The beginning of any post-rotation Standard format in 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering is the best time for aggressive decks to thrive. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that the quick-to-kill Gruul Prowess deck has clawed its way to the top of the🐎 metagame.

Prowess has been a powerful mechanic ever s♔ince it was first released in the Khans of Tarkir set back in 2014. One creature in particular from that set, Monastery Swiftspear, was reprinted for Standard and remains such a potent card that she sees play in Modern burn decks. The power of prowess aside, let's see what makes Standard's prowess deck tick.

Sample Decklist

Key Cards

The key cards in Gruul Prowess revolve around swinging in for a huge chunk of damage after growing a creature to enormous size using noncreature spells ✤ꦍalongside prowess triggers.

While there are 𓃲a handful of prowess creatures and noncreature spells in the deck, the most important ones are listed below along with why they are a cut above the rest of the cards iওn the deck.

Slickshot Show-Off

The primary reason to play red at the moment, Slickshot Show-Off comes with built-in evasion thanks to flying. This gives you a much better chance of the creature attacking through potential blockers. Furthermore, it doesn't come with a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:traditional prowess trigger, but a trigger that gives it +2 power instead. This makes every noncreature spell you cast twice as effective at dealing damage.

Finally, Slickshot can be cast for its plot cost inst♏ead of a traditional harꦐd cast. This allows you to keep your Slickshot in the safety of exile until you find the right moment to deploy it. In other words, this creature serves as your ace in the hole when you're dealing with an opponent who has a ton of removal.

Emberheart Challenger

Emberheart made Gruul Prowess more consistent as its prowess trigger exiles a card from the top of your library and allows you to play it the same turn. The additional card draw Emberheart provides is one thing that the deck was sorely mi🧸ssing prior to the release of Bloomburrow.

Alongside Heartfire Hero, Emberheart is also one of two Mouse creatures that make your Might of the Meek cantrips deal additional damage. While it might not seem like a big difference, getting the additional +1 power that Might of the Meek provides when you have a Mouse on the board turns the card from a duꦐd into a stud.

Emberheart Challenger ♈will often exile a land off the top of your deck. If you've already played a land for turn, you cannot play the exiled land. Consider waiting to play your land for turn until after you see what Emberheart exileಌs even if this means you have to target Emberheart with an instant during your main phase.

Questing Druid

This is your other source of card advantage outside of Emberheart Challenger. The adventure half of this card allows you to find enough noncreature spells to pump up your prowess creatures to life-threatening size. As a result, you will almost always want to cast Questing Druid's adventure half before casting the creature itself.

The fact that Questing Druid receives counters instead of a temporary prowess trigger boost allows you to grow this creature to astronomical heights after a handful of turns. In some matchups, a massive Questing Druid that's given trample with Might of the Meek, Monstrous Rage, or A🦋udacity is exactly what youꦰ'll need to win.

Keep in mind that Questing Druid does not receive counters when you cast green cards. Royal Treatment, Aud꧂acity, and other Questin♚g Druids are the only green cards in the deck, however, this is an easy detail to forget.

Royal Treatment

Th♛e linchpin noncreature spell of the deck. Obviously, this deck's biggest weakness is a well-timed instant speed removal spell. It doesn't matter how big of a creature you swing in with if your opponent can take care of that creature before it deals damage.

This is where Royal Treatment comes in. As your one spell capable of blanking opposing removal, your Royal Treatment must be timed wisely to avoid getting blown out by spot removal. Whenever you plan to go for the kill with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:a massive creature, make sure to 🍃account for having an extra green mana available so that you can give your attacking🅠 creature hexproof just in case.

The royal role token Royal Treatment provides also grows your creature by +1/+1 and gives it ward one. Take this into account when you're calculating a lethal swing. Additionally, ward one can be monumentally useful if you know what kind of removal the opponent has in their deck. Don't underestimate mana taxat🍌ion even when it's an additional cost of a single generic mana.

How To Play Gruul Prowess

In the early game, you want to try and establish a board presence while chipping away at the opponent's health. Get a couple of creatures on the board and continue to pressure the opponent's life total whenever you can do so without risking one of your attackers. The small amount of damage you do here can end up being the difference between a lethal attaꦉck and falling just short later.

In the middle of the game, start to look for opportunities to get in with a big attack by using spells exiled from either Questing Druid's adventure side or Emberheart Challenger's prowess trigger. This is also a good time to use your cantrips like Might of the Meek and Audacity to better sculpt your hand for a finishing blow while growing your prowe𝓰ss creatures to a size t𒆙hat lets them attack.

The easiest way to lose with Gruul Prowess is to run out of cards in hand. You can avoid this by making the most of your Questing Druid and Emberheart Challenger. The goal is to take the greatest advantage of the extra cards these triggers pro𝔉vide while assembling a lethal combination of noncreature spells in hand to finish the opponent off with.

In the late game (as soon as turn five for aggressive decks like this), you will look for the perfect moment to deploy your lethal attack using what remains of your cards in hand. Typically, this moment is whenever the opponent has no untapped mana and 🎃an unsuitable blocker for your attack. The last thi𒆙ng you want is for you attack to be interrupted by a counterspell or instant speed removal.

That being said, remember that Gruul Prowess is an aggressive deck first and foremost. The longer the game goes on, the less likely you are to win. Sometimes, you'll be forced to make your move anꦗd have to simply hope that the opponent doesn't have interaction.ཧ Otherwise, you'll give the opponent too much time, and their higher card quality will overcome your aggression.

Sideboarding

The strategy of Gruul Prowess is pretty one-dimensional. You want to grow a creature to a huge size and crash in for a lethal attack. The cards that will allow you to do that best are already in the main deck, and any amount of sideboarding you do will only make your strategy less consistent. As a result, sideboarding for this deck primarily concerns bringing in silver bullets for certain matchups.

"Silver bullet" is a term for a card that works again꧙st a specific card or mechanic. For example, Rest In Peace exiles an opponent's graveyard and prevents cards from entering their graveyard. Consequently, it is considered a silver bullet against reanimation effects and other graveyard shenanigans.

a

Against an aggressive deck, bring in your Witchstalker Frenzies and Obliterating Bolt so that you can interact with their attacking creatures. These cards should also be brought in any time you expect the opponent to play Sheoldred, The Apocalypse or Preacher Of The Schism. In exchange, take out Might of the Meek as trampl𒊎e won't help you against small creatures.

The Tectonꦑic Hazards in this sideboard꧟ should be brought in specifically against the aggressive deck Boros Convoke. This card is your answer to Boros' litany of one toughness creatures.

Against a midrange deck, Urabrask's Forge provides you with an unlimited number of attacking creatures that continue to grow the later the game goes. Audacity and a single Might of the Meek are good cardsꦑ to take out here as all are susceptible to being blanked by one of your opponent's many instant spee✃d removal spells.

Finally, Koth, Fire of Resistance will serve you best when dealing with control decks. There are only seven mountains in this deck, so Koth isn't here to use his -3 loyalty ability. Instead, he serves as an alternate win condition through his ultimate and +2 loyalty ability which will put mountains in your hand to trigger the damage from his emblem. Again, Audacity is a fine card to exchange here.

Pick Your Poison is another silver bullet that should be brought in against Domain Ramp decks. Its sacrifice enchantment 𒅌mode can release your creatures from Temporary Lockdown or Leyline Binding while its sacrifice a flying creature ꦡmode answers both Archangel of Wrath and Atraxa, Grand Unifier.