Gruul Midrange Response to Brave the Elements?
Deck Help forum
Posted on Jan. 14, 2014, 6:10 a.m. by sinktheboats
I recently took a Gruul Midrange deck I've been working on (Mostly Green Devotion to Gruul) to a tournament in which I did really well, wiping out most decks (including Top 8 mono-black and blue, and a few more without much real resistance, but got beaten pretty badly via an Orzhov aggro deck with 4 Brave the Elements in it. My question is, is there a particular strategy and/or good sideboard cards to deal with a protection from color card like that? If I don't get a Nylea out and enough trample damage through very very quickly, chances are, they're going to start decking Brave the Elements and that making things very difficult for me. (Used one to stop my Polukranos from removing a key creature, used another to invica-block a big swing, and then swung big for unblockable and did me in. Any suggestions? (I have Ruric Thar in the sideboard, but I only drew one and it was too late.)
Probably just stick with Fog or Druid's Deliverance .
January 14, 2014 7:42 a.m.
sinktheboats says... #4
Dallie - Ah, good call. I actually only ever thought of Skullcrack for its lifegain-stopping ability and never even noticed the preventing damage part. Thanks.
OpenFire - How could I have forgotten about fog?! I've been away for far too long. Thanks for the suggestion.
January 14, 2014 8:19 a.m.
I would however caution against over-sideboarding. While it's easy to slip into the mindset of answering a particularly problematic card in the match-up, this can sometimes lead to diluting the deck and misappropriating your roles.
For instance, Skullcrack is only useful in the specific situation where you're trying to kill their board and they have Brave the Elements . Trying to get to 8 mana to Mizzium Mortars or some large amount with Polukranos, World Eater is much less likely. It won't help you survive the early rush. Similarly Fog is only useful if you're in a position to crack back for lethal, so even if you can retain your card value by trading Fog for their Brave the Elements you're still in the same position as before. Likewise, trying to bring in stuff like Ruric Thar, the Unbowed is not the right move. You need to be lowering your curve and bringing in more removal to tax their Brave the Elements . You're going to naturally stabilize with larger creatures and once you've gotten a stable board you can quickly take over with more powerful top decks. This is how mid-range decks tend to handle aggro, focus more on a strategy for the match-up and less on trying to silver bullet their cards.
Anger of the Gods , Electrickery and Nylea's Disciple would be more inline with what I'd suggest to bring in.
January 14, 2014 10:33 a.m.
Sideboard in Skullcrack .
Protection from a follows the D.E.B.T rule:
DAMAGE is prevented from sources of the chosen colour.You cannot ENCHANT or EQUIP things of the chosen colour on something which has protection from that colour.You cannot BLOCK with a creature against another creature who is protected against your creature's colour.And finally you cannot TARGET a creature or player with spells which are the chosen protected colour.
Notice that Skullcrack simply says 'Damage is unpreventable, and since 'Brave The Elements' only affects creatures. You can target the player for that three damage as well as letting your creatures run over his and it stops Orzhov's extort in its tracks due to the 'Players can't gain life' for this turn.
It is stupidly good against an Orzhov deck and is one that can shut it down if you're going aggro.
January 14, 2014 10:38 a.m.
sinktheboats says... #7
Slycne Thanks, that's really helpful and I think you're right. I sideboarded in a few Magma Jet s as well as topping off the Mizzium Mortars s and have been playtetsting it against various Orzhov aggro decks on Tapped out with good results. Picking off dudes in the beginning with removal really does seem to do the trick. By the time I've got some big threats out, likely with trample, there's not much else they can do. (Having either used up a few Brave the Elements and/or being without enough creatures to stop my threats adequately.)As for Nylea's Disciple , I hadn't even considered lifegain as a response to heavy hitting aggro. I definitely will now. I'd hesitate a bit to replace either Polukranos, World Eater or Polis Crusher simply because of the usefulness of their monstrous/trample, but it's certainly something to consider. I'm going to sideboard 3 of them and see what happens next tourney. Cheers
Dallie says... #2
I don't think there's any hard answer to it. If it was the "doesn't die to combat damage" problem you had, then there would be Skullcrack , but that doesn't help in the situations you described. Possibly just speed things up a little?
January 14, 2014 6:34 a.m.