The deck only runs 20 land. Turn / Burn costs 5 and I have found that reaching 5 mana is not only difficult but you have so many other things you want to do with the mana.
I thought about it too but I think some number of Searing Spear and the Pillar of Flame are most cost effective removal.
Also you can get around Reckoner by simply playing Artful Dodge.
Yeah, I was more thinking about just using the Turn side for when a creature like the Reckoner attacks, and then blocking him is pretty harmless. Also, with Snappy in the game you are really getting back two spells.
The play to make is to cast Turn when your opponent is attacking or blocking with Boros Reckoner. If you're meta includes lots of Reckoners and Thragtusks it's worth playing or at least sideboarding.
Searing Spear and Pillar of Flame are too narrow for this deck. Cards such as Boros Charm and Izzet Charm provide extra value and can keep your creatures alive - against removal heavy decks you will just lose again and again as they kill all of your threats.
As for Reckoner, I like Hands of Binding/Hidden Strings & Artful Dodge to just tap him or go around him.
I like Feeling of Dread, but I also like having more attackers with it which makes it more appealing. Are the Charm counts at 4 correct? I like 4 Boros charms and 3 izzet personally.
A 1 drop with Hidden Strings is highly appealing to me. We have the elemental and blistercoil weird, both seem decent.
Epic experiment seems like a decent card, even casting it for 3 allows us to emulate more spells and out land count is pretty low. Back to it being 5+ mana at that rate though.
I went with Reckoner in the MB. Harvest Pyre provides and additional out for me if Cyclops cannot connect. Reckoner mg also hedges my aggro match a bit more. Slayers' Stronghold allows me to go on the aggressive with my creatures effectively in a pinch.
I really like having Hidden Strings. I am sure the elemental may be better, but blistercoil pumps and untaps for defensive abilities as well.
As i know this archetype is called squeezer. American squeezer is a thing, but I rather go rug cuz of some reasons: quirion dryad and blood side of flesh//blood. Armed//dangerous can be used as double striker enabler and decoy if you ran out of fuel. As rug goes for protective spells with rug colours we can name simic charm, rangers guile e mizzium skin. Being guile and skin really good stuff cuz of its 1cmc. Although charm is also cool cuz of utility: he can pump, answer removal or bounce any creature.
AND nivmagus elemental is a considerable squeezer. you can run lots of protection like aforementioned and exile'em when not needed. Besides, with a t1 hitter, you can usen Hidden Strings that can make a good "combo".
t1> Nivmagus Elemental
t2> Hidden Strings: a)untap the land you used or b)tap any early chump blocker. Cipher. Attack: From here you can go: a)untap lands again so you can cast any 4cmc instant, b) exile the cipher copy to pump nivmagus or c) untp nivmagus/tap opponent's lands... idk...
cipher is good. i used to play RUG squeezer and i used at least 6 cipher (hands of binding and hidden strings). it's kinda lame cuz ciphered copies only pump cyclops after combat phase. but with nivmagus and quirion dryad you can get dryad's counter and exile the spells guilty free.
Speaking of the Nivmagus Cipher interaction, this is the deck that I've been messing around with. It's pretty fasts because the curve tops at 2, 3 if you count the flashback costs. It's weakness right now is that it is in desperate need of protection because once they remove your threat the deck fails miserably.
I considered blister cool, but didn't tested cuz is too subpar IMHO. I like pulling wins outta nowhere with cyclops +3/+0, and blood. Or unblockable+d.strike.
About protection on rug we got plenty. Ranger's guile are great but mizzium triggers dryad, and we have also simic charm. You can run a set of unsummon in your 75 to avoid wraths, since without white we don't have (at least i cant think) of indestructible effects.
my only loss was Junk Reanimator. Game 1 I just went off. Game 2 and 3 I kept with explosive hands to go off but the snap keep with no blue wrecked me.
The deck was a blast, very explosive and fun. Guttersnipe was something I did not miss. I sided into the infinite life for some games or against quick aggro. Azorius Charm in the board was great.
I might play it again this week, idk. I put me in the money, but the deck seemed quite questionable, but I should have known that, I played Kiln Fiend blitz back when it was legal.
I considered blister cool, but didn't tested cuz is too subpar IMHO. I like pulling wins outta nowhere with cyclops +3/+0, and blood. Or unblockable+d.strike.
About protection on rug we got plenty. Ranger's guile are great but mizzium triggers dryad, and we have also simic charm. You can run a set of unsummon in your 75 to avoid wraths, since without white we don't have (at least i cant think) of indestructible effects.
Mending Touch avoids wraths and also helps protect in general. I'd throw some in the sideboard for the control match-up.
Personally, I have trouble sac effects the most. Any deck running devour flesh or far//away just eats me alive. Honestly, I think it might just come down to meta choice because, apart from dispel, there's no work-around I can think of.
@ Anbu - That is so close to my deck What cards were you siding out most often?
I've become a big believer in Guttersnipe especially if you are playing with Hidden Strings. You can get some huge turns with those two cards often killing your opponent on the spot T4.
Has anyone considered trying to mix this deck up with a Whispering Madness + Notion Thief combo?
Mending Touch avoids wraths and also helps protect in general. I'd throw some in the sideboard for the control match-up.
Personally, I have trouble sac effects the most. Any deck running devour flesh or far//away just eats me alive. Honestly, I think it might just come down to meta choice because, apart from dispel, there's no work-around I can think of.
Dispel is amazing and stops the card dead. Izzet Charm is also a champ here. I agree sacrifice sucks especially at instant speed but if you know to expect it, it's far from unbeatable.
Your deck includes 63 cards, fyi. Also, how did you feel about Ral in the list? With 20 lands, were you able to consisently cast him?
sorry about that 63 cards lol. I've just added ral zarek yesterday but i won without any copies of ral zarek. i just like his first ability to tap then untap target permanents. then his searing spear ability. I think i removed the searing spears and put in ral zarek instead so that i can replicate searing spear with ral's 2nd ability twice for each ral zarek i have in the deck. Plus Ral is a misdirection and provide us a way to finish with a combo.
@ Anbu - That is so close to my deck What cards were you siding out most often?
I've become a big believer in Guttersnipe especially if you are playing with Hidden Strings. You can get some huge turns with those two cards often killing your opponent on the spot T4.
Has anyone considered trying to mix this deck up with a Whispering Madness + Notion Thief combo?
against control decks i side out some burn spells like pillar in favor of counter spells like dispel/negate. If i see someone playing abrupt decay that is the time i use mizzium skin.
Guttersnipe is such a cool damage generator card i remember my opponent was at 14 or more life then i killed him in one turn only with guttersnipe's ability hehe.
hidden strings is so powerful especially when ciphered on a creature where you cast an armed // dangerous on it.
I made Top 4 with Woo's original list yesterday, except that my Snappy's hadn't all arrived yet. I used two Turn//Burn instead. Went 3-1, split for prize in Top 4. Lost to homebrew RG ramp. Beat a Junk midrange, a hyper Rw aggro, and a Bant control deck.
I dont want to go the same as Woo's budget lists etc, but I want to cut white. I know that will force the deck to play differently (need a new doublestrike granter, maybe another protection piece, dont have 4 points of burn to the dome). Could a straight U/R list work better? Would another color work out? I've tried woo's original. SB ideas not working out too great for me, and have run into many mana issues.
If you're still looking for 1-drops, I've had success with Judge's Familiar so far. It's perfect for ciphering onto and carries a Pike like a boss. Meanwhile, it can act like a one-sided Thalia if your opponent isn't willing to waste tempo killing it. It's easy enough to loot away in the later game, anyway. It mostly love it for the absurd T2 plays with Hidden Strings.
I dont want to go the same as Woo's budget lists etc, but I want to cut white. I know that will force the deck to play differently (need a new doublestrike granter, maybe another protection piece, dont have 4 points of burn to the dome). Could a straight U/R list work better? Would another color work out? I've tried woo's original. SB ideas not working out too great for me, and have run into many mana issues.
mine is straightforward red blue colors only. armed // dangerous is the spell that grants doublestrike in red. i recently finished first with this deck:
I dont want to go the same as Woo's budget lists etc, but I want to cut white. I know that will force the deck to play differently (need a new doublestrike granter, maybe another protection piece, dont have 4 points of burn to the dome). Could a straight U/R list work better? Would another color work out? I've tried woo's original. SB ideas not working out too great for me, and have run into many mana issues.
The best way to get the damage in is definitely the Burning Vengeance (though that is suggested in the budget woo brew). As far as protection pieces go, Dispel works quite well against most pieces of removal, but you'll find yourself needing to play around Supreme Verdict more often as a result.
I played my own version of this deck at a decently-sized event last weekend. The main differences were A) I was straight U/R, like some of the lists on here, and B) The list was more midrange/control than "blitz". That being said, I'm not too sure if this is the right place to post it, but the list is similar enough that I say meh.
My list (keep it mind I had built it at 3:00 am the night before lol):
I started by going 3-0 (vs. Junk Aristocrats, R/G Aggro, and a R/G Auras deck, in that order). I then went 0-2 sadly, drawing the 6th round into top 16 for prizes. I was still quite happy with my performance however.
The main change from blitz came when I realized I wanted to win off Guttersnipe more than Cyclops. Or rather, I felt that Snipe was more consistent. I feel, at least for me, that this was correct. 7 out of my 9 game wins that day were completely off Guttersnipe, and only 1 of the other 2 was off Nivix Cyclops (the last one was a beatdown with Firewing Phoenix and a Snapcaster lol). Obviously this was mostly because I had less of the blitz cyclops combo in there, but I was much happier with what I ran. As for the obvious non-bo between Guttersnipe and Magmaquake, it simply wasn't a problem. Only once was I forced to Magmaquake after landing a Snipe, and I still won that game.
My list is still in the rough of course. I plan on playing it more, and some changes I intend to make are:
- Cut the 1-ofs Devil's Play, Turn/Burn, and cut 1 Phoenix (though I still want 1 phoenix there I think, great card for stall-outs, and is another win-con).
- Add 1 Aetherize, and at least 1 more in the board.
- Probably add 1 more Dissipate MB, maybe 2.
- Mayyyybe go down to 23 lands, not sure yet. I've been quite happy with my land count so far.
My 2 losses of the night were to Bant Auras (a horrendous matchup for my version), and Junk tokens (not as bad, but still bad). Aetherize would be aimed at those matchups. Aetherize nets me not only tempo against both decks, but actually kills a bunch of stuff as well (enchantments/creature tokens). It could also save my skin once and a while against aggro I suppose, though I'm pretty sure I only want 1 in the main.
I ran a UWR thrown together version last night that was pretty terrible. Played against an aggro deck and got worked pretty good.
I don't really like the white in there. Pretty much every time I'd get white, I'd wish it was blue. I went to a different lgs today, and got the spears, flames and a few other cards I need.
What about adding 1 or 2 Aetherling? Or is that too much mana?
I really think the Cyclops was kind of clunky, and I didn't really like it all that much. I think I'd prefer a flyer over him.
Yeah, I was more thinking about just using the Turn side for when a creature like the Reckoner attacks, and then blocking him is pretty harmless. Also, with Snappy in the game you are really getting back two spells.
Yeah.. pretty much this.
A 1 drop with Hidden Strings is highly appealing to me. We have the elemental and blistercoil weird, both seem decent.
Epic experiment seems like a decent card, even casting it for 3 allows us to emulate more spells and out land count is pretty low. Back to it being 5+ mana at that rate though.
Seems like a good card to find that much needed Boros Charm when the Cyclops is out.I just really don't want to get a set of Snaps.
3 Blistercoil Weird
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Boros Reckoner
4 Nivix Cyclops
Spells (28)
4 Artful Dodge
4 Faithless Looting
3 Pillar of Flame
4 Thoughtscour
4 Boros Charm
2 Feeling of Dread
1 Harvest Pyre
3 Hidden Strings
3 Izzet Charm
2 Slayers' Stronghold
3 Clifftop Retreat
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Steam Vents
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Sacred Foundry
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Ral Zarek
1 Boros Reckoner
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Skullcrack
2 Dispel
1 Pillar of Flame
I went with Reckoner in the MB. Harvest Pyre provides and additional out for me if Cyclops cannot connect. Reckoner mg also hedges my aggro match a bit more. Slayers' Stronghold allows me to go on the aggressive with my creatures effectively in a pinch.
I really like having Hidden Strings. I am sure the elemental may be better, but blistercoil pumps and untaps for defensive abilities as well.
t1> Nivmagus Elemental
t2> Hidden Strings: a)untap the land you used or b)tap any early chump blocker. Cipher. Attack: From here you can go: a)untap lands again so you can cast any 4cmc instant, b) exile the cipher copy to pump nivmagus or c) untp nivmagus/tap opponent's lands... idk...
cipher is good. i used to play RUG squeezer and i used at least 6 cipher (hands of binding and hidden strings). it's kinda lame cuz ciphered copies only pump cyclops after combat phase. but with nivmagus and quirion dryad you can get dryad's counter and exile the spells guilty free.
4 Nivmagus Elemental
4 Blistercoil Weird
4 Delver of Secrets
Spells:
4 Hidden Strings
4 Hands of Binding
4 Searing Spear
2 Think Twice
4 Artful Dodge
2 Runechanter's Pike
4 Izzet Charm
4 Faithless Looting
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
6 Island
6 Mountain
About protection on rug we got plenty. Ranger's guile are great but mizzium triggers dryad, and we have also simic charm. You can run a set of unsummon in your 75 to avoid wraths, since without white we don't have (at least i cant think) of indestructible effects.
3 Heist of Saint Traft
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Boros Reckoner
4 Nivix Cyclops
Spells (28)
4 Artful Dodge
4 Faithless Looting
3 Pillar of Flame
4 Thoughtscour
4 Boros Charm
2 Feeling of Dread
1 Harvest Pyre
3 Mizzium Skin
3 Izzet Charm
2 Slayers' Stronghold
3 Clifftop Retreat
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Steam Vents
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Sacred Foundry
3 Azorius Charm
1 Ral Zarek
1 Boros Reckoner
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Skullcrack
2 Dispel
1 Pillar of Flame
1 Searing Spear
1 Fling
my only loss was Junk Reanimator. Game 1 I just went off. Game 2 and 3 I kept with explosive hands to go off but the snap keep with no blue wrecked me.
The deck was a blast, very explosive and fun. Guttersnipe was something I did not miss. I sided into the infinite life for some games or against quick aggro. Azorius Charm in the board was great.
I might play it again this week, idk. I put me in the money, but the deck seemed quite questionable, but I should have known that, I played Kiln Fiend blitz back when it was legal.
Mending Touch avoids wraths and also helps protect in general. I'd throw some in the sideboard for the control match-up.
Personally, I have trouble sac effects the most. Any deck running devour flesh or far//away just eats me alive. Honestly, I think it might just come down to meta choice because, apart from dispel, there's no work-around I can think of.
3 delver of secrets
3 guttersnipe
3 nivix cyclops
3 thought scour
3 searing spear
3 unsummon
3 pillar of flame
4 izzet charm
3 hidden strings
3 armed // dangerous
3 artful dodge
lands 20
4 steam vents
4 sulfur falls
1 ghost quarter
1 desolate lighthouse
6 island
4 mountain
3 turn burn
2 dispel
2 negate
4 reckless waif
I've become a big believer in Guttersnipe especially if you are playing with Hidden Strings. You can get some huge turns with those two cards often killing your opponent on the spot T4.
Has anyone considered trying to mix this deck up with a Whispering Madness + Notion Thief combo?
Dispel is amazing and stops the card dead. Izzet Charm is also a champ here. I agree sacrifice sucks especially at instant speed but if you know to expect it, it's far from unbeatable.
Your deck includes 63 cards, fyi. Also, how did you feel about Ral in the list? With 20 lands, were you able to consisently cast him?
sorry about that 63 cards lol. I've just added ral zarek yesterday but i won without any copies of ral zarek. i just like his first ability to tap then untap target permanents. then his searing spear ability. I think i removed the searing spears and put in ral zarek instead so that i can replicate searing spear with ral's 2nd ability twice for each ral zarek i have in the deck. Plus Ral is a misdirection and provide us a way to finish with a combo.
against control decks i side out some burn spells like pillar in favor of counter spells like dispel/negate. If i see someone playing abrupt decay that is the time i use mizzium skin.
Guttersnipe is such a cool damage generator card i remember my opponent was at 14 or more life then i killed him in one turn only with guttersnipe's ability hehe.
hidden strings is so powerful especially when ciphered on a creature where you cast an armed // dangerous on it.
Legacy:
GNO Elves
GChaos Elves
GBRNicFit ScapeWish
No, Mister Bond. I expect you to die.
Cubetutor Link
mine is straightforward red blue colors only. armed // dangerous is the spell that grants doublestrike in red. i recently finished first with this deck:
3 delver of secrets
3 guttersnipe
3 nivix cyclops
3 thought scour
3 unsummon
3 pillar of flame
4 izzet charm
3 hidden strings
3 armed // dangerous
3 artful dodge
3 mizzium skin
lands 20
4 steam vents
4 sulfur falls
1 ghost quarter
1 desolate lighthouse
6 island
4 mountain
3 turn burn
2 dispel
2 negate
4 reckless waif
The best way to get the damage in is definitely the Burning Vengeance (though that is suggested in the budget woo brew). As far as protection pieces go, Dispel works quite well against most pieces of removal, but you'll find yourself needing to play around Supreme Verdict more often as a result.
Something you might want to try is including white but looking at an evolution of the deck (he's been using Geist of Saint Traft and Feeling of Dread rather than mana intensive cards like Snapcaster Mage or conditional removal in Searing Spear.
I played my own version of this deck at a decently-sized event last weekend. The main differences were A) I was straight U/R, like some of the lists on here, and B) The list was more midrange/control than "blitz". That being said, I'm not too sure if this is the right place to post it, but the list is similar enough that I say meh.
My list (keep it mind I had built it at 3:00 am the night before lol):
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Guttersnipe
2 Nivix Cyclops
2 Firewing Phoenix
Spells
2 Artful Dodge
1 Devil's Play
4 Faithless Looting
3 Pillar of Flame
2 Thought Scour
4 Izzet Charm
2 Magmaquake
2 Searing Spear
3 Think Twice
1 Turn//Burn
1 Dissipate
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
7 Island
9 Mountain
I started by going 3-0 (vs. Junk Aristocrats, R/G Aggro, and a R/G Auras deck, in that order). I then went 0-2 sadly, drawing the 6th round into top 16 for prizes. I was still quite happy with my performance however.
The main change from blitz came when I realized I wanted to win off Guttersnipe more than Cyclops. Or rather, I felt that Snipe was more consistent. I feel, at least for me, that this was correct. 7 out of my 9 game wins that day were completely off Guttersnipe, and only 1 of the other 2 was off Nivix Cyclops (the last one was a beatdown with Firewing Phoenix and a Snapcaster lol). Obviously this was mostly because I had less of the blitz cyclops combo in there, but I was much happier with what I ran. As for the obvious non-bo between Guttersnipe and Magmaquake, it simply wasn't a problem. Only once was I forced to Magmaquake after landing a Snipe, and I still won that game.
My list is still in the rough of course. I plan on playing it more, and some changes I intend to make are:
- Cut the 1-ofs Devil's Play, Turn/Burn, and cut 1 Phoenix (though I still want 1 phoenix there I think, great card for stall-outs, and is another win-con).
- Add 1 Aetherize, and at least 1 more in the board.
- Probably add 1 more Dissipate MB, maybe 2.
- Mayyyybe go down to 23 lands, not sure yet. I've been quite happy with my land count so far.
My 2 losses of the night were to Bant Auras (a horrendous matchup for my version), and Junk tokens (not as bad, but still bad). Aetherize would be aimed at those matchups. Aetherize nets me not only tempo against both decks, but actually kills a bunch of stuff as well (enchantments/creature tokens). It could also save my skin once and a while against aggro I suppose, though I'm pretty sure I only want 1 in the main.
I welcome all constructive input
I don't really like the white in there. Pretty much every time I'd get white, I'd wish it was blue. I went to a different lgs today, and got the spears, flames and a few other cards I need.
What about adding 1 or 2 Aetherling? Or is that too much mana?
I really think the Cyclops was kind of clunky, and I didn't really like it all that much. I think I'd prefer a flyer over him.