[SCD] Chandra, the Firebrand

[Mr. Safety]

I played against a jund-colored land destruction deck on MWS last night, and I have to say, it's pretty nasty. The guy played a ramp-style approach and then doubled up with Chandra on cards like Mwonvuli Acid-Moss and Harmonize. The +1 ability to deal with dorks like Grim Lavamancer (which I was playing) and other early creatures makes it pretty intense.

Has anyone else seen any brews using Chandra? She seems like a sleeper in the format.

[chags]

She seems too slow to really take advantage of her copying ability. By the time she gets on the table you already are trying to deal with their Knight of the Reliquary or Tarmogoyf or even kird ape so the 1 damage won't actually do much against too many decks. Basically you need to be copying something really nasty, maybe she could work in an LD shell but LD in general never seems to work well as a strategy. Overall I think she is too slow and pretty low impact.

[Sims]

I played against a jund-colored land destruction deck on MWS last night, and I have to say, it's pretty nasty. The guy played a ramp-style approach and then doubled up with Chandra on cards like Mwonvuli Acid-Moss and Harmonize. The +1 ability to deal with dorks like Grim Lavamancer (which I was playing) and other early creatures makes it pretty intense.

Has anyone else seen any brews using Chandra? She seems like a sleeper in the format.

A Friend of mine plays a BRW colored haterator style deck. It's kind of a dog to combo, but it typically puts a hurting on anything that has to turn creatures sideways to win.

The basic shell is BRW creature hate (swords, vindicates, edicts) paired with humility, goblin trenches (yeah, I said it) and planeswalkers.

You don't really know how much you hate life until your craeture wave gets stalled by humility and then Chandra starts doubling up vindicates.

[Aggro_zombies]

A Friend of mine plays a BRW colored haterator style deck. It's kind of a dog to combo, but it typically puts a hurting on anything that has to turn creatures sideways to win.

The basic shell is BRW creature hate (swords, vindicates, edicts) paired with humility, goblin trenches (yeah, I said it) and planeswalkers.

You don't really know how much you hate life until your craeture wave gets stalled by humility and then Chandra starts doubling up vindicates.

Vindicate, Humility, and Goblin Trenches...in Modern? I am suddenly much more interested in this format.

EDIT: In all seriousness though, the fact that those cards - or rather, Humility, Swords, and Vindicate - aren't in Modern makes Chandra much worse. She is not really a four-mana card because her non-Fork abilities are so weak, and for 5+ mana you only net an extra Lightning Bolt and a couple of life. I don't think she's remotely good enough.

[Mr. Safety]

Forking Molten Rain and Harmonize was intense. The guy also played Maw of the Mire doubled for 2 lands and 8 life gain...on turn 4.

[Sims]

Vindicate, Humility, and Goblin Trenches...in Modern? I am suddenly much more interested in this format.

EDIT: In all seriousness though, the fact that those cards - or rather, Humility, Swords, and Vindicate - aren't in Modern makes Chandra much worse. She is not really a four-mana card because her non-Fork abilities are so weak, and for 5+ mana you only net an extra Lightning Bolt and a couple of life. I don't think she's remotely good enough.

HA! Totally didn't realize which forum this was in.

/drops the ball.

[chags]

Forking Molten Rain and Harmonize was intense. The guy also played Maw of the Mire doubled for 2 lands and 8 life gain...on turn 4.

All those turns he spent activating chandra for 1 damage prior to each of those forks was probably pretty sweet too. Of all the planeswalkers that could be dropped on me I think this is one of the least threatening.

[Mr. Safety]

All those turns he spent activating chandra for 1 damage prior to each of those forks was probably pretty sweet too. Of all the planeswalkers that could be dropped on me I think this is one of the least threatening.

There was only one activation of Chandra before he forked...I said he doubled Maw of the Mire on turn 4...which means he had a turn 3 Chandra, pinged off my Grim Lavamancer, then doubled Maw of the Mire. I was playing modern Team Italia (BRw aggro/control). I only had two lands in play...he basically just won the game.

[Borealis]

It sounds like you just got blown out by a relatively weak start vs. a nut draw from your opponent. How did he ramp up his mana, out of curiosity?

Chandra is sweet and all, but I don't think forking a 5-mana LD spell is actually good in Modern right now. Chandra herself could find a niche in some Grixis-style decks probably, but in general I think she's pretty weak for the format at the moment. Still, it's cool that someone is brave enough to try and abuse her in an out-of-the-box style of thinking.

[Mr. Safety]

It sounds like you just got blown out by a relatively weak start vs. a nut draw from your opponent. How did he ramp up his mana, out of curiosity?

Chandra is sweet and all, but I don't think forking a 5-mana LD spell is actually good in Modern right now. Chandra herself could find a niche in some Grixis-style decks probably, but in general I think she's pretty weak for the format at the moment. Still, it's cool that someone is brave enough to try and abuse her in an out-of-the-box style of thinking.

Utopia Sprawl after a turn 1 tapped Stomping Ground. He was playing Jund colors so I saw a few Lightning Bolts. Yes, I had a weak start but I had mulligan-ed to 5 already, so dinging myself further would have been more detrimental than keeping a 'meh' hand. It was MWS and the AI/randomizer on MWS is a piece of shit. He also had maindeck Firespout (I'm pretty sure a full set) which is good tech against faster aggro decks like Affinity and Zoo.

I agree about Grixis...setting up a fork-ed Cruel Ultimatum is pretty awesome.

I'm of the same mindset as Doug Linn (hi-val) that the best approach to modern is to throw big bombs at your opponent. Even though Cloudpost isn't in contention anymore, the format still has a weak control base. Mana ramp decks are still good in modern.

[chags]

There was only one activation of Chandra before he forked...I said he doubled Maw of the Mire on turn 4...which means he had a turn 3 Chandra, pinged off my Grim Lavamancer, then doubled Maw of the Mire. I was playing modern Team Italia (BRw aggro/control). I only had two lands in play...he basically just won the game.

Your post mentioned him forking 3 different spells. The maw play blew out your mull to 5 on mws with an unproven deck and that seems amazing? I think you are jumping the gun on what was a lucky play.

[Mr. Safety]

Agreed. The main point I pulled away from that experience is that mana ramps are still good in modern. It may have been lucky draws and a bad mulligan on a lame piece of computer software, but the information was still useful. Mana ramp is good in modern.