Pattern Recognition #218 - MonoGreen Stompy

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

11 November 2021

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Hello everyone! This is Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series as written by myself, berryjon. I am something of an Old Fogey who has been around the block quite a few times where Magic is concerned, as as such, I use this series to talk about the various aspects of this game, be it deck design, card construction, mechanics chat, in-universe characters and history. Or whatever happens to cross my mind this week. Please, feel free to dissent in the comments below the article, add suggestions or just plain correct me! I am a Smart Ass, so I can take it.

And welcome back! This is going to be the last one of these for a while, I promise. And not just because it's also this month's video. Woo! Videos! Because apparently people like me enough to pay me money now. Weird how that works.

So anyway, today I'm going to talk about one last deck archetype, and in doing so, cover the last of the colours that I haven't touched on already. Let's talk mono-. And to be more specific, Stompy.

Before I start describing the deck, I want to talk a little bit about why I chose it. You see, something that comes up every so often is that someone wants to learn how to play Magic. And this is wonderful and great and we can always use new players. However, learning a game like Magic can be quite intimidating. It's a daunting task with so many intricate interactions, thousands of cards, hundreds of rules, and a whole host of things that could, to be quite frank, scare new players off.

NEW PLAYERS ARE IMPORTANT. Don't mess around with them. Don't rip out your Turn 0 Win deck that shows off how many thousands of dollars you spent to prove your Spikeness. No, new players need to learn the game through a method that is simple, robust, and still practical. They need to learn the game without being dragged down by hideously complicated decks with a bazillion moving parts that just confuse them.

Which is where Mono- Stompy comes into play. Literally.

You see, this deck works with just one simple premise and with one mechanic. It's so ubiquitous that it's one of the core deck types in the game, and was recently given a printing as a Standard Challenge deck - well, right until Standard rotated. It has been in the game for so long, that it stands with Burn and Suicide Black as the oldest archetypes. I will ignore Control for that statement.

Originally, the archetype was built around very cheap creatures with high power and toughness, like Rogue Elephant or Lhurgoyf, and basically out-value your opponents. It had many similarities to Burn, with a very low casting costs for the most part, and it was just a race to the finish line.

As the game and the colour matured, quickly laid claim to the one Evergreen mechanic that would solidify and codify the archetype, to the point where they are effectively inseparable now. They got Trample.

Trample is a very simple mechanic, one that only really has two interactions. Simply put, when a creature with Trample does combat damage to a defending creature, any excess damage is dealt to the defending player or Planeswalker. So an attacking 6 power creature that is blocked by a 1 toughness creature still deals 5 damage over to the thing that was being attacked in the first place. There is no 'waste' in terms of power in combat, which helps with how this deck works.

But there are two mechanics that Trample has an odd interaction with. First is Deathtouch. As that is an ability that states that any amount of combat damage is lethal, a creature with both abilities needs only to deal 1 damage to each blocking creature, allowing all the excess damage to hit the defending player or planeswalker. Getting Trample onto Questing Beast is a huge thing in any format that card lives in.

The other interaction is with Protection. A creature with Trample that is blocked by a creature that is protected from the relevant color - Vodalian Zombie blocking a Carnage Tyrant would, for example, block the two points of damage it would normally take due to its toughness, with five more Trampled over, but in doing so, would not actually take any of that damage due to the Protection ability.

I really need to get my hands on a Carnage Tyrant. But they're fairly expensive right now. And I just spent way too much money on The Great Henge that I just put into the deck I'm going to show you all.

So, back to the actual subject at hand. Mono- Stompy takes advantage of Trample, as well as one other true-ism of Magic and . Magic, you see, is a game of numbers. And the more and bigger numbers you have, the better off you are.

Well, is really, really REALLY good at getting very, very big numbers.

And with that out of the way, allow me to introduce you all to my "Let's Teach Commander! (And Magic in general deck)" Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Kids love Ghalta

Commander / EDH berryjon

SCORE: 5 | 1 COMMENT | 411 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

Ghalta is a very straightforward Commander, one that when you see him, you know exactly what you're in for. And for new players, this is a good thing. You see, this deck works by going big, then going home on people's faces. But let's talk the deck itself and how it works. First, we have 32 Forest. This may seem like it's not a lot for a deck that runs huge creatures with Trample, but don't worry, I have a plan and a reason for this. First is that this deck runs 14 Mana Accelerators in terms of Dorks, Rocks and Spells. The idea here is that a first time player should be able to draw a hand and have one of them available to them from the get-go, even if it costs or even . Not enough Mana sources, sad to say, and I cut Boreal Druid to put the Arcane Signet in at the advice of one of the people on the Discord.

But you're not here to see me talk about that, are you? Well, check out that deck, and observe the huge and varied options when it comes to Trample Creatures and you'll immediately see the first problem.

Even with being in , reliable Trample starts at Mana. And I'm only running 23 such creatures in the deck, excluding my Commander.

But there are a few creatures here that I chose to put into this deck because they are more than just huge Stompers. First, Almighty Bushwagg. This cheap creature acts as a lesson in activated abilities, and given that said ability makes it bigger like a pufferfish, and so it can trample harder makes it an excellent teaching tool. Untamed Kavu teaches alternate casting options, getting a 2/2 Trample, Vigilance for , or a 5/5 for an additional . Again, the cause of the change and the effect should be easy to equate, meaning that more exotic or esoteric costs can be introduced at a later date with this foundation in place. Old-Growth Troll is a little odd, but it teaches things coming back, sacrifice and Auras. Perhaps a little complicated, but that can be handled when he dies. A sort of "This guy does things when he dies, like other things will."

Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma teaches Triggered Abilities, cost modification (not that Ghalta doesn't do that too), and more importantly, makes all your Stompies even more Stompy, which is great! Regal Behemoth introduces non-battlefield effects, like Monarch, and generates more mana. Honored Hydra tells new players that the Graveyard isn't the end, it's a resource!

And everything else was chosen to either introduce a Keyword that helps the deck, or has an ability that should be easy to understand, with God-Eternal Rhonas being the most difficult to understand in his recursion ability, rather than his power-doubling part.

From there, we move on to making our big Creatures even Bigger! Vastwood Fortification  ^Flip is a small Combat trick, as well as another source of +1/+1 counters for the deck, as well as an Emergency Land if needed. Jorga Invocation and Emergent Growth are both ways to make creatures bigger, but they have the side effect of forcing a Block to happen, meaning that the Trample effect is on full display there where it actually has a use. I have a couple additional boons for creatures, with Giant Growth being classic, Might of Oaks being mean, and You Meet in a Tavern being this or for searching through the top of the library for more Creatures to cast. Either/or, really.

Lastly in this section, we have Blanchwood Armor, in a deck that runs 32 Forest, this is usually a pretty good thing. It teaches Auras, being aware of your board state, and again, making your creaoture so utterly huge that even Eldrazi are but mites before your might? Yeah, that's good. In addition, Renata, Called to the Hunt is a passive "Make Bigger" creature, and again teaches awareness of the Board State with her Devotion being tied to her power. On the more active side, Hornbash Mentor is another Activated Ability source, and did I mention just how many creatures I have with Trample? Making them all Bigger? Well, that's the name of the game.

So, let's talk Card Draw. Garruk's Uprising, Elemental Bond and Colossal Majesty are all effectively the same card. Big Creatures mean Card Draw. Harmonize and Soul's Majesty are both straight up card draw effects, while Return of the Wildspeaker is either another Card Drawing spell that can get big (imagine casting that with Ghalta in play!) or another Creature Embiggener. And yes, Embiggen is a word. Marvel Comics says so. Following on that, Keeper of Fables works awesomely well with all the Trample going around, further encouraging turning big creatures sideways. And of course, Lifecrafter's Bestiary helps set up card Draws, and maintains the notion of additional costs.

Moving on, let's talk Protection. Something that to my great annoyance has become more central in over the past few years, I will not turn my nose up at it if it means teaching a new player. Blossoming Defense, Snakeskin Veil, Ranger's Guile and Heroic Intervention all introduce Hexproof, and three of them are also EMBIGGEN! spells in the process, while Intervention and Roar of Challenge teach Indestructible. Because nothing is scarier that a HUGE DINOSAUR ABOUT TO EAT YOU AND IT WON'T DIE!!!!!

Verdant Rebirth allows for Cantripping, as well as saving a creature from dying to things that the above can't protect them from. Which could be very important, or not, depending on the situation. At the worst, it's a relatively expensive card draw. Hunter's Ambush and Thwart the Enemy are there to protect the player from back-blows from other players, or to protect their creatures from dying to combat tricks.

Lastly, we have some Utility cards. Of these, Wooden Sphere is there for Lifegain, as well as another example of additional costs when playing a spell, as well as being able to react to your opponents as well, benefiting from them. Nylea, Keen-Eyed and Rhonas's Monument are both further cost reducers, but they also provide additional benefits in terms of making creatures bigger, or spending mana on an activated ability to pull out more creatures. Everything with a purpose.

Now, you may be thinking that Commander isn't the best format to teach a person with, and you're probably right. But it's also the format that gets played most where I'm living, so I feel that being a bit proactive in terms of having a deck available that fits what people are playing as well as the needs of someone who is just starting out.

Ghalta, Primal Hunger is a very simple Commander, but it is not by any means weak. Yes, the deck has glaring weaknesses, and those are there because I'm not here to make a powerful deck, but rather one that I can hand to a new player and walk them through the whole process of how to play the game, and do so in a manner that encourages them to have fun doing so. The deck is designed to be interactive, to do things, rather than just sitting behind layers and layers of Hate Bears and the like until they win the game after taking a 10 minute turn.

Why no, it's not like I hate Combo Decks, why do you as? Synergies are alright, but decks that stop the game so they can just spin in circles? They need to die in a fire. And Ghalta is most definitely not one of those.

And the best part is, you can easily build one of your own on the cheap! Sure, I've got cards like The Great Henge in the deck, but Mono- Stompy can be built almost Pauperish in terms of cost. There are no special lands required as it's only a single color so that takes out Dual Lands, and no one getting into the game is going to drop for a Gaea's Cradle as a starter deck. No, cards like Colossal Dreadmaw and any of the other, oh, One-Hundred and Three Common Green creatures with Trample. This is a very easy deck to build, one suitable for a first time player to dip their toes into the game without too much commitment.

An easy deck, a fun deck, and plenty of opportunities to learn how to play the game. That's all I ask for, and that's what I get. I would like to think that this succeeds, as the basic idea works in any format. Much like Mono- Burn, it's something that's truly Eternal in terms of viability, and you honestly can't go wrong with it as a starting point for the game.

Thanks for listening to me ramble, and watch the video! Join me next week when I talk about something else. What, I don't know yet. But it will be fun! I hope.

Until then please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!