The Green One (GUB)

Welcome to the second of our Preconstructed Commander Deck reviews. Let's jump straight into the GUB deck in the Green packaging, Devour for Power.

Strategy

As the strategy insert suggests, it's all about getting things into the graveyard and having cards that care about the greaveyard both in terms of size and content and this includes your opponent's, not just your own. Any means of getting those cards in the bin is deemed appropriate: Milling, destroying & Burying things Alive. This plan plays into the strength of the deck itself but also the strength of The Ooze.

The first time we saw The Mimeoplasm play, it was a 7/7 with seven additional +1/+1 counters for a mere 5 mana. 14/14 generals usually get the job done very quickly. In addition, the two chosen targets were not in his owner's graveyard so he provided a very brief and painful glimpse in one play of what was not going to feature for that opponent during that game. To make matters worse, the creature he copied had Trample so, of course, he had trample.....

To sum up quickly: 2UGB, double cremate, 14/14 trampling monster. What's scary about this is that it's not even close to being the best play. The first thing you think of when you see The Mimeoplasm in action is "FLICKER!!" and the second thing is "Damn it! He's not White!!" followed quite swiftly by "VANISHING!! OMG!!" The rest is all just finding ways to get nasty fuel into various graveyards. If you know your playgroup well enough, things like Life's Finale will probably be all-stars in a Mimeoplasm deck so you're not stuck relying on constantly hitting yourself for a 3-for-1, however strong you can build those to be.

And, of course, he's an Ooze.


The three big advantages of the Mimeoplasm's colour scheme are 1.) Black has the tutors to find what you need and the mass destruction to fill graveyards with creatures when needed, 2.) Blue has the counters and mill that, while not the best strategy in EDH, can get you fuel for the Mimeoplasm to scavage and 3.) green for the almost obligatory Riftsweeper to recycle some choice exiled creatures back through the Mimeo-Blender.

Given his copy/paste ability, he's going to crush in the late game if there are any sort of stacked graveyards around. In the unaltered pre-cons, there's next to no graveyard hate so he is going to have fuel to smash face. Speaking of playing in the unaltered pre-con metagame, while the WBR Kaalia deck may have the most aggressive potential in the series, the GUB Mimeoplasm deck has by far the most synergy and it's one glaring weakness, graveyard hate, is sorely missing. While this won't be the case in constructed where any self-respecting play-group will have what it takes to thwart the Ooze, it's something that's obvious when playing directly out of the box.

In addition to the Mimoplasm the deck boasts six other legends: Damia, Wrexial, Skullbriar, Vorosh, Patron of the Nezumi and Szadek.

I'm an avid player of Zombies and really appreciated seeing Skullbriar both for the abilities he has and the colours he's flashing. Traditionally Zombies decks are either mono-black or Black-Blue Red (for Thraximundar, Lord of Tressorhorn or Sedris) but this is only the second Green/Black Zombie legend after Glissa and she didn't exactly scream "Build Zombie tribal!!" around her.

The attraction of moving into green is that you get to plug all the holes that mono-black decks traditionally can't just by adding a single other colour. You also get recursion and access to a lot more dredge, if that's your thing. In addition, Skullbriar himself is sweet.

A turn 2 attacker that grows is not hugely impressive, think Slith Firewalker. In fact, he's exactly that: a GB legendary Slith Firewalker. What sets him apart from the Slith, apart from his vastly superior creature type, is his ability to keep all his counters in all zones barring the library and your hand. You attack with him in the early game while your opponents are just fiddling with their mana bases and get some quick hits in. He'll eventually get killed but will be back, all hasty, later in the game still as big as he was when he left. This may not seem much of a big deal but cheap aggro generals tend to get left behind in the power stakes in the later game, often rendering them obselete and the Skullbriar neatly (though with some interesting rules bending) gets past this issue. He'll be nice at the head of GB aggro decks or as a voltron commander.

The very small worm in the apple is the small possiblity that someone puts a -1/-1 counter on him when he's still only 1/1. Unfortunatly, his ability will ensure that the -1/-1 counter remains on him rendering him exceedingly difficult to play there-after.

The other big card in the deck is the second legend, Damia, Sage of Stone. Only 4/4 for 7, she doesn't have great stats but seems, like Kaalia, to be right in that sweet spot for both being playable while still being a size your opponents can reasonably handle.

Deathtouch is nice, but obviously not a surprise on a gorgon. That's followed up with the famous "Skip your draw step" text that has been used on some of the most powerful cards in the history of the game. Here the disadvantage is that if you empty your hand you get a free draw 7 only at the start of your own upkeep, so she has to survive a turn around the table. The advantage is that you get a free draw 7. If you drop a Paradox Haze on yourself, you have a shot at emptying your hand during your upkeep before you get a second free draw 7 (and when I say "draw 7" here, I really mean "draw up to 7")

I can see it being good with Zombie Infestation or other cards that allow you to discard for fun and profit but it would need to be a pretty solid plan if you're waiting until the mid-game to see your legend effect the course of things. At 7 mana, you're unlikely to be cheating her into play early too often and I think that she's just that single extra mana too expensive for my tastes.

If you hate Hinder or any other sort of tuck sepll, you're going to hate this because Spell Crumple is Hinder Mk.II. I've added it here because when you're playing out of the box where there's no tutors, a Spell Crumple is pretty much au revoir for your general. While I think tuck has it's place in the format, giving an extra tuck counterspell is a pretty gutsy move from Wizards. At best it counters something unimportant. At worst it will ruin a new player's introduction to the format. The additional downside is that Spell Crumple is not even the only tuck spell in the product and with a second copy, two Oblations and a Chaos Warp allso in various decks, there's a good chance that this effect will crop up more often than not during pre-releases.


Overall this deck has gone more for the synergistic approach so you'll have a lot of cards that go well with "filling graveyard" strategies but sadly no new cards that have that extra "Wow!" factor. To make up for it WotC put a lot of "WOW!!" into the reprints they included in the deck: Vulturous Zombie, Avatar of Woe, Living Death, O-Stone, Grave Pact, Buried Alive, Butcher of Malakir, Eternal Witness, Solemn Sim, Troll Ascetic. I've seen all of these played a lot more than the reprinted legends and I expect to see them more than the new cards in this deck (barring Mimeoplasm) so the deck is worth something to your collection in terms of playability even after you break it down.

If you're looking for a solid deck for the pre-release that's well placed in the sealed product enviornment, this is for you. Ditto for a deck that will add valuable staples to your collection, especially in Black & Green.

Enjoy your meal!! (Get it? Devour for p.... Oh, Never mind!)