Originally titled: Revisiting Paskins Pt. 2: Why Signal Pest May Be the Most Influential Card in Mirrodin Besieged

This is sort of a hybrid article, talking about the basic principles of the Red deck, revisiting aspects of two articles. They are here and here.

As a little background on the format, this was a time when Extended was extremely powerful. Cards like Survival of the Fittest, Aluren, and Oath of Druids (alongside the normal Island-based cards) were staples of the format, and people regularly won on turn four (as noted by Paskins in the second article).

Yet the Red deck survived, even thrived, in that kind of environment. It wasn't a one-hit wonder; it was a real presence in the metagame. Why? How? What does this mean?

The biggest takeaway from this is that even in formats that are extraordinarily powerful (like Extended in 2002), the mana curve still matters. Jay Schneider hit upon something absolutely tremendous back in 1996. Mana curves matter, and, as long as Magic is still Magic, they will always matter.

Why is this, though? The answer is simple—efficiency.

The mana curve is designed to allow the player to make the most efficient use of available mana each and every turn, including turn one. This necessitates many one-drops, which therefore lends itself to aggressive strategies. Designing a deck around a curve allows them to come out of the gates consistently strong.

There is a word there that is key to the development of a strong Red deck—consistently. As Paskins says in his second article, Red decks aren't sexy. They don't summon large monsters way before they should hit play. They don't gain infinite life, make infinite mana or guys, or draw lots of cards. Good Red decks do pretty much the same thing every game. To quote Paskins, they "make some small creatures, clear blockers with burn spells, and then use cards like the Firecat and Scroll to finish off the opponent."

To do that, Red decks have to break the "rule of four." Paskins again shows us how important this is. Look at his breakdown of RDW 2k2:

8 two-power one-drops (Jackal Pup, Goblin Cadets)

8 other one-drops that have direct damage capability (Grim Lavamancer, Mogg Fanatic)

8 one-mana spells that kill little creatures or players (Seal of Fire, Firebolt)

8 late-game (turn four and after) cards that are utterly devastating (Cursed Scroll, Blistering Firecat)

4 more burn spells (Volcanic Hammer)

8 lands that disrupt the opponent (Rishadan Port, Wasteland)

8 deck-thinners/Lavamancer food (the sac lands)

8 Mountain

Look at all those 8's. What do those 8's do? They lend draw consistency. Sure, the individual tools you draw may be different, but the shape of your draw and game will be very consistent from game to game. Thus, consistency is absolutely key to having a good aggro deck.

Still, there is one area where the consistency is most critical. Look at the breakdown of cards, especially creatures, in Paskins's Red deck. They overwhelmingly cost 1 mana for a reason—the Red deck lives and dies by its one-drops. This is both for tempo reasons and efficiency reasons.

This is absolutely clear if you look at the modern Red deck. It plays two drastically different games—one where it has a turn-one Goblin Guide and one where it doesn't. That's because the Red deck is fundamentally designed to back up a one-drop. But still, even Goblin Guide isn't enough to keep the Red deck around in the face of the natural opposition. A second one-drop is needed to up the consistency of the deck.

Enter Signal Pest. Signal Pest does a number of things for the Red deck.

1. It is a powerful one-drop in and of itself (although not necessarily for attacking on turn two; in this respect, it is more like Grim Lavamancer than Goblin Cadets).
2. It helps activate Mox Opal, expanding the range of cards the Red deck can play on turn one.
3. It interacts in many profitable ways with Kuldotha Rebirth, and that card is sort of like Goblin Cadets to Goblin Guide's Jackal Pup.

Consider the following deck:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

4 Signal Pest

4 Memnite

4 Goblin Guide

4 Goblin Wardriver

4 Goblin Bushwhacker

3 Goblin Chieftain

2 Hero of Oxid Ridge

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Kuldotha Rebirth

3 Panic Spellbomb

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Flayer Husk

3 Mox Opal

[/Spells]

[Lands]

3 Contested War Zone

4 Teetering Peaks

12 Mountain

[/Lands]

[/cardlist]

Note: This deck is built on the same shell as Boros Battle Cry, but mono-Red. The initial drafts of Boros Battle Cry had Hero of Bladehold, but I cut that card and didn't cut Accorder's Paladin, even though at that point going mono-Red is probably better. This is the mono-Red version.

How close is this to the blueprint laid out by Paskins? Closer than you think.

The deck is a little light on removal and late game, but is clearly extremely explosive. It's capable of turn-two kills and is probably able to kill easily on turn three or four when unopposed. Even so, this is a different deck than the Red decks of old, and requires a different approach.

The Red decks of old, like the one Paskins built, were constructed to take advantage of an extremely consistent game plan. The tools just aren't there for modern Red decks to do that. Modern Red decks are Dead Guy decks that are very combo-ish in nature. They are powerful, hit hard and fast, and tend to run out of gas.

The added power is a nice bonus, but there's a major problem with it—when you fight fire with fire, the bigger fire will win. In essence, trying to overpower existing, powerful decks usually results in bad times. Red decks will hardly ever be more powerful than their opponent during stage two (which is where most of the game is spent), and defensive spells in the early game are almost always more powerful than the associated threats (e.g., Pyroclasm). This is why modern Red decks fail so often. They try to overpower you, but the defensive tools are just consistently too strong for them.

What is truly needed is consistency, something Paskins understood back in 2002 and many have forgotten. Red decks don't win with power or flashy draws. They win by providing a consistent, external clock that you have to beat. The issue is that Wizards isn't really printing the tools to execute this type of game plan.

Slowing your opponent down is almost as crucial as being fast yourself, since it gives the aggro deck extra time to get those mid- to late-game cards like Blistering Firecat and Cursed Scroll online and active. Sure, the deck can win without cards like that, but it is frequently that type of spell that finishes off the game for the aggro deck. So why don't we have the tools to use a card like Elemental Appeal (admittedly a very good Firecat replacement) right now?

Once again, the answer is simple. The only real tool Red decks have to slow their opponent down is one that Wizards has decided they hate—mana disruption. Cards like Rishadan Port, Wasteland, and Stone Rain/Molten Rain/Pillage are crucial to the Red deck's ability to buy time. Land destruction/mana disruption is not the central strategy of the Red deck, but it is a very necessary supplemental strategy and tool for the Red deck to access.

This type of mana disruption lends stability and consistency both to the draw of the Red deck and to the flow of the game, which is absolutely crucial to the success of mono-aggressive archetypes. If you look across multiple formats and throughout the history of the game, you'll find that consistency is key to the success of these aggressive decks.

Legacy is a great example of this. There are two main aggressive decks in Legacy—Zoo and Goblins. Zoo follows a more traditional plan of strict "kill you as fast as possible," much like modern Standard Red decks. Goblins, on the other hand, acts more like old Red decks, presenting a very consistent game plan that is resilient to disruption. It is a surprisingly difficult deck to beat if piloted well, and has shown itself to be a consistent force in Legacy for many, many years.

But even though Zoo is designed to blitz you, it is still extremely consistent. If you look at its curve and creature selection, there is a huge amount of redundancy involved—Wild Nacatl, Steppe Lynx, Goblin Guide, and Kird Ape/Loam Lion for one-drops; Tarmogoyf as the major two-drop often supplemented by Qasali Pridemage; and Knight of the Reliquary at three. There isn't a huge amount of variation because the success of the archetype hinges not on power, but on consistency.

Legacy also illustrates another major point—the Red deck will not ever truly be the dominant deck because it is too easy to hate out. Paskins understood this in 2002, and it's something designers and players would do well to remember. This type of linear strategy controls itself largely. From a designer's standpoint, this means that there is no harm printing efficient tools like Wasteland for the strategy. From a player's standpoint, it means that as long as you do your due diligence, beating the Red deck is never a problem.

Returning to Standard and practical applications, in order to assess the potential success of Signal Pest, the correct thing to look at is not power but consistency. Signal Pest puts the Red deck in an interesting place in Standard. The power level is clearly there now, and the card lends a great measure of consistency to the Red deck. I think it is very close, but I believe that ultimately the "one big turn" nature of the Kuldotha deck will be its own undoing. However, I would not be at all surprised to be wrong. In essence, I am on the fence with respect to this deck, so I'll hedge on the side of "not good enough."

It would hurt to be wrong, but it would hurt oh, so good. Don't be surprised if you sit across from me at some future event and my first-turn play is Goblin Guide.

From one Mountain-lover to another, may your Signal Pests always be a Nuisance Engine.

Chingsung Chang

Conelead most everywhere and on MtGO

Khan3twok5@gmail.com