Dies to Removal

[deck=MDU's Rb Madness]Lands 23
10 Mountain
4 Foreboding Ruins
4 Smoldering Marsh
3 Evolving Wilds
2 Swamp

Spells 13
4 Lightning Axe
4 Fiery Temper
2 Exquisite Firecraft
3 Avacyn's Judgment

Creatures 24
4 Incorrigible Youths
4 Heir of Falkenrath
4 Olivia's Bloodsworn
3 Zurgo Bellstriker
4 Falkenrath Gorger
4 Ravenous Bloodseeker
1 Insolent Neonate

Sideboard 15
4 Goldnight Castigator
3 Virulent Plague
2 Sinister Concoction
2 Act of Treason
2 Rending Volley
2 Twin Bolt[/deck]
Video Report (click to watch):
G1 Wu Humans vs Rb Vampires Standard LE 1
G2 Wbr Aggro vs Rb Vampires Standard LE 1
G3 WB Control vs Rb Vampires Standard LE 1
G4 Wr Allies vs Rb Vampires Standard LE 1
G5 Jund vs Rb Vampires Standard LE 1

Notes:
Insolent Neonate <-- needs to be 4x - its one of the best [mana]R[/mana] drops in the format
[card]Olivia's Bloodsworn [/card]is amazing
Midrange might be the ideal spot for Rb

[deck=MDU's Red]Lands 23
23 Mountain

Creatures 23
4 Village Messenger
4 Lightning Berserker
3 Zurgo Bellstriker
4 Falkenrath Gorger
4 Reckless Bushwhacker
4 Thunderbreak Regent

Spells 14
4 Dragon Fodder
4 Fiery Impulse
4 Draconic Roar
2 Exquisite Firecraft

Sideboard 15
3 Goldnight Castigator
4 Rending Volley
3 TwinBolt
3 Roast
2 Act of Treason[/deck]

Video Report (click to watch):
G1 R Eldrazi vs Red Standard LE 2
G2 Esper Dragons vs Red Standard LE 2
G3 RU Control vs Red Standard LE 2
G4 W Humans vs Red Standard LE 2
G5 BW Control vs Red Standard LE 2

Notes:
Act of Treason is terrible
Falkenrath Gorger is terrible
Dragon Fodder isn't bad but I can't recommend it in this format

Could you add your results for each match =°

Could you add your results for each match =°

That would be a spoiler and discourages views (which leads to lower add revenues) that said both those list need LOTS of work and due to my inexperience with the format the games can be hard to watch since I make TONS of misplays (though I guess some people find misplays entertaining).

Not in the video title but somewhere on your post ?

Not in the video title but somewhere on your post ?

I could but again I don't think that its ideal for stealing views (that said, I'll try and do it for future videos at least on this site).

- - - - - -

I've decided that all future Rx list will always have 4x Insolent Neonate and 4x Abbot of Keral Keep since it just makes the decks feel much more consistent.

The other cards which also help are Expedite, Tormenting Voice and [card]Titan's Strength[/card] - [card]Titan's Strength[/card] is solid in aggro, Expedite in UR prowess and Tormenting Voice in madness and UR control.

Monday Videos: LE (4-1) - G1 (2-0), G2 (2-0), G3 (2-1), G4 (2-1) and G5 (1-2)

[deck=MDU's Red Aggro ]Creatures 25
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Lightning Berserker
3 Zurgo Bellstriker
4 Village Messenger
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Reckless Bushwhacker
2 Goldnight Castigator

Lands 21
21 Mountain

Spells 14
3 Twin Bolt
3 Exquisite Firecraft
4 Fiery Impulse
4 Titan's Strength

Sideboard 15
2 Goldnight Castigator
2 Roast
4 Thunderbreak Regent
3 Rending Volley
2 Draconic Roar
1 Mountain
1 Lose Calm[/deck]
Video Report (click to watch):
G1 RG Dragons vs R Aggro Standard LE 3
G2 Esper Dragons vs R Aggro Standard LE 3
G3 Bant Company vs R Aggro Standard LE 3
G4 Sultai Delirium vs R Aggro Standard LE 3
G5 GW Tokens vs R Aggro Standard LE 3

Notes:
Insolent Neonate + Abbot of Keral Keep + [card]Titan's Strength[/card] helps with variences
Reckless Bushwhacker is fairly lack luster without tokens
8 4-drops post board is not what a Aggro deck wants to be doing

Friday Videos: LE (4-1) - M1 (2-0), M2 (2-0), M3 (1-2), M4 (2-0) and M5 (2-1)

[deck=MDU's Red ]Lands 21
21 Mountain

Spells 16
2 Twin Bolt
2 Exquisite Firecraft
4 Fiery Impulse
4 Titan's Strength
4 Draconic Roar

Creatures 23
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Lightning Berserker
3 Zurgo Bellstriker
4 Village Messenger
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Thunderbreak Regent

Sideboard 15
2 Goldnight Castigator
3 Rending Volley
3 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
2 Roast
2 Exquisite Firecraft
1 Devour in Flames
1 Twin Bolt
1 Lose Calm[/deck]
Video Reports (click to watch):
G1 BW Control vs Red Aggro Standard LE 4
G2 WG Humans vs Red Aggro Standard LE 4
G3 RG Ramp vs Red Aggro Standard LE 4
G4 Azban Rock vs Red Aggro Standard LE 4
G5 Rg Midrange vs Red Aggro Standard LE 4

Notes:
21 lands isn't enough - esp. post board when [card]Titan's Strength[/card] comes out against spot removal decks
Still unsure about Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh the only time I brought her in she didn't make it past her untap step - I'm mainly trying her out to maintain pressure against Coco and Wx Human decks (it may just be better to run sweepers and turn into a midrange deck post board).

How has been Village Messenger ? Looks like a Raging Goblin ....

Its mainly a Raging Goblin - which is surprising good enough against everything which isn't Wx Humans, Abby Ramp or Coco because every other deck is just packed full of sweepers and removals.

Against the non-sweepers decks just holding back on your turn and burning away threats gives you a solid 2/2 creature with evasion.

I like the Thunderbreak, as I've been finding him being better and better than Goldnight Castigator. (Well, at least in the Redrazi I play, he replaced the Castigators in the board and I couldn't be happier.)

You're definitely right about having a higher land count. I'm almost inclined to suggest playing 23 land and 2 Pia and Kiran, but you'd probably have to cut a set of creatures, like Village Messenger.

Overall though, my faith in mono red being playable wanes with each passing day. It's just the inferior aggro deck when compared to Humans and the burn/reach has been reduced to just a handful of spells, which is always the appeal of playing mono red when compared to white. However, I've been handing my mono red deck to some of the newer players at FNM and they're tickled to go 3-2 (and for some, that's better than they've ever done). That sorta restores my faith in the deck, but only at a low level - I'd never take it to a competitive event. And that makes me sad.

As for the rest of your deck, I noticed you cut the Fodder and the Bushwhacker. They're really unimpressive on their own, but you gotta admit that when they're going off, they go off big.

Hmmm... I would argue that I rather be the Rx Aggro deck against control and rock (at least on paper, I never actually experienced it on the Wx Aggro end but I imagine the MUs to be rather rough).

Where Wx Aggro would lose to back-to-back sweepers Rx Aggro can come back via dash, haste and burn and from the looks of things Control and Rock should be gaining presents.

Pia and Kiran

When I look at Pia and Kiran and I think about Aggro I usually think about cards like Dragon Folder, Engineers, Bushwhackers and Commands for that going wide and pump approach. The only problem is that this is meta where the Lord Aggro exist and Sweepers are abundant for almost every deck in existent beside the T2 brews.

So many BG Control and RG Googles T_T

How I see it: sadly Rx can't compare with Wx in terms of creature swarm aggro, thus I decided to build a list focusing on Red's current strengths aka reach (burn and haste), low board commitment while remaining aggressive(dash) and aggressive CA/fixing (Insolent Neonate, Titan's Strength and Abbot of Keral Keep). These strengths should give Red real legs against the non-swarm Rock and Control builds.

Monday Videos LE 5-0: G1 (2-0) BG Control, G2 (2-0) W Humans, G3 (2-1) Bant Coco, G4 (2-1) GR Googles Ramp, G5 (2-1) GR Googles Ramp

[deck=MDU's Red Dashing]Creatures 25
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Lightning Berserker
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Thunderbreak Regent
4 Screamreach Brawler
3 Zurgo Bellstriker
2 Goldnight Castigator

Lands 23
23 Mountain

Spells 12
2 Twin Bolt
2 Exquisite Firecraft
2 Fiery Impulse
2 Titan's Strength
4 Draconic Roar

Sideboard 15
3 Rending Volley
3 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
2 Goldnight Castigator
2 Exquisite Firecraft
2 Roast
2 Twin Bolt
1 Lose Calm[/deck]

Video report (WARNING:Audio issues (I didn't notice them till post recording)):
G1 BG Control vs Red Dashing Standard LE 5
G2 W Humans vs Red Dashing Standard LE 5
G3 Bant Company vs Red Dashing Standard LE 5
G4 GR Ramp vs Red Dashing Standard LE 5
G5 GR Googles Ramp vs Red Dashing Standard LE 5

I very like this list, I watched your videos on it. There was some plays that could be discussed but overall I enjoyed seeing you like a real red mage.

Don't we have access to a better choice than Screamreach Brawler ? Kessig Forgemaster or Ire Shaman or Dragon Whisperer ?

I very like this list, I watched your videos on it. There was some plays that could be discussed but overall I enjoyed seeing you like a real red mage.

Aaaaa! I'm always a red mage - even my pauper list is Red Heavy. In regards to my many misplay, I blame it on the ever changing nature of an early standard (I tend to play scared much to my own detriment).

Don't we have access to a better choice than Screamreach Brawler ? Kessig Forgemaster or Ire Shaman or Dragon Whisperer ?

Screamreach brawler is AMAZING - */3 is vital vs Wx Humans and getting around [card]Kozilek's Return [/card]is priceless.

Kessig Forgemaster, Ire Shaman, Geier Reach Bandit and Dragon Whisperer just don't cut it.

- - -

Question for you guys who are following my Blog (yes I decided to call this thread my Blog) what are your thoughts on splashing [mana]W[/mana] or [mana]B[/mana] to deal with Token and Fatties?

For which cards exactly ?

[mana]W[/mana]
Declaration in Stone (deals with tokens and fatties).
Nahiri, the Harbinger

[mana]B[/mana]
Sinister Concoction <-- the only cheap instant speed removal which HITS everything.
Ultimate Price <-- its ok but everything which this can kill roast can do the same (beside the huge flying demon).
Foul-Tongue Invocation <-- life + removal, could be really good (though not really worth splash for just by itself).
Self-Inflicted Wound <-- Solid vs our one of out MUs (Coco + Wx).
[card]Kolaghan's Command[/card] <-- it does everything... possibly MD worthy.
Tainted Remedy <-- BG may as well concede.
Virulent Plague <-- The best card against our WORST MU (GW Token is a really bad MU), currently I bank on Twin Bolt.

Respect for holding up the (red) fort, MDU.

Some questions on your obviously now more advanced understanding of the format for red decks:
- why exactly has RB turned out to be terrible?
- why has the entire madness mechanic turned out to be terrible?
- given that and the lack of burn, what makes you confident that Mono Red can deal with both decks that clog the board (Bant company, Humans, Tokens, Aristocrats etc) and Decks that run a ton of sweepers to combat them - at the same time?

Thanks!!

Respect for holding up the (red) fort, MDU.

Cheers

why exactly has RB turned out to be terrible?

RB isn't terrible, its excellent as a midrange deck.

As a aggro deck however it can be really good when it works but more often then not it runs into consistency issues like:
Citp land
Missing colours
All enablers
No enablers
etc... etc...

Going midrange and cutting out the aggro element would fix those problems.

why has the entire madness mechanic turned out to be terrible?

Consistency is the main issue (though UR seems to handle madness fine if you ask me).

given that and the lack of burn, what makes you confident that Mono Red can deal with both decks that clog the board (Bant company, Humans, Tokens, Aristocrats etc) and Decks that run a ton of sweepers to combat them - at the same time?

All of my R list are really strong against Rock, Ramp and Control mainly because low board commitment (dash), haste and burns (Firecraft is a really good burn spell).

Against the Swarms decks however I'm not that confident...

vs Boss Humans (18 land version) we beat them through 2-4-1 (they're a fair deck so CA is really strong against them)
vs WU/WG Humans and Bant Coco we also 2-4-1 them and hope they don't 3-4-1 us back (that said I have a really good record against WG and Bant - this doesn't mean however that it is a good MU)
vs Aristocrats Twin Bolt (if it gets more common we can add other cards which 2-4-1 small drops).
vs GW Tokens Twin Bolt and praying to the variance gods (this is the one MU where I want to try out a light W or B splash for).

Hmm, do we really want to splash and lose consistency? I personally love mono colors for the fact that we don't have to worry about balancing mana, just how many mountains we need.

If anything, I think black would be the best. For white, the only thing that I think the splash would be worthy for is Declaration In Stone.

Hmm, do we really want to splash and lose consistency? I personally love mono colors for the fact that we don't have to worry about balancing mana, just how many mountains we need.

If anything, I think black would be the best. For white, the only thing that I think the splash would be worthy for is Declaration In Stone.

Depends on how we splash it - with my first build the RB Madness list, it had an equal dependency on both [mana]R[/mana] and [mana]B[/mana] and with the lands in this current format this is not a good thing esp. when the deck required the first 4 lands to be untapped in order to be effective.

With my Red Dashing list the most important land drops are L2 and L4 (since everything has haste L1 isn't important and L3 is only for craft (which usually isn't something I want to play on curve anyways). If the splash is light enough we can get away with just 8 [mana]RB[/mana] or [mana]RW[/mana] lands for some better answers.

That said I also prefer MonoR and I'll keep trying with it until World Breakers (I hate this card) and GW Tokens make me rage swap

Screamreach Brawler is the real deal.

MDU, where'd your post go?

[deck=Pedrobear MDU's copy]Creatures 25
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Lightning Berserker
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Thunderbreak Regent
4 Geier Reach Bandit
3 Zurgo Bellstriker
2 Goldnight Castigator

Lands 23
23 Mountain

Spells 12
2 Twin Bolt
2 Exquisite Firecraft
2 Fiery Impulse
2 Titan's Strength
4 Draconic Roar

Sideboard 15
3 Rending Volley
3 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
2 Goldnight Castigator
2 Exquisite Firecraft
2 Roast
2 Twin Bolt
1 Lose Calm[/deck]


Hello, MDU. I playtested a little bit with your deck against some of my friends. We already discussed aboutScreamreach Brawler but I couldn't find one yet (should have them in one of my box of commons) so I played Geier Reach Bandit instead.
The deck my friends were playing are GB Aristocrats (LSV), GB Control (Finkel) and RG Goggle (Brad Nelson). The list were exactly copypasted from the Top8. We didn't sideboard because we were lazy and drinking beers at the same time.
I struggled to win against GB Aristocracts, they play too much creatures and can easily gain some life when they a Zulaport, I found the matchup pretty horrible for us.
GB Control, we finished at 6/5 for me, a lot of losses on my side due to flooding. The matchup is favored for us but if I'd played against Finkel I'm pretty I'd lose all the time. We just need to find our Exquisite Firecraft when they play their Kalitas (it's a 2-of in both decks !)
RG Goggle is almost a bye for us. You mentionned World Breaker but he most all of the time arrive too late and even so, we can put some damage through him without much troubles.

Insolent Neonate is the best 1-drop currently, thank you Khaospawn I'm now sold on it. (I try to find some foils in Japanese or so, but zero copy of it on MCM )
Geier Reach Bandit was OK, not exceptionnal but good as a hasty on turn 3. I now understand why you play Screamreach Brawler !

A Monored shell with Black cards in sideboard seems interesting to improve our worst MU (GW tokens), as they just completely fold to a Virulent Plague. Did you try the manabase ? is it clunky or slowing us ?

@sirzevo: I was refining the list so I deleted the post

@Pedrobear: Agreed Insolent Neonate is AMAZING! Once you get Screamreach Brawler's your going to find RG Goggles as cake walk, Aristocrats is a nightmare (as well as GW Token) and Darkpast (aka BG Control) to be dependent on if your opp. gets his 7-life engine every 2nd turn before you can clock him (the Goldnight are your vip in this MU).

- - - - -

[deck=MDU's RB Dash]Lands 24
14 Mountain
4 Smoldering Marsh
4 Foreboding Ruins
2 Swamp

Creatures 23
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Thunderbreak Regent
3 Lightning Berserker
3 Screamreach Brawler
3 Zurgo Bellstriker
2 Goldnight Castigator

Spells 13
4 Draconic Roar
3 Fiery Temper
2 Exquisite Firecraft
2 Fiery Impulse
2 Sinister Concoction

Sideboard 15
3 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
3 Twin Bolt
3 Self-Inflicted Wound
2 Goldnight Castigator
2 Virulent Plague
1 Tainted Remedy
1 Sinister Concoction[/deck]

Video report (click to watch):
G1 Wu Humans vs Rb Dash Standard LE 6
G2 Sultai Control vs Rb Dash Standard LE 6
G3 Jund Midrange vs Rb Dash Standard LE 6
G4 Brain in the Shore vs Rb Dash Standard LE 6
G5 Bant Company vs Rb Dash Standard LE 6

I went 4-1 so far losing against WU Humans, while beating Bant Coco, Jund Midrange and two Janky control decks.

My early thoughts are:

Lands are an issues... I had games where I was missing black for while, the 4th land coming into play tapped (I also had the L1-3 come into play tap but its not that bothersome) and of course the Lightning Berserker getting slightly nerfed.

I really want the 4th Self-Inflicted Wound but I'm not sure what to cut.

I don't like Sinister Concoction since it's B B to activate it as soon as possible ...

Its the only splashable removal in black which hits everything (including devoid creatures, RG and WG giant dragons).

The only other choice would be splashing [mana]W[/mana] for Declaration in Stone.

[deck=larkblue PTQ #9613043 04/23/2016]Creatures (24)
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
1 Avaricious Dragon
2 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
2 Goblin Glory Chaser
4 Village Messenger
3 Zurgo Bellstriker
4 Sin Prodder
4 Thunderbreak Regent

Spells (14)
4 Draconic Roar
4 Exquisite Firecraft
3 Fiery Impulse
3 Titan's Strength

Lands (22)
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
1 Looming Spires
20 Mountain

Sideboard 15
2 Goldnight Castigator
1 Magmatic Chasm
3 Rending Volley
3 Roast
3 Scab-Clan Berserker
3 Twin Bolt[/deck]

Video report (click to watch):
G1 Jund Control vs Larkblue's R Aggro Standard LE 14
G2 Mardu Control vs Larkblue's R Aggro Standard LE 14
G3 W Humans vs Larkblue's R Aggro Standard LE 14
G4 Jund Delirium vs Larkblue's R Aggro Standard LE 14
G5 GW Humans vs Larkblue's R Aggro Standard LE 14

MD to deal with Tokens, Bant, Humans and Aristocrats - then SB to beat Control and Ramp (the MD isn't THAT horrible against Control and Ramp, the Dragon and Crafts will really help and the other cards simply DEMAND answers) .

After much testing I decided that splashing isn't worth it.

I'm going to go back into MonoR but place the focus on beating Aggro (with Lightning Berserker and Bell as my anti-control/ramp spells).

The main shell will be:

22 Lands (I think this is the ideal amount for running 4-drops assuming we're also using Insolent Neonate + Abbot of Keral Keep + Titan's Strength to help with variances)
4 Thunderbreak Regent
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Draconic Roar
1 Avaricious Dragon
3 Zurgo Bellstriker

- - - -

Everything else is undecided - but I want to run more targeted spells MD, Chandra, Menace creatures and the Insolent Neonate + Abbot of Keral Keep + Titan's Strength batch to capitalize on red strengths.

- - - -

EDIT: initial testing... JESUS Avaricious Dragon is pure gas, I almost want to run a few more in the SB for the aggro MUs (only issue is that you don't want to see them until T5-6+ usually).

EDIT2: 4 hours of testing - the menace on Sin Prodder is really good but giving your opp. the option on what to bin is not worth it, Avaricious Dragon is the best card draw engine Red Aggro can use (I'll be running 2x in future builds (even though they're terrible early against removal heavy list) they make up for it by drastically improving our poor MUs where we want to draw as many removals as possible)).

Here is the list I tested:
[deck=MDU's Red Menace]Lands 22
20 Mountain
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
1 Looming Spires

Spells 15
4 Draconic Roar
3 Fiery Impulse
3 Fiery Temper
3 Titan's Strength
2 Exquisite Firecraft

Creatures 23
4 Thunderbreak Regent
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
1 Avaricious Dragon
2 Zurgo Bellstriker
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Sin Prodder
4 Village Messenger

Sideboard 15
4 Goldnight Castigator
3 Twin Bolt
3 Rending Volley
2 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
2 Lightning Axe
1 Lose Calm[/deck]

Video report (click to watch):
G1 RG Ramp vs Red Menace Standard LE 8
G2 Aristocrats vs Red Menace Standard LE 8
G3 RG Ramp vs Red Menace Standard LE 8
G4 Jund Midrange vs Red Menace Standard LE 8
G5 Mardu Control vs Red Menace Standard LE 8

I was inspired by dauntless268 into trying Lightning Axe

Haven't like Sin Prodder either. Haven't tried Avaricious Dragon but looks fun.

Thanks for the update! BTW, how do you test? MTGO casual matches?

I really HATE the tournament practice room so even when testing I like to put some tokens/tickets on the line to improve the competition. I really wanted to like Sin Prodder (I have a foil playset), I'm a supporter of Vexing Devil (in Modern Burn) but Sin Prodder is just to fragile (as a creature) and unreliable (as card draw) so he fails in all accounts.

Ooo btw Avaricious Dragon's price has been going on a steady rise (0.59, 0.6 and now this morning 0.81).

I really HATE the tournament practice room so even when testing I like to put some tokens/tickets on the line to improve the competition. I really wanted to like Sin Prodder (I have a foil playset), I'm a support of Vexing Devil (in Modern Burn) but Sin Prodder is just to fragile (as a creature) and unreliable (as card draw) so he fails in all accounts.

Ooo btw Avaricious Dragon's price has been going on a steady rise (0.59, 0.6 and now this morning 0.81).

Thanks for the tip, I'll get my playset now.

BTW, is anyone else f*cking tired of seeing [card]Nissa's Renewal[/card]? I really wish there was something like Skullcrack to completely nerf that stupid card.

I might splash green just for [card]Atarka's Command[/card], lol!

Tainted Remedy vs BG Control = GG (not even joking I had people concede when it resolves).

Black also provide additional answers for our poorer MUs.

Oh, yeah. Ugh, but splashing just slows us down.

Agreed! As it stand I feel like if we want to splash we should take the control or midrange routes (which I should note are already proven to work - looking at BR Dragons, RG Ramp and RW Googles).

I 5-0 with this:

[deck=MDU's Red Dragons]
Lands 23
21 Mountain
2 Haven of the Spirit Dragon

Creatures 23
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
2 Avaricious Dragon
3 Thunderbreak Regent
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Village Messenger
3 Zurgo Bellstriker
3 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh

Spells 14
4 Draconic Roar
3 Exquisite Firecraft
3 Fiery Impulse
2 Titan's Strength
2 Roast

Sideboard 15
1 Lose Calm
1 Tears of Valakut
1 Fiery Impulse
1 Devour in Flames
1 Avaricious Dragon
3 Twin Bolt
3 Rending Volley
4 Goldnight Castigator[/deck]

Video report (click to watch):
G1 Naya Superfriends vs Red Dragons Standard LE 7
G2 RG Landfall vs Red Dragons Standard LE 7
G3 UR Flash Dragons vs Red Dragons Standard LE 7
G4 GW Tokens vs Red Dragons Standard LE 7
G5 BG Delirium vs Red Dragons Standard LE

Notes:
I beat GW Token which pleases me greatly

I need to run 4x Exquisite Firecraft its one of the best cards in the deck

23 lands maybe to much?? (not sure - I need to ask Larkblue how his testing went)

Might be over doing it with the removal spells (need some thing more aggressive).

MonoR top8 states in a field of Aristocrats, Bant and others... it ran 4x Skin Invasion (which are now worth over 1 ticket for foils) the card seem really good against Crats and is decent against Bant + Human (here is his list).

I 5-0 with this:

[deck=MDU's Red Dragons]
Lands 23
21 Mountain
2 Haven of the Spirit Dragon

Creatures 23
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
2 Avaricious Dragon
3 Thunderbreak Regent
4 Insolent Neonate
4 Village Messenger
3 Zurgo Bellstriker
3 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh

Spells 14
4 Draconic Roar
3 Exquisite Firecraft
3 Fiery Impulse
2 Titan's Strength
2 Roast

Sideboard 15
1 Lose Calm
1 Tears of Valakut
1 Fiery Impulse
1 Devour in Flames
1 Avaricious Dragon
3 Twin Bolt
3 Rending Volley
4 Goldnight Castigator[/deck]

Notes:
I beat GW Token which pleases me greatly

I need to run 4x Exquisite Firecraft its one of the best cards in the deck

23 lands maybe to much?? (not sure - I need to ask Larkblue how his testing went)

Might be over doing it with the removal spells (need some thing more aggressive).

MonoR top8 states in a field of Aristocrats, Bant and others... it ran 4x Skin Invasion (which are now worth over 1 ticket for foils) the card seem really good against Crats and is decent against Bant + Human (here is his list).

Very nice! I seem to flood out more often than I'd like even at 22 lands, so I couldn't imagine 23. Maybe drop a land for Firecraft? Card is so good.

Mathematically 22 lands is a interesting spot to be in running 4-drops, 22 lands just barely gives you over 50% chance of curving out on T4 (which is good, you should never try to play 3+ 4-Drops with less then 22 lands).

If you want to break into 60% chance of curving out on T4 you'll need 25 lands, now according to Frank's article he suggested that cards which let you draw can be counted as 0.25 lands, thus I decided to go with 23 lands + 2.5 sudo lands (4x Insolent Neonate, 4x Abbot of Keral Keep and 2x Titan's Strength) giving me 25.5 lands in theory to break into that 60% chance.

I figured since post-board I occasionally run 8 4-drops so I want to hit 4-lands on curve as often as possible, though come to think of it the only decks where I truly pack all my 4-drops for are the control and ramp MUs (which tend to be grindy anyways) so not hitting the 4th land on curve wouldn't be the end of world (now hitting 7+ lands early on the other hand would just be defeat).