Topic: Selesnya (Color, not guild at all) Human Aggro

The Deck: http://deckbox.org/sets/241804

So lets face it in order to have a good mana base in standard outside of mono color, it's gonna get a bit expensive, so I've decided to try out a fairly inexpensive idea which was somewhat popular before rotation that I don't think will get much attention after rotation, using a fairly disliked card, Wild Beastmaster. The beastmaster has a similar weakness to Champion of Lambholt, it really wants you to throw all of your buffing spells on it and then it can get killed by practically any kill spell on the market, it literally dies to every kill/damage spell in standard including the ever so popular Scorch the Fields wink so, I've used the deck design that existed before of GW Human Aggro and added the beastmasters in. The premise is that everyone's gonna get huge when they attack, Hamlet Captain and Mayor of Avabruck boost the beastmaster effectively doubling their effects and making all of your tiny humans huge really fast, and if it gets killed, oh well, it's weenie aggro, we don't care much about our stuff dying.

The sideboard is actually partially just stuff I want to include but don't have room for, Deranged Outcast, Elder of Laurels, Odric, Master Tactician, they all seem to fit pretty well but I'm not sure that they're exactly what I need, they're all pretty strong finishers in my opinion, either boosting the Beastmaster to a huge degree either by saccing humans to give everyone +2/+2 or giving them a huge boost based on the number of creatures you have. Or Odric who can push the damage past chump blockers.

Some weaknesses I see right now:
Bonfires will kill everything I have and completely destroy my tempo, is Rootborn Defenses or something like it worthwhile at least for sideboard??
Chump Blocking will stop me up pretty easily, I have little trample and no evasion to speak of (Splash Blue for Invisible Stalker??)
Anything else you guys see

http://deckbox.org/users/imsully2

Re: Selesnya (Color, not guild at all) Human Aggro

Oddly enough this might not be that bad with a few tweaks.  Personally, the solutions to the problems you enumerated about not having trample and whatnot are in your sideboard.  I would totally go with Odric, Master Tactician - as long as you're attacking with four creatures, you can decide not to block anything.  When paired with all those weenie creatures getting buffed by Wild Beastmaster, you're swinging for a ton of damage.

My first thought, are 4x of Avacyn's Pilgrim necessary?  If your mana curve tops out at three, ramping isn't really something you need.  It speeds things up, but it isn't necessary by any means.  Rather, I'm thinking Mentor of the Meek belongs in here.  If a really low curve and high speed does anything, it gets you top decked (and the prospect of top decking into a 2/2 isn't all that appealing) especially if the game wears on to higher numbers of turns where they're more likely to drop a bomb on you.

Just as a possibility, why not Cathars' Crusade?  It might be worth taking a shot there.

Lastly, outside of casting more creatures, how do you transform the Mayor of Avabruck back if he goes into wolf form?  Obviously sitting on a 3/3 that pumps wolves and creates wolf tokens isn't a bad thing, BUT, he does more for you in his human state.

Re: Selesnya (Color, not guild at all) Human Aggro

TyWooOneTime wrote:

Oddly enough this might not be that bad with a few tweaks.  Personally, the solutions to the problems you enumerated about not having trample and whatnot are in your sideboard.  I would totally go with Odric, Master Tactician - as long as you're attacking with four creatures, you can decide not to block anything.  When paired with all those weenie creatures getting buffed by Wild Beastmaster, you're swinging for a ton of damage.

My first thought, are 4x of Avacyn's Pilgrim necessary?  If your mana curve tops out at three, ramping isn't really something you need.  It speeds things up, but it isn't necessary by any means.  Rather, I'm thinking Mentor of the Meek belongs in here.  If a really low curve and high speed does anything, it gets you top decked (and the prospect of top decking into a 2/2 isn't all that appealing) especially if the game wears on to higher numbers of turns where they're more likely to drop a bomb on you.

Just as a possibility, why not Cathars' Crusade?  It might be worth taking a shot there.

Lastly, outside of casting more creatures, how do you transform the Mayor of Avabruck back if he goes into wolf form?  Obviously sitting on a 3/3 that pumps wolves and creates wolf tokens isn't a bad thing, BUT, he does more for you in his human state.

I agree on alot of the points you make, especially Odric, he's very underestimated but perfect for this kind of deck, I think too many people think he's only good for tokens.

The mayor sort of explains the Pilgrim as well, I want to make sure I have the mana to drop 2 creatures per turn if needed.

The crusade is an interesting option, My worry is that by the time I get to 5 mana, probably turn 6 at the earliest I'll already be in topdeck mode so it probably won't be a worthwhile investment, by the time I use it I'd probably prefer to just activate a township, but I can test it out and see if I like it.
I feel like Mentor of the Meek is so close to good but it should have first strike, it's a common mechanic among human soldiers and I think it would really make it a good, but I agree it's probably worth including.

Looks like I've got some testing to do, any thoughts about Bonfires?

http://deckbox.org/users/imsully2

Re: Selesnya (Color, not guild at all) Human Aggro

imsully2 wrote:

any thoughts about Bonfires?

Witchbane Orbs in the sideboard are probably your best bet.

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Re: Selesnya (Color, not guild at all) Human Aggro

Personally I like Mizzium Mortars more than Bonfire.  You either pay for a Searing Spear and get one extra, OR, you pay six and wipe their side.  You might not get the damage to them, but how often does someone miracle Bonfire for more than two or three?

I'm with you that Mentor really needs just one more ability to kick him over the top, but with you top-decking this thing so quickly, you're really going to want some way to replenish your hand.  To be able to pay one land per creature to keep drawing could be REALLY useful - that way the stream of little ones never stops.

One thing that just hit me that you'll have to watch for - Electrickery.  I would imagine a fair number of people will be boarding it to deal with spirit tokens.  You need something to help protect the creatures lest you see them side that in and are screwed in games two and three.  Break of Day could help there by giving them all +1/+1 at instant speed.  That or Rootbound Defenses/Safe Passage - I could see Passage giving you more flexibility as it can cover you too.

Re: Selesnya (Color, not guild at all) Human Aggro

Ok, so I've made a couple changes, I added the creatures we talked about, and I added safe passage to the board, I also cut one rancor to add another Fiend Hunter, I figure I should have a little more removal than I had, here's the updated deck, any other thoughts? I also added orbs to the board, I figure if I ramp t1 and have it out t3 that should be good

http://deckbox.org/sets/241804

I'm working on assembling it and hopefully I'll have some actual news about it soon

http://deckbox.org/users/imsully2

Re: Selesnya (Color, not guild at all) Human Aggro

It looks pretty solid at the moment, but I would just be weary without any of the Rootborn Defenses or Safe Passage in the maindeck because I could easily see where any of a number of boardwipes will just end the game for you - but then again, that's sort of how aggro works, right?

I can definitely say that FAST decks are winning at my LGS.  There were a mix of Golgari Zombies (but on the fast end with Lotleth Troll and a lot of Deathrite Shaman going on), a few Azorius Control decks, and one super fast mono red aggro deck at this last standard FNM.  To that end, the faster decks were just running everyone trying to play mid-range over - so this has a shot.