Elements of an Agro(?) deck?
Deck Help forum
Posted on Aug. 8, 2012, 4:58 p.m. by Sudain
I tried building a Grixis Control deck Sud.Bolas, which I think* works well; or at the very least addresses the major elements of a control deck(If not please feel free to tell me).
But for some reason it doesn't... feel good. So I'm thinking about rebuilding it into a grixis agro deck. But I'm wondering what the major elements of an agro deck are? Spot removal? Board wipes? Discard/counter spells make sense for control decks. But what about a deck that's supposed to get up in your face, rip your arm of and beat you to death with the arm?
Thanks in advance,
Okay, so small mana curve, 1-3, maybe 4cmc, and creatures that hurt when they hit. Burn makes sense; kills creatures and players.
Do draw spells make sense (so you have things to play after your initial hand is emptied), or is it if the game drags on that long you are in pretty bad shape anyway?
I'm guessing instants would be useful in combats themselves to give yourself an advantage the opponent wouldn't have otherwise seen.
Humm... yea board wipes could be very bad if you've got the upper hand already. I've noticed a lot of things with undying so I'm guessing board wipes and spot removal are less effective against those types of creatures. Tapping them would be more effective; correct?
August 8, 2012 6:09 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #4
You shouldn't really concern yourself with controlling menial creatures. Smash through them and burn them off when necessary; adding tap effects usually results in a slow and clunky deck.
Draw spells are only useful if they're very low cost (for example, Faithless Looting to pitch two lands and pick up more fuel). Even then, they aren't strictly necessary.
August 8, 2012 7:02 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #5
Pillar of Flame will be your best friend for creatures with undying. It kills off most of the creatures that have undying but I doubt that you should/would mainboard it.
It wouldn't hurt to have some undying creatures of your own as they are generally fairly aggro in nature. Pyreheart Wolf and card:Geralf's Messenger are all aggro-ish creatures in your colors (thought the BBB might be hard to get)
Generally aggro decks have a 1-3 mana curve with a few 4 drops that are game enders.
August 9, 2012 12:14 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #6
In regard to the colors, Grixis is probably not the ideal combination for an aggro deck. Blue is suited to control; even Delver of Secrets Flip needs to be built into a control shell for it to be an effective aggro creature.
Red and green offer superior aggro potential. White/black is decent because of Lingering Souls , but RG has the advantage of burn and undying.
August 9, 2012 12:32 a.m.
Humm.. okay so skipping combat instants, that leaves ~10 burn cards for removal, ~20-22 land, and then about ~30 cards for creatures to come out and then smash their face into the enemies. That seems to make sense.
Okay, good to know about the draw spells. Thank you.
Pillar of flame's exile mechanic... that's brilliant. :) Even if it's not used against an undying creature it'd still be effective on anything that goes into the graveyard for it's effects.
Yesh; I was absolutely thinking about nabbing some, if not all undying creatures just to make it harder to stop the agro train of pain. :)
I picked grixis colors because I wanted to build a deck involving Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker . Having him sit back in a control deck seemed to work, but didn't feel right. Having him preside over his minions who crushed his foes seemed to fit better thematically I think. That's why I picked grixis, I didn't anticipate the colors being an issue.
For Agro creatures I was looking at some mix of Treacherous Pit-Dweller , Slumbering Dragon , Vexing Devil , Skirsdag High Priest , Bloodhunter Bat , Giant Scorpion , Vampire Nighthawk , Demonlord of Ashmouth , Soulcage Fiend , Markov Blademaster which seems to qualify for the 'hard hitting creatures', though they all have their own issues.
For controlish creatures I saw Courtly Provocateur , Beguiler of Wills , Shimian Specter , Evil Twin .
I was looking at Disciple of Bolas and Gem of Becoming to get the mana needed for Nichol himself. I really want to use Door to Nothingness some how, but I don't think this deck could do that; it'd have to be a different deck entirely. I'm guessing at this point my intentions(of playing with the plainswalker) and the proposed method of doing it are going in two different directions; drawing and quartering the deck like some poor animal.
Epochalyptik says... #2
Aggro thrives on a low mana curve and hard-hitting creatures and burn. You don't really want to waste your time on big creatures or control spells.
Spot removal should be in the form of burn spells and maybe some sideboard anti-artifact/enchantment stuff. A burn spell can kill a small creature just as easily as it can smack your opponent in the face; running dedicated removal is therefore unnecessary since the burn spells should be able to kill whatever hits the field in the early game.
Board wipes depend on the deck and the meta. An aggro deck stands the most to lose from a wrath effect, so you should be careful about including and using them.
August 8, 2012 5:05 p.m.