[Primer] PyroRed

[zemanjaski]

Check out my article on preparing and playing in competitive events, just go to the primer and keep scrolling down

[InflatablePie]

Shoot me a list, I can test a bunch tonight. Stayed home from work, so I'm just messing around.

[deck]Creatures (22)

4x Firedrinker Satyr
4x Rakdos Cackler
4x Ash Zealot
3x Young Pyromancer
3x Firefist Striker
4x Chandra's Phoenix

Land (22)

12x Mountain
4x Temple of Triumph
4x Sacred Foundry
2x Mutavault

Spells (16)

3x Shock
1x Flames of the Firebrand
4x Lightning Strike
4x Magma Jet

2x Chained to the Rocks

2x Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard

4x Boros Reckoner
2x Chained to the Rocks
2x Mizzium Mortars
2x Boros Charm
2x Skullcrack
1x Hammer of Purphoros
2x Flex Spot[/deck]

Flex spots are either 2x Fanatic of Mogis, or some combination of Flames/Mortars/'crack/Hammer/Assemble/Wear&Tear (pick one of
each), maybe 2x Act of Treason. I found a few more Flames laying around, I might wanna add one to the sideboard and add either another 'crack or Mortars. Fanatic just wasn't doing anything for me in the matches I brought him in and I think the SB space could be used for better things.

[edit] After thinking of possible sideboarding options, I think optimal coverage for an unknown meta if you're not on the Fanatic plan is 1x Skullcrack, 1x Flames. Midrange/aggro matchups don't really have much else you can cut (4x Satyr and either Cacklers or Shocks+Flames for the Reckoner/Mortars/Chained package), Skullcrack helps you against UWx control (usually cutting Chained+Shocks/Flames for the 6-card control package) and mono-black/BW midrange (cutting three Shock for three 'crack seems fine to me, then Satyrs for Mortars/Chained). In the matches where your opponent has a lot of mana dorks or x/1-x/2s (FFS+BTE aggro, WW, etc.) you can just switch a Shock for another Flames, then sideboard normally.

Dunno if
you want to go with something else for MODO.

[Helios]

Check out my article on preparing and playing in competitive events, just go to the primer and keep scrolling down

Second this, it has helped me a ton.

[Keftenk]

Shoot me a list, I can test a bunch tonight. Stayed home from work, so I'm just messing around.

[deck]Creatures (22)

4x Firedrinker Satyr
4x Rakdos Cackler
4x Ash Zealot
3x Young Pyromancer
3x Firefist Striker
4x Chandra's Phoenix

Land (22)

12x Mountain
4x Temple of Triumph
4x Sacred Foundry
2x Mutavault

Spells (16)

3x Shock
1x Flames of the Firebrand
4x Lightning Strike
4x Magma Jet

2x Chained to the Rocks

2x Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard

4x Boros Reckoner
2x Chained to the Rocks
2x Mizzium Mortars
2x Boros Charm
2x Skullcrack
1x
Hammer of Purphoros
2x Flex Spot[/deck]

Flex spots are either 2x Fanatic of Mogis, or some combination of Flames/Mortars/'crack/Hammer/Assemble/Wear&Tear (pick one of each), maybe 2x Act of Treason. I found a few more Flames laying around, I might wanna add one to the sideboard and add either another 'crack or Mortars. Fanatic just wasn't doing anything for me in the matches I brought him in and I think the SB space could be used for better things.

[edit] After thinking of possible sideboarding options, I think optimal coverage for an unknown meta if you're not on the Fanatic plan is 1x Skullcrack, 1x Flames. Midrange/aggro matchups don't really have much else you can cut (4x Satyr and either Cacklers or Shocks+Flames for the Reckoner/Mortars/Chained package), Skullcrack helps you against UWx control (usually cutting Chained+Shocks/Flames for the 6-card control package) and mono-black/BW midrange (cutting three Shock for three 'crack seems fine to me, then Satyrs for Mortars/Chained). In the
matches where your opponent has a lot of mana dorks or x/1-x/2s (FFS+BTE aggro, WW, etc.) you can just switch a Shock for another Flames, then sideboard normally.

Dunno if you want to go with something else for MODO.

Eh, I can't really afford to buy a deck list on MTGO + RL, so I had to do Cockatrice testing. I documented everything, in terms of win/loss rates until Cockatrice servers crashed. I didn't see your edit until I was done testing, which I decided for 1x Flames of the Firebrand and 1x Skullcrack in the flex spots. Anyways, here are the results.



I did get some unfavorable hands, but I actually liked the consistency and threat density it offered for my opponents. Having both FFS and YP is really an interesting interaction, they both almost immediately get removed from the board they second they're played. Fortunately, they dont have enough removal to deal with all of them + the haste drops. The additional Flames came in handy for Rakdos Aggro, the guy rage quit the second I wiped 3/4 of his field lol. I like this version, I think I might play it on Saturday at the Plat. Qualifier.

[magicdownunder]

zemanjaski, have you ever experienced those games where you just hit one Mountain and 2-3 Mutavault? I've been grinding quite a bit now and I'm almost in MOCS12 finals, but I've experienced that 4 times now (granted its 4 times out of 100+ games) it concerns me about it happening in large events. Meh, I'll just chalk it up too variance - Mutavault is much too strong against Control decks (both AoG and WoG).

[Lightning_Dolt]

zemanjaski, have you ever experienced those games where you just hit one Mountain and 2-3 Mutavault? I've been grinding quite a bit now and I'm almost in MOCS12 finals, but I've experienced that 4 times now (granted its 4 times out of 100+ games) it concerns me about it happening in large events. Meh, I'll just chalk it up too variance - Mutavault is much too strong against Control decks (both AoG and WoG).

Happened to me tonight. Still made it through his BTE > BTE > BTE > Firefist Striker opener... somehow.

[MattT]

zemanjaski, have you ever experienced those games where you just hit one Mountain and 2-3 Mutavault? I've been grinding quite a bit now and I'm almost in MOCS12 finals, but I've experienced that 4 times now (granted its 4 times out of 100+ games) it concerns me about it happening in large events. Meh, I'll just chalk it up too variance - Mutavault is much too strong against Control decks (both AoG and WoG).

It's the price to pay for a good md answer to control. It´s quite small though

About Pyro Rakdos, whatever acronym. Here´s
current brew of the slower non-BTE version. I like the versatility in answers more and more.

[deck]
Creatures
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Ash Zealot
1 Tymaret, the Murder King
3 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Spells
4 Shock
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
1 Dreadbore
1 Doom Blade
3 Chandra, Pyromaster

Land
2 Mutavault
4 Blood Crypt
4 Rakdos Guildgate
12 Mountain
1 Swamp

Sideboard
1 Ultimate Price
1 Dreadbore
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Act of Treason
2 Flames of the Firebrand
3 Slaughter Games
3 flex[/deck]

[Yarpus]

I dislike the Chandra with removal spells. That's why I always considered her subpar in RB decks.

[rcwraspy]

I dislike the Chandra with removal spells. That's why I always considered her subpar in RB decks.

Why?

There are 2 removal spells in the list MattT posted that can't go upstairs as burn.

1x Dreadbore and 1x Doom Blade. More in the sideboard, granted.

But why is it bad with Chandra? Odds are you won't hit either of them with a +0. But if you do, you've just cleared your next draw. The list also has 4x Magma Jet and can run X Temple of Silence if you want to put Reckoner in the board, which obviously gives you the ability to bottom them depending on matchup/gamestate.

Is it simply because you'd rather draw the reactive card and keep it in hand JUST IN CASE? If that's why, then yeah, Chandra exiling it isn't great. But again -
just 2 cards MB.

In Walter White how do you feel about Chandra and Chained to the Rocks in the same list? It's the exact same issue and quantities, but I don't see people complaining about it.

[Helios]

Chandra is fine with removal. Especially when your opponent is playing creatures. And if they're not playing creatures, your next draw just became live. What's the issue?

[rcwraspy]

Chandra is fine with removal. Especially when your opponent is playing creatures. And if they're not playing creatures, your next draw just became live. What's the issue?

Yeah that's my question - you're just more succinct than I am

[hoeiberg]

@MattT How is you list working out so far? I startet testing my own Rb list today. Similar to yours but with: -2 Mutavault (Don't have them yet but obviously the should be in there) -4 Ash Zealot, -1 Chandra and -1 Doomblade, +4 Spike Jester, +1 Dreadbore, +1 Tymaret, +1 YP$ and +1 Mountain. It tested fairly well against Dega midrange (about 50/50 against an arguably better player). It was very early testing so i have no sideboard yet.
Some observations:
YP$ is awesome (big surprise)
Spike Jester is an awesome in turn 2 but feels a little weak later because he dies to everything.
Tymaret was just a bear, I'm thinking he may do better in other match-ups but against the super heavy removal Dega lists he simply does nothing. Do you have any opinions on him? I realize you only run 1, so maybe that number is better.
Anger of the Gods is super annoying, and i need to become a better player and learn to play around it.
nDreadbore is the bees knees and one of the main reasons to run black (bye bye Elspeth)

I think Rb has legs, but my list still need a lot of fine tuning, so any insights from the many people here who are much better deck builders (artists?) than me is greatly appreciated.

[dauntless268]

Being non-linear is ideal because it allows thou to fight through resistance. There will be weeks where that isn't important, but when people want to beat aggro, only having a single gear puts your fate too heavily in the luck of the cards.

Sorry guys, can I chip in a crazy idea for a very different transformational sideboard?

Based on a standard Walter White shell with 23 lands, 3 YP and 3 Chained to the Rocks MB I'd like to try something that looks like:

2 Hammer of Porphoros
2 Assemble the Legion
4 Anger of the Gods
4 Mizzium Mortars
1 Chained to the Rocks
1 Mutavault
1 Plains

The idea is that against aggro, you side out all your 15 1- and 2- drops and put the entire SB to work. Against control, you side in Hammer, Assemble
and Mutavault only for low impact burn and chained.

Midrange is obviously the most tricky. With some of the devotion decks (like Big Boros, Mono Blue, G/U or G/R devotion), I feel the anti-aggro plan might still work. Against other things such as mono black devotion, you may still need to remain the aggro deck and not sideboard much.

Could this make any sense?

[InflatablePie]

re:Keftenk - yeah, I edit my posts a lot. hence my new title. <_< Glad to see it's working out well. The fact that FFS and YP draw in so much removal is something I actually like in the deck. I tell a lot of people postgame that YP ends up acting like a lightning rod for removal most of the time, then I drop a hasty threat. And if they don't answer him, well, we get a little value out of the cards (falter, tokens, etc.).

re:dauntless - I like the idea, but I'm not a fan of having two land taking up SB space. Assemble gets countered or D-Sphered by control (and is actually better for the mono-B matchup), and Anger does not mesh well with red aggro decks. You either have to not develop your board or risk exiling your own stuff. It's better just to trade creatures or use regular burn then chip away once you get a hold on the game.

[Helios]

dauntless: It's a good idea, but you're trying to fix what isn't broken. Aggro & control are good (even great) matchups. We need to improve the midrange matchup.

[RaidaTheBlade]

Well, my pyrewild and 3rd skullcrack didn't arrive when they should have.

So now the question is: replace pyrewilds with reckoners just to hold up the slots, or go for the emily build?

[Helios]

Walter White is perfectly fine when done without Pyrewild.

[InflatablePie]

I was actually considering a singleton Pyrewild when I was deciding what to add in the 'classic' White list after cutting a land and Chandra. I couldn't justify two or another one-of though (I guess the 4th Shock coulda been okay).

I wouldn't replace them with Reckoners, they can be really slow and useless in certain matchups (notably Black matchups where they just kill your turn 3 play without dealing it damage).

[RaidaTheBlade]

Helios, the issue there is I'm not running Walter White, I'm running mono-red e.e

I see you point there, IP... Blargle

[Keftenk]

re:Keftenk - yeah, I edit my posts a lot. hence my new title. <_< Glad to see it's working out well. The fact that FFS and YP draw in so much removal is something I actually like in the deck. I tell a lot of people postgame that YP ends up acting like a lightning rod for removal most of the time, then I drop a hasty threat. And if they don't answer him, well, we get a little value out of the cards (falter, tokens, etc.).

re:dauntless - I like the idea, but I'm not a fan of having two land taking up SB space. Assemble gets countered or D-Sphered by control (and is actually better for the mono-B matchup), and Anger does not mesh well with red aggro decks. You either have to not develop your board or risk exiling your own stuff. It's better
just to trade creatures or use regular burn then chip away once you get a hold on the game.

It's actually continuing to go very well. I have another 12 games in, doing even better. Really, really liking the 75.

[InflatablePie]

Good to hear! Makes me slightly less nervous for tonight, and I feel kinda special someone might be running my 75 in a larger event.

[Keftenk]

I think I might try being greedy and mess around with a singleton Pyrewild Shaman lol

[InflatablePie]

Go for it. What would you cut though?

[Keftenk]

A FFS or Chandra would be my target, I don't like either idea lol

[InflatablePie]

Yeah, that was the same problem I was having with trying to fit in PWS, like I said above. I could see maybe cutting a Shock but I think there are more matches where I'd rather have the Shock. And 2x Flames in the 75 is nice so unless you want to cut a slot in the board I'd leave it in main.

[Keftenk]

Yea....I don't think it's a good idea, but I'll do a few tests to see how it goes.

[FullofGravy]

Played the same Pyro White list again today went 5-1 over two tournaments, only loss was 2-1 to mono blue as I am missing the Fanatics from my sideboard, will have those on Sunday for sure.

beat
2x GW midrange - Easy wins, lost one game because stuck on Mountain/Mutavault vs. Centaur Healer and friends
Grixis? All I saw were Deathrites, Ashiok and removal/counters, his Deathrites couldn't deal with Phoenix and I aggroed him out. Ashiok was a 3 mana fog
mono green - won 2-0, ended up with a Mountain with an Arbor Colossus, Scavenging Ooze and a Kalonian Hydra stapled to it by the end of game 2. Chandra a house ofc.
GB midrange - aggro dreamcrush, had to 2for1 myself vs big PK but easy otherwise.

feel pretty happy. looking to be a 60-70+ event with at least 3 booster boxes for 1st (assume there'll be some kind of split though naturally), will see how things go.

Assemble is stil nuts.

[magicdownunder]

Last Two Events

---

[deck=MDU's PyroWhite]Lands 22
12x Mountain
04x Sacred Foundry
04x Temple of Triumph
02x Mutavault

Creatures 21
04x Ash Zealot
04x Chandra's Phoenix
04x Firedrinker Satyr
04x Rakdos Cackler
03x Young Pyromancer
02x Pyrewild Shaman

Planeswalkers 02
02x Chandra, Pyromaster

Enchantments 02
02x Chained to the Rocks

Instants 12
04x Lightning Strike
04x Magma Jet
04x
Shock

Sorceries 01
01x Flame of the Firebrand

Sideboard 15
04x Boros Reckoner
02x Skullcrack
02x Chained to the Rocks
02x Mizzium Mortars
02x Fanatic of Mogis
01x Flame of the Firebrand
01x Mutavault
01x Assemble the Legion[/deck]

I look at Pyrewild Shaman like [card]Chandra's Phoenix[/card] v0.2 except he can be relevant without over-committing the board (which is huge in a AoG meta).

The extra burn MD over Young Pyromancer is my nod to MonoU and the lack of B/x/x as of late, the SB are meta tuned so it may or may not make sense.

I didn't find time to upload the set yesterday, so I'll upload two sets today running the list above.

Music for this set is done by Morusque, its quite different to what I've been using for other sets but it has its own charm.

Video report set 1/2: Standard Daily Event 6210803 (3-1)

G1: GWB Junk
G2: Esper Control
G3: GU Devotion
G4: MonoBlack Devotion

I'm still refining the list, so any explanation or SB plans I may have used here is most likely different now. I like how the RW variant has the ability to stand toe-to-toe with Red's worst MU (though these replays may not be the best example of that).

Video Set (2/2) Standard Daily Event 6210827 score (3-1)

Here is the next set, music by Christopher Drake the master of epic BGM

G1: MonoBlue Devotion
G2: GU Devotion
G3: [url=http://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=DJjCtozrzAM]Big Boros[/url]
G4: RDW(?)

Small update, new deck tested well with 4-0, but got slammed by variance and lost a very good MU 0-2 drop . Still working on that tweaking .

Like last time I didn't have time to post the replays, so I'll be posting the last two sets I made with the above list today.

Music by Jim Guthrie (BGM GOD), I highly recommend watching G3 just for the BGM I mean with a title called: 'Army of Assholes' how can you go wrong .

Standard Tournament: Daily Event 6210799 (4-0)

G1: [url=http&#
58;//www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD5t2MYv52Y]MonoBlue Devotion[/url]
G2: RDW (?)
G3: Naya (please note we both missclick our walkers during the course of the game)
G4: Split

Thoughts on Pyrewild Shaman.deck

This deck was built during the time when Gr and Gu was climbing the meta ranks and it proved to be effective, I believe Shaman is a great tool in dealing with */3+ decks, esp. ones which run with hex proof while playing against the AoG decks, swinging with two creatures combine with Shaman is enough to call down early AoG.

Will I play the deck again?

Well... I'm not sure two is the correct number in MD due too the number of games where he is just decent (he is never worthless), Gr and Gu isn't as common anymore due to
Monoblack, Big RW and MonoU I really can't justify keeping the deck how it is, if i do play it again I would need to make a few drastic changes.

Update on what I have been doing:

Tweaking the deck like hell and testing many different cards such as Last Breath, Titian Strength and StormBreath Dragon in an attempt to find the magical happy medium to beat Big RW and MonoU.

Titian Strength was ment to be my sweet tech against walls and Domestication, but I didn't see enough walls to play it .

StormBreath Dragon was ment to be an extra haste creature to close out games, but my greedy manabase couldn't support two of them .

Last Breath makes me want to shut down my computer whenever I play it .

Tomorrow is MOCS11 Finals (at 6:00 AM GMT +10) I'm not 100% ready, but I'm quite close to where I want to be with the deck now - so today last two DE will help me finish it.

[LaZerBurn]

All the best for MOCS MDU!

[Yarpus]

I think that Pyrewild can be easily reduced to 1-of in main. One provides lots of value already.
TS is okay, Pyrewild is still better I guess just because of the flexxibility.
One additional land would make 2 Stormbreaths possible.
Last Breath is terrible in aggro deck. Arrest / Pacifism? Or Glare of Heresy to deal with troublesome Planeswalkers, Fiendslayers and Reckoners. Lyev Decree?

I'd say that Imposing Sovereign could be really good in Boros builds but not sure if manabase can handle that.

[Keftenk]

Actually seeing Boros a bit more and more lately. Spear of Heliod + Mutavaults is so sexy, lol. Then of course, pesky Fiendslayer Paladin

[magicdownunder]

I think that Pyrewild can be easily reduced to 1-of in main. One provides lots of value already.
TS is okay, Pyrewild is still better I guess just because of the flexxibility.
One additional land would make 2 Stormbreaths possible.
Last Breath is terrible in aggro deck. Arrest / Pacifism? Or Glare of Heresy to deal with troublesome Planeswalkers, Fiendslayers and Reckoners. Lyev Decree?

I'd say that Imposing Sovereign could be really good in Boros builds but not sure if manabase can handle that.

We're not losing too Aggro so Imposing Sovereign is silly.

Last Breath is for MoW where every other white card you suggest can't deal with (this doesn't mean I like the card).

[card:
2o8juehk]Titian Strength[/card] is actually better then Pyrewild Shaman against MonoU and G/x Devotion because of scry (your sideboards are critical in this MU) and its effect on Domestication, Pyrewild Shaman is better against everything else, that said G/x Devotion and MoW.decks are our harder MUs.

In regards to StormBreath Dragon, I love them - but when I tried them with my 23 land deck, I ended up losing a critical game where I hit both of them but never saw that 5th land.

[zemanjaski]

Fiendslayer Paladin is such a bad magic card lol.

[Valdarith]

Not as bad as Mindsparker.

[Yarpus]

Pyrewild can also be used against Domestication, but it actually requires you to allow them for a swing.
They swing. After damage being dealt you Bloodrush PS in. Domestication falls off eot.

[magicdownunder]

Last Two Events

---

[deck=MDU's PyroWhite]Lands 22
12x Mountain
04x Sacred Foundry
04x Temple of Triumph
02x Mutavault

Creatures 21
04x Ash Zealot
04x Chandra's Phoenix
04x Firedrinker Satyr
04x Rakdos Cackler
03x Young Pyromancer
n02x Pyrewild Shaman

Planeswalkers 02
02x Chandra, Pyromaster

Enchantments 02
02x Chained to the Rocks

Instants 12
04x Lightning Strike
04x Magma Jet
04x Shock

Sorceries 01
01x Flame of the Firebrand

Sideboard 15
04x Boros Reckoner
02x Skullcrack
02x Chained to the Rocks
02x Mizzium Mortars
02x Fanatic of Mogis
01x Flame of the Firebrand
01x Mutavault
01x Assemble the Legion[/deck]

I look at Pyrewild Shaman like [card]Chandra's Phoenix[/card] v0.2 except he can be relevant without over-committing the board (which is huge in a AoG meta).

The extra burn MD over Young Pyromancer is my nod to MonoU and the lack of B/x/x as of late, the SB are meta tuned so it may or may not make sense.

I didn't find time to upload the set yesterday, so I'll upload two sets today running the list above.

Music for this set is done by Morusque, its quite different to what I've been using for other sets
but it has its own charm.

Video report set 1/2: Standard Daily Event 6210803 (3-1)

G1: GWB Junk
G2: Esper Control
G3: GU Devotion
G4: MonoBlack Devotion

I'm still refining the list, so any explanation or SB plans I may have used here is most likely different now. I like how the RW variant has the ability to stand toe-to-toe with Red's worst MU (though these replays may not be the best example of that).

Video Set (2/2) Standard Daily Event 6210827 score (3-1)

Here is the next set, music by Christopher Drake the master of epic BGM

G1:
MonoBlue Devotion
G2: GU Devotion
G3: Big Boros
G4: RDW(?)

Small update, new deck tested well with 4-0, but got slammed by variance and lost a very good MU 0-2 drop . Still working on that tweaking .

Like last time I didn't have time to post the replays, so I'll be posting the last two sets I made with the above list today.

Music by Jim Guthrie (BGM GOD), I highly recommend watching G3 just for the BGM I mean with a title called: 'Army of Assholes' how can you go
wrong .

Standard Tournament: Daily Event 6210799 (4-0)

G1: MonoBlue Devotion
G2: RDW (?)
G3: Naya (please note we both missclick our walkers during the course of the game)
G4: Split

Thoughts on Pyrewild Shaman.deck

This deck was built during the time when Gr and Gu was climbing the meta ranks and it proved to be effective, I believe Shaman is a great tool in dealing with */3+ decks, esp. ones which run with hex proof while playing against the AoG decks, swinging with two creatures combine with Shaman is enough to call down early AoG.

Will I play the deck again?

Well... I'm
not sure two is the correct number in MD due too the number of games where he is just decent (he is never worthless), Gr and Gu isn't as common anymore due to Monoblack, Big RW and MonoU I really can't justify keeping the deck how it is, if i do play it again I would need to make a few drastic changes.

Update on what I have been doing:

Tweaking the deck like hell and testing many different cards such as Last Breath, Titian Strength and StormBreath Dragon in an attempt to find the magical happy medium to beat Big RW and MonoU.

Titian Strength was ment to be my sweet tech against walls and Domestication, but I didn't see enough walls to play it .

StormBreath Dragon was
ment to be an extra haste creature to close out games, but my greedy manabase couldn't support two of them .

Last Breath makes me want to shut down my computer whenever I play it .

Tomorrow is MOCS11 Finals (at 6:00 AM GMT +10) I'm not 100% ready, but I'm quite close to where I want to be with the deck now - so today last two DE will help me finish it.

Here are the last set of replays:

More music by Jim Guthrie, I recommend listening to G4's BGM, but they're all quite good.

Standard Tournament: Daily Event 6210839 (3-1)

G1: MonoBlack Devotion
G2: MonoBlue Devotion[/url:
3ioa6lg0]
G3: [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXhGdtsWgFY&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLBO2Co_8Gb6yuAVJnU1IvIVH71wqDYODu]Red AIR
G4: Gu Devotion

Pyrewild can also be used against Domestication, but it actually requires you to allow them for a swing.
They swing. After damage being dealt you Bloodrush PS in. Domestication falls off eot.

It hurts them more if you go 2nd Mainphase TS on the turn when they cast Domestication, plus this way you don't take 6. I've tested this and have two finishes with the TS list, not saying that shaman is bad (because he isn't) its just for those two MUs.

All the best for MOCS MDU!

Thanks - I'll be running with a BtE list, and will post my tech after the MOCS (or monday) .

[Link]

Fiendslayer Paladin is such a bad magic card lol.

then those awkward times where they play ajani and you have to scoop with a full grip of cards

[RaidaTheBlade]

Ergh, went 3-2 losing to G/W and Dega...

Any advice on how to improve thoe matchups? Specially dega, cause its been giving me way too much trouble

[MattT]

@MattT How is you list working out so far? I startet testing my own Rb list today. Similar to yours but with: -2 Mutavault (Don't have them yet but obviously the should be in there) -4 Ash Zealot, -1 Chandra and -1 Doomblade, +4 Spike Jester, +1 Dreadbore, +1 Tymaret, +1 YP$ and +1 Mountain. It tested fairly well against Dega midrange (about 50/50 against an arguably better player). It was very early testing so i have no sideboard yet.
Some observations:
YP$ is awesome (big surprise)
Spike Jester is an awesome in turn 2 but feels a little weak later because he dies to everything.
Tymaret was just a bear, I'm thinking he may do better in other match-ups but against the super heavy removal Dega lists he simply does nothing. Do you have any opinions on him? I
realize you only run 1, so maybe that number is better.
Anger of the Gods is super annoying, and i need to become a better player and learn to play around it.
Dreadbore is the bees knees and one of the main reasons to run black (bye bye Elspeth)

I think Rb has legs, but my list still need a lot of fine tuning, so any insights from the many people here who are much better deck builders (artists?) than me is greatly appreciated.

I went another 4-1. Loss to some rogue deck.

I think the mana is prohibitive to trying Jester and the next issue is that Jester lends itself better to a Sligh or top end heavier version similar to RakHammer of last season. The BR deck we work on feels more control, similar to the WR version. As you say is SJ awesome when the mana works T2, but else not really. (Alongside Nighthowler in a suicide style build I´d like him more.) Ash Zealot works better for us.

A big argument is the spot removal and ease with pws. The white version have exile, but not much on
us md. All we do trigger YP (although we of course can't overload as it can´t go to the dome).

Tymaret. This guy starts to shine more and more. This happened vs control on the play: T1 Cackler, T2 Zealot, T3 Tymaret. Overreach? Well, when the sweep happened T4 I could respond with saccing Cackler and Zealot. The trick is to see the ca in it which I didn´t before. He does alot of subtle things. I never lived the dream of treason + sling-with-the-king though. Edit: Compare this to Pyrewild. [mana]2rr[/mana] for 4 damage vs. 5 with Shaman.

Black splash adds some nice utility to the more controlish build. That´s the main argument imho.

[Helios]

A disappointing 3-2 tonight, losing to GW (blerg) and Big Boros. Since I'm still playing an "old" version of Walter White, Big Boros just wrecked me. GW was fine, he just got there. I absolutely hate losing to GW, but it happens Beat Mono black devotion, Big Red (splashing black for some kill spells), and BUG.

Best of luck MDU!

Yarpus: I agree that Pyrewild is much better as a 1-of than a 2-of.

I cut one Chandra tonight to try out a single Pyrewild, and the games I saw him he was fine. Didn't get to live the dream of Phoenix + Pyrewild of Ash + Pyrewild, but it never felt bad.