MTG Standard

[Crises^]

Hello Escapists

I have noticed a few people here play MTG(Magic the Gathering), now I have just built my standard deck for competitive reasons.
Can I ask you lot to help with my sideboard as my knowledge on Standard isn't great more a Legacy player.

The deck list at the moment is:

Creatures 18
Vexing Devil 4
Ash Zealot 4
cryptborn horror 4
Rakdos, lord of riots 3
descercration demon 3

Spells 20
Dreadbore 4
Mizzum mortars 2
rakdos return 4
fling 3
underworld connections 3
Bonfire of the damned 4

lands 22

Blood crypt 4
dragon skull summit 4
hellion crucible 4
mountains 7
swamp 3

The sideboard so far is:

Rakdos charm 3 Good against Golgari, Snapcaster, flashback
Slaughter games 3 (uncountable threat removal but gives card disadvantage if it isn't in their hand)


Any help here is much appreciated as I'm mainly a control player I thought i'd go aggro in standard for a change.

 

[Tethalaki]

Some decks:
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=50210
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=49949
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=49994

Those would be a better starting spot for a BR Aggro deck within Standard.

Mizzium Mortars, Underworld Connections, Bonfire, Rakdos, Desecration Demon all make your deck very mana thirsty. You'd be wanting probably 3-4 more lands in your deck to be able to reliably cast those spells.

4 Hellion Crucible is fine if you weren't trying to hit colour-intensive spells (Rakdos, Ash Zealot, ect).

Fling is just all around terrible (yes, I realise you have big creatures you -could- Fling at them. It's still bad), you'd be much better off just running a boring normal burn spell.


If you wanted to keep the deck similar to how it is now: I'd certainly up the land count to 25. Add in Rakdos Keyrune for extra mana ramp (+ a very good blocker/attacker), probably add in Olivia Voldaren over Desecration Demon, remove the Flings for Pillar of Flame, drop the count of Hellion Crucible to 1-2 (at max).

 

[Crises^]

yeah think Ill drop the hellion to 2, and swap out the flings for the key ruins and up the land count to 23 prob end up at 24 just need to play test it with the keys.

What would you put in the sideboard?

I have slaughter games for things like board wipe and other problems my deck can't deal with and Rakdos charm for graveyard hate.

Spent my whole time playing control like u/b faeries, the only aggro I have played was Elves which ramped into Emurekul. This is my first actual attempt at running red so bare with me if I'm using cards that suck for aggro/red.

And thanks for this help btw

 

[ProfessorLayton]

You absolutely need Rakdos Cacklers, Gravecrawlers, Diregraf Ghouls, etc... more low costed guys. Desecration Demon is more of a tempo card than an aggro card, seeing as he'll hardly ever attack. Rakdos is much too situational to be in a deck like this and so is Cryptborn Horror.

For an aggro deck, you want low costed guys that will always hit the table. You have way too many noncreature spells. Dreadbore and Bonfire are fine, but the rest are absolutely not. Fling is bad. Rakdos Return is awful. Underworld Connections and Mizzium Mortars belong in different decks.

Honestly, for what you're used to it looks like you'd just want to do a midrange or control list. Currently you have two choices: go with aggro, or go with a sort of controlly tempo thing.

For aggro, you want to have a bunch of little guys smacking their face for a bunch. I recommend cutting the Crucibles completely. You won't need them ever. Most of the time they'll sit there and you'll wish they tapped for colored mana. Once you finally get to pop one, your opponent will just chump block it. A 4/4 is not worth all of the investment. Get rid of all your noncreature spells other than Dreadbore and Bonfire, but cut the Bonfires to 3. Stick in some more burn, like Searing Spear and Brimstone Volley. Brimstone Volley will win you games in a deck like this. Add nearly every black or red one drop you can find. Stromkirk Noble [http://magiccards.info/query?q=stromkirk+noble&v=card&s=cname], Gravecrawler [http://magiccards.info/query?q=gravecrawler&v=card&s=cname], Diregraf Ghoul [http://magiccards.info/query?q=diregraf+ghoul&v=card&s=cname], and Rakdos Cackler [http://magiccards.info/query?q=rakdos+cackler&v=card&s=cname] all need to be 4x. Vexing Devil is fine for what he is, which is dealing four to their face for one mana. For everything that's not one mana, you want Blood Artists [http://magiccards.info/query?q=blood+artist&v=card&s=cname], Geralf's Messengers [http://magiccards.info/dka/en/63.html], and Falkenrath Aristocrats [http://magiccards.info/dka/en/138.html]. Those guys are fun to mix together. Honestly, a lot of people don't like him, but I love Hellrider [http://magiccards.info/query?q=hellrider&v=card&s=cname]. When you've got a team of little guys swinging with him, it's almost always a win. You can play around with the numbers yourself. I don't actually play this deck, but it's just a suggestion. Sideboards depend on your metagame. If a lot of people play zombies, side pillar [http://magiccards.info/query?q=pillar+of+flame&v=card&s=cname]. Tragic Slip [http://magiccards.info/query?q=tragic+slip&v=card&s=cname], Rakdos, Desecration Demons are decent situational cards that you wouldn't want mainboard. Sever the Bloodline [http://magiccards.info/query?q=sever+the+bloodline&v=card&s=cname] also helps pick off tokens as well as big guys that you want gone for good, but a bit heavy for mainboard. If this list sounds a lot like the ones from the StarCity links, that's because BR aggro is pretty much the same deck all around. Honestly, I didn't even look at their lists until just now to see what they had sideboarded and it was pretty much the same as what I said.

If you want to focus more on control, Desecration Demon is fine. You'd want Olivia [http://magiccards.info/query?q=olivia&v=card&s=cname] as well as Sever the Bloodline mainboarded... honestly, if you want to go control, Jund is how you do it. It's expensive, but running green is worth it for the Thragtusks [http://magiccards.info/query?q=thragtusk&v=card&s=cname], Huntmasters [http://magiccards.info/dka/en/140a.html], and just simply the ramp. If you do that, then you should be able to run Rakdos Return and Mizzium Mortars just fine. It gives you access to mana dudes and makes your Underworld Connections a whole lot better.

I hope my advice helped. I'm not that much on a standard player, either, but I know that right now, the cards I named have been proven to be pretty good. If you have any more questions, I'd be glad to answer them.

EDIT: And oh, not to be mean, but I think the other guy in the thread kind of gave you bad advice. This is a difficult situation because it was good advice for what you want to do, but I think what you want to do is bad o.o I don't know how to word this without sounding like a jerk, but trying to consistently play Lord of Riots and Rakdos Return will leave you burned because they're not that good. You'll spend all your time and energy focusing on adding way more lands and fixing to consistently cast them, but most of the time you'll end up flooding yourself and even when you do manage to drop one, your opponent will simply take the damage and then win next turn. When you run 25 (!!!) lands in an aggro deck, you're going to topdeck lands all the time when you really just need gas.

Aggro is about pounding their face as fast as possible. You want to win before they can set up board presence. Focus too hard on trying to drop big scary dudes, then you're playing a control deck. One drops are the key here, and the less one drops you have, the worse you'll end up being. Trust me, I played Tempered Steel when it was good. Aggro needs to win early. You shouldn't say "well what if they play..." because you're not going to let them play anything. All their energy will go to removing your guys rather than letting their deck work like it's supposed to. Aggro means aggressive, so you have to have that attitude.

 

[Crises^]

snip

Thanks for all that. think swap out the cryptborn for Rakdos Cacklers swap Rakdos lord for Falkenrath Aristocrats and swap desecration for hellriders.

Can I ask why the hate for Rakdos's return, thought card advantage was always a good thing?

Here is my Legacy deck btw Don't own the force of wills or underground seas yet been working on acquiring the cards for a year now. Always been a control player think that's why I fail at building aggro I will play around with the cards you have mentioned and see what works with what.

Creatures 7

Vendilion Clique 3
Spellstutter Sprite 4

Planeswalkers 4

Jace, the mind sculptor 3

Spells 16

force of will 4
Thoughtsieze 3
Spell Snare 3
Cryptic Command 4

Enachantments/Artifacts 10

Bitter Blossom 4
standstill 4
Umezawas Jitte 2

Lands 26

wasteland 4
Mutavault 3
Secluded Glen 4
Polluted delta 4
underground sea 4
Watery Grave 4
Island(zendikar full art) 2
Mutavault(japanease) 1

Btw I don't think your a jerk magic can be a very difficult game to build a deck right in competitive, I'm used to building my decks around card advantage and disruption. Which is why my aggro deck layout sucked any critasisim is good for me as I need to learn the core basics on what makes an aggro deck win effecively

 

[ProfessorLayton]

-snip-

Just a quick note, Frank Lepore just brought attention to a Rakdos Midrange deck that I think you would like. You can find it here [http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1061183] and I think it does what you want. The advice I was giving you is if you wanted to make a completely aggro deck that wins on turn 3 or 4. This deck seems to be more your speed and cheap at that.

Rakdos Return is just meh. Think about it... three mana for something that says "discard 1, deal 1 damage." It's not good unless you have a ton of mana, and by the time you have a ton of mana, your opponent won't have any cards to discard.

I actually know very little about Legacy. I'm definitely a Modern player, but I can see your style. Actually, since you're a control player, I would take a look at that deck I linked you too. Control to midrange is definitely easier than making the move from control to aggro... it's a completely different mindset. There are many games I've lost with aggro decks because I was thinking about the situation as a control player. Times that I held back when I should have gone in with the alpha strike because I was trying to play it safe. Midrange allows you to make these choices much easier.

 

[Crises^]

-snip-

Just a quick note, Frank Lepore just brought attention to a Rakdos Midrange deck that I think you would like. You can find it here [http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1061183] and I think it does what you want. The advice I was giving you is if you wanted to make a completely aggro deck that wins on turn 3 or 4. This deck seems to be more your speed and cheap at that.

Rakdos Return is just meh. Think about it... three mana for something that says "discard 1, deal 1 damage." It's not good unless you have a ton of mana, and by the time you have a ton of mana, your opponent won't have any cards to discard.

I actually know very little about Legacy. I'm definitely a Modern player, but I can see your style. Actually, since you're a control player, I would take a look at that deck I linked you too. Control to midrange is definitely easier than making the move from control to aggro... it's a completely different mindset. There are many games I've lost with aggro decks because I was thinking about the situation as a control player. Times that I held back when I should have gone in with the alpha strike because I was trying to play it safe. Midrange allows you to make these choices much easier.

Thank you for that link and all your advise on this. I think your right about going Midrange.