Deck: The Jungle Brothers
I love to do magic history. I've been involved in the game a long time and I love it when something from the past gains a new context or remains relevant in the modern era. It's not all that common that it happens, and oftentimes you can only use vague principles that you learned in the past. Magic is so good now, but they build cards and sets so differently that trying to apply card logic across the years often doesn't do you much.
But certain things remain constant. Ramp is ramp, for instance. While Wizards won't be printing Rampant Growth any time soon, the basic principles of mana ramp have stayed constant throughout the games history, particularly green mana ramp. A creature will typically help you make the crucial Turn 1, set up for three mana (mana critter, plus turn 2 land drop), or Turn 2, get four mana for the next turn (sylvan caryatid to Polukranos/Siege Rhino for example). Explosive Vegetation is pretty overlooked right now because it occupies a space that isn't often explored, which is Turn 4, setting up for 7 mana the next turn. Even scarier you have the possibility to have the 7 mana on the 4th turn with an early mana critter! It has made an impact on other Standard formats, so I wanted to revisit it and see what it might look like today.
Most people want that early jump to get as aggressive as possible and to move under countermagic/removal. But if we can hit a four, we get access to an even higher level of power that people will find extremely difficult to deal with.
Another nice thing about explosive vegetation is that it offers you mana fixing. It lets you get any basic lands you want, so it actually affords you the ability to be rather ridiculous with your colored mana requirements.
The best way to see this I think is from this old article on Explosive Vegetation decks from many Standard formats ago: http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=sideboard/ptven03/veg
I don't want to get too ridiculous with mana, but I do think that, but one thing using non-creature based acceleration gives you is the ability to run big creatures and sweepers. Normaly green decks give you mana but beg you not to clear the board, but what Explosive Vegetation doesn't ask you to do that.
So let's play big creatures and big sweepers, shall we?
I want to go dragons, and I think two crazy good dragons at the moment are Dromoka and Atarka. Both dragonlords do huge damage to the other popular dragons at the moment. Dromoka makes controls life harder on multiple levels, and Dragonlord Atarka is sweeper and a massive threat in one package.
We'll use Caryatids, knowing that they can be swept but knowing that we won't care. by the time we do.
For sweepers, lets use End Hostilities and Anger of the Gods because they are good sweepers in the colors of Dromoka and Atarka.
Going back to creatures, something that's solid and fits the parameter of large durable threat is the Silverback Ape. It's a 6/5 that Regenerates for G. We can cast it and wipe the board and keep it alive. It also stays alive against other removal so it becomes hard for control to remove it in time.
We need to include some cards with lower costs so we can play "fair" magic just as well. Let's throw those in and look at something like this:
Creatures (16)
3 Dragonlord Dromoka
3 Dragonlord Atarka
4 Thunderbreak Regent
2 Silverback Ape
4 Sylvan Caryatid
Spells (19)
4 Explosive Vegetation
4 End Hostilities
4 Anger of the Gods
4 Lightning Strike
3 Valorous Stance
Lands (25)
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Forest
3 Mana Confluence
3 Mountain
3 Plains
2 Temple of Abandon
2 Temple of Plenty
This deck is what I'll be testing out shortly. I'll let you know how it goes.
