Hey people, here's the new Runeflare thread, the old one was getting a bit clogged up with irrelevant posts and old discussion. I'll try to keep this post updated with decklists, card choices, sideboard tech, etc. If anyone has some radically different decklist I should add, please let me know.
The Deck
UR Runeflare is one of the only combo decks in this meta. It plays draw artifacts like Howling Mine and Font of Mythos so that both players are drawing multiple cards per turn, ideally somewhere even in the 5-7 range. This makes it really easy to dig for the gas you need, and makes Runeflare Trap cost :symr:, instead of a staggering :4mana::symr::symr: (although on occasion we do cast it for that on our turn). Here's what is pretty much the standard decklist:
Goblin Guide - Provides some early damage, then chumps late game. I'm really on the fence with this one; on one hand, I really like it, but on the other hand it just doesn't do enough sometimes. This would probably be one of the first cards to go, but unfortunately Worldwake did not give us a whole lot of stuff to work with.
Font of Mythos, Howling Mine, Runeflare Trap, Lightning Bolt - Do these need to be explained? If yes... I'm not even going to say anything about that.
Time Warp - Sooo much fun when you're drawing 7 cards a turn... Pretty much crucial to the decks success. I've lost games simply because I didn't see a Time Warp, or used the ones I had with no draw out on the field.
Ponder - Digs, shuffles, and draws. I have tried Halimar Depths in this slot, I just did not like it at all.
Everflowing Chalice - Janky at first sight, incredible with some testing. It powers out turn 3 Font of Mythos and turn 4 win or Time Warp. However, it does have a bit of anti-synergy with the rest of the deck. Overall, however, I think this will stay in for now.
Twincast - Runeflare Trap and Time Warps #5-7.
Jace Beleren - Need. Moar. Draw.
Unsummon - Deals with those that Lightning Bolt cannot take care of.
Dragon's Claw - Improves our matchup against fast aggro tremendously.
Into the Roil - Very versatile. Can bounce threats, or our draw in response to a Pulse. However, I like Unsummon MD, simply for the fact it costs 1 less.
Magma Spray - Can come in and hit decks with lots of small threats, or decks which depend on small burnable creatures. Also helps RDW, by removing their Hellsparks from the game forever.
Negate - Can also be Flashfreeze, depending on your local meta. I usually bring this in against Jund, because Thought Hemorrhage can be nasty.
Pyroclasm - Helps fight off weenie swarms. Can fight off larger beasties too with the help of Twincast.
Matchups
RDW - Horrible matchup. They basically have to stumble on mana or get horrible draws, and we need to get a really good hand. Our draw engines give them more burn as well... Never, ever, tap out here. Especially if they have 2 or 3 mana on the field.
Side Out: Goblin Guide, Jace. Side In: Dragon's Claw and Magma Spray.
25-75 their favor, 35-65 post board.
Naya Lightsaber - Pretty good matchup. They have huge guys which can be trouble for us, but if we can start Time Warping we usually can go off before they get us down in kill range. This matchup will play similar to Jund, except easier because they do not have Pulse or Thought Hemorrhage.
Side Out: Goblin Guide. Side In: Into the Roil. I like to bring in Dragon's Claw as well, it's just a matter of preference though.
60-40 our favor, 60-40 post board.
Boros Bushwhacker - I have not gotten any testing done against this. However, I imagine it would be similar to RDW, except not quite as bad. Dragon's Claw won't be as good here, unfortunately.
Control (Grixis or America) - Both of these play about the same. The trick here is to play around the counters. Don't try to go off at the end of the draw step, like you normally would. Instead wait till they tap out, or only leave a bit of counter mana open, and then hit them. Twincasting a Cruel Ultimatum is also fun
Side Out: Jace Beleren. Side In: Negate, if running it.
50-50, 50-50 post board.
Jund - This really just comes down to the luck of the draw... Or cascade. You have to play around Pulse, because if they can hit multiple draw artifacts with one card, it's basically over. Nothing is worse than playing a Font, letting them draw 2 extra cards, then seeing it Pulsed the next turn. Post SB they have Thought Hemorrhage, which can be a real pain in the ass. This matchup is definitely winnable - I beat two Jund in a row last week at FNM - but it takes some finesse, and not just tossing stuff out there and going for the kill.
Side Out: Goblin Guide, Unsummon. Side In: Into the Roil, Negate/Flashfreeze.
50-50, 50-50 post board.
Vampires - Once again it comes down to how fast they get going. Nighthawk, with its lifelike, can be a real problem, so hit those ASAP. If they get a crazy curve (I had a person go Guul Draz Vampire, Child of Night, Vampire Nighthawk, Vampire Nocturnus) we don't have a great chance. If they go even a few turns slower, however, we usually can take this match, even if it is in 3 games.
Side Out: Goblin Guide. Side In: Into the Roil. Pyroclasm is also a good option to bring in.
60-40 us, 60-40 post board.
I think that covers most of the common decks. Note that these numbers arent necessarily from actual testing, this is just data I've gathered from playing at FNM and in Magic-League tourneys. If I missed anything in this post, please let me know.
Ooh I like it. Think you need an alt win con though as there're so many ways of getting rid of combo peices these days. Normally in a deck that runs howling mines and fonts of mythos I'd suggest some sorta mill, although that really clashes with the red side of it so maybe just a few banefires or something like that, especially while you're playing everflowing chalices.
I personally feel that while U/R Works well, I feel that the R/B works faster and causes more stress for our opponents. A guy I played on MWS was playing the U/R version and he said that he didn't like the R/B deck because it had nothing to protect my draw power (Font of Mythos/Howling Mine).
Now while he's true that Malestrom pulse does kill my draw speed, I don't think it stops my deck in its tracks. If they pulsed away my Mine or Font, it just lets me drop more Underworld Dreams and other cards of the such, (I played Sign in Blood last week and made some guy lose 6 life).
Thanks Corp. I'll add a link to that to the main post, just in case.
Quote from Daesik »
Goblin guide causes much disagreement, and I personally dislike it. It gives your opponents removal something to do, and it is bad on the play or late game. I personally prefer running Unsummon and Magma Spray (good against Vamps and RDW).
Also, in the sideboard I'd advocate running Dispel over Negate (and as a 4-of). I find myself tapping out far too much to be able to sit around countering things. I bring Dispel in against control matchups because it is a cheap way to counter their 2cmc and 3cmc counterspells.
Good job on the primer btw, looks nice
I definitely agree that Magma Spray and Unsummon are good options, and I do run a few Unsummon MD, but Magma Spray at least is not, IMO, maindeck material.
Guide is definitely not great late game, but the question is: What do I replace it with? sure, I could stick Burst back in (and the thought of running 9 MD bounce/burn and 6 more SB is tempting) but I don't think its really needed. Guide can help the combo along by letting us only play 1 Runeflare and still have lethal, and I've won games off just 1 or 2 Guides beating down.
As for Dispel: Wow, I thought it was that multikicker counter
Either way, it doesn't counter the major threats that Negate or Flashfreeze is their to counter, namely Blightning and Thought Hemorrhage. I've won a game with a resolved Thought Hemorrhage, but I would not count on it ever happening again.
Edit: Wow posts galore
Quote from MTGN00B »
Ooh I like it. Think you need an alt win con though as there're so many ways of getting rid of combo peices these days. Normally in a deck that runs howling mines and fonts of mythos I'd suggest some sorta mill, although that really clashes with the red side of it so maybe just a few banefires or something like that, especially while you're playing everflowing chalices.
We really don't need an alternate win con. Just bring in counters for Hemorrhage. As a last ditch resort we can try to play mill with Jace, but it really just doesn't work. Why would we run Banefire? We don't usually get beyond turn 5 ideally.
Quote from KirbyDude65 »
I personally feel that while U/R Works well, I feel that the R/B works faster and causes more stress for our opponents. A guy I played on MWS was playing the U/R version and he said that he didn't like the R/B deck because it had nothing to protect my draw power (Font of Mythos/Howling Mine).
Now while he's true that Malestrom pulse does kill my draw speed, I don't think it stops my deck in its tracks. If they pulsed away my Mine or Font, it just lets me drop more Underworld Dreams and other cards of the such, (I played Sign in Blood last week and made some guy lose 6 life).
What are your opinions about the R/B Vs U/R?
Sure, BR may be faster occasionally, and while it looks nice on paper it does not play out well. Trying to get BBB for Dreams, and then RR or more for Runeflare does not work well. Not even counting the fact that BR can't protect its stuff, there are more benefits to running U that B can't provide. I have messed around with a WR fog version a bit, but after a few games I moved right back to the UR version, because I just hated not having Ponder, Twincast, Unsummon, and especially Time Warp. The deck just loses so much power without those few cards that UR is really, IMO, the only way to go.
Sure, BR may be faster occasionally, and while it looks nice on paper it does not play out well. Trying to get BBB for Dreams, and then RR or more for Runeflare does not work well. Not even counting the fact that BR can't protect its stuff, there are more benefits to running U that B can't provide. I have messed around with a WR fog version a bit, but after a few games I moved right back to the UR version, because I just hated not having Ponder, Twincast, Unsummon, and especially Time Warp. The deck just loses so much power without those few cards that UR is really, IMO, the only way to go.
Mana fixings are generally never an issue for my deck, since the majority of my red spells only require one red mana, I can easily emphasize on black mana.
I think you're only looking at protection by canceling and stopping your opponent from playing cards. While I don't have actual protection for any of my spells, I do have protection via Duress, Thought Hemorrhage, and even just general play. It will require more skill on my behalf to play around Malestrom Pulse or Oblivion Ring (The only real removal of artifacts in type 2), but I think that I don't need protection, because I can keep dropping other threats like Dreams, Parasite, Guide, Sign in Blood, ect.
A couple of things from the last thread:
1) I meant that you should have Ponder and Halimar Depths. Having 8 Ponders is so much better than 4.
2) Kilroy: Harms way can protect against Pyroclasm extremely well in certain situations. Say they have 2 Goblin Guides out. You Pyroclasm. They can then Harms way preventing one from each Goblin Guide and deal both damage to you. Both their creatures live and you take 2 form your spell. Refraction Trap would be the same thing except they could save up to 3 creatures in some situations and deal 3 damage to you. Having said that it's pretty situational and it's actually better when 2 creature decks are going at it and you prevent 2 from a creature so your creature kills their creature instead of trading, and then you Harms Way the damage to another one of their creatures killing 2 of their creatures and saving yours.
I brought this up in the old thread, but has anyone tried Fabricate yet? If you can hold the fort with your bounce and burn early, you can realistically cast a turn 3 Fabricate into a turn 4 Font of Mythos. It also makes RDW easier by being able to tutor for Dragon's Claw. I've been playing 2x Fabricate MD in place of Ponder and it makes the deck a bit more consistent. Certainly takes off the pressure during mulliganning.
Also, Spell Pierce counters everything we need it to when we need it to. We generally don't care what creatures they play. The only things we truly care about are selective discard (Duress), artifact hate (Pulse), and deck disruption (Hemorrhage), all of which are countered by Spell Pierce when it's important. By the time they can Pulse/Hemorrhage with enough mana to pay for Spell Pierce, we're already going off or we probably have another counter for it...especially after boards. Spell Pierce also counters a turn 1 Duress on the play, which is REALLY helpful.
EDIT: What about siding Time Warp out against control? It doesn't seem that useful cause they give you plenty of time to assemble the hand to go off. You just wait for them to take a big turn, then you go "stack big turn, response, annihilate you."
Does anyone MD Resounding Wave besides me? I have two in the main. Call to Heel may slightly be better in most opinions over Unsummon. Gives them their creature back and a card to draw.
What about 2 or 3 Selective Memory's (Allows you to remove any amount of cards from your deck for 3U) MB or SB? Think about it: you have a font and a mine out, and you get rid of all of your deck but 2 Runeflare traps, a twincast, and a Dispel. It sounds like 3U: combo next turn. Although I haven't tested it at all yet, it seems like a good option.
What about 2 or 3 Selective Memory's (Allows you to remove any amount of cards from your deck for 3U) MB or SB? Think about it: you have a font and a mine out, and you get rid of all of your deck but 2 Runeflare traps, a twincast, and a Dispel. It sounds like 3U: combo next turn. Although I haven't tested it at all yet, it seems like a good option.
Selective memory only exiles nonlands, so this won't work
Does anyone MD Resounding Wave besides me? I have two in the main. Call to Heel may slightly be better in most opinions over Unsummon. Gives them their creature back and a card to draw.
Call to heel is better than unsummon for keeping their hand stocked, it also allows you to turn on the trap condition of runeflare with only 1 howling mine.
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I brought this up in the old thread, but has anyone tried Fabricate yet? If you can hold the fort with your bounce and burn early, you can realistically cast a turn 3 Fabricate into a turn 4 Font of Mythos. It also makes RDW easier by being able to tutor for Dragon's Claw. I've been playing 2x Fabricate MD in place of Ponder and it makes the deck a bit more consistent. Certainly takes off the pressure during mulliganning.
Also, Spell Pierce counters everything we need it to when we need it to. We generally don't care what creatures they play. The only things we truly care about are selective discard (Duress), artifact hate (Pulse), and deck disruption (Hemorrhage), all of which are countered by Spell Pierce when it's important. By the time they can Pulse/Hemorrhage with enough mana to pay for Spell Pierce, we're already going off or we probably have another counter for it...especially after boards. Spell Pierce also counters a turn 1 Duress on the play, which is REALLY helpful.
EDIT: What about siding Time Warp out against control? It doesn't seem that useful cause they give you plenty of time to assemble the hand to go off. You just wait for them to take a big turn, then you go "stack big turn, response, annihilate you."
LOLZ you think like I do, I tried bringing this up before and was basicly called a noob. I am talking about spell pierce and fabricate, there both really good option as far as I am conerned, although I must say I have hung up this deck for now as my meta is totally ready for me, 18 out of 32 players are running hate against me. I almost finished last last Friday so I am moving onto a shroud deck as I don't like being hated on.
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I run Zektar Shrine Expedition in my sideboard. In my meta, it's helped win more than a few games (especially vs Jund) by either doing massive damage, clearing our their creatures then they double/triple block or use their Pulses to remove the shrine instead of my fonts/mines.
I'm also debating on Goblin Guide. However, it would not be mainboard for me, most likely. Generally what I'm finding is that when I play, I'll win game 1, then they will sideboard out all their removal and sideboard in other cards (counter, etc). That's when I normally sideboard in the Shrines and would probably sideboard in the Guides.
Here is the list i've been playing as of late. Most of the people i end up playing with are playing 2-3 color decks with the occasional RDW so i've been playing a bit of a mana denial deck.
Card Choices:
Well like all runeflare decks this has the base of the Fonts, Mines, Traps, and bolts.
Time Warp- A card i love and can't take away from the deck, its fun, and sometimes essensial to take a win. who doesn't like drawing 5-7 cards a turn when you don't have a maximum hand size.
Reliquary Tower- I personally love this little land. It lets me keep what i need in my hand no matter how many i draw of it. Against control i get to keep my counters in hand as well as my win conditions when i need both while not having to pitch lands so i can save them for a blightning or something.
Ponder- allows me to dig, draw, shuffle and take fix my draws for the next turn.
Twincast- another obvious card, always fun twincasting cruels, and other things
Unsummon- Allows me to deal with big creatures
Spreading Seas- Again like i said i play against people with shaky mana bases due to being 2-3 color decks. So Seas allows me to slow their mana down while replacing itself.
Resounding Wave- Mana Denial 4-7. This also allows me to bounce creatures and anything else on the board for that matter.
Sideboard.
my sideboard consists of the usual board you may see except for the Banefire
I have the banefire in there because i do see jacerator from time to time or other decks that run some kind of damage prevention, and this allows me to get that guaranteed damage.
Sideboard 4x Archive Trap as an alternative wincon against certain deck will improve the deck's win percentage by so much. It helps your boros matchup by so much.
He is so man, he is mario, and I will tell my opponents such. As and when I bounce their permanent I will exclaim "MARIO" as though he were stomped on by our mighty Jace. Every time someone kill him I will give them 99 USD (not AUS!!!) because their lightning bolt should cost 100 DOLLARS...
Jace even made it into the Teenage Super Hero Mutant Ninja Hero Turtles.
Instead of bounce, why not run counters if you aren't casting anything but drawartifacts on your turn. Flashfreeze/Negate/Double Negative backed up with some burn might be better than Into the Roil, etc.
Negated Harrow is funny.
It would barely improve your matchup. You would need what, 3 to go off by turn 4 to mill them out? It would be better to side in things like Pyroclasm to kill off all of their creatures.
Barely ? Have you playtested them against Boros ?
You side out the Runeflare and side in Archive together with Pyro/Fallout against them. With Twincast/Trapmaker it is as good as having 6 to 9 Archive Traps in your deck. Don't know about you, but i usually have a 60(boros)/40(me) after sideboard. But yea, FNM results doesn't count right ? I would love to see someone pilot this deck at a PT level though.
He is so man, he is mario, and I will tell my opponents such. As and when I bounce their permanent I will exclaim "MARIO" as though he were stomped on by our mighty Jace. Every time someone kill him I will give them 99 USD (not AUS!!!) because their lightning bolt should cost 100 DOLLARS...
Jace even made it into the Teenage Super Hero Mutant Ninja Hero Turtles.
Draw artifacts are tapping us out regularly on T2 and T4, and T3 is our turn to kill their current board. We do not have the luxury of hoping to counter something worthwhile on our opponents turn, we need to keep them off our backs before we combo out (using efficient bounce and burn).
QFT. The sole problem with this deck (well, other than a weakness to fast aggro) is that we tend to win literally on the upkeep of the turn they will kill us. Especially against Jund or Naya. This is why Time Warp is so helpful, as it gives us some extra room to set up the combo.
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QFT. The sole problem with this deck (well, other than a weakness to fast aggro) is that we tend to win literally on the upkeep of the turn they will kill us. Especially against Jund or Naya. This is why Time Warp is so helpful, as it gives us some extra room to set up the combo.
Just about every game I have won has been the turn before I would of died, I can see it in my opponent's faces that they have the means to kill me
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The only sound was the gentle clicking of the Faeries' wings. Then those intruders who were still standing turned and fled. One thing was certain: they didn't think the Scryb were very funny anymore.
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Hey people, here's the new Runeflare thread, the old one was getting a bit clogged up with irrelevant posts and old discussion. I'll try to keep this post updated with decklists, card choices, sideboard tech, etc. If anyone has some radically different decklist I should add, please let me know.
The Deck
UR Runeflare is one of the only combo decks in this meta. It plays draw artifacts like Howling Mine and Font of Mythos so that both players are drawing multiple cards per turn, ideally somewhere even in the 5-7 range. This makes it really easy to dig for the gas you need, and makes Runeflare Trap cost :symr:, instead of a staggering :4mana::symr::symr: (although on occasion we do cast it for that on our turn). Here's what is pretty much the standard decklist:
4 Scalding Tarn
11 Island
7 Mountain
Creatures (3)
3 Goblin Guide
Spells (35)
4 Font of Mythos
4 Howling Mine
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Runeflare Trap
4 Time Warp
4 Ponder
3 Everflowing Chalice
3 Twincast
3 Jace Beleren
2 Unsummon
4 Dragon's Claw
3 Into the Roil
3 Magma Spray
3 Negate
2 Pyroclasm
Card Choices
Goblin Guide - Provides some early damage, then chumps late game. I'm really on the fence with this one; on one hand, I really like it, but on the other hand it just doesn't do enough sometimes. This would probably be one of the first cards to go, but unfortunately Worldwake did not give us a whole lot of stuff to work with.
Font of Mythos, Howling Mine, Runeflare Trap, Lightning Bolt - Do these need to be explained? If yes... I'm not even going to say anything about that.
Time Warp - Sooo much fun when you're drawing 7 cards a turn... Pretty much crucial to the decks success. I've lost games simply because I didn't see a Time Warp, or used the ones I had with no draw out on the field.
Ponder - Digs, shuffles, and draws. I have tried Halimar Depths in this slot, I just did not like it at all.
Everflowing Chalice - Janky at first sight, incredible with some testing. It powers out turn 3 Font of Mythos and turn 4 win or Time Warp. However, it does have a bit of anti-synergy with the rest of the deck. Overall, however, I think this will stay in for now.
Twincast - Runeflare Trap and Time Warps #5-7.
Jace Beleren - Need. Moar. Draw.
Unsummon - Deals with those that Lightning Bolt cannot take care of.
Dragon's Claw - Improves our matchup against fast aggro tremendously.
Into the Roil - Very versatile. Can bounce threats, or our draw in response to a Pulse. However, I like Unsummon MD, simply for the fact it costs 1 less.
Magma Spray - Can come in and hit decks with lots of small threats, or decks which depend on small burnable creatures. Also helps RDW, by removing their Hellsparks from the game forever.
Negate - Can also be Flashfreeze, depending on your local meta. I usually bring this in against Jund, because Thought Hemorrhage can be nasty.
Pyroclasm - Helps fight off weenie swarms. Can fight off larger beasties too with the help of Twincast.
Matchups
RDW - Horrible matchup. They basically have to stumble on mana or get horrible draws, and we need to get a really good hand. Our draw engines give them more burn as well... Never, ever, tap out here. Especially if they have 2 or 3 mana on the field.
Side Out: Goblin Guide, Jace. Side In: Dragon's Claw and Magma Spray.
25-75 their favor, 35-65 post board.
Naya Lightsaber - Pretty good matchup. They have huge guys which can be trouble for us, but if we can start Time Warping we usually can go off before they get us down in kill range. This matchup will play similar to Jund, except easier because they do not have Pulse or Thought Hemorrhage.
Side Out: Goblin Guide. Side In: Into the Roil. I like to bring in Dragon's Claw as well, it's just a matter of preference though.
60-40 our favor, 60-40 post board.
Boros Bushwhacker - I have not gotten any testing done against this. However, I imagine it would be similar to RDW, except not quite as bad. Dragon's Claw won't be as good here, unfortunately.
Control (Grixis or America) - Both of these play about the same. The trick here is to play around the counters. Don't try to go off at the end of the draw step, like you normally would. Instead wait till they tap out, or only leave a bit of counter mana open, and then hit them. Twincasting a Cruel Ultimatum is also fun
Side Out: Jace Beleren. Side In: Negate, if running it.
50-50, 50-50 post board.
Jund - This really just comes down to the luck of the draw... Or cascade. You have to play around Pulse, because if they can hit multiple draw artifacts with one card, it's basically over. Nothing is worse than playing a Font, letting them draw 2 extra cards, then seeing it Pulsed the next turn. Post SB they have Thought Hemorrhage, which can be a real pain in the ass. This matchup is definitely winnable - I beat two Jund in a row last week at FNM - but it takes some finesse, and not just tossing stuff out there and going for the kill.
Side Out: Goblin Guide, Unsummon. Side In: Into the Roil, Negate/Flashfreeze.
50-50, 50-50 post board.
Vampires - Once again it comes down to how fast they get going. Nighthawk, with its lifelike, can be a real problem, so hit those ASAP. If they get a crazy curve (I had a person go Guul Draz Vampire, Child of Night, Vampire Nighthawk, Vampire Nocturnus) we don't have a great chance. If they go even a few turns slower, however, we usually can take this match, even if it is in 3 games.
Side Out: Goblin Guide. Side In: Into the Roil. Pyroclasm is also a good option to bring in.
60-40 us, 60-40 post board.
I think that covers most of the common decks. Note that these numbers arent necessarily from actual testing, this is just data I've gathered from playing at FNM and in Magic-League tourneys. If I missed anything in this post, please let me know.
Old thread is located here.
Signature from Nakamura and Heroes of the Planes Studios.
MAFIA STATS
Scum
Basic 17 (Afterlife) - lose
Basic 15 (Coffeehouse) - win
Duel Monsters - lose
Manipulator - lose
Town
Anita Blake - lose
Basic 17 (Demonata) - lose
Canada - ongoing
Ongoing
Basic 24
Now while he's true that Malestrom pulse does kill my draw speed, I don't think it stops my deck in its tracks. If they pulsed away my Mine or Font, it just lets me drop more Underworld Dreams and other cards of the such, (I played Sign in Blood last week and made some guy lose 6 life).
What are your opinions about the R/B Vs U/R?
Standard
WUW/U HumansUW
Modern
WBW/B TokensBW
I definitely agree that Magma Spray and Unsummon are good options, and I do run a few Unsummon MD, but Magma Spray at least is not, IMO, maindeck material.
Guide is definitely not great late game, but the question is: What do I replace it with? sure, I could stick Burst back in (and the thought of running 9 MD bounce/burn and 6 more SB is tempting) but I don't think its really needed. Guide can help the combo along by letting us only play 1 Runeflare and still have lethal, and I've won games off just 1 or 2 Guides beating down.
As for Dispel: Wow, I thought it was that multikicker counter
Either way, it doesn't counter the major threats that Negate or Flashfreeze is their to counter, namely Blightning and Thought Hemorrhage. I've won a game with a resolved Thought Hemorrhage, but I would not count on it ever happening again.
Edit: Wow posts galore
We really don't need an alternate win con. Just bring in counters for Hemorrhage. As a last ditch resort we can try to play mill with Jace, but it really just doesn't work. Why would we run Banefire? We don't usually get beyond turn 5 ideally.
Sure, BR may be faster occasionally, and while it looks nice on paper it does not play out well. Trying to get BBB for Dreams, and then RR or more for Runeflare does not work well. Not even counting the fact that BR can't protect its stuff, there are more benefits to running U that B can't provide. I have messed around with a WR fog version a bit, but after a few games I moved right back to the UR version, because I just hated not having Ponder, Twincast, Unsummon, and especially Time Warp. The deck just loses so much power without those few cards that UR is really, IMO, the only way to go.
Signature from Nakamura and Heroes of the Planes Studios.
MAFIA STATS
Scum
Basic 17 (Afterlife) - lose
Basic 15 (Coffeehouse) - win
Duel Monsters - lose
Manipulator - lose
Town
Anita Blake - lose
Basic 17 (Demonata) - lose
Canada - ongoing
Ongoing
Basic 24
Mana fixes are generally never an issue with B/R Combo. I run 4 Akoum Refuge, Dragonskull Sumit, and 3 Veinfire borderpost.
Mana fixings are generally never an issue for my deck, since the majority of my red spells only require one red mana, I can easily emphasize on black mana.
I think you're only looking at protection by canceling and stopping your opponent from playing cards. While I don't have actual protection for any of my spells, I do have protection via Duress, Thought Hemorrhage, and even just general play. It will require more skill on my behalf to play around Malestrom Pulse or Oblivion Ring (The only real removal of artifacts in type 2), but I think that I don't need protection, because I can keep dropping other threats like Dreams, Parasite, Guide, Sign in Blood, ect.
Standard
WUW/U HumansUW
Modern
WBW/B TokensBW
Signature from Nakamura and Heroes of the Planes Studios.
MAFIA STATS
Scum
Basic 17 (Afterlife) - lose
Basic 15 (Coffeehouse) - win
Duel Monsters - lose
Manipulator - lose
Town
Anita Blake - lose
Basic 17 (Demonata) - lose
Canada - ongoing
Ongoing
Basic 24
1) I meant that you should have Ponder and Halimar Depths. Having 8 Ponders is so much better than 4.
2) Kilroy: Harms way can protect against Pyroclasm extremely well in certain situations. Say they have 2 Goblin Guides out. You Pyroclasm. They can then Harms way preventing one from each Goblin Guide and deal both damage to you. Both their creatures live and you take 2 form your spell. Refraction Trap would be the same thing except they could save up to 3 creatures in some situations and deal 3 damage to you. Having said that it's pretty situational and it's actually better when 2 creature decks are going at it and you prevent 2 from a creature so your creature kills their creature instead of trading, and then you Harms Way the damage to another one of their creatures killing 2 of their creatures and saving yours.
My new list:
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Halimar Depths
2 Reliquary Tower
6 Mountain
6 Island
Spells: 38
4 Howling Mine
3 Font of Mythos
4 Into the Roil
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Pyroclasm
4 Time Warp
3 Twincast
4 Runeflare Trap
2 Fabricate
3 Double Negative
3 Spell Pierce
4 Magma Spray
4 Dragon's Claw
4 Swerve
3 Mindbreak Trap
Also, Spell Pierce counters everything we need it to when we need it to. We generally don't care what creatures they play. The only things we truly care about are selective discard (Duress), artifact hate (Pulse), and deck disruption (Hemorrhage), all of which are countered by Spell Pierce when it's important. By the time they can Pulse/Hemorrhage with enough mana to pay for Spell Pierce, we're already going off or we probably have another counter for it...especially after boards. Spell Pierce also counters a turn 1 Duress on the play, which is REALLY helpful.
EDIT: What about siding Time Warp out against control? It doesn't seem that useful cause they give you plenty of time to assemble the hand to go off. You just wait for them to take a big turn, then you go "stack big turn, response, annihilate you."
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
Standard:
RURuneflare ComboRU
-----------------------
WURBGGreanimator WURBG
Elder Dragon Highlander:
GUMomir VigGU
Selective memory only exiles nonlands, so this won't work
Call to heel is better than unsummon for keeping their hand stocked, it also allows you to turn on the trap condition of runeflare with only 1 howling mine.
Milling people with their own Hedron Crab since 2009
"It's like Inception, but with beer instead of dreams!" - A member of my project team on how to convince our supervisor we have actually done some work.
LOLZ you think like I do, I tried bringing this up before and was basicly called a noob. I am talking about spell pierce and fabricate, there both really good option as far as I am conerned, although I must say I have hung up this deck for now as my meta is totally ready for me, 18 out of 32 players are running hate against me. I almost finished last last Friday so I am moving onto a shroud deck as I don't like being hated on.
I also run Call to Heel and Whiplash Trap. However, I'm thinking of putting Into the Roil back in to deal with permanents.
I'm also debating on Goblin Guide. However, it would not be mainboard for me, most likely. Generally what I'm finding is that when I play, I'll win game 1, then they will sideboard out all their removal and sideboard in other cards (counter, etc). That's when I normally sideboard in the Shrines and would probably sideboard in the Guides.
Just my opinions, your mileage may vary.
Fabricate: Too slow, IMO. Just mulligan for a good hand with Mine, if necessary.
Signature from Nakamura and Heroes of the Planes Studios.
MAFIA STATS
Scum
Basic 17 (Afterlife) - lose
Basic 15 (Coffeehouse) - win
Duel Monsters - lose
Manipulator - lose
Town
Anita Blake - lose
Basic 17 (Demonata) - lose
Canada - ongoing
Ongoing
Basic 24
2x Scalding Tarn
2x Reliquary Tower
11x Island
7x Mountain
SPELLS
4x Runeflare Trap
4x Spreading Seas
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Ponder
3x Burst Lightning
3x Time Warp
3x Twincast
3x Resounding Wave
2x Unsummon
4x Font of Mythos
4x Howling Mine
1x Banefire
4x Into the Roil
3x Dragon's Claw
2x Magma Spray
3x Negate
2x Pyroclasm
Here is the list i've been playing as of late. Most of the people i end up playing with are playing 2-3 color decks with the occasional RDW so i've been playing a bit of a mana denial deck.
Card Choices:
Well like all runeflare decks this has the base of the Fonts, Mines, Traps, and bolts.
Time Warp- A card i love and can't take away from the deck, its fun, and sometimes essensial to take a win. who doesn't like drawing 5-7 cards a turn when you don't have a maximum hand size.
Reliquary Tower- I personally love this little land. It lets me keep what i need in my hand no matter how many i draw of it. Against control i get to keep my counters in hand as well as my win conditions when i need both while not having to pitch lands so i can save them for a blightning or something.
Ponder- allows me to dig, draw, shuffle and take fix my draws for the next turn.
Twincast- another obvious card, always fun twincasting cruels, and other things
Unsummon- Allows me to deal with big creatures
Spreading Seas- Again like i said i play against people with shaky mana bases due to being 2-3 color decks. So Seas allows me to slow their mana down while replacing itself.
Resounding Wave- Mana Denial 4-7. This also allows me to bounce creatures and anything else on the board for that matter.
Sideboard.
my sideboard consists of the usual board you may see except for the Banefire
I have the banefire in there because i do see jacerator from time to time or other decks that run some kind of damage prevention, and this allows me to get that guaranteed damage.
ack, this is true. I guess I didn't comprehend the "Nonland" part or just saw a wrongly spoiled version of it. bah...
Standard:
RURuneflare ComboRU
-----------------------
WURBGGreanimator WURBG
Elder Dragon Highlander:
GUMomir VigGU
Negated Harrow is funny.
Barely ? Have you playtested them against Boros ?
You side out the Runeflare and side in Archive together with Pyro/Fallout against them. With Twincast/Trapmaker it is as good as having 6 to 9 Archive Traps in your deck. Don't know about you, but i usually have a 60(boros)/40(me) after sideboard. But yea, FNM results doesn't count right ? I would love to see someone pilot this deck at a PT level though.
QFT. The sole problem with this deck (well, other than a weakness to fast aggro) is that we tend to win literally on the upkeep of the turn they will kill us. Especially against Jund or Naya. This is why Time Warp is so helpful, as it gives us some extra room to set up the combo.
Signature from Nakamura and Heroes of the Planes Studios.
MAFIA STATS
Scum
Basic 17 (Afterlife) - lose
Basic 15 (Coffeehouse) - win
Duel Monsters - lose
Manipulator - lose
Town
Anita Blake - lose
Basic 17 (Demonata) - lose
Canada - ongoing
Ongoing
Basic 24
Just about every game I have won has been the turn before I would of died, I can see it in my opponent's faces that they have the means to kill me