I would replace experiment one with hidden herbalist, and kird ape with better death touch kird ape narnam renegade.
I've thought about narnam renegade, my concern then is that you lose some of the synergy from vexing devil. Later game a top decked kird ape is still a 2/3 but a narnam renegade will be a 1/1.
Well, this is just a bad match up. I've beaten GBx decks before, but you need to be pretty lucky. Not much to say other than goyfs, scavenging ooze, and the variety of control leave us in a terrible position if we can't close the game before turn 4.
G Tron 2 - 0
I was unsure about his match up but I had a good feeling. Turns out tron is really advantageous for us, even if they can assemble tron they have no way of stopping an army of animals from battering their face. Game two he played Spellskite, but unfortunately he used to block goblin guide allowing me to bolt it out of the way for the rest of the game.
WU Control 2 - 0
Again I had high hopes for this match up, although I won both games it felt very tense both times. Game one he resolved a terminus and multiple paths into snap casters to clear the board, I had him at one health. Top decked a goblin guide, gets countered. Top decked a bolt, gets countered. Top decked a Bushwhacker and he couldn't remove it.
Game two was similar, many paths and snapcasters let him two for one some of my creatures. The upside of path however is it fetches me extra lands, allowing me to play devastating summons for 3 and still keep some land in case I top decked anything else.
Thoughts
Overall I'm having a lot of fun with this deck, it's fast and allows for explosive turns that almost win the game on the spot, although the vexing devil combo is not happening nearly as often as I would like. My favorite plays are casting Devastating Summons and Reckless Bushwhacker on the same turn or any combination of Burning-Tree Emissary.
Many games feel like a lottery of match-ups, where games are very one-sided. I'm more used to slower decks with more even match-ups I guess.
I'm not really impressed with Experiment One, most of the time that's the card to side out. I feel the regenerate cause is somewhat less useful when I'm planning on going wide rather than any kind of grind. I'm not sure what I would replace it with though.
I love this card, being able to recast spells is great for this deck. I never played snapcaster (expensive!) but this has the obvious advantage in being able to use with Archive Trap and Surgical extraction using their alternate mana costs. The surveil is not to be overlooked either, especially if you are playing Manic Scribe.
I havn't had any awesome trap synergy yet, but I've been able to cast cards like Visions or Surgical to great effect. I had a hilarious game vs sultai midrange where I had double surgical to remove goyfs and snapcasters, then mission to recast surgical to remove tireless tracker leaving him with almost no creatures and no way to close the game haha.
I'm currently playing 2, but probably won't want to go to 3 as it increases the chances of drawing two Briefings whilst not having any gas cards in the graveyard to actually cast them on.
I'd really rather play a mid-range build using Knights / Ralliers / Bloodbraid,
however as that recent MTGO modern challenge shows we might be looking at maxing a low-curve beat down.
I'm gonna invest in the cards for both and see how they play out, as long as I get to play some foil Vexing Devils I'll be happy
I've been seeing this in many Zoo decks, what is the importance of Dromoka's Command?
It does lots of small things, but I can't understand how it has enough impact to be worth a mainboard slot.
Surely if your looking for speed a card like Atarka's Command is better no?
Well, as far as I can figure it, Pelt collector is an amazing early game play since he's almost guaranteed to grow to 3/3 in 1 or 2 turns, and easy to grow to 4.
However, as you said he is also a very weak late game play. If he comes off of Bloodbraid cascade at least bloodbraid will buff him two since it resolves afterwards, then to 3 if bloodbraid gets killed or chump blocked
So I recently made a zoo deck, whilst I started with the "Big Zoo" archetype I decided I much preferred to run Bloodbraid elf and rely on Knights for late game power.
So, I'm pretty excited for Pelt Collector as bloodbraid zoo has stuff popping in and out of the battlefield with powers ranging from 3 to 6 with Knights or Voice Tokens.
The flex here is obviously Vexing Devil, which might just be too cute. If it doesn't work out I'll swap them for some scavenging ooze / lightning helix or something.
Ok, so I’m happy to say this deck isn’t quite dead yet. Tweaked the deck for my local FNM and I’m pretty happy with the results.
I removed the janky pseudo-combo of Anafenza / Viscera Seer. Replaced them with 1 Scavenging Ooze and 1 Siege Rhino. I’m very happy with 2 scooze main, it very rarely feels like a dead draw and is very helpful against all the decks utilizing the graveyard these days. I’m not quite as certain about running a third Rhino, most matchups I’m very happy to draw Rhino but there are times where it can get stuck in the hand, WBG isn’t always easy to cast especially when playing blood moon decks.
Fairgrounds warden is actually pretty solid, being able to tutor an exile effect is pretty useful and is basically permanent removal when playing against tribal decks or those without kill control. Side out against decks with lots of kill / damage spells.
Eternal witness is… ok. In theory she can help return cards like Path and Abrupt Decay if I need them however most of the time I’m using her to accelerate lands.
The Archangel / Spike-feeder combo looks very sketchy but for the cost of two card slots it gives occasional free wins. Angel of Thune is generally synergistic with this deck anyway so is not much of a cost, and spike feeder can sometimes be useful as a way of chumping a block and gaining health at the same time or moving a counter onto Finks to recur it.
Mardu Pyromancer 0 - 2
Game 1: Well I had hoped that cards like Finks and Voice would work in my favour but he kept my board state shredded and targeted all my Eldritch Evo’s with discard to prevent me getting anywhere. Eventually lands Blood Moon, which I forgot was in that deck. Oops.
Game 2: Had to mulligan to 5 due to low land hands / unplayable land colours. Kept a playable hand with Eidolon of Rhetoric. Eidolon slowed the game down but he eventually outvalues me by casting multiple Bedlam Revellers. Oh well.
Eldrazi Tron 2 - 1
Game 1: Had a good hand but he used Thought-knot to remove my Evo’s. Eventually he uses the exiling Eldrazi plus Thought-knot to chain together exiling effects and remove all the good cards out of my hand.
Game 2: Fairgrounds warden keeps him from combo-ing his exile effects, multiple finks and Ralliers eventually go wide for the win.
Game 3: Thoughtseize prevents him from making powerful early plays, he lands a Thought-knot but chooses to take Path from my hand instead of Worship, his mistake. Cast Worship, he has no way to deal with it so I go wide for the win.
Gifts Storm 2 - 1
Game 1: Good hand with lots of removal keeps two storm dorks off the board, turn 4 he plays another Baral and combos off. Didn’t get an opportunity to Evo for Shalai since I had her in my hand and didn’t get my 4th turn.
Game 2: Thoughtseize and some kill spells slow him down enough that I can get beats in before he can go off.
Game 3: Getting Remorseful Cleric down early lets me go at my pace, later get a scooze down as insurance, he attempts to combo the turn before I would swing for lethal but Remorseful Cleric shuts him down. Good times.
So I've played against a variety of decks and it can really hold its own against tough match-ups likes Death's Shadow and Humans. The real problem is it feels like it has weak Game one match-ups against a lot of decks. After sideboard our chances improve greatly of course as we can tune our hate-cards for particular strategies.
After trying a few more interesting style decks at my FNM these past weeks and striking out pretty bad (my FNM is frequented by serious players, almost no homebrews or non-tournament level jank) I decided to get serious and boot up my pyromancer deck. I'm running a pretty staple build, nothing fancy, with a preference for Leylines of the Void and Ensnaring Bridge.
Overall 3 - 1
Kiki Chord 2 - 0
Game 1: Having never played this guy and not seeing any obvious cards in hand it took me a long time to work out what exactly I was playing against. Hit him with multiple discard to prevent him casting early spells, bolted birds to prevent ramp, locked him out of mana with blood moon. No contest.
Game 2: Didn't really know how to sideboard here, OUT -> Liliana, dreadbore / terminate IN -> LoV, Hazoret. Games played similar to the first, kept constant pressure with discard and picking off ramp so he couldn't establish any kind of board presence, didn't actually know his wincon till after the game.
Thopter Sword 2 - 0
Never played this guy or this deck before either.
Game 1: Drew plenty of discard, kept him from playing anything early on. Later on he didn't seem to draw any kind of gas. Saw his hand lacked any control, so went with pyromanancer value beat-down.
Game 2: OUT -> Fatal Push, Terminate / Dreadbore, Collective Brutality. In -> Leyline of the Void, Kambal. Drew Leyline with opening hand. He plays Damnation later on but without any kind of follow up leaving me to swing with souls for the win.
Jund 0 - 2
Game 1: We both empty our hand flinging discard and kill spells at each other. I keep his goyf's in check but he recurs them with Kolaghan's Command. Eventually his man-lands provide a superior force and force his way through.
Game 2: So I've heard we are favored in this match-up but havn't really played it too much before. OUT -> Inquisition / Thoughtseize, Collective Brutality. IN -> Ensnaring Bridge, Hazoret, Engineered Explosives, LoV. I fluff my opening move by not playing Reckless looting on my first turn, instead leaving the mana open for some reason. He thoughtseizes and surgically extracts it.
Was a tense match, we both chip each other to half health. We have full graveyards but empty hands, playing a top-deck war. He has goyf and man-lands. I have Hazoret on the field, Souls in the graveyard and Reveler + bolt in Hand. He swings with goyf and raging ravine, I choose not block goyf which takes me to 5 and instead block ravine with my last elemental token and follow up with bolt. On my turn I can cast reveler but don't wan't to risk being unable to use Hazoret from the draw, so I cast souls from the GY instead. Feeling safe with my tokens I swing with Hazoret taking him to 4. He top-decks Maelstrom pulse. My face when
Storm 2 - 0
Played this guy lastr week with Ponza and got trashed, he's pretty cocky so I'm excited to show him up.
Game 1: Good opening hand, hit him with a LOT of discard as the match goes on, pick out all his goblins / Barals and bolt the ones that land. He is unable to combo off.
Game 2: OUT -> Fatal Push, Dreadbore / Terminate, Liliana, Souls, Blood Moon. IN -> Leyline, Engineered Explosives, Kambal. No leyline or discard in opening hand = mulligan. Second hand has no leyline but has discard and Kambal so keep. Was a fun game, he sided out all his Goblins and Barals to make room for bolts and counterspell. I play Kambal, he gets killed. Kolaghan him back to my hand, play him again. Gets killed again. Draw another Kolaghans and follow up with another Kambal, use Inquisition to play around remand and land Kambal. He uses grapeshot to get rid of Kambal but by now he has sapped his health so low I can just finish him off with a bolt.
So, overall I'm pretty happy with how things went. Made some misplays in the Jund match-up but otherwise was on top of things. Gotta love how this deck plays, with a heavy focus on red and black it lets my feel like i'm in control of the whole game choosing what my opponent gets to play, knowing that the cards I don't take can be removed with Bolt or Kolaghans etc. This is in contrast to a deck like Ponza, in which I feel like I'm playing catch-up the whole time and just trying to avoid being overrun.
I'm definitely a fan of Ensnaring bridge when it gets played, using it to lock out the opponents creatures whilst we slowly fill the board with 1/1's, might try bringing in Rabbelmaster. I didn't bring any molten rain's because previous I havn't seen anyone playing Tron, however today the first thing I notice is a guy and his Tron deck. Luckily for me I skipped that match-up altogether.
Played in my local FNM last night, almost decided not to post anything because I'm still feeling pretty salty, but anyway...
Overall 0 - 1 - 2
Red Prison 1 - 1
Played against my friend, in previous testing the day before he hadn't been able to take a single game off me.
Game 1: Game went kinda slow because he kept playing Anger of the Gods early on, eventually get enough counters onto ballista for the win.
Game 2: Same kinda deal, this time he landed multiple bridges and a Witchbane Orb with Chalice on 2 preventing me from escalating my counters, didn't draw any of my Nature's claims so... Game dragged on a very long time. I really should have conceded so that I would have enough time for the next round but I felt if I could draw Nature's Claims I would be able to pop chalice or bridge and find an out.
Game 3: Draw. Went to time. Not happy about this because he had no board state and I would have accelerated to lethal in a few turns.
In the future I'm gonna go up to 4 Nature's Claims. Absolutely needed here.
Amulet Titan 1 - 2
Having never played against titan I didn't know what to expect, two games he goldfished for crazy fast stomps.
Game 1: Loss, he pulls of some land bouncing craziness in the fourth turn, ghost quarters my inkmoth, attacks with hasty titans.
Game 2: He mulligans, ends up with a slow hand, I dismember his early ramp creature. Attack with 2 inkmoths early for the win.
Game 3: Loss, slower than game one, I have to mulligan. Keep a reasonable but not fast hand. He assembles Titan tron too quickly however and gives it double strike mid-combat for the win. Spellskite manages to slow him down, but he drew abrade and got rid of it before I could use it to stop his land combo.
My problem here is I don't know how to sideboard against titan, or play against it at all really. Would love to be able to run thoughtseize. Opponent is a nice guy and knows his deck very well however, so I don't feel too bad.
UR Through the Breach 1 - 2
Played this guy a few times before, he's very good, always plays a control heavy deck.
Game 1: Loss. Good start, but eventually he lands a blood moon preventing me from getting lethal with Inkmoth. Bounces my stuff with cryptic to prevent me getting enough counters, eventually snapcaster mage-bolts me to death
Game 2: With hardened scales, Ravager and Inkmoth out am able to get lethal poison on turn 4 for the win.
Game 3: Loss, had to mulligan, a reasonable but slower hard is too slow as he lands Emrakul on turn five.
Future changes; well I'm definitely buying the last Inkmoth Nexus. Previously have been too lazy to buy it.
Most of my wins seems to depend on Inkmoth so my bad really. Will bring in another Nature's Claim for the sideboard.
The first match really should have been mine, the other two are against very pro player's so I'm not too sure what I could have done. Although ended up with many loses this deck really feels like it is packing a lot of power. Hardened Scales with a Ravager normally leads to lethal in a few turns. Cards that did well for me are Animation Module, Throne of Geth, and Evolutionary Leap. I think the sac plan is definitely the way to go, animation module helps provide unlimited sac targets for throne and ravager, or targets for leap to draw more cards. Have been kinda unimpressed with Opal since it rarely enables a quick start, doubt i'd cut it though.
I would like some advice on what to take out when sideboarding, so far i'm usually cutting Sparring Construct plus a hangarback walker or two, but to be honest I'm not sure what's ideal here. Deck feels so tight there's not much choice on what can be moved in / out.
If you're referring to my deck then the primary play is still aggro, but let's be honest Wilt-Leaf aggro is simply outclassed by other decks at the moment.
This is why I'm trying to build a deck which can pivot either to;
A) Silver-bullet side-board cards that can slow down or prevent the opponent from playing
B) Combo for infinite life / counters (Although it's still too early for me to tell if this is properly viable)
If we're going to play Eldritch Evolution then it makes sense to try and get the most out of it.
Well I made some changes which bring my deck more inline with Dejadal's. Brought in some mainboard removal, I had originally planned 2 path and 2 push but I couldn't find my spare path so decided to run Dark Salvation instead. It's ok, It's great removal if you have some board presence, or if you want a mana dump, but is not particularly reliable removal compared to other stuff.
Haven't had as much time to test as I would like. Seems like creature-based games and other fair (i.e. slow) match-ups are pretty good. Cards like Diregraf Colossus and Wayward Servant do really well if we are given enough of an opportunity to use them. Pretty sure real competitive and combo decks will just stomp us but ho hey, that's what I expected.
Removed Engineered Explosives from the sideboard since we can only ever play it for 2, and too many important permanents are 3+ like ensnaring bridge.
Would like to try Liliana of the Vale, but I don't have any so I shoved a Liliana, The Last Hope in the sideboard as filler.
whats the purpose of the single arcbound worker rather than another memnite?
I've thought about narnam renegade, my concern then is that you lose some of the synergy from vexing devil. Later game a top decked kird ape is still a 2/3 but a narnam renegade will be a 1/1.
4 Arid Mesa
1 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
Creatures (32)
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Experiment One
4 Goblin Guide
4 Kird Ape
4 Pelt Collector
4 Reckless Bushwhacker
4 Vexing Devil
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Atarka's Command
4 Lightning Bolt
Sorcery (1)
1 Devastating Summons
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Ingot Chewer
1 Remorseful Cleric
2 Alpine Moon
2 Rest in Peace
1 Stony Silence
1 Destructive Revelry
2 Path to Exile
1 Forked Bolt
FNM Report
Overall 2 - 1
Jund 1 - 2
Well, this is just a bad match up. I've beaten GBx decks before, but you need to be pretty lucky. Not much to say other than goyfs, scavenging ooze, and the variety of control leave us in a terrible position if we can't close the game before turn 4.
G Tron 2 - 0
I was unsure about his match up but I had a good feeling. Turns out tron is really advantageous for us, even if they can assemble tron they have no way of stopping an army of animals from battering their face. Game two he played Spellskite, but unfortunately he used to block goblin guide allowing me to bolt it out of the way for the rest of the game.
WU Control 2 - 0
Again I had high hopes for this match up, although I won both games it felt very tense both times. Game one he resolved a terminus and multiple paths into snap casters to clear the board, I had him at one health. Top decked a goblin guide, gets countered. Top decked a bolt, gets countered. Top decked a Bushwhacker and he couldn't remove it.
Game two was similar, many paths and snapcasters let him two for one some of my creatures. The upside of path however is it fetches me extra lands, allowing me to play devastating summons for 3 and still keep some land in case I top decked anything else.
Thoughts
Overall I'm having a lot of fun with this deck, it's fast and allows for explosive turns that almost win the game on the spot, although the vexing devil combo is not happening nearly as often as I would like. My favorite plays are casting Devastating Summons and Reckless Bushwhacker on the same turn or any combination of Burning-Tree Emissary.
Many games feel like a lottery of match-ups, where games are very one-sided. I'm more used to slower decks with more even match-ups I guess.
I'm not really impressed with Experiment One, most of the time that's the card to side out. I feel the regenerate cause is somewhat less useful when I'm planning on going wide rather than any kind of grind. I'm not sure what I would replace it with though.
I love this card, being able to recast spells is great for this deck. I never played snapcaster (expensive!) but this has the obvious advantage in being able to use with Archive Trap and Surgical extraction using their alternate mana costs. The surveil is not to be overlooked either, especially if you are playing Manic Scribe.
I havn't had any awesome trap synergy yet, but I've been able to cast cards like Visions or Surgical to great effect. I had a hilarious game vs sultai midrange where I had double surgical to remove goyfs and snapcasters, then mission to recast surgical to remove tireless tracker leaving him with almost no creatures and no way to close the game haha.
I'm currently playing 2, but probably won't want to go to 3 as it increases the chances of drawing two Briefings whilst not having any gas cards in the graveyard to actually cast them on.
however as that recent MTGO modern challenge shows we might be looking at maxing a low-curve beat down.
I'm gonna invest in the cards for both and see how they play out, as long as I get to play some foil Vexing Devils I'll be happy
It does lots of small things, but I can't understand how it has enough impact to be worth a mainboard slot.
Surely if your looking for speed a card like Atarka's Command is better no?
However, as you said he is also a very weak late game play. If he comes off of Bloodbraid cascade at least bloodbraid will buff him two since it resolves afterwards, then to 3 if bloodbraid gets killed or chump blocked
2 Arid Mesa
2 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Stomping Ground
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Pelt Collector
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Renegade Rallier
4 Vexing Devil
3 Voice of Resurgence
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
OTHER SPELLS
1 Domnri Rade
So I recently made a zoo deck, whilst I started with the "Big Zoo" archetype I decided I much preferred to run Bloodbraid elf and rely on Knights for late game power.
So, I'm pretty excited for Pelt Collector as bloodbraid zoo has stuff popping in and out of the battlefield with powers ranging from 3 to 6 with Knights or Voice Tokens.
The flex here is obviously Vexing Devil, which might just be too cute. If it doesn't work out I'll swap them for some scavenging ooze / lightning helix or something.
Looking for feedback, any thoughts?
2 Forest
2 Gavony Township
1 Godless Shrine
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Razorverge Thicket
1 Swamp
2 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windswept Heath
Creatures (29)
1 Archangel of Thune
2 Birds of Paradise
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fairgrounds Warden
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Renegade Rallier
1 Shalai, Voice of Plenty
3 Siege Rhino
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Spike Feeder
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Path to Exile
Sorcery (4)
4 Eldritch Evolution
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1 Orzhov Pontiff
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Quasali Pridemage
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Remorseful Cleric
1 Tocatli Honor Guard
1 Worship
3 Thoughtseize
FNM Report
Overall 2 - 1
Ok, so I’m happy to say this deck isn’t quite dead yet. Tweaked the deck for my local FNM and I’m pretty happy with the results.
I removed the janky pseudo-combo of Anafenza / Viscera Seer. Replaced them with 1 Scavenging Ooze and 1 Siege Rhino. I’m very happy with 2 scooze main, it very rarely feels like a dead draw and is very helpful against all the decks utilizing the graveyard these days. I’m not quite as certain about running a third Rhino, most matchups I’m very happy to draw Rhino but there are times where it can get stuck in the hand, WBG isn’t always easy to cast especially when playing blood moon decks.
Fairgrounds warden is actually pretty solid, being able to tutor an exile effect is pretty useful and is basically permanent removal when playing against tribal decks or those without kill control. Side out against decks with lots of kill / damage spells.
Eternal witness is… ok. In theory she can help return cards like Path and Abrupt Decay if I need them however most of the time I’m using her to accelerate lands.
The Archangel / Spike-feeder combo looks very sketchy but for the cost of two card slots it gives occasional free wins. Angel of Thune is generally synergistic with this deck anyway so is not much of a cost, and spike feeder can sometimes be useful as a way of chumping a block and gaining health at the same time or moving a counter onto Finks to recur it.
Mardu Pyromancer 0 - 2
Game 1: Well I had hoped that cards like Finks and Voice would work in my favour but he kept my board state shredded and targeted all my Eldritch Evo’s with discard to prevent me getting anywhere. Eventually lands Blood Moon, which I forgot was in that deck. Oops.
Game 2: Had to mulligan to 5 due to low land hands / unplayable land colours. Kept a playable hand with Eidolon of Rhetoric. Eidolon slowed the game down but he eventually outvalues me by casting multiple Bedlam Revellers. Oh well.
Eldrazi Tron 2 - 1
Game 1: Had a good hand but he used Thought-knot to remove my Evo’s. Eventually he uses the exiling Eldrazi plus Thought-knot to chain together exiling effects and remove all the good cards out of my hand.
Game 2: Fairgrounds warden keeps him from combo-ing his exile effects, multiple finks and Ralliers eventually go wide for the win.
Game 3: Thoughtseize prevents him from making powerful early plays, he lands a Thought-knot but chooses to take Path from my hand instead of Worship, his mistake. Cast Worship, he has no way to deal with it so I go wide for the win.
Gifts Storm 2 - 1
Game 1: Good hand with lots of removal keeps two storm dorks off the board, turn 4 he plays another Baral and combos off. Didn’t get an opportunity to Evo for Shalai since I had her in my hand and didn’t get my 4th turn.
Game 2: Thoughtseize and some kill spells slow him down enough that I can get beats in before he can go off.
Game 3: Getting Remorseful Cleric down early lets me go at my pace, later get a scooze down as insurance, he attempts to combo the turn before I would swing for lethal but Remorseful Cleric shuts him down. Good times.
So I've played against a variety of decks and it can really hold its own against tough match-ups likes Death's Shadow and Humans. The real problem is it feels like it has weak Game one match-ups against a lot of decks. After sideboard our chances improve greatly of course as we can tune our hate-cards for particular strategies.
4 Blackcleave Ciffs
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Marsh Flats
2 Mountain
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Swamp
Creatures (8)
4 Bedlam Reveler
4 Young Pyromancer
Planeswalkers (1)
1 Liliana, The Last Hope
Enchantments (2)
2 Blood Moon
2 Fatal Push
3 Kolaghan's Command
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Manamorphose
1 Terminate
Sorcery (18)
2 Collective Brutality
1 Dreadbore
4 Faithless Looting
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
3 Thoughtseize
1 Hazoret the Fervent
2 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Liliana of the Veil
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Wear
FNM Report
After trying a few more interesting style decks at my FNM these past weeks and striking out pretty bad (my FNM is frequented by serious players, almost no homebrews or non-tournament level jank) I decided to get serious and boot up my pyromancer deck. I'm running a pretty staple build, nothing fancy, with a preference for Leylines of the Void and Ensnaring Bridge.
Overall 3 - 1
Kiki Chord 2 - 0
Game 1: Having never played this guy and not seeing any obvious cards in hand it took me a long time to work out what exactly I was playing against. Hit him with multiple discard to prevent him casting early spells, bolted birds to prevent ramp, locked him out of mana with blood moon. No contest.
Game 2: Didn't really know how to sideboard here, OUT -> Liliana, dreadbore / terminate IN -> LoV, Hazoret. Games played similar to the first, kept constant pressure with discard and picking off ramp so he couldn't establish any kind of board presence, didn't actually know his wincon till after the game.
Thopter Sword 2 - 0
Never played this guy or this deck before either.
Game 1: Drew plenty of discard, kept him from playing anything early on. Later on he didn't seem to draw any kind of gas. Saw his hand lacked any control, so went with pyromanancer value beat-down.
Game 2: OUT -> Fatal Push, Terminate / Dreadbore, Collective Brutality. In -> Leyline of the Void, Kambal. Drew Leyline with opening hand. He plays Damnation later on but without any kind of follow up leaving me to swing with souls for the win.
Jund 0 - 2
Game 1: We both empty our hand flinging discard and kill spells at each other. I keep his goyf's in check but he recurs them with Kolaghan's Command. Eventually his man-lands provide a superior force and force his way through.
Game 2: So I've heard we are favored in this match-up but havn't really played it too much before. OUT -> Inquisition / Thoughtseize, Collective Brutality. IN -> Ensnaring Bridge, Hazoret, Engineered Explosives, LoV. I fluff my opening move by not playing Reckless looting on my first turn, instead leaving the mana open for some reason. He thoughtseizes and surgically extracts it.
Was a tense match, we both chip each other to half health. We have full graveyards but empty hands, playing a top-deck war. He has goyf and man-lands. I have Hazoret on the field, Souls in the graveyard and Reveler + bolt in Hand. He swings with goyf and raging ravine, I choose not block goyf which takes me to 5 and instead block ravine with my last elemental token and follow up with bolt. On my turn I can cast reveler but don't wan't to risk being unable to use Hazoret from the draw, so I cast souls from the GY instead. Feeling safe with my tokens I swing with Hazoret taking him to 4. He top-decks Maelstrom pulse. My face when
Storm 2 - 0
Played this guy lastr week with Ponza and got trashed, he's pretty cocky so I'm excited to show him up.
Game 1: Good opening hand, hit him with a LOT of discard as the match goes on, pick out all his goblins / Barals and bolt the ones that land. He is unable to combo off.
Game 2: OUT -> Fatal Push, Dreadbore / Terminate, Liliana, Souls, Blood Moon. IN -> Leyline, Engineered Explosives, Kambal. No leyline or discard in opening hand = mulligan. Second hand has no leyline but has discard and Kambal so keep. Was a fun game, he sided out all his Goblins and Barals to make room for bolts and counterspell. I play Kambal, he gets killed. Kolaghan him back to my hand, play him again. Gets killed again. Draw another Kolaghans and follow up with another Kambal, use Inquisition to play around remand and land Kambal. He uses grapeshot to get rid of Kambal but by now he has sapped his health so low I can just finish him off with a bolt.
So, overall I'm pretty happy with how things went. Made some misplays in the Jund match-up but otherwise was on top of things. Gotta love how this deck plays, with a heavy focus on red and black it lets my feel like i'm in control of the whole game choosing what my opponent gets to play, knowing that the cards I don't take can be removed with Bolt or Kolaghans etc. This is in contrast to a deck like Ponza, in which I feel like I'm playing catch-up the whole time and just trying to avoid being overrun.
I'm definitely a fan of Ensnaring bridge when it gets played, using it to lock out the opponents creatures whilst we slowly fill the board with 1/1's, might try bringing in Rabbelmaster. I didn't bring any molten rain's because previous I havn't seen anyone playing Tron, however today the first thing I notice is a guy and his Tron deck. Luckily for me I skipped that match-up altogether.
I've always played UB mill, and have tried a few variants. Mine is based around a very similar list which did well on MTGO a while back.
So far I havn't had a problem with people playing leylines, but I feel this type of list is the best balance between aggro and resiliency.
Having been striking out at my FNM recently with decks like Ponza, Hardened Scales, etc.
Lots of helpful information to help me get back into the swing of Pyromancer, thanks!
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
7 Forest
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Pendelhaven
Creature (22)
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Hangarback Walker
2 Sparring Construct
4 Steel Overseer
4 Walking Ballista
4 Hardened Scales
1 Evolutionary Leap
Artifact (11)
2 Animation Module
4 Mox Opal
2 Throne of Geth
2 Welding Jar
Sorcery (4)
4 Ancient Stirrings
2 Spellskite
1 Evolutionary Leap
2 Damping Sphere
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Dismember
2 Gut Shot
3 Nature's Claim
Played in my local FNM last night, almost decided not to post anything because I'm still feeling pretty salty, but anyway...
Overall 0 - 1 - 2
Red Prison 1 - 1
Played against my friend, in previous testing the day before he hadn't been able to take a single game off me.
Game 1: Game went kinda slow because he kept playing Anger of the Gods early on, eventually get enough counters onto ballista for the win.
Game 2: Same kinda deal, this time he landed multiple bridges and a Witchbane Orb with Chalice on 2 preventing me from escalating my counters, didn't draw any of my Nature's claims so... Game dragged on a very long time. I really should have conceded so that I would have enough time for the next round but I felt if I could draw Nature's Claims I would be able to pop chalice or bridge and find an out.
Game 3: Draw. Went to time. Not happy about this because he had no board state and I would have accelerated to lethal in a few turns.
In the future I'm gonna go up to 4 Nature's Claims. Absolutely needed here.
Amulet Titan 1 - 2
Having never played against titan I didn't know what to expect, two games he goldfished for crazy fast stomps.
Game 1: Loss, he pulls of some land bouncing craziness in the fourth turn, ghost quarters my inkmoth, attacks with hasty titans.
Game 2: He mulligans, ends up with a slow hand, I dismember his early ramp creature. Attack with 2 inkmoths early for the win.
Game 3: Loss, slower than game one, I have to mulligan. Keep a reasonable but not fast hand. He assembles Titan tron too quickly however and gives it double strike mid-combat for the win. Spellskite manages to slow him down, but he drew abrade and got rid of it before I could use it to stop his land combo.
My problem here is I don't know how to sideboard against titan, or play against it at all really. Would love to be able to run thoughtseize. Opponent is a nice guy and knows his deck very well however, so I don't feel too bad.
UR Through the Breach 1 - 2
Played this guy a few times before, he's very good, always plays a control heavy deck.
Game 1: Loss. Good start, but eventually he lands a blood moon preventing me from getting lethal with Inkmoth. Bounces my stuff with cryptic to prevent me getting enough counters, eventually snapcaster mage-bolts me to death
Game 2: With hardened scales, Ravager and Inkmoth out am able to get lethal poison on turn 4 for the win.
Game 3: Loss, had to mulligan, a reasonable but slower hard is too slow as he lands Emrakul on turn five.
Future changes; well I'm definitely buying the last Inkmoth Nexus. Previously have been too lazy to buy it.
Most of my wins seems to depend on Inkmoth so my bad really. Will bring in another Nature's Claim for the sideboard.
The first match really should have been mine, the other two are against very pro player's so I'm not too sure what I could have done. Although ended up with many loses this deck really feels like it is packing a lot of power. Hardened Scales with a Ravager normally leads to lethal in a few turns. Cards that did well for me are Animation Module, Throne of Geth, and Evolutionary Leap. I think the sac plan is definitely the way to go, animation module helps provide unlimited sac targets for throne and ravager, or targets for leap to draw more cards. Have been kinda unimpressed with Opal since it rarely enables a quick start, doubt i'd cut it though.
I would like some advice on what to take out when sideboarding, so far i'm usually cutting Sparring Construct plus a hangarback walker or two, but to be honest I'm not sure what's ideal here. Deck feels so tight there's not much choice on what can be moved in / out.
This is why I'm trying to build a deck which can pivot either to;
A) Silver-bullet side-board cards that can slow down or prevent the opponent from playing
B) Combo for infinite life / counters (Although it's still too early for me to tell if this is properly viable)
If we're going to play Eldritch Evolution then it makes sense to try and get the most out of it.
3 Cavern of Souls
3 Concealed Courtyard
2 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
2 Mutavault
1 Plains
4 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Creature (29)
3 Cryptbreaker
4 Death Baron
2 Diregraf Colossus
2 Geralf's Messenger
4 Gravecrawler
3 Plague Belcher
3 Relentless Dead
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Wayward Servant
1 Costly Plunder
2 Fatal Push
1 Path to Exile
Sorcery (1)
1 Dark Salvation
Artifact (6)
4 Aether Vial
1 Blasting Station
2 Binding Mummy
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Liliana, The Last Hope
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Collective Brutality
3 Fragmentize
3 Thoughtseize
Well I made some changes which bring my deck more inline with Dejadal's. Brought in some mainboard removal, I had originally planned 2 path and 2 push but I couldn't find my spare path so decided to run Dark Salvation instead. It's ok, It's great removal if you have some board presence, or if you want a mana dump, but is not particularly reliable removal compared to other stuff.
Haven't had as much time to test as I would like. Seems like creature-based games and other fair (i.e. slow) match-ups are pretty good. Cards like Diregraf Colossus and Wayward Servant do really well if we are given enough of an opportunity to use them. Pretty sure real competitive and combo decks will just stomp us but ho hey, that's what I expected.
Removed Engineered Explosives from the sideboard since we can only ever play it for 2, and too many important permanents are 3+ like ensnaring bridge.
Would like to try Liliana of the Vale, but I don't have any so I shoved a Liliana, The Last Hope in the sideboard as filler.