Avacyn Restored Impact Cards

I decided to take a look at AVR and see what cards, if any, would make an impact on Standard. Here are my picks:

Angel of Glory’s Rise: You can expect to see some really sick combo with this card.  Returning all humans from the grave in a format with multiple reanimate spells and all kinds of good humans means trouble!

Divine Deflection: This seems like it will be a great asset for white control decks.  Or a way for the delver mirror to be tipped.

Restoration Angel: This angel does it all. She combos with comes into play abilities and saves your guys from targeted removal.

Silverblade Paladin: I like this guy a lot. I’m not too sure about Soulbond because you can have it broken up by removal, but I think the concept is great and double strike is ridiculously powerful on two creatures.

Elgaud Shieldmate: The force feels strong with this one. This one is like Silverblade Paladin, Hexproof is a great ability to give to 2 creatures at once.

Favorable Winds: Did we really need another anthem effect? And one that pumps Lingering Souls tokens AND Delvers? Honestly?

Vanishment: You will learn to hate this card in time. Cards like Submerge drive people crazy.

Crypt Creeper: You’ll see this guy in black decks, methinks.  Zombies especially.

Soulcage Fiend: A 3/2 that deals 3 more upon death seems very good.  Although not being a zombie hurts him a lot.

Archwing Dragon: 4/4 haste flying for 4 mana? Sign me up for this one. Doesn’t die to sorcery-speed effects and hits hard. I like it!

Lightning Mauler: I like this guy. Haste is good and I think he will be too.

Thatcher Revolt: This won’t be good until Timely Reinforcements rotates, but after that it should be really good.

Zealous Conscripts: This is just plain good.

Abundant Growth: Like a mana dork but without the frail body.

Blessings of Nature: Should see some play in beatdown decks.

Revenge of the Hunted: Should also see some play, the Miracle cost is too good to ignore.

Soul of the Harvest: I like any green card that is good at drawing cards. See: Hunter’s Insight, Garruk Primal Hunter, Harmonize. This outta be decent, especially when titans rotate.

Ulvenwald Tracker: I love this guy. Love love love. Reusable Prey Upon? Thank you very much.

Wolfir Avenger: This one is great, but will likely not see play. The decks that want him want to splash him, which the 2 green in the cost prohibits.

Sigarda, Host of Herons: Big, flying, untouchable. Love it.

Cavern of Souls: Holy crap this card is right up my alley. Look for this to be in 90% of my decks in the future.

I Swear This is the Last Post on the Mono-Green Deck!

Seriously, last post on this deck. So I have now played against a wide variety of decks and won a good amount of packs with the mono-green list. I just wanted to touch on how this can possibly be the case, given the fact that I have cards like Predator Ooze and Overrun in my deck. With my limited time this evening, I quick ran the deck against Delver twice and won twice. The changes I have made thus far make the deck very good against Delver.

The Deck is Ultra-Consistent

Having 8 one-drops, 8 2-drops, and 8 3-drops provides for a level of curving consistency that is awesome. The Llanowar Elves are absolutely the key to this curving because a turn 2 Predator Ooze against creature decks or a turn 2 Dungrove Elder against Delver decks often allow for complete blowouts.

The added consistency of six green card-drawing spells means that the deck will not only plop out some dudes and Overrun, but that it will refill its hand and Overrun AGAIN! This is one deck that doesn’t simply fold to a Day of Judgment, Black Sun’s Zenith, Whipflare, or Slagstorm.

I also have a feeling that the consistency lessens the variance of the MTGO shuffler, which I’ve found to be a serious pain in the ass with less consistent decks like Naya Pod or Melira Pod.

The Deck is Fun

The “fun factor” is strong with this one. Even when I lose with the deck it doesn’t usually feel one-sided.  The only times that happens are when the deck gets mana screwed/flooded against Delver.

The feeling you get when you cast Overrun for the win is hard to beat.  It pretty much means you will play again a few more times at least to try and duplicate that scenario.

The Deck has Easy Mulligan Decisions

Do you have two or three lands and some dudes? Keep!
Do you have one land and some Llelves? Keep!
Do you have several GSZ? Keep!

The mulligans with this deck have been few and far between, meaning that you will most often keep a hand of seven and not six or five, which can greatly impact matches.  Having the extra card or two is vital to the beatdown strategy.

Okay, that’s enough promoting this deck. Here is the final list and I SWEAR I’m done promoting this thing.

Mono-Green Beatdown (Standard)

4 Llanowar Elves
4 Young Wolf
4 Garruk’s Companion
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Dungrove Elder
4 Predator Ooze

3 Ranger’s Guile
3 Hunter’s Insight
3 Garruk Relentless
3 Green Sun’s Zenith
2 Overrun

22 Forest

Sideboard:
2 Autumn’s veil
3 Corrosive Gale
3 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Lure
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
3 Naturalize

It kindof speaks for itself, doesn’t it? I added Ranger’s Guile to outsmart Gutshot and Vapor Snag.  The Garruk switch is because I see more Delver and NayaPod online than control (Big Garruk is for control decks).  So after board you just swap Garruk for Garruk vs. Control. 🙂  Lure is great against anything creature-based. Naturalize is your artifact/enchantment catch-all.  Corrosive Gale takes care of our weakness against hexproof fliers (UW Spirits was my toughest matchup).

If you decide to give the deck a spin please let me know how you do as I’d like to have a bit more data heading in to Avacyn Restored.  Thanks for reading!!!