Dies to Removal

well anyway back from breaking it and crushing TNM, I think this deck is INCREDIBLY well positioned right now and wish I could go to tournaments but I guess vacations are nice too.


People are playing last breath, you don't give a shit.
People are playnig devour flesh, you have dorks
People are playing Blood Baron, you have Boon Satyrs and no fucks
people are playing U/W WITHOUT celestial flare, you're playing Stormbreath
People are playing WW, you're playing Chandra, Pyromaster
People are tapping out in devotion, you're fusing Flesh//Blood


its a good time:

[deck]
4x Elvish Mystic
3x Sylvan Caryatid
3x Scavenging Ooze
4x Boon Satyr
4x Kalonian Tusker
4x Ghor-Clan Rampager
4x Polukranos, World-Eater
3x Stormbreath Dragon

24 Lands
2x Overgrown Tomb
7x Forest
7x Mountain
4x Stomping Ground
4x Temple of Abandon

4x Domri Rade
1x Xenagos, Reveler
2x Flesh// Blood

SB:
2x Skarrg Guildmage
n1x Polis Crusher
2x Armed//Dangerous
2x Destructive Revelry
1x Shock
3x Mizzium Mortars
1x Chandra, Pyromaster
3x Mistcutter Hydra[/deck]

SB is very mutable. Guildmage, Polis Crusher, 1 of the Armed//Dangerous are all pretty interchangeable imo. People just don't seem to be playing Mono U anymore but that could be wrong as fuck at a bigger tournament, so mistcutters stay along with 1 armed//dangerous.

I'd play more Chandra if I could, and shock is just house. Skarrg guildmage also lols at U/W so enjoy

posting to remind myself of the ragehammer that.top 8d

he jammed.mutavaults on23 land, cut tuskers, and went clan defiance with xenagos ramp on some bitches


I like Xenagos, hes defintely been house often for me and the clan defiance intersaction is sweet.

id want 3 more creatures for domri though

more later

Anyway I just don't like mutavaults in my list. Its a TINY bit of extra power (you get NO value from the mutavault is all creature types clause), and it WRECKS your double/triple red cards. Stormbreath dragon and Chandra are much more powerful when you can ramp into them with mystic, so why play mutavaults which helps you cast nothing at all?

I mean just read the play by play on wizards site.... the top 8 match this deck played in?

"After a crushing double mulligan..."

YUP.

A deck's surprise factor can only get it so far

at the top 8 your weakness always gets you in my experience.

This deck has horrible hands and mulligans pretty terribly since it doesn't have early pressure (tusker).

I'm not even sure I LIKE cutting tusker. In a world where you just want more mana is jamming more Xenagos really worth over the 3/3s? If WW and its splashes are so hot right now, isnt the 2 mana board stall
perfect against them?

anyway, I'm trying it out:

[deck]
26 Creatures
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Boon Satyr
4 Polukranos, World Eater
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Sylvan Caryatid


24 lands
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Abandon
9 Forest
7 Mountain

4 Domri Rade
3 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Mizzium Mortars
2 Clan Defiance

SB: 2 Destructive Revelry
SB: 2 Skarrg Guildmage
SB: 3 Mistcutter Hydra
SB: 2 Shock
SB: 2 Mizzium Mortars
SB: 1 Armed // Dangerous
SB: 1 Plummet
SB: 1 Gruul Charm
SB: 1 Chandra, Pyromaster
[/deck]

I always liek Xenagos and I DID love the interaction he has with clan defiance. At its heart thats what this deck really brings to the table compared to my version: Clan defiance and more PW.

I'm not too attached to flesh//blood, so this is a nice change. I need to playtest the UW and Esper MUs a bunch because forcing them to tapout to deal with Tuskers/Guildmages (because they have to) then resolving a xenagos or chandra is usually
my approach. I suppose just jamming 8 PWs with destructive revelry backup works too though...

also want to see how the Mono B Mu is affected

[deck]Ragehammer[/deck]

gonna leave this here and brew the shit out of this.

Finally got what we were missing for (a legit 3 drop creature), and the god just wraps everything together nicely and ESPECIALLY shores up the mono black match up (i'm predicting).

if you dont have ramp its still T4 guy, they play demon, you play xenagos, and swing with T4 guy easy. then you out race and every 4+drop you have can swing into demon

After pulling a Thassa and a Master of Waves in my Sealed pool and a second Thassa plus the FNM promo Friday, I am missing 3 Strombreath, 1 Sylvan Caryatid and 4 Domri Rade. My LGS had a promotion for every sealed event you played before the pre-release you got $1 off each pre-release you register for. If you play in five you get $5 off each and a fat pack. Friday was my fourth and I had already paid for all five pre-releases. So, I am getting a free sealed this Friday. Standard never makes the FNM for release weekend, so I'll be playing Sealed then. I have three weeks and a minimum of 24 pack pulls to trade into Domri Rade, Stormbreath Dragon, Sylvan Caryatid and the Xenagos needed. What do you recommend I aggressively trade into? What do you recommend I just buy? I also still need Stomping Ground, because no one seems to have them. I'll probably just buy them and the remaining Caryatids.

I am assuming the mana base
will be, as it stands now, 4 Stomping Ground, 4 Temple of Abandon, 10 Forest and 6 Mountain.

Do we care about running SB stuff like Unravel the Æther or Fade into Antiquity to deal with Gods?

Is Caryatid better than Gyre Sage? I like that the Caryatid doesn't die to spot removal, but Gyre Sage can potentially be a lot more mana generation and is a threat in its own right.

Also, with Black spot removal everywhere and probably relying on the new Infest to handle creature swarms, shouldn't Witchstalker have a place somewhere in the 75?

Is Caryatid better than Gyre Sage? I like that the Caryatid doesn't die to spot removal, but Gyre Sage can potentially be a lot more mana generation and is a threat in its own right.

Also, with Black spot removal everywhere and probably relying on the new Infest to handle creature swarms, shouldn't Witchstalker have a place somewhere in the 75?

I certainly think Witchstalker should be in the sideboard to swap in for Boon Satyr. I like the idea of Gyre Sage over Caryatid. Pretty much everything will evolve it and give it more utility.

I like it over Polukranos against anything running a lot of spot removal. Besides, I think Witchstalker and Boon Satyr are probably BFFs.

Also, those of you that have run the deck, is not playing a first turn mana dork a huge mistake? I've played a lot of Birds in my time, but the accel is usually outweighed by how easily it can be disrupted (having your dork burned when you were really counting on that mana is one of the worst feelings in Magic) and by how piss-poor a topdeck they are so I'd really rather not if I can help it.

For reference, here's what I was thinking about:

[deck]Creatures: 33
4 Dryad Militant
4 Experiment One
4 Gyre Sage
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Boon Satyr
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
3 Polukranos, World Eater
2 Xenagos, God of Revels

Planeswalkers: 4
4 Domri Rade

Lands: 23
[/deck]

I don't love Polukranos without Xenagos, the Reveler, but it's still probably better than most anything else in that slot... Deadbridge Goliath, maybe? It's more synergy with Witchstalker out of
the board...

Looking good guys, I might run this if I get the land base sorted out

its possible with how many 3 drops we can now play that evolve gyre sage that its time to shelf the.dumb plant

nothing would make me happier

for the same reason (3 drops) i think we definitely cant cut mystic though...

t2 fanatic, domri, witchstalker just too good

I don't love Militant in my list, it was just a fairly aggressive 1-drop that doubled as a cheap enabler to evolve Experiment and Sage, but it could be swapped out for a dork pretty easily.

Yea, I've never been a fan of Militant. It always seem to just be an enabler for evolve. At least with a dork you get value out of it if it sticks around, even late. Militant is outclassed late game.

I'm starting to warm up to the idea of Deadbridge Goliath - it's still pretty beefy like Polukranos without the Legendary clause and has synergy with Experiment, Sage, and Witchstalker. Before I go too far down the rabbit hole with this, though, exactly how necessary is Polukranos?

I'm starting to warm up to the idea of Deadbridge Goliath - it's still pretty beefy like Polukranos without the Legendary clause and has synergy with Experiment, Sage, and Witchstalker. Before I go too far down the rabbit hole with this, though, exactly how necessary is Polukranos?

In my green devotion with Nylea and her bow, his monstrous acted as a pseudo board wipe. Outside of that, he was just another big bastard.

If mono blue continues to be a deck polukranos is very necessary. Since we are splash red it can be a huge problem and we have zero removal that hits him BESIDES polukranos.

He also crushes WW and red decks.

If the meta is 80% control at the start which sometimes it is Deadbridge is just way better especially if you are going experiment one route. With witchstalkers and gyre sage.... well its easier to scavenge earlier with the sage and witchstalker being an 8/8 is house....


Hmmm.

Reposting my two lists:

The distinctive difference is the 3-drops and approach to devotion. Ragehammer makes full use of Fanatic of Xenagos (who, despite bile blights appearance, I think is solid) and aggressive draws with Ghor-clan and Stormbreath dragon. I will experiment with Blood over mortars, but without Kalonian tusker I just don't like hwo behind you can get with that card, especially early in the season. Its possible boon satyrs should be trimmed for Tuskers, now that we have another 3-drop that is defintiely playable on t2 with a mystic. With dragona nd Xenagos god, we have too much to do at 5 mana also I think...

[deck]4 Elvish Mystic
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Boon Satyr
4 Polukranos, World Eater
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
2 Xenagos, God of Revels


24 Lands
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Abandon
9 Forest
5 Mountain
2 Mutavault

8 Non-creature
4 Domri Rade
2
Xenagos, the Reveler
2 Mizzium Mortars

SB: 2 Destructive Revelry
SB: 2 Skarrg Guildmage
SB: 3 Mistcutter Hydra
SB: 2 Shock
SB: 2 Mizzium Mortars
SB: 1 Armed // Dangerous
SB: 1 Plummet
SB: 1 Gruul Charm
SB: 1 Chandra, Pyromaster
[/deck]



G/r Devotion (I think Courser+Xenagod makes this deck very good?):

The change to thsi deck is Xenagos, God of Revels. He is exactly what the deck needed: Haste and a powerful finisher. Maybe Nylea as a 1-of still but I'm not sold on her anymore, sure trample is nice but this deck just overpowers eventually. Also Courser is just a sweet value card AND gives 2 devotion... Its a bit synergy based but we'll see how it tests. I'm much mroe inclinced to play ragehammer ofc...

[deck]
4 Elvish Mystic
3 Voyaging Satyr
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Arbor Colossus
4 Polukranos, World Eater
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Courser of Kruphix
2 Xenagos, God of Revels

7 PWs
2 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
3 Domri Rade
2 Xenagos, the Reveler


23
Lands
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Abandon
2 Mountain
9 Forest

SB: 2 Mizzium Mortars
SB: 2 Destructive Revelry
SB: 2 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
SB: 1 Plummet
SB: 2 Skarrg Guildmage
SB: 3 Mistcutter Hydra
SB: 3 Nylea's Disciple
[/deck]

As for the SB I think Skarrtg guildmade is insane with Xenagos because of the devotion and just awesome way to get the u/x decks to tap out early.

I am really close to building both of these decks. I am going to HAVE to pull the trigger and get Scavenging Oozes and Stomping Grounds. I've been playing Sealed the past five weeks, so I have some good trade stuff, but I haven't been trading much. I still need 3 Stormbreath Dragon, 4 Garruk, Caller of Beasts, 3 Domri Rade (I would like to have 4, along with 1 more Xengaos, the Reveler to finish the set), Chandra, Pyromaster, and Mutavaults. I am glad to see you added Courser of Kruphix. I think that card is going to be really good for G/r Devotion, especially with Domri Rade. You'll already know your top card to determine whether to +1 or -2.

Also, I'm registered for all five colors this weekend. My roommate has been broke the past couple of months and I'm covering the midnight release and a 2HG on Sunday for him. I'll be bringing home lots of packs and should have some good trade fodder to get close to getting what
I need.

This is what the deck looks like without Boon Satyr:

[deck]4 Elvish Mystic
4 Gyre Sage
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Polukranos, World Eater
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
2 Xenagos, God of Revels


24 Lands
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Abandon
9 Forest
5 Mountain
2 Mutavault

8 Non-creature
4 Domri Rade
2 Xenagos, the Reveler
2 Mizzium Mortars

SB: 2 Destructive Revelry
SB: 2 Skarrg Guildmage
SB: 3 Mistcutter Hydra
SB: 2 Shock
SB: 2 Mizzium Mortars
SB: 1 Armed // Dangerous
SB: 1 Plummet
SB: 1 Hunter's Prowess
SB: 1 Chandra, Pyromaster
[/deck]


Haven't gotten to trying out Oracle of Bones+Huneter's Prowess... OoB would be nice with Flesh//Blood to for free stuff, but right now I've found prowess just a bit to win more and think it might be better as a random blowout post board than dead in your hand G1.


Xenagod is definitely the real deal though.

testing
gyre sage now, been mostly playing against Mono Black

Courser is better than Fanatic so far in my testing.

Courser is better than Fanatic so far in my testing.

Really? Because I'd love to run Oracle Jr. with Domri Rade but I didn't know what to cut.

Have you also tried Witchhunter in Fanatic's place?

I have not tested Witchstalker yet. I tested yesterday vs UW and Mono B playing a GR Monster list.

I can tell you, UW is THE deck to beat. The deck is incredibly consistent. nullify seems pretty impressive as far as a new card for them.

No matter what deck I played, Fanatic was ALWAYS a 4/4. There was a time where it got Bile Blighted with the ETB +1 counter on the stack against mono b. Courser, was really awesome. Dodges Bile Blight and is a 4 toughness body to help wall vs aggro. It helped thin my deck out, which is what I say is one of the biggest problems of GR Monsters (flooding out). The +1 life was relevant to help combat life loss from gary, it was awesome when I was able to get two out.. It also had great synergy with Domri, being able to see the top card help decide whether to +1 Domri or not.

I think GR is the best strategy to attack Mono B, in our test games, it just seemed like I was able to amass a
boardstate that was ahead of his removal. Xenagos god was really, really helps when saving your mutavaults. I would keep him a 2 of.

I think this is where I am at as far as core:

4 Elvish Mystic
4 Courser
4 Polukronos
4 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Xenagod

4 Domri
3 Xenagos - This guy is very helpful in the UW(I feel like they have a HUGE advantage Game 1) and Mono B match. I was playing with 2, but I think I would like three. His +0 clogs the board to force supreme verdicts.

2 or 3 mortars - Part of me is thinking 3 incase there is an increase in BBV at the start.

Lands 23 or 24. I was still flooding at 24. So maybe 23 is fine since you have Courser to help get lands off the top of the deck.


Cards to consider:
Caratyd- Probably need this guy.
Ghor Clan
Boon Satyr - Nice for dodging verdict.
Scavenging Ooze - not sure how I feel about this card, I have not played with ooze much, so I might not understand just how strong he CAN get.

I like the Ooze, but I think right now the vanilla 3/3 for GG is probably actually better.

Going to post 3 lists from SCG articles today, I am fairly new to GR MOnsters so its nice to see all the lists laid out and compare them.

I like Flesh // Blood in that second list...

Temple of Triumph needs to be Abandon in the first one.

It seems there are a lot of ways to take these lists!

Some initial questions: Do we like Boon Satyr? Mizzium or Flesh or a Mix of them? Ooze (another thing to dodge bile blight and drown once it gets coutners).

the fact that brimaz exists and pack rat still does means I have to favor mortars over flesh at this time. I have 2 mortars 1 flesh just to have it every once ina blue moon as a kill but it can still be shaved...

I'm not sure I like fanatic over boon satyr quite yet... needs more testing.

Against control boon satyr lets you get a bit of a mana advantage

Of the three drops we could play (Boon, Courser or Fanatic) I would say Fanatic is the worst of the three. 4 Courser and 3 Boon Satyrs seems good.

Courser isn't what I want to ahve in ragehammer though... I want to ghor-clan things and have them die?

I mean I guess it can bloodrush over a demon and live but...

Yeah, I love Courser and his synergy with Domri is amazing but in a faster list like Fate's I think he just wants the Fanatic instead. 3cmc for a 4/4 is much better than 3cmc for a 2/4 since he only really cares about hitting five land. The GR Monsters list obviously cares a little more about activating monstrous, but with Fate running Gyre Sage that gives him a little extra juice that he'd miss from Courser.

Fate, love the ideas here. Very close to convincing me to sleeve this up for the PTQ.

Tested your deck with a couple of miniscule changes against mono blue, and it rocks.

How do you feel about Prey Upon in the sideboard to take care of Master of Waves? You think Polukranos is enough?

I don't like gyre sage because of Bile Blight. To me the Hexproof from Caratyd just guarantees being able to ramp.

[deck]Creatures: 29
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Courser of Kruphix
3 Boon Satyr
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Polukranos, World Eater
2 Xenagos, God of Revels
4 Stormbreath Dragon

Planeswalkers: 6
4 Domri Rade
2 Xenagos

Spells: 2
2 Mizzium Mortars

Lands: 23
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Abandon
5 Mountain
8 Forest
2 Mutavault[/deck]

We have fairly similar lists. I think mine has the advantage vs UW control in Game 1

I ran the following 60 against mono blue last night piloted by Tubehunter. All games were with maindeck.

[deck]
Creatures (27)
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Gyre Sage
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
3 Polukranos, World Eater
4 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Xenagos, God of Revelry

Spells (9)
3 Mizzium Mortars
4 Domri Rade
2 Xenagos, the Reveler

Lands (24)
2 Mutavault
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Stomping Ground
5 Mountain
9 Forest
[/deck]

My findings from just the mono blue matchup:

1) Xenagos God is the stone cold nuts. Landing a Stormbreath Dragon and following it up with Xenagos just feels so dirty but so so right.
2) I liked having three Mizzium Mortars maindeck. It helped me keep devotion down or acted as a clutch boardwipe. It was especially handy after my opponent resolved a Master with a lot of devotion. Saved my ass a couple of times.
3) Gyre Sage is a little slower than I would like.
We aren't running BTE so we can't get her evolve counters up quite as easily as usual. There were a few times I could get aggressive with it, but other times where I wished it was Sylvan Caryatid. Obvious upside is being a blocker for Master of Waves, but then again so can Elvish Mystic. Needs more testing.
4) I played Chandra, Pyromaster first in the Xenagos planeswalker spot and I found the RR on turn four to be a little inconsistent. The threaten isn't as useful in this deck and I'd rather be advancing my board state than throwing her down on turn four. For this reason, the Xenagos planeswalker is better. If I were playing a Courser list I'd feel differently about it.
5) Maybe I'm wrong about four Polukranos since everyone else is doing it, but I just don't like four of a Legendary that is a four drop. Does serious work against Master of Waves though (and a lot of other things for that matter), so I can see the argument for it.
6) Mutavaults may be a bit greedy here. There were times where I
didn't have a turn one untapped green source and couldn't play Mystic. That felt horrible.

As for possible sideboard inclusions, I like:
1) Prey Upon: more Master of Waves hate, but possibly unnecessary.
2) Shock: better than Prey Upon against agro strategies, but worse against decks running Brimaz.
3) Destructive Revelry: obviously. We don't generally care about the gods so we don't care to run the new Deglamer.
4) Chandra, Pyromaster: good vs control.
5) Mizzium Mortars: the fourth copy.
6) Flesh / Blood: so much reach, especially with Xenagos in the list.
7) Ranger's Guile: might be a thing vs mono black and UW control, the latter especially since we'll be boarding out our Mortars and Scavenging Ooze.
Mistcutter Hydra: self-explanatory.
9) Plummet: mono blue and mono black.

I wonder if Scooze should just be Boon Satyr. Scooze can get bigger which makes it a nice late game play against decks with a lot of removal but Boon Satyr has huge upside with Bestow dodging wraths while being a more aggressive play.

I don't really understand Scooze in these lists....maybe because I have never played with him but what is the upside?

Mana sink in late game, hedge against aggro with lifegain, huge potential body.

But the more I think about it the more I want Boon Satyr.

Yep, doing it:

[deck]
Creatures (27)
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Gyre Sage
2 Boon Satyr
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
3 Polukranos, World Eater
4 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Xenagos, God of Revelry

Spells (9)
3 Mizzium Mortars
4 Domri Rade
2 Xenagos, the Reveler

Lands (24)
1 Mutavault
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Stomping Ground
5 Mountain
10 Forest
[/deck]

Play testing this, and I think all that black stuff I got is just gonna get made into a Mono B deck, and RG will be my new main deck.

You get people with scooze and Ghor-clan a lot. Also, it's a 2 mana 8/8.

But really, you need a curve. Something has to be in the 2 slot and scooze is both castable while also having lategame utility.