FNM G/W Aggro/Midrange Help
Deck Help forum
Posted on July 28, 2013, 9:50 p.m. by Joeyst3
Hi everyone. This is my first post here, and I was wondering if I could get some feedback on a decklist I plan on using next friday at my local FNM standard tournament. I built this deck solely off of what I won in packs, and trade-in value from those cards. As such, I can't put too much money into singles or cards I would love to include (Voice of Resurgence, Temple Garden specifically) unless I pull an expensive card from a pack. It's not a trival limitation like FNM Hero, I just do not have a job currently and my money cannot be flooded into MTG. On top of this, I am very reluctant to insert cards that are rotating out on Theros due to the commitment I have to put into each card I trade for/buy.
My intention with this deck is to create a FNM engine of 3-1 or 4-0 that will win me M14 boosters to attempt to make tournament entry costs the only cash I put into magic (outside of boosters for fun and new deckboxes/sleeves)
My FNM crowd is small, and I've seen a lot of x/W/U Control that uses Sphinx's Revelation and Supreme Verdict. Outside of that, I saw two Sliver decks (one is not showing up anymore), and some aggro decks I tend to beat piloting my friend's Exalted Deck. In my two standard tournaments with exalted, I went 3-1 and 2-2(one bye). Enough about that though, onto the deck itself.
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MAINDECK:
Creatures4 Kalonian Tusker4 Experiment One4 Loxodon Smiter4 Dryad Militant2 Skylasher4 Elvish Mystic
Sorcery3 Call of the Conclave
Instant4 Selesnya Charm3 Advent of the Wurm3 Rootborn Defenses
Enchantments3 Unflinching Courage
Land12 Forest7 Plains3 Selesnya Guildgate
SIDEBOARD (Thus far):4 Silence4 Pacifism4 Sundering Growth2 Heroes' Reunion
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Deck rundown:
The deck's gameplan is to get either Experiment One or Elvish Mystic out first turn, and build a step up each turn from Kalonian Tusker to Loxodon Smiter and eventually Advent of the Wurm.
My 1-drops are Experiment One, Dryad Militant, and Elvish Mystic.If Experiment One comes out first, I can use the evolve from the increasing creature stats to quickly make a 4/4 that can survive a Verdict or trading with a big creature. If Elvish Mystic comes out first, I can get turn two Loxodon Smiter and quicker protection against Verdict and blockers with Rootborn Defences. Dryad Militant is a method of evolving Experiment One, trading with early-game creatures like Burning-Tree, and becoming a removal target of decks like Snapcaster. Experiment One also has the ability of surviving Verdict after turn 3, which is important when I need to keep my momentum.
My two drops are Call of the Conclave, Kalonian Tusker, Selesnya Charm, and Skylasher. Call of the Conclave and Kalonian Tusker are essentially 3/3's for two, and they evolve Experiment One nicely. Skylasher is nice for a quick blocker, but I feel like something else can take this spot in the mainboard. Selesnya charms are often used for the +2/+2 instead of the 2/2 Knight or removal. I feel like Giant's Growth will do better here, but I currently lack the playset so playtesting with it will be hard.
Three Drops are the keys to my deck. Loxodon Smiter is a 4/4 for 3 that I can assure makes it onto the field second or third turn to evolve Experiment One and swing for big numbers early. Unflinching Courage is the lifegain and boost I give to Loxodon or a 3/3 or 4/4 Experiment One, and the trample keeps 1/1s from rendering my damage useless. Rootborn Defences is a main trump card of my deck. It's the only thing I can do in G/W that lets me survive the verdict, and makes that damage phase boardwipe onesided. It also populates a centaur or Wurm.
The only four drop in the deck is Advent of the Wurm, which I am running 3 of. This card wins me most of my games against mid-range/control. They lay down the Supreme Verdict to avoid lethal damage next turn, I reply with advent of the wurm to swing next turn for 5. I can swing all out one turn and still have a blocker available to me when my opponent swings with the creatures that they didn't block with. It also evolves Experiment One, but by that point in the game, Experiment One is either a 4/4 already and swinging or the subject of Detention Sphere.
Land wise, I run more forests than plains. This is due to the fact that all of my onedrops are green mana, and my deck plays MUCH better when I get the first turn out. I only run 3 selesnya guildgates because they slow down my step-ladder approach to turn 3-4, putting me in verdict territory. I have a playset of groves, but 5 mana and tapping two attackers for removal bait is not something that tickles my fancy.
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My problems with the deck:1) Many control decks are left with 1-3 life before I can kill2) I find myself consistantly drawing land when an advent/loxodon would win me the game3) Elvish mystics often ramp into more one drops, they are also the only creature not to evolve Experiment One4) After a board wipe, I only end up drawing my two drops that cannot bring back momentum5) I keep drawing 3-land-hands that are only plains, but too little plains stop loxodon, rootborn, and advent from coming out.6) I would benefit from Conclave being an instant, as it usually takes up the same mana I can use to further my loxodon smiters.
I want to have this deck ready for FNM this friday, and I'm going to my local card store with around 10 bucks to possibly buy cards with. Before then, I want to fix most of the issues I have above. Obviously, I think my elvish mystics and my two drops are what are holding me back, but you guys might have a different opinion on the matter. I would perfer getting the damage out sooner than later, so giant's growth replacing selesnya charm might be a wise choice. Please provide any feedback you can! I cannot purchase shocklands nor borrow them from anyone, or else I would probably make this a naya aggro. For now though, I want this to remain two colors.
Thanks :D
Secondly, this depends heavily on whether or not you are willing to get some cards that are going to rotate in October. Some of those would be: Rancor , Restoration Angel , Thragtusk , Silverblade Paladin , Avacyn's Pilgrim , Strangleroot Geist
Those cards could make this deck a lot better. As it is, you might just want to hold out with that deck until Theros comes around and the meta settles down. It's tough to build new decks when rotation is about to hit; you could find a winning combination and then have it be irrelevant when new cards come in and change the metagame.
July 28, 2013 10:46 p.m.
For the most part what you have is pretty solid, it's got a nice curve and a decent balance of creatures to spells. As for making it better:
Lacking dual lands will just straight up hurts your consistency, during a long tournament you're going to loose some number of games to your mana base. Even though they rotate in a few months, Sunpetal Grove are pretty cheap but I would make trading for Temple Garden a priority. For the time being, you may want to push the deck to being nearly mono-green. You essentially have 7 lands that get in the way of some of your double green cards. Cut down on the number of plains, and run Avacyn's Pilgrim over Elvish Mystic , effectively letting you get white mana out of green.
Speaking of mana dorks, I think the problem you are having with them stems from a lack of anything decent to ramp into besides Loxodon Smiter . You're not going to cast T2 Unflinching Courage on a mana dork or Rootborn Defenses . You're other 1 drops of fine.
2 drops - Skylasher is a little meh, it just doesn't do much. If all it's doing for you is playing Ambush Viper , than I'd run that instead as it kills more than 2 toughness. But I think a Gyre Sage or Strangleroot Geist would be a lot better to run, sage can get big with your curve and Strangleroot Geist is great against control and aggro. Selesnya Charm is perfectly fine over Giant Growth , the versatility is generally worth the loss of 1 point and increased mana cost, though if you push more green I would consider cutting down to maybe 2. The 3/3s for 2 are nice, though the combination of GG and GW would be a lot easier with dual lands as mentioned.
3 drops - Loxodon Smiter is just a house, but I think Rootborn Defenses and Unflinching Courage tend to be better sideboard cards. Until you know if you need them or if you're just going to get 2 for 1'd for playing an aura, I'd rather just have another creature. Some other 3 drops I would consider Wolfir Avenger , Predator Ooze and maybe even Slaughterhorn .
4 drop - Advent of the Wurm is a good card.
Sideboard - A lot about a sideboard comes down to local meta, but I wouldn't put Silence or Heroes' Reunion in my 75 ever unless I had a incredibly specific reason, they just are not worth a card. At the end of the day, magic is a game about trading resources, ie cards. I play a Grizzly Bears , you Doom Blade it. Sometimes the tempo play like Unsummon is important, but you want to know going in that your accepting that card disadvantage for a reason.
Goody says... #2
First off, build a deck with that decklist instead of posting the whole thing here, and then just link the deck with double brackets: [ [ slug deck name ] ] without the spaces of course
July 28, 2013 10:39 p.m.