You really want to give lavamancer and Deathrite shaman a try before you write them off. I didn't think much of them at first glance either, but after getting saved a few times, I wouldn't build the deck without them.
Rakdos charm is also very very good, and is plenty reason to splash black other than Bump in the Night. Charm kills a lot of decks outright, and all three options are useful.
DRS and GM let you risk doing 0 damage for the possibility of doing a lot of damage without spending additional cards. For a deck that dumps its cards in the first three turns, this is invaluable. It lets you rely less on the top of your deck.
Rakdos Charm does work against token swarm decks, graveyard decks, decks with Tarmogoyf, and random artifacts as a bonus. Shattering Spree is better than Earthquake against Affinity because it hits their flying artifacts and mana rocks (Mox Pearl, Signal Pest) and any creature that's been pumped up with +1/+1 counters with Arcbound Ravager.
White does bring some nice things to the table like Boros Charm, Lightning Helix, the white enchantment hate bears and Silence for Storm. There is a thread here for three color burn (RWB)
DRS and GM let you risk doing 0 damage for the possibility of doing a lot of damage without spending additional cards. For a deck that dumps its cards in the first three turns, this is invaluable. It lets you rely less on the top of your deck.
I have quoted this because it deserves to be repeated. Grim Lavamancer and DRS are mana sinks. They slow you down slightly, but grant inevitability. You don't have to run them to be optimal, but you will not be sorry to run them if you do.
read the long post i wrote a few pages ago. If you have a boner for splashing black, theres no reason to not run rakdos charm (and deathrite if you really want to... I should try it out sometime)
It just deals with way too many things not to run. It's like you're presideboard against like 2/3 of modern relevant meta. Instead of blood moon, which is sideboard card for maybe 1/2 of modern relevant meta.
4x skullcrack in mainboard just because **** any type of healing, you just dont want to lose because they had mainboard 2 kitchen finks.
I'm still of the opinion that best splash without fetchlands is black, if you want like singlton splash, go white or green, probably white so you can cast your precious mode 1 boros charm, which I'm not a extremely huge fan of.
Like I've said before, you want the broros charm? The milage on that card? dont play burn. Go RWB creature aggro, playing weenies=get hit by pyroclasm=cast boros charm in response. Having rakdos charm in there too makes you have like a 70-30 match up against like at least 1/2 of the modern meta, that's some good ****.
I know it's not a good argument (boros charm is too good to run), but think about it, creature aggro is strictly more solid than burn anyways.
I've been having a fantastic time with Boros Charm in RBW Burn (Red Beck Wins?). The 4 damage has mattered very often, and it actually makes the combo match-ups easier to race. Your opponent can no longer safely drop to 4 life if you're on 2 lands, and that's great.
Has anyone tried sudden shock vs kiki-pod? It stops the combo stone dead and it can also go to the dome for the win. Doing things like torpor orb in a burn deck just feels so wrong.
Just my opinion(which is far from gospel) but i think you shud max out on VD since he shines on 2nd turn right behind Guide. Ive usually dealt 11 damage by the end of turn 2 LOL. Heck 2 VD on 2nd turn is like mass genocide... But be warned... this will often result in people hating you out next tournament lol. Thats why i also play aggro merfolk, Aggro DnT and Boros!:trolo:
I also dont like earthquake, its more RDW-ish but in burn since we seldom get to 4 land... so might as well be flamebreak (3 damage to the battlefield for RRR) or if ur in a control heavy meta like i am volcanic fallout(2 damage uncounterable to the battlefield for 1RR). Fallout destroys Geist of St Traft btw.
Just noticed... On the land topic... how is 3 Shard volley working out on 17 land? Has this even let u cast earthquake? and for how much?
My thoughts:
-2 earthquake
-1 Shard volley
- 2 ash zealot(maybe... but i like her so much )
upon further consideration... Id look into replacing hellspark with ash zealots to avoid feeding deathrite shaman tho... or if u dont then replace the shard volleys with searing blaze so you can 2 for 1 them. Opposing DRS are to be shot on site!:mob:
EDIT: Smash to smitherines is a great 2 for 1 against afinity. Lets you take out key pieces while staying aggressive. There's also shattering spree which is nuts against them lol but less aggressive.
Kiki Pod can combo win by getting a Kiki-Jiki out and podding into a Restoration Angel, a Village Bellringer, Deceiver Exarch, etc.
I'm not too worried about it though, they have no counterspells other than blinking a creature with Restoration Angel. I think Torpor Orb and Rakdos Charm are the best way to deal with this deck. Turn off ETB effects to slow them down, then kill them with Rakdos Charm if they manage to make infinite dudes. They also get a bunch of value from Kitchen Finks and Murderous Redcap along the way even if they don't combo off.
Sudden Shock is good vs Infect though, can't argue there.
@Simrad: What do you side Volcanic Fallout in against? Is Ash Zealot really necessary with Storm gone?
I generally side it against tokens decks or weenie decks. Regarding the Zealot's, no it isn't necessary but I've been to lazy to switch them out and really haven't found a need to at the moment.
Sudden Shock is a card I play, even in Legacy sometimes.
BUT you just blew my mind away with "It stops the combo stone dead" Holy crap, I never thought of that.
So your saying when they're half thru their combo, you just drop a Sudden Shock and cut the storm?
Just asking so I understand you correctly. If this is true, Sudden Shock just got more value for me.
Storm? it does nothing against storm.
What I mean is that it just flat out kills kiki-jiki no questions asked. They don't get to activate, they don't get to go infinite, they don't even get to redirect to a spellskite.
It has value against infect as well, and marginal value against affinity since it stops them from getting tricky with arcbound ravager.
I am not necessarily saying that it should be the only plan vs kiki-pod but its a relevant card in other matchups and at worse its 2 to the dome.
Domains a reasonable idea depending on how much agro you expect and realistically, isn't agro a bad matchup anyways? If we assume attacking decks are bad for us, but that Tribal increases our percentage against everything else, I could jump on board with that idea. Also, you really wouldn't lose moon out of the board because you could conceivably board out the flames for moon and deathrite shaman if you play him(her?) still lets you cast things like bump and helix.
The semi-exciting thing about playing flames for me is that I won't feel bad about not having searing blaze main anymore, but I'll still have an incredibly high powered card.
The real downside is that you'd probably want to play something like 22 lands to have a reasonable chance of hitting 4 land types and even then, we play blackleave cliffs, thus lowering the awesomeness of flames.
I'm so used to being on the receiving end of Blood Moon, I forget it makes them mountains. I always think of them as colorless in my teachings deck (my sisters deck just never sees it). Moon goes back in the board, because my meta is /really/ greedy about their mana bases. Lots of 4c tempo and other aggressive high mana mixtures.
I actually do not run cliffs. All my lands are either Fetchlands or some sort of mountain. 4 mesa, 4 tarn, 4 crypt, 4 foundry, 1 vents, 1 ground, and 2 mountain (because some times you only have 3 life and need that red source). It's a little painful, to be honest. I usually ride my life total really low in most matches. Just remember to try and stay above 5 in the jund match up as they'll bolt and drs you for the win.
If you really wanted that Mana base to include cliffs, I could see that happening. You can cut into the fetches and foundries and be all right. I'd probably go with 2 less foundries, one less fetch and one less mountain for a play set of cliffs.
Why are we talking about answers to Kiki? Rakdos Charm is the answer.
Is it bad to have more than one answer?
Suddenshock also does other things, both in other mathups and that same matchup. It stops kiki/finks blowouts, it kills an EOT pestermite with only 2 open mana (if you were on rakdos charm they could just tap you out.) It hits the dome for 2 if it not needed.
Pod also doesn't have to go too deep with restoration angels to make it lethal, so rakdos charm may not always be lethal.
Im jut saying that I find kiki-pod to be a difficult matchup, relying on a single card to win it seems it pretty bad.
One minor observation: When you have only 2 mountains you oftentimes can't get any land off of a path to exile. Of course we don't really need lot's of mana, but I've been surprised to find how often I can flash back bump in the night against UWR (or the like) because they've ramped me 2+ times with path. think about fitting in one extra mountain.
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YMTC: We need a spikey red enchantment. My creations:
RR
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Rakdos charm is also very very good, and is plenty reason to splash black other than Bump in the Night. Charm kills a lot of decks outright, and all three options are useful.
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White does bring some nice things to the table like Boros Charm, Lightning Helix, the white enchantment hate bears and Silence for Storm. There is a thread here for three color burn (RWB)
Watch my Twitch.tv stream.
Take the Ham Challenge.
I have quoted this because it deserves to be repeated. Grim Lavamancer and DRS are mana sinks. They slow you down slightly, but grant inevitability. You don't have to run them to be optimal, but you will not be sorry to run them if you do.
read the long post i wrote a few pages ago. If you have a boner for splashing black, theres no reason to not run rakdos charm (and deathrite if you really want to... I should try it out sometime)
It just deals with way too many things not to run. It's like you're presideboard against like 2/3 of modern relevant meta. Instead of blood moon, which is sideboard card for maybe 1/2 of modern relevant meta.
4x skullcrack in mainboard just because **** any type of healing, you just dont want to lose because they had mainboard 2 kitchen finks.
I'm still of the opinion that best splash without fetchlands is black, if you want like singlton splash, go white or green, probably white so you can cast your precious mode 1 boros charm, which I'm not a extremely huge fan of.
Like I've said before, you want the broros charm? The milage on that card? dont play burn. Go RWB creature aggro, playing weenies=get hit by pyroclasm=cast boros charm in response. Having rakdos charm in there too makes you have like a 70-30 match up against like at least 1/2 of the modern meta, that's some good ****.
I know it's not a good argument (boros charm is too good to run), but think about it, creature aggro is strictly more solid than burn anyways.
RGStandard Gruul AggroRG
4x Arid Mesa
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Blood Crypt
4x Gemstone Mine
4x Mountain
2x Sacred Foundry
Sorcery (12)
4x Bump in the Night
4x Lava Spike
4x Rift Bolt
4x Boros Charm
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Lightning Helix
3x Searing Blaze
3x Skullcrack
Creature (10)
4x Goblin Guide
2x Grim Lavamancer
4x Vexing Devil
2x Ash Zealot
3x Rakdos Charm
2x Smash to Smithereens
2x Tormod's Crypt
4x Torpor Orb
2x Volcanic Fallout
Just my opinion(which is far from gospel) but i think you shud max out on VD since he shines on 2nd turn right behind Guide. Ive usually dealt 11 damage by the end of turn 2 LOL. Heck 2 VD on 2nd turn is like mass genocide... But be warned... this will often result in people hating you out next tournament lol. Thats why i also play aggro merfolk, Aggro DnT and Boros!:trolo:
I also dont like earthquake, its more RDW-ish but in burn since we seldom get to 4 land... so might as well be flamebreak (3 damage to the battlefield for RRR) or if ur in a control heavy meta like i am volcanic fallout(2 damage uncounterable to the battlefield for 1RR). Fallout destroys Geist of St Traft btw.
Just noticed... On the land topic... how is 3 Shard volley working out on 17 land? Has this even let u cast earthquake? and for how much?
My thoughts:
-2 earthquake
-1 Shard volley
- 2 ash zealot(maybe... but i like her so much )
+ 2 vexing devil
+1 gemstone mine
+2 flamebreak/fallout
upon further consideration... Id look into replacing hellspark with ash zealots to avoid feeding deathrite shaman tho... or if u dont then replace the shard volleys with searing blaze so you can 2 for 1 them. Opposing DRS are to be shot on site!:mob:
EDIT: Smash to smitherines is a great 2 for 1 against afinity. Lets you take out key pieces while staying aggressive. There's also shattering spree which is nuts against them lol but less aggressive.
Where do you see storm in kiki-pod?
I'm not too worried about it though, they have no counterspells other than blinking a creature with Restoration Angel. I think Torpor Orb and Rakdos Charm are the best way to deal with this deck. Turn off ETB effects to slow them down, then kill them with Rakdos Charm if they manage to make infinite dudes. They also get a bunch of value from Kitchen Finks and Murderous Redcap along the way even if they don't combo off.
Sudden Shock is good vs Infect though, can't argue there.
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I generally side it against tokens decks or weenie decks. Regarding the Zealot's, no it isn't necessary but I've been to lazy to switch them out and really haven't found a need to at the moment.
Storm? it does nothing against storm.
What I mean is that it just flat out kills kiki-jiki no questions asked. They don't get to activate, they don't get to go infinite, they don't even get to redirect to a spellskite.
It has value against infect as well, and marginal value against affinity since it stops them from getting tricky with arcbound ravager.
I am not necessarily saying that it should be the only plan vs kiki-pod but its a relevant card in other matchups and at worse its 2 to the dome.
RGStandard Gruul AggroRG
I'm so used to being on the receiving end of Blood Moon, I forget it makes them mountains. I always think of them as colorless in my teachings deck (my sisters deck just never sees it). Moon goes back in the board, because my meta is /really/ greedy about their mana bases. Lots of 4c tempo and other aggressive high mana mixtures.
I actually do not run cliffs. All my lands are either Fetchlands or some sort of mountain. 4 mesa, 4 tarn, 4 crypt, 4 foundry, 1 vents, 1 ground, and 2 mountain (because some times you only have 3 life and need that red source). It's a little painful, to be honest. I usually ride my life total really low in most matches. Just remember to try and stay above 5 in the jund match up as they'll bolt and drs you for the win.
If you really wanted that Mana base to include cliffs, I could see that happening. You can cut into the fetches and foundries and be all right. I'd probably go with 2 less foundries, one less fetch and one less mountain for a play set of cliffs.
Is it bad to have more than one answer?
Suddenshock also does other things, both in other mathups and that same matchup. It stops kiki/finks blowouts, it kills an EOT pestermite with only 2 open mana (if you were on rakdos charm they could just tap you out.) It hits the dome for 2 if it not needed.
Pod also doesn't have to go too deep with restoration angels to make it lethal, so rakdos charm may not always be lethal.
Im jut saying that I find kiki-pod to be a difficult matchup, relying on a single card to win it seems it pretty bad.
RGStandard Gruul AggroRG
One minor observation: When you have only 2 mountains you oftentimes can't get any land off of a path to exile. Of course we don't really need lot's of mana, but I've been surprised to find how often I can flash back bump in the night against UWR (or the like) because they've ramped me 2+ times with path. think about fitting in one extra mountain.
Whenever a player taps a nonbasic land, [Card] deals 2 damage to them.
-or-
R
Whenever a player would gain life, flip a coin. If heads, that player loses that much life instead. If tails sacrifice [card] and that player gains that life as per usual.
Fires Rf Salvation
It isn't nearly as good as Punishing Fire but it does give you 4 damage +5 Life for B.
[EDH] Ob Nixilis the Fallen