So, I still haven’t found a multiplayer game in Korea, but I’ve at least found a couple of game centers. It turns out Koreans love to Draft, and I love to play Magic, so I joined an FNM Draft last night on account of having nothing better to do.¹ I ended up making a ton of mistakes (not new) and coming in second (new) on the strength of three Strangleroot Geists, which got me thinking: Green can do a pretty good impression of black these days! I’ve played MBC (mono-black control) and MBA (mono-black aggro), but I think it’s worth seeing if it is possible to build MBG: all the flava of black, but in mono-green!

A Dark Slice

Strangleroot Geist (SRG) is a great start, giving us perfectly acceptable black flavor (a strangling Spirit—how much more black can you get!), a black mechanic (natch!), and a possible theme (bloodthirsty botanical beatdown, baby!), but let’s see what other options we might be able to find.

Far be it for me step on the toes of MaRo, Defender of the Color Pie, but I tend to think that when green goes beyond a certain level of spookiness, it starts to step on black’s toes. I know black doesn’t own the rights to spookiness, or even evil, but green’s dark side tends to take on a kind of Nature, Red in Tooth and Claw aspect that we can see in cards such as Feed the Pack, Gaea's Revenge, and Prey Upon. Recently, we’ve seen two blocks that were, flavorwise, pretty damn dark, but most of the cards we’ve seen in Mirrodin, New Phyrexia, and Innistrad have still been solidly green mechanically . . . and just a little twisted in terms of flavor—Creeping Renaissance, Brutalizer Exarch, Birthing Pod, and the whole Werewolf thing all seem consistent with green’s place in the flavor pie, but perhaps mean green rather than the tranquil, sylvan green that we’re used to . . . all Elves and flowers and cute little kitties.

Despite the hippie themes, green has always made it clear that horrifying things sometimes happen in the jungle, but they're all part of the natural order. That’s why ferocious fangs are all in green’s wheelhouse unless they belong to specifically black creature types—like Demons and Vampires. In the same way, Snakes and Spiders are pretty damn scary and always feel nasty—especially when they sneak up on you, inject you with a paralyzing venom and start devouring your giblets while you watch helplessly . . . okay, I may have issues with Spiders, but that sort of thing is green as long as it’s a Spider and not a serial killer. Bottom line: No scary wildlife for MBG, even the awesome Vorapede, which I would really like to include. I also want to avoid cards with a nongreen color identity, so no hybrid, gold, or anything else; MBG is less impressive if half of the cards are technically black to begin with.²

I see two potential problems with this project that I’ll have to solve somehow. First, when you try to separate green and black, you run into an overlap between Lhurgoyf and Mortivore. That mechanic is pretty much equally split between the two colors, and that’s particularly relevant if Innistrad block is our starting point because Boneyard Wurm, Splinterfright and Wreath of Geists all give green a piece of that same basic theme; am I allowed to count those or not? The second, more difficult, problem is removal. Green gets Naturalize and black gets Terror, and thus has it ever been. There is no way to give a Green Terror, and the Green removal that I can access is unlikely to qualify as black enough. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, but it’s worth thinking about now.

Putting the Pieces Together

The first card I want to put in this deck was originally criticized for being Green when it should have been red, but when you get right down to it, its main mechanic has basically been in black since Limited Edition Alpha. Add to that, it has the flavor of vengeful undeath—a clear black vibe. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Vengevine!

With SRG, that gives us nasty, hasty beaters at the 2 and 4 slot. For the 3, I really do think that a little bit of Lhurgoyf action is acceptable. Boneyard Wurm is just a straightforward scavenger, perfectly natural, but Splinterfright is a scary Elemental that digs on death and gives you greater power in exchange for sacrificing another precious resource (your library). It’s not Necropotence, but I don’t think anyone would bat an eyelid if Splinterfright were a black critter—especially if you replaced trample with fear. Splinterfright definitely makes the cut.

I also want to add a couple of copies of the best Gravedigger in the game: Deadwood Treefolk. Having two of them at the top of the curve is going to help this aggro deck recover from sweepers and squeeze the maximum value out of those recurring toys. Ideally, I’d love to cast the Treefolk to get back a pair of SRGs, then cast them both to bring back a Vengevine or two—that’s 8 to 12 points of hasty beatdown onto an empty board, plus 6 more points if the opponent is lucky enough to kill the SRGs.

Next up, it’s no surprise that Ghoultree deserves a seat at the table. A green Zombie with affinity for corpses . . . are you kidding me? Plus, as far as I can remember, that mechanic has only ever appeared on one card before, and that was Avatar of Woe, so it’s a no-brainer for MBG.

That gives us five creatures and a mana curve that doesn’t completely suck, although we’re also halfway to a deck that wants a lot of critters in the graveyard, so we may have to come to add a couple more critters. For now, though, we need some spells.

This is an aggro deck, so we need some aggro spells. Two I really like are Leeching Bite and Hunger of the Howlpack; the former is a monogreen version of a B/G combat trick from Apocalypse, so is perfectly suited flavorwise, and the latter is a riff on the green staple Giant Growth, but one that hearkens back to black classics Khabal Ghoul and Sadistic Glee. Together, those are going to leave us with a red-zone package second to none!

But multiplayer is about resource management, so let’s get some resources up in here. First up, black has always viewed its creatures as disposable resources, and draining life from critters is as old school as black gets, so Momentous Fall fits like a glove; honestly, I’d always thought the flavor of that was a little weak since the flavor text suggests that they're stripping down an enemy (Eldrazi steak—yummy!), but you have to sac your own forces. It’s much better as a black card: super Skulltap! You don’t have too many huge fatties, but don’t be afraid to munch on a Vengevine in the midgame because it’s going to be coming back soon enough.

Next up is a card so dark I’m surprised it was ever printed in green—even in Innistrad block: Grim Flowering. Green’s flavor has always accepted death, and its mechanics have often helped replenish its resources in order to keep its aggro strategies viable against control (think Fecundity), but only black truly celebrates death like this.

Finally, with a well-stocked pantry—I mean, graveyard—Forgotten Lore seems quite natural: It was remade as a black card in Planar Chaos, so there shouldn't be any complaints about it being a good fit for black. Now let’s put it all together:

"Mono-Black Green"

• Creatures (19)
• 3 Deadwood Treefolk
• 4 Ghoultree
• 4 Splinterfright
• 4 Strangleroot Geist
• 4 Vengevine

• Spells (16)
• 3 Momentous Fall
• 4 Hunger of the Howlpack
• 4 Leeching Bite
• 2 Forgotten Lore
• 3 Grim Flowering

• Lands (25)
• 25 Forest

Buy This Deck

There you have it: A strong aggro deck, perfect for limited attack formats (Star, Emperor, Attack Left, etc.), but with the legs for the long game . . . at least barring graveyard hate. In addition, it offers an unusual look at both black and green without sacrificing too much power to the theme. In particular, I love the combo of SRG and Vengevine, but you also have options like Spawnwrithe (even the name is creepy!) and Predator Ooze, which has the original Vampire mechanic, as well as Bramblecrush, which has the most nihilistic flavor text since Eastern and Western Paladin. Finding your favorite color’s flavor in the other four colors is a fun game—I strongly suggest you play!

¹ I don’t know how many of you have ever drafted in a foreign language, but I can strongly advise against drafting a set you don’t know in a language you don’t speak. I’ve been taking Korean lessons for a week now, but somehow, the difference between instant and sorcery never came up. It wasn't until the end of the first pack that I realized that my third pick, an awesome black instant, was just a so-so black sorcery. Sigh . . .

² Although I’m really looking forward to rebuilding my old B/G Rock deck once my cards arrive from Japan!