Mono Red has taken off in a big way in Block constructed right now, and I just finally finished off my Koth collection... effectively finishing off my SoM collection (Yay!).
I'm wondering though, nearly every list is running some combination of Sword of Body and Mind at a 2-3 count in either the mainboard or sideboard. I get that it's an all around good card, but what exactly is it brought in for? The Pro-Green isn't all that good, and really the Pro-Blue isn't either, Sphinx and Volition Reins not withstanding. The only thing I'm seeing is that the wolf tokens are good at holding back aggro, and I guess the mill works against control? I dunno, just hoping for a little clarification before I go sticking them in my 75.
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My Youtube Channel Wolfwood Sama on MTGO (Westane for PureMTGO community events)
ISD Block UR - Burning Vengeance BG - The Rock RUG - RUG Control BBB - Zombies
Mono Red has taken off in a big way in Block constructed right now, and I just finally finished off my Koth collection... effectively finishing off my SoM collection (Yay!).
I'm wondering though, nearly every list is running some combination of Sword of Body and Mind at a 2-3 count in either the mainboard or sideboard. I get that it's an all around good card, but what exactly is it brought in for? The Pro-Green isn't all that good, and really the Pro-Blue isn't either, Sphinx and Volition Reins not withstanding. The only thing I'm seeing is that the wolf tokens are good at holding back aggro, and I guess the mill works against control? I dunno, just hoping for a little clarification before I go sticking them in my 75.
Nah, it's good because a lot of people don't keep in the artifact hate vs. Big Red. I know my siding strategy involves lots of removal (regardless of which deck, in Black it's Grasps, in UW it's Arrests and the likes) and getting rid of all of the unnecessary artifacts. Sword can be really painful for that siding option. Also, if you do Sword + Wurmcoils + Precursors + Battlespheres, you tend to overwhelm opponents' artifact removal, because people are reluctant to bring in 4 Revokes, and even if they do, you can weather it. Sword also turns your Myrs into threats.
So is it just pump? Strata Scythe does more damage if you're on a budget. I could see the extra creatures really helping if it connects.
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
So is it just pump? Strata Scythe does more damage if you're on a budget. I could see the extra creatures really helping if it connects.
The winner of the last block PE ran one sword and one scythe MB, with a second sword in the board, so scythe is seeing playing. I was just wondering if there was something special about the sword that I was missing.
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My Youtube Channel Wolfwood Sama on MTGO (Westane for PureMTGO community events)
ISD Block UR - Burning Vengeance BG - The Rock RUG - RUG Control BBB - Zombies
I may switch to running this, just to smite Rosewater by using Liquimetal Coating to blow up Venser. I've considered the idea of B/R infect for a while, but there isn't really any reason to do that, now Liquimetal Coating to support MD Slice in Twain or Viridian Replica could work.
I'm just trying to figure out why this deck disapeared for two weeks only to come back strong. Right now I'd rather invest in Koth than Venser, but I'm wondering if "Flicker" control could work right now in standard and show up at Worlds. Jace is super strong, but he's got a lot of Hate too. Standard has a lot of things that are bounce worthy like Wall of Omens, plus bounced tokens disapear, and bounced Level-Up creatures get reset.
Maybe the answer is just find another $100 and be flexible.
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
Big Red is definitly making a comeback. The latest DE had 5 of the 9 prize winning decks as Big Red. One thing I have been noticing is some decks use Tumble Magnet main and some in the board. This is a card I've never tried in my Big Red. What do you bring it in against? I'm assuming it is for against decks with large non-artifact dudes (which is all the UWB Venser decks). Is it really worth it? I have been bringing in Liqimetal Coating in against these guys, but maybe I should have both.
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Top MTGO Limited Rating: 1968
2nd place behind Paulo after round 3 of Pro Tour M15
(finished 8-8, but beat Alexander Hayne and Ben Stark)
Big Red is definitly making a comeback. The latest DE had 5 of the 9 prize winning decks as Big Red. One thing I have been noticing is some decks use Tumble Magnet main and some in the board. This is a card I've never tried in my Big Red. What do you bring it in against? I'm assuming it is for against decks with large non-artifact dudes (which is all the UWB Venser decks). Is it really worth it? I have been bringing in Liqimetal Coating in against these guys, but maybe I should have both.
I'm not 100% on the board strats for this deck, but I'm thinking it's for Skittles and Wurmcoil.
Blowing up Wurmcoil puts 2 wurms in your way and Blowing up Skittles only works if they don't have black open.
It's safe MD against Venser because they can't bounce it without resetting it.
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
Personally, I haven't been fortunate enough to pull any Koth's or have the money to invest in any, so the list that I won my local FNM with was as followed:
Turn 2 Coating, turn 3 Shatter on anything is nice, especially if they kept a low land hand and you play up one of two lands. Liquimetal works well to get rid of planeswalkers, enchantments, etc. The deck doesn't totally fall flat either without one, just works better with one.
Not trying to put the current Big Red deck down, by any means, just an alternative route for those who can't obtain Koths.
Tumble Magnet is used for many reasons, here are my favorites...
1) Sunblast Angels, tapping them as they come into play so they blow themselves up.
2) Architects, turn 3 architect means turn 4 they can usually get 6 mana. Keeping him tapped on upkeep keeps them at 4 mana.
3) Helps you run over plainswalkers if they have blockers.
4) Wurmcoils and other big threats.
Personally I don't maindeck them in my red build either, but definately in SB and always in my control decks. Maindecking in red wouldn't be bad.
I went 3-0 in a Thusday Night Magic Online event last night, beating Infect, B/R Midrange, and Architect Blue. I'm still not really sure about the Liquimetal Coating shenanigans, but I like having a way to deal with Volition Reins. I used it to take out my opponent's 3rd turn Architect in the 3rd match, which is usually impossible to deal with without Tumble Magnet. Also, I'm not a big fan of Galvanic Blast. It's a Shock 90% of the time, so it's only really good for taking out Myr. Shatter does the same job but also answers other threats.
I agree on Blast. 90% of the time I'd rather have Arc Trail anyway. If you could guarentee metalcraft you could use it to handle PW.
The Precursor Golems are an interesting choice. Care to explain them?
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
The Golem is just a great card. I think people undervalue it because of the chance of it getting Shattered or whatever, but the big 3 decks don't have a ton of ways to deal with it. U/W has 3 or 4 Revoke Existence, Big Red has a metalcrafted Galvanic Blast or Shatter (which most decks only run in the board) and Architect has nothing. Koth followed by a Phoenix is the strongest play this deck has, and Golem gives you another 5 mana threat to play after Koth. It's definitely not great if you run into the R/W deck with 4 Shatter and 4 Revoke Existence or the B/R deck with 4 Shatter and 4 Grasp, but those decks are rare in the daily events (and you can just swap them out for Wurmcoil and/or Hoard-Smelter in those matchups).
The Golem is just a great card. I think people undervalue it because of the chance of it getting Shattered or whatever, but the big 3 decks don't have a ton of ways to deal with it. U/W has 3 or 4 Revoke Existence, Big Red has a metalcrafted Galvanic Blast or Shatter (which most decks only run in the board) and Architect has nothing. Koth followed by a Phoenix is the strongest play this deck has, and Golem gives you another 5 mana threat to play after Koth. It's definitely not great if you run into the R/W deck with 4 Shatter and 4 Revoke Existence or the B/R deck with 4 Shatter and 4 Grasp, but those decks are rare in the daily events (and you can just swap them out for Wurmcoil and/or Hoard-Smelter in those matchups).
Good having some comments about the deck. I play mirror matches in like 20% of practice room on MTGO so I´ve found weird not to have any discussion here.
Going into the deck, I´ve tested a deck very very similar deck to yours weeks ago as it looks very appealing with the liquimetal coating heavy artifact destruction engine (note that you can stone rain on t3 which is huge in this format) but i felt that i rely to much in that strategy for removal. Agreed that Galvanic Blast is crap 90% of the time.
Then I come up with Contagion Clasp as extra Myr removal (same as Galvanic Blast) but with the interesting ability to add counters to fatties and growth KoTH loyalty at the same time. (oh and tumble magnet too!)
I am a little disappointed with red removal spells in SoM. They give black a -4/-4 and us a shock? c´mon guys!!!
Taking out basically any creatures vs. U/W is a mistake. Their long game is better than yours, and you have to be able to attack Planeswalkers if possible. Battlesphere is actually like the best post-Angel play possible, it reloads the board and enables Metalcraft to recur Phoenixes. Golems and Wurmcoil are both weak to Revoke, but they can't have a Revoke for everything, you have to overload their removal. The only creatures I might board out are Elders if you run those MD - I don't like giving them easy Clasp targets.
How does Spikeshot Elder play in this deck? I feel like he's an inefficient means of dealing damage, just because we have so few ways to pump him. I guess he is our only 1-drop creature...Any reports from testing?
It's opposing Myr removal, its a mana sink for when the deck floods (which happens often enough), its reach, and once in awhile you get a Scythe on it. Necessary IMO.
My goal is to overload the artifact destruction of the opponent loaded with the best craft of the format.
Then play I high count of "deal with me now!" threads. My plan to achieve this is ramp fast and defend KoTH at all means. Clasp/Magnet/KoTH Engine is quite fun and efficient when you have enough mana. Is not an incredibly fast format indeed.
@Tangucho: do you realize that Phoenix is THE key card of the deck, that win games on its own ?
@Swoly: I totally disagree you. The long run is totally beneficial to U/W. The only way mono-red has to compete is T2 mana myr (left unanswered) T3 koth T4 phoenix all that being on the play, which is very unlikely.
I did of course. I played a version with Phoenix before but I wanted to test bigger threards to see how it goes. Indeed more 5cc threads are needed.
If I decided to get back to the full set of phoenix I would: -2 -Hoard-smelter Dragon, -1 Myr Battlesphere -1 Precursor Golem +4 Kuldotha Phoenix
My intention is to keep the artifact count as high as possible to ensure metalcraft and to overload the artifact removal from the opponent (specially mirror).
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Currently working on....
T2:
I love card banning...
GBR Jund
RRDW
SOM Block
Trying to make use of my set of KoTH
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SOM Block Constructed Daily #1733667 on 11/04/2010
4 Iron Myr
4 Oxidda Scrapmelter
3 Precursor Golem
4 Spikeshot Elder
3 Cerebral Eruption
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Ratchet Bomb
4 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
4 Liquimetal Coating
3 Mimic Vat
4 Molten-Tail Masticore
I'm wondering though, nearly every list is running some combination of Sword of Body and Mind at a 2-3 count in either the mainboard or sideboard. I get that it's an all around good card, but what exactly is it brought in for? The Pro-Green isn't all that good, and really the Pro-Blue isn't either, Sphinx and Volition Reins not withstanding. The only thing I'm seeing is that the wolf tokens are good at holding back aggro, and I guess the mill works against control? I dunno, just hoping for a little clarification before I go sticking them in my 75.
Wolfwood Sama on MTGO (Westane for PureMTGO community events)
UR - Burning Vengeance
BG - The Rock
RUG - RUG Control
BBB - Zombies
Nah, it's good because a lot of people don't keep in the artifact hate vs. Big Red. I know my siding strategy involves lots of removal (regardless of which deck, in Black it's Grasps, in UW it's Arrests and the likes) and getting rid of all of the unnecessary artifacts. Sword can be really painful for that siding option. Also, if you do Sword + Wurmcoils + Precursors + Battlespheres, you tend to overwhelm opponents' artifact removal, because people are reluctant to bring in 4 Revokes, and even if they do, you can weather it. Sword also turns your Myrs into threats.
The winner of the last block PE ran one sword and one scythe MB, with a second sword in the board, so scythe is seeing playing. I was just wondering if there was something special about the sword that I was missing.
Wolfwood Sama on MTGO (Westane for PureMTGO community events)
UR - Burning Vengeance
BG - The Rock
RUG - RUG Control
BBB - Zombies
I'm just trying to figure out why this deck disapeared for two weeks only to come back strong. Right now I'd rather invest in Koth than Venser, but I'm wondering if "Flicker" control could work right now in standard and show up at Worlds. Jace is super strong, but he's got a lot of Hate too. Standard has a lot of things that are bounce worthy like Wall of Omens, plus bounced tokens disapear, and bounced Level-Up creatures get reset.
Maybe the answer is just find another $100 and be flexible.
2nd place behind Paulo after round 3 of Pro Tour M15
(finished 8-8, but beat Alexander Hayne and Ben Stark)
I'm not 100% on the board strats for this deck, but I'm thinking it's for Skittles and Wurmcoil.
Blowing up Wurmcoil puts 2 wurms in your way and Blowing up Skittles only works if they don't have black open.
It's safe MD against Venser because they can't bounce it without resetting it.
4 Iron Myr
4 Kuldotha Phoenix
4 Spike Shot Elder
3 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
4 Arc Trail
4 Shatter
4 Liquimetal Coating
2 Mimic Vat
23 Mountain
Turn 2 Coating, turn 3 Shatter on anything is nice, especially if they kept a low land hand and you play up one of two lands. Liquimetal works well to get rid of planeswalkers, enchantments, etc. The deck doesn't totally fall flat either without one, just works better with one.
Not trying to put the current Big Red deck down, by any means, just an alternative route for those who can't obtain Koths.
1) Sunblast Angels, tapping them as they come into play so they blow themselves up.
2) Architects, turn 3 architect means turn 4 they can usually get 6 mana. Keeping him tapped on upkeep keeps them at 4 mana.
3) Helps you run over plainswalkers if they have blockers.
4) Wurmcoils and other big threats.
Personally I don't maindeck them in my red build either, but definately in SB and always in my control decks. Maindecking in red wouldn't be bad.
I just have trouble dealing with >3 butt creatures.
I think tumble magnets MD are a good idea..also thinking about adding ratchet bomb
Finally i´ve come up with an interesting build.
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Oxidda Scrapmelt
4 Spikeshot Elder
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Iron Myr
3 Contagion Clasp
3 Ratchet Bomb
2 Wurmcoil Engine
Still working on the sideboard election and most important to decide a good sideboard strategy.
I´ve would like to improve the match against Blue Arquitect control and UW running Venser.
Contagion Clasp is amazing with Tumble Magnet and to help adding loyalty counters to the PW
Suggestions??
4 Shatter
4 Liquimetal Coating
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Iron Myr
4 Spikeshot Elder
2 Palladium Myr
4 Oxidda Scrapmelter
3 Precursor Golem
4 Kuldotha Phoenix
2 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
2 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
2 Strata Scythe
4 Arc Trail
3 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Turn to Slag
2 Tumble Magnet
I went 3-0 in a Thusday Night Magic Online event last night, beating Infect, B/R Midrange, and Architect Blue. I'm still not really sure about the Liquimetal Coating shenanigans, but I like having a way to deal with Volition Reins. I used it to take out my opponent's 3rd turn Architect in the 3rd match, which is usually impossible to deal with without Tumble Magnet. Also, I'm not a big fan of Galvanic Blast. It's a Shock 90% of the time, so it's only really good for taking out Myr. Shatter does the same job but also answers other threats.
http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1959
The Precursor Golems are an interesting choice. Care to explain them?
http://cubetutor.com/viewcube/1959
Good having some comments about the deck. I play mirror matches in like 20% of practice room on MTGO so I´ve found weird not to have any discussion here.
Going into the deck, I´ve tested a deck very very similar deck to yours weeks ago as it looks very appealing with the liquimetal coating heavy artifact destruction engine (note that you can stone rain on t3 which is huge in this format) but i felt that i rely to much in that strategy for removal. Agreed that Galvanic Blast is crap 90% of the time.
Then I come up with Contagion Clasp as extra Myr removal (same as Galvanic Blast) but with the interesting ability to add counters to fatties and growth KoTH loyalty at the same time. (oh and tumble magnet too!)
I am a little disappointed with red removal spells in SoM. They give black a -4/-4 and us a shock? c´mon guys!!!
(i would splash black just for that reason)
Mimic Vat is amazing in certain situations where you have the Oxidda Scrapmelter and
Liquimetal Coating.t1. Land
t2 Liquimetal Coating
t3 Mimic Vat
t4 Oxidda Scrapmelter
.....sounds like a plan to me.
I think that the key of the deck is to find the most efficient card by card interactions as other decks do.
My goal is to overload the artifact destruction of the opponent loaded with the best craft of the format.
Then play I high count of "deal with me now!" threads. My plan to achieve this is ramp fast and defend KoTH at all means. Clasp/Magnet/KoTH Engine is quite fun and efficient when you have enough mana. Is not an incredibly fast format indeed.
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Iron Myr
3 Palladium Myr
4 Tumble Magnet
4 Contagion Clasp
3 Mimic Vat
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Myr Battlesphere
3 Precursor Golem
2 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
4 Arc Trail
2 Sword of Body and Mind
4 Shatter
5 ??????
I did of course. I played a version with Phoenix before but I wanted to test bigger threards to see how it goes. Indeed more 5cc threads are needed.
If I decided to get back to the full set of phoenix I would: -2 -Hoard-smelter Dragon, -1 Myr Battlesphere -1 Precursor Golem +4 Kuldotha Phoenix
My intention is to keep the artifact count as high as possible to ensure metalcraft and to overload the artifact removal from the opponent (specially mirror).