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Hello everyone. For the past few weeks, I've been looking at decks featuring one color paired with each of the other colors of mana. This week, we're continuing that look with decks featuring Red mana. Let's get started with our first deck.
Boros Lifegain
We'll start this week with a Red/White deck that features plenty of ways to gain extra life. Let's take a look at the deck.
Boros Lifegain | MAT Standard | Redd_Cat_MTG, aetherhub.com user
- Creatures (22)
- 1 Archangel of Wrath
- 1 Skrelv, Defector Mite
- 2 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
- 2 Steel Seraph
- 4 Inspiring Overseer
- 4 Lunarch Veteran // Luminous Phantom
- 4 Resolute Reinforcements
- 4 Voice of the Blessed
- Planeswalkers (2)
- 2 Archangel Elspeth
- Instants (10)
- 1 Knockout Blow
- 1 Take Up the Shield
- 2 Blessed Defiance
- 2 Lantern Flare
- 4 Sacred Fire
- Sorceries (2)
- 2 Burn Down the House
But this deck has other means of gaining life. Inspiring Overseer gives you one point of life and an extra card when it enters the battlefield. Both Archangel of Wrath and Steel Seraph have lifelink, allowing you to gain life by either attacking or blocking. There are even multiple instant spells in this deck that either provide you with life directly or that provide a creature lifelink, so that you can gain life in combat with it. By gaining that additional life, you'll make it much more difficult to be defeated by your opponent.
Izzet Spelldancer
Next, I have a Red/Blue deck that gains an advantage by creating copies of its spells. Let's take a look at it.
Izzet Spelldancer | MAT Standard | oAlice, aetherhub.com user
- Creatures (12)
- 4 Ledger Shredder
- 4 Mercurial Spelldancer
- 4 Monastery Swiftspear
- Instants (26)
- 2 Galvanic Iteration
- 4 Consider
- 4 Experimental Augury
- 4 Lightning Strike
- 4 Make Disappear
- 4 Play with Fire
- 4 Volt Charge
- Lands (22)
- 8 Mountain
- 9 Island
- 1 Otawara, Soaring City
- 4 Shivan Reef
The best spells to create copies of are the spells that deal direct damage to any target. Both Volt Charge and Lightning Strike deal three damage to any target, so you can deal six damage directly to your opponent when either of them are cast. Both Volt Charge and Experimental Augury have proliferate, so try to make sure you can add another oil counter to Mercurial Spelldancer when you cast either of these so that you can copy your other spells more quickly.
Rakdos Etali Breach
The next deck I have for you utilizes a pair of seven-drops to bring home wins. Let's check it out.
Rakdos Etali Breach | MAT Standard | ChickensoftheCoast, aetherhub.com user
- Creatures (17)
- 2 Phyrexian Fleshgorger
- 3 Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
- 4 Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness
- 4 Exhibition Magician
- 4 Riveteers Requisitioner
- Instants (10)
- 3 Cut Down
- 3 Go for the Throat
- 4 Big Score
- Sorceries (7)
- 1 Annihilating Glare
- 3 Breach the Multiverse
- 3 Path of Peril
- Artifacts (1)
- 1 The Celestus
Etali, Primal Conqueror // Etali, Primal Sickness is simply an amazing creature. When it enters the battlefield (ETB), you'll be able to cast a nonland card from your deck and your opponent's deck for free. Even though you have no control over what nonland spell you'll be able to cast, having the potential to cast a huge creature from your opponent's deck makes this a fun card to play. You'll also have the ability to transform Etali, even though you might be able to win without doing so.
The other seven-mana value card that can help you finish off your opponent is Breach the Multiverse. Similar to Etali, Breach the Multiverse allows you to use your opponent's card as a means of defeating them. With this sorcery, you'll be able to put a creature or planeswalker card from both players discard piles onto the battlefield under your control. If you're lucky, you can get your own Etali, Primal Conqueror onto the battlefield, triggering it's ETB ability.
Gruul Turbo
The final deck I have for you this week pairs Red and Green in an aggressive shell. Let's take a look at the deck.
Gruul Turbo | MAT Standard | powrdragn, aetherhub.com user
- Creatures (23)
- 1 Squee, Dubious Monarch
- 2 Feldon, Ronom Excavator
- 2 Halana and Alena, Partners
- 3 Quirion Beastcaller
- 3 Reckless Stormseeker // Storm-Charged Slasher
- 3 Samut, Vizier of Naktamun
- 3 Shivan Devastator
- 3 Thundering Raiju
- 3 Yavimaya Iconoclast
- Planeswalkers (2)
- 2 Arlinn, the Pack's Hope // Arlinn, the Moon's Fury
- Instants (7)
- 3 Play with Fire
- 4 Lightning Strike
- Enchantments (4)
- 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano
At the beginning of combat, Reckless Stormseeker // Storm-Charged Slasher provides both a power bonus plus haste to a creature you control. That can allow you the potential to draw an extra card if you have Samut, Vizier of Naktamun on the battlefield. But you might not need to have the haste from Reckless Stormseeker for Samut to get you some extra cards, because many of the creatures in this deck already have haste.
Halana and Alena, Partners are very similar to Reckless Stormseeker, except the bonus they provide isn't a temporary bonus. Instead, they provide a number of +1/+1 counters to a creature equal to Halana and Alena's power. Those counters can be particularly helpful if added to Quirion Beastcaller, as you will be able to redistribute them if Quirion Beastcaller should die. Alternatively, you can add counters to multiple creatures over time which will boost the effectiveness of Thundering Raiju.
Wrapping Up
As you might already know, I love me some Red decks. While Red decks are normally fast and aggressive, most of the decks this week have the tools needed to withstand a longer game. I would be happy playing any of these, and look forward to trying them all out on Magic Arena.
What do you think of these decks? Feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!
- Mike Likes
