Dies to Removal

-3 rancor -1 ash zealot

+4 Lightning mauler

that's where I'm at right now. Could also cut more ash zealots for +2 brimstone volley +1 reckoner.

it would have pyreheart wolves in the side to augment the weaker creature base.

I don't feel like I get green screwed more often than a 3 color deck gets it, aka pretty consistent. G/r is greedier with DOUBLE red costs in hellrider/hellkite with... 8 duals 5 mountains 13 sources?

8 duals, 1 temple garden, 1 guildgate+4 BTE= 14 green sources and I only need to see one per game.

Cutting ash zealots+rancor... it just feels so wrong.

UWr is always going to be a gross match-up, if youre running more dudes and less rancors youll just get supreme verdict for them to get 2-1s instead of maybe them having a
spear when you throw down rancor (and if youre on the play its not likely if you rancor your 1 drop.) Also zealots+rancor makes jund easymode, and it makes junk rites a HELLUVA lot easier IMO. Garruk not being able to have many targets is legitimate too.

As is making BTE's body even sexier

I see the merits of LM don't get me wrong. Goin fast is p. good, part of a nut draw. He's just insane with BTE and on t2...pretty specific. He's also just "ok" if hasting out a reckoner, because that means he's not doing anything himself T2. I just think Rancor is good with ANY creature you have (save hellrider) INSANE with Zealot, p.good on reckoner, etc.

TLDR:
Rancor is pretty bad against UWr Flash. But LM doesn't really fix that match-up either (dies to augur, verdict).
aka I think Rancor is good. But I don't see anyone playing it.

Note: I'm also ignoring that Rancor is bad G1 against mirror, because you have less bodies for them to remove/2-1 with 4 spears and shit. But if you had LM
instead and you side in elecktrickeries its the same thing, whereas you can 1-1 swap with VS and be in a much better position without diluting your threats.

Going down to only four spells (Rancor) has turned out to be a good choice. I still have a full set of GCR to act as remval AND trample damage and Rancor helps go through the fatties. I may add 1-2 Pyrewild Shaman as a mana sink in the late game.

Strikers seem really slow, especially without BTE.

T1 Dude T2 FS T3 Wolf, wait to swing? T3 Zealot?

Anyone had the benefit of testing Gruul War Chant?

So apparently Chandra's Phoenix is in m14. While that is a long way off, will that see play? Never played with the thing myself. Heard it was played last year, but that was then, and this is now.

Anyone have any ideas on how to predict a meta.

So apparently Chandra's Phoenix is in m14.

So apparently Chandra's Phoenix is in m14. While that is a long way off, will that see play? Never played with the thing myself. Heard it was played last year, but that was then, and this is now.

So apparently Chandra's Phoenix is in m14. While that is a long way off, will that see play? Never played with the thing myself. Heard it was played last year, but that was then, and this is now.

Even though RDW wasn't terribly competitive in the Delver meta

Red was good; it was just that weak players insisted on using Dave Caplan's list with no innovation for 8 months while complaining the deck couldn't beat more recently developed strategies...Seriously, check out the archived Red Deck Wins subforum on MTGS; in eight months, the big developments were adding a couple of Rootbound Crags for Ancient Grudge and slightly changing the burn package. Terrible.

Wish list:
- lightning bolt
- arc trail
- ember hauler

That is all.

Anyone have any ideas on how to predict a meta.

I'm going to post a (likely long-winded) post about this in the coming week. I finished up the article this morning but I don't think it should be on TCGPlayer. I'd rather it be here.

Even though RDW wasn't terribly competitive in the Delver meta

Totally won the AVR PTQ playing RDW. It was actually one of the few decks that could straight-up say "no" to Delver strategies because of how good Galvanic Blast was.

Even though RDW wasn't terribly competitive in the Delver meta

Totally won the AVR PTQ playing RDW. It was actually one of the few decks that could straight-up say "no" to Delver strategies because of how good Galvanic Blast was.

Alex, you are at times a very contentious individual. Aggro in general was not having a whole lot of fun in Delver Standard; RDW was one of the more capable decks in the hands of a
competent pilot (as evinced by your and James's successes), but it was not a dominant deck in the meta compared to the role of Rx in the current meta. I didn't say the deck sucked wind--I stated the facts relative to how the statistics show the meta stacked up. My son played the deck all through SOM/ISD Standard and it could carry through against any deck on a given day, but it's telling that he was the only person at 50-70 player events that was on mono red.

EDIT: James just stated much more succinctly what I was trying to communicate. I wasn't trying to say red was bad, but rather that it was not successful. That it was not a center of innovative building efforts may indeed have been the difference there. My son played around with his list quite a bit and at times had pretty good winning streaks given it was his first year in the game.

Very well stated, Alex...you do have a gift for analysis. I remember how tiresome it was playing from about AVR through rotation, simply because it got old having to play against Delver so many times at a given event. That's what attracted me to MBI in the later part of that season--doing something that wasn't Delver and that didn't care about lifegain and the like. People groaned and complained about how "unfair" Infect was, but at least it was something different.

Anyone had the benefit of testing Gruul War Chant?

Not yet, but I'm testing it tomorrow at my LGS with a RG list.

[deck]Creatures
4 Stromkirk Noble
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Ash Zealot
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Flinthoof Boar
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Hellrider

Spells
3 Rancor
3 Gruul War Chant

Lands
4 Stomping Ground
4 Rootbound Crag
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Temple Garden
12 Mountain
[/deck]

Hopefully it's not too slow. Boros Reckoner can also be something like Firefist Striker to screw up blocks. I'm not too comfortable on going on the 20-land route
though since GWC is a 4-drop and that means no Hellriders.

I think one of my many problems is that I get exhausted explaining things that I feel are self-evident; even when if I would just take a simple half-step back, I would appreciate that they are not.