Today's deck is sent in from a guy named "Nimble Sloth". I like it.

 

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Hey I'm fairly new to the game (Been playing roughly 3-4 months now), and I recently bought myself then M14 Event Deck, and after asking a few friends if they'd be willing to sell me a few cards I finally came up with this, I'm planning on playing this Standard and Modern so any improvements that would work well for both would be great. I'd also really appreciate it if you could try and improve this deck with a $50-65 budget for improvements, as I don't have much more than that to be able to spend on the deck.

 

Creatures (28):

 

4x Elvish Mystic

4x Dryad Militant

4x Burning-Tree Emissary

2x Skarrg Guildmage

2x Kalonian Tusker 

2x Flinthoof Boar

2x Slaughterhorn

2x Rubblebelt Maaka

4x Ghor-Clan Rampager

1x Woodborn Behemoth

1x Gruul Ragebeast

 

Sorceries (5):

 

2x Mizzium Mortars

2x Ground Assault

1x Armed // Dangerous

 

Instants (4):

 

3x Shock

1x Pit Fight 

Lands (23):

 

10x Forest

7x Mountain

4x Gruul Guildgate

1x Stomping Ground

1x Rogue's Passage

 

 

Thanks a lot if you can help me out :D

 

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Alright, Nimble Sloth, let's see what we have here. I'm told that we want to use this for both Stanard and Modern tournaments. In case any of our readers are unsure about how the different tournament formats work, let me give you a brief description.

 

Standard is the smallest format using only the last two blocks of cards and the last core set. Currently this includes the Return to Ravnica block (Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, and Dragon's Maze), Theros block (Theros, Born of the Gods, and the newly released Journey Into Nyx), and M14. When M15 comes out, it will also be a part of standard. When the next block of cards comes out, Return to Ravnica block and M14 will rotate out of Standard.

 

Modern is a much larger pool of cards. It includes everything since the original Mirodin block and 8th edition - which was in July of 2003! The quick way to tell if a card is modern legal is if it has the current card frame, or the old frames. Legacy and Vintage pull from every set ever printed - all the way back to 1993! Each format has it's own list of things that are banned (there's currently nothing banned in Standard). Check the Wizards of the Coast website for a current list of what's banned.

 

Anyway, as I was saying, if we want a deck that is both Standard and Modern legal, we have to make it Standard legal, since it is the most restrictive format. We're also trying to keep this fix to $50-$65. This isn't too hard, but in case you come across them, I'll mention a few more expensive options that fit well at the end.

 

What we have here is a tried and true strategy of aggressively putting out red and green creatures with the attempt to overpower your opponent. I can work with that. You've got a pretty good start with a lot of good, efficient creatures. What I notice as I look through the deck is that some aspects of your deck don't work particularly well together. Woodborn Behemoth is only worthwhile if you have the 8 lands, and you have no way to search out more land, meaning you have to wait at least 8 turns before he's very good. We can do better than that. For the same amount of mana, you can have Polukranos, World Eater. He's about a $7 card, so only 2 of him to not eat out budget up too quickly. Polukranos starts out big, and can get huge, while taking out some opposing blockers at the same time.

 

-1 Woodborn Behemoth

+2 Polukranos, World Eater

 

The next card that doesn't work particularly well is Gruul Ragebeast. Your deck is full of small to medium creatures that come out quickly. Once you get the Ragebeast out, it's going to be later in the game. Remember that the Ragebeast's ability is not a "may" ability, meaning your guys HAVE to fight something when they come in. A lot of times this means your creatures are going to die as soon as they come in. Instead, let's put in a single Sylvan Primordial. He's huge, has reach, and will destroy a troublesome permanent.

 

-1 Gruul Ragebeast

+1 Sylvan Primordial

 

On the other end of the spectrum, we have Elvish Mystics. He's great if you have a lot of expensive things you want to get out quickly, but outside of the Primordial we just added, everything costs 5 or less. I think we can get away with not using the mana accellerator and putting in another threat instead. How about one of my favorite, little used ways to turn late game smaller creatures into serious threats? Ogre Battledriver. Once he hits the field, every creature after him is bigger and hasty. That should put some fear in your opponents. I too out 1 card and added two earlier, so we'll just do 3 Ogres to make up.

 

-4 Elvish Mystic

+3 Ogre Battledriver

 

The next thing I want to do is improve the efficiency of some things you are already doing well in this deck. Slaughterhorn and Rubblebelt Maaka are for the exact same purpose - to give your attacker +3 power. This is a good choice, but paying 1 more mana is not worth the extra 1 toughness the Rubblebelt brings, so lets make it 4 Slaughterhorns instead.

 

-2 Rubblebelt Maaka

+2 Slaughterhorn

 

Next, instead of having to pay mana each turn to make your guys have trample, let's give them trample all the time with Archetype of Aggression. You can now keep your mana open for bloodrushing - or at least bluffing the bloodrush.

 

-2 Skarrg Guildmage

+2 Archetype of Aggression

 

Now, for look at your non-creatures. I think you've got a pretty good suite of spells. The only change I would make is to remove the shocks and make them all Pit Fights. You might lose a creature here and there from the fight, but you have much more damage potential - especially if you have the Battledriver out! Too often, 2 damage is just not going to cut it.

 

-3 Shock

+3 Pit Fight

 

We have swung your deck a little more towards the red side now. I'd suggest using most of the rest of our budget on some Temple of Abandon and Stomping Grounds. They'll help you make sure you have the right colors of mana to play the threats you have. There's not much more frustrating than having the card, but being unable to play it. The Temples replace the Guildgates since they give you scry, and the Stomping Grounds replace Forests to give us more red sources.

 

-4 Gruul Guildgate

-3 Forest

+3 Stomping Ground

+4 Temple of Abandon

 

If you were to make these changes, the deck would look something like this:

 

Creatures (28):

 

4x Dryad Militant

4x Burning-Tree Emissary

2x Archetype of Aggression

2x Flinthoof Boar

4x Slaughterhorn

3x Ogre Battledriver

4x Ghor-Clan Rampager

2x Polukranos, World Eater

1x Sylvan Primordial

 

Sorceries (5):

 

2x Mizzium Mortars

2x Ground Assault

1x Armed // Dangerous

 

Instants (4):

 

4x Pit Fight

 

Lands (23):

 

7x Forest

7x Mountain

4x Gruul Guildgate

4x Temple of Abandon

4x Stomping Ground

1x Rogue's Passage

 

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Now, as promised, a few other suggestions if you are able to come up with some of the more pricey cards:

 

Xenagos, God of Revels: He's the God of Red/Green, and he loves making your creatures huge and hasty.

 

Domri Rade: Draw more creatures and use them to fight away your opponent's creatures.

 

Nylea, God of the Hunt: Another way to give all your creatures trample. You would probably play him in place of the Archtype.

 

Stormbreath Dragon: Simply one of the most powerful creatures in the game with protection from all the annoying white removal.

 

Courser of Kruphix: Being able to play lands off the top of your library is a big help. It helps you dig a little deeper to find the creatures you want. Play this with Domri for all kinds of fun with the top of your library!

 

However you decide to build it, this deck should win more than its share of matches by sheer power. Have fun!