Emerald City Trolls: Seattle Old School MtG

Building RUG Aggro

Part 2: Sideboard and Tweaks

By Rich

July 28, 2021

In the first part, we put together the maindeck, and in this part, we'll look at a few adjustments I decided to make before the start of the Summer Derby, as well as put together a sideboard.

Maindeck Changes

Throwing a deck together in a weekend and calling it "good" without doing any testing isn't a recipe for success. And so, after writing the first article, I was able to play a handful of matches (against Workshops, The Deck, a similar RUG aggro deck, and then a more traditional RUG aggro/control deck), to test out the deck and see how it actually worked in practice. In the style of Zack Lowe, here are some thoughts:

1. Scryb Sprites are actually pretty good - I was surprised at how much damage they could actually get in. They look pretty unassuming, but if you can get 3 damage from them, that's usually good enough.

   
   



2. Seven 3-drops (and a Fireball) is a lot - Often, I would end up in situations where I had a grip full of expensive cards and couldn't effectively make use of my mana. On a related note...

   
   



3. I need some extra lands as a buffer for Strip Mine - Even with a (relatively) low curve and fairly relaxed mana requirements, getting Strip Mine'd is pretty annoying. I think I want to add a couple of extra land to help.

   
   



4. The mana wasn't too bad - Even considering Strip Mine, I didn't have big issues with having access to colors.

   
   



5. Balance, Abyss, and Earthquake are still a beating - I knew this going in, but it's important to reiterate. Replacing some of the creatures with Mishra's Factory and/or adding some draw-7s might be good options.

   
   



6. Psionic Blast is sweet - I had a feeling this would be the case, but now I've confirmed it. I never felt the life cost was a significant drawback, even against another Aggro deck. Somehow, getting 4 damage from a single card didn't feel like getting 1 more damage than a Bolt...it felt like getting 5 more.

   
   



7. Serendib Efreet is good, but not that good - This was surprising. Playing a real 3-drop was one of the reasons I wanted to build this deck, but I actually think this isn't a great shell for it. I think for my specific goals, I want my creatures to be cheap and expendable; by the time I would be able to cast him, the opponent was able to develop his board or find an answer, which meant I never really got to attack more than once. You might think that's good enough, especially as I mentioned that getting in for 3 damage with Sprites was just fine, but investing 3 mana in a card is a lot more than just 1. In the first part, I noted that this might be an issue and before playing any games went down to 3 copies. I think I should actually go down to just 2.

   
   



8. I didn't really miss Disenchant - This was also sort of surprising, in that I didn't really know how things would play out. My primary concern was having enough ways to attack through a Mishra's Factory, and I think, on that front, I was okay. Aside from running into an early Abyss, there wasn't a situation where I felt like I couldn't play around an enchantment. Now, granted, this was a small sample size of games against a limited number of decks, so that may change over the course of more matches.

   
   



9. The core of the deck seems good - I think the idea of playing some early guys and getting in some early damage, then finishing the game off with some burn works. There are some changes we can make that can help emphasize the strengths, though. More on that in a second.

   
   



10. Ancestral Recall is good - Who would have thought?

    
    

With all that said, let's make some tweaks.

First, the cards I want to add.

Perhaps obvious in hindsight, but I found myself wishing I was able to draw a few extra cards in some games. Ancestral Recall and Sylvan Library were great, but not enough. Even though we're not running the full suite of power, and can't take full advantage of the draw-7s, I think that by the time we're interested in casting them, we'll be looking for one or two burn spells to finish off the game. However, we can't just add two more 3-drops to the deck, as one of the problems I found was that we already had too many, so the next change can help mitigate that a little bit.

Mishra's Factory solves a few problems for us. First, since we're adding the draw-7s and keeping our curve about the same, we need some extra land; we were a little too light on that front, initially, and I think we can afford a couple of more. This also helps against both the Strip Mine issue, as well, as having some assurance against the mass removal cards in the format. I don't want too many extra land, and I don't want to change the rest of the mana base at this point, so I'm going to start with just 2 of these for now.

To make room, we need to make some cuts.

Since we're adding in two 3-mana cards, we need to lose some cards at our top end. I'm going to cut Fireball and trim another Efreet. Losing the Fireball means that an early Juzam Djinn or Shivan Dragon is going to brickwall us pretty hard, but with only 1 copy and not many ways of finding it, that was probably going to be the case, anyway. I've already discussed Efreet, so I don't have much more to add on him; I think we'll be happier topdecking a draw-7 than a single creature.

Since we're adding Mishra's Factory, we can afford to cut a couple of two drops, and the question is which one. I'm not sure what the correct answer is, but I'm choosing to cut 2 of the Archers. While it is one of my favorite cards, I think, in a world full of Mishra's Factory, I want as many ways of attacking through one, as possible, and so I'm going to keep the full set of Pixies. One thing to keep in mind is that this change, along with cutting Fireball, means we're low on ways to deal with 5 toughness dudes without 2-for-1ing ourselves. So, that's something to consider in the sideboard.

And speaking of, let's put that together. Here's the list in full that I'll be running in the Summer Derby.

4 Scryb Sprites
4 Kird Ape
2 Scavenger Folk
4 Argothian Pixies
2 Elvish Archers
2 Serendib Efreet
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Psionic Blast
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Sylvan Library
1 Time Walk
1 Regrowth
1 Timetwister
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Taiga
4 Tropical Island
4 Volcanic Island
3 Strip Mine
2 City of Brass
2 Mishra's Factory
1 Pendelhaven
1 Forest
SB:3 Shatter
SB:2 Energy Flux
SB:1 Tranquility
SB:3 Red Elemental Blast
SB:3 Unsummon
SB:1 Control Magic
SB:2 Fireball

Sideboard

Let's first talk about the cards I chose to run, before discussing some of the other options I chose not to use.

The Red Disenchant analogue, we definitely wanted some number in our sideboard. We'll be bringing this in against primarily Workshops and The Deck, but this can also randomly be good against other decks that rely on some artifacts. That is, we won't be bringing these in against decks with only Moxen and Mishra's Factories, but if I see, for example, a Nevinyrral's Disk or City in a Bottle, these might be useful. While cheap at only 2 mana, this is only a 1-for-1, so I wanted to leave room for some haymakers.

And on that note, this is a good one. The drawback is that this can be removed before it's had a chance to do any real damage. However, for 3 mana and only a single colored symbol, that's a deal worth taking, especially against the decks we need them against - namely, Workshops and The Deck.

An all around solid answer to almost every good card that's played in the format, we want a handful. If my opponent is playing Blue as a main color - that is, more than just splashing for Power - there's a good chance I'll bring these in.

I have no idea if it's going to be good or not, but these seem sweet. Swords to Plowshares these are not, but they do deal with any creature we could run into, albeit temporarily, and I think we do want some additional removal against other aggro and midrange decks. Plus, these aren't terrible against Mishra's Factory, either. During one of the test games, I bounced an opponent's Erhnam Djinn after he turbo'ed it out with a Black Lotus, and that felt real good. This is only a temporary answer, but at only 1 mana, this allows us to potentially take advantage of that small window of opportunity.

This is our more permanent answer to opposing aggro and midrange decks. I mentioned last time that I usually ran Erhnam Djinn in the sideboard, and this slot came down to a choice between the two cards. Control Magic ended up getting the nod for a few reasons: it gets around City in a Bottle, is a major tempo swing when it hits, and is usually going to net you a 2-for-1. Granted, the double color mana cost isn't ideal, but we won't be casting this until the midgame, anyway, so we should be able to draw some extra lands by then.

More removal against other creature decks is a good thing, and removal that can hit multiple things is better. In addition, I would bring this in against Control decks, as well, as you usually need some extra burn to counteract the fact that your creatures are only going to get you so far.

Conclusion

So that's where I am. At the very least, the deck seems playable, which, you know, is probably a good thing. I'm excited to give this a run during the Derby, so next time, I'll report on how that went.