Hey guys, DannyO back again and this time I wanted to go in depth on the deck that got 2nd place at the SCG Open I wrote about in my last article.
The deck is R/W Aggro and here's the list to refresh your memory.
R/W Aggro by,
Danny Goldstein:
Lands: 23
4 Battlefield Forge
2 Mana Confluence
6 Mountain
5 Plains
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Wind-Scarred Crag
Creatures: 12
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Monastery Mentor
3 Seeker of the Way
1 Soulfire Grand Master
Spells: 25
2 Collateral Damage
4 Hordeling Outburst
4 Lightning Strike
3 Magma Jet
2 Outpost Siege
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Stoke the Flames
2 Valorous Stance
Sideboard: 15
2 Hushwing Gryff
1 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Erase
2 Magma Spray
2 Wild Slash
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 End Hostilities
2 Glare of Heresy
Let's start from the beginning in my FRF brew and the reason why I'm most excited to talk about this archetype.
I was at my weekly team meeting a couple weeks ago and we were talking about the FRF spoilers. At that time, we had the entire list. We were talking about the cards that might be good and brainstorming some deck ideas. I had been playing Red Deck Wins for a couple weeks so my mind was kind of focused there while we were discussing the new cards. Specifically, Monastery Mentor and Soulfire Grand Master. The more I thought about them, the more I realized that they would be ridiculous paired with red. So, I opened up my deck builder app on my phone and started throwing a list together. The deck was lots of 4-ofs and pretty straightforward. The creature base ended up like this:
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Soulfire Grand Master
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Monastery Mentor
Then, to get the most use out of Mentor, I figured I'd want as many playable 1 cost spells as possible as well as the best burn spells in the format, so I went with something like this;
4 Collateral Damage
4 Wild Slash
4 Magma Jet
4 Stoke the Flames
2 Break Through the Line
2 Deflecting Palm
2 Tormenting Voice
After running a few games, it became painfully obvious that it wasn't working. Convoking Stoke was almost impossible with the lack of red creatures, the curve was clunky and slow, it just didn't work. I wanted to put in Hordeling Outburst to help with Stoke the Flames, but I didn't want to clog up the 3-drop slot. Instead, I jammed in 4 Raise the Alarm in place of the Voices and Breaks for the thought of having more pressure on board. While Raise the Alarm was great, the rest of the deck wasn't flowing very well still. I wasn't sure what to do with it. I went home and slept on it.
The next day I thought a lot about Soulfire Grand Master and realized that he isn't good in the early game. He's not a straight-up replacement for Seeker of the Way, so I cut the Soulfires to 2, and got in 4 Seekers. After a few more games, it was definitely playing much better but still not close to being good. At least I was on the right track. I took it to FNM that week and it played better than expected. I decided to keep working on it. At the next team meeting, I continued testing it and was still hesitant to put it Hordeling Outburst because then it was just too close to Jeskai Tokens, but eventually came to and put it in. At this point, I think the deck looked closer to this:
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Seeker of the Way
2 Soulfire Grand Master
4 Monastery Mentor
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Hordeling Outburst
4 Magma Jet
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Wild Slash
I was pretty happy with this list, but it just kept feeling like it was missing something...
Fellow team member Nick Crabbs had been playing Jeskai Tokens and eventually convinced me to just play his deck. I was so close to his list, that I caved and made the changes. However, I went home that night and started writing on the SCG Open top 8 lists and saw that the R/W Aggro deck that got 2nd place was really close to where I was on my list. This gave me a lot of hope for the deck, but I didn't make any changes. It was late and I slept on it again. I woke up this morning to an email from SCG recapping that event and even had a little blog about that deck. The writer of that column made an interesting point. He thought that the deck was missing something... ME TOO!!!
He compared it to U/W Heroic where their goal is to put out a threat and let it win the game on its own while protecting it. In my deck however, the threat is Rabblemaster or Mentor. The only problem was I didn't have anything to protect them with. Then he said something that blew my mind... Thoughtseize!
Probably the best 1-mana hand disruption spell in the entire game, but it's a third color. Well, splashing for black makes it Mardu and mana is pretty nice for wedges right now so it's really not that far-fetched. It makes sense too. It's able to pick out spot removal and board wipe spells like Anger of the Gods, End Hostilities and Crux of Fate, allowing you more opportunities to untap with a Mentor or Rabble. On top of that, we're running some Valorous Stance because it's great at protecting your threats while not being just a conditional protection spell. Being able to plow through Courser of Kruphix and Siege Rhino is great too, all while providing Prowess triggers.
This was really exciting so I decided to go back to the app on my phone and recreate my list. The mana base was pretty easy, just adding Nomad Outpost, a couple Caves of Koilos, some Bloodstained Mires and a Swamp. Done. One thing that was bothering me was that I was making such a huge commitment in the mana base for 4 Thoughtseize. They aren't double-black so they're easy to cast, but I felt like I should be taking advantage of black a little bit more and I shortly thereafter thought of Mardu Charm.
Every mode is useful throughout the game. It can kill blockers, it can be instant speed Duress for more hand disruption, and finally, it can even make MOAR tokens! Another awesome part of splashing black is the access to sideboard treats, like Crackling Doom. It's perfect for combating heroic strategies. Abzan Advantage is another great sideboard choice. It's perfect against Courser decks and Jeskai Ascendancy. Temur Ascendancy Combo is something to look out for too! Also, Frontier Siege and Outpost Siege are getting played quite a bit too. Not to mention it also Bolsters my team a little, so it's removal while also advancing my board-state.
Finally, Since I'm going pretty wide with a lot of tokens, I figured Sorin, Solemn Visitor fits in ok too.
After all of this, my deck ended up like this:
Lands: 23
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Caves of Koilos
2 Mountain
4 Nomad Outpost
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Temple of Silence
4 Temple of Triumph
Creatures: 12
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Monastery Mentor
2 Seeker of the Way
2 Soulfire Grand Master
Spells: 25
4 Hordeling Outburst
4 Magma Jet
2 Mardu Charm
4 Raise the Alarm
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Thoughtseize
2 Valorous Stance
Sideboard: 15
3 Abzan Advantage
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
3 Crackling Doom
2 Mardu Charm
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2 Searing Blood
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Valorous Stance
The sideboard is just a rough draft since I haven't had a chance to test with this yet, but it feels like a decent place to start. All-in-all, I'm really happy with how this list looks and I get my first chance to test it out tomorrow night for Grand Prix Trial Kyoto at Wizard Den. I don't expect to do fantastic, but it's definitely getting better! Regardless with how I do, I'll be sure to let you guys know how the deck plays out and mention any changes, if any, that come to mind.
If you like the idea, give a try and let me know what you think, or tell me what you would do different.
Here's to breaking formats!
Cheers,
DannyO
Rogue T3ch
www.WizardDen.com
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