I have never understood why the {Grove of the Burnwillows} and {Punishing Fire} combo is so revered. It's three for one damage to a player or two to a creature while the player gains a life. Even if it is repeatable, why is it like a staple in so many legacy decks? I feel like there are much better things you can do with three mana.
Quote from: Yugornot on October 20, 2013, 12:58:14 PM
I have never understood why the {Grove of the Burnwillows} and {Punishing Fire} combo is so revered. It's three for one damage to a player or two to a creature while the player gains a life. Even if it is repeatable, why is it like a staple in so many legacy decks? I feel like there are much better things you can do with three mana.
I would say just because it is recurring. Any card that you can play over and over is definantly a good card. It's like constant flashback. Maybe not the absolute best but still good by any means
I mean, it's good. But the combo is mostly put into aggro decks. And aggro decks are about speed. I just don't feel like that combo is fast enough. Too costly.
Quote from: Noblellama on October 20, 2013, 01:47:22 PM
Tap burnwillow for red mana
They gain life
Use red mana to return spell to hand
Cast spell for two damage
Seems pretty meh except for the fact that you can do this every turn...
Yeah, and you are only really doing 1 damage a turn...
I know some people use it as removal.
It kills 60% of the modern creatures and it can be casted mutiple times a turn to deal 3 damage
Cast {Punishing fire} deal 2 to them
Tap {Grove of the burnwillows} they gain a life you recur {Punishing fire}
Cast {Punishing fire} deal 2 to them
Quote from: Bman0121 on October 23, 2013, 08:23:33 AM
It kills 60% of the modern creatures and it can be casted mutiple times a turn to deal 3 damage
Cast {Punishing fire} deal 2 to them
Tap {Grove of the burnwillows} they gain a life you recur {Punishing fire}
Cast {Punishing fire} deal 2 to them
So it deals 2 damage. I'd just use a shock.
Quote from: Deebiia on October 23, 2013, 08:25:14 AM
Quote from: Bman0121 on October 23, 2013, 08:23:33 AM
It kills 60% of the modern creatures and it can be casted mutiple times a turn to deal 3 damage
Cast {Punishing fire} deal 2 to them
Tap {Grove of the burnwillows} they gain a life you recur {Punishing fire}
Cast {Punishing fire} deal 2 to them
So it deals 2 damage. I'd just use a shock.
You cant recur a {Shock} every turn with little to no effort
Quote from: Bman0121 on October 23, 2013, 08:31:49 AM
Quote from: Deebiia on October 23, 2013, 08:25:14 AM
Quote from: Bman0121 on October 23, 2013, 08:23:33 AM
It kills 60% of the modern creatures and it can be casted mutiple times a turn to deal 3 damage
Cast {Punishing fire} deal 2 to them
Tap {Grove of the burnwillows} they gain a life you recur {Punishing fire}
Cast {Punishing fire} deal 2 to them
So it deals 2 damage. I'd just use a shock.
You cant recur a {Shock} every turn with little to no effort
But I can cast 2 shocks and deal 4. In my opinion it's simpler to do that. I understand the major point of you getting the card back, but in most red decks burn spells aren't a problem acquiring.
Its not ment for burn decks
Te burnwillows combo is certainly better than a shock or two in my opinion. I guess I can see how it's good enough to use. But I still feel like there could be a better use of three mana. Maybe not though. Maybe it's good enough to put four of the punishing fires in a deck.
In an archetype that often burns through all its cards in hand, recurring the same spell over and over seems pretty valuable.
And burn willows is pretty :D
Some things will never make sense to some people until it's used to utterly destroy them and they at that time choose to acknowledge it instead of make excuses. A teammate's brother doesn't think {thoughtsieze} is good or anywhere as playable as cards like {craterhoof behemoth} no matter who or how it's explained. He probably wouldnt get this either.
It's advantage. It's all about advantage. Advantage exists in more than "card adavantage" it can be knowledge, options, or relevancy. The burnwillow combo is card advantage in the strictest since. It also adds options though. The vaiable removal is really good. You can kill a 4 toughness dude by having your opponent gain 1-2 life and youre not down a card.
Quote from: Kaleo42 on October 29, 2013, 04:31:53 PM
Some things will never make sense to some people until it's used to utterly destroy them and they at that time choose to acknowledge it instead of make excuses. A teammate's brother doesn't think {thoughtsieze} is good or anywhere as playable as cards like {craterhoof behemoth} no matter who or how it's explained. He probably wouldnt get this either.
It's advantage. It's all about advantage. Advantage exists in more than "card adavantage" it can be knowledge, options, or relevancy. The burnwillow combo is card advantage in the strictest since. It also adds options though. The vaiable removal is really good. You can kill a 4 toughness dude by having your opponent gain 1-2 life and youre not down a card.
AND you can rinse and repeat!
A lot of the time this is played in a Lands deck, in which over half the deck is lands. You also play stuff like {Life From the Loam} and {Exploration}, so discarding your Loam or Punishing Fire isn't as detrimental. Most of the time, that's how the deck wins games. Sheer attrition through Punishing Fire. {Maze of Ith} to tap your dudes. Although they also play stuff like {Mutavault} and {Mishra's Factory}, or just some of the man lands from virtually every set ever that has them.