I played Sultai Food at Mythic Championship VI but I should’ve played Gruul Adventures. It’s more my speed and is difficult to play against. Javier Dominguez built the deck after winning Mythic Championship V with a different Gruul build. The smart guys in our testing house picked it up and ran with it at MC VI. Martin Muller and Seth Manfield along with Javier posted the best record against the Food decks of any archetype in Richmond.
The Food decks were a big reason to play Gruul Adventures. With the banning of Oko, Thief of Crowns; Veil of Summer; and Once Upon a Time, the Food decks are dwindling, but still existent. The Sultai Sacrifice deck that Tommy Ashton and company have been playing is still around, and many builds were opting out of Oko, Thief of Crowns anyway before the bannings.
If you expect Food decks to still be around (which I do), Gruul Adventures may be the deck for you.
Creatures (28)
- 4 Kraul Harpooner
- 2 Pelt Collector
- 2 Skarrgan Hellkite
- 4 Lovestruck Beast
- 4 Questing Beast
- 4 Edgewall Innkeeper
- 4 Bonecrusher Giant
- 4 Rimrock Knight
Lands (5)
Spells (27)
- 10 Forest
- 10 Mountain
- 4 Domri's Ambush
- 3 Embercleave
Edgewall Innkeeper puts early pressure on your opponent, but not on their life total directly. It’s a must-kill that will eventually draw enough cards to keep your flow of action going. Various Adventure decks in Standard have leaned on Edgewall Innkeeper as their linchpin, often being night and day in difference among draws that involve it or not. Gruul is less dependent on Edgewall Innkeeper, which normalizes its draws better.
Part of why Edgewall Innkeeper is less mandatory than in other builds is the strength of Lovestruck Beast and Bonecrusher Giant on their own. You tend to always have a solid Turn 3 play, as well as often curving out with Heart’s Desire and/or Stomp
Rimrock Knight is your worst Adventure creature, but one I’m happy to navigate with given it’s low-ish power level. A pump spell is quite welcome in a deck that wants to attack every turn into blocking creatures. There’s not much room for actual spells since you need a high density of threats both for Edgewall Innkeeper and to kill the opponent in general. A Turn 2 Rimrock Knight after a Turn 1 Edgewall Innkeeper is a common play.
Kraul Harpooner’s main job is taking back initiative against Gilded Goose players. Sometimes it’ll snag a Spectral Sailor or Faerie Guidemother too. Rankle, Master of Pranks is another annoying threat that the Harpooner can deal with as you deck doesn’t have much else going on in terms of ant-flying defense. Most people have Zhur-Taa Goblin in this slot, but I’ve been a fan of the interaction that Kraul Harpooner provides.
Four Questing Beast is a lot but they’re worth it. You want to pressure planeswalkers without taking too much time off from attacking the opponent’s life total. Questing Beast combined with Embercleave is a wombo-combo of deathtouch plus trample plus first strike that will kill a blocker for one point of damage without retaliation while trampling over for the rest. It’s basically a Searing Blaze, but for nine damage instead of three.
Embercleave is your main payoff for having so many creatures in your deck (and ones with high power too). The double strike bonus gives some value to Boulder Rush to fill out the otherwise underwhelming other half of Rimrock Knight. Embercleave is hard to play around outside of just killing off your creatures. Blocking is already difficult against Gruul Adventures and it’s quite impossible to make good blocks when Embercleave is coming down.
Domri’s Ambush isn’t your typical removal spell. It requires you to have a creature of notable power on the battlefield and for the opponent not to blow you out when you cast it. However, under normal circumstances, you have a good window to cast it and it’s quite strong, as Domri’s Ambush hits planeswalkers while buffing your creatures so you don’t lose any tempo casting a removal spell. This started as a one-of but quickly climbed up to a necessary four-of.
Pelt Collector and Skarrgan Hellkite are the flex slots that were tested early on before eventually getting cut. There used to be Once Upon a Time in the deck, but of course that got the axe, so the sideliners get some to play again.
Pelt Collector grows pretty quickly with Kraul Harpooner and Rimrock Knight being three-power creatures. You can even sculpt combat to have a bigger creature die with Rimrock Knight giving +2/+0 to a key creature destined to die in combat.
Skarrgan Hellkite tops the curve in your 25-land deck as a generally good card that attacks planeswalkers and players well while threatening to mow down creatures in a stalled battlefield.
Cindervines is for Wilderness Reclamation and Fires of Invention while having some use against artifacts like Witch’s Oven. Embereth Shieldbreaker is mainly for the Oven and is an Adventure creature that works with the Edgewall Innkeeper. Six slots may look like a lot against the popular decks, but there are often weak or dead cards in matchups so I don’t mind overloading in this aspect.
Experimental Frenzy and The Great Henge come in when you expect games to go long and for players to deal with your creatures in a timely manner, limiting the effectiveness of Embercleave. This isn’t the best Frenzy deck in the world, but it’s still strong and will take over the game when people load up on creature removal spells and get blindsided by it.
VS Sultai Sacrifice
Out:
In:
Their Cats are nerfed without the Witch’s Oven and Embereth Shieldbreaker keeps your Adventure count high enough for Edgewall Innkeeper after sideboarding out Rimrock Knights. Things get grindy after sideboard, so cards like Experimental Frenzy and The Great Henge do good work.
VS Jeskai Fires
Out:
In:
Keep the Fires of Invention off the battlefield and you should be good. Don’t overextend into a Deafening Clarion since they’re going to aim to kill all your creatures. Your late-game top-end should shine here.
VS Esper Dance
Out:
In:
They’re full of planeswalkers and removal spell so adjust accordingly. Embereth Shieldbreaker hits Golden Egg or Guild Globe most often, which can be enough when they’re trying to set up a good Doom Foretold.
VS Mono-Red Aggro
Out:
In:
Keep your curve low while having a few heavy hitters late. Rimrock Knight can’t block so it’s pretty weak. The Great Henge can get your life total high again if the game goes that far. They have a tough time getting through Lovestruck Beast.
VS Rakdos Sacrifice
Out:
In:
Play the control role and keep them off the combo. They might try to grind you out with Midnight Reaper so Lava Coil that if you can. Kraul Harpooner will do work against Rankle if they have that.
VS Golgari Adventures
Out:
In:
Their deck doesn’t function too well without Edgewall Innkeeper so make that a priority to kill. Massacre Girl is their main comeback card, so be wary of battlefields that benefit her hitting the battlefield. A few cards from Edgewall Innkeeper into Experimental Frenzy is the formula for success.
Gruul Adventures for Your Next Tournament
Gruul Adventures is fast, aggressive, and difficult to play around with Embercleave. Rimrock Knight is a solid Game 1 card that gets sideboarded out often once opponents jam more removal and are aware of it. You have decent card flow with Edgewall Innkeeper and Adventure spells. It’s basically an aggressively slanted midrange deck with somewhat of a combo finish and sideboard option to both go long or lower the curve with more burn spells depending on the matchup.
I’ll be playing Gruul Adventures in the near future. I hope you enjoy smashing people with it as much as I do!