Big Gruul Energy

For Zilortha, Strength Incarnate we go big on the power and the toughness will follow, making us really difficult to beat during combat!

The goal is to play a bit of ramp or set up early and from 3 mana onwards we play chonkers and use a bit of power manipulation to smash in for big damage. Notably we are trying to do so before anyone reaches 8 mana because at that point we may as well be running Craterhoof Behemoth and change into an Elf deck.

Card choices

I based most of my card choices on how well they either 1.) ramp us into our card draw and our big threats, 2.) attack the opponent, 3.) draw us into card advantage, 4.) remove problem permanents, or 5.) boost the power of our creatures. Bonus points if they can multitask and cover more than one of those categories! I will pull the best of these out into their own category under 6.).

1.) Mana dorks

Small green creatures that tap for mana and can attack or block when needed are the big advantage of playing a green deck! We need these to outpace our non-green opponents and any green opponents unlucky enough to not draw them early. Getting a Great Henge or a Sarkhan's Unsealing down on turn 3 is absolutely backbreaking and all of our creatures put on so much more pressure if they come down one turn early. We might count Arcane Signet as an honorary mana dork, but it's not a creature and non-green decks also get access to that one. Red does bring us some pretty crazy ramp from 4 mana onwards, such as Fires of Invention. Again, technically not a creature, but definitely worth mentioning.

• Llanowar Elves
• Gilded Goose
• Ilysian Caryatid
• Paradise Druid
• Drover of the Mighty
• Tangled Florahedron
• Sanctum Weaver
• Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
• Goldspan Dragon

2.) Attackers

For this category we are looking for creatures who (1) have more power than toughness, to take advantage of Zilortha, (2) have a minimum of 4 power or can get to 4 power very easily in order to enable our various 4 power synergy cards, (3) offer a good bonus on top of that or are just very efficiently costed. Luckily green is known for efficiently rated creatures and red is known for high powered creatures.

• Scavenging Ooze
• Kazandu Mammoth
• Rhonas the Indomitable
• Arni Brokenbrow
• Garruk's Harbinger
• Lovestruck Beast
• Bonecrusher Giant
• Shatterskull Charger
• Loathsome Chimera
• Combat Celebrant
• Klothys, God of Destiny
• Leafkin Avenger
• Questing Beast
• Shifting Ceratops
• Rekindling Phoenix
• Gemrazer
• Toralf, God of Fury
• Thrash // Threat
• Glorybringer
• Elder Gargaroth
• Thragtusk
• Verdurous Gearhulk
• God-Eternal Rhonas
• Skarrgan Hellkite
• Goldspan Dragon
• Terror of the Peaks
• Battle Mammoth
• Inferno of the Star Mounts
• Kogla, the Titan Ape
• Ghalta, Primal Hunger
• Turntimber Symbiosis
• Gnottvold Slumbermound
• Den of the Bugbear
• Lair of the Hydra
• Crawling Barrens

3.) Card draw

Green has card draw that is almost as good as blue, so may as well take advantage of it to bury our opponent in card advantage when the game goes on a bit longer.

• Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
• Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• Garruk's Uprising
• Guardian Project
• Return of the Wildspeaker
• Elder Gargaroth
• The Great Henge
• Bonders' Enclave

4.) Removal

Green can provide fights and bites to take advantage of our big creatures and red can provide straight-up burn that can go face if needed. Not as good of a removal package as black, but definitely serviceable.

• Spikefield Hazard
• Lightning Bolt
• Primal Might
• Abrade
• Inscription of Abundance
• Bonecrusher Giant
• Kazuul's Fury
• Khalni Ambush
• Gemrazer
• Toralf, God of Fury
• Sarkhan's Unsealing
• Glorybringer
• Skarrgan Hellkite
• Terror of the Peaks
• Kogla, the Titan Ape
• Thrash // Threat
• Shatterskull Smashing
• Gnottvold Slumbermound
• Field of Ruin

5.) Powering up

Zilortha's whole gimmick is to provide toughness to match any powering up we can give our creatures, allowing us a great advantage during combat. Furthermore a number of our creatures including Zilortha have a lot of power already and trample on top of that, so any power boost we can give them will push damage through to hit our opponent's face. Thus: The more power, the merrier things get!

• Primal Might
• Unleash Fury
• Inscription of Abundance
• Rhonas the Indomitable
• Arni Brokenbrow
• Verdurous Gearhulk
• God-Eternal Rhonas
• Return of the Wildspeaker
• Inferno of the Star Mounts
• Embercleave
• Castle Embereth
• Hashep Oasis

6.) Multitaskers

We saved the best for last! These are the cards that tie up the whole package. Some of them need to be played around to take full advantage while some of them are just obscenely powerful and fit any situation.

Domri, Anarch of Bolas - Categories: 1.), 3.), 4.), 5.) - Domri does so much for this deck, he covers 4 categories by himself repeatedly and always 2 or 3 of them at the same time! +1 to ramp and colour fix gets us to Zilortha the very next turn. -2 for repeated removal takes advantage of the many big creatures this deck has to generate card advantage. Domri's passive ability of +1/+0 for every creature has so many little synergies in our deck, and with Zilortha on the battlefield it is essentially a +1/+1!

The First Iroan Games - Categories: 1.), 2.), 3.), 5.) - This neat little saga provides a useful little package that will cover 4 categories over the course of 4 turns. The trouble is you do need to play along with the chapters or you might miss out on part of its function. Chapter 1 provides a creature token. Chapter 2 boosts one of our creatures significantly. Chapter 3 is the most difficult to pull off as the card draw only happens if the opponent doesn't manage to clear your board of 4 power creatures. Chapter 4 provides a welcome burst of ramp to take advantage of the cards we hopefully just drew.

Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Categories: 1.), 3.), 4.) - Chandra is just such a powerful planeswalker, every red deck needs one. Oh, and will you look at that, she covers 3 of the categories we seek! +1 for an impulse draw, +1 for big red ramp, -3 for a Flame Slash. All of it repeatable of course. Also has a game-winning ultimate ability if opponent leaves her alone for a while. Very straightforward!

Neyith of the Dire Hunt - Categories: 2.), 3.), 5.) - This is a wonderful Human Warrior. She's got significant stats, some conditional card draw we have a decent chance of proccing, and an insane repeatable power boost ability that will blow your opponent out of the water when combined with Zilortha!

Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma - Categories: 1.), 2.), 5.) - The one and only bargain bear! Not only does it massively discount everything we care about, but its other ability pumps the whole team +1/+1 in addition to giving everyone trample while attacking.

Arni Slays the Troll - Categories: 1.), 4.), 5.) - Another useful Saga. This one covers 3 categories within 2 turns for just 2 mana. Very efficient! First a fight, then a little ramp and power boost. Let's just hope we have a big creature on the board and something bigger to play into while the chapters go off.

Ranger Class - Categories: 2.), 3.), 5.) - A great little enchantment that covers 3 categories as you level it up! It's a 2/2, a repeatable power boost and late game card advantage.

Nylea, Keen-Eyed - Categories: 1.), 2.), 3.) - A clunky bit of ramp and card advantage. Can eventually become a big indestructible attacker on the field, though. Could be a bit slow. It's possible we cut this for something more efficient that doesn't cover as many roles, such as Marauding Raptor (but that would require us to run more dinos in our deck).