Five With Flores

The first video of the new year!

Come watch two matches with All-in Red as well as an in-depth SWOT analysis on the archetype.

LOVE
MIKE

PS I used Petras Ratkevicius’s 6-0 All-in Red deck for this video. If you haven’t seen his list, here it is:

4 Chrome Mox
2 Trinisphere
1 Umezawa’s Jitte

4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Deus of Calamity

3 Blood Moon
4 Desperate Ritual
3 Empty the Warrens
3 Magus of the Moon
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song
1 Shattering Spree
4 Simian Spirit Guide

19 Mountain

sideboard:
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Dead // Gone
1 Magus of the Moon
4 Martyr of Ashes
2 Shattering Spree
2 Smash to Smithereens

An updated deck list followed by a couple of matches with All-in Red, including two mini-You Make the Plays!

I have been playing mono The Rock lately but some discussion on my mailing list has put me off The Rock for the moment. I decided to play the other Extended deck I like tonight, All-in Red.

This is my deck list:

4 Chrome Mox

4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Deus of Calamity
2 Manamorphose

4 Blood Moon
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song
4 Simian Spirit Guide

18 Mountain

sideboard:
3 Umezawa’s Jitte
4 Firespout
4 Gutteral Response
4 Shattering Spree

Basically I reversed the numbers on Manamorphose and Empty the Warrens from the pre-Pro Tour Berlin version. Manamorphose really just improves Warrens; and Warrens was the best threat. I don’t know if Manamorphose will ultimately make the prime time version of the deck list, but I like it quite a bit because I have some gamble to me and have been known to play it just to see what happens. What usually happens is that I reveal a Demigod of Revenge or some such.

In this deck, versus Standard, I actually prefer Deus of Calamity more than Demigod of Revenge. In All-in Red in Extended, you don’t actually get to play multiple Demigods in a single game very often because you simply don’t have the mana (you usually use a lot of the Red Dark Ritual cards and don’t tend to have a lot of staying power); if you can play Deus of Calamity on the first turn on the play, there are really very few ways for you to lose. At the least you usually get to play The Abyss for a while until they can deal with the Deus, at which point you can often clean up with a medium Empty the Warrens or some other threat, exploiting the, you know, calamity that the Deus wrecked.

I originally only wanted to play about three matches but they went relatively quickly and ended up playing about five. Everyone I played tonight was very nice. Thanks for the games all.

ONE

Game One:

My opponent led off on Darksteel Citadel, pass.

Now no Affinity deck will ever do that so I put him on the Lightning Bolt deck. I kept this hand.

YOU MAKE THE PLAY ALERT. What do you run (answer in the forums)?

Chrome Mox
Chrome Mox
Seething Song
Empty the Warrens
Magus of the Moon
Demigod of Revenge
Mountain
Mountain

We can discuss this in future, but what I actually did was to play both the Moxes, imprinting Demigod of Revenge and Magus of the Moon to play turn one Empty the Warrens, burning to 19.

The other option is to play Demigod of Revenge; however as I put my opponent on Lightning Bolt deck, I assumed that he would have a hard time dealing with eight Empty the Warrens tokens whereas he might be able to just Shrapnel Blast the Demigod out of the sky if need be.

He played Keldon Marauders, putting your hero to 18.

I sent all my Goblin tokens and put him to 13.

He counterattacked and put me to 15, then played Sulfuric Vortex.

I looked at his board… Darksteel Citadel and Great Furnace, eh?

I will be on 12 on upkeep. If he hits a land, that Sulfuric Vortex is gonna… well you gotta play the cards that they give you!

He had the double Shrapnel Blast, but sadly (for him), no fourth land. Huzzah!

Sideboarding:
I decided to side in 3 Umezawa’s Jittes and 1 Shattering Spree for 4 Blood Moon. Magus of the Moon is no great shakes but at least he has a body for the Jittes I sided in.

Game Two:

He opened on Spark Elemental.

I responded with turn one Deus of Calamity.

Pause.

Yep. That’s a concession.

1-0

TWO

I played a very nice player with medium Red whom I have played a couple of times before with my version of The Rock.

Game One

He shipped to five and kept a one lander. It wasn’t a competitive hand against my second turn Demigod of Revenge.

Sideboarding:
I sided four Firespout and 3 Jitte for seven Blood Moons and Magus of the Moons (leaving a Magus, obviously).

I had to use the first Firespout on his turn one Slith Firewalker. There were no Seething Song for Arc-Slogger heroics in this one and All-in Red beat medium Red in unspectacular fashion.

2-0

THREE

Game One

I kept two Moon cards versus Lightning Bolt deck. Luckily I drew eight Mountains off the top. So at the end of the game, my spell count was a Mox, Blood Moon, and Magus of the Moon. No, I didn’t get there.

Sideboarding
I sided identically to the first match, above. I probably should have sided in more Shattering Sprees.

Game Two

Turn two Deus of Calamity was deployed, but he blocked to stall and played Ensnaring Bridge! Good gravy. I wasn’t sure what to do and played a naked Demigod of Revenge, which did nothing. Then I topdecked a Jitte. He ran out a Pyrostatic Pillar. I decided I didn’t want to mess with that with my no-acceleration hand and just made two Warrens tokens with the outlook of hopefully getting something online. However he had a Mogg Fantatic to keep the tokens off.

I played some dorks, took Pillar damage; he had to burn every one and take Pillar damage to keep Jitte off him. Eventually it was 5-7 my lead but he had this card Shrapnel Blast and saved it for when I foolishly summoned a Simian Spirit Guide.

I am not sure how I should have played it differently. Possibly I should have waited for another Warrens, but I think waiting too long I would have just died to multiple burn spells.

2-1

FOUR

Game One

He opened on a tapped Steam Vents.

I was on the play and answered with turn two Deus.

Concession!

Steam Vents? What is that? I assumed Fae but didn’t do anything on account of possibly being wrong.

Game Two

I got Spell Snared as a two-for one (I had already committed Rite of Flame)… so that prevented a turn two or three Empty the Warrens for six.

Then I resolved some Moon-ish spells, and the race was his Vendilion Clique versus my Magus of the Moon.

Following I got in Empty the Warrens for eight; this survived the aforementioned Vendilion Clique, which took my other Empty the Warrens.

He kept sending the Clique and used Threads of Disloyalty to mise one of my tokens.

Then he showed me Venser, which executed two tokens, and Vedalken Shackles.

I thought I had enough gas because of holding a Deus of Calamity back, but he had Flashfreeze as well.

Luckily I had gotten him to two life at this point.

So basically I could win on a storm Warrens or a Demigod of Revenge, but probably be frozen out by anything else. Unfortunately I knew there was one of my remaining three Warrens on the bottom of my deck, meaning I only really had two Warrens left…

But luckily one was on top.

So Mox for nil got me four tokens… possibly enough to win.

But no! Engineered Explosives ate all my guys and suddenly the fae was off to the races. He even made a Spellstutter Sprite for no value.

On his main phase he Shackled my remaining 2/2 dork to get in with Venser and the Clique. Okay… Shackles tapped. Sprite tapped. YT on two.

I could smell the demigod on top.

Yep, topdeck city!

That’s match. Thank you top of my deck!

3-1

FIVE

Game One

I was on the draw.

He ran out turn one Overgrown Tomb.

I answered with turn one Deus of Calamity.

He was honored to be able to eat a Tarmogoyf.

Oblivion Ring! No fun.

Main deck Jitte? Even less fun; then Dark Confidant.

I basically had to play a Warrens for two just to keep the Confidant / Jitte from running me over.

Check and check plus… but he still had a Jitte with a counter.

I sprang into action with a hasty 5/4.

But he had another Oblivion Ring!

I was waiting for that and played another Deus. Whew.

But he answered with Mogg Fanatic, now wearing the Jitte.

He trades, but greviously, including a Seal of Fire.

Now it’s Spirit Guide beatdown.

But no! Kird Ape.

I play Magus of the Moon.

A terrible battle ensues, killing everyone and soaking up all the Jitte counters.

Nothing from him…

And I Mox for nothing, and play four tokens from Warrens.

And finally I get by a Jitte!

Sideboarding:
I sided out 1 Magus of the Moon and two Manamorphose for three Umezawa’s Jitte. Magus is okay-plus, but I figured he had Red removal and Jittes (which are colorless) as well as Plains for Oblivion Ring… So not that good.

Game Two

This is the hand I kept:

Simian Spirit Guide
Simian Spirit Guide
Mountain
Deus of Calamity
Blood Moon
Seething Song
Magus of the Moon

He opened with Windswept Heath for Wooded Foothills.

I ripped a Mountain.

YOU MAKE THE PLAY ALERT: What do you do?

I elected to play first turn Blood Moon using both Guides.

He answered with a turn two 1/2 Tarmogoyf, which made me think maybe I should have played the Magus instead.

My next two draws were Deus and Seething Song, so little direct improvement, especially as he mised Plains.

Next turn I made Deus with Rite of Flame and Seething Song.

He swung…

I blocked and he finished off the Deus with a Tribal Flames.

He ripped and played Oblivion Ring on my poor Blood Moon.

I ripped and played Deus.

He played Confidant into Confidant…

But your hero picked up Jitte.

Uncontested Jitte did what uncontested Jitte does.

4-1

So 4-1… Not conclusive but certainly a fine record for the night.

Please address how you would have dealt with those opening hands in the comments below.

LOVE
MIKE