[Primer] Boros Burn

[Pedros]

3-2 drop in 8 round wmcq.

Won 2-0 vs bw midrange
Won 2-0 vs gr devotion
Won 2-1 vs uw sphere controln with archangel ram sb. Glare, pillar, chains ftw.
Lost 1-2 vs mono black devotion with full specters and garys. Game 1 and 3 which I lost was because I drew 8 lands (kept muta, 2 scry forge 3 spellls, swung with mutavaults turn 2 those games, spells got thoughtseized) scryed like 6 cards to a bottom with lands and jets. Lost because he had 2 specters each time that stole 4LIGHTNING STRIKES on a fucking first swing. 4 attacks, 4 strikes stolen. Those specters did like 10 damage and then I lost to 1 merchant...
Lost 0-2 to burn. Game 1 on a draw kept 2 lands with scry and jet when he mulliganed, missed 3rd land even with magmajet on turn 2, and when he cast yp without mana up couldnt cast my own and shock... didnt draw 4rd land while he just cast 5 spells plus swing with phoenix. I saw how did he sb vs burn as he
played near me, he kept phoenixes and had FULL 4 RAMS... he said he didnt want to loose a mirror match, and he was right... I sb out all creatures and board chains, glare, deicide. He just cast ram turn 2, stoke with ram turn 3, helix, helix, 2 charms while I couldnt find anything to stop his repetable lifegain and it was impossible to race (kept 3 lands, jet, charm, stoke and skullcrack).

I dropped from the event asI didnt have chance to top 8 anymore.

Raise the alarm thoughts: great vs conrol as it does huge amount of damage before jace and forces them of using jace +1. Good vs black or bw, as they can bile blight them for 1 for 1, however those tokens did like 6 damage. Other time they did 3 and eat downfall and devour flesh. Not awsome vs green. Mediocre vs burn: can eat YP, needs potential 2 removals, however not good if you are on sb all creatures plan.

While I think I got unlucky vs black, imo I dont have a clue how to play burn mirror wihout dedicated sb. To me it is a goldfish game,
especially now with so many 4 burn to a face. You dont have to get rid of anything that is not yp, and need only ~5 spells to win. With dedicated sb strategy it might be different.

[NotARobot]

Burn also got 4th place, this list looks like sperlings with a few changes.. Not a huge fan of the no chains/jets, but idk I havent tested that version

[deck]
Creatures 9
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix
1 Eidolon of the Great Revel

Spells 27
4 Lightning Strike
4 Shock
4 Boros Charm
4 Skullcrack
4 Searing Blood
4 Stoke the Flames
3 Warleader's Helix

Lands 24
9 Mountain
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Battlefield Forge
3 Mutavault

Sideboard 15

4 Satyr Firedancer
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Toil // Trouble
2 Chained to the Rocks
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Wear // Tear
1
Anger of the Gods
1 Warleader's Helix

[/deck]

Might want to correct that this is the list that won the wcmq. This is the 4th placing list going into top 8 while the other burn list placed 1st but lost to this one in a mirror match during top 4.

Oh woops

It was kinda hard to tell on the website that there were further rounds

[cloudscraper]

Firedancer is good on turn 3/4/5, not just on turn 2. I've never played less than 4, but it is a good midgame "close the door" kind of card

[magicdownunder]

3-2 drop in 8 round wmcq.

Won 2-0 vs bw midrange
Won 2-0 vs gr devotion
Won 2-1 vs uw sphere controln with archangel ram sb. Glare, pillar, chains ftw.
Lost 1-2 vs mono black devotion with full specters and garys. Game 1 and 3 which I lost was because I drew 8 lands (kept muta, 2 scry forge 3 spellls, swung with mutavaults turn 2 those games, spells got thoughtseized) scryed like 6 cards to a bottom with lands and jets. Lost because he had 2 specters each time that stole 4LIGHTNING STRIKES on a fucking first swing. 4 attacks, 4 strikes stolen. Those specters did like 10 damage and then I lost to 1 merchant...
Lost 0-2 to burn. Game 1 on a draw kept 2 lands with scry and jet when he mulliganed, missed 3rd land even with magmajet on turn 2, and when he cast yp
without mana up couldnt cast my own and shock... didnt draw 4rd land while he just cast 5 spells plus swing with phoenix. I saw how did he sb vs burn as he played near me, he kept phoenixes and had FULL 4 RAMS... he said he didnt want to loose a mirror match, and he was right... I sb out all creatures and board chains, glare, deicide. He just cast ram turn 2, stoke with ram turn 3, helix, helix, 2 charms while I couldnt find anything to stop his repetable lifegain and it was impossible to race (kept 3 lands, jet, charm, stoke and skullcrack).

I dropped from the event asI didnt have chance to top 8 anymore.

Raise the alarm thoughts: great vs conrol as it does huge amount of damage before jace and forces them of using jace +1. Good vs black or bw, as they can bile blight them for 1 for 1, however those tokens did like 6 damage. Other time they did 3 and eat downfall and devour flesh. Not awsome vs green. Mediocre vs burn: can eat YP, needs potential 2 removals, however not good if you are on sb all
creatures plan.

While I think I got unlucky vs black, imo I dont have a clue how to play burn mirror wihout dedicated sb. To me it is a goldfish game, especially now with so many 4 burn to a face. You dont have to get rid of anything that is not yp, and need only ~5 spells to win. With dedicated sb strategy it might be different.

Thanks for the write up, I'm not really sure how you would beat 4x Ram in the mirror either (but I think the ram are rather bad in other MUs) - losing vs Bx Devo like that would of been annoying as well.

Do you think its worth moving forward with the Fire Alarm list or running something like the Japanese wcmq builds would be better?

[cloudscraper]

At Italy's first WMCQ, there are 4 UW control in the top8, one Jund Planeswalkers, a BG Devotion, a MonoU and a GW aggro.
That seems like the kind of metagame Burn could exploit, i.e. only two specific categories of decks to beat, or mostly Control.

Sperling list is awful against control, is there anyone (among the guys who posted their own lists) who is targeting a metagame with control + midrange?

[hoeiberg]

Question for you guys: How do you play the match against G devo? I have been trying to control them but beating a resolved Garruk is really an uphill battle. However racing T3 Polukranos into t4 Kalonian Hydra is quite the tall order as well.

It seems to me that with mono G their fast draws are too fast for us to beat race and their CA is too strong for us to control. It is very likely that i just don't play well enough to beat the MU (something I'm working on improving), but I think having a general strategy for the MU (like i have for most other MUs thanks to MDU's amazing videos) would be really helpful.

[LP, of the Fires]

Burn mirror is won by getting to helix them without getting skullcracked.

[magicdownunder]

Burn mirror is won by getting to helix them without getting skullcracked.

Sounds about right alternatively you can ruin your other MUs can try out the plan which the guy Pedro faced used (run 4x Rams in the SB).

@hoeiberg: If G Devo is a huge part of your metagame I suggest running 4x Boros Reckoner - they can buy you time to draw up enough burn for face or any decent threats (like Chandra's Phoenix) to take over.

[LP, of the Fires]

Nyx-Fleece ram is a decent sidboard card. I played against to burn players who had them and they where definitely serviceable vs. me. Sure as fuck wouldn't play four though.

[BlakLanner]

I beat Green Devotion by Chaining the really big stuff and letting my Firedancers run riot over the rest of their board.

[emx]

Hi, been lurking here for a while now, and thought id share my run in Norway's first WMCQ this year.
I was running a more standard variant of the deck going into the control role in pretty much all matchups, other than U/W/(x) control.

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

Spells 29
4 Chained to the Rocks
4 Shock
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Boros Charm
4 Skullcrack
4 Warleader's Helix
1 Mizzium Mortars

Lands 23
8 Mountain
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
3 Battlefield Forge
1 Temple of Silence
3 Mutavault

Sideboard 15

3 Mizzium Mortars
3 Toil // Trouble
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Banishing Light
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Reprisal
1 Pillar of Light
1 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Assemble the Legion

[/deck]

To explain a few choices.
1 Mizzium Mortar in main: This was mostly because of the rise of G/W aggro and B/W Midrange following the PT. I disliked the 4 cmc
mana cost of Stoke in order to deal with Blood Baron's and Loxodon Smiters. And I felt it was very few cases that it actually mattered that Mortar couldn't go to the face (that did end up hurting me in this run, so I might go back on that). Also having the option of overload mortars in pre board is extremely powerful in some matchups.
1 Pillar of Light in sideboard: People have loved and hated this one in the board, the reason I decided to keep it in was because I could bring it in as a pseudo secondary Glare of Heresy against UW, and still have it as a pseudo secondary Reprisal against Monsters. This is why I went with the 1, 1, 1 split between those three.
1 Stormbreath Dragon: It is mostly here in order to get reach through Archangels of Thune if I cannot deal with them at the time. If it resolves they have to boardclear in order to deal with it. I am not certain about that choice either, mostly as I have not gotten to test it much yet. (Celestial Flare has been cut by a lot of U/W players now which
makes it a lot stronger than it used to be in the matchup).
1 Assemble the Legion: I like to go the control route against black decks, and then like to have one Assemble in my 75 as a more solid finisher. (Especially as Green splash is fairly uncommon atm, tho its still seen).


Round 1: U/W Control (Planar)
Game 1: I got a bit of a slow start with a bit too much draw go, however a timely skullcrack into a greedy Rev got me to finish the game off quickly.
Game 2: Now this one got interesting. I went in with one goal, to Exile the first Thune he got out with Glare or Pillar, (or Chain if I had to), and finish the game off from there. What did end up happening is that I Pillared the first one right after he cast it (<3 instant speed), and managed to force out his negate by chaining his second Thune, and then Glaring it right after. At this point I already knew he was slow playing a bit, so I took my chances by surviving until we reach time, and managed to win the match 1-0 after we went to time in
game 2. Finally I flipped the table on these U/W players always winning 1-0 after time in game 2.

1-0

Round 2: Mono Black Aggro
Game 1: I got a very sketchy start flooding a bit, but he flooded a bit as well, and managed to stabilize on the back of a Helix, and after that the game was over.
Game 2: Sided in control package and the game was not close to even. Overall this is an extremely favored matchup for us.

2-0

Round 3: U/W Control (Planar)
This player I knew, and he is quite good so was not feeling very confident going in.
Game 1: Won the die roll, but got a grindingly slow start, after the second Rev I scooped it up.
Game 2: Hit a critical mass of Trouble, Boros Charms, and Skullcracks he died after he tapped out for an Archangel.
Game 3: Again I got a really good hand, he however hit double sheep. Again I hit a Trouble for 6 (was a risky move but decided I wouldnt win this match without taking some risks). The game was really close but it turned after he missed a sheep trigger. That
put him at 3 health instead of 4, so that I could lightning strike him in his next up keep in response to his sheep triggers. He dealt with that one, and I Striked him again, He rev'd for two and survived (at 4 after getting the sheep triggers) But he was tapped out, and I had a phoenix in the air and a boros charmed, so finished the game from there.

3-0

Round 4: Jund Walkers
Again a fairly good matchup.
Game 1: Lost the die roll, he got a rather slow start and even admitted to forgetting a land drop with land on hand. The match more or less ended as he scryed away a Nissa to topdeck a new Nissa, he had no choice but to play it, but he just died the following turn.
Game 2: This one got really close, but he had a scooze with no counters (no creatures in any yards), two caryatids, a mystic, a satyr token, and a chandra on the board. He his another scooze with his Chandra so had to play it, and I the turn after hit him with an overloaded Mortars, the turn after that I BL'd his Chandra while putting
down my own Chandra, and after that the game was very one sided.

4-0

Round 5: Gruul Monsters
Game 1: Lost the die roll, he got a decent start, but problems arose when I was unable to stop his Domri from ultimating, had only a mortar and two chains on hand. He played a Polukranos and I knew he had Rampager on hand, so that ended the game at once.
Game 2: I decided to for the control role, as thats what I am most confortable with, however I think it might be better to just Race monsters with Reprisal and Pillar to hopefully get them when they do something a bit too greedy. It ended with me forcing it into topdeck mode with me at 1 life and him at about 20, (he gained 16 life over the course of that game from Disciples, Coursers, and Scoozes). I didnt hit the Helix I needed and when he finally hit a Rampager I didnt find anything and lost the game.

4-1

Round 6: Brave Naya
Game 1: He got a bit of a slow start, and I hit all the removal I needed, and finished the game off fairly quickly.
Game 2:
He dropped down a Battlefield Forge, followed by Mana Confluence, a Stomping Ground, and another Mana Confluence. Obviously he felt awful having that mana base against a "burn" deck. It didnt hurt him as much as he thought it would as I was completely sided into the control role. I did end up killing him while I was at effectivly 1 life (he had a boros charm in hand he hoped to get me with)

5-1

Round 7: ID'ed into top 8.

Top 8:

Round 1: U/W Control (Sphere)
Game 1: He was seed 4 and I 5, so he got to start, was a really close and grindy game, saved a pyromancer with boros charm, and ultimately got him down to burn range, he had a 4th counterspell that stopped me from finishing him off with a Lightning Strike in response to a Rev. Almost got him down to lethal again, but another Rev, followed by a third and then I scooped it up.
Game 2: I made a mistake and boarded out 3 instead of 2 Chains, assuming he was on 4 sheep 2 thunes, he was that, but also fiendslayer paladin. For 10 turns I
raced Fiendslayer + Sheep, thanks to phoenix in the air and a triple skullcrack draw. Managed to force him down to 1, with shock in hand, he had the dispell for the shock, and with him gaining three health a turn I couldnt catch up.

He then proceeded to win the WMCQ, beating out a Mono black in round 2, and Esper Control in round 3.

I still feel U/W Control is a really hard matchup for burn, and am quite happy I won 2 out of 3 matches in that MU. I feel the main reason I dislike the U/W matchup is because its the one matchup where I cannot go into the control role, and that puts me a bit out of my comfort zone with the deck. Would love some input on ways to deal with U/W matchups, both Cleansing an Sphere variants, and also how people like to play the monsters matchup, I face it far to rarely and don't have anyone experienced with the deck to playtest against.

[magicdownunder]

Epic first post emx - I'll post my thoughts sometime tomorrow or the day after that just keep in mind that sphere UW Control with FSP and Sheep would be rough for any burn player.

[Kaitscralt]

except the ones who pretend its a good matchup

[Lightning_Dolt]

My swag gives me protection from teh ghey cards.

[LP, of the Fires]

Maybe im just way better then you scrubs

I best burn 3 Times with rabble red this weekend and only one of the pilots was questionable.

[Khaospawn]

LP, the correct nomenclature is "Scrumps."

[magicdownunder]

except the ones who pretend its a good matchup

I stand by my convictions that UW Planar Control is in burn's favor (at least compared with the sphere version), I do agree that the sphere version is rough even though you guys seem to think its better.

[BlakLanner]

You and I are on the same page, MDU. Just like almost always it seems.

[Khaospawn]

Well, technically we're all on the same page....in the Boros Burn thread.

[Khaospawn]

[Christen]

Might as well list what happened in my WMCQ. Finished the whole tournament since I had nothing better to do for the day. Overall result is 5-4-1. I've used Matt Sperling's list with 4 Skullcracks main and the last Helix on board. My losses were from GW Aggro, UW Control, Mono Black Devotion, and UW Devotion. Draw is UW Control as well. Draw is UW control, and my wins were from a UW control, Esper, RG Devotion, UU Devotion, and BW Midrange.

Biggest mistake was passing the turn thinking I could kill a crucial Experiment One turn 2 when he had Voice. I didn't kill it because I just remembered the ability milliseconds when I passed the turn. Caused a minor tilt that lost me the match for game 2. Recovery wasn't easy when you keep an opening hand of mountain, mutavault, and then draw nothing else but mutavault and can't cast your spells (I probably shouldn't have kept but 4 out of 5 spells in my hand was castable, the next
draws however were less than appealing). Enough of that though. I geared up to face a lot of Rabble decks and the mirror, but it seemed like I got a lot of UW control instead (half of my matches were).

Some comments on the cards:
- Searing Blood was good provided you're not facing control, otherwise it was a common dead card specially on those times my deck gave me nothing but Mutavaults. I saw a lot of aggro in the field, but bad luck gave me all the control decks instead.
- Since Sperling's list didn't run Magma Jets, I felt that those land screws I had would have probably been fixed if I ran the Jets instead of Searing Blood. Lesson learned, trust your instincts as well even if your teammates are on the opposite side.
- Eidolon of the Great Revel did phenomenal in my case whenever it appeared against control. That's pretty much a given.

Has anyone of you already tried doing the transformational sideboard thing? I noticed that most of them if not all boarded out Supreme Verdict post board.
This allows a very good option of going a pure aggro route against control since UW is technically a bad match up given perfect draws.

[LP, of the Fires]

How is the rabble red matchup from the burn s side? I went 3-0 vs burn and I don't know if the matchup not as bad as I thought, I for lucky, or I was way better/more prepared then my opponents.

Input appreciated.

[zemanjaski]

Its insanely bad for rabble red if the play skill is similar; probably 80-20 for burn.

[Platypus]

Just FYI, this won our WMCQ (93 players):

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

Spells
4 Searing Blood
4 Lightning Strike
4 Boros Charm
4 Magma Jet
4 Skullcrack
4 Shock
4 Stoke the Flames
1 Warleader's Helix
2 Chained to the Rocks

Land
6 Mountain
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
1 Mana Confluence
1 Battlefield Forge
2 Temple of Silence
3 Mutavault

Sideboard
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
2 Chained to the Rocks
2 Warleader's Helix
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Boros Reckoner
1 Toil/Trouble
1 Banishing Light[/deck]

He won Rabble Red, Monoblack, GW Aggro, Monoblue, and lost to BW Control in the swiss. In the top 8 he won 2x Rabble Red, and UW in the finals. He had also won the last minute trial the day before with a similar deck, but apparently he had tweeked it somewhat for the WMCQ.

[dauntless268]

How is the rabble red matchup from the burn s side? I went 3-0 vs burn and I don't know if the matchup not as bad as I thought, I for lucky, or I was way better/more prepared then my opponents.

Input appreciated.

I would say the matchup is still in our favor, but I would not rate it as extreme unless you have the misfortune to run against Zem

Army-in-a-can Rabblemaster is your key resource, and makes it more difficult for us to stabilize than against last season's RDW. Early in the game, we have to burn every threat that's out there, so a late Master has a chance to catch us with only Lava Spikes in hand. We try to avoid tapping out so we can
burn the Master before he generates his tokens, but that's not always possible. We try to use Boros Charm to make YP indestructible and Skullcrack to recur Phoenix to get value out of otherwise dead cards. We often have to make tough decisions when we need to start attacking you before you draw into more threats, and we sometimes miscalculate.

Post board, we take out Cracks and a possibly a number of Charms and side in whatever we have in terms of additional removal and or blockers. Some of us run Anger, some Boros Charm, some Mortars and some (like Sperling) even bring in dancers. We may bring in Chandra to win once we stabilize. We rely heavily on YP CA, so a way to get rid of multiple 1/1s (such as Electrickery or Flames of the Firebrand) is not what we want to see. One of the nastiest cards against us is Peak Eruption, as we can't really afford to side out any CTTR and we often have only 1 mountain to stack our chains onto.

Hope this helps you, reciprocity appreciated

[Pedros]

@Dauntless

Sry for not answering. I really liked Rise the Alarm, when I cast it it did around 4-6 damage, or eat 2 removal spells. Also liked the fact it didnt go to the top when control put it on the top.

[BlakLanner]

Perhaps I will try our Raise the Alarm as well. Did you think that shaving a YP was correct for that? I was thinking of adding 2 in exchange for a Searing Blood and a Shock.

[dauntless268]

You kind of don't want more than 13 Non-Burn Spells in your deck. 4 CP are set, so choose a mix for the rest that fits your meta. I personally prefer 4 YP, 3 Raise, 2 CTTR

[BlakLanner]

I am on a "no jets and chains in the side" version.

[LP, of the Fires]

How is the rabble red matchup from the burn s side? I went 3-0 vs burn and I don't know if the matchup not as bad as I thought, I for lucky, or I was way better/more prepared then my opponents.

Input appreciated.

I would say the matchup is still in our favor, but I would not rate it as extreme unless you have the misfortune to run against Zem

Army-in-a-can Rabblemaster is your key resource, and makes it more difficult for us to stabilize than against last season's RDW. Early in the
game, we have to burn every threat that's out there, so a late Master has a chance to catch us with only Lava Spikes in hand. We try to avoid tapping out so we can burn the Master before he generates his tokens, but that's not always possible. We try to use Boros Charm to make YP indestructible and Skullcrack to recur Phoenix to get value out of otherwise dead cards. We often have to make tough decisions when we need to start attacking you before you draw into more threats, and we sometimes miscalculate.

Post board, we take out Cracks and a possibly a number of Charms and side in whatever we have in terms of additional removal and or blockers. Some of us run Anger, some Boros Charm, some Mortars and some (like Sperling) even bring in dancers. We may bring in Chandra to win once we stabilize. We rely heavily on YP CA, so a way to get rid of multiple 1/1s (such as Electrickery or Flames of the Firebrand) is not what we want to see. One of the nastiest cards against us is Peak Eruption, as we can't really
afford to side out any CTTR and we often have only 1 mountain to stack our chains onto.

Hope this helps you, reciprocity appreciated

From playing the matchup a couple times in tourney over this weekend, I have a few thoughts from my side.

Removal is paramount and it has to be cheap. The goes from close to unwinnable if the burn player untaps with YP in play as the tokens trade with the vast majority of my actual cards. Postboard, burn players tend to side in other creatures my deck simply can't beat unopposed. I faced a combination of Satyr Firedancers, Boros Reckoners, and Ash Zealots in addition to the standard fair of YP and CP and without extra removal in my board, I would have been destroyed. With that said, Game one, I have to hope I draw my removal and you draw mono-lava spikes. The way the games Rabble loses typical go both sides trade off one-for-one then one of three things happens:

nWarleaders Helix

2-4-1s(searing blood counts, as does Active YP)

Of burn turns the corner and starts throwing fire at the face while I flounder.

The games Rabble wins are the ones where I draw a bunch of cheap creatures along with a removal spell or two and can kill the CA engine will staying ahead of removal similar to they way you beat mono-black. Tempo Nigga.

Postboards about balancing taking out 1 toughness creatures that trade with tokens, but keeping in enough cheap spells to still out agro the opponent. Firedrinker obv comes out and I tend to trim some denizens and firefist strikers(if I don't put them on reckoner/flamespeaker). In comes electrickery, Chandra, magma sprays and sometimes a single skullcrack will sub for a stoke the flames as a hedge vs. Warleaders Helix on the play. On the draw I cut a land because I need to draw gas the whole game and the matchup can be a grind. Gameplan is mostly the same with the benefit that I no longer have a creature that turns strikes into searing
blazes. I'll always kill non-Chandra's phoenix creatures on site and focus on going wide as much as possible. Unless the opponent is tapped out, I generally hold rabblemaster and prefer playing out 2 dudes to spread burns removal.

Something I haven't tried but might is boarding in Eidolon on the play. I board out on average 6-8 creatures so I'd love to have some to bring in and since I'm the agro, punishing life totals might work. More likely I just die to stoke the flames and war leaders helix, but it's worth testing.

Worth noting, postboard, you should never play YP or Satyr Firedancer unless you have a spell to play the same turn because rabble players treat this as a mono-black mirror and your two-drops as pack rats. Unless our hand is INSANE, we can't keep anything that doesn't interact with either of those cards or we just lose the game.

[cloudscraper]

If UW [sphere UW] was the most played deck (by far) in your area, would you play some version (ANY version) of Burn?

[Christen]

You could probably try a sideboard that transform into aggro since they'll be siding in their negates and siding out a number of mass removal.

[BlakLanner]

If my meta was mostly Sphere-based Control, I would be looking elsewhere for a deck.

[BrainsickHater]

You can just jam all the hate cards in the baord and watch them cry.

[magicdownunder]

If UW [sphere UW] was the most played deck (by far) in your area, would you play some version (ANY version) of Burn?

I still feel U/W Control is a really hard matchup for burn, and am quite happy I won 2 out of 3 matches in that MU. I feel the main reason I dislike the U/W matchup is because its the one matchup where I cannot go into the control role, and that puts me a bit out of my comfort zone with the deck. Would love some input on ways to deal with U/W matchups, both Cleansing an Sphere variants, and also how people like to play the monsters matchup, I face it far to rarely and don't
have anyone experienced with the deck to playtest against.

If you have a mix of both versions in your meta-game I highly recommend running Glare of Heresy, unlike W//T, Chains or BL it hits more targets and if you resolve the card whatever you targeted remands dead.

The current gameplan I've adopted was to "next level" my opponent:
vs Planar Control I'll board out all my creatures (you can't use the creature plan vs them) because they're running 4x Charms, ##x Flares and ##x Last Breaths and just run all my chains and other hate cards.
vs Dshpere Control I'll keep my Chandra's Phoenix because I need to draw out Dshpere, I'll only run 2x Chains because Dshpere on chains is a huge blowout and then add whatever other hate I have.

How is the rabble red matchup from the
burn s side? I went 3-0 vs burn and I don't know if the matchup not as bad as I thought, I for lucky, or I was way better/more prepared then my opponents.

Input appreciated.

Its in burn's favor but the MU is really dictated by the first 4 turns - unlike burn Rabble Red will almost always have 3 more more creatures in play by T2 so if for example the burn player kept a racing heavy hand (g1) or too many creatures or a huge CC hand - the Rabble red player should be able to take the burn player down to single digits before he can stabilizes which puts the burn player in range for stokes, sc and ls to finish the job.

That said if the burn player has a few 1cc spells in the opening it would be very hard for Rabble red to take the win.

[zemanjaski]

RE: producing consistent results, MDU I'm the second highest ranked player in our country after Juzza

[magicdownunder]

RE: producing consistent results, MDU I'm the second highest ranked player in our country after Juzza

This was so much easier when I use to play paper magic and we had a rating system, how do you look up rank now?

How does the planeswalker system feel? I don't really think it give proper evaluation since you can't lose points anymore (I imagine grinders are everywhere now).

How do you feel Australian's PROs stack up with the world now that we have large GP events (putting behind that last GP....)?

P.S. Does Aaron Nicastri still play?

EDIT: It seem like you need a DCI number (I'm gonna have to dig up my card).

[zemanjaski]

Yeah I know Nicastri, guy is a champ.

PWP system sucks badly, they should have just fixed the elo system.

Go to pwp website, set your filter to Australia and annual. Disregard the PTQ winners with a bonus 1000 points.

[LP, of the Fires]

Aaron is the player I've been thinKing of. He was the shit.

[dauntless268]

The ELO System has served the Chess Community well for over 50 years now. However, it's 1:1 application in a game where the outcome between two different players is far more dependent on luck than in Chess has to be limited.