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Main » Articles » Sullivan Library: Gray Ogre Standard

Sullivan Library: Gray Ogre Standard

Adrian Sullivan
Posted on October 18, 2018
 Reddit

First, a preamble for an important Gray Ogre, along with some ancient decklists...

Back in 2008, Charles Gindy won Pro Tour Hollywood with a build of Elves that, at the time, I jokingly called "the format's Red deck". It was easily the best archetype in a format where most people believed the honor belonged to Faeries. Many people in the Magic pro community were still struggling with giving anything that approached a midrange deck any respect, and Gindy's Midrange Aggro deck shocked a great portion of the field.

Here is his Pro Tour winning build:

Elves | Shadowmoor Standard | Charles Gindy, Champion, Pro Tour Hollywood 2008

While I may have had my minor quibbles with this deck, it was quite similar to the work I'd done at the time, piggybacking on Owen Turtenwald's build, but making the deck more aggressive. Gindy's deck was slightly greedier in some ways, and it encouraged me to push some of the angles I'd already been trying out.

To me, the biggest issue I had with the deck was that it didn't run Slaughter Pact in the main and it ran Garruk Wildspeaker at all. These choices had some fundamental impacts on the strategic role that the deck would play, and it made the deck less aggressive than I thought it could be (for people who want more of this history lesson, check out my decade-old article on the subject).

I gave my build of the deck to a slew of people for US Nationals, and the Regionals leading into it. Ben Rasmussen would easily qualify for Nationals with the deck, and Sam Black would make the national team with it. Here is my build:

Chevy Elves | Eventide Standard | Sam Black, 2nd Place 2008 US Nationals

Walking into the event, one big difference was that now everyone knew Gindy's list. You had to have an edge. Slaughter Pact was one of the ways that you'd have an edge, simply because you could push damage your opponent couldn't take. Sudden Spoiling was another, where you'd just utterly destroy a board in some combats, or turn a game-ending Profane Command by your opponent into a game loss.

In both of these decks, one of the most innocuous cards was Civic Wayfinder. This card was secretly one of the things that made the deck actually function properly.

During Time Spiral Block Standard, I'd accidentally made what might be the best deck I've ever built, and I'd discovered just how insane Civic Wayfinder could be, even in an aggressive deck, if that deck had even the littlest bit of a midrange in it. I've made a lot of decks in my time, many of which have made a huge splash, so when I say that this deck might be the best deck I've ever made, I hope you take my full meaning.

Selesnya Stompy | Time Spiral Block Standard| Adrian Sullivan

District Guide
I don't know if I've ever had a win rate on Magic Online like I had with this deck. Once I arrived at this final list, my win rate was so absurd, I don't even want to write it down, lest you not believe me. I believe at the end of the format, the only time I ever lost was to a mysterious player with the username "D_Stern".

But let's leave history behind, and talk about what was happening...

This is all relevant because of the existence of Civic Wayfinder's more impressive cousin District Guide.

In all of these decks, one of the things that Civic Wayfinder did was bridge the deck easily into the upper mana portions of the deck. It did it consistently. In fixing both the mana numbers and colors, this was a reasonably powerful play in its own right, but most importantly it lead into a rock solid four mana turn four (or three). Whether this meant a double-threat or it meant a consistently powerful 4-drop was up to the hand, but being able to consistently make this happen would be a big deal, especially with the added body involved.

You might think that this same task is taken up by Jadelight Ranger, but the consistency is actually more important that the potential for extra cards or extra power. I've lost games because Jadelight Ranger needed to find a land and it didn't.

The extra benefit of the card in the above decks is that in the late game, not only are you more likely to draw useful spells, but you're also generally able to make big mana plays. that deeply impact the game late in. For the older decks, this might be casting a powerful Profane Command or activating Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree. For the current format, there are other powerful outlets.

Making an aggressive deck right now is difficult. A part of the problem is that The Rock - Golgari Midrange Control - is everywhere, in some form or another. This deck can gum up the ground, trading off or eliminating things with gusto, and then make powerful end-game plays to close it out.

My initial build of the deck, probably based on nostalgia and instinct, was a bg take on the best deck I ever made, a kind of Barely Golgari Stompy. Here it is:

(Barely) Golgari Stompy | Guilds of Ravnica Standard | Adrian Sullivan

I really liked how this deck would beat down against the non-Golgari decks, but that, unfortunately, is where the deck felt like it was falling down. Their script would just play out exactly as they wrote it up. Occasionally I would take games with the Finality side of Find // Finality, but there were still plenty of games where I had Finality and nothing to do with it. I tried some desperate things to try to shore it up, like 4 Carnage Tyrant, 4 Find // Finality, and the big ape itself, a few Declare Dominance.

Versus every opponent, Vraska, Golgari Queen ended up being incredibly surprising, even if you rarely or never sacrificed something to it, simply because the threat of the ultimate ability arrives so quickly that a random attack could just end it. Still, I couldn't find a great configuration that would make me feel comfortable enough versus a more traditional Golgari deck.

The real issue was that the deck needed to do something to push over games. The core was strong, but the details weren't as tight as I felt comfortable.

Then, I saw this list from ZAx1258:

Selesnya Stompy | Guilds of Ravnica Standard | ZAx1258, 5-0 Magic Online Competitive Standard

The huge thing that made me stand up and take notice was the ability of the deck to fly, especially after sideboarding. On Serra's Wings was particularly exciting.

Taking the Black out of the deck for White, I quickly arrived at this list:

Selesnya Stompy | Guilds of Ravnica Standard | Adrian Sullivan

Shalai, Voice of Plenty
The main creature suite takes what was exciting about the Golgari Stompy deck and adds on the alternate angle of attack in the air as well as the ability to overpower via going wide with Assemble (of Assure // Assemble). With an aggressive stance, sometimes going "to the air" with On Serra's Wings might as well just be a Jump, but when that's the case, you don't care, because you've won the game.

Shalai, Voice of Plenty does so much for the deck that I'm tempted to add a third copy to the sideboard. Forcing opponents to kill Shalai first can be a real hardship, and many times, you'll drop On Serra's Wings onto some cruel creature, and your opponent will be forced to take the hit because they don't have enough mana or removal to take out Shalai and the creature you've enchanted.

Assure (of Assure // Assemble) can sometimes act like an over-powered counterspell. One of my favorite moments with Assure is saving a Nullhide Ferox that an opponent has worked hard to kill. The card was so good, I was inspired to put some in the sideboard, but eventually I replaced them with Make a Stand. It's a kind of Sudden Spoiling-like blow out in protracted ground stalls, as well as a counterspell of sorts against mass removal.

Flower // Flourish and Treasure Map both exist in the board to help the deck's mana when you are "going big" with the top end of the curve; whatever other work might be done with the sideboard, I've been very happy with these two cards as versatile enablers of a late game.

Just yesterday, I had three Lyra Dawnbringer in the board, but I've been slowly dropping them down, as On Serra's Wings has just seemed to do most of the work needed and Red-based decks have dipped slightly in popularity, thus rendering Lyra less necessary. In the end, I'm certain that the deck wants a total of at least five life gain cards, three of which should be On Serra's Wings, one of which should be Lyra Dawnbringer. The other details will emerge, I think, with more play.

I'm still less than a week in with this deck, but it's been a blast. Put it together, and start Stomping - but make sure to play that unassuming Gray Ogre, District Guide!

- Adrian Sullivan

Follow me on Twitter! @AdrianLSullivan

TAGS articles, standard, constructed, analysis, decklist, adrian sullivan, sullivan library, guilds standard, 10182018

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