[Deck] RW control

[clavio]

I wanted to make a deck that had a good game against most of the decks in the format. I decided that R/W would be a good color combination. White has removal and solid win conditions while red has burn spells and pyrostatic pillar. It looks a lot like rifter. Here is what my list looks like so far:

PaulKane.dec
// Lands
4 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
4 [U] Plateau
8 [ST] Mountain (4)
8 [MR] Plains (3)

// Creatures
3 [ON] Exalted Angel

// Spells
3 [SC] Decree of Justice
4 [R] Swords to Plowshares
3 [RAV] Lightning Helix
3 [U] Wrath of God
4 [AT] Lightning Bolt
4 [WL] Abeyance
4 [SC] Pyrostatic Pillar
2 [EX] Price of Progress
4 [ON] Starstorm
2 [MI] Disenchant

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [EX] Price of Progress
SB: 3 [8E] Boil
SB: 4 [R] Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 3 [MR] Rule of Law
SB: 2 [DK] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 [8E] Karma


Lands: I need color mana for everything in this deck, which is why I don't run nonbasics that don't make r or w. I may test wasteland and mishra's factory at some point.

Exalted angel: morphing up an angel turn 4 can actually race goblins sometimes. 8 point difference per turn is very nice. Its a very efficent win condition. I love it.

Decree of justice: Making an army at the end of your opponents turn is pretty good. It can be hardcast, but not usually. It can also be cycled for blockers.

Swords: It removes stuff

Lightning helix: Pretty awesome burn spell. It can blow up most small creatures in the format, then gain you 3 life

Wrath of god: Blows stuff up.

Lightning bolt: The burn spell. 3 dammage for 1 mana is very good.

Abeyance: Fun to cast during a combo. It replaces itself. It usually comes out in non combo matches.

Pyrostatic pillar: Fun to cast against combo. It is also good against other stuff too, as most decks run stuff that costs less than 4. I think 4 might be a bit over the top.

Price of progress: I lost to 900000 land.dec once. Luckily that pile doesn't have a clock to speak of, and I am usually able to draw this before they can kill me. They almolst always have 8+ lands.

Starstorm: Pureley awesome. Instant speed wrath that doesn't kill your angel. It cycles so it's not totally dead vs combo. I like it a lot.

Disenchant: I used to play 3 nevy disk but nixed them because they kill your pillars. Disenchant can blow up pithing needles vials etc etc. I still might go back to disk.


Boil: Blowing up islands is awesome! If you resolve this against solidarity you usually win. May become REB

Copred: Comes in vs goblins and burn. Losing to burn sucks because you have crappy breakers for the rest of the tournament.

Tormod's crypt: No graveyard for you. It removes threshold, makes survival wince, and does mildly useful things against other decks. It comes in against loam decks as well.

Matchups: I have not been able to test except in mws, which sucks. I often get no land hands even though I play 24 lands, then mulligan to 6 only to get a 5 land hand. Then it turns out that my opponent is playing efreet stompy so it didn't matter anyway.

Should I play nevy's disk? Should I play wasteland? Factory?

Any comments or suggestions or anything at all would be much appreciated

[Cavius The Great]

Play Rolling Earthquake instead of Wrath of God. That way it doesn't get rid of your Angel.

[Moczoc]

Play Rolling Earthquake instead of Wrath of God. That way it doesn't get rid of your Angel.

I'd rather suggest Earthquake bcause Exalted Angel dodges this one so you can even kill Fatties. Flyers can still be killed by Swords and Starstorm.

[clavio]

Earthquake also has the advantage of not being in portals and therefore impossible to get. It's an interesting idea, Ill conisder it. If you are ahead you can use it as a finisher too.

[MasterBlaster]

Isochron Scepter would be awesome in this deck with all the cheap instants that you run.

[Ch33bs]

Why not cataclysm over Wrath? It still saves your angel.

[clavio]

Why not cataclysm over Wrath? It still saves your angel.

Because it nukes the shit out of your lands, making doj crappy. It's only reasonable when you have an angel in play, and being that I only play 3 it doesnt happen enough to make it more useful than wrath. Not to mention that they still get to hold on to a dude, so if its like lackey or something, you could be in deep trouble. Wrath just kills everything so you don't have to worry. Also thresh players usually only cast one creature at a time, so this does nothing against them.

I understand that its better in the solidarity matchup, but I dont think it justifies it's use.

[Cavius The Great]

I'd rather suggest Earthquake bcause Exalted Angel dodges this one so you can even kill Fatties. Flyers can still be killed by Swords and Starstorm.

99% of the time your Angel will survive a Rolling Earthquake and still wipe the board. And Starstorm does the same exact thing basically, and you're justifying that. Running Rolling Earthquake is essentially running extra Starstorms.

[Alfred]

Pyrostatic Pillar seems TERRIBLE here. Look how many cards you have under four mana!

[Finn]

Yep. Pillar needs to take the express route to the sideboard.

Personally, I have been looking into decks of this type, as combo is becoming less visible in top8 appearances. It just may signal the return of something like Rifter.

[Cavius The Great]

Yep. Pillar needs to take the express route to the sideboard.

Personally, I have been looking into decks of this type, as combo is becoming less visible in top8 appearances. It just may signal the return of something like Rifter.

I say this build is more aggro than anything while Rifter leans towards the more controllish route. What kind of list did you have in mind, Finn?

[Phantom]

I say this build is more aggro than anything while Rifter leans towards the more controllish route. What kind of list did you have in mind, Finn?

How is this deck aggro? No aggro deck has ever run Wrath, Starstorm, Disenchant and Abeyance. The deck runs 3 creatures and 4 DoJs. 9 Burn spells, 2 of which are unreliable (progress). Anyway, it doesn't matter. I've messed around with this type of deck for a while, and they are not competitive, at least not without major inovation (something this deck does not have). Pillar is not going affect either of the top 2 combo decks unless backed up by a significant clock (like burn or Goblins). So you will still be getting crushed by combo.

[clavio]

Im dropping pillar for gilded light. My new sideboard looks like this:

2 boil
4 red cop
4 rule of law
2 tormod's crypt
3 pyrostatic pillar

I am also dropping 1 mountain and 1 plains for 2 mishra's factories.

[Cavius The Great]

Im dropping pillar for gilded light. My new sideboard looks like this:

2 boil
4 red cop
4 rule of law
2 tormod's crypt
3 pyrostatic pillar

I am also dropping 1 mountain and 1 plains for 2 mishra's factories.

Playtest the deck before changing anything is my first advice. Atleast goldfish with it to get a feel on how the deck plays before making any drastic changes.

I'd also suggest testing Isochron Scepter, as it has alot of synergy with the spells you run. Ancient Tomb also to accelerate the Scepter. I've found that Scepter w/Lightning Helix and Ancient Tomb make a perfect couple.

[clavio]

I have a new list if anyone cares

// Lands
4 [ON] Wooded Foothills
6 [ST] Mountain (4)
6 [MR] Plains (3)
2 [4E] Mishra's Factory
4 [U] Plateau

// Creatures
4 [LE] Glowrider
3 [ON] Exalted Angel

// Spells
4 [R] Swords to Plowshares
3 [RAV] Lightning Helix
2 [EX] Price of Progress
3 [ON] Starstorm
4 [AT] Lightning Bolt
3 [WL] Abeyance
3 [SC] Decree of Justice
3 [U] Wrath of God
3 [5E] Nevinyrral's Disk
3 [SC] Gilded Light

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [WL] Abeyance
SB: 4 [6E] Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 1 [SC] Gilded Light
SB: 3 [SC] Pyrostatic Pillar
SB: 2 [DK] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 [MR] Rule of Law

I think there may be a better combo hoser than pillar, but I have yet to find it. I think I need to play something in my sideboard to beat life.dec, but I don't know what.

[Cavius The Great]

You obviously have been testing this deck on MWS, so the question I'm about to ask should be answerable. How has the mass removal been working for you? With the creature base that you have, it seems like having a disadvantage is unavoidable. That's what makes Rifter and Truffle Shuffle so good. The creatures are either recurrable or somewhat hard to get rid of. Eternal Dragon comes to mind. But I also would like to point out some less obvious card choices. Blinking Spirit would really be a HOUSE in this type of deck. Another option would be Reborn Hero. Those are just a few suggestions that I believe would improve the quality of the deck.

[clavio]

Yeah, I thought about that for a while when I built this deck. I ran chimeric idols very briefly, but I dismissed them as I like casting instants during my opponent's turn. I still play mishra's factory because of it's resilience to board sweepers.

I don't really mind losing glowriders. If it was a match they mattered, I probably wouldn't need to drop the bomb any way.

Exalted angel is too good to drop. You can starstorm without killing it. Many times an early angel is all that is necessary to beat goblins.
Caplocked house? I have never ran blinking spirit. It always seemed poor compared to nether spirit. Wouldn't you need to cast it almost every turn? It seems like a large investment. I have never actually used that card, so if you have anything to tell me about it it would be much appreciated.

[Cavius The Great]

I have never ran blinking spirit. It always seemed poor compared to nether spirit. Wouldn't you need to cast it almost every turn? It seems like a large investment. I have never actually used that card, so if you have anything to tell me about it it would be much appreciated.

Do you even know what Blinking Spirit does? It's basically a 2/2 for 3W, and it has a zero mana activation cost that reads "Return Blinking Spirit to owner's hand". It's virtually unkillable. There's alot of neat things you can do with it, like return it to your hand after damage is on the stack, killing your opponents creature while your Blinking Spirit survives, and it dodges mass removal very well also.

[clavio]

I know what it does. It just doesn't seem better than exalted angel even if it can dodge mass removal. It doesn't fly so the only time it really deals damage is after you play some kind of mass removal.