I've gone 4-0 and 3-1 at a couple FNM with this 75x. My loss was to miracles (which I have a 2-1 record against between the two tourneys).
I don't like any splash right now as wasteland should be on the rise again now that cruise is out of the format. Easy to get locked out of a win if they keep you off your precious few duals. I think it's worse to try to run basics to combat this as the deck is very red intensive. While most cards are a single red, you generally want to be able to case multiples in a turn.
With the sideboard I've tried tried to stick with proactive cards. Bridge being the exception (Relic cycles). I think that there is a tendency to become too reactive post board which will lead to losses. You want to be advancing the game plan with all of your cards if possible.
The hardest matches I've had were miracles as they can establish the lock very quickly. Shusher is an all-star here. Also once they get the lock, you can sometimes win by holding spells and firing them off when they tap low on mana for their win-con (preferably mixed cmc, Fireblast being the best). Reanimator and Sneak & Show are also hard due to Griselbrand. Bridge is the necessary evil for this matchup.
You could probably substitute Flooded Strand. Might even be better. When fetching basics you'd generally be going for islands and then the plains to play around a blood moon. The basic mountain is only really there for the times you need an untapped red but don't want to take the extra pain.
Colonnade on the other hand is a significant loss. It makes siding into a control build (cutting Geists) much more viable. You could probably manage, as many games end with snap, resto, and burn anyway. Going long in a grindy match is where it comes in handy.
You can only tune an archetype so far before it becomes inbred. The matchup vs Abzan is rough. Afterall, why do you think that deck is popular?
I like where my build is currently. In other words, I think it has enough game to have a chance in that matchup without making my other matchups bad.
If you want to beat Abzan, though, you might be better off dropping blue and just play burn. I want to play UWR, but I'm not going to say it's the best deck right now.
My most recent build is somewhat similar. I've gone back to having Thundermaw Hellkite main. It's so good against Lingering Souls. Though, I have a weakness for the 3-of to make room for extra spicy 1-of effects.
On the draw. Mulliganed a no lander into a terrible 6 (5 land, snap). Didn't know what my opponent was on, so gambled on it being a grindy fair deck rather than go to 5. Turn 3 living end and I died in short order.
Sideboard:
+2 Supreme Verdict
+2 Spell Pierce
+2 Counterflux
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-4 Geist of Saint Traft
-2 Lightning Helix
-1 Ajani Vengaent
-1 Thundermaw Hellkite
Basically I don't want to tap out. Plan is to wait for them to try Living end, counter it, and then grind them out with flash creatures.
Game two was much better. Had spell pierce, cryptic, snap in starting hand. Pierced his first living end. Cryptic'd another. He ended up suspending a third, which I followed up with a verdict after it finally resolved. Got there with Colonnade. Third match I drew a relic and kept his graveyard under control. Grinded it out with burn and snapcasters, countering or killing the dudes that he started to hard cast.
Round 2 Splinter Twin (2-0):
On the draw. Kept a hand with bolt, helix, electrolyse and clique. It was land go until turn 3 when he clique'd me during my draw step. Took my clique. He flooded out after that and I burned him out with snap and resto.
Sideboard:
+2 Spell Pierce
+2 Counterflux
+1 Wear // Tear
-4 Geist of Saint Traft
-1 Ajani Vengeant
Board up on the interaction for their combo. Tapping out on Geist is risky. Wear // Tear is mostly for potential blood moon.
I kept a fairly balanced hand with 2 land. Had cryptic and remand. My fetches were not ideal with a couple arid mesa, so fetching basics wasn't possible. He tried an turn 3 blood moon but I remanded it. He didn't try it again until a bit later, first running out a pestermite and an exarch. I ended up burning the first and pathing the other. He tried blood moon with dispel backup next, but I had cryptic into pierce. I got him into top deck mode, but I couldn't keep much of a board presence and was down to 1 path hand. Finally drew into a snap and resto to recycle some burn and finish things off.
Round 3 White Weenie Tokens (2-0):
On the play. He didn't draw much action outside of some a couple raise the alarms. I cast Geist for the first time that night and on turn 3 no less. Proceeded to beat down. Had burn to protect Geist in the event of double blocks.
Sideboard:
+2 Supreme Verdict
-2 Path to Exile
I didn't see any good targets for path, and verdict comes in for people going wide.
Game 2 was similar to the first. Turn 3 Geist with some burn and remands to tempo them out. This match was a perfect example of what this deck does well.
Round 4 BRw Infect Brew (2-0):
His deck used the usual BR hand disruption and removal to clear a path for the midrangy black infect guys Phyrexian Crusader and Phyrexian Vatmother. I never saw the white splash. The Crusader might as well read indestructible as the deck cannot deal with it once it's on board. He was undefeated so far, so it seemed to be working alright for him.
On the play. Kept a hand with Geist, bolt, helix, and path. First game he had a slow start with no hand disruption. I resolved Geist turn 3 and crossed my fingers for no Liliana. He cast a Crusader which effectively stalemated the Geist. He followed up with a vatmother, which gave me an opportunity while he was tapped out to resolve Thundermaw, which I had drawn a couple turns before. A Liliana took care of my Geist and I took a crap load of poison, but he didn't have targeting removal and I managed to finish him off with the dragon and burn the following turn.
Sideboard
+2 Supreme Verdict
+2 Spell Pierce
+1 Keranos, God of Storms
+1 Batterskull
-4 Geist of Saint Traft
-1 Ajani Vengeant
-1 Thundermaw Hellkite
Verdict comes in to deal with the crusaders. Pierce to catch an early Liliana. I kept in path for the vatmothers. Geist gets blanked by the crusaders and blown out by Liliana, so he got cut. Top end swaps with a couple of difficult to deal with bombs.
Game two I kept a hand of bolt, helix, mana leak and verdict. He inquisitoned my leak and seized my verdict. I drew another leak and picked off his turn 3 Liliana. He followed with another which I had to burn out after he got a couple tick ups. I drew and cast a batterskull after a few draw go turns. At that point he had a crusader. He killed the germ a few times but had no artifact destruction and the skull ended up getting there.
Wrap-up:
While I did play a skilled twin player, my other matches were random decks. I think avoiding the junk and bogles deck was lucky. I didn't play the Affinity player either, as he lost a match early on, but with that deck I feel confident in the post-board games where I can bring in 4x hate cards. Despite the result, I think the normal meta at a tournament would be very difficult, give how prevailant Junk is currently. Liliana is probably the worst card for us to play against. Not to mention lingering souls (though thundermaw helps a little with this).
I think it's definitely important to have some number of sweepers and decent number of counters main and side to be able to transition to a more traditional control deck. Relic seems important to have access to as well. I was very happy to have them vs living end. I'm not sure if Keranos belongs given he's meant for the BGx style decks and Thundermaw is likely to stay in vs a lingering souls deck. However, he does have flex use for any opposing control decks. Otherwise, I like where the deck is currently.
@Howzy: I agree with Batterskull in the side. Solid card to swap with Thundermaw vs burn, but not fun to glut on 5 drops game 1. Vs an unknown field, especially FNM, I'd recommend 1-2 sideboard slots for graveyard hate so you are not cold to the brews. Relic is a nice option as it cycles. You could potentially cut a Kor Firewalker since you already have Batterskull (and 4x helix main) against burn. I don't know if Lingering Souls is worth it. Good at protecting Geist from Liliana, but 3x sideboard slots is a lot. The deck is not really geared to be grindy like the control version so souls feels out of place to me. I might be wrong.
My most recent build is somewhat similar. I've gone back to having Thundermaw Hellkite main. It's so good against Lingering Souls. Though, I have a weakness for the 3-of to make room for extra spicy 1-of effects.
I like the idea of a couple dredge cards, particularly Stinkweed Imp as it can help jump start Alesha's engine and is itself a value card for returning when on the defensive. Might be better than High Priest of Penance.
I had considered Imposing Sovereign as well, but ended up cutting it as it seems lacklustre. The effect is only good when you are ahead and the body itself is weak. Also, no extra value from ETB or replacement effect when sacrificed. I could be wrong though.
@Aazadan: Celestial Flare seems especially weak against Lingering Souls and some of the aggro decks like zoo and affinity. Does almost nothing vs cruel control and shapeshift. I can see it being good against your bogles matchup (maybe tron?) which I assume is why it's main, but seems more like sideboard material to me. Also your only hard counters being 2x Spell Snare main, and 1x Negate and 1x Counterflux side. Not sure if that's right. I'd imagine your combo matchup suffers a fair bit as a result, and would probably want additional hard counters in the side at the very least. I'd probably be looking at cutting Blood Moon and Vedalken Shackles to make room (can your manabase actually support these?). Probably also swap Smash to Smithereensfor another Stony Silence.
The base shell felt a bit underpowered on its own, so I included some good ETB humans to get value from Alesha's ability. Similarly, it seemed like a good idea to include scalable threats that could be recurred but still be powerful game breakers in the late game.
The rest is faily typical RWB removal. Firebolt seems especially good in a CMC capped format give its flashback. On the other hand, Path to Exile feels bad in this format, since land drops in the early game seem more valuable. Swords to Plowshares was ok, but this deck is geared aggressive so the life gain was more impactful. Tragic Slip seems better in this type of deck over Dismember.
Some mainboard discard with more in the sideboard. Rest of the sideboard is sweepers, anti-burn, and artifact/enchantment removal.
Some changes since first post. Changes and reasoning below.
4 Goblin Guide
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Grim Lavamancer
Instants
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Price of Progress
4 Fireblast
3 Searing Blaze
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
Enchantments
2 Sulfuric Vortex
Land
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
11 Mountain
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Searing Blood
3 Smash to Smithereens
2 Vexing Shusher
1 Sulfuric Vortex
I've gone 4-0 and 3-1 at a couple FNM with this 75x. My loss was to miracles (which I have a 2-1 record against between the two tourneys).
I don't like any splash right now as wasteland should be on the rise again now that cruise is out of the format. Easy to get locked out of a win if they keep you off your precious few duals. I think it's worse to try to run basics to combat this as the deck is very red intensive. While most cards are a single red, you generally want to be able to case multiples in a turn.
With the sideboard I've tried tried to stick with proactive cards. Bridge being the exception (Relic cycles). I think that there is a tendency to become too reactive post board which will lead to losses. You want to be advancing the game plan with all of your cards if possible.
The hardest matches I've had were miracles as they can establish the lock very quickly. Shusher is an all-star here. Also once they get the lock, you can sometimes win by holding spells and firing them off when they tap low on mana for their win-con (preferably mixed cmc, Fireblast being the best). Reanimator and Sneak & Show are also hard due to Griselbrand. Bridge is the necessary evil for this matchup.
Colonnade on the other hand is a significant loss. It makes siding into a control build (cutting Geists) much more viable. You could probably manage, as many games end with snap, resto, and burn anyway. Going long in a grindy match is where it comes in handy.
I like where my build is currently. In other words, I think it has enough game to have a chance in that matchup without making my other matchups bad.
If you want to beat Abzan, though, you might be better off dropping blue and just play burn. I want to play UWR, but I'm not going to say it's the best deck right now.
-1 High Priest of Penance
+1 Stinkweed Imp
As with comments, Imp seems to fill the same role as Priest, but has added utility as a dredger to get the Alesha engine online early.
-1 Return to the Ranks
+1 Thoughtseize
Return felt too slow and too conditional. Mianboard discard was a little too light, so I've added thoughtseize.
Deck:
Round 1 Living End (2-1):
On the draw. Mulliganed a no lander into a terrible 6 (5 land, snap). Didn't know what my opponent was on, so gambled on it being a grindy fair deck rather than go to 5. Turn 3 living end and I died in short order.
Sideboard:
+2 Supreme Verdict
+2 Spell Pierce
+2 Counterflux
+2 Relic of Progenitus
-4 Geist of Saint Traft
-2 Lightning Helix
-1 Ajani Vengaent
-1 Thundermaw Hellkite
Basically I don't want to tap out. Plan is to wait for them to try Living end, counter it, and then grind them out with flash creatures.
Game two was much better. Had spell pierce, cryptic, snap in starting hand. Pierced his first living end. Cryptic'd another. He ended up suspending a third, which I followed up with a verdict after it finally resolved. Got there with Colonnade. Third match I drew a relic and kept his graveyard under control. Grinded it out with burn and snapcasters, countering or killing the dudes that he started to hard cast.
On the draw. Kept a hand with bolt, helix, electrolyse and clique. It was land go until turn 3 when he clique'd me during my draw step. Took my clique. He flooded out after that and I burned him out with snap and resto.
Sideboard:
+2 Spell Pierce
+2 Counterflux
+1 Wear // Tear
-4 Geist of Saint Traft
-1 Ajani Vengeant
Board up on the interaction for their combo. Tapping out on Geist is risky. Wear // Tear is mostly for potential blood moon.
I kept a fairly balanced hand with 2 land. Had cryptic and remand. My fetches were not ideal with a couple arid mesa, so fetching basics wasn't possible. He tried an turn 3 blood moon but I remanded it. He didn't try it again until a bit later, first running out a pestermite and an exarch. I ended up burning the first and pathing the other. He tried blood moon with dispel backup next, but I had cryptic into pierce. I got him into top deck mode, but I couldn't keep much of a board presence and was down to 1 path hand. Finally drew into a snap and resto to recycle some burn and finish things off.
On the play. He didn't draw much action outside of some a couple raise the alarms. I cast Geist for the first time that night and on turn 3 no less. Proceeded to beat down. Had burn to protect Geist in the event of double blocks.
Sideboard:
+2 Supreme Verdict
-2 Path to Exile
I didn't see any good targets for path, and verdict comes in for people going wide.
Game 2 was similar to the first. Turn 3 Geist with some burn and remands to tempo them out. This match was a perfect example of what this deck does well.
His deck used the usual BR hand disruption and removal to clear a path for the midrangy black infect guys Phyrexian Crusader and Phyrexian Vatmother. I never saw the white splash. The Crusader might as well read indestructible as the deck cannot deal with it once it's on board. He was undefeated so far, so it seemed to be working alright for him.
On the play. Kept a hand with Geist, bolt, helix, and path. First game he had a slow start with no hand disruption. I resolved Geist turn 3 and crossed my fingers for no Liliana. He cast a Crusader which effectively stalemated the Geist. He followed up with a vatmother, which gave me an opportunity while he was tapped out to resolve Thundermaw, which I had drawn a couple turns before. A Liliana took care of my Geist and I took a crap load of poison, but he didn't have targeting removal and I managed to finish him off with the dragon and burn the following turn.
Sideboard
+2 Supreme Verdict
+2 Spell Pierce
+1 Keranos, God of Storms
+1 Batterskull
-4 Geist of Saint Traft
-1 Ajani Vengeant
-1 Thundermaw Hellkite
Verdict comes in to deal with the crusaders. Pierce to catch an early Liliana. I kept in path for the vatmothers. Geist gets blanked by the crusaders and blown out by Liliana, so he got cut. Top end swaps with a couple of difficult to deal with bombs.
Game two I kept a hand of bolt, helix, mana leak and verdict. He inquisitoned my leak and seized my verdict. I drew another leak and picked off his turn 3 Liliana. He followed with another which I had to burn out after he got a couple tick ups. I drew and cast a batterskull after a few draw go turns. At that point he had a crusader. He killed the germ a few times but had no artifact destruction and the skull ended up getting there.
Wrap-up:
While I did play a skilled twin player, my other matches were random decks. I think avoiding the junk and bogles deck was lucky. I didn't play the Affinity player either, as he lost a match early on, but with that deck I feel confident in the post-board games where I can bring in 4x hate cards. Despite the result, I think the normal meta at a tournament would be very difficult, give how prevailant Junk is currently. Liliana is probably the worst card for us to play against. Not to mention lingering souls (though thundermaw helps a little with this).
I think it's definitely important to have some number of sweepers and decent number of counters main and side to be able to transition to a more traditional control deck. Relic seems important to have access to as well. I was very happy to have them vs living end. I'm not sure if Keranos belongs given he's meant for the BGx style decks and Thundermaw is likely to stay in vs a lingering souls deck. However, he does have flex use for any opposing control decks. Otherwise, I like where the deck is currently.
My most recent build is somewhat similar. I've gone back to having Thundermaw Hellkite main. It's so good against Lingering Souls. Though, I have a weakness for the 3-of to make room for extra spicy 1-of effects.
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Restoration Angel
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
2 Electrolize
3 Path to Exile
3 Remand
3 Mana Leak
3 Cryptic Command
1 Sphinx's Revelation
Planeswalkers
1 Ajani Vengeant
3 Celestial Colonnade
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa
2 Flooded Strand
2 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Eiganjo Castle
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Stony Silence
1 Shatterstorm
1 Wear // Tear
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Spell Pierce
2 Counterflux
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Spellskite
1 Batterskull
1 Keranos, God of Storms
I had considered Imposing Sovereign as well, but ended up cutting it as it seems lacklustre. The effect is only good when you are ahead and the body itself is weak. Also, no extra value from ETB or replacement effect when sacrificed. I could be wrong though.
Let me know how you go.
Mardu Aristocrats seems like the ideal fit for this fiery leader.
Alesha is perfectly suited to tie the room together by recurring key pieces to keep the synergies more consistent.
The deck:
Sac Targets
1 Doomed Traveler
1 Bloodsoaked Champion
1 Gravecrawler
1 Sultai Emissary
Sac Outlets
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Cartel Aristocrat
1 Tymaret, the Murder King
1 Goblin Bombardment
Enablers
1 Blood Artist
1 Skirsdag High Priest
1 Xathrid Necromancer
Value Creatures
1 Humble Defector
1 Tidehollow Sculler
1 High Priest of Penance
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Sin Collector
1 Blade Splicer
1 Ghitu Slinger
Scaleable Threats
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Mirror Entity
1 Markov Blademaster
Instants
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Tragic Slip
1 Lightning Helix
1 Terminate
1 Smother
1 Crackling Doom
1 Mardu Charm
1 Faithless Looting
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Firebolt
Lands (18)
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Marsh Flats
1 Blood Crypt
1 Godless Shrine
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Nomad Outpost
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Wasteland
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Duress
1 Cathedral Sanctifier
1 Arashin Cleric
1 Shattering Spree
1 Manic Vandal
1 War Priest of Thune
1 Leonin Relic-Warder
Basic aristocrat shell. Sub theme on humans to take advantage of Xathrid Necromancer. Seemed like a splash of zombies to get Gravecrawler was easy enough, since I already had the tokens, as well as Carrion Feeder, Sultai Emissary, Tymaret, the Murder King, and Tidehollow Sculler.
The base shell felt a bit underpowered on its own, so I included some good ETB humans to get value from Alesha's ability. Similarly, it seemed like a good idea to include scalable threats that could be recurred but still be powerful game breakers in the late game.
The rest is faily typical RWB removal. Firebolt seems especially good in a CMC capped format give its flashback. On the other hand, Path to Exile feels bad in this format, since land drops in the early game seem more valuable. Swords to Plowshares was ok, but this deck is geared aggressive so the life gain was more impactful. Tragic Slip seems better in this type of deck over Dismember.
Some mainboard discard with more in the sideboard. Rest of the sideboard is sweepers, anti-burn, and artifact/enchantment removal.
Some changes since first post. Changes and reasoning below.
Any suggestions welcome?