I've been off the grid for a while. Life's kept me off Magic for several sets now. I've played a handful of games with the deck since Skewer came out--actually managed to snag 3 foils from my shop at a Saturday night Modern event.
With Skewer and now the spoil of the canopy lands--I'm really excited for Burn again. A lot of times after playing a lot of games/tournaments, it feels like you're Indiana Jones trying to slide under the Stone door that's coming down to lock you in the temple of doom. You'll either get the last point this turn or be locked in forever. And it becomes not fun. After a rest, it's nice to get back at it.
In regards to Tron. I played against it twice in a league yesterday. I won 3/6 games. I don't think they've gotten any new tools to assemble Tron. But seemed like 5/6 games they had turn 3 tron. Karn the creator into Lattice is really powerful. But if they play Karn and minus him right away--any bolt spell to his face kills him and now your lands do things.
I played against UR Wizards and drew 4 lands in a row after having 3 in my opener. That Sunbaked Canyon is going to help.
In regards to Phoenix decks--what are you doing as far as GY hate? I've got RIP and Relic. I worry that RIP may be too slow at times. With Phoenix being a thing at the level that it is--I almost think Grafdigger's Cage is the answer. And maybe even Surgical extraction. Hitting their phoenix, hitting Prized Amalgam, it can be a powerful play.
Due to the increase of popularity of discard and Jace, I am going to test sideboard Leyline of Sanctity in place of my graveyard hate. I think that many decks that we use the graveyard hate for, we could also bring Leyline in for. I also like it as surprise protection versus Ad Nauseum, Valakut decks, and the mirror.
We do not want 4 mana spells.
We have a good matchup vs valakut. We can't beat Ad nauseum.
Most Discard spells depend on the GY--GY hate is good. And it costs 1-2
I've been off of here for a few weeks now, wanted to give a few thoughts:
1. Dire fleet daredevil is what I think of as "cute."
Where does it shine for us? Against snapcaster decks--they can snap in response and blow you out. You've now got a 2/1 that they can kill before you evewr get a chance to attack.
Against Jund/Abzan--what do we want to cast vs them? Push a goyf? Lightning Bolt? Path? 3 mana for those don't seem like where we want to be.
The mirror? Kor Firewalker is just better.
2. The Flame of Keld
You have to play it late--so you don't discard your hand. Also bear in mind we often want to hold up Skullcrack. This has a negative synergy.
When we play it, it does nothing assuming we've emptied our hand
The appeal being the draw 2--each draw is 2/3 a burn spell. Whereas another burn spell is 1/1 a burn spell.
The 3rd mode/level isn't really something we'll utilize. We've emptied our hand to get the draw two. If both your drawn cards are burn--are you going to hold it up just to fire this off with the extra damage next turn? If you've emptied your hand and hit more burn spells off this--they're already dead.
How are you guys boarding against red black hollow one?
I played it tonight. They are potentially faster than us. So I took the eidolons out on the draw.
I brought in searing blood and two copies of path to exile. I also brought in two Relic.
Relic feels wrong. It's a race. If you draw relic too late, it's basically just to cycle it. And in a race investing two manna to draw a card don't work. Path seemed Ok. searing blood also seemed OK. They have Phoenix and blood ghast.
Traverse shadow is an off-shoot of Other death shadow decks. Same concept. They run Ghloe-Clan Rampagee and Temur Battle rage to try to get you dead more quickly.
I understand all of this. I think an important thing to factor in is that unbannings were not put in place until after the GP. I think for that particular GP, it may have been a good meta play. But yeah, the current decks in the meta where Bridge would matter are the decks that are running answers to them.
The problem with a card like bridge--it works on more of a "gotcha" basis.
People know burn players do it from to time, but it's rare enough that it isn't expected.
If it becomes a consistent card--they'll know it's coming in and have a plan to deal with it.
Nice stuff.
Anyways, I noticed more decks running Ensnaring Bridge at GP Lyon. Any thoughts?
Modern is still taking shape, but in a world of Jund, I envision them having abrupt decay and kolaghan's command in their main--and blowing bridge up. The problem with Bridgee in burn--You'll cast an entire turn casting it. Sometimes it's the only option. But that's rare enough. Where I think we want it is something that's faster than us.
I think what we're going to see is a lot of jund and control--and thus Tron rises.
None of those warrants bridge.
I've flirted with it, it's tested ok. It's still not the game I want to be playing most of the time. A lot of decks have a way to deal with it.
Abrupt decay/K Command
Humans can MEddling mage it or freebooter it.
G/W/X creature decks can Quadali pride-mage it
If we get on the train hardcore--Merfolk will know to bring in echoing truth against us.
Elves will dig up their elf that destroys an artifact.
Grixis and 5 color death shadow decks have K command
While you can argue--but meddling mage won't take lightning Bolt--I can lightning Bolt them when they cast the meddling mage. I can't effectively cast an ensnaring bridge until I have 3 lands. I often sit at 2 lands for a while.
I think sticking with damage based answers is where we want to be. Searing Blood is great.
Path to exile is often free against some decks. Affinity has 1 basic land. Humans often has 1.
Hello ppl. There is one idea I want to discuss with You: Metagame Driven Deck Development.
We all read tonns of various Primers where all our options precicely considered and for each card was given a value... in vacuum. That's it. All this precilations about how bad vexing davil is, or how wonderfull searing blaze was given related to some average situation.
But, do we have such average situations in th day-to-day basis? I bet no. I bet most of your games takes place in a tight community with barely 3 dozens of players, who LITERRALY knows each other from personal cooking tastes to exact sideboard builds, psycology and in game patters of decicion making.
So, what if we are terribly wrong when we make a decition to play or not to play some card? Let me make a concrete exapmle. Most of my fellow competitive players are quite aware of my deck choice. So they always aware of what kind of play I tend to make at 1st, 2nd, 3r tuns.
So, when we are speaking about any dedicated player, who met me in battle, all my "perfect card choices" eventually becomes less valuebale. When any UWR mage around knows that You are That Burn Guys, is Your Boros Charm still THE BEST DIRECT DAMAGE? HELL NO, It's just a 1 to 1 exchange with a Spell Snare or a Spell Pierce! Or our All-Star-Eidolon, if he the best guy here? Nope again. It's just a basic RR sorcery speed Shock! In my last 7 daily tournaments that guys never ever managed to survive in a game where he was rellevant. And here a question arises. Shoud I still play with Eidolons while every serious opponent I face will keep a bolt, a snare or a PtE 146% sure? Maybe its better to swapt Eidolons for basic Shocks, as soon as they do exact same damage in the given meta? At least shocks are way faster. Maybe 2nd turn Shrine Of Buring Rage is better that an Eidolon, assuming they can not kill th Shrine with a Bolt from a starting hand?
Is the RIP still the best grave hate, when everyone knows that You do play exact one + 2 cages? So when they discard it with an Inqusition, they definety have nothing to fear? If if worthy to play Grave HAte at all, If anyone who depends on grave are aware of Your particular choices?
I think you're falling into a lot of fallacies.
1. Eidolon is the best card against control. If they can't answer it, you win. That simple. Sometimes you have to walk them into letting you cast it. Maybe you played a goblin guide turn 1. You attack. They path it. You play your 2nd land and your Eidolon. They don't want Eidolon to live. They'll path it. But they want to path it at instant speed so they can leave path to exile up. You cast Boros Charm. They spell snare it, they take 2. They path your Eidolon. They've taken 4 that they wouldn't have taken if you hadn't properly sequenced your play. These small percentages are how you get over the hump and beat control
2. Regarding discarding--they're going to cast an inquisition, and they're going to take a card from you. If they can get your rest in peace, so be it. but they're going to take a magic card from your hand. That doesn't make rest in peace any less good of a card. If they're on the play, they can inquisition anything out of our hand. You still play your best cards. If they inquisition and want your rest in peace--does that mean you get to keep your goblin guide and your Eidolon? Those sorts of things matter a lot.
An opponent telling you perfect card choices become less good--likely wants you to try some cute stuff and get punished.
Tourney 1
R1: Humans: 2-1
G1: kept a guide, 2 rift bolts and somehing else. Cast my entire hand by turn 3. He slowly got his amry together but I drew more burn.
In: 2 Searing Blood, 1 Lavamancer, 3 path
Out: 4 Eidolon, 2 Rift Bolt.
Game 2: Thalia, Freebooter, Meddling Mage. Can't play magic.
Game 3: Guide turn 1 vs his aether vial. Turn 2 double swift spear. And from there just drew some burn spells. Lavamancer didn't make an appearance all weekend.
R2: Burn 2-1
Typical burn mirror stuff. He's on the play, casts an Eidolon with both ofbus at 6, I boros charm in response and so does he. Everyones at 2, but he has a creature and I don't.
In: 3 Path, 2 Firewalker, 1 Lavamancer
Out: 4 lava spike, 2 Boros
G2: 2 Firewalker for me=gg.
In: 2 boros, 2 spikes. Out: 4 Eidolon
G3: T3 Eidolon and rift bolt suspended. I let the rift bolt come off to make sure he'd take 2 before bolting it. He gets me to 1 and he's at 4. I had 1 land and a skullcrack in hand. I pass he doesn't go for it. I have 3 lands in play. He draws what turned out later to be a land and passes. I draw a shard volley. I play my 4th land and pass. He only has 2 lands, taps out for helix, skullcrack and shard volley ftw.
Round 3: ID with Mono G tron
T2:
Round 1: affinity 2-0
G1: drew really well. He had double skirge, but I had 2 Skullcracks and searing Blaze. Ultimately got there. Kept skullcracking so as to not have to shoot his guys.
In: 3 Smash, 2 searing blood, 1 Lavamancer
Out: 4 Eidolon, 2 lava spike
Game 2: same game. Drew a smash and a blood. 2 for 1'd his guys. Just a race.
Round 2: kiki cord
G1: Guide into double swift spear and he scooped a few turns later
In: 2 blood, 1 lavamancer,1 path Out: Eidolon x 4
Game 2: he stuck 2 wall of roots to blank my creatures. He hit kitchen funks. No chance.
Game 3: Eidolons back in, 3 Helix, 1 Boros out.
I dealt 20+ damage but couldn't answer worship.
Round 3:2-1 Jeskai control, really good pilot. Felt insane to win.
Game 1: I drew 7 lands and Jace made sure that's all I drew.
In:2 firecraft, out: 2 searing blood.
Game 2: all 1 cost spells. Got him down to 1, and he scooped after playing a fetch.
In: added 2 Firewalker and took out 2 more searing blaze.
Game 3: good start, Guide into swift spear. His 4th land was an arid mesa so he had to fetch and shock to play cryptic command--this took him from 10 to 7. I suspend a rift bolt and pass. Rift bolt to the dome. I draw a Shard Volley with a skullcrack in hand and 3 lands. He Vendillion Cliques me, I cast the Skullcrack, he negates it, he's tapped out and I show him the shard volley.
T3: 2-1
Round 1: Skred 2-0
Game 1: Decks just too slow for us.
In: 2 Firewalker, 2 smash
out: 4 Searing Blaze
G2: Firewalker too good.
Round 2: Burn 2-1
Game 1: he's on the play. I did a good job of control I thought. Searing blazed a guide and then Helix on an Eidolon. Can't kill his creatures and him though.
In: 3 path, 2 firewalker, 1 lavamancer. Out: 4 spike, 2 boros
Game 2: I go double swift spear and a lava spike. He fetches and shocks to play Firewalker. I untap, look at my hand, kind of sigh, and then attack. He autoblocka. Skullcrack.
Eidolons out, boros and spikes back in.
Game 3: turn 3 firewalker by him got met by my path. He flooded out and I finally hit my 3rd lands and could play multiple spells.
T3
Round 3: UB fairy control
Game 1: super fast hand, he didnt really get going. All I saw was a spellstutter sprite. Thought it was fairies. Brought in lavamancer and searing blood.
Game 2: he had all coubter cland kill soells. I
Game 3: I put in exqusite firecraft. He had some card that made me sacrifie creatures and gained him life, not Blessed Alliance though. TL;DR: didnt know what was going on.
Event 1: 3-0
Round 2: UW Control 2-1
Game 1 he was on the play. Fetch, shock, serum visions. Got 2 more lands that were colorless. After a few more burn spells he scooped.
In: 1 Lavamancer, 2 Firecraft. Out, 3 searing blaze
Game 2: He was on the play. He got TWO timely reinforcements off. Game ended with him being at 12. I scooped after he had Jace and tokens.
Game 3: Classic burn for lethal at the end of his turn 4. I had a hand of all 1 burn spells to start and a skullcrack. EOT I cast skullcrack, he cast cryptic command--he was at 9. I had bolt bolt bolt in hand. I had 2 lands. Drew the 3rd land. GG.
Round 2: Burn: 2-0
Game 1 I was on the play. Got all of my creatures out. He killed the first Eidolon so I played a second. He couldn't kill them as fast as I put them down.
In: 3 path, 2 Kor Firewalker
Out: 4 Eidolon, 1 Lava Spike
Game 2
He drops a turn 2 firewalker. I keep burning him, and he gains a ton of life. I attack in with swift spear, he blocks with untapped lands. I skullcrack, he paths the swiftspear. Clear board, and he never attacks. He proceeds to flood over the next several turns. I get another swift spear and another skullcrack. This time I kill the firewalker. He has me at 1, draws a land, I draw another burn spell.
Round 3: Mardu Pyromancer
Game 1: He mulliganed to 6 and only saw 1 inquisition in terms of discard spells. I kept drawing burn.
In: 2 Relic, out: 2 Helix
Game 2: He cast 3 collective Brutality. I still got him down to 3 and my last 3 draws were lands.
Game 3: I drew 3 boros charms and got to cast 2 of them. He got a late inquisition to take away my lethal burn spell, then played Goblin Rabblemaster. Boros Charm off the top ftw.
Round 4: Eldrazi Tron: 2-1
Game 1, he kept a slow hand. I dropped two Guides and a swift spear and got there.
In: 3 Revelry, 2 Firecraft, 3 path. Out: 4 eidolon, 4 searing blaze. Game 3 I thught 1 blaze was better than all 3 paths.
Game 2: Chalice on 1 into thought-knot seer.
Game 3: Turn 1 lava spike. We had an in-depth conversation about how people don't aggressively ghost-quarter enough given how people run so few basics and often only run 1 of each shock land. It's awkward because I have TWO revelry in hand. He plays a turn 2 Walking Ballista, I fetch shock searing blaze. He has a basilisk collar on the table. I draw, play 3rd land pass. He goes and plays a ghost quarter. He blows up my stomping ground. I use it to float green, go get the basic and make red. Blow up the collar. Next turn he shows me a thought-knot seer that takes a burn spell. I draw back to back burn spells over the next two turns for the win.
Round 5: Humans 1-2
Game 1: He's on the play. Gets 2 thalia's. I die with cards in hand.
In: +2 blood, +1 lavamancer, +1 path
Out: -4 Eidolon,
Game 2: I go Guide into searing Blood on a champion and game 2 slowly falls into my hands.
In: I bring in two more path to exile, drop 2 lava spike
Game 3: He got a slower start, and I'm feeling good. goblin guides attack in and I see a soul bond human that gives his 5/5 Knight of the Relequary life-link. Nothing to kill either with this turn. He gains 5 life to go from 9 to 14. I cry.
Round 6 Burn mirror. I win the dice roll. 2-0
Game 1: I get double helix and kill his guys with it. Lifegain too good.
In: 3 path, 2 firewalker
Game 2: I mull to 6 and get 2 fetch lands and a firewalker. He draws nothing to answer it. I win.
I recommend against bringing it in vs either deck. It's worse vs Merfolk.
Spreading seas gets stronger the more colors your deck is. If you get your stomping ground too soon--they can spreading seas it--and then you've got 3-4 dead cards in your deck.
You're better off ignoring seas. Fetch around it. Make them play Seas on mountains, fetch up white only when you absolutely have to.
Merfolk is slow and clunky--you want to put a lot of pressure on them early. D-Rev doesn't help that.
Speaking of Naya, based on what I've seen from the MTGO meta thus far, the pendulum may be swinging back in that variant's direction. There's a downtick in aggressive decks (so the extra damage that variant takes from extra fetching for Atarka's Command matters less), and there's an uptick in annoying enchantments (so the relative value of Destructive Revelry has gone up). Has anyone else observed something similar?
This is a great take, and I've been considering it as well
Lots more control/mid-range.
I used to play vs affinity and humas all the time on mtgo, hardly seen them since the unban.
We're good against Tron. We don't need to do things in consideration with Tron. We just play our game and we'll win most of the time.
Wanna beat Jund? I think GY hate is still your best bet. LoTV can be a pain, get cards out of your hand quickly.
I think BBE is bad for us. With collective Brutality--GBx decks have had more game against us.
Ask yourself--how do you beat burn?
1. Lifegain
2. Fast-clock
3. Hand disruption/counterspells
a 4/3 haste body is nothing to laugh at. When it spits out things like LoTV, Inquisition of Kozilek, LoTV--that messes up our plan. When it spits out a 4/5 tarmogoyf--they've spent 4 mana for 8 power. That's a fast clock.
With Skewer and now the spoil of the canopy lands--I'm really excited for Burn again. A lot of times after playing a lot of games/tournaments, it feels like you're Indiana Jones trying to slide under the Stone door that's coming down to lock you in the temple of doom. You'll either get the last point this turn or be locked in forever. And it becomes not fun. After a rest, it's nice to get back at it.
In regards to Tron. I played against it twice in a league yesterday. I won 3/6 games. I don't think they've gotten any new tools to assemble Tron. But seemed like 5/6 games they had turn 3 tron. Karn the creator into Lattice is really powerful. But if they play Karn and minus him right away--any bolt spell to his face kills him and now your lands do things.
I played against UR Wizards and drew 4 lands in a row after having 3 in my opener. That Sunbaked Canyon is going to help.
In regards to Phoenix decks--what are you doing as far as GY hate? I've got RIP and Relic. I worry that RIP may be too slow at times. With Phoenix being a thing at the level that it is--I almost think Grafdigger's Cage is the answer. And maybe even Surgical extraction. Hitting their phoenix, hitting Prized Amalgam, it can be a powerful play.
We do not want 4 mana spells.
We have a good matchup vs valakut. We can't beat Ad nauseum.
Most Discard spells depend on the GY--GY hate is good. And it costs 1-2
1. Dire fleet daredevil is what I think of as "cute."
Where does it shine for us? Against snapcaster decks--they can snap in response and blow you out. You've now got a 2/1 that they can kill before you evewr get a chance to attack.
Against Jund/Abzan--what do we want to cast vs them? Push a goyf? Lightning Bolt? Path? 3 mana for those don't seem like where we want to be.
The mirror? Kor Firewalker is just better.
2. The Flame of Keld
You have to play it late--so you don't discard your hand. Also bear in mind we often want to hold up Skullcrack. This has a negative synergy.
When we play it, it does nothing assuming we've emptied our hand
The appeal being the draw 2--each draw is 2/3 a burn spell. Whereas another burn spell is 1/1 a burn spell.
The 3rd mode/level isn't really something we'll utilize. We've emptied our hand to get the draw two. If both your drawn cards are burn--are you going to hold it up just to fire this off with the extra damage next turn? If you've emptied your hand and hit more burn spells off this--they're already dead.
I played it tonight. They are potentially faster than us. So I took the eidolons out on the draw.
I brought in searing blood and two copies of path to exile. I also brought in two Relic.
Relic feels wrong. It's a race. If you draw relic too late, it's basically just to cycle it. And in a race investing two manna to draw a card don't work. Path seemed Ok. searing blood also seemed OK. They have Phoenix and blood ghast.
Thoughts?
The problem with a card like bridge--it works on more of a "gotcha" basis.
People know burn players do it from to time, but it's rare enough that it isn't expected.
If it becomes a consistent card--they'll know it's coming in and have a plan to deal with it.
Modern is still taking shape, but in a world of Jund, I envision them having abrupt decay and kolaghan's command in their main--and blowing bridge up. The problem with Bridgee in burn--You'll cast an entire turn casting it. Sometimes it's the only option. But that's rare enough. Where I think we want it is something that's faster than us.
I think what we're going to see is a lot of jund and control--and thus Tron rises.
None of those warrants bridge.
I've flirted with it, it's tested ok. It's still not the game I want to be playing most of the time. A lot of decks have a way to deal with it.
Abrupt decay/K Command
Humans can MEddling mage it or freebooter it.
G/W/X creature decks can Quadali pride-mage it
If we get on the train hardcore--Merfolk will know to bring in echoing truth against us.
Elves will dig up their elf that destroys an artifact.
Grixis and 5 color death shadow decks have K command
While you can argue--but meddling mage won't take lightning Bolt--I can lightning Bolt them when they cast the meddling mage. I can't effectively cast an ensnaring bridge until I have 3 lands. I often sit at 2 lands for a while.
I think sticking with damage based answers is where we want to be. Searing Blood is great.
Path to exile is often free against some decks. Affinity has 1 basic land. Humans often has 1.
I think you're falling into a lot of fallacies.
1. Eidolon is the best card against control. If they can't answer it, you win. That simple. Sometimes you have to walk them into letting you cast it. Maybe you played a goblin guide turn 1. You attack. They path it. You play your 2nd land and your Eidolon. They don't want Eidolon to live. They'll path it. But they want to path it at instant speed so they can leave path to exile up. You cast Boros Charm. They spell snare it, they take 2. They path your Eidolon. They've taken 4 that they wouldn't have taken if you hadn't properly sequenced your play. These small percentages are how you get over the hump and beat control
2. Regarding discarding--they're going to cast an inquisition, and they're going to take a card from you. If they can get your rest in peace, so be it. but they're going to take a magic card from your hand. That doesn't make rest in peace any less good of a card. If they're on the play, they can inquisition anything out of our hand. You still play your best cards. If they inquisition and want your rest in peace--does that mean you get to keep your goblin guide and your Eidolon? Those sorts of things matter a lot.
An opponent telling you perfect card choices become less good--likely wants you to try some cute stuff and get punished.
6-2-1 on the day, 11-3-1 on the weekend
Tourney 1
R1: Humans: 2-1
G1: kept a guide, 2 rift bolts and somehing else. Cast my entire hand by turn 3. He slowly got his amry together but I drew more burn.
In: 2 Searing Blood, 1 Lavamancer, 3 path
Out: 4 Eidolon, 2 Rift Bolt.
Game 2: Thalia, Freebooter, Meddling Mage. Can't play magic.
Game 3: Guide turn 1 vs his aether vial. Turn 2 double swift spear. And from there just drew some burn spells. Lavamancer didn't make an appearance all weekend.
R2: Burn 2-1
Typical burn mirror stuff. He's on the play, casts an Eidolon with both ofbus at 6, I boros charm in response and so does he. Everyones at 2, but he has a creature and I don't.
In: 3 Path, 2 Firewalker, 1 Lavamancer
Out: 4 lava spike, 2 Boros
G2: 2 Firewalker for me=gg.
In: 2 boros, 2 spikes. Out: 4 Eidolon
G3: T3 Eidolon and rift bolt suspended. I let the rift bolt come off to make sure he'd take 2 before bolting it. He gets me to 1 and he's at 4. I had 1 land and a skullcrack in hand. I pass he doesn't go for it. I have 3 lands in play. He draws what turned out later to be a land and passes. I draw a shard volley. I play my 4th land and pass. He only has 2 lands, taps out for helix, skullcrack and shard volley ftw.
Round 3: ID with Mono G tron
T2:
Round 1: affinity 2-0
G1: drew really well. He had double skirge, but I had 2 Skullcracks and searing Blaze. Ultimately got there. Kept skullcracking so as to not have to shoot his guys.
In: 3 Smash, 2 searing blood, 1 Lavamancer
Out: 4 Eidolon, 2 lava spike
Game 2: same game. Drew a smash and a blood. 2 for 1'd his guys. Just a race.
Round 2: kiki cord
G1: Guide into double swift spear and he scooped a few turns later
In: 2 blood, 1 lavamancer,1 path Out: Eidolon x 4
Game 2: he stuck 2 wall of roots to blank my creatures. He hit kitchen funks. No chance.
Game 3: Eidolons back in, 3 Helix, 1 Boros out.
I dealt 20+ damage but couldn't answer worship.
Round 3:2-1 Jeskai control, really good pilot. Felt insane to win.
Game 1: I drew 7 lands and Jace made sure that's all I drew.
In:2 firecraft, out: 2 searing blood.
Game 2: all 1 cost spells. Got him down to 1, and he scooped after playing a fetch.
In: added 2 Firewalker and took out 2 more searing blaze.
Game 3: good start, Guide into swift spear. His 4th land was an arid mesa so he had to fetch and shock to play cryptic command--this took him from 10 to 7. I suspend a rift bolt and pass. Rift bolt to the dome. I draw a Shard Volley with a skullcrack in hand and 3 lands. He Vendillion Cliques me, I cast the Skullcrack, he negates it, he's tapped out and I show him the shard volley.
T3: 2-1
Round 1: Skred 2-0
Game 1: Decks just too slow for us.
In: 2 Firewalker, 2 smash
out: 4 Searing Blaze
G2: Firewalker too good.
Round 2: Burn 2-1
Game 1: he's on the play. I did a good job of control I thought. Searing blazed a guide and then Helix on an Eidolon. Can't kill his creatures and him though.
In: 3 path, 2 firewalker, 1 lavamancer. Out: 4 spike, 2 boros
Game 2: I go double swift spear and a lava spike. He fetches and shocks to play Firewalker. I untap, look at my hand, kind of sigh, and then attack. He autoblocka. Skullcrack.
Eidolons out, boros and spikes back in.
Game 3: turn 3 firewalker by him got met by my path. He flooded out and I finally hit my 3rd lands and could play multiple spells.
T3
Round 3: UB fairy control
Game 1: super fast hand, he didnt really get going. All I saw was a spellstutter sprite. Thought it was fairies. Brought in lavamancer and searing blood.
Game 2: he had all coubter cland kill soells. I
Game 3: I put in exqusite firecraft. He had some card that made me sacrifie creatures and gained him life, not Blessed Alliance though. TL;DR: didnt know what was going on.
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Skullcrack
3 Lightning Helix
1 Shard Volley
4 Boros Charm
4 Searing Blaze
4 Rift Bolt
3 Mountain
4 Inspiring Vantage
2 Sacred Foundry
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Arid Mesa
3 Smash to Smithereens
3 Path to Exile
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Searing Blood
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Exquisite Firecraft
1 Grim Lavamancer
Went 5-1 yesterday.
Event 1: 3-0
Round 2: UW Control 2-1
Game 1 he was on the play. Fetch, shock, serum visions. Got 2 more lands that were colorless. After a few more burn spells he scooped.
In: 1 Lavamancer, 2 Firecraft. Out, 3 searing blaze
Game 2: He was on the play. He got TWO timely reinforcements off. Game ended with him being at 12. I scooped after he had Jace and tokens.
Game 3: Classic burn for lethal at the end of his turn 4. I had a hand of all 1 burn spells to start and a skullcrack. EOT I cast skullcrack, he cast cryptic command--he was at 9. I had bolt bolt bolt in hand. I had 2 lands. Drew the 3rd land. GG.
Round 2: Burn: 2-0
Game 1 I was on the play. Got all of my creatures out. He killed the first Eidolon so I played a second. He couldn't kill them as fast as I put them down.
In: 3 path, 2 Kor Firewalker
Out: 4 Eidolon, 1 Lava Spike
Game 2
He drops a turn 2 firewalker. I keep burning him, and he gains a ton of life. I attack in with swift spear, he blocks with untapped lands. I skullcrack, he paths the swiftspear. Clear board, and he never attacks. He proceeds to flood over the next several turns. I get another swift spear and another skullcrack. This time I kill the firewalker. He has me at 1, draws a land, I draw another burn spell.
Round 3: Mardu Pyromancer
Game 1: He mulliganed to 6 and only saw 1 inquisition in terms of discard spells. I kept drawing burn.
In: 2 Relic, out: 2 Helix
Game 2: He cast 3 collective Brutality. I still got him down to 3 and my last 3 draws were lands.
Game 3: I drew 3 boros charms and got to cast 2 of them. He got a late inquisition to take away my lethal burn spell, then played Goblin Rabblemaster. Boros Charm off the top ftw.
Round 4: Eldrazi Tron: 2-1
Game 1, he kept a slow hand. I dropped two Guides and a swift spear and got there.
In: 3 Revelry, 2 Firecraft, 3 path. Out: 4 eidolon, 4 searing blaze. Game 3 I thught 1 blaze was better than all 3 paths.
Game 2: Chalice on 1 into thought-knot seer.
Game 3: Turn 1 lava spike. We had an in-depth conversation about how people don't aggressively ghost-quarter enough given how people run so few basics and often only run 1 of each shock land. It's awkward because I have TWO revelry in hand. He plays a turn 2 Walking Ballista, I fetch shock searing blaze. He has a basilisk collar on the table. I draw, play 3rd land pass. He goes and plays a ghost quarter. He blows up my stomping ground. I use it to float green, go get the basic and make red. Blow up the collar. Next turn he shows me a thought-knot seer that takes a burn spell. I draw back to back burn spells over the next two turns for the win.
Round 5: Humans 1-2
Game 1: He's on the play. Gets 2 thalia's. I die with cards in hand.
In: +2 blood, +1 lavamancer, +1 path
Out: -4 Eidolon,
Game 2: I go Guide into searing Blood on a champion and game 2 slowly falls into my hands.
In: I bring in two more path to exile, drop 2 lava spike
Game 3: He got a slower start, and I'm feeling good. goblin guides attack in and I see a soul bond human that gives his 5/5 Knight of the Relequary life-link. Nothing to kill either with this turn. He gains 5 life to go from 9 to 14. I cry.
Round 6 Burn mirror. I win the dice roll. 2-0
Game 1: I get double helix and kill his guys with it. Lifegain too good.
In: 3 path, 2 firewalker
Game 2: I mull to 6 and get 2 fetch lands and a firewalker. He draws nothing to answer it. I win.
Spreading seas gets stronger the more colors your deck is. If you get your stomping ground too soon--they can spreading seas it--and then you've got 3-4 dead cards in your deck.
You're better off ignoring seas. Fetch around it. Make them play Seas on mountains, fetch up white only when you absolutely have to.
Merfolk is slow and clunky--you want to put a lot of pressure on them early. D-Rev doesn't help that.
You can't bottleneck their mana because of spreading seas/field of ruin.
Gideon of the Trials is essentially lifegain that you can't skullcrack.
This is a great take, and I've been considering it as well
Lots more control/mid-range.
I used to play vs affinity and humas all the time on mtgo, hardly seen them since the unban.
We're good against Tron. We don't need to do things in consideration with Tron. We just play our game and we'll win most of the time.
Wanna beat Jund? I think GY hate is still your best bet. LoTV can be a pain, get cards out of your hand quickly.
I think BBE is bad for us. With collective Brutality--GBx decks have had more game against us.
Ask yourself--how do you beat burn?
1. Lifegain
2. Fast-clock
3. Hand disruption/counterspells
a 4/3 haste body is nothing to laugh at. When it spits out things like LoTV, Inquisition of Kozilek, LoTV--that messes up our plan. When it spits out a 4/5 tarmogoyf--they've spent 4 mana for 8 power. That's a fast clock.