I've been stalking the post for all 155 pages now, and have been building a version of "Dos Rakis" for local FNMs. The rest of the cards I've been needing are on their way, so I'm excited to get everything sleeved up and ready to play!
A question about Olivia. I'm seeing her in some sideboard plans, and wondering what match ups she would favor? Overall it's a good card, I'm just wondering if it's "too slow" to impact board status. Thoughts? Has anybody had luck testing her out against specific matchups?
I've been stalking the post for all 155 pages now, and have been building a version of "Dos Rakis" for local FNMs. The rest of the cards I've been needing are on their way, so I'm excited to get everything sleeved up and ready to play!
A question about Olivia. I'm seeing her in some sideboard plans, and wondering what match ups she would favor? Overall it's a good card, I'm just wondering if it's "too slow" to impact board status. Thoughts? Has anybody had luck testing her out against specific matchups?
She's great against other midrange or aggro decks, when you need to play the control role.
I have been playtesting on MTGO and plan on going to two standard FNM this week (Thursday and Friday) with a red deck that is derived from dpaine's and acuteangle with a transformational sideboard strategy of go big.
I have been facing mostly Jund, GW midrange and BR Zombie decks on MTGO. This has been doing very well for me in this playtesting. I love the body of cacklers and gore-house chainwalkers. Zealots tend to eat spot removal as do bigger stromkirk nobles. I have seen a number of Curse of Death's Hold in play and that wipes out my Nobles, Shred-Freaks and Stonewrights. It is nice to have the 2 body beaters stick around.
I have been loving Hellrider. A couple of Hellriders on the board and I am very happy. Thundermaw Hellkite has won me multiple games and really makes the opponent who just tapped out to cast Lingering Souls unhappy.
I have been playtesting on MTGO and plan on going to two standard FNM this week (Thursday and Friday) with a red deck that is derived from dpaine's and acuteangle with a transformational sideboard strategy of go big.
I have been facing mostly Jund, GW midrange and BR Zombie decks on MTGO. This has been doing very well for me in this playtesting. I love the body of cacklers and gore-house chainwalkers. Zealots tend to eat spot removal as do bigger stromkirk nobles. I have seen a number of Curse of Death's Hold in play and that wipes out my Nobles, Shred-Freaks and Stonewrights. It is nice to have the 2 body beaters stick around.
I have been loving Hellrider. A couple of Hellriders on the board and I am very happy. Thundermaw Hellkite has won me multiple games and really makes the opponent who just tapped out to cast Lingering Souls unhappy.
I love this deck. The MD is 100% what I played at FNM the first night RTR was legal. I only lost one match and that was to GW, unfortunately.
The SB is pretty close to what I played. I played 2 Crucibles, 4 Mortars and 1 Vandalblast (which is not that useful right now, I learned)
RakDW update: So, to keep up with the times, I replaced the playset of Stromkirk Noble for an extra land, an additional Stonewright, and 2 Bonfires while changing the 2 Conscripts for 2 Flames of the Firebrand. I gotta admit, bigger IS better. That Esper Control deck that was slapping me silly before? Well, that MU went from somewhat unfavorable to notably favorable and almost too easy post-SB 0_o. It's crazy how drastically different a deck plays with some tweaking here and there. I think the biggest gain is how much less effective Azorius Charm becomes with less unwanted 1-drops to fling back to the top-deck.
Glad to hear it is working for you. The 'Go Big!' plan invalidates a lot of the sideboarding choices most decks will use against an aggro deck and it largely sidesteps a lot of the maindeck answers as well.
Quote from redthirst »
When I tried 4 Hellkite, 24 Land in an aggro shell I found that mana was a very real problem. Either Hellkites and not enough land or (more commonly) way too many lands for my mostly 1 and 2 drops with not a Hellkite in sight.
I've thought about the solution (even though I wouldn't try it again) and I think the deck will run smoother with a full compliment of Stonewrights and 3-4 Crucibles to sink excess mana into. It may be something you want to try if you find the deck has the same issues mine did.
Agreed. The real problem is making a deck that can win without Thundermaw Hellkite ~ or at least put yourself in a position to draw win when you topdeck one of your endgame cards.
FWIW the version I am messing around with has 4 Stonewright, 3 Devil's Play (probably should be 4 Bonfire of the Damned though) and 3 Hellion Crucible. The deck is way when you get to spend all your mana every turn.
Quote from Derek Muthart »
Just a quick tourney report from Monday Night Magic. We had 16 players and the deck listed below went 3-1.
4 x Stromkirk Noble
4 x Rakdos Cackler
3 x Stonewright
4 x Ash Zealot
4 x Gore-House Chainwalker
4 x Hellrider
4 x Pillar of Flame
4 x Searing Spear
3 x Flames of the Firebrand
4 x Brimstone Volley
22 x Mountain
Sideboard:
4 x Volcanic Strength
4 x Annihilating Fire
4 x Electrickery
3 x Traitorous Blood
Needless to say, the Sideboard didn't help much at all.
Yeah, Travis Woo isn't a strong red mage Who would have thought?
Your report is excellent, I am going to be using parts of it for when I can update the primer Thank you for the very great contribution!
Quote from yarpus »
Most of people resigned from MB Zealous Conscripts. I don't really understand that. Conscript can do some sickest plays ever, but he's very valuable creature on it's own. I mean, he's creature and removal to lots of biggest threats of other decks. He forces people to sacrifice their Falkenrath Aristocrat. He negates Thragtusk's lifegain. I've used him to steal opponent's last blocker and screw with his life math so often I can't count. Even if I stealed someone's Doomed Traveler, I think it was much more valuable than Thundermaw Hellkite in most of matchups.
I still prefer maindeck conscripts in RakDW. I know I am posting a lot of Hellkite lists at the moment, but that is very much a thought experiment; if I was playing in a major event this weekend I would certainly be playing Dos Rakis with Conscripts.
Quote from Gambitmain007 »
I've been stalking the post for all 155 pages now, and have been building a version of "Dos Rakis" for local FNMs. The rest of the cards I've been needing are on their way, so I'm excited to get everything sleeved up and ready to play!
A question about Olivia. I'm seeing her in some sideboard plans, and wondering what match ups she would favor? Overall it's a good card, I'm just wondering if it's "too slow" to impact board status. Thoughts? Has anybody had luck testing her out against specific matchups?
Olivia shines against the other midrange decks and the slower aggro decks. She asks a specific question, do you have a specific answer in hand right now? If NO, please sign this game slip..
Basically, there are a lot of popular decks where if you get to untap with her you win instantly.
She is kind of redonk (if you will pardon my english :p)
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I have been playtesting on MTGO and plan on going to two standard FNM this week (Thursday and Friday) with a red deck that is derived from dpaine's and acuteangle with a transformational sideboard strategy of go big.
I have been facing mostly Jund, GW midrange and BR Zombie decks on MTGO. This has been doing very well for me in this playtesting. I love the body of cacklers and gore-house chainwalkers. Zealots tend to eat spot removal as do bigger stromkirk nobles. I have seen a number of Curse of Death's Hold in play and that wipes out my Nobles, Shred-Freaks and Stonewrights. It is nice to have the 2 body beaters stick around.
I have been loving Hellrider. A couple of Hellriders on the board and I am very happy. Thundermaw Hellkite has won me multiple games and really makes the opponent who just tapped out to cast Lingering Souls unhappy.
This is a very good deck Have fun and let us know how it goes.
PS. Yeah, Curse of Death's Hold is quite the beating. Thankfully it isnt good elsewhere so it doesnt see a lot of play.
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I think you've made a thousand posts since RTR was fully spoiled Z.
On topic I don't like the FS unleash 3 drop. Feels like I'm just wasting mana when I play it. I think for our aggro decks, curving out 1-2-4 is fine so long as we have instant spead burn and/or Stonewright.
Secondly, I might test Devil's Kite(prefer that name to sledghammer red mostly cause sledgehammer makes me think of Koth, then I get sad). And I like the idea of Flying the Devil's Kite in our opponents faces while laughing diabolically.
LP, I'm checking your article out as well. Behind all of your swag is the brain of one of the most intelligent Magic players I've ever known. I guess that's one more thing for you to add to the wall of ego that is your Sally sig.
I can go with that. LK, you are the Mace Windu of red mages...cool, tempered logic in deliberation, but capable of just flat kicking tail when the situation warrants it.
I definitely think that MD Bonfire of the Damned is correct in place of Devil's Play. Devil's Play has been winning me games, but there are multiple times that instead of casting Devil's Play, I could have just hardcast Bonfire for X=3 or X=4 and just won on the spot. With maindeck countermagic been so rare, and with so many midrange decks in the format, it is an absurdly powerful spell still.
I have 11 spots in the deck for burn, so I am thinking:
4 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Pillar of Flame
3 Searing Spear
The sideboard plans currently are:
vs Zombies
OUT: 4 Rakdos Cackler, 3 Searing Spear
IN: 4 Flames of the Firebrand, 3 Annihilating Fire
The Cunning Plan: Play a control as a control deck and focus on 1-for-1s with value and 2-for-1s. Then go over the top with threats they cannot answer.
vs Humans
OUT: 4 Rakdos Cackler, 4 Gore-House Chainwalker
IN: 4 Flames of the Firebrand, 4 Mizzium Mortars
The Cunning Plan: The unleash creatures match up quite poorly with their core of 2 power first strike guys and GoST. Very poorly. Instead, we move into the control deck with a dozen 2-for-1 or better spells, including the full eight 1-sided wraths...
The Cunning Plan: As is becoming obvious, when the early creatures are outclassed, you take them out and bring in a high impact replacement. Gore-House Chainwalker can trade with a lot of their cards, so he gets to stay. Kill everything they have with value then play Dragons.
vs Jund:
OUT: 4 Rakdos Cackler, 4 Pillar of Flame
IN: 4 Traitorous Blood, 4 Mizzium Mortars
The Cunning Plan: Rakdos Cackler looks pretty unappealing against a creature base of Huntmaster and Thragtusk. Pillar of Flame only kills Huntmaster of the Fells. Mizzium Mortars kills everything, and when you overload, it is just more 1-sided wraths. Traitorous Blood is just very powerful against their creature base.
vs Reanimator
OUT: 4 Pillar of Flame
IN: 4 Traitorous Blood
The Cunning Plan: They basically want to stall with whatever until they can land a fatty. The plan is very straightforward, do a tonne of damage early then kill them with the reanimation target. I like the more proactive plan compared to the 'preventative' GY hate plans.
vs Tokens
OUT: 4 Pillar of Flame, 3 Searing Spear?
IN: 4 Flames of the Firebrand, 3 Mizzium Mortars?
The Cunning Plan: I have not got to play against too many pure tokens decks. Flames of the Firebrand seems like the easiest include because it is so powerful early ~ but it becomes pretty embarassing after they string together anthems. Basically you just want to bridge the gap until overload Mortars and hardcast Bonfire are online. Once they are, they cannot beat you. Easy cuts are the 1-for-1 removal which line up poorly against their deck.
vs Uxx Control
OUT: 4 Pillar of Flame
IN: 4 Mizzium Mortars // 4 Traitorous Blood
The Cunning Plan: Kill them? Come on, this is the easiest matchup we have, you figure it out...take out the low Pillar of Flame, replace it with whichever will be higher impact (depends on their creature base / finisher of choice).
This is where I am at after some testing. Then I want to try the black splash. Right now, the least exciting cards in the deck have been Searing Spear and (shock! horror!) Hellrider (I probably don't have the creature base for him, but a 4/3 haste for 4 is still fine).
Ill keep you updated when I know more. If anyone can explain to me in very simple english how to save a file from xsplit then upload it, I will record some DEs for the thread over the weekend/Monday.
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I think you've made a thousand posts since RTR was fully spoiled Z.
On topic I don't like the FS unleash 3 drop. Feels like I'm just wasting mana when I play it. I think for our aggro decks, curving out 1-2-4 is fine so long as we have instant spead burn and/or Stonewright.
Secondly, I might test Devil's Kite(prefer that name to sledghammer red mostly cause sledgehammer makes me think of Koth, then I get sad). And I like the idea of Flying the Devil's Kite in our opponents faces while laughing diabolically.
Im in a good place emotionally, so I am very energetic again Not being a student and having a job I really enjoy (even if it takes up most of my time) helps.
I cannot find a 3 drop that I like. Hellhole Flailer is close, just for the body. I really want Boggart Ramgang or an equivalent, which may mean that I look at Flinthoof Boar after GTC hits.
Devil's Kite sounds good to me.
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I like the idea of boarding into Naya. I mostly playing testing the cards I like most for this type of strat. 1-0 so far against Esper control. Hellkites eat lingering soul tokens, aristocrats eat sorin, Winning through double miracle terminus, detention sphere eating two chainwalkers and drogskull reaver(hellkites a douch like that).
Edit: Double ash zealout makes Burning vengeance deck cry.
LP, I'm checking your article out as well. Behind all of your swag is the brain of one of the most intelligent Magic players I've ever known. I guess that's one more thing for you to add to the wall of ego that is your Sally sig.
I can go with that. LK, you are the Mace Windu of red mages...cool, tempered logic in deliberation, but capable of just flat kicking tail when the situation warrants it.
LP, I'm checking your article out as well. Behind all of your swag is the brain of one of the most intelligent Magic players I've ever known. I guess that's one more thing for you to add to the wall of ego that is your Sally sig.
I can go with that. LK, you are the Mace Windu of red mages...cool, tempered logic in deliberation, but capable of just flat kicking tail when the situation warrants it.
Its amazing how greedy some of the GW decks are. The gauntlet deck I used with Hamfactorial and Helios came Top 8 at the first SCG and if a single mana dork died I could basically never cast a spell. 23 land with 6x4drops and 4x5drops is reality!
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Today, I played against my friend's GW Midrange deck for a bit. One important thing I've noticed is that their best hands are better than our best hands- pre-board, at any rate. Ramping fast and getting an early Thragtusk = early death. To be honest though, Centaur Healer is more annoying. While Thrag may get stolen by Blood/Conscripts, Centaur is hardly worth stealing and ends up either eating removal or a Chainwalker and gaining life. It's such a devastating roadblock because it oftentimes stabilizes them just enough to make it to Thragtusk mana.
I didn't play against Loxodon Smiter, but that card also looked really dangerous pre-board. Post-board we have Mortars but until then all of our removal is dead against it aside from morbid Brimstone Volley. It pretty much just clogs up the ground until they hit Thragtusk... which is not good.
Thundermaw is honestly the only out I can think of against them. However, I'm afraid he'll get kaboom'ed by Selesnya Charm. Hopefully its versatility will work against them and they'll end up using its +2/+2 or soldier token to block a Gorehouse Chainwalker or something. But I imagine that a smart GW player would save it for Thundermaw- after all it's our only trump card.
I hate this matchup. I was lucky I didn't have to play against it last FNM. It probably would have taken me to town.
Today, I played against my friend's GW Midrange deck for a bit. One important thing I've noticed is that their best hands are better than our best hands- pre-board, at any rate. Ramping fast and getting an early Thragtusk = early death. To be honest though, Centaur Healer is more annoying. While Thrag may get stolen by Blood/Conscripts, Centaur is hardly worth stealing and ends up either eating removal or a Chainwalker and gaining life. It's so darned annoying because it oftentimes stabilizes them just enough to make it to Thragtusk mana.
I didn't play against Loxodon Smiter, but that card also looked really dangerous pre-board. Post-board we have Mortars but until then all of our removal is dead against it aside from morbid Brimstone Volley. It pretty much just clogs up the ground until they hit Thragtusk... which is not good.
Thundermaw is honestly the only out I can think of against them. However, I'm afraid he'll get kaboom'ed by Selesnya Charm. Hopefully its versatility will work against them and they'll end up using its +2/+2 or soldier token to block a Gorehouse Chainwalker or something. But I imagine that a smart GW player would save it for Thundermaw- after all it's our only trump card.
I hate this matchup. I was lucky I didn't have to play against it last FNM. It probably would have taken me to town.
If you're playing with Knight of Infamy, simply casting the card gives you all the time you need to go over the top of there lifegain. If you're playing strictly mono-red, you have to try and race with hellkites or it's a real struggle. It's important that when you're on the draw in postboard games that you have early removal to try and slow them down. You can often get free wins just by killing there first 2 mana dorks since a lot of time they'll be leaning on dork, dork, and these two forests.
Also, Sigarda is a hooker. One you don't know is a hooker. Until she demands payment and her pimp beats the $hit out of you.
LP, I'm checking your article out as well. Behind all of your swag is the brain of one of the most intelligent Magic players I've ever known. I guess that's one more thing for you to add to the wall of ego that is your Sally sig.
I can go with that. LK, you are the Mace Windu of red mages...cool, tempered logic in deliberation, but capable of just flat kicking tail when the situation warrants it.
If you're playing with Knight of Infamy, simply casting the card gives you all the time you need to go over the top of there lifegain. If you're playing strictly mono-red, you have to try and race with hellkites or it's a real struggle. It's important that when you're on the draw in postboard games that you have early removal to try and slow them down. You can often get free wins just by killing there first 2 mana dorks since a lot of time they'll be leaning on dork, dork, and these two forests.
Also, Sigarda is a hooker. One you don't know is a hooker. Until she demands payment and her pimp beats the $hit out of you.
Well, my friend runs maindeck Sigarda... I decided not to mention her since I wasn't quite sure on her position in GW decks. I have to say that every time she landed I cried pretty hard. I hope no one has the foresight to SB that against me.
Thanks for the suggestion with going on the draw- I can see how that makes sense.
As an aside, I am going strictly mono-red. I should have mentioned that in my previous post.
LP, I'm checking your article out as well. Behind all of your swag is the brain of one of the most intelligent Magic players I've ever known. I guess that's one more thing for you to add to the wall of ego that is your Sally sig.
I can go with that. LK, you are the Mace Windu of red mages...cool, tempered logic in deliberation, but capable of just flat kicking tail when the situation warrants it.
Playing hellkite, untapping, playing hellkite has got to be one of the dirtiest things you can do.
thisthisthis
I love playing against Reanimators, they finally "stabilize" with an Angel of Serenity, knocking off all the little dudes. Then you drop a Thundermaw, they're at 2 life after the attack. No problem, they think. "I have this nifty Thragtusk too! I'm good." Then you drop another Thundermaw and take them from 7 to 0 epic fast. It's so mean.
Taking the Devil's Kite and playtesting it a bit, just changed Devil's Play to Bonfire(as zem suggested), I'm sort of on the fence about it actually. Bonfire seems better most of the time, but there are definitely times I wished the Bonfire was a Devil's Play, if only so I could flash it back for burn/kill damage. I'm almost never needing a Bonfire to clear the board for my attackers, although it's certainly helpful for vs. tokens... I dunno. More testing shall happen.
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LP, I'm checking your article out as well. Behind all of your swag is the brain of one of the most intelligent Magic players I've ever known. I guess that's one more thing for you to add to the wall of ego that is your Sally sig.
I can go with that. LK, you are the Mace Windu of red mages...cool, tempered logic in deliberation, but capable of just flat kicking tail when the situation warrants it.
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Stonewright
4 Ash Zealot
4 Knight of Infamy
4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
4 Thundermaw Hellkite
3 Pillar of Flame
3 Searing Spear
3 Flames of the Firebrand
2 Devil's Play
land 25
4 Blood Crypt
4 Dragonskull Summit
2 Rakdos Guildgate
3 Cavern of Souls
12 Mountain
A question about Olivia. I'm seeing her in some sideboard plans, and wondering what match ups she would favor? Overall it's a good card, I'm just wondering if it's "too slow" to impact board status. Thoughts? Has anybody had luck testing her out against specific matchups?
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=6852400#post6852400
She's great against other midrange or aggro decks, when you need to play the control role.
1x Hellion Crucible
22x Mountain
Creatures(25)
4x Stromkirk Noble
4x Rakdos Cackler
3x Stonewright
4x Ash Zealot
4x Gore-House Chainwalker
4x Hellrider
2x Thundermaw Hellkite
4x Pillar of Flame
4x Searing Spear
4x Brimstone Volley
2x Zealous Conscripts
2x Flames of the Firebrand
2x Thundermaw Hellkite
1x Hellion Crucible
3x Mizzium Mortars
3x Rakdos Shred-Freak
2x Annihilating Fire
I have been facing mostly Jund, GW midrange and BR Zombie decks on MTGO. This has been doing very well for me in this playtesting. I love the body of cacklers and gore-house chainwalkers. Zealots tend to eat spot removal as do bigger stromkirk nobles. I have seen a number of Curse of Death's Hold in play and that wipes out my Nobles, Shred-Freaks and Stonewrights. It is nice to have the 2 body beaters stick around.
I have been loving Hellrider. A couple of Hellriders on the board and I am very happy. Thundermaw Hellkite has won me multiple games and really makes the opponent who just tapped out to cast Lingering Souls unhappy.
I love this deck. The MD is 100% what I played at FNM the first night RTR was legal. I only lost one match and that was to GW, unfortunately.
The SB is pretty close to what I played. I played 2 Crucibles, 4 Mortars and 1 Vandalblast (which is not that useful right now, I learned)
Again, it's such a great deck.
Glad to hear it is working for you. The 'Go Big!' plan invalidates a lot of the sideboarding choices most decks will use against an aggro deck and it largely sidesteps a lot of the maindeck answers as well.
Agreed. The real problem is making a deck that can win without Thundermaw Hellkite ~ or at least put yourself in a position to draw win when you topdeck one of your endgame cards.
FWIW the version I am messing around with has 4 Stonewright, 3 Devil's Play (probably should be 4 Bonfire of the Damned though) and 3 Hellion Crucible. The deck is way when you get to spend all your mana every turn.
Yeah, Travis Woo isn't a strong red mage Who would have thought?
Your report is excellent, I am going to be using parts of it for when I can update the primer Thank you for the very great contribution!
I still prefer maindeck conscripts in RakDW. I know I am posting a lot of Hellkite lists at the moment, but that is very much a thought experiment; if I was playing in a major event this weekend I would certainly be playing Dos Rakis with Conscripts.
Olivia shines against the other midrange decks and the slower aggro decks. She asks a specific question, do you have a specific answer in hand right now? If NO, please sign this game slip..
Basically, there are a lot of popular decks where if you get to untap with her you win instantly.
She is kind of redonk (if you will pardon my english :p)
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Thanks for doing the work for me Ill play with and see how it feels. Thanks!
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This is a very good deck Have fun and let us know how it goes.
PS. Yeah, Curse of Death's Hold is quite the beating. Thankfully it isnt good elsewhere so it doesnt see a lot of play.
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On topic I don't like the FS unleash 3 drop. Feels like I'm just wasting mana when I play it. I think for our aggro decks, curving out 1-2-4 is fine so long as we have instant spead burn and/or Stonewright.
Secondly, I might test Devil's Kite(prefer that name to sledghammer red mostly cause sledgehammer makes me think of Koth, then I get sad). And I like the idea of Flying the Devil's Kite in our opponents faces while laughing diabolically.
4 Flames of the Firebrand
4 Mizzium Mortars
4 Traitorous Blood
I definitely think that MD Bonfire of the Damned is correct in place of Devil's Play. Devil's Play has been winning me games, but there are multiple times that instead of casting Devil's Play, I could have just hardcast Bonfire for X=3 or X=4 and just won on the spot. With maindeck countermagic been so rare, and with so many midrange decks in the format, it is an absurdly powerful spell still.
I have 11 spots in the deck for burn, so I am thinking:
4 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Pillar of Flame
3 Searing Spear
The sideboard plans currently are:
vs Zombies
OUT: 4 Rakdos Cackler, 3 Searing Spear
IN: 4 Flames of the Firebrand, 3 Annihilating Fire
The Cunning Plan: Play a control as a control deck and focus on 1-for-1s with value and 2-for-1s. Then go over the top with threats they cannot answer.
vs Humans
OUT: 4 Rakdos Cackler, 4 Gore-House Chainwalker
IN: 4 Flames of the Firebrand, 4 Mizzium Mortars
The Cunning Plan: The unleash creatures match up quite poorly with their core of 2 power first strike guys and GoST. Very poorly. Instead, we move into the control deck with a dozen 2-for-1 or better spells, including the full eight 1-sided wraths...
vs GW Midrange
OUT: 4 Rakdos Cackler
IN: 4 Mizzium Mortars
The Cunning Plan: As is becoming obvious, when the early creatures are outclassed, you take them out and bring in a high impact replacement. Gore-House Chainwalker can trade with a lot of their cards, so he gets to stay. Kill everything they have with value then play Dragons.
vs Jund:
OUT: 4 Rakdos Cackler, 4 Pillar of Flame
IN: 4 Traitorous Blood, 4 Mizzium Mortars
The Cunning Plan: Rakdos Cackler looks pretty unappealing against a creature base of Huntmaster and Thragtusk. Pillar of Flame only kills Huntmaster of the Fells. Mizzium Mortars kills everything, and when you overload, it is just more 1-sided wraths. Traitorous Blood is just very powerful against their creature base.
vs Reanimator
OUT: 4 Pillar of Flame
IN: 4 Traitorous Blood
The Cunning Plan: They basically want to stall with whatever until they can land a fatty. The plan is very straightforward, do a tonne of damage early then kill them with the reanimation target. I like the more proactive plan compared to the 'preventative' GY hate plans.
vs Tokens
OUT: 4 Pillar of Flame, 3 Searing Spear?
IN: 4 Flames of the Firebrand, 3 Mizzium Mortars?
The Cunning Plan: I have not got to play against too many pure tokens decks. Flames of the Firebrand seems like the easiest include because it is so powerful early ~ but it becomes pretty embarassing after they string together anthems. Basically you just want to bridge the gap until overload Mortars and hardcast Bonfire are online. Once they are, they cannot beat you. Easy cuts are the 1-for-1 removal which line up poorly against their deck.
vs Uxx Control
OUT: 4 Pillar of Flame
IN: 4 Mizzium Mortars // 4 Traitorous Blood
The Cunning Plan: Kill them? Come on, this is the easiest matchup we have, you figure it out...take out the low Pillar of Flame, replace it with whichever will be higher impact (depends on their creature base / finisher of choice).
This is where I am at after some testing. Then I want to try the black splash. Right now, the least exciting cards in the deck have been Searing Spear and (shock! horror!) Hellrider (I probably don't have the creature base for him, but a 4/3 haste for 4 is still fine).
Ill keep you updated when I know more. If anyone can explain to me in very simple english how to save a file from xsplit then upload it, I will record some DEs for the thread over the weekend/Monday.
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Im in a good place emotionally, so I am very energetic again Not being a student and having a job I really enjoy (even if it takes up most of my time) helps.
I cannot find a 3 drop that I like. Hellhole Flailer is close, just for the body. I really want Boggart Ramgang or an equivalent, which may mean that I look at Flinthoof Boar after GTC hits.
Devil's Kite sounds good to me.
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4 Stonewright
4 Ash Zealot
4 Gorehouse Chainwalker
3 Falkenrath Aristocrat
4 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Pillar of Flame
2 Devil's Play
2 Rakdos Keyrune
2 Hellion Crucible
Sideboared
8 Forest
7 Plains
I like the idea of boarding into Naya. I mostly playing testing the cards I like most for this type of strat. 1-0 so far against Esper control. Hellkites eat lingering soul tokens, aristocrats eat sorin, Winning through double miracle terminus, detention sphere eating two chainwalkers and drogskull reaver(hellkites a douch like that).
Edit: Double ash zealout makes Burning vengeance deck cry.
This isnt budget.
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Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
Want to see me in action? Check out my stream! Currently broadcasting Boros Burn in Standard. Full archive available.
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Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
I didn't play against Loxodon Smiter, but that card also looked really dangerous pre-board. Post-board we have Mortars but until then all of our removal is dead against it aside from morbid Brimstone Volley. It pretty much just clogs up the ground until they hit Thragtusk... which is not good.
Thundermaw is honestly the only out I can think of against them. However, I'm afraid he'll get kaboom'ed by Selesnya Charm. Hopefully its versatility will work against them and they'll end up using its +2/+2 or soldier token to block a Gorehouse Chainwalker or something. But I imagine that a smart GW player would save it for Thundermaw- after all it's our only trump card.
I hate this matchup. I was lucky I didn't have to play against it last FNM. It probably would have taken me to town.
If you're playing with Knight of Infamy, simply casting the card gives you all the time you need to go over the top of there lifegain. If you're playing strictly mono-red, you have to try and race with hellkites or it's a real struggle. It's important that when you're on the draw in postboard games that you have early removal to try and slow them down. You can often get free wins just by killing there first 2 mana dorks since a lot of time they'll be leaning on dork, dork, and these two forests.
Also, Sigarda is a hooker. One you don't know is a hooker. Until she demands payment and her pimp beats the $hit out of you.
Well, my friend runs maindeck Sigarda... I decided not to mention her since I wasn't quite sure on her position in GW decks. I have to say that every time she landed I cried pretty hard. I hope no one has the foresight to SB that against me.
Thanks for the suggestion with going on the draw- I can see how that makes sense.
As an aside, I am going strictly mono-red. I should have mentioned that in my previous post.
thisthisthis
I love playing against Reanimators, they finally "stabilize" with an Angel of Serenity, knocking off all the little dudes. Then you drop a Thundermaw, they're at 2 life after the attack. No problem, they think. "I have this nifty Thragtusk too! I'm good." Then you drop another Thundermaw and take them from 7 to 0 epic fast. It's so mean.
Taking the Devil's Kite and playtesting it a bit, just changed Devil's Play to Bonfire(as zem suggested), I'm sort of on the fence about it actually. Bonfire seems better most of the time, but there are definitely times I wished the Bonfire was a Devil's Play, if only so I could flash it back for burn/kill damage. I'm almost never needing a Bonfire to clear the board for my attackers, although it's certainly helpful for vs. tokens... I dunno. More testing shall happen.
Fires :symr:f Salvation
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