I think caldera hellion is a great card and deserves some playtest indeed, and thats a perfect situation where u take PROFIT from your ‘to-be-dead-guys’ anyway, since you are trying infest (wich is harder to cast than usual).

great comment, great idea too.

I am off to Ohio in a few hours but I am first going to respond to my, um, beloved readership’s responses to yesterday’s blog post.

@ enzoreal
I don’t know how much slower it is than straight Red. I think Blightning is just more strategic… A lot of the difference is if you want to play a grinder with Bitterblossom or stick Blightning to pull him on his heels… But I think you can get similarly quick wins behind Figure, Thunder, Demigod, and Flame Javelin.

Yes, Blightning Beatdown is far better against Kithkin due to the Black sideboard cards. I think the Fae matchup is still quite favorable. Your Blossom is generally more awesome in-matchup than theirs.

@ enzoreal again
I don’t know what I would change at this point.

@ janVN
As you know the video is coming later this week, to be released on the old YouTube.

I approach it like this: Magma Spray is mostly good against Kitchen Finks. It in fact is mostly good against Kitchen Finks in early Stage Two. Everlasting Torment can take the wind out of their sideboard cards at any stage. This is pretty important for protecting Stage Three inevitability. Moreover you have these decks like B/W that are siding both Burrenton Forge-Tender and Runed Halo in an attempt to overtake the Red Deck, and Everlasting Torment stops them all.

I like cards like Unwilling Recruit, but you usually have to have the initiative to take full advantage. I prefer cards that work more generally unless I have a strategic decision to go otherwise. Also you are never going to beat a Rhox War Monk with Magma Spray but a lowly Mogg Fanatic can go 3/4 of the way with a Torment engaged.

End of the day, I also dislike drawing multiple Torments generally, but I feel like you really need to draw one to win some of these battles sideboarded and want to err on the side where I am more likely to draw my first one.

@ KZipple
What he said.

@ Gifts Ungiven
You are a grammar nazi. But that’s okay. I like grammar nazis. Fixed.

As for the Birds of Paradise play, it’s a gamble. Either he has something or he doesn’t. In this case he didn’t and I got in. If he had something, it all depends on what it is. If it’s just a Civic Wayfinder my play is still fine. If it’s a Kitchen Finks I have to think about something else. I simply made the most mana efficient play. Remember I have minimal information at this point. Lots of decks aren’t even playing Kitchen Finks any more. Of course if it were Rhox War Monk I would have had an uphill battle to fight… whether it was turn two or turn three.

LOVE
MIKE

I love the Pikula rule. I play enough quirky cards in constructed formats that I think more people should probably be taking heed of that rule and killing anything I play that they subsequently have to pause to read.

One question:

He plays Birds of Paradise (always trouble).

I play Figure of Destiny turn one over Tarfire.

Luckily he has no explosive turn two and I Tarfire his Birds and get in for two.

What was the thought here behind choosing not to burn the Bird? When couch his lack of an explosive turn two in terms of luck on your part, that makes it sound as if you think you made the strictly worse play of the two options and got lucky. If so, why did you make the poor play? Or are you just spinning it up to tell a better story?