Dies to Removal

I wouldn't say 4 is absolutely necessary. 3 should be plenty in my experience with Jeskai.

Ok, I was drinking liquor when I wrote that. 3 may be enough. But 3 are mandatory!

Ok, this is my sorta final version of Kolaghan Dragons after spending as much time as possible in Tournament practice room and after 2 FNMs. I'll be taking that tommorrow for final test run.

[deck]Kolaghan Dragons[/deck]

Angers in main because I just want them. Also the FNMs I attended had been aggro orgy and MTGO is always full of that. But let's say Angers, Commands, Roars and Strikes are "flex spots". Strike are here because I just wasn't bale to find a card I was happy with so I defaulted to trustworthy LS: BBs are fcking terrible against Control, Whip just does not do enough, Stokes are hard to cast, Crater's Claws is just a "win more" card. These slots can easily be other creatures or some spells but I am just done with that. Would love Young Pyro or Ashley but alas, they are not Standard legal.

SB is a mess but some of these cards really do work wonders. As far as no Outpost Siege goes, I just prefer Chandra more mainly because of Dromoka's Command. Haven't tried Empty the Pits yet but I do like having one of a game ender.

instead of SB plans I'll write matchups for each card
Thoughtseize: Abzan (may be bad idea but I very much prefer getting the shit out of their hand instead of it hitting the table), Ux Control
Wound: basically any deck with green or white creatures except tokens
RtB: Abzan, Ux Control
Anger: GW Aggro/Devo, RDW, anytime I see a Deathmist Raptor (once again, may be a mistake, but they come with Protectors and usually with other targets, let's say Lions, Caryatids and shit)
Chandra: Tokens of any variety, RDW, Abzan (not sure there against aggro, pretty sure against Control)
Crux: Basically any time Anger is either too weak (Abzan Control) or I need to go full Control (green ramp decks, RDW)
Kolaghan: Fly over Abzan Control (too slow against aggro), Ux Control
Empty the Pits: Ux Control
Sarkhan: I just love this guy.
Bile Blight: Abzan aggro, RDW...

Cards that I think are somewhat worthy of mentioning that are not here: Flamewake Phoenix, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Duress, more Bile Blights, Butcher of the Horde, Ashcloud Phoenix, Dragon Whisperer, Ire Shaman and probably lots of others ...

This is my deckbuilding shit stretched to it's limit. I have no fucking clue where to go with that from here other than just mess with the flex spots so I am gonna start toying with Mardu. Any comments, even those of "PISS POOR TRY GET OUT UNPLAYABLE PILE" variety are welcome.

Pretty much. I don't like the discard plan against Esper though would much rather just stick a Flamewake and be done with it. But alas I don't yet have the necessary paper cards for Mardu so I am sticking with BR variant (while on MTGO I do have the cards so that's what I'll be toying with next week).

Rabblemaster is still better at closing games than Flamewake when not answered. And that's what you want for your 3-drop.

I only see Flamewake being played in Big Red where you have a lot more mana available (more flexibility than availablity) with Dragonbreath effects and +4 power creatures costing less.

Certainly not an end to all things but since they are trading 1 for 1 it "may" generate (and usually does) card advantage. As far as my experience goes the matchup got better with the addition of Phoenix but that was before I started playing Rabbles. Duress only forestalls the inevitable: they will draw Dig sooner or later. I prefer to be the one forcing them to react not the one who reacts.

Either way Rabble is better like Pedrobear pointed out. Both Phoenix and Duress are SB material at best.

4-0 another FNM. RDW 2-1 Atarka Red 2-1 Mirror (no kidding, but he was playing Dragonlord's Servant and Outpost Sieges main with HDF only in board) 2-1 (after a game where we stared at each other with 4 dragons on each side of the table) and Sidisi Whip 2-1.

Thoughtseizes are just terribad against RDW and the store was full of them. Lost both G1 and won the others on back of Anger. Hornet Queen is a bitch too, but she cannot deal with 4 Dragons including Kolaghan (2 of them back from grave to fulfill their duties once again) and Rabble continuously producing tokens. Also Crux of Fate being one-sided Wrath of God is just great.

I made some rather small errors due to hangover which in one case cost me a game (played a scry land against RDW instead of +1 life which would give me enough life to survive one more turn and alpha strike him with Kolaghan and 2 Dragons).

Deck is helluva fun to play though and I am looking forward to toying with the Mardu variant of it.

Oh the misplays at GP Paris... 2 Mardu Dragons deck at the entrance to TOP 8 and one guy just hands opponent the games. This was horrendous to watch.

Another random thought: Havens in Mardu are really clunky. In BR you stumble sometimes... in Mardu much more often. I am beginning to wonder if they are where the deck wants to be.

Also Seekers offer much more aggresive gameplan but also much more clunkier starts. The sequencing of taplands or Seizes will determine the beginning of the game and it may just be my inexperience with that compared to BR but I am not sold on that guy. Deck really wants to play more than one spell a turn but that is problem with everything clogged up in the 3 mana slot.

You haven't lived until you've bought back Stoke the Flames for three straight turns.

I've infinite Murderous Cut or Kolaghan's Command soft lock with Soulfire. The split Seeker/GSM at 4/2 or 3/3 can be discussed but not less.

Haven is fucking pretty fine at 2 in Mardu, do not play less.

I'll write a report of my GP with Mardu maybe today or tomorrow.

What do you gain by Haven? Recursion. Ability to regain tempo. This matters mostly in grindy matchups (Abzan Control, Ux Control, Sidisi Whip etc.). The problem with it is that in matchups where you have to have the right answer at the right time, drawing Haven instead of needed dual will actually make you lose tempo.

We present a diverse arrays of threats of which Dragons are only part of. But Haven won't help you cast Anger nor will it help you cast Crackling Doom. These are the moments Haven feels like a liability instead of a useful card. Comparing it to last season Mutavault even as powerful as that was the right answer certainly wasn't just to pack 2 and be done with it. It all depended on the mana requirements of the deck.

I'll admit I am still getting the ropes of the deck but the frustration of not having the right mana is there. In BR I can safely go up to 3 Havens since I am still producing enough mana for Angers (which is basically what you NEED against RDW). But then again I haven't tried with the exact mana composition of Magalhaes' list which may mean the difference in perceived frustration.

As for Seeker... what matchups do you guys see him as powerful (aside from the obvious RDW)? He does pretty well against Collected Company decks, but he is just outclassed by basically anything Abzan pulls up (especially after they SB in Ultimate Prices) and blanked by any deck playing Courser. There are not many matches where we retain the aggresive role after SB and Seeker just does not fit into controlling plan (well, except hyper-aggro. Pretty good there I'll admit). I am all up for having him MD but he just feels super clunky after SB.

As I am slowly trading for my Mardu cards, I'll be taking BR to tuesday's Standard. The changes I wanna try from the last list I posted are the following:

MB
+4 Ire Shaman
+1 either HDF, Cut, Foul-Tonque or +2 Stokes (in which case -1 HDF)
+1 Haven
-3 Lightning Strike
-2 Anger of the Gods
-1 Swamp

SB
+2 Anger of the Gods
+2 Outpost Siege
-1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
-2 Chandra, Pyromaster
-1 either Bile Blight or Kolaghan (turning towards Kolaghan)

I've found that not having early threats is very brave in a deck with no card advantage engine MB other than Havens. Also I now have so many dead cards VS control G1 that I dread to meet them. Ire Shaman is a card I really want to try since he gets around Abzan, offers a blocker (well...) against RDW and is not a terrible lategame topdeck with enough mana. LS have been underwhelming compared to DR (yep, now officialy on the DR train) since it's still bad against Ux and you want to get rid of it and RDW games are coinflip either way.

Deck will be certainly be more soft to Collected Company shenanigans G1 but we're still in good shape for G2 and G3 with 4 Angers. I feel like I dilluted the MB too much and made myself much weaker by trying to go the full removal route withotu enough threats.

/edit

Fuck Stokes. I may add some Wild Slashes instead if I expect RDW everywhere (read: FNMs, not premier play). I am actually comfortable with going down to 2 Downfalls and adding 2 Wild Slashes MB and 1 SB for FNM. This will lead to needing some more cards against slower decks in SB, mainly Ux Control (since I am gonna be SBing 1 Cut 2 Slashes and 4 Roars for 2 RtB, 2 Sieges, 1 Empty the Pits, 1 Seize leaving me still 1 card short. For Esper it's correct to side in 2 Wound while I believe it may be correct to leave Downfalls in either way since resolved Ashiok is a pain and some people bring in Tasigur expecting us to side out all removals). Pure UB control is a grindy nightmare. Either way these thoughts are somehow applicable to MArdu builds too, especially with regards to Wild Slash being a possibility expecting pure RDW meta.

A somehow interesting idea we came up with yesterday was adding Silumgar (prolly Dragonlord) to SB. Having Havens presents a real opportunity to cast an off color Dragonlord. There is the option of putting one [card]Sarkhan's Triumph[/card] in the SB for the grindier matches as well to help find relevant/specific threats. This may be too cute but it is certainly a fun way to make use of the Dragon lands.

As shitty as Owen's article on CFB have been today (I seriously can't wrap my head around how someone would get paid for quickly writing 3 paragraphs and a decklist), there is one point there to be made:

Fuck Rabblemasters.

He and Stark made the list with only 3 of them and I am starting to think that is the more correct call. With the abundance of creatures Rabblemaster shows his weak side every now and then. 3 seems much more reasonable than just jam packing 4.

Random thought of the night: Will be going down to 2 seizes for FNMs because every goddamn dude and dudess (TM) is playing RDW. On MTGO I would stick with 3 main though. Also Wild Slashes for your FNM while no way I am playing Shock on MTGO.

Another random thought (since I am basically talking to myself here ): saw a post on spikes about a guy cutting the one Cut. That would be my new definition of mistake in deckbuilding. This card represents everything you want from one-of removal for me in Standard and he cuts it for a Command?

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?

On the topic of Mardu, I got 12th place at the Dallas Open on Mardu Dragons. Felt pretty good, since I audibled onto it at like 3 am Saturday.

Literally just copy-pasted Turtenwalds list with the mana base changes he suggested, and replaced the 2 Outpost Siege with 2 Chandra, Pyromaster.

Well fucking done, congratulations! Report or thoughts in general about cards and SB would be greatly appreciated.

Im horrible at doing tourney reports because i dont keep many notes, but heres what i have written down and some things i remember.

W R1, Abzan Control. Win. Dont remember much, but i do remember the match being extremely easy. My main testing buddy took his Abzan Control to 23rd, so i had solid practice beforehand.

W R2, Jeskai Tokens. Got him in 3. Lost game 1 in miserable fashion. I think it may just be unwinnable game 1. Won 2 easily, 3 went to time but i won on turn 2 of overtime. Rebuying Thoughtseize with Soulfire Grand Master actually just won me game 3.

W R3, GW Collected Company. Lose game 1, win 2 and 3.

W R4, GW Collected Company. Lose game 1, win 2 and 3. I think this matchup is pretty easy after boarding.

L R5, 4 Color Collected Company. I tested this deck for 3 days and played it at FNM before ultimately deciding it wasnt good enough. He beat me in 2 games. Game 1 was quick, and game 2 he just drew better. I think this matchup is favored based on the other deck having too much varience. He did end up making day 2.

W R6 Temur Dragons. I get mana screwed game 3, he gets flooded. Eventually it all balances out and we are in a top deck war with empty hands. Mardu has better topdecks, and we were both at healthy enough life totals that i didnt have to worry about a Crater Claw or something.

W R7 Abzan Aggro, in 2. Game 1 he wingmate Rocs with a brimaz out. I cast Kolaghan as a blocker. He passes. I cast Stormbreath Dragon and he concedes. Game 2 he gets mana screwed and just loses.

L R8, GB Constellation. I lose in 2. I think this may just be the decks worst matchup. I bring in the 4th Thoughtseize, which may or may not be incorrect. I played against another version of this deck later and boarded out all 4 to win in 2. Who knows.

W R9 mono red. I win in 2. Ive played so much mono red this rotation that i have zero fear. Mulligans are easy, predicting their plays are easy. I just feel super comfortable against it.

Day 2.

L R10, mono red by Drew Iiafrate in 2. Or however you spell his name. I got to the center later than i wanted from over sleeping and having to stop for gas in the morning. I make a crucial error game 2 by not swapping roles to the aggressor soon enough and die to 2 Stokes. His hands both games were also very dash and burn heavy, against my mostly removal hands. I feel like this matchup is favored, and had i not had to run up an escalator 10 seconds before sitting down to play him, i feel like i would have won. There at least would have been a game 3.

W R11. Abzan. I honestly feel this matchup is impossible to lose. All variations of Abzan just folded to the deck.

Draw R12. Another misplay loses me game 1. Win game 2, time game 3 with an insane hand against his weak keep. Frustrating, and sinks my run for top 8.

W R13. GB Constellation. Win in 2. Boarded out all Thoughtseize. Game 2 Chandra crushes his head with her magnificent thighs. Drawing cards, helping remove Coursers with D roars, the works.

W R14. Mardu Dragons. Slightly different deck. Win in 2 easy games.

W R15. Esper Dragons, lose 1, win 2 quickly, win 3 when he mulls to 5 and I Thoughtseize on 1. I made a point to play much faster this time against control so as to not go to time. Edit: this was the only undefeated player from day 1, and he beat Mardu 3 times before losing to me.


All in all, i feel good about how i played but i do know that i made mistakes that cost me top 8. I need to sleep more, and wake up earlier for these things so i dont show up drowsy. As for the deck, i wouldn't have changed a single card for this event, other than maybe the Mastery. Moving forward, i think its a solid base to start with, but meta shifts will require immediate changes to the deck to keep it competitive.

Wish i could say more, but im bad at this. Hopefully someone finds something useful in this wall of text. Ill check back later. Feel free to ask specific questions, as im better at answering those.

Good fuckin job Jasper!!!! You the man

I played a 35 person PPTQ this weekend and lost in the top4 to a kid I smoked in the top8. Cards just didnt line up well despite him making mistakes like forgetting to cast Boon Satyr eot...

Basically ran the GP Toronto deck except 3/3 Seeker and Soulfire and a few other changes.

I played 1 Cut, 1 Charm and 1 Command and I think Owen may be right in that I def want at least the 2nd Murderous Cut but not sure about the 3rd.

Finally feel like I have a deck I like playing since RW Outpost Seige.

Ready to kick some ass at SCG Worcester Standard this weekend!!!



Also considering going 4 Soulfire/2 or 3 Seeker. I sideboarded out Seeker a lot but never SFGM.

Current List

[deck]
3 Seeker of the Way
3 Soulfire Grand Master
3 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
4 Thunderbreak Regent
3 Thoughtseize
4 Crackling Doom
2 Murderous Cut
4 Draconic Roar
2 Foul-Tongue Invocation
1 Kolaghan's Command
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Temple of Triumph
1 Temple of Malice
2 Temple of Silence
4 Caves of Koilos
2 Battlefield Forge
3 Mountain
1 Swamp
4 Nomad Outpost
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
SB: 1 Thoughtseize
SB: 1 Kolaghan's Command
SB: 1 Read the Bones
SB: 2 Outpost Siege
SB: 1 Crux of Fate
SB: 4 Anger of the Gods
SB: 1 Mastery of the Unseen
SB: 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
SB: 1 Duress
SB: 2 Ultimate Price
[/deck]


Command is a flex spot that could be a Seeker/Soulfire , Murderous Cut or Mardu Charm.

I think seeker is pretty marginal against the field. WIth so many midrange matchups coming to top decks and a decent creature count, it's just super marginal/underpowered. Rabblemaster still fills a role game 1 but only because there are not any other threats in these colors under 4CMC that the opponent can't just ignore (flamewake, seeker, whatever).

My playtesting partner played this list to the finals of a local GPT yesterday:

[deck]
3x Battlefield Forge
4x Bloodstained Mire
2x Caves of Koilos
2x Haven of the Spirit Dragon
3x Mountain
4x Nomad Outpost
1x Swamp
2x Temple of Malice
1x Temple of Silence
4x Temple of Triumph

4x Thoughtseize
4x Crackling Doom
3x Draconic Roar
4x Foul-Tongue Invocation
1x Murderous Cut
1x Valorous Stance

4x Goblin Rabblemaster
2x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
3x Soulfire Grand Master
4x Stormbreath Dragon
4x Thunderbreak Regent

4x Anger of the Gods
1x Duress
2x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2x Glare of Heresy
1x Mastery of the Unseen
3x Outpost Siege
2x Ultimate Price[/deck]

Jam your best spells at 3cmc (rabbles, doom, FTI) and then continue the beating from there. Command and Charm simply don't cut the cheese in our testing. Playing less than 26 lands is sub-optimal IMO, especially with two of your lands being sacced to recur threats. Going monstrous on your final SBD will often put the nail in games, set your mana base up accordingly. You also want 2x Elspeth side for the relevant matchups and 26 is a safe number for a 6-drop you want in a timely manner.

The deck feels a bit of a dice roll game 1 as you have limited card selection and zero draw, but a good mix of lands and spells will typically get you there regardless. Post-board, the deck has what it takes to battle with anything in the format if boarded correctly.

If you can figure out when to turn the corner and get aggressive, you can definitely have success with Mardu. Good times! Crackling Doom feels so good..

What's your SB plan against Abzan Aggro guys? Mine has been -Rabbles -2drops -any dead removal (Command, Slash if any etc.) and board in basically the whole SB (RtB, Wound, Crux, Sieges, Seizes, Duresses if any, Dragonlords if any). Not sure about boarding PWs in and definitely not boarding in Anger. Do you approach the matchup differently? I seem to be having more success with us going the control route G2 and G3 since their creatures outclass ours on the ground very easily.

Against Abzan Control it's basically the same with the exception of boarding in PWs too.

Also Ire Shaman is not that bad in BR, but not that great too. It gets damage through rather easily though. I also agree with the 26th land.

I'd bring in Anger of the Gods, not 4 but 2 is okay I think. During the GP I've overplayed an Abzan Aggro who let it in my hand with a Thoughseize thinking I wouldn't play it to kill a single Lion.

I actually did and it was exactly the right play. that's 1 for 1 but that's still removal for one their early threat, then you can win with SBD.

I don't side in RtB in matchup where HP are very important.

I've been giving this list a try and have been liking fairly well. It's Edgar Magalhaes's list from GP Toronto but some major tweaks.

[deck]
Lands (25)
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Caves of Koilos
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
4 Mountain
4 Nomad Outpost
1 Swamp
1 Temple of Malice
1 Temple of Silence
3 Temple of Triumph

Creatures (20)
4 Dragon Whisperer
2 Soulfire Grand Master
4 Flamewake Phoenix
4 Thunderbreak Regent
2 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
4 Stormbreath Dragon

Spells (15)
3 Thoughtseize
2 Wild Slash
3 Draconic Roar
4 Crackling Doom
2 Foul-Tongue Invocation
1 Murderous Cut

Sideboard (15)
2 Duress
2 Erase
1 Thoughtseize
2 Ultimate Price
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Read the Bones
2 Crux of Fate
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
[/deck]

This is a bit more aggressive. I've liked Flamewake Phoenix A LOT more than Rabbles. The haste and flying seems to make it harder to deal with it. The recursion with all of the dragons makes it come back very often.

I've been really unhappy with [card]Kolaghan's Command[/card] and found I was mostly using to deal 2 damage to a creature, so I just decided to use Wild Slash instead.

Ultimate Price in the side has been amazing and won't be taking them out. They've been way too useful.

The Dragon Whisperers have been good. Better than Seeker of the Way? I don't know. I miss the life gain, but Seeker just seems so much weaker in the late game.

Any thoughts are welcome.

Dragon Whisperers + Flamewake Phoenix seems to be a huge mana angry package. But I'll give it a try because everyone is looking for replacement of the 2 cards we all side out the most. I'm still not convinced there are currently better choices.
I'm also not sure that even with your small modification, the manabase can support RR on turn 2 and 1RR on turn 3.

In which matchup would you bring Ultimate Price and Erase ?

I agree the mana base seems greedy, but so far, I've not had that much of a problem casting them on their turns.

I've found Ultimate Price great in the mirror, any aggro (except Abzan), company decks, green devotion, etc. Anything where their big creatures are usually mono-colored.

Erase I'm... still on the fence about. I've been playing some Whip and G/B enchantments so I decided to throw some in the side.

What's your SB plan against Abzan Aggro guys? Mine has been -Rabbles -2drops -any dead removal (Command, Slash if any etc.) and board in basically the whole SB (RtB, Wound, Crux, Sieges, Seizes, Duresses if any, Dragonlords if any). Not sure about boarding PWs in and definitely not boarding in Anger. Do you approach the matchup differently? I seem to be having more success with us going the control route G2 and G3 since their creatures outclass ours on the ground very easily.

Against Abzan Control it's basically the same with the exception of boarding in PWs too.

Also Ire Shaman is not that bad in BR, but not that great too. It gets damage through rather easily though. I also agree with the 26th land.

-2 Soulfire Grand Master
-4 Draconic Roar
-2 Kolaghan

+2 Elspeth
+2 Chandra, Pyromaster
+2 RTB
+1 Thoughtseize
+1 Ugin

Didnt drop any matches vs Abzan variants with this plan.

So you try to retain the agressor role with some different top end along with CA. Ok, gonna try that.

Generally speaking, they only play 1 threat per turn, so if you Seeker on 2, you can just play removal until they take a turn to cast a removal spell and a creature, and then you dragon them. Thoughtseize is there to catch anything that is a 2 for 1 or greater. Sometimes my Seeker is just good for trading with a lion tbh.

Playing the PPTQ tomorrow with Mardu. Ill post any changes to the deck and how it goes.

I actually had success with that plan against abzan even with BR Dragons yesterday. The early threats are important to maintain tempo because like you said, we start to trade 1 for 1 beginning on turn 3.

Lost 3 consecutive win and ins and missed top 8. Hahahaha.

IQ tomorrow though. Id like the mono red matchup to be better...

Thoughts?

http://www.themeadery.org/articles/mardu-aggro-primer/

Have you seen this ?

I always liked Ben Stark's RW deck, so I might jump in this train.

I have.

It's confusing to me that he rants about Dromoka's Command (which I agree with) yet keeps Outpost Siege in the deck while cutting Chained to the Rocks. I don't think either are playable anymore (at least maindeck) and would be interested to hear why he chose to run it over Chandra.

He just says : "Command on chains is a huge blowout but command on outpost is a blowout and manageable".

Well I don't want to spend 4 manas on something that do nothing. But I've actually played Outpost and Chains after DTK release, dodged the Command decks, I wouldn't recommand this as a real plan.

Back to testing Mardu again.

4-0 at FNM build. Played against GR Devotion, Mardu Midrange, Mono Red, and Esper Dragons. 2 strong tournament players, 2 decent players.


[deck]Creatures 15
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
3 Soulfire Grand Master

Spells 19
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Thoughtseize
2 Wild Slash
4 Lightning Strike
3 Exquisite Firecraft
2 Stoke the Flames
4 Crackling Doom

Walkers
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Land 24
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Caves of Koilos
3 Mountain
4 Nomad Outpost
1 Swamp
3 Temple of Silence
3 Temple of Triumph

Sideboard 15
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 End Hostilities
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Ultimate Price
1 Murderous Cut
1 Temple of Silence[/deck]