Hello Reader - and welcome back! Now that it's been a bit since Standard has rotated and new decks have emerged, how are you enjoying the new format? Have you been traversing the MTGArena ladder with aggressive decks like Rakdos () Lizards, Mono-Red Prowess, or the return (or more like never left) of 5-Color Domain "Control?" Have you been paying attention to the recent Magic: The Gathering Online 5-0 league results, Standard challenges, and more? Or do you find yourself in the brewing tank with Standard's infinite deck combinations, theory-crafting, and Jank combos? Personally, I've been a bit of each of those categories - especially by crafting my own brews in response to the evolving format. After these first couple weeks with Standard moving toward more midrange piles after experiencing the first week of aggro slug-fests, I've been seeing a lot of go-big strategies enter the battlefield.

To be honest, ramp decks have always been a favorite of mine. Normally, ramp decks seem to only do well when a format slows down, and the payoff spells that a deck plays ultimately go so over-the-top of a typically midrange strategy that it overwhelms the midrange player fast. In this particular Standard landscape, not only do we have an overabundance of payoff spells, but we have a plethora of solid ramp spells to help us get to those payoffs.

I present to you, Gruul () Ramp!

Gruul Ramp | BLB Standard | CFavretto_Jr

• Creatures (22)
• 1 Hugs, Grisly Guardian
• 2 Trumpeting Carnosaur
• 3 Clifftop Lookout
• 3 Etali, Primal Conqueror
• 3 Roxanne, Starfall Savant
• 3 Terror of the Peaks
• 3 Vaultborn Tyrant
• 4 Charming Scoundrel

• Instants (3)
• 3 Smuggler's Surprise

• Sorceries (6)
• 3 Brotherhood's End
• 3 Glimpse the Core

• Artifacts (3)
• 3 Ancient Cornucopia

• Lands (24)
• 7 Forest
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Commercial District
• 2 Fountainport
• 3 Restless Ridgeline
• 4 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Karplusan Forest

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Brotherhood's End
• 2 Obstinate Baloth
• 3 Obliterating Bolt
• 3 Tranquil Frillback
• 3 Tyrranax Rex
• 3 Urabrask's Forge

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When I say we're going big, we're going BIG! The payoff spells for this deck are all super-impactful, but before we discuss those, I think it's best to start with the ramp package. One thing that's really important to me when considering ramp options is whether or not the source produces guaranteed mana. What do I mean by guaranteed mana? Guaranteed mana would be something that enables us to increase our mana sources on the board without being stuck to a "stick," which typically would be mana produced by a creature that is subject to removal. For example, brand new from Bloomburrow, Tender Wildguide is a creature that taps to produce a mana of any color, but is very vulnerable to removal spells like Cut Down, Go for the Throat, Torch the Tower, and more. Instead, cards like Glimpse the Core enable us to ramp an additional land that's guaranteed if the spell resolves, and allows us to cast our larger spells faster.

In addition to Glimpse the Core, Charming Scoundrel is a great 2-drop "ramp" spell in that the majority of the time, you're selecting the option to create a treasure token - and we'll discuss in a bit why this has great synergy with other cards in this deck. New from Bloomburrow, Clifftop Lookout serves in a role similar to that of Topiary Stomper pre-rotation. Clifftop Lookout allows us to ramp an additional land source - and can hit lands that Topiary Stomper couldn't, such as Restless Ridgeline, Fountainport, and Commercial District to add some utility lands into the mix. Ancient Cornucopia has to be my favorite ramp spell by far. And you might think to yourself, isn't this just a two-color deck? Why is this card relevant here? The incremental life gain is so nice to have in a ramp deck where aggro decks may be chipping away at your life total as you set up for your payoff spells.

So, let's discuss some of these payoff spells, and what we hope to get out of them to close out the game. Roxanne, Starfall Savant is such an amazing card. In this deck, Roxanne enables you to create a Meteorite token that serves as potential removal, direct damage, and as an additional mana source. If Roxanne goes untouched, the static ability of allowing your artifact tokens to produce additional mana enables a faster Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness, Vaultborn Tyrant cast, or multiple modes from Smuggler's Surprise. Additionally, Roxanne allows for your treasure tokens created from Charming Scoundrel to produce additional mana. Originally, I had built this deck with four copies of Roxanne, but with the release of Bloomburrow, I felt it was worth testing a copy of Hugs, Grisly Guardian in that slot to enable us to find payoff spells and ramp with the "play an additional land" static ability.

One of the easiest win conditions with this deck is playing Terror of the Peaks into additional creature spells. Sometimes the medium-powered creatures like Roxanne, Hugs, and additional Terror of the Peaks may need to be used to destroy higher toughness creatures like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, or Beza, the Bounding Spring - but most of the time the direct damage to your opponent is going to win you the game. I would be weary of casting a Terror of the Peaks into possible removal or counterspells, but thankfully we have Smuggler's Surprise as a work-around for a lot of that. Smuggler's Surprise also allows for possible Hail-Mary type turns where you can dig for the win - and let me tell you, those wins are glorious.

The huge payoff spells in this deck consist of Etali, Primal Conqueror and Vaultborn Tyrant. Vaultborn Tyrant allows for more major comebacks in games where you're behind on life, and it's super resilient to removal spells like Go for the Throat that can't target the Vaultborn Tyrant token. Gaining life and drawing cards is not something that successful ramp decks in the past have been able to do. Etali, while clearly a very good card, seems to be growing in popularity once again due to the resurgence of Domain "Control" decks. And not to mention, getting to cast up to three spells off one card, while providing at least one on-board threat is pretty nice too!

Taking a look at the sideboard choices for a moment, you'll see that there's an additional Brotherhood's End for the fast aggro decks or Simulacrum Synthesizer builds, and Obstinate Baloth for both the various discard decks, as well as additional life gain against Mono-Red. Obliterating Bolt is a very exciting card that I'm glad is seeing play again, mostly because it is a fantastic removal spell against the Heartfire Hero aggro builds, but also serves as a sweet removal spell against Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal // Temple of the Dead because of the exile effect. Tranquil Frillback serves as a versatile creature that you can bring in against Domain, Artifact-Based decks, Squirming Emergence builds, and even the discard decks to deal with cards like Bandit's Talent, Phyrexian Arena, and more. Urabrask's Forge is an allstar card right now, as it's great against Domain, any Black-based decks that don't have access to artifact removal, and control decks. For those same reasons, Tyrranax Rex serves a similar role with the addition of it not being able to be countered. Tyrranax Rex is able to successfully attack through Atraxa, Grand Unifier, and is a great threat to land on the board post-Sunfall or other board wipe effect.

This Gruul Ramp deck has been an absolute blast to play on the MTGArena ladder! And what's really nice about it is that if you're thinking of additional payoff spells to play in the higher mana-cost slots, I would encourage you to try them! Go as big as you'd like, as long as you stay true to those guaranteed mana ramp cards!

I hope you're enjoying this journey through Bloomburrow Standard as much as I am - and I wish you the best of luck on the battlefield! Thank you so much for reading. See you soon!