When I build decks, I like to find something that offers an interesting interaction. Many times, it turns out that interaction doesn’t have a strong enough effect on the game. A failing I have as a deck builder is that I have a hard time discerning which decks do enough and which are full of interesting interactions that I get a kick out of but, in the end, don’t do enough.

This is where Gruul is supposed to kick in. Tap my dudes. BASH, SMASH! Surprise! I made my dudes bigger or gave them trample! More damage. Then I tap my lands, play more dudes, and pass my turn. Other players’ turns? Meh, what do I care what they do? Let them try to stop me!

My current R/G deck doesn’t play that way. Yes, I “BASH, SMASH!” but this deck demands you pay attention on your opponents’ turns. Dragon Broodmother is the star of the deck, but to effectively use her in a multiplayer game, you need to be there every single turn! The deck demands you set up with some token creatures to devour and then play the Broodmother and make your little Dragons (or very big Dragons, depending on how much feeding you want to do) on every upkeep. I make a point of only playing this deck later in the night—I am more likely to be able to sit through the entire game. Oh, the trials and tribulations of being the host!

So, what does this deck look like? Welcome to the Hungry Brood!

"Hungry Brood"

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Boartusk Liege
• 1 Godtracker of Jund
• 1 Nest Invader
• 1 Tattermunge Witch
• 3 Kozilek's Predator
• 3 Overgrown Battlement
• 4 Dragon Broodmother
• 4 Emrakul's Hatcher
• 1 Reinforced Bulwark
• 1 Steel Wall

• Spells (16)
• 1 Avoid Fate
• 1 Branching Bolt
• 1 Vines of Vastwood
• 2 Evolution Charm
• 1 Hush
• 1 Multani's Decree
• 2 Hull Breach
• 1 Aspect of Mongoose
• 1 Elemental Mastery
• 1 Fists of Ironwood
• 1 Splinter Twin
• 2 Awakening Zone
• 1 Mage Slayer

• Lands (24)
• 5 Mountain
• 6 Forest
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Taiga
• 1 Teetering Peaks
• 2 Shivan Oasis
• 3 Khalni Garden
• 4 Kazandu Refuge
• 1 Hammerheim

Buy This Deck

This deck hasn’t been altered since Rise of the Eldrazi, so I knew there would definitely be some goodies to add to the deck. But before we go into the new stuff, let’s take out some of the cards that just weren’t doing enough.

Obvious Removals

Reinforced Bulwark – While the early blocker was nice, this card only made the cut because it has defender to pump Overgrown Battlement. Its ability isn’t worth it, and four copies of the Battlement provide enough early defense and creatures with defender.

Steel Wall – I love the single-mana cost, but it just doesn’t do enough.

Less Obvious Removals

Vines of Vastwood did the same job as Aspect of Mongoose and Avoid Fate, but it is sticking around. The kicker can make a single turn miserable for an opponent, and I do love a miserable opponent.

Tattermunge Witch – The Witch was there as a secondary win condition, helping my ground creatures get the job done. Ideally, I’d hoped to see it mess with my opponents’ combat math. Unfortunately, I was either tapped out or unable to see the benefit of pumping an attacking creature my opponent controlled when I could use it. I’m still not convinced that it isn’t any good, but there are other cards that need a place, so this has to go.

Elemental Mastery – The idea is that this is attached to one of my bigger creatures. I tap that creature before the devouring Dragon token hits the battlefield, and the Dragon eats the tokens and grows huge. For this, I need:

• a big creature
• that I can tap (meaning no summoning sickness)
• with Dragon Broodmother in play.

For all of this, I get a bigger creature that can’t attack until the next turn, and the big creature I already had is tapped, so it can’t attack either.

When this worked, it was scary—I would use it on my last opponent’s upkeep so my creature with the Elemental Mastery was untapped on my turn. The bigger Dragon I had just made could then attack on my turn. The problem was that this involved jumping through so many hoops just to cast a 4-mana Aura that wasn’t doing anything now. Since I’ve dropped Aspect of Mongoose and Avoid Fate, this is even more risky. Time to cut this one loose.

Splinter Twin – There were two reasons to remove this card; one of them made me sad, while the other just made sense. The sad reason is that this card is permanently attached to Deceiver Exarch in the minds of everyone in my playgroup. When they see this card, everyone associates it with an instant combo win, which leads to them attacking me. This link is very strong, especially when you realize that my group doesn’t play with instant-win combos, and there isn’t even a way for me to cast Exarch in this deck! The reason Splinter Twin is in the deck is to make hasty copies of Emrakul's Hatcher to hatch more 0/1 Eldrazi tokens. In this deck, that can be nasty, but it is easily disrupted.

The other, more practical reason to cut this card was that it has no place in the deck now that Emrakul's Hatcher is gone. It could work on other cards, but the risks involved don’t merit the weaker interactions remaining to it.

Multani's Decree – When I made the deck, my metagame was lousy with enchantments. That has shifted (a little), so this card no longer makes the cut. It will be replaced with a Krosan Grip. A little more artifact removal would be good, and I often regretted having all sorcery-speed enchantment and artifact removal.

The Additions

So, we’ve opened up all these spaces in the deck; it is time to fill them!¹ I searched to decide what I thought would work best in the deck from the cards that have come out since I initially built, the and these are the cards that made the cut.

Kessig Cagebreakers – This is another try-it-out card. I like the idea of making many tokens at once, but if it turns out most of them don’t survive the attack, they aren’t really helping the big plan for the deck. I suspect this card won’t stay in long, but I really like the Cagebreakers and want to give them a shot.

Huntmaster of the Fells – This is a product of our metagame. Several players prefer to sit and see what happens, and the Huntmaster will discourage them from doing that for too long. I expect I’ll be able to transform him back and forth in a single round, so his token production (and damage-dealing) should be pretty solid.

Mitotic Slime – This one card provides seven creatures. Since I’m making a devouring Dragon on each person’s upkeep, the fact that I can’t use them all on one Dragon is not much of a downside at all. The Slime is also a great defensive creature since most opponents view killing a larger version of the Slime—just to give me more copies of a smaller version—as a waste of an attack.

Dragonlair Spider – This card was born to be played in this deck. I will probably be adding four Insects per round, so there will be plenty for the Dragons to eat—in spite of the flavor text suggesting the reverse.

The new edition of the deck looks like this:

"A New Brood"

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Boartusk Liege
• 1 Huntmaster of the Fells
• 1 Kessig Cagebreakers
• 1 Nest Invader
• 2 Mitotic Slime
• 3 Dragonlair Spider
• 3 Kozilek's Predator
• 4 Dragon Broodmother
• 4 Overgrown Battlement

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Garruk Relentless

• Spells (14)
• 1 Branching Bolt
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 1 Vines of Vastwood
• 3 Evolution Charm
• 1 Hush
• 2 Hull Breach
• 1 Fists of Ironwood
• 1 Parallel Lives
• 2 Awakening Zone
• 1 Mage Slayer

• Lands (24)
• 5 Forest
• 5 Mountain
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Teetering Peaks
• 3 Khalni Garden
• 4 Kazandu Refuge
• 4 Taiga
• 1 Hammerheim

Buy This Deck

While this Gruul deck provides the “SMASH, BASH!” you expect from a Gruul deck, it offers a little more as you decide whether to make the Dragons big or keep multiple small creatures around for the next Dragon. Consider this a Gruul deck for the thoughtful player.

Bruce Richard

¹ This is not technically accurate. I went through the cards first, picking cards that I thought were better than some of the cards already in the deck, and then I removed the cards that weren’t good enough. I think it is better to save the new goodies to the end and keep you in suspense!