Retired! 2017 Standard
A Brief Gruuling Strategy
This deck has two paths to victory, well, lots, okay it's red/green, it's got one thing and that is deal a crapload of damage. At first, I thought this was just a beatdown deck, but truth be told, the beatdown aspect is primarily our backup plan. Our primary win condition is
Electrostatic Pummeler
and EVERYONE knows it so don't be dropping pummelers on turn 3 thinking you got this in the bag, unless you have a Servant up and
Blossoming Defense
in hand to cover any removal, but even then it's a huge risk to pull the trigger so early without good energy buildup and cover for removal.
For Pummeler, we need Trample and +x/+x before using the energy ability to double up. Enter
Invigorated Rampage
and
Rhonas the Indomitable
, and to some extent Blossoming, though that's priority is for providing hexproof. If we can't get Trample, then there is ALWAYS
Fling
and DON'T YOU EVER FORGET ABOUT IT, because it has saved me in so many situations, just ridiculous. Sometimes you gotta fling a god or hydra even. Whatever it takes to close out a win.
Finally, the backup plan of this deck is to just be a wall of big, aggressive and hard to kill creatures.
Bristling Hydra
and
Rhonas the Indomitable
is a board state that is REALLY hard to lose with.
FNM Scoreboard (W-L-D)
- PPTQ 10-28-17 | 4-2-0 12th Place
- Showdown 10-8-17 | 4-0-0
- Showdown 10-7-17 | 4-0-0
- FNM 10-6-17 | 3-1-0 Sultai energy got me in round 4
- FNM 9-22-17 | 4-0-0 ending HOU on a high note
- FNM 9-15-17 | 2-2-0
- ShowDown 9-9-17 | 2-1-0
- FNM 9-8-17 | 2-2-0
- FNM 9-1-17 | 3-1-0
- Showdown 8-27-17 | 1-2-0
- GameDay 8-5-17 | 3-2-1
- FNM 8-4-17 | 2-2-0
- Showdown 7-30-17 | 2-2-0
- Showdown 7-23-17 | 4-0-0
- Showdown 7-2-17 | 2-1-0
- PPTQ 6-24-17 | 3-1-1 TOP 8 4th Place!
- FNM 6-23-17 | 4-0-0
- Showdown 6-18-17 | 3-0-0
- Showdown 6-11-17 | 2-1-0
- Showdown 6-10-17 | 3-0-0
- FNM 6-9-17 | 3-1-0
- Showdown 6-4-17 | 2-1-0 Uh-oh, mirrors popping up
- Showdown 6-3-17 | 3-0-0 1st place feels good yo
- Showdown 5-28-17 | 2-1-0
- GameDay3 5-21-17 | 1-1-0 3 people showed up so, technically I top 3'd, got a playmat!
- GameDay2 5-20-17 | 2-1-0
- GameDay1 5-20-17 | 2-2-0
- FNM 5-19-17 | 4-0-0 Holy crap my first FNM undefeated!
- StdShowDown 5-14-17 | 3-0-0 First time undefeated and 1st place constructed!
- StdShowDown 5-13-17 | 2-1-0
- FNM 5-12-17 | 2-2-0
- FNM 5-5-17 | 3-1-0
- PPTQ 4-29-17 | 1-4-0 Was a rough day, learned some lessons, made some adjustments.
- FNM 4-14-17 | 2-2-0
- FNM 4-4-17 | 2-2-0 -
Electrostatic Pummeler
achievement, over 100 damage to a player
- FNM 3-24-17 | 2-1-1
- FNM 3-17-17 | 2-2-0
- FNM 3-10-17 | 3-0-1
Holy Flying Pummelers, Batman!
Electrostatic Pummeler
Energy Pump Math!
- Vanilla Pummeler (No pump spells) takes 12 energy to get to 16/16 and 15 energy to get to 32/32 for lethal.
- +2 pumps like Rhonas or Blossoming Defense take 6 energy to get to 12/12 and 9 energy to get to 24/24 for lethal.
- +3 pumps like
Built to Smash
take 6 energy to get to 16/16 and 9 energy to get to 32/32 for lethal
- +4 pumps like
Invigorated Rampage
take 6 energy to get to 20/20 for lethal
Sideboard/Maybeboard Tech
Just a note, my sideboard is changing constantly. So I'll do my best to address current and past sideboard cards as long as they're relevant.
-
Harsh Mentor
is just good all around hate on abilities. Probably best for controlling
Aetherworks Marvel
decks, though I did consider throwing him in against zombies to punish
Dread Wanderer
and a few other abilities. Not sure if he's still a good fit.
-
Insult / Injury
is perfect for control decks and Gideon lovers. Counters
Haze of Pollen
and a few other spells that are annoying to play against, plus helps when you have low energy and need a pummeler kill
-
Kari Zev's Expertise
has so much use, but I recently cut one copy as it hasn't been super relevant with Mardu Vehicles on the decline. Still a fantastic counter to
Thing in the Ice
and
Torrential Gearhulk
. Don't forget the free card to cast. In the early game a well placed KZE with a free
Invigorated Rampage
will put you well ahead.
-
Magma Spray
Does this card need explaining? No? Good... (Cough
Scrapheap Scrounger
,
Relentless Dead
, some other stuff)
-
Manglehorn
was great when Copy-Cat was still a thing, still a beast against
Aetherworks Marvel
or even Servo Token decks
-
Prowling Serpopard
is our go-to sideboard card for control matchups. Enables
Rhonas the Indomitable
, if we're playing the catsnek on Turn 3 against any control deck we're going to have a good shot at stealing the show
-
Sweltering Suns
this is my newest addition and it's pretty simple. Zombies. Sometimes we need a clean board and here's how we get it
So that's the sideboard and a brief overview, but what do we typically want to take out?
Be very careful about balancing your sideboard/mainboard inbetween rounds. The decklist runs 20-19-21 (Creatures/Spells/Lands), some control matchups will make you want to go heavier on creatures (swap Serpopards in for Harnessed Lightning since they won't have as many creatures).
Maybeboard Cards
-
Heroic Intervention
is a sweet card and has good use here, might make it's way back in
-
Stinging Shot
is perfect for air removal, but with Vehicles on the down and Zombies on the up this is less relevant
-
Longtusk Cub
is a staple for energy decks but we honestly outpace the cub's energy gain with ETB effects
-
Lathnu Hellion
was a hard card to cut, but he drains the Electrostatic and Hydra energy that's needed to win the game and keep the pressure up over the long term. Absolute beast in early game but loses relevance too quickly
-
Verdurous Gearhulk
is a bomb that helps make more bombs, also helps keep Rhonas enabled, what's not to love?
