Last weekend, the Regional Championships that took place put Modern’s issues on full display. Grinding Breach is as dominant as can be, leaving much to be desired.
Yet, despite these issues, we also saw some innovative decklists perform quite well. Colorless Eldrazi, for instance, managed to win the Regional Championship in Australia.
Today, we’re going to share another sweet archetype that put up a great performance over the weekend. Boasting an 8-2 record in Sunday’s $10K RCQ in Charlotte, Gruul Bogles of all decks showed off its prowess. This deck is absurdly fast, which can come in handy when it comes to racing combo decks in Modern.
Blazing Speed
- Mana Value: R
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Stats: 1/1
- Card Type: Creature- Mouse Soldier
- MTG Sets: Bloomburrow
- Card Text: Valiant– Whenever Heartfire Hero becomes the target of a spell or ability you control for the first time each turn, put a +1/+1 counter on it. When Heartfire Hero dies, it deals damage equal to its power to each opponent.
At first glance, one of the things you’ll immediately notice about this Gruul Bogles decklist is that every spell in the maindeck costs no more than one mana. Sure, Become Immense technically costs six, but it’s easy to reduce the delve cost.
Unlike traditional prowess shells in Modern, this deck is not built to grind at all. Instead, the goal is to maximize the likelihood of having turn two and turn three kills. When you lead on Heartfire Hero or Cacophony Scamp, you’d be surprised how often turn two kills can happen.
With Heartfire Hero, a common play pattern is to follow with Scale Up and attack. Assuming Heartfire Hero connects in combat, your opponent will take seven damage. Then, during your second main phase, casting Thud lets you deal another seven damage to your opponent. Add on the seven damage the opponent takes from Heartfire Hero’s ability when it gets sacrificed, and you’ve got lethal!
Cacophony Scamp’s first ability opens the door for turn two kills that don’t involve Thud at all. For example, Scale Up and Might of Old Krosa combine to make Cacophony Scamp a 10-power creature. Once you deal combat damage, you can then sacrifice Cacophony Scamp to deal 10 more to the opponent, and you’re golden.
When you factor in the presence of Mutagenic Growth as a free pump spell, even more combinations become lethal. Groups of pump spells involving Monstrous Rage or Assault Strobe will end the game easily with Mutagenic Growth in the mix.
Beating Removal
- Mana Value: G
- Rarity: Common
- Stats: 1/1
- Card Type: Creature- Elf Shaman
- MTG Sets: Magic 2012, Magic 2014
- Card Text: Hexproof (This creature can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponent control.)
When playing a deck that’s structured heavily around having one specific creature dealing a ton of damage, you’re generally very weak to removal. Even a single Solitude can render your Heartfire Heros useless.
Fortunately, this deck does at least have a backup plan. Rather than fill the other creature slots with prowess threats, the pilot Brian Boss added Gladecover Scout and Slippery Bogle to the equation.
The downside to these threats is that they are a bit slower. You need more pump spells to turn them into lethal threats. However, having no fear for targeted removal goes a long way.
Because of Assault Strobe, you’re often incentivized to develop your mana a little bit more than you might with your non-hexproof creatures. If you can land a way to give trample, be it Monstrous Rage or Rancor, a big pump spell, and top things off with an Assault Strobe or Thud, you have the potential to end the game and leave your opponent with a grip full of uncastable removal.
Glaring Weaknesses
- Mana Value: XX
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Card Type: Artifact
- MTG Sets: Masters 25, Mirrodin, Modern Masters, Time Spiral Remastered, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander
- Card Text: Chalice of the Void enters the battlefield with X charge counters on it. Whenever a player casts a spell with converted mana cost equal to the number of charge counters on Chalice of the Void, counter that spell.
The presence of these eight hexproof creatures completely changes the dynamic of how this archetype operates. A flurry of removal spells is no longer a guaranteed path to victory for the opponent. As an off-the-wall strategy, you can get a lot of mileage out of your opponents simply not expecting a Bogle or Scout to hit the table.
This deck is likely faster than Breach, Amulet Titan, or Boros Energy on average. At the same time, Breach, Amulet Titan, and Boros Energy don’t really have many good ways to get your threats off the table.
Even if this is a good metacall, though, it’s relatively easy to hate out. For instance, if you were really concerned about Gruul Bogles, registering Chalice of the Void can singlehandedly win you games.
Chalice is only going to get more popular following Colorless Eldrazi’s Regional Championship win this past weekend. If Colorless Eldrazi plays a turn one Chalice of the Void for X=1 in game one, Gruul Bogles has no recourse.
Discard spells can be annoying to face as well. You only play 16 creatures, so on the draw, a turn one Thoughtseize nabbing a Bogle could spell doom unless you can topdeck out of it.
Much like Infect decklists of old, you need to be willing to mulligan aggressively. Hands without a creature, a good mix of spells, and mana to cast them need to be pitched. Versus decks with lots of removal, you really want access to one of your eight hexproof threats. All this does is make discard spells or “Edict” effects that much more devastating.
The 8-2 record Gruul Bogles ended the day with is extremely impressive, and the deck is worth considering if you want to avoid joining the dark side and picking up Breach. You just have to accept your vulnerabilities to some specific hate cards and be prepared to mulligan a lot.