A Durdle's Guide to Ravnica - Red

Normally, the first few weeks post-rotation resemble a movie about a lost Russian submarine. This year Sean Connery is nowhere to be found, leaving our traditional Red October struggling to find a grasp. The combination of stupid good lifegain, manabases pushing us to 3-color decks and a complete lack of good burn has pushed Red Deck Wins to the sidelines. Does that mean there will be no Mountains to be found until February? Read on!

[card]Annihilating Fire[/card]
As if on cue, we start with a subpar burn spell. [card]Pillar of Flame[/card] has the same effect, albeit one less point of damage at sorcery speed, for R1 less. Considering the things you want to exile mostly have 2 or more than 4 toughness, the extra point is less relevant. [card]Searing Spear[/card] does the same damage for R less without the exile clause. I can’t see this making it into any Standard decks, which is a sign as to how bad our burn has become. Who ever thought we’d be saying “this isn’t good enough to displace Searing Spear” unironically?

[card]Ash Zealot[/card]
A memo to everyone zealously asherting that this card is red’s long-awaited entry to to the 2-drop Awesome Bears cycle: stop it. No she isn’t. Don’t get me wrong, this card is good. A 2/2 haste for 2 would be good on its own, but the first strike makes her an effective blocker against Zombies as well as hard to block early on. The triggered ability has some applications in Standard ([card]Gravecrawler[/card], flashback spells, [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]), Modern (Storm, Aggro Loam) and Legacy (Dredge, Aggro Loam).

The problem is that in Standard, with no viable way to boost her power, she quickly gets outclassed. Her mana cost, while more manageable with the dreamy mana bases we have now, is still hard to hit in some two-colour decks, let alone three. Against a lot of decks, the triggered ability is a blank. Right now there’s no obvious place for this card, and although that might change in Gatecrash (more likely with Boros than Gruul, but we’ll see) currently there’s no real home for this card. Red aggro isn’t a thing right now it seems, which is a shame because she’d slide right in.

[card]Bloodfray Giant[/card]
Once upon a time, there was a set called Alliances. This set had a card called [card]Force of Will[/card], which is now a $65 card. It also had tournament standouts like [card]Contagion[/card] and [card]Kjeldoran Outpost[/card]. But when the set first hit, they weren’t the cards everyone was talking about. No, the most expensive card from Alliances when it first hit was [card]Balduvian Horde[/card].

If you weren’t playing Magic back then, you are probably scratching your head right now. A 5/5 for 4 with a pretty big drawback? How is that even good? Well, it’s not any more. It wasn’t even that good then, but people loved their [card]Juzam Djinn[/card]s and Horde felt like a new Juzam.

So how does this relate to Bloodfray Giant? Well we once again have 5 power for 4 mana, this time with only a small drawback: if you want him to block, he only has 4 power. In return, you get trample. Well folks, I have news for you: a 5/4 trampler on turn 4 is probably not doing a lot of blocking anyway! HE’S HUGE. On his OKCupid profile (which even Alyssa Bereznak clicked on) he lists his favourite activities as smashing face and turning sideways. I think he has an outside shot at being playable in Standard at the top of the curve for an aggro deck, if there is such a thing in the new standard world. I mean, he big body. He beats down.

[card]Electrickery[/card]
Oh hey, Gut Shot is back! Wait, no it isn’t. Well, [card]Pyroclasm[/card] is back! Well, almost. Ummm…Simoon is back? I guess? Sweet pun aside, I think if cards like [card]Champion of the Parish[/card], [card]Lingering Souls[/card], Thalia and [card]Champion of Lambholt[/card], decks with mana dorks or decks like UW or Boros Humans become a thing, [card]Electrickery[/card] has a nice slot in wrecking their early board. The decks I see this in will be ones that just want to keep the board clear for a few turns to enable them to get to their (way more powerful) mid-to-late game while still having a defensible life total. It’s no [card]Whipflare[/card] but depending on how the meta shakes out, it could see some play.

[card]Goblin Rally[/card]
“You don’t so much hire goblins as put ideas in their heads.” Love that flavour text. And so apt, as this card has put ideas in my head. There is a non-zero chance that I will play this card in at least one deck this Standard season, and I am not in the least bit ashamed to say so. Five mana for four 1/1s is not the best deal going, but I do have a couple of plans that will use this in nefarious ways. Then again my ideas are not always…let’s say “good” and leave it at that. If I can [card]Epic Experiment[/card] into [card]Krenko’s Command[/card], this, [card]Increasing Devotion[/card] and [card]Burn at the Stake[/card], I can die a happy man.

[card]Gore-House Chainwalker[/card]
Like I was saying about [card]Bloodfray Giant[/card], this guy is never going to block anyway. Three power for two mana is notoriously a good deal ([card]Watchwolf[/card] saw a lot of play, and people are excited about [card]Call of the Conclave[/card] too), and the loss of a point of toughness shouldn’t be that big of a deal. I know I said that there’s no red aggro deck, but there might be a Rakdos or Boros aggro deck, and this guy walks nicely up the chain from a turn 1 [card]Rakdos Cackler[/card], [card]Stromkirk Noble[/card] or [card]Champion of the Parish[/card].

[card]Guild Feud[/card]
Another card that falls into the Wall of Text problem, but one that I am excited to try. Back when Innistrad was new I tried a fun deck built around [card]Heretic’s Punishment[/card], hoping to hit [card]Blightsteel Colossus[/card] or [card]Blasphemous Act[/card]. It was terrible, but fun. [card]Guild Feud[/card] offers a similar gambling aspect (as is fitting for red), but the effect is slightly less impressive.

Or is it? [card]Mwonvuli Beast Tracker[/card] is a poor replacement for [card]Birthing Pod[/card] or [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card], but in combination with [card]Guild Feud[/card] it’s actually a benefit to put the tutored card on top of your library. Need to be able to kill whatever your opponent flips? Go find [card]Acidic Slime[/card]. Want to beat down? Go find [card]Worldspine Wurm[/card]. Of course there’s still the fact that this card costs 6, meaning that at best it will be turn 5 or so before you can put your first creature into play, but it will be so sweet if it works.

[card]Guttersnipe[/card]
Man that’s a tasty ability. People tried to build around [card]Burning Vengeance[/card] and while harder to remove it had a much lesser effect than this amusingly-named fellow. Bear in mind it says “cast” so even if your instant or sorcery gets countered, you get to Shock each opponent. If [card]Epic Experiment[/card] becomes a deck, this could be dangerous in there. The Izzet deck feels underwhelming on the face of it, but if someone finds a way to build it then [card]Guttersnipe[/card] is probably a part of that. It also combos with [card]Burning Vengeance[/card] in the event that it ever becomes a deck.

[card]Mizzium Mortars[/card]
[card]Flame Slash[/card] was a good card. [card]Flame Wave[/card] saw some play too. Would you play a card that was both, depending on what you needed? I would think so. The debate over whether to replace [card]Bonfire of the Damned[/card] with this card is still open, and honestly it depends on the deck. Bonfire is at its best when it opens the way for your attackers, so in a slower control deck with few threats you might be better playing Mortars. It’s also better in your hand than Bonfire in most cases, since a Bonfire for 4 costs you 9 mana.

The questions around this card are many. Is the inability to miracle it worth the ability to take out a 4-toughness guy early? Is the loss of ability to go to the dome (or to a planeswalker) worth the savings of 3 mana to wipe the board? Will decks be able to cast a spell for RRR3 reliably on turn 6? How many different ways will coverage people mispronounce the name of the card? It has mortar prove than the already-established Bonfire. Card is good, but it might have to wait a bit for its day in the sun.

[card]Splatter Thug[/card]
As undercosted as he appears to be, I can’t see this bullying its way into constructed. Sure you can play it leashed without feeling terrible, and a 3/3 first striker is hard to block on turn 4…or it would be, in most formats. With a 3-drop 4/4 and a 4-drop 3 /4 (with flash!) in the format, his power decreases. There are far worse 3-drops, but a deck that wants aggressive creatures needs a little more in this slot.

[card]Utvara Hellkite[/card]
Since I was 10 years old and learned to play D&D in the library of my primary school (I was a fighter, and this was pre-2nd Edition), I have loved dragons. I don’t remember if it was The Hobbit that did it, or that first epic encounter between my party and a small white dragon. Regardless, I am now hooked.

[card]Thundermaw Hellkite[/card] was the first Standard-playable Dragon in a while. Given that I missed Kamigawa and Shards blocks, I also missed Yosei, Kokusho and [card]Broodmate Dragon[/card]. The last playable one I remember was [card]Covetous Dragon[/card] (though I am sure I will now be corrected in a hurry) unless you count [card]Dragonstorm[/card].

Now I’m under no illusions that [card]Utvara Hellkite[/card] will become a Standard powerhouse. However I know that before Christmas, I will have played it in Standard. Probably in a deck with [card]Unburial Rites[/card], possibly in one with [card]Descendants’ Path[/card]. I just cannot resist a dragon with such an insane ability, and the fact that Thunderdaddy is actually a good card is not helping. I just can’t hellkite.

Thoughts on Red

Red’s identity isn’t what it used to be, that’s for sure. No good burn to be found, some useful utility guys and a couple of big fat mostly-unplayables. The aggressive creatures are still here, but without something to clear the way they seem much less scary. I know I will build around [card]Utvara Hellkite[/card], but the scary part is that I know that won’t be the worst thing I try to do this season. [card]Guild Feud[/card] is calling out to me.