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By: olaw, Oliver Law
Nov 13 2012 12:47pm
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Hello!

Welcome to another edition of Becoming A Modern Man! In this article, I am going to be looking at a rather fun RG Aggro deck that I found whilst scouring through the dailies for deck inspiration. 

RG Aggro
3-1 Decklist by AlexSama Modern Daily #4485704 on 10/28/2012
Creatures
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
2 Hell's Thunder
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Groundbreaker
4 Goblin Guide
4 Strangleroot Geist
26 cards

Other Spells
4 Pillar of Flame
2 Dismember
4 Incinerate
4 Lightning Bolt
14 cards
Lands
6 Mountain
4 Copperline Gorge
6 Forest
4 Fire-Lit Thicket
20 cards

Bloodbraid Elf

Fortunately here I didn't have too much of a problem getting all the cards within my budget and so I played the list as shown above, which admittedly it would be nice if I could do that more often.

DECK TECH

Creatures

Bloodbraid Elf
Bloodbraid Elf
Bloodbraid Elf is such a powerful card it is kind of unusual that it rarely sees play outside of Jund.  Jund is definitely a fantastic home for Bloodbraid but I think it's worth experimenting with.  Bloodbraid is awesome in this deck as it can hit every card in the deck.  Also, as all the creatures have haste you can deal a ton of damage in a single turn.

Boggart Ram-Gang
Boggart Ram-Gang
Boggart Ram-Gang isn't really a card I've ever considered playing in this format.  In this deck he is a real beating and wither isn't to be underestimated.  Even Tarmogoyf doesn't look so tough with -1/-1 counters on him.  Hasty beats and with a mana cost that fits in perfectly with the deck.

Hell's Thunder
Hell's Thunder
Hell's Thunder is very good at getting those last points of damage in.  A lot of decks don't run fliers and flying over for 4 potential twice thanks to unearth is a big deal.  Hell's Thunder can do good work closing out a game.  As I will go on to discuss the manabase is a bit shaky in this deck so I've had occasions where the double red in the mana cost has been a problem, but generally it isn't.

Groundbreaker
Groundbreaker
The green Ball Lightning, which I maintain should probably actually be Ball Lightning, is a nice and large source of damage.  The manabase can struggle a little trying to fit this in and that is why I think Ball Lightning would have been more forgiving.  Groundbreaker does have the advantage of being green and therefore sidestepping red hate but I'm just not sure any benefit gained is worth the strain you put on your manabase.

Hellspark Elemental
Hellspark Elemental
The mini-Ball Lightning very often gets in for 6 damage.  It's fortunate that first strike isn't very popular in Modern or this deck might have a hard-time.

Strangleroot Geist
Strangleroot Geist
Strangleroot Geist fits nicely into the deck as another hasty beater and a recursive threat.  Strangleroot Geist is probably the second best reason for this deck to be splashing green.

Goblin Guide
Goblin Guide
Goblin Guide is one of the most aggressive one-drops ever printed and our deck is very aggressive.  More hasty beats and fast thanks!

Spells

Dismember
Dismember
Dismember is an interesting inclusion but a solid one.  Sometimes you need to be able to get rid of bigger threats and Dismember can go a long way in that regard.  I have to say I've rarely been too upset at seeing this card though of course the inevitable 4 life loss is significant.

Incinerate
Incinerate
Incinerate doesn't really feel like the ideal card in this slot but it does its job.  You are often just needing to deal the last points of damage to your opponent and sometimes it is Incinerate that gets you there.

Pillar of Flame
Pillar of Flame
I am not entirely convinced that this card is necessary but it does serve a purpose.  It is a great card against recursive creatures like Gravecrawler or perhaps more commonly (and more annoyingly) Kitchen Finks.  However, a sorcery-speed Shock just seems rather underwhelming to me.  Especially when you compare it to Lightning Bolt.  It also has the disadvantage of not being able to hit Inkmoth Nexus and other manlands. 

Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Bolt is a classic and sometimes the old ones are the best.  If I could run eight of these I would.

Manabase

Fire-Lit Thicket
Fire-Lit Thicket
Fire-Lit Thicket is really the glue holding what is a pretty shaky manabase together.  Thicket allows you to filter your green and red mana to allow you to play the various double and even triple coloured mana requirements in the deck.  Games where you draw Fire-Lit Thicket tend to be a lot easier than those where you don't.

Copperline Gorge
Copperline Gorge
Copperline Gorge is the only other dual in the deck but it is a good one that allows you to get your early plays in.  The Scars lands are very good in Modern and are currently at low prices thanks to Scars rotating out.  I'd suggest it's not a bad idea to pick some of these up for use in Modern because unless a better set of lands come along then I can see these slowly climbing back up.

Sideboard
Here's the sideboard:
Electrostatic BoltMolten RainAncient GrudgeGrafdigger's CageLeyline of PunishmentCombust

I quite like this sideboard.  It's quite well set up against Affinity with Electrostatic Bolt, Ancient Grudge and Molten Rain all being solid plays in that matchup.  Combust works well against a variety of decks but particularly Restoration AngelGrafdigger's Cage isn't exactly in keeping with the decks recurring creatures like Strangleroot Geist and Hellspark Elemental but I think it serves to acknowledge that there are more ridiculous things that people can do with their graveyards.  Leyline of Punishment is helpful against Soul Sisters type decks which are obviously a pain for this deck, however, they certainly aren't unwinnable thanks to the high creature count.

COST
This deck is pretty inexpensive to build.  The main expense are the Fire-Lit Thickets which are decent lands anyway.  My only reservation about purchasing them is that the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor Block filter lands, of which Fire-Lit Thicket is one, are the odds-on favourite for seeing reprint in Modern Masters in July.  The Ravnica lands have just seen reprint in Return to Ravnica, Modern Masters will not include reprints from Zendikar onwards so no Fetchlands or Scars lands, which makes the filter lands the only other set of lands that really sees play in Modern.  The rest of the cards are pretty standard fare and most will go into RDW if you are looking for reusability.

(as usual prices are taken from MTGOTraders.com and are accurate at time of writing)

Main Deck

4 x Fire-Lit Thicket= 17.24
4 x Goblin Guide= 6.72
4 x Bloodbraid Elf= 3.20
4 x Copperline Gorge= 1.98
4 x Hellspark Elemental= 1.00
4 x Strangleroot Geist= 1.00
4 x Boggart Ram-Gang= 0.68
2 x Dismember= 0.64
4 x Pillar of Flame= 0.60
4 x Lightning Bolt= 0.32
4 x Groundbreaker= 0.20
4 x Incinerate= 0.16
2 x Hell's Thunder= 0.10
Total: 33.20 tix

Sideboard
2 x Grafdigger's Cage= 2.82
3 x Molten Rain= 0.45
4 x Electrostatic Bolt= 0.32
2 x Leyline of Punishment= 0.10
2 x Combust= 0.08
2 x Ancient Grudge= 0.06
Total: 3.83 tix

TOTAL COST: 37.03 tix

GAMEPLAY
As usual, I have some gameplay videos for you to give you a taste of how the deck plays.  I have to apologise again for the audio quality again as I still haven't managed to pick up a new microphone for recording.  Hopefully I will get one soon that works well.


My first matchup is against the dreaded Jund.  I have to say I wasn't massively confident about this matchup but things went surprisingly well. 

In Game 1, I manage to put on some early pressure with my creatures and use removal to deal with his creatures and Treetop Village.  I get my opponent pretty low before he looks to stabilise with removal and a Kitchen Finks.  Fortunately my deck provides me with the answers I need and a Bloodbraid Elf cascading into a Strangleroot Geist sees out the game with the help from an Incinerate.  Game 2 goes rather similarly.  Early pressure is put on by my creatures, so much so that he decides to trade his Dark Confidant with my Strangleroot Geist before getting value out of it.  Removal and a Tarmogoyf from my opponent threatens to slow my progress but I am able to kill off the Goyf when it blocks thanks to 2 additional damage from a Pillar of Flame.  From there my opponent drops a Liliana of the Veil, which is probably worse for him than me as many of the creatures I discarded had unearth.  My opponent looks to stabilise with a Finks but I draw a Groundbreaker which, after the Finks persists has him down to 3.  He drops a Bloodbraid Elf but chooses not to play the Dark Confidant it cascades in to at risk of killing himself.  I find a land and can finally unearth either a Hell's Thunder or two Hellspark Elementals for the win.


The second matchup I have for you is against RG Tron.  This matchup seems pretty good provided you can apply pressure early and they do not setup too fast.  Wurmcoil Engine is definitely bad news but hopefully you will be able to wrap things up before it hits the board.  Molten Rain from the sideboard is pretty good too. 

In Game 1, we don't get off to the fastest of starts whilst our opponent gets Tron on line on Turn 3 and drops a Karn Liberated.  He makes me exile a card from my hand which turns out to not be such a big deal and I continue the beats to his face, choosing to ignore Karn.  This strategy works out well and a Bloodbraid Elf cascading into a Hellspark Elemental finishes him off before he can find any additional gas.  In Game 2, I maybe should have stuck with my opener but I mulliganed to try and find something more aggressive.  Bad hands came at in abundance and I ended up taking a mulligan down to 4.  I never drew a third land and my opponent set up Tron and then dropped an Ulamog to end my game.  In Game 3, I kept an unexciting 7 cards whilst my opponent mulled to 5. I drew into a Molten Rain to destroy an Urza land which hurt my opponent badly as he was unable to a subsequent land drop for a turn or two. Meanwhile my Groundbreakers and Boggart Ram-Gang finished him off.


The third matchup I have for you is against Birthing Pod.  This matchup is quite tough as they have a lot of creatures to block up the ground, even a turn 2 Wall of Roots can be a major annoyance.  They also have Kitchen Finks which is a bit of a nightmare, even with Pillar of Flame to give you a helping hand. 

In Game 1, a turn 2 Wall of Roots slows my progress followed by a Kitchen Finks which acts as another road block.  I end up misplaying as I kill his Finks in response to a Restoration Angel, which gives my opponent the opening to play Kiki-Jiki and combo off for the win.  In Game 2, I kill off his Birds of Paradise to slow my opponent down and then drop a couple of Strangleroot Geists to bring the beatdown.  I do some pretty heavy damage despite a Restoration Angel coming down on Turn 4 and manage to battle through to do the final points of damage.  In Game 3, I kill off a Turn 1 Birds of Paradise and my opponent misses a land drop, which seems pretty good for me.  Unfortunately he stabilises with a Wall of Roots which leads in to a Kitchen Finks.  He then uses Chord of Calling to find a Phantasmal Image which copies the Finks.  Meanwhile I am using all my resources to try and keep the pressure on and drop my opponent's life total.  However, an Obstinate Baloth adds to my woes as does a Restoration Angel which blinks it.  His board presence and life total grows increasingly larger as I struggle to keep up and eventually lose.

CONCLUSION
RG Aggro is a fun deck and has some merit to it.  What really needs sorting out though is the manabase which can be a bit of a nightmare.  I am not sure of the exact solution but trading in Groundbreaker for Ball Lightning might be a start, as could a Stomping Ground or two.  Apart from that it is a very interesting take on the average red aggressive deck in this format.  It's also pretty budget friendly if you're looking for something to experiment with.

As an aside, there was actually another RG Aggro deck that I saw go 3-1 in the Dailies, which I also considered doing an article on.  I might still yet in the future.  I'll put the list here.  Let me know if you'd be interested to see an article on it.

RG Aggro
3-1 Decklist by RavenNight Modern Daily #4432674 on 10/11/2012
Creatures
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Goblin Guide
4 Leatherback Baloth
4 Strangleroot Geist
20 cards

Other Spells
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Lead the Stampede
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Rancor
16 cards
Lands
4 Copperline Gorge
7 Forest
4 Mountain
4 Rootbound Crag
1 Stomping Ground
4 Treetop Village
24 cards

Bloodbraid Elf

 
Anyway, that's all from me for this article!  In the next edition of Becoming A Modern Man I plan to look at Gerry Thompson's Elemental Combo deck from Pro Tour Return to Ravnica.  Meanwhile, please take a look at the past articles in this series and keep reading and supporting PureMTGO.com.

Thanks for reading,

Oliver Law (olaw on MTGO)

7 Comments

Re: Electrostatic Bolt by BlippyTheSlug at Wed, 11/14/2012 - 01:32
BlippyTheSlug's picture
5

I've found that Shattering Spree is an *AWESOME* sideboard card against Robots in a R heavy deck. Take out his entire army on turn four? Yes, please!

Thanks for the positive by olaw at Wed, 11/14/2012 - 05:21
olaw's picture

Thanks for the positive review Blippy.

I was actually thinking that Smash to Smithereens would be a good card for a bit of damage and destruction.
I agree though that Shattering Spree can be a real blowout against Affinity/Robots. Particularly good considering that the deck is pretty popular right now.
Definitely one to consider!

I've played the second deck by IntrinsicMatt at Wed, 11/14/2012 - 17:10
IntrinsicMatt's picture
4

I've played the second deck you posted a little bit on MTGO. I was surprised at its resiliency. It lacks the speed of the all-haste deck, but it is a little hardier. Leatherback baloth is a house and can go toe to toe with a lot of creatures. I'm not sure about Lead the Stampede, but I'm not sure what a decent replacement might be.

Thanks for the comment. That by olaw at Wed, 11/14/2012 - 18:03
olaw's picture

Thanks for the comment.

That list does look a little more resilient and less likely to run out of gas. The version I used doesn't have the best long game.

I played Leatherback Baloth in a Dungrove Elder-based Modern deck in one of my other articles and really liked it. A vanilla 4/5 is surprisingly good in this format due to all the small creatures people are playing.

Lead the Stampede doesn't seem amazing but it has to be said there aren't a lot of other green draw spells. Harmonize seems like the next best thing, otherwise I guess you could just put a few more creatures in its place.

Thanks! by mootown2 at Fri, 11/16/2012 - 01:16
mootown2's picture

I love to see variations on Green/Red for formats where it isn't supposed to be any good. I started playing when Erhnam-n-Burn'Em was a top deck and we'd casually push out 'quick' Shivan Dragons using Tinder Wall and Orcish Lumberjack. I like the idea of these decks, but I've recently been tinkering with a GR Modern deck that includes 3 Magus of the Moon and a medium land destruction package (4 Stone Rain, 3 Boom//Bust, 2 Sowing Salt, and 2 Shivan Wumpus plus 2 Molten Rain in SB). The deck would also include a few copies of Faithless Looting to provide an outlet to dump these spells depending on match-up and Grim Lavamancer to eat them either way. The local shop is getting ready to run Modern once or twice a month (not that I'll get to go - I'm a returning player who has a family now). In your opinion, is this too mean for casual but not quite ready for the real deal or in a good position to take on some greedy mana-bases? It gives up a lot of the 'pop' of these pure aggro decks but I feel like the possibility a first/second turn Magus of the Moon is worth considering!

GR Land D by olaw at Fri, 11/16/2012 - 07:24
olaw's picture

I have seen a GR Land Destruction deck a little like you are describing:

http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/deck.php?id=8018&iddeck=58434

I have to say I haven't tried anything like it but this might serve as a bit of extra inspiration for your ideas.

I'm sure nobody will thank you for playing a Land Destruction deck in a casual environment as having their lands blown up does not tend to be something people enjoy. I think GR Land D is a deck that could well be competitive, though I doubt at the highest level, as there are some very greedy manabases out there. Not least the most recent development of Spirit Jund, a Jund deck that adds a white splash to the decks already non-basic heavy manabase to play Lingering Souls. Also Land D should be very good against the Valakut Scapeshift decks and Tron decks.

On the negative side there are a few points. Firstly, some decks will be more susceptible to Land D than others. For example, Souls Sisters decks or Red Deck Wins will probably brush off Land Destruction without too much of a problem. You therefore need to be conscious of these bad matchups. Secondly, another potential problem is that most Modern decks run on a very low curve. Destroying one of their lands on turn 3, or even turn 2, probably isn't going to stop them playing a Tarmogoyf. Thirdly, and linked to my previous point, a lot of decks (particularly Jund) are now running Deathrite Shaman who exiles lands from the graveyard to add 1 mana of any colour. This mitigates the loss of lands going to the graveyard as they can still make mana and generate the colours they are looking for.

Ultimately there's probably only one way to find out and that's to give it a go. How good Land D is will heavily depend on the decks you are expecting to face and the methods that decks that are susceptible to it have to deal with it.

Thanks a lot for your comment and a very interesting discussion point. I hope this has gone some way to answering your questions.

yes! by mootown2 at Fri, 11/16/2012 - 18:46
mootown2's picture

that is precisely the deck that made me consider trying to put something similar together - thanks for your in-depth response; it sounds like you agree that it's a bit too much for casual but not really ready to be a serious contender (even though a lot of decks are running a risky mana-base) ... I hadn't thought about the fact that you've lost more than you've gained so to speak with the release of more recent sets (Deathrite does hurt more than anything since Faithless Looting helps if I had to guess) - thanks again!