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The Pros: The better developed the metagame is in your area, the better the deck performs. The deck aims to bully players with greedy mana bases with Blood Moon, and graveyard related cards. A Relic of Progenitus looks really good in front of a deck that runs Snapcaster Mage,Tarmogoyf, or in some cases even Gurmag Angler but not so great when the opponent is playing a budget version and using a Leatherback Baloth instead.The deck sometimes winning games for no reason with Turn 2-3 Blood Moon, with Simian Spirit Guide.This deck is for you if you want to play a (mono) red deck, but don't want to play Burn or Aggro because you find it too linear.The deck doesn't play shocks or fetches, and therefore starts the game at 20 life total and not 15. Relatively budget-friendly outside of Blood Moon. No longer the case due to the rising prices of Snow-Covered Mountains and Scrying Sheets.The deck has a very good match up against creature based decks, most notably Zoo, Infect, Affinity, Humans, and Spirits.A very modular deck, you can pick and choose the variant that suits you the best and they mostly all accomplish the same goal in the end.A very good deck for learning the game, as it can switch between proactive and reactive playstyles on the fly, and rewards good, and decision making without complex lines.Has access to some very janky cards that can steal games.
The Cons: The deck is weak to combo. We have no way to interact with them, other than exiling their graveyard, and we don't put on much pressure in the early game. Storm/AdNaus/LivingEnd/ usually wins on T4-5, whereas we only begin our offense on those turns.The deck is weak to enchantment. Red is a color that goes out of it's way to avoid enchantments (ex. Decree of Annihilation, Obliterate), and has no reliable way to deal with them. If something of ours gets hit by something like Oblivion Ring, it's as good as dead to us.Game 1 can be awkward at times with the amount of hate cards we have in the mainboard. Blood Moon will be bad against decks with tons of basics, and the many pieces of removal is very bad against decks with no creatures.If you don't know how to approach a match-up, the deck can be pretty unforgiving. It doesn't always have the power to straight up win with card quality.
//Outdated// Infect Favorable preboard and postboardEasily one of our best matchups, if you know how to play it. Don't be afraid to take infect damage as long as it doesn't kill you. Don't try to kill their creatures during their turn if they can swing with it the same turn. Kill them during our turn(or post combat), that way if they use pumpspells to save them, we won't be taking damage from it. Use bolts first, and save Skreds for later, as they can plow through pump spells, or Wild Defiance in the late game. Blood Moon is a boss in this matchup, it shuts off a third of their creatures(manlands), and can cut off their blue for Blighted Agent. At the very worst, it limits their green mana and stops them from being able to pump multiple times on the same turn. If you keep a blood moon hand, bolting the Noble Hiearch if often a good idea. If you land a Koth, you should use the +1 to untap a mountain and represent a bolt instead of attacking with it. The 4 damage is less important than holding up a R, and the ultimate. They don't have the resources to stop Koth from ticking up freely. Be aware of the lands they play, some players try to be sneaky and hide a Pendelhaven, or Inkmoth underneath their normal lands. Out: Mind Stone, 5cc finishers, relicsIn: Removal, Pyrite Spellbomb, Sudden Shock, Blood Moon, Pithing Needle, Chandra, Pyromaster, Molten Rain, SpellskiteMind stones can be awkward to cast because the early game is so intense. 5cc finishers can be hard to cast, especially when we don't ever want to fully tap out, so we can cut a few. Relics are pretty dead in the matchup, but they can stop Become Immense, and can help dig for removal. Side in as much removal as possible. Sudden Shock is nearly always a 2 for 1, and Pyrite Spellbomb goes through Wild Defiance. Pyromaster can kill every single one of their nonland creatures, and is usually a win if she lands on an empty board. Magus of the Moon is interesting because they can't kill it. Pithing Needle names Inkmoth Nexus, or Spellskite. Expect Nature's claim, Wild Defiance, and Spellskites of their own. Affinity Slightly Favored/even preboard, and favored postboard The key to winning this matchup is to understand how Arcbound Ravager works, and how to beat it, because often times we lose by getting swung on by a creature too big to burn. Save your burn for whatever they equip Cranial Plating on, or they try to put arcbound counters on. Sweepers are amazing in the matchup, but become nearly useless when Ravager lands, so don't hold onto them for too long. Etched Champion can be a problem, but we have some answers for it. We can double block with P&K thopters, eternal scourge, Koth emblem, or we can try to disable metalcraft with our removal. Out: Mind stone*, Relic, Blood Moon*, Boros Reckoner* Pyromaster* 5cc finishersIn: Shattering Spree, Spellskite, Pithing Needle, Sweepers, Flyers, Chalice on the play, pyrite spellbomb, sudden shock. Blood Moon shuts off manlands, which is decent, but not good enough to run all 3 in my opinion. Reckoner is good at dealing with Ravager, but that's pretty much all it can do since everything else flies, so we can cut a few if we need space. Mind Stone lets us have a T3 P&K, which is very relevent since it trades with any of their fliers, and can ping, but we can cut some mind stones if we have better cards to board in. Chandra Pyromaster can be decent since everything they have has 1 toughness, but again isn't that good. Chalice on 0 is really good when we're on the play. If we draw it we can set it on 2 to stop Etched Champion, Ravager, and Cranial. Pyrite Spellbomb kills Etched Champion, and other things. Spellskite can steal Arcbound Ravager counters. Sudden shock destroys Ravager. Pithing Needle usually names either Ravager, or Cranial Plating, but can name manlands in a pinch. Burn Even preboard, favored postboard??Despite being a red deck, Burn is hit pretty hard by Blood Moon because they don't run any basic lands that aren't mountains. Blood Moon shuts off Lightning Helix, Boros Charm, Atarka's Command, Wild Nacatl, and it even shuts off their out in Destructive Revelry. The matchup itself is pretty straight forward, bolt their critters, and try to finish them off before we die. Be mindful of Atarka's Command and Prowess when bolting creatures. It's also sometimes better to tick Koth up to 6 before ultimating. Out: Mind Stone, Volcanic Fallout, 5cc finishers, Chandra Pyromaster, RelicsIn: Dragon's Claw, Spellskite, Blood Moon, Removal, Pyrite Spellbombs, Chalice of the Void(on the play), Rabblemaster Again, pretty straight forward. A single Dragon's Claw is often enough to beat them. Same with Spellskite. Chalice on 2 shuts off half their deck, including the answer, and chalice on 1 can be good too, but hits us pretty hard too. Rabblemaster represents a good clock, and can serve as a pseudo fog. Jeskai Control / UWR Favorable pre/post board.Against versions that don't play Nahiri, just activate scrying sheets, land drop and say go until you have enough mana to push through remand/mana leak. They have absolutely no way to pressure us before we reach 7/8 lands, and when we do we can just slam threats through remands/manaleaks until one sticks. Our threats are very difficult for them to answer cleanly, and if they do get rid of it, we can just drop another. Just be careful not to over extend into a Supreme Verdict. Relics make their snapcasters useless. A resolved Stormbreath solos the game most of the time. Blood Moon shuts off Celestial Colonnade, and Cryptic Command(Some lists don't run 3 islands), and turns them into badburndeck.dec If they do run Nahiri it gets a little harder because now they can actually put a clock on us. We can't play the waiting game anymore, but we can just slam threats and force a threat through counterspells until one sticks, and we should win. If they tap out T4 for Nahiri, we can punish them hard with a hasted mountain(Koth), or Stormbreath. We have both more threats and more answers than they do. Out: ????? Sweepers, mind stonesIn: Pithing Needle, Stormbreath, Rabblemaster If you expect Stony Silence, you can board out some mind stones. You can board out some sweepers, but be careful of Geist of Saint Traft, and Pia&Kiran Nalaar if they play it. Board in all the threats you can, and maybe some artifact hate for spellskite, isochron. Or don't. GR Tron UnfavorableDespite having mainboard Blood Moons, this is one of our worst matchups. Even if we land an early moon, we don't have the power to kill them quick enough before they can stabilise with an Oblivion Stone or Wurmcoil. It's even worst on the play because they can possibly hit Tron before we even get the chance to drop Blood Moon. If you have a Blood Moon out and a Koth out, you can animate one of their lands and destroy it with Skred/Roast. This is crucial to preventing their Oblivion Stone activations(Animate the land they last played so they can't float mana, and tap it again for 5 because of summon sickness), or land drop for Wurmcoil. Out:Anger of the gods, Sweepers, Relics?In:Land destruction, Sowing Salt?, Goblin Rabblemaster, Roast, Shattering Spree, Chalice of the Void Land Destruction is obviously very good against them. Shattering Spree can hit Wurmcoil, O-Stone, or their cantrip rocks. Chalice on 1 can be very good, but then you might not be able to Koth +1, + Skred their lands. Rabblemasters can steal the game, but they can also just get blanked by pyro/bolts. Jund/GRx Even/slightly favoredThe matchup kind of plays itself. Blood Moon is really good against them. Even if they fetch for basics it can turn off their double black for Liliana and Kalitas. The only real big threat in this match up is an early Tarmogoyf. If you don't have an early relic/roast to keep it in check, it will destroy you. Don't forget that you can target yourself with relic to shrink goyf by exiling enchantments, artifacts, or planeswalkers. Boros Reckoner is pretty good in this matchup, but he's most likely going to be Terminated or Abrupt Decayed. Always kill the Dark Confidant. Unfortunately, Stormbreath isn't amazing in this matchup, but the haste and evasion can outrace them if they don't have a Terminate. Chandra is decent in the matchup, she can keep lili from ticking up, and help bolts/skred finish off a goyf with the ping. The problem is that there is so much going on in the early game that it can be difficult to resolve her. Out: ????In: Pithing Needle?, Wurmcoil Engine, Roasts, Relics You can take out some stormbreaths if you need space. Roast is an allstar in this matchup, bring in as many as you can. You can take out some sweepers, but Kalitas/P&K might pose a problem of you do. Pith is decent, as it can hit lili, or their manlands. Abzan Company Even You can learn how their combo works by sneaking into their primer and reading up on it, or you can just get rid of the Viserca Seer as soon as you can. If the Viserca Seer is on the stack, kill the Anafenza, or Melira instead. If you let them have 2 of the 3 pieces they need for their combo, they will CoCo/Chord for the remaining piece. Relic is very important for the matchup, you can prevent creatures with persist/undying from coming back by exiling them whole they're still in the graveyard. It is very important that you do not miss a turn of exiling their grave. If they do get infinite life, we can still win by getting Koth emblem and decking them out. Out: ??In: Pithing Needle, Sweepers, Relics, Sudden Shock Blood Moon is pretty good in the matchup because a lot of their things cost multiple mana symbols, but unfortunately they tend to get Chorded or CoCo'd in. It can still brick them, so is worth running. Pithing Needle naming Viscera Seer. Anger cleanly kills their persist creatures. Ad Naus Extremely Unfavorable Go get a snack, drink some water, take a break, and rest up for the next round. Out: Everything that doesn't interact with their life total.In: Everything that does interact with their life total. Shattering Spree can help kill their mana rocks. Pithing Needle can annoy them by naming Lightning Storm. Mull Aggressively for a T2 Rabblemaster hand, and/or hope they brick.
june/26/2016 - New Primer Created, match up section to be done, and JANK section to be filled out. Needs proofreading, and a little bit of clean up.nov/9/2016 - Some Matchups done, finally. Added Godo, and Form of the Dragon.nov/15/2016 - Added adonis2k decklist, and some links.jan/1/2018 - smol upd8
salty
Quote from lord_darkview » People keep using that word. It does not mean what they think it means.
Quote from TheCourtPeach »On paper coco seems like a great match-up for us: it runs a 3 color manabase without red and is very creature heavy. I love playing coco, but I also have a friend that plays it so I have a good amount of experience in the match up. Remember to tap relic to keep their yard clean so you could potentially exile a combo piece without cracking relic to get the most value. Anger of the gods is amazing vs them and a turn 2-3 blood moon on the play (or draw really) can sometimes end the game on the spot. Post sideboard they get their hate which can make things a little harder, but all in all I feel like the match up is in our favor.
Quote from Metal_GuN »Well, Im buying the cards for my Skred deck since months and Im finally close to have my full deck My first "competitive" deck. While I have been playing MTG since 9-10 years, I always played with proxies. I only need the 3 Moons and a few cards for the SB. I do think that my build is fine and solid, but I have a few doubts, hope you can help me and give your thoughts about the build, its high $$$ cost for me. cksboy15's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Lands21 Snow-covered Mountain2 Scrying SheetsCreatures4 Pia and Kiran Nalaar3 Boros Reckoner2 BatterskullArtifacts4 Mind Stone4 Relic of ProgenitusSpells4 Lightning Bolt4 Skred2 Volcanic Fallout1 Anger of the Gods3 Blood MoonPlaneswalkers4 Koth of the Hammer1 Chandra, PyromasterSideboard2 Dragon's Claw2 Pithing Needle2 Ratchet Bomb2 Boil1 Dismember2 Shattering Spree As you can see, there are 59 cards on the main and 11 on the SB. So, about the main: I play mind stones over SSG since, in this build, the only good SSG would do over stones is T2 Blood Moon. Is powerful, but not enough to go over the mind stones (at least for my build, I repeat), because of: T4 Koth / P&KN, sacrifice for P&KN, casting batterskull soon, enough mana for return-cast batterskull... a lot of uses for this build. About the card that should be number 60, I have in mind Chandra, Flamecaller or the 4th Reckoner. Chandra can act as a finisher and as a sweeper, can end the games quick and I have 4 mind stones for the cast. But the 4th Boros reckoner would make the deck less CC intensive and more interactive with skred and volcanic fallout. About the sideboard: there are left the cards for the combo/tron matchup. Im thinking about 3 Molten Rain 1 Crumble to dust; Rabblemaster can work too, but I think it would be better for SSG builds. Anyone has tested it on a non-SSG build? There has to be out there a 2CC red creature that can be fast enough to put a lot of pressure on the combo/tron matchup. Thanks for help Hope I complete my deck soon!