Five color decks are tough to execute correctly, and with a base of GW, they’re almost a guaranteed hunk of crap. I would have loved to have played GW splashing blue for time walk, but got stuck with a Bitterblossom that I regretfully crammed into the maindeck with Necromancy.

What a mistake…

Decklist

• Swords to Plowshares
• Birds of paradise
• Llanowar Elves
• Scroll Rack
• Wall of Roots
• Strangleroot Geist
• Regrowth
• Bitterblossom
• Timewalk
• Mimic vat
• Eternal Witness
• Kitchen Finks
• Stonecloaker
• Day of Judgement
• Calciderm
• Natural Order
• Bramblecrush
• Restoration Angel
• Parallax Wave
• Indrik Stomphowler
• Garruk, Primal hunter
• Rolling Earthquake
• Entreat the Angels

Sideboard

• Sensei’s Divining Top
• Necromancy
• Seal of cleansing
• Disenchant
• Rout

Winston drafting is a funny format. You go an entire draft sticking to your guns and drafting a pretty coherent decklist and then, BAM, bitterblossom and time walk completely throw you for a loop. While splashing for a time walk is always the right play, I should have passed the bitterblossom. Black just has no business being played in this deck. And, even though it won me two games, I should have put down the rolling earthquake and kept diggin’ for something that, really, would have fit in the deck.

The cuts I would make here are Necromancy, Bitterblossom, and Rolling Earthquake. Pretty obvious, huh?

Well, lets think about what I should have been digging through the stack for…

I have a Natural Order in the deck that isn’t really doing much. It’s a tutor, so to speak, that has tremendous upside when used in combination with creatures like Kitchen Finks and Strangleroot Geist but, then, what is it bringing out?

Eternal witness?

Indrik Stomphowler?

No good.

Its not a bad thing to be able to tutor out these cards, but its not cube power level stuff. Ya feel me? I want something mean. Something ruthless like, this guy: Woodfall Primus.

Woodfall Primus is exactly what this deck is looking for. He is the perfect target to bring out with a natural order. The mana dorks and mox make it feasible to be sitting with a Kitchen Finks, a Woodfall Primus, and twenty four life on turn three while also having blown up something your opponent will surely miss. This guy IS what this deck is all about. The theme of this deck is RELENTLESSNESS and what is more relentless than a 6/6 trampler that blows up a non creature permanent upon entering and persists?

And, if you can manage to get him out, you have some really disgusting ways to get value out of him. The most obvious being: Mimic vat.

But there are many ways to abuse the creatures in this deck. With stonecloaker, we can pull my big threats back to our hand when we need to. With parallax wave, we can reset persist, undying, and vanishing creatures (getting all sorts of value) or just get added value out of ETB creatures like Indrik Stomphowler, Eternal Witness, and Restoration Angel. Getting anything out of the graveyard shouldn’t be a problem since the deck is running both eternal witness and regrowth but I don’t know if we have to worry about many of our creatures going to the graveyard. Besides, we would rather use the recursion to replay time walk.

 

So, the Primus is a sweet tool for this tool kit but we still need more cards. I think this deck needs more threats.

Deranged Hermit:

This guy is going to be nuts in the build. Any time is the right time for a deranged hermit to start going off and the cards in this deck certainly allow for that to happen.

I like being able to get some extra tokens out of this guy by using parallax wave and even getting him back to your hand with stonecloaker isn’t horrible. But, while not as good as going nuts with hermit and a recurring nightmare, slapping this mamma-jamma on a mimic vat is a huge play.

Four tokens a turn for 3 mana… Yes please!

Two thumbs up for squirrel boy.

While I’m on a roll here, im just going to rattle off a few: Thragtusk, Acidic Slime, Vorapede, Terastodon, Pelakka Wurm, blade splicer… All these creatures are awesome for this type of deck.

So, time walk is too godly not to play, right? Well, while we are splashing blue, why dont we play a Venser. He bounces all our creatures (adding tons of value) and once we have lethal on the board, you can -1 to him and swing in for the kill. Venser is really good in this deck.

 

Lets look at the new decklist

• Noxious Revival
• Enlightened tutor
• Birds of paradise
• Llanowar Elves / Fyndhorn elves / noble heirarch
• Scroll Rack
• Wall of Roots / Sakura-Tribe Elder
• Strangleroot Geist
• Regrowth
• Timewalk
• Mimic vat
• Eternal Witness
• Kitchen Finks
• Blade Splicer
• Restoration Angel / Erratic portal
• Natural Order
• day of judgement / wrath of god
• Parallax Wave
• Deranged Hermit / Thragtusk
• Indrik Stomphowler / Acidic Slime
• Venser, the Sojourner
• Garruk, Primal hunter
• Woodfall Primus
• Entreat the Angels

Good Sideboard cards

• Bramblecrush
• Swords to Plowshares
• Beast Within
• Pithing Needle
• Uktabi Orangutan
• Faith’s Fetters

 

Ah, that’s much better. Now, our mana is better, our creatures are stronger, and the overall synergy is right where we want it to be.

Our creatures all have sweet ETB effects. We get their benefits the first time for casting them, the second time with restoration angel, a third with mimic vat, and the hits just keep going with parallax wave, venser, etc…

I like playing the full green recusion suite with eternal witness, regrowth, and noxious revival as they get back all sorts of options; most notable being timewalk but other options being creatures, wraths, and garruk.

Entreat the angels has a very nice home in the list with scroll rack in the maindeck and divining top in the sideboard since being able to set up the miracles is as miraculous as the mechanic gets.

And, finally, our Natural Order now feels a bit more reasonable with Woodfall Primus and Deranged Hermit/Thragtusk to go grab.

 

So there you have it. The theme is relentlessness because this deck refuses to give up. The creatures bounce back over and over and over and, every time they do, you gain a little something extra. Value is the name of the game. So if you go out there trying to draft a green white deck that won’t lay down, keep that word in mind.

Value.

Look at the cards. Ask yourself, “What does playing this card get me?” and then ask, “How can I get more than that?”

Stay focused.

Go after the cards that will fit in line with what the rest of the deck is trying to do. Remember what it is you’re looking to find in the packs and do not be distracted by the shiny Bitterblossom. You CAN pass a bitterblossom. And, if you don’t have all the pieces for your deck, you SHOULD pass it.

Now lets hope I can take my own advice and not make this mistake again. Winston drafting takes self discipline. You have to have the will to say no to a certain card from time to time. You have to be able to put the rolling earthquake back down, set a card on top of it, and keep digging until you find what you are really looking for.

Until next time,

Thanks for reading and happy drafting!