Anyone have his decklist from VSL last night?? Was awesome watching him blow out Efro's Mentor deck!!

Link to vid -- https://youtu.be/3grkTNUyuH0

1 Black Lotus
1 Volcanic Island
2 Young Pyromancer
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Concede Button

They're usually made public on Wednesday afternoons on the league's main page. Here is the list:

Brian Kelly
Pyromancer Gush

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Lotus Petal
2 Young Pyromancer
2 Baleful Strix
1 Guttersnipe
1 Jori En, Ruin Diver
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
3 Force of Will
2 Mental Misstep
1 Flusterstorm
4 Gush
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Thoughtseize
3 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Deep Analysis
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Dack Fayden
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Fire // Ice
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
1 Island
1 Library of Alexandria

Sideboard:
3 Containment Priest
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Disenchant
1 Ingot Chewer
1 Pyroblast
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Mental Misstep
1 Tundra

Guttersnipe and Jori En. That's outstanding.

@DrStreetmention

@DrStreetmention said:

Guttersnipe and Jori En. That's outstanding.

Thank you.

@brianpk80 Ah ok -- I was too excited to see it that I thank you for putting it out there ahead of time!! I'll have to follow-up as we get to TMD Open for the latest look because this is too awesome not to play!

@BalduvianBears said:

@brianpk80 Ah ok -- I was too excited to see it that I thank you for putting it out there ahead of time!! I'll have to follow-up as we get to TMD Open for the latest look because this is too awesome not to play!

Awesome, glad to hear that. The only change I made that was VSL specific was taking out my 7th Dredge hate (which is City in a Bottle) for a sb Misstep.

@brianpk80 said:

They're usually made public on Wednesday afternoons on the league's main page. Here is the list:

Brian Kelly
Pyromancer Gush

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Lotus Petal
2 Young Pyromancer
2 Baleful Strix
1 Guttersnipe
1 Jori En, Ruin Diver
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
3 Force of Will
2 Mental Misstep
1 Flusterstorm
4 Gush
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Thoughtseize
3 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Deep Analysis
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Dack Fayden
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Fire // Ice
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
1 Island
1 Library of Alexandria

Sideboard:
3 Containment Priest
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Disenchant
1 Ingot Chewer
1 Pyroblast
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Mental Misstep
1 Tundra

Finally I have a use for the promo Smash to Waylan Smithereens I got from the MTGO Player Rewards program! Thanks man!

The deck looks pretty sweet too.

Brian, could you give a quick rundown on Jori? Love the card and wondering if its been so-so, above average, stellar? Its one of those cards that's so hard to judge until you get in some games with one in the deck.

@McAra It was sick in his match. But, it wasn't clear to me whether it was better than him just resolving a mentor.

Very clever decklist. Keep up the good work BK

@gkraigher said:

Very clever decklist. Keep up the good work BK

Thanks, gk!

@McAra said:

Brian, could you give a quick rundown on Jori? Love the card and wondering if its been so-so, above average, stellar? Its one of those cards that's so hard to judge until you get in some games with one in the deck.

I'd have to rate it as above average assuming the stellar category would be reserved for cards like Gitaxian Probe, Gush, Ancestral, etc. I didn't think this creature would make the final cut. Every time I tested it, I kept thinking it would be "too cute" or a convoluted mess in terms of trying to extract value, but it ended up almost always being great. Playing defense v. 2/X bears has also been frequently relevant.

@MaximumCDawg said:

@McAra It was sick in his match. But, it wasn't clear to me whether it was better than him just resolving a mentor.

It's a Grixis Pyromancer deck with white access only for very particularized sideboard options. Monastery Mentor does not fit in here. Additionally, the Jori En is a card drawing permanent like the planeswalkers, not a wincon. If Mentors were shoehorned in here somehow, the proper substitutions would be Pyromancer or Guttersnipe (red Mentor, IMO).

Thanks @brianpk80 for yet another intersting list to try out. I always get really eager to test your lists although some are too hard to play for me (I can basically just handle one line of winning, not multiple : ) )

I have always wondered why nobody played Guttersnipe. The card is awesome. Jori En, Ruin Diver seemed underwhelming/win more to me in the one match we got to watch.

@kistrand said:

Thanks @brianpk80 for yet another intersting list to try out. I always get really eager to test your lists although some are too hard to play for me (I can basically just handle one line of winning, not multiple : ) )

Appreciated, ty!

@JuzamJim said:

I have always wondered why nobody played Guttersnipe. The card is awesome. Jori En, Ruin Diver seemed underwhelming/win more to me in the one match we got to watch.

I had the same feeling on the Jori En at first and was constantly disposed to cut it but over and over, it ended up doing work. I think it drew four or five cards all by itself over the course of three turns in that game against Efro. Certainly, the Ancestral into Lotus, Will, Gush was more glamorous but it was the Jori En that was drawing every turn that got me deep enough to see all of those in the first place. When I tested against hate bears and decks running Phyrexian Revokers I was also extremely impressed with how convenient it is to have a permanent source of card draw that isn't so easily wiped off the map during combat phase. Being a 2/3 blocker is also huge. I would not go all in on the card, building around it as a 4x, but as a singleton it complements the other permanents (Jace, Baby Jace, Dack) pretty well.

Is sulfur elemental not a perfect sideboard card with Thalia and mentor running around?

sweet list. Can you please explain the Deep Analysis? I understand it's value town with looters but there are only two of them in the deck, and it's awful in your hand. How about Dig or another Therapy/Thoughtseize?

@boggyb said:

sweet list. Can you please explain the Deep Analysis? I understand it's value town with looters but there are only two of them in the deck, and it's awful in your hand. How about Dig or another Therapy/Thoughtseize?

List began as a Faithless Looting/Gush deck. I liked that Deep Analysis couldn't profitably be wrenched out of my hand with Duresses and Therapies which are now rampant. After cutting looters down to two, the card is not essential and could be cut. It doesn't have to be cut though. The replacement would probably be a card of a similar power level that's just "better" in one context and "worse" in another.

@gkraigher said:

Is sulfur elemental not a perfect sideboard card with Thalia and mentor running around?

Sulfur Elemental and Sudden Shock are always respectable sideboard options for Mentor control.

Been doing some playing with this list and I really like it. Guttersnipe kill is definitely a very fun way to kill your oppponent and Jori En is quite effective when you get him going. Did you ever consider making this a Mentor list rather than Pyromancer? I kind of feel Pyromancer is so much less powerful than Mentor, but it is nonetheless refreshing to play something else than Mentor every now and then : ). But many thanks again @brianpk80 for this list, hopefully we'll bump into each other online again.