The full spoiler for Return to Ravnica is up, and it looks to be filled to the brim with interesting new toys for Standard. There seem to be a lot of very powerful cards in this set, and I'm excited to start brewing up decks with them. One of the first ideas that has come to mind is mono-red. This deck has always been a budget staple, but it failed to be in contention for most of last year. Return to Ravnica might change that, bringing in a host of new aggressive creatures. Here's the list I put together:

"Guttersnipe Red"

• Creatures (23)
• 3 Nivmagus Elemental
• 4 Ash Zealot
• 4 Gore-House Chainwalker
• 4 Guttersnipe
• 4 Rakdos Cackler
• 4 Rakdos Shred-Freak

• Spells (16)
• 4 Brimstone Volley
• 4 Geistflame
• 4 Searing Spear
• 4 Pillar of Flame

• Lands (21)
• 21 Mountain

Buy This Deck

The Creatures

Guttersnipe provides a powerful new tool for red decks. Although a 2/2 for 3 mana is nothing impressive, turning a Searing Spear into a Lava Axe certainly is. If this survives for a turn or two, it can easily add an extra 6 damage onto your spells, usually ending the game in short order. With so many aggressive creatures in the deck, opponents will often pull the trigger on their removal spells very quickly, leaving the door wide open for Guttersnipe to finish the job.

Nivmagus Elemental serves a dual role in this deck. On turn one, you can run it out immediately, then throw away a spell to have a powerful attacker on the second turn. Later in the game, you can combine it with Guttersnipe to make it so your spells don't even need to resolve to deal damage to your opponent. Despite the power of this card, I don't think running a full four copies is a good idea—having more than one is usually not a good thing.

Rakdos Cackler is our other speedy 1-drop, swinging for 2 damage per turn and helping you get off to a blazing start. Although you'll almost always be casting it as a 2/2 that can't block, the option to leave it a 1/1 can come in handy if you're facing a lethal attack, allowing you to buy yourself one more turn to win the game.

Ash Zealot is among the most powerful red 2-drops we've seen in some time. A 2/2 with haste is already good enough, but the addition of first strike makes it much harder to get rid of in combat, eliminating the option of trading a Geralf's Messenger or a token or two for it. It also allows you to use a burn spell to take down even larger creatures. A Geistflame can help Ash Zealot take down Centaur tokens, and a Searing Spear will allow it to take down almost anything. The last ability is just the icing on the cake. It punishes Zombie decks for casting their Gravecrawlers, and it makes Snapcaster Mage much less attractive. Even Lingering Souls comes at a heavy price with this on the battlefield.

Rakdos Shred-Freak is obviously nowhere near as powerful as Ash Zealot, but it's surprisingly effective at laying down a beating early in the game. Although just about any creature can trade with it, the number of creatures you're putting out makes that only a partial solution, and your burn spells can often clear the way, allowing you to keep beating in for 2.

Gore-House Chainwalker is another aggressive unleash creature in the vein of Rakdos Cackler. A 3/2 for 2 mana is a great bargain even if it can't block. Although it's possible this spot would be better served by another 1-drop such as Stromkirk Noble, I want to focus on creatures that continue to be relevant late into the game.

The Burn

Geistflame serves as a second 1-mana burn spell and is a great tool for taking out 1-drops such as Avacyn's Pilgrim and Arbor Elf. Although it does hurt you if you have an Ash Zealot on the field, that usually isn't much of a concern in a deck as aggressive as this one. Although there may not be many 1-toughness creatures around by the time you can pay the flashback cost, it still allows you to trigger Guttersnipe for an extra 2 damage, and you can exile it with Nivmagus Elemental to add some extra beef onto your creature.

Searing Spear is our Incinerate replacement, and although it’s not quite as effective as its older brother, it's still plenty good enough. Dealing 3 damage is not insignificant when trying to deal those last few points, and the ability to take out the Centaur token from Call of the Conclave is likely to be of some relevance.

Brimstone Volley is the finisher in the deck, taking your opponent from a relatively safe life total to nothing instantly. With a Guttersnipe on the board, this can deal a whopping 7 damage! Your opponent will often be forced into otherwise sub-optimal moves for fear of being taken out by this powerful game-ender.

Playtesting

Without any tournament-proven decklists to use, I'll be testing against the mono-black control list I wrote about last week.

Game 1

I drew Searing Spear, played a land, and cast the Chainwalker, unleashing it for the full 3 power. I ended my turn. My opponent played a Swamp and passed the turn.

I drew a Mountain, played it, and cast Ash Zealot. I attacked for 5 and passed the turn. My opponent played a Swamp and passed the turn.

I drew Guttersnipe and attacked for 5 again. My opponent killed the Chainwalker with Murder and took 2.

I cast Guttersnipe and passed the turn. My opponent played a Swamp and cast Barter in Blood, and I hit him for 3 with a Geistflame in response. My creatures died, and he passed the turn.

I drew Rakdos Cackler, played a Mountain, and cast it, making it a 2/2. I ended my turn. My opponent played a Swamp, cast Desecration Demon, and passed the turn. I flashed back Geistflame during his end step to drop him to 9.

I drew Geistflame and passed the turn. My opponent hit me for 6 with his Demon, then played a Swamp and cast Underworld Connections. He passed the turn, and I cast and flashed back Geistflame for 2 damage.

I drew Gore-House Chainwalker and attacked with Rakdos Cackler, which my opponent Murdered. I cast the Chainwalker, making it a 3/2, and passed the turn. My opponent paid 1 life to draw a card with Underworld Connections, then passed the turn.

I drew Nivmagus Elemental, cast it, and passed the turn. My opponent played a Swamp and dropped me to 8 with the Demon before passing the turn.

I drew a second Nivmagus Elemental and attacked with both creatures. Ultimate Price took out Gore-House Chainwalker, and my opponent dropped to 5. I cast the second Nivmagus Elemental and passed the turn. My opponent moved to combat, and I sacrificed an Elemental to tap the Demon. He passed the turn.

I drew Geistflame and attacked with my remaining Elemental. My opponent dropped to 4, and I finished him off with Geistflame and Searing Spear.

Game 2

He played another Swamp and ended his turn. I drew Rakdos Cackler, played my Mountain, and cast Rakdos Shred-Freak. I attacked for 2 and passed the turn.

My opponent played a Swamp, cast Vampire Nighthawk, and ended his turn. I drew Ash Zealot, killed the Nighthawk with Searing Spear, and swung in for another 2. I passed the turn.

My opponent played a Swamp and cast Desecration Demon before passing back. I drew Geistflame, cast an Ash Zealot, and passed the turn.

My opponent swung in for 6, then cast a second Desecration Demon and passed the turn. I drew a Mountain, played it, and cast Rakdos Cackler and Ash Zealot. I sacrificed the Cackler at the beginning of combat to tap the untapped Demon, then dropped my opponent to 10 with my other creatures. I ended my turn.

My opponent passed the turn with no play. I drew a Mountain, played it, and cast Rakdos Shred-Freak. I attacked with all four of my creatures. One Ash Zealot was killed by Murder, while the other was blocked by a Desecration Demon. The second Demon blocked a Rakdos Shred-Freak, and my opponent took a mere 2 damage from the whole affair. I passed the turn.

My opponent Murdered my last remaining creature and attacked me down to 1 with the pair of Demons. He ended his turn, and I dropped him to 5 with a Searing Spear. Unfortunately, I drew a Mountain on my turn and was unable to finish him off. (Any spell in the deck other than Guttersnipe or Brimstone Volley would have done the job.)

Game 3

I drew Geistflame, cast Ash Zealot, and attacked for 3. I ended my turn. My opponent played a Swamp and cast Sign in Blood. He ended his turn, discarding a Sign in Blood to go back down to seven cards.

I drew Ash Zealot, cast it, and attacked for 5. I passed the turn. My opponent played a Swamp and passed back.

I drew Guttersnipe and attacked for 5 again. My opponent Murdered my Nivmagus Elemental and dropped to 6. I ended my turn. He played a Swamp, then killed off my remaining creatures with Barter in Blood. He passed the turn.

I drew another Geistflame and passed the turn. My opponent played a Swamp, cast Underworld Connections, and passed back. I drew Rakdos Shred-Freak, cast it, and swung in for 2. I ended my turn. My opponent cast Barter in Blood to kill off my creature and passed the turn.

I drew Rakdos Cackler, played it as a 2/2, and passed the turn. My opponent killed it with Mutilate and ended his turn, and I dropped him to 3 with Geistflame during his end step.

I drew a Searing Spear and finished him off.

Wrapping Up

This deck is incredibly fast, and it has enough burn to provide a lot of reach if things get rough. Although the Guttersnipe/Nivmagus Elemental combination may not be the best way to go, it certainly adds a lot of spice to the deck, and I'm confident that mono-red has what it takes to compete in the new format.

Although Nivmagus Elemental didn't really get to show its stuff in this match, I think it's telling how highly my opponent valued it when considering targets for his removal. Even with a pair of Ash Zealots on the board, the potential damage it represented was too much to let it live. If you want to burn through opponents like rice paper or if you just enjoy the idea of a red deck with a bit of combo in it, try this out when the new format starts up. I have a feeling you won't be disappointed.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, you can find me on the forums under Twinblaze, on Twitter under @Twinblaze2, or simply leave a comment below.