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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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--- description ---
The most popular R/G Aggro deck in Standard, serious contender for prizes in any tournament!
--- end description ---
MAIN DECK
6 Forest
6 Mountain
4 Karplusan Forest
4 Stomping Ground
1 Pendelhaven
1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits
4 Giant Solifuge
3 Tin Street Hooligan
4 Kird Ape
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Scab-Clan Mauler
2 Burning-Tree Shaman
2 Scorched Rusalka
4 Char
2 Stonewood Invocation
3 Rift Bolt
3 Seal of Fire
3 Call of the Herd
SIDEBOARD
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Krosan Grip
3 Sulfur Elemental
4 Blood Moon
1 Gaea’s Anthem
1 Call of the Herd
2 Moldervine Cloak
This deck is straightforward as it may seem. Play the best creatures available at the current curve, wrap things up with burn spells or Stonewood Invocation. Some versions feature Silhana Ledgewalker and Moldervine Cloak in the main deck, over Stonewood Invocation and Tin Street Hooligan.
Brewing Cost: U$ 283.75
Adding Future Sight to the mix:
Future Sight offers some nice choices, depending on how you want to tweak your deck, the meta you might be expecting and the cards missing to finish your build. Ghostfire can find room in the build, if protection from red is giving you a headache. Then, some builds can favor Llanowar Augur for the mirror match (it can stop a Dual-pumped first turn Kird Ape right in its tracks). Arc Blade could also try to squeeze in, favoring more burnon the long run rather than the suspend cost of Rift Bolt, and then, the most sure addition with a meta infested with Detritivores, Chroniclers and Lotus Blooms: Riftsweeper. For 2 mana, not only you get to stop a suspended permanent from coming into play, you also get to shuffle back your own Call fo the Herds AFTER flashbacking them! Then, if you choose to go the Kavu predator route, you can (and should) also pack Grove of the Burnwillows.
How to stop it:
Aggro decks are usually easy tos top with control decks. However, when a deck has so many strong creatures at a low cost, and an answer to counterspells (Sulfur Elemental), mass removal (Scorched Rusalka) and a beast like Giant Solifuge to close the deal, not any control deck will be able to stop it soon enough.
White: White offers control some great tools against Gruul, in the form of Wrath of God, Ivory Mask and Faith’s Fetters. For aggro decks, Soltari Priest (mind Sulfur Elemental), Knight of the Holy Nimbus, Shade of Trokair, Serra Avenger and Calciderm all pose a serious threat to Gruul’s burn plan. For both decks, Martyr of Sands and Sunlance can play important roles, either by pushing your life total over the edge or by shutting down early threats. Some decks can also benefit from playing Worship (heck, even Magus of the Moat, if you can keep it alive!).
Blue: Blue has a hard time stopping Gruul. If you can ramp up a Tron early enough, Spell Burst with buyback may be able to staunch the bleeding. Repeal plays a major role in helping out blue, too, since a single mana allows for Repeal to "kill" a token from Call fo the Herd WHILE netting a card, to dig through more definitive answers. Teferi allows the blue mage to better control the match, eliminating combat tricks and little unpleasant surprises.
Black: Black has a large array of answers to creature decks, in the form of Damnation, Sudden Death (can take out any creature in the deck except for Solifuge and the eventual Silhana), Cruel Edict and Smallpox. Between the barrage of removal and some key discard spells to cripple the late game, like Cry of Contrition, Blackmail, Stupor and now Augur of Skulls (do not go for the more expensive ones like Nightmare Void and Persecute, by the time you can cast them, it’ll be too late), with some new fatties released (mostly Nihilith and Tombstalker), black packs a very good answer to most aggro decks, and Gruul is no exception.
Red: Red can try to stop Gruul either by killing early game threats with Rift Bolt, Volcanic Hammer, Dead//Gone, Sudden Shock, etc, or by trading/chump blocking in combat early on and proceeding to "wrath" the board with something like Sulfurous Blast or Wildfire. A well-cast Bogardan Hellkite can completely ruin Gruul’s strategy, and Keldon Marauders do a great job in stalling the early game. A red deck featuring Stuffy Doll and some form of land destruction (to kill Skarrg, the Rage Pits) has very great odds of overcoming Gruul’s explosive start. Also, notice red decks CAN play Giant Solifuge, too...
Green: Green’s best choice is to just "go bigger". Between Imperiosaur, Spectral Force, any creature with Moldervine Cloak and/or Blanchwood Armor, Call of the Herd, Timbermare and all the acceleration green can have nowadays (specially with Magus of the Vineyard), plus Scryb Ranger givin a pseudo-vigilance to your fatties, green has a pretty good shot at eating down Gruul when one-on-one. Also, notice green decks CAN play Giant Solifuge, too... And, to wrap things up, green has access to enchantment hate, being able to take out Moldervine Cloak with ease.
Golden: Teferi’s Moat set to green can be pretty annoying to Gruul. Also, golden creatures tend to be a tad bigger than Gruul can handle, namely Rumbling Slum (which also let’s you Wildfire for the win after playing it) and Shivan Wumpus (tighter manabase). 1-2 Loxodon Hierarch can bump up your life totals above the reach Gruul can possibly hope to take down. |
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