Thanks for all the suggestions guys, definitely a lot to consider. I certainly want this deck to do well in matches and hold its own, I have no problem with getting the cards I need, so if I need another Cavern I'm more than happy to get one more if that's what's needed.
How often have you ever thought you needed another? I've often wished a Cavern was something else and I run only three. The right amount depends on what the other kids in your neighborhood play. Honestly, most of the time I could get by without it at all. You aren't running any other colorless lands, so that's not a factor although you might consider them in the future. KotR's ability to fetch up lands makes it tempting run run single copies of things like Ghost Quarter.
It becomes more of an issue if one includes WW non-creature spells such as Light from Within, Elspeth, Knight-Errant or Leyline of Sanctity. It's also a problem with leveling Student of Warfare. I don't run anything in that first category main-deck but I've run into trouble with my Student often enough.
What am I missing? I don't much synergy at all. Other than effectively giving Thalia vigilance, the only trick I see here is with Eiganjo Castle. It's cute, but I'm guessing Minamo is here mainly because "why not"? It's a mostly better Island.
Nonetheless, I stand by my original comment
Edit: Okay, overlooked the obvious. It requires something for both activations to respond to but that's simple enough.
I pulled a foil Palm from a pack, so i was wondering about throwing it in my sideboard against certain matches. There are a few matches of which I can think where it would be useful.
Give it a shot; what's the worst thing that can happen? If you think those matches are likely, it might be a good call. It's very unlikely to ever be a dead card in any case.
You might want to check the trade price first. Foils can be crazy, although I'm doubtful in this case. On the other hand, a foil Treasure Cruise is nuts!
I have yet to see Thunderous Wrath or Faithless Looting do well in a major setting. Personally, I think both cards are lacking in reliability, and are not doing much in the long run unless certain circumstances meet their needs. I would rather have cards that do exactly what I need, than have cards that only do what I need in certain situations.
I don't much care for either and I didn't run either when they were in Standard - I did try T-Wrath, it got the boot pretty quickly - but they have a little synergy with each other.
To be clear though, I wouldn't give either a second thought unless it was just for fun. I've played worse things hoping for some giggles. It rarely works.
It's simply amazing how many Burn players don't know how to use Skullcrack to get rid of pro-R creatures.
I assume the correct way is to use it is when the pro-red creature blocks? Otherwise you wouldn't really be able to target it. (Or Pyroclasm for that matter)
Yes, Skullcrack removes the pro-R damage prevention which allows R creatures to kill your Captain Underpants like a dog in the street or to let non-targetting R damage do the job.
It's obviously not the only thing a Burn deck can bring to bear here but it's likely the only main-deck thing to fear. Rest assured if you regularly run Lil' Kim or anything that annoying, the Burn players will figure it out.
Still, one can get a whole bunch of mileage out of such creatures but one shouldn't overestimate their worth.
I don't know that the example above that prompted my little outburst was a case of this but it just sort of sounded as if it might have been. Just last Friday, I was playing Affinity against Burn and rapidly going down in flames - no pun intended. I got an Etched Champion out and was hoping for the best when he attacked with Monastery Swiftspear. I new it was coming but I didn't really have much choice. It didn't happen. I asked later; he didn't know. I don't know if he had a 'Crack to begin with but I did have another Champ in hand.
@pzbw7z, What do you mean you may be fine without leylines with Meadowgrain and Fiendslayer? Is that in reference to Storm?
Burn really. I don't know that I'd devote side-board cards to Storm unless I knew some of the other kids were playing it. It doesn't seem to popular these days.
I like this list as well; it's very similar to mine but a little better I think. I haven't gotten around to digging out Swiftspear; pure laziness on my part.
I like Hide // Seek in the side-board right now; it's my super-secret anti-Cruise tech. The Hide side is good enough but Seek means it's never a dead card. The impact of seeking for Treasure Cruise in the mirror would be game-breaking.
Game two went similar in fashion with Auriok gaining too much life for the burn deck to overcome. I had Vault of the Archangel in play and used it only once and after the match he showed me he was holding onto 2 Skull Cracks which he was waiting to cast next time I activated it.
It's simply amazing how many Burn players don't know how to use Skullcrack to get rid of pro-R creatures.
But champion with cranial plating/counters from Ravager/Overseer even just a Champion is something that uwr players can't do anything about. The only thing is mass removal like Supreme Verdict and Wrath of God, anything else is just useless for Champions. Also i don't like champion against burn, is usually to slow, especially if you are on the draw.
Played against burn last night. It was a very short, intense matchup. We talked about this after the game. He feels 4 Etched Champion is the way to go against it as well. They literally have no way to deal with it besides wasting its whole hand on vault skirges, inkmoth nexuss and other creatures trying to rid it of metal craft, which he did once last night. He had all the burn in the world, but it ran him out of gas.
Master of Etherium is good against Burn since he's usually just too big for them to cope with. He's vulnerable to their side-board artifact hate but generally you're talking about three or four cards tops.
I still bring in Champ when playing burn, but I usually side-out other things than Master, starting with Steel Overseer. Burn players will very often kill Overseer on sight - which isn't the worst part since any spell they waste on a creature is a small victory - he's just so slow to impact the board since he can't effectively block any of Burn's common creatures. One usually wants something to help stop the bleeding right away.
It really is only good if you're taking more than three damage; otherwise, Lightning Helix is just better. In fact, it probably needs to be more than four; otherwise, Boros Charm is just better.
It's probably a side-board card at best, but if you see lots of Batterskull or Wurmcoil Engine or similar nasty stuff, it might do some work for you. I'm just not sure what I'd take out of my side-board to run it.
It is a fun card, I mean, "Talk to the Hand!" It's a very satisfying way to finish. I certainly wouldn't criticize anyone who played it just for the fun of it.
@Amlin: It seems to me more KotR food might be useful than the two Flagstones. Flagstones can produce shenanigans, but with only two and no Ghost Quarter, I don't see them working out for you. I might also run one Forest as well because Blood Moon is a thing.
Canopy is very fine and Cavern is as well, but with Vials and KotR, I certainly wouldn't even consider running another Cavern. Vials obviously work around counters and if you can get KotR on board, she can search out a Cavern for later. I might even drop one for something else; there are many lands one can consider as one-of's with KotR.
With Meadowgrain and Fiendslayer, you may get by just fine without Leylines.
If there's any B in your neighborhood, you might like White Shield Crusader instead of Skyhunter. The pump is pretty good but he obviously sucks if folks play Electrolyze or Forked Bolt in your neighborhood.
How often have you ever thought you needed another? I've often wished a Cavern was something else and I run only three. The right amount depends on what the other kids in your neighborhood play. Honestly, most of the time I could get by without it at all. You aren't running any other colorless lands, so that's not a factor although you might consider them in the future. KotR's ability to fetch up lands makes it tempting run run single copies of things like Ghost Quarter.
It becomes more of an issue if one includes WW non-creature spells such as Light from Within, Elspeth, Knight-Errant or Leyline of Sanctity. It's also a problem with leveling Student of Warfare. I don't run anything in that first category main-deck but I've run into trouble with my Student often enough.
What he said. I think.
What am I missing? I don't much synergy at all. Other than effectively giving Thalia vigilance, the only trick I see here is with Eiganjo Castle. It's cute, but I'm guessing Minamo is here mainly because "why not"? It's a mostly better Island.Nonetheless, I stand by my original comment
Edit: Okay, overlooked the obvious. It requires something for both activations to respond to but that's simple enough.
Give it a shot; what's the worst thing that can happen? If you think those matches are likely, it might be a good call. It's very unlikely to ever be a dead card in any case.
You might want to check the trade price first. Foils can be crazy, although I'm doubtful in this case. On the other hand, a foil Treasure Cruise is nuts!
I don't much care for either and I didn't run either when they were in Standard - I did try T-Wrath, it got the boot pretty quickly - but they have a little synergy with each other.
To be clear though, I wouldn't give either a second thought unless it was just for fun. I've played worse things hoping for some giggles. It rarely works.
Yes, Skullcrack removes the pro-R damage prevention which allows R creatures to kill your Captain Underpants like a dog in the street or to let non-targetting R damage do the job.
It's obviously not the only thing a Burn deck can bring to bear here but it's likely the only main-deck thing to fear. Rest assured if you regularly run Lil' Kim or anything that annoying, the Burn players will figure it out.
Still, one can get a whole bunch of mileage out of such creatures but one shouldn't overestimate their worth.
I don't know that the example above that prompted my little outburst was a case of this but it just sort of sounded as if it might have been. Just last Friday, I was playing Affinity against Burn and rapidly going down in flames - no pun intended. I got an Etched Champion out and was hoping for the best when he attacked with Monastery Swiftspear. I new it was coming but I didn't really have much choice. It didn't happen. I asked later; he didn't know. I don't know if he had a 'Crack to begin with but I did have another Champ in hand.
Burn really. I don't know that I'd devote side-board cards to Storm unless I knew some of the other kids were playing it. It doesn't seem to popular these days.
I like this list as well; it's very similar to mine but a little better I think. I haven't gotten around to digging out Swiftspear; pure laziness on my part.
I like Hide // Seek in the side-board right now; it's my super-secret anti-Cruise tech. The Hide side is good enough but Seek means it's never a dead card. The impact of seeking for Treasure Cruise in the mirror would be game-breaking.
It's simply amazing how many Burn players don't know how to use Skullcrack to get rid of pro-R creatures.
I like any deck that runs Minamo
Burn has a very simple way to deal with Etched Champion; attack with Monastery Swiftspear, Goblin Guide, or Vexing Devil then play Skullcrack if the Affinity player throws the Champ under the bus.
Master of Etherium is good against Burn since he's usually just too big for them to cope with. He's vulnerable to their side-board artifact hate but generally you're talking about three or four cards tops.
I still bring in Champ when playing burn, but I usually side-out other things than Master, starting with Steel Overseer. Burn players will very often kill Overseer on sight - which isn't the worst part since any spell they waste on a creature is a small victory - he's just so slow to impact the board since he can't effectively block any of Burn's common creatures. One usually wants something to help stop the bleeding right away.
Combust is standard R side-board tech for Twin.
It really is only good if you're taking more than three damage; otherwise, Lightning Helix is just better. In fact, it probably needs to be more than four; otherwise, Boros Charm is just better.
It's probably a side-board card at best, but if you see lots of Batterskull or Wurmcoil Engine or similar nasty stuff, it might do some work for you. I'm just not sure what I'd take out of my side-board to run it.
It is a fun card, I mean, "Talk to the Hand!" It's a very satisfying way to finish. I certainly wouldn't criticize anyone who played it just for the fun of it.
Sejiri Steppe is a beautiful one-of with KotR.
Canopy is very fine and Cavern is as well, but with Vials and KotR, I certainly wouldn't even consider running another Cavern. Vials obviously work around counters and if you can get KotR on board, she can search out a Cavern for later. I might even drop one for something else; there are many lands one can consider as one-of's with KotR.
With Meadowgrain and Fiendslayer, you may get by just fine without Leylines.
If there's any B in your neighborhood, you might like White Shield Crusader instead of Skyhunter. The pump is pretty good but he obviously sucks if folks play Electrolyze or Forked Bolt in your neighborhood.
This just isn't right.