2011)

Good day my fellow Magic players! Today is a great day! Why? Oh because I just proliferated my Garruk 3 times and pulled the trigger on his ultimate right when he first came out! Day of Judgment you say? I say nay! They all had haste with Urabrask the Hidden!

Okay, look at the deck list; understand that this is NOT a tournament quality deck, but rather a deck to play with friends for fun. But the discovery process, that is where it got serious!

Red (12)
4: Act of Treason
3: Urabrask the Hidden
3: Chandra, the Firebrand
2: Koth of the Hammer

Green (17)
3: Plaguemaw Beast
4: Primordial Hydra
3: Garruk, Primal Hunter
3: Asceticism
4: Birds of Paradise

Blue (3)
3: Tezzeret’s Gambit

Colorless (7)
2: Throne of Geth
2: Culling Dias
3: Spellskite

Land (21)
4: Rootbound Crag
4: Copperline Gorge
7: Forest
6: Mountain

The idea is simple. Take their creatures with Act of Treason, sacrifice them to proliferate my Hydras or to put counters on Culling Dias. Throne of Geth can sacrifice itself for its effect, so it basically proliferates for 2 colorless mana. Once Asceticism is in play, there is no need for Spellskite (later I took Spellskite out, but that is another story altogether). A little control, and a lot of powerful creatures.

Again, not a great deck, BUT why has the proliferate ability never become a staple in any tournament quality decks? I will use this deck to explain why.

In short, the reasons are cost, deck space, and the current metagame.

Cost: To cast a spell that requires 5 mana (Garruk), and then turn around and cast any other spell that proliferates (Tezzeret’s Gambit in this case) just takes too long. Therefore, it is not viable in tournament play.

Deck space: Why would anyone want to take out their Spellskites for a Throne of Geth? And a 5 casting cost creature (Plaguemaw Beast) that wants you to sac a creature to proliferate? What else could one do with 5 mana? Oh I don’t know, another Garruk, or Gideon, or Acidic Slime, or pretty much any other 5 casting cost card! The cards I put in this deck are just not a good use of deck space. Hence, not a viable concept.

Current Metagame: With Lightning Bolt, Shock, Incinerate and all the other ways to deal a single point of damage, Mana Leaks, Spell Pierce, etc it’s really hard to pull off. This concept of not being interrupted when trying to pull off an ultimate, on the same turn that a Planeswalker is cast is just not a good win condition. Making this deck, and its idea, total crap.

I come back to the beginning of my story. I made this deck because of Primordial Hydra. I wanted to proliferate it and see how stupidly strong I could make it and how fast (I later realized that it is so aggressive that proliferate is completely unnecessary). So, I started making my Green deck. I personally love to splash at least one color into any deck that I make. So I made 3 different versions of this deck. One with white for O-rings, Gideon, and Days. One with Blue for Mana Leaks, bounce, and control. And one with Red, for Urabrask, Chandra, direct damage and Koth. But the proliferate in the deck was there for one card, and one card only, the Hydra!

So, why not create a deck that plays into the strengths of proliferate, allows for clutch and control, but also has the speed to be competitive at a tourney level?

I submit to you the ultimate deck:

Blue (20)
20: Mana Leak

Green (20)
20: Primordial Hydra

Land (20)
10: Forest
10: Island

Okay, okay. That is not exactly Type II legal. But my idea remains.

Hydra is strong and has to be addressed when it comes into play. Asceticism protects it (Day can still kill it, so keep mana for regeneration when playing against “kill all” cards). And Garruk’s ultimate is really strong, even better when it is coupled with Urabrask. So, here is my new deck idea:

Green (18)
4: Garruk, the Primal Hunter
4: Birds of Paradise
4: Primordial Hydra
3: Asceticism
3: Naturalize

Red (8)
4: Chandra, the Firebrand
2: Urabrask the Hidden
2: Volt Charge

Colorless (8)
4: Solemn Simulacrum
2: Throne of Geth
2: Elixir of Immortality

Blue (4)
4: Tezzeret’s Gambit

Land (22)
4: Copperline
4: Rootbound
8: Forest
6: Mountain

The other nice thing about Hydra is that it covers 3 different mana curve spots 3, 4, and 5. Although this deck is so heavy with 5 casting cost, that Hydra is really just for the 3 and 4 spots. Then there’s the most powerful 3-in-1 card I have seen in a while, Solemn Simulacrum. Think of using it for Throne of Geth or as a blocker.

Would it win at a big tourney, No. FNM? Sure with a few good starting hands. So, why are there no decent proliferate decks?

The reason is the cost to proliferate, and the deck slots the cards take. If other cards become tourney worthy, and happen to proliferate as well then we might see this concept become reality.

I have found that most of the time, when someone wants to incorporate proliferate into their deck, they automatically think it needs to be an infect deck. And that does make sense; after all, if there was an ability that could “proliferate” the loss of life, wouldn’t it be viable?

Give me the following cards, call them rare, and I would be happy:

Living Well
Artifact
Cost (2)
Living Well comes into play Tapped.
Tap: Add (1) mana to your mana pool and then proliferate. Lose life equal to the number of counters added to any players or permanents in this way.

Mining Winds
Land
Mining Winds comes into play Tapped.
Tap: Add (1) to your mana pool.
Tap: Proliferate. Lose life equal to the number of counters added to players or permanents in this way.

Final Push
Sorcery
Cost (G)
Proliferate. Lose life equal to the number of counters added to players or permanents in this way.

The low cost makes them usable. The loss of life makes them fair. And the production of mana makes them work for something other than just proliferate. Plus, it is a “free” way to get some counters going. I know these are a bit on the shallow side, but cut me some slack; I am shooting from the hip here!

Or even a new Elixir.

Elixir of Repetition
Artifact
Cost (2)
(1) Tap: Shuffle Elixir of Repetition and your graveyard into your library, and then proliferate.

This would be a great way to get another anti-mill card into the game. Plus, it would create a good “uncommon” proliferate card.

Wait a second though! What about poison? Not good, not good at all! If there were low cost cards like this, then infect decks would be all over the place. They are fast enough as it is! Solution? Add restrictions to the proliferate cards that you don’t want speeding poison up. So the above cards might read “Proliferate any permanents you or your opponents control”. Since players are not permanents, that handles that! Why not have cards that work on just your permanents, or just your opponent’s permanents? It solves the problem with why there are so few “good” proliferate cards.

In conclusion, proliferate does not need to be played in only poison decks. It is a very powerful ability that will be around for a long time. It is my hope that we will see some better proliferate cards, which can only target permanents and not players so that the speed of poison decks is not affected. I encourage you to build yourself a deck with some Planeswalkers that have hugely powerful ultimate abilities, and then proliferate them to pull the trigger much sooner than your opponent expects, the look on their face is priceless. I recently used Garruk’s ultimate on turn 4, I was playing against green blue poison, so he had no way of dealing with 4 6/6 creatures. However, do not set this concept as your win condition; just use it as a powerful tool and I promise you will love the results.

Happy gaming my friends, see you on the other side of the table!

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