This is a slow burn deck. Goblin fireslinger and curse of the pierced heartheart take four turns to net you any damage advantage over similarly-costed instants/sorceries, and they leave themselves very open to disruption. Burn decks are very simple math: six or seven spells by the end of turn four at the latest, and game over; anything that doesn't match that output is just inferior.
Also, lightning bolt is strictly better than shock and should be the first replacement you make.
so... anyone care to explain the Snow Covered Plains in that list? I don't see any cards that require snow, and afaik, there aren't any cards in the meta that really care... So, is it just a "I'm cool" thing?
Also, unrefined list is unrefined.
There are only two reasons I can think of to run Snow-Covered lands; 1) Gifts Ungiven. 2) Scrying Sheets. Obviously neither apply here.
The things I can't get my head around are:
If you've bet the farm on vialing in three-drops, why only three Æther Vial?
Splashing green for two side-board copies of Gaddock Teeg? Really?
1)with aether vial, you never want to draw 2, especially if you only have one target casting cost. If half of your creatures are 4 drops and half are 3 it might be nice to have the versatility, but that's not where he went with it.
2)Thalia is a great metagame choice vs storm.
3)Again, based on testing, he likely realized that Teeg filled very important holes in the deck.
4)I can think of no practical reason to run the snow-covered lands other than for a lark, because why not?
Forgive me if others have already posted on this, but holy crap, have you guys seen the new player system? Has nobody figured this out yet?
New to Magic Online Phantom Draft
NOTE: This is a Phantom Event
Format: Magic 2015 Draft
Start Time: Fire on Demand
Deck Construction 10 minutes
Location: Limited Queues
Entry: 4 New Player Point
Size: 4 players
Rounds: 2
Length of Round: Up to 60 minutes. Each round will begin 2 minutes after all matches in the previous round have completed.
Play Style: Swiss (Play ends once the event is over or cuts to top 8)
Prizes (Match Win) • 2 Match Wins: 5 Magic 2015 5-card boosters
• 1 Match Win: 3 Magic 2015 5-card boosters
• 0 Match Wins: 1 Magic 2015 5-card booster
How much does a new account cost? $10. So for an initial investment of $10, you get:
5 NPPD (New player phantom drafts)
5 tix.
Let's say that you every game you play (we're talking low-end here). That's a total return of 5 boosters. Selling at 3 tix apiece, you're looking at a return of 5*$3, which is $15 (from boosters).
So if you take that $15, add the $5 in tix, you double your investment simply by creating an account. It's like printing money!
Of course, that's not the only possible result. If you win ALL of your matches (not out of the realm of possibility, given the fact that new players are the majority opponent), you end up with 25 boosters, which nets you a total of 75 tix in trade.
So for a total investment of $10, you are guaranteed somewhere between 20 and 80 tix (using current prices), not including the commons and uncommons you get out of it.
Since you can run simultaneous drafts, you can (at minimum) double your investment in only a few minutes, since these queues fire about every five minutes. Do this full-time and it's basically a $20/hour job at minimum. Seriously.
I know, only a total jerk would prey upon unsuspecting newbs like that, but it's not like I'M the one abusing it, and if you simply go in and lose half of your games on purpose, you're probably helping their bottom line. Wizards needs to recognize when their prize structure is messed up, and they need to fix it quickly before it crashes the MTGO market.
This is probably a stupid question, but are there phantom drafts? The only phantom events that show up for me are phantom sealed, and phantom new player draft (which requires new player points).
Yes. There are a phantom queues for each format (THS sealed and draft, M14 sealed and draft), and a "New Player" Phantom format. The normal Phantom queues cost 6 tickets or something like 14 phantom points, which are the Phantom Event currency; when you win a phantom event you only win Phantom Points, not packs, so if you want to ever switch over to playing non-Phantom, you have to re-invest.
On the other hand, there's the New Player format. I know it's really janky of me, but I personally love the New Player format (even though it's M14 only). When you create a new account, you get $10 worth of stuff - a whole bunch of low value M14 commons and uncommons, 5 event tickets, and 20 new player points (plus some avatars). The cards are basically worthless - although are a handful of decent ones in there like Young Pyromancer, I'd be surprised if you could get a single ticket for the lot of them - so if you're just looking at tickets and New Player Points (NPPs), that puts the value of the NPPs at about 25 cents each.
Since each Phantom New Player draft/sealed event is only a single ticket and 1 NPP, each draft costs about a $1.25 to play. If you win, you only get a pack (and the promo card that you get each time for participating, which rotates every so often: right now it's an alt-art Ghor-Clan Rampager, which doesn't have a lot of value, really), but you can resell that for a little over 3.20 right now and if you lose you're not losing as much as you would have in the normal Phantom events. That means you have a low-stress event and can try out a bunch of different strategies without worrying too much about it.
The NP Phantom queues are only 4-player, which means that you're not getting the equivalent draft experience if you draft, and the events are only two rounds. However, they fire all the time - such that I'm never waiting more than a couple minutes - and only running two rounds means that you can fit them into a smaller time window. The competition is not as low-end as I would have initially thought, either - I would guess that most of the players there are new to the client, not the game itself, so they typically aren't playing useless crap and are using solid limited strategies. Plus there are some people like me that are using it to play pretty much for free. I'm on my second account now; with that $20 "investment" I've played about 30 events and have about 20 tix and a couple unsold M14 packs, so I basically haven't lost anything. Losing can hang a cloud over my head for awhile, so it's nice that I don't have to feel like I've lost a whole lot when it happens.
If you're trying to get better, I'd avoid the NP Phantom format, but MTGO doesn't offer a cheaper way to kill a couple hours.
Yes, they're supposed to. You get one pack for winning draft or sealed (1-ticket and 1-new-player-ticket entry fee), as well as that month's alt-art promo card (which you get for participating). As soon as the draft is over, as long as you haven't dropped, you'll get a message with whatever you're supposed to get.
I love the format, personally. It's only M14 right now, but there's no cheaper way to kill a couple hours. There isn't a lot of upside, either, but that makes for a lower-stress event.
I bought my playset of Baleful Strix on ebay yesterday. I just received a message asking if I want to cancel it (the seller is apparently awesome for being the one to inform me about the reprint and offer to cancel). Should I bother? I don't mind spending a few extra dollars, but if it's going to plummet to sub 10 prices, I might as well.
Seller is awesome for allowing you to do that...
I don't see demand for Strix rising. It's a good card, but they're not going to reprint it in Standard and Legacy is dying. There's nothing to increase demand, so if they double (or more than double) the supply, the price will tank. I'd get out and rebuy them from the same dude in a few months.
Also, give honest sellers like that your business forever.
My problem with gitaxian probe is it makes your mulligans unreliable. If you're staring at a hand of 1-2 gitaxian probes you have no idea what those are going to turn into. They can turn into lands or they can turn into lightning bolts. Other than that, cycling + look at hand is pretty great for 2 life.
You're right about that being a downside, but the tradeoff is worth it, IMHO.
After getting a playset of them for testing, I've come to the conclusion that Gitaxian Probe is an absolute MVP in this deck. I find myself playing against a lot of control online, and the ability to more effectively play around counterspells has made a huge difference in my win%. There are occasions where I've cast it off of City of Brass, but even then it feels like a waste of mana to do it; mostly I just pay the life, seeing as how it's rare that that 2 life ends up being the deciding factor.
Also, I played around with Goblin Guide for awhile, and when it sticks it's awesome. I found it to be a huge liability against the decks in the format that run single-mana creature kill, though (basically turning it into a shock that gives them extra land, at best), and it's a terrible late-game topdeck, which happens anytime I draw more than 4 lands.
This deck is like 90% against Jund, and I'm seeing good results against most of the rest of the field now. The Revoke Existences have made a huge difference in fighting Leylines and the occasional Wurmcoil Engine, and now I feel like I can fight the good fight against anything out there.
I'm running a somewhat hybrid as I didn't spring for the super expensive sac land. However, I personally would prefer to do 2 instead of 3 and not have to sac a land. I don't have nearly as much experience as you guys playing this deck as I just started but sac land seems to screw me over. I swapped out the aforementioned cards and I'm much more successful. I'll post my deck list once I'm not on a mobile.
It's a numbers thing, really. If you draw 7 spells, but two of them are shocks, then you're not doing enough damage. Shard Volley should be the last spell you cast, to push through that last 3 damage; you don't want to be sitting there with an opponent at 3 life and a shock in your hand.
One short question, why Volcanic Fallout? 2 Damage for 3 mana doesn't look so great.
It's not ideal, but there are a number of decks out there packing counters and small creatures. In my experience, it's the deck's only chance against Merfolk, but it also blows out affinity, tokens, and goblin storm decks. Because the deck needs every card to do some damage it's better than cards like Firespout and (arguably) Anger of the Gods.
But like many of the cards in the deck, it's metagame-dependent.
Sorry for the card shortage in deck. I add the Spark E as it is in sense another lightning bolt. Though I think the ooze factor will be big and JUND will be in play. Here is the list.
Why is everyone worrying about Jund? It might be because I barely run any creatures in my build, but I've never personally had any issue with them at all; they've always been my best matchup.
Now merfolk, on the other hand... if someone has any advice on how to take them down, I'm all ears.
We've discussed this in the last few pages and the majority stands behind Hide//seek for the Rbw deck.
I gotta admit... I don't understand why Hide//Seek is considered better than Wear//Tear. How often do players seriously return those pesky enchantments to their hands and how often are those enchantments indestructible, to the point that it's worth the extra mana for the shuffle-in effect?
Yo guys, do you think the new "jackal pup" can make the cut in our deck? I find it cute but GG is too strong, and Vexing is superior in terms of tempo... So I like the card but I don't think it can be useful
I can't see it. Every time you pump him, you're paying 2 mana to deal 1 damage (assuming he hits), which is a terrible damage/mana ratio in this deck. So he's a 2/1 non-haster that only pumps when all of your spells (which are FAR more efficient) are gone, and by then - given his 1 toughness - he's probably already dead. And that's not even to mention the likeliness of him getting pumped and killed in response after you've taken the damage for doing it.
Also, lightning bolt is strictly better than shock and should be the first replacement you make.
1)with aether vial, you never want to draw 2, especially if you only have one target casting cost. If half of your creatures are 4 drops and half are 3 it might be nice to have the versatility, but that's not where he went with it.
2)Thalia is a great metagame choice vs storm.
3)Again, based on testing, he likely realized that Teeg filled very important holes in the deck.
4)I can think of no practical reason to run the snow-covered lands other than for a lark, because why not?
How much does a new account cost? $10. So for an initial investment of $10, you get:
5 NPPD (New player phantom drafts)
5 tix.
Let's say that you every game you play (we're talking low-end here). That's a total return of 5 boosters. Selling at 3 tix apiece, you're looking at a return of 5*$3, which is $15 (from boosters).
So if you take that $15, add the $5 in tix, you double your investment simply by creating an account. It's like printing money!
Of course, that's not the only possible result. If you win ALL of your matches (not out of the realm of possibility, given the fact that new players are the majority opponent), you end up with 25 boosters, which nets you a total of 75 tix in trade.
So for a total investment of $10, you are guaranteed somewhere between 20 and 80 tix (using current prices), not including the commons and uncommons you get out of it.
Since you can run simultaneous drafts, you can (at minimum) double your investment in only a few minutes, since these queues fire about every five minutes. Do this full-time and it's basically a $20/hour job at minimum. Seriously.
I know, only a total jerk would prey upon unsuspecting newbs like that, but it's not like I'M the one abusing it, and if you simply go in and lose half of your games on purpose, you're probably helping their bottom line. Wizards needs to recognize when their prize structure is messed up, and they need to fix it quickly before it crashes the MTGO market.
Yes. There are a phantom queues for each format (THS sealed and draft, M14 sealed and draft), and a "New Player" Phantom format. The normal Phantom queues cost 6 tickets or something like 14 phantom points, which are the Phantom Event currency; when you win a phantom event you only win Phantom Points, not packs, so if you want to ever switch over to playing non-Phantom, you have to re-invest.
On the other hand, there's the New Player format. I know it's really janky of me, but I personally love the New Player format (even though it's M14 only). When you create a new account, you get $10 worth of stuff - a whole bunch of low value M14 commons and uncommons, 5 event tickets, and 20 new player points (plus some avatars). The cards are basically worthless - although are a handful of decent ones in there like Young Pyromancer, I'd be surprised if you could get a single ticket for the lot of them - so if you're just looking at tickets and New Player Points (NPPs), that puts the value of the NPPs at about 25 cents each.
Since each Phantom New Player draft/sealed event is only a single ticket and 1 NPP, each draft costs about a $1.25 to play. If you win, you only get a pack (and the promo card that you get each time for participating, which rotates every so often: right now it's an alt-art Ghor-Clan Rampager, which doesn't have a lot of value, really), but you can resell that for a little over 3.20 right now and if you lose you're not losing as much as you would have in the normal Phantom events. That means you have a low-stress event and can try out a bunch of different strategies without worrying too much about it.
The NP Phantom queues are only 4-player, which means that you're not getting the equivalent draft experience if you draft, and the events are only two rounds. However, they fire all the time - such that I'm never waiting more than a couple minutes - and only running two rounds means that you can fit them into a smaller time window. The competition is not as low-end as I would have initially thought, either - I would guess that most of the players there are new to the client, not the game itself, so they typically aren't playing useless crap and are using solid limited strategies. Plus there are some people like me that are using it to play pretty much for free. I'm on my second account now; with that $20 "investment" I've played about 30 events and have about 20 tix and a couple unsold M14 packs, so I basically haven't lost anything. Losing can hang a cloud over my head for awhile, so it's nice that I don't have to feel like I've lost a whole lot when it happens.
If you're trying to get better, I'd avoid the NP Phantom format, but MTGO doesn't offer a cheaper way to kill a couple hours.
I love the format, personally. It's only M14 right now, but there's no cheaper way to kill a couple hours. There isn't a lot of upside, either, but that makes for a lower-stress event.
Seller is awesome for allowing you to do that...
I don't see demand for Strix rising. It's a good card, but they're not going to reprint it in Standard and Legacy is dying. There's nothing to increase demand, so if they double (or more than double) the supply, the price will tank. I'd get out and rebuy them from the same dude in a few months.
Also, give honest sellers like that your business forever.
You're right about that being a downside, but the tradeoff is worth it, IMHO.
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Bump in the Night
4 Shard Volley
4 Skullcrack
4 Magma Jet
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Helix
4 Rift Bolt
3 City of Brass
3 Sacred Foundry
3 Clifftop Retreat
4 Dragonskull Summit
6 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Revoke Existence
4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Leyline of Punishment
3 Searing Blaze
After getting a playset of them for testing, I've come to the conclusion that Gitaxian Probe is an absolute MVP in this deck. I find myself playing against a lot of control online, and the ability to more effectively play around counterspells has made a huge difference in my win%. There are occasions where I've cast it off of City of Brass, but even then it feels like a waste of mana to do it; mostly I just pay the life, seeing as how it's rare that that 2 life ends up being the deciding factor.
Also, I played around with Goblin Guide for awhile, and when it sticks it's awesome. I found it to be a huge liability against the decks in the format that run single-mana creature kill, though (basically turning it into a shock that gives them extra land, at best), and it's a terrible late-game topdeck, which happens anytime I draw more than 4 lands.
This deck is like 90% against Jund, and I'm seeing good results against most of the rest of the field now. The Revoke Existences have made a huge difference in fighting Leylines and the occasional Wurmcoil Engine, and now I feel like I can fight the good fight against anything out there.
It's a numbers thing, really. If you draw 7 spells, but two of them are shocks, then you're not doing enough damage. Shard Volley should be the last spell you cast, to push through that last 3 damage; you don't want to be sitting there with an opponent at 3 life and a shock in your hand.
It's not ideal, but there are a number of decks out there packing counters and small creatures. In my experience, it's the deck's only chance against Merfolk, but it also blows out affinity, tokens, and goblin storm decks. Because the deck needs every card to do some damage it's better than cards like Firespout and (arguably) Anger of the Gods.
But like many of the cards in the deck, it's metagame-dependent.
FIFY, with deck tags.
Why is everyone worrying about Jund? It might be because I barely run any creatures in my build, but I've never personally had any issue with them at all; they've always been my best matchup.
Now merfolk, on the other hand... if someone has any advice on how to take them down, I'm all ears.
I gotta admit... I don't understand why Hide//Seek is considered better than Wear//Tear. How often do players seriously return those pesky enchantments to their hands and how often are those enchantments indestructible, to the point that it's worth the extra mana for the shuffle-in effect?
I can't see it. Every time you pump him, you're paying 2 mana to deal 1 damage (assuming he hits), which is a terrible damage/mana ratio in this deck. So he's a 2/1 non-haster that only pumps when all of your spells (which are FAR more efficient) are gone, and by then - given his 1 toughness - he's probably already dead. And that's not even to mention the likeliness of him getting pumped and killed in response after you've taken the damage for doing it.