[Primer] Boros Burn

[BrainsickHater]

I don't think so. It's a specific answer, even if it does have legs.

[LP, of the Fires]

It fundamentally changes how you can play matchups. Think of how good snapcaster and resto where. Flash is a very powerful ability and being able to zip in an evasive two power creature is very valuable.

Having said that, I was unimpressed with the card vs. control simply because it lines up fairly poorly vs. Jace and nightveil spector. It's pretty amazing vs. Mono-Black though. Shutting down gray merchants and then being able to clock them is pretty sweet.

On Chandra's phoenix though, I don't really like giving my opponents profitable use of there mana. If I'm on the play, it's alright as I have the initiative, but on the draw, playing my phoenix into there doom blade and letting them untap and play their demon is pretty aweful.

I also found out on the Mono-black side that they are actually better off keeping LBZ in there deck if they don't have spectors and you don't have searing blood which makes Chandra
much better post board depending on there boarding strat. So if they have LBZ main, you should bring in chandra, and if they don't I'd leave it in the board(or not have it in your deck at all, depending on how you want to play that matchup along with other ones).

[BrainsickHater]

I agree that Flash creatures change how you can play, but Gryff doesn't seem individually powerful enough to warrant maindeck inclusion. Gryff relies on gaining value off of your opponent's cards, so even if it has flash it's generally not better than another card you could run in the matchups where the ability is irrelevant.

Not playing Chandra's Phoenix doesn't mean they won't have profitable use of their mana. Their removal has other targets and Devour Flesh is a lifegain spell a large percentage of the time. If we board out Chandra's Phoenix it mostly just ensures they have profitable use of mana and cards as opposed to just mana.

The majority of Bx players will board out Hero's Downfall, so Chandra's usually very potent in the matchup; it's won enough games for me I would rarely consider not boarding it in.

If you want to lower the curve I would board out the Helices first. The type of race that
a Helix is good in is generally not where you want to be in the matchup.

[LP, of the Fires]

Oh, would not play maindeck. Nope.

[zemanjaski]

Your idea, if you're on the assemble plus Chandra plan, is to have games go long and grind them out. In that sense, mana efficiency is less important as games go long and Phoenix is a powerful draw engine. I don't think cutting them is correct.

[magicdownunder]

I agree with Whole and Zemanjaski, don't board out Phoenix....

Question for you lot - how do you all rate W//T in the current metagame? I'll imagine with the boost Small Red and Green/friends decks got + the printing of Back to Nature, UWx decks are more incline too go for the 6+ sweeper route rather then Dspheres no?

[BrainsickHater]

I'm probably trimming down to one W//T because of space considerations and I have Banishing LIght. But now that you mention it, W//T also doesn't feel like it was as great as it was a few weeks ago, although I didn't really notice and couldn't really tell you why.

[zemanjaski]

I like one wear // tear. I agree that two is overkill.

[NotARobot]

You all shift away from keening already too? It never really worked out for me, and I always preferred the additional ability to hit artifacts if necessary.

[Elricity]

A couple times it was better for me than wear but if I'm going with a one of, I agree with you. Keening is more interesting if you have multiple as the chance of swinging goes up.

[Rhyno]

I agree with Whole and Zemanjaski, don't board out Phoenix....

Question for you lot - how do you all rate W//T in the current metagame? I'll imagine with the boost Small Red and Green/friends decks got + the printing of Back to Nature, UWx decks are more incline too go for the 6+ sweeper route rather then Dspheres no?

I love it, killing a Courser or Ram for 1 mana with a Pyromancer out is huge game, and I get 2-for-1s with it way more than I ever thought I would.

[Aodh]

Have you ever got D. Sphere + tapped-out Elixir?

[Whole]

is Prophetic Flamespeaker good in the mirror? I was thinking of having Toil // Trouble on the play and Prophetic Flamespeaker on the draw for the mirror. Also, since I have no testing with this card yet, is there any matchups that he is good in besides aggro decks, Mono Blue, and possibly burn? I want to make sure I'm not missing anything obvious with this card.

[Elricity]

It is very, very dependant on the mirror's build. I've yet to draw it against the mirror

If they're on the eidolon/searing blood plan, it makes some of their cards cards quite weak but could maybe be a sorcery do nothing. If they're on the DTR style builds, it's almost certainly too slow since all their cards will be live. I did bring them and reckoners in against burn in one video but only drew reckoners so I still really don't know for sure.

It's also good against mono black or BW, as much as you might think that's crazy pants because of doom blade effects. Like Z said, any time you're remotely playing the control role, the card is answer or lose. It only takes one hit to change a game from bad to entirely in your favor. Have a video of that too. Here is the
relevant part.

(Hey, I have to try and be proud of the matches I record where I'm not a gibbering, sleepwalking zombie)

[LP, of the Fires]

[deck]Creatures:
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Spells:
4 Warleaders Helix
4 Magam Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Skullcrack
4 Boros Charm
4 Shock
1 Stoke the Flames
2 Searing Blood

2 Chained to the Rocks

Lands:
3 Battlefield Forge
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
1 Temple of Silence
4 Mutavault
7 Mountain

Sideboard:
3 Hushwing Griff
1 Chandra Pyromaster
2 Chained to the Rocks
3 Satyr Firedancer
2 Banishing Light
4 Firedrinker Satyr[/deck]

Plan on testing this tonight. Not trying to grind anything out. Trying to kill everything and everyone. Could be a colossal bust but #YOLO. I like the power of Satyr Firedancer and Searing Blood and I think they're both positioned well looking at the new cards in the set. I expect Mono-Black, Mono-Green, and White Weenie in larger then average numbers because they all gained the most from the new set. I also expect mono-blue to show up in big
numbers since it's arguably the best tier 1 deck in an open meta which should make these firedancers even better...

Firedrinker Satyr showing up because I like it the most vs. control. Trades with nightveil spector, comes down cheap, and sort of punishes them for boarding out verdicts. It's also playable on the draw which I can't really say the same for RE Toil/trouble though I should probably include one since I'm running black mana

[Whole]

Isn't 11 mountains a little too low for Chained? I believe the consensus is that -1 Mutavault and +1 Mountain is the correct mana base. (Also because of mana requirements)

[LP, of the Fires]

4 Mutavaults is probably greedy, yeah. Honestly, didn't think about the land base when I threw it together.

[Purp]

I won states with a 4 mutavault mana base:

[deck]
9 Mountain
2 Mana Confluence
4 Mutavault
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
[/deck]

I think I was allowed to do this by playing more untapped lands, so if you are going to run 4 vaults, I'd add the 8th mountain, and cut the temple of silence. Winning big tournaments comes down to just running hot and getting lucky. (also, you are less in need of a white source in g1 only running 2 chains. you should be fine when you turn into control role post board)

[Purp]

Saito Burn

[Tyrael]

4 Searing Blood AND 4 Stoke the flames main? Ehh...

[magicdownunder]

I like two things:

1) 24 lands....
2) 12 four damage spells

Not sure how I feel about the 2 drop creature or Searing blood yet, but in the opening few weeks of when aggro is at its height this list would just be murder.

[Rhyno]

Ugh, Bloodseeker? Your opponent needs to both have a creature out that you want to kill and no removal for it to connect.

[Elricity]

Did Saito get some inside information that they banned black devotion from standard? Because if they did, deck isn't bad.

I assume this increases his control matchup even without skullcrack? Really not sure.

[NotARobot]

I dont think he spends very much time throwing these things together

It does seem neat to run out in a meta dominated by boss sligh though

[PirateKingAtomsk]

Not liking the bloodseekers mainboard or as a 4 of unless your meta is swamped with small agro that you can burn off ( wouln't wanna waste a 4 damage spell on a creature ( outside of mortars) if I could avoid it just to pump altac a little.

[zenbitz]

Wow what would the SB be?
4 chained
2 reckoners or flamespeakers
4 skullcrack
1 chandra
1 assemble
3 toil/trouble

[Elricity]

I dont think he spends very much time throwing these things together

It does seem neat to run out in a meta dominated by boss sligh though

Yeah, I just noticed from the RDW thread that he did one for that too so I'm going with untested thrown together. Doubt he even had a sideboard in mind.

[dpaine88]

I can't imagine playing this deck without Magma Jet. That card is a godsend.

[Khaospawn]

I can't imagine playing this deck without Magma Jet. That card is a godsend.

Too bad it can't actually end a God though.

[zenbitz]

It can if you turn it to a frog first!

[Khaospawn]

[zenbitz]

Maybe with no chained we don't no need magma jet. Maybe stoke the flames lets us play magic with either 2 lands (cast dudes, convoke stoke) or 6 - hard cast stoke.

Maybe THIS is the brain-dead count to 20 burn deck that everyone complains about!

[BrainsickHater]

The brain-dead count to 20 burn deck is bad.

[Elricity]

I wouldn't call it brain-dead to pilot since it clearly still needs proper sequencing but it does sacrifice almost all element of control to count to 20, yes.

I'm surprised I missed the lack of magma jet.

I may test it for giggles tonight since it's certainly unique.

[LP, of the Fires]

FWIW, a sense of "control" over the game is overrated. I'm not saying this deck is good, it's probably a pile, but don't let any perceived simplicity turn you off of a deck. A wins, a win.

[zemanjaski]

These aren't tested decks, he puts them together to try out ideas and test cards. This way he gets to test Bloodseeker and Stoke in one go.

[zemanjaski]

Also 4 Mutavault is fine on 24 land, I don't know why anyone would bring up my name as saying it's incorrect; I've often sideboarded a Mutavault as my 24tg land.

[LP, of the Fires]

I posted something to the same affect on a facebook thread.

Saito aspires to be the worlds best deckbuilder and as such, that requires lots of brewing and consequently lots of failed brews. When a sets released, the best way to get a raw sense of what cards do is throwing a bunch of potential at the wall and see what sticks.

Alternatively, it's also possible that some of these are tested and generally, anything red or u based that he builds is gonna be close to the mark as he's arguably the best red mage of all time and recently has been flexing his control muscles in a powerful way.

The man has literally warped PT metagames and SCG opens from the comfort of his twitter account after all.

[Elricity]

Makes sense.

[NotARobot]

So this is kinda what I'm tossing around right now

[deck]
Creatures 8
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Instants 25
4 Shock
4 Skullcrack
4 Magma Jet
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Warleader's Helix
1 Stoke the Flames

Enchantments 4
4 Chained to the Rocks

Lands 23
8 Mountain
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triump
3 Mutavault
2 Battlefield Forge
1 Temple of Malice
1 Temple of Silence

Sideboard 15
3 Prophetic Flamespeaker
3 Toil // Trouble
1 Pillar of Light
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Wear // Tear
2 Banishing Light
[/deck]

So, pretty standard, just 1 stoke main instead of the MM, pillar instead of reprisal. I can't really think of anything else I'd want to change..