Oversoul
The Tentacled One
Played this deck last night for the first time in a while. Despite an awkward start (Earthcraft but no creatures to use with it at first), I was able to get Spike Weaver for some defense. One of my opponents, who drew poorly and wasn't able to do much else the entire time, cast War's Toll, which really messed with me considering that two of my lands in my opening hand were Diamond Valley and Maze of Ith. Another opponent built up a deadly board state, but I brought that threat back down with Cataclysmic Gearhulk. From there I continued a defensive approach, with Kami of False Hope, Saffi Eriksdotter, and Luminous Broodmoth. My opponents seemingly waffled between working together to stop me and turning on each other, while I got Torsten loops going. Tried to take opponents out with traditional attacks, but they had enough responses to protect themselves for a turn (except for one player). Eventually I used Torsten to get Eternal Witness, then Eternal Witness to get Greater Good, then drew 18 cards from sacrificing Lumra, Bellow of the Woods. From there I could make enough mana from Earthcraft and Torsten's soldier tokens that I could feed Terastodon through Emiel's ability a bunch of times and secure the win.
This deck is one of my favorites, but there is a nagging issue with it. I do not employ any dedicated "win conditions." There's nothing here that I specifically use to kill people. The deck wins by having more creatures and bigger ones than my opponents, and by attacking with those creatures. In a vacuum, that's fine. Win conditions are overrated anyway. The problem is that many opponents respond with a lot of demoralization when they find out that not only is my big, long turn going to end without me winning the game, but that before I do pass the turn, I'm going to do as much as possible to stop anyone from being able to deal with my board state before my next turn. Usually, this means blowing up their lands with Terastodon. Some players take that in stride, conceding because they understand that they can't win, or perhaps going through the motions out of sheer curiosity (seeing what they'd topdeck and whether it could have stopped me under other circumstances). But others are, while not openly offended, clearly disappointed. Some react rather acidly to having their lands blown up. To them, their lands should be sacred and no one in a game of Magic should ever destroy their lands. Nevermind the fact that executing an infinite loop to make an army of tokens and then looping Terastodon to clear away all opposing mana production is functionally equivalent to just executing an infinite damage combo.
This deck is one of my favorites, but there is a nagging issue with it. I do not employ any dedicated "win conditions." There's nothing here that I specifically use to kill people. The deck wins by having more creatures and bigger ones than my opponents, and by attacking with those creatures. In a vacuum, that's fine. Win conditions are overrated anyway. The problem is that many opponents respond with a lot of demoralization when they find out that not only is my big, long turn going to end without me winning the game, but that before I do pass the turn, I'm going to do as much as possible to stop anyone from being able to deal with my board state before my next turn. Usually, this means blowing up their lands with Terastodon. Some players take that in stride, conceding because they understand that they can't win, or perhaps going through the motions out of sheer curiosity (seeing what they'd topdeck and whether it could have stopped me under other circumstances). But others are, while not openly offended, clearly disappointed. Some react rather acidly to having their lands blown up. To them, their lands should be sacred and no one in a game of Magic should ever destroy their lands. Nevermind the fact that executing an infinite loop to make an army of tokens and then looping Terastodon to clear away all opposing mana production is functionally equivalent to just executing an infinite damage combo.