Against the Odds: Control, but It's Mono-Green (Standard)
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Against the Odds! This week, we're heading to Standard to play some control, except it's mono-green! In general, green is considered the worst color in Standard and also the worst control color in Magic. So, why are we playing Mono-Green Control? Well, the color actually has many interesting anti-meta cards that line up against the top decks in the format. While we might not get a real creature wrath, in a world where many of the best threats are enchantments, Cease // Desist can be a pseudo–Wrath of God in some matchups. Meanwhile, Wilt-Leaf Liege and Obstinate Baloth let us hate on the discard of decks like Esper Pixie, while Pawpatch Formation and Archdruid's Charm give us targeted removal. When it comes time to win the game, we have a single Nissa, Ascended Animist, which can either make massive creatures or just Overrun for lethal if we have a board! What are the odds of winning with Mono-Green Control in Standard? Let's get to the video and find out on this week's Against the Odds!
Against the Odds: Mono-Green Control
Wrap-Up
Record-wise, we ended up going 6-7 with Mono-Green Control, which I thought was actually a pretty solid record considering the jank level of the deck we're playing. The funniest part of the deck is that while it can play like a real control deck, the matchups are almost exactly reversed compared to more traditional control decks like UW Control. Our worst matchups by far are go-wide creature decks because we don't have a creature wrath, while these matchups are great for Sunfall control decks. On the other hand, our deck is absurd against decks overloaded with hard-to-interact-with artifacts and enchantments, where more traditional control can struggle.
On the other hand, the most disappointing parts of the deck were Wilt-Leaf Liege and Obstinate Baloth. While we did have a couple of hilarious games where we got to put them into play for free thanks to our opponent's discard, this happened way less than I was hoping, considering how popular the Hopeless Nightmare–fueled Esper Pixie deck is. While these cards weren't bad overall, the odds of getting random free wins by opponents letting us discard them into play are lower than it looks.
Another card I wanted to shout out is Garruk's Uprising. One of the hallmarks of this Standard is control and midrange decks having absurd card-advantage engines like Caretaker's Talent and Unholy Annex. Garruk's Uprising is basically our Caretaker's Talent. While not as flexible, the card was oddly powerful. While I wouldn't quite put it in the same tier as Caretaker's Talent and Unholy Annex, it's a lot closer than you probably think, to the point where Garruk's Uprising is probably worth exploring more in Standard.
So, should you play Mono-Green Control in Standard? Probably not. The deck is funny, but overall, it felt medium in terms of how competitive it was (although winning almost 50% of the time was impressive). Still, if you load up Arena and run into a string of Esper Pixie and Overlord decks, it is a hilarious option to break out to catch opponents by surprise!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
