This is my mono-green deck that is being refined from a casual deck to be hopefully a competitive modern deck. It was original a fun deck that utilized
Ooze Garden
to make incredible boosts from Gaea's Anthems, Rancors, and
Aspect of Hydra
s into permanent stats that could be further boosted. I dropped many of those cards for more consistency and speed.
The Twist
Seeing that my deck resembled established "Stompy" decks, I was glad to see people were already playing something similar in Modern. This was my first modern deck and I wasn't sure how well a low budget deck could actually perform, so this gave me reassurance. However, I didn't like how most stompy decks became weak to top decking, drawing
Experiment One
which nothing to evolve it or Dryad Militant when you need a finisher. This led to my twist on mono green stompy.
I focused my one drops on ramp. Arbor Elf or Utopia Sprawl allows me to consistently drop a 3cmc on turn 2. With both, I can drop a 4cmc on turn 2. This to me was a better trade off because I can pack my deck with more 3cmc cards like
Leatherback Baloth
, Groundbreaker, and Boggart Ram-Gang, and a variety of 4cmc cards without being scared of being too slow. With my average cmc higher, I'm filling my deck with more powerful cards giving me a better chance to top deck into a relevant card. True I can top deck into an Arbor Elf, but thats the risk I'm willing to take for faster beats.
The Resilience
Creatures that live twice such at
Strangleroot Geist
(and hopefully Kitchen Finks when I get a hold of some) or require 2+ burn spells to kill such as
Leatherback Baloth
add value to the team. I tried
Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
before because I love the vigilance and the 4 toughness, but I did opt for the speedier counterpart, Boggart Ram-Gang even though it does die to Lightning Bolt. More resilience comes with is Nylea, God of the Hunt with her indestructibility. And
Vines of Vastwood
helps keep off the Path to Exiles.
Groundbreaker isn't quite resilient, but he is too good not to include for the beatdown. But I did limited him to only a 2-of, mainly for the following reason.
The Devotion
Most of my card choices pay very close attention to the green devotion it provides. I want to build up my devotion to power up one of my win-cons...
Aspect of Hydra
. In this deck, it is usually at least a Giant Growth. However, it is usually going to be way stronger than that. Slap it on an unblocked creature or a trampler, and you most likely won the game. Its a great surprise, steal games, and well... its just hilariously fun for one mana.
Therefore, I want the greenest creatures that stay around to pump
Aspect of Hydra
. Groundbreaker doesn't stay around long, so he's a 2-of, but for the most part, I try to play
Aspect of Hydra
on the same turn as Groundbreaker since he's a good carrier and boosts the devotion up 3 as well.
All this devotion can also easily turn on Nylea, God of the Hunt. Turn 3, I can have a 6/6 indestructible creature, possibly even swinging t3. Good Stuff.
The White
I'm not splashing white. I am playing green/white hybrid though. They provide great devotion. Wilt-Leaf Liege is awesome. It's anti-Liliana/Thoughtseize/8Rack (as well as
Obstinate Baloth
and it is a Gaea's Anthem or two for
Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
and side-board Dryad Militants that comes in against Snaps.
The Draw Power
Another surprise not often seen in other stompy decks is Hunter's Insight. I have the Green Devotion Deck engine, with very little to do with it (Nylea being one of my only mana sinks). However, insight can draw me insane amount of cards (4 cards for a unblocked baloth, 6 cards for an unblocked Groundbreaker). As you can see, it can outclass a Jace's Ingenuity rather easily.
And with the Arbor Elf/Garruk Wildspeaker+Utopia Sprawl engine, I can dump drawn cards on the field easily.
I am also thinking of Collected Company because I like the surprise blockers/instant speed creatures/mini-dig-through-time-but-better pure awesomeness that is this card. The fact that my deck it packed with mostly 3 drops makes this card most at home in my kind of build. I definitely will be testing this card out.
The 4/5 Drops
Wolfir Silverheart is currently my only 5 drop because I want to be consistent and able to play my cards even in bad mana situations. I am hesitant to cut him completely because he is basically 12 power for 5 mana. He can give another guy the boost I need to seal the deal. He also curves nicely after a Surrak, the Hunt Caller for a possible swing of 17 damage on turn 3. Nylea, God of the Hunt provide trample and a mana sink and can be an awesome beater herself. Garruk Wildspeaker untaps Sprawled up lands and makes 3/3 beasts in pinch. His overrun ability is also very relevant. We already talked about Wilt-Leaf Liege.
Obstinate Baloth
is there for similar reasons as the liege, as well as providing us the cushion against a race, especially against burn.
The Side Board
Back to Nature
deals with Bogle Hexproof. Our Rancors will just return to our hand but our Sprawls will be gone. Hopefully we established our board before we use Back to Nature.
Creeping Corrosion
deals with Affinity. Deglamer would come in for either as well, and for Wurmcoil Engine.
Torpor Orb combats twin, rhinos, soul sister, and various other things. Pithing Needle shuts down twin as well and any other problematic activated abilities.
Feed the Clan and Wild Defiance is our anti-burn.Beast Within is for any other spot removal that I may need.
Dryad Militant is anti Snapcaster Mage and flashback.
Skylasher
is anti Delver or other flying/blue.
Wheel of Sun and Moon can be graveyard hate against reanimator or protect us from rogue mill decks.
Why Play This
This is an extremely cheap budget deck for Modern. It helps that that land base is mostly basic forests (although it would be nice to have AVR Jung Park foils... that would be absurdly expensive). As a first deck getting into modern, it is perfect for someone on a budget.
Also, if you like being the aggressor, the one playing the threats rather than just answers, this is the deck for you. Aggro for the win!
Also if you like green, or would like to understand green better, this is good for you as well. Mark Rosewater once said that green is the most misunderstood color. What better way to understand it than to actually play it. For example, Mark said green is second in card draw after blue. He's not wrong, and Hunter's insight can prove that.
Anyway, I hope you like my version of stompy! Please upvote if you do or leave comments and advice.
