Aggro

'Aggro' (short for 'aggressive') refers to a fast-paced strategy that uses a low mana curve and a combination of combat and damage-dealing effect to reduce enemy life totals to 0 as quickly as possible. Aggro is usually used as an umbrella term for many early-game focused strategies, such as Burn, Voltron, infect, and even some Tribal Decks.

Aggro decks may appear in any color combination, but commonly include red and/or green.

## **Popular Cards & Commanders**

**Common cards found in aggro decks include:**

* Overwhelming Stampede
* Fervor
* Beastmaster Ascension
* Fiery Emancipation

**Popular aggro commanders include:**

* Saskia, the Unyielding
* Krenko, Mob Boss
* Grand Warlord Radha
* Edgar Markov
* Iroas, God of Victory
* Ghalta, Primal Hunger

## **Strategy**

Aggro decks most commonly take the shape of a creature-based deck, often overflowing the battlefield with many tokens or with a few very high-powered creatures. Once a board presence has been established, aggro decks commonly use spells and abilities that increase the potency of these creatures (such as Overwhelming Stampede, Shared Animosity, or Craterhoof Behemoth) to deal lethal damage to opponents. There are multiple methods of achieving these goals, many of which are not mutually exclusive.

Aggro decks also make use of removal spells in a manner somewhat unlike other strategies. While other deck archetypes make use of removal spells to eliminate enemy threats (that is, cards that may deal them damage), aggro decks are more likely to use their removal on cards that get in the way of their own oncoming army of creatures (a removal style commonly referred to as 'tempo'). If an aggro deck can eliminate the player who owns a dangerous card, that card will also be removed, so aggro players focus their efforts on their opponents rather than cards their opponents control. Aggro decks may even occasionally seek to limit enemy resources, in an effort to prevent opponents from casting meaningful spells that would stall out the aggro player's damage capabilities.

### **Card Draw**

Most Aggro decks based on collecting a large number of creatures run a complement of creature-draw effects such as Guardian Project, Coastal Piracy, Mentor of the Meek or Slate of Ancestry to draw cards based on playing creatures. Where available, these cards are often used instead of other sources of card draw and propel the deck forward by continually allowing the Aggro player to cast more and more creatures without running out of cards in their hand.
Alternatively, some Aggro decks based on generating fewer large creatures may choose to run effects that draw based on the power of the creature such as Soul's Majesty, Rishkar's Expertise or Return of the Wildspeaker.
In either case, card draw is used to ensure a study increase in power available on the board to increase the odds of overwhelming the Aggro player's opponents. Even decks in colors that cannot meet these criteria likely want card draw such as Phyrexian Arena or Outpost Siege to help them amass a critical level of creatures or power ups.
### **Token Makers**

One alternative to casting creature spells is generating Tokens. See the archetype of the same name for more advice on what type of effects there are, or see Tribal for some examples of what types of tokens you can expect to create in each color.
### **Power Boosts**

Aggro decks that are focused on fewer creatures with large power can take a lot of lessons from the Voltron archetype, often using Auras or Equipment to make just a few creatures exponentially deadly. If relying exclusively on this tactic it is important to also consider evasion for such creatures.
This is not necessarily mutually exclusive with attempting to acquire a lot of creatures however... some creatures such as Geist-Honored Monk are powered up by creatures, and similar effects can be granted by cards like Pennon Blade and Bravado, while cards like Khemba, Kha Regent, Valduk, Keeper of the Flame, Pollenbright Wings or Druid's Call can use one powerful creature to amass an army, and Dragon Throne of Tarkir or Pathbreaker Ibex can turn the power of that creature into power for your entire army.
### **Mass Pump/Evasion**

Once an Aggro deck has assembled a large number of creatures, they commonly use effects that will make those creatures more powerful in combat often with 'anthems' (cards that provide a power and toughness boost to each creature). Common pump effects used in token decks include Craterhoof Behemoth, Overwhelming Stampede, Conclave's Blessing, Intangible Virtue, Cathars' Crusade, Triumph of the Hordes, and Beastmaster Ascension. Alternatively, the creatures can be made more efficient by avoiding combat and injuring your opponents directly, using cards like Aven Wind Guide, Archetype of Imagination, Champion of Lambholt or War Cadence
## **Common Deck Categories**

* Creature cards + ETB Creatures
* Token makers
* Card Draw
* Ramp
* Buffs
* Evasion
* Damage Doubling Cards
* Removal
* Board Wipe Cards

**10 cards** will probably give you **2 cards in a given game** from that category, and a good chance to **start with 1** in your opening hand. Critical categories for your deck may require a similar or larger number than this, depending on expected levels of Counterspells or Removal.
**5 cards** will probably give you **1 card per game** of that category. Cards you don't want to overload on but still want access to (*board wipes in a tokens deck for instance*) may want a similar figure to this... Going smaller than this number makes receiving a card of this category very unlikely without Tutors or some other Toolbox approach.

## **Themes**

These are common deck archetypes that employ an aggro strategy:
(*See Also: Minor Themes* )

### **Tribal**

Tribal decks tend to have different play patterns depending on the tribe. Some tribes, like Goblins and Warriors, find themselves under the Aggro archetype. While they have differences between each other, they share some similarities such as the slow-ish start (at least in relation with other aggro archetypes). They also have plenty of great support and can scale better than most.
**Popular Commanders/Cards:**
* Krenko, Mob Boss
* Najeela, the Blade-Blossom
* The First Sliver
* Edgar Markov
* Shared Animosity
* Coat of Arms

### **Voltron**

Voltron is a commander-centric aggro archetype. Rather than assembling an army of creatures, these decks focus their efforts on increasing their commander's power and combat capabilities, quickly eliminating other players with commander damage.
**Popular Commanders:**
* Rafiq of the Many
* Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest

### **Infect**

Infect decks use poison counters to eliminate their opponents. Rather than deal 40 damage to each opponent, they need only focus on dealing 10 infect damage to each opponent, vastly shortening the effort it takes to achieve lethal damage. Infect damage can be a quick method of victory for aggro players, though the pool of creatures with the infect ability is much more limited.
**Popular Commanders/Cards:**
* Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
* Putrefax
* Triumph of the Hordes

## **Strengths and Weaknesses**

### **Strengths**

* Aggro decks can be far more fast-paced than many other archetypes are capable of handling. Aggro decks can sometimes present lethal board states before other, slower strategies have even established pieces of their primary game plan. Aggro decks can easily exploit opponents whose decks provide powerful late-game synergies, but who take too long to get there.

* Aggro decks are highly interactive, often forcing enemies into difficult situations that will significantly disrupt or delay their own strategies. Opponents are frequently forced to forego taking actions that benefit their own strategy, and must instead take actions that simply prevent them from being eliminated.

* Aggro decks thrive on momentum; if uninterrupted, their multitude of powerful creatures will often compound and can take over a battlefield in very short order. They tend to be singularly unrivaled in combat, rarely presenting an attack that opponents my block profitably. They may even play fast and loose with their own life totals and use it as a potential resource, unconcerned with whether they have lots of life as long as their enemies have 0.

### **Weaknesses**

* Many aggro-based cards are designed for 1-on-1, 20-life formats, rather than the multiplayer, 40-life format of Commander. Aggro players may find it difficult to present damage that scales as powerfully to the increased life totals and increased number of opponents. Even if they are able to swiftly eliminate one opponent, it is likely that focusing their attentions on one player will allow another opponent enough time to set up their strategy and/or find an effect that will eliminate or stall out the aggro player's plans.

* Mass Removal is the bane of the aggro strategy, often resulting in a loss so burdensome that the aggro player is unable to meaningfully re-establish their momentum. This can be especially difficult for aggro players if they have run out of cards in hand and do not have a method of card draw that will help them find more powerful creatures to deploy. In some cases, this tempo loss can be so severe for an aggro deck that even if they do re-establish their powerful army, they still are unable to achieve victory against opponents whose decks become more powerful later in the game.

* Aggro decks run the risk of running out of gas or stumbling on tempo even when opponents do nothing to disrupt them. Aggro decks that fail to find enough powerful creatures, or cards that help make them lethal, or that cannot deploy their own threats quickly enough, may lose out on the window of time needed to eliminate opponents before those opponents are able to stabilize.

**References:**

* Stomp theme on EDHRec
* #Aggro tagged articles on EDHRec