I have been toying with what I want to run for a deck for a bit. I have been trying to downgrade my own standard collection and just sort of work with one deck at a time. I decided that RDW would be sort of the deck I toy with going forward as its generally speaking cheap to own and play. I saw some really fast sly red decks but I tend to be a little bit more of a midrange player than sly so I came up with this for myself.
I ended up playtesting this game several games last night against some buddies of mine. Unfortunately their decks were not as well put together so while it was some experience their decks were lacking some fundamental things still so I was winning a large portion of games and we were also not dealing with sideboarding for the testing period.
From the testing I have made the following changes:
-1 Thoughtseize the black mana is still a little sketchy to be totally honest. I was also seeing some hands of multiple starting Thoughtseize which I felt was a bit tricky. I need to fiddle with my mana a little more I feel like to make it more stable. I like these vs the control and some vs the midrange but I felt like the frequency was a little too high at 3 mainboard.
-1 Purphoros, God of the Forge I like these guys but after some testing I felt like my mainboard game was a little too slow. I assume that my opponents will be sideboarding into sweepers and cheap removal so I opted to move the second copy to sideboard and speed up my first game matchup a little.
-1 Mountain just a small upgrade.
+1 Mana Confluence I seem to often be faster than my opponents so I feel using one of these should be fine. I probably should consider more than one but for now I am going to ease into them.
+1 Mardu Scout these guys did really well in testing often giving me a turn 2 lighting bolt to the face on my opponent and keeping them to harass further. They sort of suck against a dude cannon sort of opponent but even then they often trade with opposing creatures that cost as much if not more mana to drop.
+1 Zurgo Bellstriker I found the 6 one drops to be a little low in showing up. I opted to increase the count by one.
The sideboard also seemed a little too pieced together so I made some adjustments to that and updated it as follows:
-2 Ultimate Price kill spells are great. I just couldn't figure out what matchup I was really dying for this one I guess.
-2 Arc Lightning it seems to be the anti sly card at the moment. I dont really have that in my meta so for now I just wont really bother I guess.
-2 Outpost Siege its slow and I kept feeling like I would never bring it in when I was rationalizing its spot in side.
+3 Qal Sisma Behemoth midrange decks gum up the board on me and bring in small creature sweepers. My plan is to cut into some of my 1-2 drop creatures who dye to the sweepers and bring in some fat against them. These guys are great because it generally requires 2x blockers for my opponents to be able to bring them down.
+2 Goblin Heelcutter break through the midrange blockers to some degree. It might catch them offguard and instead of using my turn to remove the block I essentially get a repeatable trick out of the deal in the right situation.
+1 Purphoros, God of the Forge I didnt love having 2 of these in the main all the time but if its going to be a long match vs control or midrange they start to shine. I cut one of them from the main because too often I would see like mono 4 drop hands in my openers. I wanted to be faster out of the gates in game one but I suspect there will be a lot of times where I move to having two of them after sideboards in a lot of matches.
I don't like the black in the deck, you're not running enough of it for me to really feel like it's justified and I think the deck would be more consistent if you went for a more straight-forward mono-red RDW list that's maybe a little lower on the curve.
I don't like the black in the deck, you're not running enough of it for me to really feel like it's justified and I think the deck would be more consistent if you went for a more straight-forward mono-red RDW list that's maybe a little lower on the curve.
So far Kolaghan's Command has done some amazing things for me to be honest. I like the hand hate effects too but its a bit question of reliably hitting enough black mana while not disrupting my red mana early game. I think for now I might slowly bring in and up my Mana Confluence count and see how the deck performs with a few of them in as so far the bit of black I am splashing feels to be often very relevant.
I considered a faster list but I really do enjoy a lot of the midrange tactics as I am a midrange player at heart. Overall my list might end up being too slow but so far the other red decks I have seen out there seem to be the swarm with one drops kind of lists which I have a harder time really enjoying myself.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Small update I guess. I played my list at FNM friday as well as at game day. I actually did fairly well taking 3rd and 2nd with my list. Both were small 8 man events.
FNM:
Match 1: Bant Morph 1-2
Overall I did fairly well but I stumbled in game three and went down to a 5 card hand which was just ok unfortunately. I had some issues with Whisperwood Elemental in general as most of my removal does not catch them nicely. Mastery of the Unseen is also a pain if left alone. This match is one that I need to end quickly to win as the long game is in his favor. He seemed to have the right things at the right time as well which was unfortunate as he hit me with his Hidden Dragonslayer as I went to drop a second dragon on him one game.
Match 2:WRU Heroics 2-1
This match actually caught me off guard as I had assumed he was sort of Jeskai at first. I made a mistake in game one which cost me a game when I didn't kill one of his guys on my turn. The 4 Self-Inflicted Wound from SB ended up just smashing him though as most every creature I saw from him was white. He dropped most of his creatures on curve and I answered them leaving his buff and protection effects stuck in hand. I think he could have played it a bit better to be honest but whatever.
Match 3: Esper Control 2-0
My opening hand in game one was just like god curve and I had him at like 2 life on turn 4. Game two came sort of close as I had to 8 life when I started drowning in lands. He was building up an Elspeth with her tokens when I topdecked and cast a Crater's Claws for 8.
Game Day:
I made some sideboard adjustments trying to meta game it a little more.
Game 1: 2-0 Esper Control (different player) he had shifted to be heavier UB for this event due to a high show of aggro the night before.
Game one I controlled him with my dash creatures as his removal was more expensive than my creatures were to dash. I constantly had one creature getting through and controlled my board presence to usually 2 creatures on my turn. I ended up pressuring him with Kolaghan's Command recovering a Mardu Scout + a shock to the face when he tapped out to dig and a pair of Lightning Strike pushing him to low life. He couldn't stabilize in time. Game two I managed to land a Hammer of Purphoros I pushed into SB at the last second and it dug up surplus lands into 3/3 bodies for me which helped me overrun him.
Game 2: 2-1 Sly
Game one he got me low having answers constantly and a swarm of dudes. I had hoped to get more bodies in play but as I had been noticing with some other testing, a lot of the creatures in this deck don't block all that well when it comes to defending vs a swarm. Game two I sideboarded into 3x Circle of Flame which I managed to find one of them which he scooped to. Game three he got land screwed and ran out at 2x lands. Thats what he gets for playing the 18 lands or whatever he runs though I guess.
Game 3: 1-2 GR Dragons
Game one he curved into a T3 going first Xenagos, the Reveler which my hand just had no way to deal with. Game 2 I managed to beat him up while he was a bit land screwed. Game three came down to he dropped a 5 mana dragon and just had all removal for the rest of his hand. He seemed to have heavily sideboarded in removal and dropped a lot of the dorks. I ended game 3 with 2x Self-Inflicted Wound in hand with him having not cast any green creatures like all game.
So, all that said the deck did fairly well for me. I ended up mashing up my sideboard heavily after FNM and probably will again after the testing. Purphoros, God of the Forge was a little awkward in general and while it was amazing when I could swing with him I found it more often that my assumption was that my opponents were sideboarding into sweepers and that he wasn't going to be swinging or poking that hard. I cut him from my sideboard while continued running him maindeck through the weekend. I think at this time I want to cut them though as they had been awkward in a lot of ways. Thoughtsieze was also more or less awkward all the time for me. I have to commit to my red mana so heavily I couldn't always cast it early. I think I am probably going to go away from using them for now but I might spring back to them later. I mostly wanted them vs some of the control and ramp to fatties decks but in the ramp to fatties matchup I couldn't always cast them soon enough to be relevant. I felt like vs the control match I would have been just as happy with another Mardu Scout instead too much of the time.
DECK CHANGES:
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge -> 1 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury I feel like Kolaghan has better synergy because I am not doing token swarm tactics so I tend to be unloading my threats before hand. Kolaghan also has synergy with the Thunderbreak Regents so the two of them sort of both give each other some power here. I had some issues trying to get Purpheros online vs removal effects and most decks would be sideboarding into their sweepers against me.
1 Flamewake Phoenix -> 1 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury flamewake felt a little heavy as a 4x of in the deck to be honest. It felt really bad when I would find them in multiples. Being that its a little slow to drop and bad in numbers I want to see how a few Kolagans go which is slower yet but more explosive if I get there.
2 Thoughtseize -> 2 Draconic Roar dropping the hand hate for now. The roar seems like it would be good vs aggro and midrange decks. It is unfortunately probably a bad call vs the control matchups. I have been having issues casting Thoughtsieze when I want it though.
1 Lightning Strike -> 1 Ultimate Price I have been having some issues with the X/4+ creatures of late but most of them (that I can target) seem to be mono colored. I want to bring in a little more direct kill but I think I am more or less as heavy as I want on Murderous Cuts at the moment. I will see how a single price does for now.
1 Mountain -> 1 Temple of Malice so there is a big give and take when it comes to ETB tapped lands. I am slowly introducing a few and seeing how they operate.
I feel like the sideboard is a bit of a step up. The Hammer of Purphoros and Circle of Flame both had good shows and I think the addition of some Ultimate Price will be a good move for me vs midrange. I had been using Roast but right now there isnt much for showing of Abzan right now which I feel is the primary reason to be worried about Ultimate Price. The Self-Inflicted Wounds would still have a strong showing vs Abzan though if it comes up so I wont worry about it too much right now. From what I saw, most of the decks that are faster than I tend to be loaded with x/1 creatures that tend to run into the Circle of Flame and die horribly so I think it will be a good direction for my aggro defense for now.
I am enjoying the deck so far. Its holding its ground fairly well as a whole. I just want to play with some different builds of it and see what ends up sticking. I managed to trade into a full playset of full art Thunderbreak Regent after the event was over so yays. I didn't care much for the original art but I think the full art looks nice.
Good stuff. I like the build as it looks fun to play.
How has Kolaghan's Command worked out for you? Has mana been a problem with 23 lands?
I've got something similar going with a Big Red splash black. Ire Shaman has been absolutely amazing in the several games I've played it in. Opponents consistently underestimate it, and it completely destroys their life total.
This is where I'm at currently. It's more creature-heavy.
Kolaghan's Command - is sort of the card that got me splashing black. Its so crazy good I have sort of not yet regretted having one of them yet. If you somehow don't find creatures at all I guess would be the regret in these as the recover a creature is one of its better modes. I love recovering dragons and such later in the game with these. The discard and shock are both very viable options all the time as well. In all I have been very pleased with them. The only downside is that they tend to be something you want to be doing after you curve into your hand. On the upside though I don't have a lot of three drops so its totally viable to recover a Mardu Scout or something that they might have used removal on. Recovering an early loss + having opponent discard a card is very strong on curve.
The lands have been more or less fine at 23. Most of my action is at two mana but I want to get to 4-5 mana. The 2x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury are new so its hard to say if its going to hurt being down one land from a normal amount with two five drops or not. I had not been having issues with 23 land with 5 four drops though. It looks like you are a bit heavier on your top end than I am though so it probably makes sense for you to be at 24 lands.
Ire Shaman - I have been going back and forth on her myself. She seems like her focus is vs midrange which I could use some help against but there is still a concern of the sideboarded Drown in Sorrow / Anger of the Gods which feel like it would be walking right into. The dash creatures on the flip side have been working fairly regularly for me against the midrange decks as they dodge in and out making it less of an issue vs the midrange sweepers and it sort of helps that they often cut into their mana dorks because of the sweepers usually.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
@Klemma - I like that your list is more of a BR list but there is a big reason why some of us are pushing it to be more of a red deck splashing black and that is because its incredibly difficult to reliably hit the landbase to do early one drops for either color.
You will probably find that you occasionally will have issues with the landbase in your opening hand trying to be able to have both B and R mana options that comes in untapped reliably on turn 1. It might make you have to mulligan more often based on your land spread in your opener. On the one upside it looks like you run less double colored spells where I run Dragon Whisperer who I still want to be able to curve into.
Monastery Swiftspear feels a little out of place with so few spells in list. I would personally suggest bringing up the count of Zurgo by one in place of one of these. I myself am running 4 Lightning Berserkers but I also have more support for red mana in my list so I dont know if a full 4 would pay off for you. You feel a little heavy on the one drops in general though so I could see moving the other to just something other than one drops. In fact, yes you are too heavy on one drops likely. I would try to lighten some of these up.
As a whole, I feel like you might need to put some thought into Mana Confluence. Considering how aggressive you seem to be trying to be I think 2-3 might even be justified. I think your landbase is going to be rough on you trying to have both black and red one drops. You should also consider putting 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in there in place of a swamp because its all upside having one of them.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Yea Boltwing is just greedy I suppose. Kolaghan is just all around more reliable with haste, the 5 toughness being out of stoke/rhino/thunderbreak range. I can see what you mean about too many one drops, though most of the time it feels more correct to dash them. I had the swiftspear on the fence when I made this list. I want to run Flamewake Phoenix but am not sure how much value i would get with lack of Ferocious activators.
B gives you a pile of game against Esper Dragons. And being able to side into edicts against them is quite good. Plus Mind Rot is playable in this format. The format's not particularly fast.
Mardu Scout has been a lot better than I originally gave him credit for. Vs the control decks his dash allows him to essentially never be swept which is very strong. He also hits harder than Dragon Whisperer most of the time as I rarely want to invest in pumping him unless you are out of things to do. I think there is still a potential to get too many but I moved to three of them main with a fourth in side for control.
Monastery Swiftspear vs Lightning Berserker is an interesting debate to have. Lightning Berserker inherently takes more to maintain but he is so much more frightening late game so I feel its an early aggro vs bomb late game drop sort of a debate. As a whole it comes down to how fast you feel you are going to be. Monastery Swiftspear makes a better early game drop where as Lightning Berserker is by far the better of the two in mid and late game. The sort of advantage of swiftspear is that it buffs toughness too so its possible vs another creature based deck to use removal to make it just win in combat. Even then though my preference at this time is the Lightning Berserker from what I have done.
Fanatic of Mogis I have been fighting with myself for some time. It feels like the sort of card that possibly works vs midrange creature builds but only in stalemates. I am not a huge fan of him myself right now as a lot of the games I have found myself in come down to fighting over just a few creatures but it depends on how well you can stick to the board too. I run heavier dashing so that also impacts my board presence on a turn to turn basis too.
Landbase wise, I think the 4x Temple of Malice might end up slowing you down. I moved to two of them so far and have experienced some concerns even with just two. It comes down to how fast you want to be but I feel you could afford 1x Mana Confluence and or 1x Urborg in your build still.
Virulent Plague - I got lucky with Circle of Flame myself but I think your solution might be more stable. I could still run into Atarka's Command which would wreck me through a single circle. I might have to move to a split between the two as there is still a black warriors build that hides in my meta which can give me hell but the circles are good against.
Rakshasa's Secret seems like a cool idea. I might have to give that a shot myself.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Have you tried Nykthos with Eidolon and Dragon Whisperer? I wasn't a believer until I saw Raphael Levy played this at the Pro Tour and then I won an IQ with this list.
I think the part of Dragon Whisperer that is so widely overlooked right now is that he offers insulation from Crux by making Dragons and he also can trigger ferocious for Flamewake. On top of adding two devotion for Nykthos. He's pretty underplayed, mostly because I don't think people realize how good he is when built around.
4 Lightning Berserker
3 Zurgo Bellstriker
4 Dragon Whisperer
3 Mardu Scout
3 Flamewake Phoenix
4 Thunderbreak Regent
2 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
SPELLS (15)
2 Crater's Claws
2 Draconic Roar
3 Lightning Strike
1 Ultimate Price
4 Kolaghan's Command
2 Murderous Cut
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Mana Confluence
13 Mountain
2 Swamp
2 Temple of Malice
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Bloodsoaked Champion
3 Circle of Flame
1 Mardu Scout
2 Ultimate Price
4 Self-Inflicted Wound
2 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Goblin Heelcutter
1 Whip of Erebos
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[Modern] Allies
From the testing I have made the following changes:
-1 Thoughtseize the black mana is still a little sketchy to be totally honest. I was also seeing some hands of multiple starting Thoughtseize which I felt was a bit tricky. I need to fiddle with my mana a little more I feel like to make it more stable. I like these vs the control and some vs the midrange but I felt like the frequency was a little too high at 3 mainboard.
-1 Purphoros, God of the Forge I like these guys but after some testing I felt like my mainboard game was a little too slow. I assume that my opponents will be sideboarding into sweepers and cheap removal so I opted to move the second copy to sideboard and speed up my first game matchup a little.
-1 Mountain just a small upgrade.
+1 Mana Confluence I seem to often be faster than my opponents so I feel using one of these should be fine. I probably should consider more than one but for now I am going to ease into them.
+1 Mardu Scout these guys did really well in testing often giving me a turn 2 lighting bolt to the face on my opponent and keeping them to harass further. They sort of suck against a dude cannon sort of opponent but even then they often trade with opposing creatures that cost as much if not more mana to drop.
+1 Zurgo Bellstriker I found the 6 one drops to be a little low in showing up. I opted to increase the count by one.
The sideboard also seemed a little too pieced together so I made some adjustments to that and updated it as follows:
-2 Ultimate Price kill spells are great. I just couldn't figure out what matchup I was really dying for this one I guess.
-2 Arc Lightning it seems to be the anti sly card at the moment. I dont really have that in my meta so for now I just wont really bother I guess.
-2 Outpost Siege its slow and I kept feeling like I would never bring it in when I was rationalizing its spot in side.
+3 Qal Sisma Behemoth midrange decks gum up the board on me and bring in small creature sweepers. My plan is to cut into some of my 1-2 drop creatures who dye to the sweepers and bring in some fat against them. These guys are great because it generally requires 2x blockers for my opponents to be able to bring them down.
+2 Goblin Heelcutter break through the midrange blockers to some degree. It might catch them offguard and instead of using my turn to remove the block I essentially get a repeatable trick out of the deal in the right situation.
+1 Purphoros, God of the Forge I didnt love having 2 of these in the main all the time but if its going to be a long match vs control or midrange they start to shine. I cut one of them from the main because too often I would see like mono 4 drop hands in my openers. I wanted to be faster out of the gates in game one but I suspect there will be a lot of times where I move to having two of them after sideboards in a lot of matches.
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[Modern] Allies
So far Kolaghan's Command has done some amazing things for me to be honest. I like the hand hate effects too but its a bit question of reliably hitting enough black mana while not disrupting my red mana early game. I think for now I might slowly bring in and up my Mana Confluence count and see how the deck performs with a few of them in as so far the bit of black I am splashing feels to be often very relevant.
I considered a faster list but I really do enjoy a lot of the midrange tactics as I am a midrange player at heart. Overall my list might end up being too slow but so far the other red decks I have seen out there seem to be the swarm with one drops kind of lists which I have a harder time really enjoying myself.
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[Modern] Allies
FNM:
Match 1: Bant Morph 1-2
Overall I did fairly well but I stumbled in game three and went down to a 5 card hand which was just ok unfortunately. I had some issues with Whisperwood Elemental in general as most of my removal does not catch them nicely. Mastery of the Unseen is also a pain if left alone. This match is one that I need to end quickly to win as the long game is in his favor. He seemed to have the right things at the right time as well which was unfortunate as he hit me with his Hidden Dragonslayer as I went to drop a second dragon on him one game.
Match 2: WRU Heroics 2-1
This match actually caught me off guard as I had assumed he was sort of Jeskai at first. I made a mistake in game one which cost me a game when I didn't kill one of his guys on my turn. The 4 Self-Inflicted Wound from SB ended up just smashing him though as most every creature I saw from him was white. He dropped most of his creatures on curve and I answered them leaving his buff and protection effects stuck in hand. I think he could have played it a bit better to be honest but whatever.
Match 3: Esper Control 2-0
My opening hand in game one was just like god curve and I had him at like 2 life on turn 4. Game two came sort of close as I had to 8 life when I started drowning in lands. He was building up an Elspeth with her tokens when I topdecked and cast a Crater's Claws for 8.
Game Day:
I made some sideboard adjustments trying to meta game it a little more.
Game 1: 2-0 Esper Control (different player) he had shifted to be heavier UB for this event due to a high show of aggro the night before.
Game one I controlled him with my dash creatures as his removal was more expensive than my creatures were to dash. I constantly had one creature getting through and controlled my board presence to usually 2 creatures on my turn. I ended up pressuring him with Kolaghan's Command recovering a Mardu Scout + a shock to the face when he tapped out to dig and a pair of Lightning Strike pushing him to low life. He couldn't stabilize in time. Game two I managed to land a Hammer of Purphoros I pushed into SB at the last second and it dug up surplus lands into 3/3 bodies for me which helped me overrun him.
Game 2: 2-1 Sly
Game one he got me low having answers constantly and a swarm of dudes. I had hoped to get more bodies in play but as I had been noticing with some other testing, a lot of the creatures in this deck don't block all that well when it comes to defending vs a swarm. Game two I sideboarded into 3x Circle of Flame which I managed to find one of them which he scooped to. Game three he got land screwed and ran out at 2x lands. Thats what he gets for playing the 18 lands or whatever he runs though I guess.
Game 3: 1-2 GR Dragons
Game one he curved into a T3 going first Xenagos, the Reveler which my hand just had no way to deal with. Game 2 I managed to beat him up while he was a bit land screwed. Game three came down to he dropped a 5 mana dragon and just had all removal for the rest of his hand. He seemed to have heavily sideboarded in removal and dropped a lot of the dorks. I ended game 3 with 2x Self-Inflicted Wound in hand with him having not cast any green creatures like all game.
So, all that said the deck did fairly well for me. I ended up mashing up my sideboard heavily after FNM and probably will again after the testing. Purphoros, God of the Forge was a little awkward in general and while it was amazing when I could swing with him I found it more often that my assumption was that my opponents were sideboarding into sweepers and that he wasn't going to be swinging or poking that hard. I cut him from my sideboard while continued running him maindeck through the weekend. I think at this time I want to cut them though as they had been awkward in a lot of ways. Thoughtsieze was also more or less awkward all the time for me. I have to commit to my red mana so heavily I couldn't always cast it early. I think I am probably going to go away from using them for now but I might spring back to them later. I mostly wanted them vs some of the control and ramp to fatties decks but in the ramp to fatties matchup I couldn't always cast them soon enough to be relevant. I felt like vs the control match I would have been just as happy with another Mardu Scout instead too much of the time.
DECK CHANGES:
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge -> 1 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury I feel like Kolaghan has better synergy because I am not doing token swarm tactics so I tend to be unloading my threats before hand. Kolaghan also has synergy with the Thunderbreak Regents so the two of them sort of both give each other some power here. I had some issues trying to get Purpheros online vs removal effects and most decks would be sideboarding into their sweepers against me.
1 Flamewake Phoenix -> 1 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury flamewake felt a little heavy as a 4x of in the deck to be honest. It felt really bad when I would find them in multiples. Being that its a little slow to drop and bad in numbers I want to see how a few Kolagans go which is slower yet but more explosive if I get there.
2 Thoughtseize -> 2 Draconic Roar dropping the hand hate for now. The roar seems like it would be good vs aggro and midrange decks. It is unfortunately probably a bad call vs the control matchups. I have been having issues casting Thoughtsieze when I want it though.
1 Lightning Strike -> 1 Ultimate Price I have been having some issues with the X/4+ creatures of late but most of them (that I can target) seem to be mono colored. I want to bring in a little more direct kill but I think I am more or less as heavy as I want on Murderous Cuts at the moment. I will see how a single price does for now.
1 Mountain -> 1 Temple of Malice so there is a big give and take when it comes to ETB tapped lands. I am slowly introducing a few and seeing how they operate.
1 Swamp -> 1 Temple of Malice same as above.
SIDEBOARD:
Rather than outlining all of the changes I will just do a bit of a before and after.
1 Duress
1 Mardu Scout
2 Roast
4 Self-Inflicted Wound
3 Qal Sisma Behemoth
2 Goblin Heelcutter
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
3 Circle of Flame
1 Mardu Scout
2 Ultimate Price
4 Self-Inflicted Wound
2 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Goblin Heelcutter
1 Whip of Erebos
I feel like the sideboard is a bit of a step up. The Hammer of Purphoros and Circle of Flame both had good shows and I think the addition of some Ultimate Price will be a good move for me vs midrange. I had been using Roast but right now there isnt much for showing of Abzan right now which I feel is the primary reason to be worried about Ultimate Price. The Self-Inflicted Wounds would still have a strong showing vs Abzan though if it comes up so I wont worry about it too much right now. From what I saw, most of the decks that are faster than I tend to be loaded with x/1 creatures that tend to run into the Circle of Flame and die horribly so I think it will be a good direction for my aggro defense for now.
I am enjoying the deck so far. Its holding its ground fairly well as a whole. I just want to play with some different builds of it and see what ends up sticking. I managed to trade into a full playset of full art Thunderbreak Regent after the event was over so yays. I didn't care much for the original art but I think the full art looks nice.
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[Modern] Allies
How has Kolaghan's Command worked out for you? Has mana been a problem with 23 lands?
I've got something similar going with a Big Red splash black. Ire Shaman has been absolutely amazing in the several games I've played it in. Opponents consistently underestimate it, and it completely destroys their life total.
This is where I'm at currently. It's more creature-heavy.
14 Mountains
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Temple of Malice
2 Swamp
Creatures 26
3 Lightning Berserker
3 Zurgo Bellstriker
4 Ire Shaman
2 Dragon Whisperer
2 Silumgar Assassin
4 Flamewake Phoenix
3 Ashcloud Phoenix
4 Thunderbreak Regent
1 Kolaghan, the Storm’s Fury
3 Wild Slash
1 Draconic Roar
2 Lightning Strike
2 Stoke the Flames
2 Murderous Cut
3 Monastery Swiftspear
2 Roast
3 Self-Inflicted Wound
1 Ultimate Price
2 Virulent Plague
2 Seismic Rupture
1 Kolaghan’s Command
1 Murderous Cut
The world is on fire
and you are here to stay and burn with me.
The lands have been more or less fine at 23. Most of my action is at two mana but I want to get to 4-5 mana. The 2x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury are new so its hard to say if its going to hurt being down one land from a normal amount with two five drops or not. I had not been having issues with 23 land with 5 four drops though. It looks like you are a bit heavier on your top end than I am though so it probably makes sense for you to be at 24 lands.
Ire Shaman - I have been going back and forth on her myself. She seems like her focus is vs midrange which I could use some help against but there is still a concern of the sideboarded Drown in Sorrow / Anger of the Gods which feel like it would be walking right into. The dash creatures on the flip side have been working fairly regularly for me against the midrange decks as they dodge in and out making it less of an issue vs the midrange sweepers and it sort of helps that they often cut into their mana dorks because of the sweepers usually.
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[Modern] Allies
2x Ambuscade Shaman
2x Bloodsoaked Champion
2x Boltwing Marauder
3x Brutal Hordechief
2x Goblin Heelcutter
2x Goblin Rabblemaster
3x Lightning Berserker
3x Mardu Scout
2x Mardu Shadowspear
2x Monastery Swiftspear
2x Zurgo Bellstriker
4x Bloodstained Mire
10x Mountain
9x Swamp
Instant (10)
2x Hero's Downfall
1x Kolaghan's Command
1x Kolaghan's Command *F*
2x Lightning Strike
2x Murderous Cut
2x Stoke the Flames
2x Outpost Siege
You will probably find that you occasionally will have issues with the landbase in your opening hand trying to be able to have both B and R mana options that comes in untapped reliably on turn 1. It might make you have to mulligan more often based on your land spread in your opener. On the one upside it looks like you run less double colored spells where I run Dragon Whisperer who I still want to be able to curve into.
Boltwing Marauder feels incredibly slow to be honest. Your build might be better served by Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury or Purphoros, God of the Forge. You probably wont be able to make Purphoros, God of the Forge active being more of a split between the two but he has great synergy with dash.
Monastery Swiftspear feels a little out of place with so few spells in list. I would personally suggest bringing up the count of Zurgo by one in place of one of these. I myself am running 4 Lightning Berserkers but I also have more support for red mana in my list so I dont know if a full 4 would pay off for you. You feel a little heavy on the one drops in general though so I could see moving the other to just something other than one drops. In fact, yes you are too heavy on one drops likely. I would try to lighten some of these up.
As a whole, I feel like you might need to put some thought into Mana Confluence. Considering how aggressive you seem to be trying to be I think 2-3 might even be justified. I think your landbase is going to be rough on you trying to have both black and red one drops. You should also consider putting 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in there in place of a swamp because its all upside having one of them.
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[Modern] Allies
2x Ambuscade Shaman
2x Bloodsoaked Champion
2x Flamewake Phoenix
3x Brutal Hordechief
2x Goblin Heelcutter
2x Goblin Rabblemaster
3x Lightning Berserker
3x Mardu Scout
2x Mardu Shadowspear
2x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
2x Zurgo Bellstriker
4x Bloodstained Mire
10x Mountain
8x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Instant (10)
2x Hero's Downfall
1x Kolaghan's Command
1x Kolaghan's Command *F*
2x Lightning Strike
2x Murderous Cut
2x Stoke the Flames
2x Outpost Siege
-2x Monastery Swiftspear
-2x Boltwing Marauder
+2x Flamewake Phoenix
+2x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
-1x Swamp
+1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Monastery Swiftspear
1x Lightning Beserker
4x Dragon Whisperer
2x Mardu Scout
4x Goblin Rabblemaster
2x Flamewake Phoenix
4x Thunderbreak Regent
1x Fanatic of Mogis
2x Stoke the Flames
3x Lightning Strike
2x Murderous Cut
1x Crater's Claws
1x Chandra, Pyromaster
2x Kolaghan's Command
1x Ultimate Price
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Swamp
12x Mountain
2x Virulent Plague
2x Foul-Tongue Invocation
2x Outpost Siege
3x Thoughtseize
3x Brutal Hordechief
2x Rakshasa's Secret
1x Kolaghan's Command
B gives you a pile of game against Esper Dragons. And being able to side into edicts against them is quite good. Plus Mind Rot is playable in this format. The format's not particularly fast.
Mardu Scout has been a lot better than I originally gave him credit for. Vs the control decks his dash allows him to essentially never be swept which is very strong. He also hits harder than Dragon Whisperer most of the time as I rarely want to invest in pumping him unless you are out of things to do. I think there is still a potential to get too many but I moved to three of them main with a fourth in side for control.
Monastery Swiftspear vs Lightning Berserker is an interesting debate to have. Lightning Berserker inherently takes more to maintain but he is so much more frightening late game so I feel its an early aggro vs bomb late game drop sort of a debate. As a whole it comes down to how fast you feel you are going to be. Monastery Swiftspear makes a better early game drop where as Lightning Berserker is by far the better of the two in mid and late game. The sort of advantage of swiftspear is that it buffs toughness too so its possible vs another creature based deck to use removal to make it just win in combat. Even then though my preference at this time is the Lightning Berserker from what I have done.
Fanatic of Mogis I have been fighting with myself for some time. It feels like the sort of card that possibly works vs midrange creature builds but only in stalemates. I am not a huge fan of him myself right now as a lot of the games I have found myself in come down to fighting over just a few creatures but it depends on how well you can stick to the board too. I run heavier dashing so that also impacts my board presence on a turn to turn basis too.
Landbase wise, I think the 4x Temple of Malice might end up slowing you down. I moved to two of them so far and have experienced some concerns even with just two. It comes down to how fast you want to be but I feel you could afford 1x Mana Confluence and or 1x Urborg in your build still.
Foul-Tongue Invocation - if you are specifically afraid of Ojutai I would run Self-Inflicted Wound instead as its really solid vs Abzan too. If there is a concern about Silumgar, the Drifting Death it wont hit him though but thats a matter of what you are worried about.
Virulent Plague - I got lucky with Circle of Flame myself but I think your solution might be more stable. I could still run into Atarka's Command which would wreck me through a single circle. I might have to move to a split between the two as there is still a black warriors build that hides in my meta which can give me hell but the circles are good against.
Rakshasa's Secret seems like a cool idea. I might have to give that a shot myself.
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[Modern] Allies
4 Bloodstained Mire
13 Mountain
3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
3 Roast
3 Wild Slash
3 Zurgo Bellstriker
3 Lightning Berserker
4 Dragon Whisperer
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Flamewake Phoenix
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Thunderbreak Regent
4 Ashcloud Phoenix
3 Mardu Scout
1 Murderous Cut
1 Virulent Plague
2 Self-Inflicted Wound
2 Ultimate Price
2 Seismic Rupture
2 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Outpost Siege
1 Swamp
I think the part of Dragon Whisperer that is so widely overlooked right now is that he offers insulation from Crux by making Dragons and he also can trigger ferocious for Flamewake. On top of adding two devotion for Nykthos. He's pretty underplayed, mostly because I don't think people realize how good he is when built around.