As for the Dragonstorm article, what about Shadow of Doubt? I don't play Type 2, so I don't know how often it's sideboarded, but I can see that being a bigger problem for any serious recurrence of Dragonstorm than Trickbind.
Test the Sonic Boom matchup before you dismiss the deck. The most important cards in the list are chargelands, not Knolls. If you outmana them then you win, counters or no. The storm mechanic is inherently busted and this deck abuses it more than the old Dragonstorm ever did.
After testing about 20 games last night we think the Sonic Boom player holds a slight edge so long as they play aggressively by bouncing chargelands with Venser and Cryptic Command. However, it's far closer than you'd think.
Edit: We also liked the Tarfire configuration better than 4 Rift Bolts because sometimes you want to have the threat of going off at instant speed. For example:
- Dragonstorm passes on turn 5 with 4 lands including Knoll and 3 counters on Fungal Reaches.
- Sonic Boom plays Venser on end step, bouncing Fungal Reaches
- Dragonstorm responds with Shock, Tarfire, Incinerate and Dragonstorm from under Knoll
We tested something like 20 games against Sonic Boom and 10 against RG Sadin (didn't really keep track of numbers, just getting a feel for the matchups). Tarfire was better against the interactive deck (Sonic Boom) and Rift Bolt was better against the non-interactive deck (RG). We thought it was more important to have the options against counters than to be able to goldfish faster in an already good matchup.
You can play the spell hidden by Spinerock Knoll at instant speed if its a sorcery?
Oh for crying out loud just pay for it!!! It's penny's really for what you get, and the guys who made the program deserve some frikkin credit!!!
This is the internet This is reality. Expecting someone to pay for something that they can get for free is ridiculous. Especially when said product has absolutely no monetary value.
This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, Lorwyn in Standard. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
ods[A]ssassin']interesting ideas but i like was seraph said about the creatures
and can some one explain to me whats so "good" about bottled cloyster
There's nothing good about Bottled Cloister. It's too expensive to stop early game discard and late-game playing burn or a creature is better. If you must have a way around discard, use Ignorant Bliss instead.
About the Guildmage abilities, yes, Rakdos Guildmage's Black ability is relatively useless unless you're pitching lands, but really, saying that pitching a Shock to it is useless is a really lame argument. Why the hell would you pitch a Shock to it anyway? And sorry to burst your bubble, but the Black ability isn't card disadvantage either. Discarding a card to kill a creature isn't card disadvantage. On the other hand, Gruul Guildmage's Green ability is excellent. It's a way of giving a bit of extra damage against control and against aggro, it's a way of letting a blocker survive, and most likely, kill the blocked creature.
And after a Wrath of God... Burn is better than a couple of 1/1s... The problem with cutting Shock/Seal of Fire for creatures is that it's too redundant. There's only so far your creatures can take you. For the rest of the journey, you need burn.
MRA is actually very good. Yet your build, isn't. You use teh dual lands to pay for the guildmages abilities, even though the abilities are for the most part useless. You should be running Mikokoro, and you use no Flames of the Bloodhand.
The match-up analysis is crazy. You write about a post-dis build yet only write match-ups for the existing decks? that's something i don't understand at all.
The matchup analysis is crazy? What the hell am I supposed to put in there? About how this organized deck destroys the crappy Rakdos Aggro decks being tested now? Or how it wrecks the wanna-be Simic Control decks? How much do you think Heartbeat is going to change? Or Zoo? They aren't going to change at all. Dissension brought a few decent cards, but nothing they want, or need.
Oh dear. I'm using dual-lands to get bad abilities. It's the end of the world, seeing as my mana-base isn't affected at all by their inclusion, I don't see your point.
This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, The Path of Aggression: Mono-Red Aggro in Standard. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
Jagged Poppet is a bit situational... Losing your hand to a Char is not good.
Rakdos Pit-Dragon is crap. He's bad before Hellbent, and he's not going to stick around against any deck except Heartbeat.
And of course there's no "progress" in this thread. No one is really sure which way to go with the deck. There is only one discard spell worth running: Persecute. If you know what you're doing, you can hit most of their hand away in one turn. Watering down your early turns with stuff like Blackmail, Ravenous Rats, and Fall is not the aggro way.
Creatures that cost 3 or more mana should win you the game. On their own. Cards like Lyzolda, Rakdos Pit-Dragon, and Avatar of Discord are just too easy to get rid of.
And above all, DO NOT USE SITUATIONAL CARDS. Those are for the sideboard. Why run Black removal spells when you've got Red burn that's just as effective against the decks you need it against? Infernal Tutor? What the hell? Just run Giant Solifuge in it's place if you need a lategame card. Hit/Run? Pfffft. More burn please.
Umezawa's Jitte should not be run in this deck. None of the creatures are solid enough to stick around after it hits the board. Even if it becomes active, if you've got no creatures, you're still going to lose.
Lyzolda is pretty useless in the current environment actually... With Frostling, Plagued Rusalka, Shock, and Seal of Fire around in most forms of aggro decks (which is the matchup Lyzolda would shine in), she doesn't tend to survive the turn she comes down. Against control, she's just a more expensive Scorched Rusalka.
I hope it's not an April Fools joke. Some of these threads, mainly the ones about mass banning or giving out infractions, are made of pure win.
Shadow of Doubt already rotated.
He listed Riftbolt twice at 4x. I'm guessing that he's forgotten 2 lands (he states that 24 is the right number), which would make it 60 cards total.
You can play the spell hidden by Spinerock Knoll at instant speed if its a sorcery?
This is the internetThis is reality. Expecting someone to pay for something that they can get for free is ridiculous. Especially when said product has absolutely no monetary value.Wow, I can't believe I never noticed it was "Harbinger".
There's nothing good about Bottled Cloister. It's too expensive to stop early game discard and late-game playing burn or a creature is better. If you must have a way around discard, use Ignorant Bliss instead.
About the Guildmage abilities, yes, Rakdos Guildmage's Black ability is relatively useless unless you're pitching lands, but really, saying that pitching a Shock to it is useless is a really lame argument. Why the hell would you pitch a Shock to it anyway? And sorry to burst your bubble, but the Black ability isn't card disadvantage either. Discarding a card to kill a creature isn't card disadvantage. On the other hand, Gruul Guildmage's Green ability is excellent. It's a way of giving a bit of extra damage against control and against aggro, it's a way of letting a blocker survive, and most likely, kill the blocked creature.
And after a Wrath of God... Burn is better than a couple of 1/1s... The problem with cutting Shock/Seal of Fire for creatures is that it's too redundant. There's only so far your creatures can take you. For the rest of the journey, you need burn.
The matchup analysis is crazy? What the hell am I supposed to put in there? About how this organized deck destroys the crappy Rakdos Aggro decks being tested now? Or how it wrecks the wanna-be Simic Control decks? How much do you think Heartbeat is going to change? Or Zoo? They aren't going to change at all. Dissension brought a few decent cards, but nothing they want, or need.
Oh dear. I'm using dual-lands to get bad abilities. It's the end of the world, seeing as my mana-base isn't affected at all by their inclusion, I don't see your point.
If you absolutely must use the Tron, use the Sensei's Divining Top and Journeyor's Kite engine. Use a couple Form of the Dragon as well.
Rakdos Pit-Dragon is crap. He's bad before Hellbent, and he's not going to stick around against any deck except Heartbeat.
And of course there's no "progress" in this thread. No one is really sure which way to go with the deck. There is only one discard spell worth running: Persecute. If you know what you're doing, you can hit most of their hand away in one turn. Watering down your early turns with stuff like Blackmail, Ravenous Rats, and Fall is not the aggro way.
Creatures that cost 3 or more mana should win you the game. On their own. Cards like Lyzolda, Rakdos Pit-Dragon, and Avatar of Discord are just too easy to get rid of.
And above all, DO NOT USE SITUATIONAL CARDS. Those are for the sideboard. Why run Black removal spells when you've got Red burn that's just as effective against the decks you need it against? Infernal Tutor? What the hell? Just run Giant Solifuge in it's place if you need a lategame card. Hit/Run? Pfffft. More burn please.
Umezawa's Jitte should not be run in this deck. None of the creatures are solid enough to stick around after it hits the board. Even if it becomes active, if you've got no creatures, you're still going to lose.