What's Vandalblast for? Besides Affinity, is it mostly for Lantern? I know that KJ always has one in his side. Might consider a copy in my SB since there's always that one guy who plays Lantern/Tezzeret at my shop.
Also, do you guys like Spell Pierce? Personally, I barely side it in, I just don't like it in Grixis Delver.
What's Vandalblast for? Besides Affinity, is it mostly for Lantern? I know that KJ always has one in his side. Might consider a copy in my SB since there's always that one guy who plays Lantern/Tezzeret at my shop.
Also, do you guys like Spell Pierce? Personally, I barely side it in, I just don't like it in Grixis Delver.
Vandalblast is great because it is spot removal and a wipe at the same time. A good example of how to use it is vs ad nauseam, you wouldnt bring in shatterstorm here, but vandalblast is decent for slowing them down. You can also bring it in agaimst vial decks if you wish
In a more control/midrange meta I would go for 3 for sure but my current LGS meta is so wide that is unpredictable and in a lot of games I felt like the second copy I drew of YP was not influent for the game! What are your thoughts about it?
3 is a good number. It's enough that you're likely to draw one, but it's specifically not a playset so that you have less of a chance to draw 2. Pyromancer is one of your main cards against a number of decks though, so I don't think I would go below 3.
On a separate note, I've been having a bit of trouble at my local shop. I'm usually able to do fairly well against the majority of the players, but for whatever reason there's one guy on Sultai that just kicks my ass every week. I'm on a fairly stock list with one or two tweaks to fit my personal preference (I'm in love with Kolaghan's Command, okay?)
I feel like those check lands should probably turn into fast lands, but I don't particularly want to buy any. Maybe just two Mires would be better.
Anyways, I'm at a bit of a loss how to sideboard. The last time I went against him I went
-3 Bolt (keeping one in to help deal with Clique/Tar Pit alongside Kolaghan's Command)
-2 Gitaxian Probe
+1 Painful Truths
+1 Desolate Lighthouse
+1 Kolaghan's Command
+2 Cryptic Command
I try to play somewhat conservatively, but I find myself often placing multiple threats on the board because he runs a number of Disfigure and Abrupt Decay. The problem is that he also has Maelstrom Pulse and 2x Damnation in his maindeck, which makes committing too many threats into a potential 2-3 for 1.
Am I just siding wrong or is this matchup just terrible from our side?
And yeah, I figured it would be a touch matchup. I sided out Delvers the first time I went against him and still got kinda wrecked, though I suppose that's me falling prey to results oriented thinking. I'll have to try siding them out again.
Luckily for me he doesn't play Flayer or Snag (and I don't think I've ever seen Scooze, but I may be forgetting).
But thanks for the advice! I'll take it for a spin next time and see how that goes.
I been on 2 pyro for the reasons you mentioned. Can't help with sultai no actual match up exp but instinct says sultai favored. What are yall thoughts on vapor snag in our deck? I want to try it along with remand. Not in place of removal though.
I'm not a fan of Snag tbh. We have the tools to just straight up slaughter whatever comes at us without having to rely on kinda bad tempo plays like Vapor Snag.
So you have a Tasigur on board with 4 mana up with no protection in your hand. Your opponent ends the turn. You go for Tasi's ability or not? What if you have protection (even though the answer can be quite obvious)?
Trying to learn the little things about the deck and the plays that can make a huge difference between winning and losing.
Went 4-0 at ryan overturf's shop today! (yes i rubbed it in that im running pyros)
Round 1: UB fairies
Not much to say here, i outpaced his bitterblossoms with pyromancers, his creatures are all fragile and expensive, it didnt feel very close. He won game 2 due to a massive misplay involving me not bolting him in response to him championing a mutavault with mistbind when he was at 4 with a bitterblossom. Game 3 i literally cast a delver, a Countersquall and a terminate and won
Round 2: mirror
This was a great match. Really can't bring it down to any individual plays, i won 2 extremely close games. My opponent misplayed a little, he left in delvers and didnt slowroll his tasigurs (this is important guys! Tasigurs ability is huge in grindy MU's, dont drop him without the ability to use it!) he sided out pyros as well, which is the absolute easiest way to get ahead in the mirror
Round 3: infect
Game 1 was super sketchy, he got me to 9 poison and i needed an electrolyze to kill his agent when he had 2 cards in hand and 3 mana up. He miraculously had nothing, and he never resolved another threat. Game 2 i kept a sketchy hand of bolt, 3 serum visions, delver, thought scour, Spirebluff canal. The 4 cantrips found nothing, he killed me. Game 3 was a Slaughter, as this matchup usually is
Game 4: kiki chord
I have actual no experience with this matchup but wow it didnt feel close. Our removal lines up so perfectly vs them and our pyros spiral so out of control due to them having almost no removal. Both games came down to me having 2 pyros on board and winning shortly after
@gkourou i only tried keranos for exactly 1 fnm, and only because the room literally consisted of 2 esper control, 2 grixis control, 1 jeskai nahiri, 2 jund and 1 affinity. It wasnt bad, i never had problems casting it and the times it resolved it won, not much to say. Of note he is really bad against nahiri, so you need to kill 2 or 3 of them before dropping keranos. Its probably incorrect, the better move is probably to run AV in the board to be honest
So you have a Tasigur on board with 4 mana up with no protection in your hand. Your opponent ends the turn. You go for Tasi's ability or not? What if you have protection (even though the answer can be quite obvious)?
Trying to learn the little things about the deck and the plays that can make a huge difference between winning and losing.
Depends how the game has went, have they used a few pieces of removal already? Did they chump last turn? (huge sign theres no removal)etc etc. but given no other information im activating him if i have no protection and not activating him if i do. If life totals are around 12+ then im activating him even with protection some % of the time, as the game isnt to a point where tasigur connecting will straight up end it yet.
Tldr: it depends, decks hard to pilot, yo
@gkourou i only tried keranos for exactly 1 fnm, and only because the room literally consisted of 2 esper control, 2 grixis control, 1 jeskai nahiri, 2 jund and 1 affinity. It wasnt bad, i never had problems casting it and the times it resolved it won, not much to say. Of note he is really bad against nahiri, so you need to kill 2 or 3 of them before dropping keranos. Its probably incorrect, the better move is probably to run AV in the board to be honest
I personally think Keranos is horrible in this deck, but it's exceptionally horrible against Nahiri. Her -2 can just exile it and you're left with nothing but a wasted 5 mana spell in a deck running 19 lands.
As a side note, it's really strange to hear that this deck [Nahiri] is still prevalent. It hasn't really shown up in any big events and I haven't seen it locally in months. I still think the deck is terrible, doesn't have enough answers, and wins too slow, but I guess that's just me.
As a side note, it's really strange to hear that this deck still prevalent. It hasn't really shown up in any big events and I haven't seen it locally in months. I still think the deck is terrible, doesn't have enough answers, and wins too slow, but I guess that's just me.
As a side note, it's really strange to hear that this deck still prevalent. It hasn't really shown up in any big events and I haven't seen it locally in months. I still think the deck is terrible, doesn't have enough answers, and wins too slow, but I guess that's just me.
Yeah, I've never been a fan of sideboarding haymakers against decks like Jeskai. I like going to up to Cryptic against grindy BGx decks, but against Jeskai I'd rather just make my deck as efficient as possible and prey on the fact that they play a lot of inefficient cards. Spell Snare, Dispel and Countersquall are all great against Jeskai Harbinger - especially Counersquall since it plays so nicely with Snapcaster. It can essentially clock them while answering basically everything we care about.
Not the usual Delve Delver build. Curves out at 2(4 with Snapcaster). Really wanted to play Bobs.
First tournament at lgs this week went 3-1.
Still had some lands in the mail and had to replace them with basics.
Overall was pleasantly surprised with the deck. Countersqualls were really effective, the lifeloss actually had an impact and always had something target.
Round 1 0-2
BW tokens
Game 1 Lots of tokens from multiple Lingering Souls and a finish from Westvale Abbey flip.
This deck really hates indestructibles. Game 2 Struggled to keep up with the tokens and I tapout -> he wipes the board with Zealous Persecution and I can't recover.
Round 2 2-0
Kiki Chord
Seems quite easy matchup. Bob's card advantage overrun and always had a counter for Chord of Calling.
Round 3 2-0
Jeskai Ascendancy
Strange deck with Fatestitcher, ramp creatures and Ascendancy. Discard and counterspells wins the game both rounds.
Round 4 2-1
Tron
Round 1 Bob shines again with card advantage. CountersquallKarn Liberated and Thoughtseize + Snap Thoughtseize any additional threats.
Round 2 Mulligan to 5. He plays around Mana Leak and resolves a Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger .
Round 3 Discard his Pyroclasm and have counters for the threats.
Had to mulligan in +60% hands because of one land hands. Thinking of going to 20 lands.
Thou with such low curve and the new mulligan rule(haven't played in few years) this deck mulligans smoothly.
Sideboard and land base is still very much under construction and I think 1/2 Grim Lavamancer might have a place somewhere in the 75.
Also considering Spell Snares.
Very interesting take on the deck! One huge thing Ill point out is the lack of serum visions. They not only set up your delver flips, but are a huge reason why running 19 lands is viable in this deck
another note is that visions makes pyromancer better, when you can chain a 3-4 cantrips together in a turn, make a few tokens, and end all of that with a full grip still its huge
Cryptic is pretty much impossible to achieve with the current manabase. I could see sideboarding it in a more controlling meta
Fulminator Mage vs Blood Moon is interesting - I prefer Blood Moon because you can blow out GBx decks. Fulminator Mage is nice because you can recur it via Kolaghan's Command. Overall, Blood Moon is much better I think. Against Sultai, a mix of Countersquall and Blood Moon will be sweet.
Cryptic is pretty much impossible to achieve with the current manabase. I could see sideboarding it in a more controlling meta
My decklist is further up the page, where you will see that it is indeed in my sideboard.
Cryptic is also certainly achievable with our mana - but only in grindy matchups. If you're playing the Pyromancer version you'll have somewhere around 11 cantrips (usually 4 Serum + 4 Scour + 3 Probe), which easily gets you to your land drops.
I had been messing around with a lot of different things to give me a bit more oomph against grindy decks and saw Caleb Durward playing Cryptic in his sideboard during his last video series, which got me to try it. I've been fairly impressed. Cryptic is always good against BGx decks and makes you even grindier and value oriented in the matchups where that matters. I'd definitely recommend a couple if you're up against grindy decks a lot.
As for Fulminator, I'm still not sure. I'm almost half tempted to drop them entirely but every time I do I run face first into Tron and wish that I had kept them. I do like the idea of Blood Moon against Sultai though. It may also be enough against Tron with Delver/Pyromancer still in the deck. Maybe I'll take that for a spin next week instead of Fulminator.
just had a hilarious game on modo and feel the need to share with you all. was up against what i believed was abzan coco (i saw anafenza g1), it was game 2 and things were very grindy, when all of the sudden he drops a doran the siege tower and wow was i suprised! he swings with doran for lethal, i read the text on doran a few times, and realized it applied to my dudes at well! so, i flash in a snap, target k command, block, buy back snap shock him with k command, then flashed in an IZZET STATICASTER AND SWUNG FOR LETHAl WITH IT! was a great game, very close and came to a hilarious conclusion
But I do not have too much experience with pyro builds, can anyone help?
the first trick i will tell you is to not use a stock sideboard. i personally build my sideboard before each event, with about 6 cards that are "static". what decks are prevelant in your meta first and formost?
Also, do you guys like Spell Pierce? Personally, I barely side it in, I just don't like it in Grixis Delver.
Vandalblast is great because it is spot removal and a wipe at the same time. A good example of how to use it is vs ad nauseam, you wouldnt bring in shatterstorm here, but vandalblast is decent for slowing them down. You can also bring it in agaimst vial decks if you wish
UWRjeskai nahiri UWR
UBRgrixis titi UBR
UBRgrixis delverUBR
UR ur kikimite UR
EDH
RUG Riku of Two Reflections RUG
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
UBRGYidris, Maelstrom Wielder UBRG
UBRJeleva, Nephalia's ScourgeUBR
3 is a good number. It's enough that you're likely to draw one, but it's specifically not a playset so that you have less of a chance to draw 2. Pyromancer is one of your main cards against a number of decks though, so I don't think I would go below 3.
On a separate note, I've been having a bit of trouble at my local shop. I'm usually able to do fairly well against the majority of the players, but for whatever reason there's one guy on Sultai that just kicks my ass every week. I'm on a fairly stock list with one or two tweaks to fit my personal preference (I'm in love with Kolaghan's Command, okay?)
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
4 Polluted Delta
2 Watery Grave
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Blood Crypt
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
Creatures (15)
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Gurmag Angler
3 Young Pyromancer
4 Serum Vision
4 Thought Scour
2 Spell Snare
2 Mana Leak
1 Remand
1 Murderous Cut
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Terminate
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Magma Spray
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Painful Truths
2 Dispel
2 Cryptic Command
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Kolaghan's Command
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Desolate Lighthouse
I feel like those check lands should probably turn into fast lands, but I don't particularly want to buy any. Maybe just two Mires would be better.
Anyways, I'm at a bit of a loss how to sideboard. The last time I went against him I went
-3 Bolt (keeping one in to help deal with Clique/Tar Pit alongside Kolaghan's Command)
-2 Gitaxian Probe
+1 Painful Truths
+1 Desolate Lighthouse
+1 Kolaghan's Command
+2 Cryptic Command
I try to play somewhat conservatively, but I find myself often placing multiple threats on the board because he runs a number of Disfigure and Abrupt Decay. The problem is that he also has Maelstrom Pulse and 2x Damnation in his maindeck, which makes committing too many threats into a potential 2-3 for 1.
Am I just siding wrong or is this matchup just terrible from our side?
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
And yeah, I figured it would be a touch matchup. I sided out Delvers the first time I went against him and still got kinda wrecked, though I suppose that's me falling prey to results oriented thinking. I'll have to try siding them out again.
Luckily for me he doesn't play Flayer or Snag (and I don't think I've ever seen Scooze, but I may be forgetting).
But thanks for the advice! I'll take it for a spin next time and see how that goes.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
Trying to learn the little things about the deck and the plays that can make a huge difference between winning and losing.
Round 1: UB fairies
Not much to say here, i outpaced his bitterblossoms with pyromancers, his creatures are all fragile and expensive, it didnt feel very close. He won game 2 due to a massive misplay involving me not bolting him in response to him championing a mutavault with mistbind when he was at 4 with a bitterblossom. Game 3 i literally cast a delver, a Countersquall and a terminate and won
Round 2: mirror
This was a great match. Really can't bring it down to any individual plays, i won 2 extremely close games. My opponent misplayed a little, he left in delvers and didnt slowroll his tasigurs (this is important guys! Tasigurs ability is huge in grindy MU's, dont drop him without the ability to use it!) he sided out pyros as well, which is the absolute easiest way to get ahead in the mirror
Round 3: infect
Game 1 was super sketchy, he got me to 9 poison and i needed an electrolyze to kill his agent when he had 2 cards in hand and 3 mana up. He miraculously had nothing, and he never resolved another threat. Game 2 i kept a sketchy hand of bolt, 3 serum visions, delver, thought scour, Spirebluff canal. The 4 cantrips found nothing, he killed me. Game 3 was a Slaughter, as this matchup usually is
Game 4: kiki chord
I have actual no experience with this matchup but wow it didnt feel close. Our removal lines up so perfectly vs them and our pyros spiral so out of control due to them having almost no removal. Both games came down to me having 2 pyros on board and winning shortly after
@gkourou i only tried keranos for exactly 1 fnm, and only because the room literally consisted of 2 esper control, 2 grixis control, 1 jeskai nahiri, 2 jund and 1 affinity. It wasnt bad, i never had problems casting it and the times it resolved it won, not much to say. Of note he is really bad against nahiri, so you need to kill 2 or 3 of them before dropping keranos. Its probably incorrect, the better move is probably to run AV in the board to be honest
Depends how the game has went, have they used a few pieces of removal already? Did they chump last turn? (huge sign theres no removal)etc etc. but given no other information im activating him if i have no protection and not activating him if i do. If life totals are around 12+ then im activating him even with protection some % of the time, as the game isnt to a point where tasigur connecting will straight up end it yet.
Tldr: it depends, decks hard to pilot, yo
UWRjeskai nahiri UWR
UBRgrixis titi UBR
UBRgrixis delverUBR
UR ur kikimite UR
EDH
RUG Riku of Two Reflections RUG
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
UBRGYidris, Maelstrom Wielder UBRG
UBRJeleva, Nephalia's ScourgeUBR
I personally think Keranos is horrible in this deck, but it's exceptionally horrible against Nahiri. Her -2 can just exile it and you're left with nothing but a wasted 5 mana spell in a deck running 19 lands.
As a side note, it's really strange to hear that this deck [Nahiri] is still prevalent. It hasn't really shown up in any big events and I haven't seen it locally in months. I still think the deck is terrible, doesn't have enough answers, and wins too slow, but I guess that's just me.
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
UR ....... WUBR ........... WB ............. RGW ........ UBR ....... WUB .... BGU
Spells / Blink & Combo / Token Grind / Dino Tribal / Draw Cards / Zombies / Reanimate
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
Very interesting take on the deck! One huge thing Ill point out is the lack of serum visions. They not only set up your delver flips, but are a huge reason why running 19 lands is viable in this deck
UWRjeskai nahiri UWR
UBRgrixis titi UBR
UBRgrixis delverUBR
UR ur kikimite UR
EDH
RUG Riku of Two Reflections RUG
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
UBRGYidris, Maelstrom Wielder UBRG
UBRJeleva, Nephalia's ScourgeUBR
UWRjeskai nahiri UWR
UBRgrixis titi UBR
UBRgrixis delverUBR
UR ur kikimite UR
EDH
RUG Riku of Two Reflections RUG
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
UBRGYidris, Maelstrom Wielder UBRG
UBRJeleva, Nephalia's ScourgeUBR
What about Fulminator Mage? Better than Blood Moon?
You could go for those too against Sultai.
Fulminator Mage vs Blood Moon is interesting - I prefer Blood Moon because you can blow out GBx decks. Fulminator Mage is nice because you can recur it via Kolaghan's Command. Overall, Blood Moon is much better I think. Against Sultai, a mix of Countersquall and Blood Moon will be sweet.
My decklist is further up the page, where you will see that it is indeed in my sideboard.
Cryptic is also certainly achievable with our mana - but only in grindy matchups. If you're playing the Pyromancer version you'll have somewhere around 11 cantrips (usually 4 Serum + 4 Scour + 3 Probe), which easily gets you to your land drops.
I had been messing around with a lot of different things to give me a bit more oomph against grindy decks and saw Caleb Durward playing Cryptic in his sideboard during his last video series, which got me to try it. I've been fairly impressed. Cryptic is always good against BGx decks and makes you even grindier and value oriented in the matchups where that matters. I'd definitely recommend a couple if you're up against grindy decks a lot.
As for Fulminator, I'm still not sure. I'm almost half tempted to drop them entirely but every time I do I run face first into Tron and wish that I had kept them. I do like the idea of Blood Moon against Sultai though. It may also be enough against Tron with Delver/Pyromancer still in the deck. Maybe I'll take that for a spin next week instead of Fulminator.
URW Control
WBG Abzan
GRW Burn
EDH
GR Rosheen Meanderer
I am running Jim Davis List:
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=110099
But I do not have too much experience with pyro builds, can anyone help?
the first trick i will tell you is to not use a stock sideboard. i personally build my sideboard before each event, with about 6 cards that are "static". what decks are prevelant in your meta first and formost?
UWRjeskai nahiri UWR
UBRgrixis titi UBR
UBRgrixis delverUBR
UR ur kikimite UR
EDH
RUG Riku of Two Reflections RUG
UBR Marchesa, the Black Rose UBR
UBRGYidris, Maelstrom Wielder UBRG
UBRJeleva, Nephalia's ScourgeUBR