The Expendables! (Zombie-less Bombardment)

[Qweerios]

Greeting fellow Sourcers!

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First, The Expendables:


4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Dark Confidant
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Bloodghast

4 Entomb
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Abrupt Decay

4 Thoughtseize
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Lingering Souls

3 Goblin Bombardment

4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Polluted Delta
2 Badlands
2 Scrubland
2 Bayou
1 Taiga
1 Swamp
1 Undiscovered Paradise
//SB
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Coffin Purge
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Crippling Fatigue
1 Pithing Needle
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Rest in Peace
1 Choke
3 Liliana of the Veil


Here is another refined brew that may not be tier 1 but definitely holds its own and will guarantee loads of fun. As you have probably figured out by now, this deck is a twist on Zombardment (or the Walking Dead) that uses Goblin Bombardment to turn seemingly harmless creatures into major annoyances. Unlike traditional Zombardment, this iteration does not sport the Gravecrawler zombie suite and is therefore much less reliant on the graveyard to be successful. On to some card-by-card explanation...

Entomb is this variant's Faithless Looting. Entomb offers a great utility toolbox that other decks reach through library manipulation. Entombing a Therapy when you need discard, Crippling Fatigue when you need removal, Souls when you need tokens, or Bloodghast when you need it is very powerful and versatile. Entomb makes some sideboard cards readily available that won't tax your sideboard space such as Ancient Grudge, Coffin Purge, and Darkblast.

Goblin Bombardment is why this deck exists. It requires a lot of building around but offers a lot of versatility. This card guarantees your opponent a headache for the rest of the game. A powerful and extremely challenging card to experience with.

Young Pyromancer and Lingering Souls are this deck's bread and butter as they provide us with aggression. Those two cards, be it separate or combined, produce the most degenerate amount of disposable bodies for the cost.

Bloodghast tends to staple an ability to every land drop you make. He usually stays throughout the game granting us that inevitability. Bloodghast will work miracles alongside Cabal Therapy and Goblin Bombardment. I only play two copies because I dislike having to cast him (Entomb is quicker), and you only need a pair of them to do your evil deeds.

Deathrite Shaman holds this deck together. Any 4 color deck that relies on massive reach to win games will definitely appreciate this abomination of a card.

Dark Confidant simply belongs in this deck. The curve is extremely low and the fact that we don't play blue makes Bob our version of Brainstorm/Ponder/Dig. Given that the Expendables has one of the fastest discard suite I have ever seen, Bob is more than likely to grant you a few wishes.

Lightning Bolt needs little explanation. By far our most efficient way of removing potential game-breaking creatures like DRS, Delver, and SFM while also providing reach and aggression. Bolt is simply one of those cards that offer the most bang for its buck.

Abrupt Decay is a necessity against cards like Counterbalance, Chalice of the Void, Umezawa's Jitte, and even Tarmogoyf can pose a significant threat. I like to have 4 copies available between the main and side.

Thoughtseize provides quick disruption and hand information for maximum synergy with Cabal Therapy.

Cabal Therapy is one of those cards that if you can nullify its drawback, will yield sickening results. Entomb, Bloodghast, Lingering Souls, and Young Pyromancer do exactly just that.

On to sideboard cards...

Liliana of the Veil jumps out as the only card found in multiple (along with Red Blasts i suppose). Lily is one of those cards that I would play mainboard if I could. She comes in to replace removal against combo and control decks, and discard against aggro decks. She is the most efficient at replacing dead cards postboard.

Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast don't need much explanation. I mainly use them against blue combo and control decks, and often bring them in against Delver decks instead of discard spells. These cards are especially relevant against Show and Tell based decks.

Crippling Fatigue has been moved to the SB in favor of the 4th Decay main. I much prefer this card to Darkblast in many matchups.

Ancient Grudge is necessary against Stoneforge Mystic decks to deal with Batterskull. Artifact removal is also good in general against various decks. Grudge is a must-have with Entombs.

Coffin Purge is not the best graveyard-hate card availlable but being able to turn 4 copies of Entomb into instant "Rats' Feast for 1" is a good way to combat GY dependent decks for such a small cost.

Darkblast can take over games against decks like Death and Taxes, Grixis Control, and Elves where you can convert your draws into 1 mana removal. Entombing Darkblast may not be very efficient but can be devastating. I often switch between Darkblast and Volcanic Spray as my Entomb target of choice for swarm decks.

Enlightened Tutor is a great way to double up on sideboard cards that you wouldn't want to draw multiples of. It can always grab a Goblin Bombardment when you need it too. This card alone saves a lot of sideboard space.

Pithing Needle is as versatile as a sideboard card can get. I mainly use it against cards I have very little impact on such as Sensei's Divining Top, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Thespian's Stage, Wasteland (against Life from the Loam decks), Sneak Attack, Aether Vial, Mother of Runes, Wirewood Symbiote, and equipment artifacts in general. This slot competes with Null Rod.

Nihil Spellbomb is a one-sided GY hate cantrip for the smallest cost. Having 4 Deathrites, 4 Entombs, and 1 Coffin Purge was not enough for heavy graveyard decks like Dredge. Having a full GY clear spell available with Enlightened Tutor is necessary post-board.

Ethersworn Canonist is useful against anything that wins out of the blue with multiple spells. One of the best lock pieces against Elves, Storm, and Omni-Tell decks. It also has its uses against blue Pyromancer decks or decks using 10+ cantrips in general.

Spirit of the Labyrinth is especially useful against blue combo decks. It is also a must-answer for decks packing 8+ cantrips.

Choke will stop most Legacy decks dead in their tracks if played at the right time. I often switch between Choke and Sylvan Library for this slot.

Rest in Peace is my flex slot of choice for the moment. I think the card is a necessary evil against decks playing Loam/Punishing Fire, Dredge, and Reanimator.

Other sideboard considerations:

As mentioned above Null Rod has its uses. It is great against decks like Death and Taxes, Storm, Belcher, and MUD where Pithing Needle doesn't shine as much.

Sylvan Library is a good card to have in every matchup. I don't find myself in need of grinding potential or able to pay huge chunks of life for cards though.

Bitterblossom is similar to Sylvan Library as it grants cards in exchange of life and is difficult to remove. I find it relevant in a lot less matchups though.

Volcanic Spray can be devastating for certain board states but can also be as hurtful to us than to them.

Ray of Revelation can be relevant against Leyline of Sanctity and Enchantress decks but has very little use outside of those decks. I guess one could argue it is also useful against Burn when facing Eidolon of the Great Revel and Sulfuric Vortex.

Folk Medicine and Circle of Protection: Red makes for some janky sideboard tech against burn decks.

Raven's Crime offers additional discard for every superfluous land. It is a bit redundant with Cabal Therapy however.

Zealous Persecution offers excellent synergy with the deck and helps against swarm decks, True-Name Nemesis, and can even protect against -1/-1 sweepers such as Golgari Charm and Toxic Deluge.

Umezawa's Jitte is simply good all around. I find it overlaps with Goblin Bombardment in a lot of ways so I opted against it entirely.

I have spent a lot of time on this deck so I hope you appreciate the effort. I don't usually spend time on matchup analysis when I write a primer because the metagame constantly changes so if you have any questions on particular matchups, post them below. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the deck or the sideboard, feel free to speak your mind.

[Esper3k]

I've fiddled around with YP + Lingering Souls before. I kind of feel like SFM is necessary to be able to attack from another angle + equipment plays well with all the little tokens.

[Qweerios]

I have been through this logic before and it always leads to a different deck altogether (Deadguy?). I don't find Bombardment and equipments to work together as one wants to sacrifice the bodies for damage while the other relies on having bodies to function. You end up with an unnecessary conundrum since the deck is designed to sacrifice its own creatures for profit. Bombardment is very aggressive and dishes out ridiculous amounts of damage. The only cards I could think of exchanging for SFM and some equipments would be cards like Thoughtseize and Bolts/Decay which are already very potent and synergistic with the rest of the deck. Also, delving further into white makes the manabase even shakier. As the deck is now, it is basically a black and red deck with a tiny splash of green and an almost insignificant splash of white.

[Esper3k]

Maybe SFM with Mortarpod as an option?

[maharis]

I've always loved this kind of deck. I actually played Young Pyromancer Zombies in an SCG open shortly after RTR came out.

Is Entomb really that much better than Faithless Looting? I always liked that Looting let you exchange cards that worked out of the GY for cards you needed to play from your hand (like lands or DRS/Pyromancer). Plus it flashes back for that extra YP trigger. I do like how it lets you play the kind of sideboard you've developed, though.

This kind of deck seems like a good choice at the moment since Omnitell is popular and Grixis is cutting into BUG's market share and not all Grixis decks play DRS. Miracles seems like an uphill battle but the clock seems way faster with all the tokens.

I always wanted to play Urborg + Filth in this kind of deck, seems like a fun way to beat Batterskull/TNN.

[Richard Cheese]

I think if you're going to call the deck The Expendables, you should make it about bringing back a bunch of old creatures that were great in their time, but have long-since been forgotten. I'm thinking at a minimum you're going to need Juzam, Serra Angel, Shivan, Demonic Hordes, Prodigal Sorcerer, Royal Assassin, and Hypnotic Specter to start. Then maybe have some quick cameos from later generations like Jackal Pup, Wildfire Emmisary, Nekrataal, Exalted Angel, Mystic Enforcer.

[Qweerios]

I have tried SFM and Mortarpod. Having to pay 2 mana to equip completely kills it. Even if it were 1 mana it would still be underwhelming.

I knew the Entomb vs. Looting question would come up eventually. Looting is actually quite bad in this deck and even in traditional Zombardment it isn't the most stellar. As I mentioned in the primer, while there are a lot of cards you can afford to put into your graveyard, there aren't that many cards you actually want in your graveyard. Looting always ends up depleting your hand by 1 card every time you don't ditch a card that is better in your yard than your hand. Of course Looting allows you to sift through your deck a little faster, but it does so at the cost of making your cards worse. Even with a Pyromancer online I'd rather have Entomb than Looting in hand because it will grant me exactly what I need to Loot into while the Looting might just whiff and leave me short on cards.

As for the Miracles matchup, it is generally a walk in the park, especially post-board. I care very little about Rest in Peace. In fact, I like the idea that my opponent is spending a card to make my Lingering Souls give me 2 tokens instead of 4 and my Deathrites swing for 1 instead of 2 while their Snapcasters lose flashback and they side out their Digs. You can always anticipate RiP and side out Entombs (or some of them) if you want but it's not even necessary. I will often beat miracles with a RiP in play while I am holding a Decay for something a little more worthwhile like Counterbalance. Last tournament I played I beat a Miracles player who had RiP in play and Entreated twice. It goes to show how Decay was better spent on an Angel than on RiP.

G1 I shred their hand and try to get a Pyro or Bob online. If I can assemble Ghast + Bombardment they are in for a world of hurt. G2 I take out 4 Therapy, 4 Thoughtseize, 1 Entomb, and 1 Crippling Fatigue for 3 Liliana, 1 Decay, 1 Choke, 1 Spirit of the Labyrinth, 1 Needle, 1 Tutor, 1 Red Blast, 1 Pyroblast. You can fiddle with the amount of Thoughtseize vs. Entombs you want to side out in anticipation of RiP.

This reminds me of an interesting point I often encounter: everyone and their mother seems to bring in GY hate against this deck and I absolutely love it. Relics, Spellbombs, and Surgicals don't do much against Bloodghast when you drop a fetch or flashback cards when you hold priority.

[Qweerios]

I think if you're going to call the deck The Expendables, you should make it about bringing back a bunch of old creatures that were great in their time, but have long-since been forgotten. I'm thinking at a minimum you're going to need Juzam, Serra Angel, Shivan, Demonic Hordes, Prodigal Sorcerer, Royal Assassin, and Hypnotic Specter to start. Then maybe have some quick cameos from later generations like Jackal Pup, Wildfire Emmisary, Nekrataal, Exalted Angel, Mystic Enforcer.

Good point. I know the name isn't the most fitting but I chose it in honor of a friend who helped me and wanted to brew a modern deck using Barrage of Expendables just to name it "The Expendables"

Don't forget about Werebear!

[Echelon]

I say Lava Dart and Flame Jab! Both can create quite some value when combined with the Pyromancers.

[Zupponn]

When I played Zombardment, the biggest issue I kept running into was the manabase when up against Wasteland and Blood Moon.

[Qweerios]

When I played Zombardment, the biggest issue I kept running into was the manabase when up against Wasteland and Blood Moon.

Blood Moon is not that troublesome because all you need is a basic swamp to cast most of your spells. Not being able to cast Decay or Souls without DRS is minor against Moon decks. My friend plays Imperial Painter and simply cannot win a single match against this deck no matter how many games we play.

Wasteland is, well, Wasteland. Only mono and 2-color decks can effectively play though and around it. You have to expect them to sting a little. Luckily this deck has such a low curve that wastes don't really set you back on tempo. The worse thing that happens is basically getting your lands destroyed when you are short on lands to begin with.

[Qweerios]

I got to play at a small weekly tournament after a 6 month MtG hiatus. I ended up playing The Expendables with some minor changes (4 Decay and a Taiga main). Here is how it went:

R1 against Food Chain combo (2-1)

G1 I am at loss against 3 Misthollow Griffins so I swarm the board with as many tokens as I can and wait for Bombardment while my opponent waits on Food Chain. I won that race.

G2 I face lots of Shardless Agents, Baleful Strix, and Griffons. I miscalculate life totals by 1 and miss the win.

G3 I am once again overwhelmed but eventually find lethal damage with a pair of Deathrite Shamans.

R2 against Jeskai Stoneblade (2-1)

G1 My opponent has an answer for everything I do and it ends in a Jace.

G2 I get double Entomb for some quick bloodghast beats while my opponent suffers a mana shortage.

G3 I drew 4 Bobs and the 4th one allowed me to swarm past a Batterskull. It is worth noting that my opponent opened with T1 Grafdigger's Cage and T2 Rest in Peace for my double Entomb opener.

R3 Against Dredge (2-1)

G1 Fortunately I knew I was against Dredge so I mulligan to 5 for a DRS and drew a second one on T2.

G2 I made a small misplay and allowed 3 zombie tokens to grind me out.

G3 I drew too much hate (Spellbomb, DRS, and Entomb in my opener)

R4 Against ANT (0-2)

G1 He went double Dark Ritual into Ad Nauseam into Tendrils on T1.

G2 I got some good discard and GY hate in so my opponent was forced to go off with 14 Tokens. I made 2 life total miscalculations that cost me an easy win once again.

[emuhell]

@Qweerios
Interesting take on that deck. I played a similar list for some time and enjoyed it a lot. (http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/legacy-type-1-5/established-legacy/aggro-tempo/179834-primer-the-walking-dead-zombardment?comment=629) Always switching between the two bombardement builds.

If you play a full Entomb package, I strongly suggest to play a Vengeful Pharaoh. It's better combined with Looting to discard it after drawing, but still - killing a goyf/emrakul/delver with an Entomb is nice.

And since you have no Lootings you should look for other ways to get rid of extra lands in mid-/lategame. Flame Jab and/or Raven's Crime are good with Pyromancers.

[Mystical_Jackass]

I absolutely love these weenie Bombardment decks, they definitely take me back to that pre-M10 era of damage on stack with like Fanatic and Nantuko Husk and such, good times.

That said, what do you think about cards like Mogg War Marshal and Unearth? They seem like they'd synergize really well with eachother, and Pyromancer and Bombardment. I don't want to take away from Bloodghast, but in comparison you only get 1 point of damage per turn with the ghast, where you instantly get up to 3 damage in value with Marshal on its own with Bombardment. It also opens you up to easy RiP and Shaman gy hate.

[Qweerios]

@emuhell,

I don't really like Pharaoh as en entomb target and he is worthless when you draw him. The only time I would entomb for Pharaoh was if I was losing to a Goyf. My first Entombs are almost always spent on Ghast and Therapies G1 and will often serve a different purpose postboard. I am not saying that Pharaoh is a bad choice but rather that I don't think it is any better than the cards I currently play. I did enjoy Pharaoh in a modern deck playing Looting and Liliana but I am afraid he is just not good enough for Legacy.

As far as the Retrace stuff goes, I don't find any of them particularly powerful. The deck is already light on lands and I can easily abuse 5 lands in play with cards like Lingering Souls and Dark Confidant. It takes a really long time for games to reach a state where I actually have too many lands, especially against decks packing a playset of Wastelands.

@Mystical_Jackass,

What do you suggest I take out for Mogg and Unearth? How would these cards improve the deck more than the cards currently in place?

Mogg > Bloodghast? Bloodghast can be entombed and comes back every time a land enters play. They fulfill completely different roles. If anything, I would compare Mogg to Young Pyromancer.

[Mystical_Jackass]

Fair enough. Another card I forgot to mention that I've seen a friend use in a B/R deck a long time ago was Grave Pact. It completely butchers Goyf and midrange decks, also annoying crap like a creature equipped to Jitte, where before that'd be gg they won't be able to keep a creature in play. Its higher in the mana curve so you can probably fit like 2, but the card wins games.

[Qweerios]

Ohh what a sweet tech! I can definitely see this card completely wreck several decks. My biggest concern is that it seems a little narrow for my taste. I don't think I would replace a Liliana in the SB for a Grave Pact... but it could be fun.

[glowparty]

a card like grave pact makes rest in peace / leyline of the void more effective against bombard strategy.

[Qweerios]

Another small report from a weekly tournament. 4-0 this time! Lots of quality decks in the room and a nice turnout for a weekly. I scouted 2 Miracles, 2 Lands, 2 BUG Delver, 2 Jeskai, 2 DnT, 1 Deathblade, 1 Junk, 1 Burn, 1 Storm, 1 OmniShow, 1 Dredge.

Here's how it went:

2-1 against OmniShow

G1: Double Therapy with Pyromancer strips his entire hand.
G2: Mulligan to 5 and Leyline of Sanctity gives me no chance.
G3: Thoughtseize, Bob, and Red Blast gets me there.

2-1 against Miracles

G1: I try to grind out 3 Jace and 3 Terminus but I forfeit to the 3rd Jace on an empty board fatesealing. My odds were slim and time was running out.
G2: Tight game with lots of back and forth action: several Terminus, couple of Jaces, a Liliana ultimate, Izzet Staticaster and Sulphur Elemental make a cameo, timely Enlightened Tutor for Choke... I eventually win the race against Monastery Mentor and Izzet Staticaster with a Deathrite Shaman.
G3: My opponent bricks on Brainstorm and Top and stays on 1 land for too long.

2-0 against Deathblade

G1: T1 DRS into T2 Nemesis and SFM into Jitte for my opponent while I T1 DRS into T2 Bob and Lingering Souls. I deal with Jitte and DRS while he deals with DRS and Bob(after a few cards). I win the race with 6 spirit tokens.
G2: I deal with 2 Stoneforge and Choke him after tapout for Jace. He has no outs.

2-0 against Miracles

G1: Long and grindy match with 3 Terminus, Snap+StP, Counterbalance, Jace, and Entreat. I am CB/Top locked against 2 Angel tokens while I have 1 Spirit token, a Bob, a Bloodghast in the yard, and a Bolt in hand while he is sitting at 3 life. I eventually get a Lingering Souls through and get the last points of damage in.
G2: I get T2 Choke while my opponent plays T3 Blood Moon and T4 RiP. We are both screwed on lands but I draw into some Pyromancers and Bolts while he gets a Terminus and a Containment Priest. I eventually draw my single Swamp before he finds a Wear // Tear and ride 3 Bobs to victory.

The deck is a lot of fun and very challenging. I will update the OP to reflect the list I have used over the last couple tournaments. A card I have been contemplating lately is a pair of Bloodbraid Elves for some additional digging power and raw aggression. However, I am not convinced it would be too good with only 19 lands and taking out Thoughtseize would break my heart.

[Qweerios]

Sorry but I fail to see what your deck has to do with mine. It seems to be all over the place and pretty much looks like a suboptimal zombardment/walking dead deck.

[glowparty]

Sorry but I fail to see what your deck has to do with mine. It seems to be all over the place and pretty much looks like a suboptimal zombardment/walking dead deck.

the crossover cards in the maindeck being confidant, deathrite, bloodghast, therapy, thoughtseize, decay, bombardment, lingering souls, and the whole manabase (except an undiscovered paradise and a taiga).

so the three cards i don't play are pyromancer, entomb, and bolt.

the bolts are swords, which lends to a longer game, supported by recurring zombies instead of swarm-generating-pyromancers, which again lends itself to a faster gameplan. the entombs you use for specific cards to support your attack, whereas i use more general library manipulation to support a longer game.

i was excited to see you enjoying and succeeding with the cards i sometimes use differently. i'll delete my post, since you don't find it useful and started the thread. good luck.

[Qweerios]

I don't mean to alienate or offend you but there is a thread for your deck and it is Zombardment. I made this thread because the list I use plays completely differently. Expendables and Zombardment is similar to Team America and Shardless BUG in the sense that they are basically the same deck except that one plays Delver and Daze while the other plays Shardless and Ancestral Vision.

What I am trying to say is that you might as well post a Jund deck as well since it plays DRS, Bob, Bolt, Decay, Thoughtseize, Liliana, etc... However, I don't think it would be conducive to much improvement.

[glowparty]

i just don't agree that my list was more similar to zombardment (and certainly not jund) than yours. but i can't fault you for feeling that it was too far off your archetype, since that seems to vary thread to thread.

[Qweerios]

4-1-0 at GP Montreal's Legacy side event.

0-2 against Imperial Painter (Lots of mulligans and terrible draws)
2-0 against Goblins (I got G1 for free. Not the best matchup by any stretch)
2-1 against Burn (Tight games. Not the best matchup)
2-0 against Miracles (Good matchup)
2-1 against Slivers with Living Wish and Collected Company (I got lots of luck for this dreadful matchup)

Overall, swarm decks that have lots of creatures with 2 toughness and above can get difficult. For this reason I am thinking about adopting a singleton Grave Pact as a SB tech or simply a Jitte and help against Burn decks as well.

Another interesting thing is that I have no been too impressed by REB/Pyro as of late. I only really like them against decks packing Show and Tell.

[Ganfar]

Isn't punishing fire with grove good in this deck? Hoe about this?

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Dark Confidant
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Bloodghast
4 Entomb
1 Lightning Bolt
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Thoughtseize
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Lingering Souls
3 Goblin Bombardment
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Badlands
2 Scrubland
1 Bayou
1 Taiga
1 Swamp
1 Undiscovered Paradise
3 Punishing Fire
3 Grove of the Burnwillows

[Qweerios]

Not particularly? PFire is redundant with Bombardment. If you think it is better than Bolt in this deck, please elaborate.

[lambert101]

I was looking at this deck as a new legacy deck. I like how the main deck looks with entomb over faithless looting. I was wondering how the mana has been as I find myself wanting another basic, probably a mountain. Also how can monetary mentor fit in as more young pryo's or is it not needed? Anyway this looks fun.

[Qweerios]

Being a 4-colored deck which is mostly black and red, the only time I actually want basic lands is against Blood Moon. A 20th land isn't a bad idea. I would go for a Plateau or a 3rd Badlands.

[Qweerios]

I played a weekly tournament tonight with some slight tweaks to the original list. Here is the list and the results:


4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Dark Confidant
2 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Bloodghast

4 Entomb
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Abrupt Decay

3 Thoughtseize
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Lingering Souls

1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

2 Goblin Bombardment

1 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Polluted Delta
1 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Badlands
2 Scrubland
2 Bayou
1 Plateau
1 Swamp
//SB
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Coffin Purge
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Thoughtseize
1 Crippling Fatigue
1 Pithing Needle
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Rest in Peace
1 Choke
3 Liliana of the Veil


R1: 2-1 vs. Burn
R2: 2-1 vs. Team America
R3: 2-1 vs. 12-Post
R4: Drew with MUD and split 1st place

The changes I made were to substitute a Bombardment for Jitte, a Lingering Souls for SoFaI, and move a Decay and a Thoughtseize from the main to the SB for 2 copies of Stoneforge Mystic by eliminating the REB and Pyroblast from the SB. Because of those changes I swapped the Verdant Catacombs for Marsh Flats and the Taiga for a Plateau. I chose to remove the blasts from the SB because they were some of the most underwhelming cards I could sideboard. I mainly used them against Miracles to counter Counterbalance or kill Jace and against SnT decks. Miracle is already a great matchup as it is and SnT decks have a hard time against discard already.

Jitte gave me G3 against Burn with a double Goblin Guide start on the play. This matchup is always very tight and SFM + Jitte is a huge boon. I didn't get to play SoFaI and I preffer to draw Lingering Souls over SoFaI in general. I think I need at least 2 equipments if I am going to play Stoneforge and while SoFaI is very strong, I find it extremely slow for this deck and I really dislike sinking precious mana into equiping a Bob, Pyro, or DRS and have it removed before the sword connects. Committing to the SoFaI plan only works when I am already ahead or when I have mana to spare (a rare scenario). This might sound a little crazy but I've been entertaining the idea of playing Grafted Wargear instead. It provides just enough power for my Bobs, Pyromancers, and Bloodghasts to trade with Goyf and for the Soul tokens to trade with Delver. The fact that it costs zero mana to equip makes Wargear aggressive enough to race most board states with a couple of tokens. It's also convenient to equip immediately on freshly spawned tokens and hasty Bloodghasts.

[Qweerios]

I tested Wargear yesterday and it was much better than SoFaI. I got to put the pressure on really quickly and Bolts finished the job. Again, some more convincing results:

2-0 vs Imperial Taxes

Luckely I saw no Thalias and managed to stick DRS and Swamp everytime Magus hit play. I don't feel like this is particularly a good matchup and I was lucky to find those money Therapies. I much preffer to face regular DnT than this version.

2-0 vs. MUD

Again, strong therapies g1 allows me to kill my opponent before Sundering Titan. G2 was a bit of a fluke since my opponent was land screwed for 2 turn. Then again, that's just MUD.

2-0 vs BUG Delver

I have all the lands and all the removal. Bob brings it home. Not enough Golgari Charms in his SB to take a game.

Draw with Grixis Delver

Oh and for last week's report (also playing Wargear > SoFaI):

0-2 vs. RUG Delver
2-1 vs. Miracles
2-0 vs. 12-Post
2-1 vs BUG Delver

I also played funsies games against Storm and went 3-0 pre-board. This little deck keeps on surprising me the more I play it. I am constantly amazed by the results.

[Admiral_Arzar]

So I think I've been doing a bit of parallel development to this general idea without realizing it. Mine has been several months of on-and-off theorycraft so I have no results to speak of, but my idea started as a thought experiment to see if I could build a non-blue deck with both Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor. Queerios, have you considered Monastery Mentor as a replacement for SFM? My idea was to max out on token producers by playing those two creatures along with both Bitterblossom and Lingering Souls. A rough sketch of the maindeck would look like this:

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Monastery Mentor

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Thoughtseize
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lingering Souls

4 Bitterblossom
3 Goblin Bombardment

1 Bayou
1 Taiga
1 Scrubland
2 Badlands
2 Plateau
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
3 Bloodstained Mire

I do not like the lack of Dark Confidant in my list and would like to shave some numbers to bring him in (1 each of the three drops is probably a good start). 2 green sources allows post-board Decay against matchups where it matters. I'll let you know if I can get this together and do any kind of substantive testing.

[Qweerios]

I think Bob is way stronger than Blossom. Bob has an immediate impact and more cards translates to a win better than a token each turn. Blossom without Bombardment offers very little.

StP over Decay is a mistake. One of the reasons why I love playing this deck is because of its great Miracles matchup. Without Decay, CB is unbearable. Being able to deal with Jitte on Nemesis and Chalice@1 is also relevant. Goyf can also be very problematic and a single FoW on StP could be devastating. Having Decay in the SB and StP in the main also eats up a lot of space

Entomb is the #1 reason why Cabal Therapy is so degenerate in this deck. Getting a bloodghast in the GY for 1 mana is what allows me to regularly get up to 3 discards by turn 3. You get to play more tokens by entombing Lingering Souls than resolving a Blossom...

I don't think Mentor belongs in this deck and I can easily imagine him being way stronger in a deck with Tops and cantrips. 3 mana is too much of an initial cost to potentially get tokens. Prowess isn't even that relevant either because this deck cares more about quantity than quality. I already find Pyro hard to abuse now that I went from 24 to 21 instants and sorceries. I find Pyro only shines after a T1 DRS or when coupled with a Therapy/Entomb/Souls (so I have to untap with him). On average, if I can get 2 tokens out of Pyromancer I am happy unlike Grixis that needs to overwhelm the board to take over.

[Qweerios]

So I did not have time to play MtG lately but I did attend a small tournament at which I went 3-2 and missed top 8. Lots of mistakes were made but most importantly, this was my first poor performance with the deck in a while.

I am not so sure SFM belongs in this deck anymore considering Jitte is the only good target. With that said, between having a Jitte and a Bombardment, I choose bombardment almost everytime.

In other news, Painful Truths looks too good to pass up. I initially wanted to find space for Bloodbraid but I think Truths will provide a happy medium between Bloodbraid and Sylvan Library.

[Qweerios]

Painful Truths were tested and dismissed sadly as they were too slow for this deck.

I tested a pair of Grim Lavamancers instead of the 3rd Bombardment and the 4th Thoughtseize and found the card to be game-breaking in some matchups that proved to be challenging in the past such as Burn, BUG Delver, DnT, Elves. I liked how the card acted as Bombardment #3-4 in a lot of cases while also stacking rather than overlapping. Grim has a lower initial cost making the deck curve out smoothly, and it is a great card on its own unlike Bombardment. As much as I love the card, the space is tight so I might go down to 1 copy for the simple reason that I cannot support 2 copies at the same time. I wonder what kind of Grim/Bombardment split is best.

In other news, 4-0 at a local tournament last week beating Jund Depths with Smallpox 2-0, Dredge 2-1, BUG Delver 2-0, and Miracles in the finals 2-1. I Also went 3-1 the week before losing to Miracles 2-0, beating Dragon Stompy 2-1, Elves 2-1, and Reanimator 2-0.

I adopted a singleton Blood Moon in the SB as a tutor target against the all too common Lands decks.

I've settled on playing no less than 20 lands (4th red source in the form of Badlands #3) because of the frequent mulligans for lands and the Wasteland struggle.

I've reduced Lingering Souls to 3 copies maximum because of the clunky nature of the card and the fact that I have never needed more than 3 copies via draws/entombs to win.

Some SB cards have felt useless such as Darkblast that I only bring in against DnT and Elves. Decks with swarms of x/1s already feel quite favorable with 4 bolt, 4 decays, and grim/bombardment.

Coffin Purge is another narrow one that I only appreciate against Reanimator and Loam decks.

[Laser Brains]

This deck appears to have really good synergy with Smallpox. First discussing Smallpox's discard ability, you can pitch Cabal Therapy, Bloodghast, and Lingering Souls without taking much of hit as you can recast them from the yard. Discussing it's sacrifice a creature ability, Bloodghast, spirit tokens, elemental tokens have really good synergy. Even with Pyromancer on the table (without a token in play) his ability triggers when casting Smallpox providing you with a token to sac.

The deck looks pretty promising so far judging by the results. Nice work Qweerios.

[Qweerios]

This deck appears to have really good synergy with Smallpox. First discussing Smallpox's discard ability, you can pitch Cabal Therapy, Bloodghast, and Lingering Souls without taking much of hit as you can recast them from the yard. Discussing it's sacrifice a creature ability, Bloodghast, spirit tokens, elemental tokens have really good synergy. Even with Pyromancer on the table (without a token in play) his ability triggers when casting Smallpox providing you with a token to sac.

The deck looks pretty promising so far judging by the results. Nice work Qweerios.

I've read about Smallpox and Pyromancer on MtgSalvation and found the idea to be quite interesting. While Smallpox is a strong card and has some good synergy, it remains a very situational card that I don't want to cast if I can't take advantage of it. For instance, you don't want to cast Smallpox if you're board consists of DRS, Bob, or Lavamancer, or when your hand contains cards you want to hold on to. Another thing about Smallpox is that the land destruction isn't all that valuable since I don't play Wasteland and losing a land myself so my opponent loses one can do more harm than good. Finally, the slots that Smallpox would occupy would be Grim Lavamancer, Lightning Bolt, and Abrupt Decay which I think are all better cards than Smallpox.

In other news, my last tournament went as follows:

UG Infect Stompy 2-0
BUG Delver 2-1
Goblins 1-2
Merfolk 2-1

Played the following:


2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Dark Confidant
2 Bloodghast

4 Entomb
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Abrupt Decay

3 Thoughtseize
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Lingering Souls

2 Goblin Bombardment

4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Polluted Delta
3 Badlands
2 Bayou
2 Scrubland
1 Taiga
1 Swamp
1 Undiscovered Paradise
//SB
1 Thoughtseize
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Rest in Peace
1 Sylvan Library
1 Choke
1 Blood Moon
3 Liliana of the Veil


Lots of tribal that week and especially lots of sweepers were taken. I took 2 Golgari Charm and 1 Toxic Deluge board wipes in a single game against BUG Delver and got the Blood Moon T3 G2 and G3 against goblins (won without Swamp and lost with Swamp) backed up by a pair of powerful Pyrokinesis. Even though this deck is vulnerable to small sweepers, it makes up for it with its ability to re-swarm the board with relative ease. I will be stopping MtG for at least a month now and will be looking forward to pick up the deck again.

[Laser Brains]

I've read about Smallpox and Pyromancer on MtgSalvation and found the idea to be quite interesting.
That Pyromancer Pox thread was actually mine. It's a very competitive tier two deck. Super fun to play as well. It has really good match ups against delver variants. Although, these two decks are very different. You are getting some really good results with The Expendables. I gotta try it out. I actually have all the cards, I might take this to my next local event. I'll post results.