Garruk: Decks

Plastic

For those that have him, what card combos are you using and what have you tried that doesn't quite work?

Morphis

To be honeat I do not think Garruck has any sinergy that you cannot already get playing nissa.
The only card right now that has some sinergy with him is the elemental bond support cause it will make him draw 4 cards with his last loyalty skill.
When you consider that his 2nd skill is the best loyalty/benefit wise you can see it is not a good idea to include that card anyways unless you already like it for standard benefit.

Plastic

Here's a little gameplay I recorded. So far I've been using him with decent results. I'm open to peoples' ideas of other cards that might look better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDLhOSPH6Vc

EDUSAN

seeing that garruk plays creatures with skills i would think that a deck of mostly suppots and spells could do well with him

i dont own it though

cs7jrb

Here's the deck I've been using:

Managorger Hydra: My only creature. Gains strength every time you cast a spell and I have a lot of spells!
Scour From Existence: As I have no defence this is handy to remove any powerful creatures
Nissa's Revelation: Often run out of cards so useful to replenish your hand, +20 healing
Nissa's Pilgrimage, Animist's Awakening, Sword of the Animist: generate mana quicker plus sword gives 2/2
Titanic Growth, Swell of Growth, Joraga Invocation: Stats boosts to do more damage plus SOG can help with mana gen
Reclaiming Vines: This is interchangeable really, was using it in BFZ story to remove support

Works pretty well really. Downside is no defence so I take a lot of damage compared to my Gideon but like that he gets 2/3/2/1/0 mana bonuses, better than most, you to do better none green matches out of necessity or to keep 8 greens for Animists awakening.

Would love to add Undergrowth Champion to this. I think it would be practically invincible. Swap the hydra for this and reclaiming vines for a spell that gives you flying (I think there is a colourless card does this?)

span_argoman

cs7jrb, your deck looks interesting and is probably closer to the standard green deck with Animist's Awakening. I agree with you that Undergrowth Champion would be a great addition to your deck but also to most decks since it is a really strong card (if you have it).

I don't have that yet or Nissa's Revelation so mine is a more support heavy deck. The idea is that the gem changing supports will give me free matches which helps me to accumulate loyalty more quickly to spam Garruk's ability.

Creatures
1. Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen: In as a defender and her activate ability is more easily triggered thanks to the supports. If the upcoming patch makes her +2/+2 effect temporary then Skysnare Spider becomes a better choice. Alternatively Undergrowth Champion is the superior choice if you can find space for Mantle of Webs.
2. Herald of the Pantheon: No-brainer considering the number of supports I have. Also to round out the 3 creature slots assuming I only use Garruk's second ability.

Supports
3. Nissa's Pilgrimage
4. Fertile Thicket
5. Canopy Vista
6. Cinder Glade
The above form the core of the strategy to have free matches to gain loyalty faster, and mana too.
7. Alhammarret's Archive: For drawing cards more quickly and to double life gain from Dwynen and Herald.

Spells
This is the weakest part of my deck as I don't have many good spells yet. I'll list in the descriptions the cards I would rather have in the deck.
8. Helm of the Gods: Logical choice for a deck with 5 supports. Gives Dwynen first strike to help her role as reach defender, gives the others a boost and first strike to barrel through any defenders.
9. Reclaiming Vines: For removing enemy supports. The deck might be better served by a more synergistic card such as Nissa's Revelation or an always useful card like Scour from Existence.
10. Joraga's Invocation: Weakest link in the deck. Rarely does the match last till I have all three creatures in play and Joraga charged up. Totally pales in comparison to red's Zada, Hedron Grinder too. See replacement recommendations under Reclaiming Vines' explanation.

So the play style for my deck is, if the supports come up first summon them out to set up your board state and accelerate loyalty gain. If the creatures come out first, play them as you normally would. No worries about exceeding three creatures. If the spells come out first you're in a tough spot unless you have swapped out Reclaiming Vines and Joraga's Invocation for Nissa's Revelation and Scour from Existence, in which case one accelerates setup and the other is a very good defensive tool.

Matches are pretty fast cause you don't have to think much for your moves. The bulk of your gains come from the supports whose effects are automatic. When fully set up you get 2-3 free loyalty from your supports each turn which helps you to churn out those 8/8 Beasts fairly quickly.

BananaFlame

I don't have it but I think Zendikar's Roil could be pretty good on him. The tokens from it should stack with his third ability which could make that ability worth using.

I feel like my deck is pretty garbage right now, a complete mismatch, but he still seems to do pretty well just because he can pump out creatures. With the right cards I think we could be really strong

Plastic

I don't have roil but I've read that it won't stack with his third ability.

What deck are you running that you feel it's garbage?

span_argoman

I have tried Zendikar's Roil with Garruk and confirm that they do not stack. The 2/2 Green Elementals from ZR are considered a different creature from the 3/3 Green Elementals.

I also don't find that I trigger landfall all that often even with my support-filled deck. Maybe it's different for a deck with Animist's Awakening but relying on 1 card in 10 wouldn't be that consistent me thinks.

Plastic

span_argoman wrote:

I have tried Zendikar's Roil with Garruk and confirm that they do not stack. The 2/2 Green Elementals from ZR are considered a different creature from the 3/3 Green Elementals.

I also don't find that I trigger landfall all that often even with my support-filled deck. Maybe it's different for a deck with Animist's Awakening but relying on 1 card in 10 wouldn't be that consistent me thinks.

Animist's Awakening does make a huge difference. I do use Nissa's Revelation to get to AA faster. Another card I use to speed up drawing it is Seek the Wilds/Gather the Pack. It puts creatures out of the way for your next several card draws. Try those maybe.

span_argoman

Plastic wrote:

span_argoman wrote:

I have tried Zendikar's Roil with Garruk and confirm that they do not stack. The 2/2 Green Elementals from ZR are considered a different creature from the 3/3 Green Elementals.

I also don't find that I trigger landfall all that often even with my support-filled deck. Maybe it's different for a deck with Animist's Awakening but relying on 1 card in 10 wouldn't be that consistent me thinks.

Animist's Awakening does make a huge difference. I do use Nissa's Revelation to get to AA faster. Another card I use to speed up drawing it is Seek the Wilds/Gather the Pack. It puts creatures out of the way for your next several card draws. Try those maybe.

Yeah I can imagine Nissa's Revelation + Animist's Awakening will form a nice pairing. AA is probably the biggest reason for Nissa decks in the past being the fastest QB decks.

I doubt Seek the Wilds or Gather the Pack helps as much as Garruk as it does for Nissa though. Most Garruk decks will only have 1 to 3 creatures.

Anyway unfortunately for me, Animist's Awakening is the one Origins green rare I still do not have. When I do get it, I will update on the findings.

Plastic

span_argoman wrote:

Plastic wrote:

span_argoman wrote:

I have tried Zendikar's Roil with Garruk and confirm that they do not stack. The 2/2 Green Elementals from ZR are considered a different creature from the 3/3 Green Elementals.

I also don't find that I trigger landfall all that often even with my support-filled deck. Maybe it's different for a deck with Animist's Awakening but relying on 1 card in 10 wouldn't be that consistent me thinks.

Animist's Awakening does make a huge difference. I do use Nissa's Revelation to get to AA faster. Another card I use to speed up drawing it is Seek the Wilds/Gather the Pack. It puts creatures out of the way for your next several card draws. Try those maybe.

Yeah I can imagine Nissa's Revelation + Animist's Awakening will form a nice pairing. AA is probably the biggest reason for Nissa decks in the past being the fastest QB decks.

I doubt Seek the Wilds or Gather the Pack helps as much as Garruk as it does for Nissa though. Most Garruk decks will only have 1 to 3 creatures.

Anyway unfortunately for me, Animist's Awakening is the one Origins green rare I still do not have. When I do get it, I will update on the findings.

In my Garruk deck, I don't use Seek the Wilds to fetch creatures so much as I use it to ensure that once I fetch one, the next handful of cards are just spells. In order for this to work consistently though, I only use one creature (Skysnare Spider). After fetching it, I'm drawing tons of AA and Revelation to replenish and dump my hand over and over.

span_argoman

Plastic, care to share your decklist? I'm interested to see how Seek the Wilds can be worth a deck slot when competition for the slots is so fierce. There must be some incentive in your deck to access the cards other than Skysnare.

If your deck is as you say, all Seek the Wilds does is to remove 1/10 of the draw possibilities, for another 1/9 of the remaining draw possibilities to be Seek the Wilds which effectively becomes a 4 mana tax to draw Skysnare.

If your deck has Animist's Awakening, Nissa's Revelation and I guess Nissa's Renewal too then spamming the spells probably makes sense. But that's 2M+1R, I'm curious to see what other decks benefit from such a setup. Is it purely just to draw AA more quickly?

Plastic

Here's my deck. On mobile ATM. Can go into more later and show some recorded gameplay if you like.

http://imgur.com/tOITxJM

I may put scour from existence in instead of retreat.

Plastic

Here's another game play clip. I forgot to re-check Revelation, but things still worked out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4zNXQdB9jw

span_argoman

I can definitely see the difference that Animist's Awakening makes. The rest of the spells complement AA rather nicely too. Fertile Thicket, Swell of Growth and Natural Connection boosting the number of green gems, Revelation to increase draw and Mantle to boost Skysnare or make your token a Reach creature.

Agreed that Scour from Existence is probably better than Retreat from Kazandu, it gives your deck an option against a Chandra deck that is ahead. I'm facing quite a few Chandra decks nowadays which carry way too many burn spells.

mixed bag

My deck is alot like span_argoman.

Creatures:
1. Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen
2. Herald of the Pantheon

Supports:
3. Nissa's Pilgrimage
4. Fertile Thicket
5. Canopy Vista
6. Cinder Glade
7. Alhammarret's Archive

Spells:
8. Animist's Awakening
9. Mantle of Webs
10. Scour from Existence

Played 100's+ of QB's with no losses, and never had to heal. Plus it is just as fast as Chandra - trick is to put out plant tokens every turn if possible.

Plastic

mixed bag wrote:

My deck is alot like span_argoman.

Ha! I just made this exact same deck today, minus Archive (don't have it). Had Nissa's Revelation in that last spot, but trying other cards to see if I can get more impact out of them by the time it would take to pay for 1 Revelation.

Okay, I lied. I don't have canopy vista at all either. And I'm trying to see if I can sub out Scour for strengths elsewhere to overpower any threats to begin with. Will post deck in a moment.

span_argoman

mixed bag wrote:

My deck is alot like span_argoman.

Creatures:
1. Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen
2. Herald of the Pantheon

Supports:
3. Nissa's Pilgrimage
4. Fertile Thicket
5. Canopy Vista
6. Cinder Glade
7. Alhammarret's Archive

Spells:
8. Animist's Awakening
9. Mantle of Webs
10. Scour from Existence

Played 100's+ of QB's with no losses, and never had to heal. Plus it is just as fast as Chandra - trick is to put out plant tokens every turn if possible.

Your deck has the spells I don't have! Well I have Mantle of the Webs, maybe I'll swap out Joraga for that.
Still waiting to draw Scour from Existence. Or (someday) Animist's Awakening.

Plastic

You can try using Skysnare Spider as a semi removal card instead of Scour.

Here's what I'm using right now with a really good win rate.

http://m.imgur.com/ymjwO2F

After ditching Revelation, I realize it wasn't crucial to have a huge flow of cards considering he can pop out creatures without anything in hand. The life gain from Dwynwen's activate, Pantheon with supports, and Orbs of Warding make it easy to keep going into quick battles without needing potions. I oftentimes start a match even with HP in the 80's.

ruvik

im at ~26 lvl now, this is kinda rush deck. http://imgur.com/MuPU3lC
the idea is that i can abuse construct using my hero power (2/2 for 6 "mana"), then i play third minion and then i buff them all +6/+6 and i have lethal next turn