The interactions between Evolve creatures played on turn one and multiple creature drops on turn two serve to create a really strong, somewhat harsh curve that tops out at 4 mana, backed up by utility spells and pumping/trample and evasion to get the damage through blockers.
For Example:
T1 Experiment One / Cloudfin Raptor
T2 Burning-Tree Emissary +
Brushstrider
/
Gore-House Chainwalker
(+2/+2)
T3
Fanatic of Xenagos
(+3/+3)
Or alternatively, to quickly add draw power or spot removal, or just to race the opponent's life total down, speedily plussing counters on my evolve creatures in order to sacrifice Ordeals by turn 3.
T1 Experiment One / Cloudfin Raptor
T2 Ordeal of Thassa / Burning-Tree Emissary +
Ordeal of Purphoros
, (+2/+2 / +1/+1 after attack)
T3
Fanatic of Xenagos
, (+4/+4 / +3/+3 after attack)
I have actually found myself choosing the simple Ordeal of Thassa route, even with Burning Tree options open, if I feel like I need the quick steam, or if I feel in threat of not hitting fourth land drop or a turn 4 play, and also against decks heavy on removal. Card draw can in some matchups prove more useful than a little extra damage, and this is pretty much a 2 mana divination that gives +2/+2 to your creature.
Couple of neat tricks you can also do with this setup:
Wasteland Viper
Bloodrush +
Gruul War Chant
Creates a small scale "Polukranos Machine Gun" Nice two for one, also lets you get more damage through next turn if they have high toughness or strong blockers that are having to double block.
Bonus Extra:
Ghor-Clan Rampager
Bloodrush for trample, deathtouch + trample keytypes combo to assign all damage as if pretty much unblocked, making what was a crippling blow into what is essentially just insulting.
Ordeal of Thassa + Simic Charm /
Ghor-Clan Rampager
This isn't a combo, just something I have done a few times to try and close the gap between victory and defeat. Strapping on an Ordeal of Thassa can be a perfect alternative to playing creatures if you have to just reach that extra 4/5 damage before victory, the Ordeal is sacrificed when the creature attacks, meaning you can dig a couple of cards in hope for that combat trick you needed, especially when you are post sideboard and you have both the charms and the rampagers in the deck, if you haven't seen one yet and it's turn 4~, with only 48/9 cards left in deck and 6 tricks to do that last burst of damage, you still have an approximately 24-25% chance of hitting one, but also remember that if the game does last that extra turn or some of the damage ends up being prevented, that card advantage can still end up being useful next turn.
I added the zoo tag because this deck is very similar strategy wise, it boasts not only early drop creatures that grow in size in order to become formidable threats quickly, but also a board of utility spells that help me close the game, and a strong base of 1/2 CMC spells which allow me to, in conjunction with Burning-Tree Emissary, drop a large aggressive aggro board state in the first couple of turns.
I played a few aggro decks in standard, but not one of them stands up to the frequent Anger of the Gods, Drown in Sorrow, Bile Blight and Supreme Verdict we have in the current meta very well. With my curve aggressively topping out at 2 for creatures, I can leave mana open on their turn for utility spells to protect my board state. Counter magic and blue is really handy for an aggro deck and this makes those control and mono-black decks less able to handle my deck.Another method being to try to out-race the enemy curve, on the play I often play
Fanatic of Xenagos
on turn 3 against Mono-B, or decks I suspect will be running anger, it saves things like Experiment One and Cloudfin Raptor from those un-regenable -2/-3 spells in black, and the exile from anger, due to the evolve. Against decks like colossal or other aggro decks I really want to be playing an evasion/control based strategy, getting my damage through against the colossal's few blockers with
Gruul War Chant
and blood rushing my Wasteland Viper onto things that get double blocked for an aggressive deathtouch two for one strategy that also helps me trample over with
Fanatic of Xenagos
or
Ghor-Clan Rampager
bloodrush.
I leave a lot of my utility toolbox stuff sideboarded. I want my first match to be super fast, catching them off guard before their deck has a chance to do anything. This is a slower, grindy meta, which means I have to take the first game very quickly in order to survive one of the next two games as an aggro deck will often not.
Results so far for this deck have been very strong, the only difficult part sometimes can be a slightly too taxing mana base, but due to the fixing on red/green and the fact that most of the mana costs are single colour symbols, I usually have no problem running this deck, 9/10 games.
Any and all feedback you can spare is greatly appreciated.
