Mono Red Update

Hey guys, it's GuitarSlam.

I got in a decent amount of testing today on mtgo after I got out of work.  Here's the main point that I found:

This deck cannot beat Thragtusk or Scavenging Ooze.

"Well, duh, that's obvious," you may say, and you would be right.  Clearly a 5/3 that gains 5 life when it enters the battlefield and leaves behind a blocker when it gets Searing Speared is pretty good against a mono red deck.  To go along with it, a 2/2 that grows quickly and gains life while doing it is a pretty good compliment.  The issue isn't that these cards are good against the deck (all decks have cards good against them) but the problem is that these cards are played in *so* many of the competitive decks that you may run up against.  Let me list some:

1. Jund
2. Junk
3. GW Tokens or Lifegain
4. RG Midrange
5. BG Control

"Swag is bringing life to the party and making sure a
homie isn't alone when leaving." - Swagtusk

That's only what I could think of immediately off the top of my head.  I'm sure that there are more decks that use these two cards together.  My point of all of this is that it's really hard to win consistently.  That doesn't take away from the raw power the mono red deck, however.  It's still an explosive deck that can dump all of the cards in its hand in an effort to destroy the opponent by turn 5.  The problem is that the natural foil to aggro decks is lifegain and this Standard format has plenty of that.

I do run Skullcracks in the board and they come in for a lot of matchups, but you don't always draw them.  When you have a Skullcrack in hand and your opponent plays a Thragrusk, it's a pretty good feeling for you.  You just got an 8 point life swing in your favor (the -3 of Skullcrack and the fact that your opponent lost out on gaining 5) and that is usually enough to finish the game off if you've put out any decent amount of pressure on the board.  Despite this, there's not much that can be done.

That's the real crux of the problem at hand.  There really isn't a great answer to these two cards (plus Huntmaster as an honorable mention).  There's not many ways to increase your own speed any more (this deck is already focused on hyper-aggression) and without disruption, there's no way to stop what's happening around you.  Sure, you can Searing Spear a Scavenging Ooze, but that's if they play it without having extra mana to remove creatures, which a smart player won't do.

Now, like I said before, don't let this skew your opinion about this deck.  It's still really good and especially powerful for the price tag (approximately $21).  If you're looking for a cheap deck to get started with (like I was) this is still a great decision.  For such a small price, it has extraordinary power that can steal games out of nowhere.  I'm going to keep testing this deck and see what I come up with.  If you guys can think of anything to help, please comment :)

See you guys later.