Much Abrew: Selvala-monicon (Historic)
Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. Are you tired of Panharmonicon yet? I hope not because today, for Much Abrew, we're taking the GOAT artifact out for another spin in Historic, this time in a mono-green shell featuring Commander favorite Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, which just happens to be legal in the format thanks to Jumpstart! Apart from sweet Selvala, Heart of the Wilds shenanigans and the surprisingly strong synergy between Panharmonicon and The Great Henge to draw us an insane number of cards, Selvala-monicon is a fairly typical Panharmonicon deck, with tons of enters-the-battlefield triggers, some sneaky card draw, and the massive trampling finish of Craterhoof Behemoth and Hornet Queen! How good is Selvala, Heart of the Wilds in Historic? What about Panharmonicon in a mono-green shell? Let's get to the video and find out; then, we'll talk more about the deck! Just a quick reminder: if you enjoy the Much Abrew About Nothing series and the other video content on MTGGoldfish, make sure to subscribe to the MTGGoldfish YouTube channel to keep up on all the latest and greatest
Much Abrew: Selvala-monicon
Discussion
- Record-wise, we went 4-2 in our video matches with Selvala-monicon and 4-3 overall, after losing a second time to Temur Marvel.
- At the risk of veering off topic, is Aetherworks Marvel too good for Historic? Initially, I wasn't too worried about the artifact after it flopped in Pioneer, but so far, it seems extremely strong and resilient in Historic. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it start showing up on the watch list for a potential banning / suspension in the format. It turns out that Turn 4 Ugin, the Spirit Dragons or Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hungers are pretty good.
- Back to Selvala-monicon. The main synergy of the deck is Panharmonicon with Selvala, Heart of the Wilds and / or The Great Henge. Even though none of these cards has enters-the-battlefield triggers themselves, since Panharmonicon doubles up any triggered ability caused by an artifact or creature entering the battlefield, if we can get Selvala or The Great Henge going with Panharmonicon, we can draw a truly absurd number of cards, with each creature we play giving us two cards from The Great Henge (and coming into play with two +1/+1 counters), while Selvala, Heart of the Wilds does the same thing but only for high-powered creatures. While this makes Selvala, Heart of the Wilds' card-draw ability somewhat inconsistent, it more than makes up for this drawback by tapping for a massive amount of mana, allowing us to quickly dump our hand of value creatures, get a ton of triggers thanks to Panharmonicon, and eventually overwhelm our opponent with a huge board.
- Selvala, Heart of the Wilds' mana ability can also essentially make some of our biggest creatures free. Take, for example, Kogla, the Titan Ape. We can cast Kogla using six of our non-Selvala mana and then, since Kogla, the Titan Ape is a seven-power creature, immediately use Selvala, Heart of the Wilds to make six extra mana to play something else in the same turn!
- The other big upside of being a mono-green Panharmonicon deck is that we get a ton of ramp, with Llanowar Visionary being the best ramp spell in the deck since it also draws us a card (or two with Panharmonicon) with its enters-the-battlefield trigger, while Gilded Goose, Tangled Florahedron, and Golos, Tireless Pilgrim help make sure that we can quickly ramp into our biggest game-ending plays.
- Speaking of ending the game, the other upside of being a green Panharmonicon deck is that we get some absurdly powerful finishers. Often, Panharmonicon decks rely on grinding out a slow, value-based wins with small creatures. Well, in Selvala-monicon, thanks to Hornet Queen and Craterhoof Behemoth, we can close out the game with just one massive attack. With a Panharmonicon on the battlefield, Hornet Queen makes nine flying bodies, which means if we can play a Craterhoof Behemoth the following turn, all of our creatures will get at least +10/+10 (or really +20/+20, thanks to Panharmonicon) and trample, which should be more than enough to close out the game.
- The downside of being a mono-green Panharmonicon deck is that we don't really have good cheap removal. While Wicked Wolf, Voracious Hydra, and Kogla, the Titan Ape all work as removal thanks to their enters-the-battlefield fight abilities, they are pretty slow, which can be tough against some aggro decks, especially ones with evasive clocks. Against ground-based aggro, we do fine thanks to a bunch of good blockers like Wall of Blossoms, but as we saw against the WB Auras deck, a fast, flying clock is really difficult for our deck to beat thanks to the lack of cheap removal. If this becomes too much of a problem, it would be easy enough to splash into black for cards like Fatal Push.
- So, should you play Selvala-monicon? If you're a fan of Panharmonicon decks, I think the answer is yes. While I don't think Selvala-monicon is the most competitive Panharmonicon deck in Historic, it is reasonably competitive, and it's a blast to play! The combo of Panharmonicon with Selvala, Heart of the Wilds and The Great Henge can do some crazy things, while our solid ramp and finishers help to hold everything together. Plus, sometimes you get to spin Golos, Tireless Pilgrim into two Thragtusks against Burn. What could be better than that?
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.
