Zemanjaski sent me that deck list on Wednesday. I was very impressed by the initial main deck, it seemed to have so much synergy. I spent all day Thursday and Friday harassing the the owner of my LGS to make sure he had the cards I was missing and sleeved up Rakdos Suicide for FNM last night.
My deck was 59 of the 60, with the one card being different was that instead of
Barrage of Expendables I played 1 of
Chandra, Pyromaster.
I ended up going 3-0-2, and making top 8.
Pretournament test game. vs R/G Monsters with a black splash. The splashed card was Vraska's in the main deck and also to allow for flesh/blood to be fused. He showed me he had Golgari Charms in the board but we only played game 1 matches. In game 1 he takes so shots at me with creatures like BTE and Xenegos Satyrs. I am able to remove them and am clocking him out with a phoenix
and a YP. He slams a Polokranos that I don't have removal for and manages to monstrous it for 3 and swing to bring me to but 2, but I am able to finish him off with the crack back. No sideboarding, in game 2. He plops down an early Sylvan Carytid and I plop down an early pain seer. Pain seer continues to attack into his wall and I take 9 points of self inflicted damage from it before he answers it. He doesn't get fatties right away and tries an aggro plan with Xenegos tokens and BTEs again. I keep attacking him with Pain Seer and when he blocks with an X/2, I'll use a shock or other burn before damage. My aggro plan for this match was to ride a Chandra's Phoenix to victory. He played a Scavenging Ooze when I had one in the grave yard, but I had to burn to recur it before he could exile it. The final turn of the game focused around me having Tyramet and Chandra's Phoenix in play, and a hand of Magma Jet; Lightning Strike and him at 9 life. The play would be sac phoenix to Tyramet, end to turn magma jet,
get back phoenix, play phoenix and attack and then then bolt. I used scry to set up my draw as a 2nd lightning strike to really burn him out, but that's a good demonstration of the lines of play this deck can have.
Here was the thrown together sideboard that I used:
[deck]
2 Dreadbore
1 Tymaret, the Murder King
3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Doom Blade
4 Skullcrack
1 Ultimate Price
[/deck]
DO NOT COPY THIS SIDEBOARD, you will lose.
I really did not like this board, I feel it could be much better but I jammed it with removal to handle cards that I perceived to be threats in the undefined metagame.
Match 1 vs White Weenie. This deck is pretty much exactly like the white weenie boros aggro deck, except there was no red splash for Boros Charm.
Game 1. He gets a very fast start with Soldier of the Pantheon that has me reeling. I manage to stabilize, but at a single digit life total. We are both in top deck mode and I have YP, Necromancer and Tyrammet out, and 2 Chandra's Phoenix,
one in play and 1 in the yard. he has a spear of Heliod and a Judges Familiar and 2 dorks. Neither of us can really swing. I get the brilliant idea that even though I don't have a burn spell in hand, I can just attack into him with the Phoenix and, he will spear it then I sac it to Tyrammet for a 4 point swing, which lets me alpha him next turn and then sac my entire team for 16 damage. It turns out that my math was not right and I could only do 15 in a no block situation. I never get the burn to recur my Phoenixe's and he clocks me out with the 2/2 Judge's Familiar.
In this match I sideboarded like this:
-1 Tyrammet
-4 Thoughtsieze
-1 Ultimate Price
+2 Breadbore
+2 Doom Blade
+2 Mizzium Mortars.
Game 2 is pretty much how the match is supposed to go. I'm on the play and can start off with creatures and removal to break up his battalion and slowly grind out the win. Once again I find myself clocking him from 20 to 12 with a Chandra's Phoenix. The final turns come down to me alphaing him
thinking that I'll chip away his board by forcing blocks. He decides not to and cracks me back for 6 to send me to 5. Th game ends unceremoniously when I just untap and attack again.
Game 3, He on the play and gets another agressive 1 drop start. I play a ton of removal and manage to stabilize at 12 life. He is out of gas. His only permanents in play are 2 plains and a vault. He hits me with a Mutavualt to drop me to 10. On my turn I cast a Xantrid Necromancer. He once again animates the Mutavualt and attacks with it, which I happily block. He then realizes that he can't save it with BtE, so I get a zombie vs his board of only plains. I cast a 2nd Xantrid and then beat him down from 21 with just a pair of 2/2's. He lamented the decision to attack with the Mutavualt, revealing that his hand contained Spear of Heliod and Banisher Priest and he never draw a 3rd land. Play mistakes are killer.
Round 2 vs U/W control.
I start off game 1 with temple into turn 2 Pain Seer. He plays a second land and
passes. On turn 3, I play a thoughtsieze on him and he reveals a hand of plains, hallowed fountain, temple, mutavault, syncopate, divination, and Elspeth. I take Divination and then play a blood crypt untapped and jam a second Thoughseize taking Elspeth. So I'm at 14 from self inflicted damage and I attack with seer. He does nothing on turn 3 and I flip land and draw a card, playing my 4th land and a second pain seer. He taps out for Jace and I play a Xantrid Necromancer and kill his Jace and hit for 2 with both pain seers. He is forced to Dsphere Necromancer my untap from both sears reveals Necromancer and seer #3, I fall to 5 life all self inflicted. The final turn sees me with Tyramet and 3 blood seers in play, only of which 2 can attack. I crack in with both seers. He sphinxes for 3 but falls to 7. At the end of his turn, I sac one of the tapped seers so deal 2, I didn't want to kill myself with 2 unlucky reveals. The creatures manage to finish him off.
Sideboard:
-4 shock
-2 Ultimate Price
-1
Magma Jet
+4 Skull Crack
+1 Tyramet
+2 Dreadbore.
Game 2 is much closer. I get an early thoughtseize and he revels a hand of 3 Islands, Plains, Jace, and Celestial Purge. I take Jace and run out a Chandra's Phoenix into his purge then use burn to get it back and start clocking him with it. He casts Sphinx Rev for 1 and I drop a Tyramet. I get him down to 9, but he Verdicts. I burn him to recur the phoenix and take him to 7. He Revs back up to 11. I knock him to 9. but he plays Jace and -2's to draw. I split off a Last Breath in the solo pile and he takes that. When I Dreadbore Jace andswing in with Phoenix he plays Last Breath, but I respond buy sacing it to my Tyramet in the graveyard to recur him. He is still at 9. I have 2 Lightning Strike in hand and he a temple for me revels a 3rd one on top. I play 1 Strike on him, he Dissolves. I play a 2nd which revolves and get's me back phoneix. He is at 6 and I draw the Strike. He syncopates my Phoenix when I try to cast it and I strike him again to
knock him down to 3. I also have a Skull Crack in hand and the final turn goes. I have 4 open mana. He casts Sphinx Rev for 5, tapping 8 land, he leaves 3 open. I have to skull crack here, so I do and he revels that his counterspell was Syncopate, which doesn't work because I had 2 open mana.
The 3rd round vs GW Aggro.
This was the one match up I was looking forward to. Back when I played PyroRed, this was a hard match up. I pretty much had to hit multiple Chined to the Rocks or lose. In game 1 I start things off with Thoughtsieze and rip a Fleecemane, leaving him with a hand of 2 Temple of Plenty, Forest, and Loxodon Smiter. He had a turn 1 Soldier of the Pantheon, but the amount of removal is just so high. I was able to deal with every threat and slowly grind him out with bears.
Sideboard:
-4 Shock
-4 Magma jet
+3 Lifebane Zombie
+1 Ultimate Price
+2 Doom Blade
+2 Dreadbore
I decided to leave in Thoughtsieze because I felt the ability to wreck a hand with it plus Lifebane Zombie would be
good against GW, especially since you can take tricks like Selesnya Charm and Rootborn Defenses.
This would be a critical error. In game 2, my oppoent started off with a turn 1 Experiment One, then his turn 2 was Experiment One and Soldier of the Pantheon. I couldn't handle the extremely quick aggressive draw and quickly folded.
For game three; I switched my board, taking out 4 Thoughsieze and putting 4Shock back in the deck. he game played out much like the first. I deal with all his early creatues. Then he plays an Ajani, which I just kill by attacking it with Xantrid Necromancer and Chandra's Phoenix. He manages to crack me for 8 in one attack with a 3/3 Voice token and a 5/5 wurm. I fall to 11, and kill his voice token with a shock. I attack in with all my creatures, one of which is a Blood Seer to take him to 2 from 6. He has a 5/5 Wurm and if he top decks Ajani there is a strong possibility i'll die to my own Pain Seer, he doesn't draw his out and I take game 3.
3-0, good start.
In
round 4 and 5 I intentionally draw. Normally, I'd of liked to just play test games vs my opponents in these rounds which I could write about here. What ends up happening is that my round 4 opponent is let me just say, not the type of person you want to play a game of magic with unless you absolutely have to, so I just spend the round spectating the on going matches. In round 5, I get another shot; but my brother's roommate got off work and shows up during round 4, after the round 5 pairings go out I draw, we chatting about Hearthstone (which I don't even play) and the new Bant deck which he wants to make for Monday Night Magic. Time flies and it's top 8 before I could get some good testing in.
In my top 8 match. I get paired against my round 5 opponent. I sat next to him earlier, so I know he is playing a Dega deck, but the only card I'm certain he has is
Blind Obedience, which he used to destroy an AIR player earlier.
Top 8
This match was abysmal. The R/x
Midrange decks have always been good against PyroRed decks. I play creatures like YP and Phoenix only for them to get Chained to the Rocks. Anger of the Gods wrecks my Xantrid Necromancer board positions. He won game 1 by playing a Blood Baron, which forced me to side in Mizzium Mortars and other terror effects which I knew I needed for Desecration Demons. There isn't really much to say. Dega is just so good vs Aggro, especially when we aren't extremely extremely fast.
Some thoughts on Rakdos Suicide going forward:
1. Mutavualt is a human, which gives it good synergy with Xantrid Necromancer.
2. Burn might be a good plan. With 12 burn main deck and the possibility of brining in both Skullcrack and Toil//Trouble from the sideboard makes a transformational strategy something to think about.
3. I think Zemanjaski may be onto something with Barrage of Expendables. There are quite a few X/1's in the format that can be handles easily by it.
4. Dark Prophecy might be worth consideration, even at it's
prohibitive mana cost.
5. I need to figure out a good sideboard.