Great video, loved to see the deck in action and looks much better than before. You made some expected playing mistakes there and even though I hate mentioning playing mistakes as we all do I would like to mention them because it is the beginning of a new deck. 26:50 you should take the Brazen Borrower clearly there. It was obvious they will beat you with this card because they could timewalk your first creature and win he race. 46:00 you thought about it and went against playing QB. It was a wrong choice and made me screaming in front of my laptop. It was your window of opportunity to put them in the back foot dealing damage and still have a blocker behind (QB), instead you went for a cantrip with Mossknight and you still only had a blocker but then they had enough life to race you plus you conived for them which was terrible. QB was clearly the choice there. 56:05 Against Phoenix tresspasser is a terrible card. Always sb them out. They allow them to kill something and discard their phoenix. It is like this card is in their deck instead of ours. 1:14:44 Against control you don't want to sb creatures especially 2 drops like Scooze. Move out the pushes and the Heartless acts/go for the throat, add 4th lily, Duress, needle, Edict, Bankbuster and you are fine. Also you made a silly mistake there. you played thoughtseize and got Absorb. You should get Brimaz and then use duress to get absorb turn 2. But overall it didn't matter cause we are much improved against control and i love it. I always say to my friends that i don't play decks that do not beat control, It just doesn't worth it to lose after 45 min of seing them doing nothing. And one general advice: The reasons this deck is better than the old Rock we tried so extensively and wasn't very good are just QB and Mossknight. Keep it in mind when you sideboard. Overall the weakest card is lily. Not because it is a bad card, it is just that the meta is so hostile against her. Phoenix, Spirits, Pia, convoke, Rakdos sacrifice, mono red, mono green, Aristocrats. All those decks don't care about lily. Even we don't care about lily. They play lily we sac our Mossknight, draw a card play Mossknight. She should be in the sideboard imho. Thanks for reading it, if you did :)
Virtue of persistence, is really cool as a « one of » too, -3/-3 and gaining 2 life is strong for two mana in the meta, and the other part of the card wins you the game is it’s not counter right away, also you should try huntsman redemption if you haven’t already it’s really good.
I love Scooze as a card, I reckon you could maybe go with it as a two, as having two on board is not usually optimal, then you could bring the curve upward with another trespasser or keep at a two drop with Tenacious underdog in there for a recursion and draw threat.
The great henge is a sweet one, Nate! Now that we have a reliable 2-drop with dreadknight perhaps the great henge can be more of a realistic card to have (sideboard?)
i solely play the rock in pioneer. my list utilizes karn with a small 4 card wish package. have you done any testing with karn? if so how do you feel about him?
I haven’t tried out Karn myself but that sounds really cool! I’d imagine youre playing mana dorks alongside him which aren’t great top decks but he could be worth it! I’d love to see a list :)
The name is a reference to pro wrestling's top star, The Rock, who speaks of "the millions and millions of Rock's fans, screaming the Rock's name." The deck name was created back then by Sol Malka who was a big fan of The Rock. It was a midrange deck with Deranged Hermit (The Rock) and the squirrels tokens are his millions.
I feel like moss wood is great, but doesn't help us in the matches we are struggling in. I even tried a rocks aggro deck with company, knight of the ebon legion and werewolf pack leader and pelt collector (probably would play elves instead of pelt collector now). but also this isn't really putting up better numbers than the current build. so then I stepped back and tried a more control midrange build with walkers(Morin , lili) elder gargaroth, while keeping the staples with glissal, moss wood and shelly. I want to try virtue of presence there. since the removal is nice- lifegain also pretty bonkers. and u might not cast the 7 cost entchantment a lot. but the upside is huge and would fit the deck quiet nice. also I really think you should do mtga videos aswell. its much more pleasing to watch and explorer really is getting up there. thanks as always. bye
I appreciate you sharing your ideas! Tbh we never really had a “good” matchup in the meta haha but I get what you mean. Despite that, I still feel like dreadknight opens up a lot more consistency in terms of power level and efficient aggression for us, which is great! I appreciate the mtga suggestion! I’ll look into maybe incorporating more explorer vids :)
Scoozes isn't the worst vs control. You can cast all of your threats before scopze and after the dust settles, you can cast scooze and have it eat all of your creatures that got answered.
I really like the concept of a more aggressively slanted rock deck making better use of the green part of green black. How about we run werewolf pack leader alongside the dreadknight in order to shoot for a more aggressive curve?
That’s a really sweet idea, but the mana restrictions of pack leader have led me to dislike the card. But if you have a consistent list I’d love to see it!
If we would have taken the Phoenix with thought seize instead of axe game 2 we could have eaten it instead of shredder and would have only had to deal with 1 one bird
Never played a single game of pioneer but i love this decklist
Great video, loved to see the deck in action and looks much better than before. You made some expected playing mistakes there and even though I hate mentioning playing mistakes as we all do I would like to mention them because it is the beginning of a new deck.
26:50 you should take the Brazen Borrower clearly there. It was obvious they will beat you with this card because they could timewalk your first creature and win he race.
46:00 you thought about it and went against playing QB. It was a wrong choice and made me screaming in front of my laptop. It was your window of opportunity to put them in the back foot dealing damage and still have a blocker behind (QB), instead you went for a cantrip with Mossknight and you still only had a blocker but then they had enough life to race you plus you conived for them which was terrible. QB was clearly the choice there.
56:05 Against Phoenix tresspasser is a terrible card. Always sb them out. They allow them to kill something and discard their phoenix. It is like this card is in their deck instead of ours.
1:14:44 Against control you don't want to sb creatures especially 2 drops like Scooze. Move out the pushes and the Heartless acts/go for the throat, add 4th lily, Duress, needle, Edict, Bankbuster and you are fine.
Also you made a silly mistake there. you played thoughtseize and got Absorb. You should get Brimaz and then use duress to get absorb turn 2. But overall it didn't matter cause we are much improved against control and i love it. I always say to my friends that i don't play decks that do not beat control, It just doesn't worth it to lose after 45 min of seing them doing nothing.
And one general advice: The reasons this deck is better than the old Rock we tried so extensively and wasn't very good are just QB and Mossknight. Keep it in mind when you sideboard.
Overall the weakest card is lily. Not because it is a bad card, it is just that the meta is so hostile against her. Phoenix, Spirits, Pia, convoke, Rakdos sacrifice, mono red, mono green, Aristocrats. All those decks don't care about lily. Even we don't care about lily. They play lily we sac our Mossknight, draw a card play Mossknight. She should be in the sideboard imho.
Thanks for reading it, if you did :)
Virtue of persistence, is really cool as a « one of » too, -3/-3 and gaining 2 life is strong for two mana in the meta, and the other part of the card wins you the game is it’s not counter right away, also you should try huntsman redemption if you haven’t already it’s really good.
Thanks Guillaume! I’ll look into trying them out :)
I saw Huntsman's redemption, looked like a really nice value card.
A maindeck bankbuster would really shine imho
I feel that. Thanks!
I love Scooze as a card, I reckon you could maybe go with it as a two, as having two on board is not usually optimal, then you could bring the curve upward with another trespasser or keep at a two drop with Tenacious underdog in there for a recursion and draw threat.
Awesome deck I switched mine up between pioneer and modern a couple great henges for the long games really help mine nice🙂
The great henge is a sweet one, Nate! Now that we have a reliable 2-drop with dreadknight perhaps the great henge can be more of a realistic card to have (sideboard?)
@@DumpsterCat however you want to use it (I use 2 main and 2 in the side ) any deck definitely benefit from the card draw
31:43 what do you mean? Extinction event says that zero (tokens) are even so you can still pick even and avoid your Graveyard Trespasser.
It's wasn't the tokens that were gonna kill him there though, it was the Borrower. Trespasser blocks those tokens all day.
i solely play the rock in pioneer. my list utilizes karn with a small 4 card wish package.
have you done any testing with karn? if so how do you feel about him?
Karn is only good if you can make big mana.
I haven’t tried out Karn myself but that sounds really cool! I’d imagine youre playing mana dorks alongside him which aren’t great top decks but he could be worth it! I’d love to see a list :)
What is the origin of the deck name “the rock” as opposed to just GB midrange?
mtggoldfish made a good short about it, search origins of the rock mtg and it should be the first result
The name is a reference to pro wrestling's top star, The Rock, who speaks of "the millions and millions of Rock's fans, screaming the Rock's name."
The deck name was created back then by Sol Malka who was a big fan of The Rock. It was a midrange deck with Deranged Hermit (The Rock) and the squirrels tokens are his millions.
The rock got it's name by being rock solid and having answers for everything
I feel like moss wood is great, but doesn't help us in the matches we are struggling in. I even tried a rocks aggro deck with company, knight of the ebon legion and werewolf pack leader and pelt collector (probably would play elves instead of pelt collector now). but also this isn't really putting up better numbers than the current build. so then I stepped back and tried a more control midrange build with walkers(Morin , lili) elder gargaroth, while keeping the staples with glissal, moss wood and shelly. I want to try virtue of presence there. since the removal is nice- lifegain also pretty bonkers. and u might not cast the 7 cost entchantment a lot. but the upside is huge and would fit the deck quiet nice.
also I really think you should do mtga videos aswell. its much more pleasing to watch and explorer really is getting up there. thanks as always. bye
I appreciate you sharing your ideas! Tbh we never really had a “good” matchup in the meta haha but I get what you mean. Despite that, I still feel like dreadknight opens up a lot more consistency in terms of power level and efficient aggression for us, which is great!
I appreciate the mtga suggestion! I’ll look into maybe incorporating more explorer vids :)
Mosswood dreadknight is awesome in this deck right on🤟
Hell yeah! Thanks for the support :)
Scoozes isn't the worst vs control. You can cast all of your threats before scopze and after the dust settles, you can cast scooze and have it eat all of your creatures that got answered.
Honestly that’s quite true. Thanks for pointing that interaction out! Perhaps scooze isn’t that bad after all vs control :)
Scooze also cleans up things like Memory Deluge and Cling to Dust.
@@SomeNerd970 Really nice for dealing with Izzet Phoenix too.
armored scrapgorger seems like it might make a pretty good fit - maybe cutting a couple of scooze - ramp and gy hate to get you to your 4 drops early
Perhaps! Scrapgorger is just quite the bad top deck in comparison to scooze, but maybe I shall try it out
2 mana mana dorks are too slow for the format unless you're some kind of turbo ramp deck. Even Llanowar Elves doesn't make the cut here.
I really like the concept of a more aggressively slanted rock deck making better use of the green part of green black. How about we run werewolf pack leader alongside the dreadknight in order to shoot for a more aggressive curve?
That’s a really sweet idea, but the mana restrictions of pack leader have led me to dislike the card. But if you have a consistent list I’d love to see it!
If we would have taken the Phoenix with thought seize instead of axe game 2 we could have eaten it instead of shredder and would have only had to deal with 1 one bird