Sire Deck 1.0

[Laser Brains]

Hi guys, right now for the lack of a better name I'm calling this deck Sire Deck. First a little background on me, I'm an old school Belcher player that later (2014ish) scrapped my Belcher deck to build the deck Burning Reanimator as I began to become a bit obsessed with it's synergies. Any Reanimator player (Burning or not) knows that a turn one Sire of Insanity means an almost certain death for your opponent. You can almost consider it a turn one win. One of the reasons I really liked this card in my Burning Reanimator list is that every once in a while I would just hard cast it off of a couple rituals, a land and a Simian Spirit Guide or Chrome Mox. I didn't even need to reanimate him. So the other day I started thinking that maybe I could incorporate this card in a shell much like that of Belcher and that is how I came up with this idea.

To be clear my goal is not to create a budget deck, it just is (so far). This is just the first draft so the deck has a lot of room for improvement and it very well could move out of the budget range and into the pricey range. I haven't even toyed with LED yet which I feel could have some potential. Although it appears to be a glass cannon like Belcher I feel it will steal a lot of games if your opponent isn't prepared for it. Also like Belcher there is no disruption, the deck relies soley on getting high percentages of either a turn one Sire of Insanity, Grave Titan or an ass load of goblins.

One of the nice things about play testing this deck is that I don't really need an opponent. I can goldfish all day long and get percentages. So far out of 100 test plays exactly 70 of them landed me either a turn one or two 8-18 goblins (mostly between 10 and 12), a Sire of Insanity or Grave Titan. Most of which were turn one. Only 14 of them were not, so I do feel I'm on to something. I also feel we can get better percentages if we do some tweaking and that's why I need your help. So before I go any further I'll show you where the deck currently is. Please feel free and give it a test spin and see for yourself (you can do that here).

SIRE DECK 1.0: 60 cards

Win Con: 10
4x Sire of Insanity
4x Empty the Warrens
2x Grave Titan

Rituals: 22
4x Cabal Ritual
4x Dark Ritual
4x Desperate Ritual
4x Seething Song
4x Rite of Flame
2x Pyretic Ritual

Cantrips: 8
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Manamorphose

Mana: 20
4x Lotus Petal
4x Chrome Mox
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Land Grant
2x Badlands
1x Bayou
1x Taiga

So you all can see here are my exact test results. I recorded exactly 100 play tests without omitting games in two increments of 50.

Out of the first 50 there were:
30 turn one "wins". Of which: 19 were Empty the Warrens / 9 were Sires / 2 were Titans
6 Turn 2 "wins".
14 Nothing

Out of the second 50 there were:
26 turn one "wins". Of which: 16 were Empty the Warrens / 7 were Sires / 3 were Titans
8 Turn 2 wins
16 Nothing

Here's where tweaking the deck starts. First, I'm not sure if Grave Titan is the correct choice to be the third win con as (although likely you will win) he doesn't quite ensure that you will get a victory as he can be hit by StP and/or other pesky removal spells. Also, I feel bumping that slot up from 2 slots to 3 should be correct. I've toyed with the idea of Empty the Pits in it's place but I haven't tested it and Grave Titan seems better. Is there a better card for this slot? Also, I haven't even began to rehaul the deck to incorporate LED. If we do we gain access to Burning Wish in which case one of the Empty the Warrens can be moved to the sb. I have a lot more to say but I think I'll just leave it for now and see what you guys think. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Please reply and thank you!

EDIT: Take note that in my stats I never mulliganed once. Also take note that the reason my high ratio of EtW wins is due to the fact that often I would get both Sire and EtW in the same hand and for whatever reason I chose EtW over Sire. Still however the deck gets turn one Sires all day long.

[Captain Hammer]

Cool deck. One change I suggest...

Cut all 3 Grave Titan.

Put an EtW in the board and play 4 Burning Wish main deck in those 4 slots.

You get 11 reliable win conditions this way instead of 8 reliable win conditions and 3 subpar win conditions.

How does this deck deal with Force of Will? This is the issue belcher decks have, extremely consistent and effective cannons that shatter like glass to free counter magic.

[Laser Brains]

Cool deck. One change I suggest...

Put an EtW in the board and play 4 Burning Wish maindeck.

How does this deck deal with Force of Will? This is the issue belcher decks have

For some reason I was thinking to really maximize the potential of Burning Wish we would need to over haul the core of the deck (which very well will happen) to include LED, but your right. We don't need LED for Burning Wish, we could just cut the 2 Grave Titans and an EtW (on the side) for them. Getting EtW off Burning Wish is still the same cc as Titan. Can't believe I over looked that. Good call, thanks!

To answer your second question, it just doesn't. Not much we can do against FoW.

[mistercakes]

How was testing with elvish spirit guide over pyretic ritual? Having an initial mana source can be worth it over the one storm.

[Captain Hammer]

Why not just play
-4 Sire
+Charbelcher

-2 City of Brass
-2 Cabal Ritual
-4 Mox Diamond
+4 ESG
+4 LED
then.

You make the deck more consistent (people can easily win under a Sire especially against a deck like this).

[Laser Brains]

How was testing with elvish spirit guide over pyretic ritual? Having an initial mana source can be worth it over the one storm.

That's a possibility, it still gives you the +1 to your mana and in most cases it won't matter what color it is. Although, Pyretic does bump up your storm count.

Why not just play
-4 Sire
+Charbelcher

-2 City of Brass
-2 Cabal Ritual
-4 Mox Diamond
+4 ESG
+4 LED
then.

You make the deck more consistent (people can easily win under a Sire especially against a deck like this).

I don't think a turn 1 Sire is all that "easy" to deal with, it's an almost certain auto win, but you do bring up a good question. Why not just play Belcher? I don't have an answer for that question as this deck is still a work in progress. My hope is to bring up the percentages and create some discussion around the idea. Belcher was designed pre Sire so I don't think there has been any discussion as of yet on a deck of this style. Also, it opens up other alternatives to Belcher. Sire doesn't get shut down by Pithing Needle etc.. and I'm also thinking about incorporating a transformational Burning Reanimator style sideboard but haven't gotten that far yet.

[mistercakes]

i have tried sire as a sb plan for belcher, but i never could get it to work. i wasn't really trying BR though so i was using the typical tinder wall ESG configuration. the only major upside that i see for belcher is that it uses LED more effectively. (burning wish, and then belcher only requiring 4 mana).

if you did run burning wish and led you could have some reanimate / exhume etc and this would give you some options if you have LED in your hand and a guy who you can't cast.

1R + fatty in hand + led + burning wish

[Laser Brains]

i have tried sire as a sb plan for belcher, but i never could get it to work. i wasn't really trying BR though so i was using the typical tinder wall ESG configuration. the only major upside that i see for belcher is that it uses LED more effectively. (burning wish, and then belcher only requiring 4 mana).

if you did run burning wish and led you could have some reanimate / exhume etc and this would give you some options if you have LED in your hand and a guy who you can't cast.

1R + fatty in hand + led + burning wish

Exactly what I was thinking. Exhume is nice with LED in hand. With fatty in hand and LED in play, cast Exhume, before it resolves crack LED (thus pitching your hand with fatty in it), Exhume resolves, reanimating fatty.

Also, LED is really nice with Unburial Rites. That being said, Entomb is really nice for tutoring Unburial Rites when you need a reanimate effect. I'll have to toy with it more though. I'd like to see it focus more on hard casting Sire rather than reanimating him. Otherwise we end up with Burning Reanimator (which is actually already awesome).

EDIT: Transformational sideboard though, you could do some cool stuff.

[Laser Brains]

Before I go all in on LEDs and reanimate type effects the first thing to fix is cutting Grave Titan for Burning Wish and putting one EtW in the board. And, bumping up the Win Cons to 11 rather than 4. Also cutting 4 Cabal Ritual and splitting the difference with ESG (as Mistercakes mentioned) and Pyretic as red is more relevant than black. With ESG we get better percentages but less storm count though. Not that the percentages were bad at all, I think with it looking more like this they should go up even further. Gonna give this a whirl.

Win Con: 11
4x Sire of Insanity
3x Empty the Warrens
4x Burning Wish

Rituals: 17
4x Dark Ritual
4x Desperate Ritual
4x Seething Song
4x Rite of Flame
1x Pyretic Ritual

Cantrips: 8
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Manamorphose

Mana: 24
4x Lotus Petal
4x Chrome Mox
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Land Grant
2x Badlands
1x Bayou
1x Taiga

Sideboard:
1x Empty the Warrens
???
???
???

[Weapon X]

Why not just burning reanimatior?

[Laser Brains]

Why not just burning reanimatior?

I'm assuming you're referring to my comment about the Burning Reanimatorish transformational sideboard and/or about including reanimator spells. My answer to that is that Burning Reanimator and/or Tin Fins play out more or less like a Reanimator deck that happen to also have the option to sometimes storm combo out. This would be the opposite. My idea, if it works is to have a storm combo deck that happens to also sometimes reanimate. The only reason I was recommending adding reanimate spells is if the deck eventually would include LED as it combos so nicely with Unburial Rites and Exhume as well as Burning Wish.

Either way though the deck as it is combos out turn one all the time. I'm beginning to think LED isn't necessary at all. From the changes I made above I just tested 50 more games and the percentages have actually gotten better. Here's the results:

Out of 50 games I got:
32 Turn 1-2 wins
25 of which were turn 1 wins and 7 of which were turn 2.

Here is a list of the actual games I recorded.

50 games. If it just says Sire or 8-20 goblins but nothing else that means that I got those wins turn 1.
Sire
18 Goblins
Sire
T2 10 Goblins
Sire
Nothing
8 Goblins
10 Goblins
10 Goblins
T2 10 Goblins
8 Goblins
Nothing T3 Goblins
10 Goblins
Nothing
Nothing
Nothing
T2 Sire
Nothing T3 Sire
Nothing
Nothing T3 Sire
18 Goblins
12 Goblins
Sire
T2 Sire
12 Goblins
12 Goblins
16 Goblins
Nothing T3 Goblins
Sire
Nothing
T2 8 Goblins
Nothing
Sire
Nothing
Sire
Nothing
Nothing
12 Goblins
12 Goblins
6 Goblins
8 Goblins
Nothing
Nothing T3 Goblins
Sire
20 Goblins
Nothing
T2 8 Goblins
Sire
T2 Sire
Nothing

[Laser Brains]

Okay so I changed the deck up a bit from the list I posted up midway through the thread. I noticed that with ESGs as Mistercakes suggested and Burning Wish as Captain Hammer suggested I got higher percentages. With ESGs now in the deck I noticed that there were 20 sources of green mana so why not run Tinder wall over Pyrectic Ritual? It only costs 1 mana where as Pyrectic costs 2 (I was only running 1 btw). So I cut the one Pyretic for a Tinder Wall. Then I thought maybe Tinder Wall was better than Chrome Mox as Chrome Mox costs you a card. With lands, Land Grants, Lotus Petals, ESGs and SSGs I have 20 hard sources of mana that aren’t rituals (and thats without Chrome Mox). So my next step was to cut the Chrome Moxen for more rituals thus +4 Tinder Wall. In other words -1 Pyretic -3 Chrome Mox +4 Tinder Wall.

Now time to test it. So I played 50 games. Now I know this is only 50 games (maybe I got lucky) but with this list I think I’m getting better percentages than Belcher. Not sure exactly what Belcher’s percentages are but they can’t be this high. Maybe I’m wrong.

I'm not positive but to me a turn 1 Sire is better than a turn 1 activated Charbelcher. Often you hit your land too soon off of Charbelcher and don’t win right away. With Sire if you are on the play your opponent needs to top deck not only a white mana source but also a Swords to Plowshares (which other than Maze of Ith is the only real threat that I know of). This I feel is less likely than hitting your land too soon off of Charbelcher.

If you are not on the play or get a turn two Sire you need to consider that your opponent, first must be playing White. That’s big. Second that your opponent happens to draw both a white mana source and an STP.

So I tested the new list with 50 games. During testing I assumed I was on the play and never mulliganed once. With that I had 41 turn 1 to 2 wins out of 50 games which is 82%. 62% of the games I tested were turn 1, 20% were turn 2 and only 18% were losses or went to turn three. 10 of the 31 turn 1 wins were from Sire, which is really good considering there are only 4 Sire in the deck and 7 Empty the Warrens counting Burning Wish.

Now, I’d like to incorporate LEDs into the deck but why would I do that with the results I’m getting? LED only combos with 4 cards in the deck which is Burning Wish. So the question shouldn’t be why not just play Belcher? The question should be why play Belcher when you can just play this? Especially when you don’t need LEDs. Now, I never recommend playing subpar lands but this could be a very very very budget friendly deck by running -1 Taiga -1Bayou -2 Badlands and +1 Stomping Ground +1 Overgrown Tomb and +2 Blood Crypt or City of Brass. According to TCG Player with those changes the deck sits at $115 without sideboard.

Here are the exact results I got with the new list.

Sire Deck 1.75:

Sire
16 Goblins
Sire
14 Goblins
14 Goblins
14 Goblins
14 Goblins
12 Goblins
Turn2 8 Goblins
14 Goblins
Turn2 14 Goblins
Sire
14 Goblins
*Nothing
Turn2 10 Goblins
Turn2 Sire
*Nothing
Sire
*Nothing
8 Goblins
Sire
*Nothing
Sire
10 Goblins
Turn2 8 Goblins
Turn2 Sire
10 Goblins
*Nothing
*Nothing
14 Goblins
16 Goblins
12 Goblins
16 Goblins
16 Goblins
*Nothing
Turn2 14 Goblins
Sire
Sire
*Nothing
*Nothing
Turn2 16 Goblins
10 Goblins
Turn2 10 Goblins
18 Goblins
10 Goblins
16 Goblins
18 Goblins
Sire
Turn2 Sire or 14 Goblins
Sire

Thats:
31 Turn 1 Wins
10 Turn 2 Wins
9 Losses

Here's the new list. You can play test it here.

Sire Deck 1.75:

Win Con:
4x Burning Wish
4x Sire Of Insanity
3x Empty the Warrens

Rituals:
4x Rite of Flame
4x Tinder Wall
4x Dark Ritual
4x Desperate Ritual
4x Seething Song

Cantrips:
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Manamorphose

Fast Mana:
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Lotus Petal
1x Chrome Mox

Land:
4x Land Grant
2x City of Brass
1x Bayou
1x Taiga

Sideboard:
1x Empty the Warrens
1x Shattering Spree
3x Duress
1x Blazing Volley
1x Stronghold Gambit
1x Chainer's Edict
1x Goblin War Strike
1x Flame Slash
1x Revoke Existence
1x Tendrils of Agony
3x Xantid Swarm

EDIT: This is my sideboard so far. It's a start, mostly based on Belcher and Burning Reanimator tech. Suggestions welcome! Also, City of Brass went back into the deck as you can't cast Tinder Wall off of Badlands. Also you get more sideboard options such as Revoke Existence.