Greedy Green

In Theros drafting, it's always hard to stick with two colors, and splashing a third happens often. This archetype however, tries to play ALL THE CARDS. (which is why it's so close to my heart)

Green is perhaps one of the strongest bases to build a many-colored deck on. It holds key cards which help you splash effectively, those being Nylea's Presence, and Voyaging Satyr. They are very key cards in playing Greedy Green as Nylea's fixes your mana in a brilliant maner, a la Prismatic Omen, while cantripping for you, and Voyaging Satyr helps when you want to hit those double mana costed symbols.

Satyr is especially important in that it is a 2-drop, rather than the seemingly far more effective Opaline Unicorn at 3. The reason is that Satyr lets you get to 4 mana on turn three, while the Opaline Unicorn lets you hit 5 mana turn 4. This seems to be very minimal, but it works on a far larger scale than just being a turn too slow. In Theros draft, from my experience, Satyr seems so much quicker out of the gate, while Unicorn is clunky, while also being susceptible to the many naturalize effects in Theros. These cards, Nylea's Presence and Voyaging Satyr, Traveler's Amulet and Opaline Unicorn, form the base of your mana fixing. Another rather nice synergy is when Satyr untaps a land enchanted by Nylea's Presence, giving you two mana of any color.

A powerhouse of your deck, and mana fixing of the highest quality, is the uncommon Burnished Hart. Hart holds a special place in my (pun SO intended) in my heart, as it fetches lands, and not just one, but TWO! It alleviates all the mana hunger of Greedy Green in one go, and that makes it far too good to pass up.

 It's Dawntreader Elk on drugs. Seriously, get this card.

Now, I do realize that this, Traveler's Amulet, and Opaline Unicorn are all easy way to splash colors without really affixing you to a certain color, but green is the only color to offer you lategame beats in Nessian Asp at common and the ever-amazing, should-be-a-rare Nemesis of Mortals.

This deck does love running towards the late-game, having as many colors as possible on the field. So it needs to have semi-decent removal or at the very least, tempo. Removal is far from great in this set, but Lash of the Whip is quite good and Rage of Purphoros does work as well. I don't recommend Sip of Hemlock because, even though it's a good card, you likely won't easily have access to double black. This deck can bestow and make monstrous creatures with ease, with it's massive number of card slots devoted to ramping.

Drafting the deck

Drafting this deck is actually far easier than it seems at first glance. It simply involves picking the best cards out of each pack passed. Initially however, you might want to stick to green and pick accordingly. Pack 1 usually entails picking strong, game-ending green cards, and possibly red or blue cards depending on their quality. In all honesty, apart from green, the rest of the deck is up in the air. It could be solidly any color at all aside from the base of green. Your card evaluation needs to be of quality, rather than the color of the cards. That makes it far simpler, as green cards (usually) outclass most of the other creatures in Theros. It's important to include as few of the Heroic cards as possible, because in a goodstuff deck, you're not looking for a specific mechanic to do work for you. Centaur Battlemaster is an obvious exception to that rule, but that's only because even a single trigger will make him a game-ender, which is pretty amazing. Look for ramp only when you've run out of cards, or are seeming to be in more than two colors. Burnished Hart can be picked up P2P1 onwards, and other cards will probably fall into your lap, as they aren't highly desired. All inclusive, apart from Traveler's Amulet, you should end up with a decent suite of ramp.

Playing the deck

Playing the deck is even easier than drafting it. Simply spend the first few turns fixing, and midgame in tempo/removal, get to a solid 6 mana or more, and start closing out the game. Now, it's important that this deck gets outclassed by the quicker heroic decks, so I suggest that you get at least a couple of Guardians of Meletis in your sideboard, rather than Yoked Ox. Even though Yoked Ox is amazing, it's probably going to be in a minor color, while Guardians offers a near impenetrable wall of toughness. Another amazing, yet slow card is Pheres-Band Centaurs to play in the sideboard. It's SEVEN toughness makes it rather brilliant, and it lies in your main color. I still think of Guardians of Meletis to be your best bet against the aggro matchup, to hold the fort until you get your removal mana up. It should be fairly easy from there on out.

Until next time, take care and have fun drafting!

Cheers,

Brick