Boros Scry lands - should they be used?
Deck Help forum
Posted on Oct. 30, 2013, 7:02 a.m. by Seten
I dont know. Obviously the scry is nice, but I feel that in a boros aggro deck, you cant afford to have your lands come into play tapped.
Agreed, not sure if i wanna run em in my aggro but....
October 30, 2013 7:04 a.m.
Kismet yeah. You pull nothing but those as your land in your opening hand, your screwed. Your going to need to mulligan. I guess maybe just running 2 of them in a deck would be alright though? then you will probably only pull 1 per game at most
October 30, 2013 7:06 a.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #5
The view for their use is too limited. I run them in RWB midrange and they're a necessity.
October 30, 2013 7:08 a.m.
fluffybunnypants so are you saying that they should or shouldnt be used in an aggro deck?
October 30, 2013 7:09 a.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #7
I think running 2 would be useful. It slims your chance of getting them in the opening hand but can prevent flooding if the match runs past prime for you and help you find answers.
October 30, 2013 7:13 a.m.
fluffybunnypants yeah, i think that may be best. thanks!
October 30, 2013 7:17 a.m.
I agree 2x at most, but you might not need if you don't have spells that require either RR or WW in their CMC. The scry could be useful if the game stretches at all and you need to sustain the deck a little longer. Also depends on how many lands you run. If your hyper aggressive with a low land count, the scry might help dig (but I doubt it). It would require playtesting
October 30, 2013 9:41 a.m.
Schuesseled says... #11
I wouldn't use them at all in an aggro deck, use the shrine instead, as i can help you ramp up into your 4-5 drops.
October 30, 2013 9:59 a.m.
Good point Schuesseled, it's been awhile since I ran aggro.
October 30, 2013 10:04 a.m.
Cobthecobbler says... #13
I wouldn't use it at all in an aggro deck. Aggro is supposed to be fast, and you really can't afford to have your land come in tapped. The scry is nice, like you said, but no it's not needed.
And, you also cannot afford by any means to see any amount of these in your opening hand without at least 3 other basic lands/shock lands.
You're best bet is either Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx if your cards are saturated enough, or just running the Shocklands alone.
October 30, 2013 10:51 a.m.
Honestly, I think there's more to consider than a blanket 'tapped lands are bad for aggro'. Speed is not the only consideration for an aggro deck. If that was true everyone would run goofy T2-3 kill decks with tons of pumps spells.
Scry is deceptively powerful for aggro decks. Unlike control or mid-range which can use Scry to dig, but ultimately still want their lands. Aggro actually approaches Scry being closely equivalent to drawing a card. A land off the top would otherwise be a dead draw after 3-4 lands on board, so a fresh draw blurs the line almost to truly drawing a card.
How multi-colored or splash oriented is the deck. For a while I was running GW aggro, which absolutely could not afford to keep any hand without both colors of mana because of how much of the deck was gold. Likewise, decks like Barely Boros, aka mono white with Boros Charm , need the free red sources to be consistent - Mountain s can't play T2 Precinct Captain - and still get to run Mutavault
How hyper-aggressive is the deck. None of the colors at the moment really offer a worth while 12 one drops right now. So most of the aggro decks depend largely on the strength of their later plays instead. So having your first land enter tapped isn't as bad. Even going TI temple T2 2 CMC dude and T3 2 CMC dude + 1 CMC dude is not a bad start.
October 30, 2013 11:43 a.m.
Cobthecobbler says... #15
It is as simple as that blanket statement. An opening hand of 2 lands is something aggro can deal with, now what if one of those lands is a Scryland. Instant mulligan. If they don't mulligan, it's Turn 1 : 1-drop, Turn 2: Scryland, another one-drop or you just sit around embarrassing yourself.
Aggro needs that speed. And White/Red is still very fast. Rakdos Cackler , Boros Elite , Legion Loyalist , and hell, even Firedrinker Satyr are all extremely fast cards that can make up a fast Boros deck. Magma Jet can take care of the scrys and do it a lot better, too. White also gets Gods Willing to scry while helping the deck run consistently.
Scrylands are fairly weak, as they're pretty much a 1CMC spell that says "Scry 1." Only benefit is that they provide you with fixing, but they take up a turn. Sure in Midrange/Control/Other decks they can be fine, but aggro is aggro and that means fast. Taking a turn to set up a draw is not at all what Aggro does.
October 30, 2013 11:55 a.m.
Slycne is has the right way of thinking about it. And just in the last week-and-a-half alone, 80% of the Boros Aggro decks that made notable placement in larger tournaments (SCG Open, Invitationals, etc) used anywhere from 2-4.
Dual-lands are always important.
Speed is neither the only nor the most important factor in an aggro deck's success.
My opinion is that you should run 3. You chance of getting more than 1 in your opening hand is considerably low and you'll appreciate the Scry ability as the aggro deck inevitably runs out of steam going into turns 5, 6, and 7.
October 30, 2013 12:26 p.m.
I'm in agreement with Slycne and zandl here. I run 4, personally and it rarely is something that majorly sets back my game. Running 3 is something that I could see though.
October 30, 2013 2:32 p.m.
Blizzicane says... #18
I usually only run those type of lands in control rather than aggro as they can set you back and you really want to be as fast as you can be. If you are two color all you should really need is shocklands and you should be fine.
October 30, 2013 2:47 p.m.
For an example of a decently placing aggro deck running a playset of Temple of Triumph there is this listing from a Star City Open earlier this month. This being a 'Barely Boros' thing as was mentioned above.
Seten says... #2
I'm talking about Temple of Triumph , btw.
October 30, 2013 7:03 a.m.