Raleigh's Green Tempo

Hello there! Welcome to my guide to Mono Green Tempo, I will cover openings, mid, and late game, popular matchups, land positioning, and a bit of psychology, including emotes and how you play. To preface this, I have been playing card games for ages, even before I got my hands on a device, I had been playing a variation of War, (A card card game) as well as board games, a few years later I started playing chess, and have been for 13 years, (Still do) My highest achievement was nationals, where I came just short of 2nd place. I have a background in Psychology and geometrey, upon discovering faeria I melded all of my abilities and have found much success.

Lets start with the mulligan, what creatures do you keep and get rid of. You should almost always keep one of these three cards if you are going first: Wood Elemental Sagami WarriorDeepwood Stalker

The wood Elemental is an Invaluable card, I like to keep one, but not both elementals in hand if get the option to do so, the reasoning behind this will be covered more extensivly in my land placement, but if you use both early you have only land ramped, and acquired no tempo or threats on the board, something this deck really depends.

Sagami warrior is a turn one collector if nothing else, however it's dash ability can also be used with forest and double neutrals to deliver an early threat that can quickly get where other cards could not.

Deepwood stalker early is the removal green never had and since the Tree nerf has fallen out of many decks, however, with the dominance of both rush and GY sac, a 2/4 body that can fight any creature is incredibly strong, against such matchups it will almost always kill a creature and be able to collect of defend next turn, requiring the opponent to put more resources into this creature to remove it, slowing them down greatly, it will also put this fear in the back of their mind, that they have to play around this piece of removal, making it more possible they won't go all in, buying you time as a defender or a chance at aggression. With this cards minimal play, it will almost always be a surprise to your opponent.

Optional keeps will go like this Verduran Force Ruunin

The more expensive optional keeps:

Verduran force is a turn two play that is often extremely difficult to removal, if you go first it is guaranteed to get a single collection, the only turn 3 opposition to this is frogify or last nightmare, barring an elemental mind you.

Ruunin The Relentless is a nightmare, for nightmares, and red, and mono green, everything but blue really, even then they are forced to spend additional resources to deal with her, with it's dash ability, getting a ruunin into a spot where you can repetedly play her is ideal. Now, I know what you are going to say: "What about flower?" To which I agree, this is also why we run 3 copies of [Card=368]Emperor's Command[/Card] turning a 4 faeria temporary removal into a loss of 2 faeria and an awkward position for the opponent, it is, extremely important, not to overcommit on Ruunin however, I have seen and had many a game, where a backup collector was never setup to maintain the ruunin drop, and was countered by multple creatures, if you all in on ruunin be sure you have a comeback mechanic planned, a teleport, cheap and safe collector, stalkers to hold the line, and the sort, without any of these, you will be one ruunin vs a very, very angry red deck.

Openings! Everyone's favorite topic.
^^ You'll want to open that in a new tab so you can have it side by side :) Alright, we have a number of openings to discuss, we will do wood elemental openings, which has two opportunities, with two variations depending on matchups, allow me to explain. You are going first, you have two options, Forest in the middle of your orb and wait, I like this opening when you have ruunin or sagami warrior in your hand, the reson being is, unless it is of course rush, you can then forest to the left or right of that, drop your wood elemental, creatre the land next to your well, if your oppononet went different side, BEFORE you move the elemental to collect, double neutral, dash your ruunin or sagami warror up, then collect, it will be turn 3, so 9 faeria and 3 forests allows you to play the warrior or ruunin before you collect. after this, you have pressure, and double collectors set up, a very powerful and ideal setup. Next option, neutral in front of your orb, and then to the side of that neutral towards a well, your next turn you can forest on the well, drop your ele, and drop a forest aggressivly or into the wells, more ideal if you have a buff, stalker, or warrior to back it up, and a 2/4 body is not extremely strong and seceptible to cheap removal. The reason I caution against this opening! If the opponent is playing rush, you have made a land for them which is never a good thing, and it is a land that they can create two sides of attack off of, however, if you are certain that you have either a mobility or lets say a verduran to defend, it can still work. Turn two openings! (yay) These are a lot simpler actually, against rush, explore right or left to the side of your orb, place a forest next to the well, drop your wood elemental and make a forest on the opposite side of your orb, ideal with deepwood stalker, wood elemental, verduran, ruunin to go on the opposite side.

Now, if you are not against rush, you can go in front of orb, with the explore, forest either side, your discretion as to weather you want to go same side (if applicatble) and then the wood elementals forest will go on the well, where you can double neutral and dash up a warrior if you have it, and if you don't, and have say ruunin, last forest, ruunin, and drop her there, else I find you can save your hand with this opening.

Mid Game! (If you made it this far congratulations and thank you)

You will find mid game will result like this "Now what do I do, I set up my collectors, have my aggressive spot, and we are kind of just sitting here." First, don't sit and do nothing, especially against GY Sac, do that, they tend to win, at mid game you will want to start setting a lot of power in one area, so you can move everything up, clear a defender, and then go face, with 9 buffs, 3 stalkers, and emperor's commands, it should be reasonable to destroy a taunt and then go face with a teleport of just another strong creature.

Late game! Teleport 0, Zero being the number of health of the opponents orb when a verduran teleports to hit them. Use your teleports wisely! You only have two, if you can save them, do so, but if it's the best play don't hesitate on it. Now, lets say we are at late game, BG has just got their whale on board, they are low life thanks to your early aggression, but they have creatures blocking the orb, this is when you start to 'misplay', but you do it intentionally knowing it is in fact not a misplay, drop a creature out of their range, then make an aggressive forest if you can, after this, IMMEDIATLY drop the "oops" emote, make them think you made a mistake, make them think you are weak, this lone creature is a threat, so naturally they will want to move towards it to eliminate it, set it closer to their defenders then their aggressive creatures, drawing them away is paramount to a successful teleport play.

Emotes in detail. I think Mind Games are unappreciated, to appear weak, act like you misplayed, "Oops" is better then well played, naturally, if you are facing a player who played well but lost to bad draws or you had good topdecks, go ahead throw out a well played or a taunt before you win, might be just enough for them to log off for the night, giving you one less good player to play against.

DON'T over emote, your emotes should mean something, throwing them out willy nilly means you will get muted.

DON'T be a jerk, if they are a new player, or casual, or didn't even have chance, it isn't necesary to BM them.

Right! I have a long day tomorrow, so I will close it out here, thanks for checking this out! If you made it this far I applaud and thank you, ANY feedback and/or suggestions will be appreciated and responded to.

Thanks! -Raleigh