MTG Salvation

Card seems like a pretty spicy mythic, with cool abilities, that will create lots of brewing opportunity for the ingenious rogue deck builder; pretty cool indeed.
But a "mythic ooze" is kind of a funny thought...

A Sharktocrab and a Prowling Serpopard walked into a bar...

That's ALL I got.

I want a FUSION of those TWO.

Quote from Jacmess »

Be a lot cooler and playable if it were an instant.
Dimir 0-1

Other than like Kolaghan's Command, very little to NO discard spells are instant-speed. By also adding Surveil, this card does a lot of work for 2 mana, so it seems appropriate to be a sorcery, in my opinion. As instant speed, it would be TOO good.

Quote from D90Dennis14 »
Thoughts on Demanding Dragon, is this a playable punisher card ?


I have a way fun, utterly "bad" but sometimes deceptively powerful "punisher" deck like you mention that is going to love the Demanding Dragon. I run a bunch of cool, but considered historically "bad" cards; 4 Browbeat, 3 Sword-Point Diplomacy, 3 Dash Hopes, 2 Torment of Hailfire, 1 Choice of Damnations, 1 Pain's Reward, 4 Vexing Devil, 4 Master of the Feast; I spice this with some good utility cards, 3 Thunderbreak Regent, Lightning Bolts, Terminates... Rakdos goodness. The end result is this ultimate pile of craziness that sometimes "whiffs" and other times, just plows my opponent over. The deck tackles the game from such a weird play angle, it's really quite fun, and the creatures are dynamic enough to affect the board state favorably. I have to figure out what to cut, but Demanding Dragon definitely goes in the deck. Card seems really fun, and like a really fun addition to my most hilarious "theme" deck.

The double black mana to cast LOTV can be difficult, and LOTV won't enter the battlefield until the 3rd turn; when I play the B/R Roulette deck, I really need to kill someone by turn 4, most times, so playing Lili on Turn 3 won't have much effect and won't advance my game plan. I'm either already winning, at which point LOTV becomes a "win-more" card, or I'm behind and LOTV probably can't save me... It seems to me that the Roulette deck is sort of difficult to effectively sideboard with; of the popular "pro" list, the flex spots are 4 Lightning Bolts and 2 Collective Brutality. All 6 of those cards are useful and powerful, and in many instances, the exact tool we need... Diluting the game plan for sideboard cards is not advisable, as you want to maintain explosiveness.

So, I first bought the pieces for the deck after it had been out a few months, but hadn't exploded in popularity yet... I remember going to Lucky's, my local badass card shop, with a list of cards for the deck, and managed to walk out having spent about 30 bucks to get the Goblin Lores, the Burning Inquiries, and a few other pieces for the "stock" list.
Fast forward 3 months, and now Goblin Lores are going for about 25 bucks a pop... Making me wonder, is Goblin Lore the most expensive "uncommon" currently being played in Modern? Seems like it's on the top end of that list for sure.

I don't quite follow you here... Once you have the city's blessing, this functions as a possible one-sided "wrath" for weenies, where Your creatures live and the opponent's do not. I'm still not sold on the Ascend mechanic, as it seems that will be hard to achieve, but I don't see that Ascend necessarily works "against" this card.

It looks like Davy Jones (Pirates of the Carribean) had an ugly sister...

I will call her "Davina Jones" whenever I see her...

You can also check out the relevant stores hosting FNM on Facebook, check out site reviews for the store, and maybe get a feel for what the store is like. I play at two different stores here in Greensboro, North Carolina and one of the stores is more Standard-driven, less Intense, and full of pretty cool people. The other store I frequent has a Great owner, great card selection, and a collection of high-minded players, playing established tournament decks. I get varied experiences from the two different stores; I like to try out rogue brews at the less high-minded stores, fine tune the deck idea, then take it to the store with "good" players and good decks.

By doing some research on Facebook, it might help you get a feel for the store, and if you have multiple stores in your area that do FNM's, you can see which will be the best fit for you and your experience.

Since you have specified "aggro," it does seem like Lightning Bolt is an auto-include. I mean, even most Control decks are going to want 3 damage for 1 mana, instant speed, at any non-hexproof target. That's "value" right there, and any aggro deck is going to want the best value for their mana spent. With this in mind, it does seem like Lightning Bolt fits in "most" red decks, but pretty much all "aggro" decks for sure. I'm hard pressed to think of a board state or a scenario where the red mage doesn't want his Lightning Bolts available.

Quote from StumbleMuse »

This deck seems wacky powerful, and like a deck that will be "on the rise" in the months ahead.

If you look at my Decks portion of my profile, you can see my list if your are interested. I've built this in the last week after seeing SaffronOlive's take on the deck and have been fascinated by it...

Sometimes, the deck is a smelly donkey that you want to drop-kick, but that's rare. I had a weird situation playing last night (due to Godly draw and even better luck with random discard) where I had THREE Hollow Ones on the board on the first term, and a bunch of correlating Bloodghasts and Amalgams by turn 2... Nuts, man... Absolute nuts.

That might even beat a "Vintage" deck on occasion.

The go-to cards have skyrocketed in price over the last two weeks. This deck will be a THING, I think... And I'm really glad to have pooled the necessary cards to build it.

It's Way Fun too...

The deck will definitely be a thing. On the MTGO Competitive Leagues the #2 of the leader board is playing Rakdos Hollow One. His deck is in the OP (jdmflcl's deck). Unless the pros are sleeping, this deck should be brought to the PT.

I looked at your deck, and I think you could use 2x more Street Wraith. Then, you have 20 lands, while most people run 18 on average, so you can cut some lands. With more Street Wraith you will cycle into more land anyway. Street Wraith is what Hollow One makes so broken, so I would always max out on this.

Quote from yorugua »

I have a question on gameplay. I was playing against Merfolk, I won game 1 and on game 2 it goes:

Turn 1: Island, Vial; Vantage Goblin Guide
Turn 2: Island Chalice on 1; Fetchland

I have 2 Revelry in hand and a couple of 1 drops. You always take down the chalice first, right? (that is what I did btw)

Thanks

Depends on the rest of my hand. If chalice is shutting down most of my cards, I'm blowing up chalice first. hell depending on how the game develops I may even just hold the drev an extra turn or two in case they play a second chalice. If I have more two mana stuff like an eidolon and a couple of searing blazes I'd lean towards vial. Blowing up vial on one when they probably boarded out 1-drop spells in favor of chalice sets them back tremendously, you get in more goblin guide damage before they put blockers out, and your higher-cost spells can finish the job. The only fear is them either countering my drev attempt next turn or playing a second chalice on 1.

I can't argue against your play, but I'd be careful about creating "always" situations.

Quote from StumbleMuse »

Fast forward 3 months, and now Goblin Lores are going for about 25 bucks a pop... Making me wonder, is Goblin Lore the most expensive "uncommon" currently being played in Modern? Seems like it's on the top end of that list for sure.

I think Aether Vial is still the champ there. Tolaria West is a little ahead, too.

Mishra's Bauble was off the charts before its masters reprint announce. It breached $50.

I would not be surprised! I got mine for $2.50 about 6 months ago, and now I wish I'd bought every last copy I could find, haha.

Quote from StumbleMuse »

Quote from SilverWolf_27 »

The interaction with planeswalkers is imo the most interesting thing here. You get to activate twice in one turn, resetting the loyalty in between. That's not a bad effect at all.

I'm not quite grasping the card yet, but why would it even be limited to twice? If someone "Disperses to the Wind" my Lilianna, can I just recast her infinite times... Something seems to be lost in translation here... As long as she remains "in exile." Does recasting the card then pull that card out of exile? I'm not quite grasping everything here... This does seem like an interesting card, though... Just not sure I have had enough coffee to grok what is really going on with it.

Yes, casting the card takes it out of the exile.

Quote from StumbleMuse »

Quote from SilverWolf_27 »

The interaction with planeswalkers is imo the most interesting thing here. You get to activate twice in one turn, resetting the loyalty in between. That's not a bad effect at all.

I'm not quite grasping the card yet, but why would it even be limited to twice? If someone "Disperses to the Wind" my Lilianna, can I just recast her infinite times... Something seems to be lost in translation here... As long as she remains "in exile." Does recasting the card then pull that card out of exile? I'm not quite grasping everything here... This does seem like an interesting card, though... Just not sure I have had enough coffee to grok what is really going on with it.

When you cast a card from anywhere the card is moved to the stack. It's no longer in exile. Even if at some point it winds up getting back to exile it wouldn't be linked to this anymore.

wow, why's it so big in the art? looks like a 9/9 but is a 2/2 must be made of hot air

Mono Black, running Lake of the Dead and (not sure if this was a format back then or not) Dark Ritual for fat Drain Life and Order of the Ebon Hand beats with Hymn to Tourach for disruption.

Quote from StumbleMuse »

I considered cutting my Skullcracks for Gonti's Machinations, as the Skullcracks, while reliable, were kind of boring. Along comes this new card, and I was inclined to test it out... Although Chalice of the Void stinks extra bad, I was interested in what 20 main deck "bolts" would be like.

In playtesting over the last few days, mainly with my son, I have had at least two games where I was in Top Deck mode, and needed to KILL my opponent like Post Haste. Gonti's Machinations is not very good in any sort of "post haste" arrangement.

I have gone back to the boring Skullcracks.

Skullcrack is boring but important as an anti-hate card.

The failure of GM in topdeck mode along with how slow it happens to be is what kills the card. Thanks for the honest statements about the card.

Having played Naya (no cats), Mardu, and Boros+DRev Burn variants, I'll say that I much preferred Mardu to Naya. For me, it was really Rakdos Charm that made it. This was back when Dredge was new so everybody was clamoring over it. I loved that it was not only graveyard hate, but potentially a crazy efficient Burn spell depending on how fast they triggered their Amalgams/Blooghasts, and in a bind it was even a worse Skullcrack against Gnaw to the Bone. The graveyard mode also came into effect with Company decks, exiling their persist creature with the effect on the stack. I also used the damage mode against any go wide deck, not the least of which was Elves and Merfolk (it felt great to be happy to see a Master of Waves). Losing DRev did hurt, I'm not saying it didn't, but the only deck I felt you really needed the 2 damage for was Affinity, because the pressure mattered. I ran either three or four Wear//Tear, and that plus Rakdos Charm kept my Affinity hate plentiful. It was a slower game against them, sure, but I wouldn't call it worse (nor would I really call it better).

I ended up cutting Black and going straight Boros with a Green splash for sideboard DRev and AC when Inspiring Vantage was printed, because the inevitability of Burn is insane if we preserve our life totals. But it wasn't because I was unhappy with Black. I loved it.