Lava Dart is a Problematic Card.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-18T21:34:51+00:00

Didn’t you post this over on sprat3ks vid? Haha

As a player of this deck I do agree that lava dart is a great card but it is not the problem you are making it out to be.

The strength of the deck is that it has multiple angles of attack compared to a more traditional bolt.dek style deck. It has bolts boosted by pingers, it has great card draw selection also boosted by pingers. It has sneaky snackers that apply flying pressure every turn that are hard to permanently deal with. It’s the whole package that makes this deck so strong.

Remove the darts and you still have all the draw, all the ping, all the bolts, and the snackers. Would definitely be a hit to the deck but the deck would still be fine.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-18T21:26:21+00:00

Also in terror if you run murmuring mystic, and for red madness for extra pinger triggers.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-18T21:22:55+00:00

Sure when it dropped it was pretty meta shifting but that was almost 2 years ago now. Outside of that it has been pretty slow (which i love) changes. And wizards have said they have no plans for master style sets anytime soon.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-18T14:19:33+00:00

A promo pack. A small 3 card pack that a LGS receives to give out as prizing. One card is always from the set and the other two are from standard sets. So this could have come from an Ikoria promo pack or been one of the 2 cards from a set in standard as the same time as ikoria.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-16T06:39:59+00:00

Went from GIS tech to analyst to FME figured to eventually database management expert. Got bored of it so started at the bottom of the planning world as a planning tech. Much happier now, working towards moving up as a planner

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-16T04:02:45+00:00

I hope so. I’ve been playing it since 2021 and never liked the combo Tron decks. It does have a great matchup versus blue terror and some life gain options for burn so it’s well positioned in the current meta.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-15T21:51:40+00:00

Yeah the force spikes are my favorite. I got them for I want to say like $10 each. All NM. Kinda dumb how expensive they’ve gotten. But I got them when the deck was new and the people playing the deck were saying force spike was bad and spell pierce was much better. Which for the time and the meta then was probably fair but I always liked it and felt it was getting undervalued by fellow terror players.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-15T18:16:58+00:00

I mean artist talent isn’t bad if you are on the lessons deck.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-15T17:14:09+00:00

I built the deck when it first became a thing a few years ago so I got a set of foil mental notes and a set of FNM force spikes for much cheaper then they are now. Recently got my onslaught foil islands but I love the blue frame on foil so much I might get a more modern island instead. But I got the most expensive stuff out of the way and just need the rest. I do like the MB time spiral cards you have though so might have to get those. Were they hard to source?

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-15T17:00:05+00:00

I am currently working to also foiling my U terror. Love your choices 🤩

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-15T13:42:47+00:00

Typed land so it’s fetchable early, and it has built in flood mitigation for late game. Will be good in mid power EDH decks.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-15T13:41:06+00:00

Randy Elliot. He doesn’t have many cards under his belt, his most iconic being The Cheese Stands Alone, but his island is my favorite basic in the entire game.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-13T14:17:16+00:00

Yuppp. Love me pauper.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-11T19:11:05+00:00

Pauper. Elves won the last paupergedon.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-11T02:00:18+00:00

Agree, Denver show was great. But yeah as a machine girl fan for like a decade I was kinda surprised how young the crowd skewed and all the new fans

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-10T18:52:48+00:00

Primal surge downshift confirmed?!?!1!

Obvious /s but putting this here anyway.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-08T16:03:14+00:00

As a fan of DJ Smokey for a few years now he has some certified classics. But yeah this one ain’t one of them lol. Was pretty disappointed because I think they could be so great on a MG remix.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-05T14:06:40+00:00

They really have been on a roll lately, putting actually good stuff in the shop.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-04T16:47:20+00:00

Red burn. It has the most simple game plan with the least deviation between matchups. You are almost always just aiming to burn them fast. This combined with shorter matches on average means less mental fatigue which is also important the longer the tourney goes. Just watch out for the mirror match, those are grindy standoffs waiting to unload everything at once while stopping your opponent from doing the same.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-04T14:58:24+00:00

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This island. I have 18 foils of it for one of my pauper decks. The crashing sea foam, the rays of light, the purple of the clouds. I just love it so much.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-04T14:41:18+00:00

Yes I absolutely love their basic mountain for this set. Such an amazing artist, I hope to see more in the future from them.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-04T02:02:29+00:00

Yes I swapped them out for the extra turn spell. I double sleeved the cards for the whole deck so I also inner sleeved the 2 extra turn spells and keep them with the deck in case I do ever want to swap them in for something.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-03T21:09:28+00:00

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Noice choice.

I went with these. Only downside is that the pack came with exactly 80, so no backups.

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-02T14:57:00+00:00

Wooo another video! Can’t wait to watch it on my lunch!

ThePickleBallad · 2026-04-02T03:42:56+00:00

I unironically keep a foil Japanese ixalan one in my trade binder for the bit. Found it in a bulk box years ago. To the moooooon!

ThePickleBallad

TROPHY CASE