dsg123456789
12-15-2009, 02:54 AM
Hey guys, I've been toying around with this deck for a little while and I was wondering what you thought. I know it'll never be tier one because graveyard hate hurts it a lot, and it's not great against combo, but it's really fun to play and it's great against aggro decent against control. Regrowth helps a lot against counters, and the lack of creatures and activated abilities foils a lot of dedicated slots in many of the top decks, giving you virtual card advantage right away.
The idea behind the deck is that an active Pyromancer Ascension basically guarantees you a game win from the insane card advantage and recursion it offers, and the other spells you play are good enough on their own that you can stall for several turns, activate an Ascension, and win.
Draw/Search:
4 Intution
4 Brainstorm
4 Strategic Planning
3 Mystical Tutor
Burn:
4 Fire/Ice
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lava Dart
Utility:
4 Force of Will
4 Pyromancer Ascension
4 Regrowth
1 Firespout
1 Krosan Grip
Mana:
2 Island
2 Mountain
1 Forest
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Volcanic Island
3 Tropical Island
2 Taiga
Justifications/Reasonings:
Manabase: I chose this breakdown because it allows you to both have any color available when you need it, as well as always giving you the basics you might need (vs. wasteland or blood moon). It's stable enough that I haven't had many problems against non-Sinkhole/Smallpox/Wasteland disruption. I tested moxen in this deck, but the added speed doesn't offer as much benefit as additional business spells do.
Lightning Bolt: Best red removal, plus the usual kill spell. I usually win by recurring lightning bolt and casting it 3 times to win.
Fire/Ice: These are very useful early and late game. I probably cast Ice more often than Fire--the early Timewalk against a Tarmogoyf is invaluable, and once you have an ascension, tapping 2 lands and drawing 2 cards can cut them off of a critical color of mana and give you time to seal the game.
Strategic Planning: These are *very* strategic in this deck. Grabbing a spell or land you need while priming your graveyard for a faster activation of the Ascension is great. These really help set you up and guarantee a devastating surprise for an opponent who doesn't expect the Ascension.
Lava Dart: These are useful against many small dudes in the format that random decks use. In an unknown meta, Darts can be very useful. They are also useful for the 1-2 mana activation of an Ascension at instant speed, getting you in a position to win much faster. Finally, they're good as Intuition targets, since you can grab piles like Lightning Bolt, Lava Dart, Regrowth, and with a Regrowth and/or Dart in hand, they'll give you the Dart but end up letting you trigger the Ascension much faster.
Brainstorm: No explanation needed.
Intuition: As a 4-of, you might think that you have too many in the deck, but frequently you can win just by casting this once. Combined with a playset of Regrowths, you can Intuition for 3 targets and have access to them all. Or, you can tutor up the Ascensions once you've taken control. Or, you can grab the Lava Darts and activate your Ascension at once. Or, you can grab 3x Regrowth and start the recursion. Finally, between FoW, Brainstorm, and Strategic Planning, I never feel stuck with a dead card.
Mystical Tutor: This card works great in this deck. You can tutor up a Firespout to shut off an aggro deck that's not expecting a sweeper. You can grab the KGrip to keep yourself out of nasty situations. You can grab a business spell like Lightning Bolt or Regrowth to start your nasty tricks. With Regrowth, you can recast your singleton silver bullets, as well as any other spell that's most useful, which is very powerful against many decks. Sometimes I use this to stay alive by getting the card I need to stall the game, other times I use this to grab my kill (Bolt or Fire).
Pyromancer Ascension: Key card of the deck. Resolve this and keep it on the board for 2 turns and you'll (probably) win.
Regrowth: The deck's other key card. Initially, I thought this was just a cute trick with the Ascension -- cast regrowth, targeting regrowth + other card, repeat. Later, I found this to be invaluable. You can recast any spell or get a needed land drop. This makes your burn spells and silver bullets much more powerful by giving you another copy when you need it. They're only mediocre for inclusion in Intuition piles. Out of 50+ games, I've only intuitioned for Regrowth + other cards once or twice. On the other hand, Intuition for 3x Regrowth can be a powerful play with an active (or soon to be active) Ascension. Finally, Regrowth serves as additional virtual counterspells, because you can get back your destroyed or countered Ascensions, getting around many decks' disruption.
This deck is a blast to play, and although it is easily hated out, it has pretty good matchups against many of the top decks. I'm not sure what to do with the sideboard, I've considered trying Quirion Dryad for the non-graveyard-dependent beats that gets big fast in this deck, and I've looked at Revive/Prismatic Lace from the board as an uber-jank foil to Extirpate and decks with heavy discard (which they are really effective against). I find the worst things happen against decks with lots of discard, 5+ toughness fatties, and combo.
I've considered splashing white for Life Burst, but I'm concerned about destabilizing the manabase; however, life burst alone can beat aggro and storm combo.
How much do you think this deck can be improved? I think it has potential. I've been out of playing magic for the past 3 years, so I don't know a lot of more recent cards.
The idea behind the deck is that an active Pyromancer Ascension basically guarantees you a game win from the insane card advantage and recursion it offers, and the other spells you play are good enough on their own that you can stall for several turns, activate an Ascension, and win.
Draw/Search:
4 Intution
4 Brainstorm
4 Strategic Planning
3 Mystical Tutor
Burn:
4 Fire/Ice
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lava Dart
Utility:
4 Force of Will
4 Pyromancer Ascension
4 Regrowth
1 Firespout
1 Krosan Grip
Mana:
2 Island
2 Mountain
1 Forest
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Volcanic Island
3 Tropical Island
2 Taiga
Justifications/Reasonings:
Manabase: I chose this breakdown because it allows you to both have any color available when you need it, as well as always giving you the basics you might need (vs. wasteland or blood moon). It's stable enough that I haven't had many problems against non-Sinkhole/Smallpox/Wasteland disruption. I tested moxen in this deck, but the added speed doesn't offer as much benefit as additional business spells do.
Lightning Bolt: Best red removal, plus the usual kill spell. I usually win by recurring lightning bolt and casting it 3 times to win.
Fire/Ice: These are very useful early and late game. I probably cast Ice more often than Fire--the early Timewalk against a Tarmogoyf is invaluable, and once you have an ascension, tapping 2 lands and drawing 2 cards can cut them off of a critical color of mana and give you time to seal the game.
Strategic Planning: These are *very* strategic in this deck. Grabbing a spell or land you need while priming your graveyard for a faster activation of the Ascension is great. These really help set you up and guarantee a devastating surprise for an opponent who doesn't expect the Ascension.
Lava Dart: These are useful against many small dudes in the format that random decks use. In an unknown meta, Darts can be very useful. They are also useful for the 1-2 mana activation of an Ascension at instant speed, getting you in a position to win much faster. Finally, they're good as Intuition targets, since you can grab piles like Lightning Bolt, Lava Dart, Regrowth, and with a Regrowth and/or Dart in hand, they'll give you the Dart but end up letting you trigger the Ascension much faster.
Brainstorm: No explanation needed.
Intuition: As a 4-of, you might think that you have too many in the deck, but frequently you can win just by casting this once. Combined with a playset of Regrowths, you can Intuition for 3 targets and have access to them all. Or, you can tutor up the Ascensions once you've taken control. Or, you can grab the Lava Darts and activate your Ascension at once. Or, you can grab 3x Regrowth and start the recursion. Finally, between FoW, Brainstorm, and Strategic Planning, I never feel stuck with a dead card.
Mystical Tutor: This card works great in this deck. You can tutor up a Firespout to shut off an aggro deck that's not expecting a sweeper. You can grab the KGrip to keep yourself out of nasty situations. You can grab a business spell like Lightning Bolt or Regrowth to start your nasty tricks. With Regrowth, you can recast your singleton silver bullets, as well as any other spell that's most useful, which is very powerful against many decks. Sometimes I use this to stay alive by getting the card I need to stall the game, other times I use this to grab my kill (Bolt or Fire).
Pyromancer Ascension: Key card of the deck. Resolve this and keep it on the board for 2 turns and you'll (probably) win.
Regrowth: The deck's other key card. Initially, I thought this was just a cute trick with the Ascension -- cast regrowth, targeting regrowth + other card, repeat. Later, I found this to be invaluable. You can recast any spell or get a needed land drop. This makes your burn spells and silver bullets much more powerful by giving you another copy when you need it. They're only mediocre for inclusion in Intuition piles. Out of 50+ games, I've only intuitioned for Regrowth + other cards once or twice. On the other hand, Intuition for 3x Regrowth can be a powerful play with an active (or soon to be active) Ascension. Finally, Regrowth serves as additional virtual counterspells, because you can get back your destroyed or countered Ascensions, getting around many decks' disruption.
This deck is a blast to play, and although it is easily hated out, it has pretty good matchups against many of the top decks. I'm not sure what to do with the sideboard, I've considered trying Quirion Dryad for the non-graveyard-dependent beats that gets big fast in this deck, and I've looked at Revive/Prismatic Lace from the board as an uber-jank foil to Extirpate and decks with heavy discard (which they are really effective against). I find the worst things happen against decks with lots of discard, 5+ toughness fatties, and combo.
I've considered splashing white for Life Burst, but I'm concerned about destabilizing the manabase; however, life burst alone can beat aggro and storm combo.
How much do you think this deck can be improved? I think it has potential. I've been out of playing magic for the past 3 years, so I don't know a lot of more recent cards.