(Omnath, Locus of Rage | Art by Brad Rigney)

Anarchy comes in many forms: social, individual, Gruul

Hey all, and welcome to the latest Back to Basics list article! The last time you likely saw me pop on your EDHREC article feed was to discuss the top cards from Bloomburrow.

Before that, I covered the most played Azorius cards. Now, in stark contrast to that stuffy top 10 list filled with gross interaction, disgusting sweepers, and puny, law-abiding creatures, today's Gruul (red and green) list promises a lot more SMASH.

At the risk of spoiling what's to come, the most played Gruul cards in Commander tend to be beefy, splashy, and hasty. Let's meet them, shall we?

10. Quartzwood Crasher - 47,335 decks

This Dinosaur Beast is the ideal payoff for a trample-themed deck. What's more, Crasher scales well with bigger games, as it triggers for each player you deal combat damage to.

In a multiplayer game, each time you deal combat damage to a different player - even on the same turn - you'll get a token with power and toughness equal to the total damage you dealt to that player.

Of course, Gruul decks will naturally play a lot of tramplers, so you don't have to work very hard at all to make this good. It can't hurt to build around it though, so you probably want to play it in decks that can consistently deal huge amounts of combat damage through blockers each turn.

Popular commanders for this type of deck include Stonebrow, Krosan Hero, Gishath, Sun's Avatar, and Zilortha, Strength Incarnate.

I'm kidding, of course. It can hurt your opponents a lot.

 

9. Omnath, Locus of Rage - 50,305 decks

Landfall is a powerful theme to build around with a ton of popular, splashy options, including staples Rampaging Baloths, Avenger of Zendikar, and combo darling Scute Swarm.Omnath, Locus of Rage is a fairly popular commander for this type of deck, with the iteration of the Elemental currently ranked #128 on EDHREC.

This makes a lot of sense, as Omnath generates significant value off Landfall triggers while also giving you something extra. In this case, turning dead Elementals into damage can help you control the board in the midgame and threaten a win later on. You could also take advantage of their second ability by including Elemental typal synergies.

Even in the 99 of a Landfall deck, Omnath will do a ton of work and represent a must-kill threat, lest it provide an "army in a can" and take over a game by itself. More popular commanders for this theme tend to be three colors or in Simic colors (blue and green) for a more over-the-top endgame.

The Locus of Rage's strength in the format is that it's only two colors and gives you a clear plan for how to build around it.

8. Mina and Denn, Wildborn - 51,040 decks

This pair represents another good commander option for a two-color Landfall deck. Mina and Denn's abilities also lend themselves to more varied deckbuilding, as they don't call out a particular creature type and the additional land drops they provide are a generically powerful ability in the format.

Do remember to find a nice mix of payoffs like the ones listed above and enablers to complement Mina and Denn, such as Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Ramunap Excavator, and Lotus Cobra, which does double duty in a Landfall deck.

Mina and Denn are a nice option to spearhead your list and provide consistent ramp and extra land drops, or they can play a role in the 99 as an enabler that can help end the game.

As a supporting card, Mina and Denn play really well in Phylath, World Sculptor, Obuun, Mul Daya Ancestor, or Radha, Heart of Keld, which also blend land synergies with "get the opponent dead with a large creature" synergy.

7. Xenagos, God of Revels - 53,814 decks

While there's no named keyword for it, the aforementioned "get the opponent dead with a large creature" theme is one that Gruul excels at. There's possibly no better example for this than Xenagos, who makes his way into a ton of red and green decks with beefy, offensively-oriented commanders.

Having Xenagos in play and casting Anzrag, the Quake-Mole, Zilortha, Ruric Thar, the Unbowed, Halana and Alena, Partners, or other high-powered legends is a simple, effective, A+B way to win a game via commander damage.

I wrote A+B, but you can also introduce more explosiveness by running other cards that fiddle with power. I'm talking about haymakers like Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes, Mr. Orfeo, the Boulder, Zopandrel, Hunger Dominus, and more.

6. Savage Ventmaw - 54,840 decks

The Maw's numbers may be inflated due to its inclusion in Commander precons. Still, it's a splashy, powerful card that also works very well with one of the most popular types that touches red and green, Dragons.

Assuming you're playing ramp effects earlier in the game to power Savage Ventmaw out on turn four or earlier, getting to attack with it will allow you to do much more powerful things. With Wulfgar of Icewind Dale or Karlach, Fury of Avernus, you get to double dip and generate a total of TWELVE MANA that can be used for any number of busted players.

With Xenagos in play already, you can turn this into a free six-drop by giving it haste.

Flavorfully and conveniently for this list, Ventmaw also helps get the next most played Gruul card into play.

 

5. Atarka, World Render - 55,911 decks

Much like Omnath, Atarka is a great commander option for players interested in a Dragon-typal deck but who would rather not dip into more colors for The Ur-Dragon or Tiamat.

Red and green are filled to the brim with sweet enablers and payoffs for the deck, thanks in no small part to Dragons of Tarkir. You have mana generators like Dragonspeaker Shaman, Dragonlord's Servant, Ventmaw, and Dragon's Hoard, which gives you a little something extra on the side as well.

You also have devastating creature options, including Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest and Drakuseth, Maw of Flames. To top it all off, you get several payoffs that reward you for going through the trouble of casting several six-drops, like Atarka herself and Dragon Tempest.

Even as part of the 99, dropping an Atarka once you have any amount of board presence will often threaten a lethal attack on multiple fronts!

4. Decimate (80,666 decks) and Hull Breach (47,798 decks)

Even a color pair as offensive as Gruul needs removal! Fortunately, there are excellent options available, especially for artifacts and enchantments. Red and green both destroy these two card types well, hence Hull Breach's flexibility.

One of the reasons Decimate sees almost double the amount of play is because it lets you hit creatures too (sniping a land is a welcome bonus, of course). In multicolor decks, it may not be a huge deal as black and white both give you a ton of flexible removal options.

But in a strict Gruul or Temur (red, green, and blue) deck, creature removal is at a premium. As long as you can fulfill Decimate's stringent targeting restrictions, you can rely on it to kill a creature that red burn spells or green fight-or-bite spells may miss.

 

3. Etali, Primal Conqueror - 84,905 decks

And now, back to our regularly scheduled, giant trampling monster programming. Etali is one of the most played Gruul cards because it is a potentially unbeatable source of value that scales excellently with the game.

Thanks to EDHREC data, we can see how it slots into pretty much any deck that plays red and green mana sources.

I love seeing it used often in Maelstrom Wanderer decks, because that's just one of my favorite Magic cards. But even in other decks like Gishath, Sun's Avatar and Pantlaza, Sun-Favored, being able to hit a card that immediately casts multiple things (and your opponents' things, to boot) will often lead to a gigantic advantage for you and will always lead to exciting moments playing the format.

If the game somehow didn't end after you triggered Etali once or twice, you also get to transform it kill your opponents with poison counters. This is absolutely one of the premier creature threats in the format.

2. Goblin Anarchomancer - 131,406 decks

I'm not surprised that one of the two most played Gruul cards in EDH is a mana generator. Have you seen the biguns on this list? Aside from letting you power out expensive Dragons and other types a turn earlier, Anarchomancer also lets you cast more spells each turn, thanks to it reducing the cost of every spell.

This opens up some nice one-shot, Storm-style potential in decks led by The Howling Abomination, which is the Universes Within printing of Street Fighter card Blanka, Ferocious Friend. It also lets you extract more double-strike value out of Deathleaper, Terror Weapon.

We can't forget that it's a Goblin, meaning you get value on top of its mana saving ability in Wort, the Raidmother or Rulik Mons, Warren Chief. It also counts all spells, so once in a while you'll use the Anarchomancer to protect your board from sweepers with Heroic Intervention and the like at a discount.

 

1. Rhythm of the Wild - 230,368 decks

This enchantment does so much work for red and green decks. Making creature spells uncounterable doesn't always matter; but when it does, it can give you an insurmountable advantage.

Giving all your creatures haste is such a big game for Gruul, with the color pair's giant creatures and attack triggers like Ventmaw's or Ghalta and Mavren's.

Some commanders even care about haste mechanically, with Samut, Vizier of Naktamun and Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss rewarding you for being able to attack or activate creatures' abilities right away.

The option to give your creatures a +1/+1 counter instead is also incredibly useful in some newer "modified" creature-theme decks, often led by Chishiro, the Shattered Blade and powered up by cards like Ozolith, the Shattered Spire.

Does it matter what it is? Take it and be grateful!

How's that list for SMASH, eh? This list really showcased what Gruul is all about. If I had to be picky, I'd point out that EDH players also fairly commonly dip into red and green for several effects that punish opponents for casting spells, like Cindervines, Shadow in the Warp, and Dragonlair Spider, among others.

But I'm not picky, so I'll just leave you for now with the knowledge that my favorite card in the color pair is Escape to the Wilds. What's yours?

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