As a former student, I can well appreciate the value of anything that's free. Skyshroud Cutter is free. That means you can play him on turn 1, when you already tapped your only forest for a Pouncing Jaguar. Two 2/2 creatures on the first turn is better than one, I would say.
The reason a lot of people are slagging the Cutter is the fact that you're giving your opponent life. So does
Swords to Plowshares, and did anyone ever question how good that was? Let's look at this situation:
First turn, forest, Pouncing Jaguar, Skyshroud Cutter, go. Opponent is now on 25 life and hasn't played a card yet.
He goes Mountain, Raging Goblin, go. Great, a sligh deck. Observe, though...
Second turn I pay echo, then drop a Cradle. Double rancor and attack. That's 7 or 8 damage on turn 2, plus a dead creature.
So where does the opponent go now? He has two 4/2 tramplers facing him, with no creatures. Sure, if he's lucky he can take them both
out this turn, but you get the Rancors back and he's still 2-3 life down. The Cutter is a definite addition to the green sligh deck.
Part 2 - Pangosaur and Limited Resources
OK, so this card isn't bad to start with, but it isn't going to see play in Type II. In Extended though, it combines
incredibly well with a forgotten enchantment from Exodus, namely Limited Resources.
At 6/6 for just 2
, the Pangosaur
had to have an awesome drawback. And it does: it bounces whenever a land is played. There are ways around this, however.
The rules say that playing a land is not the same as putting a land into play. Playing a land refers to that special, once-per-turn action
that doesn't use the stack. Any other way of lands coming into play will not trigger the Pangosaur. So we can Harrow just fine, or Crop Rotation, and the 'Saur will stay put.
Limited Resources is probably one of those cards that you looked at and though "There has to be something I can do with that....", then forgot about. I've tried it in all sorts of
decks, only to change it for Geddon.But in this case, it really works. It also prevents playing lands, so you can still fetch more if you need them with Harrow and the like. It can be played
first turn, and this is probably a great plan, as it all but guarantees you land advantage. And finally, it's an enchantment, leaving black and red helpless against it.
So what do you put in the deck? Well, I have Pangosources.dec in development right now. Version 1a is up, and I'm playtesting 1b. Try it and let us
know if you have some better ideas.
Part 3 - Exploration / Burgeoning / Manabond
Three very similar green enchantments, in that they all allow you to play more land than normal, and for very little cost. Exploration lets you play an extra land a turn,
Burgeoning lets you do it whenever an opponent plays a land, and Manabond lets you play as many as you want in your discard step, if you
discard your hand afterwards. Sure, they're decent on their own, but no-one would play all three in a deck, right? Well...
Just look at the number of good lands out there, in Extended at least. Treetop Village, Faerie Conclave, Wasteland, Stalking Stones...all strong. Throw in a Trade Routes for
all the extra land you'll have, and some Argothian Enchantresses to draw off the 16 cheap enchants in the deck, then 8 counters and, for fun, 2 Horn of Greed. 30 cards, so then we want some land. 4 each of the 4
lands above, and we need only 14 more. Since Trade Routes is your only blue spell, I recommend a heavy forest base. I haven't tested the deck yet, but check out Lan(d)sdell Beats
right here.
