The Apprentice's Workshop - Episode 9
The Apprentice's Workshop
KrazyCaley
28 February 2013
1466 views
Welcome back.
28 February 2013
1466 views
Welcome back.
Today we're looking at deck:chandras-rage-19-02-13-1 by Rewdog, a Modern deck.
The Decklist
Sorceries (11)
3x Rift Bolt
3x Wild Guess
Planeswalkers (5)
Lands (20)
16x Mountain
4x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Instants (12)
2x Comet Storm
Creatures (10)
1x Fire Servant
4x Vexing Devil
Enchantments (2)
Sideboard (15)
2x Skullcrack
3x Vandalblast
1x Worldfire
Thoughts
This is clearly a RDW deck, designed to burn the opponent to the ground before they can even get started. So first of all, you guys are going to have to help me on this, because RDW is not at all my strong suit, especially not in Modern.
It is my understanding that there is more or less only one "right" RDW in Modern, but I'm not going to change out all the cards to make it into a netdeck. We'll try to keep much of what our deckbuilder has in place already.
Problem Areas
We don't need to break this deck down into sections like we do some decks because it's a RDW deck. It doesn't have too many different pieces that fit together; this is a strength of RDW. Nice and simple. Most of the deck seems admirably suited to its goal of cooking with gas. The main problems are in the "refuelling" effects and in the steep mana curve. Here are a few of the cards that I find suspect:
1 - Blasphemous Act : This is a control card! If casting this is ever a good idea for us, then we've probably already lost the game.
2 - Past in Flames : It's just too expensive. Yes, it's four CMC, but that's too much for a deck like this. Right now the deck is at TWENTY land. A four mana spell is incredibly expensive for that, relatively. Plus you actually have to have the mana to cast all those spells in your graveyard, of course.
3 - Surreal Memoir : I don't have too much of a problem with this, but returning a card at random is a bit unpredictable, of course. We'd prefer something more sure; perhaps just another burn spell would be faster?
4 - Wild Guess : Nets us zero card advantage - we discard a card and we spend this card, and we get two cards in return. We might improve the QUALITY of our cards some, but wouldn't it be better and more efficient to just have more burn spells than take up time sifting through our libraries? That's for blue players wearing glasses reading books, not for pyromancers who are killing everyone with fire.
5 - All the Chandras. First of all, you have 5x of cards that can never be on the field with one another, which is going to leave a lot of useless cards in your hand a lot of the time, though Chandra Ablaze being the Planeswalker on the field will ameliorate this problem. The main problem, though, is that they are EXPENSIVE. If our opponent hasn't conceded or gone to zero life by the time these planeswalkers start justifying themselves, it's too late for us.
6 - Comet Storm. For a RDW deck, Banefire is basically better. Comet Storm will let you control a little bit better, but we're not here to destroy creatures, we're here to cast burn spells at FACES instead.
7 - Charmbreaker Devils. Sloooooowwwww.
Additions?
Cutting all of the above cards leaves us with 17 slots. Two of these I'm turning into Mountains, because 20 land is a bit thin even for a deck like this. I'm also turning one of the Valakut, the Molten Pinnacles into a Mountain, because with 4x we're going to have too many games where there are just Valakuts everywhere, preventing us from getting to five mountains.
So we have 15 slots. I want all of these to be direct damage cards or fast, hasty creatures that will kill our opponent quickly. Your mileage may vary, but here are my suggestions:
4x Goblin Guide
4x Magma Jet
MANY such suggestions are possible in RDW. These I picked for their quickness and efficiency. I didn't want to break off too much of the original deck, though, as it has plenty of good ideas in it already. I just wanted to make it a bit faster and meaner. Now let's deal with the sideboard. Our deckbuilder is rightly worried about Leyline of Sanctity and doesn't know what he can do about it besides Worldfire. Well, Ratchet Bomb takes care of the problem well enough, although it's slow. What can we cut?
3x Vexing Shusher (we're already really strong against counter-heavy decks) and 1x Blasphemous Act (see above re: this card) seem cuttable. Why not add in their place 2x Ratchet Bomb to stop the pesky leyline and let's add in 2x Sudden Shock to deal with the many, many silly combo decks that abound in Modern?
Again, I'm no RDW expert, and I'm relying on you guys to give some good suggestions to this deckbuilder, but here's what my take on the deck looks like:
KrazyCaley's Recommended Build (60)
Sorceries (3)
3x Rift Bolt
Lands (22)
19x Mountain
3x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Instants (20)
4x Magma Jet
Creatures (19)
4x Goblin Guide
1x Fire Servant
4x Vexing Devil
Enchantments (2)
Sideboard (15)
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Sudden Shock
2x Skullcrack
3x Vandalblast
1x Worldfire
Red is my weakest color! For real! Somebody please give this deckbuilder better advice than I can!
Rhadamanthus says... #2
If I were doing it, I would cut Stormblood Berserker and Fire Servant for a set of Hellspark Elemental, but that's really just an issue of personal preference. If the owner still really wants to play some kind of Chandra, take out Servant and one Flames of the Blood Hand for 2 Chandra, the Firebrand.
Also, 7+ lands just isn't happening for RDW if you actually win the game. Valakut is just a bad Mountain in this kind of deck, being much more suited to control or midrange decks with a notable ramp aspect. 21 Mountains should be a good enough land base (if Fire Servant is cut), with the open slot being a 4th Rift Bolt.
February 28, 2013 10:01 a.m.
So what, exactly, is the point of Worldfire in the sideboard?
February 28, 2013 10:18 a.m.
I would like to argue against Pyromancer Ascension. It works at 4-of if you build around it, but as a two-of, it might not get drawn early enough to be useful. Also, with an almost equal cut of creatures to instants/sorceries it will be hard to set up anyways. I'd suggest instead Quest for Pure Flame. It drops for 1, hangs around, and then makes a single turn utterly explosive. It also works with creatures and other spells, meaning it is much better in this kind of mixed RDW.
Other thoughts:
Seal of Fire rather than Burst Lightning can accumulate threat against larger creatures. It is also something an opponent may forget about later on, making that Quest for Pure Flame turn much nastier.
Reforge the Soul can be a really fun RDW card. It looks like our deckbuilder wanted some kind of draw, and this is the one I'd suggest. Pay the miracle if your hand is iffy, or just hold it till last for some major reloading.
I'm guessing we have more of our creature threats in the sideboard in case of the Leyline of Sanctity matchup, but I'm not sure how effective they'll really be. I'd say up the Ratchet Bomb to 4 and Sudden Shock to 3, just because they each counter a number of strategies and do it in a way the opponent has not yet seen, rather than being just a "more of" mentality.
February 28, 2013 11:36 a.m.
Against a Leyline of Sanctity, your best bet is to just to do creature control and send your guys in fast and hard.
If it were me, I'd probably sideboard Mizzium Mortars in and some hastey face smashers like Ball Lightning and Hellspark Elemental.
Reforge the Soul gets two enthusiastic thumbs up from me. By turn 3 or 4, you can easily burn through your hand. Having a quick method for refilling is the way to go. A couple of those should be main decked. At least 2.
I'm not a fan of Vexing Devil myself, but I haven't played with it to really know how well it does here. To me, it might as well read, "target opponent takes 4 damage or throws down some removal, whichever is more convenient for them." Personally, I'd rather have a threat that they have to waste removal on.
February 28, 2013 12:24 p.m.
RussischerZar says... #6
@ KrazyCaley: You linked the wrong deck in the first sentence :-)
February 28, 2013 12:35 p.m.
I might add Glaring Spotlight to the sideboard. There's nothing more annoying than something that just won't burn.
February 28, 2013 1:33 p.m.
RousseausDisciple says... #9
I'd either cut Pyromancer Ascension or make absolutely certain it's going to be relevant. I'd probably drop the 3 Stormblood Berserker for +1 Rift Bolt, +1 Pyromancer Ascension, and +1 Chandra's Phoenix.
Aikola says... #1
I would add 2x Thunderous Wrath its great for its miracle cost and adding 2 means you wont see them in the opening hand too often, also Rakdos Cackler is quite a strong card along with Keldon Marauders
Another thing is there are (in my opinion) stronger versions of Ball Lightning like Hellspark Elemental and Spark Elemental obviously not stronger in power but more playable.
February 28, 2013 5:29 a.m.