MTG Salvation

Playing an honest-to-god mono-red RDW, I went 5-3 for my first ever States.



Won the opener against Teferi-Fae control. Megaliths online turns all those pretty little sprites into ash.

Second round, I get paired against last year's champ playing Goyf-Rack. There is no word for how bad I lost. He beat me 2-0, turned in the slip, and I never got him below 10 in either those games or the three casual ones following.

Third, I play against a mono-red mirror. Simply put, I had by FAR the faster curve. Interesting bit was at the end of game three, I untap and realize that there was no card in my deck that wouldn't let me immediately win the game.

Fourth round I hit Hakkon. At last, I think it was. I saw swamps, plains, Oona's Prowler, some Knights, and a Nameless Inversion, but I never saw a Hakkon out of him.

Fifth, I play Faerie control again. This one, however, was quite a bit better than the first guy I played, and one major play mistake (involves considering a Blood Knight a legit bllocker agaist Fae), and he wins.

Round Six was against U/W control, non-martyr. I get a slow start in game one, he gets me down to 3 before he makes the mistake of letting a Rift Bolt resolve and bring him down to 2. The look on his face when I followed it with a Sudden Shock will sustain me through my darkest days for all time. I open a god hand on game 2 and kill with a Gargadon on turn 5.

Seventh, I get beat by another Goyf list. This one was a bit odd, though, G/B/r, running lots of tokens and 8 Overrun effects. Turn 5 garruk detonation paired with an Overrun cast from the hand sucks hard core when he swings with 5 creatures following it.

Eighth round I played against mono-black Korlash aggro-control. Incinerates and Sudden Shocks make messy ends to Korlashes, and Gargadons that hit the field without a Pack in his hand make messy ends to players.

So, states are done. Turns out, at least here in NC, that mono-Red is not neccessarily a bad thing. I registered 5-3 for my first ever major MTG tourney, and one of those losses I really should have won (still kicking myself for being too cautious). I made only one change since my last list in this thread, and that was to swap out my Shocks for their Sudden cousins. This change won me 2 of my 8 matches, so I'm glad I made it.

Best matchups: Mono-red simply crushed all things control. Hakkon rolls over and dies to wasting him in my upkeep followed by dropping a Gargadon into play and crushing them. U/x control and all things Fae have similar, horrible fates to recursive burn (Clique is a bit of a bear, but it's not bad). Low-range aggro decks similarly have a very hard time getting through to me, especially with Pyroclasm in the board.

Worst Matchups: Midrange and high-end creature decks are rough. Basically, anything x/4 or better is very tough to kill. Unfortunately, Goyf falls square into this category and he was EVERYWHERE (as expected, really). Martyr is also a near-unwinnable matchup unless they get a very slow hand. Saw a Beacon shunted in a game next to mine, though. That was funny.

Best moment: I have an empty hand, 4 lands, a Gargadon on the field and one more suspended with 6 counters on my opponent's turn. Other two gargadons were already removed from the game (don't ask). He draws and plays a blocker, last card in his hand. When he passed the turn, I could honestly say that no card left in the deck would not let me instantly win.

DarkArchangel, I need to know one thing: Was the Fae deck based on U/B Fae Aggro, or was it one of the numerous Control builds?

I've found that the Faeries make a very good tempo-based aggro deck, overall, and if it was at all possible for me to get all of the cards for it (16 Lorwyn rares = ugh in a small playgroup) I would be running it over RDW at States. If it was control and you do another round of testing, please try and put together an aggro list for it.

For those of you running mono-red, Dead/Gone is a good alternate to Assault/Battery. I originally included it i my board as an answer to huge fatties, but I find that it generally wreaks havok with any attempts at tempo, especially if you use the Gone side during their attack or end step.

Quote from xgoldenx

i dont know. apparently running a card that combats aggro decks makes you scared.

what works better in the sideboard, pyroclasm or martyrs.? they both work similer but martyrs can get rid of a lot biger creatures, for the same price.

Pyroclasm, hands down. sure, the Martyr can hit bigger stuff, but it has two big flaws. First, it won't touch fliers. Second and far more important, it requires you to keep a handful of spells uncast. RDW just doesn't work that way most games.

Oh, and Deserteagle, WW has significant amounts of removal now (O-Ring and Crib Swap), so I do not believe that Fortune Thief will be a good idea.

Thanks for a few of the tips, but I've found that the Magus outright wins many, many otherwise unwinnable matches. If it goes long (AKA 6 or more turns), I need the repeatable burn sources to keep my resources up. That, and Magus of the Moon stays to kill all things control.

However, I will be adding a fourth Pyroclasm soon to the board, along with a trio of Needles. Shunt will be dropped for them for now.

I can't take out the Sprites, due to their fairly critical role in the deck, but I'll be trying out the Blast over a couple of the spots (Inversion and Unsummon being the big ones)

Newest version of the deck, with minor tweaks to the board:



Current testing is on Mistbind Clique or Pestermite over the Sowers. Both show promise at the moment, but I need to see if the tempo swings they give equal that of the Sower.

I have to disagree, I've piloted a mono-R version of RDW to several Top 4 finishes in FNM, plus assorted testing. The only deck that I "roll over" to is Martyr, which is losing a lot of it's oomph. It loses precisely nothing for Lorwyn coming in, as well, and has the tools to deal with nearly any situation from the new set. Here's my list:



It may not have the raw power of R/G, but the darned thing curves at 2 (until board, anyway) and is insanely consistant. It flat outraces all things Control unless they get a god hand, and even then it's a close thing. It takes the control stance against nearly any aggro deck, wiping away their critters with abandon and pinging them for ones and twos when able. The lack of direct artifact destruction hurts, but the only times I've had a major problem with it was when someone planted a Warhammer onto a Soltari Priest.

The hard part with the Cliques and Pestermites is finding room for them. At the moment, the only cards that could go for them are the four copies of Sower of Temptation. I'll test it out eventually, though I'm focusing a bit more on the T2 version more atm.

I don't need to have an open counter against a control deck, actually. Wydwen is not a critical play in and of himself, the trick is dropping something at their EOT, forcing either a counter then or missing one on my own turn. So, with that, the current version:



Current noteworthy notes: River of Tears turned out to be pretty good here, but more testing is needed before that goes permanent. Urborg is just in, it worked out beautifully. On the flip side, I find myself almost never facing Ascetics, which were the reason for the Edicts. Likely replacement is going to be Pithing Needles, much to my pocket's dismay. Finally, Goyfs are still everywhere, so the Deathmarks have to stay unless the meta shifts dramatically. I still don't like Pendelhaven here.

Nightspirit: I'm personally not a big fan of the card for this deck. It only affects 1/1 critters, and for the most part my guys aren't going to stay that way. I tried testing it today, but found that for the most part it's not worth running over another land.

Venser: *smacks forehead* dunno how I missed Warhammer before now, thanks for pointing it out. Currently in my board against aggro (said goodbye to the Dousers), but it's looking like it might make main on my list. Oh, and Unsummon has proven itself to be maindeck prime for me, chewing up opposing tempo and allowing some rather unexpected stunts with my own CIP. As for Delay, well, I'll give it a few runs tonight or tomorrow, but I've never liked the card.

Fishfood: I'd considered Pongify, but it turns out that giving my opponent a 3/3 isn't a good idea for this deck.

Tigris: You present an interesting variation, but the lack of kill is (pardon the pun) killing me. You just don't have a way to deal with opposing plays.

That said, here's the current list:



Next item up for consideration to me is whether or not Faerie Conclave is going to be worth running here as a 1 or 2-of over Islands. Any thoughts?

Thank you Machius. Unsummon turned out to be about a million times better for me than Whelm, since it brings that spell out of my most crowded slot. A 25% chance to plant the critter on top of it's owner's deck is just not worth the extra mana. Add the fact that Unsummon is WAY easier for me to get atm...

Ok, then, following further testing, I changed out my Peppersmokes for Death Marks. Got tired of dying to Goofy.