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Magic: the GAFering |OT2|

M

MjFrancis

Member
CorruptShadow said:
I'd take out the Viashino Firstblade, It's only hitting for 4 on its first swing and can be chump'd. That slot would be better filled with another Skyknight, it retains the haste plus it has flying.(Evasion goes a long way) Burn would really help you, Searing Spears are cheap ($ .59) and can remove potential blockers or do direct damage. Also, if you are running up against a lot of life gain skull crack ($ .80) can be a thing to sideboard. Ditch the bomber Corps for a play set of Searing Spears. Last thing if you can manage it, replace the Wojeck Halberdiers with a play set of Ash Zealot ($2.15) they have haste and first strike, also makes your opponent think twice about flashing something back.

All in all, I think those changes would really help you, and only set you back ~$10. I tried to keep this as cheap as possible, hope it helps.
Click to expand...
Getting rid of the Viashino Firstblade is an easy decision, given the better opportunities abound. Skyknight's are common, too, so I should be able to get one fairly easily.

Searing Spears v. Skull Crack initially was a tough one one for me, but being able to remove defenders via the Spear seems to be the way to go. Multiple people have told me to ditch the Bomber Corps, so that seems logical at this point.

I see why most everyone playing red throws in a playset of Ash Zealots. They are pretty powerful for a two drop and severely punish decks that actively use their graveyards. It's not really if I'll make this change, but when.

Thanks for the input, I'll use it. I hope to use this deck for my first FNM this week and on Saturday there's a Dragon's Maze draft tournament. I'm really stoked to see how much the game has improved since I jumped from Ice Age to Dragon's Maze. I really like the flavor and mechanics, especially from Zendikar onwards.
 
Y

y2dvd

Member
MjFrancis said:
I used to play Magic back in the days of Unlimited, Revised, Fallen Empires and Ice Age. Fast forward eighteen years and a buddy of mine invites me to a Dragon's Maze prerelease draft tournament he put on. I find a lot has changed and it's probably safe to say I'm hooked again for the time being thanks to my friend.

I designed a Boros deck and he supplied cards to me for prices I couldn't refuse. It's pretty much designed to exploit Battalion but there's almost certainly holes in it's design. I'd run shock lands but a) I'm not made of money and b) I didn't think this deck could spare the life as the other two decks I'm working on (extort and mill) could. I tried to keep everything low mana to keep the deck fast, and the Spark Troopers are the only card that requires more than one red or white mana source. Any further tips or helpful hints are welcome.

All of this is theory since I haven't played the deck yet and really haven't played that much since the prerelease in April. Since then, I've just been lurking and finally decided I'd had something to ask and/or contribute.

Here's the Boros deck I want to try my hand at standard with:
http://www.mtgvault.com/francis/decks/boros-2/

If that doesn't work, I uploaded a print screen:
http://i.imgur.com/JbYLso4.png
Click to expand...

I pretty much played Boros Humans for the pass for months lol. You already have a playset of Boros Reckoner so that's good. Lose the 4 Legion Loyalist for Champion of the Parish if you can. Running too many humans not to put him in. Lose 4 Bomber Corps for Ash Zealot. Lose 2 Firemane Avenger, Skyknight Legionnaire and Viashino Firstblade, and 2-3 Frontline Medic for a mix of Searing Spears and Pillar of Flames. Lose the Tajic for Firefist Stryker. I'd also recommend Silverblade Palladin but it sounds like you're not wanting to shell out much (though you will eventually!). You can cut the lands to 21 and maybe put in a Boros Guildgate or two if you're not going to get any of the duolands.
 
CorruptShadow

CorruptShadow

Member
y2dvd said:
I pretty much played Boros Humans for the pass for months lol. You already have a playset of Boros Reckoner so that's good. Lose the 4 Legion Loyalist for Champion of the Parish if you can. Running too many humans not to put him in. Lose 4 Bomber Corps for Ash Zealot. Lose 2 Firemane Avenger, Skyknight Legionnaire and Viashino Firstblade, and 2-3 Frontline Medic for a mix of Searing Spears and Pillar of Flames. Lose the Tajic for Firefist Stryker. I'd also recommend Silverblade Palladin but it sounds like you're not wanting to shell out much (though you will eventually!). You can cut the lands to 21 and maybe put in a Boros Guildgate or two if you're not going to get any of the duolands.
Click to expand...

In my experience Boros Guildgates are really bad.(gate's are potentially ok in other colors, while on a budget) They do mana fix, but, they rob you of tempo which is critical in this type of deck. Best case is you are dropping a gate turn one, but even then, that prevents you from playing a legion loyalist. You can't really afford to wait a turn and miss a drop, when you don't have a way to stabilize late game.

IMO you are better off running basics and taking a mulligan, to ensure you have the mana you need. Obviously, it would be fine to run shocks but the poster said he was on a budget.
 
M

MjFrancis

Member
y2dvd said:
I pretty much played Boros Humans for the pass for months lol. You already have a playset of Boros Reckoner so that's good. Lose the 4 Legion Loyalist for Champion of the Parish if you can. Running too many humans not to put him in. Lose 4 Bomber Corps for Ash Zealot. Lose 2 Firemane Avenger, Skyknight Legionnaire and Viashino Firstblade, and 2-3 Frontline Medic for a mix of Searing Spears and Pillar of Flames. Lose the Tajic for Firefist Stryker. I'd also recommend Silverblade Palladin but it sounds like you're not wanting to shell out much (though you will eventually!). You can cut the lands to 21 and maybe put in a Boros Guildgate or two if you're not going to get any of the duolands.
Click to expand...
Champion of the Parish looks great for this deck! That would be fun to put in for a while before Innistrad cycles out. Firefist Striker looks great, too, and fits right in with the deck's archetype. Silverblade Paladin would have great synergy in a Boros deck, but leaving Standard in mere months makes me a little hesitant to pay for it at this time. They are good enough and definitely improvements to what I have, though. I don't know how I missed the Strikers.

And since we have multiple suggestions for Ash Zealots and Searing Spears, I'm fairly confident I'll include them soon. Thank you for the advice.

CorruptShadow said:
In my experience Boros Guildgates are really bad.(potentially ok in other colors, while on a budget) They do mana fix, but, they rob you of tempo which is critical in this type of deck. Best case is you are dropping a gate turn one, but even then, that prevents you from playing a legion loyalist.You can't really afford to wait a turn and miss a drop, when you don't have a way to stabilize late game.

IMO you are better off running basics and taking a mulligan, to ensure you have the mana you need. Obviously, it would be fine to run shocks but the poster said he was on a budget.
Click to expand...
Maintaining tempo is why I didn't run any gates or shock lands. Well, that and money, lol.

I'm also having help with an extort deck and a creature mill deck (Consuming Aberration and Wight of Precinct Six playsets fed by card milling) so money is being spread out a bit. I'm on a budget, sure, but I've built these decks because he sold me a few packs and I ended up pulling ridiculously good stuff out of them so we built on that. Initially I pulled a foil Isolated Chapel from a Innistrad pack and then a lot of good Orzhov cards from the Dragon's Maze tournament. Then I pulled two Boros Reckoners from packs and so he suggested I either sell those to build on the extort deck or build on those. I thought, why not both?

I agree that the Boros deck needs to get rolling quick, though. There's not a single creature over four total converted mana and only two cards that require more than one plains and/or one mountain. That will change with the Ash Zealots, but I'm confident a two drop in the same color won't potentially hurt tempo as bad as I convinced myself it could.

Thanks for the help everyone. The game has changed immensely and there's a decent difficulty curve to getting back into it after all this time.
 
T

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
^I'd at the very least try and proxy in the shocks for a few games (if you have friends who will indulge) just to find out if, in your deck, the life loss is as big of a deal as you seem to be making it out to be
 
A

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
MjFrancis said:
Champion of the Parish looks great for this deck! That would be fun to put in for a while before Innistrad cycles out. Firefist Striker looks great, too, and fits right in with the deck's archetype. Silverblade Paladin would have great synergy in a Boros deck, but leaving Standard in mere months makes me a little hesitant to pay for it at this time. They are good enough and definitely improvements to what I have, though. I don't know how I missed the Strikers.

And since we have multiple suggestions for Ash Zealots and Searing Spears, I'm fairly confident I'll include them soon. Thank you for the advice.

Maintaining tempo is why I didn't run any gates or shock lands. Well, that and money, lol.

I'm also having help with an extort deck and a creature mill deck (Consuming Aberration and Wight of Precinct Six playsets fed by card milling) so money is being spread out a bit. I'm on a budget, sure, but I've built these decks because he sold me a few packs and I ended up pulling ridiculously good stuff out of them so we built on that. Initially I pulled a foil Isolated Chapel from a Innistrad pack and then a lot of good Orzhov cards from the Dragon's Maze tournament. Then I pulled two Boros Reckoners from packs and so he suggested I either sell those to build on the extort deck or build on those. I thought, why not both?

I agree that the Boros deck needs to get rolling quick, though. There's not a single creature over four total converted mana and only two cards that require more than one plains and/or one mountain. That will change with the Ash Zealots, but I'm confident a two drop in the same color won't potentially hurt tempo as bad as I convinced myself it could.

Thanks for the help everyone. The game has changed immensely and there's a decent difficulty curve to getting back into it after all this time.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to mention that I've really enjoyed reading your recent series of posts. I've only just gotten back in MTG, after being out of the game since the Mirage block (which happened right after Ice Age), and, like you, have been recently trying to put together a Boros deck on a bit of a budget. So, thanks!
 
A

acheron_xl

Member
kirblar said:
Welcome to competitive play. You win or you die. That's what makes it awesome!
Click to expand...

Oh, I tried to be a competitive player for years. Stopped playing constructed around Torment and really stopped regularly drafting around Planar Chaos. Every so often, I relapse and am harshly reminded that I just don't have the skills to beat MTGO randoms.
 
G

Gatekeeper

Member
Grand Prix Las Vegas has now received enough preregistrations to the point where it is guaranteed to be the largest Magic tournament ever.
 
A

An-Det

Member
Gatekeeper said:
Grand Prix Las Vegas has now received enough preregistrations to the point where it is guaranteed to be the largest Magic tournament ever.
Click to expand...

Yup, Tim Shields (the guy running it) tweeted that they were at 2738 people 20 minutes ago. It doesn't surprise me at all though. For Vegas, the question was never "if" it would beat the recoed, but "by how many".
 
K

kirblar

Member
An-Det said:
Yup, Tim Shields (the guy running it) tweeted that they were at 2738 people 20 minutes ago. It doesn't surprise me at all though. For Vegas, the question was never "if" it would beat the recoed, but "by how many".
Click to expand...
Makes them look like fools for avoiding it and AC for so long due to the gambling connections. So glad the game's stopped trying to cater to the whims of the parents of 8 year olds.
 
G

Gatekeeper

Member
An-Det said:
Yup, Tim Shields (the guy running it) tweeted that they were at 2738 people 20 minutes ago. It doesn't surprise me at all though. For Vegas, the question was never "if" it would beat the recoed, but "by how many".
Click to expand...

Actually, until recently, we were still only projecting 24 or 2500. When turnouts for San Diego and Portland (both modern) were underwhelming, there was a little bit of concern that the event might plateau (but still be huge nonetheless). In the last 2 weeks though, preregistration DOUBLED. IMO, you can thank the secondary singles market for that, along with the free minimaster event on Friday.
 
A

Azn_Boy

Neo Member
If there's around 3000 people for Vegas, that's around 750 MM boxes to supply everyone for the main event.

I imagine they're bringing at least 2000-3000 boxes to cover that, the side events, and the prizes. So the remaining leftovers from the GP and whatever's left get shipped out to the stores as the second wave.

It takes about 5 boxes to open a specific mythic (1:120), that means there might be 500-700 more Goyfs being put into the market after this GP. Now just imagine the number of PtE, Spell Snares, LH, and Finks increasing.
 
A

An-Det

Member
Definitely Azn_Boy, the saturation of rares and under will be great for the secondary after Vegas with plenty of time before the next modern ptq season.


Gatekeeper said:
Actually, until recently, we were still only projecting 24 or 2500. When turnouts for San Diego and Portland (both modern) were underwhelming, there was a little bit of concern that the event might plateau (but still be huge nonetheless). In the last 2 weeks though, preregistration DOUBLED. IMO, you can thank the secondary singles market for that, along with the free minimaster event on Friday.
Click to expand...

That makes sense, I hadn't considered the effect that recent modern GP's would have on expected attendance. For me, I just saw Vegas + hugely popular release, but there's a lot of variables.
 
W

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Azn_Boy said:
If there's around 3000 people for Vegas, that's around 750 MM boxes to supply everyone for the main event.

I imagine they're bringing at least 2000-3000 boxes to cover that, the side events, and the prizes. So the remaining leftovers from the GP and whatever's left get shipped out to the stores as the second wave.

It takes about 5 boxes to open a specific mythic (1:120), that means there might be 500-700 more Goyfs being put into the market after this GP. Now just imagine the number of PtE, Spell Snares, LH, and Finks increasing.
Click to expand...

Nah, those will get bought up on site. The rumored second wave has already happened, it resulted in big stores getting up to 4 boxes and smalls getting 1-2 more.
 
K

kirblar

Member
Azn_Boy said:
If there's around 3000 people for Vegas, that's around 750 MM boxes to supply everyone for the main event.

I imagine they're bringing at least 2000-3000 boxes to cover that, the side events, and the prizes. So the remaining leftovers from the GP and whatever's left get shipped out to the stores as the second wave.

It takes about 5 boxes to open a specific mythic (1:120), that means there might be 500-700 more Goyfs being put into the market after this GP. Now just imagine the number of PtE, Spell Snares, LH, and Finks increasing.
Click to expand...
Modern Masters is definitely helping out the non-Mythic Rares.

The heavily played Mythic Rares (Clique/Bob/Goyf), I suspect, are likely to be a problem until Modern Masters 2. I don't think they'll be able to keep them at Mythic again.
 
CorruptShadow

CorruptShadow

Member
kirblar said:
Modern Masters is definitely helping out the non-Mythic Rares.

The heavily played Mythic Rares (Clique/Bob/Goyf), I suspect, are likely to be a problem until Modern Masters 2. I don't think they'll be able to keep them at Mythic again.
Click to expand...

True, but MM is exacerbating the problem with fetches. They are badly in need of a reprint.
 
K

kirblar

Member
This UWR player clearly doesn't understand this matchup. Geist is a blowout here, and Todd only has Force in the main as a C-spell.

(This is also why I don't play Tempo decks very often- my natural instincts fight how the deck wants to play.)
 
F

FieryBalrog

Member
acheron_xl said:
At least you don't feel like you've set money on fire if you scoop an EDH game.
Click to expand...

It's also nice to have a format where you can play actual Johnny decks. If you don't like playing Storm combo in Legacy or the equivalent in Modern, then you're outta luck in sanctioned 60 card formats.
 
W

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
FieryBalrog said:
It's also nice to have a format where you can play actual Johnny decks. If you don't like playing Storm combo in Legacy or the equivalent in Modern, then you're outta luck in sanctioned 60 card formats.
Click to expand...

I dunno, the various Cyclops decks running around are pretty Timmy. So is the Maze's End deck. Both are seeing fringe play. Mono red too, but I don't know if that qualifies.

I think you just have to Timmy it up really, really hard. Like wishing a fairy back to life by clapping or whatever.
 
O

OnPoint

Member
WanderingWind said:
I dunno, the various Cyclops decks running around are pretty Timmy. So is the Maze's End deck. Both are seeing fringe play. Mono red too, but I don't know if that qualifies.

I think you just have to Timmy it up really, really hard. Like wishing a fairy back to life by clapping or whatever.
Click to expand...

I'm shocked we haven't seen many mono-green ramp-timmy decks, frankly. A list that uses Farseek and Urban Evolution could probably ramp up quickly into some giant fatties. Maybe the reason we don't see it is because it isn't very good, I guess haha
 
S

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
OnPoint said:
I'm shocked we haven't seen many mono-green ramp-timmy decks, frankly. A list that uses Farseek and Urban Evolution could probably ramp up quickly into some giant fatties. Maybe the reason we don't see it is because it isn't very good, I guess haha
Click to expand...

There just isn't much worth ramping into currently and the things that are worth it are more easily reanimated.
 
J

JulianImp

Member
It looks like the next YMTC vote has started. Now we're supposed to choose the card's art description from a list of concepts they came up with by themselves.

I'm digging Season of the Lich's mood, and I hope they don't simply go with Liliana's Whatever in the end.

Waste Not is kind of strange, but could be interesting as well. I picture some the character as some sort of black-aligned Splinterfright-like abomination.
 
Y

Yeef

Member
Waste Not fits the card the best, in my opinion. All the other art descriptions just focus on the zombie-making part, not the other stuff.
 
M

MjFrancis

Member
The Technomancer said:
^I'd at the very least try and proxy in the shocks for a few games (if you have friends who will indulge) just to find out if, in your deck, the life loss is as big of a deal as you seem to be making it out to be
Click to expand...
Fitting some borrowed shocks for a kitchen table game sounds good. It couldn't hurt.

aidan said:
Just wanted to mention that I've really enjoyed reading your recent series of posts. I've only just gotten back in MTG, after being out of the game since the Mirage block (which happened right after Ice Age), and, like you, have been recently trying to put together a Boros deck on a bit of a budget. So, thanks!
Click to expand...
Well this deck definitely could be cheaper for many people! Eighteen rares and two mythic rares. There will be four more rares in there when I get the Ash Zealots, and maybe more with the other changes. Shocklands would drive that up further still!

I'm glad you've been able to make use of this template and get back into the game much as I have. The game has gotten a lot better. The mechanics of each block are generally well thought out, the card art is better than ever - and if I'm not mistaken, both of us were playing when there were seven steps in a turn instead of five. I have no idea when that was streamlined, but it was needed. Oh, and interrupts are long gone, thank goodness. That was a horribly redundant mechanic.
 
F

Fragamemnon

Member
Have a three day Eternal weekend coming up at my LGS. Any thoughts on this Aggro Loam list? Please keep in mind I own a set of German Devastating Dreams specifically so I can explain to my opponent how this card they have never heard of completely destroys them. I have run Aggro Loam a lot in the past, but never w/ white for Knight and Thalia out of the board (which seems really good in a lot of matchups. Much better than playing discard and getting wrecked by mulligans into white leyline).

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=56695

In vintage it's just the usual BUG midrange goodstuff Deathrite/Bob/Snapcaster/Trygon or some variant. I think I'll go for mana denial over bigger spells this time.
 
A

An-Det

Member
Hoogland's 4C loam deck is solid, if my Devastating Dreams were that pretty I'd use them too. I just wish they'd shown him on camera at all yesterday instead of the parade of RUG and Deathblade.

That event sounds sweet. One day vintage, one day legacy, one day modern?
 
B

bigkrev

Member
Azn_Boy said:
If there's around 3000 people for Vegas, that's around 750 MM boxes to supply everyone for the main event.

I imagine they're bringing at least 2000-3000 boxes to cover that, the side events, and the prizes. So the remaining leftovers from the GP and whatever's left get shipped out to the stores as the second wave.

It takes about 5 boxes to open a specific mythic (1:120), that means there might be 500-700 more Goyfs being put into the market after this GP. Now just imagine the number of PtE, Spell Snares, LH, and Finks increasing.
Click to expand...

If there are 3K people at the GP... Is going X-1 even going to guarantee a T8? Also, would be funny to have an event with more players than prize dollars to first place
 
T

ThLunarian

Member
I was at Grand Prix Charlotte, and I could've sworn that they said there were only about 900 preregistrations for that one, and it ended up getting triple that amount.

I wouldn't be surprised if something similar happened in Vegas and they ended up completely blowing the previous record out of the water. Maybe not triple, but I wouldn't be shocked to hear that 4000 people showed up. Maybe even 5k.
 
S

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
bigkrev said:
If there are 3K people at the GP... Is going X-1 even going to guarantee a T8? Also, would be funny to have an event with more players than prize dollars to first place
Click to expand...

They'll end up doing what they did at the last super huge one and basically split the field into 2 seperate tournaments and then merge them for day 2.
 
B

bigkrev

Member
So it's over 3K on prereg at this point, making it the largest magic tournament ever JUST ON PREREG. Absurd.

Remember when people were saying they wouldn't be as big as GP Charlotte due to the power of SCG?
 
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