At this point, it’s sort of a tradition for me to take a look at the possibilities with mono-red in Standard when a new set comes out. Of course, the current block is all about gold cards and multicolored decks—not mono-colored decks. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some valuable deck ideas to be mined here, however.

In keeping with overall Magic trends, the power is shifting away from spells and more toward creatures. I’m not going to suggest you can’t build an excellent Standard deck with few to no creatures, but increasingly, creatures are growing better and spells aren’t, and spells are often becoming worse. Thus, it’s not surprising that red aggression is shifting away from being burn-based toward being much more creature-based. This shift has gone so far that it’s worth seriously considering a deck with all creatures and no burn:

"Alphastrike.deck"

• Creatures (36)
• 4 Firefist Striker
• 4 Hellraiser Goblin
• 4 Hellrider
• 4 Mogg Flunkies
• 4 Rakdos Cackler
• 4 Reckless Waif
• 4 Rubblebelt Raiders
• 4 Stonewright
• 4 Stromkirk Noble

• Lands (24)
• 24 Mountain

Buy This Deck

There are so many good creatures for this deck that some very solid creatires were left on the sidelines: Boros Reckoner, Ember Beast, Legion Loyalist, Skinbrand Goblin, Ash Zealot, Kruin Striker, Instigator Gang, Thundermaw Hellkite, and Zealous Conscripts, just to name some of the best. Given what I’m trying to do with this deck, anything costing more than 1 mana has to be held to extremely high standards to make the cut. I think sixteen 1-drops is the right number—it’s critical that I not miss playing a creature on turn one, and I’m happy playing multiple creatures on following turns if the opportunity is there. I might consider playing more (such as Loyalist), but at that point, the deck would probably become too underpowered without enough bigger dudes to give it punch.

Cards like Gang, Hellkite, and Conscripts are great, but this deck is all about speed, and I will rarely have 5 mana on turn five. I already feel a little concerned with eight 4-drops in the deck. Conscripts are so good at what they do, so for this deck, I would definitely have some in the sideboard, and they would come in for Raiders in matchups with juicy targets for me to steal. Reckoner and Ember Beast are just worse than Hellrider or multiple guys on turn three for what I’m trying to do, but I’m open to the possibility that Reckoner will be so good that I end up adding him in the future. Skinbrand Goblin was the last dude I cut from the deck because it would be nice to have the option of an instant-speed effect in the deck. The problem was that not only is a vanilla 2/1 for 2 not exciting, but +2/+1 for 1 mana isn’t even that great either.

Enough about the near misses though, let’s take a look at the hits:

Stonewright – Here’s a late-game card that both answers the call of, “Help, I’m mana-flooded!” and simultaneously keeps my 1-drop count high. Not only does this deck have plenty of creatures to pair with him, he’s one of the only ways for the deck to take out a really big blocker.

Reckless Waif – If you transform this guy immediately after playing him on turn one, you’ll have most matchups locked up already—unless you have a bad draw and the opponent has a good one. Despite this, he’s the dude I would cut if I wanted fewer 1-drops or a different one, such as the Loyalist.

Stromkirk Noble – This is much worse without burn to remove potential blockers, but he’s still a house against decks with few blockers or primarily Humans. In addition, Firefist Striker will sometimes push him through anyway.

Mogg Flunkies – The hope is that with thirty-six creatures in the deck, this guy will basically be a 3/3 for 2 with little semblance of a drawback—also known as a giant beat stick. Also of assistance is the high number of 1-drops and the decent amount of haste in the deck.

Firefist Striker – Turn-one Noble, turn-two Striker, turn-three Hellrider should beat an awful lot of decks. Given the deck’s lack of removal, the Striker serves an important function for the deck, rendering your opponent’s best blocker useless every turn. He can be especially annoying if you already have a Hellrider in play the turn you play him.

Hellrider – Hey! Snap out of it. You can stop picturing Raiders with haste now; I wanna talk about a 4-mana dude that always has haste. You probably already like Hellrider—I mean, who doesn’t? I guess probably someone who keeps getting rolled by them, but don’t be that guy; be the person doing the rolling. Well, now try playing him in a deck with thirty-six creatures and see how much you like him. Go ahead, I’ll wait . . . Back? All right, see what I mean? You really like him now, don’t you?

Rubblebelt Raiders – All right, here they are, the If-the-deck-is-functioning-well-I’m-gonna-punch-you-in-the-mouth-really-hard-and-you’re-not-gonna-like-it card. Every good aggressive deck needs a card like that, right? Obviously, if the deck isn’t functioning well, it is much worse, but let’s think about that scenario for a sec. If you have no other creatures in play, she’s a 3/3 for 4 that becomes a 4/4 as soon as she attacks the first time—not too shabby. If you have a haste creature the turn you’re going to attack, she’s a 5/5. So you see, even the worst-case scenario can be reasonably sexy, which is one of the reasons she beats out Instigator Gang. As much fun as it would be to give +1 to a deck with thirty-six dudes, the Gang is much worse if you don’t have a bunch of guys in play.

So, there you have it: the new face of mono-red; or, to be more specific: the thirty-six new faces. Now, you may decide that not having any burn isn’t for you, and there is still some burn worth considering. I like Brimstone Volley, Devil's Play, Pillar of Flame, and Searing Spear as possibilities for this deck. We will now also have the option of Massive Raid, which could be a great finisher for a deck like this with thirty or more creatures.

Of course, with the amount of powerful gold cards floating around, most aggro players will be playing either B/R, R/G, or R/W, especially with cards like Boros Charm available to those willing to mess around with land besides basic Mountains. I imagine I’ll be playing some Boros and some Gruul soon enough, but for now, as my friend Benzo used to say, “More Mountains means more violence!”