Elder Zenith

4 Viridian Emissary 2 Ambush Viper 3 Garruk's Companion 4 Skinshifter 4 Dungrove Elder 4 Solemn Simulacrum 3 Prey Upon 1 Hunter's Insight 4 Overrun 4 Green Sun's Zenith 2 Beast Within 1 Bramblecrush 24 Forest

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I finally built a deck around Dungrove Elder. I was very impressed the first time I saw the card but I've had a hard time finding a home for him since he basically requires mono green. I couldn't really find anything I wanted to pair him with (I'm too cheap for Primeval Titan). However, the fantastic Green Sun's Zenith lets me pair him with himself! Eight "copies" of your build-around-me card is much better than four.

The basic idea is to ramp into a ton of forests via Emissary and Simulacrum and consisently drop cheap, huge, and resilent Dungrove Elders. A pair of 6/6 or 7/7 Elders applies a lot of pressure to the opponent. Elder also combines nicley with Prey Upon for high quality creature removal. The single Hunter's Insight is another cool trick if one of the Elders becomes unblocked - you'll draw a ton of cards with virtually zero risk since the tree man is hexproof.

The problem, however, is while Dungrove Elder is cheap, huge, and resilient he's easy to chump block. Our workaround is venerable Overrun. Not much is better than smashing your opponent underfoot with three 10/10 tramping trees - "BAROOM, BOOM, BOOM!".

As awesome as the Zenith-Elder-Overrun hookup is, we have to have a plan B in case, you know, you don't draw Zenith or Elder, or your Elder gets Despise'd, or you don't draw Overrun and you're getting chump blocked by tokens, or your stuck on two lands.

An aggro team of two drops led by Skinshifter is plan B. The shapeshifter can win games by himself if the opponent dosesn't have an answer. Hit for four on turn three, and four, and five... you get the idea. And truth be told, Overrun is so powerful you don't actually need the Elders. Something like two Emissarys, a Skinshifter, and an Overrun will often be enough for the win.

One last thing I want to touch on is the little set of removal. Finally green gets some respect when it comes to removal. Prey Upon takes out creatures (as long as you have creatures) and Bramblecrush takes out everything else. Beast Within is fantastic because it can take out anything at instant speed. A 3/3 beast for the opponent will be worth the benefit. Also, on more than one occasion I've destroyed one of my own lands during my opponent's end step to set up a fatal Overrun. It's not much removal, but having just a little bit is important. I'd like to increase the numbers on the Bramblecrush and Beast Within but running four Overruns means I absolutely have to have as many creatures as possible. This is also why I choose Emissary over Rampant Growth, though I tested a lot with both. If you feel like you need a little more speed you can swap in some Rampant Growths.

I think this a pretty strong, though perhaps one-dimensional, budget Standard deck. Try it out! Tell your opponent not to anger the trees.