So with war we got a few toys for the Gruul pile, and initially my eyes were on the Boar god, Rhonas on a Rhythm of the Wild shell but testing proved that the deck was more of a meme than a competitive strategy, so I started to look up for some decks on the Gruul colors.


I found on the MTGA Tool one deck that was performing on the Mythic ladder and I tested it, the deck had a very fun synergy between T2 Domri and T3 Sarkhan that presented a beating of unknown proportion, I love the deck idea and started testing.


After a loot of iterations this is my current list and it feels very well-balanced ATM, basically I just cut some space on the old Gruul deck for PWs and Elves.

About the new cards, Elves are very important ramping you into a T2 Domri or Spellbreaker can be devastating, besides once you got Domri down your Elves become effectively 2/1 so they can pressure the opponent in the late game.


Domri, this card is amazing, in a creature heavy deck like this guy is Ramp and Removal on a stick, he pushes your team into better trades and if you resolve him on T2 you have counter protection -as long as you cast your creatures spells with the mana he provides-


Sarkhan the center piece of the deck once you Land Sarkhan its very easy to just ride the value he generates into a victory, pooping 4/4 flyers is no joke and as you stack them your opponent looses the ability to attack you, with one down any 1 toughness creature is effectively of the board and RDW has lots of those so this guy is just very very good.


Chandra, the original pile had Chandra also, but I think 6 slots for Pws is more than enough, you don't want to lose explosiveness.

The rest of the deck is very straight forward and it resembles a lot of the old Gruul pile, on the SB I´m testing 3 copies of Risk Factor... and they are a pain in the ass you resolve a couple of threats and with Risk on your hand or on the GY you can just hold the rest of your threats until the sweeper, while still keeping the pressure high.

4 x Llanowar Elves
4 x Dire Fleet Daredevil
2 x Kraul Harpooner
4 x Growth-Chamber Guardian
4 x Gruul Spellbreaker
4 x Rekindling Phoenix

3 x Domri, Anarch of Bolas
3 x Sarkhan the Masterless

2 x Collision // Colossus
4 x Lava Coil
2 x Lightning Strike

7 x Forest
9 x Mountain
4 x Rootbound Crag
4 x Stomping Ground
---
2 x Kraul Harpooner
2 x Legion Warboss
3 x Risk Factor
2 x Shock
4 x Cindervines
2 x Lightning Strike

Thank you. Now please add links to the cards, though to be fair, I've crafted most everything Gruul before the WAR release and am familiar with most of the cards.

Disclaimer: I'm far from an authority, don't treat my remarks like that were the case

So this is a midrange approach that's closest to the old Red Gruul deck - but you kicked out Chainwhirler (mana reasons?) and Skarrgan Hellkite (outclassed by Sarkhan I'd guess). Elves are an addition that make you more explosive - but for which matchups do you want them? I used to board them out vs Control and beat them through higher value (both with Sultai and Gruul).

New Domri looks much better than the old version - and has a lesser rarity to boot. Are you sure that you want the 3rd copies of him and Sarkhan over any Vivien? She's been my favorite card through the last two formats. Can't she at least replace the 2 Shocks in the SB? Or do they solve a major matchup problem?

How important do you rate Direfleet Daredevil? That one I refused to craft because it seems so niche, but these days it shows up more and more.

And last question: Legion Warboss > Krenko?

Oh and how about a sideboard guide?

edit: Can we talk about Lava Coil in the MB? Which are the targets for that? I'd rather have Harpooners and Lightning Strikes #3-4 to avoid dead cards against non-creature decks.

edit2: no Boar God?

1. I board out the Elves against RDW and against control I tend to leave at least 2 copies, If you slam a T3 Domri against Esper all of your creatures can no longer be countered and that alone can decide the result of the matchup.

2.Vivien is another 5 CMC drop and I´m trying to avoid going much higher on the curve... she is indeed very good but I have been testing the new hot girl in town: Chandra... and oh boy she has being doing good, Sarkhan offers 2 bodies and evasion, also he can at least protect him self against 1 toughness creatures ... I can see Vivien out of the deck for a while TBH.

3. Dare Devil is very important on the deck, he is at his best against Red or Black and he can brake some board stalls going 2-1, that said you do have more versatile rare cards out there so you should probably don't hold him in a very high priority regarding WCs.

4. The original pile had Krenko on the MD and I think he never ever was useful, that guy needs haste badly, that said when you cast Colossus on him the board gets ridiculous specially if you got Domri down, I can see my self making a 1-1 split on the SB

5. Lava coils have being swapped for Strikes and Shocks, with the new RDW swarming the ladder instant speed becomes a higher priority, and Lava Coils can come on G2 to deal with Phoenixes.

I think that if the RDW gets too prevalent we should swap some creatures to get the explore package MD and WGW on the SB, and I think the Red sunrise is on the horizon.

I will work on a SB guide later

-Thanks for the input!-

Deck Update
4 x Llanowar Elves
4 x Growth-Chamber Guardian
3 x Dire Fleet Daredevil
4 x Gruul Spellbreaker
4 x Rekindling Phoenix
1 x God-Eternal Rhonas

2 x Shock
4 x Lightning Strike
2 x Lava Coil

3 x Domri, Anarch of Bolas
2 x Chandra, Fire Artisan
3 x Sarkhan the Masterless

7 x Forest
9 x Mountain
4 x Rootbound Crag
4 x Stomping Ground

SB
4 x Kraul Harpooner
2 x Shock
2 x Lava Coil
4 x Cindervines
1 x Vivien's Arkbow
2 x Vivien, Champion of the Wilds

---

So after the first week of the meta RDW has almost disappeared, Esper and Bant Midrange were the raising dragons this week and they are both in a very good spot ATM, I dont know if the Bant deck is solid enough but it sure does seem powerful at this stage.

My Gruul pile got very poor results after the initial run, so I made a couple changes and I´m now testing a bit more with some of the new cards of the set.

Additions

I´m testing one copy of this guy... and damn this Rhonas is good, the 5 CMC is a lot but this guy pays his worth outfront, with Domri down he is unconterable and if Sarkham is down you are doubling up some heavy hitters in the air, I dunno if I want up to 2 copies of him on the deck but so far he has being solid.


Card advantage... in Gruul colors + she is one extra PW for Sarkhan, She has also performed quite good.

Last changes were on the burn suite, I´m now running 2 shocks and 4 strikes and 2 Lava coils, I´m trying to get a bit more of Instant speed removal for the RDW matchup and to kill PWs.
--
SB


Both cards are for the control matchup, when you are on top decking mode still very little testing but both cards seem decent.

So it's been a hot minute or two since I last posted and even then it was all over in the Duels subforum.

Now I have to be candid, after grinding all the iterations of Duels/Magic 20xx, I just didn't have it in me to start the Arena grind (and for what it's worth, I assumed it would be like every other digital version where it ends up being a stand alone game where the support would disappear and they'd have you buying/grinding a new version in a year or two. Whoops! Was I ever wrong ). What did happen however was I got into paper at my LGS and have been grinding that scene ever since (draft, standard and commander if you're interested). The one downside is that to build and then test decks against the paper meta, I have to throw $$ at it (proxy is fine for casual commander but there are rewards to be won and therefore can't get away with that in Standard). With that all being said, I thought I'd take a stab at posting brews again for feedback and more importantly, testing from the community. While Arena may not directly reflect my LGS meta (which isn't all top tier usually due to budget constraints), there's definitely enough reflection of the Standard meta; which from what I can tell, does show up in Arena (at least from what I've seen on YT minus all the grinding red decks). Now I have no problems net decking/tweaking and following the meta for decks (that'll be taking more shape over the next few weeks) but probably like most of you, I do enjoy brewing and I like certain deck types more than others. As long as those types of decks are "relatively" competitive in the meta, I will play those instead of just going spike. So now that I've rambled on enough for folks to no longer be reading this, I figured I'd post the list I've been theorizing (and figured it'd be fine to piggy back onto this Gruul thread? If not, I can repost elsewhere - just let me know).

4 x Llanowar Elves
4 x Incubation Druid
3 x Dire Fleet Daredevil
4 x Growth-Chamber Guardian
4 x Gruul Spellbreaker
2 x Domri, Anarch of Bolas
2 x Rhythm of the Wild
4 x Rekindling Phoenix
3 x Nullhide Ferox
2 x God-Eternal Rhonas
2 x Ilharg, the Raze-Boar
2 x Ravager Wurm

7 x Mountain
9 x Forest
4 x Rootbound Crag
4 x Stomping Ground

Sideboard:

1 x Banefire
3 x Carnage Tyrant
3 x Kraul Harpooner
2 x The Immortal Sun
3 x Thrashing Brontodon
3 x Vivien Reid




Some info on the deck/choices. It's fairly straight forward that I just want to play big dumb beatdown creatures that are tough to remove/interact with and get them out ahead of curve. There's nothing new with Gruul Spellbreaker and Rekindling Phoenix since they're just great and tossing in Ilharg, the Raze-Boar and God-Eternal Rhonas is just fun and potentially game ending as well as adding to the cards that are tough to remove (multiples of Rhonas are just cute where you can play one precombat and then cheat the 2nd one in with the Boar - sac the first one in play to put back in your deck and result in a double pump - who doesn't love a corner case xmas present?). I tossed in Nullhide Ferox as well again for the dumb beater/tough to remove aspect. It is a bit of a nonbo due to the non-creature clause but there are only 4 cards main deck that would be an issue and sequencing can usually get around a lot of that. The deck would rely on Dire Fleet Daredevil, Ravager Wurm and Domri, Anarch of Bolas as it's removal/ interaction (again hoping to play ahead of curve with the dorks or have enough board presence to allow you to play into these options). In the case of Direfleet and Wurm, there is also the off chance of multiple uses through the Boar. Rhythm of the Wild is a debatable card choice and can sometimes be tempo loss but does pair well with the other Riot options (therefore not really tempo loss) and gives you the cheeky plays with Incubation Druid and Growth-Chamber Guardian by adding the counters. It's not unreasonable to play two or more Guardians and fetch the rest in a turn. Rhythm; like Domri, Anarch of Bolas also helps against counter magic and seems like it'd give you a good shot at game 1.

The sideboard is basically speculation. Usually there's Cindervines in there (and it still may be the better choice) but I opted for Thrashing Brontodon for the deck synergy (and against aggressive decks, having more 2 and 3 drop bodies helps when you don't have a lot of removal or life gain to stabilize). Vivien Reid will also help in the Brontodon department for removal as well as card advantage and also with the Kraul Harpooner angle (did I just seriously justify Vivien to you people? Sorry about that). There's also something to be said for going with a whole PW package to transform the deck with Chandra, Fire Artisan, Vivien, Champion of the Wilds and Sarkhan the Masterless (and that may be something worth exploring - especially Vivien which I toiled over a lot - this could easily replace Rhythm) but I opted for trying to shut down all the PW nonsense with The Immortal Sun. With WAR being such a heavy PW set and a lot of builds running them freely, I figured this card would be a good option to try out (I do realize a lot of the PW's are cheap and could have gotten their value by the time this sees play but again, hoping to put this out ahead of curve to have an effect and therefore wanted to try it). Honestly though it could just be easier to run Sorcerous Spyglass but I'm hoping the additional text on the Sun is worth it. Carnage Tyrant has lost a lot of traction lately but again it's just a good tough to deal with beater and does carry the added trample benefit over Ferox and Wurm. Banefire is just a reach option especially against the Nexus style decks where you have a ton of mana and are being fogged turn after turn. There's also an honorable mention for Vivien's Arkbow which isn't in the list but seems like it could shine in this deck cycling away bad draws and utilizing the extra mana and creature heavy build but... again....testing.... I'm also heavily considering lands like Blast Zone and Field of Ruin. Blast Zone is just additional removal the deck probably wants and Field of Ruin seems like it'll be a one sided Ghost Quarter since a lot of decks are running 3 colors and minimal to no basics. I just don't think the mana count can support it without adding something like a Guild Gate to offset the count (and haven't decided if the potential tempo loss is worth it) or cutting a card to up the land count for one of these options. What's that? More testing? Bah!

Anywho, that's my thought process and the janky pile of cards I put together (again I know it's not tier 1 but I'm hoping it'll have some game ). I'd love to hear some feedback and if at all possible, some testing results (I know it's tougher in Arena based on unlocks/grinding but who knows, maybe there's a few of you out there with the stuff available?) I will say that the feedback will probably effect my choice for the deck I build this season (so don't be shy!).

Thanks a bunch

elk

nice to have you back ELK!
I can take that deck for a spin and give you some thoughts but please do share the importable pile

Hey welcome back! I remember you from the Duels days - though I hardly posted back then.

I would like to give feedback based on testing, but for now I've got only drafts on the menu to gain WAR cards. After that I'll probably still be quite a few mythics short of your list. Ravager Wurm for example is a card that never played a role and thus I probably have zero - and no intention to change that

So from a pure theory pov I think you have decent game vs "fair" decks. Control could get you when they have the right 1-for-1 answers in clutch moments (like countering a DFD to deny you the 2-for-1 ETB effect). Creature decks with white mana will have God-Eternal Oketra who just **** on other creatures. And if your LGS has combo in its meta, you better get 4x Cindervines for the SB. Also, RDW can always overrun you - they don't need much combat damage and you can't neuter them like WW and survive on 1 life for 10+ turns by gaining board control.

I like the idea of repeating DFD's and Ravager Wurm's ETB with Ilharg. Sarkhan might be too good to not run.

Ugh make me have to figure things out! Sheesh!

I made a slight tweak to the sideboard already (I'm terrible. I can't stop messing with a build especially when I can't test it. I end up theorycrafting way too much and just tweak without verifying results before changing. Dang it!)

Not exactly sure how it's suppose to be posted on the board so you can import it (unless there's a specific site I have to build it on?) but here's the Arena info (at least I did that much! lol)

4 Rootbound Crag (XLN) 256
4 Llanowar Elves (M19) 314
3 Nullhide Ferox (GRN) 138
4 Growth-Chamber Guardian (RNA) 128
4 Incubation Druid (RNA) 131
4 Gruul Spellbreaker (RNA) 179
2 Ravager Wurm (RNA) 200
2 Rhythm of the Wild (RNA) 201
4 Stomping Ground (RNA) 259
2 Ilharg, the Raze-Boar (WAR) 133
2 God-Eternal Rhonas (WAR) 163
2 Domri, Anarch of Bolas (WAR) 191
7 Mountain (WAR) 261
9 Forest (WAR) 264
3 Dire Fleet Daredevil (RIX) 99
4 Rekindling Phoenix (RIX) 111

2 Carnage Tyrant (XLN) 179
1 Banefire (M19) 130
2 Vivien Reid (M19) 208
3 Kraul Harpooner (GRN) 136
2 Vivien, Champion of the Wilds (WAR) 180
2 The Immortal Sun (RIX) 180
3 Thrashing Brontodon (RIX) 148


I can't let go of the Vivien, Champion of the Wilds. It's just a great card with card advantage, adds some potential protection to flyers but the static ability just seems great for a handful of matches. So I crammed it into the sideboard to see how it plays here.




So regarding control - both Rhythm of the Wild and Domri, Anarch of Bolas do have inherent answers in the counter cases you mentioned and playing against any control; regardless of deck, does require a fair amount of timing, sequencing and luck. That and a handful of the creatures; once they hit the board, are more difficult to remove than average which generally favors us. Sideboard with The Immortal Sun, Vivien's, and Tyrant should help out in game 2 & 3 (card advantage, shutting down typical PW's and more tough to remove creatures). Hand disruption is always tough but at least they can't pitch Nullhide Ferox!

Oketra is going to be a tough card to deal with/answer but I'm not sure how much to dilute the deck or tweak the sideboard to answer those builds unless it becomes a huge portion of the meta (the Bant Midrange decks did clean up though so it may be a big concern coming down the pipe)

I did mention Cindervines in my post and it's very typically run in the Gruul shell (and still a very real consideration/possibility). As I mentioned though, I'm attempting to use Thrashing Brontodon and Vivien Reid as my answers only because they have more synergy with the build and more flexibility/utility in other match ups. I just feel that I'm more likely side in one or both of these cards in quite a few different games but less likely to side in cindervines except in very specific match ups. I'm trying to be as flexible as possible but again it's all that 'testing' thing to see what's the right choice. Ugh.

As for RDW (or White Weenie), there's always the real possibility they will get the nuts or close to and stomp you (which is why you run those decks. Punish slow starts, bad match ups and in the case of Arena, grind value in time vs. return/reward). In games 2 & 3 it'll be about shifting the curve down and trying to clutter our 2 and 3 drop slots. Again this is another reason Thrashing Brontodon is here over Cindervines. The potential T3 play with a 3/4 body presents a reasonable obstacle (unless it's Lava Coil or other white based enchantment removal, they are slowing their tempo or two for one'ing themselves to deal with it and they are focusing on the board vs. my life total). So in theory they're shooting down Growth Chamber, Druid, Harpooner and possibly a 4/4 Gruul Spellbreaker or Brontodon (although we are banking on these being part of 'turning the corner') and then running into problems with Nullhide Ferox and Rekindling Phoenix. Dire Fleet Daredevil will definitely be used to cast their removal to help slow them down too. I know it's not ideal but it's typically how I've approached these match ups in the past (I was running a Simic and then Sultai Hadana's Climb deck last set and had a very similar approach which seemed to give me my best chance/ results. Prior to that it was Selesyna Tokens and those aggro decks were usually a favorable match up).

Sarkhan is awesome and as I mentioned, it's definitely a variation I'd love to try with several other PW's to support/strengthen the idea. So if you could just send all of your monies to elk - care of 'he needs all the stuffs' p.o. box magicisexpensive then I'd definitely be willing to report back and let you know how that works out.


elk

Well, I thought about how to get into Arena at this point in time. So you'd probably want to plan for rotation - no way to get all the DOM rares etc for a reasonable amount of money. But you'd also better start drafting WAR now because the power level of that set is insane and may make up the bulk of future standard. Can't blame you if you want to stay paper, but Arena appears to have the chance that the different Duels iterations never had.

Ok Elk I just imported your deck.. and I got all the cards to test it exactly as you posted it, I will give some thoughts after playing a bit with it, at first glance the deck has a nice curve

Ok Elk I took your deck for a spin.

Initial thoughts:
No removal what so ever... me dont like that.
Incubation Druid seems a bit off IMO I rather have the Hexproof Druid that can trade more often but is very susceptible to Chainwhirler and Chainy boy is going strong this weeks so I dunno what is right ATM

My Initial Gruul deck of the season featured the Boar God+ Rhonas and Rhythm of the Wild and I thought that has bonkers! I might have gone too over the top trying to pull this combo and went 4 Rhythms your approach with 2 seems a lot more balanced and maybe 2 is the right number coz Rhythm can turn the deck into a whole new dimension.
The Boar god with haste is usually GGs, I do think Sarkhan is just better tho.

So I took this into an Event B01 -after some warm up rounds (jeez I´m starting to get too judgemental)- and the deck felt good it was doing some things people did not expect from the Gruul piles and the deck performed incredibly:

G1 Vs Esper
T2 Tough Erasure he sees my Rhythm... I play around an obvious absorb and resolve the enchantment... it cost me one Phoenix and one Spellbreaker, I saved my Chaber guardians and draw the whole team he was out of cards.
1-0

G2 vs Gruul
I resolved Rhythm again so my creatures where larger in the end Phoenix took the game home.
2-0

G3 Vs Izzet Ral
this was intense, he had Ral down and one Exp in hand so he is about to combo... I had Rhythm again! Boar good + Rhonas and a Spellbreaker take a surprise alpha strike... he never saw it coming! ha!
3-0

G4 Vs RDW
Nullhide says hello GGs
4-0

G5 vs RDW again
triple Steam kin... I was dead before I could deploy a propper board
4-1

G6 Vs mono white
This was very close he was topdecking from T4 he drawed the 3 Unbreakable in a row!!! bastard I had Nullhide and one big Druid so was able to hold the fort... then I brain farted and cast my Diredevil thinking now its my turn to swing with formation... Nullhide says NO! -I had Rhonas in hand- he attacks again I chump block and got him on the back swing!
5-1

G7 Against Azorious something
Not even close totally destroyed him
Wurm with double riot off Boar god is just nasty
6-1

G8 Vs Grixis
This was so very close my dorks made all the lifting here as he had removal for everything else, Domri pumped the team for the final blow when our resources were completely exhausted.
7-1!!

So the deck felt very different from what I´m playing, Rhythm can be huge in this meta... I will continue the testing and I think I´m gonna try a couple of copies of Rhythm on my Sarkhan deck.

Thank you kindly for testing and your feedback. It's good to hear it had some game and makes me hopeful for building it in paper. Like I mentioned, it doesn't have to be T1, just be competitive most of the time and be fun to play. If you do play some more matches, I'd appreciate to hear the results and feedback!

Thanks again

elk

Yay elk is back! Everyone check out his deck! Back on the day Elk was the man to talk to if you needed help with the green portion of your deck especially. He’s not a red mage like many of us here, so seeing Cucho point out that Elk lacks removal brings a warm feeling to my heart. Green wizards love hulk smash decks

Yeah! Who needs removal when your creatures can do it for you? Or they need to spend more time worrying about your beefy board? Don't listen to all the folks trying hard not to bruise your ego....size does matter


elk

Yeah this deck is working very well. About 10-2 so far in Platinum. Struggling against WW though.

man Dire-fleet Daredevil and Ferox seem amazing.

How much of a pain in the butt has Rekindled Phoenix turned out to be? I was playing Magic 2014 the other night against Chandra and that 4/2 Phoenix who comes back was absolutely wrecking me. This Rekindled dude is like 100x better than that even.

I was thinking about Siege-Gang Commander for the sideboard instead of Vivien, Champion of the Wilds for removal and wide board states (and again cheecky with the boar). Are you playing BO1 or BO3?

elk

He would die in combat for sure, he is just a 2/2

i hope u die in combat

It's a good thing you don't have to tap any mana when the boar cheats him into play

elk