Hello Ladies and Gentlemen, yet another time!
Better late than never comes my next Deckspotlight. And even though it's a very multiplayer centered deck again that even has some things in common with Stitcher Geralf, the playstyle is rather different.
In comparison to some other generals I use, Selvala is rather common in the community. That said I just get the feeling she'll never get old because of the way she warps the games due to her supplying not only you with a huge amount cards but everyone else aswell.
Intro - The Evolution of Selvala
When I first built this deck I had a completely different deck in mind compared to its current state. Basically the core idea of the deck back then can be described with 4 cards:
More free cards, free creatures, free lands and free mana for everyone! Of course I still tried to build the deck around Selvala somewhat... Now to be honest, the deck was a blast to play. The games got crazy really fast simply because I played Selvala leading to some hilarious situations and boardstates. So why did I change it so significantly over the last year? Simply put, the Spike in me saw the potential she had for doing some reeeeeally busted things...
This where I started to gradually change the playstyle of the deck from "Grouphug" to a Elf-Tribal deck with Grouphug-elements to what it is now - which is basically a ramp deck with some grouphug left in it.
Chapter 1 - Going crazy
Even though the deck has had many iterations, this part of the deck has always been intact. And for good reason, since it's focused mainly on Selvala herself.
No surprises here, I guess! Who would've guessed that one would play "untap" stuff with a commander that taps for something?! But with Selvala these things can really get out of hand...
Just think of it that way: Each untap effect that costs 2 is basically free and will net one mana most of the time (~37% of a deck is lands => with four players you'll reveal 2-3 non-lands per activation). So in the two most likely scenarios you either break even with mana, netting a card + 2 Life or you get one extra mana and life.
Chapter 2 - Using all that gas
Now that we have all that mana let's do something with it! Because even on her own we'll get 2-3 mana out of her most of the time...
Yes, (maybe) Worldspine Wurm is a bit of an overkill, but I had one in my binder so I wanted to put him to use... The other cards are pretty standard "big guys" in EDH. But not only do I play big cards, I also like to run a few mana-sinks in a deck like this:
So between fatties that kind of go big AND wide at the same time and some mana-sinks that will use the mana I couldn't use to put some more stuff on the board the deck will create "reasonable" boardstates in the blink of an eye while still not commiting our whole hand thanks to Selvala always providing enough gas to keep going after a sweeper.
Speaking of sweepers, there's one particular card, that will win the game when cast, even on a rather empty board on my side...
Now I'm still not 100% commited to Sugre as I run a
Genesis Wave in the deck. But I'll eventually have the courage to cut it so there's nothing in the way of Surge winning me the game.
Chapter 3 - Elves
Historically Elves have always been very synergistic with tap/untap-abilities. Not only is it very fitting that Selvala is an Elf, but it also makes it that much more appealing to incorporate an Elf-Theme into the deck not only because we're already playing so many untap cards... And if you look at the section above, you might see that some of my mana sinks are also Elves.
Especially the first two can get insane in this deck. With Selvala in play I have a reasonable chance of dumping a few Elves into play which in return amplifies the amount of mana Archruid/Priest will create. At a certain amount of Elves you can even go infinite with Staff of Domination for that sweet little "old-school-combo-finish".
The Magistrate and Timberwatch Elf are rather recent additions to the deck... I simply realized that very often I'll "go off", putting quite a few permanents into play and after all is said and done I'll have one or two creature left to attack in which case both the Magistrate and the Timberwatch Elf will provide quite a significant damageboost.
Pretty standard (Elf-)Tribal stuff. I'll be honest with you, I've yet to draw/cast the Grave Sifter but I'm pretty sure he'll be awesome.
Chapter 4 - Going wide
Tribal decks very often tend to go wide compared to other decks and that's not different in EDH. If anything you have to opportunity to go crazier than usual since games tend to be a little slower... But let's get back to this particular deck.
As you might've noticed - my "payout"-cards especially - have the tendency to put quite a few permanents on the board, be it Wolf-Tokens, Saproling-Tokens, Beast-Tokens or Wurm-Tokens. So who could blame me for putting in some of these...
...along with some more token-producers/-synergies.
Ok, read Wolfcaller's Howl,... now read Selvala,... now read Wolfcaller's Howl. I can't believe that I didn't play the card in this deck right when it came out. Orochi Hatchery also synergizes well with the deck since all I need is one turn where I dump a ton of mana into casting it and it will supply me with an endless stream of chump blockers and or attackers depending on the rest of my board. I think you get the idea so there's need to explain every card here...
Chapter 5 - Gameplay
As Green-White decks tend to be, this deck is rather straight forward... Play Selvala, ramp a bunch, play something big...
Starting Hands: As the deck is built right now, I tried maximizing green manasources as they work best with all my mana sinks... That said, a starting hand should aim for one white source and 3 or more lands in total. The rest doesn't matter at all, since Selvala should a) be able to smooth out my draw and b) make clunky cards not so clunky all of a sudden...but of course having untap-cards etc. is nice.
Early-/Mid-game: I try to cast Selvala as early as possible. That's all! Selvala will do ALL the work for me, drawing cards, creating life, making mana... All you could ever want in a game of EDH she'll supply. So once I get her up and operational, I'll try to dump a bunch of cards on the board which hopefully contain a threat to start beating down with. If Selvala get's killed, no problem... recast, reload and fire away again.
"Late-game": Late-game is something that never and always occurs in games with Selvala. Wait what?! All the free cards my opponents get will obviously speed up the game while also making it hard to grind down people since everyone will have an abundance of ressources. So what's the plan if everyone is flinging about their cards? Setting up a big turn with Cathar's Crusade into creatures into Craterhoof is one possibility but sometimes that just won't work. What will work though (maneuvered around a counterspell) is Primal Surge your deck and win, and since I'm likely to hit every single landdrop due to Selvala drawing so many cards, casting it with an empty board is doable. Even with that Selvala will help, granting you a considerable amount of lifepoints as buffer so when I start to run out of gas (believe me when I say the games have to go veeeery long for that) I usually still have enough turns to try and find my Primal Surge.
Outro
Sooooo, that's my Selvala deck. Obviously there's still room for improvement - as almost always - but in general I've been very happy with how the deck plays out. It's fun, fast and sometimes just hilarous... a perfect match for me!
As always I hope you enjoyed the read and maybe one or two of you even consider building Selvala now. If you do and you have some more questions on the deck feel free to hit me, but if you don't I hopefully still...
See y'all 'round!
