This is a card by card review of this deck. I am open to help and suggestions for how to make the deck better.
I was looking at the spoilers for Ravnica Allegiance and Gruul Spellbreaker really caught my eye as a powerhouse. This is also true of many better players, and based on the general community opinion, I decided that this was worth it's own deck design.
Because of the haste option of riot, the new Gruul mechanic, many people are thinking about using Gruul Spellbreaker in an aggro deck. That seems legit and I think Gruul Spellbreaker will see standard play and be a solid card in many aggro decks. But this is a 3-drop. There are many other good 3 drops in the standard format right now. Aggro decks are kind of pinched for the 3 drop slot. You've got Adeliz, the Cinder Wind, Benalish Marshal, Captain Lannery Storm, Jadelight Ranger, Goblin Chainwhirler, Legion Warboss, Resplendent Angel, History of Benalia and new in ravnica allegiance Bedevil. My point is the 3-drop slot in standard is very contested right now. Gruul Spellbreaker will make it in but it will have a lot of other powerful things going on to compete with. On this note, I thought about building a sort of 3-drop tribal deck.
Still really amazed with Gruul Spellbreaker as a potential powerhouse, I decided for this to be my starting point. My immediate next thought was Knight of Autumn, a fantastic card that never really found it's home in standard.
Then with Gruul Spellbreaker being a 3-mana 4/4 with utility and Knight of Autumn being a 3-mana 4/3 with utility, I figured this deck could probably be either midrange, using the utility parts of Knight of Autumn and Gruul Spellbreaker or aggro using these insanely undercosted bodies. My next thought for powerful 3-drop in standard was my go-to: Jadelight Ranger. While sometimes being another undercosted beater, it also has the utility half. Jade light can be a 4/3, a 3/2 draw a card, or a 3-drop 2/1 draw 2 cards. All of those options are really solid.
This is how quite a few of my brews start: with a few core cards. I already had Jadelight Ranger, so I threw in one of the scariest 2 drops ever printed for aggro decks: wildgrove walker. The life-gain on this thing is great against aggro, and it still adds plenty of pressure against control. Also the beautiful curve of wildgrove walker into Jadelight Ranger isn't to hard to do, but it can really just hose aggro decks.
I felt like I needed more explore to justify wildgrove walker though, so I added another solid 2-drop in Merfolk Branchwalker. Either a 2/1 draw a card or a 3/2 for 2. Both are good deals, while heavily synergizing with wildgrove walker. Now that I have a reasonable wildgrove walker package, enough so to justify playing a playlet of the card.
For the final amazing 3 drop, I play 2xHistory of Benalia. This card is great. 3 mana for 2x 2/2s with vigilance is great. Then the upside of pumping them for some beats early on.
I decided to fill out the curve with another new card, Tithe Taker. I don't know how well this card will perform in the standard meta, but I certainly think it is playable. A 2 drop 2/1 afterlife 1 is just value. In the mean time the added bonus of making it harder to play on my turn? Yes please! This is also my maindeck hate against control.
While I was at it filling out the curve, aurellia, exemplar of justice seemed like one of the best 4 drops available. I considered Rekindling Phoenix, but after watching a video on MTG goldfish with boros angels just crushing the 5-0, and watching how Aurelia played out, I picked Aurelia over phoenix. I could see the descision going either way though, please let me know what you think.
While filling out the curve is important, removal is just as important. 4xJustice Strike should deal with most issues that I would run into in standard at the moment. Do you think Justice Strike is the right call, or should Lava Coil be the main deck removal? Justice strike is instant speed, but lava coil hits some smaller Enigma Drakes and Crackling Drakes. It also doesn't hit opposing wildgrove walkers.
As for the mana base, that was easy. 4x all the check lands because those are really good. Only 2xClifftop Retreat though because this deck is base green. I need to make space for the 1 of each basic. 4x of the shocks because they are shocks. Only 2xSacred Foundry though, because I only want to play 23 lands and this deck is base green so that makes the most sense to cut.
I had quite a bit of trouble building the sideboard. Sideboards aren't exactly my strong suit.
4xCarnage Tyrant for the good old carny T beats against control. With Gruul Spellbreaker, carnage tyrant doesn't even die to settle the wreckage. That's pretty walue.
4xLava Coil, mostly for drake decks and also for any other threats I see in game 1 that don't die to Justice Strike.
4xTocatli Honor Guard for the Golgari matchups. In those I usually side out the whole wildgrove walker package of wildgrove walker, Jadelight Ranger and Merfolk Branchwalker for this, Carnage Tyrant and Lava Coil. I'm not convinced this is correct, but tocatli honor guard is so good I decided to try to make that work in my sideboard.
2xVivien Reid for the control matchups. Card advantage and a way to kill pesky enchantment based removal.
1xSorcerous Spyglass. Also for the control matchup. Teferi, Hero of Dominaria isn't a fair card.
