Premiere — Is HollowVine Back?!

Written by Chris Hubka

There was a brief time in Legacy where 8-Walla, referring to Basking Rootwalla and Blazing Rootwalla, or HollowVine-style decks, named after Hollow One and Vengevine, had their time in the sun.

They were all-in, go-wide aggressive strategies with late-game staying power via Vengevine recursion the Rootwallas' pump abilities. Without the power creep of supplemental products in Premiere, we might have a chance to ride the HollowVine lightning again.

What Did We Lose?

Unfortunately, two of the big four threats aren't legal in Premiere:

• Blazing Rootwalla
• Anje’s Ravager

The Deck

Moxfield

Main Deck

• 4 Basking Rootwalla
• 4 Hollow One
• 4 Putrid Imp
• 4 Swarm, Being of Bees
• 4 Timeline Culler
• 4 Vengevine
• 2 Anger
• 2 Ox of Agonas
• 4 Burning Inquiry
• 4 Faithless Looting
• 2 Gamble
• 4 Lion's Eye Diamond
• 4 Once Upon a Time
• 3 Arid Mesa
• 2 Badlands
• 3 Bloodstained Mire
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Taiga
• 2 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard

• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Darkblast
• 4 Faerie Macabre
• 3 Firestorm
• 1 Flaring Pain
• 2 Pithing Needle
• 1 Tormod's Crypt

The Mana Base

This list runs a tight red/black/green manabase with fetchlands to smooth colors. Taiga and Badlands are the green-splash for Once Upon a Time and sideboard options while still supporting Burning Inquiry and Faithless Looting.

The deck doesn’t require much mana to function, but access to all three colors allows for flexibility. Many of the creatures are free creatures or payoff the discard synergies.

The Engine

This deck is designed to turn discard into an advantage:

• Burning Inquiry and Faithless Looting — discard to fuel Hollow One and Vengevine via Swarm, Tide Culler, and Basking Rootwalla.
• Gamble — Gamble can tutor an extra Vengevine, grant our haste via Anger, or nab an Ancient Grudge to deal with a problem.
• Lion's Eye Diamond — enables our most broken starts; often worth taking the Gamble for.
• Putrid Imp and Basking Rootwalla — Free enablers. The former helps discard Vengevines, the latter helps recur them.

Winning the Game

Flood the board with oversized, hasty threats before the opponent can stabilize.

• Vengevine — The namesake recursive clock. With so many zero- and one-mana creatures, triggering multiple Vengevine is trivial.
• Hollow One — Often a free turn-one play with any discard enabler.
• Ox of Agonas — Refuels mid-game if the first wave of threats are dealt with.
• Timeline Culler — A recursive, disruptive, aggressive threat.
• Anger — Haste helps close games.

Key Interactions

• Burning Inquiry + Hollow One — One of the format's nastiest openers.
• Vengevine + Basking Rootwalla/Swarm/Putrid Imp — Two cheap creatures = free recursive 4/3 with haste.
• Lion’s Eye Diamond + Ox of Agonas — The former fuels the latter.
• Swarm + Timeline Culler — Discarding these fuels the payoff threats.
• Once Upon a Time — Best turn one spell available to smooth out opening hands.

Sideboard Plan

The sideboard shores up weak points; offers interaction:

• Graveyard Hate — Faerie Macabre/Tormod’s Crypt — free, instant-speed disruption.
• Creature Removal — Firestorm clears smaller creatures and hatebears and simultaneously fuels our strategy
• Artifact/Enchantment Hate — Ancient Grudge is cheap and efficient against Chalice of the Void and can Phyrexian Dreadnought.
• Combo Hate — Pithing Needle shuts off problems like Soul-Guide Lantern and the like.
• Anti-Prevention Tech — Flaring Pain helps against Mother of Runes and the like that can gum-up the board.

Join the Premiere Discord!

A website dedicated to Premiere is coming soon.

Submit Your Article To Eternal Durdles!

Want to write for EternalDurdles.com? DM @ForceofPhil on Discord, Twitter, or BlueSky.

Subscribe to Eternal Durdles on YouTube!

Featured image: Vengevine by Raymond Swanland