Modern Hardened Scales Aggro (with Bryan Kinnel) is one of the favorite brews I’ve ever been part of and today I’m here to share a redux Pioneer version of the deck that I’ve once again teamed up with @Kinnellbryan to develop.
Mono Green Scales has become my go-to deck for playing Thursday evening Pioneer at RIW Hobbies and it’s been a delight to work on and play over the past month or so. It’s funny because Scales is such a “not an archetype” in Pioneer that we basically had to start at the beginning and look for all sorts of different cards worth considering to play, play the games, and tune it up!
MAKING THE LEAP TO SCALES
The ongoing Max Mcvety meme about wanting to play Scales even though it’s not tier 1 certainly applies here… There’s a reason this deck is sweet and it’s because it’s a blast to play! There’s so much to do and we get to move +1/+1 counters around all over the place.
There are two enchantments that function as the core of the deck and really allow us to take advantage of +1/+1 counter synergies that form the core of the deck.
Hardened Scales is the lynchpin of the deck and puts an additional +1/+1 counter onto our creatures each time they would receive a counter. Obviously, I’ve built the deck to incorporate as many +1/+1 synergies as possible to take full advantage.
The concept of the deck is to be very low to the ground, with smooth mana, and keep the curve extremely compact so that we can spew out creatures as quickly as possible and create pressure ahead of our opponent’s curve. When we draw a Hardened Scales the deck runs way ahead of the curve, but it’s actually a fairly formidable deck even without our signature combo piece. When we draw Scales the deck plays extremely fast.
The foundation of the deck are the 1 mana pseudo-Arcbound creatures which fix their power and toughness in play by virtue of being able to transfer their counters to other bodies when they die. They are great chump blockers in racing situations and incredible material with our other powerful Enchantment:
Max Mcvety (the memester himself) suggested this card and it really helped bring the deck together. It’s also a straight up bomb against removal heavy decks like Rakdos, since it allows us to constantly replace our creatures (while spreading their counters around) in the face of targeted removal spells.
It’s also worth noting that because so many of the creatures in the deck move their +1/+1 counters onto something else when they die that Evolutionary Leap also functions as an on board combat trick. I’ve played many games where I can line up great attacks or sneak through lethal damage by sacrificing modular creatures and moving their power and toughness to where it matters most! It’s also worth noting that when we move counters from one creature to another that we get an added +1/+1 counter thanks to Hardened Scales which add up quickly to make huge monsters.
Evolutionary Leap also importantly gives us a great sacrifice outlet for Hangarback Walker, which is a huge piece of synergy in the deck. We can move our +1/+1 counters onto the Walker and then take to the skies! Hangarback Walker is one of my favorite creatures of all time and it’s such a joy to build a deck around a favorite card and relive those glory days of yesteryear when I used to play it in a bunch of different decks across various formats.
It’s a really interesting creature and has a lot of play to it in this deck, especially when it’s 1T: ability adds an additional counter. As I’ve often called it, ‘hang-back blocker’ because its so formidable against aggressive decks.
My biggest highlight game playing the deck was getting to block Velomachus 6 times in a row to eek out a win against Extra Turns by chumping with a lot of Thopter Tokens. That’s a lot of blocks for a beatdown deck to make!
Beastcaller was a sweet addition to the deck from Dominaria United. Aside from a few exceptions, the deck is almost all cheap creatures which makes it very easy to build a big body with Beastcaller. Beastcaller also has that pseudo-arcbound ability that I’ve built the deck around which means that even if an opponent removes it the power and toughness will still remain on the battlefield!
I love Avatar of the Resolute in this mono green deck. It’s easy to cast and Trample and Reach are both premium abilities in a green aggro deck. The trample is a great way to force through damage against chump blockers and the reach is surprisingly useful against decks like Spirits and mono U aggro at halting their attacks. I’ve been so impressed with Avatar’s size in my matches that I’m playing the third copy in place of a second Scavenging Ooze.
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar is one I’m intimately familiar with from GW Tokens and it’s a HOUSE when combined with a Hardened Scales to double the counters. Also worth noting, the 0/1 Plant Tokens created by the +1 ability are great to sacrifice to Evolutionary Leap to find a creature.
I play a swath of Elves in my deck as well which allows me to power out Nissa on turn two and +1 for a Plant Token ahead of schedule which can really pester many strategies. The +1/+1 counter Anthem effect with Nissa is incredibly powerful and often swings games out of the opponent’s reach once it hits play.
Is there anything quite as sweet as the silky, smoothness of a mono colored mana base? 16 Basic Forests! OH YEAH!
In addition to having luxuriously smooth mana with our basics the deck also has some great utility land options. In particular, the inclusion of five creatures lands in the form of 2x Lair of the Hydra and 3x Mutavault.
The cost is low and the upside high. Mutavault is also a fantastic place to sneak some +1/+1 counters against decks packing Supreme Verdict as well as a great way to pressure their planeswalkers.
My worst main deck matchups with Scales tend to be fast combo decks. I actually like my matchups against the various flavors of beatdown, midrange and control and so I compensate for that through a slathering of sideboard hate cards. I play them all!
A mono Green board presence deck is never going to match up well against a fast combo deck since we don’t have interaction or removal and tend to win games by building up a big board over time, so I devote my entire sideboard to silver bullets against the various flavors of combo in the format and essentially transform into a “hate deck” vs combo.
I wouldn’t say it swings the bad match ups too heavily but it at least gives us a fighting chance against decks like Mono Green Devotion, Greasefang, and Lotus Field. Mono Green Devotion is probably the hardest matchup vs Scales, but with that being the big exception I’ve actually fared really well against Greasefang and Lotus Field in the matches I’ve played thus far.
While I don’t think the Stone Brain will suddenly transform my bad match up against Mono Green into a favorable one, I do think it’s a solid sideboard card for the deck. I like that it can come in against a wide array of Combo decks which makes my sideboard a little bit deeper across my most difficult matchups.
I’ve had so much fun building, tuning and playing this mono green Hardened Scales deck over the past month. I’m impressed with how much it can hold its own even against top tier decks in the format. Combined with the other decks I’ve assisted Bryan Kinnel brewing and that he’s written about here on RIWHOBBIES.COM, it’s certainly true Pioneer is a brewer’s paradise right now. With a few good ideas to start with, some hard work, a little practice and patience you can bring your favorite strategies to life on the battlefield at your LGS. I’ve certainly gotten reacquainted with my old friend Hangarback Walker the past month!
