I see the deck being the most aggressive because we are pounding the opponent swiftly. And each card is a threat.
It took almost a year for Goblin Guide to be an acceptable staple. I remember at first nobody wanted to play GG because the fear of giving the opponent an extra land draw, then people finally realized that legacy builds are not the same as standard's. Most legacy decks play 18 to 22 lands so 2/3's of the time the Goblin Guide is a spy.
The only problem I'd noticed with Vexing Devil it has the Browbeat stigma written all over the card, even though a lot of players (myself including) believed Browbeat would be a burn staple if the card was 2 mana instead of 3 mana.
I think a 1cc creature that's 4/3 is insane. And I see the card as a creature more then a 4 damage burn spell. Once players get over with the thought of 4 damage lava spike they'll then see the Devil as a finisher.
Vexing Devil is more than just a 4 damage Lava Spike because the damage doesn't target, which is very valuable against Leyline of Sanctity. On the other half, Figure of Destiny was once used with some success and that takes five mana to compare in size to Vexing Devil. The browbeat argument is important to consider and makes Devil terrible in a deck like RUG tempo that relies on sticking an early powerhouse. In burn however, each side has such strong positives that Devil will rarely look to be the worse choice over other options, though Devil may not work as well in tandem with Grim Lavamancer (untested thus far). In regards to Lavamancer, Vexing Devil is arguably better in multiples while both tend to be poor top decks late game.
I personally prefer the aggression of Devil, and despite not seeing many Leylines from my opponents, I do like that it gets around it in both forms.
Someone had suggested removing Marauders from their list. Marauders is an awkward card to goldfish with, but my experience with it in actual tournaments makes me think it would be unwise to cut all of them. It's a great answer to opposing GGs and other popular creatures in the format even if it's just a chump blocker that doesn't slow our damage down by much. And of course it shines when it's five damage for 2cc. Believe someone already mentioned that it's good against Thalia.
I've recently added a few Gitaxian Probes to my list and am currently getting the most consistent turn 3/4 kills with the list below (likely playing burn in the next Invitational). They let us know if we can afford to tap out (or have to play around daze) or can sac mountains for Fireblast. They also help fill the yard a bit to make Barbarian Ring more reliable when it's actually drawn (sure, you could run fetches for that, but I likely wouldn't be content with the life loss from Probe at that point and Lavamancer is likely better there anyway).
When I added the three Probes I cut 1 Mountain, 1 Marauder (multiples can slow the deck down), and 1 Flame Rift. This seemed to greatly cut down on the hands that would be clogged with too many 2cc+ cards and streamline the deck to a better curve. The land count at 19 and virtual deck size of 57 makes for roughly (or exactly depending upon how you look at it) 1/3 land, which in theory should put the deck at exactly 3 land when it can cast Sulfuric Vortex (turn 3 with 9 cards). I also tend to run some other three drops in the board that makes this land percentage relevant (Volcanic Fallout/Ensnaring Bridge, etc.). Three land on turn three is also acceptable for turn 3 kills without a Vortex.
I've been playing an almost identical version of the "now" popular Rock deck since December. I had a lot of issues with planeswalkers until Lifebane Zombie showed up (main reason I picked the deck back up again). No hexproof, but the intimidate factor has proven to make a fair difference in being able to get through annoying garruk tokens and whatever other creatures are in the way.
Despise is a great discard spell considering the current hexproof/titan(ETB) meta;however, it doesn't directly deal with a "resolved" PW as the thread asks.
Got 1st at an SCG Invitational Qualifier with this list. 4 DoJ and 4 BSZ is overkill in the main deck. Ratchet Bomb and Gideon are more versatile.
You hit the nail on the head with the Splinter Twin/Valakut comment. Surgical Extraction can devastate many of those lists, but will be a 1 for 0 much of the time against other decks. Perhaps it's better to structure the main deck to be more versatile and side in extractions against Valakut and combo?
Against aggro, my list has similar stalls as yours, though can ramp into turn 3 Day of Judgment or turn 4 Batterskull/Wurmcoil Engine, which are also great against aggro. Solemn Simulacrum and Tezzeret's Gambit both allow for the turn 4 Wurmcoil with Chalice (Simulacrum with the Sphere). Throwing Batterskull on Inkmoth Nexus is often a viable alternate win condition.
Between the ages of about 3-5, I had a recurring dream (many times over the course of those years). Being a 3-5 year old, white child, it was certainly odd to dream that I had dark skin and was 20-30 years old in a situation I had no prior knowledge of (e.g., I had no idea tunneling was used in war or that Churches took care of war orphans, etc.--I'm still not 100% certain what I saw in the dream, so the children weren't necessarily war orphans, but it seems to fit). The appearance of the church certainly wasn't what I grew up viewing as a church either (black, Gothic--rather ominous).
Some years back, before my mother passed away, she came across a book about children that had past lives ("Life Before Life"). They had seen those lives in dreams at an early age and many of them were able to prove what they saw. As a young child, I had told my mother about the dreams when I realized how often I had the same dream, so in remembering this, my mother brought the book to my attention. That lead me to write the poem posted here. It makes me wish that someone would have told me to write down what I saw in the dreams when I was young, as I expect only portions were burned into memory.
The Black Church
In the peripheral glow of the dream
I could see the children screaming
Feel the barren air bleeding, as it
Pushed me closer to death.
Or was it not my death I had seen
What could I as a child have dreamed?
Recurring over and over, forever it seemed.
I’d have dark skin, be at war, and not know what it means.
I’d be much older
_________________Perhaps a soldier
__________________________________Yet maybe a prisoner
With a group walking towards a black colored church in the distance.
An old lady would answer the door.
Beyond her, children in rags—the poor.
Havened from the fuzziness of my war.
The horrid war inside my head—a turbid, placid trance.
It could have been such a nightmare had it gone further
But each time it would end as I began tunneling to France.
Why? What did it mean? I was a child with a recurring dream.
Unexposed, it seemed peaceful, but now I know the horrors I’d seen.
One thought I have had is cutting white for U/B for Tezzeret. I haven't done any testing with this, but it might not be bad. You really only lose Tempered Steel. You still get Steel Overseer, in addition to a sick finisher. Tezzeret can done your opponent for a bunch, dig to find you more creatures and turn boring old Mox Opals into 5/5's.
Tezzeret has been discussed many times here and that deck has had many of its own threads. The general consensus seems to be that it weakens the deck.
18 has been the sweet spot for me. I started with 17 but wound up either mana-screwed or having to tap CWZ to play spells. I'm debating whether or not I want to keep Seachrome Coast in the deck, the only need for U is for Spellskite and that's phyrexian so between Mox opal and and that I should have no problem hijacking whatever I want.
Seachrome Coast should almost never come into play tapped. In fact, I generally don't play more than 3 lands at any time due to Tectonic Edge.
No reason not to run them. It even seems to confuse the opponent at times when the blue mana leads them to assume counterspells are in hand, etc.
It seems love/passion/desire oriented poems have become popular lately. The only time I've ever written such a poem was indirectly, as a portion of a story that was never finished (a continuation of the Romeo and Juliet story). As it was never finished, this forum will be the first to see it In the story, it was a letter, so the poem has no title, though I suppose "Dearest Lady Capulet" will suffice for now.
Dearest Lady Capulet,
I have been dreaming of you
Sleeping in a series of sighs.
For of you is all I have dreamed
Since your image last passed thine eyes.
It twas several moons ago as we mourned
The loss of Verona’s most virtuous.
The sorrowful gathering at Castle Montague.
For long I have been allured by your beauty
Held at bay by wedlock and war.
Yet then, I watched you through the night
As you quietly excused yourself down
A darkened corridor to cry as a lady.
Oh, just to get a glimpse of your shape
In the darkness, for the mere sight
Of your silhouette sends my soul into shock.
I longed to come to your aid, to comfort you
And had thoughts to caress you.
As my dreams, you consume all my thoughts.
No amount of wealth, freedom, or power
Can keep me from being enslaved to passion.
Alone, I breathe your name into the night
To ease my pain. Yet the night is cold
And my breathe is warm, like how the blood
Of Montague and Capulet once was.
But not even the Nile could hold
A river full enough of tears to change the past.
Though perhaps the ones I weep as I write
Will restore peace to my woeful future.
-- Your Loving Admirer
Feel free to criticize--the "Nile" line already looks terribly cliche to me
This is my current set-up for testing purposes. It's pretty much Med's build, which I've been a big fan of the Steel/Skies strategy. I made the change to Probes, and am only testing one odd card, that being 2 copies of Dark Tutelage.
The SB is a bit off. I don't ever take out a significant number of cards with the exception of RDW & Splinter Twin decks. (Steel Overseers come out for Firewalkers because Steel Overseers are typically just 1/1s for 2CMC.)
Looks like your deck is missing 4 cards. You mentioned Probes, so perhaps that's what it is.
I really wish I could have voted for 3 this time 'round, because I liked Medisinyl's -6 Feet Under- as well as the 2 I did end up voting for. I had such a hard time making a decision that I eventually gave up and chose my 2/3 using a random number generator.
Haha, don't worry about it I didn't expect to win this round anyway after reading Pyrohemia. Figured it was a good time to post something that may be too long for most forum people to bother with, though I'd hope members posting in this section don't have that issue.
I still like Six Feet Under by the time I get to the end of it. Until now, the only people that heard it was the class I wrote it for. Was something I found on an old jump-drive.
Assuming you're interested in the Gitaxian Probe addition, I swapped out 1 CM, 1 Hex Parasite, 1 Shrine of LL from my previous list. Hex Parasite never did me any good, though 1 still sits in the SB currently. Those 3 cards were the least aggro, least necessary cards for the deck, so swapping Probes in their place should allow the deck to draw the more aggro oriented cards sooner, essentially thin the deck, and of course give us a look at the opponents hand.
I initially figured looking for board wipes would be the main relevance for Probe in TS, but in a casual game vs. K-Red, I got to see a Hero of Oxid Ridge that would have won my opponent the game if I attacked with too many creatures (I won that game).
As you can imagine, against other aggro decks, it's valuable to know if they have their own Tempered Steel, Bushwhacker, Overrun type card, etc. to kill you on a particular turn if you don't plan for it.
Ultimately, it may be the most consistent build I've tried thus far.
Vexing Devil is more than just a 4 damage Lava Spike because the damage doesn't target, which is very valuable against Leyline of Sanctity. On the other half, Figure of Destiny was once used with some success and that takes five mana to compare in size to Vexing Devil. The browbeat argument is important to consider and makes Devil terrible in a deck like RUG tempo that relies on sticking an early powerhouse. In burn however, each side has such strong positives that Devil will rarely look to be the worse choice over other options, though Devil may not work as well in tandem with Grim Lavamancer (untested thus far). In regards to Lavamancer, Vexing Devil is arguably better in multiples while both tend to be poor top decks late game.
I personally prefer the aggression of Devil, and despite not seeing many Leylines from my opponents, I do like that it gets around it in both forms.
Someone had suggested removing Marauders from their list. Marauders is an awkward card to goldfish with, but my experience with it in actual tournaments makes me think it would be unwise to cut all of them. It's a great answer to opposing GGs and other popular creatures in the format even if it's just a chump blocker that doesn't slow our damage down by much. And of course it shines when it's five damage for 2cc. Believe someone already mentioned that it's good against Thalia.
I've recently added a few Gitaxian Probes to my list and am currently getting the most consistent turn 3/4 kills with the list below (likely playing burn in the next Invitational). They let us know if we can afford to tap out (or have to play around daze) or can sac mountains for Fireblast. They also help fill the yard a bit to make Barbarian Ring more reliable when it's actually drawn (sure, you could run fetches for that, but I likely wouldn't be content with the life loss from Probe at that point and Lavamancer is likely better there anyway).
When I added the three Probes I cut 1 Mountain, 1 Marauder (multiples can slow the deck down), and 1 Flame Rift. This seemed to greatly cut down on the hands that would be clogged with too many 2cc+ cards and streamline the deck to a better curve. The land count at 19 and virtual deck size of 57 makes for roughly (or exactly depending upon how you look at it) 1/3 land, which in theory should put the deck at exactly 3 land when it can cast Sulfuric Vortex (turn 3 with 9 cards). I also tend to run some other three drops in the board that makes this land percentage relevant (Volcanic Fallout/Ensnaring Bridge, etc.). Three land on turn three is also acceptable for turn 3 kills without a Vortex.
Feel free to critique/question the choices.
4 Vexing Devil
2 Keldon Marauders
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
3 Flame Rift
3 Price of Progress
4 Fireblast
18 Mountain
1 Barbarian Ring
I've been playing an almost identical version of the "now" popular Rock deck since December. I had a lot of issues with planeswalkers until Lifebane Zombie showed up (main reason I picked the deck back up again). No hexproof, but the intimidate factor has proven to make a fair difference in being able to get through annoying garruk tokens and whatever other creatures are in the way.
Despise is a great discard spell considering the current hexproof/titan(ETB) meta;however, it doesn't directly deal with a "resolved" PW as the thread asks.
You have to cast the creature from your hand for Heartless summoning to have an effect. It doesn't help Genesis Wave or GSZ.
You hit the nail on the head with the Splinter Twin/Valakut comment. Surgical Extraction can devastate many of those lists, but will be a 1 for 0 much of the time against other decks. Perhaps it's better to structure the main deck to be more versatile and side in extractions against Valakut and combo?
Against aggro, my list has similar stalls as yours, though can ramp into turn 3 Day of Judgment or turn 4 Batterskull/Wurmcoil Engine, which are also great against aggro. Solemn Simulacrum and Tezzeret's Gambit both allow for the turn 4 Wurmcoil with Chalice (Simulacrum with the Sphere). Throwing Batterskull on Inkmoth Nexus is often a viable alternate win condition.
1 Sphere of the Suns
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Batterskull
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Timely Reinforcements
2 Ratchet Bomb
3 Day of Judgment
3 Tezzeret’s Gambit
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Despise
1 Tumble Magnet
1 Gideon Jura
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Swamp
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Glacial Fortress
4 Marsh Flats
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Surgical Extraction
1 Day of Judgment
2 Luminarch Ascension
1 Despise
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Spellskite
Some years back, before my mother passed away, she came across a book about children that had past lives ("Life Before Life"). They had seen those lives in dreams at an early age and many of them were able to prove what they saw. As a young child, I had told my mother about the dreams when I realized how often I had the same dream, so in remembering this, my mother brought the book to my attention. That lead me to write the poem posted here. It makes me wish that someone would have told me to write down what I saw in the dreams when I was young, as I expect only portions were burned into memory.
The Black Church
In the peripheral glow of the dream
I could see the children screaming
Feel the barren air bleeding, as it
Pushed me closer to death.
Or was it not my death I had seen
What could I as a child have dreamed?
Recurring over and over, forever it seemed.
I’d have dark skin, be at war, and not know what it means.
I’d be much older
_________________Perhaps a soldier
__________________________________Yet maybe a prisoner
With a group walking towards a black colored church in the distance.
An old lady would answer the door.
Beyond her, children in rags—the poor.
Havened from the fuzziness of my war.
The horrid war inside my head—a turbid, placid trance.
It could have been such a nightmare had it gone further
But each time it would end as I began tunneling to France.
Why? What did it mean? I was a child with a recurring dream.
Unexposed, it seemed peaceful, but now I know the horrors I’d seen.
By: Gregory Stephen Jones II
Tezzeret has been discussed many times here and that deck has had many of its own threads. The general consensus seems to be that it weakens the deck.
Seachrome Coast should almost never come into play tapped. In fact, I generally don't play more than 3 lands at any time due to Tectonic Edge.
No reason not to run them. It even seems to confuse the opponent at times when the blue mana leads them to assume counterspells are in hand, etc.
Dearest Lady Capulet,
I have been dreaming of you
Sleeping in a series of sighs.
For of you is all I have dreamed
Since your image last passed thine eyes.
It twas several moons ago as we mourned
The loss of Verona’s most virtuous.
The sorrowful gathering at Castle Montague.
For long I have been allured by your beauty
Held at bay by wedlock and war.
Yet then, I watched you through the night
As you quietly excused yourself down
A darkened corridor to cry as a lady.
Oh, just to get a glimpse of your shape
In the darkness, for the mere sight
Of your silhouette sends my soul into shock.
I longed to come to your aid, to comfort you
And had thoughts to caress you.
As my dreams, you consume all my thoughts.
No amount of wealth, freedom, or power
Can keep me from being enslaved to passion.
Alone, I breathe your name into the night
To ease my pain. Yet the night is cold
And my breathe is warm, like how the blood
Of Montague and Capulet once was.
But not even the Nile could hold
A river full enough of tears to change the past.
Though perhaps the ones I weep as I write
Will restore peace to my woeful future.
-- Your Loving Admirer
Feel free to criticize--the "Nile" line already looks terribly cliche to me
Looks like your deck is missing 4 cards. You mentioned Probes, so perhaps that's what it is.
Haha, don't worry about it
I still like Six Feet Under by the time I get to the end of it. Until now, the only people that heard it was the class I wrote it for. Was something I found on an old jump-drive.
Assuming you're interested in the Gitaxian Probe addition, I swapped out 1 CM, 1 Hex Parasite, 1 Shrine of LL from my previous list. Hex Parasite never did me any good, though 1 still sits in the SB currently. Those 3 cards were the least aggro, least necessary cards for the deck, so swapping Probes in their place should allow the deck to draw the more aggro oriented cards sooner, essentially thin the deck, and of course give us a look at the opponents hand.
I initially figured looking for board wipes would be the main relevance for Probe in TS, but in a casual game vs. K-Red, I got to see a Hero of Oxid Ridge that would have won my opponent the game if I attacked with too many creatures (I won that game).
As you can imagine, against other aggro decks, it's valuable to know if they have their own Tempered Steel, Bushwhacker, Overrun type card, etc. to kill you on a particular turn if you don't plan for it.
Ultimately, it may be the most consistent build I've tried thus far.