It's time to toss in my two cents. My list is simple and very straight forward. Play fast dudes and beat face. I've been playing Boros for over a year now on MTGO. The meta is dominated by Primeval Titan based decks; BUG, RUB, Valakut, Eldrazi Ramp; and Jace based control decks. Every now and again I see a vampires or RDW. In this field the key to winning with Boros is speed and resiliency. Your board will likely get swept in the control match ups, and the titan decks will be racing to their bomb. You need to be fast in both instances, but you also need to keep supplying dudes to keep the pressure on.
Here's the list. I've been doing well in the 8-mans and had some success with a similar deck in the dailies about a month ago. Haven't run many dailies since then though but hope to put in some time this week.
The Squadron Hawks provide much needed resilience. One fella brings his friends and makes for a nice follow up to a Day of Judgment. To support the hawks I switched an Adventuring Gear out for a Trusty Machete. I also made this change to reduce the deck's reliance on drawing sac lands somewhat. Don't misunderstand; the deck loses without its sac lands, but it sucks to have a Gear on a dude and to wiff a time or two late in a game on land drops to seal the deal.
I originally disliked the Sword of Mind and Body, but have grown to adore it against blue and green based decks. Giving the Sword to a Guide or Lynx to run around elves or an Overgrown Battlement sometimes makes all the difference. The Sword is also a nice way to turn off one of Jace's abilities; not always relevant, but when it does come up it's very sweet.
The removal suite is a bit unconventional. Most folks run some number of Burst Lightnings, fewer Journies, and no Arc Trails. The MTGO metagame doesn't include many targets for Bursts in my experience. However, the Journies are never dead and definitely answer Titans and Baneslayers better than a Burst. They also interact well with Skyfishers freeing me up to use them early and then swap them out if a better target arrives. The Arc Trail is my extra miser's card that sometimes just wins games.
I'd like to hear any feedback folks might offer on the deck.
Ok guys, maybe this has been covered somewhere before, but I can't find it, why Mark of Mutiny over Act of Treason? It would seem like the thing we least want to do is pump their guy for the next turn. Of course the added power might make the difference on the swing, but I don't see seven power being that much better than six. With six P/T swinging into one of their other Titans lets you kill em both. With seven they get one back with the pump as well. What am I missing?
If you're absolutely worried about the Quest deck, you could try Demistify in the board and mulligan aggressively. That seems very awkward though. Just wait till the quest hits four counters and they go to cast the 5th artifact. With that counter on the stack hit the Quest and thank them for playing. Sure they have their little dudes left, but they aren't Vindicating you every turn so I think you can survive.
How will you ever turn on the Mox Opal? Of the artifacts in your deck only four don't require you to sac them or remove them from the game to get their benefit. How long will you sit on Bombs, Effigies, and Maps before you use them just to turn on the Opal? If that's the plan I'd run Chimeric Mass and maybe a single Elixir of Immortality to help up the artifact count to turn on the Opal. Not saying it's impossible with this build; I just question the cost benefit analysis on this build's sacrifices necessary to turn on the Opal.
Maybe just run two Mass and an Elixir in the Opals' spots. You're only slinging blue spells so having the access to any color of mana isn't a big deal. You might also use that spot to toss in some large butted artifact walls or something similar to help in the early game.
Before Wizards dropped their support for states a few years ago, states occurred in the middle of October right after the fall set's release. I think it's great. Allows the non-pros to shape the metagame for once. We get 50 top-8's to pour over and parse to try and find that one diamond in all the rough.
How would folks feel about a 10/3 Trample Haste dude for 5? That ten is conditional on not getting blocked though. I think we're likely misevaluating the infect cards because we have so little experience with the mechanic. When you're playing against a 10 point life total things look a lot differently.
I may have to change my initial vote for Masque/Invasion to Mirage Tempest. How could I forget the awesome WW Cataclysm deck, or what about 5 Color Green and 5 Color Black? Rec/Sur was the first truly broken deck I put together on my meager funds. I know most folks don't like to play against it, but UW prison was a blast to play. Red Blue control was birthed during this time as well. Man, this is like a trip down memory lane. Anyone remember the first powerful reanimator deck, Buried Alive? You could still play a version of Erhnam Geddon too. Jolrael Centaurs for the win anyone? (Spelling on the last one appreciated.)
This format had it all. Good mix of decks. Powerful spells being slung about. Good creatures (for the time). Loads of fun to play.
Control- Standard UW old school control with Blinding Angel.
Tempo Control- Counter Rebels.
Tempo- Skies (Essentially blue fliers with some counter and Rising Waters lock down.
Aggro- Fires
Combo- The Obliterate based decks though not a combo in the strict sense of word.
Think you might have some trouble with the double blue in Counterspell. Maybe Mana Leak would work just as well since you're attempting to keep the game within the first four or five turns. Condescend might also work if you're more concerned with the late game power of the card. It also nicely helps to smooth out draws.
I would ditch the Goblin Tunnelers as well. They're a cute trick, but they don't up the damage count on your guys, they just get them through. I'd sub in some Preordains to help gas up your hands.
Is there a reason you aren't running the Izzet land? I'd add it if at all possible.
I don't know what you think is going on there, but Tome Scour isn't a turn one win with Leyline of the Void. The top five cards of the opponent's deck will just get exiled. Nothing else happens.
If you start with the number 1, and keep adding 1, you are bound to reach the maximum possible integer, right?
That's a bad analogy. At some point in the Magic power creep, we'll hit a point like the Standard season at the start of combo winter. The early game is the die roll, the mid game is the shuffling, and the end game is the first turn. The game hits a certain point where it's just not fun.
So no, while adding one to an infinte set of perfectly equal integers isn't a bad thing; adding power to a game that has some limit on its power level while retaining its fun is a bad thing.
Purple was born in 1997 when the magazine Inquest had to fill the dead time in its February issue. Purple came from portals and was the color of shapeshifters and the like. The rumor that it's in the next set seems to surface every year.
There is no credible evidence that purple will be in Scars. We have a piece of art that we know nothing about except that it is supposedly from M11. We also have some cryptic references by Rosewater to something new in Scars. That same reference could have been made before every prior set- there's always something new. We have the recurring use of the "old, new, borrowed, blue" saying. Mark's a fine writer but after all these years things get reused.
Until someone has a card or a promo piece mentioning a new color, I'm calling total crap. Occam's Razor folks. All other things being equal, prefer the more simple explanation. All of these things are easily explained by sheer coincidence. It takes a lot more to stretch this into some grand conspiracy to hint at the coming of purple.
Here's the list. I've been doing well in the 8-mans and had some success with a similar deck in the dailies about a month ago. Haven't run many dailies since then though but hope to put in some time this week.
4 Goblin Guide
4 Steppe Lynx
3 Spikeshot Elder
4 Plated Geopede
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Kor Skyfisher
3 Stoneforge Mystic
Artifacts: 3
1 Sword of Mind and Body
1 Adventuring Gear
1 Trusty Machete
4 Journey to Nowhere
Sorceries: 1
1 Arc Trail
Instants: 4
4 Lightning Bolt
Lands: 24
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Terramorphic Expanse
5 Plains
5 Mountain
3 Kor Firewalker
3 White Knight
2 Refraction Trap
3 Cunning Sparkmage
3 Act of Treason
1 Basilisk Collar
The Squadron Hawks provide much needed resilience. One fella brings his friends and makes for a nice follow up to a Day of Judgment. To support the hawks I switched an Adventuring Gear out for a Trusty Machete. I also made this change to reduce the deck's reliance on drawing sac lands somewhat. Don't misunderstand; the deck loses without its sac lands, but it sucks to have a Gear on a dude and to wiff a time or two late in a game on land drops to seal the deal.
I originally disliked the Sword of Mind and Body, but have grown to adore it against blue and green based decks. Giving the Sword to a Guide or Lynx to run around elves or an Overgrown Battlement sometimes makes all the difference. The Sword is also a nice way to turn off one of Jace's abilities; not always relevant, but when it does come up it's very sweet.
The removal suite is a bit unconventional. Most folks run some number of Burst Lightnings, fewer Journies, and no Arc Trails. The MTGO metagame doesn't include many targets for Bursts in my experience. However, the Journies are never dead and definitely answer Titans and Baneslayers better than a Burst. They also interact well with Skyfishers freeing me up to use them early and then swap them out if a better target arrives. The Arc Trail is my extra miser's card that sometimes just wins games.
I'd like to hear any feedback folks might offer on the deck.
Maybe just run two Mass and an Elixir in the Opals' spots. You're only slinging blue spells so having the access to any color of mana isn't a big deal. You might also use that spot to toss in some large butted artifact walls or something similar to help in the early game.
This format had it all. Good mix of decks. Powerful spells being slung about. Good creatures (for the time). Loads of fun to play.
Control- Standard UW old school control with Blinding Angel.
Tempo Control- Counter Rebels.
Tempo- Skies (Essentially blue fliers with some counter and Rising Waters lock down.
Aggro- Fires
Combo- The Obliterate based decks though not a combo in the strict sense of word.
I would ditch the Goblin Tunnelers as well. They're a cute trick, but they don't up the damage count on your guys, they just get them through. I'd sub in some Preordains to help gas up your hands.
Is there a reason you aren't running the Izzet land? I'd add it if at all possible.
I'm also interested in these Stompy builds folks are discussing. With no 3/3's for G, I can't see Stompy being good.
I don't know what you think is going on there, but Tome Scour isn't a turn one win with Leyline of the Void. The top five cards of the opponent's deck will just get exiled. Nothing else happens.
That's a bad analogy. At some point in the Magic power creep, we'll hit a point like the Standard season at the start of combo winter. The early game is the die roll, the mid game is the shuffling, and the end game is the first turn. The game hits a certain point where it's just not fun.
So no, while adding one to an infinte set of perfectly equal integers isn't a bad thing; adding power to a game that has some limit on its power level while retaining its fun is a bad thing.
There is no credible evidence that purple will be in Scars. We have a piece of art that we know nothing about except that it is supposedly from M11. We also have some cryptic references by Rosewater to something new in Scars. That same reference could have been made before every prior set- there's always something new. We have the recurring use of the "old, new, borrowed, blue" saying. Mark's a fine writer but after all these years things get reused.
Until someone has a card or a promo piece mentioning a new color, I'm calling total crap. Occam's Razor folks. All other things being equal, prefer the more simple explanation. All of these things are easily explained by sheer coincidence. It takes a lot more to stretch this into some grand conspiracy to hint at the coming of purple.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=248241
It would have to be number 179.5 to fit in between Giant Spider and Greater Basilisk.