Dies to Removal

Hey, all; I've had a few hours to play on Cockatrice this week, so I've been fooling around with an all-in red, blitz-like build. I've exaggerated all of the synergies as greed in the deck, and have found it amusing. This deck runs 16 mountains. I've chosen this number in order to minimize mulligan rates; i.e., to maximize opening grips with 1, 2, or 3 land. After understanding the deck more, this foundation may need to change; more specifically, the deck probably wants 1-4 more land, but we'll let that develop or itself.

Now, to fill the rest of the slots, we want a shit ton of 1-2 CMC red spells and, a priori, we can possibly support 1 or 2 3 CMC spells (probably Dynacharge or Chandra's Phoenix). Obviously the first 16 slots will be the playable 1 CMC creatures; namely, FDS, FSD, Cackler, and Loyalist. Next, there are 16 obvious 2 CMC creatures: BTE, GHC, FFS, and Ashley. So, we have 12 slots to
fill. I think a full set of Titan's Strength is in order, I love me some Lightning Bolt, and with Scry 1 attached to find additional lands, falter effects, or haste, it seems pretty OP. Because we're literally running 28 bears and 4 Raging Goblins, we probably need more falter effects, so we introduce Goblin Shortcutter. We definitely want at least 2, but I've elected for a full playset. There are 4-6 slots remaining that can be filled with pretty much anything else: Shock, Lightning Strike, Rakdos Shredfreak, Rubblebelt Maaka, and up to 2 Dynacharge or Chandra's Phoenix.

Anyone wanna' try to develop this deck?

Its a deck I've been wanting to test out and i might try to run something like it come this friday to test. Thoughts as far as running mutavaults in the list? maybe like 18 mountain and 2 mutavaults or 16-4 split maybe. Ill try to come up with a list to post along side this.

[deck]
4 Akroan Crusader
4 Ash Zealot
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Firefist Striker
4 Foundry Street Denizen
3 Legion Loyalist
4 Rakdos Cackler

17 Mountain

4 Madcap Skills
4 Lightning Strike
4 Shock
4 Titan's Strength

Sideboard
1 Pithing Needle
2 Arena Athlete
1 Dragon Mantle
2 Coordinated Assault
4 Skullcrack
4 Peak Eruption
1 Mountain[/deck]

1st place SCG Invitational Baton Rouge. http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdata ... Show+Decks

Holy one drops batman. I can actually see this working though. You just mash guys on the board till they run out of 1 for 1 removal, then overload a guy with madcaps to get past their first blockers, or just make them not able to block. I am going to try to test this online when i get home from work.

Id even go to the point of dropping the burn and rearranging to take full advantage of the blocking denial route with pumps and arena athlete.

[deck]4 Akroan Crusader
4 Ash Zealot
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Firefist Striker
4 Foundry Street Denizen
3 Legion Loyalist
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Arena Athlete
4 Coordinated Assualt
4 Madcap Skills
4 Titan's Strength
17 Mountains
[/deck]

Something like this or you could fit BTE in to get an even crazier T2 rolling.

I think this deck needs BTE. We really want 3 permanents turn 2 and 2 more turn 3 to try to get there. Playing a bear each turn and then getting stuck on 2 lands isn't very exciting. If we go the Arena Athlete route, we definitely want 12 spells that target, so then we have a bunch more slots to fill... Not sure what's the best route to go.

I'd say this deck definitely wants BTE yeah, BTE-BTE-MS is usually game vs control or any deck that stumbles just a little bit

You can honestly use the list notap posted and switch Ashley with emily if we really want BTE. That would give you the explosive draw possibilities while keeping most everything else the same.

[deck]
4 Akroan Crusader
4 Arena Athlete
4 Burning Tree Emissary
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Firefist Striker
2 Legion Loyalist
4 Rakdos Cackler

4 Coordinated Assault
4 Lightning Strike
4 Madcap Skills
4 Titan's Strength

18 Mountain
[/deck]

@z Do you not like the interaction between Crusader and Denizen? Seems like it fits right into the theme.

[deck]
4 Akroan Crusader
4 Arena Athlete
4 Burning Tree Emissary
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Firefist Striker
2 Legion Loyalist
4 Rakdos Cackler

4 Coordinated Assault
4 Lightning Strike
4 Madcap Skills
4 Titan's Strength

18 Mountain
[/deck]

Zem, I am really interested in running this at my FNM because I noticed almost everyone switched to control/ Mono Black now so what kind of sideboard would you recommend?

He can't build every deck for everybody.

With that said, you can't go wrong with Act of Treason, Mortars, Skullcrack, and Hammer of Purphoros.

He can't build every deck for everybody.

With that said, you can't go wrong with Act of Treason, Mortars, Skullcrack, and Hammer of Purphoros.

I apologise. I was just wanted some general advice on how to handle my current meta.

[deck]
Creatures - 32
4 Akroan Crusader
4 Foundry Street Denizen
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Burning Tree Emissary
4 Firefist Striker
4 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Spells - 8
3 Madcap Skills
3 Titan's Strength
2 Lightning Strike

Land - 20
16 Mountain
4 Mutavault

Sideboard - 15
4 Legion Loyalist
4 Skullcrack
4 Shock
2 Lightning Strike
1 Flames of the Firebrand
[/deck]

Nice list, Z. Do ya' think LS is worth it? In the AIR decks before rotation, the only NCS was Dynacharge. Do we need the reach, or could we just fill in 4 more creatures. With FFS or Athlete online, we can turn dudes into more than 3 damage regularly, IMO.

He can't build every deck for everybody.

With that said, you can't go wrong with Act of Treason, Mortars, Skullcrack, and Hammer of Purphoros.

I apologise. I was just wanted some general advice on how to handle my current meta.

The deck has 16+ mountains in it. You'll do fine against mono B and Esper no matter what your 60/75 is. Just don't let them 2-for-1 you out of the game, and falters aren't good against Esper.

Yeah on reconsideration, I like Foundry Street > Lightning Strike.

I dint think you need Dynacharge; the build I posted has a lot of ways to get past blockers.

Right. Wasn't suggesting Dynacharge, just remembering that the old AIR decks ran 36 dudes 4 Dynacharge, 20 land, so now that we have a Heroic package, really don't want 2-mana bolts. I think FSD is a nice reiclusion. Is 18 lands the lowest you'd venture? I understand that getting to 3 is important for 1,2 drop turns, but 16 reduces mulligan rates by like 3% because 4 landers are snap-mulls also, I think.

I'm obviously posting with zero testing bro.

Word. I'll play around with it. Titan's Strength is fucking sick. Bolt you, Scry 1.

Anyone taking this to FNM? I think I'm taking 16 land, 12 targets, 32 dudes to FNM.

No burn? Love it!

[deck]Creature (31)
4x Akroan Crusader
3x Arena Athlete
4x Ash Zealot
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
4x Firedrinker Satyr
4x Firefist Striker
4x Foundry Street Denizen
4x Rakdos Cackler
Instant (8)
4x Coordinated Assault
4x Titan's Strength
Enchantment (4)
4x Madcap Skills
Land (17)
17x Mountain
Sideboard (15)
4x Lightning Strike
1x Mountain
2x Peak Eruption
4x Shock
4x Skullcrack[/deck]

This is what I am farting around with on MTGO. It definitly has some lul moments with t1 Denzien t2 crusader coordinated attack for 5.

4-0-2 split T8 for $33.

2-1 Esper Control
2-0 Mogis Red
2-1 Colossal Gruul
2-0 Kibler Golgari
ID UW Devotion
ID Little Kid Selesnya

Really sick deck. 17 land, 6 bolts, 1 Dynaharge, 36 creatures. SB: 4 RSF, 1 Hammer; 4 MCS, 1 AoT; 4 Shock, 1 Reckoner.

Notice any main problems with it Aodh?
Grats on results though

Nope the deck is really consistent which I like. Going into next week, I may -1 Dynacharge, -1 land; +2 RBM. 8 bolts is probably good. A lot of 1 landers but gotta be ballsy sometimes. Very low mulligan rate if you come to terms with that because all of the cards do the same thing.

Is Arena Athlete preferable to Goblin Shortcutter? Haven't done any testing, but I see merits to both.

Nope the deck is really consistent which I like. Going into next week, I may -1 Dynacharge, -1 land; +2 RBM. 8 bolts is probably good. A lot of 1 landers but gotta be ballsy sometimes. Very low mulligan rate if you come to terms with that because all of the cards do the same thing.

Awesome report Aodh! Is AIR well-positioned in the meta according to you?

Is Arena Athlete preferable to Goblin Shortcutter? Haven't done any testing, but I see merits to both.

I'm not on the heroic plan, so no. If running 12+ targeting spells, then yes it's probably better since you can run it out as a 2/1 then get its falter later. The heroic package takes up A LOT of space, though, and it weakens our control match-up.

AIR is very well positioned. There's a lot of control and midrange and this deck manages to go under both of them, contrary to the historical dominance of midrange over aggro. The aggro mirror is scary, but if you play properly, you can still get there.

4-0-2 split T8 for $33.

2-1 Esper Control
2-0 Mogis Red
2-1 Colossal Gruul
2-0 Kibler Golgari
ID UW Devotion
ID Little Kid Selesnya

Really sick deck. 17 land, 6 bolts, 1 Dynaharge, 36 creatures. SB: 4 RSF, 1 Hammer; 4 MCS, 1 AoT; 4 Shock, 1 Reckoner.

What list did you play?

[deck]Creatures
4 Legion Loyalist
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Foundry Street Denizen
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Firefist Striker
4 Goblin Shortcutter
4 Gore-House Chainwalker
2 Rubblebelt Maaka

Spells
4 Titan's Strength
1 Dynacharge

Land
17 Mountain

Sideboard
4 Rakdos Shredfreak
1 Hammer of Purphuros
4 Shock
1 Boros Reckoner
4 Madcap Skills
1 Act of Treason[/deck]

Which matchups are you bringing in Madcap Skills if i may ask.

Against big green dumb creatures.

So, how would you handle the aggro matchup?

Assess who's the beatdown and play accordingly. This usually involves leaving your Ash Zealots on defense and attacking with 5/2 Rakdos Cacklers, haha.

Sweet, I'm running Mogis red atm but I have found that in the mirror I'm not always fast enough (B/R has proven to be a real pain in the ass if I don't draw an ash zealot) so I'm looking for something explosive like this. Will try it out this FNM

Great; let me know how it's going!

Yeah, still trying to figure out an ideal list since quite a few people at my FNM have jumped on the B/R aggro list and that might be a pretty hard matchup for me.

Rest is control and G/x ramp so they should fold to this archetype.