Monday MtG: Theorycrafting a Commander Deck

I was reading comments in the FB group Budget Magic and this card was mentioned. It intrigued me enough to start researching a deck.  There will be overlap between this deck and my Xenagod deck, if only in the creatures chosen.

Halana and Alena, Partners

For variety's sake, I am leaning towards using precombat sorceries and combat instants to pump up these two, and in turn pump up other creatures.

This allows me to make use of Wild Defiance, which is a card that has yet to find a home for me.  Between WD and various pump spells, I suspect this deck can end up quite... silly.

Granted, using auras, equipment, and +1/+1 counters would arguably be more efficient, but I really want to make use of WD and this is the best method. Gamble is the only way to reliably tutor WD up, but Green provides numerous options to pull it out of the graveyard, so there is that.  Related to WD is Primeval Bounty, which should play nicely with what this deck does.

Before I get too carried away, I need to do some backwards planning.  100 cards - 45 cards for land and dedicated ramp (rock or spell) = 55 business cards.  I'm thinking at least 25 creatures, leaving 30 various spells - some already addressed above.  

That in mind, I need Giant Growth variants that also cantrip.  Research suggests these instants: Aggressive Urge, Feral Instinct, Fists of Flame, Sudden Strength, Viridescent Wisps, and Wildsize.  Might of the Old Ways is a maybe, because I don't yet know how well coven works in play.  Sorceries are limited to Hunter's Prowess, Scale the Heights, and Unnatural Moonrise.  

I'll need creatures to pump up, otherwise, this entire exercise is for naught.  Halana, Kessig Ranger and Alena, Kessig Trapper are auto-includes.  So are Deus of Calamity, Hydra Omnivore, Managorger Hydra, Phyrexian Hydra, Gargos, Vicious Watcher, Inferno Titan (besties with Keen Sense and Snake Umbra), and Xenagod would all be in the deck. 

Recursion is always a good thing:  Cyclical Evolution, Increasing Savagery, Backdraft Dragon, Reckless Charge, and Seize the Day are the first cards that come to mind.

Answers are a must for any deck.  Answers that play into what I want this deck to do are ideal: Inscription of Abundance, Explosive Entry.  Sadly, this is it, except for spells that boost and damage creatures/planeswalkers, like Domri's Ambush.  If I lean into the fight mechanic, then Neyith of the Dire Hunt is a shoe-in, as well, which means Ulvenwald Tracker and Epic Confrontation, as well.

Fighting leads to Contested Cliffs if I end up with a Beast subtheme.  Beasts tie in nicely with hunters, trappers, and rangers.  

That handles creature-removal.

One card I know I want in the deck is Pyromancer's Goggles.  At 5 cmc, I don't consider it a piece of ramp, but a fine means of copying spells.  

I can only imagine the havoc this wreaks in a UR spellslinger deck.

So that is about 30 cards, and the rest will come about as I go through my boxes and draft up a full decklist.  Listing and linking the staples in these colors would make for an unnecessarily long post of expected results. Tentative Decklist.

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For variety's sake, I could take this a snow route. Doing so justifies running Spirit of the Aldergard, Blessing of Frost, Blizzard Brawl, Glacial Crevasses, Into the North, Scrying Sheets, Skred, and Svella, Ice Shaper.   Maybe even Dark Depths.

More importantly, it means I would need to pick up 15 or 16 copies each of Snow-Covered Forest and Snow-Covered Mountain, which is still cheaper than a like amount of Snow-Covered Islands, and to be honest, to build the Heidar, Rimewind Master Commander deck, I would need 30 or 32 Snow-Covered Islands.  And here I thought that a monocolor deck would have a cheap manabase.

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As an aside, I need to just build a Hydra deck.  I've been acquiring pieces over the years: Gargos as Commander, Hydra's Growth, Branching Evolution, Hardened Scales, Kalonian Hydra, Mighty Emergence, Primeval Bounty, Lifeblood Hydra, Evolutionary Escalation, Castle Garenbrig, and Unbound Flourishing.