Search found 26 matches

by BrainsickHater
Thu Oct 23, 2014 2:28 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

I like maindeck Ashcloud Phoenix and that would let you move the Banishing Lights to the side.
by BrainsickHater
Tue Oct 21, 2014 6:35 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

I know that feeling. What is you main deck btw (you probably posted it earlier)? I haven't the necessary experience with the deck myself, so I can't really help. I'm unsure about those Ride Down and Deflecting Palm myself, but I haven't really seen them in action either. Have you considered Reprisal/Pillar of Light/Glare of Heresy in their place? Not really the same use, but something I noticed when playing against Abzan Midrange was that they often just played Glare of Heresy to remove CttR or BL.
Decklist (+SB for easy reading):
[deck]
Dudes
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Ashcloud Phoenix
1 Hushwing Gryff

Non-Dudes
4 Searing Blood
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Chained to the Rocks
3 Hordeling Outburst

Lands
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Temple of Triumph
1 Evolving Wilds
11 Mountain
2 Plains

Sideboard
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Ride Down
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Evolving Wilds
2 Erase
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2 Banishing Light
2 Stormbreath Dragon
3 Hushwing Gryff
[/deck]

On the topic of Reprisal, Glare, etc.
I decided I didn't want to be too reactive, and that I would rather play cards like Stormbreath Dragon and Hushwing Gryff that matched up well and applied pressure.

I definitely like Deflecting Palm as a one-of, and I'm still testing Ride Down. Deflecting Palm is occasionally game-breaking, and there are matchups where I believe it is almost always at least fine. In the Jeskai matchup for example, Deflecting a large beater + Jeskai Charm for lifelink is gamebreaking. In other situations it lets you screw up math and give you enough time/damage to burn them out. You can usually sculpt the game around it having a very high impact, and one of two things will happen: they either don't think you play the card and play right into it, or they think you have the card and just get afraid to do anything. Both of these situations are very good. Having it as a one-of is just recognizing that the card has the potential to be totally dead or very bad.

If you don't play Rabblemaster, don't play Ride Down. I do play Rabblemaster and I don't see that changing anytime soon (sorry purp), and Ride Down plays well with the card. You can swing with a 1/1 which gives away zero information and take their fatty. You can also telegraph that you have the card when you don't and get free attacks with rabblemaster (especially if they've seen the card once).

Really, half the power of the one-ofs comes from the fact that once I've shown them to my opponent, I can begin to represent these cards when I don't have them, which is a very powerful option to have available. Against a Jeskai opponent I got him to stop attacking with his Sarkhan for a couple turns because he didn't want to turn on my Deflecting Palm (he didn't attack with it until a Sarkhan hit would put me in burn range). I rode a Knuckleblade down with a Rabblemaster token against a Temur deck and he respected me having RW up for the rest of the match. So as of now I'm happy with them, but Ride Down may get cut in the future since it's arguably more narrow than Palm.
by BrainsickHater
Tue Oct 21, 2014 5:51 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

I'm really just trying to get people to tell me if I'm right or wrong about things because I don't have the experience/time to find out for myself.
by BrainsickHater
Tue Oct 21, 2014 5:50 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

Not nearly enough. Probably around 20. Unfortunately my addiction to this game is mostly fed vicariously through forums and articles when school is in session.

This leads to my incessant posting because the next best thing to playing magic is thinking/talking about every chance I get. Apologies if I shit all over the thread.
by BrainsickHater
Tue Oct 21, 2014 2:25 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

Will be trying out this SB:
[deck]
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Ride Down
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Evolving Wilds
2 Erase
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2 Banishing Light
2 Stormbreath Dragon
3 Hushwing Gryff
[/deck]

I will probably have to play something else instead of Brimaz's because they are a million dollars and I don't have any. Suggestions appreciated.

Board breakdown:
- Chandra: Good against X/1s and control (nice card for decks that could show up but are unlikely to)
- Ride Down: Good with Rabble and against big butts
- Deflecting Palm: Good when opponents have to turn the corner on you or they're giving beefy dudes lifelink
- Evolving Wilds: need more lands to support stormy, also more white sources for when Brimaz comes in (this could be a different land I picked kinda hastily)
- Erase: enchantment hate yay
- Brimaz: Good against all the variants of this deck
- Banishing Light: problems be gone
- Stormbreath: Fk you abzan
- Hushwing Gryff: double fk you abzan

Possible Brimaz replacements on my radar:
- 3rd Banishing Light
- Suspension Field
- Magma Spray (which I cut because aggro isn't around too much and they're not even guaranteed useful against Jeskai)
- Circle of Flame cuz why not auto-win against aggro
- Hordeling outburst cuz it's good against Jeskai

EDIT: It's worth noting I maindeck 3 hordeling outburst
by BrainsickHater
Tue Oct 21, 2014 2:14 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

Conflagration is just....so bad. I wouldn't want it against Rhino, you don't gain any tempo/vca and they get a drain 3 trigger. Literally the only card I would want it for is Sarkhan, and drawing it whenever they don't have one seems really bad.
by BrainsickHater
Tue Oct 21, 2014 2:04 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

Got more reps in and played against Jeskai 3 times and a mardu deck that seemed kind of similar to Brad Nelson's from GP LA.

The first two games against Jeskai were won easily enough, their manabase was a huge liability.

I lost games 2 and 3 against the mardu deck. Game 2 I threw very hard. In the first game he didn't do very much so I thought he might be on a controlling variant of mardu. I drew a second Swiftspear with five lands in play and slammed it plus stoke the flames, hoping to get him pretty dead before he could do very much. He bile blighted my swiftspears and followed up with a Stormbreath Dragon. Chained + Banishing Light + Lightning Strike never looked so awkward. I don't think I would have expected Bile Blight, but I should have held stoke; my entire life total was taken by that dragon. Game 3 I stumbled on mana and could not race Sarkhan. That guy is a huge problem for this deck.

I lost games 2 and 3 against the last Jeskai deck I played against as well. Turns out he was on the strasky variant and I didn't do enough thinking to realize it. I ended up bringing in Magma Sprays and not siding out many Searing Bloods because against the last two jeskai decks the cards were fine (those were playing rabblemaster). He ended up siding out all his gryffs and his ashcloud phoenix (because he saw Chandra game 1) so most of my two-point burn spells were pretty dead. So I ended up with some reasonably dead cards and few ways to efficiently handle a Sarkhan, which I lost to in both games. Sarkhan really is a bitch. Game 3 I think I pulled the trigger on Deflecting Palm too early and I could have scuplted the game around it to encourage him to use the lifelink mode on Jeskai Charm, which would have given me the 1 extra damage I ended up needing to win the game.

Overall I just realized how weak this deck is to Sarkhan once the waiting game begins against an opposing RWx variant. I have 2 Banishing Lights in the board, and I don't really think I want to go up to 3, so I'm wondering how else people have been beating the card. Here are some things I'll likely be trying:
- Boarding in 1x Erase against Jeskai because I've had my Banishing Light banished by theirs and I sometimes need that Sarkhan to go away.
- Actually finding some Hordeling Outbursts and using that card to destroy the waiting game since Jeskai doesn't really have cards that matchup well against it.
- Overall just being more aggressive to get the Jeskai player to low enough life total so that I can race Sarkhan with burn
- Possibly boarding my own Sarkhans, but I think the card is just worse in my deck and against theirs
- Putting more jeskai-hate cards in the board so I can board all my weak spells when need be
by BrainsickHater
Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:39 am
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

Butcher too. Curving Hordeling Outburst into Butcher lets you haste+lifelink in aggro matchups which is just nuts.

One of my friends built a mardu tokens deck. It was overall pretty shaky, but it had the interactions Brad seems to have recognized as powerful, and they were very difficult to beat.
by BrainsickHater
Mon Oct 20, 2014 12:18 am
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

So last time I checked Brad Nelson was 11-2 with a version of this deck splashing black for Sorin, Butcher, Crackling Doom, and Murderous Cut. Possibly others but I've only seen what I saw.

The mardu variant may be real.
by BrainsickHater
Fri Oct 17, 2014 11:16 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

Idk you want to be able to play control/win long games if necessary which isn't reasonable with a Master in play.

Also Master is mainly good against aggro and aggro has all but disappeared.
by BrainsickHater
Fri Oct 17, 2014 10:35 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

Cuz those cards are just stronk
by BrainsickHater
Fri Oct 17, 2014 10:35 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

I think that if you go black you get Doom and you also build around Sorin + Butcher of the Horde a little bit. You can cut some of the weaker burn spells and fill in the gaps left by Chained/blue spells with Token producers. Hordeling outburst has been very good against Jeskai and Raise the Alarm has been a played as a one-of in some Jeskai lists.
by BrainsickHater
Fri Oct 17, 2014 2:17 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

I agree in that Lightning should be Searing Blood. And if you want the 12th mountain for Chained you can make your 23rd land an evolving wilds.
by BrainsickHater
Fri Oct 17, 2014 1:55 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

^^I agree.

However, Crackling Doom is a gross card and the idea isn't awful.
by BrainsickHater
Thu Oct 16, 2014 3:13 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

I'll be pushing Jeskai as soon as I have cards. But it's RW for now.
by BrainsickHater
Thu Oct 16, 2014 2:59 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

I think splashing for dig is impractical. You end up destroying the manabase trying to produce UU, and you lose Chained to the Rocks as well as the consistency of a RW manabase. At that point you should just play Jeskai.
by BrainsickHater
Thu Oct 16, 2014 2:26 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

For now I'm on Boros because I'm a broke-ass college student.

Speaking of Boros, I'm really liking the look of Hordeling Outburst over Arc Lightning in the main. The card was very good for Brad Nelson against Jeskai, and it's still good against Aggro. Also is much better against control. Both cards are pretty meh against the green decks, so I feel like it's a good swap.
by BrainsickHater
Wed Oct 15, 2014 3:28 am
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

If you want to go bigger you should probably just play Jeskai.
I was just starting to realize this. If you are cutting 1's, 2's, and 3 drops and going bigger, that lets you play more lands that come in to play tapped, which means you don't really have any reason to not just play 3 colors.

Freedom Fliers?

Mantis Rider
Ashcloud Phoenix
Stormbreath Dragon
Burn spells, Dig's, Planeswalkers.
I was trying to put together a Jeskai List and I ended up in a direction not too far off from a Jeskai fliers deck. The idea may have merit.
by BrainsickHater
Wed Oct 15, 2014 12:14 am
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

If you want to go bigger you should probably just play Jeskai.
by BrainsickHater
Tue Oct 14, 2014 11:36 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

He needs specific company like Tarmogoyf needs specific company; they're both powerful enough (in the formats in which they see play) that it takes very little to "enable" them and they fit in a wide variety of decks.

In previous standard he was a curve-topper with high synergy in rabble-red, and in other decks he was just a very solid beater that fit somewhere in the middle of the curve.
by BrainsickHater
Tue Oct 14, 2014 10:44 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

If I'm siding in answers I want them to be able to hit Whip/Bow as well as the other stuff I need to deal with. That basically leaves Erase and Banishing Light, meaning I'm also probably on 2 Banishing Lights. I also ran Wear//Tear consistently the entire season and loved it the whole time.
I get what you mean, but I've been reading the discusson on Glare and I think it warrants some testing. Against both Junk and Mardu, their most troublesome cards get hit by Glare (Sorin + on-color fatty). Additionally Glare probably won't ever be completely dead at any point against those decks; all in all it seems solid.
by BrainsickHater
Tue Oct 14, 2014 8:43 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

Finally got a chance to play the deck at an FNM-style event. I did pretty poorly at 2-2, but finally got a non-zero amount of experience with new standard and it feels great.

Decklist:
[deck]
Creatures
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Goblin Rabblemaster

Non-creatures
4 Chained to the Rocks
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Searing Blood
4 Stoke the Flames
2 Deflecting Palm
2 Arc Lightning
1 Ride Down

1 Chandra, Pyromater

Land
11 Moutain
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Plains
1 Wind-Scarred Crag

Sideboard
3 Hushwing Gryff
1 Ashcloud Phoenix
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Satyr Firedancer
2 Banishing Light
2 Erase
1 Ride Down
[/deck]

Lots of weird card choices, all driven by either lack of cards I wanted to play or wanting to just play weird things to see how they performed. Here are my thoughts:
- Satyr Firedancer is abysmal
- Ride down is pretty good with Goblin Rabblemaster, but it unsurprisingly is absolutely terrible in certain matchups
- Deflecting Palm felt useless a lot of the time, but the threat of Deflecting Palm is very powerful. Palm is probably really good against Jeskai but I haven't played against it yet.
- Sarkhan was pretty lackluster. Costing 5 was a pretty big downside for a 22-land deck, and he's pretty meh when behind.

I played against BUG control , RUG monsters, Mardu tokens/aggro, and mono black aggro. Mono black aggro was a wash; we're insanely favored in that matchup. I thought that would be the case when I played against the mardu deck as well, but it was actually much more difficult than I expected (I ended up losing 2-0). Part of my match loss can be attributed to weak hands in both games, but afterwards a friend also on RW burn tested against the deck and also had a difficult time. I attribute the difficulty in the matchup to the presence of large haymaker cards. The mardu deck was running Sorin, Butcher of the Horde, and even such hits as Dictate of Heliod and Triplicate Spirits. These large effects were strong against me on their own, but VERY strong when played together. The RW deck really lacked a way to go over the top of threats on the level of Butcher/Sorin in longer games, which is a real problem when a deck can gain such huge amounts of life. I had a similar experience against the RUG monsters deck, as they would reach a point where they just dropped Nylea's Disciples until they were out of Deflecting Palm range. Meanwhile I couldn't go over the top of Polukranos and Savage Knuckleblade.

The ability to keep up with haymakers seems to be the real advantage that Jeskai has over RW. Jeskai gets a powerful creature in Mantis Rider, a powerful spell in Jeskai Charm, and has the huge amount of inevitability provided by running multiple Dig Through Times. RW is more consistent and can more easily create a tempo advantage, but the deck's "power" comes from how well its cards matchup with the rest of the format, not so much how powerful those cards are individually. This can be a problem when games go long and I'm looking to draw a high-impact card off the top of my library.

In fact, that's one of the reasons why I can't believe that Goblin Rabblemaster could be considered anything less than essential; he's one of the few straight-up powerful cards in the deck. He can be awkward, and oftentimes when the deck is running like greased lightning you don't even want to cast him. But, there are many times where my hand did not match up perfectly against my opponent's, and all I wanted was a powerful card I could slam down to give me a clear path to victory.

Another card I'll be maindecking is Ashcloud Phoenix. Another card that can do powerful things on its own, I have heard nothing but good things about this bird and I very much want to test it out. It's very good in a long game, but seems fine to jam down on turn 4 as well. Also, flying has been very relevant in this format so far, so having a decently-sized flying beater seems good.

This is the next list I'll be trying out:
[deck]
Creatures:
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Ashcloud Phoenix
1 Hushwing Gryff

Noncreatures:
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Searing Blood
4 Stoke the Flames
2 Arc Lightning

4 Chained to the Rocks
1 Chandra, Pyromaster

Lands:
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Battlefield Forge
11 Mountain
2 Plains
1 Evolving Wilds

Sideboard:
2 Erase
3 Magma Spray
1 Circle of Flame
1 Deflecting Palm
2 Glare of Heresy
1 Ride Down
2 Banishing Light
2 Hushwing Gryff
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
[/deck]

I think for the most part I always want to have access to a powerful endgame in my deck so I want most of the cards that help me with that in the main. The rest of the deck is your usual stuff, minus the cards that are the most narrow (I'm looking at you Deflecting Palm). My plan with the sideboard was just to play all the cards that were either extremely versatile, or very strong in one or more matchups while still being slight upgrades in others. Despite all my talk about needing a real endgame, the deck is still powerful because of how well it matches up against all the three-color shenanigans going on; so the sideboard just tries to give the deck cards that match up even better against what's on the other side of the table.

I'm still not sure on all the numbers. Maybe I want the fourth Hushwing Gryff? Maybe I want to cut one Banishing Light for a Suspension Field (since I'm running such a diverse mix of answers anyway)?
by BrainsickHater
Sat Oct 11, 2014 2:56 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

I see some Satyr Firedancer lists and some not Satyr Firedancer lists. What are peeps' opinions?
by BrainsickHater
Fri Oct 10, 2014 8:28 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

So doing damage to your opponent instead of yourself doesnt put you any closer to winning??

You act like its just a fog effect. It can do a lot of damage for 2 mana.
There are definitely times where you are behind and it is not just a fog effect. There are also situations where DP isn't much better than fog, and those situations are ones where you are behind.

Maybe the meta is such that there are always really juicy targets for Deflecting Palm and the card is worth maindecking multiples, it just seems very doubtful to me. I could be wrong though.
by BrainsickHater
Fri Oct 10, 2014 6:19 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

I don't think you can say it's better behind than ahead.

If you're behind it buys you some time but you aren't actually any closer to winning. If you're ahead it prevents them from gaining any traction against you. It's a win-more card.
by BrainsickHater
Thu Oct 09, 2014 2:22 pm
Forum: Mountain (Standard)
Topic: Boros Burn 2.0
Replies: 277
Views: 107232

The deck needs some kind of powerful endgame
Does the deck need a powerful endgame if it kills its opponent first?

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