Dreadbore
Philippe Monlevade
 1st Place at Grand Prix Buenos Aires Standard 2014
This deck has but one goal and that is to bring the beats. It is focused on fast acceleration to power out huge monsters. There is some support from a trio of powerful Planeswalkers but the primary goal is to get some huge threats into play way ahead of the curve. The core shell is that of Gruul Monsters but the addition of Black to it allows for some extra answers and interesting threats.

The opening strategy is focused on your mana dorks to come and ramp to the fatties. We find full sets of Elvish Mystic, Sylvan Caryatid and Courser of Kruphix all of which can speed you plan up by several turns. Also, removal aimed at them means less removal to deal with the big boys. As far as those ‘big boys’ are concerned there is Polukranos, World Eater and Stormbreath Dragon who’s ability to become Monstrous will often spell certain doom for your opponents well before they’re ready to deal with them. Then there are a few support creatures with Reaper of the Wilds with a Scry ability helpful when the opponent is removing your creatures or chumping with his, Ghor-Clan Rampager which can turn a game saving chump block into a game ending surprise, Scavenging Ooze with incidental lifegain and graveyard hate, and Xenagos, God of Revels pushing the beatdown plan into high gear. Speaking of Xenagos we find the same standard package of Planeswalkers as in Gruul with Domri Rade and Xenagos, the Reveler which both are invaluable in a creature heavy deck both accelerating and digging for them while also working hard to control the battlefield. The addition of Black is what allows an interesting one of Vraska, the Unseen which can spell certain doom if her assassins are able to infiltrate through the enemies defenses but will most often be used as removal of various types of threats. And speaking of removal the deck is completed with a minor removal suite which consists of a pair of Dreadbore and pair of Mizzium Mortars but is also somewhat supplemented by the Monstrous ability.

Definitely the addition of Black to the Gruul shell offers some more options to the deck but in all honesty this is really the Gruul Monsters with a splash of Black in it. Going forward it is going to be interesting to see if the splash is adopted or if the extra color offers an inconsistency to the manabase. In either case I’m certain that these monsters will continue to bring the beats in Standard for months to come.
Eric J Seltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter