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I'm working on a mono-green overrun deck but I'm having some trouble responding to my opponent's non-creature cards.

Against another creature-heavy deck it does very well, but up against anything with creature removal, control, discard, milling...it just gets stomped and I feel like I really don't have a response to this.

I've played a lot of blue in the past so I'm used to being able to have access to "Counterspell" to handle situations like this.

Does green have a response to sorceries/instants that target you as a player, not your creatures?

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  • If you are not adverse to artifact inclusion, the Witchbane orb makes you as a player hex proof. – Pow-Ian Mar 27 '14 at 13:54
  • Some of the answers here may be helpful: boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/14908/… – GendoIkari Mar 27 '14 at 13:59
  • @Pow-Ian That does little good vs. either removal or counterspells, though. (It does hit the discard, and generally the mill) – Steven Stadnicki Mar 28 '14 at 5:22
  • @StevenStadnicki which is exactly why it was a suggestion in a comment instead of an answer ;) – Pow-Ian Mar 28 '14 at 11:40
  • Small nitpick: you mention "milling" along side removal/control/discard, but really they have nothing in common. The latter three harm your current or future board position, making it harder for you to quickly kill your opponent. But being milled doesn't slow you down at all. (if you're thinking, "but they might mill my best cards", they're just as likely to mill your worst cards and get you closer to your good ones. In the long run, it averages out to nothing.) And since they're not focusing on the battlefield, it should be easier to kill a mill deck than a creature-heavy deck. – Kevin Mar 28 '14 at 13:35
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The format you're playing is very important to answer this question. Playing Standard, for example, limits your options to the most recent few sets, while on the opposite end of the spectrum, playing Vintage or Commander opens up nearly every card ever printed.

Against removal, you can go for creatures with hexproof/shroud (Thrun, the Last Troll/Scythe Tiger), means to grant hexproof/shroud (Asceticism/Aspect of Mongoose), protection (Chameleon Colossus/Tel-Jilad Defiance), regeneration (Experiment One, Fortitude), indestructible (Predator Ooze, Thornling), etc.

Against countermagic, green is probably the best solution (besides perhaps also playing blue for countering the countermagic); there are a number of cards in green which either can't be countered, or make something else uncounterable. For example, Gaea Herald, Mistcutter Hydra, Savage Summoning.

Against discard and mill, green is probably second only to black in terms of re-using the graveyard. Gensis, Eternal Witness, Creeping Renaissance. Green and black are also the two colors of the Golgari guild, where the extremely powerful Dredge mechanic comes from (which involves self-mill).

Green is also quite good at noncreature removal; in fact, the majority of targeted removal in green is noncreatures only.

With a full card pool, you have a lot of options. For example, I have a mono-green Commander deck (Ezuri, Renegade Leader elf tribal) which often plays like a blue deck, thanks to cards like Ezuri or Wirewood Symbiote protecting my creatures (regenerate or return to hand to protect from removal), Gaea's Herald or Cavern of Souls stopping counterspells, Yeva, Nature's Herald letting me take "turns" during my opponents' turns, Survival of the Fittest or Fauna Shaman searching for answers to threats (especially with Masked Admirers creating an engine), Sylvan Library drawing cards, etc.

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Against removal, try Hexproof (Ranger's Guile, Sheltering Word) or Indestructible (Mortal's Resolve, Withstand Death).

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They way it should be handled is having a strategy that either ignore non creature permanent or that is fast enough to not care.

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  • 3
    I don't understand; how does ignoring non-creature permanents protect this deck from instants and sorceries? Can you suggest any cards or strategies? And when killing an opponent "fast enough," how fast is that with a mono-green deck? Can you expand your answer with details and possibly examples? – PotatoEngineer Mar 27 '14 at 18:09
  • This is impossible to tell without a format. Modern, std, fun on my kitchen table, all of those have completely different needs. Fast enough in modern might be turn 3 or 4, the deck is named boggles. It's usually more important to take care of the main aspect of a deck rather than weakening it because something can go wrong. You'll never be able to face every possible situation. Having a better and faster game plan is often the best way to "handle" counter strategies. – SeikoTheWiz Mar 14 '18 at 16:07

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