It is often said that green is the most powerful color in Commander, possessing a glut of useful tools that feel almost disproportionate to what other colors are capable of. Of course, I’ve played decks that use Green, like Muldrotha and Marisi, but I’ve never played a mono-Green deck…
…until now. One of the members of our playgroup handed me a decklist that he wanted me to play on his behalf if he wasn’t able to join us. When game time was upon us and he hadn’t show up, the very least I could do was honor his wishes.
So it came to pass that I ran Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse, with a deck designed around using both of her abilities to build an unstoppable board of powerhouse creatures. Standing in the other corners were Arcades, the Strategist, Sygg, River Cutthroat, and Sethron, Hurloon General.
Arcades and Sethron were able to get out to faster starts than I was. Though Arcades didn’t have any ramp, they played a turn three Wall of Denial into their commander on turn four, allowing them to swing in for 8 every turn. Meanwhile, General Sethron had ramped both with an Arcane Signet and a Ragemonger to get their bull man himself a turn early.
Sadly, Sygg was spinning his wheels, missing their land drops and falling behind. I couldn’t start ramping until turn 4, but once Oracle of Mul Daya hit my board my mana began to rapidly accelerate. With the extra land drops, I was able to cast Zendikar Resurgent on turn 5, which allowed me to begin setting up for my end game. And thanks to the tap ability of Sensei’s Diving Top, I was able to generate a few token off what was technically my second draw for a few early turns.
Since one of my earliest land drops was a Reliquary Tower, I was able to keep many more cards in my hand than normal. And on turn six I managed to play an Elder Gargaroth, using it’s power to get a discount off of The Great Henge.
Under the might of my army, combined with an overly full hand and Jolrael’s ability, Arcades was the first to fall, since they were the biggest threat. With them taken care of, I played Alhammarret’s Archive to further extend my lead, knowing the remaining contestants wouldn’t have as much in the artifact and enchantment removal. Sygg tried to set me back with a Damnation, but in response I used Return of the Wildspeaker to extend my hand and push myself to a point where the rest of the table wasn’t able to respond.
Even without Trample, there wasn’t much the board could do to stop me, and after several successive attacks Sygg, and then Sethron, quickly succumbed to my might. I wasn’t up to another match at that point, falling under fatigue, but I was extremely impressed at the power contained within this deck. I might even give more mono-colored commanders a try after this.
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