I have returned, and Gatecrash has been legal for about two weeks now! So far, Standard is really shaping up to be an amazing format. The inherently powerful cards like Thragtusk and Sphinx's Revelation have lost some of their flare, and while they are still powerful, they have shifted to give the format some more diversity. Each archetype has at least three different iterations, and there are very many playable archetypes. Today, I want to give you a breakdown of one of these archetypes and each of its iterations. I'll probably continue doing this with assorted archetypes until I have access to Gatecrash on Magic Online.
The archetype I have chosen for this week is Mono-Red Aggro. As I said in an article a few weeks ago, I think Mono Red is almost always a great choice for the early events of the format. The nice thing about this format though: Mono Red variants should be viable for every event for the next three months. There will always be metagames that are more hostile for Mono Red, but you can still easily take down events. Even the decks that want to pack sideboard cards for Mono-Red Aggro will only pack about three or four cards in the board.
The issue for most decks is that Mono Red attacks on a different angle
from most other aggro decks. Instead of playing creatures with some amount of resiliency and trying to win on turn five or six, Mono Red focuses on cheap but effective creatures and tries to win by turn four. Life gain cards like Centaur Healer aren't that insane against decks like G/W Humans and Naya Aggro but are actually very good versus Mono Red. People don't like to play very many “one-matchup” cards, so they dedicate few slots to Mono Red.
The current card pool gives us some great answers to the maindeck cards that some decks will play, like Thragtusk or Loxodon Smiter. Before Gatecrash, we had to rely on mediocre cards like Pyreheart Wolf and Stonewright to fight through problem cards. With Gatecrash joining the party, we have a new answer to all of our problems, and his name is Boros Reckoner. By now, most of you have probably heard all the praise sung about this card, but I feel obligated to reiterate: Boros Reckoner is in fact the real deal.
In the aggro and midrange mirrors, he can play multiple different roles depending on the direction of the game. If you are on the offensive, he can be a difficult-to-block 3/3. Your opponent can't easily block it because they risk taking even more damage, or in the case of Thragtusk, you can give it first strike. For the games where you have to be a little more defensive (like in the mirror), he can be almost impossible to attack through. You get to choose whether to hit their face for a bunch, kill multiple creatures, or just first strike to win the combat.
In the current Standard card pool, we have a lot of different directions we can take the Mono Red deck, most notably a splash color. I will go over what I feel to be the pros and cons of the three major versions of the deck, followed by my choice of the three.
Mono Red
Creatures (28)
- 4 Ash Zealot
- 4 Boros Reckoner
- 4 Hellrider
- 4 Lightning Mauler
- 1 Pyreheart Wolf
- 4 Rakdos Cackler
- 1 Stonewright
- 4 Stromkirk Noble
- 1 Thundermaw Hellkite
- 1 Zealous Conscripts
Lands (23)
Spells (9)
This is obviously the simplest version of the archetype. No splashes, just red cards. There are still a few of what I consider to be “the bad cards” of the deck, but you get perfect mana.
Pros: You get a really good mana base, and you even get to play some utility lands. I prefer Rogue's Passage, though Hellion Crucible definitely has its merits. In a metagame full of controlling decks that are light on spot removal, Hellion Crucible helps fight through the wraths.
Cons: You don't get to play a lot of the sweet cards that other colors can provide like Boros Charm. Your sideboard options also become much more limited, as the red sideboard cards in this format are all pretty linear in function. As previously said, you are also still stuck playing some of mediocre cards in your deck, but they usually just fill niche roles or add redundancy, which breeds consistency, and that I don't mind.
Conclusion: This is the version you want if you are trying to play it safe. You get a consistent mana base and more redundant effects but overall a less powerful deck. You still have basically the same shell, so you aren't missing out on too much of the power. You likely do not want to overload on burn spells in this version, as your cards aren't powerful enough to try to play a 1-for-1 early game.
Mono Red with White
Creatures (24)
Lands (22)
Spells (14)
- 4 Reckless Waif
- 2 Blind Obedience
- 2 Rest in Peace
- 3 Volcanic Strength
- 1 Skullcrack
- 3 Mizzium Mortars
Sideboard
Creatures (16)
Lands (21)
Spells (23)
- 3 Tormod's Crypt
- 2 Frostburn Weird
- 4 Reckless Waif
- 3 Blind Obedience
- 3 Volcanic Strength
Sideboard
The first deck is pretty much Mono Red with Boros Charm and better sideboard options. If you are feeling a little bit risky though, give the second list a try. It is something I found my friends Sam and Adam Prosak working on (not together, they just came to similar conclusions).
Boros Charm is a very powerful burn spell, so the logic is that you only surround it with other good burn spells and only the best creatures. This helps eliminate the bad cards in the deck, and the burn spells play a better role. You don't mind the loss of value because you aren't targeting their creatures; you are just throwing spells at them.
Creatures are just burn spells that you are trying to use more than once in the early game. Rakdos Cackler can very easily become a one-mana burn spell for six damage.
I didn't include it in the maindeck of the second list, but Blind Obedience is pretty sweet. Late game when you aren't going to get much value out of cards like Rakdos Cackler, it allows them to turn into at least a point of damage. Since your deck is mostly burn spells, it doesn't set you off curve too much. It also allows your creatures to get a few extra points in through cards like Loxodon Smiter, as they'll be entering tapped and unable to block.
Pros: You get to play Boros Charm, an inherently powerful card in an aggressive strategy. Since you are slightly more burn oriented, the burn spells will more often go to their face. Also, in testing this deck seemed to be on average about half a turn faster than the other versions of Mono Red. Mainboard Skullcrack is also pretty reasonable in this as well, as burn to the face is the usual scenario. Mainboard Skullcrack helps you not randomly get derped out by Thragtusk or Sphinx's Revelation.
Cons: The deck is much less resilient. You have fewer high-impact creatures (no Hellriders like most Mono Red decks), so a wrath effect and a timely Thragtusk can shut you out pretty hard. Similar to the ole Charbelcher vs. Other Combo decks in Legacy, you have to determine whether you want more speed or more resiliency to problematic cards. Adding another color also brings the possibility of not being able to cast your splash cards, but this deck has good enough mana and not enough white cards to make it much of a problem.
Overall: This is the list for the weeks where you think Mono Red will be a good metagame call. This will punish people for not having the proper answers, but when you run into those few guys who did expect it, you may have a problem. Either way, you still have Boros Reckoner in full force, so some of the annoying cards like Thragtusk can be taken down. Unfortunately, the Reckoner still won't save you from a Terminus into a Sphinx's Revelation for six.
Mono Red with Green
Creatures (28)
- 4 Ash Zealot
- 4 Boros Reckoner
- 4 Burning-Tree Emissary
- 4 Flinthoof Boar
- 4 Hellrider
- 4 Rakdos Cackler
- 4 Stromkirk Noble
Lands (20)
Spells (12)
- 4 Reckless Waif
- 4 Volcanic Strength
- 4 Flames of the Firebrand
- 3 Traitorous Blood
Sideboard
Creatures (26)
- 4 Ash Zealot
- 4 Boros Reckoner
- 4 Burning-Tree Emissary
- 4 Flinthoof Boar
- 2 Lightning Mauler
- 4 Rakdos Cackler
- 4 Stromkirk Noble
Lands (20)
Spells (14)
This deck was originally brought to light by Tomoharu Saito and has since been taken on by many mages around the world.
Burning-Tree Emissary is pretty insane in this deck. A problem I often found in Mono Red, especially on the draw, was that your opponent would play a brick wall, and you'd have to skip your turn to answer it. Burning-Tree Emissary allows you to continue adding pressure while still getting rid of problematic creatures. It also creates some pretty insane nut draws, usually including multiple Emissaries.
Since Saito posted that original list, he and others have made a couple different changes to the deck. His most recent list plays a lot of Auras, but I'm not too much of a fan. I added two Lightning Maulers to the deck, and I've been really happy with them. You don't want to draw more than one, but with cards like Boros Reckoner and Burning-Tree Emissary, it can create some pretty insane draws. Flinthoof Boar is also super sweet, even on defense. Two-mana 3/3s typically do a lot of work.
Pros: Your creatures are all pretty insane. Your creatures can singlehandedly represent large chunks of damage, and Hellrider is a sweet card. Burning-Tree Emissary is again a very good card and enables some insane draws that the other versions of the decks could only dream of.
Cons: You are stretching your mana pretty thin on this one. You don't really want any Forests in the deck, as drawing one is typically abysmal, especially with all the double red cards. Playing only eight green sources will occasionally cause an issue but is easily avoidable with proper mulliganing. You are also only playing 20 lands, which makes casting Hellrider somewhat unreasonable. Lastly, you are about a turn slower on average. While your nut draw blows everyone away, you aren't going to get that every time. You can curve out well pretty consistently, and that will typically win you the game on turn 5.
Conclusion: Play this list if you feel that you need to be doing more powerful things in a format. You need your creatures to be slightly bigger, and you want to dump your hand all at once.
What Would I Choose?
After a good amount of testing, I would likely want to go with either the burn-oriented R/W version or the Saito R/G version. I'm leaning towards the latter for the most part. The creatures in this format are all very good, so you need some way to beat them. R/W tries to go over them by just casting burn spells, which is reasonable, but you typically need Skullcrack to not lose. R/G tries to quickly play good creatures of its own, making early blocking difficult for the opponent.
If I had to play in an event this weekend and I was playing a Mono Red variant, I'd most likely settle on an updated version of R/G.
Anyway, that is all for now. Let me know what you thought about this article. If it gets a good response, I'll probably do a similar article about the assorted Human decks in the format. While I can't play Standard just yet, I'd still love to get a head start on looking at your brews. Continue sending them to me through Facebook or email, and I'll do my best to respond in a timely manner. Until next time, thank god it's FNM.
About AJ Kerrigan
While he might look young, AJ Kerrigan already plays like a seasoned veteran. Don't be at all surprised if you see AJ cleaning up at StarCityGames.com Opens, Grand Prix, and Pro Tours in the near future.