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How has Champions of Kamigawa enhanced the possibilities of Cowardice? In the opinions of most tournament players, the new block has not in the least changed the viability of Cowardice-based decks. To these unbelievers, to these ultra-orthodox I’d-rather-draft-Shatter-than-Lightning-Coils-types, Cowardice has always been and will always be a junk rare. This, despite my best efforts. Now, I’d be the first to admit that my previous best efforts just weren’t good enough, but unfortunately, an abundance of forum posters have beaten me to it, and all I can do now is concur: This time last year, Cowardice had no place in a non-Friday Night tournament. But today, the world is different.

Red week continues for our deck challenge, with renowned Red Deck master Dan Paskins (along with playtest partner John Ormerod) chiming in with his take on a viable Red monstrosity for States. In addition to championing a deck of his favorite color, Dan also takes a look at an unexpected deck that he says just might have some potential in future Standard environments. Curious as to what the mystery deck is? The answer is only a click away.

I thought it might be interesting to detail how I started from scratch to test a new format, and which decks I am currently testing. In the course of this article, I will present three different decks for your consideration. None of these decks are the finished article, they have all received some testing and seem to be based on sound principles, but you’ll need to test and adapt them further before they are tournament ready. Oh, and I’ll also explain the rules of the game “All Elves Must Die!” a classic tournament subgame that’s fun for Red Mages the world over.

Pale Mage returns from the land of zombies (you’ll just have to read it) to deliver his take on States, the Standard metagame, and the Magic world in general. If you’ve never read a Pale Mage article, he’s one of the more original writers in the game whose unique style is a welcome addition to the StarCityGames.com family.

Welcome to Red Week!
This week is going to be fantastic. As you can see from today’s star spangled front page, we picked up Dan Paskins (and yet another National Champion in playtesting partner John Ormerod) for this project. When I started work on the Championship Deck Challenge, I crossed my fingers and hoped that Dan would sign up for the inclusion of basic Mountain and here he is. Dan will be discussing his Red deck early next week, but today I’m here to give you the results of my testing – a fresh G/R deck that tried to bridge the gaps between beating Affinity and Tooth and Nail.

“I don’t like UW control, I had to build a UW control deck. If it were up to me, I would just play Affinity at States because it’s the best deck in the world. However, the powers that be realize that you people refuse to play the best deck, opting for some goofy creation that can’t beat it, so they left it up to us to give you some options.”
-Osyp Lebedowicz