A Happy continuing Oathtober to you all! Last week I covered Nahiri, Heir of the Ancients in another “New Perspectives” article (linked here), which makes it new Nissa’s turn this week. Nissa of Shadowed Boughs is a very interesting planeswalker that can pack quite the punch, and she is an excellent new addition to the Golgari Oathbreaker family. Unlike Nahiri, Nissa isn’t geared towards any specific archetype, and I’m excited to finally dig in to some of the deckbuilding possibilities surrounding this spicy planeswalker!
The Oathbreaker
Let’s begin by taking a look at the individual abilities on Nissa of Shadowed Boughs.
Oh my goodness, what an ability to kick things off with! I think this static ability may actually be the most powerful part of Nissa’s rules text, even though it doesn’t actually affect the rest of the board state at all. Netting an extra loyalty on Nissa with only one land-drop per turn is a decent upside on its own, but the nuttiness of this ability goes through the roof with a little extra support. Fetchlands, land-based ramp, and any other kind of effect that enables additional landfall triggers will passively add on to Nissa’s loyalty, making her that much more difficult for your opponents to take off the board. I give this first ability a 10/10 for being both powerful and thematically on point.
This +1 ability is a bit more similar to what we’ve seen with past iterations of Nissa, with some slight changes. 3/3 elementals are a bit on the small side for a Nissa planeswalker, historically speaking; however, this downside is somewhat made up for by the fact that this elemental comes with menace. More importantly, this ability is also templated in a way that allows you to untap a land without animating it, if you so choose. This flexibility is subtly strong since it gives you the option of ramping without leaving your land vulnerable to creature removal. As far as +1 abilities go, I’d say this effect is solid, but fair.
So this last ability is a little busted for a couple of reasons, those being that 1) it lets you cheat on mana cost, and 2) it’s very possible to use this ability on the same turn that you play Nissa. One fetchland is all that it will take to immediately put this -5 online. The downsides to this line of play are that it will usually only leave Nissa with 1 loyalty, and it will almost certainly draw attention from the rest of the table. The actual power of this ability will also ultimately be limited by your land count, so using this ability early on won’t actually guarantee you a win. Even still, the strength of this type of effect can’t be ignored, especially since it can target creatures in your graveyard as well as those you have in hand.
Upon examination, Nissa of Shadowed Boughs seems like the perfect kind of planeswalker for Oathbreaker; it’s reasonably powerful without being too narrow in scope, making it fairly open-ended in terms of build-around potential. Nissa could pretty easily fit into almost any archetype that likes to play creatures and lands (which, as it turns out, is a lot of lists). Out of all of Zendikar Rising, I’ve been most excited to tinker around with this specific card, and I’m glad that I can finally share my brews with all of you!
Build #1: Green/Black Lands
Decklist: Nissa’s Promise
Up until now, lands-based/landfall decks have mainly been limited to Gruul and Jund color combos with Wrenn and Six and Lord Windgrace; however, this newest version of Nissa provides the perfect opportunity to build around lands in Golgari colors specifically. I had a bit of trouble choosing between Nissa’s Triumph and Hour of Promise for this list’s Signature Spell, but I ultimately settled on the latter option. This deck could probably function pretty well with either option, but I personally prefer putting lands directly into play whenever possible. Unlike with many Gruul builds, this deck doesn’t go all-in on a Marit Lage combo (though that is certainly a possible route to victory). Instead I’ve opted to split this list’s payoffs between “combos”, traditional landfall effects, and graveyard synergies.
- Landfall Enablers: Since this deck is looking to cause a bunch of extra landfall triggers, we’re naturally running a lot of land-based ramp. We’ve got a lot of the typical staples in this area such as Arboreal Grazer, Nature’s Lore and Sakura-Tribe Elder; however, Harrow, Roiling Regrowth and Springbloom Druid are even more powerful here since they each net us two landfall triggers. Alternatively, we can give ourselves extra land drops with cards like Dryad of the Ilysian Grove and Exploration. Crop Rotation isn’t really “ramp”, but it does get another land into play and lets us tutor for any one land in our deck. Even still, the strangest way by far for us to gain landfall triggers is by having Ashaya, Soul of the Wild in play; any of our creatures that enter the battlefield when she’s in play will trigger landfall since they’ll count as both lands and creatures. Also, we’ve got Primeval Titan, because of course we do.
- Landfall Payoffs: In addition to the typical Dark Depths + Thespian’s Stage combo, this deck can win via a number of different landfall payoffs. Lotus Cobra will skyrocket our mana even further, and we can funnel said mana into any clue tokens we make off of Tireless Tracker. Courser of Kruphix will buffer our life total a little while ensuring we hit our land drops. Alternatively, we can drain our opponents out of the game more directly with cards like Retreat to Hagra, Ob Nixilis, the Fallen and Dread Presence (in tandem with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, ideally). To top it all off, we can also swarm the board with zombies from good old Field of the Dead, which we can easily get online with the help of our Signature Spell.
- Graveyard Synergies: In typical Golgari fashion, this deck has its fair share of ways to fuel and take advantage of the graveyard. Elvish Reclaimer will fill our yard all while tutoring for specific lands and netting us further landfall triggers. We’ve got The Gitrog Monster around to join in on the fun, and they pair particularly well with all the fetchlands in this list. Titania, Protector of Argoth also rewards us for sacrificing our lands by making a bunch of threatening 5/3s. Once we’ve got our graveyard nice and full, we can slowly start to take over the battlefield with an unending horde supplied by Worm Harvest. Along other lines, we can also put our binned lands to good use by replaying them with Life from the Loam, Ramunap Excavator or Ancient Greenwarden.
Build #2: Green/Black +1/+1 Counters
Decklist: Worldly Nissa
Zendikar Rising also brought along a lot of new support for +1/+1 counter strategies in Golgari colors, which is a pretty new area for green/black lists in Oathbreaker. Although she isn’t themed specifically around +1/+1 counters, Nissa’s -5 ability makes her a perfectly suitable Oathbreaker option for this particular archetype. There are several potential Signature Spells that would fit very well in this kind of deck, but I ultimately settled on the slightly unusual choice of Worldly Tutor. This list is very reliant on its creatures, and most of those creatures fall into one of three +1/+1 counter categories; enablers, compounders, and payoffs. A spell like Worldly Tutor will help us smooth out our turns by ensuring we have access to each of these categories. To top it all off, Nissa’s +1 ability will guarantee that we’ll be able to cast our Signature Spell immediately after resolving our Oathbreaker.
- Counter Enablers: As you can probably imagine, this deck is running a lot of ways to buff our board with +1/+1 counters. Rishkar, Peema Renegade supplies a pair of counters when he hits the field, and Verdurous Gearhulk goes even bigger with a whopping four counters paired with a 4/4 trampler. The triggered ability on Drana, Liberator of Malakir will grow all of our attacking creatures, an effect that pairs particularly well with her first strike. Vivien, Arkbow Ranger is a bit more select with her counter distribution, whereas Nissa, Voice of Zendikar can boost our whole board at once. Even still, Forgotten Ancient‘s versatility in counter distribution is unmatched, and it’s especially effective in a multiplayer format like Oathbreaker. We’re also running a few combat tricks, like Inscription of Abundance and Unexpected Fangs, to catch our opponents off-guard at opportune moments.
- Counter Compounders: Once we get the +1/+1 counters train rolling, we’ll have plenty of ways to pile on the power even further. Cards like Branching Evolution and Corpsejack Menace straight-up double all of our +1/+1 counters, as does Kalonian Hydra whenever it attacks. Alternatively, we can use Hardened Scales or Winding Constrictor to offer a more reserved buff to our creatures; Mowu, Loyal Companion will even keep himself similarly benefited all on his own (because he’s such a good boy)! We can also always go the old-fashioned proliferation route with support from Pollenbright Druid and Karn’s Bastion, and Oran-Rief Ooze will offer a similar bonus whenever it attacks.
- Counter Payoffs: While making a board full of ridiculously-swole creatures is a reward in-and-of itself, it’s still a good idea for us to run some other payoffs. Gyre Sage and Incubation Druid will give us a huge boost in mana to deploy our main threats. We can give our beefiest creatures some evasion with Hagra Constrictor or Pridemalkin, or we can circumvent blockers entirely with Champion of Lambholt. Creature removal can be a bit of a pain for this style of strategy, so we’ve also got The Ozolith, Grakmaw, Skyclave Ravager and Reyhan, Last of the Abzan to give us a bit of insurance. Alternatively, we can use cards like Iridescent Hornbeetle and Hangarback Walker to try to create more creatures than our opponents can handle. If we’re ever being outmatched in the card advantage department, we can catch right back up with the help of Armorcraft Judge (an excellent tutor target, by the way) or Inspiring Call.
Build #3: Green/Black Stompy Stampede!
Decklist: Nissa’s Shadowed Stampede
This final list is definitely the most bombastic of the three in this article, mainly due to its rather straightforward strategy. Nissa’s -5 ability will help us cheat creatures into play, but this deck’s Signature Spell will do even more damage in that regard. Selvala’s Stampede may quietly be one of the most powerful mono-green Signature Spells in the format, especially when paired with low-cost Oathbreakers that can ramp. This particular list can resolve Selvala’s Stampede by turn 4 pretty consistently, and it can even do so as early as turn 3 on a nut draw. Depending on what exactly you hit off of the stampede, you may even be able to recast it again on your very next turn!
- Mana Ramp: This deck is running plenty of ramp to get its threats on-board as soon as possible. Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth are two of our best ramp cards, especially when paired with Arbor Elf (which is what enables a turn 3 stampede in this list). Although they’re a bit slower, we’ve got Voyaging Satyr and Garruk Wildspeaker to help with the land-untapping shenanigans. These types of ramp cards also pair well with lands like Castle Garenbrig and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, or a mana-doubler like Regal Behemoth. On top of all of these fancy ramp cards, we’re also running more traditional mana dorks like Birds of Paradise and Sylvan Caryatid.
- Top End: We don’t have all of this ramp around for nothing. Near the bottom of the curve we have typical “goodstuff” creatures like Nighthawk Scavenger, Questing Beast and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, and the creatures only get larger from there. Elder Gargaroth and Grave Titan are both gargantuan threats that can help grow our board even more, and Wurmcoil Engine will make sure we still have creatures left over after it dies. As far as keeping our opponents’ threats under control, we have Noxious Gearhulk to pick off individual creatures and Massacre Wurm to provide a light wrath-effect to the board. We can also pay Sawtusk Demolisher‘s mutate cost to temporarily remove an opposing Oathbreaker from the field and turn one of our smaller creatures into a substantial threat all at once!
- Threat Reach: Making our board huge is nice and all, but sometimes we’ll still need a bit more help to get ourselves fully across the finish line. Cards like Rancor, Shadowspear and Garruk, Unleashed can give a few of our individual creatures some much-needed trample; however, we can also give our whole board a similar boost with Thunderfoot Baloth in play. Surrak, the Hunt Caller can lend one of our threats a bit of hastiness, an effect that’s pretty rare in these colors. If recursion is the name of the game, we can keep up with the help of Drana, the Last Bloodchief and Storrev, Devkarin Lich (and our Oathbreaker, of course). Even still, Sylvan Advocate is one of my favorite spicy includes since it pairs so well with Nissa’s +1 ability, as well as Hissing Quagmire.
Shared Cards
Here’s a quick overview of what notable cards each of the lists share with each other.
- Counters & Stompy: Shadowspear
- Lands & Stompy: Wild Growth, Nature’s Lore, Arbor Elf, Arboreal Grazer, Courser of Kruphix, Primeval Titan, Sakura-Tribe Elder and Tireless Tracker
- Lands, Counters & Stompy: Utopia Sprawl and Once Upon a Time
She’s a Shady Lady
This is the first time I’ve ever done the same style of article for two weeks in a row, but I think new Nahiri and new Nissa warranted the decision. I could have saved one of the two for a “Brainstorming” article instead, but I felt that would have done a disservice to the all the brewing potential surrounding each of them. Nissa of Shadowed Boughs is especially open-ended in how she can be built around, so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised if she eventually becomes the most popular Golgari-colored Oathbreaker.
Have you tried building around Nissa of Shadowed Boughs in Oathbreaker yet? Are there any others way you do/would want to build around her in Oathbreaker? Make sure to share your thoughts and brews with me in the comments or on Twitter!
About the author: My name is Alex Enders. I am a college student that’s been playing MTG for almost eight years, though I only recently began experimenting with writing content. My personal formats of choice are Oathbreaker, EDH, and draft. My other interests include music, education, and most things nerdy. You can find me on Twitter (@AAAEnders) or email me at aenders2112@gmail.com