Nissa, Vital Force Deckbuilding Challenge thread

Nissa, Vital Force

Level 1
Weldfast Monitor
Ghirapur Guide
Voltaic Brawler
Demolition Stomper
Consulate Dreadnought
Aether Hub
Deadlock Trap
Durable Handicraft
Larger Than Life
Attune with Aether

Deck playstyle
At level 1 you have no abilities and a restrictive deck composition. Nissa starts off with 5/2/3 creatures/spells/supports. You want creatures that have good power-to-mana ratios and also aren't too expensive lest they take too many turns to summon out. Bear in mind your own colour matches for only 5 mana at this level.

Demolition Stomper and Consulate Dreadnought are Vehicles which give them the Crew ability, helping you to summon them out more quickly. As your other creatures are cheap, you can summon them out to gain a bonus on summoning your Vehicles. Vehicles also count for the Crew ability so summoning one copy will charge the other Vehicles in hand which is very nice ramp.

Durable Handicraft and Larger than Life provide a nice boost in damage while Attune with Aether and Aether Hub help with ramp.


Level 40
Cultivator of Blades
Empyreal Voyager
Servant of the Conduit
Aethersphere Harvester
Aether Hub
Deadlock Trap
Oath of Ajani
Durable Handicraft
Panharmonicon
Rishkar's Expertise

Deck playstyle
At level 40 you gain access to your planeswalker abilities and increased mana gains. Nissa gains the ability to convert 3 gems to Green with her first ability, enabling her to ramp faster and summon out her cards.

Rishkar's Expertise helps with that while Aether Hub, Oath of Ajani and Deadlock Trap have their respective Overload abilities to help gain mana, boost your creatures and disable the opponent's first creature respectively.

Panharmonicon is included mainly for the purpose of fetching Rishkar's Expertise as it is the only spell in the deck and hence casting 1 will fetch the next one.

Notable cards/combos
Empyreal Voyager + Cultivator of Blades: Empyreal Voyager Energizes X gems where X is its power when it deals damage to the opponent. This is boosted by Cultivator of Blades buffing Empyreal Voyager at the start of combat which gives you a lot of Energized gems on the board to work with.


Level 60 - Nissa has Gonti's Heart
Rashmi, Eternity Crafter
Rishkar, Peema Renegade
Bristling Hydra
Electrostatic Pummeler
Dynavolt Tower
Gonti's Aether Heart
Oath of Ajani
Rishkar's Expertise
Attune with Aether
Larger than Life

Deck playstyle
At level 60, you gain access to your planeswalker's full potential. Nissa's main gain is how quickly whe can Energize the board with her second ability. And this helps greatly in the plan to start chaining the Overload ability of Gonti's Aether Heart.

Supported by Dynavolt Tower, Bristling Hydra and Nissa's second ability in Energizing the board, you can quickly reach a stage where you can obtain 'infinite' turns thanks to the Overload 3 ability of Gonti's Aether Heart giving you a free swap. In the mean time, Dynavolt Tower is dealing your opponent 5 damage each swap, Bristling Hydra gains +1/+1, Electrostatic Pummeler doubles in power and Oath of Ajani is giving each of your creatures +1/+1.

Notable cards/combos
Rishkar's Expertise + Rashmi, Eternity Crafter: Rishkar's Expertise's power depends on the number of cards you have in hand. The more cards, the more powerful it is. That is why Rashmi is the perfect complement as she ensures that your hand will always be full thanks to her ability. Together you have a very potent ramp and draw machine.