[Primer] PyroRed

[dpaine88]

Was thinking just these BTE/Stiker decks in general. The only difference in what I have is I run 4 Zealot, 4 Fanatic, 1 Mountain, 1 Hamme -- instead of 4 Young Pyro and 4 Shock, 2 Chandra.

So 10 cards difference but they are still similar decks with the Cackler/Satyr/BTE/Striker/Phoenix Core. I think that really is the core we want. Then from there it really decides the deck.

[InflatablePie]

"What are you playing against right now? What deck is it you think you see? Do you know how much life I burn away per match? I mean, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe it. Do you know what would happen if Wizards never printed Chandra, Pyromaster? A decklist good enough that it could consistently top 8 goes 0-4. Disappears! It ceases to exist without her. No, you clearly don't know what you're playing against, so let me clue you in. I am not playing 'some red deck'. I am playing the red deck. A guy you faced last round goes BTE into Firefist and you think that of me? No. I am the one who Shocks!"

[F.I.A]

DD is too situational to be good. It is good when the opponent is running low on body count, but there are at least 3 decks that promotes swarm tactics (Green Devo, Blue Devo and Red Devo).

Also, landing Assemble the Legion just makes your opponent wish it is other flier instead.

[zemanjaski]

I honestly just want to try and goldfish people game 1 so hammer is a touch slow for that.

[dpaine88]

DD is too situational to be good. It is good when the opponent is running low on body count, but there are at least 3 decks that promotes swarm tactics (Green Devo, Blue Devo and Red Devo).

I beg to differ, DD is an amazing card right now without all the Innistrad block guys like Lingering Souls, Doomed Traveler, the Undying guys etc. You don't get any actual value of sacrificing a creature.

Especially backed up with strong cheap black removal, he is really fucking good. He's obviously less good against a swarm deck, but I don't know if Green and Blue Devo are fast enough to really be effective against him.

Assemble is good against DD but Assemble is really bad against control right now all running 4 Jace. I had 80 tokens at one point
that all folded to Jace...

I honestly just want to try and goldfish people game 1 so hammer is a touch slow for that.

[/quote]


Yea you are probably right. Thats where I want to be right now as I have not found my early creatures that outclassed really.

Thats also what wanted me on Ash Zealot. Faster and a nice enabler for FFS. Also great to get in T1 Cackler, T2 Zealot. Really tough against scry land decks. Also if you have BTE/FFS/Zealot hand you can get activation right on T3.

Just to make it easy, this is where I am at:

[deck]
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Firefist Striker
4 Ash Zealot
2 Goblin Shortcutter
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Fanatic of Mogis

4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet

19 Mountain
4 Mutavault
[/deck]

Obviously I dont have Young Pyromancer in there, but I am more than happy to add him if it seems appropriate.

To be honest, he does not seem to fit the "goldfish
game 1" plan in my opinion.

[Yarpus]

@dpaine88
I'd suggest Bloodrush plan over Fanatics. Splash Green, squeeze in here Pyrewild Shaman and Ghor-Clan Rampager. -2 Shortcutter -3 Fanatic -1 Mutavault, +2 Shaman +4 Rampager?

[dpaine88]

That would be amazing...I just dont think these decks can support the scry lands.

They were fine this weekend in the Bigger Boros decks with just 8x 1-drops and 4x- 2 drops but with 12x 2-drops, I don't think we can afford our lands to come in tapped.

Have you tested any aggro decks with scrys yet?

[InflatablePie]

I think Z said this earlier in the thread, but if the curve is built just right, coming in tapped doesn't hurt too much. 12 two-drops might be a bit much for that but I'm not sure. Then again, playing BTE+friends means you can consider Ashley a 3-drop.

I found the random scry 1 very helpful and I'm fairly sure it led to wins in the games I drew them.

[windstrider]

I had my doubts about the Temples of Triumph, but if you can hold them until later -- beyond turn 3 -- then they may as well be an additional spell in hand. I was not unhappy to see one in my hand in any of the games I've played with them so far.

[dpaine88]

Tapped lands are gonna hurt somewhat...

I mean say you have 1 Mountain 1 Temple, Firedrinker, BTE, Firefist Stiker, Lightning Strike for your hands.

The Scry lands seem better when you DONT have the perfect curve...as its kinda hard to "curve out" when your land enters tapped.

[windstrider]

I guess that is why I like the various Pyromancer builds: they don't need the perfect curve, so it's ok to play tapped lands in the Walter White/Heisenburn versions.

[Yarpus]

Have you tested any aggro decks with scrys yet?

A lot during time before releasing Theros. I've actually tested this deck to my heart's content.

[deck]Creatures:
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Ash Zealot
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Firefist Striker
4 Pyrewild Shaman
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager

Planeswalkers:
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Burn Spells:
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike

Lands:
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Stomping Ground
2 Forest
2 Mutavault
10 Mountain

Sideboard:
4 Traitorous Instinct
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Skullcrack
2 Destructive Revelry
1 Pithing Needle[/deck]

Currently Chandra seems to be better Planeswalker, but I'd also consider Xenagos. This fucker just doesn't know when to stop in terms of his 2/2 hasty tokens.

[F.I.A]

I beg to differ, DD is an amazing card right now without all the Innistrad block guys like Lingering Souls, Doomed Traveler, the Undying guys etc. You don't get any actual value of sacrificing a creature.

Especially backed up with strong cheap black removal, he is really fucking good. He's obviously less good against a swarm deck, but I don't know if Green and Blue Devo are fast enough to really be effective against him.

Black lost much of its edge when Mutilate rotated out. You can no longer wipe out weaker creatures and force the opponent to sacrifice any surviving creatures.

Most of the time, I'll just take 6 until it is near lethal. When that happens, I will start throwing creatures at him to keep him
tapped, or just throw an Traitorous Instinct to swing it back at the opponent when it's decently beefed up. I have seen BW running Alms Beast instead of the demon.

[zemanjaski]

There's like 10 pages of results and testing with the aggro Boros variant, I think we're WAYYYY past asking if scrylands are ok in aggro.

[F.I.A]

Scrylands are good unless you put more than 4 of them and if it's way over turn 4-5.

I think I will try [card]Titan's Strength[/card] over Shock. I've been playing a few games where the opponents are way too eager to block with their Caryatids, and removing them solves most of our headache (Just hope they don't have Selesnya Charm, since any 2/xs will get exiled).

[dpaine88]

There's like 10 pages of results and testing with the aggro Boros variant, I think we're WAYYYY past asking if scrylands are ok in aggro.

Well hell, I just played scry lands at the event this weekend.

Just saying for a Gruul Aggro based list , I'm not sure if that specific deck can handle it. Like if Rampager is worth it.

I think taplands are fine in decks such as Boros Dragons and Boros Pyro. Those decks can play around it a lot easier than Gruul.

Maybe its possible if you've been having luck with it Yarpus. I mean it would be really friggen powerful. Domri and Ghor Clan would be insane. I would love that.

Can you comment on your expiernce so far with the deck Yarpus and how much testing we are talking?

[LP, of the Fires]

Scrylands in your agro deck are probably a function of how agro you are. Like both boros decks are happy playing till turn 10 cause CA engines and/or manasinks.

Gruul Aggro generally plays ghor-clan cause it wants you dead by turn 4/5.

[dpaine88]

THats whats I'm sayin LP. Like you NEED untapped lands in an all-in deck

[windstrider]

There's like 10 pages of results and testing with the aggro Boros variant, I think we're WAYYYY past asking if scrylands are ok in aggro.

Agreed. But sometimes you have to try stuff out before you can really understand how something works. At least I know I do.

[Helios]

Re: DD- If you're sac'ing Phoenix or a Pyromancer token to him, you DO get value. You're trading a token or a phoenix for either life (if he's going to kill you) or the ability to push through damage w/out losing a Pyromancer, Zealot, Firedrinker (ouch), Cackler (hey I don't die to Doomblade). Since the Phoenix recurs and the token was just value, you don't really lose anything.

[LP, of the Fires]

Pyro red GENERALLY doesn't give a shit about desecration demon. Six mana, double phoenix and Chandra vs. double desecration demon is the best feeling in the world. You just sac them during their turn, plus Chandra, get them back and go to town.

[Helios]

Exactly

[RedNihilist]

just played against a Grixis deck with where he tapped out for Ral Zarek and Ashiok with a lone Niv-Mizzet on the board at 10 life. I had 5 mana, 2 mountains 3 mutavaults and four power on board. EOT I magma jet and stick a shock on top. Next turn I animate two vaults swing and shock him for exactly 8.

It hurts my head that he likes the same colors i do

EDIT: Game 2 he just tapped out to play Inspiration on his turn. WAT
EDIT2: thought he was safe with a lone desecration demon, I sac a pyromancer to tap the demon down, swing in with a BTE, lightning strike for lethal.

How come everyone that plays desecration demon is bad? It certainly seems that way

EDIT2: Why didn't you just Lightning Strike -> sac token -> swing with BTE and
Pyromancer?
Poor Pyromancer

[zemanjaski]

Went 4-0 tonight with the Mono Red version I have been working on the last few days (thats 3-1, 4-0).

First up, decklist:

[deck]
Creatures
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Firefist Striker
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Young Pyromancer

Planeswalkers
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Instants
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Shock

Lands
18 Mountain
4 Mutavault

Sideboard
3 Act of Treason
2 Flames of the Firebrand
2 Frostburn Weird
1 Hammer of Purphoros
4 Mizzium Mortars
3 Skullcrack
[/deck]

Deck was awesome, super happy with it. I was really impressed with BTE actually, the mana acceleration proved very valuable, though I didn't run into any matchups with a lot of direct creature combat, where he would be worse than Ash Zealot. Instead, the extra mana
was super valuable in either getting me just a little ahead (against doomblade.dek) or catching me up (mono R mirror). I don't recall having a single "clunky" hand where I had no one drop and three two drops, as even when I did have the dreaded "triple two drop draw" BTE was there to help out. The BTE + FFS into Phoenix (3rd land Muta) was consistently brutal all night.

Anyway, enough rambling, game reports!

Round 1: Mono Red Devotion, played by Egress (grinder)

Game 1. We exchange pleasantries after he wins the die roll. I keep a hand of: 2x cackler, young pyro, FFS, phoenix, mountain and mutavault. I do my best to curve out, but he has his own Cackler and three magma jet, whereas I draw no removal. All that scry finds him a Phoenix and Ash Zealot and I still have drawn no burn. Chandra off the top gives me hope, but he has a Fanatic of Mogis and more burn; at the end of the game his GY has 3 magma jet and 3 lightning strike.

nGame 2. I let him go first, which I am pretty confident is correct with my version of the deck and sideboarding plan. I keep two mountain, 1 mutavault; two shock, mizzium mortars and phoenix. We play draw-go for a few turns and he stalls on two land; I play my phoenix and get ready to start exhausting his resources while getting ahead; he kills my Phoenix and next turn I have BTE into Magma Jet to re-buy my Phoenix - go BTE! His Magma Jet trades with the BTE, and the next turn Reckoner finally comes down. He is at 12, my hand is 3 shock, 2 mortars and a magma jet. Another Reckoner soon follows, but all that burn buys me enough phoenix rebuys to close out the game.

Game 3. He lets me draw, and I keep three mountain, BTE, FFS, shock and Weird. He has a Cackler which eats a shock as he moves to combat, then a BTE and another Cackler. I draw another BTE and suddenly my board is 2 BTE and a FFS, demonstrating the value of the extra card. His Cackler and BTE trade with my two BTE (trading down exaggerates the
value of the extra card). He lightning strikes away my FFS and I follow up with a Weird, leaving us here:



So basically perfect parity, except that my extra card is Frostburn Weird, which is a huge game. His follow up is Ratchet Bomb (???), which I assume was brought in for my Young Pyromancer tokens. I do draw a YP, but I let him kill off the Weird before playing it with three burn spells in hand. I am able to get two kills before he draws even more removal (seriously, do they play eight removal for twenty-eight?) and the tokens get in for huge damage before I burn him out.

Total: 1-0 (2-1)

Round 2: Mono Black Devotion played by Natehdavis

Game 1. I lose the die-roll, but keep a hand of two mountain, two cackler, FFS, magma jet and Chandra. Unfortunately he has a turn 3 Spectre and I don't yet have an answer, so I make the
difficult decision to give back a card (to parity) and trade a Cackler + Jet for a Spectre then follow up with another Cackler. Unfortunately, he has Whip into two Gray Merchant and after Chandra meets her downfall, I pack it in.

New Sideboarding Strategy: -4 Shock, -2 Magma Jet, +3 Act of Treason, +1 Hammer of Purphoros, +2 Mizzium Mortars. I am finding that I just need more ways to get through a Nightveil Spectre or Gray Merchant.

Game 2. On the play i keep YP, FFS, Phoenix, Jet, Strike, Mountain, Mutavault. Of course I topdeck a satyr immediately. Turn 4 rolls around and he had removal for my FFS, so my board is three mountain, Satyr and YP. He has three swamp and a Spectre; this time I get to lightning strike the spectre (+1 token, which is relevant) and hit him with the mutavault down to 14. Whip of Erobos comes down, but I hit a 5th land and play Phoenix and activate Mutavault, putting him to 5 with Magma Jet in hand. He lands a gray merchant, going to 9; I snare a shock
for the turn which lets me alpha, using shock to kill my satyr that he tried to block with the Merchant, then jet him post combat for exactsies.

Game 3. On the draw I keep Cackler, BTE, FFS x 2, Phoenix, two mountain, immediately drawing a Mutavault because I live in reality. He has turn three spectre for the third consecutive game, but Phoenix lets me put him to 14. He holds Spectre back and plays Desecration Demon. I already have a lightning strike for the Sprectre, so I play a YP and bolt it (value token!) and FFS sees my three creatures hit him to eight. From there it is an elementary game of juggling the demon with my YP tokens for an easy win.



Total: 2-0 (4-2)

Round 3: Mono Blue Devotion played by Christian Valenti

Game 1. I lose my third consecutive die roll, and then compound that my ambitiously keeping a 1 lander
with Satyr, BTE, 2 FFS, 2 Shock and Lightning Strike. I get lucky and immediately spike a land. He has Judge's Familiar into Tidebinder for my Satyr; BTE catches me up and lets me get some board presence going. Spectre comes down on turn three (apparently, this is my fate, to always play against turn 3 spectre) so the best I can do is shock the tidebinder to free up my creatures for next turn and hope to spike a mountain next turn so I can strike the Spectre; which draws him a mountain. Instead he trades Familiar for my Satyr, so I get to strike the Spectre. Jace comes down, and now we're here:



He +1s Jace and puts down another Judges Familiar. I take Jace out, then slaughter him the turn after, despite a Master of Waves.

Game 2. On the draw I keep four mountain, Chandra, Mortars and Flames of the Firebrand, immediately drawing my second Chandra. He stalls on two land early
after a Familiar, and I draw a Phoenix on time to start getting in damage. Spectre meets a Mortars and the turn after Chandra spikes the Familiar. My plan is to keep plussing Chandra while hitting him with the Phoenix, so lethal him from around ~8.



Flames and Chandra clear him down to Master, which does stop me from going ultimate (it just attacks Chandra for 2 each turn). Another Master comes down and I start trading off my board, despite the card disadvantage, to keep +1 Chandra and hitting him with the Phoenix. We end up with him: Two masters, 1 token against my phoenix, weird, young pyromancer, token and Chandra (6 loyalty). He is at 8, I am at 17. The Masters keep bashing Chandra, who is now gaining me 4 life a turn and dealing him damage. He plays a Spectre and a Weird (must be nice) and keeps his token back; I ping the Spectre (he goes to 7) then swing with phoenix, pyro,
weird and two tokens; his Weird eats the pyro, my weird eats his token and he falls to three.

The masters come in and finish off Chandra and Thassa joins her forces, blocking alongside the Weird and Spectre. Chandra returns to ping the Spectre, let her Phoenix deliver lethal and my highest ever MODO rating. Quite the great lass really.

Total: 3-0 (6-2)

Round 4: Esper Control played by reddybear

Game 1 & 2. I won't lie, I won he dice roll and straight nut drew the poor SOB Game 1, then in Game 2 he mulliganed to six and played three straight scrylands.

Finished: 1st place, 4-0 (8-2).

You've got questions, I've got answers (delivered in my usual laconic style).

[Yarpus]

@dpaine
I've done a lot of testing back in the days. Deck was around 16-1 on Cockatrice, but it was mostly against really bad deccks. Rampager alone is worth all the effort with shakier manabase. You also get access to Destructive Revelry. I think the most important step for this deck is to drop my pet-card Pyrewild the Mind Sculptor.

[Draksil]

Looking good Zemanjaski. You're currently playing a Pyrored deck designed to take down the MODO meta, but do you feel that PyroBoros is better suited for FNM and tournament play?

[zemanjaski]

Absolutely. If I were playing in a competitive paper event is slam PyroBoros without second thought. You've correctly identified that I'm playing an anti-MODO deck; I wouldn't take any cues from this until the paper meta follows the MODO trends (it usually does but not always).

[Khaospawn]

As always, the local paper Meta is about 1-2 weeks behind the current MODO Meta.

[Helios]

Thanks for the writeup, Z. I'm sure the paper meta will get around to this one of these days.

[Jack]

Eh, I won't do a full write-up of my game day. It wasn't that good. I played Tony, whom I beat at FNM the night before when he was playing blue devotion, again, only this time he was using Scott's Dega Midrange deck. I won 2-0 due to starts that were just too fast for him to handle. I also beat an AIR deck 2-1. Not very eventful. He was stuck on 2 lands game 1 and I was able to burn away his early creatures, but I bitched out with sending creatures into combat because he had a Legion Loyalist and I didn't want my x/1s to die, and I knew that I had a much better late game than he did. I had a Phoenix and some other creatures and chipped his life down a few points every turn, but he was able to burn me out from 10 life with 3 spears and a magma jet. The other 2 games went the same way, except I was able to win after I took control of the board. I also faced Steve, who had this really dumb white deck. He won 2
games off of Etherial Armor. I stumbled a lot, but it still felt really bad to lose to what was essentially a block deck, complete with 3 different cards with "Heliod" in their name. I actually learned something from game 2, though. First, I want Plains out of my deck. I kept a hand with Plains and a scryland and kept it because I had a lot of removal, but the hand really fucked me over. I play the land tapped turn 1 and scry away an Ash Zealot, and then I draw another. I also shock his 1/2, and the guy sitting to my left points out that I should have Magma Jetted it. If I would have, I might not have lost, since my hand wouldn't get clogged with dead cards. Anyway, he gets Etherial Armor on his guy and I try to spear it, but he saves it with brave the elements. I don't get another land, and my Chained to the Rocks doesn't work because I don't have a Mountain. I find a mountain a few turns later and try to cast Chained to the Rocks, but he saves his creature with another Brave the
Elements. I chump block for a few turns and land a Boros Reckoner, but I'm stuck on 3 land and he has a 10/11 first striker, which Boros Reckoner can't kill. I draw another Reckoner, but don't have the fourth land to give it first strike. I feel like another problem here was that I over-boarded and cut my 1 drops when I should have kept them in and tried to win with a super fast hand. Instead, I brought in a lot of removal and Boros Charm.

[LaZerBurn]

Went 2-2 with PyroAIR in the 2 mans on MTGO tonight; hopefully I'll have time to play a daily soon Nothing really exciting to report results wise; as with all of Z's Pyro build's that I've played the deck does exactly what it is supposed to and purrs along wonderfully Thanks once again Z

Beat Mono Black 2-1 close first game and just ran him over in the next 2.

Lost 0-2 to G/R ramp but managed to make a fight of it, especially post board, despite repeated mulligans.

Lost 0-2 to Mono U, my bogey deck, again after repeated mulligans. I know the deck is beatable, just not by me very often apparently

Beat Mono Black 2-0 the match up feels very favourable. In the last game I waited patiently for him to cast a Demon. He finally did, I promptly stole it, attacked for 14 and won

The mulligans were the kind of random draws that just happen sometimes - 1 land, no land - and not indicative of any problems with the deck.

[dpaine88]

@ Yarpus, After many months on Cockatrice, I had to give it up. Just cannot get reasonable information about my deck on there.

@ Zem, Great plays and memory for all that!! However you said against MOno BLue with the screenshot he traded Familiar for Satyr and you could Strike Specter safely. In the SS, Satyr is still there but he has an empty board and you have no Satyr in the GY?

[Yarpus]

@ Yarpus, After many months on Cockatrice, I had to give it up. Just cannot get reasonable information about my deck on there.

Sure, I wouldn't consider beating up bad brews as the real source. So main knowledge I got from that was "how this deck performs while facing anything". The resillency of the gameplan, the execution, potential underperformers and overperformers and the issues decklist has. Basically, something to feed up my deckbuilding instincts.
I've dropped the idea as I expected heavy-sweeper format. I'd say it's light on that at the moment to be honest.

[zemanjaski]

^im just gettig the order of events wrong sorry :S familiar traded with something.

[RedNihilist]

So, time for a full write-up.

Played the Game Day with PyroBoros:
[deck]
Creatures
4 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Young Pyromancer

Planeswalkers
3 Chandra, Pyromaster

Enchantments
2 Chained to the Rocks

Instants
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Shock

Lands
2 Mutavault
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
12 Mountain
1 Plains

Sideboard
4 Boros Charm
4 Boros Reckoner
1 Assemble the legion
1 Hammer of Purphoros
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Wear // Tear[/deck]

Now, I'm not a player good as you all and I feel my LGS is really difficult to tackle, with the players I fear the most being a mixed bunch of UW Control (2x), Esper Control, GW Aggro, Naya Midrange.
That doesn't mean I think the other players are
subpar, but those were the guys I felt had real chances of winning.
The day before I played FNM with my usual PyroRed and being matched up with all the control players (UW 1-0 -> UW 1-1 -> Devotion B 2-1 -> Esper 3-1 because he dropped, as we didn't have any chance to win anything), and I was just unsure about everything, like how to handle Jace AoT or what would have happened if I were to be paired with a Midrange deck or whatever.
I felt like I wanted to get rid of Annihilating Fire and Traitorious Instincts, so I decided at the last minute to put in a bunch of white cards without any kind of additional testing - as a result, I'm far from being happy with the sideboard, but whatever.

Round 1: Alessandro with Bant Lifegain
This guy has just restarted playing after a long break and he's got quite a reputation for being noisy and prone to cheating.

G1: I start with a Cackler, he goes dork, I attack and take it down, he plays a Caryatid, I answer with a Phoenix, he plays another Caryatid
and I play another Phoenix, a bit later I resolve a Chandra and bring him down to 5 and he goes back to 8 with a Sphinx's Revelation (he hadn't played any blue source up to that point, he had to tap his Caryatids).
He then plays a Primeval Bounty going back to 11, gets pushed back to 6 then tries to gain 6 points of life by playing a land before playing any spell and another one on his second main phase, I call him out on the thing and he says he's sorry but it's been a while since the last time he played seriously, then I finally take him down.

I think he's on some kind of strange Midrange build and after a bit I decide to board out my 1 drops for +4 Reckoners, +3 Mizzium Mortars, +1 Assemble the Legion

G2: He goes Elf (shocked) -> Caryatid (blocks my Zealot) -> Centaur Healer, Prophet of Kruphix then enters the board without myself being able to find anything to burn him out, then he lands another Centaur Healer in my turn, an Unflinching Courage, and a Loxodon Smiter.
I find myself
outclassed and we go to game three.

While deciding how to sideboard I pretty much panic and revert to the original aggro plan, except for 3 Magma Jet being replaced by 3 Mizzium Mortars.

G3: He mulls to five, I expect a clean victory but he goes Caryatid -> Healer -> Healer -> Prophet of Kruphix, then blocks one of my two Phoenix with a flash-casted Archangel of Thune, then topdecks a Zegana that draws him a Fathom Mage.
On my sheet his last lifecount reads "45? LOL".

0-1

Round 2: Leda with GW Aggro
Well, she's my girlfriend and I'm pretty used at playing against her, yet I don't like the matchup very much.
G1: I start with Satyr -> Magma Jet on her Soldier of the Pantheon, then my turn 3 Phoenix manages to ping her regularly.
I trade the Satyr + Shock for a Smiter, then land a Pyromancer that lets me burn away her life total while giving me free elementals that chumpblock everything she throws at me.

Once again, I take out my 1 drops for Reckoners, Mizzium Mortars,
Assemble the Legion

G2: She keeps a slow hand, I play a turn two YP, she plays a T3 Smiter, I play an Ash Zealot keeping ready a Shock in my hand, she attacks with the f*n elephant letting me understand she's got a Selesnya Charm.
I draw and pass.
She attacks me again and I Lightning Strike the thing, then declaring a block with the Zealot and the newborn Token, she lets the creature die and passes - seems like she just bluffed having the Charm - whatever.
I then tap out to play Chandra and she answers by playing an EoT soldier token with the Selesnya Charm she actually had, then enchanting it with an Unflinching Courage on her turn without attacking.
Chandra pings the soldier letting me attack, she answers with Rootborn Defenses and killing my Zealot with a newly created soldier.
Then she plays Ajani and the Vigilant, Trampling, Lifelinked Soldier gets quickly out of hand.
I miss my Chained to the Rocks #3 and #4.
G3: she mulls to 4 while I keep a decent hand with burn and double Reckoner.
nStill, she manages to get me at 10.

1-1

Round 3: Mauro with RUG Superfriends
I don't really recall how the games went, but his deck featured Blistercoil Weird, Pyromancer, BTE, Domri Rade, Xenagos, Jace AoT, Ral Zarek, Izzet Charm, Magma Jet, Turn//Burn, Steam Augury and Frenzied Tilling.
I just quickly beat him up, don't ask me more.

2-1

Round 4: Bruno with Boros Auras
I didn't know the guy, I feared his deck was really explosive because he had just beaten the GW player I really feared, but it turned out that said guy just had REALLY bad draws.
G1: He plays some creatures, I burn burn them down, Cackler + Zealot take quick care of him.
G2: I swap out 4 Satyrs and 3 Cacklers for the Reckoners + Mortars package, then I proceed to keep the board clean until T4, then Chandra does the rest.

3-1

Top 8: Leonardo with Devotion Black
G1: I mulligan aggressively because I know that if he manages to stabilize I'm doomed, he helps me out by paying a lot of life in order to draw cards that
don't help him out anyway.
G2: I take out 4 Shocks for 3 Mizzium Mortars and a Boros Charm, hating myself for not having inserted any threaten effect in the sideboard. Pharika's Cure helps him control the board and his own life total while he assembles Underworld Connections + Whip + Erebos. GG.
G3: I choose to insert Wear // Tear for Boros Charm and a Shock, then change my mind because I'd rather prefer having threats rather than reactive cards, so I just keep my original board except for -3 Shocks +3 Mizzium Mortars.
I quickly attack him with Satyr into Ash Zealot into Phoenix, he tries to stop me with a Nightveil Spectre but I Lightning Strike it, then he playes a DD but I keep up the pressure letting it block my Satyr, then playing post-combat Mizzium Mortars, then the guy just spends two turns playing Whip of Erebos on an empty field then reanimating the DD that just gets tapped without dealing any lifelink damage.
I burn him down for his last points of health then move on.

Top 4: Alberto with
Devotion Red with a white splash
G1: I start with a Cackler, he does the same.
I play Ash Zealot, and swing for 4, he swings back with the Cackler, then takes 2 from mine while burning away my sweety red knight.
I answer by destroying everything he ever loved (i.e.: burning down, his every creature) and he dies with me still at 15 life.
G2: I board out the 1 drops AS USUAL, whild bringing in Reckoners, Mortars, 1x Boros Charm.
I trade very aggressively with him in order to keep his devotion low, and he ends up managing to resolve a single Fanatic of Mogis for 2 damage.

Finals: Giuliano with Esper Control
Nothing to say here, he just gets stucked at two lands on both the games we played.

Better lucky than skilled, said a Wise Man.

[dpaine88]

Did some playtesting with the recent list against Mono Black Devotion. Generally it was pretty favorable. He sided into a boatload of removal so I may have actually wanted 4 Act of Treason.

Seems like the best plan is to aggresively mulligan into a hand with either a 1-drop or a BTE. Hands without those 2 just were way too slow against the deck. 1 for 1 till demon n I lose.

Pyro deck deck did feel very strong. Pyromancer is nice over Ash Zealot as it makes sure BTE is rarely just 1 creature. Tokens are obv amazing against Demon.

What do you think about sideboarding the other 2 Magma Jet out for 2 Skullcrack? Don't really run any small guys and one turn preventing Merchant or Whip life gain can be huge.

[zemanjaski]

Yeah I was thinking about doing just that as well. Jet is fine if they're on Lifebane Zombie, but Spectre seems more standard now, so Jet has no targets; if you're going to go upstairs Skullcrack does have BIG upside.

Maybe -4 Shock, -4 Magma Jet, +3 Act, +3 Skullcrack, +2 Mortars?

Luckily, you're 80%+ to have either a 1 drop or a BTE, so you don't need to mulligan too much, but I agree completely that hands without that are very hard to win with; adding the BTE draw was a decision made to help this matchup specifically.

[Helios]

Is Mortars more powerful than rebuying a Phoenix?

[zemanjaski]

No, but you need more than 4 ways to kill Spectre I think, since not having an answer is either going to be a 2-for-1 or a huge loss of time.

[dpaine88]

I brought in the same but 2 Skullcrack 1 Hammer, but maybe just 3 Skullcrack.