Does anyone find it really odd that despite having Ash Zealot, Boros Reckoner, BTE, Frostburn Weird (in the main board!), Purphoros, and even Stormbreath at 5-- the Mono-R Devotion deck in the top 8 doesn't run Fanatic of Mogis? Lightning Strike, what I assumed to be RDW's best burn spell and a no-breainer 4x, is also noticeably absent. BTE seems awkward without Firefist Striker, Gore-House Chainwalker, Lightning Strike, or even Chandra's Phoenix in the MB either.
I feel like Fanatic would be a better choice to close out a game than Stormbreath given how heavy the devotion to red is. I understand this deck has no 1-drops and is considerably slower, but even so dealing an easy 5-7 to the face and leaving behind a 4/2 for 4 mana is nothing to sneeze at.
Anyone else have any insight? Was this built specifically to combat the Pro Tour metagame?
Thanks for the report! I've been getting mixed results with my Mono-R build and I want to keep playing with Chandra, so I think I'll try yours out.
I'm a little confused about your standings-- you were 22nd before the start of R9, but dropped to 27th after you won it? Aside from that, the double Nykthos, double Fanatic play sounded amazing. =p
As for the deck itself, might I ask why you chose to run Shock over Lightning Strike? I feel like the difference between 1 and 2 mana is a small one in this deck, while the difference between 2 and 3 damage can be relevant for stuff like Reckoner and finishing off Planeswalkers and that 3/3 black defender I see every so often.
I'll probably use your build and tweak it with what I have available--Stormbreaths are a bit hard to come by. I like Chained to the Rocks as a one-mana answer to creatures over Mizzium Mortars, but I can understand why 1R is easier to manage than W sometimes.
I don't think we'll ever see Cascade come back in a Standard-legal set, but we could see Baleful Strix back if ever return to Alara (which is bound to happen sooner or later) or any other set with either Strixes or coloured artifacts.
That being said, you're right that we could likely see either back in the Fall Commander sets, so if you can get a decent amount for the sets now, I'd say to go for it. They seem to be at their short-term cap though, and even if they're not reprinted I don't see them increasing much past their current prices.
I'll start by mentioning I have literally no experience in distinguishing real from fake cards, but aren't the corners of the Lotus you bought visibly sharper than that of your signed Lotus? I thought corners were same post-Beta, so there's no reason for a WB Lotus to have different corners.
I was going to build Mono-Red but after seeing how much it falls apart against Reckoner, I'm not so sure anymore. Is there an answer, other than going over it with Phoenix or Firefist Striker?
Soldier of the Pantheon can probably find its way into this deck, sharing or replacing a slot with Dryad Militant. Off the top of my head, it can block/can't be blocked by Geist, DRS, Fulminator Mage...okay, so maybe it's not that useful. It's also resistant to Helix Terminate and while that isn't much, might be occasionally relevant?
I'm sure there are a lot of obvious cards I'm missing that aren't coming to mind right now too. Maybe.
Between the 4 Dragonspeaker Shaman, 4 Cultivate, 4 Borderland Ranger, and 2 Explosive Vegetation I found it almost plays like a Ramp deck. Stall with Dragon Fodder, the Thallid, Maelstrom Pulse, and anything else you can while you build up to 6 mana. At that point, all you have to do is resolve and protect a single Dragon Broodmother/Flameblast Dragon/Form of the Dragon/Hellkite Overlord and win.
Current prices (eBay buy it nows, before shipping costs, ignoring sellers with no feedback and cheap auctions with massive shipping fees):
DRS - cheapest single $14, playset $60, 42 total auctions
Cashseize - cheapest single $19, playset $95, 50 total auctions
Ooze - cheapest single $10, playset $47, 109 total auctions
Cashseize singles are almost as cheap as Deathrite singles, but playsets are more, although there are more copies available even though it's a mythic. Cashseize's price is still on the way down, while Deathrite's has nowhere to go but up from here, so even if it's losing by a hair right now, that seems likely to change. Ooze is overabundant and quite a bit cheaper than both, and on the way lower.
They didn't screw up, it was completely intentional. The 1/1 red Human tokens from AVR (produced by Thatcher's Revolt) are the same way. if RTR-block had any hasty token generators they would also not have haste printed on them.
Not realizing a token has haste isn't much different than not realizing a nontoken having haste-- it's just a matter of reading cards corectly. Sometimes it's easy to miss (I've missed about the evergreen abilities on Chancellors and Primordials on multiple occasions) but I blame no one but myself.
Remember than many players don't even use the official tokens to keep reack of their tokens anyway so it's generally a nonissue, gameplay-wise. I could sort of understand why not having Haste printed on them would trigger OCD though.
Does this mean that prices have hit their floor right now?
My twisted 4:30 AM logic is telling to invest more while they're low (if I buy 3 at 150, that'll make up for the 3 I bought at 250 and "even out" at $200 a piece!), but I think this is something to sleep and get others' opinion on. But the more I think about it, Jace may essentially be on the reserved list from this point forward. He's most certainly not going to be reprinted in any standard-legal set, and the only possible other printing possible would be as a Judge foil. If for whatever reason he's unbanned and printed in MMA2, demand will skyrocket and that'll raise prices even more (depending on MMA2's hypothetical print run).
The only thing holding me back is that he's only used as a 3-of in one format and a 1-of in another, and those are somewhat niche markets. The legend rule changes probably helped to some extent, but that doesn't change the fact that Legacy's a dying format bottlenecked by the availability of dual lands-- so is there enough drive from these two inputs to raise the prices even more? Are more people entering Legacy than quitting it for Modern?
Not sure if that's correct. I always heard NPH was the least opened set of scars block.
I'm almost certain that's incorrect. Scars had a 7-month head start on NPH, and it was drafted in 3s 'til MBS came out, at which point it was drafted in 2s. Even upon NPH's release, Scars was still drafted and opened so there's no reason for more NPH to be opened than Scars.
The third set will almost always be opened less than the leading set of the block, even in cases with a large third set (i.e. ROE and AVR).
That's a relatively undercosted creature for red to have. The Monstrous ability seems a little irrelevant but it's not typical for red to get a 4/5 for 4.
The other cards are neat but not breathtaking. Not that I expect much from Intro Pack rares though.
Its not gain control of target planeswalker... How long? Til end of turn? No? Well then its an enchantment. If so than its an enchant planswalker, meaning you have 3 words left. "You control Diz" probably isnt cutting it grammar wise.
It could be an instant or more likely, sorcery. Five words of rules text, but "(This effect lasts indefinitely.)" as reminder text still makes it qualify. Maybe a 4UU rare, so its effect is not strictly worse than Volition Reins. Not being an Aura already makes it a little better though.
I'm also going to arbitrarily guess that the redone mechanic is Bushido, since it's often been said that it's a good mechanic but is limited by its name and flavour in how it can be used.
I feel like Fanatic would be a better choice to close out a game than Stormbreath given how heavy the devotion to red is. I understand this deck has no 1-drops and is considerably slower, but even so dealing an easy 5-7 to the face and leaving behind a 4/2 for 4 mana is nothing to sneeze at.
Anyone else have any insight? Was this built specifically to combat the Pro Tour metagame?
I'm a little confused about your standings-- you were 22nd before the start of R9, but dropped to 27th after you won it? Aside from that, the double Nykthos, double Fanatic play sounded amazing. =p
As for the deck itself, might I ask why you chose to run Shock over Lightning Strike? I feel like the difference between 1 and 2 mana is a small one in this deck, while the difference between 2 and 3 damage can be relevant for stuff like Reckoner and finishing off Planeswalkers and that 3/3 black defender I see every so often.
I'll probably use your build and tweak it with what I have available--Stormbreaths are a bit hard to come by. I like Chained to the Rocks as a one-mana answer to creatures over Mizzium Mortars, but I can understand why 1R is easier to manage than W sometimes.
That being said, you're right that we could likely see either back in the Fall Commander sets, so if you can get a decent amount for the sets now, I'd say to go for it. They seem to be at their short-term cap though, and even if they're not reprinted I don't see them increasing much past their current prices.
I'm sure there are a lot of obvious cards I'm missing that aren't coming to mind right now too. Maybe.
FYI, Thoughtseize is a rare in Theros.
Not realizing a token has haste isn't much different than not realizing a nontoken having haste-- it's just a matter of reading cards corectly. Sometimes it's easy to miss (I've missed about the evergreen abilities on Chancellors and Primordials on multiple occasions) but I blame no one but myself.
Remember than many players don't even use the official tokens to keep reack of their tokens anyway so it's generally a nonissue, gameplay-wise. I could sort of understand why not having Haste printed on them would trigger OCD though.
My twisted 4:30 AM logic is telling to invest more while they're low (if I buy 3 at 150, that'll make up for the 3 I bought at 250 and "even out" at $200 a piece!), but I think this is something to sleep and get others' opinion on. But the more I think about it, Jace may essentially be on the reserved list from this point forward. He's most certainly not going to be reprinted in any standard-legal set, and the only possible other printing possible would be as a Judge foil. If for whatever reason he's unbanned and printed in MMA2, demand will skyrocket and that'll raise prices even more (depending on MMA2's hypothetical print run).
The only thing holding me back is that he's only used as a 3-of in one format and a 1-of in another, and those are somewhat niche markets. The legend rule changes probably helped to some extent, but that doesn't change the fact that Legacy's a dying format bottlenecked by the availability of dual lands-- so is there enough drive from these two inputs to raise the prices even more? Are more people entering Legacy than quitting it for Modern?
I'm almost certain that's incorrect. Scars had a 7-month head start on NPH, and it was drafted in 3s 'til MBS came out, at which point it was drafted in 2s. Even upon NPH's release, Scars was still drafted and opened so there's no reason for more NPH to be opened than Scars.
The third set will almost always be opened less than the leading set of the block, even in cases with a large third set (i.e. ROE and AVR).
The other cards are neat but not breathtaking. Not that I expect much from Intro Pack rares though.
It could be an instant or more likely, sorcery. Five words of rules text, but "(This effect lasts indefinitely.)" as reminder text still makes it qualify. Maybe a 4UU rare, so its effect is not strictly worse than Volition Reins. Not being an Aura already makes it a little better though.
I'm also going to arbitrarily guess that the redone mechanic is Bushido, since it's often been said that it's a good mechanic but is limited by its name and flavour in how it can be used.
...But I have the deepest sympathies for those who panic-bought them at 400.