Haven, i'm looking to perfect my playing of your deck so i hope it's okay to talk about some of the cards. I think i'm 10-0 with it right now, it's very much my type of deck and my favourite mono-red since Pure's Furnace deck from origins which was INSANE.
Gee Wizz! I feel awfully proud.
That's alot of questions... So here goes.
Priority for T1 drops are Bomat, then Glory Chaser, then Neonate? I'm tempted to put Glory Chaser first but I'm not sure...it sounds like you prioritize Glory Chaser, which probably makes sense.
I usually play Glory Chaser first. If you have Bomat too, imo that's the right play because they both hit on T2. If you have Titan's Strength always try and use it early for fixing. Get that 3rd land or just to know how to play with what's coming next. You really want to get in as much damage as possible while they're still playing tap-lands.
So its usually Glory Chaser, Bomat, Neonate, but it depends if I'm on the play or on the draw, is they have a 1 drop or have Red mana open (for Fiery Impulse/Bombardment). Depends on if you want to draw removal, because everyone tries to zap a renouned Glory chaser or a Bomat with 2 or 3 exiled cards. Why draw removal? To keep your premium guys like Garrison alive longer.
What did Speed Racer get replaced by?
I need help understand the Grubs. If I have a Hellion out, i should prioritize the energy going towards the Hellion and not the counter, correct? That's what I've been doing.
Irc, speed Racer got swapped by the Grubs or more Fiery tempers.
Okay so the Grubs... Well, my objective with a 2 drop is to pressure a player running T2 Abbot. That's my make or break level. Grubs can do that, on T3 they either go 3/2 (and they won't trade for sure, so its easy damage) or if you drop a Lathnu, stay 2/1. Believe me, next to a Lathnu Grubs are invisible, so you really want Lathnu to hang around another turn. If Lathnu eats removal? Fantastic, Grubs can go 4/3 now... And that means they can poo-poo on Abbot until he gets to 6 land (which the game plan doesn't intended to do).
No need to comment on this but i'm amazed as a red mage, you were skeptical of the Hellion. I knew it would be insane immediately in a mono-red deck with removal. Like you said it's double firecraft.
I was imagining a scenario where it would just be chumped by Tokens or Primal Druid or something. Primal Druid isn't popular, that makes Lathnu better. And I also forgot that most token generators only go active much later on in a game. I also underestimated the surprise haste effect and that most decks don't really run expendable 1 or 2 drops like Blisterpod, or the now deceased sylvan ranger.
What can I say? I was skeptical... But I only had to play a Hellion once to be convinced it was good. Actually makes Firecraft seem somehow worse...
I really don't like how Bomat, Scourge and Battlements don't get along with Copter but that's ok. It's a first-world problem in many ways.
Don't be afraid to let the Copter sit there, while you attack with hasty guys, unless you have a hand full of Fiery tempers, that is.
Why? They'll either save their removal for the Copter and take some damage or waste their removal on the hasty guys and next turn the Copter goes to town with a non-hasty guy as pilot.
I also really don't get Aether Hub here. We're not playing enough lands to take this risk. We have 15 non-tap red sources in a deck that 100% needs to come out on curve. I dont' think we can afford a slot for cute little Aether Hub. I'll try it, but if it doesn't do what it's meant to do in ONCE in ten games, I'm going to yell at you for taking it out
Well, The deck really only uses energy in pairs and I found that harnessed lightning sometimes left me me 1 useless energy left over. So I thought, a random Hub could mean an extra hit with a Lathnu... Also means you can occasionally hit for 4 with a harnessed lightning.
The only times the Hub screwed me over was when I was cardless and let the auto-tap take care of mana, because it likes to save the Hub for last instead of using it for colorless in a mono deck that only runs it for the extra energy. Otherwise, the impact is minimal, just be careful.
Also, against randoms there's the wtf effect. Because a Hub usually means a splash of some kind, so your opponent can be left wondering what the hell did he throw into a mono-red deck to justify a hub?
I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be explaining my deck this in-depth while playing it in the showdown, but what the hell? What can they do about it? The game plan is to do stuff while they're still playing tap-lands and don't have all that many options...
And only us Red mages visit the mono-red thread anyway...
Enjoy! Any other questions, just ask.