One of the best videos I've seen as of late in CFB. The commentary on the construction of the sideboard was really helpful, something that can be daunting to intermediate / beginner players.
Just a heads up to people who watched the video but didn't read the guide, Mengucci made some changes to the Bant Fog board: Out: 1 Dive Down, 3 Shock, 4 Lava Coil In: 3 Niv-Mizzet, 2 Negate, 1 Beacon Bolt Obviously a guide is just a guide so some variance in the number of Dive Downs and Shocks you board out might be necessary anyway
Highly instructive guide for myself trying to improve how I handle and side with this deck. I love Izzet Drakes but I didn't know how much better I could be playing or building the deck. Thank you!
Excellent video. Would be great to have more top players give very detailed guides like this with different decks. Don’t even need to see gameplay. The in depth card discussion is awesome here. Thanks Andrea, you gained a fan!
Deck is amazing. Beats sultai with great flying pressure. Control has big issues with niv and peirce post board plus disdainful. And raptor hatchling + canonade testicle punch aggro. Most well rounded deck in the game
Andrea, what if lava coil was replaced by lightning strike? Maybe like a 2/2 split - the card is very strong against the mirror and djinn, but I haven't seen many phoenixes lately. Strike is not a dead card versus control, but maybe I'd like 4 x coils in the 75, and this would change the shape of the sideboard a bit too much...
I think your last line is correct here. You'd change the shape of the sideboard a bit too much. I still see Phoenix's all the time, but that's just between my local meta and that on Arena. So, Lava Coil is pretty strong to me. Plus, it weakens Find because then Golgari/Sultai can't get back Wildgrowth Walkers (a pretty important card against you). The board is really well built to fight control decks. My board is a little different from Andrea's, but it has the same overall premise: a few cards to hedge against hyper-aggro decks (2 Cannonnade and 2 Shivan Fire), a few that are good against midrange strategies (2 Ral and 2 Niv Mizzet), and the rest that come in along with the Rals and Nivs to give you a huge advantage against control by giving you more hard counters and more card selection.
Isnt ral a fairly clean answer to opponents niv? Bacon bolt that doesn't trigger? Also last standard I found myself casting or wanting to dispersal it enough to play a second black source.
Can I ask how you find the match-up and what your sideboard plan vs 4C Gates would be? I find the match-up very difficult for this deck, and the counter suite super awkward (Stroke doesn't hit Ablaze, Summit and Ram, Spell Pierce quickly gets out paced) and the removal besides Beacon Bolt not ideal.
I have found this match up to be abysmal. I often only win because my opponent only found one or no Gates Ablaze or their lands are not so Gates-centric. This is one deck that using a counter on their ramp is relevant though. I usually find Spell Pierce to be good and Disdainful Stroke out of the sideboard is helpful in keeping Angels from landing, allowing you to take the race. Entrancing Melody isn't amazing here (since Rams will be tiny for you), but the tempo swing can be terrible for them. It's pretty common for the Gates player to blow a Gates Ablaze on a single Drake only to get blown out by a Dive Down or Spell Pierce, allowing that Drake to take the game quickly. Also, try to keep shocks up once you land a Drake or two as they'll allow you to kill a Ram when they cast Gates Ablaze.
Andrea answered at comments to written guide, that sideboarding for Gates and Temur reclamation is like for control (-4 Shocks, -4 Lava Coils, +3 Niv-Mizzet, +1 Beacon Bolt, +2 Negate, +2 Disdainful Stroke)
Hi, the best way in my experience is to land a pteramander on turn 1, then spell pierce their nature's spiral. Dive down when they cast gates ablaze, and entrancing melody on their rams and krasis. We need to play the tempo game against them basically. Sorry it took 1 weeks to reply
That was the best sideboarding guide I've ever seen. Although I really thought in most match ups I wanna bring in murmuring mystics, they worked so good for me. I'd probably cut fiery cannonade from the sb. Also, you forgot the esper midrange match up. I would again get some mystics in :D
What is better against BG, pteramander or Niv? So, if we don't play pteramander against burn, and there are better options against BG (Niv), why bother? I mean, there are already 8 drakes main deck. It's already tough to get one to stick, so why pteramander over 4th Dive Down, or Quench, or even Niv.
I've loved the inclusion of Pteramander. If you can play one on the first turn, attack on two and draw 2 cards with Chart a Course, you get so far ahead of your opponent that they have a difficult time keeping up. I don't board them out against Golgari because all of their removal costs 2+, and you can easily protect it once you untap with mana ready. I actually don't like Niv Mizzett at all against Golgari either because they have too much "clean" removal for him (meaning removal which doesn't allow you to draw additional cards), and you usually don't have time to wait until you have extra mana ready before you play him. This is overall a pretty bad match up anyway, but you can win the race if you keep them off Wildgrowth Walker. I wouln't mind bringing in a 4th Dive Down either if you have that in your sideboard. If you want to become a full control deck and board in Niv, I'd recommend playing a Mass Manipulation in the sideboard as well. You should reach a critical mass of land and swiping 2-3 of their permanents can be a devastating swing. I always laugh at the shame scoop.
Has anyone else been having issues game one against gruul? Not sure exactly what to board in. Threats are to big for Fiery. Entrancing, Disdainful and Beacon?
It's a hard match overall, but you just have to race. Get in that first few damage with Pteramander. Hope for Lava Coils to kill their biggest early threats. Usually, the game swings in your favor if you can land a Drake with Dive Down back up to block and kill a threat. Obviously, you don't always have time to do that, but like I said, it's a difficult match. After board, you have a much easier time with more removal for their haste threats and Ral to kill the big ones. Entrancing Melody is great against them if you can take a Hellkite. Lava Coils can focus on Rekindling Phoenix, while you pick off everything else with your other removal. You still have to race, but Pteramander will often do the job by itself. I win this match more often than lose, but it's still pretty difficult and almost always goes to 3 games. I'd say game one is 50/50 due to them assuming we're mono-blue when we play a Pteramander on 1 and trying to haste us out with their first 2 threats. This makes their Zhur Taa Goblins still susceptible to Shock and Spellbreaker too small to attack through a Drake. It certainly still requires a good opening hand and decent draws though.
Ok, I am trying this deck out but instead of using Discovery/Reversal I am using 4 Siren Stormtamer’s to give my drakes more protection and give me another 1 drop 1/1 flyer to help Chart A Course
I agree with Pietro. Instants and Sorceries are extremely relevant in this deck. So much so that when I cast Discovery and see two in the top, I often bin them both unless one is the removal I need to a specific situation. Making your Drakes and Pteramanders large more quickly forces your opponents to waste their removal earlier, and when you counter that removal with a single mana, the tempo swing is immediately devastating because they've committed nothing to the board. If you're subtracting from your own board without making your monsters stronger to protect them, you're not really gaining that tempo advantage. Mono-Blue loves Stormtamer because it relies more heavily on chip damage and keeping tempo with Curious Obsession, but our game plan destroys mono-blue because our threats are all gigantic while still utilizing that tempo style.
The deck unsurprisingly feels under powered in the early Forgotten Realms historic meta. Chart a Course is especially slow compared to the newest draw and card selection options. Although the deck capable to punish slow starts with explosive buildups. The most interesting match ups are the mirrors. Those deck are more powerful in every aspect but loose sometimes because bad draw or unfortunate line up of attackers against removal. It was interesting to try out a more straightforward version against them and experience the difference of the old and the new.
Bro since you are a professional player,make videos for cfb ots hard for me to believe you can not afford a microphone for your computer,so we can hear you better on your videos,a cheap one cost like 20 dollars
One of the best videos I've seen as of late in CFB. The commentary on the construction of the sideboard was really helpful, something that can be daunting to intermediate / beginner players.
Just a heads up to people who watched the video but didn't read the guide, Mengucci made some changes to the Bant Fog board:
Out: 1 Dive Down, 3 Shock, 4 Lava Coil
In: 3 Niv-Mizzet, 2 Negate, 1 Beacon Bolt
Obviously a guide is just a guide so some variance in the number of Dive Downs and Shocks you board out might be necessary anyway
I’m a newer player and I play drakes in paper and on arena and your input on how to sideboard was extremely valuable for me. Thanks a bunch, my dude!
Finally a helpful izzet drakes video. Thank you Andrea Mengucci and ChannelFireball)
Highly instructive guide for myself trying to improve how I handle and side with this deck. I love Izzet Drakes but I didn't know how much better I could be playing or building the deck. Thank you!
Excellent video. Would be great to have more top players give very detailed guides like this with different decks. Don’t even need to see gameplay. The in depth card discussion is awesome here. Thanks Andrea, you gained a fan!
Need more content like this! One thing worth mentioning is shock kills all of the explorers if you shock them while the explore is on the stack
This is really helpful
Only toying with this deck on arena at the moment but this is helpful with sideboarding just in general
very good veedio andrea. perfect for someone thinking about getting the deck for standard
Damn, Andrea is pretty good looking, AND super good at Magic.
Hey great video ! just a quick question : you don't talk about the one of "increase velocity" Do you think it is a bad card for this deck ?
How the hell do you play against Boros Agro????
www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=21021&d=339533&f=ST
Deck is amazing. Beats sultai with great flying pressure. Control has big issues with niv and peirce post board plus disdainful. And raptor hatchling + canonade testicle punch aggro. Most well rounded deck in the game
man, I'm not a fan of arena's deck menu. good video as always tho!
Why? I think it's perfectly fine.
Great insight, your videos/articles are quality.
Andrea, what if lava coil was replaced by lightning strike? Maybe like a 2/2 split - the card is very strong against the mirror and djinn, but I haven't seen many phoenixes lately. Strike is not a dead card versus control, but maybe I'd like 4 x coils in the 75, and this would change the shape of the sideboard a bit too much...
I think your last line is correct here. You'd change the shape of the sideboard a bit too much. I still see Phoenix's all the time, but that's just between my local meta and that on Arena. So, Lava Coil is pretty strong to me. Plus, it weakens Find because then Golgari/Sultai can't get back Wildgrowth Walkers (a pretty important card against you). The board is really well built to fight control decks. My board is a little different from Andrea's, but it has the same overall premise: a few cards to hedge against hyper-aggro decks (2 Cannonnade and 2 Shivan Fire), a few that are good against midrange strategies (2 Ral and 2 Niv Mizzet), and the rest that come in along with the Rals and Nivs to give you a huge advantage against control by giving you more hard counters and more card selection.
Have you considered Shimmer of Possibility as another cantrip/digging card?
Isnt ral a fairly clean answer to opponents niv? Bacon bolt that doesn't trigger?
Also last standard I found myself casting or wanting to dispersal it enough to play a second black source.
I'm curious how does this deck fair against gates or walls?
How would you board against Mono-Red decks that run Chainwhirler? I assume more Raptor Hatchlings would be wanted, but what’s the best thing to cut?
Definitely the furthest thing from a magic pro but I always cut Pteromander for hatchlings
Can I ask how you find the match-up and what your sideboard plan vs 4C Gates would be? I find the match-up very difficult for this deck, and the counter suite super awkward (Stroke doesn't hit Ablaze, Summit and Ram, Spell Pierce quickly gets out paced) and the removal besides Beacon Bolt not ideal.
I have found this match up to be abysmal. I often only win because my opponent only found one or no Gates Ablaze or their lands are not so Gates-centric. This is one deck that using a counter on their ramp is relevant though. I usually find Spell Pierce to be good and Disdainful Stroke out of the sideboard is helpful in keeping Angels from landing, allowing you to take the race. Entrancing Melody isn't amazing here (since Rams will be tiny for you), but the tempo swing can be terrible for them. It's pretty common for the Gates player to blow a Gates Ablaze on a single Drake only to get blown out by a Dive Down or Spell Pierce, allowing that Drake to take the game quickly. Also, try to keep shocks up once you land a Drake or two as they'll allow you to kill a Ram when they cast Gates Ablaze.
Andrea answered at comments to written guide, that sideboarding for Gates and Temur reclamation is like for control (-4 Shocks, -4 Lava Coils, +3 Niv-Mizzet, +1 Beacon Bolt, +2 Negate, +2 Disdainful Stroke)
do you have any thoughts on the gate matchup? I have found it very hard to interact with their creatures and all my creatures die to gate's ablaze.
Hi, the best way in my experience is to land a pteramander on turn 1, then spell pierce their nature's spiral. Dive down when they cast gates ablaze, and entrancing melody on their rams and krasis. We need to play the tempo game against them basically. Sorry it took 1 weeks to reply
This was great but for an hr long video I kept waiting for the matches to start 🤣
I have 2 murmuring mystics in the sideboard and they are so good VS Sultai Midrange! Don't you like them in this match-up?
That was the best sideboarding guide I've ever seen. Although I really thought in most match ups I wanna bring in murmuring mystics, they worked so good for me. I'd probably cut fiery cannonade from the sb.
Also, you forgot the esper midrange match up. I would again get some mystics in :D
Thanks Andrea, excellent video!
What is better against BG, pteramander or Niv? So, if we don't play pteramander against burn, and there are better options against BG (Niv), why bother?
I mean, there are already 8 drakes main deck. It's already tough to get one to stick, so why pteramander over 4th Dive Down, or Quench, or even Niv.
I've loved the inclusion of Pteramander. If you can play one on the first turn, attack on two and draw 2 cards with Chart a Course, you get so far ahead of your opponent that they have a difficult time keeping up. I don't board them out against Golgari because all of their removal costs 2+, and you can easily protect it once you untap with mana ready. I actually don't like Niv Mizzett at all against Golgari either because they have too much "clean" removal for him (meaning removal which doesn't allow you to draw additional cards), and you usually don't have time to wait until you have extra mana ready before you play him. This is overall a pretty bad match up anyway, but you can win the race if you keep them off Wildgrowth Walker. I wouln't mind bringing in a 4th Dive Down either if you have that in your sideboard. If you want to become a full control deck and board in Niv, I'd recommend playing a Mass Manipulation in the sideboard as well. You should reach a critical mass of land and swiping 2-3 of their permanents can be a devastating swing. I always laugh at the shame scoop.
The church of veedio is spreading to other formats POG
what is that symbol/button on the UI beside the wildcard indicator?
It's the land symbol
So you can look at just lands
Pretty sure Artie is talking about the rune thing on the top bar left of the gold and gems. Maybe its a new icon for the vault rewards
I think that's the free draft token you got from attending a prerelease
Has anyone else been having issues game one against gruul? Not sure exactly what to board in. Threats are to big for Fiery. Entrancing, Disdainful and Beacon?
It's a hard match overall, but you just have to race. Get in that first few damage with Pteramander. Hope for Lava Coils to kill their biggest early threats. Usually, the game swings in your favor if you can land a Drake with Dive Down back up to block and kill a threat. Obviously, you don't always have time to do that, but like I said, it's a difficult match. After board, you have a much easier time with more removal for their haste threats and Ral to kill the big ones. Entrancing Melody is great against them if you can take a Hellkite. Lava Coils can focus on Rekindling Phoenix, while you pick off everything else with your other removal. You still have to race, but Pteramander will often do the job by itself. I win this match more often than lose, but it's still pretty difficult and almost always goes to 3 games. I'd say game one is 50/50 due to them assuming we're mono-blue when we play a Pteramander on 1 and trying to haste us out with their first 2 threats. This makes their Zhur Taa Goblins still susceptible to Shock and Spellbreaker too small to attack through a Drake. It certainly still requires a good opening hand and decent draws though.
I was running Light up the Stage in the main. Is this a bad idea?
yes, you run spell pierces and dive downs. Cards like these are unacceptable to dig with Light up the Stage.
Same with Lava Coils. Light up the Stage forces you to do bad play for situational CA.
Very informative thanks Andrea
he seems like a good streamer
Ok, I am trying this deck out but instead of using Discovery/Reversal I am using 4 Siren Stormtamer’s to give my drakes more protection and give me another 1 drop 1/1 flyer to help Chart A Course
interesting, but bad idea. you need that critical mass of instants/sorceries in the bin
I agree with Pietro. Instants and Sorceries are extremely relevant in this deck. So much so that when I cast Discovery and see two in the top, I often bin them both unless one is the removal I need to a specific situation. Making your Drakes and Pteramanders large more quickly forces your opponents to waste their removal earlier, and when you counter that removal with a single mana, the tempo swing is immediately devastating because they've committed nothing to the board. If you're subtracting from your own board without making your monsters stronger to protect them, you're not really gaining that tempo advantage. Mono-Blue loves Stormtamer because it relies more heavily on chip damage and keeping tempo with Curious Obsession, but our game plan destroys mono-blue because our threats are all gigantic while still utilizing that tempo style.
Josh Whorton I bought a Play Set of Discovery’s and I do enjoy using them.
Good video, but I think the audio is a bit off, the resulting voice is robotical
The deck unsurprisingly feels under powered in the early Forgotten Realms historic meta. Chart a Course is especially slow compared to the newest draw and card selection options. Although the deck capable to punish slow starts with explosive buildups. The most interesting match ups are the mirrors. Those deck are more powerful in every aspect but loose sometimes because bad draw or unfortunate line up of attackers against removal. It was interesting to try out a more straightforward version against them and experience the difference of the old and the new.
61 cards in the BO1 deck list.
Promocode: VEEDEO
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Bro since you are a professional player,make videos for cfb ots hard for me to believe you can not afford a microphone for your computer,so we can hear you better on your videos,a cheap one cost like 20 dollars
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