[m14] Chandra, Pyromaster

[gkraigher]

Her plus 1 ability hits a jace and kills a dark confidant.  Seems good.

Her 0 ability looks a lot like drawing a card--but is different.

Her ultimate ability should win the game on its own.  Much like Jace, the Mindscupltor's ultimate.  Time Walk = 3 turns, Ancestral Recall = 9 cards, Lightning Bolt = 9 damage.  

Snap judgement, she is in the top 3 best planeswalkers ever printed.  Behind Jace, but maybe even before Tezzerett.  Only drawback is the 4 CC cost, which seems right for the power level of all three of her abilities.  


I think with Ral Zerek, Jace, and now Chandra there is going to be a very effective Red/Blue planewalker deck in Vintage that will play a combination of all 3.  Young pyromancer would be a very exciting inclusion to the deck.

[Saya]

Firebrand was occasionally played because of her mana cost - .Single symbol is reasonable.However M14 Chandra is  .This is hard to cast under wastelands.

[zeus-online]

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[MaximumCDawg]

This Planeswalker seems fine, if narrow.  The ping ability is relevant and with Sol lands it can come down early enough to matter.  The real meat and potatoes is the draw-a-card ability, which Red doesn't usually get.  It's only recently that they've given Red some useful looting effects at least.

Her card-drawing ability is more useful than it might seem at first.  To begin with, you activate her 0 before you play a land, so you can play a land off the top.  If you flip something irrelevant, then since it was Exiled you get to dig into your deck for something useful regardless.  It's not as good as Jace (lol) but it's not terrible.

I am having a hard time imagining what kind of deck wants this card over other options, but I initially suspect it's an aggressive R/x sligh deck that is fine flipping either dudes or bolts.  A deck with countermagic really, really doesn't want this Chandra, since a counterspell might be the only type of card that might want to draw, but never want to flip.  So we're talking about, I dunno, competitive R/w or R/b decks, which are pretty rare.

And then there's the fact she costs 4.  That's kind of steep for an aggressive deck.  Still, since she acts as both removal AND your card advantage engine, she's got potential.  

In summary, this card works in a deck that:
- Uses Sol lands
- Does not use countermagic
- If it wants to draw any particular card, is fine with casting it immediately
- Lacks other good ways to generate card advantage
- Appreciates having spot removal and its card advantage in a single card

Now, the deck that actually pops out when you discuss it this way is Shops, rather than an aggressive Red deck.  Does Welder Shop like Chandra?  It sort of does the same thing that Staff of Nin does.  It's easier to cast off Sol lands and impossible to cast off Mishra's Workshop.  

[MaximumCDawg]

Quote =!= Edit

[dangevin]

Firebrand was occasionally played because of her mana cost - .Single symbol is reasonable.However M14 Chandra is  .This is hard to cast under wastelands.

It is a rare mana cost in the format... Ali from Cairo, Shatterstorm, and a handful of sideboard cards. Been a long time since hard-casting RR2 was an option in vintage! Perhaps this would have a home in something like Christmas Beatings, operating under Magus of the Moon.

[vaughnbros]

There are some pretty big things limiting her playability
    1. Disynergy with countermagic
    2. Relatively useless against workshops
    3. Casting cost of 2RR

As people have mentioned shes a great card advantage engine for a currently unplayable deck...

I'm sure this will see a ton of play outside of vintage, but shes pretty much just strictly inferior to Jace except against 1 toughness creature.deck.

[DubDub]

Firebrand's copy effect is leagues better than this with a more flexible mana cost to boot.

Should have been:
+2: Deals 2 damage to up to one target creature, that creature can't attack ~ (EVER!)
-1: Same as this 0: effect, but for two cards.
-4: You get an emblem with "At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, ~ deals 1 damage to that player and each creature that player controls."

All for  .  Would have protected herself better, generated larger advantages over time and still been in flavor (with her ult an evolution of Nalaar's ult).

[xouman]

Firebrand's copy effect is leagues better than this with a more flexible mana cost to boot.

Should have been:
+2: Deals 2 damage to up to one target creature, that creature can't attack ~ (EVER!)
-1: Same as this 0: effect, but for two cards.
-4: You get an emblem with "At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, ~ deals 1 damage to that player and each creature that player controls."

All for  .  Would have protected herself better, generated larger advantages over time and still been in flavor (with her ult an evolution of Nalaar's ult).

Outside from ultimatum, which is really poor, it seems too good, second ability is nuts.

I like this new PW a lot. Imho it's the best vintage mono-red PW up to date.

+1: Kills little dudes while making space for your attacks. And that point could be relevant.

0: red has little drawing. While this is no drawing, is quite close

-7: this is worse than I would like. in vintage I like to play red with permanents instead of instants/sorceries. bolting 3 times is nice, but not definitive lots of times. And in mono-red, bolt is probably the best instant/sorcery you can reasonabily get.


Still I don't know if I would play her over a SOFI, for example

[Protoaddict]

Don't like it.

Cost is restrictive.
Card draw ability forces you to cast cards that turn which means it only works with wheel effects and bolts and such.
Exiles the card which if you cannot cast it can be bad. Negative synergy with Yawgs will, snapcaster, regrowth, etc as a result

Overall if you are playing red mana in vintage you probably are playing blue. If you are playing blue Ral seems like a better choice. If you are playing mono red like TMWA this card is more win-more than anything, you really didnt need a 4 mana walker to win the game.

[DubDub]

If you are playing mono red like TMWA this card is more win-more than anything, you really didnt need a 4 mana walker to win the game.

And if you did, you'd probably pick Koth, who's much more effective at that.

[serracollector]

Why not something that wants to hold down the fort until she gets to 7 counters?

Something like

4 magus of moon
4 blood moon
4 solemn simulcram
4 lodestone
4 goblin Welder
4 fireblast
4 lightning bolt
4 Chandra
4 SSG
4 ancient tomb
moxes/mountains

chandra lets your dudes get past any blockers, if it doesn't kill them, and solemn simulcram helps ensure mana, and works well with her 0, filtering lands so you can play spells, even fireblast saccing the 2 mountains doesn't hurt as much with solemn/welder.  If somehow you get her ultimate, a fireblast 3 x or bolt 3 x should be gg at that point I imagine.  Anyways her draw in this would be relevant almost all the time, and reaching her cost of 2RR shouldn't be that hard with the like of SSG, ancient tombs, and full moxen/lotus etc. Her or Lodestone or a Blood Moon turn 1-2 would be a nice start versus most decks.

[Protoaddict]

Why not something that wants to hold down the fort until she gets to 7 counters?

Because pure red is not a control color like blue who can sit on Jace and win in 20 turns.
Because If your not playing Pure red you are probably better off with other colored walkers.
Because with a list like TMWA you probably can just win faster and earlier if your playing something more relevant than whatever you would put in Chandras place.

Let's not forget that she is tragically poor against a deck that does not run creatures or that plays them all at once like storm and dredge. In those games she is only going to be a draw engine and even then potentially a poor one, when probably what you should have run was another piece of hate or an accelerant.