Dies to Removal

I think-on the play especially-versus any 3-color midrange deck you lose about 4-6 damage by not playing 1-drops. He's playing scry lands and shocklands, so if 1. he doesnt have to shock to deal with a 1-drop or 2. he can't even deal with one on curve because of his mana, then 1-drops are definitely worth seeing in your opener.

MDU made the argument about red based 3-color midrange and satyr being bad there because reckoner is just an allstar versus their decklist, and thats more of an exception that a rule.

I don't like cutting Shock for Flames vs. control at all Helios. 2 mana for 1 damage, sorcery is blergh. Shock gives much cheaper Phoenix rebuys and YP tokens.

Vs Junk SB (I would have done the same thing)

Vs BR shock is good, it hits vaults and artifact creatures - assuming your running the 23 land list, I'll cut the plains and only 2 shocks for +2 Mortars and +1 Assemble the Legion

Vs Esper, I'll echo the others in keeping Shock over Flames. (Flame is only good vs MonoU, Gr and R)

EDIT: I like Mortars over Chains against Esper because
they usually run 3x Barons to hate on Black. Though I know some people run Paladin because they're jerks - which I think is the reason why you kept Chains here no?

Helios's FNM Against Esper: I usually side out my Chained to the Rocks when I go against Esper. It misses Aetherling, Blood Baron of Vizkopa, and [card:
6rmaqppo]Obzedat, Ghost Council[/card] which are basically the only things they have worse chaining. I'm not sure if you run Assemble the Legion and Hammer of Purphoros like I do, but I'd side something like

OUT: -2 Chained to the Rocks, -2 Shock
IN: +2 Boros Charm, +1 Assemble the Legion, +1 Hammer of Purphoros

I prefer hammer over assemble because making every card you draw live with haste is usually enough to completely overwhelm an esper deck. If you're only running one of those two in your sideboard, just take out 1 shockinstead.

Anyone else been playing with Pyrewild Shaman? I'm curious about others thoughts, if any.

Yeah, I tried him out tonight to hate on the new R/x/x DE's meta. I was pleased... very pleased.... went 4-0 stomping MonoU 2-0, R FoM 2-1 and Naya 2-0 (round four I split for the win)

I won't post the replays yet, since I since have 3 other DE finishes to post on my other list - but here was my take on Pyrewild Shaman version:

[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

nEnchantments 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.

Dega looks so good on paper, but falls so short of my expectations in practice. Not sure why.

Couldn't make it to FNM last night because I needed to put in a few late hours at work, but my Reckoners went 3-1 after I loaned them to a buddy of mine. He returned with valuable meta information. Namely that Esper and RDW decks are on the rise, and there is not a MoW devotion blue deck to be seen.

I can't win vs Mono U if I dont have perfect hand, and with perfect hand it still isnt a bye.

Is playing 4 Flames of Firebrand the only option to fight them?

I find Mono U really not that hard to play against. Just play the control match while applying pressure. Rule of thumb I use for anything devotion, kill the devotion! Also, most Mono U players aren't very educated, most of them are players that jumped on the band wagon, so you can always attack in, let them block with MoW, then on blocks Skullcrack them to kill their MoW.

I didn't even consider sb in Skullcracks vs Mono U, it is veeeery limited technology.

@Zemanjaski

You would still take Walter White to GP or would play mono red?

Don't get me wrong, I love this deck (both mono red, Walter White and MDU's Walter White with BTE and Strikers), and have quite good results with them, however I found some really hard matchups:

- Sylvan Caryatid Control - Jund, Junk, BG - Reaper of the Wilds backed by powerful removal (especially abrupt decay to kill chained to the rocks)
- Mono U

and I cant solve those matchups with SB. Assemble the Legion should solve the 1st one.

I find Mono U really not that hard to play against. Just play the control match while applying pressure. Rule of thumb I use for anything devotion, kill the devotion! Also, most Mono U players aren't very educated, most of them are players that jumped on the band wagon, so you can always attack in, let them block with MoW, then on blocks Skullcrack them to kill their MoW.

Its not really a good strategy to bank on your opp. being retarded, MonoU is not a great MU even on full-defense mode since they have the CA to eventually draw the answers they need while also having very strong cards in preventing us from squeezing in too much damage. I don't think 4 Flames of Firebrand is the correct call here, its a heavy burn which results on it being the only
spell you can play on that turn - you need to squeeze in early damage through cards like BtE into FFS or through Chandra Birds - then control and finish them with big hits (from cards like FoM or BR) before they can CA away from trouble.

EDIT: Please note, I don't think Fofb is bad - just 4x is overkill 2-3 is the max you can go with 22 land deck.

Well of course not, heh. Although, as long as I have a Shock or a Magma Jet in hand, I'll swing freely into a Frostburn Weird. I'll either get 2 damage, or 2 less tokens to deal with. I hold Lightning Strikes for nothing else except for Nightveil Spectre's or the rare Cloudfin that Evolves out of Shock/Jet range. Games 2 and 3 are just easier with Mizzium coming in, even less chance for them to get lethal off. This isn't to say that I win all the time against Mono U, sometimes they can get a frightening turn4 MoW off that I just can't deal with the turn after, but burning their devotion has seemed to work for me in the past. I'll take a hand of no creatures even, as long as I have the appropriate burn to kill off their creatures.

Hey guys! First time making an actual post. Here's my tournament report from SCG:LA - I finished 8-2-0 and got top 32.
I was playing Walter White (I prefer 'Heisenburn') and both my losses were very close. I felt like this deck could've easily top 8'd and possibly won.

Here's my list
[deck]Heisenburn[/deck]

Deck choice explanations:
So
the list is basically Zemanjaski/MDU's Walter White list. I was on 2 Mutavault and 3 Young Pyromancer / 3 Firefist Striker this past week in testing but then I saw MDU's post this morning and had second thoughts. I copied his test brew and went to 4 Young Pyromancer / 2 Firefist Striker and 4 Mutavault. It felt a bit risky playing 4 Mutavault because I still wanted to the Reckoner/Fanatic package so I compromised and went for 3 Mutavaults. As for FFS, I know he is great but I just concluded that YP would be better in more situations and both usually provoke an immediate answer so the difference wouldn't be too noticeable. I know the Mono Black and Esper matchups are really good but I wanted to really push it over the top and make sure that I couldn't lose to variance and just hope to dodge Mono Blue and G/r Devotion. With that same reasoning, I cut the FotF from the board and added a third Skullcrack because I always want to see it. I opted for Boros Charm over Act of Treason
because I felt like I had enough tools for Mono Black and because I wanted to shore up U/W Control which is quite a bit harder than Esper because of Last Breath.

Match reports: (It was a long day- 600+ people and 10 rounds- so I don't remember all the games with great detail)

Rd 1: Mono Blue Devotion 2-1
G1: We trade back and forth; I am at 6 and he is at 1 and I have a phoenix in play vs no fliers. He plays a huge Master of Waves to guarantee the win next turn and drops a Judge's Familiar to chump my phoenix. I hope for the burn spell but brick and concede.
G2 + G3: I win them both but I don't remember how. I think I just flooded the board and hit him for ~10 with Fanatic both games.

SB:
+4 Reckoner +2 Fanatic +2 Chained
- 4 Satyr -4 Cackler

1-0
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rd 2: G/r Devotion 0-2
G1: I remember this extremely clearly. He is tapped out with a caryatid in play and 8 life. I have a BTE, FFS,
phoenix, and a Mutavault. I have 2 Mountains in play and 1 card in hand, a magma jet. In my upkeep, I jet him to 6 and hope to dig for a land to activate mutavault and swing for lethal. I put 2 creatures down on the bottom and draw a scryland... He's at 2 life so I'm way ahead but next turn he plays scavenging ooze and gains like 6 life off of it (who plays this MD...). I eventually get him to 6 life with 4 mana up with a jet + strike in hand. From there he does his Nykthos thing and kills me.
G2: I keep a Pyromancer + spell hand. He plays BTE + Mortars and then triple Nylea's Disciple.

SB:
+4 Reckoner +2 Fanatic +2 Chained +2 Skullcrack
-4 Satyr -4 Cackler -2 Jet
(Skullcrack might be too cute for just disciple but it didn't matter in this particular match)

1-1
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rd 3: Naya Aggro 2-0
G1: I play a young pyromancer and kill all his voices and fleecemane lions. Proceed to win with my David
Ochoa elemental tokens.
G2: He plays the worm token 5/5 thing and tries to race me. I get him to 1 while I'm at 10. He swings with his 5/5 and ghor clans it bringing me to 1 and then scoops it up.

SB:
+4 Reckoner +2 Fanatic +2 Chained +2 Mortars
-4 Satyr -4 Cackler -2 Shock

2-1
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rd 4: U/w Devotion (U Devotion with DSpheres and Verdict and revelation) 1-2
G1: I get like 4 creatures killed by verdict but manage to bring him to 8 with Chandra and her phoenix. He -2s with his Jace and finds his 2nd DSphere but not enough mana to cast that turn. My turn, Chandra has 7 loyalty, hes at 8, and I have a phoenix. I swing and bring him to 6 and ult chandra to find 4 1 drops and 4 lands. Try to grind though but he has double rev (zzz..)
G2: I play a bunch of dudes and he doesn't verdict and falls over.
G3: I don't remember exactly but my draws were below average and he had double weird so I
eventually lost. Managed to get him to 10 though

SB:
+2 Boros Charm +2 Chained +3 Skullcrack +2 Mortars
-4 Satyr -2 Cackler -3 Shock
(he had no tidebinder mages so no real relevant target for shock; not sure if I wanted the 1-drops or if I wanted to devotion package - trying to figure out how to best fight this control/devotion hybrid)

2-2 (out of top 16 contention; hopeful that I can dodge G/r and Blue Devotion because I see tons of U/W Control and white weenies - my friends and I figure that the amount of U/W over esper is just a budget thing for most)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rd 5: Mono Black Devotion 2-0 -->
G1: Honestly don't remember- just do my thing, laugh inside as he hopelessly 1-for-1s and kills phoenix
G2: I play satyr, do nothing turn 2, and play a phoenix turn 3. Before damage, he blows his ratchet bomb at 1. Next turn, I drop a mountain and play the 4 1-drops i've been sandbagging haha

SB:
+3 Skullcrack +2 Mortars +2 Chained
-3 Shock -1 FotF -3 Jet
(mortars seems kinda meh but killing specters and even merchants is big game to let my dudes through; I cut spells because I want high density of creatures and well every creature is good in this m/u)

3-2
____________________________________________________________
________________________________________________
Rd 6: Naya Control 2-1
G1: He gets me down to 11 somehow and 3-for-1s me with an Anger of the Gods. He dies eventually though because the deck has no lifegain.
G2: I have a really good hand for curving out (BTE, Phoenix, 2xReckoner, Fanatic) but his hand is perfect for mine and literally kills everything. I get him to 9 just by redirecting mortars on my reckoner but that doesn't get there
G3: He does nothing (he wants an anger but he fails to find), I just play dudes and attack

SB:
+2 Chained +4 Reckoner +2 Fanatic +2 Boros Charm +2 Mortars
-4 Satyr -4 Cackler -1 FotF -3 Shock
(this deck has no lifegain so I'm fine just taking my time and 4-ing him or blowing him out in the offchance he anger of the gods)

4-2
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rd 7: Mono Black Devotion 2-1
G1: I have a pretty slow hand+draw and no good way to deal with double demon.
G2: I don't know
if it's worth doing this play or if I'm losing out on damage most of the time but I play Satyr t1 instead of cackler. As I hoped, he devour fleshes my satyr (probably because its worse than his other removal for the most part) and then I play a cackler which eats a hero's downfall i believe. Either way, he dies while I'm at 23.
G3: I don't remember but I think I had a 1 drop, 2 BTE into 2nd 1drop hand

SB:
same as above

5-2
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rd 8: R/g Devotion (Fanatic) 2-1 ~ played LP!
G1: Play a bunch of dudes, burn his blockers and kill him. I'm at 18 at the end probably from a foundry
G2: Don't remember the specifics but I start slow and it ends up in a position where he has an ember swallower and a fanatic and I have 1 creature. It doesn't matter too much because I'm losing the race anyway, but I forget that he's at 6 lands because ive been stuck on 3 or 4. He drops
his 7th and uses monstrosity and seals the game.
G3: I attack with 3 guys, he activates his mutavault to try and block but it gets shocked. He's stuck on 2 mountains and a bunch of reckoners in hand.

SB:
+4 Reckoner +2 Fanatic +2 Chained +2 Mortars
-4 Satyr -4 Cackler -1 FotF -1 Shock
(Not sure if I want the devotion package vs. these big red decks. LP wasn't running much removal but the boros lists are running like 4 mortars main)

6-2
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rd 9: Esper Control 2-1
G1: I have a pretty weak start and relatively poor draws throughout. I don't remember the specifics unfortunately but I played "beautifully" (according to my friends lol) and manage to orchestrate a very close game. One of my cooler plays was against a Jace, AoT. He -2 Jace and showed DSphere, Dissolve, and a plains. I really needed to land my lightning strike to recur and play phoenix next turn so I put the plains with
the dissolve and he 'agrees' that the dissolve is weaker so he picks up the dsphere. Unfortunately, he had a 2nd dissolve in hand. In his final turn of this game, he -2s Jace and finds a hero's downfall, azorius charm, and a land. He also has an aetherling in play. He's at 1 and I have phoenix + burn in hand with enough mana for both. I try the same trick and put land+charm together. He almost grabs the downfall, thinks for literally 3 minutes, realizes what his cards do and swings for 8 with aetherling with lifelink. I'm dead next turn so I skip it up, kinda tilted but still focused knowing this is a very good m/u for me. Oh he also had 2 revelations this game.
G2: I think I deserved to win g1 by a mile because this guy isn't very good and it shows in games 2 and 3. He doesn't have a verdict and just dies to my guys. Even if he did verdict, I was very ready to kill him afterward.
G3: He plays yoked ox (uhhh.....). The first one gets mortar'd. The 2nd one get's Chandra +1'd and he just dies.

nSB:
+2 Boros Charm +2 Mortars +3 Skullcrack
-2 Chained - 3 Shock -1 FotF -1 Jet
(brought in mortars for Blood Baron; guess they work for yoked oxen too)

7-2
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rd 10: Mono Black Devotion 2-0
G1: Play firedrinker, then BTE+BTE+cackler, then phoenix, then phoenix + cackler.
G2: I play satyr over cackler on T1 again and he devour fleshes my satyr. I end up sacking a phoenix later and I end up at 21 (1 shockland) and hes dead. Pretty anticlimatic

SB:
same as above

8-2
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Closing thoughts:
First of all, there were a lot of white weenie decks today and it's a ridiculously good m/u for this deck. I've only lost to it against very specific hands that are a mixture of familiars, brave the elements, and boros charms. Playing a Chandra against these decks is
hilarious. Unfortunately I didn't get to play against any of them all day.
Both my losses were to the expected most unfavorable m/u's for this deck and in both series, I was extremely close. With just a bit more luck, I feel like this deck could easily top 8. 6/8 of the top 8 are decent to really good M/U's for this deck. I'm not exactly sure how the big boros m/u is and i'm too tired to think atm. It's 3 am and it's been a long day- sorry for any grammatical or formatting errors and whatnot.
I would definitely play this deck again next week and a good chance to play 75/75. I'm not playing in anything big till the invitational in vegas (hoping to try and win an IQ this month and if not, ill just play in the open).

Thank you Z + MDU for this deck. I probably would've played white weenie if I hadn't found pyrored like 2 weeks ago because I was sick of modo rdw fanatic garbage.

oh and completely unrelated but p.sulli's new list that he tweeted looks really fun

Hey guys! First time making an actual post. Here's my tournament report from SCG:LA - I finished 8-2-0 and got top 32.
I was playing Walter White (I prefer 'Heisenburn') and both my losses were very close. I felt like this deck could've easily top 8'd and possibly won.

Here's my list
[deck]Heisenburn[/deck]

Deck choice explanations:
So the list is basically Zemanjaski/MDU's Walter White list. I was on 2 Mutavault and 3 Young Pyromancer / 3 Firefist Striker this past week in testing but then I saw MDU's post this morning and had second thoughts. I copied his test brew and went to 4 Young Pyromancer / 2 Firefist Striker and 4 Mutavault. It felt a bit risky playing 4 Mutavault because I still wanted to the Reckoner/Fanatic package so I compromised and went for 3 Mutavaults. As for FFS, I know he is great but I just concluded that YP would be better in more situations and both usually provoke an immediate answer so the difference wouldn't be too noticeable. I know the Mono Black and Esper matchups are really good but I wanted to really push it over the top and make sure that I couldn't lose to variance and just hope to dodge Mono Blue and G/r Devotion. With
that same reasoning, I cut the FotF from the board and added a third Skullcrack because I always want to see it. I opted for Boros Charm over Act of Treason because I felt like I had enough tools for Mono Black and because I wanted to shore up U/W Control which is quite a bit harder than Esper because of Last Breath.

Match reports: (It was a long day- 600+ people and 10 rounds- so I don't remember all the games with great detail)

Rd 1: Mono Blue Devotion 2-1
G1: We trade back and forth; I am at 6 and he is at 1 and I have a phoenix in play vs no fliers. He plays a huge Master of Waves to guarantee the win next turn and drops a Judge's Familiar to chump my phoenix. I hope for the burn spell but brick and concede.
G2 + G3: I win them both but I don't remember how. I think I just flooded the board and hit him for ~10 with Fanatic both games.

SB:
+4 Reckoner +2 Fanatic +2 Chained
- 4 Satyr -4 Cackler

1-0
_________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________
Rd 2: G/r Devotion 0-2
G1: I remember this extremely clearly. He is tapped out with a caryatid in play and 8 life. I have a BTE, FFS, phoenix, and a Mutavault. I have 2 Mountains in play and 1 card in hand, a magma jet. In my upkeep, I jet him to 6 and hope to dig for a land to activate mutavault and swing for lethal. I put 2 creatures down on the bottom and draw a scryland... He's at 2 life so I'm way ahead but next turn he plays scavenging ooze and gains like 6 life off of it (who plays this MD...). I eventually get him to 6 life with 4 mana up with a jet + strike in hand. From there he does his Nykthos thing and kills me.
G2: I keep a Pyromancer + spell hand. He plays BTE + Mortars and then triple Nylea's Disciple.

SB:
+4 Reckoner +2 Fanatic +2 Chained +2 Skullcrack
-4 Satyr -4 Cackler -2 Jet
(Skullcrack might be too cute for just disciple but it didn't matter in this particular match)

1-1
_________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________
Rd 3: Naya Aggro 2-0
G1: I play a young pyromancer and kill all his voices and fleecemane lions. Proceed to win with my David Ochoa elemental tokens.
G2: He plays the worm token 5/5 thing and tries to race me. I get him to 1 while I'm at 10. He swings with his 5/5 and ghor clans it bringing me to 1 and then scoops it up.

SB:
+4 Reckoner +2 Fanatic +2 Chained +2 Mortars
-4 Satyr -4 Cackler -2 Shock

2-1
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rd 4: U/w Devotion (U Devotion with DSpheres and Verdict and revelation) 1-2
G1: I get like 4 creatures killed by verdict but manage to bring him to 8 with Chandra and her phoenix. He -2s with his Jace and finds his 2nd DSphere but not enough mana to cast that turn. My turn, Chandra has 7 loyalty, hes at 8, and I have a phoenix. I swing and bring him to 6 and ult chandra to find 4 1 drops and 4 lands. Try to grind though but he has double rev (zzz..)
G2: I
play a bunch of dudes and he doesn't verdict and falls over.
G3: I don't remember exactly but my draws were below average and he had double weird so I eventually lost. Managed to get him to 10 though

SB:
+2 Boros Charm +2 Chained +3 Skullcrack +2 Mortars
-4 Satyr -2 Cackler -3 Shock
(he had no tidebinder mages so no real relevant target for shock; not sure if I wanted the 1-drops or if I wanted to devotion package - trying to figure out how to best fight this control/devotion hybrid)

2-2 (out of top 16 contention; hopeful that I can dodge G/r and Blue Devotion because I see tons of U/W Control and white weenies - my friends and I figure that the amount of U/W over esper is just a budget thing for most)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rd 5: Mono Black Devotion 2-0 -->
G1: Honestly don't remember- just do my thing, laugh inside as he hopelessly 1-for-1s and kills phoenix
G2: I play satyr, do nothing turn 2, and play a phoenix turn 3. Before damage, he blows his ratchet bomb at 1. Next turn, I drop a mountain and play the 4 1-drops i've been sandbagging haha

SB:
+3 Skullcrack +2 Mortars +2 Chained
-3 Shock -1 FotF -3 Jet
(mortars seems kinda meh but killing specters and even merchants is big game to let my dudes through; I cut spells
because I want high density of creatures and well every creature is good in this m/u)

3-2
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rd 6: Naya Control 2-1
G1: He gets me down to 11 somehow and 3-for-1s me with an Anger of the Gods. He dies eventually though because the deck has no lifegain.
G2: I have a really good hand for curving out (BTE, Phoenix, 2xReckoner, Fanatic) but his hand is perfect for mine and literally kills everything. I get him to 9 just by redirecting mortars on my reckoner but that doesn't get there
G3: He does nothing (he wants an anger but he fails to find), I just play dudes and attack

SB:
+2 Chained +4 Reckoner +2 Fanatic +2 Boros Charm +2 Mortars
-4 Satyr -4 Cackler -1 FotF -3 Shock
(this deck has no lifegain so I'm fine just taking my time and 4-ing him or blowing him out in the offchance he anger of the gods)

4-2
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________
Rd 7: Mono Black Devotion 2-1
G1: I have a pretty slow hand+draw and no good way to deal with double demon.
G2: I don't know if it's worth doing this play or if I'm losing out on damage most of the time but I play Satyr t1 instead of cackler. As I hoped, he devour fleshes my satyr (probably because its worse than his other removal for the most part) and then I play a cackler which eats a hero's downfall i believe. Either way, he dies while I'm at 23.
G3: I don't remember but I think I had a 1 drop, 2 BTE into 2nd 1drop hand

SB:
same as above

5-2
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rd 8: R/g Devotion (Fanatic) 2-1 ~ played LP!
G1: Play a bunch of dudes, burn his blockers and kill him. I'm at 18 at the end probably from a foundry
G2: Don't remember the specifics but I start slow and it ends up in a position where he has an ember swallower and a fanatic and I have 1
creature. It doesn't matter too much because I'm losing the race anyway, but I forget that he's at 6 lands because ive been stuck on 3 or 4. He drops his 7th and uses monstrosity and seals the game.
G3: I attack with 3 guys, he activates his mutavault to try and block but it gets shocked. He's stuck on 2 mountains and a bunch of reckoners in hand.

SB:
+4 Reckoner +2 Fanatic +2 Chained +2 Mortars
-4 Satyr -4 Cackler -1 FotF -1 Shock
(Not sure if I want the devotion package vs. these big red decks. LP wasn't running much removal but the boros lists are running like 4 mortars main)

6-2
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rd 9: Esper Control 2-1
G1: I have a pretty weak start and relatively poor draws throughout. I don't remember the specifics unfortunately but I played "beautifully" (according to my friends) and manage to orchestrate a very close game. One of my coolest plays was against a Jace, AoT. He -2
Jace and showed DSphere, Dissolve, and a plains. I really needed to land my lightning strike to recur and play phoenix next turn so I put the plains with the dissolve and he 'agrees' that the dissolve is weaker so he picks up the dsphere. Unfortunately, he had a 2nd dissolve in hand. In his final turn of this game, he -2s Jace and finds a hero's downfall, azorius charm, and a land. He also has an aetherling in play. He's at 1 and I have phoenix + burn in hand with enough mana for both. I try the same trick and put land+charm together. He almost grabs the downfall, thinks for literally 3 minutes, realizes what his cards do and swings for 8 with aetherling with lifelink. I'm dead next turn so I skip it up, kinda tilted but still focused knowing this is a very good m/u for me. Oh he also had 2 revelations this game.
G2: I think I deserved to win g1 by a mile because this guy isn't very good and it shows in games 2 and 3. He doesn't have a verdict and just dies to my guys. Even if he did verdict, I was
very ready to kill him afterward.
G3: He plays yoked ox (uhhh.....). The first one gets mortar'd. The 2nd one get's Chandra +1'd and he just dies.

SB:
+2 Boros Charm +2 Mortars +3 Skullcrack
-2 Chained - 3 Shock -1 FotF -1 Jet
(brought in mortars for Blood Baron; guess they work for yoked oxen too)

7-2
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Rd 10: Mono Black Devotion 2-0
G1: Play firedrinker, then BTE+BTE+cackler, then phoenix, then phoenix + cackler.
G2: I play satyr over cackler on T1 again and he devour fleshes my satyr. I end up sacking a phoenix later and I end up at 21 (1 shockland) and hes dead. Pretty anticlimatic

SB:
same as above

8-2
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Closing thoughts:
First of all, there were a lot of white weenie decks today and it's a ridiculously good m/u for this deck. I've only
lost to it against very specific hands that are a mixture of familiars, brave the elements, and boros charms. Playing a Chandra against these decks is hilarious. Unfortunately I didn't get to play against any of them all day.
Both my losses were to the expected most unfavorable m/u's for this deck and in both series, I was extremely close. With just a bit more luck, I feel like this deck could easily top 8. 6/8 of the top 8 are decent to really good M/U's for this deck. I'm not exactly sure how the big boros m/u is and i'm too tired to think atm. It's 3 am and it's been a long day- sorry for any grammatical or formatting errors and whatnot.
I would definitely play this deck again next week and a good chance to play 75/75. I'm not playing in anything big till the invitational in vegas (hoping to try and win an IQ this month and if not, ill just play in the open).

Thank you Z + MDU for this deck. I probably would've played white weenie if I hadn't found pyrored like 2 weeks ago because I was
sick of modo rdw fanatic garbage.

oh and completely unrelated but p.sulli's new list that he tweeted looks really fun

Incredibly interesting report. After my 2nd place finish on Friday, I came back to MDU wondering about additional Mutavaults and even less BTE/FFS in the version. It's great to see that someone (you) tried a little bit of a different version then what MDU played. I also felt the lack of YP presence in my matches, but the threat just as equal. I wonder what actually goes on in our opponents head if they see a YP and a FFS on the board, which do they remove first? I suppose it matters on if we can activate the Batallion and how many cards we're holding in our hand that could creature tokens, /shrug

Awesome report, good job!

Standard Tournament: Daily Event 6210728 (3-1) Video Report running (still have two more sets remaining with this list):

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

Creatures 22
04x Firedrinker Satyr
04x Rakdos Cackler
04x Burning-Tree Emissary
03x Firefist Striker
03x Young Pyromancer
04x Chandra's Phoenix

Planeswalkers 02
02x Chandra, Pyromaster

Enchantments 02
02x Chained to the Rocks

Pew Pew 12
04x Lightning Strike
04x Magma Jet
03x Shock
01x Flames of the Firebrand

Sideboard 15
04x Boros Reckoner
02x Skullcrack
02x Boros Charm
02x Chained to the Rocks
02x Mizzium Mortars
02x Fanatic of Mogis
01x Flames of the Firebrand[/deck]

German Themed BGM for these games (I did my best with translations) here are the replays:

G1: MonoBlue Devotion[/url:
2skrt42n] - Music: Klamauk (German for Horseplay) by KID
G2: [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlcxnQ58GSo]BWR Brew? (Don't ask me) - Music: Heilmittel (German for Remedy) by KID
G3: Colossal Gruul (really close game, had he not blocked my Phoenix things could of been really different) - Music: Drittes Auge (German for meeting the third party face-to-face) By KID
G4: MonoBlack Devotion - Music: Wesser Hund (German for Who did it?) By KID

Disclaimer my German to English is poor - but it should be close enough

Not going to add much to my explanations here since I'm now working on my new list.

EDIT: great result vundo, just wanted to point out skullcrack vs Gr is correct
EDIT2: Got another finish with the new
list so I now have enough points for MOCS12 yaay

@MDU

No love for Hammer or it is just bad right now and not needed?

Thanks for the lengthy report, vundo! A very interesting read.

@MDU

No love for Hammer or it is just bad right now and not needed?

Your losing against MonoU and GBW right? Does Hammer help you in those MUs?

I'm taking Legion now (despite my hate for the card a few pages back) because I'm also having trouble dealing with the likes of GBW - decay on Chains is just brutal.

I don't really have much room in my 75 for a card which supports my strong MUs so you may have notice in my recent list I took out Boros Charm and Act of Treason, I want my SB to reflect my need to take down our harder MUs - as of date I've beaten MonoU more times then I have lost against it.

EDIT: I don't think its a great idea to accept giving your Opp, freebies when
your entering large events.

EDIT2: Its nice to see my RW Test deck being used, how was 19 R sources for casting BR vundo?

hmm a few times, i had trouble casting BTE on turn 2, but i dont recall ever being unable to cast reckoner. mutavault is really good but we already know that. I think i like having 3. I'd happily go to 4 but I'm worried that those mana issues might become more frequent.

i was mana screwed more than i was color screwed but i don't want to go to 23 lands. I only got screwed because they were 1 land 2x 1 drop type hands.

*EDIT* Also, I only play pauper on modo so my deck changes aren't very fluid and change drastically ~1 week before an event. I hadn't thought about abrupt decay. eek
*2* for a more casual approach, i think i want to try http://www.mtgo-stats.com/decks/81434 with pyromancers for fnm. helix is just a fun spell.

hmm a few times, i had trouble casting BTE on turn 2, but i dont recall ever being unable to cast reckoner. mutavault is really good but we already know that. I think i like having 3. I'd happily go to 4 but I'm worried that those mana issues might become more frequent.

i was mana screwed more than i was color screwed but i don't want to go to 23 lands. I only got screwed because they were 1 land 2x 1 drop type hands.

*EDIT* Also, I only play pauper on modo so my deck changes aren't very fluid and change drastically ~1 week before an event. I hadn't thought about abrupt decay. eek
*2* for a more casual approach, i think i want to try http://www.mtgo-stats.com/decks/81434
with pyromancers for fnm. helix is just a fun spell.

Don't play that list, its so bad: "G2: BWR Brew? (Don't ask me) - Music: Heilmittel (German for Remedy) by KID"

Also I wanted to point out that just because your on modo doesn't mean you'll be able to make fluid and drastic changes just look at all the R FoM list running around without ever evolving, I honestly think we're very lucky we have talented deck builders such as Zemanjaski running around - heck if Z didn't beat my face in last month I most likely wouldn't be here.

Thus IMO it take quite a few conditions which many players do not have to make changes to a decklist which are already proven, heck the only reason why I've been able to make these changes because of the massive bank I built up so it doesn't hurt me to buy and test random cards (even if
they're a mythic rare..... stupid god card...) knowing that I get chances to discuss theory with people on forums and/or modo is very helpful as well.

Man, I run Satyr out all day against any deck in which I must play Beatdown. Dega included.

Even against Naya and Big Boros?

If I have to bring the beats, then yes. Although, not one person in my area plays Naya....yet.

But, I'm also not playing the same deck everybody else is at the moment. I'm playing Mono Red tuned for the meta at my LGS.

It may be "cute", but it's so awesome to drop Pyrewild Shaman on Ash Zealot, then when FS damage goes in, pay for Pyrewild Shaman to come back to pump up my Phoenix in the same go lol...

vundo, great work! Thanks for the excellent report, comments post-digesting.

mdu ~ Assemble = free wins against the decks you bring it in. Don't say no to free wins

Re: SB'ing- I definitely took out Chained, derp. So it was -2 Chained, -2 Shock for Esper.

I don't like cutting Shock for Flames vs. control at all Helios. 2 mana for 1 damage, sorcery is blergh. Shock gives much cheaper Phoenix rebuys and YP tokens.

My logic was that it increased my overall damage output + gave me an out to a turn 6 Elspeth. Is that bad in practice? This was my first time playing Flames in the deck (save when we first started with it), so I really don't know.

Against Esper: I usually side out my Chained to the Rocks when I go against Esper. It misses Aetherling, Blood Baron of Vizkopa, and Obzedat, Ghost Council which are basically the only things they have worse chaining. I'm not sure if you run Assemble the Legion and Hammer of Purphoros like I do, but I'd side something like

OUT: -2 Chained to the Rocks, -2 Shock
IN: +2 Boros Charm, +1 Assemble the Legion, +1 Hammer of Purphoros

I prefer hammer over assemble because making every card you draw live with haste is usually
enough to completely overwhelm an esper deck. If you're only running one of those two in your sideboard, just take out 1 shockinstead.

I did side out my Chained, derped when reporting. Assemble v. Esper is too dicey, you're banking on them not having a counterspell / Jace / D-sphere, and it's a dead card for so long when you need to draw damage. Hammer is fine but it isn't in my SB, I'm really comfortable with this match-up. Nor is Boros Charm, for the same reason. As much as I hate to say it, Skullcrack shines here- now that they aren't playing Thragtusks and Sphinx's, you can hold it for the inevitable Revelation and win the game.

I'm actually kinda intriqued by the yrewild shaman idea. Yet more recursion which equals VCA or just plain ole CA...

I might try 2 of those instead of the 2 reckoners I was gonna put in, just to see how it feels....

Reckoner is too good not to include if you have the manabase to support it.

How's this look for a main shell with Pyrewild? Adjust sideboard as necessary.

[Deck]
Lands:22
12 Mountain
2 Mutavault
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph

Creatures:22
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Ash Zealot
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix
2 Pyrewild Shaman

Spells:16
2 Chained to the Rocks
3 Shock
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
1 Flames of the Firebrand
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard:15
2 Chained to the Rocks
2 Boros Charm
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Act of Treason
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Assemble the Legion
[/deck]

[quote="Helios » Sun Nov 03, 2013 9:38 am"
My logic was that it increased my overall damage output + gave me an out to a turn 6 Elspeth. Is that bad in practice? This was my first time playing Flames in the deck (save when we first started with it), so I really don't know[/quote]

Thanks helios! From my experience, I've never needed to burn out and kill an elspeth. She's only a 1-of so she doesn't come up too much but the few times she has in testing, I usually have enough phoenixes and burn to finish them. Also at that point in the game, I'm usually stuck with a hand full of burn and phoenixes in the yard so i have to throw them straight at him. Also, I suppose if they have elspeth and only 3 tokens, you can FotF and alpha strike. That said, I'm pretty sure you don't want them g2. I really like it g1 against
almost every deck because you can squeeze so much value out of it and the extra damage helps quite a bit like killing specter or gary w/phoenix recursion. It sucks that you can't do a 2-1 damage split between jace and the player anyways, its better than shock g1, but likely worse than shock g2 in the matchups you don't want it (idk if i'm making sense but it's basically what others have been saying i believe)
. i

I like the Pyrewild Shaman idea; the ability to 'cycle' for three damage from 5 mana onwards seems especially good.

It's another pain in the ass against the 1-for-1 removal decks too.

As an aside, there are a lot of Shaman creatures running around in Standard. Hints of tribal support?

Pyrewild is pretty good against Spectre, Weird and Jace; all of which are relevant. It's also a nice trick against Fiendslayer Paladin and I can imagine that it's a bit of a menace in games that enter top deck wars. I'm will to give it a shot.

Not to mention Sylvan Caratid...

Played 2 * 8 man and 3 * 2 man with Shaman version (Ash zealots) 2-1, 3-0 and 2-1 in 2mans.

I is awsome also vs mono black when they Pharika's Cure you in combat phase, as noone plays around bloodrush nowadays.

Awsome vs Sylvan Caryatid, Weird, Specter, Gray Merchant, and really good with ash zealot as you can pay midcombat for it!

However I drew it always in pairs, and I dont know if I like have too many of them. 2 seems fine.

It won matchup vs Mono U as it helped to kill jace and to pass through their big ass blockers. And as always noone plays around it.

Sick!

Nice work Pedros!

I suppose the question to be answered is Shaman + Zealot more efficient then BTE + FFS?

It's more compact (6 cards vs. which means that you can do stuff with the space. Ill have a think about it, though I do really like FFS. The BTE + FFS draw against MBC is brutal as well; although having Pyrewild substantially increases your outs to Spectre;
- satyr trades anyway;
- now Cackler gets through as well (Zealot already did with any removal).

A 3/1 body is quite good against a lot of decks anyway.

It's an option worth exploring.

Ash Zealot is definitely a superior topdeck so you'd reduce variance with the Shaman route. I think it really depends on how the meta continues to develop. If we start to see a lot of Naya control then Ash Zealot and Shaman would be superior IMO since you are running a more powerful creature package without having to commit much to the board.

This will be my test list, I like what it's doing A LOT:

[deck]PyroPyre Red v1.0[/deck]
Creatures
4 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Firedrinker Satyr
2 Pyrewild Shaman
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Young Pyromancer

Planeswalkers
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Burn
1 Flames of the Firebrand
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Shock

Land
19 Mountain
4 Mutavault
[/deck]

Notes:
- ill be interested to see how much I'm now giving up to MBC on the draw. BTE into guy were critical to beating that deck on the draw sometimes, but now I have more haste, mana sinks and CA engines...
- Pyrewild does a good mortars impression and is recursive CA. Combines well with Phoenix / Zealot.
- I've opted for an extra red source (I did have trouble with only 18 sometimes) to improve the mana slightly; this means Mutavault will turn on faster
and ill be more able to rebuy Pyrewild. We all know I like me aggro decks to have lots of land >:)
- with Pyrewild impersonating Mortars, I snuck in a FotF which improves some matchups quite a bit; also makes YP a touch better.

Thoughts?

I like it a lot. less reliant on BTE, and with an expected meta shift increase of Soldier of the pantheon that is only a good thing

23rd land and flames are excellent choices to fill in the 2 missing slots

I like it, it's actually pretty much 1-for-1 what I was thinking of trying. Only differences is I was gonna keep mortars, but FotF can recur phoenix, so I'll give that a whirl.
I also only own 1 muta, so my land is a 21/1 split, and I just run one more burn spell, but thats besides the point.

The only other thought I have is if only 2 pyrewilds is enough of a change to really impact the decks mu's and if we'll get it frequently enough to matter...
Maybe 3, but that feels like we'd start getting it when we don't want it, though I guess it can always be thrown out as a creature and reused later.

So yeah, for me the thought boils down to: 2 or 3 pyrewilds?

That was really my only worry about it with Mono Black Devotion so rampant, will the change from BTE + FFS actually be hurtful since its 1 less body?

Here are my logs vs Mono Black Devotion with 1-2 Pyrewild Shaman's in the past 2 days (I made changes through out matches and so forth):

otP Mono Black Devotion 1-2 Loss
otP Mono Black Devotion 2-0 Win
otP Mono Black Devotion 2-1 Win
otP Mono Black Devotion 2-0 Win
otD Mono Black Devotion 1-0 Win

Running PyroBoros list with 2 Pyrewild Shaman, 22 land, and no FotF.
I've been 21-7 in the past 2 days in testing with it. I know that''s just a stat thrown out there and nothing to really base it off of, but it does go to show it's working!

This will be my test list, I like what it's doing A LOT:

[deck]PyroPyre Red v1.0[/deck]
Creatures
4 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Firedrinker Satyr
2 Pyrewild Shaman
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Young Pyromancer

Planeswalkers
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Burn
1 Flames of the Firebrand
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Shock

Land
19 Mountain
4 Mutavault
[/deck]

Notes:
- ill be interested to see how much I'm now giving up to MBC on the draw. BTE into guy were critical to beating that deck on the draw sometimes, but now I have more haste, mana sinks and CA engines...
- Pyrewild does a good mortars impression and is recursive CA. Combines well with Phoenix /
Zealot.
- I've opted for an extra red source (I did have trouble with only 18 sometimes) to improve the mana slightly; this means Mutavault will turn on faster and ill be more able to rebuy Pyrewild. We all know I like me aggro decks to have lots of land >:)
- with Pyrewild impersonating Mortars, I snuck in a FotF which improves some matchups quite a bit; also makes YP a touch better.

Thoughts?

You won't have problems with MonoBlack, YP$ and Chandra's Phoenix is just too much for them to handle on the play or not.

I like the extra burn imo it will give you an edge against MonoU and Gr so that is a good thing , in regards to Pyrewild Shaman I really like him (so good vs walls, Hexproof and Spectre) - but as a recurring engine not so much, I never had a game where I could buy him back and cast him on the same turn - out of all the games I've played with him I only
brought him back once and that was against Esper.

2 is much better than 3. Their power is in their accrued CA at 5 mana, and they are pretty clunky in multiples.

If you haven't had experience with the card, note this interaction:

You can return the pyrewild to your hand after 1st strike damage with ash zealot and bloodrush before normal combat damage to get some decent blowouts in