Building Mono-Green

While I will be playing Jund in tournaments (it’s simply the most ridiculous deck in Standard and nearly the cheapest), I do a fair amount of testing various builds of Green and Green/Red variants. As per my last post, I’m going to be running with the dream of a viable Mono-Green list. I have some doubts that it’s going to be even tier 2 until M11 or Scars of Mirrodin hits, but we shall see!! Here’s the list that most affected me, that Jamie Wakefield posted last week: 

4 Arbor Elf
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Leatherback Baloth
4 Khalni Hydra
4 Master Of The Wild Hunt
4 Mul Daya Channelers
4 Pelakka Wurm 

3 Momentous Fall
4 Vines of the Vastwood

25 Forest

 SIDEBOARD
4 Giant Growth
4 Living Destiny
4 Windstorm
3 Naturalize

I took his list and gave it some thought. The first thing I thought was “does this deck need eight one-mana elves? Arbor Elf is just as good as Llanowar Elves, but would Overgrown Battlement be better? There’s no better way to find out than to test it out! So I removed the Arbor Elf and replaced it with Overgrown Battlement. Wall of Omens is kindof a big deal in U/W so shouldn’t a green 0/4 be comparably good? Sure it doesn’t replace itself, but it does ramp you towards your phatties. The only other change I made in this initial phase of testing was to add a Momentous Fall and remove a land. With all the accelerators 24 lands is plenty and I wanted to keep the deck to ‘4-ofs’ until I get some testing results. So here’s my version of the deck that I will run in some practice matches before tweaking this weekend: 

My Version, First Build: 

4 Khalni Hydra
4 Leatherback Baloth
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Master of the Wild Hunt
4 Mul Daya Channelers
4 Overgrown Battlement
4 Pelakka Wurm 

4 Momentous Fall
4 Vines of the Vastwood 

24 Forest 

Sideboard:
4 Great Sable Stag
3 Living Destiny
4 Mold Shambler
4 Vengevine 

Also note that I completely changed the sideboard. Windstorm? I’m assuming that is for Baneslayer Angel. But I prefer to run over the angel rather than play a one-for-one removal that only deals with it and not Wall of Omens, etc, etc. Khalni Hydra > Baneslayer Angel (in combat, anyway). Vengevine seems like an obvious include because of its versatility against control and Jund strategies. In fact, with so few spells in the maindeck, he may get pushed that way if he performs after sideboarding. Mold Shambler seems like the only good way to deal with Planeswalkers, which I think are a more dangerous threat than Baneslayer Angel. We shall see on that one. And Great Sable Stag seems pretty decent against Grixis and Jund, especially with some Jund builds not running Bolt at all. 

Check back for the next post, in which I’ll talk about how the deck performed in some test matches and rework the deck/sideboard.

Chasing Wakefield

I woke up this morning with an incredible hangover. I don’t drink very often and when I do, it’s usually jsut the stray eer here or there. But last night I got it in my head that between 8pm and 12am, I would consume several beers. So after that ill-advised lapse of judgment, I am paying the price today.

Before the beer consumption began, I had my night all planned out. After putting my lovely baby daughter to bed, I would watch what was left of Grand Prix DC coverage, finish the movie that had been sitting on my Netflix queue for aeons, and dominate a standard 8-man queue.

What a foolish plan that was. The GP coverage ran until 10 or 10:30pm and I still wanted to finish my movie (Lakeview Terrace, which was a decent movie that I recommend seeing). So I resigned myself to not playing in the 8-man. Earlier in the day I had played in a Daily Event and managed to pull off a 3-1 record which was good for six packs of Rise of the Eldrazi. Not too shabby. After watching the movie, it was well after 12am and there was no way I could keep my eyes open to even play so much as a practice game. Knowing that I had to work the next day, I packed it up and went to bed.

As I write this post, with my head painfully throbbing away, I find myself completely disillusioned with the current standard environment. I am really only able to play on Magic Online, which is working out okay. But because my cash flow is so limited, the only top tier deck I can afford is Jund. I’m hoping to change that soon, but I’m never going to get near, say, a SuperFriends deck that costs $600+. I’m hoping to get stuff like Lotus Cobras and Masters of the Wild Hunt. But then this morning Mr. Wakefield threw a wrench in my plans for MODO domination.

So standard has been disappointing me a lot lately and, if you ask my opponents, is completely based on lucky cascades and savage topdecks. But lately my time in-game has been spent grinding. Grind, grind, grind! I’m hovering around 20 tickets at the moment, and that’s after having increased my collection by quite a few mediocre rares that I’m hoping will work in some concoction or another. I’m still missing so many cards in Standard, though, and that keeps me from being more inventive with my decks. I’m forced to play a top tier deck so I can have the best chance at winning tickets to fuel my play. Magic is one of the few things in my life that I really love to do and am fairly good at. It’s funny how grinding away at Magic can be more fun for me than almost any other activity.

Which brings me to Jamie Wakefield. This guy seems to love the game intensely, as I do. I read his most recent article over on StarCity this morning and it inspired me. I built-up my collection to include most of the green cards I want to play with, and I’m close to a Wakefieldian-style deck. I am, of course, going to build it one day. Oh yes, it will be mine, oh yes… Above all, the message I got from his article was that he has fun with his decks. Building and tweaking, testing and playing. That’s something I haven’t done since playing Kowal’s Naya list last year. Sure, I’d love to play Naya again, but Ajani Vengeant is not cheap online and Woolly Thoctar just isn’t as powerful as it should be.

My history of Wakefield adoration and general love of all things green is well-known. I played Secret Force in many tournaments back in the day, but only made top 8 with it once. I also played Adam Yurchick’s Green/Black Elves to a top 8 finish last year (edit: Here’s my post on that tournament), and the deck that sent me to my first Pro Tour was Red/Green beatdown.

Secret Force is far and away my favorite deck of all time. Sure, I loved the Invasion Block Constructed deck that took me to the PT, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Wakefield’s creation. For reference, here’s a list:

Old Secret Force:

3 Elvish Lyrist

4 Fyndhorn Elves

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Spike Feeder

2 Spike Weaver

3 Uktabi Orangutan

3 Verdant Force

4 Wall of Roots

4 Creeping Mold

4 Natural Order

3 Overrun

3 Gaea’s Cradle

3 Wasteland

16 Forest

The beauty of a turn three Verdant Force is not easily matched. I don’t even think turn three Baneslayer is better. And if that doesn’t pan-out, you have Overrun to turn your accelerators into burninators. What’s better than that? The fluidity, resilience, and utility of the deck are what make me really worship at its altar.

So, to my readers I say stay tuned to upcoming posts as I break down Secret Force and attempt to develop a similar deck in the current Standard. And to Mr. Wakefield, if you ever need someone to help develop your ideas, look for 88trample on Magic Online or shoot me an email.