As a rule, Mono-Colored decks don’t typically perform well in the Standard MTG format. Even Mono-Red, which is consistently popular, is rarely as strong in best-of-three games as it is now. Sure, Mono-Colored decks can be consistent, but they tend to lack the utility that other colors provide.
With so many dual lands available nowadays, Mono-Colored decks have become even more rare in Standard. They might make great budget picks, good for a bit of fun on MTG Arena, but they’re rarely top performers. Thanks to MTG Foundations, however, many Mono-Colored decks have picked up some welcome new tools.
Mono-Green decks, in particular, are doing rather well in the current Standard MTG format. Thanks to Llanowar Elves returning and providing fantastic ramp, this archetype appears to be genuinely viable. Beyond just making us optimistic, many Mono-Green Standard decks are putting up impressive results already.
Mono-Green Elves
Naturally, one of these decks is Mono-Green Elves. As soon as we saw Llanowar Elves previewed for Foundations, we knew players were going to try this deck out. Well, Vansetsu has been doing just that and just hit Mythic on MTG Arena as a result.
The list they used is very simple, yet very effective. Four copies of Llanowar Elves are the obvious starting point, getting your mana up early to help seize control of the board. It’s not the only mana dork in this deck, however, as there are also four copies of Citanul Stalwart here. While it needs another creature or artifact, Stalwart can often fulfill the same role as Llanowar Elves.
This volume of early ramp gets Mono-Green Elves going, but what really makes it a contender in MTG Standard is Leaf-Crowned Visionary. This is a two mana lord for Elves and a draw engine to boot. Elves is a fairly aggressive deck, great at emptying out its hand and swarming the board. Visionary lets you do this without compromising on card advantage.
Outside of these core cards, this deck just plays all of the best Elves going. Llanowar Loamspeaker for an additional dork, Imperious Perfect and Elvish Archdruid for lords with upside, and Tyvar, the Pummeler for a resilient win condition. Together, these Elves create a speedy, dangerous deck. To back this core game plan up, Vansetsu includes four copies of Genesis Wave and a couple of planeswalkers in Nissa, Ascended Animist and Vivien Reed.
The result? A highly aggressive deck that can also ramp up and go over the top. Elves is in a great spot in Standard right now, as evidenced by Vansetsu’s recent run. I expect it’ll get better with optimization, too.
Mono-Green Landfall
Elves isn’t the only Mono-Green deck taking names in MTG Foundations Standard. ViaDiva also piloted a Mono-Green Landfall deck to a 21-13 finish in a recent Arena ladder climb, which works out as a 61% win rate. That’s not bad at all, especially for a deck with no need of pricey dual lands.
As the name suggests, this deck is all about putting lands into play and reaping the benefits. Mossborn Hydra is the big new Landfall creature from Foundations, quickly spinning out of control if left unchecked. It’s joined here by fellow land-lovers Bristly Bill and Nissa, Resurgent Animist. Each of these cards can generate a lot of value naturally if you keep hitting your land drops.
To make sure this happens, the deck also runs plenty of cards that put lands into play. Glimpse the Core is a great early ramp piece, and Overlord of the Hauntwoods can make a new land every turn if your opponent lets it live. The big swinger here, however, is Awaken the Woods. This can make as many lands as you have mana to spend, which can give you a game-winning number of Landfall triggers with one of your key creatures out.
Naturally, this deck also runs a full playset of Llanowar Elves to ramp into good stuff further up the curve. Even outside of Elf decks, this card is clearly the root cause of the Mono-Green renaissance we’re seeing right now. It would be silly not to run it, in other words.
Like Elves, Landfall is a fairly aggressive deck with a meaty back end. Nissa, Ascended Animist is here as a three-of, and she’s even better in a land-focused deck like this one. That -7 can often turn a board of one or two creatures into a game-ending threat.
Other Mono-Green Options For MTG Foundations Standard
These are both viable Mono-Green strategies in MTG Standard right now. Not only are they powerful, but they also have the upside of saving you some cash on a manabase. When you can stick largely to basics, you free up money for other staples. Sure, you can optimize Elves with Cavern of Souls and Landfall with Fabled Passage, but these decks work just fine on Forests alone.
With Mono-Green coming out of its shell, we may see even more decks in this vein soon. There are certainly plenty of options to choose from. Take Poison, for example. Venerated Rotpriest has always been a fringe playable card in some mixed-color brews, but with the addition of Llanowar Elves and Fynn, the Fangbearer a Mono-Green version could be possible.
Mono-Green also has a lot of powerful graveyard synergy going on right now. The best self-mill cards in the format are Say Its Name and Cache Grab, both in green. Pair these with recursive threats like Balustrade Wurm, Quilled Greatwurm, and of course Altanak, and you can build yourself a pseudo-Reanimator shell without any black mana required. You can even throw in Patchwork Beastie for some extra graveyard-filling early on.
All of this to say, Mono-Green is in a very good place right now. Llanowar Elves gives it the speed it needs to compete with more established decks, and really tap into the powerful card pool it has in Standard right now. True, Mono-Red has gotten the most attention so far in the format with its new Burn offerings, but that just means Mono-Green is flying under the radar right now. If you like the look of any of the decks above, I’d get in on them soon while that’s still the case.
