Dies to Removal

Updates on the deck:

Abbot of Keral Keep isn't good, and certainly worse than Eidolon of the Great Revel.

I don't like Lili very much in the world of T3 Splinter Twin wins and Affinity flooding the board. Kolaghan's Command has been great, however, with all the Affinity and Merfolk running around. It has a lot of synergy with the creatures that end up on my yard, and is always live as a discard+shock in the MD.

I like Monastery Swiftspear, but she doesn't get many Prowess triggers with the low noncreature count. Goblin Guide is the better 1-drop.

I played around with Molten Vortex as a "mana sink" to help me deal with flood (instead of Figure of Destiny). I liked it a lot, and combined with Dakmor Salvage let me draw "free" shocks against decks that I need to play control against.

I even went so far as to make a transformational Life from the Loam sideboard package that was very powerful in testing. It was very unrefined (4-ofs + extra land) and probably could have been better tuned.

Been playing some Dos Rakis for fun.

[deck]Dos Rakis[/deck]

Yes, but it still needs refining. And a sideboard.

I haven't played the Angler, but Tasigur coming down a turn earlier has been relevant. Occasionally I can play him before FA.

Here's the current pile -

[deck]Land:22
4 Blood Crypt
2 Stomping Ground
4 Arid Mesa
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Graven Cairns

Creatures:26
4 Goblin Guide
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Dark Confidant
4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

Spells:12
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Terminate
4 Brimstone Volley

Sideboard:15[/deck]

Tasigur is pretty great. I have the pair of Stomping Grounds for some card draw off him (it's win-more, admittedly, but sometimes games go long).

Brimstone Volley is the bees knees right now, with Gurmag Anglers, Tasigurs, Goyfs and Siege Rhinos running around.

Terminate was Searing Blaze, but then Twin came back.

I haven't looked at much of the new set re. Dos Rakis, but Dragon Whisperer is great in the 2-spot.

re. the sideboard -

Bloodchief Ascension is for decks that try to combo off with a bunch of spells (Storm, Burn) or stuff that requires sacrifice before winning (Scapeshift).

Rakdos Charm is for Twin, Affinity, Living End and sometimes mass-token decks.

Bloodghast comes in when I'm against a creature-light deck and I want more threats.

Pact is for Titans / Twin.

Illness for Twin / Tokens.

Regarding 1-drops, it depends what you're looking to accomplish. Swiftspear, Goblin Guide and Grim Lavamancer are the best, followed by Figure of Destiny, then Rakdos Cackler / Mogg Fanatic depending on meta. FoD is better for the mid-game, Mogg best in a meta full of Pod (hence bad right now).

If I wasn't running Liliana, I'd run Bitterblossom, Ashenmoor Gouger or bump the curve up a bit for Stoke the Flames. There's a tension between enough creatures to keep Aristocrat fed and non-creature spells to pump Swiftspear. I like Bitterblossom the best.

stuffy:

The deck looks pretty good, and fairly close to what I'm currently running, which I'll post at the end of this.

You don't need Pillar anymore with Pod banned. You're likely going to run up against Affinity/Junk in the aggro matchups, so you can pick your cards accordingly. I prefer Terminate or Searing Blaze with Dismember or Slaughter Pact in the side, with numbers dependent on the meta at large.

Dreadbore is OK in grindy midrange matches, but Terminate is usually better. There aren't a lot of Planeswalkers in the format, so your primary method of dispatching them is with haste creatures and removing blockers. Terminate gives you an edge against Twin and Affinity, which I think you'll need. If that Bloom Titan deck takes off, you'll need instant speed kill for Primeval Titan.

I love Slaughter Pact to keep up board pressure without having to leave mana up for removal, but not being able to kill Siege Rhino is a blowout.

[deck]Modern Dos Rakis v. 1.11[/deck]

I'm running Terminate as my "must answer" removal card, with Liliana to deal with slower creatures at sorcery speed.

If I changed anything, it would be the 4 Blackcleave Cliffs. I'm trying to curve out to 4, and I want to do it reliably. I've been frustrated many times by keeping a 3-lander with Falkenrath Aristocrat and drawing a Blackcleave Cliffs on turn 4.

I found the replays, I'll look at them tomorrow morning before work.

I think you're right about Terminate. I goldfished for a while and YP$ isn't great, so I'll put some Terminates in his spot, plus a single or pair of Burst Lightning.

I like Pillar, especially when I'm fighting Voice of Resurgence. Do you run Magma Spray in Delver?

I've been giving thought to the old Standard tech of Brimstone Volley since it deals so well with Siege Rhino.

I think Shadow Guildmage would be a great way to rebuy Snapcasters and pick off mana dorks. Would live in Grim Lavamancer's spot.

I had an idea while driving to work that a blue splash for Snapcaster Mage could synergize well with other cards already in the deck.

Snappy is a human, and lets me abuse the well-established Bolt-Snap-Bolt combo. Replaying Pillars and Bolts gives me extra Prowess triggers off of Monastery Swiftspear. He can replay any spells I discard to Liliana. After he serves his purpose, Falkenrath Aristocrat turns him into a +1/+1 counter. Value!

I already have Caverns, so the only mana base adjustment would be a Steam Vents and a Watery Grave.

I would replace Eidolon with Snapcaster Mage, and trade in Bloodghast for Young Pyromancer.

How's this? I get the warm fuzzies just looking at it.

[deck]Modern Dos Rakis v. 1.10[/deck]

No, the screenshot above was from that match. I only remember the cards you can see up there.

Here's the video link, if anyone wants to watch it in action - http://www.twitch.tv/hamfactorial/b/596915706. The first round vs. Jeskai Ascendancy was bugging out, but it was hardly worth watching.

I played against the Rhino/Thrag/Disciple deck a few days ago, I thought it was good. It seemed a bit cute, like a worse version of Pod, but it definitely stalled up the ground and drew a lot of cards.

The list for reference -

[deck] Modern Dos Rakis v. 1.09[/deck]

Went 2-2, losing to Burn twice but beating Pod and Jeskai Ascendancy combo. I was happy with the deck but I think my decision to board in Molten Rain vs Burn was very wrong.

I talked between rounds about dropping Molten Rain from the SB, so I'll think more about what that spot should be. I think Bloodchief Ascension is great, I just got hosed in round 2 and 4 when I was stuck on 2 counters and when I got it blown up with Destructive Revelry.

Round 1 - Win vs. Jeskai Ascendancy combo (2-0)

I'll spend some time figuring out this stream, since the first round was so laughably quick.

Scratch that, both FFsplit and OBS are acting up. I'll post the results here after the daily

The Necromancers are OK, but not great. In fact, thinking about them now, they're only good when I get hit with a sweeper. Will try again tonight with Prophetic Flamespeaker or some other mystery 3 drop.

Maybe I'll just skip the 3 spot entirely and flesh out the 2 spot.

Or play some Swords for prowess triggers that don't suck with my other creatures.

Anyway, I'll stream whatever pile I decide on tomorrow during the 4 PM (PST) daily.

OK, now we're getting somewhere -

[deck]Modern Dos Rakis v. 1.08[/deck]

I was running Terminate alongside Cavern of Souls and having some consistency issues. Dismember fixes that particular trouble, and I can fire it off of a Cavern in an emergency. I like having a panic button against the bigger creature decks packing Siege Rhino, Tarmogoyf and friends. It hurts a little more with Dark Confidant, but not significantly. I can usually get some black sources to avoid the life loss, but having to choose between playing a creature and casting removal in the same turn was getting on my nerves.

I really like the Caverns. I have 3 creature types (Human, Spirit, Vampire) so drawing a few Caverns in a game doesn't annoy me. The first one names Human if I'm facing control, second on Vampire.

If you want to be really slick, you could easily swap Eidolon for Young Pyromancer.

This seems like a favorable board state for me -

Back in the land of aggro Dos Rakis, I'm interested in trying out Grim Haruspex and Xathrid Necromancer.

If that's not greedy enough, Prophetic Flamespeaker.

I have no idea if this is good, but I brewed this up while scouring Gatherer for playable Modern humans in the 3 spot -

[deck]Modern Dos Rakis v. 1.07[/deck]

The draw here is Agent of the Fates. The handful of cheap burn spells can either target the opponent on an empty board or split damage between an opponent's face and the Agent for a non-targeted edict to get around Leylines. Darkblast can be recurred from the GY over and over for value, and Agent lives through it.

The density of modular burn may even be unnecessary, since a 3/2 with Deathtouch is still pretty good. It all synergizes well with Monastery Swiftspear.

All the humans makes Cavern of Souls attractive, which should help sneak some wins against Scapeshift, Delver and UWR's counterspells.

This may be a completely different archetype that Dos Rakis aggro, but I wanted to write it down before I forgot about it.

I played in the practice room all morning until downtime with the following -

[deck]Modern Dos Rakis v. 1.06[/deck]

I didn't lose any matches. I played against UR Delver twice, Scapeshift twice, the RW Burn deck with Mutagenic Growth, Tron, Junk Pod/Midrange, and a RUG Twin deck.

I don't need the Boils anymore, since Fulminator Mage does everything I want against Scapeshift. I put a pair of Dismembers to deal with big creatures in the battlecruiser matchups like Rhino Pod. The Grim Lavamancers come out, Dismembers go in

The current creature flex spots are the following -

[deck]d00dz[/deck]

I don't particularly like the Dragonlords (they're slow), and the Grim Lavamancers aren't usually doing much so I'm scouring Gatherer for better options.

I realized something very neat by accident when playing with Stonewright. If I attack with an unpaired Stonewright, I can recur Bloodsoaked Champion at instant speed and then pair them up to deal with surprise/bigger blockers.

Stonewright plays well with first striking creatures, so I'm looking around for the best 2-drop with first strike. Ash Zealot, Blood Knight and Plated Geopede all come to mind. 2/2 first striking humans both seem quite good. There isn't much flashback right now, so Ash Zealot probably isn't doming anyone for 3 as Snapcaster Mage falls out of favor, but the haste is great. There's a lot of white creatures floating around in Pod, so Blood Knight seems nice, if a bit slow. Plated Geopede gets pretty big when I'm making land drops and fetching without mana investment. They all fail the Lightning Bolt test, but so does everything else in the deck.

I also noticed that Khans brought us Gurmag Swiftwing which is interesting, and certainly something I would have liked to play in the old Dos Rakis deck. The 1/2 body is unimpressive, but it has haste, flying, and first strike.

I'll try them all out for lulz. If they're still unimpressive, I'll just put in a pair of Pack Rats and coast to victory.

I'd like some input from the crowd. When looking at 1-drops, I have Goblin Guide and Monastery Swiftspear as my hasty threats, Bloodsoaked Champion for resiliency and a pair of Grim Lavamancer for the mid-late game.

Monastery Swiftspear is mediocre without enough non-creature spells, but is a human, which plays nicely with Falkenrath Aristocrat. The haste makes it easy to recur Bloodsoaked Champion on T3 or later.

The core of the deck includes 4 Pillar of Flame and 4 Lightning Bolt. I don't think this is enough to make Swiftspear worthwhile. Swiftspear is routinely a 1/2 or a 2/3 for a turn, which make me think she's the wrong fit for the deck.

What should I be running in her place? I'm thinking about the following -

[cards]Rakdos Cackler
Stonewright
Gnarled Scarhide
Figure of Destiny
Firedrinker Satyr[/cards]

Stonewright/FoD are my current favorites of the bunch. I like them for very different reasons.

Stonewright lets me use my mana every turn in combat, lets small creatures attack into bigger ones, and pumps a Falkenrath Aristocrat for an alpha strike. It sucks on its own, but pairs up very well. It's a human, which is groovy.

FoD is also a great mana sink, but forces me to put my eggs into one basket in a format with cheap removal. Dumping 10 mana to make him ultimate just to meet a Path to Exile is disappointing. It can be pumped flexibly, but requires mana in chunks of 3 or 6 all at once, which is uncommon in this deck.

Both cards are great in the late game.

So the question is - do I run another 1-drop, or do I bump my non-creature spell count up to make Swiftspear worthwhile? How many spells before she becomes good? I'm not sure I can justify running an aggro deck without a density of dudes.

This core of removal/burn seems like good value -

[Deck]4 Pillar of Flame
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Searing Blaze[/deck]

Beyond that I struggle to justify cutting creatures for burn. Is this enough?

I saw similar debates in last year's PyroRed regarding Young Pyromancer and burn spell density, so I'm curious where the split worked out. I'm sure it's relevant here.

I'll stream this hot mess on Saturday

I'm going to run Fulminator Mage in the 3 slot as an extra Scapeshift hedge. The Phoenixes were so-so.

The Bloodchief Ascensions are great, jury is still out on Boil since I haven't drawn it yet

Lost to bogles in the finals, didn't see my SB Spellskites

I'm waiting around for the 3rd round to start of this 8-man, but this list is running fairly well -

[deck]Modern Dos Rakis v. 1.05[/deck]

The Mogg Fanatic is a mistake, I submitted the wrong version of the deck by accident. It should be 4 Pillar of Flame instead, which makes Swiftspear look more reasonable. It may be better as Forked Bolt or Burst Lightning. It's mostly a Pod hedge, since I can get brickwalled on the ground with all my small dudes.

The sideboard Boils are for Scapeshift, which is tech I saw discussed somewhere. Those bastards run enough Islands and Steam Vents that the card is a blowout if it ever resolves (pre- or post-Scapeshift). It may be better as Molten Rain.

After testing Bitterblossom in Dark Confidant's place, I can reliably judge it a bad choice as a Dark Confidant replacement. It may be good alongside it, but not a fan of it as a direct swap.

The faerie tokens played nicely with Falkenrath Aristocrat but mostly the enchantment just killed me slowly. There were a number of games I lost that would have been easy wins if I had Dark Confidant's body to attack a few times.

Thanks Val, your reasoning is the same as mine.

BB triggers Prowess, which pleases me, and plays defense far better than Confidant. Non-bo with my SB Illness in the Ranks, but I can't have it all. A faerie token with a sword seems like a nice plan B when my Aristocrats aren't nearby.

Swapping Confidant into Bitterblossom makes me more inclined to include fan favorite Stoke the Flames, but that's probably pushing it.

Aodh:

Affinity needs to have an explosive combo element since it's basically a pile of underpowered cards that suck on their own, but can deliver a lot of damage in small bursts.

This deck is similar, but each card is individually more powerful. The synergies are there, too, but nothing as broken as Cranial Plating and Inkmoth Nexus.

Beating my opponent down to 8-10 and then dropping a pair of Eidolons has to be the most satisfying red deck soft lock available.

I was thinking about running Bitterblossom in Confidant's place. Thoughts?

Some brainstorming suggests that replacing something with Bitterblossom makes both Falkenrath Aristocrat and Swiftspear better.

I'll just buy the damn things. YOLO

I won an 8 man over the weekend (didn't have time for the daily) and crushed a bunch of practice matches this morning.

The deck hits hard and doesn't quit. In a fast T4 format like Modern, I think this is even better than it was in Standard, since the pressure is on to do something powerful and I have access to better mana and better threats.

I've had a lot of success playing beatdown in Modern. Affinity has been a top deck for years, and now Delver is getting there on the back of 1/1 Elemental tokens.

Playing Black in a Red deck gives me a lot of flexibility that keeps me from just losing to combo.

Current deck list please - thanks!

[deck]Modern Dos Rakis v. 1.04[/deck]

Further testing reveals that Bloodghast is good, but not great. Occasionally, it combos with Liliana and a fetchland, but it's usually just a slow 2/2. Kind of meh compared to the other great 2-drops.

With the 14 non-creature spell package I have now, I'm going to try Swiftspear in Bloodghast's place.

I've been sick for the last 2 days, so I just played a ton of MTGO and figured out the list. I had the most success with this -

[deck]Modern Dos Rakis v. 1.03[/deck]

I was worried about Burn and Delver before, but I'm faster than them (T4 kills are common) and having access to Darkblast does a lot for me. Bolts aren't as scary when 8 of my guys can be recurred from the GY.

The Darkblast used to be Grim Lavamancer, but he consistently died before I got to use him. The Darkblast picks off mana dorks and tokens, which Grim Lavamancer was never fast enough to do. Darkblast can even be saved for an upkeep-dredge-draw to kill a 2 toughness creature.

The worst matchup was Pod because they gum up the ground so well, committing me to Falkenrath Aristocrat beatdown. As a compromise, I put in Pillar of Flame to help deal with Kitchen Finks. If you played Dos Rakis vs. Zombies in Standard, just think of Finks as a better version of Geralf's Messenger. You need Pillar here. Pillar deals with Swiftspear and a flipped Delver, too.

Bloodchief Ascension is fantastic, and the Scapeshift/Burn matchups are nearly impossible to lose once it becomes active. I bring it in for Liliana against these sorts of decks, plus a few Spellskite and Slaughter Games.

I had 59 cards, so I put a sword in over a 23rd land.