Big Red (Mono-R Sneak Attack)

[hdeck12]

@hessenbob- I'm STOKED! But a little disappointed you think you had good 'luck' with Big_Red.dec. Your mainboard wasn't set up for the meta and you still crushed! Against maverick you didn't have karakas or a moon, against affinity you didn't have the moon, and against both you had defense grids. I agree with all your numbers other than 4 titan, I like 3 titan main, 1 side, 1 moon main. He may come back with the rise of deathrite and goblins, this weekend will tell. Its nice to hear someone advocate for 2 grisels. Thats what I want to play but the peanut gallery thinks I'm nuts.

Gambit-Great card, deserves a whole different build. See Hollywood's 'The Shining'. VS Spiral tide...SWEET. VS Ad Nauseum...no where near as sweet. Playlines: On the Play, Turn 1 "S&T Emrakul, pass." "Land, LED, Petal...Kill you?" "Darn" Line 2 Turn 1 "S&T Emrakul, pass." "Land, Ponder Pass" Smash 15 kill your land, pass" "Land, LED, Petal...Kill you?" "Double darn" On the Draw, Exact same scenario except your opponent gets an extra turn. What you need for this combo vs blightsteel isn't worth it in my head. I'm not a mathematician but the heart of the cards wants blightsteel. Turn 1 4 card combo (5 if you need probe) to let the game continue two more turns or 5 card combo to end the game. The 5th card needing to be seething song or 2 of 5 single source rituals. Definitely worth a look, but I think its a side board card at best in this model. But I'm not even sure for what matchups. Even Enchantress has tiny creatures. Its dead in most games without information. And I have no idea where to fit probe in.

Ulamog-I've often thought about cutting this rogue eldrazi. Actually being able to cast him is a pretty bad defense I'll admit. The real defense is that we are a turn 2-3 combo deck. On the play thats your opponents 1-2. Very few decks have >4 permanents on the board by this time. He essentially is an emrakul in our game 1 plan A. I see the other side of the argument too. I get way more joy out of crashing in with worldspine than I ever expected I would when I added him to the deck.

Volcanic Fallout-YES. Just YES.

Question. Do we really want to be playing 1 blightsteel? I was using one because its a nice surprise and 'unkarakasable'. But is he just sitting in your hand too often? Without a second he's pretty dead against a couple decks and really dead against a lot of decks if they see your hand. I don't want 4 worldspine, but if anyone out there has an idea for a SWEET out of the box 1 of....I'm looking.

[Darkenslight]

The cards that really stick out for me are Maelstrom Archangel and Mindleech Mass. I'd say Hellcarver Demon, but that's very much an all-in plan even beyond the normal all-in plan of the deck.

[hessenbob]

Couple other notes.

I think I may make a few changes if I play in next weeks tournament:

I will probably run Volcanic Fallout mainboard, based on my experience last tournament.

4x Leyline of Sanctity in the Sideboard. I was very prone to lots of discard spells.

3x Faithless Looting- I'm unsure of whether I would rather run Wild Guess. The problem I see with Wild Guess is that I potentially use up Sandstone Needle too early. On the other hand, going to 6 after a mulligan and getting a Faithless looting wasn't usually helpful.

Maelstrom Archangel- I like this card's interaction, and may consider him. Drawing him and Worldspine/Emrakul in your opener looks great. You get the benefit of casting Emrakul, or the benefit of a biggie that you don't have to sac at your endstep. However, I could see him being in my hand with no good targets.

[igri_is_a_bk]

Why run Volcanic Fallout in the main over Blood Moon? The only creature that really stops us is Gaddock Teeg, and he's not in many decks. We also have Inferno Titan in there for a reason. I'd spread out my support cards, instead of focusing on creatures only. Blood Moon destroys RUG and BUG, and slows down every other deck in some way. Besides, you want to be aggressive, even when you're not casting win conditions. Fallout doesn't fit that bill. Cards like Blood Moon and Chalice of the Void do. Although, Fallout looks like an excellent sideboard card.

Here's something else I've wanted to touch on after seeing a rather poor trend start. Defense Grid is a sideboard card. It's narrow, because it hardly affects non-blue decks. Put it back where it belongs, fellas.

@hdeck. I agree with your position on Colossus being a necessary evil for combo. I wouldn't want to sacrifice every game one in those matches, so I'll stick with three of him for now.

And my final random thought is that Maelstrom Angel turns your two card combo into a three card combo. Based on intuition, I wouldn't play it.

[hdeck12]

@xdavisx...how'd it go?

[xdavisx]

@hdeck12 unfortunately i was unable to play. i feel terrible for not being able to have a report for you guys. i did enlighten some new friends on the deck and they look forward to playing it at some big events in the near future, so keep an eye out for that.

[hdeck12]

@xdavisx: No worries bro. Sometimes life gets in the way, thats why Magic is a 'hobby.'

I'll be slinging this list at SCG Edison on 2/10 if anyone wants to stop by and see it in action. Well, unless gatecrash has something even more fun that lets me play simian spirit guides.

I'm not really sure exactly what the tune will be. Pat Cox kinda screwed us on maindecking defense grid. I have to re-think that one. Hope to hear some more reports from anyone trying this out. Theres a ton of potential in it and we haven't even perfected a list yet.

[TheStallion0192]

I'm testing this deck online and am wondering what exactly comes out for what cards in certain match ups?

[hdeck12]

Tournament Report from Mythic Games Elmira NY 01/12/13 6 rounds

To my opponents, If I remember anything incorrectly, I apologize.
This morning I was planning on playing a KOTR bant brew I’ve been working on at local FNMs for quite some time. After writing out my decklist and scanning the room I saw more deathrite shamans and lilianas than I wanted to deal with. So I audibled to Big Red with 15 minutes before tournament time and this is the list I slammed together according the meta I scouted…

4 seething song
1 desperate ritual
1 wild guess
3 Faithless Looting
4 sneak attack
2 pyromancy
4 through the breach
3 inferno titan
2 blood moon
1 defense grid
2 chaos warp
2 griselbrand
4 emrakul, the aeons torn
1 ulamog, the infinite gyre
2 blightsteel
2 worldspine wurm
3 sandstone needle
1 lotus petal
4 simian spirit guide
6 mountain
2 city of traitors
2 karakas
4 ancient tomb


Sideboard
1 aether flash
1 meekstone
1 blood moon
2 volcanic fallout
2 defense grid
4 leyline of sanctity
4 leyline of the void

Major changes being out one grim monolith in one desperate ritual and a side board/main deck shuffle of Blood moon, defense grid and chaos warp.

Roud 1 Anthony (Tony?) with B/W dead guy
Game 1
I’m on play and mul to 6. I keep double sandstone needle, double sneak effect, double fathless looting. Thinking he’s on some B/X deadguy brew I like all the doubles. He’s probably putting me on Sneak/X so he wouldn’t keep 7 without discard. So of course I lead sandstone…pass. He answers with wasteland. Turn two, draw faithless looting, not terrible but I’m only playing three, tough variance. Play sandstone…pass. He answers with wasteland. I don’t see another red source for 6 turns as a protection black/green stoneforge kills me.
Board in some 4 leylines 1 moon and 2 fallouts
Out defense grid, 1 blightsteel, 2 inferno titan 3 seething song
Game2
I mul to 6 and keep a turn one blood moon with 3 sol lands a guide emrakul . Play the moon on turn one. Play out my lands and draw sneak attack and pyromancy. A few faithless turns later I have 4 “mountains” in play. He has a plains he’s made sure not to tap the whole game and a lotttta mountains. I play out a pyromancy and he immediately disenchants it before I can untap and throw my hand at him. A lot of players would have disenchanted the moon as soon as they drew the plains. This is why I hate playing against Anthony. Had he done that, I would have gotten access to all my sol lands and just blown him out 5 turns earlier…he’s patient. I eventually draw a fifth red source before he could find a swamp, chaos warped his plains on his next end step, which revealed a thoughtseize and blightsteel sealed the game.
Game 3
my 7 has a sandstone and a city of traitors for sources. Can’t keep based on last game. My 6 has zero mana sources. My 5 has two city of traitors. I keep 4 with City, a leyline, a breach and emrakul. He slowly builds up his board making sure not to tap out. Better for me because I need to draw some lands. Just before he crosses the 6 permanent threshold, I am in the frustrating position that had desperate ritual been a grim monolith (and he wasn’t holding disenchant, possible since he had a full grip of probable discard kept at bay by my leyline.) I would have been able to steal the game. But alas, I was then not too slowly beaten down by a protection from red/blue, and black/green stoneforge.

0-1 drat, but I can come back.

Round 2 Royce with T.E.S.
Game 1
On the draw. Never met him, no idea what he’s on. My 6 gets kept with lands ritual emrakul defense grid. On the play I get two draw steps and miss a sneak effect on both. I die on his turn three to a tendrils for 20.
Board in Moon, 2 Fallout, 4 Sanctity
Out 2 pyromancy, 1 wild guess, 1 faithless looting, 1 sandstone needle, 2 karakas
Game two, I keep 6 with t turn 1 faithless turn three emrakul. If I hit seething song on the faithless, emrakul is turn 2. Turn one faithless into not seething song, Pass. Lots of mana, infernal tutor for infernal tutor for burning wish, tendrils for 20.
0-2 Double drat, probably can’t top 8 on tie breakers but can still top 16.

Round 3 Scott with Elves
Game 1 I know scott likes to play elves, my spaghetti monsters have ruined his forest production before. I keep a strong 6 (man, lots of mulligans today) on the draw and I get attacked by one nettle sentinel. Then another nettle sentinel, and then emrakul. Ouch, so that’s how that feels.
Side board in 2 fallout, 1 moon, 1 aether flash
Out 1 defense grid, 2 pyromancy, 1 wild guess
Game 2 I keep 7, finally! He attacks with a nettle sentinel. He attacks with a nettle sentinel and an elf. He attacks with 3 elfs, I through the breach and block with griselbrand. Then draw 14 cards and untap. I manage to cast a desperate ritual, with through the breach spliced on it, and then the through the breach itself (ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED!!), droping emrakul, and worldspine. I had enough mana to fallout this turn as well, but Scott’s a nice guy so no reason to showoff.
Game 3
I get to keep 7 again. I do a little looting to set up. He managed to green suns zenith for two at some point. I freak out inside thinking he just might have boarded in teeg. Nope, just the elf that taps for all other elves. I need one more red source to alpha strike with sneak attack. He starts to tap a lotta mana and I get sad because it feels like combo time. He then drops Joraga kicked 4 times and has <6 permanents. I don’t wait for my 3rd red source to alpha strike, I just emrakul the board and finish off with titan the following turn.

1-2 ok, we’re not a failure today, but playing more for research than prizes at this point.

Round 4 ??? (I’m sorry I didn’t write your name down, if you’re reading this remind me, you were a nice guy and it’s cool meeting people that play vintage) with B/G Rock?
Game 1
He flips a bob while shuffling so I figure he’s on B/G/X since that seems to be the trend today. I get to keep 7, so does he. Turn 3 emrakul wraps up the board and turn 4 titan finishes it.
Board In 4 leyline, 1 moon
Out 1 defense grid, 2 seething song, 2 faithless looting
Game 2
I keep 7, He keeps 6. Turn one thoughtseize keeps me from emrakul-ing turn 2. I draw a griselbrand and decide to through the breach it on his end step (or in response to the next discard spell if I have to) which works. I draw a bunch, untap, and get emrakul into play for 22 damage.
2-2 ok, we got a shot

Round 5 Doug McKay with Shardless control
Game 1
I enjoy playing against doug and really hate it at the same time. He’s a really nice guy and a fun brain to pick, but he’s really good at reading the game state and knowing what your options are. You might be seeing a trend in that I’m only playing nice guys, but that’s what’s sweet about mythic games. It’s a competitive environment full of nice guys, come check it out if you’re ever in upstate NY. Back to Doug, I know he’s on shardless but not sure of the exact build. I keep a sweet 7, he goes to 6. A thoughseize gets my sneak attack. A force of will gets my pyromancy And a clique leaves me with my hand and beats me down before I can assemble anything significant.
Board In 2 volcanic fallout, 1 moon, 2 defense grid 1 aether flash 4 leyline sanctity (I’ve never tested this and may have over boarded but it all seemed right)
Out 3 seething song, 2 blightsteel, 3 faithless looting 1 wild guess 1 karakas
Game 2
I I keep 6 to his 7. He doesn’t want the 7 on the draw but after I go to 6 he decides to keep the 7. So I’lm guessing he doesn’t have the Force. I keep 6 missing a spirit guide for turn 1 kill if there’s no force. Turn two if there’s no thoughtsieze. Turn 1 I play tomb defense grid. Turn two needle, turn three hardcast inferno titan while he has two lands and a top. Turn 4. I have a decision to make. I have enough land that if I use the faithless looting in my hand and hit a through the breach I can emrakul kill or the one seething song left to fire breath him to death. In order to do this I would have to use my last sandstone counter with no other access to red until I draw one. Doug has been topping and shuffling and much as possible so I figure he can’t answer inferno titan yet and it might just kill him. So I play it safe and just attack him down to 5. Being the McKay Magician he is, he manages to dig just far enough to bolt, snapcaster bolt my titan. I land a second defense grid and he keeps tapping out so I know no counters are looming. If I draw a sneak effect it’s over. Jace hits the board and fateseals one away. Snapcaster beats me down to 6. At this point I think I have two turns left. I should have used my last red to loot this turn and I would have hit the sneak and won. Instead I wait a turn and he digs as deep as possible and finds another bolt to kill me a turn before I can finish the game. Well played doug, not sure how many cards you saw this game but it must have been a lot. I also should have faithlessly looted the first time I had the decision, I forgot that with the red floating from the last sandstone counter I could have flashed it back and gone four cards deep. I would have hit the breach before jace could seal it away. I wasn’t playing my best magic today. All week I thought about a different deck and it showed today.
2-3 not completely outta top 16 but probably.

Round 6 Rob 4 color living wish control?
Game 1
I run my blood moon right into a spell pierce on turn two. Really Henry…really!? Turn 3 I run my chaos warp right into a spell pierce. Really Henry…REALLY!?!? Liliana hits the board. I discard. I loot. I discard. If I remember the faithless looting in my graveyard then I hit what I need and win (if he doesn’t have another spell pierce) Instead I do nothing and pass. Liliana makes me discard just enough that I can’t do anything constructive the rest of the game. I die to ancient tomb damage and deathrite shocks.
Side board In 1 moon 1 aether flash 2 defense grid
Out 2 blightsteel, 1 faithless looting, 1 seething song
Game 2 Man I love variance. Draw 7, no land, Draw 6, no land, draw 5 everything in including a moon but land, wtf looking like the last game of the day, I don’t feel like shuffling again, today was rough. I don’t draw a land for 5 for 6 turns while I get beat down by something, my head wasn’t in it at this point, sorry rob.


"It is at this juncture that the old man tries autosuggestion talking to himself aloud, that man is not made for defeat and a man can be destroyed but not defeated."
-Earnest Hemingway

A few over all points from the day.
In shuffling cards this morning I cut a karakas for a moon, then decided to play the second karakas and cut a mountain for it. Bad idea. 7 Mountains is the minimum I’m going to play from here on out.
Desperate ritual over grim monolith, I like it, I’ll keep trying it. 6 land to have a 5th through the breach and then floating more mana was nice in that matchup. Lots of people had dead “destroy target nonland permanent with CC<4” in their hands.
Wild Guess: I forced this in because of the flavor text. Fun. Not competitive.
In playing bant all week I had a big tool box. I got greedy in my Big Red tool belt and played too many 2 ofs. Faithless looting + flashback is NOT brainstorm + shuffle. I don’t think the two non essential monster split is correct. I think it should be 3/1 or 3/0 for a 3rd griselbrand, whichever you think will be better in your meta. I choose worms 3/1 for now.
Ulamog…you guys were right. I think I’ve decided to let this guy go. He’s done a lot of work for me in the past but I don’t think we have a future.
I still stand by my statements that this is an awesome deck. The deck didn’t lose matches to itself. It lost a game here or there, but I tended to throw games away by my actions which cost me matches. I also felt very unprepared boarding today. Our local shop closed in November so I haven’t been testing nearly as much. I don’t know these new B/G/X lists 100%.

Hows your testing going?
-HDeck

[crovax86]

Hi man, thank U for the report, U're always very accurate. You drew just terrible first hands, so take it just for a day of bad luck... Now, I have some good news: last weekend I finished first in a 48 people local league tournament here in Italy; just today I found some time to write here about that. Here's my list:


4 Sandstone Needle
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
8 Mountain

4 Emrakul
4 Worldspine Wurm
3 Griselbrand
4 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Magus of the Moon

3 Blood Moon
3 Pyromancy
4 Sneak Attack
4 Through the Breach
4 Seething Song
4 Faithless Looting

1 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox


Side:

4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Defense Grid
3 Pyroclasm
3 Koth of the Hammer
1 Woodfall Primus



My meta is plenty of BUG/Jund/Rock deck tipology; that's the reason for the five "moon effects". I think that's the right compromise between 1 and 7 whom hdeck12 wrote about a few posts ago.

Then I just cut Inferno Titans for more "moon stability" with the Magus. 4 Worldspine Wurm beacuse it wins alone and 3 Pyromancy, IMHO one of the best and unexpected solution that this deck can offer. The Mana Base is very stable with 8 Mountains and 11 "double land". I have no fear 'bout karakas..moon effects, pyromancy, non-legendary wurms and double sneak-emrakul activation prevent you from any karakas-inconvenience.

For what concern the side I just say that I'll easily replace Koths with Chaos warps. Woodfall Primus is just a "fantasy slot", maybe next time I'll try 2x Stronghold Gambit.

Quick report of the day:


Round 1 - Goblins

G1 - He starts land-vial, go. I rush a Tomb-Simian-Song-Sneak-Emrakul certain to find another red mana source (I had another Emrakul in hand). Next turns he plays land-land-piledriver-piledriver-lackey + attacks and wins. The turn after I would've drew a Mountain.

G2 - Side in 3 Pyroclasm, side out 3 blood moon. Turn three win with sneak-worldspine.

G3 - He Krosan Grips me twice on sneak and pyromancy. At my third attempt i cast sneak. He tries to Krosan Grip me for the third time but this time he must fetch first, so I double red for emrakul/wurm gg.

1-0


Round 2 - Jund Destructive Flow

Jund version with more basics and the annoying enchantment.

G1 - I'm in a very bad position, he tseizes me twice in the first turns, he plays shaman and two bloodbraids. I'm like 6 life, he attacks me with the elves, I istant through the breaches for Griselbrand and block one of them, goin' to 10, eot draw 7, Griselbrand dies. My turn sneak + wurm/emrakul gg.

G2 - Side in Leylines for the moon effects cause he plays too much basics. Keep 7 without Leyline but with a good hand, unfortunately he has a very good hand with tseize and extirpate. So turn 2 I have no more sneaks in the deck. Then I resolve pyromancy, he resolves destructive flow, I begin to sacrifice my lands but first I succeed to 11 pyro him discarding the wurm. He sacrifices lands too, cause he has in play two of the few nonbasic in his deck, he fetches, play shaman, my turn shoot the shaman with a discarded song to slow him down. So it happens and pass, I have two mountains in play and a Leyline in hand, I pass, he fetches again and pass. I draw a SSG, potentially 4 damages, but he's 5, I pass, he fetches again, I answer him removing SSG, tapping 2, discarding Leyline gg He's not very happy....

2-0


Round 3 - Burn

G1 - On the play, sandstone needle, pass, he plays a mountain and suspends a Rift Bolt, I play another needle pass, he shoots me 3 than plays a Devil, ok, passes, Tomb-Sneak-emrakul/wurm gg.

G2 - Side in 4 Leyline and a Primus (just to have one more beast), side out 5 moon effects. Keep 7 with Leyline, (basically game over for him) I play lands with no rush and turn 3 resolve a TTB for Worldspine who let his little brothers to finish the match.

3-0 (unexpected, I begin to believe in top)


Round 4 - Nic Fit

G1 - He succeed to sacrifice the explorer only at turn 3, he plays Thragtusk and since he also donates 2 mountains to me, in my turn I play sneak Emrakul/Wurm gg.

G2 - Same Burn side in/side out (Nic Fit like the previous version of Jund plays a lot of basics). I keep an awesome 7 without Leyline. He plays swamp (no discard, no discard, no discard), passes and I honestly tomb/simian/song/breach/wurm him gg. (The "dies ability" of wurm is simply amazing!! Wins alone!)

4-0

Round 5 (Jund) and Round 6 (ANT) I.D.


I'm first in Top 8 with the highest rating. (!!!)


Quarterfinals - Esper Stoneblade

G1 - Here's a very though match. He mull to 6, me too, but in 2 turns he tseizes me twice letting me without sneak and moon, he resolves a mystic, I try a pyromancy but he forces it, then he close the match with batterskull+mystic+vendilion.

G2 - I'm not so optimistic, but I wanna fight!! Side in 4 Leyline and 2 Defense Grid, side out 1 wurm, 1 pyromacy, 1 TTB, 1 Blood Moon, 1 Song, 1 Looting. I keep 7 with leyline, then I play tomb and defense grid. Total defense!! He plays land and pass, I remove SSG and play Magus of the Moon, he's a bit in trouble, cause he's slowed down with mana (although he plays a few of basics), turns of "land - attack - go", he goes to 11, then he plays Jace and bounce the magus, my turn I try to re-cast but he forces it; well, cause my next turn I play sneak and next turn despite 4 Lingering souls and karakas I finish the match with griselbrand and emrakul double-activating sneak.

G3 - I can do this! I side out Leylines cause I decide to be more aggressive and think that after he saw Leylines maybe he'd add some counter taking out some discard effect. So I side in 1 Wurm, 1 Pyromancy, 1 Defense Grid and 1 Song. He thinks a lot but in the end we both keep 7. He starts land kozilek, (not seize, I'm lucky!) discarding a moon. He pass and I draw SSG, so I can go turn 1 for pyromancy or sneak/emrakul. I chose sneak cause he thought a lot before keeping and I think it's beacuse he's in mana screw. He forces the sneak removing counterspell After a few turns I resolve a chrome mox, play a sneak and finish him with Emrakul despite two mystics and karakas.

Can't believe it but I made it! A very very though game anyway!!


Semifinals - Jund

G1 - I resolve a quick moon, but the shaman is already in play, he tourach me two lands, so he succeed to cast two bloobraid and when I play Sneak/Emrakul, he sacrifices everything except them, he goes to 4, I pass, he attacks, I go to 5, need a topdeck but...is an ancient tomb

G2 - Side in 4 Leyline, side out 1 looting, 1 magus, 1 griselbrand, 1 pyromancy. Keep 7 with Leyline but a slow hand, he plays shaman, goyf and liliana but turn 4 I through the breach a wurm and, already said that, wins alone.

G3 - Keep 7 with..Leyline he's really unhappy..I resolve a turn 3 sneak-emrakul, he sacrifices everything, next turn I play Pyromancy and even if I had a sneakkable wurm, I preferred tap 6 discarding him and a Leyline, 15 damages gg.


Final - ANT

He's very tired (me too) and asks me if I'm ok with split the prices. "Sure" I said, also considering that ANT is not a great MU for us. He also let me the first place cause he usually doesn't play at our leauge so he's not interested at the points.


I hope you liked this little report!! Let's keep this deck alive!

[hdeck12]

@ Crovax: Awesome! I'm glad that my bad drawing so poorly meant someone else was drawing incredible. The world works in equilibriums.

I'm glad you cut karakas in the moon build. They're pretty terrible when you've got a better way to deal with others. Also without white decks around they're very unnecessary. Glad you want some chaos warps. They play realllly nice with moons being able to hit basic lands. An interaction I didn't even consider until getting to do it in the tournament for a win. Woofall can be good for this to if you know they have a limited number.

I think going back up to 3 pyromancy is the right call. the 4 CC is great to eat a counter and it plays well against discard effects.

Questions:
!. How did crome mox work out for you and what are some of your reasons for playing it? I never thought there would be enough red cards to use it, especially without inferno titans. I've thought about mox diamond more.
2. What happened in round 1 game 3. Once your second sneak attack resolved you have priority before he can grip. You can put as many activations on the stack as you want before he can grip it. Unless removing a sandstone counter isn't considered a mana ability and can be responded to. I always thought it was, am I wrong?

[Darkenslight]

!. How did crome mox work out for you and what are some of your reasons for playing it? I never thought there would be enough red cards to use it, especially without inferno titans. I've thought about mox diamond more.
2. What happened in round 1 game 3. Once your second sneak attack resolved you have priority before he can grip. You can put as many activations on the stack as you want before he can grip it. Unless removing a sandstone counter isn't considered a mana ability and can be responded to. I always thought it was, am I wrong?

The answer to (2) is that no, you're not wrong. It's part of the reason why Chromatic Sphere is so weird: it's a mana ability that draws a card.

[crovax86]

@hdeck12:

For what concerns Chrome Mox..useless to say that it would be the perfect card for this deck..it would give us the mana stability that we can't have with petals..but as you say there's not enough red pitches for a set, neither for 3 of them. I would try to play 2 of them, but the impression I had playing this deck is that 1 is the right, bearable, "lucky" call for now. Mox Diamond imho it's even more risky, we've only 18-19 lands and we usually don't see much of them..I think it would be most of the time a dead card.

For the Krosan Grip U're right, I had Sandstone for activation and I wasn't sure if I'd pass him priority removing counters... to avoid any misunderstanding, I've activated sneak responding his fetch..


P.S. How's annoying for this deck the new white enchantment "Blind Obedience" from Gatecrash?

[Koby]

@hdeck12:
P.S. How's annoying for this deck the new white enchantment "Blind Obedience" from Gatecrash?

You can still play around it by activating Sneak at you're opponent's EOT, then untap with them to attack. It loses some surprise, but achieves effectively the same thing.

[hessenbob]

Played round robin yesterday, went 3-2, with a loss to Sneak and Show and Affinity. I like the Blood Moon main deck, as it shut down a few games quickly.

1 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Inferno Titan
4 Worldspine Wurm
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Griselbrand

4 Seething Song
4 Through the Breach
3 Faithless Looting
3 Pyromancy

4 Sneak Attack

1 Lotus Petal
1 Grim Monolith
3 Blood Moon
8 Mountain
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
4 Sandstone Needle

[hdeck12]

Today was a tournament at Jupiter Games' tournament center in Vestal, NY. 84 people if I remember right, I finished top 16 after making a few misplays, some pure stupid play (sorry, opponents, I normally play crisp), getting a few bad hands, and almost everyone in the room knowing what I was on.

Deck List


7 mountain
3 sandstone needle
4 ancient tomb
3 city of traitors

4 simian spirit guide
1 chrome mox
1 lotus petal
4 seething song
1 desperate ritual

4 sneak attack
4through the breach
3 pyromancy

4 emrakul, the aeons torn
3 griselbrand
3 worldspine wurm

4 faithless looting
2 inferno titan
3 blood moon
2 magus of the moon

//SB
4 leyline of sanctity
4 leyline of the void
3 defense grid
2 volcanic fallout
1 inferno titan
1 blood moon



Round 1 Josh Stringer WUb Blade
Everytime I've seen Josh try his hand at legacy he's jamming merfolk. Thats a good deck right now....so I figured he was at least on FOW but probably not the fish.
I'm on the play and keep 7. It's an all in turn 1 blood moon off chrome mox (yeah new cards that immediately earn their keep) with a faithless looting. He thinks about his seven, looks at me, and decides not to keep knowing it kills me if I'm on combo but gets destroyed by anything else. He doesn't gamble on reading me and draws 6. Doesn't love them but doesn't want to try again. So Turn 1 I drop the blood moon and his heart hits the floor. We both then play expensive mountains for a few turns. He finds a plains and doesn't tap it. Finally he decides to play stoneforge. I make my first dummy play of the day. I have a chrome mox and 3 mountains, seething song, sneak attack, griselbrand, worldspine. I should seething song, drop the sneak attack and double activate for the win. I tap my four lands and put sneak attack on the board. Oops. Doesn't matter, next turn I activate it twice for the win.

Side board
In 3 defense grid, 2 volcanic fallout (I saw lingering souls at some point game 1)
Out 2 song 3 looting (not really sure if hes more discard or counters cause I didn't see any of either)
Game two. I mull to 6, and he snap keeps 6 so I put him on FOW. But I can beat 1. Turn 1 wurm runs into FOW. Turn two I topdeck Defense Grid...shoulda been patient. Turn 4 worm runs into FOW #2. Then a protection black/green stoneforge kept me from assembling enough cards in my hand to try again.
Game three. We both keep 6. Inquisition gets a crucial spirit guide. I run into FOW and then am quickly beaten down by the same stoneforge from game 2 + a snapcaster + 2 souls.

Drat, 1 big misplay, didn't cost me the game, but still 0-1

Round 2 Aaron Miller with MUD
I've played Aaron, and MUD a lot with this deck. It's a pretty good matchup for me. Feeling a little better.
Game one. I'm on the Draw and keep a strong 5. He keeps 6. He plays some mana stones, I play my sandstone, He plays a loadstone golem. Now I'm one mana short to go off. He plays another loadstone golem. I get a land, but not before the two robots chop down my life total.

Side board
In Inferno titan
Out Moon

Game 2. I keep 7 on the play, he goes to 6. He plays a lot of mana and looks to be ramping up to something. On his second turn I through the breach Grisel, draw 7 untap and get there.
Game3 we both keep 7. His first turn is a man stone. I drop a needle. He plays a spellskite. I play more land. He plays a batterskull, I turn 3 emrakul. Turn 4 inferno titan cleans up.

1-1 Not bad, but don't really wanna drop another one.

Round 3 Phillip with UBg Landstill (ugh...)
I saw him playing earlier and knew he was on a BUG variant. This one was brand new to me. Had to figure it out on the fly.
Game one. On the play I keep 6 to his 7. I run a pyromancy into a...spell pierce thats not the FOW I was expecting. Weird, no goyf or delver on the board but I'm getting spell pierced, not sure where this ones goin, lets have some fun. I loot. He casts Standstill...OK, now I know where this is headed. I get a sneak attack through and Team Emrakul/Grisel get there.

Side board
In 2 volcanic fallouts, 3 defense grid, 1 moon
Out 2 seething song 2 faithless 1 desperate ritual, 1 titan

Game 2. I keep 7. I play around Spell Pierce and my turn 2 blood moon gets Counterspelled. My turn three blood moon has BG floated and abrupt decayed after resolution. This is where I made a mistake. Well, in hindsight it was a mistake. He kept leaving three land up. So I expected clique +/- spell pierce. I could have gone off this turn through either of those but not both and not multiple spell pierces. I opt to wait and draw a land to play around both options since theres literally NO pressure on the board. He then plays 2 mishras factories and beats me down while hardcasted mindbreak traps kept me from going off. (the only thing he had in hand back when he was leaving three up)
Game 3. Aburpt decay gets my defense grid, and wasteland keeps me from going off with the fear of spell pierce. He plays standstill. I try to go off, he draws three, counters, plays standstill. I try to go off again, he draws three, counters, plays standstill. Really, three in a row, I'm out of gas. Jace goes Ultimate...fun.

1-2, oh man, do I go home now or keep playing on the side chance I sneak in to top 8...

Round 4 David With Bant/Junk
I've seen david around and he's usually on Bant so thats what I put him on.
Game 1. We both keep 7. I'm on the play and drop a turn 1 moon. He proceeds to play really expensive mountains until I do big things.

Side board
In Moon (still not sure what his plan is, I saw a lotta colors and not a lotta cards)
Out Seething song

Game 2. I keep 7, he keeps 6. On turn two I play blood moon. His brainstorm off tundra finds no counter, and his misty grabs a forest. I quickly wrap the game up. Sorry David, not much fun had in this match, my fault.

2-2, OK, I'll stick it out

Round 5 Rob with 4 color Deathrite
Game 1 I'm on the draw. His deathrite eats a faithless looting that I forget about in the graveyard for a turn. Shoot, dummy play number 2. Counterspell and then snapcaster counterspell is enough to dimish my resources while snapcaster and souls chip my life down.

Side board
See round 3. In game 3 on the draw the leyline of sanctities come in for moons since he knows to play around it.

Game 2. We both keep 7 and I'm on the play. I have a fragile no land turn 1 moon. I assume he's not playing FOW due to the mix of colors. So I go chrome mox, SSG, lotus petal, Moon.... Mindbreak Trap. WHAT, ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME. WHEN IS THAT SPELL GOOD AGAINST THIS DECK. 1/100. Sorry for the quick rant, this just really shocked me because it was actually awesome for him. So I rip an ancient tomb like a boss and lay defense grid after he tapped out for top. Then turn three I got the magus out with defense grid protection and he scooped.
Game 3. We both play lands and trade spells. At some point Jace is at 5 fate sealing me with two lingering souls. I have a defense grid in play and he's tapped out. I have 2 sandstones with 1 counter and an ancient tomb with through the breach, inferno titan and some irrelevant stuff in hand. I'm supposed to through the breach the titan so I can kill jace. I tap 6, put my two sandstones in the graveyard and somewhere my brain shortcuts and puts titan into play instead of through the breach. UGH, Dummy play number, what are we up to 3 now? If he Jace bounces on his turn then my solo ancient tomb isn't looking so great against the whole team. His turn...flashback lingering souls...fateseal you? YES, YES, YES, Thank you rob for paying as much attention to the game state as I. So the next turn Inferno manages to kill jace and all the few souls still lingering. I think the titan just might get there and then liliana hits the board and sends him packing. I draw some red and play out a pyromancy. I have through the breach and second pyromancy in my hand and hes at 16. I decide to wait since he's not pressuring me, other than me tapping ancient tomb, (thinkning I can always respond to him destroying pyromancy if I have to) to try and draw some big creatures, lands or a faithless. I have sandstone, Ancient tomb x2, City so I don't have unlimited activations. I rip 2 defense grids and a leyline of sanctity. I decide not to kill lilly because she's going to let me discard the cheap spells. So I draw and discard every turn, until she's at 6, by then I've drawn enough to alpha discard strike.

3-2 Ok, we're confident again

Round 6 Sam Higgins with BG Nic Fit
Game one I'm on the play. I have Needle, Tomb as my lands. I decide to play out pyromancy since hes not really pressuring me and if he has enchantment removal I'd rather have it hit that than sneak attack. He doesn't kill it. I draw more land and sneak attack grisel/worldspine.

Side board
In Moon, 4 leyline sanctity
Out 2 moon 2 faithless 1 song

Game 2. His ooze eats a faithless looting that I AGAIN forgot about in my graveyard. I worked really hard today NOT to discard emrakul shuffles to my lootings JUST so I could flash them back, and then I forgot about them. I get to 4 land and cast sneak attack thinking his enchantment removal is abrupt decay and I am safe to kill him the next turn. Nope...Golgari Charm keeps me from doing that. His ooze and some other Nic Fitty creatures beat me down.
Game3. On the play I have the option of turn 1 moon or pyromancy. I know turn zero moons are sweet to stop fetches but I've been punished by two color decks for that before. I lead with the pyro. At the end of the game I learn the moon would have been just as good that game. I throw emrakul at him and then cast inferno titan after he'd fetched twice. I like getting two free lands from veteran explorer.

4-2 Win one more, maybe top 8, probably top 16

Round 7 Nick Patnode with Goblins.

Game 1. I mul to 4 on the play to get a decent keep. His port and wasteland keep me one mana short of doing RIDICULOUS things.

Side board
In Moon, titan, 2 fallout (on the draw in game three 4 leylines came in for 2 magus and two moon)
Out 2 faithless, 2 pyromancy

Game 2. We both blow this game. Turn two I cast desperate ritual thinking it's seething song and show him my through the breach. Wait, thats only 4 mana...oops. In knowing this is a horrible matchup for Nick I don't make him be a jerk calling a judge on me and just accept the fact I made yet ANOTHER stupid play. Down one sandstone counter and 1 desperate ritual. By the time I get to 5 mana after his waste and port he has a powerful 6 permanent team. He gains nothing by porting me on my "last" upkeep, he should have cast a matron to cross the 6 permanent threshold but instead ports me and I instant speed trough the breach for emrakul. Untap and inferno.
Game 3. I keep a 1 lander with SSG, SSG volcanic, knowing this buys me 6-7 turns alone. Instead I rip straight sol land sneak attack, Grisel and manage to through the breach a griselbrand to block 1 of 3 lackeys crashing in, draw 14 and untap...you know how that ends.

5-2 Top 16...feels much better after not doing so well the weekend before. And I am now the proud owner of a SP Plateau

Final thoughts on the day. 2 city of traitors, there was a one time when I had three in my hand....useless. They're better with the moon build, but still, I don't want 3, ever. Will go up to 8 mountains. Was looking for a mountain just a little too often.

I HAVE to remember faithless lootings in my graveyard. Both not discarding eldrazi on the first cast, and then actually flashing it back.

Maindeck moon is ok. It's powerful, but turn zero moons aren't much fun for me. I'll probably go back to the defense grid or chalice build. The look on my opponents face when turn three emrakul hits is fun, the look on their face when turn 1 blood moon sticks is not fun. It makes choosing whether or not to keep opening hands much harder for me. Taking one more card to land turn one moon than a turn one defense grid was anooying. I was running out of resources because the moon wouldn't stick and I kept an all in hand or it would and all my sol lands were now mountains. This usually gave my opponent too many turns to draw out of it. Granted few of them did today, its happened often in the past.

Not a bad day, got some tunes to do. The voids were useless today. But without karakas I'm not sure if I wanna completely give up the reanimator match no matter how low the numbers. Hope all your playing is going well!

-HDeck

[igri_is_a_bk]

After months of playing this here and there online, I've finally decided to buy it IRL. Here's what I'm building. It's going heavy win conditions and disruption, light acceleration.

4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
2 [EX] City of Traitors
4 [MM] Sandstone Needle
9 [AN] Mountain
4 [PLC] Simian Spirit Guide
4 [MR] Chrome Mox

4 [ROE] Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 [RTR] Worldspine Wurm
2 [AVR] Griselbrand
1 [MBS] Blightsteel Colossus

4 [US] Sneak Attack
4 [CHK] Through the Breach
3 [UL] Pyromancy

4 [M11] Inferno Titan
4 [DK] Blood Moon
3 [MR] Chalice of the Void

SB: 1 [MR] Chalice of the Void
SB: 2 [DS] Trinisphere
SB: 3 [UL] Defense Grid
SB: 3 [CMD] Chaos Warp
SB: 3 [M10] Pyroclasm
SB: 3 [DK] Tormod's Crypt

There are a couple of big differences in there. First, I'm dropping Seething Song completely, and going with Chrome Mox and SSG for accel. I've wanted a lower curve for a while, and Song, while very explosive, is a risky luxury: one that puts your mana at risk to counterspells.

Second, I'm not playing Faithless Looting. I think the card is bad in this deck. It is a mana sink, and encourages you to keep poor hands as you put a crutch on the Looting sitting there. We can assume if you're casting Looting, it is because you either don't have a fatty or kill card. In those instances that you're digging, you could just be casting spells that have the potential to win you the game (Moon, Chalice, Titan), or disrupt your opponent enough that they have an obligation to answer it. Any of those will buy you the same time Looting does, while putting your opponent on their heels. And the real kicker for me is that you can't play Chalice if you play Looting.

Sideboard has three slots for combo, three for counter-heavy decks, three answers to randomness, three answers to hate bears, and three answers to degenerate strategies. Pretty straightforward.

[igri_is_a_bk]

I was browsing through the red creatures and saw Cragganwick Cremator. Has anybody tried this? If you hit a creature, it is like Pyro only it costs 3 less and sticks around as a 5/4. Maybe it's a 1-of?

[hdeck12]

@igri: The cremator has not been tried by me. He might be ok, but I definitely wouldn't play more than 1 of. I think of him as a finisher after a through the breach. Seems too circumstantial/narrow though. With toughness 4 he won't end many games on his own. Might give your opponents something to blow their STP on before wurm or titan hit? With chalices though thats not as big of a concern. I was playing a one of Riddle of Lightning for a while. I liked it because either it worked as a finisher or if I wasn't there yet, it was a useful tool for set up.

@the world: How do you guys feel about a one of Incendiary Command?

[igri_is_a_bk]

@Cremator
I thought he'd be a ninth finisher (in my list) with a more reasonable cc rather than a clean up card. I mean, maybe there is a different list that could build around Sneak, Through, and Cremator with Looting, Chrome Mox, and other cards that reduce your number in-hand down to only creatures. Could be worse. Just thinking out loud.

@Command
It's versatile, that's for sure. Let's take a closer look. The first ability is a nice "sting" card if they didn't scoop to your first attack, but the odds we win that game are high anyways. The second ability is nice. Pyroclasm is a good card, and is useful for us in against hate bears or to slow down their clock. Unfortunately, Command sucks at killing Teeg and Thalia, the two bears that hurt us the most. The third ability is severely outclassed by Blood Moon. The last ability is good as well, and it looks like the best reason to play it. But if that's the case, is it better than Reforge the Soul?