[Primer] RDW

[toddulent]

@Zooligan: 5 four-drops and 1 five-drop on 23 lands? You're a brave one.

@todd: You too, with your 4 drops and 20 lands.

You're right. The probability of hitting turn 4 curve with 20 lands is 44%, with 22 is 54% and 23 is 59%. Hitting 4 turn 4 is really necessary for Fanatic to be of most use when he hits.
First goldfish with 20 lands was a T4 kill 22 points damage. Opening hand, 2 Mountain, Satyr, Cackler, Ash Zealot, BTE, FS. Drop Mountain and Satyr T1. T2 draw Ash Zealot, attack with Satyr, drop land, BTE > FS. T3 Draw land, drop land, drop Ash Zealot, attack, drop Cackler unleashed. T4 draw Lightning Strike, attack with team. No fourth land.

-1 Fanatic, -1 Phoenix, +2 Mountain.

First goldfish with 22 lands opening hand 1 Mountain,
Satyr, Cackler, 2 BTE, 1 FS,1 Lightning Strike. T1 drop land, play Satyr, T2 draw Mountain, attack with Satyr, drop land, BTE > BTE > FS, T3 draw Mountain, drop Mountain, attack with team pumping Satyr,unleash Cackler, T4 draw FS, attack with team. Top deck is a Mountain.

- Fanatic, +1 Mountain

First goldfish with 23 lands opening hand 2 Mountain, Cackler, BTE, GHC, Phoenix and Mogris. T1 Mountain, Cackler unleashed, T2 draw Saytr, attack with Cackler, drop land, BTE > GHC. T3 draw Mountain, drop land, play Phoenix, T4 Draw BTE, attack with team, BTE > Satyr. T5 draw Magma Jet. Swing for win.

Still no T4 4 Mountain, but I think 23 lands is definitely best.

[Helios]

@todd: Thank Ham and his Hypergeometric Distribution.

@Zooligan: I, for one, like to have a better than 60% chance of casting my spells on-curve.

[Zooligan]

Why not play the extra mutavault? You get another land, another threat, and you hedge against screw a little bit more.

Not sure if you were referring to my list with 21 Mountain and 2 Mutavault - With 20/3 I felt I was not casting my RR two-drops on curve enough. 21/2 feels more better.

[toddulent]

I do. That's where I got the figures. Subsequent testing had no problems with 4 mana T4. Just that that one game.

[Helios]

I was thinking 22/2 split. That's what we were playing with 2 Thundermaws and 4 Hellriders, so with 1 Gauntlet and 5 four-drops I'd expect you want the 24th land as well.

[Zooligan]

I was thinking 22/2 split. That's what we were playing with 2 Thundermaws and 4 Hellriders, so with 1 Gauntlet and 5 four-drops I'd expect you want the 24th land as well.

I may drop the oddball 2-drop for the 24th land if i feel lean on mana. Right now it seems ok, but a run of mana screw might change my mind. With Hammer and Firedrinker in there, I might want to be a little fat on mana rather than lean.

This is the hardest part about playing red - agonizing over these single cards that may make the difference between going 4-0 and going 2-2 in a given night...

Wish I was a better programmer, I'd write some sort of simulation to run 10,000 matches of several slightly different variations while I sleep.

[zemanjaski]

4x 4 drop and 1 5 drop always felt ok on 23 land to me.

I did run 2x 5 drop on 24 land last season, but I had 4x Hellion Crucible and 2x Stonewright as mana sinks which makes it much better.

[Helios]

I hate mana screw so badly that I'd rather err on the side of caution- Chandra can help dig you out of a flood, plus feeding the Hammer.

...on-topic words that are all perfectly agreeable...
Wish I was a better programmer, I'd write some sort of simulation to run 10,000 matches of several slightly different variations while I sleep.

Ooh, you're in CS as well?

[Lightning_Dolt]

Can someone please explain to me why theses fools on Sally are running BTE AND Ash Zealot. the more i read from other sites and from pros who don't normally play red the more i feel red is the most misunderstood color on the color pie.

Dafuq you
say? BTE chains are good and I'm sure as hell not going to play red aggro without Zealot. Even though I eventually dropped the BTE chain from the list in order to play a higher curve, I've tested both in a deck and it worked fine.

I think most of us are of the consensus that you play one or the other, not both.

I think y'all probably are, but you want to give me a definitive reason not to play Ash Zealot in a BTE deck? Creatures that are good enough don't have to have synergy with every other card in the deck to warrant making the list.

I mean, I'd play red aggro without BTE easily, but if I was going to play a BTE version of the deck it'd have Ash Zealot too.

To get full value out of BTE you need aprox 8 chain-able cards. Ash Zealot doesn't chain, so you either play 16 2cc cards or you have a grizzly bear more often than you should. Both are bad.

[LP, of the Fires]

I should leave the clan page more often to meet the new people

4/1 four and five drops on 23 land is also something I'm comfortable with as others would say.

RE BTE and Ashley, you can run both in the same list, but you need to be very mindful of the curve and you're probably gonna run less muta's do to color intensity. Realistically, You shouldn't play more then 14 2 drops I don't think as then you get turns where you're wasting mana which is something you're trying to avoid in your agro decks.

Anyways, deck I'm looking to tune for states since I THINK I'm off Jund:

19 Mountain
3 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Magma Jet
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Mutavault
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Shock
4 Ash Zealot
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Firedrinker Satyr
1 Hammer of Purphoros
2 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Lightning Strike
SB: 4 Mizzium Mortars
SB: 3 Act of Treason
SB: 1 Mutavault
SB: 1 Hammer of Purphoros
SB: 1 Skullcrack
SB: 2
Flames of the Firebrand
SB: 3 Peak Eruption

This was where I've been testing for the last X days, but do to mono-red actually winning the SCG open, I think I'm going to change my list up to include boros reckoners. It's literally the only card I hate seeing and the most difficult card to beat so I figured why not fight fire with fire; because you fight everything with fire of course.

The board will probably change a little as well, though I'm 95% sure I want 3 peak eruptions and zero burning-earths because in my experience BE is win more since we should generally be heavily favored vs. the three color decks anyways. I personally haven't lost to Esper in quite a while. Though the matchup isn't quite lopsided, it feels like we have too many angles we can fight them on and unless they land an early obzedat/blood baron or have the perfect removal suite, chaining sphinx's isn't good enough.

Naya seems like a good matchup which surprised me by how well I was doing. I expected to have the edge
since there deck is slower and it's impossible for them to go turn 2 reckoner now, but it's actually been much easier then I anticipated do to there clunky manabase. Boarded games are obviously harder since they get access to X unflinching courages, but overall, I think we have a slight edge since we win game one and can still one of the 2 postboard games fairly easily.

UW is the hardest control matchup but it feels like UWR flash from last season really in that it's a matchup where you just need to play smart to do well and it's simplified by them not having snapcaster mage and warleaders helix.

Dega plays mountains, and chained to the rocks and I have peak eruption in my board. The same logic applies to desecration demon/blood baron and act of treason.

[Lightning_Dolt]

I should leave the clan page more often to meet the new people

4/1 four and five drops on 23 land is also something I'm comfortable with as others would say.

RE BTE and Ashley, you can run both in the same list, but you need to be very mindful of the curve and you're probably gonna run less muta's do to color intensity. Realistically, You shouldn't play more then 14 2 drops I don't think as then you get turns where you're wasting mana which is something you're trying to avoid in your agro decks.

Anyways, deck I'm looking to tune for states since I THINK I'm off Jund:

19 Mountain
3 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Magma Jet
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Mutavault
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Shock
4 Ash Zealot
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Firedrinker Satyr
1
Hammer of Purphoros
2 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Lightning Strike
SB: 4 Mizzium Mortars
SB: 3 Act of Treason
SB: 1 Mutavault
SB: 1 Hammer of Purphoros
SB: 1 Skullcrack
SB: 2 Flames of the Firebrand
SB: 3 Peak Eruption

This was where I've been testing for the last X days, but do to mono-red actually winning the SCG open, I think I'm going to change my list up to include boros reckoners. It's literally the only card I hate seeing and the most difficult card to beat so I figured why not fight fire with fire; because you fight everything with fire of course.

The board will probably change a little as well, though I'm 95% sure I want 3 peak eruptions and zero burning-earths because in my experience BE is win more since we should generally be heavily favored vs. the three color decks anyways. I personally haven't lost to Esper in quite a while. Though the matchup isn't quite lopsided, it feels like we have too many angles we can fight them on and unless they land an early obzedat/blood baron or have
the perfect removal suite, chaining sphinx's isn't good enough.

Naya seems like a good matchup which surprised me by how well I was doing. I expected to have the edge since there deck is slower and it's impossible for them to go turn 2 reckoner now, but it's actually been much easier then I anticipated do to there clunky manabase. Boarded games are obviously harder since they get access to X unflinching courages, but overall, I think we have a slight edge since we win game one and can still one of the 2 postboard games fairly easily.

UW is the hardest control matchup but it feels like UWR flash from last season really in that it's a matchup where you just need to play smart to do well and it's simplified by them not having snapcaster mage and warleaders helix.

Dega plays mountains, and chained to the rocks and I have peak eruption in my board. The same logic applies to desecration demon/blood baron and act of treason.

I'm with you on this one, thinking it might be time
to try the reckoner again.

[Link]

Reckoner vs. mutavault

why must we choose

[Wrathberry2]

you can play both. i play 3 reckoners main and 2 mutavaults. works just fine.

[Lightning_Dolt]

I wonder if this would be viable:

Brand New Sledge
[deck]Creatures (24)
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Ash Zealot
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Stormbreath Dragon

Spells (12)
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Chandra, Pyromaster


Land (24)
21 Mountain
3 Mutavault

Sideboard (15)
4 Burning Earth
4 Flames of the Firebrand
4 Skullcrack
3 Electrickery
[/deck]

[zemanjaski]

I don't know how well positioned it will be, but I certainly like the look of it!

But seriously, get those Skull Crack the fuck out of there.

[atatjacob1]

I would add 2 Mizzium Mortars, 1 Chandra and 1 Stormbreath to the SB in place of Skullcrack. Frostburn Weirds are also something to consider for anti-sligh or AIR decks. Although, with flames, electrickery and Reckoner, your deck seems fine against it anyhow.

[Yarpus]

Both Electrickery and FLames are too much. Remember that MM is good in aggro mirror, as some people apparently don't side out Firedrinkers. Even if they do, you have effective removal/board sweep against them.

[warwizard87]

Both Electrickery and FLames are too much. Remember that MM is good in aggro mirror, as some people apparently don't side out Firedrinkers. Even if they do, you have effective removal/board sweep against them.

wait what??? seriously some people dont side out the firedrinker in the mirror....that sounds so bad I cnat even fathom a player that bad. I will never even concider my opponent keeping that card in vs the mirror that's just magic Christmas land for us.

[Helios]

Stream live: http://www.twitch.tv/zemanjaski

[Lightning_Dolt]

I should leave the clan page more often to meet the new people

4/1 four and five drops on 23 land is also something I'm comfortable with as others would say.

RE BTE and Ashley, you can run both in the same list, but you need to be very mindful of the curve and you're probably gonna run less muta's do to color intensity. Realistically, You shouldn't play more then 14 2 drops I don't think as then you get turns where you're wasting mana which is something you're trying to avoid in your agro decks.

Anyways, deck I'm looking to tune for states since I THINK I'm off Jund:

19 Mountain
3 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Magma Jet
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Mutavault
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Shock
4 Ash Zealot
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Firedrinker Satyr
n1 Hammer of Purphoros
2 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Lightning Strike
SB: 4 Mizzium Mortars
SB: 3 Act of Treason
SB: 1 Mutavault
SB: 1 Hammer of Purphoros
SB: 1 Skullcrack
SB: 2 Flames of the Firebrand
SB: 3 Peak Eruption

This was where I've been testing for the last X days, but do to mono-red actually winning the SCG open, I think I'm going to change my list up to include boros reckoners. It's literally the only card I hate seeing and the most difficult card to beat so I figured why not fight fire with fire; because you fight everything with fire of course.

The board will probably change a little as well, though I'm 95% sure I want 3 peak eruptions and zero burning-earths because in my experience BE is win more since we should generally be heavily favored vs. the three color decks anyways. I personally haven't lost to Esper in quite a while. Though the matchup isn't quite lopsided, it feels like we have too many angles we can fight them on and unless they land an early obzedat/blood baron or
have the perfect removal suite, chaining sphinx's isn't good enough.

Naya seems like a good matchup which surprised me by how well I was doing. I expected to have the edge since there deck is slower and it's impossible for them to go turn 2 reckoner now, but it's actually been much easier then I anticipated do to there clunky manabase. Boarded games are obviously harder since they get access to X unflinching courages, but overall, I think we have a slight edge since we win game one and can still one of the 2 postboard games fairly easily.

UW is the hardest control matchup but it feels like UWR flash from last season really in that it's a matchup where you just need to play smart to do well and it's simplified by them not having snapcaster mage and warleaders helix.

Dega plays mountains, and chained to the rocks and I have peak eruption in my board. The same logic applies to desecration demon/blood baron and act of treason.

I cleaned up the list from the SCGO and messed
around with it tonight. This is what I ended up on:

Devotion Red
[deck]Creatures(24)
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Ash Zealot
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Fanatic of Mogis

Spells (14)
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
2 Shock

Land (22)
22 Mountains

Sideboard (15)
3 Burning Earth
4 Mizzium Mortars
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Frostburn Weird
2 Hammer of Purphoros[/deck]

The mainboard consistently goldfishes T4 kills. I think I'm going to rock this list at FNM and see how it goes.

[Narcasus]

I should leave the clan page more often to meet the new people

4/1 four and five drops on 23 land is also something I'm comfortable with as others would say.

RE BTE and Ashley, you can run both in the same list, but you need to be very mindful of the curve and you're probably gonna run less muta's do to color intensity. Realistically, You shouldn't play more then 14 2 drops I don't think as then you get turns where you're wasting mana which is something you're trying to avoid in your agro decks.

Anyways, deck I'm looking to tune for states since I THINK I'm off Jund:

n19 Mountain
3 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Magma Jet
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Mutavault
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Shock
4 Ash Zealot
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Firedrinker Satyr
1 Hammer of Purphoros
2 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Lightning Strike
SB: 4 Mizzium Mortars
SB: 3 Act of Treason
SB: 1 Mutavault
SB: 1 Hammer of Purphoros
SB: 1 Skullcrack
SB: 2 Flames of the Firebrand
SB: 3 Peak Eruption

This was where I've been testing for the last X days, but do to mono-red actually winning the SCG open, I think I'm going to change my list up to include boros reckoners. It's literally the only card I hate seeing and the most difficult card to beat so I figured why not fight fire with fire; because you fight everything with fire of course.

The board will probably change a little as well, though I'm 95% sure I want 3 peak eruptions and zero burning-earths because in my experience BE is win more since we should generally be heavily favored vs. the three color decks anyways. I personally haven't lost to Esper in quite
a while. Though the matchup isn't quite lopsided, it feels like we have too many angles we can fight them on and unless they land an early obzedat/blood baron or have the perfect removal suite, chaining sphinx's isn't good enough.

Naya seems like a good matchup which surprised me by how well I was doing. I expected to have the edge since there deck is slower and it's impossible for them to go turn 2 reckoner now, but it's actually been much easier then I anticipated do to there clunky manabase. Boarded games are obviously harder since they get access to X unflinching courages, but overall, I think we have a slight edge since we win game one and can still one of the 2 postboard games fairly easily.

UW is the hardest control matchup but it feels like UWR flash from last season really in that it's a matchup where you just need to play smart to do well and it's simplified by them not having snapcaster mage and warleaders helix.

Dega plays mountains, and chained to the rocks and I have peak
eruption in my board. The same logic applies to desecration demon/blood baron and act of treason.

I cleaned up the list from the SCGO and messed around with it tonight. This is what I ended up on:

Devotion Red
[deck]Creatures(24)
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Ash Zealot
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Fanatic of Mogis

Spells (14)
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
2 Shock

Land (22)
22 Mountains

Sideboard (15)
3 Burning Earth
4 Mizzium Mortars
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Frostburn Weird
2 Hammer of Purphoros[/deck]

The mainboard consistently goldfishes T4 kills. I think I'm going to rock this list at FNM and see how it goes.

Ok, if you don't mind, i feel my weakest part of playing magic atm is trying to decide what to sideboard and why. So ill list out my thought process and if possible let me know what you would do different and why.

For control, i would assume we would be bringing in both hammers and
chandras with burning earth coming in if it is 3 colors. i would think you would be siding out the cacklers first since control doesn't really have burn to hurt you with the satyrs, with the satyrs being the next cut if you want the burning earth. Or would it be better to cut some burn for them instead so we can still curve out possibly? but that seems wrong because we want to recur the phoenix against them as often as possible.

for the mirror, i would guess we just want to go bigger and a bit more control, cutting the 1 drops and going with the wierds and mortars.

for midrange im the most lost at the moment, probably because i haven't really tested much against it yet. i think this one can change dramatically depending what kind of spell suite they are running and is more decided on the fly.

Thanks for any help you can give.

[Lightning_Dolt]

3 Burning Earth (for three colour midrange / control decks)
4 Mizzium Mortars (for decks with loxodon smiter / frostburn weird / 0/4 ox)
2 Chandra, Pyromaster (vs control decks / desecration demon decks)
4 Frostburn Weird (vs aggro)
2 Hammer of Purphoros (vs control / midrange with sweepers)

[Yarpus]

I'm currently toying with Zem's RDW - one with Young Pyromancer and Ash Zealot. I do like the increase of interactivity of the decklist due to access to more burn and combat tricks as overall. It increases your chances during mirrors a lot due to access to Shock and YP tokens. I'm still trying to figure out the final decklist with access to two Chandra, Pyromancer. I'm currently sitting on this.

[deck]Creatures:
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Ash Zealot
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Burn:
4 Shock
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike

Other Cards:
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Hammer of Purphoros

Lands:
20 Mountain
2 Mutavault[/deck]

It's still missing 2 maindeck cards. I am torn between Legion Loyalists, Flames of the Firebrand and Ember Swallower. Any suggestions on that?

[Elricity]

Ok, if you don't mind, i feel my weakest part of playing magic atm is trying to decide what to sideboard and why. So ill list out my thought process and if possible let me know what you would do different and why.

For control, i would assume we would be bringing in both hammers and chandras with burning earth coming in if it is 3 colors. i would think you would be siding out the cacklers first since control doesn't really have burn to hurt you with the satyrs, with the satyrs being the next cut if you want the burning earth. Or would it be better to cut some burn for them instead so we can still curve out possibly? but that seems wrong because we want to recur the phoenix against them as often as possible.

for the mirror, i would guess we just want to go
bigger and a bit more control, cutting the 1 drops and going with the wierds and mortars.

for midrange im the most lost at the moment, probably because i haven't really tested much against it yet. i think this one can change dramatically depending what kind of spell suite they are running and is more decided on the fly.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Expanding on Johnny,

For all but R/x control, you pull out reckoners as they are just slow 3/3 bears in those matchups. His deck doesn't want to pull out the one drops because it's not built to go long (no dragons, large mana sinks, etc). Then, unless the control deck is playing a lot of little creatures for defense, you pull out a large portion of the burn as it's card disadvantage and less overall damage per card to fire it at a control player's face. Hammer/chandra comes in just in case the game does go longer and against board wipe heavy control. Frostburn weird comes in if control is using omenspeaker or that 0/3 wall
to allow you to break through plus it's a mana sink. If it's R/x control, you bring in weird instead of firedrinker since it survives Anger.

Vs midrange, I think his plan is to bring in mortars and chandra to clear out blockers and pull out whatever burn (shock) and creatures are just utterly ineffective in that matchup.

Personally, I think some number of act of treason in his sb would be more effective than the full playset of mortars in this matchup. Even vs AIR, 12 burn + reckoner should wall it up well. Midrange should be his weakest matchup.

[toddulent]

After goldfishing with changes to my deck, here are the changes I made. It has a consistent T4 kill.

[deck]Creatures (29)
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Ash Zealot
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Firefist Striker
4 Gore-House Chainwalker
3 Chandra's Phoenix
2 Fanatic of Mogis

Spells (8)
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet

Land (23)
23 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
3 Madcap Skills
4 Mindsparker
4 Mizzium Mortars
4 Burning Earth[/deck]

I have 4 Hammer of Purphoros and 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge (with access to 1 more), Peak Eruption, Shocks, Flames of the Firebrand, Frostburn Weird, a full set of Pyromancer's Gauntlet and access to 1 Stormbreath Dragon. I don't have access to Boros Reckoner, Chandra, Pyromaster or Mutavaults at the moment.

I want to make this deck as efficient as possible and could use some advice. Any changes I can adapt to easily. Just not sure the most optimal build based on what
I have. I appreciate any assistance you can give me.

EDIT: Oh, and Legion Loyalist, Young Pyromancer and Ember Swallower.

[Elricity]

I'm currently toying with Zem's RDW - one with Young Pyromancer and Ash Zealot. I do like the increase of interactivity of the decklist due to access to more burn and combat tricks as overall. It increases your chances during mirrors a lot due to access to Shock and YP tokens. I'm still trying to figure out the final decklist with access to two Chandra, Pyromancer. I'm currently sitting on this.

[deck]Creatures:
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Ash Zealot
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Burn:
4 Shock
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike

Other Cards:
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Hammer of Purphoros

Lands:
20 Mountain
2 Mutavault[/deck]

It's still missing 2 maindeck cards. I am torn between Legion Loyalists, Flames of the Firebrand and
Ember Swallower. Any suggestions on that?

Ember Swallower strikes me as a weak choice on 22 lands. What do you plan on the vanilla 4/5 doing for you? Your list isn't exactly beefy so I'm not sure what loyalist does main board for you unless your meta is heavy tokens.

I'm not personally sold on YP on 12 spells either but if you are going that route, either dynacharge or weapon surge is better than shock for what you're doing for the combat tricks it causes with YP.

Go with FotF if you keep the shocks, Loyalist if you don't.

[Elricity]

After goldfishing with changes to my deck, here are the changes I made. It has a consistent T4 kill.

[deck]Creatures (29)
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Ash Zealot
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Firefist Striker
4 Gore-House Chainwalker
3 Chandra's Phoenix
2 Fanatic of Mogis

Spells (8)
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet

Land (23)
23 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
3 Madcap Skills
4 Mindsparker
4 Mizzium Mortars
4 Burning Earth[/deck]

I have 4 Hammer of Purphoros and 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge (with access to 1 more), Peak Eruption, Shocks, Flames of the Firebrand, Frostburn Weird, a full set of Pyromancer's Gauntlet and access to 1 Stormbreath Dragon. I don't have access to Boros Reckoner, Chandra, Pyromaster or Mutavaults at the moment.

I
want to make this deck as efficient as possible and could use some advice. Any changes I can adapt to easily. Just not sure the most optimal build based on what I have. I appreciate any assistance you can give me.

EDIT: Oh, and Legion Loyalist, Young Pyromancer and Ember Swallower.

Your curve is probably a bit 2 drop heavy but I've never played with BTE chains so someone else would be better advising you on what if anything to drop. A hammer or two is the easiest replacement but the single dragon isn't a bad idea either. I think you're going to be disappointed with madcap skills in this removal meta and are better off with act of treason to get around blockers.

The god is too slow for what you're doing and is turning out to be altogether disappointing. Avoid it unless you heavily, heavily test with it first.

[toddulent]

After goldfishing with changes to my deck, here are the changes I made. It has a consistent T4 kill.

[deck]Creatures (29)
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Ash Zealot
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Firefist Striker
4 Gore-House Chainwalker
3 Chandra's Phoenix
2 Fanatic of Mogis

Spells (8)
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet

Land (23)
23 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
3 Madcap Skills
4 Mindsparker
4 Mizzium Mortars
4 Burning Earth[/deck]

I have 4 Hammer of Purphoros and 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge (with access to 1 more), Peak Eruption, Shocks, Flames of the Firebrand, Frostburn Weird, a
full set of Pyromancer's Gauntlet and access to 1 Stormbreath Dragon. I don't have access to Boros Reckoner, Chandra, Pyromaster or Mutavaults at the moment.

I want to make this deck as efficient as possible and could use some advice. Any changes I can adapt to easily. Just not sure the most optimal build based on what I have. I appreciate any assistance you can give me.

EDIT: Oh, and Legion Loyalist, Young Pyromancer and Ember Swallower.

Your curve is probably a bit 2 drop heavy but I've never played with BTE chains so someone else would be better advising you on what if anything to drop. A hammer or two is the easiest replacement but the single dragon isn't a bad idea either. I think you're going to be disappointed with madcap skills in this removal meta and are better off with act of treason to get around blockers.

The god is too slow for what you're doing and is turning out to be altogether disappointing. Avoid it unless you heavily, heavily test with it first.[/quote:
6zfl9msk]

I think I will drop Ash Zealot for Legion Loyalist in the main. Or I might take out the BTE for Legion Loyalist. For the SB, how does this look?

• 3 Act of Treason
  4 Shock
  4 Mizzium Mortars
  2 Hammer of Purphoros
  2 Burning Earth

Or maybe even Frostburn Weird for the Shocks.

[LP, of the Fires]

I should leave the clan page more often to meet the new people

4/1 four and five drops on 23 land is also something I'm comfortable with as others would say.

RE BTE and Ashley, you can run both in the same list, but you need to be very mindful of the curve and you're probably gonna run less muta's do to color intensity. Realistically, You shouldn't play more then 14 2 drops I don't think as then you get turns where you'
re wasting mana which is something you're trying to avoid in your agro decks.

Anyways, deck I'm looking to tune for states since I THINK I'm off Jund:

19 Mountain
3 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Magma Jet
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Mutavault
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Shock
4 Ash Zealot
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Firedrinker Satyr
1 Hammer of Purphoros
2 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Lightning Strike
SB: 4 Mizzium Mortars
SB: 3 Act of Treason
SB: 1 Mutavault
SB: 1 Hammer of Purphoros
SB: 1 Skullcrack
SB: 2 Flames of the Firebrand
SB: 3 Peak Eruption

This was where I've been testing for the last X days, but do to mono-red actually winning the SCG open, I think I'm going to change my list up to include boros reckoners. It's literally the only card I hate seeing and the most difficult card to beat so I figured why not fight fire with fire; because you fight everything with fire of course.

The board will probably change a little as well, though I'm 95% sure I want 3 peak eruptions and zero burning-earths
because in my experience BE is win more since we should generally be heavily favored vs. the three color decks anyways. I personally haven't lost to Esper in quite a while. Though the matchup isn't quite lopsided, it feels like we have too many angles we can fight them on and unless they land an early obzedat/blood baron or have the perfect removal suite, chaining sphinx's isn't good enough.

Naya seems like a good matchup which surprised me by how well I was doing. I expected to have the edge since there deck is slower and it's impossible for them to go turn 2 reckoner now, but it's actually been much easier then I anticipated do to there clunky manabase. Boarded games are obviously harder since they get access to X unflinching courages, but overall, I think we have a slight edge since we win game one and can still one of the 2 postboard games fairly easily.

UW is the hardest control matchup but it feels like UWR flash from last season really in that it's a matchup where you just need to play
smart to do well and it's simplified by them not having snapcaster mage and warleaders helix.

Dega plays mountains, and chained to the rocks and I have peak eruption in my board. The same logic applies to desecration demon/blood baron and act of treason.

I cleaned up the list from the SCGO and messed around with it tonight. This is what I ended up on:

Devotion Red
[deck]Creatures(24)
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Ash Zealot
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Fanatic of Mogis

Spells (14)
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
2 Shock

Land (22)
22 Mountains

Sideboard (15)
3 Burning Earth
4 Mizzium Mortars
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Frostburn Weird
2 Hammer of Purphoros[/deck]

The mainboard consistently goldfishes T4 kills. I think I'm going to rock this list at FNM and see how it goes.

Ok, if you don't mind, i feel my weakest part of playing magic atm is trying to decide what to sideboard and why. So ill list
out my thought process and if possible let me know what you would do different and why.

For control, i would assume we would be bringing in both hammers and chandras with burning earth coming in if it is 3 colors. i would think you would be siding out the cacklers first since control doesn't really have burn to hurt you with the satyrs, with the satyrs being the next cut if you want the burning earth. Or would it be better to cut some burn for them instead so we can still curve out possibly? but that seems wrong because we want to recur the phoenix against them as often as possible.

for the mirror, i would guess we just want to go bigger and a bit more control, cutting the 1 drops and going with the wierds and mortars.

for midrange im the most lost at the moment, probably because i haven't really tested much against it yet. i think this one can change dramatically depending what kind of spell suite they are running and is more decided on the fly.

Thanks for any help you can give.[/quote:
2tiemlm0]

Thinking of how the matchups play out and what you need to accomplish makes boarding a lot easier.

First you have to identify how you win. To win a matchup you need to be either

A) A lot faster or
2) A little bit slower

Against control, obviously you want to be the much faster deck and generally, I like keeping in all the one drops. Depending on if they play wraths or not dictates how much you commit to the board and how much you hold back. And since they have plenty of answers, I like boarding out some fanatics because outside of Chandra and Hammer, you usually don't want more then 2 permanents in play so fanatic can trick you into overcommitting. On the play this isn't really a big deal, but on the draw, it can be a liability. Something I used to do that isn't really necessary anymore is cutting a fair amount of burn spells since they're fairly bad against sphinx's revelation. Since they win a LOT slower now outside of eslpeth though, keeping in jets and strikes is fine. I
still board out most if not all the shocks now though(my current board only has about 3 cards for the non-red control matchups).

Against the agro decks, I generally like playing the control role since it's hard to get a speed advantage. Generally though, once you choose a role in the game, you want to stick with it the whole game since unlike other decks in lots of matchups, you can lose a lot of value when switching gears. Firedrinker should almost always come out though

Against midrange, you just have to play it by ear since the midrange decks are pretty varied so far, but Chandra is generally excellent and more often then not, you're going to be the beatdown. I would highly suggest having act of treason in your board however since that card is a beating against lots of the big guys these decks like to play.

Hope this helped.

[Helios]

You also need to consider whether you are on the play or on the draw. One drops have much more value when you go first.

[Jack]

LP, what cards do you usually take out when you're up against midrange? When I was using Z's pyro deck, I usually cut Chandra (couldn't figure out what else was bad) and you just said you like to bring her in. I also take it that you've done a lot more serious testing than I have, so I'd be interested to hear about your findings on how to sideboard against different decks in your gauntlet.
Your build seems pretty promising, but have you tried Z's pyro deck yet? That thing is fun as hell to play.

[zemanjaski]

What sort of midrange deck? RG Ramp? Dega? Ill try to help.

[Elricity]

This is my current incarnation of the burn deck that Valdarith was also talking about.

[deck]Creature (12)

4 Boros Reckoner
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Young Pyromancer

Burn (17)

4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
2 Warleader's Helix
3 Flames of the Firebrand

Support (7)

2 Hammer of Purphoros
3 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Pyromancer's Gauntlet

Lands (24)
10 Mountain
2 Mutavault
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
2 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph

Sideboard

2 Act of Treason
3 Chained to the Rocks
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Renounce the Guilds
3 Skullcrack
2 Wear // Tear[/deck]

I've only had a couple games where I've managed to play the guantlet due to pressure but I might be playing too safe. Going to keep testing before I bring it down to 1. I personally still like seeing Nykthos for the occassional ramp though a 3/1 mix of mutavault/Nykthos might be the right call. A full playset of
mutavault ended with them sitting useless on the field too often because they would walk into obvious removal or wall into something. They're usually worth about 2-4 damage tops.

My sideboard still leans heavily against the W/B/x midrange decks as it's the weakest matchup with the lifegain and difficult to remove creatures.

Vs R/x:

Easiest matchup. Sweep thier creatures early, go into midgame with Chandra and pick them apart. -2 boros charm, +2 mizzium mortars. You could chained their own phoenix's but yours are frankly better at competing with them. You can offer up young pyromancer as a sacrifice so their burn isn't pointed at you.

Vs G/x midrange:

Weaken them early and then clean them up once you've removed or used their bigger threats. -4 boros charm, -3 FotF, +2 act of treason, +3 chained to the rocks, +2 mizzium mortars. -3 lightning strike, +3 renounce if they're using big multicolored creatures. You want to 1 for 1 them until your support is online.

Vs W/B/x midrange:

Kill
them before their fatties kill you. You want to get as much mileage out of young pyromancer so don't play it until you have a spell to cast that turn, preferably boros charm to keep him alive and net a token also coming after them. Obzedat, Viskopa, and Whip of Erebos need to be dealt with immediately because you can't win that race. Young pyromancer deals with desecration demon so he's a far more minor threat. -4 boros reckoner, -3 FotF, -2 Gauntlet, -1 Chandra, +3 skullcrack, +3 renounce the guilds, +2 act of treason, +2 wear // tear.

Vs control:

Land Chandra or a Guantlet and burn them out or land a hammer and flood them out. -4 boros reckoner, +3 skullcrack, +1 whatever looks most useful.

Any comments/criticisms or any major matchups I missed?

[atatjacob1]

Elricity. Your deck seems pretty solid but have you considered Glare of Heresy? It deals with most of the things that you use renounce the guilds for, apart from Baron which you can kill with mortars. Glare kills lots of things that your deck will probably have problems with, it takes out Reckoner, D-Sphere, Elspeth, Heliod, Obzedat, Fiendslayer Paladin, Other Chained to the Rocks, Archangel of Thune etc.

I'm sure there are more but I would certainly play it over renounce.

[Yarpus]

Glare doesn't take out Obzedat. Unless you play at your local FNM against guy who just managed to pull one during draft, made pretty damn awfull BW deck with only basic lands as manabase just because he got the Obzedat. But this kind of players can be beaten with Pillarfield Ox.

[Elricity]

I admit I glanced over it but it's a sorcery so it can't hit Obzedat either which means it doesn't help in the B/W matchup which means it probably can't make the cut. Reckoner and D-sphere die to renounce as well (not that I'm ever going to board vs either card specifically), Elspeth and chained I'll gladly ignore, and fiendslayer, heliod (or his spear) and archangel can be handled by chained myself though there's an argument for them packing glare or wear to deal with it.

Honestly, of the cards you listed that renounce doesn't hit, only Archangel scares me. Also throw in that Gruul and Rakdos have some multicolored fattys that I'd rather not 2 for 1 if I could avoid it and renounce seems the more reliable spell. It also deals with a monstrous fleecemane.

I could be talked into dropping mortars for glare though. I'm just not sure if that's the right call yet.

[Yarpus]

Mortars are pretty damn cool. They deal with the Dragon and Blood Baron. And they are flexxible removal/sweep card. I actually value MM as one of the best removals in the format unless Gruul/Obzedat starts to matter more and more.

[Elricity]

For me, I would have to see a big presence of fiendslayer/archangel since mortars can't hit one and is unlikely to hit archangel before it gets the counter

[Yarpus]

If Mono White Weenie would ever be a thing, then sure.
But really, just don't count on that too much.

[Narcasus]

Question for you all, when you know they are running anger in big boros and assuming you are playing the red devotion deck listen above, how many creatures do you put out? i normally am happy if i have 4 damage a turn threatening, but thats obviously giving him a 2 for 1. early game i feel this is okay if i can get 2 swings from each before the anger.

At that point, i feel like I'm either assuming he doesn't have another wrath and try to play 2 more creatures. or i can play defensively and just play the one and see if he plays creatures of his own. They don't seem to have an issue angering with their own boros reckoners out though, so that isnt always a sign either where they will swing in and anger right away for quite a lot of damage. This deck was a big boros with an end game of legion and elspeth so i feel like i have to partly overextend to make sure i get him low enough in time. In the set i played, i won game 1
where i was able to barely outrace him after legion hit the board and fighting through one anger. Since its big boros, should i be siding out the satyrs so he cant helix or mortar them? losing the one drops feels like i might be too slow since i can really win a late game against it.

i took out the shocks in game 2 and put in chandras. i felt the hammers should have went in as well but i didn't know for what. Game 2 he was able to burn away my threats and land 2 early reckoners to slow me down enough for legion to hit with elspeth and i just died. i did make mistakes here i had played my own reckoner right after his first and he attacked into me and a traded, i should have just taken the 3 to see what he would play and wait for the 2 for 1 if possible. i think that could have dramaticly change the game instead of staring down a reckoner i had no answer for. also, i played 3 creatures onto an empty board and he angered it all away, giving him a 3 for 1. so overall, i probably just played a bad game of
magic.

Game 3 was going well with drawing threats and getting him low and chandra was online getting me cards, but i ended up drawing into 6 mana as he burned away my threats after legion hit the board and he lived with 3 life points. I felt like i played it right, besides still feeling i needed the hammers in there to at least give me hope if something like that happens, but trying to go for cards in a longer game also felt wrong against a deck that has the much better end game.

It turned into more of a rant about how i played bad i think. either way writing out helped me already. Thanks for the help you guys have given before on the sideboarding questions as well.