Last time, I breathed life into my casual decks by taking apart old ones and heavily modifying others' support. This time, I have new decks designed to shore up a perpetual weakness: the lack of red.

I'm lousy at building with red. I'm constantly scrambling for red rattlesnakes, and I feel that red's finishers and removal are second-rate in multiplayer. I have a mono-red Commander deck, but it's Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, who's more Windborn Muse than Lavaborn Muse. So, I want to make red decks that I'll play as often as other decks—rather than having them for some imaginary quota.

Climb Every Mountain

With that introduction, it's unsurprising that I didn't have a mono-red deck. I've built them, around cards such as Initiate of Blood and Fortune Thief, but they normally felt gimmicky, like a mediocre sitcom—you can kill an hour watching/playing it, but then, you're ready to change the channel/deck.

Fortunately, Theros delivered Fanatic of Mogis, who hits all opponents hard and encourages me to build mono-red. And do you know who happens to cost ?

"Devotion to Tibalt"

• Creatures (23)
• 4 Keeper of the Flame
• 4 Mogg War Marshal
• 3 Sparksmith
• 4 Two-Headed Cerberus
• 4 Cyclops Gladiator
• 4 Fanatic of Mogis

• Noncreatures (37)
• 4 Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded
• 3 Quest for Pure Flame
• 3 Five-Alarm Fire
• 4 Volt Charge
• 23 Mountain

Buy This Deck

Yep, it's everybody's favorite planeswalker asking for some burning love. The deck's ideal win is with Quest for Pure Flame doubling Fanatic of Mogis's damage when it enters the battlefield, supplementing with damage from combat, Keeper of the Flame, Volt Charge, Five-Alarm Fire, or Tibalt's −4 ability. With as many planeswalkers and enchantments that fuel devotion to red, Fanatic of Mogis should hit regularly for 5 to 8 damage without the Quest, so you won't have to do too much else to finish off opponents.

Cyclops Gladiator is in the deck both to have a legitimate creature and to provide three devotion, which leaves us with Tibalt and Volt Charge. Volt Charge can proliferate the other noncreature spells, which translates to surprise damage with Quest for Pure Flame and Five-Alarm Fire. It's also nice to tick up Tibalt without having to +1 him. Speaking of the +1, this deck's curve stops at 4 partly for Tibalt. Specifically, this deck is designed to keep every Mountain past the fourth in its hand. Every Mountain you leave in hand ups the odds that Tibalt won't pitch your Fanatic of Mogis. And given that Tibalt's best ability in this deck is his −4, you don't have to activate Tibalt too much if your hand's good. If the board state is conducive to going for his ultimate, aim for that, but the −4's normally sufficient.

This isn't my best deck or anything, but it can take down several opponents in a single turn with Tibalt playing a major role. That's certainly fun enough for me to want to play the deck frequently.

Writhe Every Flesh

Building B/R is almost as tough for me as building red is. I'd had a Lovisa Coldeyes deck in B/R, but its cracks were showing after a few years, and I took the Cyclops Gladiators and Volt Charges out for the Tibalt deck. Theros came to the rescue once again with a fantastic mythic:

"Cerb 'R' Us"

• Creatures (29)
• 4 Blood Scrivener
• 4 Reassembling Skeleton
• 3 Crimson Muckwader
• 3 Arrogant Bloodlord
• 4 Erebos's Emissary
• 3 Disciple of Bolas
• 2 Hero of Oxid Ridge
• 2 Fleshwrither
• 4 Underworld Cerberus

• Noncreatures (31)
• 4 Rakdos Signet
• 3 Terminate
• 4 Rakdos Guildgate
• 12 Swamp
• 8 Mountain

Buy This Deck

The flavor text on Train of Thought sums up deck-building here. Trying to crack Underworld Cerberus (the second Cerberus this article!) led to Erebos's Emissary, which led to Disciple of Bolas, and so on.

If Arrogant Bloodlord sees too many 1-power creatures in the way, Hero of Oxid Ridge solves things for him. The Hero has overperformed for me in this deck, not just with the obvious Bloordlord synergy, but by creating surprise beats for a deck that already lays plenty on the board—as well as creating a second blocking restriction for the Cerberus.

There's also a midrange value package for the Cerberus's graveyard recursion. Erebos's Emissary has made its reputation in Theros Draft as a must-block-but-can't-block-profitably type, which I love. Reassembling Skeleton is an easy discard, but any time with the Cerberus out is a time when pitching to the Emissary will probably result in profit. Disciple of Bolas lets you sacrifice the Cerberus for six new cards and several old ones or—and this is way more fun—dump your hand of creatures to the Emissary, swing for loads, and then sacrifice the Emissary to the Disciple and bring back about as many creatures as you discarded along with a stack of life. Sacrificing a "stuck" Arrogant Bloodlord or a creature pumped by battle cry is also good value.

Blood Scrivener is around to boost the card-draw when you most need it, though I don't know if this deck's right for it yet. Fleshwrither searches for Erebos's Emissary, Disciple of Bolas, or Hero of Oxid Ridge, completing whatever mode the deck's running in, and it's returned easily enough with the Cerberus.

This deck's been one of my best at working the first time, and it's fun having midrange tools and beatsticks in an aggressive shell. It's certainly been my best B/R build since I can remember.

Follow Every Gnarlid

In the years since I had dismantled the deck (can you only dismantle things you've mantled?), two main things occurred for the deck shell's benefit: Bestow was printed, and Rancor was reprinted. I hadn't owned Rancors before—they annoyed me greatly when on opponents' creatures at least—and bestow creatures are an extension of what I was doing with Zendikons: pumping Aura Gnarlid at times while also providing a creature curve. As it turned out, the sleekest curve for the deck is also Peasant-legal, with only four uncommons—if you're counting Rancor as an Urza's Legacy common. Building this deck from scratch costs about $12 on CoolStuffInc, and it's a fright to face:

"I Got My Weekend Pass to Zendi-kon"

• Creatures (8)
• 4 Yavimaya Enchantress
• 4 Aura Gnarlid

• Aura Creatures (20)
• 4 Wind Zendikon
• 4 Crusher Zendikon
• 4 Leafcrown Dryad
• 4 Nimbus Naiad
• 4 Spearpoint Oread

• Noncreatures (32)
• 4 Abundant Growth
• 4 Rancor
• 10 Forest
• 7 Island
• 7 Mountain

Buy This Deck

When Zendikons aren't giving Aura Gnarlid enough power to win backed by their own beats, Yavimaya Enchantress finishes the job. Bestow creatures make Yavimaya Enchantress as easy to build around as Master of Etherium and similarly powerful, and she wears a Rancor as effectively as when they hung out in Urza’s block together. In a recent duel, I curved Wind Zendikon into Abundant Growth into a turn-three Yavimaya Enchantress that, thanks to the opponent's Underworld Connections, was a 5/5; Aura Gnarlid would have been the same size. Even if you don't draw lands for a bit, you have a 5/5 and a 2/2 flying land.

Because Aura Gnarlid and Yavimaya Enchantress aren't the necessary targets of your Auras—Spearpoint Oread looks good with Rancor, too—this deck is less vulnerable to spot removal than are most decks of its ilk. However, it's incredibly vulnerable to Pyroclasm, so play around whatever removal's in your game, and attack the rest of the time.

Bel-Air's Prince Is Fresh?

You see with the end of that rhyme why Rodgers and Hammerstein have not hired me. (That, and the anachronisms.) But even as red has rarely been among my favorite things, I enjoy these decks immensely. For as much brewing as I like to do, I need to be more aggressive in making sure the decks I have together are ones I want to play, and what better way to show that than with the color of aggression?

If you've had decks lying around that you haven't wanted to play in months, take them apart, and use the space to make new things. You'll feel much better.