Dies to Removal

Chaos Warp, and a very tenuous Aura Barbs?

Yeah, Chaos Warp is about all I can think of too. Might just have to go with good old fashion playing around 'em.

So, right now, I have a list of 36 cards that I wouldn't mind drawing instead of another Mountain. Which means I can still run 63 red mana producing lands, one of which is Valakut.

[deck]General
1 Ashling the Pilgrim

Acceptable Substitutes for Land
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Gauntlet of Might
1 Caged Sun
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Batterskull
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Mind's Eye
1 Chaos Warp
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Gamble
1 Planar Portal
1 Ring of Three Wishes
1 Scythe of the Wretched
1 Illusionist's Bracers
1 Earthquake
1 Hostility
1 Repercussion
1 Devil's Play
1 Comet Storm
1 Red Sun's Zenith
1 Goblin Welder
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Vandalblast
1 Shattering
Spree
1 Argentum Armor
1 Vicious Shadows
1 Molten Disaster
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Insurrection
1 Rummaging Goblin
1 Expedition Map
1 Glacial Chasm

Land
62 Mountain
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle[/deck]

There are plenty of ways to deal with enchantments. It's not easy, but it's possible.

[deck]1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Chaos Warp
1 Karn Liberated
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Argentum Armor
1 Capricious Efreet
1 Eye of Doom
1 Lux Cannon

Gaining control
1 Confusion in the Ranks
1 Avarice Totem

More specific
1 Anarchy
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast

Low CMC
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Powder Keg

Overkill
1 Scrambleverse
1 Warp World

Pet card
1 Mimic Vat[/deck]

Some of those are bad, but I wouldn't consider any of them unplayable (though some are unplayable in Ashling specifically).

Karn might be something to try. Red just isn't the color of perfect answers.


EDIT: Yeesh! Karn's price has gone up a bit...

From that list I play Disk, O-stone, Chaos Warp, Karn, Steel Hellkite and Ulamog. Karn is good, he sometimes just wins the game, but sometimes he's an expensive Disenchant...

My only hesitation with Disk is destroying my Gauntlets/Swords. I guess if I just play smart it won't be a big deal. If nothing else it's a rattlesnake.

Nev's Disk is a great deterrent.

"Wow, that's some nice board position you got there. It'd be a shame for something to happen to it. Oh, you've decided to attack someone else? That's probably a pretty good idea..."

Darksteel Forge for an extra layer of protection against Artifact hate? The Gauntlets, Swords, Disk, Caged Sun, the Lifelink equipment... they'll try to pop all of it. CMC 9 really shouldn't be that big of a deal in this deck.

I play it, but I'm not that thrilled with it. I've found its goodness depends on the decks you're playing against. If they play a lot of artifact hate, its actually often worse since you'll be paying 9 for a do-nothing spell (since you have no artifacts on the field later in the game). It's also a bit of a magnet if your group plays a fair bit of exile-based removal. I'm thinking about cutting it. 9-mana is easy enough to get to, but there are too often better things to spend that mana on.

Ha! I just got a real Gauntlet of Might. No mo' "playtesting" proxy.


What are thoughts on Strata Scythe?

I play it. Very solid card that's often better than giving Ashling protection (since she's big enough to survive her own blast).

Magebane Armor could be useful there too.

I have this [card]General's Regalia[/card] in a box of old stuff and thought maybe I could use it to avoid taking commander damage from my own general. Not sure if I really run enough creatures to make it work the way I want it to, though.

General damage is only combat damage. Ashling exploding doesn't deal general damage. Also, needing 9 mana to explode instead of 6 seems bad.

Magebane Armor is fine, but it's probably the weakest equipment with that same effect. You should be playing both Swords, Darksteel Plate, Akroma's Memorial, Scythe of the Wretched and Strata Scythe before you play the Armor. Probably even Shield of Kaldra is better. Basically, yeah, go for it if you feel you really need more of the same, but I haven't played it since my first iteration of the deck.

Someone in my group had me thinking it was any damage from a general. Looks like I get to rub his nose in that tonight.