Stonebrow, Attacking Hero

Alright On to Stonebrow, Attacking Hero! This is quickly becoming my one of my 2 favorite decks. It all started when I was having one of many conversations with a guy from my local store (I never asked him if including him in here is alright, so lets just call him Mr. F). We often talk about the 4 things that make a deck Good (These don't fit under the rules from last post because they aren't about play style). The things are:

Mana Ramps! Pretty simple Edh is all about the big spells, this lets you play the big spells.

Haste! Wrath effects are common, beyond that its usually a minimum of 2-3 turns before you get to use the thing you cast. Haste means your guys actually do something

Card Advantage: You are playing against 2-3 other people. Getting more bang for your buck is how you win, and again 2-3 turns before you can use something you cast. If your guys have CitP (Comes into play) effects then they do something before that wrath.

Big Dumb Guys: This one is shaky, but if you are committed to attacking (I am) then big guys are your best bet.

After this conversation we sat down and played a few games, I went home and decided that you could distill these 4 concepts into 1 deck. And that if you did that deck would need to be R/G, then I just up and ordered a Stonebrow, Anger and Fervor off the internet and began making the deck. This is the current incarnation of that Deck:

General: Stonebrow, Krosan Hero

Mana Ramp
Sol Ring
Natures Lore
Kodama’s Reach
Cultivate
Explosive Vegetation
Viridian Emissary
Sakura Tribe Elder
Solemn Simulacrum
Prime Time

Haste!
Lightning Greaves
Swiftfoot Boots
Fires of Yavimaya
Fervor
Anger
Urabrask the Hidden
Sarkhan Vol

Draw
Sensei's Divining Top
Skullclamp
Harmonize
Greater Good
Momentous Fall
Birthing Pod
Garruk’s Packleader
Regal Force

Recursion!
Eternal Witness
Deadwood Treefolk
Vengeful Rebirth
Restock

Board Sweepers
Blasphemous Act
Disaster Radius

Artifact/Enchantment Removal
Hull Breach
Into the Core
Ancient Grudge
Indrik Stomphowler
Tin Street Hooligan
Woodfall Primus

Just Good Stuff
Gruul War Plow
Beast Master Ascension
Insurrection
Warstorm Surge
Mimic Vat
Garruk

Dudes
Dragonmaster Outcast
Scute Mob
Wilderness Elemental
Predator Ooze
Boartusk Liege
Brawn
Hellrider
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Thicket Elemental
Baru, Fist of Krosa
Kessig Cagebreakers
Conquering Manticore
Rampaging Baloths
Borborygmos
Pelakka Wurm
Avenger of Zendikar
Panglacial Wurm
Garruk's Horde
Woodfall Primus
Akroma, Angel of Fury
Moldgraf Monstrosity
Verdant Force

Lands!
Stomping Ground
Raging Ravine
Valakut
Karplusan Forest
Temple of the False God
Hall of the Bandit Lord
Miren, the Moaning Well
High Market
Mountain Valley
Rootbound Crag
Ghost Quarter
Strip Mine
Fire-Lit Thicket
Kessig Wolf Run
Skarrg the rage pits
Mountain X 10
Forest X 11

Wow, tagging all of those was a pain. Maybe blogger has a plugin that auto-tags magic cards? I will have to look into that...

Anyway, I was planning on going over a section by section analysis, but about half way through I was on 7 pages and realised no one was going to read half of that. So instead I am going to go over the important bits, instead of a section by section, card by card analysis. So, with out further adue a General Analysis of the Big Points of the Deck:

GENERAL

Stonebrow, Attacking Hero is pretty self explanatory. Hes Red and Green (The colors with the easiest access to Haste, Mana Ramp, and Big dudes), he wants to attack, he pumps select members of the Team(which is why the deck has a few ways to give things trample) and hes cheap enough that you can replay him a few times.

HASTE!
This deck, and all EDH Aggro Decks want, love and need haste. Haste is quite possibly the best creature ability in EDH. Again, it means your guys actually do something. These are the 7 best haste givers in EDH, with the possible exception of Akroma’s Memorial.

Quick aside on the Praetors: I hate them. I hate them almost as much as I hate the Eldrazi. With the exception of Urabrask and maybe, maybe Sheoldred, Whispering One. They wreck otherwise fun games. Making everyone discard their hand or not letting lands untap is just awful. Elesh Norn doesn’t seem bad but it shuts down token decks, and decks that have bunches of smaller creatures in away that's unfun. I have yet to see it come out in a game and then have me remember that game as fun. She is definitely more acceptable to me than the previous two mentioned or the Eldrazi. Urabrask, however, is simply a solid body that gives haste and stops opponents haste from working(yes he does more than that, but creatures rarely do anything that first turn without haste anyway, and no one ever blocks in EDH). While hes definitely powerful I haven’t ever felt like he warped the game heavily, which all the others definitely do.

OK “Quick” aside over, Now we have one of two Planeswalker's in the deck and the only one I am happy with. Sarkhan Vol is utterly amazing in EDH. Ability 1: Pump your team and give them haste! Ability 2: Take their best guy! Ability 3: Win Condition! I mean really, hes basically the best Planeswalker in EDH.

Yes, I know what I just said. Yes, in other environments other Planeswalkers are better, but in EDH they generally get killed before you can use them OR they get confiscated right before you ultimate. But Vol? All three abilities are relevant, he always has board presence (take your guy, swing or pump my team, swing), he rarely gets confiscated (really, very few people believe me that hes awesome, especially when they can take a Kiki-Jiki or something that's more obviously powerful) and you basically don’t care if he dies!(Free Fog and he already did his job)


DRAW

Most of these are self explanatory ( I really, really hope this is true. If anyone ever bothers to read this, and these aren’t “ Self Explanatory” its going to be really embarrassing for me. Then again, it just means I devote some post to actually explaining them). Sensei’s Divining Top isn’t actually card draw, but helps smooth out draws. Honestly, I wish it was a Sylvan Library but those cost about 10 dollars, and I am cheap (which is also why Akroma’s Memorial isn’t in here). Greater Good is just stupid amazing. Green Decks love, and I mean LOVE Greater Good. Did some one Wrath of God? Draw some cards! Someone Putrefy your big dude? Draw some cards! Some one try to Mind Control your big dude? Draw some cards! Need some card draw? DRAW SOME CARDS! The sheer card advantage this gets you over the course of the game is utterly ridiculous.

Another Quick Aside: I recently played a 5 person game with this deck. Greater Good came out turn 2 or 3 thanks to some mana ramp and stayed there for the rest of the game. Every time someone played a Mold Shambler kicked or a Decimate I would say “You should kill this” or “Greater Good is the most threatening card on the board right now” (The people I play with are all pretty friendly and honest about this stuff. It makes the game better, in my not at all humble opinion). Every single time I got basically the same response “Nope! That's fine, its just letting you draw a lot of cards and constantly resupply you with guys with which to attack me with. I know nothing about magic, am a bad player, and think that proper threat assessment is for losers.” (OK, it was more like “No, that seems fine, I am gonna kill that Rancor” But I swear the rest was implied.)

OK, aside over, on to Birthing Pod. How awesome this card is seems obvious, it tutors (More magic slang, in reference to Demonic Tutor and its ilk. It means getting some card directly from your deck) a creature from your deck into play, allows you to chain up from Scute Mob to Primeval Titan, and is a nice sac engine. Birthing Pod warps the decks basic design though. You need a general chain and thus mana curve, something I generally ignore in EDH (Though, maybe I shouldn’t). For reference a list of my creatures by Converted Mana Cost (which just means the total amount of mana required to play a spell):

1
Dragonmaster Outcast
Scute Mob
2
Viridian Emissary
Sakura Tribe Elder
Tin Street Hooligan
3
Wilderness Elemental
Predator Ooze
Eternal Witness
4
Solemn Simulacrum
Boartusk Liege
Brawn
Hellrider
Anger
5
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Thicket Elemental
Baru, Fist of Krosa
Kessig Cagebreakers
Urabrask the Hidden
Garruk’s Packleader
Indrik Stomphowler
6
Prime Time
Conquering Manticore
Rampaging Baloths
Deadwood Treefolk
7
Borborygmos
Pelakka Wurm
Avenger of Zendikar
Panglacial Wurm
Garruk's Horde
Moldgraf Monstrosity
Regal Force
8
Woodfall Primus
Akroma, Angel of Fury
Verdant Force

Its OK that I don’t have that many 1,2 or 3 cost things. The Pod Chain really starts around 4 (Anger, Brawn, and Solemn Simulacrum all want to be sacrificed) and losing Hellrider isn’t a big deal. Looking at it this way it looks like I have less 6 CC (stands for Converted Mana Cost ) creatures than I actually want. Which is good because the last section of this post is “Cards I don’t want in here anymore”.

DUDES
What makes the deck tick. After about turn 4 or so this deck does the same thing. Play a dude, swing for the fences, do some stuff (mana ramp, draw some cards, kill some things, etc.) And most of these guys are very straight forward. They are big with some added effect, however I do want to talk about a few. Wilderness Elemental is my cute not-being-a-dick way of doing Non-basic land hate. Back to Basics and Ruination fall under jerk card territory for me and this lets me get around that. Hellrider is new, and I am not 100% sold on him yet, but at the same time he hasn’t really gotten a good chance to shine. As such he gets a few more games before I look for a replacement. Thicket Elemental has no reason for not being played more often, especially with Sensei’s Divining Top in the deck. Kessig Cage breakers doesn’t look that good, but I can not tell you how many times I have played him, attacked and just won a game I should have lost.
Aside (yes, these will be frequent I am very prone to tangents), One game I had almost my entire deck in the yard (graveyard), a Sarkhan at 1 counter, 1 life, was staring down a few opponents at 20 and just had no hand. I drew Kessig Cage Breakers, played him, played activated Sarkhan's +1 and outright won the game.

NANANANA NANANANA HEY HEY HEY GOOD BYE
Alright, as promised, things that are not pulling their weight. Garruk isn’t really bad, and I am always more than happy to see him in my Skullbriar deck, just not here. I always wish he was a creature or real piece of mana accel. Garruk’s Horde is, well, awful. I am pretty damn sure I have discarded this to Greater good far more times than actually cast it. Same goes for Akroma. So three slots? What do we replace them with? As mentioned my 6 mana slot is a little weak, though another 7 or 8 isn’t bad. Things I am considering: Avatar of Fury, Gaea's Revenge, Homura, Human Ascendant, Hydra Omnivore, Inferno Titan, and Primordial Sage.
The deck really wants Balefire Dragon, but I already play that in Karrthus and I try to avoid Deck Singularity as much as possible. (Basically playing the same cards in every deck, something I will talk more about when I actually review Karrthus (which should be deck number three)

So...yea, general review of Stonebrow, Attacking Hero is over. Questions? Ask in the comments. Actually exist? Say so in the comments! Next post? Nin, the Blocking Artist (I give all my generals nick-names), and a deck that looks like it breaks all of my rules but I swear doesn’t!