{"ops":[{"insert":"Helga, Skittish Seer: How This Deck Works"},{"attributes":{"header":1},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"The basic idea"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Helga is a small frog who grows every time you cast an expensive creature. Specifically, any creature that costs 4 mana or more.\nEvery time that happens, three things occur at once. You draw a card. You gain 1 life. Helga gets bigger.\nOnce Helga is bigger, she can tap to make a big chunk of mana in any one color you want. That mana can only be spent on more expensive creatures, so it feeds right back into the loop.\nSo the whole deck is built around one habit: play a lot of creatures that cost 4 or more mana. Everything else in the deck exists to make that happen faster, safer, or bigger.\nWhat a normal game looks like"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Turn 1 or 2, you play a mana creature like Llanowar Elves. These little creatures do not trigger Helga, they just help you afford things faster.\nTurn 2 or 3, you play Helga herself.\nTurn 3 or 4, once you have enough mana, you cast your first big creature. This triggers Helga. You draw a card, gain a life, and Helga grows.\nFrom here the deck snowballs. Each big creature you cast makes Helga stronger and gets you a fresh card, which is often another big creature. The games where this deck feels great are the ones where you chain several expensive creatures together in a short span of turns.\nThe turn 5 or 6 goal is to get enough mana on the table (from your dorks, your lands, and Helga herself) to cast Craterhoof Behemoth. This creature gives your whole team a huge boost and lets them push through blockers. If you have a decent board by that point, this usually wins the game on the spot.\nThe two backup combos"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Sometimes the normal plan gets interrupted. Someone kills your creatures, or you get stuck on lands. For those games, the deck has two separate ways to make unlimited mana. Neither is required to win, but either one bails you out if the main plan falls apart.\nThe first combo uses two cards, Devoted Druid and Vizier of Remedies. Once both are in play, you can tap Devoted Druid for mana and then untap it for free, over and over. This makes as much green mana as you want.\nThe second combo uses three cards, Gaea's Cradle, Umbral Mantle, and Voyaging Satyr. Once all three are set up, you tap Gaea's Cradle for mana, use Voyaging Satyr to untap the Cradle for free, and spend a little of that mana to untap Voyaging Satyr again through Umbral Mantle. As long as you control a few creatures, each loop makes more mana than it costs, so it also becomes unlimited.\nEither way, once you have unlimited mana, you cast or grow Walking Ballista as large as you want and use it to deal lethal damage straight to your opponents.\nThe strong cards worth knowing by name"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Three cards in this deck are on Wizards of the Coast's official Game Changers list, meaning they are known to be unusually powerful for their cost. It is good etiquette to mention these to your table before playing, the same way you would mention a strong commander.\nGaea's Cradle is a land that taps for a lot of mana in this deck, since it counts every creature you control.\nSmothering Tithe punishes opponents for drawing extra cards by handing you free mana rocks.\nNatural Order lets you sacrifice a small green creature and immediately put any green creature straight into play. The usual target is Craterhoof Behemoth, which skips right past the need to pay its mana cost.\nWhat to actually do on your turn"},{"attributes":{"header":2},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Play a land if you have one. Play your cheapest useful creature or spell. If you have a choice between two plays, generally prefer the one that lets Helga trigger sooner rather than later. Hold up your protection spells, Heroic Intervention and Blossoming Defense, if you suspect someone at the table has a board wipe or removal ready, since losing your board right before your big turn is the main way this deck loses.\nIf you draw into Craterhoof Behemoth or Avenger of Zendikar with a decent board already out, that is usually your signal to go for the win that turn rather than wait for a bigger one.\n"}]}