What are some cards that can help red not be so singularly focused on Aggro and Burn? Cards that make you want to splash red for them or enable a whole archetype on their own. I'm currently running Sneak Attack, Wildfire, Goblin Welder, Feldon of the Third Path, and Daretti, Scrap Savant, but even with those, it seems the majority of my decks end up mono-red or no-red. Any suggestions?
Red goes well in a lot of decks outside of RDW in my experience. Of course there's two color versions of RDW, but they tend to all play a bit differently. Rakdos is normally an aristocrats value shell. Boros tends to go wide. Gruul is a beatdown deck, sometimes with a hastey theme.
Outside of aggro, though, we've had success with different midrange and control decks. Grixis and Jeskai can go either way. Grixis Bolas control is a favorite here. Grixis value with lots of removal and two for ones. Jeskai Spells with Saheeli, Mentor, and Young Pyromancer (even Kykar if you run tri color cards) can be really fun.
Then there's the artifact deck. Red generally plays a role there in some way. Both Wildfire variants promote their own archetype or contribute to others, like the artifact deck, for example. Izzet CounterBurn is another popular one here too. One of the guys in my group swears by "Cube Blue Red". If not the classic CounterBurn, then Sneak and Show fatty cheat or go into black too for a touch of reanimator.
I think that while, yeah, red does tend to be aggro more often than not, it dabbles very well in other theaters and archetypes too.
What are some cards that can help red not be so singularly focused on Aggro and Burn? Cards that make you want to splash red for them or enable a whole archetype on their own. I'm currently running Sneak Attack, Wildfire, Goblin Welder, Feldon of the Third Path, and Daretti, Scrap Savant, but even with those, it seems the majority of my decks end up mono-red or no-red. Any suggestions?
If I'm understanding correctly, you feel that basically you're just getting RDW despite these other options being available?
The quickest, easiest thing for me to suggest is that you reexamine how well these other cards are supported. Welder and Daretti are great artifact support cards, but how many artifacts do you have that really abuse them? I quickly glanced over your list and I gleaned this much: there are not too many 2-mana rocks (didn't see any signets or talismans example) and there aren't too many big targets (I didn't see things like Inkwell Leviathan, Ancient Stone Idol, Mindslaver). Could it be that the deck is just shy for tools and/or targets, making it a less appealing archetype to draft?
Wildfire could likewise be missing out due to a smaller rock count; I also predict that a shortage of removal spells could make it feel like, "Oh, I'll never last long enough for this to matter". Do you have enough?
Clearly, a 360 list is really hard to manage. So, I understand the above might not be too useful for you when narrower cards might just be less appealing to include. I would recommend you try to make alternative decks pop out a little more with as few tweaks as you can, maybe making 1-2 swaps for dedicated cards that can really reward people who try to go for it.
I think you two are spot on, thanks for the help. It may really be more about the enablers around these cards than the cards themselves. I've never been a fan of the really narrow stuff like Blightsteel Colossus and Pestermite, but adding cards like Mindslaver and Kiki-jiki, Mirror Breaker are really good ideas.
Signets always felt bad to me because it seemed like I'd have to add all 10. Mana Rocks are tough because many are either overpowered or underpowered. Sol Ring and Mana Crypt would sure help Wildfire, but are not really fitting in unpowered cube. Not sure if Fellwar Stone and Thought Vessel really make the cut.
My favorite cards that enable some fun red archetypes. Combine Ruby Medallion with Experimental Frenzy, Wheel, Young Pyromancer, burn. Or Ruby Medallion with Seething Song (!) and Chandra, artifact mana to ramp into Form of the Dragon or any other big red/colorless stuff you're already running. Or add Faithless Looting in with black to get access to more fast mana in Dark Ritual and reanimator/Sneak Attack fun.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Outside of aggro, though, we've had success with different midrange and control decks. Grixis and Jeskai can go either way. Grixis Bolas control is a favorite here. Grixis value with lots of removal and two for ones. Jeskai Spells with Saheeli, Mentor, and Young Pyromancer (even Kykar if you run tri color cards) can be really fun.
Then there's the artifact deck. Red generally plays a role there in some way. Both Wildfire variants promote their own archetype or contribute to others, like the artifact deck, for example. Izzet CounterBurn is another popular one here too. One of the guys in my group swears by "Cube Blue Red". If not the classic CounterBurn, then Sneak and Show fatty cheat or go into black too for a touch of reanimator.
I think that while, yeah, red does tend to be aggro more often than not, it dabbles very well in other theaters and archetypes too.
MTGS Average Peasant Cube 2023 Edition
Follow me. I tweet.
If I'm understanding correctly, you feel that basically you're just getting RDW despite these other options being available?
The quickest, easiest thing for me to suggest is that you reexamine how well these other cards are supported. Welder and Daretti are great artifact support cards, but how many artifacts do you have that really abuse them? I quickly glanced over your list and I gleaned this much: there are not too many 2-mana rocks (didn't see any signets or talismans example) and there aren't too many big targets (I didn't see things like Inkwell Leviathan, Ancient Stone Idol, Mindslaver). Could it be that the deck is just shy for tools and/or targets, making it a less appealing archetype to draft?
Wildfire could likewise be missing out due to a smaller rock count; I also predict that a shortage of removal spells could make it feel like, "Oh, I'll never last long enough for this to matter". Do you have enough?
Clearly, a 360 list is really hard to manage. So, I understand the above might not be too useful for you when narrower cards might just be less appealing to include. I would recommend you try to make alternative decks pop out a little more with as few tweaks as you can, maybe making 1-2 swaps for dedicated cards that can really reward people who try to go for it.
Signets always felt bad to me because it seemed like I'd have to add all 10. Mana Rocks are tough because many are either overpowered or underpowered. Sol Ring and Mana Crypt would sure help Wildfire, but are not really fitting in unpowered cube. Not sure if Fellwar Stone and Thought Vessel really make the cut.
Ruby Medallion
Seething Song
Experimental Frenzy
Young Pyromancer
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Wheel of Fortune
Pyroclasm
Faithless Looting
+Artifact mana
My favorite cards that enable some fun red archetypes. Combine Ruby Medallion with Experimental Frenzy, Wheel, Young Pyromancer, burn. Or Ruby Medallion with Seething Song (!) and Chandra, artifact mana to ramp into Form of the Dragon or any other big red/colorless stuff you're already running. Or add Faithless Looting in with black to get access to more fast mana in Dark Ritual and reanimator/Sneak Attack fun.