Pauper challenge: Green results

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zandl

18 November 2012

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Green results!

Green decks. Fatties, combat tricks, and lots of poison. Even though I’m TappedOut’s self-proclaimed “Green Master,” I was a bit surprised to see a high level of variance in the decks for this part of the challenge.

Lo, and the good zandl spake, “Ye Green minions do maketh thou master proud.”

Decks!

anderoide – boosh man surprise
BenHurrr - Paupering dat dere Green
ThatCrazy_Walrus - Hungry like the Wolf
Carsf - (deck seems to have been removed)
InquiringMindscrew - Mono-Green Pauper
vazhar - Pauper green infect pump
06saxplayer - Mono-Green Infect Pauper
BiggRedd54 – (deck seems to have been removed)
Thanatoaster - Unnatural Selection Pauper
Aelorith2117 - Wolf? Where?!
WoostBoost - Green Infect Pauper
cuban_medic - herpes, the gift that keeps on giving
mossflower - Mono Green Pauper Revised
UGplayerwillie - Mono Green Pump
Dritz - Common Courtesy (August 2012 Pauper Challenge)
Zarum - Green pauper (CHALLENGE)
poopdarkstar - lil-beefies

Round 1 results:

winning player (games won) vs. losing player (games won)

(I’ve also decided to give you a brief overview of each game’s details because I’m a cool guy and you’ll be all like, "Ye gods! Look at all those details!")

BenHurrr (2) vs. anderoide (0)

Game 1: To no one’s surprise, Somberwald Dryad does work. Give it Trollhide and now BenHurrr has a win-condition.
Game 2: In this game, BenHurrr found both copies of Gnaw to the Bone and cast them all four times for 10 life each. A Blight Mamba showed up and quickly received the benefits of both a Trollhide and a Morbid Hunger of the Howlpack, paving the road to victory. anderoide’s deck could make some big threats through pump-spells and had the playset Somberwald Dryad out during the course of the game, but Regeneration is nigh impossible to deal with in mono-Green. And BenHurrr saw a lot of it.

ThatCrazy_Walrus (2) vs. Carsf (1)

Game 1: These decks are nearly the identical. Walrus found 2 of his copies of Wandering Wolf in his opening hand accompanied by 2 Forests and 3 Titanic Growth. Carsf didn’t.
Game 2: This time, Carsf found Wandering Wolf and won in the exact same way ThatCrazy_Walrus did in the previous game.
Game 3: Now with Walrus on the play, he managed to find his Wolves and smashed face. Since these decks were so incredibly similar, it really just came down to who won the die-roll and who got better luck with his opening hands.

vazhar (2) vs. InquiringMindscrew (1)

Game 1: InquiringMindscrew ’s deck had a good deal of life-gain that would have been good were it not for Infect damage. vazhar quickly ran over Mindscrew’s Bond Beetles and Timberland Guides with powerful Trample-giving spells, like Unnatural Predation and Wild Hunger.
Game 2: A very close game indeed. Mindscrew’s Somberwald Dryad had a lot of +1/+1 counters on it and pushed vazhar to 4 life. With a Mutagenic Growth in hand, vazhar needed to draw any other pump spell to swing all-out and win. Well, any pump spell but another Mutagenic Growth, that is. Without being able to pay the 4 life necessary in addition to the mana for his other spells, vazhar lost by the skin of his teeth.
Game 3: vazhar’s Blight Mamba came out and started blocking everything while dishing out -1/-1 counters. After conserving enough pump spells, that Blight Mamba swung into a veritable army of Green creatures, was pumped to the max, and pushed Mindscrew to 9 Poison. Now, without being able to leave himself open to any attacks, Mindscrew was forced to play the defensive game. And as you’ll see if you continue reading these game details, going on the defensive against Infect is just a means of prolonging your inevitable death.

06saxplayer (2) vs. BiggRedd54 (0)

Game 1: 06saxplayer cranked out 4 Infect creatures by the fourth turn. By swinging into blocks and using pump spells or Withstand Death to survive and kill off the blockers, 06saxplayer gained the high ground. Since pump spells on non-Infect creatures blocking those with Infect means nothing, unless you can kill the blocked creature, BiggRedd54 didn’t have much of a chance.
Game 2: This game was nearly the same as the first. Unnatural Predation and other pump spells after a block means that the opponent is taking nearly the same Infect damage to the face and the blocking creature is killed. Also, Prey Upon against Infect creatures is very iffy.

Thanatoaster (2) vs. Aelorith2117 (0)

Game 1: A large Infect army with lots of Regeneration and resiliency will nearly always trump an army of equal size without Infect. The ability to leave scars on the opponent’s creatures makes each turn of attacking that much more effective.
Game 2: Aelorith2117’s Werewolves were flipping and getting huge, but the consistent onslaught of Infect creatures attacking put Aeolorith2117 on defense. And that just means “dying slowly.” Blight Mamba is an ass. I mean asp.

WoostBoost (2) vs. cuban_medic (0)

Game 1: cuban_medic kept a perfectly reasonable hand with 2 lands, some Infect creatures, and a pump spell or two but couldn’t draw another land to be able to race WoostBoost and his Infect creatures. Even for an Aggro deck that curves out at 3, 17 lands is pushing it.
Game 2: Leeching Bite made its first appearance in the challenge in this game and, as I had predicted, it melted faces. It’s also one of the few cards that can stop Blight Mamba while Regeneration is open. Pistus Strike from cuban_medic was completely dead (as there are no Common Green creatures with Flying) and Bond Beetle, though alright on turn-1, is simply outclassed beyond the second or third turn.

UgplayerWillie (2) vs. mossflower (1)

Game 1: These decks are almost the same, except one has Infect creatures and the other doesn’t. UGplayerwillie’s deck has 8 colorless-producing lands and that really hurt his deck in the first game. mossflower cast a Blight Mamba on turn-2 and put Trollhide on it turn-3. Willie had 4 lands but only 1 Forest. A Tumble Magnet held off the onslaught for a few turns, but not being able to play more than 1 Green spell a turn was ultimately his downfall.
Game 2: mossflower’s peculiar mix of normal and Infect damage did him in this game. Prey Upon is good, but not when your opponent uses a pump-spell in response. Pathbreaker Wurm is a 6/4 body for 6 mana (should you even get that much) but it didn’t really have anything worth pairing with. Rot Wolf started drawing a lot of cards for mossflower late-game when UGplayerWillie began getting high in Poison counters, but the only thing mossflower was drawing were lands, Elvish Vionsary, and Perilous Myr. Willie finished this game with the unblockable trio of Orchard Spirit, Somberwald Dryad, and Wandering Wolf.
Game 3: This game ended fairly quickly with 2 Somberwald Dryads and an Orchard Spirit all out by the fourth turn. mossflower drew a Tumble Magnet and a Prey Upon, but the damage was still coming in too quickly to be able to stabilize.

Zarum (2) vs. Dritz (1)]]

Game 1: A close one. Sheltering Word saved Dritz by gaining just enough to survive after a big attack, then drawing a Bladed Pinions to get his Primal Huntbeast over the blockers was enough to win it.
Game 2: Zarum landed 3 Somberwald Dryads and even had the Mutagenic Growth to stop a Prey Upon from ruining his fun.
Game 3: A Tangle Mantis found itself a Trollhide on turn-5, then swung for exactly lethal damage a few turns later with a tapped-out Untamed Might. All Dritz could do was watch his Fangren Marauder and Lurking Crocodile get steam-rolled by a ton of Trample damage.

Round 2 pairings!

UgplayerWillie vs. ThatCrazy_Walrus
vazhar vs. Thanatoaster
Zarum vs. poopdarkstar
BenHurrr vs. WoostBoost
BYE!: 06saxplayer

Round 2 results:

winning player (games won) vs. losing player (games won)

UGplayerWillie (2) vs. ThatCrazy_Walrus (0)

Game 1: 2x Orchard Spirits and a Somberwald Dryad found their ways into UGplayerWillie’s opening hand. Walrus couldn’t do much better than sit and be a punching bag for the first game.
Game 2: Willie started with 2x Somberwald Dryads and even drew a Tumble Magnet for Walrus’s mighty 7/8 Bond Beetle (courtesy of 2x Morbid Hunger of the Howlpack).

Thanatoaster (2) vs. vazhar (1)

Game 1: Thanatoaster kept a perfectly legitimate hand with 2 Rot Wolfs in it. But when your opponent goes first, swings for 1 Infect with a Glistener Elf on the second turn, and then swings for 9 Infect on the third turn with a Titanic Growth, a Mirran Mettle, and a Mutagenic Growth, it’s just not good enough.
Game 2: This game went into the tenth turn and beyond. I think it was really only decided by the fact Thanatoaster has 22 creatures in his deck and vazhar has just 12. Thanatoaster kept top-decking creatures and vazhar began running out of blockers.
Game 3: It was now Thanatoaster’s turn for a turn-3 blowout. His Ichorclaw Myr swung into a Glistener Elf (which is a very good block, mind you, since they would both die that turn), but Thanatoaster pumped with Unnatural Predation, a Titanic Growth, and 2 Mutagenic Growths, making Ichorclaw Myr a 12/12 Trample-Infect.

Zarum (2) vs. poopdarkstar (0)

Game 1: Zarum began with a Somberwald Dryad, stuck Trollhide on it, and started drawing Young Wolfs to use as good blockers while the Dryad won the game. poopdarkstar came close making lethal damage, but Haunted Fengraf when all you have are Young Wolfs in your graveyard is a very good land to have. It gives you 2 more blockers, in a sense.
Game 2: This game was mostly the same. poopdarkstar’s deck has Arbor Elf, but the mana curve officially stops at 3. After that, it’s just Garruk's Companion (which is very good in Pauper) and Wandering Wolf (also very good). But not being able to stop Somberwald Dryad or efficiently deal with Young Wolf as a blocker led to a swift victory for Zarum.

WoostBoost (2) vs. BenHurrr (1)

Game 1: Fortunately for BenHurrr, WoostBoost had issues drawing out more creatures than the two he started with. After the fifth turn or so, Woost was a sitting duck for Infect damage.
Game 2: When there are two armies of equal size but one has Infect and the other doesn’t, the Infect army will normally win the battle. Infect damage does all the same things that normal damage does, except it leaves its damage on the defending creatures past that turn and it kills the opponent twice as fast. WoostBoost’s Infect creatures began outnumbering BenHurrr’s normal creatures and pushed Ben to the defensive. And once you go defensive against Infect, there’s really no coming back.
Game 3: See Game 2.

Round 3 pairings!

06saxplayer vs. ugplayerwillie
Thanatoaster vs. Zarum
BYE!: WoostBoost

Round 3 results:

*winning player (games won) vs. losing player (games won)*

06saxplayer (2) vs. ugplayerwillie (0)

Game 1: Normally, the mostly unblockable creatures in mono-Green (Orchard Spirit, Somberwald Dryad) do a ton of work. But when that’s all you have and your opponent is bearing down on you with Infect creatures, you kinda have to play defense. Whenever 06saxplayer started getting low on life, two Sylvok Lifestaffs triggering after do-or-die blocks gave him a lot of breathing room.
Game 2: This game transpired just as the first did. ugplayerwillie’s Prey Upon would have been good, but Infect makes it tricky to use. And the fact that there’s always a pump spell lurking in your opponent’s hand (even when tapped out) makes it a scary proposition.

Zarum (2) vs. Thanatoaster (1)

Game 1: 2 copies of Somberwald Dryad appeared in Zarum’s opening hand. Thanatoaster would’ve had a quick start with Infect, but a pair of Garruk's Companions became a rather large barrier to break through. By the time they were dealt with, Thanatoaster was taking lethal, unblockable damage (even after gaining 3 life from 2 Glimmerposts).
Game 2: 2x Blight Mamba made their triumphant appearance in the second game and singlehandedly annihilated nearly all of Zarum’s forces. By the time Zarum had a big enough board presence to start attacking, he was too close to death and had to start blocking. And we all know, by now, what happens once you have to call off the attack against Infect.
Game 3: Thanatoaster made the correct blocks in early turns of this game, but missing the fourth land-drop with both Blightwidow and Corpse Cur on-deck proved to be the crushing blow. Without being able to cast either, Thanatoaster simply ran out of options, took 2 turns’ worth of beatings, and fell out of the bracket.

Round 4 pairings!

06saxplayer vs. WoostBoost
BYE!: Zarum

Round 4 results:

*winning player (games won) vs. losing player (games won)*

WoostBoost (2) vs. 06saxplayer (0)

Game 1: WoostBoost swung with 2x Ichorclaw Myrs against 1 blocker on the fourth turn. When the unblocked one received 2x Titanic Growth and a Mutagenic Growth, that made the Poison total on 06saxplayer 11.
Game 2: 06saxplayer’s deck has Withstand Death, Sylvok Lifestaff, and Trollhide, none of which are particularly effective against an Infect deck. Boost just got ahead on spells that actually benefited his deck in a mirror-match.

Green Bracket Finals!

WoostBoost vs. Zarum

Game Deets

Game 1: Zarum came into the ring swingin’, but his Poison Counters began racking up. WoostBoost’s Blight Mamba was the driving force in this game, sitting as a seemingly small blocker, but then regenerating and leaving its -1/-1 counters on the enemy. Finally, WoostBoost stabilized with a Sylvok Lifestaff on the Mamba and Zarum started running out of room to attack and running out creatures to block with. With a couple top-decks of Forests, Zarum had no defense and died to the same Blight Mamba that had been plaguing him for 8 turns.
Game 2: Rot Wolf came out on the third turn for WoostBoost and Zarum’s promising start of a Somberwald Dryad, a Garruk's Companion, and a Young Wolf suddenly became a large pile of blockers. Rot Wolf kept swinging in with things like Leeching Bite and Mutagenic Growth to keep it safe from harm, each block providing Boost with a card-draw. Prey Upon and Rot Wolf work very well together, too, as you can pump it, cast Prey Upon, kill the only blocker, draw a card, and swing for lots of Infect damage. WoostBoost actually won the second game by using casting Mutagenic Growth on the Rot Wolf, using Prey Upon to flatten the opposing Young Wolf that had previously died, drew a Titanic Growth, and swung + pumped for the whole shebang.

So our Green bracket champion is…

WoostBoost

Congratulations! You now have 2 piping hot Feature Tokens, a Round Robin tournament with the other champions, a game against my personal White Pauper deck, and eternal internet glory to look forward to!

Also, congratulations to Zarum for making second place! One Feature Token will be awarded to your account within a day or two of this article’s posting.

Post-bracket thoughts…

Blight Mamba was the Green bracket’s all-star. Green has very few answers in Pauper to deal with Regeneration. In fact, Leeching Bite may be the only reliable answer to Blight Mamba. Its ability to attack into or block big creatures and not die makes it amazing, but its ability to makes those creature weaker with each successive hit is the real reason why he’s the number one card in this bracket.

Leeching Bite is very good. I think a lot of people may have skipped over it because things like Titanic Growth give you more of a P/T difference for the same mana, but may have overlooked the possibility of killing of an opponent’s X/1.

I was not surprised at how well Infect did. If your deck didn’t include it, you were mostly stuck with just the same pump spells but with creatures that had to do twice the amount of work. Cards like Orchard Spirit and Somberwald Dryad were great, but really only decided games in which you saw multiple copies of either, or something to consistently raise their power, like Trollhide.

Unnatural Predation is a card I feel deserves a shout-out. When half of these decks rely on Ambush Viper to kill off your creatures, you don’t want your Ichorclaw Myr to die in vain. With Ichorclaw Myr, it turns 0 Infect into 3 Infect to your opponent’s face. And that’s usually the difference between your opponents continuing their assault or having to play defensively against you.

When I had set out to create my own Green Pauper deck for the Challenge, I mulled over two ideas. First, I made an Infect deck that mostly resembled those that did well in the Green bracket. That seemed like a no-brainer. Then I fooled around with the idea of making a ramp deck with the likes of Rampant Growth, Viridian Emissary, and Dawntreader Elk. However, I was very underwhelmed with what the deck would use as bombs. Vastwood Gorger, Alpha Tyrannax, and Kindercatch are all vanilla creatures that do nothing but die to a Titanic Growth anyways.

Cards I didn’t specifically like or was underwhelmed by: Crushing Vines, Pistus Strike, Arbor Elf/Llanowar Elves, PristineTalisman. Since there are 0 Common Green Flying creatures in Standard, both Crushing Vines and Pistus Strike are useless. At least use Naturalize or, better yet, Natural End. The mana-dorks were awkward because, as I had found previously, mana-ramping doesn’t matter much because there’s not much worth casting beyond 5 (and only for a few, select creatures like Somberwald Spider, and only because it can block Orchard Spirit). Pristine Talisman is okay, but Infect made it a bad mana-rock. Even against a normal-damage deck, it was just too slow and the higher end of the curve didn’t warrant it. It’s good in Blue when you can stall out the board with just a couple spells, but Green’s too fast and the creatures are too big.

Thank you to all of the people who submitted a Green deck to this Challenge! You’re helping to make this Challenge a TappedOut tradition! Now we’re getting close to the end of the Pauper Challenge. Next up is “The zandl Showdown.” I’ll be dusting off my personal Pauper decks from the beginning of this challenge and pitting them against the winners of each bracket. The games (and results) will come up in the following order on my next article:
zandl vs. zaddos&3146;s Power at the most reasonable cost
zandl vs. Jokerx71’s Your Graveyard Looks Like Flapjacks
zandl vs. TristanTaylorsVoice’s Zandl's 2012 Pauper Challenge - Bad News Bears
zandl vs. justen’s Breath Mints
zandl vs. WoostBoost’s Green Infect Pauper

Be sure to be on the lookout for the next article sometime around this Saturday or Sunday. I might be able to finish the final piece of the challenge, the coveted “Winners’ Circle”, before the Thanksgiving Weekend (I live in the US, mind you), but don’t fret if it has to wait until the following week.

I look forward to actually playing with my own decks for once. I’ll have my decklists up on the next article so you can see what the winning decks were up against and how close or far off your decks were from my own. It’ll be a good time.

Love,
zandl

This article is a follow-up to Pauper Challenge: Red Results