Dies to Removal

Post-ban week 0 RDW?

[deck]
Land (22)
4x Arid Mesa
4x Bloodstained Mire
7x Mountain
2x Mutavault
4x Scalding Tarn
1x Wooded Foothills

Creature (16)
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
4x Goblin Guide
2x Grim Lavamancer
4x Monastery Swiftspear
2x Stonewright






Instant (8)
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Searing Blaze

Sorcery (8)
4x Molten Rain
4x Rift Bolt

Planeswalker (2)
2x Chandra, Pyromaster

Enchantment (2)
2x Blood Moon

Artifact (2)
2x Shrine of Burning Rage

Sideboard (15)
2x Combust
1x Dismember
4x Searing Blood
4x Skullcrack
4x Smash to Smithereens[/deck]
I always liked attacking manabases when greedy decks like Junk are at the top, this seems like a better red shell to do it than Burn. Chandra lines up well against Rhino?

Sideboard is loose, but I think I want Crack and Blood for sure. I could see splashing black, green, or white for more options.

EDIT: Probably need some sort of way to interact with Souls (Forked Bolt?)

1) Why is this better than Burn?

Yeah exactly, this is the issue. I feel like RDW is better against Delver than Burn, no idea about the rest of the field. RDW probably gets splash hate at the moment.

Is there any reason to play RDW a la Heal at the moment? Burn is obviously decent, but I was just wondering what the best Eidolon of the Great Revel deck is. Mogg Fanatic seems very well positioned against the Delver meta.

The most up to date Heal decklist I could find is here: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/ar ... 2014-08-14

[deck]Creature (20)
4 Goblin Guide
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Vexing Devil
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel

Instant (8)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Searing Blaze

Artifact (2)
2 Shrine of Burning Rage

Sorcery (10)
2 Forked Bolt
4 Molten Rain
4 Rift Bolt

Land (20)
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Keldon Megaliths
11 Mountain


Sideboard (15)
4 Skullcrack
2 Dragon's Claw
2 Dismember
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Blood Moon
2 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Shattering Spree [/deck]
This year's earlier RDW had around a 20/20/20 split of lands/creatures/spells, it's not a stretch to imagine Monastery Swiftspear here. Over Vexing Devil? Considering the Delver matchup, Grim Lavamancer seems nut high.

Shrine also has versatility. Not only does it signal to the control player that the end is nigh, it can also be used to kill pro-red things or just really big creatures. It adds inevitability to the deck. It has perfect synergy with the deck. While you are exhausting your resources to control the board, it builds and builds until you're able to just win on the spot.

Shrine is the only card I have a problem with. It's clunky at the best of times in ~20 land decks. It's best on Turn 2 right, but that means you are taking a turn off from affecting the board (in the short term). When I want to cast a card on Turn 2 often, I play 4 in the deck. I guess just jamming fours is rarely optimum. The more I look at Heal's list,
the more it looks like a masterpiece. He really sells the Shrine against EFro. I need to think of it as less of a threat, and more of an insurance policy.

As for Vexing Devil, its value went up with the banning of DRS. Modern is the only format in which it is worth a damn. And it does work. Patrick Sullivan endorsed him immediately after DRS was banned. I did too. And so did other people, such as MDU.

I like Vexing Devil a reasonable amount, and I've played more Modern pre-DRS ban. Heal says Rift Bolts are flex slots, but I see how important they are now. Along with Vexing Devil they do offer tremendous pressure. I felt that the last time I played, I was running out of steam before my opponent died. Instead of trying to get clever with Pillar of Flame etc. I need to get working on making the opponent more deaderer.
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Mogg Fanatic as gut shot cannot be overstated.

It's a Gut Shot that wants your opponent to die as-well as their Elves!

Magus is in the MD for testing but It might be better to run 4 VD in the MD and 3 MotM (or 2 Blood Moon / 1 Shattering Spree) in the SB.

Vexing Devil always feels great when you cast multiples back to back, or on consecutive turns. Seems to me that 4 or 0 is the right number MD. What are your thoughts on the singleton/how has it been for you? For what matchups are you bringing the others in?

You have no idea how this deck works, do you?

Watch Heal's deck tech. Then watch it again.
Besides writing an article about how to play RDW in Modern, I don't know how else to explain it. And I'm not going to write an article while on my phone.

You've completed missed the point I was trying to make. There's no need to be condescending either.

You play Molten Rain, Shrine, and Mogg Fanatic to beat the bogeymen when you don't hit the nuts and win on turn 4.

I get what you are saying, and I think I actually fall on this side of the argument (Molten Rain = Tempo + Screw), but surely if we didn't play these cards we get the nuts more often. I'm not sure what the nuts are, but surely playing more of them gives you the nut draw more often. Again, not disagreeing, but
would like to hear the discussion all the same.

Have you actually played with this deck?



Everyone besides myself and LP, who has actually played with the Heal list?

The way you said it, you make them sound like a Plan B. Why add a Plan B at the expense of Plan A.

You play Molten Rain, Shrine, and Mogg Fanatic to beat the bogeymen when you don't hit the nuts and win on turn 4.

I get what you are saying, and I think I actually fall on this side of the argument (Molten Rain = Tempo + Screw), but surely if we didn't play these cards we get the nuts more often. I'm not sure what the nuts are, but surely playing more of them gives you the nut draw more often. Again, not disagreeing, but would like to hear the discussion all the same.

[deck]Magus List[/deck]

Something Like this?

This is what it looks like, with a copypasted Heal sideboard (Pillar > Claw),
[deck=Magus List w/ SB]
Creature (20)
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
1x Figure of Destiny
4x Goblin Guide
3x Grim Lavamancer
4x Magus of the Moon
4x Mogg Fanatic

Instant (10)
2x Flame Javelin
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Searing Blaze




Sorcery (6)
4x Molten Rain
2x Pillar of
Flame

Artifact (2)
2x Shrine of Burning Rage

Land (22)
4x Arid Mesa
2x Keldon Megaliths
12x Mountain
4x Scalding Tarn

Sideboard (15)
2x Blood Moon
2x Dismember
2x Pillar of Flame
4x Pyrite Spellbomb
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Shattering Spree
2x Smash to Smithereens[/deck]

You, as I said earlier, the idea is amazing. Cut the extra lands and the horrible plated geopede for actual good cards and you have a hell of a powerful deck.

-4x Geopede
-3x Teetering Peaks

+4x VD
+1x Searing Blaze
+2x Figure (manasink so the SSG arn't horrible)

Profit?

That looks like
this (assuming SB is still valid with reduced land count),
[deck]Adrian Sullivan Modified[/deck]
(http://www.starcitygames.com/article/28 ... odern.html)

Things that stand out to me are the 2nd Figure, and the lack of a 22nd land. A-Sulli says in the article that 4 Simian Spirit Guide might be too many, but I haven't got
close to figuring that out.

Niggas need to quite tryna put Ashley in they modern decks

Does anyone else like her against Pod (Finks + Voice specifically)? Other than potentially that and the other obvious applications, I don't think you can justify the inclusion.

Play keldon megaliths. You haven't lived until you've killed 4 lingering souls tokens.

And Magus of the moon is definitely a card I want to try in the future. I think I'd want a deck with 22 lands, for that and possibly flame javelin to compensate for a lower spell density.

Megaliths hits creatures huh? Get out of town. That card is insane.

I can really vouch for magus, and it seems great with the spirit guide approach. I might try 2-3 guides as suggested by Adrian, but I guess you always want it for turn 2 (or 1).

People like a couple of maindeck shrine then?

What's the deal with pyrite spellbomb? It only seems useful for killing pro-red creatures. I can't imagine a scenario where you would bring it in and
cantrip it.

I played this pile at FNM last night,

[deck]Hatebear RDW[/deck]

Ash Zealot underperformed, but I didn't face and Snapcasters or Storm. Haste is always nice, and she is great at swinging through Voice of Resurgence and Kitchen Finks.

Eidolon was never great, but it never killed me either. It's pretty much a lightning
rod for removal.

This is a pretty standard deck for Lavamancer, and I think 3 is the right number given the spell-base.

Magus of the Moon is insane. If you can pressure people into using removal earlier, it wins games when it comes down.

Mogg Fanatic is good with Magus, when you are trying to screw people playing Birds/Hierachs etc. It is a 1/1 though, there's always liability there...

I wanted 4 Pillar in the 75, but would rather have Burst Lightning in the main (this could totally be wrong). I really wanted the instant speed effect, and sometimes a bad Lava Axe is good.

Sword isn't necessary, but it was kinda sweet. I like having something powerful to draw to (see Burst Lightning), but I'd never want more than one here.

Teetering Peaks has got my seal of approval. There's enough cheap spells that the drawback is negligible. Having 4 was not an issue, but my sample size isn't huge. Nonbo with Magus.

Shrine of Burning Rage was meh, even in matchups where it is supposed to be good.
Modern seems too fast. It's fine, but not as a 4 of.

Not sure if Torpor Orb and Spellskite are where this deck wants to be.

I brewed this as a mashup between Heal's list and Adrian Sullivan's (http://www.starcitygames.com/article/28 ... odern.html), and I feel like it was probably worse than either. I went 2-2, beating UWR Twin, Pod, losing to Tron(!?) and Gifts. I need to mulligan to the hate more, but it's so hard for me to ship a hand with 2-3 lands and spells. Magic is hard...


I think I'm going to go back to playing Figure of Destinys and Kargan Dragonlords. Has anyone tried Urabrask the Hidden as a curve topper in Modern? Seems decent against Resto, Pod, and Twin. Figure and Dragonlord would love to have haste. I'd don't wanna go to far off the deep end, but they seem good with Lightning Greaves too

The beauty of this deck? So many interchangeable parts.

Not bragging, but a lot of this is familiar territory for me. I've rocked almost every iteration of RDW in Modern imaginable since pre-RTR. It really was missing one key element: the Eidolon. I've been saying it for over a year. Although to Heal's credit, a playset of Molten Rain is genius. I've always played the card as 2-of and for the life of me I don't know why I never thought of that. He did grind the shit out the deck playing PTQs, so there's that I guess.

What's the Khaospawn-approved list, like the list you would play tomorrow? Or at least, what's the core of your builds?

I like Ash Zealot over Geopede, Hatebear RDW FTW.

But, not to nitpick, Flame Javelin does trigger the Eidolon's ability. It's CMC 3 or less.

From Gatherer,

"A card with monocolored hybrid mana symbols in its mana cost has a converted mana cost equal to the highest possible cost it could be cast for. Its converted mana cost never changes. Thus, Flame Javelin has a converted mana cost of 6, even if you spend {R}{R}{R} to cast it."