Dies to Removal

My buddy and I are having problems trying to figure out where exactly we should take his green deck. We're opened to basically any ideas, but anything requiring a second color will be a bit harder to get a hold of since we'll need to find the shocks for it. Currently, we were thinking something like this for his deck:

Ghetto Mono-Green With Bling This deck seems doable, but it's really lacking in trample and I'm worried about its ability to fight against control. As it stands, his creature match up is nuts, but he's also running a lot more combat tricks.

One central strategy for this has been flooding the board with 3/3's. They still die to Anger of the Gods but 2 or 3 3/3s is a fast clock that must be answered. After the first wrath, play a Deadbridge Goliath or a Kalonian Hydra.

Another idea is to splash white for a few key cards, but not go all in on the [mana]G[/mana][mana]W[/mana] creatures.

Ghetto Green With White Bling I think the common [mana]G[/mana][mana]W[/mana] cards of Fleecemane Lion, Voice of Resurgence, and [card]Loxodon
Smiter[/card] might be traps in the current format. The mana might be too color intensive to work, but I was thinking that a splash of white could help shore up problems against control and provide some reach in clogged board states. As this deck doesn't expect to cast any white spells until at least turn 4, that should be enough time to get a [mana]white [/mana]source onto the field and not impede board development too much.

Also, I'm worried that 14 non-creature spells might be too much for Garruk, Caller of Beasts to be effective.

Card Thoughts
Deadbridge Goliath vs Polukranos, World Eater vs Advent of the Wurm

For green based 4 drops, these 3 seem to be the main contenders at the moment. I'm personally biased toward the Wurm, but here's what I'm thinking.

Deadbridge Goliath - A 5/5
that becomes a mana sink when it dies. This seems like the perfect counter spell or removal bait and then playing a scavenging it onto a creature. However, this is a round-a-bout way of doing things when really, a deck like this wants to kill shit. Also, it doesn't have trample so the card basically has no reach.

Polukranos, World Eater - Another 5/5 with monstrosity that blows up weenies for a mana investment. This could be neat, but at the moment, I think it's redundant with this deck. Weenie strategies already have a hard time with the flood of 3/3 and growing cards that this deck can put out. Also, it doesn't have trample.

Advent of the Wurm - The wurm is a 5/5 trample that can be flashed in at the end of an opponent's turn for psuedo-haste and wrath protection. I think this is probably the best 4 drop of the bunch, but it de-synergizes with Garruk, which seems vital for keeping a deck like this going.

3 Drops[/b:
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Loxodon Smiter vs Witchstalkervs Boon Satyr

Loxodon Smiter - This has usually been the go to for 3 drops as a 4/4 that can't be countered or discarded. His color requirements might be manageable and he dodges all red removal except for Mizzium Mortars. He seems solid enough, but there's more out there than creature combat and burn spells.

Witchstalker- A 3/3 hexproof that grows when blue or black spells or played. I think I biased toward this guy because he dodges so much removal and then punishes UWx or UBx control lists. His body isn't as durable in straight creature fights though.

Boon Satyr - This guy seems like he might be good, but I'm skeptical about a 4/2 3 drops. The flash is nice for dodging sorcery speed removal and the bestow cost seems somewhat reasonable for
a mana sink later on.

So, any ideas on these deck lists or somewhere else we should take my buddy's green list? He wants to stay in green because we have some value cards and it would be a lot easier to keep using those than tracking down new chase cards in a different color.

Boon Satyr is amazing.
You should try out Nylea. She's playable as hell as long as you stay at Mono Green. Actually Green creatures at the moment are big, fat and dumb - and they don't have trample. She solves the issue. I'm not sure about her bow, but she's the keeper.

And try more lands. You play with 6CMC planeswalker and 5CMC creatures. You cannot rely on dorks to get you there. Go 24 lands, have fun.
I'd also drop Kalonian Hydra as it's dumb. Mistcutter Hydra seems better, especially with Nylea.

I keep telling him to run more land in his decks, but he's had success at 20. Even when his Ooze is a mana hungry bastard.

So you'd think Nylea, God of the Hunt should be in there? We were talking about it that. Would you think it should be a 2 or 3 of? Treat it as a global trample with an expensive mana sink enchantment that sometimes becomes a nifty beater. Nylea over Garruk or run both?

Would you recommend Boon Satyr over Witchstalker in a monogreen list or would you run both and cut a 2 drop, maybe Gyre Sage?

Nylea as a 2-of (she's really bad in multiples).

Bow is fairly good, it can do a lot of work against red decks.

For the love of all that is holy, don't cut Gyre Sage.

Cut the Mystics, drop Guile from the main, play more threats, report back.

I keep telling him to run more land in his decks, but he's had success at 20. Even when his Ooze is a mana hungry bastard.

No, he hasn't. 20 lands isn't enough; play on Cockatrice and play 30 games.

I played my friend's deck a little today, I found his mana inconsistent so I've been nagging him more about increasing the land count to something more reasonable.

Ghetto Green with Bling Mk. II
[deck]
Creatures (34)
Experiment One x4
Dryad Militant x4
Kalonian Tusker x4
Gyre Sage x4
Scavenging Ooze x4
Boon Satyr x4
Deadbridge Goliath x4
Kalonian Hydra x2
Mistcutter Hydra x2
Nylea, God of the Hunt x2

Planeswalkers (2)
Garruk, Caller of Beasts x2

Land (24)
Forestx20
Mutavaultx4
[/
card]
[/deck]

So for this list, I'm treating the Mistcutter Hydras as a mana sink, kind of like how [card]Devil's Play[/card] was used awhile back. I'm on the fence about Boon Satyr vs Witchstalkerbut this is something that he'll have to test out. My job is to trade for the cards (we share cards and I handle 95% of the trading).

Match up wise, his deck is currently weak to control match ups and very strong against aggro. He can usually manage against aggro without too much help. The wall of 3/3s he can produce is usually enough to shut down most aggro decks, especially red based ones. So the question is then, how can we help his match up against them?

I'm thinking 2 more Mistcutter Hydras in the sideboard at the minimum, but beyond that, I have no clue. Trample could be useful against token blockers, but Elspeth will probably just nuke the board
first.

So my buddy and I were talking and this is where we're thinking about going with Ghetto Green with Bling.


[deck]Ghetto Green with Bling[/deck]

It's a big, ugly green deck with some card draw. It has a strong +1/+1 counter theme in that Experiment One, Gyre Sage, Scavenging Ooze, Witchstalker, Polukranos, and Kalonian Hydra all have ways of getting +1/+1
counters. Deadbridge Goliath can be a major source of them as well. We both feel that any turn 2 Kalonian Hydra/Garruk shenanigans are cute and powerful, but nut draws and shouldn't be counted on.

We're on the fence about running Reverent Hunter. It's definitely showed its power, but so far, this deck's worst match up has been control. We both think that building a huge board state for Reverent Hunter will only lead to a blow out against Supreme Verdict or hell, any of non-red removal in the format.

There are a few games this deck has in order to win. All of them involve big, ugly green guys but that seems to work.

1. Witchstalker+ Boon Satyr bestow. This creates a 7/5 hexproof that's hard to get rid of. Another nifty part is that Witchstalker + [
card]Boon Satyr[/card] is 4 devotion and turns Nylea, God of the Hunt on the moment she's played.
2. Resolve and untap Kalonian Hydra, especially if there's an Experiment One or Gyre Sage running around.
3. Flood of 3/3's beat down.
4. Deadbridge Goliath/Polukranosoff of some ramp.

Maybe I haven't tested it enough but Hunter only needs a card or two to be a 4/4 for 3 which is more than enough of a threat vs control. It's biggest issue is it can be a weak topdeck.

However, red burn can kill Hunter (burn in response to the ETB trigger).