UL's Better Deckbuilding: Thromok The Insatiable

Welcome, hopefully, to the first of many critique posts I’ll be doing.
            
For my first deck eval, I thought I’d do a deck that I’m very interested in playing in the future— Thromok the Insatiable.
             
Thromok’s a new guy on the block, getting released in the Planechase 2012 set, and he’s hungry. He wants to cannibalize your horde to make himself feel better.
            
 But it never will, because he’s insatiable.
            
So the following is pHeysh’s build, and I have to say that this decklist isn’t too shabby. Naturally, let’s start with the land.

Land 

Blasted Landscape 
Forgotten Cave 
Gruul Turf 
Khalni Garden 
Mosswort Bridge 
Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep 
Skarrg, the Rage Pits 
Slippery Karst 
Smoldering Crater 
Terramorphic Expanse 
Tranquil Thicket 
14       Forest 
14       Mountain
            
Though Wizards and the aftermarket have put a price on the good non-basics, I still firmly believe that you can’t put a price on what a good mana base should be doing.

As far as pHeysh’s deck is concerned, I think he needs to spend the money. If we look at this alone, I think it tells us all we need to know about how successful the deck is running. 
           
Sure, he’s running an Uncle Landdrops-approved number of 39 lands, but 5 of them are cyclers. Five!
            
 This means he’s probably not playing them as land, opting to pitch them and draw, so he really has only 34 land, which is obviously too low. When you start playing that many cycle lands without early ramp, it doesn't bode well as you push your deck into later turns.
             
Also note Terramorphic’s pal, Evolving Wilds, isn’t around.

Enchantment 

Awakening Zone 
Doubling Season 
Dual Nature 
Electropotence 
Elemental Mastery 
Feed the Pack 
Fires of Yavimaya 
Furnace of Rath 
Gratuitous Violence
Gutter Grime 
Mana Reflection 
Pandemonium 
Parallel Lives 
Predatory Advantage 
Warstorm Surge 
Where Ancients Tread              

Perhaps one of the most intriguing parts of this build is the enchantments. As far as themes go, this is pretty well done. Personally, it’s not my taste, but I know some people are better with certain card types, and if it works for him or for you, I’m not gonna stop you. 

Unless I’m playing you, in which case I will play around your shenanigans or blow it up if I can’t.     

The most important enchantment in this deck is probably Doubling Season. This card seems insane when you think about pulling out Thromok, cause it not only helps him get more tokes to eat, he also gets to double that number when he enters. Super-sick synergy. Bonus points for that. 

Sorcery

Beacon of Creation  
Brood Birthing  
Gelatinous Genesis  
Growth Spasm  
Hellion Eruption  
Life from the Loam 
Nature's Spiral          
Warp World
 
Instant  

Artifact Mutation        
Beast Within    
Fling   
Fresh Meat        
Noxious Revival 

As a whole, I wasn’t necessarily impressed with his Instant/Sorcery package. It shouldn’t have a whole lot of these cards, compared to other colors like black, blue, or white even, but I’m not relatively impressed. 

I like Life from the Loam in this deck. It helps him get cyclers back. I like Beast Within and Artifact Mutation also. Fresh Meat looks cool in this deck, because you can control it better. But I’m not sure about the rest. Not too excited here. 

Artifact  

Eldrazi Monument  
Skullclamp             

 If there’s any two cards to put in this deck, it’s these. Really love both. 

Creature 

Ant Queen   
Avenger of Zendikar  
Beetleback Chief          
Brindle Shoat        
Broodhatch Nantuko   
Chancellor ofthe Forge      
Dragon Broodmother       
Dragonlair Spider          
Emrakul's Hatcher      
Eternal Witness          
Hissing Iguanar       
Hornet Queen         
Krosan Tusker         
Loaming Shaman     
Mitotic Slime      
Mycoloth      
Nemata, Grove Guardian        
Nest Invader          
Penumbra Spider          
Preyseize Dragon           
Sprouting Phytohydra       
Stalking Vengeance           
Symbiotic Wurm         
Thunder-Thrash Elder        
Tukatongue Thallid        
Urabrask the Hidden    
Verdant Force        
Verdeloth the Ancient        
Wolfbriar Elemental
            
 Overall, thought the creature-base of this deck seems good.
            
Some of my favorite tech is here. Eternal Witness. Krosan Tusker. Hornet Queen. Loaming Shaman. Perfect.
             
Also intrigued about the Dragonlair Spider. I wonder if it’s any good.             Still, I thought there was some value that he missed.
             
So I went through, taking the core of his deck and brought in a few cards that I thought would help make this deck more consistent and therefore more dangerous. 

My Changes

Land 

Arid Mesa 
Evolving Wilds  
Fire-Lit Thicket 
Hall of the Bandit Lord  
Inkmoth Nexus  
Kazandu Refuge  
Kessig Wolf Run  
Khalni Garden  
Mikokoro, Center of the Sea  
Mosswort Bridge  
Raging Ravine  
Rootbound Crag  
Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep  
Skarrg, the Rage Pits  
Snow-Covered Forest 
Snow-Covered Mountain  
Stomping Ground  
Terramorphic Expanse  
Verdant Catacombs 
9         Mountain 
11       Forest
             
You’ll notice some huge changes here. All the cyclers are gone, and I added some Zendikar fetches for added Life From The Loam value. Kessig Wolf Run, Mikokoro, and Hall of the Bandit Lord were added for great utility, to replace the card draw, add some trample and haste to our general or to some of the big beasts I added. 

Enchantment  

Awakening Zone  
Doubling Season  
Dual Nature  
Fires of Yavimaya  
Pattern of Rebirth
              
Complete makeover here. I’m not a fan of enchantments, really, but I kept ones I thought would be good, and added a Pattern of Rebirth so I can get a little value out of a creature if I have to sac it to Thromok or my opponent kills it.

Sorcery
  
Blasphemous Act  
Boundless Realms  
Cultivate  
Green Sun's Zenith  
Harmonize  
Kodama's Reach  
Life from the Loam  
Plow Under  
Rampant Growth  
Stunted Growth
 
Instant  

Artifact Mutation  
Beast Within  
Chaos Warp  
Fresh Meat  
Krosan Grip
Realms Uncharted  
Sprouting Vines 
Worldly Tutor
             
You’ll see I added some bombs here. Tutors and Ramp galore. 
             
Kodama’s Reach, Cultivate, Rampant Growth and Sprouting Vines are some better early ramp. I also added Boundless Realms to synergize with some of the creatures in the late game.
             
Overall, I wanted to give this deck a Plan B.
            
 No, I’m not trying to abort children. I’m simply trying to find ways to win without Thromok.
             
This is why I added creature tutelage and some disruption. Stunted Growth and Plow Under are some of the best in green in disruption, while Green Zenith and Worldly Tutor will help with getting certain dudes to create consistency.
            
 I also added a couple more removal spells in Chaos Warp and Blasphemous Act.

Artifact  

Lightning Greaves  
Nim Deathmantle  
Oblivion Stone  
Skullclamp 
Eldrazi Monument
             
Oblivion Stone was added for another mass removal tool. Greaves for haste.
             
And I added Deathmantle for recursion. The colors we’re playing in don’t have great reanimates, and I thought this would improve Thromok sac-triggers so we wouldn’t lose creatures. 

Planeswalker  
Garruk Wildspeaker 
Garruk, Primal Hunter 
Sarkhan Vol
             
I added PW’s too. Helps Thromok out more with token generators and haste.

Creature 
Anger  
Ant Queen  
Avenger of Zendikar  
Beetleback Chief 
Brawn 
Brutalizer Exarch 
Dragon Broodmother 
Dragonlair Spider  
Eternal Witness 
Fierce Empath 
Hornet Queen 
Inferno Titan 
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker 
Krosan Tusker 
Loaming Shaman 
Mitotic Slime 
Mycoloth 
Nemata, Grove Guardian 
Oracle of Mul Daya 
Penumbra Spider 
Primeval Titan 
Rampaging Baloths 
Sakura-Tribe Elder 
Siege-Gang Commander
Solemn Simulacrum 
Thragtusk 
Verdeloth the Ancient 
Wurmcoil Engine 
Yavimaya Elder
             
In my build, I wanted to maximize value. I added some of my own utility, like Solemn Simulacrum, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Oracle of Mul Daya and Yavimaya Elder. Cause I love ramp.
            
 I don’t know if they’ll be good, but I thought Anger and Brawn were two cards that would be great friends to Thromok. You can sac em with the trigger so he gets haste and trample as he comes into play. Might be a little trip into Magical Christmas Land, maybe, but they work for all the creatures we have, so I think it’ll be better than I expect. See also, Siege-Gang Commander. A bigger Beetleback Chief is what I was thinking there.
             
Got some Thragtusk, basically, a sweet green Solemn Simulacrum. A Kiki-Jiki.
             
Fierce Empath and Brutalizer for more tutelage. I love playing Fierce Empath into Krosan Tusker when I don’t have an extra land, cause I get to draw and get a basic. It’s kind of my thing. Fierce also has many other fantastic targets also.                         Like Wurmcoil Engine. Or the Mighty Mighty Titans. Or Avenger  or Rampaging Baloths, which you’d want to get if you had a Boundless Realms in hand.
            
 Overall, I got all the cards in here that I wanted to play. Naturally, there are some through-the-roof expensive lands and spells that would be amazing like Sylvan Library or Taiga or Wooded Foothills, but I tried to be realistic.
             
A few cards off the top of my head that could be included are Acidic Slime, Mimic Vat, and Primal Command. Also, looking into Mwonvuli Beast Tracker.
             
Well, I guess that’s it.
             
Pass Turn.
             
-Uncle Landdrops.