by Johnny Cycles, March 28th, 2025
My schedule worked out that I found time to play some Modern this month. I’ve mentioned my discontent with the format thanks to the unbannings and a critical mass of Modern Horizons sets. So I decided to return to my first love – Dragons! And if Modern Horizons 3 is still dominating the format, let’s see if the set can power up our Gruul Dragons build!
Decklist – Gruul Rumble Dragons
by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern
Creatures (18)
| 4 Arbor Elf | |
| 3 Rampaging Raptor | |
| 3 Questing Beast | |
| 4 Glorybringer | |
| 4 Stormbreath Dragon |
Planeswalkers (8)
| 4 Domri, Anarch of Bolas | |
| 4 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner |
Spells (8)
| 4 Lightning Bolt | |
| 4 Malevolent Rumble |
Enchantments (4)
| 4 Utopia Sprawl |
Lands (22)
| 2 Cavern of Souls | |
| 2 Commercial District | |
| 5 Forest | |
| 1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon | |
| 4 Mountain | |
| 4 Stomping Ground | |
| 4 Wooded Foothills |
Sideboard (15)
| 3 Collector Ouphe | |
| 3 Torpor Orb | |
| 2 Blood Moon | |
| 3 Brotherhood’s End | |
| 2 Endurance | |
| 2 Force of Vigor |
Deck Tech
Primary Game Plan
I’ve written about and played Gruul Dragons for a couple of years now. For a detailed discussion of our game plan, click here. I also include a brief history of Dragons in Magic there, so if you haven’t yet read that article and you love Dragons, be sure to check it out! The TL;DR is that we want to resolve a turn 1 mana dork, followed by a turn 2 3-mana Planeswalker to help ramp us more, into a turn 3 Dragon. It’s as straightforward as that and as powerful as you imagine.
The card we’re trying out is one that has impacted Modern in surprising ways.
This unassuming common has found a home in a variety of decks, from Combo to Graveyard to Ramp. It reminds me of another card that enabled a lot of different strategies…
And it just so happens to be a perfect fit in our Dragons deck. The 2-drop slot in my Gruul Dragons deck is one of the few true flex spots we have without watering down our own combo of 1-mana ramp, 3-mana ramp, and 5-mana Dragons.
Over the years I’ve tried a bunch of different cards in this spot…to varying success.
One reason the 2-drop spot is so relevant for our deck is there will be draws when we can cast a Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner on turn 2 and untap the land with Utopia Sprawl on it. Sure, sometimes we hold this mana up for Lightning Bolt, but if we can follow up a 7-loyalty Planeswalker with a dashed Ragavan, or a Wrenn and Six, then we’re usually pulling ahead of our opponent.
I’ve also tried Questing Druid in this slot. Unfortunately, he was not at his best in our deck. Simply put, we have too many high-mana spells and too few ways to easily grow him once he’s on the battlefield. Casting him early in search of a land often meant we couldn’t take full advantage of the cards he gained us, while sometimes just whiffing.
Still, I think the kind of effect Malevolent Rumble gives us improves our deck for two reasons. First, we play a lot of 4- and 5-mana spells. When we have a draw that is heavy on these, we really need a way to smooth this clunkiness out. Digging for mana ramp or a land, while also leaving a body we can use as ramp, is a perfect solution. Second, we also play a lot of mana ramp to enable our Dragon strategy. When we spend the early turns setting this up but can’t find a payoff, then we are left slowly dying to our opponent’s board.
Malevolent Rumble should ameliorate both of these drawbacks of our deck.
Of course, Modern has more than one way of digging for pieces, so why is this card so good?
For an unassuming card, the fact that it creates this token is probably the most unassuming aspect of it. Nevertheless, this 1-time ramp attached to digging for what we need is exactly where we want to be at. It increases our chances of finding what we need AND casting our Dragons ahead of schedule.
I’ve played a few matches already and so far, Malevolent Rumble IS. THE. TRUTH.
Mortal enemies since 2023…
Arbor Elf is Back Baby!
The bane of every 1 toughness creature’s existence – Orcish Bowmasters – has fallen out of favor in today’s Modern meta. Why? If I had to guess, I’d say it’s a combination of the banning of The One Ring, the influx of powerful 1-drop creatures with 2 toughness, and the emergence of Eldrazi and Through the Breach. Dimir Frog/Murktide still plays the full 4 copies, but it’s about the only top tier deck that does.
What that means for us is that we can have access to 4 mana on turn 2 with more reliability and live our dream!
We’ve long since played Questing Beast in our Gruul Dragons deck as a curve-filler that has haste and evasion, on top of a lot of other stuff. But with the return of Arbor Elf to our main deck, I wanted to increase our threat density at the 4-drop slot. Is there another creature on par with the 3-headed beast? Of course not, but there is one that comes close, and it’s not on anyone’s radar, as far as I can tell.
That’s right, we’re playing a Dinosaur in our Dragons deck! Everything about this card makes it the better choice over what I’ve considered playing in the past.
Thundering Raiju can be a hasty 4/4 but has no real evasion, nor do we have a way to take advantage of the rest of that block of text. Ulvenwald Oddity, meanwhile, is a legit option that gives us a giant beater with enough mana in the spirit of Stormbreath Dragon. Axebane Ferox has pseudo protection, which makes it another legitimate option for us, while deathtouch can be particularly powerful in conjunction with Domri, Anarch of Bolas.
But none of these gives us the value Rampaging Raptor does for the 4 mana it costs. Its Questing Beast clause is absurd against Eldrazi decks looking to play an early Karn, the Great Creator, while its overcosted Firebreathing is still far cheaper than Ulvenwald Oddity‘s activated ability. This means we can pump the raptor the turn after we resolve it, forcing our opponent to answer it or die, while we hold on to our other threats.
Sideboard
We’re skewing hard towards answering Affinity, which may be a mistake. Collector Ouphe is what I’m looking at switching out for more graveyard hate and another copy of Blood Moon.
That’s right, Blood Moon is good again! Well, maybe. We’ll find out. Eldrazi is a powerful deck in the vein of Tron, while Amulet Titan just won a Regional Championship. Furthermore, since Blood Moon hasn’t been part of the meta of late, many 2- and 3-color decks have been getting greedier and greedier with their mana bases.
Will Malevolent Rumble be the key to turning Dragons into a top tier deck? Has the meta evolved to the point where 5-mana hasty fliers have an edge they didn’t before Modern Horizons 3? Let’s find out!
Match 1 vs. Dimir Mill
Match 2 vs. Eldrazi Ramp
Match 3 vs. Rakdos Midrange
Match 4 vs. Dimir Frog/Murktide
Match 5 vs. Hardened Scales Affinity
Overall Record: 4-1
Those were some fun games! The deck performed to its potential, while also running hot at the right times. And we took down some of the best decks in the format, notching wins against Eldrazi, Dimir Murktide, and Rakdos Midrange. The only true Modern Horizons deck we didn’t play was Energy.
Our one dropped match was against Hardened Scales Affinity and it was a close thing. Our opponent ran very well and was able to come back from a Brotherhood’s End in game 3 thanks to their final card being Agatha’s Soul Cauldron.
Overall, Malevolent Rumble felt great! At the 2-drop slot, it fills out our curve nicely, while doing exactly what we want it to do – ramp us into the action we find from it. We never whiffed, nor did we ever need to take a land. All in all, it was a great addition to the deck. It will be hard to find a card better than it.
But wait! Tarkir: Dragonstorm is about to be released. Surely there are some powerful options for our Dragons deck.
Will either Herd Heirloom or Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant be more powerful and synergistic than Malevolent Rumble? Stay tuned!
Conclusion
Malevolent Rumble showed why it’s such a powerful support card in today’s Modern. Digging and ramping on turn 2 makes this a great option for smoothing out the curve of any Midrange creature strategy. And we didn’t even use it for filling our graveyard! I can’t wait to try this unassuming common in a Souls of the Lost deck!
What do you think? Did Malevolent Rumble solidify its place in Gruul Dragons? What off-tier decks have you tried it in? As always, thanks for reading and watching!
