Red Gift Standard Deck Tech (Subscriber Justin Thomas Submission)
Today we have our first ever subscriber submitted deck tech. If you would like to put one of your own creations up for publication and public scrutiny, email me at mtgstrategist@gmail.com. I ask that your submitted deck be somewhat original. And with that, I will turn this over to Justin Thomas.
Hey everybody, my name is Justin and thanks for checking out my very first Magic the Gathering article. To show my appreciation, allow me to present you with a gift.
This deck is humbly titled "Red Gift", and it may look plain, simple and unworthy of any attention. It is meant to be this way. The main deck is a vanilla variant of Mono-Red Aggro, which leaves room for personal choices. By no means is this a final decklist, but it has proven its worthiness in playtesting. One choice that I made was to put Rekindling Phoenix at the top of the mana curve rather than Hazoret. This was because of the Phoenix's evasion and doesn't limit my hand size like Hazoret. Plus, with the rise of Settle the Wreckage and other board wipes, I don't think it is correct to over commit to the board just to keep your Hazoret online.
Chandra is an auto-include in the deck due to raw power and versatility, and in this deck, she is used as a removal source in addition to providing card advantage. I have been playing this version of the deck for a while, and I've never personally used her ultimate because players usually understand the threat she presents and tend to make reckless moves to get her off the battlefield, opening themselves up to aggressive creature attacks and burn.
The Mainboard:
Creatures (29)
4 Rigging Runner
4 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
4 Earthshaker Khenra
4 Bomat Courier
2 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
3 Flameblade Adept
4 Rekindling Phoenix
Planeswalker (2)
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Instant/Sorcery (7)
3 Abrade
4 Lightning Strike
Land (22)
4 Sunscorched Desert
18 Mountain
Sideboard
4 Combat Celebrant
4 Gate to the Afterlife
4 Battlefield Scavenger
1 Flameblade Adept
2 God-Pharaoh's Gift
Now let's talk about what makes this deck so different and so much fun to play; the switch. Red Gift has a transformative sideboard that preys upon the average player's inclination to increase removal and board wipes when sideboarding. In response we become a God-Pharaoh's Gift combo deck.
God-Pharaoh's Gift combo deck:
Creatures (32)
4 Rigging Runner
4 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
4 Earthshaker Khenra
4 Bomat Courier
4 Flameblade Adept
4 Battlefield Scavenger
4 Combat Celebrant
Artifacts (6)
4 Gate to the Afterlife
2 God-Pharaoh's Gift
Land(22)
4 Sunscorched Desert
18 Mountain
Sideboard out Abrade, Lightning Strike, Chandra, Kari Zev, and Rekindling Phoenix. Bring in the entire sideboard.
In game 1 we seek victory through brute force, but in game 2 we take advantage of our opponent's established fear by understanding what most players do when sideboarding against Mono-Red Aggro. Notionally, players will add more instant removal and play defensively. We counter this with Gate to the Afterlife, which doubles down on the 32 creatures in the mainboard. Essentially, every creature's death counts as two bodies of damage, ultimately overtaxing their removal resources. Incidental life gain provides a buffer that is required when facing off against midrange/aggro decks, allowing us time to complete the combo. The combo can also be sped up with Bomat Courier and Fanatical Firebrand, which allow for turn 4 and 5 God-Pharaoh's Gift casting. In testing, it was not all that rare to have two GPGs active by turn 5.
Resistance to disruption.
Flameblade Adept + Battlefield Scavenger + Ahn-Crop Crasher (or Combat Celebrant)
Flameblade Adept will grow (+1/0) in response to Battlefield Scavenger triggers, which in turn will trigger from exert. This synergy fuels our graveyard while also attacking for a relatively high amount of damage. If they kill creatures, Gate to the Afterlife gets better; if they remove Gate to the Afterlife, they are opening themselves up for even more damage; and if they remove our graveyard, we can just fill it up again.
The win condition.
Combat Celebrant + God-Pharaoh's Gift
This combo is very simple and very powerful while feeding back into all of the previous synergies. GPG revives Combat Celebrant at the beginning of combat, which exerts and generates another combat phase. GPG can then revive another Combat Celebrant which can generate another combat phase. This combo will continue until all of the Combat Celebrants in the graveyard are used up. This leads to 3 to 4 combat steps in a given turn. I have, in testing, generated this combo as soon as turn 4, and I haven't lost a game yet when the combo is active before turn 6. Also, having Earthshaker Khenra and Ahn-Crop Crasher makes blocking your creatures extremely difficult.
Thanks for checking out my deck tech. I look forward to your comments.
Hey everybody, my name is Justin and thanks for checking out my very first Magic the Gathering article. To show my appreciation, allow me to present you with a gift.
This deck is humbly titled "Red Gift", and it may look plain, simple and unworthy of any attention. It is meant to be this way. The main deck is a vanilla variant of Mono-Red Aggro, which leaves room for personal choices. By no means is this a final decklist, but it has proven its worthiness in playtesting. One choice that I made was to put Rekindling Phoenix at the top of the mana curve rather than Hazoret. This was because of the Phoenix's evasion and doesn't limit my hand size like Hazoret. Plus, with the rise of Settle the Wreckage and other board wipes, I don't think it is correct to over commit to the board just to keep your Hazoret online.
Chandra is an auto-include in the deck due to raw power and versatility, and in this deck, she is used as a removal source in addition to providing card advantage. I have been playing this version of the deck for a while, and I've never personally used her ultimate because players usually understand the threat she presents and tend to make reckless moves to get her off the battlefield, opening themselves up to aggressive creature attacks and burn.
The Mainboard:
Creatures (29)
4 Rigging Runner
4 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
4 Earthshaker Khenra
4 Bomat Courier
2 Kari Zev, Skyship Raider
3 Flameblade Adept
4 Rekindling Phoenix
Planeswalker (2)
2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Instant/Sorcery (7)
3 Abrade
4 Lightning Strike
Land (22)
4 Sunscorched Desert
18 Mountain
Sideboard
4 Combat Celebrant
4 Gate to the Afterlife
4 Battlefield Scavenger
1 Flameblade Adept
2 God-Pharaoh's Gift
Now let's talk about what makes this deck so different and so much fun to play; the switch. Red Gift has a transformative sideboard that preys upon the average player's inclination to increase removal and board wipes when sideboarding. In response we become a God-Pharaoh's Gift combo deck.
God-Pharaoh's Gift combo deck:
Creatures (32)
4 Rigging Runner
4 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Ahn-Crop Crasher
4 Earthshaker Khenra
4 Bomat Courier
4 Flameblade Adept
4 Battlefield Scavenger
4 Combat Celebrant
Artifacts (6)
4 Gate to the Afterlife
2 God-Pharaoh's Gift
Land(22)
4 Sunscorched Desert
18 Mountain
Sideboard out Abrade, Lightning Strike, Chandra, Kari Zev, and Rekindling Phoenix. Bring in the entire sideboard.
In game 1 we seek victory through brute force, but in game 2 we take advantage of our opponent's established fear by understanding what most players do when sideboarding against Mono-Red Aggro. Notionally, players will add more instant removal and play defensively. We counter this with Gate to the Afterlife, which doubles down on the 32 creatures in the mainboard. Essentially, every creature's death counts as two bodies of damage, ultimately overtaxing their removal resources. Incidental life gain provides a buffer that is required when facing off against midrange/aggro decks, allowing us time to complete the combo. The combo can also be sped up with Bomat Courier and Fanatical Firebrand, which allow for turn 4 and 5 God-Pharaoh's Gift casting. In testing, it was not all that rare to have two GPGs active by turn 5.
Resistance to disruption.
Flameblade Adept + Battlefield Scavenger + Ahn-Crop Crasher (or Combat Celebrant)
Flameblade Adept will grow (+1/0) in response to Battlefield Scavenger triggers, which in turn will trigger from exert. This synergy fuels our graveyard while also attacking for a relatively high amount of damage. If they kill creatures, Gate to the Afterlife gets better; if they remove Gate to the Afterlife, they are opening themselves up for even more damage; and if they remove our graveyard, we can just fill it up again.
The win condition.
Combat Celebrant + God-Pharaoh's Gift
This combo is very simple and very powerful while feeding back into all of the previous synergies. GPG revives Combat Celebrant at the beginning of combat, which exerts and generates another combat phase. GPG can then revive another Combat Celebrant which can generate another combat phase. This combo will continue until all of the Combat Celebrants in the graveyard are used up. This leads to 3 to 4 combat steps in a given turn. I have, in testing, generated this combo as soon as turn 4, and I haven't lost a game yet when the combo is active before turn 6. Also, having Earthshaker Khenra and Ahn-Crop Crasher makes blocking your creatures extremely difficult.
Thanks for checking out my deck tech. I look forward to your comments.
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