Eldraine Brews – Mono Green Garenbrig

Eldraine Brews – Mono Green Garenbrig

What’s good, planeswalkers and welcome to a brand new series called Eldraine Standard Brews! We’re going to be showcasing all the best (and possible) brews with the new cards from Thrones of Eldraines. Our first deck for this series is Mono Green Garenbrig!

The moment I saw the new cards being spoiled; I knew that we were headed into the Mono-colored themes for Standard decks. Mono Green Garenbrig is meant to do only one thing – stomp its way through victory.

With that said, here’s the decklist based on the cards spoiled as of 9/19/19:

Lands

19 Forest

4 Castle Garenbrig

Creatures

4 Paradise Druid

4 Pelt Collector

2 Questing Beast

4 Syr Faren, the Hengehammer

3 Voracious Hydra

4 Wildborn Preserver

4 Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig

1 God-Eternal Rhonas

Artifact

4 The Great Henge

Planeswalkers

4 Nissa, Who Shakes the World

3 Vivien, Arkbow Ranger

Sideboard

2 Fell the Pheasant

1 Kenrith's Transformation

4 Nullhide Ferox

2 Return to Nature

3 Shifting Ceratops

3 Veil of Summer

Pelt Collector And Not Gilded Goose?!

Losing Llanowar Elves in the rotation is a huge blow to Mono Green and other ramp-based decks. Gilded Goose, the new card from Eldraine, is a one-drop that generates a Food token. Sacrificing this token could have you produce one mana of any color. Subsequently, paying two mana will also have you producing one Food token.

The abilities are quite decent enough to ramp towards one card, but nowhere near as consistent as Llanowar Elves. Spending two mana early in the game to produce a token is counterproductive towards this deck’s ability to go on the aggressive side.

On the other hand, Pelt Collector is a decent 1-drop that may not give you a mana, but it does grow bigger later on in the game. Then once it gets big enough, it gets Trample. This deck definitely has enough creatures to keep it growing.

Both cards are good for the deck, however they both fulfill different needs. This deck needed to be aggressive immediately, so that’s why Pelt Collector got selected over Gilded Goose.

For my mana-fixing needs, I have Paradise Druid to take care of that for me.

Syr Faren, the Hengehammer and Wildborn Preserver

Losing Thorn Lieutenant was painful for Green because it was basically a 2-in-1 creature that could produce another body whenever an opponent targets it with a spell or ability.

But Eldraine blessed Green with not one, but two potential replacements for Thorn Lieutenant: Syr Faren, the Hengehammer and Wildborn Preserver, and each card has specific advantages that provide value to the deck.

First, let’s talk about Wildborn Preserver. While it’s surprisingly good early on, it actually provides more value in the later parts of the game when you have spare mana lying around to make it grow. Its Flash and Reach ability makes it a great defensive card against Flyers and other weenies.

Syr Faren, the Hengehammer is another surprisingly good 2-drop that makes another creature bigger when it attacks. His value during the combat phase is undeniable, and when cards such as Vivian, Arkbow Ranger are there to make him bigger, the synergy is just too good to pass on.

All Hail Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig!

One of the best Green cards from this set, Yorvo, Garenbrig is essentially a 4/4 creature for 3-mana that gets a +1/+1 every time another Green creature comes into play. When the creature’s power is higher than Yorvo, he gets another +1/+1 counter.

The only downside to this card is that it doesn’t have Trample, which would’ve been a terrible card to defend against on the third turn. As long there’s Vivien, Arkbow Ranger, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.

Questing Beast and Rhonas As Finishers!

Your curve toppers for this deck are Questing Beast and God-Eternal Rhonas, costing 4-mana and 5-mana respectively.

Questing Beast is a handful, so to speak, and is probably one of the most powerful cards in Standard. It’s a 4-drop 4/4 with Vigilance, Deathtouch, and Haste. It can’t be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.

When it deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals that much damage to target planeswalker that opponent controls. This makes this card an impressive threat the moment it hits the board. With a Paradise Druid, you could essentially drop this on the 3rd turn.

Also, combat damage your creatures would deal can’t be prevented (both attacking and blocking), making it impossible for fog spells to protect against. The only downside to this card is that it’s a legendary creature, hence the number of copies on the decklist.

God-Eternal Rhonas simply doubles your creatures’ power and gives them Vigilance until end of turn. Its recursion is also handy during the later parts of the game. Plus its Deathtouch ability makes it a very potent blocker and attacker.

Planeswalkers All Up In This Deck!

Paradise Druid makes it possible to play Vivien, Arkbow Ranger and Nissa, Who Shakes the World a turn early, and their presence on the board are very intimidating.

Vivien, Arkbow Ranger fixes all your Trample problems by making your creatures bigger and giving those creatures Trample until end of turn.

Nissa, Who Shakes the World is a card that needs no introduction. Her ability just adds another body to the battlefield and doubles your mana produced by your Forest.

Support Cards – The Great Henge and Castle Garenbrig

These two cards are probably what’s going to make Mono Green a deck to beat once Eldraine is released.

Castle Garenbrig, the new mono-colored checkland, gets you 6 mana as its 4-mana ability. In hindsight, you’re actually spending 5-mana to get 6-mana because Castle Garenbrig ends up being tapped. The value may not be that high, but Green thrives on having mana when it can.

The Great Henge is a new favorite card that made me decide to go after Mono Green Garenbrig (yes, that’s what I’m calling it). This card synergizes so well with your high powered creatures so it’s easy to drop this without paying the full-cost. With God-Eternal Rhonas, you can almost guarantee a 2-drop Henge after Combat.

This card is great for both defensive and offensive purposes. It adds a counter to creatures that come into play and draws you a card as well. Tapping it for 2-mana also gains you 2-life so it puts you farther out of reach from hyper aggro decks (I’m looking at you, Mono Red!).

What’s the Gameplan?

The plan is simple. Go big, hit hard, and simply attack. This deck is meant to build pressure the longer the game progresses, but it can also end games quickly.

The sideboard is pretty straightforward against control and hyper aggro decks, but the cards on the sideboard are still flexible.

 

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