Dies to Removal

@JdubCT- Because the chance of having Erebos online so slim, I think he belongs in the sideboard to fight control decks. In most other machups, I'd rather have his Whip.

@Pedros- Thanks for the shell. I know you are new to it, but last standard we played a R/b deck and I played it to death for many months. This has that same feel with Exava=Aristocrat, Dragon= Dragon.

Rakdos Returnwas great the one time I cast it, Round 1 vs U/W we only had 5 minutes left going into game 3 after I won a 25 minute Game 2(holy shit). I got an early RR on him to put him to 1 card , which happened to be Rev. But that was really the game right there.

I think it could easily be a 1-of in the maindeck, no one is expecting it at all. I also bluffed it a lot, asking how many cards were in their hand and counting my mana.

[card]Toil/Trouble[/card] - Also
was good, I liked the 3/1 Split but could easily be 2/2 between this and RakRet. Hit for 5 on turn 3 against U/W and that was enough.

Thoughtseize- Could have played it for sure, maybe its better than Toil/Trouble. I have yet to play with the card ever so I don't have much say on it. I like how the 1cc cost fits right into an aggro plan of casting 2 spells a turn. T2 Jester, T3, Rat, Thoughtseize, etc.

Though, with all the good B/R removal, there was rarely any card I was like "please dont play that card!" I felt prepared to destroy anything.

Dark Betrayal- Spectacular, could easily run 3 if the metagame calls for it. Won me a top 8 match against G/B midrange. Had 5 total mana. Was able to Tap 3, make a Rat, activate Mutvault, AND Kill his guy with Betrayal.

Whip would have been really good, though Chandra did win me some games but she never "Got going&
quot;. The few games she won , the MonoU was at 1 life and ping had him dead. A few topdeck Chandra to remove the blocker presenting lethal. So she never grinded for me.

This deck defends worse than any aggro deck I've played in that most of the creatures can't block or suck at it for the most part. Many games turned into "races". Sometimes where I could attack favorably, but it wouldn't kill them and I had a good chance of dying on the swing back. Particularly vs Mono U and Red Devotion and also White Weenie. Whip would have been awesome in those situtions.

Whip is certainly something to consider. Lifegain is never bad in this deck as it gets us more time to get Rats online, Dragon out/monstrous, etc.

Assemble the Legion - Just not needed..You have Dark Betrayal and Dreadbore and Ultimate Price which makes it incredibly easy to just keep their board clear and kill them. I am not worried about Mono Black at all...might be one
of the deck's best matchups.


Love the discussion we got going here! Was hoping to wake up and see that this blew up and glad it did. All aboard the rakdos train of destruction!!!!

Going to play Standard Premier on MTGO with this:

[deck]3 Mutavault
4 Blood Crypt
4 Rakdos Guildgate
8 Mountain
5 Swamp

4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Pack Rat
4 Spike Jester
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
3 Stormbreath Dragon

4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
3 Ultimate Price
1 Dreadbore
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard
3 Toil/Trouble
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
2 Doom Blade
2 Dreadbore
1 Flames of the Firebrand
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Dark Betrayal
[/deck]

I chose Whip over 2nd dreadbore in MB, and erebos over RR, going to write how I did.

Good luck

I like the 2 Erebos(I only owned one and this deck was last min decision).

Whip is a good choice. I wanted to balance out the loss of HDF so thats why I added in a 2nd Dreadbore and letting me run the full 4 in the 75.

Looking forward to another stellar tournament report from you!

I really think the Whip can do some serious work in this deck so please bring us back some notes on how it did for you =)

When is the event btw? this afternoon?

Event already started.

Premier:

2-1 Naya Control
2-0 GW Agro (same guy I lost to in semifinals, still whining as yesterday)
2-1 Mono Red Agro
2-1 Gb midrange
2-0 Mono Black
2-1 Esper Midrange Humans
1-0 to concede so does he gets into top 8 UW elixir control

Top8:

2-0 Mono Blue on mull to 5 game 1.
2-1 Mono Blue all games mulligan to 6

Yeah I figured lack of 4 removal for planeswalker after submiting the deck, however I liked to try whip.

Don't know about you, but I'm psyched to see what BotG has for this deck (besides the scrylands, of course).

Keep it up Pedros!!

How many rounds are there?

7 round and then top 8. Currently 4-0

nice! One more win or two and you will be in for sure!

Are people able to "Draw-in" on the MTGO stuff? 5-0-2 double draw would prob make top8 unless theres a shitload of people.

Go Pedros

nice! One more win or two and you will be in for sure!

Are people able to "Draw-in" on the MTGO stuff? 5-0-2 double draw would prob make top8 unless theres a shitload of people.

Nah you cant draw in MTGO, that means you have to go 6-1 or 7-0

BTW Won 5th game 2-0 vs Mono Black. Dark Betreyals and Pack Rats FTW

Great job man.

I didn't get to play against Mono Black yet(B/W only) but it seems like it could be the deck's best matchup or one of them at least.
Ultimate Price is awesome against them and sideboard just gets better.

You streamin?

6-0 after winning 2-1 vs Esper Midrange Humans from GP in Japan (lost one mull to 5 and it still was close as he had answer for 2 dragons and didnt have time to play whip to swing with lifelink)

Very noice! I also wonder if you're streaming

Hell yea!!!! So you're in the top8 for sure! Damn, and I was liking how secret this deck was =D

I was in top 4 in Premier Standard with Boros Legions yesterday, so secret was blown also ;>

I will try to record my replays for you guys.

Won game 1 vs UW control, then conceded as it is quite good matchup for our deck and better to have him in top 8.

Just got the last of the cards I need for this on MTGO...well I need Rakdos Return and Erebos but I guess those can wait. Rest was cheap.

Gonna try to get in on this Daily/Premier action =D

Any initial thoughts so far while you wait for top8?

Some thoughts:

If your not going to run HDF would it not be better to just splash black for removal? It would make 4x Vaults more feasible and allow for Ash which is better for the Small Aggro MU.

I put in so many swamps initially for HDF and the cute cards like Whips and Jesters, removing the Whip and Jesters will allow for 8-10 Black sources which will prevent the random loses to vaults + black or red only hands.

P.S. Be concerned about the Dedge and 2x Whips in Bx Devotion MU (Esp. on MODO).

Above statement is incorrect, we want T2 Pack Rats as often as possible.

If u do so MDU then you cant run pack rats.

If u do so MDU then you cant run pack rats.

You are correct, I was editing my post while you typed that - you can play Pact Rats but it won't be T2 which is a major issue for Ux Devotion MU.

Just to expand my thoughts as given to dpaine88; HDF sucks.

Have you tried the deck out yet MDU? Very very fun!

I've just ran it in the TP room. I like it a LOT. Fast, has late game too, flexible. Really good deck

Have you tried the deck out yet MDU? Very very fun!

Nope not yet, but the reports you guys are posting are very promising.

Event already started.

Premier:

2-1 Naya Control
2-0 GW Agro (same guy I lost to in semifinals, still whining as yesterday)
2-1 Mono Red Agro
2-1 Gb midrange
2-0 Mono Black
2-1 Esper Midrange Humans
1-0 to concede so does he gets into top 8 UW elixir control

Top8:

2-0 Mono Blue on mull to 5 game 1.
2-1 Mono Blue all games mulligan to 6
Split Finals vs UW Control

Yeah I figured lack of 4 removal for planeswalker after submiting the deck, however I liked to try whip.

Splitted finals 31-29 couse he needed QPs. BTW it was the same guy I conceded the last swiss round to, so am technically undefeated.

Plan to record games tommorrow, now is 2 AM out here.

Congrats Pedros!

I'd be interested to hear how you side boarded, and if you would tweak the decklist at all.

you're a beast bro

How was Whip?

Grats Pedros, good shit!

Nice pedro!!!

Can't wait for report about which cards under/overperformed and changes you'd make.

Very nice! I wasn't high on Pack Rat but results don't lie. Looks like the way to go with this archetype.

Yaaaaa! DosRakis!

Yaaaaa! DosRakis!

Dos Packis

Yaaaaa! DosRakis!

Dos Packis

Haha, for reals!

Very nice! I wasn't high on Pack Rat but results don't lie. Looks like the way to go with this archetype.

Pack rat is a card that hides its true strength under mutavault. Think of it as either a win-engine you can access if your initial blitz peters out or a way to filter out land draws into gas (Like our buddy the Hammer vs control).

The major issue I see with our deck is serious lack of enchantment removal/protection. It feels like Esper or U/W (either Weenie or Control) would mess our day up something fierce.

Edit: After playing some with the deck I feel like card draw -needs- its way in the main deck somehow. Chandra is an ok engine but I feel like Main Deck Toil//Trouble, Erebos (Since we can't reliably get Underworld up),
or Read the Bones might be better ideas.

For reference here's my current version (I nixed keyrunes but I think they have a place. I just need to figure out the frame better first)

[deck=Jdub's Thoughts on Dos Packis]Creatures(22)
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Spike Jester
4 Pack Rat
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
3 Stormbreath Dragon

Spells (14)
//Removal
2 Dreadbore
2 Ultimate Price
2 Mizzium Mortars
//Burn
4 Lightning Strike
2 Toil // Trouble
//Misc
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Whip of Erebos

Land (24)
7 Mountain
5 Swamp
4 Blood Crypt
4 Rakdos Guildgate
4 Mutavault

Sideboard (15)
3 Electrickery
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Doom Blade
3 Thoughtseize
1 Toil // Trouble
2 Dreadbore
1 Mizzium Mortars
[/deck]

Some thoughts after playtesting:
[card]Toil // Trouble[/card] Has proven worth its weight in gold. It's -never- irrelevant even if you can't use it for a huge 7 damage burn (I have versus control).
Whether you cast it for the card draw or you use it for a fuse late game. It's pretty sweet.

1 CMC:
Rackdos Cackler Has proven surprisingly relevant late game with Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch giving him Haste

2CMC:
Pack Rat He's just a superstar. When supported by a strong aggro deck you don't need to go into control mode to make him your finisher. He just builds up to it on his own and sets people on fire.
Spike Jester BEAUTIFUL whenever you cast him. He only really fails when put against first strikers or Soldier of the Pantheon
Ash Zealot In my version the 2 RR is too difficult to get in a timely manner. Although I'll miss Ashley I think my new girlfriend Exava will keep me warm.
Rakdos Shred-Freak Nowhere near as strong as Spike Jester he's easier to cast. He might make the grade if you're running a Xathrid
Necromancer version of the deck.
Thrill-Kill Assassin Excellent Body, useful toughness, relevant late game even if you don't unleash against big creatures. If I were to do a Xathrid version of this deck this'd be an auto-include.

3 CMC:
[card]Chandra's Phoenix[/card] I'm not liking this card as much as I do in more-pure red decks. I find the RR casting requirement somewhat onerous
Hellhole Flailer is pretty intimidating a body/easier to cast with the equal mountain/swamp split. Even though it's a turn "slower" it makes up the damage fairly reliably as well has having a relevant sac ability. It also is a much stronger topdeck when you have Exava out. Any thoughts?

4 CMC
Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch Auto include and proves entirely too good. She's the glue that makes this deck work over a pure black or golgari aggro scheme.
[card]Erebos, God of the Dead[/card:
33hbmaph] See my earlier posts about him. I think if you're not packing Toil // Trouble he's worthwhile and still pretty good against Blood Baron decks/Mono Black. He's rarely online if you're not using pack rats for the win but I find you don't need his body. If he were merely an enchantment with "Indestructable, 1B Pay 2 life and draw a card, Your opponents cannot gain life" I'd probably still use it.
Whip of Erebos I'm sorry for doubting people. The whip is a marginal card in mono black but a HUGE one here. It, along with pack rats allow your game to go into extra innings to take care of your opponent. Dragon finishes people off but is easy to deal with, whip lets you reuse your high damage creatures while sucking down their life and laughing.

Dos Packis has the chops to get things done. It has surprising reach and burns people down faster than All-in Red does without any of the late game "If I make it to turn 5 and they're not dead then I lose&
quot; issues. I think the only thing preventing it from being a "Tier 1" deck is lack of scrylands. It has every other tool it needs to get stuff done the way we Red Mages should, explosively and with a maximum of violence.

Here is the questions I posit to the boards: "What's the best split?" The 50/50 R/B is what I've been using with serious success. Does anyone have any particular arguments for the heavily focused Red deck? You'd have to find something to replace Pack Rats with.

PS: I hereby formally request we call it Dos Packis because that's just too awesome.

Uploading games to youtube, without commentary as I had to do something else meantime. Sry about that, hope you enjoy it even without music (you can always just play something in the background )

Thanks Pedros. I watchd the replays but will be interesting to see what was in your hand

Uploading as we speak:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSoaujX ... ture=watch

Notes after replays:

Round 3 game 2:

Should unleash exava and swing to put him on 1, he would have to play more defensively.

Round 3 game 3:

Shouldnt swing with mutavault, I was dead to double haste or 2 burn spells.

Round 4 game 1:

Played mutavault on turn 1, not colored source so I couldnt cast Spike Yester turn 2. I think that lost me a game, as I could be offensive this game.

If you see any other bad play make a comment or write it here so I can learn

@JdubCT: the deck's main weakness is itself so don't cut Magma Jets its really important for stability.