Gruul Turns

Since the colors are Green/Red/Blue which is commonly abbreviated in the mtg community as GRU I assumed that this color combination is called Gruul and Temur is whatever… Since Wrenn and Seven gives me a flavor of a key wrench and the Jwari Disruption is making it all happen kind of pushing the right button at the right time I decided to call this deck Gruul Turns.

A little about the evolution of the deck. This list is an evolution of the so called \”Temur\” list that I was grinding all standard season long prior to the release of Inistrad:Midnight Haunt. It had the adventure package of Lovestruck Beast, Bonecrusher Giant and of course the infamous Innkeeper. Jaspera Sentinel paired up with Magda gave stable mana acceleration. Lukka lighted up the party fetching Terror of the Peaks and Alrunds Epiphany paired up with Goldspan Dragon closed the deal. Mainboarding Koma, Cosmos Serpent felt like cheating so I played with the list here and there moving Vivian, Monster\’s Advocate in and out of the main deck. I had a blast playing the list only hesitating to think if RG with Embercleave and Brushfire Elemental was just simply more powerful. Anyway since the 3 color Gruul deck was more fun to play I sticked to it and am on it to this very day.

After rotation I was heavily mind controlled thinking that Jespera Sentinel with the absence of Edgewall Inkeeper would work just as good. Three months of trail and error proved that Tangled Florahedron aka \”Wally the police robot\” was better. A little bit about the dual land/card cycle from Zendikar Rising. The previous list had a playset of Kazandu Mammoths. The Mammoths where great but in the current list started to be too annoying and clunky. I needed a good three drop and still can\’t believe that I overlooked Cosima, God of the Voyage for such a long time. Turn two Omenkeel followed up by Magda is very powerful and the Cosima mode is decent if not just strait up good versus control gaining card advantage. She can also block a 3/3 Werewolf if you\’re really up against the wall and hide when you sweep the board with Burn Down The House. Moving on, Jwari Disruption // Jwari Ruins in my humble opinion is an auto include in every blue deck. The same goes for the Mammoth and Wally but they kind of conflict so the choice of which of the two deserves a spot in your deck is a matter of estetics, intuition, flavor and loads of suffering if you don\’t have it.

More on the main deck. Esika\’s Chariot, Goldspan Dragon and Alrund\’s Epiphany speak for themselves so not much to say here. I initially had 4 Prismary Command brainwashed to think that it is an answer to your opponents Chariot and a good end of turn play against misc control decks. IMHO the card is specifically printed to deal with the Omenkeel/Magda/Wally gang and in other scenarios is bad. This gives you a hint on how deep this game is. Divide by Zero is a recent add to the list. I had a guilty conscience for a while and hesitated to play it thinking the card is just too good but eventually gave in. As for the learn spells I chose the colorless ones for superstitious reasons.

Piloting the deck is fun and therefore reasonably easy once you learn when to play the Disruption and when to play the Ruins. Other than that the deck rarely punishes you for playing the wrong side of your dual land. Not much to say about the man lands. Den of the Bugbear is a monster if your opponent stumbles for a turn and Hall of the Storm Giants is just better in the list than Lair of the Hydra.Stepping away from the list I think the Lair is bad even in your Selesnia deck.

Sideboarding.

The deck has a good matchup against the turbo Epiphany lists so I just swap the Dragon Fires for Negates and side out the Epiphany\’s for Wrenns. In other matchups siding in Wrenn is tricky. 

White Weenie is a hard match up. I side in the mass removal package and Wrenns, cut two Jwari Disruptions, side out the counter spells, trim Madga/Cosima/Divide by zero in the proportion that seems right and hope for the best. 

Mono green sometimes seems unfair with Blizzard brawl and the Troll but is a 50/50 match up overall. Honestly speaking I have no idea how to sideboard against it. They can have literately anything. I you feel that they have Wrenn than obviously you cut the Dragons but since resolving an Epiphany against aggro is crucial its all up to you. Sometimes I side in the Negates for the foretell counterparts. When I side in the Wrenns I usually lose the Chariot wars so maybe that is the wrong play and Burn Down the House is a good idea after all. Burning Hands are in the SB for Komas and are usually irrelevant in the Mono Green match up since it seems to me that maxing on removal against aggro is putting you in a losing mindset and you should let your deck outplay your opponent. But since Brizzard Brawl is legal and Old Grown Troll is lacking a colorless mana in its cost nobody gives a shit. About this game.  

Cinderclasms are mediocre and probably should be swapped for more Burn Down The House. I never had them shine against Mono Black control but maybe that is just me. They kind of feel Izzet what ever that means so maybe they deserve to go just like Galazeth Prismary eventually left the mainboard. Good luck in Jeskai. In other matchups they never showed up. My gut tells me that one copy could be good against turbo Epiphany but maybe that is a little overkill. Wrapping up the sideboard today I would add one more Burn The House Down and think about a lesson card I could add to the list. 

Thanks for reading and I hope you have fun playing the list.