An interesting thing happened recently – I joined a Magic Team. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but I was never invited to anyone else’s team… And the few times I attempted to form one myself, I could never get that critical mass of folks who had the dedication and energy to really make it work.
And then Ferrett came to the rescue with Team Diaspora. Cool name, huh? Yeah, the name was my idea, so I may be biased. But Ferrett liked it and no one else hates it.
Anyway, check out Ferrett’s forthcoming article about his plans for the team. What follows grew out of my first team assignment, going over the PT Osaka Mono-green archetype with a fine-tooth comb.
Why am I concerned about OBC right now? Well, the idea is that if we start examining and analyzing the environment now, when the OBC qualifier season rolls around, we’ll be so prepared that we’ll simply blow through the Q circuit and all of us will hook up at some distant PT where we will all get our butts kicked. But hey, at least we’ll have Q’d once in our lives. Sweet!
At first, I was in agreement with the conventional wisdom that this was a Tier 3 deck that didn’t have a snowball’s chance against the Tier 1 archetypes of Monoblack Control and Blue/Green. After all, the great Finkel and the O’M-S brothers scrubbed out with it, right?
Funny how the details tell a different story.
MONOGREEN SUCCESS STORIES
Top Finishers playing Monogreen, PT Osaka OBC (Odyssey-Torment)
Finished 21st 28 Pts, Raffaele LoMoro Overall Record 9-4-1
Finished 33rd 27 Pts, Anthony Menzer Overall Record 9-5-0
Finished 35th 26 Pts, Dan Clegg Overall Record 8-4-2
FINISHING 21ST:
28 Pts, Raffaele LoMoro
Main Deck
4 Deserted Temple
20 Forest
4 Millikin
4 Squirrel Mob
4 Werebear
4 Acorn Harvest
4 Beast Attack
4 Call of the Herd
4 Chatter of the Squirrel
4 Overrun
4 Squirrel Nest
Sideboard:
4 Leaf Dancer
4 Moment’s Peace
4 Spellbane Centaur
3 Sylvan Might
Decklist Notes: Of the top 3 monogreen decks, Raffaele’s was the only version to run Millikin, which seemed to be an excellent choice – both for complementary acceleration (along with Werebear), but with a whopping sixteen flashback spells (including Acorn Harvest, which the others did not run) he could effectively increase his hand size for each milled flashback spell. Helping to bring a Werebear to threshold faster is a nice touch, too. While the other top 3 performers ran Basking Rootwalla over the Millikins and Wild Mongrels over Acorn Harvest, the rest of the decklist and sideboard looks fairly standard with the exception of Sylvan Mights which may have given the deck an edge (along with Spellbane Centaur) against the blue/green decks, since winning the creature battles would be clutch.
Round | Results | Opponent’s Deck |
Rd 1 | Won 2-1 vs. Jensen, William [USA] | Black/Blue/Red |
Rd 2 | Won 2-0 vs. Itadani, Eisaku [JPN] | Blue/Green |
Rd 3 | Won 2-0 vs. Baberowski, Dirk [GER] | Blue/Green |
Rd 4 | Lost 0-2 vs. Siron, Geoffrey [BEL] | Monoblack Beatdown |
Rd 5 | Lost 1-2 vs. Ruel, Antoine [FRA] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 6 | Won 2-0 vs. Onoda, Michihisa [JPN] | Blue/Green |
Rd 7 | Drew 0-0-0 vs. Sonne, Jonathan [USA] | Blue/Green |
Rd 8 | Won 2-0 vs. Thompson, James [USA] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 9 | Lost 0-2 vs. Gemuend, Tobias [GER] | Blue/Green |
Rd 10 | Won 2-1 vs. Chiera, Luca [ITA] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 11 | Won 2-0 vs. Tan, Steve Wei Quan [SGP] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 12 | Lost 0-2 vs. McCord, Scott [USA] | Blue/Green |
Rd 13 | Won 2-0 vs. Comer, Alan [USA] | Blue/Green |
Rd 14 | Won 2-0 vs. Fukata, Takamasa [JPN] | Monoblack Buried Alive |
Overall Record 9-4-1
Record vs. Blue/Green 4-2-1 (each match ended in 2 games)
Record vs. Monoblack Control 3-1-0 (2 wins 2-0, 1 win 2-1, 1 loss 1-2)
Record vs. Monoblack Beatdown 0-1-0 (went 0-2)
Record vs. Monoblack Buried Alive 1-0-0 (went 2-0)
Record vs. Black/Blue/Red 1-0-0 (went 2-1)
Matchup Notes: Raffaele was successful versus two of the top archetypes in the format: Blue/Green and Monoblack Control. Interestingly, he did not run the anti-black”tech” of Still Life, which makes me wonder if perhaps the maindeck Millikin was they key to his victories there, since expanding his graveyard effectively expanded his hand in a Mind-Sludge free zone (though he became more vulnerable to a Haunting Echoes). Blue/Green’s results were interesting (minus the ID) in that each match was a sweep one way or the other, which lends me to believe that, in his victories Millikin and boarded Spellbanes/Mights played a key role, whereas in his losses Millikin and Spellbane/Might didn’t show up. Is Millikin that clutch a card? I’d definitely be interested in focusing on Millikin in this archetype to see just how good he is. I also think the overload of token generators (especially flashback) may have seriously blunted the effectiveness of Aether Burst.
FINISHING 33rd
27 Pts, Anthony Menzer
Mono Green
Main Deck
4 Deserted Temple
19 Forest
4 Basking Rootwalla
2 Spellbane Centaur
4 Squirrel Mob
4 Werebear
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Beast Attack
4 Call of the Herd
4 Chatter of the Squirrel
3 Overrun
4 Squirrel Nest
Sideboard:
2 Druid Lyrist
4 Leaf Dancer
4 Moment’s Peace
2 Spellbane Centaur
3 Still Life
Decklist Notes: Anthony trimmed a forest off the stock twenty count and an Overrun off the stock four count to slip in two maindeck Spellbane Centaurs – obviously as a nod towards the anticipated U/G and Tog’s use of Aether Burst. The rest of the build looks fairly”stock.”
Round | Results | Opponent’s Deck |
Rd 1 | Lost 1-2 vs. Yuasa, Kentaro [JPN] | Black/Blue Control |
Rd 2 | Won 2-0 vs. Wachi, Shin’ya [JPN] | G/W Enforcer |
Rd 3 | Won 2-0 vs. Nunes, Gonçalo [POR] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 4 | Won 2-0 vs. Balla, John [USA] | Monogreen |
Rd 5 | Won 2-0 vs. Tanaka, Hisaya [JPN] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 6 | Won 2-0 vs. Ito, Akitsugu [JPN] | R/G Beats |
Rd 7 | Won 2-0 vs. Menard, Antoine [FRA] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 8 | Lost 1-2 vs. Ikeda, Tsuyoshi [JPN] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 9 | Lost 0-2 vs. Kastle, Darwin [USA] | Blue/Green |
Rd 10 | Won 2-0 vs. Okamoto, Jin [JPN] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 11 | Won 2-0 vs. Nagaoka, Takayuki [JPN] | Black/Blue Tog |
Rd 12 | Lost 1-2 vs. Guevin, Peter [USA] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 13 | Lost 1-2 vs. Rubin, Ben [USA] | Black/Blue/Red |
Rd 14 | Won 2-0 vs. Pustilnik, Michael [USA] | Monoblack Control |
Overall Record 9-5-0
Record vs. Monoblack Control 5-2-0
Record vs. Blue/Green 0-1-0
Record vs. Black/Blue Control or Tog 1-1-0
Record vs. Monogreen, RG Beats, GW Enforcer 3-0-0
Record vs. Black/Blue/Red 0-1-0
Matchup Notes: It seems Menzer’s first-round loss let him run the Swiss gambit, where he won six games in a row to make day 2. Along the way he met some random decks and tended to beat them. He also handled monoblack control solidly overall. Interestingly, decks with blue in them seemed to give him trouble throughout the day (only winning one of those matchups), despite the maindeck Spellbanes. A slightly smaller mana base may have made him more vulnerable to early Logics and Syncopates, and he may have lost creature wars without Lo Moro’s Sylvan Might tech.
FINISHING 35th
26 Pts, Dan Clegg
Mono Green
Main Deck
4 Deserted Temple
20 Forest
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Squirrel Mob
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Call of the Herd
4 Chatter of the Squirrel
4 Narcissism
4 Overrun
4 Roar of the Wurm
4 Squirrel Nest
Sideboard:
3 Druid Lyrist
4 Leaf Dancer
3 Moment’s Peace
2 Nantuko Blightcutter
3 Still Life
Decklist Notes: Dan’s deck differs from the”stock” with Narcissism and Roars of the Wurm in the maindeck, and Nantuko Blightcutter in the board. I suspect the Narcisissms helped immensely in any green on green creature battle to make sure his creatures stayed put.
Round | Results | Opponent’s Deck |
Rd 1 | Lost 1-2 vs. Ranque, Wielfried [FRA] | Blue/green |
Rd 2 | Won 2-1 vs. Ellis, Chad [USA] | Monoblack control |
Rd 3 | Won 2-0 vs. Norris, Pete [ENG] | Monoblack control |
Rd 4 | Lost 0-2 vs. Itadani, Eisaku [JPN] | Blue/green |
Rd 5 | Won 2-0 vs. Karppinen, Jesse [FIN] | Blue/green |
Rd 6 | Drew 1-1-1 vs. Lebedowicz, Osyp [USA] | Black/blue Tog |
Rd 7 | Won 2-0 vs. Gerhardt, Scott [USA] | Blue/green |
Rd 8 | Drew 1-1-1 vs. Lloyd, Robert [ENG] | Blue/green |
Rd 9 | Won 2-1 vs. Poulsen, Palle [DEN] | Black/blue Tog |
Rd 10 | Won 2-1 vs. Rubin, Matthew [USA] | Blue/green |
Rd 11 | Won 2-1 vs. Pechon, Jonathan [USA] | Monoblack control |
Rd 12 | Lost 1-2 vs. Ho, Ken [USA] | Blue/green |
Rd 13 | Lost 1-2 vs. Santin, Andrea [ITA] | Blue/green |
Rd 14 | Won 2-0 vs. van Leeuwen, Arjan [HOL] | Blue/black Tog |
Overall Record 8-4-2
Record vs. Blue/green 3-4-1
Record vs. Monoblack control 3-0-0
Record vs. Black/blue Tog 2-0-1
Matchup Notes: Half of Dan’s matchups were against blue/green decks, and his deck came out on the losing end of that battle (though not hugely lopsided). I suspect Roar of the Wurm was less than impressive in this matchup, and he would have probably been much better served with Beast Attack. Also, with no Werebears (not to mention Millikin), Dan had no acceleration which may have made him more vulnerable to early Logic/sync as well as Upheaval. As seems to be the usual, he won all matches against mono-black control. The Tog match seemed fairly easy too (with the Blightcutters in the board maybe helping this matchup).
The Also-Rans
To better get a perspective on the mono-green success stories, let’s take a look at some of the less successful builds. I picked some of the”name” players simply because of the assumption that, with the play skill level presumably high, we might be able to zoom in on flaws in the deck build.
Jon Finkel (248th), Dan (186th) and Steve O’M-S (155th place)
Mono Green
Main Deck
4 Deserted Temple
20 Forest
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Squirrel Mob
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Call of the Herd
4 Chatter of the Squirrel
4 Narcissism
4 Overrun
4 Roar of the Wurm
4 Squirrel Nest
Sideboard:
1 Bearscape (0 for Dan O)
3 Druid Lyrist (4 for Dan O)
4 Leaf Dancer
3 Moment’s Peace
4 Still Life
Decklist Notes: The deck is card-for-card almost identical to the one Dan Clegg played, with the exception of a few sideboard cards (namely, Clegg worked in a pair of Blightcutters).
Finkel’s Run:
Round | Results | Opponent’s Deck |
Rd 1 | Lost 1-2 vs. Kibler, Brian [USA] | Black/blue/red |
Rd 2 | Lost 1-2 vs. Ramos Da Fonseca, Dils [BEL] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 3 | Won 2-1 vs. Wikström, Mikael [FIN] | Blue/green |
Rd 4 | Lost 0-2 vs. Schneider, Oliver [ENG] | Monoblack Control |
Dan OMS’s run:
Round | Results | Opponent’s Deck |
Rd 1 | Drew 1-1-1 vs. Fries, Stefan [GER] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 2 | Won 2-0 vs. Canu, Franck [FRA] | Tog |
Rd 3 | Won 2-1 vs. Lloyd, Robert [ENG] | Blue/green |
Rd 4 | Lost 0-2 vs. Ziegler, Eric [USA] | Blue/green |
Rd 5 | Lost 1-2 vs. Rubin, Matthew [USA] | Blue/green |
Rd 6 | Lost 0-2 vs. Skjetne, Endre H [NOR] | Blue/green |
Steve OMS’s run:
Round | Results | Opponent’s Deck |
Rd 1 | Lost 0-2 vs. Soots, Christopher [USA] | Tog |
Rd 2 | Won 2-0 vs. Wikström, Mikael [FIN] | Blue/green |
Rd 3 | Won 2-1 vs. Ogura, Ryou [JPN] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 4 | Lost 1-2 vs. Ruel, Antoine [FRA] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 5 | Won 2-0 vs. Shvartsman, Alex [USA] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 6 | Lost 1-2 vs. Steht, Lee [USA] | Blue/green |
Rd 7 | Lost 1-2 vs. Mandel, Danny [USA] | Blue/green |
Overall Record for all three decks 6-10-1
Record vs. Blue/green 3-5-0
Record vs. Monoblack control 2-3-1
Record vs. Black/blue Tog 1-1-0
Matchup Notes: Their version of the archetype continues to be vulnerable to Blue/green, but also seems to be struggling against monoblack, despite being very close to Clegg’s version, which went 3-0 against monoblack. Two of Clegg’s matches with monoblack went to three games, which makes me wonder if his boarded Blightcutters (the major difference) really helped push him over. The other top decks ran Beast Attacks and did well against monoblack, so I think instant speed fat might have made the difference.
Nathan Heiss (190th place)
Mono Green
Main Deck
3 Deserted Temple
19 Forest
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Diligent Farmhand
4 Squirrel Mob
4 Wild Mongrel
2 Acorn Harvest
4 Call of the Herd
4 Chatter of the Squirrel
4 Muscle Burst
4 Narcissism
1 Overrun
3 Squirrel Nest
Sideboard:
1 Anurid Scavenger
3 Beast Attack
3 Druid Lyrist
2 Moment’s Peace
1 Overrun
4 Spellbane Centaur
1 Squirrel Nest
Decklist Notes: Nate’s version goes for the quicker beatdown route, with Rootwallas and Farmhands joining the Chatters for turn 1 plays, backed with Muscle Bursts as well as Narcissism and a single Overrun. He’s only running 22 lands, and might be able to get away with it due to the Farmhands fetching mana later on.
Round | Results | Opponent’s Deck |
Rd 1 | Won 2-0 vs. Weng, Chen Yu [TWN] | Black/Green Zombie Infestation |
Rd 2 | Lost 0-2 vs. Lau, Sam Lie Kang [SGP] | Monoblack Control |
Rd 3 | Lost 0-2 vs. Canavesi, Daniele [ITA] | Blue/green |
Rd 4 | Won 2-0 vs. Van den Broek, Victor [HOL] | Tog |
Rd 5 | Lost 0-2 vs. Di Tomaso, Matteo [ITA] | Blue/green |
Overall Record 2-3-0
Record vs. Blue/green 0-2-0
Record vs. Monoblack control 0-1-0
Record vs. Black/blue Tog 2-0-0
Matchup Notes: Nate owned the Tog matchup, but that was about it. It seemed to me Nate relied too heavily on weenie beats supplemented by instant pumping and probably fell victim to bigger creatures and/or heavy removal. I also wonder if his relatively light mana mix hurt him.
Matthew Vienneau (227th place)
Mono Green
Main Deck
21 Forest
4 Overrun
Sideboard
1 Simplify
Decklist Notes: Between the Lyrists and Moment’s Peace, Matt seemed geared towards winning the mirror match, or maybe blue/green. The sideboard looks a little random. I like the maindeck Sylvan Mights.
Round | Opponent’s Deck | |
Rd 1 | Lost 0-2 vs. Baberowski, Dirk [GER] | Blue/green |
Rd 2 | Lost 1-2 vs. Hoenle, Uli [GER] | Blue/green |
Rd 3 | Lost 0-2 vs. Serrano, Alex [ESP] | Blue/green |
Rd 4 | Won 2-0 vs. Wachi, Shin’ya [JPN] | Green/White Enforcer |
Rd 5 | Won 2-1 vs. Chan, Tiago [POR] | Tog |
Rd 6 | Lost 1-2 vs. Costigan, Jill [USA] | R/G Beats |
Rd 7 | Lost 1-2 vs. Tsushima, Tomoya [JPN] | R/G Beats |
Overall Record 2-5-0
Record vs. Blue/green 0-3-0
Record vs. Monoblack control 0-0-0
Record vs. Black/blue Tog 1-0-0
Matchup Notes: Matt dodged monoblack control, but got ground up by almost every green/x deck (x= blue or red) with the lone exception of beating the Enforcer deck and the expected Tog matchup.
Conclusions:
For the calculations, I’m going to go with the more successful builds, though I’m hoping to take lessons from the other less successful builds when determining the prognosis for the monogreen archetype.
Overall:
Composite Overall Record 26-13-3 62%
Overall, I think Raffaele’s maindeck may very well be the optimal build, taking advantage of the 2cc mana acceleration available and making maximum use of green’s card-advantage flashback spells. He also makes maximum use of Squirrel Mobs. The early creature swarm becomes quite lethal when an early Overrun can hit way before Upheaval gets found (much less played). In the board, Leaf Dancers, Spellbanes, and Moment’s Peace seem to be essential. Still Lifes and Blightcutters appear to be great anti-black tech, but Raffaele didn’t have either and handled mono-black just fine. Maybe he used the Peaces to blunt black’s pumpers and Mights to help make what few surviving creatures swung hit harder.
It’s a shame that none of these guys got on a feature match; it would have been helpful to read one or two play-by-plays.
MATCHUP PROGNOSIS: BLUE/GREEN
Composite Record vs. Blue/green 7-7-1 47%
The hardest matchup by far, with both decks sporting green beatdown critters, it seems the crucial factor is blue’s counterspells, bounce, and card drawing. Raffaele’s deck seems to brilliantly counter that with his mana acceleration and an overwhelming quantity of flashback spells. I suspect that running Sylvan Mights to win the creature battles and Spellbane Centaurs maindeck (over Squirrel Mob) might help swing this battle a little more favorably.
MATCHUP PROGNOSIS: MONOBLACK
Composite Record vs. Monoblack control 11-3-0 79%
It appears to me that monogreen just hits too hard and too fast for black to stop. An early Overrun should doom the monoblack player. Clegg’s version technically performed the best against monoblack, but he didn’t play nearly the quantity of them that the other builds did. Though the matchup is favorable, I don’t know if I agree with Raffaele’s apparent disregard of the matchup when it came to sideboarding (though he may have brought in the Mights and maybe Peaces).
MATCHUP PROGNOSIS: BLUE/BLACK (TOG)
Composite Record vs. Tog (or close to it) 3-1-1 60%
Raffaele didn’t meet this decktype at all, so the data hinges purely on the other two builds. Clegg’s version seemed to handle the matchup better, making me wonder if the Blightcutters in the board may have helped here. Both Dan and Menzer had Moment’s Peace in the board, and that card may have helped blunt the power of Tog.
An”Ideal” Build For OBC Monogreen (Ody-Tor Only)
Heh – don’t I have a lot of nerve, trying to improve on the Pros? Still, I don’t think it’s unreasonable given the data available. Here’s what I’m going to playtest:
Main Deck
4 Deserted Temple
20 Forest
4 Millikin
4 Werebear
4 Chatter of the Squirrel
4 Spellbane Centaur
4 Call of the Herd
4 Acorn Harvest
4 Beast Attack
4 Sylvan Might
4 Squirrel Nest
Sideboard:
4 Leaf Dancer (swap with Centaurs vs. Mirror)
4 Moment’s Peace (swap with Squirrel Nest vs. Mirror, blue/green)
4 Still Life (swap with Centaurs vs. Monoblack)
3 Overrun (Hey, it’s still an”I WIN” card occasionally, and I might want to have it handy in some matchups)
I playtested against monoblack this past weekend with Centaurs over Squirrel Mobs, and the deck seemed to perform well, winning a good percentage of the time (and this monoblack deck was teched out with maindeck Rancid Earth). Losing the Mobs didn’t seem to hurt the deck in that matchup.
I also found that I rarely got to use Overrun; it would either be Sludged from my hand or countered when I cast it. Sylvan Might seems like a better solution, letting you use it to both save your creatures from combat and to punch through damage. It ups the flashback count to a whopping twenty, making your Millikin even better and improving your resistance to counterspells. Still, I like having Overrun at least in the board, since against random matchups it can be a simple”I WIN” card.
So what does Judgement bring to this archetype? I’ve got a few guesses, but I’d rather wait until I gather more data. Stay tuned for Part 2 after Judgement has been tested.
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