R/b Aggro aka "Dos Rakis"

[Jedi_Knight]

Just a heads up: I needed to take a break from MTG. I do understand that may have disappointed MDU, but in the championship I just speed played, didn't care about my mistakes and didn't mind the losses. For that I an kinda sorry, but my life has been going pretty piss poor lately so I just bought Reaper of Souls and went chillout. Also, Hearthstone is not good for chilling out.

Back to business: question is whether this deck has any future. I saw Saito's decklists and even though they seem unrefined IMHO going hyper aggressive in our colors may be better option right now. And for that we already have a topic here.

As I an sitting here drinking my favorite liquor I am wondering about following things:
Is/will Phoenix be any good? Is it still worth building a deck around it?
Exava - is it time to say goodbye to her in favor of Mana Confluence and more two/three drops (flame speaker and Ashley come to mind)?
Would it be
better to go more midrange as Saito purposes with Keyrunes and RRs?
And lastly: how much of a problem are enchantments going to be?

These are all highly meta dependant questions and since I won't try to predict answers to them, I for know would advise playing something more along the aggressive route.

Feel free to chime in with your thoughts.

[Gigex]

Something like this?:

[deck]
Creatures
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Ash Zealot
4 Spike Jester
4 Mogis's Warhound
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Spells
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
2 Dreadbore
2 Searing Blood
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Lands
2 Mutavault
4 Blood Crypt
4 Temple of Malice
2 Mana Confluence
10 Mountain[/deck]

Maybe running mutavaults is greedy. Wanted to go base red instead of black to run burn spells in addition to more hasty creatures. I think dreadbore is necessary but I'm not too inclined to put in the full playset as that means fewer spells to return the phoenix. Although, this deck doesn't seem like it will be doing that quite often.

EDIT*: Maybe cut the Chandra for Exava or Everflame Eidolon?

[Toddington]

Would it be better to go more midrange as Saito purposes with Keyrunes and RRs?

Can you link to this please? I heard Keyrune and RR in the same sentence and got excited.

[Tyrael]

Would it be better to go more midrange as Saito purposes with Keyrunes and RRs?

Can you link to this please? I heard Keyrune and RR in the same sentence and got excited.

https://twitter.com/TomoharuSaito/media

10th deck

[Toddington]

Saito's list

---

I'm super excited to play a deck like that. My next brew was going to be 4 Desecration Demon + 4 Stormbreath Dragon, so it may as well be this.

The fact that Prophetic Flamespeaker made the cut gives me the heebley-jeeblies, I'm super excited to play with that card, outside or in an aggro shell (w/ pump spells). I wonder what his Phyrexian Arena impression is like...

[Calamity]

So here's Saito's RB sligh list:

[deck]
Creatures: 40
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Spike Jester
4 Ash Zealot
4 Mogis's Warhound
4 Prophetic Flamespeaker
4 Rubblebelt Maaka

Spells: 8
4 Searing Blood
4 Lightning Strike

Land: 20
4 Mana Confluence
4 Blood Crypt
2 Swamp
10 Mountain
[/deck]

I usually play pyromancer/more grindy builds but i got rid of my expensive standard stuff to get into modern. This looks pretty fun to steal some free 4-0's at FNM with though.

It's got a classic sligh curve + 8 burn spells. Rubblebelt maaka is insane with flamespeaker (though you can't blood rush a maaka that's exiled with flamespeakr, i don't' think). The possibility of bestowing a mogis's warhound on an ash zealot or spike jester on turn three excites me. Bestowing the gnarled scarhide on an enemy blocker to swing for the win also excites me. Both bestow creatures work well
with the flamespeaker too.

For a board off the top of my head i'm thinking something like:
[deck]sideboard[/deck]

though i haven't played standard in awhile so i dunno what people are playing

[Aodh]

His mana doesn't agree with the deck.

[Aodh]

If I were to make a red and black aggressive deck, this would be it:

[deck]Creatures
4 Tormented Hero
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Pain Seer
4 Spike Jester
4 Mogis's Marauder
3 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch

Spells
4 Thoughtseize
4 Lightning Strike
4 Dreadbore

Land
4 Blood Crypt
4 Mana Confluence
6 Swamp (or 7 if no Mutavault)
5 Mountain (or 6 if no Mutavault)
2 Mutavault (if greedy)[/deck]

[Tyrael]

So here's Saito's RB sligh list:

[deck]
Creatures: 40
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Spike Jester
4 Ash Zealot
4 Mogis's Warhound
4 Prophetic Flamespeaker
4 Rubblebelt Maaka

Spells: 8
4 Searing Blood
4 Lightning Strike

Land: 20
4 Mana Confluence
4 Blood Crypt
2 Swamp
10 Mountain
[/deck]

I usually play pyromancer/more grindy builds but i got rid of my expensive standard stuff to get into modern. This looks pretty fun to steal some free 4-0's at FNM with though.

It's got a classic sligh curve + 8 burn spells. Rubblebelt maaka is insane with flamespeaker (though you can't blood rush a maaka that's exiled with flamespeakr, i don't' think). The possibility of bestowing a mogis's warhound on an ash zealot
or spike jester on turn three excites me. Bestowing the gnarled scarhide on an enemy blocker to swing for the win also excites me. Both bestow creatures work well with the flamespeaker too.

For a board off the top of my head i'm thinking something like:
[deck]sideboard[/deck]

though i haven't played standard in awhile so i dunno what people are playing

I would definitely play Harness By Force over Act of Treason. Also, maybe a 2/2 split between Doom Blade and MM?

[Calamity]

harness by force is a cool card but i don't think i'll ever get to six mana on 20 lands, and act of treason is easier to cast.

now, if i had more lands (22 or 23) i'd definitely run harness by force.

then again, the prospect of getting a little flooded and then topdecking this card to blow them out is appealing. I'll probably give them a shot if i can get ahold of them by FNM

[Valdarith]

Why would you NOT run a card that is strictly better in decks that can support RR when you'd want to cast the card?

[Calamity]

i goofed, carry on lol

[Tyrael]

Has anyone actually tested Saito's list(s) yet?

[AcidPith]

How about this?

[DECK]

Creatures
2x Chandra's Phoenix
3x Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
4x Gnarled Scarhide
4x Mogis's Warhound
4x Prophetic Flamespeaker
4x Rubblebelt Maaka
4x Spike Jester
2x Spiteful Returned

Spells
4x Dreadbore
2x Madcap Skills
4x Magma Jet

Land
4x Blood Crypt
10x Mountain
5x Swamp
4x Temple of Malice

Sideboard
1x Erebos, God of the Dead
4x Dark Betrayal
4x Mizzium Mortars
1x Sire Of Insanity
3x Skullcrack
2x Thrill-Kill Assassin
[/DECK]

The sideboard may need some work, but I think the bestow options on Prophetic Flamespeaker or Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch are powerful.

[GodzillaAteMe]

Gonna give Saito's list tonight a try...

[RaidaTheBlade]

Just went 5-0-1 at fnm with this. FNM isn't the best testing ground, but just wanted to post anyway since it's my first standard thing since the fnm after born's gameday, so I haven't contributed much recently.

[deck]Creatures 21
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Spike Jester
3 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Exava, Rakdos Blood-Witch
3 Stormbreath Dragon

Spells 13
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
3 Dreadbore
2 Hero's Downfall

Whips and Thighs 2
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Whip of Erebos

Land 24
4 Blood Crypt
4 Temple of Malice
2 Rakdos Guildgate
8 Mountain
4 Swamp
2 Mutavault

Sideboard
3 Dark Betrayal
3 Doom Blade
1 Whip of Erebos
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Skullcrack
3 Lifebane Zombie[/deck]

It beat R/W Burn (eidolon main version)
B/g Devotion
Green Devotion
Small Red Aggro (AIR)
Green Aggro/Devotion


If I could make any changes it'd be:

[deck]Creatures 21
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Spike
Jester
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Exava, Rakdos Blood-Witch
2 Stormbreath Dragon

Spells 16
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
3 Shock
3 Dreadbore
2 Hero's Downfall

Land 23
4 Blood Crypt
4 Temple of Malice
3 Mana Confluence
7 Mountain
3 Swamp
2 Mutavault

Sideboard
2 Dark Betrayal
2 Doom Blade
2 Duress
2 Whip of Erebos
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Skullcrack
2 Lifebane Zombie[/deck]

It'd run more consistent and still have a nicer top-end than the pyroblack builds that run faster then this, though more consistent then even this

I'm budj-cadj though, and haven't changed the deck (I think) since Born's game day, which this deck also won.
Also can't afford the mana confluences


So yeah, it is still viable. It works better vs eidolon burn than against yp$ burn, which is a good thing at the moment, since most non-DTR burn decks are doing eidolon main, and the yp$ burn is one of the
decks that made this one fall out of favor with us.

[Tyrael]

Seems odd you'd be able to beat AIR with it but I guess there are a lot of different versions around

Is Young Peezy key for the deck? I just traded away mine

[RaidaTheBlade]

AIR is tough, but it has two key cards to beat them. Young pyromancer and whip of erebos.

Against them, you have to remove their stuff constantly, and then follow one of two gameplans. You can drop the whip, and rely of lifegain from your bigger beaters, or you can play young pyromancer, and use him to grind out value.

Young pyromancer is really powerful in the deck, and I love him here. He's just good.

[magicdownunder]

@RaidaTheBlade:

What are your thoughts on Gnarled Scarhide and moving the deck slightly more towards Black (it shouldn't require much if we can already support T2 Jesters)? I think he is miles better then Cack if we can support him since its isn't a dead card past T3.

P.S. we need Jedi_Knight the master of BR back - also GREAT too see your posting rather then lurking again, I hope you can help bring back some life to this archtype

[RaidaTheBlade]

I think it's an interesting idea, but I just really don't know on the mana.
My mana isn't ideal since I still use guildgates, but even with mana confluence pushing the mana too far just doesn't feel right. It might work, but I love cackler because of the split color. Being able to play it off of either color has been pretty important to the sequencing of my turns.

So my thoughts on it is that if the mana could handle it, I think it would be pretty great, but the deck already has the occasional mana issues, and I personally wouldn't be huge on risking it. But I'd love to see someone test it, and see if it works well, cause if it does then I'd probably make the switch myself, since it is pretty much better all-around.


It'd be good to have him back, but I just got off a break from standard mtg myself, so I understand him needing a break
And thanks, it's good to be back now that school has calmed down. It's also been long enough that I'm actually enjoying standard again e.e



But I was just looking at Jedi_Knight's last post, and I would like to address something that both he and Saito thought about, the hyper-aggressive approach vs the higher curved one I run.

The way I see it, the strength and saving grace of both the small red aggro and the small green aggro decks is burning-tree emissary. With a format so defined by 1-for-1 removal (cough monoblack cough), being able to drop 2 creatures on turn 2 is important, because it can put you ahead of the removal.

R/B doesn't have that explosiveness, and so if you try to go the hyper aggressive option, it's much easier for them to 1-for-1 you until you're dead.

The thing I love about the colors right now, and why I still play it, is that it not only has a fast and powerful early game, but also has powerful lategame beaters and great removal potential. Basically it'
s potential to be aggro-control.


So while going lower and leaner might be better for some people, I prefer the higher-end approach of hitting them hard in the early game, and then punching through mid-to-late for the finish.

A low cmc haster deck could very well work, but it's not my cup of tea ;P

[magicdownunder]

Yeah.... Mana has always been a issue with this deck, I think you would want 4x Mana Confluence but that may force us to run MD at least 1 Whip of Erebos just to stem the bleeding alittle.

I do think Gnarled Scarhide merits some testing just because suiting up Exava is rather huge vs all the 5/5 and 6/6 flying around.

[RaidaTheBlade]

Yeah, 4x mana confluence would get scary...
Burn is still a thing, and this deck can barely race it as is. I don't want to imagine trying to do so while also taking massive damage from our own lands. I'm personally happy with my 2 guildgates


I'm not denying it, I would love gnarled scarhide over cackler. But at the end of the day, is fitting in a slightly better 1 drop worth burning yourself constantly off of mana confluence?
It's better, but I don't know if it's that much better.


If you wanna run it in a se sometime to test, lemme know how it goes I still watch most of your videos

[magicdownunder]

If you wanna run it in a se sometime to test, lemme know how it goes I still watch most of your videos

3 issues which prevent me from testing RB:

1) Angelpagan has my black cards, from my understand he is is testing some sort of Ghostdad/BBV deck so I'll need to ask if he still needs them.

2) RL has me on my toes for the next 2 weeks or so (which suck because I'm really enjoying the post_JOU meta)

3) I really like Burn

[RaidaTheBlade]

Heh, I understand ya on all of those. I'd test them myself, but I don't have the mana confluences which are kinda needed for that.

[RaidaTheBlade]

Still thinking on this deck more, since I am tempted to start going tothe bigger tournies again.
The deck is actually pretty good right now, since it runs fairly roughshod over black devo (monoblack or b/g or whatever extra flavor) and eats esper/uw control for breakfast.

G/R or Jund monsters is also pretty easy with the amount of removal in the deck. Never had too many problems in the past or in testing. And I played against two green devo decks that works in very similar ways, and it was the same story.

BW (midrange or control or whatever you want to call it) can be more difficult, but that deck hasn't been showing up a huge amount lately. And mizziums/dark betrayals/skullcracks out the side help.

AIR or fast red devo decks can be tough, but the addition of young pyro helps a lot there and makes it winnable.


The two matchups that would keep it from being super competitive are u-devo and burn.

U-devo is
almost dead in paper and dying fast online from the stats I can see. And 2 hero's downfall main and doomblades in the board make MoW easier, and then just following the 'remove everything' plan is very viable.

Burn is more difficult, but with a bit of luck, they can be raceable, and sideboard finagling can make life easier, and stormbreath can be really tough for them to remove.


That said, I am rethinking my earlier proposed changes and sideboard. What I'd like to see from the deck now would be:

[deck]Creatures 21
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Spike Jester
3 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Exava, Rakdos Blood-Witch
3 Stormbreath Dragon

Spells 15
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Dreadbore
3 Hero's Downfall

Land 24
4 Blood Crypt
4 Temple of Malice
2 Rakdos Guildgate
8 Mountain
4 Swamp
2 Mutavault

Sideboard 15
3 Dark Betrayal
3 Doom Blade
2 Whip of Erebos
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Skullcrack
2 Duress
[/deck]

Sideboarding:

Vs black devo:
-4 Magma Jet, -1 Stormbreath,
-1 Land, +3 Dark Betrayal, +3 Skullcrack

Vs esper/uw control:
-3 Hero's Downfall, -2 Dreadbore, +3 Skullcrack, +2 Duress

Vs jund/gr monsters or green devo:
-4 Cackler, -1 Spike Jester, +3 Doomblade, +2 Mortars

Vs red devo or small red aggro:
-4 Cackler, -3 Spike Jester, +3 Doomblade, +2 Mortars, +2 Whip

Vs b/w:
-4 Dreadbore, -2 Magma Jet, -1 Dragon, -1 guildgate, +3 Dark Betrayal, +3 Skullcrack, +2 Mortars

Vs blue devo:
-4 Cackler, -1 Spike Jester, +3 Doom Blade, +2 Mortars

Vs burn:
-4 Hero's Downfall, -3 Dreadbore, +3 Skullcrack, +2 Duress, +2 Whip of Erebos


The duress is a concession to burn being so strong against us, but also happens to be useful vs control. Could also be rakdos's return, but that might be too slow vs burn
I dropped the lifebane zombies since the green based decks are not as powerful vs us, and white weenie is kinda dead, and I loaded more removal into the mainboard, but I could understand a case or personal preference to swap those for the duress,
especially in a white weenie, green, or b/w infested meta.


I decided to keep the mainboard of only 3 young pyros and 3 dragons since dragon is important vs burn, and we'd have to run shock to make 4 yp fully worth it, and it's just not high impact enough imo. Good in a small aggro filled meta, but otherwise I'm meh about it.


So yeah, kinda long, but those are my thoughts on this style of deck. I think it's good, especially in a low-burn meta. My lgs only has about 2 burn players, and as friday showed, I can beat them, it's just not super favored.

I think that's why I like this deck so much. It's not the most powerful deck in the format, but it almost never feels like it's dead or useless. There's almost always a chance to win.



Still not 100% on the sideboard or duress, would appreciate thoughts about that and everything in general. (Looking at you mdu ;P)

[RaidaTheBlade]

Also thinking sbout crypt incursion in the side (instead of duress) for vs burn or red aggro/devotion.

It's probably more cute than good, but between either their creatures or ours, it might be pretty effective.

Ooh, and also hoses the reanimator deck that'd seeing a little bit of play...


I'm actually starting to like the sound of it, even if it is maybe just a bit too cute...
Somebody talk some sense into me, cause this is starting to sound good o.o

[Mr. Metronome]

I'm not the hugest fan of 6 total 4 and 5 drops. I feel like this decks best draws in a lot of matchups are ones where you play a 1 drop and then a 2 drop and then a bunch of removal, and I don't know that you need dragon AND Exava.

The list I've been playing plays 8 1CMC creatures, and 2 Exava. Also plays 2 fewer lands and more spells, which makes Young Pyromancer stronger.

What matchups do you feel the 6 hasty beaters improve that aren't also improved by Firedrinker Satyr + more removal?

[RaidaTheBlade]

Most midrange matchups, since it allows us to actually fight them well. Satyr also suffers there because their bigger creatures make him a hindarince in a good few circumstances.

It also helps vs aggro decks, since bigger beaters plus a whip gives us another out to them. Not only that, but I can't tell you how many times casting exava without unleashing her has helped me vs aggro. She becomes a 3/3 first striking blocker, which is awesome.

Same applies to burn. Removal and satyr are actually both dead vs a burn deck, and that is a huge part of the meta right now. With bigger creatures, you can race since to kill exava they either take 4 and then have to use a chain, or have to use a helix which saves us life which is important. Dragon is just a huge headache for them.



At the end of the day, it really is a style difference. I love how powerful the hasty beaters feel, and curving out from jester to phoenix to
exava feels so good. The cackler isn't even really all that needed. I've been tempted to cut him too many times to count, but with mono-black and esper being things it's better to have them then not. And exava makes them less bad topdecks.

But yeah, I just like having the bigger topend, otherwise I'd be playing that pyroblack list.

[NerdBoyWonder]

Took LP's Rakdos Aggro deck posted in the Mono Black Aggro thread for a spin tonight. Deck is pretty boss. Tested against 2 versions of Junk and R/B/W midrange.

[deck]3 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Herald of Torment
4 Mogis's Warhound
4 Prophetic Flamespeaker
4 Spiked Jester
2 Stormbreath Dragon

2 Bile Blight
2 Dreadbore
2 Hero's Downfall
1 Mizzium Mortars
4 Thoughtseize

4 Blood Crypt
3 Mana Confluence
5 Mountain
3 Mutavault
5 Swamp
4 Temple of Malice

Sideboard
3 Duress
3 Far//Away
3 Lifebane Zombie
3 Master of Feast
2 Rakdos's Return
1 Stormbreath Dragon[/deck]

LP's Flamespeaker Rakdos vs W/R/B Midrange
Not a meta deck but the local deck never plays meta. Was just trying to get a feel for the deck. Essentially it is good stuff in all 3 of those colors. Pack Rats, Stormbreaths, Blood Baron with Hero's Downfall, Chained to the Rocks
and Banishing Light as back up. This was the first time really getting a feel for the deck. Opponent never let Flamespeaker stay on board so during these matches never got to see his potential. He was on the Pack Rat plan while trying to heavily remove me but haste forces him into a corner in all our pre-board games. Jester into Bestowed Warhound into Exava is pretty hard beating.
Boarding: He was pretty creature light with his game mainly coming from being heavy removal and riding one of those creatures into victory. Decided to play the hand disruption route:
In: +3 Duress +2 Rakdos Returns +1 Stormbreath Dragon Out: -1 Mizzium -2 Bile Blight -2 Gnarled Scarhide

Post-Board games were still heavily in favor disrupting his removal and playing hasted threats. He is unable to keep up and is forced to top deck most of the games. Went 5-1 from what I remembered

VS Junk Midrange (Spell heavier)
My friend switched over to this after the GP and the deck is scary as hell. Pre Board this spell
heavier version can one for one for days until it gets into a better board position. Never won a match. Flamespeaker gets outclassed by Courser and the other fatties backed up by heavy removal.
Post-Board: Disruption plan again In: +3 Duress +2 Rakdos Returns +3 Lifebane Zombie +1 Stormbreath Dragon Out: -1 Mizzium Mortars -2 Bile Blight -4 Prophetic Flamespeaker -1 Gnarled Scarehide

Games were much much closer while he was still able to edge me out a bit but I did win a couple. 2-5 I believe was the final result

VS Junk Midrange (Creature Heavier)
A little bit less experience player who normally plays hyper aggressive decks so he was getting use to the slower style deck but did not fit him. While the previous Junk was way more spell heavier this one leaned in on creatures way more. Jester > Bestowed Warhound > Exava while he tried to either catch up or build board position was pretty ridiculous. In this match Prophetic Flamespeaker shined. I dropped him and bestowed with a Warhound and
went to town. Match was over in another 2 turns after that. Even with Flamespeaker shining I knew he will still be outclassed.
Post-Board: In: +3 Lifebane Zombie +3 Master of Feast +2 Rakdos's Returns Out: -4 Prophetic Flamespeaker -2 Bile Blight -3 Gnarled Scarehide

Continued to Jester > Warhound > Exava curve. Lifebane managed to eat up any creature before it hit the board. Master of Feast was brought in as a testing out but also to be able to keep up with his creatures. Final results were 5-1 with me only losing a match to keeping a bad hand on purpose to see how I can come out from it. Never hit a black land that entire game which allowed him to catch up and eventually beat me.

The deck is powerful and Prophetic Flamespeaker has me sold. When left unchecked he is great. Things I might change before Game Day going down 1 Gnarled Scarhide and putting in the last Stormbreath into the main freeing up a sideboard spot but no clue what I would play. Could just move Mizzium to the board
and put a 3rd Hero's Downfall or Dreadbore in its place as LP had it in his original list.

[Purp]

http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdata ... ckID=67237

[Pedros]

@NBW

Love there is someone willing to spin this deck as imo it is most interesting one on this forum right now in std section. I myself dont have time to play right now ;(

First: did you willingly get rid of 4rd mana confluence or you just didnt have it? My math says you dont have enough colored sources for double colored cards oin turn 3,however with LP we decided going for gates would kill deck tempo. 24 lands seems correct with all bestow going in this deck,

How you felt about bile blight? My thought is that it doesnt kill courser of krupnix, merchant, reaper, baron, archangel, weird Basicly it doesnt kill any relevant creatures from junk midrange and monsters and some other relevant roadblockers. Did you get any 241 with it? Did you have situations, where you had it dead in hand?

I like idea of playing more diverse removals, good plus for mizzium mortars. I however dissagree sb them out vs junk - baron,
archangel, courser are still a things.

From what ypu said flamespeaker was kinda mediocre, however you said at the end you liked it. It feels counterintuitive fro your games. Just a treat of huge damage and kill on sight is good? You also mentioned it was roadblocked by caryatids and courser ( i assume) from junk.

I really like your sb, especially 3rd dragon, returns and lifebane zombie. Imo demon isnt as good in this metagame, giving cards to opponents cant be good.

What are far/aways for?

[NerdBoyWonder]

Willingly got rid of the 4th Mana Confluence AND 4th Mutavault and exchanged them for a Mountain and Swamp. I'll look at the Math. The big thing is you prefer to have R&B turn 2 for Jester and then for turn 3 you want to bestow him. Flamespeaker and Herald are back up plays i felt on turn 3. Flamespeaker is used to bait out removal on that turn or you just wait to play him on board while your opponent 's resources are depleted. Herald is a turn 5 play most of the time too.

Bile Blight were meh in my testing match ups but I was playing against decks with x/4s which shows it is weaker against them. It becomes a combat trick against those decks but harder removal is prefered against big monster decks. Against aggressive decks

Sideboarding out Mizzium was me fumbling on the sideboarding. It should stay in against junk.

Against green decks with Removal he is bad. Flamespeaker is mediocre against green creature
decks but the bestow helps out immensly. The 2 junk decks I played while the creatures were the same the numbers were vastly different. Junk 1 was removal heavy so nothing I played really could stick. Against junk 2 he was on the big creature plan so Flamespeaker could stay on board and get bestowed and outclass his board. Against other creature decks I figure flamespeaker + bestow = GG.

I say playtest with the demon. I didnt like the drawback at first but whenplaytesting with hi. In my B/w Athreos Aggro shell i changed my opinion on him. Players dont want the extra card because they don't want a 4th of their life being taken away after getting hit for a bunch prior..

Far//Away is against hexproof because one person at the LGS wants to be THAT guy and run the deck. I dont want to bring i. Devour flesh because of the lifegain.

[LP, of the Fires]

I actually got a chance to play in a small magic tourney on Tuesday and 4-0'd fairly easily. I played against 17 land Red aggro, GW mid, a weird Mono-black brew, and I can't recall what else, in addition to doing testing vs. Burn and Junk Midrange.

Conclusions: Flamespeaker's pretty fucking good. Against the GW deck, it drew me past land gluts and dug me to removal, against the red aggro decks, it rarely if ever attacked and was still winning the game by virtue of being a brickwall and against everything else, it either pulled removal away from exava/dragon or it threatened lots of burst damage.

I'm thinking of replacing thoughtseizes with lightning strikes for a more aggressive stance, though against the green midrange decks, thoughtseizing a caryatid is often game winning, so IDK. I'm leaning towards strike though since unlike Mono-Black aggro, we can beat sweepers with haste and we're fairly mana hungry so
having that extra reach feels more powerful to me. Magma jet is also an option. If I add strikes, I can also cut bile blight for more dragon/exava.

Rakdos's return out of the board was the best idea ever. It definitely won me a game vs. GW when I was able to return for 3, eating a hand of boon satyr and ajani and killing an ajani with the help of a lifebane.

Master was good where I wanted it. Vs. Burn it's about equivalent to Herald in the damage that it deals you but the faster clock is important along with the fact that it takes multiple burn spells to kill.

Lands: Rakdos guildgate is unplayable. You can probably cut a mutavault for another source of colored mana. I don't THINK it matters which, but I'd probably go with a mountain. It's better when your mana screwed since it casts strike and Mogis warhound and you'd rather play flamespeaker early over herald most of the time.

[magicdownunder]

Conclusions: Flamespeaker's pretty fucking good. Against the GW deck, it drew me past land gluts and dug me to removal, against the red aggro decks, it rarely if ever attacked and was still winning the game by virtue of being a brickwall and against everything else, it either pulled removal away from exava/dragon or it threatened lots of burst damage.

That is interesting, in theory speaker seems REALLY bad in a deck packing heavy removals (because you need a clean board to swing through) and large creatures (mana issues).

[LP, of the Fires]

Like, I board it out against some green decks like monsters for lifebanes, but it's still fine game one as it's not hard to drop a mogis's warhound on it and run past caryatids.

[magicdownunder]

I've always been interested in the RB archetype, though I was forced away from it due the burn MU (mainly because BO crippled my Whip tech I used against them) would you say your new approach with Speakers be stronger then the RaidaTheBlade plan?

[mutantcrock]

Do you guys think tormented thoughts could work in a shell with 8 3-power 2 drops, a big top end, and pack rat plan b?

[poppa_f]

It's something I've considered for W/b, due to the synergy with Athreos. Definitely worth a try, would be a great turn 3 play against control. On the other hand it's a terrible top deck in most match ups, so maybe makes more sense as sideboard tech?

[Tyrael]

[deck=B/R AggroMani Cavalieri; 12th Place at StarCityGames.com Standard Open on 5/24/2014]
Creatures (28)
4 Lifebane Zombie
4 Mogis's Marauder
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Spike Jester
2 Tormented Hero
4 Gnarled Scarhide
2 Herald of Torment
4 Spiteful Returned

Lands (22)
5 Mountain
7 Swamp
4 Blood Crypt
4 Mana Confluence
2 Temple of Malice

Spells (10)
4 Madcap Skills
1 Hero's Downfall
3 Lightning Strike
2 Dreadbore

Sideboard
4 Thrill-Kill Assassin
3 Dark Betrayal
3 Ultimate Price
1 Whip of Erebos
4 Thoughtseize[/deck]

Thoughts? Complaints? I might run this next FNM, looks super duper fun.

[magicdownunder]

Swap Ultimate Price for Doom Blade so you can hit random Frostburns and Recks (your not boarding in 6 terrors vs B Devo) so Doom Blade is better then Price.