Brawler is interesting, but I don't know if it's going to be better than Tarmogoyf that you could play for 2 also. If you're using the Bloodrage Brawler because you expect gy hate you probably won't be getting much value out of the discard other than cutting the cost on a hollow one, but you'd have to discard another card and have a third land for a Hollow One, or have 2 Street Wraiths or something to make that worth it.
Yeah my biggest concern with the data from Karsten's article is he programmed it to auto-mull all one land hands, when a land and a faithless looting is often keep-able and if there is a street wraith mixed in it's even better. I don't think this would make any Big differences, but it does make it a little more consistent, and considering the deck runs 17-18 lands total, there are a decent number of times you get a one lander which can be ok.
Hi, I had to test this last idea for the deck on Magic Online and it has performed quite well 4-1, 4-1, 3-2, 4-1 and finally 5-0
What really seems off to me is the Noose Constrictors in this deck. Are they really worth running? Is it thanks to Squee that they work?? My initial impression is that they just seem pretty sub-par but I've been wrong plenty of times before. Squee is a card I love so I'd be interested in trying it, but it does seem a little slow to get value from potentially as well. It seems your games went pretty well overall though! 80% win rate over 5 leagues is pretty good.
I brought RG hollowvengevine to the modern RPTQ awhile ago but didn't make top 8. I've only done a few minor changes since then but I still like the deck quite a bit and am currently planning on bringing it to GP PHX. I built the deck a little different from some RG lists but have no experience using the RB version and would be curious if people who have done both think it's quite a bit better or not. My deck for referecne:
Spells
4 Faithless Looting
4 Goblin Lore
3 Burning Inquiry
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Become Immense
4 Street Wraith
I think lots of people may get over-eager on getting a super early hollow one but I have one tons of games by making sure I get full value out of my cards, either setting things up when possible and also being willing to hard cast my Phoenix's and Vengevines regularly, and occasionally my Hollow Ones (Although I generally don't want more than 3 lands out). But sometimes being a little patient, and you can go from an empty board to 5-6 creatures in any combo of Hollow One, Vengevine, Phx, etc. and just blow someone out.
I also want to re-iterate to people that a T1 Flameblade Adept is almost always better than a T1 Hollow One. If you lead with Adept, you do your burning inquiry/ loot+wraith T2 anyways, and the Adept attacks for 4, the same as what Hollow one would be attacking for, but it would require 2 creatures to block it. Additionally, you wouldn't have wanted to randomly discard your Adept T1, and now you get to be one card deeper into your deck from your draw which helps you find another Hollow One or FWP/Vengevine to discard.
Compare that to a T1 Hollow One, where now you attack for 4 on T2, but your T1 discards didn't get to do any damage, and now your Adept is much worse, and then you draw into a second Hollow One that if you waited you might have played also.
Become Immense has been really good for me, but I still wonder if I should cut it to 1, or just play more Hooting Mandrills (not as good as Angler, but it's not worth splashing black for that and he still brings back FWP). Become Immense can be played on anything to trigger your flamewake phoenix's as well, and it can just win games out of nowhere, so I'm leaving it as is for now, but I kinda want a second Mandrill in there. Cut another MB Grim Lavamancer?
And finally for the SB, I've been conflicted on what graveyard hate to run. I've been using Tormod's Crypt lately, while admittedly weaker in a vaccuum than lots of stuff, I find that this deck uses all it's mana almost every turn. Taking a whole early turn off to play GY hate doesn't seem ideal when our early turns are so crucial to out-racing. Leyline of the Void is an option, but with how much the deck draws through itself you will end up with excess copies in hand that you'll have to hope to discard away later. On that same note, since you go through the deck so much, I feel like it's easy to draw into a Tormod's Crypt and then just drop it down in the match-ups where it matters. I've admittedly played against few GY based opponents and so have had limited chances to test this in practice. What do you all think?
I'd love to hear your thoughts, and if you think this list is just worse than other ones I'd love to hear why. Thanks!
What really seems off to me is the Noose Constrictors in this deck. Are they really worth running? Is it thanks to Squee that they work?? My initial impression is that they just seem pretty sub-par but I've been wrong plenty of times before. Squee is a card I love so I'd be interested in trying it, but it does seem a little slow to get value from potentially as well. It seems your games went pretty well overall though! 80% win rate over 5 leagues is pretty good.
Lands (18)
1 Arid Mesa
2 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Mountain
1 Forest
3 Stomping Ground
4 Copperline Gorge
Creatures
4 Flameblade Adept
4 Insolent Neonate
2 Grim Lavamancer
1 Hooting Mandrills
4 Flamewake Phoenix
4 Hollow One
4 Vengevine
Spells
4 Faithless Looting
4 Goblin Lore
3 Burning Inquiry
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Become Immense
4 Street Wraith
I think lots of people may get over-eager on getting a super early hollow one but I have one tons of games by making sure I get full value out of my cards, either setting things up when possible and also being willing to hard cast my Phoenix's and Vengevines regularly, and occasionally my Hollow Ones (Although I generally don't want more than 3 lands out). But sometimes being a little patient, and you can go from an empty board to 5-6 creatures in any combo of Hollow One, Vengevine, Phx, etc. and just blow someone out.
I also want to re-iterate to people that a T1 Flameblade Adept is almost always better than a T1 Hollow One. If you lead with Adept, you do your burning inquiry/ loot+wraith T2 anyways, and the Adept attacks for 4, the same as what Hollow one would be attacking for, but it would require 2 creatures to block it. Additionally, you wouldn't have wanted to randomly discard your Adept T1, and now you get to be one card deeper into your deck from your draw which helps you find another Hollow One or FWP/Vengevine to discard.
Compare that to a T1 Hollow One, where now you attack for 4 on T2, but your T1 discards didn't get to do any damage, and now your Adept is much worse, and then you draw into a second Hollow One that if you waited you might have played also.
Become Immense has been really good for me, but I still wonder if I should cut it to 1, or just play more Hooting Mandrills (not as good as Angler, but it's not worth splashing black for that and he still brings back FWP). Become Immense can be played on anything to trigger your flamewake phoenix's as well, and it can just win games out of nowhere, so I'm leaving it as is for now, but I kinda want a second Mandrill in there. Cut another MB Grim Lavamancer?
And finally for the SB, I've been conflicted on what graveyard hate to run. I've been using Tormod's Crypt lately, while admittedly weaker in a vaccuum than lots of stuff, I find that this deck uses all it's mana almost every turn. Taking a whole early turn off to play GY hate doesn't seem ideal when our early turns are so crucial to out-racing. Leyline of the Void is an option, but with how much the deck draws through itself you will end up with excess copies in hand that you'll have to hope to discard away later. On that same note, since you go through the deck so much, I feel like it's easy to draw into a Tormod's Crypt and then just drop it down in the match-ups where it matters. I've admittedly played against few GY based opponents and so have had limited chances to test this in practice. What do you all think?
I'd love to hear your thoughts, and if you think this list is just worse than other ones I'd love to hear why. Thanks!