Reviving Red In Kaladesh

Kaladesh has a bunch of sweet red cards, and I’d like to look at them all. We’ve got a ton of decks to explore today, so let’s just dive in.

The cheapest source of four Energy, Aethertorch Renegade at least has that going for it. Unfortunately, three is a lot to pay for a 1/2, and both of these abilities are quite modest. If it finds a home, it’s likely either as a major source of Energy or in combination with some repeatable deathtouch, such as Retreat to Hagra.

Bomat Courier is a very attractive Raging Goblin, but it is still a Raging Goblin. Ostensibly, the upside is the ability stockpiling extra cards to refill you, when you run low. While that can be completely awesome, the reality is that it is not always going to be able to attack so easily. Nevertheless, the card is lean, fast, and efficient. It also has the upside of being a cheap artifact, which works well with cards like Inventor’s Apprentice.

Inventor’s Apprentice is sort of a Kird Ape, and while red is obviously interested in two power for one mana, the third point of toughness is also very relevant against cards like Kozilek’s Return. Between Bomat Courier and Smuggler’s Copter (one of the best cards in the set), it’s actually possible to play Inventor’s Apprentice without even needing a second color (if we want). For instance:

This list is skimping on artifacts pretty hard, but at least it has Pia Nalaar to help out.

Three power across two bodies is already something, but it’s the Firebreathing ability that really makes the difference. Remember, Pia can give Smuggler’s Copter or Bomat Courier extra power, too. The sacrifice ability has tactical implications beyond just removing blockers, too. For instance, after sideboarding, you can get a little extra mileage out of a card like Hijack.

Hijack is the latest in a long line of Act of Treason variants, and it’s fine. While I’m not sure red wants that kind of thing right now, it is cool that we can sacrifice any artifacts we steal to Pia so that we don’t have to give them back.

This card is amazing, and we’ve talked about it a lot over the past few weeks. I just wanted to note that you can discard a Vampire to it and then cast the Vampire if you have Falkenrath Gorger. I’m not sure how much that moves the needle, but it does make stuff like Furyblade Vampire more appealing. Smuggler’s Copter (and Geier Reach Sanitarium, and Key to the City) also just generally make madness cards like Stromkirk Occultist more attractive.

Skyship Stalker has a tough job competing with Chandra, but it’s also a little bit of a five-drop, since it’s so great to drop it and give it haste. I don’t think it really needs to be built to, beyond only really belonging in decks with mostly red mana. You can just kind of stick some in any random red deck, assuming you’re land count isn’t super-low. It’s kind of nice that a turn 4 Chandra means you can play a Stalker on turn 5 and give it haste, even without a fifth land (and get an extra point of Firebreathing in).

Chandra is one of the best cards in the set. An extensive breakdown of the card can be found here. A few random notes:

● You can play any number of Chandras, zero to four, and have it be totally reasonable.

● She can’t play land with her first ability.

● Using her mana ability to cast a removal spell the turn you cast her is an excellent play.

● She discourages you from playing permission, but that doesn’t mean you can’t.

● There are a lot of cards that line up right to give her a hard time.

The above Mono-Red Aggro list is a little low on artifacts. Perhaps we should consider another artifact creature like Scrapheap Scrounger. The Scrounger makes an interesting splash, since it totally functions fine as a 3/2 for two that powers up your synergies, but it can also give you some extra value later when you eventually draw a two-color land. For instance:

Maybe we can get away with even more nonbasics to fuel the Scrounger; I just wanted to try to keep the manabase very stable. If the game drags out, Scrapheap Scrounger actually go a long way towards making sure we don’t run out of gas.

Of course, once we start adding black mana, we could also go deep enough to actually play black spells. For instance:

The most appealing black splash in a red aggro deck is definitely Unlicensed Disintegration.

Murder is playable card and not normally available to a red deck. Unlicensed Disintegration is a Blightning to Murder’s Mind Rot.

There are lots of times in Magic’s history where a 3/3 haste creature for 1RR would be playable. It’s kind of a tough time right now, though. Pia Nalaar and Lathnu Hellion, on top of Collective Defiance and Fiery Temper, mean it’s going to be hard to find room. Additionally, the format is going to be set up to fight Smuggler’s Copter, so a 3/3 with haste isn’t actually the most optimal set of stats to pay for right now.

Built to Smash is a surprisingly reasonable pump spell for red. I expect we’ll see it some places, even when it is usually not targeting an artifact creature. Not everyone is in the market for Giant Growth, but anything that multiplies the output makes it more interesting. Double strike, lifelink, and so on are examples of the kinds of multipliers I’m talking about.

Cathartic Reunion is going to have serious implications in older formats (discarding Golgari Grave-Troll is pretty filthy), but it’s also going to be a real Standard player. It’s riskier than Tormenting Voice in that you’re down an extra card if it’s countered. That said, this can be upside if you are discarding cards that are better in the graveyard than your hand.

In general, it’s a stronger card than Tormenting Voice, giving you a free loot, if only you plan for it. It might surprise some people how often they discard the only two cards in their hand, only to draw land, but the card definitely can be swingy.

Here’s a possible use of the card as an enabler for Drownyard Temple, Fiery Temper, and Refurbish:

This is kind of a weird hybrid, but there’s a part of me that wonders if Toolcraft Exemplar and Inventor’s Apprentice are so much better than reactive spells that they might be the best way to buy yourself some time.

Combustible Gearhulk is kind of nice as a proactive threat, since even against an empty battlefield we’re either up three extra cards or a pretty healthy chunk of damage against a removal spell. I generally think we can do better if our only plan is to cast it as a six-drop; however, if we have synergies with it, it doesn’t take much to make the card playable. An extensive breakdown of the card can be found here.

Harnessed Lightning may seem unassuming, but Smuggler’s Copter makes three damage at instant speed a lot more appealing than it would normally be. It’s also kind of nice that you can Harnessed Lightning a 2/2 and save the extra Energy so that a future Harnessed Lightning could deal an extra point, if needed.

While Harnessed Lightning will surely see some play without any other Energy Cards, it can also give us slight bonuses for playing even just a few. For instance:

This list is mostly just interested in an instant two-drop removal spell, but Live Fast means we can sometimes use our Harnessed Lightnings for four or five damage.

Another cool interaction to remember is that you can actually Harnessed Lightning something and choose to deal zero if you just want to stockpile some Energy. This includes potentially targeting your own creatures. If you do this on your opponent’s end step, you might just untap, drop Demon of Dark Schemes, and then steal the Emrakul, the Promised End out of their graveyard!

You can also get extra mileage out of Harnessed Lightning with stuff like Aether Hub.

Aether Hub is a great fixer in its own right, and if it works with your manabase, it can be nice to power your Harnessed Lightning up enough to kill Archangel Avacyn and the like. For instance:

I’m not sure what all kinds of midrange decks will be possible with Chandra, Torch of Defiance helping give us extra cards in color combinations that don’t normally have access to them. Normally, a R/W Midrange deck is not where we’d want to be, but this one is actually a little bit like the W/B decks from the last format. We don’t have any discard, sure, but we do have a lot of excellent removal and planeswalkers.

Even though her draw ability doesn’t exactly work with permission, it’s not actually any worse than drawing a land with her. What if she’s the best card draw engine for a control deck? For example:

Torrential Gearhulk is super-awesome, and Skywhaler’s Shot and Fumigate are pretty respectable removal spells. Glimmer of Genius is generally a little better than Fortune’s Favor and gives us something great to Flashback with the Gearhulk. The Summary Dismissals might just be too slow for the maindeck, but I think Emrakul, the Promised End is still going to help shape the format. Besides, a little permission can go a long way when you’ve got Gearhulks to run the rebuys.

This Planeswalker Deck card is just way, way worse than Chandra, Flamecaller. The one thing it has going for it is that even a single copy makes Liberating Combustion a lot more appealing.

Nevertheless, a five-mana kill spell that draws a card isn’t that exciting, and in this case, the card we draw is much worse than other cards we could be playing. It’s not impossible that we’d want to do this, but it would be very surprising.

Sure. Twin Bolts rotated out, but now we’ve got Chandra’s Pyrohelix. Fine.

Nothing new, still not good.

Probably.

Dude, I don’t know. Maybe Aetherworks Marvel ends up busted and we end up valuing artifact kill higher across the board.

Fine. Still not good.

Fateful Showdown is at a tough spot on the curve but is kind of cool as both a Hero’s Downfall and a potential finisher that can be flashed back with Torrential Gearhulk.

Dynavolt Tower is both a source of a lot of Energy and a fine way to spend lots of Energy. As such, it doesn’t really need Energy support if you just want to play it in a deck full of sorceries and instants.

Flame Lash is probably not good enough, but it wouldn’t be unheard-of. Realistically, though, there are just too many better options at four.

While this isn’t the worst amount of damage for four mana, and splitting it up is moderately useful, this is just too specific of an output for this cost.

Not the most efficient way to buy stats, nor a size we particularly want. Menace isn’t the best Constructed ability, either.

Lathnu Hellion is great! You want to generally try not to run into a Grasp of Darkness or whatever, but usually it’s hard for people to beat it without losing value. In particular, you can just connect one time, already have your money’s worth, and be threatening to hit again next turn. Plus, if you have some way to gain Energy, you can potentially even keep it around longer than people expect. For example:

Maybe we Harnessed Lightning our own Lathnu Hellion just to keep it around longer, or maybe we net an Energy after killing a Duskwatch Recruiter that can be added to the energy from Aether Hub. Honestly, though, Lathnu Hellion is fine to play even without a single other way to get Energy. Remember, if they kill it when you first cast it, you’re still up two Energy. This means the next Lathnu Hellion you play can live for three attacks!

That said, Lathnu Hellion is also a perfect fit for any Energy-based aggro deck. For instance:

Green has a lot of nice tools for gaining Energy here and there, as well as putting any extra Energy we acquire to good use. One of the best ways to get a little extra Energy is Voltaic Brawler:

On its own, Voltaic Brawler is functionally a 4/3 trampler (when attacking). It only gets two attacks this way, but at that point, you’ve already done eight damage. It also does lots of the same stuff Lathnu Hellion does, both in netting Energy against removal and giving you extra mileage out of other cards that produce energy.

Once we’re playing green, we’re unlikely to need to stoop this low. However, if there ends up being another Energy aggro strategy, this is theoretically an option. In reality, even after blowing the Energy it produces, it’s worse than we’d want to play, anyway. Maybe there are some +1/+1 counter synergies or something, but I’d be cautious.

Better than a 3/3 haste for four, but Brazen Scourge is already not particularly exciting. If Spontaneous Artist finds a home, it’s probably because of its ability to play Fires of Yavimaya. It can make stuff like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger attack immediately in some kind of Aetherworks Marvel deck, for instance.

Incendiary Sabotage is a little unwieldy, but the format is so warped around Kozilek’s Return, the extra damage is disproportionately valuable. Any red deck with fourteen artifacts may at least want to consider it for their sideboard, but it can also be a maindeck card. For instance:

Sacrificing Pilgrim’s Eye or Filigree Familiar is sweet, since they were going to die anyway and they replace themselves.

Combustible Gearhulk is particularly sweet with cards like Wretched Gryff and Elder Deep-Fiend. If your opponent takes the damage, you might just one-shot them completely!

This list doesn’t have enough instants, but it’s worth noting that Torrential Gearhulk can Flashback Incendiary Sabotage. You still have to sacrifice an artifact, but if you’re desperate, the Gearhulk is always an option.

Madcap Experiment is probably busted in half in Modern, letting you find Platinum Emperion without taking any damage. I wonder if we might be able to play it in Standard, though. Yeah, maybe we can set up something with scry, but what if we just play it without any combos? Just casting a Madcap Experiment with eleven artifacts in your deck is only 5.5 damage on the average. Yeah, sometimes it will just kill you, but I could imagine a deck that’s willing to pay some life to play a Gearhulk on turn 4. For instance:

Maybe it’s just bad, but I’m not sure there isn’t some potential here.

What if we aren’t just playing expensive artifacts? What if we just run it, and sometimes it hits something lame, and sometimes it hits a bomb, but either way, we don’t take that much damage?

No gamble, no future!

Another sweet one for Modern (with stuff like Liquimetal Coating), Saheeli Rai does lots of cool things in here.

● Scry helps set up a great Madcap Experiment.

● Copying an enters the battlefield trigger can generate more than three mana worth on its own.

● You can copy stuff like Hedron Archive for extra card advantage.

● If you copy a Metalwork Colossus or Combustible Gearhulk, the copy has haste, which is a lot of damage.

There are far better options for an aggressive four-drop, and far more efficient sources and uses of Energy.

This is a fine ability, but a 3/2 for three is an awkward set of stats. We have to use the ability at least twice just to catch up, compared to the power of other cards we could be playing. It’s already asking a lot to play that many artifacts and have that many cards we want to discard, but to then also value a 3/2 body is hard to imagine. It’s possible, but unlikely. If there does end up being a home, it’s probably some sort of semi-combo deck that happens to have some clunky infinite loop, using it to mill all the way through their deck to find some kill condition, such as Reckless Fireweaver.

Costs no mana, so it could be a potential kill card for a combo deck that loops triggers. Whirler Virtuoso with Decoction Module and Panharmonicon, or Saheeli Rai with Liquimetal Coating in Modern, for instance.

While a 4/2 first strike for three might actually be playable, Renegade Firebrand needs a Chandra planeswalker on the battlefield to even get up to that.

Renegade Tactics is a slightly surprising card to see at one, as this type of effect is more commonly two mana. While two-mana versions never see play, cutting the cost in half can make all the difference in the world. While it’s possible we’ll see Renegade Tactics played “fair,” to help a straightforward red aggro deck punch through damage, I’m not actually sure how much people are counting on blocking.

Another way to look at Renegade Tactics is as a one-mana red cantrip that targets a creature for the purposes of triggering Zada, Hedron Grinder. We already had Slip Through Space to go alongside Expedite, but now we can play eight without needing a second color. This frees us up to add a second color that brings a little more to the table. For instance:

Targeting Zada even once is ton of extra cards, and if you untap with Zada, you might just draw twenty cards in one turn, chaining them together. Drop a Reckless Bushwacker and Built to Smash your team (by targeting Zada), and closing things out shouldn’t be too hard.

If wanted to lean into the combo even more, we could use Mirrorwing Dragon, which also functions like Zada for our purposes. We could also consider playing green for something like Traverse the Ulvenwald. Once we’re green, we may consider Blossoming Defense an upgrade for Built to Smash (helping protect our Zada). We can also use cards like Nissa, Voice of Zendikar which are generally just awesome but also play into our sort of token theme.

This would be a nice ability to be able to pick up incidentally. Unfortunately, three mana, on top of the one you paid upfront, is pretty expensive. There aren’t a massive number of good one-drops or anything, but it would be a little surprising, if we couldn’t do better than this.

While not an attractive card straight up (hard to trigger even every turn, but needs to be triggered twice to get ahead on rate), Salivating Gremlins does ask you to go on the same sort of quest as some other cards. Maybe there’s a way to get enough bang for your buck to be worth it.

I’m not sure how to feel about Spark of Creativity. It looks okay, though I wonder if the unreliability proves too much. I am kind of just interested in one-mana removal spells, though, and this one usually cycles against people with no good targets.

A 2/1 haste for two is not embarrassing, but if we wanted to, we could combine it with Skysovereign, Consul Flagship and Renegade Freighter for extra value.

This is almost assuredly trying too hard, but sometimes it’s valuable to go to the extreme with a theme to understand what might be possible.

Start Your Engines is mostly a token pump spell but weirdly wakes up Vehicles in a way that doesn’t actually help as much as you might think. After all, you usually only want to Start Your Engines when you’ve got a few creatures, and in that case, Crewing the Vehicles isn’t the hardest. Yeah, you can Start with multiple Vehicles and no Crew; but do you really want to build your deck in a way that this is common?

It’s cute that it gives you value while Crewing a ride. Unfortunately, it’s just too inefficient to play unless we find some combo that lets us untap it over and over.

I don’t have high hopes for Territorial Gorger. It costs as much as Chandra, Torch of Defiance and is extremely fragile. As if that wasn’t enough of a deterrent already, the dream with it is capped kind of tightly. No matter how much energy you gain at once, you only get one pump. This means, to use it, we need to look for ways to get lots of triggers rather than big triggers. Maybe stuff like Aetherworks Marvel, Dynavolt Tower, Decoction Module, and Architect of the Untamed could be worth considering. Fabrication Module might also work with your strategy, paying you for the same thing you were already doing.

The lack of the Gremlin creature type wasn’t the only thing standing in the way of Cobblebrute being Constructed-playable.

Better than Earth Elemental? Sure. Not enough better, however.

It’s possible that there’s some mono-red (or perhaps U/R with Torrential Gearhulk) deck that is willing to play with a red Murder with a drawback. It’s not a great card or anything, but it’s not that bad. It’s even an instant and only needs a single red mana. You could even get it back with Goblin Dark-Dwellers if you wanted to. You just need to play a lot of artifacts to make it good. Glint-Nest Crane and Inventor’s Apprentice already want you to do that anyway.

Monday, we talked a little about using Whirler Virtuoso as a part of an infinite loop with cards like Decoction Module and Panharmonicon. Today, I’d like to touch on just using it straight-up, “fair,” if you will.

This one is a little sketchy, but the point is that Whirler Virtuoso is actually an awful lot like Pia Nalaar and Eldrazi Skyspawner. You can just put it places.

This is a very expensive way to Chandra’s Pyrohelix, but if you just have that many artifact incentives, it’s not completely out of the question. It is a desirable output; it’s just very inefficient.

Would be fringe at best if it cost two. Three is a non-starter.

Okay, that’s it for today, but I’ll be back Friday as we ramp up towards #SCGINDY to start the season!