Welcome to Bomat Red, also know as Sligh, Modern Ramunap Red, RDW, or “You know this is Modern, right?”. At its core Bomat Red is a creature based aggro deck, sure you've got burn but most of your damage comes from creatures. The thing that sets us apart from just being Zoo with removal is that our creatures don't just deal damage in combat, they deal damage any time our opponent does anything. Put a creature onto the Battlefield? That's damage. Crack a Fetch? Damage. Flashback a spell? You better bet that's damage. We also get card advantage off of the card the deck is named after, Bomat Courier. We'll go over that little guy more in Card Choices
This is an unexpectedly flexible deck as you really only need the card to be a creature or burn at 1, 2, or 3 mana to be viable. And Red, very Red. You want 22-27 creatures, 14-19 spells, and 19-20 lands.
Creatures
Bomat Courier: This Raging Goblin-Claptrap hybrid is actually really key to the deck. It looks small and unassuming, and sometimes it is. Most of the time it eats removal before cracking it is profitable, which in its self isn't bad. 3-4 damage and an opponent's removal spell for 1 isn't nothing. And then there are the times it works perfectly and you get Lava Spike and Ancestral Recall in one card. In mono-red. In Modern. Run 4
Soul-Scar Mage: Yet another Ramunap Red standard card that this deck just loves. It gets in for damage just as well as Monastery Swiftspear and lets us do something mono-red normally can't; deal with big creatures. Run 3-4
Monastery Swiftspear: Not one of the strongest creatures in the deck, but still necessary for the curve. She also happens to be able to get in for solid damage if unchecked. Run 0-4
Grim Lavamancer: The 1-drop that you don't drop on turn 1. Gives repeatable and uncounterable damage for the long game or go-wide strategies. Run 0-4
Eidolon of the Great Revel: Taxing the opponent for playing cheap spells is great for what we're trying to do. Soaks up removal like a champ, which is actually a good thing with this creature. Run as many as you can afford
Ash Zealot: Honestly this card would be on here without the graveyard ability, and most of the time it won't be relevant. But when it is, free Bolts are always great! Run 0-4
Goblin Cratermaker: This little goblin is a bear with Creature and Artifact hate stapled to it that also hits Eldrazi and Tron Planeswalkers, which is pretty good utility. Run 0-2
Earthshaker Khenra: Usually found in hyper aggressive list. No taxing effect and the fact that it dies to everything are big drawbacks, but the ability to recur a 4/4 with haste if the game goes long can make up for it if you just want a big dumb beatstick. Run 0-4
Harsh Mentor: A bear that taxes fetch lands is not to be sniffed at, which is a shame considering how many people sniff at him. Run 0-4
Dire Fleet Daredevil: A card that is great in some matchups and mediocre in others. Doesn't pain us off [[Ash Zealot]] and is bad graveyard hate due to exiling. There's debate as to whether she belongs in the main or side. Run 0-2
Instants and Sorceries
Searing Blaze: Not as good without fetches, but still a solid enough choice if you want to kill off small creatures without taking off a turn from damaging your opponent. Run 0-4
Searing Blood: Not quite as powerful as Searing Blaze, but much more reliable and the 1 damage difference is rarely relevant. Run 0-4
Incinerate: Turns out that 3 damage at instant speed can be good enough for 2 in modern in the right deck. Still hurts though to run Lightning Strike's older brother. Run 0-4
Abrade: Kills more things than Incinerate, but doesn't go face. However, with Stoneforge Mystic being a thing now it's a very good choice. Run 0-4
Magma Jet: Shock for 2 is bad, but Scry 2 is good. Especially in Red and in combination with Bomat Courier. Run 0-2
Creatures
Rampaging Ferocidon: A great card against both creature decks and control decks, this card is another example of everything we want to be doing. Menace is also a real upside. Run 2-4
Goblin Chainwhirler: A 3/3 with First Strike is surprisingly relevant and the ability to clear out tokens, mana dorks, and other incidental utility creatures is great too. Run 0-4
Jaya Ballard, Task Mage: An interesting utility creature. Probably better as a sideboard card against W/U Control because it can destroy Planeswalkers very easily, but worth considering as a maindeck card because it can turn anything into an Incinerate Run 0-2
Scab-Clan Berserker: While it doesn't do much in creature matchups, it can be devastating to spell based decks. A very good substitute for Eidolon of the Great Revel if you're on a very strict budget. Run 0-2, 4 if you can't afford Eidolon
Instants and Sorceries
Molten Rain: A somewhat controversial card. Can win games against greedy decks and big mana decks, or do next to nothing against Basic heavy decks. Run 0 or 4
Rift Bolt: Most often used as a 1-drop, but I usually like planning for the worst possible scenario and that means hardcasting Rift Bolt. Benefits from Suspend, but suffers from Sorcery speed and being over costed. Run 0-4
Bomat Red's unique feature is that it is at its heart secretly a taxes deck. A very aggressive taxes deck, but still a taxes deck. Only we don't want to stop our opponent's from doing things most of the time, we're just fine with them doing things. In fact our aggressive nature is there to force them to do things as quickly as possible. We just want to make it painful for them to be doing things. We want to make it so that if our opponent is playing correctly we tax them half to death and beat them down the other half or so that they don't play correctly in which case we can punish them for that by just being an efficient Red deck.
Because of all this, like many other Red decks, Bomat Red is easy to learn but harder to master. Not that hard mind, we are swinging aggressively with cheap creatures after all. I won't lie, it's pretty easy to pick this deck up and just burn every creature in sight, swinging merrily away and janking out some wins. However learning the counter-intuitive things like when it's correct to Molten Rain a Fetch (Hint: Harsh Mentor is usually involved) will take a lot more time. Sometimes Bomat Courier is worth cracking to card disadvantage, just to dig for answers. Sometimes Eidolon of the Great Revel isn't the optimal play on turn 2, and other times it's even correct to run her out into removal you know is coming. There are some weird lines this deck has to take to do the most damage.
This is a bit of a WiP. Although the history behind this archetype is long, don't know a lot about the matchups for this particular style of Sligh. Any feedback on these or any other matchups, especially backed up by data, would be very appreciated.
Counters Company: Good. We run things that tax creatures entering the battlefield and activated abilities making it very hard for them to combo off without removal, which they have very little of.
Elves: Good. Use early removal to keep them down until Goblin Chainwhirler and/or Rampaging Ferocidon can throw a wrench in their plans for good. Harsh Mentor stops the G/W variant's infinite combo which helps. Landing an Eidolon of the Great Revel here is just gravy, we don't need her but it sure is nice.
Hardened Affinity: Even-Good. Eidolon of the Great Revel is much better here than when it was traditional Affinity. Harsh Mentor is the real MVP here though, hitting both Moth lands and Arcbound Ravager. They do go a lot bigger than us so we have to make sure we're on top of their board state.
Burn: Even. Often a die roll and race to Eidolon of the Great Revel (I'm noticing a theme here). They are faster than us and don't have much to tax unfortunately, but we can create an awful lot of problems for them to have to answer, our lands don't really hurt us, and we can lock them out of colours. So kind of like a poor approximation of Merfolk but with Dragon's Claw which they rarely board in hate for even in game 3.
Jund: Even. We don't answer 'Goyf well, they don't deal well with Eidolon of the Great Revel, they have lots of hand hate, we have Bomat Courier, they have lots of removal, they also tax themselves a lot with Bob. Kind of a coin flip.
Tron: Bad-Even. We either maindeck land destruction or are slanted towards being hyper-aggro depending on the list, neither of which Tron is good at dealing with but we don't deal well with what they're doing if they get there either and we don't have much to tax them with here. Ultimately Karn, the Great Creator being able to fetch whatever they need made a huge difference in this matchup.
Grixis Death Shadow: Bad. Another deck with heavy removal and creatures we don't interact with well. Eidolon of the Great Revel can wreck their day or help them immensely depending on the situation, so be careful.
Magmatic Sinkhole: If the big things are showing up late enough this doesn't hurt and hits flyers. Totally incompatible with Grim Lavamancer though. Run 0-2
Skullcrack: Decks that gain life often have good ways of interacting with creatures, so Rampaging Ferocidon might not cut it. Also having something to put in for Searing effects against creature-less/light decks is nice. Run 0-4
Ratchet Bomb: Mostly Bogles tech, but has fringe benefits in other matchups. Be warned, all our stuff is 1-3cmc where this card is best.
It's also important to note that many of the maindeck choices make for great sideboard options as they are often very punishing against certain decks and just bears against others.
Goblin Guide: And you thought you had found a mono-Red Aggro deck that didn't want him. And you might be right. Many builds do leave him out intentionally in part because they run Molten Rain and in part because he pushes you to be very aggressive, otherwise your opponents get to benefit too much from the lands you feed them and the gas you dig them towards. Replace Monastery Swiftspear and drop Molten Rain.
Sunbaked Canyon/Fiery Islet: The single best upgrade here. Extra card draw that prevents flood isn't as wonderful for us as it is for burn, but it's still amazing for us. Run 2-6
Fetches: Like Guide these are not necessary for an optimal build by any means, while they do fuel Grim Lavamancer and Searing Blaze you do lose a lot more life to your own manabase and might need 20 lands to reliably curve out which can be very important. Run 0-10
Shattering Spree: One of the benefits of being mono-Red is access to one of the best artifact destruction cards ever printed. Replace Smash to Smithereens
One thing you may have noticed is that, aside from Horizon lands, none of these “upgrades” necessarily make the deck better and are more lateral moves. That means these are even more optional than usual.
By this time you'll have noticed that we curve out at 3cmc, but from time to time the idea of running a card with 4cmc pops up. Now there's a lot that's bad about 4-drops in this deck. Firstly we run 19-20 land, so sure we'll get to 4 sometimes, but not all that often and there's little worse than a dead card in this game. Secondly we run Bomat Courier, which initially may not seem like a big issue but it is. Having a bomb like it would have to be for this deck to run it, you're now incentivized to not crack your Courier to hold on to your 4-drop. We want to run out our hand quick and then refill it, not wait for the perfect moment to devastate our opponent with a dragon. That all said, I ain't gonna tell what to do and it never hurts to try something new. Or even something old in a new meta. So here a couple of the 4-drops we'd be most likely to make use of.
Hellrider: We're about the only deck in Modern that can really make use of what can be an awfully devastating card. However it fails the Lightning Bolt test, and that is a very real drawback to an already expensive creature. Run 0-2
Hazoret the Fervent: By now running 2017-18 standard cards should be pretty familiar territory for us, so why not Hazoret? She has Haste, is Indestructible, and flings unwanted cards at our opponent's head. Unfortunately we can get most of this elsewhere for cheaper, in more ways than one. Run 0-2
Chandra, Torch of Defiance: Again looking at 2017-18 standard cards. The best red 'walker provides card advantage, repeatable damage, and removal. If we ran a 4-drop it would be her. Run 0-2
One of the draws of Bomat Red outside of how it plays is what it costs. This is where we'll get into the grisly details of finance as we follow a deck through its stages of budget.
So this deck's main weakness is a lack of Eidolon of the Great Revel. We've done our best to mitigate that by running playsets of our other taxing creatures. Retaining Molten Rain is pretty necessary here to help slow down the opponent while not letting up pressure. Stone Rain could do in a pinch though and does bring the deck under $40, but I would strongly recommend against it.
You may recognize this as the sample decklist from the beginning of the primer. This where the deck really starts to gain traction with a playset of Eidolon of the Great Revel. There isn't much of anything that a higher dollar deck does this one doesn't, and it's well under budget at ~$85. Grim Lavamancer is the first card to cut if you need it cheaper though.
This is actually my personal list and is therefore effected by my meta and play experiences. It is, however, not atypical of a Bomat Red list. Not much to say here except Leyline of Combustion is something I'm testing against burn.
So this is a straight up copy of Kuhmero's deck with an “upgraded” manabase. The actual list is about $200 as it is without Fetches. This is as expensive as these decks get, and this is way more than you need. The lists that put up results almost universally cost sub $250. First budgetary is fetches.
The regular taxes variant isn't the only way to build a Bomat Red deck. There's also the hyper-aggro variant. And for now that's about it, though splashes are possible, lets have a look at some sample decklists.
So this deck is much more similar to a traditional RDW (Red Deck Wins) shell because its gameplan is much more straightforward: turn things sideways. In this build taxing effects are just bonuses along the way, and the real stock and trade of its creatures is combat. Here Bomat Courier running into removal is always bad, because you really need the refill to your hand. If you want to close the game now, this is your build. If you want to have longer legs and a better matchup against 'Goyf decks, maybe look elsewhere.
White is probably the easiest splash thanks to Sunbaked Canyon, and does bring unconditional removal and lifegain, but there's an argument to be made that this compromises the deck too much and that it would simply be better as a traditional D&T list with access to red.
Green probably adds the most to what the deck does by giving access to Burning-Tree Shaman, which while symmetrical does hit planeswalkers crucially, and Cindervines which is not only a nice way to deal with enchantments but 4 pseudo Eidolons you can bring in out of the board. Other than that there isn't a whole lot, and it's quite the investment for a colour with no Horizon land but it might prove useful.
Bonecrusher Giant: Removal and a creature that punishes removal together in one card seems *real* good.
Boros Reckoner: A really tough creature to block or attack into, this card shows some real potential.
Castle Embereth: A land that cranks out more damage seems like a pretty good upgrade over Shinka.
Light Up the Stage: Being able to "draw" cards in red is powerful, but I don't know if a card that only does that is necessary. Bomat does damage and the Horizon lands produce mana, but this is just cards. Although it does work well with the Courier because the cards won't be discarded.
Robber of the Rich: A bit expensive for most budgets for now, but a hasty bear that can not only trade with flyers late game but also gives you card advantage and access to spells you wouldn't normally have is pretty good.
Skewer the Critics: Bolt is good. Sorcery Bolt is also good, but sorcery Open Fire is bad. It's probably better than Rift Bolt but I'm not sure if that's good enough tbh.
No mention of Soul-Scar Mage as copies 5-8x of Swiftspear ?
The 2nd ability can also be useful when dealing with bigger creatures.
Ahn-Crop Crasher also seems like a good 3-drop for going all-in aggro and taking out a blocker for a turn, same goes for Earthshaker.
Another reasonable 3-drop is Boggart Ram-Gang as haste+wither can be quite effective on offense/defense respectively.
For the slower games Boros Reckoner isn't too bad, maybe as a SB option.
I'm not sure about Ash Zealot and Harsh Mentor in the deck, the first is decent but not great (I'd prefer Earthshaker) and the 2nd is rather weak and the ability isn't always good so it is a SB card at best imho and I'd maindeck Soul-Scar/Lavamancer instead.
I don't really like Molten Rain as a maindeck card and would rather have it in the SB and focus on maximizing damage with something like Firecraft or maybe Stoke the Flames for instant speed (or Brimstone Volley, but it is probably too janky).
Aura Barbs is an extremely narrow SB card, if I'd want a card for Bogles which has applications in other matchups as well
then Ratchet Bomb is probably a pretty good option.
Some people run it, some don't. It's kind of a free roll because it's not like the deck is going to run out of basics to fetch off Field of Ruin and very few people run Molten Rain beyond Ponza and the mirror, but it's not like it's necessary by any means. That's why it has such a low rating.
There's not much I disagree with here, most of this is down to me only putting cards I've seen being run in the list. Maybe I should have a section for untested cards? That might be good.
Anyway the big thing I wanted to address was Ash Zealot and Harsh Mentor. Both have proven to work very well in the short time this archetype's been around. I'm not saying don't try different things, just that they've definitely earned their slots.
First, sorry for the late reply. I've been busy! Unfortunately I do not know any guides that deal with that kind of thing and I really need more play time to add it here. What I do know is that I would say stay away from 1 landers or 5+ landers, and be wary of 4's. They're keepable often enough but not always. and don't keep creature-less hands. We aren't burn. Check out the subreddit for more!
I think it's neat, and that if one were to splash that there are definitely a lot of things that black could bring to a deck like this. It's just that at first glance Bloodghast and Brutality are nonbos with Grim Lavamancer, who eats your graveyard, and Ferocidon, who stops your lifegain. Personally I'd try it with a more aggressive bent and swap Grim and the Dino for some burn or utility spells and Goblin Rabblemaster respectively, with Rampaging Ferocidon being higher on the "cut it list".
^^
Honestly this just looks like a worse version of a Burn deck, I realy don't see the upside here.
It also plays awful cards like: Fiery Temper, Gut Shot (3x copies of it) and Insult // Injury
(which is barely even playable in Standard).
This deck looks really bad if you compare it to a stock burn list.
Well, i suppose this list in particular ia designed as a budget deck and i would look at it as a starting point. I also thought that Fiery Temper was bad, but the full packages of Couriers, Flame of Keld and Faithless Looting make it really easy to discard it. That said, Gut Shot and Insult/Injury are definitively the flex slots of the deck and i too am wondering if the discard package is worth it. I really love Bomat Courier (as anyone here) and also quite like the Flame of Keld (especially as a 4 of), but i am not sure they are enough to justify Fiery Temper and Looting; this last in particular is probably there just to help fueling Temper, because the deck plays onlyn 18 lands, and no other graveyard synergie outside of those two pyromancers.
I have recently picked up the deck and I am looking for a little bit of help on building my list, but here are my thoughts(all meta-game innfo comes from: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/modern#paper):
Bomat Courier is too good to be a three-of, it must be a four-of
due to the aggressive spellslinger nature of this format [Eidolon of the Great Revel][/card] is really busted
I personally think Molten rain and other mainboardable land destruction that is not a [Blood Moon][/card] effect is overrated and I think more removal is better
[Light Up The Stage][/card] seems really good in a more linear, aggressive version of this deck
Also do any of the more experienced player have any advice on how this decks is supposed to play against various decks in the meta
@hayz1313 ghostly prison is one of the cards that this struggles with the most, there are no ways to beat it without splashing into other colors, and wile on the topic of splashing colors, white might be worth it for disenchant style effects, lightning helix and other hatebears
Hey guys, stumbled across this recently and it really, really appeals to me. Anyone still playing it post RNA/War?
I have most of the pieces for it so I'm going to give it a go, but curious if LutS/skewer the critics might find a home somewhere? Also the soon-to-be modern legal Pillage seems nice as an alternative to molten rain?
If anyone has an updated deck list it'd be great
EDIT: was able to get a couple of games in, going 3-0 vs izzet phoenix (the pyromancer's ascension variety), went with something like this: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mono-red-taxes-aka-bomat-red/
(- a couple of harsh mentors, plus a couple of chainwhirler's, ravenous trap and abrade in side over the relics, and some small changes like that).
Really, really enjoyed it. Eidolon was awesome, and I even got to end two games by saccing my ramunap ruin (although one of them I had lethal in hand anyway, so it doesn't really count).
Is there any strong reason to run relic over ravenous trap? I don't have relic so ran tormod's/ravenous instead and it was great, but obviously phoenix isn't the only deck in the world.
Welcome to Bomat Red, also know as Sligh, Modern Ramunap Red, RDW, or “You know this is Modern, right?”. At its core Bomat Red is a creature based aggro deck, sure you've got burn but most of your damage comes from creatures. The thing that sets us apart from just being Zoo with removal is that our creatures don't just deal damage in combat, they deal damage any time our opponent does anything. Put a creature onto the Battlefield? That's damage. Crack a Fetch? Damage. Flashback a spell? You better bet that's damage. We also get card advantage off of the card the deck is named after, Bomat Courier. We'll go over that little guy more in Card Choices
4 Bomat Courier
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Rampaging Ferocidon
2 Ash Zealot
2 Harsh Mentor
2 Goblin Chainwhirler
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Molten Rain
4 Incinerate
4 Searing Blood
2 Rift Bolt
Lands- 20
15 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
3 Exquisite Firecraft
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Roast
2 Dragon's Claw
This is an unexpectedly flexible deck as you really only need the card to be a creature or burn at 1, 2, or 3 mana to be viable. And Red, very Red. You want 22-27 creatures, 14-19 spells, and 19-20 lands.
Creatures
Bomat Courier:
Soul-Scar Mage:
Monastery Swiftspear:
Grim Lavamancer:
Instants and Sorceries
Lightning Bolt:
Burst Lightning:
Forked Bolt:
Shard Volley:
Creatures
Eidolon of the Great Revel:
Ash Zealot:
Goblin Cratermaker:
Earthshaker Khenra:
Harsh Mentor:
Dire Fleet Daredevil:
Instants and Sorceries
Searing Blaze:
Searing Blood:
Incinerate:
Abrade:
Magma Jet:
Creatures
Rampaging Ferocidon:
Goblin Chainwhirler:
Goblin Rabblemaster:
Jaya Ballard, Task Mage:
Scab-Clan Berserker:
Instants and Sorceries
Molten Rain:
Rift Bolt:
Mountain:
Ramunap Ruins:
Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep:
Bomat Red's unique feature is that it is at its heart secretly a taxes deck. A very aggressive taxes deck, but still a taxes deck. Only we don't want to stop our opponent's from doing things most of the time, we're just fine with them doing things. In fact our aggressive nature is there to force them to do things as quickly as possible. We just want to make it painful for them to be doing things. We want to make it so that if our opponent is playing correctly we tax them half to death and beat them down the other half or so that they don't play correctly in which case we can punish them for that by just being an efficient Red deck.
Because of all this, like many other Red decks, Bomat Red is easy to learn but harder to master. Not that hard mind, we are swinging aggressively with cheap creatures after all. I won't lie, it's pretty easy to pick this deck up and just burn every creature in sight, swinging merrily away and janking out some wins. However learning the counter-intuitive things like when it's correct to Molten Rain a Fetch (Hint: Harsh Mentor is usually involved) will take a lot more time. Sometimes Bomat Courier is worth cracking to card disadvantage, just to dig for answers. Sometimes Eidolon of the Great Revel isn't the optimal play on turn 2, and other times it's even correct to run her out into removal you know is coming. There are some weird lines this deck has to take to do the most damage.
This is a bit of a WiP. Although the history behind this archetype is long, don't know a lot about the matchups for this particular style of Sligh. Any feedback on these or any other matchups, especially backed up by data, would be very appreciated.
Counters Company: Good. We run things that tax creatures entering the battlefield and activated abilities making it very hard for them to combo off without removal, which they have very little of.
Storm: Good. We run 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel which they have to deal with before they can combo out, and an Empty the Warrens into a Rampaging Ferocidon or even a Goblin Chainwhirler feels great.
Mardu Pyromancer: Good. Ash Zealot is a star here, as is Eidolon of the Great Revel. Goblin Chainwhirler is great for clearing tokes, and Rampaging Ferocidon punishes them hard for making them.
Elves: Good. Use early removal to keep them down until Goblin Chainwhirler and/or Rampaging Ferocidon can throw a wrench in their plans for good. Harsh Mentor stops the G/W variant's infinite combo which helps. Landing an Eidolon of the Great Revel here is just gravy, we don't need her but it sure is nice.
Hardened Affinity: Even-Good. Eidolon of the Great Revel is much better here than when it was traditional Affinity. Harsh Mentor is the real MVP here though, hitting both Moth lands and Arcbound Ravager. They do go a lot bigger than us so we have to make sure we're on top of their board state.
Burn: Even. Often a die roll and race to Eidolon of the Great Revel (I'm noticing a theme here). They are faster than us and don't have much to tax unfortunately, but we can create an awful lot of problems for them to have to answer, our lands don't really hurt us, and we can lock them out of colours. So kind of like a poor approximation of Merfolk but with Dragon's Claw which they rarely board in hate for even in game 3.
Jund: Even. We don't answer 'Goyf well, they don't deal well with Eidolon of the Great Revel, they have lots of hand hate, we have Bomat Courier, they have lots of removal, they also tax themselves a lot with Bob. Kind of a coin flip.
Tron: Bad-Even. We either maindeck land destruction or are slanted towards being hyper-aggro depending on the list, neither of which Tron is good at dealing with but we don't deal well with what they're doing if they get there either and we don't have much to tax them with here. Ultimately Karn, the Great Creator being able to fetch whatever they need made a huge difference in this matchup.
Bogles: Bad. Rampaging Ferocidon is key as are Ratchet Bomb and/or Aura Barbs, which is a shame because most of those are post board.
Grixis Death Shadow: Bad. Another deck with heavy removal and creatures we don't interact with well. Eidolon of the Great Revel can wreck their day or help them immensely depending on the situation, so be careful.
Tormod's Crypt:
Aura Barbs:
Exquisite Firecraft:
Shrine of Burning Rage:
Smash to Smithereens:
Dragon's Claw:
Roast:
Dismember:
Magmatic Sinkhole:
Skullcrack:
Ratchet Bomb:
Torpor Orb:
It's also important to note that many of the maindeck choices make for great sideboard options as they are often very punishing against certain decks and just bears against others.
Goblin Guide:
Sunbaked Canyon/Fiery Islet:
Fetches:
Shattering Spree:
Magus of the Moon:
Relic of Progenitus:
Grafdigger's Cage:
One thing you may have noticed is that, aside from Horizon lands, none of these “upgrades” necessarily make the deck better and are more lateral moves. That means these are even more optional than usual.
By this time you'll have noticed that we curve out at 3cmc, but from time to time the idea of running a card with 4cmc pops up. Now there's a lot that's bad about 4-drops in this deck. Firstly we run 19-20 land, so sure we'll get to 4 sometimes, but not all that often and there's little worse than a dead card in this game. Secondly we run Bomat Courier, which initially may not seem like a big issue but it is. Having a bomb like it would have to be for this deck to run it, you're now incentivized to not crack your Courier to hold on to your 4-drop. We want to run out our hand quick and then refill it, not wait for the perfect moment to devastate our opponent with a dragon. That all said, I ain't gonna tell what to do and it never hurts to try something new. Or even something old in a new meta. So here a couple of the 4-drops we'd be most likely to make use of.
Hellrider:
Hazoret the Fervent:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance:
One of the draws of Bomat Red outside of how it plays is what it costs. This is where we'll get into the grisly details of finance as we follow a deck through its stages of budget.
Ultra-Budget (sub$50)
4 Bomat Courier
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Rampaging Ferocidon
4 Ash Zealot
4 Harsh Mentor
4 Scab-Clan Berserker
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Searing Blood
4 Incinerate
4 Molten Rain
Lands- 20
16 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
3 Pyrite Spellbomb
3 Smash to Smithereens
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Roast
3 Dragon's Claw
So this deck's main weakness is a lack of Eidolon of the Great Revel. We've done our best to mitigate that by running playsets of our other taxing creatures. Retaining Molten Rain is pretty necessary here to help slow down the opponent while not letting up pressure. Stone Rain could do in a pinch though and does bring the deck under $40, but I would strongly recommend against it.
Entry-Budget (sub$100)
4 Bomat Courier
4 Soul-Scar Mage
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Rampaging Ferocidon
2 Ash Zealot
2 Harsh Mentor
2 Goblin Chainwhirler
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Molten Rain
4 Incinerate
4 Searing Blood
2 Rift Bolt
Lands- 20
15 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
3 Exquisite Firecraft
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Roast
2 Dragon's Claw
You may recognize this as the sample decklist from the beginning of the primer. This where the deck really starts to gain traction with a playset of Eidolon of the Great Revel. There isn't much of anything that a higher dollar deck does this one doesn't, and it's well under budget at ~$85. Grim Lavamancer is the first card to cut if you need it cheaper though.
Non-budget (~$150)
4 Bomat Courier
4 Soul-Scar Mage
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Rampaging Ferocidon
2 Ash Zealot
4 Harsh Mentor
2 Goblin Chainwhirler
2 Goblin Cratermaker
2 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Burst Lightning
Lands- 20
14 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
2 Fiery Islet
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Relic of Progenitus
4 Leyline of Combustion
1 Shattering Spree
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Alpine Moon
2 Magmatic Sinkhole
This is actually my personal list and is therefore effected by my meta and play experiences. It is, however, not atypical of a Bomat Red list. Not much to say here except Leyline of Combustion is something I'm testing against burn.
I have extra cards...and money ($400)
3 Bomat Courier
2 Dire Fleet Daredevil
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Goblin Guide
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
3 Grim Lavamancer
3 Rampaging Ferocidon
Spells- 17
4 Rift Bolt
1 Burst Lightning
4 Incinerate
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Searing Blood
7 Mountain
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Ramunap Ruins
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
4 Fiery Islet
3 Dragon's Claw
2 Harsh Mentor
2 Molten Rain
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Skullcrack
2 Smash to Smithereens
So this is a straight up copy of Kuhmero's deck with an “upgraded” manabase. The actual list is about $200 as it is without Fetches. This is as expensive as these decks get, and this is way more than you need. The lists that put up results almost universally cost sub $250. First budgetary is fetches.
The regular taxes variant isn't the only way to build a Bomat Red deck. There's also the hyper-aggro variant. And for now that's about it, though splashes are possible, lets have a look at some sample decklists.
4 Bomat Courier
4 Goblin Guide
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
2 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Ash Zealot
3 Earthshaker Khenra
3 Goblin Chainwhirler
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Searing Blood
Lands- 20
15 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Exquisite Firecraft
3 Shattering Spree
3 Dragon's Claw
4 Skullcrack
So this deck is much more similar to a traditional RDW (Red Deck Wins) shell because its gameplan is much more straightforward: turn things sideways. In this build taxing effects are just bonuses along the way, and the real stock and trade of its creatures is combat. Here Bomat Courier running into removal is always bad, because you really need the refill to your hand. If you want to close the game now, this is your build. If you want to have longer legs and a better matchup against 'Goyf decks, maybe look elsewhere.
4 Bomat Courier
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Soul-Scar Mage
4 Harsh Mentor
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
Spells- 16
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Molten Rain
4 Lightning helix
4 Searing Blood
8 Mountain
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Sunbaked Canyon
4 Ramunap Ruins
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Rest In Peace
2 Wear // Tear
2 Smash to Smithereens
3 Dragon's Claw
4 Path to Exile
White is probably the easiest splash thanks to Sunbaked Canyon, and does bring unconditional removal and lifegain, but there's an argument to be made that this compromises the deck too much and that it would simply be better as a traditional D&T list with access to red.
4 Bomat Courier
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Soul-Scar Mage
4 Harsh Mentor
4 Rampaging Ferocidon
4 Burning-Tree Shaman
Spells- 16
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Molten Rain
4 Incinerate
4 Searing Blood
8 Mountain
4 Ramunap Ruins
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Rootbound Crag
2 Roast
2 Goblin Cratermaker
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Dragon's Claw
2 Prowling Serpopard
4 Cindervines
Green probably adds the most to what the deck does by giving access to Burning-Tree Shaman, which while symmetrical does hit planeswalkers crucially, and Cindervines which is not only a nice way to deal with enchantments but 4 pseudo Eidolons you can bring in out of the board. Other than that there isn't a whole lot, and it's quite the investment for a colour with no Horizon land but it might prove useful.
Due to both the open nature of Bomat Red there are many cards that could be tried but I just haven't yet. Here are but a few.
Ahn-Crop Crasher: One of the best hasty 3-drops ever printed. Takes blockers out of the equation, gets in for 3 with Haste, what's not to like?
Boggart Ram-Gang: Kind of combines Soul-Scar Mage and Ahn-Crop Crasher. Shrinks creatures and gets in for 3 with Haste.
Bonecrusher Giant: Removal and a creature that punishes removal together in one card seems *real* good.
Boros Reckoner: A really tough creature to block or attack into, this card shows some real potential.
Castle Embereth: A land that cranks out more damage seems like a pretty good upgrade over Shinka.
Light Up the Stage: Being able to "draw" cards in red is powerful, but I don't know if a card that only does that is necessary. Bomat does damage and the Horizon lands produce mana, but this is just cards. Although it does work well with the Courier because the cards won't be discarded.
Robber of the Rich: A bit expensive for most budgets for now, but a hasty bear that can not only trade with flyers late game but also gives you card advantage and access to spells you wouldn't normally have is pretty good.
Skewer the Critics: Bolt is good. Sorcery Bolt is also good, but sorcery Open Fire is bad. It's probably better than Rift Bolt but I'm not sure if that's good enough tbh.
Here are some, okay two other resource on the deck:
Justin Elkins' deck tech
The subreddit
The 2nd ability can also be useful when dealing with bigger creatures.
Ahn-Crop Crasher also seems like a good 3-drop for going all-in aggro and taking out a blocker for a turn, same goes for Earthshaker.
Another reasonable 3-drop is Boggart Ram-Gang as haste+wither can be quite effective on offense/defense respectively.
For the slower games Boros Reckoner isn't too bad, maybe as a SB option.
I'm not sure about Ash Zealot and Harsh Mentor in the deck, the first is decent but not great (I'd prefer Earthshaker) and the 2nd is rather weak and the ability isn't always good so it is a SB card at best imho and I'd maindeck Soul-Scar/Lavamancer instead.
Goblin Chainwhirler can be good but is also very matchiup dependant imho for a maindeck card, Goblin Rabblemaster or Ahn-Crop Crasher would be my choice for the 3-drop slot.
I don't really like Molten Rain as a maindeck card and would rather have it in the SB and focus on maximizing damage with something like Firecraft or maybe Stoke the Flames for instant speed (or Brimstone Volley, but it is probably too janky).
Searing Blood misses too many targets imho to maindeck it, I'd rather have 4x Rift Bolt instead and 2x slots for Forked Bolt or Magma Jet.
Aura Barbs is an extremely narrow SB card, if I'd want a card for Bogles which has applications in other matchups as well
then Ratchet Bomb is probably a pretty good option.
Anyway the big thing I wanted to address was Ash Zealot and Harsh Mentor. Both have proven to work very well in the short time this archetype's been around. I'm not saying don't try different things, just that they've definitely earned their slots.
Any feedback is appreciated!
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/19-06-18-jDg-br-sligh/?cb=1529383298
I'm hoping that faithless looting will create enough targets for lavamancer to justify his slots in the deck.
I'll update once I've done some more testing!
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/card-of-the-day-the-flame-of-keld-modern/
Honestly this just looks like a worse version of a Burn deck, I realy don't see the upside here.
It also plays awful cards like: Fiery Temper, Gut Shot (3x copies of it) and Insult // Injury
(which is barely even playable in Standard).
This deck looks really bad if you compare it to a stock burn list.
Bomat Courier is too good to be a three-of, it must be a four-of
due to the aggressive spellslinger nature of this format [Eidolon of the Great Revel][/card] is really busted
I personally think Molten rain and other mainboardable land destruction that is not a [Blood Moon][/card] effect is overrated and I think more removal is better
[Light Up The Stage][/card] seems really good in a more linear, aggressive version of this deck
Also do any of the more experienced player have any advice on how this decks is supposed to play against various decks in the meta
Skewer the Critics however looks real good. Can replace some of the two mana burn in the ultrabudget deck and maybe even Rift Bolt all together.
I have most of the pieces for it so I'm going to give it a go, but curious if LutS/skewer the critics might find a home somewhere? Also the soon-to-be modern legal Pillage seems nice as an alternative to molten rain?
If anyone has an updated deck list it'd be great
EDIT: was able to get a couple of games in, going 3-0 vs izzet phoenix (the pyromancer's ascension variety), went with something like this:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mono-red-taxes-aka-bomat-red/
(- a couple of harsh mentors, plus a couple of chainwhirler's, ravenous trap and abrade in side over the relics, and some small changes like that).
Really, really enjoyed it. Eidolon was awesome, and I even got to end two games by saccing my ramunap ruin (although one of them I had lethal in hand anyway, so it doesn't really count).
Is there any strong reason to run relic over ravenous trap? I don't have relic so ran tormod's/ravenous instead and it was great, but obviously phoenix isn't the only deck in the world.