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Make the flavortext 1: Master of Cruelties!
His mastery of the ways of the Lord of Riots is this; that he leaves his victims with just enough blood to despair at the deaths of those around them. -Excava, Rakdos bloodwitch
On a smaller scale, this is happening right now at my LGS in Marquette, MI. Almost everyone is playing Boros or some form of Griselbrand combo, with a few of us going G/W midrange. Suddenly, all the Boros players are hoarding 6-8 Temple Gardens, and not using them. G/W midrange has almost died out as a viable archtype around here for lack of them. People are trading Deathrite Shaman or better to get them, and the store can't keep them in stock. This isn't actually a speculator bubble, it's suppression of an unfavorable matchup by Boros players. I think localized deck suppression accounts for this more often than you'd think, especially in rural areas where there may only one LGS to go to.
After reading the decklists for these decks a second time, I realize that Tibalt's decks does not include any cards with the madness mechanic; why is that? It does include cards with flashback, which do negate the drawback of his first ability, but madness would have been absolutely perfect to use with his first ability, so the lack of any cards with that mechanic seems to be a major oversight/design flaw to me. What does everyone else say about that?
I personally would have put Fiery Temper and Library of Leng in Tibalt's deck if I had designed it. Both seem like a good fit.
I find it highly likely that this deck will be five color, playing off the "solve the maze" theme. Without knowing the full spoiler for the expansion, it's difficult to say how competitive that will be. But based on the DM prerelease details, it does seem as if Wizards is aiming to enable/encourage 3 to 5 color decks in Standard.
I personally think that's what WoTC is doing, putting all ten Shocklands in one product in an attempt to make Modern more accessible. I'm calling that. Mock me If I'm wrong, but I'm calling that.
It does seem as if an abnormally large percentage of these gift boxes contain an Overgrown Tomb. It could be a mistake on the company/printer's part, but it seems that the rare sheet for the gift box booster run had a different distribution than the display box packs. I don't think this was intentional on Wizards part. The question I have is did this effect the secondary market price of Overgrown Tomb or the other shocklands? That would be a better indicator of whether almost everybody's getting them, or if only a fluke 3% or so are posting about their epic pulls while the majority are getting crap to average draws. Also, is this happening on other MTG message boards, or just here? If no one else is talking about this, it could be an unusually clever viral marketing campaign, which after the failure of the Premium deck series is not unthinkable.
All I can say is "wow, really?" Just sit there and ban every blue utility common in the format? I've been an aggro player all my life, but are they trying to handcuff modern to Red deck wins and Tarmagoyf? And banning Cloudpost is just stupid. Twelvepost was a refreshing, new archtype that WoTC just killed for no reason. Why not ban the titans, Baneslayer Angel and basic land while they're at it?
True, but I stand by my comment about Witchbane Orb being a format altering card in Modern. I can see it being a sideboard staple in that format, especially in Planeswalker heavy decks. Witchbane Orb and Elspeth, Knight Errant will be a house.
I run Red Deck Wins often at my local standard. Your build is better than mine, but I disagree with the sideboard. I would run 1-2 Everlasting Torment in the board as a hedge against life gain/Story Circle Kithkin. An encahntment is much harder to deal with than Stigma Lasher, especially since Path to Exile entered standard. I would also run Smash to Smithereens over Shard Volley in the board. Shard Volley slows a deck like this down, and prevents you from unearthing Hell's Thunder and Shambling Remains as quickly as you could otherwise. Smash to Smithereens allows you to deal with a number of tough threats, like Sharuum the Hedgemon or master of Etherium while still putting pressure on your opponent's life total and saving precious burn spells for your opponent themself. Smash to Smithereens is Terror for Esper. Also, I would consider running Tattermunge Maniac maindeck instead of Stigma Lasher. Tattermunge Maniac is essentally a one-drop Grizzly Bears that combos well with Yoke of the Damned. Trust me when I say that a three land opening hand with the Maniac, Hell's Thunder, Incinerate, and Spark Elemental will win you games, especially against decks running Rupture Spire.
Swords to Plowshares
Dack Fayden
Green Sun's Zenith
Shardless Agent
Flusterstorm
Will NOT be reprinted:
Snapcaster Mage
Scalding Tarn
Goblin Guide
Entomb
Chain Lightning
His mastery of the ways of the Lord of Riots is this; that he leaves his victims with just enough blood to despair at the deaths of those around them. -Excava, Rakdos bloodwitch
I personally would have put Fiery Temper and
Library of Leng in Tibalt's deck if I had designed it. Both seem like a good fit.
I personally think that's what WoTC is doing, putting all ten Shocklands in one product in an attempt to make Modern more accessible. I'm calling that. Mock me If I'm wrong, but I'm calling that.
Coincidence?
True, but I stand by my comment about Witchbane Orb being a format altering card in Modern. I can see it being a sideboard staple in that format, especially in Planeswalker heavy decks. Witchbane Orb and Elspeth, Knight Errant will be a house.
Honestly, this card may have more impact on Modern as a format than any other card in Innistrad