When Daretti, Scrap Savant first came out, like most everyone else I jammed him together as an artificer with 90% the same cards everyone else was playing. While playing him though I realized that his abilities were very broadly useful and I started wondering if I could make him work outside of just an artificer deck in part because his + ability was so strong.
Then they spoiled Pyromancer's Goggles. I got to wondering if I could have kind of a supplemental artifact plan and play a spellslinger deck with Daretti. I could use things like Mirari and keep them in play via my commander while rotating situational cards off. Red is also the only color with an extra Gauntlet and so I can make use of that to fuel these big red spells.
This deck is really a combination of three things:
Cool and splashy spells that are sometimes situational.
Generate card advantage and enable spells via artifacts
Defend myself and my commander.
These three things are my primary goals. Whenever I can pick up more than one of those objectives in a card it fits this deck a little bit better.
well banefire and fire ball like effects would be very effective with a large amount of ramp in conjunction with pyromancer's goggles.
I questioned how much X damage effects I should focus on. Banefire is also not very good unless the person you are playing against happens to be heavy on counterspells. If you arent expecting to run into heavy counter magic: Devil's Play and Rolling Thunder would be better choices. In general heavy counterspells is not something I encounter or plan for unless given a reason to. As a side note, the fork effects can all be used as counterspells vs counters. Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast can also be used if you expect to encounter heavy blue opposition.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I generally try not to deliberately combo so if I include a card its because I like the interactions with it with the deck as a whole. The reason I did not like Dualcaster Mage in this case is that non artifact creatures are something I have very little synergy with in this deck and while he gives me a blocker: Fork, Reverberate and Reiterate are all in my mind superior cloning effects outside of going infinite. In my mind, Dualcaster Mage fits better into a creature abuse deck where you might be Skullclamp and or any other means of abusing the creature. Without much in the way of creature abuse I find it a lot less interesting.
DECK CHANGES:
I had to get it down to 100 cards so I had to make some cuts here and there.
Galvanoth -> Out I realized that while it flavorfully fits what the deck is doing its really terrible card advantage that is unlikely to hit much of ever. It also comes on an unattractive blocker body which doesn't help.
Charmbreaker Devils -> Out I have some fun instants / sorceries but this guy is far from a sure thing for generating any value. There are just a lot of situations that can come up that he wont generate value and I dont really see myself defending myself with it either which sucks.
Mizzium Mortars -> Out I realized I had sort of a lot of sweepers and this one felt the least robust.
Goblin Offensive -> OUT I think the tokens were an ok idea as far as making chump blockers but I really cant go offensive with the tokens with no buffs and the wraths just seemed like better options.
Goblin Rally -> Radiate I am killing the tokens idea. Radiate is just so funny I want to see what sort of situations it can get me into and or out of.
Urza's Rage -> Rolling Thunder I like that the rage is instant speed but the kicker is so high its sort of unreasonable given how little it does even when kicked. I think the Rolling Thunder will just perform better for me.
Bösium Strip -> Batterskull I think the strip fits the theme well but in practice I think its going to be hard to set up well with how much I intend to be using my commander to just move cards. Its possible that you could set up flashbacks with that but I just feel like its more work than need be. I like the blocker / attacker that batterskull gives and given that I can recur it easily perhaps people will leave it the hell alone. Normally people snipe the hell out of it whenever I tap out but given my commander can recur it perhaps they will leave it alone.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I'm a really like this deck and the premise behind it. I'm also glad I'm not the only person ever who's thought about rocking Burn Away in a mono-red deck. Have you done any play-testing yet?
I'm a really like this deck and the premise behind it. I'm also glad I'm not the only person ever who's thought about rocking Burn Away in a mono-red deck. Have you done any play-testing yet?
I haven't put it together IRL yet but I find it interesting so far. I like that its a little more off the norm which is something I really like. Daretti as a commander is very flexible but still artifact oriented so I liked the fact that there are so many artifacts that help spellslinger still which is part of why I found it interesting. If I get it together and play it I will make sure to give some game reports.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I put in an order for cards yesterday for this deck. I want to get something red back up and running and the idea of a red spellslinger amuses me. I am hoping to put a few more spells into the list so its possible that some of the creatures or artifacts might need to be cut to make that happen. I have a few things on my wishlist as well to put in here and I am thinking Radiate might be a little too "cute".
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I wanted to throw up a few changes. I like a lot of the little creatures I have but I have a lot of sweepers and focus on spells and artifacts already so I wanted to move some of them around that I didn't think were going to do as well.
DECK CHANGES:
Metalworker -> Burnished Hart I am a bit worried about how many sweepers I am running as well as the fact that I cant really nicely use the Metalworker as a blocker. I can on the other hand use the burnished as a blocker and pop it not to mention that it tends to not stay in play as long which helps with my heavier sweeper plan.
Guttersnipe -> Goblin Welder I was a bit worried that Guttersnipe might not add up to do enough work to be honest. It also doesnt work well with my sweeper plan where as the Welder is just a boss in red decks not to mention in an artifact focused deck.
Satyr Firedancer -> Mindless Automaton I felt like the firedancer is sort of a liability to be honest. I also like that the Automaton is a good chump blocker that I can use to cycle my hand a little. With a walker commander I need some blockers to throw in the way now and then.
Price of Progress -> Hammer of Bogardan I like the Price of Progress but how much work it does is entirely unknown until I sit down and see who my opponents are. I also see sort of a lot of basics not to mention mono and dual colored decks in my meta. If I saw more 3 and 5 colored decks I would feel more inclined to run it. Hammer of Bogardan is sort of a throw back to the glory days. It might be a little underwhelming but I like that I can bring it back to hand. It serves as a bit of card advantage and if you pair it up with some of the toys I have in here I think it might actually be a fun toy. Hammer is also the only card I have ever had personally signed so I have some sentiment for it due to that lol. We will see if it holds up or not.
Radiate -> Lavaball Trap I am worried that most of the reason to run Radiate is to blow up all lands. I... think I will hold off for now unless I see a more compelling reason to run it. The lavaball trap seems really amusing to me as I can use it to nuke utility lands + sweep a lot of stuff out. I am not as worried about random 6/6s as I am random tokens / utility guys getting out of hand.
I got the list (Mostly) together yesterday but I had a few cards I put some thought to that I really want to try to make room for. I went back through and highlighted a lot of cards that I think could be interesting as well in a consideration list in the OP. I am hoping to get this deck out for testing tomorrow.
DECK CHANGE:
Young Pyromancer -> Darksteel Myr The pyromancer really needs me to be casting a lot of spells to really get the tokens moving. Its better in 60 card 1v1 formats where cantrip and cheap cards matter more. I think I would have a hard time really getting a lot of tokens from him unfortunately. The myr on the other hand is a cheap blocker who lives through my sweepers and takes premium removal to get rid of. He is cheap to drop and so I can drop and rotate him out if need be but he lives through a lot of things too which is nice.
Mindless Automaton -> Stuffy Doll I still like the Automaton but I just really wanted to make room for the doll. I like strong blockers and I like that I can turn damage back to someone else with this one. I don't have any real results but it works well with the damage sweepers I run and it defends Daretti and my life total potentially.
Trading Post -> Repercussion I like the post to be honest. I just felt like I like Repercussion more in this case. I totally forgot about this card until this weekend but it seems like a great one to pair my red sweepers with. I plan to usually drop this in before wrathing the board and with all of my damage sweepers I should be able to plan to have few creatures and or just outright kill someone else with this.
Lightning Bolt -> Street Spasm overall I felt I had a few too many bolts. I love bolt but I have so much removal I feel these effects might not scale all that well often enough. I also like how the spasm gives me another option for an instant speed sweep effect as well as the option for just a generic X burn effect at instant speed. I don't like the idea of trying to overload kill 6/6s for 12RR but the idea of sweeping tokens for 2RR or 4RR is still versatile with the option still of killing a stand alone titan for 6R. This spell also has some good synergy with the spellslinging in general as several of the spellslinging toys interact well with it.
Making a few tweeks to my list. Overall I had fun with my list when I played it last week. I had a few of my bigger moves countered though which is part of why I wanted to move away from a few cards that didnt have as good of a showing and add a few more spells into the list. I am trying to keep the artifacts to the more important things and stay away from being too much of an artificer deck.
DECK CHANGES:
Unstable Obelisk -> Red Elemental Blast the oblisk gives me some versatile removal but I didn't really like the type of ramp it gives me. Its slow and more oriented towards the artificer build where it has more interactions with artifacts in general. I like the counters for blue and I can always loot them away if they are not relevant in a game. I had a few big plays pushed away by blue player's counters so I want to fight back next time.
Pithing Needle -> Pyroblast I like the needle but it feels a lot more oriented to the artificer build. I enjoyed it a lot in that build but here I tend to do a little less artifact turnover and I want something that fits the plan a bit more. Its still a good card but I want to make some room for things that fit my theme. Bringing in the counters is like I said a move to fight back against counter tactics. I can always loot them away if I dont need them.
Batterskull -> Smash I got batterskull in hand and it felt a little awkward. I am not having too much of an issue with keeping my life high so far. Its more of a concern about my commander here. I like smash because it has the cantrip and if you look at multicasting it, it looks good. I like the speed of the card and the draw is nice too.
Overall I felt like I wanted to push up my spell count a little bit and cut a little bit of the fluff. I ended up finding early game Furnace of Rath more often than I wanted but I will see if I cant get more testing before I do much with that. I still like the double output enchantments or at least the idea of them but I haven't decided if they are too situational to drop yet.
I feel Guttersnipe should be given another try considering the increase in Spells. I'll also give a +1 to the Wheel effects. I love them whenever I play red. I wish you could use Wort, the Raidmother in this deck :). Also, I have a weird suggestion. I feel like Feldon of the Third Path would be real killer in this deck. Especially because the tokens he makes are artifacts. I was looking at the creatures you do have and they all would be great to get a second use out of. Maybe I'm reaching, cause his ability is costly and slow. I've had good experiences with Commune with Lava. This deck is really cool. No Karn?
He could play Wort, the Raidmother as a commander, while leaving the deck mono-red. I toyed with the idea of mono-red spellslinger using her, and it can be very explosive, but is very much a glass cannon. Daretti, Scrap Savant feels more resilient with his {-2} ability. Although my memories of Lightning bolt being copied 16 times to finish off a Titania player are indeed priceless.
My suggestion would be to play all 4 accessible mana doublers: Gauntlet of Might, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun and even Extraplanar Lens with some Snow-covered Mountains. Decks like this can be mana-hungry, and what's better then dumping 2, 4, or 6 times your mana into an X-burn spell? Another card that comes to mind is Mana Geyser. When cast off Mirari or through a similar effect, it can give you upwards of 30 mana in mid-game. Yes, it is a combo with Reiterate, but if that ever comes up without a reliable way to fetch one of the two, I don't think anyone would be angry.
I feel Guttersnipe should be given another try considering the increase in Spells. I'll also give a +1 to the Wheel effects. I love them whenever I play red. I wish you could use Wort, the Raidmother in this deck :). Also, I have a weird suggestion. I feel like Feldon of the Third Path would be real killer in this deck. Especially because the tokens he makes are artifacts. I was looking at the creatures you do have and they all would be great to get a second use out of. Maybe I'm reaching, cause his ability is costly and slow. I've had good experiences with Commune with Lava. This deck is really cool. No Karn?
I still have an issue with Guttersnipe that the average damage per turn rotation is still not very good. This deck doesn't storm out spells all that well from what I have seen so far so I question how much damage he would really do. I also have several sweeper based spells and he seems to die to most of them. I will keep him in mind but it really depends more on how the deck functions as far as things that would dictate him being good. He would be better in a deck designed with lots of cantrip based spells.
Wort, the Raidmother - actually.... my meta allows hybrid mana cards that can be cast off of either side of the hybrid (meta local rule). I might put some testing in with wort. I totally forgot that this was a thing. I usually dont put them in my decklists on the internet as to not confuse everyone and get the same question about them being legal. I might try to test it though in this deck as it seems really cool.
Feldon of the Third Path I felt like I was low on my creature count as well as a good portion of my creatures not being ETB / Death based which makes it a little more awkward.
Commune with Lava - its a cool card. My issue offhand is that its really sort of big mana dependant spell. I am still trying to figure out if I can afford to add more mana doublers but I like it more assuming I can make room for more big mana effects. It also has a bit of a downside which is that it forces you to burn the effects then and there so responsive based decks end up wasting a lot of their resources at the wrong time. I like it more in decks that are more proactive rather than reactive because I dont always want to have multiple wraths that can only be cast right here and now. Due to this I tend to not favor temporary access draw like this in this deck.
Karn Liberated - Its something I thought about but my experience as far as defending him has been incredibly bad. He blows up a lot on me before he can be used a second time and the amount of mana for a single removal effect is a bit high. I would probably consider Spine of Ish Sah over Karn because its a robust artifact which would fit the deck better. I also am not running All is Dust right now which would also probably be a more likely add than Karn given it fits the spellslinging and avoids my artifacts. I am sort of heavy handed on my wraths right now which was part of why I was avoiding another big mana sorcery sweeper.
Thanks. From when Daretti was first released I was sort of looking at him from the standpoint of what other ways can he be built. I think his abilities are very versatile in general so I like the idea of a less streamline build. When I played him as an artificer I thought he was great but the list sort of built itself and didn't seem to have a lot of room for experimenting as it seemed like it came together quite quickly with an ideal build which I found a bit boring.
I have found this deck interesting so far. I feel like I have a lot of testing to go yet before I feel it is where I want it to be but it has been interesting so far.
He could play Wort, the Raidmother as a commander, while leaving the deck mono-red. I toyed with the idea of mono-red spellslinger using her, and it can be very explosive, but is very much a glass cannon. Daretti, Scrap Savant feels more resilient with his {-2} ability. Although my memories of Lightning bolt being copied 16 times to finish off a Titania player are indeed priceless.
My suggestion would be to play all 4 accessible mana doublers: Gauntlet of Might, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun and even Extraplanar Lens with some Snow-covered Mountains. Decks like this can be mana-hungry, and what's better then dumping 2, 4, or 6 times your mana into an X-burn spell? Another card that comes to mind is Mana Geyser. When cast off Mirari or through a similar effect, it can give you upwards of 30 mana in mid-game. Yes, it is a combo with Reiterate, but if that ever comes up without a reliable way to fetch one of the two, I don't think anyone would be angry.
I was less familiar with conspire so I actually asked about it. You can only conspire a single time for a spell per conspire effect. On a lightning bolt you can only conspire once regardless of how many untapped red creatures you have unless you somehow have a means of increasing the number of sources of conspire you have access to. Ruling here.
As it stands, I dont see enough benefit to adding more cards to make big mana happen. I might still end up increasing the mana doublers but right now, I am having a hard time justifying it based on my somewhat low number of spells that take advantage of it.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
the spellslinger style need s a lot of mana, i will want to run more mana doubler which the above have mentioned, i will include koth and chandra pyromaster or chandra ablaze for more effect. bonfire of the damned will be good as well. there are some land destruction spells that can deal damage as well, i will consider those. recoup will be a nice addition to reuse your spells. instead of mana rocks, this deck can run more land ramp since the mana doubler works on land. inferno titan will be a good creature to add. rolling earthquake is also another good choice, same for banefire. i think this version is actually weak to counterspells, therefore boseiju might be necessary in the land base.
the spellslinger style need s a lot of mana, i will want to run more mana doubler which the above have mentioned, i will include koth and chandra pyromaster or chandra ablaze for more effect. bonfire of the damned will be good as well. there are some land destruction spells that can deal damage as well, i will consider those. recoup will be a nice addition to reuse your spells. instead of mana rocks, this deck can run more land ramp since the mana doubler works on land. inferno titan will be a good creature to add. rolling earthquake is also another good choice, same for banefire. i think this version is actually weak to counterspells, therefore boseiju might be necessary in the land base.
Big Mana - I dont deny that it takes big mana to do several things. I think it depends a little on what cards you want to run though too. I only have a handful of cards that utilize big mana well. If you pack more X damage things you will see a better return from it. I do want to try to pack another gauntlet effect or two but the list is getting a bit tight and I need to test more before I feel confident in making more changes currently.
Walkers - it seems like more walkers would be fine. By default you should be setting your list up to defend Daretti so defending an extra walker seems like it would probably work fine. The downside of course is that they dont really add into the spellslinging or artifact themes. I think adding a few more in would be fine though.
bonfire of the damned - I am not running it in part because of how I am often drawing 3 cards a turn with Daretti which makes it harder to miracle it. I dont particularly like it outside of the miracle.
land destruction - totally viable. I generally try to stay away from these strategies based on what my meta finds acceptable but things like Ruination, Wake of Destruction and a few others could totally work. They also tend to work well with mana doublers as it allows you to rebuild faster. I think its a good idea to test out assuming you and or your meta is ok with these tactics. Effects like Winter Orb / Static Orb can also be very workable given that Daretti can cycle the effects out or recover them if they become problematic.
recoup - its true that it works well given that it can be cycled off and then flashed back. I might have to give it some more thought. Overall I might like a few more sorceries to really find it work well but I think its still good value. I will see if I cant work it in for some testing at some point.
inferno titan - I think its a genericly good creature but most of my creatures are aimed at one of three things: 1) enabling spellslinging 2) defending Daretti 3) being an artifact to enable cycling. I think that the titan is generically decent but it also feels like it doesn't really fit any of the things I am trying to accomplish in my creatures. I dont think there is any issue in including him but I also dont see what I would cut to make room for him as he isn't quite doing what I need my creatures to do for me right now.
rolling earthquake - its on my list of cards to watch right now. I think its acceptable and its a good way to output a lot to the face but its also a sorcery effect removal. I like sticking to instant speed when and where I can generally speaking.
banefire - I find in general that it doesn't scale that well for multiplayer. In a heavier counter based meta it might be more worth adding.
boseiju / Counters - Its hard to say. I have some issues with Boseiju just because of how awkward it is as a land if you aren't fighting off a bunch of counters. In metas with heavier counters I think you could lighten up on some of the creature removal and go more for the players. boseiju doesn't defend multiple triggers off of things like Mirari / Goggles / Forks though so I think it is still going to be a little vulnerable even if you try to push uncounterable. I added two blue based counters plus I also have forks to use as counters themselves or to fork effects that opponents try to counter.
Right now I am going to try to hold off on more changes until I get more testing in tonight but I think there is still definitely work to adjust the list.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
i recommend walkers is because most of our spells deal damage to creatures, walkers are unaffected. both both and Chandra ultimate works well in spell slinging as they allow you to copy spells, or just ping with lands. my thoughts could be more for 1vs1 rather than multiplayer. ensnaring bridge will be crucial to keep the walkers alive. inferno is just basically a good creature that can kill fast. my meta have a lot of blue player, so boseiju is in my consideration since we are playing big mana. but that is just me.
I ended up getting 4 games in last night with this deck. I won two of the four of them which I suppose is a good number especially since I think there is still a lot of room for improvement.
The game got off to a crappy start for me with no real ramp or anything. Ruric and Prossh both ramped and there were a bunch of creatures in play when I had the option of dropping Daretti so I opted to not just walk him into a death. Ruric got in play and I ended up playing Pia and Kiran Nalaar to defend myself as it served for defense from several of the problem decks. Prossh hit play and used his Xenagos, the Reveler that was in play the turn before to give him like 10 mana. He dropped a Sarkhan Vol (ruric kills Xenagos on his damage). Prossh then uses Sarkhan Vol to steal Ruric and sac him.
Ruric uses his next turn to put a Lightning Greaves + Grafdigger's Cage out to protect his Ruric next turn as well as to hate on Marchesa. On my turn I use the opportunity to sneak my commander into play and move some cards. I had the option of dropping a Blasphemous Act or my last second added All is Dust but I figure I can defend myself from Prossh attacking directly and the chances of him hitting a huge buff and just punting me seem low so I use the last of my mana for a Crucible of Worlds (I wasn't willing to take 6 damage / kill my commander for the crucible later so it seemed like a good time to get it in).
Marchesa frowns at the Grafdigger's Cage and uses a Praetor's Grasp to get either Smash or Shattering Spree into exile. He only had 2 red so I didn't really know which he got. Riku drops a Mulldrifter and goes on defense from the Prossh commander damage plan.
Prossh's turn. He does a Demonic Tutor for Beastmaster Ascension and turns 10 creatures sideways all at me.... I guessed wrong apparently my Mirari, commander, Pia and Kiran Nalaar with tokens, and Crucible of Worlds were apparently enough to set him off in an all in attack on me. I just outright died so Marchesa was super frowny face as he wasn't able to use my spell. I started up another game with some guys who were sitting around rather than watching to the end. I heard that Riku ended up winning. When I asked Prossh why he went crazy on me he just said he had seen a Daretti deck hard lock him before and was afraid of that apprently. He apologized to me after hearing I was not that type of deck.
This game I found Sol Ring on T3 and hit my commander. Gisa got land screwed and I ended up killing Mistform the first time he came out as soon as he tried putting some pump on him. This game was mostly a goldfish match. I ended up killing them with a 4x cast Molten Psyche using Pyromancer's Gauntlet and two fork effects.
This game is a little harder to recall. I ramped a little off a Burnished Hart which got captured by Gisa's Mimic Vat I ended up setting up an early Vedalken Orrery with a Mirari. I sat behind a Mystifying Maze and mass flash as my defense from Prossh. Prossh tried doing a Tooth and Nail the turn following his commander and got Avenger of Zendikar + Craterhoof Behemoth trying to murder us all. I flashed a Blasphemous Act copied and blew up all his guys with craterhoof's pump on the stack.
A few turns later Gisa cast a Rise of the Dark Realms bringing back a huge army with craterhoof but I had a Silent Arbiter in play by then. He swung with the craterhoof and killed the Prossh player which I found amusing.
Mistform ended up getting a few pieces of equipment out and started swinging sort of hard at the Gisa player. I allowed it at first but I think I mazed his second attempt which would have killed Gisa because it was following a Cyclonic Rift which I needed some time to set back up myself.
The game ended when I managed to find Past in Flames and just abuse the hell out of my graveyard two turns in a row. I ended up killing them both with a multi cast Molten Psyche following a Memory Jar I was cycling several times through the course of the game.
Game 4: 3 player FFA game, opponents were Trostani, Selesnya's Voice and Zirilan of the Claw. Zirilan had like a god opener hitting an opening turn like 3 mana stones + top and peak. Turn two he dropped more mana stones and by turn three he had mind's eye online and drawing him cards. Turn 4 zirilan had his commander out. I slowed my land progression to drop a Maze of Ith. Zirilan dropped a Sundial of the Infinite and prepaired to have a hell of a turn. I am slow dropping Solemn Simulacrum behind curve. Zirilan on the end of turn tutors a Utvara Hellkite. On his turn he tutors a Scourge of the Throne and makes two attacks and generates 4 dragon tokens and uses his sundial to keep his dragons.
Trostani drops a Collective Blessing and starts swinging for some good damage on the ground with some elspeth tokens.
Around this time I was just sort of starting to get into the game. My early game was absolutely terrible leaving me stranded on lands and interacting minimally. I ended up poping a Burnished Hart in response to some damage from Scourge of Kher Ridges. I have a Chaos Warp for the Collective Blessing if it comes to that so I feel comfortable sort of playing defensively and seeing how things go.
Zirilan ends up doing a dragonstorm with 2 copies and is mostly out of good plays from his deck. He accidentally over taps and cant use his Scourge of Kher Ridges and ends up taking lethal damage from the hornet swarm next turn. Trostani drops a Test of Endurance at 50+ life and passes back to me. I end up using the Chaos Warp on the Test of Endurance and dropping a Silent Arbiter to buy me time which is combined with my Maze of Ith to form a good defense.
Overall, the games were good. I will see if I cant work on some adjustments given the additional game time I had but for now I dont want to put any more thought into thinks as this writeup took quite a bit.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I am on my way out but I thought I would update this list real quick. I will try to come back and add some comments later but for now I just wanted to hightlight a few changes. The new madness cards seem to fit this build well so I was interested in several of the newer cards that have come in the last block.
Furnace of Rath -> Gauntlet of Power the double damage effects were really hard to pull off because they applied to me as well. In a lot of cases I was trying to do some sort of big fireball effect into these anyways so I feel like the Gauntlets have a lot less of a problem on my end.
Fire Servant -> Hoarding Dragon My issue was that Fire Servant really seemed like a bad drop any time other than when I was going for the kill. It felt a lot like one of the Furnace of Rath effects in that regard. I like the Hording Dragon because its good on defense and I can toolbox for a good number of relevant things off of him.
Galvanic Blast -> Fiery Temper Similar function. I like that I can do a card advantage lightning bolt with the temper. The 3 mana lightning bolt is a little rough but in a lot of cases when it can wait until my turn it draws a card too.
Heat Shimmer -> Collective Defiance Heat Shimmer is ok but I find myself not running it as much anymore. It has the Dualcaster Mage infinite option but I dont play infinites so without that I think its less good (I also dont play Dualcaster in here).
Stuffy Doll -> Hangarback Walker it depends a lot on what you see but it seems rare to see a big threat on the ground that lacks trample that really concerns me on being blocked. I think the walker inclusion makes a lot of sense in combination with more big mana doublers being added. The walker is very strong to kick off of to recur something else.
Smash -> Fiery Confluence Smash is decent but there is more card advantage and flexibility to the confluence.
Winding Canyons -> Drownyard Temple the ability to draw + discard outside of my commander means that I can do the draw + discard and immediately go for a recur effect.
EDIT: I need to find room for Chandra, Flamecaller yet in my list and I am still considering a few of the other newer cards too.
I have a second batch of changes I want to go through with to the list. Its kind of a lot considering I have another six changes I want to make as well as that I had 7 non lands before. Still, I really liked the interactions of the deck I just wanted to change up how it played a little because how it used to win was not as fun to me. We will see if this improves that at all.
Burn Away -> Grafdigger's Cage so this is a bit of a gravehate for gravehate swap. The big problem is that Burn Away is still hit or miss kind of removal. Its not especially cheap to cast for its effect. I like that it has grave removal attached but other than that I have not been super happy with it. What I like about the cage is that I can kick off of it cheaply and or recover it. It should be really hard to get past for my opponents.
Pyromancer's Gauntlet -> Shard Phoenix I like the gauntlet but the direction I am going it just doesnt make that much sense. At its best, you would be casting multiple small damage effects and having them get boosted. It had always under performed for me so I will remove it for now. The Phoenix should give me blocker options as well as more sweper options. I like that I can recover it back to hand and thus play some card advantage games with it plus my commander if I want. It also opens up my Imperial Recruiter package option which is nice.
Lavaball Trap -> Chandra, Flamecaller I like Lavaball but its a question of how many lands I need to hate on. Its nice to have for big value lands but its expensive to cast and its damage ability falls into sort of an odd spot for its mana. Chandra fills multiple roles and I like that she can wheel or dish out some damage to creatures.
Blasphemous Act -> All is Dust wrath for a wrath. Blasphemous is cheaper but All is Dust seems like a better blowout kind of an effect for this deck where I have problems with enchantments and gods.
Sphinx-Bone Wand -> Thopter Assembly I like the wand, I think it is very on theme for a deck like this. My problem is that it takes a lot to drop and then it takes time to build it up. It likely does not do a lot of work until it has been in play for some time. The Thopter Assembly gives a good air presence as well as a lot of blockers potentially. I can also use those tokens to cycle into recursion with my commander so it seems decent.
Staff of Nin -> Kozilek, the Great Distortion swapping one draw for another. I like Kozilek in a lot of ways for a deck like this given he acts as draw and control as well as a wincon. It doesnt shuffle my graveyard when it dies either which is cool.
Psychosis Crawler -> Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger I like the Psychosis Crawler but my issue has always been that its mostly terrible until I am trying to jam a big amount of draw through. So in that sense it felt too much like a combo card where it was more or less pointless until I was trying to go off. I like Ulamog because he fits with the big mana I was adding as well as giving me access to removal that is normally outside of my colors while giving a good beater. I do have some concerns with it being if it gets copied or stolen..... but I guess we can deal with that when we deal with that.
So, the interesting part is that I am cutting several of my effects that interact with casting spells. Its a bit unfortunate but I was focused enough on that stuff before that I noticed a lot of my cards felt dead too often. I also noticed that my way in which to win was mostly just a big ass fireball to the face which I wanted to adjust a little if I could. I did want a lot of the spell interaction stuff to work but at the end of the day I am still running a Daretti deck so generating value and surviving are my first two objectives. Extraplanar Lens is high on my list of seeing if I can make it into the list but so are a lot of other considerations.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Hello spellslinger Daretti. Its been a long time my old friend. So, I moved to a new meta a new city a few months ago and with doing so I am feeling out a new meta and seeing how they do things. There seems to be a lot of variance based upon who is playing in games but there seems to range from what I would consider a midrange battlecruiser tactics, to MLD, to extra turns and planeswalkers. Overall, the creature counts are lower and the land disruption seems higher. I have seen several variations of MLD / stasis that often make use of planeswalkers to try to push for a win. I got to thinking how to combat these tactics without going off the deep end and making something truly harsh / competitive so I am more trying to adapt some of my own strategies to play what I find fun decks in ways that don't get blown out so bad by some of this.
Hang with me as this list is old so I need to bring it up to date with some of the newer things that have been printed as well as try out a few new things.
DECK CHANGES:
4 Fetchlands -> 4 Snow-Covered Mountain I am not really sure why I was running fetches other than perhaps to give me land drops off of Crucible of Worlds. There doesn't seem like that much incentive to keep fetches in though and some of my opponents decks are using Frozen Aether tactics so out goes the fetches.
Maze of Ith -> Ruination I am seeing less creatures in the new meta and with that less creature based combat decks. My new meta is playing with some MLD which is a reason I am picking this deck back up because having a planeswalker in play after a MLD effect is somewhat strong in a creature light meta. Ruination also does not hit me that hard and there are a TON of 3+ color decks in the meta so this should be a strong blow out.
Dust Bowl -> Inventors' Fair with the MLD in the new meta and adding Ruination I feel like I can swap out one of my land destroy effects for this sweet tutor land. Tutoring for Crucible of Worlds is sick by the way lol.
Hoarding Dragon -> Heart of Kiran honestly, Hording Dragon has never been great for me. Its a flying blocker which is ok but with less creatures in the meta I dont really love just throwing him out there to see if he dies. Heart of Kiran is something thats a bit of an unknown to me. I like the idea of having it be able to defend my commander or harass other planeswalkers though. Really its a similar body and while the Heart is a little concerning given that it takes devotion most of the time to power it I like the flexability of it as well as the fact that its an artifact.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger -> Planar Bridge swapping out an expensive card for another. I think Ulamog is fine but I think the Planar Bridge gives me the option to run away with the game which sounds better to me. I like that the Bridge can be discarded / rezed as well so I could potentially play it earlier on less mana to drop and use it the same turn.
Grafdigger's Cage -> Avacyn's Judgment the cage is cool and I liked it in my old meta but the problem is that the new meta is so creature light. Avacyn's Judgment gives me essentially another Rolling Thunder effect and it can harass walkers and or punch for killing players.
Mimic Vat -> Goblin MatronSquee, Goblin Nabob has always been a strong play for me while playing Daretti. Mimic Vat is going to lose a lot of its strengths that I was using it for in my last meta given how creature light the new tactics are. Getting another way to pick up squee as well as a blocker seems good for me.
Collective Defiance -> Indomitable Creativity I keep going over and analyzing Collective Defiance and while I think that all of those effects can be strong, I think that doing them all at the same time at sorcery speed is less ideal for 3-5 mana. In a lot of cases I want part of my hand to turn over rather than all of it and 4 damage to a creature at sorcery speed feels slow and 3 damage to a player / planeswalker just feels like low output to me. So, in the end, I like all the things that it does but I think it costs a little much, is a little slow, and its overall impact a little low. Indomitable Creativity is an interesting card to me. I don't actually know how it will turn out to be honest but I like the idea of mixing some removal with some polymorphs. I can choose what to roll back in so I can use it on key targets of opponents and or low value targets of my own. Being that it hits artifacts or creatures and gives artifacts or creatures I think its a good fit to try it here. If I draw it early or if it doesn't fit I can always throw it out with my commander.
So, these are my updates for now. I had a lot of cards I felt were good and worth considerations but ultimately a few of them I heald back on for a few reasons:
Inspiring Statuary I like the idea of this card but honestly in a lot of cases too much of my deck is either cheap cards or artifacts. The few cases I could really come up with is like the X mana dmg stuff but I felt like that stuff really in a minority of what is in the deck. Ultimately I think its cool and on theme but I felt the number of cards that would benefit from the mana for this was too narrow. Metalwork Colossus big stompy dude. I like all the elements of it other than it lacks trample which feels odd. Perhaps it could block big stompy creatures coming at me but ultimately I felt it was a little wonky even though I feel like I could probably put it in for cheap. Walking Ballista I kind of.... like what it does.... and I kind of dont. I cant recover it because it would be a 0/0 and while I do run a lot of mana doublers and bigger mana production I felt like this was mostly an awkward Kumano, Master Yamabushi. I mean.... I can store up the counters and keep them handy but crap this guy is expensive to cast in the first place and hard to ever get back. I did compare it to Hangarback Walker in some ways and while I think both have a little different uses, I like that Hangarback Walker wants to die and thus has a little better direct interaction with Daretti not to mention all the blockers that sacrificing Hangarback Walker adds. Winter Orb I think it probably would work out in this deck given the mana doublers and such. I probably would want to add a few more mana stones that tap for 2-3 mana in the deck though to really make it work out. Goblin Dark-Dwellers I like what it does but I found I had a good amount of X mana stuff in the range of what it could target which would not work. The spells it would work with would be fun there just arent quite enough of them I dont think. Neheb, the Eternal it seems like a fun strategy to like chain fireball effects but it seems too questionable to set up all the parts necessary to do it. Combustible Gearhulk I like the potential direct damage (planeswalker removal) and its an artifact creature with efficient stats for the mana. I think its still in the realm of possibles but I just felt that the actual damage amount to a player (not planeswalker) is probably usually somewhat low. Paradox Engine if I ran some more mana stones it could be something to toy with.
EDIT:Everflowing Chalice is not in this list interestingly. Its a card I may be adding in the near future as I think it works quite well with a lot of the things I want to do here. I am also questioning Chandra, Flamecaller a little bit in retrospect but I might just let it ride and see if she works out.
I just find myself returning to this list kind of often lol.
DECK CHANGES:
Ruination -> Thaumatic Compass I think Ruination would be SUPER strong in this deck but I just dont want to be that guy who stoops to this I guess. There are people who do play MLD in the meta but honestly its not many people who do it so I would prefer to not punish everyone for what a few are doing. I like that Thaumatic Compass is an artifact and that its cheap. It gives me some ramp and the maze effect is really strong for this deck as well.
Chandra, Flamecaller -> Cathartic Reunion the more I looked at Cathartic Reunion the more I like it. I can use it to set up a rez off Daretti and the difference from things like Wild Guess to this is kind of huge when you factor in like if you can duplicate the spell somehow utilizing Fork / Mirari / Pyromancer's Goggles. I think it does a lot of things I want to do and the bump from ditch one draw two to ditch two draw three is kind of a huge step up in my book.
Planar Bridge -> Sunbird's Invocation I like Planar Bridge but I feel like it kind of assumes that I have like double mana or I am doing well if I can cast and use it. Given this I think I have to cast and wait sometimes with it and honestly I really like the idea of Sunbird's Invocation just as a theory card. Casting some of these big mana burn spells and looking for forks sounds amazing. You could also cast responses to attacks and find a blocker. I just think that its a very interesting card that I think generates fairly quick value.
Darksteel Myr -> Hoarding Dragon ok.... Darksteel Myr is cute but it assumes that people have big things with no evasion. I am seeing more flyers and so I think that Hording Dragon can come back in and block some flyers for me. I did cut the dragon last change for Heart of Kiran and I think I want to try both for now.
1 Snow-Covered Mountain -> Thespian's Stage - I think Thespian is a good add here. I can always turn it into a basic land if I need but it just gives me some other options on how to burn some mana.
1 Snow-Covered Mountain -> Mirrorpool I want to give Mirrorpool a shot. Its a card that I was super hyped for when it was revealed but then kind of went nowhere. I think this deck with all of the big burst spells might be able to utilize it as another Fork effect potentially.
I really really did want to jam Primal Amulet into the list with this update but I kept looking at the front side of the card and feeling underwhelmed. My list runs 26 instant / sorcery spells and of those, only 18 of them are cost reduced by this effect. Of the remaining 18 that are cost reduced, 7 of those are X mana spells which don't really take cost reduction all that well as they usually involve spending a lot of mana on them. Really this meant that I only had like.... 11 spells left that are cost reduced well and of them several were not cheap spells. Really what I am trying to say here is that the cost reduction really really is not working well with this deck. Primal Wellspring is a great effect and while I really want to get to that side of the card, casting 4 of the 26 instant / sorcery spells is going to take some time after I cast this artifact to get the payoff. Ultimately, the card reminds me too much of Sphinx-Bone Wand which I also cut from this deck because it felt like its value generation margin just took wayyyyyy too long to realize.
Memory Jar -> Arena of the Ancients I like the jar I just think that I don't want to have to burn the resources I get immediately in this type of deck. I think it worked a little better for me in the artificer build. Arena of the Ancients can lock up some commanders who attack or tap for value and I felt that it was kind of a nice broad hate card. If I don't feel it is relevant I can use it to cycle or sacrifice to recover another artifact.
Its just a small change but I felt like I didn't like the Jar as much as I had in the past. It is possible that if I feel like I need more draw I might also consider Commune with Lava for a somewhat similar effect but I think it actually kicks in sooner in that I don't forecast it as bad and it leaves me with my mana and cards to respond as needed.
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Man, I just cant give up on this deck lol. I just think there are so many cool and unique interactions here. There are a few new cards that I think again would fit this deck really cool.
DECK CHANGES:
Thopter Assembly -> Golden Guardian (Gold-Forge Garrison) I have really not cared for Thopter Assembly. Its slow to work and its kind of bad enough that I really don't want to rez it with my commander. I like that Golden Guardian is a decent size creature for blocking purposes and I can even fight another one of my creatures and use my commander to flip it. The fact that as a land it generates me two mana and it can create 4/4 artifact creatures on demand in a draw / go style of play seems really handy for how this deck wants to play.
Sunbird's Invocation -> Brass's Bounty I do think that Sunbird's Invocation is an interesting card. That said, it does not have much synergy with the list and due to that I think it needs to go. Brass's Bounty is really interesting from the standpoint that its a spell that gives me a TON of mana for later so I can copy it and just be swimming in mana. I think it has some good synergy with the X mana spells in here and having a bunch of fodder artifacts on hand makes my commander's second ability really handy.
Thaumatic Compass -> Pirate's Pillage I think that Thaumatic Compass can be ok but ultimately.... I don't think it has a lot of synergy with the deck beyond potentially protecting the commander. I had kind of drawn the line that Wild Guess effects might not be good enough for this list but I am intrigued with Pirate's Pillage from the standpoint that it filters + gives me some fun chaff artifacts that can help me towards big mana. Where I think this card is actually strong is when I start getting into copy effects though. Given the two treasure it creates it really is Wild Guess but it also stores me mana for later and gives me things to jump off of with my commander for rez. If I can copy it I also would discard one card and draw three so its fairly good copied.
I think this latest set brought some very interesting cards for this deck which has me interested to get this list back up on its feet for. Some of the concern with this deck is that its so important to keep so many elements moving between Spellslinger matters cards, artifacts matter cards, and the ability to defend myself and my commander that its important that things have some crossover as well as having kind of every card being on synergy. Some of the ones I cut recently felt like some of the cards I had been struggling with last time I played this deck in that they were not as on as other cards.
I considered Azor's Gateway in this change too because I think that Sanctum of the Sun would be nuts in this deck but ultimately I felt like my commander really filled the role that I would ultimately want Azor's Gateway to fill. Due to that I felt like it was less relevant to have the filter and flipping the card is hard enough that I would want to run the card for the merit of Azor's Gateway rather than the risk / reward of trying to get to Sanctum of the Sun.
I got the deck rebuilt (mostly a few cards in the mail). I am really looking forward to the new treasure producing cards. I was briefly looking at Howl of the Horde this morning. I think its a little awkward given that attacking is not something this deck really wants to do and there is the issue as well that it is a sorcery for my own spells only but beyond that I thought it had some interesting implications. I think ultimately it relies a little too much on a situation in which I can throw out 3+ copies of some big damage spell though as while I think the idea of getting three copies of something like Pirate's Pillage sounds really cool, I think that the setup to get that to work seemed a little too tough for a cool but not broken setup.
Dowsing Dagger and Sword of the Animist are both things I still think about a little too. I could run Thran Dynamo but it leaves itself out as more of a target for removal where as the dagger flips to being a land which could be useful for Thespian's Stage or Vesuva (if I want to run it). Sword of the Animist seems a little harder to justify because it does want to be attacking constantly which this deck is not really geared for which is why I was kind of circling back and contemplating the dagger.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
When Daretti, Scrap Savant first came out, like most everyone else I jammed him together as an artificer with 90% the same cards everyone else was playing. While playing him though I realized that his abilities were very broadly useful and I started wondering if I could make him work outside of just an artificer deck in part because his + ability was so strong.
Then they spoiled Pyromancer's Goggles. I got to wondering if I could have kind of a supplemental artifact plan and play a spellslinger deck with Daretti. I could use things like Mirari and keep them in play via my commander while rotating situational cards off. Red is also the only color with an extra Gauntlet and so I can make use of that to fuel these big red spells.
This deck is really a combination of three things:
These three things are my primary goals. Whenever I can pick up more than one of those objectives in a card it fits this deck a little bit better.
1 Daretti, Scrap Savant
CREATURES (16)
1 Hangarback Walker
1 Goblin Welder
1 Burnished Hart
1 Goblin Matron
1 Imperial Recruiter
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Golden Guardian
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Silent Arbiter
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Hoarding Dragon
1 Shard Phoenix
1 Combustible Gearhulk
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Kozilek, the Great Distortion
ARTIFACT (15)
1 Mana Crypt
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Heart of Kiran
1 Torpor Orb
1 Arena of the Ancients
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Gauntlet of Might
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Alhammarret's Archive
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Mind's Eye
1 Mirari
1 Pyromancer's Goggles
1 Caged Sun
1 Repercussion
INSTANT (14)
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Skred
1 Street Spasm
1 Comet Storm
1 Fault Line
1 Fork
1 Reverberate
1 Starstorm
1 Chaos Warp
1 Fiery Temper
1 Reiterate
1 Volcanic Offering
1 Word of Seizing
SORCERY (14)
1 Gamble
1 Shattering Spree
1 Vandalblast
1 Avacyn's Judgment
1 Cathartic Reunion
1 Rolling Thunder
1 Hammer of Bogardan
1 Indomitable Creativity
1 Molten Psyche
1 Fiery Confluence
1 Past in Flames
1 Pirate's Pillage
1 All is Dust
1 Brass's Bounty
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
LAND(38)
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Buried Ruin
1 Drownyard Temple
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Kher Keep
1 Mirrorpool
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Myriad Landscape
25 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Strip Mine
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
IN CONSIDERATION:
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[Modern] Allies
[center][color=Blue]
Edric Spy and die
Azami the lady of the draw
Naya Zoo
Past decks
Orloro
sharuum the hegemond
Mono black control
splinter twin
I questioned how much X damage effects I should focus on. Banefire is also not very good unless the person you are playing against happens to be heavy on counterspells. If you arent expecting to run into heavy counter magic: Devil's Play and Rolling Thunder would be better choices. In general heavy counterspells is not something I encounter or plan for unless given a reason to. As a side note, the fork effects can all be used as counterspells vs counters. Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast can also be used if you expect to encounter heavy blue opposition.
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[Modern] Allies
WUBRG Reaper King - Elf Tribal WUBRG | Tribal Fun
WRG Gishath, Sun's Avatar - Dinosaur Tribal WRG | Rawr!!!
WUG Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - Enchantress Tactics WUG | Enchantments Focused
GBG The Gitrog Monster - Land Shenanigans GBG | Lands/Mill Focused
WBW Kambal, Consul of Life Allocation Matters WBW | Life Gain/Loss focused
UBR Kess, Dissident Mage of the Lotus UBR | Spellslinger
BGB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons - Counters & Tokens BGB | -1/-1 counters focused
I generally try not to deliberately combo so if I include a card its because I like the interactions with it with the deck as a whole. The reason I did not like Dualcaster Mage in this case is that non artifact creatures are something I have very little synergy with in this deck and while he gives me a blocker: Fork, Reverberate and Reiterate are all in my mind superior cloning effects outside of going infinite. In my mind, Dualcaster Mage fits better into a creature abuse deck where you might be Skullclamp and or any other means of abusing the creature. Without much in the way of creature abuse I find it a lot less interesting.
DECK CHANGES:
I had to get it down to 100 cards so I had to make some cuts here and there.
Galvanoth -> Out I realized that while it flavorfully fits what the deck is doing its really terrible card advantage that is unlikely to hit much of ever. It also comes on an unattractive blocker body which doesn't help.
Charmbreaker Devils -> Out I have some fun instants / sorceries but this guy is far from a sure thing for generating any value. There are just a lot of situations that can come up that he wont generate value and I dont really see myself defending myself with it either which sucks.
Mizzium Mortars -> Out I realized I had sort of a lot of sweepers and this one felt the least robust.
Goblin Offensive -> OUT I think the tokens were an ok idea as far as making chump blockers but I really cant go offensive with the tokens with no buffs and the wraths just seemed like better options.
Goblin Rally -> Radiate I am killing the tokens idea. Radiate is just so funny I want to see what sort of situations it can get me into and or out of.
Urza's Rage -> Rolling Thunder I like that the rage is instant speed but the kicker is so high its sort of unreasonable given how little it does even when kicked. I think the Rolling Thunder will just perform better for me.
Bösium Strip -> Batterskull I think the strip fits the theme well but in practice I think its going to be hard to set up well with how much I intend to be using my commander to just move cards. Its possible that you could set up flashbacks with that but I just feel like its more work than need be. I like the blocker / attacker that batterskull gives and given that I can recur it easily perhaps people will leave it the hell alone. Normally people snipe the hell out of it whenever I tap out but given my commander can recur it perhaps they will leave it alone.
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[Modern] Allies
I haven't put it together IRL yet but I find it interesting so far. I like that its a little more off the norm which is something I really like. Daretti as a commander is very flexible but still artifact oriented so I liked the fact that there are so many artifacts that help spellslinger still which is part of why I found it interesting. If I get it together and play it I will make sure to give some game reports.
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[Modern] Allies
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[Modern] Allies
DECK CHANGES:
Metalworker -> Burnished Hart I am a bit worried about how many sweepers I am running as well as the fact that I cant really nicely use the Metalworker as a blocker. I can on the other hand use the burnished as a blocker and pop it not to mention that it tends to not stay in play as long which helps with my heavier sweeper plan.
Guttersnipe -> Goblin Welder I was a bit worried that Guttersnipe might not add up to do enough work to be honest. It also doesnt work well with my sweeper plan where as the Welder is just a boss in red decks not to mention in an artifact focused deck.
Satyr Firedancer -> Mindless Automaton I felt like the firedancer is sort of a liability to be honest. I also like that the Automaton is a good chump blocker that I can use to cycle my hand a little. With a walker commander I need some blockers to throw in the way now and then.
Price of Progress -> Hammer of Bogardan I like the Price of Progress but how much work it does is entirely unknown until I sit down and see who my opponents are. I also see sort of a lot of basics not to mention mono and dual colored decks in my meta. If I saw more 3 and 5 colored decks I would feel more inclined to run it. Hammer of Bogardan is sort of a throw back to the glory days. It might be a little underwhelming but I like that I can bring it back to hand. It serves as a bit of card advantage and if you pair it up with some of the toys I have in here I think it might actually be a fun toy. Hammer is also the only card I have ever had personally signed so I have some sentiment for it due to that lol. We will see if it holds up or not.
Radiate -> Lavaball Trap I am worried that most of the reason to run Radiate is to blow up all lands. I... think I will hold off for now unless I see a more compelling reason to run it. The lavaball trap seems really amusing to me as I can use it to nuke utility lands + sweep a lot of stuff out. I am not as worried about random 6/6s as I am random tokens / utility guys getting out of hand.
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DECK CHANGE:
Young Pyromancer -> Darksteel Myr The pyromancer really needs me to be casting a lot of spells to really get the tokens moving. Its better in 60 card 1v1 formats where cantrip and cheap cards matter more. I think I would have a hard time really getting a lot of tokens from him unfortunately. The myr on the other hand is a cheap blocker who lives through my sweepers and takes premium removal to get rid of. He is cheap to drop and so I can drop and rotate him out if need be but he lives through a lot of things too which is nice.
Mindless Automaton -> Stuffy Doll I still like the Automaton but I just really wanted to make room for the doll. I like strong blockers and I like that I can turn damage back to someone else with this one. I don't have any real results but it works well with the damage sweepers I run and it defends Daretti and my life total potentially.
Trading Post -> Repercussion I like the post to be honest. I just felt like I like Repercussion more in this case. I totally forgot about this card until this weekend but it seems like a great one to pair my red sweepers with. I plan to usually drop this in before wrathing the board and with all of my damage sweepers I should be able to plan to have few creatures and or just outright kill someone else with this.
Lightning Bolt -> Street Spasm overall I felt I had a few too many bolts. I love bolt but I have so much removal I feel these effects might not scale all that well often enough. I also like how the spasm gives me another option for an instant speed sweep effect as well as the option for just a generic X burn effect at instant speed. I don't like the idea of trying to overload kill 6/6s for 12RR but the idea of sweeping tokens for 2RR or 4RR is still versatile with the option still of killing a stand alone titan for 6R. This spell also has some good synergy with the spellslinging in general as several of the spellslinging toys interact well with it.
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DECK CHANGES:
Unstable Obelisk -> Red Elemental Blast the oblisk gives me some versatile removal but I didn't really like the type of ramp it gives me. Its slow and more oriented towards the artificer build where it has more interactions with artifacts in general. I like the counters for blue and I can always loot them away if they are not relevant in a game. I had a few big plays pushed away by blue player's counters so I want to fight back next time.
Pithing Needle -> Pyroblast I like the needle but it feels a lot more oriented to the artificer build. I enjoyed it a lot in that build but here I tend to do a little less artifact turnover and I want something that fits the plan a bit more. Its still a good card but I want to make some room for things that fit my theme. Bringing in the counters is like I said a move to fight back against counter tactics. I can always loot them away if I dont need them.
Batterskull -> Smash I got batterskull in hand and it felt a little awkward. I am not having too much of an issue with keeping my life high so far. Its more of a concern about my commander here. I like smash because it has the cantrip and if you look at multicasting it, it looks good. I like the speed of the card and the draw is nice too.
Overall I felt like I wanted to push up my spell count a little bit and cut a little bit of the fluff. I ended up finding early game Furnace of Rath more often than I wanted but I will see if I cant get more testing before I do much with that. I still like the double output enchantments or at least the idea of them but I haven't decided if they are too situational to drop yet.
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[Modern] Allies
GRWort, Control
UBDralnu, Reanimator
My suggestion would be to play all 4 accessible mana doublers: Gauntlet of Might, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun and even Extraplanar Lens with some Snow-covered Mountains. Decks like this can be mana-hungry, and what's better then dumping 2, 4, or 6 times your mana into an X-burn spell? Another card that comes to mind is Mana Geyser. When cast off Mirari or through a similar effect, it can give you upwards of 30 mana in mid-game. Yes, it is a combo with Reiterate, but if that ever comes up without a reliable way to fetch one of the two, I don't think anyone would be angry.
I still have an issue with Guttersnipe that the average damage per turn rotation is still not very good. This deck doesn't storm out spells all that well from what I have seen so far so I question how much damage he would really do. I also have several sweeper based spells and he seems to die to most of them. I will keep him in mind but it really depends more on how the deck functions as far as things that would dictate him being good. He would be better in a deck designed with lots of cantrip based spells.
Wort, the Raidmother - actually.... my meta allows hybrid mana cards that can be cast off of either side of the hybrid (meta local rule). I might put some testing in with wort. I totally forgot that this was a thing. I usually dont put them in my decklists on the internet as to not confuse everyone and get the same question about them being legal. I might try to test it though in this deck as it seems really cool.
Feldon of the Third Path I felt like I was low on my creature count as well as a good portion of my creatures not being ETB / Death based which makes it a little more awkward.
Commune with Lava - its a cool card. My issue offhand is that its really sort of big mana dependant spell. I am still trying to figure out if I can afford to add more mana doublers but I like it more assuming I can make room for more big mana effects. It also has a bit of a downside which is that it forces you to burn the effects then and there so responsive based decks end up wasting a lot of their resources at the wrong time. I like it more in decks that are more proactive rather than reactive because I dont always want to have multiple wraths that can only be cast right here and now. Due to this I tend to not favor temporary access draw like this in this deck.
Karn Liberated - Its something I thought about but my experience as far as defending him has been incredibly bad. He blows up a lot on me before he can be used a second time and the amount of mana for a single removal effect is a bit high. I would probably consider Spine of Ish Sah over Karn because its a robust artifact which would fit the deck better. I also am not running All is Dust right now which would also probably be a more likely add than Karn given it fits the spellslinging and avoids my artifacts. I am sort of heavy handed on my wraths right now which was part of why I was avoiding another big mana sorcery sweeper.
Thanks. From when Daretti was first released I was sort of looking at him from the standpoint of what other ways can he be built. I think his abilities are very versatile in general so I like the idea of a less streamline build. When I played him as an artificer I thought he was great but the list sort of built itself and didn't seem to have a lot of room for experimenting as it seemed like it came together quite quickly with an ideal build which I found a bit boring.
I have found this deck interesting so far. I feel like I have a lot of testing to go yet before I feel it is where I want it to be but it has been interesting so far.
I was less familiar with conspire so I actually asked about it. You can only conspire a single time for a spell per conspire effect. On a lightning bolt you can only conspire once regardless of how many untapped red creatures you have unless you somehow have a means of increasing the number of sources of conspire you have access to. Ruling here.
As it stands I only have a few spells that really take full advantage of really big mana. Rolling Thunder, Reiterate, Fault Line, Comet Storm, and Street Spasm (less ideal but its mana hungry).
As it stands, I dont see enough benefit to adding more cards to make big mana happen. I might still end up increasing the mana doublers but right now, I am having a hard time justifying it based on my somewhat low number of spells that take advantage of it.
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[Modern] Allies
Big Mana - I dont deny that it takes big mana to do several things. I think it depends a little on what cards you want to run though too. I only have a handful of cards that utilize big mana well. If you pack more X damage things you will see a better return from it. I do want to try to pack another gauntlet effect or two but the list is getting a bit tight and I need to test more before I feel confident in making more changes currently.
Walkers - it seems like more walkers would be fine. By default you should be setting your list up to defend Daretti so defending an extra walker seems like it would probably work fine. The downside of course is that they dont really add into the spellslinging or artifact themes. I think adding a few more in would be fine though.
bonfire of the damned - I am not running it in part because of how I am often drawing 3 cards a turn with Daretti which makes it harder to miracle it. I dont particularly like it outside of the miracle.
land destruction - totally viable. I generally try to stay away from these strategies based on what my meta finds acceptable but things like Ruination, Wake of Destruction and a few others could totally work. They also tend to work well with mana doublers as it allows you to rebuild faster. I think its a good idea to test out assuming you and or your meta is ok with these tactics. Effects like Winter Orb / Static Orb can also be very workable given that Daretti can cycle the effects out or recover them if they become problematic.
recoup - its true that it works well given that it can be cycled off and then flashed back. I might have to give it some more thought. Overall I might like a few more sorceries to really find it work well but I think its still good value. I will see if I cant work it in for some testing at some point.
inferno titan - I think its a genericly good creature but most of my creatures are aimed at one of three things: 1) enabling spellslinging 2) defending Daretti 3) being an artifact to enable cycling. I think that the titan is generically decent but it also feels like it doesn't really fit any of the things I am trying to accomplish in my creatures. I dont think there is any issue in including him but I also dont see what I would cut to make room for him as he isn't quite doing what I need my creatures to do for me right now.
rolling earthquake - its on my list of cards to watch right now. I think its acceptable and its a good way to output a lot to the face but its also a sorcery effect removal. I like sticking to instant speed when and where I can generally speaking.
banefire - I find in general that it doesn't scale that well for multiplayer. In a heavier counter based meta it might be more worth adding.
boseiju / Counters - Its hard to say. I have some issues with Boseiju just because of how awkward it is as a land if you aren't fighting off a bunch of counters. In metas with heavier counters I think you could lighten up on some of the creature removal and go more for the players. boseiju doesn't defend multiple triggers off of things like Mirari / Goggles / Forks though so I think it is still going to be a little vulnerable even if you try to push uncounterable. I added two blue based counters plus I also have forks to use as counters themselves or to fork effects that opponents try to counter.
Right now I am going to try to hold off on more changes until I get more testing in tonight but I think there is still definitely work to adjust the list.
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[Modern] Allies
Game 1: 5 player FFA game. Opponents were: Marchesa, the Black Rose, Riku of Two Reflections, Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, and Ruric Thar, the Unbowed (boooooo ruric )
The game got off to a crappy start for me with no real ramp or anything. Ruric and Prossh both ramped and there were a bunch of creatures in play when I had the option of dropping Daretti so I opted to not just walk him into a death. Ruric got in play and I ended up playing Pia and Kiran Nalaar to defend myself as it served for defense from several of the problem decks. Prossh hit play and used his Xenagos, the Reveler that was in play the turn before to give him like 10 mana. He dropped a Sarkhan Vol (ruric kills Xenagos on his damage). Prossh then uses Sarkhan Vol to steal Ruric and sac him.
Ruric uses his next turn to put a Lightning Greaves + Grafdigger's Cage out to protect his Ruric next turn as well as to hate on Marchesa. On my turn I use the opportunity to sneak my commander into play and move some cards. I had the option of dropping a Blasphemous Act or my last second added All is Dust but I figure I can defend myself from Prossh attacking directly and the chances of him hitting a huge buff and just punting me seem low so I use the last of my mana for a Crucible of Worlds (I wasn't willing to take 6 damage / kill my commander for the crucible later so it seemed like a good time to get it in).
Marchesa frowns at the Grafdigger's Cage and uses a Praetor's Grasp to get either Smash or Shattering Spree into exile. He only had 2 red so I didn't really know which he got. Riku drops a Mulldrifter and goes on defense from the Prossh commander damage plan.
Prossh's turn. He does a Demonic Tutor for Beastmaster Ascension and turns 10 creatures sideways all at me.... I guessed wrong apparently my Mirari, commander, Pia and Kiran Nalaar with tokens, and Crucible of Worlds were apparently enough to set him off in an all in attack on me. I just outright died so Marchesa was super frowny face as he wasn't able to use my spell. I started up another game with some guys who were sitting around rather than watching to the end. I heard that Riku ended up winning. When I asked Prossh why he went crazy on me he just said he had seen a Daretti deck hard lock him before and was afraid of that apprently. He apologized to me after hearing I was not that type of deck.
Game 2: 3 player game with opponents being Ghoulcaller Gisa and Mistform Ultimus.
This game I found Sol Ring on T3 and hit my commander. Gisa got land screwed and I ended up killing Mistform the first time he came out as soon as he tried putting some pump on him. This game was mostly a goldfish match. I ended up killing them with a 4x cast Molten Psyche using Pyromancer's Gauntlet and two fork effects.
Game 3: 4 player game with opponents being Ghoulcaller Gisa, Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, and Mistform Ultimus
This game is a little harder to recall. I ramped a little off a Burnished Hart which got captured by Gisa's Mimic Vat I ended up setting up an early Vedalken Orrery with a Mirari. I sat behind a Mystifying Maze and mass flash as my defense from Prossh. Prossh tried doing a Tooth and Nail the turn following his commander and got Avenger of Zendikar + Craterhoof Behemoth trying to murder us all. I flashed a Blasphemous Act copied and blew up all his guys with craterhoof's pump on the stack.
A few turns later Gisa cast a Rise of the Dark Realms bringing back a huge army with craterhoof but I had a Silent Arbiter in play by then. He swung with the craterhoof and killed the Prossh player which I found amusing.
Mistform ended up getting a few pieces of equipment out and started swinging sort of hard at the Gisa player. I allowed it at first but I think I mazed his second attempt which would have killed Gisa because it was following a Cyclonic Rift which I needed some time to set back up myself.
The game ended when I managed to find Past in Flames and just abuse the hell out of my graveyard two turns in a row. I ended up killing them both with a multi cast Molten Psyche following a Memory Jar I was cycling several times through the course of the game.
Game 4: 3 player FFA game, opponents were Trostani, Selesnya's Voice and Zirilan of the Claw. Zirilan had like a god opener hitting an opening turn like 3 mana stones + top and peak. Turn two he dropped more mana stones and by turn three he had mind's eye online and drawing him cards. Turn 4 zirilan had his commander out. I slowed my land progression to drop a Maze of Ith. Zirilan dropped a Sundial of the Infinite and prepaired to have a hell of a turn. I am slow dropping Solemn Simulacrum behind curve. Zirilan on the end of turn tutors a Utvara Hellkite. On his turn he tutors a Scourge of the Throne and makes two attacks and generates 4 dragon tokens and uses his sundial to keep his dragons.
Trostani drops an Elspeth, Sun's Champion and uses the -3 to clear out the dragons. The Zirilan player looks displeased. Zirilan plays a Sneak Attack and tries to run out a Balefire Dragon to run at the Trostani player who has an Elvish Piper from earlier ready to roll. A Hornet Queen ends up rolling out with 8 tokens thanks to a Parallel Lives.
Trostani drops a Collective Blessing and starts swinging for some good damage on the ground with some elspeth tokens.
Around this time I was just sort of starting to get into the game. My early game was absolutely terrible leaving me stranded on lands and interacting minimally. I ended up poping a Burnished Hart in response to some damage from Scourge of Kher Ridges. I have a Chaos Warp for the Collective Blessing if it comes to that so I feel comfortable sort of playing defensively and seeing how things go.
Zirilan ends up doing a dragonstorm with 2 copies and is mostly out of good plays from his deck. He accidentally over taps and cant use his Scourge of Kher Ridges and ends up taking lethal damage from the hornet swarm next turn. Trostani drops a Test of Endurance at 50+ life and passes back to me. I end up using the Chaos Warp on the Test of Endurance and dropping a Silent Arbiter to buy me time which is combined with my Maze of Ith to form a good defense.
I end up digging for a bit and doing something like 56 damage to my opponent with a Dictate of the Twin Gods + Comet Storm (for 14) + Reverberate in one turn but he ends up end of turn casting a Chord of Calling for Felidar Sovereign and still being over 40 life and winning the game off of it.
Overall, the games were good. I will see if I cant work on some adjustments given the additional game time I had but for now I dont want to put any more thought into thinks as this writeup took quite a bit.
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[Modern] Allies
EDIT: I need to find room for Chandra, Flamecaller yet in my list and I am still considering a few of the other newer cards too.
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[Modern] Allies
So, the interesting part is that I am cutting several of my effects that interact with casting spells. Its a bit unfortunate but I was focused enough on that stuff before that I noticed a lot of my cards felt dead too often. I also noticed that my way in which to win was mostly just a big ass fireball to the face which I wanted to adjust a little if I could. I did want a lot of the spell interaction stuff to work but at the end of the day I am still running a Daretti deck so generating value and surviving are my first two objectives. Extraplanar Lens is high on my list of seeing if I can make it into the list but so are a lot of other considerations.
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[Modern] Allies
Hello spellslinger Daretti. Its been a long time my old friend. So, I moved to a new meta a new city a few months ago and with doing so I am feeling out a new meta and seeing how they do things. There seems to be a lot of variance based upon who is playing in games but there seems to range from what I would consider a midrange battlecruiser tactics, to MLD, to extra turns and planeswalkers. Overall, the creature counts are lower and the land disruption seems higher. I have seen several variations of MLD / stasis that often make use of planeswalkers to try to push for a win. I got to thinking how to combat these tactics without going off the deep end and making something truly harsh / competitive so I am more trying to adapt some of my own strategies to play what I find fun decks in ways that don't get blown out so bad by some of this.
Hang with me as this list is old so I need to bring it up to date with some of the newer things that have been printed as well as try out a few new things.
DECK CHANGES:
Inspiring Statuary I like the idea of this card but honestly in a lot of cases too much of my deck is either cheap cards or artifacts. The few cases I could really come up with is like the X mana dmg stuff but I felt like that stuff really in a minority of what is in the deck. Ultimately I think its cool and on theme but I felt the number of cards that would benefit from the mana for this was too narrow.
Metalwork Colossus big stompy dude. I like all the elements of it other than it lacks trample which feels odd. Perhaps it could block big stompy creatures coming at me but ultimately I felt it was a little wonky even though I feel like I could probably put it in for cheap.
Walking Ballista I kind of.... like what it does.... and I kind of dont. I cant recover it because it would be a 0/0 and while I do run a lot of mana doublers and bigger mana production I felt like this was mostly an awkward Kumano, Master Yamabushi. I mean.... I can store up the counters and keep them handy but crap this guy is expensive to cast in the first place and hard to ever get back. I did compare it to Hangarback Walker in some ways and while I think both have a little different uses, I like that Hangarback Walker wants to die and thus has a little better direct interaction with Daretti not to mention all the blockers that sacrificing Hangarback Walker adds.
Winter Orb I think it probably would work out in this deck given the mana doublers and such. I probably would want to add a few more mana stones that tap for 2-3 mana in the deck though to really make it work out.
Goblin Dark-Dwellers I like what it does but I found I had a good amount of X mana stuff in the range of what it could target which would not work. The spells it would work with would be fun there just arent quite enough of them I dont think.
Neheb, the Eternal it seems like a fun strategy to like chain fireball effects but it seems too questionable to set up all the parts necessary to do it.
Combustible Gearhulk I like the potential direct damage (planeswalker removal) and its an artifact creature with efficient stats for the mana. I think its still in the realm of possibles but I just felt that the actual damage amount to a player (not planeswalker) is probably usually somewhat low.
Paradox Engine if I ran some more mana stones it could be something to toy with.
EDIT: Everflowing Chalice is not in this list interestingly. Its a card I may be adding in the near future as I think it works quite well with a lot of the things I want to do here. I am also questioning Chandra, Flamecaller a little bit in retrospect but I might just let it ride and see if she works out.
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[Modern] Allies
DECK CHANGES:
I really really did want to jam Primal Amulet into the list with this update but I kept looking at the front side of the card and feeling underwhelmed. My list runs 26 instant / sorcery spells and of those, only 18 of them are cost reduced by this effect. Of the remaining 18 that are cost reduced, 7 of those are X mana spells which don't really take cost reduction all that well as they usually involve spending a lot of mana on them. Really this meant that I only had like.... 11 spells left that are cost reduced well and of them several were not cheap spells. Really what I am trying to say here is that the cost reduction really really is not working well with this deck. Primal Wellspring is a great effect and while I really want to get to that side of the card, casting 4 of the 26 instant / sorcery spells is going to take some time after I cast this artifact to get the payoff. Ultimately, the card reminds me too much of Sphinx-Bone Wand which I also cut from this deck because it felt like its value generation margin just took wayyyyyy too long to realize.
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[Modern] Allies
DECK CHANGE:
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[Modern] Allies
DECK CHANGES:
I think this latest set brought some very interesting cards for this deck which has me interested to get this list back up on its feet for. Some of the concern with this deck is that its so important to keep so many elements moving between Spellslinger matters cards, artifacts matter cards, and the ability to defend myself and my commander that its important that things have some crossover as well as having kind of every card being on synergy. Some of the ones I cut recently felt like some of the cards I had been struggling with last time I played this deck in that they were not as on as other cards.
I considered Azor's Gateway in this change too because I think that Sanctum of the Sun would be nuts in this deck but ultimately I felt like my commander really filled the role that I would ultimately want Azor's Gateway to fill. Due to that I felt like it was less relevant to have the filter and flipping the card is hard enough that I would want to run the card for the merit of Azor's Gateway rather than the risk / reward of trying to get to Sanctum of the Sun.
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[Modern] Allies
Dowsing Dagger and Sword of the Animist are both things I still think about a little too. I could run Thran Dynamo but it leaves itself out as more of a target for removal where as the dagger flips to being a land which could be useful for Thespian's Stage or Vesuva (if I want to run it). Sword of the Animist seems a little harder to justify because it does want to be attacking constantly which this deck is not really geared for which is why I was kind of circling back and contemplating the dagger.
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[Modern] Allies