Modern: Gruul Prowess - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

There is less than a week left until the official previews of Modern Horizons 3 begin, and this long-awaited period until the most important Magic expansion for Modern this year is made up of players trying new approaches with Outlaws of Thunder Junction.

Among its cards, Slickshot Show-Off remains the best addition to the format, establishing proposals for aggressive archetypes that take advantage of the various absurd interactions of the format today.

In this article, we delve deeper into the recent versions of Gruul Prowess, and how they can star in the new Aggro decks in the format!

This is the decklist I've been using over this week, based on the different versions that made the Top 16 of the Challenges over the last few weekends. Some numbers may vary from one list to another, especially in the Sideboard, where some players opt for Destructive Revelry instead of some Pick Your Poison or more targeted graveyard hate, such as Surgical Extraction instead of Tormod's Crypt.

One small annoyance I have with all the lists is how a deck with a set of Blood Moon and similar effects refuses to run a basic Forest in its manabase. While its inclusion could hinder more explosive turns with Lava Dart, I have had some cases where a Blood Moon did not allow me to cast a Tarmogoyf that I drew on the following turn - Maybe it's worth at least a dedicated slot on the Sideboard or even on the maindeck for these situations.

Apart from this problem, Gruul Prowess appears to be a very efficient option for playing in Leagues, especially for those who prefer quick games whose results tend to become clear in the first turns, but who don't like the lack of traction and/or predictability of archetypes like Burn or Infect.

Maindeck

Our most aggressive drops.

Dragon’s Rage Channeler takes advantage of the famous Delirium package, with Mishra’s Bauble and Tarfire as the main means of enabling its power increase early. Furthermore, it also helps us filter the top and start more explosive plays in long games with Underworld Breach.

Monastery Swiftspear is one of the ways to benefit from multiple spells in a single turn and an excellent follow-up to DRC, especially if it is accompanied by any spell and Mishra's Bauble, making it possible to enable delirium and deal six combat damage as early as the second turn.

Slickshot Show-Off is the reason behind this deck and the main way to suddenly win games. A sequence with Lava Dart, Mishra’s Bauble and any other card in between already makes it a big enough threat to win certain games with a single attack.

Despite the power creep, Tarmogoyf is still a good two-drop when we want to pressure our opponent without making the deckbuilding concessions that archetypes like Domain Zoo require. As we have already worked with Delirium for Dragon's Rage Channeler, Goyf benefits from it and is commonly a 5/6 or higher on the third turn.

Questing Druid gives us more reach, triggers Prowess and also grows exponentially along with Lava Dart and/or Underworld Breach, being another option to establish more explosive turns.

Our interaction.

Generally, we use them on our opponent to speed up the clock, but we can also remove blockers from our creatures' path with Lightning Bolt and Tarfire, which also adds to the number of card types in our graveyard.

Lava Dart grants two triggers for Monastery Swiftspear, Slickshot Show-Off and Questing Druid while also dealing with Orcish Bowmasters and the token created by it before it becomes a problem.

Mutagenic Growth is a free spell that we use to protect our creatures from Lightning Bolt and the like, while also using it to establish favorable trades in combat.

Mishra’s Bauble enables Delirium quickly, while giving greater access to cards and triggering Prowess from our creatures. Alongside Underworld Breach, we can use it to generate a lot of card advantage and recover in longer games.

Underworld Breach has a bit of a “combo” content to this list with both Bauble and other spells, especially in turns where we plot Slickshot Show-Off to play it for free on the same turn we cast the enchantment.

Abundant Harvest helps you filter the top for the right card. If we need land, it will find it. If we need a spell, that will do too. Unfortunately, we can't select between creatures or noncreatures, but most hits will be effective for our game plan.

In addition to the Fetch Lands and Shock Lands package, with a total of eight Mountains to be searched for, we have Commercial District as a means of adding up to two cards to the graveyard with our Fetchs, in addition to Sunbaked Canyon as an extra draw.

As mentioned above, the inclusion of a Forest could benefit this list in games where Blood Moon matters, but these games can be so fast to the point that its inclusion becomes redundant if we are careful with our initial drops.

Sideboard

There is little to no reason to not run Jegantha, the Wellspring in the current version of Gruul Prowess. If, later on, we have more impactful cards with mana values of two symbols, its inclusion doesn't seem so essential for such a quick strategy.

Pick Your Poison is the ideal solution for a Metagame where Domain Zoo is the best deck, as it deals with Leyline of the Guildpact or Scion of Draco, in addition to costing just one mana and also take care of cards like Amulet of Vigor or Murktide Regent.

Tormod's Crypt could be any graveyard hate on this list, but a set seemed like the best option for its mix of proactivity and scope, which allows us to play it to trigger our abilities while also keeping it in play until the right time.

Ideal for Amulet Titan, Tron, and other decks with greedy mana bases, the split between Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon is a way to diversify the responses our opponents need to deal with them, especially in games where, without targeted hate, they are much faster than us.

Unholy Heat does not speed up our clock, but it is a more than necessary against specific threats, such as Primeval Titan, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician or creatures that prevent us from advancing our game plan.

Domain Zoo

IN

OUT

Rakdos Evoke

IN

OUT

Titan Amulet

IN

OUT

Living End

IN

OUT

Four-Color Creativity

IN

OUT

Gruul Prowess

IN

OUT

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!