Standard: Selesnya Landfall - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

The new Standard season has finally arrived, and with it, a variety of archetypes and strategies can be experimented with as the Metagame adapts and players test the new Edge of Eternities cards searching for the best decks.

Among these, an archetype that emerged at the end of last season has gained more prominence: Mono Green Landfall, whose theme has developed in recent weeks and, with the new cards, has opened up space for two-color variants like Selesnya Landfall with Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam and Felidar Retreat.

This was essentially one of the first decks I tested with Edge of Eternities, and the results seemed satisfactory. Mono Green Landfall was already a well-known archetype with potential in the new Standard season, and applying light splashes seems like a natural evolution going forward. Some lists are experimenting with red or blue, and in this list, we're trying white due to two key cards the new set brought:

The first is the interaction of Icetill Explorer with the format's "Fetch Lands." These allow us to better utilize our cards' Landfall triggers and open up space to dominate the game with a go-wide plan with Felidar Retreat, or significantly increase the power of all creatures in a single turn—each Fetch will find a basic land, and since we can play two lands per turn, that's four +1/+1 counters on all creatures or four 2/2 tokens, or a combination of both.

Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam is another relevant addition. While it doesn't directly interact with Landfall, it provides a constant source of card advantage and more bodies on the board with the various cards that gain +1/+1 counters in the list.

The splash of also offers important tools for the sideboard. Cards like Requisition Raid can be used proactively while dealing with artifacts or enchantments, Dawn's Truce protects creatures from non-exiling sweepers, and Sheltered by Ghosts remains as relevant against aggro this season as it was before.

The Landfall package.

You're probably familiar with Tifa Lockhart. Originally, Landfall lists used her alongside pumps like Titanic Growth for combo-kill potential, but as the archetype evolved, Tifa became another win condition rather than the archetype's primary game plan. She still receives support from Bristly Bill, Spine Sower and Snakeskin Veil, but winning with hit-kills has become less of a priority.

Sazh's Chocobo has become more important now that we're shifting our focus away from pumps and toward permanent power. With 14 Fetch Lands, it easily becomes a 2/3 on the second turn and perhaps even a 5/6 on the third with the help of Bristly Bill, Spine Sower, but there are many situations where preserving Fetch Lands is important for other cards.

One of these is Mossborn Hydra. A 1/1 for three mana is irrelevant, but a Fetch or a Bristly Bill mix with it can turn any land drop into a 4/4, and maybe even a 10/10 the next turn with Trample. It's the kind of card that demands an answer or will win the game on its own.

Bristly Bill, Spine Sower is the glue. It boosts the power of all creatures with land drops, has a low cost, and a late-game ability that easily dominates the match if left untouched. It may be one of our worst topdecks, but it's a price we're willing to pay.

With so many interactions with Landfall, it's natural that we use Traveling Chocobo to double the triggers, allowing for more explosive plays as the match goes on and, sometimes, even a surprise hit-kill with Mossborn Hydra or Tifa Lockhart combined with a Fetch Land and Bristly Bill.

Felidar Retreat complements the Landfall package. It ensures our board doesn't go empty in games where opponents clog their removal lists, while also making it harder to interact. If we have a favorable board, it increases the power of all creatures and makes it easier to pressure opponents in the Aggro mirror, even when we don't want to open up gaps for their creatures to get through.

Icetill Explorer works almost like copies 5 and 6 of Traveling Chocobo, but with the bonus of always guaranteeing Landfall for your cards and, most importantly, always reusing Fetch Lands.

Dyadrine, Synthesis Amalgam offers an element I've always missed when playing this archetype in other versions: resources. Besides having a decent body for its cost and Trample (relevant considering the interactions with Bristly Bill), it can remove two +1/+1 counters from your creatures to put another body on the board and draw more cards, sometimes more important than the damage we can deal that turn.

I'm not sure three copies are ideal, perhaps two, and adding a split with Pawpatch Recruit or Surrak, the Hunt Caller, moving a Felidar Retreat to the sideboard would be more appropriate.

Although this is an Aggro deck, we need to use Fetch Lands to enable more Landfall triggers each turn, so we have a full set of Escape Tunnel and Fabled Passage—which makes lands enter untapped starting with the fourth land—plus two copies of Evolving Wilds. A third copy could be included as a twenty-sixth land in place of a Dyadrine, but it doesn't seem necessary.

Since we're running tons of Forests, Hushwood Verge helps with the splash without compromising the access to in the early turns, making it easier to add white cards and requiring only one Plains in the maindeck.

Sideboard

Surrak, Elusive Hunter provides an additional threat with Trample, which has a built-in Shapers' Sanctuary to punish the opponent's spot removals. As a bonus, it also bypasses Pinnacle Starcage, serving as another mid-game threat.

Frenzied Baloth can be swapped for Pawpatch Recruit, which was originally in this slot, but players have been betting on Azorius Control/Jeskai Control this early in the season, and it seems like a good time to experiment with this card's potential. Furthermore, it also has an immediate impact.

Another common archetype found in early-season ranked matches are the Red Aggro variants (Boros Burn, Gruul Mice) and the Landfall mirror. In both cases, Sheltered by Ghosts offers us a way to hold the opponent's clock while interacting with the board, removing blockers or larger threats from the board.

Seam Rip complements the cheap removal slots for this matchup. Other options include Authority of the Consuls or, if we feel the need to deal with Planeswalkers, Get Lost.

Requisition Raid deals with troublesome artifacts and enchantments like Caretaker's Talent and Overlord of the Hauntwoods or Pinnacle Starcage while also buffing our creatures and putting more tokens on the board with Dyadrine.

Rest in Peace is our answer to graveyards and can be used against Naya Yuna and possible Abhorrent Oculus variants that may show up in the future, along with Cauldron decks.

Right now, Dawn's Truce is the best option we have to protect our creatures from sweepers like Day of Judgment or Zero-Point Ballad. It will be replaced by Spectacular Spider-Man when the new set comes out, but we need to play the cheapest answer today.

Gruul Aggro

IN

OUT

Esper Bounce

IN

OUT

Mono White Tokens

IN

OUT

Azorius Control

IN

OUT

Naya Yuna

IN

OUT

Mono Green Landfall

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!