I loved
Rhythm of the Wild
when it was first previewed, but I was sort of dissapointed with its effectiveness when I actually got my hands on it. I could see the card had a lot of potential with its interactions, but it just didn't feel good being too slow for both aggro and control. So I experimented and eventually built a deck I'm quite happy with. I'm going to go over the picks and why they're here.
Etali, Primal Storm
Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire
These guys were my main incentive for building this deck and I actually originally built the deck with
Chaos Wand
as well for the full RNG meme package. It feels obscenely good smacking down Etali with haste and pulling bombs from both decks on the attack. Sometimes even just getting him to stick will get a concede. Vaevictis is a bit more risky as his ability can get your opponent a bomb as well, but the fact that he's a 6/6 flyer with recurring removal tacked it makes him worth it.
Growth-Chamber Guardian
Wow this guy is incredible. You've seen him in Gruul Warriors as the premier turn two play, attacking for 4 on turn 3. In our list we can still do this, but if we think the opponent is running a lot of removal it's usually better to put down
Rhythm of the Wild
down first as that lets us play two 3/3 GCGs thanks to the counter from riot. I originally ran a few
Colossal Majesty
but found that GCG gave enough card advantage on its own that it just wasn't really necessary. GCG also lets us go wide pretty fast, helping us keep pace with WW and some token decks.
Rekindling Phoenix
You know it. You either love it or hate it. This card is in nearly every midrange deck that has red in it, and for good reason. It's bulky, evasive, and sticky. If we can get rhythm out, this card is almost always a 2-for-1 for our opponent to remove, barring exile effects. Its just good.
Ravenous Chupacabra
Plaguecrafter
Uncounterable removal with a creature attached. Chupacabra is the silent work horse of this deck. We struggle pretty hard with big, legendary fliers like
Lyra Dawnbringer
and
Niv-Mizzet, Parun
, this creepy doggo will make short work of them. Against decks like Sultai, it'll hit their Walkers and Krasis while giving you a 3/3 blocker for the Jadelight Rangers. Plaguecrafter is our sideboard tech against Izzet and Control. Sure he dies, but uncounterable planeswalker removal is great. If we're desperate for more removal against creature heavy decks we might actually play Plagecrafter over rhythm or Vaevictis.
Vivien Reid
Great on her own, she let's us get that 6th land if we start to stall out, she grabs our creature based removal, she grabs our bombs, hits enchantments, and she's able to knock down those pesky fliers. The perfect utility card for midrange match ups.
Carnage Tyrant
Sideboard against control, swap for etali. Not much more to say.
Cast Down
Lava Coil
Moment of Craving
Cry of the Carnarium
The Eldest Reborn
Find / Finality
Your typical removal. We run a lot in this deck but I'm often happy to have it in hand. If I were to take any out, I'd probably swap most of the side board removal for some more creatures or
The Immortal Sun
. Both sides of Find/Finality are great here and I'm tempted to run another copy.
Duress
Control sideboard tech, hits
Thought Erasure
or
Negate
to make sure we can get that early Rhythm down. Extras are welcomed, as that can help fight
Mortify
as well.
This deck has a lot of very restrictive mana costs, especially when our 4cmc slots include both
Rekindling Phoenix
and
Ravenous Chupacabra
, so this deck absolutely needs love, care, and full playsets of dual lands.
If you want to focus more on the meme side of the deck, grab yourself more permanents, some scry effects, and go to town with the big boys.
tl:dr - big scaly bois try to make some friends with music, semi-successful
Any suggestions or questions about certain choices are more than welcomed :)
