A lot happened in Magic last week. Field of the Dead got banned. Pioneer gave some much needed hype to MTGO. Brawl gave MTG Arena a real casual format. Oko, Thief of Crowns busted the MCQ. Through it all, I live in a world of my own design, the world of the Color Challenge. This week was all about Mono-Green decks.

I think one could argue that Green has never been better in MTG history. The color has spent most of MTG history at the back of the color wheel, on account of having no card advantage, no removal, and being mostly made up of cards that die to Doom Blade. A few years back the tables started to turn for Green. Cards like Courser of Kruphix and Tireless Tracker solved the card advantage issue. Cards like Voracious Hydra and Wicked Wolf have shown up to solve the removal issue. Despite this, Mono-Green rarely stands alone. Zero decks from MCV registered a solid Green mana base. How would Mono-Green fare riding solo in the Color Challenge?

Deck #1

Mono-Green Stompy | Eldraine Standard | CGB, 10-23-2019

• Creatures (25)
• 2 Barkhide Troll
• 2 Kraul Harpooner
• 2 Lovestruck Beast
• 2 Wildwood Tracker
• 3 Paradise Druid
• 3 Questing Beast
• 3 Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig
• 4 Growth-Chamber Guardian
• 4 Pelt Collector

• Planeswalkers (6)
• 3 Nissa, Who Shakes the World
• 3 Vivien, Arkbow Ranger

• Instants (3)
• 3 Once Upon a Time

• Artifacts (3)
• 3 The Great Henge

• Lands (23)
• 22 Forest
• 1 Castle Garenbrig

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Questing Beast
• 3 Voracious Hydra
• 1 End-Raze Forerunners
• 1 God-Eternal Rhonas
• 2 Kraul Harpooner
• 1 Feasting Troll King
• 2 Lovestruck Beast
• 4 Thrashing Brontodon

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The deck is made for best-of-one, like all my Color Challenge lists. It is only there to be a Vivien, Arkbow Ranger wish board, so if you play best-of-three please make a real sideboard. I hear Veil of Summer is a good card. The deck is strong, assertive, powerful, and thanks to cards like Vivien, Akrbow Ranger it has more play to it than the big-dumb-animal Stompy decks of old.

The numbers on this list are universally funky. I couldn't find a big difference in most cases between the third Barkhide Troll and the third Kraul Harpooner, just as an example, and with Deputy of Detention and Legion's End in the format a little variety can't hurt. Looking back at the list, I get the fourth Once Upon a Time into the deck. The card makes sure you have your best curve-out draws more often, and it is worth the risk of losing some tempo later in the game. I would cut one copy of The Great Henge because it is just an expensive 3/3 Elk anyway.

Deck #2

Mono-Green Ramp | Eldraine Standard | CGB 10-29-2019

• Creatures (25)
• 2 Leafkin Druid
• 3 Biogenic Ooze
• 4 Gilded Goose
• 4 Paradise Druid
• 4 Voracious Hydra
• 4 Wicked Wolf
• 4 Questing Beast

• Planeswalkers (7)
• 3 Vivien, Arkbow Ranger
• 4 Nissa, Who Shakes the World

• Instants (4)
• 4 Once Upon a Time

• Lands (24)
• 22 Forest
• 2 Castle Garenbrig

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Lovestruck Beast
• 1 Thrashing Brontodon
• 1 Nightpack Ambusher
• 1 Nullhide Ferox
• 1 Shifting Ceratops
• 1 Biogenic Ooze
• 1 Cavalier of Thorns
• 1 God-Eternal Rhonas
• 1 Feasting Troll King
• 1 End-Raze Forerunners
• 4 Kraul Harpooner
• 1 Healer of the Glade

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This deck replaced all the Blue cards from Simic Ramp with other great Green cards, and you know what? It was still really, really good. Without Hydroid Krasis we needed another mana payoff for Nissa, Who Shakes the World, and Biogenic Ooze answered the call. A board full of growing Ooze tokens is a quick clock that is really hard to beat.

The deck is built around turn one and two-mana creature, turn three mega-threat. There are zero 3-drops, and the only 1-drop is Gilded Goose. Honestly, having a mana base with 22 basic Forest cards improved the consistency of turn three mega-threat over the Simic builds. Temple of Mystery and Fabled Passage too often kept the Questing Beast, Wicked Wolf, of Nissa, Who Shakes the World in your hand with Simic. I don't believe Mono-Green is better than Simic Ramp in a best-of-three environment where the Blue cards give you excellent sideboard cards, but in best-of-one Mono-Green Ramp can give Simic Ramp a run for the money. That is, if Oko, Thief of Crowns ever gets banned.

Deck #3

Mono-Green Flash | Eldraine Standard | CGB 10-29-2019

• Creatures (27)
• 3 Thrashing Brontodon
• 4 Gilded Goose
• 4 Kraul Harpooner
• 4 Nightpack Ambusher
• 4 Paradise Druid
• 4 Wicked Wolf
• 4 Wildborn Preserver

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Vivien, Champion of the Wilds

• Artifacts (5)
• 2 The Great Henge
• 3 Vivien's Arkbow

• Lands (24)
• 23 Forest
• 1 Castle Garenbrig

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I strive to mix it up and play decks with different themes and cards as I do the Color Challenge. In Green that was a challenge indeed, because certain cards are so insanely powerful while others are just good. Vivien, Champion of the Wilds is a card I wanted to play with, and it lead me down this path. I also wanted to try one deck without Nissa, Who Shakes the World in it. This deck has a good flash game with Wildborn Preserver and Nightpack Ambusher, and since it is not a popular meta deck you get a lot of bonus points from opponents running right into your flashy traps.

I would try a lot of different things with this deck. Once Upon a Time is noticeably absent, and that was a mistake. A Flash deck can get great mileage out of the fact that Once Upon a Time is an instant since you threaten to do other things with your mana during your opponent's turn. Thrashing Brontodon and Kraul Harpooner make up seven flexible slots, and I would try to keep creatures in most of those slots for Vivien, Champion of the Wilds and Vivien's Arkbow to hit. The Great Henge is out of place here. The deck already has good card advantage engines and doesn't need it, and it is rarely castable without tapping out at Sorcery speed. Oh, and of course, it is just an Elk anyway. If I played the deck again, I would add 4 Once Upon a Time and 4 Pelt Collector, cutting 2 The Great Henge, 3 Thrashing Brontodon, 1 Vivien's Arkbow, and 2 Kraul Harpooner. The deck also lacks good sinks for Castle Garenbrig, and you should probably run a Gingerbread Cabin instead to feed your Wicked Wolf. Instant speed Wicked Wolf with some Food in play is nice.

While I am confident I could have played some very mediocre Green decks based on Adventure and Food, I will save those theme decks for Simic and Golgari. Looking back at the decks the card that stood out the most was Once Upon a Time. It seems unfair that any Green deck can make their early turns so much better with five-deep selection for zero mana. When I started the Green Color Challenge, I was dabbling with one, two, and three copies of Once Upon a Time in decks. Now I am confident that we should start with four and be happy to do so. The card is AMAZING in best-of-one, and it makes aggressive mulliganing much safer because you can keep one and zero land hands more often.

Here is how I would rank the decks after playing them for a week:

1. Green Ramp - turn three Nissa, Who Shakes the World is insane.
2. Green Stompy - I believe ramping into the best cards beats playing strong 2-drops and 3-drops.
3. Green Flash - I enjoy a good ambushing more than most, but the deck doesn't have the raw power of the others.

I have enjoyed providing a bonus Historic list, and so far they have janky nonsense. This Historic deck is not a joke. I haven't lost with it yet and the games are over in record time.

Deck #4

Green Stompy | Historic | CGB 10-29-2019

• Creatures (28)
• 2 Gilded Goose
• 2 God-Eternal Rhonas
• 3 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
• 3 Lovestruck Beast
• 3 Questing Beast
• 3 Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig
• 4 Barkhide Troll
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Steel Leaf Champion

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Vivien, Arkbow Ranger

• Instants (4)
• 4 Once Upon a Time

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 The Great Henge

• Lands (23)
• 21 Forest
• 2 Castle Garenbrig

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Loaming Shaman
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Thrashing Brontodon
• 1 Shifting Ceratops
• 1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
• 1 God-Eternal Rhonas
• 1 Vine Mare
• 1 Biogenic Ooze
• 1 Cavalier of Thorns
• 1 Carnage Tyrant
• 1 End-Raze Forerunners
• 1 Pelakka Wurm
• 1 Voracious Hydra
• 1 Healer of the Glade
• 1 Kraul Harpooner

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I went full-on click-bait on the title (I BROKE HISTORIC) as a joke, because I know that without competitive incentives (like Pioneer!) the Historic format is currently being played for fun and nobody is trying to solve it. Still, the deck was smashing face at an alarming rate. Is the deck actually broken? Unlikely, as any pile of Green monsters may fold to a pile of Doom Blade effects. What we can learn here is that Llanowar Elves, Gilded Goose, and Once Upon a Time make it too easy to spend the whole game playing one mana ahead, and any Historic deck needs to be ready to deal with that either by bolting the bird or making up the tempo loss with power. At a minimum, this deck sets the pace for Historic.

Next week I will be coming up with Mono-White decks for the Color Challenge, and I will be adding Brawl to the mix. It remains my goal to show you all the amazing possibilities within every color in MTG Arena, even if the competitive scene has gone full Elk tribal.