Dies to Removal

I'm going to run dat Dega burn along with you.

Woot, woot. Love the SB options W/B provide also.

Here's what I'm going to test out with commentary below

[deck]Creatures
3 Deathrite Shaman

Spells
4 Bump in the Night
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Searing Spear
4 Thunderbolt
4 Skullcrack
4 Boros Charm
4 Flames of the Firebrand
4 Warleader's Helix

Enchantments
2 Blind Obedience

Lands
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Godless Shrine
4 Blood Crypt
4 Dragonskull Summit
2 Mountain
1 Swamp

Sideboard
1 Slaughter Games
2 Underworld Connections
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Rakdos Charm
4 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Rakdos's Return
1 Archwing Dragon[/deck]

I pulled Vexing Devil from the deck because it's Vexing Devil. I filled those slots with +1 Pillar of Flame, +1 Mountain, +2 Blind Obedience.

Blind Obedience does some work against mono-red and Rb decks by removing haste, but I mainly want it in there for the extort triggers to get extra life swings from my cheap burn spells.

The sideboard gives me some
game against aggro with 4 Reckoners, 4 Bonfires and the 24th land, or I can bring in some pieces to help dismantle control (Cavern + Archwing + Underworld Connections) or reanimator (Slaughter Games + Rakdos Charm).

Cards I'm considering -

Staff of Nin
Devil's Play
Rakdos's Return
Oblivion Ring
Wear // Tear
Terminus
Divine Deflection

Changes I'm considering -

Boros Reckoner along with Bonfires might be overkill.
3 Warleader's Helix
Maindeck Underworld Connections
23 land might be too high

I have some input but I'm on my phone. I'll post in the morning, but I do like the ideas proposed herein.

I tested this deck today against a Bant deck that isn't representative of the meta in general but was still good for tuning and finding good and poor performers.

[deck]
Creatures (2)
2 Deathrite Shaman

Spells (36)
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Bump in the Night
4 Searing Spear
4 Skullcrack
4 Thunderbolt
4 Boros Charm
4 Flames of the Firebrand
2 Annihilating Fire
2 Toil / Trouble
3 Warleader's Helix
1 Underworld Connections

Lands (22)
4 Blood Crypt
4 Sacred Foundry
2 Godless Shrine
4 Dragonskull Summit
2 Isolated Chapel
1 Swamp
5 Mountain[/deck]

I never once saw Deathrite Shaman but we know he's good so let's just focus on the rest of the deck.

Top performers:
1) Warleader's Helix: damn this card is good. We don't have access to much burn that does four damage to creatures, and this fills that much-needed gap while gaining us life in the process. I was always happy to see this in my hand.
2) Toil /
Trouble: this card won me two games. In one game I was able to cast Trouble for six after a turn two Farseek from my opponent which lead to a turn five kill. The other was when I held off until I had six mana and was able to fuse it, using my opponent as the target for both and doing a total of 11 damage for the win. This card is the absolute nuts against non-aggro.
3) Skullcrack: nice Centaur Healer ya got there, bud. Not.
4) Bump in the Night: turns out the flashback isn't totally irrelevant. I actually won with this card as a topdeck with my opponent at six in a game where I was flooding out severely. It's like a Lava Spike but with late game recurrence.

Bottom performers:
1) Flames of the Firebrand: the sorcery speed on this card bit me more than a couple of times. When my opponent has a meaningful board state I sometimes have to choose between killing a creature with this or holding up mana for a Skullcrack when my opponent is playing a lot of lifegain. When this is my only creature-based
removal spell in my hand it makes me a sad panda. Every so often I can get a two-for-one but it seems like not many decks are playing one toughness critters.
2) Annihilating Fire: better than Flames of the Firebrand for me, but still three mana for three damage. Not what we really want to be playing with. That said, as Voice of Resurgence becomes more of a thing, this card increases in relevance. Also, it can exile a Thragtusk which is not irrelevant in Reanimator matchups. Possible sideboard considerations should be made here.
3) White mana: need more of it.

Some other observations:
1) We could really use a board sweeper as I feel our aggro matchup is less than stellar. Unfortunately, we don't have Pyroclasm, Whipflare, and Slagstorm, so the best we can do is Magmaquake or Bonfire of the Damned. The latter probably forces us to run at least 23 land
and probably even 24, but is probably our best option.
2) I really would like more X spells for late-game power. There were multiple occassions where I had my opponent just out of reach and really wanted a [card]Devil's Play[/card] or [card]Rakdos's Return[/card]. Again, Bonfire would help here too.
3) I felt like I wanted Staff of Nin instead of having Underworld Connections tie up a land and deal me a damage every turn. I'm not usually playing connections until I have five or six mana anyway, so why not play a card that doesn't deal me damage and can ping for one every turn?
4) I can actually see a use for Assemble the Legion now. I know Witchbane Orb doesn't see much play in sideboards, but if some scrub were to have it in an FNM, we'd be SOL. Instead of having to board in Wear / Tear blindly as a "just in case" measure and have it be totally dead if our opponent isn't playing it, we should just bring in Assemble
the Legion since it does something in every matchup. I can't think of anything else we'd want to kill off with Wear / Tear anyway except opposing Assemble the Legion and Staff of Nin.
5) We could go to 24 land and put a Stensia Bloodhall as the 24th and I'd honestly be okay with that.
6) People are playing Lavina of the Tenth now. Screw that card.

My new brew:

[deck]Creatures (2)
2 Deathrite Shaman

Spells (34)
2 Devil's Play
1 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Bump in the Night
4 Searing Spear
4 Thunderbolt
4 Skullcrack
4 Boros Charm
2 Toil / Trouble
4 Warleader's Helix
1 Staff of Nin

Lands (24)
4 Blood Crypt
4 Sacred Foundry
2 Godless Shrine
4 Dragonskull Summit
2 Clifftop Retreat
2 Isolated Chapel
1 Stensia Bloodhall
5 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
3 Human Frailty
1 Slaughter Games
2 Assemble the Legion
1 Staff of Nin
3 Rakdos Charm
1 Toil / Trouble
2 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Rakdos's Return[/deck]

I'm really impressed with Warleader's Helix and Blind Obedience in my testing tonight. I'm also disappointed in Flames of the Firebrand and will be replacing it with Bonfires.

I went 1-3 before dropping, but I found that the deck beat me far more than my opponents did. I was flooding out a lot tonight, which is unusual on 23 land. I had 6+ land in play several times.

I like the burn package so far with the exception of FotF as mentioned above. I wrecked some face with a few miracle Bonfires, and they gave me good legs against aggro.

I brought the Boros Reckoners in a few times against Gruul but they had the Searing Spears every time. I'm starting to think that a creature-based answer to aggro isn't where we want to be. Blind Obedience really screwed with the Gruul player I faced, and he groaned every time he saw one. A good sweeper like Blasphemous Act or Terminus would really make my life easier.

The
Blind Obedience extort triggers were quite relevant and I gained lots of value off of them during the tournament.

Deathrite Shaman, when he stuck, was an excellent card and let me re-use my burn for another 2 to the face.

Here's the deck I'd play next week.

[deck]
Creatures
3 Deathrite Shaman

Spells
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Bump in the Night
4 Searing Spear
4 Skullcrack
4 Thunderbolt
4 Boros Charm
3 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Warleader's Helix

Enchantments
3 Blind Obedience

Land
4 Blood Crypt
4 Godless Shrine
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Clifftop Retreat
2 Mountain
1 Isolated Chapel

Sideboard
1 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Blasphemous Act
1 Assemble the Legion
1 Staff of Nin
2 Rakdos Charm
1 Slaughter Games
2 Underworld Connections
1 Terminus
1 Devil's Play
1 Rakdos's Return
1 Divine Deflection
1 Archwing Dragon
[/deck]

The sideboard is just a bunch of weird 1-ofs that I'd really like to try out.

I replaced the singleton Swamp with an Isolated
Chapel to get a little more white.

^ have not had an opportunity to read all the notes yet; but has anyone considered any of: Dreadbore/Olivia/Sever in the board? Olivia seems pretty nasty if your opponent is going to be cutting removal.

I like the Reckoner SB plan a lot against aggro, though as discussed, maybe it isn't enough. This is where not having Grim Lavamancer and Arc Trail really bites ~ they made aggro very manageable last season (as you can imagine).

You probably only need 22 land if you're running 4 4 drops at the top of your curve, which would help with flood. The idea isn't to play for the flashback on Bump; you're playing it for the lavaspike, and if you ever get that far, think of it as drawing an extra card instead.

Blind Obedience is probably a sufficient mana sink going long right? Once you're in topdeck mode, you don't care how inefficient 1 damage for 1 mana is, you just want the extra damage. Combined with an active Deathrite and you have quite a bit of extra value.

Yes, I loved BlOb for the extort triggers. The ETB tapped clause was just extra icing on the cake.

I like BlOb but I think three might be too many to maindeck.

I would urge you to try Toil / Trouble. I had my doubts but after playing with the card it is flat-out amazing. Even in aggro matchups it can either be used to draw us cards or be held as a finisher. It can just win games out of nowhere and our opponent will always keep it in the back of their mind after they see us cast it game one.

I'll pick up a few copies of Toil // Trouble and try it out. The whole list is in flux right now, so I have no clue about the proper number of copies for things like BlOb.

I'll pick up a few copies of Toil // Trouble and try it out. The whole list is in flux right now, so I have no clue about the proper number of copies for things like BlOb.

Same here. There's so many cards that need to be tested in both the main and side. I really want to run this on MODO but Bonfires are much higher online than in paper ($24 vs $13) and I have much less MODO equity than in paper. I guess those could always be Magmaquake online to hold me over, but I really like the idea of damage to the dome and flying creatures.

I pulled Vexing Devil from the deck because it's Vexing Devil. I filled those slots with +1 Pillar of Flame, +1 Mountain, +2 Blind Obedience.

Can't blame you for taking out the Vexing Devils; in 3-color, there might be just enough truly good cards to let us cut him. I think he's a necessary evil in any 2-color variant, though. I agree that the fourth Pillar of Flame is in consideration and that Blind Obedience might be nasty!

Blind Obedience does some work against mono-red and Rb decks by removing haste, but I mainly want it in there for the extort triggers to get extra life swings from my cheap burn spells.

Yeah, another way to get +1s on our spells (like DRS) seems very nice.

The sideboard gives me some game against aggro with 4 Reckoners, 4 Bonfires and the 24th land, or I can
bring in some pieces to help dismantle control (Cavern + Archwing + Underworld Connections) or reanimator (Slaughter Games + Rakdos Charm).

I think that 4 Boros Reckoner, Bonfire of the Damned, and Flames of the Firebrand is definitely overkill. I've had just fine aggro match-ups with my set-up, but I definitely can dig bringing in 4 Bonfire of the Damned instead of 4 Flames of the Firebrand if you're liking 24 land in general. I think that's just too much, however.

Cards I'm considering -

Staff of Nin
Devil's Play
Rakdos's Return
Oblivion Ring
Wear // Tear
Terminus
Divine Deflection

Changes I'm considering -

Boros Reckoner along with Bonfires might be overkill.
3 Warleader's Helix
Maindeck Underworld Connections
23 land might be too high

I like the ideas of Staff of Nin, Devil's Play, Rakdos's Return, Terminus, Divine Deflection, (and Aurelia's Fury, perhaps?) in 24-land lists, but don't think they'll
pull their wait when we get stuck on 2-4 mana in 22-land builds. I agree with your statement about overkill in the aggro match-up, because I've have no trouble with them in my list and yours seems even better-suited for little hasty creatures. If I were to cut a single spell, it'd probably be the fourth Warleader's Helix because 4 mana is pretty demanding. Maindeck Underworld Connections seem amazing... I like the 22-land builds, but can see the deck going up to 24.

Top performers:
1) Warleader's Helix: damn this card is good. We don't have access to much burn that does four damage to creatures, and this fills that much-needed gap while gaining us life in the process. I was always happy to see this in my hand.
2) Toil / Trouble: this card won me two games. In one game I was able to cast Trouble for six after a turn two Farseek from my opponent which lead to a turn five kill. The other was when I held off until I had six mana and was able to fuse it, using my
opponent as the target for both and doing a total of 11 damage for the win. This card is the absolute nuts against non-aggro.
3) Skullcrack: nice Centaur Healer ya got there, bud. Not.
4) Bump in the Night: turns out the flashback isn't totally irrelevant. I actually won with this card as a topdeck with my opponent at six in a game where I was flooding out severely. It's like a Lava Spike but with late game recurrence.

1) Love it. It's creature removal, life gain, 4 damage. Not much not to love here. I may want to shave to 3 because they're not as good damage-to-CMC wise and can gum up your hand, but it's a great card. Was expecting it to be much worse.
2) I haven't played with it yet. If it was instant-speed, I'd be all over it. But I'm not sure if it's worth it otherwise; keep posting results so I buy it but it seems like a build-around kinda' card.
3) Yup; only good in this kinda' deck though haha.
4) I did that on Tuesday as well; was so nuts. Hellbent on 7 mana..
. Him at 6 life and drew into a Bump in the Night. Woot.

Bottom performers:
1) Flames of the Firebrand: the sorcery speed on this card bit me more than a couple of times. When my opponent has a meaningful board state I sometimes have to choose between killing a creature with this or holding up mana for a Skullcrack when my opponent is playing a lot of lifegain. When this is my only creature-based removal spell in my hand it makes me a sad panda. Every so often I can get a two-for-one but it seems like not many decks are playing one toughness critters.
2) Annihilating Fire: better than Flames of the Firebrand for me, but still three mana for three damage. Not what we really want to be playing with. That said, as Voice of Resurgence becomes more of a thing, this card increases in relevance. Also, it can exile a Thragtusk which is not irrelevant in Reanimator matchups. Possible sideboard considerations should be made here.
3) White mana: need more of it.

n1) Flames has been really good to me, so I'm not too sure why you're not getting the same results--different metas is likely why.
2) Agreed, although I think I might fit it into a BR version if I develop one--running out of good spells if I reduce a color.
3) I'm not sure where we want to be mana-wise in the 3-color decks. Obviously depends on the count of black/white spells, but also need untapped black for the one-drops and often want multiple black or white for more triggers...

Some other observations:
1) We could really use a board sweeper as I feel our aggro matchup is less than stellar. Unfortunately, we don't have Pyroclasm, Whipflare, and Slagstorm, so the best we can do is Magmaquake or Bonfire of the Damned. The latter probably forces us to run at least 23 land and probably even 24, but is probably our best option.
2) I really would like more X spells for late-game power. There were multiple occassions where I had my opponent just out of reach and really
wanted a Devil's Play or Rakdos's Return. Again, Bonfire would help here too.
3) I felt like I wanted Staff of Nin instead of having Underworld Connections tie up a land and deal me a damage every turn. I'm not usually playing connections until I have five or six mana anyway, so why not play a card that doesn't deal me damage and can ping for one every turn?
4) I can actually see a use for Assemble the Legion now. I know Witchbane Orb doesn't see much play in sideboards, but if some scrub were to have it in an FNM, we'd be SOL. Instead of having to board in Wear / Tear blindly as a "just in case" measure and have it be totally dead if our opponent isn't playing it, we should just bring in Assemble the Legion since it does something in every matchup. I can't think of anything else we'd want to kill off with Wear / Tear anyway except opposing Assemble the Legion and Staff of Nin.
5) We could go to 24 land and put a Stensia Bloodhall as the 24th and I'd honestly be okay with that.
6)
People are playing Lavina of the Tenth now. Screw that card.

1) Can't say that I agree because I've had amazing aggro match-ups, but we'll see how it all pans out. We also have access to Rolling Temblor for the infinite-2/2 decks.
2) I agree in 24-land decks; disagree whole-heartedly in 22-land decks.
3) I like Staff of Nin and think it'd be a great complement to Underworld Connections for more draw power but not enough pain, and as mentioned before feel like it'd be better in a 24-land deck.
4) Yeah, it's a great card. Gives you free wins against control and forces their hand--they have to dig for Oblivion Ring/Detention Sphere if they even have them and you can mess up the life gain from Skullcracks; and yeah it blows out Witchbane Orb which is (likely) only a 1-2-of in Esper Control boards for the mirror.
5) If we go to 24 land, then all of the X-spell changes and Stensia Bloodhall do indeed seem amazing.
6) Meh.

I'm really impressed with Warleader's Helix and Blind Obedience in my testing tonight. I'm also disappointed in Flames of the Firebrand and will be replacing it with Bonfires...Deathrite Shaman, when he stuck, was an excellent card and let me re-use my burn for another 2 to the face.

Referenced this already.

^ have not had an opportunity to read all the notes yet; but has anyone considered any of: Dreadbore/Olivia/Sever in the board? Olivia seems pretty nasty if your opponent is going to be cutting removal.

Dreadbore is an amazing card when there are other creature-creature interactions because you can kill theirs and let yours do all the work, but we don't have creatures. I really want all of my spells to burn the opponent or draw me cards that burn the opponent. If we could bank on them removing ALL of their removal, then yes to Olivia Voldaren! But, some people still put us on Hellrider or Falkenrath Aristocrat, etc. So they
leave in some removal. I'd rather just let their bad decisions mulligan for them, and at least take away a mode or two off of their charms, you know?

I like the Reckoner SB plan a lot against aggro, though as discussed, maybe it isn't enough. This is where not having Grim Lavamancer and Arc Trail really bites ~ they made aggro very manageable last season (as you can imagine).

You probably only need 22 land if you're running 4 4 drops at the top of your curve, which would help with flood. The idea isn't to play for the flashback on Bump; you're playing it for the lavaspike, and if you ever get that far, think of it as drawing an extra card instead.

I think 4 Pillar of Flame + 4 Flames of the Firebrand + 4 Boros Reckoner + (Blasphemous Act Plan) is enough. It has been in my testing, but I've only played like 20 formal rounds of magic with the deck. You also have to take into consideration Deathrite Shaman, Blind Obedience, and Bump in the Night.
These cards win the game against aggro in the same way that Helion Crucible does. You aggressively one-for-one the entire game and then just grind them out 1-2 life at a time and with 6 damage spells. I do agree that the 22 land base is where we want to be, but these guys like X-spells (don't we all?) and I think that'd force us to bump it up to 24. Not sure how I feel about it, but the two ideas go hand-in-hand, IMO.

Blind Obedience is probably a sufficient mana sink going long right? Once you're in topdeck mode, you don't care how inefficient 1 damage for 1 mana is, you just want the extra damage. Combined with an active Deathrite and you have quite a bit of extra value.

Yes, I ran a few games on Cockatrice with it and it's just the nuts. Haven't played the tricolor deck with Blind Obedience and Deathrite Shaman yet, but it seems outrageous.

RDW, Val, Z: thank you for the comments. I think the list could start coming together pretty nicely.

With DGM's pending release on MTGO, it will be even easier to refine the list for maximum trolling.

Everyone at my LGS was surprised and unsure of how to attack my deck during sideboarding, and said as much to me after the matches.

RDW, Val, Z: thank you for the comments. I think the list could start coming together pretty nicely.

With DGM's pending release on MTGO, it will be even easier to refine the list for maximum trolling.

Everyone at my LGS was surprised and unsure of how to attack my deck during sideboarding, and said as much to me after the matches.

Do you test on Cockatrice? If so, which server? I've been testing 2-color variants for a few hours on there haha.

I haven't used cockatrice since they got the C&D from Hasbro. Have they gotten new servers and cards figured out?

I'll PM you in-case it's a sensitive topic.

Fiddled with RB and Rw burn today, just to see if a "cleaner" approach would make the deck more efficient... It actually made things more awkward, at least on 22 land. From the "core" (4 each of PoF, VD, SS, TB, SC, FotF, shockland, and buddy land), the two versions looke like:

Black: 4 DRS, 4 BitN, 2 Underworld Connections, 4 Annihilating Fire, 4 Stomping Ground, 4 Overgrown Tomb, 3 of each basic

White: 4 BC, 4 WH, 4 CoPH, 2 BlOb, 4 plains, 10 mountain

The white felt too slow. The black felt crammed (in 22 lands we like to get to 4 mana, with all of the 3-drops it feels like we need to get to 5).

Future research to be added.

Been playing this deck. It is amazing; so, so grindy.

[deck]Creatures
4 Deathrite Shaman

Spells
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Bump in the Night
4 Skullcrack
4 Searing Spear
4 Thunderbolt
4 Boros Charm
4 Warleader's Helix
4 Bonfire of the Damned

Land
4 Blood Crypt
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Godless Shrine
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Dragonskull Summit
3 Isolated Chapel
1 Stensia Bloodhall

Sideboard
2 Slaughter Games
2 Staff of Nin
2 Assemble the Legion
1 Underworld Connections
1 Stensia Bloodhall
4 Boros Reckoner
1 Blasphemous Act
2 Rakdos Charm[/deck]

It's been really cool so far. Let me know what you think...

Looks about right. 4 Deathrite Shaman is too many IMO. You could take one out for a Staff of Nin in the main.

I can dig something like rhat. Several times there were two Deathrite Shamans active with nothing in the yard, which is a little awkward. I wish there was room for green; that's the one thing I did like from the RB version... I wouldn't mind a singleton X spell there in its place (Devil's Play, Rakdos's Return, Aurelia's Fury, or even Magmaquake). RR seems like it'd be the best since it'll help finish off midrange's hand. Control's a bye, even if they manage to steal the first game. Drawing cards is just so powerful.

Here's what I've been up to lately -

[deck]Creatures
3 Deathrite Shaman

Spells
3 Pillar of Flame
4 Bump in the Night
4 Skullcrack
4 Searing Spear
4 Thunderbolt
4 Boros Charm
3 Warleader's Helix
3 Bonfire of the Damned

Enchantments
3 Blind Obedience
2 Underworld Connections

Land
4 Blood Crypt
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Godless Shrine
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Dragonskull Summit
2 Mountain
1 Isolated Chapel


Sideboard
1 Stensia Bloodhall
1 Slaughter Games
1 Staff of Nin
1 Assemble the Legion
1 Stensia Bloodhall
2 Rakdos Charm
1 Warleader's Helix
1 Pillar of Flame
1 Archwing Dragon
1 Rakdos's Return
3 Terminus
(flex spot)
[/deck]

It's been better with Bonfires in place of Flames of the Firebrand. I'm still not sure whether I want 2 or 3 Blind Obedience, but I definitely want it out early to get maximum value from my extort triggers. Every game I've seen it I've been pleased, even if I
draw them in multiple. Getting extra extort triggers is nice. Of course, There are the awkward UC + Deathrite + BlOb draws with no gas, but that's just variance biting me, and no fault of the deck. I think 8 non-burn spells is pushing it, but the value I get from them is so high that I can justify it.

Maindeck Underworld Connections has been really nice; the extra card draw is a savior when it comes down to that last turn or two. I have the Staff of Nin in the board for the longer control matchup.

I really love seeing Warleader's Helix, I might move a Thunderbolt to the sideboard and bring the 4th Helix back to the main.

In aggro matchups, I board in the 4th bonfire, the 24th land, swap my Deathrite Shaman for Terminus, and pull out the 2 Underworld Connections.

In control matchups, I remove the 3 Pillars, bring in the Assemble the Legion, Staff of Nin and the Archwing Dragon.

The weakest cards in the list:
Archwing Dragon - re-usable "burn" is nice, but it's very dependent
on them having no blockers and no instant speed removal. Jund might be a good candidate to use this, depending on how many Ultimate Price they run.
Thunderbolt - 3 damage to the face is nice, but sometimes I want to play control and whack creatures around. It doesn't do anything to Naya Blitz or RG aggro.
Mountain - The list is so color hungry, often times I was wishing this was an Isolated Chapel or a guildgate.

Hello, what about guttersnipe? Did you try it?

I haven't tried it, but it'd be a tempo loss. It'd give them a target for removal which is something this deck uses to its advantage (blank cards in their hands), and it might not actually do anything.

@ham, will likely be running my old list with +1 PoF, -1 WH and some sideboard modifications, or the 24-land list with -1 DRS, +1 X-spell or CA engine main board.

Given the typical draw-go nature of playing this deck, I'm thinking that being on the draw is an advantage for us. Thoughts?

Given the typical draw-go nature of playing this deck, I'm thinking that being on the draw is an advantage for us. Thoughts?

That's a little bit of brilliant. It's riskier against aggro, obviously, but it does seem like the threat of running out of steam is more of a concern than taking some early damage.

Given the typical draw-go nature of playing this deck, I'm thinking that being on the draw is an advantage for us. Thoughts?

I like this idea against a non-aggro player. I'm so used to choosing "play," but perhaps you're right, esp. in builds without CA engines.

I've replaced the maindeck Underworld Connections with [card]Toil // Trouble[/card] and I've been having a better time of it. It's a more flexible option than UC when I don't need to draw a card, and thus a better topdeck.

I've replaced the maindeck Underworld Connections with Toil // Trouble and I've been having a better time of it. It's a more flexible option than UC when I don't need to draw a card, and thus a better topdeck.

Huh. Seems interesting, actually. I'll throw one in my deck and mess with it.

I've replaced the maindeck Underworld Connections with Toil // Trouble and I've been having a better time of it. It's a more flexible option than UC when I don't need to draw a card, and thus a better topdeck.

Report back on how good it feels to hit someone for 11 with that card.

Hint: it feels REALLY good.

I hope to someday know that feel.

How do you hit someone for 11? It's a sorcery.

If they have 7 (unlikely) and you fuse it, they take 2 + 9.

Yep, gotcha. That would be pretty cool.

It would be an excellent housewarming gift when you move to magical Christmas land.

It would be an excellent housewarming gift when you move to magical Christmas land.

I did it twice in six games and cast Trouble for 7 on one occasions on turn three.

^ Yeah the trouble for 5-7 seems pretty realistic. Doming someone for 11 still feels like magical christmas land, but hey; it is pretty nice that the card effectively has overload.

Even on a bad day, Toil // Trouble gets me 2 new cards. I'm pleased to have it in the deck, and occasionally it slaps my opponent for 10. Bonk!

After a few more playtesting sessions, I think 23 land is too high. I find myself flooding out to 5+ lands too often.

There's a tension between hitting big bonfires and drawing enough gas in time, though. It's hard to say where the optimal count is. I'm going to try 22 for next week at 3 bonfires.

Not sure whether I should bring in the 4th pillar or helix to replace the land.