So, I'm looking to build blitz and I was curious about why lists don't run Rancor. It would seem to be an absolute house in this archetype, adding even more power, as well as some resiliency. I'm considering running them over Searing Spear. Am I nuts?
I ran blitz for a few weeks because I love aggro. Ifound Boros Charm much more useful than Rancor or Giant Growth. I had three in my sb and was siding them in every game pretty much. Saving your guys against board sweepers or in combat is so good.....
I was more so referring to running Hellrider in a predominately W list. I'd look to cut down on the Hellrider by at least one. If you up the number of Silverblade and possibly include Truefire you should be able to support War Falcon.
It looks like this prediction has come to fruition. Currently,there's a Dega Humans variant being piloted by Sam Black and others at the pro tour. From what I can tell, it's having relative success. It is however, far from what I imagined. It looks to be running full playsets of Cartel Aristocrat and Doomed Traveler, to go along with some number (probably fully playsets) of Boros Reckoner, Silverblade Paladin and Falkenrath Aristocrat. I'll update this with a full decklist once I get more info.
I agree about the Falkenwrath Aristocrat... She is pretty good. I have been doing some testing with the list I posted and there are only two games it has lost. One to a bizarre white weenie using goldnight commander that is a very strong list. He would have a small army of creatures and then cast Gather the townsfolk or midnight haunting to pump them all up to 4/4's or even 5/5's when a war falcon came out as well. The other was against a gruul list, and the only reason I lost there was because I was stuck on two lands. Stonewright is not optimal for this list, but I did have two instances where dropping him and soul bonding to a creature able to attack, and then sending that creature airborne and double striking from Ajani, then a pump from the stonewright won me the game. I am gonna work on getting some cavern of souls, but I am pretty happy with the list so far. A friend of mine is gonna take the deck to Quebec City this weekend coming up for the Grand Prix and give it a go for me.
You're absolutely correct on the 1-drops. Stonewright has no place in here, being ran on sub 20 R sources. If you're running a symmetrical 24 lands you might as be running Truefire when it comes to sinks. As for on color 1-drops, I'd stick with War Falcon.
I will say though, out of all the builds that try to shoehorn Hellrider into their list, this one does a pretty decent job of providing for him (16 R sources) without totally disrupting the consistency of the rest of the deck. I'm not saying it's optimal, because it isn't but at least he isn't trying to do it on 12-14 sources which I think is ludicrous. The negative here is that he cannot run Elite Inquisitor and he's missing out on the awesomeness that is known as Slayers' Stronghold.
IMO, we just need to be realistic if we ever want this deck to truly perform. Looks at RDW and all of the R/x lists that have branched off. Almost all of the failure rates for each spell in those decks is sub 10%. Your number one priority when it comes to a list who's livelihood is predicated on hitting your dudes on curve should be consistency. I'm sure there are red mages out there who love the idea of giving something like Stromkirk Noble double strike but it's understood that you can't just toss Silverblade into that deck without totally messing with the color ratios. I strongly believe that we should be following that same train of thought.
I added Silverblade to get the extra double strike, but I was following some of the advice posted earlier by someone by adding those and Thalia to the list. Should I add in some cavern of souls to smooth out the mana more then? And do I have enough knights/soldiers to justify the war falcon?
The reckoners are in the sideboard to help keep my humans count high, and the oblivion rings maindecked are to help deal with big nasties like an opposing Reckoner or a desecration demons which are common in my local meta. I also like Ajani's -3 ability which is why I put him there. I was thinking o replacing the 3 medics with 3 Spark Troopers.
Thanks for the responses.... I thougbt that was how his ability worked, but my friend yesterday was trying to,convince me that I could cast instants before the discard. Thanks for the clarification. My frie.d has played longer than me, so I took his word for it. How about the deco itself otherwise? Any critiques???
Tibalt works as card draw, and all my MD spells are instants. So I can cast them as a fast effect before I have to randomly discard when using his +1 ability. His -4 ability is great against control, and his -6 is a win con if your opponent lets it get that far. My plan agai.st aggro is to side out the tibalts and add a hellion crucible and 3 bonfires. Tibalt sucks against aggro.
The war falcon is good if you are running mostly knights and soldiers. You are looking at less than 20 humans so the consistency of the falcon as a 2-power 1drop is not good. Maybe run 2, but 4 is gonna hinder more than it will help. Also maybe consider 3 Oblivion Rings in your sideboard at least. another thing I would like to mention is your land count. You want to be able to consistently cast hellrider by turn 4, and with only 21 land that won't happen. Try taking your land count up to 23, and if you aren't happy with that add at least 1 more. I have found that with playing 22 land it is hard to get the consistency you need to cast a 4-drop by turn 4 even. In the original Ravnica block there was magma jet to help you scrye your deck for consistency. This time around we don't have anything like that to help draw into the cards you need.
Vexing devil is good, I would replace the guttersnipe with boros reckoner. He is a 3/3,can gain first strike, and he makes a great blocker against double strikers. Also, the Spark trooper is good, but I am still partial to Hellrider. I was gonna make a similiar list. I was gonna go with 20 creatures minimum, I was thinking up to 15 burn and 4 Tibalts. I will post the list later. I am off today and tbe kids are school so I was gonna work on my list. I would like to work in a couple lightning maulers as well for the haste.
There is a similiar list on the wizards forums page where the deck creator was using Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded as a card draw engine to dig into your deck. I added him to my RDW as a draw engine, and he is a lot better than he sounds. His -4 ability is added burn against control decks. That was what I was looking at running. The difference with this deck is you have Spark trooper making the curve top out at 4, and the deck on the wizards forum is that deck curves out at 3cmc instead of 4cmc. I like your creature base better.
Sorry, forgot to say that I like checking out mtgo decklists because they really help out with more lists to check out and see how the meta is shaping up. I saw you a video about storm vs jund in modern.... Did you see the recent bannings of Bloodbraid Elf and Seething Song?
Gideon..... I was a member of the local star wars fan group. That is the character I did for our club because we also did costuming. Glad to meet you.
Phil..... Hope you don't mind I sent you a friend request on here. You can be my first mtgs friend! Yay! Imperial is the store I haven't gone to yet. I usually go to moods for fnm, Worlds Away for their tues night tournies and freshers on wed nkght. Although I can usually only do one of those a week because I work and have a young family.
I have to agree with the bannings.... I have played in one modern tournament so far, but having played against U/R storm, the deck can win on turn 2 if it gets the god hand. And BBE... Well jund has Dark Confidant for card advantage already. Besides, why do you want only a couple good decks in a format with a huge card base such as modern. It makes the few cards that comprise those decks rediculously expensive, and the format boring. Just like the last standard was boring... If you wanted to win you played a delver deck pretty much.
Hey everyone, looking for some of the local players, which there are a whole bunch in this city. I never get asking about peoples online names for any of these websites, so I figure I can get adding them this way maybe. So if your from the London Area, please add me as a friend. We may have played against each other. I play in three of the 4 local stores that support fnm and tournaments.
Anyways love the game and totally loving the Return to Ravnica Block..... So many good cards....... A few choice ones from gatecrash I am eying right now....
Spark Trooper
Boros Reckoner
Rubblebelt Raiders
Of course there are a whole bunch more, but its too many to list.
I ran blitz for a few weeks because I love aggro. Ifound Boros Charm much more useful than Rancor or Giant Growth. I had three in my sb and was siding them in every game pretty much. Saving your guys against board sweepers or in combat is so good.....
I agree about the Falkenwrath Aristocrat... She is pretty good. I have been doing some testing with the list I posted and there are only two games it has lost. One to a bizarre white weenie using goldnight commander that is a very strong list. He would have a small army of creatures and then cast Gather the townsfolk or midnight haunting to pump them all up to 4/4's or even 5/5's when a war falcon came out as well. The other was against a gruul list, and the only reason I lost there was because I was stuck on two lands. Stonewright is not optimal for this list, but I did have two instances where dropping him and soul bonding to a creature able to attack, and then sending that creature airborne and double striking from Ajani, then a pump from the stonewright won me the game. I am gonna work on getting some cavern of souls, but I am pretty happy with the list so far. A friend of mine is gonna take the deck to Quebec City this weekend coming up for the Grand Prix and give it a go for me.
I added Silverblade to get the extra double strike, but I was following some of the advice posted earlier by someone by adding those and Thalia to the list. Should I add in some cavern of souls to smooth out the mana more then? And do I have enough knights/soldiers to justify the war falcon?
2 Stonewright
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Lightning Mauler
4 Silverblade Paladin
3 Frontline Medic
4 Hellrider
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Boros Charm
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Clifftop Retreat
8 Mountain
8 Plains
2 Aurelia's Fury
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Erase
3 Boros Reckoner
3 Skullcrack
2 Blind Obedience
The reckoners are in the sideboard to help keep my humans count high, and the oblivion rings maindecked are to help deal with big nasties like an opposing Reckoner or a desecration demons which are common in my local meta. I also like Ajani's -3 ability which is why I put him there. I was thinking o replacing the 3 medics with 3 Spark Troopers.
2 Stonewright
4 Lightning Mauler
4 Frontline Medic
4 Hellrider
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Searing Spear
2 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Brimstone Volley
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
8 Mountain
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Sacred Foundry
Other than a third bonfire I don't know what else to do for my sideboard. I was thinking a few boros charms and blind obedience, but not sure yet.
3 Legion Loyalist
2 Stonewright
4 Ash Zealot
2 Lightning Mauler
3 Boros Reckoner
4 Hellrider
4 Searing Spear
2 Brimstone Volley
2 Aurelia's Fury
4 Boros Charm
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Clifftop Retreat
2 Plains
12 Mountain
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Bonfire of the damned
1 Hellion Crucible
3 Skullcrack
2 Rest in Peace
2 Zealous Conscripts
Tibalt works as card draw, and all my MD spells are instants. So I can cast them as a fast effect before I have to randomly discard when using his +1 ability. His -4 ability is great against control, and his -6 is a win con if your opponent lets it get that far. My plan agai.st aggro is to side out the tibalts and add a hellion crucible and 3 bonfires. Tibalt sucks against aggro.
Phil..... Hope you don't mind I sent you a friend request on here. You can be my first mtgs friend! Yay! Imperial is the store I haven't gone to yet. I usually go to moods for fnm, Worlds Away for their tues night tournies and freshers on wed nkght. Although I can usually only do one of those a week because I work and have a young family.
Anyways love the game and totally loving the Return to Ravnica Block..... So many good cards....... A few choice ones from gatecrash I am eying right now....
Spark Trooper
Boros Reckoner
Rubblebelt Raiders
Of course there are a whole bunch more, but its too many to list.