My main concerns would be finding a better solution to mbd. Most other matches I can visualize fairly decent outs, but to cards like desecration demon, it seems my best hope is to keep him tapped out with pyromancer and hope I can keep up or by 2 for 1. I've thought about turn and burn or even more counters but I feel that is anti synergistic with my card advantage engines in flamespeaker and chandra. I don't expect to do anything hyper competitive with this list but I would like to at least have a fighting chance if played well. Thoughts?
This is an R/U build, FWIW. While it is expensive, the best answer in those colors to problematic creatures is Turn//Burn. 6 toughness is always a problem for burn based removal. Young Pyromancer elemental tokens are perfect fodder to tap down the demon, but you will eventually run out of ways to generate them.
Another possibility is to use Spite of Mogis. Basically, it is Spellheart Chimera as a burn spell. If you are going to run both of those, Steam Augury really helps power them up while keeping your hand full. But, IMO, you are probably too creature heavy for that to be a reliable combo.
Yeah sorry about that I'm posting from my phone and its not a reliable way to post in the least. I'll fix that as well as the deck tags tomorrow when I can get to my computer. I thought of spite but was afraid of it being too narrow. Turn and burn might have to be the way to go, I was just afraid it would be unreliable as well with the curve I'm trying to use. To add a pair I would probably have to drop a spell heart or 2 and a speaker or 2 to add some more land which isn't ideal, but neither is being road blocked by a demon.
If mono black is something you're worried about, then I would consider finding room for Chandra's Phoenix. It accomplishes the same thing you want Flamespeaker to do (card advantage), but is also resilient to removal and pressures them when you play it via haste. MBD is very reliant on trading 1 for 1 until it can pull ahead with Underworld Connections, and Phoenix weakens these trades immensely. Also, an issue I see with Flamespeaker and Chandra, Pyromaster in this deck is that it's counter-productive to your goal of landing a big Spellheart Chimera. Exiling your cards is the last thing you want to do when you want a graveyard full of spells. I'd personally ditch the plan of Spellheart Chimera, because it's incredibly hard to untap with that creature in play.
Turn // Burn: I would try hard to make room for this. Fusing Turn // Burn with Young Pyromancer on board is one of the best ways this deck deals with troublesome creatures. Turn // Burn alone can handle most creatures and god cards, but it can also be applied to multiple targets for very favorable trades. You will have to up your land count to support it, but it's well worth it. I personally run 23 land with my U/R list, and it runs quite smooth mana wise.
Keranos, God of Storms: 3x Keranos seems like an issue running only 20 land. You're going to have a hard time getting it to play consistently, and when you finally do get it into play, it could be too late in the game to give you a real advantage. I tried Keranos out, but it felt like I was trying to force the card where it didn't belong. Playing the card is a massive tempo hit, and the effect sometimes wasn't worth it. I love the card in my RUG Monsters deck where I can ramp it into play and manipulate the top of my library with Courser/Domri/Kiroa. In that scenario you get the card out fast and take advantage of the effect as early as turn 3.
Anger of the Gods: I'm not a fan of this card in the deck, because all of your creatures are affected by it and it will be routinely awkward to cast. You should be able to manage small aggro decks with Young Pyromancer and burn just fine, so I wouldn't worry about including sweepers in the main deck.
Keranos was something I was really interested in testing, but I've been sharing your concerns. As for anger, I've had concerns about that in lists similar to this in the past but even though it hits everything in my list it never slowed me down that bad. I do, however like your idea about the Phoenix, and if I do the angers have to go. Absolutely. Thanks for the advice, seems pretty sound
If you are going to run Keranos, also run Hammer of Purphoros. With Keranos, non-land cards do 3, and with Hammer, lands do 3. Hammer is actually a very good win con as you really won't car about using anger on the golems.
I'll probably replace the gates with Shivan Reef when M15 is released, but there isn't really much else I'm looking at. Unfortunately, all of my favorite blue cards being released are very tempo oriented, but there isn't much in this block to synergize with it.
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Standard: UR Control
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4 Young Pyromancer
4 Prophetic Flamespeaker
4 Spellheart Chimera
3 Keranos, God of Storms
Spells:25
3 Font of Fortunes
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
2 Searing Blood
3 Anger of the Gods
4 Dissolve
3 Divination
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Island
8 Mountain
4 Steam Vents
4 Temple of Epiphany
1 Annul
2 Kiora's Dismissal
1 Magma Spray
3 Swan Song
2 Gainsay
3 Negate
2 Searing Blood
1 Anger of the Gods
My main concerns would be finding a better solution to mbd. Most other matches I can visualize fairly decent outs, but to cards like desecration demon, it seems my best hope is to keep him tapped out with pyromancer and hope I can keep up or by 2 for 1. I've thought about turn and burn or even more counters but I feel that is anti synergistic with my card advantage engines in flamespeaker and chandra. I don't expect to do anything hyper competitive with this list but I would like to at least have a fighting chance if played well. Thoughts?
Standard:
UR Control
Another possibility is to use Spite of Mogis. Basically, it is Spellheart Chimera as a burn spell. If you are going to run both of those, Steam Augury really helps power them up while keeping your hand full. But, IMO, you are probably too creature heavy for that to be a reliable combo.
Standard:
UR Control
Turn // Burn: I would try hard to make room for this. Fusing Turn // Burn with Young Pyromancer on board is one of the best ways this deck deals with troublesome creatures. Turn // Burn alone can handle most creatures and god cards, but it can also be applied to multiple targets for very favorable trades. You will have to up your land count to support it, but it's well worth it. I personally run 23 land with my U/R list, and it runs quite smooth mana wise.
Keranos, God of Storms: 3x Keranos seems like an issue running only 20 land. You're going to have a hard time getting it to play consistently, and when you finally do get it into play, it could be too late in the game to give you a real advantage. I tried Keranos out, but it felt like I was trying to force the card where it didn't belong. Playing the card is a massive tempo hit, and the effect sometimes wasn't worth it. I love the card in my RUG Monsters deck where I can ramp it into play and manipulate the top of my library with Courser/Domri/Kiroa. In that scenario you get the card out fast and take advantage of the effect as early as turn 3.
Anger of the Gods: I'm not a fan of this card in the deck, because all of your creatures are affected by it and it will be routinely awkward to cast. You should be able to manage small aggro decks with Young Pyromancer and burn just fine, so I wouldn't worry about including sweepers in the main deck.
Standard:
UR Control
How's this looking for an updated list?
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Prophetic Flamespeaker
4 Chandra's Phoenix
2 Keranos, God of Storms
Spells:23
2 Font of Fortunes
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
2 Searing Blood
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Dissolve
3 Divination
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Turn // Burn
4 Island
8 Mountain
3 Izzet Guildgate
4 Steam Vents
4 Temple of Epiphany
1 Annul
2 Kiora's Dismissal
1 Magma Spray
3 Swan Song
2 Gainsay
3 Negate
2 Searing Blood
1 Mizzium Mortars
I'll probably replace the gates with Shivan Reef when M15 is released, but there isn't really much else I'm looking at. Unfortunately, all of my favorite blue cards being released are very tempo oriented, but there isn't much in this block to synergize with it.
Standard:
UR Control