I've been looking at the reports and it seems like we already have a good game vs. aggro. We can handle ourselves against affinity and dredge. Our biggest issue is control and Ideal. My tech against them is to run 2 Boseju maindeck, 1 in the board, and 3 Mages' Contest in the sideboard. Boseju gives me a way to launch uncounterable burn even with a dovescape or counterbalance in play, and Mage's Contest gives me a shot at countering their win conditions. The goal really isn't even to counter their win condition, its more to play Mages' Contest targetting their win condition, then get them to pay enough life that I can burn them out while its still on the stack. Is it a slower win? Yes, but that's why its in the sideboard. To compensate, I've dropped the nexi from the deck and gone with 2 citadels and 2 sun droplets maindeck.
Best turn one play is obvioulsy a Forest and Chrome Mox casting a Wild Mongrel and discarding an Anger to swing with a 3/3 on turn one. I've playtested this build a bit and I can't help but feel that I could make it faster. The helixes and cloaks help with the damage from the shock and fetchlands. The Brushhoppers can be other discard outlets for the Angers and can also dodge removal, control, and wrath effects. I find getting threshold isn't that big a problem and at that point, enforcer is a house. Fatal Frenzy is just an excellent finisher. Comments or pointers are welcome and please don't tell me to put Goyf in. If I could afford goyfs, they'd be in this already. I hope they ban that damn card soon.
After the talk I'm hearing about CoP: Red and Sphere of Law (thanks for getting popular again, Goblins), I'm almost thinking about running a more control oriented version of Burn. Its certainly slower, but I think with the right cards, we can make this deck into something that lasts more than 4 turns.
Anyone seen Flores' build that runs tops and glacial rays instead of spark elementals and shard volleys? I was actually kinda disgusted with his build. Its like he didn't even bother to research it. Why would anyone run SDT in this deck? To be honest, we don't *have* a late game, so why run a card that's only good in later turns? We're tapping out every turn (either ours or theirs) to throw burn in their face, so i don't see me using 1 mana to flip a top.
The serpent may never get HUGE, but for 3 mana we have 5 damage, which is a huge tempo boost. (BTW- Who said I was dropping Rift Bolt?? Its still in there.) Like I said, the Marauders will most likely become Fanatics, as I'm not a fan of the fact that the Marauder is only guaranteed to hit for 2 damage, while a turn 1 fanatic can shoot down a bird. Between Serpents, Flames, Shrapnel Blast, and Char, this deck can effectively claim a turn 4 kill against opposition, not just goldfishing.
Gee, is it bad form to PM all the deck snobs who said this thread didn't belong in Competitive?
I playtested last night with the standard maindeck build and it seems to goldfish turn 4 kills half the time. In 12 hands, I mulliganed twice (no land or 4+ land). Out of the 10 games I played with a kept opening hand, I got a turn 3 kill 3 times, turn 4 kill 5 times and turn 5 kill 2 times.
I decided to monkey with the deck a bit and removed 4 colorless lands and threw in 4 chrome mox, hoping to speed up a turn. The initial hand did indeed kill turn 3, but that turned out to be a fluke as now I started running out of gas before dealing 20 damage and having to go into topdeck mode. I also found myself using Fanatic as red mana for mox more often than casting him, which is no good.
I now grudgingly admit that Flames is quite good in the deck as it usually put me at or over 20 damage. I am currently working on a more suicidal version of the deck that may pan out or strike out. I'll have to let you know...
@lance- I wouldn't play with Lava Blister. I seriously doubt it will ever deal damage. If you really want to run land destruction, I'd go Molten Rain, as it at least does both.
That's where I put the Browbeats... in for Flames. I guess I just look at it backwards. I view Browbeat as a 3 mana 5 damage spell that they can give me cards to avoid, not the other way around.
I'll agree that Blood Moon is a definite annoyance for other decks, but it also makes our barbarian rings and nexi useless. If you wanted to test out Molten Rain, I could understand that. Heck, I was toying with the idea of Sowing Salt (Goodbye Tron, Goodbye Boseju, Goodbye Mutavault, etc), but as you say, it just doesn't work synergistically with the deck. If you don't like Shard Volley and Barbarian rings, you could always play ZoZu and the Dwarf that blows up lands...
Edit- yup it says "plays" as well. Thanks guys.
4 Wild Mongrel
2 Anurid Brushhopper
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Anger
4 Watchwolf
4 Mystic Enforcer
Artifacts (8)
4 Chrome Mox
4 O-Naginata
4 Armadillo Cloak
4 Fatal Frenzy
4 Lightning Helix
Land (20)
4 Temple Garden
3 Sacred Foundry
3 Stomping Ground
3 Plains
3 Forest
4 Windswept Heath
3 Loxodon Hierarch
3 Pyroclasm
3 Jotun Grunt
3 Krosan Grip
3 Boros Fury Shield
Best turn one play is obvioulsy a Forest and Chrome Mox casting a Wild Mongrel and discarding an Anger to swing with a 3/3 on turn one. I've playtested this build a bit and I can't help but feel that I could make it faster. The helixes and cloaks help with the damage from the shock and fetchlands. The Brushhoppers can be other discard outlets for the Angers and can also dodge removal, control, and wrath effects. I find getting threshold isn't that big a problem and at that point, enforcer is a house. Fatal Frenzy is just an excellent finisher. Comments or pointers are welcome and please don't tell me to put Goyf in. If I could afford goyfs, they'd be in this already. I hope they ban that damn card soon.
4 Isochron Scepter
4 Sculpting Steel
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Tormod's Crypt
4 Vedalken Shackles
4 Glimpse the Unthinkable
4 Twincast
4 Counterspell
4 Watery Grave
10 Island
2 Swamp
Feel free to tear it apart. I just thought it would be truly amusing and horrible to do this to someone.
4 Spark Elemental
4 Lightning Serpent
4 Keldon Marauders
Instants (22)
4 Shard Volley
4 Magma Jet
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Incinerate
3 Flames of the Blood Hand
3 Char
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
Land (19)
4 Great Furnace
4 Barbarian Ring
5 Mountain
3 Darksteel Citadel
3 Blinkmoth Nexus
3 Sulfuric Vortex
4 Shattering Spree
4 Mages' Contest
4 Jester's Scepter
After some testing, the Marauders might become Fanatics, but we'll see how the marauders play.
I playtested last night with the standard maindeck build and it seems to goldfish turn 4 kills half the time. In 12 hands, I mulliganed twice (no land or 4+ land). Out of the 10 games I played with a kept opening hand, I got a turn 3 kill 3 times, turn 4 kill 5 times and turn 5 kill 2 times.
I decided to monkey with the deck a bit and removed 4 colorless lands and threw in 4 chrome mox, hoping to speed up a turn. The initial hand did indeed kill turn 3, but that turned out to be a fluke as now I started running out of gas before dealing 20 damage and having to go into topdeck mode. I also found myself using Fanatic as red mana for mox more often than casting him, which is no good.
I now grudgingly admit that Flames is quite good in the deck as it usually put me at or over 20 damage. I am currently working on a more suicidal version of the deck that may pan out or strike out. I'll have to let you know...
@lance- I wouldn't play with Lava Blister. I seriously doubt it will ever deal damage. If you really want to run land destruction, I'd go Molten Rain, as it at least does both.