A Silly Dream

I think I'm ready to set Longshots down.

Playing against a smorgasboard of decks on the 4th (thanks, holiday!) piloted by Jason and then Fuz, I was able to put up some solid results.

Part of this was realizing one very important thing: I'm usually the control player.

In multiple matchups, it was right to play Grenzo on turn two, if I had it and I was going first but aside from that? It was better to hold off, let them play their creature, burn it to the ground, and wait.

This mentality was especially useful in the Enchantress matches, where Savage Alliance was incredibly helpful against Argothian Enchantress.

Tibalt, the Fiend Blooded also put in heavy lifting. I know what the conventional wisdom is but Tibalt is way better than they think. In creature matchups that stalemated, as with the zombies game, the fear of Tibalt making it to six loyalty put pressure on Fuz he didn't want. Against Jason, the -4 ability did some great work, again keeping pressure on him while my creatures were stuck under a Humility.

I also had to make some clever moves under a Humility, with Purphoros, God of the Forge alowing me get damage in when my creatures were otherwise useless.

However, I was again playing a more deliberate, waiting game so that I could find or generate my opportunity to win. Even in games where my opponent was drawing cards, Tibalt was keeping me in it.

I know this deck isn't ever going to be perfect or even tier 1.5. But I'm happy with the progress and think I'm ready to move on. Here's the latest decklist.

1 Tenza, Godo's Maul

2 Tahngarth, Talruum Hero
3 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
3 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Squee, the Immortal
2 Etali, Primal Storm
2 Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
1 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh/Chandra, Roaring Flame

3 War's Toll

4 Kindle
4 Seething Song
4 Savage Alliance

3 Ghitu Encampment
1 Hammerheim
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
18 Mountain

3 Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded

3 Rift Bolt

Almost Ruled The World

This is, as always, more challenging than I thought.

More games, this time against Fuz and later Matt and each time, the swarms were the problem. Admittedly, Matt was playing a tuned version of Death and Taxes but so many creatures with so little toughness and I just couldn't do much about it all. Phyrexian Revoker, Thalia: I kept asking myself: I have 11 spells that do damage, why aren't they keeping the board clear?

I start talking about removing Fated Conflagration, since it costs 4 and using on my turn isn't really the best use of my time, except that I really want to use it then, to get the scry effect.

"Fiery Confluence?" Matt suggests. I tell him that I can't run that because the CMC is 5.

OK, so what else could work here? Off to the Gatherer!

(This is where I find out that I'm wrong about Fiery Confluence and it's only 4 mana, which is perfect-so let's see how much that card is!

$20.Oh, no.

My money > less of my money. )

It seemed obvious to try and put in a card like Anger of the Gods, but I thought I'd run a query through the search engine anyway. If I didn't have to kill the few creatures I run, I'd rather not, and options are good, because sometimes I get something cool-in this case, Savage Alliance strikes me as an excellent card with a lot of flexibility. I'd prefer it if one of those modes destroyed an artifact, but apparently one of the most obvious red things to do ever wasn't something that red should obviously do.

Still, it's a way to wipe out hordes and maybe even punish the cheap blocks that happen against my larger creatures. Since I can cast it from turn three on, this might just be a Very Big Deal.

Vultures Are Killing In The Sky

"Grenzo is really good, man."

That was the biggest take I got from a guy named Tom, who was watching Matt and I play at Tonic. With an early Grenzo and a slow start from Matt, I was able to really take advantage of Grenzo's 'play your stuff' ability.

A similar thing happened when I was able to attack with Etali in game two. Although I eventually lost that game, the effect was a big enough of a deal that the advice I got from Tom and Matt afterwards was the same: "Cut Kari Zev and Kumano, add Grenzo and Etali."

So I did that...and got properly stomped by a white aggro deck Fuz was piloting.

I guess Jason was right: I really am vulnerable to aggro decks. To address that, I'll have to think a little differently. I don't want to cut Seething Song; ramping into my legends is important but I certainly considered it. When I draw Song on turn eight, it really doesn't matter. However, the ability to drop a legend into play on turn three is too strong to ignore.

So, maybe Staggershock needs to go. I love the idea of getting 4 damage in over two turns but without the Ruby Medallion, it's not as efficient as it once was. Doing damage on turn 2 is a way to  help keep things from getting out of control so I can get to turn 3.

Kindle is the card that has caught my eye. The pluses: hits for two or more, isn't a complete loss if Tibalt forces me to discard it. The drawbacks: getting to a place where I'm doing 3 (or 4) damage for two mana isn't something this deck is geared to do. Still, the possibility is there and it helps blunt Tibalt's drawback.

Still, I'm going to go with it for now and see what the utility of Kindle provides.

This Ain't No Simple Posture

The changes have made for a more compelling deck. I want to get that out up front, because after being depressed about the state of Longshots, finding that the radical shift in focus has improved my experience does a bunch of good for my brain.

After a few online games with Fuz and Jason, Longshots has given me interesting choices to make as well as interesting dilemmas for opponents.

And I lost my fair share of matches. That was OK: I won a few too. The burn in the deck helped keep me in games against Fuz's dinosaur deck (which seems to be his current pet 60), stunting his mana by killing mana dorks, and eventually sticking a legend for the grindy win.

Against Jason's Stiflenaut deck, things got a little trickier. There was more of a 'race' aspect: if I could get things going before the Torpor Orb arrived, I had a shot. If I didn't then I didn't. The picture itself shows a time when I didn't: I was making a last-ditch effort, hoping that Etali's trigger could pull something off the top of either deck to save me.

It didn't.

In our final match, Jason played a more straightforward aggro deck and after it was done he said "So that's your bad matchup," and although he won that match, I'm not sure that it is. Eleven burn spells mean that I should be able to withstand the early game. It worked to keep a mana-ramp deck off balance, so variance is what I'm going with there. However, he did feel-and I agree-that he won fairly handily. That time.

Still, I'm encouraged by what I've seen so far and I look forward to further games. I haven't seen anything glaring yet that needs to be changed but time will tell.

There's Halos To Burst

Alright, so let's revamp this bad boy.

What says desperate? How about Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded. Often referred to as the worst Planeswalker, I am going to have Tibalt lead a gang of rag tag red legends into the maw of defeat!

And I'm going to bring a lot of fire with me. If I'm going to run just a few legends, then I want a bunch of fire to help them burn it all down. I don't have to have all the legends win. I just need one one left to bring it home.

Since I've been taking a hacksaw to the expensive stuff, Ruby Medallion got cut. I'd rather run lands and save the Medallions for a different deck that has some artifact synergies-something that's been played up quite a bit in red since I built this.

Hm. How about this?

1 Tenza, Godo's Maul

1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
2 Tahngarth, Talruum Hero
3 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
3 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Squee, the Immortal
1 Etali, Primal Storm
1 Grenzo, Havoc Raiser
1 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh/ Chandra, Roaring Flame
1 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider

3 War's Toll

3 Rift Bolt

4 Seething Song
4 Staggershock
4 Fated Conflagration

3 Ghitu Encampment
1 Hammerheim
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
18 Mountain

3 Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded

So, here's a thing. A whole lot of weird legends, not a ton of consistency, but a solid 11 damage spells. I don't know if Grenzo is a good idea but I do know Etali is bonkers if it gets to attack. Even once can completely change the tenor of a game. Also, the goad trigger on Grenzo might have some synergies with War's Toll/Kazuul, Tyrant of Cliffs.

Kazuul also can work nicely with the God of the Forge. Giving me creatures to do damage could be a nice thing-and either way, trying to get an opponent to choose between attacks or main phase activities (assuming I have out a War's Toll) is a good thing.

Even when I don't plan on pieces working together, there's some stuff working together. That gives me some hope that I'm going in the right direction.

The card I'm most unsure of right now is Kari Zev. I really want a deck for that card-hell, I still think there's a R/B pirates deck nobody is exploiting right now-but I'm just not sure it's a good fit. If Grenzo appears late in the game, it's still useful, since the ability impacts all my creatures. Kari just sits there. So either she shows up early or it isn't worth seeing her at all.

Longshots is too loose of a deck to take that kind of chance. But maybe I'm wrong? Either way, I think it's time to test. 

If You Scholar, Not A Toy

I started this the way I usually do; via analysis at deckstats.net.

Then I started pulling cards out: Smoke, Uphill Battle were first, then I wanted to eliminate some of the more expensive cards. Hateflayer is a awesome card yet at seven mana I wasn't sure I was ever going to get to use it. I cut two.

I kept goldfishing hands that just had too much cost, with no way to reliably, consistently get there. So I cut more. But that left me with vacancies to fill: You still can't register a deck under 60 cards...

That's when I noticed the real problem: Longshots has no binding theme. It's just a 'red neat-ish stuff' deck. Not even Red Good Stuff. Neatish stuff.

So this deck is a mess. It's causing a bit of depression in me, to be honest. What was I thinking when I built this? Why did I even get this sleeved up?

I've started looking back at my binders of cards-so many interesting cards that I'm not using; why did I not put my energy there?

There are times when Magic is discouraging. Bad beats are probably the most common tales but that, I believe, is really just a variant on the most common characteristic of discouragement: That you wasted your time. All the effort and what do you come away with?

In this instance, I have a pile of 60 cards representing time and money and when I come back to it, I see...nothing. It's just terrible. I even considered dismantling the deck, which is something I have never done. I genuinely believe that some decks just need enough time and they will become worth something, because a new card will be printed or a new mechanic explored that just ~clicks~.

Occasionally, though, you have to make your own value, and I think this might be one of those times. So; what is this deck about? It's about desperation, about getting lucky about last stands...

Hm. Maybe it can be a theme deck. Ragtag heroes of legend appearing to make their desperate stand against stronger, more focused enemies. Craziness ensues! 

Alright. That gives me a core concept to build around. Even if it isn't a 'here's how I win' endgame, I have a direction to go in, not unlike when I was tweaking Frost Hammer. I also stumbled on a nice little combo between Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs and War's Toll while doing some online research. So I've got a place to go from here. Time to play the deck.

Finally, I'm headed on vacation for a bit, so the next update will be Tuesday the 19th!

Longshots

This was supposed to be a "Hey, red legends, right?" deck. I'm pretty sure I can do better than this initial sketc. But I must've known I wasn't playing with a great concept, or something I had a bend for, because I called this deck Longshots after a song by Sole and the Skyrider band.

3 Ruby Medallion 

3 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
3 Hateflayer
2 Tahngarth, Talruum Hero
4 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
3 Urabrask the Hidden
1 Thundermare

          4 Pillage

4 Smoke
1 Uphill Battle 

4 Seething Song
4 Staggershock 

4 Ghitu Encampment
1 Hammerheim
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
18 Mountain

First things first: Smoke really belongs in a completely different deck. Probably one with creaturelands or artifacts that can become creatures temporarily, while tapping my opponent's creatures at will. Which isn't something Red does-although I'm pleased to see that I had recognized the usefulness of Ghitu Encampment already. I may have even tried to use Smoke to create a subtheme here, given the effects of Uphill Battle and Urabrask the Hidden, but I don't think it's working well.

That means a whole lot of things can change! And with Dominaria being out, there's bound to be some cool additions that can augment this deck to a better spot.

It also means that cards like Thundermare and Hateflayer aren't as thematically useful now. Still decent cards but I can't get as much out of them.

I feel like this deck presents me with an interesting challenge. Where can it go, since I can take it anywhere? What themes did past me try to create that I should work on? I'm going to find out.