The project
This is the latest in a series of posts exploring the potential of Roaming Throne as a build-around card for budget Standard decks. Today we look at four more Bloomburrow creature types.
Roaming Throne itself is an expensive rare, but we start by assuming you already have a playset of it, then fill out the remainder of each deck using only commons and uncommons. These decks are not intended to be competitive in tournaments, but they should be fine for casual play. (I've tested them all in Standard Play on Arena.)
Here's a Scryfall search to help find likely candidates. Just add a creature type like t:frog or t:rabbit.
f:standard r<=u (o:when or o:"at " or keyword:backup or keyword:offspring or keyword:prowess or keyword:ward)
Raccoons
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6643520
9 Forest
7 Mountain
4 Bristling Backwoods
4 Escape Tunnel
4 Brazen Collector
4 Wandertale Mentor
2 Coati Scavenger
4 Brambleguard Veteran
2 Teapot Slinger
4 Roaming Throne
2 Junkblade Bruiser
4 Shock
2 Dreadmaw's Ire
3 Hunter's Talent
2 Trash the Town
3 Torch the Witness
The best raccoon to combo with Roaming Throne has got to be Wandertale Mentor. With an ideal draw you can be casting Throne on turn 3 and putting two more counters on the Mentor every turn thereafter.
That fits nicely with the general plan of this deck, which might be summarized as "make creatures that are big enough that you can afford to attack with them every turn." Don't overthink it, just swing away.
Torch the Witness and Trash the Town are in here to help you fine-tune how much mana you're spending, so you can expend 4 as often as possible. Shock and Dreadmaw's Ire help you use the mana you get from Brazen Collector. Also note that Trash and Ire grant temporary triggered abilities that can be doubled by Roaming Throne.
Lizards
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6643543
6 Swamp
6 Mountain
4 Jagged Barrens
2 Bloodfell Caves
4 Rockface Village
2 Mudflat Village
4 Agate-Blade Assassin
4 Flamecache Gecko
4 Steampath Charger
4 Fireglass Mentor
4 Thought-Stalker Warlock
4 Gila Courser
4 Roaming Throne
2 Reptilian Recruiter
2 Bitter Triumph
2 Go for the Throat
2 Patchwork Banner
The thing about Lizards is that it's already a perfectly good aggro deck that doesn't need to be slowed down by adding any four-drops. To make our deck something other than a bad version of its competitive counterpart, we'll have to emphasize some aspect of Bloomburrow's lizards besides their highly efficient combat stats. Fortunately, lizards are also good at generating card advantage. If you manage to get two triggers off of Fireglass Mentor or Gila Courser more than once, it can really tilt the game in your favor. (Note that one of those says "Until end of turn" and the other says "Until the next of your next turn".) If you can't afford to cast all of those extra cards, maybe making a profit on Flamecache Gecko will help.
With no non-creature red spells we can get away with four copies of Rockface Village here.
Otters
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6643539
10 Island
8 Mountain
4 Eroded Canyon
2 Swiftwater Cliffs
4 Coruscation Mage
4 Stormcatch Mentor
4 Frolicking Familiar
4 Roaming Throne
2 Daring Waverider
4 Otterball Antics
2 Shock
4 Lightning Strike
4 Moment of Truth
4 Pearl of Wisdom
Otters are generally in agreement about what they want Roaming Throne to duplicate: their prowess triggers.
I like prowess decks in theory, but it always seems difficult to balance having the right number of prowess creatures vs. the right number of noncreature spells. As a sorcery that makes up to two creatures with prowess, Otterball Antics does a lot to help address that problem. Frolicking Familiar also earns its spot for its ability to play both roles.
The rest of our noncreatures have been chosen for their cheapness. All of them can be cast for one mana with a Stormcatch Mentor out, which helps to enable the one overwhelming turn that will win you the game. One of the deck's most impressive lines is to make two Coruscation Mage offspring, then cast a cheap spell and get six bonus damage.
If you're looking to add some rares to this deck, there are a few directions you could go. Valley Floodcaller or Bria, Riptide Rogue can give the rest of your creatures double prowess. Thundertrap Trainer plays a role similar to Daring Waverider, with the alternative option to serve as an early chump-blocker. But maybe the funniest choice would be Stormsplitter. Starting with one Throne and one Stormsplitter, your first instant or sorcery spell will make two more Stormsplitters. The next will make six more, and the third will make another 18.
Birds
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6643530
8 Plains
3 Island
4 Lonely Arroyo
4 Tranquil Cove
4 Lilypad Village
1 Lupinflower Village
2 Enduring Bondwarden
4 Miner's Guidewing
4 Saiba Cryptomancer
4 Thrummingbird
4 Preening Champion
4 Plumecreed Mentor
4 Roaming Throne
3 Knightfisher
4 Parting Gust
3 Requisition Raid
When I started looking at the birds available to me, the most interesting synergy seemed to be between Plumecreed Mentor and Thrummingbird. So I set out to build something focused on +1/+1 counters.
The problem with Plumecreed Mentor is that it wants non-flying creatures upon which to bestow its benefits. So Roaming Throne wants a lot of birds, birds want a lot of non-birds, and you'd probably still like to have some removal or other utility spells. How do you find room for it all?
As is often the case in Magic, you use cards that can play multiple roles. Preening Champion and Knightfisher make non-flying tokens -- maybe two at a time? -- that can get counters from the Mentor. Saiba Cryptomancer functions as protection while also giving out counters that Thrummingbird can proliferate. Parting Gust is removal, except when it's letting you repeat one of your ETB triggers.
It's safe to say that this deck, with its elegant synergies, is my favorite of the bunch. I like it so much that I had trouble playtesting the others because I just wanted to keep playing this one.
And really, I don't know if there's much I would change here if I weren't on a budget. A copy or two of Kastral, the Windcrested in place of Knightfisher might be nice, but you don't want to give up too much of your token production.
Any plans for Mice and Rabbits?
Like Lizards, these types work best as aggro decks that don't need a four-drop, but unlike Lizards, my efforts to find workable alternative versions of them have not met with success. If I do crack those nuts, I'll let you know.
Nobody is reading this post six months later, but I'm putting my post-rotation list up here in case I ever want to point someone to it.
About
Name Poison Burn
Deck
7 Island
2 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
3 Floodfarm Verge
3 Adarkar Wastes
3 Mirrex
4 Skrelv, Defector Mite
4 Crawling Chorus
4 Prologue to Phyresis
4 Experimental Augury
4 Serum Snare
4 Bring the Ending
4 Soul Partition
3 Gadwick's First Duel
4 Distorted Curiosity
3 Arcane Proxy
Sideboard
3 Ephara's Dispersal
4 Not on My Watch
3 Rest in Peace
3 Annex Sentry
2 Reject Imperfection
The maindeck is very similar. Floodfarm Verge has been a fine addition to the manabase. Soul Partition is a serviceable replacement for Fateful Absence.
I could have condensed the whole match-ups section in the original post down to this, which is still true:
Take out the Arcane Proxies for the Rest in Pieces when facing any deck that makes heavy use of its graveyard -- your Helping Hand or Squirming Emergence strategies. It's not a panacea, because they'll have stuff like Into the Flood Maw or Tear Asunder, but it should buy you some time. Incidental reanimation like Unstoppable Slasher is not worth diluting your own plan for.
Against base-red aggro decks, bring in the Ephara's Dispersals, Not on My Watches, and Annex Sentries in exchange for your Proxies, Duels, and two each of Bring the Ending and Distorted Curiosity (I'm still fiddling with the exact balance on those last two). It is rarely safe to block with Sentries, but I run them anyway because the opponent is likely to bring in Urabrask's Forge, and they're your best answer to it. You can beat the red decks after sideboarding, just don't expect it to happen regularly. It's tough to find a window to get any poison counters on them because you need to be warding off potentially lethal attacks as soon as turn 2. Be very aware of whether your opponent might be able to cast Snakeskin Veil, which can single-handedly ruin your entire defensive strategy. Make them make the first move: if they send an attacker into the damage step with only one power, take it and be glad it wasn't more.
The Reject Imperfections are catch-all answers for anything you might not be otherwise prepared for. If you suspect your opponent will bring in graveyard hate, use them to replace a couple of your Proxies.
Almost nothing in this deck will survive the 2025 rotation, so enjoy it while you can!