Continuing in my "Double Rainbow" of Mono-Colored decks, today's feature on Better Deckbuilding is the latest and strangest tech out of Landdrops Laboratories- Starke of Rath.
WHAT!?!?!? WHY STARKE OF RATH?
When I decided to take on a second set of mono-colored decks, I needed a way to distinguish the decks. Not only can the strategies get ubiquitous, but so can the cards, if you're not careful.
Seeing as Heartless Hidetsugu is a very aggressive, combo-aggro deck with not a whole lot going on, my options for Red were pretty open.
When combined with my old border/new border requirement, Starke separated himself from the short list of mono-Red guys that I felt could give me some removal, even with his hefty drawback. And thanks to the development of a handful of awkward and strange cards, I was able to create a workable base for design.
THE STRATEGY
Part of the reinforcement for inspiration came from Stephen's Starke of Rath list featured on CMDR Decks in early May.
In his list, Stephen employed the help of a handful of weird ways to abuse Starke's abilities without getting smacked with his own ability.
Everyone knows about Homeward Path as a way to retrieve Starke. However, when combined with Illusionist's Bracers, untap triggers, Indestructible artifacts, or artifacts/creatures you want to break, Starke of Rath can create a set of triggers on the stack that boomerang him back under your control.
Even with a workable way to control the board, the deck still needs a way to win. Unlike Stephen's deck, which is fortified with the major players in Goblin beat down (Kiki-Jiki, Krenko, Sharpshooter), I decidemy design needed something a little more... dragon-y.
THE TECH
That's right. We're playing Dragonstorm. While Mindbreak Trap and Flusterstorm exist in this format, building storm count and getting enough threats out of the deck is totally feasible.
While we may not have the luxury of four copies of Bogardan Hellkite, or even the convenience of only having to do 20 damage, this is a card that we can play late enough in the game to get a significant amount of damage and avoid most of the removal your opponents might be too happy to play on Starke or earlier in the game.
And because the Dragons have drastically improved, so has Dragonstorm.
The first of the Dragons I want to talk about is Scourge of Valkas. His affinity (not Affinity, like the mechanic) for having Dragon friends make him a nice tutor target for Dragonstorm. When the triggers are stacked properly, he can create anywhere from 6-9 extra points of damage for your dragon squad from ETB effects alone.
Stacking this onto the effects of Bogardan Hellkite and Journey Into Nyx's latest junk rare, Spawn of Thraxes, you're looking at a potential third or half of an opponent's life total dwindling before you've even begun to attack. Obviously, our Spawn of Thraxes needs Mountains to do damage- but that's neither a problem for this deck, nor a personal design problem for me and my love of basics. Spawn has racked up anywhere from 8-12 damage for me alone.
In addition to ETB damage Dragons, we also have some nice design-friendly dragons based on or around artifacts. Hellkite Igniter leads the way with Haste and the world's cheapest value-driven pump effect. In a deck which plays many cheap cost artifacts for Starke to blow up and bring Storm count up, doubling, or more than doubling Igniter's power the second it comes into play is entirely possible. The more mana, the more nonsense happens here. This is a premier game finisher in this design.
The rest of the "Artifact Dragon" package includes Hoard-Smelter Dragon, Steel Hellkite, Hellkite Tyrant, and Hoarding Dragon. Most of these are straight utility, but they all provide solid Dragon staying power.
Darksteel Citadel is probably the best option next to Ingot for our multiple targeted removal when we play Starke. With untap, or copy effects, the trick works as follows.
1. With Starke untapped, tap to target Darksteel Citadel
2. In response, put copy/untap trigger on the stack.
3. Tap Starke again, targeting Artifact/Creature threat.
Because the stack resolves the last ability, our threat will go away, our opponent will gain control of Starke, then our undestroyed Citadel will remain undestroyed, but we'll gain control of Starke of Rath.
One of the few Goblins I didn't think this deck could survive without was Goblin Welder, so it's here.
Often, one of Red's biggest issues is the lack of graveyard interactivity and recursion. There's a lot of ways to discard cards for immediate value, but nothing that brings it back.
Not that Trash for Treasure is great, but it works well with what the deck likes to do when it's not playing Dragons.
Some of the good cards made better in this deck are the Wellsprings and my favorite Solemn Simulacrum. In conjunction with Gobin Welder and Trash for Treasure, this little package of goodies creates an underrepresented amount of value for a Red deck.
Kuldotha Phoenix is another cool little piece of card advantage. In this design, it's almost going to be as good as Squee, and in some cases better. It's pitchable, able to come back and attack, defend, and be blown up by Starke of Rath if necessary.
This dimension of the deck is what provides a unique flexibility. Cards that create "acceptable losses," things that you are okay with losing in the course of battle, really help you to focus more on actions and effects in the game, not necessarily the emotion that comes from "being hated out" through removal, disruption, or relentless attack. While this is probably just a glass half-empty way of looking at recursion and generating card advantage, it's always important to have various benchmarks for what you are willing to accept as result from your deck design. Creating those expectations will you lead you to being a more effective manager as you continue to understand the format.
As always, here's the list. +1s, suggestions, and critiques welcome.
Tony Stark(e) Built This In A Cave!
Pass (with a bunch of scraps).
-UL
WHAT!?!?!? WHY STARKE OF RATH?
When I decided to take on a second set of mono-colored decks, I needed a way to distinguish the decks. Not only can the strategies get ubiquitous, but so can the cards, if you're not careful.
Seeing as Heartless Hidetsugu is a very aggressive, combo-aggro deck with not a whole lot going on, my options for Red were pretty open.
When combined with my old border/new border requirement, Starke separated himself from the short list of mono-Red guys that I felt could give me some removal, even with his hefty drawback. And thanks to the development of a handful of awkward and strange cards, I was able to create a workable base for design.
THE STRATEGY
Part of the reinforcement for inspiration came from Stephen's Starke of Rath list featured on CMDR Decks in early May.
In his list, Stephen employed the help of a handful of weird ways to abuse Starke's abilities without getting smacked with his own ability.
Everyone knows about Homeward Path as a way to retrieve Starke. However, when combined with Illusionist's Bracers, untap triggers, Indestructible artifacts, or artifacts/creatures you want to break, Starke of Rath can create a set of triggers on the stack that boomerang him back under your control.
Even with a workable way to control the board, the deck still needs a way to win. Unlike Stephen's deck, which is fortified with the major players in Goblin beat down (Kiki-Jiki, Krenko, Sharpshooter), I decidemy design needed something a little more... dragon-y.
THE TECH
While we may not have the luxury of four copies of Bogardan Hellkite, or even the convenience of only having to do 20 damage, this is a card that we can play late enough in the game to get a significant amount of damage and avoid most of the removal your opponents might be too happy to play on Starke or earlier in the game.
And because the Dragons have drastically improved, so has Dragonstorm.
Stacking this onto the effects of Bogardan Hellkite and Journey Into Nyx's latest junk rare, Spawn of Thraxes, you're looking at a potential third or half of an opponent's life total dwindling before you've even begun to attack. Obviously, our Spawn of Thraxes needs Mountains to do damage- but that's neither a problem for this deck, nor a personal design problem for me and my love of basics. Spawn has racked up anywhere from 8-12 damage for me alone.
The rest of the "Artifact Dragon" package includes Hoard-Smelter Dragon, Steel Hellkite, Hellkite Tyrant, and Hoarding Dragon. Most of these are straight utility, but they all provide solid Dragon staying power.
1. With Starke untapped, tap to target Darksteel Citadel
2. In response, put copy/untap trigger on the stack.
3. Tap Starke again, targeting Artifact/Creature threat.
Because the stack resolves the last ability, our threat will go away, our opponent will gain control of Starke, then our undestroyed Citadel will remain undestroyed, but we'll gain control of Starke of Rath.
Often, one of Red's biggest issues is the lack of graveyard interactivity and recursion. There's a lot of ways to discard cards for immediate value, but nothing that brings it back.
Not that Trash for Treasure is great, but it works well with what the deck likes to do when it's not playing Dragons.
Some of the good cards made better in this deck are the Wellsprings and my favorite Solemn Simulacrum. In conjunction with Gobin Welder and Trash for Treasure, this little package of goodies creates an underrepresented amount of value for a Red deck.
This dimension of the deck is what provides a unique flexibility. Cards that create "acceptable losses," things that you are okay with losing in the course of battle, really help you to focus more on actions and effects in the game, not necessarily the emotion that comes from "being hated out" through removal, disruption, or relentless attack. While this is probably just a glass half-empty way of looking at recursion and generating card advantage, it's always important to have various benchmarks for what you are willing to accept as result from your deck design. Creating those expectations will you lead you to being a more effective manager as you continue to understand the format.
As always, here's the list. +1s, suggestions, and critiques welcome.
Tony Stark(e) Built This In A Cave!
Pass (with a bunch of scraps).
-UL
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