Pardon The Construction

I'm sure you've all noticed the weird, ugly nav bar here.

TGZ is getting some updates.

I know it might look a little janky, but the future holds a promising new face for my little corner of the web.

I'll keep you updated with the new features and such.

I promise.

Still Your Turn.

-Uncle Landdrops

Izzet vs. Golgari Full Spoiler!

They spoiled the rest of the deck, and let me say, I'm pretty excited.

Aside from getting new art for Niv-Mizzet a fresh guild leader in Jarrad, and the Korozda Guildmage I mentioned the day before, they're also adding some great EDH stuff.

Like Eternal Witness.
Like Life From The Loam.
Like new art Brainstorm,
and Isochron Scepter. I found a full spoiler here, if you wanna look at the rest. http://www.gatheringmagic.com/duel-decks-izzet-vs-golgari-spoilers/   

If this isn't enough to get you pumped, well, then I'm super sorry for you. Witness, Loam, and Scepter are great value, practically covering the $19.99 MSRP even without the historically expensive Izzet Guildmage.        

Seriously, though. You should look to grab this monster at dawn on the first light of September 7th. 

If not, I'm gonna come to your town and buy up every last one so I can sell all the singles for double the price. I'll control the market and have infinite copies of green staples and Niv-Mizzets.
 
Just kidding. But seriously, I love me some Life From the Loam. And some Eternal Witness. 
Cause they're great. 

Pass Turn.

-Uncle Landdrops

Some More Return to Ravnica / Izzet vs. Golgari Spoilers

Today Wizards of the Coast spoiled some more of the cards that will be in the Duel Decks: Izzet vs. Golgari and in the Return to Ravnica Set. 

My favorite so far is Korozda Guildmage. A little different take on the flavor this time, the cards being gold instead of hybrid. Seems sweet.  

I think Scavenge as a mechanic could be okay. Not particularly exciting, but it seems like it could be strong. Here's Dreg Mangler, sporting the new tech.  

There was some red/blue stuff spoiled too, and I have to say boy, "Izzet" looking up for them.  
Check out Street Spasm, sporting the Overload mechanic. Yeah,  Earthquake will still be better, but hopefully red will get some upgrades in the Return block. 

They also spoiled Izzet Charm, which looks sweet for Standard, and not particularly thrilling for what we do here in EDH land.  

The last spoil was Goblin Electromancer, which looks like a great Pauper EDH card along side Nightscape Familiar.

In addition, there will be 20 Ravnica basics, so 4 for each color.  They haven't spoiled the art, but I'm sure it'll be good, even if it's reprints of the original.
 
I'll let you know when get a peek of that, cause Ravnica land is sweet.

Passin' it up.

-Uncle Landdrops

The Future of EDH

'Lo Again!

Just watched this great video on Channel Fireball on the direction of Magic and how the increasing popularity of EDH will affect Standard.


Channel Fireball's Matt Sperling, Paul Rietzl, and Mashi Scanlan discuss. Overall, good video. Worth your time.

Here's the link.
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/fact-or-fiction-commander-and-cube/

Pass Again.

-Uncle Landdrops

UL’s Better Deck Building: retardo_08’s Atalya Dollar General EDH

Welcome to the Second Installment of Better Deck Building.

This week, we've got a little bit of a challenge in this Atalya build, because we're making it for the Dollar General format.

For those who don't know, the Dollar General format was created by me and a couple of my friends to help shape a competitive environment for some newcomers in our playgroup. 

The Dollar General format puts a $40 cap on the 100 cards in your deck, and in addition, your Commander must cost less than $1.

As a uniform price moderator, our friends agreed on using the cheapest available price for each card on tcgplayer.com. So put our decks in there, and adjust accordingly.

Anyway, I promised a friend of mine I'd pop the hood and make some changes. So let's look at his deck.

General:   
Atalya, Samite Master

Creatures:
 Ajani's Pridemate
 Ajani's Sunstriker
 Alabaster Mage
 Archon of Redemption
 Celestial Force
 Changeling Hero
 Felidar Sovereign
 Ghost-Lit Redeemer
 Goldenglow Moth
 Healer of the Pride
 Inquisitor Exarch
 Knight of Meadowgrain
 Martyr of Sands
 Mistmeadow Skulk
 Nearheath Pilgrim
 Rhox Faithmender
 Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant
 Serra Ascendant
 Serra Avatar
 Soul Warden
 Soul's Attendant
 Wall of Reverence
 Windbrisk Raptor
 

Sorcery:   
Day of Judgment  
Festival of Trokin
Feudkiller's Verdict
Idyllic Tutor   
Survival Cache
 
Instant:
Abuna's Chant
Alabaster Potion
Blessed Reversal
Chastise
Congregate
Disenchant
Divine Offering
Honor the Fallen
Path to Exile
Rest for the Weary
Soul's Grace
 
Enchantments:
 Angelic Chorus
 Animal Boneyard
 Arrest  
 Boon Reflection  
 Cradle of Vitality   
 Felidar Umbra   
 Lifelink
 Noble Purpose   
 Oblivion Ring   
 Pacifism   
 Spirit Link   
Test of Endurance   
True Conviction

 Artifacts:
 Angel's Feather  
 Caged Sun
 Chalice of Life
 Elixir of Immortality
 Lightning Greaves
 Loxodon Warhammer  
 Pristine Talisman   
 Tower of Eons   
 Venser's Journal

Land:
 37 Plains 

I actually had the privilege of getting to battle this deck on Cockatrice before I make some edits.

As you can see, the deck plays many singleton life gain spells, using cards like Boon Reflection and the new m13 Rhox Faithmender to gain a whole bunch of life.

From there, the deck's next step is to get out a Test of Endurance or a Felidar Sovereign and win the game. 

What's good about this deck is that retardo_08 designed it and kept to his guns. His theme is a theme along the deck. The creatures have lifelink or work to gain him life. His spells mostly gain him life. The Stall plan is in place.

However, this deck is probably overcommitted to this plan. It doesn't matter how much life is gained with this deck, because a) there's always the 21-and-done General damage plan or b) amassing the hoard to destroy.

In our game, I was able to get 36 points of unblocked damage through on three turns and trounce the deck. 

One of the other big problems is being able to find his win conditions. In fact, this part was so crucial he had to commit a $6 Idyllic Tutor to the deck in order to find Test of Endurance, allowing him only 3 ways to win the way the deck was designed. Draw Felidar Sovereign, Test of Endurance straight up, or top an Idyllic Tutor. 

This, for EDH, won't be consistent enough to win, and even if the right draws happen, his opponent will still have the opportunity on the following turn to disrupt the plan. 

So in my redux of the deck, we're going to do something a little unconventional. I hate to pull out the cards so early, but I think for this life gain deck to work, we need to fix the first problem, which is the deck's leadership.

Atalya, while not a bad creature, shouldn't be the general of this deck at this time. This is because she does exactly what the deck does. Gain Life.

We actually need better support here to make the deck's theme consistent.

Unfortunately, my first choice we can't actually use, as Darien, King of Kjeldor is more than a dollar.

My second choice, however, should be just as good. So in the immortal words of Bob Barker, “Cho-Manno, Revolutionary, Come on Down!” 

So Cho's not just any general. In fact, he comes equipped with a great combo that was in the Standard metagame a while ago. 

Cho-Manno + Pariah or Pariah's Shield is used to prevent all the damage dealt.

The best part about this is that white is the perfect colors to find ways to get these things out on the CHEAP, both casting-wise and dollar-wise. 

So, our new strategy is to use Cho as a scapegoat, offering a few turns for your opponent to find an answer so that life can be gained and one of the original win-cons can be found. 

The best part about Cho is that the opponent will be forced to have multiple answers to the problems, creating an environment in which they have to be forced to play their removal spells.

Also, because of Cho, we can reduce the amount of life gain spells strictly to cards that will help the deck win. This should help free up a siginificant amount of space so that we can add some more great threats and distractions. 

So here's what I did.

General
Cho-Manno, Revolutionary

Creature   
Atalya, Samite Master
 Auratouched Mage
 Battlegrace Angel
 Captain of the Watch
 Celestial Force
 Emeria Angel
 Felidar Sovereign
 Healer of the Pride
 Knight-Captain of Eos
 Kor Cartographer
 Leonin Relic-Warder
 Lightkeeper of Emeria
 Lost Auramancers
 Patron of the Kitsune
 Rhox Faithmender
 Serra Avatar
 Shattered Angel
 Soul Warden
 Soul's Attendant
 Steel Hellkite
 Steelshaper Apprentice
 Taj-Nar Swordsmith
 Totem-Guide Hartebeest  

As far as the creatures go, we've got a lot of new faces. Obviously our life gain dudes stayed, and Felidar Sovereign. I was intrigued on the initial list by Serra Avatar, so I kept it. It's new, so I'm not sure if it's gonna be good, but it has potential to be huge, so it could be a threat. 

The new faces to be excited about are the tutoring guys. Taj-Nar Swordsmith, Steelshaper Apprentice, Totem-Guide Hartebeest, Auratouched Mage, and Lost Auramancers are all new pieces designed to help target the the win conditions in the deck. 

Other new faces to be excited about include Patron of the Kitsune, Shattered Angel, and Knight-Captain of Eos. I think those cards are very niche-y (not Nietzsche) and will fit well into this deck.

Instant   
Alabaster Potion
 Beacon of Immortality
 Blessed Reversal
 Crib Swap
 Disenchant
 Exile
 Faith's Reward
 Second Sunrise
 Stir the Pride
 White Sun's Zenith
 Wing Shards
 
So I focused the life gain down quite a bit here. Got a lot more removal and a lot more threats. 

Some cards I'm excited about are Stir the Pride and Beacon of Immortality. They are the most surprising and the most notably dangerous in the deck. Blessed Reversal seemed sweet too.

Obvious removal, is naturally obvious.
Note that we do have a couple of hokey tricks in Second Sunrise and the new m13 version, Faith’s Reward. Stir the Pride is also a potential life gain trick or game winner in the way that Overrun or Overwhelming Stampede works for green. I think that those cards are really handy for keeping Felidar Sovereign or Test of Endurance out. That following turn for your opponent is crucial, and these cards have the potential to crush his or her hopes and dreams. I don’t know if they’ll be good consistently, but in Magical Christmas Land scenarios, they’re pretty amazing. Magical Christmas Land might not come at all though, so if that's the case, they'll be among the first cards cut.

Sorcery:
 Archangel's Light
 Conqueror's Pledge
 Day of Judgment
 Decree of Justice
 Festival of Trokin
 Increasing Devotion
 Landbind Ritual
 Martial Coup
 Planar Cleansing
 Storm Herd
 Three Dreams 

More threats here. Archangel's Light seems cool in this deck, though I don't know how many cards will be in the graveyard when it goes off. 

Some Token power was added, mostly because I added a Skullclamp (Spoiler!), but also because these cards are great. Martial Coup is a 2-for-1 mass removal and among white's best. Storm Herd works in conjunction with the life total too, which could be bonkers in this deck. 

Decree of Justice seems awesome because you can make Angels at sorcery or Soldiers at Instant speed. 

The highlight card of this package though is Three Dreams, which can go get three of the following Auras.  

Enchantment:
 Armored Ascension
 Boon Reflection
 Celestial Mantle
 Faith's Fetters
 Felidar Umbra
 Luminarch Ascension
 Marshal's Anthem
 Pariah
 Pentarch Ward
 Test of Endurance
 True Conviction

Obviously, Three Dreams wants to go get Pariah, Faith's Fetters, and probably Armored Ascension as its primary targets. Pentarch Ward, Celestial Mantle, and Felidar Umbra are there for backup.

Luminarch Ascension I thought was a great addition to Cho because of synergy. Again, creating avenues to divert removal away from the win-cons. 

Marshal's Anthem is there as a way to pump dudes and dig other guys out.

Artifact  
 Caged Sun
 Pariah's Shield
 Shrine of Loyal Legions
 Skullclamp
 
Shrine of Loyal Legions is the best shrine in EDH I think, while the others are pretty self-explanatory.
 
Land  
 Emeria, The Sky Ruin
 Evolving Wilds
35x Plains
 Springjack Pasture
 Terramorphic Expanse

The mana base got a slight upgrade. Springjack pasture is there for chumps and life gain, while Emeria is there for the luck of activation.
Some final thoughts. 

I don't know how good this deck is going to be yet, but the upgrades will help. It'll still obviously need some tweaking cause we kept some goofy stuff, but now the deck has many more lines of play and avenues to win, with or without its primary strategy. 

One of the biggest challenges in the deck will be creating ways to confuse your opponent into deciding whether or not to attack. This is the deck's biggest function as it works to gain life.

Even more so, this deck needs a good player, one who can figure out what cards your opponent needs to draw to get rid of stuff. Bonus points if you can figure out what they have in their hand. 

Anyway, that's the deck.

Pass Turn.

-Uncle Landdrops

Ten Cards Guaranteed To Improve Any Deck

Today we're gonna talk about the best of the colorless- The Artifacts!

I'm in the process of compiling a reference list for the site where you can find EDH staples for every color and color combo. 

For now though, we're not talking about that.

So let's start the countdown with the Honorable Mentions, in no particular order.

Crucible of Worlds 
The only card of its kind. It's a fantastic include in decks with any of the Zendikar or Onslaught fetches, and loves its PIC, Strip Mine. Any deck's lucky to have it, but the Crucible is not for every deck.
 
Mimic Vat
Sweet card for a lot of reasons and a host of situations. Card just simply lost out to the cream of the crop.

Wurmcoil Engine
Sweet 2-for-1 creature. very few removal spells get its terror completely handled. 

Batterskull
Sweet equipment/dude. Can be saved and recurred, which is awesome.

All is Dust
Sweet removal, especially for decks that play mana-doublers like Extraplanar Lens, Gauntlet of Power, and Caged Sun.

Sword of Feast and Famine
Gives you mana advantage and disrupts your opponent, along with great protection colors, green and black being pretty common colors.

Sword of Fire and Ice
Draws you cards and shocks your opponent or his/her creatures. Also great protection colors. 

Now for the REAL LIST!

10. Duplicant

Ol' Dupey's a sweet 2-for-1 that gives you better board control and provides great removal, particularly for those people in your playgroup that try to slam Eldrazi or the Colossus brothers. The Dupe handles all those game threats and can turn the tide. He may not get the triggered abilities, but he's so great in green and red decks which don't have the remove from game mechanic for creatures. Also, Dupe's a great target for cheaper tutors like Fierce Empath and Treasure Mage.

9. Sensei's Divining Top

I have to say, I didn't really want this card to make the list. Mostly because I'm not sure it's good on EVERY turn in EVERY deck, and my intention was to put more accessible cards on this list.

But it's just too good to leave out. The Top only has one mortal enemy that can kill it in Krosan Grip, but it also has a friend in Trinket Mage to make it a consistent target in any blue deck. 

Top changes the game though, so despite my efforts, it makes the list at no.9.

T-7. Nevinyrral's Disk / Oblivion Stone

Mass Removal is a huge part of EDH. The Disk and Stone are great additions to any deck, resetting the board and creating equilibrium.

I put them here as a tie at 7 because I'm not sure which ones just better overall. They both have advantages in situations. 

Stone kills Planeswalkers and can be activated as soon as it's played, but costs more to activate. Disk costs less, but doesn't hit Planeswalkers. Stone might have the edge cause it can protect your stuff, but then you've probably had it out took long. It's a conundrum, really. 

6. Steel Hellkite

Surprise card maybe?
I think this card is great. It's the creature blue and black needed to help them with pesky enchantments and other threatening artifacts. In addition, he can destroy token armies in a single combat step. 

I think Hellkite's an auto include in about every deck. Period.
5. Solemn Simulacrum

Speaking of auto-includes, enter Solemn Simulacrum. Though scholars maintain that the translation of his name was lost centuries ago, we know what his name means. Value.

Solemn is Value, and one of the best decisions you can make for any deck is to put Solemn Simulacrum in it. 

Let's thank Swedish Magic Pro Jens Thorén for the design of this incredible 2/2. He's the land ramp you can't get anywhere else except green. He's the card draw you can't get if you're not playing blue, or paying life in black. Yes, my friends. It's true. 

Solemn Simulacrum IS the most interesting card in Magic.

Stay Winners, my friends. Play Solemn

A land, a creature, a card. For four mana. So go, get your cousin Chuck Berry on the phone. Cause you know that sound he's been looking for? It's here, it's cheap, and it'll save your life.

4. Umezawa's Jitte

Some cards are just better than others. This happens.

Then once in a while, there's a card. A card that's just too amazing to be fair. 


And so it rules the world. This is Umezawa's Jitte. Perhaps one of, if not the best equipment across all of Magic. 

This card turns games around. The Jitte wins games. 

Yeah, it's expensive, but if it could, the Jitte would be killing in every deck forever.

3. Skullclamp

I know what I just said about the Jitte, and it still is cooler than sliced bread. 

Skullclamp however, does the one thing the Jitte cannot. It draws cards. 

It gets the bump over the Jitte here because of this. It's also cheaper to buy, less expensive to cast, and it makes decks with bad EDH colors, like red and green, actually contenders. 

It's better because it can be played in every deck forever, and it should. 

2. Sol Ring

Tolkien wrote that there was One Ring to rule them all. And this is it. 

One of the purest EDH staples. It's ramp, and hot, nasty, badass speed. 

If you have one it should be in a deck. I once found myself with 6 decks and a Sol Ring not in any of them.

You know what I did? I punched myself. I punched myself right in the mouth. Then I cleaned up my bloody knuckles and put that Sol Ring in a deck. 

Don't make the same mistake I did, is all I'm saying. Sol Ring is that good.
1. Karn Liberated

Karn, Planeswalker Extraordinaire is no.1 because he's a seven mana win-condition. 

He's the Peyton Manning of Planeswalkers, with a matching, flavorful story of injury and triumph to boot.

Looks like a winner to me.

It's difficult to say he's the best Planeswalker in EDH because Jace, The Mind Sculptor is very Tom-Brady competitive, but Karn I think has the edge. 

For starters, he can go in any deck, and covers many weaknesses and removal.
Jace is an easier preparation. Is your opponent's general blue? If no, you got nothing to worry about. 

Second, Karn's abilities allow him to change the game completely in 3 turns by rebooting the game.

Jace is great, but the decision-making process of choosing whether to bounce dudes, fateseal, or brainstorm becomes a difficult balance reserved for more advanced players. Not saying he's not good, he's just better when you know what the situation calls for. 

So Karn gets the nod. Play it if you got it, and you won't regret it. I swear.

When I return from my 24-hour break, we'll talk more. 

Pass Turn.

-Uncle Landdrops

Card Corner: Moonlight Bargain

Moonlight Bargain is a pretty recent acquisition for me, and
I have to say I’m pretty impressed with it as an EDH card.

I discovered, or I guess re-discovered it while I was researching black instant cards for a Toshiro Umezawa EDH I just finished last week.

Some might argue that Moonlight Bargain comes at a hefty price of 5 mana and 10 life to draw five cards.

They wouldn’t be wrong, because this card does exactly that.
However, the card does a whole lot more for the state of the game than you’d expect.

The point is that Moonlight Bargain is straight card advantage. Every strategy wants to dig into their deck and get stuff. Control wants a card to get out of a jam or avoid a disaster. Aggro wants more dudes. Combo wants its pieces.

In my mind, Bargain comes at a sweet deal. You get to sift through the things you want and lose the things you don’t need. Most of the time, you won’t be paying 10 life. Even if you do, it’s less of a cost than it is in 60-card for the advantage.

Potentially, I think Bargain would find its best play in BW decks like Vish Kal where you can gain life, Teneb Reanimators where you can dump dudes and grab reanimates, and possibly some mono-B combo-control or combo-aggro decks like the Mikaeus, the Unhallowed deck. It’ll work in a U/B control, but unless you’ve got some graveyard recursion or ways to flashback spells I wouldn’t recommend it.

In my experience playing with this card, I’ve had a lot of success. For some reason, every black deck I own tends to have mana issues, so it’s been really helpful being able to play it in preparation to meet the land quota.

It’s also saved me several times, helping me to get to any one of the plethora of tutors I play in the deck, creating a consistency that allows me to get fairly quick kills for EDH.

Overall, a very underrated card that I haven’t seen on many decklists, but it should be if you’re gonna play black.

Alright. I’m passing the turn to you.

—Uncle Landdrops

NEW FORMAT ALERT: Dollar General EDH

A month or so ago, I had some friends that were looking to get back into playing Magic. They were casual players not looking to spend too much coin to make a good deck.

So, rather than beat them over the head with planeswalkers and Damnation and expensive cards they couldn’t afford, I figured I’d come to them. 

After ironing out some rules with a fellow EDH enthusiast, the Dollar General Format was born! 

Basically, the Dollar General format is a heightened version of Pauper EDH, which allows you to play beefier cards that gets closer to evening the playing field against blue in Pauper.
No rules are changed to the way the game is played. 

Deck construction, however, comes with stipulations. For starters, all 100 cards cannot exceed $40. Of this, your general/commander must cost under $1 of that price. 

Now, this pricing game can be difficult, as the market tends to argue based on good ‘ol Supply and Demand. This is where you and your playgroup will have to compromise. 

For us, we used TCGplayer.com as a constant for measuring the monetary value of our decks, as they offer a high-med-low price for each deck. Obviously, we chose the lowest. 

The best part about this format is that unlike Pauper, you aren’t necessarily put in a position to find second-tier cards to replace the cards you really want to play. You actually get to play them. 

Second, many Legendary Creatures typically frowned upon in normal gameplay actually get to do battle, leading to some creative/rogue builds that you wouldn’t see in a typical EDH match.
Third, good Dollar General decks can actually be competitive with their more expensive counterparts. Just check out my Brigid EDH decklist. 

So pull out those junk rares and revisit those cards that didn’t make it to Big League decks, cause they’re guaranteed to shine in Dollar General EDH. 

So Tell Your Friends, start playing, and look forward to more Dollar General Stuff here on the site. 

-Uncle Landdrops.

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.