James Bush: Red Deck Still Wins
Standard sure has been weird lately. For a while, it felt like every other week a new ‘best deck’ was dominating the format, oppressing new deck building ideas and stifling creativity. Luckily, our WotC overlords have our backs and seem to have created a stable, fun, and, most importantly, wide-open Standard format. Finally!
With the latest pro tour being Modern, we have had to rely on the MTGO results to see where the format is heading. At the very beginning, Grixis Energy seemed to be the top contender. Maybe folks just couldn’t give up the energy ghost. Maybe it genuinely was the ‘best deck’ that was being played. Whatever the case, it was putting up impressive numbers.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and now we see some variety! Like countering spells and winning with Approach of the Second Sun? Go for it. Like casting giant monsters like Rekindling Phoenix and Glorybringer? Dig in. Perhaps you prefer playing a hyper-aggressive deck that punishes slower strategies? Light ’em up!
After many MTGO leagues and playtesting with my group of friends, I decided that aggro was where I wanted to be going into GP Memphis. I focused on a solid 75 for the current metagame and set off. Here is the list I played:
Mono Red Aggro
One surprising thing about the deck is the lack of Rekindling Phoenix. While I think it is a great card in general, I do not feel its a good fit for this deck. Having the curve top off at Hazoret before sideboard enables you to deploy your threats quickly without being stuck with cards in hand. In every matchup this deck wants to be the aggressor, and, after testing with and without the Phoenix, my results showed that not running it best fit the gameplan.
The one drops: Bomat Courier is the stock one drop for this type of strategy. The card allows you to refill your hand when needed, in addition to pressuring your opponent’s life total. During testing, I went back and forth, testing both Soul-Scar Mage and Fanatical Firebrand. While both are a great fit for red decks, I chose to go with 4 Soul-Scar Mages to help mitigate the mirror match, as its ability combined with a Chandra’s Defeat cleanly answers Hazoret the Fervent.
The rest of the creatures: Earthshaker Khenra, Ahn Crop Crasher, and Hazoret need little explanation. Cast them, attack your opponent, get ’em dead. With the format going towards more midrange strategies, preventing your opponent from blocking is a great path to victory. Kari Zev proved to be excellent time and time again. She falls perfectly at the start of the curve and provides a menacing threat all by herself. Dire Fleet Daredevil proved to be well worth his spots in the 75 as well. The added value he provides in the mirror and other one-for-one based matchups helps you pull ahead in a close game. Pia Nalaar shines in the mirror match and other aggressive matchups. She provides two threats for 3 mana and forces your opponent to use multiple resources to answer her.
The reach: Lightning Strike and Shock are effective ways to close out a game if your creatures come up short. I chose to play only a few copies of Magma Spray and Abrade as a concession to how aggressive I thought the metagame was going to be. While lacking in the control matches, Magma Spray is essential for dealing with problematic blockers and sometimes gives you a backdoor answer to the Scarab God.
Good Matchups: Since Mono Red is extremely aggressive in the early turns, it does a great job at beating up on control and some midrange strategies. U/B Control and U/B Midrange are good matchups. The mirror, with the correct sideboard plan, can be swung heavily in your favor as well. U/W Drake Haven and Approach decks are also great matchups, as the amount of pressure put on them is usually enough to win before they can stem the bleeding and find a way to turn the corner. Our G/R Monsters matchup is very draw dependent. They are great at applying a fast and lethal amount of damage in one to two turns. If we can draw a decent amount of our unblockable threats and keep them on their back foot, the matchup usually turns in our favor.
Bad Matchups: Grixis Energy is a matchup we do not want to run into. The amount of removal they are packing is too much to grind through. In addition to being able to answer all of our threats efficiently, cards like Whirler Virtuoso and Gonti, Lord of Luxury provide Grixis with a means of gaining value out of their cards while stopping our threats. There has also been a recent resurgence of token strategies. Abzan and B/W Tokens are bad matchups for Mono Red. Anointer Priest does so much work against us, providing a blocker and gaining life while they follow their normal game plan.
Here is a sideboard guide for to help with some matchups you may come across:
Tokens:
In: +3 Glorybringer
Out: -2 Dire Fleet Daredevil, -1 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
While this is a bad matchup, it’s not unwinnable. Anointer Priest is the real problem card. If we’re able to curve out and burn away the priests, then we have a fighting chance. Glorybringer does a lot of work here, flying over the tokens and exerting away problematic threats.
G/R Monsters:
In: +1 Abrade, +2 Chandra’s Defeat, +2 Kari Zev’s Expertise, +3 Glorybringer, +1 Scavenger Grounds, +2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Out: -4 Lightning Strike, -2 Dire Fleet Daredevil, -3 Shock, -2 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
Monsters is looking to curve out into their larger threats like Rekindling Phoenix and Glorybringer. Their lower end of the curve is usually filled with value cards like Merfolk Branchwalker and Jadelight Ranger. Our cheap burn spells excel in clearing the way for our early creatures Get in and get out before they can deploy their bigger threats.
Mono Red Aggro (The Mirror):
In: +2 Aethersphere Harvester, +1 Abrade, +1 Pia Nalaar, +1 Dire Fleet Daredevil, +2 Chandra’s Defeat
Out: -4 Ahn-Crop Crasher, -3 Lightning Strike
Game one is a coin flip. Whoever is on the play is a huge favorite. Early turns consist of trading burn spells for cheap threats. Our sideboard puts us over the edge here. We board out Crashers, as letting our opponent trade up in mana with a Magma Spray or Shock for a three mana creature will set us back a ton. Pia and Harvester are MVPs. If possible, try to sandbag Soul-Scar Mages, as we need them to deal with a later Hazoret.
Control Decks:
In: +1 Abrade, +1 Pia Nalaar, +1 Dire Fleet Daredevil, +3 Glorybringer, +1 Scavenger Grounds, +2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Out: -4 Lightning Strike, -2 Magma Spray, -3 Shock
This matchup isn’t too difficult to sideboard for. Our burn spells are poor outside of dealing the final points of damage to our opponent. Play as many threats as early as possible and get them to ‘0’. If your opponent is in white, keep Settle the Wreckage and Fumigate in mind when deploying creatures.
UB/Sultai/Grixis (Midrange Scarab God decks):
In: +1 Abrade, +1 Dire Fleet Daredevil, +3 Glorybringer, +1 Scavenger Grounds, +2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Out: -4 Lightning Strike, -3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider, -1 Shock
These decks are usually tough to play against. With plenty of cheap removal and low drop creatures, they can easily throw a wrench into our game plan. Cards like Vraska’s Contempt and Magma Spray are cards we don’t want to play against, and these decks can have 3-4 copies of each. We must rely heavily on our sideboard cards to push through.
Although Standard is in a good place right now, staying consistent in your game plan is never a bad thing. With a few tweaks in some slots to better fit the future meta, I feel Mono Red will be well positioned in the months ahead. There is something to be said about the power level of a deck when it continues to put up impressive results even after two of its high impact cards are banned. If you enjoy aggressive strategies, this is the deck for you.
James Bush is a grinder from the Chicagoland area since the early 2000’s. Between spending time with his wife and daughter and watching Cubs baseball, you can find him slinging digital cards on Magic Online @JamesDaBoosh
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