"Zhur-Taa Druid EDH : When Mana Sparks Something else"

"Go ahead and tell me you don't like my silky black hair...."

"Zhur-Taa Druid: When Mana Sparks Something else"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. 

After looking at the magnificent damage producer Ruric Thar I now turn my attention into one common favorite of mine. 

The Zhur-Taa Druid is a 1/1 Green Mana Producer which at the cost of the Gruul Colors is exactly someone you need to accelerate casting brutes like Borborygmos or Ruric Thar. The thing that I like about him is that he not only taps for 1 Green mana but he also damages all of your opponents when he does so!!! 

Magic has a long history of pingers so to speak but none of them has had this particular ability and I am picking this guy to be in a lot of decks because of his particular trait. 

Well I am actually thinking of a Jund(Black/Green/Red) EDH deck with a lot of Blood thirst creatures that would insanely benefit from all the damages that he would be giving. Creatures like Skarrgan Pit Skulk , Stormblood berserker , Scab-Clan Mauler , Blood Ogre , Bloodlord of Vaasgoth and Fury Born Hellkite. 

Another possible potential interaction that I would love to see is this Druid with Rakdos, Lord of Riots. You could float one Green mana and in an EDH setting damage at least 3 opponents before even attacking. Normally with  Rakdos in play you usually attack to maximize his second ability which allows you to cast creatures 1 generic mana less for each 1 life lost by all your opponents. 

"Wait till you see some of my other buddies..."

Assuming that you have enough mana in play and some way to have your creatures have haste like Urabrask or Fervor(which is always a given in red) , then you could cast your Furyborn Hellkite in play for just 3 Red mana and 1 Colorless mana and attack for 12! Attacking with Rakdos in play means that you have at least 16 colorless mana that would be subtracted to creatures that you want to cast.It is kind of ironic that a creature like Rakdos who is very color intensive (hard to cast with the BBRR cost) actually encourages you to cast a lot of Colorless fatties like Steel HellKite or even a Blightsteel Colossus or the Eldrazi brotherhood.

The Spells Exsanguinate , Sizzle , Blood tithe and Breath of Malphegor will also standout in this deck because of the amount of life being lost.And with the monsters that keep on landing on the battlefield it would not be long before opposing players succumb. 

"The Hills are alive with the sound of Music..."

Imagine the kind of the things that come from a tiny spark of mana production! Yes the color costs for the combination is great but with green in there mana fixing surely would not be a problem. 

Lucky are those who can brew , playtest and play. So keep on doing so!