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Main » Articles » Mountain-Filled, M12 Bliss

Mountain-Filled, M12 Bliss

Chingsung Chang
Posted on June 28, 2011
 Reddit

Dan Paskins must have died recently and gone to heaven. So, I suppose many of you have been keeping up with M12 spoilers, but, for those of you living under a rock, the following two cards are going to be Standard-legal again in a few months:

Both of these cards play very nicely with some existing cards, and it looks like a variety of mono-Red deck are going to be very strong for the Standard PTQ season, especially with the death of Caw-Blade. Let’s take a look at the various tools that exist for the Mountain-wielding mage. Creatures will be divided by mana, as mana curve is still an important design parameter for aggro decks today.

0-drops:

1-drops:

2-drops:

3-drops:

“More expensive stuff”:

Burn:

Other:

This list is probably not exhaustive, but it does contain the majority of the things you might want to play. Let’s take a look the two main types of decks that emerge from the “ashes”: mono-Red aggro and Big Red.

Building the Aggro Deck

Both of our new M12 toys come into play here. Grim Lavamancer is an excellent way of establishing reach, and there are enough viable Goblins running around that Goblin Grenade could easily see play. Consider something like this:

"Kuldotha Goblins"

This is probably not optimal, but this list is definitely capable of some very scary openings, and will almost certainly have a Goblin lying around to sac to the Grenade, which provides a huge amount of reach. I mean, the deck is almost all creatures, but the existence of Lavamancer and Grenade provide a deceptively large burn capacity. If you prefer a less all-in variety, you could go with something along these lines:

"Goblins"

This deck has a really scary amount of “burn” as Grim Lavamancer, Ember Hauler, Goblin Fireslinger, Goblin Grenade, Lightning Bolt, and Shrine of Burning Rage all go over the top. It’s reasonable that this deck might actually never need to deal a point of damage in combat, although it is quite capable of simply running you over with little red men. Speaking of burn decks, why don’t we just try to do 20 over the top?

"Burn"

The Dismembers are a concession to Splinter Twin. It’s possible the deck has enough burn to be able to waste two spells on the Exarch, but I’d rather start with a one-for-one. If the deck proves it can handle Exarch without it, Dismember could easily become Burst Lightning.

Of course, we haven’t even really got into more traditional-style aggro decks, like so:

"Sligh"

Or maybe you just want to kill your opponent as fast as possible, so you play something along these lines:

"Deadguy Red"

This is just scratching the surface of the various possibilities that exist for aggro decks. Find a card group that fits your style and smash face. Still, you can play Mountains even if you aren’t attacking for 2. You can attack for a lot more than 2 if you want. I think there might be something with two various types of Big Red decks—one based on Proliferate and one that isn’t. Grim Lavamancer is nice here too, as he provides bonus burn and keeps the board clear of small creatures. Consider:

"Traditional Big Red"

"Proliferate Big Red"

The interesting thing about the Proliferate deck is that it is reasonably possible to go completely creatureless, blanking all your opponent’s creature removal. Because Chandra and Koth both start relatively near their ultimates in terms of loyalty, it’s actually feasible to proliferate them up to full loyalty and then ultimate them. The deck probably wants a fourth Slagstorm though, potentially at the expense of one Sphere of the Suns.

Either way, Everflowing Chalice + Contagion Clasp is capable of generating a large amount of mana very quickly, making something along the lines of Chandra + Volt Charge + Contagion Clasp activation a reasonable turn, leaving you with a Chandra that can immediately pop for 10 when it comes in. If that doesn’t kill your opponent, it will probably wipe his board, leaving you able to kill him with Lightning Bolt, Slagstorm, or even Koth, who is also very close to his ultimate with this deck.

Regardless of what route you choose, M12 is clearly good times for Mountain-wielding mages. The options are endless and varied, and you have many, many different ways of lighting your opponent on fire. I’ve covered a few of the ones that look promising to me, but these ideas aren’t the only ones available. The arrival of Grim Lavamancer on the scene is the big game-changer, but I think Goblin Grenade will make itself felt. 1 mana for 5 damage is simply too good of a damage ratio not to see play, especially when there are so many good Goblins running around already.

Until next time, may everything you touch burst into flame.

Chingsung Chang

Conelead most everywhere and on MTGO

Khan32k5 at gmail dot com

TAGS articles, constructed, sligh, red, chingsung chang, standard, magic 2012, m12

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