DESCRIPTION
Pyromancer Pox takes a more aggressive token swarm, aggro and burn strategy rather than the more traditional control Pox strategies. It has a balanced disruption sweet. There are 14 creature removal spells, 14 hand disruption and 8 land destruction. It hasn't been tested in a tournament setting yet but it is extremely competitive. Needs more testing but I went 2-0 against Stoneblade and it wrecks Delver variants.
Dark Confidant keeps your hand full of burn, disruption and removal spells to feed Pyromancer. Pyromancer never takes a hit from Smallpox as his ability triggers before Smallpox resolves thus allowing you to sac the token.
Burn to the dome is usually card disadvantage and speed-dependant; Pox is usually a grindy deck. So I'm just wondering how that all plays out together. Do you ever find your disruption spells slow you down from winning faster? Or that your burn spells fail to help interact with board states when you need more control? I'm a long-time Pox player, so I'm intrigued, but I'm just wondering how actual games go. Which matches does this improve and which suffer? What are the key decision points/priorities?
PS - Your cons for Bloodghast don't make sense. Hellspark and Shambling Remains also can't block, so not blocking is irrelevant. Lack of large body is a problem, though he swings for only 1 less than Hellspark. Mana cost isn't a problem. BB doesn't seem awkward. All your lands (except Wasteland, which is kind of a spell) produce black. And Bloodghast can cost 0, whereas Hellspark and Shambling Remains always cost at least 2 (from either hand or GY). It's usually cheaper to deploy from GY. The only time it's harder to cast from hand is if your only lands are Badlands+Wasteland (can cast Hellspark but not Bloodghast). Depending on how you prioritize your land fetches, I don't know how often that comes up.
Granted, Bloodghast is much slower (no haste at first, lower power). Bloodghast better lends itself to a grindy strategy. I can see why you'd prefer Hellspark if you're going full-on burn to the dome aggressive race mode.
Mox sounds bad. You want probably minimum 23 lands to consider safely running Mox Diamond in a non-combo deck to avoid manascrew, especially with 4 Wasteland. And it seems like you don't want more than 20 lands. Chrome Mox, though, could help. Your deck is heavy at 2cc and you can get into the game a turn earlier by dropping some power turn 1 (Bob, YP, disruption). Turn 1 Sinkhole/Smallpox, killing that critical first land on the draw, is also what an LD strategy needs to be viable in Legacy. Otherwise Sinkhole is probably worse than burn, Hymn or Liliana.
Do you ever find your disruption spells slow you down from winning faster? Or that your burn spells fail to help interact with board states when you need more control?
So far the mana curve, synergies and tempo of the deck are really smooth. Rarely do I not have enough mana. Nor am I often left in a position where there is nothing to cast. There is usually a left over Lingering Souls, Cabal Therapy or Hellspark Elemental in the yard to recur otherwise there is a Confidant in play filling up my hand. So it doesn't gas out very often. It's certainly faster than traditional control pox strategies but it's still Pox so of course it's not super fast. However, rather than lock down it simply finishes. The overall strategy is to go all in with the disruption first. Then swarm with tokens using burn mostly for removal and then saving them as finishers. The burn spells retroactively serve both purposes. It really is surprisingly smooth. You have to give it a few solitaire plays to really smell what I'm stepping in. Give it a shot here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/pyromancer-pox-2/
Which matches does this improve and which suffer?
As of yet, I really haven't tested it against many decks. I'll test it more this week and post results. My experience with Pox in general and what keeps Pox in the game is that it is always resilient against Delver based aggro due to the amount of removal. I think the bad match ups for sure are going to be storm based combo and swarm aggro.
PS - Your cons for Bloodghast don't make sense. Hellspark and Shambling Remains also can't block, so not blocking is irrelevant. Lack of large body is a problem, though he swings for only 1 less than Hellspark. Mana cost isn't a problem. BB doesn't seem awkward. All your lands (except Wasteland, which is kind of a spell) produce black. And Bloodghast can cost 0, whereas Hellspark and Shambling Remains always cost at least 2 (from either hand or GY). It's usually cheaper to deploy from GY.
That is a good point and I might actually go with Bloodghasts in the end. You are also right about my point being moot that they can't block. Although I haven't regretted or had any trouble with casting my Hellspark Elementals as of yet. They are really fun to use with Reckless Abandon and Cabal Therapy or even Smallpox and those situations do come up extraordinarily often. I guess the main differences between the two are that Hellspark Elemental hits faster and for more damage but they only recur once and tie up more mana. However Bloodghast is slow and is dependent on you drawing into a land in which recur him. You might be right though. He might just be the better man for the job. There is also the possibility of going for a two and two split.
The only time it's harder to cast from hand is if your only lands are Badlands+Wasteland (can cast Hellspark but not Bloodghast).
Good point!
Mox sounds bad. You want probably minimum 23 lands to consider safely running Mox Diamond in a non-combo deck to avoid manascrew, especially with 4 Wasteland. And it seems like you don't want more than 20 lands.
Good point!
Chrome Mox, though, could help. Your deck is heavy at 2cc and you can get into the game a turn earlier by dropping some power turn 1 (Bob, YP, disruption). Turn 1 Sinkhole/Smallpox, killing that critical first land on the draw, is also what an LD strategy needs to be viable in Legacy. Otherwise Sinkhole is probably worse than burn, Hymn or Liliana.
Yes, that could use some testing. Really not sure what to cut though. Probably Land? I wonder if the card disadvantage is worth it.
Hymns might be the better choice over Sinkhole. I do however, in a more aggressive pox strategy, like having my disruption balanced with 12 discard and 12 LD. The idea is to disrupt long enough to put your opponent in to top deck mode then finish off your opponent with your army of tokens and burn for the finish. Control pox strategies tend to choose one or the other and go into lock or soft lock mode. It's really a preference though.
I saw a Modern deck similar to this that looked fun (http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=82964), so I went looking to see if anything like this had hit Legacy and was happy to find your thread. I'm working on a B/R version myself. Is Lingering Souls super-critical to this deck?
Souls is a very good card against Miracles and Liliana decks, but Bitterblossom and Goblin Rabblemaster serve similar roles if you are restricted to black/red for whatever reason.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
@CultistOfAthreos Lingering Souls is just so damn good against blue counter magic and with Young Pyromancer already on the table when you cast it twice you get 6 tokens. You could play with Krenko's Command but you get no flashback and is considerably weaker. It's a ridiculously fun deck! With all of the synergies there is rarely a time that you don't have anything to do. I also really like home-brew original decks that are competitive in general. But yeah as Adam W said Souls are really good against so many things.
I like this deck idea. I'm a pox player and have been playing around with b/r pox build . I think crucible and raven's crime would be great here. More graveyard recursion equals more tokens.
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Legacy: Mono black pox, vintage: White trash or anything that beats Mud
Reb1970: It is hella fun to play. I still haven't gotten a chance to really test it against some of the top tier decks but the solitaire solo plays are a insane! It explodes tokens all over the place and there is a lot of different choices you can make with it. Sooooo much fun! Give it test run and let me know what you think. Test it here http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/11-06-15-pyro-pox/
Raven's Crime is a really good idea that I haven't yet thought about. I don't think Crucible of worlds is a very good match though. It is not an instant or sorcery, it costs 3 to get on the table and the deck has more of an aggro approach. I think it would be a bit too slow.
I am considering testing Faithless Looting. It is a sorcery so you get the bonus from Pyromancer, it digs you into desirable cards while pitching Cabal Therapy, Hellspark Elemental and Lingering Souls into the yard for further recursion, plus it has flashback so that you can use it twice.
EDIT:
After play testing it I think you will see that it really does have potential in a tournament setting. It's just so damn overwhelming for your opponent. There is so much disruption and removal, and tokens swarm all over the place. I'd love to see someone play and/or test it besides myself.
I play legacy at my local shop every other Sunday. They allow proxy. So I'm gonna give it a try. Its a great way to test new decks. I'm playing on the 21st so I will let you know the results. Crucible allows you to bring wasteland and fetches back and is a great soft lock also feeds raven's crime. I'm thinking 2x in the main.
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Legacy: Mono black pox, vintage: White trash or anything that beats Mud
Xoddy: Recently I've been playing the deck with a pair of both Bloodghasts and Hellspark Elementals rather than four of one or the other and I like it. The deck in my opinion operates fairly well with any combination of these guys in those four slots. Hellspark Elemental is really nice with Cabal Therapy though and a lot more aggressive than Bloodghast. At least give him a test run. He fits surprisingly well. Also I think Chain Lightning will work just fine as a replacement to Reckless Abandon, and probably the better of the two options as you mentioned.
Reb1970: Sounds great!! I'm dying to hear the results. Let me know what you think of Crucible after testing. I typically run Crucible in my mana denial control Pox builds along side of Sinkhole and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale but here I think you will find that it is more important to keep the pressure on with aggressive threats and disrupt with discard spells rather than try to lock them up mana wise. Plus your hand stays fairly full due to Bob and there is a lot to do with your mana especially with flashbacking Lingering Souls/Hellspark Elemental and I can't think of a time where I've ever felt like I wanted to draw or cast Crucible over any other spell. The favors it does for you by recurring fetchlands and Wasteland are better suited for long drawn out control builds and I can't imagine what I'd condone cutting for it. I could be wrong and it might be amazing, so keep me posted. I see it maybe as a one of.
EDIT: Remember Dark Confidant will draw you into plenty of land. You really won't need to recur them with Crucible. He also helps draw you into cards that were discarded to Smallpox and create a large card advantage over your opponent.
Raven's Crime sounds really nice if you can figure out what to cut. However typically it is ran in control builds running Life from the Loam and Entomb for obvious synergies. Not sure you want to cut Inquisitions or Thoughtseize for them. Both of these let you look at your opponent's hand increasing Cabal Therapy's effectiveness. Let me know how they work out.
Would a card like Crackling doom help to mitigate situations like an emerakul or a Griselbrand or even a Tarmogoyf or Delver coming into play while also adding some amount of edge on life. Or innocent blood as another consideration. This deck looks very fun.
Xoddy, I'm stoked to see someone play this in a tournament. Make sure and post your tournament report. Weakness and strengths. I've been play testing this more recently and I have to say I am still really liking Reckless Abandon main deck but I think Innocent Blood needs to be on the sideboard depending on your meta. I'm currently running 21 land instead of 22 and it plays very nice that way. The list I've been playing is the list on the top of this thread with the only changes being -1 Urborg -1 Hellspark Elemental +2 Bloodghast. This feels right to me.
Kick ass list Xoddy! Can't wait to hear the results. I'm curious to see how the Faithless Looting works for you. I think it fits well I just haven't had a chance to test it yet. Good luck on the tournament!!
Here's my list. Gonna play it this weekend. Not much for tournaments out here where I just moved..
Awesome report Xoddy. I actually played a few games last weekend. I went 2-1 against UWR Delver and 1-2 against Affinity. It seems to hold up fairly well especially for a Pox deck. If you do want to test one of my decks Mardu Deathblade is it.
What do you think of Reassembling Skeleton?
The deck doesn't keep many lands on the battlefield so reviving it more than once a turn isn't something that'll happen, but having a creature that reanimates on command more than once seems more useful than Bloodghast who doesn't come back that often because the deck runs light on lands.
I have done a lot of pox brewing. You can bring this to the pox page and probably get a lot of good feedback. My initial feedback would be that innocent blood is better removal than bolt or chain lightning. You also probably want red to be the splash color for pyro and run some number of swords to plow as well. You want your removal add efficient and effective as possible. Bolt and chain just don't cut it when you're facing down a deathrite and angler, possibly a delver as well. You want something like innocent blood to compliment your smallpox to hit larger creatures that may slip through. I like souls with Pyromancer since it adds up quickly. The ghats build is definitely better than the elemental build in my opinion. Ghast is just much more recurrable and tried and true. Even burn doesn't want hellspark.
@Heretic:
White solely for tokens really is good. Lingering Souls is amazing with Pyromancer as the tokens just start adding up quickly. I think they are absolutely essential as the deck simply overwhelms my opponent. I'm think Mykatdied's advice for Plows over Chain Lighting which would add an additional reason to run white. My original build was to take an aggro burn pox route. But as I've been testing, the deck has a more grindy control feel too it and I think I'm going to add more white in the form of Plows rather than burn strategies. Faithless Looting was tested by Xoddy above and he really likes them. I haven't had a chance to test them yet but they seem like a good fit. Not sure what I would cut from my build though.
Chrome Mox might need more testing and perhaps the entire deck could use an overhaul. My initial reaction to Chrome Mox is that the card disadvantage early game can hurt pretty bad if you had nothing decent to pitch to it. However getting early Pyromancers and Confidants is really good. Probably needs more testing.
Concerning the 2/2 split with Bloodghast and Hellspark Elemental. That was a test build to see which of the two I like better. Hands down the winner is Bloodghast. The aggro burn approach just doesn't work like I wanted it to. Like I said the deck is grindy but overwhelming and Bloodghast is for sure the better fit.
@Mykatdied
I've really taken into account your advice. I'm going to cut Chain Lighting for Plows for sure. Maybe Innocent Blood for Lightning Bolt. Might need some testing though as I fear my Innocent Blood might have to hit my Confidant or Pyromancer if I don't have any tokens or Blooghast to sac to it. It's worth a shot though. Although, with the inclusion of Innocent Blood I'm really really really tempted to add a lone Abyssal Persecutor. What do you think?
After testing both Ghasts and Hellspark Elemental it is easy to say that Bloodghast is the supreme winner. He's just too useful.
This is the next list I'm going to test and current build.
Thoughts on a lone Abyssal Persecutor in one of the Inquisition slots???? There are 15 ways to kill him but I'm not sure how he reacts with Plows. He's great with Cabal Therapy.
Young pyromancer and innocent blood synergize really well. Cast blood, trigger pyro, get token, sac token. Same reason young pyro and smallpox are fine. 1 of percy may be fine. If you have bob though you probably want to slimmest curve possible to take as little damage as possible.
That is a really good point. I actually never thought of the Pyromancer interaction with Smallpox and Innocent Blood. I'm going to test Persecutor. Also going to give Liliana of the Veil another shot now that I've cut burn out of the picture.
I think this is an interesting deck. I think you need more burn (or direct damage) and fewer discard.
The cute thing about burn is simplex; each card is a threat! And the opponent must deal with it. (not to mention that fireblast is free!)
Many years ago when I played black and red, the creatures I used was Hypnotic Specter and Sedge Troll, the only discard spell I would play was Duress and Hymn the rest was burn (Bolt, Chain, Fireblast, shock, seal of fire (this was before timespiral)) and Nevinyrral's Disk...
I don't think Nevinyrral's Disk is playable and Hypnotic Specter seemed to be replaced by Vampire Nighthawk.
There are some really good cards in burn... Searing Blaze and Forked Bolt... and since your playing with the aggressive nature of burn (fireblast is your friend)
Heretic raises some fair points. If you need actual removal though terminate and dreadbore are also options. I personally in pox would never stick to mostly burn for my removal since a goyf is going to straight up stop your threats and chances are they have spot removal for your creatures. With young Pyromancer dropping tokens the 5 life gained from swords on a goyf is relatively a non issue since you are actually clearing the way for Pyromancer and team. Whereas with bolt and chain you pretty much have to sacrifice your Pyromancer or Bob to get it off the table by also dealing combat damage to it
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MARDU PYROMANCER POX
DESCRIPTION
Pyromancer Pox takes a more aggressive token swarm, aggro and burn strategy rather than the more traditional control Pox strategies. It has a balanced disruption sweet. There are 14 creature removal spells, 14 hand disruption and 8 land destruction. It hasn't been tested in a tournament setting yet but it is extremely competitive. Needs more testing but I went 2-0 against Stoneblade and it wrecks Delver variants.
UPDATED CURRENT LIST
2x Dark Confidant
4x Young Pyromancer
4x Bloodghast
Potatoes (28)
2x Lingering Souls
4x Smallpox
2x Hymn to Tourach
4x Cabal Therapy
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
4x Chain Lightning
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Lightning Helix
2x Entomb
4x Badlands
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Scrubland
4x Marsh Flats
4x Wasteland
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Mindbreak Trap
4x Surgical Extraction
2x Pithing Needle
3x Wear // Tear
2x Zealous Persecution
2x Pyroblast
SYNERGIES AND STRATEGIES
Smallpox + Young Pyromancer, cast Smallpox, Pyromancer triggers, sac token.
Smallpox + Young Pyromancer token.
Smallpox + Lingering Souls in hand.
Smallpox + Lingering Souls token in play.
Smallpox + Bloodghast in hand.
Smallpox + Bloodghast in play.
Cabal Therapy if pitched by Smallpox.
Cabal Therapy + Young Pyromancer token.
Cabal Therapy + Bloodghast.
Cabal Therapy + Lingering Souls token.
Young Pyromancer + Lingering Souls from hand then from the yard.
Young Pyromancer + any of the 28 sorceries and instants.
Dark Confidant keeps your hand full of burn, disruption and removal spells to feed Pyromancer. Pyromancer never takes a hit from Smallpox as his ability triggers before Smallpox resolves thus allowing you to sac the token.
Test it here and/or give it vote: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/11-06-15-pyro-pox/
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Burn to the dome is usually card disadvantage and speed-dependant; Pox is usually a grindy deck. So I'm just wondering how that all plays out together. Do you ever find your disruption spells slow you down from winning faster? Or that your burn spells fail to help interact with board states when you need more control? I'm a long-time Pox player, so I'm intrigued, but I'm just wondering how actual games go. Which matches does this improve and which suffer? What are the key decision points/priorities?
PS - Your cons for Bloodghast don't make sense. Hellspark and Shambling Remains also can't block, so not blocking is irrelevant. Lack of large body is a problem, though he swings for only 1 less than Hellspark. Mana cost isn't a problem. BB doesn't seem awkward. All your lands (except Wasteland, which is kind of a spell) produce black. And Bloodghast can cost 0, whereas Hellspark and Shambling Remains always cost at least 2 (from either hand or GY). It's usually cheaper to deploy from GY. The only time it's harder to cast from hand is if your only lands are Badlands+Wasteland (can cast Hellspark but not Bloodghast). Depending on how you prioritize your land fetches, I don't know how often that comes up.
Granted, Bloodghast is much slower (no haste at first, lower power). Bloodghast better lends itself to a grindy strategy. I can see why you'd prefer Hellspark if you're going full-on burn to the dome aggressive race mode.
Mox sounds bad. You want probably minimum 23 lands to consider safely running Mox Diamond in a non-combo deck to avoid manascrew, especially with 4 Wasteland. And it seems like you don't want more than 20 lands. Chrome Mox, though, could help. Your deck is heavy at 2cc and you can get into the game a turn earlier by dropping some power turn 1 (Bob, YP, disruption). Turn 1 Sinkhole/Smallpox, killing that critical first land on the draw, is also what an LD strategy needs to be viable in Legacy. Otherwise Sinkhole is probably worse than burn, Hymn or Liliana.
So far the mana curve, synergies and tempo of the deck are really smooth. Rarely do I not have enough mana. Nor am I often left in a position where there is nothing to cast. There is usually a left over Lingering Souls, Cabal Therapy or Hellspark Elemental in the yard to recur otherwise there is a Confidant in play filling up my hand. So it doesn't gas out very often. It's certainly faster than traditional control pox strategies but it's still Pox so of course it's not super fast. However, rather than lock down it simply finishes. The overall strategy is to go all in with the disruption first. Then swarm with tokens using burn mostly for removal and then saving them as finishers. The burn spells retroactively serve both purposes. It really is surprisingly smooth. You have to give it a few solitaire plays to really smell what I'm stepping in. Give it a shot here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/pyromancer-pox-2/
As of yet, I really haven't tested it against many decks. I'll test it more this week and post results. My experience with Pox in general and what keeps Pox in the game is that it is always resilient against Delver based aggro due to the amount of removal. I think the bad match ups for sure are going to be storm based combo and swarm aggro.
That is a good point and I might actually go with Bloodghasts in the end. You are also right about my point being moot that they can't block. Although I haven't regretted or had any trouble with casting my Hellspark Elementals as of yet. They are really fun to use with Reckless Abandon and Cabal Therapy or even Smallpox and those situations do come up extraordinarily often. I guess the main differences between the two are that Hellspark Elemental hits faster and for more damage but they only recur once and tie up more mana. However Bloodghast is slow and is dependent on you drawing into a land in which recur him. You might be right though. He might just be the better man for the job. There is also the possibility of going for a two and two split.
Good point!
Good point!
Yes, that could use some testing. Really not sure what to cut though. Probably Land? I wonder if the card disadvantage is worth it.
Hymns might be the better choice over Sinkhole. I do however, in a more aggressive pox strategy, like having my disruption balanced with 12 discard and 12 LD. The idea is to disrupt long enough to put your opponent in to top deck mode then finish off your opponent with your army of tokens and burn for the finish. Control pox strategies tend to choose one or the other and go into lock or soft lock mode. It's really a preference though.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Looking forward to your updates, Laser Brains!
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Raven's Crime is a really good idea that I haven't yet thought about. I don't think Crucible of worlds is a very good match though. It is not an instant or sorcery, it costs 3 to get on the table and the deck has more of an aggro approach. I think it would be a bit too slow.
I am considering testing Faithless Looting. It is a sorcery so you get the bonus from Pyromancer, it digs you into desirable cards while pitching Cabal Therapy, Hellspark Elemental and Lingering Souls into the yard for further recursion, plus it has flashback so that you can use it twice.
EDIT:
After play testing it I think you will see that it really does have potential in a tournament setting. It's just so damn overwhelming for your opponent. There is so much disruption and removal, and tokens swarm all over the place. I'd love to see someone play and/or test it besides myself.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Reb1970: Sounds great!! I'm dying to hear the results. Let me know what you think of Crucible after testing. I typically run Crucible in my mana denial control Pox builds along side of Sinkhole and The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale but here I think you will find that it is more important to keep the pressure on with aggressive threats and disrupt with discard spells rather than try to lock them up mana wise. Plus your hand stays fairly full due to Bob and there is a lot to do with your mana especially with flashbacking Lingering Souls/Hellspark Elemental and I can't think of a time where I've ever felt like I wanted to draw or cast Crucible over any other spell. The favors it does for you by recurring fetchlands and Wasteland are better suited for long drawn out control builds and I can't imagine what I'd condone cutting for it. I could be wrong and it might be amazing, so keep me posted. I see it maybe as a one of.
EDIT: Remember Dark Confidant will draw you into plenty of land. You really won't need to recur them with Crucible. He also helps draw you into cards that were discarded to Smallpox and create a large card advantage over your opponent.
Raven's Crime sounds really nice if you can figure out what to cut. However typically it is ran in control builds running Life from the Loam and Entomb for obvious synergies. Not sure you want to cut Inquisitions or Thoughtseize for them. Both of these let you look at your opponent's hand increasing Cabal Therapy's effectiveness. Let me know how they work out.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Here's my list. Gonna play it this weekend. Not much for tournaments out here where I just moved..
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
The deck doesn't keep many lands on the battlefield so reviving it more than once a turn isn't something that'll happen, but having a creature that reanimates on command more than once seems more useful than Bloodghast who doesn't come back that often because the deck runs light on lands.
Modern: WUBValue Titan UMerfolk WGDeath and Taxes
@Heretic:
White solely for tokens really is good. Lingering Souls is amazing with Pyromancer as the tokens just start adding up quickly. I think they are absolutely essential as the deck simply overwhelms my opponent. I'm think Mykatdied's advice for Plows over Chain Lighting which would add an additional reason to run white. My original build was to take an aggro burn pox route. But as I've been testing, the deck has a more grindy control feel too it and I think I'm going to add more white in the form of Plows rather than burn strategies. Faithless Looting was tested by Xoddy above and he really likes them. I haven't had a chance to test them yet but they seem like a good fit. Not sure what I would cut from my build though.
Chrome Mox might need more testing and perhaps the entire deck could use an overhaul. My initial reaction to Chrome Mox is that the card disadvantage early game can hurt pretty bad if you had nothing decent to pitch to it. However getting early Pyromancers and Confidants is really good. Probably needs more testing.
Concerning the 2/2 split with Bloodghast and Hellspark Elemental. That was a test build to see which of the two I like better. Hands down the winner is Bloodghast. The aggro burn approach just doesn't work like I wanted it to. Like I said the deck is grindy but overwhelming and Bloodghast is for sure the better fit.
@Mykatdied
I've really taken into account your advice. I'm going to cut Chain Lighting for Plows for sure. Maybe Innocent Blood for Lightning Bolt. Might need some testing though as I fear my Innocent Blood might have to hit my Confidant or Pyromancer if I don't have any tokens or Blooghast to sac to it. It's worth a shot though. Although, with the inclusion of Innocent Blood I'm really really really tempted to add a lone Abyssal Persecutor. What do you think?
After testing both Ghasts and Hellspark Elemental it is easy to say that Bloodghast is the supreme winner. He's just too useful.
This is the next list I'm going to test and current build.
4x Dark Confidant
3x Bloodghast
4x Young Pyromancer
Potatoes (28)
4x Lingering Souls
4x Smallpox
4x Hymn to Tourach
4x Cabal Therapy
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
4x Swords to Plowshares
3x Innocent Blood
4x Badlands
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Scrubland
4x Marsh Flats
4x Wasteland
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgomth
Thoughts on a lone Abyssal Persecutor in one of the Inquisition slots???? There are 15 ways to kill him but I'm not sure how he reacts with Plows. He's great with Cabal Therapy.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
The cute thing about burn is simplex; each card is a threat! And the opponent must deal with it. (not to mention that fireblast is free!)
Many years ago when I played black and red, the creatures I used was Hypnotic Specter and Sedge Troll, the only discard spell I would play was Duress and Hymn the rest was burn (Bolt, Chain, Fireblast, shock, seal of fire (this was before timespiral)) and Nevinyrral's Disk...
I don't think Nevinyrral's Disk is playable and Hypnotic Specter seemed to be replaced by Vampire Nighthawk.
There are some really good cards in burn... Searing Blaze and Forked Bolt... and since your playing with the aggressive nature of burn (fireblast is your friend)
In his Second 100 days - Yawgmoth's Bargain is unrestricted in Vintage.
What is going to happen in the Next 100 days!!!