The group I play with is 4-5 players once a week and has 0 bans. That's right. Everything is on the table.there are however, a couple..... guidelines:
don't play alot of countersnobody likes pulling off amazing turns and being shut down by 2-3 mana every time. 2-3 counters is fine.
Everyone has to play to win.meaning no group hug or group pain that don't have win cons.
No bs decks that win every game by turn 3. because who wants to deal with that????
and lastly
have fun. cheesy? not really. I used to play a
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
deck. the same every game. super reliable but kind of boring. same goes for decks that basically just make everyone unable to play anything... like Gaddock Teeg decks.
That being said. the description for this deck:
We want to do what mono green does best. Ramp fast and Swing big. while maintaining some answers for when people get stuff out that just completely shuts us down.
Win-cons:
Overwhelming Stampede is pretty much the name of the game for green. some similar effects include Garruk Wildspeaker, Pathbreaker Ibex, and Craterhoof Behemoth.
Creatures that can absolutely win by themselves if left alone long enough include: Chameleon Colossus, Heroes' Bane, Primordial Hydra, and Kalonian Hydra. of course these synergize well with Berserk, Overwhelming Stampede or Pathbreaker Ibex
One of my favorite win combos is playing Woodland Bellower into Shaman of Forgotten Ways because shaman's formidable ability is immediately available.
one of the all-time dumbest win cons is Umbral Mantle.. paired with our commander, Priest of Titania or Elvish Archdruid when theyre able to tap for 4 mana. unlimited mana and unlimited power/toughness. it almost doesn't feel right playing this combo, but when your play group has things like winning turn 3 by dropping emrakul via
Show and Tell
they don't complain.
Genesis Wave i absolutely love casting this card for 50 or so mana. if you happen to get
Concordant Crossroads
its an instant win 90% of the time. however i have been known to genesis wave early with x=8 because that's the biggest costing permanent in our deck. sometimes it pays off with an instant win. and sometimes you get a lot of mana ramp all at once.
of course there are plenty of tutors to get these con's going.
Living Wish
I swear I get a lot of hate for playing this card. but. i only use it for cards in my sideboard, a couple of which are late game win cons just to make this not a dud draw late game. Kamahl, Fist of Krosa, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and
Elderscale Wurm
for when i just need to survive awhile.... i guess you could use Platinum Angel instead.. but that 7/7 body with trample helps us more with our win cons and I'm trying to make this deck with as few colorless/artifact creatures as possible.
Mana Dumps
Ant Queen,
Wren's Run Packmaster
, Chameleon Colossus, Heroes' Bane, Nylea, God of the Hunt and ..Omnath, Locus of Mana?
They can be considered win con's given enough mana and This deck gets RIDICULOUS amounts of mana from time to time. Sometimes games don't go our way and our field gets wiped our hand gets discarded. these cards give us something to do with all that extra mana we're getting.
my PERSONAL recommendation. don't make a creature's power higher than your own lifetotal, and don't make more creatures than your life total. there are cards for very low mana costs that turn that against us. lots of cards to gain control of our biggest creature and send him against you or things like
Incite Rebellion
.
Mana
the goal is to get a lot of mana super quick. Aside from our commander of course we have:
(1 mana) Arbor Elf, Elvish Mystic, Joraga Treespeaker, Llanowar Elves
(2 mana) Priest of Titania,
Seeker of Skybreak
[we count seeker because we have a lot of tapable mna sources.
(3 mana) Elvish Archdruid,
Elvish Harbinger
, Shaman of Forgotten Ways, Omnath, Locus of Mana
(4+ mana) Karametra's Acolyte, Seedborn Muse,
Patron of the Orochi
technically you could replace some of the lower cost creatures with a forest for
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
to be better. and add cards like Burgeoning or Fastbond for quick advantage. up to you. but remember, every 1/1 creature we have is a body to get buffed via overwhelming stampede effects.
This isn't even our final form folks. we still have mana ramp that doesn't involve creatures:
Sol Ring, Cultivate,
Journey of Discovery
, Nissa's Pilgrimage, Garruk Wildspeaker,
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
, Mana Reflection, and Boundless Realms. Plus, Instill Energy on any of our tapable mana producers.
Card advantage
Sylvan Library any deck that plays green runs this. its so good. i almost never pay the life, but when we know whats coming we can choose weather or not to tutor or Fauna Shaman to shuffle the deck.
Greater Good is amazing. especially when we use it to sac Heroes' Bane, Primordial Hydra, Kalonian Hydra, Omnath, Locus of Mana, Genesis, or tokens after they've been buffed via Overwhelming Stampede effects. drawing 16-32 cards and discarding 3 is huge when we can choose to discard Genesis or Creeping Renaissance usually we want to win very quickly afterwards.
Harmonize 4 mana becomes nothing to us eventually.
Wild Pair this card is beautiful.. Avenger of Zendikar + Craterhoof Behemoth
or Heroes' Bane + Kalonian Hydra
or Archetype of Endurance + Siege Behemoth
or Temur Sabertooth + Vizier of the Menagerie
oh boy free stuff. of course Garruk, Caller of Beasts's final ability is a broken version of wild pair. and god forget you get both of them out at once laughing manically
answers
Oh boy is it fun getting absolutely shut down by cards like Meekstone, Blazing Archon, Platinum Angelthis is why we have answers! (of course we are green players. so the number one answer is to swing face and destroy your opponents life total) that aside:
Lignify
and
Song of the Dryads
are useable even on commanders because they don't leave the field so they cant be recast from the commander zone or the graveyard or the hand.
Beast Within and Krosan Grip STAPLES.
Ritual of Subdual
oh boy.. talk about shutting players down. good thing we don't depend on lands for green mana!
Genesis and Creeping Renaissance while these aren't really answers they become answers when we face decks that mill us or make us discard our hands all the time.
Sylvan Primordial
, Terastodon, Bane of Progress and Archetype of Endurance are some big answers that are tutorable and can swing.
Whisperwood Elemental and Vigor are two of the main answers i've found for our biggest most pesky annoyance: field wipes. however they provide significant advantage even if youre opponents aren't playing field wipes.
Defense of the Heart is it really even an answer? no but ive seen it shut some decks down due to the fact that no one wants you to drop 2 huge creatures early on.
Homeward Path even if youre facing 0 control cards, the colorless mana it provides helps to use Mirrorpool which is can cast double Overwhelming Stampede and other such ridiculous double casts.
Living Wish
i can still feel the hate.. Melira, Sylvok Outcast for dealing with a poison threat,
Tajuru Preserver
for the pesky eldrazi, Dosan the Falling Leaf for counters and Overwhelming Stampede prevention like Cyclonic Rift and
Upheaval
.
Signature cards.
Temur Sabertooth bouncing your commander to your hand in order to play it for 2 mana. is really good. also of course there's etb effects you can now drop multiple times. Avenger of Zendikar + Craterhoof Behemoth
both cards droppable multiple times... oh boy. not to mention multiple drops of terrastodon + Sylvan Primordial just destroy all of your opponents lands..
Sylvan Safekeeper proceed with caution. however, just having this out will usually deter opponents.
Ulvenwald Tracker
since we're guaranteed to have the biggest creatures this is to best. don't forget you can make your own creatures fight eachother while Vigor is out. also
Wren's Run Packmaster
wolves have deathtouch. that's an instant kill no matter what their creature is. provided its not indestructible. another fun trick is using ulvenwald to either kill your Genesis to get him into the graveyard, or killing one of your etb effects while genesis is already in the graveyard so you can cast them again.
Whisperwood Elemental not only does this prevent field wipes (in a way) but some nifty tricks available once creatures start getting manifested.. flipping Vigor over while an opponent is attacking you all out.. or flipping Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger over in response to an opponent tapping all their lands. Also if you attack with facedown creatures you can morph them after blockers have been declared. Pathbreaker Ibex and
Siege Behemoth
being prime examples.
Yeva, Nature's Herald allows for some dumb tricks as well. if you have Omnath, Locus of Mana out and he dies you can flash him back in during the same phase and you get to keep the mana. or flashing in Vigor while youre being attacked or
Terrastodon
right before your turn to destroy your opponents defenses and gain a body for Overwhelming Stampede at the same time. or likewise flashing in Avenger of Zendikar in order to be able to attack with him and his tokens the next turn.
Scryb Ranger okay. i have a secret love for this card. the ability to untap your commander, or any of the other mana providing elves is really good. however. what sets this apart from
Seeker of Skybreak
is it has flying, protection from blue and you can also play this ability on each of your opponents turns.. pair this with
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
or Fauna Shaman or
Ulvenwald Tracker
and you got yourself some good times. drop Seedborn Muse on top of that and we are doing a lot of stuff per turn.
Patron of the Orochi
untaps himself. that means you can tap him on every players turn. he's a lot like Seedborn Muse and he provides a big body for Overwhelming Stampede then on top of this if you get Omnath, Locus of Mana out for a couple full turns its nor long before you have a giant quantity of mana. once you get into the hundreds, spend half of it on your mana dump right before your turn and kill 3 players in the next combat phase.
Nylea, God of the Hunt this should go without saying. but if you attack with 4 small creatures, wait to dump mana into her ability until AFTER blockers have been declared. every combat trick counts. same goes for Heroes' Bane and Berserk. a similar effect is if you cast Overwhelming Stampede while you only have four 1/1's then you flash in a 4/4 after blockers have been declared. all the creatures are now 5/5's. if you add Bow of Nylea trample + deathtouch dictates you only have to assign lethal damageto a creature and the rest of your damage tramples over. therefor a 5/5 blocked by a 10/10 deals 1 damage to the 10/10 and 4 to the player (then dies)
Honerable mentions / maybe board
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
okay. I have a soft spot for this guy. if you get him, you can quicken your deck exponentially. 1st tap Sylvan Safekeeper to protect him. 2nd tap Scryb Ranger is best because you can do it every turn, twice at the very least. but if you don't have the mana or time to return forests to your hand
Seeker of Skybreak
is good too. but she doesn't have haste so you cant immediately take advantage. 3rd tap
Elvish Harbinger
or Omnath, Locus of Mana 4th tap Temur Sabertooth will allow you to restart him from one counter after you play your 5th tap Seedborn Muse after playing this the game is going to be over very soon. if there are four players and you're using his ability twice every turn? 6th tap Shaman of Forgotten Ways + Woodland Bellower
7th tap Avenger of Zendikar 8th tap Craterhoof Behemoth if somehow you havnt won at this point, use Temur Sabertooth to start all over again. except with different searches each time
Helix Pinnacle you. win. no matter how defended your opponent is, no matter how many fogs they play, no matter how much life they have. you win if you get this to 100. and it has shroud. only way to get rid of it is to wipe the field with a wipe that hits enchantments. id only put this on the field once you have 34+ mana to drop into it per turn. the more opponents their are the more likely it will be gone quickly.
Dosan the Falling Leaf this guy. you usually drop him in on the turn you're going to win. it will be tempting to put him into play early. but he prevents Fog, Cyclonic Rift, and other such abilities that stop your game winning turn. I like to play my game winning turn, then flash him in using Yeva, Nature's Herald in response to your opponent attempting to cast something preventative. oh. you thought you were safe? that card in your hand cant help you now.
Silklash Spider
, a tutorable way to repeatedly deal with flying creatures. something greens not super great at. we do have Gravity Well, Sandwurm Convergence,
Spidersilk Armor
and other such enchantments. but mono green tutoring kind of limits us to tutoring for creatures. Hornet Queen and Traproot Kami are also cratures suited for at least slowing down fliers.
