Dunno about "funny plays" but I've been loving the set from a value standpoint so far... started with barely having the 45 tix for a sealed. Ended the second day of messing with it after 8 events with just shy of 400 tix counting packs I have on hand.
Of course the open that I had that was FOIL Time Warp and Ancestral Recall did help skew that figure some.
That seems ridiculously lucky and not representative of how most people will fare. I haven't seen a single power 9 or high value card in anyone's deck (nor my own pulls) all weekend.
Lately I've been thinking, instead of topping the curve of a red deck with stormbreath, how would we most benefit from casting Dictate?
In an RDW shell, you are usually casting burn at the end of the turn, but if you got to five lands and waited, it would be a question as to what you are going to cast right? What if instead of bringing an opponent down to 5 life, you have a dictate and a lightning strike, you could slam it EOT and then take your turn to deal six damage. I bet this strategy might make closing games as RDW a little easier with our relatively inefficient burn spells. Thoughts?
I wasn't aware that RDW builds were topping out with Stormbreath. That seems ambitious. I also don't want Dictate in a RDW list. I want a flood of low cmc creatures with a handful of support spells that aren't dead draws by themselves.
That is more or less correct. While you don't skip the remainder of the declare attackers step, the only skipped steps are declare blockers and combat damage. Logically it does not make sense to skip an earlier step due to a decision in a later step so I'm not sure what his opponent was thinking..
He was basically just being a jerk - for lack of a more obscene word that can't be used on here - and he was grunting, sighing, and throwing his hands in the air the entire time. I'm officially switching to MTGO, where I don't have to put up with people like this and I don't have to deal with big fat sweaty guys making it impossible to navigate a small LGS for a State Championship event.
Round 3: Mono Blue - Loss
1-2: I won game 1. He apparently boarded in every counterspell in his SB and I was ruined. Dispel is awful for us. "Pay 1, counter everything in the deck." Phoenix is bad in this matchup as well except for chump blocking, but then you can't recur it because everything is countered. I literally could not cast a spell after turn 3 and he never tapped out after that (???). I lack experience here.
Round 4: Naya Hexproof - Loss
1-2: I'm not sure anything needs to be said here. I only won a game because he thought I was holding Celestial Flare (really? Do any of us run that?). He was amazingly consistent. Turn 4 in two games he swung in with a 9/9 lifelink, trample, double-striking elf. I had no chance.
Round 5: Junk Reanimator - Win
2-0
Round 6: RUG Control - Loss
1-2: I wasn't sure what I was playing against which led me to some misplays. I've truly not come across this deck on MODO or at FNM. I ran him over game 1 on only 2 lands but games 2&3 I had him down to 5 or less life and top-decked lands the rest of the game. I'm pretty sure I should have won this. This was also the round I unfortunately had a random deck check and the judges of course did not shuffle my deck whatsoever. It seemed like even after extensive shuffling I had large pockets of lands/no lands. Not trying to make excuses, it happens.
Round 7: Bg Devotion - Win
2-0
Tense moment of the day - My opponent has on board: Desecration Demon, Gary. I have: Chandra's Phoenix. He's at 5 life. During his turn he does not attack with either creature and passes the turn. My plan was to sack the Phoenix for the demon, Lightning Strike at EOT for 3, and swing back in with Phoenix on my turn, so I call him on his missed trigger. This guy seemed like he knew what he was doing, but he refused to believe the Combat phase ever takes place if he doesn't attack. He became extremely angry and was talking down to me like he wanted to step outside or something. Geez. I offered to call a judge over but he finally conceded. I'm pretty sure he would have lost anyway.
Pretty sure there's something else in Standard that gains 1 life per turn (usually). Courser of Kruphix has been around for a little while and it didn't hurt Burn's chances too terribly. It is HARDER to play against as I experienced yesterday at States, but I was still able to work around them. I also don't rely on ground forces post board though. That seems like common sense to me but I guess some people will still try to force Ashley and YP against a courser/Ram.
Eidolon feels like suicide in the mirror. Mana bases and average damage per turn being equal (Eidolon hitting both players for the same spells), wouldn't it come down to who went first and who has the lucky final burn spell? I don't see how you can get ahead in this matchup with Eidolon. I played 4 or 5 mirror matches last night and all of them were painfully close, and I ended up losing 4 of the 5. Getting down to 1 with an Eidolon is painful unless you top deck a Helix.
It just seems so terrible. Using two mana, casting one card from your hand and then discarding another card from your hand (as part of the cost!).
Red isn't supposed to have real card advantage. It's technically greater card advantage than flipping over cards with Chandra/Flamespeaker and only being able to cast those cards once, on your turn. At least I think so.
That being said I still agree with you that it doesn't belong in Burn.
I have seen some versions running Wild Guess. Anyone try that out? I am skeptical that it is worth the slot.
Seems silly to throw away anything except extra lands as everything you draw otherwise will be a threat you can use. I usually don't have extra lands being an issue. Even throwing away a Phoenix isn't great unless you are stuck at 2 lands. That would be the only scenario I would be OK with Wild Guess, and even that doesn't seem wonderful.
EDIT: I haven't tested with this so that was all conjecture. Take it with a grain of salt.
Well, it's one thing to "netdeck," picking out your favorite list from the top 8 and throwing it together for FNM at your preferred LGS. It's another thing entirely to engage an online community and assemble a fun deck through a collaborative effort. With all due respect, I think that conversation would go more like this:
FNM Friend: "Neat deck, how'd you come up with that?" *slightly impressed by deck build
You: "I co-authored it with a dozen or so complete strangers in a magical land filled with an infinite, wondrous energy."
FNM Friend: "Wow. Such impressive. Amaze."
Let us know when you get back from Candy Mountain.
But in all seriousness, he's not asking to be a co-author, he's asking for deck lists. So in your magical scenario he's lying. People have posted several decent ideas for him though, so it's fine.
Part of what makes a deck "fun" is building or tweaking it to your own liking. Creating a thread and asking others to build you a deck seems....not fun? At least not to me.
FNM Friend: "Neat deck, how'd you come up with that?" *slightly impressed by deck build
You: "Internet."
FNM Friend: .....
So has anyone tried to incorporate the Reckoner/Dictate combo in his burn decks? Of course, if the cards would be useless elsewhise it would certainly not be worth it, but depending on the metagame, Reckoner was at least an okay card in the sideboard before JOU.
Seems like a bad top deck if you really need to finish an opponent and you have no burn left. I'd also keep Reckoner in the SB as he's dead against control and slow in general.
I agree with you to an extent SaiyanOrca, but unfortunately control decks are a thing in standard right now
Have been, are, will be. Simple as that.
EDIT:
Also, on the subject of control, I just beat it. Control is pretty much 50/50 against everything right now. Playing aggro against UWx is pretty nice because it doesn't involve a lot of thinking either - you know exactly what cards you have to play around (T2 A- charm, T3 D-sphere, T4 Verdict / Jace, T6 Eslpeth) and if you drew okay and can avoid screwing up your game then there's not much else to do.
That seems like an unsupported statement that I highly disagree with. Two decks in particular that I have a lot of personal time/experience with are RW Burn and Mono blue devotion. I can tell you right now that in G1 RW Burn has a distinct advantage over Control due to lack of board interaction. Sand bag the Skullcrack and unload to the dome. Mono blue on the other hand consistently has problems G1 vs control. Without a drawn Bident or Jace to fuel my efforts, I usually lose board control and it's downhill from there.
That seems ridiculously lucky and not representative of how most people will fare. I haven't seen a single power 9 or high value card in anyone's deck (nor my own pulls) all weekend.
I wasn't aware that RDW builds were topping out with Stormbreath. That seems ambitious. I also don't want Dictate in a RDW list. I want a flood of low cmc creatures with a handful of support spells that aren't dead draws by themselves.
He was basically just being a jerk - for lack of a more obscene word that can't be used on here - and he was grunting, sighing, and throwing his hands in the air the entire time. I'm officially switching to MTGO, where I don't have to put up with people like this and I don't have to deal with big fat sweaty guys making it impossible to navigate a small LGS for a State Championship event.
Round 1: Bg Devotion - Win
2-0
Round 2: Bg Devotion - Win
2-1
Round 3: Mono Blue - Loss
1-2: I won game 1. He apparently boarded in every counterspell in his SB and I was ruined. Dispel is awful for us. "Pay 1, counter everything in the deck." Phoenix is bad in this matchup as well except for chump blocking, but then you can't recur it because everything is countered. I literally could not cast a spell after turn 3 and he never tapped out after that (???). I lack experience here.
Round 4: Naya Hexproof - Loss
1-2: I'm not sure anything needs to be said here. I only won a game because he thought I was holding Celestial Flare (really? Do any of us run that?). He was amazingly consistent. Turn 4 in two games he swung in with a 9/9 lifelink, trample, double-striking elf. I had no chance.
Round 5: Junk Reanimator - Win
2-0
Round 6: RUG Control - Loss
1-2: I wasn't sure what I was playing against which led me to some misplays. I've truly not come across this deck on MODO or at FNM. I ran him over game 1 on only 2 lands but games 2&3 I had him down to 5 or less life and top-decked lands the rest of the game. I'm pretty sure I should have won this. This was also the round I unfortunately had a random deck check and the judges of course did not shuffle my deck whatsoever. It seemed like even after extensive shuffling I had large pockets of lands/no lands. Not trying to make excuses, it happens.
Round 7: Bg Devotion - Win
2-0
Tense moment of the day - My opponent has on board: Desecration Demon, Gary. I have: Chandra's Phoenix. He's at 5 life. During his turn he does not attack with either creature and passes the turn. My plan was to sack the Phoenix for the demon, Lightning Strike at EOT for 3, and swing back in with Phoenix on my turn, so I call him on his missed trigger. This guy seemed like he knew what he was doing, but he refused to believe the Combat phase ever takes place if he doesn't attack. He became extremely angry and was talking down to me like he wanted to step outside or something. Geez. I offered to call a judge over but he finally conceded. I'm pretty sure he would have lost anyway.
Red isn't supposed to have real card advantage. It's technically greater card advantage than flipping over cards with Chandra/Flamespeaker and only being able to cast those cards once, on your turn. At least I think so.
That being said I still agree with you that it doesn't belong in Burn.
Seems silly to throw away anything except extra lands as everything you draw otherwise will be a threat you can use. I usually don't have extra lands being an issue. Even throwing away a Phoenix isn't great unless you are stuck at 2 lands. That would be the only scenario I would be OK with Wild Guess, and even that doesn't seem wonderful.
EDIT: I haven't tested with this so that was all conjecture. Take it with a grain of salt.
Let us know when you get back from Candy Mountain.
But in all seriousness, he's not asking to be a co-author, he's asking for deck lists. So in your magical scenario he's lying. People have posted several decent ideas for him though, so it's fine.
FNM Friend: "Neat deck, how'd you come up with that?" *slightly impressed by deck build
You: "Internet."
FNM Friend: .....
Let us know if you get to test it out.
Seems like a bad top deck if you really need to finish an opponent and you have no burn left. I'd also keep Reckoner in the SB as he's dead against control and slow in general.
That seems like an unsupported statement that I highly disagree with. Two decks in particular that I have a lot of personal time/experience with are RW Burn and Mono blue devotion. I can tell you right now that in G1 RW Burn has a distinct advantage over Control due to lack of board interaction. Sand bag the Skullcrack and unload to the dome. Mono blue on the other hand consistently has problems G1 vs control. Without a drawn Bident or Jace to fuel my efforts, I usually lose board control and it's downhill from there.