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Bristly Bill, Spine Sower

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Bristly Bill, Spine Sower

At a glance

  • Commander: Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
  • Colors: Mono-Green
  • Archetype: Mono-green +1/+1 counters / proliferate midrange
  • Power tier: mid-high

Cards

Commander — real printed text (verified via CLI)

Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. : Double the number of +1/+1 counters on each creature you control.

The scout paraphrase was accurate. Two load-bearing facts the build leans on:

  1. The counter goes on target creature (any creature) every time a land enters — not just on land plays. So fetch/ramp effects that put lands onto the battlefield (Rampant Growth, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Farhaven Elf, Khalni Heart Expedition) each trigger landfall, as do extra-land-drop enablers (Sakura-Tribe Scout, Walking Atlas, Scale the Heights). Bill turns the whole ramp suite into a slow, free counter machine.
  2. The activated ability doubles counters on EVERY creature you control — a true board-wide explosion. With a wide counter board this is the one-shot finisher.

Gameplan / win condition

A counters midrange snowball that closes through combat:

  • Early: ramp + drop Bill, then every land drop sprinkles a +1/+1 counter. Extra-land enablers double the landfall triggers.
  • Mid: proliferate (Pollenbright Druid, Bloom Hulk, Adaptive Sporesinger, Copper Longlegs, Smell Fear, Thirsting Roots, Courage in Crisis) multiplies every counter already on the board, including those Bill placed. Fight/bite removal scales with your now-oversized creatures and clears blockers.
  • EXPLICIT WIN: assemble a board, give everything trample (Nylea’s Forerunner / Thundering Ceratok / Spectral Hunt-Caller / Temperamental Oozewagg), then activate Bill’s doubling ability to roughly double every creature’s size and swing for lethal. King Harald’s Revenge gives one creature +1/+1 per creature you control + trample for a single-target kill. Ivy Elemental and Nyxborn Hydra are X-sinks that get doubled by Bill for a haymaker.

Inevitability, not draw-go: green can’t wrath, so the deck wins by going over the top — the doubling button means even a modest board becomes lethal in one activation. Bill’s landfall is the deck’s one reliably repeatable counter source; the proliferate effects (Pollenbright Druid, Bloom Hulk, Adaptive Sporesinger, Copper Longlegs, Smell Fear, Thirsting Roots, Courage in Crisis) are mostly one-shot ETBs that multiply counters in bursts rather than a true every-turn engine.

Role breakdown (counts)

  • Lands: 37 — 30 Forest, plus Tranquil Thicket, Slippery Karst, Desert of the Indomitable (cycling lands), The Hunter Maze, Khalni Garden (makes a Plant to counter-up), and Evolving Wilds + Terramorphic Expanse (each produces TWO landfall triggers: the fetch land entering, then the basic it grabs — premium with Bill). The mana dorks (Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, etc.) sit in the ramp count below, not here.
  • Ramp: 10 — Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Wall of Roots, Priest of Titania, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Rampant Growth, Farhaven Elf, Khalni Heart Expedition, Scale the Heights. Extra-land enablers (Sakura-Tribe Scout, Walking Atlas, Arboreal Grazer) also accelerate land drops = extra landfall counters.
  • Card advantage: 9 — Elvish Visionary, Llanowar Visionary, Generous Stray, Shaman of Spring, Sarulf’s Packmate, Deepwood Denizen (counter-discounted repeatable draw), Selvala’s Enforcer, Trade Route Envoy, Elven Farsight.
  • Spot removal / interaction: 11 — Mutant’s Prey, Titanic Brawl, Ancient Animus, Prey Upon, Rabid Bite, Bite Down, Master’s Rebuke, Ram Through, Hunt the Weak, Outmuscle, Struggle for Skemfar, Kapow! (fight/bite removal that grows your team), plus Plummet (flier), Caustic Caterpillar / Return to Nature (artifact/enchantment).
  • Pseudo-mass / sweeper-adjacent: Scattershot Archer (repeatable anti-flier ping). Green has no true wipe at common; compensated with a deep removal suite + trample-based inevitability.
  • Counter payoffs / finishers: Ivy Elemental, Nyxborn Hydra, King Harald’s Revenge, Nylea’s Forerunner, Thundering Ceratok, Spectral Hunt-Caller, Temperamental Oozewagg, Servant of the Scale, Fertilid, Gnarlid Pack, plus Bill’s doubling.

Pilot notes

  • Hold Bill’s landfall counter for whatever matters: dump it on an attacker pre-combat, a blocker, or a fight creature to win the brawl. It targets ANY creature, so you can bank counters on Ivy Elemental / Nyxborn Hydra to set up a doubled bomb.
  • Sequence ramp before your land for the turn when possible — each ramp-into-play land is its own landfall trigger.
  • Proliferate after Bill has seeded counters around; it multiplies value, and it also advances Khalni Heart Expedition’s quest counters.
  • Save Bill’s doubling for the alpha strike — ideally with trample granted, so doubled power tramples through chump blockers. It doubles X-creature counters too.
  • Fight/bite spells are your removal AND your combat tricks; favor the one-sided “bite” effects (Bite Down, Master’s Rebuke, Rabid Bite, Ram Through) when you want to keep your creature healthy.

Weaknesses

  • No true board wipe. A go-wide aggro or token deck that out-races you before the doubling turn is the worst matchup; lean on fight removal and blockers.
  • Bill is the engine — repeated removal on him slows the counter flow. The deck still functions as a counters midrange pile without him, but loses the doubling finish.
  • Light on instant-speed interaction / no counterspells (mono-green). Vulnerable to combo decks that ignore the board.
  • Flier coverage is thin beyond Plummet / Scattershot Archer; reach creatures (Nyxborn Hydra) help.

Decklist

⬇ Download as .txt — paste into Moxfield, Archidekt, or MTG Arena.

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