Jund Regisaur Embercleave bo1 (8-2 record Gold) (Standard)

Record 8-2:

I tested the deck for 10 games and had very positive results. The deck went 8-2 overall and was dominant in many of the wins.
The deck obliterates the small aggro decks as they cannot keep pace at all and struggle to chump block my trample, Hellkite, and Questing Beast.
The deck also beats up on Jeskai Fires as my creatures survive Deafening Clarion and turn 4 for the opponent is a setup turn and for me that is the beat you senseless turn. My big beats come a turn faster than Jeskai's.
*The two losses were to Grixis Fires and Dimir Flash. Grixis fires overwhelmed me with removal and card draw before I suffered a Planeswalker beatdown. I'd call it a severe domination.

*Dimir Flash was a really close game that reached the point of both of us having no cards in hand and having little value on board. The game was totally in my control however at one point. I had Rotting Regisaur on board and my hand was one land, a Paradise Druid, and Embercleave. So I play my land for turn and pass knowing I will discard the Paradise Druid and have a big Regisaur swing equipped with Embercleave. I was not anticipating the opponent forcing me to discard a card...now I had to discard my own Embercleave to the Regisaur trigger. Regisaur is killed by Swift End a few turns later and I'm topdecking with the opponent at 4 life. In the end the opponent drew real cards and I drew lands plus a Paradise Druid and that was that. He grinded out a win with a Brineborn Cutthroat.

*Overall, Embercleave Was the all-star. Games with Embercleave were very one-sided. I am happy to say that the deck still performs exceptionally well without Embercleave. Games that go Paradise Druid into threat, threat, threat tend to get it done as well lol. I had one game where my opening hand had a Paradise Druid, x3 Gruul Spellbreaker's, and three lands. It looked funky, but wow did it hit hard.

*My biggest takeaway is that the deck does not need to play black at all. I found that Rotting Regisaur was often just a big body that took away my own steam with discard. I did win a couple of games by slapping Embercleave on the dino, but I could still have won those games by slapping Embercleave on one of my other 3cmc creatures. Between the difficult casting with black and throwing away threats, in the future I'm going to go back to Gruul.

Deckbuilding:

Basically, I'm looking for a way to abuse Embercleave outside of Gruul. I've played a lot of Gruul this season and the deck is lackluster. You either curve out big and end the game early or you fizzle out and that is that. Not usually a lot of fighting back with the deck, outside of a surprise Embercleave.

The instant pairing that comes to mind is Rotting Regisaur + Embercleave. That is one nasty combo. If the opponent doesn't have removal for Regisaur, then turn 4 Embercleave is game. Even if swinging for 16 doesn't finish it, then the haste creatures will. This will be the decks starting point and I will work it further from their.

What I want from my 4/5cmc creatures is haste. I want to blow things out as fast as possible.
At 4cmc Questing Beast is the clear winner in the haste challenge.
At 5cmc the clear choice is Skarrgan Hellkite.

I want to add a second 3cmc creature and I have to look no further than the Gruul deck for this one. Gruul Spellbreaker is the perfect choice for an Embercleave deck. It has haste if you want to be aggressive or if you topdeck it, it can be a 4/4 to avoid 3 damage removal. Having hexproof on your turn makes it a great Embercleave target since it can't be spot removed when suited up and the trample is a big finisher.

Paradise Druid is the clear choice for a 2cmc creature. Ramping is exactly what the deck needs to be doing and playing three colors in an aggressive deck requires some extra mana fixing.

Turn 1 can easily just be playing a land tapped and saying go. I do however want a turn 1 play that is not hard on our mana. Enter Pelt Collector. We already want green for turn 2 and Paradise Druid helps it grow (and every creature after easily does so.) The opponent needs to remove Pelt Collector before it gets out of hand, but they also need the removal for every other creature up the curve.

Next I want to fill out my creature curve. My goal is x3 2cmc, x2 3cmc, and x2 4cmc. I want creatures that are easy to cast (so no double black or red):

a) 3cmc-
*Easiest choice, Bonecrusher Giant. 4 power, hurts to remove it, and removal on turn 2. Also, can be two sneaky damage to finish off a game late.

b) 2cmc- Rix Maadi Reveler
Hard choice. There were several green creatures that are quality, but none that jump out as amazing. Zhur-Taa Goblin is good, but can possibly brick wall if I draw the wrong lands in this three color build.
I'm going off the board and playing x3 Rix Maadi, Reveler. Why? On turn 2 the filter ability lets me fix my hand, giving me a slight chance to curve out more efficiently. The other major asset is that any 2cmc creature takes a backseat to paradise Druid on turn 2, meaning it needs to be useful later. When my hand gets depleted I can Spectacle Rix Maadi and draw three cards. Major advantage.

c) 4cmc- Thrash // Threat
I'm cheating and combining my creature slots with removal. Thrash is great removal with my giant creatures and Threat is a solid 4/4 body with trample. Nice bonus.
I'm bumping it up to three copies since it serves two purposes.

The deck has two slots remaining and I want it to be catch all removal. The best card at doing that is Assassin's Trophy. I'm ok with the opponent getting a land so I can blow up whatever I want. I'm dropping bombs so fast that I just need a way to clear a path in most cases.

Mana Base
*My only consideration is if I should cut the x2 Fabled Passage for basic lands. I think the deck can afford them, they can be played tapped turn 1 with no Pelt Collector, turn 4 untapped, and sometimes turn three with a Paradise Druid helping to play a 3cmc threat. The games where it hurts will be far outnumbered by the games it finds that perfect land to hit everything on curve.

Analysis the Outcome:
*The deck is very explosive and a handful for the opponent to deal with.

*Instead of being defensive I'm going to go even further into the offensive. I'm scrapping a Hellkite and Assassin't Trophy's for Collision // Colossus. It is still occasional removal and Colossus is a straight game finisher. It is another way to give Regisaur Trample, but every creature is a dangerous trampler with an extra 4 power.

*Additional cards I've considered:
-Stonecoil Serpent (curves nicely and has some level of protection, but can't be a Colossus target)
-Assassin's Trophy
-Find // Finality
-Return of the Wildspeaker