Standard’s hard, Vivi-colored shell has finally been cracked open. Mono-Red has released the floodgates of innovation onto Standard. Now that the format isn’t one-dimensional, brewers are returning to the format to see if they can make their mark. A few decks are still far ahead of the others, but Vivi’s fall proves that the format can change. Now, we’re seeing all kinds of wacky brews appear.
One that has been particularly successful is a new Mono-Green Aggro deck. Notably, this isn’t the Landfall deck that tries to one-shot kill with Tifa Lockhart. This new brew is something totally different. This green Aggro deck takes a more traditional approach and has been putting up notable results.
Mono-Green Aggro
This traditional Green aggro deck is beginning to make repeat appearances in multiple MTGO Standard Challenges. In addition to three top-eight appearances since September 5th, Mono-Green has multiple 5-0 League appearances and a few top 16 showings.
This deck utilizes a combination of tools that gives it a decent Red matchup, makes it resilient to control, and allows it to keep up with Vivi Cauldron. Many of these cards have seen play in past Standard formats, or are cards that have been blatantly pushed in green from Edge of Eternities to give the archetype a fighting chance.
Multiple playsets of these pushed green cards from Edge of Eternities can be seen in these lists. Frenzied Baloth fights off counterspells while giving the strategy an aggressive start. Hemosymbic Mite pairs well with the combat tricks in this deck, and can scale out of control with Ouroboroid. The green Mythic’s appearance in this deck is not too shocking. While there aren’t any top-tier Green decks in Standard at the time of writing, Ouroboroid appears in every competitive Green archetype, and for good reason.
As Ouroboroid suggests, big creatures with bigger value seem to be the theme in this Mono-Green deck. Keen-Eyed Curator offers a potentially massive body and the ability to interact with Vivi Cauldron’s graveyard. Sentinel of the Nameless City offers both card advantage and a big blocker for Red strategies.
While big bodies do well against red decks and Vivi Cauldron, thanks to a lack of proper targeted removal, targeted removal is still very popular in Standard, especially in wider fields with niche decks. This makes Surrak, Elusive Hunter a very good card. Not only does this creature also avoid countermagic, but Surrak makes it difficult for your opponents to pull ahead with just targeted removal, replacing anything on your board that gets targeted.
A few ramp elements are included in this list to try to get your threats in ahead of time. Llanowar Elves and Herd Heirloom ramp you ahead of the curve, helping to establish a powerful board presence ahead of red. Heirloom can generally start drawing cards in grinder games as well, allowing the card to serve two purposes in opposite types of matchups.
Pair all those creatures with a bunch of Hexproof effects, and that’s basically this new, successful version of Mono-Green Aggro. The Mono-Green landfall deck aims to deploy a massive threat, protect it, and end the game with it, whereas this version is geared towards a grindier approach but can also achieve fast starts. Considering that Mono-Green Landfall isn’t really part of the meta anymore, this seems to be the better-performing deck.
All-Encompassing Sideboard
Mono-Green Aggro, like many decks trying to make their case after Planetary Rotation’s impact, comes prepared with a board to deal with the format’s most common threats. A full playset of Heritage Reclamation is incredibly common as a way to remove one of many problematic enchantments that appear in Vivi Cauldron. Scrapshooter amps up the Vivi hate pieces to ten cards total between the main deck and the sideboard. Even if the deck has a foil now, Vivi Cauldron can still win the game extremely fast if not interacted with, so some respect is required. Honestly, this deck’s heavy reliance on Vivi hate suggests to me that the matchup might not be that good.
Further supplying on Vivi hate cards, Torpor Orb is a unique piece of sideboard hate that’s been seeing some play. The card shuts off a lot of Vivi Cauldron’s creatures like Steamcore Scholar, Fear of Missing Out, Tersa Lightshatter, and Quantum Riddler. While the potential for the card is great, I’m not sure Torpor Orb is a powerful sideboard piece in a format where Abrade is running rampant.
Moving away from Vivi, Railway Brawler is an interesting sideboard card that punishes players who aren’t running a lot of interaction. Some tier two strategies, like Temur Ferocious Combo, may be unable to deal with this card, ultimately losing the game. Brawler could also do work in mirror matches where removal is scarce.
Finally, Hard-Hitting Question acts as a removal piece for when Green decks really need it. This can help against other aggressive creature decks, but I think the deck needs some form of instant speed removal to address its bad matchups.
Lopsided Matchups
Like many of the tier two brew-ish decks in Standard, Mono-Green’s matchup spread is likely very unbalanced. While the deck seems strong against Mono-Red, decent against control, and potentially can keep up with Vivi Cauldron, Mono-Green will lose to decks that have removal-check creatures that they can’t deal with.
Kona, Rescue Beastie decks notably fall under this category. Mono-Green has no way to contest a resolved Kona backed with a Planet Land to tap it. Kona decks are largely considered tier two decks, but they still make occasional appearances in Standard Challenge top 8s.
Temur Ferocious Combo, another tier two deck, also lines up well with what this Mono-Green deck is packing. Unless Green can get under Ferocious before it starts to set up, winning will likely be incredibly difficult. The deck can set up massive boards when left uninterrupted, and Green doesn’t have a lot of ways to get creatures off the board.
This also means that Vivi Prowess decks that want to resolve Vivi in play, and rely a lot less on establishing Vivi Ornitier under Agatha’s Soul Cauldron, can also catch Mono-Green unawares.
Still, Mono-Green is getting consistent enough results to suggest that the deck is worth trying, especially if it’s your style of brew. If you’re trying your best to win a Standard tournament, we can really only recommend Mono-Red or Vivi Cauldron, but this deck could take down a Store Championship or two.
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