I think the best that we can do to fill out those last 4 slots is 2 Shard Volley and (Shudders) 2 Lightning Strike. The argument for Lightning Strike is that if you are playing a mono-red deck where you aren't taking damage from your shocklands, then Lightning Strike looks a little bit like Lightning Helix if you squint your eyes just right. [Quote]Ultimately though, I think that if I'm having to put copies of Lightning Strike in my Modern Burn deck just to make it work then something has gone horribly wrong.
Still, budget red deck will get a significant boost from the printing of Skewer the critics. Until we get some better thing(s) to fully go mono red competitively, I will probably splash green for enchantment removal (Because my hatred for Leyline of sanctity is eternal). Closest to monored I'll get for now is probably something like this:
Phew. It's been a while since I made a sideboard without white or black cards...we're kinda low on interesting options in red/colorless, especially when skullcrack is already in the main. And while green offers Destructive revelry and atarka's command, it really doesn't offer much more.
What about a few Gut Shot to round out the mono red list? It was suggested in a linked list a few pages back as a card to help with explosive openings involving Swiftspear and Skewer the Critics. It’s weak in burn overall, but does seem to provide unexpected power. Outside of mono red there are better options.
I see where you're coming from and I also saw that list (thread's been very busy had a lot of catching up reading to do), but gosh... even in the good scenarios that's just 2 damage for a card. Granted with no mana, but still every other scenario it's just one damage. I don't thinke we'll run into a lot of scenario where we just can't cast Skewer the critics.
ARGHH!!! We are this close to having an actually playable mono-red list it's not even funny! Like, the first 56 or so cards write themselves, but I just can't figure out what else to play without splashing any color(s).
This is probably crazy, but...
Is it possible that a Mardu version of the deck at 19 lands wants a 1 of Mana Confluence in place of a shockland? I haven't built a 3 color mana base for this deck ever. Just thinking that a mana confluence would allow us to keep more 1 and 2 land hands without the need to mulligan. Assuming we are using the shockland untapped, that is equal to 2 turns of use vs. mana confluence. If it's only a 1 of, we can save it for our last land in hand when need be. It could help in some fringe situations where you need to cast 2 bump in the nights in the same turn, or boros charm plus path to exile.
I'm sure there are some math wizards out there who could help figure out if this helps with our mulligans and gameplay. Haven't tested this. Considering the deck should become faster with the addition of Skewer the Critics, could this land be more helpful and less painful than it looks?
If I were to go for a rainbow land in my manabase, I would personally go for Gemstone mine. The downside is there, but there's a lot of games where I was able to deal with it and no life loss is absolutely fantastic when racing. with that being said, It cannot be fetched and I Still would not recommend it over just running more shocklands unless you're trying to go four colors.
Lingering Souls is the best token generator. Spectral Procession is probably next. Bitterblossom and Raise the Alarm are both good; one or the other is nearly always played and a mix is fine too. Start is a mediocre token generator at best but it has a mediocre removal spell in Finish attached to it so it seems some play as a one or two-of.
Auriok Champion is not a bad card but it has fallen out of favor lately. Sorin, Solemn Visitor and Gideon, Ally of Zendikar are the only plainswalkers that see frequent play. Sorin, Lord of Innistrad gets a mention and a try-out now and then, but isn't generally regarded as worthwhile. Elspeth, Knight-Errant is not awful and Elspeth Tirel was once regarded as the premier PW for the deck but has fallen out of use entirely. Modern is just too fast now for five-mana cards in decks without acceleration.
Windbrisk Heights is not worth playing in my view; I ran it for a long time and it usually bit me in the butt and I don't think it ever really accomplished anything. If you want to try one, go for it.
Most lists have run only the four Intangible Virtues as dedicated anthems for a good long while now. There are other, anthem-like effects available and there are just too many other needs for the deck. More anthems means an more aggro approach and that is just not what the deck is good at. It's solidly mid-range and needs to grind.
I was actually going to respond, but you actually lined up what I was going to say pretty much perfectly. It's actually kind of spooky
All the list that have been posted lately have zero (0) Spectral procession, with the exception of Voipallo's list a couple post ago. Guess it's time for me to give Raise the alarm and Start // Finish a fair try. With the biggest color restricter (AKA Spectral) out, what's stopping anyone from splashing a third color in the deck?
I'm no sure if the added disruption of Smallpox is actually enough to off-set this. Our combo matchups are already pretty unfavored. By slowing the deck down even more, those will probably become even more proplematic.
The thing with smallpox is that it also gets rid of a land, which can definitely put a dent in some decks. It's also non-targeting removal for those pesky bogles and we'll usually cast it when we have no creature, and sometime discard cards like Lingering souls or Start // Finish. I never tested Smallpox in BW token, but it's always in the back of my mind when I tinker with the deck. If I had a playset of Flagstones of trokair for the dream play, I'd probably give it a try.
(the dream play being: cast Smallpox; sac Flagstone fetching a plain/Godless shrine; discard souls and sacrifice no creature. Basically losing one + half a card while the opponent lose a creature, a land and a card, AKA 3 cards.)
I think a comparison to browbeat is fair. Let me point out that Risk factor is obviously better than browbeat for two reasons: It's an instant and it has Jump-start. The one less damage is a downside, but it's easy to overlook when you can potentially cast the spell twice. It's a potential 8 dmg spell and even more depending on what you draw if your opponent lets you draw, which he probably will considering the deck we want to play it in is burn.
However, "Potential" imply a lot of things going your way (AKA your opponent making bad choice) and Risk factor suffer the same problem browbeat does in this sense: if your opponent lets you draw the cards (which he probably will), we basically wasted a turn doing no damage or way less damage than we could have done. Don't forget that three mana is a lot to ask of burn. There are games where we don't even see the third land and assuming you'll have a fourth land out of your draw is not wise (Hell I'm stuck at one mana some games, but then again I'm at 18 lands :P). Not to mention you'll cast it during your turn if you want to drop a land for a potential burn spell, and that's assuming the burn spell(s) you draw are 1 CMC. We also have to assume that any card we discard for the jump-start has to be a land, for any other discard is a mistake.
We also assume that the max potential of the card is achieved when it's been casted twice, and that's TWO turn / SIX mana that is not spent on burning your opponent.
another thing: assuming a scenario where we have ten card drawn by turn 4, three are lands and six are 1-CMC, 3-DMG burn spells and one is risk factor. off course, all the burn spells have been casted. Opponnent is still at 2 life. Now I have to cast risk factor and it has to draw me both a land and another 1-CMC 3 dmg burn spell. if the burn spell(s) I draw are 2 CMC or I don't draw a land, I have to wait around doing nothing until turn 5 arrives, which is an additional turn my opponent could win. If Risk factor had been ANY other burn spell, this game would already be over.
There's a reason we didn't play, or stopped playing Browbeat in the first place: three mana for potentially no damage just to secure our next few turns is not something we want in burn when in most scenario where Browbeat can be cast, just another burn spell can do the trick and actually seal the game. seven is the magic number of burn spell you usually need to kill someone, and if one of those spell is replaced by a Browbeat or a Risk factor, we basically slow oursleves down by one turn. Also, I cannot imagine a scenario where I both cast and Jump-start Risk factor without being very behind in the game.
As much as I like the card, I'm siding with elconquistador1985 on this one.
SO. As a big fan of Rakdos/FakeJund burn, I do really think Assassin's trophy has a valuable place in our sideboard. As a four-of it allows ut to run fewer (if any at all) of the "necessary" sideboards cards like Destructive revelry while filling the role of Path to exile (Without exiling), something the closest we had until now was Fatal Push and go for the Throat. I mean, that's CRAZY powerful and running it take the place of so many card we'd run. The only downside I can see is that GB ask a lot of our manabase has we still want every source of mana to still be able to produce R. dropping this turn 2 means fetching two shocklands, getting lucky with the fastlands or running tri-color/rainbow lands like mana confluence or gemstone mine.
I know the single basic Swamp might be controversial, but at this point I have twelve maindeck sources of Burn that require black and only four maindeck sources that require exactly two red. In addition, much of the land hate in Modern lets me search for a basic and put it into play. This prevents me from being shut off of black and also essentially negates Blood Moon for me. I do believe it's worth testing specifically for this list.
I did test a list with the twelve black card you're running with no swamp and I did feel like a swamp could be something I'd want, but in the end you really do need red more. The last thing you want if you're stuck at one land is to be stuck on a nonred one. I'd say up the blood crypt + Fetch ratio and/or start running blackcleave cliffs or Sulfurous springs instead.
So, with the new B/G cards spoiled so far, people are thinking Jund and such are on their way back. How would that set us in the meta? Seems like it would be good for us.
I'm actually gonna try to splash green again for this. It's just too good of a removal to not at least test. Assassin's trophy can even deal with lands (AKA Tron). This coupled with Abrupt decay and Maelstrom pulse makes for an awesome removal package. There's also Gavony Township which we can run instead of Ghost quarter or field of ruin now that Assassin's trophy is a thing. all of this makes for a very decent card lineup for green.
-- Spectral procession:
+ Produce three tokens at once for three mana (Best mana to token ratio)
+ Tokens have evasion (flying)
+ Part of the legendary dream play of "T1: Discard/Disruption ;T2: Intangible virtue ;T3: Spectral Procession; T4: Sorin, Solemn Visitor"
- Sorcery speed
- Very mana intensive. WWW mean we can't stray from being mainly white in our manabase and we have to limit our nonwhite sources (Ghost quarters, swamps, Vault of the archangel etc)
Spectral procession is better if you want your creature attacking to matter. It's the quickest way to put lots of tokens on the field at once.
-- Start // finish:
+ Instant speed
+ Not mana restrictive at all. If you get to three mana, you can cast it.
+ The aftermath effect is additionnal removal at a cost we can usually pay (sacrifice a creature)
+ Not totally lost if discarded
- Token don't have evasion (But they have vigilance (Have a secret +))
- Only two tokens
- Is an overcosted Raise the alarm if Finish is not useful in the match-up (AKA Combo, protection black, hexproff, grave hate, etc.)
Start // finish is better if you can go for the long game and the "Finish" part become relevant. Not the best token producer, but it makes up by being pretty versatile.
Both have the + of costing only 3 mana and being 6 CMC, which mean they can dodge Inquisition of kozilek
Oh and why is noone playing Zealous Persecution. I play it as a one-off to randomly catch Hierarch, Bird, Bob, Steel Overseer, Thalia as well as her Lieutenant...so far I never felt unhappy whenever I cast it and it even won me a couple of games by messing with opponents math.
I run 0 to 2 ZP depending on my mood/assessment of the meta, usually one main and one in the side. I really like it against storm, affinity, humans and elves, but those deck are actually pretty rare in my meta. Burn, tron, jund and jeskai control are more of a thing where I live and ZP is not that great against those.
Also, Tidehollow sculler is not a bad card, but it goes a little bit against the "don't turn removal on" gameplan we have. It can still be pretty good against combo.
I have yet to try Worship one day, but bitterblossom just doesn't interact well with it.
I'm really bugged by the fact that a lot of decklist I see posted here run less, if any spectral procession at all, often replacing it by Start // finish. How/why do you guys do it? Turn 3 Spectral into beat face has won me so many games it's hard to think about a list not running at least three, let alone none at all.
Now I'm not bashing Start // finish or anyone running it. I run 1/2 myself from time to time, but it's always alongside my playset of spectral and I really don't see it replacing it. The finish part is neat, but we're not casting that part until turn 4. Also, the token being vigilance instead of flying really does not click with me. I actually like the redundancy of vigilance, but not having flying almost delegate them to chump blockers. Best part is Start being an instant, but then the comparison to Raise the alarm is inevitable and I believe pretty fair. Do you really want to pay one more mana to have finish in the grave? Is Start // Finish being a potential discard fodder really relevant? Is it not worth it to have the tokens a turn earlier?
I can see the argument of spectral being pretty restrictive in the mana requirement, but we're not splashing any other color (other than black) and I've even seen it being heavily discouraged here. I agree with that. Believe me, I've tried many MANY time to splash Green or Red and while we do get some pretty neat cards from both colors, BW gives us pretty much all we need and is way more consistent). Hell, black is initially a splash for sorin, lingering and our discard package (And Bitterblossom, Liliana of the veil, Fatal push, etc. Deck can actually get pretty 50/50). we're already main white and even our manabase is built so that spectral turn 3 is easily (*Ahem*) achievable.
So is it for the utility lands? because so far Vault of the archangel is pretty much the only nonwhite/colorless land I care about anymore and I don't run more than one. Being able to run multiple Ghost quarter without the drawback of having spectral stuck in our hand is a big plus (It's actually the best argument for Finish over spectral imo), but it's just not good enough against tron and I am not willing to hurt my color production for a 5%/10% boost to a match-up that's already below 30% win rate. It actually has been better against manlands like Mutavault and Inkmoth nexus than it has been against tron...
Oh, and Field of ruing is even less good against tron. I know it technically doesn't hurt our mana production, but on the draw our opponent has time to drop a big guy before we can disrupt the tron lands.
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Goblin Guide
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
2 Grim Lavamancer
Bolts (16)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Skewer the critics
4 Skullcrack
4 Searing Blaze
4 Atarka's command
Lands (18)
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Arid Mesa
1 Copperline gorge
2 Stomping ground
3 Mountain
4 Destructive revelry
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Searing Blood
1 Shattering spree
1 Volcanic Fallout
2 Exquisite Firecraft
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Goblin Guide
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Skewer the critics
4 Skullcrack
4 Searing Blaze
Lands (18)
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Arid Mesa
6 Mountain
I really didn't think another set of pseudo-bolts would give me such a pitiful deckbuilder's crisis...
Are we really doomed to splash white for Boros charm (and several other relevant sideboard cards) and/or black for Bump in the night for eternity?
Green is very tempting with the assassin's trophy + Abrupt decay + Maelstrom pulse + Gavony Township package. assassin's trophy in particular because it's a very decent way to handle tron in the main.
(the dream play being: cast Smallpox; sac Flagstone fetching a plain/Godless shrine; discard souls and sacrifice no creature. Basically losing one + half a card while the opponent lose a creature, a land and a card, AKA 3 cards.)
I think a comparison to browbeat is fair. Let me point out that Risk factor is obviously better than browbeat for two reasons: It's an instant and it has Jump-start. The one less damage is a downside, but it's easy to overlook when you can potentially cast the spell twice. It's a potential 8 dmg spell and even more depending on what you draw if your opponent lets you draw, which he probably will considering the deck we want to play it in is burn.
However, "Potential" imply a lot of things going your way (AKA your opponent making bad choice) and Risk factor suffer the same problem browbeat does in this sense: if your opponent lets you draw the cards (which he probably will), we basically wasted a turn doing no damage or way less damage than we could have done. Don't forget that three mana is a lot to ask of burn. There are games where we don't even see the third land and assuming you'll have a fourth land out of your draw is not wise (Hell I'm stuck at one mana some games, but then again I'm at 18 lands :P). Not to mention you'll cast it during your turn if you want to drop a land for a potential burn spell, and that's assuming the burn spell(s) you draw are 1 CMC. We also have to assume that any card we discard for the jump-start has to be a land, for any other discard is a mistake.
We also assume that the max potential of the card is achieved when it's been casted twice, and that's TWO turn / SIX mana that is not spent on burning your opponent.
another thing: assuming a scenario where we have ten card drawn by turn 4, three are lands and six are 1-CMC, 3-DMG burn spells and one is risk factor. off course, all the burn spells have been casted. Opponnent is still at 2 life. Now I have to cast risk factor and it has to draw me both a land and another 1-CMC 3 dmg burn spell. if the burn spell(s) I draw are 2 CMC or I don't draw a land, I have to wait around doing nothing until turn 5 arrives, which is an additional turn my opponent could win. If Risk factor had been ANY other burn spell, this game would already be over.
There's a reason we didn't play, or stopped playing Browbeat in the first place: three mana for potentially no damage just to secure our next few turns is not something we want in burn when in most scenario where Browbeat can be cast, just another burn spell can do the trick and actually seal the game. seven is the magic number of burn spell you usually need to kill someone, and if one of those spell is replaced by a Browbeat or a Risk factor, we basically slow oursleves down by one turn. Also, I cannot imagine a scenario where I both cast and Jump-start Risk factor without being very behind in the game.
As much as I like the card, I'm siding with elconquistador1985 on this one.
Still, quick sideboard draft time!
4x assassin's trophy
3x Atarka's command
2x Destructive Revelry
1x Searing Blood
1x Go for the Throat
1x Contaminated Ground
2x Rakdos Charm
1x Grafdigger's cage
-- Spectral procession:
+ Produce three tokens at once for three mana (Best mana to token ratio)
+ Tokens have evasion (flying)
+ Part of the legendary dream play of "T1: Discard/Disruption ;T2: Intangible virtue ;T3: Spectral Procession; T4: Sorin, Solemn Visitor"
- Sorcery speed
- Very mana intensive. WWW mean we can't stray from being mainly white in our manabase and we have to limit our nonwhite sources (Ghost quarters, swamps, Vault of the archangel etc)
Spectral procession is better if you want your creature attacking to matter. It's the quickest way to put lots of tokens on the field at once.
-- Start // finish:
+ Instant speed
+ Not mana restrictive at all. If you get to three mana, you can cast it.
+ The aftermath effect is additionnal removal at a cost we can usually pay (sacrifice a creature)
+ Not totally lost if discarded
- Token don't have evasion (But they have vigilance (Have a secret +))
- Only two tokens
- Is an overcosted Raise the alarm if Finish is not useful in the match-up (AKA Combo, protection black, hexproff, grave hate, etc.)
Start // finish is better if you can go for the long game and the "Finish" part become relevant. Not the best token producer, but it makes up by being pretty versatile.
Both have the + of costing only 3 mana and being 6 CMC, which mean they can dodge Inquisition of kozilek
Also, Tidehollow sculler is not a bad card, but it goes a little bit against the "don't turn removal on" gameplan we have. It can still be pretty good against combo.
I have yet to try Worship one day, but bitterblossom just doesn't interact well with it.
Now I'm not bashing Start // finish or anyone running it. I run 1/2 myself from time to time, but it's always alongside my playset of spectral and I really don't see it replacing it. The finish part is neat, but we're not casting that part until turn 4. Also, the token being vigilance instead of flying really does not click with me. I actually like the redundancy of vigilance, but not having flying almost delegate them to chump blockers. Best part is Start being an instant, but then the comparison to Raise the alarm is inevitable and I believe pretty fair. Do you really want to pay one more mana to have finish in the grave? Is Start // Finish being a potential discard fodder really relevant? Is it not worth it to have the tokens a turn earlier?
I can see the argument of spectral being pretty restrictive in the mana requirement, but we're not splashing any other color (other than black) and I've even seen it being heavily discouraged here. I agree with that. Believe me, I've tried many MANY time to splash Green or Red and while we do get some pretty neat cards from both colors, BW gives us pretty much all we need and is way more consistent). Hell, black is initially a splash for sorin, lingering and our discard package (And Bitterblossom, Liliana of the veil, Fatal push, etc. Deck can actually get pretty 50/50). we're already main white and even our manabase is built so that spectral turn 3 is easily (*Ahem*) achievable.
So is it for the utility lands? because so far Vault of the archangel is pretty much the only nonwhite/colorless land I care about anymore and I don't run more than one. Being able to run multiple Ghost quarter without the drawback of having spectral stuck in our hand is a big plus (It's actually the best argument for Finish over spectral imo), but it's just not good enough against tron and I am not willing to hurt my color production for a 5%/10% boost to a match-up that's already below 30% win rate. It actually has been better against manlands like Mutavault and Inkmoth nexus than it has been against tron...
Oh, and Field of ruing is even less good against tron. I know it technically doesn't hurt our mana production, but on the draw our opponent has time to drop a big guy before we can disrupt the tron lands.