Ruric Thar's Guide to Punching Mages in the Face!

Commander / EDH Aggro Burn Control Primer Ramp RG (Gruul)

NinjaKitty778

Creature (49)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Arashi, the Sky Asunder
• 1x Augur of Autumn
• 1x Balefire Dragon
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Delighted Halfling
• 1x Dragonborn Champion
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Farhaven Elf
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Gemrazer
• 1x Goblin Anarchomancer
• 1x Greenwarden of Murasa
• 1x Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea
• 1x Inferno Titan
• 1x Jiwari, the Earth Aflame
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1x Kogla and Yidaro
• 1x Kogla, the Titan Ape
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Manglehorn
• 1x Molten Primordial
• 1x Nikya of the Old Ways
• 1x Nullstone Gargoyle
• 1x Ogre Battledriver
• 1x Ohran Frostfang
• 1x Protean Hulk
• 1x Prowling Serpopard
• 1x Ruby, Daring Tracker
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Saryth, the Viper's Fang
• 1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
• 1x Silverback Elder
• 1x Somberwald Sage
• 1x Soul of the Harvest
• 1x Spellbreaker Behemoth
• 1x Surrak and Goreclaw
• 1x Timeless Witness
• 1x Toski, Bearer of Secrets
• 1x Urabrask the Hidden
• 1x Vexing Shusher
• 1x Vigor
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Woodfall Primus
• 1x Xenagos, God of Revels
• 1x Zealous Conscripts
• 1x Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus

Land (36)

• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1x Castle Garenbrig
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Cragcrown Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 8x Forest
• 1x Game Trail
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Karplusan Forest
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 6x Mountain
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Rockfall Vale
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Sheltered Thicket
• 1x Spire Garden
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Witch's Clinic
• 1x Wooded Ridgeline

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Primal Surge

Commander (1)

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Garruk's Uprising
• 1x Gratuitous Violence
• 1x Lurking Predators
• 1x Possibility Storm
• 1x Rhythm of the Wild
• 1x Shadow in the Warp

Artifact (6)

• 1x Basilisk Collar
• 1x Gruul Signet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mithril Coat
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Sol Ring

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Sideboard

Artifact (7)

• 1x Damping Sphere
• 1x Dragon Throne of Tarkir
• 1x Grafted Exoskeleton
• 1x Null Rod
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Void Mirror
• 1x Winter Orb

Creature (2)

• 1x Soulless Jailer
• 1x Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Stranglehold

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Introduction

Ever since I started playing Magic, I've been a Gruul player at heart. Ramping up, summoning creatures, playing to their strengths, and turning them sideways is always what's brought me joy in this game. Naturally this makes {U} and {B} my most hated enemies. Being able to hamper my board state, counter my spells, and kill my creatures completely takes the fun out playing Magic as I watch my opponents basically play solitaire with themselves until they win the game. Enter Ruric Thar, the Unbowed! This big boy is my favorite creature of all time. He is an excellent general for punishing control decks whenever they play noncreature spells. If you combine this with an aggressive start you'll often be able to steal a victory in a format that's heavily biased against aggro decks.

Let's start the deck building process by taking a look at what Ruric Thar wants from us. His ability suggests that we run a deck that:

Plays creature spells

Doesn't play noncreature spells

However, going all in on creature spells would put this deck in gimmick territory, making it hard to find solutions for different scenarios. But we can stay true to our anti-spell edict by running only the bare necessities when it comes to noncreatures and devoting the vast majority of our slots to dudes. Since we are going to be so heavily committed to creatures, we want to run as many as possible that can control the board, get rid of problematic permanents that would stand in the way of our beatdown, and protect our creatures from nasty effects.

Game Plan

Ruric Thar is a midrange commander; so the faster he comes out the better it is for us. Most games, another player is going to be the dominant force the majority of the time. But that's ok! Most times we don't care about beating busted decks at their own game. OUR game is to ramp it up, play value creatures, and try to keep Ruric Thar on the board as long as possible to make the game as "fair" as possible for our opponents. Once the game has progressed into the late game, play our BIG finishing creatures to lay the beatdown on our enemies.

Ramp

Staying as true as possible to our creature-only edict means we don't have access to green's traditional ramp spells like Cultivate or Kodama's Reach. That means that we have to include as many creatures as we can to help us ramp up the mana we need in the early game to. This includes mana-dorks and creatures that can fetch us lands.

Mana Dorks : Birds of Paradise, Delighted Halfling (added effect of making our legendary creatures uncounterable), Elvish Mystic, Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea, Llanowar Elves, Shaman of Forgotten Ways, Somberwald Sage, Ruby, Daring Tracker.

Land Fetches : Farhaven Elf, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Wood Elves.

Other ramp cards include Dockside Extortionist, since he has the potential to net us tremendous ramp, and Nikya of the Old Ways which doubles the amount of mana our lands produce; on top of being a beat stick herself. The noncreature ramp cards we're running are the classic Sol Ring and Gruul Signet; as well as Shadow in the Warp, which makes our first creature spell per turn cheaper but also has the beautiful added bonus of shocking our opponents for their first noncreature spell. Right on theme with the deck.

Card Advantage and Tutoring

The ability to draw cards in EDH is powerful since we have a lot of deck to cover and only one copy of each card. Having card advantage and tutors in our deck means we can dig through our deck to find solutions to problems.

Card Advantage : Beast Whisperer, Dragonborn Champion, Garruk's Uprising, Ohran Frostfang, Soul of the Harvest, Toski, Bearer of Secrets. All cards that offer great draw power.

Tutor : Fauna Shaman is the only "real" tutor we're running. She can toss creatures in our hand for creatures in our deck. This is especially nice in the mid/late stages of the game where we can toss mana dorks we don't need for big beefy creatures. Protean Hulk Can fetch us 1-3 creatures at once of varying CMCs upon his death; creatures we can use for different situation.

Augur of Autumn allows us to play creatures and lands from the top of our deck which, needless to say, is powerful for a deck such as ours since 86% of our deck is just that.

Board Control

Board control is VERY important in EDH. Interacting with our opponent's board and controlling what's on it can set up the field to our advantage enough for us to gain the edge in battle and/or cripple our opponent's game-plan. Both things we want to be doing, and since Ruric Thar is going to force them to be choosy with what spells they want on the field it'll hurt them even more.

We're going to start off with creatures that have "naturalize" effects stapled to them: Acidic Slime is the poster boy for value creatures, he kills what ails you and provides a body that nobody wants to block into. Alongside him we have Bane of Progress, Kogla and Yidaro and Kogla, the Titan Ape can both naturalize as well as spot remove creatures, Manglehorn for artifacts, Gemrazer naturalizes and can beef up smaller creatures, and Silverback Elder can give our mana dorks some late game utility.

Then we have a few spot removal effects in the form of Inferno Titan and Woodfall Primus; the later one able to withstand board wipes for a second round of spot removal.

Finally we need some wrath effects. Ok, so they aren't technically "wrath" cards but they are cards that can clear the board should we come face to face with an army of creatures (looking at you token decks). Arashi, the Sky Asunder and Jiwari, the Earth Aflame both have a nifty channel ability that can clear the board and won't trigger Ruric Thar's 6 damage toll to play. When you summon them instead, they have a great little spot removal effect to so theres no wrong way to play them. Balefire Dragon is an absolute menace on the table as he can sweep entire boards with ease due to his evasive flying ability. Give him Lifelink and watch your life total skyrocket.

Protection

Inevitably, our creatures and other permanents are going to be targeted for removal. It's just how it is, so we need to take some precautions to try and keep our creatures on the board as long as possible.

Right off the bat we have ways of making our creatures uncounterable; one of the biggest advantages we can have. Prowling Serpopard, Spellbreaker Behemoth, and Vexing Shusher all achieve this. Nullstone Gargoyle protects our creatures by countering our opponents spells instead. Note that countered spells still suffer the 6 damage from Ruric Thar. Rhythm of the Wild is our noncreature card that helps us in this endeavor, but also double as an aggro enabler by giving our creatures Riot.

Vigor helps prevent combat damage from killing our attacking creatures and permanently buffs them equal to the damage dealt; most notably our CONSTANTLY ATTACKING commander.

Our protection package wouldn't be complete without Hexproof now would it? Saryth, the Viper's Fang not only protects our untapped creatures, but gives our attacking ones Deathtouch. The real star of the deck, however, is Asceticism. One of the few noncreatures we're running in the deck for good reason. Gives 50% of our deck Hexproof and prevents spot removal and board wipes in the form of Regenerate.

Lightning Greaves gives our creatures Shroud and Haste for free while Mithril Coat gives Ruric Thar much more staying power; and it can be flashed in at a moments notice.

Recursion

We're running a small recursion package for the same reason we have protection; cause inevitably people are gonna kill our stuff.

Greenwarden of Murasa runs double duty by bring something back from the grave when it enters AND leaves the battlefield. Same can be said for Timeless Witness as she returns a card to us upon entry and can be eternalized from the grave to gain the effect again.

Aggro Enablers

We are an aggro deck, so we need things that enable us to go ham and turn our creatures sideways. The best way we can do that is to give our creatures haste, but we also need ways we can beef them up as well.

Haste : Haste is the single keyword in Magic that has the highest win-rate in the whole game. So giving our creatures haste is the fastest way to ensure our victory; literally. Ogre Battledriver and Surrak and Goreclaw give our creatures haste for one turn. Xenagos, God of Revels does this AND beefs up our guys. Molten Primordial can pull some surprising wins out of nowhere by taking our opponents creatures and giving them haste. Finally, Urabrask the Hidden not only gives all our guys haste but slows down our opponents creatures by having them enter the field tapped. As stated above, Rhythm of the Wild doubles as an aggro enabler by giving our creatures Riot.

Buffs : Vigor not only protects our creatures from combat damage but adds the damage prevented to our creatures in the form of +1/+1 counters. A very nice card. Though Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus is really the finisher card we're looking for here. Doubling our creatures power and toughness EACH combat phase is silly and thats why its here to stay. Lastly, Gratuitous Violence doubles the damage all our creatures do; making it easier to secure a win and doubles the damage from Ruric Thar's ability.

The Combo : Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts form an infinite combo whereby you can make an unlimited amount of zealous conscript tokens. Simply target ZC with KJ's ability and the copy that enters targets KJ; untapping it. Then rinse and repeat as many times as necessary to kill your opponents. This is one of the main ways the deck can win.

Noncreatures

As I said in the intro, we're running a small amount of noncreatures to avoid being too "gimmicky". It saves us a lot of grief in the long run and most of these cards are so cheap that they should be on the field before Ruric Thar anyway. Two big cards are:

Lurking Predators: Pretty necessary in any deck with as many creatures as ours, as every spell cast by an opponent has a 49% chance of getting us value. One thing to note: when playing with Lurking Predators, whenever you reveal a noncreature spell, ship it to the bottom no matter what. If you can't commit to shipping noncreatures 100% of the time, don't put Lurking Predators in your deck.

And

Possibility Storm: This card combines beautifully with Ruric Thar to further hamstring our opponents. With this on the field they can't play what they want right away and may end up with nothing; not to mention they'll take damage from Ruric for casting the first card AND the second card should they choose to cast it. Now of course this applies to us as well but it'll hurt our opponents A LOT more than it'll hurt us.

Basilisk Collar and Shadowspear both serve the same function in this deck: to give Ruric Thar Lifelink. The later also coming with the amazing ability to remove Hexproof and Indestructible from our opponent's permanents.

Last, but certainly not least, we have the finisher: Primal Surge. Other than this card, all of our spells are permanents. When we play this we’re putting our entire deck onto the field at once. If we manage to successfully pull it off then it’s essentially an “I win” button.

Land Choice

The last thing I want to talk about is our land selection. Since Ruric Thar punishes us for having noncreature spells, we have to find a way to defend ourselves and/or be able to cast spell-like abilities without the source of the effect coming from a noncreature spell. So our choices of land have to be particularly important in this deck since we'll be relying on them to take care of some of the things that normally come form noncreature spells.

Bonders' Enclave: More card advantage for us.

Boseiju, Who Endures: Another "naturalize" effect. Nice

Castle Garenbrig: bit of ramp to get our creatures out.

Homeward Path: A perfect example of what we're trying to do here. Your going to see a lot of mind control effects in this format, so having a way to counter it essential in this deck since most of the slots in this deck are creatures. And since this one comes in the form of a land we won't take damage form Ruric.

Kessig Wolf Run: Excellent buff effect to stomp over someone.

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: One of the best land ramps in the game. Almost 70% of the deck is green so you'll most likely use it for that.

Rogue's Passage: Sometimes, we're gonna be up against either a REALLY big creature, or a REALLY big army. But Ruric Thar still HAS to attack each turn. This card allows us safe passage behind enemy lines.

Scavenger Grounds: The only card we have to deal with things in the graveyard; most notably black zombie decks. Especially Gravecrawler.

Witch's Clinic: Another easy way to give Ruric Thar Lifelink.

Final Thoughts

Ruric Thar may not be a Commander that shows up on everyone's radar. But the ones that know what he's capable of know that when you show up with him at the table, you've essentially drawn the ire of everyone at the table. He may not be a "Top-Tier" commander, but with a fast enough start you can devastate even the strongest of decks as players scramble to deal with your threats. He is my boy, he is my general, he is Ruric Thar, the Unbowed!

If you enjoyed the deck plz +1 and leave a comment :)

Top Ranked	Achieved #31 position overall 6 years ago Achieved #2 position in Commander / EDH Ramp 3 years ago
Date added	10 years
Last updated	3 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 1 Mythic Rares 57 - 7 Rares 10 - 2 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.20
Tokens	Copy Clone, Timeless Witness 4/4 B
Folders	Dragonclaw, Combo EDH Decks, EDH (Creature Based), EDH decks, Inspiration, cool decks, EDH, EDH, EDH, New Deck Ideas