Im seeing this now. I knew that the cmc of thr spell is 1 plus x, which was mana paid, but I had no clue discarding a card to make x=1 would make it a 3 cmc spell, since apperently x effects all u
Instances of the use of it including cmc
Thats a really weird card man.
So conflag flash back will always be cmc 1 or 3 or 5 ect, so weird
No. The flash back is a cost to play it from the graveyard, but doesnt change its cmc. Its cmc is 1. So it will be countered.
This is wrong. The CMC while it is on the stack (which is the only place that matters for Chalice of the Void) is 1 + twice whatever you chose for X. So if you cast Conflagrate for X = 6, then the CMC will be 1 + 6 + 6 = 13. As long as you cast if for more than 0, it won't be countered by Chalice.
Got a short tournament report for you guys. Went 4-0 at my LGS' Modern weekly tournament. My deck is a few cards off what I consider an optimal build (still need a 3rd loam but haven't picked it up yet) and I want to cut Shriekhorn asap. Here's what I played:
Worth noting that I'm keen to swap Phantasmagorian out for a Haunted Dead for the next time I play - it was a fine discard outlet in the Tormenting Voice / Shriekhorn version where I felt we were lacking ways to put cards into the graveyard, but I feel it's less relevant now.
Round 1: Eldrazi & Taxes (2-1)
In game 1 I kept a hand with 5 lands, Cathartic Reunion and Stinkweed Imp and overran him on turn 4 through his turn 1 relic. Game 2 he landed an early Auriok Champion after I sided in Lightning Axe and Darkblast and couldn't find a way to kill it. Eventually I made the mistake of dredging too deep trying to enough power to punch through his lifegain, but whenever I recur my creatures after they die in combat he just gains the life back that I just dealt to him. I manage to take him from 27 down to 12 with a few cards left in my library and some hard cast dredge creatures (I realise now my plan should have been grave-troll beats as soon as I had the lands to cast them) so I ended up drawing myself out. Game 3 was a typical one-sided stomp in my favour. In: 2x Abrupt Decay, 1x Lightning Axe, 1x Darkblast. Out: 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Insolent Neonate, 1x Dakmor Salvage, 1x Conflagrate
Round 2: Abzan Company (2-0)
In both games my opponent kept hands comprised mostly of mana dorks, so after a T1 looting into T2 reunion into T3 boardwipe with conflagrate (taking out a wall of roots (prized amalgam combat damage) and 2x birds) my opponent conceded. I boarded in some more removal and had a Darkblast in my opener in game 2, and proceeded to kill each of his mana dorks as he played them while dredging slightly below the curve to keep him off his mana. Pretty easy victory here. In: 2x Abrupt Decay, 1x Lightning Axe, 1x Darkblast. Out: 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Insolent Neonate, 1x Dakmor Salvage, 1x Phantasmagorian
Round 3: Bant Eldrazi (2-1)
In game one I made a huge mistake in keeping a weak hand when not wanting to mull further down. Honestly not sure why I kept it (Neonate, Stinkweed, 4x land) but I got punished for it super hard and proceeded to die to Eldrazi beats without accomplishing anything meaningful. Boarded in some extra removal and Abrupt Decays as a hedge against graveyard hate, then game 2 was a straightforward win off the back of turn 2 Reunion (this card is bananas btw). Also helped that I had Vengeful Pharaoh in my graveyard to keep him off the offence. Also brought in another Nature's Claim in game 3 as I expected my opponent to keep a weak hand if it had a piece of graveyard hate, then mulled to 6 and kept a fine hand with a neonate, some business and the 1 of Claim. Turn 1 he plays his Cage, then on my turn 1 I Claim it and pass the turn back. He casts Ancient Stirrings (I found out later his hand was land, Stirrings and Cage) and found a Reality Smasher, then proceeded to not do anything for the next few turns as I got my dredge engine online and overwhelmed him. He later played his Smasher on defence which was Conflagrated in short order, and the game was decided. In: 1x Lightning Axe, 2x Abrupt Decay, 1x Vengeful Pharaoh, 1x Nature's Claim. Out: 1x Narcomoeba, 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Phantasmagorian, 1x Dakmor Salvage and 1x Insolent Neonate
Round 4: Burn (2-0)
My opponent here wasn't familiar with dredge so I played it more slowly and pointed out what cards did in the graveyard so the board state and triggers were clear. Kept strong hands both games and Conflagrated him and his board in games 1 and 2 respectively for the win. Think I had turn 2 Reunion in both games (had 2 in my opener for game 2) so I think that was a big part of what gave the deck enough speed to race Burn effectively. Game 1 was very close though, with him passing the turn when I had lethal on board while I was at 2 life. In: 1x Lightning Axe, 1x Gnaw to the Bone, 2x Collective Brutality. Out: 1x Phantasmagorian, 1x Insolent Neonate, 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Dakmor Salvage
Going forward I'm keen to replace the last Shriekhorn with a 3rd Life from the Loam and replace the Phantasmagorian with Haunted Dead. Also want to find some space in the sideboard for a second copy of Gnaw to the Bone but I'm not sure what to cut - Vengeful Pharaoh was a last minute addition whose slot was previously taken by the mainboard Lightning Axe, but given how well it interfered with my opponent's game plan in game 2 vs Bant Eldrazi I'm keen to hang onto it for the time being
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Dredge (117-70 W/L in games) (Pre-GGT ban: 103-70 W/L in games)
Got a short tournament report for you guys. Went 4-0 at my LGS' Modern weekly tournament. My deck is a few cards off what I consider an optimal build (still need a 3rd loam but haven't picked it up yet) and I want to cut Shriekhorn asap. Here's what I played:
Worth noting that I'm keen to swap Phantasmagorian out for a Haunted Dead for the next time I play - it was a fine discard outlet in the Tormenting Voice / Shriekhorn version where I felt we were lacking ways to put cards into the graveyard, but I feel it's less relevant now.
Round 1: Eldrazi & Taxes (2-1)
In game 1 I kept a hand with 5 lands, Cathartic Reunion and Stinkweed Imp and overran him on turn 4 through his turn 1 relic. Game 2 he landed an early Auriok Champion after I sided in Lightning Axe and Darkblast and couldn't find a way to kill it. Eventually I made the mistake of dredging too deep trying to enough power to punch through his lifegain, but whenever I recur my creatures after they die in combat he just gains the life back that I just dealt to him. I manage to take him from 27 down to 12 with a few cards left in my library and some hard cast dredge creatures (I realise now my plan should have been grave-troll beats as soon as I had the lands to cast them) so I ended up drawing myself out. Game 3 was a typical one-sided stomp in my favour. In: 2x Abrupt Decay, 1x Lightning Axe, 1x Darkblast. Out: 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Insolent Neonate, 1x Dakmor Salvage, 1x Conflagrate
Round 2: Abzan Company (2-0)
In both games my opponent kept hands comprised mostly of mana dorks, so after a T1 looting into T2 reunion into T3 boardwipe with conflagrate (taking out a wall of roots (prized amalgam combat damage) and 2x birds) my opponent conceded. I boarded in some more removal and had a Darkblast in my opener in game 2, and proceeded to kill each of his mana dorks as he played them while dredging slightly below the curve to keep him off his mana. Pretty easy victory here. In: 2x Abrupt Decay, 1x Lightning Axe, 1x Darkblast. Out: 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Insolent Neonate, 1x Dakmor Salvage, 1x Phantasmagorian
Round 3: Bant Eldrazi (2-1)
In game one I made a huge mistake in keeping a weak hand when not wanting to mull further down. Honestly not sure why I kept it (Neonate, Stinkweed, 4x land) but I got punished for it super hard and proceeded to die to Eldrazi beats without accomplishing anything meaningful. Boarded in some extra removal and Abrupt Decays as a hedge against graveyard hate, then game 2 was a straightforward win off the back of turn 2 Reunion (this card is bananas btw). Also helped that I had Vengeful Pharaoh in my graveyard to keep him off the offence. Also brought in another Nature's Claim in game 3 as I expected my opponent to keep a weak hand if it had a piece of graveyard hate, then mulled to 6 and kept a fine hand with a neonate, some business and the 1 of Claim. Turn 1 he plays his Cage, then on my turn 1 I Claim it and pass the turn back. He casts Ancient Stirrings (I found out later his hand was land, Stirrings and Cage) and found a Reality Smasher, then proceeded to not do anything for the next few turns as I got my dredge engine online and overwhelmed him. He later played his Smasher on defence which was Conflagrated in short order, and the game was decided. In: 1x Lightning Axe, 2x Abrupt Decay, 1x Vengeful Pharaoh, 1x Nature's Claim. Out: 1x Narcomoeba, 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Phantasmagorian, 1x Dakmor Salvage and 1x Insolent Neonate
Round 4: Burn (2-0)
My opponent here wasn't familiar with dredge so I played it more slowly and pointed out what cards did in the graveyard so the board state and triggers were clear. Kept strong hands both games and Conflagrated him and his board in games 1 and 2 respectively for the win. Think I had turn 2 Reunion in both games (had 2 in my opener for game 2) so I think that was a big part of what gave the deck enough speed to race Burn effectively. Game 1 was very close though, with him passing the turn when I had lethal on board while I was at 2 life. In: 1x Lightning Axe, 1x Gnaw to the Bone, 2x Collective Brutality. Out: 1x Phantasmagorian, 1x Insolent Neonate, 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Dakmor Salvage
Going forward I'm keen to replace the last Shriekhorn with a 3rd Life from the Loam and replace the Phantasmagorian with Haunted Dead. Also want to find some space in the sideboard for a second copy of Gnaw to the Bone but I'm not sure what to cut - Vengeful Pharaoh was a last minute addition whose slot was previously taken by the mainboard Lightning Axe, but given how well it interfered with my opponent's game plan in game 2 vs Bant Eldrazi I'm keen to hang onto it for the time being
Now, one question I have is regarding the Gargadons in your SB. What I noticed after looking through your boarding choices is that you never really needed to bring them in nor do you have the MB Bridges to support their inclusion. The only usefulness I see is to save your creatures from Anger of the Gods, but it seems like a poor use of a slot, so that might give you room to include another Gnaw and maybe another Pharaoh (I found 2 particularly useful vs Eldrazi and Zoo variants).
Your performance is pretty awesome and I'm glad the deck's been treating you well. One thing that I may also suggest is swapping that MB Lightning Axe with Darkblast. Consistency is what this deck is all about and a 1 of card that has no use in the grave feels like a waste of a spell. Darkblast contributes to your dredger count and, while it doesn't do well vs any x/1+y creatures, that at least provides the indicator to board in 2 Axes and take out the Darkblast.
Great list overall and I hope you keep the beats coming!
I've ended up cutting the lighting axe I've been mainboarding for a while with a darkblast and its been more useful. With Reunion, having the main board work entirely from the yard has been super good to me. I still have to axes in the side.
The flex slot for spells is still rally for me. 20 lands, 25 dudes, 4 looting 4 reunion 3 conflagrate 3 loam and 1 rally. I wanna fit 1 darkblast MB with the infect rise, but dunno what to cut...
I personally cut down to 2 loams 2 conflags with Mom Hug in the deck. I generally always see it now that reunion does an awesome job at getting me there more often.
I run scourge devil as my 3rd conflag right now. Maybe rally is better, but im partial to the devil. Im still testing.
Just built the deck today, and played in a small 4 round tournament. Went 3-1.
Maindeck:
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Faithless Looting
4 Bloodghast
4 Cathartic Reunion
4 Narcomoeba
3 Life from the Loam
2 Golgari Thug
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Golgari Grave-troll
3 Conflagrate
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Copperline Gorge
2 Stomping Ground
2 Blood Crypt
1 Steam Vents
1 Mana Confluence
2 Dakmor Salvage
2 Mountain
Sideboard:
2 Nature's Claim
2 Lightning Axe
2 Thoughtseize
1 Darkblast
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Collective Brutality
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Vengeful Pharaoh
Thoughts/matchups:
Rd 1 Naya Zoo (no Coco): Easy 2-0. Great draws and bad draws from opponent, including 2 mulligans. Boarded in Axes, Decay, and Gnaws
Rd 2 Flayer Jund: Game 1 my opponent mulled to 5 (he knew the matchup). Dredge clinic. Game 2 I mulled to 2 looking for hate and a turn 1 play. He had turn 1 Cage turn 2 Scooze so I lost pretty quick. Game 3 I kept a great 1 lander with looting, cast it, didn't find a second land to cast reunion or my abrupt decay in hand. Boarded in Pharaohs, Axes, Decay, and Claims.
Rd 3 & 4. Naya Burn: Total 4-1 in games. Dredge 'em ups and cast Gnaw for tons of life. Straightforward.
Overall reflections... I wanted to run more Claims, but could only get 2 at the last minute. I don't like Decay because I think it is almost always uncastable, so I'm cutting it. Cathartic reunion is insane!!! I see no reason not to run 4. Sometimes I boarded 1-2 out though for axes or other discard outlets. I ran 2 Thugs in order to have more dredgers for reunion and it seemed fine; no Narcomoeba interaction yet though. I did not miss/want Haunted Dead ever. I think with Cathartic Reunion it is unneeded. Thought about cutting Mana Confluence for a basic Forest. I also don't like Thoughtseize in the board. Probably cutting 2 Thoughtseize and Decay for full 4 copies of Claim and a second copy of Brutality. Also not crazy about Vengeful Pharaoh, especially since it isn't a may trigger. Does anyone else have any experience with them? Playing in another tournament tomorrow. I'll post results with the new changes.
Also planning on running this deck for GPT's on Friday at Grand Prix Atlanta. If anyone has any suggestions for sideboarding and matchup guide let me know.
So I had the 3rd game out of around 20, where devil missed leathal by 1-3 points, and rally would have killed. So I'll be using rally from here on. I also will cut the single blackcleve for a mana confluence.
I dont think Ive ever had a problem casting decay.
To be fair the one game I drew it I was unable to cast it as I was stuck on 1 land. However, I Think the other options are better. The mana Isn't perfect and I prefer fetching basic Mountain a lot of the time. I may cut 1 Copperline Gorge for the 3rd basic Mountain
I think decay is better, simply because it can hit everything, including ooze and anafenza. Id hate to have claim in against jund, only to see an ooze. In about 2 weeks, I'll go into it more, but data is trending an agree with me here. The pre cathartic reunion lists had a 50-50 on people having 2 decay in the board, post lists are at a 100%
On Tuesday I played tested against a friend playing Suicide Zoo. Cathartic Reunion continues to be fantastic, and if a player isn't constantly keeping track of Conflag's in my graveyard it is easy to pick up free wins unless they have a proper mix of Temur Battle Rage and Become Immense. Over 7 games I won 4 and lost 3. One of my losses was because I kept a strong hand with only one enabler that got Thoughtseize-d away, and then two hands that didn't have the proper mix of enablers/dredgers (one hand had no dredgers after a t1 Faithless Looting but had enablers. And another that I noted as a "slow roll," but didn't note the specifics. Figuring out when to mulligan, and getting used to playing even 4 card mulligans might be really important in getting used to sculpting your hand appropriately. Two of the wins where due to him failing to kill me and dropping to <5 life, and being able to cast conflag for lethal, one was due to a Reunion with 3 GGT dredge's into 3 Prized Amalgam and a Narcomoeba, and the last one I noted as being a grindier matchup with both of us on slower hands.
We did one sideboard game that I also lost, but didn't draw into any of my sideboard cards and simply tried to play like a pre-sideboard game but didn't get there. Sided out 1x bloodghast, 2x shriekhorn, 2x life of the loam, 1x haunted dead. Brought in 2x Abrupt Decay, 3x Axe, and 1x Vengeful Pharaoh. We both had "open" sideboards just to see what worked. But the store closed before we could get another 6-7 games in. I'll probably play test more later.
I'm also on the 2/2 loam conflag. Before mom hug, it was needed more copies of them to actually see them, now with more dig power, its easier to find them.
It not like you will cast 3 different copies of loam, you will cast the same copy over and over by dredging it, so, once you hit one loam, you will rarely needs another. And with conflag it's pretty rare that you will ever have enough cards to cast it a 3rd time.
Last night, I played in a small tournament and went 3-1 before the split in top 4. I hugged mom really hard that night. It accelerates our deck very nicely and helps to dig for SB cards if we really need them.
Scrapheap Scrounger is also the bee's knees. I was able to reserve my hand for Conflag and return my Amalgams with no issue. I'll look into Lantern's fave Devil because it contributes to Gnaws and Grave-Troll counts. I'll post more notes and my decklist later.
Last night, I played in a small tournament and went 3-1 before the split in top 4. I hugged mom really hard that night. It accelerates our deck very nicely and helps to dig for SB cards if we really need them.
Scrapheap Scrounger is also the bee's knees. I was able to reserve my hand for Conflag and return my Amalgams with no issue. I'll look into Lantern's fave Devil because it contributes to Gnaws and Grave-Troll counts. I'll post more notes and my decklist later.
I switched to rally. Devil was always shy of lethal by a few points.
Jeeeeezzzzz I got a close game against scapeshift.
Got madcapped into an empirion. had to start loaming to kill it, was a card short, so I played my one of gnaw to the bone to get from 18 to 54 life, so Im immune to scapeshift. He starts attacking with emperion, which I take. I get loam again, and blast it with conflag. I manage to get him to 6 eventually, refusing to bring back my ghast because I didnt want to lose to an anger. He hard casts a emperion. I start loaming again, but get to only 7 cards in hand, and no conflag!
I ended up dredging to 2 cards left, and I think... if its the last card, I'll lose, if its the first, I can still win. Flashback a gnaw, get up to 80+ life. draw, its a comflag, but I'll have 8 cards in hand after casting it (need a land), and I cast conflag for 1, then flashback for 7, killing the emperion, and attacking for the win with haste ghasts for the win.
I prefer Devil over Rally for a few reasons
It's an extra body to block if you haven't been able to fully wipe their board, it activates amalgam if you need/want to unearth it early for some reason, it adds to creature count for Gnaw/GGT, etc. can't be countered (barring Stifle) but that's not very relevant
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Instances of the use of it including cmc
Thats a really weird card man.
So conflag flash back will always be cmc 1 or 3 or 5 ect, so weird
This is wrong. The CMC while it is on the stack (which is the only place that matters for Chalice of the Void) is 1 + twice whatever you chose for X. So if you cast Conflagrate for X = 6, then the CMC will be 1 + 6 + 6 = 13. As long as you cast if for more than 0, it won't be countered by Chalice.
1x Blood Crypt
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Copperline Gorge
2x Dakmor Salvage
2x Mana Confluence
2x Mountain
2x Stomping Ground
3x Wooded Foothills
Instant (1)
1x Lightning Axe
Artifact (1)
1x Shriekhorn
4x Bloodghast
4x Golgari Grave-Troll
4x Insolent Neonate
4x Narcomoeba
1x Phantasmagorian
4x Prized Amalgam
4x Stinkweed Imp
Sorcery (13)
4x Cathartic Reunion
3x Conflagrate
4x Faithless Looting
2x Life from the Loam
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Collective Brutality
1x Darkblast
1x Gnaw to the Bone
3x Greater Gargadon
1x Lightning Axe
2x Nature's Claim
1x Vengeful Pharaoh
Worth noting that I'm keen to swap Phantasmagorian out for a Haunted Dead for the next time I play - it was a fine discard outlet in the Tormenting Voice / Shriekhorn version where I felt we were lacking ways to put cards into the graveyard, but I feel it's less relevant now.
Round 1: Eldrazi & Taxes (2-1)
In game 1 I kept a hand with 5 lands, Cathartic Reunion and Stinkweed Imp and overran him on turn 4 through his turn 1 relic. Game 2 he landed an early Auriok Champion after I sided in Lightning Axe and Darkblast and couldn't find a way to kill it. Eventually I made the mistake of dredging too deep trying to enough power to punch through his lifegain, but whenever I recur my creatures after they die in combat he just gains the life back that I just dealt to him. I manage to take him from 27 down to 12 with a few cards left in my library and some hard cast dredge creatures (I realise now my plan should have been grave-troll beats as soon as I had the lands to cast them) so I ended up drawing myself out. Game 3 was a typical one-sided stomp in my favour. In: 2x Abrupt Decay, 1x Lightning Axe, 1x Darkblast. Out: 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Insolent Neonate, 1x Dakmor Salvage, 1x Conflagrate
Round 2: Abzan Company (2-0)
In both games my opponent kept hands comprised mostly of mana dorks, so after a T1 looting into T2 reunion into T3 boardwipe with conflagrate (taking out a wall of roots (prized amalgam combat damage) and 2x birds) my opponent conceded. I boarded in some more removal and had a Darkblast in my opener in game 2, and proceeded to kill each of his mana dorks as he played them while dredging slightly below the curve to keep him off his mana. Pretty easy victory here. In: 2x Abrupt Decay, 1x Lightning Axe, 1x Darkblast. Out: 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Insolent Neonate, 1x Dakmor Salvage, 1x Phantasmagorian
Round 3: Bant Eldrazi (2-1)
In game one I made a huge mistake in keeping a weak hand when not wanting to mull further down. Honestly not sure why I kept it (Neonate, Stinkweed, 4x land) but I got punished for it super hard and proceeded to die to Eldrazi beats without accomplishing anything meaningful. Boarded in some extra removal and Abrupt Decays as a hedge against graveyard hate, then game 2 was a straightforward win off the back of turn 2 Reunion (this card is bananas btw). Also helped that I had Vengeful Pharaoh in my graveyard to keep him off the offence. Also brought in another Nature's Claim in game 3 as I expected my opponent to keep a weak hand if it had a piece of graveyard hate, then mulled to 6 and kept a fine hand with a neonate, some business and the 1 of Claim. Turn 1 he plays his Cage, then on my turn 1 I Claim it and pass the turn back. He casts Ancient Stirrings (I found out later his hand was land, Stirrings and Cage) and found a Reality Smasher, then proceeded to not do anything for the next few turns as I got my dredge engine online and overwhelmed him. He later played his Smasher on defence which was Conflagrated in short order, and the game was decided. In: 1x Lightning Axe, 2x Abrupt Decay, 1x Vengeful Pharaoh, 1x Nature's Claim. Out: 1x Narcomoeba, 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Phantasmagorian, 1x Dakmor Salvage and 1x Insolent Neonate
Round 4: Burn (2-0)
My opponent here wasn't familiar with dredge so I played it more slowly and pointed out what cards did in the graveyard so the board state and triggers were clear. Kept strong hands both games and Conflagrated him and his board in games 1 and 2 respectively for the win. Think I had turn 2 Reunion in both games (had 2 in my opener for game 2) so I think that was a big part of what gave the deck enough speed to race Burn effectively. Game 1 was very close though, with him passing the turn when I had lethal on board while I was at 2 life. In: 1x Lightning Axe, 1x Gnaw to the Bone, 2x Collective Brutality. Out: 1x Phantasmagorian, 1x Insolent Neonate, 1x Shriekhorn, 1x Dakmor Salvage
Going forward I'm keen to replace the last Shriekhorn with a 3rd Life from the Loam and replace the Phantasmagorian with Haunted Dead. Also want to find some space in the sideboard for a second copy of Gnaw to the Bone but I'm not sure what to cut - Vengeful Pharaoh was a last minute addition whose slot was previously taken by the mainboard Lightning Axe, but given how well it interfered with my opponent's game plan in game 2 vs Bant Eldrazi I'm keen to hang onto it for the time being
Dredge (117-70 W/L in games) (Pre-GGT ban: 103-70 W/L in games)
Now, one question I have is regarding the Gargadons in your SB. What I noticed after looking through your boarding choices is that you never really needed to bring them in nor do you have the MB Bridges to support their inclusion. The only usefulness I see is to save your creatures from Anger of the Gods, but it seems like a poor use of a slot, so that might give you room to include another Gnaw and maybe another Pharaoh (I found 2 particularly useful vs Eldrazi and Zoo variants).
Your performance is pretty awesome and I'm glad the deck's been treating you well. One thing that I may also suggest is swapping that MB Lightning Axe with Darkblast. Consistency is what this deck is all about and a 1 of card that has no use in the grave feels like a waste of a spell. Darkblast contributes to your dredger count and, while it doesn't do well vs any x/1+y creatures, that at least provides the indicator to board in 2 Axes and take out the Darkblast.
Great list overall and I hope you keep the beats coming!
I run scourge devil as my 3rd conflag right now. Maybe rally is better, but im partial to the devil. Im still testing.
Maindeck:
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Faithless Looting
4 Bloodghast
4 Cathartic Reunion
4 Narcomoeba
3 Life from the Loam
2 Golgari Thug
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Golgari Grave-troll
3 Conflagrate
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Copperline Gorge
2 Stomping Ground
2 Blood Crypt
1 Steam Vents
1 Mana Confluence
2 Dakmor Salvage
2 Mountain
Sideboard:
2 Nature's Claim
2 Lightning Axe
2 Thoughtseize
1 Darkblast
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Collective Brutality
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Gnaw to the Bone
2 Vengeful Pharaoh
Thoughts/matchups:
Rd 1 Naya Zoo (no Coco): Easy 2-0. Great draws and bad draws from opponent, including 2 mulligans. Boarded in Axes, Decay, and Gnaws
Rd 2 Flayer Jund: Game 1 my opponent mulled to 5 (he knew the matchup). Dredge clinic. Game 2 I mulled to 2 looking for hate and a turn 1 play. He had turn 1 Cage turn 2 Scooze so I lost pretty quick. Game 3 I kept a great 1 lander with looting, cast it, didn't find a second land to cast reunion or my abrupt decay in hand. Boarded in Pharaohs, Axes, Decay, and Claims.
Rd 3 & 4. Naya Burn: Total 4-1 in games. Dredge 'em ups and cast Gnaw for tons of life. Straightforward.
Overall reflections... I wanted to run more Claims, but could only get 2 at the last minute. I don't like Decay because I think it is almost always uncastable, so I'm cutting it. Cathartic reunion is insane!!! I see no reason not to run 4. Sometimes I boarded 1-2 out though for axes or other discard outlets. I ran 2 Thugs in order to have more dredgers for reunion and it seemed fine; no Narcomoeba interaction yet though. I did not miss/want Haunted Dead ever. I think with Cathartic Reunion it is unneeded. Thought about cutting Mana Confluence for a basic Forest. I also don't like Thoughtseize in the board. Probably cutting 2 Thoughtseize and Decay for full 4 copies of Claim and a second copy of Brutality. Also not crazy about Vengeful Pharaoh, especially since it isn't a may trigger. Does anyone else have any experience with them? Playing in another tournament tomorrow. I'll post results with the new changes.
Also planning on running this deck for GPT's on Friday at Grand Prix Atlanta. If anyone has any suggestions for sideboarding and matchup guide let me know.
To be fair the one game I drew it I was unable to cast it as I was stuck on 1 land. However, I Think the other options are better. The mana Isn't perfect and I prefer fetching basic Mountain a lot of the time. I may cut 1 Copperline Gorge for the 3rd basic Mountain
On Tuesday I played tested against a friend playing Suicide Zoo. Cathartic Reunion continues to be fantastic, and if a player isn't constantly keeping track of Conflag's in my graveyard it is easy to pick up free wins unless they have a proper mix of Temur Battle Rage and Become Immense. Over 7 games I won 4 and lost 3. One of my losses was because I kept a strong hand with only one enabler that got Thoughtseize-d away, and then two hands that didn't have the proper mix of enablers/dredgers (one hand had no dredgers after a t1 Faithless Looting but had enablers. And another that I noted as a "slow roll," but didn't note the specifics. Figuring out when to mulligan, and getting used to playing even 4 card mulligans might be really important in getting used to sculpting your hand appropriately. Two of the wins where due to him failing to kill me and dropping to <5 life, and being able to cast conflag for lethal, one was due to a Reunion with 3 GGT dredge's into 3 Prized Amalgam and a Narcomoeba, and the last one I noted as being a grindier matchup with both of us on slower hands.
We did one sideboard game that I also lost, but didn't draw into any of my sideboard cards and simply tried to play like a pre-sideboard game but didn't get there. Sided out 1x bloodghast, 2x shriekhorn, 2x life of the loam, 1x haunted dead. Brought in 2x Abrupt Decay, 3x Axe, and 1x Vengeful Pharaoh. We both had "open" sideboards just to see what worked. But the store closed before we could get another 6-7 games in. I'll probably play test more later.
The list
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Wooded Foothills
2 City of Brass
2 Darkmor Salvage
3 Copperline Gorge
2 Mountains
2 Stomping Ground
1 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
1 Mana Confluence
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Bloodghast
4 Golgari-Grave Troll
4 Prized Amalgam
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Narcomoeba
1 Haunted Dead
4 Faithless Looting
4 Cathartic Reunion
2 Shriekhorn
1 Lightning Axe
2 Conflagrate
2 Life from the Loam
I'm cutting the Shriekhorns and adding back in maindeck Darkblast and Rally the Peasants. My current sideboard is
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Vengeful Pharaoh
3 Lightning Axe
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Gnaw to the Bone
3 Nature's Claim
1 Ray of Revelation
It not like you will cast 3 different copies of loam, you will cast the same copy over and over by dredging it, so, once you hit one loam, you will rarely needs another. And with conflag it's pretty rare that you will ever have enough cards to cast it a 3rd time.
Scrapheap Scrounger is also the bee's knees. I was able to reserve my hand for Conflag and return my Amalgams with no issue. I'll look into Lantern's fave Devil because it contributes to Gnaws and Grave-Troll counts. I'll post more notes and my decklist later.
I switched to rally. Devil was always shy of lethal by a few points.
Got madcapped into an empirion. had to start loaming to kill it, was a card short, so I played my one of gnaw to the bone to get from 18 to 54 life, so Im immune to scapeshift. He starts attacking with emperion, which I take. I get loam again, and blast it with conflag. I manage to get him to 6 eventually, refusing to bring back my ghast because I didnt want to lose to an anger. He hard casts a emperion. I start loaming again, but get to only 7 cards in hand, and no conflag!
I ended up dredging to 2 cards left, and I think... if its the last card, I'll lose, if its the first, I can still win. Flashback a gnaw, get up to 80+ life. draw, its a comflag, but I'll have 8 cards in hand after casting it (need a land), and I cast conflag for 1, then flashback for 7, killing the emperion, and attacking for the win with haste ghasts for the win.
So down to the wire.
It's an extra body to block if you haven't been able to fully wipe their board, it activates amalgam if you need/want to unearth it early for some reason, it adds to creature count for Gnaw/GGT, etc. can't be countered (barring Stifle) but that's not very relevant