How I got a 83% Winrate with Selesnya Company in Historic

Baran
30/01/2021 · 10 min read
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Going mythic in Arena Historic with Selesnya coco

Who am I?

Hello guys, I'm Baran, a 25 years old law student from Germany and an upcoming content creator. In my free time I love to play chess and Magic: The Gathering. It's been 2 years now since I started playing Magic and recently, I started streaming.

If you like you can follow me on Twitch: Bigbaranoia

Recently I picked up the Selesnya CoCo deck , because it appeared to me it would be well placed in the current meta (I'm not the creator of this deck and the core shell has been around for a long time, but I've adapted it to my wishes). After playing it for some time my score ended up being 40-8 (83% WR) and catapulting me to #4 Mythic. Meanwhile I regularly posted my results on twitter, which got some prominent attention from the streamer Ahh_dean. He gave it a try and had similar success.

This is my current version of the deck:

To understand why the deck is doing so well we have to take a closer look at the mechanics of the Selesnya CoCo deck and then at the field.

What kind of deck is Selesnya CoCo?

Selesnya CoCo is a creature based toolbox deck, which relies heavily on Skyclave Apparition. and Fairgrounds Warden..

Both cards give you the ability to deal with almost every card that has cmc 4 or less. At the same time you deploy huge threats like lovestruck beast or other big creatures with cmc 3 which can take your opponent down in just a few turns. To round things up the deck contains 3 copies of the Great Henge and four copies of Collected Company. which makes your Apparitions and Wardens instant speed removal.

The reason I like this deck so much is that everything works well together. Your Llanovar Elves ramp and unlock your Lovestruck Beast.. So does the Luminarch Aspirant.. The Apparitions and Wardens remove any threat to make sure Lovestruck Beast., Garruks Harbinger and Kazzandu Mammoth stay on the field and attack your opponent. Then again Lovestruck Beast., Garruks Harbinger and Kazzandu Mammoth enable the Great Henge.

Selesnya Company: pros and cons

Pros

• Selesnya CoCo is pretty good against aggressive strategies like Gruul Aggro or Mono Green Aggro. This is because Skyclave Apparition. and Fairgrounds Warden. can deal with almost every creature your opponent plays. Also aggressive decks have a hard time if you get an early Lovestruck Beast. into play.
• The match up against Sacrifice. Decks is good as well. Yasharn shuts off their whole deck. Then again Apparition and Warden can deal with their Mayhem Devil.s and Woe Strider.s.
• Furthermore, the deck is able to play the Great Henge on turn 3 . Since the only way for Sultai to beat the Great Henge is Maelstrom Pulse., those grindy match ups are good to handle if you manage to play around their sweepers with CoCo.

Cons

I'd say that there are three issues with the deck and they're important to realize.

• First issue is that you're mostly able to deal with permanents and more consistently on your own turn . If you're playing against a combo deck that goes off quickly during your opponent's turn, e.g. Neostorm, then there's not a lot of interaction left for you.
• Another issue is the fact that the deck plays Collected Company., which is random. Of course, you'll often find two creatures, but they might not always be what you needed. Sometimes you want to be aggressive, but hit only removal creatures, and the same goes vice versa. This improves post board though.
• At last, since the deck doesn't run any removal spells that aren't creatures in the main deck it relies on enter the battlefield triggers to deal with threats. This makes it easy to counter the decks game plan with Hush Bringer or Tocatli Honor Guard.. Once they hit the field you have at least 10 dead cards in your deck (3 Fairgrounds warden, 4 Skyclave apparition and 3 Great Henge). The deck struggles to beat both cards. This is the reason why it's necessary to play four copies

Summary:

Overall, the deck offers a lot of versatility and resilience, so you're able to adapt against most decks in the meta. Even though I talked a lot about the cons speaking against the deck, I'd assume that they're minor. Practicing the deck first might be recommended though.

Selesnya Company si deboard/matchup guide

At the time I started playing Selesnya CoCo the historic meta mostly consisted of 3 decks being Sultai Midrange, Gruul Aggro and Jund/Rb Sac.

By now the meta already shifted. When I'm playing on the ladder I don't see as many sacrifice decks as before.

I received several messages from other Magic players via twitter telling me they were able to win the historic challenge with my list.

Sultai:

In: 2x Questing Beast., 1x Elder Gargaroth., 2x Vivien, 1x Archon of Emeria., 1x Garruks Harbinger, 1x Shapers Sanctuary

Out: 2x Yasharn, 3x Fairgrounds Warden., 2 Skyclave Apparition., 1x Luminarch Aspirant.

The sultai match up can be really tough. They play a lot of removal and if they have the nuts (removal into Uro into removal into Nissa or something) it's hard to do something about it. Your game plan here is to deploy an early threat while not overextending. For example, if you play a Garruks Harbinger and you have a Luminarch Aspirant. on board by turn 3 your opponent has to deal with them. There is no need to play another creature. The moment he answers your threat you play another one. Most efficient is a CoCo on your opponents end phase, especially after a sweeper.

Questing Beast. gets in for Nissa. Archon makes almost every land come into play tapped and slows them down. Although they have a ton of creature removal, they have a very hard time to remove Vivien. Once you got her or henge on the board, you are in a very good position.

The SB plan can vary if your opponent plays Doom Whisperer.. In that case you may want some Fairgrounds Warden. for it.

Jund/RB Sac:

In: 4x Baffling End., 1x Yasharn, 1x Elder Gargaroth., 1x Knight of Autumn., 1x Shapers Sanctuary

Out: 4x Llanowar Elves., 4x Luminarch Aspirant.

There is not much to say about this match up. Yasharn shuts off their whole deck except Korvold. Other than that, you have to try to exile/answer the key threads of your opponent depending on the situation (sac outlet, devil, priest etc.). The Aspirant and the elves go out because they just die to a ping.

Goblins:

In: 1x Authority of the Consuls., 4x Baffling End., 1x Garruks Harbinger

Out: 3x Scavenging Ooze., 2x Henge, 1x Yasharn

I must admit that I've only played few games against goblins. Basically, you have to race them, because they go way over the top with Muxxus and Krenko. If Linvala hits the field at least Krenko is not a problem anymore, but once your opponent hits a good and early Muxxus it's hard to come back. Thus, you should've won by then or should be near winning.

If you feel like this match up isn't good enough you may want to add Maul of the Skyclaves. to your sideboard. Goblins don't have any way to deal with huge flying creatures.

Gruul Aggro:

In : 1x Authority of the Consuls., 4x Baffling End., 2x Vivien, 1x Elder Gargaroth.

Out: 2x Llanowar Elves. (This might be very wrong, but I keep doing it cause they always have bone crusher T2 and It's eventually a 2 for 1 trade), 2x Garruks Harbinger, 2x Yasharn, 2x Luminarch Aspirant.

The only problem with the Gruul matchup is Embercleave.. Otherwise bigger creatures like Lovestruck Beast. and 7 main deck removal creatures help us reach the mid/late game, so that Henge can seal the deal. After boarding we get even more answers. The plan is to keep an eye on your opponent's mana. Does he have two red sources for Cleave? Is he keeping creatures back for Cleave? If yes, you have to remove his creatures so he can't play it. After all I think this matchup is quite good for GW, as long as we can answer/deny their Embercleave..

U/W Control:

In: 1x Garruks Harbinger, 2x Questing Beast., 2x Vivien, 1x Elder Gargaroth., 1x Archon of Emeria., 1x Knight of Autumn.

Out: 2x Yasharn, 3x Fairgrounds Warden., 3x Scavenging Ooze.

This is a tough match up just like Sultai. They're probably running 4 wraths (minimum), lots of single target removal, counter and Grafdiggers' Cage. Otherwise the game plan is the same as in the sultai match up. Create an early threat and don't overextend with your resources (avoid 2 or 3 for 1 trades). Another key is threatening coco at instant speed and baiting out the counter to play the cards you really want.

Like most control decks UW has problems to answer planeswalkers once they resolve, so make sure your Vivien does (coco at the end step of your opponent to bait the counter and then slam Vivien).

U/B Auras:

In: 4x Baffling End., 1x Archon of Emeria.

Out: 3x Luminarch Aspirant., 2x Lovestruck Beast.

In this match up you want all the removal. It's all about answering his Srams, Spirit dancer and his Lurrus. If you're able to answer these key cards, then it should be an easy win, since their deck contains a lot of blanks (their enchantments, which become useless without any of their value creatures). Postboard you have to keep in mind that Hush Bringer shuts down your whole deck. This influences our game decisions when you must choose between Baffling end or Skyclave apparition, thus you should play the Skyclave Apparition. first in order to avoid a useless Skyclave Apparition..

Mirror:

In : 4x Baffling End., 1x Elder Gargaroth., 2x Vivien

Out: 2x Garruks Harbinger, 2x Yasharn, 2x Luminarch Aspirant., 1x Scavenging Ooze.

This is basically a game of who deploys Henge first. I mean, if you have (and keep) Henge and your opponent doesn't, then it's pretty much over. Be aware of the deck variations with Maul of the Skyclave since Flying can be used quite aggressively.

4 Color:

In: 1x Archon of Emeria., 1x Garruks Harbinger, 2x Questing Beast., 2x Vivien, 1x Shapers Sanctuary

Out: 2x Yasharn, 3x Fairgrounds Warden., 2x Lovestruck Beast.

Four color is pretty similar to Sultai. The only difference is that they probably don't play Doom Whisperer.. Thus, we won't need Fairground Wardens for sure.

How Khaldeim will shape the archetype

It's always hard to predict the future meta and/or a single archetype. However, I'm really looking forward to three cards that I'll try. The cards that I'm talking about are Glorious Protector., Sigrid, God-Favored. and Reidane, God of the Worthy..

Glorious Protector. is just what the deck needed. It was already resilient and could play around any wrath effects because the creatures are big enough to pressure the opponent with only one or two creatures.

Now the deck can counter a sweeper by flashing in Glorious Protector. and exiling your whole board, which immediately returns after the Glorious Protector. is destroyed. This comes with an upside as well. Everything that was exiled by your Apparitions and Wardens will return and then be destroyed by the sweeper. Then all your Apparitions trigger a second time and can deal with any non-creature threat that's left on the battlefield. Besides the wrath protection Glorious Protector. can also be used for combat tricks. It will enable to flicker your Apparitions and Wardens at the right time to deal with new threats and leaving your opponent with some useless tokens or creatures.

Sigrid, the God-Favored is yet another creature removal, while her other abilities probably won't matter that much. At them momento I'm not sure if the card is even better than Fairgrounds Warden., so we'll have to figure this one out.

At last we got Reidane, God of the Worthy.. This could be a strong sideboard card against decks like Sultai Midrange.

If you liked this article maybe you will also find interesting on of the following ones New Standard, New Brews: A Fresh Twist on Dimir Midrange by Mogged, Hardened Scales In-depth & sideboard guide, Esper Legends Tips, Tricks & Sideboard Guide by Mogged, Pauper Monored 8-Reck - Deck & Sideboard Guide, Mastering Izzet Creativity in Pioneer, Standard Mono Red Aggro Primer & Sideboard Guide

Baran
Content Creator
Hello guys, I’m Baran, a 25 years old law student from Germany and an upcoming content creator. In my free time I love to play chess and Magic: The Gathering. It’s been 2 years now since I started playing Magic and recently, I started streaming.

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