That's not just sound finance advice!

Lands, and the system of gathering resources for your spells, is the best thing about Magic: The Gathering. It introduces variance in ways that makes the game more exciting and unique, and sets it apart from many other TCGs. Yes, even though it makes you want to tear your hair out because, "The Shuffler is rigged and I can prove it in this 5000 page manifesto!"

You simply can't overstate the importance of land, and figuring out how to maximize your land usage, when talking about Magic. As such, when a deck comes along with ways to take this core part of the game, that usually only exists as a purchasing resource, and turns it into an enabler for additional shenanigans, I start to pay attention. It's why I played the Aftermath Analyst deck quite a bit last season, and why I've been become infatuated with Iridescent Vinelasher and Fecund Greenshell from Bloomburrow.

Shenanilands | BLB Standard | Travis Hall

• Creatures (21)
• 2 Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
• 3 Bloodletter of Aclazotz
• 4 Clifftop Lookout
• 4 Fecund Greenshell
• 4 Iridescent Vinelasher
• 4 Preacher of the Schism

• Instants (8)
• 2 Tear Asunder
• 3 Cut Down
• 3 Go for the Throat

• Sorceries (5)
• 2 Coiling Rebirth
• 3 Pillage the Bog

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Case of the Locked Hothouse

• Lands (25)
• 3 Forest
• 4 Swamp
• 2 Restless Cottage
• 4 Blooming Marsh
• 4 Fabled Passage
• 4 Festering Gulch
• 4 Llanowar Wastes

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Season of Gathering
• 2 Tranquil Frillback
• 3 Duress
• 3 Choking Miasma
• 2 Virtue of Persistence
• 2 Cavern of Souls
• 1 The End

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

This deck looks to maximize the value of Fecund Greenshell and Iridescent Vinelasher, both as a combo and individually. It exists is sort of a ramp deck, but it really just wants to maximize your land drops for more than casting your spells. I ran this through a few games on Arena and wound up at 7-3. Small sample size, but encouraging.

Card Choices

Fecund Greenshell was the card that started the deck and the card the deck is mostly built around. Once I started looking through the Standard legal creatures to see which ones would meet the "toughness greater than its power," it wasn't hard to see that Standard is littered with powerful creatures that meet this requirement. Greenshell doesn't always guarantee a land drop, but the default state of adding a card to your hand isn't always a down side. I continue to believe that this card is powerful enough to see Standard play.

Iridescent Vinelasher was the second card added to the deck and serves as an alternate win condition. The earliest version of this build wanted to focus on deserts and Aftermath Analyst (since it too meets the Greenshell requirement) but I had to warp the deck too much around getting lands into the graveyard, and it couldn't compete with the aggro decks in the format.

Tear Asunder is in the main to give the deck some way to combat the Innkeeper's Talent-Vraska, Betrayal's Sting combo that is seeing a ton of play on Arena right now.

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower was a late addition, giving the deck an additional avenue for turning land drops into damage. A par of me really wants to cut this for Glimpse the Core, but I don't think I want to run enough Forests to make the card fit.

Preacher of the Schism is one of the best 3-drops in the format, meets the Greenshell requirement, and can help fuel your hand or stabilize the board. It can take down any non-flying threat, and the 4 toughness serves as a great buffer for the aggressive prowess decks.

Bloodletter of Aclazotz was the last card added to the deck and has won me more games than I thought it would. Especially when paired with Vinelasher. Turning all of your land drops into shocks ends the game in a hurry. It is also a fantastic target for Coiling Rebirth, and can end games out of nowhere.

Coiling Rebirth was a, "let's see what it can do" addition that has wowed me at times. Making two copies of Greenshell, Bloodletter, or Preacher can easily offset the Gift a Card text. In one of my last games, I cast Vinelasher with Offspring and on the next turn used Coiling Rebirth to make two copies of Bloodletter. Then I dropped a Fabled Passage for 16 damage, straight to the dome. This card warrants further exploration.

Curse of the Locked Hothouse fits the deck like a glove, serving as a way to give you some card advantage when you get caught in the midrange slogfest with Golgari or get your board wiped against control.

The early results of new Standard show a diverse format with lots of unexplored possibilities. aggro, control, mid-range, and even combo decks all exist in the format. Duskmourn: House of Horrors sits on the horizon, so enjoy the current version of Standard for the next few weeks!

You can find more of my musings on twitter@travishall456