OK, finally on a real computer with real internet. I was going to start my list off as something similar to the list posted by Joel Larsson here, including running Lannery Storm, but I'm going to carry on running Chandras out of the side as I am now. A singleton Glorybringer main has been also good against the more controlling and Temur energy focussed lists at my local, as has Hungry Flames (getting in to a Hydra one turn sooner). However, I'm liking the slightly heavier burn package from Nevelo's list as well, as it's really truer (in my mind) to a real red deck. I'm still toying with whether the Captain is going to be a good card in this type of list, so she may have to be worked in somewhere... Incidentally, I'm liking the possible play of suicide attack with Bomat Courier to get another card under it, sac before damage, and then still get back the Barrage.
Sideboard is definitely a work in progress! Reasonings for cards:
Defeat takes out Glorybringers and Chandras.
Spyglass is for control matches (that focus on Scarab God, anything with Planeswalkers, and to some extent the mirror)
Flame Lash is instant speed response to Hydra, Green hulk on empty board, larger vehicles, etc.
TOD fills the same role as she does now.
Glorybringer, same thing.
Harsh Mentor is great against Temur - Shock in exchange for a 1/1? Sure. Shock to make your Hydra hexproof? Sure... etc.
Ferocidon goes in against Approach decks, anything Vampiric, Horses.
Suns is obvious - weenies decks, etc.
Blasting Cannons is for control matches. Gives us more cards (along with Chandra) and makes us even quicker. Plus we can get the spells countered and still flip it for another source of uncounterable damage.
I usually play it as soon as I can. If anything, I find that it's the threat that leads them to hold back, rather than anything else. If you can drop it T2/3 after they've played a Ballista, it's great. My current board plan for Temur is to bring in Chandras, Glorybringers, Suns, Hour (I run 2 Sweltering Suns / 1 Hour of Devastation), and Defeat along with the Harsh Mentors. I take out Gorgers, Kari Zev, Messengers, and a couple of Couriers, preferring to take out their early threats then going big.
Unrelated, I had a look (as I always do with a new set) at the Frank Karsten optimal aggro article from back in 2013, and tried to make a deck that fits those numbers. What are thoughts on something like this...
It seems a little slow, IMO. When would you play this on curve? Absolute best case scenario, you're not equipping until T3. If you want to play Lannery Storm to enable Apprentice on T3, then you're still not equipping. By the time you're on T4/5, chances are that your opponent will be blocking, and you're not getting the treasure bonus out of it anyway.
With most Ramunap Red wanting to be firmly in control by T4, I don't honestly see a place for it. I'm trying to see a shell with Wily Goblin, Lannery Storm, Scrapheap Scrounger, Bomat Courier to be the Apprentice enablers... Also, Walking Ballista maybe, as yet another mana sink and uncounterable damage?
It seems a little slow, IMO. When would you play this on curve? Absolute best case scenario, you're not equipping until T3. If you want to play Lannery Storm to enable Apprentice on T3, then you're still not equipping. By the time you're on T4/5, chances are that your opponent will be blocking, and you're not getting the treasure bonus out of it anyway.
With most Ramunap Red wanting to be firmly in control by T4, I don't honestly see a place for it. I'm trying to see a shell with Wily Goblin, Lannery Storm, Scrapheap Scrounger, Bomat Courier to be the Apprentice enablers... Also, Walking Ballista maybe, as yet another mana sink and uncounterable damage?
I understand your misgivings. Its simply something that has been better than anticipated in our playtest gauntlet so I thought I'd mention it. That's all.
I played RR extensively last season and had considerable success. However, and I'm in the minority here, I do not think it ports as cleanly to the new format as we would like. Its probably a fine choice early, as aggro usually is, but in our testing its felt like the format is hostile towards the strategy in general. Lifegain from tokens and cards like Inspiring Cleric or Priest of the Wakening Sun are problematic. Shapers' Sanctuary is impossible to interact with. Sanctum Seeker can be disastrous and Vraska's Contempt, while cost prohibitive, answers our most lethal threats while gaining life. And those are just the new cards. I'm certainly not saying that a desert-based aggressive deck is unplayable, but I do feel like some redesigning is warranted. Hence my experimentation with Prying Blade. I've likewise tried Rampaging Ferocidon to some success, but strayed from it to try a more artifact-centric build.
I do like Wily Goblin, though more in a control-ish shell. Or at least a bigger Red. Ballista I'm less bullish on. I've seen T1 Sanctuary turn it into a liability and killing token creatures in other matchups feels pretty bad.
TL;DR Yadda new format, yaddayadda new cardz. Best of luck everyone!
I think a build that runs Inventors Apprentice would likely want to be running Scrapheap Scrounger in addition to Bomat Courier. Quite possibly Heart of Kiran as well. Something along the lines of below:
in my opinion, the Ramunap Red deck appears to be more consistent and will continue to be a powerhouse in Ixalan Standard. R/b on the other hand probably needs some more tweaking, but could be competitive as well with the advantage of being resilient and more SB options.
personally, i'd like my deck to curve only until 3, but Hazoret just seems to have gotten better with Grasp of Darkness gone. i gotta test if it's viable to have an R/x deck that curves only up to 3 drops (Ahn-Crop Crasher and Unlicensed Disintegration) to be faster. then again, i played a deck with Goldnight Castigator mainboard before...
on a side note, Seth Manfield has an article about how to update RR for the upcoming Standard.
So, after taking a look at some older cards and some of the newer cards I came to the conclusion that aside from lightning strke there is nothing else to entice me to fit in deck if it is kept as mono red so the version I am testing right now and will be playing in the future looks like this:
The deck doesn't run any one-drop creatures choosing instead to have magma spray open for turn one.
On turn two the deck starts to drop creatures since it runs 9 two-drops or it can use one of the 8 burn spells.
Starting on turn 3 the deck can drop one of the 8 3-drops which all have haste.
Turn 4 is a key turn, depending on the matchup the deck can push out Hazoret or can drop two of the 2-drop creatures, or cast a creature and a burn spell or even drop a 3-drop creature and a magma spray.
Turn 5, more combinations are possible or you can cast a Dragon and hit hard.
In my testing, I was out of cards or down to 1 card by turn 4 or turn 5.
The reason I am running the aether chaser main deck is twofold. One obvious reason is that I can get 2 energy to help harnessed lighting kill bigger creatures in the future, or help to keep lathnu hellion in play for 1 extra turn. The other reason is that it has first strike so it can kill opposing bomat couriers or other 1 or 2 toughness creatures first before it gets killed, so it can block quite well and it may even eat an opposing shock or lightning strike from the opponent.
Make no mistake, this deck is geared to defeating the mirror match in game 1, that is the reason for the main deck magma spray, to deal with earthshaker khenras and if people decide to play main deckscrapheap scrounger.
If there is no reason to exile creatures I will be changing all the magma sprays to shocks after some more testing. The deck runs 26 creatures out of which 6 can come back through embalm/eternalize so it has actually access to 32 creatures at any one time which makes it extremely resilient.
Big Red could be an option. Though, you should run 24-25 land with that curve.
I have been testing this deck for more than 2 months now and it works great on 22 lands, I tried playing 23 lands but it was messing with its mojo. The deck goes down to 1 card or 0 cards in hand by turn 5 so that's no problem in activating Hazoret. There are only 9 cards which are 4 casting cost or higher, everything else in the deck costs 3 or less to cast so once the deck gets 4 lands out I can cast 2 spells every turn so that's not a problem at all.
I look forward to destroying lots of people with this mono-red beast of a deck starting next month. I still have 3 slots open in my sideboard for relevant cards that can deal with Gods, maybe some type of control card.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"May he who is without mana cast the first spell!"
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
I didn't notice it before, but I also question only running only 1 Ramunap Ruins.
Regarding land count and curve, I tend to trust the successful builds and the statistics on that myself. But if it's working for you, then eh.
Though that being said, there is no reason to fear flood with the deck. I've been playing a more stock curve with 24 lands main and it's funny how often I want to draw the 5th and 6th land. With Khenra, Glorybringer, and Ruins, there is a lot to do in the late game with the extra mana.
I went to 23 on the stock list (but one Glorybringer main, as I don't own 4 Haz), as I seemed to be flooding a lot(although I may have been mulliganing/keeping wrong), and it's not been bad. I may go back up to 24, especially if I include more mana sinks such as Repeating Barrage. How's that been testing for you, Nevelo?
Run into a ton of UBx Scarab God decks. 1 Bant control with a ton of lifegain. An Abzan midrange. Not as much mirror for whatever reason. I haven kept close track of all the matches, but I believe I'm about 60% winrate in random matches in Tournament Practice.
It's a bit weaker without Gorger to provide better early pressure. The deck doesn't feel like it's dominating games like I've felt with some decks in the past, but it somehow comes up with wins in games where I feel like I'm losing.
Soul-Scar has been pretty meh, but I haven had mirror matches where it would shine. I am tempted to try to get Inventor's Apprentice to work with a extra light splash for Scrounger only, but it seems ambitious to try to make it all work consistently.
I plan on shifting to a list trying Rigging Runner and Repeating Barrage main, with Vance's Blasting Cannons in the side once the cards are available online and not too bad on cost.
That was my initial assessment too. I figured I'd give it a try, because at the moment Soul-Scar doesn't attack for more than 1 in most spots anyway. Apprentice would be ideal if we could build the deck to enable it consistently without making the manabase terrible.
just my preference, but i'd:
-1 Hazoret
-2 Cut//Ribons
-2 Pia Nalaar
-1 Mountain
+4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
+2 Shock
that would somewhat lower the curve and make it more aggressive. i think T3 Pia to activate Spire of Industry and Unlicensed Disintegration if there's still no artifact in play is a huge loss in aggression, and since the deck has no Ramunap Ruins it can't grind like Ramunap Red so it has to be fast. it does however has clean answers to troublesome creatures for burn spells like Longtusk Cub and Ripjaw Raptor (should it become more popular) and can get past defenses (how i hate Whirler Virtuoso and Bristling Hydra) with Key to the City, which can also help the deck grind a bit.
Hazoret + Key to the City is basically GG if they can't answer either.
I'm interested in what seems to be a pre-board strategy by some of the latest 5-0 lists - I've seen a couple that have reduced the number of Chandras to 1 or 2, plus been playing with 1 or two Glorybringers. I was thinking of this line anyway seeing as I don't own a fourth Hazoret. My local store is usually control (UBx Scarab God, and UW Approach) and Temur, and I'm expecting dinos to make an appearance as well. My main will run two of the Repeating Barrages - if we could run a sorcery speed Incendiary Flow, then why not a sorcery speed that can come back? May be wrong, but I really want to try it.
I think that the sideboard needs some work though, so any suggestions there would be appreciated. The Flame Lash is only a possible, and could be easily replaced. I like the extra to-the-face burn spell for control, as (certainly at my local) people tend to assume that the creatures are the problems.
Thoughts and constructive comments welcomed, as always (and yes, 23 lands may be too few. I've been running at that for a while and it's OK, but I may want to go back to 24 with the mana sinks of the Raid Hammer, and also the want to flip Vance's Cannons. Maybe a 24th land in the side?).
i am unimpressed with Rigging Runner. attacking on T3 for 2 damage seems underwhelming, and is a bad card when one can't trigger raid.
whats the difference between playing rigger on turn 2 as a 2/2 or gorger on turn 2? At least rigger can block 1,2 and even some 3 drops like rogue refiner and not die. That’s pretty valuable.
@PapaThor: RB seems very interesting. That list in specific just seems to be lacking 2-3 more artifacts to keep that critical mass enabling Apprentice and Disintegration. Hence why it might be important to run something like Heart. Otherwise solid. My hesitancy with going with the splash is losing Ramunap Ruins.
@JonInWherever: Your main looks pretty good to me. I'd just want an extra land or two in the sideboard for when you are loading up on the 4 and 5 drops.
I think mono red is still the way to go even after ixalan, since we still have good two drops and three drops, better burn choices and if course hazoret and glorybringers which are staples.
I'm also testing two hostile deserts main deck to help the deck grind even better after turn 6.
I may go to playing a 23 land 61 cards built instead of the 22/60 that I am running now, but I haven't had problems with mana so far.
I don't think that the blasting cannons have a space in this deck, but the returnable burn sorcery might work as a one off. However many decks run graveyard removal main deck and that sucks.
My deck has quite a few uses for cards in the graveyard, so if they don't remove it by turn 6 then they will be in a world of pain.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"May he who is without mana cast the first spell!"
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
The point of Repeating Barrage is to enable you late-game to do some burn damage if you find yourself flooding. It's a card I am willing to test at 2 of in the MB, but I've thought it's late-game utility can be very crucial to effectively use your mana.
Yeah, essentially above is why it could be good. I initially was a bit dismissive of Khenra's greaveyard activation because it was 6 mana, but in these high land count aggro decks, it's actually quite common to use.
15 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
4 Sunscorched Desert
Spells (14)
3 Shock
2 Abrade
4 Lightning Strike
2 Repeating Barrage
2 Hungry Flames
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4 Bomat Courier
4 Soul-Scar Mage
4 Earthshaker Khenra
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
3 Hazoret the Fervent
1 Glorybringer
1 Chandra's Defeat
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Flame Lash
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Glorybringer
2 Harsh Mentor
2 Rampaging Ferocidon
2 Sweltering Suns
2 Vance's Blasting Cannons
Unrelated, I had a look (as I always do with a new set) at the Frank Karsten optimal aggro article from back in 2013, and tried to make a deck that fits those numbers. What are thoughts on something like this...
11 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
4 Sunscorched Desert
One-drops (13)
4 Bomat Courier
4 Soul-scar Mage
3 Rigging Runner
2 Inventor's Apprentice
4 Earthshaker Khenra
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
Three-drops (3)
3 Ahn-crop Crasher
Burn (14)
4 Shock
4 Lightning Strike
2 Built to Smash
2 Abrade
2 Repeating Barrage
2x Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4x Earthshaker Khenra
2x Piz Nalaar
4x Ammit Eternal
3x Hazoret the Fervent
4x Scrapheap Scrounger
2x Inventor's Apprentice
Spells
1x Fatal Push
1x Key to the City
4x Unlicensed Disintegration
4x Aethersphere Harvester
1x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
Lands
4x Ramunap Ruins
8x Mountain
8x Swamp
4x dragonskull summit
Best of luck during brew season to you all.
With most Ramunap Red wanting to be firmly in control by T4, I don't honestly see a place for it. I'm trying to see a shell with Wily Goblin, Lannery Storm, Scrapheap Scrounger, Bomat Courier to be the Apprentice enablers... Also, Walking Ballista maybe, as yet another mana sink and uncounterable damage?
I understand your misgivings. Its simply something that has been better than anticipated in our playtest gauntlet so I thought I'd mention it. That's all.
I played RR extensively last season and had considerable success. However, and I'm in the minority here, I do not think it ports as cleanly to the new format as we would like. Its probably a fine choice early, as aggro usually is, but in our testing its felt like the format is hostile towards the strategy in general. Lifegain from tokens and cards like Inspiring Cleric or Priest of the Wakening Sun are problematic. Shapers' Sanctuary is impossible to interact with. Sanctum Seeker can be disastrous and Vraska's Contempt, while cost prohibitive, answers our most lethal threats while gaining life. And those are just the new cards. I'm certainly not saying that a desert-based aggressive deck is unplayable, but I do feel like some redesigning is warranted. Hence my experimentation with Prying Blade. I've likewise tried Rampaging Ferocidon to some success, but strayed from it to try a more artifact-centric build.
I do like Wily Goblin, though more in a control-ish shell. Or at least a bigger Red. Ballista I'm less bullish on. I've seen T1 Sanctuary turn it into a liability and killing token creatures in other matchups feels pretty bad.
TL;DR Yadda new format, yaddayadda new cardz. Best of luck everyone!
4 Inventor's Apprentice
4 Bomat Courier
2 Soul-Scar Mage
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
2 Pia Nalaar
4 Weldfast Engineer
4 Heart of Kiran
Planeswalkers
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Spells
2 Abrade
4 Lightning Strike
4 Unlicensed Disintegration
2 Repeating Barrage
4 Smoldering Marsh
4 Spire of Industry
3 Aether Hub
2 Swamp
9 Mountain
Key to the City is also an interesting option that can stand on its own as a 1 or 2-of in a list.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
4 Bomat Courier
4 Earthshaker Khenra
3 Hazoret the Fervent
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Soul-Scar Mage
PW 2
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4 Abrade
4 Lightning Strike
4 Shock
Lands 24
14 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
2 Scavenger Grounds
4 Sunscorched Desert
1 Mountain
1 Hazoret the Fervent
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Aethersphere Harvester
2 Chandra's Defeat
4 Glorybringer
2 Hour of Devastation
1 Sweltering Suns
4 Bomat Courier
4 Earthshaker Khenra
4 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Inventor's Apprentice
2 Pia Nalaar
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
Spells 12
2 Cut // Ribbons
4 Lightning Strike
2 Shock
4 Unlicensed Disintegration
2 Key to the City
Lands 24
2 Canyon Slough
4 Dragonskull Summit
14 Mountain
4 Spire of Industry
1 Shock
4 Abrade
2 Aethersphere Harvester
2 Chandra's Defeat
1 Crook of Condemnation
1 Fatal Push
2 Harsh Mentor
2 Magma Spray
in my opinion, the Ramunap Red deck appears to be more consistent and will continue to be a powerhouse in Ixalan Standard. R/b on the other hand probably needs some more tweaking, but could be competitive as well with the advantage of being resilient and more SB options.
personally, i'd like my deck to curve only until 3, but Hazoret just seems to have gotten better with Grasp of Darkness gone. i gotta test if it's viable to have an R/x deck that curves only up to 3 drops (Ahn-Crop Crasher and Unlicensed Disintegration) to be faster. then again, i played a deck with Goldnight Castigator mainboard before...
on a side note, Seth Manfield has an article about how to update RR for the upcoming Standard.
13 Mountain
4 Sunscorched Desert
2 Desert of the Fervent
1 Ramunap Ruins
2 Hostile Desert
Creatures(26)
2 Heart-piercer Manticore
4 Earthshaker Khenra
3 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Glorybringer
4 Lathnu Hellion
4 Ahn-crop Crasher
3 Aether Chaser
2 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Magma Spray
4 Harnessed Lightning
4 Lightning Strike
3 Kari Zev's Expertise
2 Sand Strangler
2 Fling
2 Chandra's Defeat
2 Abrade
1 Insult // Injury
3 Open slots
The deck doesn't run any one-drop creatures choosing instead to have magma spray open for turn one.
On turn two the deck starts to drop creatures since it runs 9 two-drops or it can use one of the 8 burn spells.
Starting on turn 3 the deck can drop one of the 8 3-drops which all have haste.
Turn 4 is a key turn, depending on the matchup the deck can push out Hazoret or can drop two of the 2-drop creatures, or cast a creature and a burn spell or even drop a 3-drop creature and a magma spray.
Turn 5, more combinations are possible or you can cast a Dragon and hit hard.
In my testing, I was out of cards or down to 1 card by turn 4 or turn 5.
The reason I am running the aether chaser main deck is twofold. One obvious reason is that I can get 2 energy to help harnessed lighting kill bigger creatures in the future, or help to keep lathnu hellion in play for 1 extra turn. The other reason is that it has first strike so it can kill opposing bomat couriers or other 1 or 2 toughness creatures first before it gets killed, so it can block quite well and it may even eat an opposing shock or lightning strike from the opponent.
Make no mistake, this deck is geared to defeating the mirror match in game 1, that is the reason for the main deck magma spray, to deal with earthshaker khenras and if people decide to play main deckscrapheap scrounger.
If there is no reason to exile creatures I will be changing all the magma sprays to shocks after some more testing. The deck runs 26 creatures out of which 6 can come back through embalm/eternalize so it has actually access to 32 creatures at any one time which makes it extremely resilient.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
I have been testing this deck for more than 2 months now and it works great on 22 lands, I tried playing 23 lands but it was messing with its mojo. The deck goes down to 1 card or 0 cards in hand by turn 5 so that's no problem in activating Hazoret. There are only 9 cards which are 4 casting cost or higher, everything else in the deck costs 3 or less to cast so once the deck gets 4 lands out I can cast 2 spells every turn so that's not a problem at all.
I look forward to destroying lots of people with this mono-red beast of a deck starting next month. I still have 3 slots open in my sideboard for relevant cards that can deal with Gods, maybe some type of control card.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
Regarding land count and curve, I tend to trust the successful builds and the statistics on that myself. But if it's working for you, then eh.
Though that being said, there is no reason to fear flood with the deck. I've been playing a more stock curve with 24 lands main and it's funny how often I want to draw the 5th and 6th land. With Khenra, Glorybringer, and Ruins, there is a lot to do in the late game with the extra mana.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
4 Bomat Courier
4 Soul-Scar Mage
4 Earthshaker Khenra
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
3 Hazoret, the Fervent
Planeswalker
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
4 Shock
4 Lightning Strike
4 Abrade
Lands (24)
15 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
4 Sunscorched Desert
1 Scavenger Grounds
2 Chandra's Defeat
3 Sweltering Suns
3 Glorybringer
2 Sand Strangler
2 Pia Nalaar
2 Release the Gremlins
1 Scavenger Grounds
Run into a ton of UBx Scarab God decks. 1 Bant control with a ton of lifegain. An Abzan midrange. Not as much mirror for whatever reason. I haven kept close track of all the matches, but I believe I'm about 60% winrate in random matches in Tournament Practice.
It's a bit weaker without Gorger to provide better early pressure. The deck doesn't feel like it's dominating games like I've felt with some decks in the past, but it somehow comes up with wins in games where I feel like I'm losing.
Soul-Scar has been pretty meh, but I haven had mirror matches where it would shine. I am tempted to try to get Inventor's Apprentice to work with a extra light splash for Scrounger only, but it seems ambitious to try to make it all work consistently.
I plan on shifting to a list trying Rigging Runner and Repeating Barrage main, with Vance's Blasting Cannons in the side once the cards are available online and not too bad on cost.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
4 Bomat Courier
4 Earthshaker Khenra
4 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Inventor's Apprentice
2 Pia Nalaar
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
Spells 12
2 Cut // Ribbons
4 Lightning Strike
2 Shock
4 Unlicensed Disintegration
2 Key to the City
Lands 24
2 Canyon Slough
4 Dragonskull Summit
14 Mountain
4 Spire of Industry
1 Shock
4 Abrade
2 Aethersphere Harvester
2 Chandra's Defeat
1 Crook of Condemnation
1 Fatal Push
2 Harsh Mentor
2 Magma Spray
just my preference, but i'd:
-1 Hazoret
-2 Cut//Ribons
-2 Pia Nalaar
-1 Mountain
+4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
+2 Shock
that would somewhat lower the curve and make it more aggressive. i think T3 Pia to activate Spire of Industry and Unlicensed Disintegration if there's still no artifact in play is a huge loss in aggression, and since the deck has no Ramunap Ruins it can't grind like Ramunap Red so it has to be fast. it does however has clean answers to troublesome creatures for burn spells like Longtusk Cub and Ripjaw Raptor (should it become more popular) and can get past defenses (how i hate Whirler Virtuoso and Bristling Hydra) with Key to the City, which can also help the deck grind a bit.
Hazoret + Key to the City is basically GG if they can't answer either.
I think that the sideboard needs some work though, so any suggestions there would be appreciated. The Flame Lash is only a possible, and could be easily replaced. I like the extra to-the-face burn spell for control, as (certainly at my local) people tend to assume that the creatures are the problems.
Thoughts and constructive comments welcomed, as always (and yes, 23 lands may be too few. I've been running at that for a while and it's OK, but I may want to go back to 24 with the mana sinks of the Raid Hammer, and also the want to flip Vance's Cannons. Maybe a 24th land in the side?).
15 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
4 Sunscorched Desert
Spells (13)
4 Shock
3 Abrade
4 Lightning Strike
2 Repeating Barrage
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Creatures (23)
4 Bomat Courier
4 Soul-Scar Mage
4 Earthshaker Khenra
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
3 Hazoret the Fervent
1 Glorybringer
1 Chandra's Defeat
1 Flame Lash
1 Hour of Devastation
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Glorybringer
2 Harsh Mentor
2 Rampaging Ferocidon
2 Sweltering Suns
2 Vance's Blasting Cannons
Not sure on the mana base or on claim/fame.
@JonInWherever: Your main looks pretty good to me. I'd just want an extra land or two in the sideboard for when you are loading up on the 4 and 5 drops.
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)
I'm also testing two hostile deserts main deck to help the deck grind even better after turn 6.
I may go to playing a 23 land 61 cards built instead of the 22/60 that I am running now, but I haven't had problems with mana so far.
I don't think that the blasting cannons have a space in this deck, but the returnable burn sorcery might work as a one off. However many decks run graveyard removal main deck and that sucks.
My deck has quite a few uses for cards in the graveyard, so if they don't remove it by turn 6 then they will be in a world of pain.
Check out my Youtube channel where I upload MTG content videos twice a week!
Mtg Lifestyle
BB8-RackBB
Pauper:
UUDelverlUU
Modern: R Skred -- WBG Melira Co -- URW Nahiri Control
Legacy: R Mono Red Burn -- UWB Stoneblade
Commander: R Krenko, Mob Boss -- WUBRG Scion of the Ur-Dragon -- WUBRG Maze’s End
Other: R No Rares Red (Standard) -- URC Izzet Tron (Pauper)