Gruul In cEDH?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Aug. 29, 2020, 9:24 a.m. by Reznorboy
So, I recently played against a Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy deck with my Yisan, the Wanderer Bard deck and ended up feeling very triggered when they won turn 4. I understand that everyone is trying to win, but I digress.
I then wondered if switching to a disruptive deck (rather than my adaptive one) could help.
Now obviously, I could play something like Baral, Chief of Compliance, but that just doesn't seem to have... the oomph I'm looking for. It needs to be a bit more... diabolical for my tastes.
And by that, I mean, rather than countering everything, blowing up lands, artifacts, creatures, enchantments, so much so, that winning is not the priority, but making that person trying to win turn 4 suffer.
I would assume Gruul would be perfect for this, however, there are currently no good (at least not competitive) Gruul commanders.
So, my question is, what would you all recommend?
Maybe Marath, Will of the Wild?
Thrasios, Triton Hero
and Vial Smasher the Fierce?
griffstick says... #3
Marath is good. I thought you wanted to stay in gruul only and I was gonna suggest Grumgully, the Generous. Theres lots of combo potential for Grumgully, the Generous
August 29, 2020 9:44 a.m.
Well, I also am considering Mono-Green.
However, I want it to be a very Disruptive deck, so very few combos.
August 29, 2020 9:53 a.m.
For mono green Marwyn, the Nurturer is pretty good and can win pretty fast. Check out my list, ive had alot of success with it :) Marwyn EDH
August 29, 2020 10:19 a.m.
Nerdytimesorwhatever says... #7
Gruul typically does quite poorly in cEDH. Ruric Thar / Wort the Raidmother are your best options, and they arent great.
Id suggest looking into Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger list, they're extremely disruptive and can win pretty quickly. Rakdos isn't Gruul, but its the type of Grrrrr that you wish Gruul had.
Check out the Kroxa list on the Decklist Database, its very slick.
If you want to play a straight up disruptive game of magic every single game the whole time, Rashmi, Eternities Crafter may be for you. Its Simic, like Kinnan, but your build would differ substantially. Kinnan lists want to capitolize on stuff like Basalt Monolith and mana generation.
Rashmi hinges on interactivity and card relevance/quality. You run 35+ interactive cards to leverage her ability to break parity on using disruptive spells, and slowly grind your opponents resources into inaccessibility. Run enough 1 cmc/free answers for everything the Kinnan player is doing, you should be able to crunch through em. Kenrith's Transformation is an excellent green version of Gilded Drake, as well.
Sorry there aren't really any options for Gruul Stax (or any Gruul deck) to compete in cEDH or fringe cEDH metas.
August 29, 2020 10:22 a.m.
I think I know what I want to do.
It's probably more on the fringe side, but I think I'll try Nicol Bolas, the Ravager Flip.
I'll have a lot of blue bounce and tap spells, as well as red destroy lands/artifacts/creatures spells, and then try to flicker Bolas like crazy for the win.
August 29, 2020 11:02 a.m.
GhostChieftain says... #10
Ruric thar is a viable fringe option, but I would say you are better off in jund with something like korvold if you dont want blue. Thrasios/vial smasher has a deck called curious control (or 4c Rashimi) that is pretty opressive at times because ot is a control deck that gets more card advantage just by playing controlling cards.
August 29, 2020 12:49 p.m.
RNR_Gaming says... #11
Your best bet if you want to be fun police is golden control tasigur.
August 29, 2020 1:02 p.m.
Mina and Denn, Wildborn - manland,landfall, land matter style decks
Radha, Heart of Keld - can be built to competitive level
Radha, Heir to Keld - gruul elf ball
Tahngarth, First Mate - Voltron + Goad
my fav!! Thromok the Insatiable - Think Insurrection + Chandra's Ignition
Gruul is completly do able it just had to be done diffrently
you cant really stop players from doing things
but you can punish them for doing it,
you can stop them from stopping you,
and you can break all there stuff including lands.
August 29, 2020 2:18 p.m.
p.s. i used to run a gruul control deck
its a different animal to build and pilot
cmc curve runs higher then what most would be comfortable with
most of your tutoring is for lands
most of your card vantage comes from casting creatures
your control comes from weird 2-3 card combos
Some Examples:
Nikya of the Old Ways + Bazaar Trader
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed + Grafted Exoskeleton
Mycosynth Lattice + Titania's Song
Hellkite Tyrant + Mycosynth Lattice
Natural Affinity + Mob Rule + any devour effect
theirs to many to list but this is enough to give an idea of the flavor
smackjack says... #2
Marath is nice, and works well with Aura Shards and Mana Echoes.. Use cards that turns lands into 1/1 to ping them away for 1 mana if you want to be a dick ;).
August 29, 2020 9:31 a.m.