Written by BusDriver on November 10, 2006
Standard (T2): Gruul Update
by Busdriver
Let me start by explaining why I chose this deck. As you might know, GR aggro isn’t exactly popular right now. There is the KBBK-version that focuses on land destruction, but it’s far from the regular gruul beats. I’m an aggro player; not because I hate control, but because I hate control mirrors. I actually find the control-aggro matchup the most interesting. So the obvious choice for an aggro deck right now would be Boros, or maybe Zoo. However, I find that both these decks have taken a huge blow since the faithful Isamaru, Hound of Konda left the format. I’ve tried about any version of boros out there, and I feel the control matchup is always bad. Sure, Soltari Priest is a great card, but what good does it do in a format with Condemn, Faith’s Fetters and Mortifies everywhere? The pro-red doesn’t seem very relevant quite often. Not to mention that playing anything but Savannah Lions on turn one is just a weak play. Zoo suffers the same loss, and I feel this deck needs Flames of the Blood Hand even more as it has no removal-resistant creatures to finish the job.
So, I tried Gruul. Here is the decklist I’ve been tweaking for quite a while:
| Gruul Beats | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main Deck | Sideboard | |
| 6 Snow-Covered Mountain 5 Snow-Covered Forest 2 Skarrg, the Rage Pits 1 Pendelhaven 4 Karplusan Forest 4 Stomping Ground 1 Boreal Centaur 4 Giant Solifuge 4 Scab-Clan Mauler |
4 Dryad Sophisticate 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Kird Ape 3 Demonfire 2 Stonewood Invocation 4 Rift Bolt 4 Char 4 Call of the Herd |
1 Blood Moon 3 Spike Feeder 3 Cryoclasm 1 Gather Courage 2 Moldervine Cloak 2 Krosan Grip 3 Leyline of Lifeforce |
The first thing that should be of surprise is the unorthodox card choices. I’m talking about Demonfire and Stonewood Invocation in the maindeck. The reason for this is obvious: these cards give control a hard time, and control makes up the majority of the metagame. They both avoid Counterspells, and Stonewood Invocation is the best thing there is against Condemn. Don’t mistake the Invocation for a burn spell. It saves creatures from removal and it’s uncounterable, which is why it’s so much better than Might of Oaks. And who expects it? Demonfire wins a lot of games where the opponent got control a long time ago. Also, this deck does not run seal of fire for the same reason: I want to kill control, not aggro. The Moldervine Cloaks are in the sideboard for the same reason: you don’t want to cloak a creature to see it get Condemned.
Other card choices:
Kird Ape: Main reason to go GR
Llanowar Elves: Not a card that I’m totally sold on, but I prefer it over
Scorched Rusalka or the dodging Goblin. And turn two call of the herd is nice.
Dryad Sophisticate: This guy dies easily, but he’s almost always unblockable. He dodges Court Hussar, Akroma and mesa tokens, which makes her relevant all game.
Scab-Clan Mauler: With four Elves, four Kirds and four Rift Bolts you should be able to get the bloodthirst going. He’s not very nice when you are topdecking for the win though. But when you go first and you manage to go turn one Kird, turn two Mauler, the game should be a win against control. And this guy is really good with Stonewood Invocation.
Boreal Druid: I felt I needed an extra two-drop, and he’s solid, although not great. He’s also the reason why I have snow lands.
Call of the Herd: Even though it’s not fun to have your tokens repealed, or to have the flashback remanded, this is rarely card-disadvantage. This card is a powerhouse against creature-decks. I side a few out against decks that have a lot of repeals though. But this guy is definitely better than Burning-Tree Shaman, three or four toughness is not that relevant.
Giant Solifuge: Perfect reply to Wrath of God. A house against control. Court Hussar is extremely annoying though, but this guy is still worth it.
Rift Bolt: Three damage for one mana, bloodthirst-enabler. It’s a serious disadvantage though sometimes that the damage comes a turn later, especially against Boros.
Char: Finisher that can kill a lot of creatures.
Sideboard:
Blood Moon: I mainly included this because of the new flores-deck. If it shows up mo
re, the Blood-moon count should go up. But be careful: this deck doesn’t have a whole lot of basic Forests either. Spike Feeder: Good against all aggro. This guy can usually trade with another creature and gain four life for you. It also serves well as a combat trick. Not to mention, some decks can’t handle a 5/5 Elephant. I choose this over the battlemage because I feel it’s good against all aggro, whereas the battlemage only really shines against BDW. And even against BDW you often get a Char pointed towards your face, so this guy helps a lot. It’s definitely a very good thing to draw when you’re losing, but I have to admit I’m not entirely sure on this one. Running Thornscape Battlemage could be a better idea, but keep into mind that he costs four.
Cryoclasm: Most decks run islands or plains, this things sets em back, and deals a nice 3 in the face. If u can cast it turn 2 with help of Llanowar Elves when you go first, this thing can seal a game. Especially if u drop a solifuge the next turn.
Gather Courage: Just a random 1-of. It’s really good vs aggro. Most people don’t see it coming, definitely when you’re tapped out. Plus it makes you walk over Hierarchs, Elephants and many others, all for free if you cast a creature first that turn. I’m considering playing more of these, it’s really good.
Moldervine Cloak: Perfect for racing against other aggro. Note that this card is not good against decks that have creature removal that don’t rely on the target’s toughness (Condemn, Mortify etc). You mainly want this against BDW, Zoo or UG aggro-decks.
Krosan Grip: Solid artifact/enchantment removal that’s uncounterable! You need this against Glare or decks that pack both Sacred Mesa and Faith’s Fetters. If you have a creature that has been fettered, playing this on the end of the opponents turn is a really strong play. Not to mention that you always want some way to kill enchantments. You wouldn’t be the first person that scoops to Worship.
Leyline of Lifeforce: I hate control. UW control can basically scoop if this in your opening hand, and the chance that they sideboard enchantment-removal against this deck is really slim. And by the time they get to repeal it, the damage should have been done.
Matchups:
Boros Aggro:
This is not a good matchup, and it stays that way after sideboard. They have cards that you can’t really handle like Soltari Priest, Lightning Helix and Paladin-en-Vec. It mostly depends on how many of these they draw. Soltari Priest is really annoying because when he hits the board you just have to race, and there is no way you can establish solid board-control. What is worse is that Paladin-en-Vec and Lightning Helix really set you back when you’re racing.
Now, this matchup is not terrible either. You do have some weapons that Boros has trouble with. An early Kird Ape troubles them. Your Elephants and Scab-Clan Maulers are bigger than what they have. But they’re also more susceptible to burn than their creatures.
Sideboard: +3 Spike Feeder, +1 Gather Courage, +2 Moldervine Cloak,
-4 Giant Solifuge, -2 Stonewood Invocation,
Post-board they will have Pacifism, which doesn’t really pose a problem. Your creatures are not very expensive, so this card is not very efficient against you, although it is still good. Honorable Passage is the real problem. Char becomes: pay three mana, lose six life. It just swings games around. Be on the lookout for this card, but there isn’t really a way to play around it. If you can win by the green creatures u have on the board, think twice before you start burning your opponent when you’re on a low life total.
You do get a few new weapons too, though. Gather Courages is usually a free counterspell for their burn. If you’re lucky, they try to burn an attacker when u can cast this. Spike Feeder keeps u alive, or makes your beef beefier. Moldervine Cloak is a house. What can boros do about a 6/6 Elephant or a 5/6 Ape? Not too much, or it will cost them cards, and the Cloak keeps coming back.
All in all, this match is not good but doable. Probably around 40-60 in your disadvantage. But I don’t feel it’s a deck that comes up to much, as Boros is generally not good against the rest of the field.
40-60
UG Aggro:
There isn’t really a standard version. Some run a lot of counters, others run just four Remands. Some try to abuse Spectral Force. These decks have one thing in common: you like playing against them. Your creatures are more efficient and stronger than his and you have more burn. Sideboard the same way as you do against Boros. You could keep the Solifuges because they’re a lot better without Paladin-en-Vec around. But I don’t see what else you would want to take out. Maybe a few Scab-Clan Maulers when you’re on the draw.
After board they have Spike Feeders, Gather Courages and Cloaks maybe. Basically, they have the same things as you do. So the match stays more or less the same.
Watch out for Plaxmanta though; if they have UG open, think before you burn something.
60-40
Zoo:
Another deck that is not popular on Magic-League but showed up a lot at Champs. This matchup is pretty good. They start with less life than you do due to their shaky manabase. The deck is faster, but the creatures die easily. After sideboarding things usually stay the same. It depends a lot on what they have. If they run four Hierarchs, four Honorable Passages things can get worse though. They have so many sideboard choices that it depends if they are more focused on aggro or control.
60-40
Dragonstorm:
I haven’t seen this deck a lot lately; actually, I’ve not seen it lately. If it’s present in your metagame, add Jester’s Cap to the sideboard and go up to four if necessary. This is not a good matchup because they’re faster than you are.
Flores (URW):
Bad matchup. Most of his cards are so focused on killing aggro that often you can’t really win. Keep in mind that Demonfire removes Firemane Angel from the game. Char really shines here. Try not to overextend. You have the tools to beat them, but their tools are better.
Sideboard in the Cryoclasm and a Blood Moon. Take out Solifuges or Maulers.
35-65
Tron/UW-control/Solar Flare:
I group them together because the matchups are more or less the same. You win if you can kill them, and they win if they can stay alive. Pretty simple, huh?
In these matchups this deck really shines. You have a few cards they really can’t handle. The idea is quite simple: drop early beats but don’t overdo it against UW control and Solar Flare though. Wrath of God is always around the corner. And keep hitting them, if they kill creatures, add new ones. There are a few things you should watch out for though. If you have plenty of threats in your hand, do not drop Giant Solifuge unless it would win you the game right away. It’s better to draw out counters and removal with other creatures, especially counters. If they run out of counters, and you can sneak a Solifuge in, you just took a serious option on the win. Even if they can Wrath it, they still lost four life and their Wrath! Chances are that they cannot handle whatever you drop next. But it’s even better when they wrath away two of your creatures, and you can respond with Giant Solifuge. Solifuge is THE answer to a turn 4/5 wrath or even later. Stonewood Invocation really shines here as well. It preserves creatures from Faith’s Fetters, it counters Condemn while dealing five damage or it’s just a big blow in the face that they can’t really stop.
Another card that really shines here is Demonfire. Usually by the time they can kill you, you will have around 8-10 lands in play. This means if you draw a Demonfire (which you should have by then) they lose around 7-9 life, and there is nothing they can do about it. Pretty cool!
Sideboard:
UW-control: +3 Cryoclasm, +3 Leyline of Lifeforce (+2 Krosan Grip if they have Fetters and Mesa)
-2 Call of the Herd, -4 Rift Bolt. (The herd goes out because of Repeal)
Solar Flare: +3 Cryoclasm, +1 Blood Moon (Run the Leyline if they have a lot of counters)
-4 Rift Bolt (you do miss these against Court Hussar, but what else to take out?)
Tron: +1 Bood Moon, +3 Leyline of Lifeorce
-4 Rift Bolt
Rift bolt is not bad against control at all, but it’s simply the weakest thing you have. You could take out a few creatures, but u really want to drop creature the first turns of the game, not doing so usually results in a loss. All the other cards and the ones that you sideboard in are simply better than Rift Bolt here.
60-40
Obviously this deck is meta-game dependant, but it has been working very well for me for quite a while now. If you have to face a lot of Dragonstorm and Boros, don’t run this, or at least change it. I feel this deck does what it is supposed to do: kill control. It’s also very good versus anything rogue. All cards are of high quality, so you have a decent match against any T2 deck. The sideboard should really be changed according to what you have to face a lot. I’m not saying this is the best deck in T2, but it’s definitely amongst the best and is good for the current metagame. If you are playing Boros right now, I would seriously advise trying this. It worked for me.
-busdriver
PaXxU on 2006-11-10 14:50 MDT First!! Goood Job!
by
Taoofss on 2006-11-10 14:56 MDT blood moon kills flare, urw angel, g/w glare, ect ect. if you are going to run them, run at least 3, no point in running just one. i like the mb alot, good job, however the sb is pretty aweful.
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Rotstejn on 2006-11-10 15:37 MDT nice done teammate
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Craze on 2006-11-10 15:42 MDT dead deck
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Void06 on 2006-11-10 15:51 MDT Overall very good article, but I have to strongly diagree with Taoofss that Blood Moon kills Flare. Flare usually plays maindeck Mortifies, AND basics, AND Signets. A very earlygame bloodmoon may be a pretty solid tempo swing at the cost of instead being able to play a creature, but on any turn other than turn 3 it's really not all that stellar.
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Quiet0Boi on 2006-11-10 16:19 MDT signets = mortify = no blood moon. seen it happen so many times when i play it.
as for the deck itself, i suggest a little tweak. solifuges, as good as they are, require 4 mana and extra burn spells to clear the way. while 4 mana is easy with elves, the 11 burn spells is very poor to clear the way for beats. a pikeman will easily take care of it. drawing several of these 4cc cards without any mana acceleration is very dire as well. i would say take out a solifuge or two and call of the herds for volcanic hammers and/or seals of fire. call of the herd, imo, is a bit slow in the scheme of things. many times it would be better for an aggro deck to simply shock a creature and attack with what you have on the board instead of casting the elephant out. the extra burn spells will give you more control of the board too.
by
Ironicus on 2006-11-10 18:31 MDT This deck still a bad matchup vs control deck and WHERE ARE THE TIN STREET HOLLIGAN? They're just amazing in the actual metagame!
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DESTRUCTOR on 2006-11-10 19:15 MDT mortifies in flare?? you guys dont know that solar flare doesnt use mortify anymore? just wrath and condenm against dudes....mortify is sb in much cases but not in all of them
but i agree that blood moon doesnt kill flare because they use signets and some basics lands
nice deck and article...sb is not that great
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sui_slush on 2006-11-10 22:03 MDT I play mortify maindeck in my flare, which i will contend is as close to optimal as it gets. Also, I see no legitimate reason to not run the full set of cryoclams in the board.
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Precinct on 2006-11-11 00:48 MDT Rift Bolt: Three damage for one mana, bloodthirst-enabler. It’s a serious disadvantage though sometimes that the damage comes a turn later, especially against Boros.
or you could just pay 2R for the damage now....
eh Gruul is dead imo...zoo or boros are a def better choice even rakdos is better imo...
by
Meatwarz on 2006-11-11 01:45 MDT No Glare match up 0_0
And UW(r?) Control, Solar Flare and Trone aren't really similar!
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TugaChampion on 2006-11-11 04:49 MDT Ok 1st I think there's too few burn.
2nd Krosan Grip is a sorcery so you can't play it eot.
3rd Blood Moon is good but only if you play at least 3 in the SB. But actually I think it should only be played in the RG LD deck as you destroy their basic lands and Blood Moon takes care of the rest. Tin Street Holigan is a good way to take care of signets. Shattering Spree is also an option too. But really I think that only works on RG LD.
4th Boros is actually better then Grull Beats against control because it is faster and because it has more burn (comprared to your list it has way more burn).
5th 1 Boreal Centaur isn't going to change anything. I would either play another burn spell, BTS or 1 more Stonewood Invocation.
6th Gather Courage is not a constructed card and if it was you should have at least 3 not just 1.
Finally: you have some good ideas there but the deck could really be much better because of some strange choices.
by
coolcreep on 2006-11-11 06:25 MDT THIS JUST IN: Through careful study, serious scientific testing, and a little bit of luck, scientists have recently discovered that.......RUMBLING SLUM IS GOOD!
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juanmanuel on 2006-11-11 09:26 MDT you should now that krosan grip is an instant spell with split second is not a sorcery i repeat is not a sorcery.
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TugaChampion on 2006-11-11 09:41 MDT lol I had an error in my MWS database that had Krosan Grip as a sorcery. Sorry about that.
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BusDriver on 2006-11-11 09:43 MDT Tuga:
2: I didn't know krosan grip was sorcery, luckyly my opponents had no idea either. So I can use it as if it's instant.
6: I have painted Ravnica signs on my Gather Courages.
-------------------------------------------------
I agree that I should also write something about glare.
Against Boros you don't want to pay 3 for the burn. You want to cast something and then suspend a rift bolt.
I think solifuge and invocation can replace burn
The call of the Herd is quite ok. Without it the agrro-matchup becomes really horrible.
by
TugaChampion on 2006-11-11 10:20 MDT well Solifuge can sometimes be better then burn against control as it hits for 4 and stays there but it can be worse as it gets countered much more easily and when you opponent hardcasts or revives his Akroma, Angel of Despair, Skeletal Vampire, or even Sacred Mesa's tokens/Court Hussar it just dies and deals little damage.
Stonewood Invocation can act like burn but it when you're a few points away form killing your opponent and you topdeck it with no creatures in play it doesn't help at all.
The deck is not bad but the list could be better and against most of the meta Boros is actually better. Right now if your going grull the best thing to do is RG LD (although cryoclasm fits better in the SB).
by
Trivial on 2006-11-11 10:47 MDT One thing caught my eye: Taoofss said about blood moon:
"run at least 3, no point in running just one."
This is an error for at least two reasons: (1) There are many cards that get better when two or more are in play. Others are redundant. For the former, synergy will often dictate running 4. For the latter, the more you add, the weaker your deck becomes but the more likely you are to get the card into play. This is a trade-off, and any number is possible to be the theoretically best number. One may indeed be the right number for Blood Moons. (2) How many come in depends on how many cards are coming out in the matchup. Lets's say, for example, that every card in the Solar matchup is better than Blood Moon except for the singleton Boreal Centaur (I'm not saying this is correct, to be sure). If this were true, then only one card would come in, so only one Blood Moon would be in the side.
The bottom line is that singletons in the side may "look bad" but may be correct even without any ability to fetch them.
Jeff
by
BusDriver on 2006-11-11 12:16 MDT True.
And if they see your blood moon game 2, you could get lucky and they side in enchantmentremoval.
by
tato- on 2006-11-11 18:00 MDT this deck doesnt have any good matchup and a lot of bad matchups...
by Craze on 2006-11-10 17:42 EST
dead deck
true
by
Void06 on 2006-11-11 21:32 MDT its pretty much completely dead.
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P_P4E on 2006-11-11 22:00 MDT burning0tree shaman is def. good. Call of the herd and BTS are 2 totally different cards. BTS is great against decks focused on sacred mesa, as they usually have to bury it if you resolve BTS after they have casted it. They also have only 4 true outs to it as you can just play around condemn by using the invocation. BTS is also good in the u/g match as you can now block all COTH tokens with 1 guy! He gets blasted which is bad but you have to take what you can get IMO.I also feel that if your going to go ahaid and run llanowar elves, you might want to kick up your 3drop slot, to actually utilize them. This deck could be good if you think about it. I mean Zoo has the obvious 3 color aggro problems, which this deck lackS. Maybe a retarded fast version might be viable? Like something redic with giant growth/mauler/invocation/sophisticate...
GRUUL GUILDMAGE//BOREAL CENTAUR...
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aldaryn on 2006-11-11 23:02 MDT I want to like Gruul but it seems to suck right now...even though I've always loved G/R.
About Dryad Sophisticate / Boreal Centaur / 2cc slot... no one plays BTS anymore so PLAY GRUUL GUILDMAGE!!! He is so freaking good. You can always cast him, 2 toughness unlike dryad, he pumps, and late game he makes your lands into shocks!
