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Grunn, Lonely King of Budget

Commander / EDH Budget Mono-Green Voltron

The_Archenemy

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Creature (22)

Enchantment (8)

Instant (13)

Sorcery (10)

Commander (1)

Commander: Grunn, the Lonely King

Artifact (10)

Land (36)

Grunn, the Milk Ape - Budget Voltron EDH

Hi, welcome to my Grunn super budget EDH! Grunn, the Lonely King, hasn't ever had a huge spotlight in EDH history, considering his lack of protection or fancy mechanics. Despite being released nearly two years ago, the lonely ape has received very little love in terms of the number of decks dedicated to him. This decklist plans to make the most out of his pure monkey muscle to crush your opponents! Suggestions are always welcome.

Pro's & Con's

Pros:

  • Low budget for easy access
  • Big beefy boi
  • Easy to understand mechanics
  • Ape-propriate for any playgroup
  • Explosive game-winning plays
  • Easy ramp allows quick monkey business
  • P o w e r f u l
Cons:
  • Obvious win strategy
  • Lack of access to other colors
  • Big scary ape
  • Targeted for removal
  • Few win conditions
  • L o n e l y

Should you play it?

Grunn is built to be a very simple voltron commander, with very few interactions that could make him better than any other commander in the theme. This deck was entirely built with a low budget in mind. This commander makes the most out of having a large presence on the board and shaking up the priorities of other players. By having fairly simple mechanics tied to Grunn himself, the easy-to-understand strategy of this deck may be appealing to some players. If you like having the largest creature on the field and having the power to squish other players at your meaty monkey fingertips, Grunn is the commander for you.

Grunn, like many voltron commanders, has very few win conditions, being solely getting Grunn through for commander damage. This can lead to some fairly repetitive gameplay if this deck is played too often. Additionally, his simple mechanics may seem boring to those that want a deeper gameplay curve. If you're the kind of player that specifically seeks out or needs combos in your EDH to have fun at your playgroup, this deck may not be the best for you.

Grunn, the Lonely King is a 5/5 Legendary Creature - Ape Warrior with no keywords. Already Grunn starts as a fairly costly commander, but with a 5/5 body without any keywords which isn't too bad for a commander, but is definitely not ideal for a voltron-themed deck. We are playing mono-green, however, and his high mana cost is dealt with by the large amount of ramp present in the deck, which will help us cast him as early as possible. Being a voltron commander, however, it is very likely that Grunn will be removed from the board at some point in the game. It is this large reliance on ramp and protection that will help us consistently swing with Grunn.

"Kicker - If Grunn, the Lonely King was kicked, it enters the battlefield with five +1/+1 counters on it."

Although he has 6CMC, you will often play Grunn with his kicker cost, adding an additional 5 power and toughness, but setting his overall starting cost ape-proximately at 9 mana. This is obviously an enormous high mana cost for any commander, but this sets his power and toughness at 10/10 which is just under half of the commander damage threshold. This power and toughness cand be further buffed, especially with his second ability.

"Whenever Grunn attacks alone, double its power and toughness until end of turn."

Although Grunn with a starting casting cost of 9 mana for a 10/10 body, Grunn's ability doubles his power and toughness for the turn, putting his damage at 20, just one point shy of a one-shot kill. With further buffs, we can make sure the lonely ape can get his 21 commander damage through to an opponent soon after he is summoned. This obviously paints a large target on Grunn's head for removal, but we have tools to protect him from such monkey business.

The Strategy

The game plan here is to ramp during the early game as much as possible while setting up some support pieces for Grunn, the Lonely King, like equipment or creatures such as Crashing Drawbridge. After assessing what your opponents are up to, try to get Grunn out fairly early and start going ape.

After casting Grunn, you should try to protect him from as much removal as possible. Things like Blossoming Defense are great for making sure no pesky Doom Blades or other removal takes him out. Try to save indestructibility for board wipes that go around hexproof, if you can. Your secondary objective here is to buff the lonely ape with enchantments, to make him even beefier.

Hopefully by the end of everything you've provided some meaty slaps against your rivals and have taken care of them with commander damage. If Grunn ever becomes way too expensive, then there are a few alternatives to winning, such as End-Raze Forerunners or a buffed Beanstalk Giant.

Card Choices

Drawing inspiration from one of my favorite content creators, The Commander's Quarters, this section will run through points on how we can help Grunn get through to our rivals for jungle japes and commander damage, while providing ourselves with ways to get ahead. This section will work like a description of each card in their own particular points.

Being important to any EDH deck, ramp is especially important for getting Grunn out, beefed up, and protected. The budget nature of this deck should be kept in mind when considering the cards chosen for ramp in this deck, as the most optimal cards can't necessarily be included.

Mana Dorks:

Land Ramp:

  • Beanstalk Giant: Used mostly for his three-mana Rampant Growth effect. If push comes to shove, his body can make for a good blocker or last-ditch attacker.
  • Elvish Rejuvenator: Usually gets us an extra land on the battlefield.
  • Grow from the Ashes: A card I personally feel is underrated. Works like Skyshroud Claim for any two basic lands for more. Since we're running mono-green though, we'll just ramp us two basic forests.
  • Harrow: Effectively ramps us two untapped Forests for a sacrificed tapped Forest. Do with that what you will.
  • Nissa's Pilgrimage: A budget mono-green alternative to Cultivate, which could get us an extra Forest into our hand.
  • Rampant Growth: A 2CMC basic land ramp. Good, efficient, budget-friendly ramp.
  • Ranger's Path: Works like Skyshroud Claim, but the forests enter tapped. Not nearly as good, but works with our budget.
  • Search for Tomorrow A personal favorite, ramps us a basic land for . We won't get that land until after a couple of turns, but we're allowed to be patient.
  • Skyshroud Claim: Ramps us two untapped Forests for 4CMC. Good.
  • Wood Elves: Ramps us one untapped Forest. Cool.

Miscellaneous:

Like any Voltron, we'll want to make Grunn, the Lonely King just a little bit stronger to get him through to our rivals. Mostly consists of trample and evasion, as protection for our commander comes later.

Equipment:

  • Fireshrieker: Doubles the damage of our commander. Overkill? No such thing.
  • Fleetfeather Sandals: Slap some shoes on this monkey, and he'll be getting through your rivals' defenses in no time.
  • Haunted Cloak: One of our most efficient equipments, the vigilance is nice to let our commander be a blocker, too.
  • Prowler's Helm: If we're playing against Arcades, the Strategist, we're screwed. Otherwise, walls usually won't be something we'll have to worry about, so we can smash face directly.
  • Ring of Kalonia: Mostly used for the trample it gives, but the additional +1/+1 counters can be nice.
  • Trailblazer's Boots: The chances our rivals will have a single nonbasic land is very high, so this is great evasion for Grunn.
  • Vorrac Battlehorns: Not only provides trample, but makes sure that only one creature can block Grun at a time.

Auras:

  • Cartouche of Strength: Provides trample, and gives us a bit of creature removal.
  • Dragon Fangs: A good budget aura for this deck, it works slightly like Rancor, recurring each time we cast Grunn.
  • Gaea's Embrace: Does pretty much everything we want from an aura, provides both trample and a form of protection.
  • Rancor: Our most efficient trample aura, Rancor is a staple in many a Voltron deck. Ours included.
  • Spider Umbra: While it does provide reach, we'll mostly use this for the Totem Armor protection.

Creatures:

  • Bellowing Tanglewurm: While green is a very common color in Commander, this wurm provides Grunn with decent evasion.
  • Brawn: Ideally we'll get this boi into the graveyard as quick as possible to buff not only Grunn, but all of our creatures.
  • Challenger Troll: Makes sure that no gangs bully Grunn when he attacks.
  • Crashing Drawbridge: Hopefully you'll have this out before you cast Grunn, so you can start swinging with him right away.
  • End-Raze Forerunners: While this creature can supply a good buff and a couple of keywords to Grunn, End-Raze Forerunner is best used when you don't have easy access to Grunn and need to swing out at someone.
  • Paragon of Eternal Wilds: An all-around good buff for the creatures in this deck, she can also give Grunn Trample if he doesn't already have it.
  • Trollbred Guardian: Should just about always provide trample to Grunn, and is a pretty beefy body himself, as well.

Other:

  • Rogue's Passage: Although the effect is a little spendy, it can certainly be useful to get Grunn through.
  • Soul's Might: Doubles Grunn's power & toughness. Which main phase you use this in is up to you. If used in the first main phase, it simply doubles Grunn's stats, but if you use this after attacking, he'll be much beefier.
Since Grunn, the Lonely King lacks any protection on his own, we'll be using a few cheap protection spells to make sure he stays on the battlefield as long as possible. As I said in the "Our Chimpion" section, I recommend trying to use up your hexproof-based protection for removal before indestructibility.

Permanents:

  • Alpha Authority: Not only provides protection, but its second effect also works well with trample.
  • Archetype of Endurance: An awesome card, protecting all of our creatures. Quite spendy though at 8CMC.
  • Whispersilk Cloak: Great for both protection and evasion, just make sure that Grunn can deal at least 21 damage before you equip. If not, you'll have to jump through some hoops to get him there.

Instants:

  • Blossoming Defense: One of our better protection spells, it's cheap and provides a nice buff for just
  • Mortal's Resolve: One of our two instants that give indestructibility, this one provides a tiny buff.
  • Ranger's Guile: Similar to Blossoming Defense, just provides a smaller buff.
  • Sheltering Word: Provides some nice hexproof for Grunn, and usually nets us a ton of extra life, which is handy.
  • Vines of Vastwood: Provides some protection for Grunn, as well as a buff if we need it. Bananas.
  • Withstand Death: Indestructibility for just . Pretty basic, but can be a life-saver for against most board wipes.
An essential part of any EDH deck, card advantage is good for drawing into protection or good buffs for Grunn. I've included land fetching and recursion here, since they can just be handy for filling out your grip.

Card Advantage:

  • Colossal Majesty: As long as Grunn is on the board, you'll be sure to draw an extra card each turn.
  • Harmonize: Gets us three cards for 4CMC. Pretty basic, but one of our best card draw spells.
  • Key to the City: Provides both decent card selection and evasion for Grunn. Downside here is that we'll have to wait until our next untap step for the card draw.
  • Return of the Wildspeaker: While the buff can be decent, we'll almost always use this on Grunn to draw us a ton of cards at a time. Note the instant speed, so we can use this just before our turn to set up some big plays.
  • Road of Return: Both effects are pretty good here, but we'll almost always save this for Grunn in case he becomes too expensive.
  • Yavimaya Elder: When we sacrifice this old codger, we'll net two basic lands and a drawn card.

When we find that pure monkey muscle isn't quite enough for player removal, we have a few other spells here for other kinds of removal. All of our creature removal here is entirely set on using Grunn, the Lonely King to squish baddies, so make sure you keep track of his health turn by turn!

Creature Removal:

  • Ancient Animus: Grants Grunn an extra +1/+1 counter, and lets him obliterape an opponent's creature for 2CMC.
  • Mutant's Prey: Since Grunn will almost always have +1/+1 counters on him, this lets us remove a creature for just .
  • Ulvenwald Tracker: A creature that lets our creature squish other creatures. Sweet!

Utility Removal:

  • Acidic Slime: Good for destroying artifacts or echantments, but can also deal with pesky lands if need be. A bit spendy on mana at 5CMC. Has deathtough, so it can make for an intimidating blocker.
  • Naturalize: 2CMC to remove an artifact or enchantment. Pretty basic, but that's all we need!
  • Nature's Claim: Likely our best instant for removal in this category, the lifegain is negligible since we rely on commander damage.
  • Reclamation Sage: ETBs and pops an artifact or enchantment. Nice.
  • Return to Nature: Almost exactly the same as Naturalize, just with the additional option of graveyard hate.

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