some generic spells to
Remove problematic permanents. Even big spell decks need some defenses.
Artifact Mutation doubles as token maker, obviously.
Specialty lands1
Kessig Wolf Run1
Boseiju, Who Shelters All1
Gaea's Cradle1
Kher Keep1
Khalni GardenIt always feels a bit weird to have
Khalni Garden in the same category as
Gaea's Cradle, but there you go.
Kher Keep and
Khalni Garden are in here because they make tokens to Convoke with. Kissing Wolf Run to have something to do with my mana when my big spells aren't there (and to potentially kill someone with general damage if needs be). Boseiju because, well, we're a spell deck. Cradle because.
Other lands1
Rootbound Crag1
Temple of Abandon1
Command Tower1
Gruul Turf1
Evolving Wilds1
Terramorphic Expanse14
Mountain11
ForestI'm contemplating removing the duals because I gene
Rally don't have a problem finding my colors with this deck. I do run into running out of basics to fetch (happened a couple of times now).
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There's a couple of cards I'm not sure about. I might want to include one or 2 haste-givers and maybe some mana doubling while I'm at it. I'm a little sad that
Warp World isn't really suited for a deck with that many spells, because it's one of my favorite cards. Maybe I should include it anyway, just to see if I can put my whole deck into play. I really want another big spell that's not a) mana, b) direct damage or c) tokens, but I haven't really found the right fit yet.
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There you have it. I've thought this would be super janky (sometimes I'm naive like that), but it's not. It's been ridiculously explosive. Maybe a little too explosive for some games. It ramps like crazy and then finishes the game within a couple of big turns.
That last point might be a reason not to whip out the deck too often. I mean, I have a lot of fun making 60 tokens in a turn, getting 60*60 mana with
Mana Echoes and draw 60 cards with
Shamanic Revelations, but I'm not so sure if my opponents find it as entertaining as I do.
I though it wouldn't be too hard to
Disrupt (a couple of well-timed removal pieces or
Counterspells minimize the explosive potential), but so far nobody has been able to. The only game I lost was to another big G/R
Elemental Omnath deck that killed me in one shot by having
Gratuitous Violence and
Perilous Forays with 10 mana up.
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I'd love some input on this deck. Mainly:
- Does this deck strike you as too much of an obvious big-spell yawn fest, or does it look fun?
- What big mana spell would you have the most fun losing from? (either already in or not yet)
- Anything I missed that should definitely be included?