yeah fact or fiction will be a budget modern staple for control and i really like it for the deck
i may be wrong but i think that Kaya's Guile may be one of the strongest budget(for now) cards in the set. i would run 3 in one esper charm slot and 2 cast down slots, each ability in has is a sb ability, but is a sb bring in against so much of the meta that you may as well run it mb. its no cryptic but its still very good
archmages charm also looks solid (people seemed hyped about it but its not even close to cryptic and i don't think mono u delver has enough tools to be tear 1 so i imagine its price will drop fairly fast)
i like the idea but when i see slumber i see a control/ tempo finisher. (in the deck with growth spirals, mystic snakes and other tempo creatures)
the card i really like and think a stompy deck can abuse is Saddled Rimestag,
if you ran some more flash creatures like spellstutter sprite in a defensive spell slot alongside coatal this could give some serious power. (running quickling or vapour snag to reuse etb trigger creatures could also work)
i'm not in love with dungrove without a land ramp package (tribe elder, coiling oracle and growth spiral ect) but none of these are really very aggressive)
for the three drop id consider 2 copies of Nulltread Gargantuan, with the 4 coatals and spell sprites.
(if you could find another couple of solid aggressive artifacts for the deck the ensoul artifact could be pretty good with the golem)
i'm honestly not sure. the deck will need a lot of refining, but am interested
hexdrinker is constantly over performing and i've even had him in progenatus mode a couple of time(something i honestly was not expecting to happen in modern) and the second almost hexproof mode was fairly common and loam lion is able to get eone to 3 with a fair bit more consistency. turn one eone turn 2 drinker and a narnam into a turn 3 lvl 3 hexdrinker has been surprisingly consistent and extremely powerful. no turn three kills yet but a very consistent turn 4 kills are happening. and the deck grinds surprisingly well as 10 of the mb creatures are basically hatebears against some of the stronger decks in the format and we now have a true and big payoff mana sink.
a leveled hexdrinker is hit by maelstrom pulse, dreadbore, "destroy" based board wipes, sac effects where its the only target. and not much else in the format touches it.
i'm a little tempted to add selfless spirit to the mb, but i'm not sure it's needed.
i have to say this change really really annoys me, as i've been working to bling out the deck with promos (as all the creatures except avatar and narnams have nice alt arts promos) and i've just got rhonas masterpieces and now i have to drop him and the steel leafs and buy and hope that the hexdrinker foils dont curl to much ;/
anyway yeah hexdrinker is bonkers and worth running 4 of (i expect it will be the 3rd 4 of one drop for the more traditional mono g fetchless stompy)
So I spotted Martyr's Soul in the spoilers and thought of this deck, having a free 3/2 on turn two or a 5/4 turn three seems pretty solid although you would need to go particularly 1 drop heavy to really make it work to its potential.
agree with all
i would also add that tibalt is a solid super budget option for SB over skull crack and leyline
i still like the ruins s have been running them, (the life loss tends to very rarly be an issue of winning and losing a match and ruins has won very slightly more games than ist lost for me ( these where both very very rare cases and is more down to preference i feel than genuine advantage)
i've taken the wizards 12 bolt list in a slight different direction again. (still around the $100 mark)
the deck could totally lose a gut shot for another lavamancer and i may do that in the future
i've been really impressed with Dreadhorde Arcanist in the deck, it's a creature that trigger prowess, has a wizard subtype and wins grindy games if opponents cannot deal with him (he very similar to grim lavamancer but a tad more aggressive)
to make him more effective (and because it allows more turn one lavarunners and turn 2 prowess triggers) i've added 4 mutagenic growths, there is life loose but this is rarly an issue. (most modern burn decks shock and fetch for the first couple of turn and this still means we are taking less self inflicted damage that we would from a fetch/shock land base), the big upside is it allows you to use archanist to use skewer, light up, and wizards lightning from the gy. while also being used to pump himself to force through damage with his native trample.
because of the low curve and the use of 6 free spells i've also added in 3 light up the stages to keep the deck churning through its self. (i also feels its better than alternative burn spells main board as all that's left is rift bolt, skull crack, searing blood, lightning strike in the budget range and light up the stage just dose more most of the time.
for SB i would also add that if you can afford Eidolon of the Great Revel (only about $6 in paper) its a very solid card both mb and sb and if its not in mb it should be in your sb, as it single handedly wins games against phoenix, humans. as well as being very solid in deathshadow, the rock, scales affinity and storm
there is also a good case for 2 mb Forgotten Cave the same as is done in pauper burn.
horizons hasn also provided a few sb options that would work in a budget shell
Geomancer's Gambit (land destruction with a cantrip)
Pillage (land or over priced artifact destruction)
Magmatic Sinkhole (solid big creature removal takes down hollow ones and gurmags, baneslayers and things, as well as dealing with lillys, jaces and teferi's) the big issue with it is fueling the gy without fetchlands and running 8 creatures mb that rely on the gy (in builds without arcanists and mb lavamancer this seems more solid)
mb options
Lava Dart (no idea how this will play deserves testing but is far from auto include)
Reckless Charge (really shines in arcanist build, it's a tad high risk but also allows you to win with a topdecked soulscar mage late game maybe a 2 of)
My 50cents on they pyromancer
I personally think it's a solid 2 of.
In the mid games and if we get flooded its a solid looting and way to discard. With all the looting in the deck I rarely have an issue getting to three lands
It works really well with the bushwhacker by getting upto three body's for 3 mana.
Now the main reason to run its is if the game gets drawn out into mid-late game.
The big problem with the deck is trying to play 2 creture in a turn after turn 4 against stuff like control. Pyromancer allows you to get one creture trigger and draw two cards refilling your hand to hopefully get a vengevine or 2 back from an empty hand
Lastly it can be ditched early for late game value as after a boardwipe this provides a solid way in gaining back some board presents
So it's not perfect at anytime but all facets of all it's abilities are relevent hear giving it extreme versatility and giving us a large advantage against control deck and tempo decks.
assuming force of negation and archmage's charm drop in price to around the $5-10 mark then i think this will be the a close to optimal build for a budget list
i like the fact you can cast force of negation for its mana cost in the later game without having to stick a lot of mana into it like shoal.
sandbar is a auto include i think. and 2 seems to be the correct number
charm is extremely solid (not as good as cryptic but already cheaper by about $17)
unfortunately we didn't get any new creatures. merfolk trickster or Spellstutter Sprite is about as close as we have for a 2 drop and is probably worth running in the clique spot for budget builds. (the big downside to tempest is its lack of flash, it's only ok as a card and is pretty vulnerable in the meta, it passes the bolt test but not the push test (like serpent) and it's not consistently big (like delver and ptermander) it's not the worst option but it's also not the best.
out of all the more expensive cards (fetches, cryptic, snapcaster, JMS ect.) vendilion clique seems like the best non-budget buy, for price - maximum effect on the deck.
thing in the ice may well be the second strongest, for decks without cryptics commands its adds a way to deal with on board threats. and 4 things are again cheaper than 2 cryptics.
kayas is just awesome and i would be very surprised not to find it as a 3-4 of in the 75 going forwards
clearings is also some excellent tempo and i suspect that its going To end up as a 3-4 of.
nether spirit i can see being played as a 1-2 of in decks that run no other creature cards, as its a solid upgrade on bloodghuats in that it doesn't need the land drop to come back and it can block
I feel like with both mongoose and hexdrinker being added to the format it may be time to rethink the creture base and the way the deck function. Something along the lines of
This makes stubbon denial irelevent but with the new free counters we should be able maintain protection.
Also by not using the gy to fuel mandrills and 0 mana counters to help against Gy hate the deck should have a consistently large enough gy to maintain the threshold for mongoose and ptermander. This also makes goyf and snap caster a little stronger over the long game and allows the deck to run 1/2 of the new red removal spell. I'm honestly not shore if this will be stronger than the current build but I'll test and get back to you.
I'm still not sold on hexdrinker, I think he just gets chump blocked to death and adds less to the deck than the other 1 drops or the 2-3 drops he replaced
Hexdrinker is good because it does double duty in two very different types of match ups.
Vs Tron, Ad Naus,Scapeshift, and other combo, we just want to go fast, and increasing the times a simple 2/1 on turn one is a big boost to the deck.
these match up are normally won or lost around turn 4 and before we see our 3rd land drop.
On the other hand take UW control, and Jund, many times the match up comes down to trading 1 for 1 for a few turn as we play creature and they remove them.
Top decking Hexdrinker with 4 lands on turn 8 seems much better as there might be a window where we can go 4 mana 4/4 protection from removal, and the following turn hitting in for 6.
in our initial proxied testings over here, the hexdrinker is good. Often killed in the early creature rushes.. but if one survives to be levelled up, it can do some damage. He's a decent topdeck as well. Only thing stopping me from going a full set of this new snake is the price -- he's currently 15$ apiece at SCG.
That will drop after release (alway dose ) the only other decks that really what this in modern is monkey grow, and maybe jund. Edh will what this but it's not a auto include. I dont think that this is a legacy staple either. So I'm hoping thisll stay fairly cheap (hopefully around the £5-7 range)
this is going to be a long one, please forgive the spelling and grammar as im dyslexic and wont catch all the errores
form my limited play testing of Savage Swipe
the down side to true fight spells is that your creature almost always dies with it hence the use of natures way and dismember for so long, the big difference with swipe is the pump aspect on the card. this means that when your eone, narnam scooze or what ever fights your now have a much bigger buffer of defence (this is one of the reasons dromoka's command is so good, it pumps then it fights) providing a 3 or 4 (or in narnams case 5) defence means that you take out thalia, goblin guild, spell queller sized creatures without that loss of your own creature. it also increase the number of possible targets for a fight spell in your side of the field, (you would very rarly target militant, scooze or a 2/2 eone with fight spell as this meant loosing your creature as well). i would also point out a one drop spell makes evey creature in our deck able to take out thing in ice and thought knot seer wich are two of the biggest problems stompy as deck faces in the current meta. it also dose not cost life, and in burn and phoenix matchups the life loss form dismember is a huge handicap to winning these games.
the main advantage of this spell over prey upon or titanic brawl is that its almost a split card. it has two purposes and it fills both roles well (if imperfectly)
lastly i will concede that the big downside to this spell is soc speed, but the added pump on a creature is (in my opinion) significant enough to justify its inclusion (or at least further testing) in the mono green variant.
vines vs blossom,
i've written about the historical advantages of vines before and in the current meta they are still irrelevent (for now), so i will ignore them.
over the last 3 or so year the meta has got faster and faster. we need to be in the 16 damage by turn 4 (20 life minus a 2 fetches and a shock) to realistically get lethal. to do that effectively we need to be playing as much creatures as quickly as possible on our first 3 turns and alot of the time we will have only singular mana to work with
now the difference between the two is this
1 mana vines
hexproof
1 mana blossom
hexproof +2/+2
2 mana vines
hexproof +4/+4
2 mana blossom
hexproof +2/+2 and 1 spare mana
the one mana mode happens often enough that the variance and to be an issue
stuck one one land
blossom is supreare
2 lands, a lot of the time we want to be playing a creature, but we also don't what to loose our first to bolt or push presuming all one dops are 2 power (if eone is turn one play then defence is auto better due to the evolve trigger the second 1 drop nets him)
and that on turn three we are still stuck on 2 lands and we play a two drop
t2 t3 t4 total board state from first 2 turns
V+k 6 2 2 8 1 1drops
V-k 2 4 4 6 2 1drops
B 4 4 4 8 2 1drops
both defence and vines + kicker = 8 damage, and both vine - kicker and defence have a bigger broad presence, so in this case defence is slightly superior to maintain maximum aggression.
three mana
so turn one, onedrop turn 2 two drop (or 2 1drops)
turn three, we have a two drop in hand
it is better to play avatar and strangleroot before combat avatar for maximising the counter it gets and strangleroot for the haste.
B in this case you can attack in without worry and play the two drop. (or another 2 one drops)
V hear you have to hold up the mana attack in and potentially loose some board presents for the advantage of dealing extra damage and if you do not have another one drop in hand you lose the potential to lay a creatures this turn.
pump size
the other reason to play a pump spell is as a way of killing blocker or attackers(but this should be rare) against humans, spirits and phoenix defence serves as well as vines, now against hollow one, thoughtknot seer, gurmag angler and tasugare vines is superior due to the our creature surviving and there's not.
so meta share time (considering and approaching this from the view pint of a competitive meta (im going to use mtg top 8, yes there are other options but this is a particularly good one fro focusing on future competitive metas (as people tend to play the stuff that wins and places)
now in order of most played
Snapcaster Mage B
Walking Ballista (n/a our stuffs going to die no matter what)
Noble Hierarch (n/a dork)
Arclight Phoenix B (this will never defend, avatar is the only posible blocker, and with 2 defence defence will sufice)
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben B
Thing in the Ice B (if it flips we die anyway so this is only on offensive)
Phantasmal Image(N/A)
Celestial Colonnade V
Scavenging Ooze B (we are presuming early game as if scooze gets large we die anyway)
Reflector Mage B
Champion of the Parish Tie
Thalia's Lieutenant B
Wurmcoil Engine V (most of the time we die and killing it is worse that leaving it alive and dealing as much damage past it as possible to this but if we swig in 4 damage is better at offsetting the life gain that 2)
Crackling Drake B (defence kills it and they can esily make this big enough for the extra 2 from vines not to matter 99% of the time)
Kitesail Freebooter B
Mantis Rider V
Meddling Mage B
Tarmogoyf V
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger N/A
Vendilion Clique V (less lily to matter as will always attack and we will always almost trade)
Bloodghast B
Dark Confidant B
Tireless Tracker v
Primeval Titan v (but like wurm were already dead)
Monastery Swiftspear B
Death's Shadow V (this is the only time currently in modern where vines "target opponents stuff" abily is relevant)
Narcomoeba B
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet V (but again we dead)
Goblin Guide B
Prized Amalgam V (but if we didn't scooze it were probably dead)
looking at this a very clear picture come into being when the game is winnable blossom is better
when we are really struggling and our opponent has stopped just shore of winning vines is better, but in all but three case where vines is better aspect would be better again.
so in conclusion
if you are in the early game and trying to deal maximum damage as early as possible blossom is your spell. if your are on a low land count ( or running multiple copies of horizon canopy) blossom is your friend.
if your expect the game to go longer, have a higher curve (like the historically 8 1drops 10 2drops 7-8 3drops then vines is better)
vines is also better if you are facing, deathshadow (just) infect(alot) and if twin ever gets unbanned (alot)
(note bogles matchups B is better as even though you can target dryad arbour and the kor with aspect to fizzle stuff your are going to need to race to win, and enchemnt hate is vastly more effective that hoping they target the 3 permanents in there deck that you can use the double sided hexproof on. this also holds true for affinity (arcbound ravager and plating)
ok scooze
(ill keep this bit a little shorter)
basically with phoenix decks, dredge, neoform/reanimatore taking increasingly bigger chunks of the meta, scooze is more relevant more often (between the life gain and gy hate) yes its slower that normal gy hate but having it mb and 4 mb millanats makes these matchups slightly more winnable. this will flip back if spirits or coco decks become more popular again.
hope this answers your questions, if you need anything clarifying feel free to ask (i know that this a lot of marginally coherent information at best)
i may be wrong but i think that Kaya's Guile may be one of the strongest budget(for now) cards in the set. i would run 3 in one esper charm slot and 2 cast down slots, each ability in has is a sb ability, but is a sb bring in against so much of the meta that you may as well run it mb. its no cryptic but its still very good
archmages charm also looks solid (people seemed hyped about it but its not even close to cryptic and i don't think mono u delver has enough tools to be tear 1 so i imagine its price will drop fairly fast)
the card i really like and think a stompy deck can abuse is Saddled Rimestag,
if you ran some more flash creatures like spellstutter sprite in a defensive spell slot alongside coatal this could give some serious power. (running quickling or vapour snag to reuse etb trigger creatures could also work)
i'm not in love with dungrove without a land ramp package (tribe elder, coiling oracle and growth spiral ect) but none of these are really very aggressive)
for the three drop id consider 2 copies of Nulltread Gargantuan, with the 4 coatals and spell sprites.
(if you could find another couple of solid aggressive artifacts for the deck the ensoul artifact could be pretty good with the golem)
i'm honestly not sure. the deck will need a lot of refining, but am interested
after a fair bit of play testing the best version of the deck that i can come up with is
4x Dryad Militant
4x Experiment One
4x Hexdrinker
2x Loam Lion
4x Narnam Renegade
4x Avatar of the Resolute
2x Scavenging Ooze
4x Strangleroot Geist
3x Rancor
Land (20)
3x Forest
3x Horizon Canopy
4x Misty Rainforest
2x Temple Garden
4x Windswept Heath
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Blossoming Defense
3x Dromoka's Command
2x Vines of Vastwood
hexdrinker is constantly over performing and i've even had him in progenatus mode a couple of time(something i honestly was not expecting to happen in modern) and the second almost hexproof mode was fairly common and loam lion is able to get eone to 3 with a fair bit more consistency. turn one eone turn 2 drinker and a narnam into a turn 3 lvl 3 hexdrinker has been surprisingly consistent and extremely powerful. no turn three kills yet but a very consistent turn 4 kills are happening. and the deck grinds surprisingly well as 10 of the mb creatures are basically hatebears against some of the stronger decks in the format and we now have a true and big payoff mana sink.
a leveled hexdrinker is hit by maelstrom pulse, dreadbore, "destroy" based board wipes, sac effects where its the only target. and not much else in the format touches it.
i'm a little tempted to add selfless spirit to the mb, but i'm not sure it's needed.
i have to say this change really really annoys me, as i've been working to bling out the deck with promos (as all the creatures except avatar and narnams have nice alt arts promos) and i've just got rhonas masterpieces and now i have to drop him and the steel leafs and buy and hope that the hexdrinker foils dont curl to much ;/
anyway yeah hexdrinker is bonkers and worth running 4 of (i expect it will be the 3rd 4 of one drop for the more traditional mono g fetchless stompy)
Wall of Blossoms auto include?
Is the deck worth changing slightly to fit around Nissa, Who Shakes the World?
Tamiyo, Collector of Tales, witness + dig + significant hate.
God-Pharaoh's Statue, hilarious with Trinisphere, or just to janky to work.
i would also add that tibalt is a solid super budget option for SB over skull crack and leyline
i still like the ruins s have been running them, (the life loss tends to very rarly be an issue of winning and losing a match and ruins has won very slightly more games than ist lost for me ( these where both very very rare cases and is more down to preference i feel than genuine advantage)
i've taken the wizards 12 bolt list in a slight different direction again. (still around the $100 mark)
3x Dreadhorde Arcanist
4x Ghitu Lavarunner
1x Grim Lavamancer
4x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Soul-Scar Mage
15x Mountain
3x Ramunap Ruins
Instant (15)
3x Gut Shot
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Mutagenic Growth
4x Wizard's Lightning
4x Lava Spike
3x Light Up the Stage
4x Skewer the Critics
the deck could totally lose a gut shot for another lavamancer and i may do that in the future
i've been really impressed with Dreadhorde Arcanist in the deck, it's a creature that trigger prowess, has a wizard subtype and wins grindy games if opponents cannot deal with him (he very similar to grim lavamancer but a tad more aggressive)
to make him more effective (and because it allows more turn one lavarunners and turn 2 prowess triggers) i've added 4 mutagenic growths, there is life loose but this is rarly an issue. (most modern burn decks shock and fetch for the first couple of turn and this still means we are taking less self inflicted damage that we would from a fetch/shock land base), the big upside is it allows you to use archanist to use skewer, light up, and wizards lightning from the gy. while also being used to pump himself to force through damage with his native trample.
because of the low curve and the use of 6 free spells i've also added in 3 light up the stages to keep the deck churning through its self. (i also feels its better than alternative burn spells main board as all that's left is rift bolt, skull crack, searing blood, lightning strike in the budget range and light up the stage just dose more most of the time.
for SB i would also add that if you can afford Eidolon of the Great Revel (only about $6 in paper) its a very solid card both mb and sb and if its not in mb it should be in your sb, as it single handedly wins games against phoenix, humans. as well as being very solid in deathshadow, the rock, scales affinity and storm
there is also a good case for 2 mb Forgotten Cave the same as is done in pauper burn.
horizons hasn also provided a few sb options that would work in a budget shell
Geomancer's Gambit (land destruction with a cantrip)
Pillage (land or over priced artifact destruction)
Magmatic Sinkhole (solid big creature removal takes down hollow ones and gurmags, baneslayers and things, as well as dealing with lillys, jaces and teferi's) the big issue with it is fueling the gy without fetchlands and running 8 creatures mb that rely on the gy (in builds without arcanists and mb lavamancer this seems more solid)
mb options
Lava Dart (no idea how this will play deserves testing but is far from auto include)
Reckless Charge (really shines in arcanist build, it's a tad high risk but also allows you to win with a topdecked soulscar mage late game maybe a 2 of)
I personally think it's a solid 2 of.
In the mid games and if we get flooded its a solid looting and way to discard. With all the looting in the deck I rarely have an issue getting to three lands
It works really well with the bushwhacker by getting upto three body's for 3 mana.
Now the main reason to run its is if the game gets drawn out into mid-late game.
The big problem with the deck is trying to play 2 creture in a turn after turn 4 against stuff like control. Pyromancer allows you to get one creture trigger and draw two cards refilling your hand to hopefully get a vengevine or 2 back from an empty hand
Lastly it can be ditched early for late game value as after a boardwipe this provides a solid way in gaining back some board presents
So it's not perfect at anytime but all facets of all it's abilities are relevent hear giving it extreme versatility and giving us a large advantage against control deck and tempo decks.
3x Archmage's Charm
1x Dismember
3x Disrupting Shoal
2x Force of Negation
1x Mission Briefing
2x Psionic Blast
4x Remand
2x Spell Pierce
4x Thought Scour
3x Vapor Snag
3x Cryptic Serpent
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Pteramander
2x Vendilion Clique
Land (18)
2x Field of Ruin
14x Island
2x Lonely Sandbar
4x Serum Visions
i like the fact you can cast force of negation for its mana cost in the later game without having to stick a lot of mana into it like shoal.
sandbar is a auto include i think. and 2 seems to be the correct number
charm is extremely solid (not as good as cryptic but already cheaper by about $17)
unfortunately we didn't get any new creatures. merfolk trickster or Spellstutter Sprite is about as close as we have for a 2 drop and is probably worth running in the clique spot for budget builds. (the big downside to tempest is its lack of flash, it's only ok as a card and is pretty vulnerable in the meta, it passes the bolt test but not the push test (like serpent) and it's not consistently big (like delver and ptermander) it's not the worst option but it's also not the best.
out of all the more expensive cards (fetches, cryptic, snapcaster, JMS ect.) vendilion clique seems like the best non-budget buy, for price - maximum effect on the deck.
thing in the ice may well be the second strongest, for decks without cryptics commands its adds a way to deal with on board threats. and 4 things are again cheaper than 2 cryptics.
Kaya's Guile, Silent Clearing and Nether Spirit
kayas is just awesome and i would be very surprised not to find it as a 3-4 of in the 75 going forwards
clearings is also some excellent tempo and i suspect that its going To end up as a 3-4 of.
nether spirit i can see being played as a 1-2 of in decks that run no other creature cards, as its a solid upgrade on bloodghuats in that it doesn't need the land drop to come back and it can block
Why prowler over eone?
4 mongoose
4 delver
3 hexdrinker
2 ptermander
2 clique/snapcaster/goyf
This makes stubbon denial irelevent but with the new free counters we should be able maintain protection.
Also by not using the gy to fuel mandrills and 0 mana counters to help against Gy hate the deck should have a consistently large enough gy to maintain the threshold for mongoose and ptermander. This also makes goyf and snap caster a little stronger over the long game and allows the deck to run 1/2 of the new red removal spell. I'm honestly not shore if this will be stronger than the current build but I'll test and get back to you.
That will drop after release (alway dose ) the only other decks that really what this in modern is monkey grow, and maybe jund. Edh will what this but it's not a auto include. I dont think that this is a legacy staple either. So I'm hoping thisll stay fairly cheap (hopefully around the £5-7 range)
Budget horizon canopies
One or two of in budget mono lists.
And the delver convoke creture, yeah I agree it's a no go hooting mandrills is barley playable and this is much worse
Collector Ouphe
1G
Creture
Active abiltys of artifacts can't be activated
2/2
Stony silence on a creture. Seems very good. But it will need protection.
form my limited play testing of Savage Swipe
the down side to true fight spells is that your creature almost always dies with it hence the use of natures way and dismember for so long, the big difference with swipe is the pump aspect on the card. this means that when your eone, narnam scooze or what ever fights your now have a much bigger buffer of defence (this is one of the reasons dromoka's command is so good, it pumps then it fights) providing a 3 or 4 (or in narnams case 5) defence means that you take out thalia, goblin guild, spell queller sized creatures without that loss of your own creature. it also increase the number of possible targets for a fight spell in your side of the field, (you would very rarly target militant, scooze or a 2/2 eone with fight spell as this meant loosing your creature as well). i would also point out a one drop spell makes evey creature in our deck able to take out thing in ice and thought knot seer wich are two of the biggest problems stompy as deck faces in the current meta. it also dose not cost life, and in burn and phoenix matchups the life loss form dismember is a huge handicap to winning these games.
the main advantage of this spell over prey upon or titanic brawl is that its almost a split card. it has two purposes and it fills both roles well (if imperfectly)
lastly i will concede that the big downside to this spell is soc speed, but the added pump on a creature is (in my opinion) significant enough to justify its inclusion (or at least further testing) in the mono green variant.
vines vs blossom,
i've written about the historical advantages of vines before and in the current meta they are still irrelevent (for now), so i will ignore them.
over the last 3 or so year the meta has got faster and faster. we need to be in the 16 damage by turn 4 (20 life minus a 2 fetches and a shock) to realistically get lethal. to do that effectively we need to be playing as much creatures as quickly as possible on our first 3 turns and alot of the time we will have only singular mana to work with
now the difference between the two is this
1 mana vines
hexproof
1 mana blossom
hexproof +2/+2
2 mana vines
hexproof +4/+4
2 mana blossom
hexproof +2/+2 and 1 spare mana
the one mana mode happens often enough that the variance and to be an issue
stuck one one land
blossom is supreare
2 lands, a lot of the time we want to be playing a creature, but we also don't what to loose our first to bolt or push presuming all one dops are 2 power (if eone is turn one play then defence is auto better due to the evolve trigger the second 1 drop nets him)
and that on turn three we are still stuck on 2 lands and we play a two drop
t2 t3 t4 total board state from first 2 turns
V+k 6 2 2 8 1 1drops
V-k 2 4 4 6 2 1drops
B 4 4 4 8 2 1drops
both defence and vines + kicker = 8 damage, and both vine - kicker and defence have a bigger broad presence, so in this case defence is slightly superior to maintain maximum aggression.
three mana
so turn one, onedrop turn 2 two drop (or 2 1drops)
turn three, we have a two drop in hand
it is better to play avatar and strangleroot before combat avatar for maximising the counter it gets and strangleroot for the haste.
B in this case you can attack in without worry and play the two drop. (or another 2 one drops)
V hear you have to hold up the mana attack in and potentially loose some board presents for the advantage of dealing extra damage and if you do not have another one drop in hand you lose the potential to lay a creatures this turn.
pump size
the other reason to play a pump spell is as a way of killing blocker or attackers(but this should be rare) against humans, spirits and phoenix defence serves as well as vines, now against hollow one, thoughtknot seer, gurmag angler and tasugare vines is superior due to the our creature surviving and there's not.
so meta share time (considering and approaching this from the view pint of a competitive meta (im going to use mtg top 8, yes there are other options but this is a particularly good one fro focusing on future competitive metas (as people tend to play the stuff that wins and places)
now in order of most played
Snapcaster Mage B
Walking Ballista (n/a our stuffs going to die no matter what)
Noble Hierarch (n/a dork)
Arclight Phoenix B (this will never defend, avatar is the only posible blocker, and with 2 defence defence will sufice)
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben B
Thing in the Ice B (if it flips we die anyway so this is only on offensive)
Phantasmal Image(N/A)
Celestial Colonnade V
Scavenging Ooze B (we are presuming early game as if scooze gets large we die anyway)
Reflector Mage B
Champion of the Parish Tie
Thalia's Lieutenant B
Wurmcoil Engine V (most of the time we die and killing it is worse that leaving it alive and dealing as much damage past it as possible to this but if we swig in 4 damage is better at offsetting the life gain that 2)
Crackling Drake B (defence kills it and they can esily make this big enough for the extra 2 from vines not to matter 99% of the time)
Kitesail Freebooter B
Mantis Rider V
Meddling Mage B
Tarmogoyf V
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger N/A
Vendilion Clique V (less lily to matter as will always attack and we will always almost trade)
Bloodghast B
Dark Confidant B
Tireless Tracker v
Primeval Titan v (but like wurm were already dead)
Monastery Swiftspear B
Death's Shadow V (this is the only time currently in modern where vines "target opponents stuff" abily is relevant)
Narcomoeba B
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet V (but again we dead)
Goblin Guide B
Prized Amalgam V (but if we didn't scooze it were probably dead)
looking at this a very clear picture come into being when the game is winnable blossom is better
when we are really struggling and our opponent has stopped just shore of winning vines is better, but in all but three case where vines is better aspect would be better again.
so in conclusion
if you are in the early game and trying to deal maximum damage as early as possible blossom is your spell. if your are on a low land count ( or running multiple copies of horizon canopy) blossom is your friend.
if your expect the game to go longer, have a higher curve (like the historically 8 1drops 10 2drops 7-8 3drops then vines is better)
vines is also better if you are facing, deathshadow (just) infect(alot) and if twin ever gets unbanned (alot)
(note bogles matchups B is better as even though you can target dryad arbour and the kor with aspect to fizzle stuff your are going to need to race to win, and enchemnt hate is vastly more effective that hoping they target the 3 permanents in there deck that you can use the double sided hexproof on. this also holds true for affinity (arcbound ravager and plating)
ok scooze
(ill keep this bit a little shorter)
basically with phoenix decks, dredge, neoform/reanimatore taking increasingly bigger chunks of the meta, scooze is more relevant more often (between the life gain and gy hate) yes its slower that normal gy hate but having it mb and 4 mb millanats makes these matchups slightly more winnable. this will flip back if spirits or coco decks become more popular again.
hope this answers your questions, if you need anything clarifying feel free to ask (i know that this a lot of marginally coherent information at best)