Description in progress below.
I update this deck consistently with what I play on mtgo.
What does this deck do?
This deck is essentially the pauper equivalent of modern tron. Sure, there is no Karn Liberated or Ugin, but Maelstrom Colossus is pretty good right? All jokes aside, this deck tries to turbo out tron. The mulligans are extremely aggressive. I have mulliganed to 3 or 4 multiple times and have won plenty of those games.
The main reason I wanted to play this version of tron over the popular flicker tron is that flicker tron sucks to play and play against. Often you can just time out flicker tron on mtgo, and the skipping combat loop is just boring.
In recent times, a new combo tron has emerged, with lots of small artifacts that cycle themselves into a myr retriever loop with ashnod's altar. This deck looks fun, but cannot compare to playing massive creatures and beating face.
Specific Card Inclusions:
Crop Rotation :
This is arguably the best card in the deck. It can fetch any tron land that you need, at instant speed. It is also the reason for the cards: Bojuka Bog and Khalni Garden. Garden protects against edict effects, and Bog wrecks graveyard-focused decks.
Ancient Stirrings :
This one is pretty simple, great way to get a tron land or a creature/artifact.
Candy Trail :
Scries to find tron lands in the early game. Gains life, replaces itself, and can be used to filter cards for a Maelstrom Colossus Cascade. 10/10 card.
Chromatic Star and Chromatic Sphere :
Classic Tron card. Replaces itself for colorless, fixes your mana for green when you need it. Also counts as an artifact dying for Fangren Marauder.
Boulderbranch Golem :
One of the best new printings to date. This card is 7 colorless, which makes it much easier for the deck to cast it. This deck has limitations with the amount of colored mana it has, and this gets around that. A 6/5 for 7 is fantastic, and gaining 6 life against most decks will get you many more turns of relief.
I've never used the prototype on this card, but it could be relevant if you are behind and really need it. Not bad to have.
Maul Splicer :
One of my favorite cards in the deck. Beats sacrifice removal and creates plenty of blockers to stop aggro. Also, if you are reading this far, I will give you a lovely secret to this deck. Mono-Green Tron is technically a Golem-Tribal deck. Yes, you read this right, and Maul Splicer gives all of my golems trample.
Boulderbranch Golem, Maelstrom Colossus, and The Maul Splicer's tokens all gain trample. This is sooo good against wall-style decks, and really puts a clock on those aggro decks to try and win the game (which is hard when you have 30+ life). Trample also allows you to take monarch back in long games.
Maelstrom Colossus :
I run 4 of these rather than 4 Ulamog's Crushers, as the cascade trigger makes them much better against control decks than Crusher. Hitting a 7 drop off the cascade trigger is soooooo good. However, most of the time you'll hit a Chromatic Star or another 1 drop. A real star of the deck.
Wretched Gryff :
Included as a 4 of in the main. Having a cast trigger to draw a card puts you ahead against control. 7 colorless lets you consistently get it out on turn 3. and flying is fantastic for blocking delvers, kor skyfishers, glint hawks, and more. Also, emerge can be relevant, I have emerged this guy for 1 blue off of a 7 drop to draw cards.
Bramble Wurm :
This card is here for the amazing lifegain it offers. Oh and a 7/6 for 7 with reach is great too. Don't underestimate the power of lifegain in a deck that has an inevitability factor of massive creatures like this one. I've considered running Malevolent Rumble off of the back of this card, with rumble sending extra cards to the graveyard.
Nyxborn Hydra :
This is a fun card. The double-green requirement for bestow can be hard early but against a black deck can really pay off. Trample is fantastic in this deck to end the game.
Fangren Marauder :
(Now located in the sideboard)
Fangren is one of the best cards in the deck. The lifegain from all of the 1 mana artifacts cycling can easily be too much for many aggro decks to handle. In 2025, so much ETB lifegain is played in the maindeck that these are reserved more to be brought in against affinity, cycle tron, and burn decks. The most important part of this card is that it triggers for any artifact dying, not just your own.
Why no Malevolent Rumble ? (1 in deck right now)
Don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic card. I haven't playtested with it yet, but getting any permanent instead of just colorless ones is a huge upgrade to ancient stirrings. However, Ancient Stirrings does the same effect for 85% of the deck, is one mana cheaper, and looks at one more card. This card is better with bramble wurm though. I will certainly try it soon, likely as a 1-3 of in place of a mix of chromatic sphere and crop rotate. I am just wary as it would make the tron side of the deck less consistent.
League Finishes:
1st League (3/23/25): 3-2
Won against: GB Broodscale Combo, UB Tempo/Control, RB Madness
Lost to: GB Broodscale Combo, White Weenie (Guardian's Pledge)
Notes:
Never used Fangren Marauder, so I'm taking 1-2 out of the sideboard in favor of removal spells like runaway boulder or scour from existence. Needed against Broodscale Combo.
Loved Kaerek's Torch, domed UB Control with it for 15 to win G2 and Match.
Might want more removal overall in the deck. Would need to go up on ways to get colored mana if bringing in cast down. Had 2 games overall where I ran out of colored mana.
Adding a sejiri steppe to the sideboard over khalni garden. Could be more relevant.
Ancient Stirrings being 1 less than Malevolent Rumble was relevant many times in the early games to get tron. Definitely better in this deck.
2nd League (3/28/25): 3-2
Won against: BW value, Red Burn x 2
Lost to: Mono-Black Broodscale Combo x 2
Notes:
Beat burn 3 to 1, but on the draw I was one turn off casting boulderbranch golem and my opponent had the nuts with a bushwacker. This deck feels EXTREMELY strong against burn. I will make a sideboard guide shortly as well.
Broodscale combo is extremely hard for this deck to beat. I think I need to splash for cast down and/or extract a confession. Will change that up in the decklist. The 1/1 beetle that grows from saccing creatures is brutal too. This deck struggles if the opponent wins on their turn 3. I hope sadistic glee gets tbh.
Matchups and Sideboarding (Not updated since 2021):
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zkQ9Kt4Fd6T7fY9R2pUJl44UhY-T4czf4khOajsugsM/edit?usp=sharing
Here are all the games I have played with a (non updated) version of the deck. It shows winrate, what to sideboard, and percentages. Below I will also explain what goes on against average tier matches.
Affinity:
You need to find a Fangren Marauder in this matchup, the more the better. It stops them from comboing off and attacking into it. Be wary of Galvantic Blast however, as blocking and letting them kill it is devastating. Overall a great affinity matchup, 77% win rate.
Delver/Faeries:
This is a pretty even matchup, but try to not play too much into their counterspells. Especially with Crop Rotation, as it makes you sacrifice a land as a cost, not on resolution. Fiery Cannonade kills all of their pesky Faeries and Ninjas.
Walls:
It seems like this deck decides to not have a combo on game 1, which is great for the deck. You need to start pushing pressure on very early, with a Crusher or other big dudes.
Chatterstorm:
Lose game one, then mulligan to your Fiery Cannonades or Weather the Storms. Weather doesn't stop them from winning, but gives you some time to draw Cannonade. Focus much more on doing this than assembling tron. This matchup is hard, but the deck will probably get banned.
