I’ve put together a testing gauntlet for Standard, running the usual (and not-so-usual) suspects, and I’ve been noticing a trend.
What do the following have in common?
Tooth and Nail
B/G Cloud (which I still call The Rock, again, feel free to disagree)
R/G Control
U/G Control
Mono-Green Aggro
Mono-Green Control
If you haven’t figured it out by now, it’s time to go back to Sesame Street, as this column is being brought to you by the letter “G.”
Aside from mono-Blue, mono-Red/Ponza and (maybe) White Weenie and MBC, every Standard Tier 1 deck is running Forests. That’s over half the field! It’s apparent that, right now, Green is the best color in Magic.
Call Kermit the Frog, this is a real Muppet News Flash! Why, this kind of news could get Jamie Wakefield back into the game!
So, why is Green so good right now, as opposed to seasons past?
1) The red zone matters again
With the banning of Disciple of the Vault, Arcbound Ravager and the arti-lands, Standard lost the two best combo decks in the format, Ravager Affinity and KCI (and, yes, I know that Ravager wasn’t strictly a combo deck, but an unholy hybrid, and we’ve discussed this before). And Green is all about the red zone, which leads to our next bullet point…
2) Mana acceleration and mana fixing are important
Well, duh. Green’s always had mana acceleration; that’s one of its traditional strengths. But has it ever had so much? Birds of Paradise, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Rampant Growth (remember how important this was to Wake-based decks?), Solemn Simulacrum and Kodama’s Reach – the cup literally runneth over. Since the current iteration of dual lands simply isn’t as good as the old Ice Age painlands (is anyone running Pinecrest Ridge or Shivan Oasis in R/G, for example? That’s what I thought…), what Green offers is too good to pass up. Not only can Green decks dip into other colors and still have a stable mana base, they can run far fewer lands than non-Green decks. Fewer lands = more spells. You do the math.
3) Artifacts still matter
Vedalken Shackles, Sword of Fire and Ice, Chrome Mox, Umezawa’s Jitte, Stalking Stones, Blinkmoth Nexus, Guardian Idol, Ensnaring Bridge, Bonesplitter, Solemn Simulacrum, Lightning Greaves. Odds are you are going to run into at least one of these cards across the table. And what color offers the best defense against these cards? Yes, that would be Green. What other color offers you the best chance to play these powerful artifacts and defend against them? Red does have Hearth Kami, White Terashi’s Grasp…and Green has a good baker’s dozen of cards.
4) Green has the best creature base
This point could be argued, I suppose, but in terms of overall synergy, Green’s got the best ground-pounders. I can count on one hand the creatures being played in any Blue deck. I might have to take off one sock to count the options available to White. But Green…I’d have to get naked and then some.
Case in point: Mono-Green aggro.
Mono-Green Aggro
Maxine Hermes
5th Place – Paris Regionals
1 Swamp
20 Forest
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
3 Eternal Witness
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Fangren Firstborn
1 Dosan, the Falling Leaf
2 Iwamori of the Open Fist
4 Viridian Zealot
4 Troll Ascetic
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Beacon of Creation
2 Wear Away
1 Naturalize
4 Umezawa’s Jitte
4 Sword of Fire and Ice
Sideboard:
2 Aether Vial
4 Creeping Mold
4 Cranial Extraction
3 Engineered Explosives
2 Sword of Light and Shadow
This was the earliest iteration of mono-Green, placing quite well at the first Paris Regionals in France.
Firstly, calling this a mono-Green aggro deck is a slight misnomer. Let’s call it mostly-Green Aggro. Thanks to the mana fixing and acceleration provided by Birds of Paradise and Sakura Tribe-Elder – a card that, given time, may be seen as the best card to come out of Champions of Kamigawa (let the flames commence) – Green decks can easily splash other colors, as mentioned previously. Frequently, it’s Black for Cranial Extraction, but Blue can also be added for Meloku the Clouded Mirror, White for Worship or Red for Boil.
I don’t pretend to know why the deck is built the way it is. I can see how copies of Dosan the Falling Leaf and Iwamori of the Open Fist are attractive, but no Time of Need to fish them out? Only one Fangren Firstborn in an aggro Green deck? Two Aether Vial? And Wear Away over Naturalize, when there are virtually no Arcane spells in the deck?
My carping aside, there are few lessons to be taken from this deck, and mostly-Green builds in general. For one, it’s Viridian Zealot’s time to shine. During Mirrodin block, it clearly wasn’t quite as good as the Politically Correct Sex Monkey Reprint, Viridian Shaman. The Zealot requires a heavier commitment to Green, doesn’t stick on the table like the Shaman (and there’s no synergy between the Zealot and Crystal Shard, either), and it does cost 1GGG to cast and use. But it effectively fills the same role that Hearth Kami fills in mono-Red, early beater and anti-artifact defense.
Speaking of times to shine, now is the time to haul Troll Ascetic out of storage. During any other season, a 3/2 regenerator that you can target but not your opponent – and only costing three mana – would be insanely good. With Ravager Affinity about, however, a 3/2 that really didn’t do anything to impact the board was suboptimal, Viridian Shaman was the superior choice. Now it’s time for the Angry Green Troll to ascend to his proper place.
It can’t be stolen with Vedalken Shackles. It can’t be burned out. It can’t be stopped. It can’t be reasoned with. Black removal short of Hideous Laughter or global spells like Barter in Blood does nothing. And if you follow up the Ascetic with a Sword of Fire and Ice or Umezawa’s Jitte, that’s pretty much game over.
Speaking of Sword of Fire and Ice, it certainly has exploded in popularity, no doubt due to the initial belief that mono-Blue and mono-Red were the best decks; a belief that has proven mostly true. It makes even a lowly Bird a fearsome force in the red zone. Even if your opponent isn’t playing Red or Blue… this card is too good not to run. I was initially unsold on Umezawa’s Jitte, but it provides a valuable resource otherwise lacking in the Green deck: creature removal.
Beacon of Creation serves two purposes; one, creating lots of bugs for the attack (three to seven on average), and two, it also creates a lot of potential chump blockers. This card is equally at home in aggro and control decks.
Finishing out my list of cards I’m gushing about is Eternal Witness, and, criminy, we all know how good this card is. It’s not quite as spiffy without Oxidize as your best target, but it’s the best damn card to come out of Fifth Dawn. Sakura-Tribe Elder is perfectly acceptable to bring back. A Jitte or Sword is even better.
Hmm. Eternal Witness = best card from Fifth Dawn. Sakura-Tribe Elder = best card from Champions of Kamigawa. Methinks I see a trend developing (and it’s not necessarily “Dave doesn’t know what he’s talking about”).
Mono Green Beats
Lucien Bui
5th-8th Plane, Midi-Pyrennees Regionals
4 Troll Ascetic
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Viridian Zealot
4 Karstoderm
2 Viridian Shaman
4 Eternal Witness
4 Sakura Tribe-Elder
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Beacon of Creation
4 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Genju of the Cedars
Sideboard:
3 Sword of Light and Shadow
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Cranial Extraction
2 Boil
2 Splinter
1 Rushwood Dryad
2 Naturalize
Now we’re getting a little tighter, a little better. Gone are the random one-of Legends, replaced by Karstoderm. Back in his Darksteel review, Zvi Mowshowitz wrote, “Right card, wrong block,” if I remember correctly. With Affinity dead, now this new take on Blastoderm is the right call in an aggressive Green deck. You can even drop a Sword of Fire and Ice and still have a pretty damn good 4/4.
Genju of the Cedars… overkill? I’m not convinced you really need it. I’d like it if I was playing against a Death Cloud-based deck, perhaps, but otherwise…meh.
The sideboard seems a little odd. Cranial Extraction is the splash du jour in these mostly-Green decks as an answer to Tooth and Nail, but we also have a Mountain for Boil. Splinter is another card I’m not sold on. Mind you, it’s the ultimate in anti-Equipment cards, but it is a four-mana sorcery. It’s something I recommend playing with to see how it works.
Mono Green
Remy Poussard
1st Place, Poitou Charente Regionals
21 Forest
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
2 Fangren Firstborn
4 Troll Ascetic
2 Isao, Enlightened Bushi
3 Kodama of the North Tree
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Viridian Zealot
3 Karstoderm
4 Beacon of Creation
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Plow Under
4 Blanchwood Armor
2 Genju of the Cedars
2 Blasting Station
Sideboard:
2 Dosan, the Falling Leaf
2 Gaea’s Herald
3 Gale Force
4 Creeping Mold
4 Wear Away
And, now for something slightly different. The addition of Blasting Station makes it look like a Bennie Smith special, creating an efficient combo with Beacon of Creation. And Blanchwood Armor is similar to Sword of Fire and Ice and the Jitte, making just about anything in your deck big, fat, and difficult to deal with. Isao, Enlightened Bushi is an interesting choice if you’re expecting a heavily Blue field, but I reserve judgment until I see him dominating the field.
This deck curiously straddles the fence between aggro (Fangren Firstborn) and control (Plow Under). I think the deck would be stronger with four of one or the other, but, then again, Remy won the tournament with it, take my opinion with the proverbial grain of salt.
That’s what been seen in the earliest of Top 8s. Based upon these decks, what is the optimal build?
I went with this.
Green Party (a.k.a. almost-mono-Green-aggro)
21 Forest
1 Swamp
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Sakura Tribe-Elder
4 Rushwood Dryad
4 Viridian Zealot
4 Eternal Witness
4 Troll Ascetic
3 Beacon of Creation
4 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
4 Karstoderm
Sideboard:
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Sword of Light and Shadow
4 Cranial Extraction
3 Wear Away
2 Splinter
3 Matsu Tribe-Sniper
Once again, it’s all about the catchy name. I mean, really, how difficult is it to come up with something catchy? U/G Madness? Not catchy. “Wonder Dog”? Much catchier.
See what I mean? What would you rather be remembered for?
As for my choices: Rushwood Dryad is the most obvious “Wha?” card, and my attempt to play Guess The Metagame. If we are indeed looking at a very Forest-heavy environment (Magic Eight-Ball says “All signs point to yes”), then a 2/1 forestwalker isn’t a bad choice, especially once you slap him with a Sword or Jitte. If your opponent is not playing Forests, you still have a decent bear (and easy sideboarding choices). I’ve had considerable success with this card to date, don’t dismiss the Dryad out of hand until you’ve tried it.
The big fatty slot came down to Karstoderm and Fangren Firstborn. Karstoderm’s drawback is negligible in this environment and “Fangy” strikes me as a win-more card. Yes, he makes all your attackers stronger. But there’s that pesky two toughness, meaning there’s a good chance he’ll be torched as soon as he hits the table. Compare that to the fives in the lower right hand corner of our Blastoderm reprint. As has been established, Red does not like things with big numbers there.
Kodama of the North Tree was a consideration, but I am worried about Bribery (“Karsty” is your opponent’s best target for Bribery, and he can be dealt with more easily than a Kodama). Plus, it can’t equip up like the Ascetic. No, I remain convinced Karstoderm is the correct choice.
His name might be Mr. Plow, but Mr. Plow belongs in a control deck. This is aggro. Not that there’s anything wrong with mana disruption, mind you, but in an aggro deck, I’d rather spend five mana to cast a Sword and equip. You want Plow Under in your green deck? That’s next week.
Only three Beacons. They’ve proven effective, but I have discovered that a turn 3 5/5 is better than three 1/1s. Three Jittes, too, since there is the legendary problem, and I’ve been glutted with four.
Splinter made the cut in the sideboard since it is the ultimate anti-artifact card in this environment (also, gets rid of Darksteel Colossus; worth noting). Even Eternal Witness won’t bring back those Swords now, which is why I’m playing it. I’m not sure this is correct, though – there are times it rocks, there are times it’s absolutely worthless.
No Naturalize or Creeping Mold; the Mold is too expensive for what it does, and the slight risk of mana screw is not enough motivation to overlook the not-quite-so-slight possibilities of splicing with Wear Away.
As for the final slots in the sideboard, Sword of Light and Shadow has proven effective against weenie white and mono-black decks, and I’m experimenting with Matsu-Tribe Sniper. This slot could evolve into Gale Force, but the Sniper has, in initial testing, proven pretty good against the likes of Meloku, Kokusho and little White fliers.
And finally, from the Just Crazy Enough To Work Department: Choke is right out, since most mono-Blue decks are running Spectral Shift, which acts – very effectively – as both anti-Boil and anti-Choke. Plus, you are probably going to have to worry about Hibernation appearing in sideboards as Green decks rise in popularity.
If so, why not fight fire with fire? It wouldn’t be difficult to add an Island and run Spectral Shift yourself. Not only would it effectively be a good anti-Hibernation card (might even be able to bounce a Magpie or two), but it could also function as an anti-Shackles card should you not have a Viridian Zealot handy. Narrow, yes, but consider what a hosing Hibernation is against a mostly-Green deck. Also, you can target both Swords with it (pro-Green isn’t bad in the mirror).
I’ll say this, Spectral Shift is a lot better than Distorting Lens, that’s for sure.
This is just one way to build “Green Party,” and there’s a lot of wiggle room in the decklist – Fangren Firstborn, Viridian Shaman, Oxidize, Creeping Mold, Naturalize – in time, these may prove to be better choices. The base is sound, though, and mostly-Green Aggro can be considered one of those decks that you’d better be ready to come across.