The (Slightly) New Skred Red *Primer*

Modern* Burn Control Midrange Mono-Red Primer Prison

JKRice

Instant (11)

• 2x Abrade
• 4x Lightning Bolt
• 4x Skred
• 1x Volcanic Fallout

Artifact (7)

• 3x Ensnaring Bridge
• 4x Mind Stone

Creature (4)

• 4x Simian Spirit Guide

Planeswalker (10)

• 2x Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
• 2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 2x Karn, the Great Creator
• 4x Koth of the Hammer

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Blood Moon

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Anger of the Gods
• 1x Slagstorm

Land (22)

• 1x Scrying Sheets
• 21x Snow-Covered Mountain

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Sideboard

Artifact (8)

• 3x Damping Sphere
• 1x Ensnaring Bridge
• 1x Mycosynth Lattice
• 3x Relic of Progenitus

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Flame Slash
• 1x Roast
• 2x Shattering Spree

Instant (1)

• 1x Volcanic Fallout

Creature (2)

• 2x Stormbreath Dragon

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Maybeboard

Instant (1)

• 1x Burst Lightning

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Gameplay section not complete yet

My Take On Skred

Skred red is, and has always been, a mono-red control deck focused around spot removal and Blood Moon. It uses cards like Simian Spirit Guide and Desperate Ritual to lay down a moon on turn two, leading to concessions from many decks and winning games anyways when they don't concede. It usually plays big creatures like Stormbreath Dragon as winconditions alongside planeswalkers like Chandra, Torch of Defiance and Koth of the Hammer. I quite like the skred red playstyle, but there were always a couple of issues I had with the lists. Firstly, it would appear to me that these decks make an obvious mistake, which is the omission of Ensnaring Bridge. With lost of one-mana spot removal and cards like Simian Spirit Guide you can easily empty your hand and accelerate out a bridge, which has the same locking potential as moon, except it also wins against mono-colored decks. The second problem I have with the deck is the big creatures. Choosing to play cards like Stormbreath Dragon and Glorybringer seems like a greedy choice, and if you had bridge in the deck you wouldn't even need those creatures at all. My version of skred is different. It goes much harder for the control aspect and is not very aggro at all. It uses ensnaring bridge along with sweeper, spot removal, blood moon, and utility planeswalkers to control the board until you can ulti one of the walkers or burn down the opponent.

If you would like to a see a more "classic" skred red decklist, here it is:

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Yaw Yeet

Modern JKRice

78 VIEWS | IN 1 FOLDER

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The List

Defense

1: Blood Moon shuts down a ton of decks. This is especially good since while this primer is being written, the top decks in the meta are all 3+ colors, except for tron. A lot of the time the opponent will concede if you play this turn two or three. Some of the time they won't but you will still have enough of an advantage to win easily.

2: Ensnaring Bridge has much the same effect as blood moon, except it is useful against more decks. Since artifact removal is much more prominent in both the mainboard and sideboard of most decks than enchantment removal, there are only thee bridges, where there are four moons.

3: Lightning Bolt and Skred are the go-to spot removal cards. These are mainly used to keep your opponent entirely off the board until you can get a lock going. Lightning Bolt is also very good later in the game as w in condition.

4: Anger of the Gods/Slagstorm are the main wide removal cards. These are absolutely necessary in the deck as it would struggle against wide strategies without them. Anger absolutely kills decks like dredgevine, and slagstorm can ping the opponent down a bit if their board is under control.

Utility

1: Mind Stone accelerates the deck by a lot. Early ramp means you can get to the four mana threshold a lot quicker, and late game draw means more consistency in getting to your win conditions.

2: Simian Spirit Guide is mainly there to accelerate down a three-drop lock piece early on in the game. Being able to do this before the opponent has a chance to respond, especially against decks like jeskai control, could mean a win. It can also just be a chump blocker if you need to protect a walker.

3: Chandra, Acolyte of Flame is one of the new cards that I felt would go well with the deck. This falls in the utility role for a couple of reasons. The first +0 ability makes it much easier to ulti one of your walkers. If you drop this turn three and Koth of the Hammer turn four, you will have his emblem on the very next turn, and the same thing goes for Chandra, Torch of Defiance. The -2 ability is amazing in the late game. With six mana you can drop her and recast a sweeper that you played earlier, resetting the game. She is mono-red's version of Snapcaster Mage, and basically doubles the removal suite of the deck.

4: Abrade is mainly there for artifact removal. In most matchups there will be some annoying artifact that we would rather no have on the table, so abrade comes in very handy as a mainboard card.

Offense/Threats

1: Koth of the Hammer is the main versatile threat. At worst he is a 4 mana 4/4 with haste. At best he casts himself for free on turn four with his -2 and then you can play another threat to protect him. His ulti is the main wincondition through ensnaring bridge, and lets you deal with both the boardstate and their life total. You just have to watch out for his +1, since the opponent can destroy the land with creature removal.

2: Chandra, Torch of Defiance does everything. She provides card advantage, burns down most creatures, reduces her own cost/ramps, and her ulti is game ending. On the MTGsalvation established page for skred red, they say that Chandra TOD is the best thing every to happen to the deck archetype, and I happen to agree.

3: Karn, the Great Creator is an interesting card that I am trying out. Of course I am sure you have heard of the karn-Mycosynth Lattice combo, where you grab it from your sideboard and play it, and then they can't tap their lands. In that way, he is a win condition. However, he also plays a lot of utility, and I almost put him in that section, because there are other artifacts in the sideboard that can be useful. If you don't have a bridge in hand and really want one, you can use his -2 to grab the on in the SB, and the same thing goes for Relic of Progenitus or Damping Matrix. Into certain matchups, his -2 can end games. He can also turn your bridges and mind stones into beaters.

Sideboard

1: Anger of the Gods, Flame Slash, and Roast are just extra removal in case there isn't enough in the mainboard. Not a likely scenario, but you never know what weird resilient decks you might go up against.

2: Damping Sphere kills tron and storm, and it can be brought in game one with Karn, the Great Creator

3: Ensnaring Bridge is good against super aggro creature decks like humans or dredgevine. and it can be brought in game one with karn.

4: Mycosynth Lattice is basically mainboard, since you will never bring it in from the sideboard, and you will only play after grabbing it with karn. This and karn make up a wincondition.

5: Relic of Progenitus turns off tarmogoyf, snapcaster, and most graveyard decks, while providing card draw, and it can brought in game one with karn.

6: Shattering Spree is just there to stall against decks like affinity. We don;t need as much SB artifact hate since we have the three mainboard abrades.

7: Stormbreath Dragon is something I didn't want to put in the mainboard, but it was too good not to include. Against azorius, esper, or jeskai control, are three of which are immensly popular in the current meta, stormbreath wins games. It's as simple as that.

Gameplay

Real quick some mana thresholds:

3 mana: your lock pieces are both 3 cmc

4 mana: your biggest threats all come down with 4

7 mana: you can play Karn, use his -2 to find e-bridge from the sideboard, then play bridge OR play Chandra acolyte and another red walker OR play a threat and a bridge to protect it

10 mana: play Karn, grab Mycosynth Lattice, and play it

Starting Hands

Rule #1: most hands with Blood Moon are keepers.

Other than that, look for a good spread of spot removal and sweepers. Any hand with 2+ bolt cards and a sweeper are probably good, since that will significantly slow down your opponent almost no matter what deck they are playing. If you have a hand with lots of one mana stuff and an Ensnaring bridge, that works as well, since you can empty your hand and sit behind bridge. You should be more worried about flooding than not having enough lands, so 2 land hands are fine, but be careful of any hand with more than 4.

Early Game (T1-T3)

You have two goals on the early game: make sure your opponent only has lands on the battlefield and get down a three-drop lock piece as quickly as possible. You should bolt/skred anything they play in the first three turns, and if you can run out a bridge or moon, you should so that as well. Remember you can exile spirit guide at instant speed, so you can tap out for a 3-drop on your turn and still be able to bolt their play. If you happen to have a mind stone in hand, prioritize that before your spot removal but after moon and bridge. You want to set up for the mid game as quickly as possible by outpacing their board state and constantly setting them back. If you have a Chandra, Acolyte of Flame, it has slightly more priority than mind stone.

Mid Game (T4-T)

In general, you want to switch from defensive-kill-everything-spam-spot-removal to a more offensive strategy, where you start to play out threats and only use your removal on specific key creatures.

On turn four you want to be able to drop a threat or two. If you have koth, there are a couple of different ways to play. If they have a board state, but not enough to take him below two (after you + him once), then you should run him out and plus him. This lets you ramp up to 8 mana next turn with his -2, letting you play out more substantial threats. If you have a bridge out, you can play koth, -2 him to refund the mana, then play another threat, thus stripping your hand a bit so bridge can protect your walkers. If they have been shock-fetching and you have had the chance to bolt them or slagstorm them once or twice, you can go super aggro and use koth’s + to deal an extra four damage and put them in a tough position. Be careful with his +1 though, since your opponent can use the opportunity to kill one of your lands. If you have Chandra TOD, you usually want to be burning their stuff down, but you can also use her +1 to refund half her mana cost and play out another card, decreasing your hand size for bridge. If you have Chandra, Acolyte of Flame you should play her first, since she draws out removal spells and can buff up your other walkers next turn. If you have Karn, the Great Creator, be very careful about playing him out, since we only run two of him Mainboard and his best combo requires that he stays alive. If your opponent is suffering under blood moon or you have a bridge out and a low hand size, then it is probably safe.

Late Game

If You Are Winning

Being ahead in a game can work a couple of different ways. Either they could be struggling under he weight of a blood moon or ensnaring bridge, or you could be ahead in general. Let’s assume the second scenario is true, since with the first it is quite easy to win. Into a creature heavy matchup, you want to play one threat and use the rest of your mana to defend it. Play out one walker and use all your resources making sure it can ultimate. This means going back to the playstyle where you remove anything that hits their side of the board. Into a control matchup, you want to go wide. Play a lot of threats and hope one gets through. You will have to worry more about their hand than their board, and there’s not much you can do about that. Just continue the playstyle of the midgame, and play conservatively with your non-walker spells.

If You Are Behind

Playing from behind is unfortunately reliant on top decking specific cards. You are going to want to start cycling away your mind stones and using Chandra TOD’s +1 to dig for sweepers. If you have the chance, sinking mana into Karn to find an answer in your sideboard can be a really good silver bullet. Try to leave as much mana open as possible for their combat step. With skred red, we really only care about losing that last point of life, so you want to begin aggressively removing things until you are at risk of dying on your opponent’s next turn.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 2 Mythic Rares 14 - 3 Rares 7 - 6 Uncommons 12 - 4 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.63
Tokens	Elemental 1/1 R, Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Folders	Modern - non-original, Primers