Sapling of Colfenor: Rap, Recur, Repeat (EDH / Commander)

"‘I'll show you how to handle the treefolk' the giant bragged, and he strode off into the forest. Two days later he returned, his face masked in sap and a nest behind his ear. None dared ask who won."
—Azeworai, "The Treeling"

=== P L E A S E _ N O T E ===

I disassembled this deck in March 2018.

=== I N T R O D U C T I O N ===

My first ever EDH deck was a Doran, the Siege Tower treefolk tribal build - and it was awful. I didn't care much about its mana curve while designing it, didn't focus on one strategy, and made things worse by shoving more and more "good stuff" cards into it over time, in order to compete with the (surprisingly effective) Commander 2014 precon decks of my friends. The final result was an unfun build with too expensive spells, almost no flavor and little chance to win, so I dismantled it after a few months.

A while ago I watched a video on YouTube, uploaded by The Professor from the renowned Tolarian Community College (https://youtu.be/ladIKHYtUBE). In his video, he introduced a (more or less budget) EDH treefolk tribal deck with Sapling of Colfenor as commander. Since then, I have been thinking about designing a similar deck myself, reusing many of the cards from my unfortunate Doran build and thus saving some money.

I have been playing games of Commander with my friends on a fairly regular basis over the last two years. Due to this gaming experience and lots of know-how from internet articles and videos created by EDH veterans, I understood the mistakes I made with my Doran brew and was now able to create a much better deck. "Better" in terms of consistency, effectiveness and flavor.

=== S T R A T E G Y ===

Sapling of Colfenor's triggered ability is a unique one. Given the right circumstances, she can provide pretty consistent card advantage and also some life gain. Since treefolk creatures usually have higher toughness than power, they synergize well with the Sapling. She also puts a lot of pressure on opponents by constantly attacking. While a base power of 2 isn't impressive, once Sapling is given some support she becomes a real threat. Cards like Rancor, Bear Umbra, Gift of the Deity, Sword of the Animist and Avarice Amulet provide a much needed power buff as well as additional value. Sapling's indestructibility is just the icing on the cake.

Clearly her triggered ability is effective only if, at the beginning of combat on my turn, the top card of my library is a creature. Thus, to maximize the propability for this to happen, my 99 need a) an above-average creature count while running relatively few noncreature spells, b) many options to get lands - usually the most common card type in an EDH deck - out of my library and onto the battlefield, and c) some spells to manipulate the top of the library with.

In order to get a significate advantage from Sapling's pseudo-draw ability, I decided to run at least 40 creatures in my deck (actually, it's 41). Since there are only 64 treefolk in her color identity to choose from, and most of them are underperforming in a format that is all about powerful spells, I thought that using some amount of out-of-tribe creatures would increase the overall power of the deck. As a rule of thumb, at least 27 creature spells of a certain type are needed to get significant benefits from tribal synergies, so around one third of all creatures in the 99 could be non-treefolk.

With 37 lands and thus only 21 card slots for noncreature spells remaining, I had to search for creature-based substitutes for much needed effects like mana acceleration, removal and tutoring. While doing so, I noticed that these and other useful effects were provided by shamans. Even some EDH staples like Fauna Shaman and Oracle of Mul Daya are shamans. Terrific! Many treefolk - even the Sapling herself - are shamans, too, and Bosk Banneret as well as Leaf-Crowned Elder also care for that creature type. So shamans became a subtheme of my deck, resulting in a total number of 21 shamans in the 99 - enough to justify the inclusion of Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro for a serious boost in mana generation, as well as the use of Coat of Arms and the new Path of Ancestry. These cards synergize outstandingly well with Sapling of Colfenor, since she shares a subtype with all 41 creatures in my deck. Another very synergistic card is Thornbite Staff. At worst, it can kill chump blockers and small utility creatures or provide pseudo-vigilance for my commander. At best, if I equip Vampire Nighthawk with it (or Sapling enchanted with Gift of the Deity), I am able to kill each and any enemy creature as long as I have the necessary amount of mana.

To be able to pull as many lands as possible out of my library over the course of a game, I devoted 13 card slots to this function (Diabolic Intent not included). 7 of them are occupied by fetchlands, while spells take up another 6.

For library manipulation, the aforementioned Oracle of Mul Daya lets me get up to two lands off the top of my library during each of my turns. The awesome Sylvan Library not only provides card advantage, but also rearrangement of my library's top cards. And above all, Volrath's Stronghold and Haunted Crossroads can put creature cards from my graveyard on top of my library. These two are key cards for this deck's strategy and primary tutor targets, because in conjunction with Sapling of Colfenor and the numerous sacrifice outlets in my deck they can set up a powerful recursion engine.

The deck is made round by utility spells like Oblivion Stone and Deathreap Ritual, as well as synergistic cards (i.e. Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest) and dedicated tribal boons (i.e. Cover of Darkness). For a commented decklist, please scroll down.

=== C O N C L U S I O N ===

Sapling of Colfenor enables me to develop a threatening board position relatively quickly, and allows for quick recovery after board wipes (of which most don't affect her). Long wars of attrition can be won thanks to recursion effects and the ability to regain some life over time. Effective tribal synergies as well as some powerful EDH staples provide a flavorful but diversified gaming experience.
The first big overhaul of the deck eliminated former weaknesses of the design, like the absence of creatures with flying or reach and its inability to respond to indestructible threats. Its biggest remaining flaw is its limited ability for instant response to sudden threats. Cards like Attrition or Wickerbough Elder mitigate that weakness to a certain degree, but need to be already on the battlefield (and stay there) to do so.

As always, your comments, likes or suggestions are welcome. Thanks for reading, have fun!

=== C O M M E N T E D _ D E C K L I S T ===

//Commander
1 Sapling of Colfenor #!Commander

//Lands
7 [M13] Swamp
13 [ISD] Forest
1 Thawing Glaciers #is a Rampant Growth every other turn.
1 [#115] Evolving Wilds
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Terminal Moraine
1 Warped Landscape
1 Jund Panorama
1 Grim Backwoods
1 Rogue's Passage #lets Sapling deal commander damage on a regular basis.
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Volrath's Stronghold #The centerpiece of this deck's value engine.
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Path of Ancestry
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Woodland Cemetery

//Artifacts
1 Expedition Map
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Plague Boiler
1 Coat of Arms

//Equipments
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Thornbite Staff
1 Avarice Amulet

//Enchantments
1 Cover of Darkness
1 Sylvan Library
1 Haunted Crossroads #Backup for Volrath's Stronghold.
1 [UDS] Attrition
1 Deathreap Ritual
1 [#28] Greater Good #is looking forward to the next Wrath of God.

//Auras
1 Rancor
1 Bear Umbra #Play anything you've got from Sapling on your 2nd main phase!
1 Gift of the Deity

//Sorceries
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Life's Legacy
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Gaze of Granite

//Treefolk
1 Treefolk Harbinger
1 Sheltering Ancient
1 Dungrove Elder
1 Tilling Treefolk #Very uselful due to my numerous fetchlands.
1 Ebony Treefolk
1 Gaea's Avenger
1 Cradle Guard
1 Heartwood Storyteller #So much fun in multiplayer!
1 Dauntless Dourbark
1 Unstoppable Ash
1 Cloudcrown Oak #Defense against airborne attackers isn't optional.
1 Lumberknot
1 Seedguide Ash
1 Timber Protector
1 Weatherseed Treefolk #gets sacrificed a lot for the Greater Good.
1 Deadwood Treefolk
1 Great Oak Guardian #A friend of mine loves to tap everybody else's creatures. No more.
1 Ulvenwald Observer
1 Verdeloth the Ancient
1 Ghoultree

//Treefolk Shamans
1 Bosk Banneret
1 Black Poplar Shaman
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Leaf-Crowned Elder
1 Fendeep Summoner #allows for funny shenanigans with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.
1 Thorntooth Witch
1 Orchard Warden
1 Woodfall Primus

//Other Shamans
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Skinshifter
1 Korozda Guildmage
1 Hag Hedge-Mage #Eternal Witness didn't make the race for this deck.
1 Abzan Beastmaster
1 Vampire Nighthawk #The ultimate airborne defender.
1 Vulturous Aven
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro
1 Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest
1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief