Very fun deck maggit, and wins in style too. I love playing your decks, guess I'm a Johnny

Maggit, do you ever run into situations where you board gets whiped, you got a journal out, and they just play something you have no answer for in your entire deck? (chandra answers ALOT, but not everything)

I love your decks too, and I always take note when you brew, but I always feel you are a BIT too much on the johnny side

My reasoning is, in a mid range deck that beats some face; but is suscpetible to removal, having some ways to grind back are very valuable. To go all in on a tutor package, you need answers to the meta. Gruul wolves isn't the place for that.

Yeah, had to just concede against Ulamog with this deck when I realized there was nothing in the entire deck that could save me. Oh well.

I only need one more pack. This deck looks super great.

Johnny is my second name, what can I say?

Yeah, GR...I admit it isn't tuned at all to the meta, it's just a primer...Tribal decks, imho, almost never are able to cope with everything. What can do thopters against Ula? Adopt fetal position and die, I'd say... R and G never could do shet against him, so...it's something you have to deal with, I guess. PWs are a pain too unless you have already trample, for example...that's why the Flame(s) are there...but there are certainly things that can royaly screw this deck, of course

Ey, I can always sideboard a couple Hedron Networks haha

Tnks for the props, guize

Btw, the list is edited enough as to deserve a repost...I'm dissapointed with Sage...and Mina is too situational...Heirloom, on the contrary, is nice enough...got the Devil Wolf, gonna try it

Lone Wolf and Clue

2 x Lightning Axe
2 x Neglected Heirloom

3 x Kessig Forgemaster
3 x Duskwatch Recruiter
2 x Lambholt Pacifist
1 x Avacyn's Judgment
1 x Twin bolt

2 x Geier Reach Bandit
3 x Breakneck Rider
2 x Tireless Tracker
3 x Howlpack Resurgence
2 x Ulvenwald Mysteries
1 x Devour in Flames
1 x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

3 x Pack Guardian
1 x Arlinn Kord

2 x Tamiyo's Journal
1 x Wolf of Devil's Breach

1 x Chandra Flamecaller

7 x Mountain
6 x Forest
2 x Cinder Glade
2 x Rootbound Crag
4 x Evolving wilds
2 x Timber Gorge
1 x Westvale Abbey


Love it in this pretty final form

This is an Eldrazi Deck no real Gruul Deck. And it ist not bad till now winning 17 out of 20 Games against real players. Mana is good but i am not sure about the right removal.

Creature(17)
3x Stalking Drone
2x Vile Redeemer
2x Matter Reshaper
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2x Thought-Knot Seer
2x Reality Smasher
1x Oblivion Sower
2x Endbringer
1x Kozilek, the Great Distortion
1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger

Instant(8)
2x Reality Hemorrhage
3x Spatial Contortion
1x Kozilek's Return
2x Titan's Presence

Sorcery(8)
3x Ruin in Their Wake
2x Devour in Flames
3x Explosive Vegetation

Enchantment(2)
2x From Beyond

Land(25)
1x Mountain
2x Cinder Glade
2x Forest
3x Timber Gorge
2x Rootbound Crag
7x Wastes
2x Westvale Abbey
2x Rogue's Passage
4x Evolving Wilds

View to this deck go to: http://www.magicduelshelper.com/decklis ... 8e280bdc58

Created using Magic Duels Helper: http://www.magicduelshelper.com

I'd replace Twin Bolt with Fiery Temper to have an additional madness card for your Devil Wolf.
With Tamiyo's Journal, Ulvenwald Mysteries and Tireless Tracker, it's not all that situational.

Ummm...I dunno. TB is weak now...but it's a combat trick that can net you good advantage when blocking while allowing the flips...and works lovely with Forgemaster too

Caring for Madness when I have just 1 discard outlet, and one at 6 CC...I don't see it

I am running into an awful lot of good gruul decks online but none of them are represented here. Much work to be done, Id say, when 1 out of 5 games is some kind of gruul ramp \\that screws me in some unique way so then I come here and can't find said deck lol. I am working on some weird land deck where I am trying to make deck about 50% land and have insane life gain and one key thing is Gitrog and those legendarie red green dudes i can return land. Evo leap to sack tokens to get one of only creatures in deck. It's kind of funny how it works alot of the times. There's enough cards in this pool that seeing decks in real online play stomp, but can't find said deck copied online in forum is rather refreshing but sucks when trying to figure out what the hell they are running.

omg this deck just got me over 200 life and my Jaddi Offshoot (an 0/3) is now currently (waiting on mass triggers.... I did just animist awakening with 3 green and 3 white retreats out)... 35/38....... 35/38 jaddi offshoot... let alone the 44/42 flying indestructible haste flyer.......lifelinking.... so if this game would let me see over damage (like previous duels) I could tell you total damage done...

Best part is deck has 30 land (well technically 31 but going to put in hydra so it's like 3 copies of abbey and that land you can pay 3 to bring back).. Will post in 4 color after more testing

Zerris here, posting my second deck. As usual, some testing has been done, but improvements and feedback are welcome.

I was having a lot of trouble with the meta at rank 30-40 - specifically, the range of good decks is so wide that it's hard to beat them all. Sign of a healthy metagame, but annoying when you can't sideboard to meet the demands of each matchup. So, my goal was to find a deck that's good against the widest possible swath of the meta.

Primary decks I wanted to have a good matchup against:

White/x Humans
Blue/x Mill
Four-Color Walkers
B/W/x Control
G/R Ramp

And at least be competitive against the rest of the field. This is obviously a tall order, but I think I've found something good.

Without further ado, a decklist:

Fireball - You! ()
(Ramp)

Threats

2x Sylvan Advocate
1x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2x Tireless Tracker
1x Reclamation Sage
2x Mina and Denn, Wildborn
1x Greenwarden of Murasa
1x Woodland Bellower
1x Chandra, Flamecaller
1x Omnath, Locus of Rage

Ramp/Healing

3x Retreat to Kazandu
4x Nissa's Pilgrimage
3x Explosive Vegetation
2x Nissa's Renewal

Fireballs

2x Twin Bolt
2x Fall of the Titans
3x Ravaging Blaze
3x Rolling Thunder

Lands (26)

8x Mountain
10x Forest
2x Rootbound Crag
2x Cinder Glade
4x Evolving Wilds


Mana Source reasoning

Again defering to Frank Karsten's math here.

Counting Evolving Wilds as a full source (we're only two colors) gives:

16 Sources
18 Sources

Of course, we also have a lot of ramp spells - but it's important to be able to cast our cards on curve even if we can't take a turn off to ramp, so let's look at just land sources. We want to be able to cast Rolling Thunder on about five mana, and Greenwarden / Woodland Bellower on curve. Per Karsten, this requires about 16 sources of red mana and 15 sources of green mana. The extra Forests are there to maximize the value we get out of Nissa's Pilgrimage and Nissa herself, as well as being basics for Explosive Vegetation and Nissa's Renewal. There's clearly enough mana to cast our spells, so there might be an argument for some value lands - most likely Rogue's Passage.


Strategy

This deck's strategy is similar to a standard ramp deck - ramp, try to stabilize, do something big to finish out the game. The difference is that our "big stuff" is tuned to beat the meta. There are a lot of decks that can generate infinite ground stalls, kill creatures, bounce permanents, etc. However, there are very few counterspells in use - and the majority of them are taxing counterspells such as Spell Shrivel as opposed to hard counters. Well, Spell Shrivel is usually a hard counter - just not against a ramp deck. As such, trying to win a game through combat can be a nightmare, even with Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Gaea's Revenge - but Fireballing for 15 is much more manageable. Against decks that don't pressure our life total, we have the secondary win condition of going huge with Retreat to Kazandu and gaining trample off Mina and Denn.

There's another more subtle point here, though - Gaea's Revenge (or any other creature payoff) is a single card, with a single use. It can attack or it can block - and in a stalled board state, it might do neither profitably. Our Fireballs, however, are multipurpose. They're a win condition on their own, reliably dealing 10+ hasty unblockable damage. A lot of the control decks in the metagame are Planeswalker based - and our fireballs can often two-for-one with a creature and Planeswalker (or two walkers). Lastly, they can also be played as four or five mana sweepers against most of the aggro decks of the format, which are playing a lot of X/1 creatures. This versatility is what allows us to have good matchups against such a wide range of decks. The ability for our endgame haymakers to also shore up our midgame allows us to run only high value cards - the one-of Reclamation Sage and the two Twin Bolts are the only bad late game top decks, and we can thin almost all the lands out of our deck in short order.


Card Choices

The early threats: Sylvan Advocate, Nissa, and Tireless Tracker are the best cards in our colors that can be put down before we start ramping, while still being meaningful top decks in the late game. Sylvan Advocate is incredible against aggro decks, and as a 4/5 vigilance on turn five can pressure the opponent's planeswalkers or life total. We want to get our opponent to ~12 life, so that we only need one fireball to finish off the game - the Sylvan Advocate chip shots matter. Tireless Tracker is an easy 4-5 clues, and since we can win through an unbreakable board-stall on the turn we draw our fireball, trying to chump and clue-crack to find a finisher is a very reasonable gameplan. The tracker can also attack as an 8/7 in a pinch. Nissa is generally good in a green ramp deck, especially when every land matters, card draw matters, and we play a boatload of basic Forests.

Reclamation Sage doesn't quite fit into the threat camp - she's here as our concession to a wide array of troublesome permanents, with the bonus of being tutorable off Woodland Bellower and recurrable off Greenwarden.

Mina and Denn, Wildborn - this card does a lot of things - some flashy, some subtle. The flashy part is that in a deck with four Nissa's Pilgrimages and the ability to turn on spell mastery to get a ton of forests in hand, this card is a bonus ramp spell every turn. It also gives us a low-investment way to get through chump blockers to finish off walkers or chip-shot before a lethal fireball. Being able to do this at instant speed is even better. The more subtle tricks with Mina and Denn involve the secondary effect of their trample ability - putting a land back in your hand. This deck contains multiple Landfall cards, but very quickly strips all the lands out of the deck. Mina and Denn let you bounce multiple lands a turn to your hand to re-trigger landfall. And, lastly, got Mina and Denn alongside Chandra, but an empty hand? Bounce half your lands to hand, then cycle them all off Chandra. The value! Free discard protection as well, in case Liliana, Defiant Necromancer's getting you down.

Greenwarden / Woodland Bellower - The tutor cards of the deck. Greenwarden tutors your graveyard (usually for a fireball you used earlier in the game, sometimes for an Evolving Wilds to double trigger landfall) and Woodland Bellower can tutor up a 4/5 vigilance creature (Advocate), a source of card advantage (Tracker), or a removal effect for an enchantment/artifact (Sage).

Chandra, Flamecaller - If you've watched standard, you know what this card does. G/R ramp is her home. Invite her in for tea, you'll be glad you did. Notable interactions with Mina and Denn as described above, as well as softening up creatures so that a Rolling Thunder can clean up. Six hasty damage a turn is no joke either.

Omnath, Locus of Rage - go big or go home. This creature in a ramp deck is probably the single scariest threat in all of Magic Duels. With Mina and Denn and fetchlands, you can often trigger Omnath three or four times the turn he comes into play - instantly stalling the board, and often generating lethal for the next turn. Stronger than Ulamog in most situations for this deck, and three mana cheaper.

Ramp: Nissa's Pilgrimage, Explosive Vegetation, Nissa's Renewal. The usual problem with having so many ramp spells is that once you hit 10 lands, all future ramp spells (and lands) are dead draws. In a deck that wins with fireballs and landfall triggers, that's no longer an issue - every land is a good land. Thanks to Mina and Denn / Chandra, Nissa's Pilgrimage is often stronger than Explosive Vegetation (and it thins the deck better), which is why I've cut one Explosive Vegetation as my excess ramp spell. We want to get every land we can out of our deck while surviving to use them, so Nissa's Renewal is at it's best here.

Retreat to Kazandu - I originally put this in the deck as a way to gain life against aggro that couldn't be removed and still top-decked okay. Then I played with it, and watched it win half my games on its own. The choice of options is very powerful in a meta that's so extreme between multi-color walker control / mill on one end and mono-white humans on the other. Unlike Jaddi Offshoot, this card always does *something*, and that something is usually good.

Twin Bolt / Fall of the Titans - early game removal for aggro decks. I've considered dropping the Falls for more Twin Bolts, since that's usually what they do, but the upside of Fall is so much higher, and the floor is only a little worse. We're a burn deck, which is what causes Twin Bolt to edge out Fiery Impulse. Also plays very well against those Kytheon, Hero of Akros into Consul's Lieutenant draws.

Fireballs: Ravaging Blaze and Rolling Thunder. We get to play with a full six fireballs (and the two conditional Fall of the Titans). As a result, we don't need to hold on to them like precious gold; use whenever they'd get you good value. Both can hit creatures, planeswalkers, or players - and you're probably better clearing the board unless you're about to hit lethal.

Lands: I went with the simple approach until testing indicated a need to do otherwise, and so far it's served me well. Doesn't do anything fancy, but it casts the spells on curve.


Thoughts / Testing Results

So far, I've played ten games with the deck in its current configuration, all in the 30-40 rank range. Results are:

Victory Against:
3-Drop Creatures (and the single counterspell I saw, which almost lost me a game)
Mill
Madness
Something? Unsure, might have been Allies.
Aristocrats
Aggro-Midrange (not humans)
Walkers
Tempo Fliers

Loss Against:
Ramp
Prowess

Basic observations: First, the meta is incredibly wide. Ten games, ten unique decks. Second, this deck is real. 8-2 record is pretty good at rank 30+, and I saw most of the decks I was hoping to face.

More specific notes:

Creatures - A fine matchup, although the Confirm Suspicions was a blowout I did not expect, and almost won the game on its own. Eventually out valued him in the Tireless Tracker mirror. Felt slightly advantaged.

Ramp - I kept a questionable (read: bad) seven cards on the draw and got run over by Arlinn Kord. It was not close. Game didn't feel very representative, though - I suspect this is close to an even mirror match.

Mill - Strongly advantaged. He dropped Sphinx's Tutelage on turns three and four alongside sweepers, but died to early Sylvan beats into a Fireball when he tapped out, with half my deck left and a hand full of threats.

Madness - Tried to kill me with the embarrassing double Goblin Arsonist beatdown plan, while holding up removal for small threats that I didn't have. Finally dumped Lightning Axe and Avacyn's Judgment to clear out a Woodland Bellower + Sylvan Advocate, but died to two fireballs in a row. Looked like an aggressive deck that misjudged its role in the matchup.

Something - never really got off the ground, saw a Bloodbond Vampire and three attacks from Shambling Vent before he died to creature beats and burn.

Aristocrats - Poor guy. He had a good hand - Blisterpod, something, Smothering Abomination, Ob Nixilis Reignited, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. The Blisterpod and Smothering Abomination were forced to chump to stop 8 damage on turn four (courtesy of Retreat to Kazandu), the Ob Nixilis ate half a Rolling Thunder, and Kalitas ate half a Ravaging Blaze for lethal. Unsure how the matchup is in general, but my draws were backbreaking.

Aggro-Midrange - some weird white variant running a playset of Felidar Cubs alongside more typical faire. Had to choose between beatdowns and clearing out a Retreat to Kazandu, got me down to 7 life before three consecutive sweepers stole the game.

Prowess - this was a stomping, and felt like an honest weakness for my deck. An aggressive deck with all its threats being X/2s and X/3s is an excellent strategy against a control deck trying to sweep with Rolling Thunder. This matchup felt very bad for me - so bad, in fact, that I'd avoid trying to do anything about it and just hope to dodge it.

Walkers - I saw Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Nissa, Sage Animist, Ob Nixilis Reignited, Chandra, Flamecaller, and a Woodland Wanderer. No idea what the blue was for. Gideon and his token ate a Ravaging Blaze, Nissa and Ob Nixilis ate a Rolling Thunder, and Chandra got killed by my own Chandra a turn afterwards. Had me down to five life, but Retreat to Kazandu pulled through. In the end, he ran out of cards while I still had a hand of threats and clues. He played very aggressively, and I'm not sure if that was the right choice - might have been better served plus-ing every walker every turn to keep them out of burn range. Either way, a close game, but my fireballs had exactly the utility I hoped they would.

Tempo Fliers - One of the more challenging games I played, mostly on the back of Thought-Knot Seer getting Essence Fluxed. First one had a choice between Nissa's Pilgrimage, Rolling Thunder, and Chandra (chose Rolling Thunder), second was a choice between Chandra and Woodland Bellower (took Chandra). I kept pushing through damage on the ground with Retreat to Kazandu while he pushed damage in the air. Finally had him on the ropes, and a two-for-one with Twin Bolt sealed the deal. Matchup felt close the whole way.


Specific Card Notes

For the most part, the deck behaved exactly as I had expected it to in theory when I built it. There were a few outliers, though, which suggest room for alterations or improvement.

Mina and Denn, Wildborn were great every time I played them. Started at zero, went to both. It's the sweet spot of reasonable threat, ramp spell, combat trick, and landfall enabler. I was worried about Languish, but Retreat to Kazandu shored that up reasonably well (and the rest of my deck is pretty Languish-proof, so it wouldn't be a blowout).

Speaking of Retreat to Kazandu, this card is insane in this deck. It took over every game I played it in, with either mode. Can't praise it highly enough.

Greenwarden of Murasa felt surprisingly lackluster. All my strongest plays with it involved getting back Evolving Wilds to enable Retreat or Omnath, in which case Ulvenwald Hydra would probably be better. Got back Retreat to Kazandu once, and Ravaging Blaze a few times, but the fact that you can't fireball the same turn you get it back hurts a lot. Probably still good in grindy black control matchups, though - the two decks of that style that I faced both got run over before he would have mattered.

Fall of the Titans is not very good in this deck. It might be the best card for the slot, but it never made me happy. I cast it twice, once as an overcosted Twin Bolt, and once for XX = 3. Never got to surge it, which seems like it'll be an issue a lot of the time. That said, if I took it out, I'd probably just replace it with two more Twin Bolts. I think it has to be better than that on average, even if you never surge it? Unimpressed, though.

I never missed Gaea's Revenge or Ulamog, but I did miss having a true sweeper and I missed having value lands. This deck might be a good home for Chandra's Ignition replacing Fall of the Titans, and there's almost certainly something better you can do with that mana base. Even a single Island to enable Radiant Flames is worth considering. I never faced a pure aggro deck like mono-white humans or mono-red, and I think they'd be tough without another way to sweep the board. Probably an unfavorable matchup with this configuration, and I'd like to turn it even/favorable.


And that's a wrap...

Suggestions and comments welcome!

Inb4 Hakeem says that no one does these deck write ups better than you.

Cuz he's right. I really like the new testing results section.

Please don't leave this site. This analysis is really fun to read

Took this deck out for a spin, won three games (rank 40 steam). Seems to work pretty well.

Definitely best write up yet. Keep em coming. How about you do one of my decks next haha? Then I can see what's wrong with them.

I was thinking the whole time reading through it that Chandra's Ignition felt like it should earn a spot...maybe for Titan.

I don't have to play the game can just read your posts instead and it's like I'm really there!

The most obvious change is +2 Chandra's Ignition, -2 Fall of the Titans. I'm going to try a few games like that and update this post with my results. Of note, our original list had no five-drops, so it can slot in nicely (and can redirect the player damage to walkers, just like all our other fireballs).

Win vs. Renowned - Citadel Castellan on turn three turned renowned on turn four alongside Declaration in Stone. Managed to keep the rest of the board clear, but couldn't stop the Castellan as it grew to a 6/8 flier and was beating down faster than Retreat to Kazandu could heal me. Then, with two turns to dead and nothing going on, I drew Woodland Bellower grabbing Tireless Tracker and generating four clues. Cracked them all, bolstered twice with Retreat, and stole a game with a clue-gotten Chandra's Ignition on the 9/8 Tracker to clear the board and swing for lethal. Not a bad initial showing for Chandra's Ignition!

Loss vs. Renowned - Different player, same deck. Opponent had actual perfect curve out on the play with renowned creatures and three removal spells. I kept a slow-ish hand after a 5-land mulligan, and never got to take a turn off to ramp. Died with six cards in hand including Chandra's Ignition with no targets, while my opponent only had one card. +1/-1 so far (although Fall of the Titans also would not have saved me). Might have been able to win with ramp on turn three and no attempt to block into a later Nissa's Renewal - but opponent had the nuts and there was only so much to be done.

Loss vs. Werewolves - 7 land hand, Mulliganed into a 2 land hand with no ramp, Mulliganed into a 1 land hand with no ramp, and failed to draw land. Not much to say, although I was still one turn from stabilizing.

Win vs. Humans - Finally, the first humans deck! Mulligan once into a good hand on the play, opponent plays a turn one Expedition Envoy, let's see how this goes. I get the turn two Sylvan Advocate to play roadblock for a turn - he plays Consul's Lieutenant, then passes his next turn on two mana. When he gets a third plains, he swings Consul's Lieutenant and Envoy into my Sylvan Advocate - and I go with a dangerous no-blocks. This feels very strongly like Make a Stand, and if he's got a combat trick (even Enshrouding Mist) and my Advocate dies, I have no real chance. I think I can still beat a renowned Lieutenant. His follow up is Hanweir Militia Captain. I drop Mina and Denn, and he goes all in with double Grasp of the Hieromancer on Lieutenant, tapping both my blockers and swinging for 10 with Envoy and Captain - Ouch! But now that he's tapped out, I drop 6th land for Advocate and Ravaging Blaze his Lieutenant for exactsies. He can't attack, and I Rolling Thunder to clean up and swing for lethal. Being on the Play probably saved me here, though I would have taken the risk and blocked with Advocate on the draw. Never saw the trick, so I don't know if he had it.


...and uggh, a few more losses, with Chandra's Ignition dead in hand each time. Two is definitely too many, and it fails the "wins as a topdeck" test. One might be acceptable, but two is definitely wrong. Back to the drawing board, any other good ideas?

Maybe Embermaw Hellion in the 5-drop spot? All our sweepers are multi-targeting red removal, and the Hellion turns them up to 11. Could be too cutesy, though.

I'm losing to White + anything aggro. The kind where they enchant one guy. Just lost to a Boros aggro. Finally had the board stabilized at 5 life and he hits me with Rolling Thunder for 5 ftw.

Lost to a Orzhov aggro. Played that 2/2 renown with Vig. Flew over my head. Finally get Bellower out with the plan to Ignition. I do, he plays the white instant that gives his creature indestructibility. He only had 2 lands our all game.

If you miss Advocate, you're in trouble. I'm replacing Bolts with Lambholdt Pacifist. We gotta be able to block early. Pacifist is better than Jaddi I think.

Lambholt Pacifist is a decent idea, and combos nicely with Retreat to Kazandu. Might be worth adding in Arlinn Kord as another enabler / generally playable card?

Changes would probably be +3 Lambholt Pacifist, +1 Arlinn Kord, -2 Twin Bolt, -2 Fall of the Titans.