[Fedoras of Salvation] - White Knights ITT

[Valdarith]

thththtthththtthThoughtsieze baby.

Of course it'd be utterly hilarious if Wizards trolled the whole community with some crappy common in that slot.

[windstrider]

Taste of Blood.

[rcwraspy]

thththtthththtthThoughtsieze baby.

Of course it'd be utterly hilarious if Wizards trolled the whole community with some crappy common in that slot.

Honestly the longer it goes without that slot being spoiled, the higher the chances it's Thoughtseize. At least in my mind.

It could be the new black hate bear though.

[LP, of the Fires]

I may have to play R/G agro as I'm unsure if I can borrow the cards. Last showed my why I didn't want to play the deck. When you're deck loses to one card(in this case trostani), things get frustrating.

Also Z is 100% wrong about jund. It's skilless in the same way R/G agro is skilless. Sometimes you have lopsided wins, but the close games are where you can show off your skill. In the article Photo mentioned, Ari says something else about this standard format being highly skill intensive:

- This format is very skill intensive. Because of the last few points, most decks are higher up on the curve. Sequencing your spells is huge since you have them in hand much longer. Timing your spells to bait answers is huge as specific threats (Olivia Voldaren) and answers (Bonfire of the Damned) can be completely backbreaking if you walk into them. Because there is so little non Sphinx's Revelation card draw, every card
you play also counts a ton.

This is definitely non-trivial, and gives better players a significant edge in a long tourney with something like Jund.

Other reasons I don't want to play red? Quotes from PSully from sunday regarding various red decks in matchups.

"The red player probably has to mull into a hand that wins turn 4."

"I favor whoever's on the play." (speaking about the agro v. junk rites match in the top .

Situations like those are ones I want to avoid where I'm at the mercy of good draws and have very little control over the outcome of the game.

[Link]

A MAN CAN DREAM

Durdle Breaker Brute
1 RR

3/3 Haste
Whenever an opponent plays a blue or white spell, DBB smashes their face in. Ain't nobody got time for durdle.



If its immune to azorius charm I'm playing 4 copies of it no question's asked.

[Link]

Young Pyromancer is 99cents atm, time to invest?

Something tells me he might have the flinthoof boar inflation.

[hamfactorial]

Something about the name Durdle Breaker makes me giggle.

[rcwraspy]

Hymen Stomper [mana]R[/mana]
Legendary Creature - Redthirst Avatar (Mythic)

Trample
Haste

When Hymen Stomper deals combat damage to a player, that player loses her virginity.

15/1

[Self Medicated]

4 day weekend coming up!!!!

[TubeHunter]

Can a man dream?
R
Can a man dream can't be blocked by blue or white creatures.
2/1

[LP, of the Fires]

Young pyromancer is easily a 3 dollar uncommon and well worth the investment at 99 cents methinks.

[hamfactorial]

I preordered 8 of them and 4 Chandra's Phoenix. I've seen my future, and it is decidedly red.

[Alex]

Preordered 20 Young Pyromancer, myself. Spending twenty bucks to make a free $40~ seems fine to me.

If anyone was wondering whether they should order them or not, you should.

[windstrider]

Ogre Battledriver is also sitting at $.99. That looks like a good pickup as well.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Thoughseize and duress in the same set?

My money is on taste of blood.

[zemanjaski]

Chandra, Pyromaster fits very nicely into the sort of grindy red aggro deck that I adore (for those who remember my 24 land version with maindeck Hound of Griselband, think that). Ill be putting her through her paces for sure.

[zemanjaski]

The initial shell I want to test is

[deck]
4 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Stonewright
4 Young Pyromancer

4 Chandra, Pyromaster

4 Flames of the Firebrand
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Searing Spear
4 [Good Red Spells]

20 Mountain
4 Mutavault
[/deck]

Then work from there. Definitely not perfect, but it's a good place to see what Chandra can really do. Thoughts:
- no bad top decks, which gives you a big game against other aggro decks. All of your cards are 'high quality'
- really good mana sinks (Stonewright and Mutavault)
- card advantage engines (Chandra and Chandra's Phoenix)
- virtual card advantage engines (Young Pyromancer and Stonewright)

Basically ever card but Ash Zealot can generate more than a single card's value, but Ash Zealot is hyst a really high quality card on attack or defence, so it's a perfect fit anyway. You can grind out other aggro decks with your card advantage engines and
card quality advantage; bury control with your threats that are difficult to answer (PWs, Mutavault, Phoenix) or high impact (Pyromancer, Stonewright). Not sure on a midrange matchup, possibly pretty bad? That's why we test.

[LP, of the Fires]

I think shock deserves consideration going forward. No, it's not a powerful value card in the abstract, but the instant speed deal 2 is something I imagine being very relevant. You can pass with 1 red open and a young pyromancer on board and your opponent has to seriously consider if it's worth swinging with his thragtusk for fear of shock, token, trade. THAT'S INSANE.

Other then that, I think we'd want some expensive(relatively speaking) creature to go with all that land and to add power to our deck. The obvious answer is hellrider which gets a lot stronger with Chandra on board and makes YP much stronger.

Maybe:

[deck]All Stars:
4 Stonewright
4 Ash Zealot
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Hellrider

Swag:
3 Chandra, Pyromaster

Ammunition:
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Searing Spear
3 Flames of the Firebrand
2 Shock

Fuel:
20 Arabian Nights Mountain
4 Mutavault[/deck]

It's possible we want
more shock then flames. Flames is more powerful, shock is more versatile. Make elementals during the opponents turn seems twice as powerful as doing it during the main phase. Lastly, it wouldn't be an appropriate FoS mono-red brew without zealous conscripts somewhere(I'm coming for your hellriders Fate).

While playing a number of five drops on 23 lands is perfectly fine, I don't want to go less then 20 mountains, but the mutavaults add SO much power to your deck. It's possible that it would be correct to only run 3, but I think it's just better to try and cut something else from the main in order to fit in a conscript or 2. The weakest cards in the deck are easily the burn spells, but they are crucial to the phoenix/pyromancer engines.

And that's my contribution for the day.

Whatever the outcome, looking at just the creature suit, there's actually an absurd amount of quality there. It's rare that I look at a red deck and all the creatures seem fine in there own right. God, I want to add
Conscripts to this list.

[zemanjaski]

Yeah, I like Shock, I just don't want too many dead cards in against midrange / control, even if there is still quite a bit of utility (they're fine with Chandra off the top; still kill dorks, Huntmasters etc; good with Zealot, Promancer and Phoenix); why can't we have Burst Lightning? That would be SICK.

[LP, of the Fires]

Because they want everyone else to have illusions that they can have a chance. Through the miracles of cockatrice, I'm proxying up my list and I forgot how insane mutavault is. Being able to attack for 2 on turn 2 without spending cards is amazing when the rest of your deck is nothing but high powered aggressive cards and burn.

[zemanjaski]

Yup. I much prefer the above sort of deck which doesn't require you to hit your curve or lose. I think Chandra is much better than she is initially getting credit; even more so if there are relevant x/1s in the format (eg: Snappy, Firefist Striker right now are obvious examples).

[LP, of the Fires]

What tilted my view of Chandra was one of my testing buddies. We were talking late one night about various decks that we like to play and he mentioned that he's not comfortable with the aggressive archetypes. Chandra gets spoiled and he says he wants to play red. Good enough for me.

[LP, of the Fires]

Also, how exactly do Stonewright and Mutavault interact. I'm assuming you have to active vault when you cast stonewright to bound them, but do they stay bound when vault goes back to sleep? Can they become bound and unbound every time you wake the vault up?

[zemanjaski]

You're correct; it will trigger if Mutavault is activated and Stonewright enters play; but activating the Mutavault will not trigger Stonewright (it does not 'enter the battlefield as per the requirement for soulbond, it 'becomes' a creature instead, as per it's text box). So pretty limited interaction I'm afraid.

[zemanjaski]

It is looking like a great time to be a red mage. I like Chandra almost as much as I like Koth; Kith was better because the most powerful ability (the +1) naturally worked towards his ultimate, which was inevitably a win; Chandra isn't quite as good as that, BUT:
- drawing two cards a turn is still very difficult to beat
- extra cards can often be worth more than 4 damage to the face; for example, drawing more removal or threats to play is often going to be better against another aggro deck.

Very complex card. The +1 is vastly more powerful than previous versions +1.

Sugeii!

[LP, of the Fires]

One thing to be mindful of going forward is to have some sort of sideboard plan that's conscious of bonfire of the damned. I expect that cards stock to increase greatly with YP in standard as it really is a beating if you go deep on elementals. Hound of griselbrand making a combeback maybe? I like going over the top.

[Kazekirimaru]

stop playing stonewright @ fos

For some reason Kaits thinks the majority of us read the Speak Your Mind forum.

[Kazekirimaru]

Also someone better than me should tell him why we play such a card.

[windstrider]

Manasink is a pretty good answer.

[zemanjaski]

I help those who help themselves.

[hamfactorial]

His tits are too big anyway

[LP, of the Fires]

Winning a mirror match against a mana-screwed opponent may not seem like the best achievement to inspire confidence in a deck. However, it only took King Arthur holding Excalibur in his hands to recognize that he was in possession of no ordinary weapon.

Quote's like this are what make Reid Duke amazing.

[Alex]

stop playing stonewright @ fos

For some reason Kaits thinks the majority of us read the Speak Your Mind forum.

Not to mention, how many of us are playing Stonewright right now? Basically none. You can thank Burning-Tree Emissary for that.

[Christen]

Did we have the red hate card already? The black hate card looks nice

Lifebane Zombie 1BB
Creature - Zombie Warrior (R)
Intimidate
When ~ etb, target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose a green or white creature card from it and exile that card.
3/1

What I want as a red hate card 1RR
Creature - Goblin or Human whatever
First strike, haste
Whenever an opponent casts a white or blue spell, ~ deals damage equal to that spells CMC to that player.
2/2

[LP, of the Fires]

I think aside from khaos, non of us are playing stonewright, but me and Z have been thinking about his application post M14.

[zemanjaski]

When you're playing 20 land decks that win or lose by turn 4, Stonewright isn't very good, sure.

How quickly people forget Stonewright was a key card in the best deck of RTR standard.

[Lightning_Dolt]

When you're playing 20 land decks that win or lose by turn 4, Stonewright isn't very good, sure.

How quickly people forget Stonewright was a key card in the best deck of RTR standard.

That's a pretty bold claim lol.

[zemanjaski]

Mono Red WAS the best deck of RTR standard. The final three weeks it was the most played and best performing deck on modo.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Mono Red WAS the best deck of RTR standard. The final three weeks it was the most played and best performing deck on modo.

Bant Control was the winningest deck of the format statistically, wasn't it?

The gears in my head have been turning, and I think it might be time for another look at Boros.

[deck]Creatures (26)
4x Stromkirk Noble
4x Rakdos Cackler
2x Stonewright
4x Ash Zealot
4x Imposing Sovereign
4x Boros Reckoner
4x Hellrider

Spells (12)
4x Searing Spear
4x Pillar of flame
4x Boros Charm

Land (22)
2x Plains
4x Clifftop Retreat
4x Sacred Foundry
12x Mountains

Sideboard (15)
3x Thalia, Guardian of Thaben
2x Oblivion Ring
4x Volcanic Strength
3x Burning Earth
2x Thundermaw Hellkite
1x Slayer's
Stonghold[/deck]

Edit: Ooops! Meant Slayer's Stronghold.

[Christen]

If we're still using INN block cards, a single Slayers' Stronghold makes a difference.