[Primer] RDW

[Valdarith]

I've only run this list for a few games, but I'm already liking it A LOT:


[deck]
Creatures (23)
4 rakdos cackler
4 foundry street denizen
4 burning-tree emissary
4 young pyromancer
3 gore-house chainwalker
4 chandra's phoenix

Spells (16)
3 shock
4 magma jet
4 lightning strike
2 mizzium mortars
3 chandra, pyromaster

Lands (21)
2 mutavault
19 mountain
[/deck]

Super explosive plays. No Hammer but only 21 lands and Magma Jet to help filter them. Less grindy than Zem's list but does have potential to go long game because Chandra + Young Peezy + Phoenix.

[LaZerBurn]

So I finally got some time to write up my testing with Z's Pyro Red It's all in the tourney practice room so I faced a rather random selection of decks but here's a quick synopsis anyway. I went 10 - 3 in matches, 20 - 10 in games. The deck runs really smoothly and is great to play.

With Firefist Striker
WW 2-0 - CA from Chandra wrecks him
Bad B/G 2-0 - I swarm him, remove blockers and win, twice
Maze's End 2-0 - He fogs a bit then dies, twice
B/R Aggro 2-0 - The only B I see is Spike Jester. Chandra wins me the first, Firefist gets me past his Reckoner in the second.
WW( that won a daily 4-0) 2-1 G1 he swarms me and I wish I had FotF. G2 I do and I win G3 I have Chandra too
B/R Aggro with Demon 2-1 G1 I have no answer to the Demon. G2 I have 2 YP's and lots of tokens for the Demon. G3 I recur Phoenix repeatedly to tap the Demon and win

With Z's updated list from post 741
Mono G 1-2 G1 I mull to 5 then flood while he gains lots of life from his Ooze and beats me up with a 5/5 Reverent Hunter. G2 I kill his Elves and win with 2 YP, tokens, AoT and Chandra action G3 3 Reckoners is good in this match up, 2 land in play and a 5/5 Ooze and a 5/5 Mistcutter Hydra isn't
B/W 2-0 G1 I swarm him G2 he doesn't use his Whip and Ghost Council so I win
Devotion Red 0-2 G1 I'm ahead at 14-6 at which point I realise he
is playing Devotion as his fanatic hits for 5 and swings the game for him G2 I make a horrific mistake and lose to my own idiocy
G/W with Keeper Of The Wilds 2-0 G1 I mull to 6 and win comfortably as he casts nothing until Reaper on T4 G2 I steal his Archangel Of Thune and kill him with it
B/G 1-2 G1 I die to a 6/6 Ooze and an 8/8 Polukranos G2 Reckoner holds him off, Phoenix pecks away and I burn him out G3 I'm stuck on 2 land and I die G3 I die to Ooze and Polukranos again BUT I should have played another turn before grumpily folding
G/R/U 0-2 Interesting deck with
Caryatid, Omenspeaker, Xenagos, Bow Of Nylea, Turn/Burn and Ember Swallower - G1 I'm stuck on 1 mountain and can't cast anything G2 is simply unfair as he slows my early beats with Mortars and FotF and Turn/Burns my Reckoner to stabilize on 6 life. He then gains lots of life with Nylea's Disciple and his Bow and drops an Ember Swallower. I only have 3 land in play and so things go downhill rather rapidly at this point To upset me further is the knowledge that had he not dropped the Ember I would have had kicked Mortars and most likely won
U/W 2-0 I finally see a Control deck. G1 I win with early beats , Mutavault and burn. G2 My Hammer sees play for the first time,
Skullcracks keep his life under control and he finally dies to Golems and Mutavaults after a Wrath

Thoughts?
I agree with Z that YP is a bit underwhelming and could be replaced by Reckoners as they are key against anything with monsters. I like lots of Burn spells in the deck but with Reckoners main I think FotF could go back in the board and at this point I'd agree with again that the deck is veering towards Devotion Red so I'll make some changes and give that a run out tonight

[Helios]

Thanks for the test notes! I agree that once we add Reckoners, Devotion Red is just the way to go. Unless there's a Sledgehammer build with Chandra, Mogis, Stormbreath, Hammer, etc. That seems like too much goodness in one deck.

[Wrathberry2]

im really having problems vs g/w decks... especialy damn smiters and charms.. i mortar their smiter... np charm it. or they use the damn ajani to give it +1+1 so its 5/5... im really not seeing any land.. i have to instantly kill anything they play or they kill me.. aka fleecemane lion, kalonian hydra, ajani, smiters and so on... i really think the devotion list is the way to go if you want to win vs g/w decks... where you just play dude after dude, not caring for your opponent, and killing with fanatic.

i think g/w is the only matchup i nearly never win -.-

forgot to mention unflinching courage.. courage on a smiter is nearly gg in the moment it resolves.... if you are not lucky and have 2 lighting strikes on your hand to kill it instantly...

[Lightning_Dolt]

Thanks for the test notes! I agree that once we add Reckoners, Devotion Red is just the way to go. Unless there's a Sledgehammer build with Chandra, Mogis, Stormbreath, Hammer, etc. That seems like too much goodness in one deck.

Check my current deck

[Helios]

Oh my. Dat sideboard.

Also, you need to update the link in your sig to the DTR address.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Oh my. Dat sideboard.

Also, you need to update the link in your sig to the DTR address.

When you open the link in a new tab, that's how it comes out...

[LaZerBurn]

Sadly my newbie status prevents me from checking your current deck J_S but if there is a viable Sledgehammer build I'll be running it!

Off topic - I'm not angry at all but I love this smilie

[Lightning_Dolt]

Sadly my newbie status prevents me from checking your current deck J_S but if there is a viable Sledgehammer build I'll be running it!

Off topic - I'm not angry at all but I love this smilie

Deck is in the devotion red thread as well.

[Valdarith]

im really having problems vs g/w decks... especialy damn smiters and charms.. i mortar their smiter... np charm it. or they use the damn ajani to give it +1+1 so its 5/5... im really not seeing any land.. i have to instantly kill anything they play or they kill me.. aka fleecemane lion, kalonian hydra, ajani, smiters and so on... i really think the devotion list is the way to go if you want to win vs g/w decks... where you just play dude after dude, not caring for your opponent, and killing with fanatic.

i think g/w is the only matchup i nearly never win -.-

forgot to mention unflinching courage.. courage on a smiter is nearly gg in the moment it resolves.... if you are not lucky and have 2 lighting strikes on your hand to kill it instantly...

n
I'm willing to have a weak G/W matchup because against every other deck they are trash. It's just not a real deck.

[Elricity]

Maybe it was just Austin but two GW made top 8 in States yesterday. 2 GR as well.

[Helios]

Oh my. Dat sideboard.

Also, you need to update the link in your sig to the DTR address.

When you open the link in a new tab, that's how it comes out...

Yea, but read the URL. Your link is to the old URL. The old one handles redirection, but doesn't do login info properly. I had to login a second time to view the thread.

[Valdarith]

I ran this at States:

[deck]
Creatures (20)
4 Rakdos Cackler
2 Legion Loyalist
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Ash Zealot
2 Frostburn Weird
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Spells (18)
4 Shock
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
2 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Hammer of Purphoros
3 Chandra, Pyromaster

Lands (22)
3 Mutavault
19 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
1 Mutavault
1 Legion Loyalist
1 Barrage of Expendables
4 Mizzium Mortars
1 Frostburn Weird
3 Act of Treason
3 Burning Earth
[/deck]

I didn't have Firedrinker Satyrs but I was expecting a lot of control and red decks so I felt confident in replacing them with two Legion Loyalist and two Frostburn Weird mainboard. As it turns out, there was a lot less control and a lot MORE midrange three color monstrosities which REALLY suprised me.

Match 1 vs Big Boros: I roll a 3 and he rolls a 2. Good omen? I honestly don't remember much about this matchup except that I lost game one
after a mull to five and him beating me down with Stormbreath Dragon. Game two I casually crush him, powering through a couple of Warleader's Helix and me casting Mortars on Stormbreath Dragon. Game three is tight but I have him on the ropes with Chandra and a developed board. His next to last turn he has Phoenix and Stormbreath Dragon out and plays a Purphoros which is active as a creature. At his EOT I Shock his Phoenix to turn off Purphoros, then Act of Treason his Dragon and swing with it (in hindsight I should have just left the Phoenix alone, stole the God, pinged the dragon, and swung with the team). His turn he realizes he's dead on my backswing and conceeds.

1-0

Match 2 vs BUG midrange: this guy crushed me both games. Always had answers to my creatures with Abrupt Decays and Putrefy, had Jace, Sylvan Caryatid, Reaper of the Wilds, etc. Actually managed to play three Reapers against me on game two because we live in reality. I was able to get a Burning Earth out game two but it didn't matter.
I simply had no answer to everything he was doing. It didn't seem like a real deck, but whatever.

1-1

Match 3 vs Esper Midrange: Game one I see Hundred-Handed One, some other creature I don't remember, and Doom Blades but I get Chandra and a well-developed board state and power through him. Game two he curves perfectly into Azorius Charm, Jace, then Elspeth a few turns later and I just don't get there. Game three I keep an odd hand of 4x Mountain, Mutavault, Cackler, and Ash Zealot since I'm on the play and I see him playing all the Temples and Shocks and figure I can get there. I proceed to draw Loyalist, Lightning Strike, Mutavault, Mountain, Mountain but still get there.

2-1

Match 4 vs Devotion Red: My best matchup of the day, which doesn't surprise me because I am extremely confident in red mirrors. He's on the play and casts Satyr on turn one. I play Mountain and pass, and he plays Mountain and swings with Satry but I Shock it. He casts Boros Reckoner on turn three and I Lightning
strike it EOT as he directs it to me. I play Mutavault turn three and pass. He casts Fanatic of Mogis turn four and I Magma Jet it in response to the trigger to the shock and awe of everyone around me, so Fanatic deals no damage. I scry and find a Chandra, play her, and she does her thing as I win. Game two was even easier as I side in ALL THE REMOVAL and sit there and one-for-one him, even killing his own Chandra before playing mine and overwhelming him.

3-1

Match 5 vs UW Control: Game one went poorly as he gets turn four Jace, then Revelates into Aetherling and GG. Game two was much closer despite him having a turn two Precinct Captain, turn four Jace, and Verdicts once I deal with his Captain. I resolve a Hammer of Purphoros and proceed to make a couple of Golems over the next three turns to keep his Jace down. His +1 is really slowing me down though. He is able to get a Dsphere to use on my Golems, slowing me further. He eventually casts Revelation on turn eight, followed by Revelation on turn nine,
then Revelation on turn eleven. Despite this, I'm still in it as I have resolved Chandra on turn eight myself and am keeping Jace in check while bringing back my Phoenix. He counters a lot of my stuff, Dspheres my Hammer, casts a couple of Last Breath on my Mutavaults, and proceeds to keep my Chandra in check with his own Mutavault. We're basically racing at this point to see who can ultimate their planeswalker first, and he eventually has one card in hand with about 12 cards in his deck, but he eventually clears my board, beats down my Chandra, then ultimates Jace to cast my Chandra and his Precinct Captain and win the game.

3-2

Match 6 vs Junk Midrange: Loxodon Smiters, Sylvan Caryatids, Scavenging Ooze, etc. Can't deal with it. Game two is even more hilarious. I shock his mana dork on turn one, get aggressive with Ash Zealot, but he plays turn three Loxodon Smiter into turn four Unflinching Courage as I sit there wishing I had Mizzium Mortars in my hand before he could do that. Not much I can do
about that, so after he gets a couple of swings in and I draw blanks I extend my hand and which him luck in the top 8.

3-3

Overall pretty disappointed in getting unlucky in my last two matchups. I just did not expect so many midrange strategies. Maybe we're delusional in thinking these three-color monstrosities aren't decks? Will be interesting to see how the meta continues to develop.

[Elricity]

I ran this at States:


Overall pretty disappointed in getting unlucky in my last two matchups. I just did not expect so many midrange strategies. Maybe we're delusional in thinking these three-color monstrosities aren't decks? Will be interesting to see how the meta continues to develop.

This. Was the same in Texas and apparently Kansas and the SCG open. Curious to see how everyone else did but I kept hitting midrange decks that weren't getting hated out by control. Sounds like they realized it was rdw and control that were the favorites so they sped up vs control.

[Zooligan]

He casts Fanatic of Mogis turn four and I Magma Jet it in response to the trigger to the shock and awe of everyone around me, so Fanatic deals no damage.

Could you elaborate on how this works exactly? I'm sure the situation will come up and I want to be able to explain it correctly.

[Valdarith]

His board was clear when he cast Fanatic, so the trigger goes off when he enters the battlefield, and in response to the trigger I cast Magma Jet on the Fanatic. When his trigger resolves, his devotion is zero, so no damage is dealt.

[Zooligan]

Oh, gotcha. Missed the board being clear part.

[Helios]

Super nath'd.

The trigger still happens, but there were no creatures on the field. So it deals 0 damage. If any permanents with red mana symbols are still on the field, it still counts those.

[Elricity]

This was my list at States in Austin:

[deck]Creature (12)
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Young Pyromancer

Spells (24)
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
2 Warleader's Helix
2 Pyromancer's Gauntlet
2 Hammer of Purphoros
3 Chandra, Pyromaster
3 Flames of the Firebrand

Land (24)
1 Boros Guildgate
10 Mountain
3 Mutavault
2 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph

3 Chained to the Rocks
3 Act of Treason
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Renounce the Guilds
3 Skullcrack
2 Wear // Tear[/deck]

There was only around 100 people there as some were at PTQ in OKC.

Match 1 vs junk midrange. Game 1 he plays demons, smiter, voice of resurgance, etc. However, he has no life gain so I deal with it and burn him out. Game two I'm stuck on a mutavault/mountain after a mull to 5 and lose although he shows Whip of Erebos. I don't remember game 3 but I remember winning without trouble. Talked to him
later and apparently he switched from rwb to rwg at the last minute and was unhappy with his results.

1-0

Match 2 vs Esper. Game 1, he mulls to 5 and dies. Game 2, I spend burn/phoenix vs Jace. He D-sphere's phoenix. He later plays Elspeth and I burn it immediately but he gets his 3 tokens. I resolve a Gauntlet but the burn I spent on Elspeth meant I had to top deck a burn spell to burn him out the turn before his tokens killed me. I should have just ignored Elspeth and pointed it at him like was my original plan. I'm feeling good that I weathered my first couple games because I expect the midrange decks that I'm weak against to have been hated out of the top tables.

2-0

Match 3 table 5 vs GW Trostani. Has a french accent so I suspect he was from Quebec. Game 1 he resolves Trostani but I keep attacking with reckoners because I keep having another in hand. We trade damage and then he advents a wurm. Populates it 3 times and kills me and my 3 reckoners felt kind of useless. I board in chained,
act of treason, and renounce. Game 2 it's Trostani plus Archangel of Thune. I see a renounce which takes care of unflinching courage and act of treason which only sets him back a turn. I don't see chained. After the match, I talk to him for a minute and he said that to deal with control, he lowered his curve with dryad militant, experiment one, and soldier of pantheon. I look at the other top tables to see a lot of green midrange up there. Someone tells me that 3 other red decks just lost at the top tables and I can see why. Side tournament starts match 4 but I decide to hang in there. I later find out this person got first before the cut to top 8 where he loses his match vs Gruul monsters due a mull to 5 and then getting stuck on 3 lands game 3.

2-1

Match 4 vs Dega. Game 1 I resolve a Gauntlet right before he Rakdos returns my entire hand of 2nd gauntlet plus burn spells I was saving. He resolves Obzedat and I don't topdeck burn. I side in renounce and skullcrack but not chained to the rocks. Game
2 I resolve gauntlet again. He plays Obzedat and I lightning strike it. Then he plays two desecration demons I can't draw answers for. I find out later this was enough to knock me out of top 8 but I have some hope for prizes so I keep going.

2-2

Match 5 vs American control. Game 1, I play a pyromancer turn 4. I proceed to protect it vs burn and two supreme verdicts with 3 boros charms and get 11 damage in on them and 3 of her cards. Then we both hit huge land pockets. I see neither a mutavault or hammer. Chandra only stays alive for 1 turn. Eventually lose to assemble the legion. Game 2 I get hammers and mutavaults. She gets 4 lands so I win. Game I have Chandra and Gauntlet. I toss out Gauntlet which gets countered. I burn her low enough that she decides to sphinx on my turn. I take the time to resolve Chandra. Next turn I resolve a hammer. She loses.

3-2

Match 6 vs devotion red. Game 1 and 3 I see neither FotB, Chandra or Phoenix so I never get card advantage and lose. Game 2 it worked great.
Surprised I lost this one and now I'm pretty sure I'm out on prizes but there's only one more match and it's a long drive back to Houston so I decide to finish up.

3-3

Match 7 vs devotion red. I'm not sure if he had a weaker deck or if I just got luckier. I don't think I ever saw him play a mutavault. He maindecks mortars on 21 lands and has both hammers in sideboard. Phoenix and flames win game 1 and 3. I board out a hammer, a gauntlet, and 3 boros charm for 3 chained and 2 mortars. He boards in peak eruption and skullcrack. I kept a heavy land hand so peak eruption didn't stop me from casting but it did stop me from overloading mortars. Skullcrack counters a helix and go to 5 after he resolves a fanatic that pings for 2. I make the decision to chain his fanatic rather than try to trade his cackler/fanatic for my two vaults. He topdecks a phoenix next turn and kills me in 3 turns. Opponent thinks it was the right idea because he might have been able to bolt my vault but I disagree. Game 3, he
still peak eruptions me but once he's done, I chain his phoenix, use my own, resolve Chandra, and win.

4-3

Finished 23rd out of 100.I don't know the results or decklists yet but I decided to stick around to see first round of top 8. Decks were:

1-2 GW weenie Trostani (deck I played against) vs Gruul Monsters. GW got bad draws game 1 and 3 so Gruul won. Game 2 he barely won when his opponent tried to gain enough life off ooze but there weren't enough creatures.
3-4 Another GW 1-4 curve deck but I didn't see Trostani vs uw control. GW won.
5-6 Gruul ramp with Chandra and Domri vs Dega control. Dega won.
7-8 RDW vs White weenie. RDW won.

So turns out I made a bad metagame call hoping the green decks or Obzedat decks weren't going to do well and I wouldn't see them at the top tables. If I were to do it again, I would -1 FotB for +1 Warleader's Helix mainboard, and sideboard I would -3 act of treason, -1 wear // tear +1 chained to the rocks, +3 glare of heresy. I'm honestly tempted to pull
out the other wear // tear because the only things it doesn't hit that I saw were Hammer and Whip. Renounce or Glare literally could take care of every other enchantment I was worried about. However, I'm still worried about Pithing Needle which I saw at the top tables but didn't see in my matches and decks that ran it did also run other enchantments or artifacts.

[Valdarith]

I'm going to test this a little more on MODO:

[deck]
Creatures (23)
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Foundry Street Denizen
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Young Pyromancer
3 Gore-House Chainwalker
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Spells (17)
4 Shock
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Chandra, Pyromaster

Lands (20)
1 Mutavault
19 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
1 Mutavault
2 Mizzium Mortars
4 Skullcrack
2 Frostburn Weird
3 Act of Treason
3 Burning Earth
[/deck]

Denizen over Satyr right now because I don't have them online, plus I imagine the overall damage from Denizen will be roughly the same against other decks while also being a hedge to the prominence of red strategies on MODO over the past week.

20 lands with three four drops is a little greedy but I anticipate Magma Jet will help in that regard.

[Yarpus]

I guess I'd just go back to this

[deck]Creatures:
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Ash Zealot
4 Firefist Striker
4 Chandra's Phoenix
2 Fanatic of Mogis

Planeswalkers:
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Burn:
4 Shock
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike

Other Spells:
1 Hammer of Purphoros

Lands:
21 Mountain
2 Mutavault[/deck]

I'm considering either Firefist Striker or Frostburn Weird or Rakdos Shred-Freak.
Firefist screws midrange, Frostburn screws Aggro, Shred-Freak screws control.

[Elricity]

Midrange is definitely in vogue at the moment so either beat that or beat what's beating that.

[DarthStabber]

Denizen over Satyr right now because I don't have them online, plus I imagine the overall damage from Denizen will be roughly the same against other decks while also being a hedge to the prominence of red strategies on MODO over the past week.

20 lands with three four drops is a little greedy but I anticipate Magma Jet will help in that regard.

Denizen over satyr is only conscionable because of modo mono red hard on.

20 lands is way greedy. Magma jet will not alleviate your problem as much as you think.

[Valdarith]

It's not way greedy, actually. Per hypergeometric distribution, 21 lands on three four drops is correct. -1 land is far from what I'd call "way greedy" unless you just have a different definition of greedy (which would be odd considering how conservative a deckbuilder I am in general).

[amcfvieira]

I'm now testing in MTGO a list pretty close to zemanjaski YP deck (I don't have yet Firedrinker). And want to testing Devotion list and AIR list. After your last results and testing can someone provide a AIR list and the devotion list of the day, please.

[zemanjaski]

[deck]AIR[/deck]

[deck=Devotion Red[/deck]
4 Ash Zealot
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak

4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
2 Shock

21 Mountain
1 Mutavault
[/deck]

[Valdarith]

I'd like to see some number of Dynacharge in deck #1. I just like it's Hellrider-esque potential in AIR decks running so many creatures.

[Link]

I agree with dyna over some number of shocks

I think AIR is the way to go to beat midrange with chandra hammer sb for control and mountain reckoners

[DarthStabber]

It's not way greedy, actually. Per hypergeometric distribution, 21 lands on three four drops is correct. -1 land is far from what I'd call "way greedy" unless you just have a different definition of greedy (which would be odd considering how conservative a deckbuilder I am in general).

I have always found that the correct number of lands is always one more than you think is right. Maybe i'm a bit curmudgeonly, but looking at the same hyperdistro I would go 21. I'm running 3 4drops and i'm at 21 mountains and 2 vaults, and this makes me a touch nervous. And by way greedy I may have been a touch hyperbolic, but that still feels light. It's probably a function of my general "build conservatively, play aggressively" mantra.
It's served me well for a decade, and sometimes I get a little too evangelical about it.

[Khaospawn]

[deck]AIR[/deck]

[deck=Devotion Red[/deck]
4 Ash Zealot
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak

4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
2 Shock

21 Mountain
1 Mutavault
[/deck]

I agree with this wholeheartedly. And for once in my life, I mean this.

[syl000]

Hi guys, new to magic (3-4 Months) and new to this awesome place!
Ran Pyrored at my locals, poor results
Midrange everywhere and YP was targeted big time in every match.
I guess with one Chandra its impossible to run Pyrored? My amateur skills made it worse though.

Also, how do you guys feel about Stormbreath Charizard? Maybe one in Devotion mainboard?

[Helios]

Welcome, syl! Glad to have you. Pyrored is a very skill-intensive deck; you may have better luck running Devotion, because it is capable of more powerful plays. Which decks in particular were giving you problems?

The thread is here: viewtopic.php?f=108&t=1673
I think there is a Stormbreath discussion in there.

[syl000]

Dega is a big problem with all those early removals and late game fatties.
I was able to keep up with Esper till he got Elspeth and Jace. Jace in particular drew lots of csrds for him, maybe i should have killed the Jace asap
I also faced a Master of Waves Deck that had azorius charm, that lifelink!!

Yeap thinking of going Devotion red, have all the cards needed.

[Helios]

Dega should be fairly easy; I'd read Z's sideboarding notes below. Sometimes they just curve out and you lose, but in general this deck is capable of out playing them. Understanding how to SB is crucial here.

Esper: what was the board state such that Jace was able to draw lots of cards? You can usually ignore him and kill them.

Master of Waves: The deck seems made to stop us in our tracks. Phoenix is crucial in this matchup. The recent addition of Skullcracks in the side should also help.

[Valdarith]

Midrange can be a problem for PyroRed if they have all the things but that's pretty much every deck. I was able to beat two midrange decks at my States tourney but lost to two others so 50/50 results. That said, of my six matches, four of them were midrange, and the two matches I lost my opponents drew like they were tutoring from their decks.

[zemanjaski]

Junk and GW midrange are relatively problematic in my experience. I honestly find everything else favourable. I've only faced one Master of the Waves deck (UB) and he played terribly.

[Helios]

The UW Master of Waves deck seems pretty strong.

[zemanjaski]

Anyone got a list? Haven't seen it.

[Helios]

I saw:

Blind Obedience
Thassa
D-Sphere
Sphinx's Rev
Frostburn Weird (main deck)
Omenspeaker
Jace, Architect of Thought
Master of Waves
Supreme Verdict
Azorius Charm
Mutavault
Yoked Ox (post board)

Basically used BO, Frostburn, Omenspeaker, and D Sphere to make me stumble the first few turns until he could resolve Master of Waves / Thassa with significant devotion. The deck didn't seem that bad to play against, because his shocks hurt or the guild gates come in tapped, and with what looked like 3 mutavaults he probably stumbles on colored mana more often than not. He got the match, but I think the deck is only a little stronger than UW control, just because it can play things that get in the way.

Blind Obedience basically killed me one game, I am ashamed to admit. The game report is in this thread/the pyrored thread.

[hugacarlos87]

Looks very interested, I hope to hear youre thoughts and sideboard decisions on it further after you have done some more testing, Especially vs midrange

I'm going to test this a little more on MODO:

[deck]
Creatures (23)
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Foundry Street Denizen
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Young Pyromancer
3 Gore-House Chainwalker
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Spells (17)
4 Shock
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Chandra, Pyromaster

Lands (20)
1 Mutavault
19 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
1 Mutavault
2 Mizzium Mortars
4 Skullcrack
2 Frostburn Weird
3 Act of Treason
3 Burning Earth
[/deck]

Denizen over Satyr right now because I don't have them online, plus I imagine the overall damage from Denizen will be roughly the same
against other decks while also being a hedge to the prominence of red strategies on MODO over the past week.

20 lands with three four drops is a little greedy but I anticipate Magma Jet will help in that regard.