Deep Analysis – Power Red, Speed Red, and The Siege, by Richa... http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/print.php?

Article=15840

Deep Analysis – Power Red, Speed Red, and The Siege

by Richard Feldman

I. Power Red

Red Aggro needs to be regarded as real. Why are people trying to make it
Red Deck Wins? Why not use cards like Bitterblossom, Tarmogoyf, and
Fulminator Mage?
Patrick Chapin

Why not indeed? Pat’s question, coincidentally enough, happened to be

right along the lines of what I was working on last week. Have a look.

Power Red
Suggested by Richard Feldman on 2008-05-11 as a
potential deck for Standard
As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/15840.html
Print this deck!

Maindeck:
Stats:
Sorceries Average mana: 1.47
Creatures 4 Rift Bolt Average creature mana
4 Fulminator Mage cost: 1.80
Tribal Enchantments Average creature power:
4 Keldon 4 Bitterblossom 1.60
Marauders Average creature
Tribal Instants toughness: 1.40
4 Mogg Fanatic 4 Tarfire
4 Tarmogoyf Deck Composition:
4 Tattermunge Lands Creatures: 33.33%
4 Auntie's Hovel Instants: 10.00%
Maniac 3 Fire-lit Thicket Lands: 36.67%
1 Graven Cairns Sorceries: 6.67%
Instants 4 Karplusan Forest Tribal Enchantments: 6.67%
2 Llanowar Wastes Tribal Instants: 6.67%
4 Flame Javelin 4 Sulfurous Springs
2 Incinerate 4 Treetop Village

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There’s a lot of beef here. Bitterblossom, check. Tarmogoyf, check.

Fulminator Mage, check.

Bitterblossom fills a quirky Cursed Scroll imitation role in this deck; it is not
at all fast to get its damage in, but in the late game, its grinding inevitability
puts the opponent in a tough spot to try and stabilize. Even if you drop it
turn 2, it won’t hit for more than a point of damage until turn 4, and even if
its tokens go unblocked for the entire game, it takes until turn 6 before it’s
attacked for six points. Tattermunge Maniac can do that much by turn 3, but
we both know which one we’d rather have on the table when the opponent
drops a Tarmogoyf.

Speaking of Goyf, he’s in here as well. Tarfire not only pumps up

everyone’s favorite five million dollar 0/1, he helps me cheat in the Black
and Green splashes simultaneously by representing four of the twelve cards
that make Auntie’s Hovel playable in this deck. Fulminator Mage is a
combination manland killer (and sometimes-two-for-oner) and combo
disruptor, in a deck that has no real other ways to interact with something
like Swans, and that’s the deck.

How’d the testing go?

Not well. I pretty much abandoned the deck after testing it against Faeries.
The trouble was - believe it or not - the deck was practically too slow to beat
Faeries. I had it batting just above 50-50 maindeck with them, and
post-board when they have Dragon’s Claw and all I have is the hope that I
drew my answer to Dragon’s Claw, I don’t see myself improving the
matchup.

See, Faeries can actually race this deck. I may start off trading profitably,
but pretty soon they Mistbind Clique me, hit me with it, Pestermite my
biggest dude (Tarmogoyf or Treetop Village) so I can only attack back for
one or two, smack me again with the 4/4 and the 2/1, and suddenly I’m a

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Red deck who is behind in the damage race. Then it’s Scion of Oona and
lights out.

Sure, I also win plenty of games when their racing elements don’t come
together, but unless I can Flame Javelin the Clique right away, it does an
obnoxiously good job of turning around the damage race. Cryptic Command
is another problem, as it taps down my entire team for a turn and bounces
my most important threat at the same time. I’m always the fastest off the
blocks, but I really have a tough time competing in the midgame with Clique
and Command; if my early game doesn’t do enough damage to put them in
burn range, I have to try hard to squeeze out a win if they stuck either
Clique or Command on me.

Am I giving up too early? Am I selling the deck short? Maybe. But to me, the
main reason to play a Red deck right now is to mash on Faeries, the
format’s top deck. You’re certainly not choosing Red because you’re excited
about that delightful Kitchen Finks matchup or because you think you can
outrace combo. (I mean, barring the “Fulminator Mage randomly
manascrewed you!” draw, what hope do you have?) Really, if you’re not
decisively beating Faeries with your Red beatdown deck, is there any
money in playing it?

Unless I’m missing something, it really seems this is not the way to go with
Red right now. The mana is fine (though painful, which is admittedly part of
why Faeries is able to race - but without three colors you certainly cannot
play both Goyf and Bitterblossom), it just seems the fundamental choices of
slowing down for Bitterblossom and Fulminator Mage make the deck too
slow to be worthwhile against Faeries.

II. Fulminator Mage

Having played a few dozen games with it, I have to say Fulminator Mage
feels very out of place in Red aggro. The two scenarios where he is best
are clear: first, you can use him to get a two-for-one by trading with a dork
and then killing a manland or something with damage on the stack; second,
you can use him as a one-for-one Stone Rain when a Stone Rain would be
a damaging blow to the opponent, though if a Stone Rain would not be
helpful, you are free to leave him as a beater.

The problem is - at least against Faeries, and I imagine this would be the
case in several other matchups - Stone Rain is often bad (if it weren’t,
wouldn’t Red Decks just maindeck Stone Rain every season?), and when
it’s bad, your alternative of a Grey Ogre sucks. The worst feeling in the
world is when you’ve put the opponent on his heels with Tattermunge
Maniac, Tarmogoyf, Mogg Fanatic, Tarfire that blocker, and then, to seal
the deal, to put your aggression over the top and make sure he can’t climb
back from your blistering offense… mopey 2/2 Fulminator Mage. Lose a
land, boss. Go.

So often I wished he was a big, dumb animal like Countryside Crusher so I

could keep the pressure on. The times when I used him as a Stone Rain
because the opponent was behind on mana, a big animal would have been

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plenty to keep him from recovering. I understand the guy’s appeal; I

remember back in the day when you’d open with Jackal Pup and then
devastate the opponent with Wasteland and Rishadan Port while chucking
Seal of Fire and whatnot at whatever he tried to put in front of the Jackal
Pup, but Fulminator Mage starts attacking the opponent’s manabase on
turn 3 at the earliest, and often closer to turn 5. Molten Rain can get away
with that because it goes to the dome as well, but Fulminator Mage doesn’t
offer that bonus damage. By that time he’s already got resources to work
with; I might cut him off from Mistbind Clique for a turn, but he gets that turn
back with Pestermite on my Goyf followed by a block to my Tattermunge
Maniac. Yeah, the Fulminator does more heavy lifting against a combo deck
that doesn’t throw cheap blockers at you left and right, but how reliable is
Stone Rain Guy as your only form of disruption against the Lotus Bloom
Deck?

Of course, the problem is, if you don’t play Fulminator Mage, how do you
even interact with a combo deck? I’ll save you the suspense and let you
know that this deck doesn’t goldfish as fast as the combo decks do, and
considering one of them maindecks Kitchen Finks, I’m pretty much out of
reasons to think this list is a contender.

III. Speed Red

Let’s try this again, without the Mages, and with a focus on at least beating
stupid Faeries.

Speed Red
Suggested by Richard Feldman on 2008-05-11 as a
potential deck for Standard
As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/15840.html
Print this deck!

Maindeck:
Stats:
Tribal Instants Average mana: 1.47
Creatures 4 Tarfire Average creature mana
4 Boggart cost: 1.71
Basic Lands Average creature power:
Ram-gang 10 Mountain 1.57
4 Keldon Average creature
Lands toughness: 1.42
Marauders 4 Fire-lit Thicket
4 Mogg Fanatic 4 Karplusan Forest Deck Composition:
4 Mudbrawler Basic Lands: 16.67%
Legendary Lands Creatures: 46.67%
Cohort 2 Pendelhaven Instants: 6.67%
4 Mudbutton Lands: 13.33%
Clanger Legendary Lands: 3.33%
Sorceries: 6.67%
4 Tarmogoyf Tribal Instants: 6.67%
4 Tattermunge
Maniac

Instants
4 Flame Javelin

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Sorceries
4 Rift Bolt

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As the name implies, this list is set to max out on speed. No

comes-in-tapped lands, no Fulminator Mage, just twenty lands and a curve
that starts with “Jackal Pup” and Mogg Fanatic and ends with Boggart
Ram-Gang and Flame Javelin. Tarmogoyf and Keldon Marauders in the
middle, and both Mudbutton Clanger and Mudbrawler Cohort rounding out
the bottom of the barrel.

Truth be told, both Clanger and Cohort are actually fine in this deck.
Granted, Cohort is only any good because there are twelve Red one-drops -
rarely is he anything but a 2/2 Haste for two - and Clanger only works
because there are 28 cards in this deck that are either a Goblin or a
Warrior. Goyf has all the tricks necessary to power him up to 5/6, and if an
opponent cracks a Terramorphic Expanse or loses a manland, Goyf can get
all the way up to 6/7.

However, this deck is entirely a one-trick pony. There is no disruption, no

countermeasures for… well, anything, no shame whatsoever. It just attacks
and goes for the dome, and hopes that’s enough. Kitchen Finks? Primal
Command? Bummer. Let’s hope I can get there anyway.

I was partway through confirming that this deck can actually beat Faeries (it
was doing well), when I had an idea.

What about Ronom Unicorn? That guy kills Bitterblossom and Seismic
Assault. Interesting…

IV. The Siege

After several failed attempts to cram Neal of Cleansing into a Red deck, I

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revisited an old favorite.

The Siege
Suggested by Richard Feldman on 2008-05-11 as a
potential deck for Standard
As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/15840.html
Print this deck!

Maindeck: Sideboard:
Sorceries
4 Burrenton Forge-tender
Creatures 2 Thoughtseize
1 Shriekmaw
4 Kitchen Finks Tribal Enchantments
4 Extirpate
4 Llanowar Elves 4 Firespout
4 Bitterblossom 2 Thoughtseize
4 Ronom Unicorn
Basic Lands
3 Shriekmaw 3 Plains
Stats:
4 Tarmogoyf Average mana: 1.42
3 Swamp
Average creature mana
cost: 2.56
Lands
Enchantments 4 Caves Of Koilos
Average creature power:
4 Oblivion Ring 1.43
4 Horizon Canopy
Average creature
4 Llanowar Wastes
toughness: 2.00
4 Treetop Village
Instants
4 Mana Tithe Deck Composition:
Legendary Lands
Basic Lands: 10.00%
1 Pendelhaven
Creatures: 31.67%
Legendary Enchantments: 6.67%
Instants: 6.67%
Creatures Lands: 26.67%
4 Doran, The Legendary Creatures:
Siege Tower 6.67%
Legendary Lands: 1.67%
Sorceries: 3.33%
Tribal Enchantments: 6.67%

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I smashed a few different variations of this deck into Faeries before arriving
at the above build. The two big breakthroughs were noticing how poorly

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Garruk fit in the deck and realizing how strong Mana Tithe is right now. Both
Faeries and the Red decks run very tight curves, and Faeries in particular
tends to lean on a timely Cryptic Command or Mistbind Clique to turn races
around in their favor. Besides negating a critical spell at the right moment,
the tempo swing of paying one mana to trade for a three- or four-mana spell
can be absolutely backbreaking - and even the fact that they might need to
hold off on playing that spell out of respect for your untapped Plains can be
all the breathing room you need.

To me, the obvious includes are Doran and Kitchen Finks at the three-spot.
Like Tarmogoyf, Doran is massive and undercosted, and Kitchen Finks has
my vote for best card in Shadowmoor - you heard it here first. In my
experience, Finks is easily on par with Loxodon Hierarch on average, and
significantly better in certain situations.

Suffice to say, Ronom Unicorn is strong right now. It blows up two of the
format’s most critical cards - Bitterblossom and Seismic Assault - as well as
Everlasting Torment (post-board) and Enchanted Evening, assuming the
latter is relevant. (It can also abort your own Bitterblossoms if you are
running low on life or would like to give your Tarmogoyf +2/+2, but the real
value is against those first two cards.)

Note that Unicorn versus Seismic Assault can end in Assault’s favor if the
Swans player has seven mana and is holding an extra land; in that case,
they’ll play Swan, then Assault, then pitch a land to shoot the Swan. I’ll
respond by activating Unicorn, and they’ll respond by discarding the
Salvage to shoot the Swan again, going off before my Unicorn activation
ever resolves. However, the Unicorn’s presence on the board makes their
combo much more difficult to execute; it demands that they have seven
mana available (highly unreasonable unless they have drawn Lotus Bloom
and I didn’t Oblivion Ring it) and an extra land in their hand - easier said
than done when they already need to have seven mana on the table.

Garruk is enticing, particularly in conjunction with Bitterblossom, but he’s a

big, slow finisher in a deck that really wants to lean heavily towards the
“aggro” side of midrange aggro. I’ll keep him in mind for the sideboard, but
I’m almost positive I don’t want him in my deck against Faeries, combo, and
red decks, which are just about all anyone’s talking about right now. Yeah,
the Mana Ramp and Elves decks are still around, but I’m not so sure I’m
going to have bad matchups against those decks that I want to actually play
maindeck Garruks as de facto hate cards against them.

I did a ten-game set against Faeries and scored 7-3; definitely better than I
started out with Power Red. Emboldened, I decided to take the deck for a
spin against Patrick’s Swans list from Monday. Here’s how the games went.

I start game 1 off with Llanowar Elves into Doran, then a Treetop Village
with Mana Tithe mana up in case he has the exact combo on turn 4. He
doesn’t, though he Beseeches for what I presume to be the last piece.
However, it is too slow; next turn I Oblivion Ring his Lotus Bloom and play
Ronom Unicorn, meaning he is too short on mana to play both Assault and
Swans next turn. Instead, he plays just the Swans as a last-ditch blocker,

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but Treetop Village and the team swarm around it for the kill.

Game 2, I start with a Thoughtseize on a Swans, then a pair of

Bitterblossoms. While those crank out tokens, I add a Ronom Unicorn. He
plays his first of two Assaults, and I Oblivion Ring it. He doesn’t have
enough mana to play Assault and Swans in the same turn, so my Unicorn
holds down the fort long enough for my Bitterblossom tokens to finish him.

Game 3, I keep a hand with no White mana rather than going to five, and I
am unable to play any of the disruption in my hand without it. I don’t find the
White source I need in time.

I open game 4 with a Treetop Village, a Goyf, and a Doran. My opponent

has Lotus Bloom come in on turn 4, but I have Mana Tithe at the ready in
case he happens to have the exact combo in hand. It turns out he doesn’t,
so he has to rawdog a Swans to block, lest he die to my attackers next turn.
I Shriekmaw it and attack for the win.

Game 5, I am beating him down with two Ronom Unicorns, Bitterblossom

tokens, and Treetop Village. I am feeling pretty good about myself until his
Lotus Bloom comes in, at which point he plays Swans and Seismic Assault.
He pitches Salvage, I respond with Unicorn. He pitches another Salvage in
response, I respond with my other Unicorn. He pitches Shivan Reef, the
second-to-last card in his hand, and I’m toast. Rough.

I have no relevant disruption in game 6. I have Mana Tithe, but he plays

around it and rawdogs Assault plus Swan. A shot at the Swan from a
Shivan Reef yields a random card and another land, and a shot from that
land leads to the Salvage. That’s game.

Game 7 is looking good for him until I topdeck Unicorn. That puts him short
on mana yet again, and Doran and Treetop Village rip him apart.

Game 8 I have the Unicorn again, he has the Bloom again, and I have the
Oblivion Ring again. With their powers combined, he is unable to combo,
and has to run a Swan out in the open to keep from dying. It has to block a
Doran to stave off lethal damage, and one of the five cards I draw off the
interaction is Shriekmaw.

Game 9 is stupid. I Thoughtseize his Seismic Assault and he just never

finds another.

In the final game I Oblivion Ring a Lotus Bloom, then catch a Swan on a
double Mana Tithe. That powers up my Goyf to 4/5 and allows me to smash
across for the win before he can find a replacement.

Also 7-3. Looks like we might be on to something!

V. Preliminary Sideboard

One of the best parts about this deck is that it is not Red. That means it’s
not vulnerable to Dragon’s Claw, one of the format’s deadliest sideboard

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cards, and that it can actually use Firespout while being a beatdown deck.
(Sadly, R/G aggro can only use that card for its intended Faerie-Wrathing
purpose when it can come up with three mana without tapping anything for
Red; otherwise Firespout takes out the caster’s troops as well.)

I am on the fence about Dragon’s Claw versus Burrenton Forge-Tender in

the board here. On the one hand, I know which one I’d rather have in play
on turn 2 against a Red deck: the artifact. On the other hand, I can expect
most opponents to be boarding in countermeasures to Dragon’s Claw, but
not to Forge-Tender, and Forge-Tender actually has some potentially strong
applications against R/G Mana Ramp, while Claw really does not. To make
a long story short, I’m going to start with BFT and see how he works out.

As far as I can tell, Extirpate is the combo-killer of the hour unless

Dragonstorm makes a comeback. All it takes to stop the Swans deck from
going off is to hit their Salvages, and likewise all it takes to stop a Reveillark
or Juniper deck from looping indefinitely is to hit the Lark or the Persist guy
in question. That said, I’d be surprised if this deck didn’t have a really rough
time with Reveillark anyway. Lark has a lot of different ways to ruin a
midrange deck like this one, and I don’t see Extirpate solving them. Then
again, I don’t know what will solve them (or even if there’s a problem in the
first place, or if Lark will even remain on the collective radar), so I’m going to
hold off on that issue for now.

We’ll see if this sideboard holds up to playtesting next week. For now, I’m
just excited to have found a Kitchen Finks deck that seems to work against
both Faeries and Swans. If it can pull that off while maxing out on maindeck
Red-smashers Kitchen Finks and Doran, I see good things in this deck’s
future.

See you next week!

Richard Feldman
Team :S
lcd_cow@yahoo.com

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