This is a really curious deck that seems like quite a lot of fun.
After reading the thread your trouble matchups seem to be red burn and any re-animator style decks. Luckily, both have artifacts you can side in that might prove to help. I'd suggest an elixir of immortality sideboard for RDW and Nihil Spellbomb for reanimator. Both go towards metalcraft that paladin desires and will slow down the game long enough to get the combo going provided you can tutor them.
Awhile ago I saw a thread for Big Red in standard but after searching through a months worth of threads I couldn't really find it. I really like big red because I think it matches up pretty favorably with the current meta. A lot of lists simply like to throw out cheap aggressive creatures whether they be human tokens, zombies, WRR etc. while it doesn't play terribly in the control matchup either as it's a slow start and it'll be staredown draw-go until you can bait out a counter or removal and get a real threat in.
This is the deck I've been using for awhile but I'm not terribly happy with the sideboard.
The main issues this deck has is destroying big creatures. It either generally ends up having to piece together multiple burn spells, or use koth/chandra's -2 to get a ton of mana or double red suns zenith to kill them. If they have to hardcast it it's generally late enough where it's more advantageous to burn them out, however ramp if you don't draw removal is a real issue(thus the tunnel ignus) the rest of the sideboard kind of focuses on undying hate and balancing sweepers vs red suns though I feel it could be diversified a bit.
Thoughts, comments, suggestions on what to use to make it run better?
So I was reading through some of the rest of the questions and found an interesting answer. Note this was from February 2006.
"When we return to Ravnica, as we undoubtedly will, we want to have details to fill in and explore, and perhaps who Borborygmos runs with will be among those details"
Just pointing it out.
To return a bit more on topic I am incredibly excited for these duel decks as I missed out on Ravnica and it seemed like an incredibly block, as well as I'm a sucker for multicolor. Though I'm more of a Boros man myself if Jarad is included as a card I'll find it hard to pass up the Golgari deck.
I was thinking that it allows you to split the effect. Either you get 1 unblockable for U on 2 separate turns, or a UU Ghostly Form. It's more versatile.
Yeah, I thought about that afterwards, but in a deck like this you would ideally have 2 or more creatures out at any given point just to maximize use of wild defiance. Either is a good choice but if you find yourself splashing blue and running more creatures(which is kind of the direction I imagined this going) Ghostly form can have more value. If you're running more blue mana sources though, artful dodge is certainly the way to go.
Artful dodge, while having flashback is nice is slightly worse than Ghostly form in this instance. If the deck isn't focused on milling or the graveyard you get the same effect for 1U instead of UU of two target creatures becoming unblockable.
I don't think the 1/1 for 1B zombie is all that bad. It just serves a different purpose than Highborn
Sure highborn has some evasion, but I think our new friend here works better in the sac heavy version of Zombies, where you get a sacrifice for mortar pod or whatever and then still have a 2/2 and a chump blocker, an attacker or another sacrifice.
After reading the thread your trouble matchups seem to be red burn and any re-animator style decks. Luckily, both have artifacts you can side in that might prove to help. I'd suggest an elixir of immortality sideboard for RDW and Nihil Spellbomb for reanimator. Both go towards metalcraft that paladin desires and will slow down the game long enough to get the combo going provided you can tutor them.
Rares/cards that didn't totally blow included
Not to terrible, eh?
This is the deck I've been using for awhile but I'm not terribly happy with the sideboard.
The main issues this deck has is destroying big creatures. It either generally ends up having to piece together multiple burn spells, or use koth/chandra's -2 to get a ton of mana or double red suns zenith to kill them. If they have to hardcast it it's generally late enough where it's more advantageous to burn them out, however ramp if you don't draw removal is a real issue(thus the tunnel ignus) the rest of the sideboard kind of focuses on undying hate and balancing sweepers vs red suns though I feel it could be diversified a bit.
Thoughts, comments, suggestions on what to use to make it run better?
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Inferno Titan
3 Zealous Conscripts
Burn
3 Galvanic Blast
4 Incinerate
3 Red Sun's Zenith
2 Slagstorm
2 Whipflare
Utility
4 Tezzeret's Gambit
4 Sphere of the Suns
2 Chandra, the Firebrand
25 Mountain
4 Pillar of Flame
1 Galvanic Blast
2 Whipflare
3 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Red Sun's Zenith
4 Tunnel Ignus
So I was reading through some of the rest of the questions and found an interesting answer. Note this was from February 2006.
"When we return to Ravnica, as we undoubtedly will, we want to have details to fill in and explore, and perhaps who Borborygmos runs with will be among those details"
Just pointing it out.
To return a bit more on topic I am incredibly excited for these duel decks as I missed out on Ravnica and it seemed like an incredibly block, as well as I'm a sucker for multicolor. Though I'm more of a Boros man myself if Jarad is included as a card I'll find it hard to pass up the Golgari deck.
Yeah, I thought about that afterwards, but in a deck like this you would ideally have 2 or more creatures out at any given point just to maximize use of wild defiance. Either is a good choice but if you find yourself splashing blue and running more creatures(which is kind of the direction I imagined this going) Ghostly form can have more value. If you're running more blue mana sources though, artful dodge is certainly the way to go.
Sure highborn has some evasion, but I think our new friend here works better in the sac heavy version of Zombies, where you get a sacrifice for mortar pod or whatever and then still have a 2/2 and a chump blocker, an attacker or another sacrifice.