Even though I was unable to become the Washington State Champion, it solidified the thoughts that I already had about the red deck that I designed:
This red deck is
very
good. Here is my decklist for reference:
Creatures (20)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (25)
Spells (11)
Sideboard
I’ve thought numerous times about the above decklist, looking for ways to improve things, and as of the printing of this article, I wouldn’t change a card. Every single card pulled its weight, and until the metagame significantly changes, I see no reason to change anything.
Here’s a brief-ish tournament report:
Round 1 vs. U/W Control
Game 1, I got completely crushed. My opponent played a Baneslayer Angel on turn 5 and took my fully leveled Kargan Dragonlord on turn 6 with Volition Reins. It was after this match that a little doubt crept into my mind. Was my deck as good as I thought it was? I had a turn 1 Goblin Guide for this game, and it was still not even remotely close. Had I convinced myself of something that wasn’t true?
Sideboard:
+4 Brittle Effigy
-4 Flame Slash
Game 2, I took a mulligan to six and led with a Goblin Guide. The next turn, I played two more Goblin Guides, and we were off to game 3 in no time. Nice. Draw.
Game 3 I had another turn 1 Goblin Guide. My opponent revealed a Flashfreeze, so I knew I had to at least beat that. On turn 2, my opponent played a Glacial Fortress and passed the turn. He had two mana up, was representing at least Flashfreeze in addition to Condemn, Mana Leak, and Celestial Purge.
After my draw step, my hand contained Plated Geopede, Mountain, Goblin Guide, Spikeshot Elder, Teetering Peaks, Koth of the Hammer, and Lightning Bolt. What is your line of play here?
a.) I could play Plated Geopede into Flashfreeze/Mana Leak, get my two damage in, and move on.
b.) I could play Goblin Guide, have it get countered, get in for two, and then play a Spikeshot Elder post-combat.
c.) I could play Teetering Peaks, pump the Goblin Guide I have in play, get in for four, and hope he doesn’t have a removal spell, and then cast a Spikeshot Elder post-combat.
d.) I could play Teetering Peaks, pump the Goblin Guide I have in play, cast the other Goblin Guide (could do those two in reverse order, too), get in for six (or four if he counters the Goblin Guide), and hope he doesn’t have a removal spell.
The decisions are many. I came to this one:
e.) Pre-combat, cast a Spikeshot Elder and see what happens. I couldn’t really figure out what was in my opponent’s hand besides Flashfreeze. He could have literally anything at this point, so I just tried to force the Flashfreeze out of his hand.
He countered the Spikeshot Elder; I played a Goblin Guide, got in for four (revealing Jace, the Mind Sculptor both times), and won fairly easily after that.
1-0
Round 2 vs. U/W Control
Game 1 I got crushed by Baneslayer Angel and Wurmcoil Engine rather quickly. It wasn’t close at any point.
Sideboard:
+4 Brittle Effigy
-4 Flame Slash
Game 2 was easily my favorite game of the day. This was the game that I beat three Baneslayer Angels and two Kor Firewalkers.
Maybe my deck is good after all!
The first Kor Firewalker he had to Day of Judgment away, as I played Koth of the Hammer and Molten-Tail Masticore in the same turn. The next turn, I got in for four, played a Kargan Dragonlord, and leveled it up some. He came back with a Baneslayer Angel.
I simply fully leveled up my Kargan Dragonlord and got in for eight points of damage. My mythic rare is better than yours!
The next turn, he had to keep Baneslayer Angel on defense, and traded that plus Celestial Colonnade with my pissed off Kargan Dragonlord. I played a Spikeshot Elder post-combat and passed the turn back.
Next turn he slammed a Baneslayer Angel, but I had enough mana from Spikeshot Elder due to Koth of the Hammer plus a Lightning Bolt to gun down the second Angel.
The next Baneslayer Angel got removed from the game via Brittle Effigy. Now my opponent was in topdeck mode with numerous counterspells in his hand. This was a good spot for me to be in!
He peeled a Kor Firewalker, but it didn’t actually have any effect on the game. Spikeshot Elder was going upstairs two points at a time, and when I finally drew my ninth land, the game ended while he had two Negates and a Flashfreeze in his hand.
Game 3, my opponent kept a double Plains, Kor Firewalker hand and was unable to find blue mana in time. I don’t remember the exact details of this game, but it wasn’t especially close.
2-0
Round 3 vs. Mono-Green Eldrazi
Cha-ching!
Game 1 was quite easy, as expected. My opponent led with a Joraga Treespeaker and when presented with the decision of whether to Burst Lightning it or cast Goblin Guide, I chose the latter. On turn 2, my opponent leveled up his Joraga Treespeaker and cast an Overgrown Battlement. Quite the start…
…If I didn’t have Burst Lightning for Joraga Treespeaker and Flame Slash for Overgrown Battlement.
Sideboard:
+4 Mark of Mutiny
-4 Molten-Tail Masticore
I started game 2 with Spikeshot Elder and Plated Geopede. My opponent had an Obstinate Baloth, and instead of waiting for a juicier target for Mark of Mutiny, I decided to move in right away and hope he didn’t have a second one or Summoning Trap into a second one, as the burn in my hand had him dead the next turn.
He had a Wurmcoil Engine. Most of the time that would be good, but not this time!
3-0
Round 4 vs. B/G/U Control
Game 1, Goblin Guide dealt ten points of damage before I lost to Grave Titans. This is one of those games where I was trying to analyze what I did wrong for a while, but after checking with Steven Birklid, (he was birding me all day) the story checks out that I just straight-up lost a game where Goblin Guide dealt ten damage on his own. Fair enough!
Sideboard:
+ n/a
– n/a
My opening hand on the play was Goblin Guide, two Lightning Bolts, Burst Lightning, Plated Geopede, Kargan Dragonlord, and an Arid Mesa.
I normally am not a fan of keeping hands like these, and I’m a big fan of taking a mulligan, but after thinking about how the last game played out, I decided to keep it. My opponent’s mana was really bad from what I saw (deck contained Gatekeeper of Malakir, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and Obstinate Baloth after sideboard), so the Goblin Guide in my hand could easily be good for eight points of damage.
And if I drew the land? The game just ended on the spot.
Obviously I drew the land. I was running good at that point!
Game 3 I killed my opponent because Koth was nice enough to grant me an emblem. I like emblems. They’re neat.
4-0
Round 5 vs. U/B Control (Chris Kelly)
Chris Kelly is a local who let me borrow a Molten-Tail Masticore. He’s drafted at my new place once already and seemed more than competent when he was drafting in the shark-infested waters. I knew this one was going to be tough.
Game 1, however, was not tough for him at all. He did two things the entire game that were relevant:
Turn 4 Abyssal Persecutor
Turn 5 Trinket Mage for Basilisk Collar
Did you know that Abyssal Persecutor is a 6/6? C’mon, that is too big!
Sideboard:
+4 Mark of Mutiny
-4 Flame Slash
Game 2, Chris had another turn 4 Abyssal Persecutor. I had a Mark of Mutiny for it, but it wasn’t enough to get the job done. You’d think that stealing his only blocker, dealing him seven with it in addition to my other creatures would be good enough. Not even close!
4-1
You want a card that’s going to be sick in this new format? Abyssal Persecutor is your man. Chris explained it pretty well to me after the match:
“All of the removal for it is gone. Maelstrom Pulse, Path to Exile, and Terminate were heavily played cards that have rotated out. It’s like a Titan, but it costs four mana.”
I certainly have to agree. My red deck is capable of dealing with a turn 6/6 Titan or some other giant monster because I’ve applied enough pressure to get by it. Abyssal Persecutor can be cast on turn 3. Even on turn 4 it’s a lot to handle.
Round 6 vs. Mono-Red
Game 1, as expected, was a battle of attrition. My opponent was playing a more traditional Mono-Red deck (lots of burn, less creatures, zero Molten-Tail Masticore), so the game was to exhaust him as much as possible, have me cast a Molten-Tail Masticore with two mana available for regeneration purposes, and ride it to victory.
Instead, every creature I played and my Koth of the Hammer died; his Kargan Dragonlord got to go ultimate because I couldn’t draw a removal spell, and I lost.
Sideboard:
+3 Devastating Summons, +1 Brittle Effigy
-4 Goblin Guide
For game 2, I chose to draw. An extra card in an attrition war is something I certainly wanted, and I felt like I had more game-winning cards than my opponent after sideboard (4 Molten-Tail Masticore, 4 Kargan Dragonlord, and 3 Devastating Summons).
My opener had a Lightning Bolt, Koth of the Hammer, Molten-Tail Masticore, Devastating Summons, Mountain, Arid Mesa, and Kargan Dragonlord. I had less lands in my opener than I liked, but I was on the draw, could kill his first threat with Lightning Bolt, and my decklist contained a lot of lands. It was a pretty clear keep in my mind.
My opponent led with a Smoldering Spires and passed. I played a turn 1 Mountain and shipped it back (mistake #1). Turn 2 my opponent played a Goblin Guide (fist pump), Teetering Peaked it, got in for four, revealed a non-land card, and put me down to sixteen (mistake #2).
Mistake #1: I should’ve led with Arid Mesa. While I know it’s correct to board Goblin Guide out in red mirrors, not everyone knows that. Arid Mesa would allow me to control my draw step in case he had a Goblin Guide on turn 2. Instead I had to draw an irrelevant card.
Mistake #2: Now this one is a lot closer than the previous one. I thought long and hard about taking the four damage from Goblin Guide before I took. The rationale behind my decision was that I was land light (still stuck on two), and Goblin Guide could get me out of that predicament. Going down to sixteen wasn’t too big of a deal in my eyes, but perhaps preserving my life total was a higher priority than allowing Goblin Guide to help me hit my land drop the next turn before killing it with Lightning Bolt.
Clearly I bring this point up because the four damage it dealt was insanely relevant:
My turn 2: Arid Mesa, pass
His turn 3: Attack with Goblin Guide (didn’t reveal a land). I Lightning Bolt it. Post-combat Kargan Dragonlord and pass without a land.
My turn 3: I sacrifice Arid Mesa on upkeep (down to fifteen life), peel a Mountain, play Kargan Dragonlord, and pass.
His turn 4: Attack with Kargan Dragonlord. We trade mythic rares, and he passes again without a land.
My turn 4: I peel Scalding Tarn (down to fourteen) and play Koth of the Hammer + Molten-Tail Masticore. End of my turn, I get double Lightning Bolted (down to eight).
His turn 5: Pass
My turn 5: Attack with Koth land + Molten-Tail Masticore. Play a Plated Geopede + Devastating Summons post-combat for four. End of turn, I get double Lightning Bolted (down to 2).
His turn 6: He kills me with Burst Lightning
Hard to say if I should’ve taken four or not. I’m still unsure.
4-2
Round 7 vs. U/G/R Midrange
Don’t remember much other than that I won.
5-2
Round 8 vs. G/W Ramp
Standings showed that I was in 12th place with the highest tiebreakers at X-2. If some kind souls chose to play for me (*cough* Travis Woo *cough*) I could make it in at eighth place. Travis decided against it, as he and his opponent were locks for Top 8 with a draw, and suddenly I was playing for ninth while my opponent had a very small chance to slide into eighth if things went his way.
We played our match, but I ended up conceding instead of trying to crush his dreams for an irrelevant ninth place finish. The match was fairly anti-climatic. He was playing Ramp. I was playing Red.
Game, set, match.
5-3 (“6-2”)
For the record, he ended up getting ninth anyway. What a dagger.
Overall, I think if you’re looking to play Red, this is the version you should be playing. Both forms of Ramp are still insanely positive matchups, but the ability to interact with a blue player instead of hoping your initial rush + topdecks get there is too much to pass up in my opinion.
If I’d gone to StarCityGames.com Standard Open: Nashville, I would have played this deck!
Before I go, let me leave you with a sweet infect decklist I sat next to for a round. I got to witness a turn 3 kill, and while I think the deck is fragile, it’s certainly something to keep in mind:
Creatures (14)
Lands (23)
Spells (23)
Until next week!
Cedric A Phillips
[email protected]