Red Deck Wins (sometimes)

[hitman]

Hi Guys,

I want to share some experiences I made in the last weeks with one of the most infamous and unloved decks to play against - RDW.
A couple of weeks ago I watched a video from Tabris column and saw a game in which RDW got totally destroyed by a Bant deck after having a premium start with Black Vise and removal and some aggressive dudes. The one big thing that breaks RDW in half is Thragtusk and I thought something like: “Ok if every GW based deck starts to run this next to Kitchen Finks, Scavenging Ooze,  Restoration Angel,  Natural Order and Eladamri’s Call,  RDW will lose all of his competitiveness.”  So I put the good old Mono Red deck further away than it even was at that time.

Some weeks later after I played a lot of games with many other decks the TNM in Karlsruhe happened and was held on Thursday instead of Tuesday. So I and two other players from the Mannheim Highlander Community decided to hit the road and aim for glory. Because I wasn’t satisfied with my actual brew I decided to give RDW one last try.

Here is the decklist for that tournament :

24 Mountain
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Wasteland
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Shivan Gorge
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Mutavault
1 Rishadan Port
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Mox Diamond

1 Goblin Guide
1 Stromkirk Noble
1 Frenzied Goblin
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Reckless Waif
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Tattermunge Maniac
1 Vexing Devil
1 Hellspark Elemental
1 Stigma Lasher
1 Stormblood Berserker
1 Ember Hauler
1 Keldon Marauders
1 Slith Firewalker
1 Blood Knight
1 Ash Zealot
1 Kiln Fiend
1 Chandra's Phoenix
1 Chandra's Spitfire
1 Hell's Thunder
1 Ball Lightning
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Boggart Ram-Gang
1 Blistering Firecat
1 Keldon Champion
1 Archwing Dragon

1 Lava Spike
1 Lava Dart
1 Rolling Earthquake
1 Chain Lightning
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Burst Lightning
1 Forked Bolt
1 Firebolt
1 Incinerate
1 Magma Jet
1 Sudden Shock
1 Price of Progress
1 Fire Ambush
1 Chain of Plasma
1 Volcanic Hammer
1 Flame Rift
1 Arc Trail
1 Searing Spear
1 Searing Blaze
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Flame Javelin
1 Rhystic Lightning
1 Rift Bolt
1 Char
1 Acidic Soil
1 Flames of the Blood Hand
1 Molten Rain
1 Pillage
1 Pulse of the Forge
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Browbeat
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Ruination
1 Fireblast
1 Thunderous Wrath

1 Black Vise
1 Shrine of Burning Rage
1 Ankh of Mishra
1 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Blood Moon
1 Koth of the Hammer

I didn’t take notes and don’t remember everything but I will try to …

18.10.12 TNM Karlsruhe

Round 1: Vazdru  (UB Control feat Buried Alive Combo) – die roll: me

G1: I simply lost to the mulligan and was no match for him.
G2: I had a really fast hand and Stigma Lasher hit him in turn 3 so I was safe from lifegain recovery.
G3: Superflood vs. Superscrew ended with the happy outcome for me. 

1:0 (2:1)

Round 2: Dennis (Bant) – die roll: Dennis

G1: He overpowered me with t1 mana dude + mental misstep, t2 big guy, t3 Elspeth, Knight Errant and in the end a daze for my lethal Price of progress.
G2 and G3 I don’t remember the games well but if I am right one of them was very close and the other one was dominated by Blood Moon.

2:0 (4:2)

Round 3: Sven (RUG) – die roll: Sven

G1: His tempo counter + some dudes finish me off.
G2: Sorry, no memory
G3: Magus of the Moon destroyed his manabase and Sulfuric Vortex added the clock.

3:0 (6:3)

So I surprisingly got to the “final”

Round 4: Goblinpiledriver (5c Aggro) – dice roll: GP

G1: He started with land go and I did the same way. Turn two again land go from him. I drop Rishadan Port and tapped one of his lands during upkeep so he still had nothing to play except a land. My Blood Moon hit the board for the instant win.
G2: He started with a tapped Stomping Ground and said go. I dropped Mutavault + Mox Diamand for t1 Ankh of Mishra. He took five damage from his Flooded Strand to play Stoneforge Mystic. Shrine of the Burning Rage followed by Goblin Guide added some more pressure. He played land +Brindle Boar and decided to attack with both of his creatures what I think was wrong. I played another land and attacked with Guide + Mutavault beating him to seven.  He refused to make any moves on his turn so the eot Price of Progress put him down to 1 life and made the shrine count more than lethal.

4:0 (8:6)

The deck did much better than expected. The metagame in Karlsruhe wasn’t flooded with the omnipresent GWu+X Archetype but was still in multicolored hands. Seven out of thirteen decks contained at least three colors which in the end enabled the nonbasic hate of RDW pretty good.

Two weeks later I had some personal stuff to do in Thüringen and with Fortuna’s help the first qualifier for the “Win a Dual" series of the Comic Attack Erfurt fell on the same date. So after a long time I participated in a highlander tournament at the place I once started playing highlander. The decklist got only one change. Browbeat didn’t made the cut and was replaced by Rakdos Cackler.

01.11.12 “Win a Dual" Qualifier Erfurt

Round 1: Roy (Esper Control) – die roll: Roy

G1: I didn’t see much of his deck because he was colorscrewed and after Ruination superscrewed.
G2: He had some counters and removal but after Ruination again my dudes finish him off.

5:0 (10:6)

Round 2: Max (4C Goodstuff) – die roll: me

G1: He was flooded and I burned him out shortly before he could finish me off.
G2: He had a mediocre start again while I have Tattermunge Maniac and Mishra’s Factory. He stabilized with Green Sun’s Zenith on Kitchen Finks but the topdecked Price of Progress + Incinerate + Fireblast were enough to bring him down from ten to zero.

6:0 (12:6)

Round 3: Justus (UWR  feat. Kiki Jiki) – die roll: Justus

G1: T1 Goblin Guide + t2 Ankh of Mishra = scoop
G2:  I don’t remember much but he has some counter + removal but in the end not enough pressure on his own side to win so I was able to finish him just in time.

7:0 (14:6)

Round 4: Thomas (UWR Tempo) – die roll: Thomas

G1: I believe he starts with t1 mox diamond + Island and a cantrip but I am absolutely not sure about this game. All I know is that I missed the point to kill his magus just because I thought it would be enough to go straight to the head and in the end I lost with my opponent on 1 life.
G2: I start with t1 Blackvise. He played a cantrip in his turn letting him stay on seven hand cards. Next turn I played Hellspark Elemental but he had drawn Force of Will to destroy all of my pressure at once. A way to long fight starts but in the end I was able to bring him to zero.
G3: A good start for both players with very tight plays on both sides, but in the end Shrine of the Burning Rage was the MVP in this game.

8:0 (16:7)

The second strike. Again I got the feeling that the local metagame wasn’t prepared for RDW. By watching the other games (yeah RDW matches are extremely fast) I have seen a lot of tempodecks with 3 to 5 colors. I can’t say that for sure because I didn’t see everyone’s deck, but I believe there was only one other deck with less than 3 colors.

Two days later we had the monthly Highlander Tournament in the Wizard’s Well Mannheim. After testing against Maqi and his new Oath-Combo-Hybrid build and the fact that RDW doesn’t stand a chance against his deck I wasn’t sure about playing monored again.  But on the other hand the deck went so well the last two times that it wouldn’t make sense not to try it. The most important thing would be to dodge Maqi and his new brew. The deck itself doesn’t change since Erfurt.

03.11.12 Wizard’s Well Mannheim

Round 1: Maqi …did anyone expect someone else at this point? After a short thinking about why this jesus guy hates me that much justice strikes back and it turns out he is playing a different deck.

Maqi (5C Goodstuff) – die roll: Maqi

G1: He had a slow start while I wasn’t able to find a third land in early turns. But after finding it, Blood Moon makes his mana base useless und Price of Progress hits him for lethal.
G2: His first turn Aether Vial was golden against my little guys and his Voices from the Void hit for full five.
G3: I started with Tattermunge Maniac while he played a land and said go. On my turn I played land attack go.  He decides to play Three Visits for basic Forest and dropped Birds of Paradise. I killed his BIrds with Searing Blaze after playing a land and attacked him down to 12. Maqi uses his turn to play Coalition Relic that totally ruined my Ruination plan. I dropped Barbarian Ring and still played Ruination leaving us both on three mana. Eot he puts a counter on his relic and uses the extra mana to play Vendilion Clique stripping me of Incinerate and suspending an Ancestral Visions. Next turn Maniac traded with clique and I put Kiln Fiend and Frenzied Goblin on the board, hoping to bring him down to zero next turn with the Sudden Shock in my hand. Goodstuff did what Goodstuff is known for. Demonic Tutor into Arc Trail and the game was totally open at this point. I drew the anti joker Mox Diamand and he played Batterskull. That seemed to be the end for me but Flame Javelin bought some time again. In his turn he played a Sylvan Library and took back Batterskull while I did’t draw the right business or a land, still sitting on three Mana unable to play all of my hand for the final blow. He hit me with Batterskull bringing him back to nine life. Afterwards he played Snapcaster Mage for Demonic again and played the tutored Spellskite. I responded with Brimestone Volley putting him to six. My only hand card left was Burst Lightning and he was tapped out. What could win a game at this point?
Right, Price of Progress from the top plus Burst Lightning for exact six damgage! What an intense game.

9:0 ( 18:8 )

Round 2: Giuseppe (RUG Scapeshift) – die roll: Giuseppe

G1: A good start with Kiln Fiend and a golden Pillage seals my victory by preventing him from going off with the lethal Scapeshift just in time.
G2: His second turn Wall of Roots bought him enough time to play Primal Command for seven life and Thragtusk. And after Natural Order into Titan the game was over.
G3: I spoiled into the absolute on-the-play-nutz with Black Vise and Ankh of Mishra so he scooped turn two.

10:0 (20:9)

Round 3: Stephan Schwarz (UW Control) – die roll: Stephan

G1: Turn one Mox Diamand + Mutavault and an unleashed Rakdos Cackler followed by Rishadan Port were enough to win before he could start to fight back.
G2:  I had a mediocre start and was screwed on two lands until turn 8-9 so Kitchen Finks  and Phyrexian Metamorph into Kitchen finks 2.0 followed by Wrath of God into another two Kitchen Finks brought him the win.
G3: I had a good hand with Goblin Guide, Rakdos Cackler, Lightning Bolt, a card I don’t remember and three lands but my deck decided to turn against me. After a quick beating he was able to stabilize with Wrath followed by Stoneforge Mystic finding Batterskull while all I draw was lands, more lands and Ankh of Mishra.

So I finally lost due to the fact that even RDW can have bad draws... but that’s how magic is. And at least it was an innovative deck that beat me.

10:1 ( 21:11 )

Round 4: Goblinpiledriver ( 5C Aggro ) – die roll: GP

G1: He Started with a tapped Temple Garden. I dropped Goblin Guide to start the beat down. His first play was Skyshroud Elite followed by Loam Lion. I burned his lion and attacked again. He wanted to stabilize with Lotus Cobra plus Grim Lavamancer. Perfect time to draw Rolling Earthquake and after I violated his side of the board Goblin Guide hit again. He still didn’t have enough and tried to come back but in the end all I needed was waiting till Price of Progress got lethal - and so it happened.
G2: I had a slow Hand and he used his second turn Sylvan Library to find everything he needed. His premium move was Bloodbraid Elf into Shardless Agent into Tribal Flames followed by Elspeth, Knight Errant one turn later.
G3: Close game with dudes and removal on both sides. Vithian Renegades prevented him from getting burned by my heavy loaded Shrine of the Burning Rage. He filled the board with some other creatures to set up the final attack but again MVP Price of Progress punished him for playing with a five colored mana base by hitting him for eight damage leaving only two life points left. Lava Spike from the top burned him out.

11:1 ( 23:12)

In the end I got second place and barely missed the hatrick but the performance of the deck was still good. The meta was full of GW(u) based decks. The UW Control that beat me in round 3 and finished on first place was the only other deck with less than three colors.


The resume:

RDW is still a competitive deck that can beat nearly everything. Especially in an unprepared meta it can be extreme brutal with its mix of speed and nonbasic hate. Price of Progress as a card is far beyond balanced. I didn’t lose a single match when it resolved and the one time where it was countered it would have been lethal in a game that was actually totally dominated by my opponent.

Regardless to the fact that I totally suck at die rolling it was a nice experience to play in three different cities and so three different submetas. All in all 3C+ decks are the most played around. But there are still differences. For example the meta in Erfurt is more dominated by tempodecks while in Mannheim most of the decks are more goodstuff oriented.

I hope you liked this report. Feel free to comment on the deck or on something else, that I said in this report. I would be glad to hear your thoughts. Thx and see you all soon!

[Sworn]

Great report(s) and info from you...thank you.
But I had to smile sometimes while reading this, because a RDW is a very common and dangerous deck in our country(meta). When building a deck here, you still have to think about facing a RDW so 5C goodstuff and similar decks are totally dominated by this and it´s not very good choice to try play 4C or 5C decks here. Even less color decks must be builded in warning of all that nonbasic or land hate.
But in our meta we do have a lot of 3C decks (Naya, Esper, UWx, combo and so on) but every deck must everytime count with decks with red and land hate within it. For example deck must try to have maximum count of basic lands as possible and even very successfull UW tempo deck have to play cards like Kor Firewalker (for real!).
This made happen, that control and highmana curve decks totally disappear from our field. Combo decks are still present, because they can be quick and effective, but even slower decks must have transformed and push their mana curve very low to stand off and be able to play against those aggresive (red) decks.
I wish I could be able to sometimes play against all you people from germany and other countries to try and teach our experience about this magnificent format.
That was just my 2 cents around RDW issue...didn´t want to bother

[MMD]

Thanks for your detailed report hand congratulation for your winning streak. RDW is capable of having such streaks with perfect draws and/or avoiding difficult cards/matchups. I don't want to deny your success but reading your report your and your opponents draws (e.g. several PoPs, no Thragtusks/Baneslayers...) certainly helped.

RDW is one of the few decks which can destroy Goodstuff decks with the right draws, which is very important to keep multicolour decks in check. I am glad that RDW is in our Meta and I believe it is another DTB. Every deck should pass the RDW test before going to a tournament.

My personal problem with RDW is that there are no Islands in it  Seriously, even if I wouldn't mind to leave Islands at home I wouldn't choose RDW as I do not feel that it is possible to control the game itself with it. RDW will give you the cards which will often win but also sometimes horribly loose. I certainly also loose with my blue decks, but it feels like I have a choice which I do not think this is something RDW can offer that much.

Based on the pure strength of the deck it is underrepresented in Germany. I think the reason for it is that people (especially the ones which think that they are good enough to win tournaments) like to control things and RDW is an uncontrollable beast in most of the cases. But you can also see this in pro-play (not saying I play like one). Many (wannabee) pro-players choose non-fast aggro strategies as they think that their smartness will win them the game on the longer run.

[Vazdru]

thx for the nice report

personally i'm not very surprised RDW is still tier 1 as it won the biggest HL event ever with 164 players in Hanau at the beginning of this year http://mtgpulse.com/event/4985#66036

but i can also remember the tournament in which u played a similiar deck...where u faced UGB-Reanimator-Oath and a turn 2 Iona in one game and turn 2 oath + turn 3 Simic Sky Swallower in the other (http://www.magicplayer.org/forum/index.php?topic=186.45...)

btw. the power of RDW could probably a valid argument for all the guys who don't wanna have more tutors banned - thesis: RDW becomes c. p. stronger with every tutor on the banned list

[Doks]

Thanks for sharing. This backs up my theory that a lot of people actually aren't aware of the power of pure aggro. People cry about "spells on legs" + creature's utility level and try to beat Goodstuff but forget about all the super aggressive undercosted beaters that were released in the past 2-3 years.

Doesn't matter if it is mono red, Boros or Naya, they only differ from each other by 1 or two nuances (mono R has brutal nonbasic hate + more burn whereas Naya has retarded shit like Nacatl). People don't play them not because they are not competitive, but rather because they just don't feel like it (I would never touch a deck without blue, but apparently that's just people like MMD and me I guess ).

I asked a friend to join our tournament in Dortmund and he immediately went 3-1 going top4 only because of bad opponent score. Except for round 1 where he lost 1-2, he ended all other rounds in under 30 minutes because the local meta game is not prepared for pure aggro style decks. They still are absurdly strong and I am SO looking forward the two upcoming big tournaments in december. A competent aggro pilot will have good chances while everyone focuses on beating Goodstuff and midrange Bant stuff decks.