How to win with Fblthp | Brewer's Kitchen
Well, hello there! Brewer’s Kitchen here, with a bit of a different type of video this time. While I usually show multiple games and matchups in my gameplay videos, this time I kept it to only one. You could even argue that the video isn’t even what you’d consider a “gameplay video” anymore. But with a shorter playtime, I can really go ham with the production value. Too bad a single game will most likely not be able to explain all the intricacies and interactions of the deck. Well, good thing we got this article!
The Gameplan
Ok, first things first: I made the whole video about Fblthp, the Lost being the star of the show. I probably have to drop the act for this article, though. Yes, Fblthp fits this deck probably better than any deck I’ve seen before. Yes, it technically can “win” you the game. But we of course need a lot of other pieces to make the deck do its thing.
The deck is built around a legendary theme. Out of the twelve distinct nonland cards, only two are not legendary. We even play a legendary sorcery… but I’m getting ahead of myself.
We spend the early game trying to ramp into Nissa, Who Shakes the World as fast (and legendary) as possible. We sadly don’t have a legendary one-drop mana dork, so Llanowar Elves is the next best thing. This way we can play Azusa, Lost but Seeking, make some extra land drops, and slam down a Nissa on turn three.
Before we get into what to do when we untap with her, let’s go over the alternatives if we don’t draw our ramp pieces. Fblthp, the Lost, Search for Azcanta and Tamiyo, Collector of Tales help us find specific cards and set us up for the big turn.
So, what’s the big thing we are trying to do, and why does everything have to be legendary? Once we untap with Nissa, Who Shakes the World or enough mana, we cast a Kamahl's Druidic Vow for X = A Lot. This sorcery can only be cast with a legendary creature or planeswalker on the battlefield and will allow us to “Look at the top X cards of your library. You may put any number of land and/or legendary permanent cards with converted mana cost X or less from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest into your graveyard.”
The lands will enter the battlefield untapped. The Druidic Vow will go to the graveyard along with other copies of the Vow, Llanowar Elves and Haze of Pollen. If we hit a Tamiyo, Collector of Tales, we can minus it to get back and recast the Vow or get back a Haze of Pollen to stop our opponent’s aggression. With Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger and potentially hitting another Nissa to untap another land, we usually just have enough mana to continue playing and potentially winning that turn.
But mana and permanents won’t be the only thing we get out of the Vow: Tatyova, Benthic Druid will trigger off all the lands that enter the battlefield. And would you look at this: Fblthp, the Lost will draw us two cards since it entered the battlefield from our library.
We usually spent our early turns and resources into setting up the largest Druidic Vow we can get and hope to ride the wave from there. It’s not unusual to accumulate too much mana and value that we end up casting a Kamahl's Druidic Vow that will just straight up put our entire deck onto the battlefield… but that would mean we die from drawing a card from an empty library?! Well good thing we play a single Jace, Wielder of Mysteries to turn this into an instantaneous victory.
Now you might wonder: What happens, if our opponent removes Jace before we draw on an empty library? Well… what do you think? We die, of course. But boy, was it a fun way to die. Important note on this one: If the Fblthp draw trigger wins us the game, it’s all glory to the little fella. If its trigger kills us because our opponent killed Jace, don’t you dare blame Fblthp for this, he was just trying to help.
Plan B
Looking at this gameplan, you can probably imagine that this can’t work every game. The combo only works with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries. If it gets milled or drawn, we have to return it with Tamiyo or cast it before we go all in on a Kamahl's Druidic Vow. While this is very manageable and will only slow us down a bit, the scenario in which our opponent kills Jace before the combo finish is unbeatable once everything is on the stack.
The pieces of the deck aren’t too powerful on their own, but a Nissa, Who Shakes the World Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger might get the job done without any flashy combo. Our only real plan B is a one-off Golos, Tireless Pilgrim and The World Tree. This, combined with our ridiculous mana production, will overwhelm a lot of opponents by itself, even though it’s a bit of a nombo with the Druidic Vow since X will be 0 if we cast it for free.
Wrap Up
I’ve played/brewed with this deck since War of the Spark brought us Nissa, Who Shakes the World. It was never particularly strong but got some good boosts from Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. It’s still not a competitive deck but once it does its thing, it plays incredibly synergistically. I’ve been trying to make Fblthp work with cards like Collected Company and Vivien, Monsters' Advocate before but the fact that it allows us to cast the Druidic Vow makes this one the deck that gets the best use out of it.
It's a bit of a one trick pony combo deck, but that’s perfect for making a video about it that only shows one game to present the combo. Speaking of: Make sure to watch the video and let me know how you like the new, shorter format.
If you have questions or ideas for this or any other deck, you can reach me on Twitter @Brewers_Kitchen or at brewerskitchen@mtggoldfish.com.
