This deck is inspired by the good old Mono Red Sneak Attack deck in Legacy. So I thought of translating that deck in a Modern one.
In order to play our spells that are actually a bit chunky, we'll need to play some ramp. And, since we're ramping, I think we might as well add some
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
in there.
The land base has some utility built into it. With Valakut and a high Mountain count, I added
Dwarven Mine
. The mine can be fetched with
Arid Mesa
or
Bloodstained Mire
, which is nice since you can grab a surprise chump blocker or a surprise sacrifice creature to an opposing
Liliana of the Veil
.
The other land card is
Valakut Awakening
. This card can be a land if we need to and it can be a mass "loot" effect if our hand is full of nothing. If you got 1 of these and 3 dead cards, it becomes a 3 mana "loot 4" spell.
The ways this deck wins is either by cheating a big creature and beating our opponent with it or by poking with valakut.
For our ramp cards we have
Mind Stone
,
Solemn Simulacrum
and
Wayfarer's Bauble
. Each of these has been picked for a reason. Simulacrum is a chump/ramp/draw card. Mind stone is ramp in the early game and draw in the late game. Wayfarer's bauble is the cheapest ramp spell that actually grabs a land that can be played in mono-red.
Also, it's worth noting that I tried running the rituals (
Pyretic Ritual
,
Desperate Ritual
,
Simian Spirit Guide
), but I don't think they fit in. Reason being that they give an explosive start, but since they are volatile you will be stuck with 2 lands and nothing else while the opponent slowly recovers from a
Through the Breach
. And even if you use them to ramp into
Quicksilver Amulet
, since that ramp was volatile, you can be stuck without means to activate it.
Playing the deck is cool, it gives a cool vibe. You'll ramp and land-drop until the required mana and start doing your shenanigans. The deck is fringe to blue, clearly. So if you want to test it on competitive level I am playing with Blood Moon maindeck and
Boseiju, Who Shelters All
in the sideboard (sometimes maindeck). Boseiju doesn't stop all the counters since it can't make Quicksilver Amulet uncounterable. But it can make Through the Breach and Valakut Awakening uncounterable, which is nice.
I hope you enjoy this.
