I guess it depends on the deck you are running. If you are running mono-red, then its useless. If you are splashing colors, it could be useful in allowing you to play the exact cards you want on the given turn. Furthermore, no one says that you need to use the card you just drew right away. Chances are you would be drawing a burn card which just adds to you arsenal for next turn. I run a black/red burn and if I only have two red mana's turn two and need to play a contaminated ground, manamorphose would allow me to do that and will give an extra card to replace it that I can use in later turns. The sooner you play cards like contaminated ground/pooling ground, the better.
Does depend on the build though, I love that the card makes splashing so much easier.
It lets you draw a card for free while also giving you the exact mana you need. If you have only red-mana in the beginning and need to cast a spell of another color, this is your solution.
Plus, the -4 card slot works in your favor since it creates the mana it spends AND gives you a free card to boot. Its a filtering effect similar to fetchlands and has two awesome effects!
I'm most likely not going to run zo-zu. I don't like that it deals damage to me as well, I tend to avoid cards that hurt both sides because you may incur a situation where they may potentially do more harm than good. Plus, zo-zu doesn't have haste and is only a 2/2. If I'm going to run a 3mana spell, I would want it to be a molten rain which murks a land and does damage or something like ensnaring bridge which stops my main weakness, aka large creatures overrunning me. In fact, I'm probably going to run ensnaring bridges, I'm starting to fall in love with the card cause outside of swiftspear, it complements the other cards in the deck nicely.
That being said, should I now run more fetchlands? You recommended I use 20 lands? Is that too much considering that all but 2 spells are 1/2 mana?
I'm about to order the cards and will start playing. Do you guys know modern players in the ny/nj area? Can you buy individual cards on mtg online?
I actually was debating between boom/bust and molten rain but chose the latter because it didn't hurt me and could do 2 damage as well. I was thinking of getting both though and testing, i do love how boom costs one more, gives you a bit more versatility. Zo-Zu I would have to test. Ensnaring Bridges I'm starting to kinda fall in love with. Can completely shut down aggro decks, its almost not fair, I'm thinking of running three of these instead of the Molten Rains.
As for lands, idk how exactly to build it. I'm thinking 18 lands, but I'm not sure how many fetch lands is the norm these days and how many other non-basics to run/which ones.
Maybe:
4 Bloodstained
4 Blood Crypt
6 Mountains
6 Swamps
Bloodchief does look interesting but am afraid that it could be a useless draw late game when you need to do damage right away. Ensaring Bridge on the other hand could be epic, imma try it out. Overall, what do you guys think? Also, when and where is this GP?
And i do still need help building a mana-base. Can someone please help me out with this?
Zo-Zu is three mana which i feel may be a bit too much. I see swiftspear as a baby killing fiend with haste lol.
I do get your point about being overrun by creatures. Maybe take out molten rain/burst for terminate and/or more creatures? Maybe include more anti-artifact cards in the sideboard for affinity matchups? What do you think?
Hey guys, I used to play magic a lot back in the day but took a long hiatus to do other things. One of my friends recently started playing and I'm thinking of picking it back up again as well.
I used to play red deck wins aka burn and of course ran into the typical problems of running out of steam and damage prevention and whatnot. Thus, upon re-entering the game, I wanted to find a way to make burn a bit more dynamic. People usually only splashed black for bump in the night, but I felt that black had a bit more to offer. Thus, I picked up one of my favorite black control cards, Contaminated Ground, and began looking into ways to expand on the strategy of land denial + doing damage on the opponent's turn. Here is what I came up with:
I'm missing Lands because I completely forgot how to put together a proper mana-base. If someone could guide me through the process, I would greatly appreciate it!
Here is a quick breakdown:
The goal of the deck is to slow down an opponent's tempo by punishing them for performing basic moves, things like attacking/blocking and tapping for mana. Contaminated Grounds and Pooling Venom take care of the land tapping aspect, while Sinister Possessions makes the opponent think twice before attacking/blocking with creatures. Overall, these cards either do damage during an opponent's turn WITHOUT using personal mana OR prevent the opponent from tapping/attacking/blocking (because they don't want to take damage) and thus limit his ability to execute his gameplan. Molten Rain then comes in and blasts away any additional lands and usually does 2 damage to boot!
Lightning Bolt, Bump in the Night and Lava Spike are pretty standard. I choose Incinerate and Burst Lightning because they are cheap and versatile (can target both creatures and players).
Monastery Swiftspear is pretty self-explanatory. Manamorphose works really well with Swiftspear, allows me to select the exact mana that I need (helpful with so many 1-mana spells) AND lets me draw a card.
Evil Presence comes off the bench against non-black decks in order to mess with opponent lands some more (also incredibly fun to use against artifacts), skullcrack comes in to prevent opponents from preventing damage and smash to smithereens blows up incredibly broken artifacts like Chalice of the Void. The rest of the sideboard I guess would depend on the meta
What do you guys think? Would it be possible to run such a deck these days? How should I go about structuring my lands? Any help is welcome!
Does depend on the build though, I love that the card makes splashing so much easier.
Plus, the -4 card slot works in your favor since it creates the mana it spends AND gives you a free card to boot. Its a filtering effect similar to fetchlands and has two awesome effects!
That being said, should I now run more fetchlands? You recommended I use 20 lands? Is that too much considering that all but 2 spells are 1/2 mana?
I'm about to order the cards and will start playing. Do you guys know modern players in the ny/nj area? Can you buy individual cards on mtg online?
As for lands, idk how exactly to build it. I'm thinking 18 lands, but I'm not sure how many fetch lands is the norm these days and how many other non-basics to run/which ones.
Maybe:
4 Bloodstained
4 Blood Crypt
6 Mountains
6 Swamps
Do people run more fetchlands?
And i do still need help building a mana-base. Can someone please help me out with this?
I do get your point about being overrun by creatures. Maybe take out molten rain/burst for terminate and/or more creatures? Maybe include more anti-artifact cards in the sideboard for affinity matchups? What do you think?
I used to play red deck wins aka burn and of course ran into the typical problems of running out of steam and damage prevention and whatnot. Thus, upon re-entering the game, I wanted to find a way to make burn a bit more dynamic. People usually only splashed black for bump in the night, but I felt that black had a bit more to offer. Thus, I picked up one of my favorite black control cards, Contaminated Ground, and began looking into ways to expand on the strategy of land denial + doing damage on the opponent's turn. Here is what I came up with:
4 Monastery Swiftspear
Enchantments:
4 Contaminated Ground
4 Pooling Venom
4 Sinister Possession
Instants:
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Manamorphose
4 Incinerate
3 Burst Lightning
4 Bump in the Night
4 Lava Spike
3 Molten Rain
4 Evil Presence
4 Smash to smithereens
3 Skullcrack
I'm missing Lands because I completely forgot how to put together a proper mana-base. If someone could guide me through the process, I would greatly appreciate it!
Here is a quick breakdown:
The goal of the deck is to slow down an opponent's tempo by punishing them for performing basic moves, things like attacking/blocking and tapping for mana. Contaminated Grounds and Pooling Venom take care of the land tapping aspect, while Sinister Possessions makes the opponent think twice before attacking/blocking with creatures. Overall, these cards either do damage during an opponent's turn WITHOUT using personal mana OR prevent the opponent from tapping/attacking/blocking (because they don't want to take damage) and thus limit his ability to execute his gameplan. Molten Rain then comes in and blasts away any additional lands and usually does 2 damage to boot!
Lightning Bolt, Bump in the Night and Lava Spike are pretty standard. I choose Incinerate and Burst Lightning because they are cheap and versatile (can target both creatures and players).
Monastery Swiftspear is pretty self-explanatory. Manamorphose works really well with Swiftspear, allows me to select the exact mana that I need (helpful with so many 1-mana spells) AND lets me draw a card.
Evil Presence comes off the bench against non-black decks in order to mess with opponent lands some more (also incredibly fun to use against artifacts), skullcrack comes in to prevent opponents from preventing damage and smash to smithereens blows up incredibly broken artifacts like Chalice of the Void. The rest of the sideboard I guess would depend on the meta
What do you guys think? Would it be possible to run such a deck these days? How should I go about structuring my lands? Any help is welcome!