Dies to Removal

An LGS here in the Atlanta area hosted a free 1k last Saturday. A lot of folks showed up and the tournament wound up being 7 rounds. An interesting deck took home the cheddar and Leif Paulson was kind enough to post his list and write a bit about his experiences.

I think the deck with be of interest to DTR. It combines elements of both White Weenie and R/W Burn - and who doesn't want to play the shit out of this card? Ouch!



Here is his article.

[deck]
Creatures
4x Soldier of the Pantheon
3x Imposing Sovereign
4x Spirit of the Labyrinth
4x Precinct Captain
4x Banisher Priest
1x Brimaz, King of Oreskos

Spells
2x Chained to the Rocks
4x Brave the Elements
2x Mizzium Mortars
4x Boros
Charm
2x Spear of Heliod
1x Aurelia's Fury

Planeswalkers
1x Ajani, Caller of the Pride
2x Chandra, Pyromaster

Lands
4x Temple of Triumph
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Mutavault
6x Plains
4x Mountains

Sideboard
2x Chained to the Rocks
2x Mizzium Mortars
1x Ajani, Caller of the Pride
2x Aurelia's Fury
3x Assemble the Legion
3x Spark Trooper
2x Aurelia, the Warleader[/deck]


Zem's List and the Meta Shift

Zem's list spurred changes in metas online, in LGS and high level competitive play around the world. The impact the deck is a testament to the work Zem put in and that we all greatly appreciate. This list isn't an alternative to his R/W Burn deck but it does take advantage of that meta shift that Zem caused with his deck. As more R/W burn hate sneaks into sideboards, this creature heavy deck with a burn accent is uniquely positioned to pull ahead of the more established archetypes. Brave, Spear, Ajani, and Boros Charm's indestructible option also provide a
nice defense against R/W Burn.

Match-ups

Esper/UW Control

The three main deck Spirit of the Labyrinth is a devastating turn two play against any control deck. The turn one soldier of the pantheon is also protected against Detention Sphere and Azorius Charm - forcing the Esper player to use removal spells on turn one plays. If you're able to find that Boros Charm to respond to the Wraith, this deck is in an incredible position to hit the control player with Aurelia's Fury for lethal in response to that game-winning Sphinx's Revelation.

Mono-B/Mono-U

Brave the elements is a powerful card in any match up against a mono colored deck. Spirit of the Labyrinth is also position to shut down underworld connections and Precinct Captain is great for shutting down Demons. With Cards like Drown in Sorrow, it's important to use caution and avoid flooding the board without the ability to add counters or use Brave.

G/R Monsters

This deck excells in the match up with
traditional aggro style. If the G/R player has ramped into early threats, the main deck has plenty of answers in Banisher Priest, Mizzium Mortars and Chained to the Rocks. More of those cards can be brought in post-board and Ajani and Boros Charm threaten to given double strike to small creatures pumped with counters in the early game.

Of course I would post this in the wrong section. Would a mod mind moving this to Developing? Sorry about that!

You're from Atlanta? What store do you play out of?

I missed the 1k, but I don't like this guy claims to have brewed something. It just White Weenies splashing red. Fury is arguably the worst card in his deck. Kudos to him for doing well, but all the good Atlanta players were at the IQ

I play out of Wasteland of course - the most turnt up LGS in North America.

Yeah I just thought the deck was interesting and test a bit with it basically out of my frustration from playing R/W Burn mirrors online. Where was that IQ? Dalton?

Oh it's Jeb! Wassup man it's Collin Schwartz!

Should have known anyone posting under "Purp" is a GA boy

this deck is in an incredible position to hit the control player with Aurelia's Fury for lethal in response to that game-winning Sphinx's Revelation.

I'm not sure I am following the line of play with Aurelia's Fury & Sphinx's Revelation --- casting that in response to a spell already on the stack won't negate it as Aurelia's Fury as the card says players can't cast non-creature spells (Sphinx's Revelation has already been cast).

Regardless, looks like a pretty fun deck

looks interesting. I will run some iteration with some minor tweaks and give a report after FNM.

Mana base looks a bit shaky, do you really want 8 non-white sources in a deck trying to play cards like Precinct Captain and Banisher Priest on curve? On the other hand if you take out the mountains, Chained needs to go. Might be for the better though, replace it with maybe the last Sovereign and a 3rd Mortars?

Certainly an interesting list, what do you think makes a red splash better than blue or black?

this deck is in an incredible position to hit the control player with Aurelia's Fury for lethal in response to that game-winning Sphinx's Revelation.

I'm not sure I am following the line of play with Aurelia's Fury & Sphinx's Revelation --- casting that in response to a spell already on the stack won't negate it as Aurelia's Fury as the card says players can't cast non-creature spells (Sphinx's Revelation has already been cast).

Regardless, looks like a pretty fun deck

You can kill them in response to their Sphinx's Revelation. It works this way with any
burn spell based on how the stack works.

Example:
You Shock your opponent when they are at 2.
In response, so that they don't die, they Sphinx's Revelation for 10.
In response, you Lightning Strike them.

The Lightning Strike will be the first spell to resolve, putting your opponent at -1. They die due to state based actions before the Sphinx's Revelation ever has the opportunity to resolve.

Also, there is a guy up here in North Carolina who is also playing a pretty similar list. I always seem to get paired against him when I'm X-1 somehow, so I guess the deck is pretty decent. It seems incredibly bad against Mono Black, but everything else seems to be a favorable matchup. I was curious about the deck, but the guy playing it up here is kind of a dickhole so I never asked him to check out the actual deck.