By MTG, 07/14/20
Grade
0
Kaldheim Draft: The format's evolution
Brave New Pauper World
Lessons Wizards taught me in 2020
Budgeting Arena - Temur Elementals, an agressive deck with lots of value!
Budgeting Arena - Mono Red Aggro: the return of one of the most explosive deck
Budgeting Arena - Temur Reclamation: one of the most fun and versatile combo
BUDGETING
Despite the focus being on the mutation keyword, let's begin our discussion with some cards that don't have this ability but are great creatures to open the game and good targets for our mutations: We keep the 4 copies ofZagoth Mamba
as it can be a great removal, especially in the late game where we managed to make several mutations in the same turn. We increased from 2 to 4 copies ofParadise Druid
because we can use it either as a ramp or simply keep it untapped to make the mutations in it since it is protected from occasional removals.Ad
Arboreal Grazer
, a great creature for the first turn, since for just one mana it is a difficult creature for the opponent to remove in the early game, and it accelerates our hand by ramping when entering the battlefield and being a creature to be mutated on the following turns. We also keep the 4 copies ofPollywog Symbiote
which makes the spells of creatures we cast cost 1 generic less if they have a mutation (remembering that we don't need to play the magic with mutation to decrease the cost). In addition, whenever we cast a creature that has a mutation (again, we don't need to use the mutation ability for that) we will draw a card and then discard a card, thus helping to find creatures we need. As the deck does not use rare cards, we removed the companionUmori, the Collector
and all copies ofNylea, Keen-Eyed
which, like Pollywog Symbiote, decreases the cost of the creatures we are going to play. For the deck's winning condition, we have two paths: The first is draining the opponent's life (s): We keep the 2 copies ofInsatiable Hemophage
that will make opponents lose more life while giving us more life each time it is mutated, and in the late game it can make the opponent lose 5, 6, 7 life for mutation. If the plan is to try to win like that, my advice is to make the mutations in Paradise Druid, since it can't be targeted by removal, and gradually draining life from your opponent. The second option is overrunning your opponent: We will keep 4 copies ofAuspicious Starrix
, a creature that whenever it mutates will exile the X cards from the top of our library, where X is the number of times it mutated and placing all permanents exiled in this way on the battlefield, and the best part is that this deck only has permanents (creatures and lands). So, everything that is exiled will be put on the battlefield, increasing our army. We added 4 copies ofTrumpeting Gnarr
to create 3/3 beast token and increase the army along withAuspicious Starrix
. We replaced the 2 copies ofEnd-Raze Forerunners
, which gives trample (in addition to increasing the power of our army), withArchipelagore
which will tap more and more opponent's creatures and prevent them from being untapped on the opponent’s next turn. In summary, it delaying the opponent's plan and also serves open a breach for a massive attack by the army generated byAuspicious Starrix
andTrumpeting Gnarr
. Now that we know our main win conditions, we have other interesting mutations in the deck: For the budget version we will also remove all copies ofSea-Dasher Octopus
,Gemrazer
andNethroi, Apex of Death
. However, we keep the 4 copies ofMigratory Greathorn
that will help us ramp, which is important since we want to make several mutations in the same turn. We also keep the 2 copies ofDreamtail Heron
to give us a card advantage, 2 copies ofChittering Harvester
for removal (even more so with Zagoth Mamba), and added 2 copies ofBoneyard Lurker
to return a permanent from our graveyard to the hand (either discarded by Pollywog Symbiote or simply killed). And finally, for the mana basis, we removed all copies ofZagoth Triome
,Castle Locthwain
,Overgrown Tomb
,Breeding Pool
andWatery Grave
. We added 2 copies ofJungle Hollow
, 2 copies ofThornwood Falls
and 2 copies ofDismal Backwater
and increased to 7 copies ofForest
, 6 copies ofSwamp
and 5 copies ofIsland
.Ad
Insatiable Hemophage
. I hope you enjoyed and see you soon.