Forked Bolts looks like a lot of value, without tying up your mana like Arc Trail. Although I beleive in the meta you are getting an exceptional amount of value if you run both, or some combination.
I fail to see how a return to Ravnica is so "amazing" for the game. Ravnica was a great block because it gave us such a diverse metagame very memorable cards. We can no doubt assume that we will just get another overpowered block with Mythics that dominate, and jace 4.0 Especially if Maro is working on it. Just because it's the same plane does not mean we get amazing cards and balance again, or a diverse meta.
oops, sorry I got should have made a T1 Mountain drop or a dual land instead.
Anyway, my example was just to point out that if you had no other choice and you had to play 3 copies of either mancer or scamp, then scamp would do better. But I do agree with you that 4 mancers might not be needed at the moment since I also sometimes find myself with a board full of mancers but a graveyard with 4 or less cards.
Sorry, what is SSE?
I honestly run the same 1 drop suit right now, but if find myself not wanting to draw a lavamancer vs. kut.
I honestly never thought of things this way and I admit, lavamancer seems good G1... but post SB, I think I'll still be siding them out (or at least leaving 2 at the MD) for more aggressive cards.
I don't think we can both swing and use the mancer's ability at the same time since it has an activation cost of RT. Also, I've found that when paired against valakut, its gets harder and harder for us to win if they're still out of burn range by >T4. I really do not like this matchup and I'm really considering adding Act of Aggression MD already...
SSE is SpikeShot Elder
Of course you can not swing and activate the Lavamancers ability, I'm no fool. But Valakut is not killing you in one turn, so you should have 3-4 turns to play around with a Lavamancer, be it swinging for a measly one or popping for two. At worst Lavamancer is a shock, unless you draw him the turn your about to die, or draw 2-3 of them.
Lavamancer is at WORST 2-3 damage against Valakut. At worst, you can play him, swing, and than pop stuff from your grave. Or if you double fetch to start you can easily get 4 points out of him. And if the game goes longer than 4-5 turns, he will easily get 4+ points, so I fail to see how he is too slow.
The way I look at burst lightning more than anything is a creature removal spell. More often than not you will opt to spend that on a creature to clear the way, since your bolt's are much more valuable when it comes to the dome. With the advent of so many creatures that make Dismember MD'able, I opt to play Dismember over Burst. Yes, I can't cast it at your dome for 2, but more often than not that 2 is mitigated by the fact that I'm not 2 for 1'ing myself in some form.
The lists you are testing against sound really odd.
Valakut with 4 wall of Tanglechord? Most lists run 0.
UW with Venser?
Boros isn't even a real deck anymore, I don't know why you were testing against it, or why you were losing to it with either build. You are faster than them game 1 and have infinite control options game 2 and 3 until you grind them out with Chandra's Phoenix or Shrine or Koth.
Kor Firewalker isn't really a card I'm afraid of. You have 8 ways to kill it(Dismember and Shrine), and racing it isn't unheard of...especially now that we have Shrine and Chandra's Phoenix. It is also only a 2-3 of in most sideboards, and while the 'hope they don't have it' plan isn't the best, 1 Firewalker has almost never been enough to beat me.
Exactly this. I take most testing results like these with a grain of salt. You were testing against bad lists, and you were obviously playing poorly against the Boros player if you were losing. You can control boros very effectivly. It's no slight on you, just work towards getting better.
None the less, threads like these are rather useless, as they don't give us valid information. Unless your testing with an optimized list of your own against other lists you would ACTUALLY SEE and both players are very competant, the results are going to be skewed.
Titans are played turn 6, Manabarbs turn 4? Unless you mean Valakut, in which case you'd only MAYBE bring it in if your on the play. Mr.Valakut wont get a titan out by his 3rd turn.
Otherwise, it serves the same function Koth did, maybe it gets countered, maybe it doesn't. By your logic we shouldn't run Koth against Control either. Except Manabarbs seals the deal against them should it resolve much more successfully.
Run 4 Scamp, 4 Goblin Guide, 4 Grim Lavamancer and never look back. Maybe even add a couple SSE for more 1 drops. This gives us an incredibly aggressive start and lays the work for our turn 2, which can be burn+1 drop, or 2 drop since we have a lot of pressure already.
Either his deck is superior to mine, his deck beats my deck, he is more skilled, more lucky and so on.
Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, things happen. Recognize why you lost and stop being a baby. If you had a bad matchup against his jank, well it happens, so maybe work on your SB for next week. Or play better, or dont play sloppy because you get over confident.
Puresteel Paladin.Dec
Forked Bolts looks like a lot of value, without tying up your mana like Arc Trail. Although I beleive in the meta you are getting an exceptional amount of value if you run both, or some combination.
If you want it from a WOTC distributor, yes.
You can always just buy boxes from any store though, at a higher cost. If your not sanctioned, Wizards isn't going to cut you a deal.
SSE is SpikeShot Elder
Of course you can not swing and activate the Lavamancers ability, I'm no fool. But Valakut is not killing you in one turn, so you should have 3-4 turns to play around with a Lavamancer, be it swinging for a measly one or popping for two. At worst Lavamancer is a shock, unless you draw him the turn your about to die, or draw 2-3 of them.
Woops! Fixed
Exactly this. I take most testing results like these with a grain of salt. You were testing against bad lists, and you were obviously playing poorly against the Boros player if you were losing. You can control boros very effectivly. It's no slight on you, just work towards getting better.
None the less, threads like these are rather useless, as they don't give us valid information. Unless your testing with an optimized list of your own against other lists you would ACTUALLY SEE and both players are very competant, the results are going to be skewed.
Otherwise, it serves the same function Koth did, maybe it gets countered, maybe it doesn't. By your logic we shouldn't run Koth against Control either. Except Manabarbs seals the deal against them should it resolve much more successfully.
Run 4 Scamp, 4 Goblin Guide, 4 Grim Lavamancer and never look back. Maybe even add a couple SSE for more 1 drops. This gives us an incredibly aggressive start and lays the work for our turn 2, which can be burn+1 drop, or 2 drop since we have a lot of pressure already.
Either his deck is superior to mine, his deck beats my deck, he is more skilled, more lucky and so on.
Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, things happen. Recognize why you lost and stop being a baby. If you had a bad matchup against his jank, well it happens, so maybe work on your SB for next week. Or play better, or dont play sloppy because you get over confident.