I’ve done a lot of work with Red over the years. I’m not sure what it is, but it is definitely a color that I feel like I’ve had an affinity for. That’s why I find myself really struggling hard in figuring out what to do with the M10 Red cards. I’ve had more than a few people asking me what to do now that “the Lightnings” (Ball and Bolt) are both legal in Standard for the first time this century…
And it saddens me when I feel like I don’t know how to go about doing it right.
Historically, my history with successful Red decks has fit into one of three categories: Sligh, Ponza, and Burn. I’ve also had a smidge of success with Goblins, but not to the same degree. One of the things that these decks haven’t generally had access to in my history was Ball Lightning.
When Ball Lightning came out, there were a ton of decks that were calling themselves “Sligh” that didn’t really seem to live up to the name. These Ball Lightning, Lightning Bolt, Incinerate, Fireblast decks ended up getting another nickname on the internets, from some: Blitz was a common one. For others, though, these almost curve-less decks just inherited the title “Sligh,” and failed to live up to the core of Sligh: a mana-curved Red deck that would develop a board presence backed up with burn. Sligh was an early ancestor to Ponza, and it makes sense that I’d seem to have good feelings for both of these archetypes.
But I’ve also loved pure Burn. There is something so very satisfying about killing every Elf that hits play, or just racing a deck with fresh fire to their face. The old “Blitz” decks have a lot in common with Burn, but they were really some kind of Sligh/Burn cross-breed, often opening up with Jackal Pups. I think there might have been something to this combination that makes it hard for me to sometimes effectively connect with this Balls-to-the-Wall philosophy of Burn.
This might be why I’ve had such difficult with Red in the M10 Standard. As I see it, there are basically two bogeymen: Kithkin and Faeries.
Faeries is the same, always; if you forget that it exists, it destroys you. You’d think we’d have learned by now, that no degree of anti-Faerie card pool actually destroys this deck, unless people actually play those cards! The week after U.S. Regionals this year, everyone was so high on their desire to win the Black/White Tokens matchup, they all forgot about Faeries, and back it roared. For a Red deck, Faeries represents a conundrum; Red can easily beat Faeries if it chooses to do so to the exclusion of the rest of the metagame, but if it does not, it often falls to the common problems for a Red deck in that matchup: relying on cheaper spells and reach leaves that Red deck open to Sprites and often fails to develop a meaningful board, while going for heavier mana-costed spells leaves one open to Cliques and Cryptics. Finding the balance can be hard going.
Kithkin, on the other hand, is the seeming inheritor to Standard. Kithkin (or any WW for that matter) waltzes into Standard with Honor of the Pure, and nothing notable in the way of losses for its maindeck. On the other hand, it no longer has to contend with Reveillark’s tools Wrath of God (and its helper, Mind Stone) and Windborn Muse, while potential rivals like Black/White lose a huge pillar of their manabase. While it seems inevitable that Kithkin will be updated to something that is not merely a new Glorious Anthem switch, the fact remains that with just that single switch, the deck is quite potent.
The problem for the poor, hapless Red decks that I like to make is that they don’t fit ideally into this space smushed between Faeries and White Weenie of any ilk. I want to be casting Jaws of Stone and Incendiary Command. Alternately, I want to be casting every burn spell I can to my opponent’s face.
But the sweet spot, for Red, appears to be in that land of Blitz. Red, right now anyway, wants to be putting down creatures to attack with and supplementing it with hard burn.
When you’re a Burn deck, proper, every time that you point a burn spell at a critter, it can be pretty rough. Your goal is to set your opponent’s life to zero. Point-and-clicking every single monster of your opponent usually leaves their life at a high near-20, and eventually something sneaks through and gets you. This strategy doesn’t usually work for a Burn deck, while it generally is very effective for a Ponza deck, because that deck can use the burn to mop up all of the monsters while a huge critter takes away the life total of an opponent in big chunks. Unfortunately, the requisite sauce for Ponza (decent land destruction) just isn’t around.
Kithkin wouldn’t be such a problem if it weren’t for Spectral Procession. Far too quickly, a Procession can make the world seem problematic. Sweep is the only real solution for Procession, but if you don’t happen to have the Fallout right then and there, its not just the threat of Windbrisk Heights which is so problematic, it is also the problem of three distinct bodies, particularly if they are helped out by Honor of the Pure.
So while Red has gained much in the way of Lightning, it is actually in a crisis because of the metagame. Red hasn’t lost much, really, from 10th Edition. There are some of my own personal pet cards (Beacon of Destruction and Furnace of Rath come to mind), and there is the Spark overload (Spark Elemental joining Hellspark Elemental), but primarily, the biggest loss for Red is probably Mogg Fanatic. As I see it, Red has the following possibilities, in the current meta:
Straight-Red: Decline the Black splash for consistency of mana (an overlooked thing, often, until you play Kithkin for a while…). Run tons of hasty threats and heavier burn.
Black-Red: Push into Black to gain access to metagame gems like Goblin Outlander. Terminate and Anathemancer are here for those who want them, but in a heavy-White world, seem less exciting.
Goblins: Goblin Chieftain seems good. I would absolutely prefer Goblin Warchief, but +1/+1 ain’t something to sneeze at. Certain variants might gain value from going into Black as well. Earwig Squad, Jund Hackblade, and Goblin Outlander could all make the cut, here. Heck, maybe even Wort…
Red with Green: Here, we’re getting to one of the archetypes that has been seeing the most buzz — “What if Bloodbraid Elf triggered a BALL LIGHTNING?! Adlfakjdf!”
Greedy Red: “Hey, what if we played Black in that Bloodbraid deck too!” (Not advised.)
Weird stuff: Elementals Red
Let’s look at the actual factual burn spells that are worth noting in Standard. Shockingly, there aren’t that many of them.
Banefire: Incredibly impressive once you get up to six mana. (“Cryptic who?” “Burrenton what?”) At that point, however, you’re really entering into a question: is six mana Banefire your plan? If it is, this is probably not the appropriate plan. Or are you planning on casting this spell at different points along the way. This is more reasonable, but brings up the note that “along the way,” Banefire is not that impressive or cost-effective.
Chandra Nalaar: A great card for dropping down onto a completely empty table, but not so exciting against Spectral Procession in general, or Faeries in particular.
Chaotic Backlash: Except for the combo-rific amongst us, Backlash is a perfect example of a powerful card as a means to fight WW of all stripe, but one that can easily be underwhelming. You don’t want White to have too much of a board presence, lest you risk dying, but you want them to have one so you can git ‘im. Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender is notoriously mean to this card…
Earthquake: Here we would normally be verging on “awesome” territory, but we have to remember how little this deck does to Bitterblossom, Spectral Procession, or our friend the Cloudgoat. Otherwise, a nice little number.
Flame Javelin: The first card to be mentioned that is actually, you know, definitely good. Unlike the other cards that are good in a vacuum, but seem weak in the context of M10 Standard, Flame Javelin is well-costed, good at being used aggressively or on the D. This card will likely be highly included in most builds.
Incendiary Command: So almost good enough. With Honor of the Pure running around, dealing 2 damage to everything seems like a risky thing to be counting on…
Lash Out: A commonly leaned-upon card by many a misled Red mage, Lash Out is most often used by people who think they are getting a good deal with it because they can potentially kill a creature and get in some damage. This is not a good deal for a Red deck because you often will find yourself needing to be able to do 3 to the dome to win but can’t get there. Compare this with the occasionally played role-players of Magma Spray and Terminate, which all do their particular job far better. Much more suited to a control deck than anything else.
Lightning Bolt: Simply incredible. Only the pointed critter-heavy decks should not be playing this one.
Puncture Blast: A potential role-player. Puncture Blast cripples a Chameleon Colossus or Putrid Leech, and takes out most creatures, besides. One slight problem, though, is that it sits on the three-drop position, fighting against infinite spells (Ball Lightning, Boggart Ram-Gang, Flame Javelin, Hell’s Thunder, and other’s to name a few).
Tarfire: Only really playable in a deck with Wort.
Titan’s Revenge: Potentially useful in a heavily controlling deck, but unlikely to be anywhere near good enough.
Volcanic Fallout: Good against both Faeries and Kithkin, as well as numerous other decks, but slow in a pure race. Also suffers the “two damage problem” when facing a pair of White pump, and often takes out your own creatures…
Ajani Vengeant: Hard to fit into a Red-based deck with any consistency these days, it suffers from a weakness to Faeries, but is otherwise surprisingly solid.
Anathemancer: It’s “to the dome” burn element is very potent against the right deck, but seems more relegated to the sideboard in the current probable-WW metagame.
Blightning: A card that doesn’t care about the board at all, but is quietly disruptive. This card might actually be worth noting, as it does a lot of work against many kinds of decks, though it is riskier the more that the board crumbles.
Lavalanche: This is not a burn spell for a Red deck, but it is a colossal burn spell for the decks that can pull it off. Only truly useful by ramp-like decks, it nonetheless is worth footnoting.
For most decks, what this means is a likely choice of Lightning Bolt and (probably) Flame Javelin, with the potential to dip into some small number of Banefire, Puncture Blast, Volcanic Fallout, Anathemancer, and Blightning, in some numbers. This isn’t actually that much burn.
As I see it, some of your best weapons against a White deck involve fewer cards like Volcanic Fallout, and more cards like Goblin Outlanders.
Let’s take the following deck:
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Goblin Outlander
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Jund Hackblade
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Ball Lightning
4 Blightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Flame Javelin
1 Banefire
11 Mountain
4 Graven Cairns
4 Auntie’s Hovel
4 Dragonskull Summit
Alternately, the Blightning could easily become Demigods.
That change makes it pretty similar to the following deck
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Ball Lightning
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Flame Javelin
14 Mountain
2 Vivid Crag
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Fire-lit Thicket
But, from a completely different front, you could also make a dedicate Goblin deck… and it looks, I have to say, like it could be saucy…
4 Knucklebone Witch
3 Facevaulter
4 Squeaking Pie-Sneak
4 Goblin Outlander
4 Frogtosser Banneret
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Mad Auntie
3 Wort, Boggart Auntie
2 Lightning Crafter
4 Tarfire
2 Fodder Launch
4 Auntie’s Hovel
4 Graven Cairn
4 Dragonskull Summit
2 Mountain
8 Swamp
In building this deck, it really ended up being more of a Black deck, but I’m largely okay with that. I like being able to play a card like Lightning Crafter, which can be wickedly good when supported by either Haste (Chieftain) or a cheaper cost (Banneret).
Then, of course, you can go towards something that is actually more truly weird. Consider this brainstormed deck.
4 Flamekin Bladewhirl
4 Flamekin Harbinger
4 Smokebraider
3 Sunflare Shaman
4 Incandescent Soulstoke
4 Rage Forger
4 Ball Lightning
3 Taurean Mauler
3 Reveillark
1 Seething Pathblazer
1 Spitebellows
1 Igneous Pouncer
1 Nova Chaser
1 Thunderblust
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Primal Beyond
4 Rugged Prairie
10 Mountain
This is a weird one, to be certain. Mixing things like an actual Jackal Pup (Flamekin Bladewhirl) with tons of strange synergies. Twenty-three creatures of this all-Elemental deck are also Shamans, pumping more damage out of Rage Forger. Ball Lightning, somewhat shockingly, is also an Elemental, giving you the possibility for 7/2 trampling fun or better, with Soulstokes. The Elemental package is leaning towards a more aggressive overall plan, and while it loses out on the powerhouse that is Horde of Notions and the card draw of multiple Mulldrifters, it does actually make for a deck that can push a good board presence and smash a lot of damage in.
Initial goldfishing indicates the possibility of some very potent aggressive starts, and a real potential for strong board control (Sunflare Shaman plus Rage Forger plus tutors makes for some impressive ability to actually create drawback free multi-damage pingers). Occasionally, the board can even have truly wacky game states, where several Sunflare Shamans are out on the table with a Seething Pathfinder, and a truly massive amount of damage comes out of nowhere.
Obviously, it is the first two decks, with their actual Lightning Bolts, that are going to be the way we should generally think about approaching the format with Red. It pays to remember, though, that there are a lot of cards out there to think about (around 300, just counting Red and Red-hybrid).
When you walk into considering your deck options, I think that your first thing has to be thinking about Kithkin or other White Weenie, followed shortly by remembering to not forget about Faeries. Respecting these decks is absolutely essential. Interestingly, by respecting these decks, you also manage to get some incidental hate against Five-Color Control and other random decks, like Combo-Elves, even if you aren’t actively trying to hate them out. Certainly, you could actively go after these decks as well, but it’s good to know that you go a fair amount of the way towards fighting them by focusing on the classic masters of the Lorwyn universe.
Until next week…