[Primer] PyroRed

[F.I.A]

Yes, that could work, but do we really want a slow bull in a control matchup? I could just see it taking its time to connect even a hit.

[lorddax]

Yeah against straight up control running slayer its hard to deal with as reckoner shouldnt even be on the field, my meta had a bunch of Mono White builds running around the past two weeks leaning on slayer for heavy lifting, so thats where this comment comes from. But yeah, the only real answer I could see would be Ratchet Bomb but then you are occupying two SB slots with a very slow card that may not get off in time. If monoblue Master of Waves Devo gets big might be worth a look tho, blows up YP tokens but we can come back a lot easier than them.

[InflatablePie]

Speaking of Master, how does this deck deal with him? I assume just keep them off devotion and trade tokens-for-tokens + fly over with Phoenix. Should Mortars be sided in against the deck if we're expecting Weirds or is that a trap? It kills things like Specter but doesn't go to the dome so Jace might be harder to deal with if we sub out burn.

I have no idea what else the MoW decks are running (Thassa?). I feel like that information would help.

[F.I.A]

You can try boarding in Hammer for colorless Golem. That's what I have been doing when I see MoB in game 1.

[Helios]

Testing notes:

GW: I lost the first game by a hair. He ended up with a Voice with Unflinching Courage and Boon Satyr. I managed to stabilize at 3 life, then used Hammer to make dudes and try and block to take out the Voice. I blocked with enough to take it down twice, and he Rootborn Defense'd twice. Post sideboard I kept a great hand, but took a significant risk and lost. I had a Chandra in play and figured I'd get the sixth land I needed to wipe his field, but I did not. Games 3 & 4 were a train wreck for him; he drew dudes, I killed them, then played creatures and killed him.

Izzet Pyromaster: This game was intense. Had I not know the list (from the Izzet thread) I wouldn't have been able to play against it quite as well. We went back and forth, each trying to keep a Pyromancer on the board. I saw my Phoenix first, which was a big deal. I was able to swing to drop him to 1 (despite losing most of my board), and
was able to draw more burn than he had counterspells. The game was super long, it took roughly 40 minutes. Had he seen his Phoenixes first, I'm not sure I would have been able to get there.

[lorddax]

Izzet Pyro is an interesting matchup as they play a much more Draw Go game then we do. Nivmagus Elemental is hella fun in that matchup when your spells become counters if they get countered. Think I might look into a Magus Heroic list with Pyro

[Helios]

The izzet list wasn't playing Nivmagus. Which I am still sure is bad.

[lorddax]

I wouldn't play Nivmagus in any of the brews we have, it needs its own deck. Tossed an ugly one in the Izzet thread. Weak to tempo bouncing or destroy effect. Lots of eggs in one basket, and not sure if theres a way to abuse his ability yet, cipher and copying spells but without some loop to generate a massive amount of spell copies he does still seem subpar.

[F.I.A]

Thank you, Purphoros, for skipping on the paint job on your golems. There's a handful of matches where being colorless just turn things around.

Master of Waves looks silly when he finds out he cannot just charge into a red deck with all his kelpies.

Brave the Elements is rather common in monowhite, so side it in when you see it in Game 1.

[warwizard87]

im gonna put together devotion blue tonight and do a 40 game set and see how we do. wish me luck lol

[Narcasus]

I went 3-1 at FNM this week. My only loss being to GW Agro

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

Planeswalkers
3 Chandra, Best Card in Standard

Instants
2 Annihilating Fire
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Shock

Lands
21 Mountain
2 Mutavault

Sideboard
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Hammer of Purphoros
4 Mizzium Mortars
3 Skullscrack
2 Traitorous Instinct
[/deck]

Round one was a u/w Control missing Jaces

Both games, my cards just outclassed his and he died as soon as he ran out of his 15 counter spells. I think he countered the same pheonix 3 times.

2-0

Round 2 vsG/W/B Reanimator
Both games i curved out well and put heavy pressure on him, burning his dorks and getting damage in constantly and able to
burn him out before he could get his gameplan going. Post sideboard, Traitorus was a huge help, being 6 damage for me in game 2.

Round 3 vs G/W Agro

Game 1, he curved out perfectly and my hand just couldnt keep up. The man could draw like a master. If i killed a wurm, replaced it off the top.

Game 2 was more of the same, but with mortars and reckoner + burn and first strike i hung in there, getting YP online with the burn and getting some damage in finally with Pheonix. He made some misplays which let me crawl back into the game with reckoner and won the game by the skin of my teeth.

Game 3, he curved out even better, going fleece mane, smiter, wurm, into unfinching courage on wurm. I had to muligan to 6 and kept a pheonix, mortars, and lightning strike hand and drew land. I feel like his deck just played perfectly for 3 games, never missing a card or running out of gas, but maybe the matchup is worse for me than i think.

Round 4 was against G/B midrange.

I curved out beautifully, nuking
the cards he played to block and going cackler into ash zealot into pheonix. Damage was too high for him and he died. Game 2 was a slower start where he kept scavenging ozzes in hand until a pheonix would die and then play and eat it. At the end, he had a 10/10 ooze, but i was able to block a few turns with YP tokens. I ended up flooding out, drawing 4 lands the last 4 turns, and he lived at 2 hp.

Game 3 on the play again, i was too fast and just killed him. Not much else to say.

Final on the day, was 3-1-0 and was happy for the most part. I felt like i was flooding too much at times though i needed more spells. Considering going down to 22 lands instead. All the grinding on modo payed off in some matches where i made plays i doubt i would have thought of without practice. Even though i lost the GW matchup, i feel like if i had drawn a little better, having an ash zealot out on the field to interact with burn, or ever seeing a Chandra for some card draw, i could have put up a lot better fight.

nTrying to decide if i am going to states with weekend or not. If i do, i think i will play this deck still. Its a lot of fun and i like the look on their faces when i play chandra, +1 into double pheonix. That, and its annoying hearing everyone saying red decks will be gone from standard in two weeks.

[InflatablePie]

Went 3-2, sadly. Was able to trade a Thassa for a 'vault (bought some of her at 10, she's at 16ish now, didn't mind losing a few bucks) and a Murderbore+BG-shock for the phoenixes (bought the shock, so really I paid $10 for the phoenixes). So I got everything expensive sans Chandras through trades at least.

Match 1: BUG Midrange
- Game 1 he went 2x Caryatid tapping out into a Reaper. Killed the Reaper by double-burning it, won eventually (forgot how). He forgot some Scry triggers, too.
- Game 2 I lost to Progenitor Mimic on Reaper. Yeesh.
- Game 3 was fun. He dropped a Prophet, flashing in a Progenitor Mimic, copying a Young Pyro (I had two at some point, forget if it was now or later). I dropped Chandra and +1'd the Mimic. He dropped a Vraska on his turn, killed Chandra. Turn passed, he +1'd. I Traitorous Instinct'd the Prophet, swung at Vraska, killing both. Drew a Hammer and threw lands at him till he died. Also
he Putrefied a token and realized he misplayed because it also hits artifacts, the better target, about halfway through the next turn. Yeah.

Match 2: UWR Control
- Game 1 I saw some basics and a Haunted Plate Mail. I just bashed into him and he couldn't draw a verdict.
- Game 2 I completely forget how but I won.

Match 3: Jund Midrange
- Game 1 I lost to Caryatid into Polkurnaos (or whatever the spelling). Lots of removal (Decay, Downfall, Dreadbore).
- Game 2 I lost to Caryatid into Polkrunohaos into Whip. Yeah.

Match 4: Boros Aggro
- Game 1 I lost because I'm bad and took damage when I should have traded a few times. Lost to double Boros Charm at 6.
- Game 2, he had Reckoners. Strike one, take 3. Swing into one, take 2, shock it, take 2. He drops another and I couldn't deal with it if I wanted to. Probably misplayed here but goddamn Reckoner is hard to deal with.

Match 5: Esper Control
- Game 1: Cackler, Zealot, Phoenix, swing, get verdict'd, burn him out. Next.
- Game 2 lost to
Jace+Elspeth.
- Game 3 kept barely enough power on board not to overextend. He Spheres away a Chandra and next turn plays Elspeth. He's at 4. EOT Magma Jet to 2, send two lands bottom, topdeck Jet with 4 mana up. Play Young Pyro first to possibly bait counterspells (forgetting he probably would have countered the last one) and Jet for game. Accidental slowroll whoops

All in all, I like the deck, worth the Chandras. Seems more resilient and fun than other red decks. Although I haven't been able to make a lot of these clutch plays I've read about (double recurring phoenix etc.) yet.

[InflatablePie]

Oh, I might remove my precious foil Seismic Stomp for a Smelt or maybe another 'crack. Lifegain seems annoying, especially Whip. And I saw a ton of those tonight. I drew both Instinct in the Jund matchup, never drew my Stomp.

I also saw a ton of MoW decks, so maybe just another 'crack is fine. Dunno yet.

[warwizard87]

well first night of playtesting, ( presideboard) pyro red 13-7 vs devotion blue. some draws of devotion blue are unbeatable to be honest. Most other ones your just killing the guys and swinging in. after side bringing in mortars should make it even easier in theory.

[RedNihilist]

Went 2-2 on a FNM.
Lost 2-1 to GW after some bad decisions on my side ("he can't have Selesnya Charm EVERY time, he MUST be bluffing" - turns out he wasn't) and 2-1 to Esper Control.
I guess this deck is too skill intensive for me, and that's bad because I really like it.

Let's see if I can do better the next time, but I'm really angry with myself at the moment.

[LaZerBurn]

@ warwizard87 - thanks for the results

I ran into the deck on MTGO yesterday and I'd agree with your comments - get in as much damage as possible ASAP while killing everything to keep 'em off Devotion and Mortars is great - I took out a Judge, 2 Cloudfin's and a a bunch of tokens to put Thassa back to bed and leave MotW looking kinda lonely That said they do get 'unbeatable' draws

Overall I think PyroRed is well placed to beat it with both YP and the high burn count and that's with Annihilating Fire MD over FotF which I would expect to swing the match up even further in our favour

[LaZerBurn]

@ RedNihilist - thanks for sharing RedBro - I play on MTGO and knowing that other RedBro's are out there and experiencing the highs and lows keeps my spirits up when I'm in the same place - I missed the chance to make T8 in a tourney to a dumb play mistake on T2 with an open board a couple of days ago!

[warwizard87]

@ warwizard87 - thanks for the results

I ran into the deck on MTGO yesterday and I'd agree with your comments - get in as much damage as possible ASAP while killing everything to keep 'em off Devotion and Mortars is great - I took out a Judge, 2 Cloudfin's and a a bunch of tokens to put Thassa back to bed and leave MotW looking kinda lonely That said they do get 'unbeatable' draws

Overall I think PyroRed is well placed to beat it with both YP and the high burn count and that's with Annihilating
Fire MD over FotF which I would expect to swing the match up even further in our favour

np, I do a shit ton of testing the thing is working on a side plan, 4 mizzium morter mabey some number of hammer or skullcrack but I don't know( they both help vs MOTW. what to take out most likely 4 FDS.

[DerWille]

I went to a win a box tournament today that was postponed 2 weeks ago. I won the tournament, going 4-1.

Round 1 vs Boros Aggro (All in variant?) 2-0
- This wasn't a well put together variant, but it had logic. I was able to win this by burning out his creatures.

Round 2 vs U/W Control (Trading Post/Mill strategy focus) 2-0
- I usually have a good match up against this guy. I won it 2-0. This deck is really resilient against Supreme Verdict which seems to be vital for him to stabilize.

Round 3 vs Dega Lifegain Midrange thing (I have no fucking clue, it's damn scary) 0-2
- This was piloted by the guy who bitched me out last time. He wasn't as boisterous as before, but as we're shuffling he tells me calmly, "I hope you lose.
Seriously, I hope I stomp you." Well, he did just that. His deck seems to be like the Jund decks last season with most early drops being removal with 3, 4, and 5 being the creatures he wants to play. Both games I played against him. Removal suite seemed to be some mixture of Lightning Strike, Magma Jet, Doom Blade, [card]Hero's Downfall[/card], Dreadbore, Anger of the Gods, Chained to the Rocks, and Mizzium Mortars. His life gain consisted of Whip of Erebos, Obzedat, Ghost Council, and Blood Baron of Vizkopa. He used Boros Reckoners and Desecration Demons to stall up the ground. He had some hand disruption in [card:
3wikvevq]Thoughtseize[/card] and [card]Rakdos's Return[/card]. Also, a Rakdos Keyrune was in there for some reason.

Anyway, game 1, my draws are terrible and he's able to get his. Lots of removal, into lifegain, into too many big guys for me to burn out. I made a major misplay here. I could have killed his Obzedot with the 3 shocks I had in hand, but didn't because I hoped I'd draw into a Young Pyromancer or a Phoenix or something. Lesson learned. This deck doesn't care if you 2 or 3 for 1 yourself. If you can get rid of that big guy, do it. Don't wait. It's better to have those extra cards out, but some things have to be done. It's like what my buddy says all the time for newbies to get better at League of Legends, "Use your moves."

Game 2, I take out the Firedrinker Satyrs for Mizzium Mortars.
Probably a bad idea in retrospect. Game 2 goes a lot like game 1. He gets his life gain running up early and I couldn't hack through it. After losing I spend some time thinking, not logically, more intuitively. I also look at his life total logs for the last two games. He gained 12ish life those games.

Round 4 vs Ghetto-Green w/ Bling (my buddy) 2-0
- Game 1, I flood the board with Ash Zealots and burn. He kept a greedy hand and I punished him for it.

- Game 2, he gains control of the board with a flood of 3/3's but 2 Ash Zealots and a Boros Reckoner keep him from pushing in. I resolve a Chandra and use it to dig. In my digging I find a Mizzium Mortars with 6 mana open. The commandment from my last night of magic came to mind, "THOU SHALL NOT WASTE MIZZIUM MORTARS!" So I wiped his board and won.

Round 5 vs Dega Life Gain Midrange
Thing (It's still fucking scary) 2-0
- I lose the dice roll and for some reason, my opponent is acting nervous. I don't know why. This is the match I didn't want. Anyway, his hand isn't as good as last time. His deck stumbles on land, doesn't draw a big guy, doesn't draw any card draw, and no whip for life link.

Game 2, this one comes down to the wire. I keep a hand of Shock, Chandra, Pyromaster, Young Pyromancer, and 4 Mountain. It's a risky hand and make some great top decks. I'm able to get him low and again, he doesn't get much in the way of big stuff besides a Reckoner. I kill the thing and he forgets to redirect damage so I got off lucky there. Anyway we burn both of our fields down to nothing and I burn him for the last 4 damage with Magma Jets after he resolves a demon.

However, apparently I
did a misplay by untapping my land before scrying. I don't remember doing this but the store owner is a level 1 judge and I ask him directly for his ruling. He lets me off a warning and that dude is pissed. From that scry I top decked the last bit of burn I needed. I don't think it would have won him the game because I was still at 20 life with my burn coming in 3 turns. The only way he had it is if drew life gain.
---
Thoughts on the tournament:
Honestly, this was probably the least fun tournament I've been in. It felt dirty. 4 of the 8 participants had plans to split the box amongst themselves and bought a 5th person in and put a serious effort to make him throw games before passing it off as a joke. I'm convinced the semi-finals were thrown by the U/W guy and the Dega guy after they learned that I won mine (to be fair, they probably think my buddy threw for me, but he didn't and I didn't tell them results of our game to stall this). I watched their game 3 and the U/W guy
made some really dumb moves (mill deck doesn't use Jace to mill, doesn't mill opponent after a scry with codex shredder). All the while I hear them talking amongst themselves, "Good, don't let DerWille win". It felt like I had to win my games and then try to play an information war with them to stop any type of tournament fixing (probably happened because my buddy and I share cards).

[warwizard87]

I went to a win a box tournament today that was postponed 2 weeks ago. I won the tournament, going 4-1.

Round 1 vs Boros Aggro (All in variant?) 2-0
- This wasn't a well put together variant, but it had logic. I was able to win this by burning out his creatures.

Round 2 vs U/W Control (Trading Post/Mill strategy focus) 2-0
- I usually have a good match up against this guy. I won it 2-0. This deck is really resilient against Supreme Verdict which seems to be vital for him to stabilize.

Round 3 vs Dega Lifegain Midrange thing (I have no fucking clue, it's damn scary) 0-2[/b:
16fk81nk]
- This was piloted by the guy who bitched me out last time. He wasn't as boisterous as before, but as we're shuffling he tells me calmly, "I hope you lose. Seriously, I hope I stomp you." Well, he did just that. His deck seems to be like the Jund decks last season with most early drops being removal with 3, 4, and 5 being the creatures he wants to play. Both games I played against him. Removal suite seemed to be some mixture of Lightning Strike, Magma Jet, Doom Blade, [card]Hero's Downfall[/card], Dreadbore, Anger of the Gods, Chained to the Rocks, and Mizzium Mortars. His life gain consisted of Whip of Erebos, Obzedat, Ghost Council, and Blood Baron of Vizkopa
. He used Boros Reckoners and Desecration Demons to stall up the ground. He had some hand disruption in Thoughtseize and [card]Rakdos's Return[/card]. Also, a Rakdos Keyrune was in there for some reason.

Anyway, game 1, my draws are terrible and he's able to get his. Lots of removal, into lifegain, into too many big guys for me to burn out. I made a major misplay here. I could have killed his Obzedot with the 3 shocks I had in hand, but didn't because I hoped I'd draw into a Young Pyromancer or a Phoenix or something. Lesson learned. This deck doesn't care if you 2 or 3 for 1 yourself. If you can get rid of that big guy, do it. Don't wait. It's better to have those extra cards out, but some things have to be done. It's like what my buddy says all the time for newbies to get better at League of
Legends, "Use your moves."

Game 2, I take out the Firedrinker Satyrs for Mizzium Mortars. Probably a bad idea in retrospect. Game 2 goes a lot like game 1. He gets his life gain running up early and I couldn't hack through it. After losing I spend some time thinking, not logically, more intuitively. I also look at his life total logs for the last two games. He gained 12ish life those games.

Round 4 vs Ghetto-Green w/ Bling (my buddy) 2-0
- Game 1, I flood the board with Ash Zealots and burn. He kept a greedy hand and I punished him for it.

- Game 2, he gains control of the board with a flood of 3/3's but 2 Ash Zealots and a Boros Reckoner keep him from pushing in. I resolve a Chandra and use it to dig. In my digging I find a Mizzium Mortars with 6 mana open. The commandment from my last night of magic came to
mind, "THOU SHALL NOT WASTE MIZZIUM MORTARS!" So I wiped his board and won.

Round 5 vs Dega Life Gain Midrange Thing (It's still fucking scary) 2-0
- I lose the dice roll and for some reason, my opponent is acting nervous. I don't know why. This is the match I didn't want. Anyway, his hand isn't as good as last time. His deck stumbles on land, doesn't draw a big guy, doesn't draw any card draw, and no whip for life link.

Game 2, this one comes down to the wire. I keep a hand of Shock, Chandra, Pyromaster, Young Pyromancer, and 4 Mountain. It's a risky hand and make some great top decks. I'm able to get him low and again, he doesn't get much in the way of big stuff besides a Reckoner. I kill the thing and he forgets to redirect damage so I got off lucky there. Anyway we burn both
of our fields down to nothing and I burn him for the last 4 damage with Magma Jets after he resolves a demon.

However, apparently I did a misplay by untapping my land before scrying. I don't remember doing this but the store owner is a level 1 judge and I ask him directly for his ruling. He lets me off a warning and that dude is pissed. From that scry I top decked the last bit of burn I needed. I don't think it would have won him the game because I was still at 20 life with my burn coming in 3 turns. The only way he had it is if drew life gain.
---
Thoughts on the tournament:
Honestly, this was probably the least fun tournament I've been in. It felt dirty. 4 of the 8 participants had plans to split the box amongst themselves and bought a 5th person in and put a serious effort to make him throw games before passing it off as a joke. I'm convinced the semi-finals were thrown by the U/W guy and the Dega guy after they learned that I won mine (to
be fair, they probably think my buddy threw for me, but he didn't and I didn't tell them results of our game to stall this). I watched their game 3 and the U/W guy made some really dumb moves (mill deck doesn't use Jace to mill, doesn't mill opponent after a scry with codex shredder). All the while I hear them talking amongst themselves, "Good, don't let DerWille win". It felt like I had to win my games and then try to play an information war with them to stop any type of tournament fixing (probably happened because my buddy and I share cards).

GJ on the win, sad your LGS has gotten that bad, its one of the reasons I quit going to mine. That and the owners being asshats who insult players and roumor monger people they don't like. but meh dicks will be dicks.

[DerWille]

It's not usually this bad, but a lot of people are strapped for cash and this was their one chance at getting a box. People were prepping for this tournament for a long time.

[warwizard87]

well that's good. bad LGS makes life hard on a player. havemnt been back to that shop since states 2010.

EDIT: heh I said hard on

[windstrider]

Well done, willie!

[Jack]

Can you share a bit more on the mono blue mu warwizard? I see a bit of it at states. What are your board plans?

[warwizard87]

Can you share a bit more on the mono blue mu warwizard? I see a bit of it at states. What are your board plans?

I know for sure I am wanting to bring in all my mortars, keeping them off guys is important, I think, note think we take out FDS for them, but I am as of yet unsure if I wanna bring in hammer or not. Master is annoying as hell. Even skullcracks are possible if you can bait them into blocking.

[Mage of hot stuff]

I went to a win a box tournament today that was postponed 2 weeks ago. I won the tournament, going 4-1.

Round 1 vs Boros Aggro (All in variant?) 2-0
- This wasn't a well put together variant, but it had logic. I was able to win this by burning out his creatures.

Round 2 vs U/W Control (Trading Post/Mill strategy focus) 2-0
- I usually have a good match up against this guy. I won it 2-0. This deck is really resilient against Supreme Verdict which seems to be vital for him to stabilize.

Round 3 vs Dega Lifegain Midrange thing (I have no fucking clue, it's damn scary) 0-2[/b:
39vzx7or]
- This was piloted by the guy who bitched me out last time. He wasn't as boisterous as before, but as we're shuffling he tells me calmly, "I hope you lose. Seriously, I hope I stomp you." Well, he did just that. His deck seems to be like the Jund decks last season with most early drops being removal with 3, 4, and 5 being the creatures he wants to play. Both games I played against him. Removal suite seemed to be some mixture of Lightning Strike, Magma Jet, Doom Blade, [card]Hero's Downfall[/card], Dreadbore, Anger of the Gods, Chained to the Rocks, and Mizzium Mortars. His life gain consisted of Whip of Erebos, Obzedat, Ghost Council, and Blood Baron of Vizkopa
. He used Boros Reckoners and Desecration Demons to stall up the ground. He had some hand disruption in Thoughtseize and [card]Rakdos's Return[/card]. Also, a Rakdos Keyrune was in there for some reason.

Anyway, game 1, my draws are terrible and he's able to get his. Lots of removal, into lifegain, into too many big guys for me to burn out. I made a major misplay here. I could have killed his Obzedot with the 3 shocks I had in hand, but didn't because I hoped I'd draw into a Young Pyromancer or a Phoenix or something. Lesson learned. This deck doesn't care if you 2 or 3 for 1 yourself. If you can get rid of that big guy, do it. Don't wait. It's better to have those extra cards out, but some things have to be done. It's like what my buddy says all the time for newbies to get better at League of
Legends, "Use your moves."

Game 2, I take out the Firedrinker Satyrs for Mizzium Mortars. Probably a bad idea in retrospect. Game 2 goes a lot like game 1. He gets his life gain running up early and I couldn't hack through it. After losing I spend some time thinking, not logically, more intuitively. I also look at his life total logs for the last two games. He gained 12ish life those games.

Round 4 vs Ghetto-Green w/ Bling (my buddy) 2-0
- Game 1, I flood the board with Ash Zealots and burn. He kept a greedy hand and I punished him for it.

- Game 2, he gains control of the board with a flood of 3/3's but 2 Ash Zealots and a Boros Reckoner keep him from pushing in. I resolve a Chandra and use it to dig. In my digging I find a Mizzium Mortars with 6 mana open. The commandment from my last night of magic came to
mind, "THOU SHALL NOT WASTE MIZZIUM MORTARS!" So I wiped his board and won.

Round 5 vs Dega Life Gain Midrange Thing (It's still fucking scary) 2-0
- I lose the dice roll and for some reason, my opponent is acting nervous. I don't know why. This is the match I didn't want. Anyway, his hand isn't as good as last time. His deck stumbles on land, doesn't draw a big guy, doesn't draw any card draw, and no whip for life link.

Game 2, this one comes down to the wire. I keep a hand of Shock, Chandra, Pyromaster, Young Pyromancer, and 4 Mountain. It's a risky hand and make some great top decks. I'm able to get him low and again, he doesn't get much in the way of big stuff besides a Reckoner. I kill the thing and he forgets to redirect damage so I got off lucky there. Anyway we burn both
of our fields down to nothing and I burn him for the last 4 damage with Magma Jets after he resolves a demon.

However, apparently I did a misplay by untapping my land before scrying. I don't remember doing this but the store owner is a level 1 judge and I ask him directly for his ruling. He lets me off a warning and that dude is pissed. From that scry I top decked the last bit of burn I needed. I don't think it would have won him the game because I was still at 20 life with my burn coming in 3 turns. The only way he had it is if drew life gain.
---
Thoughts on the tournament:
Honestly, this was probably the least fun tournament I've been in. It felt dirty. 4 of the 8 participants had plans to split the box amongst themselves and bought a 5th person in and put a serious effort to make him throw games before passing it off as a joke. I'm convinced the semi-finals were thrown by the U/W guy and the Dega guy after they learned that I won mine (to
be fair, they probably think my buddy threw for me, but he didn't and I didn't tell them results of our game to stall this). I watched their game 3 and the U/W guy made some really dumb moves (mill deck doesn't use Jace to mill, doesn't mill opponent after a scry with codex shredder). All the while I hear them talking amongst themselves, "Good, don't let DerWille win". It felt like I had to win my games and then try to play an information war with them to stop any type of tournament fixing (probably happened because my buddy and I share cards).

sucks your LGS is like that, however if you ask me you gave the best response to their efforts to fix the tournament. Cant beat 1 man with 4-5 people. Even with all their cheating. The Pyrored wins the day. Dont look at it as the least fun. Look at it as you walked down a dark alley and a gang of guys tried to jump you and kick your ass....with their mtg decks. And you not only smacked their dumb asses
around abit. You did it in public, where good chance of other people knowing they tried to fix the tournament and still couldnt come out on top. Then even if no one else knows but you and those players. That had to burn their insides as they walked home with a big L.

[InflatablePie]

I think vs MoW, Skullcrack+Hammer is a nice package to bring in. I'd drop Satyrs for sure for Mortars, then maybe some number of burn? 2 A-Fire/1 Shock/1 Strike maybe? Probably drop Fires for Hammer for sure.

I'd need to look at the common decklists for the archetype (since I'm betting some versions vary by a few cards) and I'm running late for work soooo. <_<

[windstrider]

Killing everything else before the Master comes down sounds like a better plan than Skullcrack, which is too reactive.

[Draksil]

Do you guys think there's any place for Pithing Needle in the sb to deal with Elspeth and Jace?

[Narcasus]

Do you guys think there's any place for Pithing Needle in the sb to deal with Elspeth and Jace?

I personally haven't had too many issues with them so far, i feel like in the current deck, we need the heavy sideboard for the other matchups since control seems pretty one sided even pre board. Those are my findings at least, i haven't lost to a control deck in a week.

[DerWille]

sucks your LGS is like that, however if you ask me you gave the best response to their efforts to fix the tournament. Cant beat 1 man with 4-5 people. Even with all their cheating. The Pyrored wins the day. Dont look at it as the least fun. Look at it as you walked down a dark alley and a gang of guys tried to jump you and kick your ass....with their mtg decks. And you not only smacked their dumb asses around abit. You did it in public, where good chance of other people knowing they tried to fix the tournament and still couldnt come out on top. Then even if no one else knows but you and those players. That had to burn their insides as they walked home with a big L.

Still leaves a bad taste in my mouth since that LGS is typically the
friendliest in this area. I actually like a lot of the people there. Also, my buddy ended up playing the craziest spoiler in this tournament. He went 1-1-1 before the split into top 4, knocking the G/W guy of the 4 out and pitting 2 of the 4 cartel guys against each other because he went 1-1-0 with the U/W guy because the games went long. It was kind of funny to look at the G/W guy's face when my buddy won with Arbor Colossus + Enlarge+ Fleetfeather Sandals to swing for 13 over all his blockers.

But anyways, I wanted to ask if anyone else has had this experience with PyroRed, has Shock been stupid useful for you guys? I seem to win more matches with this deck when I keep my Shocks in post sideboard. Individually the cards aren't that good, but double Shockor Shock+ [card]Lightning
Strike[/card] have been doing mad work against big guy decks. As odd as it is to say, I've killed more big guys with Shock than Mizzium Mortars. I think the biggest reason is the [mana]R[/mana] cost allows me to kill problematic creatures at 3 mana which I seem to get stuck at for a turn or two somewhat regularly (I run 23 land).

The only time it feels correct to take out the Shocks is against control. They typically don't have any guys to take out and Skullcrack and Hammer of Purphoros are more useful.

[warwizard87]

Yes, shocks are really very good right now.

[warwizard87]

Killing everything else before the Master comes down sounds like a better plan than Skullcrack, which is too reactive.

You are likely right I just didnt want to not discuss that possibility, though I think hammers might come in still.

[zemanjaski]

Pithing Needle isn't the card you're looking for. You want Seismic Stomp.

[F.I.A]

2-man queue vs devotion red.
Game 1: He brought the storm with him by sending off Stormbreath Dragon at me. When I managed to kill some, those grounded reckoners moved in for the kill

-2 Annihilating Fire -4 Firedrinker Satyr -4 Rakdos Cackler
+2 Traitorous Instinct +Boros Reckoners +4 Mizzium Mortars

Game 2:
I got the board walled with two reckoners, only to have him resolving an Anger of the Gods. I still prevailed and went for lethal with Pyro+Elemental+Muta after Mortar'ing his newly played dragon.

Game 3:
He put out two reckoners. I kept one up and spark flew everywhere from there. He attacked with both his Red Bulls, I blocked and activated once, but he only activated the blocked Bulls. Chaining a few bolts sending my health down to 8, but I still kept a reckoner in hand for later. An anger swept the board for the second time, but by then, his
health was at 9. He played out a lone Ember Swallower, threaten to monstrous it next turn.

I had a Traitorous Instinct in hand, ready to bait him into monstrous for me to lethal him. I played a phoenix and then remembered that I forgot to count my lands (Total 5. Lost 3 would mean I had two lands left). The phoenix blocked and ember became a monster. I quickly used the Magma Jet in hand for the really needed scry and phoenix (My life = 8, Opp life = 7).

Scrying showed the Pyroduos (Young & Chandra). I started to panic, but still threw them and drew another land to put phoenix down. On his turn, he made it worse with a Stormbreath Dragon. Blocking the swallower was my only choice (My life = 4, Opp life = 7).

And I topdecked... a land. Even when I played Instinct for lethal, the opponent was at disbelief that I would side such a card in. "Ey, it works against reckoners, you know," so I said, but
apparently he was too steamed to reason with. I turned the swallower side-way and claimed the booster.

Never would I have thought that I would wished to be flooded.

[Helios]

5-2 to get 18th at states, details in the clan thread, write-up to come.

[Woj]

I find myself hoping to draw land so very often in PyroRed, such and odd/liberating feeling for a mono red deck

[F.I.A]

Played this DE while working on other stuffs on the keyboard. It's my first DE, so I'm happy that I got a 4-0 (Yeah!).

---

Naya goodstuff? (Sporting tokens, reckoners, smiters, lions)
Game 1 - He played a few Fleecemane Lions which I managed to bait and kill. Pyro in battlefield allowed me to generate tokens to kill a 2/2 from Selesnya charm. He later kept 4 untapped lands (Surprise, it's a wurm), but he made the wrong choice in having Domri -2 it to fight my Phoenix. I added up 3 more damage to kill wurm. He has a reckoner and smiter at end of the game, but by then I have overran him with tokens of my own.

Sideboard choices: -4 Firedrinker Satyr, -4 Rakdos Cackler, +4 Boros Reckoner, +4 Mizzium Mortars

Game 2 - His turn-1 Mystic Elf was promptly removed, which sort
of sealed the game for him.

Gruul goodstuff?
Game 1 - He landed an elf then a Caryatid. I killed the elf, but he dropped another. He then played Garruk but got nothing out of the 5 cards. My table power of 6 later finished the beastguy off. He ignored my Pyro, which later made enough tokens to overwhelm him. He actually casted a Sylvan Primordial before losing.

Sideboard choices: -4 Firedrinker Satyr, -4 Rakdos Cackler, -2 Annihlating Fire, +4 Boros Reckoner, +4 Mizzium Mortars, 2+Traitorous Instinct

Game 2 - He managed to draw lots of creatures off Domri and Garruk, but an overloaded Mortars burned away all of them. Three Red Bulls in play were just too much for him to handle.

Devotion Red
Game 1 - He leaded the game with a BTE to Magma Jet. Various trade had me left with 1 single life. He topdecked Mogis twice, but I managed to burn it (Zero devotion) and swung in for the game.

Sideboard choices: -4
Firedrinker Satyr, -4 Rakdos Cackler, -2 Annihlating Fire, +4 Boros Reckoner, +4 Mizzium Mortars, 2+Traitorous Instinct

Game 2 - It was a grindy game, but he got the better of me when he dropped Purphoros. The 2 damage added up quickly as he had a phoenix to recur. By the time I was at 5 life, he dropped a Loyalist (3 life) and then Mogis to seal the game (No matter what I did, I would still take 4).
Game 3 - He managed to get Purphoros online and waiting (Reckoner, Cackler, BTE, Loyalist). He flung with the others into two Ashleys and Pyro. One Ashley killed the loyalist, and on my turn, I lightning strike the reckoner. I expected him to target my pyro, but he went for one Ashley instead. By the end game, good ol Purph only had a worshipper from another shrine.

Devotion Blue
Game 1 - I thought my curve was perfect (Cackler>Ashley>Pyro+Shock), but he literally nut-drew 3 MoWs in a row.

Sideboard choices: -4 Firedrinker Satyr, -4
Rakdos Cackler, -2 Annihlating Fire, +4 Boros Reckoner, +4 Mizzium Mortars, 2+Hammer of Purphoros

Game 2 - He got no MoW this time. I managed to curve out and removed him.
Game 3 - He spent the game complaining about the mull to 5 in previous game, and me boarding in Hammer for his MoW (I have 2 elementals, Chandra and Phoenix and he was down to 2 life. 2 Lightning Strike in hand).

[zemanjaski]

^ WFD.

[Keftenk]

So many Devotion to Blue decks in Dublin Top8...
Where is our RDW love (just 1 RDW Devotion )? ;; I honestly don't have much trouble against MoW decks, but maybe I'm just playing against baddies.