So, this is my Diaochan, Artful Beauty mono-red control list. It's undergone a major renovation, still needs some work but this is the second draft.
This is also a meaner deck than I would normally play. However, I feel that this general is pretty challenging to play and playing a mono-red non top tier general
is a bit of a handicap. I used to play back in 95 so I don't mind a little land destruction. Deck has some rarely seen "hate" or "hoser" cards as well.
So that's the deck. It's basically a hate on creatures / lands deck. I just rebuilt it, adding more creatures and ways to survive.
Honestly, half the time I look at the deck and say, "Boy, that looks like an expensive collection of crap." It seems a bit all over
the map. However, I'll try to explain some of my unusual card choices.
Paradise Plume - Seems like a strange choice but I figure I can name red and gain a bit of life. This deck needs lifegain Mudslide - Feels like the weakest of the tappers, might cut this one. Shuts down tokens pretty well but so does a lot of other cards. Faithless Looting - Specifically designed to loot away extra land with crucible or to get rid of dead "hate cards" like Anarchy. Archetype of Aggression - Trample really screws my chump blocking so I thought I might try to get rid of it? This one is an experiment for sure. Wall of Stone - Good cheap blocker, hopefully for most of the game I can just get attacked by 2 creatures and this should hold off one of them. Also,
hopefully non-threatening enough not to waste removal on. Awaken the Ancient - Probably crap. Planning on replacing it with Obsidian Fireheart, already ordered. Ali from Cairo, Platinum Angel, Platinum Emperion - This lifedefying subtheme is probably a pipe dream. I have some protection for them,
but it's probably asking for trouble. Honestly, I've had an Ali from Cairo since 97 and never had a reason to use it. I also like the idea of Platinum angel. These 3 are probably a bad call. Beasts of Bogardan Seems odd but for those of you who have never played against Diaochan, pro red means that creature cannot get picked by her ability. Otherwise weak.
So those are some of the strange choices. I'm looking for feedback / tough love on this deck. My first version of the deck didn't work because it only ran 10 creatures and basically
annoyed everyone and then got beaten down and eliminated first haha. The update cuts some hate cards, adds more creatures but it's still far from perfect. I think the ideal version of
this deck would have a fair amount of non-creature wincons. Not too sure what those might be in mono-red, however. Also, looking to add a Forcefield, was thinking of cutting mudslide for it.
I feel that the big creatures are the worst part of the deck. The deck is anti-creature. But it needs creatures to defend itself. Considering dropping the big dragons etc and just going with
crappy walls / re-generators / undying creatures. But it needs some wincons then, preferably that don't involve attacking! The old version ran stuff like earthquake and inferno, but since I usually took
a lot of attacks, I was usually at the lowest life so that didn't work so hot.
Also, just as note, this is not my main deck nor would I play this sitting down game 1 at a table with random people. It has lots of land destruction and can really screw over blue if they don't have a lot of
counters. Can also do some really nasty stuff with a cruicible. Sometimes, you just need a deck like that
The deck has weak ramp, is low on wincons, doesn't have much draw power and is super vulnerable to shatterstorm. Yeah, those are some bad qualities to have
Will add a wishlist for the deck, but looking for changes/suggestions before adding to this post. Thanks in advance!
Thanks for the suggestions! Totally overlooked lightning greaves.
I completely agree with you about the dragons being completely underwhelming.
They are pretty much a non-bo with smoke, meekstone, and heat wave.
I like the masticore, was a little worried about card disadvantage in a deck that's already
light on draw. However, it highlights an interesting thought I had after posting the deck.
Of course, most of these cards are all pretty awful so this might be a terrible idea.
I could also, much more rationally, cut some of the dragons and add in some burn spells as a wincon, just play more defensively.
I have also considered adding in some token producing red spells. I would still get owned by trample and fliers though.
And interesting about the elixir. I hadn't considered it and untapping my general would be very nice However, if she has shroud I won't be able to use that part of it.
The rationale for the hammer was that it combos nicely with crucible.
Anyway, thanks for the input. I appreciate it and this deck isn't exactly getting a lot of feedback! I'm still not sold on this decks creature package or wincons, obviously some cuts are in order.
Good advice about the creatures. Actually got to play 2 games with the deck today at my LGS in a small tourney vs. an unknown meta.
It was a small tourney and I was almost late, just grabbed the deck and a few "sideboard" cards and ran out the door.
Made a very few quick changes to the deck, the extra cards were literally in my shirt front pocket and the deck wasn't even
sleeved yet! Did the following quick changes before we shuffled up:
-1 Shivan Dragon
-1 Mountain
-1 Awaken the Ancient
-1 Balefire Dragon
-1 Steel Hellkite
-1 Covetous Dragon
+1 wheel of fate (was worried I was low on draw, ripped out of another deck for the tourney)
+1 Apocalypse (emergency reset, combos with wheel, probably wont stay in)
+1 Inferno Titan (took your advice, this at least impacts the board etb)
+1 Banefire (best cheese!)
+1 Red Elemental Blast (It's a tourney, there's going to be blue!)
+1 Fork (figured there might be some interesting targets to copy)
Tourney report: (hidden in spoiler to keep the post size managable)
First random pod was against Nekusar, the mindrazer and Aurelia, the warleader.
We had one free partial paris but I liked my opening hand with a good mix of heat stroke, mountains, [card]ring of three
wishes[/card], and reforge the soul. Early turns were pretty slow, I just played mountains and heat stroke but
had no blockers so it was rather underwhelming. Aurelia dropped a few small creatures and a spirit of the labyrinth early!
Quite an owch card against Nekusar but also nullified my reforge the soul. I optimistically played my ring of three wishes when blue was
tapped out and it survived, no one really messed with it. Nekusar came out fairly early and started pinging everyone for 2 with the general and underworld dreams. This slowly started to add up over time. I played diaochan but she was killed by Nekusar's dimir charm because he was worried I would kill his general with it. (which I totally would have, but pretended it wasn't my intended target I was able to cautiously use my ring of three wishes a few times but I was
worried that it would just get wheeled out of my hand. My first search was for all is dust. Second search was crucible of worlds. My only colored permanent was heat stroke and it wasn't doing much anyway. Eventually, the spirit of the labyrinth was killed off so both aurelia and I were taking 4 a turn, but I was at least drawing 2. Nekrusar played a few other cards that had us draw so I actually ended up having to discard several times. Eventually, Nekusar and underworld had both myself and aurelia down to the low 20s in life. At this point, it prettymuch became an archenemy game against Nekusar. I had been playing a number of artifacts including Gauntlet of Power (which helped everyone since we all ran mountains), trading post, and some other stuff that was low impact. Aurelia seemed to stumble on mana and couldn't get enough plains to cast the commander for quite a while so Nekusar was threatening to take us both down. I played platinum emperion, gave it shroud and 2 swords for good measure (making sure to equip the swords first) This stemmed the bleeding for a while but that sneaky nekusar killed it somehow. He then was able to cast rise from the grave on it, forcing me to finally cast boil at the end of his turn (baiting a counterspell or destroying islands either way) and then all is dust on my turn, resetting things a bit and taking out the platinum because it was a black zombie.
A turn later, I dropped Caged sun so mountains were making 3 per... was able to play yet more artifacts. Nekusar started making rumblings about getting back the emperion so I'd had enough. He attempted to flash back Mystic Retrieval on Rise from the Grave to get my plat again, had to red elemental blast it. Used my ring of three wishes last counter at the end of his turn, found banefire. Tap 12 mountains, banefire to the FACE. Wheel this Nekusar! I also drew into glacial chasm and was rolling crucible. Was able to hold off aurelia with the chasm, using trading post to gain a bit of life (was down to 9 at one point) and also got back the platinum with shroud and 2 swords for insurance. Crucible/Chasm/not paying chasm's upkeep to attack with unblockable double sworded platinum was too much for aurelia who could have ultimated chandra and had an army of angels collecting dust First in pod 1.
Final Pod of 4- (it was a small tourney) Was the final four, before the game started we agreed to split the prize 4 ways. (for some reason, that's the most popular option
at my store, a tradition almost.) I was fine with that because I wasn't expecting to go past the first round. I'll skip the details, but it was basically a turn 3
kaalia, turn 4 Armageddon by the same player, drop Iona, Shield of Emeria naming red. (why isn't this piece of ***** banned?) I conceded on the spot. I made a mistake in play, I could have dropped a turn 3 blood moon which would have screwed all 3 of kaalia's lands. I didn't want to be a dick so I didn't. Didn't really matter, we split the prize 4 ways so I was playing nice. So placed 4th. Before I could even pack up my deck, the other 2 players were dead. Great interactive game of magic! No worries though, if I wanted to win I would have played blue. That's the only way to answer that kind of nonsense. Even the blue player didn't have a fast enough answer to that draw. Anyway, was a fast game, won some packs, got to test the deck, and was home in time to grill up some salmon. All in all, a great night!
I learned a lot about my deck. I realized it's missing both graveyard and artifact hate. Very important to add, should be simple.
A few cards underperformed- Heat Stroke was pretty terrible for me since I didn't have many blockers. Beasts of Bogardan was awful, big surprise. I think I cast it at the end and a very underwhelming MEH was heard from the crowd. Apocalypse is a piece of crap, was mostly in there for lols. Wall of stone never showed up but will be getting the boot, along with some other mediocre creatures.
A few cards overperformed as well- Trading post was amazing! Makes me want to add a few more artifacts Ring of Three Wishes rocked, I need a gamble bad, goblin welder too. Crucible of Worlds was awesome as well. Red elemental blast good enough to stay!
Platinum Emperion seems risky but potentially quite good. In the world of creature and graveyard stealing,
it's a risk. I think if I add graveyard and artifact hate, I can mitigate the risk.
I'm also thinking of adding wirefly hive. Yeah it looks like junk but I have very little flying defense, works with heat stroke,
works with trading post. And it may be junk
Also, I really didn't get to test out this deck's lack of draw. Got to draw 2 with ol' nekusar for much of the game. I found in my old build I was
short on gas a lot. The deck is also super soft to shatterstorm / vandalblast, but I suppose that's the risk you take running artifacts
This is also a meaner deck than I would normally play. However, I feel that this general is pretty challenging to play and playing a mono-red non top tier general
is a bit of a handicap. I used to play back in 95 so I don't mind a little land destruction. Deck has some rarely seen "hate" or "hoser" cards as well.
4 - Diaochan, Artful Beauty
(Planeswalkers -2)
4 Koth of the Hammer
7 Karn Liberated
(Utility Artifacts -10)
0 Zuran Orb
3 Pristine Talisman
3 Hammer of Purphoros
4 Trading Post
4 Paradise Plume
4 Icy Manipulator
5 Ring of Three Wishes
5 Gauntlet of Power
6 Caged Sun
6 Staff of Nin
(Diaochan's Gear -5)
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Darksteel Plate
3 Sword of War and Peace
3 Whispersilk Cloak
4 General's Kabuto
(Utility Spells -4)
1 Faithless Looting
1 Bonfire of the Damned
3 Chaos Warp
5 Reforge the Soul
1 Meekstone
2 Smoke
3 Heat Stroke
3 Crawlspace
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Mudslide
4 Total War
4 Caverns of Despair
(Land Hate-10)
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Blood Moon
4 Dingus Egg
4 Burning Earth
4 Anarchy
4 Boil
4 Ruination
5 Wake of Destruction
5 Omen of Fire
6 Boom // Bust
(Sweepers -1)
7 All is Dust
(Creatures -19)
3 Archetype of Aggression
3 Mimic Vat (basically a creature)
3 Wall of Stone
4 Awaken the Ancient
4 Oxidda Scrapmelter
4 Ali from Cairo
5 Beasts of Bogardan
5 Urabrask the Hidden
5 Covetous Dragon
5 Stuffy Doll
6 Hellkite Tyrant
6 Steel Hellkite
6 Wurmcoil Engine
6 Shivan Dragon
6 godo, Bandit Warlord
7 Balefire Dragon
7 Platinum Angel
8 Colossus of Akros
8 Platinum Emperion
0 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
0 Maze of Ith
0 Strip Mine
0 Glacial Chasm
0 High Market
0 Kher Keep
0 Buried Ruin
33 Mountain
So that's the deck. It's basically a hate on creatures / lands deck. I just rebuilt it, adding more creatures and ways to survive.
Honestly, half the time I look at the deck and say, "Boy, that looks like an expensive collection of crap." It seems a bit all over
the map. However, I'll try to explain some of my unusual card choices.
Paradise Plume - Seems like a strange choice but I figure I can name red and gain a bit of life. This deck needs lifegain
Mudslide - Feels like the weakest of the tappers, might cut this one. Shuts down tokens pretty well but so does a lot of other cards.
Faithless Looting - Specifically designed to loot away extra land with crucible or to get rid of dead "hate cards" like Anarchy.
Archetype of Aggression - Trample really screws my chump blocking so I thought I might try to get rid of it? This one is an experiment for sure.
Wall of Stone - Good cheap blocker, hopefully for most of the game I can just get attacked by 2 creatures and this should hold off one of them. Also,
hopefully non-threatening enough not to waste removal on.
Awaken the Ancient - Probably crap. Planning on replacing it with Obsidian Fireheart, already ordered.
Ali from Cairo, Platinum Angel, Platinum Emperion - This lifedefying subtheme is probably a pipe dream. I have some protection for them,
but it's probably asking for trouble. Honestly, I've had an Ali from Cairo since 97 and never had a reason to use it. I also like the idea of Platinum angel. These 3 are probably a bad call.
Beasts of Bogardan Seems odd but for those of you who have never played against Diaochan, pro red means that creature cannot get picked by her ability. Otherwise weak.
So those are some of the strange choices. I'm looking for feedback / tough love on this deck. My first version of the deck didn't work because it only ran 10 creatures and basically
annoyed everyone and then got beaten down and eliminated first haha. The update cuts some hate cards, adds more creatures but it's still far from perfect. I think the ideal version of
this deck would have a fair amount of non-creature wincons. Not too sure what those might be in mono-red, however. Also, looking to add a Forcefield, was thinking of cutting mudslide for it.
I feel that the big creatures are the worst part of the deck. The deck is anti-creature. But it needs creatures to defend itself. Considering dropping the big dragons etc and just going with
crappy walls / re-generators / undying creatures. But it needs some wincons then, preferably that don't involve attacking! The old version ran stuff like earthquake and inferno, but since I usually took
a lot of attacks, I was usually at the lowest life so that didn't work so hot.
Also, just as note, this is not my main deck nor would I play this sitting down game 1 at a table with random people. It has lots of land destruction and can really screw over blue if they don't have a lot of
counters. Can also do some really nasty stuff with a cruicible. Sometimes, you just need a deck like that
The deck has weak ramp, is low on wincons, doesn't have much draw power and is super vulnerable to shatterstorm. Yeah, those are some bad qualities to have
Will add a wishlist for the deck, but looking for changes/suggestions before adding to this post. Thanks in advance!
EDH Decks
RGMarhault Elsdragon (A Touch of Rampage)RG
GWTrostani, Early Bird (Wurm Tribal)GW
RWAgrus Kos, Bumbat Drinkin' BadassRW
RDiaochan, Hateful BeautyR
I completely agree with you about the dragons being completely underwhelming.
They are pretty much a non-bo with smoke, meekstone, and heat wave.
I like the masticore, was a little worried about card disadvantage in a deck that's already
light on draw. However, it highlights an interesting thought I had after posting the deck.
I was thinking about just stripping out most of the creatures (especially the dragons/colossus etc)
and replacing them with either big walls or small re-generators. Æther Membrane, Wall of Heat, Wall of Opposition, Wall of granite,Wall of Earth, wall of fire could all be red wall options. Artifacts have
Crenellated Wall, Junktroller, Living Wall is a must, Primal Clay adds versatility,
Snow Fortress for fliers.
Regeners aren't as common, but there's clay statue, Soldevi Sentry could be used politically, same with
Soldevi Steam Beast and uthden troll in red. masticore fits in both this group as well. Regening does tap my creatures
however.
Of course, most of these cards are all pretty awful so this might be a terrible idea.
I could also, much more rationally, cut some of the dragons and add in some burn spells as a wincon, just play more defensively.
I have also considered adding in some token producing red spells. I would still get owned by trample and fliers though.
I also realize I'm missing a few mono-red staples. Gamble is missing, as is wheel of fortune and goblin welder.
And interesting about the elixir. I hadn't considered it and untapping my general would be very nice However, if she has shroud I won't be able to use that part of it.
The rationale for the hammer was that it combos nicely with crucible.
Anyway, thanks for the input. I appreciate it and this deck isn't exactly getting a lot of feedback! I'm still not sold on this decks creature package or wincons, obviously some cuts are in order.
EDH Decks
RGMarhault Elsdragon (A Touch of Rampage)RG
GWTrostani, Early Bird (Wurm Tribal)GW
RWAgrus Kos, Bumbat Drinkin' BadassRW
RDiaochan, Hateful BeautyR
It was a small tourney and I was almost late, just grabbed the deck and a few "sideboard" cards and ran out the door.
Made a very few quick changes to the deck, the extra cards were literally in my shirt front pocket and the deck wasn't even
sleeved yet! Did the following quick changes before we shuffled up:
-1 Shivan Dragon
-1 Mountain
-1 Awaken the Ancient
-1 Balefire Dragon
-1 Steel Hellkite
-1 Covetous Dragon
+1 wheel of fate (was worried I was low on draw, ripped out of another deck for the tourney)
+1 Apocalypse (emergency reset, combos with wheel, probably wont stay in)
+1 Inferno Titan (took your advice, this at least impacts the board etb)
+1 Banefire (best cheese!)
+1 Red Elemental Blast (It's a tourney, there's going to be blue!)
+1 Fork (figured there might be some interesting targets to copy)
Tourney report: (hidden in spoiler to keep the post size managable)
First random pod was against Nekusar, the mindrazer and Aurelia, the warleader.
We had one free partial paris but I liked my opening hand with a good mix of heat stroke, mountains, [card]ring of three
wishes[/card], and reforge the soul. Early turns were pretty slow, I just played mountains and heat stroke but
had no blockers so it was rather underwhelming. Aurelia dropped a few small creatures and a spirit of the labyrinth early!
Quite an owch card against Nekusar but also nullified my reforge the soul. I optimistically played my ring of three wishes when blue was
tapped out and it survived, no one really messed with it. Nekusar came out fairly early and started pinging everyone for 2 with the general and underworld dreams. This slowly started to add up over time. I played diaochan but she was killed by Nekusar's dimir charm because he was worried I would kill his general with it. (which I totally would have, but pretended it wasn't my intended target I was able to cautiously use my ring of three wishes a few times but I was
worried that it would just get wheeled out of my hand. My first search was for all is dust. Second search was crucible of worlds. My only colored permanent was heat stroke and it wasn't doing much anyway. Eventually, the spirit of the labyrinth was killed off so both aurelia and I were taking 4 a turn, but I was at least drawing 2. Nekrusar played a few other cards that had us draw so I actually ended up having to discard several times. Eventually, Nekusar and underworld had both myself and aurelia down to the low 20s in life. At this point, it prettymuch became an archenemy game against Nekusar. I had been playing a number of artifacts including Gauntlet of Power (which helped everyone since we all ran mountains), trading post, and some other stuff that was low impact. Aurelia seemed to stumble on mana and couldn't get enough plains to cast the commander for quite a while so Nekusar was threatening to take us both down. I played platinum emperion, gave it shroud and 2 swords for good measure (making sure to equip the swords first) This stemmed the bleeding for a while but that sneaky nekusar killed it somehow. He then was able to cast rise from the grave on it, forcing me to finally cast boil at the end of his turn (baiting a counterspell or destroying islands either way) and then all is dust on my turn, resetting things a bit and taking out the platinum because it was a black zombie.
A turn later, I dropped Caged sun so mountains were making 3 per... was able to play yet more artifacts. Nekusar started making rumblings about getting back the emperion so I'd had enough. He attempted to flash back Mystic Retrieval on Rise from the Grave to get my plat again, had to red elemental blast it. Used my ring of three wishes last counter at the end of his turn, found banefire. Tap 12 mountains, banefire to the FACE. Wheel this Nekusar! I also drew into glacial chasm and was rolling crucible. Was able to hold off aurelia with the chasm, using trading post to gain a bit of life (was down to 9 at one point) and also got back the platinum with shroud and 2 swords for insurance. Crucible/Chasm/not paying chasm's upkeep to attack with unblockable double sworded platinum was too much for aurelia who could have ultimated chandra and had an army of angels collecting dust First in pod 1.
Final Pod of 4- (it was a small tourney) Was the final four, before the game started we agreed to split the prize 4 ways. (for some reason, that's the most popular option
at my store, a tradition almost.) I was fine with that because I wasn't expecting to go past the first round. I'll skip the details, but it was basically a turn 3
kaalia, turn 4 Armageddon by the same player, drop Iona, Shield of Emeria naming red. (why isn't this piece of ***** banned?) I conceded on the spot. I made a mistake in play, I could have dropped a turn 3 blood moon which would have screwed all 3 of kaalia's lands. I didn't want to be a dick so I didn't. Didn't really matter, we split the prize 4 ways so I was playing nice. So placed 4th. Before I could even pack up my deck, the other 2 players were dead. Great interactive game of magic! No worries though, if I wanted to win I would have played blue. That's the only way to answer that kind of nonsense. Even the blue player didn't have a fast enough answer to that draw. Anyway, was a fast game, won some packs, got to test the deck, and was home in time to grill up some salmon. All in all, a great night!
I learned a lot about my deck. I realized it's missing both graveyard and artifact hate. Very important to add, should be simple.
A few cards underperformed- Heat Stroke was pretty terrible for me since I didn't have many blockers.
Beasts of Bogardan was awful, big surprise. I think I cast it at the end and a very underwhelming MEH was heard from the crowd.
Apocalypse is a piece of crap, was mostly in there for lols.
Wall of stone never showed up but will be getting the boot, along with some other mediocre creatures.
A few cards overperformed as well-
Trading post was amazing! Makes me want to add a few more artifacts
Ring of Three Wishes rocked, I need a gamble bad, goblin welder too.
Crucible of Worlds was awesome as well.
Red elemental blast good enough to stay!
Platinum Emperion seems risky but potentially quite good. In the world of creature and graveyard stealing,
it's a risk. I think if I add graveyard and artifact hate, I can mitigate the risk.
I'm also thinking of adding wirefly hive. Yeah it looks like junk but I have very little flying defense, works with heat stroke,
works with trading post. And it may be junk
Also, I really didn't get to test out this deck's lack of draw. Got to draw 2 with ol' nekusar for much of the game. I found in my old build I was
short on gas a lot. The deck is also super soft to shatterstorm / vandalblast, but I suppose that's the risk you take running artifacts
EDH Decks
RGMarhault Elsdragon (A Touch of Rampage)RG
GWTrostani, Early Bird (Wurm Tribal)GW
RWAgrus Kos, Bumbat Drinkin' BadassRW
RDiaochan, Hateful BeautyR