In this experiment, we see the unwritten toughness of a savage force from the future.

The first option when dealing with Force of Savagery is just to find a way to keep it on the battlefield. For this, we’ll need one or more ways to bring its toughness to at least 1 as it enters the battlefield. Triggered abilities such as Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit’s won’t do us any good, as the Elemental will die before the trigger resolves. But Gaea's Anthem, Master Biomancer, and Incandescent Soulstoke are all examples of cards that can let our savage force stick around.

The other option of what to do with Force of Savagery is just take advantage of its high power by trying to use its immediate death to our advantage. The aim of today’s deck will be to run enough effects that benefit us for casting Force of Savagery—even if it doesn’t always stay on the battlefield afterward.

Trigger Rewards

To start, let’s go over a few cards that turn Force of Savagery’s instant death into a pseudo-sorcery.

Electropotence — This is a cheaper, one-sided version of Pandemonium with the downside that we have to pay for the trigger. That’s not too steep considering our primary triggerer will be a 3-mana creature, and 8 damage is pretty significant.

Kavu Lair — This lets our Force of Savagery cycle. We pay 3 mana, discard Force of Savagery, and draw a card. This isn’t worthwhile on its own—and because it benefits our opponents, we’ll only play one copy—but its effect stacks up with our other cards, so we can hope to gain a lot from casting the Elemental.

Garruk's Packleader — Coming in at 5 mana rather than 3—like the Kavu Lair—this Beast also has the vulnerability of being a creature. However, it’s a creature that triggers other copies of itself in addition to our Lair, and it doesn’t benefit our opponents the way the Lair does.

Paleoloth — Paleoloth lets Force of Savagery act as an expensive Raise Dead—but while Raise Dead couldn’t raise copies of itself, with Paleoloth, Force of Savagery can, letting us potentially recur whatever triggers we’re generating.

Kresh the Bloodbraided — And here, we take an interesting turn. Rather than gain a card, we can turn the 3 mana and Elemental card into 8 +1/+1 counters placed directly onto our Warrior. If we play Kresh on turn five and two Forces on turn six, we could be attacking for 19 with one beefy creature.

Death's Presence — This is Kresh’s superpower in enchantment form, letting us spread out the power from multiple Forces. It costs 6 and doesn’t come with a body, but it makes our Forces quite . . . forceful.

Gyre Sage — Every time we play a Force of Savagery, our Gyre Sage evolves. Many evolution creatures have expiration dates in their decks because the decks don’t contain creatures with high enough power or toughness to keep the triggers growing—and that’s true here, too, but the ceiling of 8 that Force of Savagery sets for us is pretty high.

Morgue Burst — Finally, this lets us use the Force of Savagery from the graveyard to deal 8 damage anywhere we like. It’s not a reward trigger for playing the Force as the other effects are, but it is a reasonable follow-up play after resolving a 0-toughness Force.

Savage Battlefield

I wasn’t totally satisfied with just putting my Forces into the graveyard immediately all the time, so I went ahead and ran a few ways to keep them around.

Incandescent Soulstoke — This Elemental lord, as mentioned above, can bring our Forces up to 9/1s as they enter the battlefield, meaning we are able to keep them around. It may still be hard to break through when attacking, but at least then they trade off reasonably well while still generating our other triggers. And the Soulstoke’s activated ability can sneak a Force in for a bunch of damage.

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed — Having undying will mean a Force will die, thus generating all the usual triggers, but then return to the battlefield as a 9/1, generating half our triggers again. The savagery is strong with this one.

Shoring Up

A few more cards fill out the rest of the deck.

Sylvan Caryatid — Here’s another 2-mana accelerant, and this one can make all the colors our deck requires. I was tempted to play Utopia Tree so that it could attack in the case that it picked up 8 or so counters with Death's Presence. Birds of Paradise would also have been a good choice, as the lack of defender combined with flying would make it easier to push damage through. However, neither of those creatures evolves Gyre Sage, so I went with the 3-toughness creature instead.

Elvish Aberration — This cycles for 2 mana to find us a Stomping Ground or an Overgrown Tomb, helping us fix our mana at the 2-mana slot. It’s also a beefy creature that can draw us cards with Garruk's Packleader, and with the amount of mana it makes, it can help set us up for big turns in which we want to, for example, pay for Electropotence and cast multiple copies of Force of Savagery. Also, it’s the best accelerant I could find that worked well with the following card.

See the Unwritten — This relatively new sorcery is the bookend on this deck. While I started with a 3-mana creature that couldn’t even stay on the battlefield, I ended up realizing I wanted to be playing with expensive and beefy creatures like Paleoloth and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. See the Unwritten can help us find our first Force of Savagery while also dropping the likes of Paleoloth to help us start cycling copies of the Elemental—or See the Unwritten could just leave us with an already-11/11 Kresh the Bloodbraided. Also, the curve of Garruk's Packleader into See the Unwritten gives us the potential to tack a Divination onto the Tooth and Nail lookalike.

Unwritten Force ? Casual | Andrew Wilson

• Creatures (27)
• 2 Incandescent Soulstoke
• 2 Utopia Tree
• 3 Elvish Aberration
• 4 Force of Savagery
• 4 Garruk's Packleader
• 4 Gyre Sage
• 4 Paleoloth
• 2 Kresh the Bloodbraided
• 2 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

• Spells (9)
• 1 Morgue Burst
• 4 See the Unwritten
• 1 Electropotence
• 1 Kavu Lair
• 2 Death's Presence

• Lands (24)
• 2 Forest
• 3 Swamp
• 2 Raging Ravine
• 4 Blood Crypt
• 4 Overgrown Tomb
• 4 Savage Lands
• 4 Stomping Ground
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Buy This Deck

If you want to try out Force of Savagery, if you want to try out See the Unwritten, or if you just like cycling brutish, Mirari-crazed Elves, give this deck a try.

Andrew Wilson

@Silent7Seven

fissionessence @ hotmail dot com