We normally associate haste with red, but in the wide and wonderful world of Modern there are plenty of nice options still in green. Strangleroot Geist is probably the most recognizable, since it saw significant time at the top tables during its time in Standard, and Giant Solifuge is a Pro Tour champion. Then we come to Groundbreaker and Uktabi Drake.

Groundbreaker is just a green Ball Lightning, which is perfect for this deck. And Uktabi Drake is very poor on stats alone, but with Primal Forcemage, you have what amounts to a one-mana, five damage burn spell with upside. The result is a synergy-laden burn deck of sorts, where a turn 2 Primal Forcemage, powered out by one of your eight mana creatures, is followed by a flurry of creatures that connect for huge chunks of damage immediately.


Blockers can be taken care of with Timbermare or the trampling power of Rancor, which is in itself a two-damage haste creature of sorts, and those pesky removal spells are thoroughly punished by Vines of Vastwood. Summoner's Pact ties the room together, letting you find the key haste creature or extra copies of Primal Forcemage.

Some of the singletons are out of place and several of them should likely be lands. In fact, I wouldn't mind having fetchlands and Dryad Arbor here, since ambushing your opponent's creature with a 4/4 can swing a race quite easily.

The sideboard is a nice collection of hate cards. I particularly like Defense Grid, since your opponent has to interact on your turn to have a chance. Path to Exile is a little loose off of just the mana creatures, but some fetch lands can help that too, not to mention giving you access to all of white's premier sideboard cards. Even the Fogs, which look strange, do good work against opposing aggro decks where your lack of interaction dictates every game be a race.

Once I figured out what was going on here, I couldn't help but smile. This is Magic in its purest form, because I know Daniel saw Primal Forcemage sitting in someone's trade binder or a bulk rare box at his local store and had to build around it, as irresistible as the siren's song. But when you're attacking with a nine-power hastu trampler, your opponents are the ones who end up wrecked against the rocks.

Mono-Green Aggro
Daniel Skoglund
8th Place at StarCityGames.com Invitational Qualifier on 6/25/2016
Modern


Creatures (28)

4 Birds of Paradise
1 Giant Solifuge
4 Groundbreaker
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Primal Forcemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Slaughterhorn
3 Strangleroot Geist
2 Timbermare
4 Uktabi Drake
Lands (20)

20 Snow-Covered Forest
Spells (12)

2 Rancor
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Vines of Vastwood
1 Hurricane
1 Life's Legacy
Sideboard

2 Defense Grid
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
4 Fog
3 Path to Exile
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast