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Tokwana wrote:

Well, Demigod is a good finisher that can fight through counterspells and come back from the graveyard if it's not on the board.
Ball Lightning is a slightly better Lava Axe that dies to any first striker or damage spell, and can be reduced in effectivness by blocks. Also doesn't come back from the graveyard or provide lasting board position.

Seems pretty easy to decide, no?

demigod is also slow, easy to exile, and tough to resolve. If the game reaches turn 7 and you haven't won, and you're playing against 5cc you probably just lost. cruel ultimatum and broodmate dragon eat you alive if they actually get cast, which they will because, you know...you have no counters of your own. As I see it, you have until T7-8 (whenever they get to play ultimatum) to win. This means that demigod is effectively a dead card to topdeck unless you topdeck it right after ultimatum. Even if you get your 5 in with it, ultimatum hits and you lose 5 life, lose your demigod, any other cards you might have in hand, while they gain all of those things. The biggest downside to demigod is that he doesn't have trample though. The fact that he can be chumped by mulldrifters and BB tokens is really annoying and *will* cost you games.

Ball lightning on the other hand costs RR less than the demigod, and does have trample which means that he doesn't get chumped unless they have a first striker. The only decks that currently run first strikers are the random rogue decks (should usually be easy to beat) and WW variants which are already hard match ups to begin with, and aren't made any easier by running demigod. In most cases a resolved ball lightning is just as effective if not more effective than a resolved demigod. In both cases you'll usually win the game, only ball lightning lets you win a turn or two earlier.

I understand demigod is a great card, just not in this deck and not in this metagame. There's a reason why demigod red and demigod black have died out as archetypes and been replaced by RB aggro; Demigod is just too easy to hate out.

@Derrik: Your deck has one main flaw that I can see, and that is the lack of focus. Right now you have about 1/2 your cards trying to gain CA and make it to the long game and the other 1/2 trying to win out on tempo and stop the long game from happening. What happens is that your decks draws become mismatched and dulled down. Instead of putting your opponent on a 4-turn clock, you might put them on a 6 or 7 turn clock with one massive gap seperating them from you; Their deck is designed to fully take advantage of the long game, yours is not. I guarantee you that without running banefire MD and without getting a better curve and tempo in your deck you will lose more than win against 5cc when you really should have a favorable match up instead.

blightning is just bad for this deck. It's actually very good with cascade decks and other CA matters decks, but this is simply not the deck for it. Tattermunge Maniac is a much better 1-drop than raging goblin, I'd get a hold of some of those if possible. Anathemancer is a great SB card and potential MD card, but I much prefer it for the SB since it's a dead draw against anything but jund/bant/5cc. Up the ram-gang count to 4, it stops finks. speaking of finks, I would find room for some Magma spray in your MD and probably replace terminate with doomblade for reasons that I've stated above. shriekmaw is highly redundant with terminate, deathmark, doomblade, lightning bolt, volcanic fallout, and flame javelin all in the same deck. That's a potential 26 creature hate spells in your deck which is too many because if you're running that many creature hate spells, that isnt' leaving enough room for your own threats. Your deck as it is seems more like demigod red (mid-range/control) instead of a BR aggro. I would strongly advise that you test with some of the changes suggested before deciding to leave demigod and/or blightning in your deck.

Mono789 wrote:

The time has come for a new R/B Aggro thread! I talked to shotgunpriest about this a couple of days ago and told him he should go ahead and find someone who's willing to make the new thread. Be sure to include the standard Tournament Center stuff: card choices, optimal deck lists, etc.

I can do it after work if you'd like. I have experience with the Doran thread atm. It will be completed tonight before midnight if I work on it.

shotgunpriest wrote:

Who else wants to do it?

I might be up for it but it will take me a couple days as I'm doing some heavy deck testing on a new deck tomorrow before school, but could get it done tomorrow night/friday morning.