I have actually tried out Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded as a 2-of in the maindeck of a previous version and can confirm pizzap thoughts, the random discard is not as bad in our deck, the problem is that it's not impactful enough as it doesn't do enough to enable Hollow One, the -4 ability is nice but takes too much time to set-up, the finisher takes even longer and is only useful vs creature decks. All in all, I think it's not worth the inclusion
2 mana to only discard one card is waaaaay behind the curve of what we want to be doing, if it was draw 2 discard 2 at random he would be.... ok. I would love to jam Tibalt into a deck and win with it, but it's never going to happen.
Went 3-1 with RB Hollow One last week and then went 2-2 with the deck last night. Last night I had some misplays but probably the worst was keeping a hand with Flameblade Adept, x2 Hollow Ones, Burning Inquiry, x2 Street Wraith, and Faithless Looting... and no lands. I was on the play so thought I might be able to draw a land with 3 draws (regular draw step + 2 cycling from Wraith). I didn't draw a land until turn 3 though and by then my opponent already had their board so established I couldn't come back. If you guys were put in the same position (no lands but two cyclers and on the draw), would you have kept the same hand? I know the deck can be risky but I feel like I might have went a little overboard on that one.
With other decks, I always mulligan if I don't get TWO lands. However, on playing this deck, I've learned to accept 1-land hands, especially if I have a Faithless Looting or Burning Inquiry, Street Wraith or something like that.
I would be hard pressed to keep a no-land hand, though I do see why you were tempted to try.
A top-8 deck from a recent IQ. Kind of a hodge-podge of older variants and the newer tech. I would make a lot of changes to it, but did note the addition of a single Bomat Courier to the main deck, and a reduced count of Goblin Lore. I've been thinking about doing the same thing.
As for my 1-of/fun-of suggestion of Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded, that was just me being cheeky - not a serious consideration.
I've been haunting both this thread and the Soulflayer thread recently, some some Soulflayer decks have recently started to use Bomat Courier and/or Hollow One. It's beginning to make me consider putting Soulflayer into a Roulette build in place of Gurmag Angler / Tasigur. Soak up some haste from a Bomat (or if the deck is still running them, Bushwhacker) or Haste+Flying from Flamewake Phoenix. Would make for a smashing turn 2, to have a 4/4 haster attacking.
When I cast my Delve creatures in my version of B/R with Amalgams, I usually want all the creatures to say in the graveyard, and try to exile the Burning Inquiries, Goblin Lores, Collective Brutality, discarded Hollow Ones, things like that. That way my Amalgams, Bloodghasts and Phoenix can still do their thing in harmony. In my build, Soulflayer wouldn't jive with the rest of the deck; if it naturally had flying, maybe...
I've been toying with Barrage of Boulders, it's not a fancy card and it costs 3 mana but it will definitely break their defence (you should have no trouble triggering ferocious)
What about Blazing Volley ?
It seems much easier to cast though still a bit too narrow.
I tried something closer to Depian's list and have gone 4-1, 4-1, 5-0, and then 1-4 in competitive leagues. That last one had lots of awkward starts, losses to 3 combo decks, and Tron. I threw a Thrun in the board for control, it's easy to get to 4 mana thanks to all their Path to Exiles that they will be using. Hoping to run hot and hit good matchups at GP Phoenix in two weeks. Squee is awesome in any grindy or slower matchup. You can use it to get card advantage and leverage it vs your opponents relic of progenitis, where they can exile a squee and you're free to throw phoenix's and vengevines in the yard, or they let you keep discarding it and winning via value, I bring in the third vs Jund or control. Also it can be good at getting your vengevines back, as it pairs with a 1 drop well for a second creature to cast. Squee and 1-2 constrictord also have been my first go-to's to take out when side boarding vs a lot of other decks.
Have any of you tried Engineered Explosives in the board? In my mind it seems good vs bogles, Melira combo, tokens and stuff, but having to pay 2 mana to activate it seems a bit slow.
Played at a 200 person open, and finished 4-3-1, not stellar, but at least theres plenty of improvement to be made. In terms of what I played against, affinity feels like a super close matchup, Grixis death shadow is close but I would say in their favour because of temur battle rage, Burn is fine because of collective brutality(just don't get cheeesed out by ensnaring bridge) and r/g eldrazi is still new to me, not too sure where we stand in the matchup. Everything else I played against was a fair midrange deck, and I felt favored in all those matchups, which I think is a good reason to keep playing the deck, people are going to continue to jam Jace and BBe. Planning on running this deck back this weekend, just had a couple questions about sideboarding. With the random discard, it feels pretty hard to hold sideboard cards in hand, such as removal, or mainly Blood Moon. For example, if you keep a hand with blood moon against a deck you know it's good against, but your only enablers are random discard, it can be pretty tricky to keep in your hand until turn 3 to actually deploy it. So do we bring in Blood Moon against decks like g/r eldrazi or Death shadow, that while effective, could also be randomly discarded away while we're developing our board? Personally I was only boarding it in matchups when I knew I would have time to hold it until turn 3, like valakut, or tron. I also found I was sometimes casting removal on a less valuable target, before casting a random discard spell, out of fear of losing the removal spell entirely.
interesting thought by thatmarkguy on soulflayer. Li'l testing revealed that the 2 Black mana to fire it off is actually really rough compared to The zombie fish. I know that the winning list had a tussledfur, the hidden wang in it, but have folks found that to be necessary? If I run a 1-off from the fish, I probably prefer a tombstalker. Yes - Yes, I know I just complained about double-black, but at least this time it's coming out as a bigger beastie with evasion.
Korkruxion references a couple good questions on SB cards, and how their inclusion can muck up the works. Agree that it feels like an eternity to deploy a blood moon, and I fear the unintentional discard along the way. Also, the need to dump out removal spells before they also get binned is a necessary evil in our discipline. No real answers. But, I think it does help to accentuate a need to keep our curve low. I'm considering adding a grim lavamancer and blood moon and bomat courier in the main while taking out a goblin lore and flamewake phoenix and tasigur.
Since 'the cat is out of the bag' on this build -- people know what to expect and how to pivot against it (even in game 1) -- I believe it might be right seek alternate win-cons. The grim lavamancer moved to the main seems intuitive. It frees up a SB slot and offers a win-con not completely foiled by something like ensnaring bridge.
I was the one that suggested Tebow! earlier {laughable, i know}, but what about -- for the Roulette variant -- Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh // Chandra, Roaring Flame? The attack counts towards the 3 damage for a qualifying flip. Obviously, we run a lot of low-cost red mana spells. Again, diversified.
Hi there, I've been looking at picking up this deck (namely the BR Goblin Lore version splashing for Grudges), and in some goldfishing I've had a rough time figuring out what kind of hand is a mulligan. Is there any guide/suggestions out there for mulliganing well with this deck? I haven't been able to find much.
The only time discard-less hands are keepable is when you have Adept, Ghast, Phoenix and the mana to cast Ghast on Turn 2 in that hand as well. Curving out has worked quite nicely for me against many decks, especially when I know my opponent is on White and will be siding in RiP. RiP is just a dead Turn 2 for them when you're spending your time going creature aggro with no discard combo shenanigans.
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I would be hard pressed to keep a no-land hand, though I do see why you were tempted to try.
The dream.
I’ve played a ton of matches and haven’t hit more than 3. That’s nuts!
Couple tech notes:
Mishra’s bauble...
I’ve been testing lingering souls also on and off. It’s pretty legit.
A top-8 deck from a recent IQ. Kind of a hodge-podge of older variants and the newer tech. I would make a lot of changes to it, but did note the addition of a single Bomat Courier to the main deck, and a reduced count of Goblin Lore. I've been thinking about doing the same thing.
As for my 1-of/fun-of suggestion of Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded, that was just me being cheeky - not a serious consideration.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
What about Blazing Volley ?
It seems much easier to cast though still a bit too narrow.
Have any of you tried Engineered Explosives in the board? In my mind it seems good vs bogles, Melira combo, tokens and stuff, but having to pay 2 mana to activate it seems a bit slow.
Since we have access to green through stomping ground, I would just run back to nature if bogles is a concern.
Korkruxion references a couple good questions on SB cards, and how their inclusion can muck up the works. Agree that it feels like an eternity to deploy a blood moon, and I fear the unintentional discard along the way. Also, the need to dump out removal spells before they also get binned is a necessary evil in our discipline. No real answers. But, I think it does help to accentuate a need to keep our curve low. I'm considering adding a grim lavamancer and blood moon and bomat courier in the main while taking out a goblin lore and flamewake phoenix and tasigur.
Since 'the cat is out of the bag' on this build -- people know what to expect and how to pivot against it (even in game 1) -- I believe it might be right seek alternate win-cons. The grim lavamancer moved to the main seems intuitive. It frees up a SB slot and offers a win-con not completely foiled by something like ensnaring bridge.
I was the one that suggested Tebow! earlier {laughable, i know}, but what about -- for the Roulette variant -- Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh // Chandra, Roaring Flame? The attack counts towards the 3 damage for a qualifying flip. Obviously, we run a lot of low-cost red mana spells. Again, diversified.