Magic: The Gathering

[Firewind]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

They are based more on the Vikings, specifically the Varangian Mercenaries.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

I've been tuning the Red Deck again and I'd like some feedback from you thinking types.
Red Deck Standard | MTG Deck Builder.Net - Build, test and share Magic: The Gathering Decks

Red Deck

Mountain 20

Nyxborn Rollicker 4
Akroan Crusader 4
Firedrinker Satyr 4
Ash Zealot 2
Burning-Tree Emissary 4
Goblin Shortcutter 2
Firefist Striker 1
Rubblebelt Maaka 2
Fanatic of Mogis 2

Shock 1
Dragon Mantle 4
Thunderous Might 3
Madcap Skills 1
Searing Blood 1
Magma Jet 1
Lightning Strike 4


Sideboard
Skullcrack 3
Hammer of Purphoros 2
Reckless Reveler 1
Scouring Sands 3
Bladetusk Boar 1
Act of Treason 1
Portent of Betrayal 1
Vial of Poison 1
Burning Earth 1
Fated Conflagration 1

So far it's been performing reasonably well but I feel like I can still stand to tighten it down a bit more. The thing is, I don't want to cave and just copy/paste someone else's decklist, but I do need some suggestions on what could do with some tweaking.
At its best the deck is stomping around with Thunderous Might turning even the tiniest creature into a powerhouse that's swinging in for 6+ damage, but at its worst it gets stopped cold in its tracks by life gain and/or a wall of 4 toughness creatures that can't be comfortably blasted out of the way and it just stalls out while I hope to topdeck enough burn to pull a win out of my ass.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

-4 Nyxborn Rollicker--only a worthwhile play at all when Bestowed . . . on an Akroan Crusader . . . and even then, there are much better uses for 2 mana.
-2 Rubblebelt Maaka--the Bloodrush is very good, yes, but you can do even better here.
-2 Fanatic of Mogis--overrated even when it was first introduced. Costs 2 more than your next-highest card.

-3 Thunderous Might--I understand that you may be in love with this card, but even Madcap Skills is a risky proposition on whether it works or not, and this card is no Madcap Skills.
-1 Searing Blood--unfortunately not quite Searing Blaze. Sideboard only.

+4 Satyr Hoplite--essentially Akroan Crusaders 5-8.
+3 Firefist Striker--Best Red evasion available, imo. You're going to need it and then some.

+3 Magma Jet

After that, it's pretty up in the air. You should be running four copies of Titan's Strength and Coordinated Assault, as those are the best cards around for what they do (that first strike on Assault is actually huge in your deck). If you wanted to do something radical, note that your deck's curve now tops off at two--you could shave off four Mountains to make room for more gas.

Sample Tweaked out Red deck

Mountain 16

Akroan Crusader 4
Firedrinker Satyr 4
Rakdos Cackler 4
Satyr Hoplite 4
Burning-Tree Emissary 4
Firefist Striker 4

Coordinated Assault 4
Dragon Mantle 4
Titan's Strength 4
Lightning Strike 4
Magma Jet 4

[Icemage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

^ I think 16 land is living a little too dangerously, even with a max 2 mana curve.

With 16 land, you have less than 60% chance to have 2-3 land in your hand by your 9th card (turn 2 or 3 depending on whether you go first). You have a somewhat better odds if you count probabilities of more than 3 lands (76% of having up to 9 lands by the 9th card), but that's still an awful mana distribution.

In fact, the chances of having 2 or more land in your opening hand is only 60%, making for some very tough (and common) mulligan decisions, since you have only 51% chance of having 2+ land after doing a 6 card mulligan.

You can manipulate this a bit with scry cards, but there aren't any 1cc red scry:1 cards in Standard at the moment, are there? The only get-out-of-jail-free card would be Dragon Mantle + 1cc red creature to get you 1 additional card draw, which might happen about 40% of the time by turn 3 or so.


Icemage

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

You can manipulate this a bit with scry cards, but there aren't any 1cc red scry:1 cards in Standard at the moment, are there?

Um, Titan's Strength?

Also Spark Jolt, if you particularly wanted that effect.

I would be completely misleading if I didn't acknowledge that 16 lands would be living on the edge quite a bit. You'd be evaluating one-Land-hands for keepability instead of automatically tossing them like you would in a 20-Land configuration. With only 16 two-drops, though, you're only a couple of turns off from emptying your hand after your second Land, anyway (especially if said hand includes Burning-Tree Emissaries and a use for their mana).

[Icemage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Um, Titan's Strength?

I guess so, though I still think playing a booster card on turn 2 (scry or not) is often a sub-optimal play. 17-18 land seems just a bit safer, and with Firedrinker and Dragon Mantle, it's not like buying yourself just a tiny bit of mana curve insurance would hurt that much in terms of offensive potential.


Icemage

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

I guess so, though I still think playing a booster card on turn 2 (scry or not) is often a sub-optimal play.

Akroan Crusader and Satyr Hoplite both beg to differ.

17-18 land seems just a bit safer, and with Firedrinker and Dragon Mantle, it's not like buying yourself just a tiny bit of mana curve insurance would hurt that much in terms of offensive potential.

This, however, is a good point. Of course, the question remains regarding which card(s) deserve even a partial cut. I suppose that's cid's judgement call.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Honestly I feel like Rubblebelt Makas are too useful to swap out for Titan's Strength. That extra 2 toughness lets me break through Courser of Kruphix without losing board position way too well, plus it can't be countered.
I might try making room for some Coordinated Assaults. I'm leery of them in that they seem like they don't put out enough power to break through, but I'm willing to give them a shot.

Magma Jets over Searing Blood seems reasonable to me and I see a ton of them in sideboards, but I'm just not sure when I'd want to be bringing them in. Could you enlighten me? They seem plenty useful maindeck so I must be missing something.

Also: you're nuts. Madcap Skills wins games all by itself. Thunderous Might not so much, but Madcap Skills is fucking insane.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Honestly I feel like Rubblebelt Makas are too useful to swap out for Titan's Strength.

Rubblebelt Maaka doesn't trigger Heroic. Rubblebelt Maaka doesn't scry. I'm not saying Rubblebelt Maaka is bad; I'm just saying that Titan's Strength is amazing and why wasn't every Standard Red deck running it in the first place?

I might try making room for some Coordinated Assaults. I'm leery of them in that they seem like they don't put out enough power to break through, but I'm willing to give them a shot.

I don't know your meta, but Coordinated Assault has been a card that served me well. That first strike has definitely saved its fair share of my own Red creatures, though sometimes I did have to also spend a burn spell to help rid myself of some particularly obnoxious demons blockers. Plus, two possible Heroic triggers--who could argue with that for one mana?

Magma Jets over Searing Blood seems reasonable to me and I see a ton of them in sideboards, but I'm just not sure when I'd want to be bringing them in. Could you enlighten me? They seem plenty useful maindeck so I must be missing something.

Searing Blood is great in the mirror match and against WW. Basically weenie matchups in general is where it shines.

Also: you're nuts. Madcap Skills wins games all by itself. Thunderous Might not so much, but Madcap Skills is fucking insane.

You're right that Madcap Skills is better than Thunderous Might. You're also right that Madcap Skills wins games . . . if it isn't countered with a removal spell.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

First turn: any creature
Second turn: madcap skills
third turn: opponent begins weeping softly

Any opening hand with madcap skills and a first turn drop has been pretty much an auto-win for me. It gets in so much damage so fast.

My meta is just chalk full of fatties. If it's not Courser of Kruphix or some demon then it's that damn sheep cockblocking my entire deck. I understand the crazy potential of Coordinated Assault in a dedicated heroic deck or in a deck where there's more fatties for sick combat tricks, but I'm having to break through walls of fatties where a single extra power isn't going to be making the difference. Oddly enough I'm finding that Dragon Mantle ends up being the card that doesn't seem to be pulling its weight more often than anything else in the deck.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Dragon Mantle ended up being cut out of my burn deck after Born of the Gods for precisely the reason that it didn't pull enough of its own mana weight for what it did (and that I had only just realized how freaking amazing Titan's Strength is). Coordinated Assault was always in that deck, though, as basically Shocks 5-8; the four Crusaders in the deck (notably the only four Heroic Creatures) just made it even better.

Of course, perhaps you're less in the market for versatile Shocks as you are for inflexible Bolts. In which case, I could understand running Maaka over Assault. (Most definitely not over Titan's Strength, though.)

First turn: any creature
Second turn: Madcap Skills--in response, opponent plays Shock
Third turn: opponent plays Master of the Feast--in response, you begin weeping softly

Madcap Skills is powerful. Madcap Skills is also super risky. Of course, I was the one who suggested playing with 16 Lands, so if Madcap's your cup of tea, then by all means go for it. Just at least know and acknowledge what it is you're doing.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Have you seen how many creature enchantments I'm running? I'm painfully aware of how risky that business is, but I've also experienced just how stupidly powerful the payoff is too. It's an acceptable risk in my book. That glaring weakness is actually part of why Rollicker is in the deck. He gets to be a heroic trigger and pump, but when they kill the creature he gets to fall off and still be useful afterwards, though how useful is certainly questionable. I've actually been tossing around the idea of trying out Mogis's Warhound since it's got a more respectable body to work with.

[Yellow Mage]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Dragon Mantle at least replaces itself (and it's still only debatably useful). After that I only see Madcap Skills and Thunderous Might. But I guess eight creature auras is four more than most decks tend to run tops (and those four are usually something like Rancor or Armadillo Cloak).

Mogis's Warhound I had to look up, but if you had to run a Bestow creature it should hands-down be this one. Decent choice if you're sticking to the 20-Land plan, but there are many better uses for Burning-Tree mana.

While we're on the subject of creature auras (not that I'd at all recommend trying to play mono-Red voltron, or mono-Red anything in the current environment . . . or MtG in general, for that matter), have you considered giving Ordeal of Purphoros another look? It's a lower-priority inclusion than Madcap Skills, but it still combos extremely well with Rakdos Cackler and Satyr Hoplite, and kind of well with Akroan Crusader. Slight possibility that it's even worth running over Lightning Strike, since your deck is more creature-based than burn-based (and you're dealing with stuff outside of Strike range, anyway).

[cidbahamut]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

I was actually running Ordeal of Purphoros for a while, but I found it was always too slow. It didn't provide enough damage output fast enough and whatever I put it on ended up getting zapped before it went off every time. Now that Satyr Hoplite is a thing it might be worth revisiting since that shaves a whole turn off the wait time. Still, in my experience it ended up providing less value than Thunderous Might.

[Malacite]

Re: Magic: The Gathering

Still nothing spectacular from M15 spoilers.