Red Deck W...ait, What?! - T1 Emrakul (+PLAYGUIDE)

Modern Combo Competitive Creatureless Jank Primer RW (Boros)

sergiodelrio

Land (23)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 4x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Dwarven Mine
• 2x Gemstone Caverns
• 3x Khalni Garden
• 3x Mountain
• 2x Mutavault
• 3x Sacred Foundry
• 4x Wooded Foothills

Sorcery (21)

• 4x Brood Birthing
• 4x Forbidden Friendship
• 1x Honor the God-Pharaoh
• 4x Indomitable Creativity
• 4x Satyr's Cunning
• 4x Transmogrify

Creature (1)

• 1x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Instant (10)

• 4x Desperate Ritual
• 4x Pyretic Ritual
• 2x Valakut Awakening  ^Flip

Planeswalker (5)

• 1x Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast
• 4x Nahiri, the Harbinger

---

Sideboard

Planeswalker (5)

• 1x Ajani Vengeant
• 1x Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis
• 1x Elspeth Tirel
• 1x Koth of the Hammer

Instant (9)

• 2x Blessed Alliance
• 3x Generous Gift
• 2x Path to Exile
• 2x Silence

Land (1)

• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All

---

Maybeboard

Instant (4)

• 1x Guttural Response
• 1x Sundering Growth
• 1x Thrill of Possibility
• 1x Veil of Summer

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Cleansing Wildfire
• 1x Pirate's Pillage

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Answered Prayers
• 1x Blood Moon
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Wheel of Sun and Moon

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
• 1x Karn, the Great Creator

Land (4)

• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Sunbaked Canyon
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

---

COMBO TIME

This deck wants to ramp into Transmogrify / Indomitable Creativity to cheat in Emrakul, the Aeons Torn as early as Turn 1!

We achieve this by having no actual creature cards in the deck and use Token producers as targets for our signature spells.

CARD BREAKDOWN

The Landbase is a little splashy post-update.

23+2 lands, let's break them down:

• Arid Mesa , Bloodstained Mire , Wooded Foothills ... fetches be fetchin', 9 total

Those will be getting our Mountain s and Sacred Foundry s as well as the occasional Dwarven Mine which can give us a much needed token.

• Khalni Garden - This land, while being somewhat off color, like the Dwarven Mine has a spell attached to it for the purpose of this deck. A one card combo if you will and very strong on Turn 1.

• Gemstone Caverns and Mutavault have just been added in the recent Update and enable the T1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn . Basically more Polymorph targets and Turn 0 ramp.

• Valakut Awakening   is land #24-25 when we need it to be. In any other event it will kindly replace itself and even get Emrakul out of hand.

The Token Producers come in numbers. 19 Cards.

• Forbidden Friendship arguably the best version of 2 mana 2 creature sorcery red spell for the haste.

• Brood Birthing is both tokens and ramp - winwin - and really bananas if you draw multiples. Secretly combo's with Mutavault .

• Satyr's Cunning is also an important T1 Emrakul enabler as it costs only 1 mana, but can produce a second token down the line.

• Honor the God-Pharaoh will make a token on the fly, while also replacing dead cards in hand.

• Dwarven Mine and Khalni Garden are explained in the section above. Also counting the Mutavault s here.

The Ramp, 14 cards, is mostly classic Mono Rituals, now with some extra spice

• Pyretic Ritual and Desperate Ritual are close cousins.

• Brood Birthing conveniently produces tokens.

• Gemstone Caverns ramp it up T0.

The Backup Plan

• Nahiri, the Harbinger is a great diametral way of also cheating in Emrakul. Heavy lifting card filter. She can be ramped into as early as Turn 2.

• Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast gives you multiple shots at polymorphing, but costs 5 mana - 1 copy only.

The Card Filters - Discard, Draw x7

• Nahiri, the Harbinger , as mentioned above, she does it all.

• Honor the God-Pharaoh , dig for stuff, make a token.

• Valakut Awakening  , it's a land - it's a spell. Whoa!

The Godhands

I

• T0 Gemstone Caverns

• T1 Mutavault , cast Pyretic Ritual , Pyretic Ritual , Desperate Ritual , activate the tapped Mutavault , cast Transmogrify

II

• T0 Gemstone Caverns

• T1 draw into one of the following, then play, Mountain , cast Pyretic Ritual , Pyretic Ritual , Desperate Ritual , Satyr's Cunning , Transmogrify

Needless to say, this rarely happens, but the deck is really fast and quite consistent at what it does. Expect regular T2/T3 Emrakuls.

Strategy Guide

Some lines of play and general advice, work in progress - check for updates

• Do not keep your hand if 1) you have 1,6 or 7 lands 2) you have Emrakul, the Aeons Torn on the first 7 cards you draw - after that you can conveniently put her where she belongs due to the London mulligan rule
• Do not draw cards (with Valakut Awakening  , Honor the God-Pharaoh or Nahiri, the Harbinger ) unless you actually need cards or need the effect - any card you draw could be Emrakul, the Aeons Torn and that's a problem
• Conversely, if you have a functional hand, play it. If you can go for an Indomitable Creativity or Transmogrify 9 times out of 10 it's better to try to combo sooner than later
• When using Indomitable Creativity , cast it for > 1 if possible. This reduces the chances of your target(s) being removed in response
• Play your tapped lands on T1, especially Khalni Garden - T1 is this deck's weakest turn (unless you have a T1 Godhand, see above section) so this is how you make the most out of it
• Remember that Mutavault counts as 'Eldrazi Spawn' and can be used to max out Brood Birthing 's effect as soon as turn 2, if you have a Ritual ( Pyretic Ritual / Desperate Ritual )
• Remember that, when Mutavault is a creature, it will steal the counter from Honor the God-Pharaoh - you might want that, you might not - play accordingly
• Remember that Satyr's Cunning gives you a permanent graveyard effect and thus is a great pitch for Nahiri's +2 or Honor the God-Pharaoh
• Remember that, as soon as you have 4 mana plus 2x Desperate Ritual s, you can splice one onto the other for 1 extra mana
• With that in mind, if the game stalls for a long time, Emrakul is in your hand, and you can't find a discard spell but instead end up drawing lands, Rituals and Eldrazi Spawn, hardcasting Emrakul is not completely off the table
• TBC...

FNM Results

will keep this updated

Bant Control 2-1

• First game went smoothly. Had a turn 2 Emrakul on the play while facing only a tapped Field of the Dead

• Second game took me a while to assemble what I need and ran into forces and other counters. Lost that one

• Third they kept a one land hand and I closed the game quickly

Eldra Tron 0-2

• Karn was a big issue here fetching Ensnaring Bridge . Despite comboing off, I couldn't win and need to rework my Sideboard for this matchup

Dredge 2-1

• Lost the first game after comboing off, but running into Stinkweed Imp which killed Emrakul and I couldn't recover

• Won the next 2 games due to just being faster

Disclaimer

For readers and helpers who want to suggest improvements:

Please don't suggest creatures or artifacts.

I don't know if this deck is or was already around, this is the version I came up with on my own.

Thanks for reading. If you like the deck, please +1

Top Ranked	Achieved #2 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern 4 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	2 years
Exclude colors	UBG
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 5 Mythic Rares 22 - 5 Rares 4 - 2 Uncommons 21 - 3 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.95
Tokens	Dinosaur 1/1 R, Dwarf 1/1 R, Eldrazi Spawn 0/1 C, Elephant 3/3 G, Emblem Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Human Soldier 1/1 W, Plant 0/1 G, Satyr 1/1 R, Soldier 1/1 W, Zombie Army 0/0 B
Folders	Modern Decks, Dr. Modernlove, or How I Learned to Stop Netdecking and Love the Brew, decks that i like, A Very Cool Modern Folder, Neat Decks, Modern Interest, Dope Decks, decks