Mono-Red Control (Horde)

Casual Control Horde Magic Mono-Red Stax

mintedpea

Land (24)

• 1x Castle Embereth
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 19x Mountain
• 1x Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
• 2x Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance

Artifact (9)

• 3x Avarice Amulet
• 2x Jinxed Ring
• 4x Sol Ring

Enchantment (15)

• 4x AEther Flash
• 3x An-Zerrin Ruins
• 4x Braid of Fire
• 4x Curse of Bloodletting

Creature (12)

• 4x Balefire Dragon
• 2x Fury
• 4x Silent Arbiter
• 2x Urabrask the Hidden

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Maybeboard

Creature (17)

• 1x Ben-Ben, Akki Hermit
• 4x Cemetery Gatekeeper
• 1x Drakuseth, Maw of Flames
• 1x Fiendish Duo
• 1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 4x Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
• 2x Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
• 3x War Elemental

Battle (1)

• 1x Invasion of Kaldheim  ^Flip

Planeswalker (5)

• 1x Chandra, Bold Pyromancer
• 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 1x Koth, Fire of Resistance
• 1x Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast
• 1x Sarkhan the Masterless

Enchantment (5)

• 4x Fable of the Mirror-Breaker  ^Flip
• 1x Vance's Blasting Cannons  ^Flip

Sorcery (10)

• 3x Blazing Volley
• 2x Burn Down the House
• 1x Hour of Devastation
• 4x Spitting Earth

Instant (2)

• 2x Cinderclasm

Land (1)

• 1x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

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The plan here is to lock down the Horde and wait while it decks itself, speeding up that process as much as we can.

Urabrask the Hidden and Silent Arbiter are how we stay alive. You really want Arbiter ASAP. An-Zerrin Ruins combos nicely with Urabrask to lock the Horde out of the game. AEther Flash kills most of the Horde's creatures as soon as they hit the table, especially if you get multiples out.

Fury and Balefire Dragon help keep the board reasonably clear and block whatever gets through our stax setup.

Jinxed Ring is pretty funny in this deck; admittedly the need to sac a creature to donate it is inconvenient. You can make a token with Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance and then sac it, ordering the triggers so the token doesn't die to AEther Flash first. You can also sac a legendary before replacing it, or a spare Arbiter (you only really need one).

Curse of Bloodletting speeds things up too. Note they stack, so if you get, say, an Aether Flash, a Jinxed Ring and three curses in play and the Horde plays a small creature, the ring deals 8 damage to the Horde's face and the creature dies. This happens every time and it kills the Horde pretty fast.

Avarice Amulet keeps the cards flowing. I like to attach them to the Arbiter and then maybe transfer them to a dragon later on when mana is no object.

Ramp from Sol Ring and Braid of Fire helps us get set up before the Horde comes out on turn 3. Ideally you go something like (1) Mountain, Sol Ring (2) Mountain, Arbiter (3) Mountain, Sol Ring, then either a big flying dragon or an Aether Flash and a Braid if you feel more like investing in the future. As long as you have Turn 3 Arbiter, though, it's a good start.

The mana base is mostly basics -- this deck needs to get set up ASAP if it's going to survive so reasonably fast mana is important. I did add one Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep and one Castle Embereth as their abilities might be useful occasionally and there's no downside, and the tokens from Sokenzan might be useful once or twice. I also threw in a Maze of Ith because it's another way to plug a gap in your defences, but only one because you don't want to draw it early.

Incidentally, after building this deck I discovered that some of its best cards are on the unofficial ban list (https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Horde_Magic#Rules_for_The_Horde). I think the deck is fun and not completely unfair, and it wouldn't function without them, so in the spirit of Horde I'm going to go with that.

Date added	8 months
Last updated	1 month
Legality	This deck is Casual legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 25 - 0 Rares 8 - 0 Uncommons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.89
Tokens	Spirit 1/1 C
Folders	Horde Beaters