Standard Spike: RG Ramp-Beats in STD

Posted on June 4, 2012 by _ShipItHolla


 

  1. It is funny to see your sideboarding plans. To point out a few problems with your sideboard: First of all, you didn’t use Hellrider so maybe he shouldn’t be in your sideboard as he doesn’t do a lot that Huntmaster of the Fells or Wolfir Silverheart already do (better). Same goes for Zealot which you only boarded in once and only as a one off. So maybe it should only be a one off.

    That would give you five slots in the sideboard for:
    1 – more Bonfire of the Damned – which was good against every other aggro deck. and an out to Geist of Saint Traft
    1 – big Garruk – as another angle of attack against control or the mirror.
    1 – more Pillar of Flame – good against zombies, opposing geist and decent against delver
    1 – Sword of Feast and Famine – good against zombies and Grave Titans.
    1 – Primeval Titan as a way to just go bigger.

  2. seeing one of the best red aggro creatures around (Hellrider) in the board was kinda strange to me.
    Since you have very little problems getting double red, I would think you would want him in the maindeck to increase the pressure.

    in round 2 game 3, I was wondering why you didn’t use the conscripts to grab the titan and just swing? there was one turn where you could have gotten through with enough to kill Tamiyo and have 2 zombies token to block the crackback next turn. sitting around waiting for a control deck to beat you in the late game is also kinda strange to me. Also, you sided out the slime, which was your only out against curse of death’s hold.

    The deck just needs more tuning and it can be really good! Please don’t punt and play Delver. I watch that deck being played every weekend on the SCG coverage, I don’t want to watch a video about it here!

  3. The removal suite really needs work to tackle the “mageblade” delver decks with Angel in them. I’ve been dinking around with this and it definitely feels stronger to have some maindeck pillar and an extra crushing vines in the board.

    Would love to see the next iteration of this deck next week, or at least a brief update on the direction you decided to take it.

  4. The sideboard was still being ironed out, but I certainly stand by the Hellriders and and Conscripts. The Hellriders are only there for specific matchups that I don’t expect to see a lot of, but that I still want to beat (which is why they aren’t maindeck). I did go down to 2 Conscripts because of WRR and Reanimator pretty much falling off the map. They still come in with Hellriders against some control decks (generally to take Planeswalkers).

    Garruk is too slow to be effective against control imo. Pillar is only better than other options against Zombies and I don’t care about that matchup enough to play more. I would only maindeck Swords in this deck which is why it’s all SOWAP. Primeval Titan was part of that plan before Silverheart was printed. Now you can always going big.

    @Mad_3570, I didn’t see any good opportunity for that. I could have been wrong though.

    This is what I’m up to now (for the format pre-Sam Black’s deck):

    4 Llanowar Elves
    4 Birds of Paradise
    1 Avacyn’s Pilgrim
    4 Strangleroot Geist
    1 Borderland Ranger
    3 Wolfir Avenger
    4 Huntmaster of the Fells
    2 Wolfir Silverheart

    4 Arc Trail
    2 Dismember
    1 Bonfire of the Damned
    3 Sword of War and Peace
    4 Green Sun’s Zenith

    4 Copperine Gorge
    4 Rootbound Crag
    3 Mountain
    10 Forest
    2 Kessig Wolf Run

    Sideboard
    1 Acidic Slime
    2 Ancient Grudge
    1 Bonfire of the Damned
    2 Crushing Vines
    4 Hellrider
    1 Mountain
    1 Triumph of Ferocity
    1 Wolfir Silverheart
    2 Zealous Conscripts