Mono Red Decks in Standard, But Fun and Cool
The undying mono-red. Along with Selesnya Enchantments, the deck has been a permanent resident of the top BO1 standard meta in any rotation just because of how the format is inherently built. But when it comes to living your daily mythic rank life, can you really blame its users?
Then again, I suppose the more important question would be: does it always have to be this way? Do you always need to juggle the consideration for optimization and value to talk you out of brewing a mon red deck?
Well, I think you already know the answer from this article post. Yes, we can indeed spice up mono-red builds with other strategic choices (as it had always been), and here’s a selection of the trickiest builds that popped off over the last few months.
Koth and the Burning Devils
Well, this definitely not as relentless as your typical mono red wins. But the slew of wide-scale burn spells, three copies of Burn Down the House
, along with the bonus Mirran planeswalker creates more flavorful plays focused on control. Though, a good portion of your wins will also be due to the simple element of surprise, just because this deck plays very differently.
Koth, Fire of Resistance
wasn’t exactly low rated for Limited during its first reveal. But many people realized just how “not bad” the card really was. And for this deck, three copies are actually a blessing since his ultimate becomes relatively easy to use around a control setting.
If he is not enough, a better option might be Chandra, Hope's Beacon
, which will be a mainstay for technically all of the decks in this list. Because things still do get kind of crazy really quickly if you can cast a double Burn Down the House, or a “secret” Invoke Calamity
with her.
Gameplay Video
Featured Cards:
Planeswalker & Phoenix Control
Main 60 cards (18 distinct)
Lands - 26
Main 60 cards (18 distinct)
Lands - 26
Main 60 cards (18 distinct)
| Planeswalker (7) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.54€0.350.02 | |||
| $2.970.17 | |||
| $5.79 | |||
| Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (25) | |||
| $0.99 | |||
| $0.18€0.070.03 | |||
| $0.25€0.200.02 | |||
| $4.34 | |||
| $0.350.02 | |||
| $0.20€0.140.03 | |||
| $0.15€0.050.03 | |||
| $1.25 | |||
| $0.44 | |||
| $0.28€0.230.01 | |||
| $0.99€0.850.01 | |||
| $0.20€0.100.03 | |||
| Creature (2) | |||
| $0.50 | |||
| Land (26) | |||
|
24
Mountain
|
$0.35€0.180.03 | ||
| $0.26€0.180.03 | |||
Permanent Counters, Featuring Burn
All Will Be One
combined with battle cards has already been explored in very early March of the Machine decks. But after the usual stabilizing of the meta down, it was never truly refined, since it always involved that one single awkward turn of nothingness that no mono red deck is usually sane enough to try.
This deck explores the same idea. But this time, the less-older idea of universal counters is used. This results in a slightly more well-rounded build, leaving the flashier plays (with All Will Be One) as a sort of “ambush” strategy. Nahiri's Warcrafting
, in particular, is recommended to be used with at least three or more excess damage (without playing a land first), to stabilize further stabilize your land drops.
Once an acceptable board state is set, you can then simply drop the counter permanents for instant massive damage, or free damage over time. Invasion of Regatha // Disciples of the Inferno
, for instance, can shoot 9 damage to the face, while Koth, Fire of Resistance (preferably already on the field as All Will Be One drops) can freely ping for 2 whenever he searches for mountains.
Gameplay Video
Featured Cards:
ALL WILL BE BATTLES! 🔴🔴🔴
Main 60 cards (11 distinct)
Lands - 24
Main 60 cards (11 distinct)
Lands - 24
Main 60 cards (11 distinct)
| Other (12) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.30€0.220.02 | |||
| $3.40€3.690.26 | |||
| $0.19€0.090.03 | |||
| Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (16) | |||
| $1.51 | |||
| $0.350.02 | |||
| $12.56€9.760.41 | |||
| Planeswalker (4) | |||
| $0.54€0.350.02 | |||
| Creature (4) | |||
| $4.79 | |||
| Land (24) | |||
| $2.17€3.941.58 | |||
|
22
Mountain
|
$0.35€0.180.03 | ||
Escalating Bombardment and Destruction
Of course, no fancy mono red decklist will be complete in our current Standard without the use of the obligatory-but-chaotic Arcane Bombardment
. To be fair, this card had better use in more multi-color builds over the last year. But it is still, in essence, a true big red blasting spell, with all of its chaotic elements intact.
The play formula is mostly the same, only with more recent cards. Maintain a neutral board state with the low cost spells, then drop the heavy hitters as soon as you get an opening. Keep the tap-out game when you encounter another fellow control deck. Oh, and remember to reserve some of your cheap spells for when Arcane Bombardment is finally active. This is both to remove those cheap spells from the selection pool, and to improve the chances of always hitting a Big Score
with its effect.
Of course, even with an Arcane Bombardment in play, the random nature of the card can still leave you with less optimal results per game. But the starting draws should be stable enough that you can still go with a reserved play at the start, followed up with a huge turnaround at the end… even against more meta mono red builds!
Gameplay Video
Featured Cards:
UNDEFEATED with BOMBARDMENT | Big Red 🔥
Main 60 cards (12 distinct)
Lands - 24
Main 60 cards (12 distinct)
Lands - 24
Main 60 cards (12 distinct)
| Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (31) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $1.51 | |||
| $4.34 | |||
| $0.99 | |||
| $0.19€0.120.03 | |||
| $0.25 | |||
| $0.99€0.850.01 | |||
| $2.87 | |||
| $0.350.02 | |||
| Creature (3) | |||
| $20.490.06 | |||
| Planeswalker (2) | |||
| $2.970.17 | |||
| Land (24) | |||
|
24
Mountain
|
$0.35€0.180.03 | ||
Just Shoot Anything that Moves
And lastly, if you want the most classic mono red deck to stay true to its intended design while still being fun, you go for good ol’ dumb burn! Yep, it’s Chandra, Hope's Beacon once more. This time though, she will be the deck’s primary win condition and a value engine for all of the other non-linear red spells.
Unlike the more “conservative” builds here, we have four full copies Burn Down the House. Again, its combo with Chandra can be absolutely bonkers in certain situations. But the modal capability to also stifle your opponent’s momentum while punishing them for dealing with your creatures becomes an absolute boon for this type of deck.
Then there’s the humble Ral's Reinforcements
. It contributes more to protecting the two Chandras quite a bit than Burn Down the House, helping this deck to stabilize in other matchups where the opponent set ups a bit faster. One copy of Mirrex
is “hidden” in the build as well, if there are no other win conditions to use and you have a lot of mana in a late grindy game.
Gameplay Video
Featured Cards:
Big Red Burn!
Main 60 cards (18 distinct)
Lands - 25
Main 60 cards (18 distinct)
Lands - 25
Main 60 cards (18 distinct)
| Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (28) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.20€0.140.03 | |||
| $0.99€0.850.01 | |||
| $0.19€0.120.03 | |||
| $0.28€0.230.01 | |||
| $0.19€0.100.03 | |||
| $0.99 | |||
| $1.25 | |||
| $1.51 | |||
|
1
Abrade
|
$0.25€0.120.03 | ||
| $0.15€0.050.03 | |||
| $4.34 | |||
| Planeswalker (7) | |||
| $2.970.17 | |||
| $0.94 | |||
| $5.79 | |||
| Land (25) | |||
|
22
Mountain
|
$0.35€0.180.03 | ||
| $2.17€3.941.58 | |||
|
1
Mirrex
|
$3.470.53 | ||
About ChrisCee:
A witness since the time the benevolent silver planeswalker first left Dominaria, ChrisCee has since went back and forth on a number of plane-shattering incidents to oversee the current state of the Multiverse.
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