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Mattedesa's Deck Garage
Mono Green Deck
April 25, 2007

i've played magic before, but i stopped for a long time, so i pretty much haven't played since 7the edition was really new. i just picked up magic again, and my friend help me build a deck, but i think that it has a lot of room for improvement. its a green deck, built for beasts with trample, and thats pretty much it. so i wanted to know if u could take a look at the deck list and comment on things i need to add in or take out, pretty much anything along those lines. thanks.
in all: 60
creatures(all green): 14

lanowar elf x 1
fyndhorn eldar x 2
fangreen pathcutter x 1
krosan groundshaker x 1

durkwood baloth x 1
emormous baloth x 1
berserk murlodont x 1
needleshot gourna x 1
thresher beast x 1
glowering rogon x 2
snarling undorak x 1
titanic bulvox x 1

instants: 11

vigorous charge x 1
giant growth x 1
wildsize x 1
wear away x 1
seedling charm x 1
molder x 1
fog x 1
predators strike x 1
kodama's might x 1
ferocious charge x 1
strength of cedars x 1

scorcery: 3

overwhelm x 1
stream of life x
rampant growth x 1

enchants: 8

regeneration x 1
wild growth x 1
blanchwood armor x 1
dragons fangs x 1
dawn's reflections x 1
Aether web x 1
treetop bracers x 2

lands: 24
forest x 24

- Eric

-------

Well, Eric, thanks for sending in your deck. Beast beatdown is always fun. I mean, what can be better than attacking with several big tramplers and watching your hapless opponent take all that damage? As you said, though, there is some room for improvement, and I think we can take care of that. You didn't mention what kind of budget you are on, so I'm going to assume that you are like most of us, and would like to avoid paying the big bucks for cards.

Before we even talk about specific cards, the first objective is to determine what the strategy for this deck should be. You've outlined that pretty well: "built for beasts with trample". Very good. You've got some good beasts. And to maximize that strategy, everything in the deck should point towards that one goal: getting big fatties out and smashing your opponent.

There's one problem: most beasts cost 6 or more mana! Your opponent can do a lot of damage to you before you get to six mana. So, the second thing we need is some way to help you survive until you can get your beasts out. I recommend adding a few less expensive beasts, and finding ways to get your beasts out more quickly.

The third thing I want to do is decide how you are going to deal with your opponent's threats. Don't forget, the whole time you are building up your strategy to beat your opponent, they are doing the same thing to beat you!

Ok, one more thing before I get to specifics. I'm going to mention a lot of cards by name. You may or may not be able to get a hold of these, and there may or may not be the best choices for your in your play group. That's why I go through a brief explanation of why I put in certain cards - so you can find a reasonable replacement if you can't find or don't care for a certain card I mention.

First, for the beasts. Which ones are the most efficient for their mana cost? Fangreen Pathcutter and Krosan Groundshaker give trample, so they stay. Durkwood Baloth can be Suspended for one mana, so he's a good play early in the game when you don't have much else to do.
Enourmous Baloth is a plain 7/7 for seven mana. Eh, that's marginal.

Let's drop him. Berserk Murlodont? His +1/+1 ability isn't good enough to justify it's cost. We can do better at 5 mana, so drop him.

Needleshot Gourna? He's too defensive. You need offensive threats.

Drop him. Thresher Beast? He provides a lose/lose situation for your opponent - he stays. Glowering Rogon's amplify won't often net you a bigger creature than a 6/6. At six mana, you've hopefully played out some of your beasts by then, and won't have enough left to make him worth it. Drop him. Snarling Undorak is good, because he can provide an early creature with his morph, and late game, can be used to pump up your other guys when you have a lot of mana on the board. Keep him.

Titanic Bulvox is just a monster at 7 power with trample built-in, and morphing is an added bonus.

That takes us down to only 6 beasts! Here are some replacements:
Krosan Warchief makes your beasts cost less and can regenerate one of your beasts for 2 mana. All this on a 2/2 body for 3 mana? Sounds like a winner to me! Include 4 of these if you can get them. Another early game classic is Blastoderm. For only 4 mana, you get a 5/5 guy that can either beat down your opponent or hold off their ground forces.

Sure, he'll go away in a few turns, but by then, you should be able to have one of your even bigger guys out! Add in about 3 of these guys.

Another good choice is Ravenous Baloth. At 4/4 for 4 mana, he's quite efficient.Then, when one of your beasts is about to die, just sacrifice it and gain 4 life! Try to find a couple of those.

Does your group play with a lot of artifacts or enchantments? If so, throw in a couple Indrik Stomphowlers. These will take care of those pesky artifacts or enchantments and give you a 4/4 at the same time!

Then, let's round out your beasts with about 4 more beasts. They can be second or third copies of any beast you have, but the Groundshaker and the Pathcutter would be best because of the trample. This makes for about 21 beasts!

Next is to get some more Llanowar and Fyndhorn Elders. If you can get 4 of each (Wild Growth will work if you can't), that will speed up your beast timeline very nicely.

Your 24 forests are good, so that only leaves us with 7 spots open!

That's okay, because, as we mentioned earlier, what we mainly want the deck to do is pump out big beasts as quickly as possible. Out of your other cards, Dragon Fangs is good, since many of your beasts can pull it out of the graveyard. Let's go with 2 of those. In the remaining 5 spots, I would put a couple Blanchwood Armors (with all those Forests, that can make one of your beasts SICK!), and a few of either Aether Web or Giant Growth, depending on how many flying creatures you are usually up against.

I know I just dropped a whole bunch of your instants and sorceries, but most of them don't help your objective of getting big creatures out. Predator's Strike and the other similar cards are no good if you don't have a creature to put them on!

So, after all that, here's a rough outline of what we end up with:

29 creatures:
Lanowar Elf x 4 G
Fyndhorn Elder x 4 2G
Krosan Warcheif x 4 2G
Blastoderm x 3 2GG
Ravenous Baloth x 2 2GG
Snarling Undorak x 1 2GG
Indrik Stomphowler x 2 4G
Thresher Beast x 2 3GG
Ffangreen Pathcutter x 2 4GG
Durkwood Baloth x 2 4GG (suspend 5 - G)
Krosan Groundshaker x 2 4GGG
Titanic Bulvox x 1 6GG

Other spells:
Giant Growth x 3 G
Blanchwood Armor x 2 2G
Dragon Fangs x 2 1G

Lands: 24
Forest x 24

As I said earlier, this is not necessarily the perfect answer, but I hope these suggestions will give you some guidance on how to improve your deck. If you'll notice the creatures and their casting costs, there are some at each casting cost from 3 all the way up to 8, so with any luck, you should have a beast to play on every turn, from turn 3 on!

Have fun with your beasts!
 


 

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