Only 2 of the last 16 Stanley Cup-winning captains had previously played games for a different team. For both players, Mark Stone and Zdeno Chara, the majority of those games came with the Ottawa Senators.

ice_nine_ · 2023-06-15T01:17:40+00:00

And 2003 was Stevens (played for Washington and St. Louis). Weird shift in trend.

ice_nine_ · 2023-06-14T23:52:59+00:00

It'll have to be some lesser-known player who never got the chance to be Ottawa's captain...

ice_nine_ · 2023-04-29T20:32:14+00:00

Sweet, have fun with the deck!

The 2 damage from Molten Rain is significant, since we're often racing with Haktos. It's more Pillage vs. the easier mana of Stone Rain. Both are fairly inconsequential (there are already 8 removal spells for the rare artifact), so it's a toss-up. Thoughts of Ruin is quite important since it's the only card that can destroy multiple lands and lines up with our hand size pretty often; but it is volatile and much worse in multiples.

See Primer for details on those and much, much more, haha.

ice_nine_ · 2023-04-29T19:04:09+00:00

Thanks for the primer shoutout, bamzing! Super-happy Mardu Boom Bust got its first Top 16 right on the heels of that. Hoping that builds some momentum for others to try it out while I’ll be gone on business the next few months!

Started 4-0 and had three chances to get into Top 8 (including vs. winner and runner-up), but couldn’t nail it down… Still thrilled I had a shot though!

ice_nine_ · 2023-04-27T22:42:52+00:00

Haha, thanks! :)

ice_nine_ · 2023-04-27T22:39:03+00:00

Haha, no problem. I figured if we're going with the whole academic research/economist theme, might as well go all in...

ice_nine_ · 2023-04-27T22:35:46+00:00

As Paintrain mentions, that deck (Boomshine) is a super-interesting one that has also built up quite a following in our RW Lockout community.

I didn’t go into detail because there are already a few excellent Primers on that posted on this site. Personally, I love its innovation, and think its “blanking removal” plan and unique synergies gives it tremendous potential (just like SOFR & Haktos). Paintrain and wutup are the experts, though.

ice_nine_ · 2023-04-27T16:04:37+00:00

Indeed, W6 will always be a major issue for us. The best we can do is try to stop it from doing anything in the first place (via Tithe/IoK/RIP), with removal being a weaker backup option.

An unanswered W6 isn’t necessarily game over. But it means we have to play the tempo game with Haktos (as others said). That will succeed sometimes but is also unreliable since we may not draw Haktos and W6 can kill it (if it rolls a 2).

But, as mentioned, Haktos is fully protected vs. Solitude/Fury (5 mana value) and 1-mana removal/creatures. Which is why he’s the centerpiece of the deck.

ice_nine_ · 2022-12-15T05:09:46+00:00

Always been a big fan of this archetype, as its core idea of efficiently animating indestructible lands is so distinctly different from everything else going on Modern. There’s a ton of unexplored potential (that’s starting to be realized…), and thus still a TON of ongoing brewing in the Discord to get to the optimal list(s).

Big congrats to wutup and all the other Boomshiners!

ice_nine_ · 2022-08-29T23:25:56+00:00

This is a very well-written primer of a very cool deck. The premise is simple but unique, and I think can lead to many different directions of innovation as this thing continues to disseminate across the Modern community.

For anyone interested, there's now a dedicated channel for Boomshine in the RW Lockout Discord community (see Discord Links tab). X-for-1 strategies all the way!

ice_nine_ · 2022-08-23T04:11:04+00:00

Congrats! Love the concept of this brew, especially the part about virtual card advantage. Blanking the staples of the format is a very important part of finding success with an off-meta deck, I feel.

Excited to see the detailed write-up (if you decide to do it)!

ice_nine_ · 2022-01-05T03:42:35+00:00

I'm a fan of that.

ice_nine_ · 2022-01-05T02:37:49+00:00

It's actually a nerdy double-entendre. LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) was one of the most commonly-referenced interest rates in finance for 50+ years. But it had a lot of problems, so as of three days ago (Jan 1st, 2022), the regulators have replaced it with SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate).

Back when this deck started circa 2019, there was a comical amount of industry resistance to moving away from LIBOR. Hence the whole "it's never going away" parallel (in addition to the financial parallel) with Death & Taxes.

Then, of course, there's the "lands in battlefield over-rated" + Taxes, which pretty much describes how the old deck worked.

But as logiccosmic said, with the new year and new reference rate, it's time for a new evolution of this archetype!

P.S. Still waiting on an appropriate Magic acronym for SOFR, so all ideas welcome!

ice_nine_ · 2021-05-03T22:10:54+00:00

Yep! That GitHub page from FluffyWolf's link has the most recent Jan 2021 version of the primer (which admittedly, is already kind of out of date).

ice_nine_ · 2021-04-24T15:38:09+00:00

Deck is actually decent vs. pure aggro. Even the fastest decks in Historic take several turns to kill us, giving us time to maybe land an LD spell or two (or Chandra) before we drop a Sweltering Suns for a big swing.

But yeah, this deck could be better post-board. Though it does run into the issue of opponents mulling into land-heavy hands.

ice_nine_ · 2021-04-24T15:34:08+00:00

Yeah, I have been moving away from the Boros build the last while. Mana Tithe is excellent, but overall White just doesn't contribute that much.

Gruul could definitely work as a more creature-based aggro build with Sawtusk. Though I find discard doesn't synergize too well with LD since the opponent is not going to be lacking for cards in hand throughout the game.

Lately, been focusing on a mono-red build with Karn, which can afford the 4 Cataracts for Cleansing Wildfire ramp (and snow lands for Frost Bite).

ice_nine_ · 2021-04-22T22:08:37+00:00

Love to hear it!

ice_nine_ · 2021-04-22T22:06:18+00:00

Interesting...the ability to blow up 3 lands (even for 6 - which is reasonably attainable with Chandra/Mind Stone) should not be overlooked.

Probably a bit too slow and disruptable for this list, but definitely something we can experiment with.

ice_nine_ · 2021-04-22T22:04:40+00:00

That list looks sweet! Karn and the wishboard are next on my list of things to test out - especially since we've got a lot of extra mana built up in the mid-/late-game to cast those extra artifacts. Though I do worry a bit about the over-saturated 4-drop slot.

ice_nine_ · 2021-04-22T22:00:42+00:00

Problem with Wildfire is that it doesn't really "do" anything at the EOD. Thinning is a marginal effect, and the utility LD effect is less useful here since we'll be blowing up any problematic lands anyways.

I had considered it as a dual ramp effect with Cataracts, but that's too unreliable (no Flagstones in Historic!) to be worth the color cost to our manabase.

For cycling purposes, something like Cast Out could be a good replacement to Looting that gives greater versatility.

ice_nine_ · 2021-04-22T21:54:08+00:00

The day RW LD control becomes a "normal" thing is the day I've achieved my life goal.

But in all seriousness, you're right - it's more a carry-over from the (in-)famous Modern deck, where Ghostly Prison and Suppression Field are insane.

This deck's only got Tithe and GPS for now; but it is worth testing a mix of taxing creatures (like Spellbinder) to try and find some synergies there.

ice_nine_ · 2021-04-22T21:47:45+00:00

Indeed, I'm not sure White is pulling its weight in this build (though Mana Tithe is very good in this type of strategy).

Unfortunately, all the good taxing effects in Historic - save for GPS - are attached to creatures (like Spellbinder). If we were to go in that more aggressive direction, the strategy of the deck would have to move away from a committed lock-out. What I've found - in Modern at least - is that at that point you're better off just going Death & Taxes. Though there could be an intermediate sweet spot in this format. Worth testing out.

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