Hi, this is a G/U build that works very much like mono green, but with the advantage of being able to 1/2 shot players from on high. How it plays is pretty simple - grab your nasty piece of work - Carnage Tyrant. Rhonas the Indomitable, Vine Mare, Steel Leaf Champion etc.
Play a Hadana's Climb
= any time from T2 onwards. In fact, if your opponent is running slowly, ramp into Hadana's Climb turn 2 is pretty damned decent - you can at least throw that 1/1 counter on an elf.
Flip said Hadana's Climb
and go nuts. It has all the power of mono green and the smooth mana base with pretty reliably getting the 1 Blue mana required to cast your alternate wincon. Not to mention it opens you up to sideboard tech vs control which mono green suffers from.
So now you can run Negate and Unwind sideboard. And while Hadana's Climb works best in a Sultai constrictor shell, this has the benefit of being very easy to continue with post rotation - just a few cards to swap out, though Rhonas will be a big loss. But it isn't enormous and you can take some solace in that mono/dual colour will be a lot more prevalent unless the new set has insane land value.
I've added Walking Ballista as it has the ability to both benefit from an early Hadana's Climb and flip it when you need to, plus it provides value on turns where you can't use all of your mana or mana dorks. Thorn Lieutenant is just a good body with good value vs removal or opponent interaction like Binding Mummy.
Channeler Initiate works well as an extra 2 mana dorks alongside Llanowar Elves - they can make any colour if required and they come out mid/late game as much better bodies than the elves.
Jadelight Ranger is there as well - it is a pretty decent card filter at any point in the game, and can help flip a Hadana's Climb
. Plus a potential 4/3 for 3 isn't bad.
Ghalta, Primal Hunger sits there patiently as well, waiting to win games for you, along with Carnage Tyrant who I think is a 3 of in this deck once I get a paper copy of a third.
I've won every game bar one on XMage so far, and that was poor mulligan choices vs mono red which is always unforgiving - the ability to trample over or fly over for a win is pretty damned strong.
The big danger is that when behind, you struggle to catch up playing 1 for 1, especially when they have evasion. Unfortunately, as running board wipes isn't a great option I'm still searching for an answer. Blink of an Eye is only 1 for one, and there are no real return all X to hand cards in the format in G/U.
Sideboard tech gives you longer game options - 5 noncreature counters, Nissa to grind out value and draw, 4 draw engines for when your creatures die against R/B removal, plus 2 Runic Armasaur which are amazing against Walking Ballista and any sort of burn, and they make great blockers. Blossoming Defense is something I want to play mainboard, but have found a dead card so many times. But it can cause a blowout, so I'm keeping with it.
