It's very nearly a red deck, only green. I couldn't be much happier with it over the past few weeks. It's definitely paid for itself.
Stromkirk Noble becomes Experiment One, Rakdos Cackler becomes Wasteland Viper/ Dryad Militant, Ash Zealot becomes Strangleroot Geist. Boros Reckoner disappears but is replaced by Savageborn Hydra. And instead of burn, there's extra creature enchantments.
The big edges over standard red-first Gruul is creatures that don't get out-classed as easily by midrange creature strategies. The deck is merciless against durdling midrange decks, and it also has more resilience and inevitability against control. The weakness is against other aggro strategies that combine a fast clock with removal.
Wasteland Viper loves to swing into Auger of Bolas, Rhox Faithmender, Loxodon Smiter, et cetera; it also blocks well against Naya Blitz's 3/3's and is a hilarious response against Stromkirk Nobles. Deathtouch also has wonderful synergy with trample (Rancor) and when bloodrushed onto a doublestriker, and the viper is tons of fun when Domri Rade has him fight other critters. It's an incredibly good card here.
Savageborn Hydra is the three-drop that Green/Red needed for the deck to be viable, and it turns out it very clearly says, "I don't care how much life you gain, deal with me or die". This deck can abuse Rancor and Rampager more than any other deck in standard, and Hydra is a big reason why. Without Hydra, the game shoots away from aggro decks around the third Thragtusk; but luckily the decks that most abuse Thragtusk don't tend to run the removal to deal with the Hydra. I once had a Junk-Rites player down to three, then he got back to 18 after a couple turns, but the 8/8 Hydra still one-shotted him after I finally drew the Rampager.
Experiment One is very good as a 3/3, which unfortunately requires landing a 3/3 Boar or a recurred Strangleroot. So he's usually just swinging for 2 on turn 2, so he's not the all-star he is in blitz decks... Still, it's a close approximation to Stromkirk Noble against anything not running exclusively humans, and it's a world better than Cackler.
Strangleroot is the card I wanted for a long time while running red Gruul. I consider it on par with Ashley in this standard. It's maintains the same clock but is more of a problem for control.
Now the big difference here with Red Gruul is that there's no burn. The creatures all love being pumped; doublestrikers do crazy damage, deathtoucher + trample does more crazy damage, deathtouch + doublestrike + trample is hilarious. Pumps are how this deck gets through any blocking creature in standard. I didn't find space for burn in the main deck, although I guess some could be shoe-horned in. I really only miss Searing Spear against Vampire Nighthawk and whatever-that's-getting-Volcanic-Strength-played-on-it. As it is, the only targeted removal maindeck is Domri's fight ability.
Matchups:
Red Aggro/ Gruul Aggro/ Naya Blitz/ Human Zoo/ Little Fast Creatures:
This is probably the worst match-up, ironically. The fast clock along with lots of burn (Searing Spear + Pillar of Flame) is a real problem. This is entirely the reason why I'm running Volcanic Strength's main instead of Madcap Skills, and the reason why I have Electrickery and Flames in the sideboard.
Domri's and Hydra's/Hound's come out and Electrickery and Flames go in. You gotta really play around the instant speed removal and hope you draw better than they do. Vipers are very good.
Thragtusk Midrange/ green and white good stuff deck with limited removal:
This is a great match-up; pumped-up doublestrikers kill durdlers. If I'm going first, I like to take out Domri's and put in Armed // Dangerous. The Armed half gives a few more different paths to a turn 4 win (and a theoretical turn 3 win), since don't need to worry about being 2 for 1'd by removal.
Graveyard Shenanigans, Rites Decks, Humanator:
This is a decent match-up; not as reliable as the stupider non-interactive Thragtusk strategies but it's another deck running very little removal, so the goal is to turn 4 goldfish. Domri's come out for Armed // Dangerous and some mix of X-1's/ Vipers/ Geists come out for Dryad Militant. Going second against mana-dork'd versions and the Electrickeries are very tempting.
Thragtusk Midrange with lots of removal/ Jund/ RWU/ GWU Flash Control:
This is where the six Undying creatures really shine. Kessig Wolf Run can be very good here, Domri is decent, Militant is good over X-1's or Vipers if they have Snapcasters. Volcanic Strength or Hydras come out, depending on if I'm going first or second and if they have mountains.
Really slow control/ Esper control/ decks trying to mill you out:
This is a good match-up. Geist is good against most everything they have, the hasty creatures are good, and Domri is a tank. Domri and Wolf Runs come in, Volcanic Strength comes out, Militants come in in place of X-1's. (Viper stays in just to kill Auger of Bolas. So much fun.)
Monogreen "Fight Club" with Tracker/ Predator Ooze/ Deadbridge Goliath:
It turns out this is a horrible match-up. I have little removal and they are built on removal and their creatures are all bigger than mine. I've figured out that you want Flames and Electrickery at all costs. Don't have a much better strategy than that yet.
Tokens/ Black and White Lingering Souls + Intangible Virtue:
This really is a good deck and I don't know why more people don't play it. It's about as fast as anything else and they tend to run quite a bit of instant-speed spot removal, and they can do damage fast in the mid-game as well. Dryad Militant shuts down Souls' flashback, but it's the one creature that trades with a 1/1 Human or Spirit token. Electrickery is good here the first time, and you can't win without a big trampler.
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Master of inaccurate, non-thought-out baseless and naive statements.
I like baby fowl.
Interesting. You are basically counting on the general deficit of removal in the format. Truth be told a lot of Green and Red decks are doing this right now in different ways. What you are doing isn't unlike Bant Hexproof without the Hexproof (trade for resilient creatures). The problem with this whole set of deck is exactly as you summarize in the first matchup.
Aggro matchups kind of suck. Usually with an aggressive midrange deck you'd be favored but Ghor Clan Rampager and Boros Reckoner change the math in a strange way (sort of the same way Vengevine did to control). The reason we should care is that these aggro decks are so prevalent that it isn't sufficient to just wave it off. It isn't even sufficient to make it a postboard plan because you can never make the matchup that good. Not that any of the aggro mirrors are particularly grand.
The other decks that can often pick apart this sort of strategy are tempo based blue decks but they seem to be gone for the moment. My concern would definitely be once the opponents move around their removal a bit the matchups get a lot worse. Like if Jund ever moved to full Pillars etc. A lot of your creatures typically are x/2's. Your reach and late game are probably worse than the RG lists which means if the right removal is around (even incidently) the deck goes from doing well to horrible in matchups that are deemed as good. As cute as the Viper interaction is, I don't see how it is doing you any better than say a Searing Spear. I realize it's a creature with Domri, but too many of these are fought on tempo something that Viper tends to give up. It's not like you are looking to stabilize most of the time. Bloodrushing is often a 2 for 1 against you (against their better creature). Against a value creature the tempo loss makes it worse than a 1 for 1. Like an Augur of Bolas has likely already drawn a card, as a 1/2 Viper stopping damage or getting in for 1 is nearly irrelevant as it becomes an incidental casualty of sweepers. As a nifty combat trick with a 2/2.. a Spear would have atleast got damage through instead, the opponent's Auger drew a card, gained 2 life, and had you discard a card from your hand. That's decent value on a 2 drop.
The Flames and Electrickery I find interesting as well. The reason you need them so badly(in such quantity) is that the deck takes too long to set up usually that it loses tempo early and needs to swing back into it. This isn't usually a problem you'd find in an aggro deck. It just means the primary plan isn't quite good enough (even if it's close). See if lets say you played green ramp (and that's why it took longer to set up) you could play more powerful effects (Bonfire/Thundermaw) and that would not only be better at dealing with those problems but be more efficient if the plan was already to go bigger. If you were more aggressive you could get their life total low and force them to deplete resources before they can critical mass. The problem is in these colors at that mana cost you don't have the tools. If you played black you would for example, but it's intentional because GR does some things better than every one else. So instead you are forced into narrower answers.
Anyway there is probably more I could say but I think I've made my point. Basically nothing specific about this list convinces me over something else similar. It seems like you are mainly cashing on playing downgrades and cashing on main decking sideboard cards to shore up matchups to alleviate this deficit. This is fine with a specific purpose in mind that can be achieved but generally it seems you basically end up in a similar spot. The danger is the deck becomes more metagame specific to the point that small changes or the unexpected are more likely to unhinge the plan, versus the upside of catching a few people off guard because they aren't expecting to see the cards you are playing. Mind you as you said I believe it could pay for itself. It eschews some of the more expensive Mythics and probably generally get there even if it is likely a worse version of something else.
EDIT: I may have spoken too soon on Electrickery. There are situations where it makes more sense than Bonfire.
The advantage to this deck is that every creature has potential to swing through Trostani and Rhox Faithmender without a Rampager pump, and in the late game the deck can use the doublestrikers to cancel out any amount of lifegain short of an infinite Reckoner/ Lifelink combo. Hellrider/ Lightning Mauler/ Reckoner/ Cackler builds need to manage to keep an unrealistically high number of weak creatures on the field to equal the damage output of one Rancor'd hydra. It's been doing better for me than the Red first Gruul decks I was playing before, because of those two characteristics.
I'm also no weaker against removal than a typical Gruul deck; I run about the same number of creatures, and I have an undying Strangleroot Geist instead of Ash Zealot.
The problem is that, while any red aggro deck I'm playing in the mirror is just as or more vulnerable to removal than I am, I don't have any removal while they do. The aggro mirror tends to come down to who draws the most Spears and Pillars, and I don't have any.
Wasteland Viper really likes to wear Rancor, under which case he ends up doing more damage on average than a Dryad Militant or Rakdos Cackler with a Rancor. If I can't pump Viper, he at least swings for 1 or blocks a hell of a lot better than Cackler, and if he just sits back blocking for a couple turns his deathtouch means he's always a relevant Rampager bloodrush target when I'm attacking for the win. And the ability to give deathtouch to a trampler means he can be cute as hell and be worth ~5 damage as a topdeck on turn 4 or 5, yes.
As for speed, this deck is close to red-first Gruul; turn 4 wins aren't unheard of, and the turn 4 win isn't as critical here since I can swing through blockers much better on turn 5 or 6 than other Gruul decks.
X-1 swings for 2 on turn 2, 2 or 3 on turn 3; that's about the best you can expect from a Stromkirk or Cackler. The Viper only swings for 1 on 2, but he doesn't get blanked by blockers often and, again, I have 4 Rancors with no shortage of green sources. The ability to always have the mana to play multiple Rancors is a big deal too; in red-first Gruul with 9 or 10 green sources, it'd always suck when I'd have 2 Rancors in hand and only 1 green mana. Geist is just as fast, if not faster, than Ashley. And Savageborn Hydra swings for more on turn 4 than Boros Reckoner does.
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Master of inaccurate, non-thought-out baseless and naive statements.
I like baby fowl.
Yes. You need much less of a board to deal damage, but your threats also cost more on average or require you to stack up rather than wide. That's why I did some comparison to aggro midrange. Im actually barely comparing this to the red deck at all. Saying Hydra does more damage is like saying Sublime Archangel does more damage. And they both get taken out by Spear. I'm not questioning your damage output. If you've played aggressive midrange decks they play out similar. Ie the damage they are capable of each turn increases exponentially rather than linearly. Ie one turn slower but by T5 they have 20 damage on the board. You are slightly more vulnerable to removal as pumps need bodies where burn doesn't. This is a fine trade off when the quality of your threats is better.
So maybe the decks you should be comparing yourself to are the aggressive midrange decks. Green decks that also play utility over threat at 1 mana(ie Arbor Elf). Under that comparison the threats look a lot weaker. Viper is basically doing what Boros Reckoner, Loxodon Smiter, or even Boar do in those decks as atleast x/3's that can block. You have Geist and Boar so how many more of those do you need. The difference is they have access to bigger threats and fliers that also break ground stalls. Instead of upgrading a threat they just play better ones. Each threat requires less investment. They are also less vulnerable to burn removal and there is clear benefit to them the game going longer.
These decks also are low in removal which is why red versions are so weak to Volcanic Strength, which you happen to maindeck. Ironically making that matchup and those decks seem weaker to you, when they do the exact same thing timing-wise but are generally better across the board. Once you are playing the slightly slower Gx deck cards like Faithmender and Trostani should no longer be a concern anyway. That's why you leave burn and base red. Timing wise this deck reminds me a bit of the GW Silverblade/Sublime Archangel Rancor decks, except much lower payoff on the investment and no pseudo haste.
The problem as noted is removal/lifegain/cheap 2 for 1's are necessary to beat the current red decks and this deck has none intrinsically. That's what I was getting at. The trade off could be worth it, but the deck doesn't up it's late game against removal that much and loses Reckoner it's best early 2 for 1.
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Current Decks: GWUKnightfall Modern UWTempo Legacy UGRBurning Wish Cobra Vintage
This is my Decklist. It's a jund aggro/tempo type thing. I change it up once a week just to try different things in different slots. Currently filling wasteland viper slot is deathrite shamans because I got sick of losing in life total races. It's taken 4 or 5 FNMs and several more WNMs. Personally I would not play 2 color in this Land rich format. I like your end game with the Savage Hydras. I wouldn't mind trying that. I noticed you didn't mention Jund Midrange or bant Auras. I suspect a qualified player playing either of those decks would eat yours alive if you got a weak draw. I think Searing spears would be good side or mainboard. Toss the Electrickery. Personally I'm adding Pillar of flame to my sideboard Voice of resurgence tonight. can you not find something else better than that Hound. I just feel like he might be painful late game. I don't know what youd replace him with though. I run Hellriders in that slot that I typically side out for removal.
Looking at you deck more closely with the Savageborn, hound, and Auras it actually is very similar to bant auras in functionality. What scares me though is you don't have hexproof. Some games your deck would devastate but it seems a bit too much like a house of cards to me. someone running a lot of removal and and blockers like Loxodon smiter or thragtusk might make life difficult.
In regards to what Ryan said yeah last wednesday there were 9 aggro decks at my shop %40-50 of players. I fought voice of resurgence in no less that 3 matches
Stromkirk Noble becomes Experiment One, Rakdos Cackler becomes Wasteland Viper/ Dryad Militant, Ash Zealot becomes Strangleroot Geist. Boros Reckoner disappears but is replaced by Savageborn Hydra. And instead of burn, there's extra creature enchantments.
The big edges over standard red-first Gruul is creatures that don't get out-classed as easily by midrange creature strategies. The deck is merciless against durdling midrange decks, and it also has more resilience and inevitability against control. The weakness is against other aggro strategies that combine a fast clock with removal.
Wasteland Viper loves to swing into Auger of Bolas, Rhox Faithmender, Loxodon Smiter, et cetera; it also blocks well against Naya Blitz's 3/3's and is a hilarious response against Stromkirk Nobles. Deathtouch also has wonderful synergy with trample (Rancor) and when bloodrushed onto a doublestriker, and the viper is tons of fun when Domri Rade has him fight other critters. It's an incredibly good card here.
Savageborn Hydra is the three-drop that Green/Red needed for the deck to be viable, and it turns out it very clearly says, "I don't care how much life you gain, deal with me or die". This deck can abuse Rancor and Rampager more than any other deck in standard, and Hydra is a big reason why. Without Hydra, the game shoots away from aggro decks around the third Thragtusk; but luckily the decks that most abuse Thragtusk don't tend to run the removal to deal with the Hydra. I once had a Junk-Rites player down to three, then he got back to 18 after a couple turns, but the 8/8 Hydra still one-shotted him after I finally drew the Rampager.
Experiment One is very good as a 3/3, which unfortunately requires landing a 3/3 Boar or a recurred Strangleroot. So he's usually just swinging for 2 on turn 2, so he's not the all-star he is in blitz decks... Still, it's a close approximation to Stromkirk Noble against anything not running exclusively humans, and it's a world better than Cackler.
Strangleroot is the card I wanted for a long time while running red Gruul. I consider it on par with Ashley in this standard. It's maintains the same clock but is more of a problem for control.
Now the big difference here with Red Gruul is that there's no burn. The creatures all love being pumped; doublestrikers do crazy damage, deathtoucher + trample does more crazy damage, deathtouch + doublestrike + trample is hilarious. Pumps are how this deck gets through any blocking creature in standard. I didn't find space for burn in the main deck, although I guess some could be shoe-horned in. I really only miss Searing Spear against Vampire Nighthawk and whatever-that's-getting-Volcanic-Strength-played-on-it. As it is, the only targeted removal maindeck is Domri's fight ability.
4x Experiment One
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
4x Flinthoof Boar
4x Strangleroot Geist
4x Savageborn Hydra
2x Hound of Griselbrand
4x Ghor-Clan Rampager
3x Volcanic Strength
2x Domri Rade
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Stomping Grounds
8x Forest
5x Mountain
1x Domri Rade
2x Armed // Dangerous
2x Kessig Wolf Run
4x Dryad Militant
4x Electrickery
2x Flames of the Firebrand
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/green-gruul-02-05-13-1/
Matchups:
Red Aggro/ Gruul Aggro/ Naya Blitz/ Human Zoo/ Little Fast Creatures:
This is probably the worst match-up, ironically. The fast clock along with lots of burn (Searing Spear + Pillar of Flame) is a real problem. This is entirely the reason why I'm running Volcanic Strength's main instead of Madcap Skills, and the reason why I have Electrickery and Flames in the sideboard.
Domri's and Hydra's/Hound's come out and Electrickery and Flames go in. You gotta really play around the instant speed removal and hope you draw better than they do. Vipers are very good.
Thragtusk Midrange/ green and white good stuff deck with limited removal:
This is a great match-up; pumped-up doublestrikers kill durdlers. If I'm going first, I like to take out Domri's and put in Armed // Dangerous. The Armed half gives a few more different paths to a turn 4 win (and a theoretical turn 3 win), since don't need to worry about being 2 for 1'd by removal.
Graveyard Shenanigans, Rites Decks, Humanator:
This is a decent match-up; not as reliable as the stupider non-interactive Thragtusk strategies but it's another deck running very little removal, so the goal is to turn 4 goldfish. Domri's come out for Armed // Dangerous and some mix of X-1's/ Vipers/ Geists come out for Dryad Militant. Going second against mana-dork'd versions and the Electrickeries are very tempting.
Thragtusk Midrange with lots of removal/ Jund/ RWU/ GWU Flash Control:
This is where the six Undying creatures really shine. Kessig Wolf Run can be very good here, Domri is decent, Militant is good over X-1's or Vipers if they have Snapcasters. Volcanic Strength or Hydras come out, depending on if I'm going first or second and if they have mountains.
Really slow control/ Esper control/ decks trying to mill you out:
This is a good match-up. Geist is good against most everything they have, the hasty creatures are good, and Domri is a tank. Domri and Wolf Runs come in, Volcanic Strength comes out, Militants come in in place of X-1's. (Viper stays in just to kill Auger of Bolas. So much fun.)
Monogreen "Fight Club" with Tracker/ Predator Ooze/ Deadbridge Goliath:
It turns out this is a horrible match-up. I have little removal and they are built on removal and their creatures are all bigger than mine. I've figured out that you want Flames and Electrickery at all costs. Don't have a much better strategy than that yet.
Tokens/ Black and White Lingering Souls + Intangible Virtue:
This really is a good deck and I don't know why more people don't play it. It's about as fast as anything else and they tend to run quite a bit of instant-speed spot removal, and they can do damage fast in the mid-game as well. Dryad Militant shuts down Souls' flashback, but it's the one creature that trades with a 1/1 Human or Spirit token. Electrickery is good here the first time, and you can't win without a big trampler.
I like baby fowl.
Aggro matchups kind of suck. Usually with an aggressive midrange deck you'd be favored but Ghor Clan Rampager and Boros Reckoner change the math in a strange way (sort of the same way Vengevine did to control). The reason we should care is that these aggro decks are so prevalent that it isn't sufficient to just wave it off. It isn't even sufficient to make it a postboard plan because you can never make the matchup that good. Not that any of the aggro mirrors are particularly grand.
The other decks that can often pick apart this sort of strategy are tempo based blue decks but they seem to be gone for the moment. My concern would definitely be once the opponents move around their removal a bit the matchups get a lot worse. Like if Jund ever moved to full Pillars etc. A lot of your creatures typically are x/2's. Your reach and late game are probably worse than the RG lists which means if the right removal is around (even incidently) the deck goes from doing well to horrible in matchups that are deemed as good. As cute as the Viper interaction is, I don't see how it is doing you any better than say a Searing Spear. I realize it's a creature with Domri, but too many of these are fought on tempo something that Viper tends to give up. It's not like you are looking to stabilize most of the time. Bloodrushing is often a 2 for 1 against you (against their better creature). Against a value creature the tempo loss makes it worse than a 1 for 1. Like an Augur of Bolas has likely already drawn a card, as a 1/2 Viper stopping damage or getting in for 1 is nearly irrelevant as it becomes an incidental casualty of sweepers. As a nifty combat trick with a 2/2.. a Spear would have atleast got damage through instead, the opponent's Auger drew a card, gained 2 life, and had you discard a card from your hand. That's decent value on a 2 drop.
The Flames and Electrickery I find interesting as well. The reason you need them so badly(in such quantity) is that the deck takes too long to set up usually that it loses tempo early and needs to swing back into it. This isn't usually a problem you'd find in an aggro deck. It just means the primary plan isn't quite good enough (even if it's close). See if lets say you played green ramp (and that's why it took longer to set up) you could play more powerful effects (Bonfire/Thundermaw) and that would not only be better at dealing with those problems but be more efficient if the plan was already to go bigger. If you were more aggressive you could get their life total low and force them to deplete resources before they can critical mass. The problem is in these colors at that mana cost you don't have the tools. If you played black you would for example, but it's intentional because GR does some things better than every one else. So instead you are forced into narrower answers.
Anyway there is probably more I could say but I think I've made my point. Basically nothing specific about this list convinces me over something else similar. It seems like you are mainly cashing on playing downgrades and cashing on main decking sideboard cards to shore up matchups to alleviate this deficit. This is fine with a specific purpose in mind that can be achieved but generally it seems you basically end up in a similar spot. The danger is the deck becomes more metagame specific to the point that small changes or the unexpected are more likely to unhinge the plan, versus the upside of catching a few people off guard because they aren't expecting to see the cards you are playing. Mind you as you said I believe it could pay for itself. It eschews some of the more expensive Mythics and probably generally get there even if it is likely a worse version of something else.
EDIT: I may have spoken too soon on Electrickery. There are situations where it makes more sense than Bonfire.
GWU Knightfall Modern
UW Tempo Legacy
UGR Burning Wish Cobra Vintage
I'm also no weaker against removal than a typical Gruul deck; I run about the same number of creatures, and I have an undying Strangleroot Geist instead of Ash Zealot.
The problem is that, while any red aggro deck I'm playing in the mirror is just as or more vulnerable to removal than I am, I don't have any removal while they do. The aggro mirror tends to come down to who draws the most Spears and Pillars, and I don't have any.
Wasteland Viper really likes to wear Rancor, under which case he ends up doing more damage on average than a Dryad Militant or Rakdos Cackler with a Rancor. If I can't pump Viper, he at least swings for 1 or blocks a hell of a lot better than Cackler, and if he just sits back blocking for a couple turns his deathtouch means he's always a relevant Rampager bloodrush target when I'm attacking for the win. And the ability to give deathtouch to a trampler means he can be cute as hell and be worth ~5 damage as a topdeck on turn 4 or 5, yes.
As for speed, this deck is close to red-first Gruul; turn 4 wins aren't unheard of, and the turn 4 win isn't as critical here since I can swing through blockers much better on turn 5 or 6 than other Gruul decks.
X-1 swings for 2 on turn 2, 2 or 3 on turn 3; that's about the best you can expect from a Stromkirk or Cackler. The Viper only swings for 1 on 2, but he doesn't get blanked by blockers often and, again, I have 4 Rancors with no shortage of green sources. The ability to always have the mana to play multiple Rancors is a big deal too; in red-first Gruul with 9 or 10 green sources, it'd always suck when I'd have 2 Rancors in hand and only 1 green mana. Geist is just as fast, if not faster, than Ashley. And Savageborn Hydra swings for more on turn 4 than Boros Reckoner does.
I like baby fowl.
So maybe the decks you should be comparing yourself to are the aggressive midrange decks. Green decks that also play utility over threat at 1 mana(ie Arbor Elf). Under that comparison the threats look a lot weaker. Viper is basically doing what Boros Reckoner, Loxodon Smiter, or even Boar do in those decks as atleast x/3's that can block. You have Geist and Boar so how many more of those do you need. The difference is they have access to bigger threats and fliers that also break ground stalls. Instead of upgrading a threat they just play better ones. Each threat requires less investment. They are also less vulnerable to burn removal and there is clear benefit to them the game going longer.
These decks also are low in removal which is why red versions are so weak to Volcanic Strength, which you happen to maindeck. Ironically making that matchup and those decks seem weaker to you, when they do the exact same thing timing-wise but are generally better across the board. Once you are playing the slightly slower Gx deck cards like Faithmender and Trostani should no longer be a concern anyway. That's why you leave burn and base red. Timing wise this deck reminds me a bit of the GW Silverblade/Sublime Archangel Rancor decks, except much lower payoff on the investment and no pseudo haste.
The problem as noted is removal/lifegain/cheap 2 for 1's are necessary to beat the current red decks and this deck has none intrinsically. That's what I was getting at. The trade off could be worth it, but the deck doesn't up it's late game against removal that much and loses Reckoner it's best early 2 for 1.
GWU Knightfall Modern
UW Tempo Legacy
UGR Burning Wish Cobra Vintage
Looking at you deck more closely with the Savageborn, hound, and Auras it actually is very similar to bant auras in functionality. What scares me though is you don't have hexproof. Some games your deck would devastate but it seems a bit too much like a house of cards to me. someone running a lot of removal and and blockers like Loxodon smiter or thragtusk might make life difficult.
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
3x Dreg Mangler
4x Experiment One
4x Falkenrath Aristocrat
4x Flinthoof Boar
4x Ghor-Clan Rampager
3x Hellrider
4x Strangleroot Geist
4x Deathrite Shaman
4x Blood Crypt
3x Forest
4x Overgrown Tomb
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Stomping Ground
3x Woodland Cemetery
Instant (4)
4x Searing Spear
3x Golgari Charm
2x Groundseal
4x dryad militant
2x Ultimate Price
4x dreadbore
In regards to what Ryan said yeah last wednesday there were 9 aggro decks at my shop %40-50 of players. I fought voice of resurgence in no less that 3 matches