I have been playing off and on for years now. I know how to play casual, but I'm still learning how to play tournament. I still have issues when it comes to building decks. I have a new green and red aggro that I want to play in standard tournaments. Asking advice is like pulling teeth most places. I get the same "It looks alright" with the every now and again something useful like need more duel lands or so. This started out as a reconstruct of an old odyssey deck I had with Wild Mongrels. Just need advice as to what might make it better because I'm sure it needs a lot.
Thanks to whomever is willing to advise me. It is much appreciated. Welcome! Per "What belongs here", this thread should be in Deck Creation. Moving. I appreciate your effort in formatting your list nicely. Decktags are actually easier and technically required (described here or you can quote any post with a decklist to see how it's done) - hoser2
Advice, huh. I am not very experienced with this style of deck, so I'll give you what I have, but be aware that there are people who can give you better advice. I have lost games to Ahn-Crop Crasher, Insult//Injury and Glorybringer recently, so I like them. You don't seem to be skimping on your land count, which is common with less experienced players
My first question concerns budget. Obviously Chandra is a valuable card and Rhonas likewise, but are you generally looking for the best options independent of price? Or are you looking to keep costs down for the deck? If the latter, then you might want to post in the Budget section. Similarly, do you want to avoid cards that will be rotating this fall?
Per this article (which I use to determine my mana requirements), you need 18 R sources to have a 90% chance to cast Chandra on turn 4 and 16 R sources to cast Glorybringer on turn 5, so you probably want more R sources.
I see some Madness cards (Fiery Temper and Noose Constrictor), but not really that many. Likewise, I see some exert cards. I see Rhonas without many 4 power creatures that would let him attack and block. There is more support for madness in RB, but I did see someone discarding Honored Hydra to play Bloodrage Brawler on turn 2, then embalming the Hydra on Turn 4. Your deck seems a bit scattered thematically, which can lead to less consistency than desired.
If you let us know your budget, willingness to buy cards that will rotate and preferred theme, I will try to give some more specific help.
Wow! That is a lot more help than I've gotten so far already. Thank you. Ok, so the original idea was to discard to (mongrel) Constrictors and obviously fiery tempers doing that damage. Then, I realized I needed a bit more to rely on. Mainly it is supposed to hit fast and hit hard. I actually thought about taking out the Chandra and/or Rhonas. I have a Hydra and a couple of Bloodrage Brawlers so I could try them. My budget is that I am currently trading in old cards for store credits and getting some of the more expensive cards(Chandra) but yea mostly I'm getting boosters and booster bundles. Don't have much at all in funds. Also, want to keep legality of cards to fresh as possible despite the constrictors and fiery tempers. Thank you greatly for any help.
That's a lot! I want to help so much, but this is your journey.
Madness: I love having more cards, so I have trouble with this concept, but I'll do my best. If the opponent is at 0, who cares how many more cards they have in hand. Certainly it seems unfair when my opponent wipes out two of my creatures with Lightning Axe and Fiery Temper, but having to discard a good card to play Lightning Axe is a two for one against myself and seems bad. A madness payoff like Fiery Temper for one mana is a good deal, but without a madness enabler at three mana, not so much. If you see 14 cards in a game, can you get a good combination of madness payoffs and enablers? At 4 of each in your current deck, I don't see it. I want to just list some more enablers and payoffs so you can see whether the payoffs seem worthwhile to you.
Enablers: Bloodrage Brawler, Key to the City, Bomat Courier, Lightning Axe, Hazoret the Fervent, Battlefield Scavenger
Payoffs: Honored Hydra, Stromkirk Occultist, Hazoret the Fervent
Nostalgia aside, I don't really get Noose Constrictor. Losing cards to make it do what Voltaic Brawler does naturally doesn't make sense to me. In your shoes I would go with GR Energy aggro and work with the people in this budget thread to exchange ideas. I would make a point of going to FNM today and next week to try to get promo Aether Hubs.
On value: trading old cards in to a shop to get new cards is a losing game. The economics of a shop is that they can only give you half what a card is worth. You get much better value putting together a trade box or a trade binder and trading cards with other players. I love buying sealed product and cracking packs, but it is a money losing lottery. Buying the singles you need from places like tcgplayer.com is a much more efficient way to get exactly the cards you need.
I do like Chandra, Rhonas and Glorybringer, but you would need more 4 power creatures and better fixing to make them work consistently. A shell including the following is where I would maybe work toward.
I will add more tourney reports soon, so far last week I went 3-0 with the deck, the exact build in the article. I won two matches by going 2-0 in the games. The deck just attacks, doesn't really want to block, if you start blocking it means you are losing.
I'm using furyblade vampire to discard, as well as the scavenger and last is lightning axe.
I discard fiery temper, avacyn's judgment, and even the heart manticore because it has embalm. Also insult /injury is good to discard and then play injury from the graveyard.
I tested tormenting voice and it didn't work for me, I kept only creatures and burn in my deck to put the pressure on my opponent.
I also don't mind discarding lands after I get 4-5 on the board. The battlefield scavenger is amazing because it makes all your exert guys able to discard a card and draw one to cycle through your deck if you get mana flooded.
Check it out and maybe you get some ideas to improve your deck!
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Again, many thanks. I will check out the deck and still taking notes.
Hey,
I wrote the first post on my cell phone so I was too lazy to copy and paste the decklist, here's the updated decklist that I will be playing today in a local Standard tourney.
This has been optimized after some playtesting and 2 Standard Showdown tourneys, at the first one I went 3-0 and the last one I went 1-2 due to some bad draws and misplays on my part, you can read more about that in my article at the link I provided in the first post.
The deck is a budget deck and the only rares that are over $5 are the four Glorybringers, the rest of the cards are about $2 or less and of course, the mana is dirt cheap having 17 mountains and 4 Sunscorched Deserts which are commons.
The deck gets going on turn 2 by either casting a Battlefield Scavenger and getting ready to exert the next turn and loot for some cards to keep the engine going, or by casting a Harnessed Lightning to kill a creature or if you get lucky you can do the Lightning Axe+Fiery temper combo to kill 2 creatures or kill one and go to the dome with the Fiery Temper. Yesterday I played against B/W zombies and turn 2 I was able to do the combo and kill 2 Cryptbreakers, great fun.
The Lathnu hellion is amazing, hits hard, can survive more than 1 turn if you have energy left over from H. Lightning or you can drop it turn 3 to hit for 4 and attack also on turn 4, then drop a land and a Heart-Piercer Manticore and sac it to go to the face for 4. That's the best case scenario, if not then at least it hit the opponent for 2 turns for only 3 mana.
I'm still working on what to sideboard against what deck since I only had the 2 local tourneys as playtesting, in case you are wondering about Heaven/Earth, of course, we can't cast Heaven but we can discard it and then after turn 6-7 we can cast Earth from the graveyard if we have to kill a lot of tokens or even some x/4 or x/5 creatures.
I would play 2 Hazoret in this deck but they are about $15 a piece now and I am trying to keep the deck budget and under $50 and she is not exactly needed in the deck either.
Well My r/g went 1/2 last night, so I need to do some rethinking. May take a point from you and go straight red. Helped me a lot though. In the future I may through some questions your way, if you don't mind.
Well My r/g went 1/2 last night, so I need to do some rethinking. May take a point from you and go straight red. Helped me a lot though. In the future I may through some questions your way, if you don't mind.
You're welcome to ask me any questions you want. The deck I posted above is fully tuned for the Standard metagame right now, it could use 2 Hazoret maindeck but I don't want to spend the money to buy her, so it's going to have to do without her. Maybe in the future if she gets cheaper I can get 2 and add them to the deck since you run out of cards by turn 4-5 in almost every game and she would rock at that point. Aside from that the deck is great, once Hour of Devastation comes in next month I'll probably add a couple of red creatures from that set to this deck but until then it's perfect.
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"May he who is without mana cast the first spell!"
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Red/Green Aggro
Creatures
2 Khenra Charioteer
4 Noose Constrictor
2 Wild Wanderer
2 Hooded Brawler
2 Bitterblade Warrior
1 Champion of Rhonas
1 Glorybringer
2 Harsh Mentor
2 Ahn-Crop Crasher
2 Combat Celebrant
1 Rhonas, The Indomitable
Instants
2 Blossoming Defense
2 Dissenter’s Deliverance
4 Fiery Temper
Sorceries
2 Insult/Injury
4 Incendiary Flow
Planeswalkers
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Lands
2 Timber Gorge
2 Evolving Wilds
10 Forests
10 Mountains
Thanks to whomever is willing to advise me. It is much appreciated.
Welcome! Per "What belongs here", this thread should be in Deck Creation. Moving. I appreciate your effort in formatting your list nicely. Decktags are actually easier and technically required (described here or you can quote any post with a decklist to see how it's done) - hoser2
My first question concerns budget. Obviously Chandra is a valuable card and Rhonas likewise, but are you generally looking for the best options independent of price? Or are you looking to keep costs down for the deck? If the latter, then you might want to post in the Budget section. Similarly, do you want to avoid cards that will be rotating this fall?
Per this article (which I use to determine my mana requirements), you need 18 R sources to have a 90% chance to cast Chandra on turn 4 and 16 R sources to cast Glorybringer on turn 5, so you probably want more R sources.
I see some Madness cards (Fiery Temper and Noose Constrictor), but not really that many. Likewise, I see some exert cards. I see Rhonas without many 4 power creatures that would let him attack and block. There is more support for madness in RB, but I did see someone discarding Honored Hydra to play Bloodrage Brawler on turn 2, then embalming the Hydra on Turn 4. Your deck seems a bit scattered thematically, which can lead to less consistency than desired.
If you let us know your budget, willingness to buy cards that will rotate and preferred theme, I will try to give some more specific help.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Madness: I love having more cards, so I have trouble with this concept, but I'll do my best. If the opponent is at 0, who cares how many more cards they have in hand. Certainly it seems unfair when my opponent wipes out two of my creatures with Lightning Axe and Fiery Temper, but having to discard a good card to play Lightning Axe is a two for one against myself and seems bad. A madness payoff like Fiery Temper for one mana is a good deal, but without a madness enabler at three mana, not so much. If you see 14 cards in a game, can you get a good combination of madness payoffs and enablers? At 4 of each in your current deck, I don't see it. I want to just list some more enablers and payoffs so you can see whether the payoffs seem worthwhile to you.
Enablers: Bloodrage Brawler, Key to the City, Bomat Courier, Lightning Axe, Hazoret the Fervent, Battlefield Scavenger
Payoffs: Honored Hydra, Stromkirk Occultist, Hazoret the Fervent
Nostalgia aside, I don't really get Noose Constrictor. Losing cards to make it do what Voltaic Brawler does naturally doesn't make sense to me. In your shoes I would go with GR Energy aggro and work with the people in this budget thread to exchange ideas. I would make a point of going to FNM today and next week to try to get promo Aether Hubs.
On value: trading old cards in to a shop to get new cards is a losing game. The economics of a shop is that they can only give you half what a card is worth. You get much better value putting together a trade box or a trade binder and trading cards with other players. I love buying sealed product and cracking packs, but it is a money losing lottery. Buying the singles you need from places like tcgplayer.com is a much more efficient way to get exactly the cards you need.
I do like Chandra, Rhonas and Glorybringer, but you would need more 4 power creatures and better fixing to make them work consistently. A shell including the following is where I would maybe work toward.
4 Aether Hub
Creatures
4 Bloodrage Brawler
4 Voltaic Brawler
1 Rhonas the Indomitable
4 Bristling Hydra
1 Hazoret the Fervent
1 Glorybringer
4 Honored Hydra
4 Attune with Aether
1 Key to the City
4 Fiery Temper
2 Lightning Axe
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
I remembered another Madness enabler in Tormenting Voice.
I don't want to overwhelm you, but you may want to consider this.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/deck-creation-standard/778291-sid-vicious-aka-mono-red-aggro-burn-with-tourney
I will add more tourney reports soon, so far last week I went 3-0 with the deck, the exact build in the article. I won two matches by going 2-0 in the games. The deck just attacks, doesn't really want to block, if you start blocking it means you are losing.
I'm using furyblade vampire to discard, as well as the scavenger and last is lightning axe.
I discard fiery temper, avacyn's judgment, and even the heart manticore because it has embalm. Also insult /injury is good to discard and then play injury from the graveyard.
I tested tormenting voice and it didn't work for me, I kept only creatures and burn in my deck to put the pressure on my opponent.
I also don't mind discarding lands after I get 4-5 on the board. The battlefield scavenger is amazing because it makes all your exert guys able to discard a card and draw one to cycle through your deck if you get mana flooded.
Check it out and maybe you get some ideas to improve your deck!
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
Hey,
I wrote the first post on my cell phone so I was too lazy to copy and paste the decklist, here's the updated decklist that I will be playing today in a local Standard tourney.
17 Mountain
4 Sunscorched Desert
Creatures(24)
4 Heart-piercer Manticore
2 Reckless Bushwhacker
2 Combat Celebrant
4 Glorybringer
4 Lathnu Hellion
4 Ahn-crop Crasher
4 Battlefield Scavenger
1 Insult // Injury
2 Avacyn's Judgment
4 Harnessed Lightning
4 Lightning Axe
4 Fiery Temper
3 Kari Zev's Expertise
2 Heaven // Earth
2 Fling
2 Harsh Mentor
1 Release the Gremlins
2 By Force
3 Magma Spray
This has been optimized after some playtesting and 2 Standard Showdown tourneys, at the first one I went 3-0 and the last one I went 1-2 due to some bad draws and misplays on my part, you can read more about that in my article at the link I provided in the first post.
The deck is a budget deck and the only rares that are over $5 are the four Glorybringers, the rest of the cards are about $2 or less and of course, the mana is dirt cheap having 17 mountains and 4 Sunscorched Deserts which are commons.
The deck gets going on turn 2 by either casting a Battlefield Scavenger and getting ready to exert the next turn and loot for some cards to keep the engine going, or by casting a Harnessed Lightning to kill a creature or if you get lucky you can do the Lightning Axe+Fiery temper combo to kill 2 creatures or kill one and go to the dome with the Fiery Temper. Yesterday I played against B/W zombies and turn 2 I was able to do the combo and kill 2 Cryptbreakers, great fun.
The Lathnu hellion is amazing, hits hard, can survive more than 1 turn if you have energy left over from H. Lightning or you can drop it turn 3 to hit for 4 and attack also on turn 4, then drop a land and a Heart-Piercer Manticore and sac it to go to the face for 4. That's the best case scenario, if not then at least it hit the opponent for 2 turns for only 3 mana.
I'm still working on what to sideboard against what deck since I only had the 2 local tourneys as playtesting, in case you are wondering about Heaven/Earth, of course, we can't cast Heaven but we can discard it and then after turn 6-7 we can cast Earth from the graveyard if we have to kill a lot of tokens or even some x/4 or x/5 creatures.
I would play 2 Hazoret in this deck but they are about $15 a piece now and I am trying to keep the deck budget and under $50 and she is not exactly needed in the deck either.
Enjoy!
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
You're welcome to ask me any questions you want. The deck I posted above is fully tuned for the Standard metagame right now, it could use 2 Hazoret maindeck but I don't want to spend the money to buy her, so it's going to have to do without her. Maybe in the future if she gets cheaper I can get 2 and add them to the deck since you run out of cards by turn 4-5 in almost every game and she would rock at that point. Aside from that the deck is great, once Hour of Devastation comes in next month I'll probably add a couple of red creatures from that set to this deck but until then it's perfect.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle