Summer Afternoon on a Lake (1895) by Jean-Leon Gerome. Protean Hulk by Matt Cavotta.

One of the biggest challenges in Magic I've ever faced is that of figuring out what playstyles and what types of decks I really enjoy the most. By now I've built hundreds of decks and played many hundreds of games. I know I enjoy playstyles where I get to be surprised by what's on top of my library, and have played Mayael the Anima, Narset, Enlightened Master, Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, and Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign to scratch that itch. I've recently put together an Elminster deck that has tons of topdeck manipulation and has already been fun to play.

Today's column isn't about those decks, it's about falling in love with storm.

One of my favorite decks, Vadrik, Astral Archmage tries to win by building up storm count of 8, 9 or more, and then casting Dragonstorm.

Storm is incredibly fun for the person playing the storm deck. You hang out, try to fly under the radar and not seem like a threat. You play out support pieces and save up cards you'll need to launch into a big turn. Then when everything is in place, you go for it. You draw cards, you play free or very low cost spells, and you aim for whatever payoff your deck uses to actually win the game. I got a taste of storm with an old Zada, Hedron Grinder deck years ago, but I really fell for this style of deck with Vadrik.

I don't think today's deck is going to be nearly as explosive as Vadrik, but I'd like to walk you through the directions I took and the decisions I made in putting together this first draft. Today's column is going to be about Aeve, Progenitor Ooze.

This legendary Ooze comes into play with a +1/+1 counter for each other Ooze I control. Aeve has storm, which isn't something you normally see on a creature. Storm copies of creature spells become tokens, and the card conveniently states that Aeve isn't legendary if it is a token. That means if Aeve is the second spell cast in a turn, you'll get a storm copy of Aeve which will be put on the stack after you cast Aeve. The storm copy will resolve first and Aeve will end up being an extra +1/+1 counter bigger for your trouble.

I don't think of green as being the best color for storm, but Aeve has me building my very first mono-Green storm deck. The ultimate question is going to be whether I am building an Ooze deck, a storm deck or a combo deck. If you know me at all, you'll know that I enjoy dipping my toes into as many different playstyles as possible. That means this first draft is going to have a little of everything and once I've played it a few times I'll move it in the direction that feels the most fun.

Oodles of Oozes

The first thing I decided to do when building this deck is figure out how many Oozes I had in my collection. As it turns out, I had a lot of Oozes and a handful of Ooze token generators.

One reason running lots of Oozes in Aeve makes sense is that the deck will be more likely to be able to stand on its own and work even if my commander is not available. Heaven forbid someone casts a Nevermore and names Aeve, Progenitor Ooze, I want to still be able to build up my board and have a shot at being a threat. A second reason it makes sense to run additional Oozes is that Aeve gets +1/+1 counters equal to the number of other Oozes on the battlefield when it joins the party.

If all I've been doing is playing out Spellbooks, Mana Crypts, mana elves and other free or low cost spells, I'll get more Aeve tokens but it won't really feel like an Ooze deck. For better or worse, I want this to feel like an Ooze deck.I didn't even include any Changelings though they have all creature types so they qualify as Oozes. That might be a foolish choice, but this is a starting point, not a final, polished list.

My oozes run the gamut from one mana pushovers all the way up to a 7-mana behemoth of an Ooze. The cheap ones can actually help me on a turn when I'm going to try to cast Aeve.

One mana for an Experiment One or Mwonvuli Ooze may not be game breaking, but it puts a little more slime on the field and adds to my storm count. At the other end of the spectrum, Ancient Ooze might cost a hefty 7 mana, but it will have a power and toughness equal to the total mana value of other creatures I control. My Aeve tokens are copies of Aeve so they have everything Aeve has, including that highly Green mana value.

I'm running staples like Acidic Slime and nearly every other slime I could get my hands on. They each have their own little twist to make them special. Corrosive Ooze can destroy equipment. Gluttonous Slime has Devour 1 and can gobble up other creatures I control to get bigger. Gobbling Ooze on the other hand can sacrifice another creature for 1 green mana to get a +1/+1 counter. There are a lot of them, and a few are worth a closer look.

Making more Oozes is very important, as they will help my Aeve Oozes get big. Biowaste Blob will pump them by +1/+1 and will make copies of itself if I control my commander. Inexorable Blob will make another 3/3 Ooze token when it attacks if I have delirium. Splitting Slime gives me a place to put mana. The original 3/3 will become a 6/6 with the +1/+1 counters and the new copy can be made monstrous. This deck isn't sporting a Gaea's Cradle or even a Nyx Lotus, but my Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx could make enough mana to split my Splitting Slime a few times.

Storm Matters

If I were to build a dedicated Green storm deck, I'd be faced with something of an uphill battle. Dragonstorm Vadrik works really well because I have loads of treasure generators, nearly every spell ends up costing just one or two mana, I draw a ton of cards and my payoff costs a paltry 1 red mana to win me the game. With Aeve, there's simply no way I'm going to be paying one mana for my payoff because my payoff is my 5-mana commander.

I'm also unlikely to build up a huge storm count without resorting to drastic measures.

That would mean dropping most of my Oozes and loading up on very low mana spells or free spells. Even then, I don't know if I'd have quite the draw power that Vadrik gets to play with. That doesn't mean I'm not going to do a little work to try to set myself up for a big turn. This list is an actual deck I've built in paper, so it's worth noting the cards I'm including and the cards I should be running that I simply didn't have lying around.

Rhonas's Monument will cut the cost of my Green creatures by one mana. Emerald Medallion should also be in this list but I didn't have one available. Each of those cost reducers make it easier to squeeze Aeve out after casting a bunch of other spells. Early Harvest is an old instant that acts as pseudo-ramp, untapping my basic lands at the cost of 3 mana. If it's late game I should be able to tap out, cast this, untap my basics and then tap them again for a really big turn. Bear Umbra is also in this list, though Sword of Feast and Famine is not. Both can untap my lands when I attack, letting me cast spells in my first main phase, untap during combat and then try to get Aeve out in my second main phase with a big storm count.

These are EDH staples for a reason. Beast Whisperer and Guardian Project are the kinds of permanents that will reward a Green deck for doing what Green decks do - putting creatures on the battlefield. Momentous Fall will let me sacrifice a creature to draw cards equal to its power and gain life equal to its toughness. Drawing cards is essential to any storm strategy and I'm hoping I've got enough draw to let this deck do its thing.

The most important thing a storm strategy needs is cheap spells so you can mount a decent storm count before playing your payoff. At this point my focus is more on ooze tribal than on storm. That's OK, and if I find my Oozes making this a fun deck to play at lower powered tables, I might just keep it that way.

I am running a bunch of one-drops, but my insistence on running Oozes cut into my ability to load up on cheap spells. In theory I should have zero mana artifacts and fast mana rocks but they're just not oozy enough for this first draft. I could also have run Concordant Crossroads and a boatload of mana elves and druids that can tap for mana, but this isn't ever going to have the kind of explosiveness as a Chulane, Teller of Tales will see on a regular basis.

Whether I'm leaning towards Oozes or leaning towards a leaner, meaner glass cannon deck with a focus on storm, I need to be able to close out games. I'll have creatures but that doesn't always get the job done. In all their oozy variations, most of them don't even have keywords.

Combo and Closing Out Games

It's not every day that you find a card that combos with Food Chain.

It might be every other day, or every third day but I'm not actually counting.

Aeve, Progenitor Ooze works beautifully with what has become one of my favorite combo pieces in all of Magic, which in turn plays into some other cards that can help me draw my deck.

I usually run a creature that can be cast from exile when I run Food Chain in a build, but I don't think that's necessary with Aeve. Lesser Masticore would fit right in, but I think I'll be OK without it. My Aeve tokens have a mana value of five so if I sacrifice Aeve and an Aeve token I'll get six mana for each of them. That will cover the cost of my commander tax, so if I've got a little extra help when I try to go off, I should be able to make an arbitrarily large number of Aeve tokens. Each time I exile my commander with Food Chain and re-cast it, I'll be increasing my storm count and getting more Aeve tokens.

It's worth noting that this deck is missing a haste enabler. I should at least have Concordant Crossroads, but this list was built with cards I had lying around and my copies of that enchantment were all in other decks.

Making huge Oozes can work with card draw spells like Momentous Fall or Greater Good to draw most or all of my deck. If I'm going wide, Shamanic Revelation can also go a long way towards pulling into what I need so long as I'm careful and don't just draw myself out.

If I don't hit Food Chain I still need the ability to close out the game. I this deck that means going to combat. If I want to deal damage, I'll want to give my creatures trample. That Ancient Ooze could easily be 20 or 30 power, but it can be chump blocked by an insect. If I want to be able to protect myself after swinging out, that also might mean vigilance. Fortunately there are ways to get both of these keywords.

The last one in this trio is a bit of a flavor fail, but my goal is to have some way to present a lethal threat. I'm also running Triumph of the Hordes, which feels really flavorful for an Ooze deck. Triumph gives +2/+2, trample and infect.

Oozes don't often come with evasion, so this deck absolutely needs ways to turn a big, oozy army into a win condition in the many, many games I expect to have where I don't find my Food Chain.

Ooze! I did it again...

I'm excited to both play this deck and to see how I can shape it in the weeks to come and turn it into something fun that appeals to my newfound love of storm. I'm pretty sure it isn't going to hold a candle to the kinds of games I get with Vadrik, but that's OK. I built this list off of the bones of my voltron Kosei, Penitent Warlord deck, which was a very, very different kind of deck.

I think this list should play alright at mid power tables and might occasionally sneak out a win at higher power tables, but it's probably lacking some key cards. I suspect I'll want to move it towards a low mana, storm focused build, but until I play it a few times I won't know for sure.

Aeve, Progenitor Ooze | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Aeve, Progenitor Ooze

• Creatures (28)
• 1 Acidic Slime
• 1 Ancient Ooze
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Bioplasm
• 1 Biowaste Blob
• 1 Caustic Caterpillar
• 1 Corrosive Ooze
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Experiment One
• 1 Fyndhorn Elves
• 1 Gluttonous Slime
• 1 Gobbling Ooze
• 1 Green Slime
• 1 Inexorable Blob
• 1 Karametra's Acolyte
• 1 Manaplasm
• 1 Mwonvuli Ooze
• 1 Nyxbloom Ancient
• 1 Oashra Cultivator
• 1 Ochre Jelly
• 1 Predator Ooze
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Slurrk, All-Ingesting
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Splitting Slime
• 1 Spore Frog
• 1 Temur Sabertooth
• 1 Wood Elves

• Instants (7)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Early Harvest
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Inspiring Call
• 1 Momentous Fall
• 1 Reclaim
• 1 Return to Nature

• Sorceries (14)
• 1 Broken Bond
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Full Flowering
• 1 Gelatinous Genesis
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Miming Slime
• 1 Overwhelming Encounter
• 1 Overwhelming Stampede
• 1 Rampant Growth
• 1 Revive
• 1 Shamanic Revelation
• 1 Slime Molding
• 1 Three Visits
• 1 Triumph of the Hordes

• Enchantments (9)
• 1 Bear Umbra
• 1 Eladamri's Vineyard
• 1 Food Chain
• 1 Greater Good
• 1 Guardian Project
• 1 Gutter Grime
• 1 Ooze Flux
• 1 Sight of the Scalelords
• 1 Unnatural Growth

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Liquimetal Torque
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Rhonas's Monument
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Thought Vessel

• Lands (35)
• 27 Forest
• 1 Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1 Mosswort Bridge
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1 Opal Palace
• 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Tree of Tales

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To push this list up in power level, you'd definitely want to load up on mana-positive rocks, lower mana creatures that are much less oozy, and more card draw. You might want to throw in a Gaea's Cradle and Growing Rites of Itlimoc. Additional infinite mana combos would also make sense. To drop this down in power you'd drop out Food Chain and some of the more powerful cards like Bear Umbra and Triumph of the Hordes.

Because a huge part of this deck's game plan is sitting right there in the command zone, I think it should be fairly consistent, but my desire to make it feel like an Ooze deck will result in it being a bit less explosive and a bit more... oozy.. The big question is how well it will bounce back from removal and board wipes. If Aeve gets killed or exiled twice, I'll be unlikely to be able to load up a turn with a lot of spells and then cap it off with 9 mana for Aeve with four mana worth of commander tax.

Early Results

When I can manage it, I like to play these decks before a column goes up so I can speak to how it performed. I was able to get this deck out in a three-player game last week. It wasn't a great test, as it was the weakest deck I had on me and I was playing with a new player on a precon and another player who was playing their weakest deck.

I ended up casting Aeve twice, each time making two additional Oozes. Greater Good set me up for the turn where I pulled ahead of my tablemates for good. I saw two of my nontoken Ooze cards - Acidic Slime and Experiment One, and I ended up casting Overwhelming Encounter three times, but it wasn't the real all-star of the game.

The card that surprised me the most was Karametra's Acolyte. All my Aeve copies have the same mana value as the original Aeve, so by the end of the game I was tapping her for TWENTY-SEVEN mana. I rolled a 19 for one of my Overwhelming Encounters, putting counters on all of my creatures and then cast Inspiring Call to draw 11 cards.

Three-player tables are always rough because when one person pulls ahead, the chances are much lower that someone will happen to have the right answer to stop them. In this game I didn't get stopped, but I had also drawn into Genesis Wave and Food Chain and didn't need either.

Two days later in my weekly(ish) online group I played Aeve again and it put in a pretty good showing. My biggest problem ended up being poor decision making on my part. I killed the wrong person when I had a chance to take someone out of the game, and that mistake came back to bite me later. Aeve put in a good showing though.

This past Saturday I got one more Aeve game in, and it did really well. The all-stars of the game were Karametra's Acolyte and Inspiring Call. The former was tapping for over twenty mana towards the end of the game and the latter drew me something like 11 cards. Gutter Grime is worth a mention as well. When I was able to close out the game, if someone had wiped the board I would have gotten six more slime counters and would have made six slimes with 8 grime counters on Gutter Grime. I would have bounced back with 48 power on board if it had come to that, but I nobody was able to find a wrath in time.

The biggest challenge right now seems to be reliably giving my creatures trample. I definitely think this is a strong list in its current state but adding in another trample enabler or two might be worth considering.

One Last Slime

There is one final reason I felt compelled to build this list in a more slimy, oozy direction than a mono-green storm deck probably ought to be built. It's a very simple reason. In my search through my collection for cards that are Oozes or can create Ooze tokens, I came across yet another of those dull, beige, "rulebook" variant Magic cards.

As a fan of beautiful Magic art, I've always found those disappointing. You have the chance to make a card with gorgeous artwork and you leave it beige with black line art? Please, WotC. You can do better.

Of course, even if they didn't do better, there's no reason I can't pick up a paint brush and try my hand at painting over the card to make it look nice. It's barely even altering - one might call it something akin to paint-by-numbers it's so easy. The lines to follow are right there on the card!

This Ochre Jelly is far from perfect, but it's just for this deck and I don't care enough to go back and fix all the issues I see, at least not right now. I have other alters to work on. I'm also selling myself a little short - in a few years of painting on cards I've progressed well beyond just "paint by numbers." That background was my contribution even if the shape and lines of the Ochre Jelly were on the card.

You should look at all those rulebook variant cards that were released in the Dungeons and Dragons Magic sets as an excuse to try altering cards! Pick up some brushes and some acrylic paints and get to it. Make sure to water them down a bit and be patient - you'll have a lot to learn but if I can do it, you can do it too!

Final Thoughts

If you're interested in playing a mono-green deck that is a bit out of the ordinary and you like having explosive turns, Aeve, Progenitor Ooze might be the deck for you. I was definitely thinking about adding in Vedalken Orrery and trying to go off on the end step before my turn, but I don't play Orrery in many decks these days.

I still like the fact that this deck feels like an Ooze deck even if it can have an occasional big turn. If I keep the deck together I'm probably going to have to throw in a Nyx Lotus, as this deck looks like it's going to be really good at taking advantage of cards that care about my devotion.

I might just share my Elminster list with you next week, as that deck has been a lot of fun to play and it's both new to me and a bit newer than Aeve, Progenitor Ooze, which was printed in Modern Horizons 2 way back in 2021.

In other news, I'm now registered to play in the Just Game Commander Sealed 2022 tournament in Rochester, New York on September 17th. You can read more about it here. It's a fundraiser for the Trevor Project and if you can make it, I'd love to see you there!

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week.