MTG Salvation

Bartender asks: "Why so broken?"

Jace pipes up: "Because Hasbro."

Perfect red 1-drop!

Anyone else think the coverage was absolutely devastating?

How did you ever manage to beat UR post? I've had a pretty sick run lately of being paired against either 1) top Delver players or 2) Izzet post...It's depressing lol. Have to say though, I get so excited when I see a turn 1 artifact land into Springleaf Drum lol

I remember back in 2000, when I was just beginning to PTQ, complaining about $6 FOW, $3 Wasteland, and $6-7 Volcanic Island that I had to buy for Extended (dat Counter-Phoenix lol). Times have changed lol.

Every set from Urza's Legacy onward had foils that you could pull in boosters.

Sup fellow red mages...I 4-0ed a DE yesterday with the following list (I'm HariSeldon on Modo, by the way):



I beat a burn deck, Delver, Mono U Post, and Affinity.

I've really enjoyed the deck so far (punted against Stompy in another DE yesterday to ensure 3-1). Any questions or critiques are welcome.

Quote from TheLatvian

Most of the people bashing SCG in this thread are bashing the fact that they've shut down key features from Ark42. If you're spending money at SCG and whining about it, it's your own damn fault, and you have no valid complaint. The point of this thread though (finding a site that is similar to Ark42), is a completely valid reason to bash SCG.

No, this is nowhere near a valid reason to bash SCG. They simply asked a website to stop something that they were doing, and the website complied. Exactly what has SCG done that is a "completely valid reason" for people to bash them again?

Quote from LandBoySteve

Let me see if I understand this.

SCG prices cards at what they want to price them and they sell them for that price.

Customers then have the choice of either buying from them or buying from somebody else.

Hmmm ... Free market society. Yeah, that sounds like a rip off to me.

Nobody is holding a gun to your head forcing you to buy from SCG. Personally, I've never bought anything from SCG and I spend about $700 on cards every 3 months. This last quarter I spent under $300 because I'm close to broke. But I got good deals on the cards I bought and didn't buy from SCG.

So will somebody please explain to me (and just a warning, I run my own business) how SCG is ripping people off when those same people have free will to buy from whoever they want?

I'll wait for anything resembling a logical explanation.

You won't get a logical explanation from anyone bashing SCG on here because the majority of people that are complaining are children that have no concept of business or a free market.

Seems like everyday a thread turns into "bash SCG for being successful". If you don't want to pay the prices that SCG sells cards at, there are actually hundreds, if not thousands, of other online shops (not even counting ebay) that sell the same cards cheaper.

I can guarantee you that you will never be forced to buy from SCG, unless you are foolish enough to show up to one of their tournaments and need to buy cards; then you will experience a valuable business lesson in Supply and Demand and/or Scarcity of Goods.

"No poor bastard ever won a game of a Magic by blocking...He won by making the other poor bastard block!" Planeswalker Jace T. Mindsculptor

Quote from Larry94

Maybe. Still seems a bit narrow. There will be a ton of times where this thing is stuck in your hand and you havent got any real target for it. And thats not just when they have no blockers like you suggest

That's called "living the dream" lol...When you're playing against a deck that you've side boarded in Traitorous Blood against and they haven't presented you with any targets to to steal and smash with, then you cannot be losing, period.

Quote from AnAcuteAngle

True. Infernal plunge -might- be worth looking into.

I feel like Rings and Keyrunes are too slow for this deck, as well. But maybe that's just me.

Infernal Plunge shouldn't be anywhere near the decklist of a competitive aggro build, to put it frankly.

When you are talking about Infernal Plunging into a creature, the often-misguided statement of "It dies to removal," becomes very relevant.

When you Infernal Plunge a turn 2 Falkenrath Aristocrat out and they have a removal for it, they have 3-for-1'd you. Have fun trying to win a game when you allow your opponent to Mind Twist you for 3.

Leave the Ritual effects for the combo decks.

Quote from AnAcuteAngle

So... Are we feelin Rakdos now?

I also feel like I'm the only person who likes Dangerous Wager.

Been feelin' Rakdos...Gives us the best shot at a competitive deck. The card quality just isn't there for a mono-RDW deck.

This is what I've brewed up so far and have begun testing. I like where this deck is heading.

I don't feel that we have the critical mass of quality cards to go Mono Red and be competitive...I would love to be proven wrong but I just don't think it's there.

Going Rakdos gives us some interesting options. Primarily, Hellhole Flailer is nuts. I'm talking nuttier than squirrel turds nuts. He alone gives the red deck greater reach (which is never a bad thing), and I can see some decks just losing to one if we get to untap with it.

Lightning Mauler has been adorable. It allows some really sick things to happen. Throw one down on turn two and go ahead and pair it with your first turn one-drop if you sense your opponent has no removal/ a clunky hand and take them to beat city. Or, just play him unbonded on turn 2, slam Hellhole Flailer turn 3, allow them to bond and smash teeth together (they make a lovely couple, IMO). Lightning Mauler also is great on turn 3, when you can play it and bond it with a Rakdos Cackler or Stromkirk Noble and smash to your heart's content. I was skeptical of this card at first, but have come to love it.

Hellrider is a boss. A motha f****** boss. Great turn 4 finisher, and great to hold until after they board wipe. I really like the extra damage he can punch through, but I'm considering replacing some number of him with everyone's favorite patrician Falkenrath Aristocrat. Although it doesnt punch the extra damage through like Hellrider, she is just such a headache to get ride of. And, also important to note, as long as you have another creature on board, you never have to hold her back in fear of a board cleansing (baring Terminus).

I included 1 swamp in the manabase because we most likely have to have black mana by turn 3 for Hellhole Flailer, and having 9 as opposed to 8 sources of black mana makes us a solid favorite to have it. Also, with the shock lands back, I feel people may be wanting to run Ghost Quarter to take advantage of shaky manabases. Having 1 swamp in the deck prevents a stray Ghost Quarter from potentially shutting you off black mana for any amount of time.

I feel running 4 Hellrider and always wanting 4 mana on turn 4 for Hellhole Flailer flinging shenanigans possibly means having to push the deck up to 23 lands. (With 22 land, we are a 53.85% favorite to have 4 land by turn 4; with 23 land, we go up to a 58.60% favorite. Numbers taken from http://www.kibble.net/magic/magic10.php)

I feel that the 12 burn spells are pretty self-explanatory, but quick thoughts on them. Pillar of Fire for mana dorks/zombies, 4 Brimstone Volley for fattie destruction/good reach, and 4 Searing Spear for general creature kill and mild reach.

I don't have a solid sideboard plan yet, as I don't have any hard data to back what I think the meta will consist of. I can say this though: You will want to run at least 2-4 Dreadbore. We can rest assure that there will be ramp decks/GW aggro decks that will have quick fatties (Loxodon Smiter , Armada Worm, etc.) that our burn just won't kill. Enter Dreadbore...I feel it's actually the best creature removal spell that we have in new standard and being able to one-shot kill Planeswalkers is a useful bonus.

I'm not a big fan, so far, of Mizzium Mortars in what little sideboard testing I've done with it. It doesn't kill the biggest threats, can never go to the opponents dome, and does nothing to PWs like Dreadbore does.

If there are to be ramp decks/token decks we have available to us Electrickery as a mini-sweeper for mana dorks and tokens. Rakdos Charm's third mode may be useful to help us finish off such decks.

Smelt is there if artifacts become a problem, Rakdos Charm as well. If control starts getting you heavy in your meta, perhaps you can squeeze some number of Duress into your sideboard, although the mana base may need more tweaking to support it consistently on turn 1 or 2.

We have a few Threaten effects for the decks with fatties we may want to steal to finish our opponent off with. I like Traitorous Blood the most, as the ramp decks may have mana dorks hanging around and giving their stolen creature trample will be relevant.

Like I said before, I think a Rakdos aggro deck can be very competitive and hope to see the deck take off. Please try it out and give me any criticism and let's make this deck grow!

P.S...Please don't tell me to add Vexing Devil. I have tested it extensively and the card is utter trash, seriously.

Quote from Larry94

Whats up with stonewright? Its an awful card that isnt even limited playable

When you actually test the card, you will understand that is a great creature for the deck.