RDW has been getting alot of love lately from my fellow magicians. This red mage Renewal is probably spurned by some exciting new cards in Shadowmoor. With the re-introduction of hybrid mana red gets access to lots more spells that normally aren't indigenous to the color, and instead borrow common themes from two colors. For example,
This guy is HUGE, a 6/6 for five mana, with the trampling effect that most commonly falls under green in the color wheel, and a reusable LD effect that most would associate with red. There has been alot of talk about Ponza since the spoilers started, and coupled with the new LD options available to red make this very possible in standard.
Ponza
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Fulminator Mage
4 Avalanche Riders
4 Sulfurous Blast
4 Rift Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Deus of Calamity
4 Tarmagoyf
3 Murderous Redcap
2 Mind Stone
4 Treetop Village
4 Fire-lit Village
4 Mutavult
4 Karplusan Forest
5 Mountain
2 Forest
This deck has two main routes of disruption, land destruction in the form of Fulminator Mage, Avalanche Riders, and Deus of Calamity, and a fairly standard burn suite to throw your opponent off guard. One thing I'm worried about with this is all of your land destruction will be coming online on turn three, at the earliest, and LD has normally been most effective in disrupting your opponents early game, and if twelve slots of the deck are dedicated to a strategy that Falters by the time I can play them, I wonder if this kind of deck is worth pursuing.
Elementals seemed to get a huge push in Shadowmoor, and a streamlined aggro burn deck concentrating on getting your opponent from 20 to 0 as fast as possible seems possible. Cards like Ashenmoor Gouger give you undercosted fat to make sure you can be as efficient as possible in killing the person sitting acrost from you.
Elemental Deck Wins
4 Tattermunge Maniac
4 Flamekin Bladewhirl
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Ashenmoor Gouger
3 Fulminator Mage
4 Ashenmoor Liege
3 Murderous Redcap
4 Incinerate
4 Flame Javelin
4 Rift Bolt
18 mountain
4 Ghitu Encampment
This deck is all about efficiency, with eight overpowered one drops the beats start coming in early and (hopefully) don't stop. Ashenmoor Liege gives a full +2/+2 bonus to most of the creatures in this deck and coupled with Murderous Redcap, he seems like the breakout star of this deck. The landbase has a shocking lack of mutavult, but this can be accreddited to the presence of so many demanding casting costs, namely Ashenmoor Gouger and Flame Javelin. I would rather be able to play the spells in my hand than have a 2/2 dooder any day of the week.
Greater Gargadon has been a staple of standard aggro decks since block season. With the new persist mechanic more creatures have benefits when sacrificed to big gargs, breathing new life into the deck. This particular build is more experimental, using a creature base that can function without Greater Gargadon, but relies on it heavily to really shine.
Gargadon 2k8
4 Greater Gargadon
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Tarmagoyf
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Mogg War Marshall
4 Murderous Redcap 4 Rift Bolt
4 Tarfire
4 Incinerate
4 Flame Javelin
4 Karplusan Forest
4TreetopVillage
4 Fire-Lit Thicket
8 Mountain
Kitchen Finks seems to be the most questionable maindeck card, and it might be better for the sideboard, but this is just to get some of the creative juices flowing. Join me next time while I go over sideboards and matchup's for these decks.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to sound off in the forums, or email me at harrisonpostlersemail@yahoo.com
Tags: Red Deck Wins Shadowmoor
Related to:
Magic: the Gathering
