4 Mystic Monastery
4 Flooded Strand
2 Shivan Reef
2 Battlefield Forge
2 Temple of Epiphany
2 Temple of Triumph
2 Island
2 Plains
4 Mountain
4 Mantis Rider
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
4 Magma Jet
4 Jeskai Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Stoke the Flames
3 Searing Blood
2 Deflecting Palm
2 Mindswipe
1 Suspension Field
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3 Satyr Firedancer
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Magma Spray
1 Narset, Enlightened Master
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Searing Blood
1 Suspension Field
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Dictate of the Twin Gods
The manabase gives us 16 red sources and 14 of blue and white, allowing us to cast UWR 3 drops on turn 3 a high percentage of games. We're currently testing a different manabase with Evolving Wilds to allow us to play Chained to the Rocks and be more likely to cast Searing Blood on turn 2, but that's still in development. There's a reasonable chance 16 red sources isn't enough, so this may change slightly before the weekend.
The Threats!
Since both of our main threats are three mana, a majority of games allow us to play a tapped land on turn 1, a spell on turn 2, a threat on turn 3, and a second threat + tapped land on turn 4. Both threats aggressively pressure the opponents life total, and even a single hit with the Rabblemaster and friends can put our opponent dead to the burn in our hand.
Mantis Rider lines up very nicely against most of the creatures in the format: there aren't many good fliers aside from Prognostic Sphinx, and we can get in 3-6 damage before it comes down. If RUG and Naya planeswalker heavy builds show up, the Rider can interact quite favorably with their Xenagos or Sarkhan (beating the former in a fight and killing the latter with 2 attacks). If Bile Blight is popular, the power of double Rider drops, but against nonblack decks the Riders can kill very quickly.
Rabblemaster is likely the best red card in the format, both in aggressive and midrange decks. The token can usually get in damage the turn it's played, and if we can use a spell to push in 6 points the next turn, we're in a pretty good spot. Multiple test games ended abruptly if the opponent stumbled while we had the rabble, it's simply too much damage for most decks to handle. Ideally, the Goblins can kill on their own, and with a large arsenal of tempo spells to push them through, they can end many games before they really start. Even if we only hit for 6-8 over the course of a game, the supporting burn spells can usually finish off the opponent before they stabilize.
The supporting cast of 2 Chandra, 1 Sarkhan, 1 Keranos rounds out our offensive threats. Chandra has proven excellent in this deck, either plussing to push Rabblemaster through a blocker (or two blockers if we can remove the second) or drawing an extra card per turn. The ultimate is very real in this deck; most of the time it will do 9-12 damage since there are so many burn spells in the deck. Sarkhan is fairly slow, but can take over a slower game in a turn or two. It's unlikely that we'll ever get to 7 mana, so Stormbreath is just worse than the planeswalker in this build, and some matchups demand killing creatures, making the minus ability very relevant. Finally, the single Keranos is excellent at finishing grindy games with lots of removal or lifegain, since we essentially draw 2 cards a turn, and sometimes it's a free Bolt. I'll take it.
The BURN.
Unlike the previous season, we only have a pair of spells that deal 4, but there's significantly less lifegain in the format to frustrate us. 4 of each makes sense, since we're trying to draw just enough burn to kill them, and these do it with a single card.
Charm is pure insanity in this deck, since all the modes range from relevant to excellent. The blue mode can gank anything in response to a fetch, or just top some 4+ mana creature and smash with Rabblemaster. Racing situations don't come up terribly often, but when they do, the white mode gives us an angle that most other decks can't fight. Other than the threats, this is likely the best card in the deck. (The red mode is good)
Magma Jet gives us some much needed deck manipulation, since flooding can be a real problem for us. It's a little counter-productive with fetch lands, so try to time your fetching to get maximum scry value. On that note, it's fine to bottom something good if you need land, since cracking a fetch can put everything back in the deck - use the scry to set up the next turn or two, not necessarily the long game.
Lightning Strike is a bit of a given. It's not as efficient as ye olde Lightning Bolt, but it still does 3 and that's all we need.
Searing Blood is obviously excellent in burn decks, but we're keeping one in the sideboard to hedge against the likely large percentage of green decks with fewer targets. It's possible to combo kill something with this and a block/Keranos/Goblin token, so even in the bad matchups it's not 100% dead, though it still comes out for the postboard games. The single Suspension Field hedges in that direction, letting us deal with a Courser/large threat for less mana than they spent on it.
Deflecting Palm, aka the Best Lightning Helix ever, is a strange animal. In the matchups where it Helixes for 5, it's obviously insane, but it can get clunky in multiples or against small creature decks. The inherent problem with situational burn spells is drawing too many, which pushed us to playing 2 in the main with the ability to play 3 when we want it. However, when the card is good, it feels incredibly unfair. Just yesterday, we were jamming the Abzan matchup and witnessed the most absurd Palm ever. My board, 11 life, a single Satyr Firedancer. Opponents board, 17 life, some Caryatids, Anafenza, Courser, monstrous Fleecemane Lion. He attacks with the team, I cast double Deflecting Palm, choosing the Lion and Anafenza, preventing nine and taking two. The Firedancer kills his Courser and the Khan, leaving him exactly dead to the Charm+Stoke in my hand. Maybe this won't happen often, but it was the most absurdly powerful I've ever felt while playing a standard red deck.
Mindswipe rounds out the maindeck at two copies. It's not the most efficient burn spell or counterspell, but it's good enough to stop a large threat and deal some damage. Even if they play an Elf with 5 mana untapped, you can still dome them for the maximum damage.
Onto the sideboard!
Since we don't have a metagame to analyze yet, the sideboard might not be 100% correct, but here's the basic plan.
3 Satyr Firedancer - Comes in against almost all creature decks. It either eats a removal spell, protecting Mantis/Rabblemaster, or takes over the game if the draws line up well.
2 Anger of the Gods - We're expecting a reasonable amount of aggro for the first weeks, since they're more accessible and easier to build than the midrange decks. Curving Anger into Rabblemaster/Mantis is quite powerful, and the turn we take off to sweep their board puts us quite far ahead in the race.
2 Disdainful Stroke - This was Negate until quite recently, when we decided to add an extra answer to Siege Rhino. It stops every non-Ashiok planeswalker in the format, as well as Siege Rhino, Arbor Colossus or any other large creature. Most importantly, it nets a large mana advantage, pushing the tempo in our favor if we can back it up with more castable spells.
2 Magma Spray - Extra early interaction against Monoblack/Monored aggro. We don't always draw Anger, and the one mana spell works well with our taplands. We'd absolutely play Shock if it was legal, but it isn't, so here we are. Bonus! Shuts down Bloodsoaked Champion, which can sometimes be problematic.
1 Narset, Enlightened Master - Comes in against removal heavy control decks and the mirror. One attack is usually enough to end the game, since hitting 6-8 points of burn off a single trigger is quite common. Freerolling planeswalkers is a sweet bonus.
1 Keranos, God of Storms - Excellent in the grindy matchups, or any time we can't draw enough burn to kill through their lifegain.
1 Searing Blood/1 Suspension Field - These cards work very nicely together in the 75; if one is dead, the other is probably excellent. As the metagame develops, the main/side numbers will shift around, but this seems like a good hedge for week one.
1 Deflecting Palm - Certain decks tend to fold to this card with any amount of backup, RUG Monster style decks in particular. Any matchup where this is reliably a Helix for 4+, it's excellent, but we don't want to draw all 3 against fast aggro.
1 Dictate of the Twin Gods - Another card for slow decks. Since most of our spells cost 2-3 mana, it's very realistic to flash this in and follow up with lethal burn, especially if we aren't dead to their creatures. Bonus absurdity with Deflecting Palm.
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So that's the list! I'll hopefully be jamming this at the New Jersey Open this weekend, and I'll be back next week with a report. Any questions or comments are welcome below or through various social medias.
Thanks for reading, see you next week!
"Pietart"
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