Dies to Removal

How many pack rats do you deal with? Banishing light could be an easy sub in for Dsphere.

From trying out the various decks here I can't imagine playing without Mogis Marauder. It's just such a good card and really your only way to take advantage of haste. Conley's list looks a lot like where I'd like to see the deck taken.

What are the collective thoughts on Devour Flesh? Just wondering as it was used to great effect against me last night... You're racing more often than not. Forcing a sac is sexy but you can't really afford to let them have more life than you're capable of doing to them. I've been ennamored with Far...

Going with this to TNM, I will try to ceck out the sources if I want Temples split or 2 of 1 colors. Also I like HDF over mortars vs mono U and Rx and Gx devotions - kills reckoners, dragons and polukranos at instant speed without drawback. The drawback is that it has BB in the casting cost. This d...

Been lurking this thread for a while. I haven't been playing much in the past couple of months so haven't been posting much in the competitive forums. Thanks all for the great work, and congrats on all the great results. 1. I think Dreadbore is the best removal spell in the format right now. It's l...

Chandra vs Whip. What do you guys think Chandra is so good against? The few times I've actually had her be useful were on a board stall where I was building up rats and they had no way to remove her. So, basically, mono green. I've never had her be relevant vs 90% of the field and always feel like ...

Toil/Trouble, when it works, is amazing. But it's a card that I feel like has to be seen in your opening hand to have its strongest effect and it's something that I never -want- to see in the 3 mana cost slot of my curve. Anything including a drawing engine would feel better to me. But then, I still...

Edit: also, never did get any responses on my question. What would you cut, if anything, to get a second whip in the side? Doom Blade is the obvious candidate in your list. Or do what I did and Nix Toil//Trouble entirely to shore up the rest of the sideboard. Also, Chandra has not impressed me one ...

Hmm, any thoughts been given to Lifebane Zombies? I tried out the Xathrid changes and they slowed the deck down just a tad too much. Even if they did make it almost impervious to removal. (Thrill-Kill Assassins are actually pretty awesome and maybe worth putting in over Jesters as they dodge a lot o...

Necromancer really solves the 1:1 removal issues this deck has. Yoiu can run some pretty strong humans while still retaining the curve. Never had issues with burn decks for instance.

Versus aggro I side in whatever removal is appropriate in spades and side out cacklers and jesters. Sometimes if it's race-y I'll side in whip.

I took out Toil//Trouble for Thoughtseize and couldn't be happier with the change. They both hit control but one actually can get rid of threats while the other is just situational burn that the deck doesn't need.

Here's what I ended up deciding on. I've been having quite a lot of success with it as it answers a lot of the issues I was having with spot removal and verdicts ruining my day. [deck=Jdub's current Dos Packis]//Creatures 4 Pack Rat 4 Ash Zealot 4 Chandra's Phoenix 3 Xathrid Necromancer 3 Exava, Rak...

Honestly, Mono U and Esper have been my hardest matchups (Although mono white control kinda threw me for a loop. How do I deal with Pacifism, Celestial Flare, Fiendslayer Paladin all maindeck?). Against Esper I've been trying to go as hard as possible while switching in 3 thoughtseizes to get rid of...

Thought I'd share my latest iteration to see if anyone has some comments. [deck=Jdub's current 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 1 Mizzium Mortars...

I think JDubCT was saying to run Erebos mb over Chandra. I like both Return and Erebos. Anyone got any more testing about MD / SB? No, I was saying that I was testing Erebos but, regardless of how that went (mediocrely), "one ofs" was insufficient to count on him at all. If you're going t...

Boros Legions, big Boros deck only run 8 MD burn + 2 Chandras. We are running 1 less source in 1 less chandra, couse we are testing Whip/Chandra/additional terror split. We might end with 2 chandra, dont know. Phoenix is fantastic card, and is good for subtheme - 14 hasty creatures. If u see my rep...

I've been looking over the recent lists, including the original promising Rakdos work that Nuwen and Fate pioneered early in the season. Assuming that the more black-centric "Dos Packis" build is proving to be more globally viable than red-centric lists (the Pack Rat plan seems relatively...

4 mutavaults

my wallet is weeping already

At some point you just have to bite the bullet and get that playset. Mutas are useful in so many decks it's definitely worth the investment, it isn't like buying blood-barons for 20 each when it only fits in one of your decks.

Yeah, but instead of erebos or alongside it? I've done a good dozen and a half matches today with this deck. I think Erebos shines in ways that aren't readily apparent until you're in top deck mode against U/W or Esper. PS: I've been considering Rakdos Charm . It feels like it's a great option to k...

Yeah, after some preliminary testing I can see that. My deck looks something more like this now: [deck=Jdub's current 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 ...

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

Hm, where would you suggest I throw that in my list? I could nix Erebos main and maybe cut down on Lightning Strike. But I feel like mortars are pretty integral.

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...

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 (L...

I really wanted to sleeve up the Underworld Cerebus version that was posted up above. In testing, it felt very solid but I was stung a few times by my own Cerebus giving back my opponent an army. I tried messing with the mana base yesterday, but wasn't getting anything consistent for SBD so I opted...

I was thinking quite a bit about it at work. And do we really want more than 2 one CMC creatures? Can you think of a situation where, if you don't have them by turn 3, you'd want to cast a cackler? 1 gives you a 13% and 2~22% chance to see one in your initial 8 cards with serious diminishing returns...

Good changes for sure although it seems really hard to play Doom Blade in the maindeck right now. Just so many of the top creatures are black. Hero's Downfall really is a huge upgrade. 10 black just seems low for turn 2 Jester or Pack Rat. The R/W versions of the deck run less but they have scry la...

@Dpaine: You make a very good point. I may move it to something a little heavier in the curve ala: [deck=Jdub's Thoughts]Creatures(22) 4 Rakdos Cackler 4 Spike Jester 4 Pack Rat 4 Ash Zealot 3 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch 3 Underworld Cerberus Spells (14) //Removal 2 Dreadbore 2 Doom Blade 2 Mizzium Mo...

I like the idea of keyrunes as a form of reach, but if you're running pack rats you really need vaults or a card draw option. [deck=Jdub's Thoughts]Creatures(22) 4 Rakdos Cackler 4 Tormented Hero 4 Spike Jester 4 Pack Rat 4 Ash Zealot 2 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch (Replacement options to Hero) 4 Fired...

Ugh. You're right. I don't like the sound of that at all. Wear // Tear could handle Boon Satyr while he's an enchantment, and the Bow. That might help. That's all I could come up with. This is in paper at LGS, so if I ever want to grab the prize I need to be able to stand half a chance against it. ...

@MDU Would you elaborate on Legions Initiative and Haunted Plate for me/us? I assume the plate is for a late game finisher but what is legions for especially as a one of? Just to get damage in if its played early enough? The Plate was just a filler card while I waited to steal LI, in theory plate w...

I think that Pack rat is our biggest issue here

I'm not entirely sure I understand why. Mono black packs very little Artifact removal (Ratchet bomb maybe?) and Pithing Needle shuts down Pack Rats/Mutavaults right quick.