Savannah gets a bad rap in the Magic community. It’s the color combination of little kids, of stupid beatdown, and of getting crushed by combo. Most people talk about green-white decks with absolutely no respect for their capacity to dismantle blue control decks or crush an aggressive mirror. They don’t understand the power of Mother of Runes in Legacy. They don’t think green or white can grind out resource advantages nearly as well as decks that start with four cards that Hymn to Tourach themselves.
Why is that the case? The community’s favorable bias toward Brainstorm is a considerable part of why Savannah gets no respect, but it goes deeper than that. People inaccurately view today’s best Savannah decks as White Weenie decks. I tell people that Mother of Runes and Aven Mindcensor are good cards, and they look at me like I have three heads. “Don’t you know that Mother of Runes decks can’t beat Reanimator or Storm?” they say. “How are you ever supposed to win a tournament?”
I then ask them if they noticed the maindeck Scavenging Ooze and the four Green Sun’s Zeniths, or the fact that Aven Mindcensor has flash and traditional Storm decks have no maindeck bounce spells yet lean heavily on cards like Infernal Tutor and Polluted Delta. I ask if they noticed the maindeck Karakas and the Knights of the Reliquary. I’ll concede that green-white decks are not your BEST option if you’re interested in crushing Storm combo or Reanimator decks, but you’re certainly not drawing dead to “Underground Sea, Ponder, go.”
As it turns out, green-white decks are wildly underplayed in Legacy, especially in America. Let’s start with Andrea Giarola’s stock build of G/W Maverick from my article two weeks ago:
This deck has a ton of play to it. It plays 21 lands and four mana accelerators to get out of the gates faster than an opponent. It plays three different tutors: three Stoneforge Mystic, four Green Sun’s Zenith, and four Knight of the Reliquary. It plays a suite of powerful one-ofs that can be tutored for to swing any given matchup. It has Mother of Runes, a one-drop that singlehandedly negates a one-for-one removal strategy out of a blue control deck just by resolving and living until your second turn. It even plays two Elspeth, Knight-Errant to go bigger than aggressive decks and generate a never-ending stream of threats against control decks. Beyond all of that, though, is perhaps its most important interaction: Knight of the Reliquary and Wasteland.
As you’ll see throughout this series of articles, Wasteland is a very prevalent card in one- and two-color decks. Given how good mana-fixing is in Legacy, two-color decks will almost never have colored mana issues. This means that two-color decks can afford to play several colorless lands without damaging their ability to come out of the gates as fast as they’d like. Of all the options, Wasteland is by far the best one, and so you’ll see it in a lot of two-color aggressive shells.
Aggressive decks’ best turns are the early ones by design: they are the turns where an opponent can’t play as many of their cards as the aggressive deck can. Consequently, aggressive decks should want to Wasteland opponents to keep the game locked in those early turns and maintain their advantageous position. Aggressive decks’ late-game lands are worth far less to them than opponents’ lands are worth to them. Knight of the Reliquary thus becomes very valuable in the midgame and late game as both a way of converting inefficient resources (extra Forests and Plains) into efficient resources (Wasteland and Horizon Canopy) and then killing them with a gigantic monster.
The deck is well-designed, and I wouldn’t start hacking away at numbers without a very good understanding of why each card is played in the quantity that it is. Here is how I read his list:
21 land with 4 Wastelands: This deck wants to be aggressive in almost every matchup. It isn’t really interested in inevitability, and it doesn’t plan on letting opponents hardcast their Force of Wills.
1 Umezawa’s Jitte, 1 Sword of Feast and Famine, 1 Sword of Fire and Ice, and 0 Batterskull: The deck anticipates getting into ground stalls. It doesn’t play any creatures that are particularly strong on their own besides Knight of the Reliquary, so it needs a way of getting through an opponent’s creatures. The deck will make great use of the extra card and the two damage from the Sword of Fire and Ice trigger as well as the extra mana from the Sword of Feast and Famine trigger, so those are both better than Sword of Body and Mind’s extra 2/2 and Glimpse the Unthinkable. Beyond all of that, Fire & Ice’s Shock is better than Body & Mind’s Grizzly Bears against Merfolk, since their way to beat you involves getting multiple Lords in play.
Sword of Light and Shadow is also pretty superfluous, since they’ll either kill your creature in response to the equip ability with their white or black removal spell, or they don’t have one. Once you have a creature with an equipped Sword, you have to look at the comparisons between Feast and Famine versus Light and Shadow. You don’t really care about the life gain trigger, since the decks where you would care about it, you should be getting Sword of Fire and Ice instead to race them. The Raise Dead ability is a bit better than Raven’s Crime, but untapping your lands in a deck with equip costs, Wastelands, and Aven Mindcensors seems much better than gaining three life.
Umezawa’s Jitte is in the deck because it is still very difficult to lose an aggressive mirror with an active Umezawa’s Jitte. Batterskull is a fine card in an aggressive mirror, but its lifelink ability isn’t particularly well-suited to a deck that isn’t going to get attacked a lot. This deck is going to lose because all of its creatures got outclassed or Wrathed, not because it got outraced. Umezawa’s Jitte lets the deck not overcommit to the board and maintain size advantage throughout the game, whereas Batterskull does both of those things as well, but for far too much mana.
4 Green Sun’s Zenith: The best card in the deck. When I look at this deck, I see a well-constructed Green Sun’s Zenith decklist. It has a strong balance of reasonable, standalone threats and one- or two-of tutor targets. Cutting one of these is not something I would do under any circumstances, and I would think long and hard about what value you’re losing when you choose to axe one of the green creatures from the deck.
4 Knight of the Reliquary: Probably the second-best card in the deck. It efficiently converts a resource you likely have enough of (lands) into a resource you likely want more of (things to do). It can brick wall an opponent’s strike force by day and work magic on an opponent’s end step, fetching anything from a creature to a cantrip to a removal spell to a gigantic mana producer. On top of all of that, it’s incredibly hard to kill and provides a one- or two-turn clock once it’s done working on your manabase.
4 Swords to Plowshares: The best removal spell in your colors. You don’t want Path to Exile because you don’t have burn spells—you’re not going to kill them in short bursts of damage—you’re going to kill them by establishing a dominating board position and getting in for a lot of damage while relatively uncontested. Path gives them access to all of their cards with the implicit understanding that you built your deck to not care about some of those cards. The thing is, green-white wants to be able to Wasteland someone out of the game. Giving them a land is a lot worse than giving them some life—you want to play a game where you do multiple things per turn, and they do as little as possible. Path gives them options; Swords gives them time. I’d rather give them more turns where they can do less, since they’ll be able to give themselves more time if I give them more lands.
4 Mother of Runes: This card does so much. She’s your best plan against black removal-heavy decks, since you’ll be fighting a resource-light game that revolves around a series of one-for-ones and two-for-ones. In those games, “Kira-ing” them is game-breaking. Against aggressive decks, you can brick-wall their attacks with your 1/1 and then slip through their defenses with correctly-chosen protection triggers on a gigantic Knight of the Reliquary. Against combo, Mother of Runes can combo with your hate bear of choice (Ethersworn Canonist, Gaddock Teeg, or Aven Mindcensor) to demand two different bounce or removal spells before they can go about winning the game.
3 Stoneforge Mystic: I still wince when I see this number. I remember hearing stories of Pro Tour: Paris where some people knew about Caw-Blade but hadn’t seen a list, so they played two Stoneforge Mystics and four Squadron Hawks. I understand that this is an aggressive deck and not necessarily a Stoneforge Mystic deck, but not playing four Mystic in a deck that gets so much value from its equipment seems so wrong. The deck plays 25 creatures and two Elspeths! You have actual flying creatures in a format that has very few fliers! How many times do we not want to find a Sword? It may just be my substantial bias of having played Caw-Blade for months on end, but I can’t imagine wanting Stoneforge Mystic in a deck, yet wanting less than four of it. This is a fantastic Stoneforge deck. I would play four.
3 Aven Mindcensor: These are more flexible than just being a tool against Infernal Tutor. They are strong against fetchland-heavy decks, since they inherently weaken Brainstorm. After all, if they can’t reliably shuffle away their two worst cards and still get a land, the best card in Legacy starts looking a lot less efficient and consistent. Having a one-drop accelerator into a turn-two Aven Mindcensor can put a land-light opponent out of the game, no matter what their colors. Since you play four Wastelands, it’s not totally reasonable for them to immediately crack a fetchland for a dual land and confidently pass, thinking they’ve played around your disruption package. After all, you can just Wasteland them and play a Stoneforge Mystic—what a disaster that would be for them! Beyond its flexibility against control, though, you can just sit on three open mana against combo decks and flash in Aven Mindcensor in response to their Hellbent Infernal Tutor or their Merchant Scroll or their Intuition.
Let’s not forget that Aven Mindcensor also flies. In a world where blue decks really want to trade their Snapcaster Mages for opposing ground-pounders, having a Swordsman in the air can be pretty game-breaking. Having Stoneforge Mystic into Aven Mindcensor into Sword of Fire and Ice + equip is a three-turn clock in addition to severely undercutting many decks’ ability to develop their manabase. I would certainly think twice before cutting Aven Mindcensor from any green-white list I play in Legacy.
3 Noble Hierarch and 1 Birds of Paradise: This deck definitely wants mana acceleration. It might be tempting to go with 4 Noble Hierarch, but the Birds of Paradise can be game-breaking in race situations. It’s not at all hard to imagine a situation where each player has the other dead on board in your post-combat main phase, and you have a Green Sun’s Zenith and two mana available. In that situation, you could very easily want a flying blocker to chump their Coralhelm Commander or Emrakul, the Aeons Torn so that you can crack back for lethal. Birds of Paradise can also pay for any of a number of Hive Mind’s Pact triggers, even covering multiple colors in conjunction with Scryb Ranger. Finally, having a flying Swordsman (Swordsbird?) is a great asset to have, and Zenithing for one is a lot easier than Zenithing for two.
2 Scryb Ranger: This card is a very solid utility card. It does a lot in conjunction with your deck, but it doesn’t do a lot by itself. Its protection from blue is obviously a huge perk against Merfolk, but you’re going to be playing it for its Quirion Ranger ability. Doubling up on Mother of Runes activations and Knight of the Reliquary activations will put you very far ahead in almost any matchup. Having the ability to effectively counterspell a removal spell in conjunction with Mother of Runes or Nekrataal a creature in conjunction with Knight of the Reliquary is also a nice part of the card. Ultimately, how much value you derive from the card is going to depend on how flexibly you play the deck. If you build the deck with more elements that want you to pass the turn with open mana (Aven Mindcensor, Stoneforge Mystic, Scavenging Ooze, Qasali Pridemage), you’ll find that Scryb Ranger fits well. If you just want to curve out with creatures in your main phase and beat your opponent senseless, Scryb Ranger isn’t going to do as much work for you.
2 Qasali Pridemage: I’m used to seeing this as either a one-of or a four-of in Bant Natural Order lists or aggressive Zoo lists. Seeing it as a two-of didn’t make a ton of sense to me. After thinking about where the tournament was held, though, I realized what went into Giarola’s decision. In a metagame with a lot of green-white, it makes sense to want multiple Pridemages. After all, you’ll want a way to destroy both their Umezawa’s Jitte and their Sword of Feast and Famine. In an American metagame, I’m less convinced of the need for multiples. Here, the aggressive decks don’t use artifacts and enchantments to get edges in aggressive mirrors; they use Tarmogoyf and Grim Lavamancer. In that metagame, Pridemage is a lot worse. Still, there are metagames with a lot of equipment and a lot of enchantments. If you play in one of those, know that you don’t have to play just one of a creature in your Green Sun’s Zenith deck.
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant: I believe that non-Jace planeswalkers are underused in Legacy decks. Often, a deck does not want planeswalkers because its curve doesn’t go that high, it doesn’t play enough mana sources, or it needs more ways to apply pressure. In aggressive green-white decks, though, Elspeth is an incredible way to cement an early lead. She turns all of your threats into must-kill creatures while simultaneously threatening to lock an opponent out of the game with her emblem. The only decks I can see not wanting Elspeth against are combo decks, but there are fewer and fewer of those nowadays, given how prevalent Counterbalance and Red Elemental Blast have been in recent weeks.
2 Sylvan Library: First, a word on the logistics of Sylvan Library, since its text is rather confusing. The way that Sylvan Library works on a physical level is that you go to your draw step, put your hand on the table, and pick up the top three cards of your library, kind of like you’re using Sensei’s Divining Top. You will choose to pay zero, four, or eight life, and then put two, one, or zero cards back on top of your library in any order. You really shouldn’t mix the cards into your hand, even though it says “draw” because unless you have a judge there, there’s no way of determining which cards were in your hand during your upkeep, and you’ll probably end up having to take eight for your logistical mishap. Don’t do that to yourself—just keep the cards separate.
Confusing Oracle text aside, this card is an amazing anti-control threat. Against white-based control decks, Knight of the Reliquary is your best threat. The most commonly played white removal spell is Swords to Plowshares, and so your Knights will get sent farming a lot. This means that you will gain a lot of life against said white control decks. If you end up being able to land a Sylvan Library, this will result in you having the ability to draw three cards a turn for several turns. As it turns out, that’s pretty good. Even when you don’t have the life to spare, it’s still a Sensei’s Divining Top, which is pretty decent in matchups where you have the time to take advantage of that. It’s clearly not great in aggressive mirrors, but the rest of the deck is pretty well-tuned to manhandle creature-based strategies. Two Sylvan Libraries are a good way to fight control decks.
1 Thrun, the Last Troll and 1 Scavenging Ooze: Here is a great example of how to build a Green Sun’s Zenith deck. You don’t want a ton of one-ofs and you don’t want cards that are bad if you draw them, but Thrun and Ooze are perfectly reasonable threats on their own that can completely change the way a matchup plays. That sort of advantage is exactly what you’re looking for from a one-of in a deck like this. If you have Scavenging Ooze on turn two with a mana up, it’s going to be very hard for Reanimator to beat you. If you have Thrun, the Last Troll against a deck without Knight of the Reliquary or Tarmogoyf, they’re in for a rough time. Giarola’s restraint in deckbuilding is admirable: he could’ve included any of a dozen “good” or “interesting” one-of green creatures, but he didn’t. I advise you to follow his lead on this and play only the Zenith targets that you really need and that will provide you with a substantial advantage once in play. If they don’t do that while also being reasonable cards to draw off the top of your deck, don’t play them.
This deck is not wildly expensive, and the cards are not super old. Almost all of this deck can be found in Modern trade binders, with the two really expensive cards being Savannah and Wasteland. It’s very customizable and can beat a wide variety of decks with appropriate modifications.
In an aggro-heavy metagame, for instance, you could play a Batterskull and add in Tarmogoyfs, removing some of the smaller creatures on the lower end of the curve like Qasali Pridemage and Scavenging Ooze and possibly getting rid of the Sylvan Libraries. This will move you away from being a deck where Scryb Ranger is really good, but you’ll hit a lot harder and play more substantive threats. I would also add in a few more fetchlands to ensure that your Tarmogoyfs always have a land in the graveyard in the early turns, as there’s nothing more embarrassing than playing a Tarmogoyf as a 0/1 or 1/2 and having him Lightning Bolted or Chain Lightninged.
In a combo-heavy metagame, you could play a Gaddock Teeg maindeck and sideboard anything from Aura of Silence to multiple Rule of Laws and Ethersworn Canonists to something as hateful as a set of Null Rods. Even though Sword of Feast and Famine is pretty good against combo, Null Rod is pretty incredible against Lion’s Eye Diamond and company. Besides, if you’re a Storm deck, are you going to board in your artifact hate for a deck that’s going to board in Gaddock Teeg? How much can you really afford to dilute your deck? If you’re green-white, it’s worth thinking about how to best diversify your hate cards so as to force them to have as many different types of answers as possible.
In a blue-heavy metagame, Giarola’s list is pretty ideal. He has the Mindcensors that I’d play against a lot of blue decks as well as Scryb Rangers to double up on crucial cards’ activations. Choke is also a very strong spell right now, since blue decks won’t want Force of Will against a deck as threat-dense as green-white. Still, they won’t be able to afford to hold up Counterspell mana against your onslaught of creatures, so you’ll very likely be able to maneuver the game into a position where you get to land a Choke and crush them.
If you want to splash, that might not even be that expensive. At Grand Prix Amsterdam, successful Savannah decks actually shifted a bit toward a Zenith Zoo approach by incorporating red for Punishing Fire. Take Fabian Gorzgen’s 5th place deck, for instance:
Creatures (22)
- 4 Mother of Runes
- 1 Birds of Paradise
- 3 Aven Mindcensor
- 1 Tarmogoyf
- 1 Gaddock Teeg
- 3 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 1 Qasali Pridemage
- 2 Stoneforge Mystic
- 2 Scavenging Ooze
Lands (23)
Spells (15)
His is a more controlling list. He has Grove of the Burnwillows and Punishing Fire to beat small creature decks going long, and he even anticipates getting his Groves Wastelanded, so he has a one-of Life from the Loam in his maindeck to keep his Grove/Fire engine together. I’m not a huge fan of his manabase, but I can see cases where I’d want a Bojuka Bog in my 75. I’m not sold on Tower of the Magistrate, though, as I’d much rather just Qasali Pridemage their equipment. Another red-splash from the Grand Prix Amsterdam Top 32 can be found here, while a blue-splash list can be found here.
I hope that this look at the different options that Savannah deckbuilders have available to them has been useful to you, and I’ll be more than happy to answer your questions about how to approach building the best possible green-white deck, both here and on Twitter. If you don’t own Savannahs, fear not: next week’s article will feature a deck with exactly zero dual lands at all! For those of you who want me to write about a specific deck in the coming weeks, let me know what you’d like to see in the comments. If enough people are clamoring for the same sort of article, I’d be happy to go in depth on any given deck.
Until next week,
@drew_levin on Twitter