Raff Capashen: Flash, like it oughta be...

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OCPunisher
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Post by OCPunisher » 4 years ago

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Introduction

This is my take on Raff Capashen. Flash has always been my favorite keyword ability in this game. The ability to play with speed and timing is a tactical advantage I find second to none.
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Why play Raff?

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You might like Raff if:
1) You enjoy hot, nasty speed.
2) You enjoy artifacts and/or historic permanents.
3) You think Vedalken Orrery should be in every deck.

You might dislike Raff if:
1) You want raw power.
2) You hate artifacts.
3) You think everyone should just play on their own turns and leave yours alone.

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Deck History

I first fell in love with the flash mechanic when Yeva was spoiled way back in Core Set 2013. I've maintained that deck since its inception and continued adding copies of Vedalken Orrery and Leyline of Anticipation wherever possible. So, when Raff was spoiled, I thought it would be an opportunity to expand flash in a color pair that was probably more equipped to handle it.

Unfortunately, the first few iterations of the deck didn't go so well. Most of the legendary creatures were big and slow, and they all generally preferred to be the main attraction rather than co-exist. Furthermore, unlike green, blue and white are not exactly made to have copious amounts of mana every game, which made it even more difficult to play expensive legendary spells. Finally, planeswalkers just didn't work well with flash, because they couldn't be activated until my next turn, so casting them on someone else's turn didn't really matter.

Today, this deck is a mix of artifacts, legends, and other spells that already have their own speed. The deck aims to break the traditional boundary of playing your spells only on your turn as much as possible, always leaving mana open for any number of possibilities.

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The Deck

Flash like it oughta be

Sorceries (1):

Approximate Total Cost:

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Card Analysis

A brief explanation of the 99 finalists in the current deck.
SPOILER
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Coming soon!
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Maybe-board

Flash-able cards that could make the deck in the near future
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- Baird, Steward of Argive: Deters the Overrun alpha-strikes, and just generally makes it more trouble than it's worth to be attacked.
- Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker: A fun "surprise" whenever someone attacks you with a few bodies. If you can absorb the damage, the backlash could be worthwhile.
- God-Eternal Oketra: Solid on her own, a nice surprise when flashed in, and gets out of control if you untap with it. Only question is how many actual creature spells I want to cast and whether or not I can make use of the extra bodies. Feels like a thicker Darien.
- Medomai the Ageless: An Azorius legend that doesn't see much play, but if this comes in right before I untap, it could have a very immediate payoff.
- Kozilek, the Great Distortion: I usually shy away from the big Eldrazi, but lately this one has started to grow on me.
- Spellskite: If you need to save Raff or someone else, or you just want to mess with something important.
- Coldsteel Heart: Slightly more versatile than either of the Mirage Diamonds.
- Neurok Stealthsuit: from the cycle that brought us Cranial Plating, this card can be cast AND equipped at instant speed. Doesn't help against wraths or edicts.
- Insidious Will: this card is always on my radar in any blue deck because it's just so flexible, and I love that. Same goes for Cryptic Command.
- Miraculous Recovery: a very obscure card in a world full of Karmic Guides, but this might be the corner case for it because of the instant speed.
- various cheap Counterspells like Swan Song, Negate, Absorb, etc.
- various draw-X spells like Pull from Tomorrow, Stroke of Genius, Jace's Ingenuity, Opportunity, etc.
- Maze of Ith: Another card that perfectly fits the theme of "hold up everything". Doesn't make any mana, though.
- Flagstones of Trokair: Fetches non-basic Plains.
Non-flash-able cards on the verge of entering the deck
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- Thalia's Lancers: Searches up nearly every spell, and a few specific lands to boot.
- Sun Titan: one of my all-time favorites. Lots of targets to get back.
- Blind Obedience: slows a lot of things down, making your flash-speed all the faster.
- Karmic Justice: the ultimate rattlesnake.
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Changelog

Changelog
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2019-04-23:
- Ephara, God of the PolisBlackblade Reforged
- Heliod, God of the SunMirage Mirror
- Too many four-drops..

2019-04-25:
- Blighted CataractArch of Orazca
- Lack of recursion and Memorial is functionally the same plus colored mana.

2019-05-09:
- Return to DustForsake the Worldly
- Soooo many four-drops that this mostly-similar card will do just fine.

2019-05-24:
- UnwindDovin's Veto
- Easy upgrade here once I acquired a Veto.

2019-06-05:
- Lavinia of the TenthHanna, Ship's Navigator
- Darien, King of KjeldorScroll Rack
- DuplicantWeatherlight
- Keiga, the Tide StarCapsize
- Dreamstone HedronExpedition Map
- Meteor GolemStonecloaker
- ScourglassTezzeret the Seeker
- Azorius ChancerySmothering Tithe
- VesuvaThespian's Stage
- Nimbus MazeAcademy Ruins
- Skycloud ExpanseEvolving Wilds
- Temple of EnlightenmentGhost Quarter
- Cut a lot of the bulky, expensive cards that didn't really work well with anything else.
- Added a few more artifact-based cards, shuffle effects, and utility lands.

2019-07-02:
- Thespian's StageHall of Heliod's Generosity
- MemnarchEmpress Galina
- Platinum EmperionUgin, the Ineffable
- Cut more costs for more utility. Galina is easier to activate than Memnarch, Ugin offers more utility than Plats.

2019-07-05:
- Arch of OrazcaNimbus Maze
- CapsizeEnlightened Tutor
- Deck still isn't made of mana, and needed a bit more color-producing land.
Last edited by OCPunisher 4 years ago, edited 20 times in total.
A deck for every color: Rakdos | Lord | Heliod | Yeva | Tetsuko | Scarab | Kykar | Kozz | Athreos | Haldan/Pako

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OCPunisher
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Post by OCPunisher » 4 years ago

Reserved for future use...
A deck for every color: Rakdos | Lord | Heliod | Yeva | Tetsuko | Scarab | Kykar | Kozz | Athreos | Haldan/Pako

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shermanido37
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Post by shermanido37 » 4 years ago

This deck has seen quite a lot of changes since I first saw its inception in MTGS. I will always treasure the possibility of playing an instant speed Memnarch, but I guess I recognize that this is way too much of a win-more play.
However, there are a ton of cards that I have no idea why you cut: all instant speed draw spells, Rout... I'll think of more.
I also fail to see how many of the cards in the current list make the cut: Disdainful Stroke, Stonecloaker, Crystal Shard, Hall of Heliod's Generosity... I'll probably think of more.
Sadly, I don't think Scroll Rack should be in the deck. It's best when you have ways to shuffle your deck, or when you have ways of abusing Miracle cards, or when you run Land Tax, and none of those apply to you.

More cards that I think could definitely make the cut:
Scourglass: 1 of every 5 cards in your deck is an artifact. This is instant speed and is pretty much an asymmetric Rout here. Also op with Academy Ruins. Feels like it must go in.
Relic of Progenitus: it looks like you have plenty of pretty bad grave hate, when you forgot just how good the original grave hate master can be. Especially here when you can flash it in. 2: Exile all graveyards. Draw a card.
Coldsteel Heart: you're running cards like Marble Diamond when this card is strictly better, since you choose what color it gives you.
Celestial Colonade: speaks for itself. If you have it, it definitely needs to go in.
I'll think of more, but that's enough for now.

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pokken
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Post by pokken » 4 years ago

Just a tiny side note but I usually prefer tormod's crypt to relic in EDH because it can be recycled (and is findable the same way and costs 0 mana instead of essentially 2).

But I do think a piece of artifact grave hate would go a very long way with it having flash.

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OCPunisher
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Post by OCPunisher » 4 years ago

As always, I appreciate the feedback. Hopefully this community keeps growing into what the former regime had in its hay-day.
- Disdainful Stroke: Someone recently told me that almost anything worth countering in this format is gonna cost four or more mana. So far, it's done the job.
- Stonecloaker: On paper, it looked like a nice little two-way card. Sometimes it'll protect Raff from harm, others it will remove some key graveyard pieces. It hasn't yet come up in a game, but I could easily see a scenario where three mana per card to exile would be too much, or it would be simpler to have something like a Tormod's Crypt to dig up.
- Small aside: I do agree on Crypt being better than Relic of Progenitus. The two extra mana is a real thing, and being able to somewhat decide which yard to target as opposed to blowing them all away and getting fringe hate from the other guys who were using not abusing their yards is also relevant.
- Crystal Shard: this card is definitely worth the spot. I don't run too many creatures, but the few that I have are pretty fragile, and this is very useful at saving them. It also really keeps other people honest about tapping out on their turn.
- Hall of Heliod's Generosity: I picked some up for cheap, and thought "it's a land, so it's practically free". But, I see that I only have a couple actual targets for this, so it's probably not good enough right now.
- Scroll Rack: you made a good point about getting "library-locked" without enough shuffle effects.
- Scourglass: I cut it because I had a gut feeling that the timing restriction of when it could actually get used would be a detriment at some point.
- Coldsteel Heart: Yes, it's functionally better than either Mirage Diamond, but this deck isn't that hard up for color-fixing. As of this posting, my other five dual-colored decks average 85 color pips apiece, and Raff only has 60.
- Celestial Colonnade: This feels like a Serra Angel with the Dash mechanic, and I don't think this is the format for that kind of ability.

EDIT: one more card I've been thinking about is The Immortal Sun. It does a lot of things very well, but it's a non-bo with any planeswalker. I don't currently favor planeswalkers right now for reasons already mentioned, but the Sun gets worse with each one I do play, and I finally picked up a set of Narsets (say that three times fast!).
A deck for every color: Rakdos | Lord | Heliod | Yeva | Tetsuko | Scarab | Kykar | Kozz | Athreos | Haldan/Pako

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OCPunisher
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Post by OCPunisher » 4 years ago

Got a chance to play two more games with Raff today. Unfortunately, the results were pretty bad.
- Game 1, vs Niv-Mizzet, Reborn, Pir & Toothy, and Teysa Karlov
- This game started out awkwardly, with a turn THREE?!? Talisman of Progress into a turn four Jace. I tried to dig for more lands, but promptly got Brainstorm-locked the very next turn. I spent the rest of the game flipping the top card of my library over and passing while the others were building up Avenger of Zendikar tokens.
- Game 2, vs Niv, Oloro, and Tatyova
- This game wasn't much better. I drew a bunch of clunky, expensive planeswalkers that I couldn't protect, and had no way to draw extra cards or wipe the board or gain any kind of card advantage.

Going forward, I'm pretty sure that planeswalkers just aren't right for this deck. Flash means nothing to them, and they're among the most expensive spells in the deck.

One card that did make a positive impression was Empress Galina. She came down easily enough and made a lasting impression even after she was gone.

More to come later.
A deck for every color: Rakdos | Lord | Heliod | Yeva | Tetsuko | Scarab | Kykar | Kozz | Athreos | Haldan/Pako

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Ertai Planeswalker
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Post by Ertai Planeswalker » 4 years ago

I just made a Raff dedk recently with some stuff i had lying around and it tastes like more, so i like seeing a list with some more thought put into it.

Gotta ask though: why run The Immortal Sun when you run a decent suite of walkers yourself? Seems kind of nonbo.

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OCPunisher
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Post by OCPunisher » 4 years ago

Ertai Planeswalker wrote:
4 years ago
Gotta ask though: why run The Immortal Sun when you run a decent suite of walkers yourself? Seems kind of nonbo.
That's a good catch. At the time of this writing, I only have six walkers, and very few ways to actually dig up The Immortal Sun, so it hasn't become an issue yet. Furthermore, I'm probably going to cut a number of the clunkier planeswalkers (Karn 7, Ugin 8, Elspeth 6), thus reducing the chances of a negative interaction.
A deck for every color: Rakdos | Lord | Heliod | Yeva | Tetsuko | Scarab | Kykar | Kozz | Athreos | Haldan/Pako

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