How do I beat RDW?
Deck Help forum
Posted on Nov. 29, 2014, 12:27 a.m. by Ice_Water
I play a Sultai Superfriends deck and tonight at FNM I played two red deck wins and was decimated. I want to know what cards in standard right now can possibly beat RDW Either help for my deck or just a new deck idea in general
Well is there a cheap budget-y way to build a suitable deck to beat RDW? 8vomit
November 29, 2014 12:40 a.m.
Blizzicane says... #4
Drown in Sorrow This is probably your best answer this will allow you to wipe their field completely as most or all RDW creatures are under two toughness. :3
November 29, 2014 12:41 a.m.
JexInfinite says... #6
Bile Blight is also a good answer to aggro, but as Blizzicane said, Drown in Sorrow is the best answer.
Alternatively, ramp into a T2 Courser of Kruphix to gain some life, and block some dudes. No matter how many goblins are on the field, Courser can always trade with Goblin Rabblemaster.
November 29, 2014 12:49 a.m.
The weak spot in RDW is that it tends to fizzle if it doesnt win early on. So if you hold out, and can survive thru them ripping through thier whole hand, you will have time to get your walkers rolling. drown in sorrow is deinitely a good one and swan song when paired w drown in sorrow, Cards like mind rot can be pretty damaging to RDW. Life gain is always another good way to counteract burn, but it isnt the best way to deal with it. almost like, youve already been hurt an you use life gain to recover from it.
November 29, 2014 12:51 a.m.
adventfaith says... #8
Well, it may be a little mana heavy of a spell, but what about Death Frenzy? Kills Goblin Rabblemaster and most other RDW threats on board, as a side bonus, you gain a life for each dude killed,really helps you re-balance yourself. only downsides are the CMC and it can kill of any 2 or lower toughness creature you have, but hey, if you do kill one of yours with it, you gain a life! :D
Pharika's Cure is another cheaper let's kill a creature with -2/-2 card and gain some life to help myself kind of thing.
November 29, 2014 1:05 a.m.
Servo_Token says... #9
Bow of Nylea pretty much kills RDW. It's great. Once you land one, they have to slog through at least 4 life per turn on top of whatever else you're doing.
Also, I don't recommend playing Sultai right now based on what you've mentioned already. Green is looking pretty sweet right now on its own, and the mono green devotion deck can be both cheaply made and very well suited to kill RDW.
If you're dead set on sultai, just play lower to the ground spells and mix in some life gain. Maybe something in the Staff of the Death Magus family can help.
November 29, 2014 1:26 a.m.
JakeHarlow says... #10
A quick Courser helps, but recall that RDW has many ways of dodging blockers right now. It's life gain is still nice, though. Telegraphing your next topdeck can also be taken advantage up by clever RDW pilots, so keep that in mind, too. If you're running Sultai, you need to bring in 4x Drown in Sorrow post-board. Bile Blight is also really helpful (and probably important enough to be mandatory), and is a decent mainboard option in itself for other general matchups. If you have creatures, Whip of Erebos can help you grab some previous chump blockers back to gain some life for a turn as you approach stabilization. That Drown is your most important card, though. Mulligan aggressively to get it, but make sure you'll have the mana, too. Between an early Drown and peppered removal elsewhere, you'll have a reasonable chance. AEtherspouts is a bit too slow IMHO, but it will exile all of Akroan Crusader's tokens. You might be giving Foundry Street Denizen repeated trigger opportunities, though.
Remember that RDW often ignores blockers, and remember that good RDW players know how to play around sweeper cards, often keeping in hand an instant/enchantment or two, and an Akroan Crusader (or even a Hordeling Outburst or Goblin Rabblemaster). They'll drop this following a sweeper to rebuild their board state quickly. Recall that RDW has decent draw and library manipulation via Dragon Mantle and Titan's Strength, so if you drop a sweeper T3-5, assume a good RDW player has this strategy in hand, especially if he/she was on the draw in Game 2.
The other possibility is that you'll be so low on life once you wipe the RDW player's board that he will simply be able to burn you out with spells. This happens quite a lot, so Disdainful Stroke for Stoke the Flames and plain old Negate deserve consideration. Despise is also a good early card here, as you can grab their bigger playmakers before they get out of hand. I'd say only 2 of these max, though, since it's a pretty horrendous mid- to late-game topdeck in this matchup. Just watch out for their Eidolon of the Great Revel post-board. If they stick one early and get you low enough, your kinda locked outta the game.
It's a hard match, but I think Sultai certainly has the tools to make it more even and competitive. Good luck!
(I've been playing RDW the past three FNMs, so my comments are based on my experiences playing it, as well as playing control/Superfriends, which I also do.)
November 29, 2014 6:22 a.m.
Ball_Dont_Lie says... #11
Excellent responses so far. I play a weird, slowish version of Mardu midrange, and the Drown in Sorrow-Bile Blight combination does indeed work well against RDW, after sideboard I'll usually have four of each. And Whip of Erebos is also great to have, once my deck in on-line and stabilized, to gain the life back.
When I play against aggro, my plan is to try to frustrate them for the first five turns, and especially on turns three and four, which is when they're at their most explosive.
It's good to be tricky with removal spells. Say you have a Bile Blight in hand with two black mana up, and he has one Akroan Crusader in play. If your life total is high enough, you might want to let him hit you and see if he plays another Crusader in his second main phase; if he does, Bile Blight on his end step, killing two of his guys with only one card, and you're winning.
Same sort of idea with Drown in Sorrow; if you have one in your hand, try to get the most value you can out of it. Situations vary, but obviously killing six of his creatures with only one card is much better than killing only one or two.
If they play a Goblin Rabblemaster, kill that SOB as soon as you can. He is the Pack Rat of KTK Standard.
One last point: wall creatures like Nyx-Fleece Ram do help against aggro decks. They don't die to your own sweepers, and if your opponent ends up spending a Stoke the Flames or Titan's Strength to kill your blocker, you've still gained valuable time. So maybe consider Disowned Ancestor as a one-drop from your sideboard? Him and Courser of Kruphix, along with the right removal spells, ought to get you through most of what RDW can dish out. Dragon's Eye Savants is another possibility. (Nyx-Fleece Ram is my favorite, but he's not in your colors.) Good luck with it!
8vomit says... #2
friends really doesnt have time to get off against rdw most of the time. i dont know your meta, but thats what happens generally
November 29, 2014 12:37 a.m.