For my first decklist thread, here's a challenge I'm sure you've all considered:
Quote from Stuffy Doll the Strawman »
Red Deck Wins is mana-efficient and card-wasteful! How can you possibly tap into that raw, furious power in a format as slow as EDH? What good is a single lightning bolt when you need forty to win?
Silly strawman, everyone knows it's all about card selection. You can't just pick up any red card with the word 'damage' on it and expect to win games, you need the most versatile, efficient, universally-relevant spells, not to mention a healthy dose of vicious reptile cunning. Hey, the Savage Lands aren't for everybody...
It is my considered opinion that the best games of EDH are the ones where every player gets to cast spells. It's in that environment that victory typically goes to the most skillful player - both in terms of elegant card selection and of careful, measured play - and thus that reasonable and mature players can appreciate the game, win or lose.
This means I dislike combos, mass LD, and mass discard; instead, I favor efficient instant-speed interaction and showstopping displays of force. "Epic Moments." Your mileage may vary.
So anyway, here's the list, detailed exposition to follow:
This is basically an EDH-sized version of Red Deck Wins. I definitely have a lot stronger set of Questions than Answers, so I'm careful not to overplay my hand - nobody likes getting hated off a table, me least of all!
Rakka Mar is herself a formidable beatdown. If I can ramp directly to four or five mana, and nothing else is happening, it's usually worthwhile to cast her and start pressuring people for answers. Casting my general and using her to make an army of high-damage tokens leaves me with a grip full of cruel reprisals for anyone with the temerity to oppose me!
This deck has no reasonable way to tutor, or even search for lands - you're either using Portal/Flute to do it at extreme expense, or you're combining Top/Rack with each other and with whatever shuffle effects you can find. There have been turns where it's use Top, use Thawing Glaciers, use Top again, tap Top to draw, recast Top again next turn. If you've got nothing else to do, it's a lot more helpful than it sounds.
If I win a game, it'll usually be with one of my doublers on the table - by the late game, answers are sparse and slow in coming, and it only takes a turn or two of Super Mana to make a play that clears off the survivors of whatever war was previously being fought. Until that point, I just want to incrementally defend my life total, act nonthreatening, and wait for my chance. They always give me one...
Cards marked with * are likely to get replaced with something more compelling.
Creatures - "Pingers" Inferno Titan: Three damage you can split or combine as you please is QUITE nice. Firebreathing has some nice interactions, too. Kumano, Master Yamabushi: He turns "deathtouch" into "exiletouch", AND he can ping without tapping - a great way to push down blockers. Siege-Gang Commander: You can use him as a much-worse Kumano, or you can use him as four chump blockers. Both of these options are very relevant. Kamahl, Pit Fighter: K-Maul is pretty nice as a surprise six in the red zone, but he also flings lightning bolts when he can't get across. Living Inferno: On its own, it'll probably trade for all the blockers of the weakest player at the table. Works VERY nicely with attachments. Magus of the Moon: Given the choice of one or the other, Blood Moon is better, but I really feel like I have room for both.
Creatures - "Red Zone" Thunderblust: Of all the ball lightnings in the world, the Thunder Horse is my favorite - a surprise SEVEN in the red, for five mana, who not only fails to self-destruct, but actually has persist - he works hard for his card slot. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker: A little weak, because more than half of my creatures are legendary. The ones that aren't, though, are EXCELLENT to copy, and he works nicely with stolen creatures as well.
Creatures - "Special Function" Godo, Bandit Warlord: Once you see my equipment package, he'll make a little more sense - this deck LOVES deathtouch gear. He also provides a 3/3 body that can wear equipment, and an extra combat phase for himself. Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs: Discourages opponents from attacking you on the ground, and does it in a way where he's still free to beat face.
Equipment - "Utility" Skullclamp: Interacts brutally with Rakka Mar and Kher Keep, but you can stick it to any non-commander creature to profit from the inevitable boardsweep. Lightning Greaves: The classic. Hasty, Un-Maze-Able Inferno Titan costs exactly as much as regular Inferno Titan, but he hits SO much harder. Darksteel Plate: Any body crammed into this is a good reusable blocker. Also makes my handful of creatures way harder to get rid of. Sticking this to Living Inferno creates a really ugly situation. Whispersilk Cloak: The shroud is nice, but this is mostly here for the evasion. Un-Maze-Able AND unblockable makes it much easier to apply pressure profitably.
Equipment - "Deathtouch" Basilisk Collar: Cheap deathtouch. The lifelink is odd for this deck, but gaining life off my high-power creatures feels pretty nice. Quietus Spike: Deathtouch, plus a burn-friendly combat damage proc - players who've lost half their life at least once are much easier to burn out. Sword of Kaldra: Exiletouch taped to a hilariously large buff. This is the main thing I fetch with Godo.
Auras Elemental Mastery: Makes it much harder to block your high-powered creatures. Interacts furiously with any of the Gauntlet effects, or with firebreathing.
Burn Price of Progress: One of the main draws of playing Mono Red, and a driving force behind my land structure. In the late game, this will almost always kill someone, sometimes more than one at a time! Grab the Reins: Entwine is one of my favorite mechanics. Act of Treason on the same card as Fling, all at instant speed! I urgently want to use this on a Lord of Extinction. Fanning the Flames: A very handy spell, one I'd like to draw almost every game. Mana-intensive, but the ability to burn someone/something off the table without spending a card is pretty outrageous. Have you ever had someone concede to "damage in hand"? Banefire: I have yet to draw this, but I refuse to remove it. You can't always count on the Blue player tapping out! Come prepared. Comet Storm: Instant-speed X burn is very nice, and this has the flexibility to hit multiple targets. Remember - Fireball splits X between its targets, Comet Storm deals X to EACH target. Starstorm: Instant-speed X damage to all creatures. Cycling if you don't think you'll need it. Blasphemous Act: Almost anything that would die to Day of Judgement will die to this, and I've yet to be in a situation where I wanted to cast it and it'd cost more than R. Repercussion: Allows me to use burn to remove a creature and still damage the player behind it. Interaction with Furnace of Rath causes quadruple damage - eat that, Rhys! Warstorm Surge: Lets Rakka Mar dispense lightning bolts while she makes tokens. Makes all my creatures into burn effects, tokens included.
Damage Enhancers Furnace of Rath: Double damage suits me fine. Savage Beating: It's kind of a win-more card, but spending a spell to deal quadruple damage seems worthwhile. Entwine, once again, steals the show. Gratuitous Violence: I liked this when I didn't realize it was one-sided. My creatures want to deal as much damage as possible, as fast as possible, for the entire time they're on the table, and this enables that. In the Web of War: Interacts nicely with a lot of my stuff. Insurrection: Well, obviously.
Mono Red Control Blood Moon: This spell could be very nasty in an insufficiently-prepared metagame - always put basic lands in your deck, kids. Even against a well-prepared three-color player, it will probably cause several turns of topdecking for answers. War's Toll: Forces the blue player to tap out, forces the Maze of Ith to tap down, forces Rafiq to bring his Solemn Sim along and thus negate Exalted - all that, and it doesn't affect me! Glorious. Stranglehold: I hate to imagine the metagame where you need to pre-emptively stop all extra-turn-related shenanigans, but hosing tutors for as long as it sticks is always nice.
Spot Removal Shattering Pulse: Buyback is my next favorite thing after entwine. Eliminate problematic artifacts without spending your precious cards. Shivan Harvest: Repeatable nonbasic land hate. Very mana-efficient. Chaos Warp: The Best Red Spell. Kind of unreliable, but if you use it correctly, you'll seldom come out behind. Into the Core: Not just a two-for-one, but it exiles. Color-swords are very prevalent in my meta, and it sometimes ruins a combo player. Icefall: Repeatable land/artifact hate. Works fine with disposable token soldiers. Fissure: "Destroy Target Creature" is enough to warrant inclusion - I can't always burn them as hard as I want. Optional Coffers-hate is occasionally relevant, too.
Ramp Sol Ring: I should have listed this under "Land".
*Ruby Medallion: Not sure about this one yet. Could be good for squeezing combo pieces together. Mind Stone: It's no Sol Ring, but it cycles from play, and that's very valuable. Braid of Fire: I would almost call this an EDH Tarmogoyf. It creates a problem for your opponents, that gets worse and worse, and requires resources be spent to solve it - all for two mana, once. It feeds Gemstone Array pretty nicely as well. Darksteel Ingot: Costs-three-makes-one is the going rate for mana rocks, and this one doesn't break. Solemn Simulacrum: He fetches a Mountain, he shuffles my deck, he provides a body, and he draws a card, which basically describes everything I need to do in this deck. Thran Dynamo: I didn't like this when I got it, but lately I'd run it in any non-green deck - going from turn four to turn eight for one net mana cost is pretty convincing. Gemstone Array: A recent addition, as yet untested - I am frequently frustrated by the amount of mana that goes to waste at the ends of turns, much less games where I keep a four-lander and miss drop #5. With this, I'm at least not dead in the water. Koth of the Hammer: His +1 makes 1 mana, his -2 makes as many mana as I have Mountains, and his ultimate is kind of useless but gives me something productive to do with my unused mana. Gauntlet of Might, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun: Getting one of these to stick generally means threatening to win the game, which is roughly the same as in any monocolored deck.
Assorted Utility Relic of Progenitus: I should be running SOME graveyard hate, and this one draws me a card. Reiterate: I used to run Fork and Reverberate, too, but too frequently I squandered them in the fear that nobody was going to cast anything better. Reiterate lets me do what you're doing, without dropping a card. Vedalken Orrery: I run this in every deck. You'd be surprised how much tricky stuff you can do when you can cast every spell as an instant. Past in Flames: Very solid. With my focus on card efficiency mana efficiency, it's very likely that I can get a lot done the turn I use this. Wild Ricochet: Reverberate taped to Swerve. Every red deck should have this. They never see it coming. Nevinyrral's Disk: I should be running SOMETHING that kills enchantments, and this is the least mana-intensive option. Word of Seizing: Split Second is a useful tool, and so is "Steal Target Permanent".
Tutoring Expedition Map: I put one of these in roughly every deck I run. In this deck, it usually fetches Thawing Glaciers or Valakut, but other options are possible. Citanul Flute: My creature count is pretty low, and pretty much the number one thing I want after I hit a Gauntlet effect is a creature to use it with. Planar Portal: Demonic tutor machine. Simple, expensive, effective.
Card Filtering Sensei's Divining Top: Naturally. In this deck specifically, knowing what your next few topdecks will be is very handy. Scroll Rack: Also results in knowing what your next few topdecks will be, but has the advantage of "re-rolling" currently-useless cards for better ones.
Land Maze of Ith: Always good to have a little help keeping the creatures away. Mercadian Bazaar: Very good as an early drop, less so later on. The ability to ramp while missing land drops is nice, and it's MILES better than Dwarven Hold. Spinerock Knoll: Relevancy varies, but it only requires that I have two mana up while someone is taking seven damage in a turn. Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep: Kind of irrelevant, but helps discourage blocks against my numerous legendary creatures. Forgotten Cave, Smoldering Crater: I don't always like the cycling lands, but this deck really does need the flexibility. Kher Keep: Backup for Rakka Mar. A 0/1 token isn't that much worse than a 3/1 - its skull clamps just the same. Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle: If you're going to have a lot of Mountains anyway, you'd might as well make sure everyone hates you. Thawing Glaciers, Bloodstained Mire, Wooded Foothills, Arid Mesa, Scalding Tarn: Anything you can do to force Mountains out of your deck and onto the table with minimal mana-spending is helpful. These also provide shuffles, which go well with Top and Rack. Madblind Mountain: Provides shuffles, and is a Mountain, if a nonbasic one.
Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
I personally prefer Crystal Ball over Scroll Rack, and Oblivion Stone over Nevinyrral's Disk (for those problem 'walkers). Also, 32 lands is a bit too little for my taste, although you do have an alright curve...Still, if you need consistent land drops, Journeyer's Kite isn't bad...
Thanks for the compliments! I'll probably get around to the card-by-card breakdown tonight, but for now:
Per the "notes on card selection", I'm not running as much land as I thought I was. I'll probably get two or three more mountains in there ASAP.
Gamble: I'm not a fan of cards that randomly do or do not work. Obviously in Mono Red you'd have to run some (I have personally Chaos Warped a Jin-Gitaxias into a Sheoldred :embarrass:) but specifically in the case of discarding things, I'd just as soon not. In a spellshaper deck - and I did strongly consider building Jaya Ballard - you'd probably have a lot stronger focus on Madness and Flashback, which would make the discard less suicidal. But in my situation, I'll probably be holding two or three powerful answers waiting for just the right question, and I'd hate to discard one to my own spell...
Hoarding Dragon: I gave Godo the nod over the dragon because regardless of what kind of removal he eats, I still get the thing I searched for, and because usually I'd be searching for equipment anyway - this deck gets a lot of utility out of pingers with nasty on-damage effects. Also, Godo makes an extra combat phase, which can be handy in itself.
Extraplanar Lens: Admittedly the GoM is kind of an extravagant purchase, but I felt like Rakka Mar deserved it, and it's not like I needed any dual lands for this deck! Meanwhile, the most important consideration in mana doublers is that they inevitably get destroyed, either in a sweep or via spot removal. If the GoM breaks, you lose your Super Mana, but if the Lens breaks, you're down a Mountain.
Oblivion Stone: This is well within the range of 'cards I could run' but I didn't feel like I had space for both, and I happened to have a Disk lying around, and the Disk use much less mana, even if it's a bit slower.
Crystal Ball: The Rack is a little cheaper, and it lets me trade useless junk in my hand for possible better cards in my deck, with the option to shuffle the irrelevant stuff away, or to stack my deck to draw it back as it becomes more relevant to the situation at hand, or to Rack it back instantly if a problem arises.
Journeyer's Kite: I actually hadn't thought about this one, despite having it around. Thawing Glaciers (say it with me now) Costs Less Mana, and has the advantage of dragging the land directly into play, but... the kite could work. Gemstone Array is in on a trial basis only, but now we know who's getting his slot if he doesn't work out.
Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Is there a reason you're not running Koth of the Hammer? He can beat up on unprepared opponents in the early game and his ultimate gives great reach in the later game.
I wonder if you have enough actual creature cards to warrant the slots for Kiki-Jiki and Splinter Twin. Making token copies of tokens doesn't seem too exciting.
Fetchlands + Crucible of Worlds, if you really want to skimp on land count?
Added the card-by-card breakdown! Not sure if anyone wants to read that much text, but I kind of enjoyed writing it.
As for your questions:
Knollspine Dragon: Seven mana for a non-hasty 7/5 is quite a bit. His ability requires me to drop my hand - always a painful prospect - and its benefit hinges on dealing damage to a specific player on the same turn, which is not that easy to do while also landing this guy.
Koth of the Hammer: Probably going to drop one in to replace Chandra. He makes a lot of mana, and the man-land thing could be relevant beyond untapping a land. The Flame Fusillade ability is a little on the weak side, but it might matter.
Swiftfoot Boots vs. Whispersilk Cloak: Appealing, but the Cloak is mostly there to provide evasion. I don't have many on-damage procs, but the number of damage is usually pretty good.
Braid of Fire + Gemstone Array: Braid is a holdover from my Jhoira Deck. (Coming soon to a thread near you!) It generates free resources with minimal investment, and combines nicely with card-neutral effects like Kumano or Shattering Pulse. I have yet to actually draw the Array - the interaction with Braid hadn't occurred to me until you mentioned it! Mostly it's there to make sure my untap phases are productive during a detente.
Kiki-Jiki and Splinter Twin: Kiki kind of says, "instead of attacking with me, attack with a copy of your best nonlegendary creature," and my nonlegendary creatures are ferocious indeed. Splinter Twin was from an earlier draft of this deck, more focused on Warstorm Surge/Electropotence/Pandemonium, and isn't very useful on its own.
Fetchlands are in the mail - it's like you didn't even read my notes. They combine nicely with Madblind Mountain, also in the mail, to ensure I can always shuffle when I need to.
Crucible of Worlds: Due to the potential for Strip Mine douchebaggery, this was soft-banned from my playgroup for quite a while. It's been creeping in, slowly, and it seems that mature adults can use the Crucible without being insufferable. That said, I don't own any yet.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Giving myself a quick bump, as I think everything's pretty much finalized. Performance is a little uneven, which is very normal considering the lack of tutoring options. Still, you can count on at least one fierce play per game, and I'm generally very happy with the results.
For my next decklist/tuneup, I wonder if people have a preference between my existing decks:
Drana, who is a very nasty monoblack goodstuff list, very similar to Rakka Mar in creature count, but historically much stronger. I haven't put any effort into rebalancing Drana in a while, especially not since my recent infatuation with buyback/recover/flashback. Slaughter, here I come...
Jhoira, who has come to be sort of a red/blue Eldrazi ramp/control deck, focused on stack manipulation, card theft, and calling out unimaginable horrors, for free, with haste, during my upkeep. Her spells are horribly powerful, but she tends to eat a few too many attacks early on, and does a lot of her playing on other people's turns.
Rith, my newest deck, a very aggressive Naya token list. I've only played him once so far, where he violently exploded onto the board approximately three times, eating a wrath each time. I feel like he should probably swap some of his 'gas' for more defensive/reactive/removal cards, so that he doesn't have to front-run the pack...
I'm also accumulating stuff to start building a Ramses Overdark deck, though I'm in no hurry there.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
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Silly strawman, everyone knows it's all about card selection. You can't just pick up any red card with the word 'damage' on it and expect to win games, you need the most versatile, efficient, universally-relevant spells, not to mention a healthy dose of vicious reptile cunning. Hey, the Savage Lands aren't for everybody...
This means I dislike combos, mass LD, and mass discard; instead, I favor efficient instant-speed interaction and showstopping displays of force. "Epic Moments." Your mileage may vary.
1 Rakka Mar
Creatures (10):
1 Inferno Titan
1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Kamahl, Pit Fighter
1 Living Inferno
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Thunderblust
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
Equipment (7):
1 Skullclamp
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Whispersilk Cloak
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Quietus Spike
1 Sword of Kaldra
Auras (1):
1 Elemental Mastery
Burn (9):
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Starstorm
1 Warstorm Surge
1 Grab the Reins
1 Banefire
1 Comet Storm
1 Fanning the Flames
1 Price of Progress
1 Repercussion
1 Furnace of Rath
1 Savage Beating
1 Gratuitous Violence
1 In the Web of War
1 Insurrection
Mono Red Control (3):
1 Blood Moon
1 War's Toll
1 Stranglehold
Spot Removal (6):
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Shivan Harvest
1 Chaos Warp
1 Into the Core
1 Icefall
1 Fissure
Ramp (12):
1 Sol Ring
1 Mind Stone
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Braid of Fire
1 Gemstone Array
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Gauntlet of Might
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Caged Sun
Assorted Utility (7):
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Reiterate
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Past in Flames
1 Wild Ricochet
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Word of Seizing
1 Expedition Map
1 Citanul Flute
1 Planar Portal
Card Filtering (2):
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Scroll Rack
Land (14 + 20):
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mercadian Bazaar
1 Spinerock Knoll
1 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1 Kher Keep
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Madblind Mountain
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Arid Mesa
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Smoldering Crater
20 Mountain
Rakka Mar is herself a formidable beatdown. If I can ramp directly to four or five mana, and nothing else is happening, it's usually worthwhile to cast her and start pressuring people for answers. Casting my general and using her to make an army of high-damage tokens leaves me with a grip full of cruel reprisals for anyone with the temerity to oppose me!
This deck has no reasonable way to tutor, or even search for lands - you're either using Portal/Flute to do it at extreme expense, or you're combining Top/Rack with each other and with whatever shuffle effects you can find. There have been turns where it's use Top, use Thawing Glaciers, use Top again, tap Top to draw, recast Top again next turn. If you've got nothing else to do, it's a lot more helpful than it sounds.
If I win a game, it'll usually be with one of my doublers on the table - by the late game, answers are sparse and slow in coming, and it only takes a turn or two of Super Mana to make a play that clears off the survivors of whatever war was previously being fought. Until that point, I just want to incrementally defend my life total, act nonthreatening, and wait for my chance. They always give me one...
Cards marked with * are likely to get replaced with something more compelling.
Creatures - "Pingers"
Inferno Titan: Three damage you can split or combine as you please is QUITE nice. Firebreathing has some nice interactions, too.
Kumano, Master Yamabushi: He turns "deathtouch" into "exiletouch", AND he can ping without tapping - a great way to push down blockers.
Siege-Gang Commander: You can use him as a much-worse Kumano, or you can use him as four chump blockers. Both of these options are very relevant.
Kamahl, Pit Fighter: K-Maul is pretty nice as a surprise six in the red zone, but he also flings lightning bolts when he can't get across.
Living Inferno: On its own, it'll probably trade for all the blockers of the weakest player at the table. Works VERY nicely with attachments.
Magus of the Moon: Given the choice of one or the other, Blood Moon is better, but I really feel like I have room for both.
Creatures - "Red Zone"
Thunderblust: Of all the ball lightnings in the world, the Thunder Horse is my favorite - a surprise SEVEN in the red, for five mana, who not only fails to self-destruct, but actually has persist - he works hard for his card slot.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker: A little weak, because more than half of my creatures are legendary. The ones that aren't, though, are EXCELLENT to copy, and he works nicely with stolen creatures as well.
Creatures - "Special Function"
Godo, Bandit Warlord: Once you see my equipment package, he'll make a little more sense - this deck LOVES deathtouch gear. He also provides a 3/3 body that can wear equipment, and an extra combat phase for himself.
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs: Discourages opponents from attacking you on the ground, and does it in a way where he's still free to beat face.
Equipment - "Utility"
Skullclamp: Interacts brutally with Rakka Mar and Kher Keep, but you can stick it to any non-commander creature to profit from the inevitable boardsweep.
Lightning Greaves: The classic. Hasty, Un-Maze-Able Inferno Titan costs exactly as much as regular Inferno Titan, but he hits SO much harder.
Darksteel Plate: Any body crammed into this is a good reusable blocker. Also makes my handful of creatures way harder to get rid of. Sticking this to Living Inferno creates a really ugly situation.
Whispersilk Cloak: The shroud is nice, but this is mostly here for the evasion. Un-Maze-Able AND unblockable makes it much easier to apply pressure profitably.
Equipment - "Deathtouch"
Basilisk Collar: Cheap deathtouch. The lifelink is odd for this deck, but gaining life off my high-power creatures feels pretty nice.
Quietus Spike: Deathtouch, plus a burn-friendly combat damage proc - players who've lost half their life at least once are much easier to burn out.
Sword of Kaldra: Exiletouch taped to a hilariously large buff. This is the main thing I fetch with Godo.
Auras
Elemental Mastery: Makes it much harder to block your high-powered creatures. Interacts furiously with any of the Gauntlet effects, or with firebreathing.
Burn
Price of Progress: One of the main draws of playing Mono Red, and a driving force behind my land structure. In the late game, this will almost always kill someone, sometimes more than one at a time!
Grab the Reins: Entwine is one of my favorite mechanics. Act of Treason on the same card as Fling, all at instant speed! I urgently want to use this on a Lord of Extinction.
Fanning the Flames: A very handy spell, one I'd like to draw almost every game. Mana-intensive, but the ability to burn someone/something off the table without spending a card is pretty outrageous. Have you ever had someone concede to "damage in hand"?
Banefire: I have yet to draw this, but I refuse to remove it. You can't always count on the Blue player tapping out! Come prepared.
Comet Storm: Instant-speed X burn is very nice, and this has the flexibility to hit multiple targets. Remember - Fireball splits X between its targets, Comet Storm deals X to EACH target.
Starstorm: Instant-speed X damage to all creatures. Cycling if you don't think you'll need it.
Blasphemous Act: Almost anything that would die to Day of Judgement will die to this, and I've yet to be in a situation where I wanted to cast it and it'd cost more than R.
Repercussion: Allows me to use burn to remove a creature and still damage the player behind it. Interaction with Furnace of Rath causes quadruple damage - eat that, Rhys!
Warstorm Surge: Lets Rakka Mar dispense lightning bolts while she makes tokens. Makes all my creatures into burn effects, tokens included.
Damage Enhancers
Furnace of Rath: Double damage suits me fine.
Savage Beating: It's kind of a win-more card, but spending a spell to deal quadruple damage seems worthwhile. Entwine, once again, steals the show.
Gratuitous Violence: I liked this when I didn't realize it was one-sided. My creatures want to deal as much damage as possible, as fast as possible, for the entire time they're on the table, and this enables that.
In the Web of War: Interacts nicely with a lot of my stuff.
Insurrection: Well, obviously.
Mono Red Control
Blood Moon: This spell could be very nasty in an insufficiently-prepared metagame - always put basic lands in your deck, kids. Even against a well-prepared three-color player, it will probably cause several turns of topdecking for answers.
War's Toll: Forces the blue player to tap out, forces the Maze of Ith to tap down, forces Rafiq to bring his Solemn Sim along and thus negate Exalted - all that, and it doesn't affect me! Glorious.
Stranglehold: I hate to imagine the metagame where you need to pre-emptively stop all extra-turn-related shenanigans, but hosing tutors for as long as it sticks is always nice.
Spot Removal
Shattering Pulse: Buyback is my next favorite thing after entwine. Eliminate problematic artifacts without spending your precious cards.
Shivan Harvest: Repeatable nonbasic land hate. Very mana-efficient.
Chaos Warp: The Best Red Spell. Kind of unreliable, but if you use it correctly, you'll seldom come out behind.
Into the Core: Not just a two-for-one, but it exiles. Color-swords are very prevalent in my meta, and it sometimes ruins a combo player.
Icefall: Repeatable land/artifact hate. Works fine with disposable token soldiers.
Fissure: "Destroy Target Creature" is enough to warrant inclusion - I can't always burn them as hard as I want. Optional Coffers-hate is occasionally relevant, too.
Ramp
Sol Ring: I should have listed this under "Land".
*Ruby Medallion: Not sure about this one yet. Could be good for squeezing combo pieces together.
Mind Stone: It's no Sol Ring, but it cycles from play, and that's very valuable.
Braid of Fire: I would almost call this an EDH Tarmogoyf. It creates a problem for your opponents, that gets worse and worse, and requires resources be spent to solve it - all for two mana, once. It feeds Gemstone Array pretty nicely as well.
Darksteel Ingot: Costs-three-makes-one is the going rate for mana rocks, and this one doesn't break.
Solemn Simulacrum: He fetches a Mountain, he shuffles my deck, he provides a body, and he draws a card, which basically describes everything I need to do in this deck.
Thran Dynamo: I didn't like this when I got it, but lately I'd run it in any non-green deck - going from turn four to turn eight for one net mana cost is pretty convincing.
Gemstone Array: A recent addition, as yet untested - I am frequently frustrated by the amount of mana that goes to waste at the ends of turns, much less games where I keep a four-lander and miss drop #5. With this, I'm at least not dead in the water.
Koth of the Hammer: His +1 makes 1 mana, his -2 makes as many mana as I have Mountains, and his ultimate is kind of useless but gives me something productive to do with my unused mana.
Gauntlet of Might, Gauntlet of Power, Caged Sun: Getting one of these to stick generally means threatening to win the game, which is roughly the same as in any monocolored deck.
Assorted Utility
Relic of Progenitus: I should be running SOME graveyard hate, and this one draws me a card.
Reiterate: I used to run Fork and Reverberate, too, but too frequently I squandered them in the fear that nobody was going to cast anything better. Reiterate lets me do what you're doing, without dropping a card.
Vedalken Orrery: I run this in every deck. You'd be surprised how much tricky stuff you can do when you can cast every spell as an instant.
Past in Flames: Very solid. With my focus on card efficiency mana efficiency, it's very likely that I can get a lot done the turn I use this.
Wild Ricochet: Reverberate taped to Swerve. Every red deck should have this. They never see it coming.
Nevinyrral's Disk: I should be running SOMETHING that kills enchantments, and this is the least mana-intensive option.
Word of Seizing: Split Second is a useful tool, and so is "Steal Target Permanent".
Tutoring
Expedition Map: I put one of these in roughly every deck I run. In this deck, it usually fetches Thawing Glaciers or Valakut, but other options are possible.
Citanul Flute: My creature count is pretty low, and pretty much the number one thing I want after I hit a Gauntlet effect is a creature to use it with.
Planar Portal: Demonic tutor machine. Simple, expensive, effective.
Card Filtering
Sensei's Divining Top: Naturally. In this deck specifically, knowing what your next few topdecks will be is very handy.
Scroll Rack: Also results in knowing what your next few topdecks will be, but has the advantage of "re-rolling" currently-useless cards for better ones.
Land
Maze of Ith: Always good to have a little help keeping the creatures away.
Mercadian Bazaar: Very good as an early drop, less so later on. The ability to ramp while missing land drops is nice, and it's MILES better than Dwarven Hold.
Spinerock Knoll: Relevancy varies, but it only requires that I have two mana up while someone is taking seven damage in a turn.
Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep: Kind of irrelevant, but helps discourage blocks against my numerous legendary creatures.
Forgotten Cave, Smoldering Crater: I don't always like the cycling lands, but this deck really does need the flexibility.
Kher Keep: Backup for Rakka Mar. A 0/1 token isn't that much worse than a 3/1 - its skull clamps just the same.
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle: If you're going to have a lot of Mountains anyway, you'd might as well make sure everyone hates you.
Thawing Glaciers, Bloodstained Mire, Wooded Foothills, Arid Mesa, Scalding Tarn: Anything you can do to force Mountains out of your deck and onto the table with minimal mana-spending is helpful. These also provide shuffles, which go well with Top and Rack.
Madblind Mountain: Provides shuffles, and is a Mountain, if a nonbasic one.
Any particular reason for excluding Gamble? That's always been one of the most powerful Red cards I've played, especially early game.
EDH Decks:
- Reya Dawnbringer // - Mistform Ultimus // - Balthor the Defiled // - Urabrask the Hidden // - Mirri, Cat Warrior
I personally prefer Crystal Ball over Scroll Rack, and Oblivion Stone over Nevinyrral's Disk (for those problem 'walkers). Also, 32 lands is a bit too little for my taste, although you do have an alright curve...Still, if you need consistent land drops, Journeyer's Kite isn't bad...
WReya DawnbringerWGBounteous KirinGRUrabrask the HiddenR
Per the "notes on card selection", I'm not running as much land as I thought I was. I'll probably get two or three more mountains in there ASAP.
Gamble: I'm not a fan of cards that randomly do or do not work. Obviously in Mono Red you'd have to run some (I have personally Chaos Warped a Jin-Gitaxias into a Sheoldred :embarrass:) but specifically in the case of discarding things, I'd just as soon not. In a spellshaper deck - and I did strongly consider building Jaya Ballard - you'd probably have a lot stronger focus on Madness and Flashback, which would make the discard less suicidal. But in my situation, I'll probably be holding two or three powerful answers waiting for just the right question, and I'd hate to discard one to my own spell...
Hoarding Dragon: I gave Godo the nod over the dragon because regardless of what kind of removal he eats, I still get the thing I searched for, and because usually I'd be searching for equipment anyway - this deck gets a lot of utility out of pingers with nasty on-damage effects. Also, Godo makes an extra combat phase, which can be handy in itself.
Extraplanar Lens: Admittedly the GoM is kind of an extravagant purchase, but I felt like Rakka Mar deserved it, and it's not like I needed any dual lands for this deck! Meanwhile, the most important consideration in mana doublers is that they inevitably get destroyed, either in a sweep or via spot removal. If the GoM breaks, you lose your Super Mana, but if the Lens breaks, you're down a Mountain.
Oblivion Stone: This is well within the range of 'cards I could run' but I didn't feel like I had space for both, and I happened to have a Disk lying around, and the Disk use much less mana, even if it's a bit slower.
Crystal Ball: The Rack is a little cheaper, and it lets me trade useless junk in my hand for possible better cards in my deck, with the option to shuffle the irrelevant stuff away, or to stack my deck to draw it back as it becomes more relevant to the situation at hand, or to Rack it back instantly if a problem arises.
Journeyer's Kite: I actually hadn't thought about this one, despite having it around. Thawing Glaciers (say it with me now) Costs Less Mana, and has the advantage of dragging the land directly into play, but... the kite could work. Gemstone Array is in on a trial basis only, but now we know who's getting his slot if he doesn't work out.
I like Swiftfoot Boots a fair bit better than Whispersilk Cloak. It's cheaper and hexproof > shroud.
How has Braid of Fire + Gemstone Array been working out for you? It's not like you need the fixing.
I wonder if you have enough actual creature cards to warrant the slots for Kiki-Jiki and Splinter Twin. Making token copies of tokens doesn't seem too exciting.
Fetchlands + Crucible of Worlds, if you really want to skimp on land count?
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As for your questions:
Knollspine Dragon: Seven mana for a non-hasty 7/5 is quite a bit. His ability requires me to drop my hand - always a painful prospect - and its benefit hinges on dealing damage to a specific player on the same turn, which is not that easy to do while also landing this guy.
Koth of the Hammer: Probably going to drop one in to replace Chandra. He makes a lot of mana, and the man-land thing could be relevant beyond untapping a land. The Flame Fusillade ability is a little on the weak side, but it might matter.
Swiftfoot Boots vs. Whispersilk Cloak: Appealing, but the Cloak is mostly there to provide evasion. I don't have many on-damage procs, but the number of damage is usually pretty good.
Braid of Fire + Gemstone Array: Braid is a holdover from my Jhoira Deck. (Coming soon to a thread near you!) It generates free resources with minimal investment, and combines nicely with card-neutral effects like Kumano or Shattering Pulse. I have yet to actually draw the Array - the interaction with Braid hadn't occurred to me until you mentioned it! Mostly it's there to make sure my untap phases are productive during a detente.
Kiki-Jiki and Splinter Twin: Kiki kind of says, "instead of attacking with me, attack with a copy of your best nonlegendary creature," and my nonlegendary creatures are ferocious indeed. Splinter Twin was from an earlier draft of this deck, more focused on Warstorm Surge/Electropotence/Pandemonium, and isn't very useful on its own.
Fetchlands are in the mail - it's like you didn't even read my notes. They combine nicely with Madblind Mountain, also in the mail, to ensure I can always shuffle when I need to.
Crucible of Worlds: Due to the potential for Strip Mine douchebaggery, this was soft-banned from my playgroup for quite a while. It's been creeping in, slowly, and it seems that mature adults can use the Crucible without being insufferable. That said, I don't own any yet.
For my next decklist/tuneup, I wonder if people have a preference between my existing decks:
I'm also accumulating stuff to start building a Ramses Overdark deck, though I'm in no hurry there.