“I just seen a naturally spawned cactus.”
Art:Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
by Daniel Zrom
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Bristly Bill is just a very fun commander; not only are they fun and flavorful based solely on their name and their art, but they in ability as well; they are just a great commander and a very fun card to build around, whether you go for a casual build or a deck focused on infinite mana and thus infinite combat damage Bristly Bill is a ton of fun to play, for today’s deck we focused on a hybrid deck that does have infinite mana outlets but also really wants to do nothing more than attack and put a ton of +1/+1 counters on our creatures. In addition to the overall hybrid theme, we have some cards to take advantage of Bristly Bill’s landfall, like Awaken the Woods
and Oracle of Mul Daya
. Bristly Bill being mono-green lends us very well into activating them quite often, and we can easily activate them a couple of times a turn in the late-game. This card is an absolute blast, and I am very excited to showcase this deck without further adieu. Let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Where does this deck fall on the power scale?
I would say that this deck falls into a six or seven on the power scale, while infinite combos are not the gameplan there are often times where we can draw either Crystalline Crawler
or Devoted Druid
and easily go off with our commander, I think this deck can easily compete with a lot of other six and seven power-level decks but is certainly not CEDH in any way. I would not pull this deck out against precons or against a table of lower-power unfocused combat decks, as this deck can dominate the board and combat quite easily. As always, I would just ask your opponents, and if they are playing lower-power decks, maybe skip this one.
Why Bristly Bill, Spine Sower?
Bristly Bill is a huge part of our deck; while we are not entirely focused on landfall, we do have quite a few cards that help with that, and our landbase is built for it; because of this, we can get a lot of landfall triggers and once we get enough mana we can use Bristly Bill’s second ability to double the counters and since we are in mono-green we can activate this multiple times a turn in the late-game. Another huge benefit of Bristly Bill is being able to come down early and get those early-game landfall triggers which helps a ton with cards like Cathedral Acolyte
, and Incubation Druid
Bristly Bill is the heart and soul of this deck and should be cast as soon as possible and we do everything possible to keep them on the board.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck! The infinite combos and loops in the deck are listed below in the “Main Win Conditions” Section.
Creatures:
We have a ton of absolute bombs within our creature package, so let’s go over the best of the best, it really doesn’t get that much better than Managorger Hydra
, which gets huge in just a couple of go-arounds on the table and with built-in trample this is an absolutely huge creature that can hit like a truck. Since we have so many big creatures in the deck, we need them to hit, so Duskshell Crawler
is a great and cheap way to make that happen. While trample is certainly nice, I think its better when our opponents don’t block so that’s why we have Champion of Lambholt
, which in just a couple turns of being out can allow all of our creatures to be unblockable, this all but guarantees the one-shot on our opponents. We don’t have a ton of naturally big creatures, but even with small creatures, Railway Brawler
is just a crazy card for five mana, and having this ability, when combined with Bristly Bills, allows us to hit very hard and easily, one-shot opponents, especially if we have trample. Especially when combined with cards like Arwen, Weaver of Hope
, which together snowball extremely quickly and allow us to overwhelm the board and combat with ease.
Instants:
Archdruid's Charm
is an amazing tutor for the deck or a great way to grab very strong lands like Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
or finishers like Craterhoof Behemoth
or can be a great way to buff and fight an opponents creatures and in many situations it’s absolutely right to exile a strong artifact or enchantment from an opponent, this card is just amazing and does an absolute ton for only three mana. Heroic Intervention
is an amazing way to protect our board against board wipes, this is an amazing effect to have for only two mana and can help save our board in some dicey situations. Since we are working at the instant speed, we can easily end the game with Invigorating Surge
. This is a very strong combat trick, and we can easily bait our opponents into a no-block and end the game with this one.
Sorceries:
Our sorcery package isn’t all that interesting, mostly consisting of simple ramp spells, but we do have a couple of pretty sweet cards like Smell Fear
, which is effectively a piece of removal for our deck and proliferating can be great to uptick the damage on board and our power in combat. Overwhelming Stampede
is one of the best finishers that we have, and it doesn’t take that big of a buffed-up board to end the game with this card. Awaken the Woods is an amazing way to generate some blockers and, most importantly, get a ton of triggers on Bristly Bill; this card feels so much better when we can dump all of our mana and buff up one of our creatures like crazy.
Artifacts:
Sol Ring
and Arcane Signet
are great supplemental pieces of the ramp that give us extra mana and can help a ton with casting and activating Bristly Bill. Since we are a mono-color deck, we get an absolute ton of value out of Throne of Eldraine
, which is a great source of mana that we can easily speed out early, and the supplemental card draw we get off of it is crazy and something we can easily activate on every turn allowing us to fill our hand and board with ease. Due to the light landfall theme and the abundance of double-landfall trigger lands, we absolutely had to include Horn of Greed
, which is an amazing source of card draw for us and a great way to build some good-will with our opponents, though that probably won’t last long. Power Fist
is a cheap and easy source of trample and a great +1/+1 counter machine, which helps a ton once we have Bristly Bill and an established board out; it also works amazingly with Ozolith, the Shattered Spire
.
Enchantments:
Asceticism
is a great card that we can easily speed out through our ramp and protects all of our creatures from removal, which is a godsend in mono-green as that tends to be one of our biggest weaknesses. Our enchantment package also includes some amazing ways to speed out cards like Asceticism in Burgeoning
and Exploration
. Bear Umbra
is arguably one of the best cards in our deck, and if we resolve it the game is close to over, being able to untap all lands on attack allows us to get additional activations on Bristly Bill and can easily double or even quadruple our damage depending on how much mana we have. We also have even more support in Doubling Season
and Hardened Scales
, which can get out of hand extremely quickly, especially with Bristly Bill’s ability. It’s not all win more and hitting hard in our enchantment package as we also have Kenrith's Transformation
, which is a great way to take out a commander or even just the best creature on the board.
Land Base:
We are running some different choices, especially for a mono-colored deck, but the main purpose of these cards is to double-trigger Bristly Bill; the best examples of this are Brokers Hideout
and Myriad Landscape
. Since we are mono-colored, we are absolutely running the all-powerful Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, which can generate an absolutely insane amount of mana and helps us activate Bristly Bill multiple times. Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
is another key land for the deck, and having access to it allows us to get more green mana out of some of our colorless lands. We are quite high in terms of mana cost, so we are running above average at thirty-seven lands, which works well for the deck. I like this landbase a lot and think it is very strong for the deck.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We are amazing in combat, and many of our creatures are hard to kill, especially since we can activate Bristly Bill at instant speed.
- Our commander can come down early and put quite a few counters on all of our creatures, especially with double landfall triggers like Cabaretti Courtyard
and Evolving Wilds.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We are reliant on our commander, and if they cannot resolve or stay on the field, the game can be quite rough.
- Generally weak to creature hate, specifically board wipes or bounce effects like Cyclonic Rift.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
While we certainly are not focused on infinite combos, our commander is an absolute infinite combo machine; because of this, we absolutely couldn’t avoid these two combos, and they do allow us to do infinite combat damage to our opponents. Below are all of the combos in the deck explained:
Bristly Bill, Spine Sower + Crystalline Crawler
Requires:
Bristly Bill, Spine Sower must be on the battlefield. Crystalline Crawler must be on the battlefield. Crystalline Crawler has at least five +1/+1 counters on it. Mana needed: 3GG
Steps:
- Activate Bristly Bill by paying 3GG, doubling the number of +1/+1 counters on each creature you control.
- Activate Crystalline Crawler’s first ability five times by removing five +1/+1 counters from it, adding 3GG.
- Repeat.
- If Crystalline Crawler has six or more +1/+1 counters on it to start the combo, this combo results in infinite colored mana.
Results:
Infinite +1/+1 counters on creatures you control that have a +1/+1 counter on them. Infinite colored mana.
Bristly Bill, Spine Sower + Devoted Druid
Requires:
Bristly Bill, Spine Sower must be on the battlefield. Devoted Druid must be on the battlefield. Devoted Druid has five or more +1/+1 counters on it. Devoted Druid does not have summoning sickness Mana needed: 3GG
Steps:
- Activate Bristly Bill by paying 3GG, doubling the number of +1/+1 counters on each creature you control.
- Activate Devoted Druid’s first ability by tapping it, adding G.
- Activate Devoted Druid’s second ability by putting a -1/-1 counter on it, untapping it.
- Repeat from step 2 four additional times.
- Repeat from step 1.
- If Devoted Druid has six or more +1/+1 counters when you begin the combo, it will also get infinite +1/+1 counters which can be removed for infinite green mana.
Results:
Infinite +1/+1 counters on creatures you control. Infinite green mana.
Conclusion:
Bristly Bill is just a sweet commander, and I won’t lie. This commander feels pushed to the max; looking at other +1/+1 focused commanders, we have, this card is just busted, and being in mono-green allows us to have access to a ton of crazy pieces. This deck is a blast, but certainly a deck we need to bring out against the right audience. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!