Ruby Storm

[vieko]

Crypt was from the list I had posted a while back, for which rampart used.

The reasoning behind this is very simple. Permanents are much more difficult to deal with than instants and to a lesser degree faerie macabre. (cabal therapy recommended, the user not the card)

Crypt can also be drawn after a Reforge or off of AoI and easily played. Additionally Crypt is much much better Vs ANT.

This here ^^^ Crypt paces the game until it is used / removed... they can't go off without dealing with it. Surgical is a surprise / one time solution.

[vieko]

5-0 last night with the list below

EDITED: list was added to MTGGoldfish today: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/739068#paper

RUBY STORM 5.2

15 LAND
13 Mountain
2 City of Traitors

8 RITUAL
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song

8 MANA
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond

5 TUTOR
4 Burning Wish
1 Gamble

4 REDUCTION
4 Ruby Medallion

4 EXILE / PLAY
4 Act on Impulse

4 MANA / DRAW
4 Manamorphose

4 PEEK / DRAW
4 Gitaxian Probe

3 DAMAGE
3 Guttersnipe

3 FLASHBACK
3 Past in Flames

2 STORM
1 Grapeshot
1 Empty the Warrens


SIDEBOARD
2 Defense Grid
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Kozilek's Return
2 Scab-Clan Berserker
1 Goblin War Strike
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Past in Flames
1 By Force
1 Pyroclasm
1 Sudden Demise


FEW NOTES

• I landed six 4-1s, two 3-2s and one X-3 with the above list before finally getting to a 5-0
• Sideboard is skewed against D&T and all the creature hate I was running into yesterday
• Typically: 2 Abrades instead of the Kozilek's Return and 1 Pyroclasm instead of the Sudden Demise
• Guttersnipe has been fantastic for me :) So funny I get to play this card and bust people with it

MATCHES
M1 vs Control4Daze on Storm (2-1)
M2 vs DaPlaya on Mono Red Prison (2-0)
M3 vs nola_gold on Lands (2-0)
M4 vs Shrines on Storm (2-0)
M5 vs Shrines on Storm (2-1)

:)

[mistercakes]

Relentless with the LED build. Glad to see it payoff. Also great idea with the guttersnipe! (whoever recommended that a few days ago. Really funny to see it work!)

[Mr. Safety]

Guttersnipe is nutty in that mix of decks, there's hardly any removal (save Punishing Fire out of the Lands deck.) Guttersnipe is basically Tendrils in those matchups.

Noteworthy differences:
0 Reforge the Soul
0 Helm of Awakening
0 Simian Spirit Guide
0 Desperate Ritual

4x Act on Impulse
4x LED
3x Guttersnipe
1x Grapeshot (maindeck)

EDIT: its interesting that with your version you are spending 0 mana, discarding your remaining cards to gain +3 mana with LED whereas in the non-LED builds we are spending 4-5 mana, discarding the remaining cards in hand for +7 cards. I guess the real question is which is better. I tend to think Reforge the Soul can be great in some matchups (non-blue) and horrible in the blue matchups. I think I'll go up to 4 Act on Impulse and leave only 1 Reforge in the board.

That maindeck Grapeshot seems really sexy, too. Grapeshot for 7-8, past in flames, grapeshot for the rest.

[Mr. Safety]

Crypt was from the list I had posted a while back, for which rampart used.

The reasoning behind this is very simple. Permanents are much more difficult to deal with than instants and to a lesser degree faerie macabre. (cabal therapy recommended, the user not the card)

Crypt can also be drawn after a Reforge or off of AoI and easily played. Additionally Crypt is much much better Vs ANT.

Makes perfect sense. I think in my metagame Surgical is better, simply for dealing with Forces etc from all the fair blue decks. I think in a large tournament I would play Crypts. While Surgical does exile Infernal Tutors with past in flames on the stack, Crypt gets everything.

[ronco]

Nice work!

[mistercakes]

Crypt also keeps Storm off of threshold and spell Mastery in addition to the obvious PiF.

Crypt is extremely good on the play vs reanimator as well,even if they have chancellor.

Surgical might be better Vs the blue decks, but I don't think I would ever side it in vs blue decks.

[Mr. Safety]

I'm tinkering with siding out Past in Flames. We will always have it available via Burning Wish, and the more common blue decks play Deathrite Shaman plus Surgical/Nihil Spellbomb in the board. That gives me 3 flex slots to bring in Pyroblast, Blood Moon, and Surgicals. Some number of Gitaxian probe get sided out as well to get the right amount of hate in. Plan is to brute force an Empty the Warrens, or land a Blood Moon, and win from there.

[Kelv]

Managed to go 3-0 in a weekly with this deck last night. No gambles in the list because I couldn't find them, 3 helms because of high D+T presence in local meta. First time running the deck, I didn't expect it to actually perform near as well as it did. Nobody in the area plays degenerate combo decks, so some players were inexperienced against it and didn't mull aggressively enough to find Force or discard

R1: Grixis Delver
Game 1 he didn't know what I was on. I started off on a mull to 5, but his draws bricked and he drew 3 lands in a row, never saw a force. I had just enough redundancy to play through probe + therapy. Eventually made goblins and got there
Game 2 he applied hard early pressure. I combo'd off, had mana to pay for his 2 dazes. I was dead on board but burning wish -> Cave in killed 2 flipped delvers, a pyro, and a deathrite while I was at 6. Continued comboing from there, made goblins. 2-0

R2: D+T
Game 1 I mull to 5, end up miracleing reforge twice to find things to combo off. Eventually, ruby medallion + Helm beat out Thalia, I made goblins
Game 2 T2 canonist, T3 Thalia kills me.
Game 3 T1 Medallion. His T1 he plays grafdiggers cage. My T2 I make 14 goblins.

R3: BUG Delver
Game 1 He knows what I'm on, but doesn't know what the deck does. I play past dazes, end up grapeshotting him out.
Game 2 Turn 2 blood moon buys me enough time to get there with grapeshot. He had a T1 Deathrite, T2 goyf, so he actually had pressure to threaten me.

Overall, I got very lucky with opponents not finding hate cards and countermagic more than anything, but even so, the deck felt a lot stronger than I gave it credit for.

[mistercakes]

Which list did ya run

[Mr. Safety]

Managed to go 3-0 in a weekly with this deck last night. No gambles in the list because I couldn't find them, 3 helms because of high D+T presence in local meta. First time running the deck, I didn't expect it to actually perform near as well as it did. Nobody in the area plays degenerate combo decks, so some players were inexperienced against it and didn't mull aggressively enough to find Force or discard

R1: Grixis Delver
Game 1 he didn't know what I was on. I started off on a mull to 5, but his draws bricked and he drew 3 lands in a row, never saw a force. I had just enough redundancy to play through probe + therapy. Eventually made goblins and got there
Game 2 he applied hard early pressure. I combo'd off, had mana to pay for his 2 dazes. I was dead on board but burning wish -> Cave in killed 2 flipped delvers, a pyro, and a deathrite while I was at 6. Continued comboing from there, made goblins. 2-0

R2: D+T
Game 1 I mull to 5, end up miracleing reforge twice to find things to combo off. Eventually, ruby medallion + Helm beat out Thalia, I made goblins
Game 2 T2 canonist, T3 Thalia kills me.
Game 3 T1 Medallion. His T1 he plays grafdiggers cage. My T2 I make 14 goblins.

R3: BUG Delver
Game 1 He knows what I'm on, but doesn't know what the deck does. I play past dazes, end up grapeshotting him out.
Game 2 Turn 2 blood moon buys me enough time to get there with grapeshot. He had a T1 Deathrite, T2 goyf, so he actually had pressure to threaten me.

Overall, I got very lucky with opponents not finding hate cards and countermagic more than anything, but even so, the deck felt a lot stronger than I gave it credit for.

Non-blue decks (that aren't reanimator) are good matchups for the deck. I haven't lost a match to DnT yet. Grixis/Bug decks are harder but I'm glad to see you had Moon available, I am finding that to be key in those matchups. How many Blood Moons were you playing? Main/side?

[mistercakes]

i've lost a few to DNT, even when i was running Chandra in the deck.

maindeck they have mother of runes, thalia, 1 prelate, +recruiters, and their mana base attacks ours pretty well. revoker is okay vs non led build, and much better vs the led build.
postboard it gets way worse with ethersworn canonist, more prelate, rest in peace, surgicals etc.

i think i'm about 50/50 vs dnt in mtgo leagues. i only played it once irl and did win, but who knows if i was lucky or not. i was talking about vieko about this and he thinks the matchup is also not something you should go in thinking you're way ahead.

[Icapica]

Yeah I've had bad experiences against D&T. I know we're fast enough that we can often win before their hate comes online, but we're not always that fast. Thalia can come turn 2 and if they get Prelate, things get very difficult.

[Mr. Safety]

Didn't mean its a cakewalk, I just mean we can take more aggressive lines because we have to get in under Thalia.

[mistercakes]

only bringing it up because you mentioned "Non-blue decks (that aren't reanimator) are good matchups for the deck. I haven't lost a match to DnT yet."

i don't want other players to get discouraged when losing to dnt, because in reality the matchup isn't as favorable as this statement implies. it also might keep us from identifying cards that would improve the matchups.

[Icapica]

Yeah I lost to RG lands 2-1 yesterday thanks to turn 1 Sphere of Resistance and turn 2 Thorn of Amethyst in games 2 and 3. Helms and Medallions could help, but they're very difficult to get in play once Spheres are already there.

[Mr. Safety]

only bringing it up because you mentioned "Non-blue decks (that aren't reanimator) are good matchups for the deck. I haven't lost a match to DnT yet."

i don't want other players to get discouraged when losing to dnt, because in reality the matchup isn't as favorable as this statement implies. it also might keep us from identifying cards that would improve the matchups.

Totally agree. Sometimes its hard to convey 'tone' on an internet statement. Appreciate the clarification.

[mistercakes]

Yeah I lost to RG lands 2-1 yesterday thanks to turn 1 Sphere of Resistance and turn 2 Thorn of Amethyst in games 2 and 3. Helms and Medallions could help, but they're very difficult to get in play once Spheres are already there.

If you're up against a meta with lots of rock hate, like lands and dnt it's possible you'll want to run Abrade or more by force. Spirit guides can also help as they ramp without being taxed.

[Mr. Safety]

I think Sphere of Resistance and Trinisphere are two of the best cards against our deck (and thalia, but we have at least a decent way to deal with Thalia in Cave-In.)

Is Manamorphose enough to power up Engineered Explosives? I haven't played against Thorn yet, but I feel like Manic Vandal or Ingot Chewer are decent options. Chewer especially because it only costs one mana to kill Chalice because of the evoke cost, two with Sphere of Resistance, and still only 1 with Thorn. Not a bad threat either if stranded in hand, although a 3/3 for 5 is nothing special.

[mistercakes]

if you want to dodge chalice there's plenty of cards.

shattering spree comes to mind. (it also gets around teeg)