For the PTQ recently held in my neck of the woods, I decided to go with Big Red, primarily because I liked that it had game against the entire field (and also because I wasn’t willing to fork over the money for four Arcbound Ravager), and, in the words of teammate Chris Fox,”when in doubt, burn ’em out.” Mono-Red has been good to me for the last few tournaments, so, after rounding up the Arc-Sloggers I needed (for months, they’d been sitting in the rare binder gathering dust-and then when I need them, everybody else starts a run on them…criminy).
However, I badly misjudged the metagame. After GP: Orlando, I expected a field of Affinity and Big Red, with few Tooth and Nail and Crystal Witness decks. I was right about the numbers of Affinity and the mirror, but there were still plenty of Witness decks, along with a fair amount of jank.
The reason there’s no tournament report is that a) I dropped out fairly early, after posting a real rating-killer of a record and b) I really didn’t want to recount losing to a Lattice/March deck. Muy ugh.
This is the deck I ran:
Big Red
3 Furnace Whelp
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Arc-Slogger
4 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Magma Jet
3 Flamebreak
3 Fireball
3 Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
4 Molten Rain
4 Shatter
22 Mountain
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
Sideboard:
1 Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
3 Echoing Ruin
4 Detonate
4 Slith Firewalker
3 Grab the Reins
I wish I could have found a blood-spewing Viking to bring along. After all, he’s big, big, big, and he’s red, red, red, and that’s how he earned the name of Big Red.
Now bring me my cowbell!
(This concludes the Dave’s dated SNL reference portion of the article. We now return you to your normally scheduled broadcast, already in progress)
As you can see, I went away from the Furnace Dragon route, since I found that I did pretty well against Affinity without the big beast, and it reduced my vulnerability to opposing artifact kill. My only artifacts were the Simulacrums, a.k.a.”Fatbot” (© Chris Fox), and if you kill those, I really won’t complain. My version was more burn- and creature-oriented; clear the path of blockers early with E-Bolts, Magma Jet and Flamebreak, drop the game winning fatties once the board is clear.
My testing and theorizing led me to believe that the Slith Firewalkers should go in the sideboard. The Firewalker excels against control decks, like Tooth and Witness, ergo, if those decks are not there in large numbers, it makes sense to pack Lava-Axe-on-a-stick, Furnace Whelp, which has the advantage of both a) flying and b) being pumpable.
Practice and theory are two different animals, however, and reality showed that the Whelp, while he did shine against Affinity (with no removal sans Shrapnel Blast), was a non-factor against any other R/x deck, seldom living longer than my next untap step.
However, Molten Rain proved its worth time and time over. Even against the mirror, setting them back a turn is huge, as the mirror often comes down to whomever gets Slog Boy into play first. Against two color decks, depriving them of that one color is huge as well. And the two points of damage, that’s just gravy.
Flamebreak proved essential as well, eliminating pesky Troll Ascetics and usually netting me at least a two-for-one as a board clearer.
The mana base, at least, worked perfectly. Two Nexii proved adequate, as you don’t want to draw one at the wrong time, being as you need double and triple Red quite often and quite early. Twenty-three lands were too few, twenty-four was just right. While I had other issues with the deck, mana was never one of them.
With Big Red, there’s also the question of how much artifact kill you want in the main deck. I went with Shatters, since they were inexpensive and instant speed. Being as there are several decks that run few or no artifacts (certain Big Red mirrors, G/R, mono-Green), you don’t want to end up with a hand full of dead cards. I tried to get the best of both worlds and, for the most part, was happy with my decision.
Based upon my results at the PTQ and playing around with the deck since then, here’s how I’d rebuild the deck. And, let’s add a catchier moniker to make it stand out.
Screaming Viking (or Dave’s Big Red for everyone else)
4 Slith Firewalker
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Arc-Slogger
4 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Magma Jet
3 Fireball
3 Flamebreak
3 Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
3 Shatter
4 Molten Rain
22 Mountain
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
Sideboard:
3 Furnace Whelp
3 Duplicant
1 Shatter
3 Echoing Ruin
4 Detonate
1 Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
The changes are subtle. Firewalkers return to the maindeck. My thinking is as such: against another burn deck, both are going to die quickly. However, against a control deck, a turn 2 Firewalker wins you games, so I’d rather have the odds of that occurring increased. It’s a Descarteian sort of argument that basically says I’m going to maximize my chances against part of the field while not hurting myself against the other matchups.
Also, Duplicant replaces Grab the Reins. Remember, he’s not a Dupli-CANT, he’s a Dupli-CAN! There are advantages to the Duplicant, especially against R/G decks, which I found gave me more trouble than anticipated. After spending all my burn against their creatures, they’d drop another Arc-Slogger or Molder Slug and I’d be out of gas. Grab the Reins provides a temporary reprieve (unless, of course, they’re low on life-always possible), but Duplicant is a permanent answer, which not only removes a fat body but gives you an extra attacker. And if an opponent Shatters, Oxidizes or uses another anti-artifact spell to destroy it, that’s still two-for-one card advantage and one less body to worry about. The thinking is, though, that your opponent in that matchup-the mirror or G/R-will have removed all their artifact kill against your all-but-artifact-less deck.
And, of course, Duplicant is damn good against Tooth and Nail decks as well. Nothing like an 11/11 for six mana, no?
You can make an argument for Grab the Reins, though, and I won’t disagree with you too much.
I’ve never been a big proponent of Seething Song, and without the need to accelerate to a Furnace Dragon, I ask, why use it? The only card it’s really good with here is Arc-Slogger, and while I admit a turn 3 Slogger is indeed some good against many decks, I don’t care for the loss of card advantage vs. tempo. I could see it as a sideboard card against the mirror (first Slogger wins), but I’d rather have more burn.
How does this new version of Screaming Viking…er, that is, Big Red, stack up? Here’s what I’ve found.
Vs. Affinity
Let’s face it, any one (me included) who has said”This deck completely destroys Affinity!” is deluding themselves. No matter how much hate you have, if Affinity gets the God draw, it doesn’t matter how many Shatters and E-Bolts you have in your hand, you’re just going to lose. That’s why Affinity is so good, as it has a pretty decent percentage of just drawing the nuts more often than not.
That being said, Big Red has a lot of game against the Ravager and his crew. Here, the main deck Shatters are gold, you’ve got burn to eliminate the Disciple, Flamebreak to toast the Crunchy Frogs and against a deck that doesn’t pack much in the way of spot removal save for Shrapnel Blast, a turn 2 Firewalker isn’t that bad-at worst, you’ll hopefully trade with a Worker-at best, suddenly there’s a 3/3 beatstick on the board. Post sideboarding, again, you still lose to the nuts draw, but with all that spot removal and artifact kill, Affinity is going to have to work for the game.
While I normally frown upon the Shatter-your-land strategy, I do advocate killing an early Seat of the Synod if you can. While just about every card Affinity drops is worrisome, if you can keep them from drawing cards with Thoughtcast and deny them their big 3/2 flier (which, admittedly, isn’t that fearsome when you have over a dozen spells that take it out), you can at least slow down this monster.
Sideboarding:
-4 Firewalker, -4 Molten Rain, -3 Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
+3 Echoing Ruin, +4 Detonate, +3 Furnace Whelp, +1 Shatter
Vs. Crystal Witness
My experience has shown that the demise of this deck has been greatly exaggerated. This is why I moved the Firewalkers back to the main deck, as this Crystal Witness must expend a valuable counter or bounce spell to deal with it.
Most Witness decks are moving the annoying Troll Ascetic to the main to buy it the time it needs-it’s a tempo deck, after all, usually trying to get to eight mana for the Rude Awakening win. But Big Red gets to play the role of Jake”The Snake” Roberts, clearing the way with the Ascetic-hating Flamebreak and timely Pulses to deliver the DDT coup-de-grace.
Man alive, I went to college for five years and I’m using vintage pro wrestling terminology for metaphors. I need to get out more.
Sideboarding:
-2 Electrostatic Bolt
+1 Forge, +1 Shatter
Note: sideboard at your discretion, as the artifact count in Crystal Witness decks can vary greatly. If you fear cards like Duplicant or Triskelion, you may want to find room for Echoing Ruin post-sideboarding. If you had room in the sideboard, Leonin Bladetrap is a nasty surprise, but I really don’t advocate having a sideboard against one specific card which, in reality, shouldn’t be a problem if all goes correctly.
You could also consider swapping the Molten Rains for Furnace Whelps, but I haven’t had much success going that route. It’s worth considering, however.
Vs. Big Red (mirror)
The mirror is a battle of heavyweights, throwing haymakers until one goes down. In this matchup, Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] can really shine, taking you from a 16-2 deficit to the win in the span of an untap step; however, while in other matchups, you want to burn yourself to get within range of reusing Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] multiple times, I really wouldn’t recommend that tactic here.
Sideboarding:
-4 Slith Firewalker
+1 Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author], + 3 Duplicant
This sideboarding tactic is for the true mirror, sans artifacts. If it’s the Furnace Dragon version, you’re in better shape and can bring in more artifact kill. Their Dragons aren’t too scary when you have Fireball to knock it out of the skies.
Vs. G/R
In my opinion, your toughest matchup. They have burn in addition to a plethora of fat bodies. You may be able to pick off the first Arc-Slogger or two, but that second Molder Slug is probably going to go the distance unless you topdeck a Fireball or two.
Sideboarding:
-4 Slith Firewalker, -3 Shatter
+3 Duplicant, +3 Furnace Whelp, +1 Forge[/author]“]Pulse of the [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
Furnace Whelp comes in to force them to use up a burn spell-Firewalkers can easily be chumped. Duplicant, as previously mentioned, is a two-for-one beauty, and since neither of these decks is blisteringly fast, you’ll have time to use it. Your only worry might be an opposing Duplicant, and your best weapon there is a well-timed E-Bolt once imprint goes on the stack.
Vs. Mono-Green
Mono-Green wants to race, as that’s the only way they can win. Unfortunately, your tortoise is pretty good at tripping up their hare. Your burn negates their early rush, and mono-Green really, really, really hates to see Flamebreak. This is the one matchup where the Firewalker really blows, but you can’t win ’em all. Just be sure to keep them from attacking with the Fangren Firstborns and you’re going to be on easy street.
Vs. Lattice/March
If you run into this deck, I can only wish you a hearty vaya con dios and hope you’re fighting your way up from the tables with big numbers.
One of the things I really like about Big Red is it’s versatility-depending upon the metagame, you can push it to be a creature rush deck (with Firewalkers and Vulshok War Boar), heavily anti-artifact and just a straight burn-’em-out Dead Red special.
In terms of a metagame choice, you can’t do better than Big Red. Unless you happen to have the Ravagers in hand, it’s my recommendation. Just avoid those Lattice decks.