Initially inspired when I saw Goreclaw and Sarkhan's Unsealing released in M19, saw a potentially fun deck combo. When I started brewing, though, it felt kind of boring to play a straight up G/R.
After Ravnica was spoiled, though, and I saw how they were pushing Golgari, I felt way more inspired to put this deck together. It's primarily green with a splash of black and red. It felt like I could more greatly interact with my opponent instead of just casting stompy until I win or get beaten back with. Assassin's Trophy gives loads of ways of messing with decks, as well as Abnormal Endurance for a surprise revival.
I feel like Nullhide Ferox might be a bit inappropriate here (at least maybe not a copy of 4), due to my having loads of non-creature spells, but it seems like a creature too good to pass up in some #.
More copies of Beast whisperer may be better than Colossal Majesty, and possibly more copies of Thrashing Brontodon.
Sidedeck remains unbuilt.
I'd appreciate any thoughts / ideas to improve this would be greatly appreciated!
If your gonna go with Sarkhan's Unsealing You kinda have to decide if your gonna wrath the board or not. If you are not gonna wrath the board then you should move away from Nullhide Ferox Because you will need spells there.
I'm really not sure about that 3rd color. Typically it's easier to do Gruul and go R/G because it's easier on the mana base. Not only that you have Banefire / Inescapable Blaze and if all your gonna do is play huge creatures with power 7 and higher there are plenty of dinos that do that like Gigantosauros and ghalta. The good thing about this deck is that if your creatures get countered you still do direct damage to the face, but if Sarkhan's Unsealing gets countered or destroyed then your basically a Stomp deck.
So you just have to decide. Are you going to wrath the board or not. Either way Sarkhan's Unsealing should go to 3 or 4 because that card would need to come out first or 2nd.
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Interesting. So you're suggestion would be to 100% lean into the 7+ power thing (while I've generally opted for a mix of 4-7+). This deck definitely hybrids stompy with Sarkhan's for an alternate win cond so far.
It would be interested, as there are cards like Traxos, Scourge of Kroog who is pretty trash in my deck sans Sarkhans (due to my general lack of historic spells), but with it out, it turns into a 4 cost wipe, or a 2 cost wipe w/ Goreclaw on the field. I could also max out Inferno Hellion who is included specifically for the 7 power thing.
It wouldn't necessarily be detrimental to cap out creatures like Ghalta, Primal Hunger as well, because I could cast him for pretty cheap. Goreclaw alone would reduce his mana cost to 4GG.
Would you think I'd keep the same general early game of mana dorks, or what else would you add if I went that route in terms of spells?
The mana base needs reworking if you want to run Steel-Leaf Champion and double-mana green creatures. If the goal is to runSarkhan's Unsealing then we need to get the mana base correct.
As you can see even in a 3 color deck we only have 17 green sources which isn't enough to support SLC. You would need to do additional mana fixing with District Guide / Gift of paradise. Not only that SLC forces you to be almost monogreen
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play good creatures that can win the game without unsealing because many games you will never find one. You don’t need to wrath the board everytime you play a creature. The flexibility of unsealing Is the reason you are playing it. Shooting things for 4 and then playing a good creature is more than enough value.
My creature list for RG Dino’s with unsealing is
4 drover of the mighty
4 thrashing brontodon
4 Ripjaw raptor
4 Regisaur alpha
4 carnage tyrant
I am only running 12 creature to set unsealing off and that has been more than I have ever needed. Of those 12 only 4 wrath the board. So you don’t need to go all out on the big creature plan. Play a good deck that does good things on its own and then add unsealing in to make it even better.
The mana base needs reworking if you want to run Steel-Leaf Champion and double-mana green creatures. If the goal is to runSarkhan's Unsealing then we need to get the mana base correct.
As you can see even in a 3 color deck we only have 17 green sources which isn't enough to support SLC. You would need to do additional mana fixing with District Guide / Gift of paradise. Not only that SLC forces you to be almost monogreen
That's reasonable. I was running 2 Drover's to help mana fix, but arguably two slow land is roughly equivalent for mana without being vulnerable to board wipes (although an up to 3/3 body is sometimes nice). I think swapped the 2 drovers for 2 R/G slow land is a more optimal switch.
Steel Leaf is definitely hard to not run. The early game for this deck seems to me to be the more interesting way to optimize (once you hit 4 mana, you just start slotting up 4+ power creatures that give other utility).
I think I can justify it overall though, as I'm really only splashing red for Sarks (as most Green creatures are just more efficient for it than most red things I could pull out).
play good creatures that can win the game without unsealing because many games you will never find one. You don’t need to wrath the board everytime you play a creature. The flexibility of unsealing Is the reason you are playing it. Shooting things for 4 and then playing a good creature is more than enough value.
My creature list for RG Dino’s with unsealing is
4 drover of the mighty
4 thrashing brontodon
4 Ripjaw raptor
4 Regisaur alpha
4 carnage tyrant
I am only running 12 creature to set unsealing off and that has been more than I have ever needed. Of those 12 only 4 wrath the board. So you don’t need to go all out on the big creature plan. Play a good deck that does good things on its own and then add unsealing in to make it even better.
Yeah, I totally agree. I was humming and hawing about this deck in general, as although you can definitely *really* lean into Sarkhan's, I simply will have many games without seeing one even with 4 of. I feel like the successful Sark's deck will be a stompy that uses it as an alt win cond (4 damage just for *casting* a creature is ridiculous, and you get it even if it's countered, you potentially get a board wipe).
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After Ravnica was spoiled, though, and I saw how they were pushing Golgari, I felt way more inspired to put this deck together. It's primarily green with a splash of black and red. It felt like I could more greatly interact with my opponent instead of just casting stompy until I win or get beaten back with. Assassin's Trophy gives loads of ways of messing with decks, as well as Abnormal Endurance for a surprise revival.
I feel like Nullhide Ferox might be a bit inappropriate here (at least maybe not a copy of 4), due to my having loads of non-creature spells, but it seems like a creature too good to pass up in some #.
More copies of Beast whisperer may be better than Colossal Majesty, and possibly more copies of Thrashing Brontodon.
Sidedeck remains unbuilt.
I'd appreciate any thoughts / ideas to improve this would be greatly appreciated!
1 Beast Whisperer
2 Carnage Tyrant
3 Drover of the Mighty
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
4 Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
2 Inferno Hellion
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Nullhide Ferox
4 Steel Leaf Champion
1 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Torch Courier
2 Vine Mare
3x Forest
1x Memorial to Folly
1x Memorial to Unity
3x Mountain
4x Overgrown Tomb
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Woodland Cemetery
Instants & Sorceries (8)
2 Abnormal Endurance
4 Assassin's Trophy
1 Maximize Velocity
1 Status / Statue
1 Colossal Majesty
2 Sarkhan's Unsealing
If your gonna go with Sarkhan's Unsealing You kinda have to decide if your gonna wrath the board or not. If you are not gonna wrath the board then you should move away from Nullhide Ferox Because you will need spells there.
I'm really not sure about that 3rd color. Typically it's easier to do Gruul and go R/G because it's easier on the mana base. Not only that you have Banefire / Inescapable Blaze and if all your gonna do is play huge creatures with power 7 and higher there are plenty of dinos that do that like Gigantosauros and ghalta. The good thing about this deck is that if your creatures get countered you still do direct damage to the face, but if Sarkhan's Unsealing gets countered or destroyed then your basically a Stomp deck.
So you just have to decide. Are you going to wrath the board or not. Either way Sarkhan's Unsealing should go to 3 or 4 because that card would need to come out first or 2nd.
-Stay Frosty
It would be interested, as there are cards like Traxos, Scourge of Kroog who is pretty trash in my deck sans Sarkhans (due to my general lack of historic spells), but with it out, it turns into a 4 cost wipe, or a 2 cost wipe w/ Goreclaw on the field. I could also max out Inferno Hellion who is included specifically for the 7 power thing.
Funnily enough, frog man has a use here too... Yargle, Glutton of Urborg
It wouldn't necessarily be detrimental to cap out creatures like Ghalta, Primal Hunger as well, because I could cast him for pretty cheap. Goreclaw alone would reduce his mana cost to 4GG.
Would you think I'd keep the same general early game of mana dorks, or what else would you add if I went that route in terms of spells?
2 Beast Whisperer
4 Carnage Tyrant
2 Drover of the Mighty
4 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
4 Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
4 Inferno Hellion
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
2 Yargle, Glutton of Urborg
3 Forest
1 Memorial to Folly
1 Memorial to Unity
3 Mountain
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Woodland Cemetery
4 Assassin's Trophy
2 Maximize Velocity
Enchantments (4)
4 Sarkhan's Unsealing
I don't think it fully works, as you'd need something to fill the 3 slot, but it would be nasty if you started to get these spells off.
2 Beast Whisperer
4 Carnage Tyrant
2 Drover of the Mighty
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
3 Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
1 Inferno Hellion
3 Jadelight Ranger
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Steel Leaf Champion
3 Thrashing Brontodon
3 Vine Mare
11x Forest
1x Memorial to Unity
4x Mountain
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Sarkhan's Unsealing
Instant (3)
1x Lightning Strike
2x Verdant Rebirth
2x Lava Coil
1x Maximize Velocity
in a build featuring Steel-Leaf champion Lands should look like this:
3 Mountain
14 Forest
4 Rootbound Crag
2 Timber Gorge
We have enough Mana in this example but with drawbacks. Some lands come in tapped and we end up very low in red sources.
3 Mountain
5 Forest
1 Plains
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove
As you can see even in a 3 color deck we only have 17 green sources which isn't enough to support SLC. You would need to do additional mana fixing with District Guide / Gift of paradise. Not only that SLC forces you to be almost monogreen
-Stay Frosty
My creature list for RG Dino’s with unsealing is
4 drover of the mighty
4 thrashing brontodon
4 Ripjaw raptor
4 Regisaur alpha
4 carnage tyrant
I am only running 12 creature to set unsealing off and that has been more than I have ever needed. Of those 12 only 4 wrath the board. So you don’t need to go all out on the big creature plan. Play a good deck that does good things on its own and then add unsealing in to make it even better.
That's reasonable. I was running 2 Drover's to help mana fix, but arguably two slow land is roughly equivalent for mana without being vulnerable to board wipes (although an up to 3/3 body is sometimes nice). I think swapped the 2 drovers for 2 R/G slow land is a more optimal switch.
Steel Leaf is definitely hard to not run. The early game for this deck seems to me to be the more interesting way to optimize (once you hit 4 mana, you just start slotting up 4+ power creatures that give other utility).
I think I can justify it overall though, as I'm really only splashing red for Sarks (as most Green creatures are just more efficient for it than most red things I could pull out).
Yeah, I totally agree. I was humming and hawing about this deck in general, as although you can definitely *really* lean into Sarkhan's, I simply will have many games without seeing one even with 4 of. I feel like the successful Sark's deck will be a stompy that uses it as an alt win cond (4 damage just for *casting* a creature is ridiculous, and you get it even if it's countered, you potentially get a board wipe).