I've been playing with a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and an Elspeth, Knight-Errant and enjoying the results. They provide dudes to chump and buy a turn if I'm behind or allow me to be aggressive if I'm ahead. I play with 2 Swords of Fire and Ice so the ability to make tokens has been excellent.
Will be fun to see this thread in the established section. I brewed up a Dega list with Young Pyromancer that operates similarly to the lists here, then went 3-1 in Saturday's MTGO daily. I didn't know about Team Italia or this thread until a friend pointed out the similarity to one of Bahra's lists and I searched around on Google.
I won't bother poking zaj further since he's doing a fine job of disproving his own arguments. To the OP, I think the trouble with piloting RDW lies in red's unique slice of the cookie pie. Blue gets control of the stack, green gets extra utility on creatures, black gets hand disruption and the best creature removal. Red gets direct damage and the ability to punish mana directly. Since great creatures AND burn would be too good, red typically gets fragile creatures (1 toughness is typical for 1-2 drops) and some get haste as they start to cost more.
Since most of red's creatures are designed to attack, and most of red's spells can do damage, it's very tempting to do something every turn, even if it might not be the best thing. Because you nearly always have something to do, it's quite easy to overextend, to attack into a bad board state, or to not leave enough mana up to deal with an opponent's tricks during your and their turn.
It can be frustrating to play RDW and see the game slip away on turn 5 when you're out of cards and the opponent is at 4 life. Instead of writing off the archetype, you may begin to ask "should I have spilled my hand out on turn 2? Did I need to cast Magma Jet on my opponent? Where else could I have spent my spells?"
RDW can play an extraordinarily long game, but only if you let it.
Path to Exile is for the Wurmcoil Engine on turn 3/4. If they get Emrakul out and attack with it, you're boned unless they're low enough to bolt and you have land in hand.
If you're open to the white splash, Rest in Peace does a lot to deal with UWR's Snapcaster recursion which is a major source of their advantage. It does make your goyf sad though, in the same way that Blood Moon makes your Kird Ape sad.
Starting to test for GP Detroit. And I saw a Rb burn list which looked really good.
What are the good and bad matchups for generic burn lists (thinking Rb)?
In particular what are the 3 best board cards for:
Pod
Twin
UWR?
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On a side note, for people who want to work on competitive decks coming here and seeing a 1 page discussion of Spark Trooper, is really frustrating.
Burn has a good matchup against slow combo decks like Tron. It is extremely weak to mass lifegain like Soul Sisters or Martyr-Proc.
It is favorable against Jund because of their removal generally having few targets.
RDW can be a coin flip and often comes down to who goes first.
URW is unfavorable because of their counterspells and maindeck Lightning Helix.
Pod and Twin are a race in game 1 but the matchup becomes favorable after boarding.
The best SB cards for those are Torpor Orb vs Pod/Twin and Shrine vs URW. Arguably, Ensnaring Bridge can be quite useful if they're beating down with Celestial Collonade.
Well this is your line of expertise Ham. I'm curious, how many R sources do you guys feel comfortable with when it pertains to running Ash Zealot in an R/x list?
In an R/x Aggro list, I absolutely want that zealot out on curve, so I'd choose 20 red at a bare minimum.
SiB and Ash Zealot have equally restrictive color and mana costs, so they're a good analog. I could see easing back a bit on SiB though, since a control deck is usually more flexible in its curve.
Also, look at Tribute to Hunger for a removal spell stapled to a lifegain spell. Helps vs aggro, comes down sooner, doesn't require tapping out and, thus, is more flexible.
If I were running SiB I'd probably bump up the swamp count from 18 no? If it's imperative to hit it T2, more so to ensure land drops as opposed to just straight filtering, I feel like I'd want closer to 20.
You're right though, it's feasible. The fact that you could quite possibly fit SiB and Reckoner in the same deck really is a testament to how stupid good our mana is right now.
I did some analysis (my hypergeometric guide on D2R shows how) and found that drawing 1 SiB and not having the mana to cast it on turn 2 on the play is 9.8% with 18 black sources. Bumping it up to 19 reduces your chance of bricking to 8.5%. Similarly, 20 drops to 7.4%.
so Fires of Salvation is what exactly? not trying to make trouble I honestly have no idea.
We all got together at the beginning of RTR block and brewed up a bunch of competitive red decks. Under our watch, the R/x Aggro subforum was a thing of beauty and we regularly put the smack down on bad brewing and poor card choices.
Sadly, putting the smack down on bad deck design lead to hurt feelings and mod intervention, so we set up shop at D2R for our recreational posting.
Can someone remind me why wild guess isn't considered?
I mean people play looting and looting is strict card disadvantage in comparison.
If you're already in Dega colors and looking for a card draw spell, I recommend Toil // Trouble especially if you're not intending to be drawing on turn 1 anyway. T//T scales better with a late topdecks, has a relevant damage mode, provides card advantage and the color restriction isn't as harsh.
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
I think Molten Rain would be a better sideboard inclusion over Stone Rain. Past that, looks fun
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
Since most of red's creatures are designed to attack, and most of red's spells can do damage, it's very tempting to do something every turn, even if it might not be the best thing. Because you nearly always have something to do, it's quite easy to overextend, to attack into a bad board state, or to not leave enough mana up to deal with an opponent's tricks during your and their turn.
It can be frustrating to play RDW and see the game slip away on turn 5 when you're out of cards and the opponent is at 4 life. Instead of writing off the archetype, you may begin to ask "should I have spilled my hand out on turn 2? Did I need to cast Magma Jet on my opponent? Where else could I have spent my spells?"
RDW can play an extraordinarily long game, but only if you let it.
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
Burn has a good matchup against slow combo decks like Tron. It is extremely weak to mass lifegain like Soul Sisters or Martyr-Proc.
It is favorable against Jund because of their removal generally having few targets.
RDW can be a coin flip and often comes down to who goes first.
URW is unfavorable because of their counterspells and maindeck Lightning Helix.
Pod and Twin are a race in game 1 but the matchup becomes favorable after boarding.
The best SB cards for those are Torpor Orb vs Pod/Twin and Shrine vs URW. Arguably, Ensnaring Bridge can be quite useful if they're beating down with Celestial Collonade.
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
In an R/x Aggro list, I absolutely want that zealot out on curve, so I'd choose 20 red at a bare minimum.
SiB and Ash Zealot have equally restrictive color and mana costs, so they're a good analog. I could see easing back a bit on SiB though, since a control deck is usually more flexible in its curve.
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
I did some analysis (my hypergeometric guide on D2R shows how) and found that drawing 1 SiB and not having the mana to cast it on turn 2 on the play is 9.8% with 18 black sources. Bumping it up to 19 reduces your chance of bricking to 8.5%. Similarly, 20 drops to 7.4%.
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
We all got together at the beginning of RTR block and brewed up a bunch of competitive red decks. Under our watch, the R/x Aggro subforum was a thing of beauty and we regularly put the smack down on bad brewing and poor card choices.
Sadly, putting the smack down on bad deck design lead to hurt feelings and mod intervention, so we set up shop at D2R for our recreational posting.
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
If you're already in Dega colors and looking for a card draw spell, I recommend Toil // Trouble especially if you're not intending to be drawing on turn 1 anyway. T//T scales better with a late topdecks, has a relevant damage mode, provides card advantage and the color restriction isn't as harsh.
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
Purging the profane is perfectly fine when done safely.
Spam Infraction.
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
May you continue to purge the profane here in Competitive.
Spam Infraction.
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.