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.