Crush the Weak is great for dealing with wide boards since players have been trying to beat Gruul by going wide with Scute Swarm and similar cards. The Sideboardīurning Hands is the most natural sideboard inclusion for any red deck. You’ll have to settle for Lair of the Hydra since you can’t play Den. I notably haven’t included any Den of the Bugbear in my main deck because if you want to cast Werewolf Pack Leader on turn 2 and Reckless Stormseeker on turn 3, you need untapped red mana sources. I played all Gruul decks the first week, so I have two copies of Burning Hands to nuke big green creatures and enemy Wrenns. Shatterskull Smashing remains the best DFC land so including four of those is natural. I used to play Fire Prophecy because having a way to put extra lands back is powerful and I think Cathartic Pyre does a good impersonation of that. You need some interaction with all these threats. I also like Arlinn, the Pack’s Hope because it gives you a good reason to pass the turn and make it Night, powering up all your nightbound creatures and giving you more wolves for Tovolar triggers and a way to crew stranded Chariots. There’s also an awful lot of wolves and werewolves in this deck, so you’ve got to take advantage! Tovolar, Dire Overlord is a good way to cash in on having a board full of wolves. Werewolf Pack Leader is another nice option because it survives all the 2-damage removal like Cinderclasm and combines with Reckless Stormseeker to draw you a card on turn 3. It replaces itself by giving you a Clue and plays well with and against Chariot. ![]() So what other cards fill out the deck? The Threatsīriarbridge Tracker is a solid choice. Jaspera Sentinel loses its luster for me without good 1-drop creatures and I’ve never liked Magda, Brazen Outlaw. The list I’m focusing on uses Kessig Naturalist. I’ve seen some people play Prosperous Innkeeper as well, so there’s a lot of good options! Midnight Hunt gives you Kessig Naturalist so you’ll have to make a choice about how much and what sorts of ramp to play. Now that you have a clear plan, how do you best facilitate it? Gruul has traditionally played Jaspera Sentinel and Magda, Brazen Outlaw to ramp out its Chariots. Any deck that isn’t specifically prepared to deal with fast Chariots is going to struggle to compete with what Gruul is doing. Your threats are too diverse for the conditional counterspells available in Standard to line up well and too powerful for the removal to slow you down. These cards are a nightmare for any deck. ![]() You can follow this up with Wrenn and Seven, making a 5/5 treefolk to crew and copy with your Chariot. You can give Esika’s Chariot haste right away and attack if you play Reckless Stormseeker into the artifact, effectively putting 10 power into play off of one card for four mana. The plan with Gruul is to curve out with mana efficient threats and snowball an early advantage into an insurmountable board presence. I was defeated by Blood on the Snow decks but my friend MaxMagicer was able to top 8 and make the semifinals with the same list. ![]() Below is the deck I played in the MTGO Standard Challenge on September 26.
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