Welcome to Jund. Here, let's kick 'em!
R/G Kicker is a really strong strategy in Dominaria Limited. But perhaps a powered-up build of the same archetype can actually compete in Standard!
The advantage of kicker is that it offers great flexibility. Look at Untamed Kavu, for example. It can be played as both a two-drop and a five-drop. And both of the time, it's a strong on-curve creature. As we all have learned with Cryptic Command, having flexibility is absolutely amazing.
This deck combines some ramp with a creature curve that can range from aggressive to midrange-y depending on what is the best plan in each matchup.
Having a turn-one plan is always a tempo swing in your favor. Thus, we have Adventurous Impulse which is almost always a cantrip that lets us dig the top three cards of our library. The only risk is not hitting a land or a creature, though that doesn't happen very often with our deck. There's also Stronghold Confessor, a 1/1 with menace for one, which is a fine deal. Of course, we can kick it mid-game for a boost in stats.
The two-drops include Elfhame Druid, one of the best mana dorks for a kicker tribal deck, Untamed Kavu which is essentially above the curve no matter whether we kick it or not, and Bloodstone Goblin, which is another payoff for playing a lot of spells with kicker.
Our sole three-drop is perhaps the best card in the deck: Hallar, the Firefletcher. It's an on curve 3/3 trampler which has a built-in Grapeshot engine for kicked spells that does not reset as turns end. Oh, and it's tracked through +1/+1 counters, so it grows, too. Value!
We have a few four drops: Skizzik as a smaller Ball Lightning to get in for quick damage, the one-ofs Josu Vess, Lich Knight, Territorial Allosaurus, and Verix Bladewing which are all good plays on turn four but can become extremely OP later on (Territorial Allosaurus and Verix can be kicked on turn five if we have an Elfhame Druid. We can also kick Stronghold Confessor to trigger Hallar.
Technically we don't have any five-drops, but we can kick Skizziks and Untamed Kavus on turn five (turn three with Elfhame Druid).
For removal, we have Shivan Fire, Vicious Offering, and Fight with Fire, which are all good spells that just happen to have kicker. There's also one Vraska's Contempt and two Cast Downs to smoothen things out. And ramping into Fight with Fire to win the game is pretty fun.
The sideboard is pretty traditional: Deathgorge Scavenger against things like Gift decks or just random aggro, Duress and The Eldest Reborn to attack control, Treasure Map
, Vivien Reid, and Vraska, Relic Seeker to sustain us in long games, Naturalize as an Abrade that survives rotation to destroy artifacts, and Plummet to hate on flyers.
There are three reasons to play this deck, generally:
1: It survives rotation fully intact. It doesn't lose a single card.
2: It's super budget friendly. About $100 for the fully powered build of a deck that's at least somewhat competitive is super cheap. And notice that almost all of the cost comes from the dual lands, Vraska's Contempt, and the sideboard planeswalkers.
3: It's really, really fun to play, and it's incredibly consistent, which proves that Hallar, the Firefletcher is more than just a Brawl Commander.
Unfortunately, kicker probably won't be featured in any standard-legal set in the near future, so the card pool of good kicker card won't increase. But still, try this deck is you like flexibility and/or ramping into gigantic creatures. Happy tapping!
