I got busy writing other articles this week, but I really wanted to share this nature deck I've put together. It's by far the most successful deck I've put together on my own, and it catapulted me out of Auric Gold into Mythic during a (personal best) 15/18 weekend ranked performance. To be clear, 7 of my games were played in G+ and only 4 in Mythic, but I'm still really happy with it.
The Deck
The deck is a mashup between Sudden Bloom and a Flourish/Dagan deck.
Deck Code:
GU_1_5_GAwCAuCAuCEyCEyHAEHAECATCATCAvIASBCCBCCKBWKBTKBTCBxCBxIATIATKBVCEcCEcCByCByICHICHIDVIDVIAR
God Power
Flourish is the right choice for this deck. The synergies with Dagan and Dalia are game-winning. It also allows for favorable trades in the early game while battling for board.
One exception: if you know for certain your opponent is Control Magic (via deck peeking), then go with Animal Bond. They run so many board clears that you want to keep cards in reserve while putting pressure on with badgers.
Mulligan
Going first
The dream is something like:
This allows you to bag out both one drops on turn one and then follow up turn two with the incredibly-powerful Faeflame blade.
If I don't get a 1-1-2 (mana cost) starting hand, I rarely use my pip. Going first you only get 1, and I have a lot more success holding it to swing a bigger turn or to fix my mana curve. If I can, I'll play a 1 drop turn 1 and then see what happens. Of course, there are exceptions to this:
Here you basically have to pip out the Jag.
Going Second
You are looking for reactive cards but I sill like to see a 1 drop. Something like this is ideal:
Whether going first or second, the early turns are all about getting board.
Note: If Dagan shows up in your hand, you always keep him no matter what (going first or second). He is your early-game win condition and a significant % of your win rate.
Dagan
With the Flourish GP, the best play for Dagan is at 4 mana blitzing him into a 2 strength creature. You then Flourish him (which buffs him) and then at the end of the turn he regens (buffing him again). The result is a 3/5 Dagan that can't be Levied or removed easily with damage.
Dagan requires special care when playing a nature opponent (or to a lesser extent Light with healing). He affects opponents' creatures. However, your deck is built around his ability, so you will usually come out ahead against other nature decks (Flourish mirrors get really interesting though). Also against nature, Lightning Strike is a key consideration. If you can't bait out early strikes, it often pays dividends to have a stronger creature on board before playing Dagan. A feral shapeshifter is ideal here. Either he baits out the Lightning Strike, or acts as a lightning rod to protect your (hopefully) 3/5 fresh Dagan.
Dalia
Strong synergy with both Flourish and Dagan. Use Flourish to heal her if you can before the turn ends. She spawns a tree and then at the end of that turn the tree heals - spawning another tree.
Often, just "tempo out" the 4 mana Dalia (in other words just play her on curve for the stats and board presence). Her stats are solid and she often requires multiple resources from your opponent to clear. Playing her also gives you access to the real star: her echo. You hold on to him until you can make use of his effect. Playing him when multiple creatures will regen is huge. You can also play him along with a flourish for the chain reaction. For 1-2 mana, you'll often have a board full of Injured Sprouts. This will often force a board clear like Shaped Blast. But this time, instead of wiping a board full of expensive creatures, you filled up the board with ~2 mana.
Charm
Charm is your other primary win condition. The synergies should be obvious:
Charm lets you play Dagan (relatively) safely even if you don't have board. He comes down 3/5 and if you can Flourish + regen, he ends the turn 5/7.
A charmed Manticore is a nightmare for your opponent. 6/5 blitz and overkill plus 3 damage passive if frenzied. Also has a silent frontline - meaning that your opponent must shift all focus to getting it off the board immediately. This protects your other creatures.
A charmed Guild Enforcer is 5/7 with 1 armor. Shuts down aggro and can leisurely clean up most boards. Against control it puts in a lot of face damage and soaks up a ton of resources to remove.
Sudden Bloom
1x bloom rounds out the deck and is a secondary win condition. In other words, if Dagan/Dalia/Charm doesn't get you the win, you still have the classic Sudden Bloom out. Guild Enforcers and Feral Shapeshifters work well with Sudden Bloom in addition to our other win conditions, so everything fits together in a nice little package.
Gameplay
This is a really fun game that showcases the power of Dagan.
Mulligan and Turn 1
I have a great mulligan, but notice that without the 1-1-2 mana setup, I don't pip out both 1 drops. I want the option to get Dagan out turn 2 but also to keep my options open depending on what I draw. The deck has 7 3 drops, so keeping the pip greatly increases my chances of drawing a card I can play.
Turn 2
We don't have a good Dagan target, but we draw the answer we need to clear Armor Lurker. If I had drawn a dead card (e.g. 4+ mana), I would have likely played the hog and floated 1 mana.
Turn 3
Here I make a mistake! I had just played a bunch of games Flourishing Dagan to get him to 3/5, but Marsh Walker on had 1 strength! A big waste. I should have pipped out my other Marsh Walker instead.
Turn 4
This is where the fun starts. My 0/4 Dagan isn't as worthless as he appears. Had I not draw Chiron, I would have still injured Dagan and Flourished him. Chiron just let me clear a creature in addition. I'm also not worried about any Deception relics, so no reason to hold him for that. Lastly, we still have a lot of time before a potential Rapture Dance, so I get wide.
Note that my opponent's Marsh Walker is growing.
Turn 5
In hindsight, this was my second mistake. I'm only seeing it watching the recording. My thinking was to get the 3 mana Dryad out of my hand, maintain two cards, and try and play Guild Enforcer into a more forgiving board. In actuality, the Dryad didn't contribute anything on that turn - both Dagan and the Marsh Walker would have healed on their own anyway.
Turn 6
Now things are looking dire. Hence the long pause. Probably would have looked a lot better had I played that Guild Enforcer and then followed up on this turn with Dryad. We decide to neuter the Duelist and throw the Guild Enforcer into the meat grinder. Our opponent couldn't kill it, so opted not to attack at all. He(/she) also knew I had the Dryad echo to heal up damage, which might have played a role.
Turn 7
So now for fun. Dagan is still on board, so our Dryad + Manticore go off swimmingly. We even get lucky with the overkill all on the Sprout so we can clean him up. And of course, we do that with the Enforcer. Feels good. This is why we aren't worried about that growing Marsh Walker. Our entire deck is built to capitalize on this effect. Deception is merely an imposter.
Also, note that Dagan has soaked up a ton of strength reduction that would have otherwise neutered my other creatures.
Finally, we aren't worried too much about Rapture Dance. We'd only lose 2/5 creatures, and then the others would be safe to attack face and 2 would regen and get stronger.
Turn 8
We finally chop that tree down. Would have sacked the manticore to get the job done had we not drawn the boar. Rapture would have hurt here, but even so, Dagan would have healed twice. Instead, our opponent basically gives up.
We remember to flash the GG because we're gentlemen in victory.
Conclusion
This deck's performance is more surprising given the community's wisdom about how bad nature is right now. Keep in mind that the first 14 games were in either Solar Gold or Diamond, so only 10 games have been played in Mythic. With that said, it's my experience that Diamond is just as hard as Mythic these days and even Solar Gold is incredibly challenging.
I'm debating playing this again this weekend, however. Mainly because I just spent a ton of money buying Blades and I kind of want to use them. I can't decide what to swap them in for. I could either swap out the two Shapeshifters or I could do something like drop 1x Hog and Finnian. Honestly, though, both choices feel awkward. Blade would complement Charm, though. A 5/5 blade would definitely draw cards. It also works nicely with Sudden Bloom since it isn't confused. It does give 2 fewere wild creatures for Wildfire, though.
What do you think? Is the list tight as is or should Blade go in?