I have a lot to think about and try out with this. It's funny you mentioned Icy Manipulator, because I was considering putting something similar called Glare of Subdual into the deck. It doesn't quite cover the reach of types that Icy does, but it seems to work well since I have many saprolings to tap while I'm building them up.
I'm more interested in a generalized deck instead of a specific one to fit the current meta. I'm not too worried about being the most efficient possible, as the people I play with aren't very good. I don't have much of a budget, but I suppose I'm trying to avoid cards that are more expensive than 20 dollars if possible.
I completely agree that Metallic Mimic was weighing me down. I didn't realize it until you mentioned it, but several of my cards were like this. I would wait to use other creatures until I had Metallic Mimic or Parallel Lives out. Even with Song of Freyalise I would hold off for a while until I had some board presence.
I tried Oran-Rief, The Vastwood earlier but I ended up cutting it because mana was tight and it coming in tapped hurt quite a bit. I added Skullclamp though and it has helped a ton already, so I may be able to bring back Oran-Reif. Eldrazi Monument has been nice because it allows me to finish the opponent either that turn or next, but it also requires I have enough creatures in the moment. Drawing a second one is mostly a dead card too, so I may drop it down to 1 copy.
I agree that I probably had too many Intangible Virtues. I put it at 3 now, but I may take it down to 2. It has been useful to have but I may not need to draw it as often. At the time I was thinking it could act as a pseudo lord for the saprolings.
I also dropped Song of Freyalise down to 2. I've had two in my hands often, and even when it's just one I've sometimes not been able to use it well. I may end up just taking it out, though I think it's a super cool card.
I didn't mention artifact/enchantment removal before but I do have them ready in my sideboard. What do you think of Sundering Vitae instead of the classic Naturalize?
I haven't had too much issue with my mana base, usually the early dual lands and mid dual lands are enough to be consistent. If I were to add a mana card, would you recommend Unbridled Growth over Utopia Sprawl?
With regards to mass destruction, I always put Heroic Intervention into my sideboards just in case!
There's some weird ones in here that I'm testing, like Nissa and Obelisk of Urd. I may drop them depending on how they do. What do you think about Akroma's Memorial replacing Eldrazi Monument, or Sprout Swarm replacing something (not sure what)?
I'm a relatively new player to Magic so I apologize if I'm overlooking a crucial fundamental for deck building. For the past week I've been working on this deck but every time I play it it's been inconsistent: sometimes it works and sometimes it stalls out hard. I've tried to stick to general synergizing but it still feels like there's too many disjointed cards that need specific circumstances to be useful.
One flaw I see is my lack of 3 drop cards for the mana curve, but I haven't found too many good ones to fit the saproling token set up. I also feel I may need some card draw, something like Shamanic Revelation or Skullclamp but I'm not sure.
The Mother of Runes seems fun to use, but I may try swapping it out for Soul Warden to gain more life off the tokens and provide more time to build up.
I've added the current deck below. If you see any issues with it or have suggestions for cards to include, I appreciate any critique! It's been driving me crazy.
I have a lot to think about and try out with this. It's funny you mentioned Icy Manipulator, because I was considering putting something similar called Glare of Subdual into the deck. It doesn't quite cover the reach of types that Icy does, but it seems to work well since I have many saprolings to tap while I'm building them up.
I'm more interested in a generalized deck instead of a specific one to fit the current meta. I'm not too worried about being the most efficient possible, as the people I play with aren't very good. I don't have much of a budget, but I suppose I'm trying to avoid cards that are more expensive than 20 dollars if possible.
I completely agree that Metallic Mimic was weighing me down. I didn't realize it until you mentioned it, but several of my cards were like this. I would wait to use other creatures until I had Metallic Mimic or Parallel Lives out. Even with Song of Freyalise I would hold off for a while until I had some board presence.
I tried Oran-Rief, The Vastwood earlier but I ended up cutting it because mana was tight and it coming in tapped hurt quite a bit. I added Skullclamp though and it has helped a ton already, so I may be able to bring back Oran-Reif. Eldrazi Monument has been nice because it allows me to finish the opponent either that turn or next, but it also requires I have enough creatures in the moment. Drawing a second one is mostly a dead card too, so I may drop it down to 1 copy.
I agree that I probably had too many Intangible Virtues. I put it at 3 now, but I may take it down to 2. It has been useful to have but I may not need to draw it as often. At the time I was thinking it could act as a pseudo lord for the saprolings.
Champion of Lambholt and Mother of Runes did work pretty well, but I ended up taking them out until I can fix the core problems of my deck. I may put Mother of Runes or Soul Warden back in instead of Thallid, I'm not sure how much use Thallid will be overall.
I also dropped Song of Freyalise down to 2. I've had two in my hands often, and even when it's just one I've sometimes not been able to use it well. I may end up just taking it out, though I think it's a super cool card.
I didn't mention artifact/enchantment removal before but I do have them ready in my sideboard. What do you think of Sundering Vitae instead of the classic Naturalize?
I haven't had too much issue with my mana base, usually the early dual lands and mid dual lands are enough to be consistent. If I were to add a mana card, would you recommend Unbridled Growth over Utopia Sprawl?
With regards to mass destruction, I always put Heroic Intervention into my sideboards just in case!
Here is my current deck:
3 Sigil Captain
4 Sporecrown Thallid
2 Tendershoot Dryad
4 Thallid
4 Yavimaya Sapherd
2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
Spells:
2 Eldrazi Monument
1 Obelisk of Urd
3 Skullclamp
3 Intangible Virtue
2 Song of Freyalise
4 Spore Swarm
4 Saproling Migration
11 Forest
3 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
There's some weird ones in here that I'm testing, like Nissa and Obelisk of Urd. I may drop them depending on how they do. What do you think about Akroma's Memorial replacing Eldrazi Monument, or Sprout Swarm replacing something (not sure what)?
I'm a relatively new player to Magic so I apologize if I'm overlooking a crucial fundamental for deck building. For the past week I've been working on this deck but every time I play it it's been inconsistent: sometimes it works and sometimes it stalls out hard. I've tried to stick to general synergizing but it still feels like there's too many disjointed cards that need specific circumstances to be useful.
One flaw I see is my lack of 3 drop cards for the mana curve, but I haven't found too many good ones to fit the saproling token set up. I also feel I may need some card draw, something like Shamanic Revelation or Skullclamp but I'm not sure.
I'm not sure I have enough power at the end of the curve, and have been eyeing Triumph of the Hordes, Mycoloth, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, and Elspeth Tirel. I don't want to make the deck too top heavy though.
I've been considering Growing Rites of Itlimoc or Utopia Sprawl for a bit more mana but that may be overkill on that department, since I'm already running Song of Freyalise.
The Mother of Runes seems fun to use, but I may try swapping it out for Soul Warden to gain more life off the tokens and provide more time to build up.
I've added the current deck below. If you see any issues with it or have suggestions for cards to include, I appreciate any critique! It's been driving me crazy.
3 Champion of Lambholt
4 Metallic Mimic
4 Mother of Runes
4 Sporecrown Thallid
3 Tendershoot Dryad
2 Eldrazi Monument
4 Intangible Virtue
3 Parallel Lives
3 Song of Freyalise
4 Path to Exile
4 Spore Swarm
4 Saproling Migration
9 Forest
5 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove