Hello all, its been a while since I played MTG and, to be honest, nowadays I mostly just play casually and have a good laugh building weird decks with the cards I have and trying them out against some friends decks.
The reason we are here today is this problematic deck I created that underperforms to a point that it's not even fun casually. It rarely "works" and even more rarely wins games against whatever it is up against. BUT I would like to change that and I'm open to ideas as long as they don't stir the deck to far away from it's current gameplay themes. No need to keep to snakes, basilisks and alike, that I don't mind changing. What I want to keep is the style of combos/mechanics that the deck uses. Additionally, as you can see, this is a extremely inexpensive deck and I would like to keep it that way if possible.
So, the main idea behind this deck was to have creatures with deathtouch or similar mechanics (plus Lure if available), suicide themselves to keep killing opposing creatures, relying on Broken Fall and Savage Silhouette to bring them back. With nothing between me and my opponent (or in case I catch them off guard), instants such as Predator's StrikeGiant GrowthPrimal BellowVines of Vastwood would work as the big player damage dealers (Insatiable Souleater also helps on that front). Naturalize is there because I always like to have 3-4 cards to (give me a chance to) deal with specially annoying artifacts or enchantments that might show up.
As you can see, this is kind of a "free for all everything is allowed" type deck. It's not fast, it's not really efficient and quite cheap to be honest. But it does have a set of combo mechanics that I find to be fun, around which the whole deck was built. All that I want to do is to improve it a little (replacing some stuff here an there, maybe adding another combo/mechanic to the mix) so that it can become a bit more playable against my friend's casual decks (that aren't really that much better than this).
That said, thank you for taking some time to help a fellow MTG player
The very first thing, I would do, is increase the land count. 20 is enough for aggressive decks, but yours has too many shenanigans that aren't pure aggro, that need more mana. 24 lands might be too much, but try with at least 22. This will also help you actually play the Slagwurm.
You might want to try out the provoke mechanic from Legions. Krosan Vorine can pick a fight with any creature while excluding all others from the fun. A bit problematic still, if the opponent has a way to tap or otherwise make the chosen creature unable to block. It has a bigger bother in Brontotherium.
You can give your creatures deathtouch with Gorgon Flail or Gorgon's Head, and don't have to play ones that have that ability naturally. This opens up space to play aerial defenses with reach creatures andgenerally bigger creatures or ones with other useful abilities.
If you are mostly on the offense, creatures with bloodrush are an option. There is Wasteland Viper as another deathtouch creature, that can also function as a pump spell and a way to grant deathtouch. Slaughterhorn is probably the most value for cost in terms of bloodrush creatures in green. Then there's also Scab-Clan Charger. These cards give you the option of pumping one of your attacking guys or play them as more creatures.
Shinen of Life's Roar is another lure creature or can be used to grant lure to an attacker.
Gaze of the Gorgon is a bit expensive manawise at 4 mana, but saves your guy and kills all its blockers in one card.
Broken Fall has a functionally identical brother in Molting Skin, if you need more of that. Likewise Trollhide can be Savage Silhouettes 5-8. Note, that regeneration does not bring anything back! It keeps the creature from dying in the first place.
You should add a bit of spot removal to the deck, because there are usually times in every game, where you just have to kill a guy, that simply refuses to face yours in battle. Green has a bunch of cards for that. Most are based on your own creatures, but they are nevertheless very useful. The fight mechanic as in Pit Fight or Savage Stomp is an example. There's also Utopia Vow, Song of the Dryads, Lignify, etc. Or just run some Viridian Longbows to attach to your deathtouchers and ping away with poison arrows.
The reason we are here today is this problematic deck I created that underperforms to a point that it's not even fun casually. It rarely "works" and even more rarely wins games against whatever it is up against. BUT I would like to change that and I'm open to ideas as long as they don't stir the deck to far away from it's current gameplay themes. No need to keep to snakes, basilisks and alike, that I don't mind changing. What I want to keep is the style of combos/mechanics that the deck uses. Additionally, as you can see, this is a extremely inexpensive deck and I would like to keep it that way if possible.
20 Forest
Creatures
4 Ambush Viper
2 Engulfing Slagwurm
2 Insatiable Souleater
2 Sosuke, Son of Seshiro
2 Sylvan Basilisk
4 Tangle Asp
3 Turntimber Basilisk
3 Naturalize
1 Predator's Strike
1 Giant Growth
2 Primal Bellow
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Broken Fall
4 Lure
4 Savage Silhouette
So, the main idea behind this deck was to have creatures with deathtouch or similar mechanics (plus Lure if available), suicide themselves to keep killing opposing creatures, relying on Broken Fall and Savage Silhouette to bring them back. With nothing between me and my opponent (or in case I catch them off guard), instants such as Predator's Strike Giant Growth Primal Bellow Vines of Vastwood would work as the big player damage dealers (Insatiable Souleater also helps on that front). Naturalize is there because I always like to have 3-4 cards to (give me a chance to) deal with specially annoying artifacts or enchantments that might show up.
As you can see, this is kind of a "free for all everything is allowed" type deck. It's not fast, it's not really efficient and quite cheap to be honest. But it does have a set of combo mechanics that I find to be fun, around which the whole deck was built. All that I want to do is to improve it a little (replacing some stuff here an there, maybe adding another combo/mechanic to the mix) so that it can become a bit more playable against my friend's casual decks (that aren't really that much better than this).
That said, thank you for taking some time to help a fellow MTG player
You might want to try out the provoke mechanic from Legions. Krosan Vorine can pick a fight with any creature while excluding all others from the fun. A bit problematic still, if the opponent has a way to tap or otherwise make the chosen creature unable to block. It has a bigger bother in Brontotherium.
You can give your creatures deathtouch with Gorgon Flail or Gorgon's Head, and don't have to play ones that have that ability naturally. This opens up space to play aerial defenses with reach creatures andgenerally bigger creatures or ones with other useful abilities.
If you are mostly on the offense, creatures with bloodrush are an option. There is Wasteland Viper as another deathtouch creature, that can also function as a pump spell and a way to grant deathtouch. Slaughterhorn is probably the most value for cost in terms of bloodrush creatures in green. Then there's also Scab-Clan Charger. These cards give you the option of pumping one of your attacking guys or play them as more creatures.
Shinen of Life's Roar is another lure creature or can be used to grant lure to an attacker.
Gaze of the Gorgon is a bit expensive manawise at 4 mana, but saves your guy and kills all its blockers in one card.
If you are not adamant about the surprise factor of Naturalize, you can play Wickerbough Elder or Reclamation Sage instead to further increase the creature count.
Broken Fall has a functionally identical brother in Molting Skin, if you need more of that. Likewise Trollhide can be Savage Silhouettes 5-8. Note, that regeneration does not bring anything back! It keeps the creature from dying in the first place.
You should add a bit of spot removal to the deck, because there are usually times in every game, where you just have to kill a guy, that simply refuses to face yours in battle. Green has a bunch of cards for that. Most are based on your own creatures, but they are nevertheless very useful. The fight mechanic as in Pit Fight or Savage Stomp is an example. There's also Utopia Vow, Song of the Dryads, Lignify, etc. Or just run some Viridian Longbows to attach to your deathtouchers and ping away with poison arrows.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
Maybe this deck can be saved after all, heh.