I've been tinkering with a hyper aggressive Gruul deck that tries to maximize the value of two drops. It's essentially the greediest deck I've ever worked on, and due to real life I haven't been able to play it a ton, but what I have it's been incredibly bonkers at times. It's by no means tuned or anything, but I thought I'd share and see what reactions I get. I present, the greediest deck of all time:
So, this is my thought process behind the deck, and it's actually based on how I've been drafting Gruul on Magic Online. The concept is that your Bloodrush guys don't actually ever theoretically get cast. You play a deck with them considered at their Bloodrush Cost, however the ability to cast them if you ever "flood" out is where your value is gained. Slaughterhorn fills this role as being a 3 drop that's below average, but who has a very exciting G casting cost to Searing Spear your opponent (or a creature that's in combat) and Ghor-Clan Rampager is very promising at GR. They both get more exciting if you get to actually cast them in a game (more the Rampager than the Slaughterhorn, but w/e), but if you don't it's not a big deal because you still get to cast them. Dormi Rade is probably my favorite card in the set outside Dimir Charm, and building a deck that can essentially hit almost every time is impressive.
Some of the interesting choices:
One drop:
I went with Experiment One and Stromkirk because of their ability to grow. The one mana investment potentially has the ability to pay back in huge sums, and I believe that the ability to be a 3/3 at some point in the game is something that is worth more than something always being a 2/2.
Two drop:
First, I'll talk about Ambush Viper. In a deck that needs to run no spells outside of Dormi Rade to take full effect of the card, Ambush Viper acts like a spell. It removes any ground creature that doesn't have first strike (sad day) and that is important. The ability to trade with a Thragtusk or most of the guys in the Human deck is important, as sometimes games go pretty long. While this deck isn't trying to grind out games very often, the ability to draw a removal spell of Dormi Rade is important. Not to mention, with Rade he can fight and kill anything in the format. This is very good at removing things like, Restoration Angel and Boros Reckoner, cards that are very popular that you would otherwise have a hard time fighting against.
Next I'll discuss Mogg Flunkies. First, it's almost always a pump spell for Experiment, and it has the added benefit of being part of a nut draw of sorts. The fact that it's a 3/3 for 1R is the important part, and since you should actually never only have this guy in play, his drawback is very limited. Being able to go turn 1 Experiment, turn 2 Burning-Tree Emissary into Flunkies for +2 counters and swing for three leads to some pretty impressive starts. I dropped the count to 3 because it's not my favorite card, and I generally only really want to draw one per game, but it's never awful.
Elvish Visionary actually doesn't pump Experiment, and I'm not sure how much I like it, but it does serve a very important purpose as well. Being a two drop cantrip is actually important when you are talking about a deck with 16 mana sources main deck. It allows you to effectively play 56 cards, and 16/56 is a lot better looking than 16/60. Of course this isn't concrete because you still have to get two lands into play for this to work, but the effect is solid. Not pumping Experiment One makes it less appealing, but I think the trade off is good enough.
Boar/Mauler/Emissary is part of a very good second turn set of options. Boar is a 3/3 most of the time, so it can pump Experiment off the Emissary on turn 2, allowing for super strong starts. The fact that they all cost 2 mana is the most important thing though because they are all aggressive plays that allow you to play less lands because you don't have to worry about the need to play increasingly more valuable cards the further the turns go. These guys provide enough value on turn 2/3 that it's okay to skimp a bit.
2 Guildmage/1 Pyreheart Wolf - Probably the 3 cards I'm sold the least on. I have the Guildmage in there as an answer to Lingering Souls and a psuedo Rancor, while simultaneously turning excessive amounts of lands into pretty beefy threats. The Wolf is a way to push damage through the longer the game goes on. Both of them are pretty mana intensive though for a 16 land deck, and that's troublesome, but they are only 3 cards, and I'm okay with this risk right now.
Slaughterhorn/Gho-Clan - the concept behind the deck is the inclusion of these two cards. They give you creatures to draw of Dormi that provide either bodies on the field or spells in your hand for reduced prices. If you flood out you can cast them, but if you get stuck on 2/3 then you aren't really screwed because you can still cast every card in your deck. This is important, as we are only playing 16 lands.
Dormi Rade lets us draw cards. Boss.
Lands. This is kinda weird. I want to play Reckoner really bad post board. He's just so strong. The Sacred Foundry, while costing two points of life most of the time, is still a mountain to pump Boar, while also being able to cast Resto Angel post board if needed. Temple Garden is still a forest, and so it still can cast Reckoner and Angel post board, while being that green source I need. Originally my lands were 4/4/5/3 with 5 Mountains and 3 Forests, but I figured since I'm probably not winning games that go super long, the damage is negligible and the ability to include those cards post board is huge.
The sideboard:
Reckoner is a beast. Plain and simple. He's not main because I want the additional mana sources if I'm playing him. He isn't always castable off 16 sources, but off 21 he's pretty consistently coming down turn 3.
Mountain/Pilgrim is so I can go up to 21 sources post board.
3 Angel/3 Huntmaster for the control decks. Some cards are worse in this match-up then others (Experiment is pretty bad when they can just Charm it over and over again, and Stromkirk is never getting through an Augur), so I really want these guys. While my SB is pretty much 15 or no, it still provides some play. You also have ample amounts of options for what to take out. For example!:
+15
-8 One drops
-4 Ghor-Clan
-2 Skarrg
-1 Slaughterhorn
or instead of Skarrg
-1 Wolf
-1 Viper
or even just all 3 Vipers
Or
+4 Reckoner
+1 Mountain
+4 Pilgrim
-2 Skarrg
-4 Visionary (we're up to 21 sources, the cantrip is less useful)
-3 Flunkies (We're on the Reckoner plan now, probably skipping this guy)
Can leave Skarrg in and take out some number of other guys, like Lightning Mauler, Viper and one drops.
Anyway, that's all I got for now, what do you guys think? It's very greedy, and might need to move up to 18 lands, but I'm not entirely sure if I want to do that. I might add a 17th somewhere in the list, maybe cutting a Visionary or something, but anyway, comments? Did I miss anything super important?
I've been tinkering with a hyper aggressive Gruul deck that tries to maximize the value of two drops. It's essentially the greediest deck I've ever worked on, and due to real life I haven't been able to play it a ton, but what I have it's been incredibly bonkers at times. It's by no means tuned or anything, but I thought I'd share and see what reactions I get. I present, the greediest deck of all time:
So, this is my thought process behind the deck, and it's actually based on how I've been drafting Gruul on Magic Online. The concept is that your Bloodrush guys don't actually ever theoretically get cast. You play a deck with them considered at their Bloodrush Cost, however the ability to cast them if you ever "flood" out is where your value is gained. Slaughterhorn fills this role as being a 3 drop that's below average, but who has a very exciting G casting cost to Searing Spear your opponent (or a creature that's in combat) and Ghor-Clan Rampager is very promising at GR. They both get more exciting if you get to actually cast them in a game (more the Rampager than the Slaughterhorn, but w/e), but if you don't it's not a big deal because you still get to cast them. Dormi Rade is probably my favorite card in the set outside Dimir Charm, and building a deck that can essentially hit almost every time is impressive.
Some of the interesting choices:
One drop:
I went with Experiment One and Stromkirk because of their ability to grow. The one mana investment potentially has the ability to pay back in huge sums, and I believe that the ability to be a 3/3 at some point in the game is something that is worth more than something always being a 2/2.
Two drop:
First, I'll talk about Ambush Viper. In a deck that needs to run no spells outside of Dormi Rade to take full effect of the card, Ambush Viper acts like a spell. It removes any ground creature that doesn't have first strike (sad day) and that is important. The ability to trade with a Thragtusk or most of the guys in the Human deck is important, as sometimes games go pretty long. While this deck isn't trying to grind out games very often, the ability to draw a removal spell of Dormi Rade is important. Not to mention, with Rade he can fight and kill anything in the format. This is very good at removing things like, Restoration Angel and Boros Reckoner, cards that are very popular that you would otherwise have a hard time fighting against.
Next I'll discuss Mogg Flunkies. First, it's almost always a pump spell for Experiment, and it has the added benefit of being part of a nut draw of sorts. The fact that it's a 3/3 for 1R is the important part, and since you should actually never only have this guy in play, his drawback is very limited. Being able to go turn 1 Experiment, turn 2 Burning-Tree Emissary into Flunkies for +2 counters and swing for three leads to some pretty impressive starts. I dropped the count to 3 because it's not my favorite card, and I generally only really want to draw one per game, but it's never awful.
Elvish Visionary actually doesn't pump Experiment, and I'm not sure how much I like it, but it does serve a very important purpose as well. Being a two drop cantrip is actually important when you are talking about a deck with 16 mana sources main deck. It allows you to effectively play 56 cards, and 16/56 is a lot better looking than 16/60. Of course this isn't concrete because you still have to get two lands into play for this to work, but the effect is solid. Not pumping Experiment One makes it less appealing, but I think the trade off is good enough.
Boar/Mauler/Emissary is part of a very good second turn set of options. Boar is a 3/3 most of the time, so it can pump Experiment off the Emissary on turn 2, allowing for super strong starts. The fact that they all cost 2 mana is the most important thing though because they are all aggressive plays that allow you to play less lands because you don't have to worry about the need to play increasingly more valuable cards the further the turns go. These guys provide enough value on turn 2/3 that it's okay to skimp a bit.
2 Guildmage/1 Pyreheart Wolf - Probably the 3 cards I'm sold the least on. I have the Guildmage in there as an answer to Lingering Souls and a psuedo Rancor, while simultaneously turning excessive amounts of lands into pretty beefy threats. The Wolf is a way to push damage through the longer the game goes on. Both of them are pretty mana intensive though for a 16 land deck, and that's troublesome, but they are only 3 cards, and I'm okay with this risk right now.
Slaughterhorn/Gho-Clan - the concept behind the deck is the inclusion of these two cards. They give you creatures to draw of Dormi that provide either bodies on the field or spells in your hand for reduced prices. If you flood out you can cast them, but if you get stuck on 2/3 then you aren't really screwed because you can still cast every card in your deck. This is important, as we are only playing 16 lands.
Dormi Rade lets us draw cards. Boss.
Lands. This is kinda weird. I want to play Reckoner really bad post board. He's just so strong. The Sacred Foundry, while costing two points of life most of the time, is still a mountain to pump Boar, while also being able to cast Resto Angel post board if needed. Temple Garden is still a forest, and so it still can cast Reckoner and Angel post board, while being that green source I need. Originally my lands were 4/4/5/3 with 5 Mountains and 3 Forests, but I figured since I'm probably not winning games that go super long, the damage is negligible and the ability to include those cards post board is huge.
The sideboard:
Reckoner is a beast. Plain and simple. He's not main because I want the additional mana sources if I'm playing him. He isn't always castable off 16 sources, but off 21 he's pretty consistently coming down turn 3.
Mountain/Pilgrim is so I can go up to 21 sources post board.
3 Angel/3 Huntmaster for the control decks. Some cards are worse in this match-up then others (Experiment is pretty bad when they can just Charm it over and over again, and Stromkirk is never getting through an Augur), so I really want these guys. While my SB is pretty much 15 or no, it still provides some play. You also have ample amounts of options for what to take out. For example!:
+15
-8 One drops
-4 Ghor-Clan
-2 Skarrg
-1 Slaughterhorn
or instead of Skarrg
-1 Wolf
-1 Viper
or even just all 3 Vipers
Or
+4 Reckoner
+1 Mountain
+4 Pilgrim
-2 Skarrg
-4 Visionary (we're up to 21 sources, the cantrip is less useful)
-3 Flunkies (We're on the Reckoner plan now, probably skipping this guy)
Can leave Skarrg in and take out some number of other guys, like Lightning Mauler, Viper and one drops.
Anyway, that's all I got for now, what do you guys think? It's very greedy, and might need to move up to 18 lands, but I'm not entirely sure if I want to do that. I might add a 17th somewhere in the list, maybe cutting a Visionary or something, but anyway, comments? Did I miss anything super important?
You really can't play a G[MANA]andaR[/MANA] 1-drop in the same deck without playing 10 Stomping grounds. There's just no way
You really can't play a G[MANA]andaR[/MANA] 1-drop in the same deck without playing 10 Stomping grounds. There's just no way
Idk, it's 9 and 7 for turn one ways to cast either, and since the deck has to mulligan pretty aggressively anyway only running 16 lands, its not improbably that the land I do have in my opener is the correct one. 9/16 and 7/16 aren't terrible odds I think. It would however, be beneficial to have access to 10 Stomping Grounds. I would however consider cutting Experiment for like a Rakdos Cackler, but then you would really have to rework almost the entire deck because now 3/3's on turn 2 are less stellar (still good though) and I'm not sure Flunkies is correct at that point. Something like Ash Zealot might just be better (though RR seems just as rough as having access to G on turn 1)
One final thing, I've been considering cutting the Rootbound Crags anyway in favor of +1 Temple Garden, +1 Forest, +2 Mountain, but I'm not "sold" on the prospect of playing a land that doesn't cast Reckoner post board. Producing G isn't ever an issue that I've come across often enough to truly matter.
Edit: Also, Ari Lax did just that, played a R and G one drop at the PT, and he had 9 turn 1 Red sources and 10 turn 1 Green Sources. Sure, his numbers are out of 22 though, so I have a statistically more probable chance of having the land in my opener able to produce red (as 9/16 is better than 9/22) and a slightly lower chance of having the ability to produce G (something like, .02 percent). Granted, he wants a higher chance of having lands in his opener than I do (generally he wants 2-3, whereas I never want to have 3 lands in my opener, 1 is fine, and 2 is literally the perfect number).
Obviously the consistency of his mana base is higher than mine because he runs +6 lands, but my point is still roughly that I have a generally acceptable amount of percentages to have the correct land in my opener to cast the one drop of choice.
First post on the site and as an avid Gruul player I thought I'd make it here.
How is everyone getting around Boros Reckoner with these lists?
I don't have him in my lists (18 land no hellrider version) because I think he's too "Defensive" for this deck which wants to win by turn 3-5 consistently.
I tried Madcap skills but the 2-1 usually puts me too far behind. Volcanic strength is nice but not enough to be relied on every game.
I saw the Firefist striker thread and it got a lot of hate, but I think he fits nicely in R/g as a solution to Reckoner. He can come down on turn 2 with BTE if you suspect they will play Boros reckoner (if you are on the draw), or can be hasted out with LM as a 4mana play against a stalled Reckoner ground for a nice alpha strike.
He's suspectible to removal, yes, but don't you WANT them using removal on this two drop and not your Rancor'd Ash Zealots or Nobles?
Edit: I've also been playing around with Gruul Charm in the sideboard (as a 2 of or a 1 of), and want to see what people here think of it because I haven't seen it enough in my tests. Initial thought is that another Green cost is really hard on the 8 sources mana base, because I have trouble playing my Rancor's and Rampagers in some games. But it seems like the perfect "Finisher" for this deck.
I've been trying out rangers guile. Versus most matchups it feels really good.
Its not a perfect reckoner answer or anything but it protects your people a lot and can push through, but most of all it only costs 1.
What I plan on taking to Gameday this weekend. Started out playing Boros but after seeing the Hyper Aggro Gruul builds I decided to try this out. Been testing against B/U Mill Control (pretty much Esper without the white) and Dega(B/R/W) Control. Local meta is leaning midrange/control heavy and I'm one of the only aggro players.
Originally ran 2 Gruul Charms mainboard but switched them for Harvest Pyre but actually haven't seen if the card would make a difference because I either don't draw it, it gets milled, or the opponent is dead before I can use it. Gruul Charm is varied on match ups. Against a Dega Control it worked wonders as I managed to kill Olivia Vampire Nighthawk and Lingering Souls Tokens but against other decks the card felt dead.
Switched to Harvest Pyre for the obvious Boros Reckoner Combo but also to take out big threats using my graveyard as fuel. Also sweet tech against mill decks that dump your graveyard.
I wouldn't play Stromkirk Noble and Experiment one in the same deck. It's kinda tough on the mana base.
ya the stromkirk slot is something ive been changing but not for mana reasons the mana has been good I just feel like there's something better like maybe Lightning Mauler or Gyre Sage
ya the stromkirk slot is something ive been changing but not for mana reasons the mana has been good I just feel like there's something better like maybe Lightning Mauler or Gyre Sage
for what it's worth, gyre sage is terrible in a sligh aggro list. You MIGHT get him up to 4 if you hard cast the rampager, but that's about it.
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Big thanks to DarkNightCavalier from heroes of the planes studios for the sig!
Like I said I'm having trouble finding green mana sometimes. Also Ranger'gs guile is a nice tech, stopping whoever reckoner targets but he STILL gets a 2-1 (whatever card you probably had to suicide into him to kill him+rangers guile) and that is what I want to avoid when playing against him.
Taking my list to GP Charlotte today, NOT taking Firefist strikers. I've found them to slow the deck down too much.
I'm going to be trying out Night bird's Clutches. I really like how it gives ME a 2-1 (if I getup to 4 mana) and completely hoses Reckoners.
Be posting results tonight or sometime this week-end.
Ok, so that's the deck, so now for the report. It was for the Saturday Gatecrash Gameday
First Round
vs. R/G Aggro
He was playing the more traditional BTE route. Also was playing a heavier green version for Strangleroot and therefore no Reckoners. Game one he gets land screwed and I win on the back of a reckoner and ash zealot while burning away his first couple of plays.
Second game he gets a good start, but he just can't deal with another turn 3 reckoner and then my removal starts chewing away at his board, so I get the win.
1-0
Second Round
vs. Jund Midrange
First game I aggro hard with a stromkirk noble. He doesn't answer it and then it keeps growing, gets a rancor and just beats until my opponent died. Also played a reckoner and zealot at some point, but the stromkirk basically took the game. Also, started with three searing spears which answer pretty much ever creature he played.
Second round, I get some early beats in with zealot and reckoner. He killed the first reckoner with decay, I put rancor on my zealot and played another reckoner, which got promptly decayed. I beat with the rancored zealot and play a third reckoner. He plays thundermaw and passed. I swing with both my guys and spear his thundermaw so first strike damage kills it (he blocked the zealot). He played another thundermaw, but was at about 5, so I mortars his thundermaw first main so that no matter what he blocked, he died.
2-0
Third Round
vs. U/B mill aggro.
My LGS has a new fascination with jace's phantasm, wight of precint six and milling. Game one, I had no real answer to a 5/5 phantasm and 2 4/4 wight's, so I died.
Sideboard-
-4x Cackler
+4x Mortars
Second game I put some early pressure on him and gets land screwed, so by the time he can stabilize I have lethal on the board. The third game goes pretty much the same, so I took the match.
3-0
Fourth Round
vs. Naya Midrange
This match-up sacred me because I remember pretty much the same deck just trouncing my old RDW before Gatecrash. In the first game he had no answer for reckoners and when he got rid of them, Hound of Griselbrand with rancor was there to mop up.
Pretty similar to the first round. Reckoner was just giving him fits and then hound came down and did a lot of damage. He stabilized with a bonfire, I played a hellrider (tapped due to BO), he plays a centaur healer (and extorts). He was at 8, but I untapped with a conscripts on his healer for exactly lethal.
4-0
Top 8
Play the same U/B mill/aggro deck. Game one he gets me down to 2 with a phantasm, but I do exactly lethal with a reckoner, rancor and flinthoof boar. second game he had to mutilate to stabilize, but never saw a creature afterwards and i did, so I won that game as well. I sideboarded the same as in the third round.
Top 4
vs. RWB tokens
This deck was pretty good. I won game one on the back of a stromkirk noble he couldn't block (he played traveler turn 1, and gather turn two). I was able to keep his tokens in check and killed him right after he got his fourth land for a hellrider.
Sideboard
-4x Cackler
+4x Mortars
Game two is summarized by a few words, triple intagible virtue. I lost, badly.
Game three i kept the shakiest hand all night, but I knew he was playing next to no removal. So i kept a one land (mountain) with a stromkirik, zealot and boar, 2 spears and a hound. I play stromkirk, he plays doomed traveler (shocking himself). I topdecked a rootbound on turn two, swung for 3 (15). He plays a virtue and passes. I swing for 4 (11), play my boar and pass. He plays another virtue and passes. I swing out, he block boar, take 5 (6). I have double spear and kill him.
Finals
Same Naya deck as before. We'll just say that the reasons I was worried about this match-up came true.
Game one he plays pilgrim, reckoner, smiter and pligrim, resto, aurelia. I died, very badly.
Second game (with the same sideboard as before), he plays pilgrim, BO, huntmaster (I mortarts it), another pilgrim and farseek, overloaded mortars with extort, topdecks bonfire for four and I die. It didn't really matter what I played, it died. It was rough.
So overall I was 6-1, only losing in the finals. I really like this deck and I'm going to continue tweaking it to make it better.
EDH is like French fries: some people like waffle cut, crinkle cut, or plain old straight cut, and while there's slight flavor difference and personal preference, at the end of the day they're still fries.
Katrenary, you've got a pretty solid list from what I see, but how well have you found it to play against control? How often do you flood out or find yourself with too many 4 drops. 8 is a lot but they are solid choices.
Katrenary, you've got a pretty solid list from what I see, but how well have you found it to play against control? How often do you flood out or find yourself with too many 4 drops. 8 is a lot but they are solid choices.
Kessig helps, and hounds can be a nightmare for them to deal with. All in all though, that is the one match-up I haven't played much. My LGS is a lot of aggro and midrange. I'm thinking of tweaking the sideboard to help with the control a little, but until I play more, its hard to tell what to put in. Its been performing well (I've finished 2nd in the three events I've played at my LGS), but of course, I'm always looking to improve it or tweak it to my meta (seeing as I have no intention on going to anything larger than a FNM with this).
EDH is like French fries: some people like waffle cut, crinkle cut, or plain old straight cut, and while there's slight flavor difference and personal preference, at the end of the day they're still fries.
Love the build Kat. Going to give something similar a shot at my stores second Gameday tomorrow. Played boros today, but am wanting to play Hounds for all the naya and jund.
Love the build Kat. Going to give something similar a shot at my stores second Gameday tomorrow. Played boros today, but am wanting to play Hounds for all the naya and jund.
Same here kat. Finally a list with hound. I'll definitely try this out
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“Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire." —Jaya Ballard, task mage
I am running the 18 land list. I ended up going 3-1 in the de and I have done pretty well in the 2 mans. Jund makes me sad. Does anyone have any positive experience with jund? It seems like a lot of people are running it due to all of the aggro decks.
Was 2-2 yesterday, learned a LOT about Magic. Was my first ever Standard event so I can't say I'm upset (except about the glaringly bad mistakes I made which I'll point out.)
A lot of my fun happened before the matches though, when I showed up with some home brew incomplete deck and wandered around for a bit. Sat down next to some guys doing traded. Got my last 2 Nobles from one of them
Match 1: Vs Ghosts Esper
I feel like we have a great match-up vs. control. Game 1 on the draw I made the mistake of not BTE+Cackle+Rancor on my Noble before swinging (he had 1 shockland in play tapped) for some extra damage, I played Cackler and held Rancor. T3 he orzhov charms my cackler as I rancor it to make my rancor be invalid, oh well. I had two rancors in my hand so in response I rancor'd my Noble and swung for 8.
He Ultimate Prices my Noble on the swing next turn, I bloodrush another creature and he's at 3. He scoops.
Sideboard
-2 Pillars (plan was made thinking he'd have Lingering souls)
-1 LM
-2 VS
+3 Hounds +2 Loyalists
He draws a lot of removal this game. Also orzhov charmed my wolf so that in came in play with sickness to slow me down. I was stuck on 3 lands with a Hellrider and GHC in my hand. He plays Obzedat, and finishes me off with a mutilate and swings.
Game 3 was intense. He terminius'd my Zealot on T3, and played an BObediance on turn 4. Dimir Chams another Zealot of mine as I rancor it.
T5 he plays a High priest of Penance, T6 Vampire Night hawk and swung with his high priest (???). I answer the nighthawk by bloodrushing a GHC to kill and take him down some more. Swing with my wolf, his high priest is useless alone. He Devour fleshes me, I choose my wolf and don't swing. Next turn I swing and he UPrices my wolf, follows with a Ghost council on his turn. My hounds of griselbrand won me this game, he was back up to 12 with council and I bloodrushed my Grisel for 12 double strike damage.
2-1 over this guy.
Match 2: G/W/b/r Human Reckoners
Nice guy, had a great set against him. G1: Used my removal on his ranc'rd Preccinct Captain. T7 he rancor'd a Serra Avenger and soulbound it to a silverblade, swung 10 and I scooped.
Game 2, well.. I got two Nobles out in two turns vs. a humans deck!
Game 3, hilarious game. We both had slow hands and I commented that "Lol this is going to game to turn 13 between two aggro decks.
Draw-go for awhile nothing interesting. I played a 3 lander he had mulled to 5. My notes for this game were scribbles because I was laughing. Until I made this mistake: I KNEW he had Selesnya charms in his deck.... I had an Ash Zealot and a Wolf against his one Augur of Bolas. Zealot had rancor, wolf didn't... I played a SECOND rancor on the zealot and he exiles it DOH! Basically threw the match with that play. It comes down to whether or not he has a spear to answer my desperation alpha with two wolves and a GHC in hand. He did.
Round 3: Vs. American Hellkites
Don't have much notes for this match. The guy was very unpleasant to play against, just cold I'd say. He had Reckoners every game that I learned how my deck dealt with. Didn't draw my sided in TBloods or Clutches game 2 or 3.
He had spears for all my VS's. Made me wish I was running that niche Wild Defiance in the side... Also learned a lesson to always deal with a Reckoner right away, because next turn there might be TWO Reckoners staring you down.
Game 3 was the second horrible mistake. Kept a 1 lander with no 1 drops, was on tilt. Didn't play a single card, scooped. Round 4: Vs Esper Control
Another easy match-up I felt. This guy was pretty southern and did something funny Game 1: Drew a card put his hands beneath the table and came back up with a "Miracle'd" Terminus. I let it slide because I wanted to see where this went. I just had too much fight htis time and he had too little control and I overwhelmed him.
Side: Same as Match 1
Game 2 I learned another valuable lesson. We went back and forth for awhile with removal and eviction, he had a Tamiyo down that was stalling my Hounds from being useful. I had swung at Tamiyo before but she was back up to 7 counters. He was at 12 life, so I swung my double rancor'd BTE for 6 at his face.
Never let a Tamiyo go ultimate T_T. He Sphinx's for 6 at EoT then ultimate -> Permanent Merciless Eviction+Drownyards.
Game 3:
Had aggressive start with Cackler -> BTE+Boar -> Rancor Cackler. His Augur blanks. This game I was proud of myself because I had a Zealot and a LM+Cackler in my hand at 3 mana. I kept my mana open and didn't play them because I knew he had sweepers, and was applying enough pressure with my 3 creatures already out.
Thoughts
I can't say whether I missed having Reckoner at all (because I never tested with him). In the two control matchups I obviously didn't, and I liked how Pyreheart let ALL my creatures do damage and not just 1 "3 unblockable" dude getting through in the games versus RWB and the Humans. I didn't get to see Clutches in action, so no comment on that.
Never drew the Hellrider. I do know that some games he was stuck in my hand at 3 Land so I didn't like to see them in my hands either. Might be cut but I like how he can close games out with a tblood Alpha against stalled boards.
I like the Spears on the side version. I feel with Gruul I want all my threats to be creatures (Pillars left in for my 1 drop usage and BTE+Rancor/Pillar) and combat tricks. I want to him the hard and push damage through. You can't searing spear a blocker and get the extra damage to the face, Rampager? Yes please.
I felt like I sided out LMauler a lot but don't know what else he'd be. He was great pressure on Turn 2 and I think that is one of the core combos of this deck (the other being GHC) and can draw some removal.
Saw the Loyalist once during the human match-up for his CoConclave tokens. He ate a spear.... heh.
Would've been his word against mine, I'm not usually confrontational. If he had done it again I would've said something though, but I was confident against a control match-up and I figured if someone needs to cheat they aren't going to be that good anyway?
I think I am going to be sticking with this list for a while, and playing it at 4 events next weekend in Atlanta. What I like about it is that it can be both the aggro, and midrange deck post sideboard. I think 24 lands is perfect for the amount of big creatures. However, sometimes I felt like I had too many four drops in an opening hand.
With the rise of possibly naya blitz and aristocrats, I am thinking of possibly dropping one hound and something else in favor of 2 Bonfires MD. I'd also like to experiment with somehow fitting thrags into the sideboard. Pillar seems underwhelming with this list.
Fixed the error, thanks for pointing it out. I completley mopped the floor against our LGS' best Esper player. I had lost in the swiss part to Reckoner Control (UWR), but I believe this was due to poor sideboarding (I kept Reckoner in). When I met him in the finals, I removed four reckoner, and 2 cacklers, 2 nobles in favor in favor of 4 VS, and 2 Thundermaw and 2 mortars.
VS and Rancor on a Hound, is absolutely retarded. One thing I liked, was often I felt like I was playing typical Mono red ( with perfect opening hands - noble, ash, hellrider, xxx, lands) and other times I would have a hound and a hellrider in the opening hand(or have drawn either by t4). I think they expect us to be playing a turn 4 Hellrider, so they leave up mana for charm or spear. Instead I was dropping my Hound t4, and they would have to spear/charm one of my other attackers. Knowing this was out of the way, Id drop Hellrider t5 and swing for a ton of damage.
Kessig also really helped here, when ever a hellrider/reckoner/boar was blocked by a flashed in resto angel, I could easily pump for one to remove it. That is why I upped it to two from Kat's original list. It's a card I would literally like to see every game.
If I'm going to maindeck hounds, I'd probably just use 2 main and two more lower CMC spells. Maybe another removal spell maindeck? It's just me but I don't want to have too much 4-drops in game 1.
Private Mod Note
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I am passionate, yet I am logical. The fire within me burns, but I am also patient to a point. I am with the Fires of Salvation
4 Stromkirk Noble
3 Ambush Viper
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Flinthoof Boar
4 Lightning Mauler
3 Mogg Flunkies
2 Skarrg Guildmage
1 Pyreheart Wolf
4 Slaughterhorn
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Stomping Grounds
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Temple Garden
1 Mountain
4 Boros Reckoner
1 Mountain
4 Avacyn Pilgrim
3 Restoration Angel
3 Huntmaster of the Fells
So, this is my thought process behind the deck, and it's actually based on how I've been drafting Gruul on Magic Online. The concept is that your Bloodrush guys don't actually ever theoretically get cast. You play a deck with them considered at their Bloodrush Cost, however the ability to cast them if you ever "flood" out is where your value is gained. Slaughterhorn fills this role as being a 3 drop that's below average, but who has a very exciting G casting cost to Searing Spear your opponent (or a creature that's in combat) and Ghor-Clan Rampager is very promising at GR. They both get more exciting if you get to actually cast them in a game (more the Rampager than the Slaughterhorn, but w/e), but if you don't it's not a big deal because you still get to cast them. Dormi Rade is probably my favorite card in the set outside Dimir Charm, and building a deck that can essentially hit almost every time is impressive.
Some of the interesting choices:
One drop:
I went with Experiment One and Stromkirk because of their ability to grow. The one mana investment potentially has the ability to pay back in huge sums, and I believe that the ability to be a 3/3 at some point in the game is something that is worth more than something always being a 2/2.
Two drop:
First, I'll talk about Ambush Viper. In a deck that needs to run no spells outside of Dormi Rade to take full effect of the card, Ambush Viper acts like a spell. It removes any ground creature that doesn't have first strike (sad day) and that is important. The ability to trade with a Thragtusk or most of the guys in the Human deck is important, as sometimes games go pretty long. While this deck isn't trying to grind out games very often, the ability to draw a removal spell of Dormi Rade is important. Not to mention, with Rade he can fight and kill anything in the format. This is very good at removing things like, Restoration Angel and Boros Reckoner, cards that are very popular that you would otherwise have a hard time fighting against.
Next I'll discuss Mogg Flunkies. First, it's almost always a pump spell for Experiment, and it has the added benefit of being part of a nut draw of sorts. The fact that it's a 3/3 for 1R is the important part, and since you should actually never only have this guy in play, his drawback is very limited. Being able to go turn 1 Experiment, turn 2 Burning-Tree Emissary into Flunkies for +2 counters and swing for three leads to some pretty impressive starts. I dropped the count to 3 because it's not my favorite card, and I generally only really want to draw one per game, but it's never awful.
Elvish Visionary actually doesn't pump Experiment, and I'm not sure how much I like it, but it does serve a very important purpose as well. Being a two drop cantrip is actually important when you are talking about a deck with 16 mana sources main deck. It allows you to effectively play 56 cards, and 16/56 is a lot better looking than 16/60. Of course this isn't concrete because you still have to get two lands into play for this to work, but the effect is solid. Not pumping Experiment One makes it less appealing, but I think the trade off is good enough.
Boar/Mauler/Emissary is part of a very good second turn set of options. Boar is a 3/3 most of the time, so it can pump Experiment off the Emissary on turn 2, allowing for super strong starts. The fact that they all cost 2 mana is the most important thing though because they are all aggressive plays that allow you to play less lands because you don't have to worry about the need to play increasingly more valuable cards the further the turns go. These guys provide enough value on turn 2/3 that it's okay to skimp a bit.
2 Guildmage/1 Pyreheart Wolf - Probably the 3 cards I'm sold the least on. I have the Guildmage in there as an answer to Lingering Souls and a psuedo Rancor, while simultaneously turning excessive amounts of lands into pretty beefy threats. The Wolf is a way to push damage through the longer the game goes on. Both of them are pretty mana intensive though for a 16 land deck, and that's troublesome, but they are only 3 cards, and I'm okay with this risk right now.
Slaughterhorn/Gho-Clan - the concept behind the deck is the inclusion of these two cards. They give you creatures to draw of Dormi that provide either bodies on the field or spells in your hand for reduced prices. If you flood out you can cast them, but if you get stuck on 2/3 then you aren't really screwed because you can still cast every card in your deck. This is important, as we are only playing 16 lands.
Dormi Rade lets us draw cards. Boss.
Lands. This is kinda weird. I want to play Reckoner really bad post board. He's just so strong. The Sacred Foundry, while costing two points of life most of the time, is still a mountain to pump Boar, while also being able to cast Resto Angel post board if needed. Temple Garden is still a forest, and so it still can cast Reckoner and Angel post board, while being that green source I need. Originally my lands were 4/4/5/3 with 5 Mountains and 3 Forests, but I figured since I'm probably not winning games that go super long, the damage is negligible and the ability to include those cards post board is huge.
The sideboard:
Reckoner is a beast. Plain and simple. He's not main because I want the additional mana sources if I'm playing him. He isn't always castable off 16 sources, but off 21 he's pretty consistently coming down turn 3.
Mountain/Pilgrim is so I can go up to 21 sources post board.
3 Angel/3 Huntmaster for the control decks. Some cards are worse in this match-up then others (Experiment is pretty bad when they can just Charm it over and over again, and Stromkirk is never getting through an Augur), so I really want these guys. While my SB is pretty much 15 or no, it still provides some play. You also have ample amounts of options for what to take out. For example!:
+15
-8 One drops
-4 Ghor-Clan
-2 Skarrg
-1 Slaughterhorn
or instead of Skarrg
-1 Wolf
-1 Viper
or even just all 3 Vipers
Or
+4 Reckoner
+1 Mountain
+4 Pilgrim
-2 Skarrg
-4 Visionary (we're up to 21 sources, the cantrip is less useful)
-3 Flunkies (We're on the Reckoner plan now, probably skipping this guy)
Can leave Skarrg in and take out some number of other guys, like Lightning Mauler, Viper and one drops.
Anyway, that's all I got for now, what do you guys think? It's very greedy, and might need to move up to 18 lands, but I'm not entirely sure if I want to do that. I might add a 17th somewhere in the list, maybe cutting a Visionary or something, but anyway, comments? Did I miss anything super important?
You really can't play a G[MANA]andaR[/MANA] 1-drop in the same deck without playing 10 Stomping grounds. There's just no way
Youtube Channel
Idk, it's 9 and 7 for turn one ways to cast either, and since the deck has to mulligan pretty aggressively anyway only running 16 lands, its not improbably that the land I do have in my opener is the correct one. 9/16 and 7/16 aren't terrible odds I think. It would however, be beneficial to have access to 10 Stomping Grounds. I would however consider cutting Experiment for like a Rakdos Cackler, but then you would really have to rework almost the entire deck because now 3/3's on turn 2 are less stellar (still good though) and I'm not sure Flunkies is correct at that point. Something like Ash Zealot might just be better (though RR seems just as rough as having access to G on turn 1)
One final thing, I've been considering cutting the Rootbound Crags anyway in favor of +1 Temple Garden, +1 Forest, +2 Mountain, but I'm not "sold" on the prospect of playing a land that doesn't cast Reckoner post board. Producing G isn't ever an issue that I've come across often enough to truly matter.
Edit: Also, Ari Lax did just that, played a R and G one drop at the PT, and he had 9 turn 1 Red sources and 10 turn 1 Green Sources. Sure, his numbers are out of 22 though, so I have a statistically more probable chance of having the land in my opener able to produce red (as 9/16 is better than 9/22) and a slightly lower chance of having the ability to produce G (something like, .02 percent). Granted, he wants a higher chance of having lands in his opener than I do (generally he wants 2-3, whereas I never want to have 3 lands in my opener, 1 is fine, and 2 is literally the perfect number).
Obviously the consistency of his mana base is higher than mine because he runs +6 lands, but my point is still roughly that I have a generally acceptable amount of percentages to have the correct land in my opener to cast the one drop of choice.
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Arbor Elf
4 Experiment One
4 Strangleroot Geist
4 Flinthoof Boar
4 Stromkirk Noble
3 Hellrider
3 Rancor
Plainswalkers
4 Domri Rade
Land
5 Mountain
9 Forest
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Stomping Ground
How is everyone getting around Boros Reckoner with these lists?
I don't have him in my lists (18 land no hellrider version) because I think he's too "Defensive" for this deck which wants to win by turn 3-5 consistently.
I tried Madcap skills but the 2-1 usually puts me too far behind. Volcanic strength is nice but not enough to be relied on every game.
I saw the Firefist striker thread and it got a lot of hate, but I think he fits nicely in R/g as a solution to Reckoner. He can come down on turn 2 with BTE if you suspect they will play Boros reckoner (if you are on the draw), or can be hasted out with LM as a 4mana play against a stalled Reckoner ground for a nice alpha strike.
He's suspectible to removal, yes, but don't you WANT them using removal on this two drop and not your Rancor'd Ash Zealots or Nobles?
Edit: I've also been playing around with Gruul Charm in the sideboard (as a 2 of or a 1 of), and want to see what people here think of it because I haven't seen it enough in my tests. Initial thought is that another Green cost is really hard on the 8 sources mana base, because I have trouble playing my Rancor's and Rampagers in some games. But it seems like the perfect "Finisher" for this deck.
Fires (R/G)f Salvation
Gruul to the end. "If it doesn't break... hit harder."
Its not a perfect reckoner answer or anything but it protects your people a lot and can push through, but most of all it only costs 1.
I wouldn't play Stromkirk Noble and Experiment one in the same deck. It's kinda tough on the mana base.
4x Stromkirk Noble
4x Rakdos Cackler
4x Burning Tree Emissary
4x Lightning Mauler
4x Flinthoof Boar
4x Ash Zealot
4x Boros Reckoner
2x Ghor-Clan Rampager
4x Searing Spear
3x Flames of the Firebrand
2x Harvest Pyre
Lands (21)
4x Stomping Grounds
4x Rootbound Crags
13x Mountain
3x Naturalize
2x Gruul Charm
2x Hellrider
3x Thunderbolt
3x Volcanic Strength
Originally ran 2 Gruul Charms mainboard but switched them for Harvest Pyre but actually haven't seen if the card would make a difference because I either don't draw it, it gets milled, or the opponent is dead before I can use it. Gruul Charm is varied on match ups. Against a Dega Control it worked wonders as I managed to kill Olivia Vampire Nighthawk and Lingering Souls Tokens but against other decks the card felt dead.
Switched to Harvest Pyre for the obvious Boros Reckoner Combo but also to take out big threats using my graveyard as fuel. Also sweet tech against mill decks that dump your graveyard.
ya the stromkirk slot is something ive been changing but not for mana reasons the mana has been good I just feel like there's something better like maybe Lightning Mauler or Gyre Sage
for what it's worth, gyre sage is terrible in a sligh aggro list. You MIGHT get him up to 4 if you hard cast the rampager, but that's about it.
Modern:
Twinning End
Commander:
Mayael the Anema
Like I said I'm having trouble finding green mana sometimes. Also Ranger'gs guile is a nice tech, stopping whoever reckoner targets but he STILL gets a 2-1 (whatever card you probably had to suicide into him to kill him+rangers guile) and that is what I want to avoid when playing against him.
Taking my list to GP Charlotte today, NOT taking Firefist strikers. I've found them to slow the deck down too much.
I'm going to be trying out Night bird's Clutches. I really like how it gives ME a 2-1 (if I getup to 4 mana) and completely hoses Reckoners.
Be posting results tonight or sometime this week-end.
Fires (R/G)f Salvation
Gruul to the end. "If it doesn't break... hit harder."
4x Stromkirk Noble
4x Rakdos Cackler
4x Flinthoof Boar
4x Ash Zealot
4x Boros Reckoner
4x Hellrider
4x Hound of Griselbrand
4x Searing Spear
Enchantments (4)
4x Rancor
Lands (24)
1x Kessig Wolf Run
3x Temple Garden
4x Stomping Ground
4x Rootbound Crag
12x Mountain
4x Mizzium Mortars
4x Pillar of Flame
3x Zealous Conscripts
3x Traitorous Blood
1x Garruk Relentless
Ok, so that's the deck, so now for the report. It was for the Saturday Gatecrash Gameday
First Round
vs. R/G Aggro
He was playing the more traditional BTE route. Also was playing a heavier green version for Strangleroot and therefore no Reckoners. Game one he gets land screwed and I win on the back of a reckoner and ash zealot while burning away his first couple of plays.
Sideboard-
-4x Cackler, 4x Stromkirik
+ 4x Pillar, 4x Mortars
Second game he gets a good start, but he just can't deal with another turn 3 reckoner and then my removal starts chewing away at his board, so I get the win.
1-0
Second Round
vs. Jund Midrange
First game I aggro hard with a stromkirk noble. He doesn't answer it and then it keeps growing, gets a rancor and just beats until my opponent died. Also played a reckoner and zealot at some point, but the stromkirk basically took the game. Also, started with three searing spears which answer pretty much ever creature he played.
Sideboard
-4x Cackler, 4x Stromkirk
+4x Mortars, 3x Consripts, 1x Traitorous Blood
Second round, I get some early beats in with zealot and reckoner. He killed the first reckoner with decay, I put rancor on my zealot and played another reckoner, which got promptly decayed. I beat with the rancored zealot and play a third reckoner. He plays thundermaw and passed. I swing with both my guys and spear his thundermaw so first strike damage kills it (he blocked the zealot). He played another thundermaw, but was at about 5, so I mortars his thundermaw first main so that no matter what he blocked, he died.
2-0
Third Round
vs. U/B mill aggro.
My LGS has a new fascination with jace's phantasm, wight of precint six and milling. Game one, I had no real answer to a 5/5 phantasm and 2 4/4 wight's, so I died.
Sideboard-
-4x Cackler
+4x Mortars
Second game I put some early pressure on him and gets land screwed, so by the time he can stabilize I have lethal on the board. The third game goes pretty much the same, so I took the match.
3-0
Fourth Round
vs. Naya Midrange
This match-up sacred me because I remember pretty much the same deck just trouncing my old RDW before Gatecrash. In the first game he had no answer for reckoners and when he got rid of them, Hound of Griselbrand with rancor was there to mop up.
Sideboard-
-4x Cackler, 4x Stromkirk
+4x Mortars, 3x conscripts, 1x Traitorous Blood
Pretty similar to the first round. Reckoner was just giving him fits and then hound came down and did a lot of damage. He stabilized with a bonfire, I played a hellrider (tapped due to BO), he plays a centaur healer (and extorts). He was at 8, but I untapped with a conscripts on his healer for exactly lethal.
4-0
Top 8
Play the same U/B mill/aggro deck. Game one he gets me down to 2 with a phantasm, but I do exactly lethal with a reckoner, rancor and flinthoof boar. second game he had to mutilate to stabilize, but never saw a creature afterwards and i did, so I won that game as well. I sideboarded the same as in the third round.
Top 4
vs. RWB tokens
This deck was pretty good. I won game one on the back of a stromkirk noble he couldn't block (he played traveler turn 1, and gather turn two). I was able to keep his tokens in check and killed him right after he got his fourth land for a hellrider.
Sideboard
-4x Cackler
+4x Mortars
Game two is summarized by a few words, triple intagible virtue. I lost, badly.
Game three i kept the shakiest hand all night, but I knew he was playing next to no removal. So i kept a one land (mountain) with a stromkirik, zealot and boar, 2 spears and a hound. I play stromkirk, he plays doomed traveler (shocking himself). I topdecked a rootbound on turn two, swung for 3 (15). He plays a virtue and passes. I swing for 4 (11), play my boar and pass. He plays another virtue and passes. I swing out, he block boar, take 5 (6). I have double spear and kill him.
Finals
Same Naya deck as before. We'll just say that the reasons I was worried about this match-up came true.
Game one he plays pilgrim, reckoner, smiter and pligrim, resto, aurelia. I died, very badly.
Second game (with the same sideboard as before), he plays pilgrim, BO, huntmaster (I mortarts it), another pilgrim and farseek, overloaded mortars with extort, topdecks bonfire for four and I die. It didn't really matter what I played, it died. It was rough.
So overall I was 6-1, only losing in the finals. I really like this deck and I'm going to continue tweaking it to make it better.
Kessig helps, and hounds can be a nightmare for them to deal with. All in all though, that is the one match-up I haven't played much. My LGS is a lot of aggro and midrange. I'm thinking of tweaking the sideboard to help with the control a little, but until I play more, its hard to tell what to put in. Its been performing well (I've finished 2nd in the three events I've played at my LGS), but of course, I'm always looking to improve it or tweak it to my meta (seeing as I have no intention on going to anything larger than a FNM with this).
Same here kat. Finally a list with hound. I'll definitely try this out
—Jaya Ballard, task mage
I am with the Fires of Salvation
A lot of my fun happened before the matches though, when I showed up with some home brew incomplete deck and wandered around for a bit. Sat down next to some guys doing traded. Got my last 2 Nobles from one of them
4x Stromkirk Noble
4x Rakdos Cackler
4x Flinthoof Boar
4x Burning Tree-Emissary
4x Lightning Mauler
4x Ash Zealot
3x Pyreheart Wolf
1x Hellrider
4x Ghor-Clan Rampager
4x Pillar of Flame
Enchantments (6)
4x Rancor
2x Volcanic Strength
Lands (18)
4x Stomping Ground
4x Rootbound Crag
10x Mountain
2x Legion Loyalist
3x Hound of Griselbrand
3x Searing Spear
3x Traitorous Blood
2x Volcanic Strength
2x Nightbird's Clutches
Match 1: Vs Ghosts Esper
I feel like we have a great match-up vs. control. Game 1 on the draw I made the mistake of not BTE+Cackle+Rancor on my Noble before swinging (he had 1 shockland in play tapped) for some extra damage, I played Cackler and held Rancor. T3 he orzhov charms my cackler as I rancor it to make my rancor be invalid, oh well. I had two rancors in my hand so in response I rancor'd my Noble and swung for 8.
He Ultimate Prices my Noble on the swing next turn, I bloodrush another creature and he's at 3. He scoops.
Sideboard
-2 Pillars (plan was made thinking he'd have Lingering souls)
-1 LM
-2 VS
+3 Hounds +2 Loyalists
He draws a lot of removal this game. Also orzhov charmed my wolf so that in came in play with sickness to slow me down. I was stuck on 3 lands with a Hellrider and GHC in my hand. He plays Obzedat, and finishes me off with a mutilate and swings.
Game 3 was intense. He terminius'd my Zealot on T3, and played an BObediance on turn 4. Dimir Chams another Zealot of mine as I rancor it.
T5 he plays a High priest of Penance, T6 Vampire Night hawk and swung with his high priest (???). I answer the nighthawk by bloodrushing a GHC to kill and take him down some more. Swing with my wolf, his high priest is useless alone. He Devour fleshes me, I choose my wolf and don't swing. Next turn I swing and he UPrices my wolf, follows with a Ghost council on his turn. My hounds of griselbrand won me this game, he was back up to 12 with council and I bloodrushed my Grisel for 12 double strike damage.
2-1 over this guy.
Match 2: G/W/b/r Human Reckoners
Nice guy, had a great set against him. G1: Used my removal on his ranc'rd Preccinct Captain. T7 he rancor'd a Serra Avenger and soulbound it to a silverblade, swung 10 and I scooped.
Side: -VS -LM - 1 Boar
+3 TBloods, +3 Searing Spear
Game 2, well.. I got two Nobles out in two turns vs. a humans deck!
Game 3, hilarious game. We both had slow hands and I commented that "Lol this is going to game to turn 13 between two aggro decks.
Draw-go for awhile nothing interesting. I played a 3 lander he had mulled to 5. My notes for this game were scribbles because I was laughing. Until I made this mistake: I KNEW he had Selesnya charms in his deck.... I had an Ash Zealot and a Wolf against his one Augur of Bolas. Zealot had rancor, wolf didn't... I played a SECOND rancor on the zealot and he exiles it DOH! Basically threw the match with that play. It comes down to whether or not he has a spear to answer my desperation alpha with two wolves and a GHC in hand. He did.
Round 3: Vs. American Hellkites
Don't have much notes for this match. The guy was very unpleasant to play against, just cold I'd say. He had Reckoners every game that I learned how my deck dealt with. Didn't draw my sided in TBloods or Clutches game 2 or 3.
He had spears for all my VS's. Made me wish I was running that niche Wild Defiance in the side... Also learned a lesson to always deal with a Reckoner right away, because next turn there might be TWO Reckoners staring you down.
Game 3 was the second horrible mistake. Kept a 1 lander with no 1 drops, was on tilt. Didn't play a single card, scooped.
Round 4: Vs Esper Control
Another easy match-up I felt. This guy was pretty southern and did something funny Game 1: Drew a card put his hands beneath the table and came back up with a "Miracle'd" Terminus. I let it slide because I wanted to see where this went. I just had too much fight htis time and he had too little control and I overwhelmed him.
Side: Same as Match 1
Game 2 I learned another valuable lesson. We went back and forth for awhile with removal and eviction, he had a Tamiyo down that was stalling my Hounds from being useful. I had swung at Tamiyo before but she was back up to 7 counters. He was at 12 life, so I swung my double rancor'd BTE for 6 at his face.
Never let a Tamiyo go ultimate T_T. He Sphinx's for 6 at EoT then ultimate -> Permanent Merciless Eviction+Drownyards.
Game 3:
Had aggressive start with Cackler -> BTE+Boar -> Rancor Cackler. His Augur blanks. This game I was proud of myself because I had a Zealot and a LM+Cackler in my hand at 3 mana. I kept my mana open and didn't play them because I knew he had sweepers, and was applying enough pressure with my 3 creatures already out.
Thoughts
I can't say whether I missed having Reckoner at all (because I never tested with him). In the two control matchups I obviously didn't, and I liked how Pyreheart let ALL my creatures do damage and not just 1 "3 unblockable" dude getting through in the games versus RWB and the Humans. I didn't get to see Clutches in action, so no comment on that.
Never drew the Hellrider. I do know that some games he was stuck in my hand at 3 Land so I didn't like to see them in my hands either. Might be cut but I like how he can close games out with a tblood Alpha against stalled boards.
I like the Spears on the side version. I feel with Gruul I want all my threats to be creatures (Pillars left in for my 1 drop usage and BTE+Rancor/Pillar) and combat tricks. I want to him the hard and push damage through. You can't searing spear a blocker and get the extra damage to the face, Rampager? Yes please.
I felt like I sided out LMauler a lot but don't know what else he'd be. He was great pressure on Turn 2 and I think that is one of the core combos of this deck (the other being GHC) and can draw some removal.
Saw the Loyalist once during the human match-up for his CoConclave tokens. He ate a spear.... heh.
Any suggestions to my build? Comments? Questions?
Fires (R/G)f Salvation
Gruul to the end. "If it doesn't break... hit harder."
Fires (R/G)f Salvation
Gruul to the end. "If it doesn't break... hit harder."
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Ash Zealot
4 Flinthoof Boar
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Hellrider
4 Hounds of Griselbrand
4 Searing Spear
4 Rancor
2 Temple Garden
4 Stomping Ground
4 Rootbound Crag
12 Mountain
4 Volcanic Strength
3 Mizzium Mortars
3 Pillar of Flame
2 Zealous Conscripts
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
I think I am going to be sticking with this list for a while, and playing it at 4 events next weekend in Atlanta. What I like about it is that it can be both the aggro, and midrange deck post sideboard. I think 24 lands is perfect for the amount of big creatures. However, sometimes I felt like I had too many four drops in an opening hand.
With the rise of possibly naya blitz and aristocrats, I am thinking of possibly dropping one hound and something else in favor of 2 Bonfires MD. I'd also like to experiment with somehow fitting thrags into the sideboard. Pillar seems underwhelming with this list.
edit: fixed land
VS and Rancor on a Hound, is absolutely retarded. One thing I liked, was often I felt like I was playing typical Mono red ( with perfect opening hands - noble, ash, hellrider, xxx, lands) and other times I would have a hound and a hellrider in the opening hand(or have drawn either by t4). I think they expect us to be playing a turn 4 Hellrider, so they leave up mana for charm or spear. Instead I was dropping my Hound t4, and they would have to spear/charm one of my other attackers. Knowing this was out of the way, Id drop Hellrider t5 and swing for a ton of damage.
Kessig also really helped here, when ever a hellrider/reckoner/boar was blocked by a flashed in resto angel, I could easily pump for one to remove it. That is why I upped it to two from Kat's original list. It's a card I would literally like to see every game.
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That's just me though, I'd drop the hellriders for them in your build
Fires (R/G)f Salvation
Gruul to the end. "If it doesn't break... hit harder."
Going to give this a shot. Dropping 1 hound and 1 reckoner for 2 Ghor-Clan.