https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/budget-commander-20-swell-the-host-upgrade

Each Commander 2015 brought a handful of new and interesting cards to the format. Today we will be looking at Swell The Host, featuring Ezuri, Claw of Progress in the Green/Blue deck.

ezuri

The brand new Ezuri is designed to empower a single weaker creature by dumping a bunch of +1/+1 counters on it, which is far from the original that focused more on empowering an army.

Check out our unboxing video below:



The deck includes cards like Cold-Eyed Selkie that refill your hand on damage and introduces a new creature to Simic (green and blue) decks with Kaseto, Orochi Archmage which can make any of your creatures unable to be blocked by your opponents. Using that ability on a Ohran Viper or Broodbirth Viper that has had a bunch of counters on it with Ezuri’s ability will quickly chunk away at your opponents life total.

The brand new card Scythclaw does the same thing, ensuring that your opponent will be loosing health at a rapid rate. If your opponent starts laying down some blockers, you can use Ezuri’s Predation to eat them all up, and follow that up with a Overrun to swing with your new army of beats.

The pre-constructed deck can be upgraded with a few inexpensive cards to really ramp up the speed and power to take out your opponent while giving your some control. Easily I would consider some cards like Llanowar Elves and Birds of Paradise to get a turn one ramp or a late game experience counter.

Cards like Counterspell and Memory Lapse will prevent your opponent from casting any surprises on your plan or to prevent a game winning combo from ending the game unexpectedly. While the deck includes Rapid Hybridization, I would consider adding a few additional removal spells in Pongify, Beast Within, and maybe Bramblecrush in case you need to deal with a Planeswalker or Enchantment later in the game. With your supply of mana producing creatures, the higher casting costs of your removal spells won’t be much of a problem.

edric

This deck screams for Edric, Spymaster of Trest to be included. Allowing you to quickly attack with your low mana creatures in exchange for cards is huge for this deck. It also gives incentive for your opponents to attack each other instead of yourself; allowing you to build up your unsuspecting army without people giving you too much attention. Greedy opponents will be too busy attacking each other!

sage

Speaking of auto-includes, Sage of Hours can’t be overlooked. With 5 or more experience counters, this card will allow you to get infinite turns. Using a tutor like Chord of Calling or Birthing Pod to put it directly into play before your combat step can win you the game right away. Leave a counterspell available just in case! You can also protect him with the Plaxmanta or if he does manage to get himself killed before you can combo, use Eternal Witness or Skullwinder to get him back and quickly cast again.

rogue

A card that I have been thrilled to use is the new Whirler Rogue printed in Magic Origins. It functions similar to the Patagia Viper in the deck, but allows you to tap those artifacts to make one of your creatures deal damage directly to the player of your choice. No worrying about blocking AND you get three additional experience counters. This cheap uncommon is perfect!

Speaking of token producers, Mycoloth is another amazing card. You can play it without devouring any creatures as long as Ezuri has an experience counter, and then just power it up. Even starting with 2 or 3 +1/+1 counters will quickly double your experience counters each turn!

And who can mention double without talking about the Simic master himself Vorel of the Hull Clade. Double any counters on a Creature, Artifact or Land in addition to throwing on an extra experience counter himself. A tiny Birds of Paradise can quickly one shot an un-expecting opponent!

pool

Lands in this deck are a bit underdeveloped. You will want to get your hands on a Breeding Pool, since shock lands are not only fairly cheap but also so incredible. Being able to search for a «forest» and put a land that could do either into play is really important. Cards like Wood Elves are the best way to take advantage of the dual key word ability.

Over the past few days I’ve been doing some playtests and I think the deck could be competitive. It’s fast mana, fierce threats, and abundance of control can take hold of a game and lead to a decisive victory. Infinite turns with Sage of Hours can be protected, and with ramping tokens you will be able to quickly put 20+ counters, take multiple turns in a row, buff your other creatures and continue attacking without any response possible from the rest of the table.

I have left out a few cards like the rest of the fetch lands, dual lands, and expensive staples like Mana Crypt but I couldn’t bare to not use Gaea’s Cradle. There are just some cards too important to skip out on.

My Decklist:

1 Acidic Slime
1 Aluren
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Bane of Progress
1 Bident of Thassa
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Birthing Pod
1 Blighted Agent
1 Breeding Pool
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Champion of Lambholt
1 Chord of Calling
1 Coiling Oracle
1 Cold-Eyed Selkie
1 Command Beacon
1 Command Tower
1 Counterspell
1 Crop Rotation
1 Cultivate
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Deserted Temple
1 Doubling Season
1 Dream Stalker
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Earthcraft
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Eternal Witness
1 Evolutionary Leap
1 Ezuri’s Predation
1 Fathom Mage
1 Fauna Shaman
8 Forest
1 Gaea’s Cradle
1 Glistener Elf
1 Green Sun’s Zenith
1 Gyre Sage
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Hornet Queen
5 Island
1 Kaseto, Orochi Archmage
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Kodama’s Reach
1 Krosan Grip
1 Master Biomancer
1 Mindless Automaton
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Mulldrifter
1 Mycoloth
1 Mystic Snake
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
1 Patagia Viper
1 Plasm Capture
1 Plaxmanta
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
1 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rogue’s Passage
1 Rot Wolf
1 Sage of Hours
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Shrieking Drake
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Simic Guildgate
1 Simic Manipulator
1 Simic Signet
1 Skullwinder
1 Sol Ring
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Sylvan Tutor
1 Tangle Wire
1 Temple of Mystery
1 Tempt with Discovery
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Triumph of the Hordes
1 Trygon Predator
1 Verdant Confluence
1 Viridian Joiner
1 Voidslime
1 Vorel of the Hull Clade
1 Whirler Rogue
1 Wood Elves
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Yavimaya Coast