Just wondering, could someone explain to me why exactly G/W aggro & G/W midrange has fallen out of favor in the meta? It was present before Born of the Gods. Post BNG G/W picks up Brimaz and Courser of Kruphix (if they want courser over smiter). I haven't heard much about any G/W decks making waves at any tournaments as of lately. So what has changed in the meta that caused this?
I think the problem in a nutshell is that G/W tends to be a one-dimensional strategy. G/W gets some reasonably efficient creatures but doesn't have evasion or efficient removal. It's pretty good against "blitz aggro" decks but most other decks can just outmaneuver it. Right after rotation, there was a lot of fast mono-red popping up, and G/W briefly saw success in that format, but after the Pro Tour it quickly became clear that Mono-Blue was a better aggro deck and G/R was a better midrange deck.
^ has it, although I still think GW has some potential if Control continues to dominate. Also don't forget that Lifebane Zombie/Tidebinder Mage are 4x maindeckable in this format, which is nightmarish for GW decks. They don't have walkers (Ajani is good, but more of a buff bot than anything) or Mortars like GR does, so they lose to overpowered/linear hate cards pretty easily.
And their mana is tearing at the seams.
Brimaz is 1WW
courser is 1GG
fleecemane is GW
voice is GW
Wurm is 1GGW
selesnya charm is GW
Ajani is 1WW
They don't really capitalize on speed, often dropping just 1 creature a turn if they hit their colors, and they had no source of card or field advantage before Brimaz and courser, and now that they do their colors are stretched thin. Mono blue can arguably create better board advantage with a fat master of waves that's all but impossible for G/W to answer, while Mono blue can answer Brimaz, who makes weaker tokens much slower, with the 1 mana rapid hybridization.
With the linear strategy of a bigger creature every turn, you easily eat it to a string of removal from mono black. And something as simple as Sylvan caryatid into Polukranos is a brickwall without selesnya charm
Well GW has pretty much only above the curve creatures, you dont have removal, you dont have any kind of card advantage available besides Garruk, Caller of Beasts and he is a far stretch at 6cmc and I dont know if you have noticed but the meta is pretty hostile to creatures. That is why the midrange version GW is completely dead. A slow deck consisting of cards like Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, Archangel of Thune, Loxodon Smiter etc. is just asking to getting blown up by black decks or UW/x Control decks. You have a bit of game against the other creature deck which is GR Monsters but even then they still have more powerful tools like Stormbreath Dragon, all the planeswalkers including Domri Rade etc.
The faster aggro version has bit more game against the field. But to be honest I think that is just because you are being aggro and not because you are playing GW.
That is not even mentioning the impact that Tidebinder Mage and Lifebane Zombie will have against you just like the occasional Blood Baron of Vizkopa which is surprisingly good against you since many of your best cards are multi-colored and therefore white . And you WILL play against those cards very often.
GW doesnt have removal so Tidebinder is a 2 for 1 against them.
Banisher Priest kills it. Last Breath too. Also, GW has big creatures. If Tidebinder taps down something but is then unable to attack or block it turns into a 1-for-1. Actually Blue Devotion is one of the best match-ups for GW simply because the removal lines up so well (Charm + Banisher vs Thassa, Charm + Breath vs Master). It's funny because Breath was brought back to help vs Burn, but it also had the side-effect of making Blue Devotion a much better match-up.
So I play G/W Midrange every day in Standard, on Cockatrice and at FNM.
I continue to work on strategies for dealing with Esper Control and still maintain a viable midrange deck. I've had some success beating Esper Control, but nothing fully consistent yet. One example is the addition of "Savage Summoning" to get attacks in. More than dealing with Esper Control, however, my problem has been finding the right deck balance for a meta that is dominated by Esper but sees a lot of aggro now. I feel like I'm making progress towards that balance, but unfortunately, time is quickly running out; JOU is just around the corner.
Assuming we are talking about the aggro variant and not a ramp deck, the mana base is awful despite being two colors AND it can't use mutavault. The most popular/played cards in standard give GW the middle finger, namely blood baron, stormbreath dragon, elspeth, life bane zombie, tide binder mage, and master of waves being the biggest offenders. UWx control should be a good MU, but it's only ever 50/50 because detention sphere + wrath is the perfect removal and elspeth is the biggest road block for aggro in standard ever. The only thing GW consistently beats right now is other aggro decks, due to unflinching courage SB.
Despite all this, I still play GW because the individual cards have a higher power level on curve than any other deck, I just adjusted the deck for the meta. I played in SCG open Charlotte and went 7-3 playing GW with a light black splash for 4 MB thought seize and 3 blood baron, with 6 SB black removal spells, 3 sin collector, 2 golgari charm, and a 4th blood baron. You take a lot more damage from your lands, but 7 scry lands really helps in a deck with no real CA and thoughtseize is the second best card in standard (first being revelation)
Just wondering, could someone explain to me why exactly G/W aggro & G/W midrange has fallen out of favor in the meta? It was present before Born of the Gods. Post BNG G/W picks up Brimaz and Courser of Kruphix (if they want courser over smiter). I haven't heard much about any G/W decks making waves at any tournaments as of lately. So what has changed in the meta that caused this?
Thanks
Brimaz is 1WW
courser is 1GG
fleecemane is GW
voice is GW
Wurm is 1GGW
selesnya charm is GW
Ajani is 1WW
They don't really capitalize on speed, often dropping just 1 creature a turn if they hit their colors, and they had no source of card or field advantage before Brimaz and courser, and now that they do their colors are stretched thin. Mono blue can arguably create better board advantage with a fat master of waves that's all but impossible for G/W to answer, while Mono blue can answer Brimaz, who makes weaker tokens much slower, with the 1 mana rapid hybridization.
With the linear strategy of a bigger creature every turn, you easily eat it to a string of removal from mono black. And something as simple as Sylvan caryatid into Polukranos is a brickwall without selesnya charm
The faster aggro version has bit more game against the field. But to be honest I think that is just because you are being aggro and not because you are playing GW.
That is not even mentioning the impact that Tidebinder Mage and Lifebane Zombie will have against you just like the occasional Blood Baron of Vizkopa which is surprisingly good against you since many of your best cards are multi-colored and therefore white . And you WILL play against those cards very often.
That's it.
Tidebinder Mage isn't a 2 for 1. You kill it and you get your creature untapped.
LBZ puts it straight into exile.
I'm sure everybody here knows how much I hate it.
I still like my mono green deck
GW doesnt have removal so Tidebinder is a 2 for 1 against them.
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Banisher Priest kills it. Last Breath too. Also, GW has big creatures. If Tidebinder taps down something but is then unable to attack or block it turns into a 1-for-1. Actually Blue Devotion is one of the best match-ups for GW simply because the removal lines up so well (Charm + Banisher vs Thassa, Charm + Breath vs Master). It's funny because Breath was brought back to help vs Burn, but it also had the side-effect of making Blue Devotion a much better match-up.
In any case Polukranos, World Eater squishes it quite nicely.
I continue to work on strategies for dealing with Esper Control and still maintain a viable midrange deck. I've had some success beating Esper Control, but nothing fully consistent yet. One example is the addition of "Savage Summoning" to get attacks in. More than dealing with Esper Control, however, my problem has been finding the right deck balance for a meta that is dominated by Esper but sees a lot of aggro now. I feel like I'm making progress towards that balance, but unfortunately, time is quickly running out; JOU is just around the corner.
Despite all this, I still play GW because the individual cards have a higher power level on curve than any other deck, I just adjusted the deck for the meta. I played in SCG open Charlotte and went 7-3 playing GW with a light black splash for 4 MB thought seize and 3 blood baron, with 6 SB black removal spells, 3 sin collector, 2 golgari charm, and a 4th blood baron. You take a lot more damage from your lands, but 7 scry lands really helps in a deck with no real CA and thoughtseize is the second best card in standard (first being revelation)
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