Board in: 4x Wear//Tear, 3x Path to Exile
Board out: 4x Eidolon of the Great Revel, 3x Rift Bolt
Just wanted to say that you should NEVER board out Rift Bolt against E-Tron since it plays around Chalice.
This x 1000
It's important to remember this early game in sequencing. Normally, playing rift bolt earlier is preferred because of the suspend/delay. But you're actually better off firing off your other spells that cost 1 first so as to not get blown out by chalice and be stuck with a hand full of lightning bolts/lava spikes
Played a touch at my Lgs last night, only 7 people showed.
Round 1: lost to merfolk after a mull to 5 in game 3.
Got a bye round 2.
Round 3 vs Mardu Prowess with main deck seeker of the way, Monastery Mentor, Swiftspear, and burn spells.
Game 1, I had 2 Guides and 2 Swift spears and picked off a few of his dudes.
Game 2 was exciting. I got him down to 6, with a rift bolt suspended and a Skullcrack in hand. He has a seeker in play and 5 lands--2 bump in the night in the GY. He plays Leyline, and I skullcrack in response. He shoots me with a bump in the night from hand and swings with Seeker, and I'm down to 1.
I untap and send Rift Bolt at the Seeker. Topdeck a swiftspear and put him at 2. Pass, he draws a blood crypt that he has to play tapped and passes back. I topdeck a helix and shoot myself for the prowess trigger and the win.
In "Old Modern" it was RR, Landfall, Bolt their face and kill their creature.
With Death Shadwo decks and Eldrazi decks, we don't kill as much. So it becomes a lightning strike that requires landfall. Yes, you can get rid of up to 5 toughness creatures with a combination of guide and swift spear. But a lot of times that won't have that situation.
At times, multiples are clunky because we may get bottlenecked on lands and struggle for landfall. That's ok when the card functions as fused fatal push/lightning bolt. Less good when it's a lightning strike.
Against control decks, we have to waot on targets. UW control eats our red sources with spreading seas.
It's still so powerful in the right matchups and typically still castable in the matchups it's not. But it definitely feels less good than before.
2. Gutteral response seems terrible. No point in sideboarding against gifts. We're heavily favored vs storm. Bringing in GY hate, makes it really good for us.
RE: Bloodmoon:
It's a mixed bag. If you dont draw several RW spells, it won't matter. But Turn 3 when you've got 2-3 Helix or Boros charm is backbreaking.
RE: Affinity: Skullcrack is great.
I never leep Eidolon in vs them. On the play:
I typically bring in 4 Revelry, 2 Deflecting palm, 2-3 Path/lavamancer.
Boros charm goes first, Lava Spike next.
Round 1. UR Through the breach.
Reall nOt much to tell. Main deck blood moon got me game 1.
Game 2: EoT thtough the breach on my turn=Remand on my deflecting palm
In: 2 palm, 3 Relic, 1 Lavamancer
Out: 4 Searing blaze, 1 boros charm
He ran snaps, but overall searing blaze vs Emrakul or Grislebrand seems bad. I contemplated revelry, but half the players I talk to take Blood Moon out vs Burn. And if they keep it, being screwed out of playing 2 colors seems worse than being screwed out of 1.
Round 2: GW Elves with Vizier Druid combo
Game 1: T2 Eidolon got me going, but coco, untap infinite mana was brutal.
Game 2: Had to kill a couple of his guys,
But iltimately managed to unload 12 damage between his EoT and my tun.
In: 3 Path, 1 Lavamancer. Out: 4 Boros Charm.
Game 3: awkard land draws did me in. He played a druid and I drew an inspiring vantage to get lndfall for searing blaze at sorcery speed. He coco'd into the elf lord and a second druid. He played Vizier and made infinite mana. Elves are hard.
Out: 4 Eidolon. In: Put the 4 Boros charms back in.
Round 3: Mono Red Goblins. We raced, and I had more interactiob. Eidolon tore him up game 1.
Game 2 actully got close. I had to bolt a 1/1 bushwhacker to stay above 5.
In: 4 Revelry, 2 Path, 2 Firewalker
Out: 4 Eidolon, 4 Boros charm
Round 4: Counters Company:
Game 1: he beat me down with dudes. I ran out of burn. Boring and simple.
In: 3 Path, 3 Relic, 1 Lavamancer
Out: 4 Boros Charm, 3 Lava spike
Game 2: he gets a very slow start. Plays a druid on turn 2,y only kill spell is a rift bolt whcih I cast for 3.
Hand was ripe with burn to finish him.
In: 3 Lava spike, 1 boros charm,
out: 4 Eidolons
Lots of combo pieces to eat up my burn spells and paths.
Ultimately the key moment came down tk he had a Kitchen finks and a Vizier vs my swiftspear. I had a Relic up and 4 labds. I had Path and Helix in hand.
He had 1 card in hand. He blocks with Finks as expected. I path Vizier and Helix him, crack relic in response to persist, and he shows me 3 lands after he draws for his turn.
Round 5:uW control
I wrote the other day how this was beatable, and there are matches we can win. But Gideon of the Trials is a ginormous pain.
I lost 0-2.
I brought in Relic to keep him off snapcasters and 2 Revelry for Spreading seas/Leyline. Killed a letline, got wrekt by seas.
I used to feel damn near naked without 3-4. Now I almost never use it.
With twin and infect gone, it just doesn't feel AS important. Honestly if Kor Firewalker didn't exist, I might try my luck without it.
Glad to hear the deck did well enough for you. If you notice, the losses came from decks that messed with your lands (DNT, Ponza). Merfolk is rough for us as well. I think this would be true regardless of which version of Burn you run. I'm especially glad to hear that you went 2-0 against Boros Burn, as that's the obvious deck I lose percentage points against with my build.
I also brought it to my LGS on Monday and went 3-1, but all of my matchups happened to be aggressive (Affinity, Jeskai Midrange, and Merfolk x2, one of which I lost to), so I boarded out the black every chance I got. Nothing to really report, although I did win every game pre-board game I played except my round one with Affinity.
I think Merfolk is 50/50 or slightly in our favor now. A creature heavy hand is very hard for them to deal with because of the slowness/clunkiness of the deck. They've gone away from cards that are good vs us, I.E. Tidebinder mage. I typically either play Merfolk or Burn, moreso burn. But as merfolk, my matchups against burn are frustrating. Burn comes out of the gate so quickly, and Merfolk is going to take 3-4 turns to set up. You spend a lot of your Turn 1 going Aether Vial, which means more free beats for Goblin Guide or Monastery Swiftspear.
Spreading Seas is much less of a back breaker for a 2-color deck. Fetch Mountains early when possible. They'll often go ahead and play it on a mountain to try to mana-screw you--and they need the card draw. Common sense says to put in Destructive Revelry because they have Seas and Aether Vial That's like, 8 good targets. But the reality is, now you're dependent on 3 colors, and each Spreading Seas is that much more effective at screwing up your mana base. Make them cast it on mountains. Let them have their Aether Vial, which you know takes several turns to get going, and burn their face off in the mean time.
I picked up the cards for storm recently because it's fairly cheap outside of Scalding Tarns, and I have Tarns. Reading the forum, most of the storm players aren't impressed with it because it doesn't dig as deeply. I can see a lot of blue based decks agreeing with that mind-set.
Burn feels like it's in an amazing place right now.
Looking at the Tier decks per salvation
UW Control--This is probably the tougest of the tier 1 decks, but beatable. Instant Speed life gain in Sphinx's rev and Spreading seas=cry. Keep your life-gain cards up, time your spells, etc.
Storm: LOL.
DS:I go on spells where I dominate the matchup, and then find stretches where I can't beat it. I struggle with patience lol, but definitely something I'm comfortable against.
Titanshift: Pre-board we do really well. Post-board--gotta play around the life gain. Winnable.
Affinity: Since switching to Boros, I find myself winning a ton of these. Thinking about going back to RG, but this is another matchup where I like our chances.
Eldrazi Tron: Their nut draws are unbeatable. Their other draws are often slow and clunky. I used to think I couldn't beat it, but I've beat it a lot.
T2:
Tron: another good matchup for us.
Jeskai Cop-Cat: Haven't played against it, but most lists aren't running Helix, which is what has historically made these Jeskai decks so back breaking.
Jeskai Control: Lots of Helix, Sphinx's Rev. I've always struggled vs this deck.
Merfolk: Historically tough, but I feel like the deck is at an all-time high in clunkiness. Merfolk is my 2nd Modern deck, and it just seems like the recent changes to adjust to the meta have hurt it a lot against us. I have a hard time beating Burn if I'm playing Merfolk, and losing when I'm the burn pilot. One thing that has gone a long way, I stopped boarding in Revelry. Going after vial/Spreading seas seems great. Just make the mana base that much more critical, and makes a spreading seas a back breaker.
Counters company: This is another BAD one, but beatable in spots. I always hope to avoid it.
Death and Taxes: Another tough one.
DS Jund: Winnable.
Abzan: Grindy, winnable.
Lantern: Always feels winnable for us.
Dredge: Winnable
Living End: Winnable
Bant Eldrazi: Pretty tough overall. Mana dorks, Eldrazi Temples--You're looking at frequent T3 TKS, T2 often enough to suck. They often get around Eidolon Triggers late. ]
1. Inspring vantage all the way.
Clifftop retreat is awkward early, and better late.
Vantage is great early and awkward late. We're burn, a proactive deck. We obviously want the better early game.
2. 1-land hands:
There are very few I don't keep. No 1 drop creatures makes me more likely to mulligan. But any 1 drop creature backed up by a second, an eidolon, or multiple 1 mana spells--and I'm good to go. And I rarely don't find the second land in a timely fashion.
3. When you're new to a deck, it's easy to find all sorts of ideas and ask why not this. In general, everything has been considered and tested. We have tons of tournament reports that show us which cards work and which don't. No one wants to stifle creativity, but in general some cards are known/accepted to be better than others.
4. Spreading seas/Green sources:
The best advice I got was to stop trying to beat Spreading seas with Revelry.
Fetch mountains early. Leave fetches up as long as you can.
Fetch white when you can fire off multiple spells before they get a main phase to cast a seas.
You may even fetch a Stomping Ground early to bait the seas out of their hand and protect your white source.
IF you run maindeck Atarka's Command (or any other green card), I think you need at least 2 fetchable green sources. Don't rely on drawing Copperline Gorge.
This x 1000
It's important to remember this early game in sequencing. Normally, playing rift bolt earlier is preferred because of the suspend/delay. But you're actually better off firing off your other spells that cost 1 first so as to not get blown out by chalice and be stuck with a hand full of lightning bolts/lava spikes
Round 1: lost to merfolk after a mull to 5 in game 3.
Got a bye round 2.
Round 3 vs Mardu Prowess with main deck seeker of the way, Monastery Mentor, Swiftspear, and burn spells.
Game 1, I had 2 Guides and 2 Swift spears and picked off a few of his dudes.
Game 2 was exciting. I got him down to 6, with a rift bolt suspended and a Skullcrack in hand. He has a seeker in play and 5 lands--2 bump in the night in the GY. He plays Leyline, and I skullcrack in response. He shoots me with a bump in the night from hand and swings with Seeker, and I'm down to 1.
I untap and send Rift Bolt at the Seeker. Topdeck a swiftspear and put him at 2. Pass, he draws a blood crypt that he has to play tapped and passes back. I topdeck a helix and shoot myself for the prowess trigger and the win.
In "Old Modern" it was RR, Landfall, Bolt their face and kill their creature.
With Death Shadwo decks and Eldrazi decks, we don't kill as much. So it becomes a lightning strike that requires landfall. Yes, you can get rid of up to 5 toughness creatures with a combination of guide and swift spear. But a lot of times that won't have that situation.
At times, multiples are clunky because we may get bottlenecked on lands and struggle for landfall. That's ok when the card functions as fused fatal push/lightning bolt. Less good when it's a lightning strike.
Against control decks, we have to waot on targets. UW control eats our red sources with spreading seas.
It's still so powerful in the right matchups and typically still castable in the matchups it's not. But it definitely feels less good than before.
2. Gutteral response seems terrible. No point in sideboarding against gifts. We're heavily favored vs storm. Bringing in GY hate, makes it really good for us.
Seems like it's at it's worst point ever. Bad against Eldrazi Tron, Death Shadow. Bad against UW control.
Clunky at times because we can get constricted on lands and draw multiples. For now, I'm at 3 copies and running a shard volley instead.
Would love to hear everyone else's thoughts.
It's a mixed bag. If you dont draw several RW spells, it won't matter. But Turn 3 when you've got 2-3 Helix or Boros charm is backbreaking.
RE: Affinity: Skullcrack is great.
I never leep Eidolon in vs them. On the play:
I typically bring in 4 Revelry, 2 Deflecting palm, 2-3 Path/lavamancer.
Boros charm goes first, Lava Spike next.
Meta was hella weird.
Round 1. UR Through the breach.
Reall nOt much to tell. Main deck blood moon got me game 1.
Game 2: EoT thtough the breach on my turn=Remand on my deflecting palm
In: 2 palm, 3 Relic, 1 Lavamancer
Out: 4 Searing blaze, 1 boros charm
He ran snaps, but overall searing blaze vs Emrakul or Grislebrand seems bad. I contemplated revelry, but half the players I talk to take Blood Moon out vs Burn. And if they keep it, being screwed out of playing 2 colors seems worse than being screwed out of 1.
Round 2: GW Elves with Vizier Druid combo
Game 1: T2 Eidolon got me going, but coco, untap infinite mana was brutal.
Game 2: Had to kill a couple of his guys,
But iltimately managed to unload 12 damage between his EoT and my tun.
In: 3 Path, 1 Lavamancer. Out: 4 Boros Charm.
Game 3: awkard land draws did me in. He played a druid and I drew an inspiring vantage to get lndfall for searing blaze at sorcery speed. He coco'd into the elf lord and a second druid. He played Vizier and made infinite mana. Elves are hard.
Out: 4 Eidolon. In: Put the 4 Boros charms back in.
Round 3: Mono Red Goblins. We raced, and I had more interactiob. Eidolon tore him up game 1.
Game 2 actully got close. I had to bolt a 1/1 bushwhacker to stay above 5.
In: 4 Revelry, 2 Path, 2 Firewalker
Out: 4 Eidolon, 4 Boros charm
Round 4: Counters Company:
Game 1: he beat me down with dudes. I ran out of burn. Boring and simple.
In: 3 Path, 3 Relic, 1 Lavamancer
Out: 4 Boros Charm, 3 Lava spike
Game 2: he gets a very slow start. Plays a druid on turn 2,y only kill spell is a rift bolt whcih I cast for 3.
Hand was ripe with burn to finish him.
In: 3 Lava spike, 1 boros charm,
out: 4 Eidolons
Lots of combo pieces to eat up my burn spells and paths.
Ultimately the key moment came down tk he had a Kitchen finks and a Vizier vs my swiftspear. I had a Relic up and 4 labds. I had Path and Helix in hand.
He had 1 card in hand. He blocks with Finks as expected. I path Vizier and Helix him, crack relic in response to persist, and he shows me 3 lands after he draws for his turn.
Round 5:uW control
I wrote the other day how this was beatable, and there are matches we can win. But Gideon of the Trials is a ginormous pain.
I lost 0-2.
I brought in Relic to keep him off snapcasters and 2 Revelry for Spreading seas/Leyline. Killed a letline, got wrekt by seas.
What do you guys bring Path in against?
I used to feel damn near naked without 3-4. Now I almost never use it.
With twin and infect gone, it just doesn't feel AS important. Honestly if Kor Firewalker didn't exist, I might try my luck without it.
I think Merfolk is 50/50 or slightly in our favor now. A creature heavy hand is very hard for them to deal with because of the slowness/clunkiness of the deck. They've gone away from cards that are good vs us, I.E. Tidebinder mage. I typically either play Merfolk or Burn, moreso burn. But as merfolk, my matchups against burn are frustrating. Burn comes out of the gate so quickly, and Merfolk is going to take 3-4 turns to set up. You spend a lot of your Turn 1 going Aether Vial, which means more free beats for Goblin Guide or Monastery Swiftspear.
Spreading Seas is much less of a back breaker for a 2-color deck. Fetch Mountains early when possible. They'll often go ahead and play it on a mountain to try to mana-screw you--and they need the card draw. Common sense says to put in Destructive Revelry because they have Seas and Aether Vial That's like, 8 good targets. But the reality is, now you're dependent on 3 colors, and each Spreading Seas is that much more effective at screwing up your mana base. Make them cast it on mountains. Let them have their Aether Vial, which you know takes several turns to get going, and burn their face off in the mean time.
Burn feels like it's in an amazing place right now.
Looking at the Tier decks per salvation
UW Control--This is probably the tougest of the tier 1 decks, but beatable. Instant Speed life gain in Sphinx's rev and Spreading seas=cry. Keep your life-gain cards up, time your spells, etc.
Storm: LOL.
DS:I go on spells where I dominate the matchup, and then find stretches where I can't beat it. I struggle with patience lol, but definitely something I'm comfortable against.
Titanshift: Pre-board we do really well. Post-board--gotta play around the life gain. Winnable.
Affinity: Since switching to Boros, I find myself winning a ton of these. Thinking about going back to RG, but this is another matchup where I like our chances.
Eldrazi Tron: Their nut draws are unbeatable. Their other draws are often slow and clunky. I used to think I couldn't beat it, but I've beat it a lot.
T2:
Tron: another good matchup for us.
Jeskai Cop-Cat: Haven't played against it, but most lists aren't running Helix, which is what has historically made these Jeskai decks so back breaking.
Jeskai Control: Lots of Helix, Sphinx's Rev. I've always struggled vs this deck.
Merfolk: Historically tough, but I feel like the deck is at an all-time high in clunkiness. Merfolk is my 2nd Modern deck, and it just seems like the recent changes to adjust to the meta have hurt it a lot against us. I have a hard time beating Burn if I'm playing Merfolk, and losing when I'm the burn pilot. One thing that has gone a long way, I stopped boarding in Revelry. Going after vial/Spreading seas seems great. Just make the mana base that much more critical, and makes a spreading seas a back breaker.
Counters company: This is another BAD one, but beatable in spots. I always hope to avoid it.
Death and Taxes: Another tough one.
DS Jund: Winnable.
Abzan: Grindy, winnable.
Lantern: Always feels winnable for us.
Dredge: Winnable
Living End: Winnable
Bant Eldrazi: Pretty tough overall. Mana dorks, Eldrazi Temples--You're looking at frequent T3 TKS, T2 often enough to suck. They often get around Eidolon Triggers late. ]
RW Prison: Really annoying/tough matchup. Between Blood moon, chalice, helix,GG mate
It's an annoying matchup.
For now thinking
No Eidolons.
4 Shrine of the Burning Rage.
What is life?
1. Inspring vantage all the way.
Clifftop retreat is awkward early, and better late.
Vantage is great early and awkward late. We're burn, a proactive deck. We obviously want the better early game.
2. 1-land hands:
There are very few I don't keep. No 1 drop creatures makes me more likely to mulligan. But any 1 drop creature backed up by a second, an eidolon, or multiple 1 mana spells--and I'm good to go. And I rarely don't find the second land in a timely fashion.
3. When you're new to a deck, it's easy to find all sorts of ideas and ask why not this. In general, everything has been considered and tested. We have tons of tournament reports that show us which cards work and which don't. No one wants to stifle creativity, but in general some cards are known/accepted to be better than others.
4. Spreading seas/Green sources:
The best advice I got was to stop trying to beat Spreading seas with Revelry.
Fetch mountains early. Leave fetches up as long as you can.
Fetch white when you can fire off multiple spells before they get a main phase to cast a seas.
You may even fetch a Stomping Ground early to bait the seas out of their hand and protect your white source.
IF you run maindeck Atarka's Command (or any other green card), I think you need at least 2 fetchable green sources. Don't rely on drawing Copperline Gorge.