Standard Stupid Red Burn on a Budget

[Crackdown]

My 13 yr old is now playing MTGIII on line. We last played two years ago and have a few thousand virtual cards, but also some unused tickets. So, he's looking for cheap cards to use in a SRB budget deck. No Mutavaults please!

 

[Budget Player Cadet]

Rift Bolt
Shard Volley
Keldon Marauders
Mogg Fanatic
Incinerate
Shock

That's if you're just talking standard...

 

[Modus Pwnens]

My RDW deck runs the following cards:

Flame Javelin
Countryside Crusher
Mogg Fanatic
Rift Bolt
Incinerate
Ghitu Encampment
Magus of the Moon (used to be Tattermunge Maniac)
Keldon Marauders
Lash Out
Intimidator Initiate

With the exception of the Magus and Crusher, it's all common/uncommon, but you'll have to include either of them, preferably the crusher.

 

[Mooseman]

Spark Elemental (3/1 haste trample for R)
Blazing Salvo (3 to a creature or 5 to a player, all for R)
Dead//Gone (2 damage for R)
Electrostatic Bolt (2 for R)
Lava Spike (3 damage for R)
Reckless Abandon
Rding Goblin (1/1 Haste for R)

 

[Shabbaman]

I just read this on SCG, copypaste FTW.

Deck #7: I Am Red Deck

I was going to keep calling this deck Magic Show Red, but that is no justice for the deck’s originator Chris “I Am” Nighbor. A quick aside: Tom LaPille and I were driving back from the latest SCG weekend. The other three members of the car (JR Wade, GerryT, and Ben Weinberg) were fast asleep, but the two of us were rather tired… and punchy. Anyway, somehow we imagined up Chris Nighbor as a Pokemon.

A Wild Nighbor Appears!

Quick, Use the Ultraballs!

I guess you had to be there…

I assume you all know how Red decks work and this thing is no exception. Cheap, powerful animals and burn spells take your opponent down to zero as quickly as possible. For an example, look at what the other Guillaume made Day 2 with:

Guillaume Cardin
Pro Tour: Hollywood Day 2

4 Ghitu Encampment
16 Mountain
4 Mutavault

4 Fulminator Mage
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Tattermunge Maniac

4 Incinerate
4 Lash Out
4 Rift Bolt
4 Shard Volley
4 Sulfurous Blast

Sideboard:
4 Countryside Crusher
3 Greater Gargadon
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Sulfur Elemental

Likelihood of Play: Very High

This is quite an elegant deck. Everything is maxed out 4-ofs, no questions of what the deck is trying to do. This is a Regionals deck. I would be just as shocked if I didn’t face this deck as I would if I didn’t face Faeries.

Top 5 Strengths: Mogg Fanatic, Magus of the Moon, Fulminator Mage, Lash Out, Rift Bolt

Top 5 Weaknesses: Kitchen Finks, Primal Command, Teferi’s Moat, Wall of Roots, Loxodon Warhammer

I tried to pick strengths for this deck and it proved to be very difficult. As ubiquitous as the Red deck appears to be, there is a ton of variance between the individual copies. Basically, the strength of the deck is aggressive spells. Not one is strictly better than the others. I will make special mention of Magus of the Moon and Fulminator Mage, however, as the nonbasic hate is a strong part of the success of the deck, putting the opponent off balance long enough to finish them off with more traditional angry Red spells. The weaknesses were also a tad tough to decide upon, but basically if your goal is to take life away then life gain and damage prevention are bad for you.

Playability: Low

I’m not sure this is the deck you want to be playing. There’s an awful lot of life gain and control for this kind of deck to fair well. My suggestion is to try to avoid playing this deck this weekend.

There are some rares that aren't quite budget, like Fulminator mage and Magus of the moon. You won't be making friends with LD in the casual room anyway, so ditch these for either more burn or creatures. Burn is nice, but there are some nice cheap cards that are too good to pass on. Sligh's almost burn in my book anyway. If you decide against creatures, look for cards like Pyroclasm and Firespout. If you go with creatures, look no further than Boggart Ram Gang.

The one card that you need for the deck is Everlasting torment, a 2R enchantment:

Players can't gain life.
Damage can't be prevented.
All damage is dealt as though its source had wither. (A source with wither deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)

It's rare though, but I wouldn't be surprised if you can pick it up for a single ticket. If you have some snow covered lands lying around, go for Skred.