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Shroofus Sproutsire is one of the legendary creatures featured inMagic: The Gathering’sFoundation Jumpstart set. While there have been other commanders for Saproling decks, Shroofus Sproutsire has very quickly taken the title of primary Saproling commander. It is also the first time a non-token creature has ever been given the Saproling creature type.
A Shroofus Sproutsire deck is built around flooding the battlefield with Saproling tokens, wanting you to have as many Saprolings as possible. The deck goes wide and closes out the game with an army of Saproling tokens, so if you like battlefields that get big, Shroofus Sproutsire is the deck for you.
Triumph of the Hordes
x28 Forest
Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
War Room
The decklistcontains 32 creatures, 11 sorceries, six instants, ten enchantments, seven artifacts,and33 lands. Most of the cards in the deck can either create Saproling tokens, or give your creatures stat boosts to be able to make more Saproling tokens.
Key Cards
Shroofus Sproutsire
Shroofus Sproutsireis the commander of the deck, and the most important card in it. Its effect is simple,any Saproling dealing combat damage creates that many 1/1 Saproling tokens. While Shroofus Sproutsire is the only Saproling creature, there are a ton of ways to generate Saproling tokens.
While Shroofus Sproutsire is only a 1/1 at its base level,giving it stat boosts helps to guarantee it deals damage and starts making 1/1 Saproling tokens. Since it has trample, getting in for damage is even easier. As soon as a few triggers of Shroofus Sproutsire go off, it can very quickly snowball out of control.
Beastmaster Ascension
Beastmaster Ascensionis one of the easiest ways to turn your Saproling tokens into massive threats. Once you attack with at least seven creatures while it is on the battlefield,Beastmaster Ascension gives massive stat boosts to all your creatures, which will stay so long as seven quest counters remain on it.
It’s especially strong with Shroofus Sproutsire asit will cause your Saprolings to deal more damage. If just one connects for full damage,Shroofus Sproutsire will make a minimum of six more Saproling tokens, which will also be stat-boosted to 6/6s as opposed to their base 1/1 power and toughness.
Brightcap Badger
Fungus and Saprolings go hand in hand, allowingBrightcap Badgertoturn them both into mana dorks(creatures that can tap themselves for mana). In addition,it’ll create a Saproling token at the start of each of your end step. Brightcap Badger provides both ramp and Saproling generations to give you a ton of value.
It is best to cast the Adventure side of Brightcap Badger first to create two Saproling tokens. As the next turn when you cast Brightcap Badger, you can use those two to generate two green mana to accelerate your mana generation as they won’t have summoning sickness.
Brightcap Badger is a creature you want on the battlefield as soon as possible. It is the most consistent way to get Saproling tokens without having to do anything extra like dealing damage or exiling creatures from graveyards.
Champion Of Lambholt
With Shroofus Sproutsire,you want as many ways to make your Saproling tokens unblockableto ensure you create more.Champion of Lambholtis the best way to achieve this. Since you create so many tokens, Champion of Lambholt will gain a ton of +1/+1 counters.
Champion of Lambholt does not need to attack to prevent creatures from blocking, allowing you to keep it safe from any combat tricks like suddenly having a blocker gain deathtouch. Once a ton of Saproling tokens deal damage,Shroofus Sproutsire will create more and give more counters to Champion of Lambholtto make it even harder to block your creatures.
Eldrazi Monument
Eldrazi Monumenthelps to make all of your Saprolings into more of a threat while making them much harder to block. While youare required to sacrifice a creature at your upkeep, since you make so many Saproling tokens (especially with Eldrazi Monument backing up Shroofus Sproutsire), this is hardly a downside.
The stat boost is minor, but itsthe keyword abilities it gives that are important. Most important is giving your creature indestructible, as this helps to ensure all yourcreatures stay safe in combat and can continue generating you Saproling tokens.
How To Play The Deck
A Shroofus Sproutsire deck isall aboutamassing a giant battlefield of Saproling tokenswhich then spread into more tokens as they deal combat damage. There are a ton of Saproling token generators includingSprotu Swarm, Spore Swarm, Thelonite Hermit,andUndercellar Myconid.
Saprolings need to deal damage to create more while Shroofus is on the battlefield, socards that give stat boosts are very important and you want on the battlefield as soon as you can cast them.Muraganda Petroglyphsgives your tokens +2/+2,Sylvan Anthemgives your green creatures +1/+1, andBeastmaster Ascensionwill eventually give them +5/+5.
All your Saproling tokens are considered to be creatures with no abilities, making cards that support those great inclusions in the deck. Most notably,Ruxa, Patient Professorwhich lets you assign combat damage as though your tokens weren’t blocked.
There aremany different ways to win the game. You canflood the battlefield with Saproling tokens and then win through traditional combat methods, which is further helped by permanents that give stat boosts such asCoat of Arms,Pathwork Banner, andUnnatural Growth. Even without these cards, you can generate enough Saproling tokens you can take people out of the game with an army of 1/1 tokens.
Alternatively, you can win the game withTriumph of the Hordesbygiving all your creatures infectand connecting with at least ten damage, or withStrixhaven Stadiumto get ten point counters to make the person you attacked lose the game and repeat that three times.
The biggestdownside of the deck is the heavy reliance on having Saprolings. You need Saprolings dealing damage to make more, but if you don’t have any to begin with it can be a struggle. Youneed to start seeing up as early as possible and attacking before your opponents set up blockers.
Once the first handful of tokens are made the match can snowball, but getting to that point can be a struggle if your opponents are able to set up their defenses against creatures.
