Posted - March 25, 2014

I'm going to do a further modification of my Gruul Wilding Aura Edition deck.

I will be replacing four lands, three creatures, and an artifact.

Here are the lands I will be adding.

I bought these three Gruul Guildgates for the dual color flexibility they can add to the deck. I'll lose a turn with the mana because these lands enter the battlefield tapped but the flexibility should be worth it. I'll be giving up three Forests for these non-basic lands.

I also bought this nice looking Zendikar Forest to replace one of the Forest cards.

Here are the creatures I will be adding:

Here are the creatures I will be replacing:

The replacements are primarily being done for reasons of flavor - the new creatures make the deck more Gruulish.

The Zhur-Taa Druid replaces the Sporeback Troll. The troll is a Simic creation while the druid is all Gruul. As a plus, the expensive four-drop is replaced by a two-drop creature.

I'd like to think that the Riot Piker took a look around the horde and realized he was the only goblin. Goblins strike me as a very tribal sort of creature. So off goes the Riot Piker to be replaced by someone who will be more at home with the Gruul. It's hard to get any more Gruulish than a Skarrg Guildmage.

I want my MTG!

The next change made me hesitate a bit because the Scorched Rusalka is an original member of the Gruul Wilding theme deck. Still, she's a Spirit. My backstory for that is she perished by fire in the forest and has been haunting the Gruuls ever since. I'd let her stay if not for the Disciple of the Old Ways being an even better fit for the Gruuls. Look at the Disciple, wild, savage, read the flavor text - that's a Gruul talking right there. If that wasn't enough, her First Strike capability is a must-have for this deck.

My last replacement is something that I mentioned when I was putting together the Gruul Wilding Aura Edition deck. I mentioned that if I could swap the Butcher's Cleaver with an equivalent Aura I would, to be more in keeping with the Aura focus of this deck. Well I can and I will, so out goes the grisly Butcher's Cleaver.

In place of the Butcher's Cleaver I will add Fearsome Temper from the Born of the Gods set.

It gives up a +1 when compared to the Cleaver but it has an evasion activated ability. Best of all, its an Aura, and Auras automatically take advantage of built in synergies in this deck, so the one point deficit is something that I can easily give up. Besides, Fearsome Temper is definitely a Gruul attitude.

With that, I'm done with the changes and can now present Gruul Wilding Aura Edition v2:

Lands

Creatures

Spells

The deck is more Gruulish than ever - all the new creatures come from the Return to Ravnica set. The spell replacement adds another Aura to a deck that means to be very Aura heavy.