I would say that between Six and Ten creatures is pretty optimal, maybe less. I'm starting to think that a playset of Goblin Guide and 3 Dark Confidants is a pretty solid package, with at least 12 lightning Bolts in the MB.
I'm not sold on bob without more creatures. Unfortunately more creatures means that your weaker to both zoo, and decks designed to be zoo(which is essentially every single one right now)
Red based aggro(in large card pools) is a niche deck that gains huge advantages against control decks that rely on spot removal.
GG is also pretty terrible on the draw against zoo, which is why you should have a way to sideboard them out games 2 and 3.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
If I don't want to spend 12842746123784 dollars on Dark Confidants at the moment, would it be better to use 3-4 Phyrexian Arena in the meantime, or just put in something else good for beating like Figure of Destiny or something else?
The VIPs of the deck were definitely Dark Confidant and Grim Lavamancer. They pretty much set the pace of the game. The biggest issue I had was not quite getting there, as 3 of the games that I lost had my opponent at 4 life or less. Some of the cards were just too slow. I really didn't think the lack of Goblin Guide was going to make such a large impact on how the deck performs, but I really feel he alone would have made the difference in those close games.
The duds of the deck were Rift Bolt and Keldon Marauders. Blightning was also somewhat on the slow side. I also feel that 3 of Shard Volley was not very useful, as drawing 2+ early on was pretty much a dead draw.
Round 1: Delver something or other
This was probably the strangest and most unfocused deck at the tournament. Not really sure what he was doing with a ton of creatures in a delver deck, and at one point he hit me with an Archive Trap (which only fed my Lavamancers). I went 2-0 against him.
Round 2: Boros
The first game I mull down to 6 and keep a 1 lander which goes pretty far, but not far enough. He killed me around turn 7-8, which is a lot longer than I expected to do when I didnt get another land until turn 3-4. Game 2 was very close. I had him at 3 life and tried to finish him with Shard Volley, to which he casts Refraction Trap. I am like "WTF is that even doing in a Modern deck?" I spend the next 3 turns trying to draw any burn spell, and when I do he has just enough to respond, barely taking me down to 0 while dropping to 1 himself due to fetches. This guy was fighting for a spot in the top 8 during the last round, so he did pretty well in the end.
Round 3: Ad Nauseum Combo
I saw him playing white blue lands, and hoped he was Tron. I was wrong. He combod out with Pented Prism and Simian Spirit Guide on turn 3 to hit me for 34 in the face. I actually had enough damage to kill him the following turn too. Game 2 he starts with Leyline of Sanctity on the board, and turn 1 he drops 2 Lotus Blooom with suspend, making my boarded in artifact hate worthless. He goes off on turn 4.
Round 4: U/B Gifts
I got him down to 1 life in game 1 before he was able to get Iona out. Had 3 turns to draw a Bump in the Night, and didn't see one. Game 2 I board in Leyline and Ensnaring Bridge. The only one I see is Leyline, which was revealed with Dark Confidant dealing me 4. I didn't have a 4th land to play it, and even if I did my opponent would have responded with gifts, as he played it at EoT and went off the following turn.
Round 5: UW Control
Game 1 I pretty much crushed him. Wasn't really sure what he was running going into game 2, so I didnt board in anything. Game 2 I see a counter for every spell I play. I manage to get him down to 16 before he played a Kitchen Finks and proceeded to beat me down with Clique, Meddling Mage and Celestial Colonnade. Game 3 is much like game 2, except I get a few more spells off. In the end I only got him down to 8 when he killed me. I thought I had another turn, but mistook his Celestial Colonnade for a different duel land. I played a total of 4 Dark Confidant during this match, and not a single one resolved.
So I went 1-4. Lost 8/11 games played, but was close to winning a few more. The deck just needs to come out quicker. If I were to play this again this week (which I might give Delver a try instead), I would drop the Blightning, Rift Bolt, Marauders, and cut 1x Shard Volley. Then I would add 4x Goblin Guide, 1x Grim Lavamancer, 4x Incinerate and maybe a singleton Magma Spray or Burst Lightning. Its close, but just needs to be a bit quicker.
I would also fit Inquisition of Kozilek in my sideboard, as without it I have no way to deal with counter magic and other similar types of control, which gave me some serious problems in the 4th and 5th rounds.
I played this for Other People's Decks so long ago and just never got around to finishing the write-up. It's like halfway done. I guess now that I'm sick and have some free time I'll go ahead and finish it.
Well there are things to think about when you consider decks like that. There is only going to be a small % of the field running those types of decks. The chances of running into them, especially if you do well in the higher rounds, is very unlikely. Its better to not worry running into a deck like that unless it makes up a large part of the meta. Instead focus on the decks that are popular and doing well.
I dont know about MTG, but my testing with marauder has been pretty good. If nothing else other then the 2 damage, he is a body that can buy you a turn/use up removal/get in for a couple points.
That is definitely different from the results I have been getting. Turn 2 Bob is almost always gold. Blaze is good, but really only if you have fetch lands (which also make Lavamancer a lot better). Are you playing with a full set of fetch lands?
Comparing Hellspark to Marauders is kind of weak. If Marauders isn't going to be swinging, then Hellspark is definitely not getting through. Marauders is 2 damage at the minimum, where as Hellspark might not be doing anything. That said, I dont use Hellspark and have dropped Marauders from my build as well.
I was just giving RSZ a feel, as I like to be able to exile and burn the face with the same spell. It would probably be better if this was Burst Lightning, but for now I am just giving it a go.
1) Blood Moon (Boarding out Bump with only Confidants left as black cards)
2) Ensnaring Bridge/Flamebreak/Volcanic Fallout
3) Shattering Spree/Smash to Smithereens
4) Torpor Orb/Combust
1) Blood Moon (Boarding out Bump with only Confidants left as black cards)
2) Ensnaring Bridge/Flamebreak/Volcanic Fallout
3) Shattering Spree/Smash to Smithereens
4) Torpor Orb/Combust
Most Twin players see red and think Combust and not orb. I played against twin in the semi's of my PTQ and he didnt bring in Echoing Truth game 2, he just lost on the spot.
Shattering Spree is WAY better. Smash does 3 but Affinity just dumps their hand on the board and being able to kill 2-3 things is always game over for them.
game 1 - I kept a one lander (arid mesa) with dark confidant and 5 1-mana burn spells and proceeded to burn him out with massive CA from dark confidant after drawing my second land.
sb -3 volcanic fallout -3 searing blaze +2 flames of the blood hand +3 thoughtseize +1 ensnaring bridge
game 2 - kept a hand with guide, guide, mountain, arid mesa, lightning bolt, lightning bolt and thoughtseize. t1 guide, t2 guide + thoughtseize removing timely reinforcements with me drawing a lava spike and a bump in the night resulted in a super fast win.
Round 2 - Jund
game 1 - just the standard goldfishing against him as he took a few shocks himself from shocklands and we were off to game 2
sb -1 dark confidant -1 keldon marauders +2 flames of the blood hand
game 2 - turn 1 inquisition taking lightning bolt then he proceeded to surgical off the other 2 bolts off my hand with a turn 3 flinks to turn 4 bloodbraid elf into flinks and it is gg
game 3 - i flooded him with 3 goblin guides at the end of turn 2 with bolt, lava spike and incinerate and it's triple GG from guides.
Round 3 - Aggro Loam
game 1 - i burned him down to 9 life while my dark confidant revealed 2 volcanic fallouts in a row without a 3rd land in sight. he promptly destroyed me with 1 5/6 goyf and 2 6/6 countryside crushers
sb -2 volcanic fallout +2 ensnaring bridge
game 2 - i burned him down to 8 with an active grim lavamancer in play and a land, he then proceeded to nihil spellbomb off my yard while i draw 2cc and 3cc spells nonstop! he then stabilized with raven's crime to pluck at my hand and exploded for a worm harvest for 15. I scooped it up!
Round 4 - Melira pod combo
I gave the win to my friend as I wasn't interested to win the ticket anyways but we played a few rounds for fun....
game 1 - i burned melira with searing blaze after landfalling by fetching a mountain at his end step and he leaked, i volcanic fallout to clear the board and left his persist dudes with -1-1 counters and proceeded to burn him out.
sb -2 incinerate -4 bump in the night +2 smash to smithereens +4 torpor orb
game 2 - i smashed his back to back birthing pod and he had no hand while i had 2 dark confidants doing the dirty work of fuelling me with lightning bolts and lava spikes to end the game
Round 5 - W/B martyr combo?
game 1 - he did nothing much while i burned him out real quick
sb since i only saw godless shrines and a lingering souls i didn't sb anything
game 2 - he started with a serra ascendant and i suspended a rift bolt (did not have a lightning bolt in hand). he then proceeded with the dirty martyr of sands gain life to make ascendant a 6/6 flying lifelinking titan as i shook my head in disgust at my 2 searing blazes in hand.
sb -3 searing blaze +3 thoughtseize
game 3 - i thoughtseized away serra ascendant seeing that he has the godlike hand of martyr + serra ascendant and plenty of white cards combo. he got promptly burned to death by turn 4
thus I ended with 3-2 feeling quite satisfied (:
overall i find volcanic fallout extremely mediocre but he really shines against creature swarms and opposing bloodbraid elfs and dark confidants. killing a bloodbraid elf and liliana together is pure gravy!
and i am most disappointed with torpor orbs in my sideboard, they do not seem to do much of anything in my matchups
I am thinking about throwing in 2x Sacred Foundry and dropping Incinerate for Lightning Helix. With 8 fetches and 2 shocks I should be able to hit white when I need it.
I am also thinking that dropping Lavaclaw Reaches for Ghitu Encampment is a good move. The 2 mana activation is easier on the mana base, and I don't need black mana to activate it.
In other news, crazy nitwits playing dress-up have also convicted the Hamburglar, the Cookie Crisp Crook, and the Frito Bandito of sundry snack-related thefts.
Seriously, what about this strikes you as remotely worthy of discussion?
I'm not sold on bob without more creatures. Unfortunately more creatures means that your weaker to both zoo, and decks designed to be zoo(which is essentially every single one right now)
Red based aggro(in large card pools) is a niche deck that gains huge advantages against control decks that rely on spot removal.
GG is also pretty terrible on the draw against zoo, which is why you should have a way to sideboard them out games 2 and 3.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
lands:
4 scalding tarn
4 dragon skull summit
4 sulfurous springs
4 mountains
creatures:
4 dark confidant
4 goblin guide
sorceries:
4 rift bolt
4 chain lightning
4 bump in the night
4 lava spike
4 flame rift
instants:
4 lightning bolt
4 shard volley
4 fireblast
2 reverberate
artifact:
2 sensei's divining top
total cards: 60
*note: this is a private legacy tournament
sideboards not allowed
no mulligan play
2 basic land on hand (automatic play)
thank you!!!!!!
PS: i have a set of arid mesa but its just slows down my deck
I got beat by the Rakdos deck that won this PTQ in KY: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/events.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/barcelona12ptq/0218louisville
I can tell you it is wicked fast. I was playing Red Affinity and he outraced me both games. It's a legit deck.
4x Dark Confidant
3x Grim Lavamancer
3x Keldon Marauders
Other Spells: 30
4x Bump in the Night
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Lava Spike
4x Magma Jet
3x Rift Bolt
3x Shard Volley
3x Searing Blaze
3x Blightning
2x Flames of the Blood Hand
4x Arid Mesa
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Blood Crypt
1x Graven Cairns
1x Lavaclaw Reaches
1x Dragonskull Summit
7x Mountain
3x Torper Orb
3x Leyline of the Void
3x Ensnaring Bridge
2x Shattering Spree
2x Smash to Smithereens
2x Rain of Gore
The VIPs of the deck were definitely Dark Confidant and Grim Lavamancer. They pretty much set the pace of the game. The biggest issue I had was not quite getting there, as 3 of the games that I lost had my opponent at 4 life or less. Some of the cards were just too slow. I really didn't think the lack of Goblin Guide was going to make such a large impact on how the deck performs, but I really feel he alone would have made the difference in those close games.
The duds of the deck were Rift Bolt and Keldon Marauders. Blightning was also somewhat on the slow side. I also feel that 3 of Shard Volley was not very useful, as drawing 2+ early on was pretty much a dead draw.
Round 1: Delver something or other
This was probably the strangest and most unfocused deck at the tournament. Not really sure what he was doing with a ton of creatures in a delver deck, and at one point he hit me with an Archive Trap (which only fed my Lavamancers). I went 2-0 against him.
Round 2: Boros
The first game I mull down to 6 and keep a 1 lander which goes pretty far, but not far enough. He killed me around turn 7-8, which is a lot longer than I expected to do when I didnt get another land until turn 3-4. Game 2 was very close. I had him at 3 life and tried to finish him with Shard Volley, to which he casts Refraction Trap. I am like "WTF is that even doing in a Modern deck?" I spend the next 3 turns trying to draw any burn spell, and when I do he has just enough to respond, barely taking me down to 0 while dropping to 1 himself due to fetches. This guy was fighting for a spot in the top 8 during the last round, so he did pretty well in the end.
Round 3: Ad Nauseum Combo
I saw him playing white blue lands, and hoped he was Tron. I was wrong. He combod out with Pented Prism and Simian Spirit Guide on turn 3 to hit me for 34 in the face. I actually had enough damage to kill him the following turn too. Game 2 he starts with Leyline of Sanctity on the board, and turn 1 he drops 2 Lotus Blooom with suspend, making my boarded in artifact hate worthless. He goes off on turn 4.
Round 4: U/B Gifts
I got him down to 1 life in game 1 before he was able to get Iona out. Had 3 turns to draw a Bump in the Night, and didn't see one. Game 2 I board in Leyline and Ensnaring Bridge. The only one I see is Leyline, which was revealed with Dark Confidant dealing me 4. I didn't have a 4th land to play it, and even if I did my opponent would have responded with gifts, as he played it at EoT and went off the following turn.
Round 5: UW Control
Game 1 I pretty much crushed him. Wasn't really sure what he was running going into game 2, so I didnt board in anything. Game 2 I see a counter for every spell I play. I manage to get him down to 16 before he played a Kitchen Finks and proceeded to beat me down with Clique, Meddling Mage and Celestial Colonnade. Game 3 is much like game 2, except I get a few more spells off. In the end I only got him down to 8 when he killed me. I thought I had another turn, but mistook his Celestial Colonnade for a different duel land. I played a total of 4 Dark Confidant during this match, and not a single one resolved.
So I went 1-4. Lost 8/11 games played, but was close to winning a few more. The deck just needs to come out quicker. If I were to play this again this week (which I might give Delver a try instead), I would drop the Blightning, Rift Bolt, Marauders, and cut 1x Shard Volley. Then I would add 4x Goblin Guide, 1x Grim Lavamancer, 4x Incinerate and maybe a singleton Magma Spray or Burst Lightning. Its close, but just needs to be a bit quicker.
I would also fit Inquisition of Kozilek in my sideboard, as without it I have no way to deal with counter magic and other similar types of control, which gave me some serious problems in the 4th and 5th rounds.
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
I played this for Other People's Decks so long ago and just never got around to finishing the write-up. It's like halfway done. I guess now that I'm sick and have some free time I'll go ahead and finish it.
At any rate, this is a pretty neat deck.
I also have Flames of the Blood Hand maindeck.
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
This dude's deck seems pretty tight. Opinions?
Standard:
GBWAggressive Junk TokensGBW
"Some convictions are so strong that the world must break to accommodate them."
Comparing Hellspark to Marauders is kind of weak. If Marauders isn't going to be swinging, then Hellspark is definitely not getting through. Marauders is 2 damage at the minimum, where as Hellspark might not be doing anything. That said, I dont use Hellspark and have dropped Marauders from my build as well.
My current list is something like this:
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Goblin Guide
4x Dark Confidant
Instants: 19
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Magma Jet
4x Incinerate
3x Searing Blaze
2x Shard Volley
2x Flames of the Blood Hand
4x Lava Spike
4x Bump in the Night
1x Red Sun's Zenith
Land: 20
4x Arid Mesa
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Blood Crypt
1x Dragonskull Summit
1x Graven Cairns
1x Lavaclaw Reaches
7x Mountain
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Torper Orb
3x Ensnaring Bridge
2x Smash to Smithereens
2x Shattering Spree
I was just giving RSZ a feel, as I like to be able to exile and burn the face with the same spell. It would probably be better if this was Burst Lightning, but for now I am just giving it a go.
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
[.deck=My Awesome Deck]Critters: ###
1x Creature 1
2x Creature 2
Spells:
yadayadayada
Sideboard:
4x game winning card[/.deck]
turns into:
1x Creature 1
2x Creature 2
4x game winning card
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
1) Blood Moon (Boarding out Bump with only Confidants left as black cards)
2) Ensnaring Bridge/Flamebreak/Volcanic Fallout
3) Shattering Spree/Smash to Smithereens
4) Torpor Orb/Combust
Most Twin players see red and think Combust and not orb. I played against twin in the semi's of my PTQ and he didnt bring in Echoing Truth game 2, he just lost on the spot.
Shattering Spree is WAY better. Smash does 3 but Affinity just dumps their hand on the board and being able to kill 2-3 things is always game over for them.
4x Dark Confidant
3x Grim Lavamancer
4x Goblin Guide
4x Keldon Marauders
Spells [26]
4x Bump in the Night
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Lava Spike
4x Incinerate
4x Rift Bolt
3x Searing Blaze
3x Volcanic Fallout
4x Arid Mesa
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Blood Crypt
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
5x Mountain
4x Torpor Orb
4x Smash to Smithereens
2x Ensnaring Bridge
2x Flames of the Blood Hand
3x Thoughtseize
just a quick report!
Round 1 - U/W tron
game 1 - I kept a one lander (arid mesa) with dark confidant and 5 1-mana burn spells and proceeded to burn him out with massive CA from dark confidant after drawing my second land.
sb -3 volcanic fallout -3 searing blaze +2 flames of the blood hand +3 thoughtseize +1 ensnaring bridge
game 2 - kept a hand with guide, guide, mountain, arid mesa, lightning bolt, lightning bolt and thoughtseize. t1 guide, t2 guide + thoughtseize removing timely reinforcements with me drawing a lava spike and a bump in the night resulted in a super fast win.
Round 2 - Jund
game 1 - just the standard goldfishing against him as he took a few shocks himself from shocklands and we were off to game 2
sb -1 dark confidant -1 keldon marauders +2 flames of the blood hand
game 2 - turn 1 inquisition taking lightning bolt then he proceeded to surgical off the other 2 bolts off my hand with a turn 3 flinks to turn 4 bloodbraid elf into flinks and it is gg
game 3 - i flooded him with 3 goblin guides at the end of turn 2 with bolt, lava spike and incinerate and it's triple GG from guides.
Round 3 - Aggro Loam
game 1 - i burned him down to 9 life while my dark confidant revealed 2 volcanic fallouts in a row without a 3rd land in sight. he promptly destroyed me with 1 5/6 goyf and 2 6/6 countryside crushers
sb -2 volcanic fallout +2 ensnaring bridge
game 2 - i burned him down to 8 with an active grim lavamancer in play and a land, he then proceeded to nihil spellbomb off my yard while i draw 2cc and 3cc spells nonstop! he then stabilized with raven's crime to pluck at my hand and exploded for a worm harvest for 15. I scooped it up!
Round 4 - Melira pod combo
I gave the win to my friend as I wasn't interested to win the ticket anyways but we played a few rounds for fun....
game 1 - i burned melira with searing blaze after landfalling by fetching a mountain at his end step and he leaked, i volcanic fallout to clear the board and left his persist dudes with -1-1 counters and proceeded to burn him out.
sb -2 incinerate -4 bump in the night +2 smash to smithereens +4 torpor orb
game 2 - i smashed his back to back birthing pod and he had no hand while i had 2 dark confidants doing the dirty work of fuelling me with lightning bolts and lava spikes to end the game
Round 5 - W/B martyr combo?
game 1 - he did nothing much while i burned him out real quick
sb since i only saw godless shrines and a lingering souls i didn't sb anything
game 2 - he started with a serra ascendant and i suspended a rift bolt (did not have a lightning bolt in hand). he then proceeded with the dirty martyr of sands gain life to make ascendant a 6/6 flying lifelinking titan as i shook my head in disgust at my 2 searing blazes in hand.
sb -3 searing blaze +3 thoughtseize
game 3 - i thoughtseized away serra ascendant seeing that he has the godlike hand of martyr + serra ascendant and plenty of white cards combo. he got promptly burned to death by turn 4
thus I ended with 3-2 feeling quite satisfied (:
overall i find volcanic fallout extremely mediocre but he really shines against creature swarms and opposing bloodbraid elfs and dark confidants. killing a bloodbraid elf and liliana together is pure gravy!
and i am most disappointed with torpor orbs in my sideboard, they do not seem to do much of anything in my matchups
I am also thinking that dropping Lavaclaw Reaches for Ghitu Encampment is a good move. The 2 mana activation is easier on the mana base, and I don't need black mana to activate it.
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
FREE BLOODBRAID ELF
i could beat twin with ensnaring bridge in play and no cards in hand =x
4x Scalding Tarn
2x Blood Crypt
3x Blackcleave Crypts
3x Mountain
2x Swamp
2x Graven Cairns
4x Ghost Quarter
4x Goblin Guide
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Hellspark Elemental
4x Keldon Marauders
4x Dark Confidant
4x Murderous Redcap
3x Phyrexian Revoker
3x Lyzolda, The Blood Witch
2x Terminate
2x Doom Blade
2x Mark of Mutiny
4x Aether Vial
3x Manic Vandal
2x Anathemancer
2x Faerie Macabre
2x Extirpate
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Phyrexian Revoker
Obviously the sideboard is tentative. Comments appreciated.
BW(G) Junkblade - Legacy
BW Vial Deadguy - Legacy
UWR Geist - Modern
UR(B) Delver - Modern
W(G) Death & Taxes - Modern
Oona, Queen of the Fae - EDH
Flames - Advantages
1) 4 damage
2) Instant
3) Prevents Lifegain
.) No Black mana requirement
Blightning - Advantages
1) Discard 2
The extra damage is the greatest difference, followed by the instant speed and then preventing lifegain.
Would you play a Lava Spike with forced Kicker 1B, discard 2?
Preferences (Top 8 Decks on TheCouncil.es). 5:3 Flames.
Affinity: Flames
Jund: Blightning
Delver: Flames
Faeries: Flames
Twin: Blightning
Tron: Blightning
Melira: Flames
Bant: Flames
For a deck with a tight curve, only two 3CC spells, what do you like?
4 Dark Confidant
4 Goblin Guide
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Bump in the Night
3 Burst Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Searing Blaze
3 Shard Volley
2 Flames of the Blood Hand/Blightning
SB:
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Shattering Spree
3 Torpor Orb