[Deck]R/G beatz

[[supa_t(im)]]

Trying this again.  Thankyou to those who convinced me that Beatz can still be viable.

Ok, my meta is relatively casual, compared to whats considered competitive, therefore, this is the proper forum for this.

Nestled snuggly in scrubbland, my meta consists of mostly random aggro decks like crawwurm.dec and needspottertocutdeck.dec, but also has a few competitive decks, as any meta should.  These decks include but are not limited to U/G madness, Hulk Smash, and Keeper.  Suicide has been seen there, but its not really an issue.  WW also shows up occasionally, but again, not really an issue.

I don't need help against the scrubs as my deck already pwns them, however, the more competitive guys are well. . . more competitive.  The only strong decks I've been able to test against are Hulk and DR4G0N.  I beat hulk 40/60 but my deck wasn't quite complete then, I didn't play dragon enough to get a good sense on how I do, although I was able to beat him twice in a tourney.

Decklist:
//Land
4 Taiga
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Strip Mine
5 Forest
2 Barbarian Ring
3 Mountain

//Accel.
4 ESG
1 Lotus Petal

//Beatz
4 Kird Ape
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 River Boa
4 Quirion Sentinel
4 Basking Rootwalla

//Burn
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate

//Pump
4 Rancor
4 Reckless Charge

//SB
4 REB
4 Naturalize
4 Gorilla Shaman
3 Bloodmoon

Discussion
Lands
Everything is pretty standard except a few I think.  Barbarian ring is in because I don't run lavamancers.  The lone strip mine is there because I don't have any wastes, and I'm not sure if they should go in anyway.  I've done some reading on beatz and a lot of it said that beatz shouldn't use wastes and strip because it slows the deck down.  As it is I only have 18 R/G mana sources (including fetches) and I'm not sure bumpin it down to 12 is a good idea.  Open to thoughts on this one.

Accel.
ESG:  the deck needs acceleration to be any where near competitive again, and these worked in stompy.  Really good first hand, lets me do some broken (at least as broken as Beatz is gonna get) things.  He (erm, she?) can also be used as another warm body in a pinch, no not the best idea, but almost never a dead card.
Lotus Petal:  I have had good luck with the petal, it allows me to do those semi-broken things along with ESG.  However I have heard conflicting views on the petal.  One person said that the deck should run it, and the other said that the only artifact acceleration the deck should run is the moxes.  It works for me, but I would like to hear everyone else's opinion.

Beatz
Kird Ape:  The best weenie red has to offer green.  Pretty standard.
Mogg Fanatic:  Not great, but not bad either.  I run MF because I don't run lavamancers, and I usually side him out, but he is still a good beater, and that one damage can come in handy.  I also keep him around for any of those joblin pipsqueeks that MUD uses (if they ever pop up).
River Boa:  Good 2 drop, drives blue mages insane, pretty standard.
Quirion Sentinel:  I'm not sure if this guy is standard or not.  Regardless, he has good synergy with reckless charge, and usually only counts as a 1 drop since I can play another spell with the 1 mana he gives me.
Basking Rootwalla:  In here because I don't have Skyshroud Elite yet.  They are in the mail.

Burn
Lightning Bolt:  Pretty standard, the best burn out there.
Incinerate:  Another standard burn, not much else to say.
I'm not running more burn than other builds because I find that in the slowness of my meta (scrubs) I only need 8 spells.  Since I have no chain lightning, I used to use seal of fire, but I opted to go more the stompy than sligh way, and add more critters.  This was because I found that the critters did more consistent damage than more burn.

Pump
Rancor:  Pretty standard, probably the best creature enchantment green has to offer, and since, as stated above, I went more stompy than sligh, it fits the theme more.
Reckless charge:  Kind of a psuedo burn spell, works well with a first turn sentinel.  Flashback comes in handy as well.

SB
REB:  Standard in red's SB.
Naturalize:  More versatile than oxidize or artifact mutation.  My only defense against DR4G0N.  If workshops decks ever show up, I'll probably put in the mutation instead.
Gorrilla Shaman:  SBed because of the numerous scrubs and lack of powered decks.
Bloodmoon:  Again in there for the powered matchups, like Hulk and Keeper.

Some cards that didn't make it:
Cursed Scroll:  Don't have any, although if I did, the charge would probably come out for them.
Jackal Pup:  Again don't have any, and if I did, I don't know if I'd use them.  Possibly in place of Mogg Fanatic.
Mtenda Lion:  To much blue in meta.
Grim Lavamancer:  Don't have any, and if I did, I don't know how many to run, I've heard conflicting views on it.

Some Questions not in card discussion:
Does skullclamp deserve some slots here?  It can give me more cards if I run out of steam, but I'm not sure if I want to be saccing by critters.
Can orcish lumberjack and/or tinder wall have a place here?  It can alow for some pretty broken first turns.

I think thats it.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks!

[Sheik al Kaji]

Hey Tim, only in NC can a Bargain and a Consultation get you into a tourney, right?

Also, about playing against Dragon: Of course it's easy to beat Dragon when Dragon is land screwed. Heh heh.

Now, on topic:

From your Quirion Sentinel tech, I revised my Beatz deck, and here it is to give you inspiration for fitting Tinder Walls in your deck, as they seem to be superior to the Lumberjacks.

Jesus Beatz

Mana
4 Taiga
4 Land Grant
5 Mountain
5 Forest
1 Lotus Petal
4 Tinder Wall

Burn
4 Lighting Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Chain Lightning
2 Kaervek's Torch
4 Rancor

Borken
1 Regrowth
1 Fastbond
1 Wheel of Fortune

Beatz
4 Kird Ape
4 Skyshroud Ridgeback
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Quirion Sentinel



With the sheer number of 1 drops in here, the Sentinel never comes out alone. With 1cc burn in hand, the Sentinel is an almost-FTK. It's an almost-Ball Lightning if you have Rancor. It brings out every other creature in your deck. The Sentinel is nothing short of pure awesome.

About the Ridgeback: If the good players aren't playing that day, then there are no duals to be seen. So, the Ridgeback is better than Skyshroud Elite. Besides, you should be winning before the Ridgeback's drawback is a problem. Besides, you can always put the Elite in the board for the matches with people playing non-basics.

Kaervek's Torch: Either decent spot removal, or it finishes the game.
Also, the little extra cost to counter clause makes it resiliant.

And Fastbond with Land Grant is nothing short of crazy.

[[supa_t(im)]]

Heh.  Well, I wanted another good matchup besides Big Red, I mean, wild colos?  mad dog? venerable monk?  Yeah, anyway, how could I not let Jesus play  :lol: .

Is that what was keeping you from doing anything?  I though it was because you didn't draw a animate dead or something.  Yeah, you probably should have won those last 2.

I love the name   .


Ok, I opted to use ESG over land grant for 2 reasons: 1) I don't like showing my hand 2) I think it is better to get out as much as possible on the first turn, and with land grant I still only get 1 mana first turn (unless I also play petal).  Granted (pun intended) with fastbond it is another one of those broken plays, but If I don't draw land grant and fastbond in my opening hand, its a dead draw later on.  I'd rather have consistency over brokenness in a budget deck.  Also I usually draw enogh land with fetches and everything.

Tinder wall. . . hmm. . . I was considering using him, because the possibility of broken plays can happen more often.  Maybe I'll test these guys in place of ESG. Coolness!

I see you are running Chain Lightning.  Yes I would run it too if I had any.  Right now though, reckless charge is working as something similar.  It has good synergy with the sentinel as well.

I'm not sure about the torch, usually its not a good idea to run an "X" spell in a burnish type deck.  But you do have only 2 in there.  I'll take out 2 land and try them.

I have some problems with your Broken section.  1) Regrowth, I've done some reading on this card, and most of it sounds bad.  It seems that beatz should win fast enough to not need this card.  However, in some of those games against Red, I did run out of steam, and this might have helped me.  I'll give it some consideration. 2) Fastbond, only good with land grant and I think that's a little too situational.  But hey if it works for you, it works for you.  3) Wheel of Fortune, well, again I've heard bad things about this card regarding its play in more competitive areas because of its tendency to give the opponent more of an advantage than you.  However in scrubland NC, it probably wouldn't hurt, my only problem is I don't have any.  I'll consider getting one.

I'm glad you like my sentinel tech, although it wasn't my idea.  Running all 1 drop critters has good synergy with the sentinel, but I think that river boa is just too good not to use.  The ridgeback, he's definitely a stompy card, but since I would be taking out the rootwallas for the elite, if no good players show up, I'll just put the lizards back in.

Thanks for the help Chr. . . I mean. . . Sheik al Kaji.  You've given me some things to consider.

Question:  Do you think I should run [card]Treetop Village[/card]?  it would give me an uncounterable beats, but it might slow me down.

[Sheik al Kaji]

Treetop Village gets Wastelanded, and is too slow. After some more tinkering with a good metagame in mind, I have come up with another, more refined version that I will post in the morning.

[[supa_t(im)]]

cool.

Alright, I tested with the tinder walls, and I have decided that they are not as good as ESG in my deck.  I found that the spells I wanted to cast early were green not red (with exception to Kird Ape, but I could get him out with taiga, ESG, sentinel anyway), and more often than not I wished that the wall was an ESG.  It probably works in your deck because you have the chain lightning which can be played regardless of a creature in play.  Oh well.

I took out 2 land for the growth and wheel because I found that I was drawing too much land, and not enough threats even with the fetches.  I think the regrowth is gonna go in, but the wheel usually came at a time when I needed something else or didn't have enough land to make it worthwhile.  Since I am running so few lands, I'm not sure if I want a spell over 2 mana.

However I haven't had time to test as much as I would have like since my GF was in town for a few days, but hey, I'm not complaining about that   .

By "good metagame" do you mean like, not ours?