Official Nissa, Vital Force Deck-Building Contest

Brigby · January 2017

Hey Everyone!
We are back with our second Magic: The Gathering Puzzle Quest deck-building contest!

Featured Planeswalker: Nissa, Vital Force
1_26_17_Nissa%20Deck%20Builder.png

Think you have what it takes to make the best Nissa, Vital Force deck in all of MtGPQ? Think you can craft a deck-building guide so informative that you can turn any player into a mana-ramping, energy-generating master? Well then here is your chance to show the multi-verse your deck-building, guide-writing prowess!

Rewards
This time around we've teamed up with Wizards of the Coast to offer some fantastic physical prizes for all of our winners!

*Grand Prize (3 winners) - Aether Revolt Bundle i]Contains a Player's Guide with pictures of all cards in the set, ten 15-card booster packs, 80 basic land cards, and an Aether-Revolt-themed life counter.[/i

Entry Guidelines:
1) Guide Requirements

• Must focus on the Featured Planeswalker • Restricted to only one deck(Make it a good one!

)
• An explanation of the deck's play-style
2) Each participant may only submit one entry by posting in this thread, and only the first entry from each participant will be accepted.
3) All forum rules apply to contest entries: https://d3go.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4
4) Must not contain links to other 3rd party sites or programs (Inserted images are ok)
5) Please apply the spoiler tag to your guide in order to conserve thread space. Thank you!
6) There is no word count limit, however bare in mind your writing will be judged by your peers!
7) Please check all prior entries before posting yours to avoid similar submissions. (For entries containing the exact same cards within the deck, we will only accept the first participant that submitted it.)
8) Be creative and have fun!

Submission Deadline
Contest will be open to submissions starting now until Monday, February 6th 6pm PT (Tuesday, February 7th 2am UTC)

Voting Process
There will be one (1) grand prize winner for each of the three categories: Creativity, Guide Composition, Deck Effectiveness.

Voting and judging will be split into two different rounds.

Round 1
- Once the contest has reached the submission deadline, D3 Go! will choose the top *3 guides for each category.
- The top *3 entries for each category will move on to the next round.

*This number subject to change based on number of total submissions

Round 2
- 3 separate threads will be created, one per category, containing a poll that lists their respective top *3 entries.
- Voting will start immediately when these threads are created, and ends on Monday, February 13th 10am PT (Monday, February 13th 6pm UTC)
- Vote by selecting your favorite entry as your poll response. Giving that post a reputation point will not count.
- A (1) winner for each category will be selected by whomever has the most votes in that category's poll.

The three (3) winners will be announced in the forum within 10 days of vote completion.

If you have any questions or comments, please post in the contest in the discussion thread: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=58046

Good luck!

AettThorn · January 2017

My deck submission.

Deck:

Creatures:
Decimator of the Provinces
Cultivator of Blades
Bristling Hydra
Ulrich

Spells:
Nissa's Renewal
Attune with the Aether

Supports:
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Tamiyo's Journal
Dynavolt Tower
Aetherworks Marvel

Guide:

The goal here is to build up the Nissa's ultimate ability as quick as possible, while still bringing out creatures along the way. Especially Cultivator of Blades. He gives his Attack Strength to all other creatures you have during the attack phase. Nissa's ultimate gives each creature bonus attack and defense. Which means that Cultivator gets boosted, then gives his boosted Attack to everyone else. Use Attune with Aether and Dynavolt/Marvel to bring out energized gems and use them either to fuel the Hydra or for Nissa's ultimate. Tamiyo's to get extra cards, and Shrine for some extra mana.

Ultimadan · January 2017

Ok so here's my attempt at a Nissa 2 deck:

Nissa 2: Nissa's Revenge

Creatures: 1
Gaea's Revenge

Spells: 4
Dubious Challenge
Gather the Pack
Alter Ego
Haunted Cloak

Supports: 5
Nissa's Pilgrimage
Mirrorpool
Corrupted Grafstone
Canopy Vista
Tamiyo's Journal

So the first thing you'll probably notice about this deck is that......it only has one creature. However, this will be the only creature we need since the rest of the deck aims to cheat it out by any means necessary. Only one creature is played to ensure our effects to search it out and to cheat it in will hit exactly that creature 100% of the time. However since Nissa 2 can only play 4 spells and 5 supports, this does limit the structure of the deck somewhat (but makes for an interesting deckbuilding challenge =P). There are 3 main ways to get our big creature of choice out: ramp (lots of green gem generation + Nissa's first ability and Gather the Pack to search copies out), reinforce (Alter Ego and Mirrorpool, though you need a copy out already) and outright cheat (most of the time Gaea's Revenge will be scarier than whatever comes out of Dubious Challenge on the other side of the board. Well, most of the time anyway. Results may vary.)

Now onto the individual card choices themselves:

Gaea's Revenge: The one creature we run in the deck. While this card is pretty much the only win condition in the deck, having hexproof and haste certainly helps its chances. Most common removal can't hit it and haste puts it to work as soon as it hits the board, giving the opponent less time to react. Running only this for creatures means Gather the Pack should hit 2 copies of this card and Dubious Challenge will always bring it into play. In most cases, Gaea's Revenge should be bigger than whatever your opponent gets out of the challenge.

Dubious Challenge: A risky card to be sure, but with only one creature we know exactly what we're getting out of it. 16 damage and a hexproof 16/9 for 11 mana is pretty good. Just be careful about what your opponent gets out of the deal (but of course this doesn't matter if you kill them first =P).

Gather the Pack: Since there is only one creature in the deck, Gather the Pack will always give you 2 Gaea's Revenge (or 1 if there's not enough green). This combined with Dubious Challenge means there's essentially 3 cards in your 10 card deck that are Gaea's Revenge, so you still have a reasonable chance to find a creature even with only one in the entire deck.

Alter Ego: You know what this deck needs? More Gaea's Revenge! This card makes it happen, or at the very least reinforces it. 12 mana to cheat another one into play as long as you already have one is a pretty good deal. You could even hold on until you're ready to play this together with Dubious Challenge for a sudden burst of 33 damage.

Haunted Cloak: On demand trample for those moments when you need to break through defending creatures whereas vigilance helps defend yourself if need be. You can also just target opposing creatures and force them to block you if you don't want to risk having Gaea's Revenge overrun with creatures. Also works well with Mirrorpool to cheat out one of your bigger spells.

Nissa's Pilgrimage: I think this card has gone in every green deck I've ever made. Simple yet effective, makes green gems for ramping if you need to cast Gaea's Revenge from hand.

Canopy Vista: Another mana ramp support. This is played over Cinder Glade since Nissa benefits more from white than red.

Corrupted Grafstone: Even more mana support! Between these 3 supports there should always be plenty of green on the board. Nissa can also play Grafstone in one turn with a green match which is always nice.

Mirrorpool: Used to make your Gaea's Revenge even bigger for just 4 mana. Alternatively makes your Dubious Challenge or Alter Ego free by playing one of your cheaper spells.

Tamiyo's Journal: Some extra draw power to help us get past all the mana rocks and into the good stuff. The clues help protect your more important supports from cards like Demolish too.

As for Nissa herself, her mana gains are very nice, +4 green, +3 white and +2 red for a total of +9, which is very helpful for ramping out into a Gaea's Revenge in hand with lots of green gems created through your supports and first planeswalker ability. While none of the cards in the deck directly generate energy, Nissa's planeswalker abilities can be used to energise the board and while this isn't the particular focus of this deck you still have the potential to sneak out some extra damage through the third ability. Mainly though the first ability is the one you'l probably be using to try and flood the board with green gems for ramping.

Once you get out Gaea's Revenge either from ramp and Nissa's main gains or from cheating it out, you can continue to reinforce it and make it bigger and bigger until your opponent is eventually beaten down. While the deck does have some notable weaknesses such as untargeted removal and board wipes, your victories will certainly be won in style and in typical green fashion: with massive creatures trampling over your opponent!

boomstick · January 2017

Deck

Creatures
When Bristling Hydra is available, sub this in immediately for Oviya
Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter
Empyreal Voyager
Ishkanah, Grafwidows

Support
Deadlock Trap
Fabrication Module
Oath of Nissa
Zendikar Resurgent

Spell
Bring to Light (can be subbed for Dubious Challenge as well)
Animist's Awakening
Helm of the Gods

Guide

Use the fabrication from Oviya to get extra supports on the board for Helm. The fabrication also works well for Ishkanah and Empyreal.
Use Empyreal to overcharge gems and save up for Nissa2's 3rd special. I have been able to give +100/100 to all my creatures before when the board plays right; instant game over.
Helm's first strike ability when given to Ishkanah, and possibly it's spiderlings is a great defense.
Fabrication Module also works well once you have a ton of overcharged gems from Empyreal. Keep boosting that first creature +3/3.
Deadlock trap also works nicely in locking out the first opponent creature with all of the overcharged gems from Empyreal.
Oath, Animist and Zendikar work well for mana boost.
Bring to light (Dubious Challenge) can be used to try and draw out those more expensive cards like Ishkanah and Empyreal.

DaisukeK · January 2017

Cards

Creature
-(M)Rashmi

Supports
-(U)Decoction Module
-(R)Zendikar's Roil
-(C)Nissa's Pilgrimage
-(C)Fertile Thicket
-(R)Tamiyo's Journal

Spell
-(C)Attune with Aether
-(R)Haunted Cloak
-(R)Animist's Awakening
-(M)Nissa's Revelation

How it works

This deck wins by 3rd ability, so key here is to accumulate loyalty as soon as possible.
Spending loyalty on 1st and 2nd should be minimal.
Only 2 Mythisc. Lots of cheap supports and spells.

1. You need to have your hand filled with cards to play.
-Stack and bank Nissa's Revelation, drop when hand gets scarce. Plus 20 hp gain to heal up.
-Keep Tamiyo's Journal on board.

2. Zendikar's Roil for token creatures. With Decoction Module, 2 2/2 creatures and 2 energized gems per landfall. Haunted Cloak to give it way to absorb enemy creatures and to punch them through. Optionally play Rashmi to keep draw cycles going.

3, Cascade, cascade, cascade. Play Animist's Awakening, Nissa's Pilgrimage, Attune with Aether, Fertile Thicket to empty your hand, while putting token creatures and energy on board.

4, Unleash the Ult! By the time enough loyalty is accumulated there should also be enough energized gems to make the token creature lethal enough to finish the match.

You may consider swapping one of ramp spell/support with Plummet, as there's no way to defend against Olivia, Dragons, and Angels.

FarEastRus · January 2017

From Russia with love!!! My English is weak, sorry!!!

My Deck (Army of Eldrazi Horror)

Strategy: A quick destruction of the enemy by calling an Eldrazi Horror and strengthen them.

Creatures:
Shrill Howler / Howling Chorus
Emrakul’s Evangel
Foul Emissary

Spells:
Altered Ego
Reclaim
Animist's Awakening
Gather the Pack

Supports:
Retreat to Kazandu
Mirrorpool
Aether Hub

Description:

Block mana.

Aether Hub provides gains mana when collecting stones.
Animist''s Awakening increases the number of green stones on the field.
Reclaim gain mana through the destruction of your creature.

Block attack.

Howling Chorus, Emrakul’s Evangel, Foul Emissary creates Eldrazi Horror 3/2.
Altered Ego, Mirrorpool, Retreat to Kazandu strengthen creatures and increase their performance.

Block support.

Foul Emissary, Gather the Pack deliver creatures from library in hand.
Retreat to Kazandu gives a small increase in health.
Mirrorpool gives a free spell.

COMBO:
Reclaim + Foul Emissary + Emrakul’s Evangel = 2 Eldrazi Horror 3/2 + 12 mana.

mgtyjoe · January 2017

My favorite deck:

Creatures
Architect of the Untamed
Ulvenwald Hydra
Electrostatic Pummeler

Support
Mirrorpool
Deadlock Trap
Fabrication Module

Spell
Animist's Awakening
Scour from Existence
Attune with Aether
The Great Aurora

Explanation of Use:

The strength of this deck is primarily Architect of the Untamed, supported by the other cards and the PW's second ability. Green gem draw is the main purpose, both to create as many cascades as possible, and to create as many energized gems as possible to trigger overload 2 (mechanical beast token).

Ulvenwald Hydra is a powerful component to this end, maximizing green card draw while also running interference with opponent's creatures by blocking them.

Electrostatic Pummeler is a safety valve in this deck, in my opinion, although some have posted that they use Pummeler to an incredible result, sometimes with more than 1000 attack. If you can get it on the field, the more the merrier. Once the board has a lot of energized gems, you can boost this card greatly and end the game with third ability, but in my experience, this is not necessary, as typically you are able to win with the aforementioned cards.

As always, The Great Aurora is there to clean the board if things get ugly.

Imrakul · January 2017

Here´s my Deck-Build

Creatures: 3
Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
Electrostatic Pummeler
Elvish Visionary

Spells: 5
Larger Than Life
Attune with Aether
Animists Awakening
Natural Connection
Swell of Growth

Supports: 2
Aether Hub
Fertile Thicket

How it works:

Try to get a Rashmi on the board as fast as possible. This should not take you very long with all the mana cards.
Next you need a Electrostatic Pummeler and the second ability of Nissa.

Now whenever you cast a spell you draw a new one and luckily combo through your deck.

Nissa, Attune with Aether, Aether Hub and Electrostatic Pummeler will put tons of energy on the board, while the mana cards will trigger the energy and fill you cards with mana.
With the nearly infinite combo and thanks to Larger Than Life you will soon see a 500+ power trampling Electrostatic Pummeler smashing your opponent.

I don´t have Nissa, Vital Force, but even with the first gen Nissa I´ve managed to do 500+ damage as soon as turn 6 or 7 in one or two games.

I think with the second gen Nissa, 1000+ damage could be possible with a certain amount of luck!

Give it a try!

wereotter · January 2017

Current deck:

Creatures
Architect of the Untamed
Longtusk Cub
Arborback Stomper
Servant of the Conduit
Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
Metalwork Colossus

Supports
Nissa's Pilgrimage
Fertile Thicket

Spells
Mantle of Webs
Attune with Aether

How it works:

This deck focuses on getting large amounts of mana to push out large creatures. This is helped with the supports feeding Nissa's big mana gains from green, which partner well with her first ability if you're running low. This also plays with Servant of the Conduit getting an added mana bonus from any energized gem match. Despite the generally higher cost cards, it's able to burn through them quickly giving Rashmi a home replacing each card as its cast. This deck is able to play with all three of Nissa's abilities since it has creatures that benefit from overload, to pull you back if you're behind and need to use her first ability, and are large board presences if you're ahead enough to use her final game ender. It's very straight forward, very easy to play, and doesn't rely on gimmicks to win. Most times the game is over before you ever get to her 24 loyalty. This deck may be altered once Bristling Hydra is released to use that card.

zaann85 · January 2017

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Nissa, Energy Master

Summary
Nissa is a powerful planeswalker who can see the energy flowing through all life! This deck focuses on Overload which can cause you to gain mana, gain life, deal damage, and even cast cards for free!

Dynavolt Tower and Aetherworks Marvel generate energy and have very powerful Overload abilities! Servant of the Conduit and Arborback Stomper join the fray and keep the Overload train rolling!

Nissa's Pilgrimage, Fertile Thicket, and Animist's Awakening generate tons of

, and Season's Past and Nissa's Renewal Generate HUGE cascades of

to Overload and power out your cards fast! Nissa herself, can even generate energy and covert gems to

to keep the snowballing cascades going.

Ulvenwald Hydra rounds out the deck by being another powerful

generator, a huge creature that swells with

department. From there a Season's Past or Nissa's Renewal will generate so much

that the rest of the cards in hand will be filled and ready to cast. By this time Nissa's first ability should be ready, and you can generate even more

and energy! From this point you should have some form of Overload abilities on the battlefield, and you'll be ready to commence the Overload Festival! Gain extra mana and gain life, or maybe cast free spells and direct damage. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to have all four sources of Overload ready to bend to your will!

Smash666 · January 2017

OK, here's my shot at it.
Supports.
Nissa's Pilgrimage
Shrine of the Forsaken God's

Spells.
Animists Awakening
Season's Past
Attune with the Aether
Creeping Mold

Creatures.
Undergrowth Champion
Honored Hierarch
Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Dean
Managorger Hydra

Dlee610 · January 2017

Of course I haven't tested it yet but the idea is just too good.

The Deck

Creatures:
Ulvenwald hydra
Bristling hydra
Rashmi eternities crafter

Supports:
Mirrorpool
Fertile thicket
Panharmonicon

Spells:
Seasons past
Rishkars expertise (editted after seeing new cards! - wow this is a good one)
Attune with aether
Animist's awakening

The Method

The idea behind this deck is to loop through cards with panharmonicon and rashmi to constantly match green and hit energized gems pumping up both hydras. As such it is key to get these two cards out asap. Spam nissa's first ability unless you have enough to cast the third for a KO (very unlikely that match goes this long in PvP). Bristling hydra will keep adding energized gems as they are hit, keeping the board with enough energized gems to constantly feed the hydras ability. Similarly the ulvenwald will be hitting match three green constantly. Both will quickly build to absurd power/health.

Mirrorpool should be used on spells, not creatures, as none of the three creatures benefit greatly from being reinforced.

There are no direct kill or support crush cards in this deck. Ulvenwald will act as the main blocker/creature removal option. The constant conversion and subsequent smashing of green gems will serve as the primary source of support removal.

The biggest issue I see with this deck is running into an early huge cascade from an opponent that doesn't allow for uvlenwald to build high enough to effectively remove your opponents creatures. This is usually an issue regardless of what deck you are running so the risk does not outweigh restructuring the deck to deal with this.

I know I can't wait to try this out and unleash its power!

TherealFaxx · January 2017

Nissa's Charge**

-The deck-
Creatures•
Architect of the untamed
Blighthearder
Skysovereign, counsel flagship

Spells•
Scour from existence
Animist awakening
Reclaim
Haunted cloak

Supports•
Shrine of the Forsaken gods
Dynavolt tower
Deadlock trap

The strategy•
With the ability to generate massive mana, and take advantage of all energized gems, when you throw in removal capabilities it becomes a very well rounded deck. Also receiving full benefits from all of Nissa's abilities and following the energized theme. If your opponent survives long enough for you to use ultimate, it's game over.
Early game, dynavolt and deadlock provide offense and defense while dropping shrine for added mana boost and blight hearder for extra defense if needed. Blight tokens can be killed with reclaim for a massive 21mana early on. Haunted cloak can be used at anytime for that extra punch on offense or for defense. Late game, architect comes in and feeds off energy to power out big damage (tokens can also be used with reclaim) or skysovereign with its added removal effect and flying, paired with deadlock trap and scour there's plenty of control/removal. Added bonus• blighthearder works with scour to process more green gems. With Animist awakening and Nissa's abilities added to the fight there will never be a shortage of Mana or energy! Enjoy•••

readygo · January 2017

Creatures: 4
Ishkanah, Grafwidow
Gladehart Cavalry
Cultivator's Caravan
Plated Crusher

Spells: 3
Animist's Awakening
Scour from Existence
Helm of the Gods

Supports: 3
Fertile Thicket
Tamiyo's Journal
From Beyond

How it works
1. While mana acceleration, and investigateing cards, you set [Ishkanah, Grafwidow][Gladehart Cavalry][Cultivator's Caravan].
2. At this time, you already set support gems 3 or more. Then, you spell [Helm of the Gods]. If you can start Nissa's skill3 [Aether Inspiration], Let's start to finish.
3. [From Beyond][Scrapheap Scrounger] is stalling for upper 1 and 2.

mtgpqplayer · January 2017

With many entries making decks filled with Mythics, I thought I might try and make a deck that is much more budget and much easier to build. It is only using 2 Rares and with mostly cards from Kaladesh to synergize abilities. As it is a more of a budget build, this is suited more for players in the lower tiers with small collections or are just starting out.

Budget Deck List

Creatures (4):

Cultivator of Blades - Rare - Fantastic card to go with Nissa's 3rd ability. Generally will end the game on the spot if you have some active trample. She is a rare but she is really worth getting for this deck.

Electrostatic Pummeler - Rare - Another great Kaladesh card. Works wonders with pump spells trample. Solid card with good stats.

Elegant Edgecrafters - Uncommon - Well costed card that can come out as 5/6 for 10. The best part about Fabricate is that even though you might lose it in battle, the next creature will pick up the boosts to use. The extra ability to be able to get around Defender or Reach is great to sneak in that extra little damage.

Voltaic Brawler - Uncommon - Another aggressively costed card which which also has energize 2. The Overload 1 effect to get Trample and Berserker is great at pushing through damage and as removal.

Supports (3):

Aether Hub - Uncommon - Pretty standard card, more mana and more energize, just what we need.

Fertile Thicket - Common - All star in most green decks. Fixes mana in future turns and also can start extra cascades. All for 2 mana!

Nissa's pilgrimage - Common - Mana fixing and to assist in getting better overloads. Will easily pay for itself in 1 or 2 turn.

Spells (3):

Nature's Way - Uncommon - Cheap spell to be used as removal or for trample to push through damage.

Attune with Aether - Common - Great card to start cascades and to get more energy.

Larger Than Life - Common - +4/+4 and Trample for 4? Enough said. Fantastic with Electrostatic Pummeler and Nissa's 3rd Ability

Summary

The deck aims to try to get as many matches as possible to put out 3 creatures on the board to collect loyalty as well as set up for Nissa's 3rd ability. Hopefully by then you should have Cultivator of Blades as well as trample on some creatures to close the game. There is plenty of ramp cards to get more cascades from matches which will help trigger more and more overload matches. The deck is still aggressive enough that you might not need to let it go until that long.

Strategy

The strategy to play the deck is to start playing the ramp or mana fixing cards like Fertile Thicket, Attune with Aether. This will obviously generate more mana and provide you with a good start to the game. Then Cultivator of Blades is the main creature you want to get out first. This will mean that it benefits from all the fabrication effects which will in turn have a more powerful buff. It's also great to use effects like Larger Than Life on Cultivator because it makes it such an insane buff to the other creatures.

After Cultivator of Blades is out focus on trying to get as many different creatures out as possible to get the most of out of Cultivator's buffs. If you aren't having any luck and you Cultivator isn't available to play, just aim to swarm out creatures.

As the game progresses, work towards getting the loyalty to save up and use Nissa's Third ability (Infuse) with trample effects. Even if you don't have much energy out on the field, it will still amount to crazy buffs with Cultivator (or even without). Try your best not to use the other abilities, but they are fine to use if you really need the mana.

Lowroom · January 2017

First post - my apologies for no spoiler tags as I am not permitted to use bbcode until I have 5 posts

The Deck

Supports
- Deadlock trap - recurring creature lockdown using energy
- Dynavolt Tower - recurring damage from a support using energy
- From Beyond - early blocker / helps with generating mana, brings back Decimator
- Aetherworks Marvel - plays high cost cards with energy

Spells
- Nissa's Revelation - restores life helps draw the card you need
- The Great Aurora - the card you need. Wipe the board after your opponent has played his first volley of cards.
- Seasons Past - Good supports, spells and creatures come back to your hand and the 15 green gems will likely help you cast one or more of them.
- Dubious Challenge - Pull out the big guns

Creatures
- Decimator of the Provinces - a devastating creature, comes back to your hand when From Beyond is destroyed.
- Hangarback Walker - creature that can generate flying tokens and upon it's destruction put an 8/8 flyer into play

Strategy

This Deck is all about wiping the board, card recursion and keeping big creatures on the board after they are destroyed

The deck has a high mana curve that can be overcome with Aetherworks or Dubious Challenge cheating cards out for less than their normal cost. Also if you put from Beyond on the board and have Decimator in first position in your hand - each time a single eldrazi created by From Beyond dies, the Decimator gains 6 mana.

Early game you want to cast From Beyond and Deadlock to try to help stem the damage from faster decks and employ your Dynavolt to start chipping away at your opponent with energy. Nissa's first ability should be used early and often with this deck to keep energized gems on the board to use with your supports. Using a Dubious Challenge in the first couple of turns is also a good play.

The key is finding The Great Aurora, being patient and absorbing some damage until your opponent has cast a few creatures or supports and has few cards left in hand. You just want to keep wiping the board any time you will be able to keep damage dealing creatures in play or any time you can immediately cast big creatures after the wipe.

If you do not start with the Aurora, you will want to use Nissa's Revelation (after you have taken some damage - don't waste the ability if it wont give you 20 life) or Aetherworks Marvel to find it.

KorraBelle · January 2017

Spells:
The Great Aurora
Altered Ego

Creatures:
Architect of the Untamed
Ulrich of the Krallenhorde
Ulvenwald Hydra
Oran-Rief Hydra
Cultivator of Blades

Supports:
Drownyard Temple
Cryptolith Rite
Zendikar Resurgent

The way this deck works best revolves around using the effects of Altered Ego and Cultivator of Blades creating a near endless turn up of power making other creatures go over the 40/40 mark very quickly even if it's only for one turn. Failing that as a first or second move cards like Ulrich and Aurora let you stall out the opponent while Zendikar and Cryptolithic Rite keep the board gems in your facvor and expand your incoming mana pool. Both of the hyrdas are the meat of attack as well as Uvenwald being a great tool to block fluing decks. Architect is there as a failsafe for damage as her Overload lets you quickly get 6/6 tokens on the field that make Altered Ego the cornerstone of attack.

buscemi · January 2017

Nissa 2 deck submission

Creatures

Caustic Catterpillar
Bastion Mastodon
Wicker Witch
Weldfast Monitor
Prakhata Pillar-Bug
Narnam Cobra
Leaf Gilder

Spells

Haunted Cloak

Supports

Weirding Wood
Tamiyo's Journal

Joefish · January 2017

Creatures:
Cultivator of blades
Undergrowth champion
Ulvenwald hydra

Supports:
Nissa's pilgrimage
Aether works marvel
Evolutionary leap
Deadlock trap

Spells:
Altered ego
Attune with aether
Larger than life

This deck idea should provide everything you need to control the board and create powerful creatures quickly with defensive capabilities.
Using Nissa's early abilities and both Nissa's pilgrimage and attune with aether help build the board with plenty of green and energised gems to work with your supports.Evolutionary leap, larger than life and altered ego are all designed to be used with cultivator of blades, providing it comes up early enough, which will help create an overwhelming attack force.

DuskPaladin · January 2017

Hey, guys! Nissa, Vital Force is here and she looks awesome! She's the Quintessential Energy-themed Planeswalker, the perfect blend between the primal power of nature and the shocking potency of science. In short, she's a Powerhouse! (get it? because she produces energy? No...? awww...)

Looking rapidly at her three abilities, you can notice right away her affinity with green gems and energy. We'll try to allow her to realize her full potential.

In honor of Kaladesh, let's get our creative juice flowing!

The Deck:

Ulvenwald Hydra
Kozilek, the Great Distortion

Gonti’s Aether Heart
Planar Portal
Aetherworks Marvel
Pyromancer’s Goggles

Rishkar’s Expertise
Bring to Light
Nissa’s Renewal
Seasons Past

The Guide:

Since it's a pure exercise of mind, why not go wild? Let's build a Mythics only super deck! The goal is to go over the top. Since we are building an energy deck, let's look at the coolest Overload cards. Three of them instantly jump to our face, brimming with power: Gonti's Aether Heart, Planar Portal, and Aetherworks Marvel.

Aetherworks Marvel: Overload 2: Fetch the first card in your library and it gains full mana.
We can fetch and cast a card for free?!

Planar Portal: Overload 3: Fetch the first card in your opponent's library to the top of your library then place it on the battlefield under your control.
While we're at it why not cast THEIR creatures for free too?

Gonti's Aether Heart: Overload 3: You gain 1 Swap.
And finally, what's the most satisfying feeling in MTGPQ? 5-gems matches of course and replay your turn. It has the added value of giving you additional chances to reactivate all your crazy Overload abilities!

The goal of the deck is to cast big flashy cards and then get tons of value, preferably for free. These three cards are the core of our Masterpiece.

How will we be able to produce all that sweet energy? Simple, ALL of Nissa, Vital Force's abilities produce them. So we just need loyalty counters. Who says loyalty counter says gem conversion. So we kill two birds with one stone with the new Trinity of green gems conversion: Rishkar's Expertise, Nissa's Renewal, and Seasons Past.

The problem of our deck is with that with our Go-big-or-Go-home mentality, our cards might be too expensive, and we risk to go home too often. As such, we need to accelerate fast enough into our big cards. Rishkar's Expertise is there for that, and Bring to Light to cheat an expensive spell into play.

While we're at it, why not include Ulvenwald Hydra too? Our little pet loves green gems, and his green gem conversion ability gives us more chances each turn to trigger cascades and thus Overloads. With reach, he can also block about anything.

Also, with all our cascades, we might inadvertently destroy our own support, so Seasons Past also served as a way to get back our destroyed cards.

Following our free cards theme, and since we're playing really expensive spells, Pyromancer's Goggles seems to be another natural inclusion. The gem converting spells also give us the means to activate our goggles.

Finally, a great disturbance could be felt in the Multiverse, Kozilek, one of the Eldrazi Titans, took our Portal and came to Kaladesh!! He's perfect. Huge body, refills our hand, and tons of activated abilities, easily activated thanks to our gem converters.

I don't know how well it'll work in a real game of MTGPQ, but it sure seems super fun to play. I also had alot of pleasure brainstorming and designing this deck. Hoped you liked it!

majincob · February 2017

The time for Aether Revolt is Nigh! Nissa, Vital Force deserves to have a powerful fun new deck so let's take a look at her and see what she's got.

Nissa, Vital Force (N2)

Level 60 mana bonuses: +3

| +4

| +2

| +0

Level 60 HP: 109
Level 60 max Creatures: 7 Spells: 4 Supports: 5
Level 60 Abilities:
1: Touch of Aether (4)- cost: 9 - Convert 4 gems to Green and Energize 4.
2: Draw Aether (4)- cost: 15 - Create a support with "When any player matches 3 or more Green gems, Energize 4."
3: Aether Inspiration (4) - cost: 24 - Energize 5 and give each creature you control +X/+X until the end of your turn, where X is the number of Energized gems times 4.
Taken from Alve's post in the PW forum

I'm going to take a minute to analyze N2 before we delve into deck building so that we can make informed card choices.

Mana: Her mana is very strong with 3 colors providing 5 mana at a minimum with

making base 7 mana.

Deck Limits: 7 creature max lends itself to Agro decks filled with efficient creatures designed to beat down the enemy before they can get rolling. Spells and Supports at 4/5 max (respectively) really pushes the creature focus since we must include at least 1 creature in the deck and we have no room to adjust the spell/support ratio.

Planeswalker abilities: This is where we find unique PW powers to build decks around given the above limitations. At this point I find it useful to compare her abilities with other PW with similar abilities that I am familiar playing with since I don't have any experience playing with N2 directly. The PW with the most similar cost/effect I think is Kiora: 9 loyalty to ramp mana and 24 loyalty to play a game breaking ultimate.

At 9 loyalty generating mana is a little underpowered compared to her other abilities although some of that loyalty might be recouped due to matches generated and cascading.

Her 2nd ability costs 15 which is a large loyalty commitment for a normal PW, but since we are green we can accelerate our loyalty generation with gem conversion if we dedicate a portion of our deck to it. Fortunately, generating

conversion plays nicely into this ability and has the potential to flood the board with energy given a deck to exploit it.

The third ability gives a minimum of +20/+20 to each creature controlled which can be a one-hit kill with three creatures out and a couple extra energy. At 24 loyalty we will have to either abandon the use of the other two abilities, run heavy gem conversion or a mix of the two.

Making a Deck

The obvious choice would to make a Koth/Nahiri style deck leveraging high threat density and good mana gains to pull off an ultimate as soon as possible with 3 creatures in play to end the fight ASAP. The optimum choice of creatures/spells/supports could be debated endlessly but is ultimately determined by collection and preference.

Since we can make a deck with any cards I'd rather try to make a high-synergy combo deck since that is the thing I enjoy playing.

The Deck

I'm going to put the list right away and then talk about the card-by-card afterwards because I'm too excited to slow roll this beauty any longer:

Supports (5/5):
Aetherworks Marvel
Decoction Module
From Beyond
Slayer's Plate
Zendikar Resurgent

Spells (4/4):
Seasons Past
Nissa's Renewal
Rishkar's Expertise
Animist's Awakening

Creatures (1/7):
Hangarback Walker

The breakdown

First is our combo engine:

Aetherworks Marvel is a great build-around card that can draw us cards and cast them "cheating" out expensive cards, but it needs help to hit that overload 2 number. Decoction Module is going to be our main energy source once the decks start going, but of course it needs help. The best thing to pair with this is token generation. Since we are triggering the module, why not draw cards at the same time? Zendikar Resurgent makes sure our hand is always full as well as make our already good mana generation bonkers.

Token suite:

From beyond makes a creature every turn (+1 energy from decoction module), and when it blocks provides mana and energy (from Aetherworks Marvel). Hangarback Walker makes thoptors every turn (and energy from the module) plus if it dies you get to trigger the module 8 more times. We are limiting ourselves to just these two cards since they fill all three creature slots and we don't want to have dead cards in hand ever.

The gas:

I decided to play all 4 spells with the best gem-converting spells in the game. With Hangarback and Zendikar Resurgent, every gem break draws a card allowing us to potentially cycle through the deck drawing, filling, and casting spell after spell.The new Aether Revolt card Rishkar's Expertise looks especially promising since our hand should always be full giving us an unprecedented 20 gems conversion for a mere 5 mana.

The 10th Card:

Slayer's Plate is a classic companion to From Beyond, making short work of ground attackers as well as supercharging mana gains. This could be any support and personal taste may differ. Honorable mentions include Nissa's Pilgrimage to up the gem theme and Panharmonicon to provide a redundant card drawing engine.

The Strategy

The key is to survive long enough to play your combo pieces, so prioritize From Beyond to block and accelerate mana. It's fine to take early damage as Nissa's Renewal will bring it all back. The race with this deck is to see if you can get your combo pieces in place before you get run over. Once you have Zendikar resurgent and Hangarback in play disable and fill 2-3 spells then unleash them all in one turn to keep drawing and filling cards; some of which will be spells to continue the cycle. Additionally you should be getting Aetherworks Marvel triggers as bonus free cards.

For N2's abilities, all of them are good in this deck. The first can be good if you need that extra mana bump right now, the 2nd will combo with the spells to make Aetherworks Marvel trigger overtime, and the 3rd should instantly finish the game if you have all 3 creature slots filled.

Conclusions

I had a lot of fun thinking about this deck challenge, and I hope you got some insight into how I approach deck-building and can use that in the future.

Some caveats about the deck:

I wouldn't run this deck in an event without testing it extensively due to its lack of any way to deal with flying/unblockable/menace creatures.

I don't have all the cards or N2 so I couldn't test this out. In all likelihood I would change cards based on trial-and-error and this would just be a first draft. Don't be afraid to change your deck and try something new!

That being said, I have run big-mana Kiora for a long time and cycling mana spells can get very explosive especially with Hangarback whose thopter tokens can grow quickly. I think a version of this deck could be extremely effective and resilient given the density of quality mana changing spells and the lifegain from Nissa's Renewal.

Official Nissa, Vital Force Deck-Building Contest

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