I've played this deck since the launch of Magic: Origins and have loved the deck ever since. I've done lots of brewing and competed in plenty of FNMs with the deck, and I figured what better to do than to create a guide for this deck to share my knowledge in the hopes that other players will join the Magic community and play this awesome archetype.
In this guide, I will talking about anything and everything I have learned from playing this deck the past 4 years. This deck can and will win against some of the best modern decks in the format and can do very well at FNMs with a good player and bit of old fashioned good luck, like any Magic: the Gathering deck. I will talk about what the deck does, why I’ve chosen the cards I’ve chosen, and how to sideboard effectively with this deck.
This deck is a fair and honest creature deck, looking to ideally play on curve the first 3 turns of the game(1 drop creature on turn 1, 2 drop creature on turn 2, etc.) and then kill the opponent with the many instant speed pump spells in combat. This won’t be your game plan all the time, but this is the most effective strategy for the deck if it happens. Having a good curve and killing your opponent on turn 4 is what many modern decks do right now, and this deck can race with some of the best decks in the format.
This deck has many strengths, and of course, many weaknesses.
Strengths:
The deck has a very strong linear gameplan:
Unsurprisingly, few decks can beat a perfect curve with pump spells to back it up. Smashing in with a bunch of mid-sized creatures a perfectly good gameplan.
The deck is resilient:
While your game plan will still be to get a board presence and be able to threaten a lethal attack, you will often have to grind out a value match with your non-linear opponents, which this deck is perfectly capable of doing. With mana sinks in
Scavenging Ooze
and big value cards in
Collected Company
, the deck can play the value game toe to toe with some of the other value decks in modern.
The deck is cheap:
The price doesn’t lie, this deck can be purchased in its full-glory for under $250.
The deck isn’t popular:
This may sound like a drawback, but playing a deck that no one else plays means your opponent doesn’t know your decklist like they know all of the top tier decklists. This means they don’t know what to play around, and won’t know what to save their interaction for, while you will know that information.
The deck is fairly easy to pilot:
Every deck in modern will reward an experienced player for their better decision making, and this deck is no exception. However, since the deck is pretty linear, a newer player can pilot the deck with a good amount of success.
Weaknesses
The deck is weak against other creature decks:
Decks like 5-color Humans and Bant Spirits have similar gameplans to this deck, but just do it more efficiently than us. They lock up the board and we are stuck waiting for them to kill us. While the matchups are winnable, it is a tough match.
The deck lacks creature interaction:
There are some removal cards in the deck, but of course we all know that green as a color doesn’t have many great removal options. Another reason why our Humans and Spirits matchup is bad.
The deck has fairly limited sideboard options:
Being green, we don’t have access to game-ending sideboard cards like
Rest in Peace
and
Stony Silence
. While we have some good hate cards, as green players we will still have to earn our wins with good decision making with our hate cards.
The Deck
I will now go over each card in the deck and why it is included, and go over other cards you could consider including in your deck.
The Creatures
Pelt Collector
This is a very strong one drop, and a strict upgrade from
Experiment One
. The card can very easily get out of control, and has synergy with our pump spells when it hits 4+ power.
Dryad Militant
A very underrated one drop, and while it’s stats are pretty poor, the text box of this creature works wonders in so many matchups. Against blue decks it shuts off
Snapcaster Mage
and slows down
Search for Azcanta
by a significant amount. Against Dredge it snags some of their most effective cards like
Life from the Loam
and
Conflagrate
. And against Hollow One decks it stops them from flashing back
Faithless Looting
and slows down
Gurmag Angler
. It does so much against so many other decks as well.
Strangleroot Geist
Easily the best 2-drop creature in the deck. This card is aggressive, can pump
Pelt Collector
twice, synergizes with
Avatar of the Resolute
, and often will get a 2 for 1 against your interactive opponents. It also survives through a
Supreme Verdict
, which can allow you to kill the control opponent when they are tapped out.
Avatar of the Resolute
Many of your opponents will underestimate this card when searching your hand with a
Thoughtseize
, and realize their mistake when you drop a 5/4 creature with trample on them, which happens more often than you think. The reach isn’t an irrelevant ability either, this card can easily eat
Flamewake Phoenix
and even get a
Supreme Phantom
if your opponent isn’t paying attention.
Scavenging Ooze
There’s a reason this card is played in Jund and Abzan, this card is an absolute value powerhouse. In addition to shutting off your Dredge and Hollow One opponent’s Blood Ghasts, it also synergizes very well with
Avatar of the Resolute
and
Rancor
.
Steel Leaf Champion
When this card was released, I was so excited. Finally, a good replacement for the big dumb vanilla 4/5 idiot that was
Leatherback Baloth
. This card has big stats, adds a whopping 3 green to your devotion count, and on top of that, can’t be blocked by
Lingering Souls
,
Young Pyromancer
tokens, and
Empty the Warrens
. An absolute beast of a card.
Kitchen Finks
This card isn’t as good as
Strangleroot Geist
, but is good for the same reason: it dies twice. This card is also crazy against burn, landing even just one will be enough to win the race most of the time.
The Spells
Dismember
This is really the only effective removal spell that green has access to, and it fits our tempo-oriented game plan perfectly. Clearing a blocker for 1 mana and 4 life to smash in is a trade I’ll take any day.
Vines of Vastwood
A very versatile protection spell. If your opponent knows how to play against your deck, they will play their removal on their turn and not your turn, much like how you would play against Infect. But, since most players won’t expect this, they will cast their removal in combat, allowing you take full advantage of this card. Remember that this card can also target your opponent’s creatures, which can be relevant.
Aspect of Hydra
This card is your blow out card. You will often have 6+ devotion on the field when you are about to swing in, and this card can create some surprise victories. Be careful when using this card against decks with a lot of removal.
Rancor
Enchantment for 1 mana that gives trample and +2 attack and never goes away? Count me in. Fun fact, this card should have been 3 mana, but the developers forgot to update it before printing it. Goes very well with our game plan as a cheap, efficient pump that keeps getting value.
Collected Company
Most versions of this deck don’t play this and rely very heavily on the early game pressure to win. This deck can still do that, but with this card, we have tons of late game potential. The card is also an instant, meaning we can summon a board after our opponent has cleared it with
Terminus
or
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
and kill them while they are tapped out. The card will often get 5 mana’s worth of big stats at instant speed, which is plenty enough to justify playing it.
The Lands
Very simple manabase, and no fetchlands means a low price tag.
Treetop Village
is a nice card that also synergizes with our pump spells and lets our deck still be able to pull through after our board has been cleared. Otherwise, 20 lands is a perfect number to average 3-4 per game, which is exactly what we are looking for.
Other Inclusions
Blossoming Defense
If you’re looking for more creature protection or just don’t like the card
Vines of Vastwood
, consider looking into this card. Personally, I think Vines is a better card, so if I were to play this, I would swap out the
Aspect of Hydra
for it. I would really only play this if you are playing in a very interactive meta.
Kalonian Tusker
This card isn’t better than any of our other 2 drops, being just a vanilla 3/3, but if you need more 2 drops, this is one of the better options. In my experience, 11 2 drops is plenty enough, but if you want more, this is the card to add.
Experiment One
I used to run this card before
Pelt Collector
was printed, and I still think that Pelt Collector is much better than this card. The one thing Experiment One has going for it is that it’s slightly more resilient than Pelt Collector, even if it doesn’t grow as fast. If you like this more than Pelt Collector or want more than 8 1 drops, consider this card.
Leatherback Baloth
I’m not the biggest fan of this card, mostly because it is nowhere close to the power level of
Steel Leaf Champion
. It is more aggressive than
Kitchen Finks
, and while I still believe Finks is a stronger card, I could see a swap there.
The Sideboard
I have constructed this sideboard to be a very generalized sideboard, To include a little bit of everything. The sideboard is pretty flexible, which you can change based on your meta. I will include other sideboard options and what types of metas you would use them in
Damping Sphere
This card is one of the few auto win cards we can include in the deck, and boy is it versatile. We include 3 because there are so many matchups we can bring it in for, and it usually ends up winning the game when we drop it early. It shuts off Tron lands, and our Storm and Ironworks opponents have to answer it before they can combo.
Dismember
Keeping this 4th copy in the sideboard lets us play our aggressive plan game 1 easier, and we can bring this in against other creature decks to punch through before they can stabilize.
Kitchen Finks
There are so many matchups to bring this in for, not just the burn matchup. We want this card against basically everything that isn’t a combo deck or UW Control. It dies twice, making it a powerful blocker and hard to remove, and gains life which can help when facing off against aggro decks.
Obstinate Baloth
Another very versatile card that can come in for a good number of matchups. You want this card against Burn since it gains life, and you bring it in against Jund and Hollow One since you can get it for free off of a
Burning Inquiry
or
Liliana of the Veil
.
Reclamation Sage
Probably the best option for enchantment and artifact hate. It’s a creature which fits our gameplan, and it can be played at instant speed with
Collected Company
.
Relic of Progenitus
A very good graveyard hate tool, to bring in against decks that play
Bloodghast
. The way you want to play with this card is hold on the battlefield as long as possible, and activate in response to a
Bloodghast
or
Prized Amalgam
trigger. If your opponent has a fetchland, remember that they can activate their fetch in response to Relic and still get
Bloodghast
, so don’t nuke the yard if they have one in play.
Spellskite
A very powerful card that can be gotten with
Collected Company
and can redirect removal from your opponent. This card can do so much more than that, and is a tricky one to master. For example, if you needed to, you could redirect your own pump spells to this in combat, and several other weird things. Spellskite has a lot of interesting quirks and will reward you for good decisions.
Surgical Extraction
Another card that can instantly win when you resolve it. It comes in against most matchups where we hate on the graveyard, and a few others. It can strip your opponent of all of their copies of
Arclight Phoenix
,
Scrap Trawler
,
Gifts Ungiven
, and so much more.
Unravel the Aether
Sometimes, we need instant speed artifact hate that doesn’t put it in the graveyard. This is where this card comes in handy. You can shuffle away Ironworks combo pieces in response to them casting something, and it also takes care of
Wurmcoil Engine
very nicely.
Other Considerations
Creeping Corrosion
This is a pretty narrow hate card, I would only suggest playing it if you expect to play against a lot of Affinity decks.
Back to Nature
Another very narrow card, I would only play this if you expect a lot of GW Hexproof or decks with
Ghostly Prison
.
Pithing Needle
/
Sorcerous Spyglass
These cards do pretty well against Tron as well as control decks, since we can shut down their planeswalkers. It doesn’t come in a whole lot of matchups, which is why I didn’t include it in my main choices for sideboard. Note that these cannot shut down
Krark-Clan Ironworks
, as its ability is a mana ability.
Thrun, the Last Troll
This card is good in metas with lots of removal and lots of blue decks. In the current meta of fast combo decks that I usually face, the card is very weak and slow. If you expect lots of interactive decks, consider putting a copy in your sideboard.
Prey Upon
I’ve had this card in my sideboard before, in place of the 4th
Dismember
. I used it because my meta had a lot of burn, and you want removal for
Eidolon of the Great Revel
, but you don’t want to pay 4 life for it.
Feed the Clan
I generally see this card in the sideboard of Stompy lists that don’t run
Kitchen Finks
, and I honestly wonder why the aren’t playing Finks. However, if the majority of the meta you face is Burn, I could see an argument for 1 copy of this card in your sideboard, but keep in mind that Kitchen Finks does this card’s job while also racing your opponent.
Sideboard Guide
Now that I’ve gone over why I chose the cards I did, it’s time to talk about what matchups to bring them in for, and how to use them. I will go over how to sideboard against the most popular decks in the format as of January 18th, 2019.
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+2 Spellskite
+1 Surgical Extraction
-2 Rancor
-2 Aspect of Hydra
-1 Kitchen Finks
The deck plays a lot of instant speed removal, and I generally bring out Aspect and Rancor against any removal heavy deck, since it sets them up for a 2 for 1. We want our Spellskites to dodge removal yet again, and Relic and Surgical can clear their
Arclight Phoenix
from the graveyard. Keep in mind that
Crackling Drake
counts graveyard spells AND exile spells. Do not try to trade with a 0/4 drake by clearing the graveyard at instant speed, as it will still have attack power. Save your Dismembers for Drakes and
Thing in the Ice
+2 Spellskite
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+1 Kitchen Finks
+2 Obstinate Baloth
-2 Aspect of Hydra
-2 Rancor
-3 Scavenging Ooze
This matchup is pretty ok for us,but you still have to be careful of helping their
Death's Shadow
. Often, it isn’t correct to attack if it will put your opponent at a very low life total, but not kill them. If you have one or more copies of
Vines of Vastwood
and have lethal, you should be safe to attack. Even though graveyard hate is important to stop
Gurmag Angler
, Scavenging Ooze comes out in the matchup since we already have Dryad Militant and Relic. They have a lot of removal, so Kitchen Finks and Spellskite comes in. Obstinate Baloth is a pretty fun card here, as they can’t take it off of
Thoughtseize
, and if the opponent isn’t paying attention, we can surprise them when they play
Kolaghan's Command
for the standard deal 2 damage and discard modes.
+2 Reclamation Sage
+1 Kitchen Finks
+2 Spellskite
+2 Obstinate Baloth
-2 Aspect of Hydra
-2 Rancor
-3 Dismember
Pretty clean sideboard changes here, bringing in lifegain for cards that damage us and are weak to removal. Spellskite can not only protect our creatures, but it can also sort of gain one life against burn spells. You can’t redirect
Lava Spike
, but for something like
Lightning Bolt
that can target creatures, you can redirect it to Spellskite to take 2 damage instead of 3. Reclamation Sage is brought in to answer
Eidolon of the Great Revel
as well as being able to answer
Ensnaring Bridge
, a card that many Burn decks have in the sideboard. Otherwise, the changes are pretty straight forward.
+1 Dismember
-1 Scavenging Ooze
This matchup is easily the worst in the format. Our only hope is basically to win the dice roll and have 2 very aggressive openers, or that the opponent gets unlucky. If you lose this matchup, don’t worry about it and move on, there’s not much you can do.
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+1 Surgical Extraction
-2 Rancor
-1 Aspect of Hydra
This matchup is pretty good, you’ll want to mulligan aggressively for Dryad Militant or Scavenging Ooze and it should be an easy game. Just have a hate card and put a clock on your opponent and there won’t be much your opponent can do.
+3 Damping Sphere
+1 Surgical Extraction
+2 Reclamation Sage
-2 Kitchen Finks
-2 Dismember
-2 Rancor
Damping Sphere shines again in this matchup, shutting off our opponents lands that make two mana. Surgical comes in to snipe an
Amulet of Vigor
after it is destroyed by Reclamation Sage or to get a
Primeval Titan
if we kill one with a pump spell. Otherwise, just play the normal gameplan and try to kill them before they do anything ridiculous.
+3 Damping Sphere
+2 Reclamation Sage
+1 Unravel the Aether
-2 Kitchen Finks
-3 Dismember
-1 Rancor
Game one we can only really hope to have a fast hand and kill our opponent before they drop a
Karn Liberated
. Game 2 and 3, we follow the same plan but we can slow down our opponent a lot with Damping Sphere.
+2 Obstinate Baloth
+2 Spellskite
+1 Kitchen Finks
-2 Aspect of Hydra
-2 Rancor
-1 Avatar of the Resolute
Another removal heavy deck, we bring in Finks and Spellskite to make their removal worse. We bring in Obstinate Baloth because the opponent can’t take it with
Thoughtseize
and we can surprise them if they use the +1 ability of
Liliana of the Veil
+3 Damping Sphere
+1 Surgical Extraction
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-2 Vines of Vastwood
-2 Rancor
-2 Kitchen Finks
The opponent can go off faster than we can kill them, but we can slow them down a lot with a Militant or an Ooze. Our opponent can’t go off with Damping Sphere in play, and we can completely kill their
Past in Flames
with Relic of Progenitus. Surgical Extraction should target
Past in Flames
, but can also target
Grapeshot
or
Empty the Warrens
and still be effective.
+1 Dismember
-1 Scavenging Ooze
This matchup is almost as bad as Humans, but is much more winnable. You’ll want to Dismember their Lords most of the time, and just try to find a fast hand to kill them before they stabilize.
+2 Spellskite
+1 Surgical Extraction
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-2 Kitchen Finks
-2 Rancor
-1 Aspect of Hydra
This matchup is pretty winnable, as long as we have a fast hand. We want Relic to stop them from flipping
Search for Azcanta
, and Spellskite to dodge removal. Be careful with your Surgical, be sure to time it right. You’ll want to use it in response to a
Snapcaster Mage
most of the time, hitting something like
Cryptic Command
or
Path to Exile
. We keep the Dismembers in to answer their sideboard copies of
Baneslayer Angel
and
Lyra Dawnbringer
.
+2 Spellskite
+1 Surgical Extraction
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+1 Kitchen Finks
-2 Rancor
-2 Aspect of Hydra
-2 Dismember
This is similar to UR Control, except that they play much more single target removal. Kitchen Finks is good in this matchup and bad in the other control match because Jeskai plays
Supreme Verdict
instead of
Terminus
. Otherwise, the matchup is almost the same.
+2 Spellskite
+2 Reclamation Sage
+1 Unravel the Aether
-2 Kitchen Finks
-1 Collected Company
-2 Dismember
This matchup is rough, but much more winnable game 2 and 3. Spellskite shines in this matchup, as it can steal your opponent’s Modular triggers from
Arcbound Ravager
and
Arcbound Worker
. Just try to execute the normal game plan and use the disruption creatures we brought in.
+2 Relic of Progenitus
+1 Surgical Extraction
+2 Obstinate Baloth
+2 Reclamation Sage
-2 Rancor
-1 Collected Company
-2 Kitchen Finks
-2 Aspect of Hydra
This matchup can be frustrating, as Burning Inquiry can be very tilting sometimes.
Obstinate Baloth
punishes our opponent for this card if we happen to discard it. You’ll want to target a recurring threat like
Bloodghast
or
Flamewake Phoenix
with Surgical Extraction. Also, you’ll want to hold onto Reclamation Sage to blow up a
Hollow One
.
I hope you can learn a lot from this guide, and I’ll be glad if more people pick up this deck for their FNM or even for tournaments. Feel free to post in the comments about how you do with the deck, and suggestions, and anything you learn by playing matchups for other players to learn from. Good luck!
