MTG Salvation

Hi All, I have been running this deck for a little while without too much luck. Against any sort of removal, it just falls apart. Or, I often find myself mana screwed and without much gas. I am coming to you guys in hopes that you may have answers for this poor deck.

There is no real budget, but I do not see a good point in spending more than 20$ for a card for this casual format, but may consider it depending on the suggestion.

There is no real theme, although if one is suggested, I wont be against it.

If you are going to suggest something, that is fine, but I want to know your reasoning as to why, same with removals. Thanks!

I run an ashling deck as well, but im not home to post it up for you to take a look at.

One thing i cut was braid of fire. Never really did enough. I also have flamekin harbinger to help against tuck.

What are you using worldfire for? Whats your combo with it?

I gotta agree with trancekat: if you're running Worldfire, you must have a way to abuse it for a quick win. Otherwise, everyone will hate you for resetting the game without having a way to reliably close out. You should take it out and replace with Reforge the Soul, another "draw 7" wheel effect that you need to keep yourself from running out of gas, and it's only a $0.50 rare at that! Its Miracle cost is also somewhat relevant, since you have SDT/Crystal Ball and various other methods of library manipulation.

As for creatures: I don't think Raging Goblin's 1/1 hasty body is useful enough for EDH. With everyone's life totals as high as they are, a 1 damage lead for a single turn just isn't going to cut it. I'd recommend replacing with Goblin Welder. It's a $5-7 card, but it's also completely worth it. Given the amount of artifacts in this deck, you can easily abuse this ability. This is a much more powerful 1-drop Goblin than the Raging variety.

I don't know of any card called Giant Cyclops. Do you mean Bloodshot Cyclops, perhaps?

Also agree with the Braid of Fire cut. It doesn't do enough to warrant its inclusion. Really only usable with the single Instant X spell, Comet Storm, as well as...maybe 3-4 of your creatures. Frankly, that makes the Braid a bit too unwieldy for this deck.

Well, that's all I really see for now. Nice deck, though! It's definitely better than the usual joke-based Ashling deck with its 60+ Mountains! Those are the worst.

Thanks guys, I will take those suggestions into consideration.

Also, it was Cyclops Gladiator, whoops.

Edit:
Also, I like welder, but I do not see the utility it offers this deck, I dont have too many sac artifacts. Also, I think I need a bit more artifact hate. Any suggestions on that?
Worldfire was going to be used with Arc Blade

Heh. Arc Blade with Worldfire is such a janky combo; I love it! Though, in a multiplayer environment, the amount of time this will take to actually kill the whole table is way too long, and I expect that someone will have dealt 1 damage to you by the time 6-9 or more turns have gone by.

Anyway, Goblin Welder has such a good ability, you don't actually need sacrificing artifacts to utilize this card's strength. Your opponents will surely hate on your artifacts during the game -- particularly, your mana-doubling Gauntlet of Power or Caged Sun. Who wouldn't trade their lowly Mind Stone to get back a mana-doubling artifact? No one, that's who! Even better, it provides you a legitimate way to get a Spine of Ish Sah into the graveyard, which is certainly great. Also, add a Phyrexia's Core to your land base. It provides 1 colorless mana, or you can pay 1 colorless, tap it, and sacrifice an artifact (such as Spine) to gain a measly 1 life. Pretty good synergy, actually!

As for artifact hate, oh man...Red is just so mean with its artifact hatred! For starters, I recommend Shattering Spree, a R-costing artifact-destroying Sorcery with Replicate R. So, for each R spent, you can destroy a single artifact! It's really good in monored. In addition, you should also take a look at Shattering Pulse; the buyback allows you to make extra use of 5 mana every turn to freely destroy any single annoying artifact. Completely awesome! And if that still isn't enough, you can try Into the Core, which exiles artifacts -- it's basically red's version of Return to Dust!

Oh, or if you just wanna say "**** tha Police!" you can just use Shatterstorm, which is Wrath of God for artifacts. The horror!

yeah, I probably should get rid of worldfire, I just liked the ridiculousness of the card. Thanks for the suggestions.

EDIT

Slipped in there as I was making my post

Take a look at my Ashling deck in my signature (feel free to leave comments, too =P). That version isn't perfect because I'm running a few "for fun" stuff, but it's nevertheless a terror in my playgroup. My deck has gone through several different versions, each with various cards that i thought were great with her and made for a fun time, which they did in all honesty, but sadly never really managed to get her there.

I would cut these cards immediately:

• Raging Goblin
  
• Spikeshot Elder
  
• Fortune Thief
  
• Lightning Bolt
  
• Flame Slash
  
• Earthquake
  
• Pyrohemia
  
• Sun Droplet
  
• Worldfire

They are too limited and/or don't do enough in EDH to be worth while and/or tie up your resources. Kumano, Master Yamabushi Is better than the Elder, Angelheart Vial is better than the droplet if you want an effect like that, anything is better than Bolt and other small burn spells in EDH, Urabrask the Hidden is better than Raging Goblin. EDH is about being big and bad, and in Mono Red where your tutors are limited, every card has to make an impact in some what or another. Also, get rid of your cycle lands unless you plan on running Crucible of Worlds. Even then, they'll just slow you down. I also used to run Furnace, but I cut it because it's global. There's nothing like getting hit with a Rafiq and losing to your own enchantment.

Here are some cards that I really like in Ashling:

Staff of Nin
A colorless Phyrexian Area that also tims? Yes please!

Magebane Armor
Keeps Ashling from not only killing herself, but surviving things like Blasphemous Act (which you should be running), Commet Storm, and any other global damaging effect. It also makes her a fairly beefy 3/5.

Darksteel Plate
I don't know why you're not running it to be honest. Makes her indestructible.

Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves
The haste is nice, but it makes her and anything else immune to spot removal, which is the bigger problem.

Phyrexian Core
This is your recurring removal with Spine. Get it and love it.

Kudotha Forgemaster
Ashling generally runs very artifact heavy because it's mono red and this is a potential recurring tutor that puts them into play.

Buried Ruins
Brings back an artifact from your graveyard, which is great because your mana doublers are going to get a lot of hate and I mean a LOT of hate.

Crucible of Worlds
Expensive, but worth it. It lets you use things like Strip Mine over and over, as well as fetch lands and their not so great cousins (Terromorphic and Evolving). It basically means you never miss a land drop.

Sword of Kaldra
Turns Ashling into a Final Judgement. Gets rid of those pesky Eldrazi and Dark/Blightsteel Colossi, and generally makes for an amusing time.

Akroma's Memorial
They're cheap now, so I don't feel bad suggesting it. Makes your whole team immune to Ashling by making them all little Akromas. Win/Win!

Reiterate
Fork with Buyback. Need I say more?

I can continue to offer more suggestions for Ashling as well. She's one of my favorite decks to use. I had actually planned on making a Primer for her once I perfected the deck and got the rest of the big stuff I need (Like Kozi/Ulamog).

Major changes to the deck. Let us see how it pans out. I do still need a bunch more cards though.

Looks good, I'm only a little wary about the Mad Prophet. I understand the reasoning in it, but I don't think it's worth it in this particular deck. Replace it with a Staff of Nin, you'll get a lot more out of it I feel. Also, hell yes Trading Post. That card almost single handedly won me a game with Ashling because Thraximundar couldn't get past the Goat.

Do consider more Fork effects, though. There is nothing like catching a Cultivate or an Explosive Vegetation nice and early to get yourself going. Don't forget that they are usable on opponent's spells. Wild Ricochet can really screw with people who want to Time Stretch because you get to take 4 turn after that. Reiterate should probably be your first grab in terms of Fork spells.

Yeah, I agree. But I was mostly adding cards I already owned, the rest need to be purchased/traded for. I will be playing tonight, so I will see the effects of the changes. But ashling gets hated on quickly, just because she is ashling

Fair enough, I hope things go well for her.

As for dealing with removal, I've never really had that problem because you can just blow her up in response. It's actually kind of diplomatic that way because I've had people target Ashling with a removal spell just so they'd have a clean board. If you're worried about it, get yourself a pair of Swiftfoot Boots to go with your greaves.

Gamble and Dragonmaster Outcast are two amazing one mana spells that I run. Gamble rarely misses for me but I try to do it with 4+ cards in hand and it's like running two Koths that you could possibly open with. Dragonmaster Outcast can just take over games if unanswered. I know he dies to a stiff breeze and is relatively worthless until mid-late game but for one mana and a card that is a MUST answer threat, there's very little that's better.

Also, you mentioned mana screw... I run 46 lands and very few non basics so all the mana doublers are worth more. I never splurged for Guantlet of Might but you're missing Extraplanar Lens which can lead to devistating starts for your opponents and if you up your land count won't be that devistating to you for the tempo loss if it's immediately answered. It's usually best to wait till you hit 5-6 mana to drop it and immediately get use out of it but running it out their turn 3 and getting to untap with it is so back breaking for the rest of the table.

Finally, Hellkite Igniter is an amazing bomb late game with all the artifacts. I've dropped him and pumped him twice to turn him into a 15+ with haste before and if you untap with him and someone doesn't have air defense, they're usually just dead. You seem to run enough artifacts for it to be worthwhile.

PS: Do NOT cut Pyrohemia. It can carry you through the game and it can take out a field of flyers which is something red has trouble with. You know you're going to be attacked with it on the field, make everyone take the damage of whatever threat someone lands and then fireball people when you can. Another must answer threat IMO.

The Igniter recently made it into my collection and it's well worth the dollar I paid for it. I really should update my Ashling page soon with the latest build, which will change once I get my hands on Gorgon Flail and Quietus Spike. I'll be taking an approach that includes a few Tims and Pings like Jeska, Khamal, and Kumano to take advantage of Deathtouch and Sword of Kaldra. They all also go swimmingly with Balefire Dragon.