I probably wouldn't bring in To the Slaughter or Foul-Tongue Invocation against Humans or CoCo, since they have such a plethora of creatures. It's more for the decks that want to win with Chandra, Avacyn, Ojutai, Gideon, and Sorin. I'm kind of leaning more towards To the Slaughter, actually.
Well I've taken a break on modern right now and I've decided to play standard. This deck focuses on A LOT of early removal and creatures that are a pain in the ass. My favorite card in this deck is Goblin Dark-Dwellers because of the fact that I have the ability to recur certain cards.
I like it, though I think 3 or 4 of rending volley is a must have; maybe 2x main 1x sideboard because we are so white heavy meta.
After the pro tour it looks like it will change but as long as bant colors are dominating, that card shuts it down really quick.
Any testing Results The Sky Raven?
There is a similar list in the pro tour right now but it ditches the dragon synergy for walker and PK.
I prefer the dragons myself since D Roar is value town with all these three toughness creatures.
Yeah saw that. He is taking it very control-y, into Mardu Green territory. I prefer the dragon mid range synergy but both decks want to do the same thing and have many of the same pieces.
I think R/B lines up well against bant company and even b/g cryptocrats. Unlike rally, this deck cannot just reflect our flyers away. Whether you fly over them with regent or kalitas->languish them for a zombie army, the key to beating the deck is interaction. Bant company can reflect or tap a single creature, but it's gameplan is to overwhelm the opp with good 3 drops and card advantage. That wont work against aristocrats of any color variant who just clog up the ground waiting to build to critical mass. B/G does have what bant doesnt...inevitability...the longer the game goes on, it's just a matter of time befor you get husk, zulaport, and a bunch up creatures.
The good news...b/g is much more vulnerable to sweepers than rally was because rally is gone. Yes you can spot return creatures with liliana, it's hardly the 1-2 punch of coco their end step rally for a million damage.
So had a rough 2 days with the deck. Went 1-3 at FNM and 2-2 drop at states.FNM deck had Heir of Falkenrath and Fiery Temper's and it was just too wonky and I got 2 fer'd more often than not. So, I dropped the Heir's and 1 Olivia, Mobilized for War in favor of 3 Hangarback Walker's and shook up the Spell package abit, also did some SB work. All in all deck felt really good, except for a couple floods that really hurt. My 1 loss to G/B Aristocrats was completely my fault in how I SB'd and played the match in general, so embarrassing. But, here is the current iteration I am looking to run tomorrow at a free PPTQ.
I finished 4-2 in States today, taking 12th place overall after Swiss. It was heart breaking, as I was 3-0 after 3 rounds. Just needed to win 1 of the next 2 matches, and failed to do so in both rounds despite winning game 1 in both. My losses were to BW Control and Bant Company. I won vs White Weenie, Pyromancer Goggles, BW Control and Bant Company. The list I played was adjusted based on what I saw being played at the Pro Tour. Expecting WW and Bant Company, I brought in a couple of Fiery Impulse from the board to main. I also made the snap decision to put Sin Prodder into my deck to help generate CA, pressure, and Delirium. Here's the list:
Round 1: White Weenie. He wins the roll, and proceeds to crush me in game 1. The turn 4 Archangel of Tithes ensured I was unable to block when he swung for lethal the following turn. I brought in Kozilek's Return, Fiery Impulse, and Ultimate Price. Took out Kolaghan, Transgress the Mind, and 1x Read the Bones. Games 2 and 3 went something like removal, removal, removal, Goblin Dark-Dwellers -> removal, GDD -> Removal. GG. 1-0
Round 2: Pyromancer Goggles. He wins the roll, and we trade off creatures for removal. I transgress him before he can drop Chandra, but unfortunately he has Goggles on board. Eventually he has me at 6, and I have him at 11 with no cards in hand and I have GDD on board. Luckily he does not draw a burn spell in his next 3 turns, and I'm able to grind him out. I bring out all of my creature removal, and bring in Ruinous Path, Duress, Transgress the Mind and To the Slaughter. I curve out with Duress -> Hangarback -> Sin Prodder -> Thunderbreak Regent -> Transgress the Mind + K Command. My opponent can't keep up and I close out the game with relative ease. 2-0
Round 3: BW Control. I remember winning the dice roll, but not too much beyond that. I won game 1 without taking a point of damage. I lost game 2 to a swarm of Secure the Wastes tokens (he played two copies). Game 3 I won. Boarding was identical to Round 2. 3-0
Round 4: BW Control. I win the dice roll again, and game 1 after grinding my opponent out of cards and he struggles to keep up with GDD and Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Boarding was the same as above. I stumble on land in game 2, and can't get my 3 Thunderbreak Regents out quick enough. The game ends with him grinding me out with Sorin, Grim Nemesis, and Linvala, the Preserver. In game 3 he lands a Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, and proceeds to deal with my creatures via 1 for 1 removal while generating Zombies. I can't find Ruinous Path, or any other way to deal with Kalitas, and lose. 3-1
Round 5: Bant Company. My opponent wins the dice roll. We both mulligan to 6. I come out strong, and reduce his threat/hand count with K Command and GDD. Eventually he's down to 0 cards, and I grind him out. I board in more spot removal, but not Kozilek's Return, as I saw Bounding Krasis, Sylvan Advocate, and Reflector Mage. Games 2 and 3 were a flurry of Reflector Mages, Declaration in Stone, and Collected Company. Every time I thought I was stabilizing, he was able to pull ahead of me. I lose in 3. 3-2
Round 6: Bant Company. My opponent wins the dice roll. I mulligan to 6, but come out strong. The first game, my opponent has some interaction and is able to slow me down. But my removal and card advantage is too much for him. GDD crushes his late game by flashing back my removal on his strongest creatures. Boarding was the same as round 5. Game 2 is just a blowout. The only life I lost was from my turn 3 Read the Bones, hoping to hit land for my Thunderbreak Regent and GDD in hand. I hit 2 lands and am happy to keep them. My t4 Thunderbreak Regent goes unanswered. I follow the next turn with K Command and Ultimate Price, removing his only threats. I land another Thunderbreak the following turn and my opponent has no answers. 4-2
Overall, I am pretty happy with how the deck played. Sin Prodder was an interesting addition. There were a couple times where I was sad to see a Hangarback Walker go to the grave, but there were games where it kept drawing me extra cards, or helped me filter past lands that I didn't want to draw anyway. The games where I curved out were incredibly difficult for my opponents to overcome. My two losses were both in 3, and I felt were winnable. I actually feel favored in those match ups, and beat both decks in other rounds. It's sad that I was a game win away from the top 8 in back to back rounds, and just couldn't seal the deal. You can't win them all though.
Great report. I've been working on a deck like this since before rotation, and while I haven't had a chance to do any heavy testing with it yet, my experiences in the games I have played largely matched yours. Every matchup I've played has felt very winnable, and I feel hugely favoured against small, fast decks like Humans that constantly turn on my removal. This the list I have so far:
I'd post my sideboard, but it's a confused mess at the moment. DOLZero, how did you like To the Slaughter? I have it in the side right now, but so far I've never felt like I wanted to bring it in. I'm strongly leaning toward replacing it.
The two copies of Foundry are there because I want to be able to do things with my lands. They haven't given me any mana problems yet, but they haven't felt particularly necessary either, despite helping in a couple of games. It's likely better to replace them with more colour-producing lands.
My thoughts on the deck so far:
I've found that Draconic Roar has very often been the best card in the deck. Between it and the triggers from Thunderbreak Regent, it can be incredibly easy to grind the opponent down to single-digit life totals without ever having to attack. Especially when Dark-Dwellers can flash back the roar for full value. It may prove to be better to go with the lists that drop the dragons for more cards like Kalitas, such as the Pro Tour list, but it will take a lot of convincing for me to part with my dragons.
I think Chandra definitely deserves a slot in this deck, though I realize she fights for space with the Dragonlord. I've been running a 2-1 split online, replacing the Nalaars with 1x Kalitas and the second Chandra, which has been working great so far. Both of the 6-drops have consistently overperformed.
Finally, to those who are running Olivia, how has she been for you? I imagine she'd often just be a 3/3 flier, since I think trying to pair her with madness cards is a huge trap here - and it looks like you guys have come to similar conclusions - and I'm hesitant to pitch spells to her. However, it would be nice to have an outlet for potentially dead cards, and being able to get our Thunderbreaks and Dark-Dwellers out of the range of Languish seems very powerful in some situations.
(I apologize for having more questions than input at this point. There are a bunch of PPTQs coming up in my region over the next couple of months, so hopefully I'll be able to obtain and provide some more specific data to help refine the deck. )
Olivia, Mobilized for War Has actually been pretty good for me, although I did drop her to 3 and it feels pretty good. As just a 3/3 Flyer for 3 she is great value and the added bonus to put our fatties into Supreme Fat status is perty good. Especially considering you can get almost all spells back with GDD makes the pitch at times irrelevant. To the Slaughter was actually decent today in the a few Super-fiends builds I ran into today, would have been nice to have 1 MD against G/B Aristocrats game 1 when he went all in on Westvale Abbey.
Another thing was people still do get how Roar w/ Reveal works after all this time, go figure.
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Current Decks Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BWGUB Sultai Constrictor BUG Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG Modern : GB Golgari Elves BGGR Atarka Goblins RG Pauper : W Heroic WGB Delve BG
So had a rough 2 days with the deck. Went 1-3 at FNM and 2-2 drop at states.FNM deck had Heir of Falkenrath and Fiery Temper's and it was just too wonky and I got 2 fer'd more often than not. So, I dropped the Heir's and 1 Olivia, Mobilized for War in favor of 3 Hangarback Walker's and shook up the Spell package abit, also did some SB work. All in all deck felt really good, except for a couple floods that really hurt. My 1 loss to G/B Aristocrats was completely my fault in how I SB'd and played the match in general, so embarrassing. But, here is the current iteration I am looking to run tomorrow at a free PPTQ.
May consider not having anything in the 2 drop slot and add 2x fiery impulse or maybe 1x Chandra.
What decks did it do well against and what decks did it struggle with? R/B should do well against the new g/b aristo but will struggle alot against the new g/b seasons-control. Gold Night should help against control and ramp. Would consider 4x in SB.
Actually did well against B/G Seasons, also beat G/W humans pretty easy. Losses to B/W Walker control and G/B Aristocrats, although I punted pretty hard against Aristocrats, please don't ask how hard but it was bad. Friday night I lost to Mono B control running Erebos Titan and Reality Smasher, U/B Reanimator and Bant CoCo. Bant was a pretty close match even won a game from a DLK trigger when he flashed in a Krasis to tap it with one in his yard already . Beat a R/B Eldrazi build pretty easy as well.
savedsynner I do like Hangarback for the the non-DiS, non-Grasp match-ups and it does have some synergy with the P&K's outa the SB. They do often become one the first to hit the block in side boarding.
Flipdipple - cool. B/G Seasons seams like it is built to beat mid range and aggro so glad to hear you did well.
Eldrazi is a bit of a blind spot for the deck because ult price cant hit it and grasp cant kill smasher. Maybe a 2x roast sideboard.
It's tough right now because not many pros are playing rakdos so we are having to tune the deck without the thousands of matches the other decks enjoy to work out the kinks. Mark my words tho. Olivia will be a 20-25 dollar card before she rotates. There's just too much value there not too.
I still kick myself a bit for missing what seamed like a hey dey for R/B(in recent history) during return to ravnica and then again between the release of DTK and Stormbreath dragon rotating with the pinnacle of R/B Dragons, but I disgress.
The PT did have some R/B decks but they were more controlly, no doubt to beat bant and humans. Kind of a cool place right now because there is no top deck. Thanks for your reports and continuing testing. I was about to buy 4x olivia, 4x GDD, 2x Chandra and start playing r/b on moto but kalitas spiked hard over the last 24 hours so I will wait until he drops back down. He's good. He's not $24 online good tho.
B/R Control ended up winning States here in Michigan, decks seems pretty well positioned right now. Hopefully we can get the Dragon version doing well. I actually had I guy I see regularly at the events in Bay City and he was next to me round 1, saw my deck and laughed and gave me grief for still bein on Dragon's, I ended up beating him the next round ;).
here is a link to his list Michigan Standard States Winning List
It is the stock list from the PT btw
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Current Decks Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BWGUB Sultai Constrictor BUG Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG Modern : GB Golgari Elves BGGR Atarka Goblins RG Pauper : W Heroic WGB Delve BG
B/R Control ended up winning States here in Michigan, decks seems pretty well positioned right now. Hopefully we can get the Dragon version doing well. I actually had I guy I see regularly at the events in Bay City and he was next to me round 1, saw my deck and laughed and gave me grief for still bein on Dragon's, I ended up beating him the next round ;).
here is a link to his list Michigan Standard States Winning List
It is the stock list from the PT btw
Yeah Dragons are getting no love. They got no love last season even tho multiple people Top 8'ed SCG major events and even little love last summer, in their heydey with Stormbreath.
I like the winner's list. Unless someone top 8's an SCG tourny soon with R/B, we may have to wait until EM until R/B gets another place in the sun, not because it's got bad cards, but because the pros seams unfairly biased against it. Just my opp.
Also, cool story about the guy you beat. How did you do at the tourny? Any particularly bad matchups? Which matchups seemed good?
Oh he was on the B/G Seasons Past Deck. Olivia was an ALL-STAR giving beaters haste to combat all their sorcery speed removal is great. And if you can Transgress/Duress a Seasons, that is always cake. Also, he got hung up 2 turns on land drops and I was able to curve Thunderbreak into GDD into DLK into GG
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Current Decks Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BWGUB Sultai Constrictor BUG Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG Modern : GB Golgari Elves BGGR Atarka Goblins RG Pauper : W Heroic WGB Delve BG
Abbot is pretty good. Relentless Dead is exactly the card the deck would want(has evasion, can bring it back etc)...but not at BB. It'll be tough getting that consistently. When I was running R/B dragons last standard, with fetches, it was sometimes tough to get BB by turn 2.
I could be wrong tho. I would test RD first because he may be amazing.
The more I look and think about the Pros and Cons of Relentless Dead over Hangarback Walker, the more I am thinking of trying it out. Relentless Dead
Pros : 2/2 for 2, has Evasion, Can recur itself, can be pitchd for an Olivia, Mobilized for War trigger and then be recurred from another one dying, and can block
Cons : BB casting cost, could be tricky getting it on T2 but is it that necessary??, exile effects stop shenanigans.
Hangarback Walker
Pros: replaces itself upon death, late game mana sink, colorless
Cons: 1/1 for 2, exile effects, -x/-x effects
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Current Decks Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BWGUB Sultai Constrictor BUG Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG Modern : GB Golgari Elves BGGR Atarka Goblins RG Pauper : W Heroic WGB Delve BG
I'm going to give some testing among the various 2 drops and see which ones I like best. I've given Relentless Dead a few games tonight. The BB cmc hasn't been an issue in the four games I've played with it, but so far it hasn't felt like it was generating a lot of value in this deck. I like the idea of feeding it into Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, but thus far that has not been a game state that I've ran into. I'll likely give it a few more tries before I move on to testing Abbot of Keral Keep. There was one more card that I think might be good, and that's Kessig Forgemaster. I know it looks kind of bad at face value, but I think it might be a hidden gem.
I'm also giving some consideration to 3 drops. Olivia, Mobilized for War has been mentioned earlier in the thread. I'm giving it a couple slots, and liked playing with it thus far. Olivia can dodge Fiery Impulse in the early game. The discard ability is card disadvantage, but pumping Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Thunderbreak Regent, and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet out of Languish and Grasp of Darkness range is a possible benefit. Sin Prodder is a card I tried out. It's been bittersweet so far. I'm currently giving it a try without Hangarback Walker in the deck to see how it goes. Prodder is really one of the main reasons I'm looking into other 2 drops, but I may end up cutting it.
I also like Drana, Liberator of Malakir, but this doesn't feel like the deck for it. Scab-Clan Berserker also caught my eye. It seems particularly good vs the control decks, but is probably bad elsewhere. There was also some discussion of Thopter Engineer in the thread. I like it with Hangarback Walker, and Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Hopefully I can find enough time to give all of these cards some testing. I'm going to try to make some extra time to work on this deck over the next week or so.
I've been playing with Olivia from the start and the pitch card disadvantage is mitigated pretty well with both K Command and GDD getting anything we pitch back. I am going to try and pick up the RD's for tomorrow and give them a run as I think they combo well with Olivia.
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Current Decks Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BWGUB Sultai Constrictor BUG Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG Modern : GB Golgari Elves BGGR Atarka Goblins RG Pauper : W Heroic WGB Delve BG
In my limited testing so far, I have found the same. Having only 3 olivias means you really wont run out of gas hardly ever to her pitch condition. Having GDD to rebuy is so sweet and unless I have 0 creatures in hand, i usually use the other 3 modes on k command, but it's nice to have it available if need be. I did rebuy a T Regent once recently and i think it won me the game.
I tried Abbot but I feel like I'm not using him right. By all accounts, most 2 drops want to be played turn 2, but abbot doesn't, because the card you would get number 1 can't be cast that turn(almost no 0 cost spells in standard) and number 2, gets exiled so it cant even be rebought, which would be sweet. It seams like the best time to cast him is turn 4 or after, to maximize your chance of playing the card he exiles. Let me know if you guys know the best time to play him.
I think relentless dead would be a perfect replacement except for the BB cost. Still looking though. Dragon Whisperer is interesting and since the deck has more red sources, would be easier to get RR turn 2...honestly, if it hadnt just rotated, Ruthless Ripper would be the perfect card. A 1/1 for B with deathtouch. Since the deck isn't racing for damage like the Kolaghan Storm's Fury version, it would do exactly what we want. Play defense until turns 3 or 4. Would shut down white weenie decks until they could either kill it or give gideon indestructable, and even then, they waste a kill spell on a 1/1. Could hold off bant to until reflector mage but that would actually be a boon because they would waste their mage on a 1/1 1 drop.
I believe this is where the distinction between this and the mid-range control deck lye, in that we forego the Planeswalker plan for the Dragon plan. I was running 1 Ob Nix out of the side for a minute but just felt like a slower Path or RtB, the repeat-ability of it though was kinda nice but took too long to fully impacting the match. Dragonlord Kolaghan is just a bombdigity finisher that is actually harder to deal with than most assume. With a Regent on board any removal will hurt and Bant players need a reminder of the the 3rd batch of text that just crushes their Bounding Krasis / Reflector Mage attempts to stall him as you have usually killed one already, or can kill one in response . This and being able to get DLK back, if they do kill it, with either a K Command or a Haven sac. is pretty good also. Chandra, Flamecaller may be a decent replacement for DLK but it really shorts us on Roar reveal options. The only reason not to run Foul-Tongue Invocation over To the Slaughter is the planeswalker effect right now and we actually hit delirium pretty regularly it can be a 2 fer ( we do run a pair of sac lands ).
Unfortunately, I will not get a chance to play tonight as tomorrow is opening day of Fishing on the Rivers here in Michigan and the Walleye are running so next week I should get some good runs in all week and hopefully have some reports.
Reflector mage and Krasis dont care about Thunderbreak. They bounced thunderbreak anyway when I ran Rakdos Dragons last season. Those players will take 3 in exchange for tempo.
I am also not suggesting removing dragons for planeswalkers but rather supplementing them. A dragons planeswalker team with Goblin Dark-dwellers.
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4 Thunderbreak Regent
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
4 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
2 Dragonlord Kolaghan
Spells: 22
2 Fiery Impulse
4 Draconic Roar
2 Transgress the Mind
2 Grasp of Darkness
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Read the Bones
1 Ruinous Path
1 To the Slaughter
2 Roast
2 Kozilek's Return
2 Chandra, Flamecaller
4 Smoldering Marsh
4 Foreboding Ruins
4 Evolving Wilds
6 Swamp
7 Mountain
1 Blighted Fen
2 Transgress the Mind
2 Duress
2 Flaying Tendrils
2 Ultimate Price
2 Foul-Tongue Invocation
1 Dark Petition
1 Tears of Valakut
1 Virulent Plague
1 Infinite Obliteration
1 Dragonmaster Outcast
After the pro tour it looks like it will change but as long as bant colors are dominating, that card shuts it down really quick.
Any testing Results The Sky Raven?
There is a similar list in the pro tour right now but it ditches the dragon synergy for walker and PK.
I prefer the dragons myself since D Roar is value town with all these three toughness creatures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NayBQdsgcbE
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I think R/B lines up well against bant company and even b/g cryptocrats. Unlike rally, this deck cannot just reflect our flyers away. Whether you fly over them with regent or kalitas->languish them for a zombie army, the key to beating the deck is interaction. Bant company can reflect or tap a single creature, but it's gameplan is to overwhelm the opp with good 3 drops and card advantage. That wont work against aristocrats of any color variant who just clog up the ground waiting to build to critical mass. B/G does have what bant doesnt...inevitability...the longer the game goes on, it's just a matter of time befor you get husk, zulaport, and a bunch up creatures.
The good news...b/g is much more vulnerable to sweepers than rally was because rally is gone. Yes you can spot return creatures with liliana, it's hardly the 1-2 punch of coco their end step rally for a million damage.
3x Cinder Barrens
4x Foreboding Ruins
2x Haven of the Spirit Dragon
7x Mountain
4x Smoldering Marsh
5x Swamp
Sorcery (7)
3x Duress
2x Read the Bones
2x Ruinous Path
2x Dragonlord Kolaghan
4x Goblin Dark-Dwellers
3x Hangarback Walker
3x Olivia, Mobilized for War
4x Thunderbreak Regent
Instant (12)
4x Draconic Roar
3x Grasp of Darkness
3x Kolaghan's Command
2x Ultimate Price
2x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3x Languish
2x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2x Rending Volley
1x Ruinous Path
2x To the Slaughter
3x Transgress the Mind
Still not 100% sold on Hangarback Walker's and am trying to see what fits better in the 2 drop slot.
A few options I am considering are Village Messenger , Asylum Visitor and Scourge Wolf.
Current Decks
Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BW GUB Sultai Constrictor BUG
Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG
Modern : GB Golgari Elves BG GR Atarka Goblins RG
Pauper : W Heroic W GB Delve BG
4x Hangarback Walker
2x Sin Prodder
4x Thunderbreak Regent
2x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4x Goblin Dark-Dwellers
2x Dragonlord Kolaghan
Other Spells: 17
2x Fiery Impulse
4x Draconic Roar
3x Transgress the Mind
1x Ultimate Price
3x Kolaghan's Command
2x Ruinous Path
2x Read the Bones
4x Smoldering Marsh
4x Foreboding Ruins
1x Haven of the Spirit Dragon
9x Mountain
7x Swamp
3x Kozilek's Return
3x To the Slaughter
2x Fiery Impulse
2x Self-Inflicted Wound
2x Duress
1x Transgress the Mind
1x Ruinous Path
1x Ultimate Price
Round 1: White Weenie. He wins the roll, and proceeds to crush me in game 1. The turn 4 Archangel of Tithes ensured I was unable to block when he swung for lethal the following turn. I brought in Kozilek's Return, Fiery Impulse, and Ultimate Price. Took out Kolaghan, Transgress the Mind, and 1x Read the Bones. Games 2 and 3 went something like removal, removal, removal, Goblin Dark-Dwellers -> removal, GDD -> Removal. GG. 1-0
Round 2: Pyromancer Goggles. He wins the roll, and we trade off creatures for removal. I transgress him before he can drop Chandra, but unfortunately he has Goggles on board. Eventually he has me at 6, and I have him at 11 with no cards in hand and I have GDD on board. Luckily he does not draw a burn spell in his next 3 turns, and I'm able to grind him out. I bring out all of my creature removal, and bring in Ruinous Path, Duress, Transgress the Mind and To the Slaughter. I curve out with Duress -> Hangarback -> Sin Prodder -> Thunderbreak Regent -> Transgress the Mind + K Command. My opponent can't keep up and I close out the game with relative ease. 2-0
Round 3: BW Control. I remember winning the dice roll, but not too much beyond that. I won game 1 without taking a point of damage. I lost game 2 to a swarm of Secure the Wastes tokens (he played two copies). Game 3 I won. Boarding was identical to Round 2. 3-0
Round 4: BW Control. I win the dice roll again, and game 1 after grinding my opponent out of cards and he struggles to keep up with GDD and Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Boarding was the same as above. I stumble on land in game 2, and can't get my 3 Thunderbreak Regents out quick enough. The game ends with him grinding me out with Sorin, Grim Nemesis, and Linvala, the Preserver. In game 3 he lands a Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, and proceeds to deal with my creatures via 1 for 1 removal while generating Zombies. I can't find Ruinous Path, or any other way to deal with Kalitas, and lose. 3-1
Round 5: Bant Company. My opponent wins the dice roll. We both mulligan to 6. I come out strong, and reduce his threat/hand count with K Command and GDD. Eventually he's down to 0 cards, and I grind him out. I board in more spot removal, but not Kozilek's Return, as I saw Bounding Krasis, Sylvan Advocate, and Reflector Mage. Games 2 and 3 were a flurry of Reflector Mages, Declaration in Stone, and Collected Company. Every time I thought I was stabilizing, he was able to pull ahead of me. I lose in 3. 3-2
Round 6: Bant Company. My opponent wins the dice roll. I mulligan to 6, but come out strong. The first game, my opponent has some interaction and is able to slow me down. But my removal and card advantage is too much for him. GDD crushes his late game by flashing back my removal on his strongest creatures. Boarding was the same as round 5. Game 2 is just a blowout. The only life I lost was from my turn 3 Read the Bones, hoping to hit land for my Thunderbreak Regent and GDD in hand. I hit 2 lands and am happy to keep them. My t4 Thunderbreak Regent goes unanswered. I follow the next turn with K Command and Ultimate Price, removing his only threats. I land another Thunderbreak the following turn and my opponent has no answers. 4-2
Overall, I am pretty happy with how the deck played. Sin Prodder was an interesting addition. There were a couple times where I was sad to see a Hangarback Walker go to the grave, but there were games where it kept drawing me extra cards, or helped me filter past lands that I didn't want to draw anyway. The games where I curved out were incredibly difficult for my opponents to overcome. My two losses were both in 3, and I felt were winnable. I actually feel favored in those match ups, and beat both decks in other rounds. It's sad that I was a game win away from the top 8 in back to back rounds, and just couldn't seal the deal. You can't win them all though.
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
4 Smoldering Marsh
4 Foreboding Ruins
2 Cinder Barrens
2 Foundry of the Consuls
7 Mountain
6 Swamp
Creatures (15)
4 Hangarback Walker
4 Thunderbreak Regent
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
1 Dragonlord Kolaghan
3 Fiery Impulse
4 Draconic Roar
2 Grasp of Darkness
2 Transgress the Mind
1 Ultimate Price
2 Read the Bones
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Ruinous Path
1 Languish
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
I'd post my sideboard, but it's a confused mess at the moment. DOLZero, how did you like To the Slaughter? I have it in the side right now, but so far I've never felt like I wanted to bring it in. I'm strongly leaning toward replacing it.
The two copies of Foundry are there because I want to be able to do things with my lands. They haven't given me any mana problems yet, but they haven't felt particularly necessary either, despite helping in a couple of games. It's likely better to replace them with more colour-producing lands.
My thoughts on the deck so far:
I've found that Draconic Roar has very often been the best card in the deck. Between it and the triggers from Thunderbreak Regent, it can be incredibly easy to grind the opponent down to single-digit life totals without ever having to attack. Especially when Dark-Dwellers can flash back the roar for full value. It may prove to be better to go with the lists that drop the dragons for more cards like Kalitas, such as the Pro Tour list, but it will take a lot of convincing for me to part with my dragons.
I think Chandra definitely deserves a slot in this deck, though I realize she fights for space with the Dragonlord. I've been running a 2-1 split online, replacing the Nalaars with 1x Kalitas and the second Chandra, which has been working great so far. Both of the 6-drops have consistently overperformed.
Finally, to those who are running Olivia, how has she been for you? I imagine she'd often just be a 3/3 flier, since I think trying to pair her with madness cards is a huge trap here - and it looks like you guys have come to similar conclusions - and I'm hesitant to pitch spells to her. However, it would be nice to have an outlet for potentially dead cards, and being able to get our Thunderbreaks and Dark-Dwellers out of the range of Languish seems very powerful in some situations.
(I apologize for having more questions than input at this point. There are a bunch of PPTQs coming up in my region over the next couple of months, so hopefully I'll be able to obtain and provide some more specific data to help refine the deck. )
To the Slaughter was actually decent today in the a few Super-fiends builds I ran into today, would have been nice to have 1 MD against G/B Aristocrats game 1 when he went all in on Westvale Abbey.
Another thing was people still do get how Roar w/ Reveal works after all this time, go figure.
Current Decks
Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BW GUB Sultai Constrictor BUG
Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG
Modern : GB Golgari Elves BG GR Atarka Goblins RG
Pauper : W Heroic W GB Delve BG
May consider not having anything in the 2 drop slot and add 2x fiery impulse or maybe 1x Chandra.
What decks did it do well against and what decks did it struggle with? R/B should do well against the new g/b aristo but will struggle alot against the new g/b seasons-control. Gold Night should help against control and ramp. Would consider 4x in SB.
savedsynner I do like Hangarback for the the non-DiS, non-Grasp match-ups and it does have some synergy with the P&K's outa the SB. They do often become one the first to hit the block in side boarding.
Current Decks
Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BW GUB Sultai Constrictor BUG
Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG
Modern : GB Golgari Elves BG GR Atarka Goblins RG
Pauper : W Heroic W GB Delve BG
Eldrazi is a bit of a blind spot for the deck because ult price cant hit it and grasp cant kill smasher. Maybe a 2x roast sideboard.
It's tough right now because not many pros are playing rakdos so we are having to tune the deck without the thousands of matches the other decks enjoy to work out the kinks. Mark my words tho. Olivia will be a 20-25 dollar card before she rotates. There's just too much value there not too.
I still kick myself a bit for missing what seamed like a hey dey for R/B(in recent history) during return to ravnica and then again between the release of DTK and Stormbreath dragon rotating with the pinnacle of R/B Dragons, but I disgress.
The PT did have some R/B decks but they were more controlly, no doubt to beat bant and humans. Kind of a cool place right now because there is no top deck. Thanks for your reports and continuing testing. I was about to buy 4x olivia, 4x GDD, 2x Chandra and start playing r/b on moto but kalitas spiked hard over the last 24 hours so I will wait until he drops back down. He's good. He's not $24 online good tho.
here is a link to his list Michigan Standard States Winning List
It is the stock list from the PT btw
Current Decks
Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BW GUB Sultai Constrictor BUG
Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG
Modern : GB Golgari Elves BG GR Atarka Goblins RG
Pauper : W Heroic W GB Delve BG
I like the winner's list. Unless someone top 8's an SCG tourny soon with R/B, we may have to wait until EM until R/B gets another place in the sun, not because it's got bad cards, but because the pros seams unfairly biased against it. Just my opp.
Also, cool story about the guy you beat. How did you do at the tourny? Any particularly bad matchups? Which matchups seemed good?
Current Decks
Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BW GUB Sultai Constrictor BUG
Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG
Modern : GB Golgari Elves BG GR Atarka Goblins RG
Pauper : W Heroic W GB Delve BG
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
Abbot is pretty good. Relentless Dead is exactly the card the deck would want(has evasion, can bring it back etc)...but not at BB. It'll be tough getting that consistently. When I was running R/B dragons last standard, with fetches, it was sometimes tough to get BB by turn 2.
I could be wrong tho. I would test RD first because he may be amazing.
Relentless Dead
Pros : 2/2 for 2, has Evasion, Can recur itself, can be pitchd for an Olivia, Mobilized for War trigger and then be recurred from another one dying, and can block
Cons : BB casting cost, could be tricky getting it on T2 but is it that necessary??, exile effects stop shenanigans.
Hangarback Walker
Pros: replaces itself upon death, late game mana sink, colorless
Cons: 1/1 for 2, exile effects, -x/-x effects
Current Decks
Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BW GUB Sultai Constrictor BUG
Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG
Modern : GB Golgari Elves BG GR Atarka Goblins RG
Pauper : W Heroic W GB Delve BG
I'm also giving some consideration to 3 drops. Olivia, Mobilized for War has been mentioned earlier in the thread. I'm giving it a couple slots, and liked playing with it thus far. Olivia can dodge Fiery Impulse in the early game. The discard ability is card disadvantage, but pumping Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Thunderbreak Regent, and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet out of Languish and Grasp of Darkness range is a possible benefit. Sin Prodder is a card I tried out. It's been bittersweet so far. I'm currently giving it a try without Hangarback Walker in the deck to see how it goes. Prodder is really one of the main reasons I'm looking into other 2 drops, but I may end up cutting it.
I also like Drana, Liberator of Malakir, but this doesn't feel like the deck for it. Scab-Clan Berserker also caught my eye. It seems particularly good vs the control decks, but is probably bad elsewhere. There was also some discussion of Thopter Engineer in the thread. I like it with Hangarback Walker, and Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Hopefully I can find enough time to give all of these cards some testing. I'm going to try to make some extra time to work on this deck over the next week or so.
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
Current Decks
Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BW GUB Sultai Constrictor BUG
Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG
Modern : GB Golgari Elves BG GR Atarka Goblins RG
Pauper : W Heroic W GB Delve BG
I tried Abbot but I feel like I'm not using him right. By all accounts, most 2 drops want to be played turn 2, but abbot doesn't, because the card you would get number 1 can't be cast that turn(almost no 0 cost spells in standard) and number 2, gets exiled so it cant even be rebought, which would be sweet. It seams like the best time to cast him is turn 4 or after, to maximize your chance of playing the card he exiles. Let me know if you guys know the best time to play him.
I think relentless dead would be a perfect replacement except for the BB cost. Still looking though. Dragon Whisperer is interesting and since the deck has more red sources, would be easier to get RR turn 2...honestly, if it hadnt just rotated, Ruthless Ripper would be the perfect card. A 1/1 for B with deathtouch. Since the deck isn't racing for damage like the Kolaghan Storm's Fury version, it would do exactly what we want. Play defense until turns 3 or 4. Would shut down white weenie decks until they could either kill it or give gideon indestructable, and even then, they waste a kill spell on a 1/1. Could hold off bant to until reflector mage but that would actually be a boon because they would waste their mage on a 1/1 1 drop.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
Unfortunately, I will not get a chance to play tonight as tomorrow is opening day of Fishing on the Rivers here in Michigan and the Walleye are running so next week I should get some good runs in all week and hopefully have some reports.
Current Decks
Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BW GUB Sultai Constrictor BUG
Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG
Modern : GB Golgari Elves BG GR Atarka Goblins RG
Pauper : W Heroic W GB Delve BG
I am also not suggesting removing dragons for planeswalkers but rather supplementing them. A dragons planeswalker team with Goblin Dark-dwellers.
C Long Live Eldrazi C