If they have gotten or a Radiant flames of Languish I haven't found anything worth using as recovery: the game is over unless you have something with haste or burn. If they're running a low(ish) cost sweeper they've usually had an Offshoot or a landfall enchantment running anyway.

RDW wins are massively determined by whether you are on the play on not. I'd rather play for early game dominance than trying for pitiful recovery.

You only run Chandra's mommy and daddy if you're running Myrs. They combo brilliantly.

Also, Hakeem's build isn't really RDW, it's full blown red agro. He has no midrange help like Emberclaws, Firebird or Ravaging Blaze. He's going for fast wins. Which makes the Nalaar presence even more bizarre. They are super slow without engineers or bloodlust. They belong in burn builds

Like Rabble was nice enough to mention, I only have a bunch of mono red experience to base this on

RDW is red aggro ATM: either you have creature into CoFM or IB or you lose, even more so on the draw rather than play. Which just makes the Hakeem build all the more puzzling. Titan's Strength is amazing for it's cost and so mana efficient it is an auto include.

Playing mono red with midrange is counter-intuitive for the most part: control and ramp just take over come mid-game, because having a Firecraft etc for the finisher just isn't enough. You either take your window of opportunity early or play something else.

Completely agree on Titan's Strength being amazing. It is 3 damage when you need it and the scry is immensely helpful; giving you pseudo-card advantage.

I also found Fiery Impulse to be underperforming in the current meta.
Most opponents run some kind of ramp lists, where the best it can burn in the early game is something like Gatecreeper Vine; and I generally would like to have almost any other card instead.
It is a lot better if you are facing other aggressive or mid-range decks, but currently I am happy without.




True, but whenever Beetleback was legal, there was some way to buff the team in that RDW as well (Rites of Initiation for instance; or a tribal effect like Goblin General); which is not the case in Duels. Instead, you are given the tools to turn your goblins into battlecruisers usind Titan's Strength and the enchantments (whose Prowess triggers are your only form of an anthem effect.). For that strategy; being given 3 small creatures turn 4 is a tad too slow.
Another -albeit very minor- point is that Pia and Kieran buff Foundry Street Denizen less than the actual Beetleback Chief would (since the Thopters are not red).

How about Traitorous Instinct ? It's pretty powerful to close a game as far as 4CMC cards go in an aggro deck.
It can help push for lethal when your opponent thinks he stabilized after tapping out to play a big blocker.

I just wouldn't run abbot and call in the same deck, basically ever. I tend to avoid those types of things, especially in decks where every single turn has to go perfectly.

Someone mentioned adding Call to my deck earlier in this thread. I totally disagree with that notion, but I don't care enough about rdw to post much in this thread.

In my opinion Act of Treason is a better card for this; being one mana cheaper is pretty important; especially considering your opponent mostly stabilizes if you get manascrewed or manaflooded early. If you got flooded, Instinct is only marginally better; if you got screwed Act is infinitely better.



Honestly, if that is your stance I don't see why you would run any card with 3 CMC or more with Abbot in RDW; in my opinion that is as much a nonbo since you rarely have more than 4 lands in play. Yet you still play those cards because of their immense power level; that is just the same thing with Call in my opinion.
It might be very possible we just have different takes on playing the Abbot; I don't have a problem just slamming him T3 if I'm looking for a land for example.

@DJ: Rakdos Devoid is way cooler anyway.

Forerunner of Slaughter, Wasteland Strangler, Vile Aggregate, Dust Stalker.. or.. Goblins, Bullies, Abbots and Auras (yuck).

There is a HUGE difference, IMO, IMO, IMO, between never want to play, and can't always play. Mono red aggro can get to 5 even 6 mana, but no matter how much mana I've unfortunately got, I never want to see Call under Abbot.

That would be me and I stand by that inclusion. In my non-professional opinion CotFM is the best RDW-card in the pool. It wins games. Abbot is only in because the red low cmc creatures are very mediocre and because he can fetch a bonus land. I don't see using his ability in a low mana deck.

I'd love to see some of this page's namesake gangland guys back. The goblins that are used now hardly made the cut back then.

Oh and to your most recent most, which just showed up after submitting:
Of course you wouldn't want to see your best card dead under your Abbot. But any other card gets you one card closer to CotFM

I know, but obligatory mono red deck has to be made. In any case, I never play it. It exists in my stable only to keep CGB honest. ;-)

I think this expansion will bring red burn to the table. And that might be the final nail in the coffin for mono red aggro, but we shall see. Fingers crossed for an actually viable 1 drop to be added to the pool.

Regarding Rakdos how does it stack against things like Sultai/Dimir crats, Ramp, or control? (I don't mean beating the crap out of peons online, I mean in serious play.). I've yet to try it, because for obvious reasons I'm working on perfecting my own ideas right now.

I love this post. Good on you man, stand by your convictions. Go back far enough in this thread, btw, and I'm standing right by you. Right now, we disagree, but it won't take much to get me back in your camp - after the expansion... Fingers crossed.

If I see Call under Abbot, I'll play it as 3 damage for 2 mana that triggers Prowess and am not terribly unhappy. Generally I have a creature out that wants to attack anyhow; sometimes it enables a creature to attack that turn. Sure it is off after the turn, but it still does work.
I am way more sad to Abbot on 4 lands and see Exquisite Firecraft...

The other way the cards interfere is if Abbot is drawn after Call had been played earlier. If I play Abbot; I'm either looking for a land or game-ending burst; a goblin almost always does not get played in that situation.

I see it the same way I'll see playing Call with Surge cards. We just don't have the depth we need, IMO, at the 1 CMC slot for Call at this time. It would force me to play cards that really aren't good enough, or at least, I don't think they are. And come at the expense of playing cards that are definitely good enough.

Ah, I see. Just looked up your list, contrary to my list you are not running Goblin Arsonists. In this case, it is totally sensible to not run seven 2 CMC-Auras, and I also agree Infectious Bloodlust is more important in your version. Hakeem does run Arsonists though, which is why I like both Auras in his deck.

Yeah, I'm not feeling much of the first turn plays. I run it more as a lower midrange deck with good plays starting t2. It's fast enough to beat most of the lofty idea decks, slow enough not to overextend, with good plays tops to bottom. Btw, I'm no longer on board with the act of treason switch - or at least not all the way. I was just angry about my screw up with Chandra against CGB, which cost me the sweep against his control deck. Act would have done very little there, but I've yet to test it, because I don't even really enjoy playing aggro.

I morphed this into a Boros deck, see that thread if interested

This is one of the three decks I'm using for the Monthly League. It's nothing special, but it's 25 wins/5 losses on Steam so far, and I think it's a decent meta-game call.

Creatures

3 x Goblin Glory Chaser
4 x Goblin Arsonist
4 x Mage Ring Bully
3 x Ember Hauler
2 x Abbot of Keral Keep
1 x Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
2 x Pia and Kiran Naalar
1 x Akoum Firebird
1 x Avaricious Dragon

Spells

2 x Molten Vortex
4 x Titan's Strength
4 x Infectious Bloodlust
3 x Call of the Full Moon
2 x Exquisite Firecraft

Lands

20 x Mountains
4 x Looming Spires

With 24 lands, I'd recommend playing some of the colorless ones: blighted gorge, rogue's passage and foundry of the consuls. They all come into play untapped, they cast all of your spells except the 1-drops and the ember haulers.
I play 2 of each (which leaves me with 18 red sources), so my excess lands can be converted into value without the need of a dedicated (and often useless) card slot as molten vortex.

Also as other people pointed out in other parts of this thread, only 7 1-drops are probably not enough to go with call of the full moon, since the card is quite bad when it's played after turn 2.

Hey, my first post, so hello to everyone

I worked/played with a monored deck since the day 1 on Duels, I'm at 160 hours atm
Here is my final build It works pretty well, I only found heavy problems vs R/G ramp that run Evolutionary Leap, Mwonvuli Acid-Moss and any sort of big things that crush my face too fast (I used a lot to run some Act of Treason/Traitorous Instinct, but the Evolutionary Leap kinda screw me up)
Back to the deck

Creatures

4 x Goblin Arsonist
4 x Perilous Myr
3 x Ember Hauler
3 x Vile Aggregate
2 x Abbot of Keral Keep
2 x Embermaw Hellion
1 x Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
1 x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 x Akoum Firebird
1 x Avaricious Dragon

Enchantments

3 x Inferno Fist
3 x Call of the Full Moon
2 x Molten Vortex

Spells

4 x Twin Bolt
3 x Dragon Fodder
2 x Exquisite Firecraft

Lands

19 x Mountain
2 x Rogue's Passage

What could sounds strange here is the lack of GGC and Infectious Bloodlust... Here is my brief explanation
GGC: Well, it's more of a burn deck, where all (almost) your creature can throw damage directly at the opponent, and if you drop this guy even at turn 3, you will cry. I don't like Mage Ring Bully for same reason, too often he's only going to die doing nothing. If a creature is going to die, I would like some damage
Vile Aggregate: he's here (damn, I love this guy) for his outstanding toughness, being able to survive a Languish and other evil things. Plus trample. Plus he could mill away a needed card. Heh.
(EDIT: http://i65.tinypic.com/1zq52si.jpg just got a game, here is what I'm talking about he survived the Radiant Flames, turn after I draw a Myr, dropped the Abbot hoping for a land - wasted an Avaricious Dragon - dropped land, dropped myr, swinged for 2, next turn he played the Moss, on my turn I got a CotfM and GG )
Inferno Fist over IB: I played with IB from the beginning, but I found out is Haste thing is going to be wasted most of the time, since you need a lot of mana for pull out a creature and haste it with this. I envy only the lf effect, but whatever, for a mere +2/+0 Inferno is better, since I get a Shock on sweepers/removal. The only case it would be better is if you run a Flaring Flame-Kin (I used it sometimes, he's not so bad, but neither so good, he need a backup card for be effective, but if you got it he do wonderfull - typicall red card )
I considered Touch of the Void, but I'm not pretty sure of it. Doesn't proc Chandra, neither take bonus damage from Hellion. Maybe will swap the dragon fodder, but I like the fodder a lot vs blue control deck.
Comments/discuss/flames?

EDIT: IGNORE THE CREATURES! GO FOR THEIR FACES! THROW THEM THE BURNS! GO FOR THE EYES, BOO! GO FOR THE EYES! WWWUUUAAAARRGHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh!