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.

Green Giants

Welcome again to A Gathering of Magic the Gathering!

I recently had a friend ask me to give her some tips on making a Big Green Creature deck as well as an Infect deck. Big Green Creature decks are my specialty and I’m also looking to make a good infect deck, so the next couple posts I do are going to be my pointers for creating my 2 favorite kinds of Green Beat Down decks.

Today will be about your basic Green Giants deck. This deck focuses on getting huge creatures out early in the game and then beefing them up.

The first thing to remember about a Big Green deck is that not all huge green creatures are going to be beneficial to you. Many of the bigger green creatures are going to have drawbacks associated with them that make them cost less. The lower cost may seem like a benefit, but the drawbacks from the card’s abilities tend to outweigh that. Plus, there are plenty of ways to get high mana cost cards out fast and easy, which I’ll get into in just a bit.

Some of my favorite green giants are the elementals. There’s a whole host of green elementals and they each have their own benefits. Thorn Elemental is always a staple in my Green Giant decks. It’s a 7/7 creature that can deal its damage to a player as though it weren’t blocked, which is a really handy ability. Tornado Elemental is another great one, although it tends to be a bit more situational, as it has the ability to deal damage to all creatures with flying when it enters the battlefield.

Beasts and Wurms also tend to be great in a Green Giants deck. I particularly like the Krosan Colossus and the Plated Slagwurm. Krosan Colossus is just a big hitter at 9/9. Plated Slagwurm is an 8/8 with Shroud (It can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponent controls). Both of them tend to find their way into my Green Giants deck.

One creature that I find to be ridiculously awesome in a big hitter deck is Ancient Ooze. This card has won the game for me more times than any card. Ancient Ooze’s power and toughness is equal to the total converted mana cost of all other creatures you control. Sound awesome? No? Let’s say you had a Krosan Colossus, Plated Slagwurm and Thorn Elemental on the field when you played Ancient Ooze. Krosan Colossus costs 9 to play, Thorn Elemental and Plated Slagwurm each cost 7 to play. As soon as Ancient Ooze is on the field, it’s going to be a whopping 23/23 creature, and the more creatures you play after that, the bigger it’ll get. It’s definitely a game ender.

My best Green Giants deck has a particular card in it that is my secret weapon: Brawn. Brawn is a 3/3 creature with Trample, which doesn’t seem all that impressive, but it’s the ability it has that makes it indispensable. As long as Brawn is in your graveyard and you control a forest, creatures you control have Trample. That’s going to be a killer advantage in any deck Brawn is in, but when you have him in a deck full of 7/7s and 9/9s, it’s murderous. You can pretty much take down any player in a matter of a couple turns with Brawn in your graveyard.

Now, as I said earlier, you’re going to want to find a way to get these creatures out faster than usual in order for your deck to be really effective. Elves are one of the best ways. There are plenty of elf cards in the game that allow you to tap them for mana, and they usually each only cost 1 mana themselves. Llanowar Elves and Fyndhorn Elves each do this. There’s also cards like Krosan Restorer which allows you to tap it in order to untap a land. Krosan Drover also helps. It has the ability of: Creature spells you play with converted mana cost of 6 or more cost 2 less to play.

The very best elf card for any Green Giants deck is Elvish Piper. Elvish Piper is a 1/1 for 4 with a fantastic ability. If you pay 1 forest and tap Elvish Piper you can put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. So, basically, all those super expensive creatures in your hand now only cost 1 to play. With Elvish Piper only being a 1/1, however, your opponent is going to want to destroy it as soon as possible. So, keep a few in your deck just in case, or beef them up with cards like Blanchwood Armor, which is a creature enchantment that gives the creature it’s attached to +1/+1 for each forest you control. Also, feel free to throw a couple extra Blanchwood Armors into your deck as they work great for beefing up any creatures.

A fun little addition to a Green Giants deck is Tooth and Nail. It’s a sorcery that costs 5 and 2 forests and gives you the choice to either search your library for up to 2 creature cards, reveal them, and put them in your hand OR put up to 2 creature cards from your hand into play. But, it also has an Entwine cost of 2. If you pay the Entwine cost, you get to do both things on the card instead of just one of them. If you have the mana for it, it’s a great card.

If you have enough space left in your deck, throw some beef up cards in there for good measure. Giant Growth and Explosive Growth are both excellent for this.

Anyway, these are just a few of my favorite Green Giants deck cards. There are plenty of other great green cards that you can put in your own deck. What do all of you like to have in a Green Giants deck? What card combinations do you find work the best for you?

Watch for my next post for pointers on how to make what I call an Exponential Beat Down deck. And following that; pointers on making an effective Infect Deck.