BR "Oops, All Blightning" - Battle Box Part 2

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Diz
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Post by Diz » 3 years ago

If you don't know the story behind this, see my UG Stompy - Battle Box Part 1 thread for more info!

This is what the BR pile condensed into once I downsized.
Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:

I have a friend who played a Jund Modern deck that utilized Bloodbraid Elf and Blightning, and that was the basis of the inspiration for the Blightning Tribal archetype in the Battle Box. With Lightning Skelemental coming out, it seemed like the perfect way to go. This deck has seen a few adjustments since its inception - I wanted it nearly all two-colored like its UG counterpart, so it was a big step to drop Bedevil and Dreadbore for Edict, but ultimately, I think this version of the deck is superior - especially since Angrath's Rampage is such a versatile removal spell. I just so happened to have 3 copies of KoCo on hand from my Legacy days, so I picked up a fourth and jammed those in here - especially since it can return a Skelemental to me for more slap-happy fun.

You may notice the land spread in this is much better than what the UG deck has. There are a few reasons for that.

The UG deck ramps like crazy, so very rarely is color-fixing needed. Additionally, diluting the amount of Snow lands in the UG deck reduces the efficacy of Ice-Fang Coatl, and I almost never want to play Coatl if I can't give it Deathtouch, which I feel would happen if I were to even humor the idea of Breeding Pool or some such nonsense as that.

Blightning Tribal tends to need color-fixing a lot more, which is why I'm willing to have the shocks in here. The fetches...I'll get into that in a sec, but Mire is one of the more inexpensive fetches and can grab any land I'm running that isn't a Temple.

So, until recently, the deck had another one of my pet cards in it - Wildfire Eternal. The card always felt out of place, and the only thing it was good for when I had an empty hand (which I often did) was pinging my opponents for 1.

Then, Theros Beyond Death came out.

When I picked up Uro for the UG deck, I picked up Kroxa for the BR deck...because it's freaking Blightning Tribal. It did exactly what I wanted to do on a cheap and easily recurring big body, and could use its effect every turn if it stayed out, even if my hand was empty. Of note, because I picked up Kroxa, I also picked up Mire - fuels Kroxa getting back on the board a lot more quickly.

It's like Wizards knew what my Casual-60 decks were and said, "Here, have a toy." :P

Anyway, this deck seems more powerful than the UG one, but they're both very different playstyles and lots of fun to pilot. Hope you enjoyed this 2-part series on the remnants of my Battle Box - let me know if you have any comments or questions overall, and I'll probably post my other Casual-60 decks here, at some point.
Last edited by Diz 8 months ago, edited 4 times in total.

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The Fluff
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Post by The Fluff » 3 years ago

if this is meant to be played with the ug stompy in the other thread. I would say it's fine already. With just a slight advantage to the ug, because Uro > Kroxa, and the ug can also bury this deck in card advantage by casting unexpected results every turn.
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AnimEVO 2020 - EFZ Tournament (english commentary) // Clearing 4 domain with Qiqi
want to play a uw control deck in modern, but don't have Jace or snapcaster? please come visit us at the Emeria thread

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Diz
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Post by Diz » 3 years ago

The Fluff wrote:
3 years ago
if this is meant to be played with the ug stompy in the other thread. I would say it's fine already. With just a slight advantage to the ug, because Uro > Kroxa, and the ug can also bury this deck in card advantage by casting unexpected results every turn.
Surprisingly, I think this deck is the better of the two. Yeah, the UG one can consistently have a LOT more mana than this one, but this one has extremely efficient threat removal, can deal with Hexproof/Shroud handily, and can rip apart UG's hand before they can even land a big guy.

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Post by The Fluff » 3 years ago

hmm, if we were neighbors, I would have liked to play these duel decks all day. Uro vs Kroxa with no sideboard cards looks fun.
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AnimEVO 2020 - EFZ Tournament (english commentary) // Clearing 4 domain with Qiqi
want to play a uw control deck in modern, but don't have Jace or snapcaster? please come visit us at the Emeria thread

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Post by Diz » 3 years ago

In the off chance we ever happen to hang out, I'd be more than glad to. :P

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Post by Diz » 3 years ago

I've made a change!

I have replaced Skull Rend with Blazing Specter.

Reason:

Skull Rend is a more expensive, weaker Blightning when in single player, which is how 99.99% of my Casual-60 games go. For the most part, by the time I can cast Skull Rend, I'd rather have more damage on hand, or a repeatable effect, like Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger. Blazing Specter offers the opportunity for both - it has Haste, which means I get the discard effect immediately, it's 1 less mana than Skull Rend, and while it can't hit multiple players at once in that .01% of times, that's such an insignificant amount of time that I'd rather just have the better card - plus, if it survives for more than 1 turn, it discards at least as much as Skull Rend does, but does more damage in doing so. The deck is also hard-pressed against decks with Flying unless I happen to draw enough removal, and this actually perfectly balances out the number of each type of card I run - creatures, removal, and discard/burn (even though each of the creatures function as discard/burn, themselves), and feels like it will make for a nicer, more-rounded overall gameplan rather than potentially overextending by playing all of my spells. More creatures, in this deck, is a good thing.

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Post by The Fluff » 3 years ago

Blazing Specter is one of my favorite cards years ago. Costs one less than skull rend, evasion, haste, and a body that can block in tight situations. Certainly an improvement.
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want to play a uw control deck in modern, but don't have Jace or snapcaster? please come visit us at the Emeria thread

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Post by Diz » 2 years ago

Update: I've replaced Diabolic Edict with Sudden Edict for reasons that I hope are obvious.

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Post by Diz » 1 year ago

Got to play with this deck, the other day. I won both rounds, though I can't remember all that much about how the games, in question, went.The biggest weakness this deck has is running out of fuel, which the additions of Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger and Blazing Specter seem to address well enough when I actually get them. Some of the cards I'm using also feel a little underwhelming when my opponent has run out of things to discard or destroy, but that just means the deck is doing its job adequately. It's hard to say whether or not this deck or CRAB BATTLE!!! are the stronger of the two, but, as far as Casual-60 is concerned, it's pretty clear that they are my two most consistently powerful decks.

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