Dies to Removal

Sounds like fun! Good job on today. I was keeping track on Facebook. Told my wife about the whole Rick Grimes thing, and how one of your opponent's name was Richard Grimes.

I lost my win and in to Day 2. Finished at 6-3.

Gonna play some side events tomorrow, and I'm pretty sure tomorrow will be just as fun as today.

Had some crazy things happen, like Todd Anderson, Brad Nelson, and Gerry T clowning around with me and making Rick Grimes/Coral jokes. I've taken fuck knows how many pictures with people, meeting new players, and involving myself with the larger Florida community. It's good stuff!

https://twitter.com/strong_sad/status/5 ... 6524854273

So that is you in this picture? I saw the tweet yesterday and thought to myself "That has to be Khaospawn...".

Yeah, that's me.

SM, Richard Grimes was from Atlanta too

But #cleanshavenrick...

Good on ya, khaos.

One thing that I'm excited about in the Khan's block is the reanimation effects that red has here: Flamewake Phoenix, Ashcloud Phoenix, and Alesha. If you're wanting to go R/B, I'd think that's where you'd want to be with smaller threats like Zurgo Bellstriker, Bloodsoaked Champions and Alesha (or Mardu Strike Leader) plus the Phoenixes (which pair nicely together), backed up by powerful fliers like the Thunderbreak Regent and Kolaghan the Storm's Fury. Add in some burn like Wild Slash, Lightning Strike plus Roast, Ultimate Price, or Murderous Cut, and you could have something very similar to Dos Rakis.

I'm leaving out most of Theros block as a look ahead, but it would be fairly gross with Eidolon of the Great Revel since the reanimation effects don't trigger it and neither do the bigger fliers.

It wouldn't have the overall power of Rakis, which relied on insanely powerful single finishers like Hellrider, Falkenrath Aristocrat, or Thundermaw Hellkite, but it would work well together as a team, able to rebuild a board state fairly quickly after a sweeper.

All four regulars from my LGS that went to Miami made day 2.

The angle of that picture makes you look like a midget

Finished second at a limited PPTQ yesterday (66 players), top 8 deck was:

[deck]
Creatures
1 Aven Surveyor
1 Disowned Ancestor
1 Glacial Stalker
2 Jeskai Elder
1 Mer-ek Nightblade
1 Mistfire Adept
1 Monastery Flock
2 Sultai Skullkeeper
1 Thousand Winds

Non-Creature Spells
1 Bitter Revelation
1 Dead Drop
1 Disdainful Stroke
2 Force Away
1 Rakshasa's Secrets
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Treasure Cruise
2 Write into Being

Lands
1 Dismal Backwater
8 Island
1 Plains
7 Swamp
1 Tranquil Cove
[/deck]

More controlling version of my favorite archetype with Sorin for value.

What you lose to?

Not sure how any of my standard decks could beat GW devo..

Mardu with Butcher, two Necropolis Fiend and a Mastery of the Unseen.

To be fair my deck was only a 6-7/10 so 2-1 was a just result, I needed to run well to 3-0 and didn't.

Fly over them and Erase the Unseens?

To be fair my deck was only a 6-7/10 so 2-1 was a just result, I needed to run well to 3-0 and didn't.

I think you overvalue walls(monastery flock, big defensive dudes).

The deck as build was mostly good cards, but it was half agro, half control which was the problem.

That and I still don't think disdainful stroke is a maindeckable card.

Not sure how any of my standard decks could beat GW devo..

Jeskai with Mantis Rider seems like the deck to do it.

Fly over them and Erase the Unseens?

Realistically you cant more put more than 3 in your board, and flying over them does nothing when they gain 4+ life a turn.

Jeskai has every tool you'd ever need to fight this deck.

I'm thinking of playing in dallas... I live right there. I'm no sure what to play either after watching that gp.

Mardu Midrange or Jeskai.

I'm waaayyy out of the loop (and trying to slog back), but the GW deck seems like it would be susceptible to a controlling Mardu build--Thoughtseize to break their curve, spot/chain removal, then drop a dragon that they can't interact with G1. After board they still are left mostly with conditional options for dealing with Stormbreath...a steeper hill to be sure, but reasonable. White is still needed to deal with enchantments...Between Mastery and Outpost that's obvious. Regrettably the mana base to do it would likely be painful to support black-heavy cards...thoughts?

I've played against GW once and I already want it to die.

The black splash for Mardu is basically free. Not much pain by adding black.

Val, I'm thinking more black-heavy, capable of playing Drown/BB/HDF/Crux. Again, I'm only theorizing here...that GW deck indeed looks scary as hell.

I think it would be better to play Anger of the Gods in order to stay heavy red for Chained to the Rocks. Then you can board in End Hostilities if necessary. Black would just be for Crackling Doom, planeswalker(s), and sideboard tech.

I'm looking at Anger as well, but I think RRBBw is possibly the answer over RRWWb. Chained is going to lose even more ground now, as enchantment hate is now a mainboard imperative between Mastery, Outpost and Chained (not to mention Courser). I'm suggesting letting go of the current RW shell...again, I have no illusions of making a revelatory take on the meta, but I think this creature-centric push demands decisive removal and finishers. This would of course bring another meta shift in that blue-based control would come in and tempo us right out the door eventually, but it seems a natural way to attack the white/green dominant meta that's developed. Burn as a finishing plan falls through the floor if they are gaining life by the truckload...it just seems like running up against a brick wall to stay with the same angle when the WGx decks are all now designed to shut it down efficiently and effectively.

The angle of that picture makes you look like a midget

it ain't the angle

They've now printed enough red cards in standard where I can stop playing good decks and jam mono-red at every turn.

Red is certainly deep now. Has a TON of good one drops and now has good curve toppers. I'm not sure I'd want to play it on MTGO given how popular it is already.

I have an IQ this Sunday and after watching LSV tear ass with Jeskai tokens I'm leaning in that direction. It seems like it would be decent against GW Devotion in game one and great in games two and three, and like LSV I just enjoy drawing all the cards with Ascendancy, Outpost Siege, and Treasure Cruise.

Worth noting, my LGS facebook group is helping me brew Red Devotion since we have a REALLY good RR two drop now.

that is definitely worth noting

That two drop might be the reason I get back into standard. It's the first hope I've seen of a red aggro deck that isn't all-in.

Then again, I don't really play any magic anymore, so maybe not.

Nice, I didn't notice that one in the spoilers.

They'll give jump knights to just about any color nowadays, won't they?

I prefer to call them dragoons

Dragoon Whisperer