This is one of two duel decks that I'll be using to test the rapidfire mechanic from Deadsands, my Wild West set that I'm working on. Rapidfire rewards you for casting two or more spells in a turn. Right now I'm playing around with several different ways to use it. My objectives in playing these duels decks is to make sure the mechanic is fun, get an idea of how best to use it, and see how easy or difficult it is to enable. I'm not much of a deckbuilder so please let me know what you think (of both the cards and the deck) and if you have any suggestions.
Creatures
4x Eastwood Marshal W
Creature- Human Rogue
2/1
4x Grifting Bandit R
Creature- Human Rogue
When Grifting Bandit enters the battlefield, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
1/1
4x Impetuous Gunslinger R
Creature- Human Rogue
Haste Rapidfire — Whenever Impetuous Gunslinger attacks, it gets +2/+1 until end of turn if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
1/1
4x Spellcharged Raptor 1W
Creature- Bird Rapidfire — Spellcharged Raptor has flying as long as you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
3/1
4x Deadeye Cardsharp 1R
Creature- Human Rogue
2/2
4x Uncanny Outlaw 1R
Creature- Human Rogue
Menace
When Uncanny Outlaw enters the battlefield, exile the top two cards of your library face down. R: Reveal all cards exiled with Uncanny Outlaw. You may play one of those cards this turn.
2/1
3x Righteous Regulators 1RW
Creature- Human Rogue Rapidfire — Whenever Righteous Regulators attacks, creatures you control get +2/+2 and gain trample until end of turn if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
3/2
Spells
3x Gunslinger's Glory W
Instant
Target creature gets +1/+1 and gains flying until end of turn. Rapidfire- That creature gets +2/+2 and gains flying until end of turn instead if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
3x Guns Blazing R
Instant
Guns Blazing deals 2 damage to target creature or player. Rapidfire — Guns Blazing deals 3 damage to that creature or player instead if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
2x Gunslinger's Fury 1R
Instant
Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn. Rapidfire — That creature gets +1/+0 and gains double strike until end of turn instead if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
3x Right Between the Eyes 1R
Instant
Right Between the Eyes deals 1 damage to target creature. Rapidfire — Right Between the Eyes deals 5 damage to that creature instead if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
Lands
5x Plains
9x Mountain
4x Inspiring Vantage
4x Clifftop Retreat
(It's going to be a while before I decide on duels for my set so I just stuck the RW checklands and fastlands in because I think they'll do good work in this deck.)
You probably want a few more cantrips or other ways to continue drawing into gas, no? This kind of deck really wants continual cards, or at the very least, scry. Uncanny Outlaw is your one instance of replacing itself that I see, though Grifting gets rid of excess lands, which is nice.
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That sounds solid. I'm not super sure about Expedite, but I've never had the chance to try it.
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Known as Inanimate at Goblin Artisans, and TyrRev at /r/custommagic!
Lead Tesla, a community set designed by everyone and led by me, over at Goblin Artisans. Index of articles here!
Seems like a reasonable enough starting point to get a grasp of how the mechanic plays. I usually like to have a bit more variety in the types of effects so I test a wider range of options to edit down, but that's far from necessary if you know what you want to do with the design space.
What other duel decks will you be testing it out against?
Seems like a reasonable enough starting point to get a grasp of how the mechanic plays. I usually like to have a bit more variety in the types of effects so I test a wider range of options to edit down, but that's far from necessary if you know what you want to do with the design space.
What other duel decks will you be testing it out against?
I just went with R/W aggro since it's an archetype that should be able to use rapidfire without much help (but we'll see). I'll try to branch out a bit more once I've playtested these decks a few times.
Currently, the only other deck I have made is a G/R rapidfire deck. I don't expect rapidfire to be featured prominently in green in the actual set, but I wanted make a more mid-rangey/big spell deck to see how well rapidfire worked in that type of strategy and G/R seemed like a good color pair to do that with. I'll get that list posted here soon.
I plan to continue making duel decks as a way to test out mechanics and set archetypes and then start building an actual set file after that.
The R/G decklist is below. Does this match up well (or well enough) against the R/W list? What do you think of the flavor of the cards in this list?
Creatures
4x Fearless Frontiersman G
Creature- Human Scout
When Fearless Frontiersman enters the battlefield, you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.
1/1
4x Earthspeaker Mystic 1G
Creature- Human Shaman T: Add G to your mana pool.
0/2
3x Medicine Man 1G
Creature- Human Shaman
Flash
When Medicine Man enters the battlefield, you may return another creature you control to its owner’s hand.
1/1
3x Intrepid Explorers 2G
Creature- Human Scout
When Intrepid Explorers enters the battlefield, draw a card.
2/1
4x Timberwolf Alpha 2G
Creature- Wolf Rapidfire — Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, create a 2/2 green Wolf creature token.
2/2
3x Raiding Party 2RG
Creature- Human Warrior Rapidfire — Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, you may have Raiding Party fight target creature you don’t control.
3/3
3x Stiff-Legged Bear 2GG
Creature- Bear Horror
Flash Rapidfire — Stiff-Legged Bear enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
3/3
2x Beckon the Hellkites 4RR
Instant
Create a 4/4 red Dragon creature token with flying. Rapidfire — Create two of those tokens instead if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
1x Flameblaze Hellkite 5RR
Creature- Dragon
Flying Rapidfire — Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, Flameblaze Hellkite deals 5 damage to target creature or player.
5/5
Spells
3x Guns Blazing R
Instant
Guns Blazing deals 2 damage to target creature or player. Rapidfire — Guns Blazing deals 3 damage to that creature or player instead if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
3x Transcendent Ritual G
Enchantment 2R, Sacrifice Transcendent Ritual: Add five mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool.
3x Right Between the Eyes 1R
Instant
Right Between the Eyes deals 1 damage to target creature. Rapidfire — Right Between the Eyes deals 5 damage to that creature instead if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
Creatures
4x
Eastwood Marshal
W
Creature- Human Rogue
2/1
4x
Grifting Bandit
R
Creature- Human Rogue
When Grifting Bandit enters the battlefield, you may discard a card. If you do, draw a card.
1/1
4x
Impetuous Gunslinger
R
Creature- Human Rogue
Haste
Rapidfire — Whenever Impetuous Gunslinger attacks, it gets +2/+1 until end of turn if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
1/1
4x
Spellcharged Raptor
1W
Creature- Bird
Rapidfire — Spellcharged Raptor has flying as long as you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
3/1
4x
Deadeye Cardsharp
1R
Creature- Human Rogue
2/2
4x
Uncanny Outlaw
1R
Creature- Human Rogue
Menace
When Uncanny Outlaw enters the battlefield, exile the top two cards of your library face down.
R: Reveal all cards exiled with Uncanny Outlaw. You may play one of those cards this turn.
2/1
3x
Righteous Regulators
1RW
Creature- Human Rogue
Rapidfire — Whenever Righteous Regulators attacks, creatures you control get +2/+2 and gain trample until end of turn if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
3/2
Spells
3x
Gunslinger's Glory
W
Instant
Target creature gets +1/+1 and gains flying until end of turn.
Rapidfire- That creature gets +2/+2 and gains flying until end of turn instead if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
3x
Guns Blazing
R
Instant
Guns Blazing deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
Rapidfire — Guns Blazing deals 3 damage to that creature or player instead if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
2x
Gunslinger's Fury
1R
Instant
Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn.
Rapidfire — That creature gets +1/+0 and gains double strike until end of turn instead if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
3x
Right Between the Eyes
1R
Instant
Right Between the Eyes deals 1 damage to target creature.
Rapidfire — Right Between the Eyes deals 5 damage to that creature instead if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
Lands
5x Plains
9x Mountain
4x Inspiring Vantage
4x Clifftop Retreat
(It's going to be a while before I decide on duels for my set so I just stuck the RW checklands and fastlands in because I think they'll do good work in this deck.)
Lead Tesla, a community set designed by everyone and led by me, over at Goblin Artisans. Index of articles here!
How about this?:
-3 Gunslinger's Glory
-2 Gunslinger's Fury
-1 Right Between the Eyes
+4 Renegade Tactics
+2 Expedite
EDIT: Actually now I'm thinking of adding 2 Tactics and 4 Expedite, since I think Expedite has better synergy with this list.
Lead Tesla, a community set designed by everyone and led by me, over at Goblin Artisans. Index of articles here!
What other duel decks will you be testing it out against?
I just went with R/W aggro since it's an archetype that should be able to use rapidfire without much help (but we'll see). I'll try to branch out a bit more once I've playtested these decks a few times.
Currently, the only other deck I have made is a G/R rapidfire deck. I don't expect rapidfire to be featured prominently in green in the actual set, but I wanted make a more mid-rangey/big spell deck to see how well rapidfire worked in that type of strategy and G/R seemed like a good color pair to do that with. I'll get that list posted here soon.
I plan to continue making duel decks as a way to test out mechanics and set archetypes and then start building an actual set file after that.
Creatures
4x
Fearless Frontiersman
G
Creature- Human Scout
When Fearless Frontiersman enters the battlefield, you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.
1/1
4x
Earthspeaker Mystic
1G
Creature- Human Shaman
T: Add G to your mana pool.
0/2
3x
Medicine Man
1G
Creature- Human Shaman
Flash
When Medicine Man enters the battlefield, you may return another creature you control to its owner’s hand.
1/1
3x
Intrepid Explorers
2G
Creature- Human Scout
When Intrepid Explorers enters the battlefield, draw a card.
2/1
4x
Timberwolf Alpha
2G
Creature- Wolf
Rapidfire — Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, create a 2/2 green Wolf creature token.
2/2
3x
Raiding Party
2RG
Creature- Human Warrior
Rapidfire — Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, you may have Raiding Party fight target creature you don’t control.
3/3
3x
Stiff-Legged Bear
2GG
Creature- Bear Horror
Flash
Rapidfire — Stiff-Legged Bear enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
3/3
2x
Beckon the Hellkites
4RR
Instant
Create a 4/4 red Dragon creature token with flying.
Rapidfire — Create two of those tokens instead if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
1x
Flameblaze Hellkite
5RR
Creature- Dragon
Flying
Rapidfire — Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, Flameblaze Hellkite deals 5 damage to target creature or player.
5/5
Spells
3x
Guns Blazing
R
Instant
Guns Blazing deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
Rapidfire — Guns Blazing deals 3 damage to that creature or player instead if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
3x
Transcendent Ritual
G
Enchantment
2R, Sacrifice Transcendent Ritual: Add five mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool.
3x
Right Between the Eyes
1R
Instant
Right Between the Eyes deals 1 damage to target creature.
Rapidfire — Right Between the Eyes deals 5 damage to that creature instead if you’ve cast two or more spells this turn.
Lands
6x Mountain
10x Forest
4x Rootbound Crag
4x Copperline Gorge