[Report] Standard - North Carolina 2010 States

[Jason]

I played Big Red yesterday at NC States. The deck is insane. It's like All-In Red if All-In Red went "all-in" every turn after 4. Here is my decklist:

Land (26)
26 Mountain

Artifact (7)
4 Everflowing Chalice
3 Ratchet Bomb

Artifact Creature (3)
3 Wurmcoil Engine

Creature (4)
4 Inferno Titan

Instant (8)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Burst Lightning

Planeswalker (4)
4 Koth of the Hammer

Sorcery (8)
4 Destructive Force
4 Pyroclasm

Sideboard (15)
4 Brittle Effigy
4 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Arc Trail
2 Chain Reaction
4 Goblin Ruinblaster

Here were my top concerns going into the tournament:
4 Pyroclasm/3 Ratchet Bomb vs. 3 Pyroclasm/4 Ratchet Bomb?
Is Chain Reaction good (mostly there for Elves)?
Is Brittle Effigy good enough to help me beat Titan ramp?
Should I be running 4 Wurmcoil Engine?
Should I have Leyline of Punishment for Kor Firewalker (even though Wurmcoil Engine and Koth both get around Firewalker)?
Should I have upped the creature count and run Molten-Tail Masticore?

Special thanks on the day of the tournament go to the following: Spider, Cory and Kevin. Spider acquired the 2x Inferno Titans needed to fill out the deck, even though they were $8 a piece. Cory also purchased the Goblin Ruinblasters for the sideboard. They also donated approximately 80% of the non-land cards in the deck. And (possibly most importantly, as I would probably have lost another match without the observation) Kevin looked at my decklist and exclaimed, "Does that say Chain Lightning?!" Others from our party look on and go, "Are you fucking retarded?" Apparently, since I was playing red and writing the word "Chain", I assumed I was retroactively playing good cards and not Chain Reaction. I immediately changed the decklist to say "Chain Reaction" and did not receive a game loss for improperly registering my deck.

Round 1 - James Long playing White Weenie
Game 1, I mulligan to 6 and keep 2x Mountain, 2x Koth, Lightning Bolt and Burst Lightning. He plays turn 2 Kor Firewalker. Turn 3 Stoneforge Mystic. Well, dicks. No Ratchet Bomb. Game 2?

Sideboard:
+4 Brittle Effigy
-1 Destructive Force
-3 Ratchet Bomb

Game 2, I play turn 1 Brittle Effigy. He has turn 2 Kor Firewalker. I bolt some guys; end of turn 4, I exile Firewalker. Cast Koth. Win the game with 4/4 Mountains.

Game 3 is long. He goes aggro on me and he's at something ridiculous - 23ish (from Ajani Goldmane). Note: I already exiled an Ajani token earlier. He has a Sun Titan, 3 dudes who first strike with and something else, all with multiple Ajani +1/+1 counters. I Brittle Effigy away a first-striker and block a 5/5 White Knight with Wurmcoil Engine, taking a shit-ton of damage and leaving me at 3. I realize I miscounted and cannot cast Destructive Force and Pyroclasm next turn, even if I hit a land so I'm devastated...until I rip Koth. Cast Koth. -2, add 7. Float 2 red. Pyroclasm. Destructive Force. Wipe his board (sans the Sun Titan because it was a 9/9) but leave myself with 2 Mountains, Koth and 2 Wurmcoil Tokens. Koth gets to emblem and I poke him out of the game during turn 2 of time.

1-0-0 (2-1-0 in games)

Round 2 - Oliver Russ playing UW Control
Game 1, I cast turn 2 Chalice @1 which resolves. He does something irrelevant - Wall of Omens maybe. Nonetheless, he had no blue mana source open. Thus Koth enters the battlefield on my turn 3, winning the game.

Sideboard:
+4 Goblin Ruinblaster
+2 Brittle Effigy
-4 Pyroclasm
-2 Burst Lightning

Game 2, he casts turn 4 Leyline of Sanctity. Whatever. I am poking him with Ruinblasters so don't really care. A couple turns or so later, he casts Gideon Jura. Then he casts Day of Judgment. Then he casts Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Wow, the hand of 3x Lightning Bolt and Burst Lightning look pretty stupid here. He gets off the ultimate and I scoop. I shouldn't have because Gideon was at 2, he only had one card in hand, I had 6 cards in hand, and I had Koth and Goblin Ruinblaster in play. He probably still gets there but it's not guaranteed.

Game 3, I cast turn 2 Chalice into turn 3 Ruinblaster kicked. Turn 4, I cast Chalice @2 into turn 5 Ruinblaster kicked. Turn 6, I cast Ratchet Bomb (resolves) then Inferno Titan which got Mana Leaked. Whatever. I had two more Inferno Titans in hand. I cast a second. It resolves. He casts Journey to Nowhere on it. Ratchet Bomb gets to 2 and makes Journey go bye-bye, winning me the game.

2-0-0 (4-2-0 in games)

Round 3 - Allen Baltezore playing Red Deck Wins

Game 1, he casts turn 1 Goblin Guide which draws me a land. On my first turn, I play a land and Burst Lightning it (so I don't have to discard). On his turn 2, he casts Kargan Dragonlord. Yes, I do have Lightning Bolt in hand. When he goes to level it up, I make the obvious play. He passes to me, and I have no objection to playing Koth and swinging for 4. End of turn, he double Bolts Koth. On his turn, he casts Koth. I decide casting Inferno Titan on my turn seems like a good idea. It was.

Sideboard:
+3 Brittle Effigy
-3 Ratchet Bomb
(FUCK ARC TRAIL!)

Game 2, I cast turn 1 Effigy, turn 2 Chalice, turn 3 Koth. I don't know what he's doing over there. It clearly isn't important. He casts a Dragon Lord which eats a Burst Lightning end of turn. I end my turn with Koth at 5 counters, hoping to untap with him. Unfortunately, my opponent casts a Koth of his own. So I'm forced to Destructive Force away his lands and burn him out of the game with Lightning Bolts.

3-0-0 (6-2-0 in games)

Round 4 - Ryan Jankowski playing BG Infect
Game 1, his first play is Ichorclaw Myr (OMG! I get to use my Japanese Poison Counter!). I let it poke me a couple times, even though I could have Bolted/Bursted it. He casts Hand of the Praetors (the Infect lord). I take this opportunity to Pyroclasm. He casts a second lord, which eats a Bolt. We sit there for a while, until he gets Blight Mamba with an Adventuring Gear attached to it. Yeah... I have Koth ultimate. No regenerate for you.

Sideboard:
+3 Brittle Effigy
-3 Ratchet Bomb

Game 2, I mulligan to 6 and he mulligans to 5. I cast turn 4 Koth. Since I have 6 poison counters (and since it is the correct play), I decide to cast Destructive Force on turn 5. Win? Yes.

4-0-0 (8-2-0 in games)

Round 5 - Ben Botts playing UW Control
Game 1, we both play Chalice on turn 2. I also play Chalice @2 on turn 3. He casts double Wall of Omens. I cast Inferno Titan. He casts another Wall of Omens and passes the turn. I then cast 2 Pyroclasm and swing with Inferno Titan. He scoops the next turn.

Sideboard:
+4 Goblin Ruinblaster
+2 Brittle Effigy
-4 Pyroclasm
-2 Burst Lightning

Game 2, he has pre-game Leyline of the white. I don't care... until he casts turn 2 Kor Firewalker. Damn that card to hell. He countered my colorless shenanigans and rode the 2/2 to victory.

Game 3, we both mulligan to 5. I keep 3x Mountain, Koth, Goblin Ruinblaster. My next draws were (in order): Mountain, Goblin Ruinblaster, Goblin Ruinblaster, Koth. GG, sir.

5-0-0 (10-3-0 in games)

Round 6 - Whit Ratanacharoensiri playing Red Deck Wins
I know what he is playing and I keep a greedy hand of 5x Mountain, Wurmcoil Engine and Pyroclasm. He leads off with Goblin Guide and I reveal Pyroclasm off the top. Ok.... I turn 2, Pyroclasm away the lone Goblin Guide (I don't think this is the right play but I was hoping to fool him into thinking I wasted the one 'clasm). He goes turn 2 Plated Geopede. I draw a non-burn spell and am faced with a decision. Do I Pyroclasm again, knowing if I hit 6 mana, I will win the game with Wurmcoil Engine? I decide to not Pyroclasm, hoping he casts another creature, and on his turn, he plays a fetchland and does not crack it. He plays more fetchlands and Geopede gets there before I can cast the Engine on turn 6. *sad face*

Sideboard:
+3 Brittle Effigy
-3 Ratchet Bomb

Game 2, I keep an insane hand of 2x Mountain, Everflowing Chalice, Koth, Wurmcoil Engine, Inferno Titan, Destructive Force. His first play is turn 2 Zektar Shrine Expedition. I didn't play turn 3 Koth because I wanted him to not die to random hasty things. My opponent cast Devastating Summons for 4 on his turn and I miss the 5th land to allow me to cast Wurmcoil Engine, allowing me to live. I cast Koth, hoping he attacks it and not me. Teetering Peaks makes him have 17 on board. I was at 16. Damn. Punted twice in the same match... oh well. It is a bitch of a match-up for Big Red.

5-1-0 (10-5-0 in games)

Round 7 - Kyle Miller playing Vampires
Game 1, he leads off with Guul Draz Assassin. That eats a Burst Lightning in response to a Duress, forcing him to take one of my two Chalice. I wiped his board with Pyroclasm a couple times and cast a Wurmcoil Engine into an empty board. He casts Consuming Vapors. That's cute. I respond with an Inferno Titan. The rebound goes off and I sacrifice the lifelink token. He then casts Gatekeeper of Malakir and then another Gatekeeper. Huh... In this game, I drew 12 lands, 3 Everflowing Chalice and 8 other spells. Where is Destructive Force or Koth?? I hate red! Needs more card draw!

Sideboard:
+4 Brittle Effigy
-1 Destructive Force
-1 Everflowing Chalice (OUT OF ANGER)
-2 Ratchet Bomb

Game 2, I open a hand of 7 with one land. I mulligan to a hand of 6 with one land. I then mulligan to a hand of 5 with 2x Mountain, Koth, Wurmcoil Engine and Pyroclasm. Whatever. The third and fourth land come but so do Inferno Titans and nothing else. I get beaten down by multiple Bloodghast.

5-2-0 (10-7-0 in games)

Round 8 - David Russ playing UW Affinity

Game 1, he leads off with Celestial Colonnade and triple Memnite. Interesting. I cast Ratchet Bomb. He never plays another land. I cast turn 5 Inferno Titan and he scoops.

Sideboard:
I think he is on UW with Memnite or something, as I didn't know Affinity was a real deck so I go with my standard board:
+4 Goblin Ruinblaster
+2 Brittle Effigy
-4 Pyroclasm
-2 Burst Lightning

Game 2, he leads off with double Memnite and Island. I try to cast turn 1 Brittle Effigy but it eats a Spell Pierce. He crashes and casts a mana myr. I cast Ratchet Bomb and wipe his board. Eventually we stall out, as he is countering my Koths and Titans, and I'm burning his dudes. Soon, he casts a pair of Tempered Steel and a Memnite. So I Destructive Force. He recovers. I Destructive Force again. He recovers again. Damn, this deck has a lot of 0 and 1 costing myrs...

Re-sideboard:
Despite him saying about how he needed to counter Brittle Effigy, I unboard it and other things in the following:
+3 Goblin Ruinblaster
-1 Destructive Force
-1 Everflowing Chalice
-1 Burst Lightning

Game 3, turn 5 Wurmcoil Engine into turn 6 Wurmcoil engine gets there sometimes... He wrote 2-0 on the sheet to help me hopefully make top 8. I had a decent chance because I lost to Red Deck Wins which finished 6-0-2 (as he drew in) and Vampires which finished 7-1-0.

6-2-0 (12-"7"-0 in games)

Unfortunately, I was not the one 6-2-0 that made it to top 8 and finished 9th, receiving 9 packs (BOO!) and no playmat (DOUBLE BOO!). I gave one pack to Kevin for noticing the Chain Lightning debacle which would have screwed me over and gave two packs to Spider for essentially giving up his left nut for two Inferno Titans. All in all, it was intense. I never had a game so exciting as I did in round 1 when I ripped the Koth to Destructive Force and Pyroclasm in the same turn, essentially wiping the board.

Props:
*Koth of the Hammer is insane
*Koth of the Hammer is red and wins games
*Koth of the Hammer is more powerful than Jace, the Mind Sculptor
*You may think being red and greater than Jace 2.0 is a contradiction; however, you will agree when you play the nuts that is Koth of the Hammer
*Do you see that Koth of the Hammer makes me happy?
*Destructive Force is great: if your opponent plans for it, then he isn't advancing his board and gets blown out by Koth, Titans or Wurmcoil Engine; if your opponent doesn't plan for it, then he gets blown out
*Wurmcoil Engine is AMAZING! If I were to play this again, I would want 4x in the main deck. I don't know where but I'd try really hard to get there.
*Even though Ratchet Bomb was boarded out a lot, its versatility cannot be ignored. I always saw one when I needed one and when I didn't, it didn't offend me to just be sitting on the battlefield. I give the card a solid 4 stars out of 5 for performance level. It is really good against Journey to Nowhere. Red has no other way to deal with enchantments... just sayin'.
*4x Brittle Effigy in the sideboard is good. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool and probably does not realize his pants are on the ground.
*Again, Kevin, Spider, and Cory for being awesome. Nathan came really close to getting into this category, but his win in round 8 didn't elevate me to top 8... just 9th. So semi-props to Nathan, as I won 9 packs to his 6.

Slops
*Having to read how terrible Arc Trail is every time I looked at my sideboard. Fuck that card.
*Not seeing if Chain Reaction (not Lightning) is good enough to deserve an anti-elves slot in the sideboard.
*Me receiving a warning for revealing extra cards when I set my hand down and accidentally bump the top card of my library (like I do every tournament)
*Me receiving another warning for failure to maintain game-state when I had 8 cards in hand, didn't realize it. Situation: it was post-Destructive Force and I was missing land drops so I hit 8 cards without thinking twice. I go to Bolt a guy on his turn and he asks "How many cards do you have now?" I reply, "7...wait...that seems un-good..."
*Double punting in round 6, even though I probably would have lost that match anyway.
*LOSING TO VAMPIRES! WTF, DECK?!

Conclusions:
*Koth of the Hammer is good.
*Wurmcoil Engine is good.
*Pyroclasm is worth it as a 4x.
*Ratchet Bomb is a great colorless fix-all answer to improve game 1's.
*Arc Trail is garbage.
*Masticore is unnecessary and probably would make the deck play really differently.
*The board needs more spot removal for Red Deck Wins.
*Still unsure on Chain Reaction. Where the fuck was Elves??
*I hate tiebreakers.

Potential changes would be to the sideboard only:
New sideboard:
4 Brittle Effigy
3 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Chain Reaction
2 Galvanic Blast
4 Goblin Ruinblaster

[rocketrae21]

Have you tested against Primeval Titan.dec?

[Jason]

Have you tested against Primeval Titan.dec?

Only a few games. Titan ramp is another reason there is 4x Brittle Effigy in the sideboard. If Big Red explodes early (aka turn 3 or 4 Koth), you usually win because Titan ramp is really inconsistent. If you let them do stupid things and they cast Primeval Titan before you have cast Koth or swung with Wurmcoil Engine/Inferno Titan, you will lose.

[Brad Herbig]

Congrats! I wish Koth wasn't so expensive; I would totally start playing standard again to play Big Red. That deck was so much fun back in the old Mirrodin standard.

[AriLax]

you usually win because Titan ramp is really inconsistent.

I lol'ed. Titan Ramp is probably the most consistent deck in the format other than RDW (aka 24 land, 32 burn, 4 Dragonlord). It (using Valakut) has ~ 16 ramp, 13 threats, 27 land, and 4 flex slots. Its "nut" draw is ~4 land, 2 ramp, 1 threat by turn 4.

Turn 4 you see 10 cards, so average is 5 land, 2.5 ramp, 2 threat. So your average draw is the nuts.

Obviously things like Cultivate, needing a 2 drop ramp spell (though with 8 min odds are strong), possibly not caring about 4 vs 5, missing with Trap, and thinning lands with ramp matter, but the general idea is that with Valakut should have a Titan/Avenger/threat C by turn 4-5 almost every game.

The actual joke last year was the decks that beat Titan ramp either attacked it's threats with a legit clock (Ascension) or used a higher variance/lower resilience game plan (Mythic) to win before the turn 4 inevitability occurred.

[Jason]

I lol'ed. Titan Ramp is probably the most consistent deck in the format other than RDW (aka 24 land, 32 burn, 4 Dragonlord). It (using Valakut) has ~ 16 ramp, 13 threats, 27 land, and 4 flex slots. Its "nut" draw is ~4 land, 2 ramp, 1 threat by turn 4.

Titan Ramp is amazing, yes, but when it whiffs (which is a lot from when I see the deck in action), it whiffs hard. Maybe the players I'm watching are mulliganing improperly, but I've seen so many Explores into Explores into nothing and Summoning Traps into Overgrown Battlement, it's ludicrous. I still stand by my statement; if you drop turn 3 or 4 Koth or have attacked with one of your guys before Primeval Titan comes down, you can win. The match-up is really hard for my deck from the few games I tested, mostly because all the deck's "removal" is too little to kill the big fatties. Another reason 4x Brittle Effigy in the sideboard. I also nearly always double bolted all multiple Overgrown Battlements, slowing down some of the ramp in the deck, allowing me to get broken into play faster.

[rocketrae21]

I personally do not like the Valakut Ramp because it is too inconsistent and almost needs a Primeval Titan to win. My list is quite different running blue and very little red. I just wonder if your day would have been different if you faced a Titan deck. But hey thats magic, sometimes you dodge match ups.

[entity]

Congrats on 9th place, but am I the only one failing to realize why this tournament report is in Legacy forum?

[Jason]

Congrats on 9th place, but am I the only one failing to realize why this tournament report is in Legacy forum?

Just general information. Hence I put "Standard" in the title. Some players play more than Legacy (not usually me) and I have hatred for "traditional" Magic forums. The Source is the #1.

[Koby]

"Where is Destructive Force or Koth?? I hate red! Needs more card draw!"

I lol'd!

EDIT: Eternal Red Mage in me both sympathized and rage'd. Need moar burninating!

[COBBLER]

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