Introduction
Welcome to Ulamog's Beatdown, my take on a Standard R/G Ramp deck, and yes, it Escalated quickly. This deck is meant to annihilate the opponent in 5-8 turns, or die trying. I have designed this deck with the intent of taking it all the way to the Grand Prix Championship, and maybe even the Pro Tour Championship. The basic strategy of this deck is to use cards such as Ruin in Their Wake, Nissa's Pilgrimage, Map the Wastes, and Explosive Vegetation to ramp up as much mana as possible by turn 4. After turn 4, the intent is to throw out some of the biggest, meanest creatures possible, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Kozilek, the Great Distortion, to utterly descimate your opponent. My goals for this deck, other than at least participating in both the Grand Prix and Pro Tour, are to:
- Function well against Control/Aggro decks.
- Outrace other standard decks in the format.
- Format the deck to have a consistent ability to win
The Primer
Overview
Deck Colors
Deck Colors
This deck contains two colors, but three kinds of mana:
The Green mana produced by forests is in here for an obvious reason, to ramp! Through the use of cards such as
Explosive Vegetation and
Map the Wastes, this deck is able to procure a plethora of land early on in the game, providing an excellent base for playing the heavy hitters to end the game. This massive amount of land also takes advantage of the one drop
Dragonmaster Outcast, allowing you to start pumping out creatures before your opponent even sees it coming. The Red mana produced by Mountains is added into the deck to allow access to burn spells in the side board and to give access to
Dragonmaster Outcast. The red mana is also used for atakars-command, helping with several different situations. The Colorless mana produced by the Wastes and other lands, such as temple-of-the-false-gods, are used to cast the eldrazi spells that specifically require wastes. This includes
Kozilek, the Great Distortion and
Thought-Knot Seer. The Wastes are also used to trigger the extra ability of
Ruin in Their Wake to allow the land searched for to go directly to the battlefield.
Deck strengths
Deck strengths
The major strengths of this deck are:
- The mana ramp allows the deck to move quickly
- The Red mana allows for burn spells, to deal with opposing creatures
- Small creature decks don't work very well against this deck
Deck weaknesses
Deck weaknesses
The biggest weakness to this deck in its current state are:
- Control/Aggro decks
- Not always consistant
The Strategy
General strategy
General strategy
The general strategy of this deck is pretty simple. Ramp up as much land as possible in the first couple turns, then throw down your biggest Eldrazis and clean house.
Early game
Early game
The early game is pretty simple, ramp and do it fast. A example of how the turns would optimally go is:
Mid game
Mid game
- Turn 5: Land, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Void Winnower, Kozilek, the Great Distortion, Oblivion Sower, Thought-Knot Seer, and/or Dragonmaster Outcast
- Turn 6: Land, one or more of previously mentioned cards, Swing
- Turn 7: Land, additional spells, one or more of previously mentioned cards, additional spells, Swing
Late game
Late game
- Turn 8: Depends on board state, may not even get this far
- Turn 9: Depends on board state, may not even get this far
- Turn 10: Depends on board state, may not even get this far
Contingency plan
Contingency plan
The contingency plan for this deck, if using it in the unaltered state is basicly using burn and removal spells to buy time while you get your bigger creatures out or using some of the smaller creatures, such as Thought-Knot Seer to chip away at your opponents life points. Other potential contingency plans become available after using cards from the Sideboard.
Mulligans
Mulligans
Like most decks, there are several reasons for needing to mulligan, even though it means having to lose a card in the process. Here are a couple examples of hands that could be deemed worth keeping:
- Forest, Wastes, Shrine of the Forsaken Gods, Jaddi Offshoot, Ruin in Their Wake, Explosive Vegetation, Mountain
- Forest, Mountain, Atarka's Command, Dragonmaster Outcast, Wastes, Explosive Vegetation, Forest
- Land, Land, Land, Mana Ramp, Mana Ramp, Creature, Burn Spell
- Land, Land, Land, Land, Mana Ramp, Mana Ramp, Creature/Burn Spell
There are many other hands that may be seen as acceptable, in most cases you just have to use your best judgment.
Matchups and sideboarding
Matchups and sideboarding
Abzan Aggro
Jeskai Black
R/G Aggro
Combos and synergies
Card Choices Explained
Lands
Creatures
Other cards
Other Information
Building this deck
Building this deck
This section will be added upon request.
Event record
Event record
I will be using this deck at the Oath of the Gatewatch Game Day.
Change log
Change log
No changes to log as of yet.
Feedback
TBA
The coding for this primer was developed by
Epochalyptik here.
