Image obtained via ComicArtFans.com

Firsts

Killer Bees was my first experience with Magic, and I was utterly hooked. I’m not sure how any preteen could see the whimsy of 1993 through 1995 and not see Phil Foglio’s work, backed up by badass dragons, demons, and frickin’ Durkwood Boars.

The fluttery feeling of the first, the initial, was very real for me. That’s when I knew that something flavorful, something wizarding, couldn’t be ignored. The Wizards retail locations weren’t in full force yet (standalone Wizards of the Coast stores—no, really), and the nearest hobby shop or comic book store was forty to one hundred miles away, depending which way I wanted to drive to find cards. As a preteen, I didn’t have a credit card for eBay to buy cards early. That $90 Mox Jet still haunts me. I would’ve instantly bought it on principle, and that impulsiveness could have haunted me even worse.

In relationships, I forced myself to think things through. When trying things out, I say openly that I’m doing so or I’ll find myself in a nine-month term on some political committee. I put constraints on myself as to stay within the line. It’s how my wife and I balance. She plans, I bring spontaneity, and together, we make some sort of Without Limits relationship balance. (It’s an underrated sports-date movie.) She wasn’t my first love or first date—I grew up rural, after all, and frankly, there isn’t much to do. She is my last, of which we work on, like fine tuning a sideboard or trying out Treasure Cruise in every G/U infect deck.

This article begins with my first deck, the thing I hastily built, and it ends with a latest version of the same.

First Mono-Green Bad

The genesis behind my first deck was seeing a green flyer, one of only thirty in existence now. The Bees could inflate to kill Shivan Dragon, if need be, or any first-striking white knight, a staple in my local backpacking metagame. The art was on point, and the other artworks in the deck were also on point. Nice. I chose more on art to start, and I then noticed that 2/2 Bears weren’t winning much—and it also didn’t make sense for Bears and Boars to hang out. Though Mammoths with Boars seemed totally cool to me at the time. That started my formation as a Spike/Vorthos, and it’s where I sit now with my three infect decks and one bad one.

Llanowar Elves – This allowed me to play eight 1-drops and would help the Bees grow bigger, messing with combat math. People forgot about the mana-adding ability when I was tapped out.

Wall of Wood – It stops White Knight and Yotian Soldier and soaks up a Lightning Bolt. Was it bad? You bet, but I had not even heard Birds of Paradise existed, and why would I want a 0/1 that could die so easily to Force Spike or Lightning Bolt?

Giant Spider – It kills Dragon Whelp! Also, when I placed Lure on the Giant Spider, it could often live through an alpha strike against a blue opponent.

Durkwood Boars – Because they’re boars! A 4/4 brings the beef, and that kills Hill Giants. Boom.

Cockatrice – My first rare ever pulled became a play set, including terrible trades to obtain four of these. I would love putting Giant Growth on them and utterly killing two or three blue creatures. Of course, I never worried about Lightning Bolts, and deathtouch is so terribly powerful in casual Magic!

War Mammoth – It turns out that a Giant Growth on one War Mammoth makes a defender gun-shy, allowing a 3/3 to break through the line. There was one Unsummon kid locally, but he learned quickly that bouncing a creature on turn four meant he couldn’t use that for turn five!

Scaled Wurm – I needed an, um, finisher. The art was cool, and of course, I was “testing him,” which translated to, “LOOK AT HOW BIG HE IS AND HOW HARD HE SMASHES!” He killed so many 1/1 creatures, man.

Giant Growth – This spell never gets the respect it deserves. It was able to be reprinted in 1993 and 2014, and from twelve-year-old Mike killing Serra Angel and Shivan Dragon to stomping Tom Lau in a core set Draft, it’s always a winner. Hell, I even tried it in my infect deck for Modern!

Naturalize – Without a sideboard, I felt a lot of “enchant creatures,” or Auras, would kill me out, so I better have a way to kill them out. Also, I found out that it stopped Primal Clay, which was a fun thing to find out.

Glasses of Urza – With Counterspell, Force Spike, and Power Sink being literally free in trades, I had to know what was coming. There was also a mystique about knowing what your opponent could do at instant speed. At 1 mana for an uncommon, this card was stupidly good.

First Mono-Green Bad ? Early-Days Magic | Mike Linnemann

• Creatures (30)
• 2 Scaled Wurm
• 4 Cockatrice
• 4 Durkwood Boars
• 4 Giant Spider
• 4 Killer Bees
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Wall of Wood
• 4 War Mammoth

• Spells (10)
• 2 Naturalize
• 4 Giant Growth
• 2 Lure
• 2 Glasses of Urza

• Lands (20)
• 20 Forest

Buy This Deck

I put the deck into CoolStuffInc’s deck-builder, arguably the most awesome thing ever. I hate to be a homer, but man is that thing crazy-helpful. My entire deck fit in there, no problem:

The entire deck was under fifteen dollars. That’s so comical to me because it was so hard to find fourth copies of cards. I mean, there were literal months of planning for me to create a finished deck, which would take seconds at a shop today.

Second Mono-Green Bad, for under $17

I looked at it again to see what would be just as easy to find! I tried to stay as true to form as the original, keeping price, complexity, and approach to be similar. I found that the cards would actually be similar in price. Obviously, Noble Hierarch, Elvish Spirit Guide, and Bounty of the Hunt would be more explosive, but a first deck will never have those cards. Their complexity and cost is too high! Also, yes, we have the Internet, but all of these cards could be had in any Magic store for almost nothing. If someone were building his or her first deck and came with this list, I’d be happy to donate some if I were sitting nearby. I’m sure folks nearby would do the same.

Dryad Militant – She hits for 2 and has a dynamite ability for any reanimate shenanigans.

Experiment One just grows huge with this deck, rarely sitting at 2/2 for long.

Strangleroot Geist is the perfect trader for early drops.

Leatherback Baloth is the scariest 3-drop I’ve seen in green. ’Nuff said.

The Bellowing Tanglewurm allows for some 2/1s to hit folks in the face.

Wolfir Silverheart was reprinted a lot in intro packs, and the upside with trample is dumb.

Aspect of Hydra is way better than I thought it would be in mono-green—for it’s for only 1 mana.

Harmonize is needed to refill a hand, as turn four is probably a reloading time for the deck anyway.

We have Prey Upon for those pesky creatures.

Rancor plays a pivotal role in bringing the beef early and allowing wins late.

Vines of Vastwood is my favorite pump spell because it protects your dudes, pumps your dudes, and protects opponents’ dudes from being pumped up or targeted, which is enormously huge.

Mono-Green, the Beats of 2014 ? Casual | Mike Linnemann

• Creatures (25)
• 2 Bellowing Tanglewurm
• 3 Wolfir Silverheart
• 4 Dryad Militant
• 4 Experiment One
• 4 Garruk's Companion
• 4 Leatherback Baloth
• 4 Strangleroot Geist

• Spells (13)
• 2 Vines of Vastwood
• 3 Aspect of Hydra
• 2 Harmonize
• 2 Prey Upon
• 4 Rancor

• Lands (22)
• 22 Forest

Buy This Deck

The Easy Contest

I haven’t done a contest in a while. This nostalgia got me to thinking if someone needs a hookup. Maybe someone’s first deck had a token generator! I still have a few tokens from rk post. Ayup, that’s me under that steampunk cosplay.

I’ll mail out a few via Twitter! I’ll pick five at random to send out.

Take a snapshot of your first decklist, as best you can remember it, and tweet it to me at @VorthosMike or by using the #Vorthos or #firstdeck hashtag! Don’t have a Twitter profile? Use the hashtag #Vorthos on Instagram, and I’ll find you there, too.

-Mike