Mono G Ramp

**Zupponn** · 06-02-2012 02:16 AM

Was messing around with Gaea's Touch and wanted to make a deck around it. This is what I came up with:

Original Deck Idea:

4x Dungrove Elder
4x Scute Mob
4x Veteran Explorer
4x Vinelasher Kudzu
3x Dauntless Dourbark
2x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Primeval Titan
1x Wood Elves

4x Exploration
4x Gaea's Touch
4x Green Sun's Zenith

25x Forest

Basically the plan is to play a lot of forests and then beat face. The list can be pretty brutal versus a deck with small weenies like Threshold, but notably lacks any way of interacting with your opponent outside of attacking. It's a fun list to play with though, so it may be worth a look.

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Most Current Deck:

Mainboard:
4x Dungrove Elder
4x Sakura-Tribe Elder
4x Scute Mob
4x Veteran Explorer
3x Sylvan Safekeeper
3x Vinelasher Kudzu
2x Champion of Lambholt
1x Scryb Ranger
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Oracle of Mul Daya

4x Green Sun's Zenith
3x Beast Within
3x Umezawa's Jitte

13x Forest
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Misty Rainforest
2x Dryad Arbor

Sideboard:
4x Ensnaring Bridge
4x Thorn of Amethyst
4x Storm Front
3x Relic of Progenitus

I have found that Dungrove Elder is amazing in Legacy, being both bigger than almost anything your opponent will have and almost impossible to remove from the board without heavy investment from your opponent. The Scute Mobs do a great job at being an annoying threat and the Vinelasher Kudzus manage to be scary enough most of the time also. I am very surprised at the speed and power this deck has. It beats out many popular creature strategies out there with ease most of the time, but has difficulty with combo, especially Sneak Show. Thus, Ensnaring Bridge was thought up as a viable way to keep Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and Griselbrand from ruining your day. The deck has also recently gained a Mother of Runes-esque ability in Sylvan Safekeeper, a better ramp card in Sakura-Tribe Elder, and a way to deliver the final punch in Champion of Lambholt. These cards have all been really good so far and I have to thank Freggle for the suggestions. Scryb Ranger, another solid suggestion by Freggle, has also been added to the decklist. It makes for a very good Green Sun's Zenith target as it preforms the task that Wood Elves was for in the original deck, growing Vinelasher Kudzu, as well as providing the deck with another source of combat tricks, which green can have trouble finding at times.

It is very interesting to see the deck develop as it moves from a gimmicky deck idea to an actual decent Legacy deck and I would like to thank everyone for all of their suggestions and comments. I really appreciate the interest this deck has received and look forward to its development in the future.

**MirrorMask** · 06-02-2012 10:30 AM

If you need some creature killing and disruption you can always add some bayou and fetches as there is no need to keep the deck mono colored. In my opinion this decks may be good against creature decks but really stands no chance against combo and maybe control. True, your critters hit hard but if you have absolutely no way to interact with the opponent or at least hold him back and disrupt him you are gonna lose. Also, apart from primeval, you don't have evasion or trample and your opponents can just block you. What are you gonna do against a resolved bitterblossom? I've never played a deck like this so i can't be 100% sure but this is the feeling I have. I do like your deck idea though.

P.s My 100 post!!! LETS CELEBRATE!!

**cartoonist** · 06-02-2012 02:19 PM

I built a similar deck - what you have won't work unless you stall or block your opponents' strategies. [card]Cursed Totem[/card] will wreck many creature based decks. I also ramped with [card]Magus of the Vineyard[/card]. You can run more Primevals, and some other larger beats. There's a lot of wiggle room. [card]Beast Within[/card] will give you some elimination.

**gkraigher** · 06-02-2012 06:45 PM

find some room for rancor.

**Zupponn** · 06-03-2012 12:22 AM

Originally Posted by MirrorMask

If you need some creature killing and disruption you can always add some bayou and fetches as there is no need to keep the deck mono colored. In my opinion this decks may be good against creature decks but really stands no chance against combo and maybe control. True, your critters hit hard but if you have absolutely no way to interact with the opponent or at least hold him back and disrupt him you are gonna lose. Also, apart from primeval, you don't have evasion or trample and your opponents can just block you. What are you gonna do against a resolved bitterblossom? I've never played a deck like this so i can't be 100% sure but this is the feeling I have. I do like your deck idea though.

Thanks. I'm glad you like the list. Dauntless Dourbark also has trample sometimes when the conditions are met to try and break through, but other than those 4 cards, there really is nothing. I guess the plan is to just keep swinging until they run out of blockers.

I'll have to look into giving the deck some more ways to deal damage more efficiently.

Beast Within is an idea for removal, and in this deck a mere 3/3 is almost always just a chump blocker. Thrun, the Last Troll could be a way to break through counterspells and removal while Trinisphere and/or Thorn of Amethyst would be good vs things like dredge or storm. I have a feeling that there are a lot of green and artifact cards in the higher mana cost ranges that have been fairly unexplored in legacy and maybe a few of those could be hidden gems for this deck. Thresher Beast anyone?

**264505** · 06-03-2012 12:37 AM

Horn of Greed seems bonkers in this deck. Also Elvish Pioneer could be a way to ramp from the 1 drop slot.

**Bruticus** · 06-03-2012 12:44 AM

I built a ramp/landfall version of this deck a while back;

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...-Land-Assault&

I've been working on it here and there with newer cards like GSZ and Primeval Titan, but I'm fairly certain the ramp engine simply takes up too many slots to allow for serious disruption against the majority of the meta. :/

All the other engines I've tried were either too slow, weak or inconsistent. I DO think there's a tier 2 deck buried in there somewhere, GSZ + Dungrove Elder + Phyrexian Metamorph has got to be a serious headache for control. Lotus Cobra's might be good, I need to get around to testing... GSZ also saves slots by doubling as ramp with Primeval Titan and Wood Elves.

Elves has numberious competitive ramp options, it would be nice if Wizards threw Treefolk, Shaman or whatever a bone or two.

**Zupponn** · 06-03-2012 01:29 AM

Originally Posted by 264505

Horn of Greed seems bonkers in this deck. Also Elvish Pioneer could be a way to ramp from the 1 drop slot.

Oooo... Horn of Greed does seem pretty sweet. Elvish Pioneer might be better than Exploration at the 1-drop slot. Only testing will tell.

New Frontiers is also something I need to playtest too. Could give the deck some more late game consistency and power if needed.

@Bruticus: I think that cards like Lotus Cobra and Magus of the Vineyard don't fit too well into the deck because they are not increasing your land count, which is what this deck is all about. Lotus Cobra does have a nice landfall ability, but unless you're land-screwed (which means you're more dead than usual with this deck) I'm not sure how much that extra mana can really help you.

EDIT: Also, Umezawa's Jitte could be a good addition. It fits in almost any deck.

**Bruticus** · 06-03-2012 02:19 AM

I was referring to the problems I've found with this archetype in general, not to your deck specifically, there are other ramp engines like Arbor Elf + Utopia Sprawl + Scryb Ranger.

Dryad Arbor should be your 61st card. It's basically a free slot. Maindecking a playset of Phyrexian Metamorph can turn Thorn of Amethyst into major disruption provided you stick a thorn first. Collective Voyage is probably a better call than New Frontiers.

As far as my build's concerned, chaining Harrows and Collective Voyage off Vineyards/Cobras into Green Sun Zenithed Titans and Dungroves sounds good in theory but I'm not sure how practical it is.

**Zupponn** · 06-03-2012 08:22 PM

After a little more testing, I have been able to come up with this list:

4x Dungrove Elder
4x Veteran Explorer
4x Elvish Pioneer
4x Vinelasher Kudzu
4x Scute Mob
1x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Primeval Titan
1x Wood Elves

4x Green Sun's Zenith
3x Umezawa's Jitte
3x Gaea's Touch
2x Collective Voyage

23x Forest
2x Dryad Arbor

The Dryad Arbor suggestion was a really good one and increases the power of the deck by a lot. Umezawa's Jitte turned out to be a fantastic card in the deck, as there is generally enough mana to both attack with it and then give it to another creature to block with without losing any tempo. Elvish Pioneer is preforming much better than Exploration did, especially with the Jitttes. Collective Voyage is never bad, but I rarely have situations where I want to see it. There are a few less threats in this version of the deck, but with a Jitte everything becomes a threat, so it sort of balances itself out. Gaea's Touch might be the worst card in the deck now, but I'm hesitant to take it out because of how explosive it can be at times. If you see any changes that I missed or have any other suggestions, feel free to let me know.

EDIT: Almost forgot that Horn of Greed turned out to be less awesome for me than for my opponents. Sure, you get lots of stuff, but they usually do also with all those fetchlands running about.

**Freggle** · 06-03-2012 09:33 PM

I love toying with decks like this. Although I haven't tested your list specifically I can see it going into top deck mode pretty quickly. ...and your richness of draw is lacking.

ex. top decking a Gaea's Touch mid-game.

I'd look at cards that can give you cards advantage or Virtual Card Advantage.

Heartwood Storyteller looks kinda sick in here I'd see if that works out for you.

Also Thelonite Druid looks like a solid finisher in here.

**Zupponn** · 06-04-2012 04:52 PM