Brews on Brews on Brews

Hello all!  I've meaning to update lately, but I've been kind of busy.  Anyway, this post is somewhat serving as procrastination, so that's better than nothing, right?

So here are a bunch of cool brews from a variety of sources.

#1 Infinite Lore

4 Living Lore
4 Enter the Infinite
2 Lightning Storm
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Faithless Looting
4 Tormenting Voice
4 Wild Guess
2 Pact of Negation
4 Izzet Charm
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Serum Visions

4 Hall of the Bandit Lord
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Steam Vents

4 Sulfur Falls

I know Travis Woo is messing around with Living Lore + Cruel Ultimatum, but I think Enter the Infinite is strictly better.  Don't just cast one spell.  Cast all of them.

So, you have a done of draw/discard spells to find a Living Lore and put Enter the Infinite in the Graveyard.  Maybe 4 Hall of the Bandit Lord is a bit excessive, but Living Lore seems super fragile.  The nice thing is all it has to do is connect.  Not with the face, it gets to explode even if it gets chump blocked.  So the idea is to play Living Lore, attack with it (maybe Pact of Negation a random removal/counter), play Enter the Infinite, draw your deck and use three Simian Spirit Guide to play Lightning Storm and discard 3-7 lands.

This deck's problems?  Well, if your opponent is running graveyard hard, like, even a little, your deck does nothing.  At all.  The fastest you could actually kill someone with this deck is turn 3, but I feel like getting Remand'd just wrecks you.  I feel that the only reasonably-played removal spell that deals with a 12/12 creature is path to exile (do people run terror anymore?  no, right?  maybe slaughter pact in that amulet deck...)

Well, this deck is real fun and all, but it's a real one-trick pony.  There are some decks out there that you might classify as "glass cannons", but this probably falls more along the lines into "straw cannons."  (like that No-Land modern deck by Travis Woo...yeah)

Deck #2 Pool Party

4 Knowledge Pool

4 Curse of Exhaustion

4 Renowned Weaponsmith

4 Treasure Mage

4 Eidolon of Rhetoric

4 Remand

4 Serum Visions

1 Spell Pierce

2 Supreme Verdict

3 Mana Leak
3 Oust

4 Flooded Strand
4 Hallowed Foundtain

4 Glacial Fortress

4 Temple of Enlightenment

1 Celestial Colonnade

1 Plains

1 Island

Heyyy, so you might recognize this deck.  There was a standard deck wayyyy back in old Scars of Mirrodin/Innistrad standard with the same combo.  So you have Knowledge Pool + Curse which is a lock for your opponent.  They can't cast spells anymore and you (eventually) win.  I added Treasure Mage to go and get the Pool, he's nice since he provides a body for chump blocking and maybe even a clock (it could happen!).  The only cheap way of searching enchantments is Enlightened Tutor and I don't think that's what this deck wants to be doing a three.  So...this deck is slow as hell.  Your BEST possible scenario is going T2 Renowed Weaponsmith T3 Eidolon T4 Knowledge Pool.  So, yeah if your opponent hasn't messed with any of your permanents and hasn't somehow killed you, you win.  Whoooo.  This deck is real interesting and all, but I doubt anything can ever come of it.

Deck #3 Rally the Biovisionaries

4 Biovisionary

4 Phantasmal Image

4 Ideas Unbound

4 Thoughtscour

3 Gifts Ungiven

3 Path to Exile

4 Rally the Ancestors

3 Mana Leak

2 Snapcaster Mage

3 Pentad Prism
3 Remand

1 Windswept Heath

4 Flooded Strand
4 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Glacial Fortress
1 Breeding Pool
3 Hallowed Fountain

5 Island

3 Plains

This deck is real cool.  I wish I could take credit for this, but this actually comes to us from Roxie Cards (with some adjustments by me).  I've been trying to make a real cool Rally the Ancestors combo in modern for awhile now and the "exile Rally a EOT" made it quite the puzzler.  The only other ones I've seen where black with Grim Guardian or red with Fanatic of Mogis.  (There's also a black one with Gray Merchant, but that's even worse...WW5?  No, thank you)

So, the idea is to get Biovisionary with some amount of Phantasmal Image in the graveyard and then Rally the Ancestors.  Then you should win end of turn.  There are some really cool things going on here.  You can gifts ungiven to put certain pieces in the graveyard.  Snapcaster adds just 1U to the casting cost of a rally in the GY.  It could read 4WWU - you win the game.  Anyway, this deck also has a number of problems.  If you lose Biovisionary, the deck has to win with Phantasmal Image.  Also, Bile Blight is just a nightmare.  You probably need at least 5 "Biovisionary"s in the yard to go off, as one of them will just certainly die.  I think this deck is real cool and if there's even another Phantasmal Image type effect in modern, this deck could probably be pushed to tier 2 (with some work)

Deck #4 Null Profusion

4x Gitaxian Probe
3x Raven's Crime
4x Serum Visions
4x Sleight of Hand

Enchantment (8)
4x Copy Enchantment
4x Null Profusion

Creature (13)
1x Laboratory Maniac
4x Memnite
4x Ornithopter
4x Simian Spirit Guide

Artifact (8)
4x Lotus Bloom
4x Mox Opal

Land (12)
2x Marsh Flats
3x Swamp
4x Verdant Catacombs
3x Watery Grave

Instant (4)
4x Pact of Negation

This list is brought to us from the fine folks at The Mana Source.  I've always wanted to make a deck around Null Profusion.  It's one of the favorite cards in my bad cube and I enjoy building wonky decks around it.  So!  For this deck, you need to get to six mana, which is somewhat rough, but it's doable with 4x Lotus Bloom.  The idea is to draw your deck with Null Profusion then play a Laboratory Maniac and win on the spot.  You have 4 Copy Enchantments to double your card draw...you're probably not going to get to six mana twice in one game and 4 Pact of Negations to protect the combo once you get going.  Raven's Crime works as nice disruption in the early game and you can use it to discard useless lands once the combo is going.  I like this deck a lot, but getting to six mana is just so hard here.  Without lotus bloom, you sit around.  

So here were a bunch of crazy modern lists this week.  I hope you enjoyed them and please subscribe for more deck(s) of the day.  We should have another tournament update later in the way about CHEERIOS.

Such prerelease, so dragon, very aggro

Hello!  Magic weekend report

Friday: Standard FNM with Monored Aggro

4-0 and 1^st

Round 1: R/W Token Aggro, won 2-1.  Rough match

Round 2: Temur Monsters, 2-0, opponent’s deck was mostly too slow to do anything

Round 3: Abzan junk, 2-1.  This was real rough.  Flooded in games 1 and 2, just barely winning game 1.  Had mana problems again in game three and won off the top deck of a land to run out a Heelcutter + Swiftspear, making his creature not block.

Round 4: Abzan, 2-1.  Got game one real easily.  Foundry Street Denizen x3  in turns 1+2, into Hordeling Outburst.  Rawr.

Saturday: DoT Prerelease

4-1 and 3^rd

I went with Rakdos (Kolaghan?) because let’s face it, I will always go Rakdos when I can.  I opened up my pool and my red was abysmal.  My black wasn’t super strong either.  I eventually settled on a B/W warrior aggro deck.  I played a singleton Mountain and 1 R/W tap land for the dragon I opened.  The dragon mostly rotted in my hand, I either didn’t have the red or I would flood and not draw the dragon.

Anyway, this is the deck that I love to play.  Guys low to the ground and a ton of removal.  I have to say that Bloodchin Rager takes the prize as the best creature in my deck (even over the dragon).  I think I won three rounds off the back of him.  After that was Gurmag Angler who was surprisingly castable, despite my 16 lands.  I only cast my dragon twice out of 5 rounds, in games 2 and 3 of the last round.  I win game one and keep Dragon, Deathwind, 5 lands.  I reason that this is probably good enough, as my opponent’s deck is incredibly slow.  Well, the dragon races him and he has a timely removal spell and I die.  Game three I keep Dragon + 6 lands, as possibly the worst hand I’ve ever kept in a tournament.  Anyway, it gets there.  When I slam down the dragon on turn 5 he goes “ughhhh” and it carries me all the way.

Sunday: DoT Prerelease

4-0-1 and 1^st

I had a pretty sick Rakdos deck.  I splashed white for a Soulmaster.  Gurmag Angler and Blood-Chin Rager made another appearance.  The one tie actually wasn’t an ID, I had an opponent that played super slow game 1 (it took like 43 minutes!).  I question whether he did it on purpose, IDK man.  I played game 2 on super tilt but killed him by turn 6.  We only had like two minutes for game three.  I only got the Soulmaster combo out once (usually my opponents would just kill it on sight or I would maybe get one lifegain activation of it), but even after being behind the whole game (being able to repeatedly go 3RRR: deal 5 damage to target creature without flying, gain 5 life [roast]), my opponent scooped after two turns.

So, this is a very aggressive format.  These are the types of formats in which I flourish.  We'll see if I can find a limited GP to turn guys sideways in.

I'm STRONGLY considering running some sort of dumb aggro deck at an upcoming standard GP, probably either monored or monoblack.  I can't decide yet.

So here are the two decks I went with this weekend.  Sorry that I'm dumb and couldn't get the formatting right.  Also, the resolution is awful, so if you don't know the cards by picture (and they're in German, anyway... =P ), it won't help.

Stay tuned for some modern brewing this week.  I've got some good ones for you guys.

More Modern Action

Greetings All!  Stephen here again with some state-side modern action.  Normally, I would try to type eloquently and make my posts quite wordy and entertaining, but today I'm just going to make it straight and to the point.

At a local 4-Round Modern event that fires pretty much every Saturday, I decided to take my Cheerios list to the event, with a major modification: I actually was going to borrow Mox Opals.  This was going to revolutionize just how brutal the draws of this deck can be, moreso that I thought.  
Now, as I would rather this article be about the deck and some of my ideas for the future of it, I'm not going to give a pure play-by-play, but I will try to remember the list exactly as I played it and we shall go forward from there.

Cheerios:
4 Kite Shield
4 Accorder's Shield
4 Sigil of Distinction
4 Bone Saw
4 Paradise Mantle
4 Spidersilk Net

4 Mox Opal
4 Retract
4 Noxious Revival
4 Spoils of the Vault
4 Puresteel Paladin
2 Grapeshot

2 Manamorphose

12 Lands

Sideboard:
4 Gemstone Caverns
3 Mana Tithe
1 Storm Entity
1 Laboratory Maniac
2 Apostle's Blessing
4 ?

Please note, I have intentionally left the land section unspecified and the sideboard incomplete.  The lands can be built in almost any fashion, so long as you play either a lot of WUBRG lands or at least one Godless Shrine and a way to get it.  Spoils into Puresteel Paladin in quite literally the most common play you will make, so a land that can cast both is necessary.  The sideboard is incomplete because, well, I don't think you could fit 15 useful cards into this sideboard.  Think about it... what can you actually cut in this deck? I typically will cut at most, 1 Sigil (it does actual nothing as apposed to the fake nothing everything else does) and 1 Grapeshot for another style win-con as well as 4 lands if I win, as I want to be as explosive as possible game 2.

Here's an example of a game versus mono white death and taxes.
I win the die roll and start with a fetch land and pass. He plays plains into Aether Vial and I fetch for a Godless Shrine.  My turn I play a Gemstone Caverns and pass, and he plays a plains and passes back. I do nothing on my 3rd turn and he plays land into Blade Splicer.  At this moment I cast Spoils naming Puresteel, losing 4 life but adding the Puresteel to my hand.  I jam the Puresteel into 4 equipment, drawing 4 cards, cast Mox Opal and then Retract, returning all my equipment and my Mox Opal to my hand, essentially making Retract cost 0.  I draw around 40 cards before casting Grapeshot for lethal.
Game 2 I start with a near perfect hand, starting with Gemstone Caverns in play for the turn 0 Spoils into Puresteel.  My turn one I cast the Paladin into triple equipment into Mox Opal to go off with the Retract in my hand. I draw all 53 cards left in my deck on my first turn, cast the Maniac, and then cast another equipment for the win.

This deck is crazy fast, but I feel that it is also the notable example of a deck defined by the name 'Glass Cannon'.  You mulligan hands this deck feeds you with incredible frequency, but at the same time the cards are so redundant that it almost doesn't matter.
Noxious Revival and Spoils of the Vault make most hands snap-keeps, believe it or not.  If you have one fetch land in your hand and Revival, its basically 2 fetch lands.  Revival allows you to loop with only one Retract, as you simply put the Retract back on top before casting your last equipment.  Also, if your opponents misses a land drop for whatever reason, or they are on reanimator, you can hose them by putting blanks on top of their library. (totally relevant, haha)

Where do I stand on this list?  Personally, I like it. Alot.  The speed this deck offers is unmatched, and while the deck does sort of die to removal, I am currently looking for ways to remedy this problem.  Losing the Paladin hurts, but it doesn't mean the game is over. You only need one turn to win, which is more than some decks can say.

The next thing I would like to do with this list, that I think may just push it into the realm of sustainability would be to try out maybe 2 Riddlesmith as a pseudo Paladin until you can find one, and also some number of Angel's Grace.  Splinter Twin in popular where I am, and if my opponent wishes to combo me out on turn 4 and I cast Angel's Grace, then win on my turn, I'm sure that would likely be the most savage play you could do.

In closing, I do recommend this deck if you have the Mox Opals.  Its brutal to play with, as well as against.  Mulligan aggressively, and I mean aggressively.  But also have fun.  We all love playing Magic, but let us not forget to have fun, even if that means putting all of our chips in a basket named Spoils of the Vault and hoping not to lose 26 life looking for a Puresteel Paladin. (totally happened to me)

I'll see you all next time!
-Stephen D.

Modern Report #2

Hey gang,

I didn't end up playing friday night, but I played a modern GPT for GP Krakow.

I played Living End again and finished a gross 3-2, getting 5th place on breakers.  There were only 12 players so there was a cut to top 4.  Womp, womp.

My list wasn't very different from the previous time.  I took out a maindeck mountain for a fourth Simian Spirit Guide and I played a full set of Brindle Boar in the board.  There was only one burn deck there, but I didn't play against it.

So begins the tale of some of the worst luck I've had in a magic tournament.

Round 1: Abzan

Game 1: Even though he has double Scavenging Ooze, I win pretty easily.

Game 2: He starts on a Noble Hierarch and goes Memoricide on turn 3 =/.  I have two Simian Spirit Guides in my head so I desparetly cycle, hoping I can find a Violent Outburst.  Demonic Dread is my draw.  Of course.  I concede.  I played it too carefully, but I could have won.  I had critical mass in the graveyard (due to several Street Wraiths)

Game 3: I keep a nice 7, 2 street wraith, 1 monstrous carabid, demonic dread, and three land.  My first three draws are Living End.  I boarded out one Living End.  He has four Lingering Soul tokens and he exactsies me the turn before a suspended Living End goes off.  Livid is a pretty good description.

0-1

Round 2: Amulet of Vigor Combo

I figure this will actually be an easy match for me.

Game 1: I cycle four guys and draw lands off all of them.  I sit there with six lands in play, continually drawing blanks.  He goes for a titan and I have a beast within.  So if I draw a beast within or any of my fulminator mages I can blow up one of his two green lands, he can't pay for the pact and would die during his upkeep.  I draw another blank.  He taps out to pay for the pact.  I hope to draw a cycler to dig or a cascade spell.  Nothing.  I die.

Game 2: I start out strong with a turn 2 (with 2x SSG) slaughter pact on Titan.  His deck is almost entirely air at this point.  He has some hiveminds, a couple pacts and Sigaarda (eh, too lazy to look up the spelling).  The angel bashes me to six.  I had to suspend Living End, because I drew all of them.  A jungle weaver holds off the angel with nothing happens for 10+ turns.  He finally puts me out of my misery with Hive Mind, triple Summoner's Pact.

0-2

Round 3: Ninja Bear Delver

Oh wow, this deck in real life!  It was funny that both of us were playing WooBrews.  Both games were pretty uninteresting.  I comboed off both times on turn three.  In the second game he remanded my Violent Outburst =/.  I try to be a nice guy, but I don't want to explain to people how to kill me.  He admitted to me that it was his first time with the deck.

1-2

Round 4: Mardu Warriors =/ =/ =/

Opponent was playing a standard deck was 0-3.  I mean, it went exactly you might think.

2-2

Round 5: HateBears

My opponent's deck was pretty interesting.  He was playing a variation of the deck.  He didn't have any aether vials or phyrexian revokers,but he was playing maindeck ghostly prison.

Game 1: I had to fight through a Thalia, but the Simian Spirit Guides really helped and I went off turn 3 per usual.

Game 2: I went off, but not until after he had played a Ghostly Prison.  It was really gross because his next top card Rest in Peace.  He played a second Ghostly Prison, but a lone Monstrous Carabid attacked 7 times (while a bunch of other guys looked on) for the win.

3-2

So, yeah.  5th.  Meh.

A Sight for Sorin (Sore) Eyes

Hey gang,

I know I usually have some craziness for modern prepared, but I think I'm going to be running some standard FNM this friday, so I'll just show you what I'm considering playing.

Option 1: Ensoul Artifact

I haven't decided on the optimal list for this deck yet.  Here are the definites:

4 Ornithopter
4 Ensoul Artifact
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Ghostfire Blade
4 Ilusory Angels

and then some number of

-Frostwalker
-Singing Bell Strike
-Heliod's Pilgrim 4x if I stay in white, always such a fantastic card, but gives me mana problems
-Renowned Weaponsmith / Chief Engineer probably a split on these.  Engineer is more explosive, but Weaponsmith adds more mana...also
-Heart-Piercer Bow this card is generally awful, but you can search it up with the weaponsmith.  Mostly something to stick an Ensoul Artifact on.  I assume the other dumb artifact that gets printed in Dragons will say something like "gives a creature deathtouch."  1 damage + deathtouch, woahhhhh combo of the centuryyyy.
-Hewed Stone Retainers.  So this card is just Angel 5-8, except it doesn't fly.  It's very easy to cast off a Renowned Weaponsmith though.  It's infuriating how many times I've had an empty had, drawn an angel and then the retainers.  SWEET.  TWO CARDS I CANT CAST.
-Tomb of the Spirit Dragon.  I'll probably end up playing this if I cut white.  Maybe 1 in the sideboard.
-Phyrexian Revoker.  Sorry, man, this isn't legacy.  Sometimes it shuts down a planeswalker or mana dork, but I'm not sure if that's where this deck wants to be.
-Ugin's Construct / Juggernaut - wow, has Ugin's Construct pissed me off.  If it said both players, the card would be insane and an obvious include, but NOPE, just you.  So many times I've had the ability to play it out turn three (through drum or Engineer/Weaponsmith) and I dont want to since I'm so tight on mana.  OR even worse, I draw it late game and it would just eat an ensoul artifact.  Juggernaut is probably just not good enough since almost every deck has either Lightning Strike or Bile Blight.
-Crystalline Nautilus - I'd like to find room for this card somewhere, but it's not an artifact and there's already so much going on at 3.


So yeah.  There's no way I'd deck this deck to a real tournament, but maybe to FNM.  We'll see.

Option 2: Monoblack Humans / Monoblack

Tomoharu Saito has always been one of my favorite magic players and I'd always loved the decks he comes up with.  I've played lists similar to his (monored standard in Lorwyn standard and Hypergenesis in old extended) with usually pretty good results.

I'm sure some of you guys saw his list that got 20th in GP Memphis and there was a very comprehensive Channel Fireball article about it.

I like this deck a lot and I've liked monoblack aggro since it was popular last year.

I just don't know about the Obelisk.  Yes, I understand how insane it can be, but man, I have done so much goldfishing in this deck and almost everytime, Obelisk felt like a dead card.  If it was in my opening hand, it was a mulligan, if I drew it last game it was a dud, because I either A) STILL wouldnt have enough to cast it or B) all of my creatures would be dead so it wouldn't matter.

I've thought about returning to the Bestow-type deck I've been messing with, running Gnarled Scarhide, Spiteful Returned and Herald of Torment.  The deck has more reach and then I could run Brutal Hordechief.  Something to consider.

The thing about the monoblack lists, they are generally slower than monored aggro, usually by 1-2 turns.  If monored is very popular in the meta, I probably wouldn't play black...the matchup feels realllll bad.

Option 3: Monored

I've been playing (and been a big fan of) Tom Ross' red list in standard.

Here's my current list, a variation of some Miami lists:

21 Mountain
4 Satyr Firedrinker
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Lightning Strike
4 Searing Blood
4 Foundry Street Denizen
2 Monastery Swiftspear (should be 4)
2 Wild Slash (should be 4)
4 Hordeling Outburst
4 Mardu Scout
2 Goblin Heelslitter
1 Collateral Damage

I don't think many of these cards need a detailed explanation, but Searing Blood probably won't stay as a 4-of.  Mardu Scout has been so good as a 4x, I don't really want to cut any.

The singleton Collateral Damage has always been good.  It's usually just sac-ing a goblin token.  I doubt I'll add any more C-damage main, but I'll leave some room in the board.  One thing I have to say: I like this deck a lot, but the two slot doesn't feel very strong.  1 and 3 are great, but the curve just feels very valley-like.

We'll see what I end up choosing on Friday.  Later guys.

[Modern Brew] Helix Fog

A new contender enters the blog!

Hello, my name is Jeff and I am here right now to talk about two things; Helix Pinnacle and being annoying.

For the past view months, I have been tweaking my modern Nykthos Wave deck in all sorts of ways. One of the things I have been looking into is changing the decks win condition. At first I thought, "I have access to red, so lets take out all of the Genesis Waves and insert 4 Banefires. That's hilarious." But it wasn't as annoying to the opponent as I had hoped.

Then I found Helix Pinnacle. Now this card is the kind of weird build around me card that I love.

The List:

Creature (18)
3x Arbor Eld
2x Birds of Paradise
3x Carven Caryatid
4x Voyaging Satyr
3x Wall of Omens
3x Wisful Selkie

Instants (9)
3x Dawn Charm
3x Fog
3x Holy Day

Enchantment (10)
2x Doubling Season
2x Helix Pinnacle
4x Utopia Sprawl

Land (20)
6x Forest
2x Plains
4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nix
4x Razorverge Thicket
4x Temple Garden

Sorcery (4)
4x Idyllic Tutor

As you might have guessed, I am only a junior brewer at best, and this deck is by no means complete or competitive. I still need to find room for wrath effects, as every fog deck needs them.

Card by card breakdown
 Every ramp deck needs its ramp sources. For this deck, we get that from Arbor Elf, Birds of Paradise, and Voyaging Satyr, as well as from our devotion. Voyaging Satyr works so well with Nykthos, and Arbor Elf combos well with Utopia Sprawl enchanted forests. Birds of Paradise gives us extra mana, and also opens up the cards that we can play. 

Next up is our defensive cantrip line, Carven Caryatid and Wall of Omens. Carven Caryatid gives a decent amount of devotion for a 2/5 and lets us draw a card, which is crucial in the deck. Digging for our game winner or fog-effects is so important. No fog-effects, we just lose. Take too long to get out Helix Pinnacle and we've probably burned through all of our fogs to get this point. Wistful Selkie also fits into this group due to its amazing devotion and cantrip. Our future sideboard will needs tools to deal with flyers though.

Now on to our fog-effects. These require little explanation, as their purpose in the deck is spelled out on the card. Dawn charm is particularly useful for its first and third mode. 

The last few cards that need explanation are Doubling Season and Idyllic Tutor. Doubling Season is bananas in this deck, and landing two on the board can speed us to victory. Idyllic Tutor is here for a few reason. First, the deck REQUIRES Helix Pinnacle to hit the board. It has no other win condition. But, once we have one on the board, we never want to see it in our hand again. Idyllic Tutor at a four-of allows us to cut down to two Pinnacles, and still feel secure in getting it in hand. Lastly, it allows us to search up that amazingly helpful Doubling Season.

The Decks Future
For now, this deck only exists on Magic Online, while I figure out the optimal build. Currently, I am trying to find out what isn't working, so I can replace it with board wipes

Remember kids, in Magic, it's OK to be a annoying as long as you are having fun.  

One for the record

Hey gang,

sorry it's been so long since the last post (almost a month!).  I've been busy with school stuff so I haven't had as much time for writing.

Part I: Drafts and the Future of Red

I haven't played much paper magic as of late, but I've gone 3-1 and (an embarrassing) 1-3 in some swiss drafts.

Anyway, my nearly winning list was a very aggressive red-white list featuring 2x Mardu Scout and 3x Valley Dasher.

I sometimes think that unless Patrick Sullivan or Tom Ross say a red card is good, people automatically assume it's bad.  Honestly, I've been jamming Gore Swine and (when the deck is aggressive enough) Valley Dasher and been loving it.

I think that, given there aren't many other red two drops printed in the next two sets, Valley Dasher could actually be playable in standard next year.

Does anyone remember how powerful T1 Rakdos Cackler into T2 Ash Zealot was?  Attacking for four on turn 2 is big deal.  (yes, I obviously see that Ash Zealot is much better than Valley Dasher).

When Rabblemaster eventually rotates, red is going to lose one of the best creatures its ever had in standard.  I think there will still be a decent aggressive red deck next year, but I doubt it will have the same explosiveness as Boss Sligh.

As for now, these are the only cards I think that are includes for now into next year's red list:

Monastery Swiftspear
Valley Dasher
War-Name Aspirant
Mardu Scout
Wild Slash

I think the deck will need at least two other 1 drops to be on the same level and hopefully there will be something similar to Rakdos Cackler or Firedrinker Satyr.  

Maybe it's ridiculous I'm bringing this up 7 months in advance.  Who knowssss.

Part II: Tournament Feedback

I played in a modern PPTQ  (ugh) yesterday and got 4th place with Living End.  There were only 25 players so I managed to write down what most people were playing.

4 Abzan
2 Affinity
3 Splinter Twin
2 Jeskai Control
1 Living End (!)
2 Burn
1 Infect
1 R/G Midrange
3 Tron (2 R/G, 1 U)
2 Zoo
1 Soul Sisters (w/ red)
1 Mill

There were two decks I didn't see, as two presumably dropped and left (I only started writing it down around round 4).

Decklist:

4 Living End
4 Violent Outburst
4 Demonic Dread
4 Fulminator Mage
4 Architects of Will
4 Monstrous Carabid
4 Deadshot Minotaur
4 Street Wraith
2 Beast Within
1 Valley Rannet
2 Faerie Macabre
3 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Shriekmaw
1 Jungle Weaver
2 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Swamp
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Scalding Tarn

SB:
3 Leyline of the Void
4 Ingot Chewer
4 Slaughter Games
3 Ricochet Trap
1 Beast Within

I'll get to card discussion after the match wrap up.

Round 1: Burn
This was pretty miserable.  This is a bad matchup and I had been meaning to scrounge through the commons box to find some Gnaw to the Bones, I just never got around to it.
Both games he was a turn faster than me.  I would Living End, attack him for 10-12 and then die on the following turn.

0-1

Round 2: Splinter Twin
Game 1: Pretty straightforward.  I play Violent Outburst at the end of his turn 3 and he doesn't have the counter.

Game 2: I mull to four.  He boarded in Blood Moon for some reason and I die to a Vendillion Clique.

Game 3: I cycle a bunch and at the end of my turn three I expect him to go for the combo, but he casts Peeks to see my hand of Violent Outburst, Simian Spirit Guide and Ricochet Trap.  Well, sometimes you have the stone perfect.

1-1

Round 3: Jeskai Control

Game 1: Things were going pretty ok, but I ended up drawing two Living Ends.  One got Remanded and then the last one was Cryptic Command'ed.  Then I died to Vendillion Clique.

Game 2: He mulls to 6 and after Fulminator, Fulminator, Beast Within he isn't really in it.  Outburst on turn 6 for a lot.

Game 3: I have a super explosive draw and have triple Street Wraith.  I decide to Simian Spirit Guide into Fulminator Mage to set him back on lands, but he has a Relic of Progenitus next turn (ughhhh, which he admits later was a singleton) and I get really set back.  I end up outbursting for one Carabid and one Street Wraith.  He tries to surprise my Street Wraith with a Restoration Angel but I play Violent Outburst to pump +1/+0 and he concedes.

2-1

Round 4: Soul Sisters

So my opponent was playing a cool deck.  It's Soul Sisters splashing red for Purphoros and Norin the Wary, also playing Genesis Chamber.  Both games kind of played out the same way.  He played guys on turn 1 and 2, did nothing on turn 3 and then played Ranger of Eos on turn 4.  At the end of his turn 4, I would Violent Outburst and he would concede.

3-1

Round 5: Abzan

We IDd, but we played two games for one and I got both pretty easily.

3-1-1

Top 8: Living End, Abzan x2, R/G Midrange, Infect, Zoo, Burn, Affinity

Round 6 (Top 8): R/G

This one was pretty straightforward.  Despite him playing T2 Rabblemaster, T3 Rabblemaster I would had Violent Outburst in G1 and Demonic Dread in G2.

Interesting side note for Game 2.  I had twelve power on the board (1 Street Wraith, 1 Deadshot Minotaur, 1 Monstrous Carabid and 1 Faerie Macabre) and he plays a Huntermaster of the Fells on his 4 Turn, going to 20.  I play a Fulminator Mage and attack with all but the Faerie.  He takes it and goes to ten.  I sac the Fulminator and blow up one of his lands.  He draws a card and concedes.  I thought it was honestly odd he gave up.  If he plays nothing, the Huntmaster flips, kills the faerie (presumably), and has a 4/4 and 2/2 to block.  Supposing I draw nothing and attack in with my three creatures, he can chump the carabid, and kill one of my 3/4s and go to 7.  I probably wouldn't do that and would only attack with the Carabid, but still.  I was kicking myself for sacing the Fulminator Mage when I realized I wouldn't have critical mass, but he didn't want to play it out.  Maybe he drew something relevant that was 4 mana and was on tilt.  Or he had straight nothing in his hand.  Who knows.  I mean, I was at 7 and any creature would have probably put me out of the game.

He showed me that he boarded in 3x Trinisphere and 1 Chalice of the Void so I felt pretty lucky, considering I hadn't boarded in my Ingot Chewers.

Round 7: Infect

Man, this felt bad.  I wasn't in either of these games.  In the first game, he went for lethal when I was signaling Violent Outburst, but I didn't have it and died.  Which felt terrible, by the way.  Game two...I mulliganed, did nothing and died.

So Infect was in the finals and the other semifinals match was Zoo/Burn.

I think this was a decent deck choice.  Most people are running a ton of graveyard hate currently and Living End can be a very consistent deck - your mulligans don't punish you as much as your opponent's and you see a lot of cards, making it easy to find one of the 8 cascades.

If your opponent isn't playing counters or any graveyard hate, there isn't a ton they can do to stop you.  Aggro and midrange strategies feel like byes.

I definitely think 4x Living End is right.  Drawing one off a cycle feels bad and against control, games go longer so it definitely it needed to have as many as possible.

I think Simian Spirit Guide needs to be a 4x.  The deck needs to be as explosive as possible against decks like Burn, Affinity and Infect.  SSG also can catch opponents by surprise.  You would be amazed how many times I would have two mana up and my opponent would get blindsided by a surprise Violent Outburst.

My sideboard felt super bad.  The only cards I ever brought it were Beast Within and Ingot Chewer.  Pretty much everything else just rotted.  I definitely need something in the way of life gain, either Gnaw to the Bone of Spike Feeder.

Faerie Macabre was actually pretty good.  It helps you in being explosive and it randomly can hose Delve, Flashback and if you opponent has any creatures in the bin.

All in all, I was disappointed with 4th place (I mean, it's better than 0-2 drop), but I hate playing games that feel unwinnable.   I briefly considered the idea of running Jund Soujouners later, but that felt silly.

This post has already gotten too long so I'll wrap it up here.  Stay tuned later in the week for a sweet brew!