1000% Pure Jank
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kabrazell
5 March 2012
2358 views
5 March 2012
2358 views
Wooooooo it had been a WHILE since I had played constructed. I mean a WHILE, like before Zendikar rotated. But I am kind of in love with Strangleroot Geist and an excuse to play 4 of them as well as get a free promo gameday one piqued my interest. PIQUED IT. Seriously, my love for Strangleroot Geist is uncomfortably strong. Let me read the card to you: It costs GG, has Haste, Undying, and you can tap it to steal my heart. It’s also a 2/1.
So yeah, my decklist started off 4x Strangleroot Geist and went from there. I built it completely in the dark without any testing. All I really knew was a little about the meta and that I needed to play forests, for, you know, Strangleroot Geist. Since I was playing green, I felt like Green Sun's Zenith was a fairly simple auto-include. From there, I decided to go along the lines of Martin Juza’s G/W tokens list from some time ago. From what I recalled, the deck had a decent matchup against Delver of Secrets
Flip type lists because you could literally play a threat every turn and eventually stick something. You also get to play Thrun, the Last Troll which I opted to play over Hero of Bladehold due to its importance vs Delver.
Another deck I had to keep in mind while building was R/G wolfrun ramp. The primary thing I wanted to be resilient against was Slagstorm. I felt if I could rebound from Slagstorm, I would have a good matchup. For this reason, I decided to include a full 4 copies of Doomed Traveler. This way I basically had 8 creatures with ‘undying’. These along with Thrun gave be a decent plan vs Slagstorm.
After a little goldfishing, it felt like something was missing, my Green Sun's Zeniths weren’t as versatile as I wanted at lower casting costs. I wanted to be able to go get a threat or utility piece at just about every point in the curve. TO THE PURE JANK DRAWING BOARD!
CMC 1: You almost always get a Birds of Paradise at this CMC. Not only does it ramp you, it also has flying. I didn’t end up playing any sweet 1-ofs in green at CMC 1. I might have to reconsider this for next time. (Young Wolf ftw?)
CMC 2: I ended up playing Skinshifter as a 1-of and it ended up being an all-star. It acts as a semi-mana sink, a good blocker, a good threat, and it flies which means you can tutor it up as a blocker vs. Delver of Secrets
Flip. While sometimes I wanted a Strangleroot Geist, I got this guy more often than not and he was great.
CMC 3: Ohhhhhhh YEAH. Predator Ooze. This is one of those cards I want to be good because it has GGG in its mana cost. I went into the tournament and thought “This is probably going to be the worst card in my deck”. I was correct. I would be lying if I said it was completely useless though. I think I tutored it up as a fine blocker in the mirror once. That and my Predator Ooze Acidic Slime ooze tribal deck got some laughs. Please don’t play the predator. It isn’t good. Thx. (Also gives me an easy slot to play with for next time)
CMC 4: I don’t know if it’s just me, but I never really GSZ for CMC 4. It just never seems to come up. If you wanted to go get a Thrun, the Last Troll you could, but that’s mediocre. Idk if there’s a sweet CMC 4 out there. Guess I’ll have to look…
CMC 5: I was searching on Star City Games for a CMC 5 green creature that would pressure on my opponents when I got it with GSZ. I got to the last page of creatures and thought ‘ugh, I guess Bellowing Tanglewurm will have to do.’ But then the sky parted and light shown upon Vorapede. YES. A REASON TO PLAY VORAPEDE. Congratulations to Evan Erwin of the Magic Show, I found a reason to play Vorapede. I bought a foil one from my local store 5 minutes before starting. It was actually good, too. Not amazing, but good. I can see cutting it but I can also see situations where getting this is awesome.
After some last minute scrambling for Green/White Duals and buying the aforementioned Skinshifter and Vorapede from my store. I had a deck.
deck-large:GW Tokenz 8
I should also note that Mortarpod was an awesome last minute inclusion. Works very well with Strangleroot Geist and Doomed Traveler. Also counts as a “creature” to be pumped by township. Infi-win.
Round 1:
I won in 3 games vs. a very respectable Werewolves deck. Seriously, this deck is for realsies. Daybreak Ranger
Flip flipping is tough to beat. Same for Mayor of Avabruck
Flip. The deck doesn’t need too many more pieces to be tier 1.
Round 2:
Played against what looked like a stock Delver of Secrets
Flip list. It was good to get a chance to test the matchup. Game 1 I won by going t2 Strangleroot Geist t3 Greens Sun’s Zenith for Strangleroot Geist. I was in heaven. Game 2 I lost to dual Insectile Abortions . Game 3 I won with the ‘always play a threat’ plan. I landed a Thrun on 4 when he was obviously holding up countermagic. It felt good. Near the end I just kept tapping out to activate Gavony Township and there wasn’t much he could do.
Round 3
Before the tourney I realized that w/u humans would be a bad match. Indeed it was. I lost in 2 games. Cards like Fiend Hunter and Mirran Crusader match up well against me. My deck also had a hard time fighting through opposing Doomed Travelers and Moorland Haunts. In general the deck just needs more answers to fliers.
Round 4
Played against another janky Mono-Green deck and won in 2 games. This is the match where Predator Ooze made an appearance blocking opposing Strangleroot Geists and his various giant creatures from Increasing Savegery. I was happy to get the win.
Wrap-Up
Since the other table with 6- pointers went to a draw. My 9 points was good enough for a clear second. I got a sweet promo Zombie Apocalypse and a little store credit. Not a bad day’s work.
The changes I would make are pretty basic. I would take out Predator Ooze and would likely put a 3rd Oblivion Ring into the mainboard. Besides that, the deck probably wants 24 lands. I might cut an Avacyn's Pilgrim for a land. Gideon Jura was very good off the bench and should probably get a chance to start, just not sure over what. I can also go back to the drawing board and see if there are any other sweet 1-ofs I want to put in. Until they let me play 36 Strangleroot Geists and 24 Forest, this will have to do. See you next time!
-kabrazell
rckclimber777 says... #2
Predator ooze is great in a wolf-run deck. Indestructible and trample is never a bad thing and it can get big quick. Though his mono green cmc is what limits his versatility. In my near mono green wolf run deck I've actually tutored him up instead of dungrove. I find that he also works well in the control matchups where day of judgment and point removals (other than tragic slip and dismember) are being used.
In a Gavony deck like the one you played here though I can see how it wouldn't fit in the deck at all. You'll be lucky to have it out on turn 5-6 and then you've just landed a 1/1 indestructible who will get bigger, but slowly. He's more of a ramp mainly green deck with splashes of color and ways to beef him VERY quickly ie Kessig Wolf Run.
my two cents.
Other than that I would agree Strangleroot Geist is easily one of the best cards from Dark ascension.
March 5, 2012 2:14 p.m.
@Miasma I agree Corrosive Gale would a good sb option. I was also thinking Stingerfling Spider and/or Acid Web Spider as a GSZ target.
March 5, 2012 5:09 p.m.
really nice article I enjoyed it alot i love the undying ability!
March 6, 2012 5:16 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #7
not having cocatrice on the computer at the moment how would Boom goes the goblin! do against this deck?
March 6, 2012 3:22 p.m.
You didn't know what to get with GSZ at CMC 5?! There's this nifty new card called Acidic Slime. You should look into it. :P
-BuLLZ3Y3
March 8, 2012 2:30 a.m.
Yeah 90% of the time you get Acidic Slime (which is in the deck) but there are times when you want a giant beater. It doesn't come up often enough in this meta but it seemed to be what I was looking for during my goldfishing.
March 12, 2012 1:30 a.m.
I enjoyed the write-up, well done. It almost seems like you want to play a Pod deck, and you want to talk about a threat every turn? lol
Turn one Avacyn's Pilgrim
Turn two Strangleroot Geist+Doomed Traveler, swing two
Turn three Birthing Pod the Doomed Traveler for another Strangleroot Geist, swing 4
Turn four sac a Strangleroot Geist to the Birthing Pod and bust out a Fiend Hunter and swing with the flyer, 3/2. 2/1 if his hasn't died already, its still only bigger, or if the field is open, sac the Avacyn's Pilgrim to look for another Strangleroot Geist.
Vorapede would also fit in quite well in this deck because he just eats their face, over and over and over. Not sure if its the target you want to hit with your deck, but I thought it might be worth consideration.
March 13, 2012 11:47 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #11
@Witteee what do you think about death by turn 4 with goblins? lol
That's the only thing that I have that can beat pod EVERY time at least at the shop I play at.
Miasma says... #1
If flyers are a real problem, Corrosive Gale
might be up your alley.
March 5, 2012 1:36 p.m.