by Johnny Cycles, December 13th, 2023
Wizards finally decided enough was enough (sort of) and took action against one of the more problematic cards from Modern Horizons 2: Fury. Read here for their full explanation, but their reasoning boils down to a simple fact: Fury was hosing creature strategies. “We believe the removal of Fury will widen the format, allowing players to explore additional strategies, especially with low-toughness creatures.”
Hallelujah!!!
I don’t hate Fury, or any of the Evoke Elementals. What I hate is the narrowing of the game, the reduction of a wonderfully wide open, beautifully creative card game to something closer to War or Solitaire. And while I believe the Evoke Elementals are all part of the problem, there is more to Modern’s issues than these free creatures, as I discuss here. Should Wizards have gone further and banned Grief? Solitude? All of them? Yes, yes, and yes. Free spells move the format closer and closer to Legacy, hamstring midrange strategies not abusing said free spells, and create a play pattern and metagame that is less fun, diverse, and innovative. Until they start printing midrange creatures that have comparable stats and abilities that the 1- and 2-mana creatures from Modern Horizons 1 and 2 have, the Evoke Elementals will still hinder midrange and creature-based strategies.
Yes, Fury‘s demise improves our chances to ramp into a turn 3 dragon, but Grief, Solitude, and Subtlety will continue to make midrange decks not playing these cards suboptimal choices. The Evoke Elementals aren’t the only reason midrange and aggressive creature strategies aren’t tier 1 in Modern of course, but they are a problem and keep such archetypes closer to tier 3, than 2.
Up the Beanstalk is the kind of card that would support traditional midrange strategies suffering from the Evoke Elementals. Why was it banned? Much like Faithless Looting was collateral damage of Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis‘ domination of Modern a few years ago, this innocuous enchantment was sacrificed for the sins of the Evoke Elementals (and, in part, other free-ish spells, like Leyline Binding). I understand why Wizards chose to ban an uncommon over an entire mythic rare cycle, both from an optics and a financial point of view, but the decision is bad for the format. Just like the loss of Faithless Looting hurt janky decks, the loss of Up the Beanstalk punishes fair, midrange strategies. This 2-mana enchantment solves many of the problems midrange creature strategies have: running out of cards. One reason Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner is so powerful in my Gruul Dragons deck is that all of our dragons draw us a card with her on the battlefield. Up the Beanstalk has the additional benefit of triggering on casting, not resolving, making it a powerful tool to fight Control. At 2 mana, we could also frequently sneak it in under counter magic.
The Evoke Elementals in concert with Up the Beanstalk did create a new kind of midrange, but it was one that drove out entire other strategies. Allowing a midrange threat like Fury to function nearly optimally in both the early and late game is anathema to the very archetype itself. Powerful, game-ending threats come at the cost of more mana…at least, they were supposed to (looking at you Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer). The Evoke Elementals, particularly in conjunction with Up the Beanstalk, break this concept and warp the format accordingly. We’ll see how Modern adjusts and whether creature-based strategies make a comeback as time goes on, but I sincerely hope Wizards revisits this decision in a few months and bans (and unbans) the right cards.
For now, however, lets see just how impactful the loss of Fury is on Modern! Now that we can’t get 3-for-1’ed before getting to cast a single dragon, can Gruul Dragons compete in Modern? Have mana dorks everywhere emerged from their hiding places, no longer terrified of the big, bad wolf that was Fury, the fiery and free elemental? Will other low-to-the-ground creature strategies be resurrected into the glory of a winning record? Let’s find out!
Gruul Dragons
by Johnny Cycles
Format: Modern
Creatures (18)
| 2 Arbor Elf | |
| 4 Delighted Halfling | |
| 3 Questing Beast | |
| 4 Glorybringer | |
| 4 Stormbreath Dragon | |
| 1 Thundermaw Hellkite |
Planeswalkers (11)
| 3 Wrenn and Six | |
| 4 Domri, Anarch of Bolas | |
| 4 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner |
Spells (4)
| 4 Lightning Bolt |
Enchantments (4)
| 4 Utopia Sprawl |
Lands (23)
| 1 Boseiju, Who Endures | |
| 4 Field of Ruin | |
| 6 Forest | |
| 3 Mountain | |
| 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance | |
| 4 Stomping Ground | |
| 4 Wooded Foothills |
Sideboard (15)
| 3 Tamiyo’s Safekeeping | |
| 3 Cast into the Fire | |
| 3 Chalice of the Void | |
| 2 Blood Moon | |
| 1 Brotherhood’s End | |
| 3 Endurance |
Primary Game Plan
You can read all about the way each card fits into our strategy, what that strategy is, and how it plays out here, but the TL;DR is we want to ramp into a 5-drop dragon by turn 3 and go from there. Our mana dorks and Planeswalkers all serve this purpose. I’ve made a few changes to the deck featured in the above article, namely, I’m testing out Delighted Halfling. To do so, I’ve cut 2 Arbor Elf and all the Ignoble Hierarchs. My reasoning on this was we aren’t all in on casting a 4-drop on turn 2 and the Halfling Citizen would help us stick our Planeswalkers against counter magic. I’ve tweaked the sideboard a bit, adding Cast into the Fire over Force of Vigor to fight The One Ring.
League 1 – Friendly
Match 1 – Infect
Game 1 – I only have a picture of my opening hand. It was a good hand. Infect on the play, though, sometimes just doesn’t care what your hand looks like.
Game 2 – Our opening hand again looked great – just what we want – and we followed it up with Chalice of the Void to shut down OP’s pump spells. Exactly how we drew it up!
Game 3 – Cast into the Fire really proved its worth, taking out OP’s first two creatures. Look at that board state by the end! 3 Planeswalkers and a dragon…so much fun!
I always feel lucky when I beat Infect. Maybe I shouldn’t…
League Record: 1-0
Game 2 – Affinity/Agatha’s Soul Cauldron Combo
Game 1 – I’ve played against Affinity a lot, but, I’ll be honest, this was my first time playing against Agatha’s Soul Cauldron. The game felt winnable until I was dead…had a hand full of action, but died to the combo and poison counters.
Game 2 – Made a couple of suboptimal plays as I tried to imagine all the ways OP would kill me, but I managed to get there. Had to mulligan this hand away:
Field of Ruin has felt a lot better in this deck and in this league than in my Rakdos Dragons deck, but here it was a liability. Had that been a green source, this hand would’ve have been nuts. Here’s how it all went down.
Game 3 – After glacially slow play from OP, I was half hoping to win via time out. OP must have been streaming or playing two matches, because they got it together, used a very fast, aggressive start, and punished my mana stumbles. Disappointing loss, as the match-up feels winnable.
League Record: 1-1
Match 3 – Infect
Lets run it back!
Game 1 – Had a very fast start and drew the finisher right on time!
All the ramp in the world and no finisher. Guess it’ll be janky mana dork beats!
One of the many, many benefits of Domri, Anarch of Bolas is that his static ability gives our creatures +1/+0. Even without the Thundermaw Hellkite off the top, OP was on a 2-turn clock from the 6 damage our mana dorks were dealing each turn.
Game 2 – What a weird game! OP brought in Dismember (makes sense) and Spellskite (probably makes sense), but both hurt them more than me. The former did let them kill 2 of my dragons, but at the cost of the 4 life they would’ve taken from a hit, while the latter made my Wrenn and Six‘s -1 a Shock.
My deck plays 4 Lightning Bolts as removal, yet I’ve now not just beaten, but beaten soundly, Infect 2 matches. Maybe I shouldn’t feel so lucky to win… Nah, they can kill on turn 2. It’s always lucky to beat Infect.
League Record: 2-1
Match 4 – Grixis Control
Game 1 – Kept a land-heavy hand with some ramp, then drew really well. Know who doesn’t care about Sheoldred, the Apocalypse? Stormbreath Dragon baby!
Game 2 – One of the strangest games I’ve played in a long time. I imagine OP was fuming at first, but then cast Thoughtseize and saw I had nothing but lands in hand.
I spent multiple turns doing nothing but playing and cracking Field of Ruin until it became Wasteland. OP kept thinking that fancy Swamp was an Island. At one point, OP tried to Fatal Push my Glorybringer. It took about 5 turns of attacks, but I got there. Know who doesn’t care about Orcish Bowmasters? Glorybringer baby!
League Record – 3-1
Let’s go for that 4-1!!!
Match 5 – Bant Stoneblade/Control
Game 1 – Another crazy game! I had to race a turn 3 Batterskull, but got there on the back of Stormbreath, who, for the record, also doesn’t care about Solitude!
It’s been awhile since I got to monstrous Stormbreath Dragon for a win!
Game 2 – Was feeling pretty hopeful…
My deck drew as well as I could’ve hoped after a mull to 5…OP cast Counterspell 3 turns in a row to run me out of threats. Ouch. There’s no accounting for variance, but what a way to lose.
Game 3 – This is it! Will Gruul Dragons defy expectations and finish 4-1?
OP burned a Solitude on Delighted Halfling on turn 1. Maybe it’s worth keeping in the deck. It was also the correct choice, because Stormbreath would’ve stuck. Of note, I missed a land drop on turn 4 that would’ve let me resolve Stormbreath Dragon while OP was tapped out. Given how many Ice-Fang Coatls OP was playing, it probably wouldn’t have gotten me there anyway, but missing that window of opportunity felt like the nail in my coffin. It was.
It’s possible I should’ve kept my opening 7 and trusted I would draw a green source in time. With one, that hand looks really, really good. However, in my experience, we want to mulligan for a mana dork and I let that be my guide. If I could go back and do it over, though, I would’ve kept it. Sure, maybe I wouldn’t have drawn another land for 6 turns (which has happened), but I had an answer for a Stoneforge Mystic, 2 copies of our best Planeswalker against Control, a protection spell, AND a finisher. Should’ve trusted the Magic gods. They punished me for my lack of faith.
League Record: 3-2
Impressions from League Play
It was a sad way to lose the 4-1 dream, but sometimes variance doesn’t let you play Magic (thinking of game 2 of last match). Overall, though, it was a pleasure playing this deck. I found myself smiling and laughing out loud at many points in many games. This rarely happened with my Rakdos Dragons deck, despite the number of MH2 cards I tried in it. Furthermore, the deck played smoothly and how it is supposed to. I got to play a bunch of Planeswalkers, oftentimes sticking all 3 during a game. I played dragons on turn 3 more often than not.
Stormbreath Dragon was an all star, laughing at Solitude on its way to victory. Glorybringer didn’t make many appearances, but won me at least 1 game. I never got to abuse the synergy between it and Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner, though. Questing Beast, a favorite of mine, had his moments, although not as frequently as I would’ve liked.
I even got to exile The One Ring with Cast into the Fire for a super flavor win on my way to losing to Bant Stoneblade. AND I finished with a winning record. Perhaps more importantly, the deck was competitive in all its matches. I never got blown out and I was frequently one draw away from winning the games I lost.
Was this success due to the absence of Fury?
It’s hard to say, since I only played against one other Red deck. However, this absence of Rakdos Scam or other X-Red decks is probably a direct result of Fury‘s ban. Furthermore, the 4 decks not playing Red were all creature-based strategies at their heart. Infect and Affinity can both get blown out easily by Fury, while Stoneblade’s signature card that gives them fast and easy wins also folds to the Evoke Elemental. To be fair, I played against both Infect and Affinity while Fury was still legal, so it’s hard to say for certain. And this is a very small sample size.
Who makes the cut?
I’m still undecided about Delighted Halfling. Her upside is great, both in having 2 toughness and ensuring our Planeswalkers don’t get countered, but her downside is real. Not being able to use her to cast more mana dorks on turn 2 can be the difference between casting a turn 3 dragon or not. She also doesn’t tap for to cast our dragons. At times, she felt a little like Field of Ruin: great when its great, but often a liability. She needs more testing. However, if the meta shapes up to be Control heavy, I would give her the nod.
Conclusion
Gruul Dragons post Fury is as fun as I remember it being before Fury was ever printed. It may not be tier 1, but it is competitive and can post a winning record more often than not. Many of Modern’s best decks no longer have reliable (and free) ways to interact with 5-mana, hasty dragons on turn 3 or to 3-for-1 us by wiping out our mana dorks. Our suite of Planeswalkers are the rug that ties the whole room together. They do so much in our deck and are typically difficult for opponents to deal with. And, if our opponents do answer them, it usually means there aren’t any answers for the dragons that follow.
Would the deck be better with Up the Beanstalk?
Maybe one day we’ll find out.
Thanks for reading! Be on the lookout for more Gruul Dragons builds, as well as some other spicy decks I’m working on!
