General What can green do that's not ramp?

[Jason Waddell]

Inspired by the recent discussions. If one of Green's primary toles is not for ramp/fixing, what else can it do at a reasonai high power level?

Funch's take of just making the green section smaller than the others is also a novel approach.

 

[SirFunchalot]

Green can do a lot of things that aren't ramp, there's multicolor aggro, multicolor value midrange, multicolor control, GBx disruptive midrange, fatty cheat, and a bunch of midrange synergy micro archetypes like +1/+1 counters if that's your kink.

Fwiw my mono green section is a smidge less than the other colors but a ton of the gold cards are green, so it's still contributing about as much to the format as the other colors even if it might not look that way at a glance. My dimir section for example is 7 cards but gruul is literally twice as much at 14.

 

[landofMordor]

One of my favorite things for Green at high power levels is making it the "pivot color" of proactive, multicolor midrange. Zoo, Jund, Junk, etc.

And then at lower power levels, I like Spider Spawning (who doesn't?) and Assault Formation.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Inspired by the recent discussions. If one of Green's primary toles is not for ramp/fixing, what else can it do at a reasonai high power level?

Funch's take of just making the green section smaller than the others is also a novel approach.

Green is very effective at inserting your library into your graveyard:

It tends to use that resource as a source of card or mana advantage:

 

[inscho]

In addition to what’s been mentioned, there’s power matters/berserkers, land tilling (lands changing zones for profitable triggers), dredge, creaturefall, and creature toolbox strategies

 

[sigh]

Green is very effective at inserting your library into your graveyard:

It tends to use that resource as a source of card or mana advantage:

This is a primary angle I use my green for; it is very effective at it as TGT mentions.

 

[inscho]

Yeah the self-mill angle can be pretty high octane and scales reasonably well based on the support and payoffs chosen. I’ve had some pretty degenerate games that started with entombing a golgari grave-troll

 

[shamizy]

I find that while Mono-Green itself is kind of mediocre and is usually relegated to a ramp strategy on my side (though I avoid "super-fatties" that are unplayable otherwise), G/x decks can shine by introducing different forms of Midrange gameplay.

GB Grindy Graveyard Stuff:



RG Zoo Style Midrange:



GW Go-Wide:



UG Counters/Mini-Ramp:



It mostly becomes a matter of defining the dual color combinations with signposts and gold cards rather than define the core green identity. I find green to be incredibly versatile in providing support for these color combinations, it doesn't necessarily need to stand on its own ala White Weenie or Red Aggro backed by burn. It's just more adaptable to various options, especially if you use dorks to power out your midrange gameplan ahead of schedule.

And, if you want to support the classic, G/R Ramp is always available as a fallback/easy option for newer drafters:

 

[ravnic]

There is also this green pivot archetype:

 

[alvoi]

I love Gx value with

 

[blacksmithy]

with my cube not really having ramp targets anymore, i’ve switched green from “ramping” to “fixing”

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and it also cantrips or just straight draws pretty well

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and if you have all of the above going on, it becomes easy to fill the yard for stuff like

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[Velrun]

Bird is certainly ramp

 

[Brad]

Could easily be a center for 5C converge style decks with the fixing package shown.

Adventurous Impulse is another great cantrip.

 

[ravnic]

I've really enjoyed Abundant Harvest in STX drafts. I hope it will get an old border version in MH2!

 

[VincePendrell]

Oh my, what CAN'T green do

Green has some good discard enablers as well!


And there are some cards to do an Odyssey-inspired Madness archetype, though green would probably be more a support for B or R than the main color.


Has anyone tried a Madness theme in Green with any success?

 

[ravnic]

I feel personally approached. I love madness, and even though red is clearly the main color for the theme, while green and blue are the supporters, there is quite a bit going on in green.

My enablers:



There are more, but they start getting worse (Stampede Driver) or pretty expensive mana wise (Gurzigost). However, green is really well suited in terms of payoffs, although most of them don't literally have the word madness on them. They are just great cards to discard and beat your opponent with them. Here are the ones that actively get better when discarded:



However, there are also some, that don't mind getting discarded, as they still keep a lot of value:



Add to this the many cards that profit from having certain cards (or a certain number of cards) in your graveyard, like Elvish Reclaimer or all the Delirium/Threshold stuff, and you got yourself a nice package. It is enough for even at 680 cards, that sometimes a green, non-red deck with madness synergies comes up. Here is one exmaple:

 

[MinorBug]

For me, green is midrange support. A chunk of this does come in the form of ramp - I'm on every 1 cmc dork and also wild growth - but the bulk of green ends up being 2-5 cmc threats that either are extremely powerful when coming out a turn or two early, or are solid backup plans for when your dork dies or doesn't exist. Your Tarmogoyfs and Rhonas the Indomitables and Questing Beasts easily block anything aggro throws down while being able to smash the face in of a control deck that stumbles. This is even a part of green that I tone down - I don't run Watchwolf variants, because I want Savannah Lions-style aggro decks to function and if you go for green's strongest gold threats, it becomes a practically unwinnable matchup for the aggro player.

Green also contributes a couple options for greedpile decks with strong cantrips like Once Upon a Time, Abundant Harvest, Explore (this is legally ramp), and Abundant Growth, and other card selection like Mirri's Guile and Sylvan Library. A few strong 5 drops like Thragtusk and Nissa, Who Shakes the World act as top end options for both the lower curving midrange decks and the greedpiles.

Ultimately, though, my favourite part of green is the ramp. Not the expensive, super ramp style, but mana dorks. Mana dorks are great. It's been joked that I would literally never pass a mana dork, and it's not far wrong - I've played multiple cube decks with 8+ mana dorks, and some that did so while curving out at 4.