Today, the deck will be looking at is a deck I have noticed showing up every so often since when I went to a PPTQ in London, including even at my local Friday Night Magic, G/R Aggro. I normally play Temur, but unfortunately the deck seems to be like a glass cannon sometimes and it seems to always be one mana short of closing out the game and sadly never get. So I ended up cutting the blue out of the deck entirely to see what my options were.

This deck has such a better aggressive start and the mana seems a lot more forgiving, only being two colours it’s easier to cast my spells when needed, and the great thing about the deck is even if the game goes late it can carry on and can still win which some aggro decks can struggle to do. So without further-a-do here is the deck list:

G/R Aggro

Mainboard

Creatures (25) 4x Elvish Mystic

3x Rattleclaw Mystic

3x Heir of the Wilds

2x Boon Satyr

4x Goblin Rabblemaster

3x Ashcloud Phoenix

2x Shaman of the Great Hunt

4x Stormbreath Dragon Other Spells (12) 3x Crater’s Claw

3x Lightning Strike

3x Xenagos the Reveler

3x Sarkhan the Dragonspeaker

Land (23) 6x Forest

2x Mana Confluence

7x Mountain

4x Temple of Abandon

4x Wooded Foothills Sideboard 3x Arc Lightning

2x Barrage of Boulders

3x Destructive Revelry

2x Hornet Queen

3x Polukranos, World Eater

2x Windstorm

Deck Breakdown

Well, what can I say, one of the best 1-drops you can possibly get from green. Elvish Mystic does everything green wants it to accelerate into bigger threats to overcome your opponent but the great thing about this little guy its still an attacker and well every point of damage matters when you’re an aggressive deck.

Some people may think that Sylvan Caryatid is a lot better than Rattleclaw Mystic, but if you’re an aggro deck it’s a must for the mana and it can become a 2/2 morph that can then accelerate into the 5-drops in the early turns of the game. Even if you don’t want to flip it over, it’s still a 2/2 that the opponent has no limited information about unless they kill it – you could be bluffing Ashcloud Phoenix or Sagu Mauler by this point in the game – which some players hesitate about just incase it’s a card they can deal with later on.

The other 2-drop that I have in here is Heir of the Wilds which is just a bonkers card. One of the great things about the little guy is well he has Deathtouch, something no one wants to trade with if your opponent has the better board state. Another thing about the card is that is has Ferocious which is amazing. Most creatures in aggro have to pass the ‘Courser Test’. The ‘Couser Test’ is determines whether a creature can attack into Sylvan Caryatid (0/3) and Courser of Kruphix (2/4). If it can’t, then it probably isn’t the right card for the format at the moment. When Heir the wilds has the Ferocious activated – and most of the time it will as you play quite a few 4-power creatures in this deck – it has no problem achieving this.

Goblin Rabblemaster is a must and always needs to be a playset in any aggro deck running red because it’s insane if not dealt with and can close a game out so easily if not dealt with early, and even when its dealt with he may leave a few other guys around when he’s gone. This is my favourite card from M15, everyone thought the card would never really make an impact in standard but they were wrong, so wrong. In fact, every deck that runs red now will have them. In this deck he is just an all-star. You can get him out a turn early if you have the right land and Elvish Mystic which puts so much pressure on any opponent from such an early start and it generates some other threats that can just get to much for your opponent to deal with and if you have 2 of these on the field at once your opponent is in big trouble.

One card that could replace Goblin Rabblemaster in G/R Aggro is Flamewake Phoenix which I will be playtesting. It seems an quite good card, for one red mana you can bring it back if your opponent killed it off the previous turn which seems pretty good but getting the double red can be a pain in early turns and I think Rabblemaster just gives your opponent more pressure quick than the phoenix, but we’ll see what happens

The other 3-drop in this deck is Boon Satyr. This card currently sees very little play and I have no idea why. It’s a 4/2 which can get killed by burn, but that’s that I would always play this card in their end step. The options are either they kill it and tap out, or have one mana open or let it hit them each turn until they can find a way to remove him. Another great thing about Boon Satyr is you can bestow him late game with flash, allowing you to use it as a combat trick on a Stormbreath Dragon, something I have done a couple of times now, and let me tell you it feels pretty good to have an 8/6 Stormbreath Dragon before having the chance to activate Monstrosity.

The first 4-drop is Ashcloud Phoenix. It’s a rather hard card to deal with unless you exile it, It’s only really downside being that is has 1 toughness, apart from that it’s pretty solid. If you’re stuck on mana you can morph it and, when you have the right mana, flip it up and everyone takes two damage, then swing in for four. On top of that, if they kill it with a non-exile removal spell, it turns into a 2/2 morph, meaning they have to kill it again or leave it until it unmorphs again. Its also a good blocker. This may seem weird, but you trade with their creature and then you still have your creature which you can unmorph in the following turns. Without an exiling spell, Ashcloud Phoenix is a natural 2-for-1.

The first Planeswalker the deck runs is Xenagos the Reveler. It’s just such an amazing card and something any green/red deck first really puts into their deck. It can either make 2/2 satyrs for the more aggro approach, or the +1 which allows you to ramp into the bigger threats. Finally, you have the ultimate ability. When you get to -6 it’s usually game over for your opponent. Most of your deck is creatures and land even if it takes a few burn spells or Planeswalkers, the trade for getting three creatures on the board for free is worth it. It’s just an all round amazing card that can just do so much work in any game really, and while Mantis Rider isn’t around as much, it can shine even more.

And the last 4-drop is a new card from Fate Reforged that I’m very excited to start playing with. Shaman of the great Hunt is an absolute bomb, a 4/2 with haste for 3R is not bad to start off with but it gets even better. It has the ability to put +1/+1 counters on any creature you control that deal combat damage. Goblin Rabblemaster, Xenagos the Reveler and their tokens suddenly got a lot scarier.

The first 5-drop is just my favourite card in this standard season. Stormbreath Dragon is very well positioned in Standard at the moment. His Protection from White halts three quarters of the removal currently used in the format which is amazing, and Monstrosity 3 he can become svn more of a threat. The ability to deal damage equal the amount of the cards in the opponents hand is ok. Usually this will be around two damage, but combine that with a 7/7 flying attacker and it starts to add up.

The second, and last, 5-drop in the deck is Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker which is basically just way for the deck to play more Stormbreath Dragons! The only way to kill him when he’s a dragon is to exile him, alternatively they kill him when it’s in their turn, but that means most of their mana and creatures to kill him which isn’t favourable. His -3 is pretty cool too, killing almost anything that’s really getting in your way or beating you down, including other Stormbreath Dragons, Courser of Kruphix and any other 4-toughness, midrange fatty. Then there’s his -6 which is a bit of a weird one. It can be helpful in a game when both you and your opponent are top-decking. Drawing another two cards in your draw phase will put that game in your favour so much more, however in those situations you’re looking for a threat to kill the opponent with which his +1 can do just fine!

Lightning strike is still an amazing removal spell. If you have nothing to put down turn 2 or just want to wait for them to put down a creature, it kills a large amount of creatures, especially in other aggro decks like Mantis Rider, Goblin Rabblemaster and even Sidisi, Brood Tyrant in the Sultai Whip matchup, which can give you an edge in the game and leave your opponent a turn behind which can win you a game. Alternatively it can be used as a combat trick as a way to kill a creature with a high toughness like Courser of Kruphix or Siege Rhino or a Planeswalker.

Crater’s Claw is the other kill-spell in the deck which is either a good removal spell in it’s own right, or a way to close out the game from out of nowhere. It’s just such an amazing card and, with so many ways to activate the ferocious ability, deserves a spot in this deck.

Sideboard Breakdown

The sideboard at the moment is not the greatest as I have only really been playing the deck for a few weeks now, plus with the release of Fate Reforged the meta-game could soon evolve. But at the moment I think it works quite nicely.

Hornet Queen you may be an odd fit in an aggro deck at seven mana, but this card is very well positioned in the meta-game right now. Getting four 1/1’s with Deathtouch that no one ever wants to attack into really helps against grindy matcheups like Abzan Midrange.

The next card is Windstorm. This card seems really good against hornet queen decks or when someone manages to ultimate Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, allowing you to blow them out with it they have no follow up play. It can be a bit awkward as it hits your flyers too, but it’s not too much to play around as usually this will be for for two or three. Sadly this does save Ashcloud Phoenix, but it is safely underneath Stormbreath Dragon’s 4-toughness.

Arc Lightning is her for Jeskai Tokens. With most of their creatures being 1/1’s, unless Jeskai Ascendency is on the battlefield they can’t do much to stop this card – and even then there are other cards to deal with the ascendancy.

Barrage of Boulders is a good card in this deck to help push through the last points of damaged. These will most likely be put in agaist Sidisi Whip decks who want to fill the bored with zombies so I can’t get any good attacks. The Ferocious ability allows the deck’s creatures to push through the stalled board state while the one damage clears all of the Insect tokens as well.

Destructive Revelry is one of best cards in the sideboard in this. There are so many enchantments in the format like Whip of Erebos and Jeskai Ascendancy which are very prominent in the meta-game. It also deals with Banishing Light and Chained to the Rocks which could prove problematic.

Misscutter Hydra is purely for control hate. U/B Control is getting a few new cards and may come back again and nothing is better against them than a */* hasty hydra that they can’t counter.

Polukranos, World Eater this is a card I’m not really too sure about. Sure it’s been a good card in the past, but I just think its lost it’s value as most things are just as big as it now and it just gets removed, leaving you a turn behind, something Ashcloud Phoenix doesn’t do. Perhaps it will get better in the coming weeks, but until it could go either way to the moment.

Conclusion

So that’s the Deck Tech on the G/R Aggro deck. I hope you enjoying reading this and hope it inspires you to bring the deck to your local event or any events coming up in the future that you may want to go to.

The deck seems pretty solid at the moment in the meta-game as it’s still rather slow with a lot of tap-lands and everyone trying to sort their mana out early, but I would love to hear what you think and wether there is anything that you would change in the build. Have you tried the deck at your local FNM and if so how did you do? Leave all your comments and deck suggestions in the comments below.