[Fedoras of Salvation] - White Knights ITT

[rcwraspy]

Can someone tell Zem to read my PM since I'm not sure if it's blocked too.

[rcwraspy]

just playing messenger, not taking sides on anything.

[rcwraspy]

cause i'm fucking Switzerland, bitch.

[Kaitscralt]

always take sides

[DroppinSuga]

Thanks rcw.

[DroppinSuga]

No one would take my side.

[redthirst]

Be more like Germany: ambitious and misunderstood.

[Dechs Kaison]

Be more like Germany: ambitious and misunderstood.

And superior to everyone else.

[rcwraspy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVG2G8bjh_k

[Dechs Kaison]

EE Joke Time.

Transformers: Voltage in Disguise.

[Valdarith]

Time for the weekly "bitch about fetchland prices" post.

http://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Zendikar/Scalding+Tarn

[Yarpus]

Zem, you have for sure proved yourself as an fantastic player. Work a bit on mentality when facing stresfull situations (to prevent tilting) and you could potentially reach this serious Pro level. At least that is what I believe. Good to see that you are no "all bark, no bite".
Damn it, these discussions make me wish to get back into MTG. Actually I work not that far away from my old LGS. Fuck.

Also, in terms of the whole Mortars discussion - Fated Conflagration? That 5-damage burn for 4? It's capable of killing all the big dudes, hits Planeswalkers and can even scry.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Time for the weekly "bitch about fetchland prices" post.

http://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Zendikar/Scalding+Tarn

They will see reprint in return to zendikar (probably 09/2015 set) or the modern event deck or modern masters 2. Either hold out a bit longer or fork over the cash. No sense in complaining.

[Jonnymagic]

Khaospawn I made it, nice to meet you all! Looking forward to getting to know you all.

[Khaospawn]

Khaospawn I made it, nice to meet you all! Looking forward to getting to know you all.

Welcome to the Fires, redbro.

[Valdarith]

Time for the weekly "bitch about fetchland prices" post.

http://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Zendikar/Scalding+Tarn

They will see reprint in return to zendikar (probably 09/2015 set) or the modern event deck or modern masters 2. Either hold out a bit longer or fork over the cash. No sense in complaining.

I'm betting on either a Tarn or Rainforest reprint in the event deck.

I haven't heard anything about a Return to Zendikar set. Recent rumors seem
to suggest a completely different plane for the next cycle.

EDIT: I'm not going to complain about it too hard, I just find it ironic that Modern was supposed to be the more accessible "eternal" format and yet almost all the fetches are commanding more than most Legacy duals at this point.

[magicdownunder]

Zem, you have for sure proved yourself as an fantastic player. Work a bit on mentality when facing stresfull situations (to prevent tilting) and you could potentially reach this serious Pro level. At least that is what I believe. Good to see that you are no "all bark, no bite".
Damn it, these discussions make me wish to get back into MTG. Actually I work not that far away from my old LGS. Fuck.

Also, in terms of the whole Mortars discussion - Fated Conflagration? That 5-damage burn for 4? It's capable of killing all the big dudes, hits Planeswalkers and can even scry.

Why not play online? It has causal and pro levels events on every month (you can also contribute in the clan booster farming).

[zemanjaski]

I am going to be grinding a lot with this deck, its fucking insane.

Updated sideboard:
2 Blind Obedience
2 Chained to the Rocks
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Satyr Firedancer
3 Viashino Firstblade

If you're playing paper and esper control and jund monsters are catching on, find space for 2 burning earth.

I've had offers to test with three local teams today, so I should finally start getting some more paper experience. Already feeling much better about the result. Next time!

[Dechs Kaison]

Welcome to the crazy, Johnny. We're not all red mages here. I'm the black sheep in the family.

[Yarpus]

Btw, Zem - if I may ask, what makes RW better than RB in terms of Burn?
Black has some fine tools:
- Dreadbore
- Mogis, God of Slaughter
- Spike Jester (for burn deck? better than Ash Zealot as long as mana supports him)
- Erebos against lifegain
- Fusing Toil/Trouble

You loose Boros Charm (dat 4-damage burn), Spark Trooper (mhm) and Warleader's Helix (again, high-impact burn spell).
Damn.

Creatures (10):
4 Spike Jester
2 Satyr Firedancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Other Spells (28):
4 Shock
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Searing Blood
4 Dreadbore
4 Skullcrack
4 Toil // Trouble

Lands (22):
...

FORGOT ABOUT SWAG SEER.

[Jonnymagic]

Zem I'm excited to try blind obedience. It feels awesome. I love the idea of firstblade instead of toil/trouble. I got some serious value off trouble today, but I feel I got lucky with it.

[Purp]

Boros Charm is better than every card you listed Yarpus.

Ash is better than Jester because of Searing Blood.

WLH is an 8 point life swing...

[zemanjaski]

Also Spike Jester isn't castable on turn 2 for an RB deck if you want to run 4 Mutavault (and you do, it's the best card in the deck).

Also, you forgot Viashino Firstblade, the best card in the sideboard.

[Jonnymagic]

Is control the only matchup you bring viashino in?

[Yarpus]

Also Spike Jester isn't castable on turn 2 for an RB deck if you want to run 4 Mutavault (and you do, it's the best card in the deck).

Fair enough.

Also, you forgot Viashino Firstblade, the best card in the sideboard.

So, what's his purpose exactly? I know he's generally not a bad card, tried to squeeze him into variety of decklists long time ago. But what makes him appealing now?

Ash is better than Jester because of Searing Blood.

Damn, I gotta agree. On the other hand are 4/4 creatures dominant while there's little to none 5/5 ones? Swing with Jester into Polukranos, burn this shit off with Blood.
Still, Jester has the mutavault-conflict, so I'm okay with dropping dat discussion.

Btw, what kind of decks stop full-time aggro from being relevant? I've didn't heard about Mono Black this season even while we
all were crying about it being dominant deck.

[DriftingLifted]

Bit late to the party but didn't get to see the feature match til today. It's all been said already, but how it went down sucks. Great performance regardless Zem.

Very glad you're back to improving on this iteration of the deck. I had to miss game day, and midterm exams are still looming, but there's Canadian Magic Tour coming to Vancouver in 2 weeks that I'll be looking forward to playing at. Oh how I hate how SCG's don't exist in the north I'd be all over that shit.

I'll be looking forward to the CFB vid and article on this new improved deck. Got slightly disappointed for a second when your previous new sideboard didn't have the Firedancer's, I've been wanting to try them out at a standard event.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Time for the weekly "bitch about fetchland prices" post.

http://www.mtggoldfish.com/price/Zendikar/Scalding+Tarn

They will see reprint in return to zendikar (probably 09/2015 set) or the modern event deck or modern masters 2. Either hold out a bit longer or fork over the cash. No sense in complaining.[/quote:
31wanil7]

I'm betting on either a Tarn or Rainforest reprint in the event deck.

I haven't heard anything about a Return to Zendikar set. Recent rumors seem to suggest a completely different plane for the next cycle.

EDIT: I'm not going to complain about it too hard, I just find it ironic that Modern was supposed to be the more accessible "eternal" format and yet almost all the fetches are commanding more than most Legacy duals at this point.

09/2015 set IS a return set.

[Khaospawn]

I promised James some notes and some others a report, so I'll do my best to fight through the alcohol fog and deliver some info.

Okay, first of all, going to the this PTQ was completely on a whim. I chose to abandon my schoolwork for the week to do play (bad choice, I know, but my heart told me to do this) - I didn't even know the PTQ was happening until the day before. First off, I prepared by reverse engineering James's deck by watching his feature match....I actually built his deck as he was having his 'interview' with the Judges *wince*.

Anyways, I read and reread his article and wrote down his sideboarding guide in the back of my little notebook I use for score-keeping. I had MBC (including the B/g version), Mono Blue Devo (and U/W Devo), U/W Control (and I assume Esper and UWR went with this), and R/G Monsters (and by extension, Jund Monsters and R/W Devotion as well)
sideboard strategy as well as a note to myself that read: SLOW DOWN AND THINK!!!. I'm so glad I did this because I referred to this back sheet multiple times throughout the day.

I must mention the 'infamous' list that James proposed earlier this morning that JS, LaZerburn, and jsilv commented on earlier today about. Truth be told, I like the list but it's heavily skewed towards beating R/G, which, to be fair, is the deck's hardest match-up. I love the Blind Obedience, but I think it's a terrible idea to cut Firedrinker, Firedancer, and Spark Trooper. Also, Reckoner is not good against the Monsters deck. It's not. Trust me.

Anyways, the moment I get there, I was approached by some Judge friends of mine that immediately inquired about 'the Fazzolari list." They asked me if "I saw my boy playing 'dat Burn list' in Melbourne' and I could only reply, " Fuck yeah, I just talked to James this morning and he suggested some new tech, fucker!" I dug up a Blind Obedience and a
Mortars and stuck them into the list. The final product looked like this (and keep in mind that I would've played the entire new list if I had time. Honesty, I'm glad I didn't - you'll see why):

[deck]
Creatures 11
4 Ash Zealot
3 Satyr Firedancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Burn (26)
3 Shock
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Searing Blood
4 Skullcrack
4 Boros Charm
3 Warleader's Helix

Land 23
2 Boros Guildgate
9 Mountain
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Mutavault

Sideboard 15
3 Spark Trooper
3 Viashino Firstblade
1 Blind Obedience
4 Firedrinker Satyr
1 Mizzium Mortars
3 Chained to the Rocks[/deck]

I wanted the Mortars to fight Blood Barons, Courser, Brimaz, and Dragons. I discussed this with someone on MTG chat during GP Melbourne, but I can't remember who (I'm sad for this). I liked the 3/1 split on the Chains and Mortars and I still stand by this.

Anyways, I'll try to be quick on the report, so I'll summarize.

Round 1 vs
R/w Devo
Game 1: This was all a matter of trying to stay alive. Luckily, I had 2 Helixes that preserved my life total and I was able to burn her out.

Sideboard - I followed the R/g plan : - 4 Skullcrack, -4 Ash Zealot, +3 Chains, +1 Mortars, +1 Blind Obedience, +3 Spark Trooper

Game 2: I land the Blind Obedience and just laugh on the inside. Since all her creatures come into play tapped, I'm free to swing in with Spark Troopers and cast Shocks as bona fide Lightning Strikes. I quickly win.

Round 2 vs RG Monsters

In game 1, I get my ass kicked. Hard. The guy just had it all. The beauty of this deck is in the card advantage it gets from Chandra, Domri, and Courser. Fuck, I'm impressed, actually. It's like everything PyroRed ever wanted.

I sideboard like I'm supposed too.

In Game 2, everything is going according to plan until I ignore Domri too long. The key moment arrives when he has 2 Coursers, a Polukranos, some dorks, Domri at 7, and a Chandra.
He attacks for 10 AND THEN POPS DOMRI FOR THE EMBLEM! K, he made a huge error there, but I'm dead next turn. However, I rip the lone Mortars from the top and Overload it to nuke his board. From there, he bricks on every draw while I begin to topdeck the burn I need to kill him. He's dead in a few turns,

In Game 3, we duke it out by trading removal on creatures. I ignore Domri until he ultimates (killing him). I attempt to trade until he's only left with a few dorks and is at 13 life. I double Lightning Strike him, bringing him to 7. I then take 8. I Magma Jet him to 5. I take 8 more. I'm facing lethal next turn, but then I topdeck a Skullcrack, dome him, rebuy my bird, and attack for lethal. He's stunned.

Round 3 vs U/w Devotion

There really isn't much to say, guys. Both games I keep 3 land hands with some action and proceed to draw Mountains and Foundries until the cows come home, despite aggressively scrying multiple
lands away with Magma Jet. Oh well, this shit happens. Both games involved double Master of Waves to end me.

Sideboard plan: -4 Charm, -4 Skullcrack, + Chains, +1 Mortars, +1 Blind Obedience, +3 Spark Trooper

Round 4 vs UWR

In Game 1 I just aggro out with Zealots and Phoenixes. I think he stumbled on mana, so I basically stole a win. Yay.

Sideboard plan: -3 Firedancer, -4 Searing Blood, -3 Shock, +3 Viashino Firstblade, +3 Spark Trooper, +4 Firedrinker Satyr

In Game 2, I attempt to play creatures, but they're all met with removal. Eventually I flood out and he controls the board with Jace and counters. After the second Revelation, I say, "We're done here," and scoop.

In Game 3 I kick him in the pussy with Firedrinkers (I jokingly say the Willem Dafoe lines from Family Guy) and Spark Troopers before finishing him off with the 3 Skullcracks I happened to be holding. I couldn't have planned it better.

[
b]Round 5 vs R/w Devotion[/b]

He literally 'combos' out early and kills me. Damn.

On the plus side, this is where I meet Jonathan Rivera, who's playing in match adjacent to me, and we discuss James, GP Melbourne, CFB, and "THE LIST."

I board like I'm supposed to.

I lead with an early Blind Obedience and wreck him. Jonathan sees this, which fuels more talk about the list.

Game 3 is sad for me since my opponent lands Double Dragons and I'm stuck holding on to double Chained to the Rocks.



Round 6 and 7 vs B/g Devotion and Mono Black Devotion

I'm lumping these together since they're basically the same.

I 2-0 both matches. It was really 'no contest.' The beauty of it all is in the stereotype of the typical Red Mage. They both
assume I'm on 'small aggro' and board in Drown in Sorrow and other creature kill spells. I burn them out and they can't figure out why they lost.

My sideboard plan was: -3 Shock, +3 Chained to the Rocks

Round 8 vs BUG Superfriends

In Game 1 I sorta live the dream when my Firedancer goes unmolested and I'm able to Skullcrack freely while killing Nightveil Specters. Life shouldn't be this good, but it is!

In Game 2, I really don't know how to sideboard. Mulligans wreck me and after going to 5 I decide to keep a 1 land hand since I really need to have resources to win. I don't see a second land until turn 5 and at this point, I'm pretty resigned to losing but I keep on playing so I can see his deck. I finally figure out that he's basically playing the most ambitious control deck of the likes that haven't been seen since the Zendikar era.

I board like I did vs UWR.

For some reason, I didn't see any White
sources untile turn 5 and I literally saw no creatures, but I did draw a lot of burn. It was a very close game - like, literally I was dead next turn if he countered the final Skullcrack - but I was victorious. Barely.

I collected my winnings after having a lengthy chat with Jonathan afterwards. Later, I went to the bar to begin drink while I opened my packs. Sometime after a few drinks, I ventured outside to smoke and I began talking with some of the Top 8 people who had been eliminated. One guy, names Joe Carey, told me about how he was playing James's stock list from CFB with one difference: he took out the Toils for Act of Treason. He said it was terrible choice.


Anyways, I talked a multitude of people throughout the day about "THE LIST." Here are the key points:

- James is well known at this point, thanks to CFB. People either read his articles or watch the videos.

- DtR is still
relatively unknown, but I'm working on changing that.

- 3 people Top 16'd with the list, with 1 Top 8.

- Some guys I talked to are playing it on MTGO.

- People love James's discussion of his lines of play on stream. And they like his sarcasm.

- Cutting both Satyrs is a terrible idea.

- Spark Trooper and Firstblade are awesome. Even though I never played the Firstblade once today, when discussed, it was agreed that it's inconceivable (!!!) that it was never in the original list.

- Burning Earth is looking to be very good. And it's only going to be better when Journey comes out. Now is the time to start deciding on how to fit it into the sideboards.

-R/G and Jund Monsters is still the hardest match-up.

- You absolutely cannot skew the deck toward beating just R/g and Jund monsters. It has to be able to beat the other tier 1 decks.

- This deck, and James, gives other Red Mages hope. I'm not kidding. They're out there. They've been clinging on to some kind of hope that
aggressive Red based strategies can still work without doing a 20-land, 32-count bad creature deck. This burn list is a glimpse into a better world. I can't make this up, guys.


Anyways, I'm tired, fuckers. If you want to know more, ask me and I'll answer later.

Also, James, PM your address so I can send this to you. Trust me, it looks better in person - my phone sucks at taking pics. I had this altered because YOU ARE THE GRIM FUCKING LAVAMANCER!

[Khaospawn]

Now can someone tell me how to copy that post so I can submit it on Facebook? I'm computer illiterate here, people.

[zemanjaski]

Trouble is 3 mana deal 5.

Firstblade is 3 mana deal 5 opponent discards a card.

[Jack]

That lavaman is fucking awesome.

[Jack]

The color matching isn't perfect, but it's still an extended art Grim Lavamancer.

[rcwraspy]

highlight, ctrl-C?

[Jack]

And good job at the tourney, Khaos. Good to hear that you were able to pull it together at the end.

[zemanjaski]

Fated Conflagration? That's a funny way of saying Viashino Firstblade.

[Khaospawn]

highlight, ctrl-C?

If I highlight my browser, I just copy the whole page of the thread, right? How do I just do the post?

[Khaospawn]

That lavaman is fucking awesome.

I literally went to a vendor and said, "I need a James Fazzolari!". The look on his face was priceless. So then I said, " Gimme a Tormet Lavamancer and put some stank on it. Shut up and take my money!" I immediately took it to the artist lady who was doing alters and told her to "paint it like one of her French girls." After she was done laughing, I said, " Seriously, make it look good. I need to send this to Aussie land in the next day or two."

[Jack]

Highlight and copy the words you want to post onto FB. The deck tag won't copy, but you'll get all the card names written in black and "deck" at the top.

[zemanjaski]

For whoever asked about my change in character it's incredibly humbling when 30+ people tell you that you've dramatically affected their time in magic for the better. Almost makes me give a damn, but luckily searing blood runs in my veins.

[Dechs Kaison]

Humbling?

You keep using that word. I d not think it means what you think it means.