Dies to Removal

[deck=Dimir Control "CORE"]
Planeswalkers
4 Jace, Architect of Thought

Instants
1 Devour Flesh
4 Dissolve
1 Essence Scatter
4 Hero's Downfall
3 Opportunity
3 Syncopate
1 Ultimate Price
2 Warped Physique

Sorceries
3 Thoughtseize

Lands
2 Dimir Guildgate
4 Mutavault
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Watery Grave

7 Island
5 Swamp[/deck]

That leaves a lot of slots. Notes:
- I currently run Ratchet Bomb as a 3-of; Drown in Sorrow may replace this. Undecided. Without a maindeck discard option it might be dead too often though. Would want 3 in any 75 though!
- I have seen Divination or Ashiok run in the 3-slot; it is currently unclear to me which is better. Divination helps you hit your land drops (very important), but Ashiok is an alternate win condition and helps overload your opponent's removal (Hero'
s Downfall or Detention Sphere)
- It is still unclear to me what the best finisher package is. I have tried Aetherling + Elixir of Immortality OR 2 Prognostic Sphinx; there are upsides to each and the meta will determine which is better placed. Prognostic Sphinx has the substantial upside of been a maindeck sac. outlet, whch is very useful (trade your excess removal or counters for more sphinx is a VERY big game).

I'm not too happy with it either. Seems like the last thing black needed was a mini-board wipe since small aggro seemed like the best way to go against it.

Small aggro is the worst matchup, so that's a very powerful gift.

Obviously will find a home in MBC as well.

Regrettably BR will be twitchy color-wise...Drown + Anger make a great sweeper suite in a vacuum, but and will need help to get any measure of consistency.

You do have access to 12 dual lands though; I have UU and BB at 3; admittedly I usually don't need BB on 3 so I can afford to skimp on black slightly (in the UB shell).

Just don't be a puss and run all 8 taplands. Whatever tempo you lose with the taplands you'll make up by hitting your sweepers.

Better Infest; will see play. And beautiful card.

Oh my God, that art.

That's going in the foil book next to my Gift of Orzhova, for sure.

I'm not too happy with it either. Seems like the last thing black needed was a mini-board wipe since small aggro seemed like the best way to go against it.

If they're playing this, they can't play Pack Rat. SB I guess?

Dropping HDF or Phrika for Drown seems like the play MBC will be doing

Controls decks having that makes me feel a bit more confident in my rakdos midrange plan.

I like the idea of both this and anger, but dunno. If I had to pick between the two, I'd say anger proly.


My issue right now with my rakdos midrange build is The spells/count. At the current moment I have 13 slots for them in the build, and am having trouble making room for more.

The spells fighting for slots are:
Lightning strike - Stronk
Magma jet - With scrylands it becomes slightly less important, but is still awesome.
Shock - small aggro
Ultimate price - kill spell and anti-MoW
Dreadbore - stupid strong kill spell
Mizzium Mortars - Fuck you blood baron
Anger - small aggro
Drown - small aggro. Also stops MoW, so that's something I guess.

If y'all had to arrange 13 of those, what'd it be like?

Mine'd proly be:
4 Lightning Strike
2 Dreadbore
2 Ultimate Price
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Drown in Sorrow

I love Infest+ because my old BW Control was missing a board wipe, but then I realized MBC now has a weapon against all my aggro decks.

I'm conflicted.

You do have access to 12 dual lands though; I have UU and BB at 3; admittedly I usually don't need BB on 3 so I can afford to skimp on black slightly (in the UB shell).

Just don't be a puss and run all 8 taplands. Whatever tempo you lose with the taplands you'll make up by hitting your sweepers.

Oh hell no on running 8 taps...I was complaining about running 4 (admittedly in an aggro build where that tempo loss was crucial). In terms of control we're likely looking at Br, and Anger shouldn't often be crucial on-curve if the rest of the removal suite is doing its job. It will be interesting to see if anything else comes out to influence the builds.

They can't play less than 4 Downfall; they're already super weak to resolved Planeswalkers.

You do have access to 12 dual lands though; I have UU and BB at 3; admittedly I usually don't need BB on 3 so I can afford to skimp on black slightly (in the UB shell).

Just don't be a puss and run all 8 taplands. Whatever tempo you lose with the taplands you'll make up by hitting your sweepers.

Oh hell no on running 8 taps...I was complaining about running 4 (admittedly in an aggro build where that tempo loss was crucial). In terms of control we're likely looking at Br, and Anger shouldn't often be crucial on-curve if the rest of the removal suite is
doing its job. It will be interesting to see if anything else comes out to influence the builds.

Esper runs 12 Shocks + 8 taplands; you could just sequence your plays correctly and it'll be fine.

Ben Bleiweiss's comments on the new Phoenix...he read it as he expected it to be power-wise, hence the $1 steal at the start:

"Initially mispriced by me at $1 since I read this as a rare. It's a mythic, but this is a card that sure looks like it should have been a rare effect to me. You end up with either a 5/5 flyer for four mana or a 3/3 haste flyer that returns to hand if it dies for four mana. As with most punisher cards, you're going to end up with the one of these two that you least want. I can think of situations where I wouldn't want my opponent to choose either of these creatures. I've never thought most punisher cards are tournament playable, and this one is fringe but likely not to get played. This is currently at a low eBay Buy-It-Now at $10, and I'm happy to sell these at $5-$6 right now since I don't think it'll be a winner."

G'night all...gotta get the kids up
starting at 0530 and not looking forward to that.

*sees infest 2.0* looks like UB control for me now too

I just can't justify running rdw with Drown in Sorrow. The 2 SB Cures will just become Drown.. then what is our favorable matchup? My whole plan of running RB aggro or RB pyro a Nashville open on Feb 9th is out the window

One more share before bed...check out the outrageously sweet art on the Game Day Top 8 Promo:

Seriously tho, the art in this set is fantastic.

Hell yeah.

It's oozing with flavor too

*sees infest 2.0* looks like UB control for me now too

Yep.

Seriously tho, the art in this set is fantastic.

They're outdoing themselves with each release. I love it.

I mean, the cards aren't always great, but at least they're pretty to look at.

Game Days are so ridiculously easy too. They tend to attract a casual crowd, more so than FNMs. Those Pain Seers will be a piece of cake to get, not to mention if you're lucky you can get a full set in the weekend.

"More casual than FNM"

Whoops, I put Islands into my RDW by mistake!

I've seen intro decks make it in the top 8 twice.

Ill be going to game day; I want 4 of those.

I once had a guy on Game Day completely forfeit the match because his Subway sandwich was getting cold.

"More casual than FNM"

Whoops, I put Islands into my RDW by mistake!

Game Day is a lot tougher than FNM here. People want dem playmats.

Currently playing:

Standard: UB Control
Modern: Melira Pod
Legacy: UB Control
Pauper: Mono Blue Control

Writing: Mono Red articles for CFB

To be fair, the level of play at any event in Japan is way higher than anywhere else.

James is the only poster on this website with a signature longer than his average post length.

It's be longer too, if I could manage it.

You're making Redthirst look dwarfish.

Dat Drown in Sorrow is one hot piece of ass....


I'm still going to play Red. I ain't skerred.

It's be longer too, if I could manage it.

You say that to all the ladies! Admit it.

You're making Redthirst look dwarfish.

Impossible. Redthirst is both a grower and a shower.

In a target saturated environment like Rakdos plethora of Haste critters this guy just feels like a contender...might be totally wrong too.

I like that.

Satyr Nix-Smith looks pretty sweet.

LP, deck input plz:

[deck]RW Devotion[/deck]
Creatures
4 Ash Zealot
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Burning Tree Emissary
4 Frosburn Weird
4 Stormbreath Dragon

2 Purphoros, God of the Forge

Planeswalkers
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Elspeth, Sun Champion

Artifacts
2 Hammer of Purphoros

Other
2 Chained to the Rocks
4 Mizzium Mortars

Lands
4 Boros Guildgate
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
10 Mountain

4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx[/deck]

No. Just...no.

Also, very unhappy that infest is in the set, since I feel mono-black didn't need another boost, but as others said, I could just play UB control and that's an
archetype I enjoy. When me and Vundo saw this card at Tuesday Night Magic tonight, he was dazed and confused and I was visually tilted.

Also Saporro>>>>>>>>>>>asahi/kirin garbage beer.

LP, deck input plz:

[deck]RW Devotion[/deck]
Creatures
4 Ash Zealot
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Burning Tree Emissary
4 Frosburn Weird
4 Stormbreath Dragon

2 Purphoros, God of the Forge

Planeswalkers
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Elspeth, Sun Champion

Artifacts
2 Hammer of Purphoros

Other
2 Chained to the Rocks
4 Mizzium Mortars

Lands
4 Boros Guildgate
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
10 Mountain

4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx[/deck]

No. Just...
no.

Also, very unhappy that infest is in the set, since I feel mono-black didn't need another boost, but as others said, I could just play UB control and that's an archetype I enjoy. When me and Vundo saw this card at Tuesday Night Magic tonight, he was dazed and confused and I was visually tilted.

I like this deck

As for games days out here: They are quite hard, most have good players.