I have played a lot of extended and T2 magic for a few ye...

[Private Pyle]

I have played a lot of extended and T2 magic for a few years now and am hoping to branch out into T1 now.  A few weeks ago i threw together a type 1.5 rg beats deck in just one night because my local store was having a tourney.  After finishing second with a very un-optimal build I am now hoping to make the deck good enough to compete in a competitive T1 enviroment.  I am still learning a lot about the T1 metagame so excuse me if I get confused a couple of times in this thread. The decklist currently is:

4 Kird Ape
4 Skyshroud Elite
4 Jackal Pup
4 River Boa
4 Troll Ascetic
2 Flametongue Kavu

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Rancor
4 Naturalize

4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Karplusan Forest
3 Forest
4 Mountain
2 Treetop Village

SB:
4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Gorilla Shaman
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Tormod's Crypt


Other cards considered:  Null rod, fires of yavimaya, blastoderm, call of the herd, llanowar elves, gorilla shaman, wild dogs, mogg fanatic, nimble mondgoose, quirion sentinal, wild mongrel, basking rootwalla.  

I would definetily run cursed scroll, but I don't have any, nor can I easily obtain them.

I don't own any power.

I am running incinerate instead of chain lightning because of large part of my metagame is sligh or rdw.

My metagame consists of a lot of ten year olds playing elves and goblins until the top 8.  At that point it is usually a guessing game.  I would describe the top 8 usually as aggro/control.  Not a lot of combo.  However, the deck does need to be able to soundly beat Parfait.

Any comments/suggestions are welcome.  Thanks

[jazzy kat]

I think that you should just hang out a bit on the forums and see what everyone else is up to. T1 is a bit faster than 1.5 and we have access to all the fun broken stuff

In t1 Chalice of the Void (COTV) has been the monkey wrench of budget aggro like you just posted. Why it isn't used in 1.5 I don't know.

If I counted correctly chalice for 1 stops about 1/3 of your deck (and half of your spells!).

I have been prophesizing that people that believe in budget aggro have a decent shot if they metagame well because with long pretty much leaving in January, then the format may slow a bit, then less people will probably play chalice.

My meta is weak as hell, so I can't tell you how viable it really is.

[Razvan]

Quote T1 is a bit faster than 1.5 and we have access to all the fun broken stuff

Yeah, but he said he was playing extended, and extended is way more broken than Type 1... no control decks (hell, no control ELEMENTS) to keep the combo decks in check.

Unrestricted Tinker, my behind! They ban the tutors because they are too powerful for putting it in your hand... and Tinker puts it in play... JEEZ! I love(d if in extended) that card!

The deck is goodish. Get Taigas, they will help immensely. With the Kird apes and fetchlands and Land Grants, they will improve your mana base. In T1, it's ALL about the mana.

[SMR0079]

R/G Zoo/Beats was my first competitive deck so I get a little nostalgic with it even though it has been severley damaged by Chalice of the Void.

R/G is all about the hate.  Therefore it is highly dependent upon your meta.  It sounds like you have to get through the scrubs before you reach the power (like most real T1 metas).  This actually can pose a larger problom then facing strictly powerful decks.  

Your biggest weakness is obviously combo, while your streanth lies against control minus the Chalice.  Against combo you have pyrostatic pillar, Chalice if needed, and Tormods crypt for Dragon.  For control REB, Price of Progress, and Choke.  But your most powerful hoser is Blood Moon.

The mana base really is your key in T1.  Lucky for you this is one of the decks that doesn't depende on moxen but you will run a tight ship so your tunning will need to be exact.

Here is the last list I had put together.

R/G The Zoo is Burning

4 Kird Ape
2 Grim Lava Mancers
2 Gorilla Shaman
2 Dwarven Miner
4 River Boa
3-4 Qurion Dryad/Skyshroud Elite (this slot will vary)
2 Call of the Herd

4 Bolts
4 Incinerates

2 Sylvan Library
4 Rancor

2-3 Stormbind/Cursed Scroll

4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Tree Top Villages
1 Strip
4 Waste Land
3 Forest
2 Mountain

I left quite a few slots open for your meta hate, as that is the streanth in this deck.  Mana denial and aggressive preasure is your best shot.  I used to run maindeck Blood Moons, Null Rods, and Price of Progress.  

A side note: I do not advise the Wheel, Black Vise, and Land Grants are iffy at best.  Regrowth is an option but I used Lavamancers which lack synergy.  

Well I hope this was helpfull.  PM me if you are interested in any of the cards in the above listing.


Kird Ape live on!
 

[Private Pyle]

Out of all the different decklists I have seen around here and other sites no one seems to be able to decide if they should play call of the herd or troll ascetic at the 3cc, assuming they are playing one of them.

So my next question, in an enviroment of aggro/control which do you think would be the better of the two?

[Lord_Drazinus]

I would have to say CotH over Troll in an aggro/control meta. I think it would be that much better because of the flashback. Also, Troll costs 1GG while CotH is only 2G, might be a little easier on the mana. I've got my old r/g beatz decklist around here some where, I'll try to find it and post it later, until then, let the kird apes and the river boas  

[Comrade Seraph]

That kinda depends. What kind of aggro are we talking about in the top 8? More elves and goblins, or TNT? What kind of control? Hulk? Keeper? Random janky stuff?

For beating the elf/goblin kids Mogg fanatic is strictly better than jackal pup - but pup is clearly better on control.

Re the Ascetic/Call dilemma, call resists removal via virtual card advantage, but ascetic dodges swords, and seems generally better vs. aggro. Given a choice I'd stick with ascetic.

You might want to take a look at the Red Rock deck list over here - http://www.londes.com/articles/Flamholz/rep18.html

It resembles your list and has significant game vs. control decks... and uses both call and the troll.

[Private Pyle]

I made edits to the sideboard, including cutting hidden guerilla's from the sideboard.  

This is one card that no one else is using, is it really worth any sideboard spots???

I like the debate on the COTH vs. Troll

The article from londes.com is a little different from this deck because of the black splash he is able to play less of a stompy in favor of disruption like duress, therapy, and deed.