Old-Growth Troll isn't the first aggressive creature that costs GGG, but it feels like the first one of the play-design era. Gone are the days of the humble Leatherback Baloth where the overwhelming size is the main attraction. Now, the size is a given and it comes with a paragraph of text that punishes anyone who dares to interact with you. The combination of being cheap, big enough to demand an answer, and a two for one makes this all but guaranteed to see standard play—that is, if there's a shell that can accommodate the casting cost. That does limit our options pretty heavily, but Mono-Green was already one of the strongest archetypes before Kaldheim, so signs are promising. 

Let's take a look at how we might make room for Old-Growth Troll in the deck:

Magic: The Gathering TCG Deck - Troll Toll 1 by Baker Neenan

'Troll Toll 1' - constructed deck list and prices for the Magic: The Gathering Trading Card Game from TCGplayer Infinite!

Created By: Baker Neenan

Event:

Rank:

Standard

Market Price: $455.50

Cards

Questing Beast

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $11.50

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/198763_200w.jpg

Vigilance, deathtouch, haste
Questing Beast can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
Combat damage that would be dealt by creatures you control can't be prevented.
Whenever Questing Beast deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals that much damage to target planeswalker that player controls.

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Feasting Troll King

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $0.27

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/198776_200w.jpg

Vigilance, trample
When Feasting Troll King enters the battlefield, if you cast it from your hand, create three Food tokens. (They're artifacts with "{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.")
Sacrifice three Foods: Return Feasting Troll King from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate this ability only during your turn.

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Vivien, Monsters' Advocate

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $7.17

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/211993_200w.jpg

You may look at the top card of your library any time.
You may cast creature spells from the top of your library.
+1: Create a 3/3 green Beast creature token. Put your choice of a vigilance counter, a reach counter, or a trample counter on it.
−2: When you cast your next creature spell this turn, search your library for a creature card with lesser converted mana cost, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.

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Castle Garenbrig

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $3.58

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/199288_200w.jpg

Castle Garenbrig enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Forest.
{T}: Add {G}.
{2}{G}{G}, {T}: Add six {G}. Spend this mana only to cast creature spells or activate abilities of creatures.

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Gilded Goose

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $1.85

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/198394_200w.jpg

Flying
When Gilded Goose enters the battlefield, create a Food token. (It's an artifact with "{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.")
{1}{G}, {T}: Create a Food token.
{T}, Sacrifice a Food: Add one mana of any color.

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Sorcerous Spyglass

Market Price: $0.20

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/198975_200w.jpg

As Sorcerous Spyglass enters the battlefield, look at an opponent's hand, then choose any card name.
Activated abilities of sources with the chosen name can't be activated unless they're mana abilities.

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Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

Market Price: $20.69

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/215338_200w.jpg

+2: Ugin, the Spirit Dragon deals 3 damage to any target.
−X: Exile each permanent with converted mana cost X or less that's one or more colors.
−10: You gain 7 life, draw seven cards, then put up to seven permanent cards from your hand onto the battlefield.

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Snow-Covered Forest

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $0.51

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/230146_200w.jpg

({T}: Add {G}.)

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Tangled Florahedron // Tangled Vale

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $0.31

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/221925_200w.jpg

{T}: Add {G}.

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Old-Growth Troll

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $1.03

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/230123_200w.jpg

Trample
When Old-Growth Troll dies, if it was a creature, return it to the battlefield. It's an Aura enchantment with enchant Forest you control and "Enchanted Forest has '{T}: Add {G}{G}' and '{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this land: Create a 4/4 green Troll Warrior creature token with trample.'"

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Scavenging Ooze

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $1.33

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/215695_200w.jpg

{G}: Exile target card from a graveyard. If it was a creature card, put a +1/+1 counter on Scavenging Ooze and you gain 1 life.

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Thrashing Brontodon

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $0.08

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/215915_200w.jpg

{1}, Sacrifice Thrashing Brontodon: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.

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Primal Might

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $0.41

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/215456_200w.jpg

Target creature you control gets +X/+X until end of turn. Then it fights up to one target creature you don't control.

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Kazandu Mammoth // Kazandu Valley

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $0.54

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/222154_200w.jpg

Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, Kazandu Mammoth gets +2/+2 until end of turn.

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Blizzard Brawl

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $0.25

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/230208_200w.jpg

Choose target creature you control and target creature you don't control. If you control three or more snow permanents, the creature you control gets +1/+0 and gains indestructible until end of turn. Then those creatures fight each other. (Each deals damage equal to its power to the other.)

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The Great Henge

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $54.80

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/199361_200w.jpg

This spell costs {X} less to cast, where X is the greatest power among creatures you control.
{T}: Add {G}{G}. You gain 2 life.
Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on it and draw a card.

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Wilt

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $0.13

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/212274_200w.jpg

Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
Cycling {2} ({2}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)

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Lovestruck Beast // Heart's Desire

Color Identity:G

Market Price: $0.16

ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/198578_200w.jpg

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Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $39.59
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/230135_200w.jpg
Trample, haste
If you would put one or more counters on a permanent or player, put twice that many of each of those kinds of counters on that permanent or player instead.
If an opponent would put one or more counters on a permanent or player, they put half that many of each of those kinds of counters on that permanent or player instead, rounded down.
Buy This Card! https://shop.tcgplayer.com/magic/kaldheim/vorinclex-monstrous-raider
Chainweb Aracnir
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.10
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/206802_200w.jpg
Reach
When Chainweb Aracnir enters the battlefield, it deals damage equal to its power to target creature with flying an opponent controls.
Escape—{3}{G}{G}, Exile four other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its escape cost.)
Chainweb Aracnir escapes with three +1/+1 counters on it.
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Previous iterations of the archetype often relied on 3 drops that were vulnerable to removal to close the game or accelerate out The Great Henge, and used Trail of Crumbs as insurance for a longer game.  The downside of this is that Trail of Crumbs is painstakingly slow at actually generating value, particularly in draws without Gilded Goose.  With the introduction of Old-Growth Troll as a redundant 3 drop with built-in resilience, we can focus our deck on impacting the board instead of amassing cards we may not get the chance to deploy.  



That does also mean Wicked Wolf as a four drop and removal spell probably loses too much synergy to still play, but we can replace it with Questing Beast and Primal Might without missing it much. Gilded Goose sticks around, though, because we have an overload of good three drops and are more than happy spending a card to play one a turn early.






The ability to turn a land into a second 4/4 is valuable flood protection later in the game, but it's prohibitively expensive to use early in the game while we still have other spells in hand.  This means if we want to make full use of Old-Growth Troll's return, we want to have things to do with the extra mana it provides, to continue to snowball the game.  The most crucial part of this is having something to do with five mana on turn four to punish them for answering it immediately, which helps us get under cards like Elspeth Conquers Death or Kaya the Inexorable. Vivien, Monster's Advocate is one option to fill out the curve, but there's an even better one—activating Castle Garenbrig to power out a six drop.






The six drop of choice last format was Feasting Troll King with a side of Kogla, the Titan Ape, but Kaldheim brings another premium choice in Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider. The addition of a large haste threat brings much-needed closing speed, but Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider is also surprisingly resilient to removal. The ability to prevent counters from being placed on opposing permanents prevents opposing sagas from triggering their abilities. This means that Elspeth Conquers Death is incapable of exiling Vorinclex, or anything else, while it's in play. Similarly, most planeswalkers lose too much of their loyalty to Vorinclex's ability to use their minus ability. For instance, an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon that would otherwise sweep your entire board enters with only 3 loyalty, unable to answer the Vorinclex. And if they try to avoid the tax by playing planeswalkers out preemptively, Vorinclex just kills them in the attack step.



Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider is still weak to cheaper removal like Heartless Act, but limiting which removal options are effective naturally makes it more difficult for the opponent to respond to threats in a timely and efficient manner.  They want to answer cheap threats with cheap removal and expensive threats with expensive removal that generates value in order to curve out normally. Old-Growth Troll and Vorinclex both force them to sequence out of order and fall behind. 



Vorinclex also supercharges our own planeswalkers, allowing Ugin, the Spirit Dragon or Garruk, Unleashed to ult immediately, on the turn we play them. This isn't really necessary in most matchups, but in some green mirrors that are light on removal and often generate board stalls, it can be game-winning.  We can also generate some incidental value here and there off cards like Wicked Wolf, but building around Vorinclex further is overly greedy. If we untap with our six drop and get to keep attacking, we should probably be fine without any minor upside.



Our six drop of choice will still depend at least in part on the meta each week. While Vorinclex shines in planeswalker-heavy formats that emphasize tapping out, Feasting Troll King's recursion is crucial against a deck like Rogues, and it's better at stabilizing the game against a deck like Mono-Red. When Vorinclex is good, though, it has the potential to show up in a variety of archetypes, as it's not hindered by restrictive mana costs in the way Feasting Troll King and Old-Growth Troll are. Don't be surprised to see Gruul Aggro or new green midrange decks turning to Vorinclex as a top end or sideboard card if the moment is right.






Blizzard Brawl is another solid option in green's suite of fight cards. It shines particularly against cheap high power attackers like Lovestruck Beast and Anax, Hardened in the Forge, where it can remove them for a single mana without losing a blocker. In matchups where we're more concerned with removing blockers, Primal Might is usually superior. Ram Through also improved with the addition of two solid trample creatures, although it's likely only good in a more aggressive version of Mono-Green.



Let's see what that might look like:



Magic: The Gathering TCG Deck - Troll Toll 2 by Baker Neenan
'Troll Toll 2' - constructed deck list and prices for the Magic: The Gathering Trading Card Game from TCGplayer Infinite!
Created By: Baker Neenan
Event: 
Rank: 
Standard
Market Price: $172.30
Cards
Questing Beast
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $11.50
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/198763_200w.jpg
Vigilance, deathtouch, haste
Questing Beast can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
Combat damage that would be dealt by creatures you control can't be prevented.
Whenever Questing Beast deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals that much damage to target planeswalker that player controls.
Buy This Card! https://shop.tcgplayer.com/magic/throne-of-eldraine/questing-beast
Wildwood Tracker
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.03
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/198712_200w.jpg
Whenever Wildwood Tracker attacks or blocks, if you control another non-Human creature, Wildwood Tracker gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Buy This Card! https://shop.tcgplayer.com/magic/throne-of-eldraine/wildwood-tracker
Vivien, Monsters' Advocate
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $7.17
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/211993_200w.jpg
You may look at the top card of your library any time.
You may cast creature spells from the top of your library.
+1: Create a 3/3 green Beast creature token. Put your choice of a vigilance counter, a reach counter, or a trample counter on it.
−2: When you cast your next creature spell this turn, search your library for a creature card with lesser converted mana cost, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
Buy This Card! https://shop.tcgplayer.com/magic/ikoria-lair-of-behemoths/vivien-monsters-advocate
Lovestruck Beast // Heart's Desire
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.16
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/198578_200w.jpg
Buy This Card! https://shop.tcgplayer.com/magic/throne-of-eldraine/lovestruck-beast
Blizzard Brawl
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.25
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/230208_200w.jpg
Choose target creature you control and target creature you don't control. If you control three or more snow permanents, the creature you control gets +1/+0 and gains indestructible until end of turn. Then those creatures fight each other. (Each deals damage equal to its power to the other.)
Buy This Card! https://shop.tcgplayer.com/magic/kaldheim/blizzard-brawl
Nessian Hornbeetle
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.15
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/216607_200w.jpg
At the beginning of combat on your turn, if you control another creature with power 4 or greater, put a +1/+1 counter on Nessian Hornbeetle.
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Primal Might
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.41
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/215456_200w.jpg
Target creature you control gets +X/+X until end of turn. Then it fights up to one target creature you don't control.
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Esika's Chariot
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.65
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/230173_200w.jpg
When Esika's Chariot enters the battlefield, create two 2/2 green Cat creature tokens.
Whenever Esika's Chariot attacks, create a token that's a copy of target token you control.
Crew 4
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Garruk, Unleashed
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $1.48
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/215609_200w.jpg
+1: Up to one target creature gets +3/+3 and gains trample until end of turn.
−2: Create a 3/3 green Beast creature token. Then if an opponent controls more creatures than you, put a loyalty counter on Garruk, Unleashed.
−7: You get an emblem with "At the beginning of your end step, you may search your library for a creature card, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library."
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Kazandu Mammoth // Kazandu Valley
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.54
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/222154_200w.jpg
Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, Kazandu Mammoth gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
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Old-Growth Troll
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $1.03
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/230123_200w.jpg
Trample
When Old-Growth Troll dies, if it was a creature, return it to the battlefield. It's an Aura enchantment with enchant Forest you control and "Enchanted Forest has '{T}: Add {G}{G}' and '{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this land: Create a 4/4 green Troll Warrior creature token with trample.'"
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Scavenging Ooze
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $1.33
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/215695_200w.jpg
{G}: Exile target card from a graveyard. If it was a creature card, put a +1/+1 counter on Scavenging Ooze and you gain 1 life.
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Syr Faren, the Hengehammer
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.10
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/199323_200w.jpg
Whenever Syr Faren, the Hengehammer attacks, another target attacking creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is Syr Faren's power.
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Thrashing Brontodon
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.08
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/215915_200w.jpg
{1}, Sacrifice Thrashing Brontodon: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
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Snow-Covered Forest
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.51
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/230146_200w.jpg
({T}: Add {G}.)
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Ram Through
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $0.15
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/212717_200w.jpg
Target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to target creature you don't control. If the creature you control has trample, excess damage is dealt to that creature's controller instead.
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Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider
Color Identity:G
Market Price: $39.59
ImageURL: https://tcgplayer-cdn.tcgplayer.com/product/230135_200w.jpg
Trample, haste
If you would put one or more counters on a permanent or player, put twice that many of each of those kinds of counters on that permanent or player instead.
If an opponent would put one or more counters on a permanent or player, they put half that many of each of those kinds of counters on that permanent or player instead, rounded down.
Buy This Card! https://shop.tcgplayer.com/magic/kaldheim/vorinclex-monstrous-raider



This deck abandons resilience for raw speed, with the goal of killing the opponent as quickly as possible. The main obstacle in that goal is not having many playable one drops, so this deck will improve if one shows up later in spoiler season. Esika's Chariot is a promising anti-control tool, delivering multiple bodies to tax spot removal alongside a large attacker that dodges sweepers, which could help shore up some of the typical vulnerabilities of the archetype.



We could make things even more controlling or even more aggressive, but one thing is sure: every Mono-Green deck in standard for the foreseeable future will almost certainly feature four copies of Old-Growth Troll. Whether any of the Mono-Green decks are strong enough remains to be seen, but after this look I'm pretty optimistic.