UL's Better Deckbuilding: Silvos, Rogue Elemental EDH

Heya Zoners!

Landdrops is back again with another installment of Better Deckbuilding.

I know it hasn't been too long since the last one, but I've got quite a few in the works, and whether it's the lucky "W" I picked up in a sweet match last night, or the fact that I've got so many new decks coming down the pipeline that I need to talk about ones I haven't even talked about yet, we're here. Either way, it's good news for the TGZ faithful out there- more decklists is way more fun, all the time.

So I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but Yeva's been enjoying a nice little pension and sipping pina coladas on some remote island for a while, enjoying her retirement. I was told she won't be missed, and that's fine.

But much like a crappy hydra, when one of my monochromatic "heads" gets chopped off, something needs to grow back.

Enter Silvos, the biggest, beatdown-iest Bulbasaur-like thing of a Hulk I could find when I was trolling for new mono-Green leadership.

WHY SILVOS?

Having played Yeva so long, I felt that I'd lost sight of my green roots, and I wanted to get back. When I first started playing Commander, Grandpa Growth and I liked to pick generals based on their ability to damage and regenerate when all our plans went to mush. Silvos had been a guy on my radar for a long time, and when our games started getting more technical, and I needed different kinds of support, he kinda went backwards in line.

However, since I began creating my monochromatic decks, I've had this idea for a strong Voltron-based Green deck that incorporated more of Green's contribution to the color pie- ramp, combat tricks, and just generally being the big beatstick on the block. Thanks to several new cards and the re-emergence of Chroma as Devotion, this deck had some design space to work with.

THE STRATEGY

Essentially, Silvos was genetically engineered in the Mirari for 21 damage beats. In my playing of the deck so far, it has been the most efficient and effective way to get the game over with, and we do it by any means necessary, whether it's a few choice equipment, Auras, or even combat tricks.

Having so many different kinds of pump methods for Silvos means the deck is able to put a much more serious clock on an opponent than they might expect. With trample, and a regenerate trigger supported by ramp, and natural tutor power for tuck effects, chances are we're probably not going to lose our 3GGG investment on Silvos.

Not only does this mean we're going to have our Commander beating face, but it also means we have three green mana symbols, which gives us a nice solid chunk of Devotion. This is one of the new qualities that Theros has brought out int he 8/5 Elemental, and something I thought would be a nice thing to exploit that's kinda different than the better green decks, Omnath and Azusa.

THE TECH

We'll start off with perhaps the most obvious card. In a deck where creatures and spells both put lands into play, this card is mega value of the highest degree.

I finally got this card out of the deck last night, and netted about 15 life, six +1/+1 counters, and four beast tokens- all in about 4-5 turns.

My playtests of the card had given me a little taste of this, but until the moment arrived, the power of this card was still not fully understood.

Now, I get it. The +1/+1 counters are incredible on Silvos, and the life gain is a significant improvement from just playing Nylea's Disciple.

Canopy Cover is really underrated. Not only does it provide evasion in the colors of stompy creatures, but it also provides protection.

This is one of the cheeky ways I can build into Silvos, and one of his pieces of protection. If Cover resolves, you're not doing much in the way of stopping me.

Although flying and reach are probably in any decent deck, it's still not terrible. Most people want to attack with their flying creatures against green decks, this is a nice budget card that can get the job done if you've got a green Aura-Voltron deck or just a deck that needs something like this.

At long last, I finally made this card ridiculous. Previously seen in early episodes of The Stack, and possibly in many other decks, I finally got this card out with a way to dig into optimal disruption.

Seriously- you should've seen the amount of times I cast Krosan Grip, cycled Krosan Tusker, and Beast Within'ed in the game I was in last night.

When you have real stuff to go get, this card is seriously bananas when the deck has a fairly balanced amount of permanents, or is really deep in relevant kinds, like creatures and instants.

Definitely an All-Star where I've got it, and it's about time.

Greater Good is a fantastic card, but I don't want to play it in every deck (especially considering how much I abuse it in the one deck I do play it in).

So for all those times I don't have Greater Good, this is Momentous Fall aka the Tempo Draw Spell. It's pretty great, facilitating both relevant life gain and powerful card draw.

I've comboed this card with a Reincarnation before, and so that's a thing- but even if you aren't, hopefully you're refilling your hand or getting the card(s) you need.

The last card I'm going to talk about is Primal Bellow. GG used to have a 60-card deck where he beat the tar out of our little playgroup with big dudes and this card. Though it isn't very good, it's still kind of good with some support and proper tempo.

The cheap casting cost of this card makes it probably the best little spell I play short of Berserk, which I can't justify buying yet. So budget begets budget, and playing Primal Bellow has been a nice spell anyway.

Well, that's all I got for today. Here's my list, so you can comment, +1, or critique.

UL's Silvos, Rogue Elemental EDH

Until then, take it sleazy.
-UL