Feedback Thread: Innovate Your Casual Holiday Magic
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Psarketos
Guest
I would <3 that comment if it were an option.
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Psarketos
Guest
A few brief notes on my play experiences with the Balefire deck. If you start with a Devoted Druid in hand, there is a reasonable chance that you can get a Vizier and the mana combo into place on your turn 3, potentially finding and placing the Vizier through casting a Genesis Hydra. That makes for a fun mechanics demonstration in the early game, sometimes with each player only having two lands in play.
On the other hand, the deck is not so fine tuned or consistent that your opponent is going to feel that the only way to beat you is in the first few turns. One of the variety of ways the deck can play out is a 7/7 Genesis Hydra on turn 4 that does not find a missing component of the combo, and instead becomes a three turn clock in classic green aggro deck style.
One of the more obscure interactions in the deck is that the permanent that Genesis Hydra puts onto the battlefield enters before the Genesis Hydra itself resolves and enters the battlefield, meaning that it can trigger a Fathom Mage that it finds to evolve it and draw a card, or put Cloudstone Curio onto the field and then immediately use it to bounce back an Eternal Witness or a previous Genesis Hydra and in that way give effective access to a copy of Tooth and Nail (potentially through Rune-Scarred Demon) to find further elements like Grand Abolisher and Verdant Eidolon.
On the other hand, the deck is not so fine tuned or consistent that your opponent is going to feel that the only way to beat you is in the first few turns. One of the variety of ways the deck can play out is a 7/7 Genesis Hydra on turn 4 that does not find a missing component of the combo, and instead becomes a three turn clock in classic green aggro deck style.
One of the more obscure interactions in the deck is that the permanent that Genesis Hydra puts onto the battlefield enters before the Genesis Hydra itself resolves and enters the battlefield, meaning that it can trigger a Fathom Mage that it finds to evolve it and draw a card, or put Cloudstone Curio onto the field and then immediately use it to bounce back an Eternal Witness or a previous Genesis Hydra and in that way give effective access to a copy of Tooth and Nail (potentially through Rune-Scarred Demon) to find further elements like Grand Abolisher and Verdant Eidolon.
P
Psarketos
Guest
Two very minor revisions after a lot more great games with the Balefire deck:
-1 Fathom Mage
-1 Loaming Shaman
+1 Chancellor of the Tangle
+1 Soul of the Harvest
Chancellor accelerates the "best possible" speed of the deck to a second turn win, casting Devoted Druid turn 1 and then potentially adding Vizier and the combo turn 2 even with only a single land in play (utilizing Unbridled Growth). It can also serve as a solid defense and aggro piece when mana is plentiful but the combo is elusive, a quality shared by the simplifying Soul of the Harvest for library draw.
-1 Fathom Mage
-1 Loaming Shaman
+1 Chancellor of the Tangle
+1 Soul of the Harvest
Chancellor accelerates the "best possible" speed of the deck to a second turn win, casting Devoted Druid turn 1 and then potentially adding Vizier and the combo turn 2 even with only a single land in play (utilizing Unbridled Growth). It can also serve as a solid defense and aggro piece when mana is plentiful but the combo is elusive, a quality shared by the simplifying Soul of the Harvest for library draw.
P
Psarketos
Guest
Balefire, in final form as posted to the Hall, turned out to be a bit too competitive for my local environment. So I built a zero nonland permanents version that is wonkier and provides more Timmy fun for all the players involved, with some random gamble 14 mana cost Epic Experiments finding Enter the Infinite and Inner Fire to make really big Fascinate casts with the library in hand followed by Worldfire. The hope for turn 4 is either finding a Devastation tide on draw step or opponent attack step with one of the cantrips, or to have 6 cards in hand to cast Inner Fire for five red mana to cast Hour of Devastation to clear the board of creatures and planeswalkers, buying time to do the very late game kinds of shenanigans that require a lot more lands in play.
Epic Devastation - Modern legal deck (60 cards)
Lands
12 Island
12 Mountain
Spells
4 Devastation Tide
3 Enter the Infinite
3 Epic Experiment
1 Fascination
4 Hour of Devastation
4 Inner Fire
4 Learn from the Past
4 Manamorphose
4 Opportunity
4 Telling Time
1 Worldfire
Epic Devastation - Modern legal deck (60 cards)
Lands
12 Island
12 Mountain
Spells
4 Devastation Tide
3 Enter the Infinite
3 Epic Experiment
1 Fascination
4 Hour of Devastation
4 Inner Fire
4 Learn from the Past
4 Manamorphose
4 Opportunity
4 Telling Time
1 Worldfire