Unfortunately, none of the lands from this expansion can be used in our metaphor, because we want max-mountains for Koth
The artifacts are similarly lackluster. They are equipment that is worse than the various Swords, or human/tokens centric.
There are a few red cards that show some promise, and I'd wager they are not what most people are interested in.
Archwing Demon: Back in the day, I played Viashino Sandstalker, but it was in a deck with Pandamoneum (to trigger ETB), and Ruby Medallion (to make it cost less). This guy is terrible compared to Koth. The only card it works better against is Oblivion Ring.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 2
Bonfire of the Damned: We are a relatively big-mana deck, and we have Faithless Looting to pitch cards we can't use, so this is worthy of consideration. As a creature deck, having the spell hit only-them allows our guys to get through, or finish off bigger guys. It's also a RSZ to the dome off the top. There is no doubting that this is a pretty crazy card against tokens, or other aggro decks in miracle mode.
Non-miracle mode:
3 mana: 1 damage
5 mana: 2 damage
7 mana: 3 damage
This isn't great.
Slagstorm is a card I'm boarding in against aggro, and this only really catches up to slagstorm (getting both modes for 4 mana on turn 5, best case?). It'd cause the deck to play out differently, in that we'd be rabidly dropping threats, followed by a one-sided slagstorm, rather than sandbagging threats, slagstorming, and re-deploying.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 5 (on miracle blowout potential only)
Dangerous Wager: Great as the last card in your hand. Since we actually kinda like playing out our lands, it could be seen as being "better" than Faithless Looting, which we are playing two of at this time. It is actual card advantage, but late game, Faithless Looting is a draw 4. This is a draw two. This also doesn't fix you early game at all, so it is a pure late-game play.
I do like this card late, which means it'd have to be a low-count card.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 6
Demolish: We need a artifact destruction spell bad. I am lost as to what the best option is.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 4
Various 4+cc cards that start at 0-2 power and grow by perhaps one a turn (Heirs of Stormkirk, Havengul Vampire): Too expensive, too slow for the proliferate theme.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 3
Hound of Gristlebrand: Not a bad ratio of power to casting cost, but it is a ground creature, that only gets +1's after it died the first time. I love me some double strike, that's to be sure, but this guy needed to be a 2cc 1/1 for this deck, and I'd replace berserker...
Likelyhood of inclusion: 5
Malignus: I'm sure I'd "get" some people with it voiding pro red (sword), but at 5cc, Inferno Titan just seems better for the time being.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 4
Reforge the Soul: Wheel's a powerful effect, but we'd need more things like Lightning Bolt, and less things like Red Sun's Zenith for this to work out too well. It can't be overlooked though. That your opponent gets the first bite at the apple most likely is a real killer. Need a card like Earthquake, and we'd be in business here.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 4
Somberwald Vigalente: I considered playing Ashmouth Hounds, and this guy is probably just better. He wins the fights early, gets damage through for Berserker, is hard to kill in combat, or trades up. (Kills x/1 first strikers, like Thalia). This guy isn't too bad.
Likelyhood of inclusion:6
Rite of Ruin: Just play a Titan, and you get all three effects (aka game win)
Likelyhood of inclusion: 2
Pillar of Flame: Interesting, but RSZ covers us pretty well here. And we can make some big values of x.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 5
Thatcher's Revolt: 3 mana for 3 damage is not great. We have Volt Charge for that, and it has additional synergy with the deck.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 1
Thunderous Wrath: Great in miracle-mode. Doesn't kill titans in any mode. Does kill hero, so that's something. 6 mana for 5 damage is not something we want to get locked into. This deals with big guys, but we'll see other ways of dealing with that soon... 5 damage is alot, and we do have faithless looting.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 6
Tibalt the Fiend-Blooded: I am pretty sure in the last month or so I made a wish that Red would get a planeswalker, and a cheap one, and I got my wish. But I feel like I was watching "Wishmaster" (be careful what you wish for) with what I got for it.
I could talk for a year about this guy. He competes directly with Faithless Looting, and FL probably does his job better than he does. And I'm playing a deck with 24-25 MOUNTAINS, and 7 proliferate effects.
The problem to me is that his + ability is not good. You have to spend a card for it, and random discard card disadvantage (you have to cast the guy), that you might not even want to activate, but have to cast in case you do want to activate it, is not awesome. On top of this, his -4 seems horrible (I would not play it as a card that cost 4 mana, or perhaps even 3 mana, and it's not like you're going to activate it more than once). His -6 is powerful, but requires a crazy board stall, which is pretty unlikely with all the fliers, Heros, etc running around.
I want this guy to be good, I really do.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 3
Vexing Devil: I don't want a 1 mana 4 damage to a player spell. I would play a 1 mana 4/3. Guess which option the player is going to pick... Well, the 4/3 when they have a wrath, the 4 damage when they don't.
If I was mono-one drops, or looking for the "last 4 damage" to kill someone, this card would be great. But when I kill someone, I am typically at a point in the game where things like Timely Reinforcements are dead cards, rather than the trouble they give other red decks (which want this guy)
Timely's pretty awesome against this guy. Next...
Likelyhood of inclusion: 3
Zealous Conscripts: Now here's the answer to my calls. It's an act of treason that does 3 damage when it comes into play, and only costs 2 more, and leaves me with a 3/3. I forsee stealing many a Titan, or Hero with this. It's never dead, because it steals anything (even swords) The additional three damage from the attacker pushes the damage from this up to the point where it might be the "last few damage" to kill them, unlike a spell like Act of Aggression, which is likely to do 6 damage to them, and then I lose. This probably means I can try to go toe to toe with white aggro decks (I lose to hero), and have a solid sideboard card against ramp.
Love it.
Likelyhood of inclusion: 8
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Won a match against ramp, finally...
Game two, I go noble into berserker into gambit into gambit, and he scoops them up at 2 life on turn 4, with a 6/6 noble and 5/5 Berserker, and 6 cards in hand.
Game three:
So, I start with a fairly "speculative" hand of 4 Mountains, Berserker, 2 Metamorphs, on the draw.
Turn 1:
My opponent leads with mountain, I follow suit (drawing a volt charge).
Turn 2:
My opponent plays forest, sphere. I hope to draw a Manic Vandal, but I can't even cast it for another two turns...
I draw a Tumble Magnet, swallow my pride, and run out the Berserker unbloodthirsted as a 1/1.
Turn 3:
My opponent plays a Glimmerpost (ug) and passes (with 4 mana)
I draw a Koth, play a mountain, attack for one (opponent at 20), run out the tumble magnet and pass the turn.
Turn 4:
My opponent plays another sphere, a forest, and casts ancient grudge on my Tumble Magnet
I draw another Berserker, play a Mountain, cast Koth, and attack for 5 (opponent at 15)
Turn 5:
My opponent plays an Inkmoth, taps everything, and slaps down a Karn, Exiling my Koth (oh, oh good)
I think as hard as I can to my deck "Just draw another Koth, and he's dead"... (attack karn with the mountain, etc).
Instead I draw a Mountain, which isn't half bad. I attack him with the berserker (14), cast another berserker, and tap out to Volt Charge him, redirecting to Karn, pumping my new Berserker to 4/4 with proliferate.
Turn 6:
My opponent draws up to 3 cards, and drops a Primeval Titan (Spheres at 2 and 1). He searches out a Glimmerpost (16) and a Wolf Run.
Okay, I have two metamorphs in my hand, no other cards, and 5 land in play, all I need is a land. Easy. I draw a Koth instead. Now, an amateur might run the Koth out, attack into the titan, and deal 5, but I have other plans. I play the Koth for 4, one mana up. I minus it, and tap my last mountain to cast both metamorphs on Primeval Titan. He has a grudge, but I search out 4 land, maybe that'll make it easier to draw, say, another Koth or whatever. I still smash for 5, since Berserker is awesome, and my opponent drops to 11.
Turn 7:
My opponent drops a Copperline Gorge tapped, and grudges one of the titans. He then GSZ's for 5(!) for a slime, killing the other Titan. I still have outs. I'm playing several fireballs in my deck, etc.
He ends his turn by attacking Koth with his primeval, searching out two Glimmerposts (19, well out of fireball range now)
I untap, and draw a Berserker. Well, that's not that useful. My opponent has a Nexus and a sphere with one counter on it untapped, but I basically have to go for it, I slam in with both berserkers, and he messes up, activating the nexus post-blockers. I drop my berserker down, and end the turn with a 1/1, 4/4, and 3/3 berserker (empty handed), my opponent with a Titan, Slime, 10 land, and one sphere with counters left (including a wolf run and a nexus).
Turn 8:
My opponent draws his card, activates his nexus, and hits in with just the Nexus, wolf running for it all for 7 poison. This isn't as bad as it seems, because he can only put me to 1 if I block, and holding back two blockers means he can block a berserker, and really, what's the worst that could happen?
I was thinking "how the heck can I win, and you might be thinking the same thing, since I had only 4 unblockable power on the table, and can only fireball for 8 even if I draw it, with my opponent on 14. If I remove one of his blockers somehow, I only have 8 power, against his 14 life. So, pretty slim draws, wouldn't you say?
I draw my card for the turn: Tezzeret's Gambit. Okay, I have 9 land, maybe I can draw something good off this, and I do have 9 land in play from double-metamorphing the Titans...
Cast the Gambit, proliferating up the two berserkers with counters.
Draw: Mountain, Tezzeret's Gambit.
Okay, odds are pretty slim here, cast the second gambit, proliferate both berserkers with counters.
Draw: Mountain, Volt Charge.
So, I have the win at this point, though I don't see it for at least 10 seconds. I think about Volt Charging him (which only does 9), volt charging the Titan (killing it), holding back to Volt Charge the Nexus, but then I see that he only has two blockers, and one of which was the slime he so cleverly fetched out with his GSZ for 5 to kill my Titan.
Volt Charge the Slime, Proliferate both Berserkers, attack with a 1/1, 7/7, and 6/6 Berserker, for exactly his 14 life remaining. I think it's important to note that a threaten effect (Act of Aggression, etc) would NOT have won me the game, because he left his slime back. Gambit into it does win though, because it makes the berserker damage 10, plus at least 4 from the titan.
This is an epic win for the books, to be sure...
Frist rounds of MtGO (testing)
Why do my victories slip by, and my losses stay with me forever... Nagging me into eternity, and causing me to think, and rethink my plans, and wonder what would have happened if I had done things differently... If I hadn't been watching GGsLive at the same time...
So, overall, I was 6-1 day one, 7-2 day two.
My first game out of the blocks was my only loss on day one. It was against a junk (WBG) ramp deck, with all the things you'd expect for that match-up, but he had even more colorless lands, which was perhaps my undoing. Game one, he was on 5 lands, with two colorless lands, a forest, another basic, and a green dual. He slimes me, down to like 4 lands. (aka Irrelevant). I look at my hand, with no real pressure, but two Metamorphs. I see I can take him off double-green, and double anything else for at least a turn, and off either white or black entirely by killing the dual, and my eyes get big, and I slam down the Metamorph as a slime. I even have another, to slime him off another land, which I do the next turn. Take that ramp deck!
Anyone see the problem with that? My opponents deck has something like 75 mana sources in it, and my current plan if all goes according to plan is beating down with a grizzly bear, after he trades off the slimes.
Well, turns out he has a few dozen more lands in hand, despite his apparent weakness with almost no colored sources in play, and he puts down a Grave Titan, and I'm ground into the dirt. If I save those metamorphs for him to play his natural grave titan or whatever the next turn, I can get two of THAT, how does that game play out? He can't kill either, without wrathing. And I can burn his slime.
Game two, I cast faithless looting, and click a little too fast, and discard the wrong card (because the cards shift left). Without that, I ultimate Koth on my mull to 5, and I'm probably winning that game too. GARG!
I am a bit upset after those games, but I rattle off 6 more match wins, with only 2 game losses among them. A Burning Vengeance casual deck, esper control, esper delver (won narrowly preventing an on-board Red/White sword from killing me), a 20x spellbomb/4x Ancient Grudge/4x Liquimetal coating/ 12x sweeper deck (surprisingly good against me if they have a coating, just like the "block deck" with all manic vandals), junk tokens, and the one-drop mono-red non-mirror. (Goblin Fireslinger and Tezzeret's Gambit are not the same strategy).
I'd call 3-4 of those wins as being against actual decks , played semi-competently. So that's good.
==================================
Day two, I start off with a couple wins, against UB control.This deck just doesn't seem like it can beat any of my threats, be they Noble, Shrine, or Koth. I even have better card advantage than them, with Gambit and flashbacks. They can't let any of my spells resolve, and no non-counterspell answer deals with more than one of them. I'd play against this match-up all day if possible. Curse does little, BSZ is on the border of too slow, Koth is an auto-win, etc.
Then I hit the wall of a crazy "ramp" deck, that appears to be BRW (no green!).
Game one I mull to 5, have noble into Berserker on the play, but his Sphere gets him to 4, and fixes his terrible mana to cast a day of judgement (or he was dead the next turn to the last card in my hand - a Volt Charge + proliferate Noble + Berserker). He uses the second counter to cast something terrible, and the last to cast a Grave Titan. Grave Titan against mull to 5 - pretty good.
Game two I go Noble into Berserker into miss land drop into Gambit, and he concedes.
Game three, I have no notes.
I beat a mono red Faithless Looting + Phoenix deck, when he scoops to my T5 Batterskull. (RSZ in hand for his Phoenix). This guy Arc Trailed my first three plays (Stromkirk Noble, into Stromkirk Noble, into Stromkirk Noble off the top T3), which just shows (IMO) how terrible Arc Trail is. (Which makes me sad)
Then, I play a 4-color birthing pod deck. he has Slimed me a couple times, and has an Inferno Titan in play, to my board of three lands, a Koth on 2 counters, and a Berserker, with two Metamorphs in hand.
Can you see the good play? What I did was Metamorph the Titan, do 2 to it, and one to him, then attacked with a Koth-Mountain. He blocked, which was probably terrible, which put me down to two lands, a 3-counter Koth, and an inferno titan, vs his board of like 9 lands and a Pod. He plays another titan or something, and a Fiend Hunter for my Metamorphed Titan. I fail to draw a land again, and die quite easily to the titan.
If I'm competent, I play a Metamorph, doing 3 to the titan, then Koth minus, generating 3 mana, casting another titan, and finishing off the Metamorph. I lose my Koth, but I have two Inferno Titans on board, and he doesn't have the chance to stone rain me, etc. This sucked. I can see the Koth -2 when I have 6 land in play, but I don't see it when I have three, because really, how often do you have a Koth and 3 lands in play? Not very often.
Game two, I side in 2x Manic Vandal, and prepare for the worst. The guy plays a T3 Splicer, T4 Mimic Vat, and I play about as bad as possible against that card. It is insane! I Metamorph it, and kill things on his turn so I get them and he doesn't, and Metamorph a Geist Honored Monk, but he has Gavony Township, and is not playing terribly. He also played Helvault, and that's a pretty crazy card in that deck too....
Conclusion from this is that I need some solid artifact removal. 2x Manic Vandal is fine, but not good enough against Sword, Pod, Batterskull, etc. I've looked through the list of artifact removal, and I'm really not impressed right now. Requires some thinking. I really want Into the Core to be good enough, but it really isn't.
I rattle off a few wins against RB Zombies, WB Tokens (Blasphemous Act), UB Control, and UW Delver.
The delver match-up was very close. The Slagstorms were great, I want max of that, and Metamorph to kill things like Geist of Saint Traft, and Invisible Stalker. (and, you know, their whole deck) All of the games were very close, I thought the first two would both be easy wins, but they came down to the wire, thanks to Geist + Moorland Haunt dealing a ton of damage, and blocking my guys. I lost one of them. The third game, I started with 2x Shrine + Ratchet Bomb, and he hit me with 1/1's for a while, while I drew land, and burned him out.
=========================================================
The Mono-Red-Control plan was pretty awesome every time I used it. It really fed into Koth well, or a late (T8) shrine-victory.
I have two Mana Barbs against control, but they were probably overkill. (because the game is all things that they can't deal with). I have a few easy take-outs (1x Devil's Play, 1x RSZ, 1x Grim Lavamancer, 1x Spikeshot Elder), so it's nice to have some game-winners to bring in.
RSZ was a all-star. I loved 3x Ratchet Bomb between main and side.
I brought in Chandra sometimes, but never drew/cast it.
I never brought in the Tumble Magnets, though they should be good against ramp.
I need some great artifact answer.
I need something to smash ramp. I might not be aggressive enough for a steal effect to be game, and that's the conventional answer...
So, overall, I was 6-1 day one, 7-2 day two.
My first game out of the blocks was my only loss on day one. It was against a junk (WBG) ramp deck, with all the things you'd expect for that match-up, but he had even more colorless lands, which was perhaps my undoing. Game one, he was on 5 lands, with two colorless lands, a forest, another basic, and a green dual. He slimes me, down to like 4 lands. (aka Irrelevant). I look at my hand, with no real pressure, but two Metamorphs. I see I can take him off double-green, and double anything else for at least a turn, and off either white or black entirely by killing the dual, and my eyes get big, and I slam down the Metamorph as a slime. I even have another, to slime him off another land, which I do the next turn. Take that ramp deck!
Anyone see the problem with that? My opponents deck has something like 75 mana sources in it, and my current plan if all goes according to plan is beating down with a grizzly bear, after he trades off the slimes.
Well, turns out he has a few dozen more lands in hand, despite his apparent weakness with almost no colored sources in play, and he puts down a Grave Titan, and I'm ground into the dirt. If I save those metamorphs for him to play his natural grave titan or whatever the next turn, I can get two of THAT, how does that game play out? He can't kill either, without wrathing. And I can burn his slime.
Game two, I cast faithless looting, and click a little too fast, and discard the wrong card (because the cards shift left). Without that, I ultimate Koth on my mull to 5, and I'm probably winning that game too. GARG!
I am a bit upset after those games, but I rattle off 6 more match wins, with only 2 game losses among them. A Burning Vengeance casual deck, esper control, esper delver (won narrowly preventing an on-board Red/White sword from killing me), a 20x spellbomb/4x Ancient Grudge/4x Liquimetal coating/ 12x sweeper deck (surprisingly good against me if they have a coating, just like the "block deck" with all manic vandals), junk tokens, and the one-drop mono-red non-mirror. (Goblin Fireslinger and Tezzeret's Gambit are not the same strategy).
I'd call 3-4 of those wins as being against actual decks , played semi-competently. So that's good.
==================================
Day two, I start off with a couple wins, against UB control.This deck just doesn't seem like it can beat any of my threats, be they Noble, Shrine, or Koth. I even have better card advantage than them, with Gambit and flashbacks. They can't let any of my spells resolve, and no non-counterspell answer deals with more than one of them. I'd play against this match-up all day if possible. Curse does little, BSZ is on the border of too slow, Koth is an auto-win, etc.
Then I hit the wall of a crazy "ramp" deck, that appears to be BRW (no green!).
Game one I mull to 5, have noble into Berserker on the play, but his Sphere gets him to 4, and fixes his terrible mana to cast a day of judgement (or he was dead the next turn to the last card in my hand - a Volt Charge + proliferate Noble + Berserker). He uses the second counter to cast something terrible, and the last to cast a Grave Titan. Grave Titan against mull to 5 - pretty good.
Game two I go Noble into Berserker into miss land drop into Gambit, and he concedes.
Game three, I have no notes.
I beat a mono red Faithless Looting + Phoenix deck, when he scoops to my T5 Batterskull. (RSZ in hand for his Phoenix). This guy Arc Trailed my first three plays (Stromkirk Noble, into Stromkirk Noble, into Stromkirk Noble off the top T3), which just shows (IMO) how terrible Arc Trail is. (Which makes me sad)
Then, I play a 4-color birthing pod deck. he has Slimed me a couple times, and has an Inferno Titan in play, to my board of three lands, a Koth on 2 counters, and a Berserker, with two Metamorphs in hand.
Can you see the good play? What I did was Metamorph the Titan, do 2 to it, and one to him, then attacked with a Koth-Mountain. He blocked, which was probably terrible, which put me down to two lands, a 3-counter Koth, and an inferno titan, vs his board of like 9 lands and a Pod. He plays another titan or something, and a Fiend Hunter for my Metamorphed Titan. I fail to draw a land again, and die quite easily to the titan.
If I'm competent, I play a Metamorph, doing 3 to the titan, then Koth minus, generating 3 mana, casting another titan, and finishing off the Metamorph. I lose my Koth, but I have two Inferno Titans on board, and he doesn't have the chance to stone rain me, etc. This sucked. I can see the Koth -2 when I have 6 land in play, but I don't see it when I have three, because really, how often do you have a Koth and 3 lands in play? Not very often.
Game two, I side in 2x Manic Vandal, and prepare for the worst. The guy plays a T3 Splicer, T4 Mimic Vat, and I play about as bad as possible against that card. It is insane! I Metamorph it, and kill things on his turn so I get them and he doesn't, and Metamorph a Geist Honored Monk, but he has Gavony Township, and is not playing terribly. He also played Helvault, and that's a pretty crazy card in that deck too....
Conclusion from this is that I need some solid artifact removal. 2x Manic Vandal is fine, but not good enough against Sword, Pod, Batterskull, etc. I've looked through the list of artifact removal, and I'm really not impressed right now. Requires some thinking. I really want Into the Core to be good enough, but it really isn't.
I rattle off a few wins against RB Zombies, WB Tokens (Blasphemous Act), UB Control, and UW Delver.
The delver match-up was very close. The Slagstorms were great, I want max of that, and Metamorph to kill things like Geist of Saint Traft, and Invisible Stalker. (and, you know, their whole deck) All of the games were very close, I thought the first two would both be easy wins, but they came down to the wire, thanks to Geist + Moorland Haunt dealing a ton of damage, and blocking my guys. I lost one of them. The third game, I started with 2x Shrine + Ratchet Bomb, and he hit me with 1/1's for a while, while I drew land, and burned him out.
=========================================================
The Mono-Red-Control plan was pretty awesome every time I used it. It really fed into Koth well, or a late (T8) shrine-victory.
I have two Mana Barbs against control, but they were probably overkill. (because the game is all things that they can't deal with). I have a few easy take-outs (1x Devil's Play, 1x RSZ, 1x Grim Lavamancer, 1x Spikeshot Elder), so it's nice to have some game-winners to bring in.
RSZ was a all-star. I loved 3x Ratchet Bomb between main and side.
I brought in Chandra sometimes, but never drew/cast it.
I never brought in the Tumble Magnets, though they should be good against ramp.
I need some great artifact answer.
I need something to smash ramp. I might not be aggressive enough for a steal effect to be game, and that's the conventional answer...
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