Grenzo Mono-Red Aggro-Control

Commander / EDH* cgomes

SCORE: 11 | 28 COMMENTS | 5012 VIEWS | IN 5 FOLDERS


It's been a while... —Feb. 16, 2019

I've started playing again with this deck and I'm still very surprised at how competitive it is at times. As usual, good starting hands make a huge difference, so mulligam continues to be a very important aspect of playing the deck correctly. There are new sets, so I've made a few changes to the previous list, as follows:

Token generators are very good in this deck, and as it's been pointed out before, Loyal Apprentice is very good at it--well, probably better than pyro, so it takes its place. The experimental Experimental Frenzy was interesting but most of the time, a dead card. It's great when we have a sensei's top but otherwise, it's pretty random. If it's to play random things, let's play Stolen Strategy then because it finds more cards. Also, I've finally decided it was time to give up playing insurrection. It's just not useful most of the time. Instead, I'm now playing Light Up the Stage, which has been very good. Even if you can cast the exiled cards right away, you can still do that next turn. It's probably an auto-include in aggro builds.

CantaPerMe says... #1

Do you think dropping the goblin tribal is really worth it? I mean, Dire Fleet Daredevil, Dualcaster Mage, Flametongue Kavu etc. are cute, but the deck needs to go wide and goblin do that really well. Just asking, i still don't know what route take with my deck.

Grim Monolith and Mana Vault are worth it? If so, do you think Basalt Monolith can be good as a budget option?

Have you tried Rogue's Gloves? And i suggest you to try Surveyor's Scope, it's really underrated

October 7, 2018 7:55 a.m.

CantaPerMe says... #2

Have you tried Slate of Ancestry?

October 7, 2018 8:05 a.m.

cgomes says... #3

Hey, Pallino. Thanks for posting your comments. I stand by what I've written before regarding the tribal route--I don't think it's the best way to build around the mono-red Grenzo. Actually, the deck does not want to go wide because you'll run out of gas as soon as someone casts a board-wipe. You want to drop 1 or 2 creatures in addition to Grenzo, unless you have your opponents locked under a moon-effect. You should only try to go wide by casting whatever you exile with Grenzo's ability, instead of using your own spells. That said, we now have many additional sources of card advantage in mono-red that were not available when I first built this list, so other strategies might be viable now and I encourage you to try them (see Pinkie's example).

I'd say that Basalt is a good alternative to Grim, much like Sol Ring is a good alternative to Mana Crypt. I'm convinced that every edh deck needs access to fast mana. It's what breaks parity and let's you get ahead in the game and cast things many turns before you'd normally cast them. Without fast rocks, you'll always be in a bad position. We also need the speed they offer because we need to do things early on in the game, when most defenses are down.

I think Glove is just a bad Sword of Fire and Ice. I'm not a big fan of equipment. However, if you decided to play something like Glove here, for example, I'd understand it because our strategy relies on creatures attacking our opponents, so equipment give us extra value. Just keep in mind that you don't want to spend mana before attacking an opponent (e.g., casting and equipping a creature) because if you exile something good with Grenzo's ability, you won't be able to cast it.

October 7, 2018 11:43 a.m.

Pinkie_Satanas says... #4

Hello! I have just uploaded my take on your list! It's here:

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/grenzo-the-pillager-mono-red-aggro-control/?cb=1538948466

in case if you wanna check or link it somewhere. I've linked yours there so people can see the original and go deep into the building process if they wanna. I will eventually explain some card choices that are different from your list in case you or other people wanna talk about it. I also want to keep the same categories you used (mana accelerator, removal, etc.) so people can easily spot the differences between decks, but i still don't know how to change categories in tappedout.

October 7, 2018 5:52 p.m.

CantaPerMe says... #5

Thanks cgnomes. Here is my list, i'm going for the goblin plan since i have a lot of them already. I know this is not the optimal way and i know it's not your style, but if you have time for a quick check it would be awesome.

I play on paper so i just can't buy some cards for now, but i am missing some important <10$ cards?

I think Purphoros, God of the Forge sadly it's just not worth it. Maybe Shared Animosity can still work

October 8, 2018 7 p.m. Edited.

Driemer84 says... #6

Have you considered Inkmoth or Blinkmoth Nexus over Mishra's Factory? Evasion for the Grenzo triggers seems more important than an extra point of damage the Factory offers.

I really like the look of this deck. I like that you run competitive cards like Grim Monolith and Mana Crypt, but aren't an all out combo deck. It looks like you're almost completely reliant on what you hit off your opponents decks. Let me know if I'm wrong about that!

Is this list capable of playing a long game? How resiliant/fragile is it? I'm trying to find a mono red commander that isn't a glass cannon, and that can play a longer game.

December 11, 2018 9:24 a.m.