Deck Primer / Description

• Game plan A (turn 3, with 3 spells)
• Game plan B (beatdown or draw Plan A)
• The backstory
  • Fun lines
  • Card choices
  • Lands
• THINGS I TRIED

Game plan A (turn 3, with 3 spells)

Llanowar Elves

Llanowar Elves

$ 0.35

0.04 tix

Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler

Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler

$ 1.26

0.10 tix

Prime Speaker Vannifar

Prime Speaker Vannifar

$ 2.18

0.02 tix

Corridor Monitor

Corridor Monitor

$ 0.18

0.03 tix

Extraction Specialist

Extraction Specialist

$ 0.50

0.52 tix

Glasspool Mimic

Glasspool Mimic

Glasspool Mimic

Glasspool Shore

$ 4.00

0.11 tix

Renegade Rallier

Renegade Rallier

$ 0.25

0.03 tix

Keldon Strike Team

Keldon Strike Team

$ 0.10

0.03 tix

Game plan B (beatdown or draw Plan A)

Llanowar Elves

Llanowar Elves

$ 0.35

0.04 tix

Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler

Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler

$ 1.26

0.10 tix

Priest of Forgotten Gods

Priest of Forgotten Gods

$ 1.34

0.10 tix

Extraction Specialist

Extraction Specialist

$ 0.50

0.52 tix

Renegade Rallier

Renegade Rallier

$ 0.25

0.03 tix

Keldon Strike Team

Keldon Strike Team

$ 0.10

0.03 tix

The backstory

After playing countless variations of Vannifar (starting with value train / Yorion / Agent of Treachery), I realised that I was winning most games by combo kill. So I trimmed the fat and optimised the combo.

I ended up with something fairly compact, which works most of the time: 1x Corridor Monitor, 4x Extraction Specialist, 2x Glasspool Mimic, 2x Renegade Rallier, and 2x Keldon Strike Team (the second copy for redundancy). The standard verison of this combo does 27 damage, more or less depending on your board state and which combo pieces you've drawn. It will beat 2 blockers at 20 life. It also heals for 18 in case the opponent is still alive. All of the cards except Corridor Monitor are somewhat playable outside of the combo.

I then had a breakthrough when I realised the combo package would play well with Priest of Forgotten Gods, combining two separate Tyvar decks. Priest converts two mana dorks into [BBGG, edict, draw, deal 2]. We play two-body cards in the form of Extraction Specialist and Renegade Rallier. With Tyvar up, this recursion combo is mana neutral (tap the dork first). The card draw gets us closer to our combo, or we win by beatdown along the way.

Most creatures in the deck will draw removal, so playing Vannifar without protection is often perfectly fine.

Fun lines

• Anything involving Jegantha mana (especially with Tyvar haste/untap)
• Casting Keldon Strike Team with kicker to sac the tokens to Priest of Forgotten Gods
• Doing fun things with PoFG mana (BBGG from sacrificing two Elves)
• Fauna Shaman discarding a 2-drop to find an Extraction Specialist and immediately recurring the 2-drop
• Giving Vannifar haste with Keldon Strike Team from hand
• Moving Jegantha to hand to activate Fauna Shaman for Vannifar
• Giving Tyvar indestructible

Card choices

Size of combo package - smaller may leave opponents alive, larger makes the deck worse
8x Llanowar Elves - optimal ramp, and a 1-drop in play is required to start the standard combo
4x Tyvar & Vannifar - want to draw the combo as frequently as possible
1x Corridor Monitor - can combo whether it's in your deck, hand or graveyard (just not in exile...)
4x Extraction Specialist - lifelink, recurs mana dorks and all your utility 2-drops for Plan B
2x Glasspool Mimic - extra copies of Extraction Specialist in the combo, occasionally tapped lands
2x Renegade Rallier - rarely recurs lands, rarely need to attack with recurred creatures (dorks and utility). revolt is difficult to activate. these could be Glasspool Mimics
2x Keldon Strike Team - need one in the deck for haste in the combo. Cast with kicker for sac fodder
2x Priest of Forgotten Gods - unsure whether 2 or 3 is correct, but I only have 2
2x Reclusive Taxidermist - mana dork with 2 toughness, occasionally a 4/4
1x Outland Liberator - findable recurrable hate, werewolf side is occasionally relevant
1x Scavenging Ooze - findable recurrable hate
1x Brutal Cathar - not sure about this, but some creatures just need to die
2x Tamiyo's Safekeeping - protection and lifegain for . Sets up a free block vs aggro

Lands

Everything comes in untapped to optimise for the turn 3 win (in which all mana is spent). At the same time the deck plays all five colours. I hadn't played for some years, so I was excited to try new lands like Fabled Passage and the triomes, but most of the mana base ended up as shock lands and mana confluence for speed. Fast or pain lands are probably better than my check lands. Extraction Specialist's lifelink is handy for the longer games.

THINGS I TRIED

Neoform - enables some cool plays, but never happy to see it on a mulligan
3 mana enchantment removal - can't recur it with Tyvar / Extraction / Rallier
Llanowar visionary - surprisingly good (body, card draw, mana dork) but didn't make the cut
Hero of the Dunes / Samut the Dissenter - after adding in Breaching Hippocamp and Hyrax Scout, it takes up more space in the deck while being less useful.
Knight of Autumn / Loran - 2 CMC enchantment removal is recurrable thus better
Paradise Druid - 1 toughness, dies to Elf hate. They're shocking your Elf anyway
Removing the 2-mana dorks - deck plays better with the rainbow mana available. Excess dorks summon Jegantha or get Priested if you don't get to combo
Gilded Goose - insufficient for Game Plan A. revolt is nice
Gala Greeters - tapped treasure too slow to replace a mana dork, but maybe in a different list
Ditching Jegantha for Ravenous Chupacabra or Skyclave Apparition - Jegantha is too useful

Thinking of trying:
Claim / Fame - recursion and haste for Vannifar
Another way to deal with combo breaker creatures (e.g. Misery's Shadow, Mayhem Devil) - any ideas?