http://www.starcitygames.com/article/28535_Red-Deck-Wins-in-Modern.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1NnRqciIkE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4OmqPFy74E

Red Deck Wins
Nicholas Heal
98th Place at Grand Prix on 5/10/2014

Creatures (20)

4 Goblin Guide
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Vexing Devil
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
Lands (20)

11 Mountain
4 Arid Mesa
1 Keldon Megaliths
4 Scalding Tarn
Spells (20)

2 Shrine of Burning Rage
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Searing Blaze
2 Forked Bolt
4 Molten Rain
4 Rift Bolt
Sideboard

2 Dragon's Claw
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Blood Moon
2 Dismember
2 Smash to Smithereens
1 Shattering Spree





Nicholas ended Day One at 8-1, and finished off many an impressive foe on the way there. Take this impressive 2-0 defeat of Eric Froehlich (even if it did include a topdeck). Don't worry; the match only takes about 15 minutes:



Nicholas also did a deck tech on the deck:



They misnamed this deck "Burn" in the coverage, and Nicholas definitely denies that name, as well he should. While one could just call this deck "Red Aggro," I think it is actually useful to call this deck what it is, Red Deck Wins.

Now, while the name Red Deck Wins, like the name Sligh, was eventually horribly misused by many of the people who slung it around, the real core of a true Red Deck Wins deck is a decision to include active mana denial into the deck, but not fully embrace a true mana denial core, like a Ponza deck would. Nicholas's deck fits exactly into that classic space.

There are certain choices I'm not 100% sure about. Mogg Fanatic, for example, absolutely has some use in Modern, killing mana dorks of all sorts, providing a tiny clock, but also shutting down the ability of a Pestermite to cause a win. All that being said, I'm not sure if that is enough to justify it. In addition, I find myself wondering about the place of Pyrite Spellbomb and Dragon's Claw in his sideboard. While Pyrite Spellbomb can certainly be used to kill an Etched Champion, I wonder if that is the only real incentive to the card. Similarly, Dragon's Claw, seemingly an answer to Burn, seems incredibly narrow. Regardless, the overall arc of this deck is inspiring. In part, it is because of my crush on this card:


I guess I just love the idea of playing a deck with Eidolon of the Great Revel main.

One of the most important things that Nicholas said was that the deck needed to be able to put on the kind of clock that would allow it to compete against the most vicious, fast combo decks. One of the ways that he accomplishes that, he said, was Vexing Devil. There are also arguments about Molten Rain and Eidolon helping out this cause, but it got me thinking about another one of the cards I have a crush on in Modern:


This is one of those cards that is so powerful, I've moneyed with it at a Pro Tour in an aggressive Red deck. While usually you see this card in combo decks, it really does have a lot of power in other approaches as well. I've even played one or more copies of the card in Burn decks I've built.

Thinking about the possibility of a Turn 1 Eidolon of the Great Revel was just exciting to me. In addition, when I did well with Simian Spirit Guide at the Pro Tour, it was, in part, to power out Magus of the Moon. Then, with my successes with Modern Burn running Simian Spirit Guide into multiple Goblin Guides, I ended up feeling pretty good about the idea I had for a deck.

I put all my ideas together, and slung together a string of wins on Magic Online with this:

Red Deck Wins
Adrian Sullivan
0th Place at Test deck on 0/0/0000
Modern


Creatures (23)

4 Goblin Guide
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Plated Geopede
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
Lands (24)

8 Mountain
4 Arid Mesa
2 Blood Crypt
3 Dragonskull Summit
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Teetering Peaks
Spells (13)

4 Lightning Bolt
3 Searing Blaze
2 Forked Bolt
4 Molten Rain
Sideboard

2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Shrine of Burning Rage
1 Grim Lavamancer
4 Dismember
3 Rakdos Charm
1 Searing Blaze
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Shattering Spree





I started out 11-4 in games (5-1) before settling into a pretty steady 50+% for the rest of my matches that night.

I'm definitely a little higher on the curve than Nicholas was, and maybe I need to force Vexing Devil back into the deck. I'm still uncertain of the place of Vexing Devil in a deck that plans on attacking fairly. Vexing Devil is one of those cards that I actually love quite a bit in Burn, but without a critical mass of enough burn spells, I don't love the card. Take a deck like Zoo, for example; there is just no way I'd make room in the deck for Vexing Devil. I could be wrong about those ideas, but that's where I'm at.

One of the things that I was really liking about the deck was the ability to push an aggressive start of some kind onto the table and then follow it up with a Molten Rain or Magus of the Moon (or both). I didn't like having Goblin Guide and Molten Rain in combination when my opponent was resisting me, however, even though the two cards together seemed devastating when the Molten Rain just crushed them outright.

Eidolon of the Great Revel was also impressive, even against other aggressive decks. Oftentimes, the other aggressive deck was just forced to kill it before they could do the things that they wanted to do, and then I would follow up with the damage to end the game. There were a few times, however, where I found myself locked out by the card, though, interestingly, it was always by UWR Control. Perhaps this is because they had access to Lightning Helix, but I'm uncertain because I didn't get enough games in.

I'm uncertain if 4 Simian Spirit Guides is correct or not. I did feel like at least two felt very good. My guess is that either 3 or 4 Simian Spirit Guides is the correct number for this approach, but I just need a ton more games to figure that out.

Similarly, I'm unsure if Plated Geopede is a good call. While, at this point, I've played maybe 70 or 80 games with the deck, I haven't played the Geopede very often. There have been a lot of games where I didn't draw it (seemingly more than logic would indicate), but also, I've had a lot of games where I drew it and I either needed to make another play instead, or I didn't dare cast it lest I potentially die. This could be an indication that a two-mana sometimes 5/5 might just not be good enough. Alternatively, maybe this kind of card is exactly what the deck needs.

The mana was put together to help support the powerful black sideboard cards. Rakdos Charm, simply put, is a huge workhorse, and it can accomplish a lot of things that are deeply unfair for this style of deck. In combo matches, it can sometimes just end a game that you were nowhere near winning. Dismember, a card that is often found in Mono-Red, is even stronger in a deck that can reasonably expect to be able to cast it without pain (or at least without much pain).

I do know that this deck is still a work in progress, but as I reflected on the Wisconsin State Championships and the kinds of decks that I'd had success with in that event in the past, this deck just was even more exciting to me in Modern than other decks I've been working on have been. I still wish I could be casting Dwarven Blastminer, honestly, but I'll "settle" for Molten Rain and Magus of the Moon.