[Deck] Mono Green Chalice Aggro

[Kayradis]

So I've read all of you talking about GSZ targets and using NO as an out for big dorks that wins the game...
Being myself a Mono-Green player (well....more :bg: lately since Im playing Combo Elves) I really think that the Strangleroot Geist/NO/Craterhoof) suite should be more used in this list.
NO, sac Geist, Undying Trigger, Hoof entering the battlefied (+2/+2 at least in the worst case scenario) would make 12 damage if you connect. Assuming that you pushed early in the game and went full blown aggro earlier that should be the killing blow...


I might try to build something in those guidelines in the upcoming hours since work is pretty slow right now and that im quite excited to play a Mono-Green list other than elves!

[Zupponn]

So, there's a SCG Open in Milwaukee this weekend and I'm planning on running this:

4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Chrome Mox
4x Trinisphere
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Beast Within
4x Thragtusk
3x Lodestone Golem
3x Spawnwrithe
2x Master of the Wild Hunt
2x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Batterskull
1x Eternal Witness
1x Bellowing Tanglewurm
2x Dryad Arbor
4x City of Traitors
4x Ancient Tomb
8x Forest

SIDEBOARD:
3x Stingerfling Spider
3x Ratchet Bomb
2x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Choke
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Dosan the Falling Leaf
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Harmonic Sliver

I've cut Phantom Centaur for Thrun and the Master, which tend to be far more useful then just the pro-black beater. I've also added in a single Batterskull because it seems too good not to have. Other than that, the deck remains virtually the same from my previous list. I'll try and have a tourney report for you guys sometime after Sunday.

[Zupponn]

Report time! It isn't a very good report because I 0-3 dropped, but still useful nonetheless. The list I ran was pretty much the same as the one I posted before with the exception of swapping one Master of the Wild Hunt for a Garruk Wildspeaker. I only saw him once, and he was countered right away. :/


Round 1 - Dan with UW Miracles

-Game 1: I believe that I was on the draw and Turn 1 Trinisphere gets the Force, but turn 2 Chalice at 1 sticks with a Brainstorm response. I manage to get a Thragtusk into play along with a Spawnwrithe. He Miracles Terminus, leaving me with only the Beast token. I had the choice of playing a Chalice at 2, but stupidly went with the second Thragtusk. My opponent then played a Stoneforge Mystic next turn fetching Batterskull and then Terminused again. He then proceeded to kill me with said Batterskull.
-Game 2: On the play, I went for the Turn 1 Trinisphere, which landed. I then managed to get a Batterskull onto the board and proceeded to start the beats. He eventually Terminused the Germ toekn away and countered my recasting of it. I ran out of steam and he killed me with a combination of Jace TMS and Vendilion Clique.

Round 2 - Scott with BGR Nic Fit

-Game 1: I started out with a Turn 1 Spawnwrithe and started making copies. He Burning Wished for Maelstrom Pulse and killed them all. I filled the board again with Master of the Wild Hunt and another Spawnwrithe, which ate a Pernicious Deed. He gets a Scavenging Ooze out and I follow up with my own, exiling enough creatures to make sure that mine will be bigger. This forces him to Deed again. He then gets a pair of Thragtusks out and I proceed to die from them.
-Game 2: This was an epic game that included multiple Thragtusks from both my opponent and me, a Batterskull from me, me casting Thrun to kill his Thrun, 3 Deeds going off, a full 4 Veteran Explorers going to his graveyard from blocking and eventually him Burning Wishing for Scapeshift to kill me from 40 life. :(

Round 3 - Ben with UW Walker Control

-Game 1: This game was rough, as I had to battle through 3 Elspeth, Knight-Errants and 3 Jace Belerens plus a bunch of other nasty stuff that I can't really remember. My early Thragtusk was Swordsed and the Beast token hit twice, bringing him down to 14, but after that he was safe behind his soldier tokens and Snapcasters. Eventually he ultimated the 3rd Elspeth and it was game over. Something of note was that this was the only game I saw Garruk in. He got Spell Pierced. :(
-Game 2: I kept a bad hand that had my only land Wasted and I could not draw any mana. My opponent dropped an early Snapcaster followed up by an Elspeth and proceeded to kill me before I could come up with any action.

So, not a good day for me as I didn't play against the decks that I thought were really good matchups, but I never really felt completely out of any of the games, save for that last one. I can say that I at least had a fun time and am not completely disappointed with my play, as I only think I made a couple misplays. It definitely was a good learning experience and a good test for the deck, and I'm happy that I took it to the event. Maybe I'll manage to get some better luck next time. :)

[Moroklumpen]

After my first tournament with the deck ended badly (lack of experience and some rather poor draws) I retooled it a bit and lent it to a friend for a small, local tournament. He proceeded to beat Storm and Nic Fit before drawing with merfolk into the top 4, beating me (I was playing dredge) in the semis and losing the finals to the merfolk guy. Not a bad result all things considered. I forgot to write down the list (the reason I lent it to him was that I didn't have time to finalize the last couple of slots in the main and side, so I let him do it), but it contained NO/Prog, MD Ooze, Garruk Relentless and Lodestone Golem. It did not contain any moxen or City of Traitors.

I intend to play the deck again, and next time I'll try to bring you a proper list and report. Testing has been promising.

Sweetest moment in testing? On the play against Affinity: Ancient Tomb, Chalice for zero, Chalice for one. Opponent scoops.

[Blastoderm]

I've been trying my best to make the deck work with garruk and NO/prog like it used to (untap sol lands! gsz for terastodon!!) but it seems to be failing miserably. Spell pierce/fow/counterspell/snapcaster completely annihilates this deck as it is right now. Here are my main points and things to consider:

- The creature threats it drops right now are subpar (compared to dragon stompy, i play that as well).
- It doesn't have blood moon either so we have to think....what advantages can we get out of playing green? The most obvious choice is Thrun, the Last Troll.
- Natural Order should be cut. Elves is a stronger more consistent natural order deck.
- The creatures have trouble vs Goyfs. Dragon stompy plays flying or 5/5s and has less trouble vs Goyf.
- Lack of a good 3 drop to green sun's zenith for (preferably in multiples!)
- Only plays 8 lock pieces (dragon stompy plays 16). The deck suffers with no stax piece in hand and becomes a bad green midrange deck.



Thing is, I've been looking at this all wrong. The quick big creatures green plays are surprisingly not as brutal as the red ones (specifically the 4-drops). One day I decided: fuck it. I'll play green ramp. It surprisingly worked very well. Playing Call of the Herd or Spawnwrithe is terrible (much to my dismay as I love these cards) in this meta. I kepted the sol lands and chrome mox, but removed ESG as it is purely a tempo card. I added sakura tribe elder and kodama's reach. Being a tad slower made the deck so much better. The all stars here are Dungrove Elder (I actually enjoyed drawing kodama's reach late game lol) and Thrun. I don't have a precise list yet but it will surely include 3 Thrun and 4 Dungrove elder. I was also playing Wurmcoil Engine and Deranged hermit. Bigger and meaner creatures at the sacrifice of being slower was definitely worth it and improved the deck immensely. Oh and the sol lands didn't really bother Dungrove at all. Now that I think of it, Thragtusk would be pretty good in this.

An example list:

8 sol lands
1 dryad arbor
13 forest

4 Dungrove Elder
3 Thrun the last Troll
3 Deranged Hermit
3 Thragtusk
4 Sakura Tribe elder
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
3 Chrome mox

4 Kodama's Reach
4 Green Sun's Zenith


sb:
3 krosan grip
4 thorn of amethyst
1 scavenging ooze
3 Choke
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 snakeform

[MightyPenguin007]

I've been trying my best to make the deck work with garruk and NO/prog like it used to (untap sol lands! gsz for terastodon!!) but it seems to be failing miserably. Spell pierce/fow/counterspell/snapcaster completely annihilates this deck as it is right now. Here are my main points and things to consider:

- The creature threats it drops right now are subpar (compared to dragon stompy, i play that as well).
- It doesn't have blood moon either so we have to think....what advantages can we get out of playing green? The most obvious choice is Thrun, the Last Troll.
- Natural Order should be cut. Elves is a stronger more consistent natural order deck.
- The creatures have trouble vs Goyfs. Dragon stompy plays flying or 5/5s and has less trouble vs Goyf.
- Lack of a good 3 drop to green sun's zenith for (preferably in multiples!)
- Only plays 8 lock pieces (dragon stompy plays 16). The deck suffers with no stax piece in hand and becomes a bad green midrange deck.



Thing is, I've been looking at this all wrong. The quick big creatures green plays are surprisingly not as brutal as the red ones (specifically the 4-drops). One day I decided: fuck it. I'll play green ramp. It surprisingly worked very well. Playing Call of the Herd or Spawnwrithe is terrible (much to my dismay as I love these cards) in this meta. I kepted the sol lands and chrome mox, but removed ESG as it is purely a tempo card. I added sakura tribe elder and kodama's reach. Being a tad slower made the deck so much better. The all stars here are Dungrove Elder (I actually enjoyed drawing kodama's reach late game lol) and Thrun. I don't have a precise list yet but it will surely include 3 Thrun and 4 Dungrove elder. I was also playing Wurmcoil Engine and Deranged hermit. Bigger and meaner creatures at the sacrifice of being slower was definitely worth it and improved the deck immensely. Oh and the sol lands didn't really bother Dungrove at all. Now that I think of it, Thragtusk would be pretty good in this.

An example list:

8 sol lands
1 dryad arbor
13 forest

4 Dungrove Elder
3 Thrun the last Troll
3 Deranged Hermit
3 Thragtusk
4 Sakura Tribe elder
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
3 Chrome mox

4 Kodama's Reach
4 Green Sun's Zenith


sb:
3 krosan grip
4 thorn of amethyst
1 scavenging ooze
3 Choke
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 snakeform

Nice list, I like it. This looks like a ton of fun to play, win or lose. Regarding the 3-drops, what about things like Troll Ascetic, Great Sable Stag, Eternal Witness, Viridian Corrupter, Witchstalker, or even Tangle Wire? They seem like decent additions at least. Most of these things have either specific or general uses that are good against a lot of strategies - except Storm, that seems almost impossible. While we're on that topic, how does Trinisphere interact with the Storm mechanic? As I understand it, Storm puts copies on the stack, so I would think they are unaffected by the 3sphere. Am I wrong here?

Also, thanks for any feedback.

[PendelSteven]

Nice list, I like it. This looks like a ton of fun to play, win or lose. Regarding the 3-drops, what about things like Troll Ascetic, Great Sable Stag, Eternal Witness, Viridian Corrupter, Witchstalker, or even Tangle Wire? They seem like decent additions at least. Most of these things have either specific or general uses that are good against a lot of strategies - except Storm, that seems almost impossible. While we're on that topic, how does Trinisphere interact with the Storm mechanic? As I understand it, Storm puts copies on the stack, so I would think they are unaffected by the 3sphere. Am I wrong here?

Also, thanks for any feedback.

Wirewood Savage combines with every beast in the deck for cardavantage.

[DreAmiN]

My advice is to run NO. Don't forget that Progenitus is really hard to deal with and you can sac a dryad for it. It's basically a must-counter with his 2 turn clock.

[MightyPenguin007]

Natural Order may be just the trick if you want the quickest win possible. It's been pointed out that this presents a must-counter or lose type scenario for your opponent. It's very difficult to answer, so a very good win condition.

Moving along, would it be too cute to find room for Scouting Trek and Clear the Land in this type of deck? That could boost Dungrove Elder quite a bit, but there may not be room. A lot of the lists aren't packing Wasteland, so boosting the opponent isn't really a huge concern for those lists apparently.

[MightyPenguin007]

Okay, first the list, then I'll get to some specifics and concerns:


4 Trinisphere
4 Chalice of the Void

1 Batterskull

4 Green Sun's Zenith

4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Dungrove Elder
3 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Scryb Ranger
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
1 Acidic Slime
1 Eternal Witness
4 Skyshroud Elite or Talara's Battalion

2 Phyrexian Revoker

2 Sylvan Library

3 Garruk Wildspeaker

3 Wasteland
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Ancient Tomb
12 Forest


The sideboard is incomplete as I'm still reviewing a lot of the combo decks in the current SCG meta. It's been leaning that way for some time now, and I feel like that the Invitational in Indianapolis will reflect that too.

The main deck is not 100% settled, this is merely my current list. I don't own Natural Order or Progenitus, so that is why they are not included. I considered using Viridian Emissary or Veteran Explorer to ramp some more, but I wasn't totally thrilled with depending on my opponent to attack into them in order for them to be reliable or potentially ramping my opponent up with the Explorer either. I couldn't find room for a Sword of Feast and Famine either. I wasn't sure what to cut. The Acidic Slime may not be good enough to get there. This may need to be Viridian Corrupter instead, and then I would have to rely on Krosan Grip out of the sideboard.

A proposed Sideboard may look like so:


1 Pithing Needle
3 Choke
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Krosan Grip
2 Ravenous Trap
3 Seedtime
1 Viridian Corrupter
2 Summoning Trap


There are also other things that might potentially show some promise such as:

Hall of Gemstone
Tormod's Crypt
Carpet of Flowers
Guttural Response
Bind
Ground Seal
Sword of Feast and Famine
Bramblecrush
Hidden Gibbons
Mindbreak Trap


All in all, it's still up in the air.

Feedback is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[eetu]

Hey guys ive been tinkering with options for this archetype .. so far i have come up with this...

// Lands
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
3 [EX] City of Traitors
1 [FUT] Dryad Arbor
8 [R] Forest (3)
2 [TE] Wasteland

// Creatures
1 [SOM] Bellowing Tanglewurm
1 [UL] Deranged Hermit
4 [AL] Elvish Spirit Guide
2 [FD] Eternal Witness
1 [M11] Fauna Shaman
1 [M11] Primeval Titan
1 [CFX] Progenitus
1 [EX] Spike Weaver
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
1 [M13] Thragtusk
1 [MBS] Thrun, the Last Troll

// Spells
4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
3 [LRW] Garruk Wildspeaker
4 [MBS] Green Sun's Zenith
3 [VI] Natural Order
2 [4E] Sylvan Library
4 [DS] Trinisphere


So far its ok.. but i believe that there is a better approach.. i must say tangle wire could very well be better here than trinisphere.

Ill be posting a primer on the other approach and tell you about it here guys.. sorry i dont mean to sound pretentious or anything..

Anyways..

[Asthereal]

I really like the idea of adding Tangle Wire. I was already thinking about creating a Stompy list with 4x Chalice, 4x Trini, 4x Tangle Wire and 4x Lodestone Golem, and the green Stompy could be the correct format. The extra colourless playset does sort of mess up the green count for Chrome Mox though, which might mean we will have to switch to Mox Diamond, which is obviously worse.

Let's have a look:

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
9 Forest /17

4 Mox Diamond
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
4 Tangle Wire
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Green Sun's Zenith /23

1 Dryad Arbor
1 Talara's Battalion
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
3 Spawnwrithe
3 Blastoderm
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Lodestone Golem /20

Could this work? Lots of tempo tricks, fast mana and lock pieces, but it does look a tad incoherent. Or maybe that's just me. :tongue:

[Admiral_Arzar]

I really like the idea of adding Tangle Wire. I was already thinking about creating a Stompy list with 4x Chalice, 4x Trini, 4x Tangle Wire and 4x Lodestone Golem, and the green Stompy could be the correct format. The extra colourless playset does sort of mess up the green count for Chrome Mox though, which might mean we will have to switch to Mox Diamond, which is obviously worse.

Could this work? Lots of tempo tricks, fast mana and lock pieces, but it does look a tad incoherent. Or maybe that's just me. :tongue:

I think the whole reason to play this deck is Natural Order. If you want to play Lodestone Golem and not Natural Order, MUD is probably a much better choice.

[Asthereal]

I think the whole reason to play this deck is Natural Order. If you want to play Lodestone Golem and not Natural Order, MUD is probably a much better choice.
Is it? I doubt that.
Natural Order seems a lot better in a deck that can protect it like a boss.
I would suggest NO RUG or one of its splash brothers.

But we could also add Natural Order to my list.
-6 Forest, +6 fetch (to get the Arbor if we are creature-light)
-4 Lodestone, -1 Blastoderm, +4 Natural Order, +1 Progenitus.
And you're done. Like that better?

[Blastoderm]

Nice list, I like it. This looks like a ton of fun to play, win or lose. Regarding the 3-drops, what about things like Troll Ascetic, Great Sable Stag, Eternal Witness, Viridian Corrupter, Witchstalker, or even Tangle Wire? They seem like decent additions at least. Most of these things have either specific or general uses that are good against a lot of strategies - except Storm, that seems almost impossible. While we're on that topic, how does Trinisphere interact with the Storm mechanic? As I understand it, Storm puts copies on the stack, so I would think they are unaffected by the 3sphere. Am I wrong here?

Also, thanks for any feedback.

Sorry for the late reply. I'm also happy that a few people are taking an interest in this deck again. Trinisphere destroys storm. Every spell they cast to work up to storm has to cast at least 3 mana. Brainstorm, ponder, every ritual...it's impossible for them to go off with trinisphere in play. They have to kill it first. Chalice/trini decks have really good storm matchups. Out of the cards you mentioned I think Troll Ascetic and Tangle Wire have the most potential. But I think the troll needs equipment to be really good.


I kind of agree with what people have posted so far: Natural Order is kind of necessary. Batterskull on turn 3 is a pain in the ass and progenitus is a good response to it. I've also been testing 4 Skyshroud Poacher with 3 Deranged Hermit. It's pretty awesome!

Here's my most recent list:

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
1 Dryad Arbor
11 Forest

4 Trinisphere
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Chrome Mox
4 Natural Order
4 Green Sun's Zenith

4 Spawnwrithe
4 ESG
3 Thrun the Last Troll
4 Skyshroud Poacher
3 Deranged Hermit
1 Progenitus
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Thragtusk

[eetu]

I really believe that Trinisphere should be on the SB.. chalice+wire on main look amazing..

[Asthereal]

4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
1 Dryad Arbor
11 Forest

4 Trinisphere
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Chrome Mox
4 Natural Order
4 Green Sun's Zenith

4 Spawnwrithe
4 ESG
3 Thrun the Last Troll
4 Skyshroud Poacher
3 Deranged Hermit
1 Progenitus
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Thragtusk

That seems like a lot of mana. 3x Mox, 4x ESG, 4x Zenith for Arbor, 8x Sol land and 11 Forest. That adds up to like 31 cards that can get us mana. Don't you get flooded all the time?

Another remark: Spawnwrithe is a pure tempo card. It's only dangerous very early in the game. Many other cards in the list are the complete opposite (Poacher, Hermit), aiming for a slower game where you get to swarm the board with guys after turn 4 or so. These things don't seem to complement eachother very well. I would rather swap the Writhes in this case and go for Call of the Herd or planeswalkers. Call adds to the attrition game (bad against Deathrite though), and so do Garruk Wildspeaker or Relentless.

Lastly: I miss low CMC Zenith targets. I really like Talara's Battalion here, and a Goyf is also fine usually. Scavenging Ooze is more of a meta thing, but it sure is nice to have stuff against Dredge and Reanimator, in case they manage to fight through the disruption artifacts.


I really believe that Trinisphere should be on the SB.. chalice+wire on main look amazing..

Seriously, Trinisphere together with Tangle Wire is WAY more dangerous. They really get nothing cast anymore for like three turns or so. This deck is sort of built around Trinisphere. I would never move it to the sideboard. Against which decks would you side them out anyway? When Trini is on the board, it stops Force of Will and Daze, slows down agressive decks, locks out combo and I know not what. Maybe on the draw against Jund Trini might be weak, but that's about it.

[paeng4983]

More lands and land effect, the higher the chances setting up his defenses or getting his offensive weapons online.

I see that you are trying to use the 1/1 Squirrel tokens as another way to win. Why not include that big hoof beast in your list. poacher into hermit. poacher again into hermit. N.O. into hoof, then win.

Does anyone used this in a legacy tournament? How did it do? Thanks

[eetu]

Seriously, Trinisphere together with Tangle Wire is WAY more dangerous. They really get nothing cast anymore for like three turns or so. This deck is sort of built around Trinisphere. I would never move it to the sideboard. Against which decks would you side them out anyway? When Trini is on the board, it stops Force of Will and Daze, slows down agressive decks, locks out combo and I know not what. Maybe on the draw against Jund Trini might be weak, but that's about it.


Trini is great dont get me wrong but its hardly a lock against the current meta.. everybody packs deathrite shaman and abrupt decay, so its not that reliable.. tangle gives you 2 to 3 turns almost all the time no matter if trini is out or not, specially if you run rishadan port. On the other hand trini is the best card against combo and free counters because it is not as narrow as stuff like city of solitude or rule of law.. so i put them on the sb.. so far it looks good and they dont clog my hand in matches that seems irrelevant. cause really against a resolved deathrite, vial, hierarch or anything with abrupt decay you dont really want it, nor need it.. thats my conclusion for now.

[Blastoderm]

A similar deck to what we're brewing was a dech tech last weekend!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZQj-OEPX-8

[Asthereal]

Has anyone tried Chancellor of the Tangle in this deck?
It seems like a fine replacement for Elvish Spirit Guide, which I have found lacking.

The idea:
- It works better with Chrome Mox, because you get the mana, and then still get to imprint it.
- Garruk Wildspeaker untapping Forest + Sol land makes us able to actually cast the guy.
- Late game the Chancellor is also kind of castable on its own, needing two Sol lands and three green sources.

Possible list from the top of my head:

1 Dryad Arbor
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Talara's Battalion
1 Reclamation Sage.
4 Chancellor of the Tangle
4 Spawnwrithe
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Progenitus /15

4 Chrome Mox
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Trinisphere
3 Tangle Wire
4 Green Sun's Zenith.
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Natural Order /27

3 Forest
1 Taiga
3 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors /18

Side:
3 Choke
3 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Sylvan Library
3 Obstinate Baloth
1 Daybreak Ranger
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
2 Tormod's Crypt /15