Last weekend, I finished in 10th place at GP Memphis with Mono-Red Aggro.
Despite my best attempt-and the attempts of many others–the archetype was
not represented in the Top 8 of the tournament. The Top 8 included three
copies of Grixis Energy, two copies of U/B Control, and singleton copies of
G/R Monsters, Sultai Constrictor, and Mardu Vehicles. Due to Mono-Red’s
absence, I’ve been asked a lot if I think the deck is still tier one going
forward. Despite my bias, I think the answer is yes for a couple of
reasons.
First, GP Memphis was just one tournament, making it quite the small
sample. Second, Mono-Red was the only truly established deck going into the
tournament, making it heavily targeted. And finally, Mono-Red plays some of
the most powerful cards in Standard and has an excellent manabase.
Creatures (27)
- 1 Pia Nalaar
- 4 Bomat Courier
- 3 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
- 4 Hazoret the Fervent
- 4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
- 4 Earthshaker Khenra
- 3 Rekindling Phoenix
- 4 Fanatical Firebrand
Lands (6)
Spells (27)
I played Mono-Red because I’m quite comfortable with it and some of my best
results in my professional career have come from the deck. However, I knew
going in that people would be prepared for it. My intuition is that this
level of preparedness will decrease and Mono-Red will become stronger with
each week that passes by in Standard. The more the metagame evolves, and
the control/midrange decks adapt to beat each other, the fewer slots people
will be devoting to their Mono-Red matchup.
We saw this last year with Temur Energy. Around Pro Tour Ixalan,
we got to a point where Temur players started putting Vraska, Relic Seeker
and even Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh into their deck to beat the mirror at the
expense of their Mono-Red matchups. Every percentage counts when facing
Mono-Red, and no one will have a blowout Mono-Red matchup.
I think the better question is not whether Mono-Red is still tier one in
general, but whether it is tier one if people keep preparing as they did
for it in Memphis. Again, though, I feel that the answer is yes. The deck
just needs to be tuned slightly to accommodate for the rise in control. As
Mono-Red players, we have options available to us. For example, at GP
Memphis I deliberately chose not to play black in the deck for Scrapheap
Scrounger or Puncturing Blow in the sideboard because I, like most,
apparently, was concerned with my Mono-Red matchup.
In fact, I was so concerned about playing the Mono-Red mirror that I
specifically tuned my list to beat the mirror, packing a full eleven cards
for it in the sideboard and even playing maindeck Grasping Dunes over
Sunscorched Deserts, giving myself an edge in Rekindling Phoenix wars. I
was rewarded in all my mirror matches (I played against Mono-Red in 33% of
all my matches) but lost my two win-and-ins for Top 8 on Day Two against
control decks, where my decision hurt me.
The Grasping Dunes were something I found at the last minute during a
Gatherer search. They ended up being excellent in the mirror.
Killing a Rekindling Phoenix 0/1 Egg token without using an actual card is
great. My reasoning for playing the card is the same reasoning for swapping
Soul-Scar Mages for Fanatical Firebrands; there are just a lot of x/1s in
Standard worth killing, like Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, Champion of Wits, Bomat
Courier, Earthshaker Khenra, Egg tokens, and Whirler Virtuoso tokens. The
card also had upside in the sense that it catches most people off guard
since they haven’t seen it before in Standard.
For instance, this situation arose in a tense mirror match:
With one card in hand, three Mountains, a Scavenger Grounds, and Hazoret
the Fervent on the battlefield in a racing situation, my opponent tapped
out for a Rekindling Phoenix. I knew I couldn’t possibly win unless I got
my opponent to block my Hazoret with his Rekindling Phoenix somehow, but it
was highly unlikely they would do so. I untapped and drew a blank for the
turn, so I immediately discarded the card I drew to Hazoret, intentionally
tapping all three of my red sources and swung in with the powerful God with
only a Scavenger Grounds up for mana and one card in hand. My opponent,
very puzzled, blocked the Hazoret with Rekindling Phoenix, made an 0/1 Egg
token and asked if he could take his turn, motioning to untap. I politely
declined and on my second main phase played my last card, Grasping Dunes,
activated it with the Scavenger Grounds to finish off the second half of
Rekindling Phoenix and went on to win both the game and the match.
Despite the occasional sweet play like this, Deserts have gotten much worse with the banning of Ramunap Ruins in Standard. You can
no longer reliably burn out your opponents from five or six life points
with your lands, so we have to evaluate cards like Sunscorched Deserts and
Scavenging Grounds on their own. We want something to complement the
Mountains, though, because we don’t need 24 of them. Speaking of the land
count, I think 24 lands in the main deck is correct. I heavily recommend
against playing 23, as not hitting land drops is the quickest way to lose
with Mono-Red and you always want your fourth land on time.
If the metagame doesn’t even out and U/B Control and Grixis Energy remain
dominant in Standard, I think black can be played for Scrapheap Scrounger.
I’ve also considered the idea of playing eleven one-drops with Rigging
Runners or Inventor’s Apprentice and going lower with the curve to make
Vraska’s Contempt worse. I’m skeptical of how good this will be though
because if you fill your deck with too many small creatures a lot of your
draws without Hazoret are just too weak. Even if you do have a Hazoret
draw, if the opponent manages to deal with it you are left with a bunch of
2/2s without the old reach that Ramunap Ruins provided to complement the
plan of an early rush. I’ve heard people suggest playing Mardu instead of
Mono-Red to help the control matchup, but I think that’s a mistake. To me,
Mardu is a weaker version of Mono-Red because of both its weaker manabase
and its less consistent draws.
The plan to beating control is to try and pressure them early and tax their
copies of Vraska’s Contempt later by overloading them with powerful four
and five drops. The idea is that eventually they’ll run out of answers to
your big threats as a lot of their deck is made up of smaller removal. You
only need one mythic to eventually stick. This has worked for me in the
past, but current iterations of control are playing four copies of Vraska’s
Contempt in additional to Torrential Gearhulks, making this difficult.
Sometimes there’s just nothing you can do if they draw the right pieces of
removal and you aren’t threat-dense enough. For this reason, my Mono-Red
lists going forward will not have as much removal in them.
In the past, I’ve resisted the urge to play black in my Mono-Red decks, but
if there’s ever a time to do so, it’s likely right now. It pains me, but
the addition of Scrapheap Scrounger adds percentage points to both the U/B
Control and Grixis Energy matchup since it is a recursive threat that can’t
be dealt with easily. If the Grixis Energy player does not have exactly
Magma Spray, the card can be quite problematic for them, and U/B Control
doesn’t even have access to the cheap removal spell. The reason black has
worried me is because of what it does to the mana. Luckily, Scrapheap
Scrounger can be cast off of Mountains, and only its ability requires
non-red. One bonus is that Dragonskull Summit will rarely enter the
battlefield tapped since all your other lands are either Swamps or
Mountains. Other downsides to playing Scroungers, however, include making
your mirror match worse, as you lose Kari Zev, Skyship Raider. With
Mono-Red on the decline, I think cutting her is fine for now as the U/B
Control and Grixis Energy matchups are very close, and I want those few
percentage points that Scrounger can add.
Outside of Scrounger, Hour of Glory is an interesting card that has popped
up in lists to give Mono-Red a way to get rid of The Scarab God. This card
is extremely powerful but requires even more Black mana to ensure you can
cast it. Hour of Glory was seen in Daniel Weiser’s 30th place list at GP
Memphis. Dan is both a great player and friend, and after talking to him,
he said casting it was sometimes a problem in Memphis and suggested having
access to ten black sources. This requires a manabase of 15 Mountains, 4
Swamps, 4 Dragonskull Summits, and 1 Canyon Slough in the maindeck and
another Canyon Slough in the sideboard for when you bring in Hour. At this
point, I’m not comfortable with that strain on the mana. Part of my appeal
to Mono-Red over this past year has always been the basic Mountains and
lack of tap lands. Puncturing Blow accomplishes something similar to what
Hour does without the necessity of more black sources.
If you do decide to go with Mono-Red, I don’t blame you. I’ll be looking to
do so again as soon as control dies down a little. I suggest 18 Mountain, 3
Sunscorched Desert, and 3 Scavenger Grounds for mana. Grasping Dunes is
great when Mono-Red is popular, which just isn’t right now. You’d rather
have the extra couple of damage Sunscorched Desert provides in close
matches against U/B Control and Grixis Energy.
Here is the list I recommend:
Creatures (28)
- 1 Pia Nalaar
- 4 Bomat Courier
- 4 Scrapheap Scrounger
- 4 Hazoret the Fervent
- 4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
- 4 Earthshaker Khenra
- 3 Rekindling Phoenix
- 4 Fanatical Firebrand
Lands (7)
Spells (25)
As you can see, I’m trying out eight spells in the maindeck, as opposed to
the nine I had in Memphis, looking to present as many threats as I can. I
think cutting down on Abrades in the 75 is fine, but if God-Pharaoh’s Gift
picks up in the coming weeks you can add more. You want five three-drops
main. Some people have opted for a three Ahn-Crop Crasher, two Pia Nalaar
split, but I think the upside on Ahn-Crop’s aggressiveness is too high to
only play three. One of the current weaknesses in Mono-Red is that all of
its best cards are printed at four mana. There’s not much we can do about
that, though it’s something to be conscious of when you are configuring
your deck after sideboard. You don’t always want to the full amount of
four-drops and often times you should be shaving one or two of them.
Here is a general sideboard guide for the deck and some
general thoughts on the matchups. Always adjust to your opponent’s deck and
how they play though.
VS Mono-Red Aggro
Out:
In:
In Memphis, I was cutting Bomat Courier in the mirror as the card has
gotten a lot worse with Fanatical Firebrand being stock in lists. However,
they are better than Ahn-Crop Crashers and Scrapheap Scroungers. If you’re
playing the Mono-Red version, I recommend cutting them. The mirror now is
about Rekindling Phoenix and Hazoret. Nothing else comes anywhere close to the importance of these two cards. Sequencing
your spells in the mirror is extremely important. Don’t just run your
creature into removal when you know they have it. You want to be the one
killing a threat and then deploying your own on your turn. If you suspect
they have removal, something like just playing Hazoret even though you have
a bunch of cards in hand is extremely strong as they are forced to untap
without the ability to kill something. A lot of times this forces them to
point burn at your face, since they too want to be low on cards for their
Hazorets. Use Lightning Strikes over Abrades when you can because of
Aethersphere Harvester. Also, if you suspect your opponent has Dire-Fleet
Daredevils, be cautious with how you use your removal. If your opponent
activates Scavenger Grounds exiling your Phoenix from your graveyard, for
example, it can be right to fire off a removal spell in response on
something, so yours gets exiled along with the Phoenix shutting off their
Daredevils. On the flip side of that, if your opponent is tapped out and
you plan to exile a Phoenix just do it main phase, so they do not have a
window to cast their removal in response and have it removed with the
Grounds.
VS Grixis Energy
Out (on the play):
In (on the play):
Out (on the draw):
In (on the draw):
The idea is to combine early aggression with powerful four-drops. Two
Rekindling Phoenix come out on the play because we have too many four-drops
and want to maintain decent aggression on the play. The one of Vance’s
Blasting Cannons is high variance but quite good on the play because Grixis
Energy has zero answers to it once it resolves. On the draw it can be a
liability if they follow it up with The Scarab God. I’d rather have
something that impacts the battlefield immediately, like Rekindling
Phoenix.
Ahn-Crop Crasher is much worse on the draw than the play because of all
their removal. Be wary of 1/1 Thopter tokens blocking your Phoenix. This
often signals Magma Spray, so sometimes it’s right to clear them out of the
way with a Fanatical or exert Crasher on them to be safe. In this matchup,
you’ll want to skew towards more aggression on the play and prepare for a
longer battle on the draw. The die roll is important here, as is the number
of Vraska’s Contempts they draw. If you can, hold your Dire Fleet Daredevil
for Vraska’s Contempt on their Scarab Gods.
Also, be cognizant of what two-drop you play. For example, you might think
it’s right to play out Earthshaker Khenra if you think it is doing to die,
but possibly consider running out Scrounger or Kari Zev if they are only
showing Aether Hubs and they are looking to kill something and net some
energy to fix their mana. I believe this matchup to be close if played
properly from both sides and is highly dependent on the number of Vraska’s
Contempts and Torrential Gearhulks drawn by the opponent.
VS U/B Control
Out:
In:
You want to be as threat dense as possible in this matchup. The Firebrands
are much better here than they are against Grixis Energy. They chip away at
the opponent’s life total without having to worry about becoming dead due
to Whirler Virtuoso or Pia Nalaar clogging up the battlefield. I don’t
think Glorybringer is as good here as it is versus Grixis Energy, and I
prefer being a little more aggressive and keeping a slightly lower curve.
Some people have suggested 1-2 Abrades in this matchup to kill Torrential
Gearhulk, but generally, if they are Gearhulking you, it’s likely you’ve
already lost.
Your removal is terrible in this matchup so just be as aggressive as you
can. They will sideboard out a lot of their counters for more reactive
cards, and a lot of times the way to win is just to be aggressive and jam
your haymakers as often as possible. Puncturing Blow can be awkward with
the beatdown plan, but it’s a necessity for The Scarab God. Worst case, you
can pitch it to a Hazoret. Like Grixis Energy, try to hold your Dire Fleet
Dardevils for Vraska’s Contempt on their The Scarab God if you can.
VS Mardu Vehicles
Out:
In:
There’s not much to be said about this matchup. It’s great and I don’t
think I’ve ever lost to it.
VS G/R Monsters
Out (on the play):
In (on the play):
Out (on the draw):
In (on the draw):
I don’t like changing much on the play as being aggressive has been great
for me. On the draw we are less likely to beat them down given their large
amount of removal and ways to interact, so I like to bring in the control
package. The Daredevils have been excellent for me in this matchup as long
as you time them correctly. Fanatical shines against Jadelight Ranger so
don’t be afraid to hold it for their turn 3.
VS W/B Tokens
Out:
In:
Flying is strong in this matchup and you should try to maximize it. I don’t
like Hazoret because it gets blanked by the tokens and is basically a four
mana enchantment that can deal two. Maybe 1-2 is defensible on the play,
but my intuition is just to cut them all. I keep in the four Lightning
Strikes because of Regal Caracal. Sometimes you can pick off a token after
their stockpile trigger resolves and make them have to find a revolt
trigger again. Overall this matchup isn’t great.
VS Sultai Constrictor
Out:
In:
Your one-drops are pretty bad in this matchup as they get blanked quickly,
and Walking Ballista is a beating. Make sure to not let a Winding
Constrictor live or else things can get out of hand quickly. Hold your
Puncturing Blow for The Scarab God if you can. This matchup is fairly
straightforward, and I don’t see this deck remaining popular in the future.
VS Approach of the Second Suns
Out:
In:
Similar to U/B Control, you want to be aggressive. Navigating Settle the
Wreckage well is important, but note the catch-22 with Fumigate. If you
hold back from Settle you get punished by Fumigate and vice versa.
Additionally, it feels pretty bad to hold back and have the opponent simply
cast a Glimmer of Genius instead of even Settling a few of your creatures.
It’s generally correct to be a little more aggressive in these turns than
most people would think. Something like jamming with a couple creatures and
playing a post-combat Hazoret is reasonable too, though, since it cannot be
Fumigated away. Just make sure to keep them under pressure. Additionally,
note the leaving in of Lightning Strike. The opponent will sideboard up to
four copies of Regal Caracal, and the Lightning Strikes + Chandras leave us
with an answer to them.