Gruul +1/+1 Counters [WAR] (Standard)

Gruul midrange with a +1/+1 counter theme and a proliferate subtheme.

Card choices and reasons:

• Llanowar Elves: A pretty bread and butter card in green decks, but especially good for us because we have a slightly lacking 2 drop slot and a heavier 3 drop slot. a turn 1 llanowar is essential to us having a meaningful turn 2 play in most situations.

• Pelt Collector: Pelt collector gets big, fast in this deck. He's a good alternative one drop to Llanowar Elves, and his natural trample at 3 counters and ability to put counters on himself is just what the deck is looking for. He also punishes our opponents for using spot removal on our more threatening creatures by making himself bigger and more threatening.

• Thud: a cheeky way to kill our opponent. If they're fogging us out or chumping for days, this card gives us a bit of reach to deal the finishing blow.

• Treasure Map: I'm honestly unsure if this card should be here, but for now it feels right. 2 of means we'll see it sometimes and filtering draws plus giving us draw power (which basically nothing else gives us right now) and extra mana when it flips is valuable, so here it lives.

• Rhythm of the Wild: Rhythm ensures that our plays are safer and more explosive. Riot on all creatures means our opponent has to be afraid of hasty creatures every turn and has to play around that possibility, and it means that we have a way to get counters on creatures like Kraul harpooner, ghalta, Mowu, and Rhonas so we can get the proliferate ball rolling. By the way, the Riot effect stacks, which is why we definitely want to go 4 of this card.

• Evolution Sage: One of our main sources of proliferate, and easily our most powerful source. This guy makes our big stuff bigger, and a well times scapeshift with an evolution sage on the battlefield can be backbreaking. Plus multiple on the board trigger separately, and generally it's good to stack strong effects.

• Gruul Spellbreaker: A solid body for the cost with natural Riot and Trample. Hes a prime target for proliferating and has the added bonus of protecting us on our turn. Solid dude, made sense to include him here.

• Jadelight Ranger: This cards recent drop in price made me ecstatic. Jadelight helps us out in so many ways: getting lands off the top of our deck, allowing us to filter our draws, and being an all around swole unit, often coming down as a 4/3 because of her 2 explore +1/+1 counter triggers, which is a great starting point for proliferating. She also makes a great blocker in the early turns. Even if you hit 2 lands on the explore triggers, you'll have a 2/1 to chump attacks with.

• Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin [removed]: krenko felt out of place here, and unltimately we can do better in the context of this deck.

• Kraul Harpooner [added]: I cant believe I initially overlooked this card. The decks 2 drop slot was far too weak, and somewhat still is since we had to relegate treasure map to the sideboard, but this card is great at dealing with pesky flyers, especially game one before we can add in lava coils or collision//colossus. He doesn’t put counters on himself but he ultimately serves a different purpose than just being another aggressive giant body

• Mowu, Loyal Companion: OwU, whats this? Jokes aside, I think this creature is pretty underrated and will catch opponents off guard some games. Mowu is an extreme threat as it gets bigger twice as fast as our other creatures, and has natural trample and vigilance, meaning it can swing every turn with very little consequence. Mowu is a must remove threat for our opponent and a huge game ending threat with just a few proliferate triggers. Rhythm of the Wild into a Mowu means you have a 5/5 Vigilance Trample on turn 4, which is only going to get bigger and scarier as time goes on.

• Scapeshift: This card serves a dual purpose in this deck. Its essentially a fetch for Karn's Basiton and better color fixing at worst, and a way to cause far too many proliferate triggers in a single turn at best. With just a single evolution sage out, a well timed Scapeshift is a massive game-ender in this deck. I'm not convinced its worth it to go more than 2 because once you've used this once it's basically game over for your opponent, Especially if you can proliferate enough times to ult Domri.

• Domri, Chaos Bringer: I wanted to include some of the new planeswalkers in this list, but ultimately this is the one that won my vote of confidence. Domri gives even more Riot to our creatures, searches out creatures that we may want, and actually has a game ending ult, unlike most walkers from the new set. If we can curve an evolution sage into a domri into a scapeshift, domri could emblem on turn 5 which would be back breaking for our opponent.

• God-Eternal Rhonas: Rhonas is crazy value in this deck. Rhythm makes creatures uncounterable, and Rhonas has an ETB effect that essentially demands a counterspell from our opponent in this deck. Many of our creatures have trample, and are getting bigger with +1/+1 counters, so when rhonas comes in and doubles their Power/Toughness, usually that swing could just mean the game is over right there. Even if it doesn't, if Rhonas is ever removed we can to slot him back into our deck for the same play all over again.

• Ravager Wurm [removed]: I still like ravager wurm in this deck, but I did opt to remove him and include ghalta instead. Ghalta is just a much bigger body for usually less mana, and a well timed hasty Ghalta thanks to rhythm of the wild is an instant game ender in a lot of situations.

• Karns Bastion: Our secondary source of proliferate. Can be searched out of the deck with scapeshift and gives us a mana sink for later on in the game when we may be sitting on a lot of lands and not much to do with them. Plus one extra proliferate can sometimes be all the reach we need to close out a game.

Sideboard:

I'll be brief with sideboard choices, as most of them seem fairly obvious. Tibalt and cindervines put pressure on control. Treasure map let’s us filter our draws in games we can expect to go long, plus it includes well with banefire becuause of the extra mana it provides. lava coil and collision//colossus for removal and colossus has the added buffing benefit for a cheeky swing-thud wombo. Carnage tyrant can replace Ghalta or Rhonas if you need something to stick when nothing else will, and a rhythm could give him a +1/+1 counter of his own.

And there you have it. If you have any suggestions or feedback on the list let me know. This is one of my first in depth brews so advice and criticisms are appreciated.