Hello and welcome back to Out of the Blue.  We're in the midst of a heat wave in England right now, or at least we are in the part I live in.  I laid a lush growth of new lawn recently (risking heat stroke in the process) and it's becoming a plains before my very eyes.  Every time I step into my tranquil garden I get charred by the sun's searing rays.

Anyway...

This week I begin a series on standard mono colour builds.  Recent sets have seemed to emphasize multi-colour decks, starting with the Ravnica guilds, and continuing right through to the almost psychedelic explosion of colour that was Alara Reborn.

Mono colour spent some time offering little, and sitting in the corner, neglected like a slightly unfortunate smelling puppy.  Well no longer.  Every dog has his day, and this hound is no different.  Today it's the day of green.  Welcome to the jungle.

Green offers so much by itself, and offers rich rewards for a heavy investment in its leaf choked lands.  There is a glaring weakness though, and that's removal.  There aren't even the pseudo removal options of Lignify or Snakeform in Standard right now (well there is Entangling Vines, but who plays that?), so you'd better hope that your opponent needs to spend so much time dealing with your gameplan that he doesn't have time to land his own Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

So where can we go with mono green?  Let's look at some options.

There's Broodwarden + Eldrazi spawns.  This is a potentially potent deck in limited, but is vulnerable in constructed.  All it takes is a Terminate aimed at the spawn pumper and you've got a table full of slightly sad looking 0/1s.

Of course you could swap out Broodwarden, add in some ramp and some large Eldrazi fatties and go down that route.  That's viable, but both of these options suffer from one key failing when considering mono-colour, chiefly that they're improved immeasurably with the addition of a little black, red or both.  Black and red both have plenty of decent options to create their own spawns (see below), and of course bring rather useful spells like the aforementioned Terminate.

To begin an analysis of playable mono-green builds, I want to start with this card: Beastmaster Ascension.  With the impressively efficient array of creatures green can pump out for you (long gone are the days of one creature per card), this enchantment can get up to the holy grail of seven counters by turn five easily.  Just watch out for Vampire Hexmage, Naturalize or similar.  Here's a list, originally designed by Zvi Mowshowitz.  It managed two slots in the top eight of Pro Tour San Juan Puerto Rico not so long ago.

Zvi Mowshowitz's Mono Green

Standard - Top 8 - PT San Juan

Creatures 4 Arbor Elf 4 Joraga Treespeaker 4 Kozilek's Predator 4 Lotus Cobra 4 Nest Invader 2 River Boa 4 Vengevine 4 Wolfbriar Elemental 30 cards Other Spells 3 Beastmaster Ascension 3 Eldrazi Monument 6 cards

Lands 2 Dread Statuary 12 Forest 4 Khalni Garden 4 Misty Rainforest 2 Verdant Catacombs 24 cards

This deck does a great job of keeping your opponent on the defensive, with aggressive plays right from the start - exactly the way a no-removal deck needs to be.  It's packed with good win conditions, the Ascension and Monument sitting at the top of the pile.  Even if your opponent has the tools to deal with all six of those (unlikely), he'll still have to find a way to stop Vengevine and Wolfbriar Elemental.

I was unable to find the original sideboard for this list, but I'd imagine it packed the usual suspects of Great Sable Stag to make blue and black cry, Grazing Gladehart as defence against RDW, and Naturalize for opposing Ascensions and Monuments (not to mention Eldrazi Conscription).

So that's a great mono green list, and is still competitive today.  Perhaps not quite tier one, but a solid deck nonetheless.  Another thing green does well is combat tricks, Giant Growth being one of the colour's defining and most reprinted cards.  So far we haven't seen what is arguably the colour's best combat trick of all, and one which most desires a mono-colour build.  I'm talking of course about Overrun, the card that can win from nowhere.  Here's a not uncommon sequence of plays.

Turn 1: Forest, Llanowar Elves

Turn 2: Khalni Garden, Nest Invader

Turn 3: Forest, Kozilek's Predator.

Turn 4: Forest, Overrun, turn everything sideways for the win.

Obviously it's disruptable, and by turn four your opponent could have something impressive on their side of the table, but the key is variety of threats.  By turn four you could conceivably ramp up into something large and ugly like Khalni Hydra or Pelakka Wurm, but then you're just an Oust away from relative impotence.  In the example above you're attacking with seven decently sized tramplers.  Good luck Ousting that lot.

The next list I want to show includes a full playset of Overrun as well as Eldrazi Monument, which performs mildly similar duties.  This deck also wants to play a lot of creatures to get full use from its pumpers, and here we see the inclusion of the excellent Bestial Menace.  Three creatures for the price of one, and with the Monument out, or an Overrun in hand it's just plain silly.  Leatherback Baloth also deserves a mention, the easier to cast Woolly Thoctar that survives Flame Slash.

This list was originally designed by Hung Ngu, and did well at Pro Tour Amsterdam.  Again, it's still relevant today, if not certifiably tier one.

Hung Ngu's Mono Green

Standard - 6th place - PT Amsterdam

Creatures 4 Elvish Visionary 2 Great Sable Stag 4 Joraga Treespeaker 3 Kozilek's Predator 4 Leatherback Baloth 4 Nest Invader 4 Noble Hierarch 2 River Boa 1 Vengevine 28 cards Other Spells 2 Bestial Menace 2 Eldrazi Monument 1 Garruk Wildspeaker 4 Overrun 9 cards

Lands 17 Forest 3 Khalni Garden 1 Misty Rainforest 2 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood 23 cards Sideboard 2 Bestial Menace 1 Eldrazi Monument 4 Fog 4 Grazing Gladehart 1 Great Sable Stag 3 Naturalize 15 cards

Well that's two great decklists, but I haven't mentioned one of them main reasons I wanted to start with mono green yet.  I think I'm slightly in love with Omnath, Locus of Mana.  And who wouldn't be?  You can pump him at instant speed (provided you have land or mana dorks untapped), and he can hoard green mana for you for as long as he's around, giving the potential for some pretty interesting ramp strategies.  Lacking shroud and being potentially very scary, he's almost as much of a removal magnet as perpetual graveyard lurkers Birds of Paradise and Elvish Piper.  For that reason, I think he goes well with Vines of Vastwood, which helpfully is also best in mono green.  Here's my take on a list.

Omnath Mono Green

A Standard deck by Splendid Belt

Creatures 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn 4 Joraga Treespeaker 2 Kazandu Tuskcaller 4 Kozilek's Predator 4 Leatherback Baloth 3 Omnath, Locus of Mana 4 Overgrown Battlement 3 Pelakka Wurm 25 cards Other Spells 2 Awakening Zone 2 Basilisk Collar 1 Howl of the Night Pack 4 Vines of Vastwood 3 Beastmaster Ascension 12 cards

Lands 22 Forest 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood 23 cards Sideboard 2 River Boa 3 Naturalize 4 Great Sable Stag 2 Grazing Gladehart 4 Mold Shambler 15 cards

It's a flexible list in that it has several different ways to win, and you can alter your balance in favour of any by increasing or decreasing the respective enabling cards.  For example, Omnath himself, the Battlement, Joraga, Awakening Zone and the Predator all aid the ramp strategy (towards the Wurm and the singleton Emrakul).  If you want to emphasise the ramp, you could take out the Ascensions for more ramp targets and possibly something like Explore or Harrow.

We also have three copies of Beastmaster Ascension, which combines well with Awakening Zone, Predator, Tuskcaller and potentially Howl of the Night Pack.  To go further down this road, add more creatures at the expense of Vines, Emrakul and the Wurms.

Finally of course you can just cast Omnath, grow him to inconceivable size and roll over for the win.  On that note, I also tried Whispersilk Cloak instead of Vines, and found it to work pretty well.  The cloak compensates for Omnath's two weaknesses; lack of shroud or trample.

Basilisk Collar makes it into the deck both as a sort of pseudo removal / attacking deterrence and invaluable lifegain.  The deck can be fast, but can also lose quickly to RDW variants, and the collar can often buy extra turns to work your Magic.  It's worth remembering though that the Collar is less than impressive on the Battlements, leaving only 20 creatures in the deck worth equipping it to (I'm discounting Emrakul, since if you can cast him, it's unlikely you'll need to do much else).  But then the Tuskcaller can provide additional Collar targets all day long, giving the card additional worth.

I've made the deck fairly budget friendly, as is my wont, but if you have any copies of Garruk Wildspeaker kicking around, he's great inclusion.  He ramps, pops out free tokens and even gives you an Overrun.  In fact, he pretty much sums the colour up all by himself.

It would be remiss to write an article on mono green without mentioning elves.  Often a standard staple, the Elves don't appear to be quite as tournament worthy as in previous years, but can still put out a decent decklist.  I haven't built an elves list since Lorwyn was first spoiled, but here's how I'd build one today.  The list pretty much invites you to over-commit into something like Day of Judgment and then run out of gas.  Until the green beauty that is Harmonize is reprinted, elf lovers (legal for the over 21s) will just have to resist that temptation and keep something in reserve.

Mono Green Elves

A Standard deck by Splendid Belt

Creatures 4 Arbor Elf 4 Elvish Archdruid 4 Elvish Visionary 4 Joraga Warcaller 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Mul Daya Channelers 4 Nissa's Chosen 28 cards Other Spells 2 Garruk Wildspeaker 3 Nissa Revane 2 Overrun 3 Vines of Vastwood 10 cards

Lands 20 Forest 2 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood 22 cards Sideboard 2 River Boa 3 Naturalize 4 Great Sable Stag 2 Grazing Gladehart 4 Mold Shambler 15 cards

Honourable mentions go to...

Without clogging the article up with endless decklists, here are some other great cards well-suited to mono green strategies, which there wasn't time or space to fully feature:

		Avenger of Zendikar is a ridiculously powerful card which starts off amazing and quickly turns unbelievable, especially with a few Khalni Gardens around the place.
		Gelatinous Genesis is a good way to use up all that bonus mana that green is capable of creating, especially with something like Omnath on the board.
		Khalni Hydra can be a very cheap or even free 8/8 trampler later on in the game.  At worst, it's an 8/8 trampler for 8.
		Lurking Predators just loves creature heavy decks.  So does Mul Daya Channelers.  Fill the rest of the deck with the usual suspects randomly picked from the other decks featured above, and I guarantee you'll wind up with something playable.
		Rampaging Baloths is another land-lover, and will similarly win the game in short order if left unmolested by removal.  Although the mana cost doesn't force a mono colour strategy, the fact that green is the best colour at laying additional lands suggests it's a good match for the landfall mechanic.
		Scute Mob is incredible for 1cc, but I prefer him in a deck with Ranger of Eos, discounting his utility for this article.

There are many more cards I could have mentioned, but I'm trying to stick to cards that I don't see played so often.  Everyone knows Thornling's good (although to be honest, he doesn't see enough use for his power either).

What next?

The recently spoiled M11 is on our doorstep, and brings with it some exciting new green beef.  And there's a rare instance of the words 'spoiled', 'green' and 'beef' actually amounting to something nice.  Here are some of those I find most interesting.

As soon as you read the game text for Fauna Shaman, you think 'Madness'.  That key word may have disappeared from Standard for the time being, and although someone forgot to tell that to Obstinate Baloth.  Unfortunately though that isn't the combo it first appears, since the Baloth requires an opponent's action to trigger his Madness like ability.  Still, the ability to tutor up a creature sounds eminently useful.  Garruk's Packleader combos well with his namesake Planeswalker, amongst other cards, Gaea's Revenge is the surprise finisher which I'm sure will see play, and the Titan is just a stunning way of ramping up to obscene levels of mana, and ensuring your remaining draws mean business.  That leaves Overwhelming Stampede as the new Overrun, although interestingly, both will be in Standard together for a few months.

In summary, mono green's looking good for the foreseeable future.

Well, that wraps up this week's edition, next week I continue the mono theme, but to find out which colour I'll be featuring, you'll have to come back and see.  The suspense is unbearable, I'm sure you'll agree.

Now it's time to put myself into cold storage as a narrow escape from boiling.  Until next time.

Splendid Belt

www.splendidbelt.com