Let me be clear: you can build a deck which handles the 'fast' version of monored. But having the correct card to handle the post-side, big red version with 4x Glorybringer, 4x Chandra, and 3x Hazoret... I have NO clue how to do this. And it's not for a lack of trying.
Here's the main problem: monored can shift for a bunch of 1-drop to 12 4,5-drops which are very impactful (Chandra, Hazoret and Glorybringer are the best red permanents), and red has access to what's probably the best removal in the game (Abrade).
I'm testing the "post side" version of Monored aggro with fewer (but still enough) early threats and 4x Glorybringer + 4x Chandra, Torch of Defiance, it's brutal beyond belief. If it's on the play, I cannot find anything currently in Standard post side which will handle everything this deck has.
Zombies, BG, control, WU Monument, Temur... nothing works. It's too fast, too brutal. You may think there's a way to hande this deck, but I really don't think it stands any competition right now in Standard.
People claim that lifelink is the way to do it, you're welcome to try. Trespasser's Curse which will do a tiny drain won't go a long way. Kalitas gets gobbled up by Glorybringer, other ways to gain life like Aethersphere Harvester dies to Abrade. Red only needs to find a couple of removal to clear the path, while a control deck will need to find more than a dozen in order to handle the onslaught.
Even the mighty Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is totally helpless. Touted as "too good for Standard" since it's been printed, backbone of so many winning strategies such as Mardu Vehicles, it's absolutely dead in the water again the monored.
This deck is no joke, with a half decent opening hand, it WILL destroy you.
Here's the list I'm testing - taken from PVDDR, but slightly tweaked to emulate a post side. It's actually better than the base version.
Before you claim the list is crazy, give it a shot. Sure, not everyone will agree with 4x Chandra or 4x Glorybringer. The deck runs 24 LANDS, you don't need to hit Chandra or Glorybringer on curve, there's more than enough to deal 40+ damage by t5, it's that quick. I took out the Village Messenger from Paulo's list and replaced them with Glorybringer, made room for 2 more Chandra (-1 Shock, -1 Kari Sev) and voila.
You can adjust the curve, e.g +1 Kari Sev and -1 Glorybringer, personally I think Glorybringer is soooo good in this format that 4 is what you want, even in a fast deck.
I've been playing a version of this deck since late May with various degrees of success. I have also been running 4 Sunscorched Desert in the deck since then too, no doubt some people would have seen that and made some changes to make into the monstrosity that you have posted above, however, I am still playing my own brew which also takes many decks apart.
Zombies is probably a slight favorite over mono red, as are most varieties of bg. What the opponent needs to be able to do is clog the board with x/3+s, put pressure on the life total, and remove Hazoret/Glorybringer as needed. The aggro energy version of the snake deck, in my opinion, has the best matchup against mono red. If the Snake is ever left unchecked their stuff grows out of your ability to kill it, Walking Ballista is a menace, and it kills quickly.
The issue with going big red is that the red haymakers are much much much better if they are preceded by an aggressive start. There also exist cards that answer the red bombs--counters, cast out, stasis snare, grasp of darkness--and if you don't put enough early pressure on then the opponent can hold those answers for the big threats. It's still a perfectly reasonable strategy but you are giving something up when you trim the low drops.
The deck can't prepare for the small aggro -> big red shift without making some sacrifices. The small aggro part plays fewer lands. It needs to because it can't afford to draw too many lands as the cards are individually low-threat. So in order to shift to bigger stuff, you need to devote a sideboard slot or two to extra land or risk being unable to cast the big spells early enough. It can be done, but it weakens the flexibility of the deck post-board.
It could, and I've tested it. It's still a losing matchup. You need a very lucky hand to win - assuming Monored is on the play. Your sweep come so late in the game you might as well not run them, save perhaps for Flaying Tendrils which is very effective (especially against Khenra), I guess you would need to mulligan to 5 to get one. But a red player facing BW control won't be stupid enough to empty their hand, they'll make you play your sweepers only to handle two more haste creatures next round.
It's beatable, and I 2-0'd it today with mono black zombies. I also watched the W/B life gain deck demolish it and watched a tuned temur energy get deck there. It's not easy, and the players who do beat it wind up playing very tight. There is a fine line between surviving and knowing when it's time to become the beat down. I beat mono red today with an opening hand of 0 removal spells, curving out 1-2-3, into multiple Lord of the Accursed's backed by mastery's. Yes I stablized at 1 life, but G1 in my match I mull to 6, and 1 for 1 until I get wide and smash. It's possible and this is merely a day and a half after the Pro Tour. We grinders/ players are finding solutions, this isn't like playing against Marvel or Cat Combo. You have a chance and the tools to beat it in most colors except U.
Look at the track record of Izzet Control at the last Pro Tour, that's your answer right there. Hoping to nuke everything without putting a single creature on the board (Torrential Gearhulk nonwithstanding, it's a T6 drop at best, you have to be alive by then to be able to cast it, and even then it dies to Abrade. Don't tell me you'll wait to have backup counter to cast it, please) is very dubious.
Even if you somewhow manage to stop the bleeding, Ramunap Ruins finishes the job.
You know logistically arch types have bad match ups and RDW has always been a hard match up against most forms of U/x based control. With Abrade seeing huge amounts of play, control will have to incorporate different win conditions. We may even have to rebuild the entire arch type to suit this meta. That said, past control decks also had it hard, Esper Dragons Vs Atarka Red? super not favored, and even though I never lost to it, I also played that match up many times during testing and lost. In sanctioned PPTQ's I never lost to it or the Ramp deck from early BFZ (which was a laughable match up G1 for Esper Dragons).
Sadly, the control decks we currently have are no where near Khans/Theros UB control (what a deck!) or Khans/Origins UWB Esper Dragons. If players want to play control, look to diversify your threats and except to see many Abrade's blow up your 6cmc win con which has 0 protection on its own.
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Standard Arena: Eh? Gruul or Die
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now: G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record) C Eldrazi Tron (9-5) UG Infect RW Burn
If you want a spicier control option OafMcNamara beat me down pretty hard with his RW list. Not sure if it was on his 5-0 run, but it sure seemed to have the right tools for the job:
I've been testing UR Control with main decked Kozilek's Return as well as 4x Magma Spray. Post-board I bring in 4x Shock. So far I feel pretty good with the results. It's also decent against monument and zombies. That's a big chunk of the meta.
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Here's the main problem: monored can shift for a bunch of 1-drop to 12 4,5-drops which are very impactful (Chandra, Hazoret and Glorybringer are the best red permanents), and red has access to what's probably the best removal in the game (Abrade).
I'm testing the "post side" version of Monored aggro with fewer (but still enough) early threats and 4x Glorybringer + 4x Chandra, Torch of Defiance, it's brutal beyond belief. If it's on the play, I cannot find anything currently in Standard post side which will handle everything this deck has.
Zombies, BG, control, WU Monument, Temur... nothing works. It's too fast, too brutal. You may think there's a way to hande this deck, but I really don't think it stands any competition right now in Standard.
People claim that lifelink is the way to do it, you're welcome to try. Trespasser's Curse which will do a tiny drain won't go a long way. Kalitas gets gobbled up by Glorybringer, other ways to gain life like Aethersphere Harvester dies to Abrade. Red only needs to find a couple of removal to clear the path, while a control deck will need to find more than a dozen in order to handle the onslaught.
Even the mighty Gideon, Ally of Zendikar is totally helpless. Touted as "too good for Standard" since it's been printed, backbone of so many winning strategies such as Mardu Vehicles, it's absolutely dead in the water again the monored.
This deck is no joke, with a half decent opening hand, it WILL destroy you.
Here's the list I'm testing - taken from PVDDR, but slightly tweaked to emulate a post side. It's actually better than the base version.
# 24 Lands
4 Ramunap Ruins
4 Sunscorched Desert
2 Scavenger Grounds
14 Mountain
# 26 Creatures
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
4 Bomat Courier
4 Earthshaker Khenra
4 Falkenrath Gorger
3 Hazoret the Fervent
2 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Glorybringer
# 7 Sorcery/Instants
4 Abrade
3 Shock
# 4 Others
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Before you claim the list is crazy, give it a shot. Sure, not everyone will agree with 4x Chandra or 4x Glorybringer. The deck runs 24 LANDS, you don't need to hit Chandra or Glorybringer on curve, there's more than enough to deal 40+ damage by t5, it's that quick. I took out the Village Messenger from Paulo's list and replaced them with Glorybringer, made room for 2 more Chandra (-1 Shock, -1 Kari Sev) and voila.
You can adjust the curve, e.g +1 Kari Sev and -1 Glorybringer, personally I think Glorybringer is soooo good in this format that 4 is what you want, even in a fast deck.
I've been playing a version of this deck since late May with various degrees of success. I have also been running 4 Sunscorched Desert in the deck since then too, no doubt some people would have seen that and made some changes to make into the monstrosity that you have posted above, however, I am still playing my own brew which also takes many decks apart.
2 Ramunap Ruins
4 Sunscorched Desert
1 Endless Sands
15 Mountain
Creatures 24
4 Ahn-crop Crasher
4 Battlefield Scavenger
4 Lathnu Hellion
4 Glorybringer
3 Earthshaker Khenra
3 Hazoret the Fervent
2 Heart-Piercer Manticore
4 Fiery Temper
4 Lightning Axe
4 Harnessed Lightning
2 Avacyn's Judgment
2 Blur of Blades
2 Abrade
2 By Force
2 Chandra's Defeat
2 Kari Zev's Expertise
2 Fling
3 Magma Spray
Enjoy!
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The issue with going big red is that the red haymakers are much much much better if they are preceded by an aggressive start. There also exist cards that answer the red bombs--counters, cast out, stasis snare, grasp of darkness--and if you don't put enough early pressure on then the opponent can hold those answers for the big threats. It's still a perfectly reasonable strategy but you are giving something up when you trim the low drops.
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now:
G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record)
C Eldrazi Tron (9-5)
UG Infect
RW Burn
Even if you somewhow manage to stop the bleeding, Ramunap Ruins finishes the job.
Sadly, the control decks we currently have are no where near Khans/Theros UB control (what a deck!) or Khans/Origins UWB Esper Dragons. If players want to play control, look to diversify your threats and except to see many Abrade's blow up your 6cmc win con which has 0 protection on its own.
Modern: Decks I'm playing right now:
G Mono Green Tron (34-10-3 paper record, only SCG/Regionals/PPTQ record)
C Eldrazi Tron (9-5)
UG Infect
RW Burn
8 Mountain
4 Needle Spires
7 Plains
2 Stone Quarry
4 Thraben Inspector
3 Glorybringer
1 Linvala, the Preserver
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
4 Magma Spray
4 Abrade
4 Sweltering Suns
3 Stasis Snare
4 Cast Out
3 Chandra's Defeat
2 Dragonmaster Outcast
2 Blessed Alliance
4 Sunscourge Champion
2 Fumigate
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
1 Linvala, the Preserver
If you absolutely don't want to lose because you can't answer a Hazoret, this is the deck for you.
Honestly I think zombies is like 55/45 over red, something like that. Dark Salvation is a huge beating, and zombies can definitely clog up the ground.