Man, I cannot really say enough good things about Evan Erwin and his video series. I’m a huge fan, but I’m also nowhere near close to developing a man/boy crush on him. In one of his old videos, he was telling us all about his experiences at the StarCityGames.com 1k event, when paired against Mono-Green Aggro.
He said it was a bye for him… but I think the Mono-Green player could have won.
Note I say this even though I know nothing about the opponent’s deck. As far as I know it could have been 33 lands, some elves, maybe some Resizes and um, Thorn Elemental.
This series of mono-colored decks are attempts to show Evan that he is wrong. I am a firm believer that mono-colored decks can be a force in Standard, although not many people agree. Some would say it is insane to try to play a mono-colored deck in the current metagame. In this format, there really is no reason to play mono-colored decks. You have the tools to run powerful spells (an build funky stuff like Karsten’s Angel deck, or Solar Fires or whatever it is called) without ruining your manabase.
To that I say this… “Who cares?”
I am not going to qualify for the pro tour again, and I am fine with that. For me, testing Extended is less important than getting ready for school to start again. I have no need for the format, and I’ll start trying to relive the luckiest fluke performance ever after the season is over.
Or maybe I’ll just pick up Boros Deck Wins, and try to mise a spot off that. I could just borrow Aggro Loam from one of my teammates for a qualifier. I mean, if Scott can win maybe there is hope for me! (I do want to publicly congratulate Scott Schauf for qualifying for his first Pro Tour with Aggro Loam this past weekend in West Virginia. Also good job to Brandon Burks and Daniel Neeley for taking two more slots in the Top 8.)
Anyway, back to the issue at hand. Here is my deck list for Mono-Green Aggro as it stands now.
Creatures (24)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Dryad Sophisticate
- 4 Silhana Ledgewalker
- 4 Boreal Druid
- 4 Scryb Ranger
- 4 Spectral Force
Lands (21)
- 1 Pendelhaven
- 20 Forest
Spells (15)
Sideboard
Now that is a might simple list!
For those of you not in the know, this is how the deck plays out.
1. Cast a Dude.
2. Make it Bigger
3. Attack
4. Continue
5. Win the Game.
Yep, that is also a pretty simple game plan.
I’m going to take this deck out for a small sampling of games on Magic Online. I know I am running the risk of gimmick infringement, so with all apologies to Ben Bleiweiss, I present you the play logs of my matches.
Match 1 versus icegrave playing TriscuitTron
At least I get to start off this trouncing with a thoroughly awful matchup. Wrath of God, Faith’s Fetters, Triskelavus. All of those cards are bad for you, and with little to no way to deal with them in the main, you are in for an uphill battle.
Game 1, my opener was an Elf, three Stonewood Invocation, and three Forest. More often than not you toss this hand back for something that puts more pressure on the board, but I just wanted to see how this hand played out.
I cast the first elf, attack, and make a second one. I just draw land off the top, and resolve an Invocation to put him at ten.
He plays Wrath and I am left without a board. I did draw a Sophisticate, but it was countered, and I stop drawing creatures. I end the game with two Invocations, and one Might in hand.
I pack to Trisk when he casts it.
Frowns.
Sideboarding, I bring in 2 Shamans, and 2 Grips. Taking out the Blanchwood Armors, because Wrath makes it awful and it does not dredge, so I figured I would keep in the one that is going to come back when I need it to.
Game 2 was a little bit better. I have two Boreal, two Ledgewalker, two Forests, and a Ranger. I was on the play, and this is an acceptable hand, but could have been better with a pump spell at least. I cast first turn elf, and followed that up with a Ranger. It was Remanded. On my third turn I attack for one, and make two men (Ledgewalker and Druid) and pass. My opponent looked mana hosed, but I was not drawing a pump spell to put more damage on the board, and he could not draw a second plains for Wrath. The turn after my Force resolved, he does draw a second White, and my board is cleared by Wrath. He follows that up with a Trisk, but I have grip for that, and we are at a standstill. I eventually rebuild with another Force that is Fetters twice, and lose my rebuilt board of Ranger and Elf to the Wrath. He plays out a Ruins, and I see the writing on the wall. I pack it up when he does not add colorless mana to his pool with the land.
Okay. So TriscuitTron Tron is a bad matchup. What could improve it? I did have Acid-Moss in the board at one stage, and it may go back in as it keeps them off Tron and smoothes my mana draws. I’ll look at it more as a replacement for Gather Courage (underachieving to say the very least.)
0-1
Round 2 versus BIGBIG With Solar Flare
Yes, people still play this deck. I think it is still competitive, and it also happens to be another godawful matchup, and one that makes me wish I had Acid-Moss.
Short story. Game 1, he has Darkblast main, and I get wrecked by it, while holding three Spectral Force. Somewhere Evan is smiling, because I am starting to morph into a rather sad panda. I lose that one in pretty short order.
Game 2 I win after an ultra aggressive start, and he fails to find a Wrath
Game 3 is the same as game 1, with no Darkblast to wreck me. Just turn 4 Akroma.
Neat.
So I am having a problem against control decks. Let’s see how I do against an aggro deck.
Round 3 versus Baboo Brazil with White Weenie.
So I lose the roll, and he kicks off with a Knight of the Holy Nimbus. I get a Ledgewalker, and proceed to play in order – Cloak, Cloak, and Armor. That was rather satisfying.
I bring in three Spike Feeders, and take out an Invocation and two Armors.
Game 2, I come out of the gates with a second turn Ranger, and follow it up with a fifth and sixth turn Spectral Force.
Broccoli was eating his face.
I finally won one, and in the same process proved absolutely nothing wrong to Evan. Sigh.
I decided to look at other deck lists to see if I was just missing something. I wanted something against control and stumbled upon the deck list of a very sneaky robot. Sadly, this is a theoretical list after watching the queues of all the past weeks Premier events.
Creatures (24)
- 4 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Dryad Sophisticate
- 4 Silhana Ledgewalker
- 4 Scryb Ranger
- 4 Spectral Force
Lands (19)
Spells (17)
Sideboard
Blood Moon looks like it will help against a lot of matchups.
…
That was my quick look at Mono Green Aggro. I will still argue that is a viable deck to play, but it has to be in an aggro field. I would give the deck a try though, as there really is nothing less satisfying than watching Broccoli eating your opponent’s face.
Another mono-colored deck that has been receiving press as of late is one that looks to take advantage of all the discard in the format… and follow that up with The Rack. I know Evan has given this deck a seal of approval of some sort, as he played it in a Premier event a few weeks ago. Not this exact list, mind… but one that did the same sort of thing.
Frank Karsten covered this on the mother ship last week, and I felt it needed a full look.
This decklist, at first glance, looks like a tight little package that is designed to hose control. However, can this deck withstand a dedicated beatdown strategy? That is the question I am aiming to answer with some MTGO games.
The matchup against aggro decks seems to be pretty awful, as evidenced by the sideboard and the seven life gain removal spells. I like that move because you can sideboard all the hand disruption out, taking away the dead draws that these cards often are against the aggressive decks.
To kick this off, I’m going to show a game between Boros, and how it plays out.
Versus Boros
I win the die roll, which helps a little, but have to mulligan away because of Ghost Quarter and no colored sources. I keep a shifty six card hand because it has Stromgald Crusader in it, and to me it seems like that card is important in the matchup. However, I get blown out in quick fashion. My opponent has removal for the Crusader, (Hammer) and overwhelms me with creatures.
Sideboarding in: 4 Feast of Flesh, 3 Tendrils of Corruption, 4 Deathmark.
Sideboarding out: 4 Stupor, 4 Cry of Contrition, 3 Smallpox.
I kept The Rack in because it seemed like it could be randomly good. I mean, the theory about Boros is it empties its hand quickly, and rips off the top all the while bashing you over the head.
I am again on the play, and I get the chance to trade his early drops with my removal and increase my life total. Crusader comes down and races past his Paladin with relative ease. During the game I figured out that I might have sideboarded wrong, because having Plague Sliver in the deck gives me a huge cheap threat that they have to have a Paladin for.
Sideboarding for game 3…
In: 3 Plague Sliver, 2 Smallpox.
Out: 4 The Rack, 1 Phyrexian Arena.
I brought more Smallpoxes back in because I wanted another way to deal with Paladin.
Game 3 found me still answering his threats one-for-one with my removal, but I died with a grip full of four-mana spells and three lands in play for what seemed like forever. (Okay, so it was closer to ten turns.)
To me it seems like the aggro match up may not be all that bad post boarding, but pre-board it is most certainly an uphill struggle.
Versus Dralnu de Louvre
Game 1 was easy enough. I led off with a Rusalka, and played two Cries on turn 2. I haunt my Rusalka, and my opponent was drawing off the top of the library while I was bashing face with Dark Confidant, and gaining more card advantage than he could deal with. The Rack would have been really good here, but I never saw it.
Sideboarding in: 1 Phyrexian Arena, 3 Plague Sliver
Sideboarding out: 4 Cruel Edict.
I sided out Cruel Edict because if the deck plays as it should, they should not have much of a hand to deal with my own threats. I wanted a quick beater as well, so the Sliver came in.
Game 2 was not nearly as broken as Game 1. I led off with The Rack, and hiccupped on mana (which is the second time that has happened). However, since he was playing a slow control deck I was able to come back into the game. I was able to stay in the game with the disruption, and The Rack cleaned up for me.
The deck, in the two matches I played (I told you it was going to be limited… I have an accounting class in the morning), seemed to do what I wanted it to do. The disruption is fantastic against most of the metagame on MTGO (which has become a mishmash of control decks), and can talk a good game against the aggressive decks of the field with the transformational sideboard.
I’m going to present another decklist in the same vein. This build of Mono-Black made the Top 8 of the first City Championships in Kentucky this past weekend.
This decklist – in theory – has a better match-up against the Aggro decks because of the inclusion of targeted removal and Desert. Dark Banishing seems to be a better removal spell because of the flexibility of casting speed (Instant versus Sorcery, of course.)
Later on this week I am going to take a look at other mono-colored decks in the format. I’ll be looking at a Mono-White Life deck I played recently at the City Championships, the popular Mono-Red storm decks, and wrap it up with the fantastically fun Mono-Blue Pickles deck later on in the week!
Thanks for reading!
JXC