Smoking Gun – A Primer on R/x Agrro Archetype

Grrrrrr.....it’s really frustrating that I didn’t bring home the bacon @ the office! You need not ask the results. It’so frustrating because it didn’t measure up to my expectations the way it turned out to be. Anyway, I’m glad that despite the heavy loss, something good popped up unexpectedly as if it were a Pandora’s box!

Aki is the name and the key. Thanks to that guy that even if it’s not my lucky day, I still had the chance to have fun.  He played an R/B based aggro deck and it reminds me of how good these kinds of decks are. I also had one when I came back playing after a very long magic retirement. And it did help me win a lot of games believe me. So, I’d like to share my knowledge about it. And Aki, buddy, this is for you! I’ll try to put this down in layman’s terms as much as possible.

Red Decks, Sligh, RDW or "Red Deck Wins" dates back to 1997.Geee!!! That long?! So it only goes to show that it really is a good theme to build and play, right?

What comes into your mind when you hear the word “AGGRO” or aggressive decks?

Frankly speaking, if you ask an experienced person his answer to you would be another question.

“How fast is it? In what turn can it beat an opponent? Is it consistent?”

That is the core idea behind RDW or any aggressive decks. This is where it all begins. 

The general principles behind RDW could be summarized in 5 things you need to bear in mind:

Fast and Furious Mana-efficient creatures

What the heck are Mana-efficient creatures? Well, these are creatures that give you your mana’s worth. Meaning, they are only 1 or 2 to cast but they give you nice abilities to use or just raw power (regardless of any drawbacks) which can help you put down your opponents life to nothing. To name some are rackdo’scrackler, stromkirk, legion loyalist, ash zealot.

But why should you? It’s because the main reason to play a red deck, in any format, is the speed and consistency with which you can attack and kill your opponentthroughresistanceand resiliency [your ability to bounce back or recover after a board or any disruption on your battle plan.]

To reiterate, I’d like to emphasize that the name of this game is “SPEED and CONSISTENCY.”

Gain “REACH”

There’s no assurance that you’llhave the best creatures or most powerful spells on each of your turns.But while your opponent tries to set up his board and/or hand, you just have eaten huge amount out of their life. By that time, it’s easy to bring his life further to zero using your burn spells. This is a term called “reach.” You have to arrive at that particular point after a period of time. How would you know that your opponent is already within reach? There’s usually a benchmark. 8-10 life left is suffice. Then you burn them out by searing spear, brimstone volley, pillar of flames, and/or any burn spells that you have.

Burn baby, BURN!

So let’s put this principle into practice. In the list that I have, ifyou cast legion loyalist, then Burning-tree emissary plus lightning mauler, then Boros reckoner, then Hell rider, it’s translation in math is:

        

            Turn 1:    1     -    damage from legion loyalist

Turn 2:    5     -    damage from lightning mauler and burning-tree emissary plus the damage from Legion Loyalist                                            

            Turn 3:    5     -    damage from lightning mauler and burning-tree emissary plus the damage from Legion Loyalist 

Turn 4:   11   -    damage from lightning mauler and burning-tree emissary plus the damage from  Legion  Loyalist and hell rider

                            5     -    damage from hell rider’s ability    

That’s a total of 26 damage in 4 turns! Does that sound like a ridiculously good draw? Well, I could go Rakdos Cackler into burning tree emissary and strom kirk, into Boros reckoner, which is a MUCH worse draw - only 0 + 2 + 5 + 8 = 15 damage. But even so, you have achieved a reach –it’s very likely to be sufficient for a kill. Moreover, that’s the reason why we must include efficient burn spells in the deck.

Relentless Pressure!  

One important thing that we must take in consideration for a competitive RDW is how we could consistently put pressure on our opponents using treats. This can really be challenging because red does not have access to sources of card advantage such as Sphinx revelation, think twice, gristly salvage, and others, which are found in many other popular decks.

Failure to consistently build pressure into your deck will result in you being empty handed,  you’ll always see yourself hoping to top deckcertain cards to win, while your opponent gets further and further ahead - we have all been there and it really feels awful! Awts!And this is one noticeable problem RDW has, and it’s not just for RDWs but also for other agro decks as well such as in the case of Naya aggro. We run out of gas!

Resolution:  the first thing to consider is having a great “MANA CURVE.” A mana curve is the distribution of mana costs in your deck. In our case, for our aggressive strategy to work, you want the most our cards to cost only 1 or 2 mana. Why? Because it increases the reliability of your deck and increases the explosiveness of your draws.

The best possible draw in the Mono Red deck is:

Turn 1 = 1x drop

Turn 2 = 2xdrops - such a draw becomes much more likely the more 1 drop creatures you run.

Turn 3 = 2x drops or any spell will do.

The mana curve is very important for each spell you have because you will not usually need to cast your spells "on curve."At the same time, you should still prefer cheaper spells over more expensive spells - a weaker spell that you can cast is worth a lot more than a more powerful spell that will always be stuck in your hand (bye Bonfire!).

This is to ensure that you’re always busy doing something on each of your turns which would eventually end up in constantly putting pressure on your opponent.

Don’t Over Extend!

Guys, this is not a mid-ranged deck ok? So by 4^th or 5^th turn, you already must have beaten the hell out on your opponent.

DON'T PROLONG THE AGONY!

That's not FAIR and INHUMANE!

OK! I’M DONE SIR! With those principles in mind, let us turn our minds to specific card choices!

1cc (casting cost) Drops

Legion Loyalist: Check out the most expensive and widely used rare card there is on standard. “Voice of resurgence.” This is one card I have ambivalent emotions on. I like it when it drills on my opponent’s life but I hate it when used against me. Check out the current META too. Most of them have tokens, right? And most of them are aggro, meaning they are creature based. So having said that, don’t you think it’s just appropriate to put in some on your deck? I would put two of those if I were you.

Rakdos Cackler: Ah I love this card. It’s so versatile in its mana cost. Remember though that we're only playing him as a 2/2 that “cannot block.” In this role, he is a very good early beater. For the very aggressive decks, Cackler is basically a mandatory inclusion. Do be aware that the inability to block can be a liability against faster aggro decks - your side boarding plans might need to involve a way to side him out.
Reckless Waif: If Control becomes a dominant strategy, there are few better turn 1 plays, so the card should be reconsidered as a sideboard option. But do include him on your SB hehehe
Stonewright: A contentious card to be sure. Some see a fairly irrelevant body, but a very relevant ability. Some just see irrelevance. Whether to play Stonewright or now really boils down to two things - how much excess mana you think you will have and whether you really need more 1 drops? There are certainly other one drops that should see play first, but if you want more, this is usually a good choice. It’s best combed with ash zealot and boros reckoner. This also can utilize your excess mana during mid game.

Stromkirk Noble: The bestred 1 drop. While the 1/1 stats are less exciting than Rakdos Cackler, Stormkirk Noble can get very big, very quickly especially against aristocrats.

Vexing Devil: Nah, I wouldn’t like it for now. A 2/2 body that would possibly deal damage for 3 or 4 turns is better than an early 4 damage. Plus, it doesn’t synch with the hell rider.

2cc (casting cost) Drops

Burning-tree Emissary: Do we really have to talk about this? Hahaha Put 4 of them ok?

Mogg Flunkies: Red's most abstractly powerful 2 drop. Often (and usually correctly) thought of as a trap, the Flunkies offer a very large, very powerful body in both attack and defense – if it can hahaha..

Rakdos Shred-Freak:  don't play it haha it goes against our strategy. Ours is not all just about haste.Cratures with abilities are more likely to be chosen since it provides more options for you to utilize during battle. A good example would be you having this one (and 2 other creatures) and your opponent has a thrugtusk. Wouldn’t it be better if you have Firefist Striker so that you could evade the thrug? 

Ash Zealot: Very likely the best red 2 drop ever. Would easily playable if just for the haste and first strike. The graveyard hate ability will often be relevant because two of the meta now are Frites and Bant Control. Just remember that you might have problems casting her if you splash in other manacolors. Her RR casting cost means you need to be more conservative with your mana base. That’s why you usually don’t see her in the naya blitz.

 

Cards to think about:

Firefist Striker: Battalion has not proven to be reliable in constructed before. But not now that we have Burning-tree emissary.With the constant evolution of RDWs, this somehow have replaced pyreheart wolf as this is more mana efficient.

Gore-House Chainwalker: This for me is just brute force. No abilities just raw power.

Lightning Mauler: Definitely a go! This is one of the key cards here. Best Combo is with burning-tree emissary.

3cc (casting cost) Drops

Boros Reckoner: It’s just a must. I’m sorry. But you must decide if you’ll just put 4 or 3 as it’s easily killed by control spells.

Pyreheart Wolf: Better than it looks, and the ability is very powerful. It’s good against aggro. But it’s a 3cc. There are a lot of things that could happen on your turn 3. You can cast a burn spell which would be more important than a creature that you could cast. Well anyway, just try it for yourself and decide.

4cc (casting cost) Drops

Hellrider: By far the best Red 4 drop and it’s a must! Haste, a decent sized body and a very powerful ability - Hell rider makes every other creature in your deck better and is pretty good himself already! This is typically where you want to start and finish with creatures of this cost. Loves to be friends with Pyreheart Wolf and Firefist Striker. Well, here in our list, we have about 10 1cc creatures. If by your 4^th turn you already have 3 creatures in play, it’s going to be 4 damage just from the hell rider’s ability alone. So powerful indeed.

Archwing Dragon: An interesting card that could serve as a difficult to deal with curve-topper. The rate of return is actually fine - it is better to think of Archwing Dragon as a burn spell that you can cast over and over. Obviously a defensive liability, and likely much worse than ThundermawHellkite for 1 more mana.Very playable out of the sideboard against a control deck, especially supporting ThundermawHellkite when you're running Cavern of Souls. Just for Side boards!

5cc (casting cost) Drops

Zealous Conscripts:   the sideboard against control decks and other decks which has huge creatures. If your mana base can support it, having a few copies available is a great idea.

ThundermawHellkite: Playable in both the main deck and out of the sideboard, this is the most competitively pushed dragon in years. Worth playing for the stats alone, but expect it to have all sorts of applications against cards like Lingering Souls, Midnight Haunting and Moorland Haunt. Not to mention creatures like restoration angel and angel of serenity.

BURN SPELLS!

1 Cost Burn

Pillar of Flame: Well, there are no other choice, so what can we do? Hahaha Anyway it’s effective against dorks and creatures that has undying. Proven to be very effective that other decks have been using then as well.
Electrickery: It’s mainly used before for Bant hexproof/Aura decks, but right now it also could be very useful against Frites as they use 7-8 dorks on their decks. But this is just for sideboards ok?

2 Cost Burn

Searing Spear: It’s the best 2cc burn spell so far. When you need to top deck a win, this is the card you always want to be drawing. Play the full four.

Skull Crack:  Pretty good against Thragtusk and Sphinx's Revelation decks. Not good enough to maindeck because it isn't actually removal. Put in about 3 of them in your SB. Also is good against any other control decks as burn spells are their weakness.

Mizzium Mortars: It’s actually good against any other creature based decks or just any deck which has creatures on it. It’s removal for 4 damage at 2 mana and could blow off if you have 6 mana. It’s also proven to be helpful at times against Bant hex proof decks.

Thunderbolt: It’s good against restoration angel. But we need more versatile burn spell which could target both land-based and flying creatures.

3 Cost Burn

Brimstone Volley: 5 damage is already 25% of your opponent’s total life. Imagine if you have 4 of them that you would draw every turn and then there would be 4 creatures that would die every turn too. I would put 4 of this though some just use 3 because of the slot that they give to other creatures. Anyway, it’s all up to you! Yeah!

Special mention:

Suicide?!Well, I think it’s much better than the Texas Chain-saw massacre I watched hahahaBlasphemous act! Combo it with your reckoner. You could also use it against the Naya blitz. You could easily cast them in an agro environment. Go get some and try it hahaha I had fun using it at the world cup qualifiers hahaha

There you go guys. Hope you like it. I wanted to talk about some detailed pieces of information. But I might just do another article about it at a later time. Ciao!

Happy Playing!