With Magic 2014 nearly upon us, it's time for one last look at the Return to Ravnica environment. What better note to end on than with a generous serving of rage-smashing? Today, we'll be looking to meddle Gruul Siege, the Dragon's Maze Intro Pack. As with the past Dragon's Maze Meddlings, we're taking a slightly different approach than usual. This time around, we're taking both of the guild's decks from the block and building the best sixty-card construction we can from the cards within. It's an exercise in making do, which can serve to hone our skills in the area of deck-building and card assessment.

With some of the previous Meddlings in this series, we began the journey at a crossroads. Some cards could go in one direction, others in another, and we typically looked to commit to one at the expense of others for the sake of strength and consistency. The Gruul, on the other hand, have their destination more or less set from the moment we figuratively dump the Intro Packs onto the table: Nearly half of the creatures here cost 5 or more mana, putting them in what we usually think of as the “closers” category. Although in baseball having a bullpen of quality relief pitching is a real source of strength, you still have a lot of the game to go through before you get to that point.

The Early Game (1- and 2-Drops)

• 1 Arbor Elf
• 2 Disciple of the Old Ways
• 1 Foundry Street Denizen
• 2 Kraul Warrior
• 1 Skarrg Guildmage
• 1 Skinbrand Goblin
• 3 Zhur-Taa Druid

Although there certainly exists an aggressive Gruul build that extends the pressure of the early charge with bloodrush, we’ve consistently noted that the Return to Ravnica environment is a slower one. For our early selections, we’re really only going to want cards that help make the ones further down the chain better. For a 1-drop, that means the Arbor Elf is in, but the Foundry Street Denizen is not. The Denizen is small fry, a paltry beater that occasionally receives a surge of relevance, so it’s an easy cut. The Elf would be too were it the only one of its kind, but as we’ll see, there is much more in store here for mana-ramping to let us make it to the top of the curve faster and more reliably.

Unfortunately for the other aspirants in the slot, they simply don’t make the cut. For our purposes, the Kraul Warrior is not unlike the Foundry Street Denizen, a pedestrian creature that occasionally becomes useful. Paying 6 mana is too much in a deck that has a lot of things it can do with that mana—this is more a card for a straightforward beater deck that is looking for places to spend its resources later in the game. The Disciple of the Old Ways gains first strike for cheap and isn’t a bad bargain, but much of the bloodrush we’ll be packing will offer that ability anyway. As for the Skinbrand Goblin, that would find a home in the aforementioned aggro Gruul deck, but not here.

The Midgame (3- and 4-Drops)

• 2 Centaur Courser
• 2 Cobblebrute
• 2 Feral Animist
• 2 Ghor-Clan Rampager
• 1 Primal Huntbeast
• 3 Rubblebelt Maaka
• 2 Saruli Gatekeepers
• 1 Scab-Clan Charger
• 2 Slaughterhorn
• 4 Viashino Shanktail

The deck clearly begins to blossom in the 3- to 4-drop range, giving us a taste of things to come. We’re not spoiled for choice here, with only three different creatures on offer, but they’re all keepers. The Feral Animist is essentially a combo card with bloodrush and is the mana sink that the Kraul Warrior really wanted to be. It also scales much better than the all-or-nothing Kraul.

The Slaughterhorn has the distinction of being our first bloodrush creature—on an otherwise unassuming 3/2 body. Of course, when a bloodrush ability only costs a single mana to use, there’s no shortage of opportunities to use it. Finally, we’ll also include the pair of Centaur Coursers. As we saw in our meddling of the Simic, what these lack in sexiness they more than make up for in being a solid body in a slot that can use one. For all the utility in the early-to-midgame transition, there’s not a lot of muscle, so a card like this is useful to help prevent us being overrun by faster, more aggressive swarm decks.

Keepers here include the Ghor-Clan Rampager, which is among the best bloodrush options available in the block. It’s a substantial bonus, and the trample is a superb addition. The Viashino Shanktail’s first strike gives it the nod as well, turning your creatures into potential ersatz removal. We’ll also be taking a Primal Huntbeast, whose hexproof gives us a modest measure of comfort from being two-for-oned with removal in response to a bloodrush.

Sadly, that doesn’t leave much room for the Rubblebelt Maaka, which doesn’t really do much to stand out from the pack. Because of the cheap bloodrush cost, this would actually have a better chance of making the cut in a faster Gruul build, but here, it’s mediocre.

The Late Game (5-Drops and Up)

• 1 Duskdale Wurm
• 2 Fire Elemental
• 1 Gruul Ragebeast
• 2 Ripscale Predator
• 1 Rubblehulk
• 4 Ruination Wurm
• 1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
• 1 Skarrg Goliath
• 3 Zhur-Taa Swine

Finally, it’s a veritable rogues gallery of would-bes and hangers-on at the top of the mana curve, but with the deck’s mana ramping suite, we can be a little bit free-spending here and splash the cash for a few closers. We’ll start with the easiest cuts, with cards such as Cobblebrute, Ruination Wurm, Duskdale Wurm, Skarrg Goliath, and the Fire Elemental, all of which either simply don’t do enough or are too costly for what they do manage to offer.

The Rubblehulk is another. Although its base stats are okay (a Ruination Wurm’s are better if both are cast from 6 mana)—and with creature mana, it can be a little weak—it nevertheless can pack quite a wallop with its inexpensive bloodrush, and that’s what gives it an edge. For similar reasons, we’ll also be grabbing a pair of the Zhur-Taa Swine.

The final inclusion here is a pair of Ripscale Predators. These were a card I might have previously dismissed until I played against them, and they are very difficult to handle. They throw a giant monkey wrench in an opponent’s defensive calculations, and that disruption gives a great opportunity for other creatures to go unblocked. By that late stage of the game, that can often be lethal, as even a small critter making it through can be bloodrushed to lethal size. Even in the case where they’re lethally gang-blocked, there’s an opportunity for a blowout with the right bloodrush card. That’s what this mechanic excels at: always keeping your opponents on their toes in the red zone.

The Spells

• 1 Alpha Authority
• 1 Armed // Dangerous
• 4 Ground Assault
• 2 Gruul Cluestone
• 2 Gruul Keyrune
• 2 Gruul War Chant
• 2 Pit Fight
• 2 Predator's Rapport
• 1 Ranger's Path
• 1 Verdant Haven
• 2 Volcanic Geyser

This time, the support selection is fairly easy, as we have plenty of removal to choose from. A play set of Ground Assaults is a blessing we’ll certainly avail ourselves of, as is the pair of Volcanic Geysers and Pit Fights. We’ll add a Ranger's Path for ramp support and grab the Armed // Dangerous for sheer versatility. That gives us two extra slots to work with, and this isn’t an easy choice. Some cards quickly disqualify themselves, such as Predator's Rapport and Alpha Authority, for while they do bring useful effects to the table, they’re conditional or vulnerable. An Authority on the Ripscale Predator is a nice two-card combo, but there will be just too many times you don’t find it—or you are two-for-oned with removal in response.

With our ramp suite solidly in place, we can look past the Keyrunes and Cluestones. Instead, we’ll grab the pair of Gruul War Chants—for much the same reason we mentioned above with the Predator: disruption. The Chants will make all of our creatures much harder to block, increasing the chances we'll be able to land a telling blow on our opponent with an unblocked one that we can then bloodrush into gargantuan size.

Voila! We have a deck. Now time to test it.

The Playtest

That isn't to say that she didn't expose some vulnerabilities, mainly in the air. A pair of Cloudfin Raptors took off right out of the evolutionary gates, and my only recourse in the absence of removal was to attempt to race. This build starts to really threaten around turn four, but I couldn't catch up. Above all else, it was a lot of fun to play. Bloodrush will certainly stick out as one of the block's more memorable offerings.

Here's the final decklist:

"Gruul Smash"

• Creatures (24)
• 1 Arbor Elf
• 1 Primal Huntbeast
• 1 Rubblehulk
• 1 Skarrg Guildmage
• 2 Centaur Courser
• 2 Feral Animist
• 2 Ghor-Clan Rampager
• 2 Ripscale Predator
• 2 Slaughterhorn
• 2 Zhur-Taa Swine
• 3 Zhur-Taa Druid
• 4 Viashino Shanktail
• 1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed

• Spells (12)
• 2 Pit Fight
• 2 Volcanic Geyser
• 1 Armed // Dangerous
• 1 Ranger's Path
• 4 Ground Assault
• 2 Gruul War Chant

• Lands (24)
• 11 Forest
• 11 Mountain
• 2 Gruul Guildgate

Buy This Deck

I hope you've enjoyed this take on the Intro Packs of Dragon's Maze. We'll be back soon with a look at the Magic 2014 decks under the more traditional deck-building rules. As always, your results may vary, and I'm interested to hear what you might have kept in—or what you might have done differently!

Jay Kirkman

@ErtaisLament