In my opinion it's one of the most impactful cards from my sideboard.
Oppononents will almost always board out their creature removal. A resolved Scab-Clan Berserker is game changing, because they can't interact with it.
For Tron I'll have bloodmoon, pillage and sorcerous spyglass as hate. And hazoret, koth and stormbreath as tempo plays.
For combo I'll have Spyglass. And yes, this doesn't shut down all the combo. But hey, you can't win everything
How is Skred going nowadays? With 4x Relics main it can be good at hosing these graveyard strategies going rampant. Last time Skred made a splash in a similar situation - it wasnt played much and Dredge was played much, so Skred came out winning those unprepared people and grave decks.
I think you're right. It's positioned pretty well in the current meta.
Bloodmoon is still very solid, especially with the 'canopy-lands' nowadays. And therefore line up pretty well against humans, jund, UW control etc.
Anger and Relics fight most of the graveyard decks. Although, some are too fast for us (Hogaak).
The burn and Phoenix matchups are a bit more problematic. But some Dragon's Claw really helps
The problem in the current meta is Force of Negation. Most of our threats and hate cards, could be countered out of nowhere.
Therefore I still play 2 Stormbreath Dragon and a Hazoret in stead of the 4th Koth.
I think it might be a good time to explore some color splashes to improve the deck now that we can easily do so with Arcum's Astrolabe and Prismatic Vista.
One idea was Black to better fight spell-based combo/control decks and another can be White which offers exile based removal, enchantment removal and lifegain against Burn and also some decent win-cons.
The deck is focused on maximizing the usefulness of small Chandra as our value engine to "flashback" removal/burn spells and help tick up the PW's and crew Heart.
Some notable cards that could be in the deck as well:
# Koth of the Hammer - It could take up the Ajani slot to be more aggrresive but I want to try out Ajani to see how it performs first especailly with Chandra which can speed up the Ult' ability.
# On Thin Ice - one of the best removal spells for the deck which I could find room for as I wanted the burn spells for reach and Skred can be replayed with Chandra.
It might be worth some slots in the SB though.
# Generous Gift - a potential alternative to Banishing Light in the SB.
# Stony Silence - a sloid SB card but is a bit of a non-bo with artifacts in the deck so Pithing Needle (could also be Sorcerous Spyglass) is here instead.
I think skred is really well positioned right now, with so much midrange, control and creature based decks. The mains forms of combo are creature based, which we can interact with pretty well. Tron and scapeshift are the worst matchups I think, the only thing we can do is create a clock with Koth of the Hammer or Goblin Rabblemaster and hope to get there in time.
@D90Dennis14: I like that list! Some additional thoughts:
- I think Anger > Lightning Helix. As you already have 8 creature spot-removal.
- The Nahiri / Emrakul package is great. I play this combo in a Mardu shell, and feels super fun. I would recommend the full playset of her, in stead of Ajani
- The Heart of Kiran seems super sweet here!
@ MTUgin: I agree, Skred feels well positioned right now. About your deck:
- Why did you include Arcum's Astrolabe? Is it just deck filtering?
- I tested ratchet bomb in the past. It really disappointed. For me it's a great sideboard card and potential sweeper
- I don't see a reason to play Seasoned Pyromancer. It's a great card, obvious. But in a skred shell, it's not pushing it's full potential. The only upside is the turn 3 Spyro, in front of a turn 4 planeswalker.
I think it might be a good time to explore some color splashes to improve the deck now that we can easily do so with Arcum's Astrolabe and Prismatic Vista.
One idea was Black to better fight spell-based combo/control decks and another can be White which offers exile based removal, enchantment removal and lifegain against Burn and also some decent win-cons.
The deck is focused on maximizing the usefulness of small Chandra as our value engine to "flashback" removal/burn spells and help tick up the PW's and crew Heart.
I think you could just go Red only... small chandra means Chandra, TOD ults the turn after she comes in same as Koth. that's actually pretty awesome and you can use small Chandra's Loyalty to crew heart, which has good evasion - dies to path and Push, but so does tarmogoyf
Sooo ive bien playing skred for a while and it always been my pet Deck.
So skred problem is always the same, having to deal with a +1*(x number of snow permanent) thoughness. People usualy laugh st me for playing the following ANSWER until they actualy play aigainst IT. PLEASE try a 4 of PERILOUS MYR (usualy aigaisnt mind stone). It is an incredible card with various Line of play in skred and is a kind of swipe itself.
(Kills pro red creature, always a 2 for 1 aigaisnt elf, allow a Angler kill on turn 3 and with the new bonecrusher Giant allow you to kill it without cards disadvantage, as good flow with p&k, allow your sweep to deal 5dmg to 1 Target, and at worst is a chump blocker deal 2 to opp.)
Secondly, koth is the card that pulled me onto skred to begin with. But koth is a Win more card and skred isnt a EARLY value deck. My 4 koth are now 4 CTOD
As for sweeper, I think more than 2 maindeck is a mistake. We have a huge kit to destroy 3 thoughness ans lower creature. "Yes but Anger help aigainst dredge" we run 4 relic maindeck... Dredge game 1 hate is covered...
We should also look into inquisitive puppet as it may be the best planewalker protection we can possible get for 1 mana + the scry to find it.
I don't really the see the appeal of Perilous Myr.
Without a sac'-outlet you don't really control the ability and there are enough enough decks which won't even kill or attack into it leaving you with a 1/1 for 2 which doesn't seem worth it.
I haven't encountered a pro-Red creature for a long time but even then there are far more practical options to deal with them be it Dismember or stuff like Kozilek's Return/Reality Hemorrhage or Pyrite Spellbomb.
I agree about Koth, as it doesn't protect itself which is a major issue.
The best PW's for the deck imoh are Chandra ToD as you mentioned and either Karn with an artifacts focus or Chandra AoF with instants/sorceries focus. Koth is is still worth playing as a 1-2x-of imho just for the clock it can provide in slower matchups and threat of the Ult'.
Inquisitive Puppet is a useless card imho, what it does is so weak it isn't even worth a card slot imho (and worse than Icehide Golem).
An efficient blocker that protects PW's is Heart of Kiran which can provide a quick clock in the air on the offensive as well.
Arcum's Astrolabe main use is to increase the number of snow permanents quickly for skred. I found that skred is somewhat slow against some big creatures in the format (angler, eldrazi tron creatures), so the astrolabe helps deal with them quicker for only one mana. It also cantrips and enables red mana from a mind stone.
Ratchet Bomb is holding a flex slot right now, I don't know what to include in its place. It's a good card that sweeps low cmc permanents and creatures that grow big to quick to be killed with other removal (death's shadow, tarmogoyf).
I was playing Pia and Kiran Nalaar before pyromancer, but i think pyromancer is better in that spot. I can see two lines of play with him:
-If we are winning, we can play it when we empty our hand to draw more gas and keep pressure. It says: "1RR: draw 2 cards and put a 2/2 in play", which is great.
-If we are losing, it can help us to find the right hate card for that matchup drawing two cards, while providing 4/4 shared in 3 bodies (resilient to removal). We often have useless cards vs certain matchups (Blood Moon against red decks, sweepers against big creatures or creatureless, Koth vs fast aggro, extra copies of mind stone, relics...) so the discard part is not really that big of an issue when we are in need for especific cards.
@Skredder: I also think there are much better options that perilous myr as D90Dennis14 stated.
@All: What do you think of Torbran, Thane of Red Fell? Does it have a place in the deck? 5 damage bolt and sweepers, tons of damage skreds maybe is worth it. It applies only to opponent and opponent's permanents, so he is safe from our own sweepers. I can see it in place of Koth, moving him to the sideboard, he is not as good as he used to be.
Perilous Myr is a joke. Its kinda 3/3 artifact defender for 2. Very narrow and not so powerful.
I didnt play Arcum's Astrolabe but I like it. There was something missing playing Mind Stone on t2 and passing with mana but nothing to play with it. With Relic of Progenitus losing its value we can replace some with AA. Also we can add more utility lands and not worry about missing red mana. Thining a deck is also good. And pumping Skred
So, I came in here the other day to see if anyone had any new sweet tech for Skred, since that's what I was going to take to a Face to Face Games tournament. Unfortunately, I was left to my own devices since there was nothing posted in the last few months. Since I had a good showing, I figured I would post my results and deck list here for anyone who wanted to get some recent info.
Card Choices... so first off, there is currently only one deck listed on mtgtop8.com for Skred, and that's where I had started. That deck ran 4 Karn, The Great Creator, but I quickly realized that Skred is not a good place for him without the Mycosynth Lattice lock. I did however note that many of my sideboard choices revolved around artifacts and having access to things like Ensnaring Bridge or Pithing Needle game 1 would not be a bad thing, so a single Great Creator was added.
I wanted to add a number of Koth the Hammer but in the end cut him as I didn't think he was good for this meta with Jund and Shadow being big players right now, and I don't know about anyone else, but I just can't stand losing a mountain to Fatal Push. So in the end, I cut him entirely, and decided to move to 3 Chandra, Torch Defiance. I was on the fence about Karn, Scion of Urza and had him as a 2-of for a bit, but decided to go with a single copy, and I don't think that's the wrong number. 2 would have been fine too.
I was quite happy with the creature suite that I had, though I could see pushing Glorybringer to the side or out of the 75 for a third Pia and Kiran Nalaar.
I usually run 23 lands in Skred, but I was actually quite happy with the 22... Mana issues were not too bad overall. As for the sideboard.... Not sure I would change anything. It was a big enough tool box for Karn, The Great Creator and there's something for most matchups to replace dead cards.
Okay, now onto the tournament... low turnout, so we only had 6 rounds (Winter conditions kept the numbers to around 56):
ROUND 1 - JUND won 2-1
Nothing overly exciting here. We both played well, but I just had too much burn to keep his threats at bay, including shrinking tarmagoyf with Relics and my hasty dragons beating down on his walkers and being out of reach of a lot of his removal. Didn't sideboard much here, just bringing in Sorcerous Spyglass and leaving Pithing Needle in the board for Karn. Same with siding in a single Bridge. Blood Moon is just so-so here, so I just left one in, siding the other two.
ROUND 2 - Heliod/Druid Combo won 2-0
I wasn't sure about this matchup, but it was one of the easiest of the day. Blood Moon did all the work game one, and game two even with a Kor Firewalker and a Thrun, The Last Troll on the board, I ran him down with a monstrous Stormbreath Dragon.
ROUND 3 - Infect lost 0-2
My only loss in the round-robin. Turn 3 kill for him on the play with Size Up and Might of Old Krosa, died to a single swing.
Game two, I made a play mistake as I killed the Inkmoth Nexus instead of the Glistener Elf with my Lightning Bolt while I had Wear // Tear in hand. On my turn I wiffed on my third land drop so was unable to kill the elf with Anger of the Gods. He killed my with his combo next turn.
ROUND 4 - Amulet Titan - Draw 1-1-1 Blood Moon did a mass amount of work here as I kept Dryad of the Ilysian Grove off the board, and his single forest couldn't get him there. Game two was pretty insane, and I almost got there, using Wear // Tear to kill his Dryad. But in the end it just wasn't enough. Game three we started with only 4 minutes left in the round. I had turn 1, and on his turn 4 he was one mana short to give haste to his Primeval Titan and get me for the full 20. This draw came in huge at the end of the day.
ROUND 5 - Storm won 2-0
There was a local guy that was a really good player that was on Storm all the time, and he played the deck to perfection. Played him a lot and rarely won regardless of what decks I played, including Skred. So I know how to play it and can easily see when my opponent is not making optimal plays, and this guy wasn't. He wasn't making mistakes per say, but he was allowing me to interact with his plan too much. He played it too much as he would going goldfish. His lack of experience with the deck allowed me to easily take the two games without ever being worried.
ROUND 6 - Mono White Hatebears won 2-1
Game one, I saw all 4 of his Thalia, Guardian of Thraben but still powered through winning on the back of a defensive Stormbreath Dragon and him scooping as I sat at 1 life. Game two, I saw two early Kor Firewalker and a Burrenton Forge-Tender and didn't really have a chance. Now, game three was pretty cool. So, after game one, we got deck-checked (my second time this tournament), so mid-way through the game, we started to gather a crowd. Now, knowing that the only card that could get me past all of this pro-red stuff was my Dead of Winter, I kept a hand of 5 mountains, DoW, and Arcum's Astrolabe. He did play an early Kor Firewalker as I drew a very few threats. I'll say that this is the only game where Scrying Sheets did work, and oh boy did they, drawing me two mountains and an Astrolabe as I was flooding out. Pia and Kiran Nalaar helped me keep the firewalker at bay until he played a second one. With a dominating board which also included Giver of Runes and a Ranger-Captain of Eos, I cast Dead of Winter. The crowd reaction around us did not help my opponent keep it under control. The guy was tilted and it was smooth sailing from there even as I kept drawing lands... Heard him talk to his buddies after lamenting on how was he supposed to know a mono red player would be packing DoW.... the play that got me to top8
I got into top8 in 8th place with 13 points on tiebreakers. My Amulet Titan opponent I drew with missed the cut, finishing 9th.
TOP 8 - vs #1 - JUND - won 2-0
Much like round 1, Jund wasn't particularly difficult. One of the reasons I thought of going with Skred is because of Jund and Shadow, so I wasn't too concerned. He played well, and helped me a little with flooding out in the second game, but he was on his heals all match. Plays like casting Inquisition of Kozilek while all I had was 2 dragons, 2 lands and a bolt I cast in response didn't help him either.
TOP 4 - vs #3 - Gruul Ramp - Lost 1-2
Game 1, he was on the play and hit me with a Glorybringer on turn 3 and another one on turn 4. Nope, did not win that one. Game 2, I had three big plays to get there. First was using Dead of Winter of sweep a huge board that included an activated Klothys, God of Destiny, I used Pithing Needle on his Chandra, Torch Defiance even though I had one in hand, and with Wurmcoil Engine out he tried to exile it by playing and sacrificing Chandra, Awakened Inferno to which I responded to Skred the Wurmcoil for 7 and get my two tokens as they won the game. Game 3, he put a ton of pressure on early, then I started to climb back, but he Bloodbraid Elf into another one thanks to Once Upon a Time and that second one found the bolt to end it.
All in all, I think I played pretty well. Maybe a couple of missteps, and I got lucky in certain places, but I never felt out of any matchups. People are not ready for the dragons, nor do they expect a DoW or Wurmcoil coming to play from a mono-red deck. Again, I don't think I would change much of the list. Seasoned Pyromancer also did a lot of work throughout the day as did Mom & Dad.
Anyway, sorry for the length of this post... was fun writing though
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Standard: N/A
Modern: RG Ponza / Some Number of Racks / Skred / Dredgevine
Legacy: UB Reanimator / LEDless Dredge
So i have been looking at a new list i havent played any modern in a while. It kind of died off in my area around 2018.
Not sure about where to go yet but i was hoping to get some conversation started again on this.
I'm looking to get back into it with a live event in a few weeks so I might post a list soon. But for now, my initial thoughts on your list based mostly on gut reactions as I haven't been playing:
Not sure that Astrolabe is doing much when you aren't getting any payoff for playing artifacts or using the mana filtering ability (though it does let utility lands make red so maybe that's worth?).
21 lands with no Mind Stones and 4 5-drops seems risky, though I don't know the actual math off-hand. Also, Scrying Sheets is so good when you're grinding it out I can't imagine playing 0. My 22-land list currently has 3 Sheets and 2 Havens which may be loose (no Astrolabes) FWIW. I'm also a Mind Stone fan in general so I have 4.
5 Sweepers main seems a bit heavy, of course that choice could also turn out great for you.
Sideboard in general is gambling, but I'm not sure that Heart of Kiran and Torpor Orb are a good fit. Maybe I'm just looking at it from the wrong angle and missing something obvious.
But if you swapped the Astrolabes for Mind Stones, the main board would be pretty close to what I have sleeved up. 4 Koths probably isn't the strongest choice, but Koth is a large part of the deck's appeal to me (or the versions that play him at least) so that's what I'm bringing on night one!
I agree, i havent tested this out yet, I Go back and forth on the mindstone/Astrolabe. The one mana draw/but still ups the skred count is great, but it doesnt ramp us...
Wasn't sure if skred wants more punch with faceless haven or grinding out value in Sheets. I feel like there have been many games i could have won if i could be punching for 4 instead of scrying sheets.
Sweepers of course would be dependent on meta. I could move them to SB but I think 5 is right total between main and side. If anything i'd move the Angers to the side. I wouldnt mind seeing the dragon version of Skred (less planeswalkers) come back, lol.
Shows how much I've been paying attention, but Astrolabe is banned in modern and legacy lol. That will surely hurt the classic Boros Reckoner Skred list.
Anyway, here's where I'm at. Going to my first event in 2 weeks so we'll see if I make any changes. Eternal Scourge is the ringleader of the Circus of Value. Not married to the Glorybringer. Cratermaker might be better as a 2-of in the side if it's being included in the list. Versatile card, but it could easily be a Ratchet Bomb — or any among a very long list of relevant cards.
Wow i didn't realize astrolabe was banned i don't think i ever saw a B&R announcement on that. Glorybringer is without a doubt as good as stormbreath, each has a different axis it operates on. Stormy for white decks, Glory for pesky blockers.
I was trying a like slightly more planeswalkery focused take.
I really love the interaction between Chandra, Acolyte Of Flame and Koth Of The Hammer. Like I've found if I can get Koth's ulti off on turn 5 it's almost always game since you can kinda mow down everything after that. And Chandra Acolyte has been cool with Torch Of Defiance as well. I've def had games where I was able to have Chandra Torch and Koth's emblems out at the same time and still have both of them on the field from Acolyte ramping up their loyalty.
I'm trying Light Up The Night as sort of a weird, "I wonder if this will be cool at all?" 2 of...idk might cut it but it has once down the cool trick of suddenly dealing 12+ damage outta nowhere but im not sure if its consistent enough.
Been watching the metagame develop and White decks are raging all over the place, prismatic ending, solitude...also non basic lands are on overdrive. Time for some blood moon action
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Oppononents will almost always board out their creature removal. A resolved Scab-Clan Berserker is game changing, because they can't interact with it.
For Tron I'll have bloodmoon, pillage and sorcerous spyglass as hate. And hazoret, koth and stormbreath as tempo plays.
For combo I'll have Spyglass. And yes, this doesn't shut down all the combo. But hey, you can't win everything
RBWMardu Nahiri, GBElves, UW Emeria, RSkred Red,
GBelcher, BDevotion, GWRNaya landfall, UWBEsper Miracles
G Green Stompy
RG Shamans
UB Mill
UG Infect
WUBRG Slivers!
Bloodmoon is still very solid, especially with the 'canopy-lands' nowadays. And therefore line up pretty well against humans, jund, UW control etc.
Anger and Relics fight most of the graveyard decks. Although, some are too fast for us (Hogaak).
The burn and Phoenix matchups are a bit more problematic. But some Dragon's Claw really helps
The problem in the current meta is Force of Negation. Most of our threats and hate cards, could be countered out of nowhere.
Therefore I still play 2 Stormbreath Dragon and a Hazoret in stead of the 4th Koth.
RBWMardu Nahiri, GBElves, UW Emeria, RSkred Red,
GBelcher, BDevotion, GWRNaya landfall, UWBEsper Miracles
One idea was Black to better fight spell-based combo/control decks and another can be White which offers exile based removal, enchantment removal and lifegain against Burn and also some decent win-cons.
Here is my take on this:
4x Wall of Omens
1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Planeswalker (8)
4x Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2x Ajani Vengeant
2x Nahiri, the Harbinger
Artifact (10)
4x Arcum's Astrolabe
2x Heart of Kiran
3x Blood Moon
Instant (12)
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Skred
4x Lightning Helix
Land (22)
4x Arid Mesa
4x Prismatic Vista
12x Snow-Covered Mountain
2x Snow-Covered Plains
4x Relic of Progenitus
2x Pithing Needle
3x Damping Sphere
2x Pillage
2x Anger of the Gods
2x Banishing Light
The deck is focused on maximizing the usefulness of small Chandra as our value engine to "flashback" removal/burn spells and help tick up the PW's and crew Heart.
Some notable cards that could be in the deck as well:
# Koth of the Hammer - It could take up the Ajani slot to be more aggrresive but I want to try out Ajani to see how it performs first especailly with Chandra which can speed up the Ult' ability.
# On Thin Ice - one of the best removal spells for the deck which I could find room for as I wanted the burn spells for reach and Skred can be replayed with Chandra.
It might be worth some slots in the SB though.
# Generous Gift - a potential alternative to Banishing Light in the SB.
# Stony Silence - a sloid SB card but is a bit of a non-bo with artifacts in the deck so Pithing Needle (could also be Sorcerous Spyglass) is here instead.
Have been playing skred for a long time and thought it was time to post my decklist to see what do you think about it.
2 Frostwalk Bastion
2 Scrying Sheets
18 Snow-Covered Mountain
Creatures
2 Eternal Scourge
2 Seasoned Pyromancer
1 Hazoret the Fervent
2 Stormbreath Dragon
Planeswalkers
1 Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Koth of the Hammer
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Skred
3 Anger of the Gods
Artifacts
3 Relic of Progenitus
4 Arcum's Astrolabe
4 Mind Stone
1 Ratchet Bomb
Enchantments
3 Blood Moon
2 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Chandra, Awakened Inferno
2 Shattering Spree
2 Pillage
2 Pithing Needle
2 Dragon's Claw
I think skred is really well positioned right now, with so much midrange, control and creature based decks. The mains forms of combo are creature based, which we can interact with pretty well. Tron and scapeshift are the worst matchups I think, the only thing we can do is create a clock with Koth of the Hammer or Goblin Rabblemaster and hope to get there in time.
- I think Anger > Lightning Helix. As you already have 8 creature spot-removal.
- The Nahiri / Emrakul package is great. I play this combo in a Mardu shell, and feels super fun. I would recommend the full playset of her, in stead of Ajani
- The Heart of Kiran seems super sweet here!
@ MTUgin: I agree, Skred feels well positioned right now. About your deck:
- Why did you include Arcum's Astrolabe? Is it just deck filtering?
- I tested ratchet bomb in the past. It really disappointed. For me it's a great sideboard card and potential sweeper
- I don't see a reason to play Seasoned Pyromancer. It's a great card, obvious. But in a skred shell, it's not pushing it's full potential. The only upside is the turn 3 Spyro, in front of a turn 4 planeswalker.
RBWMardu Nahiri, GBElves, UW Emeria, RSkred Red,
GBelcher, BDevotion, GWRNaya landfall, UWBEsper Miracles
I think you could just go Red only... small chandra means Chandra, TOD ults the turn after she comes in same as Koth. that's actually pretty awesome and you can use small Chandra's Loyalty to crew heart, which has good evasion - dies to path and Push, but so does tarmogoyf
So skred problem is always the same, having to deal with a +1*(x number of snow permanent) thoughness. People usualy laugh st me for playing the following ANSWER until they actualy play aigainst IT. PLEASE try a 4 of PERILOUS MYR (usualy aigaisnt mind stone). It is an incredible card with various Line of play in skred and is a kind of swipe itself.
(Kills pro red creature, always a 2 for 1 aigaisnt elf, allow a Angler kill on turn 3 and with the new bonecrusher Giant allow you to kill it without cards disadvantage, as good flow with p&k, allow your sweep to deal 5dmg to 1 Target, and at worst is a chump blocker deal 2 to opp.)
Secondly, koth is the card that pulled me onto skred to begin with. But koth is a Win more card and skred isnt a EARLY value deck. My 4 koth are now 4 CTOD
As for sweeper, I think more than 2 maindeck is a mistake. We have a huge kit to destroy 3 thoughness ans lower creature. "Yes but Anger help aigainst dredge" we run 4 relic maindeck... Dredge game 1 hate is covered...
We should also look into inquisitive puppet as it may be the best planewalker protection we can possible get for 1 mana + the scry to find it.
Without a sac'-outlet you don't really control the ability and there are enough enough decks which won't even kill or attack into it leaving you with a 1/1 for 2 which doesn't seem worth it.
I haven't encountered a pro-Red creature for a long time but even then there are far more practical options to deal with them be it Dismember or stuff like Kozilek's Return/Reality Hemorrhage or Pyrite Spellbomb.
If you want to run more removal/interaction over Mind Stone (or Arcum's Astrolabe) then Ratchet Bomb and Pyrite Spellbomb seem like better options than the Myr.
I agree about Koth, as it doesn't protect itself which is a major issue.
The best PW's for the deck imoh are Chandra ToD as you mentioned and either Karn with an artifacts focus or Chandra AoF with instants/sorceries focus.
Koth is is still worth playing as a 1-2x-of imho just for the clock it can provide in slower matchups and threat of the Ult'.
Inquisitive Puppet is a useless card imho, what it does is so weak it isn't even worth a card slot imho (and worse than Icehide Golem).
An efficient blocker that protects PW's is Heart of Kiran which can provide a quick clock in the air on the offensive as well.
Arcum's Astrolabe main use is to increase the number of snow permanents quickly for skred. I found that skred is somewhat slow against some big creatures in the format (angler, eldrazi tron creatures), so the astrolabe helps deal with them quicker for only one mana. It also cantrips and enables red mana from a mind stone.
Ratchet Bomb is holding a flex slot right now, I don't know what to include in its place. It's a good card that sweeps low cmc permanents and creatures that grow big to quick to be killed with other removal (death's shadow, tarmogoyf).
I was playing Pia and Kiran Nalaar before pyromancer, but i think pyromancer is better in that spot. I can see two lines of play with him:
-If we are winning, we can play it when we empty our hand to draw more gas and keep pressure. It says: "1RR: draw 2 cards and put a 2/2 in play", which is great.
-If we are losing, it can help us to find the right hate card for that matchup drawing two cards, while providing 4/4 shared in 3 bodies (resilient to removal). We often have useless cards vs certain matchups (Blood Moon against red decks, sweepers against big creatures or creatureless, Koth vs fast aggro, extra copies of mind stone, relics...) so the discard part is not really that big of an issue when we are in need for especific cards.
I think seasoned pyromanceris one of the best cards in the deck.
@Skredder: I also think there are much better options that perilous myr as D90Dennis14 stated.
@All: What do you think of Torbran, Thane of Red Fell? Does it have a place in the deck? 5 damage bolt and sweepers, tons of damage skreds maybe is worth it. It applies only to opponent and opponent's permanents, so he is safe from our own sweepers. I can see it in place of Koth, moving him to the sideboard, he is not as good as he used to be.
I didnt play Arcum's Astrolabe but I like it. There was something missing playing Mind Stone on t2 and passing with mana but nothing to play with it. With Relic of Progenitus losing its value we can replace some with AA. Also we can add more utility lands and not worry about missing red mana. Thining a deck is also good. And pumping Skred
New dragon Opportunistic Dragon can be nice for Dragon Skred, I never liked Thunderbreak Regent and Verix Bladewing was kinda slow
G Green Stompy
RG Shamans
UB Mill
UG Infect
WUBRG Slivers!
First, let's just start with the 75 I registered:
3 Seasoned Pyromancer
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Glorybringer
Planeswalkers
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
1 Karn, Scion of Urza
1 Karn, The Great Creator
Spells
4 Skred
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Anger of the Gods
4 Arcum's Astrolabe
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Mind Stone
Enchantments
3 Blood Moon
Lands
17 Snow-Covered Mountain
3 Frostwalk Bastion
2 Scrying Sheets
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Chandra, Awakened Inferno
1 Dead of Winter
2 Wear // Tear
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
2 Damping Sphere
3 Dragon's Claw
2 Ensnaring Bridge
Card Choices... so first off, there is currently only one deck listed on mtgtop8.com for Skred, and that's where I had started. That deck ran 4 Karn, The Great Creator, but I quickly realized that Skred is not a good place for him without the Mycosynth Lattice lock. I did however note that many of my sideboard choices revolved around artifacts and having access to things like Ensnaring Bridge or Pithing Needle game 1 would not be a bad thing, so a single Great Creator was added.
I wanted to add a number of Koth the Hammer but in the end cut him as I didn't think he was good for this meta with Jund and Shadow being big players right now, and I don't know about anyone else, but I just can't stand losing a mountain to Fatal Push. So in the end, I cut him entirely, and decided to move to 3 Chandra, Torch Defiance. I was on the fence about Karn, Scion of Urza and had him as a 2-of for a bit, but decided to go with a single copy, and I don't think that's the wrong number. 2 would have been fine too.
I was quite happy with the creature suite that I had, though I could see pushing Glorybringer to the side or out of the 75 for a third Pia and Kiran Nalaar.
I usually run 23 lands in Skred, but I was actually quite happy with the 22... Mana issues were not too bad overall. As for the sideboard.... Not sure I would change anything. It was a big enough tool box for Karn, The Great Creator and there's something for most matchups to replace dead cards.
Okay, now onto the tournament... low turnout, so we only had 6 rounds (Winter conditions kept the numbers to around 56):
ROUND 1 - JUND won 2-1
Nothing overly exciting here. We both played well, but I just had too much burn to keep his threats at bay, including shrinking tarmagoyf with Relics and my hasty dragons beating down on his walkers and being out of reach of a lot of his removal. Didn't sideboard much here, just bringing in Sorcerous Spyglass and leaving Pithing Needle in the board for Karn. Same with siding in a single Bridge. Blood Moon is just so-so here, so I just left one in, siding the other two.
ROUND 2 - Heliod/Druid Combo won 2-0
I wasn't sure about this matchup, but it was one of the easiest of the day. Blood Moon did all the work game one, and game two even with a Kor Firewalker and a Thrun, The Last Troll on the board, I ran him down with a monstrous Stormbreath Dragon.
ROUND 3 - Infect lost 0-2
My only loss in the round-robin. Turn 3 kill for him on the play with Size Up and Might of Old Krosa, died to a single swing.
Game two, I made a play mistake as I killed the Inkmoth Nexus instead of the Glistener Elf with my Lightning Bolt while I had Wear // Tear in hand. On my turn I wiffed on my third land drop so was unable to kill the elf with Anger of the Gods. He killed my with his combo next turn.
ROUND 4 - Amulet Titan - Draw 1-1-1
Blood Moon did a mass amount of work here as I kept Dryad of the Ilysian Grove off the board, and his single forest couldn't get him there. Game two was pretty insane, and I almost got there, using Wear // Tear to kill his Dryad. But in the end it just wasn't enough. Game three we started with only 4 minutes left in the round. I had turn 1, and on his turn 4 he was one mana short to give haste to his Primeval Titan and get me for the full 20. This draw came in huge at the end of the day.
ROUND 5 - Storm won 2-0
There was a local guy that was a really good player that was on Storm all the time, and he played the deck to perfection. Played him a lot and rarely won regardless of what decks I played, including Skred. So I know how to play it and can easily see when my opponent is not making optimal plays, and this guy wasn't. He wasn't making mistakes per say, but he was allowing me to interact with his plan too much. He played it too much as he would going goldfish. His lack of experience with the deck allowed me to easily take the two games without ever being worried.
ROUND 6 - Mono White Hatebears won 2-1
Game one, I saw all 4 of his Thalia, Guardian of Thraben but still powered through winning on the back of a defensive Stormbreath Dragon and him scooping as I sat at 1 life. Game two, I saw two early Kor Firewalker and a Burrenton Forge-Tender and didn't really have a chance. Now, game three was pretty cool. So, after game one, we got deck-checked (my second time this tournament), so mid-way through the game, we started to gather a crowd. Now, knowing that the only card that could get me past all of this pro-red stuff was my Dead of Winter, I kept a hand of 5 mountains, DoW, and Arcum's Astrolabe. He did play an early Kor Firewalker as I drew a very few threats. I'll say that this is the only game where Scrying Sheets did work, and oh boy did they, drawing me two mountains and an Astrolabe as I was flooding out. Pia and Kiran Nalaar helped me keep the firewalker at bay until he played a second one. With a dominating board which also included Giver of Runes and a Ranger-Captain of Eos, I cast Dead of Winter. The crowd reaction around us did not help my opponent keep it under control. The guy was tilted and it was smooth sailing from there even as I kept drawing lands... Heard him talk to his buddies after lamenting on how was he supposed to know a mono red player would be packing DoW.... the play that got me to top8
I got into top8 in 8th place with 13 points on tiebreakers. My Amulet Titan opponent I drew with missed the cut, finishing 9th.
TOP 8 - vs #1 - JUND - won 2-0
Much like round 1, Jund wasn't particularly difficult. One of the reasons I thought of going with Skred is because of Jund and Shadow, so I wasn't too concerned. He played well, and helped me a little with flooding out in the second game, but he was on his heals all match. Plays like casting Inquisition of Kozilek while all I had was 2 dragons, 2 lands and a bolt I cast in response didn't help him either.
TOP 4 - vs #3 - Gruul Ramp - Lost 1-2
Game 1, he was on the play and hit me with a Glorybringer on turn 3 and another one on turn 4. Nope, did not win that one. Game 2, I had three big plays to get there. First was using Dead of Winter of sweep a huge board that included an activated Klothys, God of Destiny, I used Pithing Needle on his Chandra, Torch Defiance even though I had one in hand, and with Wurmcoil Engine out he tried to exile it by playing and sacrificing Chandra, Awakened Inferno to which I responded to Skred the Wurmcoil for 7 and get my two tokens as they won the game. Game 3, he put a ton of pressure on early, then I started to climb back, but he Bloodbraid Elf into another one thanks to Once Upon a Time and that second one found the bolt to end it.
All in all, I think I played pretty well. Maybe a couple of missteps, and I got lucky in certain places, but I never felt out of any matchups. People are not ready for the dragons, nor do they expect a DoW or Wurmcoil coming to play from a mono-red deck. Again, I don't think I would change much of the list. Seasoned Pyromancer also did a lot of work throughout the day as did Mom & Dad.
Anyway, sorry for the length of this post... was fun writing though
Modern: RG Ponza / Some Number of Racks / Skred / Dredgevine
Legacy: UB Reanimator / LEDless Dredge
Not sure about where to go yet but i was hoping to get some conversation started again on this.
1 Glorybringer
2 Seasoned Pyromancer
3 Stormbreath Dragon
Artifact (4)
4 Relic of Progenitus
Snow Artifact (4)
4 Arcum's Astrolabe
Enchantment (4)
4 Blood Moon
Instant (9)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Skred
1 Volcanic Fallout
3 Anger of the Gods
1 Sweltering Suns
Planeswalker (8)
1 Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4 Koth of the Hammer
Snow Land (21)
3 Faceless Haven
18 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Abrade
2 Damping Matrix
3 Heart of Kiran
1 Kozilek's Return
2 Pithing Needle
2 Sorcerous Spyglass
3 Torpor Orb
Not sure that Astrolabe is doing much when you aren't getting any payoff for playing artifacts or using the mana filtering ability (though it does let utility lands make red so maybe that's worth?).
21 lands with no Mind Stones and 4 5-drops seems risky, though I don't know the actual math off-hand. Also, Scrying Sheets is so good when you're grinding it out I can't imagine playing 0. My 22-land list currently has 3 Sheets and 2 Havens which may be loose (no Astrolabes) FWIW. I'm also a Mind Stone fan in general so I have 4.
5 Sweepers main seems a bit heavy, of course that choice could also turn out great for you.
Sideboard in general is gambling, but I'm not sure that Heart of Kiran and Torpor Orb are a good fit. Maybe I'm just looking at it from the wrong angle and missing something obvious.
But if you swapped the Astrolabes for Mind Stones, the main board would be pretty close to what I have sleeved up. 4 Koths probably isn't the strongest choice, but Koth is a large part of the deck's appeal to me (or the versions that play him at least) so that's what I'm bringing on night one!
Wasn't sure if skred wants more punch with faceless haven or grinding out value in Sheets. I feel like there have been many games i could have won if i could be punching for 4 instead of scrying sheets.
Sweepers of course would be dependent on meta. I could move them to SB but I think 5 is right total between main and side. If anything i'd move the Angers to the side. I wouldnt mind seeing the dragon version of Skred (less planeswalkers) come back, lol.
Might be some space for Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge or Freejam Regent with the Dragons maybe even goldspan dragon
Anyway, here's where I'm at. Going to my first event in 2 weeks so we'll see if I make any changes. Eternal Scourge is the ringleader of the Circus of Value. Not married to the Glorybringer. Cratermaker might be better as a 2-of in the side if it's being included in the list. Versatile card, but it could easily be a Ratchet Bomb — or any among a very long list of relevant cards.
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Seasoned Pyromancer
2 Eternal Scourge
2 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Glorybringer
Enchantment
3 Blood Moon
Land
3 Scrying Sheets
17 Snow-Covered Mountain
2 Faceless Haven
4 Mind Stone
4 Relic of Progenitus
Instant
4 Skred
4 Lightning Bolt
Sorcery
3 Anger of the Gods
Planeswalker
4 Koth of the Hammer
3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
3 Goblin Rabblemaster
1 Goblin Cratermaker
1 Blood Moon
3 Dragon's Claw
3 Ricochet Trap
2 Volcanic Fallout
2 Shattering Spree
Goldspan Dragon seems super playable. I prefer my dragons to have haste for when you need to step on the gas.
I really love the interaction between Chandra, Acolyte Of Flame and Koth Of The Hammer. Like I've found if I can get Koth's ulti off on turn 5 it's almost always game since you can kinda mow down everything after that. And Chandra Acolyte has been cool with Torch Of Defiance as well. I've def had games where I was able to have Chandra Torch and Koth's emblems out at the same time and still have both of them on the field from Acolyte ramping up their loyalty.
I'm trying Light Up The Night as sort of a weird, "I wonder if this will be cool at all?" 2 of...idk might cut it but it has once down the cool trick of suddenly dealing 12+ damage outta nowhere but im not sure if its consistent enough.
4 Glorybringer
Planeswalkers:
4 Chandra, Acolyte Of Flame
4 Koth Of The Hammer
3 Chandra, Torch Of Defience
Removal/Burn:
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Skred
4 Slagstorm
2 Light Up The Night
4 Coldsteel Heart
3 Blood Moon
Lands:
16 Snow Covered Mountains
4 Faceless Haven
4 Scrying Sheets
4 Kozilek's Return
4 Relic Of Progenitus
3 Shattering Spree
3 Boil
1 Blood Moon