Postby d1sh0ng » Sat Jan 04, 2014 8:08 am
So I decided to give this deck a run this week in preparation for my PTQ tomorrow (or technically today since it's past midnight). I took MagicDownUnder's list and ran it at FNM tonight. I went 3-1 losing to R/W Devotion. Here is a quick summary of my matches.
Round 1- Bobby- W/G Devotion
Game 1- His deck played like a GW Aggro deck when he played Fleecemane Lion on turn 2. My combination of double Cacklers, Chandra's Phoenix, and Selfie caused him to scoop after he tried to play an Elspeth of turn 5 and realized he couldn't.
Game 2- This one is a bit vague but the key play was a Last Breath on my Chandra's Phoenix. He eventually resolved both Heliod and Elspeth before killing me with tokens and Collective Blessing.
Game 3- This was one of the most interesting games because of a subtle interaction with a card I was on the fence about, Legion's Initiative. Turn 3 comes and I have a Legion's Initiative and Chandra'
s Phoenix in hand. I scryed and kept a Selfie on top. I played the Initiative turn 3 and passed. Turn 4 and I play the Selfie I drew. My opponent looks at the card and says "That's a 2/3?" I reply that it is a 3/3 which elicits a sigh from my opponent. That signaled to me that he had a Last Breath in hand. I proceed to run out my Phoenix next turn and ride them plus burn to the win.
1-0 (2-1)
Round 2- Jonah- Grixis Control
Game 1- I see that he is playing many tapped lands and doesn't appear to have any sweepers so I run out as many creatures as I can. I get him down to 7 before he plays a Jace and pluses it. I ignore the Jace and swing for 4 with my Mutavault, Cacklers and Phoenix. He minus Jace, finds Rakdos's Return, Jace, and Dissolve and scoops.
Game 2- I wasn't sure about his deck so I SBed out 2 Chained to the Rocks for 2 Boros Charms (which turned out to be wrong and you will see why). I land a Turn 3 YP$ with Shock in hand. He plays a Turn 4 Desecration Demon and I am
immediately regretting my sideboard choices. I Shock him end of turn to get a token, draw and pass. I sacrifice the token to tap the Demon and he plays Ashiok, +2's and hits Satyr, Phoenix, and Cackler. He passes. I end of turn Lightning Strike the Ashiok and next turn swing with my creatures into the Ashiok. He Doom Blades the YP$ and I Boros Charm in response to kill Ashiok. His turn I sacrifice the token to tap Demon and he passes. I draw my second Mortars, attack with the Pyromancer (should have double Mortars the Demon precombat) and he Hero's Downfalls the Pyromancer. I then double Mortars the Demon and pass. From then on he flooded out and I drew runner runner Phoenix to take him down.
2-0 (4-1)
Round 3- Ari- RUG Slivers
This match was unfortunate for Ari, his slivers ate every piece of removal in my deck and he flooded in Game 1. Game 2 he mulled to 5 and kept a 4 land, 1 sliver hand that I promptly killed. He proceeded to draw 6 lands in a row.
3-0 (6-1)
Round 4- Shawn- R/W
Devotion
Game 1- I feel like I let this game slip away. I drew a creature heavy hand and took the beatdown plan. I drew over the course of the game 2 Phoenix, Selfie, Chandra, Pyromaster and Mutavault. He got 2 Reckoners out and a Stormbreath Dragon that I couldn't kill. I was at 14 to his 5 and had Phoenix and Magma Jet in hand, Chandra, Pyromaster on board and a Mutavault with 3 Mountains. I +1ed the Chandra to ping him for 1 and prevent the Dragon from blocking and attacked for 2 putting him to 2. I couldn't kill him and wanted to force the issue and make him have it. He played the Fanatic of Mogis for 9 and killed me.
Game 2- He mulliganed to 5 and kept a land heavy hand. I had a Cackler, Phoenix, Mountain, Temple, Mizzium Mortars, Lightning Strike, and Shock. I proceeded to take advantage of his threat light hand and keep him off of devotion with my removal spells. I feel like I got lucky as I eventually drew into YP$, more removal, and finished it up with Stormbreath Dragon.
Game 3- He
mulliganed to 6 and I kept a land with no creatures and lots of removal. I kill all of his creatures turns 1-3, but I have yet to draw a threat. He lands a turn 4 Chandra, Pyromaster and +1s it. I draw a Fanatic of Mogis and play it and redirect the devotion damage to Chandra to put her to 4. His turn he 0s Chandra and hits a Mountain. I draw a YP$ and attack the Fanatic into Chandra and it gets Shocked. At this point, YP$ is my only creature in hand and I have a Lightning Strike with 5 mana. He is still at 20 and I was at a crossroads, I ended up passing the turn because Chandra could just eat my Pyromancer but I'm not sure about that play. I sit back for several turns hoping to draw another creature and 2 Chained to the Rocks and land are all I find. He eventually casts Purphoros and Reckoner and gets me to 6 with him still at 20. I double chain to remove his creatures and finally play the YP$ with Shock and Lightning Strike available. He pings the YP$ and I play both of my spells to hit him to 18 and get
Chandra to 2. I scry two Mountains to the bottom and next turn attack with both tokens. He Shocks one and Chandra goes to 1. I play Mutavault and pass. He plays an Ash Zealot, pings my last token with Chandra (putting me to 4), and attacks with the Zealot. I am afraid of going to 2 because of Shock so I chump with the Mutavault. I draw my first Phoenix of the game next turn, play it and tank for a bit. Ultimately I decide that attacking with the Phoenix is right because a +1 with the Chandra would prevent my Phoenix from attacking so it's best to get some damage in. I get him to 16 and pass. He pings me again with Chandra and attacks with Ash Zealot to get me to 1. I think I am drawing dead but not sure but a topdecked Mountain causes me to extend the hand.
3-1 (7-3)
All in all I was extremely impressed with the deck. I enjoyed playing it which is something I haven't been able to say with a lot of decks I've played with so far this Standard. It felt very powerful but at the same time challenging. I
can't imagine I played perfectly especially with this being my first actual tournament playing the deck. I wish I would have played some more decks that weren't homebrews, but you get what you get. I will be running this tomorrow at my PTQ and hopefully my memory serves me well enough that I can report on that as well. For reference, MDU's PyroSkies deck again. Thank you MDU for your constant contribution through the forum and your videos on YouTube and thank you everyone in this thread for teaching me so much about this deck through reading the thread!
[deck]MDU's PyroSkies
Lands 23
11 Mountain
1 Boros Guildgate
3 Mutavault
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
Creatures 18
3 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Young Pyromancer
2 Selfie Legionnaire
2 StormBreath Dragon
Enchantments 04
3 Chained to the Rocks
1 Legion's Initiative
Instants 11
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
3 Shock
Sorcery 02
2 Mizzium Mortars
Planeswalkers 02
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
n
Sideboard 15
1 Chained to the Rocks
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Boros Reckoner
3 Skullcrack
2 Boros Charm
2 Fanatic of Mogis
2 Last Breath[/deck]