Excellent read from yet again an excellent player. One of the many reasons why "The Boss" is my favorite pro player of current. He breaks down each match-up you will see (even decks that barely ever, if even, you'll see at a modern tournament) and reveals his plan and most importantly why bring those cards in. Effectively this allows you to make your own changes and understand which cards are similar to Ross's stock list and which are important to each match-up.
You missed what is arguably the best 3 drop for red in the format and it has been winning me games since June and he is Lathnu Hellion. Respek!
Lol. I've added it to the other/sideboard section. I try to keep the list limited to cards that have seen play in successful decks, but I do remember random Hellions showing up in the previous format.
I think you want to reverse the numbers on Soul-Scar Mage and Rigging Runner. The runner is just so bad if it's your only one drop.
I've been testing with both for a bit on MTGO and I actually sort of think Rigging Runner is stronger overall than Mage. The latter comes in handy in the mirror, but otherwise is pretty anemic as a threat.
Really? I always knew Rigging Runner would be a viable option, but it just seems like a hit or miss with the amount of 1 drops. By the way, how's the Repeating Barrage treating you so far? And No Chandra's in the main?
Excellent, fresh new primer for the new format! Was able to playtest one match against a Budget B/R Aggro build and pulled off a successful match 1 with the deck. I'm very excited to see how the deck performs.
With my mono black build for burn I run 1 MB & 2 SB Collective Brutality. 1 MB is the most I'd recommend. You just up your 2cmc 241s and if you hit 2 of them you win; 1 you even out the match imo. Other 241 are 3 Wrench Mind 4 Smallpox
I don't like Death's Shadow just for burn and that's all it really is for. CB can be used vs a few other decks.
I've heard that Collective Brutality was a solid answer as well. I'm trying to get into modern 8-rack and after taking Tom Ross's build, I was thinking of dropping out the Funeral Charms and upping 1 CB to the MB and Wrench Mind to 4. How's that sound?
I removed funeral charms because they were mediocre. I don't understand exactly why Tom played them over another copy of thoughtseize and wrench mind. Too many seizes in a game can hurt, yes, but since we choose to be on the draw in most games it is very important to have as much powerful t1 discard effects as possible in our decks.
I don't play Bontu's last Recknoning. It was good for me in one game, but I felt it clunky and slow. You only really would want it against 'big' creature decks, such as eldrazi tron and grixis shadow, and in that case I rather have an ensnaring bridge that is more versatile. Initially I tried 4 bridges in the board, but that felt like too many. You don't need to find bridge immediately in most games, since you can delay their threats with early discard and smallpox effects. Two seems fine to me. The ratchet bomb actually aren't sideboard tech against leyline, but against token and planeswalker decks. I've seen lots of Gideon decks popping up on Cockatrice, and I predict that more will show up with the new planeswalker rulling. It is incredibly troubling for us to deal with a resolved gideon, so I was also thinking about adding pithing needles to the sideboard. Two asylum visitors seems like a good number. I tested more and I didn't like drawing too many of them. I also tested liliana, the last hope and hero's downfall, both of which weren't good. I think this new lili is going to be better in a control deck where her minus ability is relevant, such as a deck with snapcaster mages. Hero's downfall felt clunky.
Delirium skeins is tech against leyline. Against leyline decks you should sideboard out wrench mind effects and a couple raven's crimes at least to bring in the greatest number of sideboard answers, like skeins and ratchet bomb. Againt control decks you should sideboard out smallpox, since most of the time it will be card disadvantage given that they barely play any creatures and also play lots of lands. If you sideboard out smallpox, you can also sideboard out a couple of lands.
The thoughts are a bit disconnected, but that's because I'm in a hurry. If you have any questions ask me something! Cheers.
Excellent thoughts here and I very much appreciate it. My one question is how does you build fair against Burn decks? For example, I've noticed players playing 1-2 copies of Death's Shadow primarily for the sole reason of playing against Burn.
I am really liking the idea of running 2 Kari Zev's Expertise in the sideboard. Provides a strong versatile option against larger threats like R/G Dinos while playing an extra threat and reducing your hand size. I can definitely see taking out the 2 Repeating Barrage in the mainboard as a sideboard plan.
Isn't Repeating Barrage really bad? At 1RR is not great, it forces you to attack and it takes two turns (and 8 mana total) to bring it back and burn some creature or your opponent. At five mana sacrificing a desert seems a lot better.
It's not bad as a 1 off or maybe a 2 off if you want to try it and don't have many other burn spells in the deck. We need to look at dealing with dinosaurs because R/G dinos is a DECK. It can drop a turn three 4/5 dino, or a turn four 4/4 and 3/3 dinos regisaur alpha and a turn five 7/6 dino with hexproof.
How are we going to deal with creatures with fat butts, dealing with creatures that have high toughness is not this deck's strong point, also dinos can have haste as well so they may be able to race us for damage. Oh, and they have trample so you can't chump block them with your 1/1's or 2/2's either...this deck needs to change to bigger creatures and go for the midgame instead of the for the 4th turn kill because you will not kill R/G dinos in 4 turns, instead you may die in 5 turns by their big dinos.
Their deck also runs shocks and lightning grasp so they can burn your creatures the first couple of turns and then turn 4 the start dropping bigger creatures than hours, the only creature they fear is Hazoret and maybe Glorybringer...which they also play main deck.
That's why I'm playing my Big Red deck which has 4/4 creatures on turn 3 and plays 4 Glorybringers main deck so that I can take care of the dinos and hit them from the sky. Just keep in mind that Dinos is a very good and very fast R/G deck which is also not that expensive to build but it is very resilient with fast big creatures with trample and they also run 8-10 burn spells main deck to finish people off or kill creatures.
So, what's your answer to a turn three 4/5 dino ripjaw raptor and a turn five 7/6 dino with hexproof? carnage tyrant
Here's my input to this thought, after reading the primer for R/G Dino's, many of the Dino players themselves are iffy about the match-ups against us. When I am looking at your concept of R/G, I believe you are referring to the Ramp version which in the Primer has shown a severe split between that and the energy core.
My feeling is Dino's will be an archetype I agree, but I do not believe it will be as consistent as you put it out to be. With high costed dino's, ramp isn't something I expect to be a real thing here. Any slip-up and Dino's just seem to get crushed against us. You appear to take the perfect scenario with ramp and exclude also our own removal package to their ramp.
Overall, I appear that the match-up will be a good one to see, but I do not think it is as difficult as you are putting it to be. If we burn or remove their ramp (if they even play that) they can severely get slowed down and stuck in response. Dino's just appear way to clunky against us before they can stabilize.
Unfortunately it is not their BEST play but one of their average plays, any other combination of dinos and burn on turn 3,4,5 can beat the ramunap red deck if it runs a bunch of 1/1's.
In the last game the ramunap red deck only got him down to 10 life before the dino deck recovered and wiped the floor with the ram red deck. Being able to drop hasted/trampling dinos any time after turn 4 is crazy...watch the video and then tell me again that it's an easy match-up for us.
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Let me point out to you, that judging a match-up solely based one on complete match footage is not something I will base my findings out on. Every deck can find an insane match where they go off based on draw and variance. I'd ask that you get me a compiled record account before we determine whether the match up is something that's bad or not, basing it again on only 3 games is something I won't base a judgement on.
Additionally, if you look at game 2, that is what I mean by faltering against RR. He was on the behind the entire game, so stating that we are going to have severe problems with possible ramp isn't really something I would worry about based on 1 match.
Isn't Repeating Barrage really bad? At 1RR is not great, it forces you to attack and it takes two turns (and 8 mana total) to bring it back and burn some creature or your opponent. At five mana sacrificing a desert seems a lot better.
It's not bad as a 1 off or maybe a 2 off if you want to try it and don't have many other burn spells in the deck. We need to look at dealing with dinosaurs because R/G dinos is a DECK. It can drop a turn three 4/5 dino, or a turn four 4/4 and 3/3 dinos regisaur alpha and a turn five 7/6 dino with hexproof.
How are we going to deal with creatures with fat butts, dealing with creatures that have high toughness is not this deck's strong point, also dinos can have haste as well so they may be able to race us for damage. Oh, and they have trample so you can't chump block them with your 1/1's or 2/2's either...this deck needs to change to bigger creatures and go for the midgame instead of the for the 4th turn kill because you will not kill R/G dinos in 4 turns, instead you may die in 5 turns by their big dinos.
Their deck also runs shocks and lightning grasp so they can burn your creatures the first couple of turns and then turn 4 the start dropping bigger creatures than hours, the only creature they fear is Hazoret and maybe Glorybringer...which they also play main deck.
That's why I'm playing my Big Red deck which has 4/4 creatures on turn 3 and plays 4 Glorybringers main deck so that I can take care of the dinos and hit them from the sky. Just keep in mind that Dinos is a very good and very fast R/G deck which is also not that expensive to build but it is very resilient with fast big creatures with trample and they also run 8-10 burn spells main deck to finish people off or kill creatures.
So, what's your answer to a turn three 4/5 dino ripjaw raptor and a turn five 7/6 dino with hexproof? carnage tyrant
Here's my input to this thought, after reading the primer for R/G Dino's, many of the Dino players themselves are iffy about the match-ups against us. When I am looking at your concept of R/G, I believe you are referring to the Ramp version which in the Primer has shown a severe split between that and the energy core.
My feeling is Dino's will be an archetype I agree, but I do not believe it will be as consistent as you put it out to be. With high costed dino's, ramp isn't something I expect to be a real thing here. Any slip-up and Dino's just seem to get crushed against us. You appear to take the perfect scenario with ramp and exclude also our own removal package to their ramp.
Overall, I appear that the match-up will be a good one to see, but I do not think it is as difficult as you are putting it to be. If we burn or remove their ramp (if they even play that) they can severely get slowed down and stuck in response. Dino's just appear way to clunky against us before they can stabilize.
Hey everyone, with this new-rotation, I've decided to play Standard for the following format and landed on Ramunap Red. I've found myself wanting to play the Mono-Red version as that appears to be the most consistent. Though, I am having a tough time trying to finish up what I'd want in my sideboard as the options are so great. Below is the list and the definite sideboard options I would like to keep, but I would love to hear your opinions on the matter. Any suggestions and comments would be much appreciated!
So far, I know my meta will consist of: Temur Energy, Mono-Red Aggro, Zombies (If that still is a thing). Everything else I'm not positive, but I'll be sure people will be bringing the tier 1 decks. I am leaning on possible another Mountain in the sideboard and maybe 1 more Chandra or 1 Chandra's Defeat.
The point of Repeating Barrage is to enable you late-game to do some burn damage if you find yourself flooding. It's a card I am willing to test at 2 of in the MB, but I've thought it's late-game utility can be very crucial to effectively use your mana.
Entered into 3 Prereleases pooling B/R/U Pirates in the first two and G/W/R Dino's in the third.
First Prerelease: I ended up going 2-0-1 splitting the final as it was midnight and i was exhausted. Most memorable moment though was surviving a 13 trample swing with Gishath combined with double strike active and him accelerating 8 dinos on the battlefield to swinging for lethal with a top deck One With the Wind on my Wanted Scoundrels.
Second Prerelease: Nothing surprising, I ended up going 1-2 with every round going to game 3. I just got flooded a bit in the two I lost and my opponent curved quite well. Most memorable moment was actually opening one of my packs and pulling a severely miscut Opt (Was able to move it for $20).
Third Prerelease: Had an absolute bonkers G/W/R Dino deck with 3 Hammerskulls. Just very control heavy with a strong top end to finish off. I ended up also going 2-0-1 splitting the finals as I was just done after playing Magic for nearly 20 hours within the past 24 hours.
Overall: 5-2-2 and cracked open a total of 31 Ixalan packs. The set is very tribal heavy and personally I felt it was not truly meant for sealed, but definitely going to be an exciting Draft format to be apart of! I also was able to make a ton of trades to nearly finish up my Standard RR deck and picked up some key staples in Modern.
Omnath, Locus of Rage is my choice of commander and I can tell you why this guy is incredible in Multiplayer. Playing a deck involving a ton of land manipulation as for example the new Traverse the Outlands or Exploration with any Fetch teamed with Doubling Season makes him a consistent threat. The fact that any opponent will also get punished for board wipes makes it even sweeter. Sure he doesn't have hexproof but thats where Lightning Greaves or Steely Resolve helps deal with that.
Excellent read from yet again an excellent player. One of the many reasons why "The Boss" is my favorite pro player of current. He breaks down each match-up you will see (even decks that barely ever, if even, you'll see at a modern tournament) and reveals his plan and most importantly why bring those cards in. Effectively this allows you to make your own changes and understand which cards are similar to Ross's stock list and which are important to each match-up.
Really? I always knew Rigging Runner would be a viable option, but it just seems like a hit or miss with the amount of 1 drops. By the way, how's the Repeating Barrage treating you so far? And No Chandra's in the main?
I've heard that Collective Brutality was a solid answer as well. I'm trying to get into modern 8-rack and after taking Tom Ross's build, I was thinking of dropping out the Funeral Charms and upping 1 CB to the MB and Wrench Mind to 4. How's that sound?
Excellent thoughts here and I very much appreciate it. My one question is how does you build fair against Burn decks? For example, I've noticed players playing 1-2 copies of Death's Shadow primarily for the sole reason of playing against Burn.
Let me point out to you, that judging a match-up solely based one on complete match footage is not something I will base my findings out on. Every deck can find an insane match where they go off based on draw and variance. I'd ask that you get me a compiled record account before we determine whether the match up is something that's bad or not, basing it again on only 3 games is something I won't base a judgement on.
Additionally, if you look at game 2, that is what I mean by faltering against RR. He was on the behind the entire game, so stating that we are going to have severe problems with possible ramp isn't really something I would worry about based on 1 match.
Here's my input to this thought, after reading the primer for R/G Dino's, many of the Dino players themselves are iffy about the match-ups against us. When I am looking at your concept of R/G, I believe you are referring to the Ramp version which in the Primer has shown a severe split between that and the energy core.
My feeling is Dino's will be an archetype I agree, but I do not believe it will be as consistent as you put it out to be. With high costed dino's, ramp isn't something I expect to be a real thing here. Any slip-up and Dino's just seem to get crushed against us. You appear to take the perfect scenario with ramp and exclude also our own removal package to their ramp.
Overall, I appear that the match-up will be a good one to see, but I do not think it is as difficult as you are putting it to be. If we burn or remove their ramp (if they even play that) they can severely get slowed down and stuck in response. Dino's just appear way to clunky against us before they can stabilize.
4 Bomat Courier
4 Soul-Scar Mage
4 Earthshaker Khenra
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
3 Hazoret the Fervent
Spells:14
4 Shock
2 Abrade
4 Lightning Strike
2 Repeating Barrage
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
14 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
2 Scavenger Grounds
4 Sunscorched Desert
3 Glorybringer
2 Abrade
2 Aethersphere Harvester
2 Sweltering Suns
2 Vance's Blasting Cannons
2 Rampaging Ferocidon (My gut feeling is telling me White Weenies or life-gain might be attempted at my meta)
2 Utility Slots (This is where I am struggling trying to find something)
So far, I know my meta will consist of: Temur Energy, Mono-Red Aggro, Zombies (If that still is a thing). Everything else I'm not positive, but I'll be sure people will be bringing the tier 1 decks. I am leaning on possible another Mountain in the sideboard and maybe 1 more Chandra or 1 Chandra's Defeat.
First Prerelease: I ended up going 2-0-1 splitting the final as it was midnight and i was exhausted. Most memorable moment though was surviving a 13 trample swing with Gishath combined with double strike active and him accelerating 8 dinos on the battlefield to swinging for lethal with a top deck One With the Wind on my Wanted Scoundrels.
Second Prerelease: Nothing surprising, I ended up going 1-2 with every round going to game 3. I just got flooded a bit in the two I lost and my opponent curved quite well. Most memorable moment was actually opening one of my packs and pulling a severely miscut Opt (Was able to move it for $20).
Third Prerelease: Had an absolute bonkers G/W/R Dino deck with 3 Hammerskulls. Just very control heavy with a strong top end to finish off. I ended up also going 2-0-1 splitting the finals as I was just done after playing Magic for nearly 20 hours within the past 24 hours.
Overall: 5-2-2 and cracked open a total of 31 Ixalan packs. The set is very tribal heavy and personally I felt it was not truly meant for sealed, but definitely going to be an exciting Draft format to be apart of! I also was able to make a ton of trades to nearly finish up my Standard RR deck and picked up some key staples in Modern.