Mono Red - Next Steps

So, after testing, there were a few slots that either didn't seem to pull their weight, or whose worth was quite variable, so we should look at those, and figure out what to do with them.

The biggest question in my mind is the one drops.
Currently, I'm playing:
4x Stromkirk Noble
3x Reckless Waif
3x Geistflame
1x Gut Shot

The purpose of these cards is to get in early pressure, deal chunks of damage, while enabling Stromgarde Berserker.  Berserker was pretty bad with more of a two-drop centered game, which is not what we're looking for.

Most Questionable One Drops:

Reckless Waif: (Currently 3x main, 0x side)
+++++
3 power on turn 1 does quite a bit of damage.
Mana screwed opponents took a ton of damage
Forced them into action
Led to many easy wins when several one-drops were drawn
Punished Tap-lands
Very good on the play
Instants can let you skip a turn and flip it, while still doing something.
+++++

------
Hard to flip later in the game.
Not great in creature combat, tended to trade instead of get through for damage.
Bad against Timely Reinforcements, Snapcaster, Viridian Emmisary.
Not so great on the draw.
-----

Overall, this guy just does alot of damage early, and can block to save Koth or your life total while your mana ramps, but any other 1-drop could do that as well.  I often sided several of these out, and had to take out a Berserker or two as a consequence, against control, but maybe that was not right.

The main purpose of this guy is to pump up a Berserker, so if he gets replaced (and Berserkers stay), the replacement cards need to fill that role.

Alternatives:

In theory, cards like Grim Lavamancer, or Spikeshot Elder fill this same role, but in actuality they do not, because the purpose of these guys is to apply semi-unblockable damage, in order to bloodthirst the Berserker, or force your control opponent into action.  Lavamancer and Elder are fine cards in their own right, but neither really stands up to these options, or Waif.

All of them do less damage than the Waif in their best-case scenarios, but what they gain over the Waif is consistancy. 

Fireslinger is straight up unblockable, and they would have to kill it on their turn, to prevent Bloodthirsting a Berserker.  But otherwise it seems to do a reasonably weak version of Curse of the Pierced Heart.  Unfortunately, the curse does the damage on their turn, so it can't trigger bloodthirst.

The Arsonist is "unblockable" in that it gets in there for one damage either way, and can in theory ping mana creatures, planeswalkers, etc.

Gut Shot is a way you can bloodthirst on turn 2, so it does count in this category.  (Geistflame enables on T3, but that's not T2)

The impact on all of these is very minimal compared to the sheer bruising power of the Waif.  Noone would argue for Curse of the Pierced Heart or Mons Goblin Raiders in a deck like this, and Curse has some advantages over each of them.  (Not a creature, overloads O-Ring, similar to Shrine, has "haste", etc). 

GerryT advocates Fireslinger and Arsonist over Noble(!), because they are less blockable, but that sort of logic is clearly out of bounds for this deck.  Gut Shot is very inteteresting here, because it doubles as a removal spell, in those critical (for Waif, Noble) early turns.

Most Questionable Removal Spells:


















Gut Shot: (Currently 1x Main 0x Side)
+++++
Manaless damage can really work well in some situations:
+1 damage with Koth Ultimate
+1 damage with koth Ultimate on 5 lands -> Titan/Wurmcoil
+Kills flash Creatures that threaten Planeswalkers (Snapcaster)
+Turn 1 kill (mana creature) + Play 1-drop is a very strong play. (esp on the draw)
+Put a charge on Shrine, and keep mana up to activate it
All of these happened at least once in the test game, with only one copy of Gut Shot to allow them to happen.
Life payment is rarely a factor given the aggressive nature of the deck.
+++++

-----
Pretty low impact in killing people, and threats in the later game.
Doesn't exactly take down big threats that well.  Too much 1-damage effects are problematic when the opponent plays a Titan.
-----

Geistflame: (Currently 3x Main, 1x Side)
+++++
Reusable damage, kind of like a delayed, instant speed Arc Trail, when Shrine is considered.
1 damage kills alot of early threats.
+++++
-----
Rarely got flashed back as anything but "to the head" to put a counter on shrine(s).
Sided out commonly against control.
Never wanted the 4th Geistflame, when Arc Trail was available out of the side.
-----

I don't need the 4th Geistflame for sure.  I might want to do something like 2x Geistflame, 1x Arc Trail main, with 3x Arc Trail side, which would open up two sideboard slots at virtual zero cost.

It is a realistic possibility to count Gut Shots as Waifs, for the purpose of powering up Berserkers, but I don't think I would want to go over something like 2 Gut Shots total, unless omni-Illusions was rampant.  (Geistflame is pretty rocking there too...)

"Finisher"/"Utility"/??

As I mentioned in the previous testing report, Chandra 3.0 was mostly a counterspell-drawer, or a 4-mana Gut Shot in these games.  I never doubled a proliferate spell, and I did kill quite a few one-toughness creatures, but I did side her out for games 2-3 quite often, to bring in random other stuff.

I'd really like these two spell slots to have some strong synergy with the deck's proliferate effects, and be a game-winning possibility, but I'm not sure what to do about that.

There are some options I can think of, some of them good, some of them... Well, some might not be an upgrade to Chandra.  Let me know what you think, there is certainly room for some of these to shine here....

 

For three-drops, Metamorph could provide an undercosted threat if the opponent has a reasonable deck.  (Mirran Crusader, Hero, Titan).  Kurin Outlaw does a ton of damage, and is hard to block (and has some Synergy with Waif).  Chandra's Phoenix flies, and overcomes some of the problems of being a creature.  Druidic Sachel provides you with a stream of creatures, action, and life, to race the control decks.

For four-drops, Gorehorn is "in-theme", but not quite big enough to take down titans on his own, and is pretty blockable.  Lux Cannon is also "in theme", but pretty glacially slow.  It does deal with planeswalkers, O-Rings, and Titans alike....

At 5, we have Urabrask, who makes blocking quite difficult for the opponent (but who combos poorly with Berserker).  We don't have a metric ton of creatures, so he may be outclassed by Falkenrath Marauders, who hit for 2, 4, 6, 8, who do we appreciate?  Batterskull is a fine control creature, but it may not be at it's best in our aggro deck.  People are already bringing in artifact removal spells to deal with Shrine, but Batterskull would be an interesting one-of, perhaps moreso than the other options at this level.

Mono Red - First Round of Testing

I took my mono-red list into the Tournament Practice Room on MtG:O, and I would have to say I am pleasantly surprised with the results.  I played two notebook pages worth of games, mostly to see how many mistakes I could make (in retrospect), and to get an idea of how the deck played "for real".

First, some caveats:
The tournament practice room is not a tournament.  There are no prizes on the line, and often people who are frustrated leave the game.  You also see a higher quantity of non-real decks, and bad players, compared to a tournament setting, because people with good decks who play well aren't practicing, they are beating people up for their packs.  All of these things need to be considered when looking at the results here, and success at this level is near-mandatory in order for any deck to be even moderately successful at the higher levels.


Second, some results:


Overall, I went 23-3 with the deck, which is pretty amazing even with the caveats.  I only lost 12 games across those 26 matches...  However, lets drill down a bit and see if we can learn more than "we win 90% of TPR matches"

Aggro: 15-3, 8-1
Mono-Black Infect: 2-0
This is a real deck, with a fairly nightmare card for my deck in Phyrexian Crusader.  I ran into a scenario in the second game where I attacked with two bloodthirsted Stormblood Berserkers into a Phyrexian Crusader, and threw in a transformed Reckless Waif, without thinking about it too much.  Turns out, he couldn't block the Berserkers anyway, so the RW was a chump attacker, that would have come in handy attacking the next turn, after he summoned another Crusader...  In any event, Shrines and burn to the face were quite effective in this match.  Manic Vandal was very effective vs Lash.
Terrible WW: 2-0
O ring + pump + terrible white creatures.  I'd be surprised to see this in any match for packs.
Terrible G+Equip: 1-0
Conceded the match.  Not a real match.
W Artifact/Token Aggro: 2-0
Mull to 6, and a Mull to 5 with 2 Waifs were both easy wins.  This game taught me how important mulligans are with this deck.  Because of the sheer insane power of your 1-drops, and the insanity of a T5 ultimated Koth, you can mulligan a bad hand into an easy win at 6.
UG Infect: 2-1
Super-combo-damage-kill between pump spells and Ranger's Guile and infecters.  Lost the first game on a mull to 6, that I should have mulled to 5, since it didn't have any action. (No 1-drop, Berserker, Koth is not really a keeper)
He brought in Mistep and Negate, but I brought in Arc Trail, and that was that.  Why aren't I maining some of these?
RB aggro: 2-0
Had some pretty loose creatures, so a higher-tier version of this might have went better(for him).  Shrine isn't at it's best with half black spells in your deck.
GW Humans: 2-0
Obviously a beginner player.  I had double-noble game one, and noble-zerker game two.  Did you know Noble can't be blocked by humans?  That's pretty useful.  I did make a mistake here, against a Serra Angel (!).  I held back my 4/4 Noble, thinking "I'll either hold her back from attacking, or attack once she does."  That line of thinking doesn't work that well against a evasive vigilance creature.
WW Equip: 2-0
He got mana screwed G1, and I played cautiously to ultimate Koth and win G2 vs his O-Rings.
Mono Red: 0-2
Game 1 I mulled 6 land into 1 land into 0 land all the way down to 2 (also no land).  I kept at 2, and if he had not had Koth on T4, I might have made a game of that one.  It is possible that I should have kept at 4 or 5 with no land on the play, but I did not.
Game 2, I never drew a third land, should have mulliganed?  I should have Arc Trailed T2 of this game, to shut of his Berserker, which dealt something like 12 damage to me, but I waited, "for value".  I should know that some other people are playing good cards like me too...

Aggro-Control: 8-1, 4-0
UW Humans: 2-0
Conceded early both games.  Heavy counterspell suite in both games.  Made an interesting mistake where I burned a 3/3 Champion of the Parish for 3, and he cast a Snapcaster Mage in response.  Need to consider that in real games...
UW good-stuff: 2-0
nth in a long line of players to cast Sun Titan (returning nothing), Batterskull, or Wurmcoil, and lose(!) 4-5 turns later, to a ultimated Koth.  Having a unkicked Berserker around for a turn to chump-block to protect Koth loyalty, or your own life total, so you can tap 6 mountains and kill a Titan/Wurmcoil was clutch in these games.   Had plenty of action + O-Rings against me, but I had reasonable draws, and early must-answers like Shrine cleared the way for late not-answers like Koth.
Wraths in this matchup were 1:1's or 2:2's when they were cast.  A single Noble or kicked Berserker is a lethal threat.
UW Illusions: 2-0
In this game, I made the cunning move of casting a Volt Charge on one of his dorks when he was at 2 life.  (Not used to playing against mono-Dismember + Probe I suppose...)  Gut shot and Geistflame were good.
UW Tokens: 2-1
I made a few mental mistakes this game.  I forgot to proliferate (hard when they F6, or when they take forever).  I mulled a 5 land 2 spell hand into a hand that won me the game, so that's another point towards mulliganing.  The game he won was game one, and his multiple Blade Splicers laughed at my Geistflames.
Control: 17-4, 9-1
UW: 2-0, 1-2
Two matches vs. the same guy, who was playing what was clearly the most controlling deck I faced.  He was packing a load of counters, Blue Sun's Zenith, and the artifact to reshuffle your graveyard.  He kept in all the counters after being killed super-early 3x, and choosing to draw G2.  I probably sided out my 1-drops, which was stupid in retrospect.  I did realize in this gam set some mistakes I was making in sideboarding, even though Waif is very bad against Timely.  (Noble and Zerker can get through with a Geistflame, Waif can't)
I made some pretty bad plays, mostly against Gideon.  Unkickered Zerker is just so bad against everything, including Planeswalkers.  I made quite a few mistakes, but I learned alot about what is important against super-control.  (Low drops to make them tap out, so I can land Planeswalkers and kill them - You can't take out all the low drops!)
URBg Burning Vengance: 2-0
Rolling Tremblor can be quite good on the play for him.  This was my first opponent to Ghost Quarter one of my Mountains (a 4/4 attacking Mountain), but not the last.  I lost quite a few of these guys to Doom Blade, which does take some of the bite out of T5 Koth + Ultimate.
BU: 2-0
Had Wurmcoil in these games, but didn't play the best, and Koth took him to town with a blocker to save me/him for a crucial turn.  This deck does not scoop to Wurmcoil at all...
UR Counterburn: 1-0
Had to leave for dinner, but this matchup seemed pretty good for me.  My burn (Shrine) seemed better than anything he had, and his counters seemed to slow him down as much as me.
One interesting scenario I was in was in the later turns, and I had a unkicked Berserker (why I cast these, I have no idea now), and a fresh Chandra, facing down a Spikeshot Elder, and an opponent on 8 or so life.  I thought to myself "if I shoot his Elder, he'll shoot my Berserker", which is likely true.  However, my situation doesn't get any better if I took my horrific line, of shooting him (all of this pre-combat).  What I should have done is attack first.  He can't block (Zerker = awesome...), so he either has to use 3 mana then, or take a point (threatening kicked Zerkers his life total, etc), THEN cast Chandra, then kill the Spikeshot Elder.  My line virtually guaranteed 0 damage from the Berserker, and also let the elder live another turn, when it could do who knows what to Chandra (like attack her, for example, which he did).  This was an example of me thinking through one line, not liking it, and discarding all others as equally bad.  Not great, to be sure.
UWB Solar Flare: 2-1
I won game one despite using Koth on a summoning sick Mountain, something that I did more than once in this testing.  In the second game, my opponent continued to show me why Waif is bad vs Timely.  And Snapcaster.  And....  I also didn't keep a very good hand.  Why do I think that against control decks, I have to keep any 7 with lands and spells?  I could win the game with any Koth Ultimate, mulligan for goodness sake!    Game 3, I went Noble, into Chandra (O-Ring) into Koth into Ultimate, which is how I drew it up.  As long as I keep drawing lands up to 6 or so, (yay Gambit!  Often better than VC T5 after Koth...) UBx can't beat the Koth Ultimate.
RGB Snapcaster/Flashback: 2-0
Noble into double Waif is pretty good.  There are alot of scenarios where Snapcaster can't block vs this deck.
U? 1-0
Conceded the match after Noble -> Berserker on the play.
UBr Tezzeret: 2-0
T4 Koth wins.  Had no idea what his deck was from his cards, Vault Skirge + Liquimetal Coating + Flashback?
Turns out he was Tezzeret, but he kept in only something like 8 artifacts, and boarded up to 30 removal + draw spells.  He finally lost with 10 cards left in his library.  Perhaps not the best player.  Got 3:1'ed in G2 by Whipflare, and he was at something like 65 life, but Koth put him away.  He played quite badly, and brought me down to his level.  I untapped the wrong Mountain, forgot to attack with mountains, etc, etc, as the game dragged on.  Not my finest hour.
WUB Solar Flare: 2-1
Game one I was stuck at 2 land for the majority of the game, if I could draw a land or two before turn 8, I'd have taken this one home.  Game two, I mulled to 5, and won.  Game three, I mulled to 6 and won, so this should be a lesson to me in future games, that the deck is clearly good enough to win sub-7, so don't be afraid to go there.

Ramp: 5-3, 2-1
GW:  2-0
Not the best deck.  Was playing lots  of mana creatures, Wurmcoil, and Mentor of the Meek.  Mentor was the easy part.  Wonder if I should main Arc Trail...
BUG Snapcaster: 2-1
Game one, I drew two Nobles and burned his ramp (even Emmisaries), to win.
Game two, I kept a questionable hand, and was stuck at 2 land for 8 turns.  He ramped up, and Frost Titan, Acidic Slime, etc, punish such positions.
Game three I kept a better one, and saw Frosty, and Tree of Redemption.  I misplayed vs the Tree, but won with burn to the face/unblockable guys anyway.
UG: 1-2 
He played Birds, I didn't kill them, he played several titans, they killed me.
Wait to cast Koth?  I didn't this game, and that was the game.
He kept a hand of 2x Negate vs my start, and happened to get there against my Shrine into Planeswalker draw.  Anything early and he is probably dead, that should tell me something...  People kept keeping (or bringing in) countermagic against me, which was coincidentally good against what I did to them, so perhaps I need to (counterintuitively to me) bring in more fast stuff in these blue ramp matchups, and run them over.

Overall Notes, Maindeck:
I think I can afford to -1 Geistflame, +1 Arc Trail.  Geistflame is very good, often cast on T1 as a removal spell, or as a "blowout" after timely.  I cast it several times for +1 counter on multiple shrines, to push me into lethal a turn or two earlier.  I did flash it back occasionally, but only in the "end of turn, to your head, to charge up Shrines" way.

I liked the 1x Gut Shot.  It "saved" a (4-counter) Koth from a Snapcaster attack several times.  It charged up a Shrine for zero mana in one lethal situation, and occasionally allowed me to do removal spell + threat turn 1 against mana creatures or the like.

I cast Chandra several times, and she ate O-Rings, Negates, Mana Leaks, and the like, to clear the way for my Koth.  Occasionally I did Koth into Chandra T4, but those tended to not be winning situations.  I am not sure I ever got to cast a doubled proliferate spell, while keeping her alive, across all the games.  It's one of the ways to kill Titans or Sphynxes without a Koth Ultimate, but in the main, she served mostly as distraction.  Having a + ability that killed creatures against aggro decks was good, but I was often siding her out for Arc Trail, etc.  I'd really like another solid 3-5 mana counter-enabling threat in this slot, but I don't know what to do with it other than her.  Perhaps a Metamorph, or...

Noble is the MVP of the early game for sure.  By himself, he forces Wraths, and outraces most any damage based wrath effect.  He also is unblockable against perhaps 20% of creatures, and powers up Berserker like nothing else.

Berserker is very solid.  Better with Geistflame than Arc Trail, to be sure.  Best with Gut Shot, but I wouldn't ever play more than a couple of those.  I did side one out, whenever I took out the Waifs, because a naked Berserker is a sad thing to look at.  He is nigh-unblockable in this format, and was attacking through Titans, Wurmcoils, Crusaders, and the like.  He often makes Timely look rather bad, and chump blocks like a champ to protect Koth.

All the proliferate effects were super solid.  Often, there was no better spell for me to draw than either a Volt Charge, or a Gambit.  T5 Koth Ultimate happened quite often, and things went very well after that.

Koth was the overall MVP.  He ultimated many a time, locked people out of games, took down Wurmcoils, Titans and Batterskulls like they were nothing.  One opponent conceded to me, ahead 65 life to 1, with a Batterskull in play.  (The turns went T5 Batterskull, T6 Sun Titan returning Abolisher, T7 Wurmcoil, and Mono Red took that game home...) That was a very fun game to win.

Devil's Play did some great work, as a 2-mana 1-damage spell, or as a 7-mana, game-ender.  I never lived the dream of Kothing or Chandraing a Devil's Play (or even Koth + Chandraing), but this guy did some serious work from the hand, and the graveyard.  I did Devil's Play for 0 one game, on 7 mana, to charge two shrines to lethal.

Notes on the Sideboard:
I couldn't sideboard in 1x Geistflame and 4x Arc Trail against aggro.  This means I should keep 1x Geistflame out of the sideboard for sure, and probably squeeze in an Arc Trail main (probably over another Geistflame)

I did sideboard in the mountains (and RSZ) against slower matchups.  The Geistflames were pretty miserable there, and all that mattered was T5 Koth Ultimate.

I sided in the Refugee against Red, and it was a beating.  I sided in Manic Vandal against artifacts, and it was my only out a couple times.

I sided in Ratchet Bomb against O-Ring, and Tokens strategies, and it was great against both.  I even proliferated the Ratchet Bomb to 3 to kill off a O-Ring one turn early, which was pretty sweet.  It was a card that worked for me on O and D, killing off blocking Timely Reinforcement tokens, and potential Koth-Killing Blade Splicer tokens, as well as giving me my wincons back via blowing up troublesome enchantments.

I'm pretty sure I could free up two slots against aggro, for something useful against control/ramp.  Maining an Arc Trail (and cutting a Geistflame from the SB) would free up alot of space.  I'm not sure what I'd bring in though.  Curse of the Pierced Heart?  Mana Barbs?  Not exactly a combo with Koth, but hey...

Conley Woods special - Quarterfinals at 2011 World Championships

Conley Woods started with a very impressive x-2-0 during the Swiss portion of Worlds, his two losses coming from concessions to Channel Fireball(CFB) team members Louis Scott-Vargus and Paulo Vitor Dama Da Rosa, to help get 4 members of his team into the top 8 of worlds.

This was great for CFB, but the quarterfinal matches were not going well for the team.  All three of his teammates had lost their matches, and only Conley remained, tied two games to two in the best-of-five, with the on-board situation looking quite catastrophic.

Conley, playing Tempered Steel, an aggressive deck, got off to a slow start, and his opponent, Craig Wescoe had a sideboard strategy of removing Conley's threats while developing his own, through cards like Leonin Relic Warder, Fiend Hunter, and Oblivion Ring.  He also had some huge threats, that were relatively difficult to deal with in the late game, like Geist of Saint Traft, and Hero of Bladehold.

Conley looks to be coming back, but Wescoe Exhiles his Hero of Bladehold and attacks with Geist + Angel to put Conley down to just two life, with something akin to three lethal threats across the board from him, and a combined two power on his creatures.

This is a horrifically bad position to be in, with a lethal Geist, that you can't possibly remove, and a lethal angel generated from that Geist, and a lethal Fiend Hunter.  None of these can be killed by Conley's board, and he must deal with all three or he loses the game on Wescoe's next turn.  I doubt anyone would take Conley's position at this point.

The coverage booth basically wrote Conley off, and a survey of the players in attendance was not optimistic to the question of "can Conley possibly win this game?"

Conley looked at his hand of three cards, drew his fourth, and considered what to do.

Conley activates his Inkmoth Nexus, giving him metalcraft by the slimmest of margins.  He Dispatches the Fiend Hunter, getting his Hero of Bladehold Back (still summoning sick)

The casual player would perhaps play the Glint Hawk in his hand, and try to block to live another turn, but Conley turned his Etched Champion and his Signal Pest, doing what might seem like an irrelevant 3 damage, then he played his Glint Hawk, returned his Inkmoth Nexus, and replayed it.

Conley passes the turn, down 11 life to 2, still facing two lethal creatures.
Wescoe attacks with his Geist, generating a 6/6 angel, tapped and attacking.
He activates the Inkmoth Nexus, blocks Geist with it, and blocks the Angel with the Glint Hawk, then Dispatches the Angel token, exiling it.  Conley has survived the turn, but then Wescoe casts a Timely Reinforcements, generating 3 1/1 (aka 3/3) soldier tokens, all of which are individually lethal to Conley on the next turn.  (Along with the now 3/3 Geist, and the 6/6 angel it will generate...)

Conley untaps, and immediately turns all his creatures sideways, triggering two new attackers from the hero, each 3/1 from the double Battle Cry.  Because he attacks, instead of being passive as most might be, trying to survive, Wescoe is forced to block, trading away his new 3/3 soldier tokens just to stay alive himself.  Conley's Hero gets through for 4 damage, his Glint Hawk gets through for 4, and his Signal Pest gets through for 1, putting Wescoe to 2.  His Etched Champion, and his generated Soldiers fall by the wayside.

But Conley wasn't done!  He plays his last card from his hand, a Glint Hawk, returning the Signal Pest, and replaying it, generating exactly enough blockers to prevent himself from dying to the Geist, and maintaining a lethal counterattack no matter whether Wescoe attacked or held back.

Conley Woods pulls out the win!

This was very special to watch.

Feel free to check out the video coverage of the entire Quarter finals at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXQmu_OXIzM
The last game starts around 1:22:20.
Full coverage of worlds can be found here, enjoy!

Committed on MtGO - Mono Red

After another session of testing with Nick, where we played the Solar Flare deck, and the Ramp (RG) against my Mono Red, with me playing the Ramp deck.  I went 4-6 playing ramp against Mono R, so that was not as dominating as the previous 6-0 record Mono Red showed, but it was still positive for Mono R.  I expect that the real ratio is somewhere in between those 6-0 and 6-4 records.  Nick played Solar Flare to something close to even.  We noted that that deck had to mulligan quite a bit, and had some mana problems, as three color decks are likely to do.

In any event, it seemed like things were working out okay, and the SCG results showed quite a bit of these decks being played, as well as little white creatures, which cards like Arc Trail and Geistflame are not terrible against.  Mirran Crusader and Mikaeus are not problems for Red, and only Hero of Bladehold or perhaps Gavony Township represent bigger problems.

So, given this information, and the fun I was having with the deck, I decided to go ahead and purchase the cards on Magic Online.  It was a bit more money than I really wanted to spend (about $100), mostly on the back of ~$17 Koths, but the deck also had alot of other cards that were $1-4, which added up when considered across the 4-ofs.

In any event, I put together: (in casting cost order)
1x Gut Shot
4x Stromkirk Noble
3x Reckless Waif
3x Geistflame
4x Stormblood Berserker
4x Shrine of Burning Rage
4x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Volt Charge
4x Koth, of the Hammer
2x Chandra, the Firebrand
3x Devil's Play
24x Mountain

Sideboard:
3x Vulshok Berserker
4x Arc Trail
1x Geistflame
3x Manic Vandal
1x Red Sun's Zenith
1x Something
2x Mountain (only had 13 cards that might have been relevant)

I played a few games (okay, maybe more than a few) in the practice room, and felt like I won my fair share, but I was playing against what might not have exactly been the best players or decks.

The biggest problem I ran into was mana.  If I kept drawing lands, and a few spells, it felt like I was playing on another level, with a fair amount of removal for the swath of creature decks you see on MTGO, and removal for the bigger threats.  I lost a fair number of games on 2 land, with all three drops and Geistflames.

Manic Vandal, Berserker, and Arc Trail were all very good out of the sideboard.  I probably don't need the Geistflame.

I probably need another land in the main deck, but I'm not sure what to cut for it.  Perhaps a Devil's Play, but I am leery of adding land, and cutting high drops.  The Gut Shot won me one game, that Geistflame might not have, but I never got it combined with a one drop and a Berserker, for the full on crushing.

I often sided out Berserkers, when I sided out Waifs, to bring in Arc Trails.  You really need the full amount of 1's to power up this 2, and I know from previous testing Arc Trail + Berserker isn't exactly what you want to be doing on 4.

I'll start recording some results going forward, and keep you posted with how this is going.

Testing with Nick on Halloween - Mono Red

My friend Nick came over to do some testing Monday night, which happened to be Halloween, who knew?  Anyway, he put some time in against my Mono-Red planeswalker deck with a few different decks.

First on the docket was a version of the Wolf Run Ramp deck that has been taking down quite a few tournaments.  It has 3 main-deck Slagstorms, and Beast Withins have quite a few targets.  It also has Viridian Emissaries to do some early blocking, or try to.  All of these seem fairly good against general aggro.

VS. Wolf Run Ramp

The Mono-Red deck ran over this version of the ramp deck.  In 6 games, he won zero.  However, there are a few mitigating factors:
1) There were no Dungrove Elders in the deck.  Dungrove is a early blocker that is hard to remove, though it does tend to be somewhat underpowered in decks with 6 non-forests, and 5 non-forest mana producers.
2) These were Nick's first 6 games with the deck.  Presumably over time, he would get better with the mulligans, etc.
3) I don't think he ever cast a Solemn in a relevant scenario, and he never got a Emissary killed that I didn't want dead.
4) He never really seemed to get off to a fast start.  No T3 Titans, etc.
5) They were all unsideboarded, but I don't think the match-up gets that much better for them when I take out Arc Trail, and they put in a 4th semi-useless Slagstorm

Notes on this matchup:
1) Geistflame kills Emissary when you want to.  Killing Inkmoths prevented some last-ditch blocking.  In the Elder version, killing Elves would be quite excellent.
2) Berserker is very hard to block.  His blocking clause is quite good.
3) Koth was quite good.  He ate a Beast Within a few times.
4) Could have used RSZ vs Wurmcoil, but Devil's Play to the dome was quite effective.  I feel like I want one more.
5) This red deck has almost no problem with Slagstorm.  Slagstorm on the draw is too slow to kill a Vampire, or often a Berserker.  Getting RR early enough to kill anything was a difficult proposition.
6) Arc Trail was very marginal.  I often cast it to do a point to myself, to trigger the Berserker.  Having some other 1cc guy to swap in here would be nice, in match-ups where I don't need the removal of Arc Trail.  I did use Chandra to double an Arc Trail, when I probably should not have cast Arc Trail at all, but those are the kind of things you learn playing the games...

I do not think this is a 100% win matchup, I'll be playing a few more games to test it out myself, but it does seem at least favorable.  Nick was "discouraged" from playing a few more, perhaps understandably, so we moved on to some other options.

VS. Solar Flare:

These games were much more interactive.  My draws felt way better, but a Doom Blade on my attacking Noble on T2 often stranded my otherwise T2 Berserker in my hand.  The deck was mostly removal, so it really felt like creatures were not a good win condition past turn 2 or so.  Flashing back a Doom Blade with Snapcaster was quite common, so the bigness of my creatures definitely did not save them in this match-up.

All my creatures were basically unblockable, but they were all basically dead given any amount of available mana.  It felt like I could play something like 8 Inferno Titans from turn 6 on, and none of them would get to attack.  Devils Play really shone here as a finisher.

Many of the games were "ended" by Consecrated Sphinx.  It attacked Koth or Chandra well, and took a series of burn spells to finish off.  It was painfully slow to kill me, even with the infinite card draw.  Sun Titan was similarly non-impressive as a finisher, since it often was just a terrible Primeval Titan (getting back one land, instead of tutoring two out).  Grave Titan or Wurmcoil was their only real finisher, and Unburial Ritsing it made it seem like they were really unkillable.  It was probably a mistake to ever try to kill any of their "finishers", but rather just burn them out.

Ultimating Koth was relatively easy, but it did not always win the game.  Nick kept saying how it would win me the game, but playing a Grave + Sphynx every turn for 2-3 turns was enough to overwhelm me if I didn't draw enough Mountains.  I was often torn between ultimating Koth on turn 5 with a proliferate effect, and waiting for turn 6 to keep the Koth around.  I feel like now, that if they could O-Ring it they would on their turn after I play the Koth, if they can't, they're unlikely to be able to do it the next turn either.

I did draw a ton of mountains, between playing 24, and 4x Tezzeret's Gambit, so I was very glad to draw all the Devil's Plays I drew.  I felt like I wanted a couple more of these, just for this scenario, since a doubled one (via Koth or Chandra) would almost always win the game against a T6 tap out for a threat.

The non-creature threats were pretty awesome.  They do have O-Ring (one of the better cards against this deck), but it has something like 20 reasonable targets, for their three spells.  I kept a hand of 2xShrine, 5x Land, and it was a fairly easy victory.  Any sort of planeswalker off that start is pure gold, and due to the nature of the match-up, you can just sit on 3 untapped mana until the game ends.

It felt like the games I lost, I drew 12 land, and watched the Esper deck painfully slowly find some way to kill me.  There were some games where I got out to a fast start into a Wrath, or I got off to a fast start into not a Wrath, and those were fairly painful for either side.

Tezzeret's Gambit was absolutely golden in this match-up.  It was ultra-slow, and being able to keep hitting land drops, and casually pump for 2-4 more damage was quite good, while building up a planeswalker, artifact, etc.

The SF deck seemed so threat-light, that a card like Surgical Extraction in response to an Unburial Rites would likely give enough time to win.  It doesn't handle a resolved threat though, so likely the way you'd want to go would be to add some more non-creature threats.  (Ratchet Bomb to "counter" O rings, and the match-up is so slow using it on a 6 is semi-reasonable)

Overall the red deck won 6 games, and lost 5 (all unsideboarded).  None of the games were real blowouts, the SF deck has a crazy amount of removal between the Doom Blades, O Rings, Lilianas, Snapcasters, and Wraths.  Nick didn't keep any hands without at least some of this, which is likely advisable.

The Arc Trails felt pretty terrible here, I was often 1-ing myself, which is far from ideal.  But of course, this is the matchup where they are probably worst. (along with the ramp matchup)

Perhaps the Arc Trails just aren't that great.  They'd certainly be better as a Gut Shot, or Shock/Geistflame to accelerate out a T2/3 Berserker, since most of the time I cast Arc Trail it was to kill a 2/1 "Beater" or to power out a T4 Berserker, not exactly blisteringly fast...

Timely did gain the flare deck alot of life, sometimes as much as 18, but the creatures just didn't seem all that relevant.  Often, they had so much removal, or I drew non-creatures, and they'd just get the 6 life out of it.  That said, I wasn't one-shotting them with an Inferno Titan, so they did often get a turn out of it.

RECAP:
I am sold on the core of the deck.
Counters:
4x Stromkirk Noble
4x Stormblood Berserker
4x Koth of the Hammer
4x Shrine of the Burning Rage

Proliferate:
4x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Volt Charge
All of these cards are seriously good, and work very well together.

Finisher:
2x Devil's Play

The rest of the cards are arguable as to whether they should be kept or pitched.


Chandra 3.0:

This is the only option that actually combos with the other cards in the deck, but it is clearly the weakest option.  Doubling up on Devil's Play, or the proliferate spells is very solid.  The 1 damage is pretty marginal however, and her ultimate is not exactly amazing.  I'd much rather have Chandra 1.0 in this slot, since she kills the big threats that are running around, rather than scratching their paint.


That said, Chandra 3.0 is a planeswalker, she does protect herself, she does combo with Koth on T4, or with any of the spells to do some powerful stuff.


I feel like playing two is defensible, and playing 4 is too many, so 2 or 3 is the way to go with this planeswalker.

Geistflame:
Doubling this with Chandra isn't exactly a good idea, and it does only do one damage, but:
1) It's an Instant, which is very good these days (Inkmoth Nexus, Timely Reinforcements, Snapcaster Mage)
2) It is good with Berserker (killing double blockers, and bloodthirsting it T3)
3) It has flashback, giving some minor utility late game.
4) Works well with shrine, since it is two spells.

I keep thinking about this as a "superior" Arc Trail.  Sure, it's 5 mana instead of 2, but it's an instant, and it costs 1 instead of 2.  It is pretty expensive for the last three, and isn't exactly a combo with Devil's Play, but it is a reasonable cheap removal spell.

I'd want at least a couple of these, maybe up to the full set.

Arc Trail impressed me quite a bit in the previous version of mono red (Inferno Titan), in that it was a cheap 2:1 that wrecked creature match-ups.

Now, it's somewhat weak at powering up Stormblood Berserker, and instants are way better at protecting planeswalkers.  This is pretty good when combined with Chandra...

I'd play some in the sideboard at least, for creature match-ups?

These function the role of "cheap spell that powers up berserker and deals with early drops".
Whether they are better than Geistflame until that is maxed out is a matter for discussion.  Neither of these are very good with Chandra, but both are at least instants.


















Both of these are good finishers.  Red Sun's Zenith is at full value each time, and good against Unburial Rites, Wurmcoil Engine, Chandra's Phoenix.  Devil's Play is like a RSZ you don't have to draw the second time, which is pretty awesome kill-advantage.

I'm sold on at least 2 of this effect, and having 4 is not out of the question. (at 4, one is probably RSZ, just for variety)

I'm pretty sold on having 0 of this type of creature.  I'd much rather spend 6 mana, and have them be dead, rather than spend 6 mana, and have them die next turn, if they don't kill my creature.  Doom Blade, Wrath, and the like will likely be sitting in their hand once I get to turn 10 or so anyway, so this isn't that guaranteed to kill them.  This loses out to the more hasty damage of Devil's Play.

Currently I was playing 1x Lavamancer, 1x Arsonist, because the Waif was annoying to print out.  Neither Lavamancer nor Arsonist did much of anything.  Waif is almost certainly superior.  It's important to have 1-drop creatures to power up the Berserker.  Spells do it by turn 3 at the earliest (outside Gut Shot)

I'd want at least 3 in this category, with 4 not being out of the question.  Berserker really seems that good.  With 6 one-drops, I sometimes had to hold my Berserkers until T4.  I wouldn't mind having 8.

So, if we include 24 land, and the 26 cards above, that leaves 10 slots.
2x Chandra seems good.
3x Geistflame for the advantages above
3x Reckless Waif
1x Devil's Play (or RSZ) for additional finishers

and....
+1x Chandra, since the Devil's Play gives additional outs?  (8x 3cc Proliferates, 3x X-spells with flashback?)
+1 Reckless Waif to double down on the early big stupid creatures?
+1 X-spell, to give a bit of multi-functionality? (early removal, late killing)

I am really liking this deck.  What do you guys suggest for what would make sense for synergy with the rest of the deck?

Goldfish results for mono-Red

1) Koth was very good.  Ultimating the turn after you play him pretty much has to be good, right?2) Chandra was okay.  I often drew 4 cards, and by the time I was getting to 4+ mana, I seemed to always draw two lands.  This was fairly annoying, but likely unavoidable.  How good the +1 is will indicate how good chandra is in general, despite the synergies with the deck.
3) 1-drop into Stormblood felt very, very good.
4) Grim Lavamancer doesn't seem like it will be activated all that much, but these two slots definately need to be one-drop creatures, for charging up Stormblood.  Arsonist or Fireslinger (Goblins) may work well.
5) RSZ was very good.  Being able to be doubled via either Koth or Chandra was not to be underestimated (and 4x with both is lethal).  20-ing someone out is not beyond the realm of possiblity (6 land + koth + chandra is 22 damage, 5 land is 18).  It would be quite plausible to go to 2-3 of these, and 0 Inferno Titans.
6) There were a few hands where I'd have only one land, and those are basically not keepable.  With so few 1 drops, and only 24 land, it is fairly unreasonable to draw out of it too strongly.  The deck really wants to hit land drops and voltron up a monster threat of some type.
7) There were a few more hands where I had 2 4cc planeswalkers and 4+ lands, and these were far more speculative.  RSZ was really the savior for these hands.

Hands where I went 1-2-3-4 drop on turn 1-4 felt very good.  I definately want to get to 4, which means I need a strong plan if I get to 7 instead (aka some finisher that kills the opponent)

Next stop, play some games against my proxied Solar Flare (Esper flashback) deck.

New deck idea post-Innistrad

Well, we won't be casting any more Pyromancer Ascensions boys and girls, so it's time for a new topic.

I am very interested in the new black planeswalker, Liliana of the Veil, but the deck elements that revolve around that are likely to be very hot (read: expensive) nowadays, so I'm going to hold off on that path for the time being.  It is extremely interesting to me, and I'll be testing it, so expect a post from me eventually, but I won't be focusing on it for the moment.

What I am thinking about originated with some games I was watching in the latest SCG series, and my experiences playing against mono-Red with Pyromancers Ascension.  Shrine of Burning Rage is really good.

1) It's colorless damage, so it kills those pesky pro-Red creatures.
2) It's cheap to cast, it comes down early under countermagic, and charges up.
3) It adds up to a ton of damage in the late game.

However, in the games I was watching, the Shrine didn't necessarily translate into a win for our mono-Red friends.  The Shrine would be bounced, or Oblivion Ringed, and the main threat of the deck would be neutralized by an effect the opponent didn't really have any other good use for against their deck.

OTHER NON-CREATURE PERMANENTS:
This got me thinking, what if you played some other spells that the opponent would have to answer with the same spells, thereby overloading their otherwise thin defenses.  We need something that is not a creature, and does a ton of damage, or has other cool interactions with the deck, and/or Shrine.  It should allow us to keep mana up, threaten the opponent, and avoid their creature-based answers.  So we need either an enchantment (poor Pyro Asc...) or a Planeswalker...

Well, ladies and gents, Red has a pair of planeswalkers that are fairly aggressively costed, and threaten quite a bit at the four mana level.

Koth doesn't need much justification, but here are the preliminaries:
1) Effectively a 4cc 4-power haste creature, that doesn't die to creature removal.
2) 4 loyalty out of the gate makes him relatively difficult to take down with a control deck.
3) Ultimate is very strong, and is very quick to activate.  (Won many games for me with PA)
4) -2 ability is rarer to use, but can be very powerful in cranking out a lot of mana in a mountain-heavy deck.
5) The creatures he makes do not count as creatures for the ubiquitous Timely Reinforcements which every deck seems to have these days.

Chandra 3.0 isn't quite as powerful, but it has a few advantages as well:
1) Some self-preservation, in a +1 ability.  Granted, it is only 1 damage, but it does take out quite a few of the red and white weenies that are seeing play.  A solid + ability should not be overlooked on a planeswalker.
2) Doubling spells is quite powerful, as we learned playing PA, and though Chandra is by no means a active Ascension, doubling spells can be quite powerful if you set your deck up to have powerful spells in it (so lets do that!)
3) Her ultimate is not terrifically impressive, and relatively hard to trigger, but 6 is a good number these days.
4) Koth -2 into Chandra +1 is pretty exciting to think about when the board is clear...

Overall, without having a deck in mind, I'd rather be talking about Chandra 1.0 at this point, but Chandra 3.0 might work okay if we have some other synergies with the deck.

PROLIFERATE:

Thinking about these potential synergies with planeswalkers and the Shrine got me thinking about proliferate, and we have a quite acceptable red proliferate spell in Volt Charge.  Three damage is enough to kill most small creatures, and it is an instant, for dealing with Inkmoth + Kesseg Wolf Run, and so on.  Proliferate + Planeswalkers is quite powerful, and being able to proliferate at instant speed, while potentially screwing up combat math, can work wonders in keeping your planeswalkers alive.

I looked at the other red and artifact options for proliferate, and frankly, they aren't that amazing.  Contagion Clasp is okay, and would be better if Kor Firewalker were around, and it is something to keep in mind, but it doesn't exactly get the blood pumping.  We are Red after all, and -1/-1 to a creature, at a cost of 2 mana isn't exactly stellar.

Then, I remembered a certain mechanic from a past block, and things started looking up.

Let's see:
1) Minor life payment:  Acceptable.
2) Card drawing: Always good, and at a reasonable cost.  (Divination)
3) Additional proliferate theme, to make looking at some other cards a possibility?  Sold.

Chandra seems somewhat weak on her own, but in combination with either of these two proliferate cards, she has:
0: Do 3 damage to a creature or player
0: Draw two cards.
Without considering any secondary benefit the double-proliferate might have on our overall board state.

It is a Sorcery, and it does cost 3 + 2 life, but it does quite a bit for the deck, so it feels like a 4-of to me.

OTHER WAYS TO UTILIZE PROLIFERATE:


Now, since we have two ways to proliferate counters, and three ways to utilize that proliferate to strong effect, we might consider including a few more cards that involve counters, to get some secondary use out of this proliferate...

1) Stormblood Berserker is a very aggressive creature.  Potentially a 3/3 for 2.
2) It is hard to block (inviting people to two for one themselves).
3) It presents a relatively dense threat, especially when considering cards like Timely Reinforcements.  It swings into Timely fairly well.
4) It should combine very well with instant speed effects, and proliferate messing with combat math.

Timely is the bane of Red decks everywhere.  You'd best have a plan to deal with this, and a plan that involves dealing 26 damage to your opponent.  Your creatures had best be able to swing into 3 1/1's, and your spells should not look silly when handling them.

Our second candidate for proliferate synergies is Stormkirk Noble. 
Stromkirk Noble doesn't swing into Timely quite as well (the tokens are not humans), but it is another fairly aggressive creature, that plays well with instant-speed proliferate.  If this is your turn 1 drop, by the time your opponent casts Timely, an Arc Trail on the draw, or a Volt Charge on the play will do a good job of negating your opponents plans with their Timelys.

The synergies aren't quite as good here, but they are something, and as a 1-drop, you couldn't ask for much more.  And "Humans" (or tokens) are seeing a bit more play, so this guy can be unblockable in certain match-ups.

CORE STRATEGY:
So far, I would say we have 7 strong candidates for a core of a deck, with some good proliferate synergies.
4x Koth of the Hammer
3-4x Chandra, the Firebrand
4x Volt Charge
4x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Shrine of Burning Rage
4x Stormblood Berserker
4x Stromkirk Noble

If we are playing 8 4-drops (and 8 3-drops), we probably want to see the majority of our remaining cards occupy the lower slots on the curve, so we don't get overloaded with uncastable spells.

We'll also want at least 24 lands, with a potential for 26 or so depending on what other cards we choose to utilize for the remaining ~8 slots.


FINISHERS:
Since we are playing 4 Tezzeret's Gambit, I would like to see having 1-3 of some huge finisher, since we are going to draw lands, and we are not going to have a ton of ways to use them.

There are a few candidates for such a finisher that are worthy of consideration:

Inferno Titan is one of the more aggressive options, and can be powered out on a Koth cast turn 5.
It deals with weenies well, it deals with mana flood fairly well, and it cannot be dismembered.  These are all pretty manditory properties for a finisher these days.
It is potentially lethal in one swing (15 damage with 6 land + Inferno Titan), depending on the board state, so in that respect, Inferno Titan really brings home the (crispy) bacon to finish a game out.

Wurmcoil is the best answer to removal, that is still a creature.  It survives Wrath effects which should be quite prevalent, and it survives dismember while killing it's target in combat.  It is a very good control card, due to the lifegain, and should be very good in red (or other creature) mirrors.  As a finisher, it dodges Celestial Purge, but while it is the most resilient option, it is also the least aggressive.

Red Sun's Zenith is a fairly versatile "finisher", in that it doubles as a removal spell, and deals with problematic permanents like Chandra's Phoenix and other recursive strategies permanently.  It is a sorcery, but it should end the game quite well when combined with either Koth OR Chandra, since both effectively double the damage Red Sun's Zenith deals.  Man, I like that, and didn't realize it until now.

For now, I'd try 1x RSZ, 1x Inferno Titan, and see how they worked.

SORCERIES:
We need to be able to deal with the creature threats we'll be facing, and some of the aggressive starts that decks can put together, but we're Red.  If we can't deal with little guys, we have a problem.

Arc Trail is a spell that my PA deck used to rip apart aggro deck's starts, while still being a live draw against non-creature strategies.  It is somewhat live against pump effects, it can enable a T4 Berserker, or a T1 Noble.  (Clearing out blockers for the Noble, or pinging the opponent for bloodthirst with the Berserker.

The strongest points against Arc Trail are that it is a Sorcery, and it costs 2 (instead of 1).  Stormblood Berserker, and a multi-blocked Noble, and planeswalkers love to have instants in your hand, and a T4 Berserker is not exactly speedy.

This is one of the better spells not already talked about to double with Chandra.

For other Sorceries, Red Sun's Zenith is an option, see the FINISHERS section.  Otherwise, there aren't many options for <4cc + Red + Sorcery.  (2 damage to all creatures is not exactly a combo with Strormkirk Noble?)

ARTIFACTS:

Ratchet Bomb is a reasonable anti-token option, that does not interfere with your own creatures, and combos fairly well with Proliferate to deal with the big stuff.  A solid sideboard card against enchantments, and token swarms.

Sphere accelerates your Koths, Chandras, etc.

INSTANTS:

Geistflame is like a very bad (or good?) Forked Bolt.   It enables T3 Berserker, and can be flashed back later for the second point.  It is an instant, and 1cc, so it plays well with the various other effects that want us to have an instant.  Geistflame seems pretty terrible against pump effects, but what do you expect out of a 1cc card...

Galvanic Blast is just going to be a Shock in this deck, but there might be some scenario where we actually have three artifacts in play to trigger the big boy mode.  Lightning bolt this is not, but it's the most raw damage we can get at a mana cost of 1.

As hard as it is to get excited about Galvanic Blast, it's about as hard to get excited about playing Incinerate.  It is an instant, but preventing regeneration is almost irrelevant, and +1 mana for +1 damage, and +0 utility is not exactly what we're looking for.

I was pretty excited about the potential of doubling this, with Morbid, via Chandra, if I'm going to the head, I'd probably rather have Red Sun's Zenith, and if I'm going as an instant, Volt Charge works so much better with the deck.  You also have to be pretty awesome to break into our already 8-pack of 3cc spells, so really 1-2cc is what we're looking for to fill out our curve.

There are a plethora of artifact removal spells, and Combust, which is a fine sideboard card against U/W.

CREATURES:

Goblin Arsonist does an amazing job of triggering Berserker, and it tangles with tokens pretty well.

Grim Lavamancer is a pretty solid control card, but I'm not sure how "stocked" we'll be, especially with a somewhat higher curve, and not as many creatures.

This would be about as aggressive as a card as we could play.  It doesn't play incredibly well with the rest of the deck, or perform that strongly against Timely Reinforcements, but it is certainly reasonable.

OVERALL EXTRAS:
I'm inclined to do:
1x Inferno TItan
1x Red Sun's Zenith
4x Arc Trail
2x something. (or land)

What do you think?