R/b Aggro aka "Dos Rakis"

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Postby Link » Fri Mar 21, 2014 3:51 am

Nuwen went 4-0 at Thursday standard beating:

R/W Burn
G/u Devotion
U/B Control
Esper (guy who beat me T_T)



She didn't cast Cerberus all night (bad against G/u devotion because of dorks and rift), but she did cast Rakdos's Return against Burn and apparently all he could do was cast helix in response and dump his hand in the GY.

Esper MU felt really solid, they have to stumble but they usually do. They can't bring doom blades in if that's what they're on so its super good for this meta

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Postby Valdarith » Fri Mar 21, 2014 4:00 am

Yeah, RR is a huge beating against burn.
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Postby poppa_f » Fri Mar 21, 2014 10:02 am

+1 for RR against Burn, I still think it's our best chance.

I played in my LGS standard last night, went 2-2. I was short a couple of cards, so ended up playing a 25 land version with 2 vaults and 3 dragons. Lost a tight first match against mono-U (flooded out in the decider, regretted not boarding in my thoughtseizes, as an early Thassa made all the difference). Beat Dimir control in the second match (had the nut draw in the decider of cackler in to spike jester, in to herald in to Exava). Lost next match 2-1 to dredge and then had a bye in the final round. Dredge feels like a really bad matchup, as your hand disruption is way less powerful against them. Fortunately hardly anyone plays it. On a side-note, I really like ratchet bomb in the sideboard: good against fast aggro, works as a catch-all answer to awkward cards like fiendslayer and blind obedience, and also a hedge against hexproof, tokens and heroic.

This will
be my current 75 going forwards, will try and give it a good thrash this weekend on MODO:
current
[deck]Creatures:21
4 Rakdos Cackler
2 Tormented Hero
4 Spike Jester
4 Herald of Torment
2 Lifebane Zombie
3 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
2 Stormbreath Dragon

Spells:15
2 Bile Blight
3 Dreadbore
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Lightning Strike
1 Rakdos's Return
1 Ultimate Price
1 Hero's Downfall
2 Read the Bones
1 Whip of Erebos

Lands:24
4 Blood Crypt
5 Mountain
1 Mutavault
1 Rakdos Guildgate
9 Swamp
4 Temple of Malice

Sideboard:15
4 Thoughtseize
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Pharika's Cure
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Ultimate Price
1 Crypt Incursion
2 Lifebane Zombie
1 Whip of Erebos[/deck]
Last edited by poppa_f on Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby dpaine88 » Fri Mar 21, 2014 3:11 pm

Yeah after goldfishing about 15 hands, this deck is hungry as hell for mana thats for sure.

I am considering going down to 24 lands as well.

Ran 24 in Dos Rakis all last season with a similar setup (4 Falkenwrath, 3 Thundermaw) vs todays setup of 3 exava, 1 whip, 3 dragon.

With scry lands too, I think that helps with 24.


What do to with the extra card is the question... I personally am thinking 3rd LBZ or 1 Ultimate price.


ALso, we gotta figure out if we want Whip or RR in the maindeck? Both good against burn. RR better against control and MBC. Whip better vs creature decks.
Burn baby burn!

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Postby Link » Fri Mar 21, 2014 5:05 pm

if you're playing heavier black LBZ is one of the chief reasons to do it

and yeah I'd add him (threat, intimidate, potential 2-1) before a reactive card like UP

if youre playing bile blights and reactive cards you should probably just go pure midrange R/B with desecration demons (youre heaving black already) and hero's downfallsx4

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Postby Link » Fri Mar 21, 2014 5:06 pm

aka drop the tormented heros and the herald of torments unless you want to go a more dedicated B/r aggro build (which will require you tto drop bile blights, read the bones, and a few others I dont have time to get into)

@poppa

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Postby dpaine88 » Fri Mar 21, 2014 6:40 pm

Thanks for the input Fate.

Trying to figure out what land to cut.

Maybe cut Mutavault for LBZ?

Don't think I can add another one and remove a Swamp. This deck needs colored mana so bad.
Burn baby burn!

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Postby dpaine88 » Fri Mar 21, 2014 9:41 pm

Testing at FNM tonight.

Main deck whip.

Cut Mutavault for LBZ
Burn baby burn!

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Postby magicdownunder » Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:27 am

I have a feeling that fate is talking about completely different BR deck then the one we're playing (ours has taken a few recent RL event, PE and DEs and has been mention in SCG articles).

Fate can you post a deck list? This is making the discussion very confusing since we're talking about applies and oranges except we (me at least) have no idea how your orange looks likes?
Last edited by magicdownunder on Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby poppa_f » Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:19 am

I think he's taking about my B/r list MDU :)

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Postby poppa_f » Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:17 pm

Really liking ratchet bomb in the sideboard, basically hoses anyone trying to play blitz against you.

Just had a very satisfying game against RUG monsters where I had the nut draw of thoughtseize in to LBZ. Almost impossible for them to win when this happens

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Postby dpaine88 » Sun Mar 23, 2014 2:47 am

Blah... Did good at FNM only losing in finals.

At the Tcg1k I went 1-2 drop n sucked.

Lost to mono red aggro n Monsters.

Deck ran bad but still, even when I won the past two days I had to WORK for it. Tough as hell.

A lot of wins were just cause my opponents made bad mistakes.

Felt like I did not have the right threats or got the wrong threats at the wrong time.
Burn baby burn!

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Postby Link » Sun Mar 23, 2014 7:51 pm

sorry been phone posting, will post a B/r list.next week as well as.the R/b list weve worked on

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Postby Jedi_Knight » Sun Mar 23, 2014 9:01 pm

Having a terrible streak today... even managed to fuck up a Maze's End game. I started doing statistics and my %winrate dropped 6% today. Lovely. Had two opps timeout in a daily too so at least there's that (one just right now).

Burn matchup is depressing to be honest. With everyone and their mother packing BlOb now we're getting significantly weaker in control MUs. I am gonna try Thoughtseize main. Why the fuck not. Discards. Solves problems.

Also GRx feels like a bye - fucked up one match today, score before that was 5-0 without losing a single game. B/W seems to be on the downlow so as far as I am concerned it's time to focus on our bad matchups (meaning Burn and Ux devo out of usual stuff): cutting LBZ to the side, gonna toy with TS for now.

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Postby poppa_f » Sun Mar 23, 2014 10:23 pm

I think I saw you in a couple of dailies :)

I was up and down today, had one really bad game where the G/R guy had a rampager on the board and 2 flesh//blood in hand. I had read the bones and mizzium in hand and 4 lands in play, I cast read the bones and didn't see a single land in the 4, so I couldn't play the extra land to mizzium his guy. Next turn he double bloods me and swings for lethal.

On the flip side, I did top deck ratchet bomb against a naya hexproof deck that had glade cover scout wearing 2 unflinching courage on the board, so I guess it all evens out

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Postby Jedi_Knight » Sun Mar 23, 2014 10:58 pm

Yeah, I always forget about the rampagers, know the feeling.

Current brew:

[deck]Lands (24)
4 Temple of Malice
4 Blood Crypt
2 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Mutavault
7 Mountain
6 Swamp

Creatures (17)
4 Spike Jester
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Hellhole Flailer
3 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
3 Stormbreath Dragon

Spells (19)
2 Shock
4 Thoughtseize
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
3 Dreadbore
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Whip of Erebos

Sideboard
3 Dark Betrayal
3 Skullcrack
3 Doom Blade
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Lifebane Zombie
1 Rakdos's Return[/deck]

Yeah right: Hellhole Flailer. If I am trying weird things why not go all nuts. Actually helped me against verdict: with BlOb running rampant I very much prefer an upside to being tapped. Tried YP$ again today too, just doesn't FEEL him.

SB need work. Liek serious. Too many of everything. Also this pile is much less explosive.

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Postby poppa_f » Mon Mar 24, 2014 10:46 am

I've considered running hellhole flailer before, but I don't think it helps much in many of the key matchups.

Against MBD and U/x control, the gameplan is to get cheap threats out and overwhelm them, and the lack of haste here is bad (and it dies to all of their main removal).

Against G/x monsters we basically want to tempo them to death before they can get their threats and CA online, so evasive hasty threats are best.

If BlOb is causing problems then my suggestion is to run ratchet bomb in the sideboard. It's a good hedge against blitz aggro and hexproof as well, so range is reasonable imo, I normally bring in a single copy against MBD as well, as it's a good backup plan for rats and can deal with underworld connections.

My main worry with your 75 is that it has too many "shock" effects MB. The two most common decks in the current online meta are MBD and G/R/x monsters and 6 shocks is a massive
handicap against these decks, as it is bad in lots of situations against them. I know it's a good synergy with the phoenix, but don't think that's enough to justify 6. I'd swap 2 out, either for more terror effects or mizzium.

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Postby Wipe Out » Mon Mar 24, 2014 8:21 pm

How are people feeling about R/b's place compared to other options like Boros Burn or Pyroblack? I was very excited for this deck and informal testing was going well. Due to RL I was unable to play much paper magic for awhile and upon returning to FNMs I have had to really work hard with this deck. Obviously Jedi and MDU are having success with it, but does it look like a really strong option moving forward? I might just be a little discouraged due to rustiness and some variance.

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Postby magicdownunder » Mon Mar 24, 2014 8:57 pm

Pyroblack and Boros Burn are more consistence then RB Aggro-Control.

RB however runs more stronger standalone cards, it important to note that RB has a rather poor Burn MU (esp. with BO) but it sport a positive MU against the Bx, Wx, Ux and Grx MUs.

That said here are some replays:

Standard Elimination Report (Event 6823122)
Standard Elimination R1 RB Aggro vs Maze End Event 6823122
Standard Elimination R2 RB Aggro vs Naya Beats Event 6823122
Standard Elimination R3 Split
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Postby rcwraspy » Mon Mar 24, 2014 9:00 pm

gonna start goldfishing this:

[deck]
Creature (26)
4x Tormented Hero
4x Rakdos Cackler
4x Spike Jester
3x Pain Seer
4x Herald of Torment
3x Lifebane Zombie
2x Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
2x Stormbreath Dragon

Instant (3)
3x Hero's Downfall

Sorcery (7)
3x Dreadbore
4x Thoughtseize

Land (24)
4x Blood Crypt
2x Mountain
2x Rakdos Guildgate
12x Swamp
4x Temple of Malice
[/deck]

It's very close to Mono Black Aggro but with some red for Exava, Stormbreath, Spike Jester, and Dreadbore.
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Postby Jedi_Knight » Tue Mar 25, 2014 12:53 am

What MDU said. We present a powerful suit of threat and answers, but we don't have the consistency of the "curve out and kill them" decks.

I for one am inclined to start over from scratch: in current meta we cannot expect to succeed without at least a near even match with burn (I would be OK with even a 40% chance actually). The question is whether it is even possible with their access to Charm and Helix. Is our access to discard enough? Because we for sure are not able to race them every game, certainly not with half our threats at 3+ mana.

We need the consistency other decks have while maintaining a pressure that red inherently has. Everything else is secondary: we cannot reliably outcontrol MBC or Esper while our colors give us all the answers we need to assume the control role in creature matchups.

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Postby AcidPith » Tue Mar 25, 2014 5:14 am

[deck]Sorcery (7):
4x Dreadbore
3x Thoughtseize

Instant (2):
2x Hero's Downfall

Creature (28):
3x Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
4x Herald of Torment
3x Mogis's Marauder
3x Rakdos Cackler
4x Rakdos Shred-Freak
4x Spike Jester
4x Tormented Hero
3x Xathrid Necromancer

Land (23):
4x Blood Crypt
3x Mountain
12x Swamp
4x Temple of Malice

Sideboard (15):
2x Duress
1x Erebos, God of the Dead
2x Gift of Orzhova
2x Hero's Downfall
3x Lifebane Zombie
4x Mizzium Mortars
1x Ratchet Bomb
[/deck]

Hi guys! Just joined the forum to contribute back. This is a deck I have been working with. It is close to a mono black aggro but has a splash of red for some rakdos cards and has a human theme. The Xathrid Necromancer can really put some pressure on control and removal decks. I was aiming for a low curve and hyper fast aggro close to red's speed. Thanks for any feedback in
advance. The ideas and teamwork on this site is amazing. Keep up the good work!

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Postby RaidaTheBlade » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:27 am

I for one am inclined to start over from scratch...
I find myself agreeing, it's why I've been mia for a little while. I wasn't sure what to do with the deck... I threw together a quick build a few minutes ago, which is really rough but sorta shows my thoughts.

I'd like to get back to a more normal aggro deck. We ventured too far into midrange IMO, and I think we did start to suffer. This list is, again, rough, but is a quick think to stare at and think on.

[deck]
Creature (22)
4 Rakdos Cackler
2 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Spike Jester
3 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
2 Stormbreath Dragon

Instant (10)
2 Hero's Downfall
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet

Sorcery (3)
3 Dreadbore

Planeswalker(2)
2
Chandra, Pyromaster

Land(23)
4 Blood Crypt
4 Temple of Malice
2 Mutavault
8 Mountain
5 Swamp

Sideboard (15)
3 Skullcrack
3 Doom Blade
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Whip of Erebos
2 Lifebane Zombie
2 Mizzium Mortars
[/deck]

Quick and dirty sb plan:
G or w based aggro: -4 Cackler, -2 Satyr, -3 Jester, +3 Doom Blade, +2 Whip, +2 Lbz, +2 Mortars
U/x devo: -4 Cackler, -2 Satyr, -3 Jester, +3 Doom Blade, +2 Whip, +2 Lbz, +2 Mortars
U/w Control: -2 Chandra, -2 Downfall, -1 Dreadbore, +3 Skullcrack, +2 Lbz
Esper control (with BBoV and Obz): -2 Chandra, -2 Downfall, -3 Dreadbore, +3 Skullcrack, +2 Lbz, +2 Mortars
B/x Devo: -2 Chandra, -2 Dragon, -2 Magma Jet, +3 Skullcrack, +3 Dark Betrayal
B/w Control: B/x Devo: -2 Chandra, -2 Dragon, -2 Magma Jet, -3 Dreadbore, +3 Skullcrack, +3 Dark Betrayal, +2 Mortars, +2 Lbz
Burn: -3 Dreadbore, -2 Hero's Downfall, +3 Skullcrack, +2 Whip.

Like I said, quick and dirty. Also probably not amazing, but it's a start I guess. It's kinda just going back to being
a fast damn aggro deck with some interesting tools.

Chandra is good, but is getting sided out a lot sadly, so maybe whip main. Dunno, was just something I threw together for thought-experiment purposes.
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Postby RaidaTheBlade » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:42 am

If you think that list is crap (and I wouldn't much blame you. Again, my excuse is that it was an experiment), then we could also try and look back a bit and work some on a previous version.

The list I ran at gameday and a fnm or two to some success could bare some revisiting.
That was the one before we started running LBZ main. It had 2 flame-wreathed instead of the lbz's. I think that we could start there again and try and modify it to help vs burn, but keep the more red-focus, to help improve consistency.

That deck, with a few modifications along those lines would look like:

[deck]
Lands 24
7 Mountain
5 Swamp
4 Blood Crypt
4 Temple Of Malice
2 Rakdos Guildgate
2 Mutavault

Creatures 22
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Spike Jester
2 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
2 Flame-Wreathed Phoenix
3 Stormbreath Dragon

Spells 15
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
3 Dreadbore
2 Hero's
Downfall

Enchantment/Artifact 1
1 Whip of Erebos

Sideboard 15
3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Dark Betrayal
3 Doom Blade
3 Skullcrack
1 Whip of Erebos
[/deck]

Drop the low-impact shocks for 2 zealots for a bit more consistency in getting an early drop, and a whip for the lifegain and reuse.
Then in the sideboard have a second whip since it's quite useful vs burn and other aggros.

A bit rough, but still a valid build I think. Probaly even more so then the last one I just posted.
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Postby magicdownunder » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:06 am

Black red Humies by SaintP2

[deck=Br Humies (aka Br Devotion) by SaintP2]Lands 24
4 Blood Crypt
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
12 Swamp
4 Temple of Malice

Creatures 25
3 Agent of the Fates
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Mogis, God of Slaughter
1 Mogis's Marauder
2 Nighthowler
2 Pain Seer
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak
4 Tormented Hero
4 Xathrid Necromancer

Support 11
4 Bile Blight
1 Dark Prophecy
2 Rakdos's Return
3 Underworld Connections
1 Whip of Erebos

Sideboard 15
2 Dark Betrayal
2 Devour Flesh
2 Doom Blade
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Pharika's Cure
2 Rakdos's Return
1 Thoughtseize
1 Whip of Erebos[/deck]

How does it win? I have no clue, but it did something right since it went 6-1 during a PE.

How would I tackle the RB Aggro archetype now with Burn running rampant? Not sure, I do have black cards again (thanks Jonny) so I can do some testing - but I think maybe its time
for something REALLY crazy again.
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Postby Guttler » Tue Mar 25, 2014 8:16 am

I'm going to play the deck in the SCG Invitational this weekend. I've had great success with the deck in about a dozen paper tournaments leading up to this big one. It's a solid deck that has some good and some bad match ups and the bad ones don't feel too far out of reach either.

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Postby poppa_f » Tue Mar 25, 2014 3:19 pm

I think the main problem with the R/x list is that it has lost power, whereas the other tier 1 decks have all got stronger post BotG.

Mono-black got bile blight and drown in sorrow, G/R got Courser of Kruphix and Xenogod, U/x control got scrylands. W/x got Brimaz.

Pyrowhite had Chandra for card draw and falter effects. It had a lot of card advantage effects from Phoenix, YP, Magma Jet and the flexibility to go play aggro or control. Probably it's most powerful weapon was the bait-and-switch tactic, where you'd play blitz aggro game 2, but then pivot to control in game 2 and completely wrong-foot their sideboard choices. This tactic was complemented by the fact that it ran creatures like YP and Ash which were good on offence and defence.

A lot of these tactics have now been negated by bile blight / drown in sorrow and courser. If we play blitz aggro then black has sweepers. Our creatures now get stonewalled by
Caryatid and Courser. We no longer have inevitability via Chandra, mutavault etc. In fact we have the opposite, games that go long we will tend to lose now. This is compounded by the meta being dominated by MBD and G/R/x monsters now.

One solution is to move away from creatures and go more burn, which is basically what Z has done with a lot of success. The other solution imo is to go for a B/r shell, which gives you the tools and tactics to beat the "big 2" in the meta:
- Against black your game plan is still to be blitz beatdown, the difference now is that you use thoughtseize as a pre-emptive solution for sweepers. This match-up was never a slam-dunk originally and remains probably 50/50 against a good player though imo
- Against G/R/x monsters we go all-in on hand-disruption. Post-board we have 4 thoughtseize and 4 LBZ. If we fire these both off by turn 3 we will normally win. Their removal is all sorcery speed and their blockers are mostly ground based, so hasty evasive creatures combined
with early hand disruption should let you tempo them to death. This match-up should be favourable, especially if you have some LBZs main

The reason we go B/r over R/B is because it means we can consistently cast thoughtseize on turn 1, LBZ on turn 3 and run 2 mutavaults (just about). We lose Chandra's Phoenix (bad), but we have a decent replacement in Herald of Torment. We also have read the bones for card advantage and a single Whip of Erebos, which is a hedge against aggro, but can also be crucial against decks like MBD, where you are both trading removal for creatures (and you have some great whip targets in Herald, Exava, LBZ etc). We also get to play Bile Blight, which is the best anti-rat tech available, kills reckoner + MoW and will occasionally 2-4-1 (although it is bad against G/R and control).

This is the 75 I'm playing at the moment:
B/r aggro
[deck]Sorcery (8)
3x Dreadbore
2x Mizzium Mortars
1x Rakdos's Return
2x Read the Bones

Instant (6)
2x
Bile Blight
1x Hero's Downfall
2x Magma Jet
1x Ultimate Price

Land (24)
4x Blood Crypt
4x Mountain
2x Mutavault
1x Rakdos Guildgate
9x Swamp
4x Temple of Malice

Enchantment (1)
1x Whip of Erebos
Creature (21)
3x Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
4x Herald of Torment
2x Lifebane Zombie
4x Rakdos Cackler
4x Spike Jester
2x Stormbreath Dragon
2x Tormented Hero

Sideboard (15)
1x Crypt Incursion
2x Lifebane Zombie
2x Mizzium Mortars
2x Pharika's Cure
2x Ratchet Bomb
4x Thoughtseize
1x Ultimate Price
1x Whip of Erebos[/deck]
sideboarding plan
Mono-black
OUT: 2 magma jet, 2 mizzium, 2 LBZ
IN: 4 thoughtseize, 1 ratchet bomb, 1 whip

G/R/x monsters
OUT: 2 tormented hero, 2 cackler, 2 bile blight, 2 magma jet, 1 rakdos returns
IN: 2 LBZ, 4 thoughtseize, 1 ultimate price, 2 mizzium

U/x control
OUT: 2 bile blight, 2 mizzium, 2 magma jet, 1 Hero's Downfall
IN: 4 Thoughtseize, 2 LBZ, 1 ratchet bomb

nMono-U devotion
OUT: 2 tormented hero, 4 cackler, 4 spike jester, 2 magma jet
IN: 2 LBZ, 4 thoughtseize, 1 whip, 2 pharika's cure, 2 ratchet bomb, 1 ultimate price

Small Aggro
OUT: 2 tormented hero, 4 cackler, 3 spike jester
IN: 1 whip, 2 pharika's cure, 2 ratchet bomb, 2 mizzium, 1 ultimate price, 1 crypt incursion

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Purp
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Postby Purp » Tue Mar 25, 2014 3:33 pm

I'm going to play the deck in the SCG Invitational this weekend. I've had great success with the deck in about a dozen paper tournaments leading up to this big one. It's a solid deck that has some good and some bad match ups and the bad ones don't feel too far out of reach either.
I will rocking my FoS/DtR shirt, find me!
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yurp yurp

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Postby poppa_f » Tue Mar 25, 2014 3:43 pm

on side-note, someone showed me this awesome Chrome extension today, which makes all card names on web pages mouse-overable to get the gatherer picture:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... fabg?hl=en

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Postby Pedros » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:04 pm

Black red Humies by SaintP2

[deck=Br Humies (aka Br Devotion) by SaintP2]Lands 24
4 Blood Crypt
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
12 Swamp
4 Temple of Malice

Creatures 25
3 Agent of the Fates
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Mogis, God of Slaughter
1 Mogis's Marauder
2 Nighthowler
2 Pain Seer
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak
4 Tormented Hero
4 Xathrid Necromancer

Support 11
4 Bile Blight
1 Dark Prophecy
2 Rakdos's Return
3 Underworld Connections
1 Whip of Erebos

Sideboard 15
2 Dark Betrayal
2 Devour Flesh
2 Doom Blade
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Pharika's Cure
2 Rakdos's Return
1 Thoughtseize
1 Whip of Erebos[/deck]

How does it win? I have no clue, but it did something right since it went 6-1 during a PE.

How would I
tackle the RB Aggro archetype now with Burn running rampant? Not sure, I do have black cards again (thanks Jonny) so I can do some testing - but I think maybe its time for something REALLY crazy again.
I dont really understand nykthos in this deck. It want's to cast huge rakdos's return?

I dont understand some choices of this deck, he has only 2 enablers for agent of the fates in 2 nighthowlers.

Going black doesnt help red matchup, pre - btg I had close to 5% win rate vs red with black. Going really heavy on whips and lifelink wings is an only out, but both can be killed in response. Plus this deck pains himself so much (it is sometimes called suicade agro)
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Postby Pedros » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:05 pm

Ah and mroe and more decks is going for blind obedience in sb, which is one of the banes of this deck.
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Postby ironclawish » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:17 pm

What MDU said. We present a powerful suit of threat and answers, but we don't have the consistency of the "curve out and kill them" decks.

I for one am inclined to start over from scratch: in current meta we cannot expect to succeed without at least a near even match with burn (I would be OK with even a 40% chance actually). The question is whether it is even possible with their access to Charm and Helix. Is our access to discard enough? Because we for sure are not able to race them every game, certainly not with half our threats at 3+ mana.

We need the consistency other decks have while maintaining a pressure that red inherently has. Everything else is secondary: we cannot reliably outcontrol MBC or Esper while our colors give us all the answers
we need to assume the control role in creature matchups.

What if we boarded Wild Ricochet? Doesn't that just beat burn as soon as they cast a 4 damage spell?

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Postby poppa_f » Tue Mar 25, 2014 6:53 pm

man I'd love to see the look on their face when you Wild Ricochet their Warleader's Helix, 24 point life-swing!

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Postby ironclawish » Tue Mar 25, 2014 7:21 pm

You do have to leave 4 up all the time which may be too difficult, but yeah I was specifically thinking of the Helix interaction.

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Postby Jedi_Knight » Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:16 pm

I'll be switching in dailies between Burn and variations of this. Currently at 3-0 with Burn due to some miraculous fuckups from my opps but you take what you can get. :D

I am really interested in the Br version as what was said about Rb is kinda true. I unfortunately don't have the black cards to try them. I also am no deckbuilder, it's mainly trial and error for me. :D Also how the fuck does that pile works MDU? :D

There still could be a full burn variant but what would replace Helix (which singlehandedly wins games) and Charm from the RW?

If staying with the Rb core, I think 4ofs of the following cards are auto-include: Dreadbore, Spike Jester, Magma Jet, Lightning Strike,
Temple of Malice, Blood Crypt. Tymaret has been awesome after zem brought it to attention, so him being 1of I also consider core. Where to go from there? We may include YP$, we may go Cackler route, we may go top heavy route with Exava and SBD...

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Postby poppa_f » Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:02 am

I think R/b "burn" would be more mid-rangey. Instead of blitzing with creatures you grind them down slowly with burn, hand disruption, mutavaults, keyrunes and ramp in to some dragons or Rakdos's Returns.

Something along these lines:
R/b midrange
[deck]4 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Stormbreath Dragon

4 Thoughtseize
2 Rakdos's Returns
4 Dreadbore
1 Ultimate Price
2 Mizzium Mortars
4 Magma Jet

4 Rakdos Keyrune
2 Chandra Pyromaster

4 Mutavault
4 Blood Crypt
4 Temple of Malice
2 Rakdos Guildgate
7 Mountains
4 Swamp

Sideboard
4 Lifebane Zombie
2 Rakdos's Returns
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Doom Blade
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Crypt Incursion
1 Swamp
[/deck]

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Postby magicdownunder » Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:22 am

I like the list, I think it needs more DD, HDF and RTB + 1-2 AotG MD (old school RB Control).
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Postby Jedi_Knight » Wed Mar 26, 2014 12:22 pm

Yep we definitely want both DD and RTB in that list. It's more of a control list: if I remember correctly, some of the Czech guys played that in PT Theros. I am on tablet now, will try to find Lukáš Jaklovsky decklist when I get to the PC.

/edit
Ignore the guy as he is pretty full of himself as the people here usually are. Decktech plus list here though:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/a ... s13/video9

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Postby Guttler » Wed Mar 26, 2014 1:02 pm

I will rocking my FoS/DtR shirt, find me!
Will do! I'll be in a long sleeve collared plaid shirt and khaki pants.

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Postby Jedi_Knight » Thu Mar 27, 2014 8:16 pm

Ok, Duressed Chains and BlOb and then casually "countered" and copied Helix via Wild Ricochet against Burn. These cards certainly have more application against Burn than Whip... at least they do something when you play them.

Trying this SB now (with 2 LBZ, 1 HDF, 1 Tymaret - that guy is awesome, thanks zem for mentioning him - and 4 YP$ main):

[deck]4 Duress
2 Dark Betrayal
2 Doom Blade
1 Ultimate Price
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Skullcrack
1 Lifebane Zombie
1 Wild Ricochet
[/deck]

Ultimate Price actually isn't that bad since it can fuction as both Betrayal or Blade when needed: offers us a way to cram more cards into SB. And it works better than both of those against Reanimator. May even go 2 UP and 1 Betrayal 1 Blade if I find I want something else in SB.


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