I have been running 3x settle and 3x fumigate. I think I'm going to run 2/2/2 now.
You can't just randomly choose to use 2 Slaughter the strong in the deck because you think it will work with the other two wrath effects. The thing is Slaughter is not a turn 3 play, a turn 3 play is farm. Slaughter is on par with Fumigate as a turn 5 or turn 6 play.
The reason is that on turn 3 most decks won't have 4 power worth of creatures, or they will have exactly 4 power in total (2 cubs, 1 snake + 1 cub, 2 earthshaker khenra, etc...) and you will not kill anything at all.
So, the main difference that I see is that a turn 5 Fumigate will gain you some life, but it would not deal with Gods (Hazoret, etc...) but it will clean the board up of all other creatures including whirler virtuoso tokens and other creatures but it would get countered if you tap out.
A turn 5 Slaughter the Strong would deal with indestructible gods (Hazoret, etc...) but it would not clear the board of tokens, or small 2/2 creatures and it will not gain you life, but costing only 3 it means you would have mana left over to have Negate back up so it won't get countered.
Thus the 2 cards have vastly different uses, so I would suggest running main deck Fumigates since they can wipe the board clean and gain you life, you can use Settle the wreckage for Hazoret or other spells, but if you are playing against Energy and you believe they have sideboarded in Negates or other counters then you can board in Slaughter the strong and take out Fumigates.
Having said all this I pre-ordered my playset of Slaughter the strong from Ebay already, and I will also be playtesting 2-3 Baffling Ends maindeck to deal with early creatures before I hit 3 mana and can "farm" them.
The reason I'm running baffling end main deck and not in the sideboard is that I run 3 Champion of wits and 2 Farm/Market main deck also so I can discard this card to one of those cards if my opp doesn't have any creatures or only big creatures then it's still not a dead card due to the ability to discard it.
Imo, I don't think it's a choice between Baffling End and Cast Out. I think regardless of what removal you have at the 2-mana slot Cast Out is necessary for Scarab God, Hazoret, Chandra ToD, Vraska, etc.
Still hoping for Attune to go. I want Energy to go back to straight Temur since Duress is really annoying.
Scarab god is not so scary first game, the player has to still play around farm, settle and fumigate. Second game we can bring in cast out from the sideboard and other things to remove it from the game, but we also have counters main deck and other ways to deal with creatures so it's not a washout. Hazoret has to go around setle the wreckage or counter magic and even then it is not that dangerous.
I am more worried about cubs, whirler virtuoso or a lone rogue refiner keep dealing damage without the opp needing to add more creatures to the table, so if we don't want to waste a settle the wreckage on one guy we need to use farm or baffling end to force the opp to add more guys to the table for settle or fumigate.
Wait until after Monday before you commit.
If they nerf Energy it could change the options.
If they nerf Energy and RR then for sure it will change things.
All the new tribes feel like each are lacking a piece to make them as good as the top 2 right now. Without a nerf... well you know your meta go with that.
With one, things will open up a lot and different Strats will surface, also give control and bring it back strategies a chance.
Monday ban... don't have hope, but wait for it
I am already going to be testing baffling end main deck instead of cast out, since it can't hurt against creature decks to exile something turn 2 (RR and energy or mono black) and if the deck is low on creatures I can always discard it to farm/market or to champion of wits both of which I play 3 copies of main deck right now.
Right now cast out is mainly to deal with planeswalkers, but if there aren't any in my opp's main deck or if I get to counter them then cast out doesn't do much, and I don't need to use it for card draw either. Having 4 Essence Scatter and 3 Baffling End main deck makes me feel safer against being able to respond to an annoying creature turn 2, then use farm turn 3 and roll into settle the wreckage turn 4 and fumigate turn 5.
Still hoping that energy will lose either attune with aether or whirler virtuoso or both!
So, I got kind of hosed on good rares in a pre-release again, but built a fast and grindy deck to manage a 3-1 result and win myself a shiny pack of RIX. These are the other rares that I pulled :
1 Boneyard Parley - are you effin' kidding me...seriously? Would I even live long enough to cast this?
1 River's Rebuke - good card, but I am not in blue and this is not splashable.
1 Brass's Bounty - what on God's green earth am I supposed to do with this.
1 Seafloor Oracle - at least it is a creature, but I can't build around him.
1 Radiant Destiny - half my guys are pirates and half are vampires, what am I supposed to choose?
PROMO FOIL - Deeproot Elite - no thanks, I am not into merfolk.
If energy gets cut down to size on Monday by having some of its toys banned then all the other amazing cards in this Standard format can finally shine, and some decks which are really good but can't deal with energy will finally get their time in the Sun. Let's hope for the best!
How many of its toys would have to be removed to accomplish this? Would Aether Hub + Attune with Aether be enough? It would probably require both of those at minimum.
Aether hub is not a problem, attune with aether and whirler virtuoso are the cards that make the deck fast and mid rangey. Especially without whirler the deck will run out of steam and not depend on energy so much to win.
I'm not sure what they will ban but if they don't then energy will continue to rule until September.
The problem with energy decks is that they are an aggro deck, that has an amazing midgame due to Whirler Virtuoso making tokens and it runs on 3-4 colored mana to boot. That in itself is hard to replicate when the deck has access to blue mana for card draw and counters (rogue refiner, negate, etc...) it has access to red mana for burn (shock, harnessed lightning) and creatures (glorybringer, whirler) and black mana sometimes for removal (push) or duress or the scarab god. Of course, the base is green to play attune, cub, hydra, etc...
So, that is the problem with the deck it has a fast start, and it keeps up the speed without running out of cards, I played against a few energy decks and I was running out of cards faster than them even though I am playing a control deck. They also have a lot of threats and even a lone whirler virtuoso can make 2-3 tokens quickly to beat down on you.
If energy gets cut down to size on Monday by having some of its toys banned then all the other amazing cards in this Standard format can finally shine, and some decks which are really good but can't deal with energy will finally get their time in the Sun. Let's hope for the best!
Until then, it may be possible to play baffling end to get rid of a growing cub, or even a whirler virtuoso.
For those adding arch of orazca for card draw, how often do you actually expect to ascend with this deck, games are usually over by the time you reach 5-6 lands and if you already have 3 or 4 creatures out then you've probably either won or lost already. There is no time to be getting 10 permanents in play to be able to ascend so there's probably no cards with ascend that would fit into this deck.
How so? Exactly what do you plan to exile with it? Bomat Courier? Earthshaker Khenra? Another 1/1 or 2/1? That doesn't answer anything, one for one removal is not good, settle the wreckage is enough to deal with ramunap red, as is 4 copies of Essence Scatter main deck so you can counter their threats.
You can use Baffling End better against energy decks, you can use it on cub, snake, even rogue refiner if you need to.
Could have been UU and somewhat playable. But sadly it is just bad.
I'm glad it's not two blue, because it can be playable in two color decks due to only one blue in its mana cost, and it still counters any creature, even if it's a turn later than Essence Scatter, but you do get 1 mana back to use as you want so is it bad, not even close. If it was 4 to cast then it would be bad, but at 3 mana casting cost it's quite playable.
The key is that the land is not legendary, so if you have two of these guys out, you can block something then fight each other and they both die and you get two lands that make golem. If I were to play these in standard I'd play a full 4 in the deck.
Except that doesn't work. The Golem will only transform if you resolve that golem's ability, and then that golem dies that turn. So if you had two, activated one of their abilities to have one fight the other, both would die but only the one that you activated would return transformed. If you tried to activate the second in response to the first, then only one of the fight abilities would resolve, and you still only get the one land.
Ok, thanks for letting me know, you can still play 3-4 of these in a deck though, but it's good to know that only one ability will resolve so you only get one land. I'm trying to figure out what other creature this could fight with and lose to if it's not blocking something, just using the fight ability...maybe some big dino.
The key is that the land is not legendary, so if you have two of these guys out, you can block something then fight each other and they both die and you get two lands that make golem. If I were to play these in standard I'd play a full 4 in the deck.
The exile cost is steep but if you can do it and then Fumigate then he'll come back and can attack next turn and hopefully the opp won't have any creatures out.
The problem is you have to use the ability when you attack with him... which means spending mana on your turn during attack phase to fill your hand.
That's after sticking him and surviving instants... so maybe you're waiting until 8 or 9 mana just to cast the guy safely. Seems if you have enough draw in the deck already he's a questionable wincon.
I like the Dino better as a one of incase you're against control.
Honestly pirates, vamps, and merfolk look low to the ground. If any or all of them end up happening control will have a very hard time inside turn 5... and Merfolk/pirates will likely have counter magic on hand.
This set is not looking to fix much. Moment of Craving looks to be the best tech.
I'd probably rather defend Zatalpa or Nez over Azor but neither of them add to your gameplan. Tetzimoc, Primal Death and Esper would be a better bet I think as you can mark as a mana flush and gives you a win con plus a sweeper.
You are right I honestly did not see that Azor had to attack to be able to get his effect. That sucks jaja. I honestly don't like the others because they are so expensive. Probably yhe black dino might have a chance if you go the esper route. I guess energy will still be the best deck without a fight again.
As I mentioned in my review of the few cards good for this deck that are in Rivals, of course, Azor is a possible choice for this deck...but Nezahal is a much better choice for this control deck, either main deck or sideboard. I was one of the people who played Sphinx of the final word main deck before it rotated and due to it I won almost all first games against other control decks, so I will be playing this Dino main deck as well.
So, the Rivals of Ixalan spoiler is out and frankly it doesn't give us too many cards in White or Blue or artifacts and lands which is good because I don't have to spend more money on cards.
Here's what I think are some possible cards to include in this deck or sideboard:
White zetalpa, primal dawn - the only white card that can maybe fit in this deck, I was excited that this dino has indestructible but it just doesn't affect the board enough when it comes into play, and when you attack you can hit for 8 damage but unless you can pump it up that's as much as you'll do on turn 9 or turn 10 which is not that exciting and it is still gone to exile effects and cast out so I'm not going to play this in the deck probably.
Blue crafty cutpurse= I like this card in the sideboard against decks that make a lot of treasure tokens, and the scarab god as well as GPG decks, they will exile a creature and try to make a token and you can drop this, steal their token and get a 2/2 guy. It should be very good against the scarab god since they only make 1 token a turn and if you get that it can swing the game in your favor. I will be playing a couple of these in the sideboard probably.
Flood of recollection- return a countered approach, or a counter spell or a glimmer of genius, fumigate, etc... to my hand in the late game is good. There may be a way to fit 1 of this maindeck.
horns***gle- this is a good sideboard card against creature heavy decks, and being able to get a treasure token is not that bad to speed you up. Not sure yet if I want to play 1 or 2 of these in the sideboard.
induced amnesia- I like this card because if you have just cast approach and you still have 3-4 cards in hand, the next turn you can draw a card and maybe have 5 cards in hand, you can cast this and draw 5 extra cards meaning you may be able to draw another approach but basically it will speed up your chance to draw approach after casting it the first time. I'm not sure how good this is main deck, and if there's a chance to fit 1 or 2 of these instead of other card draw cards.
Nezahal, primal tide- this is my favorite of all the cards in this set, and I will fit 1 in the main deck and maybe a second one in the sideboard against decks with counters, including temur energy and friends. I think it's a very strong card, and definitely, the best card to be in our deck even though it's basically a 7/7 for seven mana but it's other abilities especially the draw ability is really strong.
Multicolor
Azor, the lawbringer- this is kinda questionable, it's good that it's a 6 to cast 6/6 flyer that stop the opp from trying to deal with it by using spells on their turn, the ability to gain life and draw cards is strong, but not sure you want to tap out for that since you need 3 mana plus X so at most you'll be gaining 2-3 life and drawing 2-3 cards but you'd be tapped out which usually you don't want to do. I see this as a maybe sideboard card, but I don't see how this would fit main deck.
Land
arch of orazca- this may work as a one of in the deck, I'm not sure how fast we can ascend in this deck, we will have 7-8 lands usually by the time we win, and maybe a cast out or two out but that's stretching it, we just don't run enough permanents besides lands to reach 10 of them by turn 7-8 consistently, it will have to be tested but I guess 1 in the main deck can't hurt.
So that's my opinion on what cards can be included, I've already decided to buy Nezahal, and play 1 or maybe even 2 main deck, and also 1 arch of orazca, but the other cards will need to be play tested to see if they work out as I think they should.
So, I know everyone is still on the mono-red version of this deck, which I started to play way back in June of last year and I innovated and then got bored of winning so fast so I went back to another deck. Since I reached the optimal mono red build I decided to go for a two-color build now which is based on breaking dowsing dagger.
As I posted above due to the dagger making tokens with defender the best way to get over them is to fly over or have creatures with menace. I took the 3 color list to my local FNM last week and I got my ass handed to me 1-2 out of three rounds. Here's what happened and also the new version of this deck which is 2 colors right now.
Round 1 I got paired up against Ramunap Red, go figure, and he beat me in 2 games but the main reason was that he had Abrade both games to kill my dowsing dagger before I could equip it and attack with a creature, and also he got Hazoret out both games while I didn't get my Hazoret out at all. What I did learn is that I can beat Ramunap Red with my deck but I just need lower to the ground creatures and maybe more burn, and of course my opp not drawing better than me would be good too.
Round 2 I faced a G/W cats deck which I beat 2-0 without much difficulty, he had nothing to deal with flyers, he managed to Cast Out my Hazoret but the fliers beat him down. And kinjalli's sunwing was an MVP in this match and all the games he came out really, he's a sleeper hit if you can get him out since he shuts down haste creatures and also makes newly cast creature not able to block on my turn.
Round 3 I had to playing against a 4 Color energy build, G/R/U/B which rain Harnessed Lightning, Rogue Refiner and of course the Scarab God which beat me 2-0 mostly because of the amount of removal he had, and he got scarab god out turn 5-6 each game. I also didn't draw even 1 dowsing dagger both games which would've made the match up much more easier for me, he did manage to zombify 2 of my kinjalli's sunwing with the scarab god in the second game and fly over to kill me with them, but I brought him close to death with my sky terrors.
So, lessons I've learned are that sky terror is awesome if you can get it turn 2, it's basically unblockable due to flying and menace so they have to kill it with burn or other ways. If you get 2 of these out then you can put the opp on a short clock. The other card that I've mentioned is kinjalli's sunwing which is also awesome, and it's a must kill for the opp within a couple of turns of it coming out, otherwise, they will be short a blocker every turn. I have also noticed that I don't need black in the deck so the deck will run more smoothly with just W/R and that dowsing dagger never got to flip in all the games that I played, if it did then I'd probably dump my whole hand the next turn and shortly win the game, but the 2 opp's that did see it cast managed to get rid of it very fast.
Here's the new version of the deck, without Rivals cards, I'll take a look at the spoiler and figure out what fits in the deck this week.
I am still working on the sideboard, I am a huge fan of Hour of Devastation since it deals with the scarab god for one turn and any tokens that he made, it can also kill Chandras and opposing hazorets or other gods if you need to. Also, against fast decks sweltering suns can work, since I can just have 1 creature out and if the opp has 2 or 3 out then I can kill everything. Of course Cast out and Forsake the worldly is to deal with enchantments or artifacts that I need to deal with, Abrade is the same and also more burn as is the one repeating barrage.
I will check out the Rivals spoiler and see if there's any new Dinosaurs or other cards I can add to this deck. If you want to take a chance on a non monored aggro deck without Ramunap ruins then you can give this a try and it may surprise you. I would love to have blood sun in the sideboard of this deck but it's kind of expensive on Ebay right now so I'll have to wait on that.
You can't just randomly choose to use 2 Slaughter the strong in the deck because you think it will work with the other two wrath effects. The thing is Slaughter is not a turn 3 play, a turn 3 play is farm. Slaughter is on par with Fumigate as a turn 5 or turn 6 play.
The reason is that on turn 3 most decks won't have 4 power worth of creatures, or they will have exactly 4 power in total (2 cubs, 1 snake + 1 cub, 2 earthshaker khenra, etc...) and you will not kill anything at all.
So, the main difference that I see is that a turn 5 Fumigate will gain you some life, but it would not deal with Gods (Hazoret, etc...) but it will clean the board up of all other creatures including whirler virtuoso tokens and other creatures but it would get countered if you tap out.
A turn 5 Slaughter the Strong would deal with indestructible gods (Hazoret, etc...) but it would not clear the board of tokens, or small 2/2 creatures and it will not gain you life, but costing only 3 it means you would have mana left over to have Negate back up so it won't get countered.
Thus the 2 cards have vastly different uses, so I would suggest running main deck Fumigates since they can wipe the board clean and gain you life, you can use Settle the wreckage for Hazoret or other spells, but if you are playing against Energy and you believe they have sideboarded in Negates or other counters then you can board in Slaughter the strong and take out Fumigates.
Having said all this I pre-ordered my playset of Slaughter the strong from Ebay already, and I will also be playtesting 2-3 Baffling Ends maindeck to deal with early creatures before I hit 3 mana and can "farm" them.
The reason I'm running baffling end main deck and not in the sideboard is that I run 3 Champion of wits and 2 Farm/Market main deck also so I can discard this card to one of those cards if my opp doesn't have any creatures or only big creatures then it's still not a dead card due to the ability to discard it.
Scarab god is not so scary first game, the player has to still play around farm, settle and fumigate. Second game we can bring in cast out from the sideboard and other things to remove it from the game, but we also have counters main deck and other ways to deal with creatures so it's not a washout. Hazoret has to go around setle the wreckage or counter magic and even then it is not that dangerous.
I am more worried about cubs, whirler virtuoso or a lone rogue refiner keep dealing damage without the opp needing to add more creatures to the table, so if we don't want to waste a settle the wreckage on one guy we need to use farm or baffling end to force the opp to add more guys to the table for settle or fumigate.
I am already going to be testing baffling end main deck instead of cast out, since it can't hurt against creature decks to exile something turn 2 (RR and energy or mono black) and if the deck is low on creatures I can always discard it to farm/market or to champion of wits both of which I play 3 copies of main deck right now.
Right now cast out is mainly to deal with planeswalkers, but if there aren't any in my opp's main deck or if I get to counter them then cast out doesn't do much, and I don't need to use it for card draw either. Having 4 Essence Scatter and 3 Baffling End main deck makes me feel safer against being able to respond to an annoying creature turn 2, then use farm turn 3 and roll into settle the wreckage turn 4 and fumigate turn 5.
Still hoping that energy will lose either attune with aether or whirler virtuoso or both!
So, I got kind of hosed on good rares in a pre-release again, but built a fast and grindy deck to manage a 3-1 result and win myself a shiny pack of RIX. These are the other rares that I pulled :
1 Boneyard Parley - are you effin' kidding me...seriously? Would I even live long enough to cast this?
1 River's Rebuke - good card, but I am not in blue and this is not splashable.
1 Brass's Bounty - what on God's green earth am I supposed to do with this.
1 Seafloor Oracle - at least it is a creature, but I can't build around him.
1 Radiant Destiny - half my guys are pirates and half are vampires, what am I supposed to choose?
PROMO FOIL - Deeproot Elite - no thanks, I am not into merfolk.
This is the pile that managed the 3-1 record:
1 Vona, Butcher of Magan (foil)
1 Baffling End
1 Luminous Bonds
1 Ixalan's Binding
1 Pious Interdiction
1 Skyblade of the legion
2 Legion Conquistador
1 Martyr of dusk
1 Sun Sentinel
1 Sanguine Glorifier
1 Famished Paladin
1 Squire's devotion
1 Contract killing
1 Dire Fleet Hoarder
1 Queen's Agent
1 Arterial Flow (foil)
1 Dire Fleet poisoner
1 Dusk Charger
1 Forerunner of the coalition
1 Fathom Fleet boarder
1 Grasping Scoundrel
1 Dinosaur Hunter
1 Moment of Craving
7 plains
1 evolving wilds
Let me know how your pre-release go, did you strike the jackpot in your packs or did you have to do it the hard way like me?
Aether hub is not a problem, attune with aether and whirler virtuoso are the cards that make the deck fast and mid rangey. Especially without whirler the deck will run out of steam and not depend on energy so much to win.
I'm not sure what they will ban but if they don't then energy will continue to rule until September.
So, that is the problem with the deck it has a fast start, and it keeps up the speed without running out of cards, I played against a few energy decks and I was running out of cards faster than them even though I am playing a control deck. They also have a lot of threats and even a lone whirler virtuoso can make 2-3 tokens quickly to beat down on you.
If energy gets cut down to size on Monday by having some of its toys banned then all the other amazing cards in this Standard format can finally shine, and some decks which are really good but can't deal with energy will finally get their time in the Sun. Let's hope for the best!
Until then, it may be possible to play baffling end to get rid of a growing cub, or even a whirler virtuoso.
How so? Exactly what do you plan to exile with it? Bomat Courier? Earthshaker Khenra? Another 1/1 or 2/1? That doesn't answer anything, one for one removal is not good, settle the wreckage is enough to deal with ramunap red, as is 4 copies of Essence Scatter main deck so you can counter their threats.
You can use Baffling End better against energy decks, you can use it on cub, snake, even rogue refiner if you need to.
I'm glad it's not two blue, because it can be playable in two color decks due to only one blue in its mana cost, and it still counters any creature, even if it's a turn later than Essence Scatter, but you do get 1 mana back to use as you want so is it bad, not even close. If it was 4 to cast then it would be bad, but at 3 mana casting cost it's quite playable.
Ok, thanks for letting me know, you can still play 3-4 of these in a deck though, but it's good to know that only one ability will resolve so you only get one land. I'm trying to figure out what other creature this could fight with and lose to if it's not blocking something, just using the fight ability...maybe some big dino.
As I mentioned in my review of the few cards good for this deck that are in Rivals, of course, Azor is a possible choice for this deck...but Nezahal is a much better choice for this control deck, either main deck or sideboard. I was one of the people who played Sphinx of the final word main deck before it rotated and due to it I won almost all first games against other control decks, so I will be playing this Dino main deck as well.
Here's what I think are some possible cards to include in this deck or sideboard:
White
zetalpa, primal dawn - the only white card that can maybe fit in this deck, I was excited that this dino has indestructible but it just doesn't affect the board enough when it comes into play, and when you attack you can hit for 8 damage but unless you can pump it up that's as much as you'll do on turn 9 or turn 10 which is not that exciting and it is still gone to exile effects and cast out so I'm not going to play this in the deck probably.
Blue
crafty cutpurse= I like this card in the sideboard against decks that make a lot of treasure tokens, and the scarab god as well as GPG decks, they will exile a creature and try to make a token and you can drop this, steal their token and get a 2/2 guy. It should be very good against the scarab god since they only make 1 token a turn and if you get that it can swing the game in your favor. I will be playing a couple of these in the sideboard probably.
Flood of recollection- return a countered approach, or a counter spell or a glimmer of genius, fumigate, etc... to my hand in the late game is good. There may be a way to fit 1 of this maindeck.
horns***gle- this is a good sideboard card against creature heavy decks, and being able to get a treasure token is not that bad to speed you up. Not sure yet if I want to play 1 or 2 of these in the sideboard.
induced amnesia- I like this card because if you have just cast approach and you still have 3-4 cards in hand, the next turn you can draw a card and maybe have 5 cards in hand, you can cast this and draw 5 extra cards meaning you may be able to draw another approach but basically it will speed up your chance to draw approach after casting it the first time. I'm not sure how good this is main deck, and if there's a chance to fit 1 or 2 of these instead of other card draw cards.
Nezahal, primal tide- this is my favorite of all the cards in this set, and I will fit 1 in the main deck and maybe a second one in the sideboard against decks with counters, including temur energy and friends. I think it's a very strong card, and definitely, the best card to be in our deck even though it's basically a 7/7 for seven mana but it's other abilities especially the draw ability is really strong.
Multicolor
Azor, the lawbringer- this is kinda questionable, it's good that it's a 6 to cast 6/6 flyer that stop the opp from trying to deal with it by using spells on their turn, the ability to gain life and draw cards is strong, but not sure you want to tap out for that since you need 3 mana plus X so at most you'll be gaining 2-3 life and drawing 2-3 cards but you'd be tapped out which usually you don't want to do. I see this as a maybe sideboard card, but I don't see how this would fit main deck.
Land
arch of orazca- this may work as a one of in the deck, I'm not sure how fast we can ascend in this deck, we will have 7-8 lands usually by the time we win, and maybe a cast out or two out but that's stretching it, we just don't run enough permanents besides lands to reach 10 of them by turn 7-8 consistently, it will have to be tested but I guess 1 in the main deck can't hurt.
So that's my opinion on what cards can be included, I've already decided to buy Nezahal, and play 1 or maybe even 2 main deck, and also 1 arch of orazca, but the other cards will need to be play tested to see if they work out as I think they should.
As I posted above due to the dagger making tokens with defender the best way to get over them is to fly over or have creatures with menace. I took the 3 color list to my local FNM last week and I got my ass handed to me 1-2 out of three rounds. Here's what happened and also the new version of this deck which is 2 colors right now.
Round 1 I got paired up against Ramunap Red, go figure, and he beat me in 2 games but the main reason was that he had Abrade both games to kill my dowsing dagger before I could equip it and attack with a creature, and also he got Hazoret out both games while I didn't get my Hazoret out at all. What I did learn is that I can beat Ramunap Red with my deck but I just need lower to the ground creatures and maybe more burn, and of course my opp not drawing better than me would be good too.
Round 2 I faced a G/W cats deck which I beat 2-0 without much difficulty, he had nothing to deal with flyers, he managed to Cast Out my Hazoret but the fliers beat him down. And kinjalli's sunwing was an MVP in this match and all the games he came out really, he's a sleeper hit if you can get him out since he shuts down haste creatures and also makes newly cast creature not able to block on my turn.
Round 3 I had to playing against a 4 Color energy build, G/R/U/B which rain Harnessed Lightning, Rogue Refiner and of course the Scarab God which beat me 2-0 mostly because of the amount of removal he had, and he got scarab god out turn 5-6 each game. I also didn't draw even 1 dowsing dagger both games which would've made the match up much more easier for me, he did manage to zombify 2 of my kinjalli's sunwing with the scarab god in the second game and fly over to kill me with them, but I brought him close to death with my sky terrors.
So, lessons I've learned are that sky terror is awesome if you can get it turn 2, it's basically unblockable due to flying and menace so they have to kill it with burn or other ways. If you get 2 of these out then you can put the opp on a short clock. The other card that I've mentioned is kinjalli's sunwing which is also awesome, and it's a must kill for the opp within a couple of turns of it coming out, otherwise, they will be short a blocker every turn. I have also noticed that I don't need black in the deck so the deck will run more smoothly with just W/R and that dowsing dagger never got to flip in all the games that I played, if it did then I'd probably dump my whole hand the next turn and shortly win the game, but the 2 opp's that did see it cast managed to get rid of it very fast.
Here's the new version of the deck, without Rivals cards, I'll take a look at the spoiler and figure out what fits in the deck this week.
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Aether Hub
2 Stone Quarry
6 Plains
7 Mountains
Artifacts (6)
4 Dowsing Dagger
2 Aethersphere Harvester
Spells (7)
4 Magma Spray
3 Cut // Ribbons
Planeswalker (1)
1 Huatli, Warrior Poet
Creatures (24)
3 Hazoret the Fervent
2 Burning Sun's Avatar
2 Wakening Sun's Avatar
2 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Duskborne Skymarcher
3 Aether Chaser
4 Kinjalli's Sunwing
4 Sky Terror
2 God-pharaoh's Gift
1 Captivating Crew
1 Repeating Barrage
2 Sweltering Suns
2 Hour of Devastation
2 Abrade
2 Cast Out
2 Forsake the worldly
I am still working on the sideboard, I am a huge fan of Hour of Devastation since it deals with the scarab god for one turn and any tokens that he made, it can also kill Chandras and opposing hazorets or other gods if you need to. Also, against fast decks sweltering suns can work, since I can just have 1 creature out and if the opp has 2 or 3 out then I can kill everything. Of course Cast out and Forsake the worldly is to deal with enchantments or artifacts that I need to deal with, Abrade is the same and also more burn as is the one repeating barrage.
I will check out the Rivals spoiler and see if there's any new Dinosaurs or other cards I can add to this deck. If you want to take a chance on a non monored aggro deck without Ramunap ruins then you can give this a try and it may surprise you. I would love to have blood sun in the sideboard of this deck but it's kind of expensive on Ebay right now so I'll have to wait on that.
Let me know what you think about this deck!