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Main » Articles » The Flavors of Fast Red in Bloomburrow Standard

The Flavors of Fast Red in Bloomburrow Standard

Michael Flores
Posted on August 13, 2024
 Reddit

The new set has painted the town absolutely Red! On the backs of a couple of new Mice, Bloomburrow Standard is currently all about Heartfire Hero and Emberheart Challenger. Maybe not ALL about... But Those cards - and the basic Mountains they bring with them - are defining game play, both with and against.

Red Aggro

Mono-Red | BLB Standard | RubeusMHagrids, 5-0 MTGO Standard League

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I'm starting with RUBEUSMHAGRIDS's Red Aggro deck; which, though it plays a bunch of new Mice, is actually more of a classical Red Aggro deck. That is, it runs Lightning Strike and Shock to potentially clear blockers, or finish the opponent off outside of The Red Zone (aptly named). More on why that is important to point out in a few decks.

This Red Aggro is, believe it or not, one of the less purely exciting builds. Rockface Village is a card that you won't see in most of the other versions. To be honest, the haste doesn't actually come up particularly often because most of the creatures in this deck have haste already.

But the ability to target a Mouse in a long game gives you free buff opportunities for Heartfire Hero and potential card advantage with Emberheart Challenger. The deck is kind of designed to play a steady game. Might of the Meek is a buff spell, but also card advantage. Wrenn's Resolve is only potential card advantage.

The RUBEUSMHAGRID version, while nodding to the Valiant text on some fo the Bloomburrow Mice, is comparatively middle-of-the-road. Might of the Meek is nice. A small buff, but you get to draw a card. Rabid Gnaw provides a similarly small buff, but doubles as removal.

All-in-all this is a deck that can get some explosive draws, but actually distributes its wins across a number of potential lines. Sometimes Manifold Mouse (a comparatively unpopular new addition, all Red Decks considered) will team up with Heartfire Hero or Emberheart Challenger unopposed, and the deck will attack with overwhelming Double Strike. Other times it's going to be the classic Monastery Swiftspear / Fugitive Codebreaker offense that you've seen a hundred times before. Attack with 1/2 or 2/1 prowess guys. Make 'em have it. If they don't, you can chip shot away and ultimately finish with Shock or Lightning Strike. In fact, maybe they got you to three and topdecked the Lightning Strike. Same old, same old. You might not even realize you're playing Bloomburrow! And it's got Urabrask's Forge in the sideboard for that potentially unstoppable game plan. Urabrask's Forge, by the by, is another card that has found some new life!

I started on this deck because - a couple of Mice and a a few new buff cards aside - it's recognizable in its game plan. We've seen prowess guys on turn one and two. We know about staying over three for fear of a Lightning Strike once we have the battlefield on lock. Most of the rest of the Red Decks in today's Standard aren't really Red Aggro; they're...

Red StOmPy

What do I mean by "StOmPy" here? The more common Red Decks you'll encounter right now are Red only by color, if that makes sense. They don't play Shock and Lightning Strike. Instead they play a bazillion pump spells - postmodern Giant Growths of one stripe or another - and mostly only attack on one axis. They don't have the suppression mode from Finding The Three Gears, necessarily, but do reward math skills and a focused understanding of one's own deck and game plan. What do they get in return?

Third turn kills. Lots and lots of third turn kills in Standard!

Red StOmPy | BLB Standard | ultrasuperbob, 5-0 MTGO Standard League

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Not to bury the lead at all: This is the deck I've mostly been playing in Standard myself.

It's 20 lands; 24 creatures; and 16 pump spells. Four of the twenty-four are Callous Sell-Sword, which is why the deck has eight br dual lands... But you rarely play the card as Callous Sell-Sword, mostly opting for its Burn Together mode.

There are two things I can tell you about this deck.

  1. It's really fun and rewarding to play. Sometimes you have an overwhelming draw, but sometimes you have to be really careful and methodical with how you want to string together a win.

  2. If your opponent wants to beat you, they can.

Rather than dwelling on that second point for now, let's break down how the deck works.

There are three 1-drops in this deck:

Cacophony Scamp
Heartfire Hero
Monastery Swiftspear

It's often unclear which one you should play on turn one. If I have a Swiftspear and one of the other two in my opener, I'll usually play the non-Swiftspear, and angle for two attackers in The Red Zone on turn two, threatening a pump spell.

Heartfire Hero is generally better than Cacophony Scamp in concert with pump spells. There are little tricks you can play... For instance at the end of the opponent's turn you can cast Mirran Banesplitter and equip it to a Heartfire Hero to cheat an additional +1/+1 over a single turn cycle.

But Scamp has its own incentives. This deck doesn't play Shock (in the main deck) or Lightning Strike (at all), and sometimes you need to remove a creature. Cacophony Scamp can kinda sorta do that sometimes.

The deck has two offensive 2-drops of note: Emberheart Challenger and Slickshot Show-Off.

Emberheart Challenger rarely gets all its flowers. I know that it looks super exciting to pump, draw cards, and run over the opponent; but it is often just functioning as a 2/2 with haste, sadly. Like I said, if your opponent wants to beat you, they can; and Emberheart Challenger is a good little 2/2 for two to aim removal at.

The really defining element of this deck that puts it over the top of similar decks, in my opinion, is the presence of Slickshot Show-Off. Some decks play Fugitive Codebreaker in this spot, but I haven't found them to be comparable. You win a lot - and I mean a lot - of games against other fair creature decks just because of flying.

Callous Sell-Sword

The whole point of this build, and its Black splash, is to play Burn Together. Burn Together is a kind of a Time Walk. It's the concept of a race car getting over the finish line and then exploding, having done its job. You play this build because of Burn Together, and you get third turn kills - often through a Go for the Throat, believe it or not - as a result.

Monastery Swiftspear
Emberheart Challenger
Slickshot Show-Off

All these creatures pump themselves before dying. That's important to know. If you have an opponent at three and a 2/2 Emberheart Challenger, Burn Together should finish them off.

Cacophony Scamp
Heartfire Hero

These creatures do double duty with Burn Together. If you have an opponent at six and a 3/3 Cacophony Scamp, its death will trigger twice, putting the opponent away.

The main difference between these two creatures is how much the opponent has to worry about chump blocking in the mid-game. It's often the case that the opponent can't afford to kill a Heartfire Hero; but can't afford to let a Cacophony Scamp through, for fear that it will blow itself up.

Notes on the pump spells:

  • Mirran Banesplitter - you should usually cast this one first. Most of them deal +2 damage before taking prowess or other creature-based buffs into account, but Mirran Banesplitter carries its damage over multiple turns. A Felonious Rage is a one shot - just two damage for r over two turns - but a Mirran Banesplitter in the same spot will deal four over two turns if that makes sense.

  • Dreadmaw's Ire - It's important to note that you have to be attacking to cast this; so you can't use it to catalyze an Emberheart Challenger pre-combat, for instance. This card gets a surprising amount of money, killing Carrot Cake and even Urabrask's Forge main deck. I'd consider playing more in the sideboard because it has so much relevant text on the artifact side.

  • Felonious Rage - Save this one if possible. If the opponent kills your last creature, you can Felonious Rage to make sure you start the next turn cycle with a 2/2 in play. Might be the difference between winning and losing if they don't have instant speed removal. Mid-game the haste can be relevant with Heartfire Hero or Cacophony Scamp (another reason to save it).

  • Monstrous Rage - The best of the buffs because of its combination of trample, toughness, and durability. Oddly not that exciting in multiples.

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(Terrible) Inevitability Mode

What might not be immediately obvious is that this deck kinda sorta has a long-game setting; which is just socking away a Slickshot Show-Off for another day. There are games where it feels like you can never win, because you're so handed on the ground and your opponent killed all your guys. But maybe you did nothing for five turns and now just have five pump spells in hand. Do they have instant speed removal after all that? Make 'em have it! Slickshot out of exile, throw your hand at it, see what happens! More than once I've gotten my Show-Off to about 9 power and then cast Callous Sell-Sword as my last spell.

I've played this deck almost exclusively for about a week. If you want to check some of that out (and the dulcet tones of Finding the Three Gears) check this one out:

Alternately...

Mono-Red | BLB Standard | Claidnaidsr, 5-0 MTGO Standard League

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This version gives up the ultra speed of Burn Together for more sleight of hand.

Seek the Beast is a direct opportunity for card advantage; and Questing Druid itself provides substantial size in a lot of games.

What I like about this build the most is actually Royal Treatment. The big problem for these sort of all-in Red StOmPy decks is that your creature might get killed. SO DON'T LET IT GET KILLED! Given the ongoing value of a Royal Role, I'm not sure why people still play Snakeskin Veil in some decks (but they do).

Horrible People

Remember when I said that if someone wants to beat you, they can?

I logged in last night and played against this archetype literally six matches in a row. The all-in Red StOmPy decks have made such a splash that that is a sentence I can (sadly) actually type.

Boros | BLB Standard | malekz, 5-0 MTGO Standard League

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As far as I can tell, this deck mostly exists to punish Red Decks; but the Red Decks are popular enough that it, itself, has become popular.

The trick here is that, while leaning on truly obnoxious Red removal (Torch the Tower prevents Cacophony Scamp from triggering, Lightning Helix is just Lightning Helix), Horrible People Boros invests White removal that isn't damage dependent. Four Get Lost! Horrible!

The really kicker is Temporary Lockdown, which even gets your Mirran Banesplitter (and any Map tokens you might have lying around).

Aside from absolutely targeting the Red Decks, this Boros has some legitimate angles of its own. Caretaker's Talent is great with Urabrask's Forge; and weirdly, Urabrask's Forge feeds Fountainport going long. In this way it's a legitimate grinding deck that can put things other than pure aggro on notice.

Beza, the Boundless Spring is at its absolute best here, and it this metagame. You're likely to manage yourself to turn four without a lot of worry; but will still have a sub-20 life total, so will probably get multiple triggers off of it.

I've been quite impressed by Fountainport here. Which is another way of saying fear a first turn Sunken Citadel set to either Red or White. You're in for a date with a Horrible Person.

LOVE

MIKE

TAGS articles, standard, constructed, analysis, burn, red, decklist, discussion, mono-red, mike flores, michael flores, stompy, blb standard, 08132024, bloomburrow standard

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