Yes it is. But this card (as well as Warleader's Call and, to a extent Leyline of the Guildpact) also creates a situation in Standard (specially in Bo1 where this deck, while it will be a rare encounter, but when you encounter it, most of the time you can be unprepared for it since most decks rarely have Enchantment Removal that can actually prevent them to set up prepared in the Deck) since this format is really lacking in efficient Enchantment Removal (specially after rotation since the most efficient ones we have are Farewell and Destroy Evil) where we have very powerful enchantments and not that many efficient ways to counter them with out going into abusing Boardwipes (which are supposed game ending pieces rather than spells that you can abuse all the time)
Thumbnails never miss! I played PvZ for years! Love that game so much so I'm glad to see a deck theme about it! Appreciate you tons, Luca! You're the best!!!!
I dropped a aftermath analyst and a rubblebelt maverick for two callous spellswords to push through stalled board states. This deck is so much fun! Always love your decks lvd.
Match 3 is a great example of how to beat control. Playing out that extra dreamthief scared them into playing lockdown too early which led to a win! Great gameplay as always
I think tear asunder could be a cool addition as a response to temporary lockdown/layline binding and maybe a spot removal depending on a matchup. Maybe as a pivot to diabolic intent or urborg reposession because you don't really wanna cut creatures for this deck
I played a Sultai Insidious Roots style deck in the MKM Constructed event and had a ton of fun with it. Curious Cadaver was a really solid way of getting repeatable "leaves the graveyard" triggers. Especially with Chalk Outline to immediately get a fresh clue and a detective token and Projektor Inspector to immediately loot the Cadaver back into the graveyard.
I was already wondering when Insidious Roots deck was coming. I made a rather similar deck to this one, splashing red, to get thrillseeker and cauldron. It's pretty fun to just play half your deck in one turn and then just fling plants in someone's face!
As a blue/white control player, this is my fav deck to play against for sure... Nothing is as satisfying as watching your opponent perform cool graveyard interactions resulting in massive tokens on turn 3 or 4... only for me to untap and cast Temporary Lockdown.
I have built at day one a deck with insidious roots and it is very similar. The problem is that without the enchantment there s no way to win a single game. I do not thinked to the tutor, great addition that i ll try immediately
Yeah I think the tutor is necessary. All of the games in this video start with Roots in the opening draw (except the last game, it was the first draw), so this video looks way more consistent than the deck really is.
of all these Roots decks this seems like the most consistent. i jsut won a game against a very gracious opponent who let me attack in for 900+ damage. very fun build.
I love how every version of this deck I’ve seen is different. PowerDragon did an Abzan version. I’ve seen Sultai and Golgori versions as well. The plant token being able to tap thanks to Tyvar is sick.
Yes! Finally an interesting black deck that is not only about kids who want to destroy everything and in the end the only thing they destroy is the fun of the game.
Excellent explanations and video game play. I have seen a few versions of this and lost to the variant with skyfisher spider in it. Very cool, going to make a fool around with this one! :)
This plus Titans Nest from Ikoria can be some fun shenanigans because of how Nest is worded. Each card exiled triggers roots which can lead to some... overgrown board states
long time lurker i played many iterations in this deck and tried alot of different approaches i really like a bit more of high end. My best results have been with one or two copie of illicit masquerade keep 4 mana up from plants or what not and you instantly win the game on oppo's turn. I was pleasantly surprised it actually trigggers on plant tokens as well. I didnt try urborg yet interesting addition
I'm usually not a fan of token decks except for Delina, Wild Mage's nonsense in Brawl, but this one I'm definitely giving it a try once I get my hands on all copies of Insidious Roots 👀
I added red to include the Bitter Reunion enchantment, it is great to fill the field with huge plants but the job must be finished with a single hit because if the opponent is given the opportunity with a temporary lockdown or a Path to Peril it ends the fun.
I've been trying to build this myself, stuck in squirming emergence because it returns permanents to the battlefield and also some flying bosses in the new vein ripper which made destructive boardwipes more risky and allowed me to be a bit more aggro with attacking since there's less downside to dead plants. The deck mills enough that you can normally cheese it out really quickly. I need to try it with ashnod's harvester and undead butler though. The flying weakness and weakness to big boardwipes is a major issue I wish I had a better solution to than crossed fingers though.
I could've been missing something here but it seems like in match 4 the opponent probably better off chumping w/ evangelist, bat comes in, that's 1 damage, and now they've got 2 flyer so at least 2 guaranteed damage, they'd only need to put another creature in play to win
I tried this deck in Arena against Mythic players and my win rate was only about 20%. As some commenters have noted, if you don't get the enchantment early on there's not much chance of wining.
That’s the problem with a lot of CZcams decks. They don’t post when the deck doesn’t go off but it’s pretty nuts when it does go off so it’s a great CZcams video. I saw another video from this guy revolving around rot priest that had the same problem. Building my own rot priest decks I already knew that deck would have the same problems. If you don’t draw rot priest the deck never gets going. I think he did have some tutors in that deck to be fair though.
I built a whole deck around self milling all my creatures, then exiling my own graveyard with Insidious Roots on the field to get like 20 triggers… only to find out Insidious Roots doesn’t work like that lol. Needless to say I was heartbroken.
I've been working on a deck that I ended up giving the exact same name for explorer, very much leaning into the zombies theme with relentless dead and diregraf colossus!
Match 4 against red white, basically impossible to plan for but if you kept diabolical intent on top and drew it with dreamthief you I believe could have tutored for the last Repossession in the deck and gained a net 1 extra life, 3 if you repossessed the repossession but I'm not sure you had the plants for it. Such a cool deck with so many cool lines, I would have lost that game turns ago
Annihilation Glare feels pretty needed for some removal. Also, Pile On isnt' too bad. What about Armored Scrapgorger instead of the Analyst? And the plants get too big not to have trample. What about the Kodama of the West Tree? With all the plants having counters you get auto trample on all of them!
Roots reads like a rare holy shit. Deck looks super fun but theres no way in hell Id play this in paper, looks like a nightmare to manage your boardstate by hand.
Very powerful! Been thinking if an Abzan version of this deck with botanical brawler might work as well 🤔. A shame it isn't a plant itself. Maybe I'll try that anyway...
Curious if there was any consideration for mosswood knight? A solid aggressive body that self recurs out of the grave for card advantage counds great for this deck. Maybe its a little more mideange than this list aims for idk
As a commander player I saw Insidious Roots and just thought of tortured existence. It goes infinite with any creature haste enabler (like Tyvar) but I assume that enchantment just doesn't exist in Arena.
I has just finished building a mycotirant deck for a friend, as a gift, when I saw this. I'm talking I literally finished boxing it and I saw the spoiler. If I knew, I would had waited. Cause plants may not grow the tirant, but half of the time the 1/1s that can't block are kinda useless. Turning them into manadorks? Shit could hit the fan too quickly. I'll try getting it for him now
Is there anything you can play as a 1 or 2 of that can deal with problematic Artifacts/Enchantments? Lockdown and Warleader's Call both would have been nice to be able to remove, and you went through a good chunk of your deck. Something you don't mind milling that you could get back? Might be nice to have a couple of Silver Bullet type cards if you can use them.
I remember a previous Tyvar deck that used Cankerbloom, is there room for that in this deck? Enchantment removal for temporary lockdown/that boros enchantment, too bad it’s a fungus not a plant..
Sucks to miss that attack with the 15 power plant. Obviously this is hindsight but they wouldn’t have had enough mana to cast both creatures because they would have one less convoke for the knight
What ate your thoughts on splashing white for something like Lunarch Veteran? I feel like gaining life is nice with all the token makers, plus it can be brought back with the ability
For the moment, most people i see playing insidious roots are playing the same "self mill" + graveyard package. The probleme for me is that this cards are quiet bad if you dont draw the root/ it get destroyed. I went a slightly diffenrent way, which is to embrace "golgari goodstuff" while forcing the root gameplay a little : I have 4 underdogs, 4 dreadknights, 4 conscrit cultist (the 2/1 skelteton for 1). I play mostly fair golgari aggro/midrange, but when the game gets grindy and settle down, i put down my roots, and start making plants. I also have 6 other slots for other "synergy cards", for the moment It still loses to attraxa very often and any time you face sunfall early and farewell later makes you cry, but appart from that you have golgari goodstuff (so draw, nice stated creatures, immortality, destroy creat) with big beefy plants token.
Tried to keep the curve low, so didn't try it. Might be a good sideboard option to deal with the Flying problem. Unlikely to gain us too much life when we're actively emptying our own graveyard.
This build is streamlined to turbo the dredge effect. Could be useful if you're going slightly control build, but Underdog itself does nothing etb unless you blitz them.
16:00 Red player short circuiting when having to decide blockers
I laughed out loud on this one. Such a roast.
red player.exe stopped working
as a red player i can confirm that i have never blocked in my life
That thumbnail is amazing.
100% agree
there's a zombie on your lawn
🎶
I know your type. Tall, dark and dead.
You like to chew the petals off my head.
You want to eat the petals on top my head
More like there's a zombie on your lawnd
Insidious Roots is everything Skeletal Swarming wishes it could be
Why not both?
@@horus_p7 And a maskwood nexus? That's fucking disgusting.
This is probably one of the most interesting decks ive seen in a while! Such a fun synergy to take advantage of.
Yes it is. But this card (as well as Warleader's Call and, to a extent Leyline of the Guildpact) also creates a situation in Standard (specially in Bo1 where this deck, while it will be a rare encounter, but when you encounter it, most of the time you can be unprepared for it since most decks rarely have Enchantment Removal that can actually prevent them to set up prepared in the Deck) since this format is really lacking in efficient Enchantment Removal (specially after rotation since the most efficient ones we have are Farewell and Destroy Evil) where we have very powerful enchantments and not that many efficient ways to counter them with out going into abusing Boardwipes (which are supposed game ending pieces rather than spells that you can abuse all the time)
Thumbnails never miss! I played PvZ for years! Love that game so much so I'm glad to see a deck theme about it! Appreciate you tons, Luca! You're the best!!!!
I love this card so much. I ended up with more of a midrange build for it, but there's so many ways to build around it.
I dropped a aftermath analyst and a rubblebelt maverick for two callous spellswords to push through stalled board states. This deck is so much fun! Always love your decks lvd.
That's the second time I've seen you use the opponents first strike creature to your advantage. They never see it coming. Big brain play my guy!
Once again, the thumbnail is on point
Match 3 is a great example of how to beat control. Playing out that extra dreamthief scared them into playing lockdown too early which led to a win! Great gameplay as always
I think tear asunder could be a cool addition as a response to temporary lockdown/layline binding and maybe a spot removal depending on a matchup. Maybe as a pivot to diabolic intent or urborg reposession because you don't really wanna cut creatures for this deck
My favorite uncommon thank you
I knew this thing would be good
I like the Skyturtle version a bit more :) love the loop
I played a Sultai Insidious Roots style deck in the MKM Constructed event and had a ton of fun with it. Curious Cadaver was a really solid way of getting repeatable "leaves the graveyard" triggers. Especially with Chalk Outline to immediately get a fresh clue and a detective token and Projektor Inspector to immediately loot the Cadaver back into the graveyard.
Love the name of the deck. Thanks for the vid
I can't express how much I love this.
I was already wondering when Insidious Roots deck was coming.
I made a rather similar deck to this one, splashing red, to get thrillseeker and cauldron.
It's pretty fun to just play half your deck in one turn and then just fling plants in someone's face!
As a blue/white control player, this is my fav deck to play against for sure...
Nothing is as satisfying as watching your opponent perform cool graveyard interactions resulting in massive tokens on turn 3 or 4... only for me to untap and cast Temporary Lockdown.
I have built at day one a deck with insidious roots and it is very similar. The problem is that without the enchantment there s no way to win a single game. I do not thinked to the tutor, great addition that i ll try immediately
Yeah I think the tutor is necessary. All of the games in this video start with Roots in the opening draw (except the last game, it was the first draw), so this video looks way more consistent than the deck really is.
Reminds me of the old GB Snek deck back in Kaladesh Standard. Nice work.
of all these Roots decks this seems like the most consistent. i jsut won a game against a very gracious opponent who let me attack in for 900+ damage. very fun build.
Nice dig at mono red. Very measured. Not too much, but still crystal clear. :DDD
Nice and budget. Will add one or two Kodama of the West for trample
"They are maybe not used to doing all the math." -- That is the most polite description of a mono red player, while still being hilarious.
The first deck where I can find use for Tyvar and his cool alternate art 😢
I'm surprised at Aftermath Analyst over Armored Scrapgorger. Scrapgorger might be my favorite card for this deck period.
I love how every version of this deck I’ve seen is different. PowerDragon did an Abzan version. I’ve seen Sultai and Golgori versions as well.
The plant token being able to tap thanks to Tyvar is sick.
Your thumbnails are amazing!
Glad you like them!
What a cool deck design
Yes! Finally an interesting black deck that is not only about kids who want to destroy everything and in the end the only thing they destroy is the fun of the game.
Happy about the low wildcard cost. I realized I had all the Tyvars, so I didn't need any additional rares ^^
Excellent explanations and video game play. I have seen a few versions of this and lost to the variant with skyfisher spider in it. Very cool, going to make a fool around with this one! :)
the amount of times i've milled the roots with the analyst...
This plus Titans Nest from Ikoria can be some fun shenanigans because of how Nest is worded. Each card exiled triggers roots which can lead to some... overgrown board states
And we’re off to the races!
Tried the same deck in limited as well, but I couldn't quite put it together. Cool deck, and it seems quite budget friendly. I will try it out!
long time lurker i played many iterations in this deck and tried alot of different approaches i really like a bit more of high end. My best results have been with one or two copie of illicit masquerade keep 4 mana up from plants or what not and you instantly win the game on oppo's turn. I was pleasantly surprised it actually trigggers on plant tokens as well. I didnt try urborg yet interesting addition
LVD is on fire!!
Just need crazy Dave selling you Magic cards from the back of his car!
Best thumbnail yet
I'm usually not a fan of token decks except for Delina, Wild Mage's nonsense in Brawl, but this one I'm definitely giving it a try once I get my hands on all copies of Insidious Roots 👀
I added red to include the Bitter Reunion enchantment, it is great to fill the field with huge plants but the job must be finished with a single hit because if the opponent is given the opportunity with a temporary lockdown or a Path to Peril it ends the fun.
Once you have Roots in play opponent's Graveyard Trespasser actually helps you out! Good games mate!
I've been trying to build this myself, stuck in squirming emergence because it returns permanents to the battlefield and also some flying bosses in the new vein ripper which made destructive boardwipes more risky and allowed me to be a bit more aggro with attacking since there's less downside to dead plants. The deck mills enough that you can normally cheese it out really quickly. I need to try it with ashnod's harvester and undead butler though. The flying weakness and weakness to big boardwipes is a major issue I wish I had a better solution to than crossed fingers though.
I could've been missing something here but it seems like in match 4 the opponent probably better off chumping w/ evangelist, bat comes in, that's 1 damage, and now they've got 2 flyer so at least 2 guaranteed damage, they'd only need to put another creature in play to win
I tried this deck in Arena against Mythic players and my win rate was only about 20%. As some commenters have noted, if you don't get the enchantment early on there's not much chance of wining.
That’s the problem with a lot of CZcams decks. They don’t post when the deck doesn’t go off but it’s pretty nuts when it does go off so it’s a great CZcams video.
I saw another video from this guy revolving around rot priest that had the same problem. Building my own rot priest decks I already knew that deck would have the same problems. If you don’t draw rot priest the deck never gets going. I think he did have some tutors in that deck to be fair though.
I built a whole deck around self milling all my creatures, then exiling my own graveyard with Insidious Roots on the field to get like 20 triggers… only to find out Insidious Roots doesn’t work like that lol.
Needless to say I was heartbroken.
Huh, I'd being trying to make Insidious Roots as a side plan to an Urborg Lhurgoyf deck.
I've been working on a deck that I ended up giving the exact same name for explorer, very much leaning into the zombies theme with relentless dead and diregraf colossus!
Kodama can gives all those tokens trample, also fitting the PvZ theme
Seems like the creature who gets counters whenever a creature is removed from your graveyard would be good here
I mentioned it in the intro.
Match 4 against red white, basically impossible to plan for but if you kept diabolical intent on top and drew it with dreamthief you I believe could have tutored for the last Repossession in the deck and gained a net 1 extra life, 3 if you repossessed the repossession but I'm not sure you had the plants for it. Such a cool deck with so many cool lines, I would have lost that game turns ago
Urborg Repossession can only target permanent cards, but there are indeed a lot of different lines with this deck!
Slime against humanity deck lets go!
Annihilation Glare feels pretty needed for some removal. Also, Pile On isnt' too bad. What about Armored Scrapgorger instead of the Analyst? And the plants get too big not to have trample. What about the Kodama of the West Tree? With all the plants having counters you get auto trample on all of them!
Roots reads like a rare holy shit. Deck looks super fun but theres no way in hell Id play this in paper, looks like a nightmare to manage your boardstate by hand.
we have plants, zombies and Tyvar (Crazy Dave)
Very powerful! Been thinking if an Abzan version of this deck with botanical brawler might work as well 🤔. A shame it isn't a plant itself. Maybe I'll try that anyway...
Love this deck! Especially because it’s cheap
It’s crazy how fun a card can be when it doesn’t say “once per turn”
I (Gahrruk) think I have figured out the ultimate version! Have fun with it!
(Geth, 2 Roots, Tyvar, Lunarch Aspirant create an infinite combo, Lunarch Veteran adds infinite lifegain - hence only one copy of some of them)
(Titania adds reach for pesky flyers and the option of returning lands from the graveyard as well as some lifegain)
Deck
2 Boseiju, Who Endures (NEO) 266
3 Case of the Stashed Skeleton (MKM) 80
4 Insidious Roots (MKM) 208
2 Mirrex (ONE) 254
4 Rubblebelt Maverick (MKM) 174
3 Snarling Gorehound (MKM) 105
1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire (NEO) 278
4 Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler (ONE) 218
4 Forest (DMU) 281
8 Swamp (DMU) 279
4 Diabolic Intent (BRO) 89
4 Llanowar Wastes (BRO) 264
3 Eaten Alive (MID) 99
4 Ichor Drinker (MOM) 111
4 Undead Butler (VOW) 133
3 Dockside Chef (NEO) 93
1 Cult Conscript (DMU) 88
1 Geth, Thane of Contracts (ONE) 95
1 Lunarch Veteran (MID) 27
Sideboard
1 Urborg Repossession (DMU) 114
2 Candy Grapple (WOE) 83
3 Duress (STA) 29
1 Eaten Alive (MID) 99
1 Urborg Repossession (DMU) 114
4 Tear Asunder (DMU) 183
2 Titania, Voice of Gaea (BRO) 193
1 Argoth, Sanctum of Nature (BRO) 256
Curious if there was any consideration for mosswood knight? A solid aggressive body that self recurs out of the grave for card advantage counds great for this deck. Maybe its a little more mideange than this list aims for idk
this card is so good
I feel like if you’re running aftermath analyst you should have more fetch lands like evolving wilds. At least 8.
I tried to play this deck and my first opponent was a UW control deck that played farewell. Farewell is so disgusting against this deck.
Yeah there’s no real counterplay
As a commander player I saw Insidious Roots and just thought of tortured existence. It goes infinite with any creature haste enabler (like Tyvar) but I assume that enchantment just doesn't exist in Arena.
I has just finished building a mycotirant deck for a friend, as a gift, when I saw this. I'm talking I literally finished boxing it and I saw the spoiler. If I knew, I would had waited. Cause plants may not grow the tirant, but half of the time the 1/1s that can't block are kinda useless. Turning them into manadorks? Shit could hit the fan too quickly. I'll try getting it for him now
The ultimate enemies-to-lovers arc
Is there anything you can play as a 1 or 2 of that can deal with problematic Artifacts/Enchantments? Lockdown and Warleader's Call both would have been nice to be able to remove, and you went through a good chunk of your deck. Something you don't mind milling that you could get back? Might be nice to have a couple of Silver Bullet type cards if you can use them.
Could u make a Upgrade guide for this deck in the future plz.
What about the golgari spider as removal? It also exiles itself when it dies and can sac the zombie.
If not for that Tyvar, this deck could slap with Lurrus. Casting cards from grave still counts as leaving it, isn't it?
Yup!
I like to have 4x Diabolic Intent just to consistently have 1 ore more insidious roots in every game, since it makes/breaks the entire deck
Budget friendly!
Will you make a Voja deck???? That card is so cool!!!
Seems like you put a lot of work into your take on this deck! Really like this compared to Jim Davis', crokeyz' and Ali's builds!
16:02 mono red players when they have to count past 4
I remember a previous Tyvar deck that used Cankerbloom, is there room for that in this deck? Enchantment removal for temporary lockdown/that boros enchantment, too bad it’s a fungus not a plant..
What the hell I bought PVZ modern warfare 2 like a week ago, and Legend uploads this? Coincidence????
What about splashing red only for bitter reunion to ambush your opponent before a sweep?
All fun and games until you mill all of your insidious roots and you just sit there looking like free food
Any thoughts on this card in timeless?
feels like it should work well with necropotence but i cant quite make it work
Mono black magic has been doing some timeless builds
Sucks to miss that attack with the 15 power plant. Obviously this is hindsight but they wouldn’t have had enough mana to cast both creatures because they would have one less convoke for the knight
Yeah got timed out when attacking because of all the triggers that turn.
GG
would tenacious underdog work wit this?
can you make a muldrotha brawl deck?
Oh you missed on the opportunity on playing the new golgati elf which helps with card advantage and creates reach tokens
Not really looking to play a 6-drop in a 22 land deck.
@@LegenVD you play it more often than you think with the mana dorks of insidious roots
We may have broken our opponent they're maybe not used to doing all the math.🤣 Emotional damage
Do you think roots has place In dredgeless dredge in time less?
Im using the sac for 1 enchantment removel werewolf, if you don't have art and enchant removel in this format you are gimping yourself.
What ate your thoughts on splashing white for something like Lunarch Veteran? I feel like gaining life is nice with all the token makers, plus it can be brought back with the ability
Didn't explore the white splash, but it makes sense to include!
@@LegenVD New Kaya too works well with it's exile effects!
No blocks?
no Armored Scrapgorger?
Fun and cheap deck
Aaaaaarrrrrgggghhh Braaaaiiinnnsss.🤣🤣🤣🤣
For the moment, most people i see playing insidious roots are playing the same "self mill" + graveyard package. The probleme for me is that this cards are quiet bad if you dont draw the root/ it get destroyed.
I went a slightly diffenrent way, which is to embrace "golgari goodstuff" while forcing the root gameplay a little : I have 4 underdogs, 4 dreadknights, 4 conscrit cultist (the 2/1 skelteton for 1).
I play mostly fair golgari aggro/midrange, but when the game gets grindy and settle down, i put down my roots, and start making plants. I also have 6 other slots for other "synergy cards", for the moment
It still loses to attraxa very often and any time you face sunfall early and farewell later makes you cry, but appart from that you have golgari goodstuff (so draw, nice stated creatures, immortality, destroy creat) with big beefy plants token.
Have you tested skyfish spider in this deck? If so how'd it perform?
I run a couple spiders in my sultai roots. I like the idea of some annoying permanent removal, plus the life gain is often helpful with slower hands.
Tried to keep the curve low, so didn't try it. Might be a good sideboard option to deal with the Flying problem. Unlikely to gain us too much life when we're actively emptying our own graveyard.
Monored would rather lose before doing maths
The Zombies are comming
Braaaaaains!
is a Tenacious Underdog at 2 or 3 not recommended in this deck?
I'd guess not- doesn't trigger Gorehound and 4 mana to reanimate is a bit steep compared to Dreamthief and Maverick's graveyard abilities.
I play 1 or 2... a bit expensive, but the draw and recursion makes for it
This build is streamlined to turbo the dredge effect. Could be useful if you're going slightly control build, but Underdog itself does nothing etb unless you blitz them.
Standard deck with only 6 non land rares. Wow