I appreciate that you used the best art for Arcane Denial. Great video! I was a little surprised to not see Unwind. It think it's at least as good as Rewind.
Do you think REB and Pyroblast should be auto-included in any competitive list with red? It seems to me they should, so many strong lists from tournaments seem to have blue generals, blue blink spells or Freed from the Real in some form, not to mention all the blue counters to protect those spells. Would you consider running cards like Ardent Elementalist and Revolutionist if you were playing Rakdos or Naya (no blue) to recur these blasts? Like you said, meaningful stack interaction outside of blue is hard to find, and as narrow as the red blasts are I feel they MIGHT warrant it. Or am I placing to much value on them? Genuinely curious and value your opinion, also I appreciate this might be more of a metagame call.
I generally include the Blasts when I'm building competitive red-based decks without blue in them, and especially if I have ways to cash them in for extra cards in pods where they do nothing -- things like Demand Answers or Thrill of Possibility are really helpful here. I don't know that I'd go as far as running Ardent Elementalist effects just for recurring the Blasts, but I've run Elementalist in my spell-heavy Boros Lorehold Apprentice deck and been pretty happy with it. The Blasts are obviously narrow -- only hitting blue spells/permanents -- but blue is a large chunk of the competitive meta, and the Blasts are the most efficient at what they do, so it's a trade-off that I think favors running at least one Blast, and maybe both depending on the decks you expect/whether or not you can get value from casting spells in your deck (lots of pinger creatures, for instance, makes their stock go up as well). Thanks for the comment!
Wings of Velis Vel is one of the cards the Malcolm/red decks use to turn a creature like Reckless Fireweaver into a Pirate, which, in combination with Malcolm, lets them deal infinite damage to the table. Basically, with Malcolm and Fireweaver in play, you give Fireweaver all creature types with Wings of Velis Vel. Then, the next time an artifact comes into play (say, from Malcolm dealing combat damage to somebody, generating a Treasure token), Fireweaver will deal a damage to each opponent. Since it's a Pirate now, that will trigger Malcolm, generating three more Treasures, triggering Fireweaver three more times, back and forth, until the table is dead. Hope this helps!
@@ankylosaurmtg Thank you for the explanation! I was wondering because I field the card in my Lazotep Chancellor deck since it’s a way to pump up and give evasion to the Army token that’s tutorable with Step Through. Sad to see I can’t incorporate the Fireweaver combo but the card is still good enough for me
@@jbradentraw2083 Sweet! Yeah, the infinite damage combo unfortunately only works with Malcolm due to his Pirate-centric ability, but it's definitely a cool card outside of its combo applications, and being tutorable is a huge upside.
Awesome video!
I appreciate that you used the best art for Arcane Denial. Great video! I was a little surprised to not see Unwind. It think it's at least as good as Rewind.
Good call! I don't often see Unwind in the wild, but it certainly sees as much play as Rewind does.
fantastic video very well presented
Thank you!
Welp, now I feel like a fool running "turn aside" over "intervene". Thanks for the info I'll have to make that swap.
I'm glad the video was helpful -- thanks for watching!
Well done!
Thank you!
Wake up babe, new Anklyosaur video dropped
Do you think REB and Pyroblast should be auto-included in any competitive list with red? It seems to me they should, so many strong lists from tournaments seem to have blue generals, blue blink spells or Freed from the Real in some form, not to mention all the blue counters to protect those spells. Would you consider running cards like Ardent Elementalist and Revolutionist if you were playing Rakdos or Naya (no blue) to recur these blasts? Like you said, meaningful stack interaction outside of blue is hard to find, and as narrow as the red blasts are I feel they MIGHT warrant it. Or am I placing to much value on them? Genuinely curious and value your opinion, also I appreciate this might be more of a metagame call.
I generally include the Blasts when I'm building competitive red-based decks without blue in them, and especially if I have ways to cash them in for extra cards in pods where they do nothing -- things like Demand Answers or Thrill of Possibility are really helpful here. I don't know that I'd go as far as running Ardent Elementalist effects just for recurring the Blasts, but I've run Elementalist in my spell-heavy Boros Lorehold Apprentice deck and been pretty happy with it.
The Blasts are obviously narrow -- only hitting blue spells/permanents -- but blue is a large chunk of the competitive meta, and the Blasts are the most efficient at what they do, so it's a trade-off that I think favors running at least one Blast, and maybe both depending on the decks you expect/whether or not you can get value from casting spells in your deck (lots of pinger creatures, for instance, makes their stock go up as well). Thanks for the comment!
@@ankylosaurmtg Thanks for your reply, I really appreciate your insight and your content.
Mana Tithe erasure!! Seriously great video though.
I've doomed myself to getting got by a Mana Tithe very soon.
I was really surprised that Mana Tithe was not mentioned. But nonetheless, I love those Ankylosaur Videos! ❤
At around 3:24, you mention a combo involving Wings of Velis Vel. What is that combo?
Wings of Velis Vel is one of the cards the Malcolm/red decks use to turn a creature like Reckless Fireweaver into a Pirate, which, in combination with Malcolm, lets them deal infinite damage to the table.
Basically, with Malcolm and Fireweaver in play, you give Fireweaver all creature types with Wings of Velis Vel. Then, the next time an artifact comes into play (say, from Malcolm dealing combat damage to somebody, generating a Treasure token), Fireweaver will deal a damage to each opponent. Since it's a Pirate now, that will trigger Malcolm, generating three more Treasures, triggering Fireweaver three more times, back and forth, until the table is dead.
Hope this helps!
@@ankylosaurmtg Thank you for the explanation! I was wondering because I field the card in my Lazotep Chancellor deck since it’s a way to pump up and give evasion to the Army token that’s tutorable with Step Through. Sad to see I can’t incorporate the Fireweaver combo but the card is still good enough for me
@@jbradentraw2083 Sweet! Yeah, the infinite damage combo unfortunately only works with Malcolm due to his Pirate-centric ability, but it's definitely a cool card outside of its combo applications, and being tutorable is a huge upside.
The fact you didn't include my baby forceful denial is a tragedy. It's always a 2 for one and potentially more!
I've never seen a Forceful Denial in the wild! I just know someone is going to get me good with one now though.