Mono-Red Aggro is a low to the ground aggressive strategy that aims to use its creature pressure to push early damage on the opponent and its efficient burn spells to finish them off. Shaking up the typical aggro deck formula however is Experimental Frenzy which also provides overwhelming access to resources later on in the game and does a great job addressing the issue of running out of gas as the game goes on.
The haste combined with the ping often means that a turn one Fanatical Firebrand can easily get in for 3 or more damage. Early game the ping is useful for getting rid of key x/1 creatures such as Llanowar Elves, Viashino Pyromancer, Merfolk Branchwalker, and Healer's Hawk. Later on in the game the ping serves as a supplement to other removal, or as reach. It's great to see this off of Experimental Frenzy later in the game as well because of its combination of cheapness and versatility.
The 1/2 body allows Ghitu Lavarunner to freely attack through other early game 1/1's. It provides wizard synergy which turns our Wizard's Lightning into Lightning Bolt, and once there are 2 spells in the graveyard this turns into an improved Goblin Guide. Later in the game the ability to play a 2/2 haste creature for one mana off of Experimental Frenzy is very useful in closing out the game.
Immensely powerful creature that demands an immediate answer. Given that we are mono-red every spell we cast will buff this guy. The simple evaluation here is that this quickly becomes a 2 mana 4/4, but there is much more going on than that. You can bait bad blocks by holding onto instants until and then pumping him last minute. You can also set up good blocks through the same methodology. The mana ability is also highly useful because it allows your deck to function smoothly even on land-light draws, it allows you to quickly play out your hand in preparation for Frenzy, and once the Frenzy is on the table, this enables you to play potentially huge amounts of cards off the top of your deck with ease. When using the mana ability to cast other spells, consider attacking with the 4/4 beforehand and using the ability to continue casting in main phase 2.
The 2/1 body is not the best but simply having the 2 damage burn stapled to a body is enough to justify his inclusion. Provides wizard synergy for Wizard's Lightning. Later in the game this serves as reach and to widen the board to help push lethal through blockers.
The 1 damage aoe can be absolutely devastating against the creatures your opponent will have played in the early turns of the game, and also serves as a great way to supplement other removal later on when you have mana to support it. The 3/3 body combined with First Strike allows this to plow through many creatures your opponent will be playing, and also enables some combat tricks in which, if the opponent makes what appears to be a favorable block (with a 6/6, for example) but you then burn their creature before the damage step, the First Strike will be able to kill it before it is able to damage you and you will come out of the exchange ahead.
While once a situational pick, Rekindling Phoenix has begun to settle itself in as a 2-of in most current lists. It offers a difficult-to-remove 4 damage in the air which can not only put pressure on the opponent but can also, in many cases, clog up the board with its ability to make favorable trades to buy you time to drop a Frenzy.
Spells
Very effective removal against key early game creatures such as the x/1's mentioned on the listing for Fanatical Firebrand, as well as key x/2's. Later in the game this serves as a cheap and easy 2 damage to the face.
3 damage is very useful for both removal and pushing damage. When to use these as removal and when to use them for damage is a complicated decision and will be a large part of the difficulty of playing a deck of this sort, but some rules of thumb are 1) remove a creature if you will do more damage in the long run by killing it than by bolting face 2) if a creature is must-kill, like Wildgrowth Walker, then you must kill it and 3) if your opponent is outracing you, then you are forced to remove their creatures to avoid dying
The best card in the deck. The basic idea is to use the first 3 or so turns of the game to empty your hand out and then play this and generate insurmountable advantage. Excepting games where your opponent cannot stabilize and you are able to go under them, you will spend most of your games pushing as much early damage as you can with your creatures, and then trying to keep the board under control to stall until you can land this, and then use the extreme advantage to push for lethal. Don't fall into the trap of completely emptying your hand before playing this card; it is a low tempo play and you may not have opportunities to drop it once your opponent starts getting their lategame threats on the board, and the earlier you play it the more advantage you stand to get. Not to mention, you can always kill it should the need arise to play from your hand in an emergency or for lethal.
IV. Flex Cards
On paper this card is great. 4 damage to the face or draw 3, and you can do it again? It is undeniably powerful, but the reasons it is not played as commonly in current builds are twofold. Firstly, there is a bit of a nonbo between this and Frenzy: an opponent who is aware can freely choose the draw 3 mode since you cannot cast these cards from your hand. It is true that you are able to ditch the Frenzy to use them but this brings us to the second point: getting full value out of this card costs a lot of mana. At the end of the day, you are going to be paying 6 mana and 2 cards for 8 damage most of the time, or in the case of Frenzy, 3 mana for Risk Factor plus 4 mana to ditch Frenzy plus whatever the mana costs for the actual cards you drew are. These reasons combined with the fact that you cannot control the board with the card are major reasons why it is not a staple card at this time.
This card represents a large threat which, if able to attack even just once uncontested, can snowball the game out of control super fast. The trick here is that it can be difficult to stick a turn 3 or later 2/2 onto the board, and it is not the greatest flip to get off of Frenzy, which are major reasons why this is not a staple card at this time.
V. Sideboard Cards
A way to convert your excess mana into damage that gets better as the game goes on. Very useful against durdly control decks because they can give you lots of time to make land drops and at a certain point there's nothing they can do to avoid getting blasted in the dome.
Useful against go-wide strategies like Tokens and White/Boros Weenie to blow out their board, and the instant speed is icing on the cake. Don't forget that Firebrand is a pirate, and is unaffected by the wipe.
5 is an important number because it kills the angels, namely a certain Lyra Gameoverbringer. The secondary function is very expensive but worth mentioning because if you have that kind of mana it's more than likely going to spell victory for you.
Very useful in almost every matchup. 2 mana for 4 damage to a creature is good value and kills most things we care about killing. The exile is relevant because it prevents Golgari from recurring Wildgrowth Walker and prevents opposing Phoenixes from rezzing. Most post-board games we prioritize away from the go-under aggressive plan in favor of the control the board and stall until Frenzy plan, and this card is so efficient and useful it is just perfect for such a strategy.
This card has great synergy with Frenzy because it allows us to find Frenzy and/or the lands needed to cast it, and then it allows us to filter the cards on top of our deck in order to remove dead cards [ie Mountains] that would stop our Frenzy turns short. Outside of that it gives us extra mana for use in a pinch as well as card draw when digging for an answer that you need immediately. All in all a great card that fits right in to our usual grindier post-board plan.
VI. Matchups
Golgari Midrange
Overview
Their topend is stronger than ours, with Carnage Tyrant being a card we cannot typically deal with and loads of removal and recursion making a grind game difficult. They have answers to everything our deck can do, with lifegain to combat aggression, exiles for our Phoenix, enchantment destruction for Frenzy, and inevitability. Our goal is to start very aggressive, push as much early damage as we can, land Frenzy or Phoenix, and hope that they cannot deal with it in time.
Key Interactions
Wildgrowth Walker: This card is remove on sight. We cannot afford to let this proc even a single time, and it is much better to eat a 2-for-1 to kill it than to let it live, get huge and difficult to remove, and gain unholy amounts of life. Carnage Tyrant: Our goal is to have pushed enough damage so that by the time this drops it is already too late for our opponent, because otherwise this is a card we cannot reasonably deal with and will only allow us 2-3 more turns to find lethal. Vivien Reid, Assassin's Trophy, Vraska, Relic Seeker: These are all outs to Experimental Frenzy. We are dependent on Frenzy to gather enough resources to win many games, but luckily these are low tempo plays for our opponent. If we have enough damage represented on board, our opponent will be forced to choose between removing our Frenzy or controlling the board. That all being said it is not very worthwhile to play around these, as our best chance of winning is to slam the Frenzy ASAP and hope for the best. Vraska's Contempt: This is their out to Phoenix. Ideally we can mount enough pressure that they are forced to use it on another creature instead just to survive. One line worth mentioning is that we can bolt our own Phoenix in response. This is still a 1-for-1, and we also only lose out on 1 damage (considering the 2 lifegain we deny). In other words, we trade 1 damage for the ability to keep our Phoenix.
One additional interaction of note is that we can hold back Firebrands to kill the exploring merfolk in response to their trigger. I do not recommend this at the expense of damage if we are ahead, but if the opponent is at advantage it can be useful to control the board and stall until Frenzy/Phoenix
Sideboard
We have two goals to accomplish with our sideboarding: we need to be able to remove Walkers immediately and grind until Frenzy. With all of the removal, burn, and filtering we are siding in, we become much more capable of grinding against Golgari, and thus we are happy playing the one-for-one game until Frenzy allows us to pull ahead, at the expense of some of our early aggressive creatures. As for cuts, Lavarunner and Viashino cannot contest their board and are blocked favorably by almost everything they play, so we are removing all 8. We are also removing the 4 copies of Wizard's Lightning because with no Wizards, it becomes a subpar 3 mana bolt.
They can quickly play out their hand, which means that if we don't interact they can overwhelm us very quickly. Fortunately, our deck is stuffed with removal that is so effective at taking their threats off the table that they will have difficulty mounting any sort of pressure unless we stumble. Chainwhirler is a constant threat against their early game swarm, and they do not have the ability to play into the mid-late game like we do with Frenzy. Our basic strategy is to keep their board clean until we turn the corner with either a large board or Frenzy.
Key Interactions
Conclave Tribunal: This is their only removal option, and their out to Frenzy. In a vacuum it is a low tempo play which doesn't do much to take the advantage away from us, but they are able to have huge swing turns where they swarm the board and then remove a key permanent on our side, so that is something to be aware of. Venerated Loxodon: This is one of the ways they can punish us for failing to keep their board under control and run away with the game, by building a large board and then buffing everything with Loxodon before we've had the opportunity to Chainwhirler everything away.
Sideboard
Our goal with sideboarding is to push the grindy nature of matchup to the extreme. We bring in our sweepers and additional removal to keep their important creatures off the table, and the maps further enable us to grind them out.
Love this deck! Here is my timeline for expansion of the guide:
Next 24 hours: Add Situational and Sideboard Cards categories and correct basic formatting issues
Next 72 hours: Add matchup and sideboarding section
Stretch goal: Improve presentation to be cleaner and more professional
i have a question regarding golgari matchup: if the goal is to "push damage," isn't it better to board out Ghitu Lavarunners and keep Viashino Pyromancers because the latter deals 2 damage instantly while the former gets brickwalled easily? if late in the game the opponent has managed to build a board and i'm on topdeck mode, Viashino Pyro's a much better topdeck than Lavarunner, especially if opponent is down to 1-2 life.
I'm working with some folks to update and revise the matchup section. I mostly play Bo1 on arena, so their advice will be very helpful in filling out that particular section. Stay tuned!
I have updated the Golgari matchup entry to reflect my most recent research and testing, and I'm confident the SB plan is most effective. I am working on Drakes and White Weenie as the next entries for the matchup section, stay tuned!
Has anyone tried Response // Resurgence to deal with angels? 5 damage at instant speed seems decent. was thinking of trying two to night to see how it goes.
I may also include Clifftop Retreat in the event the resurgence side is relevant.
My SB will look like:
2 Bane fire
3 Lava Coil
4 Treasure Map
2 Fiery Cannonade
2 Fight with Fire
2 Response // Resurgence
Etienne Busson, GP Lille winner, has blessed us with a sideboard strategy guide and his latest list, which notably replaces Rekindling Phoenix with Lava Coil in the main. I've felt myself that Phoenix often has not done much for me lately, but it's such an inherently powerful card that I didn't trust my own judgment until he confirmed it for me. Feels good. I am ripping his mainboard and moving the birds to the sideboard flex slots. I also agree that no matter how you split them main/side, you want 4x Coil in the 75.
Edit: OP, if you're doing a section on either tips & tricks or matchup strategies, please mention the fact that we must keep a point of burn up against Jeskai with drake(s) when we expect a Clarion. Burning everything with Clarion and swinging with a huge lifelinking drake that's marked with 3 damage is their main route to victory. Keep Shock up if you have a board presence worth wiping against a drake and/or hold that Fanatical Firebrand back. It's worth it.
Similarly, against GB, watch out for turn four Wildgrowth Walker into an immediate 2 mana explore creature. Keep a 3 point burn spell up for that if you can. If it's G1 and they manage to get a life trigger and a 4 toughness Walker, you are mostly screwed since you have to double burn it, if you are even lucky enough to have that option.
Edit2: Another trick is turn 4 Chainwhirler against white weenie decks. A lot of players will hold back somewhat because they expect it. If you can afford to hang on and play something else the turn you drop your third land, a lot of players go "ok, they don't have it" and spam x/1s on the following turn. That's when you get'em.
And in case it's not too obvious to mention, we do our best to keep them from flipping Landing in that matchup. It's usually easy.
So there's this midrange Red deck that Wizards and Goldfish call R Aggro: here and here. Does discussion of this deck belong in this thread or should I start a new thread?
Thanks!
Edit:
Well, this is awkward. There is another example of this deck in the latest MTGO 5-0 dump. The deck has different cards and strategies, so I think it doesn't belong in this thread. But it appears in the MTGO dumps and on MTGGoldfish as Mono-Red Aggro, so I think anyone looking for it will look for it here. Anyway, if anyone objects or the search sites start identifying the deck differently, I will start a new thread.
I took the MatiCheto's list from above out to Monday Night Magic (card availability issues forced me to substitute for Banefire #3 and Lava Coil #4). It was a weird night, with eight people all playing various flavors of R. I beat Grixis Control, Boros Angels, Grixis Drakes and Mono-R Aggro (traditional, not the mirror) for a 4-0 night. Deck is good, but I was lucky (I won my first ever 0-land keep!). It being the first time I played with Siege-Gang Commander, I missed some lines, but my luck overcame it.
Edit 6: mtggoldfish.com is now calling the deck Big Red, so I have started a thread for this thing. I appreciate all of your tolerance of this adulteration of the mono-red aggro message.
It's a very good matchup for red ifyou know what you're doing. We are low enough to the ground to not get tempoed out, and we have a ton of removal for their one drops that want to wear Obsession. Just keep Dive Down and Trickster in mind, and save an answer for Djinn if you can, and you should win a lot more than you lose.
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Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
So yeah, as a new player, I've recently started playing some Mono-Red on Magic Arena and I found a list that features a plenty of Phoenixes, Maps and Karns in sideboard. What's up with them being played in such an aggressive deck? And if I would like to sideboard them in, when should I do it and what should I replace? Sorry if this is a "noobish" question.
Karn for card advantage since red loses steam quickly, phoenix's to have a bigger threat thats more difficult to deal with, & Treasure Map to feed bigger Banefire and scry away dead cards when Frenzy is in play
It's a transformative sideboard for matchups where the aggressive strategy is bad or unviable.
Aggressive decks often have less strain on their sideboard slots than midrange or control decks, since your strategy is to get them dead instead of answering whatever your opponent does. This means that these decks can use a high number of sideboard slots to transform into a midrange deck for G2 and G3, so that they can go toe to toe with the midrange decks that crush their G1 setup or even go over the top of other aggro decks.
The mono red aggro deck of the current standard will, when matched up against, say, Golgari, take out their lowest impact cards, like maybe some Shocks, Ghitu Lavarunner and the 2/1 that deals two to their opponent, and then also Wizards' Lightning because too many wizard creatures go out. Then we brings in Lava Coil and Fight With Fire to remove the big creatures that stonewall our aggro creatures, and Map as both a value engine that also makes Fight With Fire into a win button, so that we kan keep up into the mid/late game instead of folding to some life gain and removal.
In case you're that new, I'll add for context that on the aggro-midrange-control spectrum, you want to be the slightly bigger deck. Control decks beat midrange decks beat big aggro decks beat small aggro decks. This means that having the possibility to use the sideboard to move your position along this spectrum is a very powerful tool. And as I wrote, control and midrange decks can't do this as well, since they need the slots for answers: Wipes for Carnage Tyrant, Dead Weight for aggro, exile effects for Phoenixes, Negate/artifact/enchantment removal for artifacts/enchantments and so on. Aggro decks want to ignore your Carnage Tyrant or Frenzy or PW and win before it has a meaningful impact on the game, instead of answering them.
Interesting. I had thought that the deck being referred to was the midrange deck known as Big Red. Rereading the OP, I think Havrekjax is correct. In either case, a deck-specific discussion like this belongs in the deck thread, so I will merge this into the Mono-R Aggro thread. Thanks! - hoser2
This is what I'm testing right now on Arena, there is a tentative sideboard but since I'm playing only single-game matches I haven't used it too often.
I was one of the people, if not the first that innovated mono red last year creating the "ramunap red" deck which went on to take the internet by storm. This new creation is named "Greedy red".
It's very draw dependent but the deck is self-explanatory and plays quite well past turn 4, although you can win on turn 4 or 5 as well.
Let me know what you think, the only strange card main deck may be radiating lightning but it works very well as a last 3 point of damage burn spell and it can also help kill of x/1 creatures or after attacking it can finish off some blockers. Also demanding dragon is a great finisher and also unexpected by most opponents.
Give this deck a try it's very greedy due to playing guttersnipe main deck but if the opp can't deal with it within 1 or 2 turns it's game over.
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(22) lands: 12 mountain 4 rootbound crag 4 stomping ground 2 forest (13 mountain/1 forest is technically correct but i have a superstition about running 13 copies of any basic land. i prefer forests to gruul guildgates b/c forests aren’t bad w/my 4 drops.)
test vs SimicNexus, 0-2.
SB: not allowed.
notes: kept 1 mountain/1 light up the stage hands… TWICE. learned not to do that anymore!
r1 vs SimicNexus, 2-1.
SB: +4 cindervines, +4 collision//colossus. -4 shock, -2 lightning strike -2 wizard’s lightning.
notes:
-this was my test partner.
-mulled away sketchy hands this time.
-cindervines pecked away at his life and killed his untap land enchantment.
r2 vs MonoUtempo, 2-1.
SB: +4 collision//colossus, +4 lava coil. -4 shock, -2 lightning strike, -2 wizard’s lightning.
notes: predictably, this came down to him landing a curious obsession and bring able to stick it.
r3 vs SimicNexus, 2-0.
SB: see r1.
notes: cindervines ftw!
summary: Fanatical Firebrand is too meta vs MonoUtempo. FF sucks normally. i found myself flooding and needing finishers, hence the Rekindling Phoenix. FF > RP w/Experimental Frenzy out but if EF is active, you’re probably winning anyway.
i changed my maindeck after several (1 mountain/1 light up the stage) opening hands tonight. if i had a single fanatical firebrand, i could invest into it turn 1, turn 2 - sac and stage and not miss a land drop.
trimmed 2 phoenix and 2 lightning strike b/c those 2 were the most overcosted spells for what they do.
#24 list play-by-play:
test 1 vs Gates, 1-3.
SB: +4 cindervines, +2 treasure map. -4 shock, -2 lightning strike.
notes: won game 1 when my opponent kept a slow hand. next 3 games, he had board wipes and life gain.
test 2 vs SimicNexus, 1-0.
SB: (if i could, see #24.)
r1 vs BorosAggro, 0-2.
SB: +4 lava coil. -2 lightning strike, -2 rekindling phoenix.
notes: his board presence was faster than mine.
Hey guys. I have a u/w aggro homebrew I'm trying to make semi competitive in arena.
Right now my record against combo, B/x control, and sultai midrange is stellar. But I am getting rofl-stomped by anything playing a lot of burn spells. Mainly mono red and drakes.
So I was wondering, what are some cards in White and Blue that make red players groan? CMC not being an issue.
I've got a few spell pierce, baffling end, settle the wreckage, and one lyra dawnbringer, but I haven't had any luck with them. Either I don't draw enough spell pierces to save my dudes or myself, or I die before I can draw/cast my higher end stuff, like lyra. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Hey guys. I have a u/w aggro homebrew I'm trying to make semi competitive in arena.
Right now my record against combo, B/x control, and sultai midrange is stellar. But I am getting rofl-stomped by anything playing a lot of burn spells. Mainly mono red and drakes.
So I was wondering, what are some cards in White and Blue that make red players groan? CMC not being an issue.
I've got a few spell pierce, baffling end, settle the wreckage, and one lyra dawnbringer, but I haven't had any luck with them. Either I don't draw enough spell pierces to save my dudes or myself, or I die before I can draw/cast my higher end stuff, like lyra. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your replies!
Generally, anything with Lifegain is Reds worst match-up.
Mono-Red Aggro
Last updated 11/19/2018
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
Mono-Red Aggro is a low to the ground aggressive strategy that aims to use its creature pressure to push early damage on the opponent and its efficient burn spells to finish them off. Shaking up the typical aggro deck formula however is Experimental Frenzy which also provides overwhelming access to resources later on in the game and does a great job addressing the issue of running out of gas as the game goes on.
II. Sample Decklist
III. Staple Cards
IV. Flex Cards
V. Sideboard Cards
VI. Matchups
VII. Useful Links
Love this deck! Here is my timeline for expansion of the guide:
Next 24 hours: Add Situational and Sideboard Cards categories and correct basic formatting issues
Next 72 hours: Add matchup and sideboarding section
Stretch goal: Improve presentation to be cleaner and more professional
my only comment is that Fiery Cannonade may not be a good card vs Mono Blue because they also have a number of Pirates in the form of Siren Stormtamer and Warkite Marauder. also does little against Tempest Djinn.
I'm working with some folks to update and revise the matchup section. I mostly play Bo1 on arena, so their advice will be very helpful in filling out that particular section. Stay tuned!
bjholmes put together this thread for us for the community to talk about mono-red.
Thanks for his contribution and I hope you guys are able to have productive discussions.
If you ever have any desire to talk about a new deck and want to start a primer, please message me.
Thanks!
--Lugger
I have updated the Golgari matchup entry to reflect my most recent research and testing, and I'm confident the SB plan is most effective. I am working on Drakes and White Weenie as the next entries for the matchup section, stay tuned!
I may also include Clifftop Retreat in the event the resurgence side is relevant.
My SB will look like:
2 Bane fire
3 Lava Coil
4 Treasure Map
2 Fiery Cannonade
2 Fight with Fire
2 Response // Resurgence
https://youtu.be/cTNlCJkOFQs
Edit: OP, if you're doing a section on either tips & tricks or matchup strategies, please mention the fact that we must keep a point of burn up against Jeskai with drake(s) when we expect a Clarion. Burning everything with Clarion and swinging with a huge lifelinking drake that's marked with 3 damage is their main route to victory. Keep Shock up if you have a board presence worth wiping against a drake and/or hold that Fanatical Firebrand back. It's worth it.
Similarly, against GB, watch out for turn four Wildgrowth Walker into an immediate 2 mana explore creature. Keep a 3 point burn spell up for that if you can. If it's G1 and they manage to get a life trigger and a 4 toughness Walker, you are mostly screwed since you have to double burn it, if you are even lucky enough to have that option.
Edit2: Another trick is turn 4 Chainwhirler against white weenie decks. A lot of players will hold back somewhat because they expect it. If you can afford to hang on and play something else the turn you drop your third land, a lot of players go "ok, they don't have it" and spam x/1s on the following turn. That's when you get'em.
And in case it's not too obvious to mention, we do our best to keep them from flipping Landing in that matchup. It's usually easy.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
So there's this midrange Red deck that Wizards and Goldfish call R Aggro: here and here. Does discussion of this deck belong in this thread or should I start a new thread?
Thanks!
Edit:
Well, this is awkward. There is another example of this deck in the latest MTGO 5-0 dump. The deck has different cards and strategies, so I think it doesn't belong in this thread. But it appears in the MTGO dumps and on MTGGoldfish as Mono-Red Aggro, so I think anyone looking for it will look for it here. Anyway, if anyone objects or the search sites start identifying the deck differently, I will start a new thread.
I took the MatiCheto's list from above out to Monday Night Magic (card availability issues forced me to substitute for Banefire #3 and Lava Coil #4). It was a weird night, with eight people all playing various flavors of R. I beat Grixis Control, Boros Angels, Grixis Drakes and Mono-R Aggro (traditional, not the mirror) for a 4-0 night. Deck is good, but I was lucky (I won my first ever 0-land keep!). It being the first time I played with Siege-Gang Commander, I missed some lines, but my luck overcame it.
Edit 2: this version made MTGO 5-0 on 11/29 with Karn main and Warboss side: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1494293#paper
Edit 3: PVDDR discusses this deck here.
Edit 4: Sam Pardee runs it out and calls it Big Red in a video here. I haven't seen it, so caveat emptor. Also two top placements in a MTGO PTQ: here.
Edit 5 MTGO 5-0 on 12/6
Edit 6: mtggoldfish.com is now calling the deck Big Red, so I have started a thread for this thing. I appreciate all of your tolerance of this adulteration of the mono-red aggro message.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
Aggressive decks often have less strain on their sideboard slots than midrange or control decks, since your strategy is to get them dead instead of answering whatever your opponent does. This means that these decks can use a high number of sideboard slots to transform into a midrange deck for G2 and G3, so that they can go toe to toe with the midrange decks that crush their G1 setup or even go over the top of other aggro decks.
The mono red aggro deck of the current standard will, when matched up against, say, Golgari, take out their lowest impact cards, like maybe some Shocks, Ghitu Lavarunner and the 2/1 that deals two to their opponent, and then also Wizards' Lightning because too many wizard creatures go out. Then we brings in Lava Coil and Fight With Fire to remove the big creatures that stonewall our aggro creatures, and Map as both a value engine that also makes Fight With Fire into a win button, so that we kan keep up into the mid/late game instead of folding to some life gain and removal.
In case you're that new, I'll add for context that on the aggro-midrange-control spectrum, you want to be the slightly bigger deck. Control decks beat midrange decks beat big aggro decks beat small aggro decks. This means that having the possibility to use the sideboard to move your position along this spectrum is a very powerful tool. And as I wrote, control and midrange decks can't do this as well, since they need the slots for answers: Wipes for Carnage Tyrant, Dead Weight for aggro, exile effects for Phoenixes, Negate/artifact/enchantment removal for artifacts/enchantments and so on. Aggro decks want to ignore your Carnage Tyrant or Frenzy or PW and win before it has a meaningful impact on the game, instead of answering them.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
This is what I'm testing right now on Arena, there is a tentative sideboard but since I'm playing only single-game matches I haven't used it too often.
I was one of the people, if not the first that innovated mono red last year creating the "ramunap red" deck which went on to take the internet by storm. This new creation is named "Greedy red".
It's very draw dependent but the deck is self-explanatory and plays quite well past turn 4, although you can win on turn 4 or 5 as well.
4 Ghitu Lavarunner
4 Shock
4 Lightning Strike
4 Viashino Pyromancer
4 Risk Factor
4 Wizard's Lightning
2 Demanding Dragon
4 Skewer the Critics
3 Light Up the Stage
2 Radiating Lightning
3 Guttersnipe
4 Lava Coil
2 Fight with Fire
3 Electrostatic Field
2 Banefire
2 Act of Treason
Let me know what you think, the only strange card main deck may be radiating lightning but it works very well as a last 3 point of damage burn spell and it can also help kill of x/1 creatures or after attacking it can finish off some blockers. Also demanding dragon is a great finisher and also unexpected by most opponents.
Give this deck a try it's very greedy due to playing guttersnipe main deck but if the opp can't deal with it within 1 or 2 turns it's game over.
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Mtg Lifestyle
“Gruul Midrange”
4 ghitu lavarunner
4 goblin chainwhirler
4 rekindling phoenix (midrange)
4 runaway steam-kin
4 viashino pyromancer
(14) instants/sorceries:
4 light up the stage
4 shock
4 wizard’s lightning
2 lightning strike (cut these b/c i felt they were the weakest burn)
4 experimental frenzy
(22) lands:
12 mountain
4 rootbound crag
4 stomping ground
2 forest (13 mountain/1 forest is technically correct but i have a superstition about running 13 copies of any basic land. i prefer forests to gruul guildgates b/c forests aren’t bad w/my 4 drops.)
4 cindervines
4 collision//colossus
4 lava coil
2 treasure map (vs control, -2 lightning strike.)
1 dire fleet daredevil (not sure what this is for but ppl love him?)
test vs SimicNexus, 0-2.
SB: not allowed.
notes: kept 1 mountain/1 light up the stage hands… TWICE. learned not to do that anymore!
r1 vs SimicNexus, 2-1.
SB: +4 cindervines, +4 collision//colossus. -4 shock, -2 lightning strike -2 wizard’s lightning.
notes:
-this was my test partner.
-mulled away sketchy hands this time.
-cindervines pecked away at his life and killed his untap land enchantment.
r2 vs MonoUtempo, 2-1.
SB: +4 collision//colossus, +4 lava coil. -4 shock, -2 lightning strike, -2 wizard’s lightning.
notes: predictably, this came down to him landing a curious obsession and bring able to stick it.
r3 vs SimicNexus, 2-0.
SB: see r1.
notes: cindervines ftw!
summary: Fanatical Firebrand is too meta vs MonoUtempo. FF sucks normally. i found myself flooding and needing finishers, hence the Rekindling Phoenix. FF > RP w/Experimental Frenzy out but if EF is active, you’re probably winning anyway.
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkfx2kA8gok&feature=emb_logo
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3RYiZJFCK0
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j18HlKybrm8&feature=emb_logo
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiAEzfAgpbI
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vNr_4ubfMg
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcwpxraL-g
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8MyVNLVYNw
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-M5ffoArnY
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_yQEBOPi_w&feature=emb_logo
extended - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLpUB9zpyr4&feature=emb_logo
4 fanatical firebrand
4 ghitu lavarunner
4 goblin chainwhirler
4 runaway steam-kin
4 viashino pyromancer
2 rekindling phoenix (finisher 2)
4 light up the stage
4 shock
4 wizard’s lightning
(4) enchantments
4 experimental frenzy (finisher 1)
12 mountain
4 rootbound crag
4 stomping ground
2 forest
i changed my maindeck after several (1 mountain/1 light up the stage) opening hands tonight. if i had a single fanatical firebrand, i could invest into it turn 1, turn 2 - sac and stage and not miss a land drop.
trimmed 2 phoenix and 2 lightning strike b/c those 2 were the most overcosted spells for what they do.
#24 list play-by-play:
test 1 vs Gates, 1-3.
SB: +4 cindervines, +2 treasure map. -4 shock, -2 lightning strike.
notes: won game 1 when my opponent kept a slow hand. next 3 games, he had board wipes and life gain.
test 2 vs SimicNexus, 1-0.
SB: (if i could, see #24.)
r1 vs BorosAggro, 0-2.
SB: +4 lava coil. -2 lightning strike, -2 rekindling phoenix.
notes: his board presence was faster than mine.
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkfx2kA8gok&feature=emb_logo
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3RYiZJFCK0
limited - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j18HlKybrm8&feature=emb_logo
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiAEzfAgpbI
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vNr_4ubfMg
standard - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJcwpxraL-g
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8MyVNLVYNw
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-M5ffoArnY
modern - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_yQEBOPi_w&feature=emb_logo
extended - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLpUB9zpyr4&feature=emb_logo
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/decks/8830-mono-red-aggro
Main Board:
Basic Land:
19 Mountain
Creatures:
4 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Ghitu Lavarunner
4 Runaway Steam-Kin
4 Viashino Pyromancer
4 Goblin Chainwhirler
Spells:
4 Shock
4 Lightning Strike
3 Risk Factor
4 Wizard's Lightning
4 Light Up the Stage
2 Skewer the Critics
Sideboard:
2 Electrostatic Field
3 Legion Warboss
3 Treasure Map
2 Banefire
4 Lava Coil
1 Hijack
Burn
Right now my record against combo, B/x control, and sultai midrange is stellar. But I am getting rofl-stomped by anything playing a lot of burn spells. Mainly mono red and drakes.
So I was wondering, what are some cards in White and Blue that make red players groan? CMC not being an issue.
I've got a few spell pierce, baffling end, settle the wreckage, and one lyra dawnbringer, but I haven't had any luck with them. Either I don't draw enough spell pierces to save my dudes or myself, or I die before I can draw/cast my higher end stuff, like lyra. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance for your replies!
Generally, anything with Lifegain is Reds worst match-up.
Burn