Well, Wastes lacks a basic land type, so there's some interesting rules things going on here (if they're real). Without a land type, the card inherently has no text, as basic lands gets their mana abilities from their subtypes. This could be mitigated by the <> symbol standing for "t: add <>" on Wastes specifically. However, what if <> means mana produced by a basic land? They could add extra rules baggage that means lands with the basic SUPERtype have "t: add <>"? Or just that Wastes has "t: add 1" and <> just means any mana produced by a basic (think Snow, here). Could be interesting!
Can we please not call them Tango lands? It just sounds terrible.
Anyways, these lands are great, fetchable duals that work very well in Two-Colored and Three-Colored decks that are basic-heavy. If you run a Basic-Heavy Five-Color deck (basically, suboptimal, 2+ of each basic, using stuff like Terramorphic and Wilds as color fixing), they're also a great option to replace ABUR Duals. I like them.
Had my first French FNM at my store back at school! We had 12 total, mostly re-tooled Multiplayer decks, but some of them were surprisingly effective. I piloted my Tasigur list (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/banana-king-control/) through a pretty sweet night. The store had an awkward Mulligan policy where you did full mulligans, but the first one was free. Lots of weird shuffling.
Decks:
Tasigur
Vorosh
Sisay
Reaper King
Freyalise
Momir Vig
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Silver Overlord
Krenko
Marton Stromgald
Maelstrom Wanderer
(and I kinda forgot what the last one was)
Round 1: Vorosh Infect
2-0
Game one: Locked down their only threat with Maze of Ith, ticked up Jace to a W
Game two: Kept threats off the board, found Jace, ticked up to win
Round 2: Captain Sisay
2-0
Game 1: Dust Bowl lock after countering a dork, Ulted Kiora to win
Game 2: Held things down, beat down with Tasigur
Round 3: Sliver Overlord
Game 1: They had a slight mana screw made worse by a Tamiyo followed by Dust Bowl. Got the concession after Tasigur landed.
Game 2: They had a harder mana screw and I just kept them off of most resources. Killed then with Tasigur and True-Name
Round 4: Maelstrom Wanderer
Game 1: Lost to too much value. Should have used Crux instead of paying 7 for Deluge to clear an adaphage.
Game 2: Won off of keeping the board clear and beating with True-Name
Game 3: Won off of his own Cascade into Upheaval with enough mana floating to Reality Shift the Wanderer. Replayed Tasigur and won.
Then we had an awkward cut to top 4
Semifinals: Marton Stromgald
2-0
Game 1: Kept the board clear and won with True-Name + Tasigur, backed up by Jace
Game 2: He was light on mana with a few threats but raced with Tasigur + True-Name
Then split in the Finals with the Maelstrom Wanderer player from round 4.
I had a blast playing Tasigur and wrecked face very consistently throughout the night. Looking forward to playing more!
(First off, apologies if the HTML formatting isn't working. It seems like some threads on the forum just aren't rendering the formatting!)
Hey guys! I've been following Duel Commander for several years on Trice, though I haven't played too much. However, since I've heard that my LGS when I'm at University has been running French List as an FNM format when they get eight or more players, so I thought I'd take a stab at brewing a deck!
I decided to use the new Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh, from Magic: Origins to build a Mono-Red deck. Originally, I wanted to build a straight Burn deck, using Chandra to augment the power of my burn spells and add inevitability with her Planeswalker side. However, when I was looking through the cards I wanted to play (as I've been playing UR Burn with Keranos in Traditional Multiplayer), I realized the deck was looking much closer to the Modern "Skred Red" deck, which is a Mono-Red control deck at its heart, using burn to keep the board clear to pave the way for finishing with Koth or a large Dragon. However, in this list, we have a number of different ways to keep the damage coming, even when we hit the late game. We don't usually care how much burn we have to point at creatures as Chandra adds late-game reach as long as we keep the board clear. The concept seems like it would be strong in a creature-based meta, but I'm skeptical as to how it would function in a Combo- and Control-heavy meta. Which is why I've come here to you guys for notes and ideas!
So, here's a preliminary list with cards sorted by function within the deck, with CMC next to the name.
[b]Commander:[/b]
[spoiler=]
[b]Why play Chandra?[/b]
Well, first of all, because I loved her design when I saw her spoiled and new I wanted to build something around her. Originally, I was going to take inspiration from my friend's Kazuul Burn deck from traditional Multiplayer and build Mono-R Burn with her, but I decided to add Blue for Keranos for my Multiplayer deck. When I heard a store I go to may be running French FNM, I thought I should make my first deck around her. Her ability to add an extra point of damage to burn spells can add up quickly with her ability to chain with instant-speed spells, and her Planeswalker side provides a clock as long as the board stays clear. Her ult provides an insane clock, only outpaced by the likes of Form of the Dragon, but the fact that if you can ult multiple times it all stacks. Of course, we never want to judge a 'walker by the limit break. Her other two abilities, though very straight forward, provide valuable points of damage that can help close out games or keep the board clear.[/spoiler]
[b]Burn Spells[/b]
[spoiler=]
[b]Targeted Burn[/b]
The suite here is pretty self explanatory.
3 Damage: Lightning Bolt, Rift Bolt and Chain Lightning are all 3-for-R spells that can clear early threats or go straight to the head. These spells are very efficient, with Rift Bolt being the only one with a real draw-back. Searing Blaze and Searing Blood are great at getting extra damage through to get extra value for our Mana. Blaze's only drawback is needing Landfall for the 3 damage, but we mitigate that downside with Fetch Lands
4 Damage: Char and Flame Javelin are less mana-efficient than our 3-damage spells, but that extra umph can take down larger threats. Fireblast, while expensive for its actual cost, can provide a surprise finish for the cost of two of our lands. Violent Eruption can help clear board of weenies if we don't have board burn on hand and mitigates the downside of filtering spells like Faithless Looting by having a cheaper Madness cost, as well as just out-right exploding opposing threats that make you discard, like Liliana of the Veil.
Scaling Spells: Skred is probably the most mana-efficient spell in the deck after turn 4, providing a large chunk of damage that can remove large threats, with the only downside being that it can only hit creatures. Devil's Play and Comet Storm provide late-game reach in the form of recurring with Flashback for Devil's Play and versatility with the Multikicker on Comet Storm. The damage can add up fact, and the threat of flashing back Devil's Play for only two less damage can close out a game that's gone long. Banefire will probably also see a slot here for the text that makes it not able to be countered.
Volcanic Offering: This card is criminally underplayed, although it loses the raw power it has in multiplayer when you go to 1v1. Still, being able to 7 a creature and destroy a Non-Basic for only 5 mana and at Instant speed is very strong, and I hope that it's usable in this format, as well.
[b]Board Burn[/b]
Flat-Rate: Pyroclasm, Volcanic Fallout, Blasphemous Act and Anger of the Gods are very efficient spells when your opponent goes wide, wiping away many early threats to clear the way for getting Chandra to stand alone on the board.
With X: Earthquake, Rolling Earthquake and Bonfire of the Damned are always-good spells that not only wipe the board, but provide extra damage to the face. Bonfire is most efficient when played off the top with Miracle, but it can be cast less explosively from the hand. Magmaquake has the downside of hitting Chandra once she flips, but other than that, hitting each planeswalker instead of only killing one with redirecting damage from Bonfire or an Earthquake. Magmaquake and Starstorm are also castable at Instant speed, which can add utility and surprise. Starstorm also has Cycling so it's not a dead draw against less creature-reliant decks. Sudden Demise can allow you to keep your Chandra alive while killing elves, but it has the downside of being less powerful against Artifact-creature based decks, or decks like Animar where you have a ton of creatures but most are mono-colored.[/spoiler]
[b]Card Advantage and Filtering[/b]
[spoiler=]
[b]Red "Card Draw[/b]
Wizards has made it clear that they're not going to give red straight card-draw as often, opting to use a new "Exile the top card, you may cast it until end of turn." As we are in Mono-Red, we might as well Utilize this ability! Act on Impulse and Abbot of Keral Keep provide one-shot effects that "Draw" us cards for the turn. Impulse is great late game when you have potential to cast all of the spells, while Abbot is better in the mid-game and provides a body to block or attack. Chandra, Pyromaster conflicts for our spot of active Chandra, but provides a repeatable "draw" while we're getting things ready for our younger Chandra. Outpost Siege just does it every turn for free, so is probably better than Chandra here.
[b]Filtering[/b]
Red's other way of card 'advantage' is actually just policing Card Quality and not Quantity. This is often done with what we call 'Looting', where we draw cards, then also discard that many. Faithless Looting is the most iconic, allowing you to filter two cards and then flash it back to do it again later. Daretti, Scrap Savant lets you get rid of dead draws repeatedly and for his +2 alone is worth playing in any red deck. Tormenting Voice allows us to ditch an unwanted card to replace it with two more.
[b]Others?[/b]
Wheel of Fortune seems incredibly powerful if we can resolve it when we're low on steam. Now, the last card in here sort of mono-combos with Wheel but can also provide other utility. Ignorant Bliss is weird, since it exiles your hand, then returns it at the beginning of the next end step and draws a card. It can be used to dodge discard spells and effects, or just to cycle it if needed at the end of your opponents second main phase. If you cast Wheel of Fortune and then respond with Bliss, it allows you to basically keep your hand and draw 8, which seems pretty sweet. The only danger here is that if the delayed trigger is countered, you don't get your cards back.[/spoiler]
[b]Late-Game Reach[/b]
[spoiler=]
Now, Red famously doesn't do too well in the late-game, so we need some good bomb-y cards to carry us through.
Koth and Sarkhan provide a clock in the form of a 4/4, while both serve utility by either providing extra mana or being able to remove creature threats. Obsidian Fireheart and Sulfuric Vortex can provide constant damage over a number of turns. Placing counters on lands with Fireheart is great because it's like having a Chandra Emblem unless lands get wiped. Past in Flames grants Flashback to our graveyard and allows us to bring back spells we need to get the last bit of damage in. Charbelcher is iffy and potentially explosive, but since we aren't in UR, we don't have access to Mana Severance to make it an instant kill.[/spoiler]
[b]Utility Cards[/b]
[spoiler=]
Chaos Warp is honestly one of the best removal spells ever printed. Of course, it can backfire, but it's too good not to play.
Expedition Map finds us Utility lands we need to make it through certain situations.
Heat Shimmer allows us to copy our opponent's game-winning Bomb and also combos with a few of value creatures, and goes actual infinite with Dualcaster Mage, allowing us to have a surprise win out of almost nowhere.
Imperial Recruiter. We can't play Red Control without the best Red Creature ever printed, can we? Recruiter is an insanely powerful card that offers un-paralleled utility. Here's what we can find with it:
Phyrexian Revoker: Always Good
Dualcaster Mage: Can double any of our burn, function as a counter spell, and combos with Heat Shimmer. Pretty cool new card!
Magus of the Moon: Blood Moon #2 and Findable with our Recruiter.
Zo-Zu the Punisher: Provides constant damage against decks that ramp up with Lands.
Young Pyromancer: Also falls under our Late-Game cards, but also functions well in the early game. Adds extra value to our spells and provides beaters and blockers.
Chandra's Phoenix: A solid, recursive and evasive threat that can help provide late-game reach.
Gorilla Shaman: For pesky artifacts. Could also be a Viashino Heretic, but the while the Shaman is more expensive to activate in most cases, it can be used immediately when it comes down.
Jaya Ballard: She can turn any dead draws in to "spells", destroy Blue permanents and bomb the board. I'm not sure how great she'll be, but if you untap with her, she can generate great value![/spoiler]
[b]Silver Bullets and Explosions[/b]
[spoiler=][b]Silver Bullets[/b]
Cards to hose specific strategies or help generate good advantage against them
Blood Moon and Ruination do wonders against the greedy mana bases of the format, either keeping them off colors if they're non-Red or setting them back many, many turns. Price of Progress can also easily represent 10+ damage for two mana at instant speed. Leyline of Punishment, along with Sulfuric Vortex, can stop life-gain strategies. Vandalblast and Shattering Spree can take care of artifact boards.
[b]Explosions[/b]
It would be a Chandra deck without a late-game nuclear bomb. A flipping Chandra into an Obliterate can often mean the end of a game, opposing Enchantments aside. While the enemy needs to take time to rebuild, we can shock them every turn with her +2 to the face or even to keep opposing Planeswalkers from being problematic. The card inherently can't be countered, which is why we go with this over Jokulhaups or Decree of Annihilation.[/b]
[b]Lands[/b]
[spoiler=][b]Utility Lands[/b]
Arcane Lighthouse prevents Hexproof and Shroud from completely wrecking our day when we see only targeted burn in our hand. Wasteland and Rishadan Port are classic Mana-Denial. Mouth of Ronom and Scrying Sheets provide extra utility from our Snow-Covered Basics.
[b]Inevitability Lands[/b]
Shivan Gorge provides a clock by itself. Barbarian Ring can surprise the opponent with extra damage from a land that they can't traditionally counter. Valakut gives extra value to our basic land drops late-game. Mutavault and Ghitu Encampment can become creatures and be a clock by themselves.
[b]Fetches and Basics[/b]
Pretty simple, playing our four fetches and filling out the rest of the slots with Basics, essentially giving us 26 snow-covered basics to work with Skred, Mouth of Ronom and Scrying Sheets.[/spoiler]
Alright, so that's basically what I'm trying to work with! If anyone has suggestions or comments, I'm open to everything. I just wanted to post up here to get feedback and show what I'm potentially working with.
Hey, folks. I've been following the thread for a while since I've been interested in building a deck along these lines ever since we had Eidolon of Blossoms spoiled. So, before last night, I proxied up Rorak_Kuroda's list from page 2 to start testing out, except I switched one of the Boon Satyrs with a third Herald of Torment. I only got one match-up tested between trading, drafting and EDH (and my store's Constructed format was Modern last night), but I'll write up my findings since there isn't too much on this one in the thread.
Naya Hexproof
The match-up is kinda hit-or-miss. Most of our removal, aside from Devour Flesh, can't really interact with their creatures. So, we have to grab stuff out of their hand. The matches basically came down to if I had the early Maggot or Thoughtseize to prevent the threats from coming down at all. The games where I didn't have the early disruption were basically already lost. The best game I had was a 7 of Forest, Guildgate, Overgrown Tomb, Double Thoughtseize, Double Brain Maggot. On the play. That game was over before it even began. To add something in to the Abrupt Decay/Golgari Charm debate, it's somewhat relevant in this match-up. Golgari Charm hits all of their enchantments and can potentially kill their Gladecover Scouts before they get suited up. Abrupt Decay can hit all of their Enchantments, Voice of Resurgence (and Token), as well as Ajani, Caller of the Pride. I feel like Abrupt Decay is a little bit better here, since you have to have the Golgari Charm ready to go on the Turn 2 or 3 when they start suiting up their Scouts.
So, that's what I've found. I'm really liking this deck, and I'm looking forward to trying it out at FNM next week.
Could this be the "Buy-a-Cube" thing that some people have posed interest in? An alternate game mode, combined in to a cube experience could actually be pretty awesome.
We'll need to wait from more official rulings once Born of the Gods is actually out, but here's what I know:
When I first saw Ephara + Torpor Orb happen on Cockatrice, I went to the judge IRC to check on the interaction. The IRC said that there's no interaction, and it makes sense: The creature entering doesn't directly cause the trigger. The Ability simply checks to see if something is true (A creature entered under your control last turn), and if it is, it triggers (Intervening If Clause).
As for the second, pretty sure it's the same thing, just worded differently. "If you had another creature enter under your control last turn" just reads better than the other.
Hey, I've been doing a little messing around with this deck this evening. I figure that because we're running Idyllic Tutor and drawing a bunch of cards, we can sort of make the deck a tool box. Because each of our Hate cards fills the same spot on the curve as any other card we can take out, we can just mainboard, say, one Stony Silence and one Rest in Peace.
When the game gets a little later and you have a bunch of enchantments and an enchantress or two, the deck becomes a stupidly powerful engine that just keeps going and going, almost like a combo deck. I haven't tested it too much, but I'd try running Silence in the main to either psuedo-timewalk the opponent or to protect your self when you're 'going off', digging for a second Nykthos and the Emrakul.
If I were to splash Red, I'd cut 9 Plains for 4 Arid Mesa, 4 Sacred Foundry and 1 Mountain. Not sure what I'd put in with the Splash. Chained to the Rocks wants you to make sure that you have one of those nine lands before casting it, so it might be a little iffy. When compared to just how quickly you can pump out Angels with a Sigil+Enchantress+Nykthos engine going, any of the Goblin Assault/Assemble the Legion cards just feel really slow.
I'm also considering putting in Greater Auramancy with a few 1-2 cost Auras that can both protect our Enchantress and shut down the opponent (Chained to the Rocks, Gelid Shackles, Hyena Umbra).
War's Toll seems like a sweet card since we don't mind them attacking with creatures they can't attack with (xD), and making them tap all their lands so that they can't pay for Suppression Field, Ghostly Prison, and Sphere of Safety seems like a sickening combo.
I really like the idea of this deck and would love to build something like it to take to Richmond.
On War's Toll: An effect can never force a player to pay a cost, so it works against the Prison/Sphere, because they aren't forced to pay the cost to attack if they don't want to.
Because the deck seems to be more of a "Big Mana" white deck, I think I'd personally play Assemble the Legion as an alternate win-con if you splash Red. Mostly just because Rise of the Hobgobs and Goblin assault are both hit by Abrupt Decay. But if you can protect Assault, it could easily end games.
Give a LOT more use for one of the more useless cards in EDH: Leyline of Singularity. If anyone wants to make that sort of combo happen, I'd love to see it.
Well, if you activate the Sundial as soon as your dragon hits the board, it'll simply be exiled at the beginning of the next turn's end step.
However, if you wait until the current turn's End Step, the trigger will go on the stack. Ending the Turn then will exile the trigger, leaving your scaly friend on the battlefield.
Can someone please tell me WHY Karametra will be a game changer as a general?
So many people are saying that it's the next best thing, but all it really does is make you puke out all the lands as you play creatures. So either your deck is G/W with basically no ramp, a manadorks.dec, or a really hopeful goodstuff.dec.
It gives you lands when you play creatures, making everything a Farhaven Elf. I guess I'm packing a lot more Torpor Orb now.
Torpor Orb wont do anything here; It's a Cast trigger. Regardless of whether the creature is countered or not, you're up a Basic Forest or Plains, or any land that has either of those types. And you can land her pretty darn quickly in the right deck. It wont ramp nearly as fast as Azusa, but it opens up a ton more possibilities.
We had a 5 player game that went on for a while. I'd noticed early on that the Jeleva player had discarded Rise of the Dark Realms, while I was holding Memory Plunder in my hand for most of the game, waiting for the right time to snatch it to get a metric crap-ton of creatures. Eventually he tries to Spelltwine it. I take a moment to read the card and see that it would exile the Rise, so I counter it. Then, on my next turn someone tries to stop me from doing something, so as a 4-mana Counterspell, I Memory Plunder the Rise, getting an Eternal Witness for Force of Will.... And enough creatures to destroy everyone on my next turn.
Anyways, these lands are great, fetchable duals that work very well in Two-Colored and Three-Colored decks that are basic-heavy. If you run a Basic-Heavy Five-Color deck (basically, suboptimal, 2+ of each basic, using stuff like Terramorphic and Wilds as color fixing), they're also a great option to replace ABUR Duals. I like them.
Decks:
Tasigur
Vorosh
Sisay
Reaper King
Freyalise
Momir Vig
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Silver Overlord
Krenko
Marton Stromgald
Maelstrom Wanderer
(and I kinda forgot what the last one was)
Round 1: Vorosh Infect
2-0
Game one: Locked down their only threat with Maze of Ith, ticked up Jace to a W
Game two: Kept threats off the board, found Jace, ticked up to win
Round 2: Captain Sisay
2-0
Game 1: Dust Bowl lock after countering a dork, Ulted Kiora to win
Game 2: Held things down, beat down with Tasigur
Round 3: Sliver Overlord
Game 1: They had a slight mana screw made worse by a Tamiyo followed by Dust Bowl. Got the concession after Tasigur landed.
Game 2: They had a harder mana screw and I just kept them off of most resources. Killed then with Tasigur and True-Name
Round 4: Maelstrom Wanderer
Game 1: Lost to too much value. Should have used Crux instead of paying 7 for Deluge to clear an adaphage.
Game 2: Won off of keeping the board clear and beating with True-Name
Game 3: Won off of his own Cascade into Upheaval with enough mana floating to Reality Shift the Wanderer. Replayed Tasigur and won.
Then we had an awkward cut to top 4
Semifinals: Marton Stromgald
2-0
Game 1: Kept the board clear and won with True-Name + Tasigur, backed up by Jace
Game 2: He was light on mana with a few threats but raced with Tasigur + True-Name
Then split in the Finals with the Maelstrom Wanderer player from round 4.
I had a blast playing Tasigur and wrecked face very consistently throughout the night. Looking forward to playing more!
Hey guys! I've been following Duel Commander for several years on Trice, though I haven't played too much. However, since I've heard that my LGS when I'm at University has been running French List as an FNM format when they get eight or more players, so I thought I'd take a stab at brewing a deck!
I decided to use the new Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh, from Magic: Origins to build a Mono-Red deck. Originally, I wanted to build a straight Burn deck, using Chandra to augment the power of my burn spells and add inevitability with her Planeswalker side. However, when I was looking through the cards I wanted to play (as I've been playing UR Burn with Keranos in Traditional Multiplayer), I realized the deck was looking much closer to the Modern "Skred Red" deck, which is a Mono-Red control deck at its heart, using burn to keep the board clear to pave the way for finishing with Koth or a large Dragon. However, in this list, we have a number of different ways to keep the damage coming, even when we hit the late game. We don't usually care how much burn we have to point at creatures as Chandra adds late-game reach as long as we keep the board clear. The concept seems like it would be strong in a creature-based meta, but I'm skeptical as to how it would function in a Combo- and Control-heavy meta. Which is why I've come here to you guys for notes and ideas!
So, here's a preliminary list with cards sorted by function within the deck, with CMC next to the name.
3 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
Targeted Burn
1 Lightning Bolt
3 Rift Bolt
1 Chain Lightning
6 Fireblast
3 Flame Javelin
3 Char
1 Skred
1 Devil's Play
2 Comet Storm
5 Volcanic Offering
2 Searing Blaze
2 Searing Blood
4 Violent Eruption
Board Burn
2 Pyroclasm
2 Magmaquake
1 Earthquake
1 Sudden Demise
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Rolling Earthquake
2 Starstorm
3 Volcanic Fallout
9 Blasphemous Act
3 Anger of the Gods
Mana Rocks
2 Coldsteel Heart
2 Mind Stone
2 Guardian Idol
3 Commander's Sphere
2 Fire Diamond
2 Ruby Medallion
2 Fractured Powerstone
3 Act on Impulse
3 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Outpost Siege
4 Daretti, Scrap Savant
1 Faithless Looting
3 Wheel of Fortune
2 Ignorant Bliss
2 Tormenting Voice
Late Game Reach
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Obsidian Fireheart
3 Sulfuric Vortex
4 Past in Flames
4 Goblin Charbelcher
5 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
Utility
3 Imperial Recruiter
3 Chaos Warp
1 Expedition Map
3 Heat Shimmer
Recruiter Targets
2 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Dualcaster Mage
2 Magus of the Moon
3 Zo-Zu the Punisher
2 Young Pyromancer
3 Chandra's Phoenix
1 Gorilla Shaman
3 Jaya Ballard
3 Blood Moon
4 Ruination
4 Leyline of Punishment
1 Vandalblast
1 Shattering Spree
2 Price of Progress
Lands
1 Shivan Gorge
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Mutavault
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Wasteland
1 Rishadan Port
1 Mouth of Ronom
1 Scrying Sheets
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Scalding Tarn
22 Snow-Covered Mountain
Card choices explained:
[b]Commander:[/b]
[spoiler=]
[b]Why play Chandra?[/b]
Well, first of all, because I loved her design when I saw her spoiled and new I wanted to build something around her. Originally, I was going to take inspiration from my friend's Kazuul Burn deck from traditional Multiplayer and build Mono-R Burn with her, but I decided to add Blue for Keranos for my Multiplayer deck. When I heard a store I go to may be running French FNM, I thought I should make my first deck around her. Her ability to add an extra point of damage to burn spells can add up quickly with her ability to chain with instant-speed spells, and her Planeswalker side provides a clock as long as the board stays clear. Her ult provides an insane clock, only outpaced by the likes of Form of the Dragon, but the fact that if you can ult multiple times it all stacks. Of course, we never want to judge a 'walker by the limit break. Her other two abilities, though very straight forward, provide valuable points of damage that can help close out games or keep the board clear.[/spoiler]
[b]Burn Spells[/b]
[spoiler=]
[b]Targeted Burn[/b]
The suite here is pretty self explanatory.
3 Damage: Lightning Bolt, Rift Bolt and Chain Lightning are all 3-for-R spells that can clear early threats or go straight to the head. These spells are very efficient, with Rift Bolt being the only one with a real draw-back. Searing Blaze and Searing Blood are great at getting extra damage through to get extra value for our Mana. Blaze's only drawback is needing Landfall for the 3 damage, but we mitigate that downside with Fetch Lands
4 Damage: Char and Flame Javelin are less mana-efficient than our 3-damage spells, but that extra umph can take down larger threats. Fireblast, while expensive for its actual cost, can provide a surprise finish for the cost of two of our lands. Violent Eruption can help clear board of weenies if we don't have board burn on hand and mitigates the downside of filtering spells like Faithless Looting by having a cheaper Madness cost, as well as just out-right exploding opposing threats that make you discard, like Liliana of the Veil.
Scaling Spells: Skred is probably the most mana-efficient spell in the deck after turn 4, providing a large chunk of damage that can remove large threats, with the only downside being that it can only hit creatures. Devil's Play and Comet Storm provide late-game reach in the form of recurring with Flashback for Devil's Play and versatility with the Multikicker on Comet Storm. The damage can add up fact, and the threat of flashing back Devil's Play for only two less damage can close out a game that's gone long. Banefire will probably also see a slot here for the text that makes it not able to be countered.
Volcanic Offering: This card is criminally underplayed, although it loses the raw power it has in multiplayer when you go to 1v1. Still, being able to 7 a creature and destroy a Non-Basic for only 5 mana and at Instant speed is very strong, and I hope that it's usable in this format, as well.
[b]Board Burn[/b]
Flat-Rate: Pyroclasm, Volcanic Fallout, Blasphemous Act and Anger of the Gods are very efficient spells when your opponent goes wide, wiping away many early threats to clear the way for getting Chandra to stand alone on the board.
With X: Earthquake, Rolling Earthquake and Bonfire of the Damned are always-good spells that not only wipe the board, but provide extra damage to the face. Bonfire is most efficient when played off the top with Miracle, but it can be cast less explosively from the hand. Magmaquake has the downside of hitting Chandra once she flips, but other than that, hitting each planeswalker instead of only killing one with redirecting damage from Bonfire or an Earthquake. Magmaquake and Starstorm are also castable at Instant speed, which can add utility and surprise. Starstorm also has Cycling so it's not a dead draw against less creature-reliant decks. Sudden Demise can allow you to keep your Chandra alive while killing elves, but it has the downside of being less powerful against Artifact-creature based decks, or decks like Animar where you have a ton of creatures but most are mono-colored.[/spoiler]
[b]Card Advantage and Filtering[/b]
[spoiler=]
[b]Red "Card Draw[/b]
Wizards has made it clear that they're not going to give red straight card-draw as often, opting to use a new "Exile the top card, you may cast it until end of turn." As we are in Mono-Red, we might as well Utilize this ability! Act on Impulse and Abbot of Keral Keep provide one-shot effects that "Draw" us cards for the turn. Impulse is great late game when you have potential to cast all of the spells, while Abbot is better in the mid-game and provides a body to block or attack. Chandra, Pyromaster conflicts for our spot of active Chandra, but provides a repeatable "draw" while we're getting things ready for our younger Chandra. Outpost Siege just does it every turn for free, so is probably better than Chandra here.
[b]Filtering[/b]
Red's other way of card 'advantage' is actually just policing Card Quality and not Quantity. This is often done with what we call 'Looting', where we draw cards, then also discard that many. Faithless Looting is the most iconic, allowing you to filter two cards and then flash it back to do it again later. Daretti, Scrap Savant lets you get rid of dead draws repeatedly and for his +2 alone is worth playing in any red deck. Tormenting Voice allows us to ditch an unwanted card to replace it with two more.
[b]Others?[/b]
Wheel of Fortune seems incredibly powerful if we can resolve it when we're low on steam. Now, the last card in here sort of mono-combos with Wheel but can also provide other utility. Ignorant Bliss is weird, since it exiles your hand, then returns it at the beginning of the next end step and draws a card. It can be used to dodge discard spells and effects, or just to cycle it if needed at the end of your opponents second main phase. If you cast Wheel of Fortune and then respond with Bliss, it allows you to basically keep your hand and draw 8, which seems pretty sweet. The only danger here is that if the delayed trigger is countered, you don't get your cards back.[/spoiler]
[b]Late-Game Reach[/b]
[spoiler=]
Now, Red famously doesn't do too well in the late-game, so we need some good bomb-y cards to carry us through.
Koth and Sarkhan provide a clock in the form of a 4/4, while both serve utility by either providing extra mana or being able to remove creature threats. Obsidian Fireheart and Sulfuric Vortex can provide constant damage over a number of turns. Placing counters on lands with Fireheart is great because it's like having a Chandra Emblem unless lands get wiped. Past in Flames grants Flashback to our graveyard and allows us to bring back spells we need to get the last bit of damage in. Charbelcher is iffy and potentially explosive, but since we aren't in UR, we don't have access to Mana Severance to make it an instant kill.[/spoiler]
[b]Utility Cards[/b]
[spoiler=]
Chaos Warp is honestly one of the best removal spells ever printed. Of course, it can backfire, but it's too good not to play.
Expedition Map finds us Utility lands we need to make it through certain situations.
Heat Shimmer allows us to copy our opponent's game-winning Bomb and also combos with a few of value creatures, and goes actual infinite with Dualcaster Mage, allowing us to have a surprise win out of almost nowhere.
Imperial Recruiter. We can't play Red Control without the best Red Creature ever printed, can we? Recruiter is an insanely powerful card that offers un-paralleled utility. Here's what we can find with it:
Phyrexian Revoker: Always Good
Dualcaster Mage: Can double any of our burn, function as a counter spell, and combos with Heat Shimmer. Pretty cool new card!
Magus of the Moon: Blood Moon #2 and Findable with our Recruiter.
Zo-Zu the Punisher: Provides constant damage against decks that ramp up with Lands.
Young Pyromancer: Also falls under our Late-Game cards, but also functions well in the early game. Adds extra value to our spells and provides beaters and blockers.
Chandra's Phoenix: A solid, recursive and evasive threat that can help provide late-game reach.
Gorilla Shaman: For pesky artifacts. Could also be a Viashino Heretic, but the while the Shaman is more expensive to activate in most cases, it can be used immediately when it comes down.
Jaya Ballard: She can turn any dead draws in to "spells", destroy Blue permanents and bomb the board. I'm not sure how great she'll be, but if you untap with her, she can generate great value![/spoiler]
[b]Silver Bullets and Explosions[/b]
[spoiler=][b]Silver Bullets[/b]
Cards to hose specific strategies or help generate good advantage against them
Blood Moon and Ruination do wonders against the greedy mana bases of the format, either keeping them off colors if they're non-Red or setting them back many, many turns. Price of Progress can also easily represent 10+ damage for two mana at instant speed. Leyline of Punishment, along with Sulfuric Vortex, can stop life-gain strategies. Vandalblast and Shattering Spree can take care of artifact boards.
[b]Explosions[/b]
It would be a Chandra deck without a late-game nuclear bomb. A flipping Chandra into an Obliterate can often mean the end of a game, opposing Enchantments aside. While the enemy needs to take time to rebuild, we can shock them every turn with her +2 to the face or even to keep opposing Planeswalkers from being problematic. The card inherently can't be countered, which is why we go with this over Jokulhaups or Decree of Annihilation.[/b]
[b]Lands[/b]
[spoiler=][b]Utility Lands[/b]
Arcane Lighthouse prevents Hexproof and Shroud from completely wrecking our day when we see only targeted burn in our hand. Wasteland and Rishadan Port are classic Mana-Denial. Mouth of Ronom and Scrying Sheets provide extra utility from our Snow-Covered Basics.
[b]Inevitability Lands[/b]
Shivan Gorge provides a clock by itself. Barbarian Ring can surprise the opponent with extra damage from a land that they can't traditionally counter. Valakut gives extra value to our basic land drops late-game. Mutavault and Ghitu Encampment can become creatures and be a clock by themselves.
[b]Fetches and Basics[/b]
Pretty simple, playing our four fetches and filling out the rest of the slots with Basics, essentially giving us 26 snow-covered basics to work with Skred, Mouth of Ronom and Scrying Sheets.[/spoiler]
Alright, so that's basically what I'm trying to work with! If anyone has suggestions or comments, I'm open to everything. I just wanted to post up here to get feedback and show what I'm potentially working with.
Naya Hexproof
The match-up is kinda hit-or-miss. Most of our removal, aside from Devour Flesh, can't really interact with their creatures. So, we have to grab stuff out of their hand. The matches basically came down to if I had the early Maggot or Thoughtseize to prevent the threats from coming down at all. The games where I didn't have the early disruption were basically already lost. The best game I had was a 7 of Forest, Guildgate, Overgrown Tomb, Double Thoughtseize, Double Brain Maggot. On the play. That game was over before it even began. To add something in to the Abrupt Decay/Golgari Charm debate, it's somewhat relevant in this match-up. Golgari Charm hits all of their enchantments and can potentially kill their Gladecover Scouts before they get suited up. Abrupt Decay can hit all of their Enchantments, Voice of Resurgence (and Token), as well as Ajani, Caller of the Pride. I feel like Abrupt Decay is a little bit better here, since you have to have the Golgari Charm ready to go on the Turn 2 or 3 when they start suiting up their Scouts.
So, that's what I've found. I'm really liking this deck, and I'm looking forward to trying it out at FNM next week.
When I first saw Ephara + Torpor Orb happen on Cockatrice, I went to the judge IRC to check on the interaction. The IRC said that there's no interaction, and it makes sense: The creature entering doesn't directly cause the trigger. The Ability simply checks to see if something is true (A creature entered under your control last turn), and if it is, it triggers (Intervening If Clause).
As for the second, pretty sure it's the same thing, just worded differently. "If you had another creature enter under your control last turn" just reads better than the other.
When the game gets a little later and you have a bunch of enchantments and an enchantress or two, the deck becomes a stupidly powerful engine that just keeps going and going, almost like a combo deck. I haven't tested it too much, but I'd try running Silence in the main to either psuedo-timewalk the opponent or to protect your self when you're 'going off', digging for a second Nykthos and the Emrakul.
Here's what I've come up with:
4 Mesa Enchantress
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Land (23)
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
19 Plains
Enchantments (26)
4 Suppression Field
3 Runed Halo
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
2 Sigil of the Empty Throne
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Sphere of Safety
1 Rest in Peace
1 Stony Silence
3 Blind Obedience
Instants (3)
3 Silence
Sorceries (3)
3 Idyllic Tutor
1 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Stony Silence
3 Open the Vaults
4 Dawn Charm
2 Aura of Silence
3 Privileged Position
If I were to splash Red, I'd cut 9 Plains for 4 Arid Mesa, 4 Sacred Foundry and 1 Mountain. Not sure what I'd put in with the Splash. Chained to the Rocks wants you to make sure that you have one of those nine lands before casting it, so it might be a little iffy. When compared to just how quickly you can pump out Angels with a Sigil+Enchantress+Nykthos engine going, any of the Goblin Assault/Assemble the Legion cards just feel really slow.
I'm also considering putting in Greater Auramancy with a few 1-2 cost Auras that can both protect our Enchantress and shut down the opponent (Chained to the Rocks, Gelid Shackles, Hyena Umbra).
I really like the idea of this deck and would love to build something like it to take to Richmond.
On War's Toll: An effect can never force a player to pay a cost, so it works against the Prison/Sphere, because they aren't forced to pay the cost to attack if they don't want to.
Because the deck seems to be more of a "Big Mana" white deck, I think I'd personally play Assemble the Legion as an alternate win-con if you splash Red. Mostly just because Rise of the Hobgobs and Goblin assault are both hit by Abrupt Decay. But if you can protect Assault, it could easily end games.
However, if you wait until the current turn's End Step, the trigger will go on the stack. Ending the Turn then will exile the trigger, leaving your scaly friend on the battlefield.
Torpor Orb wont do anything here; It's a Cast trigger. Regardless of whether the creature is countered or not, you're up a Basic Forest or Plains, or any land that has either of those types. And you can land her pretty darn quickly in the right deck. It wont ramp nearly as fast as Azusa, but it opens up a ton more possibilities.
Good times, good times.
Also, Strictly Better Infest is Strictly better than Infest. Not too much more, but Uncommon is really nice.