Molten Vortex's place in Standard
Standard forum
Posted on July 14, 2015, 3:38 a.m. by JWiley129
I've kind of given up on playing Standard, but Molten Vortex has caught my eye as an insurance policy for Red aggressive decks to use their excess lands as spells. It could be that it deserves to be in a more midrange strategy, but I feel like turning your lands into Shocks is a pretty good place to be. What are everyone's thoughts on Molten Vortex for Standard?
WovenNebula says... #3
I don't believe the card is viable in Standard as of right now. It'd be an interesting deck if it could work and change up standard a bit. You'd need cards to fuel your hand with lands like Seek the Horizon or Satyr Wayfinder.
July 14, 2015 3:56 a.m.
RussischerZar says... #4
"Combos" with Nissa's Pilgrimage (when spell mastery'd).
July 14, 2015 4:56 a.m.
GeminiSpartanX says... #5
I actually think that Molten Vortex is 'strictly better' in Modern as a replacement for Flame Jab. Loam decks will play this card, as it easier to cast than Seismic Assault and does more damage than Flame Jab. It's essentially a mashup of both of those cards. Loam decks can now splash this new 'Assuault' in other Loam shells, instead of trying to build the entire deck and manabase around the RRR enchantment.
Or better yet, use both for redundancy in a super-Molten-Assault-Loam deck!
July 14, 2015 8:04 a.m. Edited.
Wizard_of_the_Broke says... #6
I totally agree with Gemini, super-molten-assault-loam will be a thing in Modern. The card isn't very good without Loam, though.
July 14, 2015 11:24 a.m.
I actually like vortex for my rakdos 8 rack build since once you have the lock on discard to force a top deck every turn retracing a raven's crime is pointless so instead burn them out with vortex to prevent them from reaching that game ending top deck that gets them out of the lock and make use of those extra lands.
July 14, 2015 11:40 a.m.
As for standard, RDW already has enough tools in it that vortex really isn't needed at all. I mean Goblins will be a thing for the next two months minimum and that'll be back breaking.
July 14, 2015 12:04 p.m.
So if it's not for RDW, how do people feel about putting it into a Red Midrange deck? Doesn't have to be Mono-Red, but turning excess lands into Shocks is still good. Also, if you're worried about the 4-of problem, Tormenting Voice is still around and can pitch the excess ones you don't need.
As for Modern, I've heard reason to put this into Dredge decks since the 
needed for Seismic Assault is difficult to get in a 3 color deck. And the for Molten Vortex is much easier to attain.
July 14, 2015 6:23 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #10
I think it can be a useful sideboard card. In a deck with a 25+ lands you could board out some of your higher cost cards and bring these in to essentially fill your deck with cheap removal against aggro. I've also seen some interesting G/R Lands decks floating around where it is an important piece.
I'm partial to Seismic Assault though so I might be biased but I'll give it a shot.
Boza says... #2
There is no place for a card that does generally nothing on its own and is terrible in multiples. Unless they reprint Life from the Loam in BFZ, this has no place in standard. The better thing to do in Standard would be not play 24 lands in your aggro decks and not have to worry too much about extra lands.
For other formats, this is part of the "strictly worse" nature of Origins in that it is a worse Seismic Assault.
July 14, 2015 3:47 a.m.