So, I know we've been talking a bunch about giving color pairs their own identities, both by figuring out some really out-there stuff as well as by just going with what WotC have been doing themselves and expanding on that.
UR Spellslinging I believe is a good example of this, as it's something that is sort of loosely presented by WotC (not the least in the Izzet cards that have this more or less explicitly written on them) as the thing that UR does™. GB usually gets its self-mill dredge stuff, RB does some interesting things with sacrificing and if you want to be spicey add in the grand-theft-auto-sac combo of stealing your cake and and eating it. You get the idea.
GR, however, feels like it most often ends up as some kind of "straight beatdown" pair? I'm not saying it can't be just that, but since we're (some of us at least) all about layering and bleeding themes to the point where we get some interesting and sometimes unforeseen card interactions I wouldn't mind there being more gimmicky stuff hidden somewhere deep in those fiery squatter-hearts.
So, some of the stuff I've seen on the cube talk forum and in some cube threads have been:
Potatoes & Steak
Sort of the archetypical red green cube midrange value stuff? You get the super sweet gold card, play some green ramp, throw some searing spears and go to town.
I don't think its wrong to have Gruul be just this, but depending on the style of cube you're running (a lot of layered sort of niche themes more similar to retail, or just a more traditional 'pile of good cards' cube) you might to have something more exotic for dinner. Nothing of what I've listed here is really out of the ordinary in most of our cubes, I think, so it's not like its a theme you have to put an effort in seeing ending up in the final 40s.
Monster Meal
But wait, Rasmus, isn't this just Steak in disguise? I mean pretty much yeah it is. But it's also a keyword we've seen that ties itself into the +1/+1 counters we talked about earlier, so its slightly different from the etb-value style ramp beef above. It also helps getting that mana sink quota up!
One Two Punch Knock-Out
I was initially going to just list all the bloodrush-style cards here, but I realised that you are probably going to have to have a creature to bloodrush onto, and that means you're playing a GRx aggro deck. So this is the other half of the traditional stompy idea in Gruul, but we're starting a bit earlier than the big-fattie-beatdown earlier in this list. A thing I'd like to highlight though is the fact that we are growing our stompers, either with end-of-turn of effects or indefinitely, in order to push through more damage and as a source of removal. Red has burn, but that only takes you so far in terms of dealing with blockers, and there is plenty of good combat tricks! A bonus is that combat tricks tie themselves into spells matter themes.
I Despise Fun With All of My Being Package
This is the flavor of Gruul I feel the least inclined to even consider, but if you have high enough of a power level to have aggro struggle, I suppose you could count this as a way of introducing disruption to the color pair. It's pretty god damn boring in anything but grim mongo, I believe, and probably I shouldn't even suggest you to have this as one of the things that GR players do.
Tasteful Storm
This is a controversial one primarily I think because of how incredibly poisonous it is, and the way people have experienced it both in their cubes and (failing at) forcing it on VMA. Still, I think it's possible to pull off as a weak sub theme and if anything probably becomes a primarily red theme that bleeds into the other colors through spells matters and similar "I just happened to have fire off a bunch of cards in the same turn" strategies (which I guess is the combo-esque giant growth pump deck?).
Ion-Grafted Counters
Not really a RG exclusive, but it's there, and they happen to have some really really good enablers. I feel like +1/+1 counters are very present in pretty much all of the colors except maybe blue, and even they have some cards. The idea is to add another resource that you want to care about, as a way to add some new dynamics to the decks as well just presenting some reach to aggro (after all we're just making dudes bigger, and bigger is always better, and the biggest is the best).
+1/+1 I think can be kind of tricky to pull of as a matters-theme because it might trick you into drafting the same deck over and over, but luckily you can make the matters-card be spread all over the WUBRG so that you don't limit yourself to a particular color pairing (ie GR or Abzan). Ion Storm is also very dependant on the power level of your cube, because a counter as well a 3RR just for a shock might be a bit lack luster depending on what your opponent is doing. There's been plenty of insightful things said about this idea on this forum before.
What does Gruul do in your cube? Does it do unusual stuff, is it just the good old trusted ramp and knuckles? Did I forget to list some really good Gruul-theme?
UR Spellslinging I believe is a good example of this, as it's something that is sort of loosely presented by WotC (not the least in the Izzet cards that have this more or less explicitly written on them) as the thing that UR does™. GB usually gets its self-mill dredge stuff, RB does some interesting things with sacrificing and if you want to be spicey add in the grand-theft-auto-sac combo of stealing your cake and and eating it. You get the idea.
GR, however, feels like it most often ends up as some kind of "straight beatdown" pair? I'm not saying it can't be just that, but since we're (some of us at least) all about layering and bleeding themes to the point where we get some interesting and sometimes unforeseen card interactions I wouldn't mind there being more gimmicky stuff hidden somewhere deep in those fiery squatter-hearts.
So, some of the stuff I've seen on the cube talk forum and in some cube threads have been:
Potatoes & Steak
Sort of the archetypical red green cube midrange value stuff? You get the super sweet gold card, play some green ramp, throw some searing spears and go to town.
I don't think its wrong to have Gruul be just this, but depending on the style of cube you're running (a lot of layered sort of niche themes more similar to retail, or just a more traditional 'pile of good cards' cube) you might to have something more exotic for dinner. Nothing of what I've listed here is really out of the ordinary in most of our cubes, I think, so it's not like its a theme you have to put an effort in seeing ending up in the final 40s.
Monster Meal
But wait, Rasmus, isn't this just Steak in disguise? I mean pretty much yeah it is. But it's also a keyword we've seen that ties itself into the +1/+1 counters we talked about earlier, so its slightly different from the etb-value style ramp beef above. It also helps getting that mana sink quota up!
One Two Punch Knock-Out
I was initially going to just list all the bloodrush-style cards here, but I realised that you are probably going to have to have a creature to bloodrush onto, and that means you're playing a GRx aggro deck. So this is the other half of the traditional stompy idea in Gruul, but we're starting a bit earlier than the big-fattie-beatdown earlier in this list. A thing I'd like to highlight though is the fact that we are growing our stompers, either with end-of-turn of effects or indefinitely, in order to push through more damage and as a source of removal. Red has burn, but that only takes you so far in terms of dealing with blockers, and there is plenty of good combat tricks! A bonus is that combat tricks tie themselves into spells matter themes.
I Despise Fun With All of My Being Package
This is the flavor of Gruul I feel the least inclined to even consider, but if you have high enough of a power level to have aggro struggle, I suppose you could count this as a way of introducing disruption to the color pair. It's pretty god damn boring in anything but grim mongo, I believe, and probably I shouldn't even suggest you to have this as one of the things that GR players do.
Tasteful Storm
This is a controversial one primarily I think because of how incredibly poisonous it is, and the way people have experienced it both in their cubes and (failing at) forcing it on VMA. Still, I think it's possible to pull off as a weak sub theme and if anything probably becomes a primarily red theme that bleeds into the other colors through spells matters and similar "I just happened to have fire off a bunch of cards in the same turn" strategies (which I guess is the combo-esque giant growth pump deck?).
Ion-Grafted Counters
Not really a RG exclusive, but it's there, and they happen to have some really really good enablers. I feel like +1/+1 counters are very present in pretty much all of the colors except maybe blue, and even they have some cards. The idea is to add another resource that you want to care about, as a way to add some new dynamics to the decks as well just presenting some reach to aggro (after all we're just making dudes bigger, and bigger is always better, and the biggest is the best).
+1/+1 I think can be kind of tricky to pull of as a matters-theme because it might trick you into drafting the same deck over and over, but luckily you can make the matters-card be spread all over the WUBRG so that you don't limit yourself to a particular color pairing (ie GR or Abzan). Ion Storm is also very dependant on the power level of your cube, because a counter as well a 3RR just for a shock might be a bit lack luster depending on what your opponent is doing. There's been plenty of insightful things said about this idea on this forum before.
What does Gruul do in your cube? Does it do unusual stuff, is it just the good old trusted ramp and knuckles? Did I forget to list some really good Gruul-theme?
