Magic: The Gathering

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

You can manipulate this a bit with scry cards, but there aren't any 1cc red scry:1 cards in Standard at the moment, are there?

Um, Titan's Strength?

Also Spark Jolt, if you particularly wanted that effect.

I would be completely misleading if I didn't acknowledge that 16 lands would be living on the edge quite a bit. You'd be evaluating one-Land-hands for keepability instead of automatically tossing them like you would in a 20-Land configuration. With only 16 two-drops, though, you're only a couple of turns off from emptying your hand after your second Land, anyway (especially if said hand includes Burning-Tree Emissaries and a use for their mana).

[Icemage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

^ I think 16 land is living a little too dangerously, even with a max 2 mana curve.

With 16 land, you have less than 60% chance to have 2-3 land in your hand by your 9th card (turn 2 or 3 depending on whether you go first). You have a somewhat better odds if you count probabilities of more than 3 lands (76% of having up to 9 lands by the 9th card), but that's still an awful mana distribution.

In fact, the chances of having 2 or more land in your opening hand is only 60%, making for some very tough (and common) mulligan decisions, since you have only 51% chance of having 2+ land after doing a 6 card mulligan.

You can manipulate this a bit with scry cards, but there aren't any 1cc red scry:1 cards in Standard at the moment, are there? The only get-out-of-jail-free card would be Dragon Mantle + 1cc red creature to get you 1 additional card draw, which might happen about 40% of the time by turn 3 or so.


Icemage

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

-4 Nyxborn Rollicker--only a worthwhile play at all when Bestowed . . . on an Akroan Crusader . . . and even then, there are much better uses for 2 mana.
-2 Rubblebelt Maaka--the Bloodrush is very good, yes, but you can do even better here.
-2 Fanatic of Mogis--overrated even when it was first introduced. Costs 2 more than your next-highest card.

-3 Thunderous Might--I understand that you may be in love with this card, but even Madcap Skills is a risky proposition on whether it works or not, and this card is no Madcap Skills.
-1 Searing Blood--unfortunately not quite Searing Blaze. Sideboard only.

+4 Satyr Hoplite--essentially Akroan Crusaders 5-8.
+3 Firefist Striker--Best Red evasion available, imo. You're going to need it and then some.

+3 Magma Jet

After that, it's pretty up in the air. You should be running four copies of Titan's Strength and Coordinated Assault, as those are the best cards around for what they do (that first strike on Assault is actually huge in your deck). If you wanted to do something radical, note that your deck's curve now tops off at two--you could shave off four Mountains to make room for more gas.

Sample Tweaked out Red deck

Mountain 16

Akroan Crusader 4
Firedrinker Satyr 4
Rakdos Cackler 4
Satyr Hoplite 4
Burning-Tree Emissary 4
Firefist Striker 4

Coordinated Assault 4
Dragon Mantle 4
Titan's Strength 4
Lightning Strike 4
Magma Jet 4

[cidbahamut]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

I've been tuning the Red Deck again and I'd like some feedback from you thinking types.
Red Deck Standard | MTG Deck Builder.Net - Build, test and share Magic: The Gathering Decks

Red Deck

Mountain 20

Nyxborn Rollicker 4
Akroan Crusader 4
Firedrinker Satyr 4
Ash Zealot 2
Burning-Tree Emissary 4
Goblin Shortcutter 2
Firefist Striker 1
Rubblebelt Maaka 2
Fanatic of Mogis 2

Shock 1
Dragon Mantle 4
Thunderous Might 3
Madcap Skills 1
Searing Blood 1
Magma Jet 1
Lightning Strike 4


Sideboard
Skullcrack 3
Hammer of Purphoros 2
Reckless Reveler 1
Scouring Sands 3
Bladetusk Boar 1
Act of Treason 1
Portent of Betrayal 1
Vial of Poison 1
Burning Earth 1
Fated Conflagration 1

So far it's been performing reasonably well but I feel like I can still stand to tighten it down a bit more. The thing is, I don't want to cave and just copy/paste someone else's decklist, but I do need some suggestions on what could do with some tweaking.
At its best the deck is stomping around with Thunderous Might turning even the tiniest creature into a powerhouse that's swinging in for 6+ damage, but at its worst it gets stopped cold in its tracks by life gain and/or a wall of 4 toughness creatures that can't be comfortably blasted out of the way and it just stalls out while I hope to topdeck enough burn to pull a win out of my ass.

[Firewind]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

They are based more on the Vikings, specifically the Varangian Mercenaries.

[Malacite]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Announcing Khans of Tarkir : Daily MTG : Magic: The Gathering








WOOT! Also I guess that means the inspiration for WAR AF in XIV is Mongolian?

[cidbahamut]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Oh yeah, you'd be the fucking worst at that format. Draft power cards, immediately get roflstomped by the whole table, repeat until rage quit.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

You mean Conspiracy?

I'd be more enthused if it wasn't everything I disliked about Magic all in one neat package.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

I feel like the new expansion is supposed to be a third Un-hinged set, but that memo got eaten by the ferrets living inside the cubicle walls at Wizards HQ.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

I don't have any, and even if I did I'm still not sure where they'd go.

[Malacite]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

No Reckoners?

[cidbahamut]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Went to an actual Standard event tonight with my garbage Red Deck and managed to go 4-1. Pretty proud of my deck's performance considering how much tuning it still needs.

Red Deck

Mountain 20

Nyxborn Rollicker 4
Akroan Crusader 4
Firedrinker Satyr 4
Impetuous Sunchaser 2
Burning-Tree Emissary 4
Gore-House Chainwalker 1
Goblin Shortcutter 1
Firefist Striker 1
Rubblebelt Maaka 2
Fanatic of Mogis 1

Shock 1
Dragon Mantle 4
Ordeal of Purphoros 2
Thunderous Might 1
Madcap Skills 1
Searing Blood 1
Magma Jet 1
Lightning Strike 4
Hammer of Purphoros 1

I'm still having trouble deciding what to cut since every card has proven to be extremely useful tonight.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Deicide makes me feel a little better about the existence of Athreos and Pharika.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

The entire point of Pro Red is to cockblock Red. Not too much to be done about that. And no it's probably not effective, but it's the plan at the moment. I'll let you know how it turns out once I actually put a deck together and begin playtesting.

[Icemage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Which is why I'm planning to run Gorgon Heads.

Is that actually effective, though? I mean I guess it'd be good against the sheep, but what about stuff like Master of Waves (protection from red)?


Icemage