Death and Taxes got an obscene boost in power, what with Sanctum Prelate and Recruiter of the Guard (both of which are $15 cards minimum). I don't know if that bodes ill for us or not.
Between 1 or 2 Grim Lavamancer, does it ultimately come down to a meta call? There's not many "unfair" decks in my meta (e.g. Reanimator, Show and Tell) but there are at least two (maybe three?) Manaless Dredge decks, some Junk midrange deck, and a Merfolk deck. Even when I had this deck in Modern I ultimately ended up running two Lavamancers because it felt right. I've seen some people run 0 copies in the 75. I'm interested to see the arguments for and against it.
Straight up, even if splashing were viable, I love monored Burn way too much to pollute it with other colors. I wish Flame Rift was stronger but now that the creaturebase has upgraded from 4 Guide and 4 Lavamancer there's no real reason to run it. Last time I saw it was in the SCG Highlight video from when Patrick Sullivan was still on the scene.
SB: 1 Blightsteel Colossus
SB: 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
SB: 2 Dread Return
SB: 2 Firestorm
SB: 1 Ashen Rider
SB: 4 Serenity
SB: 4 Force of Will
Thank you in advance,
Ley
Hey Ley!
First things first, remove Blightsteel from your list. When it drops into your graveyard from the library, you won't have the chance to activate Dread Return and reanimate it because the shuffle effect will put it back into your library (even if Dread Return was Instant speed). So before anything else, definitely find a new target for Dread Return. I recommend Iona or FKZ.
What kind of decks are you expecting to see? Definitely count on Miracles.
Well, as it turns out, I got too sick to go to the Open in Orlando this weekend. I didn't have my LEDs with me either, so my list was going to run +3 Tireless Tribe and +1 Golgari Thug. I honestly think it would have been fine even without LEDs, but I didn't get the chance to go, so... RIP the dream, I guess. :/
Worse still, Regionals this season is all Standard. There's no big Legacy tournaments close to me for the rest of the year. Double Hexproof RIP the dream.
Edit:
Virtually no sideboard graveyard hate in any of the top 16 decks (excluding Death and Taxes). Are people just asking to get BTFO by Dredge players? Is that what they want?
So, this might seem a little bit silly, but I want to make sure I'm reading the rules right.
Let's say I have a board with Deepfathom Skulker, Thought-Knot Seer, and a Drowner of Hope. I go to combat, alpha strike with all three, the opponent says no blocks, and combat damage is taken. Deepfathom Skulker triggers. Do I draw 3 cards or do I draw 1 card? Furthermore, are there three triggers that go on the stack or is it one trigger that resolves to say "Draw three cards"?
FYI, Dredge took down a large-ish Legacy tournament in Italy. 119 players. The pilot went with a main deck Iona + 2x Dread Return plan and a heavier land count (with a Darkblast and probably so he can cast the Abrupt Decays out of the SB without needing Lotus Petals, saving some spots in the SB).
The Miracles player he faced in the finals had, in his sideboard, 1 Rest in Peace, 1 Containment Priest, and 1 Surgical Extraction. Looks like he wasn't expecting to see a lot of Dredge at the tournament. I don't see why he sideboarded the Street Wraithand the Putrid Imp, but somehow he made it work because he won. I'd love to watch this deck perform on camera.
So there's a SCG Classic event coming up in Orlando, FL, on the weekend of September 17-18. I was planning on bringing Dredge but I may have to borrow a whole playset of LEDs (sad that I don't have them yet, I know). I'm hoping to make some friends at my new LGS and maybe I'll manage to borrow them in order to play. If I can't, I'll have to run Legacy Burn instead.
I did some testing and in the end I decided to drop Iona from the main, max out on LEDs, and once I get my 4th Careful Study in the mail I'll be swapping it out with one copy of Breakthrough. I goldfished for about three to four hours last night and it played really well; the deck was far more streamlined without the Iona package and I found myself relying more on Ichorids and Zombie tokens.
So, surprise! Now I'm actually playing a focused deck. And yes, it always feels good to hit FKZ.
Also, I wanted to ask about sideboarding. It's easy to know what comes into a deck, but how does one choose what comes out of a deck? Against the big decks like Miracles, Delver, Storm, and Reanimator I'm never sure what I should drop from the main in order to bring in the sideboard. I've noticed that a lot of primers on this website lack this critical information, e.g., what to cut in order to make room. LED immediately comes to mind as less powerful on the draw in game 2.
I know I'm posting a lot but I feel this is important to have in our primer, especially for new players when they come to learn about the deck.
It is a joke, but no one's laughing.
Hey Ley!
First things first, remove Blightsteel from your list. When it drops into your graveyard from the library, you won't have the chance to activate Dread Return and reanimate it because the shuffle effect will put it back into your library (even if Dread Return was Instant speed). So before anything else, definitely find a new target for Dread Return. I recommend Iona or FKZ.
What kind of decks are you expecting to see? Definitely count on Miracles.
Worse still, Regionals this season is all Standard. There's no big Legacy tournaments close to me for the rest of the year. Double Hexproof RIP the dream.
Edit:
Virtually no sideboard graveyard hate in any of the top 16 decks (excluding Death and Taxes). Are people just asking to get BTFO by Dredge players? Is that what they want?
Edit:
Forget it, here's my decklist. Please give me some suggestions.
4 Goblin Guide
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
2 Grim Lavamancer
Spells
4 Fireblast
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Price of Progress
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
2 Sulfuric Vortex
Lands
9 Mountain
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Barbarian Ring
4 Searing Blaze
3 Exquisite Firecraft
3 Smash to Smithereens
2 Leyline of Punishment
2 Vexing Shusher
1 Mindbreak Trap
Kaladesh's story is going to kill my soul.
Let's say I have a board with Deepfathom Skulker, Thought-Knot Seer, and a Drowner of Hope. I go to combat, alpha strike with all three, the opponent says no blocks, and combat damage is taken. Deepfathom Skulker triggers. Do I draw 3 cards or do I draw 1 card? Furthermore, are there three triggers that go on the stack or is it one trigger that resolves to say "Draw three cards"?
The Miracles player he faced in the finals had, in his sideboard, 1 Rest in Peace, 1 Containment Priest, and 1 Surgical Extraction. Looks like he wasn't expecting to see a lot of Dredge at the tournament. I don't see why he sideboarded the Street Wraith and the Putrid Imp, but somehow he made it work because he won. I'd love to watch this deck perform on camera.
So, surprise! Now I'm actually playing a focused deck. And yes, it always feels good to hit FKZ.
Also, I wanted to ask about sideboarding. It's easy to know what comes into a deck, but how does one choose what comes out of a deck? Against the big decks like Miracles, Delver, Storm, and Reanimator I'm never sure what I should drop from the main in order to bring in the sideboard. I've noticed that a lot of primers on this website lack this critical information, e.g., what to cut in order to make room. LED immediately comes to mind as less powerful on the draw in game 2.
I know I'm posting a lot but I feel this is important to have in our primer, especially for new players when they come to learn about the deck.