G/W Aggro

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

For today's post, we wanted to have a look at a typical post- Return to Ravnica Selesnya mid-range aggro build.  We did have an opportunity to get in a few games to test this and determined that it requires a bit of reworking before we feel comfortable to pilot this at a Friday Night Magic event.  We will also need to pick up one or two extra cards from MTG Mint Card before we feel better about it as well.

Anywhoos - Let's tear through the deck list . . .

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37 Spells
4x Arbor Elf
4x Avacyn's Pilgrim
3x Rancor
4x Call of the Conclave
4x Selesnya Charm
3x Druid's Deliverance
3x Parallel Lives
2x Trostani, Selesyna's Voice
3x Slime Molding
2x Garruk, Primal Hunter
2x Thragtusk
2x Divine Deflection
1x Armada Wurm

23 Lands
10x Forest
5x Plains
4x Sunpetal Grove
2x Temple Garden
2x Grove of the Guardian
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We felt that the mana base of 23 lands is not too bad - we do have 8 mana dorks really helped to get things off the ground.  Some players feel that your life total should be a resource but we are a bit shy about that and have only two shock lands.  Grove of the Guardian is a beast but did not want to run more than two as well as we want this to go off late game for the fatties - 5 mana and two critters to tap to get an 8/8 is very good - especially if you can get this token to populate.  We are still undecided about Gavony Township to get extra counters on critters.

This deck is all about generating tokens - not the 1/1 spirit tokens last season but something a bit more substatial - you really want to sink that mana in populating a fatty, not a chump blocker.  Druid's Deliverance is one of the least expensive populate spells and we've picked this up over Rootborn (we may change our mind latter though), and having Parallel Lives just turns up the token volume midgame to make each of your turns more threatening.  Garruk was invited to the party as it has two very relevant token abilities as well as slick card draw should your game start to stall.  Armada Wurm is just the stone-cold nutz - five mana for 10-power over two critters (avec trample!) is sweet.

Call of the Conclave is awesome here and Selesnya Charm provides a nice multi-function instant - critter token, pump 'n' trample or fatty removal is on the menu here.  Rancor, we feel is one of best one-drop spells in the standard environment at the moment, providing you have the supporting cards to run with it.

Trostani and Thragtusk is simply critical life gain given the metagame at the moment.  This hopefully negates early damage from the popular B/x Golgari Zombie builds.  One particular threat that this life gain will not prepare you for is the very popular Olivia Voldaren.  We suggest you fill your sideboards with the likes of Plummet to kill her off quick.

There's a hole in the mana curve here and we feel that Slime Molding fits the bill.  Any spell with 'X' in the mana cost should be taken seriously (think of Bonfire of the Damned) and think the Slimeball here is underated.  It can be dropped late game and is a very good target for populate and Parallel Lives.  The other 'X' spell here is Divine Deflection and is included for the sole reason that we are sneaky and no-one expects a Spanish Inquisition.

Righto - Your Turn -
Where is your G/W aggro build right now - drop us a comment.
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