Back again with Tameshi Bloom nonsense! Warning – there’s A LOT of text.

Let’s start with my current non-budget list, which looks something like this:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4675439#online

At this point I’m going to assume you know what’s going on here. If not, there’s a discord link at the bottom of this post.

I’m going to share a “budget” list with you all (everyone’s budget will be different), reasons for those choices, and an upgrade route. I even have a “medium” budget list. Jump to the end to see the list with no discussion!

Let’s start with the cards we’re looking to save money on:

Cultivator Colossus – I’m sure you’re looking at this and yelling “YOU CANT REPLACE THIS CARD”. Well, wrong! You can. A smarter person than me figured it out 😊 (shout-out to Kechl in our discord).

First of all, you need Zirda, The Dawnwaker as your companion. You’ll also run a Biomancer’s Familiar MD to tutor up as a back-up Zirda. Then, you need Gretchen Titchwillow. Yes, we ARE playing cool cards! With Tameshi Bloom making a tonne of mana, you grab Zirda, drop it into play, and then use Gretchen’s ability for just UG. This puts an (untapped) land into play, which you can then use to pick up your bloom again. The net result is 1 mana 1 card. You repeat for your entire deck and find a wincon at the end of it all.

Finale of Devastation – Not easy to replace but a single Bring to Light should do some work. We have no 4s to tutor, but it can get wargate x-0 for lotus bloom and BTL x-3 for Tameshi (since Tameshi comes into play, it’s very similar to eladamri’s call -> tameshi). So, it’s not exactly cheap for finding combo pieces, but it’s also capable of finding everything we need. BTL -> Wargate -> Bloom is also net 2 mana only. The 2nd copy of Devastation is replaced with Borborygmos Enraged, as our wincon. If you happen to own an Emrakul, feel free to run that instead. The extra turn annihilator will get you there, since you’ll have a hand full of removal to boot. These are tutorable with Call, and win quickly. Terrible topdecks, but that’s fine!

Teferi, Time Raveler – This is a big part of the deck, it’s protection and temporary removal, as well as digging power and a way to repick a Tameshi for an extra draw trigger or a Cultivator for MANY draws. It’s an all-star.

Having said that, it’s offensively expensive, and it isn’t actually a combo piece. We replace this with a splattering of removal and protection (spellskite / prismatic ending) and we just move on with our lives, sad that a piece of cardboard so powerful is so inaccessible.

Birds of Paradise (paper only) – Search for Tomorrow is a reasonable replacement. In a way, it actually helps more than BoP. We have no Teferi, so no real need for 3-mana on t2, and search isn’t boltable AND gives us extra lands to combo with. The Zirda Gretchen does take a couple extra mana to pull off, and so Search for Tomorrow helps with that (since each land adds extra with Tameshi Bloom).

Skyclave Apparition (online only) – This card isn’t playable with Zirda, so you have to cut it either way. At this point, we’re just filling the deck with reasonable cards because we have spare slots to use. It’s quite hard to find the best options, so I’ve gone with things I’ve liked during my testing of cultivators. See the lists below to get a feel for what’s been chosen!

Sideboard:

The sideboard needs to be messed with simply because Zirda exists in our deck now. But, tune this to your FNM. If you face a lot of GY decks, add the cheapest pieces you have laying around! Tormod’s Crypt, Bojuka Bog, Remorseful Cleric – these are all great options. Apply the same theory elsewhere.

The manabase! This needs a section to itself.

Let’s start with Cavern of Souls – it’s not necessary. At all. Cut it, and add it pretty much last.

Boseiju, Who Endures – also not key, cut it. Add it last-ish.

Otawara, Soaring City – much more important. In a finalized list, it can pick up a cultivator if your first copy doesn’t find you what you need (allowing you to continue your combo), and it also has a weird way of protecting Tameshi. In games where you have Tameshi Bloom going but no payoff, you can just pick up Otawara and pass the turn. Then if they use removal, you use your bloom mana and channel otawara to pick up Tameshi.

On top of this, it deals with baby karn, which is 1 of the worst cards for us. If you can’t get your hands on 2 of these, try to prioritize the first copy, even in a fully budget list.

Fetch / Shock Manabase – first of all, I want to point out that cutting these WILL impact your winrate. There’s no way around that. This is a 3c deck that splashes for goblin engineer (and engineer is a necessity). I would NOT recommend buying pieces for a budget manabase either (e.g check lands / fast lands) because they will not end up in the final list and you’ll lose money on them. Unlike some of the other cards that will get cut eventually, these actually have some value. So instead of buying a playset of a $1 card (Gretchen) to make your list work, you’re paying $6 for a hinterland harbor that doesn’t actually improve the deck much.

So – the first thing I’d say is to invest in the manabase if you can. I’d play the Gretchen/Zirda version with good mana before playing the Cultivator version with bad mana.

Also – you can cobble the manabase together with whatever you already own. Off-colour fetches (e.g marsh flats / verdant catacombs etc) will all work ok. If you already own check lands / cycling lands, triomes, shocks, play them! But don’t go out and buy a playset of Fabled Passage.

It’s worth noting that although it’s a 4c deck, you don’t actually have a high pip count. There’s no double W, U, G or R, except on our wincon. The wincon only ever gets cast when you have tameshi bloom, and engineer isn’t played in every game (by any stretch). As a result, finding WUG will do the job, and you have Bloom / Ste to help with that.

Let’s look at the fully budget build, and then 1 with better mana! At the time of writing, we have this under $200 or 40 tix on modo.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4705565#paper

As mentioned above, I wouldn’t go out of my way to pay for this manabase, but it’s just an example of what you can put together if in a squeeze. Fabled Passage could be Evolving Wilds if you wanted. You could run more shocks if you own them etc.

Here’s what a mid-way list might look like (coming in at $475 or 110 tix). Note that you could easily cut 10 tix to afford this with a basic manatraders subscription.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/4707381#online

Finally, lets go with the upgrade route:

1. Mana. Focus on this first.

2. Birds of Paradise is a solid choice but may not make it long-term. It’s therefore a risky investment, but I also believe it to be a strong pick-up.

3. Finale of Devastation – as weird as this sounds, I prefer this card to Cultivator. It’s a tutor and a wincon, so you can run this in the Gretchen list with ease.

4. Quite a late pickup is Cultivator Colossus. It’s the biggest part of the deck, but also the least key when we have another way to combo

5. Teferi, Time Raveler – it’s a bit offensive on the budget, unfortunately. It’s an amazing card, letting you combo off with confidence. However, if you can just run a reasonable mix of protection and removal in it’s place (prismatic ending, portable hole, spellskite etc). It’s not ideal, but t3feri should definitely be 1 of the last pick-ups.

6. Finally - There’s no point picking up cards like Meddling Mage, Skyclave Apparition and Leyline of Sanctity (or whatever else you want in your sideboard) if it doesn’t work with Zirda. You’re going to running Zirda until you pick up Cultivator, so finish your SB last!

I’m going to wrap this up by saying that Zirda isn’t quite what it seems to start. It’s not like you get a companion that you can use “normally”. You can’t, because its so key to the deck. If you pick it up and play it as a fair creature, you lose when it dies. On the flip side, it’s not really an additional combo piece either. The fact it’s just sat in the companion zone means that if you assemble your 3-card combo, zirda is automatically ready to go.

Gretchen also has some upside over Cultivator – the obvious being that it’s castable on t2 and has a value play without needing bloom. It’s also more reasonable to run as a 4-of (unlike cultivator, which is too high curving). This means you’re more likely to draw your combo piece and not have to use a tutor to get it.

There’s genuine upside to this budget combo, but there’s also significant downsides. Specifically, on MODO, it’s more click intensive. It’s also a couple of mana more to get going (so harder to pull off early). You may need a 5th land to combo rather than a 4th (especially true when you are wargating for bloom rather than have it come off suspend) and as a result, you may die to what the opponent is doing. That’s significant enough to make it weaker than what we’re already doing, so don’t expect the same results with this list. This is a stepping stone to the better list, but IT IS viable. I’ve tested the $200 list and had it not been for the mana, my results would have been very reasonable in the early stages.

I hope this gives you a good route to pick up the deck, and how to upgrade it as you pick up store credit or y’know, real money! Feel free to jump into our discord and join in the discussion.

Discord link – https://discord.gg/29sCUGDtAp

Enjoy 😊