My experience has been that she comes down as a Cut, then dies. Control decks have an awful lot of ways to interact with planeswalkers (Hour of Devastation/Wandering Fumarole/Cast Out/To the Slaughter/Never // Return). I'd rather have Hazoret against them for more immediate pressure. Against the mirror Sand Strangler seems a lot better. I still have a miser's Chandra in there but I haven't been super excited to draw her lately.
ETA: Chandra's defeat is amazing in the mirror. It's the same tempo swing as shock except you get to kill much bigger stuff with it. Sand Strangler is a good clean 2 for 1.
I came in to say the same thing about scavenger grounds.
I fought that nonsense deck yesterday on cockatrice and it was my only bad match I felt.
To be fair I'm playing the eldrazi version and I have 25 lands so we're not exactly the same thing but will consider everything you say because I only have those options till September. I have one scavenging grounds in the main and I'm putting 2 in the side as I have some flex spots. Post siding
I hate what that deck wants to do and I'm just going to hate it heavily until they hopefully ban it.
Searching out a 7cc artifact that lets them reanimate things every turn really irks me but... thats a fight for another day. For now scavenging grounds and another abrade.
This is what I have been testing to good results. I can see why soul-scar mage is falling out of favor. I'll be switching to bomat courier tonight. This "big" version is still plenty fast, but I love TKS.
Edit: My play test group has already adopted authority of the consuls as a 2-3 of side board card. Anyone else seeing etb tapped hate already and have a fix?
Authority of the Consuls is a beating, no doubt about it. The good news is that as a purely defensive card that doesn't affect the board immediately and is therefore usually a bad draw it doesn't have a ton of natural homes. I've mostly seen it out of turbo-fog, which is a laughably easy matchup.
That said, my preferred methods of dealing with authority are: (a) hope they don't have it; failing that, (b) stop playing creatures and burn them out; if that's out of range (c) try to grind out the game like a bad control deck. I run 11 spells that go to the face plus the full desert complement, so if they're in single digits when authority hits I can usually burn them out. If you're going bigger then it's probably a better bet to try to play cards to at least make you a mediocre control deck and grind them out. I would put a couple Goblin Dark-Dwellers and a couple Sand Strangler in the side and side out your one drops when you anticipate authority out of the board.
In my testing the deck continues to put up 4-1 results (featuring close 1-2 losses) like clockwork. I've been running into a lot of matchups online where the Cartouche of Zeal is pretty awful. I've dropped one in favor of moving a single Hazoret to the main deck. I'm tempted to drop the others and the trials. I'd go with Collective Defiance over the trials but I'm not sure what the best main deck replacement for cartouches would be. Usually I'll side them out for either magma sprays or four drops.
ETA: I think this is my build going forward. Took home an easy 5-0 and just felt like RDW of old.
Sweet low curve, a plethora of options for killing stuff, plenty of reach, flood protection with the deserts, and late game optionality built into some two and three drops. Good times.
Travis Woo just put out a deck tech extolling Authority of the Consuls as a way to beat mono red net deckers.
So there it may be soo that its a mandatory 3 of in everyones sideboard. Gotta go from there.
toolcraft exemplar into authority of the consuls plus thraben inspector has allowed mardu some explosive starts and even in the uw monument match up it allows them to become the aggressor. It is beatable, but very, very hard if either deck curves out with authority thrown in somewhere.
It is one of the reasons I've kept TKS and Glorybringer in the deck so that I can side into sweltering suns and Chandra Flamecaller. Being able to do three damage across the board and keep a couple creatures has been very good.
Did Monday night standard last night. 3-1 with wins over zombies,ur control and uw monument. Losing to BUG emerge. Elder deep fiend is one hell of a card.
Authority is a great early play against us. It's lousy against everybody else (even other aggro) and it's a poor late play against us. Post board we're often going on the grind them out plan anyways so while it's a problem it isn't the death knell it would be game one.
I don't know. I just ran a quick friendly league (5-0, 10-0) and didn't see any Authority. Could be they just didn't draw it, of course.
People get some funny ideas about RDW killers. Like Thalia, Heretic Cathar as if we don't routinely have 10+ ways to kill her (and usually save tempo). The card that scares me the most is Dark Salvation out of zombies. It's such a brutal swing, and that deck is actually capable of creating a board stall. Then you get buried in a zombie apocalypse.
It's pretty good. Main deck we still seem too fast with the bigger version and have a resilient burn out plan. Flamecaller is a house out of the board and going to 4 pw makes them all must answers. Warping wail is back breaking if they expect hour of devastation to be their catch up plan. It also has accelerated out bigger threats or helped play around censor.
So it seems like 4x Bomat Courier is a requirement given the decklists that have been doing well. I have not tried playing it yet but I guess I will now.
Going from there, I think that if you're playing 4x Bomat Courier and 4x Bloodrage Brawler, it would be silly not to run a full set of Fiery Temper. Actually this is great because it means I no longer have to play Insolent Neonate just to make sure I have enough discard outlets for madness.
I am unsure if I can still get by with 20 lands after adding Hazoret. If that skews it such that I need 21 lands, I would rather cut Hazoret for something cheaper than go to 21 lands.
I'm very sold on this deck after another two 5-0 friendly leagues today. The only matches that even feel particularly close are against zombies and the mirror. Collective Defiance is a big upgrade over Trial of Zeal. Having the ability to do 4 to a creature is randomly helpful and activating Searing Blaze mode is sweet. With the maindeck abrades added we're in a pretty good position to grind people out if our draw is a little slow.
The board plan is generally -obligator -one drops +removal +four drops. Sand Strangler is a midrange all star (killing Gisela feels good) and Chandra's Defeat remains bonkers in the mirror. It's possible Chandra should be something else but she's usually at least ok.
Anyone experiment with Lathnu Hellion? It's fragile but then again so are most of the haste creatures in this deck...if you played aether hub along side it, it almost seems like an auto-include in this build.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"I hope to have such a death—lying in triumph upon the broken bodies of those who slew me."
—Radha, Keldon warlord
In my last eight friendly leagues with the deck I have six 5-0s, a 4-1, and a 3-2. I lost one mirror match out of many and two Golgari Rites matchups out of two. Mirror matches are inherently close but I think the rites matchup is legitimately tough. For reference:
For the record, I don't think this deck is good against most of the metagame. It's a slow combo deck that only interacts with its opponent by putting an infinite stream of small blocking creatures in play. Unfortunately, we have problems winning through an infinite stream of small blockers. They tend to finish you with Zulaport Drains or Ormendahl, and can flip Westvale Abbey quicker than you'd think. We are also soft to Ormendahl, of course.
I don't know what we can do to deal with the Blisterpod/Carrier/Enthusiast/Sifter nonsense. It looks like the kind of situation that needs a sweeper. I'm not sure we can go big enough to make Sweltering Suns work. Blazing Volley might also be an option, but its a very narrow card. It's possible that our best bet is to wait for other decks to drive rites out of the meta. I still think it's a matchup worth thinking about.
In my last eight friendly leagues with the deck I have six 5-0s, a 4-1, and a 3-2. I lost one mirror match out of many and two Golgari Rites matchups out of two. Mirror matches are inherently close but I think the rites matchup is legitimately tough. For reference:
For the record, I don't think this deck is good against most of the metagame. It's a slow combo deck that only interacts with its opponent by putting an infinite stream of small blocking creatures in play. Unfortunately, we have problems winning through an infinite stream of small blockers. They tend to finish you with Zulaport Drains or Ormendahl, and can flip Westvale Abbey quicker than you'd think. We are also soft to Ormendahl, of course.
I don't know what we can do to deal with the Blisterpod/Carrier/Enthusiast/Sifter nonsense. It looks like the kind of situation that needs a sweeper. I'm not sure we can go big enough to make Sweltering Suns work. Blazing Volley might also be an option, but its a very narrow card. It's possible that our best bet is to wait for other decks to drive rites out of the meta. I still think it's a matchup worth thinking about.
I run 2 Blazing Volley in my board. Admittedly, they're not intended for that mu. They give several percentage points against Monument and, more often than not, come in for the mirror. All that by way of saying if you're looking for a card to board in, that has uses in other situations, Blazing Volley is probably it.
Basic plan is to race game one. Post board you side to slow yourself as little as possible while being able to grind successfully.
Pre-board the deck is ok-ish at grinding out a game. You don't have any built in 1-for-2s and you have a lot of ability to interact with the board. Post board you have options to customize the removal suite and shoot for 2-for-1s at 4 and 5 mana. Generally you go down Obligators, then Messengers, then Gorgers, depending on which are bad in the matchup. You can go down shocks if you absolutely need space and they don't have good targets, but that's pretty rare.
Note that we flatly cannot kill a 5 toughness non-red creature, so if you're expecting a lot of that kind of action you're better off keeping the pedal to the metal and leaving Obligators in as your miser's out to giant monsters.
I run 2 Blazing Volley in my board. Admittedly, they're not intended for that mu. They give several percentage points against Monument and, more often than not, come in for the mirror. All that by way of saying if you're looking for a card to board in, that has uses in other situations, Blazing Volley is probably it.
Fair point, that does seem like a decent chunk of the meta. Now I just need to figure out what to take out...
ETA: Chalk up another 4-1, 2-1 in mirror matches. The loss was the one that looked closest to a 1-for-1 mirror. Collective Defiance is a beating and a half. When you keep a removal-free hand on the draw and they curve courier->earthshaker->crasher->defiance it's pretty unbeatable. From the other side, going three modes with a couple mountains in your hand is a beautiful value.
ETA2: Another 4-1 (lost the last match), another potential problem matchup: BG Snake, aggro version. If they ever get to untap with a snake things get out of control very quickly. The funny thing is that the slower BG decks are a very good matchup (favorite moment: Tireless Tracker trading with a Ragavan token to soak damage), so I feel conflicted when I see that turn one Blooming Marsh.
Having 25% of the pro tour metagame ought to at least move us to Established, I figure. If the holdup is that they want somebody to write up a primer I'd be happy to do it.
I am down to one copy of Chandra in my sideboard and rarely bring it in. I half think it's right to drop the last copy but emotionally it just feels wrong. If you're not running Chandra you should probably have some copies of Collective Defiance in the main deck so you can at least in theory blow up four toughness stuff. In terms of her direct replacement, you mostly want something good against control. Probably an extra Hazoret would be your best bet (she's also solid in the mirror). Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Glorybringer are also ok. Big Chandra is a bit of a reach.
I decided to step up to competitive leagues since I was tied for the trophy lead in the friendlies. First run through was 4-1 with a loss to UW God-Pharaoh's Gift (first game I was a little slow and he hard cast two Angel of Invention; second was a mull to five against a good hand). Second run was a 5-0. Decklist was the same as above. Sideboard was as above -2 Chandra's Defeat +2 Blazing Volley.
I'm running into the mirror an awful lot. My current strategy is to bring in Sand Strangler, second Hazoret, and a couple of Blazing Volley in exchange for Village Messenger and Falkenrath Gorger. The Pro Tour commentators have said that the pro's consensus for the mirror is to go with four Hazoret. I'm a little skeptical. Hazoret is awesome when you dump out your hand and you're on the attack. She's not so hot when you're on the defensive. She also gets clunky in multiples. On the other hand, the pros presumably have done enough testing to know what they're talking about. Mono-red is certainly short on direct answers.
I've been thinking about bringing Soul-Scar Mage into the one drop suite to help against the mirror. They make the opponent have to do some work to get through with Bomat and Village Messenger. They make combat and removal math annoying for the opponent as long as you have mana up, and they let you shrink Hazoret. The question is whether all of that makes up for base one power instead of two compared to the gorger.
ETA: Also, if you go super deep on the control plan... the Soul-Scar Mage would survive the casting of your own Kozilek's Return.
Sweepers are not how you beat this deck. Kozilek's Return is the only one that is really troublesome. Just play your game and rebuild.
Authority is fairly medium as well. It doesn't do a ton late and the go-big plan neutralizes a lot of its power.
If you really want to go hard against mono-red I would think zombies is your best bet. Yusuke Sasabe was very unlucky to get paired against the one other mono red player in the top 8. The other deck I'd be a little curious about would be a revival of mono black Night Market aggro.
The Golgari Rites deck mentioned at the top of this page also looks to matchup up well against mono red, although that might change with Paolo's sweet Savage Alliance sideboard tech.
What if we took the land count to 25 to maximise optimal land hits by turn 4 but also utilising them more to get some extra damage through via lands?
I think it comes down to play style. Do you want the deck to want only three lands while having some flood protection in the form of Hazoret, Earthshaker Khenra, maybe Eldrazi Obligator, and Ramunap Ruins... or do you want to actively plan to hit at least five lands in every game?
Compare the lists that went against each other in the semifinal:
Both decks want to get out fast and push damage through early with falter effects. When it gets to the late game they diverge just a bit. Paolo leans toward playing to the board and polishing off an exhausted opponent with his four mana bombs while Yam wants the option of going to the dome. If Yam hadn't gotten overexcited in game five his burn plan would have carried him through to the finals--he literally would have won the game because he played incinerate over abrade and collective defiance over chandra.
I don't think either option is necessarily right or wrong. I also think Hazoret was a little overhyped in the PT coverage. It's a great card but it benefited a lot from the plethora of mirror matches. Hazoret doesn't do much for you in the monument matchup, or against golgari rites, or against zombies. It just happens that mono-red can't remove her at all (absent Soul-Scar Mage shenanigans) and also has a hard time clogging up the ground in the mirror.
Personally, I like Plan A to be a swarm of cheap threats backed up with burn spells, with a few Plan B options available as mana sinks in case I flood out. If you want Plan A to be playing haymakers that outclass your opponent's cards then you should play more lands and think about including stuff like Thought-Knot Seer, Glorybringer, and Reality Smasher. Note that the more expensive bombs you include the worse Hazoret tends to be.
ETA: First post-pt competitive league was 5-0 (10-3), so we haven't been hated out of the format yet.
So why are we not moved to proven yet after the PT showing?
It seems like most of the discussion (at least recent discussion) is about a BR aggro deck rather than the fairly standardized mono-red that did well at PT. There's a thread in Deck Creation that might be more fitting for being moved to Proven. It's also possible that neither have been moved because neither of them are proper "primer" threads.
Yeah, bulk of the thread was R/B. Though I have updated the original post with the newer builds from last week's SCG. I just haven't had the chance to update it with the PT builds.
I came in to say the same thing about scavenger grounds.
I fought that nonsense deck yesterday on cockatrice and it was my only bad match I felt.
To be fair I'm playing the eldrazi version and I have 25 lands so we're not exactly the same thing but will consider everything you say because I only have those options till September. I have one scavenging grounds in the main and I'm putting 2 in the side as I have some flex spots. Post siding
I hate what that deck wants to do and I'm just going to hate it heavily until they hopefully ban it.
Searching out a 7cc artifact that lets them reanimate things every turn really irks me but... thats a fight for another day. For now scavenging grounds and another abrade.
4 ramunap ruins
4 sunscorched deserts
1 hanweir battlements
15 mountains
Creatures (26)
4 soul-scar mage
4 village messenger
4 earthshaker khenra
2 kari zev, skyship raider
4 ahn-crop crasher
2 hanweir garrison
4 thought-knot seer
2 glorybringer
2 chandra, torch of defiance
Reach (8)
2 shock
3 incendiary flow
2 abrade
1 collective defiance
2 sweltering suns
1 abrade
2 magma spray
2 chandra flamecaller
2 warping wail
2 glorybringer
2 invigorated rampage
1 seagate wreckage
1 scavenger grounds
This is what I have been testing to good results. I can see why soul-scar mage is falling out of favor. I'll be switching to bomat courier tonight. This "big" version is still plenty fast, but I love TKS.
Edit: My play test group has already adopted authority of the consuls as a 2-3 of side board card. Anyone else seeing etb tapped hate already and have a fix?
That said, my preferred methods of dealing with authority are: (a) hope they don't have it; failing that, (b) stop playing creatures and burn them out; if that's out of range (c) try to grind out the game like a bad control deck. I run 11 spells that go to the face plus the full desert complement, so if they're in single digits when authority hits I can usually burn them out. If you're going bigger then it's probably a better bet to try to play cards to at least make you a mediocre control deck and grind them out. I would put a couple Goblin Dark-Dwellers and a couple Sand Strangler in the side and side out your one drops when you anticipate authority out of the board.
In my testing the deck continues to put up 4-1 results (featuring close 1-2 losses) like clockwork. I've been running into a lot of matchups online where the Cartouche of Zeal is pretty awful. I've dropped one in favor of moving a single Hazoret to the main deck. I'm tempted to drop the others and the trials. I'd go with Collective Defiance over the trials but I'm not sure what the best main deck replacement for cartouches would be. Usually I'll side them out for either magma sprays or four drops.
ETA: I think this is my build going forward. Took home an easy 5-0 and just felt like RDW of old.
4 Sunscorched Desert
4 Ramunap Ruins
4 Village Messenger
4 Falkenrath Gorger
4 Bomat Courier
4 Earthshaker Khenra
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
2 Eldrazi Obligator
1 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Incendiary Flow
2 Abrade
3 Collective Defiance
2 Scavenger Grounds
2 Chandra's Defeat
2 Magma Spray
1 Abrade
1 Hazoret the Fervent
2 Sand Strangler
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Glorybringer
1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
Sweet low curve, a plethora of options for killing stuff, plenty of reach, flood protection with the deserts, and late game optionality built into some two and three drops. Good times.
So there it may be soo that its a mandatory 3 of in everyones sideboard. Gotta go from there.
It is one of the reasons I've kept TKS and Glorybringer in the deck so that I can side into sweltering suns and Chandra Flamecaller. Being able to do three damage across the board and keep a couple creatures has been very good.
Did Monday night standard last night. 3-1 with wins over zombies,ur control and uw monument. Losing to BUG emerge. Elder deep fiend is one hell of a card.
I don't know. I just ran a quick friendly league (5-0, 10-0) and didn't see any Authority. Could be they just didn't draw it, of course.
People get some funny ideas about RDW killers. Like Thalia, Heretic Cathar as if we don't routinely have 10+ ways to kill her (and usually save tempo). The card that scares me the most is Dark Salvation out of zombies. It's such a brutal swing, and that deck is actually capable of creating a board stall. Then you get buried in a zombie apocalypse.
Going from there, I think that if you're playing 4x Bomat Courier and 4x Bloodrage Brawler, it would be silly not to run a full set of Fiery Temper. Actually this is great because it means I no longer have to play Insolent Neonate just to make sure I have enough discard outlets for madness.
EDIT: Updated list
4x Ramunap Ruins
4x Sunscorched Desert
4x Ahn-Crop Crasher
4x Bloodrage Brawler
4x Bomat Courier
4x Earthshaker Khenra
4x Falkenrath Gorger
1x Hazoret the Fervent
2x Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4x Reckless Bushwhacker
2x Soul-Scar Mage
4x Incendiary Flow
3x Cartouche of Zeal
I am unsure if I can still get by with 20 lands after adding Hazoret. If that skews it such that I need 21 lands, I would rather cut Hazoret for something cheaper than go to 21 lands.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
4 Sunscorched Desert
4 Ramunap Ruins
4 Village Messenger
4 Falkenrath Gorger
4 Bomat Courier
4 Earthshaker Khenra
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
2 Eldrazi Obligator
1 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Incendiary Flow
2 Abrade
3 Collective Defiance
2 Scavenger Grounds
2 Chandra's Defeat
2 Magma Spray
1 Abrade
1 Hazoret the Fervent
2 Sand Strangler
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Glorybringer
1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
The board plan is generally -obligator -one drops +removal +four drops. Sand Strangler is a midrange all star (killing Gisela feels good) and Chandra's Defeat remains bonkers in the mirror. It's possible Chandra should be something else but she's usually at least ok.
—Radha, Keldon warlord
8 Forest
6 Swamp
4 Westvale Abbey
1 Hissing Quagmire
4 Loam Dryad
4 Carrier Thrall
4 Zulaport Cutthroat
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Bontu the Glorified
4 Weaponcraft Enthusiast
4 Catacomb Sifter
2 Yahenni, Undying Partisan
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Vizier of the Menagerie
For the record, I don't think this deck is good against most of the metagame. It's a slow combo deck that only interacts with its opponent by putting an infinite stream of small blocking creatures in play. Unfortunately, we have problems winning through an infinite stream of small blockers. They tend to finish you with Zulaport Drains or Ormendahl, and can flip Westvale Abbey quicker than you'd think. We are also soft to Ormendahl, of course.
I don't know what we can do to deal with the Blisterpod/Carrier/Enthusiast/Sifter nonsense. It looks like the kind of situation that needs a sweeper. I'm not sure we can go big enough to make Sweltering Suns work. Blazing Volley might also be an option, but its a very narrow card. It's possible that our best bet is to wait for other decks to drive rites out of the meta. I still think it's a matchup worth thinking about.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
I run 2 Blazing Volley in my board. Admittedly, they're not intended for that mu. They give several percentage points against Monument and, more often than not, come in for the mirror. All that by way of saying if you're looking for a card to board in, that has uses in other situations, Blazing Volley is probably it.
4 Sunscorched Desert
4 Ramunap Ruins
4 Village Messenger
4 Falkenrath Gorger
4 Bomat Courier
4 Earthshaker Khenra
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
2 Eldrazi Obligator
1 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Incendiary Flow
2 Abrade
3 Collective Defiance
2 Scavenger Grounds
2 Chandra's Defeat
2 Magma Spray
2 Abrade
1 Hazoret the Fervent
2 Sand Strangler
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
2 Glorybringer
1 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
Pre-board the deck is ok-ish at grinding out a game. You don't have any built in 1-for-2s and you have a lot of ability to interact with the board. Post board you have options to customize the removal suite and shoot for 2-for-1s at 4 and 5 mana. Generally you go down Obligators, then Messengers, then Gorgers, depending on which are bad in the matchup. You can go down shocks if you absolutely need space and they don't have good targets, but that's pretty rare.
Note that we flatly cannot kill a 5 toughness non-red creature, so if you're expecting a lot of that kind of action you're better off keeping the pedal to the metal and leaving Obligators in as your miser's out to giant monsters.
Fair point, that does seem like a decent chunk of the meta. Now I just need to figure out what to take out...
ETA: Chalk up another 4-1, 2-1 in mirror matches. The loss was the one that looked closest to a 1-for-1 mirror. Collective Defiance is a beating and a half. When you keep a removal-free hand on the draw and they curve courier->earthshaker->crasher->defiance it's pretty unbeatable. From the other side, going three modes with a couple mountains in your hand is a beautiful value.
ETA2: Another 4-1 (lost the last match), another potential problem matchup: BG Snake, aggro version. If they ever get to untap with a snake things get out of control very quickly. The funny thing is that the slower BG decks are a very good matchup (favorite moment: Tireless Tracker trading with a Ragavan token to soak damage), so I feel conflicted when I see that turn one Blooming Marsh.
No. Chandra is not needed
C Long Live Eldrazi C
I am down to one copy of Chandra in my sideboard and rarely bring it in. I half think it's right to drop the last copy but emotionally it just feels wrong. If you're not running Chandra you should probably have some copies of Collective Defiance in the main deck so you can at least in theory blow up four toughness stuff. In terms of her direct replacement, you mostly want something good against control. Probably an extra Hazoret would be your best bet (she's also solid in the mirror). Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Glorybringer are also ok. Big Chandra is a bit of a reach.
I decided to step up to competitive leagues since I was tied for the trophy lead in the friendlies. First run through was 4-1 with a loss to UW God-Pharaoh's Gift (first game I was a little slow and he hard cast two Angel of Invention; second was a mull to five against a good hand). Second run was a 5-0. Decklist was the same as above. Sideboard was as above -2 Chandra's Defeat +2 Blazing Volley.
I'm running into the mirror an awful lot. My current strategy is to bring in Sand Strangler, second Hazoret, and a couple of Blazing Volley in exchange for Village Messenger and Falkenrath Gorger. The Pro Tour commentators have said that the pro's consensus for the mirror is to go with four Hazoret. I'm a little skeptical. Hazoret is awesome when you dump out your hand and you're on the attack. She's not so hot when you're on the defensive. She also gets clunky in multiples. On the other hand, the pros presumably have done enough testing to know what they're talking about. Mono-red is certainly short on direct answers.
I've been thinking about bringing Soul-Scar Mage into the one drop suite to help against the mirror. They make the opponent have to do some work to get through with Bomat and Village Messenger. They make combat and removal math annoying for the opponent as long as you have mana up, and they let you shrink Hazoret. The question is whether all of that makes up for base one power instead of two compared to the gorger.
ETA: Also, if you go super deep on the control plan... the Soul-Scar Mage would survive the casting of your own Kozilek's Return.
Authority is fairly medium as well. It doesn't do a ton late and the go-big plan neutralizes a lot of its power.
If you really want to go hard against mono-red I would think zombies is your best bet. Yusuke Sasabe was very unlucky to get paired against the one other mono red player in the top 8. The other deck I'd be a little curious about would be a revival of mono black Night Market aggro.
The Golgari Rites deck mentioned at the top of this page also looks to matchup up well against mono red, although that might change with Paolo's sweet Savage Alliance sideboard tech.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
I think it comes down to play style. Do you want the deck to want only three lands while having some flood protection in the form of Hazoret, Earthshaker Khenra, maybe Eldrazi Obligator, and Ramunap Ruins... or do you want to actively plan to hit at least five lands in every game?
Compare the lists that went against each other in the semifinal:
4 Falkenrath Gorger
4 Village Messenger
4 Earthshaker Khenra
3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
3 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Shock
4 Abrade
14 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
2 Scavenger Grounds
4 Sunscorched Desert
4 Falkenrath Gorger
4 Soul-Scar Mage
4 Earthshaker Khenra
2 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
3 Hazoret the Fervent
4 Incendiary Flow
4 Collective Defiance
14 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
4 Sunscorched Desert
Both decks want to get out fast and push damage through early with falter effects. When it gets to the late game they diverge just a bit. Paolo leans toward playing to the board and polishing off an exhausted opponent with his four mana bombs while Yam wants the option of going to the dome. If Yam hadn't gotten overexcited in game five his burn plan would have carried him through to the finals--he literally would have won the game because he played incinerate over abrade and collective defiance over chandra.
I don't think either option is necessarily right or wrong. I also think Hazoret was a little overhyped in the PT coverage. It's a great card but it benefited a lot from the plethora of mirror matches. Hazoret doesn't do much for you in the monument matchup, or against golgari rites, or against zombies. It just happens that mono-red can't remove her at all (absent Soul-Scar Mage shenanigans) and also has a hard time clogging up the ground in the mirror.
Personally, I like Plan A to be a swarm of cheap threats backed up with burn spells, with a few Plan B options available as mana sinks in case I flood out. If you want Plan A to be playing haymakers that outclass your opponent's cards then you should play more lands and think about including stuff like Thought-Knot Seer, Glorybringer, and Reality Smasher. Note that the more expensive bombs you include the worse Hazoret tends to be.
ETA: First post-pt competitive league was 5-0 (10-3), so we haven't been hated out of the format yet.
It seems like most of the discussion (at least recent discussion) is about a BR aggro deck rather than the fairly standardized mono-red that did well at PT. There's a thread in Deck Creation that might be more fitting for being moved to Proven. It's also possible that neither have been moved because neither of them are proper "primer" threads.
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)