MTG Salvation

DECK HISTORY:
Mono-red is probably the weakest color in EDH. However, I love the aggression and chaos it offers and I wanted to make it work. Prior to Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, I ran Purphoros, God of the Forge and Krenko, Mob Boss as commanders. Both decks were fast and effective, but ended up being notorious unfun to play against. It always felt like a race to see how fast I could pump out 1/1s to kill my opponents. It wasn't about playing cool or interesting combos, politics, or fun interactions... it was just a ramping, pumping out small creatures, and racing to victory. After a while, it was boring and unfun for me and my opponents.

After realizing this, I went for another general that caught my eye, Grenzo, Havoc Raiser, and I fell in love after my first game. During that game, I stole my opponent's Vraska the unseen, and proceed to win by killing all my opponents with assassin tokens assisted by break through the line. Since then I have used many of my opponent's win cons against them including, Blightsteel Colossus, various Eldrazi, Mindslaver, Villainous Wealth, and even Aetherflux Reservoir. It offers a unique perspective to mono-red and allows fun interactions to occur.

Grenzo's two triggered abilities are the key to the deck. His first ability, Goad, help's you avoid being attacked by large creatures and forces their weaker utility creatures like dark confidant, Gaddock Teeg or Platinum Angel to attack to their death. His second ability gives this deck versatility not normally available in mono red. However that versatility is restricted to what's available in your opponent's deck. In my deck, I actually don't run many utility or removal cards and opt for creatures who can attack and find the card in my opponent's deck so I can cast them.

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WHY GRENZO?

PROS:

• Attacking Wide. You'll attack with lots of small creatures.
• Goblins. It's a fun tribe and the best way to quickly get lots of small creatures.
• Stealing. You will raid your opponent's deck and use it against them.
• Versatile. Each game is as unique as your opponent's deck. You're not restricted to mono-red or reliant on your own win-cons.
• Denial. Exiling your opponent’s cards or casting them restricts them from using it. Easily stops combo decks.

CONS:

• General Reliant: This deck is reliant on being able to attack the opponent with Grenzo in play.
• Big creatures. You won't see many in this deck, unless you steal them from your opponent.
• Suicide missions. You often swing with all creatures and many will die in the process. you can't get attached.
• Rely on opponent. You will almost solely rely on your opponent's deck for removal and utility cards.
• Ghostly prison. Taxing attacks is a hard counter to this deck.

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MY META:
My playgroup and I have been playing magic for nearly 15+ years. Most of us competed in legacy tournaments and our commander decks are the pinnacle of our collections. They often are full of powerful and expensive powerful cards like Gaea's Cradle, original dual lands, Mana Drain, Imperial Recruiter, and Mishra's Workshop. I realize that these are not easily accessible to most players. That being said, this deck holds it's own on that power level.

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THE DECK:


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CARD CHOICE:
Before we go over each card specifically, I think it's good that we go over the goals of this deck.

GOING WIDE:
We need creatures lots of creatures so we can go wide. Going wide means having more creatures than the defending opponent. This guarantees a few will deal combat damage to the player and trigger Grenzo's ability. Creatures that produce other creature tokens is a great way to go wide. Beetleback Chief, Hanweir Garrison, and Krenko, Mob Boss are creatures that produce tokens for us to go wide.

EVASION:
Another option is to evade. This means abilities that limit the opponent's blocking options. Creatures with flying, menace, or color protection are great in this deck. Likewise, first strike can make players hesitant to block. Trample can still have combat damage reach the player if blocked. Unfavorable blocks like tuktuk the explorer, infiltrator lens, or Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician mean the opponent is less likely to block if it results positively for us. Break Through the Line is still an MVP.

CREATURE HEAVY:
I've found it better to rely on your opponent's decks for removal effects and basic utility cards. You want to keep a constant flow of creatures onto the battlefield so you can keep raiding their deck.

PUMP:
Making our small creatures larger with cards like Goblin King, Eldrazi Monument, or Obelisk of Urd make them viable late game and limits the number of suicide missions when they attack.

RAMP:
We need mana to cast the opponent's exiled cards, so having a large mana source will be very helpful. Sword of feast and famine and Neheb, the Ethernal are great at ensuring we have a plentiful mana to work with.

REPELLENT:
We're going to be left largely defenseless after we attack. We need cards that make the player hesitant on attacking us. Slumbering Dragon, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, and Maze of ith can deter opponents from attacking.

ANTI-WIPE:
After we establish a board of creatures, opponents are going to be looking for ways to kill them off. We need non-creature cards that help us recover and restart. Man lands like mutavault or Blinkmoth nexus are normally safe from wipes and are a great source to reestablish a board. Likewise, Obelisk of Urd allows you to produce stronger goblins after a wipe.

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COMBO & TRICKS:

Goblin Sharpshooter + Splinter Twin
Infinite Damage.
SETUP:
(1) Cast Splinter twin on goblin sharpshooter
(2) Tap goblin sharpshooter to create a copy of itself
(3) Have the new copy kill a creature with toughness 1. (not a sharpshooter)
(4) Untap both sharpshooters.

REPEAT COMBO:
(1) Tap sharpshooter 1: create sharpshoter 3.
(2) Tap sharpshooter 2: deal 1 damage to a player of choice
(3) tap sharpshooter 3: Kill itself.
(4) Untap sharpshooter 1 and sharpshooter 2.
(5) Rinse and repeat.

Kazuul, Tyrant of the cliffs + Goblin Spymaster
If they are forced to attack you, they MUST choose one of Kazuul's two options. If they don't have the mana, you're getting a 3/3 Ogre!

Magus of the moon + Goblin King
Unblockable Goblins!

Great post and cool deck! Having built krenko, purphoroos, pia and kiran naaalar, zirilian of the claw, rorix and maybe a few more mono red decks i must agree that mono red can be a bit one dimensional at times. Much of reds identity doesnt translate well to 40 life multiplayer so the few things that work like tokens get repetitive.

Grenzo is an elegant solution to the problem by opening up mono red to non red effects via your opponents spells. Goad is very much a red mechanic and gives the deck an other avenue. I would look at stuff like bedlam to help the goad games out.

I may have to make an 8th mono red deck now.

Seems like Outpost Siege would be great here. Would make it a liability to kill your army, and if they don't, they will die in combat.

Are you allowed to play Westvale Abbey in the deck? I thought its color identity was black...?