This is my green control deck; it is what I would play at states, were I going.

If I did decently at Grand Prix: Kansas City, I would be reporting about that. Instead, I received an almost solid card pool if I had wanted to play five colors, and then made a deck. I proceeded to lose all of my five practice matches during my three byes. The actual tournament didn't give me the needed 3-2 for day two. The matches were tense (four out of five went to three games), and I played nearly perfectly. It wasn't in the cards.

I'm sure you don't care, and I don't like dwelling on what might have been.

This green deck began back before Mirrodin, way back when 8^th came out. I kept refining it, since after redeeming Magic Online sets I was low on playable cards, and finally used the below version in three eight-man Standard Constructed tournaments. I finished first, beating Goblin Bidding, Mono-black Archon, and blue-green madness, then finished 3^rd/4^th after beating mono-black and losing to Goblins (straight red), and finally lost to Wake in round one of the third tourney.

Turbo-Revive, pre-Mirrodin
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Mountains
12 Forest
2 Tranquil Thicket
2 Contested Cliffs
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Vine Trellis
2 Vernal Bloom
3 Revive
3 Plow Under
3 Pyroclasm
3 Forgotten Ancient
4 Ravenous Baloth
2 Silklash Spider
2 Hystrodon
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
2 Slate of Ancestry
1 Planar Portal
2 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Blaze

Sideboard:
3 Naturalize
4 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Choke
2 Xantid Swarm
3 Flashfires

The strategy behind playing this deck was the incredible mana boost generated by Birds of Paradise and Vine Trellis, backed up by Vernal Blooms. The optimal opening hand involved a third-turn Plow Under, fourth-turn Revive, fifth-turn Plow Under. Third-turn Forgotten Ancient or Baloth was also pretty good. A key aspect often missed is the ability to Revive another Revive, thus putting a counter on an Ancient. With a Vernal Bloom in play, it was easy to give an Ancient about between four and seven +1/+1 counters every turn. Because Revive was so key in both major strategies, I called the deck Turbo-Revive for simplicity.

Revive could also return Nantuko Vigilantes to take out Bridges, and Baloths for extra life.

Other cards which I tried at various points included four Wall of Mulch (where I decked myself... oops!), Silvos, Mythic Proportion, Giant Growth, and additional copies of most everything in the deck. Also attempted the Natural Affinity/Pyroclasm cluster for a while, but it never really won any games. (Later, I would try this again with Lightning Coils with a similar lack of results.)

I never had an opposing deck recover from being Plowed twice in the first five turns, and no matter how big a monster they played, I could always transfer +1/+1 counters on my Baloth and shoot it down with the Cliffs.

Goblins never beat it by attacking - for mono-red to win, they always had to use the"Siege-Gang Commander/Goblin Sharpshooter, throw at a guy at your head" combo and burn me out. The main deck Pyroclasms were for this match, but were always dead against everything else.

Wake generally won after the second Wrath of God, since Slates were then useless. I was surprised that Turbo Revive beat U/G Madness, but I always had Silklash or Ensnaring Bridge when it mattered. Basically, it beat aggressive decks usually, other aggressive control always, and occasionally stole games against pure control with multiple Plow Unders or Kamahling their land in response to a Wrath effect.

I didn't think it was that great in pre-Mirrodin - it was definitely tier two at best.

After Mirrodin, I put a version of it together with my real cards, and promptly lost to Affinity, which was actually able to survive third- and fifth-turn Plow Unders with aplomb and still win. This amazing survival can be attributed solely to Chrome Mox; if your version of affinity does not use that card, its win percentage falls several percentage points against this deck. To help my playtest partners, I refined it into what you will see below, which proved a bit too good.

This version is much faster, and doesn't lose to Affinity or attacking Goblins. It still rolls over to the Goblin combo, but I haven't met a deck that doesn't. The available control decks aren't as good now, so Turbo-Revive is closer to tier one, but is it there? The only matches I've extensively tested are Goblins (~45% combo version - ~55% Sligh) and aggro-affinity (~70%), I can't really say how good it will do against other control. The sideboard should be pretty telling, though.

Revised Turbo-Revive
3 Chrome Mox
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Vine Trellis
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Mountain
2 Contested Cliffs
2 Stalking Stones
12 Forests

(28 mana sources, 4 fetches)

3 Plow Under
4 Revive
4 Ravenous Baloth
2 Krosan Tusker
1 Planar Portal
3 Forgotten Ancient
2 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Glissa Sunseeker
2 Nantuko Vigilante (since it's triggered, not activated, it kills Damping Matrix)
2 Soul Foundry
2 Silklash Spider

Sideboard:
3 Pyroclasm (Goblins)
3 Naturalize (Affinity, some versions of Mono-Black)
2 Ensnaring Bridge (Affinity, high-end Goblins, certain control decks)
3 Flashfires (White control/White Weenie)
2 Stabilizer (Astral Slide)
2 Lightning Greaves (Mono-Black, Slide)

The first biggest change is the replacement of Vernal Blooms with Chrome Moxes. Bloom was often too slow, but Mox lets the deck use extraneous Revives and Plow Unders for a mana boost when it counts. As it is right now, casting Baloth and Ancient may happen on the second turn thanks to hands with two lands, a Mox, and Birds/Trellis. This seems to happen about one game in five. I repeat: In 15%-20% of your games you get an insane second turn or a third-turn Plow (but rarely both). Sligh doesn't win against turn 2 Ancient unless they Shrapnel Blast it immediately. Remove Planar Portal, Glissa, and one Revive against speed Sligh; chuck the Tuskers if you want the extra Bridges.

If you can't get Chrome Moxes and still wish to play Turbo-Revive, the recommended changes are - 3 Mox, +1 Birds of Paradise, +2 Stalking Stones. The speed reduction of losing the Moxes hurts enough that Loxodon Warhammer should be removed and replaced with the sideboard Lightning Greaves. The two open sideboard slots are then filled by another Naturalize and another Pyroclasm. Please only make this change if you can't afford Chrome Moxes from StarCityGames - they really belong in this deck. If you wish to go down to two Moxes while adding a fourth bird, you may, but I found three Moxes work better than four birds.

The Soul Foundries were an experiment that went horribly right, as making cheap Bird of Paradise tokens for mana or Baloth tokens for life has seldom steered me wrong. Keep in mind that Imprint is triggered, so if they counter the Foundry you don't lose the second card. Making more than two Baloth tokens is usually game against any version of mono-red. Both the Foundries and Moxen also serve the dual purpose of emptying the hand quickly to slam down an Ensnaring Bridge and stop a Broodstar or Rorix from mattering. Killing your own Bridge is easy once a 23/23 Warhammer-wielding Forgotten Ancient is ready to attack.

One card I wish I had time to test inside here was Solemn Simulacrum; it seems to fit the deck idea really well (especially as a Soul Foundry target), but I knew I wasn't attending States in advance. Therefore, I didn't do extensive testing like usual.

Affinity can't really beat this deck unless they imprint Shrapnel Blast on Isochron Scepter and you don't have one of the destroy artifact cards (or a Revive to get them back). Ensnaring Bridge (play ASAP!) will completely shut Affinity down until you are prepared to kill your own bridge and send a huge Ancient or an army of Foundry tokens. Mox is pretty vital in depleting your hand enough to effectively use the Bridge. I've killed 18/18 Broodstars using Cliffs with larger Baloths thanks to +1/+1 counter transfers. Against the Rush of Knowledge affinity variant, I've seen them deck themselves against my Bridge as well. Take out Warhammer, Tusker, and Plow against Affinity; they are too slow.

Recently, I saw an Affinity build using Temporal Fissure; I can easily see how Fissure may lower Turbo Revive's win percentage substantially. If you are going with Affinity, I recommend Temporal Fissure and Chrome Mox in your build. If you dismiss those cards as bad, this deck thanks you.

People who don't know my style may comment on the lack of four-ofs in the deck. Let me address the selections:

Vine Trellis and Baloth are the cards you always want to draw, thus meriting four. Revive gets most anything back, also meriting the max slots, though I would seriously consider cutting a Revive without the Chrome Moxes. Birds of Paradise can't block, thus only three. Chrome Mox, while awesome early, isn't a good late game card. Plow Under is bad in early multiples - thus, there are only three. Ancient is worse late game when the hand is empty, thus only three.

Other cards which require investment or aren't good against all archetypes are two copies or less. Loxodon Warhammer surprisingly has not been as strong as I had hoped, but it is good enough that I haven't cut it.

You may wish to remove two Forests to max out Stalking Stones (that replaced Tranquil Thickets), two Stones do very well, and I haven't tried more. However I have never had a lack of green mana; if I was going to States, this is a change I would incorporate after a bit of testing.

Since this deck is heavily aggro-control in favor of aggression, only three card drawing spells are included: Two Tuskers and a Planar Portal. Revive can target Tusker in a pinch, and Soul Foundry is really like drawing a bunch of extra cards given its affect on the game. Creating a Baloth token every turn is amazing, and lets you play around Wrath. If you start using Planar Portal, you don't lose.

Akroma's Vengeance is another matter; please note the inclusion of Flashfires in the sideboard for this occasion. Not much testing has been done against against hard control-style decks, as those I play test with don't favor them.

Oh - but someone did play Mox-assisted land destruction against Turbo-Revive. After RTR won seven straight, he gave up. LD has been mentioned as a metagame choice against control; don't expect headaches from it, given your ten non-land mana sources.

Another change I considered, but never tried was adding a splash of white for Worship and Exalted Angel (supplemented by Windswept Heaths and Grand Coliseums). Oddly enough, I didn't want to interfere with the consistency of the deck.

I've covered the essential details. If you are worried about Affinity and Goblins dominating your states with an undercurrent of metagamed LD, this is the deck for you. If you expect zillions of control decks using Akroma's Vengeance, pick something else. Consider Turbo Revive in your gauntlet; I've come to enjoy playing Forgotten Ancient turn 2, and you can too.

--Judah Alt, Signing out