Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
is my favorite creature of all time; and so I made this deck revolving around him. He is an excellent general for punishing the control players that run rampant in modern. The extra damage from his ability combined with an aggressive start will often be enough to steal victory both from fellow aggro players and those pesky control players.
Arbor Elf
- Little green weeny to help kick start the game. Combines beautifully with
Utopia Sprawl
.
Birds of Paradise
- Nice one-drop mana creature worth it's weight in gold.
Somberwald Sage
- She is the cornerstone of our creature based ramp; essentially putting us 3 turns ahead of our opponent.
Utopia Sprawl
- my personal favorite land enchantment. Combines beautifully with
Arbor Elf
.
Lightning Greaves
- This card is essential for protecting our creatures against spot removal (I'm looking at you Black and White). It drops on turn 2 and its haste ability can sometimes help us ramp faster. And of course it can make Ruric Thar attack right away.
Asceticism
- A beautiful card for the deck, protecting our creatures from spot removal and allowing us to regenerate any creature that does manage to get destroyed from, say, combat damage; which means our constantly attacking Ruric Thar will all the more safer.
Hellrider
- A nice T3/T4 hasty dude to put down while we're waiting for Ruric Thar. He can also act as a pseudo-burn spell; which is nice in a deck like this since we can't afford to put in any noncreature spells :)
Stormbreath Dragon
- This guy is prime for a number of reasons: He's fast, he's furious, and he has Pro White which is arguably the best color for spot removal. AND he inflicts burn when he becomes monstrous!
Thundermaw Hellkite
- More hasty, more flying, and he creates a clear path in the skies for when he attacks.
Vengevine
- A great T3/T4 hasty that puts early pressure on the opponent. He also has the ability to bounce back from the graveyard should he be killed off. A nice addition to this style of deck.
Now the sideboard is geared toward preventing blue control decks from halting your beat-down with their counter spells. So to do that, we swap out
Vengevine
with
Mistcutter Hydra
,
Lightning Greaves
with
Vexing Shusher
, and 2x
Kessig Wolf Run
+ 2x other land for 4x
Cavern of Souls
. This should help keep our creatures in the game long enough to pound the $h!+ out of the blue players.
Possibility Storm
combos beautifully with Ruric Thar; control player's cast their spell then gets negated while still costing them 6 damage, then if they choose to cast the next one thats another 6 damage.
Xenagos, God of Revels
is more for filler.
I made this deck in honor of the Gruul clans. And what better way to do that then to send a rampaging
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
at their face. So, you want to get him out as early as possible and there are a few ways to do so:
Option 1: Basically; with a
Forest
+
Arbor Elf
/
Birds of Paradise
on turn 1, and a Land +
Somberwald Sage
on turn 2, I can get
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
out by turn 3 even without playing an extra land this turn.
Option 2:
Forest
+
Utopia Sprawl
on turn 1, Land +
Somberwald Sage
on turn 2, and finally by turn 3 I can play
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
. And I don't have to play a land this turn if I don't have one.
Option 3: While the first 2 options are more flexible in that you don't have to play a land on turn 3, this way also works;
Forest
+
Arbor Elf
on turn 1, a Land +
Utopia Sprawl
on turn 2, and then a Land on turn 3 ensures
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
out by then to.
And then the face wrecking begins :P I'm sure there are other possible ways to get the big critters out early and if you see anything let me know. Comment and +1 plz :)
P.S. I would like to thank lil_cheez and derKochXXL for their help and advice in the creation of this deck. You guys are awesome.
