http://deckbox.org/sets/547039

Trying for a cheaper deck here, so I know there are a couple pricey cards I don't have, but wanted any suggestions on cards I may have missed.

Thanks.

Ah, minotaur Tribal. I love that this isn't the first time i've seen this kind of deck.

Anyway, it looks to me at least that you've got a fairly solid build here. However, there are probably a few things that can be moved around.

What I would do with this build would be:

-2 Minotaur Aggressor
I feel that it's too big and bulky for your quick kill plan.

-2 Thunder strike
-2 explosive impact
-4 Mountain

+2 Minotaur Skullcleaver
+4 Magma jet
+4 Temple of Triumph

The Skullcleavers coming in at 4 on their own, and even bigger with your lords are a huge threat that the opponent needs an immediate answer for, and the magma jets will help you sift through your deck to find what you need.
The Temples will also provide you with red and give you more sifting. You never want to be stuck on lands with this sort of deck, and all the scrying that's available to you should really be taken advantage of.

Other than those minor changes, I think this is a really solid build, and could fare well at a less-than-competitive FNM or similar event.

i mostly agree with what darren said.

coordinated assault is very similar to thunder strike, but superior in my opinion. magma jets would be better, but assaults can completely destroy an unsuspecting opponent. costing 1 mana instead of two is hugely beneficial.

im not sold on using anger of the gods. it kills every creature in your deck unless you have 2 rageblood shaman in play. swapping them for two more mizzium mortars would allow you to keep the sweeper effect, while keeping your creatures alive.

blood crypts are expensive, but they are worth every penny. they will also hold their value long term, so it is likely that you will be able to trade them in the future if you find yourself no longer using them.

my personal opinion is that guildgates are almost always worse than basic lands. your deck is aggressive, and having your second or third land come into play tapped is likely a death sentence for your deck. turn two, three and four you need to be playing threats, and tapped lands slow you down by a whole turn. this is why blood crypts are worth their weight in gold.

just my two cents
- jim

You should be going red white with mutavaults.

You get access to Blaze Commando, Boros Battleshaper, Boros Reckoner, orduun veteran, and mutavaults will count as minotaur and you can still do some of the red devotion stuff to deal actual damage. Although you probably want to top out at 4-5 CMC creatures and don't want to go up to anything over that.

I would still want to play a few non minotaur cards like ash zealot, legion loyalist, rakdos cackler. That way you can still curve out.

Get some Sacred foundry's and temples, boros charms.

So, comically enough, I threw together a budget Minotaur deck just the other day and finally got around to playtesting it last night - at which it proceeded to play surprisingly better than anticipated. Obviously this doesn't mean you're about to go smashing the next GP, but it is a stronger strategy than most might expect.

Here's the build I put together: http://deckbox.org/sets/526973

The biggest differences I see between your build and mine are as follows:

1) I went with a more dedicated R/B theme than you. While I have the temples and could easily slide them in, I opted for more consistently untapped lands (yeah, the Blood Crypts too) as this deck will already be pretty slow. Your earliest play is a two-drop Deathbellow Raider and as far as aggro decks are concerned, that's really not a good idea (as RDW or Gruul Aggro can frequently be sitting on 6-8 power on the field by turn 2 care of Burning-Tree Emissary). BUT, going with more black affords you more options in terms of removal, as you can note with the Doom Blades and such in my SB.

2) I REALLY tried to avoid guys over 3 CMC, with Fanatic of Mogis and Kragma Warcaller being the only ones (and only counting for 5 total cards). Again, you're a slow deck to begin with, the last thing you want to do is to further slow things down. BUT, that being said, I cannot overstate the power of the Warcaller - it's like playing a friggin Battle Sliver and Blur Sliver at the same time - and those pumps add up QUICKLY.

3) Given the higher toughness of minotaurs (typically at least 3), they're a touch harder for your opponent to kill in combat (nevermind the pumps they'll get from all the lords). As such, I went ahead and went the Dragon Mantle and Madcap Skills route. Doing this can allow your already threatening minotaur swing in for rather considerable amounts of damage and will seriously threaten the abilities of any deck that doesn't have a large number of blockers to respond. Yes, these cards allow you to be two-for-one'd from time to time, BUT, you're playing a budget minotaur deck, so card-advantage be damned! That being said, Madcap Skills was easily the most powerful card in the deck in last night's playtesting - making minotaurs frequently have powers upward of 6 or 8 whenever Rageblood Shaman/Kragma Warcaller/Door of Destinies is in play.

4) Door of Destinies seems like a total EDH card, and it probably is, but for only like $1-2, it creates an additional means of pumping your otherwise vanilla guys. Against a midrange deck that is durdling much of the time, T4 Door into T5 Warcaller means your T3 guy will be swinging boosted +3/+1 - normally enough to catch up to most of what they'd play. If you go to later turns and get 2-3 counters on the door, pretty much any minotaur will be enough to kill them...

5) Lastly, I run 2x Blood Scrivener to provide some added card draw in the later rounds in the event your hand is gassed (I would imagine this to be more helpful in actual competitive play rather than friendly playtesting), but it is an option. Sure, it dies to pretty much every removal spell out there, but at least forcing them to use one on this little guy just means one more of your Shamans will survive...

As for your specific build, I would suggest the following changes:

-2 Chandra's Outrage
-2 Homing Lightning
-2 Mugging
-2 Anger of the Gods

+2 Dreadbore (if it's removal you're after... why not?)
+1 Kragma Warcaller
+2 Gruul War Chant (you already have the green splash with Temple of Abandon, toss in a few Forests to complete the splash for it)
+3 Madcap Skills

This SHOULD give you a decent mix of removal and also make your guys more versatile threats on their own. I certainly see the sense in all the removal you were running, but odds are, with 12 removal/burn spells, you'll have enough to deal with the stuff in the way. Gruul War Chant will likely just win you the game a lot of the time if it comes down with a few pumped minotaurs.

Anywhom, this is the sort of fun brewing I like to see people doing! Good luck!

Thank you to everyone for their ideas. Gives me some more to think on.

http://deckbox.org/sets/580256

This is where I ended up. Played at a FNM and did alright. 50% success which is about typical for me.

i definitely like the R/b over the R/w... Born of the gods is gonna boost R/B minos like crazy
scry land for 1
Oracle of bones
Mogis, god of slaughter (could live w/o to be honest)
ragemonger
and all this plus whats in theros just blows my mind lol
fanatic of mogis, Kagma Warcaller, skullcleaver, and rageblood shaman

but this mixed with a few thoughtseize, doom blades, and hero's downfall just to name a few
and cant forget madcap skills :) and id probably throw in Reckoners just bc they are a huge threat

ik im gonna see alot of minos at fnm right after BotG hits, hard to keep myself from making one :p

Don't forget Dreadbore.

TyWooOneTime wrote:Don't forget Dreadbore.

I thought RTR would drop out of standard when Born of the Gods was released?

Talus21 wrote:I thought RTR would drop out of standard when Born of the Gods was released?

Negative, sets rotate out in full blocks. The entire RTR block will be legal until the first set of the block AFTER the Theros block is released (so sometime in September). You will be able to pair your RTR favorites with M14, Theros, Born, Journey, and even M15 for a brief window before any rotation happens.

it's amazing how many time's i have to answer that question for new players. Wizards really need to do a better job of advertising how their formats work.

edit: also, still think RW is the way to go, boros reckoner, fanatic of mogis, speaking of upcoming cards. mogis himself isn't really what you want to do in this kind of deck. Giving your opponent a choice is never good for agro.