So of course I mention my love for Skarrgan Pit-Skulk shortly after a mono-Green list that doesn't include him. And of course, a monoG list from one of the grinders at Japanese Nats emerges with the Pit-Skulk as a 4-of (with Troll Ascetic, natch). Endo Ryota placed 2nd and ground into Nats with this list...
4 Boreal Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Scryb Ranger
4 Silhana Ledgewalker
4 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
4 Troll Ascetic
4 Giant Solifuge
1 Giant Growth
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Moldervine Cloak
2 Stonewood Invocation
2 Pendelhaven
4 Treetop Village
15 Forest
Sideboard
3 Call of the Herd
2 Seal of Primordium
4 Spike Feeder
1 Wall of Roots
3 Pithing Needle
2 Serrated Arrows
So how does this differ? Should I stick with my version or should I net-deck like a master?
Let's start with 4 Boreal Druid over 4 Birds. Druid has a power of 1 but no evasion. Birds makes Green. I think that if I keep all the double green in my deck, Birds is better for me. Endo's deck doesn't have all the double costs, especially on turn 2, and thus can afford to run the slightly more aggressive guy.
4 Scryb Ranger. Wow, I hadn't thought of Scryb Ranger, but wow is she amazing. She fixes mana and flies and provides instant speed blocking. Unfortunately for me, she's a 2-drop, which I was trying to avoid.
4 Silhana Ledgewalker. Ledgewalker + Moldervine Cloak. Beating people down since February 2006.
4 Pit-Skulk. I really think he's amazing. Your mileage may vary. He's especially good with MoOK since you wanna cast that mainphase anyway.
4 Troll Ascetic. I feel as if we have talked about this already. He's almost unkillable. He's 3 power for 3 mana. He's amazing.
4 Giant Solifuge. Anti-Wrath tech. Thank you sir, may I have another?
7 pump spells plus 4 Moldervine Cloak. I know it seems crazy, but this is where I disagree most strongly with the Japanese list. All pump spells except Stonewood Invocation are asking to get 2 for 1-ed. Without anyway to generate card advantage, this seems really dangerous to me.
The land base is good. Notice how he still doesn't go down to 20 land, presumably because he would like to activate Monkeytown every once in a while. I like the idea of Pendelhaven. Randomly screwing with pyroclasm or seal of fire seems good right now.
The thing to keep in mind when comparing this list to mine is our different plans. This is a true aggro plan, attempting to deal 20 in the first 5 turns. The only real long game plan is Ascetic plus pump. The only anti Wrath plan is Giant Solifuge. They are good plans, but they depend heavily on having certain cards in hand at certain times. My deck is much more midrange. The 3 drops are much less aggressive, but the 4 drops are much bigger threats, I think. Frankly, Timbermare is pretty hot post Wrath as well, and the Trample on the Wildebeests makes a big difference when compared to OpponentShroud® on the Ascetic. I just feel like my build is more resilient to bad draws, while maintaining the capability of explosive draws. On the other hand, I am not in Japan's National Championships and Endo Ryota is. CBG out.
Edit-2 minutes after I first posted this. Of course, Treetop Village makes a pretty good anti Wrath plan as well. I don't mean to suggest it's a bad list. It's just not what I would play. Then again, CBG is a bad player.
1 comment:
Your post today makes me understand why I was not "getting" your earlier midrange green builds. I assumed that you wanted to be super aggro (getting fourteened to the face that one game may have skewed my view). I really like the idea of this Japanese list, and see what you mean when you say you want more resilience. The more agressive deck seems like it will either lose or win, no comebacks. Also, wouldn't wildebeasts be good in the deck with lots of one and two drops? Talk about anti-wrath tech! But the biggest concern about running an MGA list like this (to my mind) is the absence of tarmogoyf. Yeah this build is not well equiped to abuse him. That's the problem. Can a base green aggro deck NOT play goyf and be better at it than a dedicated goyf deck? Routinely getting to 4/5 is so big. Can this deck do aggro better than that? If not, why even bother? At least with Sligh or Suicide Black you get the good removal without splashing a color. I'm not saying that either of those builds beats a dedicated goyf aggro deck either, but at least they might be the right metagame call depending on what's around (say, alot of goyf decks that die to targeted removal, for example). Meanwhile I'm not sure if I see a real reason not to play the G/R Greater Goyf deck rather than MGA. Maybe fewer mana issues. That would be about it. Maybe I'm wrong, I still have to see both the decks in action.
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