Recently, there has been a huge absence of aggressive red decks in Standard, and I have no idea why. Almost all of the big decks are ones I would be perfectly fine playing against. Reanimator was a fine matchup pre-Gatecrash and red has only gotten better, U/W/R is close and they are short on their best weapons against you, and Esper has always been a fine matchup. Jund, the previous reason to avoid red, is still a winnable if not great matchup.

I’m going to try to fix that. Here is exactly how I would go about building a red deck for the current metagame.

The Shell

This is not a Standard format that can support a good burn deck. Pre-Gatecrash, there just wasn’t enough burn to make one, but even now the metagame is just hostile. Even with the Ravnica duals in the format, there is so much life gain that people effectively start at over twenty. The decks that don’t are ones like Naya Blitz that are straight up faster than a burn deck can be without a huge number of Lightning Bolts.

So pure burn isn’t where it’s at. I actually would want to stay as far away from burn as a finisher as possible for these reasons. If I play a burn spell, it is mostly going to be as removal that happens to go to the face when I don’t want removal. Of course, this is in line with both of the red decks I’ve previously played. They featured around eight noncreature spells, with the focus being on how they lined up as removal in the format.

I would assume that the general frame of the deck I want to play is similar. For the purposes of this layout, Auras are also creatures since they are repeated sources of damage.

So the default shell will be:

22 lands
30 creatures (or Auras)

8 removal or burn

The Enemy

Just so you know what the main ways to lose are.

The Uncuttables

Rakdos Cackler

Almost every successful true red deck has been defined by a two-power one-drop. It’s not Goblin Guide, but sometimes you can’t get everything you want.

It’s possible to build a deck that looks very similar to some of the possible red deck configurations, but this is probably the best place to draw a line.

Burning-Tree Emissary

I like free wins. This card generates them. It’s one of the few reliably powerful things you can do in this Standard format.

Aside: I find it funny to an extent that I like playing this card so much but hated Frogmite in Modern when they are practically the same card. Still, I understand why there’s a difference. Affinity wins really "big," and Frogmite isn’t a big game card. Red has always been about chip shots, and the extra damage means something.

Other Colors

Hellrider, Falkenrath Aristocrat, or Nothing

Let’s get the "nothing" option out of the way. The big difference between this and the four-drops is whether you play 18-19 or 21-22 lands, which translates to a question about consistency. The additional lands increase the odds of flooding fairly significantly. A jump from 19 to 22 lands more than doubles your chance of drawing more lands than spells by turn 5 (all percentages here are under 15%). You also have increased odds of just having a dead card because you didn’t draw your fourth land; about 30-35% of the time you won’t have the mana to cast your four-drop by turn 5. This is balanced by an additional 9% of the time where you have to mulligan one-land hands. Which of these is more relevant?

I just spewed out a lot of numbers at you, and it’s hard to say exactly what they mean without a bit more experience on how much a single card in your opener matters compared to flooding.

Fortunately, my actual reasoning mostly avoids these. Simply put, without four-drops it is far too easy for you to be brickwalled in this format.

The priority threat in this format is currently G/B/W Reanimator. They have two basic game plans against aggro: make a turn 4 Angel of Serenity or make a couple Thragtusk triggers. You aren’t likely to beat the first unless you kill them on turn 4, but fortunately they can’t reliably pull it off. The odds are even worse for them if you have a nonzero amount of removal for a Somberwald Sage or their mana creature that lets them cast an in-hand Unburial Rites on turn 4.

The second one, however, is much easier for them to get going. Similar to pre-Gatecrash, if you can’t beat a bit of Thragtusk action, you cannot play your aggressive deck. The nineteen-land versions of this deck are simply not able to win a game before Thragtusk lands, and they are poor at winning a game from that point on. The four-drops are instrumental in punching through here. Both Hellrider and Falkenrath Aristocrat almost immediately negate the life gain trigger, allowing you to close out games where your opponent may have otherwise stabilized.

So I’ve established that I want to play a four-drop here. The question now is which one.

The answer: are you playing against Boros Reckoners or Lingering Souls?

In discussing my Pro Tour Gatecrash deck, I mentioned that I opted against Hellrider in part because it was just another 3/3 while Aristocrat was a new angle of attack. While I didn’t mention it at the time, the card that specifically punished the all 3/3s plan was Boros Reckoner. At the Pro Tour, that card was the biggest threat, and my deck was specifically adjusted to be as good against it as possible.

In the current metagame, Boros Reckoner is not a significant portion of the field. The U/W/R decks no longer play it, and base Naya decks are nowhere to be seen aside from Blitz, where it is at most a sideboard card.

Instead, you have Lingering Souls, or the card that drove Falkenrath Aristocrat out of Block before it was banned. A light sampling of Reanimator decks shows the majority run two or three copies of the card, and about half the Esper lists do as well. The amount that card embarrasses Aristocrat makes Hellrider look good against Reckoner. At least when your Hellrider attacks into their Boros Reckoner you have a good chance of killing them with it. Aristocrat is completely blanked by Lingering Souls. The best-case exchange is two of your creatures and three Aristocrat attacks for their entire Lingering Souls if you have a Human to sacrifice.

Long story short, you can beat Boros Reckoner with 3/3s. You can’t beat Lingering Souls with Aristocrats. Until the format changes, I would lean towards Hellrider as the four-drop of choice.

Dreadbore and Abrupt Decay

These were the incentives to play Jund Aggro at a time when Boros Reckoner was prominent. See above: Reckoner is not a real concern right now. As a result, these are no longer the best options for your spell slots.

Dreg Mangler

Unfortunately for Dreg Mangler, we’ve ruled out all the other incentives to play black cards. It’s a good card, but playing it is no longer the given it was in Jund Aggro. The extra four or so M10 lands and eight duals beyond the easy second color splash come at a nonzero cost. I don’t think I would want to stretch that far for a single card, especially after my experiences losing games to M10 dual-heavy and color-light draws in the Jund Aggro deck.

Flinthoof Boar

Twelve is a lot more than eight.

With eight sources of your splash color, you are only 65% to have one in your opening hand—a bit above 70% to have one by turn 2 depending on play or draw and around 80% to have on by turn 4. That’s not terrible odds, but it isn’t perfectly reliably. For a card that doesn’t need to be cast early, like a four-drop or burn spell, that’s good enough. For a two-drop, it isn’t.

The reason you can play Flinthoof Boar is because of Burning-Tree Emissary. The additional four sources of green up your odds of having a green source in time to cast it on turn 2 to around 85%, which is more than enough in my book.

So why would we splash for a two-drop?

Because Burning-Tree Emissary says so.

You need a significant number of two-drops to chain off into in order to make Emissary worth playing. There are enough mono-red options to fill the space, but they are definitely worse than Flinthoof Boar when in play. The list of reasonable options is as follows: Gore-House Chainwalker, Firefist Striker, Lightning Mauler, and Mogg Flunkies.

This discussion will continue when I talk about the two-drops as a whole.

Boros Charm

Going back to the layout section, I don’t want this for the burn effect. If I am playing Boros Charm, it is going to be because of the indestructibility mode. Against Thragtusk and Restoration Angel, neither this nor a Searing Spear is that great. Against Supreme Verdict, you obviously want this card. Against creature decks, you clearly want another spell. Supreme Verdict is a greater percentage of the metagame, so if you can fit the white mana, this could easily be a good use of a spell slot.

Experiment One or Stromkirk Noble

"In the red deck, Stromkirk Noble is straight up embarrassing. You in theory need the one-drops, but the card is always terrible and doesn’t deal a real amount of damage before dying."

I said that just over three months ago. This is a bit exaggerated, but the point still stands that Noble doesn’t catch up to Cackler’s damage output until the third attack. If your one-drop hits them four times, odds are they died regardless of whether it was eight or nine damage total, but the difference between three and four damage in two attacks is quite relevant. Experiment One can easily make the jump to 2/2 before the first attack.

The thing is that you need to be sure you aren’t playing "Experiment None" and preferably can get it up to two. You also have to be capable of casting your one-drop on turn 1. The former requires almost all of your creatures to trigger it; the latter requires you to play around eleven turn 1 green sources.

These come together to form a single choke point for Experiment One: the three slot. Jund Aggro played Dreg Mangler, but without incentive to play any other black cards, you probably don’t want that one. The only other options for that slot are Boros Reckoner, Pyreheart Wolf, and nothing.

Pyreheart Wolf conflicts with the first issue. A 1/1 for three isn’t going to be evolving your Experiment One. Obviously, you aren’t planning on not having a two-drop to evolve Experiment with first, but the same points apply to an Experiment One cast later in the game. Pyreheart plus Experiment on turn 4 doesn’t work, and without an Emissary curve a Wolf will stunt your Experiment at 2/2 early on. You can probably sacrifice a couple slots for Wolves if you want that effect, but three or four copies of that card is likely out of the question.

Boros Reckoner conflicts with the second issue. Can you really cast Experiment One turn 1 and Reckoner on turn 3? My initial thought was no, but it turns out the answer is yes as long as you don’t need a couple life. Four Stomping Grounds is a given, and it turns out Temple Garden also meets the criteria. That leaves you playing around three Forests, giving you nineteen lands that cast Boros Reckoner. Considering the no four-drop lists play Reckoner with nineteen lands already, I see no issues doing this.

The no three-drop option is also a thing if you want to be conservative. Just playing a ton of two-drops is perfectly reasonable since you can maximize Burning-Tree Emissary. Gore-House Chainwalker and Mogg Flunkies both give you a second trigger on Experiment and don’t tax your mana the way Reckoner might.

Ghor-Clan Rampager

I was pretty impressed with how well this card performed in Jund Aggro. Loxodon Smiter and Restoration Angel fold to this card. The only issue is that drawing multiples is not ideal. I played four in past lists but would be more inclined to play three here. Of course, this all assumes you are playing green cards already. I wouldn’t splash solely for Rampager.

Rancor

This card is…odd. It’s a strong card, but it makes me want to play more green and Stromkirk Noble. Why? Well, one-drop red guy plus Rancor is effectively a two-drop to Emissary out. I also think that Rancor cuts into the number of Rampagers you can play. Both demand creatures in play, and you can only play so many noncreatures if you want that to be a reliable occurrence.

It’s possible you want the maximum of this card, but for the above reasons I can’t bring myself to play more than two. Rampager is just more important against the cards you lose to.

Filling Out the Shell

One-Drops

You are locked into four Cacklers and then a set of either Experiment One or Stromkirk Noble. There really aren’t any other one-drops you want to play the full amount of, but what about an additional copy or two?

Stonewright was fine in pre-Gatecrash red lists, but it was more of a space holder than anything else. It wasn’t actually a one-drop you wanted on turn 1, just a decent midgame one-mana spell that was a mana sink. I’m unsure if there is room for that effect now or if you even want it.

Legion Loyalist is approximately a blank. Don’t play it.

Two-Drops

Four Burning-Tree Emissary are locked. That leaves eight to twelve additional slots for the following cards: Ash Zealot, Flinthoof Boar, Gore-House Chainwalker, Lightning Mauler, Mogg Flunkies, and Firefist Striker.

If you are playing green, you are playing four Boars, end of discussion.

I really don’t like playing Ash Zealot alongside Burning-Tree Emissary. I want my two-drops to play well with my best card. Ash Zealot might seem a bit more powerful on paper than the other options, but this is a real downside. I’m also not even sure it is more powerful in the current metagame; the jump from two to three power is a big deal against Centaur Healer and Augur of Bolas.

Firefist Striker sounds awesome, but I don’t think the battalion is something you can reliably trigger. I also don’t think it does enough. Pyreheart Wolf is good because it messes up all of their blocks. Firefist Striker not only doesn’t do that, but it doesn’t have the rebuys Wolf has. It’s much easier to survive one mini Falter than two in a row.

As for the three-power guys, I think Chainwalker is currently better than Flunkies. The X/2 body is worse against Pillar of Flame and Huntmaster of the Fells. The Flunkies drawback is worse against removal-heavy decks, notably those with sweepers. Both have drawbacks against Snapcaster Mage. As of now, Huntmaster and Pillar are less prevalent than Supreme Verdict. This could easily change at a moment’s notice, so be ready to swap if you play one and not the other.

Whether you play Lightning Mauler or the 3/Xs depends a bit on the next decision you make. Mauler gets significantly better alongside Pyreheart Wolf, though it is quite insane with Emissary as well. I’m not sure whether the single nut draw is good enough to play this over the bulkier options, but based on prior experience (read: Atlantic City) I would guess it is. Of course, there were significantly fewer Lingering Souls and Augurs at that time, so your mileage may vary.

Three-Drops

We’ve narrowed this down to Boros Reckoner and Pyreheart Wolf. Honestly, I think it’s time for the little guy to make a comeback.

Pre-Gatecrash, Pyreheart Wolf was one of the best cards against green decks and especially against Reanimator. Turns out that deck is fine at making a single Thragtusk to block with on time to hold things up but is absolutely terrible at generating enough board presence to beat a Pyreheart Wolf.

Boros Reckoner is obviously the better beater, but I want a nonzero number of Pyreheart Wolf in any red list I play right now.

Noncreature Spells

The format is no longer all Sacred Foundry and Stomping Ground decks. Volcanic Strength is not a maindeck card.

As for Madcap Skills, I was never impressed by that one.

Among the burn options, Searing Spear is the obvious first choice. If you want more, Flames of the Firebrand, Pillar of Flame, Boros Charm, and Brimstone Volley are the other options.

I really don’t like Pillar of Flame right now. There just aren’t enough aggro mirrors to justify maindecking it. Even in the aggro mirrors that do exist, the card doesn’t have the same ability to trade up the curve that it did pre-Gatecrash. Ash Zealot and Pyreheart Wolf have been replaced by Flinthoof Boar and Boros Reckoner.

Flames of the Firebrand is a card I wouldn’t mind seeing more of. Lingering Souls can be a problem, and this card fixes it quite nicely. That said, I’m not sure it’s required, and I don’t think it does a significant amount of other interesting things beyond killing three Spirit tokens. For now it is probably just a sideboard option, but it’s worth remembering if the format changes.

Boros Charm is just a matter of if you want to splash for it. I’ll leave that up to you on an individual basis to decide.

Brimstone Volley was always reasonable when I played it but never amazing. Three mana is a big jump from two, and setting up the morbid is often difficult. Finding a time when you have the mana to cast it and a guy dies is not as easy as you would think. If there’s an extra slot or two for spells, this is a reasonable choice, but otherwise I would not be actively inclined to add it to my deck.

The Sideboard

This is one of the weak points of red decks in this format. While there are a reasonable number of options, a lot of them are quite mediocre. As a result, the exact choice of mediocre cards changes very quickly as the metagame shifts. Instead of laying out exact numbers on these, I’m going to talk about some of the points where various sideboard options are going to be wanted.

Thundermaw Hellkite

Hellkite is a panic button against midrange and a potential gamebreaker depending on how attrition-based the red mirror is. The problem is that with less than 22 lands casting it is almost impossible, and even with 23 it’s still not exactly reliable. The red mirror is also much less attrition-based than it was pre-Gatecrash simply because the creatures have gotten bigger. It’s harder to make one-for-one trades, and when you fall behind you have less room to catch up. I would be inclined to say this card is no longer what the deck is looking for.

Traitorous Blood

This card is not good against Thragtusk. It gives you one turn to kill them without significantly increasing your overall damage output or being good at other times. Beating Thragtusk requires being able to continue playing after the first trigger. You want Traitorous Blood (or Mark of Mutiny) against decks that currently don’t exist. There aren’t any Primeval Titans in the format that give you a free game ender, just creatures that massively stabilize their life total or board state when they hit.

Volcanic Strength

Only great in red / Flinthoof Boar mirrors, as any other deck will likely just have the eight duals for Mountains.

Pillar of Flame

See previous comments on the card. A fine thing for aggro mirrors and likely necessary against Champion of the Parish, but not amazing like it was in the old mono-red mirror.

Blasphemous Act

I’m inclined to dislike this card in this deck. The Boros Reckoner combo is cute, but I would not use it as my reason to play this card. I would mostly want it in order to break aggro mirrors. The problem for this deck is that very few of its cards are good at playing the defensive game required to set up an Act in an aggro mirror. A bigger Gruul deck could easily want this card, but it’s unlikely to play well with Rakdos Cackler.

Flames of the Firebrand

See previous comments. It’s mostly a way to beat Lingering Souls and really would be coming in as a minor upgrade to Searing Spear in matchups where it isn’t great. Probably not worth boarding if you aren’t playing it main unless you are very interested in beating Brad’s new The Aristocrats list.

Gruul Charm

I feel like this is a better Flames of the Firebrand against the primary Lingering Souls deck of the format: Reanimator. While I’m not a huge fan of the Threaten or Falter effects against Thragtusk, this is one that does something against their non-Tusk plans. It’s also reasonable against The Aristocrats, which often heavily relies on clogging the board in aggro mirrors.

Skullcrack

This is not good against Thragtusk for the same reasons that Traitorous Blood isn’t. It just doesn’t solve the whole issue and adds the problem of having to leave up mana for it. It is, however, reasonable against Sphinx’s Revelation, which isn’t cast until the point at which you will have open mana. That said, you have to kill them with the Skullcrack or they will just cast another Revelation and bail out of danger.

Reckless Waif

This is a fairly low-impact addition, but on the play against decks without one-drops it gives you a lot of percentage. As you’ve noticed, none of these other options are awesome, so why not burn sideboard space on free game wins?

Frostburn Weird

This was awesome in red mirrors, but with the shift towards 3/3s from 2/2s, this card goes from a brick wall to just a blocker or something that trades. Not terrible, just less impressive.

Tormod’s Crypt

Throwing away cards against Reanimator’s Tusk hands is the easiest way to lose to them. Only play this if you are trying to beat Human Reanimator and know they aren’t just transformational boarding into Tusks. Of course, I’m pretty sure Human Reanimator loses to aggro, so why do you care?

Wrapping It Up

There isn’t one set direction to take a red deck in this format. I’m going to present three lists that cover what I see as the main directions to take the deck.

List A: The Ambitious One

This list is probably the furthest from optimized, but the point is mostly to show exactly how far you can go with the mana. Temple Garden overlapping on Reckoner gives you four white sources already, so changing a few Mountains to Sacred Foundrys lets you splash white. Similar to the whole Temple Garden casting Reckoner thing, your "basic Forests" can also cast Rakdos Cackler if you turn them into Overgrown Tombs. If I had to play a tournament tomorrow with this, I would make the Charms into Rancors, but it’s worth considering that in any of the green lists splashing Boros Charm has very minimal costs.

Note: I’ve chosen Flunkies over Chainwalker here to demonstrate a point. If the rest of you deck is already Pillar and Wolf token-proof, the choice of 3/Xs can be swayed by wanting to keep it that way.

List B: The Solid One

21 lands might be cutting it a bit short, but I’m willing to risk it. The 22nd is in the board for when you want access to Mizzium Mortars overload. This is also known as the "who still plays Naya?" scenario.

The fourth Reckoner had to be sacrificed to mana curve. It’s possible you can move the third Wolf to the sideboard and go back to four Reckoners, but I’m still inclined to think that Wolf is awesome.

Aside from those two things, this list is fairly straightforward, and with no further testing it’s the list I would trust most out of all of these.

List C: The Hyperaggro One

I’m willing to accept that I could be wrong on the four-drop issue. It’s possible that with the "max" number of Falter guys, you can easily crash through a Thragtusk. Firefist Striker even gets better in multiples and makes Lightning Mauler more relevant. Note that I’m using max somewhat loosely as I’m still playing the fourth Reckoner over the fourth Wolf. I’m not even sure this list can support seven three-drops, let alone eight.

–

I don’t think red aggro’s time has passed in Standard. It’s just a matter of putting in the right work. While I have no plans to play the format until after Dragon’s Maze, hopefully this can point a few people in the right direction.