Exponential Beatdown

Welcome to part 2 of 3 of my Big Green deck series. Today I’m going to give some pointers for making one of my favorite Green Beat Down decks: The Exponential Growth deck.

The secret of this deck is a card from the Ravnica block called Doubling Season. Doubling Season is an enchantment that costs 4 and 1 forest that says: Any time an effect would put one or more tokens into play under your control, it puts twice that many into play instead. If an effect would place one or more counters on a creature you control, it places twice that many counters on it instead. I had this card sitting around in my collection for the longest time before I decided that I wanted to make a deck around it. I started looking through all my green cards for anything that places counters or tokens into play and ended up with a pretty killer deck. The beautiful thing about Doubling Season is that the effects from it stack, so if you were to have 2 of the card out at once, the first one would double the counters or tokens and the second one would then double them again. The same goes for if you have 3 or 4 in play. In my Exponential Growth deck I have 4 (the max allowed in a deck).

One of the card combinations in this deck that I love is Ageless Entity combined with Stream of Life. Stream of Life is an instant that costs 1 forest and X. When it’s played, you gain X life, where X is however much you paid when you played the card. Ageless Entity is a 4/4 for 3 and 2 forests with the ability: Whenever you gain life, put that many +1/+1 counters on Ageless Entity. It’s a killer combo on its own, but when you combine it with Doubling Season, it becomes amazing. I usually save this combo for when I have at least 6 or 7 forests available to pay for X, and when Doubling Season is in play. I put 3 of each of these 2 cards into the deck. I also threw in 3 copies of Nourish which costs 2 forests and instantly gives you 6 life.

Another great card to have in the deck is Forgotten Ancient. It costs 3 and 1 forest and is a 0/3 elemental with this ability: Whenever a player casts a spell, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Forgotten Ancient. At the beginning of your upkeep you may move any number of +1/+1 counters from Forgotten Ancient onto other creatures. Sound awesome? It should. Considering that every card played (other than lands) is considered a spell, your Forgotten Ancient is going to get pumped up to epic proportions even without Doubling Season in play. Just find a way to give Trample to this creature and you’re going to be hard to beat. I think the biggest I’ve ever gotten Forgotten Ancient in one game was 36/39, granted I had 3 Doubling Seasons in play when I played him, but that’s the beauty of this deck.

Jugan, The Rising Star from the Kamigawa block is also an excellent card to put in this deck. Jugan is a 5/5 with flying for 3 and 3 forests with the ability: When Jugan, The Rising Star is put into a graveyard from play, you may distribute 5 +1/+1 counters among any number of target creatures. Find a way to get Jugan killed, either by your opponent’s hand or your own, and you’ve got a great way to either boost one creature by +10/+10 or boost 5 creatures by +2/+2, or however you choose to distribute the counters. If you don’t think your opponent is going to be able to destroy Jugan, then it’s a good idea to have a couple cards available in your own deck that allow you to destroy a target creature. Generally though, your opponent isn’t going to want you to have a 5/5 with flying on the field, so they’ll probably try to kill him.

The rest of the creatures in the deck are all smaller creatures with abilities that involve +1/+1 counters.

Usually I don’t have too many Instant or Sorcery cards in a Green Giants deck, but in this deck, there’s quite a few. I avoided putting Giant Growth and Explosive Growth in the deck, as they only give temporary boosts. Instead I scoured my collection for cards that give permanent boosts in the form of +1/+1 counters. If you look hard enough, you’ll be able to find them. Stand Together is a good one, it gives 2 target creatures 2 +1/+1 counters. I particularly like Decree of Savagery, which is the most expensive card in my deck, mana-wise. It costs 7 and 2 forests and lets you put 4 +1/+1 counters on each creature you control. Combine that with one Doubling season and each of your creatures is going to be boosted by +8/+8. The more Doubling Seasons you have out, the better.

Another fun card is Dragon Blood. It’s an artifact that costs 3 to put on the field and has: Pay 3 and tap: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. If you have any extra mana each turn, this is a great way to spend it. Just like the rest of the cards in this deck, the more Doubling Seasons you have out, the better it will be.

That’s the base for a good Exponential Growth deck. I’m sure there are plenty of cards out there that would be great in one that I’m missing. If you can think of any, let me know in the comments. Have you ever tried a counter deck? How well did it work for you? Again, let me know in the comments.

My next post will be about what makes a good Infect deck. I have one that is half built, so I’m going to do some research on them before I actually type up the post. If you have built an Infect deck that works well, leave a comment on this post and let me know what worked for you.