Mana Flare deck in MP

[Spiderman]

Here's the setup:

Player A plays a red/blue deck with what little I could see Suq'Ata Lancers, Kjeldoran Skyknights, and burn. He tends to be "retributive" in that he goes after people who "offend" him.

Player B plays a straight mono-green deck with elves, Scryb Sprites, and Forces of Nature with Giant Growths and Aspect of Wolves thrown in.

Player C plays the "best" interesting decks; one is a 5 color deck that gets out the Penumbra stuff (mainly the Wurm) and Haunting whatever that puts the card in the graveyard on the top of the library. Also has Crosis? one of the original Elder Dragon Legends. The second I think is just a white weenie deck.

So with that "metagame" in mind, here's what I came up with:

Creatures

Clone
Shivan Dragon
Wall of Tears
Morphling
Mahamoti Djinn
Cinder Wall
Wall of Razors
Wall of Diffusion

Spells

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Disintegrate
2 Mana Flare
Fire Diamond
2 False Demise
2 Treasure Trove
Hammer of Bogarden
2 Control Magic
2 Ray of Command
2 Counterspell
Forbid
Capsize
Recall
Sky Diamond
Rolling Thunder
Fireball
Desertion

Land

3 Volcanic Islands
10 Islands
10 Mountains

The Walls are for quick defense, the Disintegrates and False Demises for the Penumbra creatures, and then just interesting yet random stuff thrown in. I think I need another Mana Flare and will probably take out a Treasure Trove for it (or Rolling Thunder). I want to see how the Walls play out; if they become targets or if the others will leave me alone, in which case I'd probably replace the Wall of Diffusion with another Wall of Razors to help against the Penumbra creatures.

Thoughts or suggestions?

 

[rkoelsch]

if you are going to use mana flare you need some more mana sinks. The dragon is one. do you have any mishra's factories? if not there are the walls of water and fire you could sub those in for other walls. Whenever I ran Manaflare I always had plenty of places to put the excess mana to avoid mana burn when you lightning bolt a creature and other situations. You might also try Whispers of the Muse instead of treasure trove. it will be one less permanent that could get hit.

 

[Mikeymike]

I would recommend running Whispers of the Muse instead of Treasure Trove. It is more expensive to use, but no one will waste a counter on it as opposed to blowing up the Trove (which they probably will, no one likes the guy who is out-drawing them). People who don't see it too often are usually very quick to underestimate it.

Find the room for at least 1 more Mana Flare. It makes the deck go 'boom'.

If you need another big flyer, consider the Palinchron. He can generate infinite mana w/ the Flare if you choose to do so, but even if you don't he still works beautifully w/ it. I hear the 2-Headed dragon isn't bad either, quickly turning into a 16/4 ver difficult to block flyer.

Another thing to keep in mind is that some form mass critter removal will be necessary. Run Faultline instead of Earthquake as its instant status will come in very handy in MP games. You wait until someone decides to attack you and you drop that little bomb during the declare blockers step, hopefully killing one of the people uninvolved in the battle.

Don't forget, Urza's Rages work nicely w/ Mana Flare.

The Disintegrates are a good call against the Penumbra's. However, run Kaervek's torch or another Rolling Thunder instead of the Fireball. Both are superior.

Keep in mind your odd numbered CC spells might become a nuiscance (Forbid, Hammer, Desertion). Make sure you've got mana-sinks available.

Last thing, FIND ROOM IN HERE FOR ILLUMINATE! ITS AMAZING! After your original thread I went and built a new U/R mana-flare deck and Illuminate is an absolute wrecking ball in big MP games. It is so ridiculously nasty. One game I had 2 Mana Flares out, and I was drawing little stuff and lands and I was in desperate need of a turnaround as a couple of big flyers were staring me down. I drew an Illuminate, Blew it double-kicked for 6 taking out a Rith and drawing into a Memory Crystal (which I cast, hey I had 2 Flares out) and a Capsize. Game set match.

My suggestions
+2 fatties
+2 Illuminate
+1 Mana Flare
+2 Whispers
+2 Star Compass (much better from the mid-game on than diamonds)
+2 Sweepers (Fault Line, Earthquake NOT Inferno)

-2 Diamonds
-2 False Demise
-2 Teasure Trove
-1 Fireball
-1 Disentegrate (for an Illuminate)
-1 Wall
-1 Forbid
-2 Ray of Command

Hope it helps

 

[Spiderman]

I only have cards up through Urza's Saga...

Lessee....rkoelsch: Right now since I only have 2 Mana Flares, having mana sinks isn't a problem through my test draws. I chose the 2cc walls for quick defense as I am apt to get hit if I don't have something out to deter my opponents, even for a little. With a third, that might change.... I have the Factories, they're in another deck Also the Treasure Trove was a good source of excess mana. But since I have two I can try a Whispers and see how it goes; I think I mentioned it before, but there's not a lot of enchantment removal in this group so far, so I might be able to get away with it.

Mikeymike: Aside from any comments above that might pertain (especially the card pool ) why is K's Torch better than Fireball? No one really plays blue to the 2 extra isn't worth it, and the ability for the Fireball to hit multiple targets seems to be better in MP (the Rolling Thunder makes more sense).

About the odd number mana, so far Iin my test draws I've been able to draw into the Diamonds for help in that area.

So I guess what I am able to do is

+2 fatties
+1 Mana Flare
+1 Whispers (wanna test it out as per above)

-1 Treasure Trove
fiddle around with the False Demises and Rays of Command.

 

[artifact]

Faultline is in Urza Saga.

 

[Spiderman]

I stopped checking after I checked the cards that I was definitely unfamilier with

I'm unsure how to handle the "sweeper" situation. Player C doesn't really use enough little guys to warrant it (and with his Penumbra creatures, I don't want them going to the graveyard. It's probably good for his weenie deck though.

Player B is a possibility, but from what I've seen, he's gotten 2 elves out at the same time. Most of the time he just puts out lands and Wild Growths.

Player A is the best candidate, but the most unpredicatable. If his creatures are the majority of those getting swept, I am most likely to gain his wrath for the rest of game (even at the expense of his own safety or other players).

So it's a conundrum. Probably the best possibility is Jokulhaups, since everyone (including me) is affected and everything but enchantments (which mostly I have of all the players anyway). What to do, what to do...

 

[Mikeymike]

I don't know if I'd run Jokulhaups, you've big bad spells you're trying to cast and to build the mana back up would take a little time.

Illuminate is an uncommon from Apocalypse that sees no tourney play, they are very easy to come by. Heck, I'm pretty sure I've got some spares if you're interested.

If no one's playing blue than Kaervek's Torch isn't as good as it normally is. But the Rolling Thunder is narsty. I managed to pick up a 4 pack of Faultline's off of ebay for the whopping price of $0.95, so if you want to get you hands on them its pretty easy to.

 

[Spiderman]

Well, if I already have Mana Flare in play, building back up shouldn't be too bad, relatively... I really only need three lands (and through test draws, I keep some in my hand for Forbid after a certain point). Of course, it helps my opponents too...

Do I hear Illuminates for free?

I've noticed a lot of "cheap" stuff on ebay. Once I get my foreign cards all squared away, I might do some real trading (probably not buying though).

 

[Mikeymike]

I'll check my spares, if I've got some extras I'd be willing to make a donation to the Spidey cause. I'll check for you this weekend and let you know.

 

[Spiderman]

I broke this out in our second MP game last night and it worked very well... again it was teams, two on two. My partner was playing a B/W deck that recycled creatures from the graveyard which had CIP abilities (mostly gain life from what I saw). Opponent A had a U/W/G threshold deck and Opponent B had a white deck (looked weenie-ish, but he plays with a lot of cards and said at one point to wait for his Angel).

Burned Opponent A's Merfolk Looters when they appeared which pretty much shut him down. Took some weenie damage from Opponent B's Suntail Hawks (one Holy Strengthed) until I was able to Fireball it and Rolling Thunder the other, a Pikeman, and an Icatian Javelineer. Control Magic-ed Opponent A's Pulsating Illusion and his Iridescent Angel Deserted him. And was drawing one or two cards a turn with Treasure Trove. Never got out a Mana Flare in time; when I drew one it was Pulsating Illusion fodder

All in all, went pretty satisfactory

 

[train]

I believe pyroclasm would do you well, especially if your teammate recycles from the graveyard.

You could also look at Shard Phoenix, or Crater Hellions... Both of these help assert your control and change the way another person will play.

If you could play Sneak Attack, once it's out you could phoenix every turn. This makes your creatures extremely cheap and leaves mana open for your other spells. In this case you could take out mana flare and not give everyone else the advantage.

Another form of creature control might be purging scythe. Cursed scroll - this is fun when you're using it with many a phoenix.

 

[Spiderman]

Well, we choose our teams at random and we don't have a lot of time to play, so we generally change after each game (and we get in about two games).

I have a Shard Phoenix, I'll try him next time.

Purging Scythe too (I thought of it before, but it's in another deck).

The Mana Flares aren't that bad; the other players tend to burn out quickly and usually don't use card drawing (except that threshold guy) so my burn and control spells can take care of any big guys that come out (at least that's the idea). Plus, in the last MP game we played, it actually helped my teammate since he had big casting creatures and spells