Hello Awesome folks! Happiest of Days to you and yours! Today I want to finish out my deep dive into a very flavorful set of decks build around what a real world in Dominaria Arboretum, Aviary, Aquarium and now a Menagerie would look like, with an emphasis on the Extreme Theme. For example, the Arboretum didn't run non-themed things like Beast Within for removal or Kodama's Reach for ramp it ran Roots and Cultivate. Each deck tries to win:

1. Arboretum - Go big with Treefolk and a pair of Avatars that go big for your land count or Forest count.
2. Aviary - Small Birds like Suntail Hawk and token Bird makers like Battle Screech that then get pumped with Favorable Winds.
3. Aquarium - Bigger Fish and Jellyfish and such that can win, and also a milling sub-theme with things like Ruin Crab and Stinging Jellyfish.

The idea to have all four and then divide them out among a pod with four players and then play them against each other.

Let's turn to my leader for today, Ruxa. This four mana on-curve 4/4 Bear Druid has three abilities that play with creatures with no abilities. The first is to raise a dork with no abilities when this enters the battlefield or attacks. Then they get +1/+1 so it's an Anthem on a stick. Finally, they can deal their damage to the attacked even when blocked. Ruxa makes flavor sense here in addition to mechanical since you can see a Professor like this Bear teaching about the awesomeness of our animals. Love this thing loads here.

Ready for my deep dive into all things Menagerie? Let's do it to it!

Creatures and Synergies

Check out these two 5/5 Apes. The first is my biggest vanilla dork in the Menagerie, so I wanted to highlight it here. Grunn is a six-drop 5/5 that attacks into a 10/10. The kicker of three mana makes him a 10/10 that attacks into a 20/20, which can win the game quite ably. These Apes are very nice.

Check out these pair of dorks. The 'conda is a Hill Giant rocking Swampwalk to help slip past defenses, quite likely in today's day and age at the Commander table with Urborg so often played. The other Snake is a 2/1 with Islandwalk that can be unblockable when it swings at a foe with an Island. It can also regenerate for a mana. I also have Mire Boa that Swampwalks and regenerates for that mana and Bull Hippo to Islandwalk as well as the Boa.

Check out this pair at two different places on my mana curve. The Crash is the most expensive dork in my deck at 8 mana for an 8/4 trampler winner of games. Nasty! The uncommon Mongoose is a one drop 1/1 with shroud and gets +2/+2 with threshold for a nice beefy bonus later in the game. Nice group to kick things off with!

The instant is a four-mana Green instant that will be a nice response to the casting of a foe's creature spell this turn, drop a dork from your hand to the battlefield. Nice surprise as a combat trick, or just at the end of the opposing turn to drop a big beater and then untap and swing. The enchantment is here to pump your vanilla dorks by a big fat +2/+2 each, cannot you see this on the wall of the Menagerie? I think so too but we don't have that many vanilla dorks to pump, by the by it can still be a nice surprise out of nowhere especially when combined with my mass token makers

Check out the four-drop pair of Zoologist and Vizier of the Menagerie. The former is a 1/2 with draw it if it's a dork, which is pretty likely here, right? It's very strong card flow here, but it does reveal what you are drawing. The latter is a 3/4 with the ability to look at the top card of your library and cast it if it's a dork. Nice card flow in flavorful places.

Check out this pair of gamewinners. The sorcery pumps your team by the biggest power you control and then gives your team trample. That means that if you control Ruxa, that's a +4/+4 and trample boost to your team. I've been at Zoos that have big open areas for Savannah animals to stampede around, so that's flavorful. I also tossed in Overrun. The creature is a flying shade that pumps for Green mana into a nasty game winner over blockers on the ground. It's a game winner in flying Bees form!

Flavor Fun Times

I am running a few mass token-makers here and there like this pair to get really boosted by our Commander and the Petroglyphs. The Menace will make three dorks with a total power/toughness of 6/6 across three bodies. This makes a Snake, Wolf, and Elephant of the right sizes, each of which you'd see in a Menagerie or Zoo. The Howl is a 7-cost sorcery uncommon that makes 2/2 Wolves equal to your Forest count, and we only have a few non-Forests in my deck, so that is most of them. Each of these is pretty good and the Howl can be a win-con. I am also running Call of the Herd and Grizzly Fate to make and flashback tokens.

Most of my answers are obvious (Beast Within does fit the flavor, and Nature's Claim). But we can go deeper: check out Silverback Elder and Simian Grunts. The Elder is a 5/7 that has a cast trigger for dorks: when you can one, you can Naturalize an opposing artifact or enchantment. Or you can gain 4 life if you are low on life or ramp one of the top five lands from your deck. But it's here for the first ability. If someone thinks you are open they might swing your way. Flash out the other Ape in response and block and kill the attacker with your flashing 3/4. You can also trade up with any X/3 or smaller bodied dork that you need to kill. See also King Cheetah.

Card Draw and Mana

Now let's turn to card draw. The first is obvious here, don't you often meditate at a place like a Zoo or a Menagerie? I think so as well! Harmonize away. Then you need a Mouth to Feed, so enter the aftermath card. It's a 3/3 Hippo for three mana on the front side to get pumped and then a mass card draw spell from your graveyard for four mana as you draw a card for each dork with a power of 3 or more you control, and with Ruxa that means your 2/2 tokens as well.

This four-drop 2/3 can turn a cast dork spell into a card drawn, which is pretty fancy here. Can you see why this is here? Mechanically, sure but flavorfully? Its name is a term of art for those that can speak with animals.

The common is a sorcery that will draw a card and let you drop another land, ideal in the early to mid-game. People "Explore" a Menagerie or Zoo. I am also running flavorful ramp like Three Visits and Cultivate. The rare artifact drops the cost of your stuff by a generic mana each so its green cost is not reduced. This is a Medallion which can be purchased in a gift shop, ditto Moss Diamond and Sol Ring. I also tossed in Burnished Hart that can be purchased in a gift shop as well.

Let's finish up with this pair. The Cheetah is a three-drop 2/3 that will turn combat damage on your foe into a ramped Forest into your hand, note that it can get duals, but there won't be any of those here. You can drop it for Howl of the Night Pack or pumping Killer Bees. Then the Commons is a nice central place for folks to relax and shop.

Let's turn to my decklist!

The Menagerie | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Ruxa, Patient Professor

• Creatures (38)
• 1 Anaconda
• 1 Ancient Silverback
• 1 Arctic Wolves
• 1 Alpine Grizzly
• 1 Balduvian Bear
• 1 Barbary Apes
• 1 Bear Cub
• 1 Beast Whisperer
• 1 Bull Hippo
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Crash of Rhinos
• 1 Deadly Insect
• 1 Durkwood Boars
• 1 Grizzly Bears
• 1 Grunn, the Lonely King
• 1 Hunting Cheetah
• 1 Jungle Lion
• 1 Karoo Meerkat
• 1 Killer Bees
• 1 King Cheetah
• 1 Locust Swarm
• 1 Lynx
• 1 Mire Boa
• 1 Nimble Mongoose
• 1 Pouncing Jaguar
• 1 Pride of Lions
• 1 River Boa
• 1 Silverback Ape
• 1 Silverback Elder
• 1 Simian Grunts
• 1 Stampeding Wildebeests
• 1 Southern Elephant
• 1 Timber Wolves
• 1 Trained Jackal
• 1 Vizier of the Menagerie
• 1 Warthog
• 1 Wild Mongrel
• 1 Zoologist

• Spells (18)
• 1 Beast Within
• 1 Bestial Menace
• 1 Call of the Herd
• 1 Commune with Nature
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Explore
• 1 Grizzly Fate
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Howl of the Night Pack
• 1 Heroic Intervention
• 1 Lure of Prey
• 1 Mouth // Feed
• 1 Natural Order
• 1 Nature's Claim
• 1 Overwhelming Stampede
• 1 Overrun
• 1 Three Visits
• 1 Muraganda Petroglyphs

• Artifacts (5)
• 1 Emerald Medallion
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Moss Diamond
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Stonespeaker Crystal

• Lands (38)
• 1 Guildless Commons
• 1 Myriad Landscape
• 1 Radiant Fountain
• 35 Forest

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There we go! What did you think of my deck? Anything in here that you liked or wanted to take a deeper dive into? Anything that you want to run? Let me know in the comments below!