Creatures – 22
1 Essence Warden
2 Tattermunge Maniac
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
3 Gruul Guildmage
2 Centaur Courser
2 Sacred Wolf
1 Boartusk Liege
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Rumbling Slum
1 Spellbreaker Behemoth
2 Wickerbough Elder
2 Blitz Hellion
1 Deus of Calamity
1 Shivan Wurm
1 Stonebrow, Krosan Hero
Other Spells – 15
2 Berserk
2 Rancor
3 Colossal Might
1 Fling
2 Branching Bolt
2 Fires of Yavimaya
3 Wildsize
Land – 23
2 Terramorphic Expanse
12 Forrest
9 Mountain
General Strategy: I built this deck to be a bit more reliable instead of more risky/explosive. Make no mistake though, this deck can still get turn 4-5 kills with a cheap creature and a combination of Berserk, Colossal Might, and Fling. Just look for an opening and strike. Fires gives haste to all your creatures, which can make for some explosive plays. This deck is still vulnerable to removal wrecking your plans, but this build can go for a couple more rounds than a build with a lower curve. Your opponent will be pretty much forced to use removal on your cheap creatures for fear of pumps and explosive plays. Blocking won’t work, because your pumps will just overpower their creatures. Keep the pressure on, then when the big hitters come, they can wrap up the game.
Essence Warden – It can be good to pad your life against the fast aggro decks like Peacekeepers and Goblins, but also functions as a 1/1 for 1 mana that can swing and utilize pump spells.
Ulvenwald Tracker – It may be rare when you get to make use of its ability, but it will make your opponents fear. Use that to your advantage and feel free to attack with it. Your opponent will most likely block it, because they don’t want it around, and trading a pump spell for your opponent’s creature is a good thing. The pumps grant trample, and removing your opponent’s creature means there’s less blockers for next turn.
Gruul Guildmage – I like this guy. Both of his abilities are useful. The damage dealing ability can be used to deal the last couple damage to your opponent, and pumping any creature without losing a card is nifty.
Tattermunge Witch – I always felt underwhelmed with this card. It was about the last card I’d play. 1 Toughness for a 2 mana creature was perhaps the biggest turnoff for me, and it’s pumping ability wouldn’t save a creature from dying in combat.
Bloodrock Cyclops – The centaur is strictly better, except for psychological warfare. If you swing your centaur into a larger creature, your opponent will know you have a pump spell ready. But when you’re forced to attack with the Cyclops, your opponent won’t know if it’s safe to block or not. Other than that, there’s not much of a reason to use the Cyclops, and not enough of a reason for me to run him over the centaur.
Wickerbough Elder – It’s your only answer to artifacts/enchantments, and some of them can cause lots of trouble for this deck. It’s not spectacular, but not terrible either.
Gruul Scrapper – I think this is the most underrated card in the deck. Aside from Blitz Hellion, it’s the only creature that has haste without a Fires on the field. An extra surprise attacker on turn 4 can help set up for a finishing combo. It still wasn’t nearly good enough to make the cut, as 4 mana for a 3/2 is underwhelming in the power/toughness department.
Blitz Hellion – And this is the card I most underestimated throughout my testing with this deck. By the time you’re ready to play Hellion, your opponent will either lose the game in the attack, or come very close to losing and be forced to block your Hellion in an unfavorable way. Having a 7/7 with trample suddenly hit the board and swing can be very overwhelming, especially given the theme of this deck.
Shivan Wurm – It can be another out to Pacifism/Pillory/Claustrophobia, and allow you to re-use an Elder’s effect. A 7/7 with trample can quickly devastate your opponent. However, I never wanted to see 2 of these, and when I did, one of them would end up stuck in my hand, not to mention a severe lack of good enters the battlefield creatures (*cough*flametongekavu*cough*). Therefore, I only run it as a 1-of.
Stonebrow, Krosan Hero – At worst, it’s another 5 mana trampler that swings for 6, so that puts it more or less on par with Deus of Calamity. Pumping your other creatures is a nice bonus, even if it means casting a Wildsize a bit sooner than the combat step.
Colossal Might/Wildsize – I was really torn here. On one hand, I liked the cheapness and extra power boost offered by Colossal Might, which let it make more explosive plays, especially in combination with Fling/Berserk. But the card draw from Wildsize just helped smooth out my draws and made setting up my next couple turns easier. In the end, I decided to go with an even split.
Branching Bolt – Yeah, the heavy control player that went for a more reliable Gruul build only included 2 copies of the only instant speed removal in the deck. It is indeed nice to have some form of removal that doesn’t rely on combat tricks, but I find that I really don’t want to take away from the creature to pump spell ratio too much. It’s great to take out a blocker, or some other creature that is sitting across the board that is stopping your strategy. However, I don’t want to see it too much, especially since it can’t damage players. Therefore, I went with only 2 copies, and it seems to be working good for me.
Feral Animist/Mage Slayer – They can be nice cards and create lots of potential combos with your various pumps and Fling, but they were the more risky cards, backfiring easily. They can be dangerous, but easily disrupted. The Animist only has 1 toughness for 3 mana, making its survivability lower than normal. If it had trample to start with I might consider it, but if you don’t have a way to give it trample immediately, it will end up just sitting there, and I would end up wishing it was one of the big beaters that doesn’t necessarily need assistance to function well. The Mage Slayer is an equipment, so it’s not really going to surprise anyone, and I’d rather have more pumping effects before including this.
Runes of the Deus – 5 mana for an aura makes it really risky, and unless you can put it on a creature that’s both red and green, it really isn’t worth it.
Soulblast – This may seem like a good idea at first, until you realize that it costs triple red (and there’s only 9 mountains in this build), and that you rely on pump spells to boost your creatures, and that you rarely have more than a couple creatures in play anyways. You’re better off with Fling, the Guildmage, or Mage Slayer for dealing those last points of damage.
Vengeful Rebirth – Regrowth is nice, but the damage you’ll typically deal is minimal compared to the 6 mana you spent for this card. I like the mana curve for this deck topping out at 5 anyways.