Feels Like No One

Once I decided to address where Xnoybis was falling short, looking for mass removal that would be appropriate was my first step. I went with White, because the mana demands for trying to utilize Black mass removal would mean either a poorly done or expensive investment in the mana base. A little search later: Doomskar became my removal of choice. I can foretell it on turn two, and have mass removal as soon as turn three. Turn three board wipes should offer me plenty of time to get this deck going. 

With mass removal added, though, that means Swords to Plowshares becomes less useful. What does become important is that I have WW by turn three and that means trying to get lands out of my deck. 

Enter Dig Up. A card mostly ignored from Crimson Vow, utilizing a mechanic that I felt was clunky in execution. Yet, as I noted in a previous post, I don't think I can ignore the addition of Black to the deck-but as I pointed out above, I don't want to make many demands on the color. Dig Up is perfect for this: early game it is a card that keeps the lands coming. In the late game, it can find me the Armageddon that I need. 

Testing and goldfishing has also lead me to decide to cut one Unstoppable Ash as well. As much as I love the effect for the deck, the cost of championing a creature is a real thing. It's definitely the sort of high impact card for Xnoybis that I want to play, but the drawback keeps it from meeting Hexdrinker rule status. 

Crawling and Scraping

Is Risk Factor underrated? I ask because when was the last time you saw anyone run or talk about that card?

Looking at some stats at mtggoldfish.com, all I see are Commander decks-with one Brawl deck. So it doesn't seem to be setting the world on fire.

However; this card is doing some real work, and the Jump-Start ability isn't to be laughed at. 

It's an instant, it's cheap, it's repeatable. 

This might just meet the Hexdrinker rule. Because when I tested two copies, my opponents routinely just ate the four damage, even on the second activation. Since I can hold it as an instant, that means I don't have to drop shields to play it, if I have the counterspell and throwing an extra land away to do it again isn't the cost one might think.

With eight damage coming off one card, that means Booby Trap doesn't have to do quite as much work.

I think I'm going to have to bump Risk Factor up to four copies. 

Backwards to forwards-and a Name!

I recently finished Turn The Ship Around by L. David Marquet: It's a book about leadership and how to improve organizations. 

One chapter talks about 'Starting at the end'. Essentially: You find out what your goal is, then you work your way from there to lay out the path. 

I find I have this issue with a lot of decks I build: I find a good card but I don't have a clear idea of how to get it to win. Even though I know what my end goal is (in most cases, reducing an opponent's life total to zero) I don't articulate it very well.

But thinking about that might help when I come across the problems I had last week, when I was looking for cards to fit in the high and low ends. 

Before I had that realization though, I just went looking for cards that would do one of two things: First, give me more time. Planeswalkers need time to do what they're going to do. 

Second, cards that would be useful off of a discard, since Jace activations meant discarding cards.

Here's what I came up with: 

Obsessive Search for Brainstorm. 

Lighthouse Chronologist for Lord of the Unreal.

Curator of Mysteries for Tezzeret.

I also came up with a name: The Eliminator, taken from the song by Maserati. 

However, let me circle back; why did I need the cards that I need?

Because the end goal of The Eliminator is to use the abilities of the planeswalkers to create an overwhelming advantage of cards and creatures. 

Obsessive Search draws a card and can be used for it's Madness cost to help mitigate any discard effects. 

Lighthouse Chronologist meets the Hexdrinker rule; when I play it, opponents don't like that and if I can get to extra turns, that helps the planeswalkers create advantages. 

Curator of Mysteries is a solid 4/4 threat with evasion and gives me a bonus scry whenever I have to discard. It's low end synergy but it is still synergy, along with a win condition. 

So with a new name and some clarity of purpose, here we go!

Minor Tweaks

It's been difficult, what with the pandemic and all, to get games going. So I've gone back and revamped a few older decks. 

First up: Push the Fader, a Wildfire deck using Parallax Tide to keep my lands in play.

The problem: Zuberas (Burning-Eye and Rushing-Tide, respectively).

The solution: Rekindling Phoenix and God-Eternal Kefnet.

The Phoenix comes back post Wildfire, the God doesn't die to Wildfire. They both meet the Hexdrinker rule, which is critical here.

3 Izzet Signet

2 Mind Stone

2 Covetous Dragon

3 Surveilling Sprite

3 Rekindling Phoenix

3 God-Eternal Kefnet

2 Wurmcoil Engine

4 Parallax Tide

3 Shock

3 Prophetic Bolt

1 Incinerate

2 Opt

1 Magma Jet

5 Island

2 Izzet Boilerworks

4 Cascade Bluffs

4 Seat of the Synod

5 Mountain

3 Great Furnace

4 Wildfire

1 Ponder

Really polishing it up would mean cutting Ponder and Magma Jet for a third Opt and second Incinerate, just for consistency. That might be wise, just to see if I can take advantage of God-Eternal Kefnet's ability more. But I do like where this deck is at now, far more than I did. 

Next up, Disposable Heroes. 

The problem: High CMC creatures (specifically Dawn Elemental) and no removal. 

The solution: Copies of Swallow Whole. 

2 Samurai of the Pale Curtain

3 Devoted Retainer

2 Elite Vanguard

2 Soltari Foot Soldier

1 Soltari Priest

4 Celestial Crusader

1 Paladin en-Vec

3 Order of the White Shield

2 White Knight

2 Mystic Crusader

2 Skyhunter Skirmisher

3 Benalish Marshal

4 Light from Within

4 Sheltering Light

3 Swallow Whole

4 New Benalia

18 Plains

I think Swallow Whole is an underrated removal spell: it's a better Devouring Light as far as I'm concerned. With the high volume of creatures in Disposable Heroes, the additional cost isn't a problem.

Noah suggested Benalish Hero and with the cards I have with protection from red or black, this could be remarkably beneficial. Heck, once I drop a Light from Within, distributing damage how I choose could be a huge trick.

Lessons From The Sideboard

Because I didn't want to give up on Satyr Firedancer, it went into the sideboard. You may remember my dreams and hopes from last week.

Fortunately, testing seemed to bear me out! I played against Fuz's zombie deck-which is always a good barometer for how solid a deck I play is, as his zombie deck is quite resilient-and I felt good about the performance.

In games 2 and 3, I swapped out Dire Fleet Daredevil for the Firedancers, not having seen any instants or sorceries.

That was a mistake, because he had Nameless Inversion to take my creatures out, and the Daredevil would've given me the opportunity to exile that spell.

The card that really didn't do anything? Abbot of Keral Keep.

Which highlights a specific problem I'm having: Curving out appropriately. The Abbot can get me a land, but it can also just whiff. Either way, I can't play it until turn three. So now that card is questionable.

You know what totally hit the Hexdrinker Rule? Satyr Firedancer. It drew a kill spell as soon as Fuz could find one to play. Because you know what's awesome? Using a Searing Blaze to kill two creatures and do three damage to your opponent. I have to admit, after my first rounds of testing, I wasn't sure that the Firedancer was all I thought it to be but the latest matches really worked!

So maybe the Abbot should be in the sideboard and come in for the control matchups? I can use the extra card advantage and damage in those matches, as needed. Since matches with creatures are more common than those without, that's my plan for the future.

Sideboard Options

Whoa! Sorry everyone; in my hurry to get to the Thanksgiving holiday, I forgot to mention there wouldn't be posts for a little bit. Sorry about that: Let's get back to the normal stuff, getting back to the Magic decks and I hope everyone had a safe holiday!

In the playtests, Red Alert has generally been doing what red decks do; come from behind surprise burn is not uncommon! But being overwhelmed is not unexpected, either.

Removing a Dire Fleet Daredevil became something that was necessary: I want that card on turn three at the soonest, since I cannot cast a spell without the mana to do so. Four clogs up my hand, three seems right-but there's a space now. What to do?

It turns out there is another Chandra that fits the theme: Chandra, Fire Artisan and this was suggested to me by by buddy Tyler. I do not own any copies of that Chandra so...what to do until I get some?

Enter: Torbran, Thane of Red Fell. It's costed for a mono-red deck and it takes everything I have and makes it better. That will totally do until I get some Fire Artisans!

Except...the testing showed Torbran is pretty dang good. Since it boosts any red source I have, that means that my creatures get this impact immediately. If Torbran sticks for a turn, every spell I have does more damage, too. I loved seeing it and opponents did not. He's only appeared in two games, but each game he arrived, I was happy.

I may have to make an rule for cards like this-the Hexdrinker rule. "If my opponents hate seeing the card, I should keep running that card."

I also made a sideboard for Red Alert:
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Blood Moon
4 Satyr Firedrinker
3 Pyroblast
3 Smash to Smithereens

I relegated the Firedrinker to the sideboard because I still think it's worth testing. The Crypt might help with any graveyard focused decks-and there are a lot of those, and Blood Moon should help stall anything that wants to use more than two colors.

Pyroblast is just good against blue and Smash to Smithereens fits in theme by doing damage and destroying an artifact. Abrade was suggested and while the card is more versatile, it doesn't mesh with the themes as well.

So here we go!