Much Abrew: Is Vengevine Back in Standard?

Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Much Abrew About Nothing! Normally, I think aggro, pump, and burn when I think of Gruul decks. But today, we're heading to Aetherdrift to play one of the most unique Gruul decks I've seen in a while: Gruul Exhaust! The deck is built around Afterburner Expert, which sneakily might be one of the best cards from Aetherdrift. With the help of Draconautics Engineer, we can sort of build our own Vengevine in Standard by filling our graveyard with Afterburner Experts and then exhausting Draconautics Engineer for just one mana to get them all back with haste for a massive attack! Oh yeah, and we also have some wild Agatha's Soul Cauldron shenanigans! Is Vengevine back in Standard? How good is the exhaust mechanic? Let's get to the video and find out!

Much Abrew: Gruul Exhaust

Discussion

• Record-wise, Gruul Exhaust felt solid! We went 4-1 with the deck, good for an 80% win rate, albeit in a small sample size.
• The deck's primary plan—getting back a bunch of Vengevine-esque Afterburner Experts with Draconautics Engineer—was way better than I expected. It actually did feel a bit like playing Modern Dredgevine. Not only is getting back a few hasty 4/2s a great way to deal damage, but once we find our Afterburner Expert, they just keep coming back from the graveyard again, and again, and again until our opponent finds exile removal or graveyard hate. This combo of aggressive damage with a grindy late-game plan is quite powerful and really the key to the deck working.
• Meanwhile, Agatha's Soul Cauldron was busted once again. The weird shenanigans it enables have quickly made it one of my favorite cards printed in the last couple of years, and it's even better in this deck than in most because nearly all of our creatures have activated abilities. Alongside turning everything into Draconautics Engineer to make a bunch of 4/4 flying Dragon tokens, being able to make all of our creatures into Voldaren Thrillseeker offers a way to close out the game with direct damage by throwing our team at our opponent's face, which is a great way to close out the game once the board gets gummed up with blockers.
• While not nearly as flashy as the other two cards, Dredger's Insight also deserves a mention. At first glance, it looks like a sorcery-speed Cache Grab, which is a fine if unexciting card. But in reality, Dredger's Insight has a bit of The Meathook Massacre in it. The Meathook Massacre looks like an overpriced sweeper, but it makes up for this by randomly gaining a bunch of life as it sits on the battlefield. Dredger's Insight is the same. It's a slow Cache Grab, but we had some games where we drew multiples and ended up at 30 or 40 life without even trying!
• So, should you play Gruul Exhqust in Standard? I think the answer is yes! I found the deck super fun to play thanks to all the sneaky lines that exhaust and Agatha's Soul Cauldron offer; plus, we won a bunch of games! If you like being aggro but traditional Gruul is a bit mindless for your tastes, Gruul Exhaust might be the exact Aetherdrift Standard deck you are looking for!

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive, on Bluesky @saffronolive.bsky.social, or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.