Edit: Deleted my ragequit post. Annnyway. Annoying FNM experience this week. Deck failed me with mulligan's ended with 1-3, these things happen I suppose.
On another note though, went 3-1 today in a PTQ here in Seattle, losing in the 5th round to 3-2 so ended up dropping. Fun experience though the deck did really well.
Match 1: Mono White Puresteel/Kemba/SFM etc...(2-1)
Game 1: 2x maindeck Kor Firewalker runs me through once he gets metalcraft and starts throwing equipement on them.
Game 2: Koth Emblem wipes the floor with him.
Game 3: Urabrask into Titan seals the deal turn 5.
Match 2: Eldrazi Ramp(0-2)
Game 1: Mana flooded Keep a hand of four lands. End up drawing nothing but lands until I die, ****ty.
Game 2: I steal his Primeval Titan with Mark of Mutiny, and swing with it and my Wurmcoil Engine, and next turn he drops Emrakul. Should have waited a turn on my MOM! O well..
Match 3: Mono Blue/Artifacts(2-1)
Game 1: 2x maindeck Torpor Orbs hit the field consecutive turns. I manage to close in on the win though, but due to a misplay on my part due to his using Argent Sphinx's ability to essentially give his Sphinx Vigilance. Didnt take into account my Urabrask's come into play tapped ability(I always forget that damn ability even though its so important!) which wouldnt have allowed him to be blocking, and he would have been dead much earlier, lose eventually to double Sphinx.
Game 2: he mulls to 4, easy win, koth into urabrask into titan.
Game 3: he mulls again, only to 5 this time though. And koth seals the deal after he is stuck on only one land the whole time.
Kind of a cheap win, but ill take it.
Match 4: GWR Birthing Pod(2-0)
We got deckchecked, so 15m later we got to start playing.
Game 1: Urabrask into Koth, double -2 for titan and wurmcoil consecutive turns Saves me from only being on 5 lands.
Game 2: 40minute game here, really comes down to me with a 3/3 dtouch wurmcoil baby w/ batterskull equipped(7/7 Lifelink/Deathtouch/Vigilance O so sexy) and him with Sun Titan/Urabrask/Batterskulls. I was able to keep him in check with a early koth emblem though, and managed to pull off a few sneaky kills with the mountains when he had forgotten about them.
Match 5: U/W Caw-Blade(1-2)
Guy drove close to 300 miles for the event, would have loved to have beaten him and sent him packing!
Game 1: Misplay on my part costs me the match. Opponent has Sun Titan/ Squad Hawk, I am sporting a Inferno Titan. I declare attackers, doing 3 to sun titan, and procede to double Galv Blast for 2 the titan, to do -7 and kill him. Which results in him blocking my titan with his hawk, and dismembering my titan. So if I would have popeed the bird and done 2/2/2 to the titan, I could have kept my titan and drove it home. Whoops.
Game 2: I take a chance with 6 mana to drop a urabrask(I kept passing because he left leak mana open, he has 3 mana untapped at the time, and turns out he had nothing. So next turn i drop a titan, and thats GG.
Game 3: he nut drawed me and I lost, resulted in me dropping.
All in all was a fun day, 174 i think showed up, not too many, but still pretty large for what im used too.(Thats what she said)
Current Decklist for reference.(Btw, Batterskull won me 3 matches today, not regretting replacing my singleton Red Sun's Zenith for it.
I was very surprised at how much mana this deck could produce. I wouldn't change the land count or ramp but I feel it could use an additional big mana sink spell to burn out opponents or something. I'm very tired right now but I can go into more detail on stuff if there is any interest another time. Just thought I would share before bed.
Matches I had were Eldrazi Green, Hawkward, B/G Rock Deck and G/W Tokens Ascension. Cyclops Gladiator + Batterskull = NUTS! It enabled me to reach upto 72 life in one of my games.
Attached Batterskull to Gladiator does this: 8 Damage upon attack trigger (practically destroying any creature on the field), then 8 Additional Combat Damage. 16 Life. Sweet! Plus it can still block the following turn due to Vigilance.
I enjoyed using Cyclops Gladiator. He's a huge threat and definitely a board prescence. It's like playing an Inferno Titan at turn 3.
Also all of my Creatures in this configuration are immune to Slagstorms, since all of the have toughness greater than 4. This deck easily butchers any aggressive archetype. And since I already had 4 Slagstorms maindecked, I removed the Inferno Titans from the list, as Wurmcoil Engine serves as a greater threat.
8 Mana stones consistently provide me with a Turn 3 Threat. The threat density of this deck is so huge that once you hit 4 mana, your opponent should be ready for the consecutive threats that will follow.
I was very surprised at how much mana this deck could produce. I wouldn't change the land count or ramp but I feel it could use an additional big mana sink spell to burn out opponents or something. I'm very tired right now but I can go into more detail on stuff if there is any interest another time. Just thought I would share before bed.
I'd love to hear how the MD Spellskite worked for you! I've been considering MD'ing 2. How did that work for you?
Here is a sample big red that I plan on using in post banning standard
4 Koth of the Hammer
2 Urabrask the Hidden
4 Inferno Titan
3 Batterskull
3 Ratchet Bomb
4 Ichor Wellspring
4 Mycosynth Wellspring
4 Everflowing Chalice
3 Slagstorm
2 Dismember
4 Galvanic Blast
3 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
20 Mountain
Against aggro you have Ratchet Bomb, Slagstorm and Inferno Titan. 10 mass kill will allow you to slow down the game so you can dominate the game with Titans or recurring Batterskulls.
Against splinter twin decks you have Dismember, Galvanic Blast, Ratchet Bomb(either set to zero or three) and Urabrask.
I chose the wellspring engine because I want cards that can give me a steady supply of mana rather than those that accelerate me because I feel that big red's biggest weakness is flooding. Mycosynth wellspring and valakut can add utility to your mountains thus strenthening the deck's lategame. I'd rather slow down the game with creature removal than hope for artifact mana to ramp me all the while hoping to avoid flooding aswell. The wellsprings also allow me to use Ratchet Bomb, a card I feel is well positioned in today's standard. Had cawblade not been gutted, some Manic Vandals would certainly have made the maindeck too.
i've been using maindeck Spellskite in this deck forever. i'm still amazed it never caught on with the rest of you guys. its completely essential in my opinion. the matchup against Splinter Twin is almost unwinnable game 1 without it. this deck also tends to win with single large threats so there is a definite vulnerability to targetted removal. Spellskite is a big help here. it blocks for Koth and draws Bolts away from him. it can also protect an Inferno Titan or other creature threat from certain removal spells. its a really important card in my opinion.
i've been using maindeck Spellskite in this deck forever. i'm still amazed it never caught on with the rest of you guys. its completely essential in my opinion. the matchup against Splinter Twin is almost unwinnable game 1 without it. this deck also tends to win with single large threats so there is a definite vulnerability to targetted removal. Spellskite is a big help here. it blocks for Koth and draws Bolts away from him. it can also protect an Inferno Titan or other creature threat from certain removal spells. its a really important card in my opinion.
I MB'd spellskite for a while, and to be honest, while they helped in certain match ups... they really are more of a SB card. unless you need them, they are a HORRIFIC top deck. I ended up droping them to the side for 3 Phyrexian Metamorph and never looked back. metamorph is a much better card imo, its a MB answer for almost every deck/ inferno titan 5-7. I only see myself adding them MD again if, and only if, splinter twin starts taking over the meta in a big way. they biggest problem i had with them was not being able to redirect removal (most people in my meta are running go for the throat over doom blade)
also i wont be posting results from this week, I was sick so i did not attend.
Yeah sethd, metamorph summed it up pretty well. It is a good early defensive card and he is pretty flexible as well. It rocked the Splinter Twin match and it uses up enemy removal spells, leading to more surviving bombs. NABU raises a good point in that it is a bad top deck late game but except for one game where I drew all three MB ones, I really was never disappointed to see it.
I was actually fairly unhappy with Dismember. It may have been that this was my first time really using it in constructed but 4 life on top of a lot of other life loss spells and lands really added up. I never put in more than three from the SB. So I have an extra slot to play with there. I'm not sure what to put in though. Any suggestions?
I was actually fairly unhappy with Dismember. It may have been that this was my first time really using it in constructed but 4 life on top of a lot of other life loss spells and lands really added up. I never put in more than three from the SB. So I have an extra slot to play with there. I'm not sure what to put in though. Any suggestions?
I'm trying out 4 Arid Mesa in the main with 1-2 Plains in the side with Celestial Purge. The Plains with the Sphere of the Suns makes it easy to splash Purge, which is great against MBC (Obliterator much?), Splinter Twin, as well as the mirror match, and RDW.
Used this configuration awhile ago and finished 4-1 at my community tournament with 46 players. Round results were as follows
Round 1: vs Puresteel Paladin.dec WIN
Round 2: vs Tempered Steel.dec WIN
Round 3: vs Kuldotha Red.dec WIN
Round 4: vs Valakut Ramp.dec LOSS
Round 5: vs UR Exarch Twin.dec WIN
I must admit. Valakut Ramp post ban is the most difficult matchup for us. But awhile ago, I thought of a possible sideboard against it. I'll probably use the same maindeck but with this sideboard plan
Turn 3 Dragon then Turn 4 Phoenix swing then pump can race valakut even if they complete their curve. Besides, the dragon is a great card now that Jace is out of the picture.
PS: The maindeck metamorphs are nuts. They're just 2 copies of all of our deck's threats making it appear that we're running it in multiples (eg. 6 x Phoenix, 4 x Batterskull, 5 x Gladiator) LOL! :))
I'm trying out 4 Arid Mesa in the main with 1-2 Plains in the side with Celestial Purge. The Plains with the Sphere of the Suns makes it easy to splash Purge, which is great against MBC (Obliterator much?), Splinter Twin, as well as the mirror match, and RDW.
So are you saying to drop all of the Dismembers for 1x Plains and 3x Celestial Purge? That sounds interesting but I feel like Dismember still covers those problems just as well and doesn't require the splash. I feel like I could put in another Tumble Magnet and cover the Obliterator problem just as well.
I'll probably just run a second Red Sun's Zenith though. Reusable Fireballs with the ridiculous amount of mana available sounds good for some post board games. The exiling of creatures will probably become relevant too if Vengevine become big again. I'm also thinking Moltensteel as a two-of in the board though. I'll play around with it later this week and see what I come up with.
I have been trying to run a monored deck a couple of times, but I have had problems with MBC, monowhite (firewalkers) and valakut.
Now I would like to know what I can run preferably maindeck to still have a good matchup against all 3. I am pretty sure it has been discussed before, but sadly enough I do not have the time atm to browse through all the 182 pages.
I specifically got problems with the 3 before mentioned decks, and I prefer if you can give me some decklists or specific cards that would deal with these various threats.
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Tumble Magnet can keep the Titan locked down for the few turns it takes this deck to finish off an opponent.
thats actually a pretty interesting sideboard strategy. the big issue has always been that even if you can deal with the P. Titan on the board the fact that they put two Valakut's into play already means you have to finish the game damn quick or else it won't matter anyway.
Act of Aggression + Tectonic Edge does solve that nicely. good call. I'm wondering if this is the correct choice for Threaten effect though. Mark of Mutiny gets an extra point of damage, Act of Treason never costs life. Heck, we might even think about using Conquering Manticore in this role so we can swing for an extra 5 the turn after making the play, maybe not though, 6 mana is probably too much.
The upside of Act of Aggression is that its potentially useful against Splinter Twin. is it useful enough? I've been using Combust as my sideboard card of choice and I think its better. Anybody have thoughts on this?
Awesome deck with a solid, synergistic core. Very good Valakut / Splinter Twin match-ups. The big question mark is whether the sideboard Memoricide will actually be worth those slots. t2 sphere t3 memoricide against either deck is pretty awesome but sphere is only way to cast the spell. i figured the 4 spheres were only a little bit worse than playing like 4 terramorphics and a swamp for getting black mana and i really didn't want to do the terramorphic thing. the 1 metamorph could be something else...
I have been trying to run a monored deck a couple of times, but I have had problems with MBC, monowhite (firewalkers) and valakut.
Now I would like to know what I can run preferably maindeck to still have a good matchup against all 3. I am pretty sure it has been discussed before, but sadly enough I do not have the time atm to browse through all the 182 pages.
I specifically got problems with the 3 before mentioned decks, and I prefer if you can give me some decklists or specific cards that would deal with these various threats.
vs. MBC - hasn't been a problem for me. most of that deck is just bad, and its certainly slower than ours. the most threatening creature is Phyrexian Obliterator but that is easily controlled by Tumble Magnet. this matchup is not hard because they just can't win the damage race most of the time. just stay on offense and it will work out.
vs. Mono White - Koth is the all-star here. He is your persistent threat that they have alot of trouble dealing with. You can win in the late game if you draw enough big threats. Inferno Titan is great. Kuldotha Phoenix is pretty useful too. Kor Firewalker is the problem card if you're unprepared for it. However, there are many many good solutions. In my deck I'm using Contagion Clasp which can easily deal with it (have to Proliferate once to finish the job, but thats not a big deal). I've got some backup Ratchet Bombs in the sideboard to help out with this also. As an alternative you might consider Perilous Myr or Dismember.
vs. Valakut - hard matchup. we've been discussing this one for a few pages now. its basically a damage race. i'm still hammering out the details. my most recent strategy was to try and win the damage race with Moltensteel Dragon. That was ok, but really only a sideboard option. Others have been discussing using Act of Aggression + Tectonic Edge to negate the effects of a P. Titan. thats a reasonable defensive strategy.
The problem with Act of Aggression-ing or Metamorphing their Titan for Tech Edges is that the Tech Edges come in tapped, so in many cases it will be too little too late, unless you can kill the Titan the same turn and they don't have a harrow/cultivate/active KHE next turn. I think having a couple Teetering Peaks (even out of the SB) to fetch sso you can swing 10 (or 11 with MoM) trample damage back at them may be a better idea, as that can just end the game.
On a different note, so long as Tempered Steel doesn't take off in a big way, I think the format is going to see a good deal less artifact removal, especially MD. I think Moltensteel Dragon may very well be worth a closer look if that is going to be the case - it can straight up end the game in two swings, and a four-drop other than Koth to ramp into with out Chalices and Spheres would be great for the deck. Off to test!
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As long as you have one of an Unhidden or Magnet or Inferno Titan or another meta morph, and can not get to lethal more so if you already have a tec edge on board. I play 3 meta morphs with another in the side.....they are huge...huge vs valkut. I've let to lose a match to them in 6 matchs. Tunnel Ignus out of the board slows their ramp down by turn..at least and that is all you need. Only games I've lost are ones with artifact flood or really bad draws.
I have been trying to run a monored deck a couple of times, but I have had problems with MBC, monowhite (firewalkers) and valakut.
Now I would like to know what I can run preferably maindeck to still have a good matchup against all 3. I am pretty sure it has been discussed before, but sadly enough I do not have the time atm to browse through all the 182 pages.
I specifically got problems with the 3 before mentioned decks, and I prefer if you can give me some decklists or specific cards that would deal with these various threats.
It sounds like you need to run a few dismembers in the side, Tumble magnet is a godsend most games so MB it, Phyrexian metamorph is good in almost every matchup, and for valakut.... play testing a few hundred games should help out ( i know that sounds like alot but its not like you have to sit down and crush those out all in one go) knowing what your opponent is going to do is the best strategy you can have. if you want, check out my list to get a starting point the link is in my sig.
i find that the valakut matchup is one of my best matchups. its all about knowing your gameplan, which should be to deal damage quickly while tapping their overgrown battlements and destoying any nonbasic lands ASAP. after sideboard, Hero of Oxid Ridge makes their walls useless, and they've normally already sided their lightning bolts out.
i think another important point is that obsidian fireheart is just plain dirty. against any slower deck, he asures victory and though he can't target the same land twice, you can proliferate the blaze counters. and he lets you dump all the excess mana you may have into an insane ability.
Big Red
Main Deck:
2 Inferno Titan
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Kuldotha Phoenix
4 Obsidian Fireheart
Has anyone tested lavaball trap in the sb for valakut? It would be great after they pop expedition or harrow eot. Kills 2 lands as well as all walls and cobras.
Obsidian Fireheart doesn't deal more damage based on the number of counters per land, so you know. That means that a Mountain with 1 blaze counter, causes as much pain as a mountain with 576. Anyway, I don't get why you'd run it. If the ability costed 2, I could see it sided against some decks (since you could start dealing VICIOUS amounts of damage), but it does cost 3. Which means that it's competing with Koth and Hero of Oxid Ridge (both of which help you against the same decks).
IMO The combination of spellskite and tectonic edge should be enough to cause some problems for a racing valakut. And BTW I think galvanic blast should be better for the archetype than lightning bolt.
On another note though, went 3-1 today in a PTQ here in Seattle, losing in the 5th round to 3-2 so ended up dropping. Fun experience though the deck did really well.
Match 1: Mono White Puresteel/Kemba/SFM etc...(2-1)
Game 1: 2x maindeck Kor Firewalker runs me through once he gets metalcraft and starts throwing equipement on them.
Game 2: Koth Emblem wipes the floor with him.
Game 3: Urabrask into Titan seals the deal turn 5.
Match 2: Eldrazi Ramp(0-2)
Game 1: Mana flooded Keep a hand of four lands. End up drawing nothing but lands until I die, ****ty.
Game 2: I steal his Primeval Titan with Mark of Mutiny, and swing with it and my Wurmcoil Engine, and next turn he drops Emrakul. Should have waited a turn on my MOM! O well..
Match 3: Mono Blue/Artifacts(2-1)
Game 1: 2x maindeck Torpor Orbs hit the field consecutive turns. I manage to close in on the win though, but due to a misplay on my part due to his using Argent Sphinx's ability to essentially give his Sphinx Vigilance. Didnt take into account my Urabrask's come into play tapped ability(I always forget that damn ability even though its so important!) which wouldnt have allowed him to be blocking, and he would have been dead much earlier, lose eventually to double Sphinx.
Game 2: he mulls to 4, easy win, koth into urabrask into titan.
Game 3: he mulls again, only to 5 this time though. And koth seals the deal after he is stuck on only one land the whole time.
Kind of a cheap win, but ill take it.
Match 4: GWR Birthing Pod(2-0)
We got deckchecked, so 15m later we got to start playing.
Game 1: Urabrask into Koth, double -2 for titan and wurmcoil consecutive turns Saves me from only being on 5 lands.
Game 2: 40minute game here, really comes down to me with a 3/3 dtouch wurmcoil baby w/ batterskull equipped(7/7 Lifelink/Deathtouch/Vigilance O so sexy) and him with Sun Titan/Urabrask/Batterskulls. I was able to keep him in check with a early koth emblem though, and managed to pull off a few sneaky kills with the mountains when he had forgotten about them.
Match 5: U/W Caw-Blade(1-2)
Guy drove close to 300 miles for the event, would have loved to have beaten him and sent him packing!
Game 1: Misplay on my part costs me the match. Opponent has Sun Titan/ Squad Hawk, I am sporting a Inferno Titan. I declare attackers, doing 3 to sun titan, and procede to double Galv Blast for 2 the titan, to do -7 and kill him. Which results in him blocking my titan with his hawk, and dismembering my titan. So if I would have popeed the bird and done 2/2/2 to the titan, I could have kept my titan and drove it home. Whoops.
Game 2: I take a chance with 6 mana to drop a urabrask(I kept passing because he left leak mana open, he has 3 mana untapped at the time, and turns out he had nothing. So next turn i drop a titan, and thats GG.
Game 3: he nut drawed me and I lost, resulted in me dropping.
All in all was a fun day, 174 i think showed up, not too many, but still pretty large for what im used too.(Thats what she said)
Current Decklist for reference.(Btw, Batterskull won me 3 matches today, not regretting replacing my singleton Red Sun's Zenith for it.
3x Urabrask the Hidden
2x Wurmcoil Engine
4x Koth of the Hammer
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Galvanic Blast
2x Slagstorm
1x Batterskull
4x Tumble Magnet
4x Everflowing Chalice
20x Mountain
2x Manic Vandal
2x Mark of Mutiny
1x Slagstorm
3x Combust
3x Dismember
2x Goblin Ruinblaster
2-0 vs. Mono Black Aggro/Disruption
1-2 vs. G/W Stompy Ramp
2-1 vs. U/B Mill
1-2 vs. Counter heavy Cawblade
Squeaked into the top eight.
2-0 vs. PyroTwin
2-1 vs. G/W Stompy (same guy as above)
2-0 vs. Counter light Cawblade
3x Spellskite
3x Urabrask the Hidden
1x Wurmcoil Engine
4x Inferno Titan
Spells: 26
4x Lightning Bolt
2x Sphere of the Suns
4x Everflowing Chalice
2x Volt Charge
2x Slagstorm
3x Tumble Magnet
4x Koth of the Hammer
4x Tezzeret's Gambit
1x Red Sun's Zenith
1x Island
11x Mountain
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Arid Mesa
4x Tectonic Edge
3x Phyrexian Metamorph
3x Shatter
1x Spellskite
1x Moltensteel Dragon
4x Dismember
1x Slagstorm
2x Act of Aggression
I was very surprised at how much mana this deck could produce. I wouldn't change the land count or ramp but I feel it could use an additional big mana sink spell to burn out opponents or something. I'm very tired right now but I can go into more detail on stuff if there is any interest another time. Just thought I would share before bed.
4 x Kuldotha Phoenix
2 x Wurmcoil Engine
Spells:
2 x Batterskull
4 x Galvanic Blast
4 x Volt Charge
4 x Slagstorm
4 x Everflowing Chalice
4 x Sphere of the Suns
20 x Mountain
2 x Tectonic Edge
2 x Mystifying Maze
4 x Spellskite
4 x Dismember
4 x Torpor Orb
3 x Phyrexian Metamorph
Matches I had were Eldrazi Green, Hawkward, B/G Rock Deck and G/W Tokens Ascension. Cyclops Gladiator + Batterskull = NUTS! It enabled me to reach upto 72 life in one of my games.
Attached Batterskull to Gladiator does this: 8 Damage upon attack trigger (practically destroying any creature on the field), then 8 Additional Combat Damage. 16 Life. Sweet! Plus it can still block the following turn due to Vigilance.
I enjoyed using Cyclops Gladiator. He's a huge threat and definitely a board prescence. It's like playing an Inferno Titan at turn 3.
Also all of my Creatures in this configuration are immune to Slagstorms, since all of the have toughness greater than 4. This deck easily butchers any aggressive archetype. And since I already had 4 Slagstorms maindecked, I removed the Inferno Titans from the list, as Wurmcoil Engine serves as a greater threat.
8 Mana stones consistently provide me with a Turn 3 Threat. The threat density of this deck is so huge that once you hit 4 mana, your opponent should be ready for the consecutive threats that will follow.
I'd love to hear how the MD Spellskite worked for you! I've been considering MD'ing 2. How did that work for you?
4 Koth of the Hammer
2 Urabrask the Hidden
4 Inferno Titan
3 Batterskull
3 Ratchet Bomb
4 Ichor Wellspring
4 Mycosynth Wellspring
4 Everflowing Chalice
3 Slagstorm
2 Dismember
4 Galvanic Blast
3 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
20 Mountain
Against aggro you have Ratchet Bomb, Slagstorm and Inferno Titan. 10 mass kill will allow you to slow down the game so you can dominate the game with Titans or recurring Batterskulls.
Against splinter twin decks you have Dismember, Galvanic Blast, Ratchet Bomb(either set to zero or three) and Urabrask.
I chose the wellspring engine because I want cards that can give me a steady supply of mana rather than those that accelerate me because I feel that big red's biggest weakness is flooding. Mycosynth wellspring and valakut can add utility to your mountains thus strenthening the deck's lategame. I'd rather slow down the game with creature removal than hope for artifact mana to ramp me all the while hoping to avoid flooding aswell. The wellsprings also allow me to use Ratchet Bomb, a card I feel is well positioned in today's standard. Had cawblade not been gutted, some Manic Vandals would certainly have made the maindeck too.
I MB'd spellskite for a while, and to be honest, while they helped in certain match ups... they really are more of a SB card. unless you need them, they are a HORRIFIC top deck. I ended up droping them to the side for 3 Phyrexian Metamorph and never looked back. metamorph is a much better card imo, its a MB answer for almost every deck/ inferno titan 5-7. I only see myself adding them MD again if, and only if, splinter twin starts taking over the meta in a big way. they biggest problem i had with them was not being able to redirect removal (most people in my meta are running go for the throat over doom blade)
also i wont be posting results from this week, I was sick so i did not attend.
RR(P/U)Big Red(P/U)RR 24-8-2 (un-retired)
RWR BorosRWR 21-7 (retired)
Modern Lists:
Boros
Kithkin
I was actually fairly unhappy with Dismember. It may have been that this was my first time really using it in constructed but 4 life on top of a lot of other life loss spells and lands really added up. I never put in more than three from the SB. So I have an extra slot to play with there. I'm not sure what to put in though. Any suggestions?
I'm trying out 4 Arid Mesa in the main with 1-2 Plains in the side with Celestial Purge. The Plains with the Sphere of the Suns makes it easy to splash Purge, which is great against MBC (Obliterator much?), Splinter Twin, as well as the mirror match, and RDW.
4 x Kuldotha Phoenix
2 x Precursor Golem
1 x Wurmcoil Engine
2 x Phyrexian Metamorph
2 x Batterskull
4 x Galvanic Blast
4 x Volt Charge
3 x Slagstorm
4 x Everflowing Chalice
3 x Sphere of the Suns
20 x Mountain
4 x Mystifying Maze
3 x Spellskite
4 x Dismember
1 x Slagstorm
3 x Shrine of Burning Rage
1 x Phyrexian Metamorph
3 x Crush
Used this configuration awhile ago and finished 4-1 at my community tournament with 46 players. Round results were as follows
Round 1: vs Puresteel Paladin.dec WIN
Round 2: vs Tempered Steel.dec WIN
Round 3: vs Kuldotha Red.dec WIN
Round 4: vs Valakut Ramp.dec LOSS
Round 5: vs UR Exarch Twin.dec WIN
I must admit. Valakut Ramp post ban is the most difficult matchup for us. But awhile ago, I thought of a possible sideboard against it. I'll probably use the same maindeck but with this sideboard plan
3 x Spellskite
4 x Dismember
1 x Slagstorm
3 x Shrine of Burning Rage
4 x Moltensteel Dragon
Turn 3 Dragon then Turn 4 Phoenix swing then pump can race valakut even if they complete their curve. Besides, the dragon is a great card now that Jace is out of the picture.
PS: The maindeck metamorphs are nuts. They're just 2 copies of all of our deck's threats making it appear that we're running it in multiples (eg. 6 x Phoenix, 4 x Batterskull, 5 x Gladiator) LOL! :))
So are you saying to drop all of the Dismembers for 1x Plains and 3x Celestial Purge? That sounds interesting but I feel like Dismember still covers those problems just as well and doesn't require the splash. I feel like I could put in another Tumble Magnet and cover the Obliterator problem just as well.
I'll probably just run a second Red Sun's Zenith though. Reusable Fireballs with the ridiculous amount of mana available sounds good for some post board games. The exiling of creatures will probably become relevant too if Vengevine become big again. I'm also thinking Moltensteel as a two-of in the board though. I'll play around with it later this week and see what I come up with.
Tumble Magnet can keep the Titan locked down for the few turns it takes this deck to finish off an opponent.
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They are, however, fallible.
Now I would like to know what I can run preferably maindeck to still have a good matchup against all 3. I am pretty sure it has been discussed before, but sadly enough I do not have the time atm to browse through all the 182 pages.
I specifically got problems with the 3 before mentioned decks, and I prefer if you can give me some decklists or specific cards that would deal with these various threats.
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The whip is kept for special occasions
thats actually a pretty interesting sideboard strategy. the big issue has always been that even if you can deal with the P. Titan on the board the fact that they put two Valakut's into play already means you have to finish the game damn quick or else it won't matter anyway.
Act of Aggression + Tectonic Edge does solve that nicely. good call. I'm wondering if this is the correct choice for Threaten effect though. Mark of Mutiny gets an extra point of damage, Act of Treason never costs life. Heck, we might even think about using Conquering Manticore in this role so we can swing for an extra 5 the turn after making the play, maybe not though, 6 mana is probably too much.
The upside of Act of Aggression is that its potentially useful against Splinter Twin. is it useful enough? I've been using Combust as my sideboard card of choice and I think its better. Anybody have thoughts on this?
4 Sphere of the Suns
4 Tumble Magnet
3 Dismember
4 Volt Charge
4 Tezzeret's Gambit
4 Koth of the Hammer
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Inferno Titan
3 Destructive Force
2 Tectonic Edge
23 Mountain
SB
4 Mental Misstep
4 Memoricide
4 Pyroclasm
1 Dismember
2 Batterskull
Awesome deck with a solid, synergistic core. Very good Valakut / Splinter Twin match-ups. The big question mark is whether the sideboard Memoricide will actually be worth those slots. t2 sphere t3 memoricide against either deck is pretty awesome but sphere is only way to cast the spell. i figured the 4 spheres were only a little bit worse than playing like 4 terramorphics and a swamp for getting black mana and i really didn't want to do the terramorphic thing. the 1 metamorph could be something else...
To explain my 4 mental missteps... i like legacy.
vs. MBC - hasn't been a problem for me. most of that deck is just bad, and its certainly slower than ours. the most threatening creature is Phyrexian Obliterator but that is easily controlled by Tumble Magnet. this matchup is not hard because they just can't win the damage race most of the time. just stay on offense and it will work out.
vs. Mono White - Koth is the all-star here. He is your persistent threat that they have alot of trouble dealing with. You can win in the late game if you draw enough big threats. Inferno Titan is great. Kuldotha Phoenix is pretty useful too. Kor Firewalker is the problem card if you're unprepared for it. However, there are many many good solutions. In my deck I'm using Contagion Clasp which can easily deal with it (have to Proliferate once to finish the job, but thats not a big deal). I've got some backup Ratchet Bombs in the sideboard to help out with this also. As an alternative you might consider Perilous Myr or Dismember.
vs. Valakut - hard matchup. we've been discussing this one for a few pages now. its basically a damage race. i'm still hammering out the details. my most recent strategy was to try and win the damage race with Moltensteel Dragon. That was ok, but really only a sideboard option. Others have been discussing using Act of Aggression + Tectonic Edge to negate the effects of a P. Titan. thats a reasonable defensive strategy.
On a different note, so long as Tempered Steel doesn't take off in a big way, I think the format is going to see a good deal less artifact removal, especially MD. I think Moltensteel Dragon may very well be worth a closer look if that is going to be the case - it can straight up end the game in two swings, and a four-drop other than Koth to ramp into with out Chalices and Spheres would be great for the deck. Off to test!
Modern: Jund, Wafo-Tapa UWR
Legacy: Witch-Maw Stoneblade
EDH: Ruhan of the Fomori, Hazezon Tamar, Maga, Traitor to Mortals
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The standard to which the forum moderators apply the rules here.
It sounds like you need to run a few dismembers in the side, Tumble magnet is a godsend most games so MB it, Phyrexian metamorph is good in almost every matchup, and for valakut.... play testing a few hundred games should help out ( i know that sounds like alot but its not like you have to sit down and crush those out all in one go) knowing what your opponent is going to do is the best strategy you can have. if you want, check out my list to get a starting point the link is in my sig.
RR(P/U)Big Red(P/U)RR 24-8-2 (un-retired)
RWR BorosRWR 21-7 (retired)
Modern Lists:
Boros
Kithkin
i think another important point is that obsidian fireheart is just plain dirty. against any slower deck, he asures victory and though he can't target the same land twice, you can proliferate the blaze counters. and he lets you dump all the excess mana you may have into an insane ability.
Big Red
Main Deck:
2 Inferno Titan
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Kuldotha Phoenix
4 Obsidian Fireheart
1 Contagion Clasp
4 Everflowing Chalice
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Slagstorm
2 Sphere of the Suns
4 Tezzeret's Gambit
4 Tumble Magnet
20 Mountain
4 Tectonic Edge
Sideboard:
4 Combust
2 Dismember
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
3 Hero of Oxid Ridge
2 Tuktuk Scrapper
if anyone has any advice, i'm open to try new things. (i've already tested with moltensteel dragon.)
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sorry, i stopped reading after this. the judge let u play for 2 more hours?! doesnt anyone at your LGS have a home to go back to????