Sulfur Elemental is freaking awesome if any white tokens/weenie deck rise in popularity. I remember back in the day I played competitive Magic (from CHK to FUT), I always played it in my red decks (Detritivore was great too, but it doesn't fit in a burn deck).
Another nice card to keep in mind for SB is Blood Knight, although it fits more in a RDW approach than in burn.
The problem with Sulfur Elemental is that most of the time your opponent's already got Leyline of the Meek in play, or an early Intangible Virtue, so Sulfur Elemental isn't going to dominate the opponent. Plus, they can just PTE it before playing tokens if they can't get a +1+1 effect. Flamebreak is more reliable here, I think.
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"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire." - Jaya Ballard
The problem with Sulfur Elemental is that most of the time your opponent's already got Leyline of the Meek in play, or an early Intangible Virtue, so Sulfur Elemental isn't going to dominate the opponent. Plus, they can just PTE it before playing tokens if they can't get a +1+1 effect. Flamebreak is more reliable here, I think.
That's putting it lightly. If they have a P/T booster, you are actively helping them win. That's the exact opposite of a good card.
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"If you don't wear your seatbelt, the police will shoot you in the head."
- To my youngest sister when she was 6.
Everyone knows that good luck and good game are such insincere terms that any man who does not connect his right hook with the offender's jaw on the very utterance of such a phrase is no man I would consider as such.
I dont think you need to worry about preventing damage, unless a turbofog variant becomes viable.
Dudes been running turbo fog at my local modern scene, to good results. It is pretty effective, i've got to hand it to the guy. Usually G1 is an autowin for me. G2/3 is tough as hell, i've got spellskites and leylines to deal with. His fog is basically, border posts, fog/holyday varients, howling mines, the green draw/land card, tezzeret (ftw) and lots and lots of 'take an extra turn'. Its very effective, and i usually give him his only loses.
and what about ratchet bomb to take on leylines? sure, it´s slow, but your dudes , hopefully, are dealing damage and you may use your burn to clear their path, if needed, and play "a la RDW".
it´s a shame that modern has no access to chaos warp
everlasting torment and unstable footing are suggestions against damage prevention. unfortunately, it doesn´t deal with the leyline... and leyline of punishment, i´m not sold onto it. is no sulfuric vortex
I've always thought ratchet bomb was way too slow. If your running burn, and you have to ( most likely ) discard cards until your bomb goes off, you've probably gave them the game.
There've been a lot of articles on why it's bad, written by good players, and to summarize, Browbeat is bad because it never does what you need it to, and giving your opponent a choice isn't something you want to do. Sure, in the situation where your opponent is at 3 life and you could just draw a Bolt and end the game either way, it seems like it doesn't matter what your opponent chooses but you're not always going to draw what you need...and when you do, your opponent untaps and combos out, or has mana for that Lightning Helix to keep them in the game, or draws that Snapcaster into Negate...Or whatever it may be.
You might as well test it out though. If you like it, play it. I just prefer not to give my opponent options in a deck that wins by being largely non interactive and unforgiving.
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"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire." - Jaya Ballard
I like the Blood Moon MD. I found myself repeatedly siding it in. It is a huge blow to so many decks and frees up spots for sideboard cards when it isn't needed or when I know my opponent will just be fetching basics for the first few turns. I will need to test it a bit more to be sure and Magma Jet will replace it if it sucks MD.
Burst Lightning is the big difference between my deck and most but that card is very good. It is either a baby lightning bolt or a top-decked finisher when you're flooded (which does happen).
@MrFreak0r, how often have Scrying Sheets screwed you over because it doesn't produce red mana? (This is why I eventually dumped Stensia Bloodhall from my Rakdos Deck Wins list--that and it did its awesome stuff too late.)
Something is happening in my local meta, and I don't like it. Combo decks have begun to make a very rapid rise in the meta, and because of that, many are now maindecking Leyline of Sanctity. This is problematic because frankly, I'm unsure how to deal with this when it comes out in their opening hand turn 1, and in some situations when it comes down later in game it becomes impossible to ramp up to finish via aggro with creatures.
Currently I've been going the route some others have of main decking one Stomping Grounds and holding Krosan Grip in my SB. Those matches are still somewhat difficult to win at times, so losing Game 1 to main deck Leylines is very, very frustrating. My decklist is pretty close to a lot of others. I'm running a Black splash for Confidant and Bump main deck and Thoughtseize in the SB (as well as Rain of Gore) although I was considering replacing Confidant with a certain red Careful Study once Dark Ascension is legal (shouldn't discuss that here though, I suppose :/)
Any suggestions for what to do about main deck Leylines?
let´s put this situation : opponent is at 3 life, but next turn you are fried if you don´t win. you have 3 lands in play. play browbeat. draw three cards. fireblast is not playable in modern. you are screwed.
frequency of this situation? sadly, pretty often. true story (?)
sometimes, drawing three cards and not being able to cast spells is not good enough for this deck. you win fast, but you lose faster.
if combo is rising, maybe maindecking kiln fiend could add something to your deck. sadly , if you are facing leyline, it may not be that helpful if you haven´t got any targets to pump your fiend (unless you enjoy blasting your own dudes to give the +3/+0)
pd: has anyone tried artifact lands (darksteel citadel + blinkmoth nexus) and playing shrapnel blast?
Thats an interesting idea about the artifacts, like my vintage version but no black vise. Perhaps shrine of burning rage, ratchet bomb, pyrite spellbomb and 1 blinkmoth would be effecient to feed shrapnel blast with a reverberate. Suggestions?
Alright, it turns out there's a Grand Prix Trial here locally for next weekend. Unfortunately that is not enough time for me to try and cover all the Fetchlands and things I'd like to try. Plus, I'm still trying to finalize a deck list. On top of all of this, after I finalize the decklist I have to make a budget version for next Saturday. So I could really use some help here.
In the spoiler are my testing results from last week leading up to this point:
2b.) Matchup: B/G Rock
Result: 2-0
Sideboarding?: Sort of
Hadn't ever played against Rock yet and wasn't sure what to expect outside of mass removal. The first game, he wasn't really able to do much to me outside of Doomblade a couple Grim Lavamancers and a Keldon Marauder. He had a Phyrexian Totem out and attempted to attack me with it as a last ditch effort to get some damage in, but I had a Flames of the Blood Hand waiting for it knowing the 4 damage would leave him with a board hosting a single land, and he conceded after that.
The second game was somewhat of a blur. We both decided we wanted to sideboard, and looking at my sideboard I couldn't really see anything that I was terribly afraid of. Death Cloud, if used against me, is easy to recover from because my mana curve is very low and tight. He packs mass removal, and the creature base in my deck isn't really needed outside of being chump blockers much of the time late game. [c=Kokusho, the Evening Star[/c]Kokusho[c], had he been able to get it out, would have potentially caused me problems as it would cause great card disadvantage to myself to remove it at the cost of 2 burn spells while losing 5 life and him gaining 5 life. The only threat I could really see to the speed of my Burn deck was Kokusho. I'm pretty confident about the match-up, as even in builds running Tarmogoyf I can take it out early enough before it grows too wild and chump block it if needed later on.
2c. Matchup: Affinity
Result: 2-1
Sideboardng?: Yes
Affinity was actually the deck I feared most, and once again I really hadn't studied the deck or kept up with the changes to it outside of that one creature that likes preventing me from casting more than one spell a turn.
First game, he had terrible hand luck and had to mulligan down to 4 whereas I kept my hand. He wasn't really able to recover from starting out with 4 cards in hand so that game went pretty fast and I came out with a win, although I got a glimpse of what to expect.
Second game, I sideboarded in 3x Flamebreak, 1x Ratchet Bomb, 4x Smash to Smithereens, boarded out 1x Confidant, 1x Bump in the Night, 2x Hellspark Elementals, and I can't recall what else. Thoughtseize was tempting but I couldn't really see anything in my maindeck I wanted to take out against Affinity, and with how it appeared that Affinity dumps it's hand to ramp up, I figured burn spells would be more valuable. He ended up winning the second game after I took a hand that was alright against any other match-up, but I probably could have taken a mulligan or two to try and have more answers that I sideboarded in. Was only able to Smash to Smithereens a Cranial Plating and rolled over to the rest.
Third game lasted longer than the previous two and I won out after being able to keep his low costed creatures at bay, disabling Metalcraft on his Etched Champion and taking out his Tezzeret with a Marauder and Confidant. Obviously the key to beating Affinity at burn is to play defensively and try to eliminate as much of his board as possible. Three things I know he was packing that would have given me serious trouble were Leyline of Sanctity, Tempered Steel and Second Sunrise. With no enchantment hate, I would not have been able to out-aggro his deck, and Tempered Steel would have overrun me. Second Sunrise, obviously, would not have been good unless I had a Flamebreak waiting in-hand and he didn't have a Tempered Steel out as well.
2d. Matchup: Poly-Tokens
Results: 2-2? Unsure
Sideboarding?: Yes
I knew the idea of the deck going into this, so I knew to try and eliminate his creature tokens as fast as possible. I barely won out game one, hitting him for his life at the EOT that he got Flying Spaghetti Monster out, which would have doomed me next game. I also wasn't anticipating Proteus Staff, which I completely forgot the mana cost and activated cost on.
Game 2, he conceded and was technically a loss. I had sideboarded in Flamebreaks and Thoughtseizes, as well as the Ratchet Bomb. I suppose Smash to Smithereens might have been alright, but it seemed narrow since I'd only be looking to hit his Proteus Staff... still unsure about that. Regardless, somehow we mixed up his life total. He thought he was at 1, I thought he was at 1, I wasn't paying attention and Shawn said something and apparently he was at 9 still and was able to get Emrakul out and swing for a win being that I was at 12 life. I'm still unsure what happened there but need to pay more attention so opponents don't take advantage of this in a serious tournament setting.
Game 3, Leyline of Sanctity Turn 1. Loss. 'Nuff said
2e. Conclusions/Thoughts
There was mention that people were discussing main-decking Leyline of Sanctity in response to the sharp rise in combo decks being present in Modern. This doesn't bode well for my deck, at all. Currently 8 of my best spells -Lava Spike and Bump in the Night- become useless to Leylines, and last night I had still neglected to sideboard Krosan Grip. Part of it comes down to what I want to even remove for enchantment hate.
1 Ratchet Bomb - Situational and has always been handy when drawn into.
3 Flamebreak - Absolutely needed in an aggro heavy meta/format.
3 Rain of Gore - My only real answer to life gain/Martyr Proc, because with Ghostly Prison and other stuff trying to ramp up an offense via aggro is next to impossible.
4 Smash to Smithereens - Needed for the Affinity match up and others.
4 Thoughtseize - Absolute must have against Combo so I don't roll over and die
There is literally zero room in my sideboard to take anything out for Krosan Grip. This leaves the option of modifying my main deck to try and get around. So let's take a look at my main deck, sans lands because the land situation is fine:
Creatures (16) - The current creature base is solid, except that I will be losing a chump blocker/potential attacker in Dark Confidant come Dark Ascension.
4 Keldon Marauders - Really good creature. The only down side is with Leyline out, I'm forced to deal damage to myself (or potentially another creature). Isn't exactly a deal breaker.
4 Dark Confidant - Possibly being replaced with Faithless Looting after Dark Ascension. Has proven decent, however I'm discovering the amount of draw I gain from him before he's removed, or how much he sits in my hand, that I'm quite positive Faithless Looting would net me more card draw.
4 Grim Lavamancer - Is simply a house and always has fuel. Even against Leylines, he can knock out a lot of creatures in the format.
4 Goblin Guide - Very good early game, and can be late game as well if I can clear the board.
Other Spells (24) - This is where stuff will have to be cut. To win against sideboards, I cannot have 8 dead cards in my hand. The cards that will definitely stay are:
4 Lightning Bolt - Best burn spell ever.
4 Magma Jet - The 2 mana for the EOT scry is priceless.
This leaves the questionable cards.
4 Lava Spike - Can't target creatures but another lightning bolt when it can hit the player.
4 Bump in the Night - Same as Lava Spike.
4 Rift Bolt - Does not serve as an answer until my next turn, which may be too slow.
4 Flames of the Blood Hand - 3 for 4 and the life gain prevention is OK at best, but could be replaced by Blightning or another spell and it doesn't target creatures.
Right now, removing Bump in the Night is an obvious answer for me. With Dark Confidant and Bump in the Night gone, that's less life spent on getting Blood Crypts into play untapped, which begins to add up on top of the Fetch Lands. Lava Spike may actually go, as well.
Rift Bolt is okay, but could possibly be replaced by another creature or threat. Hellspark Elementals, Kargan Dragonlord, Figure of Destiny or Hell's Thunder are all decent alternatives.
This opens the path to having more aggro and possibly, more easily, being able to get damage past Leyline, but it still unfortunately doesn't answer the problem of how to fit enchantment hate in the deck.
The build is very creature heavy due to people in my meta beginning to main board Leyline of Sanctity as I previously posted. If anyone has any suggestions regarding that, by all means I could use them. This is the reason for removing Lava Spikes and Bump in the Night.
I'm trying to cover all my bases in my sideboard without going over and it's driving me crazy. As of my meta, I know I'll be facing Affinity, PolyTokens, Martyr-Proc, B/G Rock, and more than likely Storm as well as Zoo. I originally had a B/R burn build that included Bump in the Night, Dark Confidant and Thoughtseize. I had been playtesting an unreleased card (Faithless Looting) and found I liked it better than Confidant, on top of removing Bump in the Night due to MD Leylines, having Leyline of Punishment able to replace Rain of Gore in my SB and Thoughtseize never finding use against anything but Combo.
The Flamebreaks cover me on aggro, and the Leyline of Punishment covers me against Martyr Proc but I still need 4 Krosan Grip in the sideboard to get rid of Leyline of Sanctity as well as Ghostly Prison and other things. B/G Rock was never a problem for me to beat before. Shattering Spree should dominate Affinity - I've previously been using Smash to Smithereens but I'd prefer to kill 2 things for 2 mana instead of 1 since Affinity likes to lay down everything at once and then go into a near top deck state from there.
The problem I'm facing at the moment is what to do about Combo. I'm out of room in my sideboard at this point. I liked the idea a few posts back about running 4 Mindbreak Trap, but I'm really at a loss as for what to do.
THEN, I need to cut down and make a budget version using zero Fetchlands or Shocklands for next weekend, because there's no way I'll have them before then. I've got 2 Wurmcoil Engines, 3 Grave Titans and a Darkslick Shore to trade somewhere but that's about it, and I know if I try to trade them in for store credit somewhere I'll get **** all for it -_-;And I realize this isn't budget discussion, thought some thoughts would be appreciated.
EDH: BBBDrana, Kalastria BloodchiefBBB GGGKamahl, Fist of KrosaGGG WBGGhave, Guru of SporesGBW RBUSedris, Traitor KingUBR WRGUril, the MistalkerGRW RGRosheen MeandererGR
I've been running 2 mb Rain of Gore and it's served me wonderfully so far as a game 1 miser to all the random junk you run into in the format. Best so far was using it to kill someone through Leyline of Sanctity when they had a Soul Warden out.
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"I typically board in little to no cards in those matchups and just run them over like Mufasa by Wildabeasts." -TreyTheTitan
Has anyone considered Faithless Looting? Helps filter out lands, fuel grim lavamancer, draw into more burn, and if you have no lands to pitch, Hellspark, Hells Thunder, and Demigod are all fine to pitch.
Also, if you're not playing a raw race build, Shrine of Burning Rage looks worthwhile
Another nice card to keep in mind for SB is Blood Knight, although it fits more in a RDW approach than in burn.
"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire." - Jaya Ballard
That's putting it lightly. If they have a P/T booster, you are actively helping them win. That's the exact opposite of a good card.
- To my youngest sister when she was 6.
"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire." - Jaya Ballard
Dudes been running turbo fog at my local modern scene, to good results. It is pretty effective, i've got to hand it to the guy. Usually G1 is an autowin for me. G2/3 is tough as hell, i've got spellskites and leylines to deal with. His fog is basically, border posts, fog/holyday varients, howling mines, the green draw/land card, tezzeret (ftw) and lots and lots of 'take an extra turn'. Its very effective, and i usually give him his only loses.
and flamebreak is way better than slagstorm. volcanic fallout may be a meta choice, also.
it´s a shame that modern has no access to chaos warp
everlasting torment and unstable footing are suggestions against damage prevention. unfortunately, it doesn´t deal with the leyline... and leyline of punishment, i´m not sold onto it. is no sulfuric vortex
You might as well test it out though. If you like it, play it. I just prefer not to give my opponent options in a deck that wins by being largely non interactive and unforgiving.
"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire." - Jaya Ballard
4 Goblin Guide
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Hellspark Elemental
Burn (24)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Shard Volley
4 Burst Lightning
4 Incinerate
4 Blood Moon
Land (20)
20 Mountain
4 Leyline of Punishment
4 Mindbreak Trap
3 Shattering Spree
2 Combust
2 Searing Blaze
I like the Blood Moon MD. I found myself repeatedly siding it in. It is a huge blow to so many decks and frees up spots for sideboard cards when it isn't needed or when I know my opponent will just be fetching basics for the first few turns. I will need to test it a bit more to be sure and Magma Jet will replace it if it sucks MD.
Burst Lightning is the big difference between my deck and most but that card is very good. It is either a baby lightning bolt or a top-decked finisher when you're flooded (which does happen).
Standard: UWR
Modern: RDW, Twin
Legacy: I am 3 Candelabra of Tawnos from being able to build almost any tier 1 or 1.5 deck. Here are the ones I care about right now:
-Aggro: UWR/RUB/WUB/RUG/UR Delver; Affinity; Burn
-Control: Stoneblade; UWr Miracles; UB Tezzeret
-Combo: Hive Mind; Combo Elves; Omni Tell; T.E.S.
Vintage: Grixis Painter
EDH: Rith, the Awakener
Currently I've been going the route some others have of main decking one Stomping Grounds and holding Krosan Grip in my SB. Those matches are still somewhat difficult to win at times, so losing Game 1 to main deck Leylines is very, very frustrating. My decklist is pretty close to a lot of others. I'm running a Black splash for Confidant and Bump main deck and Thoughtseize in the SB (as well as Rain of Gore) although I was considering replacing Confidant with a certain red Careful Study once Dark Ascension is legal (shouldn't discuss that here though, I suppose :/)
Any suggestions for what to do about main deck Leylines?
(Also known as Xenphire)
frequency of this situation? sadly, pretty often. true story (?)
sometimes, drawing three cards and not being able to cast spells is not good enough for this deck. you win fast, but you lose faster.
if combo is rising, maybe maindecking kiln fiend could add something to your deck. sadly , if you are facing leyline, it may not be that helpful if you haven´t got any targets to pump your fiend (unless you enjoy blasting your own dudes to give the +3/+0)
pd: has anyone tried artifact lands (darksteel citadel + blinkmoth nexus) and playing shrapnel blast?
My Trades
In the spoiler are my testing results from last week leading up to this point:
2b.) Matchup: B/G Rock
Result: 2-0
Sideboarding?: Sort of
Hadn't ever played against Rock yet and wasn't sure what to expect outside of mass removal. The first game, he wasn't really able to do much to me outside of Doomblade a couple Grim Lavamancers and a Keldon Marauder. He had a Phyrexian Totem out and attempted to attack me with it as a last ditch effort to get some damage in, but I had a Flames of the Blood Hand waiting for it knowing the 4 damage would leave him with a board hosting a single land, and he conceded after that.
The second game was somewhat of a blur. We both decided we wanted to sideboard, and looking at my sideboard I couldn't really see anything that I was terribly afraid of. Death Cloud, if used against me, is easy to recover from because my mana curve is very low and tight. He packs mass removal, and the creature base in my deck isn't really needed outside of being chump blockers much of the time late game. [c=Kokusho, the Evening Star[/c]Kokusho[c], had he been able to get it out, would have potentially caused me problems as it would cause great card disadvantage to myself to remove it at the cost of 2 burn spells while losing 5 life and him gaining 5 life. The only threat I could really see to the speed of my Burn deck was Kokusho. I'm pretty confident about the match-up, as even in builds running Tarmogoyf I can take it out early enough before it grows too wild and chump block it if needed later on.
2c. Matchup: Affinity
Result: 2-1
Sideboardng?: Yes
Affinity was actually the deck I feared most, and once again I really hadn't studied the deck or kept up with the changes to it outside of that one creature that likes preventing me from casting more than one spell a turn.
First game, he had terrible hand luck and had to mulligan down to 4 whereas I kept my hand. He wasn't really able to recover from starting out with 4 cards in hand so that game went pretty fast and I came out with a win, although I got a glimpse of what to expect.
Second game, I sideboarded in 3x Flamebreak, 1x Ratchet Bomb, 4x Smash to Smithereens, boarded out 1x Confidant, 1x Bump in the Night, 2x Hellspark Elementals, and I can't recall what else. Thoughtseize was tempting but I couldn't really see anything in my maindeck I wanted to take out against Affinity, and with how it appeared that Affinity dumps it's hand to ramp up, I figured burn spells would be more valuable. He ended up winning the second game after I took a hand that was alright against any other match-up, but I probably could have taken a mulligan or two to try and have more answers that I sideboarded in. Was only able to Smash to Smithereens a Cranial Plating and rolled over to the rest.
Third game lasted longer than the previous two and I won out after being able to keep his low costed creatures at bay, disabling Metalcraft on his Etched Champion and taking out his Tezzeret with a Marauder and Confidant. Obviously the key to beating Affinity at burn is to play defensively and try to eliminate as much of his board as possible. Three things I know he was packing that would have given me serious trouble were Leyline of Sanctity, Tempered Steel and Second Sunrise. With no enchantment hate, I would not have been able to out-aggro his deck, and Tempered Steel would have overrun me. Second Sunrise, obviously, would not have been good unless I had a Flamebreak waiting in-hand and he didn't have a Tempered Steel out as well.
2d. Matchup: Poly-Tokens
Results: 2-2? Unsure
Sideboarding?: Yes
I knew the idea of the deck going into this, so I knew to try and eliminate his creature tokens as fast as possible. I barely won out game one, hitting him for his life at the EOT that he got Flying Spaghetti Monster out, which would have doomed me next game. I also wasn't anticipating Proteus Staff, which I completely forgot the mana cost and activated cost on.
Game 2, he conceded and was technically a loss. I had sideboarded in Flamebreaks and Thoughtseizes, as well as the Ratchet Bomb. I suppose Smash to Smithereens might have been alright, but it seemed narrow since I'd only be looking to hit his Proteus Staff... still unsure about that. Regardless, somehow we mixed up his life total. He thought he was at 1, I thought he was at 1, I wasn't paying attention and Shawn said something and apparently he was at 9 still and was able to get Emrakul out and swing for a win being that I was at 12 life. I'm still unsure what happened there but need to pay more attention so opponents don't take advantage of this in a serious tournament setting.
Game 3, Leyline of Sanctity Turn 1. Loss. 'Nuff said
2e. Conclusions/Thoughts
There was mention that people were discussing main-decking Leyline of Sanctity in response to the sharp rise in combo decks being present in Modern. This doesn't bode well for my deck, at all. Currently 8 of my best spells -Lava Spike and Bump in the Night- become useless to Leylines, and last night I had still neglected to sideboard Krosan Grip. Part of it comes down to what I want to even remove for enchantment hate.
+1 Stomping Grounds main deck for the green mana
+4 Krosan Grip sideboard for enchantment hate
But looking at the rest of my sideboard...
1 Ratchet Bomb - Situational and has always been handy when drawn into.
3 Flamebreak - Absolutely needed in an aggro heavy meta/format.
3 Rain of Gore - My only real answer to life gain/Martyr Proc, because with Ghostly Prison and other stuff trying to ramp up an offense via aggro is next to impossible.
4 Smash to Smithereens - Needed for the Affinity match up and others.
4 Thoughtseize - Absolute must have against Combo so I don't roll over and die
There is literally zero room in my sideboard to take anything out for Krosan Grip. This leaves the option of modifying my main deck to try and get around. So let's take a look at my main deck, sans lands because the land situation is fine:
Creatures (16) - The current creature base is solid, except that I will be losing a chump blocker/potential attacker in Dark Confidant come Dark Ascension.
4 Keldon Marauders - Really good creature. The only down side is with Leyline out, I'm forced to deal damage to myself (or potentially another creature). Isn't exactly a deal breaker.
4 Dark Confidant - Possibly being replaced with Faithless Looting after Dark Ascension. Has proven decent, however I'm discovering the amount of draw I gain from him before he's removed, or how much he sits in my hand, that I'm quite positive Faithless Looting would net me more card draw.
4 Grim Lavamancer - Is simply a house and always has fuel. Even against Leylines, he can knock out a lot of creatures in the format.
4 Goblin Guide - Very good early game, and can be late game as well if I can clear the board.
Other Spells (24) - This is where stuff will have to be cut. To win against sideboards, I cannot have 8 dead cards in my hand. The cards that will definitely stay are:
4 Lightning Bolt - Best burn spell ever.
4 Magma Jet - The 2 mana for the EOT scry is priceless.
This leaves the questionable cards.
4 Lava Spike - Can't target creatures but another lightning bolt when it can hit the player.
4 Bump in the Night - Same as Lava Spike.
4 Rift Bolt - Does not serve as an answer until my next turn, which may be too slow.
4 Flames of the Blood Hand - 3 for 4 and the life gain prevention is OK at best, but could be replaced by Blightning or another spell and it doesn't target creatures.
Right now, removing Bump in the Night is an obvious answer for me. With Dark Confidant and Bump in the Night gone, that's less life spent on getting Blood Crypts into play untapped, which begins to add up on top of the Fetch Lands. Lava Spike may actually go, as well.
Rift Bolt is okay, but could possibly be replaced by another creature or threat. Hellspark Elementals, Kargan Dragonlord, Figure of Destiny or Hell's Thunder are all decent alternatives.
This opens the path to having more aggro and possibly, more easily, being able to get damage past Leyline, but it still unfortunately doesn't answer the problem of how to fit enchantment hate in the deck.
Current cards on the side being considered are:
Kargan Dragonlord
Figure of Destiny
Hellspark Elemental
Searing Blaze
Shard Volley
Blightning
Hell's Thunder
Blood Moon
Leyline of Punishment
Shattering Spree
Incinerate
Sudden Shock
Here is what my deck currently looks like:
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Stomping Grounds
11 Mountain
Creatures
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Goblin Guide
4 Kargan Dragonlord
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Magma Jet
4 Searing Blaze
4 Rift Bolt
4 Sudden Shock or Shard Volley
3 Flamebreak
4 Leyline of Punishment
4 Shattering Spree
4 Krosan Grip
I'm trying to cover all my bases in my sideboard without going over and it's driving me crazy. As of my meta, I know I'll be facing Affinity, PolyTokens, Martyr-Proc, B/G Rock, and more than likely Storm as well as Zoo. I originally had a B/R burn build that included Bump in the Night, Dark Confidant and Thoughtseize. I had been playtesting an unreleased card (Faithless Looting) and found I liked it better than Confidant, on top of removing Bump in the Night due to MD Leylines, having Leyline of Punishment able to replace Rain of Gore in my SB and Thoughtseize never finding use against anything but Combo.
The Flamebreaks cover me on aggro, and the Leyline of Punishment covers me against Martyr Proc but I still need 4 Krosan Grip in the sideboard to get rid of Leyline of Sanctity as well as Ghostly Prison and other things. B/G Rock was never a problem for me to beat before. Shattering Spree should dominate Affinity - I've previously been using Smash to Smithereens but I'd prefer to kill 2 things for 2 mana instead of 1 since Affinity likes to lay down everything at once and then go into a near top deck state from there.
The problem I'm facing at the moment is what to do about Combo. I'm out of room in my sideboard at this point. I liked the idea a few posts back about running 4 Mindbreak Trap, but I'm really at a loss as for what to do.
THEN, I need to cut down and make a budget version using zero Fetchlands or Shocklands for next weekend, because there's no way I'll have them before then. I've got 2 Wurmcoil Engines, 3 Grave Titans and a Darkslick Shore to trade somewhere but that's about it, and I know if I try to trade them in for store credit somewhere I'll get **** all for it -_-; And I realize this isn't budget discussion, thought some thoughts would be appreciated.
(Also known as Xenphire)
If leyline of punishment is giving you trouble, you can always use Chaos warp in the board to deal with it.EDIT: Well, I sure feel dumb for confusing legacy & modern....
Currently Playing:
RRRBurnRRR
RRRGoblinsRRR
WWWDeath & TaxesWWW
WUBRGIchoridWUBRG
Modern:
UUMerfolkUU
EDH:
BBBDrana, Kalastria BloodchiefBBB
GGGKamahl, Fist of KrosaGGG
WBGGhave, Guru of SporesGBW
RBUSedris, Traitor KingUBR
WRGUril, the MistalkerGRW
RGRosheen MeandererGR
Also, if you're not playing a raw race build, Shrine of Burning Rage looks worthwhile
Legacy: Strawberry Shortcake, Aggro Loam, DnT+b
Modern: Devoted Karn
Vintage: Survival