Thanks for making this primer! I've been following the deck for a while, and its one that I think has a lot of potential to be a higher tiered deck as we get more spirits over the years. I'm very excited to start building it as my first Tribal deck.
As far as the Oaths go, I just really, really hate how conditional they are, and when we're only running 1x of our big finishers, putting a pact/p.com on bottom really feels bad. To me, paying 2 more mana for a Jadelight and the ability to potentially draw two lands to hand, fix cards in the yard for Ewit, clean dorks/sprawls off the top late-game, or just fix my next draw step is 100% better than the feeling of russian roulette I get everytime I dig with Oath, plus I get more devotion, and a 2/1, 3/2, or even 4/3 body. The bonus of having another creature for early game beats and for Hoofdaddy is the final selling point for me. Unless you're running multi-colored planeswalkers, Oath is a one and done kind of spell, and I just think there's better things we can be doing with the slots in our deck. Plus, Oath has much less synergy with Courser and Tracker, whereas Jadelight makes both of them that much better.
Oath vs Pact: The way I see it, you want to build around one or the other. Primal is far more useful, but more mana intensive, and usually a turn slower, so having grindy/resilient cards is a must if those are your main split. Lowering the curve, and running cards with more devotion in a P.Com build might be a good pay off as well (Vorapede over Thrag, etc). 2+ Ewits seem like an obvious auto include in any build with even a single P.Com, and especially ones with Jadelight.
If you're running Pact, you can get away with a bit more per turn, and should be going for a more explosive build that tries to win by turn 4 or so.
I think I'll mostly be running 3/1 splits in favor of one or the other for a while, to see how everything feels, and fine tune from there.
The right answer might end up being more Pacts than P.Com unless you really love the Eternal Command softlock, because Summoner's Pact doesn't give the opponent a turn to wipe the board when you tutor for a Craterhoof the way P.com does.
It's worth mentioning that most other decks that run P.Com don't run more than 2.
Re: Trackers - Save them for when you can make a landfall immediately after cast, and run more fetches for max value. There is a reason I run more Jadelights than Trackers though, Trackers don't get ETB value and are lightning-rods for removal, but IMO the deck really does want 1-2. Whenever I have a Jadelight and a Tracker in hand, Jadelight almost always gets cast first. You want your Tracker to stick, and you want it to get you at least 2 clues. If not, you're paying 3 mana for a creature with 1 devo, and paying 2 more for the card draw...you might as well be running selkies if you can't get 2 clues from your tracker.
I took out the Oaths, Selkies, and Nissas for a full playset of Jadelights and two Trackers. Thinking about going up one courser and adding more fetches for additional topdeck/card draw synergy. 1 more Ewit feels like a good idea sometimes, but usually I'm glad I only have two...Also switched out 3 Pacts for Primal Commands for more interaction/options. but I could see my self running the reverse split too, because I did miss the same-turn craterhoof plays. This build doesn't try to be explosive or resilient really, as much as just ensure I always have cards in hand and creatures on the field.
Dropping the Oaths has actually added consistency, if I were to run Oath again it would only be 1, and I would only play it after I had a Pact/P.Command in hand. I think my creature suite offers the best card draw/digging/topdeck fixing that mono-green has to offer. I had two games where I survived two board wipes that I would have lost without Jadelight and Tracker, they are well worth their spots in the deck. I really cannot imagine ever going back to Selkies...I hesitate to say that Jadelight is strictly better, but it just does so much more.
I'm not 100% sure if my build is as good as I think it is, but the way it feels, I think I'm at a point where the only things I would change on my own is adding singles of a couple cards I really like but can't justify having as more than a 1 of:
1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar,
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Nissa, Vital Force
Not sure if these would be in addition to, or instead of the Relentless, but they all work well with the deck. I'm just having a really hard time cutting anything at this point. I also really like the idea of running an Inkmoth over the Treetop as a tertiary win condition with Kessig.
[...]
Question about Kozilek's Return: We don't play any Eldrazi Creature Spells to trigger it from the graveyard, why not play Pyroclasm. Is the instant speed relevant?
For Example:
Against Counter Company you can play in reaction , Collected Company/ Chord of Calling , to destroy one of the Combo Pieces before it resolved.
If you can ramp, or at least block effectively for a few turns, Hornet Queen is the best answer to just about all creature-based problems our deck has. Seriously, she can even go toe-to-toe with Emkrakul. If not, I highly recommend Bonfire of the Damned, or at least Kozilek's Return.
Polukranos and Dragonlord Atarka are also a thing, though not as efficient. If you're mono-green, Hail Storm is something that...could work.
I have some questions about sideboarding. I usually sideboard the Oaths of Nissa out in most games, specially when I want to hit Abrade, Bolt or Relic. Would you guys consider that a good practice?
As I wrote couple pages back, I do the same and I think it makes a lot of sense. Game 1 I want the Oaths to get my gameplan working with maximum consistency while in G2 I hope for my sideboard cards to mess with the opponent's gameplay, leaving aside some of the main gameplan for some devastating cards like bloodmoon or just more interaction.
I've given playing that cremator deck a try and there is some strategy to it that I like, but i've never really played with a evolution centered list.
I think Eldritch Evolution shines in a Kiki-Jiki centered combo deck stuffed with other value creatures. I wasn't a fan of it in most devotion decks without any combos. Pairs nice with Kitchen Finks and Strangleroot Geist but is just horrific against Remand and the likes. You have become known for some pretty out there cards, give it a go and see if you can come up with something busted.
Been playing this GR version for the past couple of weeks in paper. Thinking about investing into mtgo
I like the idea of your build, I never thought about how Relentless could be used to tighten up Oath by effectively replacing tutor spells entirely. Pretty damn clever. Having to bottom Pacts/Commands has always been a real feels-bad for me, and I've been going to great lengths to try and find some other source of top-deck advantage.
Do you think the streamlined performance it gives you outweighs the extra turn Relentless takes to play the creature, often even slower than P.Command? And do you think its worth the loss of Beast Within and other useful instants/sorceries?
I would also just throw in that you're really missing out on a lot of synergy without a Courser. I'd take out 1 Tracker for a Courser, especially with all the fetches you're mainboarding, and the two titans. It's not something you want out in multiples but man is it great with trackers and fetches.
I was surprised that Urabrask the Hidden has yet to be discussed in this thread. What do you guys think of the card in this archetype? It adds another tempo effect and if nothing else, its a solid hasty creature that dodges bolt/push. Also gives your other creatures a chance to punch through, which could potentially be better than just having a single flying creature (stormbreath slot).
@Semoreh I think a 5/4 is a problem that the opponent will need to take care of, as its a 4 turn clock, and the 3 devotion it adds cant be ignored either. I will give it a try and see how it performs.
I have been playing around with a Anthonys list, with a slight tweak replacing one Garruk for one Tracker and the primal command for a Chord, and it seems pretty solid. I love the toolbox nature it has, how explossive it can be, but it can also grind really good in case things dont go out super explossive.
Some cards that I still want to try in the build is Carnage Tyrant and maybe one more Tireless Tracker for a Nissa, but it feels pretty solid for now.
I have some questions about sideboarding. I usually sideboard the Oaths of Nissa out in most games, specially when I want to hit Abrade, Bolt or Relic. Would you guys consider that a good practice?
I'm taking out Oath, Voice of Zendikar, and Selkies entirely in favor of Rangers/Trackers/Ewits. I like the more versatile card advantage, and I think its a very competitive direction. The Steel Leafs seem like another solid 3-bomb as well, I'm gonna have a hard time making room for all these 3 drops! Seems like they'll all work great with the Bellowers too, I'll probably be running 2 to take advantage of it.
I like your inclusion of Blood Moon, I've been using that with good success recently myself.
Alright, played in my local fnm and play a tweaked version of my devotionish list.
Observations. Beast within directly won me 3 games. 2 against grixis shadow and another against combo. Being able to nuke lands on t2 or 3 almost gaurenteed is brutal.
Tireless tracker is gold. They must answer him or loose. Definitly keeping him in.
Still on the ropes of stragleroot geist vs bte, but geist was noce to have in several matches.
Nissa 3cmc and garruk was all stars and very hard for almost all opp to deal with.
Field of ruin was very nice, somewhat disruptive. Best uses they have is to turn off manlands so far.
Will post match details amd final list tonight once i get to a cpu
Beast Within is a great card, but I don't think its wise to run 3. It's not a card you want multiples of, and it puts you on a clock (though it sets back time in your advantage). I find other ways to have removal or shore up weaknesses in a different way all together. Try Polukranos, Garruk Relentless, Territorial Allosaurus, Acidic Slime, Reclamation Sage, Dismember, and even Blood Moon.
So Territorial Allosaurus might be a decent addition instead of Polukranos. It can take down something bigger for less mana, although it's not as great a mana sink.
Seems like it has a use, but I can't help but feel that if you're not casting it for 8, its worse than Polukranos, and if you are, Dragonlord Atarka is just better (unless you're going mono-green.)
He makes some awesome comebacks. He has an interesting take on the deck, focusing on the card advantage/toolbox aspect, running Primals and Woodland Bellower with Jadelight and Trackers. It runs pretty decently.
Does anyone know a streamer who plays Green Devo? Or a regular tournament goer? I'm losing a lot and honestly its starting to be frustrating. I learn by watching someone else, or having someone coach me on my options...losing over and over hasn't really been a great way to learn.
For those of you running Summoner's Pact, I learned a trick against discard yesterday. If your opponent is playing Liliana or other discard effects, side in Obstinate Baloth. When your opponent plays/activates a discard effect, play summoners pact in response, pull out obstinate baloth, and discard it to the battlefield. The look on their face is even better if they skipped over the Pact on their T1 Thoughtseize.
Speaking of which, you can also do this in response to a mid-game Inquisition/Thoughtseize if you're pretty certain the pact is what they'll take, just to make your hand a bit more discard proof. Just don't do what I so often do, forget the part where its a pact that requires payment on your upkeep >_<
One of the upsides of playing Pact over P.Command.
I've been toying with the idea of 1-2 of Skirge in the main for a bit since someone mentioned it a while back. It seems like a really solid perk to run as a 1-2 of, and though it doesn't give devotion, its a solid target for Rancor and pump spells.
However, I don't really get the obsession with adding mana dorks to a stompy build, it completely changes the way the deck plays, and generally not in a good way. Unless you're ramping into CoCo, I don't think dorks have any sort of positive payoff vs a 2 power one drop or E1 over turns. And if your dork gets removed, you're gonna be really sad.
As far as Beast Within, I have a bit of a policy that no deck I play will ever have more than 2x in my 75, and no more than 1x in my main. It's just not a card you want multiples of unless you're playing against a combo deck or a deck that somehow spits out fatties faster than you can. I do run 1x in my mainboard currently, and have become pretty skilled at knowing when I can use it without it ever being a downside to me. But playing around more than 2 is just cumbersome, and there are other removal options that are far safer, if a bit less effective (Garruk Relentless is another 1x in my main and I can't speak highly enough of him, Lignify I have not tried yet, but I think that unless you're in a a meta with a lot of Abrupt Decay around, its a solid creature removal for us that increases devotion.)
Land Hate has a special place in my heart, and as a mono-green devotee, I have played the Mono Green Control deck to some extent. In order to maintain the effectiveness of the control aspect I always shied away from moving too far into the Green Devotion realm with it, but I noticed many parallels in play style. I like the 4x of Primal Command, and I really gotta insist that you make room for at least 3x Eternal Witness in your main as well. That soft lock is absolutely back breaking. The way I used to run it was (ideally, assuming ideal land drops and draws) T1 Arbor elf > T2 Utopia Sprawl, Mwunvoli Acid-Moss > T3 Primal Command (topdeck shockland/tapland/manland, tutor up Eternal Witness, loop) I like your inclusion of Acidic Slime and World Breaker. I would go -1 Scooze +1 Slime, -3 Beast Within +3 Mwonvuli Acidmoss (or Bramblecrush), -1 Terrastrodon +1 Worldbreaker. I'm not a huge fan of Terrastrodon, because unless you blow up one of your own permanents, the 3 tokens you're giving them just trade with Terrastrodon, plus, you've already got an 8 drop creature, who should be ending the game for you.
I played at a local tournament today, and to my surprise, Humans was actually a really, really close matchup. I punted two games, one where plussing my Garruk Relentless for a wolf would have given my craterhoof drop +4 damage for the win, and the other where I forgot about a Summoner's Pact upkeep trigger. But in both cases, I had the game that turn, and if it wasn't for my mistakes, I would have beaten THE T1 deck with green devotion Of note, Bonfire of the Damned was an amazing card that I must insist you all try out as a 2x in the side against aggro. We have the mana to make it work, even without its miracle cost, and the likelyhood of the opponent recovering from that is very, very low. I also run 1x Banefire against control.
A few things I'd like to try next are:
A Vorapede in the 5 slot, as there isn't a whole lot of Paths in my meta. Thragtusk is what I currently run but Vorapede is just so fun, and that GGG devotion.
2-4x Tireless Tracker. Wistful selkies might have their place in...some list, but I just can't see using them over TT. The card advantage can't be beat: if you play and crack a fetch after Tracker resolves, thats two (future) card draws right off the bat, whereas Selkie only gives you one. They might be more of a magnet for removal, but if I get two clues out of the deal, I'm ok with it. If I notice that I'm getting too hurt by having my TT removed too often, I might bring in some split of Kitchen Finks.
I'm currently running 3x Strangleroot and a scooze in favor of BTE and they're been great. The times where I could have potentially gone off with BTE have been few and far between, and have not outweighed the early game beats, ability to grind out, the sticky devotion, free blocks, the hasty creatures that can actually swing the same turn Craterhoof comes down, and the topdeck value.
I have noticed that without BTE, the game is a bit slower, but I think with TT and maybe going -1 Wildspeaker for 2x mainboard chameleon colossus, the ability to grind out will pay off more than highly variance based BTE combos.
Also, on Jadelight, I absolutely agree that GGG is a bit tough for us to consistently play that early in the game, and that Jadelight is definitely in the list over Selkie for me as well. I'm just not sure I'd take Jadelight over Trackers at this point. But I suppose my list is a bit light on green pips and I might need to find a way to get some more early game devotion in there, so maybe a split of courser/jadelight/tracker 2/2/2? I'd probably take out Eternal Witness all together for that, as I've moved away from Primal Command completely anyways.
I'll leave you all on a quick playstyle note: Don't drop your Nykthos until you're ready to use it, which means that you have 4 or more pips out, or you really need your 3 drop and Nykthos is your only other land, or you need to convert colorless into green (at least 3 green pips out). Nykthos doesn't start generating more mana than a normal land until you have at least 4 pips out, so its advantageous to keep your opponent guessing as to what your deck's plan even is until its too late. Many games have been won for me by just following this one rule, because as soon as you drop Nykthos, it dawns on your opponent...oh, he's actually got X mana right now...oh, he can +Garruk for twice that...oh, if I kill that creature/Garruk, he's only got Y.
If you drop it too early and lose anyways, and your opponent has land-hate in the sideboard...it feels extra bad next game.
One of my favorite moments in magic happened last night...
I was up against a friend playing a Marvel deck. If you're not familiar, it basically uses energy artifacts to cheat in Emrakul. First game, she did just that on turn 4. 2nd Game I killed her with a Craterhoof overrun, specifically on an Inkmoth. Third game, I won by sacrificing Hornet Queen tokens (for annilihator 6), blocking Emrakul with the Queen, recurring Hornet Queen with Eternal Witness. Then she plays Emrakul again, I again sac tokens and block with Queen, build up the board a couple turns, and win with a Garruk overrun I was so nervous but ***** did that end up playing out well. I think the Queen has earned a mainboard slot in the deck, sorry Atarka, but you're just not quite as good.
I also took a cue from the two most recent tournament lists and ran a single Garruk Relentless, and boy was he a performer, I'd say easily as good as both VoZ and Wildspeaker. I can't see running more than one, but he was very good at what he did.
Thanks for making this primer! I've been following the deck for a while, and its one that I think has a lot of potential to be a higher tiered deck as we get more spirits over the years. I'm very excited to start building it as my first Tribal deck.
Oath vs Pact: The way I see it, you want to build around one or the other. Primal is far more useful, but more mana intensive, and usually a turn slower, so having grindy/resilient cards is a must if those are your main split. Lowering the curve, and running cards with more devotion in a P.Com build might be a good pay off as well (Vorapede over Thrag, etc). 2+ Ewits seem like an obvious auto include in any build with even a single P.Com, and especially ones with Jadelight.
If you're running Pact, you can get away with a bit more per turn, and should be going for a more explosive build that tries to win by turn 4 or so.
I think I'll mostly be running 3/1 splits in favor of one or the other for a while, to see how everything feels, and fine tune from there.
The right answer might end up being more Pacts than P.Com unless you really love the Eternal Command softlock, because Summoner's Pact doesn't give the opponent a turn to wipe the board when you tutor for a Craterhoof the way P.com does.
It's worth mentioning that most other decks that run P.Com don't run more than 2.
Re: Trackers - Save them for when you can make a landfall immediately after cast, and run more fetches for max value. There is a reason I run more Jadelights than Trackers though, Trackers don't get ETB value and are lightning-rods for removal, but IMO the deck really does want 1-2. Whenever I have a Jadelight and a Tracker in hand, Jadelight almost always gets cast first. You want your Tracker to stick, and you want it to get you at least 2 clues. If not, you're paying 3 mana for a creature with 1 devo, and paying 2 more for the card draw...you might as well be running selkies if you can't get 2 clues from your tracker.
2 Birds of Paradise
4 Arbor Elf
2 Eternal Witness
1 Hornet Queen
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Jadelight Ranger
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Thragtusk
1 Primeval Titan
4 Utopia Sprawl
1 Courser of Kruphix
Land
1 Treetop Village
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Stomping Ground
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
8 Forest
Instant
1 Summoner's Pact
1 Beast Within
Sorcery
3 Primal Command
Planeswalker
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Acidic Slime
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Thragtusk
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Carnage Tyrant
3 Blood Moon
1 Fracturing Gust
2 Bonfire of the Damned
I took out the Oaths, Selkies, and Nissas for a full playset of Jadelights and two Trackers. Thinking about going up one courser and adding more fetches for additional topdeck/card draw synergy. 1 more Ewit feels like a good idea sometimes, but usually I'm glad I only have two...Also switched out 3 Pacts for Primal Commands for more interaction/options. but I could see my self running the reverse split too, because I did miss the same-turn craterhoof plays. This build doesn't try to be explosive or resilient really, as much as just ensure I always have cards in hand and creatures on the field.
Dropping the Oaths has actually added consistency, if I were to run Oath again it would only be 1, and I would only play it after I had a Pact/P.Command in hand. I think my creature suite offers the best card draw/digging/topdeck fixing that mono-green has to offer. I had two games where I survived two board wipes that I would have lost without Jadelight and Tracker, they are well worth their spots in the deck. I really cannot imagine ever going back to Selkies...I hesitate to say that Jadelight is strictly better, but it just does so much more.
I'm not 100% sure if my build is as good as I think it is, but the way it feels, I think I'm at a point where the only things I would change on my own is adding singles of a couple cards I really like but can't justify having as more than a 1 of:
1 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar,
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Nissa, Vital Force
Not sure if these would be in addition to, or instead of the Relentless, but they all work well with the deck. I'm just having a really hard time cutting anything at this point. I also really like the idea of running an Inkmoth over the Treetop as a tertiary win condition with Kessig.
And a great response to Thalia's Lieutenant.
Polukranos and Dragonlord Atarka are also a thing, though not as efficient. If you're mono-green, Hail Storm is something that...could work.
I like the idea of your build, I never thought about how Relentless could be used to tighten up Oath by effectively replacing tutor spells entirely. Pretty damn clever. Having to bottom Pacts/Commands has always been a real feels-bad for me, and I've been going to great lengths to try and find some other source of top-deck advantage.
Do you think the streamlined performance it gives you outweighs the extra turn Relentless takes to play the creature, often even slower than P.Command? And do you think its worth the loss of Beast Within and other useful instants/sorceries?
I would also just throw in that you're really missing out on a lot of synergy without a Courser. I'd take out 1 Tracker for a Courser, especially with all the fetches you're mainboarding, and the two titans. It's not something you want out in multiples but man is it great with trackers and fetches.
I'm taking out Oath, Voice of Zendikar, and Selkies entirely in favor of Rangers/Trackers/Ewits. I like the more versatile card advantage, and I think its a very competitive direction. The Steel Leafs seem like another solid 3-bomb as well, I'm gonna have a hard time making room for all these 3 drops! Seems like they'll all work great with the Bellowers too, I'll probably be running 2 to take advantage of it.
I like your inclusion of Blood Moon, I've been using that with good success recently myself.
Beast Within is a great card, but I don't think its wise to run 3. It's not a card you want multiples of, and it puts you on a clock (though it sets back time in your advantage). I find other ways to have removal or shore up weaknesses in a different way all together. Try Polukranos, Garruk Relentless, Territorial Allosaurus, Acidic Slime, Reclamation Sage, Dismember, and even Blood Moon.
Seems like it has a use, but I can't help but feel that if you're not casting it for 8, its worse than Polukranos, and if you are, Dragonlord Atarka is just better (unless you're going mono-green.)
He makes some awesome comebacks. He has an interesting take on the deck, focusing on the card advantage/toolbox aspect, running Primals and Woodland Bellower with Jadelight and Trackers. It runs pretty decently.
Speaking of which, you can also do this in response to a mid-game Inquisition/Thoughtseize if you're pretty certain the pact is what they'll take, just to make your hand a bit more discard proof. Just don't do what I so often do, forget the part where its a pact that requires payment on your upkeep >_<
One of the upsides of playing Pact over P.Command.
However, I don't really get the obsession with adding mana dorks to a stompy build, it completely changes the way the deck plays, and generally not in a good way. Unless you're ramping into CoCo, I don't think dorks have any sort of positive payoff vs a 2 power one drop or E1 over turns. And if your dork gets removed, you're gonna be really sad.
Land Hate has a special place in my heart, and as a mono-green devotee, I have played the Mono Green Control deck to some extent. In order to maintain the effectiveness of the control aspect I always shied away from moving too far into the Green Devotion realm with it, but I noticed many parallels in play style. I like the 4x of Primal Command, and I really gotta insist that you make room for at least 3x Eternal Witness in your main as well. That soft lock is absolutely back breaking. The way I used to run it was (ideally, assuming ideal land drops and draws) T1 Arbor elf > T2 Utopia Sprawl, Mwunvoli Acid-Moss > T3 Primal Command (topdeck shockland/tapland/manland, tutor up Eternal Witness, loop) I like your inclusion of Acidic Slime and World Breaker. I would go -1 Scooze +1 Slime, -3 Beast Within +3 Mwonvuli Acidmoss (or Bramblecrush), -1 Terrastrodon +1 Worldbreaker. I'm not a huge fan of Terrastrodon, because unless you blow up one of your own permanents, the 3 tokens you're giving them just trade with Terrastrodon, plus, you've already got an 8 drop creature, who should be ending the game for you.
I played at a local tournament today, and to my surprise, Humans was actually a really, really close matchup. I punted two games, one where plussing my Garruk Relentless for a wolf would have given my craterhoof drop +4 damage for the win, and the other where I forgot about a Summoner's Pact upkeep trigger. But in both cases, I had the game that turn, and if it wasn't for my mistakes, I would have beaten THE T1 deck with green devotion
A few things I'd like to try next are:
A Vorapede in the 5 slot, as there isn't a whole lot of Paths in my meta. Thragtusk is what I currently run but Vorapede is just so fun, and that GGG devotion.
2-4x Tireless Tracker. Wistful selkies might have their place in...some list, but I just can't see using them over TT. The card advantage can't be beat: if you play and crack a fetch after Tracker resolves, thats two (future) card draws right off the bat, whereas Selkie only gives you one. They might be more of a magnet for removal, but if I get two clues out of the deal, I'm ok with it. If I notice that I'm getting too hurt by having my TT removed too often, I might bring in some split of Kitchen Finks.
I'm currently running 3x Strangleroot and a scooze in favor of BTE and they're been great. The times where I could have potentially gone off with BTE have been few and far between, and have not outweighed the early game beats, ability to grind out, the sticky devotion, free blocks, the hasty creatures that can actually swing the same turn Craterhoof comes down, and the topdeck value.
I have noticed that without BTE, the game is a bit slower, but I think with TT and maybe going -1 Wildspeaker for 2x mainboard chameleon colossus, the ability to grind out will pay off more than highly variance based BTE combos.
Also, on Jadelight, I absolutely agree that GGG is a bit tough for us to consistently play that early in the game, and that Jadelight is definitely in the list over Selkie for me as well. I'm just not sure I'd take Jadelight over Trackers at this point. But I suppose my list is a bit light on green pips and I might need to find a way to get some more early game devotion in there, so maybe a split of courser/jadelight/tracker 2/2/2? I'd probably take out Eternal Witness all together for that, as I've moved away from Primal Command completely anyways.
I'll leave you all on a quick playstyle note: Don't drop your Nykthos until you're ready to use it, which means that you have 4 or more pips out, or you really need your 3 drop and Nykthos is your only other land, or you need to convert colorless into green (at least 3 green pips out). Nykthos doesn't start generating more mana than a normal land until you have at least 4 pips out, so its advantageous to keep your opponent guessing as to what your deck's plan even is until its too late. Many games have been won for me by just following this one rule, because as soon as you drop Nykthos, it dawns on your opponent...oh, he's actually got X mana right now...oh, he can +Garruk for twice that...oh, if I kill that creature/Garruk, he's only got Y.
If you drop it too early and lose anyways, and your opponent has land-hate in the sideboard...it feels extra bad next game.
I was up against a friend playing a Marvel deck. If you're not familiar, it basically uses energy artifacts to cheat in Emrakul. First game, she did just that on turn 4. 2nd Game I killed her with a Craterhoof overrun, specifically on an Inkmoth. Third game, I won by sacrificing Hornet Queen tokens (for annilihator 6), blocking Emrakul with the Queen, recurring Hornet Queen with Eternal Witness. Then she plays Emrakul again, I again sac tokens and block with Queen, build up the board a couple turns, and win with a Garruk overrun
I also took a cue from the two most recent tournament lists and ran a single Garruk Relentless, and boy was he a performer, I'd say easily as good as both VoZ and Wildspeaker. I can't see running more than one, but he was very good at what he did.