This is my move from a Gruul deck to something with a little more teeth. My old deck design focused on trying to win the game through controlling the board state with
Ember Swallower
and shenanigans involving Hornet Nest. While fun, and effective against fast aggro decks, I started to have a lot of trouble with Abzan and other builds with an abundance of powerful plays (Mardu with Sorin, Solemn Visitor and Elspeth, Sun's Champion have been especially troublesome). Because I couldn't guarantee a fast enough monstrous trigger with my swallowers to slow their progress, I decided I needed to rethink my strategy. Converting to Temur seemed like the right approach to make a new move. Partly because I had enough of the card base already, and partly because I don't really want to build another Junk-themed deck. So here are my card choices, and why.
Mana Dorks: Sylvan Caryatid is one of the best cards in standard, and along with Rattleclaw Mystic helps quite a bit with fixing mana in a 3 color deck. I'm staring to wonder about running a full 8 mana dorks, so may start messing with the number of mystics.
Muscle:Savage Knuckleblade is a star in this deck, and quite viable at any point of the game. Pumpable, evasion, and haste - fantastic creature.
Polukranos, World Eater is a very powerful 4-drop, with an excellent monstrous ability. This deck is effective at generating enough mana to make good use of this ability, and especially as an anti-air last resort.
Stormbreath Dragon is an incredible 5 drop, and I wish I owned more to include in the deck. Protection from white is amazing, since most of the best removal belongs to white in this rotation.
Genesis Hydra was a tentative addition at first. I really was considering using this slot to include Courser of Kruphix, which is another great addition. Where I found myself wanting more was in creating more pressure on the board. Since this can drop out as a large threat, while tutoring out an additional creatures/enchantments/planeswalkers, I felt this was a more productive use of my resources. In game 2 or 3, it's also very great for digging to whichever creatures I boarded in.
Planeswalkers:
Xenagos, the Reveler was something I've been using all along, and is such a powerful tool. Mana acceleration alone is a viable reason. Creating extra blockers and attackers, and a board-changing ultimate ability make it all the sweeter.
Kiora, the Crashing Wave has a pretty strong influence on the board, as well. being able to pacify a creature The extra draw/land drop is nice, and if the ultimate lands, it's game-breaking. While some might argue it's a win-more scenario, I've had plenty of stalemate board states. An extra 9/9 a turn can usually turn those tides, and is incredibly resilient.
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker is just a great, sturdy body with a fairly useful damage ability. I don't think I'd use his ultimate too often, but can't argue that the extra draw wouldn't be useful.
Spells:
Disdainful Stroke (now in SB) and Stubborn Denial are useful counters, and I will experiment with their numbers. Now trying
Mind Swipe
as a midgame counter, as well as an irritating burn to the opponent.
Temur Charm
is a versatile tool (for counters and fighting, as well as blasting through a rush deck/Elspeth tokens), but sometimes has been a dead draw.
Crater's Claws is a choice I've been struggling on and off with. On one hand, it isn't instant-speed so I can't react to planeswalkers and other immediate threats. However it functions as an extra kill condition, as well as a strong nuke against any threats late game. With ferocious active, it's a sorcery-speed shock at worst.
I'm working on adapting the sideboard to meet my current needs. I think I will need to run a set of Hornet Nests which will help with a lot of non-trampling problems. I can also pop them with Crater's Claws which will give me a lot of little answers for whatever the opponent has.
