This is my modern mono red swarm deck.
The idea behind the deck is to spew out creatures, throw down buffs or a Signal Pest at keep turning sideways.
With multiple turn 3 wins, but an average of turn 4 ( quite consistently) the deck is fast.
Here is an example of a turn 3 win: Show
Obviously there are issues with the deck, a well placed counter can throw out the whole attack formation. The creatures are also small so things like
Electrickery
are a serious problem.
The swarm like nature of the deck means by turn 4 you can be dealing upwards of 20+ damage per swing.
Match Reports:
Esper Delver Show
Rating: even-bad
The particular deck i payed against was very strong allowing it to 2-1 me eventually after a few well placed counters/ hand distruption and one or two misplays on my part.
However, most plays i did could outpace him and that's why i'd place the decks even. one massive advantage he had over me was Ratchet Bomb which really puts a hole in my board state
Thing in the Ice
was pretty strong with a few pump spells and the resulting open board from the flip, but the backlash and counter attack the very next turn after re-dumping the free creatures and throwing down 2 bushwhackers gave me the game.
helpful tip: mulligan until you find pace, bushwhacker effects are essential and free creatures will establish a board state early. Keep swinging and try to lure counter magic out with tempting targets, while saving your best plays for the right moment.
Defense Grid could be an awesome sideboard piece if the Delver build you're against is control heavy. The downside is, Grixis and Esper varients also have hand disruption which may be it's only control elements.
Rating- good-strong
2-0 to me.
Sideboarding Tormod's Crypt will destroy their strategy without impacting yours too much. Dredge can set up some insanely large board states early but this deck can outpace and outswing it before that happens. in the event they have 3 vengevines, 2 bloodghast, 3 prized amalgam, a stinkweed imp and a hedron crab on the board at once? Goblin grenade is your friend.
helpful tips: Sideboard in Tormod's Crypt and proceed as planned, you may not even need to side in as the deck has a strong chance already. Don't worry abut their pace you're often in a winning position by the time their graveyard spews. Also useful is Ash Zealot turn their own strategy against them at the cost of your Engineers, the win becomes much easier in this eventuality.
Grixis Delver Show
Rating: Bad 0-2 (to them)
This delver variant is capable of very fast plays that can match your own. A large amount of the sideboard should come in here Tormod's Crypt will help with their delve cards, Ash Zealot will burn them for their Snapcaster Mage tricks and Defense Grid will shut down their counter magic.
Had i had these cards available at the time my match rating may have been better (perhaps even), but the fact remains that game 1 you're getting hit hard if you don't have a T-3 pace.
In all honesty their counter and tempo magic is your worst enemy here, disable it with Defense Grid and just keep swinging. you can out grow them if they don't drop Young Pyromancer so chump blocking is an option for you.
best tips, try and work the game, play defensively if they are dropping large creatures as you can drop a wall of blockers fairly cheaply but you're going to have to hold out until you hit Goblin Grenade to kill off Tasigur and Delver of secrets. If you can't hold the line you're done. If they don't drop their big things swing around them and swing fast, pump up as high as you can and go around them, with Defense Grid in play this becomes much easier and you may consider Galvanic Blast but in the end this match up is an uphill struggle on your part.
1-1 (draw due to timeout)
while not exactly even, this match is winnable, you have the pace to kill them before they enable Tron so use that to your advantage.
if they enable Tron then you need to get chump blockers in play and set up plays like block=Goblin Grenade to take care of Wurmcoil Engine, if they drop Ugin that is really going to hurt, killing off these two cards is a must. If you have Ghost Quarter available use it without mercy, your best target is Urza's Tower which will disable their tron and slow them down to close in for the kill.
Tips:Land distruction (i.e quarter) is very useful here but not essential if you have a fast enough hand. Removal is key the later the game goes so Galvanic Blast and Goblin Grenade are musts. Play smart with blocks and bide your time in the late game, but ideally finish this early while they are setting up.
Boros Prison Show
Rating- Bad
This was a weird one, as he only played 1 round so i cant really comment on a 'match report' however these things came to mind:
Ensnaring Bridge, Chalice of the Void, Boros Reckoner, Leyline of Sanctity and Ghostly Prison are all bad cards for you. If your local meta runs this, then you will need Wear//tear and other forms of enchantment removal. The good thing is Blood Moon hurts them more than you, if they play it they almost shut themselves down (if you have the money side this for yourself).
You'll also want Artifact hate, such as Shattering Spree etc.
other than saying he won the round he played ( a restriction he placed on our online match) i can't offer much more of a commentary.
the upside is, your cheap creatures mean you'll be able to get some damage in because you'll almost always be able to pay 2. However, once they play Chalice of the Void be prepared to see turns 10+
Bant Control Show
Rating: Even- (with slight favor to them)
This was a really enjoyable match up, it ended in a draw due to time, as the game was very tactically intensive for the both of us.
This was also the first match with full sideboard, 3x Reverberate and 3x
Impact Tremors
and 18 mountains and no Thopter Engineer
He ran cards such as: Aether Vial, Supreme Verdict, Eternal Witness, Kitchen Finks, Path to Exile, Vandilion clique, Remand.
The first game started fast for me but with a sub optimal hand. Ultimately Aether Vial saved him by powering out creatures and allowing him to counter my spells with saved mana.
One great point was mid-round i used Reverberate on his remand to get myself extra card draw and allow my creature to drop.
their fetching really helps my deck out but you have to make sure you have a fast hand or atleast a reverberate or two in your opener.
Second Round was pretty fun, again Aether Vial saved him by sending out Kitchen Finks but
Weapon Surge
was my allstar making his chump blocks less than productive.
For this match i sided in 2xGalvanic Blast to help with closing the game, 3X Defense Grid to stop pesky counters. I took him all the way to 2 life by around turn 3, he saved himself with Finks and our match went to time at 17-8 life in my favor. A difficult but fun match for us both i think.
R/G land destruction Show
Rating: Good (2-1 to me)
This was a brew i went up against that used land destruction, Anger of the Gods, Chandara, Flamecaller, Koth of the Hammer, Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Birds of Paradise, Arbor Elf
The deck denied lands with almost every other play, really hurting efficiency but with free creatures and low cost spells i could manage to stay a step or two ahead.
The first 2 turns where vital, making sure i had atleast 2-4 creatures by turn 2 was the most important thing but also opening hands had to be 2+ landers just to keep ahead of Molten Rain so mulligans were strange dropping below 6 is ill advised as theres no guarantee you'll have the creatures or lands.
In the end fast pace hitting him before he blew up too many lands won me the game but the second match took 10 turns as i was sitting there with no lands or creatures waiting on him to kill me. The one memnite i did get out was easily eaten by a beast token he made with a land kill spell (that he had to use on himself since i hadn't had a land since turn 7) then my life total was eaten by 2 dark dwellers and the 3/3.
A great match up and a really enjoyable game, the fast pace of this deck really came into its own as did
Impact Tremors
, Memnite, Signal Pest,
Kuldotha Rebirth
and Ornithopter.
Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think! However, please bear in mind that the deck is very very budget, that being said i would like help with sideboard options.
Defense Grid and Galvanic Blast are among the favourites to include along with Ghost Quarter in the main deck. Any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
