Lightning Bolt basically does nothing in the matchup as it cannot kill Thing in the Ice or Crackling Drake and only delays the pheonix for a turn. I tend to trim bolts and a few wraiths to max out on Stubs and surgicals.
10 out of 17 lands in our decks are fetchlands, if we pre game scry 3 we would likely have to shuffle on turn one anyway. Just a classic bit of SCG hyperbole.
Any beginner tips for someone new picking up this deck? I feel a lot of my game losses are from not being able to find a threat to close the game out. How aggressive are you with your life total if you haven’t found a shadow? Thank you in advance
In addition to the above, this deck will reward you for knowing exactly what your opponent's deck does. I spend a fair amount of time checking out modern videos on youtube to get a feel for the modern meta. Doing your research can help you to understand which card is best to Thoughtseize away, or what you want to hold up Stubborn Denial for to disrupt your opponent's plan.
I'd like to make a suggestion and see what do you think about it. I like to play Burn decks, from Tier 1 to unconventional versions. So, I consider it can fit in the lowest CMC mana curve burn version which is Rakdos Burn (RBg or RBw depending on meta). I ran a few 3/4 turn draw test to see if that card gives some advantage or not. I realised i could make 20 points and still have some fuel in hand. With theese tests, sometimes it happens you can manage to hit 20 points and being close to the limit. Of course it will depend on the matchup, I dont deny it. Also, this test "without enemy" only analyses how fast i can hit 20 points and check how much fuel i leave in hand (which is considable fair to know, as you won't be able to hit all burn spells/damage effect that easy in a game).
Typical 1 CMC burn spells
4 Bump in the night
4 Light up the stage (Similar to Treasure Cruise 4 colored burn or RU burn in the past)
2 Shar Volley (I personally don't like to run more)
The rest are 2 CMC necessary burn spells (Searing blaze, skullcrack). The number of each staple depends on the meta or personal choice.
I noticed with this build that Light up the stage was even usefull from turn 2 in those first hands with 1 cmc cards and only 1 land. 1st turn Goblin Guide or Monastery swift or rift bolt (in worse hands). Turn two you cast light up the stage after damage and it gives you the possibility to get the second land and cast another spell.
Another trick i came up is to let your enemy think you only have 1 land in hand. You do the exact same process i have explained before. But this time you have another land in hand. THe enemy think you are at risk of not getting a land. But if Light up the stage shows you 1 or 2 lands, you wont have to use the one you have in hand. In the end, your enemy will see you have enough fuel to finish him.
Im not a professional player, so whatever comment will be welcomed.
What do you think about Light up the stage in Rakdos low mana curve Burn? I'm really excited everytime i can run a different Burn build.
Sorry, this is the cube forum, your question should go in one of the constructed deck forums.
I may play it just for the art. Seb McKinnon is absolutely crushing lately.
So much this. I think this is my favorite piece of new art in MTG for quite some time. The card is really good too, but not close to cracking the top 3 unfortunately.
EDIT: Seb posted the full art on twitter, look at the pretty:
can I get some feedback/advice on our amulet titan matchup? I feel I had a tight match against it yesterday but would like to know other people's thoughts on it.
When I get home I'll try and write a tournament report
We certainly have tools against them, you almost always want to mull to find hand disruption against them to try and hit an amulet before it hits the table.
If you can survive past the first few turns, Blood Moon is pretty good in the match-up.
Terminate is the only bit of instant speed removal that we have that hits the titan on a combo turn, but the fact that it is a 1 of in most lists is not good news.
I think the matchup is more favorable if you sideboard surgical extraction over Leylines too, as you can Thoughtseize a key combo piece and surgical it out immediately.
Whilst Kambal is extremely effective in the right matchups, he is actively bad against creature decks like humans, spirits and hardened scales. Mainboarding him seems loose as he will be dead weight in around a third of your matches.
On a different note, with Izzet Pheonix as prevalent as it currently is, I think now is a great time to be bringing 1-2 copies of Echoing Truth in the side - as multiple flying haste creatures make our life total dificult to manage.
Aside from that one matchup, truth is powerful against a lot of other strategies like hollow one and an answer to sticky on board locks (looking at you, Worship)
Archanz is right, it can only tutor for black cards. If it was a functional Demonic Tutor with undergrowth I would be much higher on it.
On a different topic, I have heard some conversation about using Apostle's Blessing in the deck to protect your threats and push through damage on a gummed up board. Anybody got any experience testing the card in GDS?
Bauble is great, it has a number of flexible uses and fuels a fast Gurmag Angler start.
Collective Brutality is super medium in this deck. You rarely want to be gaining life, the spell is a sorcery, it only kills very small things and more importantly it costs 2 mana. Ideally the deck should be mostly 1s and 0s with some snaps and tbr at the top of the curve. If you want more removal, I would add another push or bolt.
Are you sure you want to run Secrets?
We don't have a whole lot of creatures, and we typically only end up with them
in the yard on accident. I suppose you can tutor a Surgical on 0, but otherwise even
Getting to 1 for a Shadow/push/thoughtseize can be tricky. If you want this type of effect you
Should probably just play Traverse
Surgical has a CMC of 1 despite having an alternate cost of 2 life, so it requires at least 1 creature in the graveyard.
We have 4 street wraiths and at least 3 thought scour to turn the spell on, but the main drawback in my mind is that the deck is currently focused on a very low cmc curve, which secrets disrupts by costing 2.
Also between 15+ cantrips and these 2 copies of secrets, there are a lot of spells in the deck that don't effect the board in a meaningful way so I would prefer to retain lightning bolts personally.
Lightning Bolt basically does nothing in the matchup as it cannot kill Thing in the Ice or Crackling Drake and only delays the pheonix for a turn. I tend to trim bolts and a few wraiths to max out on Stubs and surgicals.
I can tell you it, but unfortunately it won't make it true.
In addition to the above, this deck will reward you for knowing exactly what your opponent's deck does. I spend a fair amount of time checking out modern videos on youtube to get a feel for the modern meta. Doing your research can help you to understand which card is best to Thoughtseize away, or what you want to hold up Stubborn Denial for to disrupt your opponent's plan.
I run 7 at 375 (extra 15 for lore seeker)
Sorry, this is the cube forum, your question should go in one of the constructed deck forums.
So much this. I think this is my favorite piece of new art in MTG for quite some time. The card is really good too, but not close to cracking the top 3 unfortunately.
EDIT: Seb posted the full art on twitter, look at the pretty:
We certainly have tools against them, you almost always want to mull to find hand disruption against them to try and hit an amulet before it hits the table.
If you can survive past the first few turns, Blood Moon is pretty good in the match-up.
Terminate is the only bit of instant speed removal that we have that hits the titan on a combo turn, but the fact that it is a 1 of in most lists is not good news.
I think the matchup is more favorable if you sideboard surgical extraction over Leylines too, as you can Thoughtseize a key combo piece and surgical it out immediately.
Aside from that one matchup, truth is powerful against a lot of other strategies like hollow one and an answer to sticky on board locks (looking at you, Worship)
In addition to this, they ran a 1/1 split between dismember and terminate. (Also 2 Collective Brutality in the side)
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1514718#paper
On a different topic, I have heard some conversation about using Apostle's Blessing in the deck to protect your threats and push through damage on a gummed up board. Anybody got any experience testing the card in GDS?
Collective Brutality is super medium in this deck. You rarely want to be gaining life, the spell is a sorcery, it only kills very small things and more importantly it costs 2 mana. Ideally the deck should be mostly 1s and 0s with some snaps and tbr at the top of the curve. If you want more removal, I would add another push or bolt.
Surgical has a CMC of 1 despite having an alternate cost of 2 life, so it requires at least 1 creature in the graveyard.
We have 4 street wraiths and at least 3 thought scour to turn the spell on, but the main drawback in my mind is that the deck is currently focused on a very low cmc curve, which secrets disrupts by costing 2.
Also between 15+ cantrips and these 2 copies of secrets, there are a lot of spells in the deck that don't effect the board in a meaningful way so I would prefer to retain lightning bolts personally.