I typically bring in 2 paths/2 Firewalkers. I've got 2 Searing blood and I've tinkered with the #of blood/blaze post board.
But ultimately, it comes down to the other guy does or doesn't draw his firewalker.
I went 0-3 tonight in the mirror. Always won game 1. Couldn't buy a game 2 or 3. Game 3 of one match, I got my firewalker. Then he got his. Then he got his 2nd. Then he got his path.
One guy was willing to block my swift spear, but I was bluffing and never had the skullcrack.
I realize that Magic in general is a game of variance and Modern often comes down to do you draw your hate or not. But Dang.
For now I'm taking the 2 Firewalkers out and changing them to 1 path and a (4th) skullcrack.
On the Above: I almost never lose to MonoU Merfolk since switching to Boros. If you splash green for revelry--don't bring it in against fish. You make Spreading seas that much more powerful by having a 3rd color.
Humans--I need some help boys. I pretty much can't beat it. I've got 1 lavamancer main, 2 Searing Blood in the side. I bring in 2 paths on the draw. They always get meddling mage on something I have in hand. Thalia kills me. It's just rough
I'm uncomfortable with the green splash at this time. UW control and Merfolk run spreading seas. Field of Ruin is popping up in a lot of lists. Running a single green for Revelry is risky.
Thought it was hot garbage a year ago. Thought it was hot garbage last week. Still think it's hot garbage today and will continue to think that even if the winning deck has 4 copies of Vexing Devil in it.
I think that Vexing Devil is worth approximately 2 damage on average, and I'd rather play Shock than something that averages to Shock but has a large standard deviation.
i understand everyone has their own opinion and experience but when i played it, it was always 4 to the dome. i think thats changed with there being bolt, path, and push. not to mention the plethora of other ways to kill it currently so its less likely they just take 4
I think your experience implies you were playing it against a meta that never plays removal, which is extraordinarily atypical, or it's confirmation bias. I've done the math on this against typical amounts of removal from typical decks. The answer is about 2 damage on average for a turn 1 devil, and it goes down from there.
It got played in a pro tour deck that did very well on Day 1. It can't be that much garbage. I have always thought because of it being a punisher card, it did better in less competitive or skilled metagames and worse at higher levels of play, I may have to reevaluate this.
It's a mistake to attribute the success of the deck as a whole to 4 cards. Nothing about this suggests that devil is a good card that should be reevaluated and that everyone else for the last 5 years has been wrong about it. It's still hot garbage and the performance of a single deck doesn't imply that it's not.
At best, this just means that a bunch of people will come to the conclusion that it's fantastic because of a single deck and they'll play it, evaluate it by using confirmation bias, and claim it's the best thing since sliced bread. It'll be Shrine of Burning Rage all over again: hot garbage that people claim isn't hot garbage because "look at that one time it was played and the player won!"
I am not attributing it to only this result, it has been a card in the "maybe" category for burn decks since it was printed and tons of people have played/play it. You can call it garbage all you want but its mediocre at worst. 4 damage for 1 mana is nothing to laugh at. just because the card has a downside doesn't make it unplayable.
So this bolded part is very important.
You WANT to read the card as 1 mana 4 damage. And believe me, if they print a 1 mana 4 damage burn spell, I will play it. We all will.
If it said "YOU" may choose to sacrifice it and deal 4 damage to your opponent--sign me up.
The problem is in the downside. What I want you to always think about--burn is good because of it's consistency and redundancy. High risk/highly variable cards are not what we want. Don't simply mire at the upside. Seriously consider the worst case scenario at all times.
The opponent has a creature out that represents lethal--A goblin Guide off the top blocks for you. If they're at 6 and you have no carads in hand--you don't even get a blocker.
If they have a big ol' board state full of Goyfs, Tireless Tracker, Siege Rhino, etc and you draw this--it may or may not get to be a blocker. But it will probably never deal damage.
If you draw it turn 1 and they don't make you sacrifice it--they have a kill spell.
Goblin Guide/Swift spear will always attack in on the play. Their power multiplies in multiples. Being able to kill off your devil takes away some of that power.
Lavamancer's power is really in creature heavy matchups that lack a lot of spell-based interaction.
Ultimately, you should always heavily weigh the downside of a card. Burn is about consistency/redundancy. You will lose games when you play cards that give that up. Simian Spirit Guide is a good example of this.
The other concern I have with 19 vs 20 is I've gone to 3 copies of Exquisite Firecraft and I worry that I need 20 with spells with CMC of 3.
I made the switch online 4-5 days ago. Have done probably 5 leagues, and I've had 3 3-2's, 1 0-5, 1 2-3. And a lot of the matchups felt like early stumbles cost me.
I still have flooding though. I played Abzan, got him to 3. He had Lilliana and a Treetop Village. He proceeded to beat me to death over 5 turns where the only non-land I drew was a relic that I immediately cracked for--another land.
I was killing on mtgo at 20 lands. Went to 19 the last few days, now I'm doing terrible. My 1 landers aren't finding their 2nd land as quickly. I'm mulligaining more and finding bad 6's.
I've had shattering spree vs affinity and felt very very bad.
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Ravager hoses you. Man lands hose you. Ravager and man-lands really hose you.
Burn is not a value deck. We're a get 'em dead deck. We don't ever want to go full control--largely because our threats aren't as good as most other threats.
To me affinity is about killing a few key guys and burning face before they can close the door on you. The best way to do this is 2 for 1 cards.
Searing blaze, Searing Blood, Smash to Smithereens, Destructive Revelry can all kill a creature AND damage your opponent.
I can appreciate the utilization of Shattering Spree vs Lantern and vs Eldrazi Tron. But I think against Affinity, you want instant speed cards.
I probably won't run Abrade, but it's an interesting option.
We bring in path vs a lot of these creature decks and it can't hit face. It doesn't have the downside of giving them a land. It has interesting flexibility in that it can hit a vial or a creature. It can also come in vs a lot of artifact decks.
A friend of mine told me not to fall into using the trap of letting bad data lead you to bad conclusions.
Everyone has a great deflecting palm experience. You remember the good experiences. Dead to rights and you palm a 5/6 Goyf. Tons pf people have Palmed Infect for 8+ or even an Emrakul for 15.
The problem is we don't focus--at least early in our magic experience--om the times it went poorly.
Again, it is a reactive card. Meaning it is best Suited against a jdeckthat is faster than us. These are storm, inect, and affinity. Storm doesn't have a large threat and infect is fringe.
Being a reactive card also means that I cannot top that kid and play it. I need the opponent to do something. Usually attack. There are a lot of problems with this scenario. The simplest is that a lot of times drawing a different Burn spell would have won me the game on the spot. Did you side out a rift bolt?
Since it is reactive, opponents have more chances to minimize it. Some decks can draw a discard spell or a couterspell. People will always point out that any card can fall victim to discard or counter Magic. However, most of the other cards don't require us to wait on our opponent to attack and give the opponent more time to draw those very cards.
The thought of running Exquisite Firecraft against Chalice of the Void and Death's Shadow decks is a neat thing that I never noticed. I wasn't planning on running them because I thought they were only for control, but now this seems like a solid sideboard card.
Why is Shattering Spree not a good card against Affinity? To me, it seems like a very fine card. There's probably something I'm not seeing, so please explain. I'm thinking about running it, but if you're telling me that it doesn't work against Affinity, I won't.
Why use Path to Exile against storm? I saw this in the sideboard guide for the forum, but it doesn't seem like a good thing to do. You're giving your opponent a land in exchange for their mana reducer. It just seems counterintuitive.
I'm not sure why you don't like Deflecting Palm. In my opinion, it's just a better Lightning Helix that only works in certain situations, so you bring in against certain strategies. You're bringing it in against Burn too, right?
Grafdigger's Cage is cool, but a previous discussion on this forum led me to believe that it's not worth it.
Great questions!
Shattering Spree against affinity can be a house. They can play around it with Ravager and Man-lands. I don't like it here.
Path to exile, as others have said, is great for killing a mana reducer. 1 land=1 mana. Mana reducer=several mana. They want to cast remand, and often they're wanting to go off turn 3 or 4 with a remand backup--you want plenty of 1 mana kill spells.
Deflecting Palm is probably one of the most succesful cards that I hate. Everyone has their story about this great blowout beat.
Why I don't love it: It's a reactive card. We're a proactive deck. Will it work against Goyfs/Death shadows--sure. But they could draw another thought-seize. They get more turns to find a stubborn denial for the reactive card that's glued to your hand. If they're able to play around it, it becomes a fog. A lot of times, any burn spell wins you the game. Except palm because the opponent isn't attacking. I want it in decks that are faster than me. Infect/affinity/combo. Infect is fringe now. And I have a ton of great options for affinity.
Cage: It's probably not as good vs certain decks. What I'm seeing online is largely company decks and storm decks. Cage works fine vs storm. It gives you a little added utility vs company.
2. You want 4 or 0.
If you want more creatures, consider Wild Nacatl
If you want a 1 mana 4 damage spell, consider prayer.
I typically bring in 2 paths/2 Firewalkers. I've got 2 Searing blood and I've tinkered with the #of blood/blaze post board.
But ultimately, it comes down to the other guy does or doesn't draw his firewalker.
I went 0-3 tonight in the mirror. Always won game 1. Couldn't buy a game 2 or 3. Game 3 of one match, I got my firewalker. Then he got his. Then he got his 2nd. Then he got his path.
One guy was willing to block my swift spear, but I was bluffing and never had the skullcrack.
I realize that Magic in general is a game of variance and Modern often comes down to do you draw your hate or not. But Dang.
For now I'm taking the 2 Firewalkers out and changing them to 1 path and a (4th) skullcrack.
Humans--I need some help boys. I pretty much can't beat it. I've got 1 lavamancer main, 2 Searing Blood in the side. I bring in 2 paths on the draw. They always get meddling mage on something I have in hand. Thalia kills me. It's just rough
So this bolded part is very important.
You WANT to read the card as 1 mana 4 damage. And believe me, if they print a 1 mana 4 damage burn spell, I will play it. We all will.
If it said "YOU" may choose to sacrifice it and deal 4 damage to your opponent--sign me up.
The problem is in the downside. What I want you to always think about--burn is good because of it's consistency and redundancy. High risk/highly variable cards are not what we want. Don't simply mire at the upside. Seriously consider the worst case scenario at all times.
The opponent has a creature out that represents lethal--A goblin Guide off the top blocks for you. If they're at 6 and you have no carads in hand--you don't even get a blocker.
If they have a big ol' board state full of Goyfs, Tireless Tracker, Siege Rhino, etc and you draw this--it may or may not get to be a blocker. But it will probably never deal damage.
If you draw it turn 1 and they don't make you sacrifice it--they have a kill spell.
Goblin Guide/Swift spear will always attack in on the play. Their power multiplies in multiples. Being able to kill off your devil takes away some of that power.
Lavamancer's power is really in creature heavy matchups that lack a lot of spell-based interaction.
Ultimately, you should always heavily weigh the downside of a card. Burn is about consistency/redundancy. You will lose games when you play cards that give that up. Simian Spirit Guide is a good example of this.
I made the switch online 4-5 days ago. Have done probably 5 leagues, and I've had 3 3-2's, 1 0-5, 1 2-3. And a lot of the matchups felt like early stumbles cost me.
I still have flooding though. I played Abzan, got him to 3. He had Lilliana and a Treetop Village. He proceeded to beat me to death over 5 turns where the only non-land I drew was a relic that I immediately cracked for--another land.
I was killing on mtgo at 20 lands. Went to 19 the last few days, now I'm doing terrible. My 1 landers aren't finding their 2nd land as quickly. I'm mulligaining more and finding bad 6's.
But it seems like a lot of top lists are at 19.
Chalice on 2 counters Chalice on 1. Therefore they can't play it after Chalice on 2.
.
Ravager hoses you. Man lands hose you. Ravager and man-lands really hose you.
Burn is not a value deck. We're a get 'em dead deck. We don't ever want to go full control--largely because our threats aren't as good as most other threats.
To me affinity is about killing a few key guys and burning face before they can close the door on you. The best way to do this is 2 for 1 cards.
Searing blaze, Searing Blood, Smash to Smithereens, Destructive Revelry can all kill a creature AND damage your opponent.
I can appreciate the utilization of Shattering Spree vs Lantern and vs Eldrazi Tron. But I think against Affinity, you want instant speed cards.
We bring in path vs a lot of these creature decks and it can't hit face. It doesn't have the downside of giving them a land. It has interesting flexibility in that it can hit a vial or a creature. It can also come in vs a lot of artifact decks.
Siding in Revelry/Smash is awkward if they don't draw a vial. Abrade can still shoot their guys.
Everyone has a great deflecting palm experience. You remember the good experiences. Dead to rights and you palm a 5/6 Goyf. Tons pf people have Palmed Infect for 8+ or even an Emrakul for 15.
The problem is we don't focus--at least early in our magic experience--om the times it went poorly.
Again, it is a reactive card. Meaning it is best Suited against a jdeckthat is faster than us. These are storm, inect, and affinity. Storm doesn't have a large threat and infect is fringe.
Being a reactive card also means that I cannot top that kid and play it. I need the opponent to do something. Usually attack. There are a lot of problems with this scenario. The simplest is that a lot of times drawing a different Burn spell would have won me the game on the spot. Did you side out a rift bolt?
Since it is reactive, opponents have more chances to minimize it. Some decks can draw a discard spell or a couterspell. People will always point out that any card can fall victim to discard or counter Magic. However, most of the other cards don't require us to wait on our opponent to attack and give the opponent more time to draw those very cards.
Great questions!
Shattering Spree against affinity can be a house. They can play around it with Ravager and Man-lands. I don't like it here.
Path to exile, as others have said, is great for killing a mana reducer. 1 land=1 mana. Mana reducer=several mana. They want to cast remand, and often they're wanting to go off turn 3 or 4 with a remand backup--you want plenty of 1 mana kill spells.
Deflecting Palm is probably one of the most succesful cards that I hate. Everyone has their story about this great blowout beat.
Why I don't love it: It's a reactive card. We're a proactive deck. Will it work against Goyfs/Death shadows--sure. But they could draw another thought-seize. They get more turns to find a stubborn denial for the reactive card that's glued to your hand. If they're able to play around it, it becomes a fog. A lot of times, any burn spell wins you the game. Except palm because the opponent isn't attacking. I want it in decks that are faster than me. Infect/affinity/combo. Infect is fringe now. And I have a ton of great options for affinity.
Cage: It's probably not as good vs certain decks. What I'm seeing online is largely company decks and storm decks. Cage works fine vs storm. It gives you a little added utility vs company.