[Variant] All-In Mono Red

[Valdarith]

I can't stop brewing. This is a little different. No BTE, but yes to Ash Zealot. I'm trying to break Young Pyromancer and Dynacharge + Hellrider seems like a good way to do it. Talk me out of it.

[deck]
Creatures (25)
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Stromkirk Noble
3 Foundry Street Denizen
4 Ash Zealot
4 Young Pyromancer
3 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Hellrider

Spells (14)
4 Pillar of Flame
3 Dynacharge
3 Searing Spear
4 Krenko's Command

Lands (21)
3 Mutavault
18 Mountain
[/deck]

[rcwraspy]

I can't stop brewing. This is a little different. No BTE, but yes to Ash Zealot. I'm trying to break Young Pyromancer and Dynacharge + Hellrider seems like a good way to do it. Talk me out of it.

[deck]
Creatures (25)
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Stromkirk Noble
3 Foundry Street Denizen
4 Ash Zealot
4 Young Pyromancer
3 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Hellrider

Spells (14)
4 Pillar of Flame
3 Dynacharge
3 Searing Spear
4 Krenko's Command

Lands (21)
3 Mutavault
18 Mountain
[/deck]

I feel like the 2 reasons to run the mono-red version of this list are Mutavault and BTE. Mutavault may still be enough of a reason without BTE, but if you move to playing 1 spell per turn (except 2 1-drops on T2, 2-drop and 1-drop T3, etc.), then you may just want to
go with W/R instead.

Champion of the Parish > Foundry Street Denizen

Boros Elite = Rakdos Cackler, perhaps

Gather the Townsfolk > Krenko's Command (slightly)

Dynacharge > Rally the Peasants, but not by much, especially since Rally can be flashed back for more Young Pyromancer. The fact that Dynacharge can target 1 guy for R puts it above Rally imo.

Something like this is what you get (thanks to Z for polishing this up from my original version):

[deck]
Creatures - 24
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Boros Elite
4 Lightning Mauler
4 Firefist Striker
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Imposing Sovereign

Spells - 16
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Boros Charm
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Rally the Peasants

Land - 20
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Clifftop Retreat
2 Mountain
6 Plains
[/deck]

With the 2x tokens from each Gather, you get 32 Humans for Champion. And with the flashback from Rally, you get 20 instants/sorceries from Young Pyromancer. Plus you get to use Boros Charm, which
in my opinion (and this is just theory so far) is huge game when your deck's creature are so weak.

The 4x Imposing Sovereign is likely wrong. Other considerations include Banisher Priest,
Frontline Medic, and Boros Reckoner.

And with 12 effective dual lands (Foundry, Clifftop, Cavern) for all your Humans, I'm sure there's a way to mess around with the mana and curve to see if cards like Ash Zealot can fit.

I don't mean to hijak, but again, taking out BTE to me makes the lines of play, other than Mutavault, slightly weaker than they otherwise could be.

[Valdarith]

Upon further reflection you are probably right. BTE is too powerful to leave out of a list like this.

[warwizard87]

i just took down a magic-league mini with out losing a single game with this build

http://magic-league.com/tournament/info ... view=decks
[deck]
1 Weapon Surge
4 Krenko's Command
4 Dynacharge
4 Hellrider
2 Goblin Shortcutter
4 Legion Loyalist
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Stromkirk Noble
3 Firefist Striker
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Lightning Mauler
4 Mutavault
18 Mountain

SIDEBOARD
2 Volcanic Strength
4 Skullcrack
1 Goblin Shortcutter
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Burning Earth[/deck]

round 1 was r/g blitz, we looked at each other for awhile game 1 untill hellrider made the numbers bad for him. game 2 i raced a v. strangth flinthoof.
round 2 i faced off vs uwr flash, game 1 dude dude dude dynacharge, verdict 2 mutavault win. game 2 dude dude dude verdict, burning earth, burning earth, dude dude win.
nround 3 Obzedat's Aid deck, game 1 dude dude dude dude...he did nothing he dies. game 2 he manages to cast riot control and miracaled bonfire, but wa slow on life when he aided in grizzlebrand. i had a 1/1 a 2/2 and a 2/1 out he was at 2 life and swung with brand. going to 9. i swung and +2/+0 2 of my guys ( i only had 2 lands out) for exacts.

mutavault is bonkers, hellrider is bonkers, burning earth is bonkers...im gonna miss this deck when innastrade leaves =[

[warwizard87]

dont mean to post twice but its been a few days, just 6-0 a magic league trial with the same list. burning earth MVP.

http://magic-league.com/tournament/info ... view=decks

[Platypus]

dont mean to post twice but its been a few days, just 6-0 a magic league trial with the same list. burning earth MVP.

http://magic-league.com/tournament/info ... view=decks

No need to apologize for double-posting around here. Thanks for the deck and comments. I'm wondering about that Shortcutter in the SB. Do you side it in often? I'm leaning towards a third Volcanic Strength myself instead.

Oh, and it looks like Barney Stinson plays UWr Flash...

[warwizard87]

shortcutter hasnt been bad, in that trial it never got boarded in i faced, bant sphere of saftey, jund, jund, URW flash UWR flash, so it never had a place. its been decent vs the mono green decks, and the r/g decks. maybe a 3rd strength is better. with barney it came down to the wire, had burning earth out game 3. he drops to one to make a big sphinxes revelation to try to pull back, i had the skullcrack. close close games.

vs one of the jund decks i got 3x buring earth out. raced a Olivia.

[dejection]

When you board in 4x burning earth, do you find 22 lands enough for 7 four-drops? That sounds like a little on the light side. Also, 4x burning earth and 4x skullcrack seems excessive. I imagine they come in against jund and UWR, but thats a lot of cards to cut. What do you take out to fit all those things in? -2 shortcutter?

[hamfactorial]

Having more 4-drops doesn't make 22 land the wrong number, it still gives you the same chance to hit your drops on time. You should choose your land count based on your highest CMC card and the turn you intend to play it.

[warwizard87]

4 noble, 2 short cutter, i been trying some combo of dynacharge and command. 8 cards 4 of which almost reads "3R win this match up" isnt a lot vs those archtypes. most of the time the 22 lands is fine, if it takes to turn 5 to hit 4 your not to worried. in order to survive jund, esper, flash all have to use alot of cards early to stabilize, normally. your not unhappy if they dont let you land a earth untill turn 5 or 6. n fact turn 5 was the most common turn for it to land.

[dejection]

Ah yes, those nobles. I always feel they're bad, especially against decks with azorius charm but I can never bring myself to cut them. Against jund weapon surge has been prettty useful against huntmaster, but against esper and flash I'd cut the weapon surge before i cut a dynacharge right?

[warwizard87]

A lot if the flash decks I played vs had augers main made getting through them easier with out losing a dude. Yeah I can see cutting it vs esper, but vs flash were auger is a hell of a turn two road block it hasn't been awful. Noble is great and amazing and fantastic in some matches, very lackluster in others. Though unless he is the bomb diggity in the match up, and I'm on the draw he always comes out. But it is always match up and play or draw oriented.

EDIT: just checked out the mtgsalvation thread, wow its dead. this deck is really now one of the contenders in the format i feel, i cant really find a bad match up. and with upping the land count to 22 for hellrider and buring earth a lot of match ups have become favorable.

[dejection]

Yeah, I managed to get a bit of testing against flash today, and this deck just feels super consistent. It's the dynacharges acting has hellriders 5-8, you rarely don't have a way to put a ton of pressure on them before that verdict. I'm pretty sure i'm happy this deck isnt more popular though, i'd hate to see people boarding electrickery or staticaster. I don't think we can ever beat those cards.

As for bad matchups, this is one i've never tested but the old style mono red decks feel favourable against this. Do you have any experience against that? Also I tested against a jund build with 4 bonfires, and though i won more games, i never felt i could afford to play aroud bonfire.

[warwizard87]

i never tested vs the older mono red builds tbh. i just kind of assumed they were such a small percentage of the field that making them more solid really didnt matter.
no you really cant play around bonfire untill games 2 and 3.thats when you get to rap the knuckles of the deck and abuse the mana base. game 1 vs jund is a race from 20 to 0, and hopes they dont have a stabilizing hand, if they do stabilize you can pull it out but its iffy. game 2 and 3 they bring in gobs of removal. and they trade early removal for guys, and dont normally get out a lot of pressure, the main goal for them is to stay alive untill turn 5 or 6 when they start dropping tusks and olivias. once you drop a earth and you normaly do on a empty board, the race gets quite good for us. as for staticcaster, we CAN beat it its not easy but he can be beaten, often takes a dynacharge and him blocking, or just a burning earth or 2. electrickery is a bit harder,
when they drop it just grit your teeth and hope you have enough 2/2s out and enough gas in hand and topdecking. also burning earth/hellrider is still good there.

[dejection]

In theory what I seem to think happens against jund is that they answer and stuff with early removal, and when we drop the burning earth and the play a tusk, sure it negates their life gain, but if they've successfully answered our stuff the body of the thragtusk itself is enough to beat us. This doesn't happen too often, they usually can't answer everything we do, but I think you're optimistic about being able race them with a burning earth on an empty board. If they're still at 8 or so when you do that and they drop a tusk, it kills us very very quickly. How has it played out for you?

[warwizard87]

hellrider forcing them to block with tusk, mutavault swings, sure they kill us in 4 turns with the tusk, but nromaly they are below 10 so most of our top decks are good there. at worst we top deck nothign but 1/1s and we are forced to block a bit but if hellrider never comes.....things get harry. thing is after the first tusk they can never really be safe if we have cards in hand and 2 mana up, and sometimes the first tusk can kill them if they were low enough. pretty much our game plan changes little once earth hits, their game plan changes in a big way though. we can be hit by tusk safely 3 times. how many times can they get hit with a BTE or mutavault with earth out?

[Platypus]

Any thoughts on Madcap Skills instead of Volcanic Strength? VS is obviously good against any deck running Mountains of some form, but Madcap Skills could help getting damage through as well. The lack of a toughness boost is a slight worry though.

[warwizard87]

The lack of boost means spear hits our guys and pillar hits any X/1 we put it on. Don't like being two for oned that easy, kind like forcing them to have the morters or lose to it.

[Platypus]

Yeah, I think you're right about that. Forcing them to have Mortars is good, although now that Doomblade is available together with Abrupt Decay, Putrefy, and Ultimate Price it's still easy to get 2-for-1ed, at least against Jund or BG decks. So against those I don't think it makes too much difference. Against other red decks, VS is probably the better choice though.

[warwizard87]

i dont normaly board in strength vs those decks though i am already boarding in 8 cards for those match ups anymore i feel i would be diluting my deck.

[shpedoinkle]

I just want to note, against Jund a lot of times it is a T2 farseekT3 Huntmaster or a T4 Thragtusk or maybe both, unless I curve into burning earth on the play that is a lot to fight through. I might just be unlucky, but Jund might just be well positioned.

[zemanjaski]

That's their nut draw; and you're on the draw. Why should that be easy to beat?

[dejection]

Yeah, while jund definitely feels like an uphill battle sometimes they don't often have the all those components, and if they stumble just a little they can easily take 6-8 extra from a dynacharge. And in my experience if you're on the play you can beat the pillar->farseek->huntmaster->thragtusk draw maybe 40% of the time.

The matchup I have trouble with is UWR actually. Of course, there are the games where they don't draw what they need and die to their mana or whatever, but the games where they do have the tools, not necessarily 'the nuts' it feels really hard to push through. Against junds blockers we have loyalist, firefist and shortcutter to do some work, but they are ineffective vs azorius charms and such. Also, I have a difficult time figureing out the "can i beat a snapcaster" and "can i beat a supreme verdict" questions, but thats just my lack of skill. Any tips?

[dejection]

Also, while shortcutter has been pretty good at some points it overall feels lackluster. Seeing as you sideboard one of them warwizard, you must have a plan/idea of what matchups he's good against? I feel he's mediocre in most games and a lot of times I wish he was another hasty creature (zealot or phoenix).

[warwizard87]

i have actualy been bouncing him in and out of the deck the last couple days.
he has gone from skinbrand, shortcutter, spear, and i still havent found somethign i really really liked in that slot. getting ready to play in a mini with this buid.

[deck]
// Lands
18 Mountain
4 Mutavault

// Creatures
4 Lightning Mauler
4 Rakdos Cackler
3 Firefist Striker
4 Stromkirk Noble
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Legion Loyalist
4 Hellrider

// Spells
4 Dynacharge
4 Krenko's Command
1 Weapon Surge
2 Searing Spear

// Sideboard
4 Skullcrack
2 Volcanic Strength
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Burning Earth
1 Searing Spear[/deck]

i am pretty sure on the entire deck but those last 3 slots elude me. oh i have found 2 match ups i dont know if i can win, lol predator ooze green a boros humans with main deck fiendslayer pallys and sublime arch angels jesus christ.

yeah if jund
curves like that on the play, most decks fold to it. you just pack in your deck and say nice hand. what i like about this deck is, we have so many ways to pull of a "nut" draw and they have one. i def feel favored in the jund match up every time i play it.

against flash always prepare for a long game, they have blockers in auger and good removal. our goal is to win on turn 4 or 5 if they stumble or stretch them so thin that a resolved burning earth is game over. i dont like overextending to much vs flash. they have a ton of 2 for 1s. i try to play enough guys to win and then hold the rest i want them to have to interact every turn or lose. and if you can force them to tap out landing the buring earth is easier or landing the skullcrack on the revelation is easier. just keep pressure on them your not gonna win every game but really you should win 2 out of 3 easlily. if they stumble you win, if you land a earth its really hard for them to win, if you get he nuts draw you win. they HAVE to keep up
with you and not stumble on mana and not let you land a earth thats alot of things they have to have go right.

[warwizard87]

damn just 1-1 a trial. round 1 ate a flash player round 2 got crushed by bant hexproof, i almost forgot it existed....really of the common match ups i think this one is the worst. how do we beat this match up? or should we just ignore it?

[Valdarith]

You can't ignore it. It is a sizeable portion of the meta now both in paper and online. The best way to deal with it is race and Skullcrack or sandbag your dudes and play Blasphemous Act on turn four or five.

Honestly the strong presence of Hexproof AND Jund is the reason why I refuse to play this deck. Jund was a lot more favorable early in M14 when they auto lost to Burning Earth but now they're just packing Golgari Charm and Duress in response.

[zemanjaski]

If Jund is bring in duress...fuck that's a bad player.

[warwizard87]

If jund wastes duress on a turn i would lauugh and bash anyway at the wasted card/turn. Charm is better but they play what max two of them?

[dejection]

'charm is better' is such a massive understatement. maybe i shouldn't have played into it, but i got my board of legionist, two krenko tokens, lightning mauler and dynacharge wiped by golgari charm today. at least my bte still got to first strike down the thragtusk, but i did not win that game.

[warwizard87]

That's gonna happen, not every game is winnable. Now if say u had followed that up with burning earth or more dudes u would of been fine, u had seven power out which is fine I wouldn't play much more then that out at any given time vs decks with board wipes

[warwizard87]

Sad thing is, they actually let u move to attack step and gain the battalion before charming. That isn't a good play normaly.

[dejection]

I can't help but feel searing spear is better than shortcutter. Sure it's not a creature, but it gets blockers out of the way almost as effectively. One scenario i've found is that with loyalist in the deck, there isn't the feel bad moment of spearing a thragtusk and them still having a blocker. Going to the face is nice, and burn in general goes will with first strike trample to get through big blockers. And right now with a couple of guys at my store picking up kibler's GR deck, I like having a way to kill hellrider.

[RDW]

That's a fair premise for a more stable deck. This is AIR; we don't care about what the opponent does--either we're shitting on them, or they're shitting on us. We want as many creatures as possible to just flood the field and activate 1-2 Batallion effects each turn. In the scenario you mentioned, both Searing Spear and Goblin Shortcutter would fix the Thragtusk problem. Killing Hellrider is nice, but if they're dead on turn three, or in a defensive position turn four, Hellrider isn't going to win them the game.

[warwizard87]

I been using it to dome, or to kill oliva, and some times off a a auger. But mostly it has been domeing once the game stabilized.

[dejection]

Played this deck for game day today, came 2nd out of 15. Lost 1-2 to jund, beat WBR aristocrats 2-0, 5 colour slivers 2-0, ID into top 8. Beat mono green elves 2-0, jund 2-0, lost to young pyromancer RDW 0-2. Burning earth was nuts all day, and legion loyalist did a lot of work against everyone, most notably aristocrats. Loyalist+Dynacharge caught a lot of people off guard, every time i played it it was as if i had just miracled a bonfire for 4. Did some more testing afterwards, and as it turns out statiscaster is actually unbeatable. I played about 20 games and never won one against a staticaster. resto is also annoying. It's not insane, it's just very good, but it bugs me i can't do anything about the flash blocker even with firefist strikers and shortcutters.

[warwizard87]

What was ur build

[dejection]

same as the build you went undefeated with a few weeks earlier, with -2 shortcutter -1 krenko's +2 spear +1 firefist in the main and -shortcutter -pillar +2 mark of mutiny in the side.

[warwizard87]

How were the marks? I have never been its biggest fan.