Stonebrow is my favorite deck to play by far. It was the first deck I actually kept for awhile, and made an actual effort to tune, and upgrade. The deck doesn't have very many tricks up its sleeve, but that's probably why it wins a lot of the games I play. The game plan is simple: Beatdown. Plain and simple. And the general only supplements that. Fatties getting fatter. Nothing feels better then going into the red zone and attacking with 5 creatures(Or more) and having them deal an extra 10 damage from Stonebrow's ability! This deck is very aggressive once it gets going, it's slightly slow in the beginning, but once I start dropping fatties after Stonebrow, it gets real.
Well it just seems like your average R/G beatdown deck with some staples of the format thrown in. Well you'd be right for the most part, beatdown deck(at least in my opinion) aren't very tricky and tend to be thrown aside in this format for a combo, or control deck. Well since everyone expects those they're thrown off by the fact I can deal an insane amount of damage very quickly. Some of the best cards in the deck are Brawn and Gruul War Plow because they give everyone stonebrow's bonus! then of course after everything is getting trample, and the bonus we have to give them DoubleStrike Right?
Play this general(or similar ones like Borborygmos) If you like a simple game plan and going into the red zone to see how much you can swing for each turn. Being green, he get the good utility creatures and being red he's aggressive and can beat down very quickly. So like I said play him if you like just beating down on people.
Akroma, Angel of Fury - Really really good.
Blitz Hellion - One shot, but still damn good at showing people who's boss, will be the first to go if I have to cut something
Boartusk Liege - Pumps everything, and has synergy with the general, whats not to love?
Flameblast Dragon - Doesn't have trample, but a blaze to something everything turn is too good to pass up.
Hystrodon - Really good surprise and card draw especially with Stonebrow on the table
Shivan Wurm - Really good with the utility creatures, and a very efficient creature to boot.
Taurean Mauler - In big multiplayer games, he can get beastly QUICK.
Vigor - Just really really good, has awesome synergy with my general.
Woodfall Primus - Part utility, part fatty. Great beater.
Hellkite Charger - Not too much testing yet, seems amazing espically as a 5/5 flying haste, beastly.
You'll notice a lot of creature in this section have awesome synergy with genesis.
Acidic Slime - Great synergy with Genesis
Anarchist - I love recurring Wheel of Fate or another good sorcery
Anger - haste haste haste!
Brawn - Trample Trample Trample!
Duplicant - This is probably one of my favorite creatures ever, it permantly says goodbye to a trouble creature, and potentially can become huge.
Eternal Witness - Obvious card is obvious.
Genesis - Obvious card is obvious.
Loaming Shaman - Really good for recurring my own stuff, or getting rid of the black decks with graveyard recursion.
Masked Admirers - A newer card I put it, and I am loving it so far.
Sakura-Tribe Elder - Really good fixer
Solemn Simulacrum - So good I can't describe it.
Yavimaya Elder - Another damn good fixer.
Chord of Calling - Really good for searching out utility creatures
Decimate - Just ridiculous.
Demonfire - I've won so many games with this and mana reflection it's insane.
Explosive Vegetation - Good fixer
Harmonize - Card draw is good in a r/g aggro deck
Krosan Grip - Very good for those combo decks.
Primal Command - Just one of those "all in one" cards that is amazing.
Recollect - Why not include these type of cards? They always come in handy.
Recoup - In the same boat as anarchist, just good.
Regrowth - See Recollect
Reiterate - Really fun card and surprising too.
Savage Twister - One of the few good sweepers r/g has.
Shattering Spree - Really really good artifact removal.
Starstorm - See savage twister
Sundering Vitae - Artifact and enchantment destruction never hurt anyone.
Vengeful Rebirth - Really good for recurring big spells and getting rid of a troublesome creature.
Fury of the Horde - Soooo good with all the damage and attacking this deck does, and it needs to do it incredibly quickly or it'll get wiped in the coming turns.
Wild Ricochet - Same as reiterate, just fun.
Worldly Tutor - Really good for tutoring utility creatures
Hull Breach - Again, artifact and enchantment removal never hurt anyone.
Savage Beating - "Woops I won"
Tooth and Nail - Good for getting out fatties, can potentially win a game.
Wheel of Fortune - Card draw is good for keeping a good tempo going.
Wear Away - Same as Vitae.
Fires of Yavimaya - All my fatties getting haste is great
Mana Reflection - Double mana is amazing especially with Demonfire, and flameblast
Rites of Flourishing - Just a good multiplayer card, speeds up the game a bit
Rage Reflection - Fatties with trample gaining doublestrike is ridiculous.
Gruul War Plow - Everything Getting trample is great
Lightning Greaves - Protecting my general mostly
Loxodon Warhammer - Just good when you have an aggro deck
Oblivion Stone - One of the best sweepers in the format
Sensei's Divining Top - Obvious
Shield of Kaldra - Really really good for protecting the general
Sword of Fire and Ice - Part of the equipment suite and good for having an aggro deck
Sword of Kaldra - Part of the equipment suite and good for having an aggro deck
Sword of Light and Shadow - Part of the equipment suite and good for having an aggro deck
Garruk Wildspeaker - Why not?
16 Forest
17 Mountain
Reliquary Tower - I love this card and is good when you accidently have too many cards.
Vivid Crag - fixer
Vivid Grove - fixer
Gaea's Cradle - Really good mana accel in a creature based deck
Grand Coliseum - Fixer
Reflecting Pool - fixer
Helm of Kaldra: VERY rarely am I going to get all 3 of the pieces together, and when I drew this I just wanted something better. I have multiple ways of getting my creatures haste/trample without having to spend mana every time. Other then that I can't really think of anything Im excluding on purpose so post your questions!
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa- Suggested by Livewireo
While a great choice for anyone running a deck like this, for me I think it's a bit too mana intensive, Im trying to do things on my turn besides pump 5 mana into Kahmal. As long as my creatures have trample(Which they do most of the time anyway) stonebrow does the same thing(except one less +1/+1) for free. But I would try him if you want to build a deck with Stonebrow.
Survival of the Fittest and Kiki Jiki, Mirror Breaker- suggested by Davidboan
Survival of course is always on the list to get, but it's just way too expensive
Kiki-Jiki, while great, just isn't on theme, and I would rather have a fatty instead of him.
Primal rage - Suggested xXxBretWeedxXx
The idea of primal rage is always there, but I never feel like putting it in, because most of the non-utilty creatures have trample anyway, and the only reason I have brawn and the War Plow, is because they double as creatures.
Winning can come from multiple ways, the first of which of course is just creature swarm. Get a few fatties out and then go to town. Second is with general damage, this one is a little harder to achieve because once people see you have a lethal general out they start targeting you more, but it's possible. Another way includes demonfire for a crap ton. 3 times now I've needed a demofire to win the game, or I would lose, I top decked it(While having mana reflection out) and then burned them for 20+
If there was a good sac outlet for R/G I would probably toss it in here, because Anger, Brawn, Genesis(Ewit with genesis in the yard) all want to be in the graveyard instead of in play.
The worst match-ups are anything that is heavy on board sweepers, it's really tough to get out a good board situation only to have it sweeped away by Wrath of God or something similar. Discard is another hard one to come back from, I do have genesis but you have none of your other spells besides creature to return, and it will take a lot of effort to get going again.
I think Stonebrow's best friend is Kahmal, Fist of Krosa. Repeatable Overrun that makes even your smallest guy a 6/6? Yes please. Plus recurrable with genisis and you dont need to tap him to use his ability.
I think Stonebrow's best friend is Kahmal, Fist of Krosa. Repeatable Overrun that makes even your smallest guy a 6/6? Yes please. Plus recurrable with genisis and you dont need to tap him to use his ability.
While a great choice for anyone running a deck like this, for me I think it's a bit too mana intensive, Im trying to do things on my turn besides pump 5 mana into Kahmal. As long as my creatures have trample(Which they do most of the time anyway) stonebrow does the same thing(except one less +1/+1) for free. But I would try him if you want to build a deck with him.
Thanks for the land suggestions! Those are great and I will defiantly pick them up ASAP.
Dues...I might have to give into, because it's just that damn good, and it's not mass land destruction right? so it's okay.
As for rancor, in my opinion it doesn't do enough to make the cut. It is rather good though and I will take it into consideration next time I make some changes.
So if I were to say "you're a complete douchebag who has his head up his ass so far he's using his own eyeballs as glasses," you'd simply shrug it off?
No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.
Survival of course is always on the list to get, but it's just way too expensive.
Kiki-Jiki, while great, just isn't on theme, and I would rather have a fatty instead of him.
It's a $15 card. That's not very much to expect out of a proven deck worthy of a primer.
Anyways, Greater Good could be a solid sac outlet, the only problem is that it doesn't work as well with the cards you're looking to sacrifice. It does work well with the majority of the deck though and could help you dig for your burn when you need it most. There's always Goblin Bombardment too, which is my FAVORITE sac outlet. Altar of Dementia is a good secondary win condition with the serious power you accumulate.
Any thought of Primal Rage? Seems better than the one's you're currently running.
The idea of primal rage is always there, but I never feel like putting it in, because most of the non-utilty creatures have trample anyway, and the only reason I have brawn and the War Plow, is because they double as creatures.
No Skarrg, the Rage Pits? It gives you the means to give any creature trample at will.
Similarly, Treetop Village would be better than Vivid Grove. Effectively free, uncounterable beatstick that swings for 5.
Eh Skarrg isn't needed, I have so many other ways to get creatures trample...though it doesn't take up a slot, Eh Ill throw it in when i get one.
As for Treetop, I completely forgot about that and it will go in ASAP. Because hot damn it's awesome.
You should consider the combo of something like Bramblewood Paragon/Archetype of Agression and Wolfir Silverheart paired with Stonebrow. Maybe Obsidian battle axe?
...Kessig Wolf-Run? I hear Fireball on a land was good.
Deus of Calamity? C'mon man...
When I played this years ago, I quite enjoyed Skarrg Guildmage because animating lands to 4/4s is strong.
You might look to Radha decks for other ideas. That's the direction my deck went as she's generally more reliable but also there's good tricks to find there - such as Creeping Renaissance for two wrath rebuilds, and Daybreak Ranger (because Nightfall Predator is saaaaaavvvvaaaagggggeeee).
I was considering posting my own decklist for this general...
From my experience I find that the deck slots used for trample enablers is best allocated for either utility, draw, removal (what little the colors have) and other things that make the deck slightly more resilient in the mid-late game. Of course control and midrange will become much more likely to stabilize and turn things around, so the longer the game goes, the worse it is for aggro decks. But I felt that in months and months of testing, fine-tuning, and tightening my list, I've found that I've still been able to occasionally win fast; however there have been times where I've survived to the late-game and won because I drew an answer.
The reality is you are not going to win fast every time no matter how aggro your deck is, and from what I've noticed, the more focused these decks are on fast beatdowns, the more of a "glass cannon" they become. If they don't win fast, the glass cannon deck is almost certainly going to lose, and lose slowly.
My point in all this? A deck built to withstand early answers as well as be relevant late is the best all-around deck I prefer. The game isn't automatically over after a board wipe or a critical countered spell.
Stonebrow is my favorite deck to play by far. It was the first deck I actually kept for awhile, and made an actual effort to tune, and upgrade. The deck doesn't have very many tricks up its sleeve, but that's probably why it wins a lot of the games I play. The game plan is simple: Beatdown. Plain and simple. And the general only supplements that. Fatties getting fatter. Nothing feels better then going into the red zone and attacking with 5 creatures(Or more) and having them deal an extra 10 damage from Stonebrow's ability! This deck is very aggressive once it gets going, it's slightly slow in the beginning, but once I start dropping fatties after Stonebrow, it gets real.
Now for the decklist:
1 Stonebrow, Krosan hero
Fatties:
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
1 Blitz Hellion
1 Boartusk Liege
1 Flameblast Dragon
1 Hystrodon
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Skarrgan Firebird
1 Taurean Mauler
1 Vigor
1 Woodfall Primus
Utility:
1 Acidic Slime
1 Anarchist
1 Anger
1 Brawn
1 Duplicant
1 Eternal Witness
1 Genesis
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Masked Admirers
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Yavimaya Elder
1 Chord of Calling
1 Decimate
1 Demonfire
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Harmonize
1 Krosan Grip
1 Primal Command
1 Recollect
1 Recoup
1 Regrowth
1 Reiterate
1 Savage Twister
1 Shattering Spree
1 Starstorm
1 Sundering Vitae
1 Vengeful Rebirth
1 Fury of the Horde
1 Wild Ricochet
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Hull Breach
1 Savage Beating
1 Tooth and Nail
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Wear Away
1 Mana Reflection
1 Rites of Flourishing
1 Rage Reflection
1 Gruul War Plow
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Shield of Kaldra
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Kaldra
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
15 Forest
15 Mountain
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Grove
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Grand Coliseum
1 Reflecting Pool
1 High Market
1 Miren, the moaning Well
1 Dust Bowl
Well it just seems like your average R/G beatdown deck with some staples of the format thrown in. Well you'd be right for the most part, beatdown deck(at least in my opinion) aren't very tricky and tend to be thrown aside in this format for a combo, or control deck. Well since everyone expects those they're thrown off by the fact I can deal an insane amount of damage very quickly. Some of the best cards in the deck are Brawn and Gruul War Plow because they give everyone stonebrow's bonus! then of course after everything is getting trample, and the bonus we have to give them Double Strike Right?
Play this general(or similar ones like Borborygmos) If you like a simple game plan and going into the red zone to see how much you can swing for each turn. Being green, he get the good utility creatures and being red he's aggressive and can beat down very quickly. So like I said play him if you like just beating down on people.
Akroma, Angel of Fury - Really really good.
Blitz Hellion - One shot, but still damn good at showing people who's boss, will be the first to go if I have to cut something
Boartusk Liege - Pumps everything, and has synergy with the general, whats not to love?
Flameblast Dragon - Doesn't have trample, but a blaze to something everything turn is too good to pass up.
Hystrodon - Really good surprise and card draw especially with Stonebrow on the table
Shivan Wurm - Really good with the utility creatures, and a very efficient creature to boot.
Taurean Mauler - In big multiplayer games, he can get beastly QUICK.
Vigor - Just really really good, has awesome synergy with my general.
Woodfall Primus - Part utility, part fatty. Great beater.
Hellkite Charger - Not too much testing yet, seems amazing espically as a 5/5 flying haste, beastly.
You'll notice a lot of creature in this section have awesome synergy with genesis.
Acidic Slime - Great synergy with Genesis
Anarchist - I love recurring Wheel of Fate or another good sorcery
Anger - haste haste haste!
Brawn - Trample Trample Trample!
Duplicant - This is probably one of my favorite creatures ever, it permantly says goodbye to a trouble creature, and potentially can become huge.
Eternal Witness - Obvious card is obvious.
Genesis - Obvious card is obvious.
Loaming Shaman - Really good for recurring my own stuff, or getting rid of the black decks with graveyard recursion.
Masked Admirers - A newer card I put it, and I am loving it so far.
Sakura-Tribe Elder - Really good fixer
Solemn Simulacrum - So good I can't describe it.
Yavimaya Elder - Another damn good fixer.
Chord of Calling - Really good for searching out utility creatures
Decimate - Just ridiculous.
Demonfire - I've won so many games with this and mana reflection it's insane.
Explosive Vegetation - Good fixer
Harmonize - Card draw is good in a r/g aggro deck
Krosan Grip - Very good for those combo decks.
Primal Command - Just one of those "all in one" cards that is amazing.
Recollect - Why not include these type of cards? They always come in handy.
Recoup - In the same boat as anarchist, just good.
Regrowth - See Recollect
Reiterate - Really fun card and surprising too.
Savage Twister - One of the few good sweepers r/g has.
Shattering Spree - Really really good artifact removal.
Starstorm - See savage twister
Sundering Vitae - Artifact and enchantment destruction never hurt anyone.
Vengeful Rebirth - Really good for recurring big spells and getting rid of a troublesome creature.
Fury of the Horde - Soooo good with all the damage and attacking this deck does, and it needs to do it incredibly quickly or it'll get wiped in the coming turns.
Wild Ricochet - Same as reiterate, just fun.
Worldly Tutor - Really good for tutoring utility creatures
Hull Breach - Again, artifact and enchantment removal never hurt anyone.
Savage Beating - "Woops I won"
Tooth and Nail - Good for getting out fatties, can potentially win a game.
Wheel of Fortune - Card draw is good for keeping a good tempo going.
Wear Away - Same as Vitae.
Fires of Yavimaya - All my fatties getting haste is great
Mana Reflection - Double mana is amazing especially with Demonfire, and flameblast
Rites of Flourishing - Just a good multiplayer card, speeds up the game a bit
Rage Reflection - Fatties with trample gaining doublestrike is ridiculous.
Gruul War Plow - Everything Getting trample is great
Lightning Greaves - Protecting my general mostly
Loxodon Warhammer - Just good when you have an aggro deck
Oblivion Stone - One of the best sweepers in the format
Sensei's Divining Top - Obvious
Shield of Kaldra - Really really good for protecting the general
Sword of Fire and Ice - Part of the equipment suite and good for having an aggro deck
Sword of Kaldra - Part of the equipment suite and good for having an aggro deck
Sword of Light and Shadow - Part of the equipment suite and good for having an aggro deck
Garruk Wildspeaker - Why not?
16 Forest
17 Mountain
Reliquary Tower - I love this card and is good when you accidently have too many cards.
Vivid Crag - fixer
Vivid Grove - fixer
Gaea's Cradle - Really good mana accel in a creature based deck
Grand Coliseum - Fixer
Reflecting Pool - fixer
Helm of Kaldra: VERY rarely am I going to get all 3 of the pieces together, and when I drew this I just wanted something better. I have multiple ways of getting my creatures haste/trample without having to spend mana every time. Other then that I can't really think of anything Im excluding on purpose so post your questions!
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa- Suggested by Livewireo
While a great choice for anyone running a deck like this, for me I think it's a bit too mana intensive, Im trying to do things on my turn besides pump 5 mana into Kahmal. As long as my creatures have trample(Which they do most of the time anyway) stonebrow does the same thing(except one less +1/+1) for free. But I would try him if you want to build a deck with Stonebrow.
Survival of the Fittest and Kiki Jiki, Mirror Breaker- suggested by Davidboan
Survival of course is always on the list to get, but it's just way too expensive
Kiki-Jiki, while great, just isn't on theme, and I would rather have a fatty instead of him.
Primal rage - Suggested xXxBretWeedxXx
The idea of primal rage is always there, but I never feel like putting it in, because most of the non-utilty creatures have trample anyway, and the only reason I have brawn and the War Plow, is because they double as creatures.
Winning can come from multiple ways, the first of which of course is just creature swarm. Get a few fatties out and then go to town. Second is with general damage, this one is a little harder to achieve because once people see you have a lethal general out they start targeting you more, but it's possible. Another way includes demonfire for a crap ton. 3 times now I've needed a demofire to win the game, or I would lose, I top decked it(While having mana reflection out) and then burned them for 20+
If there was a good sac outlet for R/G I would probably toss it in here, because Anger, Brawn, Genesis(Ewit with genesis in the yard) all want to be in the graveyard instead of in play.
The worst match-ups are anything that is heavy on board sweepers, it's really tough to get out a good board situation only to have it sweeped away by Wrath of God or something similar. Discard is another hard one to come back from, I do have genesis but you have none of your other spells besides creature to return, and it will take a lot of effort to get going again.
Here is a current buylist(More like a tradelist)
Deus of Calamity
Scourge of Kher Ridge
+Fury of the Horde
+Hellkite Charger
-Wheel of fate
-Skarrgan Firebird
+ Dust Bowl
+ Miren, the moaning well
+ High Market
- 2 mountain
- 1 Forest
It's all done! Anyway thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.
While a great choice for anyone running a deck like this, for me I think it's a bit too mana intensive, Im trying to do things on my turn besides pump 5 mana into Kahmal. As long as my creatures have trample(Which they do most of the time anyway) stonebrow does the same thing(except one less +1/+1) for free. But I would try him if you want to build a deck with him.
Dues...I might have to give into, because it's just that damn good, and it's not mass land destruction right? so it's okay.
As for rancor, in my opinion it doesn't do enough to make the cut. It is rather good though and I will take it into consideration next time I make some changes.
Have You thought about Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker for this deck? Being able to copy a dude a turn seems like it could be really useful in this deck.
Kiki-Jiki, while great, just isn't on theme, and I would rather have a fatty instead of him.
No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.
Junk Tokens WBG
It's a $15 card. That's not very much to expect out of a proven deck worthy of a primer.
Anyways, Greater Good could be a solid sac outlet, the only problem is that it doesn't work as well with the cards you're looking to sacrifice. It does work well with the majority of the deck though and could help you dig for your burn when you need it most. There's always Goblin Bombardment too, which is my FAVORITE sac outlet. Altar of Dementia is a good secondary win condition with the serious power you accumulate.
Any thought of Primal Rage? Seems better than the one's you're currently running.
Similarly, Treetop Village would be better than Vivid Grove. Effectively free, uncounterable beatstick that swings for 5.
Eh Skarrg isn't needed, I have so many other ways to get creatures trample...though it doesn't take up a slot, Eh Ill throw it in when i get one.
As for Treetop, I completely forgot about that and it will go in ASAP. Because hot damn it's awesome.
But one card that is a must is seize the day. This is an instant win if you have 7 mana and they don't have a blocker available.
swing for 6.
sieze
swing for 8
flashback
swing for 10
24 general dmg gg.
Deus of Calamity? C'mon man...
When I played this years ago, I quite enjoyed Skarrg Guildmage because animating lands to 4/4s is strong.
You might look to Radha decks for other ideas. That's the direction my deck went as she's generally more reliable but also there's good tricks to find there - such as Creeping Renaissance for two wrath rebuilds, and Daybreak Ranger (because Nightfall Predator is saaaaaavvvvaaaagggggeeee).
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
From my experience I find that the deck slots used for trample enablers is best allocated for either utility, draw, removal (what little the colors have) and other things that make the deck slightly more resilient in the mid-late game. Of course control and midrange will become much more likely to stabilize and turn things around, so the longer the game goes, the worse it is for aggro decks. But I felt that in months and months of testing, fine-tuning, and tightening my list, I've found that I've still been able to occasionally win fast; however there have been times where I've survived to the late-game and won because I drew an answer.
The reality is you are not going to win fast every time no matter how aggro your deck is, and from what I've noticed, the more focused these decks are on fast beatdowns, the more of a "glass cannon" they become. If they don't win fast, the glass cannon deck is almost certainly going to lose, and lose slowly.
My point in all this? A deck built to withstand early answers as well as be relevant late is the best all-around deck I prefer. The game isn't automatically over after a board wipe or a critical countered spell.
Moonveil Dragon is a must since it gives a mass Firebreathing boost.