Commander Deck Tech: Loot, Exuberant Explorer

Monogreen decks famously play many lands and use their excess mana to cast creatures that can only be described as "gigantic".

Here are a few famous examples you've probably seen in your Commander matches:

Loot, Exuberant Explorer is a new creature from Foundations that most monogreen fans will likely enjoy a lot.

In this article, we'll show you two lists with this commander: one will focus on big creatures, and the other will focus on Landfall tokens. Let's go!

We know very little about Loot so far.

Loot was introduced to the public as Loot, the Key to Everything, in the Big Score set. It was rescued from Thunder Junction's vault by Jace Beleren and Vraska after they betrayed the gang they were working with.

After it was rescued, Loot probably briefly travelled with them through Bloomburrow until it got lost and captured by Valgavoth, Terror Eater.

Loot lost blue and red in this new version, and is now just green.

Loot's passive effect lets you play an extra land every turn - and it doesn't need to be a basic land.

Its activated ability costs six mana (two green ones) and lets you look at the top six cards in your deck. Then, you may reveal a creature with mana value less than or equal to the number of lands you control and put it in play. Finally, you'll send the rest of the cards back to the bottom of your deck at random.

Considering this activated ability and how it puts big creatures in play for just six mana, we built this first version:

Ramp

Loot may let us play an extra land every turn, but we still want to accelerate mana even more to put strong creatures in play. So, we need to clean the top of our deck, and remove as many lands from our way by putting them in play.

As this list only plays one nonbasic land, we gathered a wide, interesting variety of ramp spells. For instance:

The classic Rampant Growth, Cultivate, and Kodama's Reach work really well in this deck. Thanks to Loot, you'll be able to put lands in play even when these cards only bring them to your hand.

Besides these cards, we also play others that put even more lands in play, create mana, and even discount the cost of our spells so we can speed up the game even more.

Ashaya, Soul of the Wild is a famous green card whose effect fits this deck like a glove: because your creatures will be forests, they'll be able to create mana and count for Loot's effect when you try to pull a creature from your deck. Please note that this Elemental also offers protection against cards like Cyclonic Rift and others that destroy or exile nonland permanents, like Stroke of Midnight.

Silverback Elder offers you three triggered abilities to pick from whenever you cast a creature spell. It removes artifacts and enchantments, gives you life, or ramps, as it lets you look for a land among the top five cards in your deck.

As a creature, Ojer Kaslem, Deepest Growth lets you pull another creature or land from your deck and put it in play. It is also a great attacker to put pressure on your opponent. In the worst-case scenario, that is, if your opponents manage to disable Loot, this list includes great support cards to help you cast your creatures, such as:

With Emerald Medallion, you'll discount the cost of your green spells. As for Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma, it discounts the cost of creatures with power equal to or greater than 4.

Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant is a big dinosaur with a strong effect. It enters the board and lets you put any number of creatures from your hand to your board. Among all the cards we play, Ghalta stands out because of its effect and power.

Mana Dorks

Of course, we couldn't forget creatures that create mana when we tap them!

Selvala, Heart of the Wilds's ability draws you cards whenever you put a creature in play with power greater than your other creatures.

Combat

Our big creatures have considerable power and toughness, and also help each other with buffs.

Just like Unnatural Growth, Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus makes our creatures even more threatening by buffing their power and toughness. Their effects also apply during combats on your opponent's turns.

You'll be able to use Tyvar, the Pummeler's activated ability to buff your creatures until they're lethal to your opponents. Kamahl, Heart of Krosa makes combats even more dangerous.

Card Draw

There is a lot of card draw in green, so we just selected a few of the best for this list. You can check out other options here.

For instance, you'll be able to use cards like Greater Good at instant speed to draw many cards at once, or draw them consistently with Guardian Project.

As you'll have more cards in each turn, you'll most likely be able to use protection like Tamiyo's Safekeeping, Tyvar's Stand, and Overprotect.

Recursion

Did you lose any important resources during the game? No biggie. With these cards, you'll be able to return everything you lost!

With Six, you can cast permanents from your graveyard, as it gives them Retrace during your turn. Retrace lets you cast the card in question from your graveyard for its mana cost, as long as you discard a land as well.

Landfall is key to create many tokens in monogreen decks. So, let's take advantage of Loot's passive ability to put even more lands in play every turn and make sure we can create these tokens.

Lands like Blighted Woodland, Escape Tunnel, Evolving Wilds, Fabled Passage, Ghost Quarter, Myriad Landscape, Shire Terrace, and Terramorphic Expanse are extremely valuable to make sure we can create tokens with cards like Avenger of Zendikar, Greensleeves, Maro-Sorcerer, Rampaging Baloths, Scute Swarm, Sporemound, and many others.

When you have seven or more lands with different names on your board, Field of the Dead's ability will trigger. This way, whenever you put another land in play, you'll create a 2/2 Zombie token.

With Craterhoof Behemoth as your finisher, even the smallest tokens can deal lethal damage to your opponents.

Loot, Exuberant Explorer is an honest monogreen commander. It is fun and fair, as well as relatively harmless.

Its ability is quite simple, so you will easily be able to create fun lists that take advantage of it. It is an interesting option for players who enjoy casual games.

It combines everything green does best.

What did you think of this commander? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below!

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!