I've been working on putting together a mono-red goblin deck ( http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/02-08-15-red-goblins-win/ ) for Game Day this Saturday (8/8/15) and I've been having problems finding decent burn spells for it. Three of the best spells ( Wild Slash, Searing Blood and Exquisite Firecraft ) I just can't find copies of in any of the local stores and I can't order them online due to current time restraints. Are there any viable alternatives out there or do I need to drop some of the burn focus and get combat tricks instead?
If you're missing some burn, I would say definitely go for the 4x maindeck Titan's Strength. It does a similar thing, especially if you can go wide, and you certainly can with goblins.
Magma Jet is a very viable alternative, although you don't want to jam 4 of them into your deck because scry doesn't stack with itself that well. 1-2 of those can help you out.
Twin Bolt exists, but it's probably not viable, though I see people run it anyway at FNM sometimes. I have more respect for it in control decks, less so in aggro.
Putting Fiery Impulses (or Magma Spray in your sideboard can help take over Wild Slash's role of killing mana dorks if you bring those in for the appropriate matchups. It's not allowed to target your opponent though, so maindecking it has a nasty risk if you might face a control deck.
I've looked at Magma Jet, Twin Bolt, and Fiery Impulse but I worry about the fact that they only do 2 damage when there are a number of low cost 3 toughness creatures. Maybe I'm over estimating the amount of those an opponent will be able to drop, I might just have to focus on going wide in that scenario.
I think you are overestimating the number of low cost 3 toughness creatures that are really seeing play. Fleecemane Lion is one, and he sees play, but he is seeing play less and less lately. Sylvan Caryatid can't be targeted anyway. Anything another red deck has will not have 3 toughness.
Deathmist Raptor is a highly playable 3 toughness creature, but it's not very exciting to kill him since he can come back. So he definitely is one of those scenarios where you want to go wide instead if you can. There are occasionally situations where you can't work out a different gameplan and you have to Lightning Strike him and pray that he doesn't have a morph in hand, but a lot of the time it will be a legitimately better answer to him to Magma Jet face and scry a Subterranean Scout or Titan's Strength to the top so you can smack face past him rather than Lightning Strike him and hope he doesn't come back.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Magma Jet is a very viable alternative, although you don't want to jam 4 of them into your deck because scry doesn't stack with itself that well. 1-2 of those can help you out.
Twin Bolt exists, but it's probably not viable, though I see people run it anyway at FNM sometimes. I have more respect for it in control decks, less so in aggro.
Putting Fiery Impulses (or Magma Spray in your sideboard can help take over Wild Slash's role of killing mana dorks if you bring those in for the appropriate matchups. It's not allowed to target your opponent though, so maindecking it has a nasty risk if you might face a control deck.
I've looked at Magma Jet, Twin Bolt, and Fiery Impulse but I worry about the fact that they only do 2 damage when there are a number of low cost 3 toughness creatures. Maybe I'm over estimating the amount of those an opponent will be able to drop, I might just have to focus on going wide in that scenario.
Deathmist Raptor is a highly playable 3 toughness creature, but it's not very exciting to kill him since he can come back. So he definitely is one of those scenarios where you want to go wide instead if you can. There are occasionally situations where you can't work out a different gameplan and you have to Lightning Strike him and pray that he doesn't have a morph in hand, but a lot of the time it will be a legitimately better answer to him to Magma Jet face and scry a Subterranean Scout or Titan's Strength to the top so you can smack face past him rather than Lightning Strike him and hope he doesn't come back.