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?