I enjoy linear decks. Having a straightforward, consistent game plan is incredibly important in Modern. Green Machine has one redundant game plan: get ’em dead with big green guys. The deck can be built on a budget and compete with Tier One lists, making it a great way to enter the format. Green Machine’s core is hard-to-deal-with creatures that can keep constant pressure on your opponent. With utility cards such as Rancor, [card]Dismember[/card], and [card]Vines of Vastwood[/card] you can break up [card]Splinter Twin[/card] combos, punch damage through [card]Lingering Souls[/card] tokens, or protect your creatures.

The Current Decklist:

[deck]

[The Green Team (Creatures)]

4 Strangleroot Geist

4 Dungrove Elder

2 Experiment One

4 Dryad Militant

4 Leatherback Baloth

4 Arbor Elf

1 Llanowar Elves

1 Elvish Mystic

1 Scavenging Ooze

[/The Green Team (Creatures)]

[Spells]

4 Vines of Vastwood

4 Rancor

4 Dismember

3 Collected Company

[/Spells]

[Lands]

20 Forest

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

2 Setessan Tactics

1 Sword of Light and Shadow

2 Thrun, the Last Troll

1 Creeping Corrosion

2 Choke

1 Spellskite

1 Vorapede

2 Deglamer

1 Beast Within

2 Obstinate Baloth

[/Sideboard]

[/deck]

Card Choices



[card]Dungrove Elder[/card] holds a special place in my heart as a card I played with when I first got back into FNM with a green “Fight Club” deck. [card]Dungrove Elder[/card] now has a home in Modern. It is incredibly hard to deal with and its power and toughness will typically outclass your opponents’ creatures. Pair this big fellow with a couple of other hard-to-remove creatures and you have a resilient group of beaters.



[card]Strangleroot Geist[/card] is a fantastic creature. First, when played on turn two it will evolve your turn one [card]Experiment One[/card] and allow you to punch for 4. Second, it will nearly always need to be killed twice, allowing you to two-for- one your opponent. Unlike [card]Kitchen Finks[/card], when Geist dies it comes back bigger, increasing its threat level. For this reason, there are rare moments where dismembering your own Geist can be beneficial. For example, if your Tron opponent attacks with [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card], we can block and [card]Dismember[/card] before damage. They don’t get to gain 6 life, and we get a nasty 3/2 and maybe even an Evolve trigger on an [card]Experiment One[/card].



[card]Leatherback Baloth[/card] is essentially our [card]Tarmogoyf[/card], as it will always be a 4/5. It is another creature that does not die to Bolt. The general theme of most of our creatures is that they dodge premier removal spells in modern.

The elves are in the deck to cast [card]Leatherback Baloth[/card] or [card]Collected Company[/card] a turn earlier or carry a Rancor in a pinch. You may wonder why we’re playing 4 Arbor Elves over [card]Noble Hierarch[/card]s, more [card]Elvish Mystic[/card]s, or [card]Birds of Paradise[/card]. The answer is simple. Since Arbor Elves untaps Forests rather than producing mana directly, when it’s bolted or otherwise removed we can untap a land and not need to use the mana right away. This is particularly relevant on turn three. When we tap out and they drop a [card]Pestermite[/card] or [card]Deceiver Exarch[/card] at our end of turn, we can untap a Forest and cast a [card]Dismember[/card] on their turn in response to [card]Splinter Twin[/card] or save it for later if they do not. The Llanowar Elves/Elvish Mystic split is to avoid [card]Maelstrom Pulse[/card]. The cards do the same thing, so why not have two different names? We’re not playing [card]Noble Hierarch[/card] or [card]Birds of Paradise[/card] because we want all our creatures to be able to attack. Daniel Fournier and I have debated about [card]Noble Hierarch[/card], but until we sit down to play our 100 games I’ll stand by my decision not to play it, as it’s less aggressive than a 1/1 elf.

The must-have utility creatures in the deck are [card]Dryad Militant[/card] and [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]. These cards have relevant lines of text that ensure our opponents are playing fair. [card]Dryad Militant[/card] is your standard Savannah Lion but also exiles all sorceries and instants that are cast. This trait means that [card]Lingering Souls[/card], a card that can be a struggle if you do not have a Rancor, is less valuable to your opponents. [card]Dryad Militant[/card] also evolves [card]Experiment One[/card]; remember to sequence your plays to ensure maximum evolution triggers. [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] is there to hedge against graveyard shenanigans and shrink opposing Snapcasters and Goyfs. The number of Oozes should be adjusted based on how many graveyard decks you expect to face; it’s the deck’s least effective creature and can be sideboarded out in most matchups.



[card]Dismember[/card] is our pre-board removal spell of choice. Besides the fact that green has few non-fight removal spells, since Green Machine doesn’t run fetches or shocks, we can afford the steep 4-8 damage per game that [card]Dismember[/card] requires. Most of the powerful creatures currently being played in Modern die to [card]Dismember[/card]; Tasigur, [card]Siege Rhino[/card], [card]Pestermite[/card], [card]Deceiver Exarch[/card], [card]Celestial Colonnade[/card], [card]Tarmogoyf[/card], and [card]Wild Nacatl[/card] all fall to it. In a pinch, the card can be used to shrink problematic creatures such as [card]Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite[/card] to a size that [card]Leatherback Baloth[/card] can handle. Yes, this situation has come up when playing against a Gifts deck, and yes, we won that matchup as a result.



[card]Vines of Vastwood[/card] is another 1-2 mana instant that makes this deck shine. Vines can serve the obvious purpose of protecting your creatures, but it can also prevent a combo or stop Infect from turn two-ing you with that nasty [card]Become Immense[/card]. The text line about giving a target creature protection from abilities or spells your opponents control is incredibly relevant. While it might seem like we are playing this card as a way to punch through 4 extra damage it should be saved as a protection spell or as disruption.

All of our deck’s interaction is instant speed, letting us pressure opponents on their turn as well as ours. For that reason, we play [card]Collected Company[/card]. In one match, an opponent wrathed my board on turn 4, leaving me with nothing, and on their end step I cast CoCo and hit [card]Dungrove Elder[/card] and [card]Strangleroot Geist[/card]. This card can allow us to reload and stay aggressive. It gives the opponent something to think about, which is nice when they are sitting on too many decisions.

When [card]Collected Company[/card] is good it can be devastating, but it’s a gamble and not a card I’m in love with. It will send me into fits of rage or glee seemingly at a whim based on what it hits or doesn’t. While every single creature in our deck can be hit by [card]Collected Company[/card], sometimes it will be completely dead or only hit an elf. Previously its slot was filled by [card]Garruk Wildspeaker[/card], a card I’m considering returning to, as its Overrun ability has become increasingly relevant.

An Example of The Dream Hand:

2 Forests, [card]Experiment One[/card], [card]Strangleroot Geist[/card], Rancor, [card]Dismember[/card], [card]Vines of Vastwood[/card]. We want to start the game with three or fewer lands, one early creature, and some sort of interaction either in the form of [card]Vines of Vastwood[/card] or [card]Dismember[/card].

The Game Plan:

The rules for playing this deck are simple: stay aggressive and don’t over-extend.

We want to play 2-3 creatures early and attack every turn. While our resilient creatures help invalidate opponent’s removal, since we have few ways to gain card advantage, we want to avoid two-for-ones as much as possible and be careful versus decks with mainboard wraths. Leaving [card]Experiment One[/card] as a 3/3 is often enough; playing a [card]Leatherback Baloth[/card] before attacks for the extra evolve is greedy and asking to be two-for-oned.

Be aware that casting Vines of the Vastwood or [card]Dismember[/card] aggressively to push through damage is rarely correct. Your creatures are larger than most of your opponents’, and it’s far better to use those two utility cards to answer combos or keep your creatures alive.

Remember to play your creatures after you attack unless you need an evolve trigger, as we need to be aware of cards such as [card]Cryptic Command[/card]. Just keep presenting a constant threat.

The Nightmare Matches, Why, and What We Can Board In to Make Them Better:

Tron: [card]Ugin, the Spirit Dragon[/card] answers all of your creatures while [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card] blocks efficiently and pads their life total. Add in [card]Pyroclasm[/card] and we’re in for a bad time. [card]Deglamer[/card] helps against [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card], but without [card]Path to Exile[/card] there are few ways to interact with the threats that Tron can deploy. Our best bet is for them to fail to assemble Tron before Turn 4 and use a [card]Dismember[/card] to shrink their Wurmcoil. [card]Beast Within[/card] can function as a [card]Fulminator Mage[/card] and keep them off Tron, but it’s not as clean of an answer and generally isn’t the best.

Affinity: Your creatures might be bigger but they can dump their hand first. Affinity’s evasive threats punch through your wall of green monsters. A [card]Vault Skirge[/card] with [card]Cranial Plating[/card] can be devastating, as it guarantees that you’ll lose any race. There was a brief point in the history of this deck where we played 4 [card]Creeping Corrosion[/card]s in the sideboard. At the end of the day, we decided that it was better to rely on [card]Dismember[/card] and accept that Affinity is a bad match-up. But this was before [card]Setessan Tactics[/card]. While we can’t beat Affinity’s best draws, we sure can fight their guys effectively with [card]Setessan Tactics[/card]. This card can be used in other matchups where your opponent tries to go wide, such as Merfolk, and has earned itself 3 spots in the board. We still have 1 [card]Creeping Corrosion[/card] as a silver bullet for Affinity and Lantern Control.

Infect: Infect can kill you faster than you can kill them. While this match-up isn’t favorable, thanks to [card]Dismember[/card] and [card]Vines of Vastwood[/card] it’s not unwinnable. This is perhaps the one match-up where it is advisable to keep a hand of mostly [card]Dismember[/card] and Vines. Ideally, we want to attack for 3-4 a turn while staying alive. [card]Setessan Tactics[/card] is not great here, but at least it’s another piece of removal. [card]Spellskite[/card] isn’t great either, but it can stop their pump spells. We board out the Collected Companies and a Rancor or two to make room for more removal while keeping our creature count high. Being on the play is everything, so good luck winning the roll!

The Good Matchups, Navigating Through Them, and How to Board:

B/G/x: Our creatures come back from the graveyard, [card]Dismember[/card] handles all their threats, their [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] is often dead, and [card]Dungrove Elder[/card] cannot be killed except in combat or by a [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card]. These are all the reasons why value-based G/B decks are good matchups. It’s tough to get value from your cards when they only trade for half of your opponent’s cards. Protect your [card]Dungrove Elder[/card]s in this match-up; never play them onto an empty board when your opponent has mana for [card]Liliana of the Veil[/card].

Junk has access to Path, making it the hardest B/G/x deck for us to deal with, but as it fights fair we can typically out-slug it. While we can lose to Junk if they flash back [card]Lingering Souls[/card] and we don’t have Rancor, we’re generally able to bust through their defenses. Jund is even easier, as they have smaller creatures and take more damage from [card]Dark Confidant[/card] and their lands without the life gain from [card]Siege Rhino[/card].

The sideboard plan is the same for Jund and Junk. Board out [card]Experiment One[/card] and bring in [card]Sword of Light and Shadow[/card] for protection and card advantage and Vorapede for a [card]Strangleroot Geist[/card] on steroids. [card]Obstinate Baloth[/card] or Thrun can come in as well if you want more durable threats, but you might be hard pressed to find room for them; I’d suggest cutting the Collected Companies. You might consider [card]Deglamer[/card] if they have [card]Batterskull[/card] – the look on their face when they’re forced to shuffle that living weapon away is priceless. But unless you’re feeling particularly cheeky, I would suggest against this sort of preemptive boarding.

Twin Variants: U/R is the easiest version for us to beat, as they can’t outrace us on the beatdown plan and will have to try to combo game one. [card]Dismember[/card] and [card]Vines of Vastwood[/card] should be reserved for when they threaten to combo. Cards such as [card]Thrun, the Last Troll[/card], [card]Deglamer[/card], and [card]Spellskite[/card] can come out of the board to fill in for Rancor, allowing us to seal the deal. [card]Collected Company[/card] is arguably at its best here as it often forces them to interact with us on their turn and tie up their mana when it comes back our way. Unless you’re playing against an Island-heavy variant, don’t worry about boarding in Choke, as we have better options. Choke is primarily there as a nod to Merfolk.

Zoo: [card]Wild Nacatl[/card], [card]Tarmogoyf[/card], and [card]Loxodon Smiter[/card] don’t hold a candle to [card]Dungrove Elder[/card], [card]Strangleroot Geist[/card], and [card]Leatherback Baloth[/card]. Their best removal spell, [card]Path to Exile[/card], can’t hit our biggest threat, while all of our removal spells are completely live against them. For game 2 we bring in Vorapede and some number of [card]Setessan Tactics[/card] to remove their threats while maintaining board presence. This match-up comes down to who has more on the field. While their [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] can get pretty big, forcing a bad block and casting [card]Dismember[/card] or Vines of the Vastwood can easily handle the situation.

Burn: This match is usually a race we can win. Our big creatures make it hard for them to get through with [card]Monastery Swiftspear[/card]s and [card]Goblin Guide[/card]s, and we have the edge of not taking damage from our lands. Post-board we can cut 2-3 [card]Dismember[/card] and 0-1 [card]Collected Company[/card] for two [card]Obstinate Baloth[/card]s and a [card]Spellskite[/card]. It’s strange to think that a group of green monsters can beat out a bunch of hasty red maniacs, but this appears to be a favorable match-up in testing.

Conclusion

Green Machine is aggressive and easy to learn. It’s a ton of fun to play and a deck I will always recommend to new Modern players. I hope to see more [card]Strangleroot Geist[/card]s and [card]Dungrove Elder[/card]s roaming around the FaceToFaceGames.com Tournament Series in 2016!

If you have questions about Green Machine or want me to feature a crazy brew of yours, send me a message at Toronto@facetofacegames.com.