I'm mainly logging in to say that if someone wants to make a new primer thread, they should, I'm done maintaining this one.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
That's pretty apt. I'm mainly logging in to say that if someone wants to make a new primer thread, they should, I'm done maintaining this one.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Last time I updated my Mardu list, Night's Whisper wasn't legal, so I'm not sure what to think about it; but I was getting a lot of work out of Read the Bones at that time, so I don't think of 3 CMC for card advantage as insurmountable.
IIRC Tron has always been an inherently weak matchup for Wellspring decks, because we just can't match their high-CMC threats, and now Pulse of Murasa really lets them stretch into the late game where they just win.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Yeah, that looks to be well within the window of a typical deck of this type. Go test it!
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Obviously you would want to test it out, but I don't think anybody's played Assault Strobe since Temur Battle Rage was printed, since all the win-con creatures set off the trample part automatically. Here's a place you can check for winning decklists: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/pauper-izzet-blitz
The only reason the thread title includes the word Dragonaut is because I really love the name. Nobody plays him anymore, because his pump is too weak to kill with. See the OP for the math about that.
The extra creatures that live in the sideboard are usually there for fighting MBC, where you just need a way to stick it out while fighting Chainer's Edict. That's why you see Stormbound Geist, or occasionally Mogg War Marshal - it's just got to be something that can eat a lot of sacrifice effects. In a pinch, they can also attack for damage.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
The landbase seems wobbly to me, but look at all that looting! Pieces of the Puzzle is definitely a solid pickup here.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Is Mardu Scout in to keep Goblin Cohort/Mogg Conscripts running? I generally wouldn't worry about that, by the time those shut off you were probably done attacking anyway. If you really need that effect, why not Glitterfang?
If Mardu Scout is in as a 3-power-for-2-mana body, consider Mogg Flunkies - similar to the above, they don't generally shut off until you're done attacking for other reasons, but they also don't die if they get blocked by most things.
Most winning decklists run the full 4x Goblin Sledder and 4x Mogg Raider because they're a prime target for removal. If they're not getting shot at, you could cut back.
I'd rather see paper-only lists go in the casual pauper subforum, but it's not extremely important, it just makes it hard to give useful advice.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
This deck needs 4x Gitaxian Probe and 3-4x Apostle's Blessing - you can't load up on life-payment cards and expect to still beat burn/goblins/stompy. Mutagenic Growth sees play, but not in great numbers. Gut Shot doesn't kill many creatures lately.
Immolating Souleater is far too easy to kill (remember that he'd be your first artifact in the deck) and costs far too much life to make an attempt at a win - it costs 18 life to pump him big enough for Temur Battle Rage to be a kill. For the existing wincons that pump just requires you to cast 2 spells. You don't want to pay 6 life to avoid casting Ponder, you like casting Ponder.
I can't find anybody winning tournaments with Brute Force in their deck. The whole point is to play creatures that pump themselves, so your spells don't need to be pumps.
The gold standard for the deck is 4 each Delver of Secrets, Kiln Fiend, and Nivix Cyclops, usually with some other creatures in the SB when you need the count to go up.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
It's hard to talk about the "meta" at the moment because we're tilted so badly in the direction of Drake. Once that gets banned (inshallah) we can see how things shake out.
I don't think anything new has been printed that this deck especially wants.
Egg, I think you're underestimating Nylea's Presence a bit. It's not just about cheating your domain score up, although that does lead to some sick plays. It also fixes your mana and cycles itself, which in turn helps it feed Kor Skyfisher.
Heliod's Pilgrim is not the worst thing you could add to this deck, especially with Kor Skyfisher to keep it cycling. I'd consider some 1x silver bullets, though - Pacifism?
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Also, any thoughts on the ruling of the Thriving cycle?
I have a very hard time evaluating Energy cards, because it's an unfamiliar new resource type. Will it be easy enough to get extra energy to shunt around as necessary? Hard to say.
I would say that by default you should look at these creatures in a vacuum, where we see that they're moderately undercosted bodies with no combat keywords. The white one is the only one that doesn't die to Lightning Bolt, and it costs 4 mana. I would definitely not anticipate them being interesting outside of a dedicated energy deck, and I wouldn't expect to spend any energy on them in other than the direst circumstances.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
RtF is a pretty good beating in this archetype, because you need a way to regain hand size when you lose it; Jeskai was a big deal because Mulldrifter solves this problem perfectly.
You only need them when you're against somebody who's trying to out-control you, but that's fine, because they're also the ones who'll put your creatures in the bin reliably. Your usual get-back will be a piston and a bird, so that's +2 cards once you cycle them in and out.
Dragging your comments from the spoiler thread over here:
The thought that occurred to me was if you are removing Kuldotha, why not replace it with Angelic Purge and leave the Wellspring? It saves you the mana and life of having to activate it. Also, why not play Thraben Inspector in that list to assist with Metalcraft, its a good bounce target, and draws cards if you are dead set on spending mana to sac artifacts to draw cards, oh, and all those artifacts now come with a body.
The point is that you don't get a second draw out of Ichor Wellspring unless you draw a sac outlet for it; and since the sac outlets in this archetype are all sorceries/instants, you're only replacing the card you spent.
With Metalspinner's Puzzleknot, you can get an extra card just by paying mana. The life loss will matter against certain decks, but not against others.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
That said, KDR tokens are pretty handy in their own right, even if they're a little bit hard to get...
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Dramatic Reversal might make Axebane combo a little less clunky, since you'd stop needing to rely on a three-mana aura sticking to go off.
Brute Force is the only thing mono-red can do to shrug off a bolt, in the very few red decks that care about doing that. Built to Smash can't be used except when attacking. Waiting for you attack seems like a mistake the enemy wouldn't make more than once.
Some people were talking about Metalspinner's Puzzleknot as a possible Piston replacement in That Deck I Love. I'm convinced it could be, at least in a Mardu version.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Could you remove the set name from this thread's title?
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
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Last time I updated my Mardu list, Night's Whisper wasn't legal, so I'm not sure what to think about it; but I was getting a lot of work out of Read the Bones at that time, so I don't think of 3 CMC for card advantage as insurmountable.
IIRC Tron has always been an inherently weak matchup for Wellspring decks, because we just can't match their high-CMC threats, and now Pulse of Murasa really lets them stretch into the late game where they just win.
The only reason the thread title includes the word Dragonaut is because I really love the name. Nobody plays him anymore, because his pump is too weak to kill with. See the OP for the math about that.
The extra creatures that live in the sideboard are usually there for fighting MBC, where you just need a way to stick it out while fighting Chainer's Edict. That's why you see Stormbound Geist, or occasionally Mogg War Marshal - it's just got to be something that can eat a lot of sacrifice effects. In a pinch, they can also attack for damage.
4 Exhume
4 Ulamog's Crusher
2 Dragon Breath
Card Selection
4 Preordain
4 Careful Study
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Pieces of the Puzzle
Discard Outlets
4 Rotting Rats
4 Counterspell
4 Muddle the Mixture
Land
2 Bojuka Bog
2 Dimir Aquaduct
4 Dismal Backwater
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Swamp
12 Island
3 Dispel
3 Hydroblast
2 Ghastly Demise
4 Chainer's Edict
1 Crypt Incursion
2 Crypt Rats
The landbase seems wobbly to me, but look at all that looting! Pieces of the Puzzle is definitely a solid pickup here.
If Mardu Scout is in as a 3-power-for-2-mana body, consider Mogg Flunkies - similar to the above, they don't generally shut off until you're done attacking for other reasons, but they also don't die if they get blocked by most things.
Most winning decklists run the full 4x Goblin Sledder and 4x Mogg Raider because they're a prime target for removal. If they're not getting shot at, you could cut back.
I'd rather see paper-only lists go in the casual pauper subforum, but it's not extremely important, it just makes it hard to give useful advice.
Immolating Souleater is far too easy to kill (remember that he'd be your first artifact in the deck) and costs far too much life to make an attempt at a win - it costs 18 life to pump him big enough for Temur Battle Rage to be a kill. For the existing wincons that pump just requires you to cast 2 spells. You don't want to pay 6 life to avoid casting Ponder, you like casting Ponder.
I can't find anybody winning tournaments with Brute Force in their deck. The whole point is to play creatures that pump themselves, so your spells don't need to be pumps.
The gold standard for the deck is 4 each Delver of Secrets, Kiln Fiend, and Nivix Cyclops, usually with some other creatures in the SB when you need the count to go up.
I don't think anything new has been printed that this deck especially wants.
Egg, I think you're underestimating Nylea's Presence a bit. It's not just about cheating your domain score up, although that does lead to some sick plays. It also fixes your mana and cycles itself, which in turn helps it feed Kor Skyfisher.
Heliod's Pilgrim is not the worst thing you could add to this deck, especially with Kor Skyfisher to keep it cycling. I'd consider some 1x silver bullets, though - Pacifism?
I have a very hard time evaluating Energy cards, because it's an unfamiliar new resource type. Will it be easy enough to get extra energy to shunt around as necessary? Hard to say.
I would say that by default you should look at these creatures in a vacuum, where we see that they're moderately undercosted bodies with no combat keywords. The white one is the only one that doesn't die to Lightning Bolt, and it costs 4 mana. I would definitely not anticipate them being interesting outside of a dedicated energy deck, and I wouldn't expect to spend any energy on them in other than the direst circumstances.
You only need them when you're against somebody who's trying to out-control you, but that's fine, because they're also the ones who'll put your creatures in the bin reliably. Your usual get-back will be a piston and a bird, so that's +2 cards once you cycle them in and out.
Dragging your comments from the spoiler thread over here:
The point is that you don't get a second draw out of Ichor Wellspring unless you draw a sac outlet for it; and since the sac outlets in this archetype are all sorceries/instants, you're only replacing the card you spent.
With Metalspinner's Puzzleknot, you can get an extra card just by paying mana. The life loss will matter against certain decks, but not against others.
That said, KDR tokens are pretty handy in their own right, even if they're a little bit hard to get...
Dramatic Reversal might make Axebane combo a little less clunky, since you'd stop needing to rely on a three-mana aura sticking to go off.
Brute Force is the only thing mono-red can do to shrug off a bolt, in the very few red decks that care about doing that. Built to Smash can't be used except when attacking. Waiting for you attack seems like a mistake the enemy wouldn't make more than once.
Some people were talking about Metalspinner's Puzzleknot as a possible Piston replacement in That Deck I Love. I'm convinced it could be, at least in a Mardu version.