Over the course of a few recent years, Magic has seen an influx of token-dependent mechanics. Our battlefields have been flooded with treasure tokens, food tokens, clue tokens, blood tokens, and, most recently, powerstone tokens. This is not an article meant to bemoan such a phenomenon, though. Instead, I wanted to point out an oft-overlooked side effect of this. It is now easier than ever to create artifacts without spending cards (i.e., losing card advantage). This makes any card that requires you to sacrifice an artifact much stronger than it ever used to be. It is also what inspired me to design today's deck. Thanks to the prevalence of token-based mechanics that Wizards has pushed out, the basic strategy is possible in pretty much any combination of colors. This being said, I decided to stick with a Mono-Red list. Though this ended up limiting me in terms of what token producers I had access to, I felt that Red had the most to offer when it came to powerful sacrifice outlets. Additionally, a mono-colored list was, simply put, easier to design and resulted in a more streamlined deck that is also incredibly cheap.

Mono-Red Token Sac | Casual | James Heslip

• Creatures (22)
• 3 Gut, True Soul Zealot
• 3 Sokenzan Smelter
• 4 Belligerent Guest
• 4 Orcish Vandal
• 4 Reckless Fireweaver
• 4 Voldaren Epicure

• Artifacts (16)
• 4 Servo Schematic
• 4 Ichor Wellspring
• 4 Implement of Combustion
• 4 Nimblewright Schematic

• Lands (22)
• 22 Mountain

Buy This Deck Export text format

Cost: $8.00 at the time of publication

The Core

The Backup

This deck can basically be split into three primary parts: token sacrificers, token spawners/fodder, and generic payoff cards. We've already touched on two of our sacrifice outlets (Smelter and Gut), but we can't forget our Orcish Vandal. A big weakness of the deck is its lack of interaction with the opponent. For the most part, we're just doing our thing and hoping it gets us a win without much consideration for what our opponent happens to also be doing. Vandal is the one exception to this. Sure, he can't deal with larger threats, but anything with toughness two or less is well within his kill range. True to the playstyle of the strategy, he can also toss tokens over blockers for some direct damage as needed.

Of course, we're not just sacrificing tokens here. I'd be crazy to design a deck focused on sacrificing artifacts and not include Ichor Wellspring. Combined with Implement of Combustion, we've got a recipe for some crazy card consumption. Nimblewright Schematic and Servo Schematic don't draw us cards, but they do produce threats rather quickly and are especially potent with one or more Reckless Fireweaver in play.

Tips and Tricks

Aside from obvious mana curve plays, there's not much to the deck's sequencing. The one exception would be Reckless Fireweaver. Situation permitting, you always want to play your copies of Fireweaver before your artifacts or artifact spawners so that you get as much damage out of them as possible.

Note that Gut can sacrifice creatures as well as artifacts. It's not always going to be appropriate, but there were definitely situations where I found myself trading in Voldaren Epicures for 4/1 skeletons as a sort of strict upgrade. You can do the same with Smelter and the tokens produced from your various Schematics. In testing, I did this many times just to deal extra Fireweaver damage.

Finally, don't forget about the actual abilities of some of your artifact fodder. Implement of Combustion, for example, does have text beyond "sacrifice this to draw a card". A finishing blow on a Planeswalker (or even player) is possible. Also, it was quite common for me to use my blood tokens as intended, pitching draws I didn't like for another chance at something better.

Additional Options | James Heslip

• Creatures (23)
• 1 Aether Chaser
• 1 Blood Aspirant
• 1 Breya's Apprentice
• 1 Dargo, the Shipwrecker
• 1 Farid, Enterprising Salvager
• 1 Feldon of the Third Path
• 1 Ghirapur Gearcrafter
• 1 Horned Stoneseeker
• 1 Impulsive Pilferer
• 1 Myr Retriever
• 1 Myr Servitor
• 1 Myr Sire
• 1 Patron of the Arts
• 1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 1 Pia Nalaar
• 1 Ravenous Intruder
• 1 Sorcerer's Broom
• 1 Swashbuckler Extraordinaire
• 1 Thopter Engineer
• 1 Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith
• 1 Vault Robber
• 1 Wily Goblin
• 1 Workshop Assistant

• Instants (2)
• 1 Shrapnel Blast
• 1 Voltage Surge

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Bloody Betrayal
• 1 Excavation Explosion
• 1 Kuldotha Rebirth
• 1 Seize the Spoils

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Makeshift Munitions
• 1 Yotia Declares War

• Artifacts (11)
• 1 Ceremonial Knife
• 1 Experimental Synthesizer
• 1 Goldvein Pick
• 1 Hot Soup
• 1 Idol of Oblivion
• 1 Noble's Purse
• 1 Nuisance Engine
• 1 Prized Statue
• 1 Prowler's Helm
• 1 Prying Blade
• 1 Wings of Hubris

• Lands (5)
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Great Furnace
• 1 Power Depot
• 1 Slagwoods Bridge

Buy This Deck Export text format

Even with us sticking to just one color, I was amazed at how many viable options we have, and the different directions we could take the deck. Equip cards like Goldvein Pick and Ceremonial Knife have already been mentioned, but we have other token makers we could include, too. Noble's Purse was a favorite of mine, and I actually had it in the list for a long time, since it basically gives us four sacrifices in a single card. Prized Statue is also worth mentioning, since it's almost the same card, just a bit quicker in terms of payoff.

Prowler's Helm, Wings of Hubris, and Hot Soup were all considered in order to get the most out of Belligerent Guest. I found them too slow and costly, but it couldn't hurt to try them in a more equip-centric version of the deck. I would also try to find room for Pick and/or Knife in this case.

Because we realistically play eight draw spells, our list is not wanting for card draw. Should you desire more, though, Idol of Oblivion is about as good as we can get. I wouldn't fault anyone for trying Experimental Synthesizer, Breya's Apprentice, or Seize the Spoils, too.

Of course, we can't end the article without talking about the artifact lands. I was very happy with how cheap the deck turned out, but if you want to maximize its potential and don't care too much about doubling the price, you must include them. Great Furnace and Darksteel Citadel specifically, would do wonders for the consistency and potency of the strategy. If you don't mind sacrificing a bit of speed and are short on cash, Slagwoods Bridge and the other taplands could work, as well.