Hello everyone. Whenever a new set drops, I always try to build a mono-colored deck in my favorite color, Red. If you're a player on Magic Arena, I'd suggest you also start with a mono-colored deck when a new set releases, because you'll end up spending fewer wildcards to get a decent deck than you would if you went multicolored. You can continue playing this deck while saving up the resources needed to create a second deck. I personally like playing Red decks because they usually offer fast play combined with decent damage output from various sources. This week I have a few different Red decks that you can try out. Let's get started.

Mono-Red Double Damage Solphim

We'll get started with a deck featuring Solphim, Mayhem Dominus that is capable of reducing your opponent's life total very quickly. Let's check it out.

Mono-Red Double Damage Solphim | Standard | Hexamyn, AetherHub

• Creatures (16)
• 1 Capricious Hellraiser
• 2 Phoenix Chick
• 2 Thermo-Alchemist
• 3 Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Vindictive Flamestoker

• Planeswalkers (7)
• 3 Koth, Fire of Resistance
• 4 Chandra, Dressed to Kill

• Instants (10)
• 2 Hexgold Slash
• 4 Lightning Strike
• 4 Play with Fire

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano

• Lands (23)
• 20 Mountain
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 2 Mishra's Foundry

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I expect Solphim, Mayhem Dominus to be a big player in Red decks for quite a while. While this Phyrexian Horror is on the battlefield, all noncombat damage you deal to your opponent or to a permanent they control will be doubled. Solphim also has an ability that allows it to become indestructible, which will put more pressure on your opponent to try to finish you off as quickly as possible.

Reducing your life total to zero might prove difficult for your opponent due to the number of spells you have that can deal direct damage to your opponent's creatures. Play with Fire deals two damage, while Lightning Strike will deal three. Hexgold Slash deals either two or four points of damage to target creature, depending on whether that creature has toxic. Remember that both Play with Fire and Lightning Strike can also target your opponent directly, so you might be able to ignore your opponent's creatures entirely.

Mono-Red Koth

Next, I have a deck for you that showcases the power of Koth, Fire of Resistance.

Mono-Red Koth | Standard | powrdragn (DeQuan Watson)

• Creatures (9)
• 2 Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
• 3 Sardian Cliffstomper
• 4 Kessig Flamebreather

• Planeswalkers (7)
• 1 Jaya, Fiery Negotiator
• 2 Chandra, Dressed to Kill
• 4 Koth, Fire of Resistance

• Instants (11)
• 2 Abrade
• 2 Rebel Salvo
• 3 Volt Charge
• 4 Voltage Surge

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Light Up the Night
• 2 Brotherhood's End
• 2 Obliterating Bolt

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Visions of Phyrexia
• 2 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki

• Artifacts (1)
• 1 Reckoner Bankbuster

• Lands (25)
• 25 Mountain

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If you don't need to utilize Koth's -3 loyalty ability, you'll be able to activate his ultimate -7 loyalty ability fairly quickly. This will give you an emblem that will deal four damage to any target whenever a Mountain enters the battlefield under your control. This is pretty similar to the damage dealt by Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, except you're likely to only have one copy of Koth in play, while Valakut is a land, so you could have multiple copies on the battlefield. You can still double the damage output from Koth's emblem by having Solphim, Mayhem Dominus in play.

This deck includes a single copy of Light Up the Night, which can be a great way to finish off your opponent. By casting Light Up the Night, you can turn all of your mana except for one into direct damage. Since Solphim will double the damage this sorcery deals, games can end quickly with this spell. Light Up the Night also has flashback, allowing you to deal damage based on the number of loyalty counters you remove from planeswalkers you control. By draining the loyalty from multiple planeswalkers, you can often finish off your opponent unexpectedly.

Mono-Red Midrange Trample

The final deck I have for you features a ton of trampling damage. Let's take a look at the deck.

Mono-Red Trample| Standard | HelloGoodGame, Aetherhub

• Creatures (17)
• 2 Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
• 3 Atsushi, the Blazing Sky
• 4 Devilish Valet
• 4 Sardian Cliffstomper
• 4 Skitterbeam Battalion

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Koth, Fire of Resistance

• Instants (2)
• 2 Rending Flame

• Sorceries (10)
• 3 Obliterating Bolt
• 3 Strangle
• 4 Brotherhood's End

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki

• Lands (24)
• 23 Mountain
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance

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This is another deck featuring Koth, Fire of Resistance, which means that Mountains will be plentiful. Because of that, Sardian Cliffstomper is a terrific creature to attack with. It gets a bonus to its power equal to the number of Mountains you control, if that number is at least four. Plus it has a 4 toughness, making it great for defending against most creatures. It is very vulnerable to Cut Down, however its benefits outweigh this vulnerability.

I mentioned that casting Skitterbeam Battalion earlier as a great way to trigger Devilish Valet, since it can be cast for just 5 mana due to its prototype ability. It is also very possible to cast this Construct for its full 9 mana value with the help of Atsushi, the Blazing Sky. When Atsushi dies, you can either choose to exile two cards from the top of your library that you can cast until the end of your next turn, or you can create three Treasure tokens. These Treasure tokens can help you reach the nine-mana needed to cast Skitterbeam Battalion for its full mana value, giving you three 4/4 creatures with trample and haste instead of making them 2/2's.

Wrapping Up

While all of these decks are Mono-Red, each provides you with a different route to victory. They share many similarities, and include some of the same cards, but each of these plays slightly differently than the others. This shows that each color in Magic has a lot of depth and provides many options for decks to be built. All Red decks aren't carbon copies of each other, which has been important in allowing Magic to be as successful as it is.

What do you think of these decks? Feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!