Back when Frenzied Baloth was first spoiled in Edge of Eternities, there was a lot of hype surrounding mono-green as a potential breakout archetype in Standard. Unfortunately, this never really came to fruition. In a field dominated by Izzet Cauldron, mono-green hasn’t made much of an impact.
However, yesterday, an assertive mono-green shell with some interesting inclusions managed to go undefeated in a Magic Online Standard League, showcasing that perhaps the strategy has been underplayed up to this point. The deck has some promising features, so let’s see how it stacks up in a brutal environment.
Fast Starts
Considering that mono-green doesn’t have access to much in the way of removal, you need to play to the board quickly. That’s where this deck gets its edge. It’s fast and can add a ton of power to the battlefield in a short span of time.
To accelerate towards your potent three-drops and four-drops, Llanowar Elves plays an essential role. If you can stick a turn one Elf, you’ll usually be in good shape.
After playing a turn one Elf, you’re able to make a multitude of powerful plays ahead of schedule. Against removal heavy decks, utilizing the Offspring ability of Pawpatch Recruit is a great option to have. You’ll get two creatures for the price of one card, and if your opponent wants to kill any of your other threats while your Rabbits are in play, you’ll be able to spread around +1/+1 counters as you please.
Surrak, Elusive Hunter is another excellent play that lines up well in the face of removal or counter magic. While there are only two copies in the maindeck, two more copies appear in the sideboard for matchups like Azorius control.
In the event you don’t have Llanowar Elves in your opening hand or it gets killed, you’ll rely on your two-drops to keep pace. Frenzied Baloth unsurprisingly is one of your strongest options. A hasty threat with three power for just two mana is no joke. Keen-Eyed Curator also pulls its weight as a well-statted two-drop that can grow to be enormous in the long run.
A Powerful Finisher
While Frenzied Baloth is obviously a nice addition to the mono-green archetype, it’s arguably not the most important Edge of Eternities inclusion. That honor likely goes to Ouroboroid. Ouroboroid is your only four-mana play in the maindeck. Still, it’s well worth running and can singlehandedly run away with games.
All you need to do is set up a window where you can make it to combat, and you’ll get to put +1/+1 counters on all of your creatures. Once you do, Ouroboroid will outsize Torch the Tower, Nowhere to Run, and other common pieces of interaction. If Ouroboroid sticks around even one more turn, you’ll usually create an overwhelming board presence.
Here’s the kicker, though. Buffing Ouroboroid in any way before combat will make your squad much scarier. Both Giant Growth and Overprotect enable some gnarly turns, breaking board stalls wide open.
Of course, using Overprotect to push through blockers or save your best threat from a kill spell is totally fine, too. As long as you can curve out and gain an advantage, these pump spells will keep your opponent on the backfoot.
Giving Yourself a Chance
Overall, mono-green is a fine deck, but certainly has its weaknesses. You don’t have access to much removal of your own outside of a few “fight” or “bite” spells. This makes it tough to get through Screaming Nemesis or Preacher of the Schism. Most of your threats don’t have haste, so board wipes out of Azorius control can be a pain (The Regalia and Vivien Reid out of the sideboard do help the cause at least).
Nonetheless, your fast draws put a ton of pressure on the opponent. Ouroboroid provides inevitability in any games where your opponent can’t answer it, and you’re pretty well positioned to handle single target removal.
You also have some game against the boogeyman of the format, Izzet Cauldron. Scrapshooter in particular is useful here. Having a way to blow up Agatha’s Soul Cauldron while simultaneously adding pressure to the board is a huge deal. As a four-toughness creature, it dodges a lot of the deck’s red removal spells as well.
Keen-Eyed Curator is also a decent disruptive element. Exiling copies of Vivi Ornitier makes Cauldron less of a concern. Just like with Scrapshooter, you’re still adding pressure to the board while messing with the opponent, which goes a long way towards making the matchup stronger.
On top of all of that, mono-green is also relatively budget-friendly. Ouroboroid is pricy, but the rest of the deck isn’t too bad. So, if you want to play something cheap and unique that still gives you a shot versus some of the best archetypes, mono-green has you covered.
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