Commander Overview
Radaghast, in my opinion, is the best “zoo” commander. Yes, he’s only one color, and yes he is a bit restrictive. But, he’s a bit faster than Volo, Guide to Monsters in that every creature we play refills a spot in our hand, meaning once we cast Radaghast, we only need one more creature to keep up momentum.
This deck started out as a “everything and anything I had in the bulk” type of deck, but I’ve spent about a year refining how it plays. I recently took out probably a dozen non-creature spells to replace with creatures that have similar effects. I found that I’d eventually hit a batch of cards on top of my library that didn’t have a creature, essentially whiffing.
But now, the deck has 48 creatures with very minimal overlap in creature types, allowing us to blow through our deck, grabbing creatures every time we play one pretty much guaranteed.
Creature 48
Sorcery 6
Enchantment 5
EDH BRACKET
The average current preconstructed deck.
- No Mass Land Denial
- No Chaining Extra Turns
- No 2-Card Infinite Combos
- No Game Changers
- Few Tutors
How to Play the Deck
The deck is very simple to pilot, you really just need to know how to read and count. Radaghast is the primary way we put cards into our hand, so being able to play him as soon as possible is important. Once he’s down, though, you just play creatures, find creatures on top of your library, and keep up the momentum.
In mono-green, it’s easy to recast him if he gets removed, but we are vulnerable to Darksteel Mutation effect. Thankfully, we can intimidate opponents without Radaghast too, with big threads like Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant or Apex Devestator.
I’d also like to point out that the text on Radaghast says “whenever he or another nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control” you get to look at the top X cards. That means stuff that you get to drop for free off Ghalta or Apex Devestator puts a Radaghast trigger on the stack. This can snowball pretty quickly.
Synergies in the deck
One of the coolest synergies in the deck is with Seedborn Muse and Monster Manual or Oviya, Automech Artisan. You’re able to drop creatures from your hand at instant speed on each other player’s turn, which will trigger Radaghast, giving you another creature for your next turn!
The other cool synergy in the deck is with Ghalta and Radaghast. When Ghalta enters, you choose to resolve the Radaghast trigger first, which will put an additional creature in your hand. Then, you resolve Ghalta, dropping the creature you just drew onto the battlefield for free. Pretty cool tech.
I considered adding Endurance to make sure we can shuffle back in our graveyard and keep the Zoo going, but because it’s an Elemental, I opted to leave it out. Titan of Industry fills the Elemental slot here, and frankly I like how much value it provides. A 7/7 for 7, has protection and removal abilities, and gets us to look at the top 7 cards of our library? Yes, please. To replace Endurance’s effect, I found Rooting Kavu, which shuffles our dead creatures back into our library when it dies. Similar effect, pretty good for this deck.
Phases of the Game
Early-Game – In the first 2-3 turns, I’m always looking to drop a cheap creature like Sedge Scorpion or Sharp-Eyed Rookie and have a plan to play Radaghast as soon as possible. Kudos to an opening hand with Commune with Nature or Adventurous Impulse.
Mid-Game – Radaghast should be on the board, and we should have a few threats ready to drop. Mid-game creatures like Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma or Bloodspore Thrinax make playing bigger creatures easier and better.
Late-Game – We should have built up a sizeable board here, and have a win-condition in hand. Bonus points for back up protection like Bedrock Tortoise or an alternative win-con if you get targeted.
Card Breakdowns
Ramp
Do I even have to say it? Green is the ramp master, and we’re doing it a bit different in Radaghast just to show what kind of tricks we have. Roost Seek can get us a land and get shuffled back in for later, while Overgrown Pest helps us dig for a land or a land (or Growing Rites of Itlimoc.
We also have a couple of mana-dorks, including Poison-Dart Frog, Palladium Myr, and Circle of Dreams Druid. Had to switch it up here and get creatures that didn’t share types, so the cheaper dorks like Llanowar Elves were a no-go.
Emerald Medallion and Rhonas's Monument also help us get stuff out quicker.
Card Draw/Card Advantage
Because Radaghast does a lot of the work for us here, there’s not a lot of draw effects in the deck otherwise.
Heartwood Storyteller helps the table, but it also helps us fill up on creatures while other players are casting spells. Solemn Simulacrum gets us a land and a card, while Adventurous Impulse and Commune with Nature help us dig for more of what we’re looking for.
I’ve also opted to leave in Tooth and Nail because in a lot of scenarios it can help us win the game by choosing our win-condition creatures. Same thing with Last March of the Ents.
Removal
The deck is pretty good at removing artifacts and enchantments, that’s just the green specialty. I’ve found that Voracious Varmint is a pretty versatile guy, and can help you negotiate with the table. I also included Return to Nature just in-case.
In the original edit, I had Kennrith’s Transformation in here, but then I realized that Trickster's Elk was way better because I could hit it off a Radaghast trigger.
This isn’t really removal, but Collector Ouphe can come in handy to slow down our opponents by making their mana-rocks not work. It does shut off our Monster Manual and Nyx Lotus, but the Medallion and Rhonas’s Monument are still online because they are static abilities, and Rhonas’s buffing line is a triggered ability.
Protection
I dug deep to find a way to protect our board with only creature abilities. That’s why we’re running Dawnstrider, which is a repeatable Fog effect on a creature. I also put Fog in the deck just as a precaution.
The Bedrock Tortoise also grants our creatures hexproof on our turn, which is nice if we’re trying to do a full-swing situation using Pathbreaker Ibex or something similar.
Tamiyo's Safekeeping is also in the deck as a way to protect something from exile or destroy effects. Family's Favor is also a good card for distributing shield counters to high-value creatures.
Utility / Support
As I was rebuilding the deck, I found a lot of creatures have solid abilities that can replace instants and sorceries. Some of the cards I haven’t talked about yet have cool abilities that round out the deck. Scryb Rangers can help us untap a creature so it can blog or we can use its activated ability again. Summoner's Egg can very easily get us a massive threat out for free, and is a pretty compelling bargaining chip. People don’t know what you’ve put down under it, so they are less likely to attack you in case you pull out something crazy.
Emergent Woodwurm was one of the better cards in the original deck, because you can just target it with the backup to make it a 7/7. Or, if you have something even bigger, you can give it the counters and the Woodwurm ability for a turn. Dropping creatures for free feels good, and this is one of the better ways to do so.
Mana Base
The more mana we have to cast creatures, the better. In that regard, we have Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Evendo, Waking Haven. Other than that, there are 32 basic forests. I suppose I could add in a bit more utility, but to be honest, I don’t think this deck needs it.
Win Conditions
The stompy deck wins through combat damage, plain and simple. There are 4 ways we can get to that win.
First and foremost, Craterhoof Behemoth. I know, people cry when they see this guy, but if they can’t handle your board of creatures, what are they going to do? He is the only Beast in the deck, and that’s intentional. It means you can grab him at any time off the top with Radaghast (as long as someone hasn’t given you a 3/3 beast token…)
Similar to Craterhoof, we have Pathbreaker Ibex, he’s just a bit slower, requiring you to have him onboard and able to attack.
If these two cards can’t get us a win, we can still attempt to win via combat damage, but using Lure or Nessian Boar instead. Lure is preferable because it doesn’t grant our opponents cards like the boar does, but they’re both great ways to get a free attack on someone.
Strengths of the Deck
Plays big threats quickly and on curve every game.
Has an answer for just about everything as a creature effect.
Weaknesses of the Deck
Hard to recover from board wipes or countermagic
Our gameplan is linear and often known to the table (gotta reveal the creatures off Radaghast triggers).
Potential Changes
There were a couple of cards that didn’t make the final cut, but I am still toying with swapping them in at some point.
Garruk's Warsteed and Garruk, Savage Herald are the two main cards I’d want to add in. The Warsteed is a Rhino, which fills a creature type I don’t have represented yet. And Garruk’s abilities are all pretty solid for Radaghast. We get an Adventurous Impulse-like ability for his +1, removal as his -2, and a win condition on his ultimate ability.
I also had Spinner of Souls in the deck because it gives us yet another way to look for creatures. But, it’s a Spider Spirit, which overlaps with Seedborn Muse. I felt that the Muse effect was too good to jeopardize on the off-chance I had the spider on-board, so I took Spinner out.
Conclusion
I like how my Radaghast deck has grown from a hodge-podge of stuff I had at home to a pretty powerful bracket 2 stompy deck. It was a challenge replacing all the effects I would normally use noncreature cards for with creatures, but I think the deck came out very solid.
As WOTC prints more unique creature types, this deck gets better and better!