Amid the debates surrounding how much Premodern's arrival on Magic Online influenced the Parallax Tide banning, one benefit of this transition is undeniable: the format has become more popular.
Leagues and Challenges on MTGO allow hundreds of players to experiment with decks, practice matches, and refine strategies. This helps democratize Premodern even in regions where the format's tournament scene is weaker, while also evolving the Metagame with new outside-the-box ideas.
Such is the case with Selesnya Madness. A new variant among Premodern Aggro decks, it uses the familiar mechanic found in 
builds but swaps the primary blue enablers for high-quality white cards like Swords to Plowshares and more consistency through aggressive universal enablers.
The Decklist
Selesnya Madness sits somewhere between the classic versions of the archetype and Gruul Sligh, the 
Aggro variant that leverages interactions with Wild Mongrel to generate value.
Our plan revolves around having a Wild Mongrel or Tireless Tribe to discard Basking Rootwalla or Arrogant Wurm and stabilize the board, complementing them with Glory, which for a low cost offers protection from a specific color for your creatures—important both for shielding against removal and for attacking unblocked against Aggro.
Despite its aggressive nature, Selesnya Madness offers flexibility as another draw. Against faster decks and/or those with smaller creatures, we can adopt a more "midrange" posture, using a mix of removal and large bodies to dominate the game each turn. In Control and Combo matchups, we can apply active pressure to establish a reliable clock that's difficult to answer in one-for-one trades.
This is one of Premodern's most rewarding decks today for players who enjoy Aggro with flexibility. It's also financially accessible: except for the one-of Gaea's Cradle—a land that makes a difference but isn't mandatory for every list—almost all the cards in the build are cheap and relatively easy to find.
Maindeck
To start applying pressure from turn one, Savannah Lions remains one of Premodern's best options. You could test Mother of Runes in this slot if your Metagame is full of black Midrange and Control decks, or Nimble Mongoose if you want to capitalize on discard effects to enable Threshold.
Creatures with free discard abilities are the core of this strategy and one of the main reasons to play 
over . They trigger Madness and, in the late game, enable Flashback costs without putting you down on resources.
Wild Mongrel and Patrol Hound are the best options as they serve as aggressive bodies early, while Tireless Tribe adds redundancy to these effects and also helps pay for Prismatic Strands.
Our most explosive plays involve a discard outlet followed by Basking Rootwalla to establish a clock. The next turn, we want Arrogant Wurm on board to round out the threat cycle and Glory to threaten unblockable attacks turn after turn.
From this point onward, we can shift to more reactive lines with removal and/or start playing our cards with value rather than pressure in mind. This is also the ideal time to focus on pumping Basking Rootwalla instead of casting spells.
As the game goes long, Call of the Herd works as a two-for-one that puts six power on the board spread over two turns and/or seven mana. With Glory, this card maintains pressure even through a sweeper and/or unfavorable early trades used to slow the opponent's clock.
The 6/6 for four mana from Roar of the Wurm in a list that easily puts cards in the graveyard becomes a solid finisher in the mid-to-late game. With Glory in the graveyard, untapping with the token can often mean winning the game in a turn or two.
Nothing removes a troublesome blocker or a larger threat more cleanly than Swords to Plowshares. The life gain might give the opponent some extra pseudo-turns, but we have enough board pressure that this drawback rarely becomes an issue.
Prismatic Strands, on the other hand, provides extra turns against any deck using many monocolored threats, buying the necessary breathing room against Sligh, Goblins, and Elves.
The one-of Naturalize serves as a flexible answer to a dozen problems in the current Metagame. In the worst-case scenario, it's food for Wild Mongrel, but drawing it during a match has become increasingly less likely to be completely useless.
Two-color decks in Premodern don't typically run this many flexible lands, as we lack the combination of Windswept Heath + Dual Land/Shock Land to easily guarantee access to both colors. However, our color requirements are mostly single-pip—relying more on colorless costs lets us use Mishra's Factory and Wasteland without losing too much consistency.
Gaea's Cradle enables explosive turns where we generate seven mana to cast Call of the Herd twice or hardcast a Roar of the Wurm. Your list doesn't need it to function, but there are situations where dropping it and exploding on mana secures victory the following turn.
Sideboard
The extra copies of Prismatic Strands are essential against the aforementioned Elves, Goblins, and Sligh. The red matchup is also complemented by Absolute Law, which lets you push past the endless blockers in the Goblins matchup.
Compost generates a massive card advantage against black Midrange decks and Psychatog—matchups where we typically need to shift to a more value-oriented Game 2 because our clock isn't reliable enough for a race.
Mystic Enforcer also adds to the threat package in these games. If we enable Threshold, we get a 6/6 with Flying for four mana whose only answers from these strategies are likely Diabolic Edict or Perish.
The artifact and enchantment hate package tries to cover different angles. Crumble is hyper-efficient as supplementary removal against Phyrexian Dreadnought, while Tranquil Domain comes in against Enchantress and can work against Landstill as another way to deal with a Humility.
Naturalize sits in the middle of the two and comes in for most matchups where we need this category of effects.
Enchanting any of our larger creatures with Armadillo Cloak turns games around against faster Aggro decks as well as in the mirror, where the player who maintains the strongest board position typically prevails. Ideal targets include Wild Mongrel—we can respond to Lightning Bolt by discarding two cards with Cloak on the stack—Arrogant Wurm, or tokens from Call of the Herd and Roar of the Wurm.
Tormod's Crypt deals with graveyards for free and remains necessary both to hold off Reanimator for a few more turns and to slow down Psychatog or disrupt loops with Recurring Nightmare.
In a list with so many resilient creatures, sweepers are the most common answer to handle them. Caller of the Claw serves as insurance against these removal spells and punishes opponents who fire off a Wrath of God without considering the short-term consequences.
Sideboard Guide
Mono Blue Stiflenought
IN
OUT
Their clock is much faster than yours if the combo resolves. Apply pressure from turn one and use spot interaction to stop Phyrexian Dreadnought. Glory and Prismatic Strands are nearly useless in this matchup.
Sligh
IN
OUT
Your goal is to survive the early turns and establish a favorable board to pressure in combat while reusing Prismatic Strands as often as possible. Armadillo Cloak wins games, but we need to watch out for Sulfuric Vortex. For this reason, I opt not to run Absolute Law and keep the Naturalize.
Azorius Control
IN
OUT
Two copies of Swords to Plowshares are necessary to handle Exalted Angel, which can invalidate our clock. We're the beatdown in this matchup and need to maximize aggression whenever possible, but without overextending to the point of running out of resources.
If you have a choice between casting Call of the Herd or pumping Basking Rootwalla, prioritize Rootwalla — the risk of it eating a Swords to Plowshares is less punishing.
Mono Black Midrange
IN
OUT
Resolving a Compost is essential to winning this matchup. Our early game tends to trade poorly with their creatures, and they have the advantage if they keep Phyrexian Arena on board, so focus Naturalize on it and find opportunities to capitalize on two-for-one effects.
The Rock
IN
OUT
Mystic Enforcer isn't the same free win it would be against Mono Black in this matchup. We need to keep Pernicious Deed in check as much as possible, but we have the advantage that Arrogant Wurm requires enough mana that the opponent often can't cast it and pop the enchantment in the same turn to deal with it.
Enchantress
IN
OUT
The more turns pass, the easier it becomes for the opponent to dominate the game. Be the Aggro and don't worry about needing to focus on value, as the right combination of enchantments can "lock" the game, and Parallax Wave is even more lethal against a deck running many tokens.
Goblins
IN
OUT
Absolute Law can win the game on its own, but their clock is faster than yours. Prismatic Strands also provides pseudo-extra turns in this matchup, and we want to avoid Goblin Sharpshooter becoming a problem, so we cut Savannah Lions.
Elves
IN
OUT
Elves have too many blockers for us to pressure with Savannah Lions, but the combination of Prismatic Strands and Armadillo Cloak tends to be enough to hold their clock. Naturalize is essential for dealing with Survival of the Fittest.
Psychatog
IN
OUT
There's a sub-game we can play with Prismatic Strands and Psychatog's damage potential, but a more experienced player will know how to properly set up or split damage appropriately to avoid getting greedy and losing their entire graveyard to one attack.
Powder Keg will be a problem by handling Call of the Herd tokens, and while rare, some lists run Hibernation and/or Perish as one-ofs. It's not an easy matchup, but we have enough resilience to play the late-game with sufficient pressure.
Selesnya Madness
IN
OUT
The mirror is about trading resources constantly. Blocking with two or more creatures to take down a larger threat is common, so Caller of the Claw comes in to compensate for these unfavorable trades, and Armadillo Cloak typically forces the opponent's Swords to Plowshares. While this isn't a black deck, a Threshold-active Mystic Enforcer can carry the game if left unchecked—and both players typically only run four spot removal spells each.
Wrapping Up
That's all for today!
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!
Thanks for reading!
Sign in and join the conversation
— Comments 0
, Reactions 1
Be the first to comment