DTK Mono Green Aggro

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

Today it is raining cats 'n' dawgs and other things here in Barrie, Ontario and the last stubborn remnants of snow are sure to be purged by day's end.  Chances are that we won't be needing the dog sled to get to our local gaming store, OMG! Games from now on in as things are starting to green up and shy foliage are just now starting to appear.

Speaking of green, we think it apropos to look at a standard constructed (post Dragons of Tarkir) mono-green decklist.  Quite specifically, a mono-green aggro list posted by Magic: the Gathering great, Tomoharu Saito.  Saito has been an exceptional player since bursting onto the scene in 2000 and has been gaming ever since.  He is owner of the Hareruya & Saito Card Shop and for some time, shortly after each set release, he posts a number of fun suggestions - here is his Mono-Green Aggro list -

4x Elvish Mystic
4x Avatar of the Resolute
4x Swordwise Centaur
4x Bassara Tower Archer
4x Reverent Hunter

Looks very decent to take full advantage of any devotion to green strategies so far.  Avatar  and Swordwise is value at double green and decent 3/2 bodies with the Av receiving conditional eotb counters.  Rev Hunter is the first devotion card here and expected to benefit greatly.

4x Boon Satyr
4x Surrak, the Hunt Caller
4x Aspect of Hydra
4x Cached Defenses
2x Nylea, God of the Hunt

The Satyr is an obvious choice, adding another two to devotion tech and is decent both early and late game.  Dragons of Tarkir new Surrak also adds another double green and is saddled with the new formidable mechanic allowing a conditional haste to a creature.  Alhtough Surrak is legendary, a full book-set of four may be acceptable considering this will have a large target on it for removal.  We can imagine that this may occasionally be a dead card in your hand but perhaps not often.  We are not altogether certain of Saito's choice of a deckset of Cached Defenses - perhaps this is intended to apply to Bassara or Avatar in order to fend off flying dragons.  Nylea, God of the Hunt looks good in the list.

Lands
2x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
20x Forest
Good Choice here

We would love to take this for a spin and really only need to complete our decksets of Avatar and Surrak to get if off the ground.

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Mono-Green Standard Stompy

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

As it is Tuesday, we remind you that you may want to tune in to Tosh.0 on the Comedy Network - tune into the funny phail vids and tune out to the terribad writing and delivery by Daniel. Anywhoos - let's get onto that piece of Magic the Gathering news on the DCI banned and restricted list updates we first told you about in yesterday's post . . .

The DCI examined the current block format and found that creature-token based strategies were dominating and largely competing with other creature-token based strategies. In particular, Intangible Virtue and Lingering Souls were very prevalent. In the interest of making Innistrad Block Constructed a more diverse and healthy format, the DCI is banning Intangible Virtue and Lingering Souls.

Announcement Date: March 20, 2012
Effective Date: April 2, 2012
Magic Online Effective Date: March 28, 2012

Innistrad Block Constructed - Intangible Virtue is banned, Lingering Souls is banned.

Standard, Extended, Modern, Legacy, Vintage - No changes

As we don't play block constructed, this is us not really caring. For those on MTGO, our heart-felt condolences.
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Next up -

Onto the subject of today's post - hinted at in the post title - Mono-Green Standard Stompy. We had not played a mono-green build since Lorwyn and when we had seen some of the very excellent choices in the last Magic the Gathering spoilers with Dark Ascension, we could not help but start working on a build.

One path we did want to take after Woodland Cemetery was set loose on standard was a build with Glissa, the Traitor, Hex Parasite, Perilous Myr. We also thought of using trying one of the new green fatties with a Deadly Allure on it or even unusual mana-ramp tech with an Undying Evil on Viridian Emissary to help churn out a Primeval Titan, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Engulfing Slagwurm or Carnage Wurm. All this went by the wayside however when we went simple mon-green. Righto - here's the decklist at the moment which we are eager to improve upon . . .


4x Young Wolf
4x Prey Upon
2x Noxious Revival
4x Skinshifter
4x Strangleroot Geist
3x Viridian Emissary
4x Dungrove Elder
4x Predator Ooze
3x Beast Within
3x Overrun
3x Vorapede
22 Forests

Sideboard
4x Ranger's Guile
4x Naturalize
3x Lead the Stampede
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Garruk, Primal Hunter
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Take note that this may or may not reflect the actual decklist as we know players at the local store (no names mentioned - Austin!!) may already sideboarded cards in even before we sat down to a match during a Friday Night Magic Event. We are already leaning towards using a full deckset of Corrosive Gale to pawn the token flyers in the local metagame. DROP US A COMMENT below with your suggestions - it is always appreciated.
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Lastly,

Avacyn Restored the final set in Innistrad block is now available for preorder at MTG Mint Card, they are now offering an early bird discount for the Avacyn Restored uncommon & common card sets as low as $34.99. Apparently this is a limited time offer only so you may want to order today and have your AVR cards shipped on 4th May.
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