MTGNexus

Opinions on Cavalcade? This is just my personal list, so I know there are a lot of small variations (like, cut one Heartfire for another Chandra). I've been thinking about viability of splashing to make non mono-red cavalcade. So far my favorites are:
Splash Green for Once Upon a Time, Gilded Goose, and Lovestruck Beast
Splash Blue for a more grindy, controlling buil, similar to mono-blue tempo with chip from flyers and cavalcade as an enabler for spitfire and extra damage, including, Improbable Alliance, Overwhelmed Apprentice, Faerie Duelist, Nightveil Sprite, Spectral Sailor, Callous Dismissal
Opinions? How viable are some of these? If not, why not?

I've been running a list similar to Austin Yost's, with 4 Gingerbrute, no Heartfire or Scampering Scorcher. It can be really explosive if you get one of the combos going, but other times it doesn't happen and you have all Raging Goblin vs. their multiple-toughness dudes, or you have no Raging Goblins and your Cavalcade doesn't do anything. Splashing doesn't help with this problem and probably just makes everything worse. You're fast aggro, so you want fast mana, so you want to be mono-color. And you're running Torbran, Thane of Red Fell so you especially want to be mono-red.

Yost was also running a few Castle Embereth, I haven't tried that yet, but it's probably important for dealing with the "all you have is Raging Goblin" problem - you can activate it after Cavalcade triggers and it will almost always come in untapped, so we are probably leaving free damage on the table by not playing it. I guess I'll spend my few remaining Rare wilds on adding a couple and try that.

rujasu wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I've been running a list similar to Austin Yost's, with 4 Gingerbrute, no Heartfire or Scampering Scorcher. It can be really explosive if you get one of the combos going, but other times it doesn't happen and you have all Raging Goblin vs. their multiple-toughness dudes, or you have no Raging Goblins and your Cavalcade doesn't do anything. Splashing doesn't help with this problem and probably just makes everything worse. You're fast aggro, so you want fast mana, so you want to be mono-color. And you're running Torbran, Thane of Red Fell so you especially want to be mono-red.

Yost was also running a few Castle Embereth, I haven't tried that yet, but it's probably important for dealing with the "all you have is Raging Goblin" problem - you can activate it after Cavalcade triggers and it will almost always come in untapped, so we are probably leaving free damage on the table by not playing it. I guess I'll spend my few remaining Rare wilds on adding a couple and try that.

Specifically fast mana and consistency was the idea of Gilded Goose and Once Upon a Time
I personally believe that izzet cavalcade is a different deck entirely

Gilded Goose just does not go with what the rest of the deck does. Once Upon a Time is fine if you pay 0 for it, but brutal if you have to pay 1G for it. I have played a lot of red decks, and trust me when I say these are not cards you play in fast red decks.

And yeah, if you're adding blue, you're not splashing, you're building a whole different Cavalcade deck that is slower, more interactive, and not playing Torbran. I don't know if that deck is good or bad or what it would optimally look like.

What do you think your brew would be for izzet cavalcade? Also, someone I know happened to mention that they prefer black splash in cavalcade, but they didn't say why, and I haven't been able to ask them. What are common black splashes in Cavalcade, if any? White just seems bad, but if anyone has any ideas, please share. I'm basically turning this into a Cavalcade discussion thread at this point.

I am not seeing big tournament results for the deck, but apocryphally it is at least competitive in bo1 on Arena, so I will move it to Competitive Decks.

Just to contribute to the discussion, the following is a list that I found on the Discord of a streamer, Might be worth a review, but I haven't tested it myself.

This is the list I run normally for Bo1.

It runs lean. Heartfire goes back and forth with Lava Coil, but I've been in a few situations where I don't have the open mana or a creature to sac utilize it. LC can often clear the road of a flier for Spitfire to get in for lethal. Mask and Tibalt are MD'd for utility and token generation for Cavalcade. BTW, getting Sac/Die triggers with Footlight equipped to a Mask after attackers are declared gives Spitfire +6/+0, even without Cavalcade. It has won me a few games on Turn 4 (when curves and draws have been kind).

I don't care for Dwarven Mine, because it only has value on Turn 4 or later, and the token would, most times, only be a chump blocker. Same for Castle Embereth. It only starts to become useful on Turn 4 or later, and if mana isn't being spent on something more useful, like Chandra, Torbrand, or another Cavalcade.

Addendum: I also don't care for Gingerbrute over Dodger, as we have a lot more creatures with Haste being utilized in the format, compared to creatures with Defender. Scorcher is a decent budget choice until you can get Torbrans to replace them at the 4 slot.

This Cavalcade list racked up a 5-0 on MTGO leading up to 10/10/2019.

I have issues viewing mtggoldfish links, would you mind just posting the decklist in normal format here?

Additionally: It seems that Mask of Immolation is just too slow for some of the lists I have seen it in, it seems to need support from other cards. The typical changes I tend to see in a deck with Mask vs a normal list are:
One drop slots normally changed to include any of:
Grim Initiate
Footlight Fiend
Fervent Champion
Torch Courier
Legion Warboss or other 3 drops sometimes swapped for Tibalt, Rakish Investigator
Any copies of Lava Coil are almost universally swapped to Heartfire
Opinions? Suggestions? What else have you guys seen in the Mask package?

tempoEDH wrote: ↑

4 years ago

I have issues viewing mtggoldfish links, would you mind just posting the decklist in normal format here?

As you wish. See above.

Well now that's interesting. No maindeck removal besides shock, runs mask without the normal package, and 1 copy of district, which I've never seen in this deck. Might need to look into that. Opinions anyone?

Video and alternate version here.