EDH Deck Time: Baru

First question: Why not [scryfall]Ezuri, Renegade Leader[/scryfall] or [scryfall]Kamahl, Fist of Krosa[/scryfall] instead? Ezuri is easy. I don’t have to limit myself to elves. Kamahl is a bit more difficult. First answer is I have done Kamahl and Baru is something new. Second answer is that Baru can bring something quite unique to the table. Each of the ramp spells in your deck becomes a mini-[scryfall]Overrun[/scryfall]. Or in some cases something much, much more.

Lands

One of the major flaws in many decks on the Internet is that they skimp on lands (going sometimes as low as 35). You shouldn’t do it ever, but here’s a situation where you definitely don’t want to do it. Each time you hit a land drop its +1/+1 and trample for all your creatures. You don’t want to run out of them in your deck either (although its happened to me).

Therefore, I started with 40 Forests and moved up from there with six more lands. I used [scryfall]Windswept Heath[/scryfall] and [scryfall]Wooded Fothills[/scryfall], as well as [scryfall]Evolving Wilds[/scryfall] and [scryfall]Terramorphic Expanse[/scryfall] because they were readily available to me, but of course, if you happen to have more fetches, use those as well. They are very powerful here, when you can pump your team any time with them.

Also, I have [scryfall]Terrain Generator[/scryfall] and [scryfall]Thawing Glaciers[/scryfall] in the deck. Two more ways to control when the team gets pumped.

That’s a total of 46 lands.

Ramp

Of course, I use pretty much all the ramp spells available here:

As well as some creatures with similar abilities:

[scryfall]Elvish Pioneer[/scryfall] is surprisingly good here, because the ability to trigger Baru is important later in the game as well.

[scryfall]Cloudstone Curio[/scryfall] could be put into the same category. It does have the benefit of returning cards such as [scryfall]Avenger of Zendikar[/scryfall] and [scryfall]Craterhoof[/scryfall] (if it wasn’t enough to end the game) to your hand, but it can also be used to return a land and replay it on the next turn, unless you have a way to play extra lands or you returned a Forest to your hand after fetching or ramping.

Horde

Plenty of ways to generate a bunch of tokens and then make them big. I’m not sure [scryfall]Overrun[/scryfall] is actually needed, but why not?

Utility

You know… card draw, some enchantment / artifact / land control. [scryfall]Bow of Nylea[/scryfall] does a lot, but most importantly it gives deathtouch to creatures that already have trample (most of the time).

[deck title=Baru Horde]
[creatures]
Ant Queen
Avenger of Zendikar
Azusa, Lost but Seeking
Bellowing Tanglewurm
Courser of Kruphix
Craterhoof Behemoth
Elvish Pioneer
Farhaven Elf
Jade Mage
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
Master of the Wild Hunt
Mayor of Avabruck Flip
Nemata, Grove Guardian
Oracle of Mul Daya
Rampaging Baloths
Regal Force
Verdant Force
Walking Atlas
Wickerbough Elder
Wolfbriar Elemental
Wood Elves
Woodfall Primus
[/creatures]
[spells]
Fresh Meat
Boundless Realms
Cultivate
Explosive Vegetation
Green Sun’s Zenith
Howl of the Night Pack
Journey of Discovery
Kodama’s Reach
Nature’s Lore
Overrun
Overwhelming Stampede
Parallel Evolution
Peregrination
Prey Upon
Rampant Growth
Ranger’s Path
Seek the Horizon
Shamanic Revelation
Skyshroud Claim
Bow of Nylea
Caged Sun
Cloudstone Curio
Eye of Doom
Beastmaster Ascension
Doubling Season
Khalni Heart Expedition
Parallel Lives
Perilous Forays
Garruk, Caller of Beasts
Garruk, Primal Hunter
Garruk Wildspeaker
[/spells]
[lands]
Evolving Wilds
40 Forest
Terrain Generator
Terramorphic Expanse
Thawing Glaciers
Windswept Heath
Wooded Foothills
[/lands]
[/deck]

As always with my EDH decks, the list features some cards I just like to play and cards I’d rather just try out. It isn’t fully optimized (if there even is such a thing), but rather based on personal tastes and experiences on building decks.

For example, the list doesn’t have many creatures, but I still put [scryfall]Garruk, Caller of Beasts[/scryfall] into the deck, because I don’t get to play him that much.

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