TheForum

I've built several variations of -1/-1 decks for fun (and played some online), and Nest of Scarabs is a very strong card. The best is putting the Plague Belcher -1/-1 counters ON a scarab token, and getting two more, so you get a 5/4 menace creature and a 1/1 token for 3 mana. Or, in a Red/Black list, running Soul-Scar Mage and Sweltering Suns/Hour of Devestation with Nest of Scarabs to get like 20 tokens out of a boardwipe... Feels good. And you don't even need to get that many tokens out of it to make it worth the three mana investment. BUT, all that said, it does encourage you to build a little more towards the cards like Festering Mummy and Plague Belcher, which isn't necessarily the direction this deck is going right now, so I don't know if you need it in this list. Plus, in our meta, it's just going to eat an Oblivion Ring every time :( -Boyf

Certainly seems more aggressive. I might keep in the one Battlesphere since you'll still usually have plenty of Myr to make its ability nasty.

E

Agreed, Plague Belchers are stong but what keeps them out of this deck is that they distribute two -1/-1 counters on my creatures so I can't dump their counters onto Hapatra or Channeler Initiate without killing them. They are still a good consideration and are definitely in the maybe board.

So I'll give you that Splendid Agony is probably a bad card, and I think they will eventually be Never//Return, but Grind//Dust maybe in a vaccum isnt great, but it is super valuable in this deck. At its best its a one sided boardwipe, it will most often function as a 6 mana exile at least one creature spell, and even early it has the potential to take out or weaken two aggressive creatures.

Another possibility is to go down several lands, replace some with Aether Hubs, run Attune with Aether as a pseudo land and add in harnessed lightning.

Also, I keep debating Nest of Scarabs. It seems like it would be too slow to set up but the pay off could be crazy.

I've thought of a bunch of ways to tear this one down and build it from the ground up, but it usually a) doesn't feel like Myrdyr, and b) is pretty expensive. The list I have in the sideboard is a tweaked list that I came to after taking out all of the "bad" cards (Myr Turbine, Gold Myr, etc.) and just seeing what looked good in their place. Thoughts would be appreciated!

Asylum Visitor is super good. Love, Boyf.

It's hard to argue against Smuggler's Copter, but I also really like Key to the City, and it does synergize with 8 creatures here. I'm also noticing a conspicuous lack of Plague Belchers, which are super strong. The biggest thing seems to be some bad cards that have good synergy, but are still bad cards. Splendid Agony and Grind//dust play well with Hapatra and whatnot, but there are just better cards that could be in those slots (Never//Return, Fatal Push, Lightning Strike, Sweltering Suns, etc.). -Boyf

Another new deck that has had some light play testing. I may want to do Never/Return instead of the Splended Agony so I can better deal with fatties and planeswalkers.

Mike had suggested running Smugglers Copters instead of the Key to the City. Key is currently in there to enable discard for Archfiend, and to get either Hapatra or Ammit Eternal through to trigger their abilities. Another consideration of mine is Crocodile of the Crossing.

Any other thoughts or ideas?

I play tested this with Mike the other night and was pretty happy with the speed of the deck. I think I probably need more creatures with Madness but trying to strike the balance between enablers and cards with Madness is a tricky balance.

Stensia Masquerade did well but it is kind of at odds with Drana. As effective as it was, Mike suggested losing those for Asylum Visitors.

I also may want to switch out the Bloodhall Priests for Incorrigible Youths.

As always, thoughts and comments are appreciated!

Changed again

Every deck that can have Strombreath should probably have Stormbreath. I'm going to go to bat against Skullcrack though. A large chunk of the time, all it is going to do is three damage to a player. That's it, and in a non-agro deck, where getting those last few points of damage through is not as critical, it's not worth it. in SOME cases, cancelling lifegain is nice, but that's only going to happen one of two ways: either they gain all of their life by playing a card like "Well," or they have a monster lifelink Eidolon enchantment creature. In the first case, Skullcrack is only going to help you if you happen to have the available mana up on their turn when they play the card, which I guess you could do if you're playing the matchup well, but it still only delays it for a turn; a card like Anger of the Gods would permanently make Well not a threat. Then, there's the other lifegain instance, which is lifelink creatures (which we have a lot of). These also are reoccurring sources of lifegain, and a card that can kill them will stop your opponent from gaining a lot more life than a card that negates that lifelink for one turn. In either instance, killing stuff is better. -Boyf

If all Skullcrack did was 3 to the player I would agree, but in this instance it prevents the opponent from doing something that can be devastating to my chances of winning, the damage is really just icing, and with the amount of lifegain in our meta I feel its a must have. I would say Boros charm is the card that doesnt exactly fit, and its first on the chopping block for other cards I want to run.

The Chained to the Rocks are in there specifically for big dudes that I cant zap. Even though its cheap, I dont want to drop one until I absolutely have to, ideally mid to late game.

I was also concerned that I may not have enough threats to close games, but I want to see how this goes. I like the Phoenixes for the recursion so even though they arent the biggest threat, they stick around and chip away. Maybe a one or two of some big hasty flier at the top of my curve would work. Probably Stormbreath.

See, that's interesting, Eric, because I had always thought of this as a burny deck, but seeing the cards all laid out, it's definitely more controlling. If it is going the control route, I would look for a little bit more in the way of finishers... the Phoenix isn't enough, and if you're using the damage spells to kill things, then you're missing out on damage to the face. This will result in most of your games being pretty slow, which is a problem, because then they will be landing their five/six drops that lightning strike can't handle, and they will outpace you. And cards like Skullcrack are not controlling at all, since they just go to the face. -Boyf

Oddly enough, this was the Bolas deck, but it used an extra core set for Smith Standard, so it became hellkites. But now that we can have that core set, I went to make it back to a Bolas deck, and wasn't happy with it. I actually think it's better this way, and as much as i like Bolas, I do have that New Bolas deck coming down the pipes, so I don't need to force him into this one. -Boyf

Bolas doesn't make the cut for this anymore? Or is he still not standard.

-Bill

Identity crisis does seem strong. Burn decks can be flexible in approach so it mostly depends on how you play. The biggest things I see that support Boyf's opinion is the Phoenix with Chained to the Rocks. The Phoenix is very aggressive especially with the large array of ways to keep it coming back. While Chained to the Rocks implies control. However I think they can live together because Chained is aggressively costed. I think the bigger problem is that because of the flexibility that you could get caught between strategies. I think you'll need to assess your best strategy based on matchups and mostly stick with it for that game. There are minor tweaks you could make to lean one way or the other if you find one strategy is better for ou than the other.

Also, the dictate with a semi full hand is game I've so I'd definitely put at least one in.

-Bill

Well this looks like it could be annoyingly effective. Stop making decks with Myr in them.

E

Care to elaborate? I had usually played the deck as more of a control deck than quick burn, trying to keep the board clear, whittle down, and then close to the face. I didn't try to make it faster necessarily, just more efficient. The Skullcracks are in to shut down life gain, and Aurelia's fury as either a finisher or a bridge to the next turn where I can either finish or as a way to effectively counter a non creature spell that will give me trouble.

I'm thinking of throwing the Dictate back in as a one of, since I am playing more at instant speed and that is usually a game ender when I drop it.

I think this deck is having a bit of an identity crisis. Is it a red/white control deck, or is it a kill you ASAP deck? Either could be good, but tuning for both at once will be nearly impossible
. Boyf

Sorry for the delayed response, by thoughts on each point below:

1. It was a very close cut for the Snipes. My rationale is that they really need to be activated once-twice to be worth the three mana investment, and since I am running so few creatures that have a huge bullseye on them. So instead of the two passive damage, I thought more fuel would be better. If it doesn't work out, they are the first things back in.

2. So I need some way to deal with creatures I can't burn, so this is basically my cover all. My other thought was Young Pyromancer here and use his tokens to keep us pressure and chump when needed. I still many cut some spells and go with YP in here.

3. I love Boros Charm and two modes are useful (four to the face/indestructible) but most of the time I'd rather have the option to go creature.

4. Helix has been fine for me, especially good against aggro matchups, but two may be the right number rather than three. As for card draw, the only source in color I see would either be Wild Guess, which I think is butt, and Aggressive Mining, which actually could be interesting in the right circumstance. Don't know what I would take out for it though.

I think I like the sideboard version a little better than the current version. It's close but the curve being a little lower in the sideboard version really helps. Considerations I would still make (for the sideboard version):

1. I'd leave in the Guttersnipes. They give you a little more versatility and pseudo redundancy with the Satyr. If you don't get the Satyr you can cast the spells on the creature and still get your damage from the Snipe or obviously the reverse with the Satyr out.

2. I'm not sure you need Chained to the Rocks. I know why you've included them but I would hope that if somebody gets out a huge creature you could just out race your opponent or endlessly chump with your Phoenix.

3. If you add the Snipes back in I would go up to 4 Boros Charm. 4 to the face is awesome, and the indestructability could be very useful. It would also be your best target for Chandra's ultimate.

4. Finally, I'm sure you can better decide through playtesting but I'm worried Warleader's Helix is too expensive at 4 mana. You could include some kind of red draw spell to keep you churning and burning. Or just use those slots for Snipes/Charms.

I do like the changes though however and I don't know if I'd make too many changes before playing with it.

-Bill