Hey, what would be a good deck choice vs. Mono-Red aggro or splash white. Everybody at my FNM plays these decks, it's really boring. I'm not sure if Jund, Black, Zombies or Control or another Aggro deck would be the best against it.
quite a few decks work well against it ... well maybe not zombies .. but even that could be built up to compete ... just no zombie i can think of that comes close to hellrider and the like ...
gruul aggro can normally kill in a couple of hits if the cards draw right.
Lifegain:
Centaur Healer
Restoration Angel
Thragtusk
Rhox Faithmender
*With blue, you also get Sphinx's Revelation
Removal:
O-ring - best for Zombies
Selesnya Charm - ambush their early x/2 dudes, or exile their hellkite, or just to save your blocker against random burn
*With blue, you get Verdict and Det Sphere
*With red, you get burns (well, not so good against reckoner right now...)
*With black, you get Victim/Ultimate Price/Devour flesh/etc.
as someone who plays mono red ... my goal is to try to kill you before you stabilize ... but it does not always happen .. i have had quite a few games that i get them down to 4 or even 1 .. and they stabilize and come back for the win because my luck ran out when it came to card draw for that last burn spell ... and they had enough creatures on the board or cards in hand to answer what creatures i would play.
i used to be a RDW player, but switched to other decks to try something new. then i started to use my mono-green stompy for awhile and its been quite successful against RDW.
young wolf eats stromkirk noble and undies and same with strangleroot geist. i have answers to the usual list, but the matches go back and forth.
By the turn you play thragtusk you're a) dead b) skullcracked c) both options.
skullcrack is actually not very good vs the bant "tons of lifegain" control, the reason being in the name. You skullcrack one thing and they follow it up with faithmender and any lifegain and you're definitely out of it then.
As stated before the worst matchup for Red aggro is GW or GW/x decks that pack enough lifegain and big creatures. Most of their burn removal stops at 3 before they will have to take two cards to remove your threats. Being able to block and survive is also a huge deal. And then of course thre is Thragtusk. A big problem now is Boro's Reckoner. Its the Anti thragtusk right now. Though thats what O-ring is for.
EDIT:
So yeah Bant, Naya and even Junk all does pretty well.
Esper Control is practically designed to beat mono-red.
Mono-Red does really good against opposing midrange that plays mountains because most decks are packing 4x Volcanic Strength in the board to simply win through consistency and evasion. Madcap Skills is also a powerful tool that they have in this matchup. If you're going to play some kind of midrange against them I suggest not playing mountains.
Zombies is likely a poor options because Ash Zealot and Boros Reckoner will walk all over the rather fragile creatures with their first strike. Also not being able to block is a problem.
Junk is really good against RDW. Deathrite Shaman, Lotleth Troll, Vampire Nighthawk, Loxodon Smiter, Restoration Angel, Thragtusk, Obzedat, Lingering Souls, Abrupt Decay, and Ultimate Price are all really good against Red.
Esper Control is practically designed to beat mono-red.
Mono-Red does really good against opposing midrange that plays mountains because most decks are packing 4x Volcanic Strength in the board to simply win through consistency and evasion. Madcap Skills is also a powerful tool that they have in this matchup. If you're going to play some kind of midrange against them I suggest not playing mountains.
They also usually run some sort of removal in black, red, or white, so getting 2-for-1ed with Madcap Skills is risky. At least Volcanic Strength gives +2 to toughness to get it out of burn range, but then you still have to deal with other white and black removal.
They also usually run some sort of removal in black, red, or white, so getting 2-for-1ed with Madcap Skills is risky. At least Volcanic Strength gives +2 to toughness to get it out of burn range, but then you still have to deal with other white and black removal.
If aggro isn't taking a risk then it's typically asking to lose. If you connect once with Madcap Skills it's doing as much work as a searing spear to the face while leaving you with a very considerable threat.
When you also consider that common spot removal is getting harder to cast you find yourself more favorable.
Rakdos Cackler is happy to dodge Ultimate Price
Stromkirk Noble can't be hit by Victim of the Night
Burning Tree Emissary makes Devour Flesh under perform
Searing Spear is less attractive due to Boros Reckoner
Abrupt Decay is the winner, but Hellrider may give pause to it
Orzhov Charm costs life
O-ring is sorcery speed and a turn slower
Enchantments that open you up to get 2-1'ed aren't the holy grail by any stretch of imagination. However the common 2-1 argument is seemingly a LOT worse in practice than what everyone advertises outside of the match.
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gruul aggro can normally kill in a couple of hits if the cards draw right.
Lifegain:
Centaur Healer
Restoration Angel
Thragtusk
Rhox Faithmender
*With blue, you also get Sphinx's Revelation
Removal:
O-ring - best for Zombies
Selesnya Charm - ambush their early x/2 dudes, or exile their hellkite, or just to save your blocker against random burn
*With blue, you get Verdict and Det Sphere
*With red, you get burns (well, not so good against reckoner right now...)
*With black, you get Victim/Ultimate Price/Devour flesh/etc.
A. Most decks don't MB skullcrack
B. Its not guaranteed they will have it.
C. Its not that hard to stabilize vs rdw
young wolf eats stromkirk noble and undies and same with strangleroot geist. i have answers to the usual list, but the matches go back and forth.
skullcrack is actually not very good vs the bant "tons of lifegain" control, the reason being in the name. You skullcrack one thing and they follow it up with faithmender and any lifegain and you're definitely out of it then.
slap on the removal
you'll lose basically every control match up but it kills aggro and is really good against midrange
EDIT:
So yeah Bant, Naya and even Junk all does pretty well.
Mono-Red does really good against opposing midrange that plays mountains because most decks are packing 4x Volcanic Strength in the board to simply win through consistency and evasion. Madcap Skills is also a powerful tool that they have in this matchup. If you're going to play some kind of midrange against them I suggest not playing mountains.
Zombies is likely a poor options because Ash Zealot and Boros Reckoner will walk all over the rather fragile creatures with their first strike. Also not being able to block is a problem.
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Most of the Jund and Naya decks I've seen have avoided playing actual Mountains by using dual lands like Clifftop Retreat, Rootbound Crag, and Dragonskull Summit in order to avoid Volcanic Strength.
They also usually run some sort of removal in black, red, or white, so getting 2-for-1ed with Madcap Skills is risky. At least Volcanic Strength gives +2 to toughness to get it out of burn range, but then you still have to deal with other white and black removal.
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If aggro isn't taking a risk then it's typically asking to lose. If you connect once with Madcap Skills it's doing as much work as a searing spear to the face while leaving you with a very considerable threat.
When you also consider that common spot removal is getting harder to cast you find yourself more favorable.
Rakdos Cackler is happy to dodge Ultimate Price
Stromkirk Noble can't be hit by Victim of the Night
Burning Tree Emissary makes Devour Flesh under perform
Searing Spear is less attractive due to Boros Reckoner
Abrupt Decay is the winner, but Hellrider may give pause to it
Orzhov Charm costs life
O-ring is sorcery speed and a turn slower
Enchantments that open you up to get 2-1'ed aren't the holy grail by any stretch of imagination. However the common 2-1 argument is seemingly a LOT worse in practice than what everyone advertises outside of the match.