A mono red deck that actually draws cards? NANI?!?! Yes zada allows for a really fun, fast, and explosive playing experience, and I'll go over everything the deck has to offer
First up....
THE COMMANDER
Zada, Hedron Grinder at first glance doesn't read as truly impressive. She just makes pump spell Battle tricks a team-wide anthem. So what? Well actually Zada's main claim to fame is her unorthodox but incredibly powerful card draw potential, unheard of and pretty much unmatched in monored. This is due to how her effect works. She copies the full effect of any instant or sorcery card that targets just her that you cast. Lets say you have zada and 6 goblin tokens on the field. And you cast Expedite targeting zada. That spell now copies to all the tokens too. INCLUDING THE DRAW A CARD. So now you get to draw 7 cards for 1 red mana. Yeah i think thats a pretty good rate. So essentially the more bodies on the board you have the more value zada can accrue from simple cantrip spells.
THE GAME PLAN
SO we got card draw but what are the ends we are trying to achieve wih said cards? Well its pretty simple: we want to flood the board with tokens and cheap and efficient bodies then cast as many pump spells on our army at once to one shot one or more people at a time. The deck is highly aggressive, and i recommend if playing it, pick one person to latch onto like a rabid dog and hit them until theyre gone then move to someone else unless you have a big enough board to alpha strike everyone at once (not unheard of) because its harder to win if you try to "spread the love evenly". So let's start the breakdown with....
RED RAMPIN'
Mono red isn't really know for its ability to ramp very well but we do have some options. Sol Ring is a no brainer. But id argue Ruby Medallion is what youd rather have in your opening hand. The amount of mana you save from this little two mana artifact is nuts. Now while we do want to ramp, getting bodies on the board is just as important so in this deck i actually prefer mana dorks to mana rocks. Yes, theyre more vulnerable but they play into our strategy better. So the deck runs Iron Myr, Plague Myr and Manakin as our "true" mana dorks. But we also have uncoventional temporary ramp dorks as well. Wily Goblin gives us a treasure when he comes down so we have one extra mana available for later. But his Big Bro Dockside Extortionist takes this to another level, giving us potential truck loads of treasure to provide us for potential explosive turns. But i'd say as amazing as the extortionist is, the best pseudo ramp creature in the deck is Runaway Steam-Kin. Most of the spells in this deck hover around the 1 to 2 mana range and are all red minus a small smattering of artifacts. Meaning you can potentially keep casting spells and adding three more mana to your pool. Oh, and any turn you can clone the steamkin is a turn you can REALLY go ham. But this deck also incorporates a bit of temporary ramp in the form of fast mana rituals. Seething Song is the most straight forward of them, trading 3 mana for 5. Leas straight forward but with a much higher power ceiling is Battle Hymn which will give you a red mana foe each creature you control, which given the decks penchant for puking up tokens can get pretty high. But the biggest fadt mana ritual spell, and arguably the one od the most explosive play enablers in the deck is Mana Geyser. 5 mana in this deck is an investment to be sure but to put it in perspective, if you the last player in the table rotation and everyone has hit their land drops and tapped out on their fifth turn, if you were to cast this its 15 red mana to your pool, and that number gets bigger the longer the game goes. Its not an unreasonable statement to say that this card wins games.
TOKEN SPAM
Zada's ability needs bodies to properly abuse it to its full potential. And the quickest way to to do that in red is to spam tokens.
First we have one shot token effects with Krenko's Command, Dragon Fodder, Hordeling Outburst which are just quick and efficient spells for making multiple bodies. Goblin Instigator, Beetleback Chief, Siege-Gang Commander, and Mogg War Marshal all come with friends and leave a friend behind in the marshal's case. But while one shots are nice repeatable token spam is much better. Legion Warboss, Goblin Rabblemaster, Young Pyromancer, Loyal Apprentice, Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin, and Krenko, Mob Boss all provide us with at least one token per turn, sometimes WAAAAAY more. Two honorable mentions in this categoey are Anax, Hardened in the Forge and Pashalik Mons who, while they don't make any initial tokens, allow us to get some tokens when something is going to unavoidably die, and in Mons' case, burn someone on the way out. But theres an even faster way to amass an army...
SEND IN THE CLONES
Red's clone effects aren't exactly long lasting, typically making one or two tokens that poof at the end of turn. This is true. But our girl Zada turns the power up several dangerous notches. By targeting zada with either Twinflame or Heat Shimmer we essentially duplicate our entire board of creatures, which when paired with the likes of Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Combat Celebrant or The previously mentioned Steamkin, these two spells can spell trouble for your opponents
HAVE A NICE 'TRIP
So we mentioned at the start that zada is a great draw engine when combined with cantripping battle trick instants and sorceries. But how many does red have? Honestly, a BUNCH. Expedite, Crimson Wisps, and Accelerate when targeting zada give all our creatures haste and let us draw a card for each. Renegade Tactics, Stun, and Boiling Blood when targeting zada, make it so our creatures either must attack or cannot block (which we dont really care about since we're usually attacking anyway) but the important thing is that "Draw a Card". Then we have Rile which, if we cast after giving any kind of toughness boost to the team, when targeting zada, gives the team trample and lets us draw a card for each. We also have Chaotic Strike which while its casting time is oddly specific and the boost will be random, still gives us that sweet card draw. And theres one more that deserves its own shoutout we'll go over later...Finally we have delayed card draw effects in Aleatory, Balduvian Rage, and Panic. While it can be a pain to wait till the next upkeep (note: not OUR next upkeep but THE next upkeep) this can be a good thing as drawing 20 cards we can't play by the end of our turn is going to lead to a painful discard phase, so these delayed draws can be for the best. But sometimes we can't get card draw, but we can still get some nice card Selection. Titan's Strength and Samut's Sprint pull double duty giving our team a solid buff and then also giving us a couple scry triggers to get our next draw setup. Finally, we have one more form of temporary, but still very useful, card advantage: Spark of Creativity. On the surface this is just a randomized burn spell that can be used like a miniature Light Up the Stage. But if we target Zada with it, We can do this for every creature we have, giving us a temporary new handful of cards to use till end of turn for a single mana. But now let's talk about the biggest haymaker this deck has...
SHORYUKEN!!!!!!
The absolute best card in this deck, in terms of card draw and pump up effects is by far Fists of Flame. This unassuming two drop instant is an absolute bomb when its targeting zada. Let's say you have zada on the field and 5 1/1 goblin tokens and you cast this targeting zada during your combat step after swinging out. It copies to all the tokens and you stack the copies how you see fit but zadas will always resolve last. For the first goblin you draw a card and the goblin gets +2/+0 and trample (it counts the card you draw during the draw step). The second one draws a card and gets +3/0 and trample. Then +4, and then +5, and then +6, and finally zada gets +7/+0 and trample and youve drawn 6 cards. And this power level scales with each card you've drawn from cantrips cast in the same turn before you cast fists and every creature you control. This is one of the few pump spells in this deck that can win games by itself. You will never not be happy to see it in your hand.
PRIMED AND PUMPED
Noe lets get into what the bulk of the remainder of the nonland cards in this deck are: Pump spells and battle tricks. Most of these are pretty self explanatory and give any combination of haste, trample, first or double strike and a power and toughness boost. So to save time, i'll go over some of the better or stronger ones. Invigorated Rampage is extremely strong, giving a +4/+0 boost and trample across the whole team and, if zada is taken down can still be used to pump multiple creatures even without her help. This card is also very good paired with anax as any creature affected by its first mode can be replaced by two satyrs instead of one if they die. If you're someone who likes Embercleave, then Temur Battle Rage and Assault Strobe are right up your alley. Paying only 1 mana to give your entire board double strike or two mana to give them double strike at instant speed, along with trample if properly setup, is a fantastic value and a quick way to dole out a ton of damage. And Infuriate and Brute Force give the best flat power/toughness for a single mana, allowing for big swings for little cost. But now let's move on to how this deck can recover from the inevitable hate that will come our way.
IN CASE OF EMERGENCY BREAK FACE
Aggressive Mono red decks aren't exactly known for longevity or for having mid to late game plans and options, typically we wanna just burn people out quickly before others get traction. And one thing to note about how the deck works is it is VERY dependent upon its commander to function effectively. As a result, boardwipes and spot removal will eventually come our way, so we need backup plans and ways to regain our footing. Now, Zada's effect is pretty unique and what the deck is based upon, but thankfully there exists a lieutenant for zada: Mirrorwing Dragon. Mirrorwing is functionally another copy of zada but with some additional upsides and one or two downsides. One the downsides, he costs more mana and his cost is more mana specific (minor issue but can come up). Now if zadas been to the command zone a few times that 5 mana could actually be more ideal to pay and get the dragon out instead. Another downside is hes not legendary so he cant be our commander (sometimes i wish he could be...sorry zada) and since the deck runs no ways to search and grab him outside of scrying to find him or just drawing him, he cant be relied on to show up when you may need him. Now on to positives. The first big one is that addition of flying which can be huge for getting damage through. Next that extra one mana over zada gets you an additional point of power and two more toughness so he's a bit sturdier all around. And finally, his biggest leg up over zada is the wording of his effect. Unlike Zada who specifies she only copies spells YOU cast targeting only her to all possible creatures you control, Mirrorwing dragon instead copies the spell to every creature the caster controls. Meaning if your opponent targets the dragon with a removal spell, while it will kill the dragon, it will copy the kill spell to each creature that opponent controls, making it effectively a single opponent field nuke. So while its not really protection on the level of hexproof, shroud or indestructible, its still a pretty strong deterrent. So what else do we have? What if our opponents board wipe our creatures away and we dont have any quick token makers or creatures in hand? Well, the previously mentioned Anax is great for providing an insurance plan in case that happens, at the very least youll still have some creatures on the board. But our best anti-boardwipe tool is Otherworldly Outburst. You're opponent casts a boardwipe to kill all your little 1/1 tokens? Well, REVERSE UNO CARD! Now where each 1/1 stood a 3/2 has taken its place. Nothing like having triple the on board power after a board wipe than you had before the board wipe to get your opponent's off guard. But what if its not creatures we're worried about? What if we need some good stuff we used earlier or our opponents got rid of that we need back? Well, thats a bit harder but we do have a few options. For starters, Dreadhorde Arcanist can essentially flashback a single spell whenever it attacks and the bigger he is the bigger the instant or sorcery he can cast for us. Goblin Dark-Dwellers is similiar but he gets us an instant or sorcery with cmc 3 or less cast eom the graveyard as an etb, so he doesnt need to risk himself by attacking to get the benefit. But the big comeback spells are up now:Past in Flames can allow us to recurr our graveyard spells again for a turn, and can do so again by flashing it back. But the real graveyard recursion mvp is Underworld Breach. For the low cost of 2 mana, this card gives.you complete access to your graveyard as a resource for a single turn. We do however have to be mindful that for each 1 card we want to escape, we have to exile 3 others from the graveyard so you have to really pick and choose what you want to get back and whats worth losing permanently. But still, thats a small price to pay for a comeback.
YOU CAN'T LABEL ME,MAN!
Lastly, before we get to the mana base there's a few cards that don't quite fit into any of the other categories but still provide great help in the deck one way or another. Dualcaster Mage is kind of swiss army card. It can double up a spell we really like, or an opponent's spell we reslly like,can help stop counter-magic, and also is part of a two card infinite combo in the deck. See, by casting Twinflame or Heat Shimmer then casting dual caster and copying the spell, this time cloning dualcaster, the clone can come in and copy the original spell still on the stack, and repeat endlessly to create an infinite number of 2/2 hasty creatures. Combat Celebrant is a welcome addition as having multiple combat steps with a team of pumped creatures can help close out a game very quickly. And finally Kari Zev's Expertise serves two purposes. It can get us an opponent's strongest monster for a turn and then let us cast a free cheap spell, like a cantrip. Or, for the ultimate in big brain plays, target Zada with it, then you can cast a 2 or less cmc spell from our hand for free for each creature you control. If you have a draw spell or two this can get out of hand fast.
THE MANABASE
The deck runs a very lean land to nonland ratio, with our top end spells costing five, the decks mana costs arent exactly demanding. But we run 28 mountains and a small number of utility lands. Tectonic Edge is a thing because Gaea's cradle and cabal coffers are a thing. Reliquery Tower is always a welcome sight when you draw 7+ cards in a turn and don't want to discard. Castle Embereth is just a nice anthem effect opponents may not calculate for. And Dwarven Mine and Inkmoth Nexus and Mishra's Factory can be creatures when necessary
