Dies to Removal

what exactly is the big difference to devotion red?

A lot of the devotion red lists are running stuff like Ember Swallower, Mouthbreather Dragon, Purp, Nykthos ... (one of the top 8 players in the pro tour is running this big devotion to red list too)
Not a very big fan of it, being a budget player and whatnot.

The deck is also not very consistent while you really need something that gives you more or less clean kills, especially with the big blue lists being a very real threat right now.

Yarpus, no Reckoner? I'd much rather have a Recliner over a Shred-Freak. Have you seem what it's like out there??

I'm not fixing that autocorrect.

After I get my last 4 QPs and can take the matches slightly less seriously, I'm thinking about running:

[deck=MDU's Boros Aggro]Lands 22
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Mutavault
10 Mountains

Creatures 24
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Burning Tree Emissary
4 Firefist Striker
4 Gore-House Chainwalker
4 Chandra's Phoneix

Other Spells 14
3 Chained to the Rocks
3 Shock
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet

Sideboard 15
1 Mountains
1 Chained to the Rocks
2 Assemble the Legion
3 Mizzium Mortars
4 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Toil // Trouble[/deck]
The Sideboarding is very natural, while the MD provide many chances for random wins.

No Reckoners?

I tried something similar at the beginning of the season with good results.

This is my post BnG list for RDW
(posted on MTGsavlation as well)

[DECK]
Creatures (28)
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Satyr Firedancer
4 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Fanatic of Mogis

Spells (12)
4 Searing Blood
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike

Lands (20)
4 Mutavault
16 Mountain

Sideboard
4 Skullcrack
4 Mizzium Mortars
4 Young Pyromancer
3 Chandra, Pyromaster[/DECK]

Searing Blood is the best damn card in the deck, period.

Deck doesn't seem terribly good, it has very little reach (only 8 non-creature spells that go to the face) and it seems like it simply loses to RG Monsters and mono u, which is arguably the second best deck in the format.

I also would probably not play Boros Reckoner in a deck with 4 Mutavaults and only 16 basics, considering how badly that Reckoner HAS to be played on t3 for the deck to function. Additionally, Satyr Firedancer is unplayable in a deck with so few burn spells, and is probably just unplayable, period. Searing Blood has to be a questionable inclusion at best, I can't imagine I'd ever want to have it over an actual removal spell on an empty board since it is such a horrible topdeck compared to something like Shock.

tl;dr: I think there are a lot of fundamental problems with the way this deck is built. Most of it stems from the rather questionably ambitious mana base, but it also has a lot of cards that
are completely dead topdecks, which is something you REALLY don't want in an aggressive red deck.

This is my post BnG list for RDW
(posted on MTGsavlation as well)

[DECK]
Creatures (28)
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Satyr Firedancer
4 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Fanatic of Mogis

Spells (12)
4 Searing Blood
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike

Lands (20)
4 Mutavault
16 Mountain

Sideboard
4 Skullcrack
4 Mizzium Mortars
4 Young Pyromancer
3 Chandra, Pyromaster[/DECK]

Searing Blood is the best damn card in the deck, period.

Those numbers seem really wrong. How are you casting boros reckoner with any regularity?

Here is a deck I am working with that seems to be working well. It can be explosive with the Burning-Tree Emissarys on turn 2 and 3. It is very fast and can seemingly race with the burn deck.

[DECK]
Creatures:
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
4x Chandra's Phoenix
2x Flame-Wreathed Phoenix
4x Gore-House Chainwalker
3x Pyrewild Shaman
4x Rakdos Cackler
4x Young Pyromancer

Land:
18x Mountain
4x Mutavault

Spells:
2x Mizzium Mortars
2x Lightning Strike
4x Magma Jet
3x Searing Blood
2x Shock

Sideboard:
3x Boros Reckoner
2x Burning Earth
1x Chandra, Pyromaster
2x Hammer of Purphoros
3x Peak Eruption
4x Skullcrack
[/DECK]

Have you tried playing the psully special from his article on starcity? It is very good and I have a fairly decent record against burn. Especially if you draw a peak eruption against them and set them back a turn.

PSully's deck is very good. It's a solid way to attack the current meta. Cedric Phillips was playing it on stream last night (albeit suboptimally) and it has game against pretty much everything right now. Rubblebelt Maaka in particular is great tech right now.

Everflame Eidolon is the nut.

[deck]Flamethrower Red[/deck]

I always like to have RDW close to hand, just incase. This started as an exercise in spending all the mana each turn, and turned out to be decent. I stole the removal package from PSully's latest build, then put in a bunch of creatures that like firebreathing. Frostburn might not be optimal, but he stands by himself. With any creature on the board, Everflame Eidolon and Dragon Mantle are just the greatest top decks. I could see upping the burn
package for more Phoenix recursion.

Needs more Burning-Tree Emissary.

Do you think you'd ever want to cast an un-Bestowed Eidolon? I could totally get behind BTE if that's something we want to do.

I don't see the point of having Weird at all in your deck tbh, you're not even running Fanatic of Mogis

He has a fat butt, so a solid Aura target. He's good in creature mirrors, and is a mana sink when you have nothing else. Attacking through Caryatid is pretty much how I decide if a creature is good nowadays. I dislike Ash and BTE in the same deck, and Ash is soooo good here.

I don't hate Gore-House though, so will look into -4 Ash -4 Frostburn, +4 BTE +4 Gore-House.

I'm trying out my own take on Tom Ross's RG aggro.

[deck]
Creatures (29)
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Gore-House Chainwalker
4 Skylasher
1 Goblin Shortcutter
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager

Spells (11)
3 Titan's Strength
4 Lightning Strike
2 Madcap Skills
2 Armed / Dangerous

Lands (20)
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Stomping Ground
2 Forest
10 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
2 Shock
1 Ranger's Guile
2 Searing Blood
2 Magma Jet
1 Madcap Skills
2 Destructive Revelry
2 Skullcrack
1 Armed / Dangerous
2 Act of Treason
[/deck]

Sideboard is a work in progress.

Tested this just a little bit tonight. Highlight of the night was against Jund Monsters in game three. Opponent taps his two Caryatid to Dreadbore my last dude on board and taps out his mana to play Polukranos while at a comfortable 11 life. I have five mana on board.

My turn: Act of Treason targeting
Polukranos. Armed targeting Polukranos. Swing 12? Trollface?

How do you like it? Seems like AIR would just be better.

Nice work with that combat step haha.

I like it a lot more than AIR. Ghor-Clan Rampager makes a huge difference. Fanatic of Xenagos is strong too. Maindeck Skylasher strengthens the mono blue matchup which is sure to be difficult in game one. Sideboarding is better since you get access to Destructive Revelry, Gruul Charm, etc.

Speaking of which, I have no idea why I didn't put Gruul Charm in my sideboard.

Makes sense; it just seems even more suceptible to weird draws with tap lands, so many spells, etc. GCR is nuts of course.

So many spells as in spell/land ratio? With 29 creatures in the deck there are very few hands you have to mulligan with too many spells.

The scrylands are fine. You learn to play around them after awhile. With the new City of Brass being spoiled the deck could move in that direction later on.

I'm really happy with the 60, particularly the singleton Goblin Shortcutter. That caught a lot of people off guard. I like him more than Firefist Striker since he's a better topdeck which you need from your singletons. We have a lot of ways to swing for a LOT of damage in one turn and Shortcutter is more favorable in those instances.

The deck has a little combo element to it with Armed and pump spells. People not in the know just lose out of nowhere, and people with some idea of what's going on have to play ultra conservative so they don't get blown out. It's favored against the other aggro decks in the format due to Burning-
Tree Emissary and bigger guys like Fanatic of Xenagos and Ghor-Clan Rampager. It's faster AND more powerful which none of the other aggro decks can boast. I am curious as to how the mono blue devotion matchup would be pre and postboard. Skylasher really helps with that matchup as they have no way whatsoever to interact with it so I'm free to just blast them for 14+ with Armed and whatever pump spells I see fit.

As for the sideboard, I have rethought some things.

[deck]
Creatures (29)
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Skylasher
4 Gore-House Chainwalker
1 Goblin Shortcutter
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager

Spells (11)
3 Titan's Strength
2 Madcap Skills
2 Armed / Dangerous
4 Lightning Strike

Lands (20)
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Stomping Ground
2 Forest
10 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
1 Ranger's Guile
2 Skullcrack
2 Gruul Charm
1 Armed / Dangerous
1 Madcap Skills
2 Magma Jet
2 Destructive Revelry
2 Act of Treason
2 Peak Eruption
[/deck]

nI don't think Shock and Searing Blood are necessary in the board. I want more high impact spells than those in the decks I'd board them in for. I'm the beatdown vs other aggro decks so I don't feel like Shock is where I want to be, and while Searing Blood is okay against midrange decks I'd prefer to play Act of Treason and Gruul Charm to push through their fatties.

Some key differences between my deck and Tom Ross's is that I took out Legion Loyalist and Ash Zealot for four Gore-House Chainwalker. It's really good against Sylvan Caryatid and Nightveil Specter and it also chains nicely off BTE. Ash Zealot is a fine card but is a bit mana intensive and doesn't play well with BTE, plus it gets stoned against Caryatid. I feel like Legion Loyalist is relatively low impact in a deck like this since most of our guys are two-power which makes him irrelevant against midrange deck. We are already favored against other aggro decks so at that point his only upside is pushing through Elspeth tokens, and I
feel we should be beating Esper before she comes down anyway (plus we have Rampager to push through the blockers). As for the sideboard, I took out two Shock, three Domri Rade, two Searing Blood, and a Forest for two Act of Treason, two Destructive Revelry, two Peak Eruption, and two Gruul Charm. I don't think Domri Rade is where we want to be against control and black decks. It slows us down a lot and I'd rather just go kill them while they durdle instead of attacking them from that axis. I prefer Destructive Revelry against Esper as a way to combat Detention Sphere and postboard Blind Obedience. Peak Eruption is a hedge against the plethora of red decks on MODO, particularly Burn because setting them back a turn is huge when they're trying to get to Warleader's Helix mana, plus nabbing Chained to the Rocks is a big deal. Act of Treason is for midrange decks and does a ton of work, especially when you already have a strong board presence. Gruul Charm can serve as a falter against midrange decks while
being great to bring in against mono blue.

I think that taking out Domri is a mistake but I'd love to hear about your testing

I haven't been playing any of these variants lately, so I'll take your word on the awkward draws. I like your removal of Domri Rade. When I played Flinthoof Boar aggro, I also forwent the Domri Rades for lower CMC spells like Ranger's Guile.

I will be streaming this deck tonight for those interested in watching. I imagine 9-930 pm CST will be when I'm able to get on.

[deck]
Creatures (32)
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Skylasher
4 Gore-House Chainwalker
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
4 Rubblebelt Maaka

Spells (8)
2 Madcap Skills
2 Armed / Dangerous
4 Lightning Strike

Lands (20)
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Stomping Ground
2 Forest
10 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
1 Ranger's Guile
2 Skullcrack
2 Gruul Charm
1 Armed / Dangerous
1 Madcap Skills
2 Magma Jet
2 Destructive Revelry
2 Act of Treason
2 Peak Eruption
[/deck]

I swapped Titan's Strength and the singleton Goblin Shortcutter for Rubblebelt Maaka. There were a lot of times where I was 2-for-1ing myself with Titan's Strength and I ended up preferring the extra toughness boost from Maaka over the scry from Titan's Strength. It's also nice that I can hardcast it on an empty board. I need to adjust my sideboard to compensate for this though. I'm no longer sure if
Skullcrack is where I want to be and I really want a third or even FOURTH Peak Eruption because it's such huge game against RW Burn.

I haven't been able to get on MODO in over a week but I'm hoping to hop on within the next day or two and get in some 8-mans.

Skullcrack should probably just be Mistcutter Hydra to give me more pro-blue guys against mono blue and be another threat for UWx Control. It seems weird on 20 land but against mono blue I really just want to land a Skylasher and suit it up with Madcap Skills or a flurry of pump spells and Armed / Dangerous to win the race.

One other note: Mogis's Warhound could replace Rubblebelt Maaka once it is legal. It can be chained off Burning-Tree Emissary and provides a persistent pump effect on any of our creatures.

[deck]
Creatures (31)
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Skylasher
4 Gore-House Chainwalker
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
4 Ghor-Clan Rampager
3 Rubblebelt Maaka

Spells (8)
2 Madcap Skills
2 Armed / Dangerous
4 Lightning Strike

Lands (21)
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Stomping Ground
2 Forest
11 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
1 Ranger's Guile
2 Gruul Charm
1 Armed / Dangerous
1 Madcap Skills
3 Searing Blood
2 Destructive Revelry
2 Act of Treason
3 Peak Eruption
[/deck]

I noticed I was taking a lot of mulligans due to not having enough land, so I went up to 21 lands. Ideally I should have 2 Mutavaults in place of two Mountains since I have no maindeck RR spells and 19 sources for Burning-Tree Emissary should be sufficient.

Was browsing through threads for a cheap deck to pick up on MTGO for the time being, do you think this is a good choice still? Prophetic Flamespeaker any good in it?

Was browsing through threads for a cheap deck to pick up on MTGO for the time being, do you think this is a good choice still? Prophetic Flamespeaker any good in it?

For MTGO RDW is fine, you will lose most of your game too Ux Devotion though (I don't like Prophetic Flamespeaker but he is most likely best in this shell).

Here is Veji list (he is a grinder, usually if a grinder picks up a deck and win 3+ DE you can tell the deck is consistence enough) though its more AiR then RDW

[deck=Veji's AiR]Lands 22
18 Mountain
4 Mutavault

Creatures 32
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Firefist Striker
4 Foundry Street Denizen
4 Gore-House Chainwalker
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Rubblebelt Maaka

Spells 06
2
Mizzium Mortars
2 Searing Blood
2 Shock

SideBoard 15
3 Boros Reckoner
1 Burning Earth
2 Hammer of Purphoros
3 Peak Eruption
2 Searing Blood
4 Skullcrack[/deck]

If you wanted to tune the deck to beat Ux just cut 8 mountains for 4x Shock lands and 4x MC and run some number of Chains or doom blade (whatever floats your boat), or if your aiming to tune it to beat Gx you could go with the MD Boros Reckoner and Fanatic of Mogis route.

I was drawn to Val's list for its lack of mutavaults, I sold them at a high point and want to avoid picking them up again until rotation (online, atleast)

Veji's list is actually PSully's list card for card.

I built a RG list similar to the recent post with Reckoner instead of Fanatic and Temple Garden instead of Forest. I haven't played it enough yet to say how good it is but testing so far is promising.

18 one-drop.dec

[deck]
Creatures (30)
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Satyr Hoplite
4 Akroan Crusader
3 Firedrinker Satyr
3 Legion Loyalist
4 Firefist Striker
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Mogis's Warhound

Spells (11)
4 Titan's Strength
4 Dragon Mantle
3 Madcap Skills

Lands (19)
19 Mountain
[/deck]

Satyr Hoplite or Foundry Street Denizen? Hoplite makes upkeep Titan's Strength on turn two better, but FSD has interesting synergy with Akroan Crusader and is strong with BTE in the deck. Hoplite will also have at least two toughness early and possibly more depending on our draw.

I think I like Foundry Street Denizen there, the max number of 2+ power 1 drops is what you want.

Is a 1 of Hall of Triumph worth considering in that deck? Good with the high amount of 1-drops the same way it is in White Weenie, but also seems sweet with Crusader.

I thought about Hall but determined it was a winmore. I should be killing them by the time it becomes relevant.

I've been screwing with this for about an hour after slapping it together. Haven't faced any control yet. I still have a hardon for flamespeaker.

[deck]

Creatures (32)
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Prophetic Flamespeaker
4 Gore-House chainwalker
4 Firefist Striker
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Mogis's Warhound
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Satyr Hoplite

Buff (8)
4 Madcap Skills
4 Titan's Strength

Land (20)
2 Mutavault
18 Mountain

Sideboard

4 Harness by Force
3 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Mizzium Mortars
4 Skullcrack
[/deck]

I'm aware I'm committing the Ashley/Emily sin.

Edit: Ok, that sin didn't last long.

So...8 hours later, edited my list.

Satyr Hoplite is a lot of fun. I almost want to try impetuous sunchaser over gore-house for the evasion and firefist enabling. I was having some stand-offs that it could have helped break. It's so awful vs removal though. Anyone have experience with it? I'm also not sure on Eidolon here.

Eidolon is superb vs control and Mono B devotion

it's also fine on the play vs other aggro decks (sb seems correct in your list)

I would definitely also add Dragon Mantle

Also, some amount of Shock/Lightning Strike/Searing Blood might not hurt your list

The deck doesn't want removal maindeck. It's too busy shitting its hand on the board to play it, and you're doing it indirectly with Madcap Skills and Firefist Striker. When you're pumping your Hoplite to massive levels or making a million Soldier tokens, you just don't care about the fatty across from you.

I'm actually interested in adding a combo element to the deck. With Madcap Skills and Titan Strength and Firefist Striker it's tempting to add Armed / Dangerous for potential blowouts.