I’m just back home after yet another disappointing Pro Tour experience (although the Pro Tour tournament itself was the only disappointing part of the trip). Craig the Editor sent out an email that articles are in demand again, so here I am. The qualifying season for Pro Tour Prague is almost over, but to me the Draft format seems to be quite open, as I’m discovering new elements each time I draft.
At the beginning of the format, I thought that nearly every Draft deck would be built up from one or two Ravnica Guilds and rounded out in the third pack with a second or third Guild. The most powerful cards are generally in both of a Guild’s colors and not just one. I’ve found out that this is not always what happens; there are a few other ways to draft a deck. It depends heavily on what you’re getting passed, and your willingness to sacrifice some card quality to put yourself in a better position for the rest of the Draft. This method of drafting in this particular format involves drafting only two colors, or a three-color “off-Guild” combination (meaning that there is only one Guild in your three-color combination). You might not be able to pick the best card each pack, but it might allow you to reap the benefits later in the Draft.
One of the decks in this format that requires you to sacrifice some early card quality to get the maximum out of the Guildpact booster is the aggressive Gruul archetype. With this deck I don’t mean a three color deck that happens to include some Gruul cards, but a Red and Green deck with maybe only a slight splash for a third color, if any. The reason for this can be found in the main gameplan that the Gruul presents: get out of the starting blocks as quickly as possible with early drops that help you enable the bloodthirst mechanic, rounding out the curve with some fatties. The main key to success for any beatdown deck – Constructed or Limited – is to have a good curve to pressurize your opponent; missing a drop means giving your opponent precious time to catch up.
During the Draft there are three things you can do in order to make sure your curve is consistently tight… keep an eye on how many drops you have in each mana slot; draft a lot of creatures in general, especially creatures that also have other uses later on (example: Burning-Tree Bloodscale); and keep an eye on the colored mana requirements of your creatures. The last aspect explains why you don’t want to be in more than two colors when you’re drafting Gruul (splashing a third only if you must): having difficulties with your colored mana in the early game means that you’ll often miss a drop, and you don’t want to play too many bounce lands and Signets as that will slow you down (in essence, they cause you to miss a drop as well) or force you to play too many mana sources in your deck (Signets and Terrarion).
However, drafting with this in mind means that you probably won’t be able to pick up a lot of cards associated with specific Guilds in the first two boosters, which are often more powerful than the mono-colored cards. After trying this deck out, I’ve found that it’s not as bad as it first seems in the Ravnica packs. The card evaluation needs to be adjusted hugely for this specific Guild. I will now list the Ravnica commons and uncommons that I think should be valued differently with the coming of Guildpact and when drafting the Gruul archetype in particular:
War-Torch Goblin, Elves of Deep Shadow, Elvish Skysweeper, Frenzied Goblin and other one-drops:
The value of one-drops is very high for the Gruul deck compared to other Draft archetypes, as they quickly enable bloodthirsty creatures to get big. Each of these cards also has a useful ability other than just being a 1/1 for one mana, which is absolutely crucial for them to hit the playable mark. I’d like to highlight Frenzied Goblin: I’ve always been a fan of it, and in the Gruul deck it’s really amazing as the ability does exactly what you want: it helps you to prevent your opponent from being able to stop your early beaters, while it also functions as a late game creature standoff breaker.
Goblin Spelunkers and Sabertooth Alley Cat:
Creatures with evasive abilities are rare, but quite valuable in Gruul decks as they help you to avoid getting stuck in creature stalls… which you will eventually lose (as other decks have bigger creatures). They also help you with bloodthirst, but they have to compete with some other three-drops and their card quality isn’t very high. Still, I always like to include them in my decks.
Sparkmage Apprentice:
It’s too expensive to effectively help you out with bloodthirst, and you almost never have any bounce tricks that work well with it. A reasonable sideboard option at best.
Viashino Fangtail:
In triple-Ravnica, Fangtail was a relatively late pick for its quality, simply because not enough people liked Red. Now it’s in much higher demand, as there are many decks that can consistently support it. Gruul is obviously one of those decks; it’s a good body for its cost and the ability is very useful to trigger bloodthirst, get rid of annoying smaller creatures like Ghost Warden, or to help you out in those mid to late-game creature standoff situations. If I’m reasonably certain that I’m drafting the Gruul-based deck, it’s even slightly better than Galvanic Arc in my book.
Farseek:
It fixes your mana, but you want to try to stay two colors so you probably won’t need that anyway. You’d rather play a creature than a Farseek on turn 2. If you do need the color fixing for a splash, Signets are usually better as they can also fix your Green mana.
Gather Courage:
In order to survive your early rush with a healthy life total and to prevent your bloodthirsty creatures from growing, your opponent will often try to trade his early drops for yours. Gather Courage is just the cheap and efficient combat trick you’ll want for such situations.
Guildpact is the key booster of the deck, often giving you around ten cards for your deck. I’ll show you the better part of the commons and uncommons available to your colors and my views on them. I’ve sorted them not by card quality but by how highly they are commonly picked, in three sections (not further sorted: this depends too much on what kind of Draft you’re in):
Early picks
Savage Twister — Yes, even in a deck with as many creatures as the Gruul decks, Savage Twister is insane and you should pick it. Don’t bother to look at the rest of the pack, even the rare.
Pyromatics — It’s quite expensive but it is removal, but it’s not as good in Gruul as it is in other decks. Its cost is a reason for that, and because combat tricks can easily function as removal in the early game as well. You’re pressurizing the opponent very early, and are forcing creature combat.
Ghor-Clan Savage — Count on this to be 5/6 every time you play it on turn five, but other drafters will count on that as well. You can do it somewhat more consistently though, and you should be prepared to pick it even earlier than the other players at the table.
Silhana Starfletcher — Usual green decks are more into the control game plan, and Starfletcher helps to solve most of their problems like mana acceleration and fixing and blocking flying creatures. You don’t suffer the same troubles though, and while it often can be good in your deck you shouldn’t pick it nearly as highly as other Green drafters.
Skarrgan Skybreaker — It’s a bit expensive, but when it hits play it’s huge and forces at least a two-for-one trade if your opponent wants to get rid of it. In the Gruul deck, its cost is an even bigger problem as you won’t have much mana acceleration and you might not be able to afford a dead draw in the early turns.
Wildsize — While it’s not a cheap combat trick, it gives you card advantage and can work as a finisher because of the trample effect. Any Green deck will pick it highly for a good reason, and you should do that as well.
Gruul Guildmage — You will always be able to cast this beater on the second turn, and you need to only have four lands in play to make most of your creatures very hard to block for your opponent. Gruul Guildmage is a card your opponent needs to get rid of before he can start to keep up with your beats. It’s the perfect example of an efficient beater that has other useful abilities, and I like it more than everything on this list but Savage Twister.
Skarrg, the Rage Pits — Its cost might turn you down, but it’s often so with such effects that you only need to have them in play for them to work. Your opponent will want to wait until he finds a better solution rather than make unfair trades… unless, of course, he doesn’t have the time for that, meaning that it will eventually force unfair trades. It also makes it very hard for your opponent to chump-block, and doesn’t even take up a slot in the deck; it’s amazing!
Streetbreaker Wurm — Five-drops don’t get much bigger than this one; it’s very hard to deal with on turn 5 for your opponent, especially when you back it up with many other creatures and tricks.
Middle picks
Bloodscale Prowler, Ghor-Clan Bloodscale, Dryad Sophisticate, Tin-Street Hooligan, Gristleback — All of these are fine creatures that can fill out your curve, and should be drafted that way.
Predatory Focus — Whenever I’ve had it in a Gruul deck it’s been amazing to me; it’s a perfect finisher, as you’ll often have many high power creatures available but you can’t seem to break through the opponent’s defenses anymore (he has stabilized). Another good thing is that it’s a reasonably safe finisher; Mortipede, for example, can be your downfall when your opponent has a trick. It isn’t quite as good in other Green decks as it is in yours, that’s why you’ll see it a bit late, but don’t hesitate to pick it very early; it’s just that good.
Late picks
Gruul Nodorog, Wild Cantor, Battering Wurm, Scorched Rusalka, Gruul Scrapper, Silhana Ledgewalker, Burning-Tree Bloodscale, Feral Alarmist, Scab-Clan Mauler – As you can, see many creatures exist and their individual card quality depends largely on the gaps in your mana curve, but two creatures really stand out: Burning-Tree Bloodscale and Scab-Clan Mauler. Other decks don’t like these as much, but you can support them easily. Again, though they go round late, don’t be scared to pick these very highly.
The contents of the Gruul deck should be quite different from those of regular decks in this format, as you’ll want an efficient creature each of the first few turns, to be followed up by combat tricks and removal. In order to make sure that you’ll have what drives your deck – an efficient creature on each of your early turns – you should play more creatures than usual decks. This means that creatures with useful abilities that can help you win later on increase in their value, as you won’t have many slots available for other tricks. Generally, I’d want my Gruul deck to look something like:
0-2 one-drops, depending on the number of Scab-Clan Maulers in your deck.
5-7 two-drops, including Signets and Farseek.
3-5 three-drops. Signets and Farseek can help a lot here, as there often aren’t as many good three-drops available as you’d like.
3-5 four-drops.
2-4 five-drops.
2-3 six or higher drops.
3-5 combat tricks, removal spells, and finishers.
16-17 lands.
Since it’s not the most straightforward or popular archetype choice, the more aggressive Gruul cards tend to go round very late as they don’t fit very well in the less aggressive three or four colors decks. These are often the cards that you’ll really want in your deck: Scab-Clan Mauler, Burning-Tree Bloodscale, and Gruul Scrapper are all cards that not a lot of people will like but are quite good in your deck. This is the reason that drafting aggressive Gruul is not as risky as it might seem to be. At first I expected that putting yourself into a Guildpact Guild early in the Draft might result in getting cut from that Guild, as you can never be certain which Guild your right-hand side neighbors are going to draft because of the many viable color combinations. However, the Gruul commons that are not Wildsize, Ghor-Clan Savage, or Streetbreaker Wurm aren’t in such high demand, allowing you to set into that Guild as early as pack one without having to worry too much about how many playables you’ll end up with.
That’s it for today. I’ll be preparing for Prague, but I’m not sure of the Pro Tour’s format yet. Dissension is released on early in May, I believe, so if it is indeed with Dissension we’ll have lots of work to do in very little time. I’ll be sure to drop in a Pro Tour Prague report, if I manage to figure something out about the new format.
Julien