Deadliest Aggro Deck in Standard?
Standard forum
Posted on March 6, 2013, 4:14 p.m. by Apoptosis
What is the deadliest aggro deck currently in standard? You can use whatever criteria you'd like, but I would suggest considering speed (how fast it kills), durability (how well it can still put on pressure after suffering from early spot removal, etc.), and efficiency (how frequently it will be successful in generating lethal damage). I'm sure there are other criteria I'm missing, which you should please point out.
I nominate three contenders for consideration:
My apologies if your deck isn't listed, this is meant to be a fun little discussion, nothing more. The three I've nominated are 3 that have stood out to me as archetypes that I'm interested in playing. If you think you know of a better deck/type, please mention it! I'm interested in seeing what people think of the merits, strengths, and weaknesses of these decks when compared to each other and the larger meta that we call Standard. Thanks! -Apop
human boros is very fast and super aggressive. RDW is alwys one of the fast going decks, but loses steam once turn 5 hits and u havent won yet. as for humans it can kinda keep building up depending. also im finding that simic is pretty fast with all its evolving stuff, Rancor, and Spectral Flight
but all-in-all i think human boros is the best aggro deck. sure it has alot of weaknesses, but if it aint deallt with quickly it will kill for sure
March 6, 2013 4:54 p.m.
Vos_Is_Boss, I love the terms! Perfect criteria. Don't get hung up on the word "strictly" in "strictly aggro", all three decks fall under the aggro archetype and it's the aggro style that is most important, which is to consistently put out early pressure to win a match (not just 1 game, so surviving a sideboard move in games 2 & 3 counts) against a variety of different opposing styles. Whether it's "strictly" aggro or not doesn't matter.
March 6, 2013 4:55 p.m.
Fastest Possible Lethality is too clunky, you could merely call it Time To Kill or Turns for Lethality.
It has to be a deck with Burning-Tree Emissary. Given that she occupies a unique role in standard right now - being the only creature that is effectively free. Granting an extremely strong position for primarily 2-drop decks.
Durability isn't about what happens if you lose a creature a turn, it's what happens if you meet an unfavourable matchup. How can you transform the deck to react to different situations. Recovery can be superceded into this category because recovery assumes a control matchup and thus this would be something that would need to be considered in terms of Durability - what can the player do to recover from and/or prevent the board wipe.
Given the delicacy of aggro decks I would argue that most are not durable very much at all. That's the rock, paper, scissors aspect of magic. Aggro gets beaten by control. No matter what they do it's always going to be a difficult matchup. You can think about this simply from the point of you of card choice. You have 60 cards in a deck and 15 in a sideboard. If you can't do what you need to in the main 60 then the remaining 15 are going to help, yes, but they're not going to result in a full transformation.
March 6, 2013 5:19 p.m.
The deck to beat among all decks at my local FNM spot has been an aggro deck as of late. The build is best described as "Jund Aggro", but the guy playing it calls it his "Jund Experiment"...the pun of this name being a poke at his consistant T1 Experiment One drop. This deck meets all the above criteria with a score of 10/10 in my opinion. The build runs the above mentioned 1 drop, along with Flinthoof Boar, Deathrite Shaman, Dreg Mangler, etc. It has the speed wo go T1 Experiment One, T2 Rakdos Cackler, T3 Flinthoof Boar with haste, and a T4 Dreg Mangler swinging for lethal damage by now thanks to giant growth or a bloodrushed Ghor-Clan Rampager.Ability to stick around after early spot removal is present. I pillared, speared, and dreadbored my heart out and this guy never stopped coming once. Not to mention his shamans eat your removal and spit it back at you in the form of 2 damage mouthfuls.Finally, success at swinging for lethal...CHECK! This deck swings in with surprise bloodrush and giant growth very consistantly. This deck knocked my Jund Midrange build out of the tournament the last two weeks in a row. Once second round, once in the final. I truly believe that this aggro build is the most brutal out the at the moment simply becasue his mana curve is so low and the creatures are so efficient there is never a dead card in his hand or a reason to not keep swinging. By the time you stabalize the board he played 3 more creatures, most likely with haste on 1-2.
March 6, 2013 5:28 p.m.
Naya Blitz is (to me, anyway) unquestionably the best aggro deck in Standard. It is too fast for board wipes and deploys too many creatures for spot removal to be effective. No other deck can even deploy enough efficient blockers to slow the assault, and Giant Growth and Searing Spear circumvent that anyway. Check out Nico Christiansen's list that won GP Quebec City. It's utterly ridiculous.
After that, I think Jund Aggro is second best, and Bant Auras is probably an archetype that should be coming back soon if it adopts Nearheath Pilgrim, Gift of Orzhova, and/or Azorius Charm into its plans to improve the aggro matchup. No one is really running Devour Flesh because all the aggro decks currently win with a creature rush, opening a window for a good Bant Auras deck that goes big compared to aggro and resists opposing removal.
March 6, 2013 5:47 p.m.
Vos_Is_Boss says... #9
This has been my combo since gatecrash with The Kessig Township, and i have pulled it off on numerous occasions for a very laughable game win. (i don't care if the other guy is mad, its pretty funny)
(opponent, land go)
T2: Burning-Tree Emissary + Mayor of Avabruck Flip, 2 counters on Champ, Swing 4
(opponent, Farseek, go)
T3: Thatcher Revolt, 3 more counters on champion of the parish, swing out with a 7/7 Champion of the Parish, 3/3 Burning-Tree Emissary, 1/1 Mayor of Avabruck Flip, and 3 2/2 Human tokens. 17 total. 21 damage total. Game. :D
This isn't the only turn 3 win potential, there are others including Lightning Mauler and Boros Elite, Rancor, Volcanic Strength, and Silverblade Paladin, but they do happen. Turn 4 wins about 80% of all my wins, the others are the lucky turn 3, or games against control that take an extra turn or two.
However, this deck has no reach like the Rakdos deck above. I don't have late punches like Thundermaw Hellkite or Falkenrath Aristocrat, so if the game usually goes past 6 turns, and the enemy has stabilized, I'm going to have to play smart and not play creatures as soon as i get them. Aggro decks CAN beat control decks... they just can't over-commit. Or... just win in 3 turns.
March 6, 2013 5:50 p.m.
When it comes to aggro in standard right now, I think the 3 best archetypes are Naya Blitz, Gruul Aggro and Jund Aggro, and each one has its own merits. Red Deck Wins perhaps sits a top the pile of 4ths, but with mana bases being as stable as they are right now, there's little incentive to not splash around for the strongest cards. As well, the more traditional Naya Humans deserves a nod, and Zombies is still a thing.
Naya Blitz gets to run the greatest number of aggressive one drop between the lists, which lets it clutter the field and demand your opponent plays a sweeper or dies.
Jund Aggro has the best staying power with undying, regeneration, scavenge and the ever resilient Falkenrath Aristocrat. Also, destruction based removal has never looked better with Boros Reckoner making the rounds.
Gruul is perhaps the mid point between the two, it's not as fast as Naya Blitz but not as resilient as Jund Aggro.
The real allstar here is Burning-Tree Emissary, while we were all salivating over Boros Charm and Aurelia's Fury this card was just waiting in the wings to break aggro wide open and begin to punish any deck wanting to tap out T2 for Farseek.
March 6, 2013 7:43 p.m.
ShadowLand says... #11
I run a golgari aggro that has potential 21 swinging damage by turn 4 most games with 5-6 creatures on the field with such types as Elvish Archdruid, Arbor Elf, and Greenside Watcher for ramp, Primordial Hydra and Predator Ooze for heavy hitters, and lots of Increasing Savagery and Blessings of Nature to boost quickly and Corpsejack Menace for extra boost. For control I am playing Victim of Night and sideboards such as Slaughterhorn and Devour Flesh with Tribute to Hunger, it's not perfect, but it does play very well and very fast. That being said, I get beat by creatureless control decks.
March 6, 2013 9:19 p.m.
I love double strike and my G/W deck Apoptosis Revamped G/W Aggro v2.1 tried to maximize on this effect. An earlier version didn't have the artifacts and used combat tricks like Giant Growth. I think it was a good deck, but not on par with the three that are listed here. Selesnya agro is probably still viable.
March 11, 2013 10:55 a.m.
Vos_Is_Boss says... #14
I built a random selesnya because First Strike and Double strike are really powerful.
Burstgrowth is the deck, and i think it still has potential in this meta
March 11, 2013 10:58 a.m.
I run. Selesnya aggro from time to time at my FNM locale. I have gotten to the final once and I always get pretty deep I to the rounds with it. I have potential for a T3 swing for 12 following up for another 24 on top of it on T4. This is much more consistant that you would think and I have had players concede on T3 bc they know it wouldn't work out. This damage is not only beefed by double-strike but also has the aid of trample. Not many decks are out there that can absorb 24 trample damage on T4. I think that g/w aggro is alive and well.
March 11, 2013 1:32 p.m.
I agree with Jimhawk: Naya Blitz is by far the fastest and most consistent aggro deck in standard right now. Not only does it have access to cards like Champion of the Parish and Rancor, it also maintains board position with Boros Reckoner.
Any other deck, whether that's Selesnya Humans or zombie variants, is tier two by comparison.
March 12, 2013 2:10 a.m.
I would say Jund Aggro is 2nd to Naya Blitz. It has removal unlike any other aggro, and has access to Falkenrath Aristocrat
June 4, 2013 9:46 p.m.
I just want to go on record saying that there are some NASTY Bant Aura aggro builds out there right now. I never saw Geist so effective...
June 4, 2013 9:50 p.m.
detentionsphere says... #20
Naya Blitz is fast, but pretty inconsistent. For me it would have to be a tie between RG aggro (slower than Blitz, but much more consistent), and Bant Auras (very explosive and powerful).
June 5, 2013 2:39 a.m.
I was never able to get r/g aggro right myself...I always find myself wanting a Bloodrush in my hand when I don't have one. I haven't really looked into the archetype much though so I may be missing the main idea to the build. Bant Auras, though, it gets there. On e you give Geist evasion of some sort...BOOM. That's game bc only board wipes deal with him once you get the deck pumpin (yes I know things that force a sacrifice deal with Geist, but this deck usually has more on the table than just him). Plus all the auras make EVERYTHING I. Here a threat. I think it will become y main deck pretty soon.
June 5, 2013 6:43 a.m.
The problem with defining a "best deck" in Standard aggro right now is that there is not a deck that gives you all three of your criteria (speed, resilience, and consistency).
Bant Auras is extremely powerful, and every time it wins a game against me I feel like that's the deck I want to play. Until the very next game when I roll it over without breaking a sweat because it just didn't draw well. A Bant Auras player isn't playing against an opponent, he's playing against his own deck. If he loses, you don't have to do anything. It's poor in the consistency department.
Naya Blitz is explosively fast, but many builds suffer from the problem where the order in which you draw cards is important. Experiment One and Champion of the Parish are very good turn 1 cards and a very, very bad turn 5 cards. It suffers in consistency as well.
RG Aggro is a bit slower but partially solves the consistency issue...a Burning-Tree Emissary is still a lousy turn 5 topdeck. It's very poor against sweepers however since it can't run Boros Charm , and losing two or three of its early creatures is likely to prove fatal to it. It suffers badly in resilience.
The "new" Naya Aggro decks (they were around in prior seasons but were absent until now in DGM) are extremely resilient and quite consistent. They often play cards like Strangleroot Geist and Boros Charm that are quite good against sweepers. They also don't play much in the way of dependent cards, so whatever you draw (should you have the mana to cast it) is probably good. However their mana curve is much higher than the other aggro decks so they will have a lot of slower games. I'm not sure this makes it a worse deck, but it makes it less of an "aggro" deck.
Zombies gets a special mention because it really does cover all three scenarios but lacks badly in something else. It's fast, it's consistent, and with creatures that are undying, indestructible, or can be cast from the graveyard, it's very resilient. However it's really all-in...a zombies deck is horrible defensively. If you can get the win quickly, it's great, but once the other guy establishes a board presence you're going to find it very difficult to win.
So pick your poison.
June 5, 2013 8:43 a.m.
I nominate naya aggro. Here's a little TURN 2 KILL!!!
It requires a MagicalChristmasGift, but it's still the only turn 2 I know of in Standard (assumes you're on the draw):
T1 (draw a card, 8 in hand), Land, Champion of the Parish (2 cards used, 6 in hand)
T2 (draw a card, 7 in hand), Land, Burning-tree Emissary, Burning-Tree Emissary, Burning Tree Emissary (making the champ a 4/4) -> Infernal Plunge (GRRR Floating)- > Phytoburst -> Armed(champ a 10/10 Doublestrike)
June 5, 2013 2:34 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #25
but they've just had two turns, they probably have a chump blocker.
June 5, 2013 7:07 p.m.
And I would Tragic Slip that Champ on my first turn anyway. Or iust Abrupt Decay when he tried to swing.
June 5, 2013 8:59 p.m.
@Schuesseled and Capriom85
You're only fear is that it would be killed or blocked? That hand has about the same rate of appearance as a royal flush in poker (I'm guessing that you would be lucky to see one or two of those in your entire life).
That said, there are quite a few decks that keep hands that don't play until turn 3 (especially if they don't know they're playing naya) or keep a turn 2 farseek. Their only clue that the game is ending is a turn 1 champion of the parish (not super scary).
June 6, 2013 8:21 a.m.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jund-aggro-wins-1st-at-fnm/
Please give advice, its a little lacking in consistency, but nails the other two. What do you think?
June 7, 2013 9:51 a.m.
DeletedNow4ever says... #29
Scorch Their Hearts - Quick, consistent, and resilient after sideboard against most decks. Also, it's under 50$.
June 7, 2013 2:31 p.m.
ThorneSupremicy says... #30
I run a mostly red Boros deck at FNM that is pretty consistant. I took first place last week with it. I will tell you this Burning-Tree Emissary is fantastic. It is really hard to deal with multiples of them and a Lightning Mauler in your starting hand.
June 18, 2013 11:43 p.m.
Magical Christmasland is an understatement for that turn 2 kill, but for different reasons than I've seen here so far. It would take some real magic to get me to put Phytoburst in any constructed deck. And not even magic could convince me to include Infernal Plunge in a low-curve deck that relies on killing the other guy quickly with creatures.
"Aggro" has gone an interesting direction in the last few weeks as people have come to realize that Burning-Tree Emissary , while being very powerful in multiples in an opening hand (a rare occurrence), really spends most of the game doing a very convincing impression of Grizzly Bears . On top of that, Lightning Mauler (which does an equally stunning impression of a Goblin Piker ) has fallen so out of favor that Firefist Striker has been taking its spots despite being another card that is utterly useless on its own.
Really, I think that if people are interested in playing a glass cannon deck, something that can win quickly but is very draw-dependent, they should go with the vastly superior Bant Hexproof deck. Unless they have a philosophical problem with playing a deck that doesn't actually play Magic, which is a viewpoint that I can completely understand.
At least for the moment, I really think the slightly larger Naya decks are the way to go. They play some of the best creatures in the format (Voice of Resurgence , Boros Reckoner , Loxodon Smiter ) and have game even after the first sweeper hits. I can see why dedicated aggro players would shun them a little since one could argue where the "aggro" line is, but there isn't another aggro deck that can beat them for consistency (at the cost of having to kill on turn five instead of turn four).
June 19, 2013 8:32 a.m.
And...somehow I manage to make a post without logging in. That last one was me.
June 19, 2013 8:35 a.m.
KrazyCaley says... #33
Gruul Aggro based primarily on Burning-Tree Emissary , Stromkirk Noble , Lightning Mauler , and Hellrider is the fastest and best aggro deck in my not inconsiderable experience.
June 19, 2013 8:41 a.m.
According to the TCGplayer Metagame Top 8 decks it appears as though Jund Aggro is dying out. I am currently competing with this deck and am wondering if I should dismantle it and trade the expensive cards that are quickly dropping in price. Is the deck becoming less competitive due to particular cards like Voice? And what does it need from M14 to continue its success?
June 20, 2013 8:51 p.m.
Regarding the OP, any bi-color deck except R/G isn't viable in today's metagame. Really, the deadliest aggro decks are just all of the aggro decks that exist in the metagame, because they're supposed to be as deadly as they can be, so the list is as follows in no particular order:
Bant Auras
Red Deck Wins
Naya Humans/Blitz
R/G aggro
Jund aggro is less viable, because Jund is far better suited for midrange and does it a lot better.
Vos_Is_Boss says... #2
So this is strictly aggro? Your criteria are excellent. I'm going to throw these terms out there for further analysis. I just made them up now, so if you have better words, use them. But i figure these are the main things an aggro deck should consider...
Fastest Possible Lethality: What is the fastest turn you can possibly deal 20+ total damage?
Durability: How much does your deck suffer if you lose 1 creature per turn (unless you can protect it somehow (Faith's Shield, Boros Charm, or Hexproof)?
Recovery: Given the board wipe after turn 4, how long does it take to finish off their remaining health?
Consistency: How many times, in a vacuum, can you deal X damage in X turns without taking a mulligan?
March 6, 2013 4:48 p.m.