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A Green Fish in a Dralnu Ocean
Steven Crevar
1/30/2007  this article! - or -
I've been looking at various budget decks in Standard over the past few months, since, like many other new or returning Magic players, I'd rather not shell out an excessive amount of cash for shock lands unless I absolutely have to. My journey to find a deck that costs little and plays well led me down several dark roads (pre-Planar Chaos Mono Black Control, ouch), and up a few sunny paths (Mono Red Goblins with Empty the Warrens and the possibility of a first turn Blood Moon via Rite of Flame in a field once full of Flare variants, alas, for those prosperous times seem long forgotten in a local metagame that has recently shifted to Dragonstorm and Boros with sideboarded Worship.) Back to the point at hand: having played extensively with and against Dralnu du Louvre, and seeing its surge of popularity online, it wasn't difficult to foresee my local metagame adopting the "Resolve Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir. Win unless you have Sudden Death" method of gameplay as well. So, with this in mind, I decided to play Mono Green Aggro:
A few notes on the deck: Mostly standard fare for Mono Green Aggro; low casting cost creatures, mana acceleration, recursive creature boosting and production, and some combat tricks. Originally, I ran four Blanchwood Armor as well, but opted to take them out for two extra Might of Old Krosa and extra copies of Stonewood Invocation and Spectral Force. My reasoning was that I didn't want to give my opponent two-for-one opportunities with Blanchwood Armor, especially in a field full of Lightning Helix and Repeal. Moldervine Cloak can be dredged back to help negate a two-for-one; Blanchwood Armor unfortunately cannot. Also, I found, due to the low land count of the deck and fast nature of my match-ups, the Blanchwood Armors were usually Moldervine Cloaks without dredge anyway, since a creature rarely got larger than +3/+3. Making room for the fourth Stonewood Invocation was an obvious choice, since there are very few situations in which it doesn't make me smile to draw one, barring a face-down Willbender. It puts pressure on your opponent like no other card can, especially following an attempted Condemn, and can turn games around when your opponent thinks their life total is well out of reach of a lonely Silhana Ledgewalker. The Might of Old Krosas are certainly debatable, but in a format full of second turn signets, I felt one mana for four damage was good enough to include four opportunities to do so, and it still passes as a solid combat trick when not played during your main phase. The fourth Spectral Force is probably the most arguable addition to the deck, but my logic was that drawing and casting a Spectral Force at any time has the most potential to swing the game in my favor out of any other card in green, so I threw in the fourth copy. I didn't regret it, since it won me at least a game or two, but with the release of Planar Chaos, I'm sure I'll have access to better options. In regards to the sideboard, four Krosan Grip seems excessive, but I correctly predicted a large amount of Dralnu/Pickles to be played, and nothing stops sideboarded Bottle Gnomes like a Krosan Grip. Folding to Worship didn't seem appealing either, so it was a natural inclusion, though three may have sufficed. Spike Feeders are severely underrated and overshadowed by Loxodon Hierarch, in my Humble opinion. I love playing any deck that can effectively make use of these Timeshifted goodies, and they have MVP status against any deck that thinks they can just burn you out for the win. Serrated Arrows are for Confidants, Elves, and Boros in general, and heavily swing such match-ups in my favor. The Giant Solifuges are the perfect post-Wrath damage source, and could very easily end up main-deck if Flare and variants hadn't recently fallen out of favor in my metagame. Squall Line is awful, and only made it into my sideboard because I couldn't pick up the last two Giant Solifuges, and I wanted a non-creature win condition. So, on to the tournament. City Championships had begun in Hamilton, Ontario a few weeks ago, and with it brought a much higher attendance than usual at our Tuesday night Standard tournaments at Top Games. An excessive showing of Dralnu and Pickles led to a ridiculously late night, as over half the matches in each round went to time. Seriously, nothing in this world is more painfully boring to watch than a match where no one plays anything less than instant speed until each player has a Teferi and six Counterspells in hand. At any rate, on to the matches. Round One vs Scott, playing Boros Scott is an amiable fellow who I've had the pleasure of playing with before. I already know he's playing Boros, and view this as a match-up that is heavily in my favor, so I'm pleased to hear first round pairings. I lose the die roll and we both play some creatures, swing at each other for a few turns, until he starts trying to burn off Call of the Herd tokens, taking the pressure off of me and allowing me to swing with a Spectral Force and then Stonewood Invocation to seal the game. Game two is close, as I board in four Spike Feeders, three Serrated Arrows, and two Krosan Grip, taking out all four of the Spectral Forces and Scryb Rangers as well as one Dryad Sophisticate. On the draw against Boros, I can't afford to wait till 4-5th turn for a heavy hitting creature, and would rather stabilize with Spike Feeders and -1/-1 counters. I keep a two land hand with no accelerants, probably a foolish mistake, but mulliganing only reduces my changes of hitting that critical three mana, since Elves and Birds will be promptly burned or hit with javelins. I play nothing on turn one and two, then proceed to miss land drops on turns three and four. Luckily he only has a Savannah Lions and some burn, and draws an excess of land. I'm down to 11 by the time I can play my first Spike Feeder, which gets burned, but not before gaining me some life. He plays Lions number two, I play Spike Feeder two and three. He ends up trading a Feeder for a Lion, and he's left with a Lion while my side of the board is empty. He draws into Soltari Priest, and I happily draw into Serrated Arrows. I go to 11 before I can ping off his two creatures, then he drops Lions number three. On my turn, I draw a Ledgewalker and play it with a Cloak in hand but not enough to cast it. He swings with the Lions, and I'm left with the decision to block or wait and swing with a 4/4. I hope that I make the right call as I block, and my decision is confirmed when he drops another Priest after combat. My last -1/-1 counter takes down the Priest, and then things get ridiculous. I manage to draw all four Moldervine Cloaks, two Might of Old Krosa, and a Stonewood Invocation, while he draws land and burn. Finally I draw a creature, of all things, a Birds of Paradise, which gets two of the Cloaks. An end step Temporal Isolation that probably should have waited till my next attack step gets thrown on my Bird, and we both top deck nothing for a few more turns. Finally, I draw another Bird, which gets the other two Cloaks, and then a Stonewood Invocation and the two Krosas for 19 damage in a single swing. Scott doesn't topdeck an answer, and I take the match on next turn. Round Two vs Mike, playing U/G Scryb I lose the die roll again, and we play mana guys for the first few turns. He gets an Ohran Viper and swings, so I throw three 1/1s in its way after doing some heavy thinking and face-reading to see if he's got a combat trick. I make the right call and lose a Ledgewalker, he loses the viper. Another virtually identical combat phase comes up, and another Ledgewalker and Viper hit the bin. I Cloak up a Scryb and drop him to 15, with me at 18. He plays a Spectral Force, but I play another Cloak on my Scryb, followed by an Invocation, and drop him to 3. He swings me down to 10 with the Force, but the Scryb finishes the game next turn. Game two I board in three Serrated Arrows and four Spike Feeders, under the impression that it was a mirror match (He didn't play any blue sources first game), and take out four Sophisticates and three Invocations, thinking that I would out-control a mirror match. He drops a Breeding Pool and a Bird, and I'm a little surprised. It doesn't make a difference, as I proceed to play a Scryb, a Cloak, and three unanswered Spectral Forces. Sometimes my draws are ridiculous. Round Three vs Dave playing U/B Pickles Another favorable match-up for me, and I'm even on the play for once. A turn one Llanowar Elf leads into a turn two Call of the Herd, which gets Repealed. The countermagic starts early, with a Sophisticate getting a Spell Snare and numerous other creatures getting countered. A Ledgewalker gets in though, and it pairs up with a Pendelhaven to swing until he drops to 9, when it is joined by a Sophisticate. Stonewood Invocation tries to finish the game, but as a general rule, face-down creatures are always Willbenders when you play Stonewood Invocation, because the one exception to the split second rule has to come up as much as possible or else the balance of the universe will be upset. Instead, I settle for another Stonewood Invocation on the following turn, and mercifully, the Powers that Be are appeased enough to let a spell that is supposed to always resolve...actually resolve. Game two I side out four Elves, two Cloaks, a Call, and a Spectral Force for two Giant Solifuge, two Squall Line and four Krosan Grip, anticipating Bottle Gnomes. I wanted to keep the deck threat-heavy against a deck that runs a decent amount of counterspells, so I swapped out the Elves and Cloaks (in retrospect, the Forces should have came out, not the Cloaks, especially on the draw). The game begins, and my Ledgewalker gets Spell Snared. He drops a morph, and I drop two Sophisticates. He drops an unexpected Serrated Arrows, killing a Sophisticate, but luckily I have a Grip to minimize the casualties. I play another Sophisticate and Ledgewalker, but the former holds off in fear of Desert. I play a Call and a Force, and swing with the alpha strike a turn later, lead by a Solifuge. One of his two morphs reveals itself to be a Vesuvan Shapeshifter, which copies and blocks my Force and the other morph stays face-down and blocks my elephant token, but the three Sophisticates, the Ledgewalker, and the Solifuge cross the finish line for exactly the eleven damage necessary to take the game. Round Four vs Kyle, playing B/W Rack Discard Pairings get called, and I'm filled with joy when I get my best match-up possible. Kyle is an excellent player, and the only other participant that is 3-0-0. He offers a draw, but we'll both get into the top four either way, and I want more points towards City Championships. I lose the die roll again, but draw a nuts hand, so I'm happy. Turn one Elf is followed by a Ravenous Rats, but I have Calls, Cloaks, and extra Forests to throw away, so I'm not threatened by this Rat, or the second Rat, or the Stupor that follows, either. I play an elephant, and he plays two Jotun Grunt, an incredible and overlooked card for the current Standard environment, especially when paired with so much discard. I'm undaunted, however, as I dredge my Cloak, set it on the elephant, and Krosa my Elf during main phase. The Elf gets in and the elephant gets double-blocked, taking out one of the Grunts. I dredge a Cloak and play a Sophisticate, Cloaking it up, set for the win next turn with Kyle at two life. Then I make the most embarrassing mistake I've ever made: four cards in my graveyard get targeted by the Grunts and sent to the bottom of my library... except they don't make it there, since I stupidly shuffle them into my library by accident (I blame years of playing with Gaea's Blessing), earning me a game loss. Undaunted, I move to game two and we shuffle up, with me on the play. I lead with Elf into Call of the Herd, he plays Dark Confidant, I get in some quick beats with my token until I run into a Condemn. A Cloaked Bird swings him down to six, and my next turn is set to go with a second Cloak for the win, barring Condemn. The Cloak comes down, and meets.... Sudden Death. Ouch. Confidant flips over lands for four turns and I die to The Rack and Jotun Grunt beats. Top four is called and I set a Mental Note to quit Magic. Two weeks in a row, I play the same person playing the same deck, which happens to be an utterly hopeless match for me. Semi-Finals vs Brad, playing R/U/W Angel Control Brad is currently leading City Championships with the most points, and is both an excellent limited and constructed player, as well as the proud owner of not one, but two opened Damnations from the Planar Chaos Prerelease. He also happens to be playing my worst match-up. Between Lightning Angels, Helix, Wrath of God, Bogardan Hellkite, Signets to power them all out and Compulsive Research/Court Hussar to make sure he gets what he needs, and then Condemns post-board, this match is near unwinnable. The fact that I've played it two weeks in a row makes me a sad panda, but I manage to win a die roll, so I resist the urge to curse all creation for giving birth to such a cruel world. Two Ledgewalkers are met by a third turn signet-powered Wrath of God, and two elephants and a Cloaked Bird are stared down or flown over by two Lightning Angels. Game two I side in the Solifuges and Squall Lines for the Might of Old Krosas, which probably should have been the Spectral Forces instead. There is a brief glimmer of hope in this game, as Elves, Birds, a Scryb and a Sophisticate lead to fast beats and double Stonewood Invocation, dropping Brad to five life, but Demonfire on a Sophisticate and Lightning Helix on Scryb Ranger puts the game back out of my hands. A Solifuge manages to sneak in and keeps the Hellkite that flashes in the following turn on defense duty, but eventually a Wrath and a Lightning Angel take the win. Brad goes on to miraculously beat B/W Rack, and keeps a steady lead on City Championship points, and the rest of us pray that Teferi will get banned so we don't have to deal over half the matches going to time throughout the entire tournament again. In retrospect, I'm pleased with the way things went, I feel that Mono Green Aggro is a great choice in a field full of non-Wrath-powered control like Dralnu and Pickles. Essentially, it's only bad matchups are decks that run Wrath of God, and even this isn't too bad so long as they don't have too much targeted removal to follow up a Wrath, or countermagic for your Solifuge. In terms of changes, I'd like to switch a few things post-Planar Chaos, and would love to hear other opinions on the subject:
Click to discuss this thread! - or -
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