The Restless Rabble - 6-1, 2x Game Day Champ! (Standard MTG Deck)

The Restless Rabble - 6-1, 2x Game Day Champ!

Standard* Competitive Devotion Midrange Ramp RG (Gruul) Tempo

Regulus1010

Creature (29)

Planeswalker (5)

Land (24)

Sorcery (3)

Sideboard

Creature (6)

Planeswalker (1)

1x Xenagos, the Reveler

Instant (6)

Sorcery (2)

This is my take on a Gruul Aggro deck, revised and revamped Born of the Gods. I've run a bit of a variation from what's making a splash right now on the Pro Tour/SCG/TCGPlayer events by adding Predator's Rapport to both MB and SB, as well as 2x Kalonian Tusker for easy solid bodies, as well as for Xenagod and Nykthos devotion. I feel that I've given the deck a bit more flexibility.

A few notes about my specific choice of cards with this deck:

I generally feel comfortable with 61 cards, especially consider my ramp. I get it, I don't have 60. Please don't bother commenting on this :)
I kid you not, Predator's Rapport has been responsible for either saving me and scraping out a win from certain death, or keeping the game so far out of reach of my opponent that you can afford to take chances, more times than I can tell you. Gaining over 14+ life is not uncommon due to Ghor-Clan Rampager on basically any non-mana dork creature in this deck. Add in Xenagos, God of Revels for even more life - I had Polukranos, World Eater gain me 28 life twice due to this combo. If you have 5 mana, attack with basically anything, blood rush a Ghor-Clan Rampager then Predator's Rapport after combat (or before damage is dealt if you just need the life and you know your target creature is going to die). The look on your opponents' faces alone is worth it - "wait, what the hell is that thing?" - no one EVER has expected this, and it's usually game-changing/ending.
I run one less Sylvan Caryatid than you'd expect. I sometimes drop an Elvish Mystic post-sideboard because getting flooded/over ramped on fast matchups with this deck is a serious hazard. I've drawn 4-5 land with 2-3 opening hands too many times.
Waiting for my Mutavaults in the mail, of which I plan on running 2.
Waiting for my 4th Courser of Kruphix to come in the mail. Not sure how/if it's going to stay. Open to feedback either way.
I've chosen not to run a 4th Domri Rade not only because I don't have one, but because I feel like doing so basically makes me a net-decker, which I can't allow for myself. Believe me, I understand just how powerful this card is, but I wanted to play some of the other cards I've mentioned and I just ran out of room.

Anyway, my problems seem to stem from the fact that although I feel as if my sideboard is fairly decent for this deck, I have the WORST time figuring what to take out. More often than not, I -1 each of the following just to even out the deck, depending on the matchup and how many cards I want to work in:

Fanatic of Xenagos
Polukranos, World Eater
Ghor-Clan Rampager
Possibly 1x Courser of Kruphix, Mizzium Mortars, Chandra, Pyromaster or Flesh / Blood depending on the speed/tempo of the game.
If I want to bring in Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, I might take out a Stormbreath Dragon just to make sure I'm not crushing my mana curve too badly. Can't underscore how awesome this guy is against burn and control/removal...just remember, planeswalker are non-creature spells and slam you for 6 too!

Taking thoughts and suggestions on specific matchups and how to improve on them - my current meta is mono-black/black devo variant heavy, with also a lot of Boros aggro mixed with white devo/aggro. No one runs mono blue, surprisingly.

Suggestions

Updates Add

2 Tournament Wins (Game Day) & 4th@FNM out of 48 — March 2, 2014

Edit

This weekend, I played in 3 Game Day tournaments and 1 FNM in 2 of my locals shops as the first real outing for this deck - I was pleasantly surprised at the general consistency and resiliency of this deck! I went 3-1 (4th out of 48) @ FNM; 3-1 @ one Game Day Tournament (4th place); and, 6-1 at another for 1st place. I split first place on Sunday with someone who really wanted the play mat badly, and decided to just take his store credit without actually playing one another, but went 3-0 to get there. Individually listing 17 different matchups is too long and laborious, but here are the highlights:

Had 3 mirror match-ish opponents - Predator's Rapport wins the day if you draw it. With a good player and a tuned deck, this comes down to who can Turn 1 Elvish Mystic into Domri Rade first. Barring that, it's still a speed match. Flesh / Blood won me a game 3 - killer card in the mirror.
Monoblack devo is horrendous without boss draws and great Domri top decks. The worst performance this deck had was an absolute debacle of an 0-2 to monoblack. Stupidly kept a 5 land hand because for some reason, I thought 2 temples would have helped - live and learn, right? Second game, had to mulligan down to 5 and we all know what happens then. Played the same guy in the Semi-finals and stomped him because I drew more consistently and kept him on his heels with tons of pressure. Sunday Game day? 3 black heavy/monoblack decks. Ugh. Smart monoblack players basically know that getting a turn 2 Pack Rat without us drawing early Mortars or Blood means they can rat us to death in 5 turns if we don't draw flawlessly. 60/40 with these matchups.
Monowhite devo/aggro - the tokens from Brimaz and Heliod are too much to deal with if you draw poorly and don't pressure, much like monoblack. Not having Flesh / Blood or Mizzium Mortars immediately form Brimaz is crippling. What's worse is when Brave the Elements is ready for your overloaded mortars. GG, went 1-2, Brimaz played turn 3 every game. FML.
Did backflips over how I absolutely housed an american control deck, since I loathe control. Pressure + Mistcutter Hydra, and not overcommiting the board in fear of Supreme Verdict is something that control can't compete with. Yes, this wasn't Esper or Azorius control but shut up! Was just happy not to run into more.
If you know you're going up against a removal-heavy/black control deck, mulligan down to 6 if you don't draw hard ramp or at least 3-4 creatures, or hopefully Domri. Everything just dies and you're left top-decking after getting Thoughtseize twice in 2 turns. Thanks for taking 2 Stormbreath Dragons out of my opening hand with 3 land and 2 ramp! I figured at least ONE was going to stay. Top decked a 3rd right away, miraculously, and it got a Doom Blade in the face.

A Sad Day :( — Feb. 21, 2014

Edit

Smoothing and Coursing — Feb. 11, 2014

Edit

Image View Timeline

Card Odds v1 Draw hand

Add to folder Copy

Download / Export / Embed Code

Comments

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Comment:

Become a supporter of TappedOut and hide ads for only $3/month!

Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax

Please login to comment

Revision 15 See all

(9 years ago)

Date added	10 years
Last updated	9 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 1 Mythic Rares 22 - 8 Rares 6 - 2 Uncommons 4 - 4 Commons
Cards	61
Avg. CMC	3.30
Tokens	Emblem Domri Rade, Satyr 2/2 GR
Folders	Deck Ideas
Votes
Ignored suggestions
Shared with
Views

Magic the Gathering, FNM is TM and copyright Wizards of the Coast, Inc, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This site is unaffiliated. Articles and comments are user-submitted and do not represent official endorsements of this site.