im loving silverblade paladin in the deck..most of our creatures are tiny and the double strike is just needed. I normally go T1 Champion..T2 BTE into Lightning Mauler..T3 Silverblade with champion..there was also one game where i went BTE..BTE..BTE..Lightning Mauler
im loving silverblade paladin in the deck..most of our creatures are tiny and the double strike is just needed. I normally go T1 Champion..T2 BTE into Lightning Mauler..T3 Silverblade with champion..there was also one game where i went BTE..BTE..BTE..Lightning Mauler
That's what you normally do, huh?
Let's take a look at the math of this (I'm going to be generous and assume you're on the draw):
Chance of having a Champion in your opening 8: 44%
Chance of having BTE + Mauler by turn 2: 20%
Chance of having Paladin by turn 3: 52%
Chance of having 3 or more of 21 land by turn 3: 76%
Now, this doesn't even factor in the fact that you need specific colored mana like W on turn 1, :symgr::symgr: on turn 2, and 1WW on turn 3 or that you can't rip both a Paladin and the mana to cast it on turn 3 (I factored it as if you had 3 draw steps to draw a 3rd land and 3 draw steps to draw a Paladin - you don't - you need to have at least one of those in hand before your 3rd draw).
Still, even with my extreme generosity, the chances of this sequence of plays is only 3.5% or 1 out of 28.5-ish games (though the actual statistic is probably 1/3-1/2 that).
I'm interested in playing this deck, and Paladin looks like an interesting option, but while actual playtesting results and statistics from those familiar with the deck are useful, statistically unlikely anecdotes don't do anyone any good.
+EDIT+ Found your list, edited statistics to account for 21 land instead of the assumed 20.
redthirst is redthirst, fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse. He was the leader of the Fires of Salvation, the only clan I'm aware of to get modded off the forums so hard they made their own forums.
Degenerate? Sure. Loudmouth? You bet. Law abiding? No ****ing way.
Let's take a look at the math of this (I'm going to be generous and assume you're on the draw):
Chance of having a Champion in your opening 8: 44%
Chance of having BTE + Mauler by turn 2: 20%
Chance of having Paladin by turn 3: 52%
Chance of having 3 or more of 21 land by turn 3: 76%
Now, this doesn't even factor in the fact that you need specific colored mana like W on turn 1, :symgr::symgr: on turn 2, and 1WW on turn 3 or that you can't rip both a Paladin and the mana to cast it on turn 3 (I factored it as if you had 3 draw steps to draw a 3rd land and 3 draw steps to draw a Paladin - you don't - you need to have at least one of those in hand before your 3rd draw).
Still, even with my extreme generosity, the chances of this sequence of plays is only 3.5% or 1 out of 28.5-ish games (though the actual statistic is probably 1/3-1/2 that).
I'm interested in playing this deck, and Paladin looks like an interesting option, but while actual playtesting results and statistics from those familiar with the deck are useful, statistically unlikely anecdotes don't do anyone any good.
+EDIT+ Found your list, edited statistics to account for 21 land instead of the assumed 20.
I was wondering if someone would catch him on the "normally" part of that. Let's hope he meant it as "this is a christmasland play I'd like to see". Or "when goldfishing this is fun" or "the deck has the potential for this". Though of course the words are pretty specific.
Let's take a look at the math of this (I'm going to be generous and assume you're on the draw):
Chance of having a Champion in your opening 8: 44%
Chance of having BTE + Mauler by turn 2: 20%
Chance of having Paladin by turn 3: 52%
Chance of having 3 or more of 21 land by turn 3: 76%
Now, this doesn't even factor in the fact that you need specific colored mana like W on turn 1, :symgr::symgr: on turn 2, and 1WW on turn 3 or that you can't rip both a Paladin and the mana to cast it on turn 3 (I factored it as if you had 3 draw steps to draw a 3rd land and 3 draw steps to draw a Paladin - you don't - you need to have at least one of those in hand before your 3rd draw).
Still, even with my extreme generosity, the chances of this sequence of plays is only 3.5% or 1 out of 28.5-ish games (though the actual statistic is probably 1/3-1/2 that).
I'm interested in playing this deck, and Paladin looks like an interesting option, but while actual playtesting results and statistics from those familiar with the deck are useful, statistically unlikely anecdotes don't do anyone any good.
+EDIT+ Found your list, edited statistics to account for 21 land instead of the assumed 20.
You're not taking mulligans into account.
(In all seriousness, though, it does matter a tiny bit. With lands 20-21 lands you're bound to get a lot of 0-1 land hands that automatically get mulliganed. And when you have at least 2 lands in your hand to start with getting 3 lands in time is a lot more likely than what it reads in the tables. But of course, even if we neglect the requirement of having sufficient land drops, you're looking at 4,5% chance to get that nutdraw, which is still kinda bad :rolleyes:)
redthirst is redthirst, fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse. He was the leader of the Fires of Salvation, the only clan I'm aware of to get modded off the forums so hard they made their own forums.
Degenerate? Sure. Loudmouth? You bet. Law abiding? No ****ing way.
Yeah we're still talking magical christmas land, that reply was intended as a joke really
Yeah, I know, I just want to make sure that everyone understands how incredibly far away that situation is from being normal - even when being more than generous with statistics and taking muligans into account.
I really like the deck even though I haven't put a version together yet and I'd like to get a better feel for it through the people who are playing it, but someone throwing an extremely unlikely scenario out there and naming it likely doesn't help.
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"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire."
—Jaya Ballard, task mage
redthirst is redthirst, fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse. He was the leader of the Fires of Salvation, the only clan I'm aware of to get modded off the forums so hard they made their own forums.
Degenerate? Sure. Loudmouth? You bet. Law abiding? No ****ing way.
That's only one unlikely scenario though. There are other almost as nutty hands you can pull from the deck. Honestly, that's really what makes it viable as a strategy. The entire deck is designed to maximize the chance of those insane opening hands.
It helps to look at it in terms of chances of having a turn 1 play, followed by a powerful turn 2 and 3. With a dozen 1 drops, you're going to have something decent on turn 1 (Champion is preferable to X1 is preferable to Boros Elite). Most lists run something like 16-20 2 drops, so if you don't have an opening hand that lets you do something powerful on that turn, you should ship it.
Virtually any hand that is 1 drop, BTE and a 2 drop is worth keeping unless you just can't make the mana work. There are a dozen permutations in the deck of that hand, whether it's a Champion/X1/Elite as your turn 1 play, or a BTE > Mauler/Mayor/Flinthoof/whatever. The only hands NOT worth keeping are the ones full of one drops, or that force you into Thalia on turn 2 when you could push through more damage (one reason I like Thalia more in the SB).
The way he phrased what he "usually does" is specious, but he's giving one specific scenario. When you broaden that to include all of the other cards in the deck that do functionally similar things on the same turns, your chances of a powerful draw go up significantly. I'd recommend putting the deck together and feeling out how it draws before being too harsh on people here.
Actually likely scenarios are great and I'd encourage anyone who plays the deck to give me a general idea of how they've discovered it plays out. That's helpful.
Describing an extrememly specific and unlikely scenario as normal is not.
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"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire."
—Jaya Ballard, task mage
redthirst is redthirst, fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse. He was the leader of the Fires of Salvation, the only clan I'm aware of to get modded off the forums so hard they made their own forums.
Degenerate? Sure. Loudmouth? You bet. Law abiding? No ****ing way.
I lost track of this thread a few weeks ago mostly because i was too busy actually playing the deck.
I am planning to take this bad boy to the wmcqs in my country and currently i would like to share my thoughts on some of the card choices that some of you have been discussing through this pages.
First of all the list i am playing right now is the following.
some people like Sam Black are defending wolfbitten captive over experiment one.
They are wrong, for me experiment one is a wild nacatl. the upside is surviving wraths, the downside is that i will take an additional turn to make it a 3/3, and it will be a bad top deck in a game i am already losing.
they say that wolfbitten captive is better because of the lategame application and the manasink. ok i have played enuogh matches with both of them to tell you that if you are not playing additional bodies on turn 2 you are in a losing proposition, those bodies are far more valuable than the occasional flip, which will go definetely against the nature of the deck, which is to put pressure with multiple creatures per turn in the early game.
If you are letting a wolfbitten captive flip, it is because you are losing the game.
Dryad militant vs boros elite.
I am actually playing dryad militant as a 3 of in my sideboard, but, i would never play her main deck, the reason is pretty simple.
boros elite is more explosive and has more synergy, but in the match ups were dryad will be better, the eplosiveness is not quite relevant (actually most of the time i side the boros elite out.) since your opponent has a lot of chances to survive your first wave. (UWR for example)
silverblade paladin vs frontline medic or split.
Boros reckoner.
can you beat a boros reckoner with silverblade paladin and provide them 0 Card advantage?
No, you cant.
the X spell counters is also very relevant, if your game happens to go beyond turn 6 it will matter a lot... people sometimes forget about that abilit and missplay, but that is a very rare blowout, but it is a blowout that happens.
the other thing which is very important and in favor of frontline medic is to fight multiple thragtusks, when someone plays a thragtusk against our dek, i recommend to keep charging even if you don't have a medic, you need to force a trade. if you happen to have one, you have an insuranse against resto's and tokens and the trades will be good only in your side of the table, with silerblade you might still be losing board presence.
Why boros charm instead of thalia or Giant growth MD?
Simple... i played with this deck a lot... and noticed that there are 4 things that kills this deck apart from manascrew/flood.
1)Board stalls, where the creatures of your opponent are going to be better than yours (thragtusk, restoration angel, boros reckoner).
2)Sweepers (mortars, wrath bonfire). specially on turn 4.
3)sphinx's revelation... specially the lifegain.
4)Planeswalkers like sorin and liliana.
thalia and giant growth migh solve some of this problems only in part.
With thalia you can prevent some spot removals, shrink a revelation or retrace a PW.
With giant growth you can kill your opponent faster, survive some kind of removal, kill a planeswalker out of nowhere (only if your board prescense is better) but you will still eat a sphinx's revelation or supreme veredict.
With boros charm i fel that you have an overall better answer to all of these situations, i mean... revelation? 4 to the dome in response GG!, pw? 4 to that PW too! wrath? here you have! thraggy? 4 in response and GG!, stalemate? indestructibility to everyone or 4 to the dome for some reach!
That's what I'm talking about. That post was ****ing gold.
Further, that list is sick - I think this is what I'll test with the possible substitution of 1 additional land for a Charm. geleroff, do you often find yourself stuck on 2 mana with a Medic in hand with only 20 land?
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"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire."
—Jaya Ballard, task mage
redthirst is redthirst, fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse. He was the leader of the Fires of Salvation, the only clan I'm aware of to get modded off the forums so hard they made their own forums.
Degenerate? Sure. Loudmouth? You bet. Law abiding? No ****ing way.
To be honest i don't, mostly because medic is just a 4-of and it is not often to see one of them lacking on curve, i mean... if i happen to have one on turn 3 i will go with the maximum amount of damage i can deal that turn, so 100% i will play a flinthoof boar and give him haste or a mauler + 1 drop (most of the time this is 4 additional damage if not more, i mean experimnt-> mauler ->counter on experiment + haste + any trigger on boros elite or CoP) or simply a searing spear... if they happen to wrath you (on the draw mostly) you want to protect him to counter a revelation... unless i am playing a mirror match where a 3/3 blocker is quite good.
Oh, and btw, i play the deck on mtgo, but i don't do dailyes because i am short of the playset of caverns and as i don't own i visa i can't buy tix.
I do play 2-mans, today i am like 7-2 or 7-3.
An i do play player run events on MTGO (events with no entry fee ran by users with a prize pool donated by mtgo singles retailers.
I have some time and I want to provide some match up analisys from my humble point of view.
Other aggro decks and mirror.
Have you ever read "Who is the beatdown?" by Mike Flores?
In the mirror match and against other aggro decks the first player who realizes their position in the match up (the agressor and the controller) will win the game, your sideboard is set up to be the control player, and you will be pretty good at that, you have a huge sideboard that will win you a lot of games if you use it properly, Champion of the parish is extremely relevant here, same on Mayor of Avabruck, If you are in the control role flipping him is crucial to switch gears and go on the offensive, remember to use the regenerate on experiment one.
If you consider my list and sideboard as a reference you will want to sideboard in this way.
+ 3 pacifism
+ 2 flames of the firebrand
+ 2 nearheath pilgrim
Reanimator variants.
Here you want to be very fast, against humanimator you have a clock of 5 turns to kill unless they get a nutdraw, the good thing is that they will offer little to no resistance to your first wave, against junk is a little trickier and frankly harder, the play angel of serenity, thragtusk, possibly restoration and they will switch into a lifegain plan for game 2 which is Very difficult to overcome.
expect humanimator to be an easy match up and junk renimator a very diffficult game 2/3
against humanimator i would sideboard this way.
-2 boros elite,
-2 frontline medic
-2 boros charm
+3 dryad militant
+ 3 thalia
drayd militant is huge IF you play it turn 1 and IF they don't have unburial rites in their hand, in that scenario she will tear them apart on her own because they will be unable to play anything that might exile an unburial rites on the spot and you will make faithless looting only half as good (even less than half since faithless loothing only provides CA when flashbacked).
If they have unburial rites in hand, thalia might prevent them from milling themselves on time, while being a relevant body to punch face.
Against junk reanimator things are a lot harder.
Thalia is still a priority since they will try to go rampy.
+2 flames of the firebrand
+3 thalia
+3 dryad militant
+2 fiend hunter
flames of the firebrand will take out multiple manadorks or lingering souls tokens.
the rest is more or less the same, thalia is a priority OR a nut draw.
Maybe tomorrow i will provide some more hints, I must insist that this is based only on my exerience on mtgo, and not by any means a word from a pro player.
The worst card, by far, in the mirror when you're trying to be the control deck is boros elite. You should be taking all of them out, especially because spear is one of the best cards in the matchup just for being good removal and also because it lets you flip mayor without simply doing nothing with your mana. I'd also take out all of the lightning maulers which are pretty bad on defense. Medic is great as both a decent blocker and a way to start turning the tide once you stabilise, so I'd leave all of them in. I would also bring in both fiend hunters, taking the sb plan to:
-1 Boros Charm
-4 Boros elite
-4 lightning mauler
+ 3 pacifism
+ 2 flames of the firebrand
+ 2 nearheath pilgrim
+ 2 fiend hunter
Have you considered Bonds of Faith in the board over Pacifism? Against the vast majority of problem creatures in other Aggro decks it's the same thing but with the added bonus of being a pump spell for your guys.
It's not great in a strict mirror, but those slots can go to Fiend Hunter and leaving a Spear in.
Btw, why are you siding out a Spear against Aggro?
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"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire."
—Jaya Ballard, task mage
redthirst is redthirst, fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse. He was the leader of the Fires of Salvation, the only clan I'm aware of to get modded off the forums so hard they made their own forums.
Degenerate? Sure. Loudmouth? You bet. Law abiding? No ****ing way.
is it just me or is fiend hunter a weak spot in the sb? I have yet to side him in against anything. The times where I would, I find Pacifism to be adequate. Seems like skullcrack or something would be a better use of the spot
i am siding a spear because i want an upgrade in the form of flames... but maybe it is right to leave it in.
this is juts what i am used to do.
Spear, allow you to flip mayor in very techy ways, like not playing anything on your turn, and then in the opponent's upkeep play a spear having your mayor flipped and killing something.
Bonds of faith vs pacifism
Well to be honest i don't have a real reason to not to play bonds over pacifism, maybe i undervalue the pump, because most of my guys are already removal magnets and i don't wanna be tempted to get 2 for 1ed horribly while trying to go cute and... well there is huntmaster of the fells... i dont wanna make it 4/4.
some in-game advice.
Champion into mauler is that good, don't try to go cute by not bonding to wait for the medic, if they do have a removal, they will play it on champion, so you can still use the mauler again.
if you have a hand like t1 champion ->t2 BTE into mauler OR mayor, go with the mauler and bond it with the BTE and go for a million, then on t3 play the mayor... mostly because you are going to deal way more damage that way in less turns AND if they play something nasty like rolling temblor you still have your mayor which is pretty relvant post wrath.
As i stated before, medic is not always that important on the table until you have some serius opposition on the other side of the table, and it is usually slower, it is the tank of your team... so you don't always want to drop it to the table asap
Would you answer a thragtusk with a pacifism if you know that they play restoration angel?
Maybe you would play oblivion ring right? go ahead and find 3 mana or 4 with thalia on the table and have no synergy with the rest of the deck... the downside of being a creature is worth it... think about kibler's bg aggro... you can hide an ooze and block a strangleroot geist.
On skullcrack... i can think of around 80% of the times a boros charm in response to a sphinx's revelation or thragtusk will have the same effect that skullcrak... which is ending the game.
I can think of around 100% of the times in which a boros charm in response to a sweeper will have the effect i want... which is not the effect of skullcrack.
I would also bring in both fiend hunters, taking the sb plan to:
-1 Boros Charm
-4 Boros elite
-4 lightning mauler
+ 3 pacifism
+ 2 flames of the firebrand
+ 2 nearheath pilgrim
+ 2 fiend hunter
While this is a good sideboard plan, you need to be careful about skewing your mana too far away from RG. You're pulling 5 red, 5 white mana and adding back 2 red, 7 white and at a higher curve. I've often found that finding WW is tough, which is one reason I've stopped playing Silverblade main deck (that and being 2 for 1'd sucks).
There's really no good solution, other than maybe playing a Clifftop Retreat in SB to side in for a Rootbound Crag.
if you have a hand like t1 champion ->t2 BTE into mauler OR mayor, go with the mauler and bond it with the BTE and go for a million, then on t3 play the mayor... mostly because you are going to deal way more damage that way in less turns AND if they play something nasty like rolling temblor you still have your mayor which is pretty relvant post wrath.
This is absolutely correct. 99.9% of the time, this will be the correct play. Don't get cute and try to play an early mayor to flip and start netting tokens. They'll just wrath turn 4 and you'll lose it all. Get your damage in fast. I've honestly gotten to where if I don't have an opener that can put up at least 4 damage on turn 2 I ship it back, and that's as slow as I'm willing to accept. Luckily, there are a number of opening permutations that can net 4+. Usually I am for 6-7.
That's honestly the hardest part of this deck is being aggressive enough. You NEVER want to slow down. Pretty much every game where I have held back, I have lost. We are 110% all-in, all the time.
Mainboarding Boros Charm seems a bit risky. I have found it can really screw up some of my opening hands. Is removing Thalia from the MB worth it? I feel she can be very important in winning a g1 when we are on the draw.
I also am having a tough time deciding when to mull with this deck... are we mulling a hand with no one-drop no matter what? Mulling 1 landers?
Standard Decks
WR Boros Heroic
That's what you normally do, huh?
Let's take a look at the math of this (I'm going to be generous and assume you're on the draw):
Chance of having a Champion in your opening 8: 44%
Chance of having BTE + Mauler by turn 2: 20%
Chance of having Paladin by turn 3: 52%
Chance of having 3 or more of 21 land by turn 3: 76%
Now, this doesn't even factor in the fact that you need specific colored mana like W on turn 1, :symgr::symgr: on turn 2, and 1WW on turn 3 or that you can't rip both a Paladin and the mana to cast it on turn 3 (I factored it as if you had 3 draw steps to draw a 3rd land and 3 draw steps to draw a Paladin - you don't - you need to have at least one of those in hand before your 3rd draw).
Still, even with my extreme generosity, the chances of this sequence of plays is only 3.5% or 1 out of 28.5-ish games (though the actual statistic is probably 1/3-1/2 that).
I'm interested in playing this deck, and Paladin looks like an interesting option, but while actual playtesting results and statistics from those familiar with the deck are useful, statistically unlikely anecdotes don't do anyone any good.
+EDIT+ Found your list, edited statistics to account for 21 land instead of the assumed 20.
—Jaya Ballard, task mage
I was wondering if someone would catch him on the "normally" part of that. Let's hope he meant it as "this is a christmasland play I'd like to see". Or "when goldfishing this is fun" or "the deck has the potential for this". Though of course the words are pretty specific.
Standard: lol no
Modern: BG/x, UR/x, Burn, Merfolk, Zoo, Storm
Legacy: Shardless BUG, Delver (BUG, RUG, Grixis), Landstill, Depths Combo, Merfolk
Vintage: Dark Times, BUG Fish, Merfolk
EDH: Teysa, Orzhov Scion / Krenko, Mob Boss / Stonebrow, Krosan Hero
You're not taking mulligans into account.
(In all seriousness, though, it does matter a tiny bit. With lands 20-21 lands you're bound to get a lot of 0-1 land hands that automatically get mulliganed. And when you have at least 2 lands in your hand to start with getting 3 lands in time is a lot more likely than what it reads in the tables. But of course, even if we neglect the requirement of having sufficient land drops, you're looking at 4,5% chance to get that nutdraw, which is still kinda bad :rolleyes:)
Youtube Channel
How many mulligans do you imagine it'd take to bring that generous 3.5% up to something that could accurately be described as "normally"?
—Jaya Ballard, task mage
Yeah we're still talking magical christmas land, that reply was intended as a joke really
Youtube Channel
Yeah, I know, I just want to make sure that everyone understands how incredibly far away that situation is from being normal - even when being more than generous with statistics and taking muligans into account.
I really like the deck even though I haven't put a version together yet and I'd like to get a better feel for it through the people who are playing it, but someone throwing an extremely unlikely scenario out there and naming it likely doesn't help.
—Jaya Ballard, task mage
It helps to look at it in terms of chances of having a turn 1 play, followed by a powerful turn 2 and 3. With a dozen 1 drops, you're going to have something decent on turn 1 (Champion is preferable to X1 is preferable to Boros Elite). Most lists run something like 16-20 2 drops, so if you don't have an opening hand that lets you do something powerful on that turn, you should ship it.
Virtually any hand that is 1 drop, BTE and a 2 drop is worth keeping unless you just can't make the mana work. There are a dozen permutations in the deck of that hand, whether it's a Champion/X1/Elite as your turn 1 play, or a BTE > Mauler/Mayor/Flinthoof/whatever. The only hands NOT worth keeping are the ones full of one drops, or that force you into Thalia on turn 2 when you could push through more damage (one reason I like Thalia more in the SB).
The way he phrased what he "usually does" is specious, but he's giving one specific scenario. When you broaden that to include all of the other cards in the deck that do functionally similar things on the same turns, your chances of a powerful draw go up significantly. I'd recommend putting the deck together and feeling out how it draws before being too harsh on people here.
Describing an extrememly specific and unlikely scenario as normal is not.
—Jaya Ballard, task mage
I lost track of this thread a few weeks ago mostly because i was too busy actually playing the deck.
I am planning to take this bad boy to the wmcqs in my country and currently i would like to share my thoughts on some of the card choices that some of you have been discussing through this pages.
First of all the list i am playing right now is the following.
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Experiment One
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Lightning Mauler
4 Flinthoof Boar
4 Boros Charm
4 Frontline Medic
4 Searing Spear
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple Garden
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Rootbound Crag
2 Sunpetal Grove
1 Clifftop Retreat
and the sideboard is
3 thalia guardian of thraben
3 pacifism
2 flames of the firebrand
2 nearheat pilgrim
3 dryad militant
Wolfbitten captive v/s experiment one.
some people like Sam Black are defending wolfbitten captive over experiment one.
They are wrong, for me experiment one is a wild nacatl. the upside is surviving wraths, the downside is that i will take an additional turn to make it a 3/3, and it will be a bad top deck in a game i am already losing.
they say that wolfbitten captive is better because of the lategame application and the manasink. ok i have played enuogh matches with both of them to tell you that if you are not playing additional bodies on turn 2 you are in a losing proposition, those bodies are far more valuable than the occasional flip, which will go definetely against the nature of the deck, which is to put pressure with multiple creatures per turn in the early game.
If you are letting a wolfbitten captive flip, it is because you are losing the game.
Dryad militant vs boros elite.
I am actually playing dryad militant as a 3 of in my sideboard, but, i would never play her main deck, the reason is pretty simple.
boros elite is more explosive and has more synergy, but in the match ups were dryad will be better, the eplosiveness is not quite relevant (actually most of the time i side the boros elite out.) since your opponent has a lot of chances to survive your first wave. (UWR for example)
silverblade paladin vs frontline medic or split.
Boros reckoner.
can you beat a boros reckoner with silverblade paladin and provide them 0 Card advantage?
No, you cant.
the X spell counters is also very relevant, if your game happens to go beyond turn 6 it will matter a lot... people sometimes forget about that abilit and missplay, but that is a very rare blowout, but it is a blowout that happens.
the other thing which is very important and in favor of frontline medic is to fight multiple thragtusks, when someone plays a thragtusk against our dek, i recommend to keep charging even if you don't have a medic, you need to force a trade. if you happen to have one, you have an insuranse against resto's and tokens and the trades will be good only in your side of the table, with silerblade you might still be losing board presence.
Why boros charm instead of thalia or Giant growth MD?
Simple... i played with this deck a lot... and noticed that there are 4 things that kills this deck apart from manascrew/flood.
1)Board stalls, where the creatures of your opponent are going to be better than yours (thragtusk, restoration angel, boros reckoner).
2)Sweepers (mortars, wrath bonfire). specially on turn 4.
3)sphinx's revelation... specially the lifegain.
4)Planeswalkers like sorin and liliana.
thalia and giant growth migh solve some of this problems only in part.
With thalia you can prevent some spot removals, shrink a revelation or retrace a PW.
With giant growth you can kill your opponent faster, survive some kind of removal, kill a planeswalker out of nowhere (only if your board prescense is better) but you will still eat a sphinx's revelation or supreme veredict.
With boros charm i fel that you have an overall better answer to all of these situations, i mean... revelation? 4 to the dome in response GG!, pw? 4 to that PW too! wrath? here you have! thraggy? 4 in response and GG!, stalemate? indestructibility to everyone or 4 to the dome for some reach!
it works for me
I hope this post helps everyone.
Chile!
Further, that list is sick - I think this is what I'll test with the possible substitution of 1 additional land for a Charm. geleroff, do you often find yourself stuck on 2 mana with a Medic in hand with only 20 land?
—Jaya Ballard, task mage
Oh, and btw, i play the deck on mtgo, but i don't do dailyes because i am short of the playset of caverns and as i don't own i visa i can't buy tix.
I do play 2-mans, today i am like 7-2 or 7-3.
An i do play player run events on MTGO (events with no entry fee ran by users with a prize pool donated by mtgo singles retailers.
you can check on the friday night standard events ran by BlippyTheSlug and Longtimegone here http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=465772&page=2.
I have some time and I want to provide some match up analisys from my humble point of view.
Other aggro decks and mirror.
Have you ever read "Who is the beatdown?" by Mike Flores?
In the mirror match and against other aggro decks the first player who realizes their position in the match up (the agressor and the controller) will win the game, your sideboard is set up to be the control player, and you will be pretty good at that, you have a huge sideboard that will win you a lot of games if you use it properly, Champion of the parish is extremely relevant here, same on Mayor of Avabruck, If you are in the control role flipping him is crucial to switch gears and go on the offensive, remember to use the regenerate on experiment one.
If you consider my list and sideboard as a reference you will want to sideboard in this way.
-2 Boros Charm
-1 Searing Spear
-2 Boros elite
-1 lightning mauler
-1 frontline medic
+ 3 pacifism
+ 2 flames of the firebrand
+ 2 nearheath pilgrim
Reanimator variants.
Here you want to be very fast, against humanimator you have a clock of 5 turns to kill unless they get a nutdraw, the good thing is that they will offer little to no resistance to your first wave, against junk is a little trickier and frankly harder, the play angel of serenity, thragtusk, possibly restoration and they will switch into a lifegain plan for game 2 which is Very difficult to overcome.
expect humanimator to be an easy match up and junk renimator a very diffficult game 2/3
against humanimator i would sideboard this way.
-2 boros elite,
-2 frontline medic
-2 boros charm
+3 dryad militant
+ 3 thalia
drayd militant is huge IF you play it turn 1 and IF they don't have unburial rites in their hand, in that scenario she will tear them apart on her own because they will be unable to play anything that might exile an unburial rites on the spot and you will make faithless looting only half as good (even less than half since faithless loothing only provides CA when flashbacked).
If they have unburial rites in hand, thalia might prevent them from milling themselves on time, while being a relevant body to punch face.
Against junk reanimator things are a lot harder.
Thalia is still a priority since they will try to go rampy.
-3 boros charm
-2 searing spear
- 3 boros elite
-2 frontline medic
+2 flames of the firebrand
+3 thalia
+3 dryad militant
+2 fiend hunter
flames of the firebrand will take out multiple manadorks or lingering souls tokens.
the rest is more or less the same, thalia is a priority OR a nut draw.
Maybe tomorrow i will provide some more hints, I must insist that this is based only on my exerience on mtgo, and not by any means a word from a pro player.
Chile!
The worst card, by far, in the mirror when you're trying to be the control deck is boros elite. You should be taking all of them out, especially because spear is one of the best cards in the matchup just for being good removal and also because it lets you flip mayor without simply doing nothing with your mana. I'd also take out all of the lightning maulers which are pretty bad on defense. Medic is great as both a decent blocker and a way to start turning the tide once you stabilise, so I'd leave all of them in. I would also bring in both fiend hunters, taking the sb plan to:
-1 Boros Charm
-4 Boros elite
-4 lightning mauler
+ 3 pacifism
+ 2 flames of the firebrand
+ 2 nearheath pilgrim
+ 2 fiend hunter
It's not great in a strict mirror, but those slots can go to Fiend Hunter and leaving a Spear in.
Btw, why are you siding out a Spear against Aggro?
—Jaya Ballard, task mage
this is juts what i am used to do.
Spear, allow you to flip mayor in very techy ways, like not playing anything on your turn, and then in the opponent's upkeep play a spear having your mayor flipped and killing something.
Bonds of faith vs pacifism
Well to be honest i don't have a real reason to not to play bonds over pacifism, maybe i undervalue the pump, because most of my guys are already removal magnets and i don't wanna be tempted to get 2 for 1ed horribly while trying to go cute and... well there is huntmaster of the fells... i dont wanna make it 4/4.
some in-game advice.
Champion into mauler is that good, don't try to go cute by not bonding to wait for the medic, if they do have a removal, they will play it on champion, so you can still use the mauler again.
if you have a hand like t1 champion ->t2 BTE into mauler OR mayor, go with the mauler and bond it with the BTE and go for a million, then on t3 play the mayor... mostly because you are going to deal way more damage that way in less turns AND if they play something nasty like rolling temblor you still have your mayor which is pretty relvant post wrath.
As i stated before, medic is not always that important on the table until you have some serius opposition on the other side of the table, and it is usually slower, it is the tank of your team... so you don't always want to drop it to the table asap
Chile!
Would you answer a thragtusk with a pacifism if you know that they play restoration angel?
Maybe you would play oblivion ring right? go ahead and find 3 mana or 4 with thalia on the table and have no synergy with the rest of the deck... the downside of being a creature is worth it... think about kibler's bg aggro... you can hide an ooze and block a strangleroot geist.
On skullcrack... i can think of around 80% of the times a boros charm in response to a sphinx's revelation or thragtusk will have the same effect that skullcrak... which is ending the game.
I can think of around 100% of the times in which a boros charm in response to a sweeper will have the effect i want... which is not the effect of skullcrack.
Chile!
I am also contemplating adding one land as well redthirst. I get stuck only having two mana so often. 3rd Sunpetal?
you can't touch the boros charms and the searing spears.
but you still need the thalias to retrace the remoal and ramp, and the lames of the firebrand for the manadorks.
so i would do something like
-4 boros elite
-1 lightning mauler
+3 thalia
+2 flames of the firebrand
here you want to play champion aggressively, thalia aggressively and medic aggresively.
you want to hit hard, retrace removal, not losing guys in the red zone, and countering bonfires and rakdos return.
i would play some amount of pacifism, but i would feel like overextending in the removal department against a deck which is not so creature heavy.
regarding the lands subject... i feel more flooded than screwed on mtgo, maybe in paper the experience is different
Chile!
?
read my article!
check out this forum!
I expect that, with the new forum layout we will have our own forum... i would be very happy if the community lets me make the primer.
Chile!
While this is a good sideboard plan, you need to be careful about skewing your mana too far away from RG. You're pulling 5 red, 5 white mana and adding back 2 red, 7 white and at a higher curve. I've often found that finding WW is tough, which is one reason I've stopped playing Silverblade main deck (that and being 2 for 1'd sucks).
There's really no good solution, other than maybe playing a Clifftop Retreat in SB to side in for a Rootbound Crag.
This is absolutely correct. 99.9% of the time, this will be the correct play. Don't get cute and try to play an early mayor to flip and start netting tokens. They'll just wrath turn 4 and you'll lose it all. Get your damage in fast. I've honestly gotten to where if I don't have an opener that can put up at least 4 damage on turn 2 I ship it back, and that's as slow as I'm willing to accept. Luckily, there are a number of opening permutations that can net 4+. Usually I am for 6-7.
That's honestly the hardest part of this deck is being aggressive enough. You NEVER want to slow down. Pretty much every game where I have held back, I have lost. We are 110% all-in, all the time.
I also am having a tough time deciding when to mull with this deck... are we mulling a hand with no one-drop no matter what? Mulling 1 landers?