Gruul in post-rotation Standard?
Standard forum
Posted on Sept. 7, 2013, 5:43 a.m. by megawurmple
I'm considering making my first foray into Standard when Theros is released, and given the success of my Modern Gruul deck, I would like to run a Gruul deck in Standard as well. I was thinking of running a Midrange deck after seeing cards such as Xenagos, the Reveler, Polukranos, World Eater and the new Dragon that wants to be a Thundermaw Hellkite , among others. Do you think that this will be competitively viable?
I think gruul midrange will work quite well, but with Burning-Tree Emissary , Experiment One , Gore-House Chainwalker , Ghor-Clan Rampager etc. i think straight up aggro with xenagos as a curve-topper will perform better. It's still worth looking into though, but a 2/2 haste spawner is really strong, and it'll do very well to continuously apply pressure, that no other token producing walker can do as well. Big garruk makes 3/3s, but he comes out a turn later and they don't have haste, so they're 2 turns behind, and flip garruk makes tokens that are just inferior. The ramp could have uses, but i think as a 2/2 haste spawner topping off an aggro curve in place of something like Hellrider then aggro will be better, and maybe with polis crusher thingy in sideboard.
September 7, 2013 6:27 a.m.
Well Hellrider is going to phase out but Ogre Battledriver can turn those 2/2s into 4/2s every turn. I still think for aggro to work best without having dual lands other than shock lands you'll have to go one color or the other and splash the other. I would splash green for Ghor-Clan Rampager and Xenagos, but it is a little early to make any concrete decisions. If you were looking to do midrange, jund or golgari are probably your best bet.
September 7, 2013 6:55 a.m.
With cerberus guy, the guy that can get deathtouch and scry etc. jund looks better for midrange
September 7, 2013 6:58 a.m.
Maybe, still early to tell though, just giving options to look at. Making definitive decisions with about 2/3 of the set still to be announced seems hasty.
September 7, 2013 7:05 a.m.
I'm just going by what i see now. Hence jund LOOKS better for midrange, not Jund IS better for midrange.
September 7, 2013 7:11 a.m.
megawurmple says... #8
I was considering Jund as an alternative as it has more board control and a few pretty beefy creatures for late game dominance. My worry is that with the Check lands cycling out, it may be difficult to run 3-colour as the Scry lands hit the field tapped unconditionally and I don't really want to have to pay 2 life every time I want an untapped land, especially if I'm not going all-out Aggro and the games are going to drag on a bit.
September 7, 2013 8:56 a.m.
I'm currently trying to build a ramp/LD grull list. So far the shell looks like this:
4x Elvish Mystic 4x Sylvan Caryatid 4x Saytr Hedonist 3x Xenagos 4x Emberswallower 4x Bramblecrush 1x Frienzied Tilling 1x Sylvan Primordial 3x Ranger's Guile
Then fill the rest depending on what the meta looks like.
It's pretty easy to get Ember Swallower to go off Turn 4, often with mana left for protection.
September 7, 2013 2:32 p.m.
That was my thought TitansFTW, I would say golgari is probably going to be the better bet but if something else pops up (other than the cerberus) splashing red might be worth it. Personally I would go gruul aggro, but if midrange is your preference golgari/jund might be your best bet.
September 7, 2013 3:45 p.m.
megawurmple says... #11
The reason I was thinking of Midrange rather than Aggro was the cards that have been released in Theros. This set appears to be focused on slowing Standard down a bit with the Scry lands and mechanics such as Monstrosity and Bestow. What are your thoughts?
September 8, 2013 3:21 a.m.
Oh definitely which is why any gruul aggro deck that I build is not gonna have scary lands. You pretty much have no choice but to only splash one color or the other, BTE does help this problem though. I'm thinking of going with Running what is essentially RDW with xenagos splashed in. will probably play a Boros Reckoner play set so I can slap in a few Temple Garden to help. It's definitely going to be a big change though.
GdSvThQn says... #2
The way it's looking I would go for a heavier red deck with just splashing green. The new red God is going to play so well with speedy gruul aggro decks. Xenagos definitely has a place in a built in that fashion. Throw in akroan crusader along with Young Pyromancer and you have a great base with just that.
September 7, 2013 6:23 a.m.