Never Fan The Grip

Ben Jackson explores new decklists that are potential homes for Bloodbraid Elf, the hasty, Cascading beater from Alara Reborn!

R/G aggro is an archetype that got a lot of cards from Alara Reborn so I think it’s worth a look. For example:

Bloodbraid Elf
Jund Hackblade
Blitz Hellion (nobody likes this guy for some reason)
Colossal Might

Also, Kyle Boddy’s Blightning RDW recently showed that Red can be successful in this format, so I’m interested.

Very early in my brewing process I thought about what straight R/G would and would not let me do. It would give me fast creatures, burn, pump, 8 dual lands, access to Treetop and even Moonglove Extract as a way to kill Forge-Tender. It would leave me with only Firewild Borderpost and Trilands for additional fixing and without many ways to kill big creatures. Spitebellows and pump spells would be options for that.

Splashing either White or Black would give us spot removal for large creatures, but would likely involve playing some trilands and more painlands. My gut reaction is that it’s not worth it, as most decks can play midrange better than you can. I could be wrong though. Alternatively, R/B could still be better despite the new cards, but I think R/G is at least worth a shot.

When I build decks I generally try to build around the format. There is no excuse not to know what your opponents are going to do before you try to beat them, especially since you can find anything on deckcheck.net. At the same time, I have heard compelling arguments from Adam Prosak about making sure your deck is objectively powerful, and while I think that is important, especially in the opening rounds of an opening tournament such as Regionals, I want to have a plan against the most popular decks and cards in the format.

Here is a list of “threats” to you, using the definition from Zac Hill’s latest article.

5cc:
Plumeveil
Wall of Reverence
Counterspells (usually too slow unless your draw is bad/you are too midrangey)
A few removal spells, Volcanic Fallout
Cruel Ultimatum/Broodmate Dragon/Obelisk of Alara (represent inevitability)
SB Celestial Purge/Condemn

In this matchup we want to be fast, ideally not get blown out too hard by Fallout, and have ways to deal with Walls. Reach such as Flame Javelin and Banefire should help seal the deal.

BW/RW/Kithkin
Spectral Procession/Marsh Flitter/Cloudgoat Ranger
Some light removal
SB Burrenton Forge-Tender
Ranger of Eos/Reveillark for card advantage (RW/Kithkin)

In these matchups our opponents will try to chump block to buy time and turn the tide with Anthems or card advantage creatures.

Swans
Lots of Pyroclasm effects
Lots of counterspells
Plumeveil

This should be a relatively good matchup if we don’t get owned too hard by Pyroclasms or Plumeveil. It is important to sometimes sandbag burn spells to use on Swans if they decide to run it out there.

Faeries
Removal/counterspells
Mistbind Clique

Should be another good matchup, though if they have multiple Cliques and you don’t have Javelin you could be in trouble.

Doran/Elves
Big men that need to die
Profane Command/Shriekmaw lategame
Kitchen Finks

Burning a mana accelerator should buy you some time, and Blitz Hellion can create problems for them. SB Spitebellows will be key here, and Puncture Blast or Boggart Ram-Gang can bring their big men down to size.

EsperLark
Some Wraths/spot removal
SB Forge-Tender
A bunch of creatures that die to Shock/Magma Spray

Generally any draw with quick dudes and cheap burn is going to get enough damage in that you can finish them off with bigger burn spells.

So in conclusion, these are the main, most relevant ways decks will fight you:
Plumeveil
Chump blocking
Volcanic Fallout
Big men
Random counterspells and removal which is generally too slow or not plentiful enough
SB Forge-Tender

With those points in mind, we need to construct our curve. Obviously curve is very important to an aggressive deck. Our opponents will have inevitability in every matchup, so it’s important for us to get enough early damage in while still having enough reach to finish them off.

We have some options when it comes to our philosophy about curve. The three main ones are:
1. RDW-style with many one-and two-drops. Can struggle against big men but punishes opponents for slow starts and clunky “answers.”
2. Midrange, with bigger men and burn spells designed to clear out blockers.
3. Big Red, with fewer little guys and more sweepers and big burn spells. Struggles against lots of counterspells.

At first I thought RDW would be the best choice of the three. This was my first build:

2 Forest
11 Mountain
3 Ghitu Encampment
4 Fire-Lit Thicket
4 Karplusan Forest

2 Boartusk Liege
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Jund Hackblade
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Tattermunge Maniac

3 Colossal Might
3 Banefire
4 Flame Javelin
4 Magma Spray

Sideboard
4 Volcanic Fallout
1 Boartusk Liege
3 Spitebellows
3 Moonglove Extract
3 Guttural Response
1 Banefire

I was pretty impressed with Boartusk Liege. I would say that it was better than Blitz Hellion on the whole, and I only had so many slots for expensive cards if I was going to include stuff like Tattermunge Maniac and have no ramp. In multiples, it represented a ton of trample damage, which was quite solid across the board. I even boarded an extra one for matchups where I wanted my guys to be bigger.

Surprisingly enough, I wasn’t impressed by Banefire. Colossal Might normally pushed more damage through, and all too often I’d end up dealing 1 damage to a Spectral Procession token to get a guy through. I wasn’t sure yet that I wanted to cut it completely until I played some other matchups, but it went on my watch list.

The deck performed solidly, and I even beat BW Tokens in 3/3 games. In a handful of matches my only loss was to a G/W deck playing Noble Hierarch, Spectral Procession, Kitchen Finks, Wilt-Leaf Liege, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Ranger of Eos, Figure of Destiny, Reveillark, and Path to Exile, all maindeck. I’m not sure any red deck *should* beat that deck in a best of 3 match, but I wanted to try. Spurned on by my newfound crush on Boartusk Liege, as well as Sam Black’s midrange R/G list from his article, I tried this:

4 Treetop Village
4 Jungle Shrine
4 Karplusan Forest
3 Forest
3 Mountain
1 Vivid Crag
1 Plains
4 Fire-Lit Thicket

4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Woolly Thoctar
4 Boartusk Liege
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Blitz Hellion

4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Rampant Growth
4 Colossal Might
4 Trace of Abundance

Sideboard
4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Firespout
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Path to Exile
3 Guttural Response

I tried Vexing Shusher, Ashenmoor Gouger, Deus of Calamity, and Thornling, but they were both bad lots of times. Thornling was sometimes good but got countered or Pathed too often. I rarely wanted to activate Treetop, usually preferring to sink my mana into one spell or another. Even when I was out of spells, Treetop was never enough to turn the game around.

At this point I realized that Colossal Might was pretty much good on anything. I decided I would rather have two-drop creatures than big awkward men. As it was I had to expend too much effort to cover up my midrange deck’s weaknesses against counterspells, which left me too open to Spectral Procession, yet still fundamentally bad against control.

I wanted a low curve R/G deck that would be good against white decks. I stared at the decklists I had been going through and noticed that Bloodbraid Elf is, derf, an Elf. There were several Goblins in Blightning. I could add Wren’s Run Vanquisher, Nameless Inversion, and some Tribal duals and have a quick 3-color deck with a good curve without having to play any trilands. Here’s what I came up with:

2 Karplusan Forest
4 Auntie’s Hovel
3 Mountain
2 Sulfurous Springs
1 Swamp
3 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Forest
3 Graven Cairns
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace

4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Goblin Outlander
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Civic Wayfinder
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Wren’s Run Vanquisher

3 Colossal Might
4 Tarfire
2 Eyeblight’s Ending
4 Flame Javelin

Sideboard
3 Guttural Response
3 Infest
2 Mind Shatter
4 Deathmark
3 Banefire

Nameless Inversion ended up being quite bad, so I didn’t play any. Being able to play Wren’s Run Vanquisher and Goblin Outlander was kind of nice, but not worth having to play such crappy Tribal spells and Civic Wayfinder. Gilt-Leaf Palace was pretty terrible with Figure, though filters helped somewhat, and not having room for any manlands was lame.

I went back to straight R/G and ended up with this:

10 Mountain
3 Ghitu Encampment
4 Fire-Lit Thicket
4 Karplusan Forest
3 Forest

4 Figure of Destiny
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Tattermunge Maniac
4 Jund Hackblade
4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Colossal Might
4 Flame Javelin
4 Magma Spray
4 Puncture Blast

Sideboard
3 Spitebellows
3 Moonglove Extract
3 Guttural Response
4 Cloudthresher
2 Murderous Redcap

I felt like I was losing to Doran decks too much, so some of my card choices reflect me trying to right the ship. Boartusk Liege is still nice, but I cut him to try Puncture Blast; it’s possible that he should come back in some number. I also reworked the sideboard some based on my experiences with the deck. Sarkhan Vol and Unwilling Recruit could be good against fatties, but I think I’d rather just kill them.

Where do we go from here? I’m not entirely sure. I’ll be playing some games with variants of these lists as well as R/B Blightning and Swans and potentially some new brews in preparation for PTQ season and Regionals. I may end up picking up Islands when all is said and done, but I want to continue to explore Bloodbraid Elf and the Cascade mechanic until I feel like I have an optimal list. If I find one I like I’ll write a follow-up article.

Happy brewing.

-Ben