G/R Ramp Turn 4-5 Win!
After watching recent open games after the M14 release, a mono-green deck that heavily exploited Garruk (playing the role of Garruk the Elvish Piper) with Craterhoof Behemoth did surprisingly well.... I wanted to do the same but just didn't feel like investing $100-200 in planeswalker cards... so I decided to go with the next best thing: four-of Zhur-Taa Ancient (a mere $1 rare) which can bring out Craterhoof on the same turn, the same way: without having to tap any creatures, by turn 4 or 5!
As a pleasant side-effect this also puts a lot of the seldom-seen, seldom-used green/red "gold" cards to good use which can actually be a lot of fun and extremely useful and powerful with intense ramping.
Explanation of cards and play style:
Elves for mana ramp, Fatties, swing for game, pretty basic really.
Zhur-Taa ancient is the "tech" card here, unlocking enough mana to pump out huge fatties on turn 4 or 5 with without having to tap elves for mana (this is key)
Craterhoof Behemoth is the intended game-ender, and often may require Zhur-Taa Ancient to fully utilize (though not always,) otherwise if you have to tap all your elves to summon him then none of them are available to attack (defeating the purpose somewhat)
Additional ramping is included in the form of Verdant Haven and Arbor Elves which can combo for huge mana gains with minimal creature tapping.
Oak Street Innkeeper serves to protect against sorcery/creature removal threats while ramping up (Angel of Serenity, Flames of the Firebrand, Bomber Corps, Izzit Staticaster etc.)
Triumph of Ferocity for extra card draw, which you're pretty much guaranteed to get with beefcakes like these.
Wildwood Rebirth is all-around the best way to protect your creatures from removal between red and green, whether from your opponent or yourself; your opponent might counter your creatures, give all creatures -1/-1, wipe the board, make you discard or mill creatures, or you might end up sending them to the graveyard yourself with borborygmos or gruul ragebeast's mandatory fight trigger... in all of these cases, you can get your creature back and best of all, re-trigger the gruul ragebeast's trigger again, if present, great for repeating acidic slime shenanigans! Yes there is "revive" but that's rotating out, and I'm trying to keep this at least somewhat rotation-resistant.
Yeva, Nature's Herald to potentially allow you to play Zhur-Taa at the end of your opponent's turn, allowing you to utilize the extra mana gained before your opponent does, if you can do this on the opponent's turn, then untap with him and summon craterhoof behemoth, that is pretty much game.
Sideboard:
Acidic Slime for shenanigans, combine with gruul ragebeast to use it as a "destroy creature" on enter while also gobbling up a non-creature, and then bring it back with wildwood rebirth and do it all over again!
Predator Ooze, Tree of Redemption and Elderscale Wurm as needed to deal with aggro decks, nothing like an indestructible ooze wall, a fat life-swapping tree, or a wurm that makes YOU indestructible, to make things very one-sided for ramp vs. aggro!
Pithing needle because Aetherling, Olivia Voldaren, Planeswalkers...
Ruric Thar to stop burn decks cold
Scavenging Ooze because, hey, why not? Also combos with Borborygmos because while he may be trashing creatures into the graveyard, Ooze will happily gobble them up afterwards ;)
Burning Earth in case of the (likely) 3- or 4-color decks one tends to face in standard matches.
