Hmm, I am under the gun. I have to write an article for Manadeprived. KYT is knocking down my door here. I must deliver, he says. Unfortunately, I haven’t been playing a lot of magic lately.

I’m really making this article sound great, aren’t I?

Perhaps I haven’t been playing a lot of magic lately because it’s like those Dos Equis commercials. Yeah, I’m the most interesting man in magic: “I don’t always play Magic, but when I do, I prefer red deck wins.” I could go with the excuse that I just moved, although that was pretty much a month ago now. Hmm. I’ve been working a lot? No, none of these reasons are the truth. To be honest, the reason that I haven’t played much Magic lately is a deck… a deck that is in fact no more, actually. Yes, it’s all Caw-Blade’s fault.

The strange thing is, Caw-Blade is the type of deck I usually like to play. I’ve played, and quite enjoyed, playing aggro/control decks in the past. I played Faeries for nearly all of the last extended season, and really quite enjoyed it. I’ve been playing Merfolk in legacy. I’ve had all the cards for it for a long time, so it’s not a card availability issue. What was it about Caw-Blade that I didn’t like, exactly?

When the Stoneforge and Jace bannings came down, there was quite the buzz on twitter. Opinions were divided. Most people seemed happy that Stoneforge was gone, with people being much more surprised about Jace. There were a distinct segment of people on twitter who felt that the bannings were actually a bad thing, because the caw mirrors were fairly skill intensive, and would therefore favor skilled players. While all this is true, and makes sense, the main issue was that Caw-Blade was just so much better than any other deck that it didn’t make sense to play anything else. That’s my main issue here; the fact that it was so oppressive and clamped down on the diversity of the metagame.

There’s been a number of “best decks” in recent standard, but none have come close to the domination of Caw-Blade. Jund, Valakut, and others all had their time in the sun, but their times were not nearly as long. I wasn’t looking forward to playing Magic because I was getting tired of Caw-blade mirrors. If you’ve ever played a Caw mirror (and I’m sure you have) then you know how it can be a mental grind. There are a lot of angles to figure out, and a lot of people relish that, but I was just not looking forward to tournament after tournament of the same thing. I love open metagames, and this was the exact opposite of an open metagame. Caw-blade was just so resilient, so tweakable. The best minds in the game were working on it, and that information was being quickly spread across the Internet. It just seemed to be everywhere, and I guess I got tired of it.

Wizards has definitely made the right move in banning [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card]. Stoneforge was the main reason why the deck was broken. I’m not really sure why they printed her and then printed a whole slew of insane equipments in the next block, but that’s how it goes. She’s gone, and I for one am happy. If Caw-Blade could make a Spike like me want to play less Magic, then I can’t even imagine what it did to you Johnnies and Timmies out there. Poor guys.

Anyways, my dislike of Caw-Blade was so high that I was pretty much going to play RDW for the next PTQ, albeit RDW with maindeck [card]Manic Vandal[/card]s. A large part of me knew that it was a foolish move, that I should just play Caw-Blade, that my deck wasn’t good enough. So much drama! Naturally, I circumvented all of this by not playing at said PTQ. If I felt that RDW was good enough to play in a Caw-Blade format, imagine how I feel about it now that the menace is gone! Sure, Valakut is lurking, just around the corner, but I feel like RDW is at least now competitive, especially since neither Valakut nor Exarchtwin have access to [card]Kor Firewalker[/card].

Here’s what I’m planning on playing as of July 1st:

[Deck title=RDW by Ian Baker]
[Creatures]
4 Goblin Guide
4 Ember Hauler
4 Kargan Dragonlord
3 Spikeshot Elder
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Shrine of Burning Rage
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Searing Blaze
3 Koth of The Hammer
4 Staggershock
2 Burst Lightning
1 Red Suns Zenith
[/Spells]
[Land]
3 Teetering Peaks
4 Arid Mesa
16 Mountains
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
4 Act of Aggression
4 Dismember
4 Tunnel Ignus
3 Arc Trail
[/Sideboard]
[/Deck]

If you’ve played RDW in the past but haven’t played it with [card]Shrine of Burning Rage[/card] yet, you’re missing out. The card is great for a number of reasons. It’s a great finisher, allowing you to just dome your opponent for exactsies, often right when you need to. The reach it provides is great. Additionally, it does double-duty as a colourless source of damage, allowing you to remove problem creatures like the aforementioned [card]Kor Firewalker[/card]. The rest of the list mostly recalls RDWs of yore.

I’m not entirely set on the sideboard, but [card]Act of Aggression[/card] is another new card that has to be played to be believed. The instant speed can lead to some absolute blowout situations. It’s also solid against Valakut, hopefully allowing you to steal their Primeval Titan the turn after they play him, and then you just get to find two [card]Teetering Peak[/card]s and bash them in the face for 10 trample damage, hopefully killing them. You can use it to hijack the [cardDeciever Exarch[/card]/[card]Splinter Twin[/card] combo, too. [card]Dismember[/card] is versatile and is also good for killing [card]Deciever Exarch[/card]. I love me some [card]Arc Trail[/card], but it remains to be seen how good it is going to be in the new metagame, and [card]Tunnel Ignus[/card] should be solid against Valakut, but I don’t have a lot of testing to back that up.

In this paragraph here I’m going to go over some M12 spoilers and how they might transform RDW in the future, so please stop reading if you don’t want to know about them.

[card]Grim Lavamancer[/card] is easily the most exciting new RDW card to be spoiled from M12, and for good reason. Pingers have long been seen as good limited cards and have not really seen much constructed play, but most pingers only deal one damage. Shock on a stick is actually insane, and you’ll want to ensure to run the full compliment of fetchlands to power up your graveyard. Sadly, [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] is gone as of M12, but [card]Incinerate[/card] is back as a worse yet serviceable, replacement. You will get to play both at once for a bit, which will be pretty awesome. [card]Chandra, the Firebrand[/card] was just spoiled as I write this, and while she initially seems exciting, she is not what RDW generally wants or needs. You want to keep your curve low and fast, and she is a four drop. Additionally, [card]Koth of the Hammer[/card] is just straight up better in RDW, as he will typically provide more damage, and gives the deck some reach and another way to win if you can protect him long enough to use his ultimate. I’m not even running four Koths in my list above, so there will be no room for new Chandra. Poor gal… always the bridesmaid, never the bride. I actually don’t know what that saying means, really. Ah well.

Anyways, I’m excited by the things Wizards is doing. Caw-Blade is dead, and we have a new standard format to battle in. M12 is on the horizon, and there are some exciting new cards for RDW and a bunch for constructed in general. Also, I typically really like core set limited, but I’m some kind of weird masochist I think. I’m looking forward to getting back into magic, full-bore, in this brave new post-caw world.

Stay Janky, my friends.
-Ian “The Doctor” Baker