I love playing Red decks
more than anything else in Magic. I appreciate cool combos, and the
control decks where I get to hold all of the cards and make my opponent dance,
but I much prefer mixing aggro and control.
Whenever I play Red decks,
I always try to find as many answers for as many things as possible in the
format so I can play something early that does continuous damage, like an
aggressive creature or a card like Shrine of Burning Rage that allows for the
game to end on my terms, and then I kill creatures, attempt to keep the game
under my control until I can resolve something that pushes my board over the
top and has a lot of staying power.
In previous formats red had
good cards with staying power, like Koth of the Hammer that could produce board
advantage and was fairly difficult to deal with. Unfortunately, right now, the
closest thing to a powerful, consistent finisher is Thundermaw Hellkite, and
while it’s not quite Koth, it’s still pretty good.
So, I have decided to
attempt to build mono-red in this format, and while it won’t be winning any Pro
Tours in the immediate future, it should be able to compete fairly well at any
but the most competitive FNMs.
There are a few key things
you need to be sure to consider when building any kind of Sligh deck.
First is the proper ratio between threats, like creatures and sources of
continuous damage, and removal spells or burn spells. You want to draw a
good mix of the two so you can get ahead early with your creatures and stay
ahead by removing your opponent’s creatures. Too much of either leads to
different issues. An important part of Sligh’s sideboard is a pool used
to alter that ratio. For instance, against G/W aggro you want more
removal and fewer creatures, but against America Control you want more threats
and a very specific set of removal.
So I personally prefer to
start with 1/3 removal, 2/3 threats in most balanced formats, although in this
format, there is a much more aggro lean to the format so I’m more apt to want
more removal and less creatures. Another huge reason to choose more
removal is the small card pool and lack of good aggressive creatures.
Unfortunately, there are also not as many good removal spells, so splashing would
be best if you can, but I’m trying to concentrate on mono-red.
So the best red removal
spells are pretty easy to distinguish in most formats. Right now, Pillar of Flame has the crown as the best spell with Strangleroot Geists, Gravecrawlers and Geralf's Messengers going around. Pillar is practically
an automatic 4 of in the main deck. Brimstone Volley and Flames of the Firebrand are both fairly close, although I believe right now the abundance of
creatures puts Flames of the Firebrand over the top, although it’s definitely
one of the first cards you’d sideboard out against a midrange or control deck.
Now, I definitely want to play both Volley and Flames, but they’re 3 mana, and
3 is a world beyond 2, but I also want to play some amount of Annihilating Fire, because exiling creatures is very important in Standard right now.
Most of my Annihilating Fires will be in my sideboard, so I think one of those
in the main will be enough. Searing Spear is nothing but fantastic, 2
mana for 3 damage is nothing to scoff at. In order to balance the number
of Volleys, Flames and Spears, I like to pick a reasonable number of each and
test it a lot, so, having not played an awful lot of current Standard, let’s go
with 3 Flames, 2 Volleys, and 3 Spears. So right now we have our initial main
board suite of removal spells:
We have 15 removal spells
in the main deck, I think that’s good enough for now. I personally would
like to play 22 lands in this type of deck, especially since I will be keeping
a reasonably low curve, but I need to be sure to hit at least 3 mana to stand a
chance with what I’m expecting to be an average hand. You might want to
consider Mizzium Mortars if you have them, but it doesn’t hit players, which is
important, but 4 toughness is also important.
Next we need to decide on
our threats.
One of the main reasons I
wanted to build this deck is to test Curse of the Pierced Heart. It’s
difficult to remove, although Golgari Charm is already good against this build
of the red deck, so that’s unfortunate. It provides a continuous source
of damage and puts you in a great situation in which you have inevitability on
your side. It’s part of the reason that Shrine of Burning Rage was so
good. It’s not nearly as good as Shrine because it is much slower, but
trust me, inevitability is very important. I’m going to play 4 of those; they might
not be as good as I hope they are, but this is a first build.
Now, the best new red
creature, in my personal opinion, is Ash Zealot, and first strike is a HUGE
part of that. It may occasionally do 3 damage if someone Snapcasters
something they need, or if Zombies needs to recast Gravecrawler, but that’s not
why you play the creature. Ash Zealot is both good just for an early
aggressive 2/2, and having first strike is huge, because 2 toughness is pretty
prevalent in creatures in this format. It attacks well, and blocks well,
and has a possible upside that won’t always be relevant, but even if you don’t
ever do damage with it, they may not be casting their Snapcaster or Gravecrawler until they kill Zealot, and maybe you force a slight tempo swing
because they’re afraid of the effect. It is a rare, and as I write this article,
it’s almost $3 a piece, so if you really need to replace it, there are other
fairly aggressive two drops like Rakdos Shred-Freak, which isn’t anything
you’re ecstatic to play, but it does its job fairly well.
The most obvious one drop
to play is Stromkirk Noble, which is my favorite Sligh creature ever, although
I’ve never actually played with Tarmogoyf or Putrid Leech, because they aren’t
red, but they both seem great in this kind of deck. Stromkirk Noble is
great because it allows you to burn their creatures out of the way on turn 2,
3, and maybe 4, and if they don’t have a removal spell, which does occasionally
happen, then you just have an extremely powerful creature that just attacked
while you did what you were planning on doing anyway. He’s about $3 also,
right now, but I think you really need him for this deck, so I think you should
splurge because he’s one of the best creatures in your deck.
Here is where I make
another bold attempt at trying something new. Reckless Waif has always
been disappointing in RDW because you never want to stop playing spells, and
they tend to play spells to react to you and you end up just playing a 1/1 for
1 and it’s disappointing. In the Sligh deck, though, Waif works
completely differently. You always want to play it as one of the last
threats you’re playing before you start preparing to sit back and control the
board with burn, and when you do, you can flip it on your turn without much
difficulty, or if your opponent happens to be playing a slow deck and skips
their turn one most of the time, he becomes incredibly powerful and difficult
to flip back for your opponent. He seems like a 4 of in my new Sligh deck
because of how much I want to test him. Maybe at some point I’ll move
some number of them to the SB to bring in against the decks that don’t
consistently play spells early.
Now in Sligh decks I’d very
much like to play another 1 drop, and I think Rakdos Cackler is worth it just
for the 2/2 for 1 mana. It’s nothing special, but it lets you start doing
damage early and consistently. I’d play a 4 of, to get more aggressive
one drops.
In a perfect world, you
have the Ash Zealots and Stromkirks, so this is what we have so far for
creatures.
Now that’s obviously not
enough to fill out the creature base, so you want to play a couple more
creatures. The next 2 creatures I want to talk about are both two drops,
and I’m not 100% sure about either of them.
The first is Gore-House Chainwalker. He’s somewhat comparable to Stormblood Berserker which is
one my favorite Sligh creatures. It’s a 3 power 2 drop that can help
bring the beats early to force them into playing your game. He’s easier
to block, and dies to most of what white weenie plays, so you’re more likely to
have to burn creatures out of his way. He seems good for the deck.
The next creature is
comparable to another 1 drop we’re playing, Hinterland Hermit is a lot better
than a lot of people give him credit for, and he’s like a 2 drop version of Reckless Waif, which, I maintain, is quite good in Sligh. He’s much
better un-flipped, and accomplishes what Waif would in most scenarios. He
seems better against the control decks early, and blocks much better on the
top-deck against the more aggressive decks when you can trade with their 2
toughness creatures like Zombies and Geist. So I’d like to round the
aggressive creature base with Chainwalker and Hermit.
Here’s what we should have
in the deck so far:
I guess right now I need to
cut at least one card, and I prefer a creature, so I think I will cut the
Hermit, because it’s good to board in against control when I board out my Flames of the Firebrand, so I’ll shove those in the sideboard and go with 3
Chainwalkers.
Now we have our spells, and
if you happen to have Bonfire of the Damned, you might want to play it, but
this is supposed to be a budget version so I decided to play some of the worse
burn spells, and avoid the rest of the more expensive cards.
In a perfect world we would
have some kind of Koth style 4 drop, or some really good value cards like Ember Hauler or Mogg Fanatic. And you might want to cut 1 of the Chainwalkers
for Thundermaw Hellkite, because it gives you a late game bomb that will be
difficult to get rid of.
The mana base should be
pretty easy, most of it being Mountains, and you can absolutely just play 22 Mountains, but I would like to try Hellion Crucible because it doesn’t really
hurt your mana base much, although you have to be aware of casting Ash Zealot
on turn 2, so I would only go with 2 Hellion Crucibles in the deck.
That looks like a good main
deck to me. So the sideboard is next. As I said earlier, you need to use
the sideboard to change your ratio of burn spells to creatures, against
control, let’s throw in 4 of those Hinterland Hermits I was talking about.
That’s a great way to change your creature count against the slower
control decks.
Next are the burn spells
you’d like to put in the board. You really need more ways to kill Zombies
so we should put the rest of the Annihilating Fires in the sideboard.
One of the main issues
against the midrange decks, is Restoration Angel. The best way I can find
is Thunderbolt. It kills Angel and can still dome them in the face.
I like at least 3 of them. I’d prefer to have Combust, because Combust
also kills Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, but unfortunately it just rotated, so
we’ll have to stick to just killing Restoration Angel.
So we have:
Now we get to pick very
specific cards to play against. For instance when you’re playing against
the very control decks, you want to take out most of your burn, so you can
bring in another aggressive spell like Dynacharge. It may not be great,
but because in the control match you can attack with aggressive creatures for
much, much more, and you use all your burn for their face. You end up
becoming the hyper-aggressive deck. So 2-3 of those seem good to me.
Now the last thing we need
to deal with is the aggressive Blue/White deck, and occasionally enough from
the G/W deck. Rolling Temblor is the best Pyroclasm in the format now,
sadly, so let’s throw some of those in.
If artifacts become an
issue in the format you can always play Smelt or Vandalblast and if graveyard
shenanigans start to take over, Tormod's Crypt isn’t great, but it might do
what you need it for.
So this is what I will be
playtesting for the next while, hopefully changing some things if card X isn’t
as good as I thought it was, or I find out I really have issues with some
creature, I will find a spell to deal with it.
Sideboard
Hopefully I will get some
good testing in and decide if my pet cards are as good as I think they are or
if my burn suite is a little awkward and needs tweaking. But until then,
this is a budget red deck that should do pretty well at your local FNM.
The whole deck should cost you less than $20, hopefully, even if you have none
of the cards in it. Good luck to you all playing this, if any of you have
any questions about the deck, I’m willing to answer any questions. All
sideboarding plans should be in the deck list thread when I post it later.
Alex
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A super aggressive, super cheap drop that you forgot about: Rakdos Shred-Freak. I think another creature would be superior to the curse, heck, land or an empty sleave would be superior to the curse...there is just not enough value from it to warrant inclusion unless you have additional triggers that benefit from the one point of life lost to keep it around. I would drop the main deck Fire, the four curses, up the walkers, add the freaks.
I did mention Rakdos Shred Freak as a sad replacement for Ash Zealot if you don't have the money for the playset of those. The reason I like Curse so much more than another creature is that it's immune to 90% of removal. It still dies to Golgari Charm, but every other card that is even remotely decent against you(Golgari Charm is a huge stretch even) can't deal with it, so when you stabilize against the aggro deck, you need to way to both leave up mana to kill any future threats, and be immune to your opponents' removal while still dealing continuous damage.
Curse gives you a wonderful sense of inevitability. If you can stabilize against your aggro opponent, you have a way to win, and if your control opponent stabilizes against you by wiping the board or just killing your better creatures, you have both the inevitability of a very difficult to remove permanent and every threat you draw simply speeds up an existing clock.
Curse falls into the terrible red pit of being atrocious against life gain, but so does every aggressive creature aside from something like Stigma Lasher; hence Thragtusk is very good against you, and I still can't figure out how to change that.
Deck discussion about narrow aggro strategies in the current standard meta are pretty pointless. "Inevitabilty" based on curse is about as "inevitable" as running a 62 card deck.
This deck isnt fast enough to win before an opponent can stabilize, then your curse is pointless since you will get rolled by larger creatures.
With so many creatures on standard right now, burn seems like a not-so-viable deck. Hence, kudos to ThaDoctor17 for taking the risk.
How come Vexing Devil did not make it even for consideration? I know it's function becomes inconsistent, as choosing between it being a crature or a sorcery is up to the oponent, but 4 damage for 1 mana is tempting. It is kind of an already pumped Stromkirk Noble.
Ahh alex my favorite red mage. You again impress me and i might play this at game day tomorrow miss you and gl
T1:ARBOR ELF , T2:CENTAUR HEALER , T3 HUNTMASTER OF THE FELLS, T4 THRUGSTAG T5: RESTORATION ANGEL ...(DETENTION SPHEARE TO CURSE ) THIS IS THE METAGAME...
Kiln Fiend would be a perfect fit.
I tried a version of this deck a couple of weeks ago with the vexing devils, ash zealots, Thundermaw Hellkites, etc and it is too slow. The cards for a viable mono red deck aren't up to par with the rest of the meta as Anony pointed out with the g/w deck (in my area it goes like this...T1: Arbor Elf, T2: Avacyn Pilgrim, T3: Seek the Horizon, T4: Centaur Healer, T5: Armada Wurm.)
This isn't a bad deck for a budget deck. This is why I played it a couple of weeks ago. It was the fastest deck I could buy and put together to play for that night. It did quite well against zombie decks, other "untuned" decks, and when players got mana screwed. The worse card I played against was Ultimate Price as it single handedly won my opponent both games. My Hellkites didn't stand a chance against that 2 casting cost card.
I have since added black to the mix with aggro, hand destruction, and gold critters this time. I have to say that Slaughter Games can really wreck a person's strategy. Either way you go, this a great way to go budget but still stand a decent chance at winning some matches. Good gaming.
@ Proxijack.- The deck seems to be for standard format, so Kiln Fiend is not a viable choice here.
Is Centaur Healer really seeing that much play? I figured it was just OK, never thouth it was actually real good.
Centaur Healer is amazing in standard. Blocks Gravecrawler all day long, is out of Pillar reach, and the life gain is significant vs. aggro.
OysterBoy: My only issue with Vexing Devil is that it will only ever be a creature when they can kill it. Otherwise it's 4-damage for 1 mana, which is good in a hyper aggressive deck, but in a deck that's planning on outliving your opponent it doesn't do that much. It might be good, and this deck would probably be a lot better as trying to hyper-aggro everyone, but I was trying to go in a much different route. Thragtusk is still GG 80% of the time.
Carl: Good luck, I realized right after I posted this list how mid-rangy the format had become which negates everything this deck is trying to do. If the format was the 70% Zombie metagame I was promised by Brad Nelson you would do a lot better.
Anonymous2: Yeah... in my head when I was writing this, the format was a lot more aggressive, then when I started writing out sideboard plans I realized everything had become mid-range Thragtusk decks... which is pretty much unwinnable. I keep forgetting how bad I am at predicting metagames, and the fact that I haven't played any competitive tournaments since rotation doesn't help my case.
Deathliche: The deck would be a lot better with a splash of black, but the budget restrictions and the fact I was trying to build mono-red for my own preference. Slaughter Games really seems awkward, especially in an aggressive deck or against an aggressive deck. When you play against aggressive decks, you are the control, and when you play against slow decks, the decks that Slaughter Games would be good against, you are the aggro deck. I understand it in Modern when you absolutely have to tear combo's away from people, but I s'pose taking Thragtusk isn't the worst thing you could be doing on turn 4 against mid-range.
So... apparently my article was irrelevant before I even posted it because it was written with the idea that there would be 2-3 control decks, and a lot of hyper aggressive decks that topped out at Thragtusk, not a bunch of mid-range decks that played turn 3-4 Thragtusk and proceeded to bull over you with 5/3's and 3/4's. So... I still like the idea and the logic behind my deck, it was just with the wrong assumptions in mind.
played a version of this at a tcgplayer silver event and took 11th overallvery impressed with it
played a version of this at a tcgplayer silver event and took 11th overallvery impressed with it
I think shred freak would be a better option at the 2 spot than Hinterland Hermit. Also, exiling effects really only help against zombies right now (strangleroot isn't seeing any play due to most aggro decks using Burning Tree Emissary). Also, if you want a finisher in the deck, try to put in either Hellrider or Hound of Griselbrand. Neither of them are too pricey. I'd work those in instead of the curses (they don't seem like that great of an option, especially with Witchbane Orb being such a popular sideboard card).