Saproling Rewards Program (EDH / Commander)

I fell in love with Slimefoot at the pre-release and I've only been further exploring the art of saprolings as time has passed. If you aren't already sold on the Stowaway, let me help you out.

The purpose of the deck is to build a moat of saprolings as quickly and massively as possible. Once you do that, any creature that doesn't have some sort of evasion no longer matters to you. You can chump block opponents' big baddies, and then sacrifice your little green creatures for value (given by several instant sacrifice outlets throughout the deck) with the added benefit of draining every single opponent at the table. There's also the option to let combat damage resolve and chump 9 creatures into your opponent's Pathrazer of Ulamog (which, by the way, is pointless against you because of course you will sacrifice those 3 saprolings). That's the main premise of the deck. You build up a bunch of saprolings which provide a ton of benefit to you when destroyed, swing with a massive amount of 1/1s (hopefully with 1 or 2 global buffs), and/or wipe your own board to eliminate your opponents while also giving yourself a ton of breathing room in terms of life. Your opponents will hate you. You might lose friends. I am speaking from experience.

A large portion of this deck is dedicated to cards which generate saprolings. Go figure. There are a lot of cards that do an excellent job of multiplying the board state in the mid to late game, and they're impossible to take out of the deck-list. These include a trio of behemoth enchantments by the names of Parallel Lives, Primal Vigor, and Doubling Season which all double the amount of saprolings you would receive in a given instance. Another Trio of spells allow you to double all of the saprolings that you currently have on field; Second Harvest, Saproling Symbiosis, and Parallel Evolution (The last of which allows you to do it a second time from the graveyard). Keep in mind, if you have any of those enchantments I just mentioned on the field, that's 4x the amount of saprolings.The next trio of cards (funny how that keeps working out) provide you with a nonstop flow off new saprolings on each upkeep. Yes, that's EACH upkeep so you really have to keep UP with these cards; Verdant Embrace, Verdant Force, and Tendershoot Dryad. If you're playing in a pretty standard game with 3 opponents, that's 4 saprolings on each of your turns. There is a fourth upkeep card that can get out of control but will probably draw removal pretty fast from your opponents (but that's the idea right?). If you're familiar with any Fungus decks, you're probably familiar with Mycoloth who can Devour any number of saprolings (or non-saprolings) and return to you twice that many on your next and each proceeding upkeep. The remaining cards for this section are more focused on jump-starting your saproling collection since it's a lot easier to make saprolings when you have some already. I have a little bit harder time finding cards that fit this purpose, and most of them seem over-costed to me, so I will gladly hear any suggestions.

So what do you do after you get 99 saprolings? You can start to get rid of some.

You will probably notice I don't run the standard collection of spore counter fungi that a majority of players build around in saproling decks. For one, I think they're a major pain to keep track of, and two they just work way too slowly for my taste. I run four of them and those that I have chosen were selected entirely based on their secondary abilities which each allow me an outlet to sacrifice a saproling for additional value whenever I want. Deathspore Thallid is one of my favorite cards which can remove a giant indestructible creature in dire circumstances for no cost whatsoever (Meaning I can choose to wipe my board if I want). Psychotrope Thallid allows me to pay 1 mana of any color to draw a card. Utopia Mycon lets me ramp into a huge spell in a pinch while also allowing for a voluntary board wipe. These three come at low cmc as well and are an excellent exchange if they get removed (although you should still be upset). The fourth and least exciting of the crew I affectionately refer to as the "Spore Boys" is Savage Thallid who was originally tossed out with the rest of the mushrooms but was just recently re-included in the deck-list. His one job is to protect Slimefoot, and he does that exceedingly well. He comes with the added benefit of protecting his spore brethren, facilitating one of those board wipes I keep talking about, and if nothing else, he represents 5 power.

Your keen eye may have noticed the potential for this deck to combo off. Ashnod's Altar is a standalone ramp all-star as long as I have some colored sources sitting around that wins the game when paired with any of the 3 multiplier enchantments I mentioned before. Before now, we haven't talked about Slimefoot's second ability because it is pretty lackluster in my opinion. It's a decent mana sink if you're holding mana open through your opponent's turns but who wants to pay 4 mana for a 1/1? Okay, but how about 4 mana for 2 1/1s? that sounds a little better. But wait, what if I sacrifice those 2 1/1s for 4 more mana? It's easy to see where this is going, and slimefoot's first ability now essentially reads drain all your enemies to death.

I'm typically a tight-budget magic player but I have so much fun with Slimefoot that I'm branching into more expensive cards so that he can see his true potential.