Hello and Welcome to a new decktech on my humble Blog. My name is Christoph, today we will go a bit deeper into the colour red and what it has to offer outside of Goblins and Bolts. So let us begin.
Q: What is Big Red?
A: Big Red is a midrange control deck that burns away small creatures and closes the game out with big Monsters and Planeswalkers. It has some Mana producing Artifacts aswell as nonbasic hate and a few options for card selection.
Since the last time I played Big Red the deck got tons of new toys to play with.So we will start with a few rather uncommon card choices that might, hopefully, be of interest for you .
Chandra`s Regulator is just made for our deck. A cheap way to cycle unwanted cards and has a impressive bonus ability with all of our Chandras. Getting stuck with useless cards in a specific matchup is a huge problem for Big Red so we want to play everything that can help shaping our hand. I don´t have to go into detail on how cool it is to activate a Walkers ability twice per turn.
Scroll of Fate did amazing things in Big Red so far. It buys time vs fast aggro decks and it builds up pressure vs blue based Control decks. Just manifest your hasty Dragon and flip it, no counterspell can interupt you. Big Red needed a card like this. With Scroll of Fate and the additional new Planeswalkers our Matchup vs Blue has significantly improved. Scroll of Fate does interesting things in other Decks aswell, Imagine flipping your thing in the Ice without counters on it or just an oldschool Phyrexian Dreadnought. Really cool card, love it.
Glint-Horn Buccaneer: You probably won´t see this card outside of Big Red even thought it has nice stats for a cmc 3 creature. 4 thoughness, haste and the abilty to cycle while dishing out some damage make this guy a formidable choice which fits our decks needs very well. Maybe he is good enough for other decks aswell, let me know.
Chandra, Awakened Inferno: Another strong M20 card. I play her in standard elementals, an excellent finisher and even better in our HL deck as she can`t be countered and her +2 ability is very potent vs control. The emblems stack so the game can be decided rather quick if she survives 2 or 3 turns.
Sarkhan + Dragons: A wise man once said only 27,465% of all HL decks play flying creatures thus making the keyword flying the best ability of all time. So the only logical step would be to add lots of huge flying dragons to our deck and back them up with dragonlover Sarkhan. He shines and usually ends games quick, just a wonderful designed card.
Q: Why don´t you just play RDW?
A:More ways to come back from behind, better aggro matchup, more flying creatures.
Matchup Strategies
Versus Aggro (RDW,WW,2colored aggro):
Versus fast aggro we really need a sweeper or at least 2 removal spells within the first 3 turns. Once we killed a few critters our larger creatures can usualy dominate the battlefield, ideally supported by a Walker. It is important to not go too low on life early. So if we expect alot of RDW we can add Wurmcoil Engine to our build, if not I wouldn`t recommend it anymore because Dack fayden and Kolaghans Command are just too annoying to deal with.
Versus 3/4/5 colored midrange/tempo:
We want to play versus colourful creature decks, we got the nonbasic hate, we got sweepers and the larger monsters. Don´t hold back, make them fear our options.
Versus Scapeshift:
Not too nice but doable. Sweepers are dead cards and the best card is Ruination. Some Scape builds have problems with creatures in their early turns. Always tap out if possible, if they counter a few spells they just get slower. There is no way to win vs scape by waiting for an opening to cast our spells.
Versus Reanimator/TPS/Academy:
Mulligan for nonbasic hate or hope they die of a heart attack. We really don`t want to play much versus these decks.
Versus Green based ramp:
Kill all elves and resolve a flying creature. That´s really it. We cannot keep a hand without removal, never.
Versus Blue Based Control:
This used to be an unfavourable matchup but that might have changed with the addition of all the new Walkers and Scroll of Fate. Key to win is having options to cycle away unwanted cards while keeping up pressure. We want to tap out in our early turns and force the control player to act. Never play their game.
Conclusion
Big Red is just fun to play with aswell as against it. It is cheap to assemble and beginner friendly. I hope to have sparked a little bit of interest in the Archetype. You will find a complete decklist when following the link.
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/big-red-2k19/?cb=1567608637
I am open to suggestions for future dechtechs, let me know what you want to see.
I also have an Arena account, so we can soon play a bit brawl together. It is open for testing this week and I found it entertaining. Noteworthy was also that brawl uses a free mulligan+ london. Maybe some food for though for HL? Let me know what you think.
Have a nice day
Solitude-Society 