I'm Just Feeding You Lies

Well, I was very wrong. Back when I started my Post Rotation Standard Decks series, almost everything I said is wrong. Here's the big package of lies. Here's a list of the statements I made which are wrong:

Lie: "This is the start of what is probably an incredibly short series"

Truth: If you follow the blog, you would know I put out a dozen decks. I wouldn't consider that incedibly short. Incredibly short tops out at a playset.

Lie: "Throne of Geth sucks..."

Truth: Throne of Geth is actually insanely aggressive. It's not easy to explain its goodness in a void, so I will give a more thorough explanation after you see the decklist

Lie: "Black is much stronger than green when it comes to infect cards"

Truth: The only real difference is that black has Hand/Skittles, while green has Putrefax. Putrefax is absolutely nuts, and as I found out quickly, it's not worth splashing black. In fact, I found that the artifacts have a big enough punch to give the mono-green version the punch it needs to put it over the top.

So without further ado, here is my mono-green poison decklist:

4x Putrefax
4x Corpse Cur
4x Ichorclaw Myr
4x Necropede
4x Joraga Treespeaker

4x Ancient Stirrings
2x Throne of Geth
3x Mimic Vat
4x Livewire Lash
4x Vines of the Vastwood

23x Forest

You can toss in as many fetch lands as you think you're willing to lose life for. This deck is 35% artifacts, and 73% colorless, so Ancient Stirrings is a really powerful tutor. The only bomb in the deck you can't get with it is Putrefax. Also, because your deck has so many artifacts, Throne of Geth becomes way better. Your opponent won't want to spend a kill spell on your creature if they know it will just give then a poison counter instead. Joraga Treespeaker seems a little peculier, but it really speeds things up. Turn 3 Putrefax is really good! It's even better if you wait until turn 4 to play the Putrefax so you can play Mimic Vat first. If Mimic Vat with an imprinted Putrefax isn't dealt with immediatly, you better hope to top deck Bolts and Blades every turn just to hold off your impending death. And that there Livewire Lash? If an infect creature equipped with the Lash gets shot down with a spell, it just says thank you and puts 2 poison counters on their opponent anyways.

So how does the deck really play? It shouldn't suprise you that it is all about getting aggressive. I played and recorded a pair of games against Mark's RUG control deck, which he finished in the top 8 of this past TNT high stakes with.

Game 1

I kept my opening hand, while mark mulliganed down to 6. Mark won the roll and started with a Scalding Tarn into Preordain. I played a land and played a Joraga Treespeaker. During his next turn, mark played another Scalding Tarn and Lightning Bolted my Treespeaker. On my turn I played a forest and a Necropede and passed. Turn 3, mark played a Raging Ravine and passed, while I played another Forest followed by a Necropede and Ancient Stirrings, which got me a Mimic Vat. I then attacked to bring Mark's poison count up to 1. Turn 4, Mark played an Explore followed by Misty Rainforest, then laughed and revealed 3 Primeval Titans in his hand. I played a Forest then attacked for 2 more poison, then dropped a Mimic Vat and passed. Mark played Jace the Mind Sculptor, and used him to Brainstorm. I played a Throne of Geth, then attacked. Mark cast Lightning Bolt on a Necropede, but I responded with a kicked Vines of the Vastwood. That brought Mark up to 9 poison, so I sacrificed Throne of Geth to itself to proliferate Mark to death.

That game was good, but subpar for both decks. Neither of us drew what we wanted, so it really just ended with the fact that I had some early plays. Here's a second game we played:

Mark started off with a Khalni Garden while I was able to get a turn 1 Treespeaker again. On his second turn, Mark played an island, followed by an Explore and another Mountain. I played a forest, and Mark Bolted my Treespeaker before I could level it up. We then had to talk for a minute about a rules understanding. After that I played an Ichorclaw Myr. Let me make a quick aside to explain the rules confusion:

Levelers (not the Mirroden one, the Rise of the Eldrazi ones) all have an ability called "Level Up". This is an activated ability. In Joraga Treespeaker's case, when it reaches level 1, it gains a mana ability. The activated ability of a leveler when it levels up can be responded to. If you remove it in response, then when the leveling resolves, there will be no legal target and it will be countered upon resolution. However, if you were to kill the Treespeaker after it had succesfully leveled up, then you wouldn't be able to stop it from producing mana. because a mana ability cannot be responded to. Therefore, strategically, the best thing to do is kill the treespeaker in response to it getting leveled up, that will effectively Time Warp your opponent. Anyways, back to the game:

So at the beginning of turn 3, Mark has a land for each of his mana and a plant token in play, while I have 2 forests and an Ichorclaw Myr. Mark played a Misty Rainforest and then played Preordain. On my turn I played a forest, then attacked with my Myr and Mark blocked with his plant. Post combat, I cast Ancient Stirring, but Mark Mana Leaked it. I then played a Livewire Lash and passed. Mark untapped, played a Misty Rainforest, and passed. I played another forest, followed by Joraga Treespeaker, then equipped an attacked with my Myr to bring Mark to 3 poison. Mark uptapped, dropped a Scalding Tarn, popped a handful of fetchlands, and dropped Primeval Titan getting Raging Ravine and Halimar Depths. On my turn I played a forest, leveled up Jorga treespeaker, played and equipped another lash to my Myr and attacked for 5. Mark blocked with his Primeval Titan, and thanks to Ichorclaw's ability, they traded. On Mark's turn he cast Destructive Force, which left me with no lands, and just a pair of Livewire Lashes in play. Mark was down to just 4 lands, which had 1 of each of his colors and Raging Ravine. We both took a turn of Draw-Go, then I had the much more exciting turn of Forest-Go. Mark respoded with a much more exciting turn of playing Misty Rainforest and attacked me for 4 with Raging Ravine. I once again had to draw and pass, hoping to hit another land for my 2 Necropedes in hand. Mark just attacked with his Raging Ravine again to put me at 11. I finally drew my forest, and wa able to play a Necropede. Mark foiled those plans though by playing a Frost Titan, tapping down my Necropede. On my turn, I hit another forest, and played a second Necropede. Mark played a second Frost Titan and started the beating, I realized I had no more outs and resigned.

I think I misplayed that game because when I know I'm playing a Destructive Force deck, I should just hoard lands once I hit 5 mana with 3 lands and an active Treespeaker. Had I held 2 lands in hand once I had all my mana, after the Destructive Fore, I would have been able to come back very fast and keep bringing the heat from the Necropedes. Regarless, most decks can't win after getting slapped with a Destructive Force.

I really like this deck, and it will obviously get better as more cards arise from Mirroden Besieged and "Action". Speaking Sideboard, an advantage of Poison is that it doesn't care about life totals, so running 4x Nature's Claim in the sideboard won't be a problem at all. Also, this deck may need more removal, so Brittle Effigy should do the trick. The other cards, I haven't decided on yet.

Regardless, I am signing off for now. Just remember, never let yourself get hit for poison once your at 5, you never know when that Vine of the Vastwood or Giant Growth may pop up.