The Friendliest Shatterstorm

Posted on March 17, 2020

"Granulate cleared away a Frogmite and an Arcbound Worker, but left Osyp with all of his lands and an Atog. A second Atog plus a Cranial Plating gave the TOGIT member a two-turn clock, and Kuhman simply conceded he couldn't stabilize the board, revealing his only card to be a Pulse of the Forge."

-Ted Knutson; July 25, 2004

To hear Osyp tell it; the last game of Grand Prix Orlando 2004 was a much more dramatic turn of events... At least from the opponent's perspective. He had started on a fast Arc-Slogger (via Seething Song) but stalled briefly on 3 mana. For his part, Osyp had avoided disaster with the well-placed five damage of a Shrapnel Blast but had not yet exploded with the fierce avalanche of damage that would someday get so many of Affinity's Staples banned.

When he eventually hit his fourth land, the Big Red player thought he had won the lottery. Granulate!

Against a deck of all artifacts, that Granulate seemed like it should shatter the world. In fact, it Shattered all of one Frogmite and one Arcbound Worker (two cards that don't even make the Affinity cut any more), leaving all of Osyp's lands. From there, the already Block Constructed Pro Tour Champion became a Block Constructed Grand Prix Champion, in what he would later describe as the easiest win ever.

Poor Granulate.

Today we have a bonzer new Shatterstorm; even friendlier than Granulate (if you build your deck for it). I speak, of course, of...

Huh?

Raise your hand if you even knew Rampage of the Clans was legal in Standard!

Last week I wrote this:

"Anecdotally, I've probably lost second-most to more dedicated Ramp-style Simic decks; specifically the kinds with cards like Castle Garenbrig."

I had more gravitated toward decks that started on turn one with Arboreal Grazer than Gilded Goose; and followed up on turn two with Growth Spiral more than, ahem, Wolfwillow Haven.This led me to the conclusion that Bant was the right deck to play (had I not bailed on the PTQ due to, you know, social ~~pressure~~ distancing).

But despite losing to Bant several times with Temur in practice, I managed to beat those kinds of decks sometimes. But what I never managed to beat was this Castle Garenbrig deck that powered out Feasting Troll King and - you guessed it - that friendliest of Shatterstorms, Rampage of the Clans.

It was only later that I realized this strategy was more than just a one-of brew; and had a 5-0 League pedigree:

Mono-Green Food | THB Standard | fandenunu, 5-0 MTGO Standard League mtgo-Standard

Instants (4)
4 Rampage of the Clans

Sorceries (4)
4 Giant Opportunity

Enchantments (7)
3 Wolfwillow Haven
4 Trail of Crumbs

Artifacts (6)
3 Golden Egg
3 Witch's Oven

I think this Mono-Green deck is one of the coolest ways you can string ten victories together in Standard, and would love to describe some of the ways now...

Feast Your Eyes on... Feasting Troll King

Feasting Troll King always should have been a powerhouse standout from Throne of Eldraine. It's an awesome card! A 7/6 with Vigilance and Trample for six mana might demand a second look... Even if you end up rejecting it. But with two different, distinct, but ultimately synergistic routes to card advantage (and durability) built in... That can make Feasting Troll King relevant; at least as long as Oko, Thief of Crowns isn't invalidating its required investment in mana.

You can cast Feasting Troll King on the quick via either the Ramp elements of the deck (Gilded Goose, Wolfwillow Haven) or the five-six jump from Castle Garenbrig... Or both! Given the current composition of Standard, it's simply likely to resolve. But even if it doesn't, a deck with many routes to Food can get Feasting Troll King back from the graveyard. With Trail of Crumbs as one of those avenues to Food, you can sometimes do so with an even greater edge in card advantage.

On the battlefield, Feasting Troll King will often be the most powerful creature on either side of the table. It is highly resilient due to the Food re-buy option, and 7 power of Trample probably tumble it over anything south of a Beanstalk Giant.

One of the most impressive aspects of Feasting Troll King in this deck is its interaction with Witch's Oven. Because the Troll has 6 toughness it by default cashes in for two Food tokens. That means, with one tap of the Witch's Oven, you can from that point convert a single Food into a 7/6 Vigilant and Trampling card advantage machine.

Cavalier of Thorns generates some extra value here, by doing things like finding Gingerbread Cabin while putting Feasting Troll King directly into the graveyard (where you can re-buy it with the bounty of that Cabin). And at the same time the world has somehow forgotten how dominant even a single Wicked Wolf can prove with a couple of Food. Kill their best thing; never die; swing for like 100; keep it going through whatever they put up.

Feasting Troll King is the gaudiest beneficiary of the Food engine, and Wicked Wolf is probably the most underrated... But it bears mentioning that this deck comes packed with a full-on Food engine.

It starts on the one with Gilded Goose, gets paid off via the aforementioned Witch's Oven; but actually goes harder than many Food decks of the past. Four Gilded Goose and four Trail of Crumbs combine for the one-2 mana-and-cards combo that made Jund a player in Standard last year... But Giant Opportunity?

What an, ahem, Giant Opportunity! Making three Foods can be useful; but what's even more exciting is exploiting Gilded Goose and especially Trail of Crumbs to get a 7/7 online faster. The latter even paying you off with a sacrifice-and-search trigger that keeps your hand robust even as you spend some temporary resources.

... Which brings us to the friendliest Shatterstorm!

The single most important thing that makes this deck worth talking about is the ability to transform accelerators - and especially generally inoffensive permanents like Food - directly into power.

You can stockpile Food, make Food with Gilded Goose or Witch's Oven, or line up multiple artifacts and enchantments simultaneously via Trail of Crumbs... And then Bam! Get paid off with Rampage of the Clans.

It's fairly trivial in this deck to accumulate both 1) seven or more artifacts and enchantments, and 2) a window to cast Rampage of the Clans (especially if the hapless opponent doesn't know it's coming). In that way this Mono-Green deck can function like a combo deck. You get the added possibility of blowing up an opponent's key permanents, a la an Elspeth Conquers Death or the odd The Great Henge... Which can be great or can be some blockers you have to factor in for.

Fully half of the cards in the main deck are either artifacts like Golden Egg, enchantments like Wolfwillow Haven, or produce additional artifact permanents like Gilded Goose or Giant Opportunity. So if the objective is just to hit seven such permanents to convert to 21 power... It's not a high bar. Of course you can also beat up the opponent with Plan A and then finish them off combo-style with Food or other permanents you have lying around, say, after they tap for a Shatter the Sky.

I've mentioned Wolfwillow Haven a couple of times. I think this card is a player and will end up contributing to more decks in multiple formats in the coming years. I've never liked Paradise Druid; and Growth Spiral has multiple things going against it, including requiring a second color [early] and not actually accelerating you 100% of the time. But Wolfwillow Haven is another story.

It's the same converted mana cost; it fits equally nicely into the two-to-four schema that makes Nightpack Ambusher so lethal, and off-curve it can even save you a mana in-turn... Plus, of course, Wolfwillow Haven provides a Plan B even without Rampage of the Clans. It's not an earth-shattering Plan B, but when the game has dragged on forever and you're both in topdeck mode, there are worse things than a 2/2 Wolf that can no longer be countered.

Ultimately this deck has not only a ton of raw power and a potential combo kill... But between Feasting Troll King and Giant Opportunity (and I suppose to a lesser extent Nightpack Ambusher) the kind of power that can make Shadowspear simultaneously effective and resilient. I think if I were to play this archetype myself, I would want to focus on more consistency and power level, essentially trading in a bunch of two-mana artifacts for four-ofs in Wolfwillow Haven and payoff creatures.

That is,