I've been playing the R/G deck since it came out in kaladesh. As all of you know, it's a great deck that can really suprise people, but it always has a boogie man in the format that is a bad matchup for it. In this meta, abrade hits us super hard. Because of that, we need to be able to do more. Good thing Amonkhet and hours gave us a few pieces to make this deck work even better. I'll show you what I mean.
Just like prior builds, turn 1 is for attune. Get a land drop, get two energy. Exactly where we want to be.
Turn 2 is pretty much the same as before as well. Servant can ramp us into t3 Hydra, which is hard to deal with. But, it's important that it can also keep us ahead of censor, which is definitely relavant in this meta.
Alternatively, Cub is just a great value creature that can attack in on turn 3 or just serve as a good blocker. The brawler is also really good value. All this is standard for the build.
Of course turn 3, we ideally jam a pummeler. 4 of because he is the main feature of the deck. He wins games. However, be careful about running him out without back up or without being able to win on the spot. Abrade is out there and it will wreck you hard. Blossoming defense helps, but it can't save you forever.
Alternatively, bristling hydra on turn 3 can be difficult for a deck to deal with. He dodges most removal and can get big on his own. The hydra is definitely the point where our deck can change game plans and finish with a big mid game if pummeler can't get there.
The really big changes here are the top tier creatures I'm running. Verdurous gearhulk is a straight bomb in this deck. It does die to abraid, but it can act functionally as 2 more pump spells in the deck. It can either put pressure on as a trampling 8/8, or it can take pummeler out of range of a lot of removal as you set up for that final swing.
I play a one of glory bringer just as an eventuality. We all know that a single glory bringer can break board stalls and even bring you back from behind. Never a bad thing to draw late game. We run two more out of the sideboard if we need to go into a midrange battle.
Samut is where it gets real interesting. At five mana, she is heavy, but she pulls more than her own weight. The reason I play her here is her haste enabling ability. Every turn after turn five that we play her, we can draw the pummeler and win the game. Turn 6, draw the pummeler, blossoming defense, invigorated rampage, GG? We don't want her too often, but she also synergizes with glory bringer if we switch to a midgame strategy because we can use aether hub or servant to make the white and untap glorybringer after an exert trigger. Good stuff.
Post board, it's all about the matchup. Crook is bonkers against any recursion strategy. Monument and Gift decks are out there as well as zombies. We need to be able to keep those creatures dead. Crook does it.
Complete the playset of abrade because it's abrade. Bolts a creature or takes care of an artifact. Easy playset. Kills gearhulks, gift, monument, vehicles. Too versatile to not play.
One hour of devestation for go wide matchups. It's not great because it kills most of our stuff as well, but we have the option of finishing the game out with glory bringers after, so it's not all bad.
One servant in the board to bring in if we do switch to mid range. The extra acceleration is always relevant.
2 manglehorns to take care of artifacts (which are everywhere).
One more bristling hydra. Again, midrange strategy. Same goes for the 2 extra glory bringers.
Finish out the board with another harnessed lightning and two magma spray. Quality removal, gets rid of a ton in the format. We need it.
