[Standard][Opinions] It's not easy being green

It sounds interesting.
But what happens if someone wipes out your ramping creatures?

Say you get hit with a turn 3 Bonfire, Terminus, or Sever the Bloodline?

You'll need some mid range creatures to hold out in case your rampers get wiped.

edit: You may want to side board 1 set of rampers to swap up depending on the type of deck you are facing.
Have you with elves and the archdruid, another with the gatecreeper and defenders. Since the lands the gatecreepers bring out will still be there if you're creatures get wiped.

Last edited by MrSenium (2012-11-12 17:35:50)

MrSenium: I'm definitely with you about the threat of a board wipe like that (thankfully they're not prevalent in my LGS meta), but I'm curious what outside of Thragtusk is really going to fit the bill there - god only knows that creature is getting the crap abused out of it.  I know I had the thought of throwing Oak Street Innkeeper in the sideboard to offer a possible hexproof solution to spot removal.  If they target something that can produce mana, I just tap it, and BAM it has hexproof from the stack first and the spell fizzles.  It's also an elf, so that helps with the Archdruids.  But really, is there any way to really prepare against a miracled Bonfire outside of blue?

HikingStick: I have to agree that Predator Ooze isn't seeing nearly enough love out there.  To that end I'm actually trying to pick up more of them to fit into a B/G build that centers around giving them deathtouch and making them fight enemy creatures.  For my purposes here they certainly give me options.

Overall I've struggled with the fact that there really just aren't enough elves to make the ramping work single-handedly up to the 9-11 you need to drop the bombs - at least not unless you pull two Elvish Archdruids and somehow keep them both alive.  My thought to include the defenders was simply to give me another ramping venue - guaranteeing my land drops and helping with even more ramps while offering a more solid creature defense than the elves will offer on their own.  I even thought about going completely U/G defender to ramp into the Surge/Wurms or even Ludevic's Test Subject - but that takes out the option of using Craterhoof Behemoth as it doesn't make much sense to pump a half-dozen defenders which cannot attack.

Outside of Predator Ooze can we think of a few other mid-range green stompers that might make sense in here?

That's actually not a bad idea there with Wolfir Avenger - I'll have to double check how many I have, but I'm sure I could pick up more easily enough.

I've been mulling over this idea and think it's onto something simply because the wealth of un-counterable spells in RTR have really driven the meta away from countermagic, opening the door to sneak in some massive spells like Craterhoof Behemoth and Primal Surge.  But the question is how to best get there...

Considering the concerns that were raised above I've come up with two alternate builds of the same basic deck.

Green - Build B
http://deckbox.org/sets/262759

Green - Build C
http://deckbox.org/sets/262767

The B build changes pace by dropping all the defenders shy of Tree of Redemption to rely a bit more on pure ramp.  Thus, I've put in Somberwald Sage (you have no idea how much I wish this was an elf) to help with the power ramp into the bigger creatures.  It also provides another possible target for opponent removal, as they won't be so quick as to target the Elvish Archdruid when I have another big-game ramper on the board.  I filled in the mid-range curve a bit more with some Strangleroot Geists and Deadbridge Goliath - who I've learned is quite the handful, who you can then scavenge onto a lowly creature like Elvish Visionary in the event they blast him.  The ramping makes him a turn three drop easily, saying "TAKE THAT" to Loxodon Smiter.  I've also subbed in two Oak Street Innkeepers as they serve a double role of both helping the elf ramp while also offering my rampers hexproof on my opponent's turn, as I can easily just tap them for the mana and let it go to waste if they're about to get blasted.  The rest of the build is essentially the same.

The C build changes even more so in the direction of all elves, all the time.  Centaur's Herald is now included either to help generate 3/3 centaurs, or more importantly to provide another one-drop elf to help the Archdruid pump route.  Primordial Hydra is knocked down to a 2x and Staff of Nin is dropped entirely in favor of Soul of the Harvest who fills a variety of needs for me at the same time, giving me a big beater with trample in the mid-range costs, but also offering a TON of card advantage as the ramping will let me empty my hand incredibly quickly.  Given the increased elf focus and real need to protect the Archdruids, the Innkeeper has been bumped to 4x.

So the question is, which of my three options is best now?  All three are ramping like mad, but, all three are still susceptible to the same major flaws (ones that I don't think mono-green really has any answers for).  The sideboard is now full of anti-flying creatures and you always have to include Acidic Slime for artifacts and enchantments.  But a well placed Bonfire will still mess this up to a significant extent - but, if the cards go correctly, you're already sitting on a moderate sized beater (Deadbridge/Strangleroot/Soul) by turn 3-4.

I'll definitely spend some time this afternoon considering Wolfir Avenger as the regeneration is priceless.  Perhaps there's a mono-green aggro build in there that doesn't even need the ramping... hah.