Does anybody think that either mono-R or R/x sledgehammer decks are viable? There's flexible burn in the format at all mana costs, a plethora of beatstick creatures to curve out into, and great low-end threats to keep the early game there with cards like Banefire and Koth of the Hammer to give late game reach, not that the large beaters can't affect the late game drastically.
I've not worked on a list but in a Spirit Jund, and just plain spirit, meta, Hellkite is actually quite a good curve topper at the moment.
For other 5-drops, I've also looked into Tarox Bladewing if your meta isn't filled with spirits but he is boltable. I'm mostly looking for hasty fliers, so Demigod fits awesomely here as well. Better yet when against Jund if you can stabalize(hello there, Volcanic Fallout) then cast one with a copy or two in the grave. I also have a personal fondness to Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs but he's not too great, though out of bolt range.
Caldera Hellion in creature heavy builds, I guess? Tends to clear his path for the next turn, just no evasion. No haste also stinks.
Thunderblust huge front end, haste, and has persist. Tramples after persisting. All awesome, but his back end is so small it could be troublesome most of the time.
Magma Phoenix I kind of like this guy. It's persistent if you keep your opponent from hitting your grave. It also bolts everything on death. Haste and it'd be too awesome. A Koth mitigates the manacost a bit, but is better used elsewhere.
Lovisa Coldeyes or Voracious Dragon I guess if you want to run tribal sledge(dragon's devour needs gobs for 2nd devour effect).
Izzet:
Spellbound Dragon is fat on the back end and gets bigger on the front, sadly no haste.
Dominus of Fealty powerful against permanents. Smaller body than demigod, no haste/evasion, but turns your opponent's creatures against them.
Rakdos:
Lightning Reaver could be very effective. Haste, evasion, and has an ability that just keeps hurting the opponent. Boltable though.
Boros:
Balefire Liege if you're more multi-color/gold with spells.
Argus Kos, Wojek Veteran is pretty good in boros builds with lots of creatures. Can be bolted though.
Nobilis of War powerful and lives bolt. Pumps your small attackers into threats. Pretty solid.
Gruul:
Stonebrow, Krosan Hero big, tramples, makes itself and other tramplers bigger. Not bad, but not perfectly awesome. Not boltable.
Blitz Hellion could be really good in R/g. 7/7 hasty, trampling, power is good. Only downside is that it doesn't stick.
Deus of Calamity powerful guy, but his second ability will rarely come through I feel.
In my opinion most others are too slow and don't affect the board enough.
I agree that Demigod of Revenge and Thundermaw Hellkite seem to be your best top-of-the-curve-creatures. All the others you mentioned seem to lack something that those other two got.
@Trigunner, I saw that list a while back. It fits, for sure. I feel less burn and more creature threats is the way to go though. That deck interacts little with combo decks.
If you can manage to live long enough to cast your big thingies, and if the enemy hasn't set up his win conditions, there is a chance this could work.
Since they are two Ifs in the sentence I doubt it'll work
The first 'if' is easy early threats/sweeps and interruption in form of discard/counters. You can splash in this meta and hardly be punished for it. You can even run Bloodmoon main and not suffer by splashing and running a number of fetches.
The second 'if' is just to make your win-con more powerful. We can make a sledgehammer deck that wins t4 but give it that over-the-top 5-curve to demolish the late-game. Sledge's 4-drops can be just as, if not more, powerful than a BBE into x or y and we have burn to stop creature combo like pod.
Entirely rough list based on what I could think of and find on Gatherer to fit. It's very rough on the edges as it is.
It has hasty, powerful, beats in the early game and the ability to clear other creatures with little problem. I do feel there's a better 1-drop than the Figure of Destiny but I couldn't think of anything. I also see black as a powerful splash to fit in lingering souls, but I feel mundane doing that. I'll be throwing this and a makeshift sideboard together at some point this week on Cockatrice and test it out a bit to refine it. I think Kargan Dragonlord could fit in Stormblood Berserker's slot if he underperforms.
Edit: The Mirrodin heroes also seem like very good fits for the 4 cmc slot.
Use Magma Jet. It will allow you to set up your end game threats easier with its scry ability. Also, flame-kin zealot just isn't that good (except when it's a finisher for dredge). Stormblood beserker doesn't seem to really fit this game plan either, and that said, your hellrider's will be less effective. I like the Hero of Oxid Ridge better for this deck.
Also, I'm not sure about goblin guide. This deck wants to get to late game, and goblin guide is really bad for late game plans. But of course, it's always a great source of early damage, so...I could see you possibly changing that.
I support this strategy; I love the Sledge builds. I'm not sure about Guide in here, either. Some alternatives:
Gravecrawler
Rakdos Cackler
Stromkirk Noble
Kird Ape since we have fetches and duals.
We also have Rakdos Augermage, whose ability might be worth considering. Especially if you opt for Gravecrawler over Guide. Kargan Dragonlord is a pretty good 3-drop for this sort of deck. At the very least it can draw removal.
This is acutally more a Jund Sledge in so much as its primarly red, with sprinklings of black and green (ala the actual Shard, Jund) versus Rock with Lightning Bolt ala the traditional Modern Jung deck:
I support this strategy; I love the Sledge builds. I'm not sure about Guide in here, either. Some alternatives:
Gravecrawler
Rakdos Cackler
Stromkirk Noble
Kird Ape since we have fetches and duals.
We also have Rakdos Augermage, whose ability might be worth considering. Especially if you opt for Gravecrawler over Guide. Kargan Dragonlord is a pretty good 3-drop for this sort of deck. At the very least it can draw removal.
This is acutally more a Jund Sledge in so much as its primarly red, with sprinklings of black and green (ala the actual Shard, Jund) versus Rock with Lightning Bolt ala the traditional Modern Jung deck:
That leaves some space for additions and modifications. This was entirely off the top of my head so its probably more rentsy than it needs to be.
Goblin Guide is a staple in any modern red aggro deck. He's a clock on t1 at best and a chump blocker at worst. Gravecrawler is awful in a deck where the only zombies are a playset of Gravecrawlers.
Magma Spray > Pillar of Flame, and is a SB card at best.
What about this? Splash black for Blightning with red beats? I've read Archwing Dragon is good vs UWX control decks in Standard. What about here? Maybe a 2-2 split with Hellrider/Hero of Oxxid Ridge?
Will give a tourney report in a bit, once mtgo allows me to replay the games!
Edit: And here it is!
Round 1 - Affinity (2-0) Game 1: After removing my opponents Master of Etherium thanks to Skred and Grim Lavamancer, I was able to finish him off with a leveled-up Dragonlord one turn before he would have won with Ravager and Plating.
Side: In: 2x Shatterstorm, 2x Smash to Smithereens; Out: 2x Thundermaw Hellkite, 1x Magus of the Moon, 1x Ash Zealot
Game 2: Opening hand had 2 Smashes and a Figure. Drew RSZ to deal with his Steel Overseer and removed his other early artifacts with Smash. Hellkite did the rest.
Round 2 - Splinter Twin (2-1) Game 1: Only had two lands and his Spellskite stopped me from using two bolts to take out his T3 Exarch. T4 Splinter Twin ended that one.
Side: In: 2x Smash to Smithereens, 1x Torpor Orb, 1x Combust, 1x Dismember; Out: 1x Magus of the Moon, 1x Blood Moon, 3x Ash Zealot
Game 2: Had Torpor Orb in my opening hand so I was able to take things slowly and remove any creature he put in play. Turn 10 Hellkite caused him to concede.
Game 3: My opening hand was bolt, combust and 5 lands - of course I kept it! I'd like to think that after he saw my hand using probe my opponent went tilt in trying not to lose to such a hand T6 Koth followed by T7 Hellkite ended that.
Round 3 - R/B/W Burn (2-0) Game 1: Makes sense that the first time I get to use Magus of the Moon is against a burn deck (it did have some use since he had two Blackcleave Cliffs and a Sacred Foundry out and forced him to use a bolt on it)! I was able to outrace him after removing his Deathrite Shaman and Goblin Guide.
Side: In: 1x Magus of the Moon; Out: 1x Blood Moon
Game 2: Bolted his T1 and T2 Shamans and he then seemed to be mana flooded as I only saw a Bump the next few turns. A T5 Koth forced him to use Helix and Searing Blaze to remove it and my Lavamancer. Another Helix was used on my Dragonlord before I finally won with Hellkite followed by RSZ.
Round 4 - Death & Taxes (2-1) Game 1: Made a huge misplay by using Skred early on to temporarily take out his Finks (I should have held off for later on when he cast Hero of Bladehold). Drawing all 3 Koths by T4 didn't help either.
Side: In: 1x Combust, 2x Smash to Smithereens; Out: 1x Magus of the Moon, 1x Blood Moon, 1x Ash Zealot
Game 2: Started out with 2 lands but thankfully I never got manascrewed during the game (Path on Ash Zealot also helped). RSZ was used to remove Finks and then Hero. Hellkite and a leveled-up Dragonlord won it for me.
Game 3: Used RSZ on his Finks and Skred on his Hero while outracing him with Zealot and Figure.
Overall I found this deck to be really good late game against decks that I would otherwise try to outrace (there's no way I would have kept such a hand against Twin if I was playing Burn). I still need to see how this does against Jund seeing how some of the cards in the deck were included to stop that.
And I really want to see if Akroma can be of any use against U/W/x decks or lifegain decks
Do you think Goblin Guide would've been a bad card for your deck? I've never been a big fan of Lavamancer, since Figure and Dragonlord seem like better mana sinks.
Goblin Guide is obviously bad in Sledgehammer. I'm not sure how this is even a question, it doesn't fit the themes of the deck at all. Figure and Lacamancer are very obviously the best 1 drops.
You either want to be Mono R or RW.
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Goblin Guide is obviously bad in Sledgehammer. I'm not sure how this is even a question, it doesn't fit the themes of the deck at all. Figure and Lacamancer are very obviously the best 1 drops.
You either want to be Mono R or RW.
Are you being sarcasting? R for hasty 2/2...seems better than Lavamancer, but not Figure.
Lavamancer is a better 1-drop than Guide for this deck because I'd much rather have it's spot removal ability.
While I could have had it in the deck along with Lavamancer, I felt Ash Zealot was a better fit since it doesn't give my opponent extra cards, has first strike to deal with their x/2's or trade with Thalia, and can be used as Snapcaster Mage hate.
Are you being sarcasting? R for hasty 2/2...seems better than Lavamancer, but not Figure.
Im not being sarcastic I promise. Guide just isn't good in a midrange deck. The deck is not very explosive, so the Guide does not play well into your gameplan.
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I see; its hard to let Guide go because I used to use him in my ZEN-Scars of Mirrodin Standard red deck along with Koth, Dragonlord and Inferno Titan. How often do you get to use Lavamancer's effect, though?
Well, it might be a play style thing, but it comes up a lot for me. It's good against Jund, any Pod deck, UWr, White Weenie (inc Death and Taxes or life gain), tokens etc.
Lavamancer is only bad against combo, because he is slow. If you're not facing a lot of combo, you should get a lot of use.
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Figure has been outstanding in testing; it reminds me a bit of Stonewright in Standard Sledgehammer decks. I found this deck in the magic.tcgplayer database; it was played in a Modern tournament and went 3-1 and 4-1.
It reminds me of Sledgehammer in that the card advantage you get from Bloodbraid Elf gives you a late game push, while you have Figure + Burn/LD early on.
Yeah that is pretty good. I am not a huge fan of the burn selection but it looks pretty competitive. BBE is a nice choice. I think going Rakdos colours could be quite good ~ there are a lot of very relevant black sideboard cards for the various matchups.
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This thread is pretty exciting. I don't know one way or the other how strong this sort of deck would be, but it certainly looks fun.
That might be my love of mono-color decks talking though. I saw a 3-1 yesterday from a mono-blue faerie deck that made me want to go trade for Caverns of Souls and Mutavaults and Cryptic Commands and Vedalken Shackles...and then financial reality set in.
This one looks a little more realistic and every bit as fun.
I suppose Dreadbore and Blightning would make nice additions somewhere in the 75. Then you have Big Jund, or Jund Sledgehammer, or Undercity Sledgehammer if you want to inject some Ravnican flavor. What about this:
Just played that RG aggro deck against MBC in Cockatrice. I made some small changes; I removed Volcanic Fallout for Kargan Dragonlord and Burst Lightning for Dismember. The deck was able to hold its own vs. multiple early game Thoughtseize and Gatekeeper of Malakir followed up by a late game duo of Liliana of the Dark Realms + Korlash, Heir to Blackblade with an equipped Nightmare Lash with a total of 6 or 7 Swamps out. Bloodbraid Elf was truly a lifesaver.
The Raging Ravine were also very helpful; it taps to attack as a 3/3 elemental, but becomes a 4/4 during the damage step. Going with some black, I'd split the Ravine 2-2 with Lavaclaw Reaches and Dreadbore over Dismember. Domri Rade could be an interesting choice in the deck over Chandra's Phoenix given the large creature base.
I played in an 8-man a few days ago with the same deck as before.
Round 1 I faced Cedric Phillips who was playing Naya Pod. You can see the match here starting at 1:40.
Game 1 I made a huge mistake by using my second bolt on his Heirarch. By that point he had 3 lands and I should have paid more attention at taking out his higher level creatures. He was able to pod for the win in the next two turns and the only good thing was that he didn't see most of the deck and assumed it was a burn deck.
I sided in 2 Cages, 2 Smashes, 1 Torpor Orb, 1 Dismember and sided out 4 Ash Zealot's, 2 Red Sun Zeniths.
Game 2 was won with Dragonlord and this time I removed his higher CMC creatures.
Game 3 I got mana screwed; only 3 lands in the entire match and I had a Koth from the very start! But I also got very lucky by drawing a ton of removals (including top decking my lone Dismember after he got Spellskite in play), Torpor Orb and Blood Moon (had Magus in my opening hand). Getting my Figure of Destiny exiled turn 2 proved to be huge.
Round 2 I faced Affinity and promptly lost 0-2
Game 1 I didn't have enough removals and had no chance once he brought in Ravager and Game 2 I had my burn but never draw any artifact removal and he soon got 2 Ravagers in play.
I also decided to have Shattering Spree in the sideboard instead of Smash to Smithereens since I would rather destroy as many artifacts as possible instead of needing to deal as much damage as possible. This could be a problem against Karn Tron decks though I haven't yet faced that to know whether or not this is a good idea.
Also a question on Shattering Spree - if my opponent has multiple artifacts on board including a Spellskite, in what order should I stack a replicated Spree so Spellskite doesn't prevent me from destroying the other artifacts?
Just played a Daily Event on mtgo. Other than the aforementioned Shattering Spree, the other change I made was to bring in Aura Barbs and take out Volcanic Fallout. Pretty much an overreaction to the last time I played a DE where I faced that G/W Enchantment deck round 1 and got destroyed 0-2.
Of course this time around my first two rounds were against decks playing Geist of Saint Traft. I wound up winning 2-0 both games as neither opponent got to cast Geist (round 2 game 2 was because I had Magus of the Moon in and he was completely locked out).
Note to self: Bring back at least one Volcanic Fallout ASAP!
Round 3 I lost 0-2 to a UWR control deck. He was able to survive both games with very little life due to a number of counters/cantrips. I had 8 land out in game 2 but never drew Akroma
Also, I really hope that Ancestral Visions is never unbanned!
Round 4 was against Splinter Twin. He had a turn 3 Sprite but no Splinter Twin or Kiki-Jiki (it didn't help that he was using Thought Scour as a cantrip for some reason) and I was able to win with Hellkite. Game 2 I had enough removal to kill his creatures and then won with Hellkite again.
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For other 5-drops, I've also looked into Tarox Bladewing if your meta isn't filled with spirits but he is boltable. I'm mostly looking for hasty fliers, so Demigod fits awesomely here as well. Better yet when against Jund if you can stabalize(hello there, Volcanic Fallout) then cast one with a copy or two in the grave. I also have a personal fondness to Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs but he's not too great, though out of bolt range.
Others, based on colors and splashes:
Mono:
Caldera Hellion in creature heavy builds, I guess? Tends to clear his path for the next turn, just no evasion. No haste also stinks.
Thunderblust huge front end, haste, and has persist. Tramples after persisting. All awesome, but his back end is so small it could be troublesome most of the time.
Magma Phoenix I kind of like this guy. It's persistent if you keep your opponent from hitting your grave. It also bolts everything on death. Haste and it'd be too awesome. A Koth mitigates the manacost a bit, but is better used elsewhere.
Lovisa Coldeyes or Voracious Dragon I guess if you want to run tribal sledge(dragon's devour needs gobs for 2nd devour effect).
Dominus of Fealty powerful against permanents. Smaller body than demigod, no haste/evasion, but turns your opponent's creatures against them.
Argus Kos, Wojek Veteran is pretty good in boros builds with lots of creatures. Can be bolted though.
Nobilis of War powerful and lives bolt. Pumps your small attackers into threats. Pretty solid.
Blitz Hellion could be really good in R/g. 7/7 hasty, trampling, power is good. Only downside is that it doesn't stick.
Deus of Calamity powerful guy, but his second ability will rarely come through I feel.
In my opinion most others are too slow and don't affect the board enough.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=453209
That list could give you a good starting point.
I agree that Demigod of Revenge and Thundermaw Hellkite seem to be your best top-of-the-curve-creatures. All the others you mentioned seem to lack something that those other two got.
The first 'if' is easy early threats/sweeps and interruption in form of discard/counters. You can splash in this meta and hardly be punished for it. You can even run Bloodmoon main and not suffer by splashing and running a number of fetches.
The second 'if' is just to make your win-con more powerful. We can make a sledgehammer deck that wins t4 but give it that over-the-top 5-curve to demolish the late-game. Sledge's 4-drops can be just as, if not more, powerful than a BBE into x or y and we have burn to stop creature combo like pod.
3x Thundermaw Hellkite
4x Figure of Destiny
4x Ash Zealot
4x Flame-kin Zealot or Hellrider
4x Stormblood Berserker
4x Goblin Guide
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Lightning Helix
Sorceries:
2x Devil's Play or Red Sun's Zenith
3x Flames of the Firebrand
Lands:
4x Arid Mesa
10x Mountain
2x Sacred Foundry
4x Clifftop Retreat
5x Plains
Entirely rough list based on what I could think of and find on Gatherer to fit. It's very rough on the edges as it is.
It has hasty, powerful, beats in the early game and the ability to clear other creatures with little problem. I do feel there's a better 1-drop than the Figure of Destiny but I couldn't think of anything. I also see black as a powerful splash to fit in lingering souls, but I feel mundane doing that. I'll be throwing this and a makeshift sideboard together at some point this week on Cockatrice and test it out a bit to refine it. I think Kargan Dragonlord could fit in Stormblood Berserker's slot if he underperforms.
Edit: The Mirrodin heroes also seem like very good fits for the 4 cmc slot.
Use Magma Jet. It will allow you to set up your end game threats easier with its scry ability. Also, flame-kin zealot just isn't that good (except when it's a finisher for dredge). Stormblood beserker doesn't seem to really fit this game plan either, and that said, your hellrider's will be less effective. I like the Hero of Oxid Ridge better for this deck.
Also, I'm not sure about goblin guide. This deck wants to get to late game, and goblin guide is really bad for late game plans. But of course, it's always a great source of early damage, so...I could see you possibly changing that.
Modern Junk Primer
Legacy ANT Primer
L1 Judge
Gravecrawler
Rakdos Cackler
Stromkirk Noble
Kird Ape since we have fetches and duals.
We also have Rakdos Augermage, whose ability might be worth considering. Especially if you opt for Gravecrawler over Guide. Kargan Dragonlord is a pretty good 3-drop for this sort of deck. At the very least it can draw removal.
This is acutally more a Jund Sledge in so much as its primarly red, with sprinklings of black and green (ala the actual Shard, Jund) versus Rock with Lightning Bolt ala the traditional Modern Jung deck:
4 Blood Crypt
3 Arid Mesa
4 Steam Vents
1 Forest
1 Swamp
7 Mountain
4 Gravecrawler
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Ash Zealot
3 Hellrider
3 Tragic Slip
4 Dreadbore
That leaves some space for additions and modifications. This was entirely off the top of my head so its probably more rentsy than it needs to be.
Goblin Guide is a staple in any modern red aggro deck. He's a clock on t1 at best and a chump blocker at worst. Gravecrawler is awful in a deck where the only zombies are a playset of Gravecrawlers.
Magma Spray > Pillar of Flame, and is a SB card at best.
:symb::symr::symg: Living End
Delver
RDW
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Blood Crypt
8 Mountain
4 Goblin Guide
4 Ash Zealot
4 Kargan Dragonlord
3 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Hellrider
4 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Searing Blaze
4 Blightning
2 Bonfire of the Damned
What about this? Splash black for Blightning with red beats? I've read Archwing Dragon is good vs UWX control decks in Standard. What about here? Maybe a 2-2 split with Hellrider/Hero of Oxxid Ridge?
4 Arid Mesa
21 Snow-Covered Mountain
Creatures
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Ash Zealot
3 Kargan Dragonlord
1 Magus of the Moon
4 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Skred
3 Red Sun's Zenith
Enchantment
1 Blood Moon
Planeswalker
3 Koth of the Hammer
2 Akroma, Angel of Fury
1 Combust
1 Dismember
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Magus of the Moon
2 Shatterstorm
2 Smash to Smithereens
1 Torpor Orb
2 Volcanic Fallout
Will give a tourney report in a bit, once mtgo allows me to replay the games!
Edit: And here it is!
Round 1 - Affinity (2-0)
Game 1: After removing my opponents Master of Etherium thanks to Skred and Grim Lavamancer, I was able to finish him off with a leveled-up Dragonlord one turn before he would have won with Ravager and Plating.
Side: In: 2x Shatterstorm, 2x Smash to Smithereens; Out: 2x Thundermaw Hellkite, 1x Magus of the Moon, 1x Ash Zealot
Game 2: Opening hand had 2 Smashes and a Figure. Drew RSZ to deal with his Steel Overseer and removed his other early artifacts with Smash. Hellkite did the rest.
Round 2 - Splinter Twin (2-1)
Game 1: Only had two lands and his Spellskite stopped me from using two bolts to take out his T3 Exarch. T4 Splinter Twin ended that one.
Side: In: 2x Smash to Smithereens, 1x Torpor Orb, 1x Combust, 1x Dismember; Out: 1x Magus of the Moon, 1x Blood Moon, 3x Ash Zealot
Game 2: Had Torpor Orb in my opening hand so I was able to take things slowly and remove any creature he put in play. Turn 10 Hellkite caused him to concede.
Game 3: My opening hand was bolt, combust and 5 lands - of course I kept it! I'd like to think that after he saw my hand using probe my opponent went tilt in trying not to lose to such a hand T6 Koth followed by T7 Hellkite ended that.
Round 3 - R/B/W Burn (2-0)
Game 1: Makes sense that the first time I get to use Magus of the Moon is against a burn deck (it did have some use since he had two Blackcleave Cliffs and a Sacred Foundry out and forced him to use a bolt on it)! I was able to outrace him after removing his Deathrite Shaman and Goblin Guide.
Side: In: 1x Magus of the Moon; Out: 1x Blood Moon
Game 2: Bolted his T1 and T2 Shamans and he then seemed to be mana flooded as I only saw a Bump the next few turns. A T5 Koth forced him to use Helix and Searing Blaze to remove it and my Lavamancer. Another Helix was used on my Dragonlord before I finally won with Hellkite followed by RSZ.
Round 4 - Death & Taxes (2-1)
Game 1: Made a huge misplay by using Skred early on to temporarily take out his Finks (I should have held off for later on when he cast Hero of Bladehold). Drawing all 3 Koths by T4 didn't help either.
Side: In: 1x Combust, 2x Smash to Smithereens; Out: 1x Magus of the Moon, 1x Blood Moon, 1x Ash Zealot
Game 2: Started out with 2 lands but thankfully I never got manascrewed during the game (Path on Ash Zealot also helped). RSZ was used to remove Finks and then Hero. Hellkite and a leveled-up Dragonlord won it for me.
Game 3: Used RSZ on his Finks and Skred on his Hero while outracing him with Zealot and Figure.
Overall I found this deck to be really good late game against decks that I would otherwise try to outrace (there's no way I would have kept such a hand against Twin if I was playing Burn). I still need to see how this does against Jund seeing how some of the cards in the deck were included to stop that.
And I really want to see if Akroma can be of any use against U/W/x decks or lifegain decks
Do you think Goblin Guide would've been a bad card for your deck? I've never been a big fan of Lavamancer, since Figure and Dragonlord seem like better mana sinks.
You either want to be Mono R or RW.
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Are you being sarcasting? R for hasty 2/2...seems better than Lavamancer, but not Figure.
While I could have had it in the deck along with Lavamancer, I felt Ash Zealot was a better fit since it doesn't give my opponent extra cards, has first strike to deal with their x/2's or trade with Thalia, and can be used as Snapcaster Mage hate.
Im not being sarcastic I promise. Guide just isn't good in a midrange deck. The deck is not very explosive, so the Guide does not play well into your gameplan.
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Lavamancer is only bad against combo, because he is slow. If you're not facing a lot of combo, you should get a lot of use.
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4 Figure of Destiny
2 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Boggart Ram-Gang
3 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Hellrider
4 Demigod of Revenge
Instants/Sorceries: 17
2 Burst Lightning
3 Incinerate
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Molten Rain
4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Ravaging Ravine
4 Fire-Lit Thicket
4 Rootbound Crag
12 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Combust
3 Naturalize
3 Relic of the Progenitus
4 Shattering Spree
3 Torpor Orb
It reminds me of Sledgehammer in that the card advantage you get from Bloodbraid Elf gives you a late game push, while you have Figure + Burn/LD early on.
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That might be my love of mono-color decks talking though. I saw a 3-1 yesterday from a mono-blue faerie deck that made me want to go trade for Caverns of Souls and Mutavaults and Cryptic Commands and Vedalken Shackles...and then financial reality set in.
This one looks a little more realistic and every bit as fun.
GBW Melira Pod WBG
BW Tokens WB
3-Drops: Gathan Raiders
4-Drops: Hellrider/Rakdos Pit Dragon
5-Drop: Demigod of Revenge
Just played that RG aggro deck against MBC in Cockatrice. I made some small changes; I removed Volcanic Fallout for Kargan Dragonlord and Burst Lightning for Dismember. The deck was able to hold its own vs. multiple early game Thoughtseize and Gatekeeper of Malakir followed up by a late game duo of Liliana of the Dark Realms + Korlash, Heir to Blackblade with an equipped Nightmare Lash with a total of 6 or 7 Swamps out. Bloodbraid Elf was truly a lifesaver.
The Raging Ravine were also very helpful; it taps to attack as a 3/3 elemental, but becomes a 4/4 during the damage step. Going with some black, I'd split the Ravine 2-2 with Lavaclaw Reaches and Dreadbore over Dismember. Domri Rade could be an interesting choice in the deck over Chandra's Phoenix given the large creature base.
Round 1 I faced Cedric Phillips who was playing Naya Pod. You can see the match here starting at 1:40.
Game 1 I made a huge mistake by using my second bolt on his Heirarch. By that point he had 3 lands and I should have paid more attention at taking out his higher level creatures. He was able to pod for the win in the next two turns and the only good thing was that he didn't see most of the deck and assumed it was a burn deck.
I sided in 2 Cages, 2 Smashes, 1 Torpor Orb, 1 Dismember and sided out 4 Ash Zealot's, 2 Red Sun Zeniths.
Game 2 was won with Dragonlord and this time I removed his higher CMC creatures.
Game 3 I got mana screwed; only 3 lands in the entire match and I had a Koth from the very start! But I also got very lucky by drawing a ton of removals (including top decking my lone Dismember after he got Spellskite in play), Torpor Orb and Blood Moon (had Magus in my opening hand). Getting my Figure of Destiny exiled turn 2 proved to be huge.
Round 2 I faced Affinity and promptly lost 0-2
Game 1 I didn't have enough removals and had no chance once he brought in Ravager and Game 2 I had my burn but never draw any artifact removal and he soon got 2 Ravagers in play.
I also decided to have Shattering Spree in the sideboard instead of Smash to Smithereens since I would rather destroy as many artifacts as possible instead of needing to deal as much damage as possible. This could be a problem against Karn Tron decks though I haven't yet faced that to know whether or not this is a good idea.
Also a question on Shattering Spree - if my opponent has multiple artifacts on board including a Spellskite, in what order should I stack a replicated Spree so Spellskite doesn't prevent me from destroying the other artifacts?
Of course this time around my first two rounds were against decks playing Geist of Saint Traft. I wound up winning 2-0 both games as neither opponent got to cast Geist (round 2 game 2 was because I had Magus of the Moon in and he was completely locked out).
Note to self: Bring back at least one Volcanic Fallout ASAP!
Round 3 I lost 0-2 to a UWR control deck. He was able to survive both games with very little life due to a number of counters/cantrips. I had 8 land out in game 2 but never drew Akroma
Also, I really hope that Ancestral Visions is never unbanned!
Round 4 was against Splinter Twin. He had a turn 3 Sprite but no Splinter Twin or Kiki-Jiki (it didn't help that he was using Thought Scour as a cantrip for some reason) and I was able to win with Hellkite. Game 2 I had enough removal to kill his creatures and then won with Hellkite again.