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If you like this primer, don’t forget to check my Mono Green Broodscale sideboard guide, where I talk about general sideboarding strategies and about eighteen top modern decks – how to approach them, ins, outs, what are the common mistakes you can avoid, etc. I hope you’ll like it!

Introduction

What is Broodscale combo?

It’s a hybrid deck with two different gameplans: one centred on Basking Broodscale and Blade of the Bloodchief (together, they generate infinite grey mana and a very big Broodscale), and the other is a fast Emrakul, the Promised End hardcast. You can also finish the game with midrange beats thanks to Sowing Mycospawn, construct tokens from Urza’s Saga, or sometimes even Glaring Fleshraker and its ping triggers (it’s not played in every list).

Why is it good? What is the best metagame for this deck?

Broodscale has everything the deck needs to become “the best deck”. It has a fast combo finish that can end games as early as turn three, and Emrakul as a great Plan B. Kozilek’s Command does everything, solves every problem you can have, and it’s never a bad draw. All of these, combined with Mycospawn and other removal effects, create an environment where the deck attacks from multiple angles which are very different from each other, it’s quite challenging to sideboard correctly against it. For example, players tend to overboard against our creature-combo plan and, to some extent, ignore a fast Emrakul approach. Or they sometimes rely too much on powerful sideboard options that can slow us down, but won’t win the game by themselves (for example, Consign to Memory – it’s a very efficient answer, but we can overpower it in the long run)

What are the deck’s biggest weaknesses?

That’s the best reason why Broodscale is probably the best deck in current Modern – so far there’s only one unsolvable archetype (UW Narset), the rest is manageable.. Land destruction can be annoying, but it’s usually soft to the combo. On the other hand, effects that are effective against the Broodscale itself are often useless against Emrakul. So personally, I’m not afraid of any particular card or group of cards (outside UW, but to be honest, I’m not scared about it, just accepted that I have one very bad matchup and that’s ok). Maybe certain matchups can be challenging, like Devoted Druid, Storm, Neoform, etc., so combos which can goldfish faster than us. But they either aren’t that popular or can be kept in check with proper sideboard hate, so they aren’t a death sentence. From my perspective, the most challenging archetypes to beat have a good beatdown plan and a dedicated plan post-board. For example, Prowess with Consigns or Boros Energy with Obsidian Charmaw. 

My current decklist

I’ve tested a lot of different Broodscale builds. I still haven’t decided which one of the two versions I played the most is the best one. That’s why I decided to post both here, along with two different sideboarding cheat sheets. One for the traditional version with four Ugin’s Labyrinth and more big drops, and the other one for the Glaring Fleshraker build. Below, I explain the pros and cons of each.

A classic version:

You can download the decklist in the text form here.

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And a Fleshraker version:

You can download the decklist in the text form here.

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Is Broodscale a ramp or a combo deck?

This question may sound trivial, but in my opinion it’s essential if you want to understand the deck well – because the answer to this question will dictate how we should approach sideboarding and deckbuilding.

In my opinion, Broodscale players tend to rely too much on the deck’s ramp aspect and by this I mean a fast Sowing Mycospawn into Emrakul. While I think the plan is powerful, I also don’t think it alone would make the archetype a tier one strategy in the current Modern. After all, an RG Eldrazi Ramp deck was around for some time, but it disappeared from the top tables and became a fringe end of the “go bigger” spectrum. If your opponent knows you don’t interact much during the first few turns, it’s easy to punish you. That’s why I don’t understand when Broodscale players lower the combo potential during the deckbuilding and, for example, play only three Basking Broodscales. The threat of the combo kill out of nowhere is the reason why the ramp plan works so well – when your opponent can’t fully focus on the development of the board or their goldfish because they must keep the interaction for a possible game-ending two-card kill, that drastically increases your odds of surviving until the Emrakul hardscat is done. That’s why I build my deck to maintain the high turn three kill potential for game one. I also rarely fully sideboard out the combo finish – trimming it can often be fine, but cutting it altogether feels counterintuitive to me. Even if the opponent answers the Lizard or Blade, it will eat their time and resources, so it should buy you time until Emrakul happens. And sometimes they won’t have it, and you’ll win on the spot.

Why is everyone playing a mono-green version with Ugin’s Labyrinth instead of RG build with Unholy Heat?

When Broodscale became a thing, it started as a three-colour deck (colourless, green, red). Grove of the Burnwillows provided enough sources of each colour, and in the Energy meta, access to Unholy Heat and Pyroclasm//Firespout post-board was important. With Energy falling from the top tier to around 3-5% of the meta, different requirements became more important. For example, Unholy Heat wasn’t as important anymore, and without it, adding red no longer felt necessary. Also note how ambitious it was to build a deck with Eldrazi Temple, Urza’s Saga, and early access to both green and red – the absolute low was ten sources of each, and it wasn’t doable without Grove of the Burnwillows and either a fetch + shock manabase or Karpulsan Forest. If you also take into account that Boros Ponza started to be a thing, and you needed to add a few basic lands, the RG build started to generate more problems than solutions.

On the other hand, without a third colour, playing a grey land felt more acceptable than in the RG era. Adding Ugin’s Labyrinth and more Forests was finally doable. This change also helped adapt to the current trends in the meta, where being faster and ramping to your big Commands, kicked Mycospawn and Emrakul, is extremely important. Also, that’s why, at the current state of the format, when getting an edge in the mirror and racing combos is more important than killing one drops without the life loss involved (sorry Dismember, you’re not an ultimate answer to everything), it’s more beneficial to add Ugin’s Labyrinth. But I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few months from now, with more Prowess and Energy around, we’ll go back ot the red splash – everything is a matter of adaptation to the expected meta.

Maindeck

The ABC of the combo

The interaction between Basking Broodscale and Blade of the Bloodchief made the deck possible. The interaction is simple: when Broodscale gets a +1/+1 counter, it creates an Eldrazi Spawn. When equipped, Blade gives a +1/+1 counter to a creature every time a creature dies. As a result, you can sacrifice a Spawn, get mana, Blade triggers, Broodscale grows and triggers, you get a Spawn. And so on, until you generate a very big Broodscale and a lot of grey mana. 

So the starting point is having an equipped Broodscale and something to trigger the Blade – usually it’s a Spawn, but other creatures can do it as well. For example, Haywire Mite exiling a hate piece will be good enough, as anything else that dies in combat. But let’s focus on Spawns since the deck is designed to produce them in many different ways.

The whole combo costs six mana: one for the Blade, one for equip, 1G for Broodscale and another 1G for Adapt. The trick is that you don’t have to do everything on the same turn. Blade can be played early, or can be tutored from Saga. There are also many different ways to get Spawns. The first and most obvious line is using Broodscale’s Adapt ability. Another way to get a token is Malevolent Rumble. It fits nicely into a typical turn two, when you try to find Broodscale. On turn three, if you had T1 Saga or T1 Blade, you can still cast Broodscale, equip it, and start the combo by sacrificing a Spawn from Rumble. A similar situation is T2 Kozilek’s Command at the end of the opponent’s turn. T2 Glaring Fleshraker into Broodscale + Blade generates two spawns, so technically, if you played something on turn one or had Urza’s Saga ready to tutor Springleaf Drum you can generate an extra mana, so you can add a green cantrip or a Nature’s Claim to the T3 combo.

Typical combo openings you can have (we assume we have a land drop per turn):

T1 land, Blade

T2 Rumble // Eldrazi Temple and Command X=1 (anything that gets you a Spawn)

T3 Broodscale, equip, sacrifice a Spawn and go off

T1 Urza’s Saga

T2 Broodscale

T3 grab the mana from Saga, tutor for Blade, equip. Adapt, sacrifice a Spawn and go off

T1 Forest, pass

T2 Eldrazi Temple, Glaring Fleshraker

T3 Broodscale, Spawn trigger. Blade, another Spawn trigger. Use one of the Spawns to equip Blade to Broodscale, the second to start the combo

Finishing the game

Once you get infinite mana, you usually need something to close up the game. Sometimes just an absurdly big creature is enough to kill the opponent, but most of the time you’ll need something else. 

There are a few dedicated cards to actually kill the opponent:

• Glaring Fleshraker. Each Spawn you generate during the infinite mana loop deals one damage.
• Walking Ballista. You just make it big, shoot whatever you like, including the opponent’s face. 

But the indirect ones are more interesting. Let’s analyse a few examples and what they’re capable of doing:

• Double Blade of the Bloodchief. If you equip two Blades to Broodscale, you get two counters per one Spawn sacrifice, so you also get two tokens. So you can generate infinite tokens. After that, you can equip one of the two Blades to, for example, a hundred tokens, make them all 100/101, and pass. Any ground attack won’t pass, and you’ll win by attacking on the next turn. The obvious downside is letting the opponent untap, so they can combo off, play Wrath of the Skies, or kill us with flying creatures.
• Emrakul, the Promised End, is nearly always a good enough payoff. 13/13 trampler that’s hard to kill and wastes the opponent’s resources. The downside is that sometimes they’ll find a way to neutralise it and rebuild.
• Kozilek’s Command (in modes: tokens + scary draw). Since you’ll see a whole library and put cards at the bottom from Scry in any order, you’re effectively stacking your deck. If you can find a Fleshraker, you have a loop. If you don’t have any direct win conditions, you can stack all your Commands and cast them all. So you basically can exile the opponent’s graveyard, exile their three creatures, create infinite power (you play Command X=1000000 in tokens mode. After that, you equip Blade to one of the Spawns, sacrifice a hundred others, and repeat the process a hundred times. You end up with 100x 100/101 Spawns), and eventually find Emrakul, the promised End, get the extra turn and win later.
• If you have both Emrakul and Command, but no win condition, you can take the opponent’s turn and during their upkeep cast Kozilek’s Command targeting them (yes, each mode can target you and the opponent) and Scry to the bottom anything relevant, so they’ll keep drawing lands until the end of the game. Personally, I never had the option because opponents scooped before it happened, but it’s good to know the line exists.
• Mycospawn spam. It’s maybe not the way to end the game, indefinitely, but it’s worth noting that once you can cast one Sowning Mycospawn, you can cast all of them – just tutor for a green land to cast the next one for free and devastate the opponent’s mana a bit more. 

Broodscale and Blade outside the combo

Outside of being a combo piece, Basking Broodscale is a 2/2 (sometimes 3/3) that can help you ramp into Emrakul. It also represents three damage from Fleshraker’s triggers (Broodscale alone, a Spawn trigger from the cast, and a spawn from Adapt). 

Blade of the Bloodchief isn’t the best card on its own, but it can decide board stalls. For example, it converts tokens from Command or Fleshraker into power, which can shorten the clock in midrange fights or break board stalls. It’s also an artifact for Constructs. 

The ramp package

Sowing Mycospawn

It’s the most midrangy creature in the whole deck. It’s a bridge between turns 3-4 into midgame. You can play it on turn three as a ramp spell with legs, or later as a way to ramp and slow the opponent at the same time. Most of the time you should fetch Eldrazi Temple, because you’ll need this mana eventually. Equally often, target is Urza’s Saga to set up a combo kill later or go for ultimate value and generate constructs. Other targets like Cavern of Souls, Shifting Woodlands, Bojuka Bog, Ghost Quarter, etc. can be optimal sometimes, but don’t overanalyse it; when in doubt, go for Eldrazi Temple. It’s quite useful in the mirror, where both ramping to Emrakul and attacking the mana is equally important. It’s also solid against any Urza’s Saga deck, Tron, and slower, midrange decks. On the other hand, decks like Druid, Storm, Neobrand, etc. don’t care that much about the six mana 3/3 that destroys their land. So don’t be afraid to trim it or cut it entirely in a matchup where it doesn’t shine.

Emrakul, the Promised End

It’s our second line of attack (though some would say it’s the first). Technically, for 13 mana, in practice you’ll often cast it for six or seven (he he). If you factor in access to sol lands and Spawns, it’s not that hard to cast it on turn four. Even turn three is possible with a lucky Malevolent Rumble flip. Once you cast it, you should be a huge favourite to win. A 13/13 flying trample is no joke. Protection from instants makes it very hard to kill – only Solitude and Leyline Binding are two real clean answers. But the card’s real power is controlling the opponent’s turn. The ABC of making their turn miserable is chump attacking with their top creature into our big flyer. Cracking fetchlands and finding nothing, or using removal spells on the opponent’s creatures, is easy as well. For sure, the funniest part of taking the opponent’s turn is comboing out with the opponent’s deck and killing them instead of you. So, pro tip – if you want to play Emrakul well, learn the basics of every combo deck in the format.

Outside of being a game-engaging seven-drop, Emrakul does two other things. It’s a fuel for Ugin’s Labyrinth – quite obvious. By the way, if you’re afraid of discard, you can keep Emrakul under it and get it back in later stages of the game. The second role is being a payoff to an infinite mana combo – it’s even more important for the builds with zero copies of Glaring Fleshraker. That’s why Emrakul is played as a four-of in nearly every list nowadays.

Devourer of Destiny 

Devourer is in the “Ramp package” because it wouldn’t be in the deck at all if not for the presence of Ugin’s Labyrinth. A seven mana 6/6 that deals with a coloured permanent doesn’t look like a Modern playable. In practice, you must spend a full turn in the midgame for this effect. While it can matter in real games, it’s not something you would happily add to a deck that wants either to combo on turn three or cast Emrakul. So in my opinion, adding Devourer is a necessary evil if you want to play Ugin’s Labyrinth and have enough high cmc cards to fuel it. Devourer just happens to be the best among the worst (aside from the four Emrakuls, which are great). So if possible, I try to avoid playing too many copies of it. While the first copy drawn will most likely be useful (either for Lab or hardcast), having multiples is nearly a blank. 

The removal aspect of a card can sometimes be useful in matchups where you need a wall of removal to survive until you take over the game with Emrakul. For example, against Prowess or Druid, your plan is to draw enough cards that interact with the opponent’s board to have time to set up the mana for Emrakul (or combo). The line of Dismember into Command into Devourer creates a repetitive chain of similar actions. A 6/6 you get is a nice addition, but from my experience, it works more as a blocker to buy time than a threat that swings games in our favour.

The last aspect of a card is its pregame action. Looking four cards deep before your first draw step is cool, but it shouldn’t be a game-breaking effect that makes Devourer an excellent card to play as a four-of. Once again – the first pre-game action will be useful at finding a sol land, green source, Command or a missing combo piece, but the second one usually feels not that needed, all because after the first one you usually have already something cool at the top, so you just force yourself to exile three other cards – sometimes you’ll find too many Blades during the process, and you’ll take away your options to go off, or you’ll exile a cool Saga target in a matchup.

How many Devourers should you play? According to MTGO data, some players run three Ugin’s Labyrinths; others run four. The more Labs you play, the more big boys you need. All lists play four Emrakuls, so that’s easy. In the three lab build, there’s a consensus of playing six of seven big drops, so it quite naturally translates into two of three Devourers. With a full playset of Labs, most lists play three Devourers and add something extra to go up to eight big boys total. Personally, I’m in a “play as few Devourers as you can” camp, so my lists usually end up on two.

Sire of Seven Deaths

If you need an extra-expensive Eldrazi to fuel Ugin’s Labyrinth, this is probably your last playable option (the only other I can think of is World Breaker, but it’s two levels worse than Devourer or Sire). Seven mana and a lot of keywords that make sure you’ll dominate each combat where Sire is involved. The most important ones are Lifelink, Vigilance, and First Strike – thanks to them, it’s exceptionally hard for tempo decks to push any damage. And with each attack, your life total will go back to safe levels. Sire shines against decks that rely on attacking with a bunch of creatures, so Prowess or Energy. It’s also fine against UB decks. My main problem with the card is that the Ward cost: seven life, isn’t something that would stop proactive decks from dealing with it. For example, against Prowess, you can Sire on turn four or five, so your life total should already be quite low. You also don’t have any way to pressure them, so your whole gameplan centres on whether they have an answer. If they have something like Boomerang Basics, they’ll simply pay seven life and kill you with a lethal swing. Also note that there’s a huge portion of the meta that doesn’t care about Sire at all – all of the combo decks, UW Control, Solitude decks, etc. That’s why I’m not the biggest fan. 

Noncreature spells

Kozilek’s Command

This card is a Swiss knife. All of its modes are phenomenal and each tournament I use every one of them. While I believe Command may be the best card ever printed for Colourless mages in the Modern era, I think it’s even better in Broodscale. Beyond being a great card on its own, Command lets you convert infinite mana into a win, which is huge because otherwise, running just a win condition would have hurt the deck’s consistency. Its typing also fits perfectly into the Emrakul plan – instant and kindred (old tribal) are the two unique types the deck otherwise wouldn’t have access to.

In goldfish scenarios, the Scry and tokens modes are the most useful ones. A creature removal shines against tempo and creature combo decks like Energy Prowess or Devoted Druid. The graveyard hate mode is essential against Goryo; it’s also fine in the mirror to slow down the Emrakul cast, as well as against other decks using graveyard like Storm, Living End, HollowVine, etc. 

Malevolent Rumble 

Rumble is a perfect bridge between a combo and an Emrakul plan. It helps you find what you need in a given moment, produces a Spawn, so it ramps and takes a part in the combo, puts cards to the graveyard, so in a way it’s a ritual for Emrakul. That’s a lot for something that, in a way, costs one mana. 

By the way, in my opinion, this card was a part of the reason why Nadu and Underworld Breach were banned. And it looks like the most elegant ban target if Wizards decide to weaken Broodscale as well. But it’s a topic for another discussion.

Great card, play it while you can, never side it out!

Ancient Stirrings 

In many ways, it’s similar to Malevolent Rumble. It digs deep, uses green mana, and can grab any permanent (unless you play Six, you won’t be able to get it!), it’s a Sorcery for Emrakul, etc. A few differences are still worth mentioning. The one big upside is the ability to grab Kozilek’s Command  (being a colorless instant matters). On the other hand, it doesn’t put anything else in the graveyard and doesn’t contribute to the board. But the biggest issue with Stirrings is that it can be more awkward to cast on time – since the deck wants to play turn 1 Saga often and wants to deploy Eldrazi Temple and Ugin’s Labyrinth sooner rather than later, sometimes it’s awkward starting with a green land, which would enable T1 Stirrings. Also, using Stirrings as cantrips nearly guarantees you won’t be able to present a turn three combo. Generally speaking, having too many green cards can slow down the development in early turns and with Broodscale and Rumble around, sometimes you can see lists with not four, but three copies of Stirrings. I even saw lists without them at all! The cuts happen not because Ancient Stirrings is bad – it’s because other cards can still be good while being easier to cast and there are limited slots to work with. 

Dismember 

The mono green deck has a hard time finding a good removal spell. Dismember is the only one that fits all of the important boxes:

• costs one mana
• instant
• can kill any cheap creature in the format
• easy to cast (can be cast off any land or Spawn)

It’s good in the mirror, where killing an early Broodscale is often the difference between winning and losing. It’s essential against Druid and other creature combos for obvious reasons. It’s ok against creature decks like Energy or Zoo – even though losing four life is a cost, keeping Ragavan, Ocelot Pride, or Guide of Souls around would cost you more. Against Prowess, it’s a necessary evil – you have to kill their creatures, but a life loss definitely matters. Sometimes you can kill a Psychic Frog with it, although you should watch out for the timing here – you usually don’t want to push them into making a Frog a 5/6, unless you have a Kozilek’s Command as a follow-up. 

Glaring Fleshraker

That’s the hardest card for me to analyse because I’m a big fan of it, but I also know most of the Broodscale community decided to play without it. I’ll do my best to summarise its strengths and weaknesses below:

Strengths

• A new line of attack – pings. I won too many games with Fleshraker pings to underestimate its impact. With one Fleshraker in play, each colorless creature is two damage (one from the Spawn you get from Fleshraker’s trigger, the second from the creature instead). But with two, it goes out of hand pretty quickly – each colorless creature is six damage (you get two Spawns and a creature, each one triggering both Fleshrakers), so if the opponent doesn’t have removal, they don’t have much time to catch up. And it’s just from creatures – imagine how much damage one Kozilek’s Command can generate! Chaining Commands to get even more Spawns can also happen. 
• A ramp effect that doesn’t use lands. Spawns don’t only kill the opponent with pings; it’s a real ramp. In my opinion, this was always important, but it gets even more critical with the rise of Obsidian Charmaw attacking your mana in post-board games. Getting to Emrakul early or casting Devourer/big Command on time is easier with Fleshraker.
• It helps convert Blade into a real card without comboing of. More Spawns means more creatures that can be sacrificed. This leads to Blade of the Bloodchief becoming a real card that wins combats, not only a combo piece that’s good with Broodscale and bad in every other scenario. 
• Buys time by generating blockers. Nothing to add here – 0/1s that can be summoned each turn can chump ground creatures all day.
• Removal target. A removal spent on Fleshraker → your Broodscale is more likely to stay on the battlefield. Forcing the opponent to kill anything that’s not a Broodscale increases the odds that they eventually run out of answers, and your last Broodscale will take over the game. In my opinion, this aspect of Fleshraker is easily missed by Ramp enthusiasts – if you think of Broodscale as a ramp deck, you won’t see the value of Fleshraker eating a removal. I see this deck more as a combo, so clearing the way for my key creature is a good thing.
• More turn three combo kills. It’s not about having a payoff to infinite Spawns. A turn two Fleshraker means that your Broodscale costs effectively one mana, your Blade is for free, Springleaf Drum generates mana, and so on. Converting casting your one or two mana cards into zero or one mana ones speeds up the deck significantly. 

Weaknesses

• Tempo loss when it dies. It can open you up to a bad exchange in terms of mana to cast versus mana to remove. Unsurprisingly, if you play your three-drop (although, in my opinion, with both Temples and Labs we should consider Fleshraker more as a two-drop) and it gets killed by Lightning Bolt, it’s a bad exchange and a tempo loss. Adding more creatures that can die easily increases the odds of getting outtempoed in certain matchups. For example, against Prowess or Energy, keeping Fleshraker on the battlefield happens quite rarely (but it also can lead to your Broodscale surviving later on, don’t forget about it). You can also combat it by casting Fleshraker and having something to trigger as a follow-up, but it requires having even more mana, so I would count it as a nice addition, not a real plan. 
• When you draw it from the top in later stages of the game, it tends not to matter much. Fleshraker needs to be cast sooner rather than later to trigger enough times to matter. For example, if you draw it on turn six from the top while empty-handed, it counts as a blank, and you would rather draw Mycospawn. 
• It makes you a bit softer to Blood Moon/Harbinger of the Seas. Mana requirements make it a challenge to cast sometimes, especially when the opponent attacks your mana. When Blood Moon happens, your only source is a Spawn, which you can get from Rumble or Broodscale. 

Overall, in my opinion, Glaring Fleshraker is a good addition if you think of it as a combo deck. To unleash its full potential, you should play a full playset, since you want to draw multiples. Some players play only one copy to have something to finish the game after you go for infinite mana and cast Kozilek’s Command. Using it only to finish the opponent feels like you’re not using the card’s full potential. To make it work, you must cast it early, ideally in multiples – this is where it shows power. If you plan to ping the opponent to death, you’re better off using an indirect win condition and spending this slot on something else. 

Urza’s Saga bullets

1. Haywire Mite – an answer to the opponent’s Urza’s Saga, Blade in the mirror, Ruby Medallion, Isochron Scepter, Goblin Bombardment, and a lot of the hate pieces like Pithing Needle, Explosives X=1, etc. Adding a bit of lifegain is a nice touch. 
2. Springleaf Drum – this deck uses Springleaf Drum quite a lot. Converting a Spawn or Fleshraker into green mana to cast a cantrip that finds a Forest is a common way to avoid the grey mana screw. It can also speed up casting your bunch of cantrips, which can otherwise be quite hard to cast with Temples, Sagas, and Labs as lands that must be played ASAP. When played naturally, it works well with Fleshraker – it’s a way to jump from one to two mana for free. 
3. Soul-Guide Lantern – some lists are playing Lantern in the main, mostly as a way to slow down the Emrakul cast in the mirror. It’s also solid against Goryo, Living End, Storm, and anything else that uses graveyard. If you already have Blade on the battlefield, you can also find Lantern just for a redraw. 
4. Vexing Bauble – similarly to Lantern, it sometimes ends up being played in the maindeck. When played early, it stops Affinity entirely; it’s a pain for Neoform, Solitude decks, Force of Negation enjoyers, etc. If it doesn’t feel needed, you can just cycle it. Watch out for casting Walking Ballista X=0 with a bauble on the battlefield!!! You won’t trigger a Blade of it 🙂

The manabase

Broodscale’s manabase is quite simple – it’s made of Sol lands (lands that can tap for two mana), Urza’s Saga, Forests + Boseiju, and silver bullets to tutor with Sowing Mycospawn. I’ll quickly talk about each section:

1. Eldrazi Temple – it’s an absolute must and it makes the deck function. Without it, the deck would be close to unplayable. It lets you play Kozilek’s Command ahead of the curve; it’s a way to cheat Mycospawn with kicker earlier, enable fast Emrakul casts, turn two Fleshrakers, and Broodscale combo out of not six, but five lands, etc. Always play four copies.
2. Ugin’s Labyrinth – it wasn’t played in the RG version, but when Broodscale players switched to mono-green builds, it became possible to add a second Sol land to the deck. The cost of having it isn’t as low as I would like it to be – after all, it needs a seven drop to work and outside Emrakul, there aren’t really good ones. There’s still a discussion about if playing three copies is better than a full playset? To be honest, I don’t have any clear opinions on this. There are a few arguments about adding a fourth copy or keeping it as it is. For example, with a full playset, you should play more seven drops (and I want to avoid adding bad cards to the deck at any cost), and even with eight big boys, the odds of keeping two or more Labs active at the same time are quite low. There’s also a concern of having enough untapped green sources to support a turn one Ancient Stirrings cast. On the other hand, it’s probably better to see the first copy sooner rather than later. So far I’m fine with playing three copies (and six big drops) in a Fleshraker build, but also I’m in the four camp for a traditional version. Having two is probably a chicken move either – in my opinion, it’s ok to risk not having a green source once in a while for more explosive starts in other openings.
3. Urza’s Saga – Saga decks usually fall into two groups: Construct decks (Affinity, UR metalcraft, etc.) or tutor decks (Amulet, Hammer from the old days, etc.). Broodscale is a typical deck from the second category – we don’t play enough cheap artifacts to always support big Constructs, and tutoring Blade greatly increases a turn three goldfish potential. Outside that, the card does a bit of everything – it’s a tutor effect for hate cards (Vexing Bauble, Grafdigger’s Cage, Pithing Needle, Haywire Mite, etc.), a secondary win condition – can be important in post-sideboard games when the opponents often are prepared to stop the combo and can slow down the Emrakul cast. It’s an enchantment, so it makes Emrakul cheaper. It can produce green mana thanks to tutoring Springleaf Drum. And it’s our only land that can be played from hand, and eventually it will go to the graveyard – quite a unique ability.
4. Forest – basic lands are secretly op in Magic. They always enter the battlefield untapped, can’t be affected by most effects the opponent can have when attacking the mana base, and having multiple copies (five or more) changes the Ponza matchup from unwinnable to heavily favoured for us. As long as the deck is mono green, I can see playing a few Forests just to avoid losing to Ponza, Blood Moon, and Harbinger of the Seas that often. The deck wants as many untapped green sources on turn one as possible, all to support Ancient Stirrings (and, to some extent, Nature’s Claim) cast. According to Frank Karsten’s math, it’s still not enough, but the more you play them, the less likely a mana screw will be a part of your reality. 
5. Boseiju, Who Endures – Boseiju is as close to a functional Forest as possible (the Legend rule doesn’t matter much with only two copies) while also being an extra out against opponents’ hate cards, Urza’s Saga, combo pieces like Song of Creation, etc. The cost of having two copies is very low, so why not?
6. Grove of the Burnwillows//Karplusan Forest – if you want to increase the number of grey sources while maintaining the ability to cast your green spells on time, these are your best choices. Grove is a safer route since lifegain for the opponent shouldn’t be as problematic with an infinite combo and Emrakul routes. If you want to go deep with Fleshraker’s pings, Karplusan Forest could be better, maybe? These lands have one huge downside, though – they increase the grey land count for Obsidian Charmaw, so adding them has a cost. 
7. Cavern of Souls – tutor target against blue decks. It’s also a green source when you plan to cast Broodscale or Mycospawn. Sadly, playing it means you don’t play a ‘true’ green source, so it’s one fewer source for green cantrips. The trade off is great though – you can push a 13/13 to the battlefield despite the opponent wasting Consign just to stop the ‘take control of the turn’ trigger. 
8. Shifting Woodland – an interesting tutor target. Useful in longer games when forcing the combo through removal is a way to overpower the opponent’s interaction. Reviving a 13/13 and attacking with it in the air is also a nice idea. Note that if you plan to copy Broodscale or Blade, you can tap Woodlands for green and get the missing combo piece tapped (but still working!). On the other hand, having a tap land in the early game when you naturally draw it is huge, so it’s not as free as everyone thinks.
9. Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth – another ‘I wanna be a Forest’ card. If you’re not afraid of Ponza and Roiling Canopy, you can switch one forest for Yavimaya, so you’ll never run out of green sources. On the other hand, you’ll quite often end up helping the opponent in the mirror or when they’re playing Amulet (and it comes with a huge cost after they get Roiling Canopy)
10. Gemstone Caverns – If you want to speed up the deck at any cost, this is your weapon of choice. Personally, I’m not a fan of adding it because it could be a green source that works all the time, not only when you’re lucky and have it in the opening hand. 

Sideboard options

Broodscale’s sideboard cards fall into a few categories: Urza’s Saga bullets, Disenchants, anti-combo cards, and sometimes big boys. Since the deck is mono-coloured, options are limited.

Below, you’ll find a list of cards that are great, playable, or at least look like it, but aren’t (at least in my opinion). So it’s not like I’m advocating for each one – I just talk about my thoughts about them. It’s up to you to recognise what your expected meta will look like and how you want to adapt. 

Urza’s Saga bullets

Graffdigger’s Cage

It’s our best weapon against green tutor decks and graveyard centric strategies. It’s essential against Devoted Druid, Samwise Gamgee, and Neoform – Cage can single-handedly win games there. It’s also solid against Storm (it doesn’t let flashback card from Past in Flames), but they can still win with the Ral line. It stops the Goryo’s Vengeance combo plan, but it’s useless against the Psychic Frog + Riddler, so I wouldn’t auto side in every copy there. And of course, any Dredge//Phoenix deck doesn’t want to see it. Note that Grafdigger’s Cage doesn’t stop Living End – creatures come into play from Exile, not from the graveyard. 

Pithing Needle

The best names for it are: Devoted Druid, Karn, the Great Creator, Engineered Explosives//Claws of Gix vs Affinity, Goblin Charbelcher, etc. Useful at times, but if you don’t expect to play against any of the mentioned, feel free to cut it. 

Shadowspear

This one is a mystery for me – I never convinced myself to test it because it looks so out of place in Broodscale. I assume that against Prowess, if you want to hide behind a Trinisphere, generating tokens from Urza’s Saga into Shadowspear should stabilise the game. But I feel it’s a bit too random for my taste. 

Vexing Bauble

While a maindeck Vexing Bauble is mainly used as protection from Solitudes, extra copies after sideboarding usually come in against Affinity – if you have three copies and you’re on the play, you can consider mulliganing a bit more aggressively towards finding it. Stopping their zero mana spells is a very effective way of preventing them from doing anything relevant. Outside Affinity, Bauble is good against Neoform (stops Allosaurus Rider), Living End, and to some extent Storm (stops Ral’s ultimate). it’s also good against decks with a lot of free spells, so UBx midrange, Solitude piles, etc. 

Disenchants

Nature’s Claim

The best disenchant effect around. Great against Urza’s Saga decks, can deal with Blade of the Bloodchief, Ruby Medallion, Fight Rigging, Scion of Draco, Leyline of the Guildpact, artifacts tutored from Karn’s -2 ability, literally anything Affinity presents, etc. Some players also side it in against Prowess (to destroy Cori-Steel Cutter) and Energy (for Goblin Bombardment and Blood Moon), but it’s not as obvious for me why, and it depends on how your Broodscale deck is built, how hard the opponent is on enchantments, etc. The lifegain doesn’t matter most of the time because you either win by an infinite combo or deny the opponent’s resources with Emrakul. 

Thief of Existence

Another playable disenchant that, despite being more expensive than Nature’s Claim and sorcery-speed because it’s a creature, has a few interesting upsides. It’s a colourless creature, so both of our green cantrips can grab it. If you play it from Temple or Lab, it’s a 2-mana 3/4, so those stats aren’t that bad. The combination of Disenchant + body is quite good against Energy, can also be solid against Affinity and their hate cards. But more importantly, Thief can destroy cheap planeswalkers. Ajani, Narset, Teferi, Karn – they can all be exiled. Attacking can be denied by removal or blocks; it’s much harder to stop a trigger. With UW Control being on the rise, I can see Thief of Existence being played more often. 

Hate cards to stop combos

Trinisphere

I have a love-hate relationship with this card. It’s our best answer to Prowess. Does it mean it’s great? No. In my opinion, the easiest way to combat Prowess is to have good creature removal. Since we’re mono green, there aren’t any great options (outside Kozilek’s Command, but we can have only four copies and without Sol Lands, it can be too slow), so we have to try to execute the second-best thing, which is not letting them play their spells on time. And when you play Trinisphere early, for example, on turn two when you’re on the play (possible with the help of Ugin’s Labyrinth), it’s as close to a lock as you can get. On the other hand, if you are on the draw or don’t have anything to speed up, Prowess can overpower it. You can also bounce it with Boomerang Basic. So the answers are there. The trick is that nothing is better than it, so we kinda have to play Trinisphere. Outside the Prowess matchup, Sphere is solid against Storm (but once again, on the draw, it can be too slow), buys time against Living End, etc. 

Chalice of the Void

In the past, Chalice was considered the best answer to Prowess you could ever think about. Nowadays, it’s not as trivial, with Cori-Steel Cutter and Slickshot Show-Off around. Maybe despite these two powerful two-mana threats, Chalice could have been solid in the matchup, but the cost of adding it to Broodscale’s sideboard is quite high – a typical list play eleven one drops. Against Boomerang Basics + Stormchaser’s Talent build, I would still side it in, but the presence of two-drop builds makes me question this pivot from Trinisphere to Chalice. On the other hand, playing Chalice on turn one thanks to Ugin’s Labyrinth sounds absurdly good.

Outside the Prowess matchup, Chalice could be useful against Living End, Affinity (but only on the play as X=0), and some Energy builds focused heavily on one drops. 

The Stone Brain

An exile effects that’s main purpose is to attack decks focused too hard on one, very specific card. I like having a copy or two in open fields, when the odds of playing against a weird combo increases. It’s also solid (but not great) against both mirror (name Emrakul) and UW Control (name Day’s Undoing or Orim’s Chant) and it’s quite rare to find a card that would cover them. Of course, four mana total for an exile efffect is a lot, but we can speed it up thanks to Ugin’s Lebyrinth and, more importantly, we don’t have anything better to choose from.

Disruptor Flute

Some players play a one-off Flute as an extra way to do what a Pithing Needle does. You can also name otherwise problematic cards like Consign to Memory or Obsidian Charmaw, but it always feels a bit too situational for me. 

Damping Sphere//Soulless Jalier

I grouped these two together because they were played in earlier iterations of the deck, but they eventually got pushed out of Broodscale’s sideboard. Damping Sphere is technically better against Storm than Trinisphere, mostly because you can always cast it on time. But it’s much worse against Prowess because casting two spells per turn is still doable. Technically, it can also attack big mana decks like Amulet or Tron, but it would also affect our Temples and Labs. 

Soulless Jailer, on the other hand, looks like a narrower, more expensive version of Grafdigger’s Cage. Don’t play it.

Others

Dismember

In some matchups, you want more removal. Side it in against Devoted Druid, Energy, Zoo, and other creature decks. It’s also good against Clarion Conqueror decks (Living End)

Sire of Seven Deaths

Against, if you feel you need even more big dudes, Sire it the best thing you can do. 

Oblivion Sower

An Eldrazi Ramp spell that should technically ‘break’ the mirror and be good against other land destruction decks. Some players say it’s great, other say it’s a six mana brick that sometimes fizzles. I can see playing the first copy as a fifth Mycospawn, but I’m not so high on it.

All is Dust // Ugin, Eye of the Storm

The alternative to big creatures. Powerful cards, that’s for sure, but they don’t work as well with the deck as colourless creatures. All is Dust can’t be picked by Rumble, Ugin can’t be discounted by Eldrazi Temple. That’s why I’m not interested in these options. 

Thought-Knot Seer

The discard ability is something unique to the mono-green deck. It’s a way to deal with Obsidian Charmaw before the opponent can cast it (but I’m not sure if I would be happy to side it in against, for example, Prowess). It’s also solid against combo decks like Amulet, Storm to some extent (I believe one discard isn’t enough to stop it, but it does something at least), and some players side it in the mirror, etc. It’s also impactful against control – it’s one of our only lines of defence against Day’s Undoing. Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of a card because in most of the mentioned matchups, a 4/4 body is rarely relevant, and a discard for three mana (sol land included) isn’t the most spectacular thing ever. So I tend to avoid adding it to the deck if possible. Modern in 2026 is so powerful that most decks are very good at topdecking what they need – the power of individual cards is so high that one discard isn’t as impactful as players think. But sometimes it’s the best we can do. 

Warping Wail

Its most important mode is “Counter target Sorcery spell”. It’s our only answer to Wrath of the Skies (but I don’t care that much about it, to be honest) and Day’s Undoing (but I care a lot about this one). You can also counter Neoform//Eldritch Evolution vs Neobrand, Scapeshift against Amulet, and maybe tutors against Druid. The removal aspect of a card is quite bad – you’ll most of the time trade up on mana, and sometimes the opponent can blank your removal by pumping their guy (imagine killing Show-Off and the opponent plays Mutagenic Growth in response…). The token producer mode is a consolation prize if you don’t find anything better to do with it. 

Walking Ballista

In the past, Walking Ballista was played in the maindeck. It had a couple of uses. Firstly, it was used as a way to speed up the combo – when Broodscale was equipped, Walking Ballista X=0 was a way to generate a Spawn for zero mana. It also was a finisher after infinite mana happened. In fair games Walking Ballista paired with Blade was a great tool to control creature boards – when you killed something, Ballista got a counter, so it could hit once again, kill another thing, get another counter, and so on. Ballista also wes used as a way to speed up the Emrakul cast – being both a creature and artifact mattered. 

Nowadays, the most played builds aren’t that much about the combo, so Walking Ballista lost some of its value. Still, some players play it in the sideboard, either to speed up the combo in goldfish scenarios (for example, against Cosmogoyf, Emrakul will rarely matter, so Ballista can give you at least a chance to more often close up on turn three) or when a machine gun on X/1 creatures matters (for example against Energy). It should also be solid against Druid, but I haven’t tested it in action yet.

Run Afoul

It’s the second-best removal a mono green Broodscale has access to. When Prowess was all about Slickshot Show-Off, having a hard answer to it was a good place to be. With Pompous Battlemage and Stormchaser’s Talent + Boomerang Basics gaining popularity, the odds of playing against Show-Off decreased, so I don’t think adding it only for DRC is a good idea. Outside Prowess, you can also side it one copy against Quantum Riddler and maybe Scion of Draco? But it sounds ambitious at best. 

Bojuka Bog

It’s a tutorable way to slow down an Emrakul cast in the mirror. Outside that, it’s just a solid addition against any deck that uses the graveyard. 

Important plays and tricks you must know

• Being an active/inactive player matters! It’s your turn, you’re an active player, so your triggers go to the stack first → resolve the last. This is quite important in the mirror. If the opponent passes with Broodscale + Blade attached to it and you try to combo on their turn, both Blade triggers will happen, but the opponent’s will resolve first. They will first get a counter (and a token), plus infinite mana, so they can cast Kozilek’s Command from hand first. I could also engineer a few other situations, but all you need to know is that if your and your opponent’s card trigger at the same time, an active/inactive player role matters! 
• Learn how to count to thirteen properly. Casting Emrakul is sometimes trivial, but sometimes it requires counting two turns ahead. There are a few tricks you should know:
  1. Malevolent Rumble can act as a Dark Ritual attached to a better Ponder. If you must come back from behind by casting Emmy fast, Rumble is usually your answer.
  2. Learn the double types: Urza’s Saga, Kozilek’s Command, and Heyrie Mite can ‘generate mana’ while being put to the graveyard. 
  3. If you don’t have K Command and any other instant in the graveyard, the Command played from hand in modes ‘tokens + draw’ is for zero mana. Two types will make Emrakul cheaper by two mana; tokens will generate the same amount of mana you paid for X. So in this instance, Command acts as Impulse on steroids. 
  4. If you plan ahead to cast Emrakul, not every Mycospawn has to grab the Temple. Sometimes Urza’s Saga will generate more mana because you get two types to the graveyard + tutor for Springleaf Drum. 
• Try to slowroll Broodscale if possible. The longer it stays on the battlefield, the bigger the chance it will be killed eventually. For example, if you plan to go off on turn three and have a choice between Rumble, Fleshraker, or Broodscale, you should consider anything but a lizard. Of course, there are exceptions. For instance, against Belcher, having a lethal attacker on turn three is a good thing. But generally, let the opponent believe you don’t have it, then punish them for tapouts. 
• Try to keep at least one Spawn on the battlefield at all times. It’s all because the opponent’s perception of you comboing out of nowhere can affect their actions. With a Spawn on the battlefield, the potential combo costs four mana, not six, which is much easier to assemble. If you have it, the opponent is less likely to execute their own gameplan and will be focused on stopping you from winning. You can punish them for slowing down with a kicked Mycospawn or a pass into end of turn Command. 
• How to properly time the Adapt ability? When you activate Adapt on Broodscale, it gets the counter on the resolve. So until the ability resolves (for example, an ability is on the stack), you can activate it multiple times – it’s sometimes useful when the opponent is greedy and waits with the removal because they want you to waste mana. You can punish them by going for equip and passing without activating Adapt; you’ll have the mana up. You can threaten Adapt in response to removal into a big Kozilek’s Command, stacking library, etc. so the opponent won’t have a good window to use their Lightning Bolt. Once you untap, you can use Adapt more than once in case removal happens, effectively blanking it.
• Blade triggers on every creature that dies. While it’s easy to track counters from sacrificed Spawns, players often miss triggers the opponent generates. This can create an interesting dynamic: because you have equipped creatures and other creatures ready to be thrown to chump blocks, the opponent decides not to attack, so you can’t swing back with a bigger creature. Keep that in mind.
• The cheaper spell gets Consigned, the better. Try to engineer situations where cheaper cards will have to be answered. If Consign happens, it’s not the end of the world. It’s usually a one-for-one, often unfavourable for us in terms of mana spent, but we can come back from it. The more Consigns you get early, the more it decreases the odds of them countering Emrakul. 
• Land sequencing, especially in early turns, is a tough call sometimes. First of all – how often should you start with T1 Urza’s Saga? It depends on your gameplan. If you plan to combo on turn three and have Saga + either Broodscale or Rumble in hand, it’s OK to go for it. Otherwise, I tend to slowroll Saga in slower matchups, where going off on turn three is unlikely, or when Constructs can matter. But we should also factor in Eldrazi Temple. If you have Temple + Command, you’ll be tempted to lead with Temple because if you topdeck another one, you can play Command X=2 on turn two. At this point, it’s a guessing game, and small differences in the rest of your hand will dictate your decisions. At the RC, it will be a bit easier, though, all thanks to open decklists.
• Ugin’s Labyrinth can hide Emrakul from discard effects like Thoughtseize, Archon of Cruelty, or Day’s Undoing. 
• When you play against Obsidian Charmaw, try to sequence lands so they won’t have an easy time casting it for two mana. Slowrolling the Eldrazi Temple and Labyrinth can sometimes be a good idea, so can playing Forests and Boseiju early.