It depends on what your deck wants to do, but most of my green decks usually have skyshroud claim, nature's lore, three visits, gaea's cradle (usually accompanied by Crop rotation), and Sakura tribe elder.
From there it varies. Animar wants more creature based ramp than spell based (wood elves, farhaven elf, yavimaya granger), while wort the raidmother wants more spell-based ramp (the aforementioned spells plus hunting wilds and reap and sow), and 1-drop Edric wants mana dorks like llanowar elves, elvish mystic, elvish pioneer, priest of Titania, along with exploration and a gsz-dryad arbor package.
@Lugger: That's fair. It's one of those cards where you always want 1x but rarely want 2x.
@nylarotep: Fanatic has always seemed just not quite good enough. It might be the fact that it's always the worst half of the coin, so it never quite became the Loxodon Smiter of GR. Now that DTK is out, I'd look at Deathmist Raptor if you wanted to go a low to the ground route. He gets hit by Ultimat Price, sure, but the graveyard recursion trigger is a lot better vs UB than a sometimes 4/4.
I'm not running enough morphs to take advantage of raptor's recursion (2 Mystics, 2-3 ashclouds). It also takes a lot to turn on ferocious for heir of the wilds with him and he can be chump blocked, and I prefer the potential for hasty damage.
I've cut courser completely for fanatic of xenagos, since it doesn't die to ultimate price or enchantment removal. But I'm also on a more aggro version tuned towards beating control game 1 (md ashclouds and xenagos, no caryatids or dragonlords).
I was just thinking, the deck that CVM won the standard open with is great and all, but am I the only one thinking you could add a third colour to the deck and I would make it maybe better? I mean I love pure G/R, but could we see this deck evolving into a 3 colour deck, and if so which one Naya, Jund, or Temur?
Jund is what I went with. Kolaghan's Command, Self Inflicted Wound, Foul-Tongue Invocation are all very good against a variety of decks at top tables. Virulent Plague is a silver bullet against token strategies. You're also able to play Silumgar because of the natural black source. Both Silumgars.
But do we NEED to play Silumgar? I am afraid of stretching the deck too far and losing what is already a solid core against everything except U/B control and for now that deck isn't very popular in paper tournaments (given the two opens and invitational). I could see splashing black for some better removal and hand disruption.
R/G should be stomping all over U/B control, especially if you're running xenagos PW, sarkhan dragonspeaker, and ashcloud Phoenix in your 75.Though I can see why CVM's list probably loses some percentage points in that matchup (no aggressive 3 drops, caryatid over rattleclaw, 4 dead spells).
If anything I have more trouble against Abzan control since they can sctually clog up the ground and buy time with rhino.
I'd rather just run Lightning Strike instead of Roar since it always goes to the face when you want it to. I also don't like giving away parts of my future game plan just to get a Searing Blood effect.
To any knowledgeable player seeing any dragon invites Roar, as its so good (test it and see what i mean!), and any deck running Red & Green can drop a regent with 4 mana as it is so good as well.
The nuts is killing their creature with 2 mana and having it hit their dome also!
I'm talking about when you don't have any dragons in play.
I'd rather just run Lightning Strike instead of Roar since it always goes to the face when you want it to. I also don't like giving away parts of my future game plan just to get a Searing Blood effect.
R/G aggro with Roast, cutting Shaman of the Great Hunt for Thunderbreak Regent and more Ashclouds for a better devotion matchup and to mitigate the damage from Ultimate Price.
I've seen a lot of people repping for Xenagos, the Reveler lately in R/G. Not to say that it is a bad card, it clearly is good, but can you explain to me what is the specific benefit of it right now over various other 4-drops? I'm not really sure what situations it provides the most/least value.
It's good vs control, and occasionally fuels monstrous or a large craters claws. Basically the only reason I run it (3 main) is that I'd rather have a better shot to win grindy game 1s against control in case the match goes to
Time. I almost always side them out against rdw, Jeskai, and R/w builds g2 and g3. My pre DTK removal suite was 4 craters claws, 2 lightning strike main and potentially 4 wild slash, 3 barrage of boulders, 2-3 fated conflagration post-board so I wasn't too worried about the aggro match up.
Surrak, the Hunt Caller is a tad more powerful than expected, given his ability to house people coming out the gates. Siege Rhino is much less of a concern, even we've had an easier time since FRF.
I think this deck is going to be a bit rough week one, as people will be playing big, muck-up-the-ground fatties, or RDW -- which aren't the kind of MUs you want. If you're attending a big event this weekend, I'd look elsewhere for a deck.
However, as soon as people figure out what they want in their Uxx control decks, then jump back on the train. I love it when people play 5 mana sweepers in the room.
You can get around that by running more fliers in ashcloud, thunderbreak, and flamewake (though I prefer fanatic since it's easier to cast turn 2 off a mystic and can't be targeted by ultimate price). I'm currently testing a version with no shaman of the great hunt due to ultimate price and what I think will be at least an initial uptick in devotion strategies with deathmist raptor.
Do we gave a 1 drop thats better than Elvish Mystic? With all the removal in standard right now Im half tempted to run lots of answers and leave the dork ramp to G devotion strategies.
From my understanding Brad Nelson made a G/R deck in his article today. Could someone please post the list and what he said about the deck/arch-type? Gruul for life
-- Thunderbreak Regent: another evasive 4cmc beater. I think Ashcloud Phoenix was the card to play this weekend due to GW Devotion. Shaman is better against a "one creature stabilizing" deck with cards like Abzan Charm -- so basically Abzan Control or Sultai Control (they stabilize with walkers but that's just semantics; the games play similar). I like this card a lot, although it isn't very good against Elspeth, Sun's Champion or End Hostilities.
-- Roast: Good card. Maybe 1-2 maindeck depending on the meta. For sure a card that belongs in the 75.
-- Dragon Whisperer: When big dumb green decks are out in force, you need to evade. This is a two drops that evades, right alongside Heir of the Wilds. He's worth thinking about. Oddly, his power level doesn't feel like a mythic. Having jammed some games with him in Rb beats he's been... surprising. Try him.
-- Atarka's Command: I like this card when you're a functional Rg Deck Wins deck. When you curve out into Fanatic of Xenagos and Become Immense, this card is sick. When you're curving into 4x Stormbreath Dragon, I think the power level is subpar.
-- Ire Shaman: Looks like a RDWs card. Is actually a big red aggro card, which we functionally are. This is better than Dragon Whisperer when Abzan Control decks are being jammed. Runs around Courser like what?
Honorable mentions: Draconic Roar -- Self explanatory. Needs to be running Thunderbreak in the 4cmc slot so you have 4x 4cmc dragons and 4x 5cmc dragons, which should turn it on rather often.
Surrak, the Hunt Caller -- I'm having trouble assessing this card. He looks like he's feasible. Fails the Lightning Strike test though. I think I'd rather have other beaters in this slot though.
how does Surrak fail Lightning strike test with toughness of 4? I like Polukranos is better.
I'd rather run surrak because formidable shouldn't be too hard to turn on with him and more often than not poly just eats a downfall before doing anything. Right now my deck has room for neither as I'm opting for more flyers in the 4 drop slot to help against devotion decks.
I think this Thunderbreak Regent guy is decent. He feels like the most powerful of the regents although he's competing with Shaman of the Great Hunt and Ashcloud Phoenix in the 4cmc slot. His ability feels like it will play similar to Ashcloud Phoenix's, where the control player doesn't really want to be pointing removal at him but the player has no option.
I doubt he'll have a huge standard effect but he's worth keeping in mind or picking up for a $1 a piece.
We haven't seen the blue regent yet but I suspect this is still the most powerful one. He'll most likely replace ashcloud except in control heavy metagames or in devotion style decks running lots of morphs that can consistently flip it. It also avoids several removal spells that exile or reset ashcloud and makes crux of fate worse if you are also running stormbreath, but unlike ashcloud is susceptible to valorous stance, suspension field, and elspeth all of the time. Since g/r monsters already has a great control matchup, I'll be testing this main in place of ashcloud, and possibly move ashcloud to the board or cut it entirely.
I think it'll probably be a staple and thusly will never sink as low as $1.
From there it varies. Animar wants more creature based ramp than spell based (wood elves, farhaven elf, yavimaya granger), while wort the raidmother wants more spell-based ramp (the aforementioned spells plus hunting wilds and reap and sow), and 1-drop Edric wants mana dorks like llanowar elves, elvish mystic, elvish pioneer, priest of Titania, along with exploration and a gsz-dryad arbor package.
I'm not running enough morphs to take advantage of raptor's recursion (2 Mystics, 2-3 ashclouds). It also takes a lot to turn on ferocious for heir of the wilds with him and he can be chump blocked, and I prefer the potential for hasty damage.
R/G should be stomping all over U/B control, especially if you're running xenagos PW, sarkhan dragonspeaker, and ashcloud Phoenix in your 75.Though I can see why CVM's list probably loses some percentage points in that matchup (no aggressive 3 drops, caryatid over rattleclaw, 4 dead spells).
If anything I have more trouble against Abzan control since they can sctually clog up the ground and buy time with rhino.
It's just him taking about Ross merriam's list
I'm talking about when you don't have any dragons in play.
It's good vs control, and occasionally fuels monstrous or a large craters claws. Basically the only reason I run it (3 main) is that I'd rather have a better shot to win grindy game 1s against control in case the match goes to
Time. I almost always side them out against rdw, Jeskai, and R/w builds g2 and g3. My pre DTK removal suite was 4 craters claws, 2 lightning strike main and potentially 4 wild slash, 3 barrage of boulders, 2-3 fated conflagration post-board so I wasn't too worried about the aggro match up.
You can get around that by running more fliers in ashcloud, thunderbreak, and flamewake (though I prefer fanatic since it's easier to cast turn 2 off a mystic and can't be targeted by ultimate price). I'm currently testing a version with no shaman of the great hunt due to ultimate price and what I think will be at least an initial uptick in devotion strategies with deathmist raptor.
You could also try out lightning berserker, as it's not a bad top deck late game, but then what do you cut?
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Heir of the Wilds
3 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Thunderbreak Regent
3 Boon Satyr
3 Surrak, the Hunt Caller
6 Mountain
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Lightning Strike
4 Crater's Claws
2 Roast
I'd rather run surrak because formidable shouldn't be too hard to turn on with him and more often than not poly just eats a downfall before doing anything. Right now my deck has room for neither as I'm opting for more flyers in the 4 drop slot to help against devotion decks.
We haven't seen the blue regent yet but I suspect this is still the most powerful one. He'll most likely replace ashcloud except in control heavy metagames or in devotion style decks running lots of morphs that can consistently flip it. It also avoids several removal spells that exile or reset ashcloud and makes crux of fate worse if you are also running stormbreath, but unlike ashcloud is susceptible to valorous stance, suspension field, and elspeth all of the time. Since g/r monsters already has a great control matchup, I'll be testing this main in place of ashcloud, and possibly move ashcloud to the board or cut it entirely.
I think it'll probably be a staple and thusly will never sink as low as $1.