Fish Five-0: Gruul Aggro (Standard, Magic Arena)
This week, we're giving into our primal rage with some Gruul smashing which was piloted to a nice 5-0 by Bertram! Congrats on your undefeated league my friend!
Gameplan
Face is the place! We've got cards that can potentially have haste in Gruul Spellbreaker and Skarrgan Hellkite. We've also got very good beaters in the explore package like Merfolk Branchwalker and Jadelight Ranger. The deck is all about curving out and putting our opponents at a low enough health total to close out the match with Lightning Strike and Shock. The fact that we have cards with Riot also means control decks will have to be careful when they tap out and how generous they can be with using their health as a resource.
Gruul was one of the more hyped guilds coming out of spoiler season but it's been dormant for the time being. Maybe now is time for it to shine? Rekindling Phoenix is still a nasty card that is absurdly hard to deal with as it requires either a two for one or an exiling effect.
The Phoenix can be used as a multitool as it can play the aggressive game as we all know from the red decks of standard's past, but don't forget that this card can be a wonderful blocker. The four power isn't the easiest thing to get around and this card will often be your blocker for big threats.
I'm also a huge fan of Cindervines from out of our sideboards
This card helps a ton against all the spell heavy decks. All the nexus decks need to be wary of their life total before they try to loop Nexus of Fate as they very well could just burn themselves out. Expect to see Knight of Autumn and other Disenchant effects come out of the board of spell heavy decks once they see this spicy little meatball.
Conclusion
Though the Gruul deck had a strong outing this time, my issue has always been with Gruul's consistency. We don't have many decent card selection spells outside of Domri, Chaos Bringer and even more of an issue is our ability to get back in it when we're behind. If we fall too far behind early, it almost feels hopeless to try to get back in, but when the deck has its curve outs.... the deck is very strong. I want a way to make the deck curve out more often but unfortunately, I don't have an answer for that. I also would like to see if I could work in a few Carnage Tyrant or Rhythm of the Wild for our control matchups but then again, this is Gruul Aggro and not midrange. With that in mind, it's still nice to have uncounterable threats. If you're a fan of hitting face with big creatures then sleeve this up for your next Friday Night Magic or weekly event!
See you all at the next one!
-TheAsianAvenger
