Subject: Naturepotence - lessons learned and current version Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 13:57:57 -0400 From: "Jamie & Mare" To: Rarely have I recieved so much mail about a deck. I seem to have struck a nerve in the magic playing community with this deck. It seems the world is STARVED for a green deck, and everyone LOVES to draw cards. Combine the two - its a really cool thing. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose - but the funnest part of the whole deck is the fact that I usually end the game with cards still in hand - how often has that happened in the past with a green deck? I've gotten tons of mail, and suggestions, and card idea's and what people have found works in their decks. So - lets see what we've come up with.... Surprisingly - the card that inspired the whole idea is found by many to NOT be the savior that green was looking for.... Provoke - It does no good against shadow, it usually gets your attacker killed as well, sometimes they just sit in your hand, as useless chaff, and since they still get to choose how they block - you can pretty much only attack with whatever is really fat. If you attack with an arctic wolves and an elf - and then prokoke your opponents avenging angel - well, she can just choose to block your elf. The card is not only NOT green's savior - its chaff. Its about on par with mortal wound. Sadly, I don't understand why this wasn't discovered in play testing, and fixed so the card would actually help us. There is very little as frustrating as holding three provokes, and not being able to use them for a variety of reasons. Furthermore - talk about telegraphing your punches! "I attack - but wait - before you declare blockers - and before you announce any fast effects- I have to provoke one of your guys." or you could be sneaky and say "i declare my attack phase." "fine" your opponent says. "I am entering my declare attackers phase." "I said fine." Your opponent looks at you funny - "Hmmm, you're playing green, I don't have an icy on the table - so attack already.... oh, you're holding a provoke. I see." I mean - its great the things an instant - but whats the point? it has to be cast in such a way that it might as well have been a sorcery. Also, these situations keep coming up. "I taunt your shadow guy endlessly!" "And he fumes from the shadows, unable to do anything about it. Guess he'll just have to keep attacking you next turn." "Take two more." "yup" "I attack with my Artic Wolves and my Endangered Don!!!" If you are holding a provoke - your opponent damn well better block - or they're gonna take a bone- crushing eight points of damage. If they have a tradewind, they can block, send something back to your hand (usually the fattie they were forced to block) and still be around. The card is useful, but not very damn often. Two are in the modern Naturepotence deck. Feral Instinct on the other hand is far, far, far better than I initially thought. "I torch your artic wolves for 5" "He goes feral! He lives! I draw a card! You take five now instead of six! "Damn!" "I hear thats card advantage!" "Shut up already." He he he he "I attack with my pump knight" "My Wall of Blossoms goes Feral! He's too big for you to first strike dead!" Usually at this point, your opponent will just stare at the board in disbelief. TARRROOOO!!! TARRROOO!! TAAAAROOO!! "Killed by a wall of blossoms. That's pathetic. " "Shut up already." "Are you done attacking? Anything else? I draw my card now." he he he Feral instinct is the bomb. I love this card. 4 go in the modern naturepotence deck. If you are holding three of them, and your opponent is playing creatureless, who cares? You can hit them for three additional points of damage, draw three cards, or attampt to suck 3 counterspells out of their hand. At the very worst, you can feral instinct a wall at the end of their turn, and then draw a card when you start your turn. Its just never useless. Arctic Wolves - also a four of in the modern Naturepotence deck. Seeing as how I am King of the Fatties (a.k.a Fattie Spice) - I may just like these more than some people. But the truth of the matter is - having eight creatures with a 4/5 toughness is just great. The upkeep is not usually a problem, as they don't really need to stay around that long in order to do a great deal of damage. They can't be offed by the usual "fireslinger, bolt" combo. When you use them with provoke - people are loath to throw a bunch of blockers in the way. Also, a three toughness used to be the benchmark for a useless fattie - Because red would just bolt it dead. Now, four seems to be the benchmark for a useless fattie. With fireslingers, guildmages, fanatics, lightning blast, etc etc ad infinitum.... Four isn't even safe now. Five is better. Plus, they have a cool picture. (is the artwork on stronghold pretty lame or what? Blossoms is good but, spike feeder? Barf. Provoke? Barf! Sword of the chosen? What the hell is that crap? BARF!!! I'll be happy when they get out of this dark theme, and go back to the excellent artwork that was showcased in Mirage. The art in Magic has been awful this entire storyline. yes there are exceptions, but dark, brooding artwork is generally dark, bad artwork.) Wall of Blossoms - I think we all know that this is an excellent card. Easily the best wall because its never useless. A lot of the other walls are useless if your opponent is playing flyers, or shadow, or creatureless. Blossoms at least replace itself, and is just great against a lot of decks. Big thanks to WOTC for at least giving us the best wall. The wall of blossoms, wall of roots, endangered armodon "combo" is pretty cool too. The combo is the fact that elves can't be used with endangered armodon, so you need a non land mana source to speed things up a bit. Four walls is not enough anyway, so eight is great against creature decks. Wall of roots is just amazing as we all well know. So, with endangered armodon, wall of roots and wall of blossoms, we have a nice little base to work around. Its not really a combo so much as a trio of cards that just work well together. Scragnoth or Uktabi Wildcats round out the creatures of the deck. I have four Wildcats in the deck right now for a number of reasons. Don't you just hate legacies allure? Don't you just love having a huge fattie that regenerates when you or your opponent plays a disk? Isn't Kraklin about the crappiest card ever made? When you draw land, late in the game with black you think - "YES! I'm gonna drain you dead soon!" When you draw land, late in the game with red you think - "YES! I'm gonna torch you dead soon!" Blue can start whispering capsizing all your stuff, and white can start holding land so they can recover from a geddon. Green can do what? Stream of life? Hurricane for the draw? How about play an 12/12 regenerater? That can't be controlled? he he he he he "Truck you man, I TRUCK YOU!!!! I send the huge, fat Wildcats over, and I TRUCK YOU!!!!" TAAAAARROOOOO!!!! TARRROOOO!!! Stephen B. Laird and I forget about these guys every now and then, and then we remember and sit in amazement at thier power. "These guys are just HOUSE" we say in wide eyed wonder. And boggle at how we could have possibly forgotten them. I like the Wildcats a lot - game over baby, game over. I like when they go feral too - get it? get it? moving right along..... Hurricanes keep being overlooked as well. It keeps ending games for me, and I want something more exciting in the deck, but Hurricane just wins for you. Green is constantly getting all its creatures wrathed away, the opponent gains control, you play a wall of blossoms and then you draw an Overrun. Overrun is an amazing card, and great in a weenie swarm deck - but not so good in a green fattie deck. Like this one. Your opponent will gain control, be at three and then you will hurricane them out. Thats how the deck works. You must have at least two hurricanes. Disks are also a 4 of in every deck. Fill you hands up with cards, blow up the world. Always a good idea. Disks are essential. They push the deck over the edge of mediocrity. The Dr. on the newsgroups suggested these in his deck that he posted, and also sent to me. Thank you - I don't know what I was thinking NOT including them in the deck. Works great with Wildcats. Works great with walls cause your opponent either can't get by the walls so keeps playing stuff, or you cast something huge and fat and they have to start playing stuff. Kills shadow guys too. And flyers. Etc. Tons of combo decks out there. All of them wrecked by a disk. Play them smart - and play with 4. The last card is creeping mold. A little bit of disruption is nice, and with 4 wasteland and 4 creeping mold - we have a little bit of land destruction. Also, between the disks and the creeping mold - we have a deck that can handle any non creature permanent that hits the board. I think thats about it - lets see what we have. 4 Creeping mold - "Die Man of Steel! Die! Green Kryptonite!" 4 Feral Instinct 4 Disks 2 Hurricane's 2 Provoke - which may eventually leave. 4 wall of blossoms 4 wall of roots 4 Endangered Don 4 Arctic Wolves 4 Uktabi Wildcats 4 Wasteland 4 Quicksand for shadow guys 18 forests The deck is supposed to be all about card drawing, but we are still short on cards that help draw cards. Like Striped bears. I like Striped bears, but found them not to be worth it. They don't combo well with the Scardy Don either. So we have 14 cantrips in the deck. In any other color, this would be an INSANE amount of cantrips. In this deck - its just about enough. Hope you like it - Jamie C. Wakefield King of the Fatties A.K.A. Fattie Spice A.K.A. Mono Color Boy Bard of MY Team Very Proud Member of Cabal Rogue Husband to The Lovely Mare 18th at the first PT NY 9th at New England Regionals '97 Just about dead last PT Dallas Just about dead last PT LA Author of "Tournament Reports" For a review check out www.post-box.com/magic