I thought I would try my hand in putting together an analysis of an
MTG deck I built recently that I’m having a lot of fun playing with. As soon as
I saw the evolve mechanic from the new Gatecrash expansion, I fell in love with
it instantly. I’m a huge fan of anything to do with +1/+1 counters being placed
on creatures. I had the same feeling when I got my hands on the undying
mechanic and then again when I spotted Corpesjack Menace
for the first time. I play mostly casual legacy decks around the kitchen table
with my friends, so we have a pool of thousands of cards that can potentially
combo off with new cards and mechanics as they come out. When I saw evolve, I
knew there was golden opportunities to be had for the creation of an
entertaining deck to play with, full of insane trigger combos and wild
mutations.
I’ll start with the deck-list itself so you get an idea of what it’s
all about. Keep in mind that this is a casual deck played mostly in multiplayer
2HG and Emperor games, so it’s design is not about getting 20 damage into the
red zone as fast as possible, hence the exclusion of certain cards that play
better if it was based more on 1 on 1 play. In addition, there’s no sideboard
and it’s based around whatever cards I have available, so there’s always room
for improvement and supplementing with the best cards out there.
Here’s a link to the Deck list online for easier viewing (complete
with mouse-over preview!)
Creature (24)
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Instant (9)
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Land (24)
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Enchantment (3)
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The Core Strategy of the Deck
As you can see at first glance, this is not a deck that has mostly
four copies in every slot. There are so many cool cards I wanted to put in that
I had to drop most of them down to less than four so I could include them all. The
one exception is Cloudfin
Raptor, which is just an absolute gem for the first drop and a must-have in
your opening hand. Pretty much every other creature will evolve it from then on
and most games it has ended up as a 3/4 or 4/5 unless it falls to some sniping
fire early on.
In the 2 and 3 mana slot we have the usual evolve creatures, such as Gyre Sage, Simic Manipulator,
and Elusive Krasis.
A Wolfir Avenger
works the same way as a Shambleshark,
evolving your creatures at instant speed and also acting as a surprise blocker.
A great mechanic to pair evolve with is its Ravnican predecessor,
graft. A Vigean
Hyropon will likely evolve all your creatures when it comes down, and then
passes on its +1/+1 counters to those more deserving of it, such as Simic Manipulator
and Fathom mage. The Cytoplast Root-kin
does an even better job at this. Not only will he trigger evolve with his hefty
4/4 body, but will also boost your creatures with another free +1/+1 counter to
boot. Since evolve and his ability trigger at the same time, you can stack evolve
first, making sure you can hit the motherload. A great joy passes through me
whenever I draw one, as it usually means my other creatures will all double in
size. Not only does he make a huge impact when he enters the battlefield, but
his last ability can be used for multiple purposes: keeping another creature
small so its evolve triggers, saving counters from a creature which is about to
hit the dust, or even resetting undying (more on that later).
Another great card that at first glance seems weak is Ooze Flux. With just a few
evolve creatures and Ooze
Flux down, you have a great engine for churning out creature tokens at the
cheap cheap price of 2 mana a piece. For example, you can remove a +1/+1
counter from each of two small evolve creatures and put a 2/2 ooze into play.
That will in turn trigger evolve again, giving them back their lost counters.
Rinse and repeat. Astute players may have now spied the infinite combo in this
deck. See it yet?
Imagine this. You have an Ooze Flux, a Gyre Sage with 2 counters
on it and at least two other evolve creatures (also with at least 1 counter on
them). Now you play the single Intruder Alarm you’ve
been saving in your hand with mischievous glee, waiting for the right moment to
unleash it. Tap the Gyre
Sage for 2 mana to feed into Ooze Flux and whip out a
3/3 Ooze by removing a counter from each of the 3 creatures. They get all their
counters back and Intruder
Alarm triggers, untapping the Gyre Sage. Do it again, and
again, and again, then one more time for good measure...Ok maybe one more time.
Bring out your wad of 68 million Ooze tokens that you’ve been saving up for
this occasion, and watch your opponents face as you sprawl them out nonchalantly
on the battlefield.
Zameck
Guildmage is a great card in this deck for obvious reasons, but I find
usually he falters when played early on, since you have to save mana for his
abilities which would be of much better use bringing down your creatures as
fast as possible. In the late game he’s a much better play, as long as there is
mana to spare to make your plays and use him at the same time. I threw in a
single Vorapede because
there are so many ways to reset its undying and it will evolve your creatures
every time it comes back into the battlefield.
As far as other non-creature spells go, they are mostly for tempo
control and protection. Simic
Charm and Rapid
Hybridization are just so versatile that they are a must-have. AEtherize has saved me so
many times and can be a ridiculous card to play in multiplayer. Bioshift can be extremely
useful as a combat trick or as a creature-saver. You can shift the counters
from a Vigean Hydropon
or Bloated Primordial
Hydra to another creature at instant speed that would make better use of
them, such as a Simic
Manipulator, Fathom
mage, or Elusive
Krasis.
Future Evolution
There are many ways this deck can be improved upon. It’s probably not
going to win the next Modern Pro-Tour, or even the next Friday Night Magic, but
it’s definitely loads of fun to play with casually and in Multiplayer. If you
were to mutate it for more competitive play (no pun intended!), I would put 4 copies
of the best of the creatures instead of spreading them out as I have for
variety. You can also throw in Experiment One, Thragtusk, and perhaps a Prime Speaker Zegana
for insane card advantage.
Another approach this deck can take is to profit more on the undying combo,
such as with Young Wolf
and Strangleroot
Geist. There are so many ways to remove counters that you can virtually
keep an undying creature alive forever. There is also the added benefit that
they will come into the battlefield bigger the second time, triggering evolve
twice. I avoided focusing on undying because it can become really annoying for
your opponents, and that’s something that always needs to be considered if
you’re building a casual deck for friendly play.
Originally, this deck was going to splash black for Corpesjack Menace,
a beautiful card that unfortunately doesn’t get enough attention in competitive
play. It is rather expensive and you usually end up playing it after most of
your evolve creatures already came down, which kind of beats the point. But once
it does come down it will more than earn its keep, since almost every creature
benefits from it in some way. In the end I opted to keep this deck U/G so as
not to risk mana issues.
So that’s pretty much it. All in all I really enjoy playing with this
deck, as it really brings out the Johnny in me. I hope you enjoyed this review
and got something out of it. Until next time, play safe and may you always see
three lands in your opening hands!
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