What matchups is firestorm for? I can't say I've used it once yet.
Firestorm is for creature decks. It kills x/2s super easily while throwing a little burn at your opponent. And if they swarm the board with a bunch of dorks, pitch everything but a bridge (unless sacrificing one at that point means little) to clear their board and hopefully fireball them.
Played LED Dredge last night at my LGS to a pretty easy 3-0. Not bad for having been out of magic for 2 and a half years.
I would suggest Ranger's Guile as a replacement to the Sheltering Words, costs less and is a better combat trick while still blanking removal. And have you considered Experiment One instead of the Ulvenwald Tracker? Pit Fight and Prey Upon are both better for your deck than Tracker because he's a weak topdeck and then there is the summoning sickness issue.
I let the deck decide my first couple turns and then depending on the opponent I either start jamming walkers and taking control or play passive with a bunch of removal in hand. Most games I win is from stalling the opponent and then beating them with a thragtusk, nighthawk, or beast token. Mill is never a bad backup plan if you have to go defensive.
Vraska was an absolute beast and forbidden alchemy was clutch. I recently decided to play the cyclonic rifts and it's been phenomenal.
Will be running a slightly altered list tomorrow for Game Day. Tournament reports will be posted in blog form so as not to crowd up the discussion here.
The issue with the defender ramp is that you're opening yourself up to searing spear which is in 70% of the decks in standard as a 4-of. Toughness 4 is preferred for any defenders you're going to put in the way and fog bank can't even avoid pillar of flame.
If you want to avoid going into white for supreme verdict you can splash black for removal effects like devour flesh, tribute to hunger and sever the bloodline. If you do go white I'd still opt for some O-rings and D-Spheres
Add some form of mana ramp to get ahead of your opponent. Gilded Lotus, Ranger's Path, Farseek all get you there faster. Maybe some board wipes to stall until you finish the game
Used to run a version without LED, and it just didn't have the explosiveness that I craved. Griselbrand turns on Turn 1 kills and at the worst is a 7/7 flying lifelink beater. Elesh Norn used to be Angel of Despair, but my meta has turned into lots of smaller critters and fewer Karakas; and an army of 4/4 zombies is just way too much fun to pass up.
On the DR package discussion: In most matchups it forces your opponent to burn any grave hate a turn too soon because they see that griselbrand that killed them game 1 flip into the yard and spooks them. It outright wins game 1 more often than not and makes a large number of zombies to grind your opponent out.
On Deathrite Shaman: Not as powerful against Dredge as it is against Reanimator (my pet deck). He can keep chipping away at your gy, but he doesn't get rid of bridges. Ooze is still a lot scarier since they just need a couple open G to make your life miserable.
Well I hope we've gotten our candel's out of the way, they have shot up another 50 bucks, now the MP ones are 299.99 on Starcitygames, probably thanks to the 12post win in San Diego last weekend.
Oh and the NM/M ones according to the website are 350.00.
How massively unfortunate, since they're all I need outside of pact and flusterstorms.
This deck doesnt really care about re-useability, because once you go off, you are set. Most of the time you will cabal therapy a force of will or daze, because you dont much care for whatever else they have in their hand.
Karakas is an answer to most of the top creatures that reanimator plays. And enablers are the issue in this deck, not reanimate spells. Not advocating Putrid Imp as being a great fit, just pointing out that bounce is indeed an issue for the deck.
vexing devil is not "amazing", what it is really amazing in RDW is stromkirk noble into stormblood berserker into volt charge.
if you are going to play vexing devil, don't do it by replacing a 1 drop, never consider vexing devil as one of your 1 drops, consider it as a burn spell, Mister stormblood berserker is one of our most respectable threats, most of the time when played on turn 2 after a 1 drop he will be 3/9 damage... you know that, right?
Agreed, I don't know many decks in the format right now that can recover from noble into berserker into volt charge. Vexing Devil is at best nobles 5-8, though I can't imagine myself dropping more than 2 into my current build. The only time I'd want to drop him is if I'm staring at Turn 1 Noble, Turn 2 Shrine, Turn 3 Vexing Devil. And more often than not, I'd rather just stick a phoenix instead of VD, the exception being if I'm sitting on an arc trail for when they decide to let it hit the field.
Giving an opponent a choice is great if you play a deck that doesn't care which option they pick (normally swarm aggro or a control deck), but this deck wants to keep your opponent off their game with a streamlined card selection that gives you a number of ways to stay ahead. I just don't see him hitting the table in the mode I want often enough to warrant a 4-of. Against G/W humans, they take 4 and run you over with your empty board. In U/W humans and delver they just snag him when you attack and save a counter for when it matters most. A late game top deck of VD just seems awful, he'll never turn a bad situation into a good one outside of some pretty crazy circumstances. I'm already on the fence about Hellrider in my build, and I feel that to be a much more solid choice in RDW.
It's Friday the 13th and it only seems right as I go up against some terrifying opponents for my reconfigured Red Deck. The theme tonight was black and plenty of it; saw a vampire deck, a sorin's vengeance deck, and some various B/W tokens/beaters playing at some of the other tables.
Round 1: Werewolves GR
Not a face I see often, but he's no stranger and usually has some rogue build that has the oddest wincons.
Game 1: He wins the die roll and opens with forest pass. I drop a noble and pass. He drops a mayor and passes to me. I swing past it and play a shrine. He drops in a second mayor which I fail to respond to (misplay on my part). A wolfbitten captive joins the field and he passes. I continue to beat and start backing it with arc trails and gut shots for any stragglers. A late huntmaster fails to stabilize him and I fire the shrine for lethal.
SB: -2 Hellrider -2 Kessig -4 Shrine +1 Slagstorm +2 Ratchet Bomb +3 Dismember +2 Ancient Grudge (No idea if he has any swords or possibly an adaptive automaton)
Game 2: He opens with a wolfbitten captive and I drop a noble. He swings and pumps, then passes. Captive flips and he doesn't have enough to pump it, so I leave it alone and swing in. Bloodthirsted Berserker into play and pass. He drops an immerwolf and holds back. I opt for land go, not wanting to throw away either creature just yet. He drops a mayor and I'm not liking how things are going anymore as he holds back. I arc trail his immerwolf and mayor away before swinging with the berserker and nobles. He trades with the flipped captive and goes land go. I swing for another 3 and pass turn. He drops a huntmaster and stays ahead of my life total. I swing at him with the berserker in hopes that he double blocks so I can reclear his field with my 3/3 and the dismember I've been nursing for a turn or two. He takes 3 to the face and I blow 4 life removing the huntmaster. He swings back on his turn with the wolf and pumps it with wolf run, taking me down to 6. I swing again and drop a second berserker. He draws and passes, holding his wolf back(?). I double beat his face with my berserkers and slagstorm players get him for exact.
Result: 2-0
Round 2: UW Delver
A player I was hoping to avoid that night. Not the most fun to play against and is notorious for slow play. His skill is on the higher end but his deck is always the same archetype from set to set, so there's no surprises coming from him tonight.
Game 1: Again I lose the die roll and he opens with a gitaxian probe to check out my 4 lands, 2 berserkers and arc trail. I top deck a large amount of garbage and he drops a geist in short order. No slagstorm and no beaters worth a damn. I concede and it's off to game 2.
SB: -2 Hellrider -2 Kessig -2 Red Sun's Zenith +1 Slagstorm +3 Ancient Grudge +2 Ratchet Bomb (for his angel tokens)
Game 2: I open with a noble and he opens with delver. I swing in and drop a shrine. He flips his delver and goes aggro on me. I swing back and the race is on. He swings again and thought scours for useful things, dropping an invisible stalker. I go to attack and he vapor snags the noble and I replay it for the shrine. He drops a snapcaster after combat and starts thought scouring some more. I arc trail the delver and snapcaster and swing with the noble. He spends his time attempting to ponder and thought scour and hits nothing worthwhile. I EOT volt charge and swing in again with noble. I point to my shrine at lethal and he concedes the game.
Game 3: He goes land ponder pass. I turn one noble and prepare to get psycho. He drops a land and passes again. I swing in and he eots a snapcaster. He plops a spectral flight on it and swings for 4. He follows up with a ponder that shuffles some garbage away. I swing in and volt charge away his snapcaster. From then on he uses his turns to try to dig as I just keep up the pressure with a noble, he purges away a berserker I drop in after a succesful swing and I just start burning him out. He thought scours himself again with an invisible stalker and snapcaster hitting the yard and drawing into another land. He rage slams his hand and concedes the match.
Result: 2-1
Round 3: Junk Walkers GBW
This was a player I had seen around but never played against before, and this was a deck that I was not expecting to see tonight. In play testing I find this to be a terrible match-up that gets only manageable post-board.
Game 1: I whiff on the die roll yet again as he opens with a tap land. I drop a fireslinger and pass. He drops a swamp and tragic slips. I play a shrine and pass. He drops another tap land and passes. I windmill a phoenix and get to beating. He plays another land and I point out that it comes in tapped, he apologizes and passes. Another swing with phoenix as I bait a Day with a noble. Sure enough he drops day and I just go land pass for the time being. Next turn he drops a Sorin LOA and makes a vampire. I drop a Phoenix and slam into Sorin. He swings back and makes another one. Arc trail clears up his vampire and lets me KO the sorin with my phoenix. His turn is a garruk that fights my phoenix away. I volt charge EOT to bring back my phoenix and bring him into killing range. I hit land six and reveal another volt charge with lethal shrine.
SB: -4 Shrine +1 Slagstorm +3 Cage
Game 2: This game is looking grim from the get go as he kills off my turn 1 and 2 plays before dropping in a Lily and making me discard. A noble hits the yard and I do what I can to try to get in there, but I prove too slow. Even after clearing Lily and a turn 5 elspeth that makes a set of tokens, his clock is faster than mine and it only gets worse when he drops gideon. Somewhere in there he dropped a spellskite which just locks out any burn that isn't RSZ. I concede the game and decide it's time to start playing heavy aggro.
SB: -2 Hellrider -2 Kessig +2 Shrine +2 Ancient Grudge
Game 3: I mull to 6 and get an aggressive start with a noble into thirsted berserker. He starts trying to kill off my guys and manages to O-ring my noble when he starts to get big. I drop a late fireslinger that manages to swing stop him from stabilizing and keep up my bloodthirst if I hit another berserker. My hard opening leaves him weak as I finish the game with a slagstorm on players.
Result: 2-1
Match 4: Wolf Run Ramp RG
Another terrible match-up and he's known to draw with the devil's own luck. I was really hoping to avoid this match, but the only other options were two of my friends that also managed to maintain undefeated.
Game 1: I win the die roll (FINALLY) and open with a fireslinger. He plays a land and passes. I for some reason kept a 1 land opener and proceed to just durdle about with my fireslinger before he ramps into some serious pain and I punt game 1 away.
SB: -2 Slagstorm -2 RSZ -2 Hellrider -2 Kessig +3 Traitorous Blood +3 Dismember +2 Cage
Game 2: Again I open with a fireslinger and pass. Land go leads to me with double fireslingers. I force a slagstorm from him and drop a phoenix to keep pressure. He drops an inferno titan before too long and I have an arc trail and dismember to clear his board and get my phoenix back. A few more turns of beating and a berserker to boot leads me to a cruise control victory.
Game 3: He's on the play and I'm keeping a heavy hand. He goes land go and I turn 1 noble. Turn 2 he rampant growths and I return the favor with some more beats to his face and a berserker to put on the pressure. He slagstorms the board and I return the favor with a phoenix to his face the following turn. This meets with another slagstorm to ease the pressure. He solemns and I arc trail him away followed by bringing back the phoenix. He blasts away my phoenix and we both start hitting nothing but lands, which heavily favors him in the long run. Another phoenix meets another galv blast and I'm sitting on a traitorous blood that I've had since my opener. Late game I drop a grim lavamancer that is ready to go and keep me ahead. He drops a primeval titan and fetches a wolf run and inkmoth. I drop shrine and traitorous blood. He responds to my traitorous blood with an ancient grudge to my shrine to avoid me trying to burn him out (he's at 9 life). I take his prime time and swing in for 6 (An inferno titan at any point would've let me blow him out of this game). I filter my deck out a bit and leave my grim sitting pretty. He activates his inkmoth and swings with inkmoth and primeval titan. He puts inkmoth into instant kill range with wolf run and forces me to grim lavamancer it away, taking 6 and looking at lethal from primeval titan next turn. I rip a gut shot and hit him for the necessary three to steal this game from him.
Result: A very fortunate 2-1
Match 5: Naya Pod GRW
Great player and an increasingly good friend of mine, we decide to split the top spot and call it a day since he knows I've got a favorable matchup and he doesn't wanna lose his chance at the FNM promo if breakers were unfavorable. We decide to play just to see who would've been top dog this week.
Game 1: I win the die roll and go ape right off the bat. I've got a burn for every mana dork he drops and get a noble up in his face. The game doesn't take too long as I force him off his game.
SB: -2 Hellrider -2 Slagstorm -2 Kessig -2 Shrine +2 Ancient Grudge +3 Cage +3 Traitorous Blood
Game 2: He mulls to 4 and I keep an aggressive hand complete with a cage. I stick to my original plan with the addition of a cage in play but he has the blast for my noble and a purge for a second noble. Shrine begins to tick away but he revokes that and I sit on a burn heavy hand at this point waiting for something to hit the field. I eventually stick a phoenix and hit a second shrine. RSZ takes care of some low threats and even pops back up when I need to exile his Archon of Justice to keep my shrine from disappearing. A few more turns and a volt charge I was saving for lethal get me there and we call it a night.
Result: 2-0...sort of.
Overall a perfect 5-0 despite some sticky situations. The dismembers were the all-stars out of the sideboard tonight and I never saw a ratchet bomb when I wanted it. Slagstorm finishers are still my favorite way to end games, and arc trail is still the single best burn spell I'm packing.
Afterthoughts: Hellrider is nice but starting to think he's a bit of a win-more card, he just isn't relevant enough to windmill in most situations and could easily be replaced by AVR's thunderous wrath or Bonfire of the Damned, since XR to clear a board AND burn someone. Work has me scheduled for the next couple of fridays so chances are this was my last FNM before the new set and I foresee some changes coming to RDW.
Hellrider is a great card, but in a human/delver heavy meta I agree with you. He just doesn't do anything your other beaters can't get done on their own. He's amazing if you start seeing planeswalkers, and there's a ton of B/W tokens in my meta right now. The triggered ability plus any burn spell quickly clears them out and you can just send the creatures straight for your opponent.
Also in agreement about your choice to bring in another arc trail, it's my turn 2 play of choice if I don't have a chance to get a bloodthirsted berserker on the field. Especially if your meta is full of x/1 and x/2 creatures, which both those decklists run almost exclusively.
Firestorm is for creature decks. It kills x/2s super easily while throwing a little burn at your opponent. And if they swarm the board with a bunch of dorks, pitch everything but a bridge (unless sacrificing one at that point means little) to clear their board and hopefully fireball them.
Played LED Dredge last night at my LGS to a pretty easy 3-0. Not bad for having been out of magic for 2 and a half years.
3 Nephalia Drownyard
3 Breeding Pool
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Woodland Cemetery
4 Watery Grave
4 Drowned Catacomb
Creatures
3 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Thragtusk
Planeswalkers
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Vraska the Unseen
2 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Ultimate Price
1 Devour Flesh
4 Forbidden Alchemy
Sorceries
4 Farseek
2 Sever the Bloodline
1 Mutilate
1 Grafsdigger Cage
1 Ultimate Price
1 Devour Flesh
2 Golgari Charm
3 Deathrite Shaman
2 Witchbane Orb
3 Negate
1 Tree of Redemption
1 Mutilate
Vraska was an absolute beast and forbidden alchemy was clutch. I recently decided to play the cyclonic rifts and it's been phenomenal.
Will be running a slightly altered list tomorrow for Game Day. Tournament reports will be posted in blog form so as not to crowd up the discussion here.
If you want to avoid going into white for supreme verdict you can splash black for removal effects like devour flesh, tribute to hunger and sever the bloodline. If you do go white I'd still opt for some O-rings and D-Spheres
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Cephalid Coliseum
2 Undiscovered Paradise
Creatures
4 Golgari Grave Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Putrid Imp
2 Golgari Thug
3 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
1 Griselbrand
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
Enchantments
4 Bridge From Below
Sorceries
4 Faithless Looting
4 Careful Study
3 Breakthrough
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Dread Return
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Nature's Claim
2 Firestorm
1 Dread Return
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Flayer of the Hatebound
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Used to run a version without LED, and it just didn't have the explosiveness that I craved. Griselbrand turns on Turn 1 kills and at the worst is a 7/7 flying lifelink beater. Elesh Norn used to be Angel of Despair, but my meta has turned into lots of smaller critters and fewer Karakas; and an army of 4/4 zombies is just way too much fun to pass up.
On the DR package discussion: In most matchups it forces your opponent to burn any grave hate a turn too soon because they see that griselbrand that killed them game 1 flip into the yard and spooks them. It outright wins game 1 more often than not and makes a large number of zombies to grind your opponent out.
On Deathrite Shaman: Not as powerful against Dredge as it is against Reanimator (my pet deck). He can keep chipping away at your gy, but he doesn't get rid of bridges. Ooze is still a lot scarier since they just need a couple open G to make your life miserable.
How massively unfortunate, since they're all I need outside of pact and flusterstorms.
Karakas is an answer to most of the top creatures that reanimator plays. And enablers are the issue in this deck, not reanimate spells. Not advocating Putrid Imp as being a great fit, just pointing out that bounce is indeed an issue for the deck.
Agreed, I don't know many decks in the format right now that can recover from noble into berserker into volt charge. Vexing Devil is at best nobles 5-8, though I can't imagine myself dropping more than 2 into my current build. The only time I'd want to drop him is if I'm staring at Turn 1 Noble, Turn 2 Shrine, Turn 3 Vexing Devil. And more often than not, I'd rather just stick a phoenix instead of VD, the exception being if I'm sitting on an arc trail for when they decide to let it hit the field.
Giving an opponent a choice is great if you play a deck that doesn't care which option they pick (normally swarm aggro or a control deck), but this deck wants to keep your opponent off their game with a streamlined card selection that gives you a number of ways to stay ahead. I just don't see him hitting the table in the mode I want often enough to warrant a 4-of. Against G/W humans, they take 4 and run you over with your empty board. In U/W humans and delver they just snag him when you attack and save a counter for when it matters most. A late game top deck of VD just seems awful, he'll never turn a bad situation into a good one outside of some pretty crazy circumstances. I'm already on the fence about Hellrider in my build, and I feel that to be a much more solid choice in RDW.
Why didn't you gut shot her and recast phoenix after it returns to your hand?
And I really do tend to play Facefirst
12 Mountain
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Rootbound Crag
2 Kessig Wolf Run
Creatures
4 Stromkirk Noble
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Goblin Fireslinger
4 Stormblood Berserker
4 Chandra's Phoenix
2 Hellrider
4 Gut Shot
4 Arc Trail
4 Volt Charge
4 Shrine of Burning Rage
2 Slagstorm
2 Red Sun's Zenith
3 Dismember
3 Traitorous Blood
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Ancient Grudge
1 Slagstorm
2 Ratchet Bomb
Round 1: Werewolves GR
Not a face I see often, but he's no stranger and usually has some rogue build that has the oddest wincons.
Game 1: He wins the die roll and opens with forest pass. I drop a noble and pass. He drops a mayor and passes to me. I swing past it and play a shrine. He drops in a second mayor which I fail to respond to (misplay on my part). A wolfbitten captive joins the field and he passes. I continue to beat and start backing it with arc trails and gut shots for any stragglers. A late huntmaster fails to stabilize him and I fire the shrine for lethal.
SB: -2 Hellrider -2 Kessig -4 Shrine +1 Slagstorm +2 Ratchet Bomb +3 Dismember +2 Ancient Grudge (No idea if he has any swords or possibly an adaptive automaton)
Game 2: He opens with a wolfbitten captive and I drop a noble. He swings and pumps, then passes. Captive flips and he doesn't have enough to pump it, so I leave it alone and swing in. Bloodthirsted Berserker into play and pass. He drops an immerwolf and holds back. I opt for land go, not wanting to throw away either creature just yet. He drops a mayor and I'm not liking how things are going anymore as he holds back. I arc trail his immerwolf and mayor away before swinging with the berserker and nobles. He trades with the flipped captive and goes land go. I swing for another 3 and pass turn. He drops a huntmaster and stays ahead of my life total. I swing at him with the berserker in hopes that he double blocks so I can reclear his field with my 3/3 and the dismember I've been nursing for a turn or two. He takes 3 to the face and I blow 4 life removing the huntmaster. He swings back on his turn with the wolf and pumps it with wolf run, taking me down to 6. I swing again and drop a second berserker. He draws and passes, holding his wolf back(?). I double beat his face with my berserkers and slagstorm players get him for exact.
Result: 2-0
Round 2: UW Delver
A player I was hoping to avoid that night. Not the most fun to play against and is notorious for slow play. His skill is on the higher end but his deck is always the same archetype from set to set, so there's no surprises coming from him tonight.
Game 1: Again I lose the die roll and he opens with a gitaxian probe to check out my 4 lands, 2 berserkers and arc trail. I top deck a large amount of garbage and he drops a geist in short order. No slagstorm and no beaters worth a damn. I concede and it's off to game 2.
SB: -2 Hellrider -2 Kessig -2 Red Sun's Zenith +1 Slagstorm +3 Ancient Grudge +2 Ratchet Bomb (for his angel tokens)
Game 2: I open with a noble and he opens with delver. I swing in and drop a shrine. He flips his delver and goes aggro on me. I swing back and the race is on. He swings again and thought scours for useful things, dropping an invisible stalker. I go to attack and he vapor snags the noble and I replay it for the shrine. He drops a snapcaster after combat and starts thought scouring some more. I arc trail the delver and snapcaster and swing with the noble. He spends his time attempting to ponder and thought scour and hits nothing worthwhile. I EOT volt charge and swing in again with noble. I point to my shrine at lethal and he concedes the game.
Game 3: He goes land ponder pass. I turn one noble and prepare to get psycho. He drops a land and passes again. I swing in and he eots a snapcaster. He plops a spectral flight on it and swings for 4. He follows up with a ponder that shuffles some garbage away. I swing in and volt charge away his snapcaster. From then on he uses his turns to try to dig as I just keep up the pressure with a noble, he purges away a berserker I drop in after a succesful swing and I just start burning him out. He thought scours himself again with an invisible stalker and snapcaster hitting the yard and drawing into another land. He rage slams his hand and concedes the match.
Result: 2-1
Round 3: Junk Walkers GBW
This was a player I had seen around but never played against before, and this was a deck that I was not expecting to see tonight. In play testing I find this to be a terrible match-up that gets only manageable post-board.
Game 1: I whiff on the die roll yet again as he opens with a tap land. I drop a fireslinger and pass. He drops a swamp and tragic slips. I play a shrine and pass. He drops another tap land and passes. I windmill a phoenix and get to beating. He plays another land and I point out that it comes in tapped, he apologizes and passes. Another swing with phoenix as I bait a Day with a noble. Sure enough he drops day and I just go land pass for the time being. Next turn he drops a Sorin LOA and makes a vampire. I drop a Phoenix and slam into Sorin. He swings back and makes another one. Arc trail clears up his vampire and lets me KO the sorin with my phoenix. His turn is a garruk that fights my phoenix away. I volt charge EOT to bring back my phoenix and bring him into killing range. I hit land six and reveal another volt charge with lethal shrine.
SB: -4 Shrine +1 Slagstorm +3 Cage
Game 2: This game is looking grim from the get go as he kills off my turn 1 and 2 plays before dropping in a Lily and making me discard. A noble hits the yard and I do what I can to try to get in there, but I prove too slow. Even after clearing Lily and a turn 5 elspeth that makes a set of tokens, his clock is faster than mine and it only gets worse when he drops gideon. Somewhere in there he dropped a spellskite which just locks out any burn that isn't RSZ. I concede the game and decide it's time to start playing heavy aggro.
SB: -2 Hellrider -2 Kessig +2 Shrine +2 Ancient Grudge
Game 3: I mull to 6 and get an aggressive start with a noble into thirsted berserker. He starts trying to kill off my guys and manages to O-ring my noble when he starts to get big. I drop a late fireslinger that manages to swing stop him from stabilizing and keep up my bloodthirst if I hit another berserker. My hard opening leaves him weak as I finish the game with a slagstorm on players.
Result: 2-1
Match 4: Wolf Run Ramp RG
Another terrible match-up and he's known to draw with the devil's own luck. I was really hoping to avoid this match, but the only other options were two of my friends that also managed to maintain undefeated.
Game 1: I win the die roll (FINALLY) and open with a fireslinger. He plays a land and passes. I for some reason kept a 1 land opener and proceed to just durdle about with my fireslinger before he ramps into some serious pain and I punt game 1 away.
SB: -2 Slagstorm -2 RSZ -2 Hellrider -2 Kessig +3 Traitorous Blood +3 Dismember +2 Cage
Game 2: Again I open with a fireslinger and pass. Land go leads to me with double fireslingers. I force a slagstorm from him and drop a phoenix to keep pressure. He drops an inferno titan before too long and I have an arc trail and dismember to clear his board and get my phoenix back. A few more turns of beating and a berserker to boot leads me to a cruise control victory.
Game 3: He's on the play and I'm keeping a heavy hand. He goes land go and I turn 1 noble. Turn 2 he rampant growths and I return the favor with some more beats to his face and a berserker to put on the pressure. He slagstorms the board and I return the favor with a phoenix to his face the following turn. This meets with another slagstorm to ease the pressure. He solemns and I arc trail him away followed by bringing back the phoenix. He blasts away my phoenix and we both start hitting nothing but lands, which heavily favors him in the long run. Another phoenix meets another galv blast and I'm sitting on a traitorous blood that I've had since my opener. Late game I drop a grim lavamancer that is ready to go and keep me ahead. He drops a primeval titan and fetches a wolf run and inkmoth. I drop shrine and traitorous blood. He responds to my traitorous blood with an ancient grudge to my shrine to avoid me trying to burn him out (he's at 9 life). I take his prime time and swing in for 6 (An inferno titan at any point would've let me blow him out of this game). I filter my deck out a bit and leave my grim sitting pretty. He activates his inkmoth and swings with inkmoth and primeval titan. He puts inkmoth into instant kill range with wolf run and forces me to grim lavamancer it away, taking 6 and looking at lethal from primeval titan next turn. I rip a gut shot and hit him for the necessary three to steal this game from him.
Result: A very fortunate 2-1
Match 5: Naya Pod GRW
Great player and an increasingly good friend of mine, we decide to split the top spot and call it a day since he knows I've got a favorable matchup and he doesn't wanna lose his chance at the FNM promo if breakers were unfavorable. We decide to play just to see who would've been top dog this week.
Game 1: I win the die roll and go ape right off the bat. I've got a burn for every mana dork he drops and get a noble up in his face. The game doesn't take too long as I force him off his game.
SB: -2 Hellrider -2 Slagstorm -2 Kessig -2 Shrine +2 Ancient Grudge +3 Cage +3 Traitorous Blood
Game 2: He mulls to 4 and I keep an aggressive hand complete with a cage. I stick to my original plan with the addition of a cage in play but he has the blast for my noble and a purge for a second noble. Shrine begins to tick away but he revokes that and I sit on a burn heavy hand at this point waiting for something to hit the field. I eventually stick a phoenix and hit a second shrine. RSZ takes care of some low threats and even pops back up when I need to exile his Archon of Justice to keep my shrine from disappearing. A few more turns and a volt charge I was saving for lethal get me there and we call it a night.
Result: 2-0...sort of.
Overall a perfect 5-0 despite some sticky situations. The dismembers were the all-stars out of the sideboard tonight and I never saw a ratchet bomb when I wanted it. Slagstorm finishers are still my favorite way to end games, and arc trail is still the single best burn spell I'm packing.
Afterthoughts: Hellrider is nice but starting to think he's a bit of a win-more card, he just isn't relevant enough to windmill in most situations and could easily be replaced by AVR's thunderous wrath or Bonfire of the Damned, since XR to clear a board AND burn someone. Work has me scheduled for the next couple of fridays so chances are this was my last FNM before the new set and I foresee some changes coming to RDW.
Also in agreement about your choice to bring in another arc trail, it's my turn 2 play of choice if I don't have a chance to get a bloodthirsted berserker on the field. Especially if your meta is full of x/1 and x/2 creatures, which both those decklists run almost exclusively.