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9 red mana in 1-2 turns

Is there an easy way to produce 9 red mana in the first or second turn? I know I could play a mountain, 2 rites of flames to give me 3 mana, a seething song up to 5, or 2 up to 7, etc... maybe throw in a braid of fire and hope for the best somewhere around 4-5, but I would like that to be sped up if possible. Does anyone know of a solid way? About 4 mana must be red, the rest can be colorless. It would be nice for this to be realistic to draw in a single opening hand, with 4 of each card in the deck and I don't really like going over 70-75 cards in my deck with 1/3+2 or 3 lands.
Posted 31 October 2013 at 21:27

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Anything in possible... That much ramp is a bit of a pipe dream though. What exactly are you wanting to cast with all that mana?

More than likely any way to do it is going to be a bit of a "god hand" rather than a reliable strategy.
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Posted 01 November 2013 at 05:02

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It's possible but probably not consistent. Storm decks often create that kind of mana turn 1 or 2 but they use it as well to keep playing as much spells as possible. That said you have to concider what is best, going fast and all or nothing or holding back a few turns so you have the means to defend your combo. I've played Sneak Attack variants in legacy for many years and I remember a very fast turn 1 version popping up several years ago when Survival was still legal but it wasn't all that robust. It was crazy fast but could't defend itself. Then 3 years ago a far slower but far more stable version appeared that has won many tournaments since and has been one of the best decks for years now.
Even if I have the means of playing Emrakul turn 1 I often don't if I know my opponent plays Knight of the Reliquary or Karakas or other problem cards. I much rather Show and Tell into Sneak Attack turn 4 and then sweep their board with Emrakul setting them back so far my win is guaranteed. Also when sitting across a combo player I usually win against guys that go for it, that go for the fast lucky win. A good combo player uses his life total as a resource, as long as it's above 0 he has time to stack up on defense. When he goes for it he knows he's going to win.

It's always the same with combo decks, you go for it and then it either works or fails or even worse, you play 10 games and only in 1 game you start with a hand that is actually able to generate the mana you need.

If you really want to generate that kind of mana look for Dragonstorm decks. They generate a ton of mana.
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Posted 01 November 2013 at 07:54

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I am focused on popping off Worldfire. I began as a solid red deck but was completely unable to get my mana ramp (only able to use it once, but more often than not had to revert to Apocalypse or Jokulhaups), plus I wanted pro-red so I wouldn't lose my creatures. I then converted to Red/White for the access to pro-red, got that working but found out that pro-red only protects against spells which directly target the creature... Worldfire doesn't exactly target so my creatures still die (if I am wrong, please tell me). After I came to terms with this fact I switched to Red/Black in order to gain access to Dark Rits, etc., for use in mana ramp. This worked ok, but wasn't ultimately effective if I wasn't able to get a reset out quick enough. I also had the problem where I needed at least 2 mana source cards else Worldfire was completely unusable. I then switched to Red/Green. The deck is more stable and I don't need a reset that quick. I am able to get 9 mana in roughly 5-6 turns average. The problem is that this isn't quick enough. Many of the decks I am playing have me at around 5 life by this time. If I have a worldfire it makes the board more even, but my other two resets place me in front of a roulette board. I'm using elvish mystic, harvester druid, satyr hedonist, vine trellis, dawn's reflection, and tinderwalls for my ramp. I don't really have playsets of any because I either have 1 or 2 atm or they are being used in other decks.
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Posted 13 November 2013 at 18:54

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I way back around Ice Age that having too many cards in a deck was horrible, and have since tried to keep my decks between 60-65. If I am up around 70-75 I am looking for a way to cut my deck down. I run the old standard of 1/3 mana but generally add 1-4 more lands depending on the type of deck I am running and what secondary effect the lands in question have. Question... Are the Urza lands still a decent colorless ramp or are they essentially just museum pieces anymore? I took a break from the game shortly after Tempest (I think, I know I got to experience the awesomeness known as Weatherlight), and only re-emerged at the tail end of 2013.
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Posted 13 November 2013 at 18:59

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- protection rules are easy, just google them and you'll understand them
- Urza lands are still good if you build a deck that can assemble them fast. I think they are even played competitivly in Modern tournaments but I'm not sure about that. They are used in pauper tournaments.
- stick to 60 card decks if you don't have much deck building experience. Learn to balance out land versus spells and once you can do that for 60 card decks you can start making bigger decks if its something you like doing.

In my opinion what you want to do is overkill. A Green/Red deckthat ramps into Wildfire and plays the likes of Countryside Crusher and Inferno Titan (all cheap cards) should be really effective.

If you can do something like (maybe this is a magic christmas land case but it's just one of many scenarios)

T1, mountain, Orcish Lumberjack
T2, forest, Sakura-Tribe Elder, tap Orcish Lumberjack for 3 mana, sacrificing your forest and play Countryside Crusher, Sacrifice Sakura and fetch forest.
T3, mountain, Tap mountain, mountain, forest for 3 mana, sac forest with Lumberjack, 6 mana in the pool, play Inferno Titan

or

T1, forest
T2, mountain, sakura-Tribe Elder (best mana ramp 2 drop as it can block and win you a turn)
T3, Cultivate into mountain, mountain, sac Sakura, you now have 5 land
T4, mountain, play Countryside Crusher or Inferno Titan
T5 play Wildfire. since Countryside Crusher gets bigger from the land you sac it doesn't die from a wildfire, Titan won't either but everything your opponent has will likely die setting him back so far he won't be able to handle the huge creature you left behind


There's tons of possibilities here and you can make something like this pretty competitive. Its basically a Budget Loam deck or at leasts borrows the main strategy from that.
Terravore is another good creature for a deck like this and it got cheaper over the years as it doesn't see competitive play anymore (it was replaced by Knight of the Reliquary in legacy tournaments)
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Posted 14 November 2013 at 08:22

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