The Ultimate Mono Green Stompy Deck! | Ghalta, Primal Hunger | $50, $100
Hey friends and welcome back to Budget Commander! Like many new players to Magic, one of the first archetypes that captivated me when I first dipped my toes into the hobby was Mono Green Stompy: I distinctly remember having my jaw drop the first time a store showcased a precon featuring Rhox, and I fondly remember the days when Silvos, Rogue Elemental looked completely unbeatable!
And while those ancient cards don't hold up in 2023 Magic, my love for Stompy decks has still endured: I've recently done a Stompy list around the new Yargle and Multani, and my personal collection still holds Purphoros Dragons and Gargos Voltron. And now I'm back with an absolute banger of a deck, showing what classic Mono Green Stompy can do in 2023: behold, Ghalta, Primal Hunger! If you want a simple to pick up and play while still packing a TON of power, then this deck is the one for you!
Pure Mono Green Stompy!
Ghalta, Primal Hunger is Timmy incarnate, a massive 12/12 trampler that can cost as little as two mana to cast! Having reliable access to a 12/12 in the command zone opens up so much fun design space to brew around, letting us draw silly amounts of cards, ramp crazy amounts of lands, wipe out opposing boards of creatures, and obviously (over)kill our opponents in glorious dino dominance!
For our deck to start popping off we just need a huge chonker on the board -- ideally Ghalta, Primal Hunger, but any of our beefy bois in the 99 will do as well! We accomplish this with a few cool tricks: regular ramp obviously works, such as creature ramp like Llanowar Tribe, ramp that pumps our creatures to further discount Ghalta like Rhonas's Monument, and creatures that are natty chonkers like Managorger Hydra and Hunted Troll. There's also some cheeky tech to cheating out Ghalta super quick, like adding an extra 7 power on the board for 1 mana when you crew Consulate Dreadnought, or making a 4 mana 12/12 with Tangleweave Armor!
Once we have a big butt on the battlefield the fun begins! First let's refill our hands: how about we draw 10+ cards off cards like Return of the Wildspeaker, Hunter's Insight, Soul's Majesty, Hunter's Prowess, and Garruk, Primal Hunter! We also have incremental draw engines like Drumhunter and Colossal Majesty just to mix things up too. Or even better than drawing cards, what if we put up to 12(!) permanents on the battlefield immediately with Majestic Genesis because Ghalta, Primal Hunger is 12mv despite being cast for like 2 mana?! WILD!
If we're drawing 10+ cards per spell then we better have enough mana to cast all those cards! How about we ramp out 10+ basics with Traverse the Outlands or generate 10+ mana with Tanuki Transplanter! Oh and a bunch of our mana dorks get more powerful when we have big butts on the table, like Ilysian Caryatid and Whisperer of the Wilds!
For removal, let's leverage our huge bodies to smoosh our opponents' frail forms, either repeatedly with Ulvenwald Tracker or how about we just take out a whole bunch of creatures all at once with Monstrous Onslaught? And don't worry about artifacts or enchantments either, we've got the usual suite of Reclamation Sage, Cankerbloom, and other removal cards to take them out -- while also offering a mana discount to Ghalta!
And finally to end the game, most of our beaters can do the job without any help and our commander 2-shots anyone naturally, but we can speed up this process into 1-shot territory with cards like Boon of Boseiju and Dragon Throne of Tarkir to take out everyone at once!
We're basically BigThreats.dec so we're packing lots of protection to help make sure nobody is messing with our smashing goals: Tamiyo's Safekeeping, Tyvar's Stand, and Gaea's Blessing all stop most forms of removal on Ghalta or similar beaters, and we've got haste enablers Surrak, the Hunt Caller, Surrak and Goreclaw, and Swiftfoot Boots to ensure we get the beats in asap!
$50 List
The $50 brew has all the essentials you need to go straight to value town. We ramp out some big beaters and eventually Ghalta, and if our opponents don't have an immediate answer we're going to absolutely stomp them in a turn or two! And even if we get shut down we've probably drawn 10+ cards and can rebuild right after!
$100 List
The $100 list has many significant upgrades like better ramp with Runadi, Behemoth Caller, better removal with Bane of Progress, card draw with Rishkar's Expertise, and finishers with Overwhelming Stampede.
Further Upgrades
You got some pricier cards or really wanna bling out Ghalta? Here's some suggestions:
- Ramp: Food Chain, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Wayward Swordtooth, Growing Rites of Itlimoc, Nissa, Who Shakes the World
- Draw: Tribute to the World Tree, The Great Henge, Augur of Autumn, Lurking Predators
- Removal: Kenrith's Transformation, Beast Within
- Tutor: Invasion of Ikoria, Finale of Devastation, Worldly Tutor, Green Sun's Zenith, Natural Order
- Protection: Heroic Intervention, Cavern of Souls, Allosaurus Shepherd, Veil of Summer, Commander's Plate
- Big Pumpers: Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus, Craterhoof Behemoth, Rhonas the Indomitable, God-Eternal Rhonas, Unnatural Growth
- Lands: Turntimber Symbiosis, Bala Ged Recovery, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Gaea's Cradle, Castle Garenbrig, Boseiju, Who Endures, Yavimaya Hollow, Ancient Tomb, War Room, Homeward Path, Bonders' Enclave, Witch's Clinic
Also this deck in particular has a TON of burst draw -- Rishkar's Expertise, Return of the Wildspeaker, Hunter's Prowess, etc. -- so I highly recommend Reliquary Tower as the first land upgrade above all else. Keeping your best 7 and discarding down to hand size is fine, but keeping all 12+ cards you drew is even better!
Next Week: Something RUDE!
I have a very mean gimmick deck for next week and I'm sorry in advance for any tables that will be flipped because of it! It's hilarious and utterly unique though, so hopefully enjoy!
