I agree. Genesis is good in two situations: (A) the card you want is on top, and (B) you have 7+ mana. If you play it, you want a devotion deck with 3-4 Nykthos. That way, the progression from 5 to 7 is natural as you can have 5 devotion turning 3 lands into 5 mana. But case A is important. Say you scry a Polukranos and want it now. Tap 4GG and put a 4/4 and 5/5 on the field.
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Current Awesome Deck: UWAll-In GiftsWU Consistent, Resiliant, and way overpowered, making multiple 4/4s per turn.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWUFree Stuff MidrangeUWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
If we're interested in souls, I feel Soul of New Phyrexia is the best choice, given that it can protect our beasts from End Hostilities and other destroy effects. Genesis, at a high enough X, can also protect our main monsters from Crackling Doom.
If we're interested in souls, I feel Soul of New Phyrexia is the best choice, given that it can protect our beasts from End Hostilities and other destroy effects. Genesis, at a high enough X, can also protect our main monsters from Crackling Doom.
Souls are one of the most mana inefficient mythics WotC has given us in a long time. Hornet Queen is probably the most efficient creature we can be playing at more than 6 cmc -- aside from creatures like Genesis Hydra, which, if x is greater than 4, is the definition of mana efficient.
Here is an article discussing Sarkhan vs Stormbreath. A few of the lists are from the Monsters deck, so I've decided to provide you all with a hyperlink: http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=12234
Many in here, myself included, seem to have underestimated Xenagos. "Bad" as he is, he's showing up in quite a few of the RG decks that make it.
I don't know how much stock I'd put into any of those lists. Lowry has had varying levels of success with RG monsters but I'm under the impression he hasn't quite found it yet.
Manfield's own list is... 22 lands. 22.
7 four drops
4 five drops.
22 lands. Think about it.
I don't think there's that much value in that article as it was written to push mythic rares.
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Xenagos is an "easy include" but not necessarily a PW you want in RG.
He's great against control (and he was good last year due to being a counter to Hero's Downfall and Desecration Demon). He's also great when your deck is meant to muck up the ground and churn out Hornet Queens due to the fact that he is largely a 4cmc ramp spell.
He's not what I'm looking for in a beatdown planeswalker.
I came pretty loaded for it at a tournament yesterday - 2 main deck Polis Crushers, sideboard cards including Burn Away, Anger of the Gods, Back to Nature, Reclamation Sage.
The first game I had a mulligan to 5 and could not keep pace with Sidisi + Ashiok.
The second game I ended up with a lot of control cards but not enough pressure to win in time.
I'm wondering if I should just go even bigger, as the control plays seemed to dilute my deck plan - though when you clear a hornet queen + bees, Sidisi and a sylvan carytid with one card (Anger of the Gods) that was clearly worth it.
Genesis Hydra seems key to this match?
Have not done enough testing against Sidisi , so advice from those who have appreciated. My build of G/R owns Abzan but struggles with U/W heroic and Sidisi.
I would play destructive revelry over sage and crusher, instant speed and deals 2 damage.
This guy top 8'd this past weekend. I've been playing 50 of his 60 and have found aggressive 3 drops is sorta' where this deck wants to be in this format. Polukranos, World Eater is also not really worth a slot since it's just fodder for Abzan Charm or Hero's Downfall -- whereas Ashcloud Phoenix and Stormbreath Dragon make them have one or the other. Like last year, we do want to stretch people's removal and Polyk doesn't always forward that plan.
I went 2-2 drop in a win-a-case last week, losing to Whip (bad beats story) and Rw tokens (not a great matchup since Chained to the Rocks is bonkers).
I've been pondering removing Lightning Strike for a number of Gather Courage and Arc Lightning. Gather Courage is fantastic against Lightning Strike decks trying to gain tempo on you by killing your dorks and Heirs. At worst, Gather Courage is a fine late game trick. If you're drawing it with no creatures on the field, well then, that's not the card's fault, that's yours for not having a bullet in the chamber. I'm playing 1x.
I came pretty loaded for it at a tournament yesterday - 2 main deck Polis Crushers, sideboard cards including Burn Away, Anger of the Gods, Back to Nature, Reclamation Sage.
The first game I had a mulligan to 5 and could not keep pace with Sidisi + Ashiok.
The second game I ended up with a lot of control cards but not enough pressure to win in time.
I'm wondering if I should just go even bigger, as the control plays seemed to dilute my deck plan - though when you clear a hornet queen + bees, Sidisi and a sylvan carytid with one card (Anger of the Gods) that was clearly worth it.
Genesis Hydra seems key to this match?
Have not done enough testing against Sidisi , so advice from those who have appreciated. My build of G/R owns Abzan but struggles with U/W heroic and Sidisi.
I would play destructive revelry over sage and crusher, instant speed and deals 2 damage.
I'm not sure Destructive Revelry would substantially swing the matchup. Like, when you're already running enchant hate, one or the other is only going to change your margins. The best way to beat Sidsi is to race with Ashcloud Phoenix or to just go waaaayyyyy bigger with Hornet Queens and such.
The deck focuses on early drops, with 12 three drops, possible to be played on turn 2 and haste (although Boon Satyr not technically haste). I would say the list is the closest to being like Temur Aggro but does not hurt from pain lands too much, but like any other aggro decks, Hornet Nest is a real pain.
I thought the 3 drop slot was pretty clogged and found that to be the case when I slung some games with it.
I'd prefer more 2 drops if it looks like we're going to have to stay low to the ground and I've tried stuff like Temur Charger and Borderland Marauder. It hasn't been pretty.
When you're this low to the ground, Chandra, Pyromaster becomes a house since her falter becomes much more relevant. I've really liked her in the 60 of the builds I've been running.
I'm running a higher curve and a combination of both Monsters and Devotions. Early defense and accelerate with green cards, and win condition with red cards.
In all seriousness, the deck is a lot of fun and sort of where I was coming to with going smaller with monsters. Arc Lightning is better than Lightning Strike in this format. Although this doesn't really help with the clumped 3 drop portion since you're still running 11 3 drops (compared to Bolt's 12). Chandra is bananas. Play her. She's unbelievably good. Falters Rhino and wrecks tokens -- the sort of effect this deck is looking for. If there is any thing I think is wrong in Bolt's list, it's that there is no Chandra in the maindeck.
Harness by Force is much better when you're lower to the ground. It came in in all sorts of matchups.
I would not cut the singleton Gather Courage. The card allows you to play into tempo plays such as playing Rabblemaster into open mana and come out with a creature still on board.
The deck want to be putting pressure on people so having a turn 1 or 2 play is important, hence the crappy Borderland Marauder.
I could see playing 1x more Sarkhan in the side -- he's very good against Butcher. I could also see one more Fated Conflagration in the side.
It's basically Bolt's RG monsters, although Mize claims he was playing it at Seattle (not sure of his exact list then, google hasn't gotten me there). Notable differences:
Magma Jet over Lightning Strike -- Pretty obvious, the reasoning being Mantis Rider isn't as big of a deal right now. Scry 2 helps negate some level of flooding, which the deck struggles with.
An odd Destructive Revelry in the main -- He says it's a meta call and I'd believe him.
He's been on the backburner since roughly October for me. I considered him when I was on Naya Monsters and think he'd be great. However, the mana is already atrocious for this deck given all the GG, RR, and RRR. You'd have to run 4x Battlefield Forge, 3x Mana Confluence, and 3-4x Windswept Heath. It'd be great in some matchups but not enough of a blow out to warrant the slot. Not to mention that the only other obvious draw to naya monsters (when considering little monsters) is Fleecemane Lion and your mana is too bad to support that. You could also run cards like Banishing Light but there is too much splash hate from the Whip decks so I wouldn't touch it.
Maybe. However the point of Gather Courage is to give yourself game against decks like Rw Tokens, where you want to be able to have your t2 Heir of the Wilds live while playing into open mana. We're pretty bad at defense and we don't want to lose that game to them getting under us even though we (have) to make the first move. We just don't play the tempo game as well as that sort of deck given their mana efficiency. It's definitely a bad matchup but with a bit of gamesmanship, I think we can sneak out with a win. Become Immense is really only attractive on cards like Fanatic of Xenagos. The deck would probably also want to run a number of fetchlands to support an early Become Immense as I don't really want to pay more than 3 mana for that effect.
Seems low-upside for moderate cost. Green already has so much enchant hate, I don't know if I'd bother. The only real "blow-out" value you get out of him is via monstrous -- which means 10 mana.
I think the most flexible slots are in the removal, the 4 drops (both Polukranos, World Eater and Ashcloud Phoenix are fine cards), sideboard, and planeswalker density.
I wanted to play a slightly more aggressive version of the deck. I really hope Fate Reforged prints a good red or green 1-drop because it would help this deck a lot.
I was thinking about adding Polis Crusher to the sideboard. It is really good against U/W Heroic and U/W control. Besides that, what do you guys think of the list?
Back to Nature is a massive blow out against any type of constellation deck. You usually win the game if you hit 3 of their enchantments or creatures. Barrage of Boulders can be fantastic against tokens. I like it much better than Arc Lightning because if the tokens get buffed in response, then the Lightning just gets straight up countered. But if if they pump in response to the Boulders then their creatures still can't block. The Fated Conflagration are for the midrange decks to take down Siege Rhino.
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I liked the list that Top 8'd a SCG event, discussed above. I noticed that people have already put Back to Nature and Barrage of Boulders in their s/b. Are these cards any good? They seem really good against token and constellation/reanimator strategies, but I wanted to know if people have actually playtested.
I've played Barrage of Boulders for about a month and a half in monsters. I wouldn't oversell it in the tokens MU as it's pretty meh. Every token player I've played against tries to sideboard into a control deck against me, so Barrage of Boulders only becomes ok. Arc Lightning is beneficial where you have lots of flexibility and it kills Rabblemaster which can't be undersold.
Barrage of Boulders, however, is the blow out against Constellation and Whip. However, there are situations when they've outraced you with Whip and it becomes irrelevant.
Back to Nature is fine, although I prefer a body like Reclamation Sage when the games devolve into removal slugfests. As long as you have reasonable enchant hate, you're probably doing it right. I don't understand the Polis Crusher love but if those players insist.
CA is overrated in beatdown. If you lost because you ran out of cards, the real reason is that you either misapplied your resources, had a bit of bad luck, or just got straight outplayed. If need be, Chandra can apply that 1 or 2 card juice.
Fated Conflagration takes care of Siege Rhino. I play one main since it can be more consistent than Crater's Claws when you don't have ferocious. 6 mana to kill a Rhino is a ton. At that point, the Abzan player can start deploying two spells a turn and you might be dead.
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To take a page out of Aaron Barich's book, Gather Courage is very good right now. I can't recommend the single copy enough. It's unintuitively good against tokens decks since they like to hold up lightning strike as you move to play your three drops. Gather protects your Boon Satyr and Fanatic of Xenagos.
I started out this Standard season as a Green Devotion player, first splashing Red, then Green. I then made the switch over to Temur and have been running it with average results for about the past two months. I almost made the change last week, but I ended up because of card availability, but I got the cards last night on MTGO and have most of the paper copies already for Bolt's SCG list. Honestly what really influenced me was watching Frank Lepore's videos last night. It was awesome seeing a non-Elf fan still being able to do well with the deck.
I plan on keeping Bolt's mainboard list intact (assuming I get the other Ashcloud and 2x Rabblemasters, which I should), but will probably make some changes to the side. I'll work on brainstorming throughout the day and will think about what I like and what I don't like.
If I can remember to take good notes, I will try and do a quick write-up on here and let everyone know how my FNM goes with R/G Monsters.
I went to FNM tonight and was able to trade for the last few cards that I needed. I ran Bolt's deck completely except instead of Chandra x2, I played Barrage of Boulders, and 1 Destructive Revelry was a Back to Nature. The store that I prefer to attend has had attendance dropping lately, and with the holidays we only had 18 for FNM. To give you an idea of the drop, just a little over a year ago they had a couple of FNM's with over 100 people. Thankfully, there were some pretty good players (and friends) there tonight. Here's a quick synopsis of how things went:
Round 1-I get paired against a Jeskai Tokens (?) list, but I didn't find out until Game 2 for sure due to my opponent getting land screwed in Game 1. I assumed that he was playing Jeskai instead of just R/W (only saw a Temple of Triumph and a Battlefield Forge) due to the fact he wasn't Sam Black (the only guy who plays only R/W). I sided in Arc Lightnings and Destructive Revelries. My opponent started off slow and I was able to Arc Lightning his Rabblemaster a turn after I had already played my own. From there, I just drew more threats and ran him over. 1-0
Round 2-For this match, I had to play against someone who I always seem to have a hard time beating. He's on U/B Control and I just pace my threats against his kill spells and Vaults. I was able to deal the last 3 damage with a good ol' Lightning Strike. Game 2 he is able to answer my first few threats, but eventually I am just able to stick an Ashcloud Phoenix to finish him off. 2-0
Round 3-My opponent for this game has had some recent success with his deck, winning an IQ/GPT Combo tournament. It's the classic version of Abzan Midrange, as piloted by PT champ Ari Lax. I am able to steal Game 1 because he didn't have a white mana to cast any of his good stuff (Sorin, Rhino, etc.). Game 2 he draws many kill spells and eventually I run out of gas. Game 3 it went the opposite and I was able to use 2 Fated Conflagrations to get rid of a Rhino and then a Courser to stem his mana flow. He ended up with 2 Elspeth's in his hand at the end of the game. He then advised me that our friendship was over. 3-0
Round 4-Myself and the only other 3-0 player decided to split the prize pool but played it out to get the promo. He's on Temur (the deck I just got off of), with the more aggro-esque build complete with Rabblemasters. Game 1 I was able to live the dream and had a turn 2 Rabblemaster. His minions, Fanatics, and Dragons are able to finish him off relatively quickly. It also helped that he got stuck on 2 lands for a bit, although he did have one of each kind of Mystic. In Game 2 I kept a slow hand, but with a lot of strength. I had brought in Barrage to take care of his Goblin tokens, but I was able to use it on turn 3 to kill one of each Mystic, slowing him down greatly. I think that if I had played the Rabblemaster there, I would have lost because his hand was full of gas at that point. I go down to 9 over the next few turns, but then I was able to turn things around and just kept hammering away at his life total, finishing off with a Boon Satyr bestowed on an Ashcloud. 4-0
I did end up as the #1 overall player and got the promo, and my opponent in the last round ended up in second place, so he got one as well. We were both happy to take home shiny Stokes (even though neither of us is using them).
If I were to play this deck again tomorrow at a large event, I really don't know if I would change anything about it. It's a blast to play, consistent, and has lots of power and explosiveness. After playing a sometimes inconsistent Temur deck, this felt so much like my playing style. Overall, a great night and great deck!
I started out this Standard season as a Green Devotion player, first splashing Red, then Green. I then made the switch over to Temur and have been running it with average results for about the past two months. I almost made the change last week, but I ended up because of card availability, but I got the cards last night on MTGO and have most of the paper copies already for Bolt's SCG list. Honestly what really influenced me was watching Frank Lepore's videos last night. It was awesome seeing a non-Elf fan still being able to do well with the deck.
I plan on keeping Bolt's mainboard list intact (assuming I get the other Ashcloud and 2x Rabblemasters, which I should), but will probably make some changes to the side. I'll work on brainstorming throughout the day and will think about what I like and what I don't like.
If I can remember to take good notes, I will try and do a quick write-up on here and let everyone know how my FNM goes with R/G Monsters.
Wont't this deck be a bit better if we splash blue(into Temur) and replace fanatic of xenagos with Savage Knuckleblade?
One of the major draws to play this deck instead of Temur is that the mana is much more consistent. The deck also already has enough mana sinks in the late game and wants to drop a threat every turn in the early game.
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Legacy UBReanimatorBU Commander/EDH WUBrago, King EternalUW GFreyalise, Llanowar's FuryG
While Knuckleblade is pretty freakin' awesome, I have already seen a major uptick in my win percentage both online and in paper by dropping the blue. It is also nice to not have to devote so many slots for mana dorks, with the list running only 4 Elvish Mystics to be able to get out a turn 2 Rabblemaster, Boon Satyr, or Fanatic.
GB Electric Dreams BG Deal 20 in one shot, or discard their hand?
GWU Free Stuff Midrange UWG Slowly bury the opponent with more threats and answers than they can handle.
My greatest hits:
GURFate Reforged Temur Ascendancy COMBORUG
GUDragons of Tarkir Whisperwood Forever UG
Souls are one of the most mana inefficient mythics WotC has given us in a long time. Hornet Queen is probably the most efficient creature we can be playing at more than 6 cmc -- aside from creatures like Genesis Hydra, which, if x is greater than 4, is the definition of mana efficient.
I tried playing Soul of Shandalar and it's just...
It's just not Inferno Titan. Or anything close, really.
Many in here, myself included, seem to have underestimated Xenagos. "Bad" as he is, he's showing up in quite a few of the RG decks that make it.
I don't know how much stock I'd put into any of those lists. Lowry has had varying levels of success with RG monsters but I'm under the impression he hasn't quite found it yet.
Manfield's own list is... 22 lands. 22.
7 four drops
4 five drops.
22 lands. Think about it.
I don't think there's that much value in that article as it was written to push mythic rares.
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Xenagos is an "easy include" but not necessarily a PW you want in RG.
He's great against control (and he was good last year due to being a counter to Hero's Downfall and Desecration Demon). He's also great when your deck is meant to muck up the ground and churn out Hornet Queens due to the fact that he is largely a 4cmc ramp spell.
He's not what I'm looking for in a beatdown planeswalker.
I would play destructive revelry over sage and crusher, instant speed and deals 2 damage.
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I went 2-2 drop in a win-a-case last week, losing to Whip (bad beats story) and Rw tokens (not a great matchup since Chained to the Rocks is bonkers).
I've been pondering removing Lightning Strike for a number of Gather Courage and Arc Lightning. Gather Courage is fantastic against Lightning Strike decks trying to gain tempo on you by killing your dorks and Heirs. At worst, Gather Courage is a fine late game trick. If you're drawing it with no creatures on the field, well then, that's not the card's fault, that's yours for not having a bullet in the chamber. I'm playing 1x.
Arc Lightning helps with Hordeling Outburst and still cleans up after Rabblemaster, which is something we needed Lightning Strike for anyway. I'm playing 2x.
-3 Lightning Strike, +1 Gather Courage, +2 Arc Lightning.
I'm not sure Destructive Revelry would substantially swing the matchup. Like, when you're already running enchant hate, one or the other is only going to change your margins. The best way to beat Sidsi is to race with Ashcloud Phoenix or to just go waaaayyyyy bigger with Hornet Queens and such.
3 Ashcloud Phoenix
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Heir of the Wilds
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Boon Satyr
1 Polukranos, World Eater
4 Lightning Strike
4 Crater's Claws
Lands (24)
6 Forest
7 Mountain
3 Mana Confluence
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Destructive Revelry
4 Fated Conflagration
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Xenagos, the Reveler
4 Arc Lightning
Modern : RG Titan Shift RG | RG Revolt Zoo RG | RG Ponza RG | RGW Naya Burn RGW
Legacy : RG Belcher RG
I'd prefer more 2 drops if it looks like we're going to have to stay low to the ground and I've tried stuff like Temur Charger and Borderland Marauder. It hasn't been pretty.
When you're this low to the ground, Chandra, Pyromaster becomes a house since her falter becomes much more relevant. I've really liked her in the 60 of the builds I've been running.
4 Ashcloud Phoenix
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Elvish Mystic
1 Generator Servant
4 Genesis Hydra
4 Hornet Nest
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Voyaging Satyr
1 Xenagos, God of Revels
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
Lands
1 Bloodstained Mire
5 Forest
5 Mountain
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Temple of Abandon
1 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Anger of the Gods
1 Dictate of Twin Gods
1 Iroas, God of Victory
3 Mistcutter Hydra
3 Reclamation Sage
3 Setessan Tactics
1 Surrak Dragonclaw
Modern : RG Titan Shift RG | RG Revolt Zoo RG | RG Ponza RG | RGW Naya Burn RGW
Legacy : RG Belcher RG
4x Elvish Mystic
4x Heir of the Wilds
2x Borderland Marauder
4x Fanatic of Xenagos
3x Goblin Rabblemaster
2x Boon Satyr
4x Ashcloud Phoenix
4x Stormbreath Dragon
Planeswalkers: 2
2x Chandra, Pyromaster
1x Gather Courage
2x Arc Lightning
4x Crater's Claws
1x Fated Conflagration
Lands: 23
6x Forest
7x Mountain
2x Mana Confluence
4x Temple of Abandon
4x Wooded Foothills
2x Xenagos, the Reveler
2x Barrage of Boulders
4x Reclamation Sage
2x Harness by Force
1x Magma Spray
1x Arc Lightning
2x Hornet's Nest
1x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
Needs 4x Gruul Warchant.
In all seriousness, the deck is a lot of fun and sort of where I was coming to with going smaller with monsters. Arc Lightning is better than Lightning Strike in this format. Although this doesn't really help with the clumped 3 drop portion since you're still running 11 3 drops (compared to Bolt's 12). Chandra is bananas. Play her. She's unbelievably good. Falters Rhino and wrecks tokens -- the sort of effect this deck is looking for. If there is any thing I think is wrong in Bolt's list, it's that there is no Chandra in the maindeck.
Harness by Force is much better when you're lower to the ground. It came in in all sorts of matchups.
I would not cut the singleton Gather Courage. The card allows you to play into tempo plays such as playing Rabblemaster into open mana and come out with a creature still on board.
The deck want to be putting pressure on people so having a turn 1 or 2 play is important, hence the crappy Borderland Marauder.
I could see playing 1x more Sarkhan in the side -- he's very good against Butcher. I could also see one more Fated Conflagration in the side.
I could see another Boon Satyr in the main deck. +1 Boon Satyr, -1 Goblin Rabblemaster.
When you said Gruul War Chant, is it worth it to splash little white for Iroas, God of Victory ? And the singleton Gather Courage could be replaced with Become Immense, I think.
Modern : RG Titan Shift RG | RG Revolt Zoo RG | RG Ponza RG | RGW Naya Burn RGW
Legacy : RG Belcher RG
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Heir of the Wilds
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Boon Satyr
6 Forest
8 Mountain
2 Mana Confluence
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Magma Jet
4 Crater's Claws
4 Fated Conflagration
2 Polukranos, World Eater
2 Xenagos, the Reveler
4 Arc Lightning
It's basically Bolt's RG monsters, although Mize claims he was playing it at Seattle (not sure of his exact list then, google hasn't gotten me there). Notable differences:
Magma Jet over Lightning Strike -- Pretty obvious, the reasoning being Mantis Rider isn't as big of a deal right now. Scry 2 helps negate some level of flooding, which the deck struggles with.
An odd Destructive Revelry in the main -- He says it's a meta call and I'd believe him.
He scrubbed, for those wondering.
He's been on the backburner since roughly October for me. I considered him when I was on Naya Monsters and think he'd be great. However, the mana is already atrocious for this deck given all the GG, RR, and RRR. You'd have to run 4x Battlefield Forge, 3x Mana Confluence, and 3-4x Windswept Heath. It'd be great in some matchups but not enough of a blow out to warrant the slot. Not to mention that the only other obvious draw to naya monsters (when considering little monsters) is Fleecemane Lion and your mana is too bad to support that. You could also run cards like Banishing Light but there is too much splash hate from the Whip decks so I wouldn't touch it.
Maybe. However the point of Gather Courage is to give yourself game against decks like Rw Tokens, where you want to be able to have your t2 Heir of the Wilds live while playing into open mana. We're pretty bad at defense and we don't want to lose that game to them getting under us even though we (have) to make the first move. We just don't play the tempo game as well as that sort of deck given their mana efficiency. It's definitely a bad matchup but with a bit of gamesmanship, I think we can sneak out with a win. Become Immense is really only attractive on cards like Fanatic of Xenagos. The deck would probably also want to run a number of fetchlands to support an early Become Immense as I don't really want to pay more than 3 mana for that effect.
Modern : RG Titan Shift RG | RG Revolt Zoo RG | RG Ponza RG | RGW Naya Burn RGW
Legacy : RG Belcher RG
Seems low-upside for moderate cost. Green already has so much enchant hate, I don't know if I'd bother. The only real "blow-out" value you get out of him is via monstrous -- which means 10 mana.
I think the most flexible slots are in the removal, the 4 drops (both Polukranos, World Eater and Ashcloud Phoenix are fine cards), sideboard, and planeswalker density.
4x Ashcloud Phoenix
4x Fanatic of Xenagos
4x Firedrinker Satyr
4x Goblin Rabblemaster
4x Heir of the Wilds
3x Rattleclaw Mystic
4x Stormbreath Dragon
6x Forest
10x Mountain
4x Temple of Abandon
4x Wooded Foothills
Instant (6)
2x Lightning Strike
4x Stoke the Flames
Planeswalker (3)
3x Xenagos, the Reveler
1x Back to Nature
2x Barrage of Boulders
3x Burn Away
2x Chandra, Pyromaster
2x Destructive Revelry
3x Fated Conflagration
2x Polis Crusher
I was thinking about adding Polis Crusher to the sideboard. It is really good against U/W Heroic and U/W control. Besides that, what do you guys think of the list?
UBReanimatorBU
Commander/EDH
WUBrago, King EternalUW
GFreyalise, Llanowar's FuryG
UBReanimatorBU
Commander/EDH
WUBrago, King EternalUW
GFreyalise, Llanowar's FuryG
I've played Barrage of Boulders for about a month and a half in monsters. I wouldn't oversell it in the tokens MU as it's pretty meh. Every token player I've played against tries to sideboard into a control deck against me, so Barrage of Boulders only becomes ok. Arc Lightning is beneficial where you have lots of flexibility and it kills Rabblemaster which can't be undersold.
Barrage of Boulders, however, is the blow out against Constellation and Whip. However, there are situations when they've outraced you with Whip and it becomes irrelevant.
Back to Nature is fine, although I prefer a body like Reclamation Sage when the games devolve into removal slugfests. As long as you have reasonable enchant hate, you're probably doing it right. I don't understand the Polis Crusher love but if those players insist.
Prophetic Flamespeaker is too slow and we don't have bloodrush available to us anymore. We also don't have cheap enough spells to cast off of Prophetic Flamespeaker.
CA is overrated in beatdown. If you lost because you ran out of cards, the real reason is that you either misapplied your resources, had a bit of bad luck, or just got straight outplayed. If need be, Chandra can apply that 1 or 2 card juice.
Fated Conflagration takes care of Siege Rhino. I play one main since it can be more consistent than Crater's Claws when you don't have ferocious. 6 mana to kill a Rhino is a ton. At that point, the Abzan player can start deploying two spells a turn and you might be dead.
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To take a page out of Aaron Barich's book, Gather Courage is very good right now. I can't recommend the single copy enough. It's unintuitively good against tokens decks since they like to hold up lightning strike as you move to play your three drops. Gather protects your Boon Satyr and Fanatic of Xenagos.
I plan on keeping Bolt's mainboard list intact (assuming I get the other Ashcloud and 2x Rabblemasters, which I should), but will probably make some changes to the side. I'll work on brainstorming throughout the day and will think about what I like and what I don't like.
If I can remember to take good notes, I will try and do a quick write-up on here and let everyone know how my FNM goes with R/G Monsters.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=576454
Round 1-I get paired against a Jeskai Tokens (?) list, but I didn't find out until Game 2 for sure due to my opponent getting land screwed in Game 1. I assumed that he was playing Jeskai instead of just R/W (only saw a Temple of Triumph and a Battlefield Forge) due to the fact he wasn't Sam Black (the only guy who plays only R/W). I sided in Arc Lightnings and Destructive Revelries. My opponent started off slow and I was able to Arc Lightning his Rabblemaster a turn after I had already played my own. From there, I just drew more threats and ran him over. 1-0
Round 2-For this match, I had to play against someone who I always seem to have a hard time beating. He's on U/B Control and I just pace my threats against his kill spells and Vaults. I was able to deal the last 3 damage with a good ol' Lightning Strike. Game 2 he is able to answer my first few threats, but eventually I am just able to stick an Ashcloud Phoenix to finish him off. 2-0
Round 3-My opponent for this game has had some recent success with his deck, winning an IQ/GPT Combo tournament. It's the classic version of Abzan Midrange, as piloted by PT champ Ari Lax. I am able to steal Game 1 because he didn't have a white mana to cast any of his good stuff (Sorin, Rhino, etc.). Game 2 he draws many kill spells and eventually I run out of gas. Game 3 it went the opposite and I was able to use 2 Fated Conflagrations to get rid of a Rhino and then a Courser to stem his mana flow. He ended up with 2 Elspeth's in his hand at the end of the game. He then advised me that our friendship was over. 3-0
Round 4-Myself and the only other 3-0 player decided to split the prize pool but played it out to get the promo. He's on Temur (the deck I just got off of), with the more aggro-esque build complete with Rabblemasters. Game 1 I was able to live the dream and had a turn 2 Rabblemaster. His minions, Fanatics, and Dragons are able to finish him off relatively quickly. It also helped that he got stuck on 2 lands for a bit, although he did have one of each kind of Mystic. In Game 2 I kept a slow hand, but with a lot of strength. I had brought in Barrage to take care of his Goblin tokens, but I was able to use it on turn 3 to kill one of each Mystic, slowing him down greatly. I think that if I had played the Rabblemaster there, I would have lost because his hand was full of gas at that point. I go down to 9 over the next few turns, but then I was able to turn things around and just kept hammering away at his life total, finishing off with a Boon Satyr bestowed on an Ashcloud. 4-0
I did end up as the #1 overall player and got the promo, and my opponent in the last round ended up in second place, so he got one as well. We were both happy to take home shiny Stokes (even though neither of us is using them).
If I were to play this deck again tomorrow at a large event, I really don't know if I would change anything about it. It's a blast to play, consistent, and has lots of power and explosiveness. After playing a sometimes inconsistent Temur deck, this felt so much like my playing style. Overall, a great night and great deck!
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=576454
UBReanimatorBU
Commander/EDH
WUBrago, King EternalUW
GFreyalise, Llanowar's FuryG
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=576454