i believe its our worst, But, But its as winnable as any deck, i believe its kinda not as tough as people believe because, we have d/g to send them back a turn, they cant stop our gargadon, they cant gain life, and after sideboard word of seizing because their worst nightmare because you can take their force, and you already may have a gargadon out, and plus with d/g you can just keep sending them back turns while they tap out and you get to deal damage
They have no problem trading a Force for a Gargadon.
Keep in mind they will often have a ton of mana by the time we reach five for Words. They might just go straight for Hellkite.
Simply put, we HAVE to get VERY, VERY lucky against it. [Read: The Forces, Hellkites, Voids (if they have them), and Disintegrates stay in the library]
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okay, then maybe we shouldn't play red deck wins, hmm?
maybe we just switch to mana ramp, besides the fact that mana ramp loses to control alot, as where mono red doesn't so, which is gonna played more
and since the mirror is easier, thoughts on that?
Christ on a stick
If you're looking for a deck that's favored against everything....quit. That deck doesn't exist right now, or time travel back to 2004 when Affinity ran over Mirrodin Block PTQs [ASIDE: I still can't believe how sick that format was. 4 maindeck Molder Slugs, 4 maindeck Oxidize, 4 maindeck Viridian Shaman, and more hate in a MonoGreen deck and Affinity was STILL a 60-40 favorite. How disgusting. END ASIDE.]
Maybe a similar comparison would help.....MonoRed versus RG Big Mana/LD is kind of like the Owling Mine-Zoo matchups of last year. People who played Owling Mine wanted to avoid Zoo if they could help it because of how bad the matchup is. MonoRed players are in that similar situation when it comes to RG Big Mana. We'd rather go against nearly anything else in the format. If we get paired up against it, we have to be prepared to take that loss, but thank our lucky stars if we do win.
To take it one step further, the scenario you suggest in your last post would be correct AND would work, but MonoRed would need an absolutely PERFECT draw for that to work AND a subpar draw for them (kinda sounds like that Mine-Zoo matchup I mentioned earlier) such as manaflooding with maybe one permanent threat which is entirely possible I'll grant you. [NOTE: They might also REALIZE you brought in Words, and do a preemptive Void for 5 if they do only have that one threat....Bye Bye Words AND Raiders if you were holding them back, just to make the coast clear]. By far, it IS the most difficult matchup.
To make the obvious point, if you're expecting over half the field (or maybe even a third of it) to show up packing Red-Green then you're right, you should switch to another deck or prepare to bite that bullet.
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Suq'ata Lancer is a fine card for three mana. If I wasn't able to get the last two Sulfurs, I would've ran two of them in my MonoRed from the Trial. There were a couple times during the day I wished I had the Lancer, but Sulfur is still a better overall three drop. I don't think I'd run them over the Elemental, but if you're going for more for a swarm plan than a burn plan, then its fine.
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Tarmogoyf has been giving me some problems in playtesting and I think G/W Threshold will be a very popular deck in our area. It might not be as bad as the R/G matchup but right now but I'd still say it's unfavorable. Of course, I kind of suck as a Magic player so your mileage may vary.
i love how this deck gets worse by the week, anoying isn't it?
hmm... maybe we should try adding goyf to our deck, but would that make it slower?
If we had Seal of Fire then it would make sense but as it is our 'Goyf would only be like 3/4. If you can't get that 'Goyf to 4/5 or 5/6 then I'd say don't bother.
I'm honestly considering maybe two Word of Seizing maindeck since I also run Gargadons. A few players did that at the Pro Tour (De Rosa and Rubin) and to me it makes sense with so many huge creatures running around now and Teferi being just as annoying as ever.
As a sideboard card. Seriously, just play enough green mana sources main deck to support him and bring him in against the GW 'Goyf decks. Your 'Goyf will always be as big as theirs will be except yours will be backed up by burn and bounce/seize.
The only other bit of advice I can offer against GW 'Goyf is to side in Fortune Thief. They don't have a lot of removal although it is possible they could Psionic Blast it (if playing BWu) or Fiery Justice it (if playing BWr). But most likely they'll have to waste at least one removal spell on an earlier creature of yours and you can always drop multiple morphs if you are also playing Gathan Raiders and Zoetic Cavern. I admit, I don't have hard playtesting data to back this up but it seems good in theory. It falls apart if GWx sideboards Serrated Arrows though. I haven't seen any of them doing that right now but it's a possibility.
Good luck if you are trying to Q tomorrow!
EDIT: If the RG version of Tarmogoyf becomes the one that gets played then forget about siding Fortune Thief. Oy! Mostly all I had seen in action was the GW version but the RG version really does have the tools to just dominate RDW.
I had not cared much for Tarox Bladewing before but it looks like he's the new trend in RDW. I think a lot of people are still running Gathan Raiders in this slot. Maybe Tarox is being seen as a better Eron The Relentless?
The lack of Blood Knight main is interesting and it looks like Keldon Marauders took its place. It looks like this version is really gunning for control with Word of Seizing and Dead // Gone being the two maindeck nods to Tarmogoyf.
it looks good, but keep in mind, it did not make top 8, so either the deck craped out, or maybe the blood knights would have been better, and/or the bladewing was to much of an expensive thing to play
He finished 18th with what looks like an 11-4 record (33 points), 9-0 on day one and 2-4 on day two. He had good tiebreakers (OMW% was over 73%) and I think one more match win would have him in the top eight. Yes, he did fade pretty badly on day two but look at it this way... Day two at a Grand Prix is definitely tougher than any PTQ. I mean on day two, you are playing against REAL pros so even if you have a good deck it's going to be very difficult for an amateur to keep cranking out wins. And two of his losses were to top eight finishers. There were no easy matchups on day two for this guy!
Mono-red isn't dead in block but it'd probably be just as well to let everyone think it is and Francisco's deck is certainly a starting point for retooling the archetype. If you are going to play mono-red in block then you have to start where his deck is and find a way to improve it against a known metagame.
Two of his losses were to 'Goyf and one was to U/G shifter. Not sure what the other loss was. We all know the problems the 'Goyf match up is but I'm not sure about the U/G shifter matchup. It has a lot of bounce, some fliers, some phat, a token swarm and a lock... that's a lot of hurdles to jump over. And Gargadons are just awful against it. Take Possession.... Yikes!
If you could keep it in play then something like Pyrohemia would just shut the thing down. Aeon Chronicler is the only creature that could stand against Pyrohemia and late game, not at all. Molten Disaster would also be pretty good against U/G shifter more so because it can't be countered than because it sweeps the board. It doesn't sweep the board against this deck at all but that doesn't mean it can't sneak the last four or five points of damage in. So there are two new sideboard cards to consider for Francisco's deck but it's going to take some testing to see what should be taken out to squeeze something else in. Cut an Emissary or two maybe? There was no White Weenie any where in the field as far as I could see.
And I do think the sideboard is what needs to be tweaked here. If you were going to change the maindeck, I think Rift Bolt is the card that gets cut. I wouldn't touch anything else. No, I don't know what you play in place of Rift Bolt. Choices are a different burn spell, another creature or more land.
Okay, I've rattled on enough. Heck, me and Mikey are the only two people interested in this thread right now. Hopefully some other folks will jump back in who maybe can see something that we've overlooked.
i know sudden shock does not kill most, but its amazing against control, and it does kill morphs
Morphing doesn't use the stack so Split Second can't stop an opponent from doing it. Unmorphing a creature is one of the few responses you can have to Sudden Shock or Sudden Death or Molten Disaster or whatever.
Still, it's not a bad card at all. Saffi Eriksdotter is a great Sudden Shock target in the current environment. Combo Slivers hates Sudden Shock, too.
Might as well add in my GP Montreal experience. As I am a complete n00b to constructed (I usually only play limited due to budget issues) I am very satisfied with my 5-4-0 record.
"Red Deck Seizes"
Creatures: 23
2x Magus of the Scroll
4x Thick-Skinned Goblin
4x Mogg War Marshal
4x Skirk Shaman
4x Volcano Hellion
4x Greater Gargadon
1x Akroma, Angel of Fury
Other: 14
3x Ghostfire
4x Thunderblade Charge
4x Disintegrate
3x Word of Seizing
Sideboard:
3x Molten Disaster
3x Avalanche Riders
4x Dragon Whelp
1x Ghostfire
3x Gauntlet of Power
1x Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII
I decided to gamble and designed my deck to beat creature decks (G/W, R/G, mono red/green/white/blue, etc) as well as U/G shifter, but it is very weak to mono black discard, U/B control and combo (Dragonstorm, reanimation, etc).
First off, I win 75% of my games with Word of Seizing. This card is just too amazing and works very well maindeck. Gargadon will happily gobble up the Spectral Force you just grabbed, or even better when you use it to block their other Spectral Force, killing both. It is also your only answer to a lot of cards out there (Teferi's Moat, etc).
Second, Volcano Hellion is tech against any creature deck. Volcano Hellion kills even the biggest Tarmogoyf or Mystic Enforcer to make way for your Gargadon and with Thick-Skinned Goblin the echo cost becomes a big fat zero (Mogg War Marshal and Avalanche Riders also benefit from the zero echo).
Third, Skirk Shaman is great to get around Wall of Roots, Saproling tokens, etc. Works great with Thunderblade Charge too.
I also win a lot of my games after sideboarding in Gauntlet of Power. This card is really sick, it works with just about every other card in the deck (boost your creatures, pump your Dragon Whelp, Disintegrate and Molten Disaster, hard cast Gargadon, mana for Thunderblade Charge graveyard ability, etc). If they do not counter it or destroy it immediately, I win about 85% of the time. I really wanted to maindeck it, but the risk of a monored opponent using it against me made me chicken out and move it to the sideboard.
I think I would have preferred to use Tarox Bladewing instead of Dragon Whelp, but when I was testing I was using Gauntlet of Power maindeck (it was moved to sideboard at the last minute).
This may not be the most optimal build of mono red, but it was a lot of fun because opponents who expected a "normal" mono red were taken by surprise (Especially Gauntlet of Power. That card never fails to get a "What the ****!").
I'm thinking about siding four Tormod's Crypt to help fight goyf/Enforcer.
Not sure about five mana artifacts though.
NOTE: I find Word of Seizing-ing a Terramorphic Expanse just funny.
I toyed around with Tormod's Crypt, it is ok but Tarmogyof counts "all" graveyards so it's only really effective against Mystic Enforcer and it doesn't take long before they refill their graveyard.
As for Gauntlet, if you have 24 lands, five mana is really not that hard to reach. The overall slower pace of the format and the low amount of artifact hate makes it an ideal candidate in the current meta. The benefits are really just insane if your deck is designed to use it.
Word of Seizing a Terramorphic? Funny I guess, but I feel there are much better targets for a Word unless your opponent is really mana screwed (in which case you should be winning anyways).
To comment on an earlier suggestion, I like Sudden Shock, probably should replace some of my Thunderblade Charge because I need more instant speed damage.
i dont know though, because are deck does not really support gauntlet i think, we have creatures that are very small and die to everything, and non of out spells are uncounterable, so disintagrate does not even get helped by it
Well, in your version of the deck it is true that Gauntlet is not very good since you need more Disintegrate and Molten Disaster to really take advantage of it. As for small creatures, don't forget Gauntlet gives them +1/+1 and Mogg War Marshal gives you a creature after a Damnation.
So, Gauntlet is debatable, but Magus of the Scroll is a must and you really need to put them into your list. My deck is more about disruption then speed, so I only put two of him, but if you are going for a fast deck where your hand size goes down quickly you will be able to activate him soon enough. (Most decks, including Francisco's, put 4 of them in) Maybe he could take the place of the lancer.
Here's a deck that won a 99-participant PTQ in Strasbourg, Germany. At least one Tarmogoyf deck was also in the top eight but not sure if it ever faced the red deck.
EDIT: This deck actually finished 6th instead of 1st. Sorry about that!
no one likes tarox? he is amazing, believe me, also is thick-skinned goblin that good of a sideboard card?
No need for it at all anymore... You shouldn't be facing very many red decks from here on out.
Speaking of which, the guy who played Gauntlet of Power above in the side may as well move it to the maindeck now, for the same reason. I'm not sure if GoP is really any good or not but if you like it then there's no reason to stick it in the sideboard anymore. You will the only red deck at the PTQ.
tarox is a good card, but i would love to fit it in but i cant find space. it was either 3 tarox or 3 wos and wos won since its better with gargadon and can steal more games
gathan is the best card(not counting gargadon+warmarshall). its so sygernic(however u spell that word) with so many cards. it gives u more morphs to keep oppoent guessing. it helps reach hellbend by dsicard extra land. it helps activate magus easier and it makes ur fiery temper into lightning bolts
dead/gone is the second best card. so many uses. it helps win mirror, bouces creatures with griffen guide and let u use other burns to the face.
i removed the block fireball completely. too many decks r now running vensers+mystic snakes+delays to make that card less useful sulfur also went out cause they dont impact the game as much as gathan as a 3 drop since ww loses most of its popularity
wildfire emmisary is good agaisnt almost all non counter/black decks. it helps against g/w grow since it cant be pacified and can plow through a lot of creatures with its firebreathing ability. its also very good against ww which is still alive depsite wat most people thinks. its also unblockable during afterboard games as long as u remove dead/gone or burn their tarmogoy before they get too big
brute force: against creature heavy decks u use it as a combat trick. i love killing opal guardians using this and a morph and it helps against g/w grow when they try to kills ur wildfire with tarmogoy or coth(their few answers to emssiary)
decapode: against black discard decks, they go sac augur u go free 5/5
fortune thief: good against ww and good against g/w grow. u already have 6 morphs maindeck. this will keep them guessing since it gives u 10 morphs. i won games solely off this card so many times. g/w grow without red becomes easy picking with this card and u can always brute force it if they try to sunlance it
as u guys can see, my sideboard have 11 cards against g/w/x grow because its a hard matchup. most of the cards can also be used against ww so its pretty good too.
and 4 cards against mono black decks. with 3 wos mainboard. ur counter control matchup is as good as it can get.
i will put back in the 4x avalanche riders if i see more counter control decks but im seeing more g/w grow atm so yea
jsut to comment a few decks in the past page: i wouldnt recommand playing both sulfur+gathan as it clogs up ur 3 drop which u have a lot already including rift bolt+fiery temper.
i play sulfur over gathen raiders because tarox and sulfur has proven better for me but its opinion
so i cant play fortune theif, i dont need it, as g/w goyf cant gain life, and they play sunlance and/or serrated arrows, so it does not matter, i also am not a big fan of brute force in this meta, but whatever floats ur boat
i also dont play rift bolt anymore, i run ghostfire over it, its proven better for me because its an instant, and i like gargadon being my only one drop besides maguses when i get them, and also, i play sudden shocks over fiery temper, blood knight first strike with sudden shock
preety good
yea, instant speed burns with blood night is great. i might cut rift bolt for ghostfire.
Tarox looks good, I might drop some of my burn spells for it.
If G/W stays popular, then I will be happy with my version since it is very good against it. I just need to tune my sideboard for speed when I am facing control.
I ran into a lot of red decks at GP Montreal, and often lost because they were faster, but if red decks lose popularity due to G/W then I guess I could put in Gauntlet as main like you say.
avalanche rider is a pure tempo card against control. it sets their mana back one turn and it could possibly be the one turn where they needed to damnation before in getting in ur burn range. running them is good i suggesting running 4x though. ur basically hoping to hit them on ur turn 4 while playing first thats the best scenerio. due to 25-28 land in each deck riders almsot never really mana screw your control
disintegrate is not that good in this format. trust me on this part. with delays, venser, and mystic snake running in lots of decks ur gonna have trouble with it.
dragon whelk is a pretty nice card, cost 1 mana too much
Avalanche Riders is really good against control, lets you destroy their Urborg, or their factory or storage land.
Disintegrate is good for G/W. Can kill a bigger creature, and the creature is removed so it does not feed their graveyard. Also useful against Triskelavus so they can't use Academy Ruins to fetch it back. However if you are more of a speed deck then yeah you're better off with Sudden Shock and Fiery Temper.
Be careful, Mystic Enforcer's threshold depends on "your" graveyard, so if you Word of Seizing on it and you have less than 7 cards in your graveyard it turns back into a 3/3 non-flier while you control it.
Dead // Gone is probably your best bet against fast aggro, while Word of Seizing is best against midrange or late aggro. I also like Volcano Hellion against mid range aggro, especially combined with Thick-Skinned Goblin to remove the echo.
Against midrange, try experimenting with one or two Akroma. It has come in handy in a few games for me.
akroma is to expensive to me actually, here is the build im taking to a ptq this saturday, im not changing it, and ill post how i sideboard, but i need some opinions on the sideboarding
i dont run riders because they have not helped me in testing, so plz dont suggest them
i know there is no mogg war marshal, to me they are not needed
this is usually how i sideboard
teachings, pickles, and mono blue pickles:-3 rift bolt +3 molten disaster, same for shifter decks and the u/g goyf deck, im still working on the u/g goyf deck
ww im not sure on what i take out but its probably like this
+4 wildfire emissary, +4 dead/gone -3 tarox, -2 suq'atr lancer, -1 word of seizing, -2 gathen raiders,
i take out tarox against aggro because i dont know if he helps that much, he is amazing against control as an after nation effect and he is not bad against the stompy decks because he flies, im not sure about the aggro matchups though
mono black looks like +4 dodecapod, -4 sulfur elemental
anybody have any different ideas on how to board???
tarox is too good to pass up. magus of the scrolls went down cause i never seem to get damage out of it until end game. i decided to see how many games i actually suspend rift bolt and fonud that maybe 1 out of 15 game i do it once and other times i just pay 3 for burn to face right now. ghostfire is a lot better for that.
i have to run 25 land since i run 5x 5cc cards
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They have no problem trading a Force for a Gargadon.
Keep in mind they will often have a ton of mana by the time we reach five for Words. They might just go straight for Hellkite.
Simply put, we HAVE to get VERY, VERY lucky against it. [Read: The Forces, Hellkites, Voids (if they have them), and Disintegrates stay in the library]
Some people just love Jace a little too much
Christ on a stick
If you're looking for a deck that's favored against everything....quit. That deck doesn't exist right now, or time travel back to 2004 when Affinity ran over Mirrodin Block PTQs [ASIDE: I still can't believe how sick that format was. 4 maindeck Molder Slugs, 4 maindeck Oxidize, 4 maindeck Viridian Shaman, and more hate in a MonoGreen deck and Affinity was STILL a 60-40 favorite. How disgusting. END ASIDE.]
Maybe a similar comparison would help.....MonoRed versus RG Big Mana/LD is kind of like the Owling Mine-Zoo matchups of last year. People who played Owling Mine wanted to avoid Zoo if they could help it because of how bad the matchup is. MonoRed players are in that similar situation when it comes to RG Big Mana. We'd rather go against nearly anything else in the format. If we get paired up against it, we have to be prepared to take that loss, but thank our lucky stars if we do win.
To take it one step further, the scenario you suggest in your last post would be correct AND would work, but MonoRed would need an absolutely PERFECT draw for that to work AND a subpar draw for them (kinda sounds like that Mine-Zoo matchup I mentioned earlier) such as manaflooding with maybe one permanent threat which is entirely possible I'll grant you. [NOTE: They might also REALIZE you brought in Words, and do a preemptive Void for 5 if they do only have that one threat....Bye Bye Words AND Raiders if you were holding them back, just to make the coast clear]. By far, it IS the most difficult matchup.
To make the obvious point, if you're expecting over half the field (or maybe even a third of it) to show up packing Red-Green then you're right, you should switch to another deck or prepare to bite that bullet.
Some people just love Jace a little too much
Some people just love Jace a little too much
If we had Seal of Fire then it would make sense but as it is our 'Goyf would only be like 3/4. If you can't get that 'Goyf to 4/5 or 5/6 then I'd say don't bother.
I'm honestly considering maybe two Word of Seizing maindeck since I also run Gargadons. A few players did that at the Pro Tour (De Rosa and Rubin) and to me it makes sense with so many huge creatures running around now and Teferi being just as annoying as ever.
The only other bit of advice I can offer against GW 'Goyf is to side in Fortune Thief. They don't have a lot of removal although it is possible they could Psionic Blast it (if playing BWu) or Fiery Justice it (if playing BWr). But most likely they'll have to waste at least one removal spell on an earlier creature of yours and you can always drop multiple morphs if you are also playing Gathan Raiders and Zoetic Cavern. I admit, I don't have hard playtesting data to back this up but it seems good in theory. It falls apart if GWx sideboards Serrated Arrows though. I haven't seen any of them doing that right now but it's a possibility.
Good luck if you are trying to Q tomorrow!
EDIT: If the RG version of Tarmogoyf becomes the one that gets played then forget about siding Fortune Thief. Oy! Mostly all I had seen in action was the GW version but the RG version really does have the tools to just dominate RDW.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpmon07/welcome#7
May as well post the deck...
Francisco Leon V.
GP Montreal 9-0 Time Spiral Block
Main Deck
60 cards
2 Pendelhaven
2 Keldon Megaliths
2 Zoetic Cavern
18 Mountain
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24 land
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Mogg War Marshal
4 Greater Gargadon
3 Tarox Bladewing
4 Magus of the Scroll
4 Sulfur Elemental
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23 creatures
2 Rift Bolt
4 Ghostfire
3 Word of Seizing
4 Dead // Gone
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13 other spells
Sideboard
4 Wildfire Emissary
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
3 Fortune Thief
3 Dodecapod
4 Avalanche Riders
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15 sideboard cards
I had not cared much for Tarox Bladewing before but it looks like he's the new trend in RDW. I think a lot of people are still running Gathan Raiders in this slot. Maybe Tarox is being seen as a better Eron The Relentless?
The lack of Blood Knight main is interesting and it looks like Keldon Marauders took its place. It looks like this version is really gunning for control with Word of Seizing and Dead // Gone being the two maindeck nods to Tarmogoyf.
He finished 18th with what looks like an 11-4 record (33 points), 9-0 on day one and 2-4 on day two. He had good tiebreakers (OMW% was over 73%) and I think one more match win would have him in the top eight. Yes, he did fade pretty badly on day two but look at it this way... Day two at a Grand Prix is definitely tougher than any PTQ. I mean on day two, you are playing against REAL pros so even if you have a good deck it's going to be very difficult for an amateur to keep cranking out wins. And two of his losses were to top eight finishers. There were no easy matchups on day two for this guy!
Mono-red isn't dead in block but it'd probably be just as well to let everyone think it is and Francisco's deck is certainly a starting point for retooling the archetype. If you are going to play mono-red in block then you have to start where his deck is and find a way to improve it against a known metagame.
Two of his losses were to 'Goyf and one was to U/G shifter. Not sure what the other loss was. We all know the problems the 'Goyf match up is but I'm not sure about the U/G shifter matchup. It has a lot of bounce, some fliers, some phat, a token swarm and a lock... that's a lot of hurdles to jump over. And Gargadons are just awful against it. Take Possession.... Yikes!
If you could keep it in play then something like Pyrohemia would just shut the thing down. Aeon Chronicler is the only creature that could stand against Pyrohemia and late game, not at all. Molten Disaster would also be pretty good against U/G shifter more so because it can't be countered than because it sweeps the board. It doesn't sweep the board against this deck at all but that doesn't mean it can't sneak the last four or five points of damage in. So there are two new sideboard cards to consider for Francisco's deck but it's going to take some testing to see what should be taken out to squeeze something else in. Cut an Emissary or two maybe? There was no White Weenie any where in the field as far as I could see.
And I do think the sideboard is what needs to be tweaked here. If you were going to change the maindeck, I think Rift Bolt is the card that gets cut. I wouldn't touch anything else. No, I don't know what you play in place of Rift Bolt. Choices are a different burn spell, another creature or more land.
Okay, I've rattled on enough. Heck, me and Mikey are the only two people interested in this thread right now. Hopefully some other folks will jump back in who maybe can see something that we've overlooked.
Morphing doesn't use the stack so Split Second can't stop an opponent from doing it. Unmorphing a creature is one of the few responses you can have to Sudden Shock or Sudden Death or Molten Disaster or whatever.
Still, it's not a bad card at all. Saffi Eriksdotter is a great Sudden Shock target in the current environment. Combo Slivers hates Sudden Shock, too.
"Red Deck Seizes"
Creatures: 23
2x Magus of the Scroll
4x Thick-Skinned Goblin
4x Mogg War Marshal
4x Skirk Shaman
4x Volcano Hellion
4x Greater Gargadon
1x Akroma, Angel of Fury
Other: 14
3x Ghostfire
4x Thunderblade Charge
4x Disintegrate
3x Word of Seizing
Land: 24
20x Mountain
1x Keldon Megaliths
1x Fungal Reaches
1x Pendelhaven
1x Kher Keep
Sideboard:
3x Molten Disaster
3x Avalanche Riders
4x Dragon Whelp
1x Ghostfire
3x Gauntlet of Power
1x Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII
I decided to gamble and designed my deck to beat creature decks (G/W, R/G, mono red/green/white/blue, etc) as well as U/G shifter, but it is very weak to mono black discard, U/B control and combo (Dragonstorm, reanimation, etc).
First off, I win 75% of my games with Word of Seizing. This card is just too amazing and works very well maindeck. Gargadon will happily gobble up the Spectral Force you just grabbed, or even better when you use it to block their other Spectral Force, killing both. It is also your only answer to a lot of cards out there (Teferi's Moat, etc).
Second, Volcano Hellion is tech against any creature deck. Volcano Hellion kills even the biggest Tarmogoyf or Mystic Enforcer to make way for your Gargadon and with Thick-Skinned Goblin the echo cost becomes a big fat zero (Mogg War Marshal and Avalanche Riders also benefit from the zero echo).
Third, Skirk Shaman is great to get around Wall of Roots, Saproling tokens, etc. Works great with Thunderblade Charge too.
I also win a lot of my games after sideboarding in Gauntlet of Power. This card is really sick, it works with just about every other card in the deck (boost your creatures, pump your Dragon Whelp, Disintegrate and Molten Disaster, hard cast Gargadon, mana for Thunderblade Charge graveyard ability, etc). If they do not counter it or destroy it immediately, I win about 85% of the time. I really wanted to maindeck it, but the risk of a monored opponent using it against me made me chicken out and move it to the sideboard.
I think I would have preferred to use Tarox Bladewing instead of Dragon Whelp, but when I was testing I was using Gauntlet of Power maindeck (it was moved to sideboard at the last minute).
This may not be the most optimal build of mono red, but it was a lot of fun because opponents who expected a "normal" mono red were taken by surprise (Especially Gauntlet of Power. That card never fails to get a "What the ****!").
Not sure about five mana artifacts though.
NOTE: I find Word of Seizing-ing a Terramorphic Expanse just funny.
Some people just love Jace a little too much
I toyed around with Tormod's Crypt, it is ok but Tarmogyof counts "all" graveyards so it's only really effective against Mystic Enforcer and it doesn't take long before they refill their graveyard.
As for Gauntlet, if you have 24 lands, five mana is really not that hard to reach. The overall slower pace of the format and the low amount of artifact hate makes it an ideal candidate in the current meta. The benefits are really just insane if your deck is designed to use it.
Word of Seizing a Terramorphic? Funny I guess, but I feel there are much better targets for a Word unless your opponent is really mana screwed (in which case you should be winning anyways).
To comment on an earlier suggestion, I like Sudden Shock, probably should replace some of my Thunderblade Charge because I need more instant speed damage.
Well, in your version of the deck it is true that Gauntlet is not very good since you need more Disintegrate and Molten Disaster to really take advantage of it. As for small creatures, don't forget Gauntlet gives them +1/+1 and Mogg War Marshal gives you a creature after a Damnation.
So, Gauntlet is debatable, but Magus of the Scroll is a must and you really need to put them into your list. My deck is more about disruption then speed, so I only put two of him, but if you are going for a fast deck where your hand size goes down quickly you will be able to activate him soon enough. (Most decks, including Francisco's, put 4 of them in) Maybe he could take the place of the lancer.
EDIT: This deck actually finished 6th instead of 1st. Sorry about that!
' Ronnan on Fire ' by Daniel Rodi
Mainboard:
2 Pendelhaven
18 Mountain
2 Keldon Megaliths
2 Zoetic Cavern
4 Mogg War Marshal
3 Tarox Bladewing
4 Gathan Raiders
4 Magus of the Scroll
4 Greater Gargadon
4 Blood Knight
4 Fiery Temper
2 Ghostfire
2 Rift Bolt
3 Dead / Gone
2 Word of Seizing
Sideboard:
1 Dead / Gone
1 Word of Seizing
2 Magus of the Moon
3 Avalanche Riders
4 Sulfur Elemental
4 Thick-Skinned Goblin
2 Pendelhaven
4 Mogg War Marshall
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Sulfur Elemental
4 Gathan Raiders
4 Greater Gargadon
4 Fiery Temper
4 Rift Bolt
3 Dead // Gone
3 Disintegrate
4 Blood Knight
4 Avalanche Riders
3 Word of Seizing
3 ???
1 Dead // Gone
"Playing Red Deck Wins in a metagame full of two-mana 4/5 creatures is suicidal, so I would not recommend Red Deck Wins anymore, not in this metagame"
Link: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/fk45
No need for it at all anymore... You shouldn't be facing very many red decks from here on out.
Speaking of which, the guy who played Gauntlet of Power above in the side may as well move it to the maindeck now, for the same reason. I'm not sure if GoP is really any good or not but if you like it then there's no reason to stick it in the sideboard anymore. You will the only red deck at the PTQ.
2x keldon megalith
2x Zoetic Cavern
1x pandelhaven
1x kher Keep
19 mountain
4 gathan rider
4 magus of the scrolls
4 bloodknight
4 greater gargadon
4 mogg warmarshall
4 rift bolt
3 word of seizing
4 dead/gone
tarox is a good card, but i would love to fit it in but i cant find space. it was either 3 tarox or 3 wos and wos won since its better with gargadon and can steal more games
gathan is the best card(not counting gargadon+warmarshall). its so sygernic(however u spell that word) with so many cards. it gives u more morphs to keep oppoent guessing. it helps reach hellbend by dsicard extra land. it helps activate magus easier and it makes ur fiery temper into lightning bolts
dead/gone is the second best card. so many uses. it helps win mirror, bouces creatures with griffen guide and let u use other burns to the face.
i removed the block fireball completely. too many decks r now running vensers+mystic snakes+delays to make that card less useful sulfur also went out cause they dont impact the game as much as gathan as a 3 drop since ww loses most of its popularity
sideboard:
4 fortune thief
4 decapode
3 brute force
wildfire emmisary is good agaisnt almost all non counter/black decks. it helps against g/w grow since it cant be pacified and can plow through a lot of creatures with its firebreathing ability. its also very good against ww which is still alive depsite wat most people thinks. its also unblockable during afterboard games as long as u remove dead/gone or burn their tarmogoy before they get too big
brute force: against creature heavy decks u use it as a combat trick. i love killing opal guardians using this and a morph and it helps against g/w grow when they try to kills ur wildfire with tarmogoy or coth(their few answers to emssiary)
decapode: against black discard decks, they go sac augur u go free 5/5
fortune thief: good against ww and good against g/w grow. u already have 6 morphs maindeck. this will keep them guessing since it gives u 10 morphs. i won games solely off this card so many times. g/w grow without red becomes easy picking with this card and u can always brute force it if they try to sunlance it
as u guys can see, my sideboard have 11 cards against g/w/x grow because its a hard matchup. most of the cards can also be used against ww so its pretty good too.
and 4 cards against mono black decks. with 3 wos mainboard. ur counter control matchup is as good as it can get.
i will put back in the 4x avalanche riders if i see more counter control decks but im seeing more g/w grow atm so yea
4x decapode
3x wildfire emissary
4x fortune thief
4x avalanche riders
jsut to comment a few decks in the past page: i wouldnt recommand playing both sulfur+gathan as it clogs up ur 3 drop which u have a lot already including rift bolt+fiery temper.
yea, instant speed burns with blood night is great. i might cut rift bolt for ghostfire.
If G/W stays popular, then I will be happy with my version since it is very good against it. I just need to tune my sideboard for speed when I am facing control.
I ran into a lot of red decks at GP Montreal, and often lost because they were faster, but if red decks lose popularity due to G/W then I guess I could put in Gauntlet as main like you say.
disintegrate is not that good in this format. trust me on this part. with delays, venser, and mystic snake running in lots of decks ur gonna have trouble with it.
dragon whelk is a pretty nice card, cost 1 mana too much
Disintegrate is good for G/W. Can kill a bigger creature, and the creature is removed so it does not feed their graveyard. Also useful against Triskelavus so they can't use Academy Ruins to fetch it back. However if you are more of a speed deck then yeah you're better off with Sudden Shock and Fiery Temper.
Dead // Gone is probably your best bet against fast aggro, while Word of Seizing is best against midrange or late aggro. I also like Volcano Hellion against mid range aggro, especially combined with Thick-Skinned Goblin to remove the echo.
Against midrange, try experimenting with one or two Akroma. It has come in handy in a few games for me.
after serveral days of testing i updated my rdw
4 ghostfire
4 fiery temper
3 word of sezing
3 dead/gone
2 tarox
4 bloodknight
3 magus of the scrolls
4 gathan raider
4 mogg warmarshall
4 greater gargadon
tarox is too good to pass up. magus of the scrolls went down cause i never seem to get damage out of it until end game. i decided to see how many games i actually suspend rift bolt and fonud that maybe 1 out of 15 game i do it once and other times i just pay 3 for burn to face right now. ghostfire is a lot better for that.
i have to run 25 land since i run 5x 5cc cards