Name: Hi my name is Kyle and I've been a magic addict since Ice Age *Audience: Hi Kyle*
Age: 18
Loc: Stony Brook University GO SEAWOLVES!, but lives in New Hampshire (Just outside Concord and Manchester) and Rhode Island
Enjoys: Drinking and Chix...I don't think anything is better =P and damn they make a great combination
Music: CCR and Jimmy Buffet are amazing! My top 2 favorite bands ever

Hey I'm a Pre-Med student majoring in Anthropology.  Getting back into the game on a more serious level now, and best of all I'm right in the center of Magicness...New England. So ya hope to run into fellow TMD'ers at tournaments, always nice to get a face to go along with the name.

Oh and if anyone in the Stonybrook, Long Island area could help me find somewhere to play or wants to playtest and what not feel free to Pm me or aim k9stile69, its kind of hard to do so on campus since I dont exactly hang out with a crowd that plays magic LoL.

I must agree, what was once called "counter-burn" just wont make the cut these days. I mean sure you can take it to your local tourny and maybe make final 4 or someting but in the bigger picture you wont have a tremendous amount of success. I mean not to sound rude or anything but do you honestly think that someone at Waterbury or Hadley is going to care if you draw 3 cards since you are running a limited amount of burn, of which (rage) takes a whole to be able to be used to its fullest extent.

When analysing say your control aspect, FoW, Drains, and Dures I would not help but think of Underworld Dreams. Your burn idea would be a lot more effective if combined with Dreams. Now some argue against using burn for whatever reasons but if you are fond of the idea..go for it. I would suggest bolts and psionic blasts in that case if you do decide to take the burn rout, although fire/ice is nifty also and who knows, rage may prove effective, its drain proof.

As for creature removal, Fire Covenant is a nice card, its not seen to much and its just fun, definately some unique tech.  Now on the topic of sideboard, Im not going to discuss too much, just pointing out the lack of need for sb death wish. Also the planar void count should be upped, 1 is way too low, id go atleast 3. Best of luck =)

You know what, I really like the idea of Psy blasts, Bolts and even Incinerates in dreams, thats so cool, and can potentially take out welders. Ok now Slaver for example, rungs 8 counters, 4 of which are usable turn 0. The deck needs its draw engine to win and the combination of Chains AND Dreams is really nifty in my opinion.

This deck can possible be made viable if it combined the Chains/Dreams/Burn idea but I would highly reccoment Negators, which add pressure on another level, here you would have 4 sources of pressure: Megrim, Dreams, Negators, and even Chains to shut down the brokenness of slaver..lets face it, Tier 1 decks dont play junk..they need every card they DRAW and your disruption of that, however slight can be fatal.

Also, an idea I had is maybe incorporating 2 Cabal Ritual to help pump out that turn 1 Dreams.

In final conclusion, Negators alongside with the burn supplioed by Psy Blast, Incinerate and Bolts could be very very troublesome for the decks int oday's meta.

I dunno guys, Im still feeling 3 mancers but meh whatever works. As for the Boa's matchup V Oath...ya that is true however I dont know about where you play but I dont see enough Oath here to make me maindeck 4 of something.  The question in my head is how does it do against CS? I mean the only threat you would worry about is DSC and Plat..and Plat can be taken care of pretty easily..again Electrostatic Bolt V Slaver/Stax sounds cool to me, Ill test it out in sideboard and let everyone know how it does.

DSC is just a beast I cant think of anything you would have to deal with it except something like Dawnstrider SB or even something like Tangle, that sounds like it would be nifty along with Vandal.  I mean I can sit here hypothising stuff all day and it wont be any good to you. I think we need a better feel of what you have seen in pervious tournaments, maybe what you know others will be playing, how many people, etc thus you can better customize the SB.

A couple things I saw, as Z masta flex stated, Shaman alone does not cut it, I would actually suggest running BOTH Vandals and Shaman if you are expecting a Meta dominated by artifactness. However I dont know though because you are running Root Maze, Null Rod, Shaman, Naturalize all at once which seems like a tad overkill to the point where you are drawing too much of this stuff which is being used to achieve the same outcome. Id suggest you tinker around with each of those cards on MWS to determine the best combination, I must reiterate that Shaman and Vandal together are just delicious.  For an added bonus V slaver I was even thinking Electrostatic Bolt could help you out when it comes to Plat/Trisk, kill her for 1 mana, sounds good to me.

Against the Oath matchup, I would suggest Elvish Lyrist AND Naturalize..she drops first turn when they have a better chance of having 1 mana available thus letting her slip through. I mean running both against Oath is obviously a good idea since you cant rely on one card, but yea shes great.

As for the Boas, how are they treating you? I am more favorable to the Elite ofcourse, Boa I feel is usefull only against BBS, dropping for 2 is too much I feel, by the time you play this it either 1. has been sitting in your hand while you play quicker guys, or 2. is played instead of 2 threats/beatsticks.  Possible maindeck remedies are Jungle Lion, Mogg Fanatic or even Rogue Elephant, as well as Skyshroud Elite ofcourse.  4 Mancers also seems like a lot to me, Id cut it to 2 or 3, always is not fun when you have 2 in play or in your hand for that matter.

Main deck Mutations are fun, gives ya critters and takes out threats, that was good for 2 mana last time I checked.

Hey, I was tinkering around with a form of beats and found out that maindecking Goblin Vandals WITH Shamans is just brutal when it comes to the CS/Stax, etc matchup and is helpful against TPS assuming they dont go off first turn.  As far as Naturalize is concerned..I did not see you mention Oath as a matchup so if your Meta is lacking Oath I would get rid of Naturalize either for a few Artifact Mutations or Oxidize.  Artifacts are what you as the R/G player have the advantage over, quick, cheap removal/hate is the key to these matchups.

One thing I do not like is River Boa, the 2 cost is what turns me off the most, for that you can play 2 threats/burn spells/whatever.  Just seems like a waste to me, maybe run Rogue Elephant/Fanatic/Jungle Lion (basically a 1 drop) or even the abovementioned utility.  Thats all I can think of from the top of my head, forgive if I forgot anything.

Yes, Therapy is a versatile card, but I mean not playing U in dragon is a mistake. Black offers what? Therapy and Buried Alive as far as dumping stuff in the grave? U offers Drawing, dumping, as well as some utility.  I understand since you said you dont have power that U does lose some of its power, however in most tournaments proxies are allowed, and even if not, run Ancient Tombs and all that good stuff to feed into Attunement/Intuition because they are wonderful when you dont have bazaars.

As shock wave alluded to, Therapy should not be sole considered a dumping card, not really thought of as one, so when you think about it that way, your only dumper is Buried Alive if Im not mistaking..you do need U its that plain and simple.

Hmm Shock Wave:
My comment about Cabal Therapy was just a suggestion, you may recall how reanimator used to use it in this manner. The lack of Bazaars does not leave too too many options open, again Im going to reiterate that Attunement may be one of, if not the best engine for this alone with Intuition.

Also @ Shock Wave:
When I mentioned Therapy used for the Dragon, I was simply noting its versatility.  I did not see FoW in his build, and we all know 4 Duress is not going to cut it. His first pose included Therapy and you mentioned it may not be a good idea because you cannot flash it back. My comment was to simply state you can 1. take out your opponents hand and 2. in a last ditch efford get rid of Dragon or something. I did not say its only used for Dragon, I just think its a nifty card, that if you arent running FoW might be a good idea because of the 2 ways it can be used.  Sure, flashing it back is always fun, but hey, you gotta take what you can get.

Hmm Gluemy..you do realize that Therapy is a way of discarding right..and shockwave you dont need to flash it back, its disruption against your opponent, and when in a bind a nice discard for you.

Since there is a lack of Bazaars I would HIGHLY suggest attunement, its just amazing in this sort of deck, much better than compulsion in my opinion. That would maybe encourage the use of Ancient Tombs to feed the Intuitions I would also run.

As for FoW...I mean It CAN be useful in this deck but my experience of seeing it played its not super effective, I mean if you end up having room, ofcourse play it, but if you dont I would not start panicing..again you are playing Duress and Therapy.

A couple things I noticed that I want to bring up:

1. Naturalize maindeck seems like a poor decision to me since the deck's objective is to win really quick..I mean I would sideboard them and run Oxidize in their spot since artifacts are going to be what you worry about.

2. You say that there is a 90% chance of losing first game to combo..any deck where the chances of loss are that high should not be played..that plain and simple.  You do not want to give a deck an auto game, especially combo where everything in the deck is broken and the combo can be pieced together out of nothing. With that said, try maindecking some hate/stalling techniques to help improve the game 1 matchup. Root Maze, Null Rod, Cursed Totem, etc would all be helpful (ofcourse not all of them at once because the deck would then be too convaluted). I would suggest you read up to the G/W tempo deck, it seems to run off the same principle that you are looking for.

I really liked the initial mana base for the deck's objective, to stall and disrupt long enough to bash their brains in. A few things I feel should be noted are Null Rod and Root Maze's similarities, I mean correct me if Im wrong but they are being used for the same principle right?

Cutting one opens up slots for Cursed Totem which combined with either can be pretty devistating. This ofcourse would then destroy the idea of using mana producers, but I dont feel they are really necessary. I had no problem drawing into mana when I needed it.

I did feel however that the addition of Mother of Runes slows the deck down too, again the point was to disrupt and destroy, and MoR is more of a supporting card which does not fit into the deck's intitial objective in my opinion.

On the topic of the initial decklist, I mean even an old school Giant Growth can prove to be effective. Just my opinion, hope it helps and sparks further discussion.

The idea of transformable sideboards really makes a deck versatile.  For example, about a year and a half ago (maybe a tad longer) Grow A Tog was rampant, and the deck Diamond Dallas was created which was Gro A Tog/Miracle Gro, with the Oath Engine sideboarded, thus creating 2 different decks out of one.

Now onto your idea of 3/4cc and slaver, that seems more like a bit of a stretch, what about TfK etc? See the thing with Oath and Gro were that they can use the same cards and be 95% effective as their normal decktype, and in some cases stronger due to the power of an early Daze, etc. I just feel that turning 3/4cc into slaver would just require so much alteration that you would be taking more than 5% of the decks effectiveness away. However, I mean you could always twiddle around with decklists, maybe add intermediate cards much like Daze was to Counterspell/Mana Leak, and see what happens here. Best of luck.

On the topic of humility, I just love it in this deck because as you can imagine, Meddling Mages can be a problem being so quick and usually protected by counters.  

Swords is sideboard but that usually means you would lose game 1 (assuming balance does not resolve, buit I think thats safe to assume) and Humility then laughs at their mages. Ive played against this deck a bunch of times and I must say, Humility adds one more threat that must be countered if you are not playing combo, if its not countered it usually means you are going to lose.

Now again, first turn Negator does put the pressure on the deck, Ive noticed in my testing that first and even second turn fatties do apply some good pressure to the deck. This may be a reason why StP should be added, now I have never played this deck so those who have may have better insight against me, but I, playing EBA against this deck, have won some and lost some, and I must stress how important dealing with quick threats is to this decks viability.

Ok I played it a few times today against various decks and here is what I think. It had trouble against an ancient mono black deck (hyppies, order of ebon hand, all stuff around necro's time) order was a real problem, and my suggestion is going to tie into the next deck.

Control Slaver was the next deck I played against, did some serious damage, but welder ended up doing me in ultimately, so thus I suggest also adding Cursed Totem, to take out random decks and stuff that shows up from time (masticore, etc) and also current threats. Now I dont know if this calls for maindecking of Totem, but I would highly reccomment sideboarding it.  Oxidize seems like it would be a nice addition to the deck dealing with lightning fast Juggy's at a very affordable price (I know, here I am advocating Oxidize again, but its so good its stupid in this deck especially where mana can be hard to come by at times.

Ultimately though, Oath is going to be a problem for example, my suggestion would have to be sideboarding Oath engine of Blessing and big things like Darksteel Collossus or Thorn Elementals and you should be alright, not much else you can do without adding another color. However one possibility is that card from Od I think where each player sacrifices an enchantment for G..that would work great here (sorry the card's name escapes me)

Ben: I do like the idea of the deck, and one important aspect to note is that Null Rod is not your only means of slowing the opponent. The Vintage forum was discussing Null Rod and if its still good, and the very very important conclusion made was that yes, but it loses a lot of effectiveness when it becomes your ONLY form of disruption/stalling/lockdown etc. The use of Root Maze, Null Rod...AND Winter Orb is just awesome looking to me, I am going to be testing it out tonight and let you all know.

One concern I have right off the bat though is the lack of Wasteland..this deck would be even more powerful with Wasteland, causing your opponent to just scream when they are mana screwed thanks to your disruption of the mana base. Now you could argue that wasteland messes up the whole mana base of this deck also, but remember, old school Sligh used to play what..like 8 mountains and still was able to be effective and maindeck 4 Wastelands AND Strip Mine.

Well for one, 3sphere was restricted..you will not have much time before the restriction is enforced But Stax already found a replacement, Sphere of Resistence.

I hear Darksteel Collossus and Tinker are good in sinct with each other

As for win condition, I mean you have crucible lock which will let you do whatever you want for the most part. Also Smokestack just rapes their board..then you sac it to itself and you should have plenty of resources to win. BTW WHERE IS PENTAVUS???

Ahh css I assumed that gnomehunter's decklist was Vengeur, I remember the V-Mask decklist playing most of the cards in his list, if you played counters then yeah the deck would be better. Problem was nobody posted the deck and seeing his I assumed that is what you were talking about.

I mean yes Vengeur is more balanced but my comment was about speed, it was Triple S's comment that was kept in mind, he seemed to not believe V-Mask was slower and I was simply spelling out why it is slower, simply proving the speed point thats all. =)

Triple S: I have played Mask-Nought but now the Vengeur Mask. I mean its simple logic when I say its slower than Normal mask in that you are losing speed using Volrath's Shapeshifter, and even survival.

You are losing time, atleast one or two turns by playing Survival, where as in Mask you get straight to the point with Spoils, consultation, tutors, etc. These spells are cheaper..I mean survival is 2 and then 1 to activate..THAT IS LOSS OF SPEED I mean I dont know how else to spell that out.

I mean its going to come down to what you expect to see..if null rods are going to see heavy play, obviously Vengeur may be the better choice due to utility, but if you just need to pound there face in as fast as possible say against Oath or control or something where the win is taken mid-late game then Masknought is probably your best choice.

Vengeur seems like it would be extremely weak against say Oath for example..I mean dotn get me wrong, I played a deck somewhat similar in pricible using Oath of Ghouls etc and Oath was a horrible match up thus I would expect the same in this case.

Ive never played the Vengeur style of Mask but I must stand by my statements thats its win would be slower under typical conditions because the other Mask deck goes Either Illusionary Mask/Spoils of the vault for Mask or Nought and usually plays them both first turn, second turn at the latest.  I dont see how Vengeur can consistantly acheive that speed, that was why I made the comment about speed.

Feel free to correct me if Im wrong Toad but I think maybe you meant cards that are not as effective as they USED to be.  

This would make a lot more sense when applied to vintage when talking about Jackal Pup - Cursed Scroll(obviously meaning sligh has taken a nose dive), Rogue Elephant (Obviously stompy although I dont think I would consider this deck to have been amazing anyways), Kird Ape-Serendib for Zoo, Hymn To Tourach-Nantuko Shade obviously referring to Suicide Black which died out also and finally Morphling-Moat-Abyss-Maybe Iso Sceptre being old Keeper, which I still love but will admit it has lost some of its funk over time and evolved a great deal to compliment the meta.

As for stuff from II and extended that were good at one point, Ill have to take Toad's word here because I am not too familiar with those formats, hard to keep up, so I just mentioned the cards in respect to Type 1.

Yes willow..but that will only stall them shortly, it could be enough to get the win against rector tendrils if they dont find chain of vapor or what not, but its still weak against belcher..belcher itself can kill the believer, making it not very effective at all against the deck.  HOWEVER if green was splashed for Oxidize there MAY be some potential.  One of the biggest problems is actually resolving mask..sometimes its best to wait 1 extra turn to duress, or be sure to unmask then play the mask.  I am digging the True Believer.. a lot actually.

 The problem then becomes finding the nought after you play believer, ya know? I mean would you spoils for the believer first? If so you lose a lot of life most of the time, how..might that then be a reasont o maindeck negators and factories along with hyppie? Im going to test out True Believer now..I mean its not going to make the deck unstoppable but it seems like a good idea, Ill let everyone know how it went tomorrow.

Im just going to comment on some of the things you said, I myself have not thought about what CAN be added to oath, but there are some small problems with some of your statements.

You mentioned that white helps provide Disenchant and Seal of Cleaning which would help against Workshop decks. First off, Green does have Naturalize, but even that is not needed, the key card in my mind is Oxidize, just works wonders, even playing Annul is very effective.  Workshop does not seem like a reason to splash white, green actually has become far superior when it comes to fast artifact hate.

Swords, it does help you against many decks, even in the mirror match where your legends conflict, etc. I mean its a great card, very strong but the black that most people splash already helps you out here with Smother.  Sure you could argue that Smother does not take out Darksteel Collossus, but that is why Oath A. sideboards collossus in some cases and B. Plays Platinum Angel, which also gets around the mirror match.

The fact of the matter is that Smother takes out Dryads which can develop into a problem rather quickly, Meddling Mages, Welders, and other little pests that would cause trouble BEFORE you activate Oath.

In final conclusing, UGB provides protection against every form of card, and in 99% of the cases it does a better job than white.  Swords, however great of a card it may be, does not warrant the including of another color, or the removal of black to simply fit white.

One more thing about UBG, is that yuo can actually sideboard Tog's AND/OR Dryads and basically make Gro-A-Tog (of a smaller version of it) by replacing the whole Oath concept with Tog..that certainly would be unexpected, and the unexpected can get you the W if say Oath was not.

Well gnome, I have to stress the speed with which this deck must win, I mean Tendrils based decks, Belcher and all that good stuff Generally captures the W by turn 4 a GREAT deal of the time, especailly Rector Tendrils (atleast from my playtesting and tournament reports).

 So I mean you really need to win soon as possible, thus being packed with disruption is your best bet to win, Vengeur is wayyy too slow. YOu must take out that Null Rod and the rest of the cards that just make you cuss in your head.

Now, it is true that Null Rod would not be played by rector decks, but even taking out Mask with Oxidize or whatever else sets you bag big time.  Chain of Vapor on your nought sets you back 2 turns of an attack wich can be the game in most cases.

See Gnome, I always saw the Vengeur build as the slower one as opposed to the prodominately black build, and instead of splashing white as seen with the initial deck, I would imagine green a better choice..Oxidize = basically better than Seal of Cleansing..enchantments arent going to be what shuts you down.

However much I love Mask-Nought, Smenen does have a point, I mean a first turn Null Rod just laughs at you..Oxidize, Rack and Ruin, Shatter, Naturalize, Disenchant all cheap spells which just make you cry. Now, you CAN protect yourself with discard, Unmask is some key tech here, along with duress and hymn to torach (yes may be overkill but its necessary if you want to win) which would give you a GREATER chance of success, in taht you have the ability to take the threats out of your opponents hand, but in most cases it just comes down to who goes first..Null Rod turn 1 = X_X if you catch my drift. Splashing green for Oxidize could be of help here.

You will find most of the time you are paying about 6 life through Nights Whisper (yes meaning multiple)/Spoils of the vault just to get your combo out..and it really hurts the team to lose the combo to something like a Goblin Vandal. I mean I think it stands a better chance than most think when you make it discard heavy, but I still have trouble seeing it take 1st place.

Pern does have a point, the deck will not be 100% as effective, but by missing a mox or two you arent going to lose every match.  Since the FULLY powered versions run 0-1 rebuild..running 2 may help you make up for a loss, even maindecking a Hurkyl's Recall is nice.

It might not be a bad idea also running a maindeck Brain Freeze, because Stiffle is rampant, and Meddling Mage for Tendrils can be frustrating, yes you can sideboard Form of the Dragon..but you dont want to lose ANY games if it can be prevented.

I do have a problem with seeing 2 duresses..I mean maybe its just my being Anal Retentive but 2 seems a little funky..either run 3 or dont run them at all. You do have therapy..each can be used 2x so thats 8 discard spells if you really needed them..then again it is a 1 drop, so playtesting will tell which idea is better.

On the topic of Future Sight..is it really necessary? I mean you arent going to be rectoring for that...thus you play BOTH Necropotence and Yawgmoth's Bargain..they are key. You could replace F-Sight with say..Duress

Bazaars are great in this deck but if you are on a budget obviously you need to find alternatives...Attunement works well here.

As for your recursion...WHERE IS EXHUME? :p I mean Ive seen many Mono Black reanimators..you could also splash green for oxidize which is some key tech.  As far as the creatures are concerned, I would go Akroma, Spirit of the Night, Phantom Nishoba..stuff like that. Visara is pretty cool also, and if you play Cabal Therapy (good for ditching your creatures or making opponent discard) in combo with Symbiotic Wurm that = delicious.

I mean if you insist on playing reanimator..just drop blue and Proxy Bazaars (Assuming you were proxying the power and Drains) and the deck will be towards its absolute peak.  Reanimate is a great card but conflicts with your Akroma and SoTN

Nights Whisper is nice, draw into Cabal Therapy (assuming you will be playing it)..going budget Reanimator is hard..the deck loses a lot of its power that way =( I can only reiterate the necessity of Bazaar..and even then the deck is past its prime, too much graveyard hate..although Exhume does sneak around Ground Seal last I knew (too lazy to start up MWS to read if it targets graveyard creatures for each player, if so disregard this suggestion).

Juju:  The problem is that the typical R/G beats deck has just not done well in recent tournaments (and my typical I mean the stereotypical deck running boas, apes, etc).  This calls for the unorthodox (or straying from the stereotypical build if you will) in my opinion..the deck just is not winning with what it plays.

Ive seen a decklist running both Mox Monkeys AND vandals maindeck and heard it just trashes stax, slaver, and anythign else on that idea.  Keep in mind it also maindecks Artifact Mutations! This is overwhelming artifact hate, some may say its overdoing it, but in a meta full of workshop decks and slaver we must ask ourselves is this really unreasonable?

The fact you are playing Wastelands, Strip Mine and this much artifact hate ensures the opponent getting frustrated, and this also can be an advantage in your favor.

As for the Oath matchup, we see Naturalize AND Elvish Lyrist..again the slight overkill (if you would even call it that) is to ensure resolving of your destructing the Oath.

There really are no Beatsticks in the decklist I saw, closest to taht would be the lavamancer but hes more of the burner I guess. I mean ofcourse Boas or Apes could be placed in the deck, but the main point I guess is to hate the prominant archetypes and then sideboard against everything else.  Sure, this may not win you every matchup, but if you insiston playing R/G I truly think this is the way to go.

The only matchup you would be weak(ER) against is combo as it has advantage against aggro but we have the ability to change the deck from Agro to Hate/Utility, sure we are ditching speed somewhat but gaining stability v. most archtypes which is needed.

Another idea is to maindeck Oxidize (possible in place of vandal since mutation is some key tech) just to suprise the unsuspecting Juggy.  To reiterate..the unorthodox is the unexpected, and the unexpected is what the typical R/G beats deck is lacking.

Null Rod is some key tech, as is Root Maze (its so good its stupid).

The vise is dead..if you can manage it first turn it CAN be good..but even now its lost some of its power with the speed in which hands are emptied.  

Dryad is definately one of the hottest cretures around, Meddling Mage is great, but not quite as good as claimed to be, if its toughness was higher it would just be crazy, still a good card but a tad overrated at times, but in UWG ofcourse it is a great compliment to the deck.

Im not too keen on Spiketail Hatchling though, I mean it worked in Fish but thats pretty much died out, or atleast evolved into Bird Sh*t, where the Hatchling's inclusion is far from necessity.

All that being said, your theory about disruption, creatures and
Hidden Guerillas is just a silly card..against most decks hes a turn 1 fatty.  However I read someone posting an arguement against Hidden cards in that soemtimes there is no room for them, its good if you can fit it but dont really worry if you cannot.

You mentioned Icatian Javalineers...I must disagree here..sure it can work but I mean why run it over something like Mogg Fanatic, just a great card to take out welders, burn dryads, etc.

Negators are good but it just makes your eyes tear when they hit him with a Lightning Bolt or some other silly card to clear your board. Just make sure hes not the only creature you run (although you did start off talking about UWG I dont know how he got introduced) or else you will pay 99% of the time.

Artifact destruction is key to todays meta, for it not only disrupts mana sources to many decks but also creatures and prisons set up by opposing decks. Heretic is a nice card, however Gorilla Shaman, Goblin Vandal, and Artifact Mutation I favor over it, hes just a little too slow, by the time you can use him, for example you are almost always under tangle wireishness complements of Staxx.

As for free counters, we all are crazy about Force of Will, Daze is just a fun card, and is highly effective.  Foil as you stated is just a waste..some people tend to like Thwart but Ive never really been a fan unless its used in Miracle Gro or something where Gush used to be used, and even then though not too many should be played at all..losing 3 lands is not fun.

As for the flame rift idea... not a good idea because:
1. Sorcery
2. It damages you too

Von you also forgot to mention LAND TAX is so crucial to the scroll rack draw engine..the tax is just bad these days, this significantly hurts your drawing and setting up for belcher =( Id get the coffin ready for parfait because unfortinately its day has come.