Bear thee well, fair traveler. Bear thee very well...
So, this started off as a pretty standard Gruul beat down deck, and it still very much is, but I've added a few tricks in there that keep things interesting and also allow the deck to do well if the game does go into later turns. I took out a lot of fast creatures like Burning-Tree Emissary in order to have things like Tilonalli's Summoner that can gain me more attacking bodies over time. Summoner with Might of the Masses and Grand Warlord Radha always give me a place to spend my mana, pump creatures, and get my mana back for second main. Might of the Masses also plays really nice with Den Protector who can also give me some play-back on things that get removed.
Savage Swipe is the name of the game for this deck. Many of the cards are here because they have two power and go with swipe. Monastery Swiftspear turn one into swipe is probably the best start the deck can get. Prowess triggers to make swiftspear into 2 power, then swipe gives it +2, you remove their turn one dork, and then attack for 4. Gallia of the Endless Dance and Arlinn Kord
's wolves, manifest Den Protector and Careless Celebrant are all targets for swipe, and celebrant can even kill two creatures sometimes.
Grand Warlord Radha and Klothys, God of Destiny and Explorer's Scope are all here for ramp and to have extra mana to put into summoner. I really like the scope for hitting lands and also for fixing my draws. You will always have something to put it on and attack, and then on your next turn you are usually drawing more creatures or pumps.
Gallia of the Endless Dance may not be the best card draw, but having haste and being a 2/2 go really well with the deck. If the game does go late, she becomes one of the best cards you've got because you will need the card draw desperately. And she randomly pumps celebrant, just for fun.
Fumiko the Lowblood is just awesome, she really is. Making them attack and clearing out their value creatures is so good, and then she can be a very hard hitting attacker. Getting trample and buff from Kessig Wolf Run and having a lot of attacking creatures will leave your opponent in the odd spot of, if they block her, she might do more damage because of the bushido. I always loved the samurai cards from kamigawa and I think that this is the best way I've ever found to use one :)
Chandra, Acolyte of Flame may seem like an odd pick, but she can add extra attackers, get tokens to go to ascend for summoner, or she can re-shoot savage swipes and mights. I played around with more than one copy in the deck, but the chance to have a dead draw in a second chandra was kinda rough.
Arlinn Kord
always does something good, and I picked up a bunch of copies when they were dirt cheap because I just really liked Arlinn. But she can buff, give haste, or create a 2/2 and then become removal. This deck should always have mana to spare and Arlinn is always worth it.
And I think that's kinda it. The deck could be maximized more for the fast low-end Gruul beats, but I like having the flexibility of always having something to do. It's not so much a goblin mob as it is a rolling snowball that is getting bigger and bigger and removes all creatures in it's way.
I'd be interested in hearing if anyone has any neat or fun interactions or cards that I missed. I'm not really trying to make it any faster, but if it can become more fun, I'm always in for that. Thanks, as always, and have a good one everyone!
