This very fast paced GR Aggro Energy deck utilizes Bristling Hydra's Hexproof ability along with other cheap and effective energy creatures to keep the pressure up and catch your opponent off guard. Lightning Runner actually has a place in this deck and if luck is on your side can easily win around turn 5.

Fatal Push and Fumigate are pretty good counters, hence Heroic Intervention

Forgot to mention, this deck went 3-0-1 at FNM 3/10/17 :)

FNM 3-17-17 went 2-0-2

Definitely having some problems with Nissa plants and other decks that have an overwhelming amount of creatures/tokens. Thinking Monstrous Onslaught to help and removing some of the cheap protection instants

FNM 3-24-17 went 2-1-1, literally would've been 3-0-1 if I had 1 extra turn during Round 1, but oy vey. Kari Zev's Expertise did a lot of work this weekend and Lightning Runner sat on the sideboard all evening. Only deck I had an issue with was a W/B Artifact

4-21-17 FNM Update:

Literally 2 people showed up for Standard Constructed so it did not fire and I ended up Drafting. During my Prerelease event I managed to pull an Invocation Rhonas the Indomitable as well as Insult / Injury which I managed to play, both are EXCESSIVELY powerful cards and will make a MAJOR impact on this deck

I've been thinking a lot lately about Walking Ballista and Harsh Mentor appearing on my sideboard as a counter, but honestly my deck hasn't had an issue with the GB snek-ballista decks, thoughts anyone?

I've been play testing the deck, and aside from only changing 1 Forest for a Game trail, it's been doing great against GB ballista decks, but Harsh Mentor would definitely be an excellent side against it.

So Lathnu Hellion is officially on the chopping block. It's great for lower tier play and surprises, but it just isn't near as effective as Fling + Electrostatic Pummeler and the Hellion actively drains that win condition just to add board pressure. I've also dropped the Longtusk Cubs because honestly getting to 9+ energy is not a problem for this deck, so no need to have energy fetchers.

The Hellions are currently on the sideboard, but for replacements I've been brainstorming the following:

• Harsh Mentor - Just all around good control card to have out. Hates on vehicles and so much else
• Prowling Serpopard - The anti-control, honestly I ran into a fair bit of counter-spell like Censor. People still play Torrential Gearhulk decks out there....
• Glorybringer - Because why freaking not, bring some damn glory! Honestly, probably not fantastic for this deck
• Samut, Voice of Dissent - Mostly because she fits the colors and if needed Aether Hub or Servant of the Conduit can get you that untap if you need it coughGlorybringercough

I was thinking 2-3 each and honestly Harsh Mentor seems like the strongest contender to make it to the list.

Hey, I am really looking forward to seeing how this deck evolves in the future as im playing something very close to it!

Harsh mentor is working wonders right now !

Thanks again!

I've gone with Harsh Mentor and Prowling Serpopard for my 2x2 sideboard replacements for the 4x Lathnu Hellion. I think the cat snek is perfect for more control matchups, while the mentor makes a perfect answer for any number of cards and combos. I still have a few items I'm looking at changing up before FNM this week:

• Mainboard
• Thinking to run less Harnessed Lightning in favor of other removal options like Shock, Magma Spray or Sweltering Suns
• I want to run more Built to Smash... possibly
• Sideboard
• Heroic Intervention hasn't seen a whole lot of swapping in, think it could be a better used spot
• Might drop the above for 2x Built to Smash and see how it plays

After watching a bit of the decks that are coming to surface during the past weekend, I'm definitely feeling like there is a definite need for more Prowling Serpopard on the sideboard, which I'll be swapping out an Insult / Injury for.

Additionally I've been having second thoughts on Built to Smash, while it's great for the Fling Combo on Electrostatic Pummeler, it might be more prudent to swap back in 3x of a creature like Longtusk Cub which makes great for swapping the Serpopards in during sideboarding, plus this tilts us back into a creature majority rather than being split 20/20/20, or rather 19/21/20 with a spell majority.

I'm going to be trying to run my deck at a casual event tomorrow, will report back!

The more I watch the Top 8 decks on MTGTop8, the more I have a growing concern for Aetherworks Marvel decks. I'm trying to figure out if Manglehorn is the appropriate answer here, and if so, where/what to replace for it...

After continuing to monitor MTGTop8 results I've decided Manglehorn is a definite need for the sideboard. At the moment I'm feeling pretty confident in removing the 2x Heroic Interventions with 2x Manglehorn as my interventions haven't seen much trading into mainboard during my games as Blossoming Defense is usually all I need and Temur Energy decks relying on Aetherworks Marvel and Dynavolt Tower will suffer a bit more with Harsh Mentor and Manglehorn.

As always, interested to hear the TO Community's thoughts on this! FNM tomorrow should be fun!

In what situations would you side in Kari Zev and what would you take out? btw I'm loving this list and I'm updating my list from AER to this one.

shenobe: Kari Zev's Expertise is great for a number of different matchups, I tend to use it against Torrential Gearhulk, Walking Ballista, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. Some situations are better than others, like the first two aren't great situations as Gearhulk is typically being flashed in and Ballista can be sac'd as a response.

The best scenario for KZE is surprise attacks and because Rhonas is typically the last creature an opponent targets for removal it can be a surprise Rhonas enabler as well. Nothing says "Not Gruul? Then DIE!" than stealing a creature, enabling Rhonas and casting a free Invigorated Rampage on both of them and swinging for 13+ with trample.

Also, it hasn't come up for me yet, but could you imagine stealing an opponent's Rhonas the Indomitable and sac'ing it because of the legendary part?

All that said, KZE is one of the cards I've been looking at reducing my copies of or trading out, we'll see :)

Thank so for the list! I won my FMN 3-0 and had a bunch of fun! My first fnm win and pulled a fatal push from my 4 prize packs.

shenobe Haha hell yea! Great job! I pulled a 2-2-0 tonight, but pulled a Glorybringer in my sole prize winnings :D

I had an interesting night and played some interesting decks:

• Round 1: 1-2 Loss - RUG ramp shenanigans with Crush of Tentacles, I had a shot but Game 3, just did not work out on curve properly
• Round 2: 0-2 Loss - New Perspectives, pretty much what was featured on MTGGoldfish, it was amazing, but honestly not fun at all to play against
• Round 3: 2-0 Win - Gruul
• Round 4: 2-1 Win - RBG Aetherworks Marvel with Torrential Gearhulk

Thoughts this week:

I don't know if I need to change much, because even the two rounds I lost, I totally had the appropriate answers, it was mostly just bad mulligan decisions. Heck, even my 3rd and 4th rounds were riddled with stupid plays on my part. I think I may have been over prepared with Artifact hate on my sideboard. If the New Perspectives / Approach of the Second Sun deck gets too out of hand in the meta, we might need to go back to 3x of Insult / Injury in the sideboard for the Haze of Pollen variants. It was a real bummer to lose out on a 16/16 pummeler attack

Had a Standard Showdown today! Results and thoughts below:

• Round 1: 2-1 Win - Mardu Vehicles
• Round 2: 0-2 Loss - WB Zombie
• Round 3: 2-1 Win - WU Embalming Tokens with Anointed Procession

Thoughs:

Wasn't at CK so it seemed a bit more casual today. However I'm getting better info from all of this because all 4 losses sustained tonight along with the 2 losses I sustained last night due to mana issues, I'm thinking I need to slightly change up the balance. Currently I sit at 20 lands, 21 spells and 19 creatures. However I think I'm getting too many spells, not enough creatures and lands, so I think a small balancing of -2 spells for +1 land and +1 creature is all that needs to happen. I don't think I want a 4th Rhonas the Indomitable, which makes it tricky. Gonna brainstorm this week how to balance it out, but for now I'm thinking:

• Down 1x Fling and 1x Built to Smash
• Up 1x Game Trail
• Down 1-2 Voltaic Brawlers for 2-3x Mystery Creature

I'm torn between: 2x Glorybringer and 2x Longtusk Cub. Swapping the Game Trail as mentioned above to a Forest and the 2 dragons make the mana cost/lands exactly on point and we expect to swap out ole' GB for sideboard stuff anyway... I think... I think we're gonna try bringing some Glory. There's another Standard showdown I found to attend tomorrow, gonna try it out

Last night I attended a standard showdown and went 3-0 again. I 2-0 all my games so I didn't have a single loss, but did have some mulliganing issues (had to mull to 4). I ended up getting first and got 5 showdown packs, so that was pretty awesome. Let me know how the glorybringer works out.

Woot Woot, 2nd Standard Showdown today was excellent! 3-0 for first place (2 boosters and 3 showdown packs!). Glorybringer was only relevant one round and was shuffled away (from a Commit / Memory) before seeing play a second time today. The slight changes to the balance as a whole really paid off today, no mulligans, no mana screw. The only match I lost was my final opponent who got in some great control on me before Torrential Gearhulking me in 4 turns.

• Round 1: 2-0 Win - Esper Zombies was actually my most exciting matchup of the day. Game 1 landed Glorybringer taking out a liliana, death's majesty and Wayward Servant. Game 2 ran loooong, like way uncomfortably long for a Gruul deck. Near the end, opponent siphoned back up to 20 life, drained me to 4, had Lily and Ob Nix out with 9 zombies. I had a single Pummeler out that was covered on his turn with a Blossoming Defense that I had from his Commit / Memory use. My turn, draw Invigorated Rampage, play that, another defense and pump pummeler to 56 for the win! Was an intense matchup!
• Round 2: 2-0 Win - Temur Marvel deck, first game managed to dodge the Ulamog drops because my opponent drew both of the ones in his deck. 2nd game was a turn 5 pummeler for 20 xD
• Round 3: 2-1 Win - UW Control. This is always a fun matchup, it's all about getting those Prowling Serpopards down!

At the moment, I think Glorybringer was still the right call for this deck right now. Though I think there's a stronger case for Lathnu Hellion.... Could you imagine Turn 2 Brawler, Turn 3 Rhonas, Turn 4 Hellion and swing?

Overall the balance I saw today in my games for mana was much much better, amazing what 1 card can do

Hello! I'm preparing my deck for Game Day this week and I'm definitely going to be playing your list, so I was just wondering how your sideboard worked? When do you switch in certain cards and what do you usually switch em out for? Also, if you were playing against zombies (my shop has a lot of control, vehicles, and zombies) what would you side in? Thank you, this list is bomb!

traffy498: I've updated my sideboard a bit to compensate for Zombie matchups and updated my description a bit with some sideboard tech information that I think should cover your questions. There are some specific scenarios I ran through in my previous comments as well you may want to check through the comment archive here. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions on any of it! I hope the best of your Game Day ventures!

Would you consider taking out Glorybringer for 2 copies of Verdurous Gearhulk? Also, what do you think about Arlinn Kord  ^Flip?

And, are your match ups vs control really that great? What happens if Built to Smash or Invigorated Rampage don't resolve?

Loved your deck :)

zekhet: Verdurous Gearhulk is... Honestly a good choice I think. The only reason I think Glorybringer adds more value is from Flying and allowing for essentially a surprise attack with Haste and his exert ability. In more controlling matchups I would put Gearhulk in over Glorybringer simply because you would presumably already have Serpopards covering the cast and getting more value since the control will have fewer threatening creatures for GB to target with exert. Gearhulk is probably the better Rhonas enabler as it can drop a single counter on a Brawler or two on Servant/Mentor/Manglehorn.

Against control decks, timing is absolutely everything. You have got to keep an eye on how much mana your opponent is leaving up and find your openings. Additionally you want to bait the counter spells where possible, this is the biggest reason I've chosen 1-2 mana pump spells. If you have a blossoming defense and built to smash in hand, 2 mana up and so do they and you need the +3 for the win that turn, I'd start with Defense and hope they take the bait.

Sometimes you'll be ready to slam a turn 3 Serpopard against the control deck, but you wisely wait till turn 4 when you can keep it covered with a Blossoming Defense. The nice thing is when we fight control decks, we're typically only having to worry about 1-2 creatures like Torrential Gearhulk or Thing in the Ice  ^Flip which aren't typically threats to us until turn 5 or 6+, so we need to play a little more conservatively which we can typically get away with