As the dust settles over the Explorer format, we’re left with a few decks standing tall at the top of the metagame. Rakdos Midrange, Mono Red Aggro, Azorius Control, Esper Greasefang and Fight Rigging variants all command a fairly equal share of the meta at the moment. But say you don’t want to play one of these decks. You want to come out, gun’s blazing and stomp the competition and feel powerful doing it. Well, we have the deck for you!
Stompy!
The deck we’re going to look at today is Mono Green Stompy, brought to us by Dafore. This deck goes hard and goes fast, and has the tools to keep up with the metagame.
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The deck is a bit more aggressively slanted, not having any main deck creatures above 4 mana value, but the ones we do play are incredible value. Let’s talk through each of the mana value segments of the deck and what they’re good for.
Turn 1
Our turn 1 is pretty straight forward. We definitely want to land a
Llanowar Elves
Llanowar Elves
{T}: Add {G}.
or a
Pelt Collector
Pelt Collector
Whenever another creature you control enters or dies, if that creature's power is greater than this creature's, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
As long as this creature has three or more +1/+1 counters on it, it has trample.
to kick the party off. Llanowar lets us ramp up a turn and out pace our opponent’s turn 2. Our 3 drop slot is really where our beef is so getting there ahead of schedule is really nice.
Pelt Collector gives us a growing threat on the board as we execute our game plan of playing creatures. Assumedly, anything that gets removed from the board is going to be a much bigger prize than this so it can grow from that as well.
Turn 2
Turn 2 is a very important turn for this deck depending on what we’re facing and if we are going first or not. If we’re facing something like Greasefang, we definitely need to get down
Scavenging Ooze
Scavenging Ooze
{G}: Exile target card from a graveyard. If it was a creature card, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature and you gain 1 life.
. This allows us to keep up a fair bit of mana to be able to deal with vehicles in the graveyard.
Resilient Khenra
Resilient Khenra
When this creature enters, you may have target creature get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is this creature's power.
Eternalize {4}{G}{G} ({4}{G}{G}, Exile this card from your graveyard: Create a token that's a copy of it, except it's a 4/4 black Zombie Jackal Wizard with no mana cost. Eternalize only as a sorcery.)
may not seem flashy, and is probably better suited to be played later in the game. But it’s a good way to pressure our opponent’s life total in certain match ups like control. It also has the benefit of Eternalize, gaining value later in the game as well.
Werewolf Packleader
Werewolf Packleader
Pack tactics — Whenever this creature attacks, if you attacked with creatures with total power 6 or greater this combat, draw a card.
{3}{G}: Until end of turn, this creature has base power and toughness 5/3, gains trample, and isn't a Human.
is our average turn 2 play, being a solid body, and a good source of card advantage. It’s also a good way to try and force damage through with it’s activated ability.
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3 Drops
For turn 3, we have a swath of powerful creatures to land, and they have the ability to take over the game.
Kazandu Mammoth
Kazandu Mammoth
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, this creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
is our most uninteresting play, but it regularly serves as a 5/5 during combat. It also doubles up as a land which can be helpful. Both
Steel Leaf Champion
Steel Leaf Champion
This creature can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
and
Old-Growth Troll
Old-Growth Troll
Trample
When Old-Growth Troll dies, if it was a creature, return it to the battlefield. It's an Aura enchantment with enchant Forest you control and "Enchanted Forest has '{T}: Add {G}{G}' and '{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this land: Create a tapped 4/4 green Troll Warrior creature token with trample.'"
are the kinds of creatures that end up running away with the game. They apply a ton of pressure, and have various benefits.
Everything Else
We’ve covered most of the cards in the main, but there’s a couple extras that didn’t really fit into the previous categories.
Primal Might
Primal Might
Target creature you control gets +X/+X until end of turn. Then it fights up to one target creature you don't control. (Each deals damage equal to its power to the other.)
is a great fight spell pretty much at any point in the game.
Rhonas the Indomitable
Rhonas the Indomitable
Deathtouch, indestructible
Rhonas can't attack or block unless you control another creature with power 4 or greater.
{2}{G}: Another target creature gets +2/+0 and gains trample until end of turn.
is a great blocker and buff spell for our other creatures. We want to try and play this in the midgame when we have some threats in play to allow it to attack / block, but it’s a strong pick.
Lastly,
Collected Company
Collected Company
Look at the top six cards of your library. Put up to two creature cards with mana value 3 or less from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
fits the deck so well, since all of our creatures are 3 mana or less. This is just a powerhouse of a spell, making combat really fuzzy for our opponent’s attacks, rebuilding after a board wipe, or cheating out a few more creatures to close out the game.
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Sideboard and Beating the Meta
Our game 1’s versus most of the meta decks at the moment should be generally good. Generally we’re going faster or bigger than nearly all of the decks, and barring an ideal start from Greasefang or Fight Rigging, we should be able to close Game 1’s very quickly.
For the sideboard, we have some great options to make sure our game 2’s are just as good as game 1.
Shaper’s Sacntuary and
Tamiyo’s Safekeeping
Tamiyo’s Safekeeping
Target permanent you control gains hexproof and indestructible until end of turn. You gain 2 life. (A permanent with hexproof and indestructible can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control. Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy it.)
are great against removal heavy decks like control and Rakdos. Tamiyo’s also does good work against Mono Red, giving us a small amount of life gain.
Kraul Harpooner
Kraul Harpooner
Reach
Undergrowth — When this creature enters, choose up to one target creature you don't control with flying. This creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of creature cards in your graveyard, then you may have this creature fight that creature.
is specifically good in the Mono Blue Spirits match up, but can be useful against Greasefang if we happen to hit it off Collected Company before attacks.
Questing Beast
Questing Beast
Vigilance, deathtouch, haste
Questing Beast can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
Combat damage that would be dealt by creatures you control can't be prevented.
Whenever Questing Beast deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals that much damage to target planeswalker that player controls.
demolishes low to the ground aggro strategies.
Ram Through
Ram Through
Target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to target creature you don't control. If the creature you control has trample, excess damage is dealt to that creature's controller instead.
and
The Great Henge
The Great Henge
This spell costs {X} less to cast, where X is the greatest power among creatures you control.
{T}: Add {G}{G}. You gain 2 life.
Whenever a nontoken creature you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on it and draw a card.
are generally good against creature decks. Ram Through helps us remove blockers, similar to Primal Might. One benefit here is that it’s an instant so it’s a good tool against Greasefang. Henge helps us grow our creatures out of reasonable blocking range, as well as provides us great draw potential.
Finally,
Unlicensed Hearse
Unlicensed Hearse
{T}: Exile up to two target cards from a single graveyard.
Unlicensed Hearse's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards exiled with it.
Crew 2
is great for Greasefang and other graveyard decks. This is definitely a better in boarded games option, since it doesn’t cost us anything to exile cards other than tapping, so if we’re on the draw, we can still hit
Parhelion II
Parhelion II
Flying, first strike, vigilance
Whenever Parhelion II attacks, create two 4/4 white Angel creature tokens with flying and vigilance that are attacking.
Crew 4 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 4 or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.)
out of the graveyard.
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If you’re looking for a more straight forward deck to play that is competitive against the meta for Explorer, Mono Green is definitely a great choice. Hopefully, this guide helped you with the deck and you can go forth and crush your opponents!