Written by kebe on November 15, 2006
Maryland Champs Report: *3rd*
by Kebe
| Snow Red Aggro-Storm | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main Deck | Sideboard | |
| 4 Lotus Bloom 4 Howling Mine 4 Rite of flame 4 Seething Song 4 Frenzied Goblin 1 Raging Goblin 4 Rift Bolt |
4 Empty the Warrens 4 Goblin King 1 Ib, Goblin Halfheart 3 Mogg War Marshall 4 Mishra's Bauble 19 Snow-Covered Mountains |
4 Dragonstorm 4 Bogardan Hellkite 1 Hunted Dragon 3 Sulfurous Blast 3 Grapeshot |
I am not going to get into a big analysis of this deck, but I will give a rough idea. Storm into Empty the Warrens followed by Goblin King. Given this looks like a huge pile, it is actually surprisingly good because it could easily by turn three storm for eight tokens or more and play a goblin king next turn, and if the opponent does not have an immediate wrath effect, they will lose. Cards like Howling Mine and Mishra's Bauble seem terrible, but turn one Howling Mine off of a rite is a very solid play, and Bauble digs for Empty if you don't already have it.
Unfortunately I was not able to live the dream and play my storm goblins because I don't own cards and I could not get the ones I needed for it. At 9:00 am on Saturday morning while I was dead asleep I get a call from dboy1 (thanks), who reminds me I am his ride there. I ask him if he has a deck for me, and he says "Yeah, UWR Flare!" I hang up immediately in disgust and get ready to go. I was able to get most of my deck before the tournament started, so I felt pretty confident, but when I sat down for round one my opponent asked me if I had any Selesnya Guildmages; I asked him if he had any condemns/ Faiths Fetters. I took two Condemns and one Fetters from him and added them straight to the board. So here was my final decklist:
| UWR Flare | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main Deck | Sideboard | |
| 3 Azorius Chancery 1 Urzas Factory 1 Boros Garrison 3 Hallowed Fountain 3 Steam Vents 3 Sacred Foundry 3 Island 4 Plains 1 Mountain 4 Lighning Angel 4 Court Hussar |
2 Akroma Angel of Wrath 2 Bogardan Hellkite 2 Resurrection 3 Azorius Signet 4 Lightning Helix 4 Remand 4 Compulsive Research 4 Wrath of God 2 Careful Consideration 1 Izzet Signet 2 Boros Signet |
3 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir 3 Tormod's Crypt 3 Trickbind 3 Circle of Protection: Red 2 Condemn 1 Faith's Fetters |
Round 1: Gwb Aggro
Game1: My opponent was able to make two Watchwolfs and nothing else before he Ghost Quartered his own Forest to get a Forest for no real reason, so I managed to win.
Game 2: I have a slow draw and he is able to get two Watchwolfs and Putrefy my Azorius signet, keeping me off wrath. He then Castigated my Wrath away, but I had double Helix and a Lightning Angel while he stalled out after the Watchwolfs were gone.
Match: 1-0 Game: 2-0
Round 2: Solar Pox
Game 1: I was paired against one of my friends, who was on tilt already because I was a bad matchup for him and he knew it. The first game I was able to win by clocking with court hussars and having the Akroma advantage.
Game 2: I was worried because I did not know this matchup, and my friend had in fact tested it and knew how to board correctly, so I was just hoping squeak out a second win. It is a slow game where we both make attempts at threats and are quickly removed by condemns and wraths. My first Akroma had just been condemned when he dropped his own and smashed for six. I hit the wrath played a court hussar and he shows me two Dread Returns and tells me to scoop, but I had a Tormod's crypt in hand and was able to strip his yard and hit my Akroma before
he could hit another threat. Match 2-0 Game 4-0
Round 3: Solar Pox
Game 1: I knew this kid from other events and knew I should be able to win. His pox list was running a bunch of random cards that didn't belong, and he didn't have any answers to my Akroma.
Game 2: He did not play any threats, and Lightning Angel connected enough times for me to finish with an Akroma.
Match 3-0 Game: 6-0
Round 4: Solar Pox
I don't really remember the details of this match because my opponent was one of my friends who was joking around through the whole thing, so I was not really paying attention to the game.
Match 4-0 Game 8-0
Round 5: BW Control
Game 1: I had been talking to people about this matchup, and we decided it was the only real bad one in my bracket. First game I have two Court Hussars running while he is Nightmare-Voiding every turn until I get factory and Akroma to stick on board and win.
Game 2: He gets Phyrexian Arena and Nightmare Boid to keep me low on cards, but I manage to get a few things through and kill him before he draws a threat.
Match 5-0 Game 10-0
Round 6 & 7: ID
Right before top 8 there was some issue about someone dropping, which would cause me to play against another BW control deck that I played against between rounds, and I knew I had no chance against that. Somehow the pairings stayed the same and I was paired against Firemane.
Top 8: U/W/R Firemane Control
Note: These summaries are briefer than the match was because the first game was close to an hour long.
Game 1: I try to bait a lot of his removal through court hussars and Lightning Angels but manage to out threat him before he can get his Firemanes back into play.
Game 2: I liked my board for this matchup, but I knew he had Sacred Mesa, which I could not deal with besides my one Fetters. My draw for game two is not great, but I keep it and he drops a sacred mesa turn six and gets it online, and I lose.
Game 3: I got a lot of grief from people about the hand I kept, which was: Boros Garrison, Plains, Mountain, Court Hussar, Remand, Compulsive Research, Bogardan Hellkite. I feel it was the right play to keep because given the matchup is equivalent to watching paint dry, I had a reasonable amount of time to draw the blue and still be in the game. I hit the blue for the turn three Hussar and manage to get board control before he drops Mesa. Even though I don't have a fetters for the mesa I manage to get through the tokens with the Hellkite an Akroma and Teferi.
Match 6-2-0 Game 12-1
Top 4: UBW Solar Pox Rematch
This guy is the same person I played against round two, and I was surpri
sed to see he managed to 5-0 despite how I super tilted him round two.Game 1: He has double Smallpox and Flagstones early on as well as a ghost quarter for my garrison and managed to keep me off lands until he played an Angel of Despair on another of my lands and I scoop.
Game 2. I keep a Mountain, Plains, Garrison, Hussar, Research, Condemn, Akroma hand on the play. Just like game one he has double Smallpox with flagstones both times and I don't draw a land for almost eight turns. After I hit the blue I get Court Hussar into another blue source and start trying to reestablish board position. I get some damage threw with Hussar and end step a Teferi into Akroma and bring him to nine. He Wraths and Fetters one of my lands, realizing my only out was Teferi into Akroma would kill him. At that point I am out of threats and had no more ways of winning.
I still think that the UWR Flare deck among the best decks in the format if not the best. The only changes I would make would be changing the board to:
3 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
3 Condemn
3 Faith's Fetters
3 Tormods Crypt
1 Sacred Mesa
1 Demonfire
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
So after ending at 6-1-2 and in third Place at states, I would play this deck again if I had the chance given the current metagame, in which it is a very good choice.
THX DBOY1
-Kebe
Streakz on 2006-11-15 17:10 MDT Nice article Ben.
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Paellin on 2006-11-15 17:13 MDT durr... 2nd.
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Cypher- on 2006-11-15 17:56 MDT So since you failed to actually do anythign at Champs Streakz you try to flame others who do well? That's like Kirstie Alley calling someone fat, it's hypocritical.
Anyways, good article
EDIT: Streakz, you're an idiot. You edited that comment.
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Streakz on 2006-11-15 18:07 MDT Flame others, I was telling him good job?
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Malice on 2006-11-15 18:13 MDT What state was it.
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tcook589 on 2006-11-15 18:59 MDT Streakz, Jordan Parsons won NC and Jonathan Young won SC. Where do you live these days?
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TylerTMK on 2006-11-15 19:11 MDT Sean Vandover FTW
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aldaryn on 2006-11-15 20:18 MDT About the actual deck.... Firemane Angel seems like it'd be good.
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DESTRUCTOR on 2006-11-15 20:54 MDT UWR flare is really good and one of the best in the current meta...the sb you reccomend i dont really know if it is good because only 1 sacred mesa, and 1 demonfire are for? use moratorium stone over tormod's crypt...because trickbind exist
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dboy1 on 2006-11-15 21:44 MDT lol @ streaks and his stupid edits
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Laplie on 2006-11-16 00:56 MDT "So after ending at 6-2-1 and in third Place at states"
Don't you mean 6-1-2?
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Ownj00 on 2006-11-16 05:32 MDT god, i remember getting on beta and seeing you on our other account playing that gobbo pile :( gj on not finding the cards, and therefore actually doing well, haha :P
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Ownj00 on 2006-11-16 05:32 MDT oh and also, where's my shoutout? such beats :/
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Ninja87 on 2006-11-16 06:20 MDT nicee!! but it's an expensive deck.. :( 9 duals.. gosh.. i'm still wondering should i wait for planar chaos to come out before i make my new deck...
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den18 on 2006-11-16 13:10 MDT Whats your name btw. I ask because I wonder if I ever saw you at the dream wizards tourneys. what do you look like. GJ btw
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SteveOB on 2006-11-16 17:30 MDT hes black and ben you know ownjoo is a dwer Im prob going to end him if I see him irl
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kebe on 2006-11-16 20:27 MDT me and ownjoo go way back and yah den18 whats ur name maybe i no u
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Ownj00 on 2006-11-16 21:39 MDT steve, quit acting like a baby, its not like i did anything to you. that's pathetic.
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MadMageQc on 2006-11-16 22:47 MDT Nice article, and congrats for your top 8. At first glance, I was like "UWR Flare" ? You mean Firemane Control ? But then I saw there were no Firemane Angels and no Zur's Weirding and I saw the Resurrections, and I understood the Flare feel of the deck. Firemanes would still be great in there IMO... The question is how many and what to remove for them.
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P_P4E on 2006-11-17 08:40 MDT yawn....why wouldnt you play firemane? i mean ........why?
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Maximus_X on 2006-11-17 15:54 MDT good deck
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kebe on 2006-11-17 22:27 MDT by P_P4E on 2006-11-17 10:40 EST
yawn....why wouldnt you play firemane? i mean ........why?
". Firemanes would still be great in there IMO... The question is how many and what to remove for them."
Firemanes are not necessary in the deck for several reasons. Despite what u might think turn 3 researching/4 considerationing you often dont want to discard an akroma or hellkite unless your against a aggro deck with 0 permission. the only appeal about running firemane is having discard outlets and firemane itself is not efficient enough as a creature and its yard effect is generally not that relevent given the board control the deck has.the deck also isnt that much of a slow control deck because it often just gets there with lightning angel enough times and firemane is just simply not efficient enough
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den18 on 2006-11-18 08:18 MDT My name is Denis whats yours?
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snoopster on 2006-11-19 20:18 MDT firemane angel seems horrible in his deck...
