Don't F*** with The Mimeoplasm!

First of all, let me preface this post by stating for the record that I do still prefer Damia, Sage of Stone for this color scheme. Unfortunately, so does everyone else in my group. I was a little sad to see the Mimeoplasm getting no love from my playgroup, not to mention it was becoming difficult to play my own Damia deck due to her increased popularity amongst the other members of my group. But, just because I like Damia more, that doesn’t mean I don’t think The Mimeoplasm is straight up gangsta. It’s really just that Damia says “draw lots of cards” in her text box, which always gets me. I’m a sucker for card-drawing engines.

Anyway, disclaimer aside, I figured it was time for me to unleash the Legendary Ooze on my group so they could see what the other GUB Legend is capable of.

As the players in my group have already seen me playing GUB with Damia, and even Vorosh before her, I really wanted to find a way to make this deck different from its predecessors. There was simply no getting around running some of the staples from those past builds, like the Genesis + Evoke Creatures engine, Rite of Replication (duh!) and a handful of other typical GUB Good-Stuff spells.

One of the first things I hit upon when trying to establish the decks identity was the “Graveyard Matters” aspect of The Mimeoplasm. Obviously my chosen General likes to have things in various graveyards to eat.  This leads to some pretty easy logical choices – Buried Alive and Life’s Finale, for example. Graveyards tend to fill up with creatures over a long EDH game, but helping the cause along where possible is not a bad idea.

Another card that likes graveyards to be full is Necrotic Ooze. Once I started thinking about cards like Life’s Finale in conjunction with Necrotic Ooze, I knew exactly where I wanted the deck to go. While graveyard abuse is nothing new or groundbreaking, I’ve never really made use of Necrotic Ooze before, so now was my perfect chance.

Initially, I also wanted to go “all creatures” with the deck, to further distinguish it from my past GUB decks, but that didn’t really pan out. For one thing, not being able to play Rite of Replication was a huge deal breaker, but I also realized there were some cards that this deck just needed to play. I settled on running a maximum of 20 non-creature spells, allowing room for up to 42 Creatures in the deck – the most I’ve ever played in an EDH deck! My hope is that such a creature-saturated deck will still feel different enough that it will have its own identity.

It also helps that this deck does make quite a few card-choices that I wouldn’t have made with any other GUB build – for example, I chose to run Arcanis, the Omnipotent over Consecrated Sphinx. HUH?! That’s right. Simply put, Arcanis plays well with Necrotic Ooze, and Expiriment Kraj, while the Sphinx does not.

There are, of course, plenty of creatures in the deck that do not have an activated ability for the Oozes to copy, but I believe there are around 20 that do. Where possible, I favored activated abilities over static or triggered ones (such as with the Sphinx vs Arcanis conundrum). But I didn’t want the deck to rely entirely on having Necrotic Ooze in play with a full graveyard, so I built the deck to function along different axes depending on how my opponents react to my various strategies.

The deck will clearly have a weakness to graveyard hate, so I did my best to shore up that weakness as best I could. I think it will still have game even with up to 40 to 50 percent of the deck exiled, but it all depends on WHAT get’s nuked, of course… but enough preamble, let’s see the deck!

Creatures

The Mimeoplasm

Dreamscape Artist

Mulldrifter

Phyrexian Metamorph

Morphling

Arcanis the Omnipotent

Death's Shadow

Disciple of Griselbrand

Fleshbag Marauder

Dimir House Guard

Necrotic Ooze

Hell's Caretaker

Shriekmaw

Corpse Connoisseur

Puppeteer Clique

Kagemaro, First to Suffer

Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

Vengeful Pharaoh

Geth, Lord of the Vault

Avatar of Woe

Spirit of the Night

Sakura-Tribe Elder

Riftsweeper

Fauna Shaman

Fertilid

Wood Elves

Eternal Witness

Timbermare

Chameleon Colossus

Seedborn Muse

Putrefax

Acidic Slime

Silklash Spider

Primeval Titan

Thornling

Shadowmage Infiltrator

Cold-Eyed Selkie

Expiriment Kraj

Wrexial, the Risen Deep

Sisters of Stone Death

Mindless Automaton

Solemn Simulacrum

Duplicant

Spells

Intuition

Rite of Replication

Bribery

Diabolic Intent

Buried Alive

Living Death

Life's Finale

Beast Within
Birthing Pod

Greater Good

Asceticism

Creeping Rennaissance

Sol Ring

Coalition Relic

Mimic Vat

Grimoire of the Dead

Lightning Greaves

Sword of Vengeance
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of Light and Shadow

Lands

Breeding Pool

Overgrown Tomb

Watery Grave

Evolving Wilds

Misty Rainforest

Verdant Catacombs

Flooded Grove

Sunken Ruins

Twilight Mire

Dimir Acqueduct

Simic Growth Chamber

Golgari Rot Farm

Drowned Catacomb

Hinterland Harbor

Woodland Cemetary

Llanowar Wastes

Underground River

Yavimaya Coast

Vesuva

Hall of the Bandit Lord

Minamo, School at Water's Edge

Shizo, Death's Storehouse

Volrath's Stronghold

Command Tower

Reflecting Pool

Temple of the False God

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Reliquary Tower

Island x3

Swamp x3

Forest x4

Edited 11/14/01:
- Genesis
- Damnation
- High Market
+ Sword of Feast and Famine
+ Sword of Light and Shadow
+ Hall of the Bandit Lord


Explanation: The cuts were due to lack of cards, and I had to prioritize. For instance, I had three decks calling for Damnation, but only two copies of the card. Someone had to give up their Damnation for something else. Same story with Genesis; that was an easy swap, I just put in Sword of Light and Shadow as it fulfills much the same role. Plus after I got all my decks built I realized I had 75% of my Swords of Stuff and Junk sitting there not in decks, and I couldn't have that!

Hall of the Bandit Lord makes a good fit for the deck, I feel, because it can enable a Haste-y Mimeoplasm one-shot kill. It was also really good with Wrexial, and he's in this deck as well.

The non-Creature selection was tough. I had about 30 cards that I really, REALLY wanted to include, but I was firmly committed to keeping the non-creature count as low as possible, and it turned out 20 was the bottom limit. I’d have been happier with 15, but that meant leaving out some pretty crucial cards. Of course, this led to some pretty fierce competition for slots in the non-creature category, and made for some agonizingly tough decisions on my part as to what to leave out. I’m still iffy on a couple items, but for the most part I think the strength of my choices will speak for themselves. Nonetheless, I will discuss them briefly.

First, the graveyard fuel: Intuition, Buried Alive, Life’s Finale and Greater Good were all primarily chosen for their ability to fill graveyards quickly. Other cards that have different primary functions, but have a secondary effect of adding to the graveyards include: Grimoire of the Dead, Birthing Pod, Diabolic Intent, and of course Damnation. You can see where I chose cards that had a “drawback” or additional “cost” of discarding or sacrificing something, but the deck’s core strategy can easily turn those costs and drawbacks into a benefit, rather than a hindrance.

Living Death is simply a card that thrives in a deck like this, while Rite of Replication, Bribery and Asceticism are more generic “good-stuff” inclusions. Asceticism is one of the few cards I’m not 100% sure deserves it’s slot, but I think it deserves the chance to prove itself. There’s a list of extremely powerful stuff waiting in the wings if it doesn’t perform. It’s such a strong card against targeted removal and some mass removal that I think it’s going to work out in the end.

Sword of Vengeance is an odd pick over the various “protection” Swords, but Haste and Trample are two of the best keywords to enable one-hit kills with the Mimeoplasm, so along with the Power boost, Sword of Vengeance actually seems like a better choice. I definitely would love to have a couple of the pro-Swords in there as well, but for now this one gets the nod.

Creeping Renaissance was a card I was rather cool on when I did my Innistrad set review, and I wouldn’t say my opinion has changed since then. It’s just that with such a high creature count, Creeping Renaissance naming “creature” is too awesome-sounding to pass up. If anything it might prove to be “win-more” and I’ll find myself not needing to cast it, but for now I’d rather have it and not need it, than the other way around.

Mimic Vat should be a no-brainer. It’s already one of the best EDH cards in the Scars block, and should basically be in every deck ever. Here it actually manages to be right in line with the deck’s strategies.

Finally, we have two of the best possible mana-rocks in the game: Sol Ring and Coalition Relic. I’d be happy to include a Darksteel Ingot as well, but I can’t find room right now. Maybe later.

Two cards I really want to find room for are Twilight’s Call and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. I have a feeling Creeping Renaissance might lose its slot to Twilight’s Call, while I have no idea what could come out for Jace.  

As for the creature base, well… roughly half were chosen for having a cool activated ability that Necrotic Ooze or Kraj might want to copy, the other half are either finishers or utility, chosen for being awesome targets for The Mimeoplasm – after all I needed to make him relevant too!

The best cards are those that fulfill two or more roles. For instance, Fauna Shaman plays three critical roles: She helps fill my graveyard with creatures for my oozes to copy, she finds Necrotic Ooze itself, and she has an ability that the Ooze can copy, once she’s dead! She’s a perfect card to tie all my various themes and strategies together. I came very close to including Green Sun’s Zenith as one more way of finding Fauna Shaman, but I think the deck will prove reliable enough without it.

Wrexial made the cut because I’m so light on Instants and Sorceries, and Wrexial is a way for me to cheat on my answer count by using my opponents’ spent spells. I considered Memory Plunder as well, but it’s not a creature, so that was out.

In the end, I wound up cutting quite a few cards that seemed cool on their own, but I realized that they enabled various infinite combos. Bloom Tender, for example, led to an infinite mana combo via Necrotic Ooze. If I had the Ooze in play, with Morphling and Bloom Tender in the graveyard, and any other permantent that was Green and/or Blue, I had infinite mana. I don’t know what I’d do with all that mana, but I was uncomfortable with having any sort of infinite combo in the deck, so Bloom Tender got cut.

I don’t think there’s much else that would require explanation, so that’s a wrap for this one. One more deck to post and my deckbuilding project will be complete.

Enjoy!

Golgari Grave Pact

I know I promised a Horde of Notions EDH update next, but I'm still fiddling with it. The Conflux + Show and Tell plan didn't work as expected. Primarily because I didn't read the f***ing card and got Show and Tell mixed up with Eureka. Oops!

So for now, I'm going to keep working on Horde and just get back to you when I have it sorted out.

In the meantime, here's a deck:

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Fauna Shaman
2 Bloodthrone Vampire
2 Nether Traitor
2 Fleshbag Marauder
2 Savra, Queen of the Golgari
2 Creakwood Leige
1 Mitotic Slime
1 Acidic Slime
2 Deranged Hermit
2 Phyrexian Plaguelord
2 Grave Titan
1 Doomgape

3 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
3 Recurring Nightmare
3 Grave Pact

5 Swamp
5 Forest
1 Barren Moor
1 Tranquil Thicket
3 Savage Land
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
1 Overgrown Tomb
3 Twilight Mire


So yeah, this is an attempt at a multiplayer-viable Golgari deck, largely built around Grave Pact effects + the old Nightmare/Survival combo to tutor up whatever creature you need at any given time. I use Fauna Shamans instead of Survival of the Fittest because I have the Shamans, but I don't have any Survivals. Meh, I kinda like the Shaman, though, and even if I had the old Enchantment version, I'd probably just run two of each.

Anywho, the weakness of the deck is that it's a bit slow to get going, but sometimes that can be an advantage. It often doesn't look too threatening early on, so my opponents will likely not rush to kill me right off the bat. However, once I get an active Shaman and 5 or 6 mana, I start drawing some hate. Fortunately I should be able to handle the hate by that point.

Eternal Witness and Sword of Light and Shadow add some redundancy. Acidic Slime is a catch-all utility card for any pesky Enchantments or Artifacts (or land if you feel like being a dick). I use Nether Traitor as the default throw-away for the Fauna Shamans, because with all the Sac effects they come back from the Graveyard really easily any time you need them, and with a Bloodthrone, two Traitors and a Grave Pact, your Opponents will likely never have creatures on the board ever again.

Maelstrom Pulse is in there because one of the best defenses against Grave Pact decks is to pump out a hoard of tokens. Pulse takes care of that. Additionally, THIS deck can pump out hoards of tokens (Zombies, Squirrels and Wurns) and in a pinch you can Pulse your own tokens with a Grave Pact on the board to clear away an overly-cluttered board.

Mitotic Slime can randomly show up to enable a Bloodthrone Vampire to swing for 15 out of nowhere, and Gain you 14 life if you have Savra out. And of course, the old Plaguelord/Hermit combo is great, but it's even better if you have a Grave Pact in play too.

Doomgape is just fun and funny, and it might work in this deck. I can cheat it out quickly and cheaply with Recurring Nightmare, and feed it endlessly with the various token-makers. It might prove too unwieldy even here, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt for now.

In interest of full disclosure I haven't battle-tested this build yet. However this is a much-revised version of a list I had tested and the first build did okay. This build already feels much stronger so I'm confident enough to post it now. I will warn you though that sticking a Grave Pact and/or Savra is KEY. If you fail to do so, winning will prove very, very difficult. That's why you have Witness. If you find your Grave Pacts being Naturalized too often, you might increase the count of Witnesses to two or three (two is probably plenty because you can tutor her up, and recur her over and over).

Also, please ignore the wonky mana base. Most of my B/G duals are tied up in various EDH decks, so I just made do with what I had available.

Enjoy.

Yet another new Green Bomb!

Wizards seems to really be trying to give us EDH players a lot of love. Allow me to submit the following as evidence:

Now isn't that a beautiful sight? I never thought they'd actually print Survival of the Fittest on a creature.

Well, technically they didn't, not exactly. Summoning sickness + tap symbol means she isn't quite as broken as the original. Plus a 2/2 creature tends to be more fragile than an Enchantment. So, while she really isn't AS good as the original thing, in the land of singleton decks, she's the closest you'll get to running 2x Survival... and that ain't bad!

So, yeah, she still combos quite well with Squee, Goblin Nabob and all that. She's also quite a bit better if you can cast Lightning Greaves turn 2, and her on Turn 3. Greaves will not only protect her with Shroud, but give you immediate benefit via Haste as well.

How awesome is it that last night I just posted the Vorosh decklist with Genesis, and lamented about how I needed Survival of the Fittest for the deck... the next day Wizards spoils this card. Fauna Shaman is actually better than Survival in that deck, because not only does she help set up the Genesis engine, but she can actually be recurred with Genesis should she eat a removal spell (likely), unlike her enchantment precursor.

I'd still run both, if I could, mind you. Redundancy is good in EDH, so there's no reason why one should have to choose between the two.

And I'm sure that sometimes the fact that she can only activate once per turn will be a bit of a downer, but hey let's be fair here: Getting this ability once per turn is still better than getting it zero times a turn right? Besides, she's the same color as Seedborn Muse... I'm sure you can find a few clever ways to get around this tiny drawback.

I'll be quite anxious to acquire one for Vorosh most of all, but if I can get more than one I'd be more than happy to run her in any of my EDH decks that run Green.