I.  Introduction

Mono-green isn't really considered the strongest of the colors you can use in EDH.  But it has a strong following, and a decent amount of resources.  Although you can't do much about other creatures and you don't have the same destructive capabilities as other colors, you can make gobs of mana and there are ways to make your deck bust out some huge dudes.  Hopefully you can then bring the pain by Hulking out on your opponents.

Not exactly the Hulk I was thinking of, but she'll do.

This is the tale of how I went about trying to find a successful green deck that fit my play style.  It wasn't easy, but I think I found a winner.

II.  The Deck:  Seshiro the Failure

As you may have noticed, I don't generally like using "popular" Commanders.  Aside from my selfish moment where I played Maga, Traitor to Mortals, I've shown you decks using such luminaries as Zhang Fei, Fierce Warrior, and Lord of Tresserhorn.  So when I first started looking for a green Commander, I wanted something off the beaten path.  After searching through my collection, I found this guy:

Aside from looking like he's breaking his back with that pose and trying to figure out where the extra arm is coming from/goes, he seemed pretty legit.  He obviously can use a tribal based deck built around snakes, and I like tribal themes.  He will pump up your snakes and give them all Keen Sense.  This seemed pretty cool.  What I didn't realize is that being mono-green, there aren't that many cool snakes out there.  Actually, aside from Ohran Viper and Chameleon Colossus, there aren't that many cool snakes, period.  A few of the better snakes have blue in their casting cost.

Helpful snakes.

Without access to other colors, in order to fill up on snakes, I had to play with a lot of small guys that didn't really effect the board that much.

Not so helpful snakes.

Even with the blue snakes I don't think this deck would have been that great.  I never really knew what the saying "taking a knife to a gunfight" meant until I played this deck.  When people would be dropping Angel of Despair and Empyrial Archangel in the late game, I would have Anaconda, if I was still alive.  In order to get good use out of Seshiro, you are pretty much forced to over-extend, then get wiped out by a Wrath effect.  There were occasions where I would get Seshiro out and draw a few cards after making some snake tokens, but even with a decent amount of card draw I wouldn't be able to pull the win off.  I tried to go to a more controlling version, but then I didn't have enough snakes to make Seshiro worthwhile.  I never came close to a win with this deck.  I deleted the decklist a while back, otherwise I would show you just how bad it was.  I'm sure someone out there has a successful list using Seshiro the Anointed, but I sure as heck couldn't figure it out.  As a matter of fact, Bennie Smith just wrote an article where he gave Seshiro three out of four stars.  He obviously knows something I don't.  So I decided to move on.

III.  The Deck:  Reki the Almost There

The next legend I tried to build around was this guy:

That flavor text is a little creepy.  You know that some poor acolyte got stuck transcribing the skin of Reki's butt cheeks.  Awful.

Anyway, Reki seemed cool due to his ability.  He was cheap, and he was a card advantage engine.  Although he was fragile, he could be recast fairly easily.  I crammed my deck full of all the legendary green and artifact cards that I could, and took it for a test run.  However, I found a couple of problems with this version.  First, some of the green legends are crappy and shouldn't be played.

I'm talking about you guys.

Don't try to stick up for Thriss, he's poop.  Second, although I was drawing a decent amount of cards, I wasn't drawing any answers to things in play.  So I re-worked the deck a little bit, and pulled off a few wins with this version (aka, your bonus deck list):

Reki, the History of Kamigawa

A Commander Deck

Creatures 1 Acidic Slime 1 Arashi, the Sky Asunder 1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking 1 Baru, Fist of Krosa 1 Deadwood Treefolk 1 Dosan the Falling Leaf 1 Eternal Witness 1 Genesis 1 Glissa Sunseeker 1 Hua Tuo, Honored Physician 1 Indrik Stomphowler 1 Isao, Enlightened Bushi 1 Iwamori of the Open Fist 1 Jedit Ojanen of Efrava 1 Jugan, the Rising Star 1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa 1 Kaysa 1 Kodama of the North Tree 1 Masumaro, First to Live 1 Meng Huo, Barbarian King 1 Mirri, Cat Warrior 1 Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer 1 Myojin of Life's Web 1 Patron of the Orochi 1 Reki, the History of Kamigawa 1 Sakiko, Mother of Summer 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder 1 Silvos, Rogue Elemental 1 Sosuke, Son of Seshiro 1 Verdeloth the Ancient 1 Viridian Shaman 1 Wickerbough Elder 1 Willow Satyr 1 Woodfall Primus 34 cards Other Spells 1 Akroma's Memorial 1 Extraplanar Lens 1 Gauntlet of Power 1 Helm of Kaldra 1 Konda's Banner 1 Shield of Kaldra 1 Sword of Fire and Ice 1 Sword of Kaldra 1 Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang 1 That Which Was Taken 1 Tower of Fortunes 1 Umezawa's Jitte 1 Garruk Wildspeaker 1 Abundance 1 Gaea's Touch 1 Sylvan Library 1 Vernal Bloom 1 Berserk 1 Chord of Calling 1 Reach of Branches 1 Desert Twister 1 Explosive Vegetation 1 Nature's Spiral 1 Primal Command 1 Recollect 1 Recross the Paths 1 Restock 1 Sylvan Scrying 1 Time of Need 1 Tranquil Path 30 cards

Lands 1 Mouth of Ronom 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood 1 Reliquary Tower 1 Scrying Sheets 31 Snow-Covered Forest 1 Thawing Glaciers 36 cards

This deck has 31 legendary spells, so almost half the spells you cast while Reki is out are going to cantrip.  That's pretty cool stuff.  You have answers to various permanents with Acidic Slime, Woodfall Primus, Indrik Stomphowler, Tranquil Path, Viridian Shaman and Willow Satyr.

Love this guy.

You have some recursion with Eternal Witness, Genesis, Restock and Nature's Spiral.  You have some tutoring with Chord of Calling, Primal Command and Time of Need.  And you even have the ability to generate huge amounts of mana with Patron of the Orochi, Vernal Bloom, Gauntlet of Power and Extraplanar Lens.  Plus, who wouldn't like to play with Masumaro, First to Live?

So the deck was doing ok, winning the occasional match.  However, I started noticing that when I did win, I basically won with one of two cards:  Either Kamahl, Fist of Krosa or Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer.  Making Molimo indestructible or giving him shroud was a pure headache for people, and Kamahl basically made everyone Overrun with the large amounts of mana the deck can generate.  So I figured, why not cut out the middle man, and just make a deck with one of these two guys?

Obviously this Reki list still needs some tuning, although you can definitely win a couple games with it.  Eventually I think I will come back to Reki.  But today isn't his day to shine.

IV.  The Deck:  I think I stepped on something while smashing you

So instead of going with Kamahl, I went with Molimo.  Why Molimo instead of Kamahl?  Basically because I'd run into a couple of Kamahl decks recently, and hadn't seen Molimo in a long time.  Just wanted to be different.  Plus, he fits my whole idea of a big green Hulk wrecking shop.

Sorry, couldn't think of anything witty to say about his art.  Help me out in the comments with that.  Anyway, Molimo seems pretty straight forward.  Play a bunch of land search and bash.  He has trample, so he usually gets a little bit of damage through even if they throw a blocker in front of him.  However, cramming every land search spell you can find into a single deck won't typically win you a lot of games.  The problem with having a ton of Rampant Growth effects is that in the late game, when you are searching for additional threats or answers, you don't want to draw more land search.  So the land search that I use is hopefully going to be more of the 2 for 1 kind, to help with thinning, and I'm going to try not going overboard with the search.  Let's see what we have:

Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer

A Commander Deck

Creatures 1 Arashi, the Sky Asunder 1 Avenger of Zendikar 1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking 1 Baru, Fist of Krosa 1 Civic Wayfinder 1 Cloudthresher 1 Deadwood Treefolk 1 Duplicant 1 Eternal Witness 1 Genesis 1 Indrik Stomphowler 1 Jedit Ojanen of Efrava 1 Krosan Tusker 1 Masked Admirers 1 Molimo, Maro-Sorcerer 1 Oracle of Mul Daya 1 Panglacial Wurm 1 Rampaging Baloths 1 Regal Force 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder 1 Seedguide Ash 1 Spearbreaker Behemoth 1 Terastodon 1 Vigor 1 Wickerbough Elder 1 Wood Elves 1 Woodfall Primus 1 Yavimaya Dryad 1 Yavimaya Elder 29 cards Other Spells 1 Akroma's Memorial 1 Journeyer's Kite 1 Lightning Greaves 1 Mind's Eye 1 Oblivion Stone 1 Shield of Kaldra 1 Garruk Wildspeaker 1 Greater Good 1 Berserk 1 Krosan Grip 1 Momentous Fall 1 Rootgrapple 1 Squall Line 1 Worldly Tutor 1 All Is Dust 1 Beacon of Creation 1 Desert Twister 1 Explosive Vegetation 1 Far Wanderings 1 Harmonize 1 Howl of the Night Pack 1 Hunting Wilds 1 Journey of Discovery 1 Kodama's Reach 1 Nature's Lore 1 Primal Command 1 Recollect 1 Recross the Paths 1 Rude Awakening 1 Seek the Horizon 1 Soul's Majesty 1 Three Visits 30 cards

Lands 1 Diamond Valley 1 Mosswort Bridge 1 Mouth of Ronom 1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood 1 Reliquary Tower 1 Scrying Sheets 31 Snow-Covered Forest 1 Thawing Glaciers 1 Treetop Village 39 cards

Although there is still a lot, this isn't just a bunch of land search.  It includes answers and other things to help you out.  Funnily enough, this is one of the few decks where I have enough Snow lands, but I'm not using Extraplanar Lens.  Oh well.  Let's look at the card choices. 

Land Search Creatures

Civic Wayfinder, Krosan Tusker, Oracle of Mul Daya, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Seedguide Ash, Wood Elves, Yavimaya Dryad, Yavimaya Elder:  You have a couple of different ways of getting extra lands into play, and each of these guys is at least a two for one.  Although they don't always leave the biggest body behind, they typically provide a speed bump for attacking creatures.  Seedguide Ash at least has a decent sized body, and Yavimaya Dryad has 2 power and Forestwalk.  Yavimaya Elder helps by drawing a card as well.  The Oracle may not technically be land search, but it fills the same purpose usually.

Other Land Search

Journeyer's Kite, Explosive Vegetation, Far Wanderings, Hunting Wilds, Journey of Discovery, Kodama's Reach, Nature's Lore, Recross the Paths, Seek the Horizon, Three Visits:  Your traditional land search.  Almost all of these are at least 2 for 1.  Those that aren't put the lands into play untapped, or have the ability to grab more land under certain circumstances.  You may wish to swap out Far Wanderings for Sprouting Vines, that's just a personal choice.  The Kite and Thawing Glaciers make sure that you keep hitting land drops late game.  If your hand gets too full of lands, Azusa, Lost but Seeking can help you out.  Don't forget that in the late game, when you are searching up land, you can also play Panglacial Wurm directly from your deck.

Card Draw

Masked Admirers, Regal Force, Mind's Eye, Greater Good, Momentous Fall, Harmonize, Soul's Majesty:  Card draw is good.  I went with Masked Admirers because there was a body attached, and I liked the recursion.  Obviously Greater Good and Momentous Fall can help Molimo from being tucked.  Regal Force shines when you have a few tokens out.  Soul's Majesty is the only iffy one, because although I have some large creatures, I won't always have one in play.  In addition, using Majesty kind of invites removal, but it can give you a ton of draw.  So be careful when using this card.

Protection

Spearbreaker Behemoth, Vigor, Akroma's Memorial, Lightning Greaves, Shield of Kaldra:  Protecting Molimo  makes him very difficult to kill.  I have had opponents concede when I put the Shield on him.  Vigor just makes him huge if opponents are trying to protect themselves from Commander damage by throwing a blocker in front of him, as well as other damage based effects.  The Memorial and Lightning Greaves have the added benefit of giving your creatures haste.  And obviously the Behemoth can make Molimo indestructible, as well as some of your other beaters.  I considered Aspect of Mongoose, but I just don't think that it did enough.

Removal

Duplicant, Indrik Stomphowler, Terastodon, Wickerbough Elder, Woodfall Primus, Krosan Grip, Rootgrapple, Desert Twister:  Most of your removal has the added benefit of coming attached to a body.  Duplicant is one of your few ways to remove a creature.  It is just sad that Desert Twister costs 4 more than Vindicate, for the same effect.  Primus and Terastodon are obviously good and can take out problem permanents.  Another possibility is Mold Shambler, but I like the guys I have here.

Mass Destruction

Oblivion Stone, All is Dust :  Green doesn't have too many ways to re-set the board when you fall behind, but fortunately there are a couple of colorless ways out.  As a side note, I don't draft at all (sacrilege, I know), so whenever a new set comes out, I end up getting 5 to 10 packs and just cracking them to get that new set feel.  I got 7 packs this time, and pulled the All is Dust and a Kozilek.  Not bad.  However, AiD sucks against the Karn decks and others based around the legendary Eldrazi.

Recursion

Deadwood Treefolk, Eternal Witness, Genesis, Recollect:  There isn't a whole ton of recursion in this deck, but you should get multiple uses out of Deadwood Treefolk and Genesis.  I would love to squeeze in a Restock somehow, but I just couldn't find the room.

Token Creation

Avenger of Zendikar, Jedit Ojanen of Efrava, Rampaging Baloths, Beacon of Creation, Howl of the Night Pack:  Since you plan on having a ton of lands, might as well include cards that give you tokens for those lands.  In addition, the landfall creatures have added benefits when you are still searching up lands in the late game.  I even considered Baloth Woodcrasher for a short time.  So why no Wolfbriar Elemental?  Because this deck is based around the number of lands that it has, and not how much mana it can generate.  This is also the reason whey there is no Gauntlet of Power or similar artifact in this deck.

Tutors

Worldly Tutor, Primal Command:  There are only two tutors in this deck, so use them wisely.  Fortunately both of these cards tutor for creatures, and as you can generally handle most permanent types with your creatures, you should be in pretty good shape.  The Command also acts as graveyard hate and another way to deal with problem non-creature permanents.

There are a couple of other cards worth highlighting.  Late game you usually have more lands out than your opponents, and Rude Awakening becomes very good.  Squall Line and Cloudthresher are your sole ways to deal with flyers.   And Mouth of Ronom is your sole method of direct damage.  And finally, Berserk is just awesome when you are playing with a large beater like Molimo.

So the main issue with the deck is dealing with flyers, particularly flying Commanders.  Most of the people that use dragons give you about 4 turns to deal with them.  This usually means killing the player, or putting them on the defensive so that they don't attack you.  Obviously if you tick off someone using Vorosh, the Hunter as their general, you are going to have less time.  So you either want to make friends with people playing dragon Commanders, or smash them as fast as possible.  If you are finding yourself getting hit with dragons a ton, green has plenty of answers, with everything from Hurricane to Tornado Elemental to Silklash Spider.

This deck also has the traditional weakness against combo and recursion.  Again, if you are really worried about this stuff, Relic of Progenitus, Tormod's Crypt and Jester's Cap can help you out.  Green is traditionally weak in this department, so you have to use artifacts for this kind of help.  However, you can use Hall of Gemstone, City of Solitude, and Dosan the Falling Leaf to fight blue based control decks.

V.  The Game:  Fight!

Let's take a look at my opponents:

All is Dust, Masked Admirers, Mouth of Ronom, Howl of the Night Pack, Berserk, 2 Snow-Covered Forest
 

Can kill two creatures when entwined, or just throw a big creature at someone's head.

Cheap late game draw, can help with mana flood.

Great for dealing with decks that rely on Commander damage.

Desert Twister, Oran-Rief, the Vastwood, Beacon of Creation, Treetop Village and 3 Snow-Covered Forests

Sad times.

2 Snow-Covered Forests, Rude Awakening, Vigor and Oblivion Stone

VI.  Conclusion

Despite lasting 13 rounds, this game was over pretty quick.  It was strange to see the Niv-Mizzet player give up, but he knows his deck better than I do.  Also interesting was the fact that I failed to draw any sort of acceleration other than Oracle of Mul Daya.  The deck still performed well, and if anything, showed the power of Greater Good.  Although I did draw almost all of my token creating cards in this game, I've won a bunch of games without drawing any and just bashing with Molimo.  In addition, I only got one form of mana acceleration, with the 4th turn Oracle of Mul Daya, and still managed to do well.

If you want more protection for Molimo, couple of cards to consider are General's Kabuto and That Which Was Taken.  If you want, you can try and squeeze in the Sylvan Library/Abundance combo, which can definitely help with card draw.  Solemn Simulacrum is another form of acceleration, and Mold Shambler is another bit of removal with a body.  Tooth and Nail is generally good in any deck that can support it.  In addition, Survival of the Fittest is a sweet way to help tutor up creature based answers.  I would put it in here, but unfortunately I don't own one.

I've played enough games with the deck that I'm not really sure that all of the land search is necessary.  I would probably take out at least Nature's Lore for Solemn Simulacrum.  But this is a fun deck that is definitely resilient.  Flyers are sometimes an issue, but usually you will do fine.

Thanks for reading.  Until next time, when we look at a deck using Isperia the Inscrutable.

Leviathan, aka Tarasco on MTGO