Budget Magic: $100 (17 tix) Mono-Green Stompy (Pioneer, Magic Online)

by SaffronOlive // Dec 10, 2019

Aniin, Budget Magic lovers, it's that time once again! This week, we are heading to Pioneer for a deck that might be one of the most competitive (or even the most competitive) budget deck in the format: Mono-Green Stompy. Even after being targeted by several bannings, green has a strong case for being the best color in Pioneer, thanks to a bunch of one-mana accelerants and some extremely powerful three-mana plays. The idea of Mono-Green Stompy is simple: mulligan (if necessary) into a hand with a mana dork and a powerful three-drop, and trust that we'll be able to stop over our opponent before they get a chance to recover, with wins coming as early as Turn 4! Just how good is Mono-Green Stompy on a $100 budget in Pioneer? Let's get to the video and find out; then, we'll talk more about the deck!

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Budget Magic: Mono-Green Stompy (Pioneer)

The Deck

Mono-Green Stompy is an aggro deck. Its main power is that it has an absurd amount of redundancy, which means our most powerful hands happen almost every game. Combine that with a couple of very good finishers than can close out the game as early as Turn 4, and we have the recipe for an extremely solid budget deck!

Mana Dorks

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The first step to winning with Mono-Green Stompy is a mana dork. With 10 total mana dorks in our deck, we should have one in our opening hand about 75% of the time, and if we don't have one, we almost always mulligan to six or even five to find one. Our curve of mana dork into three-drop is powerful enough that it's worth going down a card or two to find it since a Turn 2 Steel Leaf Champion, Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig, or Lovestruck Beast is worth more than the card we lose mulliganing in most matchups.

While all of our mana dorks are slightly different, in reality, they are basically the same creature in our deck, getting us to three mana on Turn 2 and allowing for explosive starts. As such, we don't really care which mana dork we have in our opening hand, just that we have one.

Three-Drops

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Step two to winning with Mono-Green Stompy is a three-drop to play on Turn 2. Here, we have 11 total, which means if we are willing to mulligan a couple of times, we should almost always have the mana dork–into–three-drop hand that we are looking for. Similarly to our one-drops, all of our three-drops are different, but we don't really care which one we have, just that we have one.

Thanks to the removal available in Pioneer, most decks have a difficult time killing a four- or five-toughness creature early in the game, which means when we resolve Steel Leaf Champion, Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig, or Lovestruck Beast, they are likely to stick around and deal a bunch of damage to our opponent. Steel Leaf Champion has the upside of evading small blockers, Lovestruck Beast can make a token if we have some extra mana, and Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig often ends up a 7/7 or and 8/8 as we continue to play the rest of the green creatures from our hand.

Finishing the Game

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When it comes to quickly killing our opponent, we have two different (although related) plans. The first is to follow up our mana dork–into–three-drop start with Surrak, the Hunt Caller and then Ghalta, Primal Hunger. Assuming we have a three-drop on Turn 2, Surrak, the Hunt Caller comes down on Turn 3, gains haste thanks to formidable, and allows us to attack for 10 on Turn 3. Sometimes, this is enough to beat our opponent on its own, but if it's not, we can follow it up with a hasty 12/12 trampling Ghalta, Primal Hunger (for just two mana) on Turn 4, which is almost always lethal when combined with the rest of our board. Speaking of Ghalta, Primal Hunger, it's so good and important to our deck that we're playing four copies, even though it's legendary. The theory is that if we have a Ghalta, Primal Hunger on the battlefield, we're almost assuredly winning the game in short order anyway, so having some dead draws isn't a bit deal. Plus, if our opponent manages to kill our first Ghalta, Primal Hunger, our best follow-up is another copy of Ghalta.

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Our second way to quickly close out the game is Aspect of Hydra, perhaps in conjunction with our only two-drop: Syr Faren, the Hengehammer. Aspect of Hydra is one of the most powerful pump spells ever printed, especially in a deck like ours that is overflowing with green mana symbols. Even a simple curve of mana dork into Steel Leaf Champion or Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig means that Aspect of Hydra is giving a creature +4/+4 until end of turn, and if we wait a bit longer, it's very possible a single copy will give +8/+8 or even +10/+10. This means we can sometimes win on Turn 4 by throwing a copy or two on an unblocked creature. If that's not enough, Syr Faren, the Hengehammer can double up our Aspect of Hydra. If we target Syr Faren with Aspect of Hydra, then when Syr Faren, the Hengehammer attacks, it pumps another creature equal to its power, which allows us to make two creatures massive on the same turn with just a single copy of Aspect of Hydra.

Other Stuff

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The other upside of Aspect of Hydra is that it allows us to quickly cheat The Great Henge onto the battlefield, although this isn't always necessary, depending on our curve. Thanks to both Steel Leaf Champion and Lovestruck Beast having five power, our curve of mana dork into three-drop on Turn 2 usually gives us enough power on the battlefield that we can play The Great Henge on Turn 3! Once we have The Great Henge on the battlefield, it gives us a source of lifegain against aggro and a source of card draw against control while also making our already scary creatures even bigger and more frightening. We actually had a game during the video where thanks to The Great Henge and our sideboard Lifecrafter's Bestiary, we drew more than 30 cards against a control opponent, who only managed to draw about 15 with their Sphinx's Revelation / Teferi deck!

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Speaking of control, with the most recent round of bannings, it's on the rise in the Pioneer format. Thankfully, even apart from The Great Henge, we have a main-deck answer in Shifting Ceratops. Thanks to the combination of uncounterability and protection from blue, Shifting Ceratops is not only a good way to dodge our opponent's Absorbs and Censors but it also slips past annoying planeswalkers like Oko, Thief of Crowns, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, and Teferi, Time Raveler. While the main reason that Shifting Ceratops is in our deck is for the control matchup, it's also fine in general as a 5/4 for four that occasionally comes down with haste or blocks a flyer against Izzet Phoenix or Spirits.

Wrap-Up

Mono-Green Stompy was a good as we hoped, going 5-0 across our matches and taking down some really powerful decks (Oko, UW Control, Lotus Storm, Bant Spirits, UW Heroic) along the way. The main trick to playing the deck is to focus on the one-drop–into–three-drop curve. If our three-mana creatures are coming down fairly on Turn 3, they aren't that exciting, but they are devastating on Turn 2. As such, if you decide to pick up the deck, you should almost always mulligan a hand that doesn't have a mana dork.

As far as changes I'd make to the deck now that we've played a bunch of games, I'm not sure there are any. Syr Faren, the Hengehammer is probably too cute and might be better as more copies of Surrak, the Hunt Caller (which was really impressive whenever we drew it), but otherwise, I'd be more than happy to run the deck back exactly like it is.

All in all, I think Mono-Green Stompy is the most competitive budget deck in Pioneer. While it isn't as spicy as some lists, if you're looking for a budget Pioneer deck that can 5-0 a league on Magic Online, win an FNM, and maybe even compete at a Grand Prix, this would be my pick. It's incredibly powerful and has game against most of the format. If you like attacking with huge green creatures (or just winning games) without breaking the bank, give Mono-Green Stompy a shot. It's very good.

Getting Mono-Green Stompy down near $50 means one thing: losing The Great Henge, which is the only truly expensive card in the deck. While this is a big loss since The Great Henge is extremely powerful, the deck should still be able to win a reasonable number of games simply by stomping over opponents (although it is worth mentioning that it will have a much harder time playing the long game without the artifact to provide card advantage). In place of The Great Henge, we get Burning-Tree Emissary, which gives us another way to flood the board early and further powers up Aspect of Hydra. For a $50 deck, the ultra-budget build still looks quite solid, although there will be some matchups where the loss of The Great Henge is significant.

The non-budget build of Mono-Green Stompy doesn't get any massive changes but instead relies on a few small upgrades. First, we get the fourth copy of The Great Henge, while Rhonas the Indomitable joins our pile of three-drops. Otherwise, we get Castle Garenbrig in the mana base as a sort of freeroll since it should almost always come into play untapped, along with one Westvale Abbey as a mana sink and a weird sort of wrath protection. Otherwise, the deck (and plan) is almost exactly the same as the one we played in the videos: one-drop into three-drop into win the game!

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.