GRW Land-Use Change (Orcish Lumberjack, Land Tax, Titania)

[BirdsOfParadise]

GRW Land-Use Change

Maindeck (Dec. 23, 2019)

Creatures
1 Birds of Paradise
3 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Lotus Cobra
4 Orcish Lumberjack
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
3 Tireless Tracker
3 Titania, Protector of Argoth

Other Spells
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Karn, the Great Creator
4 Land Tax
4 Mox Diamond
2 Scroll Rack
4 Swords to Plowshares

Lands
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Karakas
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Savannah
4 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Snow-Covered Plains
2 Taiga
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard
1 Bane of Progress
1 Damping Sphere
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Firestorm
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Granger Guildmage
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Zuran Orb

DESCRIPTION
This deck is designed around two cards that are cheap to cast and have a high intrinsic power level: Orcish Lumberjack and Land Tax. The former accelerates your mana quickly while enabling the latter to trigger, and the latter provides the former with fuel. The best way to spend mana from Orcish Lumberjack is on Titania, Protector of Argoth, which is the primary win condition. Green Sun's Zenith provides a way to tutor for Titania and can also get other green creatures.

The deck's name was suggested by an environmental scientist I know. In that field, land-use change refers to things like forest land becoming cropland, which kind of fits in with Orcish Lumberjack (direct land-use change) and Land Tax (a policy instrument).

STRENGTHS
(*) This deck is good at making 4--6 mana in early turns (T2--T3). You can go Titania, Karn the Great Creator -> silver bullet -> Lattice, or GSZ -> Titania pretty quickly. If you're against a deck that fears Scooze, then that's also a win condition with all the extra G mana.

(*) Toolboxes: Like Maverick, this deck can fit a toolbox of green creatures (with Green Sun's Zenith) and a toolbox of lands (with Knight of the Reliquary). You can customize the deck to suit your needs by including the right tools. Some of the usual go-to silver bullets are included in the list above (such as Scavenging Ooze and Karakas).

(*) Tax/Rack: You don't need this to win, and most games it doesn't happen. But when it does happen it's great.

WEAKNESSES
(*) Force of Will on Titania :-(

(*) Fast combo. It's not hopeless, especially if you can ramp out Karn on T2 and get a relevant 0-mana or 1-mana artifact in play. I'd like to fit a third Karn in the main. You can bring in a lot from the sideboard.