I really like the Grim Creature. He seems really strong in a world where we don't have Damnation, and he can be treated as having Multikicker B: Destroy target creature.
I am just curious about the inclusion/exclusion of these specific cards in Ramunap Red decks and some of the newer Mardu lists.
Specifically with Hazoret and Chandra, why do some lists choose to main only Hazoret, only Chandra, or a mix of both? What are the decisions that these selections say about their expected matchups or deck needs?
With Glorybringer, I am curious as to why some lists have them in the board and some do not. What is the idea that decides whether or not your 75 should or should not include Glorybringer?
I just want to hear opinions on these cards to better understand the decisions in the current Standard Meta. Per Standard Main Forum- What Belongs Here the main forum is not for deck-specific discussion. This seems closer to a deck-specific than a general meta question, so I will merge it with the Rx Aggro thread. - hoser2
So... just wondering here... Fatal Push at $9. Is this the highest price ever for a Standard-legal uncommon?
Maybe Path to Exile at some point? I mean first off it isn't actually printed at the same rate as every other AER uncommon, plus you have a set that virtually every player wants four of or more. I doubt it will even drop at rotation, because most players will say "eh if I ever want to play modern I'll want these" and hold them.
Skullclamp and Eternal Witness were expensive as well from what I've heard
I played back then. Skullclamp you could buy in a structure deck and get two guaranteed which kept the price lower. Witness I'm blanking on, because why the hell would you not play Affinity back then?
Witness was still around 5 dollars. The only way to really combat Affinity was with green. Oxidize, Viridan Shaman, etc. Tooth and Nail often ran Witness, as well.
Right now the prices on ixalan cards are still stabilizing, but I'm going to admit I'm not a fan of the price of standard right now. It's pretty crazy high if someone wasn't around during Kaladesh -> Now as all of the major players are pretty close to modern price levels. Metallic Mimic is near 11 dollars at this point in time, Walking Ballista is up there, The Scarab God is just insane, and Hazoret the Fervent and her compatriots are putting even the aggro archetype in the triple digits. Also hoping people were around during energy decks because that is an entire nightmare in itself.
The only good thing right now is that people are actually playing magic, which is why the prices are out of this world. Also, this is the first time in a long while we've had a rotation and we lost a huge number of sets. I'm sure that some of these prices are due to the changes to the meta that have happened as a result. Old cards that were basically unplayable suddenly became go-to staples like Hidden Stockpile. Existing decks that survived rotation are now in a format where they just got a lot stronger.
Normally pre-order season is a lose situation, but right now this is starting to feel like if someone bought in early they probably got a lot of stuff on the cheap. Hostage Taker was 3 dollars and then just launched into the sky, for example.
I can 100% vouch for this. As someone that likes to pre-order cards on the cheap, I came out like a bandit this time around. I bought a playset of Foil Search for Azcanta for 6.50 each. I bought my foil Hostage Taker playset for 5 dollars each. My foil Vraska's Contempts were about 4 dollars each. I just got back into Magic--after a 7 year hiatus--in the beginning of August, and I was just buying cards that I thought looked fun and weren't rotating soon. I ended up picking up a playset of foil Torrential Gearhulk for 18 dollars each, foil The Scarab Gods for 20 dollar each, foil Hazoret the Fervent for 16 dollars each, and foil Chandra, Torch of Defiance for 28 dollars each. If you look around and are vigilant when cards aren't being heavily played/pre-sales you can get quite the steals. The only card that was really impossible to do this with was Carnage Tyrant, which is funny. It's still really high and I have yet to see a single one played. Feels like a lot of wasted money there.
The hell where was it printed? I can't find where it comes from. Its on gatherer but not in the ahmonkhet spoilers.
So the World championships on the weekend. Search for Azcanta has proved its strenght at least in control decks it has synergy here even if it is slow I can easily flip it turn 4.
What I like about this deck is we can use Search for Azcanta, but then have a sideboard that looks like a mix of Temur and Raminup Red we get to use a lot of the powerful cards in these colours.
Have the Deadeye Trackers been useful in this deck? It seems like going 4 Duress would be better here, or 4 Fatal Push. Another Push over a Contempt might be a better maindeck choice, as a lot of people are still playing Red, at least where I live.
Kalitas and Rest in Peace both create replacement effects. Since, your opponent controls the creatures in question, he/she chooses the order of the effects. If he/she chooses to have Rest in Peace exile the creatures, you won't get tokens.
I think it is a mistake to put tall your eggs into one basket if that basket is a permanent. In testing, Ixalan's Binding has been crushing it and if one hits a Bolas, you have 0 payoffs. That invalidates the entire game plan.
I've been finding it's nice to have a split of Cast Out and Ixalan's Binding. Cast It is of course great because of flash, but a binding on Hazoret can be devastating as some of these decks play four copies.
I agree with most everything you said, except I wouldn't call the flipside of Fast reach. It heals you, but doesn't hurt the opponent. It's more anti-reach to your opponent.
I have been playing a BW Lifegain Deck for a number of weeks, now, as it does really well against Ramunap Red. It could easily be transitioned into a Vampire deck, but time will tell if the switch is worth it.
A few notes on the deck before I talk about Vampire conversion:
I chose Forsake the Worldly in the board as my local meta has a ton of vehicles, but more importantly Gearhulk recursion. By exiling them, I can ensure they don't come back.
The idea behind the Trials and Cartouches is that the Trials are useful cards on their own--Ambition letting me get rid of problematic creatures, and Solidarity helping me gain a lot of life/push some damage through--and the Cartouche's let me reuse them. Giving Gifted Aetherborn First Strike is a beating and putting him to 4 health makes it even more difficult for Ramunap Red to deal with.
The Authority of the Consuls started out maindeck, but they are so bad against some of the control matchups--especially UW Approach where they are 100% useless--that I boarded them, but if there is a lot of aggro in your local meta then by all means maindeck them.
As this deck doesn't rely on counters of any sort outside of Aethersphere Harvester, you can replace them from the board with Solemnity if energy decks are prevalent in your local meta. No one cares about Fat Kitty if they have 0 energy.
The vampire build I have been toying with is similar in nature, but replacing some of the other cards with vampire-related cards:
There are more lifegain cards in this deck, which is why a few copies of Crested Sunmare still remain, but I was trying to leverage more Sanctum Seeker interaction. Yahenni is amazing with cards like Fumigate as he survives the board wipe after you sacrifice a creature, and he gets counters for each of your opponents dying creatures.
I like your setup minus a couple of cards:
Essence Extraction: is too "cute" a card. You're already playing a deck with lifegain already built in. Paying three mana just to maybe remove a creature is one mana too much. Hard kill spells is what you want. Consider running +1 more Fatal Push and +2 Walk the Plank in Extractions place.
Lay Bear the Heart (SB): Now that the "Legendary rule" is being applied to planeswalkers, Heart has fewer targets to hit. Duress is "strictly better" in that it hits most of the targets you'd want to hit with Heart minus creatures (but that's what your removal spells are for) and it's one less mana to cast.
I get what you're saying, completely; but I would recommend you at least try it out for a couple games of testing. It should not be underestimated that you can also create Horses on your opponent's turn, this way. That's why I play it, and it often does what it's meant to do. Making 5/5's on both your turn and your opponent's turn can be quite a quick clock.
Also, Lay Bare the Heart was put in over Duress after testing, because it removes Carnage Tyrant, Ripjaw Raptor, The Scarab God, and Torrential Gearhulk. All of those cards can be difficult to deal with and testing has shown that LBtH is a great answer to them.
In a vacuum I agree that the cards you suggested are great, but I have tested this deck against a number of Ixalan standard decklists, and I based these changes off that testing.
Out of the loop, here. What's LoDD?
Hazoret the Fervent
Glorybringer
I am just curious about the inclusion/exclusion of these specific cards in Ramunap Red decks and some of the newer Mardu lists.
Specifically with Hazoret and Chandra, why do some lists choose to main only Hazoret, only Chandra, or a mix of both? What are the decisions that these selections say about their expected matchups or deck needs?
With Glorybringer, I am curious as to why some lists have them in the board and some do not. What is the idea that decides whether or not your 75 should or should not include Glorybringer?
I just want to hear opinions on these cards to better understand the decisions in the current Standard Meta.
Per Standard Main Forum- What Belongs Here the main forum is not for deck-specific discussion. This seems closer to a deck-specific than a general meta question, so I will merge it with the Rx Aggro thread. - hoser2
Witness was still around 5 dollars. The only way to really combat Affinity was with green. Oxidize, Viridan Shaman, etc. Tooth and Nail often ran Witness, as well.
I can 100% vouch for this. As someone that likes to pre-order cards on the cheap, I came out like a bandit this time around. I bought a playset of Foil Search for Azcanta for 6.50 each. I bought my foil Hostage Taker playset for 5 dollars each. My foil Vraska's Contempts were about 4 dollars each. I just got back into Magic--after a 7 year hiatus--in the beginning of August, and I was just buying cards that I thought looked fun and weren't rotating soon. I ended up picking up a playset of foil Torrential Gearhulk for 18 dollars each, foil The Scarab Gods for 20 dollar each, foil Hazoret the Fervent for 16 dollars each, and foil Chandra, Torch of Defiance for 28 dollars each. If you look around and are vigilant when cards aren't being heavily played/pre-sales you can get quite the steals. The only card that was really impossible to do this with was Carnage Tyrant, which is funny. It's still really high and I have yet to see a single one played. Feels like a lot of wasted money there.
The SOI Lands were reprinted in the Amonkhet Deckbuilder's Toolkit. https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Amonkhet/Deck_Builder's_Toolkit
I get what you're saying, completely; but I would recommend you at least try it out for a couple games of testing. It should not be underestimated that you can also create Horses on your opponent's turn, this way. That's why I play it, and it often does what it's meant to do. Making 5/5's on both your turn and your opponent's turn can be quite a quick clock.
Also, Lay Bare the Heart was put in over Duress after testing, because it removes Carnage Tyrant, Ripjaw Raptor, The Scarab God, and Torrential Gearhulk. All of those cards can be difficult to deal with and testing has shown that LBtH is a great answer to them.
In a vacuum I agree that the cards you suggested are great, but I have tested this deck against a number of Ixalan standard decklists, and I based these changes off that testing.