[Deck] Machine Gun with a Sligh' Repercussion

[neoryujin]

This is my first try writing a primer for a legacy deck, and I gotta admit, I am a rookie in this format and a meta dummy as well (I tend to go all the Johnny way, ignoring the threats in the meta environment), so this was not intended to be a tier deck. I just had my fun with my own version of Heavy Machine Gun & Burn / Sligh, and after I tried building this deck, it turns out to be quite a fun deck as well, and that's that. As for threats from Goyf, Force of Will, Sword / Path to Exile, etc. I'm gonna have to leave it to whom it may concern.

Ok, here goes nothing. The main idea of this deck is to trigger Chandra's Spitfire & Kiln Fiend as much as possible. So more of a combo path like Heavy Machine Gun instead of a classic Sligh.


Main suspects:
4 Repercussion (it's not a dilemma if you had multiples in your starting hand. It adds to even more triggers!)
4 Chandra's Spitfire
4 Kiln Fiend

Accomplices:
3 Cinder Pyromancer
4 Lava Dart
4 Forked Bolt
4 Grapeshot / Price of Progress
2 Searing Blaze

Other staples:
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Fireblast
2 Reverberate / Fork (this could copy Force of Will to counter the original Force of Will, if you have the mana)
3 Howling Mine / Temple Bell

Lands:
14 Mountain
4 Barbarian Ring


Alternatives / Honorable mentions:

Price of Progress
Chain Lightning
Lava Spike
Incinerate
Cursed Scroll
Grim Lavamancer
Staggershock
Fetchlands
Manamorphose
Rite of Flame
Simian Spirit Guide


Sideboard:

Blood Moon
Richochet Trap (this could also counter a Force of Will. It costs one red mana to change the target of Force of Will to this spell on the stack, to avoid the original target being countered)


Combo examples:
- Chandra's Spitfire in play:
With 3 Mana: Play Lava Dart. Sacrifice a mountain to play Lava Dart from graveyard. Play Grapeshot (copy Grapeshot twice). That's 5 damage and 5 triggers from Chandra's Spitfire --> +15/+0. Attack for 16 damage. Good game.

- Repercussion & Chandra's Spitfire or Kiln Fiend and opponent's creature in play:

With 3 mana: Play Forked Bolt, divide the damage to opponent & opponent's creature. Repercussion triggers, deals damage to opponent. (Spitfire triggers twice, Kiln Fiend once) Play Searing Blaze, Repercussion triggers again (2 to 6 damage with landfall). Sacrifice two mountains, Fireblast another opponent's creature (again Repercussion ...) or just straight at opponent's face. Attack with Chandra's Spitfire or Kiln Fiend (blocked or not, damage from Kiln Fiend will get through thanks to Repercussion). That's 17 to 28 damage.

- Add Cinder Pyromancer, Reverberate / Fork for more happy machine gun triggering.


I tested this against my version of Heavy Machine Gun, and it turned out to reach the goal quite faster than HMG. The piloting of this deck is also similar to that of HMG.

If anyone has suggestions to tune the deck, feel free to do so and have fun, folks.

[Atwa]

I would consider changing Fork to Fling.

Fork by itself will deal 3/4 damage max to an opponent, while Fling acts as a doubler for all spells cast in that turn. I must admit, you can't use it to copy counterspells and draw spells, but this deck wants to be as explosive as possible and I think Fling will deal more damage then Fork will.

[Skeggi]

I like the idea of this deck. I understand you never intended this to be a 'tier' deck (it's going to be in a tier, whether you like it or not, at the moment it's a Tier 3) but if you want to improve it, you will have to consider possible threats against this deck.

Just from the top of my head, you have to find a way to deal with the following cards:

Tarmogoyf
Swords to Plowshares and other spot removal.
Rhox War Monk and other lifegainers/creatures with a toughness > 3.
Counterbalance

You have quite some burn in the deck, however, most of it isn't strong enough to kill the creatures mentioned above. That could pose a problem.

I believe if you find a way to answer the cards mentioned above, you may have a strong deck indeed. At least it looks fun!

[neoryujin]

Hi guys,

@Atwa: I thought of Fling, too, but since the 'damage on the stack' was removed, Fling is probably only useful with Chandra's Spitfire. Kiln Fiend would very likely die from being blocked by a lesser creature (thus not abusable with Fling). So I thought Berserk would be more suitable (cheaper, and works with both, it even triggers Kiln Fiend one more time. Flinging Kiln Fiend wouldn't trigger it one more time, I suppose? (sacrificing is part of the cost) )

As for the other threats mentioned by Skeggi:

Tarmogoyf --> Lightning Bolt (early), Fireblast. With Repercussion in play, just continue the assault until either you or your opponent or both go down first (red philosophy)
Sword to Plowshares / Path to Exile --> I can only think of the cheap Vines of Vastwood (splashing green, also triggering Kiln Fiend)
Rhox War Monk and lifegainers --> Sulfuric Vortex, Leyline of Punishment
Counterbalance --> Aether Vial for Kiln Fiend / Chandra's Spitfire. Sudden Shock, Krosan Grip, Pithing Needle (for Sensei's Divining Top), Red Elemental Blast

So by the way I look at it, the deck would need to splash green, and would look like this:

3 Repercussion
4 Chandra's Spitfire
4 Kiln Fiend

3 Sulfuric Vortex
4 Lava Dart
4 Forked Bolt
4 Grapeshot / Price of Progress
1 Searing Blaze

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Fireblast
2 Berserk
3 Vines of Vastwood
2 Howling Mine / Temple Bell

Lands
4 Taiga
2 Stomping Ground (Repercussion might us hurt a lot as well, so I wanted to be a little bit careful with lifeloss)
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Mountain
4 Barbarian Ring


Considerable alternatives:
Manamorphose
Rite of Flame
Simian Spirit Guide


Sideboard:
Blood Moon
Richochet Trap
Red Elemental Blast
Pithing Needle
Krosan Grip


My problem is, I'd also like to have the dual lands, fetchlands, berserk, (even pithing needle), if they were accessible at a reasonably low price. I don't like playing with proxies and no one plays legacy in my neigbourhood, so I am less inclined to test the competitiveness of this deck with other legacy decks. One big weakness I noticed with this deck is during a matchup with Burn / Sligh. It's obviously a little bit slower than those decks, and Chandra's Spitfire, Kiln Fiend are easily dealt with against them (and kills you even faster, if Repercussion is in play). So that's why I never intended it to be a competitive deck. It is fun to play, that's all, actually.


Sidenote: Other cards with combo potential with Chandra's Spitfire:
Leyline of Lightning
Reckless Assault (splashing black, with Death's Shadow & Fling, perhaps?)

[Darkenslight]

Drop a Stomping Ground for a basic Forest. Last I heard, resilience against Wastes is good. :)

[neoryujin]

I had a little playtesting on this, and here's what I figured:

- Searing Blaze is too situational. Sometimes it got stucked in the hand with no creature to target. Out.

- Only 8 creatures for winning condition is sometimes hard, with only 2 Howling Mines as a draw engine. So I'm putting one Cynder Pyromancer back in.

- Temple Bell can net you the one decisive card that you need at the crucial moment, sometimes really worth the plus 1 manacost than that of the Howling Mine. I'm still indecisive about this, normally I'd play 1 Mine and 1 Bell.

- Berserk is a blast. Example: Turn 2: Kiln Fiend, Turn 3: Lightning Bolt / Lava Dart / Forked Bolt / whatever, then Berserk. 14 trampling damage (not counting the above Lightning Bolt / ... / whatever. It gets even sillier with flashbacked Lava Dart or Fireblast. Just make sure you get rid of their first / double striking blocker). Should they have Sword to Plowshares, answer with your free green mana and Vines of Vastwood (add another +3/+0 to your Kiln Fiend). I'd like 4 of these, but for only 4 Kiln Fiend and 4 Spitfire, it seems a little bit awkward. So only 3.

- Vines of the Vastwood is also neat. If you have extra green mana for the kicker, even better.

- 3 Sulfuric Vortex in main deck don't really support the combo (it deals damage at opponent's turn, where Kiln Fiend or Spitfire can't attack), mostly useful only against lifegain sinisters, so I'll put one in the sideboard.


So the deck went another round of update:

3 Repercussion
4 Chandra's Spitfire
4 Kiln Fiend
1 Cinder Pyromancer

2 Sulfuric Vortex
4 Lava Dart
4 Forked Bolt
4 Grapeshot (swappable with Price of Progress)

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Fireblast
3 Berserk
3 Vines of Vastwood
2 Howling Mine (swappable with Temple Bell)

Lands
4 Taiga
1 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Mountain
1 Forest (thanks, Darkenslight)
4 Barbarian Ring


Considerable alternatives:
Manamorphose
Rite of Flame (been toying with this and Simian Spirit Guide for a while as well. Nice speed, but it takes the slot for a good burn spell)
Simian Spirit Guide

Sideboard:
Sulfuric Vortex
Blood Moon
Richochet Trap
Red Elemental Blast
Pithing Needle
Krosan Grip

So that's it for now. Enjoy.

[neoryujin]

Revisiting after a while...

After the release of New Phyrexia, I've been tinkering (& testing a little bit) with Immolating Souleater and Mental Misstep. The Souleater turned out to be a win-more instead of turn-the-table kind of card. However, Mental Misstep is just what this deck needs, another instant and free(!) protection for the crucial creatures in this deck (Spitfire & Kiln Fiend).

After visiting the Heavy Machine Gun main thread, I found that the best approach for this deck is to go all-out, without a roundabout-way through Repercussion, which hurt me as often as it hurt my opponent.

And speaking about protection, I learned that a turn one Grim Lavamancer has double role as threat and/or removal magnet. Should he go unanswered / unremoved, then he'll cause trouble for our opponent, and if he's removed, that means less removal for the other main creatures (Spitfire & Kiln Fiend). Excellent.

So without further ado:

4 Chandra's Spitfire
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Grim Lavamancer

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Fireblast
4 Lava Dart
4 Grapeshot (swappable with Price of Progress)
2 Magma Jet

3 Berserk
4 Mental Misstep
1 Temple Bell

Lands
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
5 Mountain
1 Forest
4 Barbarian Ring

Note: by replacing Vines of Vastwood with Mental Misstep, I don't have to worry about double green mana anymore, and Mental Misstep can be used to fuel Kiln Fiend even if our opponent doesn't play any spell (for example, countering our own Lava Dart with Mental Misstep, then play Lava Dart again from the Graveyard. This costs "only" one red mana (+ a mountain & 2 life), and Kiln Fiend still strikes for 10 damage!)

I also took out Sulfuric Vortex in favor of Magma Jet, to scry for the needed spell. Sulfuric Vortex is still a good sideboard card, though.

Thoughts, anyone?

[neoryujin]

Aah, almost forget about this thread. It‘s been years, lots have changed. Mental misstep was banned, Modern Horizons 2 changed everything, etc.

if I were to update this deck, I‘d add:
4 Temur Battle Rage

Festival Crasher & Ghitu Amplifier are less powerful, but also cheaper (2 instead of 3 mana) than Chandra‘s Spitfire.

Taking out 4 Mental Misstep.

Sideboard: Pyroblast

[FTW]

I like the concept, but Chandra's Spitfire (and even Ghitu Amplifier) are too slow for Legacy now.

The Prowess mechanic might help. Look at faster creatures like
Monastery Swiftspear
Soul-Scar Mage
Nivmagus Elemental

along with Kiln Fiend at 2 mana

Blue is the best choice for 2nd color, since you get cantrips and Daze, and now your Berserk effect exists in red (Temur Battle Rage). However you could also try monored for budget reasons.

Ground Rift has good synergy with Nivmagus & Kiln Fiend. You can play a few spells & then Ground Rift opponent's blockers and/or grow Nivmagus very large.