Locations
Last weekend, I participated in Grand Prix: Salt Lake City. I managed to make Day 2 but fell a bit short of a money finish. Today, I’m going to talk about the deck I played and how I would evolve it going forward.
First, here is the deck I registered for the Grand Prix.
"R/G Aggro"
- Creatures (23)
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 1 Daybreak Ranger
- 3 Hellrider
- 3 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 4 Strangleroot Geist
- 2 Phyrexian Metamorph
- 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
- Spells (14)
- 2 Incinerate
- 4 Galvanic Blast
- 1 Red Sun's Zenith
- 3 Green Sun's Zenith
- 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
- 3 Sword of War and Peace
- Lands (23)
- 6 Mountain
- 7 Forest
- 2 Kessig Wolf Run
- 4 Copperline Gorge
- 4 Rootbound Crag
- Sideboard (15)
- 3 Act of Aggression
- 2 Ancient Grudge
- 1 Naturalize
- 1 Red Sun's Zenith
- 2 Thrun, the Last Troll
- 2 Sword of Feast and Famine
- 2 Garruk Relentless
- 2 Dismember
I chose to play this deck for a few reasons. One, I expected a lot of Delver, Zombies, and control decks. A fast aggro deck such as this was a good choice for the metagame I was predicting. Second, I didn’t expect to see very many Wolf Run Ramp decks, which is a matchup that R/G aggro struggles against. I thought this because Wolf Run is not a good choice in a room full of Delver decks. Third, a fast aggro deck is a good choice for a large tournament such as a Grand Prix. A two-day tournament is very tiring, and the last thing I wanted to do was go to time every round.
The deck’s plan is simple: Play your Birds and Elves early in order to accelerate into larger threats such as Huntmaster of the Fells and Hellrider. Beat down with efficient creatures such as Strangleroot Geist, and then finish the opponent off with equipped Swords, burn, and Kessig Wolf Run.
The Creature Package
The Green Sun's Zenith grants us additional copies of Strangleroot Geist or Huntmaster, but it can also be used as a toolbox effect. There are a few one-of creatures that can be searched for in the right situation.
Daybreak Ranger is excellent against Delver or any other Aggro deck. The front side can obviously kill Delvers or Spirit tokens, but the transformed side is great against decks like Naya Pod and white-based creature decks. The Acidic Slime is an amazing utility creature; it’s great to search up if you need to kill a Sword, Angelic Destiny, Oblivion Ring, or even a land. Finally, Thrun is there mostly in there against control, but it also has a pretty big body for its cost, it can block almost anything, and it’s extremely difficult to remove from the battlefield.
The best thing about the creature package in this deck is the card advantage it provides. Usually, aggro decks need to win as early as possible because once they run out of gas, it is very hard to close out the game. That is not the case with this deck. Both Strangleroot Geist and Huntmaster of the Fells offer the card advantage that this deck needs to stay in the game after your opponent stabilizes. Huntmaster is especially powerful because not only does it give you an additional 2/2 body when it comes into play, it can also kill a creature when it transforms, giving this card the potential to three-for-one your opponent.
The Swords
I chose to play a Sword package of three Sword of War and Peace and one Sword of Feast and Famine. War and Peace is better in the current metagame because it’s great against Delver and aggro decks. Feast and Famine is insane in the right matchups, but it’s not worth including more than one maindeck. Additionally, this deck can equip a Sword as early as turn three, and most decks can’t deal with an equipped Sword that early. Most players will have a handful of cards that early in the game, thus Sword of War and Peace is a bit better than Feast and Famine in the maindeck.
The Removal Package
The deck rounds out with a removal package of four Galvanic Blast, two Incinerate, and a Red Sun's Zenith. These cards enable you to kill creatures in order for you to push damage through—or even burn your opponent out later in the game. Red Sun's Zenith is especially good at removing creatures such as Strangleroot Geist, Geralf's Messenger, and Gravecrawler. There were also plenty of games in which I was able to burn my opponent out with a Red Sun's Zenith for 5 or more. It’s a versatile card, but you never want to draw it early, which is why there is only one copy in the main.
The Sideboard
The deck’s worst matchup is by far Wolf Run Ramp. I didn’t want to be cold to it, so I included three Act of Aggression to steal Titans. Act of Aggression was also good in an aggro mirror. Because it’s an instant, I was able to steal my opponent’s attacking creature and block another creature. Another fun trick I did with this card is steal a Huntmaster with the transformation trigger on the stack. When the creature transformed, I controlled the Huntmaster, and I therefore controlled the trigger that went on the stack after it transformed. I was then able to deal 2 damage to a creature or put a 2/2 Wolf into play, depending on which side it transformed into. Overall, Act of Aggression was a good card when fighting a battle of attrition, which was usually the case in the R/G aggro mirror.
There was an additional Red Sun's Zenith in the board to bring in against Zombies. They played a lot of creatures that returned from the graveyard, so exiling them was important. I also brought it in against Wolf Run Ramp as a way to remove a Titan. It was pretty difficult to get to 7 mana, but there was no other way to deal with large creatures, and Red Sun's Zenith provided me with that.
Dismember was in there to remove creatures that my burn spells couldn’t handle such as Hero of Bladehold and Phyrexian Obliterator.
Garruk Relentless was usually brought in against creature-heavy decks. He provided a steady stream of Wolves and also killed problem creatures. Garruk was very good against decks that attacked on the ground, such as the mirror, G/W aggro, and Humans.
Two additional copies of Thrun, the Last Troll were included for the control matchups, and he was also very good against Delver. Delver’s main goal was to gain tempo by removing creatures with Vapor Snag and Gut Shot. Thrun was not only untargetable, but he also blocked Geist of Saint Traft all day, making him an important piece in the matchup.
Finally, I played two Sword of Feast and Famine against control, Zombies, and the mirror match. R/G aggro and Zombies had no way to block a creature with an equipped Sword of Feast and Famine. The card was better than War and Peace against control because most of their removal is black, and if I was able to connect with it, untapping my lands and casting more spells was a huge tempo advantage. Having opponents discard a card was pretty nice, too.
Going Forward
Overall, this deck is very strong and a huge contender in the metagame. There are a few things that did not work for me in Salt Lake City that I would like to change going forward. First, I felt that there needs to be a larger threat to tutor for in the late game. The curve ends at 4 mana, so if you draw a late Green Sun's Zenith, the best you can search up is a Huntmaster of the Fells. A one-of Primeval Titan seems perfect for that purpose. It is a huge body that can give you a significant advantage against other aggro decks. It can also search up Kessig Wolf Run, a card that I always want to see a copy of in every game but never seem to draw since I only have two in the deck.
Because there is less red mana now, I chose to cut a Hellrider from the deck. Hellrider is a great win condition, but it can backfire if you play against decks with Phantasmal Image or Phyrexian Metamorph. With the rise of Delver, Naya Pod, Zombies, and R/G aggro, those types of cards are more popular now. The last thing you want to have happen to you is to have your Hellrider copied and then die to your opponent’s attackers.
As for the sideboard, I thought that three Act of Aggression was one too many. It’s not a card you want in multiples because it is very clunky and situational. I lost a game at the Grand Prix in which I had two in my hand and I did not draw enough threats. Additionally, paying 4 life for Phyrexian mana can be rough, so most of the time, you want to pay 4 or 5 mana for this spell, which is another reason you don’t want to draw more than one.
In the final round of Salt Lake City, I watched a feature match in which my friend Jackie Lee was playing a R/G aggro mirror match against Michael Hetrick. Michael won a game of the mirror by casting Increasing Savagery on a transformed Huntmaster of the Fells. That play made me seriously consider playing Increasing Savagery in the mirror—R/G has no way of removing a threat that large. I decided to replace the one Act of Aggression with an Increasing Savagery.
Here is my updated decklist:
"R/G Aggro Update"
- Creatures (23)
- 1 Acidic Slime
- 1 Daybreak Ranger
- 1 Primeval Titan
- 2 Hellrider
- 3 Llanowar Elves
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Huntmaster of the Fells
- 4 Strangleroot Geist
- 2 Phyrexian Metamorph
- 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
- Spells (14)
- 2 Incinerate
- 4 Galvanic Blast
- 1 Red Sun's Zenith
- 3 Green Sun's Zenith
- 1 Sword of Feast and Famine
- 3 Sword of War and Peace
- Lands (23)
- 5 Mountain
- 8 Forest
- 2 Kessig Wolf Run
- 4 Copperline Gorge
- 4 Rootbound Crag
- Sideboard (15)
- 2 Act of Aggression
- 2 Ancient Grudge
- 1 Naturalize
- 1 Red Sun's Zenith
- 2 Thrun, the Last Troll
- 2 Sword of Feast and Famine
- 2 Garruk Relentless
- 2 Dismember
- 1 Increasing Savagery
Matchups and Sideboarding
Delver
Delver has won the past three Standard Grands Prix and has been putting many players in the Top 8, so expect this deck to be everywhere. Luckily, the Delver matchup is pretty good. On the play, it is in your favor, but on the draw, it is around fifty-fifty. You have so many threats, and Delver’s removal is not great against you. Also, your burn can handle most of Delver’s creatures. Delver’s best way to win is to put a Geist of Saint Traft or an Invisible Stalker in play with a Sword or a large Runechanter's Pike.
−2 Hellrider
Hellrider is bad here because the Delver player can Phantasmal Image it and kill you with it. Also, Titan is too slow of a card, and you want to avoid losing to Vapor Snag. Red Sun's Zenith is too slow, and you don’t want your removal to be sorcery speed against this deck.
Zombies
This matchup is very draw-dependent. If the Zombies player gets a Mortarpod going with a Gravecrawler, it will be hard for you to keep a creature on the table. Removal and card advantage are very important in this matchup.
+2 Dismember
−2 Hellrider
−1 Acidic Slime
Phyrexian Obliterator is a problem for you, so you need Dismember here. Ancient Grudge is mostly there for Mortarpod, but the Zombies player might bring in Sword of Feast and Famine as well. Thrun is very good because Zombies can’t remove it, and it blocks all of the opposing creatures. The extra Red Sun's Zenith is to remove Gravecrawler and Geralf's Messenger.
Hellrider is the worst creature in the matchup because the opponent usually has Phantasmal Image for it. Also, Green Sun's Zenith is much weaker after sideboarding because the card is slow and the deck has less random one-ofs.
U/B Control
This is another good matchup for you. R/G aggro is too fast for U/B control to deal with. In addition, R/G’s creatures provide too much card advantage for U/B to handle. U/B wastes too many turns playing things like Think Twice and Forbidden Alchemy, so it’s very hard for the control player to have time to deal with all of the threats. Just be sure to play around Black Sun's Zenith.
−1 Incinerate
In this matchup, you need to maximize on threats, and you can’t afford to leave in cards such as Galvanic Blast. Connecting with a Sword is very important, so we have the full number after sideboarding.
R/G Aggro Mirror
It’s crucial to have an answer to an opposing Sword of Feast and Famine, so although the Ancient Grudges are narrow, they are necessary. Resolving a Primeval Titan or an Increasing Savagery should end the game quickly.
Other Aggro Decks (W/U, G/W, Naya Pod)
This match plays out much like the R/G mirror, but with one key difference: These types of decks have more ways to remove large threats, so the Increasing Savagery is not as good.
+1 Naturalize
+2 Dismember
−2 Incinerate
In this matchup, Dismember is a better removal spell than Incinerate because it can kill a Hero of Bladehold, a huge Champion of the Parish, or another big guy. Ancient Grudge and Naturalize are needed for opposing Swords, Pods, Oblivion Rings, and Angelic Destinies. Garruk Relentless provides a steady stream of Wolves to stop those tokens and small creatures from attacking. When it transforms, the Overrun ability will probably end the game.
Wolf Run Ramp
−2 Incinerate
−1 Hellrider
You need to deal as much damage as possible before the opponent casts Slagstorm and hope to have either a Metamorph or an Act of Aggression for the oncoming Titan. Increasing Savagery can make a creature big enough to survive Slagstorm and attack through the Titan. Ancient Grudge provides a way to slow the ramp player down by destroying Sphere of the Suns.
I hope I’ve provided you with some insight on how to play R/G aggro. Standard PTQs are right around the corner, and maybe you’ll choose to battle with it. Until next time, good luck in qualifying for the next Pro Tour, and thanks for reading!
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