[ARTICLE] PyroRed Matchup Guide

[zemanjaski]

PyroRed Sligh Matchup Analysis

Hi everyone. I have just finished my fourth straight day of grinding MODO (with a varying, but still winning % every day) and am starting to feel comfortable giving advice on how to play this deck. As LP and others have described, and as many of you have no doubt experienced, the deck has a lot of moving parts - it is in no way a traditional curve-out aggro deck, though it is able to have draws that will resemble that.

Instead, it is what I would call an "incremental board advantage" deck. That's a mouthful, so let me break it down - understanding how the deck is meant to be played will help inform your decisions in game (still having trouble getting the stream going I am afraid).
- "incremental" this is not a
sledgehammer deck that wins by playing powerful threat after powerful threat. All your guys are tiny and cheap, and many of your cards, in any other deck, verge on fringe playability (Young Pyromancer, Chandra's Phoenix and Shock). However, the cards have been selected to work together in such a way that when multiple elements of the deck are present, you're getting extreme value from each card. Using the above three, you can kill an opponent's creature with Shock (card parity) and create an elemental token (+0.5 card advantage). You can Shock an opponent, resurrecting your Phoenix and generating a token (+0.5CA) etc. None of your cards in their own right are going to take over the game, but it only takes a few of these interactions to take over the board, which is how this deck wins.
- "board advantage" this deck generates all of its card advantage in play, with on-board synergy and not on the stack (the manner of traditionally accruing card advantage). Some of this will resemble combat tricks
(instant-speed removal coupled with Ash Zealot or Young Pyromancer), otherwise there is Phoenix recursion (your best tool against a control deck, it turns all of your otherwise anemic burn into burn + draw) and Chandra. You're not a linear aggro deck - there is no need to win as quickly as possible, just as quickly as is necessary. If your opponent isn't drawing into an insurmountable endgame, you want to prolong any board state, where your synergies will slowly take over the game.

The deck requires a keen understanding of role and strategy; as unlike a traditional red aggro variant, you're very often the control deck. A keen understanding of the principles of "who's the beatdown?" will serve any would-be PyroRed pilot very well.

Or you could just read my matchup guide!

Deck: Red Aggro Variants (Mono Red AIR, Mono Red Devotion, Boros and Gruul Aggro)
Matchup themes:
- Preserving life total[/u:
ebx4us7c]. This is the big one, and something PyroRed is very well positioned for, as the deck emphasizes card quality over explosiveness, so all BTE shenanigans in the world won't work against a Young Pyromancer or Ash Zealot backed up by a million instant removals. You just need to aggressively trade down in these matchups, every time. The higher you can keep your own life total, the easier the game will be.
- Value. These decks don't have any way to accrue card advantage, they're just 1-for-1 decks. They can generate a lot of VCA if you let them get momentum, which is why you want to aggressively trade down, as VCA is meaningless if you cannot convert it into either a win or into real advantage. The key cards for generating value are Chandra's Phoenix (you can keep bringing it back), Boros Reckoner (its a 2-for-1), Young Pyromancer (infinite 1/1s are good against x/1 attacks I hear) and Chandra, Pyromaster. You're going to have a lot more of these tools than your opponent,
so it benefits you to extend the game. You want to pick lines of play that extend the game if your life total is high, or lines of play that end the game quickly if your life total is low. Cards like Mizzium Mortars (overload) and Flames of the Firebrand give you an easy way to get ahead in the matchups.
- Burn and VCA. I haven't seen this discussed elsewhere, so it is worth mentioning. Burn changes in value pre- and post-board. In game 1 you need to conserve your life total as much as possible and wear wipe their board with spells and trades as quickly as possible; this stops AIR from building up a critical mass of attackers for their Dynacharge and stops Devotion Red from, well, building up their Devotion. So use it early and use it often; pretty much every guy in the matchup is a 2 power dork, so just prioritize killing Ash Zealot if they have them, then anything else. Killing Phoenix is a conundrum, since they can get it back. Be aware of how much burn they have expended, which
will inform you of whether or not it is a good idea to kill a Phoenix; conversely, you want to force them to burn your own Phoenix since you run more burn and that allows you to convert a 1 use card into a creature.

Key cards:
- [card]Chandra's Phoenix[/card]: two key points about this card. 1 - Flying; there are no other evasive threats in the matchup, so if the board develops into a stall, the player with a phoenix has a big edge. 2 - It is a way of converting excess burn back into repeatable threats, so if you can get ahead on board, Phoenix will allow you to turn some one use resources (burn) into permanent card advantage. With all of your burn and Chandra, you're well positioned to dominate this theme in the matchup.
- Boros Reckoner: basically the best divination ever (a 2 mana 2-for-1); but it does so much more. Reckoner dominates the ground battle. Its also the most important card against both PyroRed and AIR. You'
re boarding four for this reason - there is nothing that can retain parity with Reckoner, so you need to fight fire with fire. You'll really want to take your time to calculate all the possible decision trees when a Reckoner is on the field (what are all the trigger variations, what combat trick opportunities are there if they do or don't activate first strike). Post-board, you want your Magma Jets to be digging for this card. Try to kill it when you don't have a creature in play - this should be easier post board when you're boarding out a lot of your creatures.
- Young Pyromancer: Similar to Reckoner, but less so, YP can dominate the ground battles, especially against AIR. You don't want to play him as a 2-drop; they'll just kill it. You want to play it as a 3 or 4 drop so you can get a little value - the 1/1 tokens have tremendous value in the matchup, embarrassing cards like Foundry Street Denizen and [card]Firefist Striker[/
card].
- Chandra, Pyromaster: Red decks have a lot of trouble with Chandra if they're behind on the board; she immediately goes up to 5 loyalty which makes her a 2-for-1 to kill with burn (making their Phoenix worse and expending a lot of resources, remember, they don't generate CA, you do); after that she starts massacring guys if she can, or she starts drawing you cards. With Red mirrors so often becoming top deck wars, the ability to draw two cards a turn will very quickly take over a game.

Key interactions:
- Young Pyromancer and Burn. Pretty obviously, attacking into Young Pyromancer with open mana is very difficult for a red deck. This is a lot of the reason you don't want to play your YP until you can get value from him.
- Chandra's Phoenix and Burn. Similar to the above, Phoenix is the best attacker if the board stalls out, so having access to more copies as the game goes long
is very valuable.

Strategy:
Your role in Game 1 will be determined by the nature of your draw; it is sometimes possible to be the beatdown with an aggressive enough draw. Typically however, you just want to aggressively trade and then resolve a YP with spells up or a Chandra. Keep your life total high, keep trading and look to resolve one of your key cards. Post board is much easier; you take 4 Rakdos Cackler and 4 Firedrinker Satyr and bring in 4 Boros Reckoner and 4 Mizzium Mortars. This makes their Reckoners much worse (since they no longer wall as much of your deck) and your YPs better (more spells). Mortars gives you a nice long game and Reckoner shuts down a lot of their deck (especially AIR). The strategy is the same, but your deck is much better equipped than theirs for this sort of dirty fist fight.

Conclusion:
Matchups against Rx variants are slightly favorable (Devotion Red) to very favorable (AIR). You want to keep a cool head, remember
your role and stick to the strategy. Every turn though, you want to be recalculating whether you want to defend or attack - once the position is good to attack, you want to take them out ASAP - they're playing burn after all!

Deck: Black X Control (Rakdos, BG, BW, Dega)
Matchup themes:
- Pressure. They have the inevitability in the matchup, in the form of win-conditions you just cannot beat (Desecration Demon and Obzedat). However, they are almost completely reliant on 1-for-1 removal early, then losing life to draw cards (Read the Bones or Underworld Connections) to draw cards. The RBx decks have access to Anger of the Gods, but their mana base is still fragile and they're still broadly a 1-for-1 deck. What these decks lack are a card like Sphinx's Revelation - so they cannot easily put the game out of reach unless they can start swinging with Obzedat or a Blood Baron of Vizkopa. As a result, you can
basically spew your hand and play freely - PyroRed excels against 1-for-1 decks when Phoenix and Young Pyromancer can generate a lot of value against their removal.
- Life total. It is not unrealistic to burn these decks out. They do have life gain later on if they're in white, but that doesn't become active for some time.

Key cards:
- Any two power guy in your deck. This may be obvious, but it is incredibly important to understand; the games where you can curve out are incredibly easy wins. You're not even really playing magic anymore. Firedrinker Satyr and Ash Zealot can generate a lot of damage if your opponent doesn't have a quick answer.
- Young Pyromancer. This card might not be that impressive on the surface, but it is deceptively powerful. A problem that can arise in the matchup, when you're not just running them over hideously, is that you're drawing into burn instead of creatures;
this isn't uncommon as this variant is a lot more burn heavy than a traditional red aggro deck in the format. Young Pyromancer is one way to get a little more extra value out of your burn spells and the beats of a couple of 1/1s add up quickly. Most of these decks don't have wraths so YP can quickly take over a game.
- [card]Chandra's Phoenix[/card]. The second card that lets you get value from your burn spells in the matchup, with such a high burn count, you can be pretty liberal in running your Phoenix into removal; you can rebuy them for a measly Shock anyway.
- "Insert large unkillable creature that they play". They have them. Deal with it. You're just going to have to do your best to play around or through it when they finally resolve. Remember that you can kill your own creature at the declare blockers step with instant speed removal to stop a Blood Baron from gaining life - that can be the difference between a win and a loss.

[b:
ebx4us7c]Key interactions:[/b]
- None really. They're going to try and 1-for-1 you, you need to try and get maximum value out of every card. Chandra's Phoenix and Young Pyromancer are good with your burn?

Strategy:
- You are the beatdown. Always. The main focus of this matchup is getting as much damage as possible from each card and forcing them to have the necessary cards or just die - you want them to HAVE to have the right mix of removal, land and threats; they'll get there eventually, but the more you can pressure them the harder this will be. Because they don't have early life gain and you want them under pressure, you'll want to play much more like a burn deck than you normally would; the idea is to put yourself in a position to "get lucky", with any number of top decks either winning the game instantly or putting your opponent in a position of needing to draw out of a bad spot. Post board, you're
able to take out lower impact burn spells and replace them with high impact threats like Traitorous Instinct and Hammer of Purphoros.

Conclusion:
All variants are slightly favorable. While they play powerful cards, they're also slightly flawed archetypes with some mana issues. That they don't have easy ways to smooth their draws or get ahead early causes them big consistency problems against any red aggro deck.

Deck: UWx Control (UW, Esper, UWR)
Matchup themes:
- Pressure. They have the inevitability in the matchup, in the form of win-conditions you just cannot beat (Elspeth and Aetherling). However, they also have a safety switch in Supreme Verdict, so the matchup is really one of cat-and-mouse; how much can you commit to the board and sacrifice to the wrath? This is compounded by [
card]Sphinx's Revelation[/card]; you need to get them dead within a certain time frame or you just cannot win (typically one revelation is beatable, two aren't). This is entirely a judgement call, and with experience you will make better decisions - as an imprecise rule of thumb, you want to be getting about 4 points of damage from every creature; so they need two attacks before dying typically; if they won't get that, don't play them into a wrath. Phoenix and Mutavault are critical cards for punishing a wrath and thankfully, PyroRed gets to play lots of each card.
- Planeswalkers. This is actually an old theme from long ago; Planeswalkers were the key card in the Mono Red vs. Caw-Blade matchup as well (Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Koth of the Hammer), and much like then, the red deck actually has the more relevant walker. See discussion below.

Key cards:
-
Any two power guy in your deck. This may be obvious, but it is incredibly important to understand; the games where you can curve out are incredibly easy wins. You're not even really playing magic anymore. Firedrinker Satyr and Ash Zealot can generate a lot of damage if your opponent doesn't have a quick answer.
- Young Pyromancer. This card might not be that impressive on the surface, but it is deceptively powerful. A problem that can arise in the matchup, when you're not just running them over hideously, is that you're drawing into burn instead of creatures; this isn't uncommon as this variant is a lot more burn heavy than a traditional red aggro deck in the format. Young Pyromancer is one way to get a little more extra value out of your burn spells and the beats of a couple of 1/1s add up quickly. Knowing this, you can generate a lot of board presence without extending too far into a wrath; your burns spells were inevitably going upstairs anyway, so this
lets you hold cards to play after the wrath.
- [card]Chandra's Phoenix[/card]. The second card that lets you get value from your burn spells in the matchup, through your ability to rebuy it after a wrath. With such a high burn count, you can be pretty liberal in running your Phoenix into removal; you can rebuy them for a measly Shock anyway.
- Mutavault. Like Phoenix, this card is just very well positioned against wraths. You can activate Mutavault in place of committing more to the board, which is fantastic. Its a mana-sink late, which is extra nice.
- Chandra, Pyromaster. You'll want to sandbag your Chandra until you can resolve her, as drawing two cards a turn is extremely powerful in the matchup. They will also need to tap down a bit to deal with her (they can only answer her with Detention Sphere so that exposes them again. Basically you will always +0 Chandra, unless you're picking
off Elspeth tokens (you've calculated that the line is winning!) or you need to falter a blocker. Chandra is to them as Sphinx's Revelation is to you.
- Supreme Verdict. Not much to say that has not been said really, you need to be constantly mindful of this card and calculate your lines with it in mind. It is possible that you may find yourself in a position of "if they have the wrath, I lose, if they don't I win" and in that case, you need to be aware of this and play accordingly; just always be thinking ahead and figuring out what the best possible decisions.
- [card]Sphinx's Revelation[/card]. The end-boss in the matchup. You can usually beat the first little one, but rarely the second. Skullcrack out of the sideboard can really help however.
- Jace, Architect of Thought. Jace is a good card against your tokens, but you'll often have enough power on the board to hit him and then kill him with a burn spell;
this is a good trade for them, but you'll usually still want to make the trade (do always calculate the alternatives a few turns ahead, never just assume) because UWx control has real problems bridging the gap from the middle game to the end game where they can resolve a big revelation; they just don't have the cheap manipulation or draw anymore, so killing Jace makes it much harder for them to assemble the combination of enough lands + revelation. Besides, it puts them in the position of needing to immediately have a wrath, or they're just incredibly far behind.
- [card]Elspeth, Sun's Champion[/card]. Not a particularly good card against you, in the sense that it costs 6, and if they're far enough behind it won't help them. However, you need to be aware that they play it. It's pretty poop against Chandra and her Phoenix though.

Key interactions:
- Chandra's Phoenix and counterspells. A simple one really, its a good idea to
actively run Chandra's Phoenix into counterspells. Why? This will turn your burn spells into cantrips, so you're getting back the value anyway, and you're depleting their resources. This can make it easier to resolve a Chandra or a Hammer of Purphoros.
- Chandra's Phoenix and burn. See above. Since when did burn spells become card draw as well?
- Wraths and mutavault. Mutavault lets you make your land drops, then punish your opponent after a wrath. It can also just turn sideways whenever you have excess mana. It is one of the reasons that the matchup is so favorable. Do be aware of getting it called against Esper however; if you need the mana to cast something, don't activate.

Strategy:
You are the beatdown. Always. Beyond that it is just one of the more skill testing matchups in magic; you want to spend just enough resources to pressure them into wrathing before they really want to, while still
having enough resources left over to get the job done. There are two ways to beat counterspells; either resolve a threat underneath (a 1 or 2 drop) then force them to tap out to answer at sorcery speed; or wait until you can cast two spells in one turn (eg: turn 3 cast a 1 and 2 drop, they can't counter both so you're at least advancing your board a little). Try and get as much value from each creature as possible, and hold your burn until you can get a re-buy with a Phoenix or a token with a YP; though you may want or need to go upstairs with Magma Jet to fix your draws. The matchup gets even easier after boarding when you take out your Shocks (worse card in the matchup) for Skullcracks and Hammer of Purphoros (plural); cards that dominate the matchup very badly.

Conclusion:
Favorable (UW control) to extremely one-sided (Esper control). UWR isn't popular right now, but it is the hardest matchup on account of their cheap interaction (Shock and Magma Jet) and greater lifegain (
Warleader's Helix). However, control in general seems to be pretty poorly positioned this season so UWR may never catch on.

Deck: Big Red (inc. Big Boros)
Matchup themes:
- Board presence. This is a very difficult one, but they have so much removal and better creatures; but you still need to keep forcing damage through. It is going to be an uphill battle, but you need to get as much value as you can from every card.
- Card advantage. Rebuying Phoenix and protecting a Chandra are some of the only ways to really get any advantage. They usually don't run any card advantage engines themselves (Chandra is not so crash hot when you're maindecking Mizzium Mortars and Chained to the Rocks), so these cards are some of your only way to get ahead in the matchup.

Key cards:
- Chained to the Rocks. One mana answer to your Phoenix,
and really stops you from bringing in Reckoner. Great card against this archetype unfortunately.
- Anger of the Gods. Not common in their maindeck, or even that common in the 75 (it does kill a lot of their own cards).
- [card]Warleader's Helix[/card]. The main reason this deck is so hard to beat. Killing one of your guys and gaining a huge chunk of life is back breaking when they can already stall out the ground so easily.
- [card]Chandra's Phoenix[/card]. Probably your best card in the matchup. Being able to continually rebuy it is one of the only sources of advantage.
- Chandra, Pyromaster. If you can stick her and keep her in play for a few turns, the card advantage can overwhelm your opponent. Easier said than done unfortunately.

Key interactions:
- Burn and Chandra's Phoenix. They don't have many creatures you can kill with burn, so you'
re inevitably going upstairs. Best to wait for them to kill your Phoenix so you can get the rebuy before doing so.
- I guess you can kill your own creature in response to a Warleader's Helix if you think it is appropriate.

Strategy:
Much like the Black X control decks, they have a number of threats that are either difficult to interact with (Elspeth) or are just very well positioned against this archetype (Boros Reckoner, Ember Swallower, Stormbreath Dragon), backed up by a heap of red removal (the best kind of removal against your deck). They're going to burn away all your early pressure, then resolve a threat that walls you. Chrandra's Phoenix or Chandra herself are your best sources of advantage, so try to make sure they resolve and can get some value. You just need to get in as much damage as quickly as possible and then hope to burn them out or finish them off by returning Phoenix as many times as possible. One thing they do have trouble is with Chandra, Pyromaster, as
if they are not sufficiently ahead on board it is difficult for them to remove her. Post board, Traitorous Instinct and Peak Eruption are very powerful against this archetype.

Conclusion:
Quite unfavorable, but not unwinnable.

Deck: Green Big Spells (including Mono Green Devotion and RG Ramp)
Matchup themes:
- draw strength. Ramp decks are a slightly flawed strategy, insofar as they need to draw the right mix of land, ramp and bombs - draw too much or too little of any one part and the deck does not function. This leads to draws where they just never get quite enough land for their hand that is full of bombs; or they have too much land and not enough threats. This aspect of their deck, as well as both archetypes having a relatively low amount of interactive spells, encourages aggressive lines of play.

- [u:
ebx4us7c]overwhelming threats. Unlike most of the midrange decks, which, while their creatures to outclass your own; they can be killed; the big creatures coming out of the ramp decks just aren't going to roll over and die to what you have. The better strategy is usually to play through these cards, remembering the lessons from the principles of fire.

Key cards:
- [card]Chandra's Phoenix[/card]. They're inevitably going to lock down the ground, so having an evasive beater in the sky is a huge advantage.
- Boros Reckoner. No matter what variant they play, they don't have an easy way to deal with Reckoner; who either trades up with whatever huge creature they want to play, or does some first strike + removal tricks to stick around. Being able to bring in Reckoner is a key component against any of these archetypes - he is one of your best attackers and defenders.
- Young Pyromancer.
Much like Reckoner, the value created by YP is difficult for these decks to interact with. Two YP create an infinte number of blockers and attackers, and for a deck that is reliant on playing a single or two large creatures to dominate a board state, this is a nightmare.
- Elvish Mystic. Kill them on sight early, ignore late.
- Traitorous Instinct. Again, their board presence and ability to generate virtual card advantage through blanking your swarm with a single big creature is how they get ahead. So, I am not expert, but removing their blocker and swinging with it and everyone else seems like it might work pretty well. You decide.
- Chandra, Pyromaster. Both the falter effect and drawing cards are incredibly relevant against both archetypes. Being able to snatch up a free mana dork here and there is sweet as well. Both variants have great difficulty removing Chandra.

Key interactions:

- Young Pyromancer and removal. The scenario where you are able to burn away all of their early creatures with having a YP in play is their worst nightmare. Not only are you removing a vital component of their deck (ramp) but you're building up a board presence that is difficult for their bombs to interact favourably with. So YP disrupts their plan and advances yours. Terrific!
- Boros Reckoner and anything[. They play big creatures. Reckoner walls them or kills them with first strike and burn. Just a nightmare for their archetype.

Strategy:
Game 1 is all about racing and trying to punish them as quickly as possible. You'll want to burn away any mana creatures, then start trading creatures for damage when you can get value. Put on maximum pressure and attempt to get them dead before their bombs just take over the game.

Post board there are two trains of thought. You can either try the same aggro strategy from game 1,
supplemented by cards like Traitorous Instinct to amp up the aggression further, or you can try and become more controlling, conceding that any of their mid game creatures will just shut down too much of your deck (Ash Zealot, Rakdos Cackler and Firedrinker Satyr). You'll bring in removal and Reckoners in this instance.

From my experience, I prefer the aggro game plan against RG; as they have more evasive creatures and removal (including overload on Mizzium Mortars) so it is difficult to shut them down. They also have Xenagos, so being more aggressively positioned is better against any of their planeswalker draws. Against Big Green, while their creatures are big, they're not evasive, so the control strategy can be very effective (it is worth noting that Big Green has strong life gain options post board, so by being the control you negate the relevance of this) as Ash Zealot, Young Pyromancer and Reckoner can hold down the ground, while Phoenix strikes in the air and
Chandra draws cards.

Conclusion: Even.

Deck: GW Midrange (including Junk Midrange) Generously written and donated by LP
Matchup themes:
-Pressure. These types of midrange decks thrive on the mid game where their creature can outclass yours in combat, but due to them being 2 and 3 color, they can sometimes stumble on mana and often have to shock themselves once or twice to ensure they cast spells on curve. This is what the red deck preys on as stumbling can be a free win and every shock is a free card. Even when they can get there walls up, we have falter affects along with Chandra's Phoenix going over the top ensuring that their life total is never safe.
-Board Presence. Despite them having bigger creatures, it's fairly easy to keep an equivalent board presence as our guys come online sooner and our CA engines in the form of
YP$ and Chandra allow us to amass tokens, cards, and disregard the size of their creatures along with burn+YP allowing us to actively and passively remove opposing creatures shrinking their presence while being able to increase ours. This is especially potent vs. GW as they have no removal or way to accrue CA letting us slowly take over the game. Junk on the other hand while having access to removal plays less of it then we do and ours is more versatile as it can go to the dome giving our removal a very slight edge.
-Planeswalkers. Chandra is a house vs. any green deck assuming your opponent lacks hexproof guys. In addition to faltering smiters, voices, and oozes, she also can pick off the odd elvish mystic or sin collector along with the ping to the face netting you 1+ cards in the process. Additionally in stalled games where neither player can attack profitably, she just starts drawing you cards digging towards phoenix's which go over the top and game ending burn.


Key cards:
-[card]Chandra's Phoenix[/card]. When they inevitably get walls up, your primary source of pressure will generally be phoenix taking 2 point chunks of their life at a time and if your forced into a defensive posture, assuming no ooze or ooze mana, you can chump block/trade down, then rebuy CP with any burn spell.
-Young Pyromancer. Since these decks run little to no removal, you can usually safely play young p on turn 2, then have it take over a game with burn. Loxodon smiter swinging into with young p and 2 mana up suddenly turns shock into doom blade. Even just amassing random 1/1's here and there adds up into full extra cards which can be used to trade with opposing creatures or can be converted into offensive damage through alpha strikes.
-Chandra, Best Card in Standard. As mentioned above, Chandra does everything from killing creatures, to noggin the opponent for points at a time, to rebuying
CP, to faltering their blockers. It's a card you actively want to see every game.
-Scavenging Ooze. One of there best cards against you. You must be mindful of blocking with your phoenix in certain situations because your opponent can be baiting you into binning your bird then losing it to this deservedly cross-format staple. It's often best to kill this card on site as it can grow to truly epic proportions while negating all the damage you've deal over the course of a game.
-Voice of Resurgence. Voice hampers with your ability to pressure the opponent and slows down your burn drastically with its token making clause. The fact that it also makes a guy on dying means it's one of the green players only sources of CA and the token can grow very large if left unchecked. Depending on the contents of your hand, it can be correct to ignore the voice if you don't think you can kill the token soon and it would be a problem later. Tread carefully.
-[
card]Advent of the Wurm[/card]. If your opponent passes with 4 mana up, you can be reasonably certain that there's an incoming 5/5 waiting to surprise your attackers. The trample is significant as it invalidates tokens as blockers(for the most part) and makes protecting Chandra a hard proposition. One way to bluff damage through is to make a casual remark about your opponent having advent and swinging with just ash zealot to represent lightning strike. This doesn't work all the time and in some situations, it just not worth it if your opponent calls your bluff, but it's something to be mindful of.
-Elvish Mystic/Sylvan Caryatid. The former is almost kill on site worthy as "bolt the bird" is a tried and true tactic in the early stages of the game when you have nothing else noteworthy to do as a turn 2 smiter is often very annoying. The latter can't be interacted with and can stymie your aggression significantly, but
luckily you have fliers and firedrinker satyr pumps himself. A major consideration of your opponent having mana-dorks is knowing what range of spells your opponent can play with there mana font and how that should affect your play. Finally, running a lot of mana dorks invariably gives your opponent some number of dead draws going late, which makes an endgame closer than you might think.

Key interactions:
- Instant speed removal plus Young Pyromancer or Ash Zealot. These creatures allow you to generate a lot of incremental advantage against their bigger, more expensive creatures.
- Chandra's +1. Kills mana dorks, allows your burn spells to trade up; falters a key blocker. Very powerful against an archetype that expects so much out of each card and has no card advantage sources; they're reliant on creature quality to generate virtual card advantage and Chandra makes that very difficult.

Strategy:
This
is a complex matchup. In some lines, you'll be the beatdown, in others you'll be the control. Against GW you will usually want to default to being the control deck, as they have no removal or sources of card advantage and you can board in a pretty powerful control package (Reckoner and Mortars). It is more difficult to play control against Junk, as they have quality removal and a more difficult to interact with endgame (Obzedat, Whip of Erobos). Thankfully, they're reliant on drawing the right parts of their deck in the right order on time; so a straight beatdown strategy backed up my removal and threatens can punish any stumbles.

Conclusion:
Average (GW Aggro) to slightly unfavorable (Junk).

[RedNihilist]

First *-*

[warwizard87]

good read so far cant wait for the rest

[dpaine88]

yeaaaaa buddy, was lookin forward to this!

[zemanjaski]

OK that is two parts done, that's enough for tonight. I'll try and have the rest done by the weekend, then work on the Magma Jet article (that one will be a lot of fun).

[Zooligan]

This is *exactly* the type of info I was trying to draw out of you with my post viewtopic.php?p=119538#p119538. Thanks!

[F.I.A]

A great article. You're definitely spot-on about Pyro being a turn 3 or 4 drop.

[windstrider]

Oh, that's good. Thanks, z. The insights are most helpful.

[Woj]

Great article Zem! These articles are incredibly helpful.

Can't wait for the rest of this one and PyroRed streams once your tech issues are resolved =)

[Jack]

Nice job, z. This helps a lot. Can I ask one little thing of you? Could you explain the difference between the terms "trading down" and "trading up? " I get the concepts, I think, but I've only ever heard this called making trades.

[NorthRaptor]

Thanks. I'm most interested in a g/w and junk matchup analysis.

[fadedblue]

i love it. =) thanks z

[lorddax]

Z, this is the best thing I've read all week when trying to get ready for States this weekend. I'm really hoping that you can get this up before Saturday so I have time to compare your findings with my own experience.

[LaZerBurn]

Fantastic article, can't wait for the rest Thanks Z

[zemanjaski]

Just for you Dax imma finish it tonight.

[Jack]

This would be great to have in time for states. It's always nice to have something to read in between rounds.

[lorddax]

Mono G Devo aggro caused me to tilt at FNM. Kept a 2lander with satyr satry cackler zealot shock on the draw. T4 Bramblecrush naming mountain. WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT?!?!? Great play tho. Took me out of the game completely with opp at 8 life to stabilize behind bow and god and faceroll.

Ran up against a less tuned version of this playing slightly more budget cards
http://mtganalytics.net/decks/id/1233

Experiment One into Tusker into Satyr/Bow into God into Polku \ Kalonia Hydra

[Elricity]

Mono G Devo aggro caused me to tilt at FNM. Kept a 2lander with satyr satry cackler zealot shock on the draw. T4 Bramblecrush naming mountain. WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT?!?!? Great play tho. Took me out of the game completely with opp at 8 life to stabilize behind bow and god and faceroll.

If your opponent sees you on two lands? About anyone would I suppose.

[RedNihilist]

My housemate built a monoG with Nylea and bow.
If he sees the both of 'em the game becomes a major pain.

[zemanjaski]

Two thirds done!

[zemanjaski]

OK I am not sure what has gone wrong, but it seems to think a huge chunk of text is a card reference, and I cannot find a broken link in the code. Fuck.

[warwizard87]

OK I am not sure what has gone wrong, but it seems to think a huge chunk of text is a card reference, and I cannot find a broken link in the code. Fuck.

didn't even notice TBH

[F.I.A]

The link to Detention Sphere is broken in Deck: UWx Control (UW, Esper, UWR) section under Chandra. It ends with a ")" instead of a "]".

[zemanjaski]

5/6 done, will finish tomorrow.

[Elricity]

That was helpful. Decided to test your version last night and Bx midrange was spanking me. It didn't occur to me until later I was defaulting myself into control mode vs them. Oops

[Calamity]

Massively helpful guide, thanks redbro (or should I say, redgod)

[Zooligan]

This is fantastic zman! Really helps me understand how the deck should work with an experienced pilot. Thanks!

BTW, I'm REALLY looking forward to the Magma Jet article. Can't wait to check out your insights on what seems to be a critical card in the current format.

[PrimalBurn]

Great article once again Z! Hopefully you get the stream running smooth again so we can see the master in action

[lorddax]

Love the way this was written. Knowing the key cards and the pre and post board role I feel is much more preferable to a straight SB guide.

[Verseau]

This is awesome, Z, really enjoyed it, i will try this on my FNM. thanks

[zemanjaski]

I want to give a massive thank you to Jerry (photodyer) for his work in editing and formatting the article. I'm not personally a diligent or particularly capable writer myself, so his time and effort (given without me asking!) are greatly appreciated. If we all put in a little effort here and there we can really produce some great stuff.

[Jack]

Z, could I ask you a huge favor by having you finish the G/R Ramp section in the next 11 hours so that I could print the whole guide before I leave for States?
Also, Green Devotion is pretty popular now (over 5% of the meta, at least). You should probably discuss that in the section for GR Ramp, since they are very similar decks, with monogreen being more linear.

[zemanjaski]

DONE.

[Helios]

James, you are the greatest of people. Thanks again for your tireless work contributing to this community.

[Khaospawn]

Z, telling you "great job" on this piece would be a massive understatement. Instead, I just want to say thank you for the time you spent and the work that went into acquiring data. This guide is a tremendous tool for the Red Mage community.

Zemanjaski: the hardest working Red Mage alive.

[LaZerBurn]

Thanks for a fine article Z - your insight, time and energy in sharing this is much appreciated