Dies to Removal

More brewing, pre Flamepseaker testing. Not sure how ready I am to abandon 1 drops, they might be swingy, but they are such big game vs Bx and Control.

Question for those running Shota/Z's updated lists:

Vs Monsters: Are you preferring the 4 Reckoner, 1 Reprisal, 2 Mortars plan as opposed to siding into a set of 4 mortars.

Vs Mono U (I have not played this in a little while) Are you prefering the flamespeaker + banishing light plan, as opposed to a playset of mortars?

What do you guys think about bringing in Chandra vs Mono U?

Yeah he def shouldn't of done that, he acknowledged that he probably should of killed it. We both joked in G2 where I went phoenix into anger, into phoenix into anger. Yes, that was a peak eruption.

Made it into CalebDs video this week:

http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/c ... -devotion/

I am the pilot for match 4, I destroyed him.

Hitting lands is the most important aspect of the mirror, imo. First one to miss a land drop in the first 4 turns, loses from my experience.

Need to see the rest of your deck.

Great report!

My thoughts on assemble:

It takes up 2 slots in a matchup that I already feel is in my favor. If it had more uses in other matchups, I could maybe see it.

Congrats on your finish! Mind posting up a report if you can remember?

Reckoner vs Mortars... gah I wish I could test more!

Well, for me its sort of a speculatory thing that will change with the weeks coming.

My store is typically very diverse when it comes to these events. There are always a few hexproof fuckers (just hoping to dodge that tbh). Typically esper is the control deck at my shop, but I expect a shift towards UW. We have alot of players that will typically just pick up the most recent winning deck, and run it (hence why some slots are subject to change).

Here is my thinking based off this past weekends GP:

I think control decks will continue to shift away from Dsphere, which will also push BG Devo decks towards mono black. I think these mono black decks will then shift towards NVS to combat a rise in mono u and a down swing of monsters. The thought is that control decks will have a lot of last breaths, so my plan of being to go one drop into 2 drop (either eidolon or yp$). So now on turn 3, I am hoping they would be tapped out,
to either resolve a phoenix or a toil. Hoping that one drops/eidolon eat last breaths to allow my phoenixs and mutavaults to stick around.

I think mono blacks will all be playing 4 duress for 4 pharikas cure, 2 eidolon sort of helps as an additional threat that can offset their life gain from cure.

I am playing 1 drops because it makes my mulligans a LOT more consistent, and allows me to play spells later in the game. I also like eidolon as a 2 of against mono u.

Granted, this is all theorycrafting on my end. If control move towards more spot removal and less burn hate, and black moves towards more pharikas cure and less discard, it could change.

Some brewing(IQ in 2 weeks):

[deck]4 Chandra's Pheonix
4 YP$

4 Shock
4 Skullcrack
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 WLH
1 Mizzium Mortar

3 Chains
1 Banishing Light

4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
3 Mutavault
1 Mana Confluence
2 Boros Guildgate
1 Temple of Silence
8 Mountain

SB
4 Firedrinker Satyr
2 Eidolon
2 Chandra
1 Chain
2 Toil//Trouble
1 Wear/Tear
3 Mizzium Mortars[/deck]

Depends on how the SB of control/black decks change over the next two weeks.

YP$ has one GP win. Eidolon has no GP wins. That seems to be the only result you are interested in.

No need to argue, I currently play YP$.

So I should ignore the fact a bad card is overplayed when preparing for an event where said bad card will be overplayed?

Undefeated deck 1 from GP:

[deck]
Planeswalker (1)
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
Creature (8)

4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel

Instant (26)
2 Shock
4 Lightning Strike
4 Skullcrack
4 Searing Blood
4 Magma Jet
4 Warleader's Helix
4 Boros Charm

Enchantment (2)
2 Chained to the Rocks

Land (23)
9 Mountain
2 Mana Confluence
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Mutavault

Sideboard (15)
2 Chained to the Rocks
2 Wear & Tear
2 Toil & Trouble
4 Firedrinker Satyr
3 Satyr Firedancer
2 Anger of the Gods[/deck]

This one is interesting:

[deck]
Creature (8)
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Sorcery (1)
1 Toil & Trouble

Instant (27)
4 Skullcrack
4 Warleader's Helix
4 Lightning Helix
4 Boros Charm
4 Magma Jet
1 Reprisal
3 Searing Blood
3 Shock

Enchantment (1)
1 Chained to the Rocks

Land (23)
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Mutavault
4
Sacred Foundry
1 Godless Shrine
1 Plains
1 Boros Guildgate
10 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
2 Chained to the Rocks
1 Mizzium Mortars
3 Satyr Firedancer
1 Anger of the Gods
4 Firedrinker Satyr
2 Fiendslayer Paladin
2 Wear & Tear[/deck]

Day 2 meta:

Black Devotion 46
Blue Devotion 42
WU Control 25
Jund Monsters 22
Boros Burn 20
WB Midrange 20
Black Aggro 8
Boss Sligh 7
Esper Control 7
Junk Midrange 5
Naya Aggro 5
White Weenie 5
Other 27

I don't care about the names of players who prefer young pyromancer (we all do)... I care about what puts up results that will affect what I expect to play against.

Yeah I forgot about Gp Moscow, my bad! Of notice though, eidolon seems to be doing better in the states, while YP$ seems to be doing well overseas.

Worth mention that the highest placing GP burn decks (2 of them went 9-0 on Day 1) were playing Eidolon.

What happened to burn? Has not put up results in 3 weeks!

I would of Shocked and WLH the Ash Zealot going up to 11. Nothing he draws kills you, and if he DOES draw madcap (or even mantle into madcap) you would be at 6-7 life, you have a shock to kill the denizen and play phoenix on your turn (id leave it back). Now you have a creature on defense and a chandra coming down next turn.

I don't think Burn vs Esper is the most sill intensive... Maybe vs UW, or current versions of Jund Monsters. I don't think I have ever lost to Esper, UW on the other hand....

Great result! Anyway you can fill us on your matchups and SBing? Interested to see how Nyx Fleece worked out for you

As mentioned earlier in the week, I will be doing a featured playtesting session with Team Sneak and Show (http://www.sneakandshow.com). The matchup will be:

James Fazzolari playing Yasooka Burn (Team Channel Fireball) vs.
Julian To playing Esper Control (Team Sneak and Show)

There will be accompanying commentary from some of Australia's best players.

You can watch here: http://www.twitch.tv/sneakandshow

We will be broadcasting at 7pm EST / 5am EDt / 2am PDT

Video will be archived to watch afterwards of course. Sorry about the time zone issues, but you know, I live on the other side of
the world to most of you. =/

I imagine you winning 70% of the games, you are so favored against Esper.

Went through and watched Shota SB against BG Devotion.

Wins G1.

G2:+2 Chandra +2 Reprisal -1 Shock -1 Mortars -1 Skullcrack -1 Boros Charm
Loses - very slow hand vs a nice curve out from his opponent

G3: No SB changes.
Wins..Opponent gets stuck on lands, and Shota just draws well.


I thought this was interesting, and am curious to your comments on it Z. (as you bring in Flamespeaker)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEi4I6UWuDQ

family guy ftw

Z, how was flamespeaker agaisnt MBC for you? The SB seems to have a lot of ways to approach that matchup. 2 reprisal, 2 chandra, 3 flmspkr and 2 banishin light. siding in all 8 of these seems almost TOO grindy. Curious as to how much your approach changes when playing reprisal or flamespeaker as opposed to not. Am I over thinking? No way it was -4 shcok -4 boros charm

We are favored in both of these matchups, adjust your decks accordingly based on predicted meta (paper or online).

The End.

Here are video of Shoota playing burn. Scroll down and click on his name where you see a feature match to watch the vids (click again to view on youtube, its bigger).

He has some INTERESTING SB choices, especially the mirror and control.

http://www.happymtg.com/category/covera ... _standard/

Shock is 1000000x better than Searing Blood in any containing YP$. It's arguably one of, if not the best card to play alongside him (especially Game 1). The 2nd shock would 100% be better than 1 of wild guess, and a 3rd shock would be 99.9% better than a 3rd searing blood. A 4th shock would be 80% better than Chandra (which should be moved to the SB replacing Dictate)

Also, I am assuming you have 3 chains main

Tl;DR: the metagame is not one that warrants having more Searing Blood than Shocks, let alone 3 to 1 ratio.

No shit its 20x cards, I was saying there are only like 4 cards with CMC that trigger it. Also, Miscutter Hydra and Rakdos Return don't trigger it. You are just asking to lose that race.

Boarding in Eidolon vs monsters can't be correct. They have like 4 card that can trigger it... It's terrible past turn 2, and terrible topdeck.

Id ignore jace until he gets to 6, no matter what he has boarded etc. Trust your deck will draw out of it.

What was the end result?

G1 or postboard? I think I just hold boros charm until he tries to board wipe, when jace gets to 6 is when I start to worry. Your chances of drawing 2 relevant spells by then is pretty good.

@zen - You should 100% bring wear/tear in vs control in G2... every. time.

If UW decks start not playing dspheres/blights.... oh man Font will be good.

Didn't you go to Knoxville?

Two burn lists in top of TCG open, both containing YP$ (and satyr firedancer)

Font of Ire
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1202879

Reckoner Main
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1202877

Maybe Reckoner is a better choice right now than more mortars?

CVM advoates Nyleas Disciple vs Burn.

Brad Nelson advocates Miscutter Hydra vs Burn.

SB accordingly.

Did well with the shouta list again. 4-0 daily yesterday. I did cut a reprisal and added an addition mizzium mortar. MU included: Junk constellation 2-0, Red white devotion 2-1 (he had the nuts one game that deck is awesome sometimes), Jund Monsters 2-0, and Finals was RW burn mirror 2-0, I got more helix and he didn't play very well. boros reckoner did work for me. Perhaps he isn't as insane as we all thought.

How has flamespeaker been?

I find your sideboarding plans really unique Purp, I'm not saying its wrong because its working for you but its not how I'll approach the MU.

I read really unique ideas like:
W//T vs Mirror and Black <-- (assumed reasoning) hits staff, connection, revel and chains
+1 Vaults vs a green deck which will have walls <-- (assumed reasoning) helps you get 6 lands for overloading which is nice
Cutting of Skullcrack vs disciple, in favor for a more controlling route. <-- (assumed reasoning) not all monster decks are on disciple

W//T vs Mirror (Kills eidolon, chained and blind obediance) - I pretty much only brought them in when I knew my opponent was playing Blind Obediance (which I found out a few rounds earlier)
W//T vs Mirror-
Everyone black deck Ran at least 3 Staffs during this event because they knew Burn would be popular. I went 5-1 vs Bx decks at this event.

Vaults vs Green deck - I want to to increase me chances of curving out post board, I also love the t3 play of chaining their courser(assuming I have another for Poly K), and swinging with a muta.

I don't care about Disciple if they don't have any Devotion