After another session of testing with Nick, where we played the Solar Flare deck, and the Ramp (RG) against my Mono Red, with me playing the Ramp deck. I went 4-6 playing ramp against Mono R, so that was not as dominating as the previous 6-0 record Mono Red showed, but it was still positive for Mono R. I expect that the real ratio is somewhere in between those 6-0 and 6-4 records. Nick played Solar Flare to something close to even. We noted that that deck had to mulligan quite a bit, and had some mana problems, as three color decks are likely to do.
In any event, it seemed like things were working out okay, and the SCG results showed quite a bit of these decks being played, as well as little white creatures, which cards like Arc Trail and Geistflame are not terrible against. Mirran Crusader and Mikaeus are not problems for Red, and only Hero of Bladehold or perhaps Gavony Township represent bigger problems.
So, given this information, and the fun I was having with the deck, I decided to go ahead and purchase the cards on Magic Online. It was a bit more money than I really wanted to spend (about $100), mostly on the back of ~$17 Koths, but the deck also had alot of other cards that were $1-4, which added up when considered across the 4-ofs.
In any event, I put together: (in casting cost order)
1x Gut Shot
4x Stromkirk Noble
3x Reckless Waif
3x Geistflame
4x Stormblood Berserker
4x Shrine of Burning Rage
4x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Volt Charge
4x Koth, of the Hammer
2x Chandra, the Firebrand
3x Devil's Play
24x Mountain
Sideboard:
3x Vulshok Berserker
4x Arc Trail
1x Geistflame
3x Manic Vandal
1x Red Sun's Zenith
1x Something
2x Mountain (only had 13 cards that might have been relevant)
I played a few games (okay, maybe more than a few) in the practice room, and felt like I won my fair share, but I was playing against what might not have exactly been the best players or decks.
The biggest problem I ran into was mana. If I kept drawing lands, and a few spells, it felt like I was playing on another level, with a fair amount of removal for the swath of creature decks you see on MTGO, and removal for the bigger threats. I lost a fair number of games on 2 land, with all three drops and Geistflames.
Manic Vandal, Berserker, and Arc Trail were all very good out of the sideboard. I probably don't need the Geistflame.
I probably need another land in the main deck, but I'm not sure what to cut for it. Perhaps a Devil's Play, but I am leery of adding land, and cutting high drops. The Gut Shot won me one game, that Geistflame might not have, but I never got it combined with a one drop and a Berserker, for the full on crushing.
I often sided out Berserkers, when I sided out Waifs, to bring in Arc Trails. You really need the full amount of 1's to power up this 2, and I know from previous testing Arc Trail + Berserker isn't exactly what you want to be doing on 4.
I'll start recording some results going forward, and keep you posted with how this is going.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Testing with Nick on Halloween - Mono Red
My friend Nick came over to do some testing Monday night, which happened to be Halloween, who knew? Anyway, he put some time in against my Mono-Red planeswalker deck with a few different decks.
First on the docket was a version of the Wolf Run Ramp deck that has been taking down quite a few tournaments. It has 3 main-deck Slagstorms, and Beast Withins have quite a few targets. It also has Viridian Emissaries to do some early blocking, or try to. All of these seem fairly good against general aggro.
VS. Wolf Run Ramp
The Mono-Red deck ran over this version of the ramp deck. In 6 games, he won zero. However, there are a few mitigating factors:
1) There were no Dungrove Elders in the deck. Dungrove is a early blocker that is hard to remove, though it does tend to be somewhat underpowered in decks with 6 non-forests, and 5 non-forest mana producers.
2) These were Nick's first 6 games with the deck. Presumably over time, he would get better with the mulligans, etc.
3) I don't think he ever cast a Solemn in a relevant scenario, and he never got a Emissary killed that I didn't want dead.
4) He never really seemed to get off to a fast start. No T3 Titans, etc.
5) They were all unsideboarded, but I don't think the match-up gets that much better for them when I take out Arc Trail, and they put in a 4th semi-useless Slagstorm
Notes on this matchup:
1) Geistflame kills Emissary when you want to. Killing Inkmoths prevented some last-ditch blocking. In the Elder version, killing Elves would be quite excellent.
2) Berserker is very hard to block. His blocking clause is quite good.
3) Koth was quite good. He ate a Beast Within a few times.
4) Could have used RSZ vs Wurmcoil, but Devil's Play to the dome was quite effective. I feel like I want one more.
5) This red deck has almost no problem with Slagstorm. Slagstorm on the draw is too slow to kill a Vampire, or often a Berserker. Getting RR early enough to kill anything was a difficult proposition.
6) Arc Trail was very marginal. I often cast it to do a point to myself, to trigger the Berserker. Having some other 1cc guy to swap in here would be nice, in match-ups where I don't need the removal of Arc Trail. I did use Chandra to double an Arc Trail, when I probably should not have cast Arc Trail at all, but those are the kind of things you learn playing the games...
I do not think this is a 100% win matchup, I'll be playing a few more games to test it out myself, but it does seem at least favorable. Nick was "discouraged" from playing a few more, perhaps understandably, so we moved on to some other options.
VS. Solar Flare:
These games were much more interactive. My draws felt way better, but a Doom Blade on my attacking Noble on T2 often stranded my otherwise T2 Berserker in my hand. The deck was mostly removal, so it really felt like creatures were not a good win condition past turn 2 or so. Flashing back a Doom Blade with Snapcaster was quite common, so the bigness of my creatures definitely did not save them in this match-up.
All my creatures were basically unblockable, but they were all basically dead given any amount of available mana. It felt like I could play something like 8 Inferno Titans from turn 6 on, and none of them would get to attack. Devils Play really shone here as a finisher.
Many of the games were "ended" by Consecrated Sphinx. It attacked Koth or Chandra well, and took a series of burn spells to finish off. It was painfully slow to kill me, even with the infinite card draw. Sun Titan was similarly non-impressive as a finisher, since it often was just a terrible Primeval Titan (getting back one land, instead of tutoring two out). Grave Titan or Wurmcoil was their only real finisher, and Unburial Ritsing it made it seem like they were really unkillable. It was probably a mistake to ever try to kill any of their "finishers", but rather just burn them out.
Ultimating Koth was relatively easy, but it did not always win the game. Nick kept saying how it would win me the game, but playing a Grave + Sphynx every turn for 2-3 turns was enough to overwhelm me if I didn't draw enough Mountains. I was often torn between ultimating Koth on turn 5 with a proliferate effect, and waiting for turn 6 to keep the Koth around. I feel like now, that if they could O-Ring it they would on their turn after I play the Koth, if they can't, they're unlikely to be able to do it the next turn either.
I did draw a ton of mountains, between playing 24, and 4x Tezzeret's Gambit, so I was very glad to draw all the Devil's Plays I drew. I felt like I wanted a couple more of these, just for this scenario, since a doubled one (via Koth or Chandra) would almost always win the game against a T6 tap out for a threat.
The non-creature threats were pretty awesome. They do have O-Ring (one of the better cards against this deck), but it has something like 20 reasonable targets, for their three spells. I kept a hand of 2xShrine, 5x Land, and it was a fairly easy victory. Any sort of planeswalker off that start is pure gold, and due to the nature of the match-up, you can just sit on 3 untapped mana until the game ends.
It felt like the games I lost, I drew 12 land, and watched the Esper deck painfully slowly find some way to kill me. There were some games where I got out to a fast start into a Wrath, or I got off to a fast start into not a Wrath, and those were fairly painful for either side.
Tezzeret's Gambit was absolutely golden in this match-up. It was ultra-slow, and being able to keep hitting land drops, and casually pump for 2-4 more damage was quite good, while building up a planeswalker, artifact, etc.
The SF deck seemed so threat-light, that a card like Surgical Extraction in response to an Unburial Rites would likely give enough time to win. It doesn't handle a resolved threat though, so likely the way you'd want to go would be to add some more non-creature threats. (Ratchet Bomb to "counter" O rings, and the match-up is so slow using it on a 6 is semi-reasonable)
Overall the red deck won 6 games, and lost 5 (all unsideboarded). None of the games were real blowouts, the SF deck has a crazy amount of removal between the Doom Blades, O Rings, Lilianas, Snapcasters, and Wraths. Nick didn't keep any hands without at least some of this, which is likely advisable.
The Arc Trails felt pretty terrible here, I was often 1-ing myself, which is far from ideal. But of course, this is the matchup where they are probably worst. (along with the ramp matchup)
Perhaps the Arc Trails just aren't that great. They'd certainly be better as a Gut Shot, or Shock/Geistflame to accelerate out a T2/3 Berserker, since most of the time I cast Arc Trail it was to kill a 2/1 "Beater" or to power out a T4 Berserker, not exactly blisteringly fast...
Timely did gain the flare deck alot of life, sometimes as much as 18, but the creatures just didn't seem all that relevant. Often, they had so much removal, or I drew non-creatures, and they'd just get the 6 life out of it. That said, I wasn't one-shotting them with an Inferno Titan, so they did often get a turn out of it.
RECAP:
I am sold on the core of the deck.
Counters:
4x Stromkirk Noble
4x Stormblood Berserker
4x Koth of the Hammer
4x Shrine of the Burning Rage
Proliferate:
4x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Volt Charge
All of these cards are seriously good, and work very well together.
Finisher:
2x Devil's Play
The rest of the cards are arguable as to whether they should be kept or pitched.
Chandra 3.0:
This is the only option that actually combos with the other cards in the deck, but it is clearly the weakest option. Doubling up on Devil's Play, or the proliferate spells is very solid. The 1 damage is pretty marginal however, and her ultimate is not exactly amazing. I'd much rather have Chandra 1.0 in this slot, since she kills the big threats that are running around, rather than scratching their paint.
That said, Chandra 3.0 is a planeswalker, she does protect herself, she does combo with Koth on T4, or with any of the spells to do some powerful stuff.
I feel like playing two is defensible, and playing 4 is too many, so 2 or 3 is the way to go with this planeswalker.
Geistflame:
Doubling this with Chandra isn't exactly a good idea, and it does only do one damage, but:
1) It's an Instant, which is very good these days (Inkmoth Nexus, Timely Reinforcements, Snapcaster Mage)
2) It is good with Berserker (killing double blockers, and bloodthirsting it T3)
3) It has flashback, giving some minor utility late game.
4) Works well with shrine, since it is two spells.
I keep thinking about this as a "superior" Arc Trail. Sure, it's 5 mana instead of 2, but it's an instant, and it costs 1 instead of 2. It is pretty expensive for the last three, and isn't exactly a combo with Devil's Play, but it is a reasonable cheap removal spell.
I'd want at least a couple of these, maybe up to the full set.
Arc Trail impressed me quite a bit in the previous version of mono red (Inferno Titan), in that it was a cheap 2:1 that wrecked creature match-ups.
Now, it's somewhat weak at powering up Stormblood Berserker, and instants are way better at protecting planeswalkers. This is pretty good when combined with Chandra...
I'd play some in the sideboard at least, for creature match-ups?
These function the role of "cheap spell that powers up berserker and deals with early drops".
Whether they are better than Geistflame until that is maxed out is a matter for discussion. Neither of these are very good with Chandra, but both are at least instants.
Both of these are good finishers. Red Sun's Zenith is at full value each time, and good against Unburial Rites, Wurmcoil Engine, Chandra's Phoenix. Devil's Play is like a RSZ you don't have to draw the second time, which is pretty awesome kill-advantage.
I'm sold on at least 2 of this effect, and having 4 is not out of the question. (at 4, one is probably RSZ, just for variety)
I'm pretty sold on having 0 of this type of creature. I'd much rather spend 6 mana, and have them be dead, rather than spend 6 mana, and have them die next turn, if they don't kill my creature. Doom Blade, Wrath, and the like will likely be sitting in their hand once I get to turn 10 or so anyway, so this isn't that guaranteed to kill them. This loses out to the more hasty damage of Devil's Play.
Currently I was playing 1x Lavamancer, 1x Arsonist, because the Waif was annoying to print out. Neither Lavamancer nor Arsonist did much of anything. Waif is almost certainly superior. It's important to have 1-drop creatures to power up the Berserker. Spells do it by turn 3 at the earliest (outside Gut Shot)
I'd want at least 3 in this category, with 4 not being out of the question. Berserker really seems that good. With 6 one-drops, I sometimes had to hold my Berserkers until T4. I wouldn't mind having 8.
So, if we include 24 land, and the 26 cards above, that leaves 10 slots.
2x Chandra seems good.
3x Geistflame for the advantages above
3x Reckless Waif
1x Devil's Play (or RSZ) for additional finishers
and....
+1x Chandra, since the Devil's Play gives additional outs? (8x 3cc Proliferates, 3x X-spells with flashback?)
+1 Reckless Waif to double down on the early big stupid creatures?
+1 X-spell, to give a bit of multi-functionality? (early removal, late killing)
I am really liking this deck. What do you guys suggest for what would make sense for synergy with the rest of the deck?
First on the docket was a version of the Wolf Run Ramp deck that has been taking down quite a few tournaments. It has 3 main-deck Slagstorms, and Beast Withins have quite a few targets. It also has Viridian Emissaries to do some early blocking, or try to. All of these seem fairly good against general aggro.
VS. Wolf Run Ramp
The Mono-Red deck ran over this version of the ramp deck. In 6 games, he won zero. However, there are a few mitigating factors:
1) There were no Dungrove Elders in the deck. Dungrove is a early blocker that is hard to remove, though it does tend to be somewhat underpowered in decks with 6 non-forests, and 5 non-forest mana producers.
2) These were Nick's first 6 games with the deck. Presumably over time, he would get better with the mulligans, etc.
3) I don't think he ever cast a Solemn in a relevant scenario, and he never got a Emissary killed that I didn't want dead.
4) He never really seemed to get off to a fast start. No T3 Titans, etc.
5) They were all unsideboarded, but I don't think the match-up gets that much better for them when I take out Arc Trail, and they put in a 4th semi-useless Slagstorm
Notes on this matchup:
1) Geistflame kills Emissary when you want to. Killing Inkmoths prevented some last-ditch blocking. In the Elder version, killing Elves would be quite excellent.
2) Berserker is very hard to block. His blocking clause is quite good.
3) Koth was quite good. He ate a Beast Within a few times.
4) Could have used RSZ vs Wurmcoil, but Devil's Play to the dome was quite effective. I feel like I want one more.
5) This red deck has almost no problem with Slagstorm. Slagstorm on the draw is too slow to kill a Vampire, or often a Berserker. Getting RR early enough to kill anything was a difficult proposition.
6) Arc Trail was very marginal. I often cast it to do a point to myself, to trigger the Berserker. Having some other 1cc guy to swap in here would be nice, in match-ups where I don't need the removal of Arc Trail. I did use Chandra to double an Arc Trail, when I probably should not have cast Arc Trail at all, but those are the kind of things you learn playing the games...
I do not think this is a 100% win matchup, I'll be playing a few more games to test it out myself, but it does seem at least favorable. Nick was "discouraged" from playing a few more, perhaps understandably, so we moved on to some other options.
VS. Solar Flare:
These games were much more interactive. My draws felt way better, but a Doom Blade on my attacking Noble on T2 often stranded my otherwise T2 Berserker in my hand. The deck was mostly removal, so it really felt like creatures were not a good win condition past turn 2 or so. Flashing back a Doom Blade with Snapcaster was quite common, so the bigness of my creatures definitely did not save them in this match-up.
All my creatures were basically unblockable, but they were all basically dead given any amount of available mana. It felt like I could play something like 8 Inferno Titans from turn 6 on, and none of them would get to attack. Devils Play really shone here as a finisher.
Many of the games were "ended" by Consecrated Sphinx. It attacked Koth or Chandra well, and took a series of burn spells to finish off. It was painfully slow to kill me, even with the infinite card draw. Sun Titan was similarly non-impressive as a finisher, since it often was just a terrible Primeval Titan (getting back one land, instead of tutoring two out). Grave Titan or Wurmcoil was their only real finisher, and Unburial Ritsing it made it seem like they were really unkillable. It was probably a mistake to ever try to kill any of their "finishers", but rather just burn them out.
Ultimating Koth was relatively easy, but it did not always win the game. Nick kept saying how it would win me the game, but playing a Grave + Sphynx every turn for 2-3 turns was enough to overwhelm me if I didn't draw enough Mountains. I was often torn between ultimating Koth on turn 5 with a proliferate effect, and waiting for turn 6 to keep the Koth around. I feel like now, that if they could O-Ring it they would on their turn after I play the Koth, if they can't, they're unlikely to be able to do it the next turn either.
I did draw a ton of mountains, between playing 24, and 4x Tezzeret's Gambit, so I was very glad to draw all the Devil's Plays I drew. I felt like I wanted a couple more of these, just for this scenario, since a doubled one (via Koth or Chandra) would almost always win the game against a T6 tap out for a threat.
The non-creature threats were pretty awesome. They do have O-Ring (one of the better cards against this deck), but it has something like 20 reasonable targets, for their three spells. I kept a hand of 2xShrine, 5x Land, and it was a fairly easy victory. Any sort of planeswalker off that start is pure gold, and due to the nature of the match-up, you can just sit on 3 untapped mana until the game ends.
It felt like the games I lost, I drew 12 land, and watched the Esper deck painfully slowly find some way to kill me. There were some games where I got out to a fast start into a Wrath, or I got off to a fast start into not a Wrath, and those were fairly painful for either side.
Tezzeret's Gambit was absolutely golden in this match-up. It was ultra-slow, and being able to keep hitting land drops, and casually pump for 2-4 more damage was quite good, while building up a planeswalker, artifact, etc.
The SF deck seemed so threat-light, that a card like Surgical Extraction in response to an Unburial Rites would likely give enough time to win. It doesn't handle a resolved threat though, so likely the way you'd want to go would be to add some more non-creature threats. (Ratchet Bomb to "counter" O rings, and the match-up is so slow using it on a 6 is semi-reasonable)
Overall the red deck won 6 games, and lost 5 (all unsideboarded). None of the games were real blowouts, the SF deck has a crazy amount of removal between the Doom Blades, O Rings, Lilianas, Snapcasters, and Wraths. Nick didn't keep any hands without at least some of this, which is likely advisable.
The Arc Trails felt pretty terrible here, I was often 1-ing myself, which is far from ideal. But of course, this is the matchup where they are probably worst. (along with the ramp matchup)
Perhaps the Arc Trails just aren't that great. They'd certainly be better as a Gut Shot, or Shock/Geistflame to accelerate out a T2/3 Berserker, since most of the time I cast Arc Trail it was to kill a 2/1 "Beater" or to power out a T4 Berserker, not exactly blisteringly fast...
Timely did gain the flare deck alot of life, sometimes as much as 18, but the creatures just didn't seem all that relevant. Often, they had so much removal, or I drew non-creatures, and they'd just get the 6 life out of it. That said, I wasn't one-shotting them with an Inferno Titan, so they did often get a turn out of it.
RECAP:
I am sold on the core of the deck.
Counters:
4x Stromkirk Noble
4x Stormblood Berserker
4x Koth of the Hammer
4x Shrine of the Burning Rage
Proliferate:
4x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Volt Charge
All of these cards are seriously good, and work very well together.
Finisher:
2x Devil's Play
The rest of the cards are arguable as to whether they should be kept or pitched.
Chandra 3.0:
That said, Chandra 3.0 is a planeswalker, she does protect herself, she does combo with Koth on T4, or with any of the spells to do some powerful stuff.
I feel like playing two is defensible, and playing 4 is too many, so 2 or 3 is the way to go with this planeswalker.
Doubling this with Chandra isn't exactly a good idea, and it does only do one damage, but:
1) It's an Instant, which is very good these days (Inkmoth Nexus, Timely Reinforcements, Snapcaster Mage)
2) It is good with Berserker (killing double blockers, and bloodthirsting it T3)
3) It has flashback, giving some minor utility late game.
4) Works well with shrine, since it is two spells.
I keep thinking about this as a "superior" Arc Trail. Sure, it's 5 mana instead of 2, but it's an instant, and it costs 1 instead of 2. It is pretty expensive for the last three, and isn't exactly a combo with Devil's Play, but it is a reasonable cheap removal spell.
I'd want at least a couple of these, maybe up to the full set.
Now, it's somewhat weak at powering up Stormblood Berserker, and instants are way better at protecting planeswalkers. This is pretty good when combined with Chandra...
I'd play some in the sideboard at least, for creature match-ups?
These function the role of "cheap spell that powers up berserker and deals with early drops".
Whether they are better than Geistflame until that is maxed out is a matter for discussion. Neither of these are very good with Chandra, but both are at least instants.
Both of these are good finishers. Red Sun's Zenith is at full value each time, and good against Unburial Rites, Wurmcoil Engine, Chandra's Phoenix. Devil's Play is like a RSZ you don't have to draw the second time, which is pretty awesome kill-advantage.
I'm sold on at least 2 of this effect, and having 4 is not out of the question. (at 4, one is probably RSZ, just for variety)
I'd want at least 3 in this category, with 4 not being out of the question. Berserker really seems that good. With 6 one-drops, I sometimes had to hold my Berserkers until T4. I wouldn't mind having 8.
So, if we include 24 land, and the 26 cards above, that leaves 10 slots.
2x Chandra seems good.
3x Geistflame for the advantages above
3x Reckless Waif
1x Devil's Play (or RSZ) for additional finishers
and....
+1x Chandra, since the Devil's Play gives additional outs? (8x 3cc Proliferates, 3x X-spells with flashback?)
+1 Reckless Waif to double down on the early big stupid creatures?
+1 X-spell, to give a bit of multi-functionality? (early removal, late killing)
I am really liking this deck. What do you guys suggest for what would make sense for synergy with the rest of the deck?
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Goldfish results for mono-Red
1) Koth was very good. Ultimating the turn after you play him pretty much has to be good, right?2) Chandra was okay. I often drew 4 cards, and by the time I was getting to 4+ mana, I seemed to always draw two lands. This was fairly annoying, but likely unavoidable. How good the +1 is will indicate how good chandra is in general, despite the synergies with the deck.
3) 1-drop into Stormblood felt very, very good.
4) Grim Lavamancer doesn't seem like it will be activated all that much, but these two slots definately need to be one-drop creatures, for charging up Stormblood. Arsonist or Fireslinger (Goblins) may work well.
5) RSZ was very good. Being able to be doubled via either Koth or Chandra was not to be underestimated (and 4x with both is lethal). 20-ing someone out is not beyond the realm of possiblity (6 land + koth + chandra is 22 damage, 5 land is 18). It would be quite plausible to go to 2-3 of these, and 0 Inferno Titans.
6) There were a few hands where I'd have only one land, and those are basically not keepable. With so few 1 drops, and only 24 land, it is fairly unreasonable to draw out of it too strongly. The deck really wants to hit land drops and voltron up a monster threat of some type.
7) There were a few more hands where I had 2 4cc planeswalkers and 4+ lands, and these were far more speculative. RSZ was really the savior for these hands.
Hands where I went 1-2-3-4 drop on turn 1-4 felt very good. I definately want to get to 4, which means I need a strong plan if I get to 7 instead (aka some finisher that kills the opponent)
Next stop, play some games against my proxied Solar Flare (Esper flashback) deck.
3) 1-drop into Stormblood felt very, very good.
4) Grim Lavamancer doesn't seem like it will be activated all that much, but these two slots definately need to be one-drop creatures, for charging up Stormblood. Arsonist or Fireslinger (Goblins) may work well.
5) RSZ was very good. Being able to be doubled via either Koth or Chandra was not to be underestimated (and 4x with both is lethal). 20-ing someone out is not beyond the realm of possiblity (6 land + koth + chandra is 22 damage, 5 land is 18). It would be quite plausible to go to 2-3 of these, and 0 Inferno Titans.
6) There were a few hands where I'd have only one land, and those are basically not keepable. With so few 1 drops, and only 24 land, it is fairly unreasonable to draw out of it too strongly. The deck really wants to hit land drops and voltron up a monster threat of some type.
7) There were a few more hands where I had 2 4cc planeswalkers and 4+ lands, and these were far more speculative. RSZ was really the savior for these hands.
Hands where I went 1-2-3-4 drop on turn 1-4 felt very good. I definately want to get to 4, which means I need a strong plan if I get to 7 instead (aka some finisher that kills the opponent)
Next stop, play some games against my proxied Solar Flare (Esper flashback) deck.
Monday, October 17, 2011
New deck idea post-Innistrad
Well, we won't be casting any more Pyromancer Ascensions boys and girls, so it's time for a new topic.
I am very interested in the new black planeswalker, Liliana of the Veil, but the deck elements that revolve around that are likely to be very hot (read: expensive) nowadays, so I'm going to hold off on that path for the time being. It is extremely interesting to me, and I'll be testing it, so expect a post from me eventually, but I won't be focusing on it for the moment.
What I am thinking about originated with some games I was watching in the latest SCG series, and my experiences playing against mono-Red with Pyromancers Ascension. Shrine of Burning Rage is really good.
1) It's colorless damage, so it kills those pesky pro-Red creatures.
2) It's cheap to cast, it comes down early under countermagic, and charges up.
3) It adds up to a ton of damage in the late game.
However, in the games I was watching, the Shrine didn't necessarily translate into a win for our mono-Red friends. The Shrine would be bounced, or Oblivion Ringed, and the main threat of the deck would be neutralized by an effect the opponent didn't really have any other good use for against their deck.
OTHER NON-CREATURE PERMANENTS:
This got me thinking, what if you played some other spells that the opponent would have to answer with the same spells, thereby overloading their otherwise thin defenses. We need something that is not a creature, and does a ton of damage, or has other cool interactions with the deck, and/or Shrine. It should allow us to keep mana up, threaten the opponent, and avoid their creature-based answers. So we need either an enchantment (poor Pyro Asc...) or a Planeswalker...
Well, ladies and gents, Red has a pair of planeswalkers that are fairly aggressively costed, and threaten quite a bit at the four mana level.
Koth doesn't need much justification, but here are the preliminaries:
1) Effectively a 4cc 4-power haste creature, that doesn't die to creature removal.
2) 4 loyalty out of the gate makes him relatively difficult to take down with a control deck.
3) Ultimate is very strong, and is very quick to activate. (Won many games for me with PA)
4) -2 ability is rarer to use, but can be very powerful in cranking out a lot of mana in a mountain-heavy deck.
5) The creatures he makes do not count as creatures for the ubiquitous Timely Reinforcements which every deck seems to have these days.
Chandra 3.0 isn't quite as powerful, but it has a few advantages as well:
1) Some self-preservation, in a +1 ability. Granted, it is only 1 damage, but it does take out quite a few of the red and white weenies that are seeing play. A solid + ability should not be overlooked on a planeswalker.
2) Doubling spells is quite powerful, as we learned playing PA, and though Chandra is by no means a active Ascension, doubling spells can be quite powerful if you set your deck up to have powerful spells in it (so lets do that!)
3) Her ultimate is not terrifically impressive, and relatively hard to trigger, but 6 is a good number these days.
4) Koth -2 into Chandra +1 is pretty exciting to think about when the board is clear...
Overall, without having a deck in mind, I'd rather be talking about Chandra 1.0 at this point, but Chandra 3.0 might work okay if we have some other synergies with the deck.
PROLIFERATE:
Thinking about these potential synergies with planeswalkers and the Shrine got me thinking about proliferate, and we have a quite acceptable red proliferate spell in Volt Charge. Three damage is enough to kill most small creatures, and it is an instant, for dealing with Inkmoth + Kesseg Wolf Run, and so on. Proliferate + Planeswalkers is quite powerful, and being able to proliferate at instant speed, while potentially screwing up combat math, can work wonders in keeping your planeswalkers alive.
I looked at the other red and artifact options for proliferate, and frankly, they aren't that amazing. Contagion Clasp is okay, and would be better if Kor Firewalker were around, and it is something to keep in mind, but it doesn't exactly get the blood pumping. We are Red after all, and -1/-1 to a creature, at a cost of 2 mana isn't exactly stellar.
Then, I remembered a certain mechanic from a past block, and things started looking up.
Let's see:
1) Minor life payment: Acceptable.
2) Card drawing: Always good, and at a reasonable cost. (Divination)
3) Additional proliferate theme, to make looking at some other cards a possibility? Sold.
Chandra seems somewhat weak on her own, but in combination with either of these two proliferate cards, she has:
0: Do 3 damage to a creature or player
0: Draw two cards.
Without considering any secondary benefit the double-proliferate might have on our overall board state.
It is a Sorcery, and it does cost 3 + 2 life, but it does quite a bit for the deck, so it feels like a 4-of to me.
OTHER WAYS TO UTILIZE PROLIFERATE:
Now, since we have two ways to proliferate counters, and three ways to utilize that proliferate to strong effect, we might consider including a few more cards that involve counters, to get some secondary use out of this proliferate...
1) Stormblood Berserker is a very aggressive creature. Potentially a 3/3 for 2.
2) It is hard to block (inviting people to two for one themselves).
3) It presents a relatively dense threat, especially when considering cards like Timely Reinforcements. It swings into Timely fairly well.
4) It should combine very well with instant speed effects, and proliferate messing with combat math.
Timely is the bane of Red decks everywhere. You'd best have a plan to deal with this, and a plan that involves dealing 26 damage to your opponent. Your creatures had best be able to swing into 3 1/1's, and your spells should not look silly when handling them.
Our second candidate for proliferate synergies is Stormkirk Noble.
Stromkirk Noble doesn't swing into Timely quite as well (the tokens are not humans), but it is another fairly aggressive creature, that plays well with instant-speed proliferate. If this is your turn 1 drop, by the time your opponent casts Timely, an Arc Trail on the draw, or a Volt Charge on the play will do a good job of negating your opponents plans with their Timelys.
The synergies aren't quite as good here, but they are something, and as a 1-drop, you couldn't ask for much more. And "Humans" (or tokens) are seeing a bit more play, so this guy can be unblockable in certain match-ups.
CORE STRATEGY:
So far, I would say we have 7 strong candidates for a core of a deck, with some good proliferate synergies.
4x Koth of the Hammer
3-4x Chandra, the Firebrand
4x Volt Charge
4x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Shrine of Burning Rage
4x Stormblood Berserker
4x Stromkirk Noble
If we are playing 8 4-drops (and 8 3-drops), we probably want to see the majority of our remaining cards occupy the lower slots on the curve, so we don't get overloaded with uncastable spells.
We'll also want at least 24 lands, with a potential for 26 or so depending on what other cards we choose to utilize for the remaining ~8 slots.
FINISHERS:
Since we are playing 4 Tezzeret's Gambit, I would like to see having 1-3 of some huge finisher, since we are going to draw lands, and we are not going to have a ton of ways to use them.
There are a few candidates for such a finisher that are worthy of consideration:
Inferno Titan is one of the more aggressive options, and can be powered out on a Koth cast turn 5.
It deals with weenies well, it deals with mana flood fairly well, and it cannot be dismembered. These are all pretty manditory properties for a finisher these days.
It is potentially lethal in one swing (15 damage with 6 land + Inferno Titan), depending on the board state, so in that respect, Inferno Titan really brings home the (crispy) bacon to finish a game out.
Wurmcoil is the best answer to removal, that is still a creature. It survives Wrath effects which should be quite prevalent, and it survives dismember while killing it's target in combat. It is a very good control card, due to the lifegain, and should be very good in red (or other creature) mirrors. As a finisher, it dodges Celestial Purge, but while it is the most resilient option, it is also the least aggressive.
Red Sun's Zenith is a fairly versatile "finisher", in that it doubles as a removal spell, and deals with problematic permanents like Chandra's Phoenix and other recursive strategies permanently. It is a sorcery, but it should end the game quite well when combined with either Koth OR Chandra, since both effectively double the damage Red Sun's Zenith deals. Man, I like that, and didn't realize it until now.
For now, I'd try 1x RSZ, 1x Inferno Titan, and see how they worked.
SORCERIES:
We need to be able to deal with the creature threats we'll be facing, and some of the aggressive starts that decks can put together, but we're Red. If we can't deal with little guys, we have a problem.
Arc Trail is a spell that my PA deck used to rip apart aggro deck's starts, while still being a live draw against non-creature strategies. It is somewhat live against pump effects, it can enable a T4 Berserker, or a T1 Noble. (Clearing out blockers for the Noble, or pinging the opponent for bloodthirst with the Berserker.
The strongest points against Arc Trail are that it is a Sorcery, and it costs 2 (instead of 1). Stormblood Berserker, and a multi-blocked Noble, and planeswalkers love to have instants in your hand, and a T4 Berserker is not exactly speedy.
This is one of the better spells not already talked about to double with Chandra.
For other Sorceries, Red Sun's Zenith is an option, see the FINISHERS section. Otherwise, there aren't many options for <4cc + Red + Sorcery. (2 damage to all creatures is not exactly a combo with Strormkirk Noble?)
ARTIFACTS:
Ratchet Bomb is a reasonable anti-token option, that does not interfere with your own creatures, and combos fairly well with Proliferate to deal with the big stuff. A solid sideboard card against enchantments, and token swarms.
Sphere accelerates your Koths, Chandras, etc.
INSTANTS:
Geistflame is like a very bad (or good?) Forked Bolt. It enables T3 Berserker, and can be flashed back later for the second point. It is an instant, and 1cc, so it plays well with the various other effects that want us to have an instant. Geistflame seems pretty terrible against pump effects, but what do you expect out of a 1cc card...
Galvanic Blast is just going to be a Shock in this deck, but there might be some scenario where we actually have three artifacts in play to trigger the big boy mode. Lightning bolt this is not, but it's the most raw damage we can get at a mana cost of 1.
As hard as it is to get excited about Galvanic Blast, it's about as hard to get excited about playing Incinerate. It is an instant, but preventing regeneration is almost irrelevant, and +1 mana for +1 damage, and +0 utility is not exactly what we're looking for.
I was pretty excited about the potential of doubling this, with Morbid, via Chandra, if I'm going to the head, I'd probably rather have Red Sun's Zenith, and if I'm going as an instant, Volt Charge works so much better with the deck. You also have to be pretty awesome to break into our already 8-pack of 3cc spells, so really 1-2cc is what we're looking for to fill out our curve.
There are a plethora of artifact removal spells, and Combust, which is a fine sideboard card against U/W.
CREATURES:
Goblin Arsonist does an amazing job of triggering Berserker, and it tangles with tokens pretty well.
Grim Lavamancer is a pretty solid control card, but I'm not sure how "stocked" we'll be, especially with a somewhat higher curve, and not as many creatures.
This would be about as aggressive as a card as we could play. It doesn't play incredibly well with the rest of the deck, or perform that strongly against Timely Reinforcements, but it is certainly reasonable.
OVERALL EXTRAS:
I'm inclined to do:
1x Inferno TItan
1x Red Sun's Zenith
4x Arc Trail
2x something. (or land)
What do you think?
What I am thinking about originated with some games I was watching in the latest SCG series, and my experiences playing against mono-Red with Pyromancers Ascension. Shrine of Burning Rage is really good.
2) It's cheap to cast, it comes down early under countermagic, and charges up.
3) It adds up to a ton of damage in the late game.
However, in the games I was watching, the Shrine didn't necessarily translate into a win for our mono-Red friends. The Shrine would be bounced, or Oblivion Ringed, and the main threat of the deck would be neutralized by an effect the opponent didn't really have any other good use for against their deck.
OTHER NON-CREATURE PERMANENTS:
This got me thinking, what if you played some other spells that the opponent would have to answer with the same spells, thereby overloading their otherwise thin defenses. We need something that is not a creature, and does a ton of damage, or has other cool interactions with the deck, and/or Shrine. It should allow us to keep mana up, threaten the opponent, and avoid their creature-based answers. So we need either an enchantment (poor Pyro Asc...) or a Planeswalker...
Well, ladies and gents, Red has a pair of planeswalkers that are fairly aggressively costed, and threaten quite a bit at the four mana level.
1) Effectively a 4cc 4-power haste creature, that doesn't die to creature removal.
2) 4 loyalty out of the gate makes him relatively difficult to take down with a control deck.
3) Ultimate is very strong, and is very quick to activate. (Won many games for me with PA)
4) -2 ability is rarer to use, but can be very powerful in cranking out a lot of mana in a mountain-heavy deck.
5) The creatures he makes do not count as creatures for the ubiquitous Timely Reinforcements which every deck seems to have these days.
1) Some self-preservation, in a +1 ability. Granted, it is only 1 damage, but it does take out quite a few of the red and white weenies that are seeing play. A solid + ability should not be overlooked on a planeswalker.
2) Doubling spells is quite powerful, as we learned playing PA, and though Chandra is by no means a active Ascension, doubling spells can be quite powerful if you set your deck up to have powerful spells in it (so lets do that!)
3) Her ultimate is not terrifically impressive, and relatively hard to trigger, but 6 is a good number these days.
4) Koth -2 into Chandra +1 is pretty exciting to think about when the board is clear...
Overall, without having a deck in mind, I'd rather be talking about Chandra 1.0 at this point, but Chandra 3.0 might work okay if we have some other synergies with the deck.
PROLIFERATE:
Then, I remembered a certain mechanic from a past block, and things started looking up.
1) Minor life payment: Acceptable.
2) Card drawing: Always good, and at a reasonable cost. (Divination)
3) Additional proliferate theme, to make looking at some other cards a possibility? Sold.
Chandra seems somewhat weak on her own, but in combination with either of these two proliferate cards, she has:
0: Do 3 damage to a creature or player
0: Draw two cards.
Without considering any secondary benefit the double-proliferate might have on our overall board state.
It is a Sorcery, and it does cost 3 + 2 life, but it does quite a bit for the deck, so it feels like a 4-of to me.
OTHER WAYS TO UTILIZE PROLIFERATE:
Now, since we have two ways to proliferate counters, and three ways to utilize that proliferate to strong effect, we might consider including a few more cards that involve counters, to get some secondary use out of this proliferate...
2) It is hard to block (inviting people to two for one themselves).
3) It presents a relatively dense threat, especially when considering cards like Timely Reinforcements. It swings into Timely fairly well.
4) It should combine very well with instant speed effects, and proliferate messing with combat math.
Stromkirk Noble doesn't swing into Timely quite as well (the tokens are not humans), but it is another fairly aggressive creature, that plays well with instant-speed proliferate. If this is your turn 1 drop, by the time your opponent casts Timely, an Arc Trail on the draw, or a Volt Charge on the play will do a good job of negating your opponents plans with their Timelys.
The synergies aren't quite as good here, but they are something, and as a 1-drop, you couldn't ask for much more. And "Humans" (or tokens) are seeing a bit more play, so this guy can be unblockable in certain match-ups.
CORE STRATEGY:
So far, I would say we have 7 strong candidates for a core of a deck, with some good proliferate synergies.
4x Koth of the Hammer
3-4x Chandra, the Firebrand
4x Volt Charge
4x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Shrine of Burning Rage
4x Stormblood Berserker
4x Stromkirk Noble
If we are playing 8 4-drops (and 8 3-drops), we probably want to see the majority of our remaining cards occupy the lower slots on the curve, so we don't get overloaded with uncastable spells.
We'll also want at least 24 lands, with a potential for 26 or so depending on what other cards we choose to utilize for the remaining ~8 slots.
FINISHERS:
Since we are playing 4 Tezzeret's Gambit, I would like to see having 1-3 of some huge finisher, since we are going to draw lands, and we are not going to have a ton of ways to use them.
There are a few candidates for such a finisher that are worthy of consideration:
It deals with weenies well, it deals with mana flood fairly well, and it cannot be dismembered. These are all pretty manditory properties for a finisher these days.
It is potentially lethal in one swing (15 damage with 6 land + Inferno Titan), depending on the board state, so in that respect, Inferno Titan really brings home the (crispy) bacon to finish a game out.
For now, I'd try 1x RSZ, 1x Inferno Titan, and see how they worked.
SORCERIES:
We need to be able to deal with the creature threats we'll be facing, and some of the aggressive starts that decks can put together, but we're Red. If we can't deal with little guys, we have a problem.
The strongest points against Arc Trail are that it is a Sorcery, and it costs 2 (instead of 1). Stormblood Berserker, and a multi-blocked Noble, and planeswalkers love to have instants in your hand, and a T4 Berserker is not exactly speedy.
This is one of the better spells not already talked about to double with Chandra.
For other Sorceries, Red Sun's Zenith is an option, see the FINISHERS section. Otherwise, there aren't many options for <4cc + Red + Sorcery. (2 damage to all creatures is not exactly a combo with Strormkirk Noble?)
ARTIFACTS:
INSTANTS:
Galvanic Blast is just going to be a Shock in this deck, but there might be some scenario where we actually have three artifacts in play to trigger the big boy mode. Lightning bolt this is not, but it's the most raw damage we can get at a mana cost of 1.
There are a plethora of artifact removal spells, and Combust, which is a fine sideboard card against U/W.
CREATURES:
This would be about as aggressive as a card as we could play. It doesn't play incredibly well with the rest of the deck, or perform that strongly against Timely Reinforcements, but it is certainly reasonable.
OVERALL EXTRAS:
I'm inclined to do:
1x Inferno TItan
1x Red Sun's Zenith
4x Arc Trail
2x something. (or land)
What do you think?
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Friday Night Magc - 6/25/2011
A friend of mine gave me a push this week to go to a live magic event (Thanks Joe!) and I finally pulled the trigger today, with the help of a Microsoft site that pointed me towards the various Magic events occuring in the area. There were a few options, and I ended up going with Uncle's Games in Crossroads.
This was my first Friday Night Magic, since I was playing Contested Cliffs, Molder Slugs, Ravenous Baloths, Plow Unders and Pulse of the Tangles in Kamigawa Standard. I remember losing hard to the BG "Rock" decks with Barter in Blood, Death Cloud, etc. Man I liked that deck, it really crushed most decks into the ground, with recursive removal, and Plow Under to kill all hope.
That was like a million years ago though, and pretty much nothing from that era is around any more. The format was Scars/Beseiged/NPH draft. They had 36 people there, and room for perhaps two tables inside, so we went out into the general mall area to find some tables. The third draft pod lucked out there, but there wasn't enough room for our pod as well. We moved back inside the store, and the employees moved some tables and chairs around, and we had our setup. It was kinda cool, because we had 36 people, and there were 36 packs in each box, so we managed to consume three boxes of cards exactly between the various drafts.
I opened my NPH pack, and took a look at the cards.
What I remember was Volt Charge, Reaper of Sheoldred, Grim Affliction, Parasitic Implant. With three good Black cards, and the only other red card in the pack being something absolutely terrible (Ruthless Invasion?) I grabbed the Volt Charge, and put what I presume to be several people on my left into Black. I don't even remember the rare, I think it was an artifact? Soul Conduit perhaps?
I grabbed the next pack, and snatched another Volt Charge. The next pack had a Razor Swine, and the pack after that had another Volt Charge (cha ching!)
I grabbed an Artillerize, a Flameborne Hellion, an Immolating Souleater, another Razor Swine and a Blinding Souleater to round out what i played from the pack, with a Suture Priest, Shriek Raptor,Furnace Scamp and two Ruthless Invasions to round out my "Red".
I felt pretty good at this point. I had 4 solid removal spells, the tapper, the phyrexian firebreather, two Razor Swines and a Craw Wurm cemeting me in red, with maybe some white, but nothing too strong pulling me in that direction, just like the pros!
So, I open the MBS pack, and hope I see something big and rare staring back at me, but the pack was 100% blank. There was absolutely nothing I'd want to play in it, and a Green Sun's Zenith, which I took presuming that it was worth something (and likely more, with Valakut coming back with a vengance). I grabbed Burn the Impure out of the next two packs, and a Mortarpod out of the fourth. The fifth pack was pretty terrible, and I took some artifact, looking to stay open (Bladed Sentinal, or Hexplate Golem, I forget which). The next pack had a Into the Core, which was pretty awesome given my 0.0 artifact removal spells at the time. Next came a blank pack, which I took a Tangle Mantis out of (bleh), and then I saw like a 7th pick Fangren Marauder. I grabbed it immediately, and filled out the rest of the pack with another Tangle Mantis, a Ringleader, a Plaguemaw Beast, and a bunch of other terrible cards.
So at this point, I have a Shriek Raptor, and a Blinding Souleater pulling me towards White, and a Fangern Marauder, two Tangle Mantises, and a Plaguemaw beast pulling me towards Green. I know I'm going to play the Fangren and the Blinding Souleater in whatever deck I make, so I'll just be filling in either option with whatever cards I see in pack three. I was pretty worried near the end of this pack that I'd not have any creatures in my deck, and that it would just be all removal spells, but I picked up some "solid" fatties near the end, in the Plaguemaw Beast and the Ringleader.
I open Mimic Vat, and take it, since if there's anything this deck can do, it is kill creatures, and I might as well use them if they're just going to put them in the graveyard.
In the next few picks, I saw an Arc Trail, a Molder Beast, and a Sylvok Replica, which I gladly took. I also got a pretty late Slice in Twain, and a Turn to Slag, which felt awesome against a potential weakness of my deck (high toughness creatures). The Replica and the Slice shored up huge holes in the enchantment front, since people will want to steal or pacify my various Craw Wurms.
I ended up getting 2x Molder Beast, 1x Cystbearer (Early defense, and apparently lethal offense), as well as a Embersmith and Lifesmith, to go with a Flameborn Hellion and a Viridian Revel. I ended up playing neither smith, because my main-deck had something like 5 artifacts.
The final list, for comparison:
Removal:
3x Volt Charge
2x Burn the Impure
Into the Core
Arc Trail
Mortarpod
Artillerize (almost left it on the sideboard, since I have no artifacts, and few creatures)
Turn to Slag
Slice in Twain
Sylvok Replica
Blinding Souleater
Infect creatures:
Cystbearer
Razor Swine (+1x in Sideboard)
Dinosaurs:
Fangren Marauder
Flameborn Virion
2x Molder Beast
2x Tangle Mantis
Other:
Mimic Vat
Immolating Souleater
Lands:
9x Mountain
8x Forest
1x Plains
Not played:
Green:
Lifesmith
Plaguemaw Beast
Green Sun's Zenith
Viridian Revel
Tel-Jilad Defiance
Red:
Embersmith
Kuldotha Ringleader
Razor Swine
2x Ruthless Invasion
Furnace Scamp
Flameborn Hellion
White:
Suture Priest
Shriek Raptor
Bladed Sentinal:
Artifact:
Training Trone
Hexplate Golem
Necrogen Censer
Horrible:
Horrifying Revelation (I saw some people maining this, ug)
I had alot of dinosaurs to choose from. I went with the Flameborn Virion over the Flameborn Hellion, because it was +1 power, and it allowed me to not have to attack. I went with Molder Beasts over Ringleaders, because trample is pretty awesome, and I can kill some artifacts. Hexplate Golem hit the sidelines, because he was the most expensive of all options, and was vulnerable to artifact removal. I could definitely see playing a different set of creatures for my dino slots, I'd be happy to hear opinions form the peanut gallery about other approaches to this pool.
I really didn't have room for a ton of creatures in my deck, because of all the removal, so they all had to be fairly independantly good. Razor Swine *1 was a nod to aggro, but I left the other one in the board because there are a ton of one damage (or one -1/-1 counter) effects, and I can't have a win condition die to Blisterstick, Virulent Wound, or Pith Driller. I did bring in the 'Smiths and the Razor Swine against the most aggroeyest deck I saw, but they were just there to block.
The card I was most unsure of was the Blinding Souleater. I had so much removal already, that this seemed like the worst piece, and it was also an artifact, so it would draw alot of early fire, with me not having a ton of other outlets for their spells in my deck. It also did dilute my mana somewhat, I did have some practice hands where I had no red or no double green mana, which worried me.
I played 18 lands, because I felt like my deck was pretty awesome, and all I needed to do was play my spells, and I'd be in the game.
============================================
Match One, against "Ramey" (apologies for the poor spelling), playing UR bounce-everything, and sporting a pretty nifty hat.
The first game, I got him to 6 poison, and 7 life, via Razor Swine and Molder Beast. He played Vapor Snag, Quicksilver Geyser, and Disperse to keep my big dinosaurs bouncing between in play and on the battlefield. He got me pretty close to death with these tempo plays, with a Koth's Courier and another 1-power guy beating down, but a Burn on the Courier, and more and more mana off the top let me eventually play two dinosaurs a turn, even with some of them being bounced, which was good enough for the win.
In the next game, he got off to a fast start with a Chancellor of the Forge into some semi-aggro creatures, but I had a mitt full of removal, and eventually got to a stable board position with a bunch of dinosaurs waiting to come down (and be bounced). The poison squad didn't show up this time, and Tangle Mantis did 21 damage to him over 7 turns.
We played another game for fun, and let me tell you, Chancellor of the Forge on a Mimic Vat is filthy...
===========================================
I was getting pretty hungry at this point, so I asked how long was left in the round. They said 15 minutes, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to order, wait for preparation, and eat food in that time, so I walked around checking out the other matches. People were having a pretty good time, and there was alot of magic going on, between the remaining draft games, and a few games of standard that were going on to fill time.
Round two was against Allen, who seemed quite professional. He had a playmat, and dice at the ready. He was playing a URB deck, that always had Grixis mana on turn three. He was playing some reasonable removal, and had quite a few Ichor Wellsprings in all of the games, so I always felt like he was in a better spot than me.
In both games, I had Mortarpod, which was quite good against his lower-toughness creatures, and Mimic Vat also made an appearance. I had Sylvok Replica on it in one of the games, and even though I feel like I could have played way better with it, it comboed pretty well with a Molder Beast and Mortarpod to kill from 20 in three swings. We did attrition each other out fairly well, but I felt like I had limitless removal, and far bigger creatures to draw off the top.
He did draw and cast Tezzeret a few times across the games, but he animated a Ichor Wellspring both times, and Tezzeret did not live through my turn. I'm not sure whether the blue or the Black was the splash, probably the black.
My Flameborn Virion did get Corrupted Concienced in game two, but I had a sandbagged Sylvok Replica to solve that problem. Seriously, 12 removal spells (2 of them being multi-target) is pretty insane. The dinosaurs took home the match, after we ran each other out of gas dealing with our threats.
===========================
My third round was against Mark. Mark appeared to know which end of the sword to hold, and came out quite strong with a RW aggro deck against my slower creatures.
I won the first game to Red Sun Zenith + Panic Spellbomb, after getting him to 8 life and 6 poison (yay poison squad?) Mark had plenty of removal for my Souleater (and other artifacts), and some one damage removal to take care of my early defense, so all three matches were very close.
If he had drawn RSZ in either of the other two matches, and had it to use on me, I almost certainly would have lost. He had a good amount of metalcraft, and I was able to disrupt his artifact sources somewhat with Arc Trail and Into the Core, but he kept swinging with 2/4 ground guys and 2/2 flyers.
He had Arc Trail, the good white golem-guy, Divine Offering (which swing races well), Blinding Souleater, and Immolating Souleater, so his deck was pretty strong, but I eventually dropped some dinos that he couldn't remove, and swung for the win in 5 point incriments. If he'd drawn a RSZ anywhere in there, I'd have been a goner!
We chatted a bit after the match, and he seemed to be a pretty nice guy. It was hard to lose or win those matches, because they were definitely the closest on record. (and my only loss thus far, lucky me!)
I asked for the time in the round after we finished chatting, and it was only 10 minutes this time. I was pretty hungry though, and got a teriyaki bowl from a local store. It was okay, but mall prices are always outrageous. I ate it as quickly as possible, and thankfully another match went to time, so I got to eat a few more fork-fulls of rice before the "finals".
=============================
The fourth game was against Brian. He wanted to draw, because he wanted to get home, but we weren't sure how the prizes were going to pay out, or really what was happening at all, so I decided to play. My deck felt pretty strong, and the games would be over pretty quick either way.
He came out of the gates with Razor Claw and some infect creatures, which I handled with my copious removal. Once the early offense was stalled, and the Fangren Marauder level threats started hitting, he scooped up his cards, clearly mana flooded.
In the next game, I got a Whispering Spectre on my Mimic Vat, but for some reason didn't use the Vat, and instead played some dinosaur. He Corruptored the Vat, and I countered with a Fangren Marauder, at 3 poison from the Virulent Wound I knew he had (to finish off a Molder Beast) and an early Clawed-Spectre hit.
I thought things were looking good after I dropped Marauder vs his Corruptor, but then he played a Contagion Engine. I then understood why he was in the top tables. Being Green-Red, I should have alot of artifact removal, but most all of my removal was for creatures, not stock artifacts. I swung with the 4-power Marauder, and played a Molder Beast. He double-proliferated the Marauder (and me - 5 poison). I played a Blinding Souleater, and Volt Charged the Corruptor, swinging in for 6 after the double-proliferate (me at 7 poison). He untapped and played a Ezuri's Archers.
I had at most one more turn to seal the deal before I was proliferated out, so I tapped the Archers with the Souleater, and swung in with the Molder Beast. My draw for the turn was perfect, as Artillerize, saccing the Souleater finished him off. I was pretty sure I was going to lose that game, but sometimes you just get lucky.
Brian got lucky with his reward-packs, opening a Batterskull, and a Sword of War and Peace.
I collected up my 10 packs, and promo Rhox War Monk (??), thanked the owners for a well-run event, and congratulated them on dealing with the adversity of the high volume of participants, and headed home.
Since coming back to magic, I'm something like 8-0 in live tournaments, and 50% at best online with Pyromancer. Maybe the banning of SFM + Jace pushing me into Splinter Twin will be for the best...
This was my first Friday Night Magic, since I was playing Contested Cliffs, Molder Slugs, Ravenous Baloths, Plow Unders and Pulse of the Tangles in Kamigawa Standard. I remember losing hard to the BG "Rock" decks with Barter in Blood, Death Cloud, etc. Man I liked that deck, it really crushed most decks into the ground, with recursive removal, and Plow Under to kill all hope.
That was like a million years ago though, and pretty much nothing from that era is around any more. The format was Scars/Beseiged/NPH draft. They had 36 people there, and room for perhaps two tables inside, so we went out into the general mall area to find some tables. The third draft pod lucked out there, but there wasn't enough room for our pod as well. We moved back inside the store, and the employees moved some tables and chairs around, and we had our setup. It was kinda cool, because we had 36 people, and there were 36 packs in each box, so we managed to consume three boxes of cards exactly between the various drafts.
I opened my NPH pack, and took a look at the cards.
What I remember was Volt Charge, Reaper of Sheoldred, Grim Affliction, Parasitic Implant. With three good Black cards, and the only other red card in the pack being something absolutely terrible (Ruthless Invasion?) I grabbed the Volt Charge, and put what I presume to be several people on my left into Black. I don't even remember the rare, I think it was an artifact? Soul Conduit perhaps?
I grabbed the next pack, and snatched another Volt Charge. The next pack had a Razor Swine, and the pack after that had another Volt Charge (cha ching!)
I grabbed an Artillerize, a Flameborne Hellion, an Immolating Souleater, another Razor Swine and a Blinding Souleater to round out what i played from the pack, with a Suture Priest, Shriek Raptor,Furnace Scamp and two Ruthless Invasions to round out my "Red".
I felt pretty good at this point. I had 4 solid removal spells, the tapper, the phyrexian firebreather, two Razor Swines and a Craw Wurm cemeting me in red, with maybe some white, but nothing too strong pulling me in that direction, just like the pros!
So, I open the MBS pack, and hope I see something big and rare staring back at me, but the pack was 100% blank. There was absolutely nothing I'd want to play in it, and a Green Sun's Zenith, which I took presuming that it was worth something (and likely more, with Valakut coming back with a vengance). I grabbed Burn the Impure out of the next two packs, and a Mortarpod out of the fourth. The fifth pack was pretty terrible, and I took some artifact, looking to stay open (Bladed Sentinal, or Hexplate Golem, I forget which). The next pack had a Into the Core, which was pretty awesome given my 0.0 artifact removal spells at the time. Next came a blank pack, which I took a Tangle Mantis out of (bleh), and then I saw like a 7th pick Fangren Marauder. I grabbed it immediately, and filled out the rest of the pack with another Tangle Mantis, a Ringleader, a Plaguemaw Beast, and a bunch of other terrible cards.
So at this point, I have a Shriek Raptor, and a Blinding Souleater pulling me towards White, and a Fangern Marauder, two Tangle Mantises, and a Plaguemaw beast pulling me towards Green. I know I'm going to play the Fangren and the Blinding Souleater in whatever deck I make, so I'll just be filling in either option with whatever cards I see in pack three. I was pretty worried near the end of this pack that I'd not have any creatures in my deck, and that it would just be all removal spells, but I picked up some "solid" fatties near the end, in the Plaguemaw Beast and the Ringleader.
I open Mimic Vat, and take it, since if there's anything this deck can do, it is kill creatures, and I might as well use them if they're just going to put them in the graveyard.
In the next few picks, I saw an Arc Trail, a Molder Beast, and a Sylvok Replica, which I gladly took. I also got a pretty late Slice in Twain, and a Turn to Slag, which felt awesome against a potential weakness of my deck (high toughness creatures). The Replica and the Slice shored up huge holes in the enchantment front, since people will want to steal or pacify my various Craw Wurms.
I ended up getting 2x Molder Beast, 1x Cystbearer (Early defense, and apparently lethal offense), as well as a Embersmith and Lifesmith, to go with a Flameborn Hellion and a Viridian Revel. I ended up playing neither smith, because my main-deck had something like 5 artifacts.
The final list, for comparison:
Removal:
3x Volt Charge
2x Burn the Impure
Into the Core
Arc Trail
Mortarpod
Artillerize (almost left it on the sideboard, since I have no artifacts, and few creatures)
Turn to Slag
Slice in Twain
Sylvok Replica
Blinding Souleater
Infect creatures:
Cystbearer
Razor Swine (+1x in Sideboard)
Dinosaurs:
Fangren Marauder
Flameborn Virion
2x Molder Beast
2x Tangle Mantis
Other:
Mimic Vat
Immolating Souleater
Lands:
9x Mountain
8x Forest
1x Plains
Not played:
Green:
Lifesmith
Plaguemaw Beast
Green Sun's Zenith
Viridian Revel
Tel-Jilad Defiance
Red:
Embersmith
Kuldotha Ringleader
Razor Swine
2x Ruthless Invasion
Furnace Scamp
Flameborn Hellion
White:
Suture Priest
Shriek Raptor
Bladed Sentinal:
Artifact:
Training Trone
Hexplate Golem
Necrogen Censer
Horrible:
Horrifying Revelation (I saw some people maining this, ug)
I had alot of dinosaurs to choose from. I went with the Flameborn Virion over the Flameborn Hellion, because it was +1 power, and it allowed me to not have to attack. I went with Molder Beasts over Ringleaders, because trample is pretty awesome, and I can kill some artifacts. Hexplate Golem hit the sidelines, because he was the most expensive of all options, and was vulnerable to artifact removal. I could definitely see playing a different set of creatures for my dino slots, I'd be happy to hear opinions form the peanut gallery about other approaches to this pool.
I really didn't have room for a ton of creatures in my deck, because of all the removal, so they all had to be fairly independantly good. Razor Swine *1 was a nod to aggro, but I left the other one in the board because there are a ton of one damage (or one -1/-1 counter) effects, and I can't have a win condition die to Blisterstick, Virulent Wound, or Pith Driller. I did bring in the 'Smiths and the Razor Swine against the most aggroeyest deck I saw, but they were just there to block.
The card I was most unsure of was the Blinding Souleater. I had so much removal already, that this seemed like the worst piece, and it was also an artifact, so it would draw alot of early fire, with me not having a ton of other outlets for their spells in my deck. It also did dilute my mana somewhat, I did have some practice hands where I had no red or no double green mana, which worried me.
I played 18 lands, because I felt like my deck was pretty awesome, and all I needed to do was play my spells, and I'd be in the game.
============================================
Match One, against "Ramey" (apologies for the poor spelling), playing UR bounce-everything, and sporting a pretty nifty hat.
The first game, I got him to 6 poison, and 7 life, via Razor Swine and Molder Beast. He played Vapor Snag, Quicksilver Geyser, and Disperse to keep my big dinosaurs bouncing between in play and on the battlefield. He got me pretty close to death with these tempo plays, with a Koth's Courier and another 1-power guy beating down, but a Burn on the Courier, and more and more mana off the top let me eventually play two dinosaurs a turn, even with some of them being bounced, which was good enough for the win.
In the next game, he got off to a fast start with a Chancellor of the Forge into some semi-aggro creatures, but I had a mitt full of removal, and eventually got to a stable board position with a bunch of dinosaurs waiting to come down (and be bounced). The poison squad didn't show up this time, and Tangle Mantis did 21 damage to him over 7 turns.
We played another game for fun, and let me tell you, Chancellor of the Forge on a Mimic Vat is filthy...
===========================================
I was getting pretty hungry at this point, so I asked how long was left in the round. They said 15 minutes, and I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to order, wait for preparation, and eat food in that time, so I walked around checking out the other matches. People were having a pretty good time, and there was alot of magic going on, between the remaining draft games, and a few games of standard that were going on to fill time.
Round two was against Allen, who seemed quite professional. He had a playmat, and dice at the ready. He was playing a URB deck, that always had Grixis mana on turn three. He was playing some reasonable removal, and had quite a few Ichor Wellsprings in all of the games, so I always felt like he was in a better spot than me.
In both games, I had Mortarpod, which was quite good against his lower-toughness creatures, and Mimic Vat also made an appearance. I had Sylvok Replica on it in one of the games, and even though I feel like I could have played way better with it, it comboed pretty well with a Molder Beast and Mortarpod to kill from 20 in three swings. We did attrition each other out fairly well, but I felt like I had limitless removal, and far bigger creatures to draw off the top.
He did draw and cast Tezzeret a few times across the games, but he animated a Ichor Wellspring both times, and Tezzeret did not live through my turn. I'm not sure whether the blue or the Black was the splash, probably the black.
My Flameborn Virion did get Corrupted Concienced in game two, but I had a sandbagged Sylvok Replica to solve that problem. Seriously, 12 removal spells (2 of them being multi-target) is pretty insane. The dinosaurs took home the match, after we ran each other out of gas dealing with our threats.
===========================
My third round was against Mark. Mark appeared to know which end of the sword to hold, and came out quite strong with a RW aggro deck against my slower creatures.
I won the first game to Red Sun Zenith + Panic Spellbomb, after getting him to 8 life and 6 poison (yay poison squad?) Mark had plenty of removal for my Souleater (and other artifacts), and some one damage removal to take care of my early defense, so all three matches were very close.
If he had drawn RSZ in either of the other two matches, and had it to use on me, I almost certainly would have lost. He had a good amount of metalcraft, and I was able to disrupt his artifact sources somewhat with Arc Trail and Into the Core, but he kept swinging with 2/4 ground guys and 2/2 flyers.
He had Arc Trail, the good white golem-guy, Divine Offering (which swing races well), Blinding Souleater, and Immolating Souleater, so his deck was pretty strong, but I eventually dropped some dinos that he couldn't remove, and swung for the win in 5 point incriments. If he'd drawn a RSZ anywhere in there, I'd have been a goner!
We chatted a bit after the match, and he seemed to be a pretty nice guy. It was hard to lose or win those matches, because they were definitely the closest on record. (and my only loss thus far, lucky me!)
I asked for the time in the round after we finished chatting, and it was only 10 minutes this time. I was pretty hungry though, and got a teriyaki bowl from a local store. It was okay, but mall prices are always outrageous. I ate it as quickly as possible, and thankfully another match went to time, so I got to eat a few more fork-fulls of rice before the "finals".
=============================
The fourth game was against Brian. He wanted to draw, because he wanted to get home, but we weren't sure how the prizes were going to pay out, or really what was happening at all, so I decided to play. My deck felt pretty strong, and the games would be over pretty quick either way.
He came out of the gates with Razor Claw and some infect creatures, which I handled with my copious removal. Once the early offense was stalled, and the Fangren Marauder level threats started hitting, he scooped up his cards, clearly mana flooded.
In the next game, I got a Whispering Spectre on my Mimic Vat, but for some reason didn't use the Vat, and instead played some dinosaur. He Corruptored the Vat, and I countered with a Fangren Marauder, at 3 poison from the Virulent Wound I knew he had (to finish off a Molder Beast) and an early Clawed-Spectre hit.
I thought things were looking good after I dropped Marauder vs his Corruptor, but then he played a Contagion Engine. I then understood why he was in the top tables. Being Green-Red, I should have alot of artifact removal, but most all of my removal was for creatures, not stock artifacts. I swung with the 4-power Marauder, and played a Molder Beast. He double-proliferated the Marauder (and me - 5 poison). I played a Blinding Souleater, and Volt Charged the Corruptor, swinging in for 6 after the double-proliferate (me at 7 poison). He untapped and played a Ezuri's Archers.
I had at most one more turn to seal the deal before I was proliferated out, so I tapped the Archers with the Souleater, and swung in with the Molder Beast. My draw for the turn was perfect, as Artillerize, saccing the Souleater finished him off. I was pretty sure I was going to lose that game, but sometimes you just get lucky.
Brian got lucky with his reward-packs, opening a Batterskull, and a Sword of War and Peace.
I collected up my 10 packs, and promo Rhox War Monk (??), thanked the owners for a well-run event, and congratulated them on dealing with the adversity of the high volume of participants, and headed home.
Since coming back to magic, I'm something like 8-0 in live tournaments, and 50% at best online with Pyromancer. Maybe the banning of SFM + Jace pushing me into Splinter Twin will be for the best...
Monday, June 20, 2011
SFM, Jace TMS Banned!
I wrote quite a bit about why SFM was bad in another post, check the archives about that.
SFM being banned caused a rather bizzare ruling that the event deck is legal if it is played unchanged. I don't know that there were any equipment in the event deck, that was in any competitive deck that didn't have Puresteel Paladin.
I mean, how would you like to play these in your standard deck:
1x Darksteel Axe
4x Flayer Husk
1x Skinwing
1x Sickleslicer (basically counts as an innate 2:1, because it is Flayer Husk 5 and 6 in one card!)
1x Bonehoard (seen in some now-dead Boros lists)
1x Sword of Vengance
The event deck also has 1x Puresteel Paladin so you can "go off" with your Flayer Husks.
Link to the full event deck. Begin your trembling now!
13 artifacts (+2 Dread Statuaries) would not quite be enough to turn metalcraft on in a 40 card deck, I wouldn't count on seeing metalcraft too often in this 60.
Clearly, Stoneforge Mystic was an enabler that was too powerful. Near uncounterable, enabling near uncounterable follow ups that did a pretty good job of crushing aggro decks. The recent success of some hyper-aggro strategies could only last until the next week, when simple swaps of sideboard or maindeck Day of Judgement, Gideon Jura, or other non-mirror cards made their way back into the Caw Blade decks.
I am somewhat surprised that JTMS was banned as well. You won't find me tearing up over it, because he invalidated most any creature with CMC >= 4, but so did the Titan cycle + Wurmcoil Engine.
Buy stock in your Obliterators now...
I'm somewhat surprised that something didn't happen to restrict Valakut. Valakut has a postive matchup against pretty much anything but Caw Blade, which meant it was unplayable in Standard. With Caw-Blade gone, and Jace decks suffering, who's going to make a dent in Valakut + 4x Pyroclasm + 4x Slagstorm...
Anyway, big shake-up to be sure, and being implimented in 1.5 weeks from now.
SFM being banned caused a rather bizzare ruling that the event deck is legal if it is played unchanged. I don't know that there were any equipment in the event deck, that was in any competitive deck that didn't have Puresteel Paladin.
I mean, how would you like to play these in your standard deck:
1x Darksteel Axe
4x Flayer Husk
1x Skinwing
1x Sickleslicer (basically counts as an innate 2:1, because it is Flayer Husk 5 and 6 in one card!)
1x Bonehoard (seen in some now-dead Boros lists)
1x Sword of Vengance
The event deck also has 1x Puresteel Paladin so you can "go off" with your Flayer Husks.
Link to the full event deck. Begin your trembling now!
13 artifacts (+2 Dread Statuaries) would not quite be enough to turn metalcraft on in a 40 card deck, I wouldn't count on seeing metalcraft too often in this 60.
Clearly, Stoneforge Mystic was an enabler that was too powerful. Near uncounterable, enabling near uncounterable follow ups that did a pretty good job of crushing aggro decks. The recent success of some hyper-aggro strategies could only last until the next week, when simple swaps of sideboard or maindeck Day of Judgement, Gideon Jura, or other non-mirror cards made their way back into the Caw Blade decks.
I am somewhat surprised that JTMS was banned as well. You won't find me tearing up over it, because he invalidated most any creature with CMC >= 4, but so did the Titan cycle + Wurmcoil Engine.
Buy stock in your Obliterators now...
I'm somewhat surprised that something didn't happen to restrict Valakut. Valakut has a postive matchup against pretty much anything but Caw Blade, which meant it was unplayable in Standard. With Caw-Blade gone, and Jace decks suffering, who's going to make a dent in Valakut + 4x Pyroclasm + 4x Slagstorm...
Anyway, big shake-up to be sure, and being implimented in 1.5 weeks from now.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Anti-Aggro testing - 6/11
Taking a look at the previous posts, I went with:
4x See Beyond
1x Pyroclasm (4x blue spell, means I need 1x anti-aggro for sure)
1x Koth, of the Hammer (Great with proliferate)
1x Shatter (fine as a 1-of)
1x Red Sun's Zenith (finisher, RFG vs some problematic cretaures)
Since I went with 4x blue spell, instead of the 4x red multi-kill spell (Arc Trail) I was running previously, it seemed prudent to test against some of the popular aggro matchups, to make sure things are still working okay there, with a lower threat density against those deck types. Now, it's possible (probable) that Caw-Blade, aka T3 Baneslayer Angel is going to pound those decks into the ground, but the MtGO community sure likes it's aggro, so we're likely to face it at least 25% of the time no matter how terrible it is.
First up as an opponent is RB Vampires. It's seen some play, and between Manic Vandal, Crush, and removal for the Mystic, it is at least claimed to have some game against the Caw Blade menace.
I played 20 games against the deck, and PA won 11 of the set. In 6 of those wins, Pyroclasm was drawn and cast for at least a 2:1, and in another win, Pyroclasm was drawn but not cast. In one other game, Pyroclasm was drawn, but was not quite enough on turn 6.
In the BR Vampire deck wins, they had the most success with hands like 1x land, 3x 1-drop, Bloodghast/Highborne, where they drew enough lands to play all their spells. The games that went long, they lost pretty hard. Theyu had only two of their wins that were later than turn 6. In those games, PA had See Beyond for all lands, and no dead cards + burn spells.
Red Sun Zenith exiled 5 Bloodghasts, 2 other creatures, did 20 damage, and was shuffled away once.
I think if we'd have had 4 Pyroclasms (in place of, say, See Beyond), with a couple ways to exile Bloodghasts, the Vampire lists wouldn't have had much of a shot at winning. The See Beyonds pretty much drew me a land and a spell, and I shuffled the land away. There was perhaps one instance of See Beyond where it actually drew me two cards and shuffled away a land or dead shatter in my hand. Rotating those out for Pyroclasm seems solid, since it was pretty hard to lose the games with Pyroclasm, and often it was my only out.
In the later games (PA took 7 of the first 10) I gave the Vamp list knowledge of what it was playing against, which cause it to mulligan away some otherwise good hands (Gatekeeper, Highborne, bolt, Doom blade, 3 land), into hands with multiple one-drops, and/or Bloodghasts, which were the only way the Vamp deck was winning. They did go 6-4 with that knowledge, so some amount of sideboarding here would be viable.
The matchup seems pretty good for PA, in that the Vampires deck needs a heavily skewed hand to compete, and Pyroclasm kills literally everything in the deck. Some discard spells out of the sideboard could be good for the vampires deck, but it seems like it would just slow them down, and prevent the omni-1-drop hands that were overwhelming my 1:1 removal.
Shatter was completely dead, and was seen around 6 times. Twice it was bottomed off a scry, once it was shuffled away to See Beyond, and once it was discareded off a over-draw on a lucky Treasure Hunt.
Koth was bottomed once, ultimated once (won), died to a bolt and arc trail (or it would have won, won that game anyway), twice it was shuffled away (on games I won), and once it just did 4 damage (on a game I won because of that 4 damage). So it was pretty good, as a way to follow up on an empty board, and threaten a ultimate (which is yet another way to keep Bloodghast under control)
As bad as See Beyond was, Gitaxian probe didn't seem like it would have been much better. On the casts of See Beyond where I draw land + spell, I get to draw both and get a fresh top of the deck. On the Gitaxian Probe draws, I typically pay U, and draw only one of those, which is pretty bad. It's possible that it could let me pay life to draw for no mana, and either charge up faster, or do more things with my mana on those critical turns 3-4, but it's hard to figure out a general trend for how the games would go after playing 20 games.
Viscera Seer was involved in alot of the successful swarms. Being able to scry away against removal, and make multi-target removal like Staggershock relatively bad gave the deck alot of follow-up, and sustainability. Viscera Seer turn 2, with two other one-drops was always a near-lethal opening, unless Lightning Bolts abounded. (or Pyroclasm of course)
Highborne draining for 2 on being killed was a common play, but was often put me below 10, or combined with other effects to make things untenable.
Bloodghast was pretty good against removal, and Pyroclasm.
The PA deck did keep some bad hands, that lost. Mana problems were present, keeping the 1-mountain 2-bolt, 2-blue spell hand, that never saw more blue. Or not having any removal to deal with the early swarm.
The sideboard I want for this matchup is 2-3x Pyroclasm, 1x Exile-effect. (RSZ or Surgical Extraction), for 1x Shatter, and Koth or See Beyond. Pyroclasm into Koth is pretty solid.
=====================
I also played 20 games against the most aggro-y aggro deck around, Kuldotha Red. It has multiple threats, which makes cutting multi-target red spells problematic. The deck really doesn't give you alot of time to figure out what you're wanting to do.
The games felt absolutely horrible, but in the end, we split the games 10-10.
The deck was absolutely dead to pyroclasm. I saw the card 9 times. I bottomed it once(!). I won 7 of the games. And I nearly won a Mull to 3 (two lands and a blue spell) that drew into a Pyroclasm for a 2:1. I didn't get there on the mull to 3 two land + blue spell hand though.
For casting the Pyroclasm, I killed: 4, 2, 1, 1, 3, 4, 5, 4 creatures.
The Koth was seen 4 times. Once it did 8 damage, and I won. Once it 4, and gained me 5 life, in a game I won. And twice, I did not cast it (lost on turn 5, 3). It's possible that I bottomed it a few times in there too, but I didn't record it. The games were very short, so I didn't see as many cards as the vampires matchup.
Shatters were okay in this matchup, they mostly killed Signal Pests, but they sometimes killed ornithopters, or large-ish Chimeric Masses.
RSZ killed things, and sometimes people. I did win all but one of the games where I drew RSZ, though it wasn't exactly amazing.
The games the red deck won were over on turn 4, 5, 3, 5, 3, 3, 5, 3, 6, 4. This gives you an idea of the sort of games the KR was winning. Putting 5 (10) power on the table turn 1 was hard to come back from.
The red deck did win quite a few games it mulliganed. Summons into Bushwhacker was also a good way to get alot of power on the board.
I'd want Pyroclasms for this matchup, more than any other. The KR deck just doesn't come back from Pyroclasm. Shatter is okay, but I'd probably just swap out all the one-ofs, to fit in 4x Pyroclasm. Maybe keep Shatter or Koth, taking out See Beyond, but either way, it's pretty similar.
The KRed deck doesn't exactly have a ton of cards to bring in against me, so as long as you keep a Shatter to deal with a random Jinxed Idol, you should be in good shape.
=======================
I do want to try out some GW quest to round out the aggro matchup, because that's another matchup where Shatter and Recursion and necessary, but that deck isn't exactly seeing alot of play right now. So I'll likely skip it for now.
Decks like GW Fauna/Stoneforge (no quest), or Bant/Naya Stoneforge, or xyz Stoneforge are way more popular (aka viable) nowadays. So I'm going to wrap up this, by saying:
Taking 4x Arc Trail (good) out for 4x See Beyond (Bad) does not kill my aggro matchup game one.
It seems about even, perhaps slightly in the PA deck's favor. Having three Pyroclasm, and perhaps a Shatter (for other matchups), or Extraction/RSZ to deal with some recursion (which is also likely there for other matchups) is all we likely need to swing these matchups in our favor.
Only having to dedicate 3 sideboard slots to multiple aggro matchups is pretty nice. Using a few other utility cards to mix in depending on the matchup. Kor Firewalker is pretty problematic, but maybe Koth, or a 1-2x Sphynx of Jwar Isle will be good enough to take over that.
I also like having a main-deck that is not skewed towards aggro, so that I can have a sideboard against aggro, and be playing a more moderate main-deck. The 1x Pyroclasm was an amazing one-of.
I worry a bit about being able to kill a Stoneforge Mystic before they use it. I was counting on Arc Trail for a lot of the turn-two Stoneforge removal, so it'll be interesting to see how those games go.
The caw-blade games are definitely next up on the docket. They are the prime offender, the #1 deck right now, and if I can't perform there, this is not a deck worth playing.
4x See Beyond
1x Pyroclasm (4x blue spell, means I need 1x anti-aggro for sure)
1x Koth, of the Hammer (Great with proliferate)
1x Shatter (fine as a 1-of)
1x Red Sun's Zenith (finisher, RFG vs some problematic cretaures)
Since I went with 4x blue spell, instead of the 4x red multi-kill spell (Arc Trail) I was running previously, it seemed prudent to test against some of the popular aggro matchups, to make sure things are still working okay there, with a lower threat density against those deck types. Now, it's possible (probable) that Caw-Blade, aka T3 Baneslayer Angel is going to pound those decks into the ground, but the MtGO community sure likes it's aggro, so we're likely to face it at least 25% of the time no matter how terrible it is.
First up as an opponent is RB Vampires. It's seen some play, and between Manic Vandal, Crush, and removal for the Mystic, it is at least claimed to have some game against the Caw Blade menace.
I played 20 games against the deck, and PA won 11 of the set. In 6 of those wins, Pyroclasm was drawn and cast for at least a 2:1, and in another win, Pyroclasm was drawn but not cast. In one other game, Pyroclasm was drawn, but was not quite enough on turn 6.
In the BR Vampire deck wins, they had the most success with hands like 1x land, 3x 1-drop, Bloodghast/Highborne, where they drew enough lands to play all their spells. The games that went long, they lost pretty hard. Theyu had only two of their wins that were later than turn 6. In those games, PA had See Beyond for all lands, and no dead cards + burn spells.
Red Sun Zenith exiled 5 Bloodghasts, 2 other creatures, did 20 damage, and was shuffled away once.
I think if we'd have had 4 Pyroclasms (in place of, say, See Beyond), with a couple ways to exile Bloodghasts, the Vampire lists wouldn't have had much of a shot at winning. The See Beyonds pretty much drew me a land and a spell, and I shuffled the land away. There was perhaps one instance of See Beyond where it actually drew me two cards and shuffled away a land or dead shatter in my hand. Rotating those out for Pyroclasm seems solid, since it was pretty hard to lose the games with Pyroclasm, and often it was my only out.
In the later games (PA took 7 of the first 10) I gave the Vamp list knowledge of what it was playing against, which cause it to mulligan away some otherwise good hands (Gatekeeper, Highborne, bolt, Doom blade, 3 land), into hands with multiple one-drops, and/or Bloodghasts, which were the only way the Vamp deck was winning. They did go 6-4 with that knowledge, so some amount of sideboarding here would be viable.
The matchup seems pretty good for PA, in that the Vampires deck needs a heavily skewed hand to compete, and Pyroclasm kills literally everything in the deck. Some discard spells out of the sideboard could be good for the vampires deck, but it seems like it would just slow them down, and prevent the omni-1-drop hands that were overwhelming my 1:1 removal.
Shatter was completely dead, and was seen around 6 times. Twice it was bottomed off a scry, once it was shuffled away to See Beyond, and once it was discareded off a over-draw on a lucky Treasure Hunt.
Koth was bottomed once, ultimated once (won), died to a bolt and arc trail (or it would have won, won that game anyway), twice it was shuffled away (on games I won), and once it just did 4 damage (on a game I won because of that 4 damage). So it was pretty good, as a way to follow up on an empty board, and threaten a ultimate (which is yet another way to keep Bloodghast under control)
As bad as See Beyond was, Gitaxian probe didn't seem like it would have been much better. On the casts of See Beyond where I draw land + spell, I get to draw both and get a fresh top of the deck. On the Gitaxian Probe draws, I typically pay U, and draw only one of those, which is pretty bad. It's possible that it could let me pay life to draw for no mana, and either charge up faster, or do more things with my mana on those critical turns 3-4, but it's hard to figure out a general trend for how the games would go after playing 20 games.
Viscera Seer was involved in alot of the successful swarms. Being able to scry away against removal, and make multi-target removal like Staggershock relatively bad gave the deck alot of follow-up, and sustainability. Viscera Seer turn 2, with two other one-drops was always a near-lethal opening, unless Lightning Bolts abounded. (or Pyroclasm of course)
Highborne draining for 2 on being killed was a common play, but was often put me below 10, or combined with other effects to make things untenable.
Bloodghast was pretty good against removal, and Pyroclasm.
The PA deck did keep some bad hands, that lost. Mana problems were present, keeping the 1-mountain 2-bolt, 2-blue spell hand, that never saw more blue. Or not having any removal to deal with the early swarm.
The sideboard I want for this matchup is 2-3x Pyroclasm, 1x Exile-effect. (RSZ or Surgical Extraction), for 1x Shatter, and Koth or See Beyond. Pyroclasm into Koth is pretty solid.
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I also played 20 games against the most aggro-y aggro deck around, Kuldotha Red. It has multiple threats, which makes cutting multi-target red spells problematic. The deck really doesn't give you alot of time to figure out what you're wanting to do.
The games felt absolutely horrible, but in the end, we split the games 10-10.
The deck was absolutely dead to pyroclasm. I saw the card 9 times. I bottomed it once(!). I won 7 of the games. And I nearly won a Mull to 3 (two lands and a blue spell) that drew into a Pyroclasm for a 2:1. I didn't get there on the mull to 3 two land + blue spell hand though.
For casting the Pyroclasm, I killed: 4, 2, 1, 1, 3, 4, 5, 4 creatures.
The Koth was seen 4 times. Once it did 8 damage, and I won. Once it 4, and gained me 5 life, in a game I won. And twice, I did not cast it (lost on turn 5, 3). It's possible that I bottomed it a few times in there too, but I didn't record it. The games were very short, so I didn't see as many cards as the vampires matchup.
Shatters were okay in this matchup, they mostly killed Signal Pests, but they sometimes killed ornithopters, or large-ish Chimeric Masses.
RSZ killed things, and sometimes people. I did win all but one of the games where I drew RSZ, though it wasn't exactly amazing.
The games the red deck won were over on turn 4, 5, 3, 5, 3, 3, 5, 3, 6, 4. This gives you an idea of the sort of games the KR was winning. Putting 5 (10) power on the table turn 1 was hard to come back from.
The red deck did win quite a few games it mulliganed. Summons into Bushwhacker was also a good way to get alot of power on the board.
I'd want Pyroclasms for this matchup, more than any other. The KR deck just doesn't come back from Pyroclasm. Shatter is okay, but I'd probably just swap out all the one-ofs, to fit in 4x Pyroclasm. Maybe keep Shatter or Koth, taking out See Beyond, but either way, it's pretty similar.
The KRed deck doesn't exactly have a ton of cards to bring in against me, so as long as you keep a Shatter to deal with a random Jinxed Idol, you should be in good shape.
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I do want to try out some GW quest to round out the aggro matchup, because that's another matchup where Shatter and Recursion and necessary, but that deck isn't exactly seeing alot of play right now. So I'll likely skip it for now.
Decks like GW Fauna/Stoneforge (no quest), or Bant/Naya Stoneforge, or xyz Stoneforge are way more popular (aka viable) nowadays. So I'm going to wrap up this, by saying:
Taking 4x Arc Trail (good) out for 4x See Beyond (Bad) does not kill my aggro matchup game one.
It seems about even, perhaps slightly in the PA deck's favor. Having three Pyroclasm, and perhaps a Shatter (for other matchups), or Extraction/RSZ to deal with some recursion (which is also likely there for other matchups) is all we likely need to swing these matchups in our favor.
Only having to dedicate 3 sideboard slots to multiple aggro matchups is pretty nice. Using a few other utility cards to mix in depending on the matchup. Kor Firewalker is pretty problematic, but maybe Koth, or a 1-2x Sphynx of Jwar Isle will be good enough to take over that.
I also like having a main-deck that is not skewed towards aggro, so that I can have a sideboard against aggro, and be playing a more moderate main-deck. The 1x Pyroclasm was an amazing one-of.
I worry a bit about being able to kill a Stoneforge Mystic before they use it. I was counting on Arc Trail for a lot of the turn-two Stoneforge removal, so it'll be interesting to see how those games go.
The caw-blade games are definitely next up on the docket. They are the prime offender, the #1 deck right now, and if I can't perform there, this is not a deck worth playing.
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