Dies to Removal

Alex wanders in, casually condescends, wanders off.

X=11.

Your move.

We aren't all born from royalty, Alex.

His father-in-law got rich trademarking the [mana]U[/mana] symbol.

His father-in-law got rich trademarking the [mana]U[/mana] symbol.

Well played, ham...well played.

His father-in-law got rich trademarking the [mana]U[/mana] symbol.

Damn fish people...

http://www.twitch.tv/darkest_mage/c/2318475

MJ "I can't even mess it up, my creatures have to attack!"

Shock is back.

Goblin Shortcutter? Nice. We're going to have access to a lot of 2/1s with a relevant ability for 1R; that's a REALLY good place for Rx to be:
- keeps your curve low, which means less land and greater threat density
- promotes consistency by enabling more of the free-roll "1 drop into 2 drop on the play"

Shortcutter seems nice. But what I really wanted was a one drop. A good one... Doesn't have to be Guide good mind you, but at least as strong as noble

Guttersnipe is getting reprinted in M14? You'd almost get the impression that they are trying to push burn...

I'd rather see Volcanic Strength reprinted than instants like Thunder Strike, but I suppose they need to cap red power somewhere.

I think Guttersnipe is still RTR. That pic is the starter leak after all.

Root for Aaron Barich at the SCG event guys. Kid is really good, and a super nice guy. We used to play at the same LGS. He's also essentially playing a homebrew, which is cool.

And yeah, snipe is still from RTR.

EDIT: Barich won!!! Yay! He won 18 of 23 matches, drew 3. Wow.

shortcutter.... ooo looks nice.

As for a 1 drop, Denizen isn't that bad. Nowhere near noble good, but if you can go BTE into Shortcutter or Firefist Striker, you can get him in often enough. I'm just worried about all this one toughness get blown out by elecktrickery creatures....

Does anyone want to get into a good natured discussion about the Modern ban list with me? I really want to have a serious one, but you can't on Mtgs cause of wads. (especially Bocephus, who might be the wadiest wad of them all. God that guy is a dipshit.) Just in the next few days or so. Anyone up for it?

Sure tube, I'll bite sooner or later.

^In the interest of community, you might start a discussion thread over in the Modern section so as to include the non-FoS folks here. Clan can always jump over there to comment.

Ogre Battlemaster plus Legion's Initiative?

I get the feeling that RDW next season will need to be extremely synergy heavy; but that sounds like a lot of fun.

Opinions needed.

What's better to build around; spike jester or BTE?

I've obviously been playing BTE this weekend as I had a near miss on top 8'ing a ptq, but spike jester...is ridiculously aggressive. Thoughts?

if uwr and aetherling.decs are the next big thing, spike jester is a lot better at forcing bad verdicts. plus you get to abuse stonewright, mb zealot, and aristocrat...

Probably a good place to be ahead of the meta (aka where redthirst was a month ago like a boss)

I like Dos Rakis more FWIW.

I love Spike Jester. Because of his ability to get you in for 5 damage on turn 2, I've been having regular turn 4 wins with Jester. I don't think you can really say that about many other 2 drops right now. He and Cackler make a great team and I honestly don't think I'd be playing Dos Rakis right now if it wasn't for Jester.

LK, we've tried over and again to make Dos Rakis work in this meta and haven't been able to make a go of it. It seems logically that it should work, but it isn't aggro enough to outplay BTE decks consistently, too slow to go under midrange, and not big enough at the top end to go toe-to-toe with the bigger midrange decks. I'm of course not talking absolutes--I've beaten my way through multiple Jund Tusks and Huntmasters to win and I've put Rites to bed as well, and we can take BTE from the control side/attrition at times, but the fact that Rb Aggro is all but totally absent in the leaderboards speaks volumes.

I would personally love to get something going again...Jester, Aristocrat and Exava all suggest that we should be able to create a romping deck, but so far strategies have fallen short. I'm open to brewing, and I know windstrider would be on board if you have any different lines of thought here.

I would personally love to get something going again...Jester, Aristocrat and Exava all suggest that we should be able to create a romping deck, but so far strategies have fallen short. I'm open to brewing, and I know windstrider would be on board if you have any different lines of thought here.

Count me in on this as well. I might not have a lot of time to actually playtest, but I can at least act as a sounding board if you want to throw around some ideas.

half hour of testing has Dos Jester deck getting creamed by UWR control. Like...get your opponent to 5, then fall short type of creamed. Three games, could be drawing bad, more testing to be done. I will say, I'm using the UWr deck that won this weekends open and besides the fact that it's only running 3 azorius charms, it's SICK. This is also only one matchup and not representative of overall viability or even account for variance.

Redthirst and I have both shared our frustrations in playing against UWr with Dos Rakis...when they are on, it's the most frustrating matchup imaginable.

Conversational left turn into a random deck delusion--Ral Zarek in Grixis Zombies? He can mitigate the CIPT issues with the deck, and splashing blue would give access to Evil Twin in the side.

Shock is back.

And in the black deck: Corrupt is back.

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/mtgo-in-review/

Rx is the best performing archetype on MODO.

I actually picked up Gruul from seeing how utterly dominant it was. Has been CRUSHING dailiy events.

Corrupt isn't surprising since it looks like Lili Dark is going to get reprinted. I'd much rather see one of the X-costed life drain spells return, but oh well...

Corrupt isn't surprising since it looks like Lili Dark is going to get reprinted. I'd much rather see one of the X-costed life drain spells return, but oh well...

Me too, but Corrupt is better than what we have now, which is nothing at all.

I actually picked up Gruul from seeing how utterly dominant it was. Has been CRUSHING dailiy events.

This pretty much answers your earlier question, LK; Rb just can't keep up across the meta as well. Dos Rakis is remarkably powerful, but this meta is not its home...for now.

@Platypus - agreed!

Random strangeness...I can pre-order Theros product already, but not M14. Hmmm...

EDIT: ...and now SCG has M14 up. Ne'mind!

I'm guessing we aren't getting Searing Spear in M14 then?

I'm guessing we aren't getting Searing Spear in M14 then?

Doesn't look like it on the Name/Number Crunch. But Incinerate can still fit with what's been spoiled so far, and it would make sense in combination with Shock. We shall see.

So UWR control is REALLY good. Tamiyo+Assemble the legion means you draw lots of cards.

Ogre Battlemaster plus Legion's Initiative?

I get the feeling that RDW next season will need to be extremely synergy heavy; but that sounds like a lot of fun.

Was just reading this in discussion over on Sally...absolutely sick. Immortal Servitude was mentioned as well, but LI fits easier color-wise. Both with a bunch of value 2-drops in Dega colors?

I'd be more comfortable with just Boros aggro with Legion's Iniative function as part-anthem, part-sweeper protection and part-enabler. No need to go too deep.

I agree from a consistency standpoint...but here's another fun one in Dega colors: Battledriver on the field, cast Lingering Souls, flash back Lingering Souls, swing for 12 in the air. In general, he is going to be too fun in a token build. Dega Tokens with Battledriver and Hellrider? Absolutely too funny.

EDIT: Clarification...Of course the token plan would be skipping Initiative...different deck altogether.

http://www.twitch.tv/darkest_mage/c/2313301

Living the dream.

Zemanjaski on deck design in Standard, "don't do cute things, do powerful things. If you want to do something cute, it better be school girl with kitty-kat ears cute or it isn't getting me there"