Saturday, July 12, 2014

Magic 2015 (iPad) Smash and Burn Deck tweaks

Full original starting deck list can be found here. I manage to reach Garruk, the final boss, but could not defeat his second "Worldslayer" form although I came close quite a few times. I read that you do not get boosters from beating him so I'll probably go back to exploring the other planes to strengthen the deck.

I'm listing the tweaked deck for recording and reference. They are made up only of cards won through the campaign/story so I think I was pretty lucky with the boosters. I ended up with a deck that uses token for stalling and the convoke summoning mechanic, ramp cards to accelerate mana growth and a few big creatures with red control spells.

Land

9 Mountains
11 Forest
4 Gruul Guildgate - I got 4 of them right from the first Ravinca booster pack conveniently!

Red
2 Shock - I definitely need to max this. Shock is just one of the staple red spells of the game IMO. Edit:  I've been checking out paper Magic deck lists and Shock is usually a 2-s in the red decks but I think it can be run with 4 here as there are not that many burn spells available.
1 Volcanic Geyser - with the ramp spells and mana acceleration, I can sometimes finish with this spell.
4 Krenko's Command - One half of the token generation in the deck. Useful for stalling and convoke summoning.
1 Anger of the Gods - Another card that needs the maximum number you can get. Board clearer for creatures as well as exiling them.
1 Act of Treason - This can sometimes help to finish the game. I will be better used in conjunction of a spell that can sacrifice your own creature so the opponent do not get it back. The spell does not state whose creature so I even used it once on my own creature to get rid of an enchantment on it.
2 Bolt of Keranos - The scry helps out a little in draw manipulation.
1 Marauding Maulhorn - Just another big creature.
1 Inferno Titan - This is a very good card and I'm lucky to get it within a few boosters; a big monster that can get attack boost while having direct damage effects from entering the battlefield or attacking. For all the effects it is getting, the 6 cost is a steal. If the opponent cannot remove it, this card can more or less win you the game.
1 Charmbreaker Devils - There are quite a few games I could repeatedly cast the same spell over and over again and it got me the Rampant Growth achievement with the Cultivate spell. It works great with all the burn spells too. It can also end games combo-ing with Anger of the Gods board clear.

Green
- 3 Elvish Pioneer - Mana acceleration.
- 3 Jade Mage - The second half of the token generation in the deck. Due to the ramping of land, I can sometimes swarm the field with a lot of tokens.
- 1 Elvish Visionary - This is mainly to help cycle through your deck.
- 4 Titanic Growth - A good green staple spell. Edit: mainly used in creature based decks.
- 3 Cultivate - Mana acceleration staple IMO.
- 1 Howlgeist - Big creature.
- 1 Pelakka Wurm - A useful big creature with enter the battlefield and leave the battlefield effects on top of trample. I would rate this the next best one in the deck after Inferno Titan and with the Titan being limited to 1 per deck, I need to get more of this for the deck.
- 3 Siege Wurm - I thought the synergy with the tokens is nice but the stats don't seem to be good enough after numerous uses. I will probably be cutting this out along with the token generation cards to streamline the focus of the deck,

Artifact
2 Traveler's Amulet - Mana acceleration.

Multi-colour
1 Ground Assault - Cheap creature removal and with the amount of ramp in the deck, it can potentially help get rid of big creatures too. Another card to get more of for the deck.

Removed from initial deck
Red
Foundry Street Denizen
Kiln Fiend
Regathan Firecat
Lightning Talons
Pitchburn Devils

Green
Spire Tracer
Timberland Guide
Wandering Wolf
Advocate of the Beast

Primal Huntbeast
Hunt the Weak
Stomper Cub
Phytotitan


I think the deck currently is a little un-focused due to the nature of how it was incrementally built. As a start, I'll most probably be removing the token generation and Siege Wurm. Prominence21 posted a nice Green Red control deck over at The Wizard Community and I think that is definitely the direction to take for Smash and Burn. It's time to find out where to get those missing cards and get down to exploring the planes!