Blumanji

Eddie here again, though today isn't going to be a write up about BorbyLoam just yet. Archetype of Imagination needs another day to wrap up the series on Assault Loam and I've been unimaginably busy. Who would have thought being a chemical engineering junior with a bunch of physics courses on your plate (quantum mechanics is fun!) would make for a very tight schedule.

All of that aside, I hope to return tomorrow with a post about BorbyLoam, but for now we'll be looking at my latest favorite. I must give a good amount of credit to Adrian Sullivan for this kooky list. His article on it can be found here. Let me say, I do think it's a fine deck, but of course, I'm not one willing to just let a good list sit. I have to tweak things, and especially this deck. I tested nearly the same list as Sullivan's and definitely felt sometimes like it was flooding a lot, and was absolutely missing some real oomph if you didn't just combo out. It was also the group's decision that some things Sullivan was attempting were just too cute to actually put to good use; Melira as a singleton isn't that exciting, as you'd often rather just have an additional Finks.

It turns out Sullivan's list is, in a bit of a way, trying to do too much, too loosely. As such, with the suggestions and help of the group here at Modern Brews, I've come up with this updated list.

The core bits of ridiculousness.

3 Lotus Cobra 2 Birds of Paradise 4 Noble Hierarch 3 Kitchen Finks 4 Fauna Shaman 1 Obstinate Baloth 1 Mulldrifter 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner 2 Spellskite 2 Vendilion Clique 2 Glen Elendra Archmage 1 Phantasmal Image 1 Venser, Shaper Savant 1 Phyrexian Metamorph 1 Courser of Kruphix 1 Mystic Snake 3 Vengevine 1 Scavenging Ooze 3 Forest 2 Island 3 Hinterland Harbor 4 Breeding Pool 4 Misty Rainforest 4 Verdant Catacombs 1 Flooded Grove 1 Scalding Tarn 1 Dryad Arbor 2 Chord of Calling SB: 1 Mystic Snake SB: 2 Wickerbough Elder SB: 3 Viridian Shaman SB: 1 Acidic Slime SB: 1 Thrun, the Last Troll SB: 1 Scavenging Ooze SB: 1 Cold-Eyed Selkie SB: 1 Vengevine SB: 1 Obstinate Baloth SB: 1 Kitchen Finks SB: 1 Sower of Temptation SB: 1 Eternal Witness
Lotus Cobra is an amazing card, but at times it definitely felt like you could have just too many of them, and as a result you'd be stuck with an army of 2/1's and too much mana to do anything with and nothing in hand. That's honestly where the deck struggles most: when you've gone Hellbent, your Vengevine's aren't as great if they're sitting in your yard. You can simply lose steam and then not be able to quickly recover. I've done my best to ameliorate that issue with the inclusion of the one main deck 5-drop, the lone Mulldrifter, and I can't say I've ever been sad to see it, and I've tutored it up quite a few times.

Next, we've gone ahead and switched up the main deck hate a bit. Mainly, we've ofted to get rid of the Viridian Shaman from the main deck, as it really doesn't fulfill too much of a role and opted for a third Kitchen Finks in its stead. Kitchen Finks helps the Affinity matchup by simply being an anti-aggro card, and at the same time, it helps your other aggro matchups more than Viridian Shaman. We've also opted to cut the Merlia, Sylvok Outcast in favor of a Mystic Snake. Now, Adrian argues that he's tested Mystic Snake and been disappointed with it, I'm in love with this card. It may just be my pet card to an extent, but being able to tutor up a counterspell with a 2/2 body seems good.

Moving on to the next interesting change, we've cut a Spellskite and the Tarmogoyf for a bit more value. Tarmogoyf never seemed that exciting of a card to draw to me, and as a result it's been cut entirely. Kitchen finks blocks just as well and gains you life and Vengevine is a better attacker. There's no need to split the difference with Tarmogoyf as a 1-of. Instead of these two, we have 2 copies of Chord of Calling, the only two non-creature spells in the 75. Having these available as Fauna Shamans 5 and 6 works quite surprisingly well. You can even Chord into a counterspell and just crush your opponent.

We've tweaked the mana base a little, but the changes ought to be quite apparent. There's no reason whatsoever to run Reflecting Pool, and Hinterland Harbor is about the most exciting thing in this deck since sliced bread. Gotta run a bunch of them!

The sideboard is a considerable amount different as we've stuck entirely to creatures in here, so we can actually tutor up our hate effects. An additional Mystic Snake helps in the combo match ups;
Wickerbough Elder, Viridian Shaman, and Acidic Slime ruin Affinity's day; Obstinate Baloth numero dos comes in anytime you're facing Liliana of the Veil or an aggro deck; Kitchen Finks number four seals
up so many aggro match ups, it's actually funny; Sower of Temptation turns their big dudes into your big dudes; Cold-Eyed Selkie runs roughshod over control or at the very least demands a removal spell quickly; Eternal Witness is there for all the value; Thrun beats black; and Scavenging Ooze beats graveyards. Effectively, we've covered the whole of the metagame as best as we can in simply blue and green.

There are arguments to try out a Bant list, especially with JOU coming out with some of the grossest hatebears I've ever even imagined, but part of me likes the streamlined version that gets to just eat people alive with Vengevines occaionally.

To anyone who wants to test this out, good luck! Make sure to leave any reports about the deck or questions for me in the comments!