Gruul Wilding

Guildpact Theme Deck

The "Gruul Wilding" deck pounds your opponent with furious monsters. The creatures in your deck are probably already bigger than the creatures your opponent has—but factor in the bloodthirst ability and your power-pumping enchantments and there's no contest! When your opponent starts crying for mercy, don't bother showing any. It's not the Gruul way.

Get your small creatures on the table as soon as possible and start attacking with them. This deck is all about aggression, and you want your opponent to feel the pain—partially because it's fun and partially because you have lots of creatures with bloodthirst, like Bloodscale Prowler and Scab-Clan Mauler. Don't be afraid to play them when you can't get the bonus. This deck will find other ways to make them stronger, and an attacking creature is better than a creature sitting in your hand.

To pump up all your creatures at once, all you need to do is whomp your opponent with Borborygmos. But if he's not around to lead the Gruul into battle, the next best thing is to enchant your creatures with Fists of Ironwood, Fencer's Magemark, and Beastmaster's Magemark. Each Magemark makes all your enchanted creatures bigger, so be sure to spread your Auras around. Gatherer of Graces and Bramble Elemental are particularly good targets; the Gatherer grows stronger when enchanted while the Elemental rewards you with new friends.

If your Auras somehow wind up in your graveyard, Dowsing Shaman can bring them back for more creature-pumping fun. The Shaman is particularly good with Wurmweaver Coil. Play the Aura, sacrifice it to make a 6/6 Wurm, and then return it to your hand to start the process over. There's no such thing as too many Wurms!

To improve the deck, try reducing the number of expensive creatures in favor of more Scorched Rusalkas, Scab-Clan Maulers, and Gruul Guildmages. They'll make the deck faster and maximize the damage you dish out. To add power, check out the Guildpact™ set's other Gruul cards. Some good choices are Rumbling Slum, a four-mana 5/5 creature that guarantees your creatures with bloodthirst all show up huge, and Skarrgan Firebird, a fearsome flying creature that keeps rising from the dead.

# Name Rarity Cost 1 Scorched Rusalka U 2 Sparkmage Apprentice* C 2 Bloodscale Prowler C 1 Indentured Oaf* U 2 Dryad Sophisticate U 2 Gatherer of Graces U 2 Gruul Scrapper C 2 Dowsing Shaman* U 2 Bramble Elemental* C 1 Gruul Nodorog C 1 Battering Wurm U 1 Scab-Clan Mauler C 1 Burning-Tree Bloodscale C 1 Streetbreaker Wurm C 2 Skarrgan Skybreaker U 1 Borborygmos R 1 Wild Cantor C 1 Gruul Guildmage U 3 Fencer’s Magemark C 2 Fists of Ironwood* C 3 Beastmaster’s Magemark C 1 Wildsize C 1 Wurmweaver Coil R 11 Mountain* 12 Forest* 1 Skarrg, the Rage Pits U

* = from a previous set