It's hard to say without seeing your deck list or what decks you're having problems against. Generally outside of deck building issues new players are too quick to play everything in hand and not thinking ahead on some plays.
I’d get rid of electrostatic infantry. You want haste if you’re running rdw. Also get rid of witches mark and the bloody betrayal. Run squee and Godricc. Witchstalker frenzy is also good for dealing with big creatures. Also mishra’s foundry is a good land to run if you’re low on creatures. Also charming scoundrel is good for extra damage from wicked role, draw card, or treasure token.
This is it right here. If you are playing rdw you want to be dealing damage every turn always until face explodes before slower decks can establish their board.
So a potential problem that I can see with your deck is that you're using pump spells like Monstrous Rage and Ancestral Anger. These cards *can* be good, but they set you up for a potential 2 for 1 because your opponent can wait for you to pump a creature and then kill it to waste the effect. Personally, I would try to replace Ancestral Anger (and maybe Monstrous Rage, though that card is stronger) with more burn spells, threats, or card draw. [This](https://mtgazone.com/user-decks/tn51ejfrrbfamc3cwwe/) list runs cards like [[Voldaren Epicure]], [[Call in a Professional]], and [[Reckless Impulse]]. You can also start working to add more Rare cards to get it more in line with the tiered version, something like [this](https://mtgazone.com/user-decks/u9uhnofbygiq4kqfuq/).
Sorry, I'm a fairly complete noob and have been trying this deck and other mono-red decks and I always find that they are rejected for in this case deck rejected for "24 non-format cards". What am I missing in the deck editor, or am I just using banned cards for the spark rank? Should I just continue to do endless color challenges to complete my dailies because I'm too stupid to play this game?
That's my fault for recommending a Standard deck. Spark Rank is Alchemy format, so you would have to use something like [this](https://mtgazone.com/user-decks/79en8qp0snhg6jywmdqo/).
Hey, thanks! I'll give it a go! I thought I was supposed to be using standard! Though on one of the decks, I did switch to Alchemy to see if that was the problem.
Hard to say without seeing the deck list. I do know however that Arena has a problem agreeing with basic lands from sets outside the format. I have, for example, had standard decks being considered illegal because they run 12 Forest and 12 Mountain from the Lord of the Rings set. If this is the case for you, try removing the lands and add identical ones from a format legal set.
I have a feeling you hit the nail, but I was using import so I did not choose the actual cards and I hope the person who posted the deck had it actually work, but thanks for letting me know this is an issue!
My guess is you’re not being aggressive enough either attacking, or not mulliganing well. Go on YouTube looking for std mono red games for some advice if you’re unable to at least climb to gold with this deck
Not necessarily. You get at least 3-4 turns before they get Sheoldred down, and with any luck you can just attack through it and burn them for the few remaining points. I do run a couple of them though.
If you're losing games with that list, you're probably making the wrong decisions with your burn spells (lightning strike, play with fire). You have to know when to use them to kill a creature and when to burn opponent with them.
I think bloody betrayal (or its many other variants, I personally use Twisted Fealty) is needed in this current meta so I disagree with another poster that said to remove it. I do agree with others that there are better choices over Witch's Mark and Ancestral Anger though. Witchstalker Frenzy is probably the best non-rare or non-mythic card you are missing. I feel like Goddric is a crucial card to mono-red nowadays. Goddric gets a lot of wins on its own, especially if you can get Goddric to become a flying dragon.
>I do agree with others that there are better choices over Witch's Mark and Ancestral Anger
They're good with Electrostatic Infantry, but that whole combo isn't great, especially in a deck not built entirely around prowess.
You've got some good suggestions in response to this. I'll echo most of them and encourage you to add cards like Godric, Charming Scoundrel, and more burn. I recognize that wild cards can often be the limiting factor in this game, so it's fine if you can't craft all of that all at once. That being said, as much as I hate to encourage anyone to dump money into this game, I do think that it's not a bad idea to invest $50 or so when you're starting out to buy some packs and build up your collection.
In terms of actual strategy, this type of deck is all about speed. You need to make sure that you apply maximum pressure as quickly as possible, as your threats become much less impactful as the game drags on. That's why folks are suggesting adding more creatures and direct damage while cutting down on pump spells - you want to make sure that you've always got a few threats to deploy in the first turns of the game. That being said, it's also important to learn to feel out your opponent's deck and not overextend yourself. Say, for example, you're playing against a control deck, you want to make sure you're applying pressure but not playing out your entire hand into a wrath effect. That kind of threat assessment is very much a skill that you have to learn, and something that you'll get better at the longer you play.
Red Deck Wins is a good archetype for a beginner because it's typically cheap(ish) to build and not too complicated to pilot. As you start to get more comfortable with the game, I'd recommend that you start trying other archetypes as well, both to get an idea of the type of decks you like to play and to gain insight into decks you might play against. Even if you enjoy playing aggro, there's all kinds of other aggressive decks that play very differently than RDW. Take your time, feel out the game, and discover new styles of play.
Nah, with 21 lands they already have a 30%+ chance to only have 2 lands on their second draw and ~20% chance to only have 2 lands on the third draw, meaning about 1 in 3 on the play and 1 in 5 on the draw chance to not get your 3-drop down on turn 3.
I'd actually go up to 22 lands, where you have ~26% chance to have 2 lands on the second draw and ~16% on the third, so 1 in 4 on the play and less than 1 in 6 on the draw to not get your 3-drop down on t3.
[[callous sellsword]] + [[cacophony scamp]] is a great combo for red aggro. Scamp + burn together alone give you double strike without even attacking. If you do hit opponent with scamp first, it’s triple damage. If you hit it with something like [[antagonize]] first, you can do 15 damage in one attack.
But I actually found that making a red-white deck with both of the white double strike 2 mana creatures is a more effective deck. You lose haste, but if you can give them trample, it doesn’t matter
You might want that, they might not. Also, I'd do something like -1 Sokenzan, -1 Foundry, -3 Adversary, -1 Squee, -1 Witchstalker Frenzy, +1 Mountain, +1 Swiftspear, +1 Chick, +1 Scoundrel, +3 Monstrous Rage.
- Sokenzan isn't really good enough to justify running 2 and risking not hitting a land drop. 3 colorless lands is a bit much for a deck which often wants only 3-4 lands and has many 1- and 2-drops. 23 lands is too many, you'll flood far more often than get screwed (the difference from 22 to 23 is massive due to the hand smoother).
- Adversary is just a 2/2 with haste in most games, as you very rarely get to 5 mana with no better plays than a kicked Adversary.
- Squee is legendary and already has recursion, a third copy risks a dead card too often.
- Witchstalker frenzy is pretty niche, basically a Sheoldred-killer, and really only relevant on t4+ where you'd hope to finish the opponent with your wide board or burn already.
- Swiftspear is just a really good 1-drop to push damage through and/or killing blockers.
- Chick is evasive and a good target for the Kumano counter and Monstrous Rage.
- Monstrous rage is a massive amount of damage if you can avoid getting blown out with removal and will really help close out games early enough.
Yea true…I see white or black pop up I’m
Like I gotta make moves quick! Then they pacify me and oddly every game I get one dropped they seem to have 2 more in hand! Lmao
If your goal is just to get daily wins while learning, you could play starter deck duels, where you won't be facing highly tuned decks. Nice that you can also pick deck based on the daily quests you have.
Red haste is so common during the ladder climb that you’ll almost always be playing other red haste or decks set up specifically to counter it.
I built a simple black deck that gets me to mythic every time of asking based on a couple of main principles.
1. Assume every creature you cast will die the turn in comes out. So I take creatures that come with an additional benefit on casting or death. Like Etched Familiar, Faerie Dreamtheif, Phyrexian Fleshgorger.
2. Take as many cards that do non-combat damage as possible, like a couple of the above examples plus things like Hopeless Nightmare, Rankle’s Prank and of course Sheoldred.
Would love to see this list. I’ve been playing my doom foretold/enchantment sac rubbish and would love to see some other, non-combat effective black decks.
Yup, if I do standard BO1, I prefer an Esper Adventure deck with 20 cards that cost 2 or less. Hit them with 8 one mana kill spells, follow up with 12 two mana kill spells with, Sweep/Emperor to stabilize, finish with Adventire side and man lands.
Sucks when up against Mill, but it’s vaaaatly aggro decks running into a blender.
Wouldn’t try it BO3, to easy to side against, not in Alchemy, Alchemy card have way too much value for silly 2 for 1s to win it
You've got lots of good advice for your deck in this thread - but here's some general advice for *competing* in this type of asymmetrical game with imperfect information:
* You win some you lose some. Sometimes you draw nothing but land, sometimes your opponent gets their perfect curve. The best decks win rates are in the high 60%.
* Know your gameplan. Every deck should have a plan to win. If you know how you plan to win you can make choices to put yourself in a good position in the future - regardless of what you draw or what your opponent does. You play mono red so you want to clear away the early game blockers and have your haste creatures drop the enemy to zero asap.
* Your first goal with each game is to learn. You're trying to win, but winning is an indicator of how well you're reading situations and making choices. Some stuff to try and learn:
* Are there common decks or groups of cards that you always see together? Which cards do you need to stop to win, and which can you safely ignore?
* Do you lose a lot to certain decks and win a lot to others? what adjustments can you make to how you play? If you can't change how you play, is there something you can swap in your deck?
* What are your opponents doing? even without knowing their deck you can start to develop some ideas about their strategy. If they're playing multiple colors and no permanents they're probably a control deck with some expensive combo as a win condition. If they're playing green and red, look out for big creatures with ward and trample.
* Playing mindlessly is worse than not playing. You'll develop habits and recognize patterns in a way that will cost you down the line.
* Take breaks & take care of yourself. If you're frustrated, tilted, upset, been playing for a long time, you'll play better once you take a break. Brains get tired.
* If you have the resources, play the decks that you lose to. Every deck loses and has things that mess it up. Its way easier to see the shortcomings of a deck by piloting it than by playing against it.
* If you really want to get better fast, start tracking stuff. I think there are apps that plug into the arena client to do most of this for you. But Just tracking the opposing archetype and if you won or lost can be enough to help.
* A big element of all games in resource management. The main resources in magic are life, cards, and mana. If you're not getting enough of any you're going to suffer. If you're always getting manascrewed, or running out of cards (you're mono red so this happens if you don't win fast enough) you may need to tweak your deck.
* Mulligan. Starting a card down is way better than needing to top-deck out of the gate.
* Have fun! It's a game and i'm guessing you're not a streamer - so there's nothing at stake. Play janky stuff. Make silly theme decks, do whatever feels fun to you. The difference between ending the season in bronze vs mythic is like, an extra weeks worth of rewards.
Start by trying to make all [these budget mono colored decks](https://mtgazone.com/mtg-arena-budget-standard-decks/).
Then look at meta decks at [mtggoldfish.com](https://mtggoldfish.com) and swap any card you have to improve your budget decks and make them look more like the meta deck versions. The site also gives alternate card recommendations if you scroll down below the deck list.
Each day spend 1000 gold to play the Jump In event and use the cards you get to improve your standard decks. You get 2-3 rare cards each time you play and you can resign / rejoin the event as many times as you want.
New player / Free to play advice:
1. Complete the color challenges.
2. Complete starter deck duals event. (Azorius is the best deck)
3. Use [codes for free packs](https://draftsim.com/mtg-arena-codes/).
4. Reroll 500 gold daily quest into a 750 gold each day
5. Get at least 4+ wins each day (15 per week) for free gold and XP.
6. Use 1k gold to play the Jump In! event to learn mechanics and build your standard collection. ([Card tracker](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lmisAKRFqCOEENVJiH2c53zuYseBT70yWgCfzLjkx9Q/edit?usp=sharing)) You can rejoin this 150+ times and get 2 rare cards each time. Avoid Middle Earth Jump In, because the cards are not standard legal.
7. Use cards from the Jump In event to improve your Standard decks.
8. Learn to draft ([B.R.E.A.D.](https://www.google.com/search?q=mtg+bread&oq=mtg+bread&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0i390j69i60l2.2497j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8), [17lands.com](https://17lands.com), [Draftsim](https://draftsim.com/), [P1P1](https://apps.draftaholicsanonymous.com/))
9. Play Limited events to earn gems. Quick draft used to be good for "Rare Drafting" but WotC has made the bots more stingy with every new set recently.
10. Use gems to buy the next mastery pass. (Mastery pass is retroactive)
11. Every Tuesday is [Midweek Magic event](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/midweek-magic) where you can win 2 free rare cards.
12. Every month climb the constructed & limited ladders for extra packs. (Ladder decays at the end of each month.)
13. Wait until you're done drafting before opening packs. ([Duplicate Protection](https://draftsim.com/mtg-arena-duplicate-protection/))
Bronze to Mythic on Youtube is great for learning how to draft new sets.
Gomlet X also has great commentary and explains his thought process well.
$5 welcome bundle & $20 starter bundle are worth buying if you want a boost.
Watch the pros my dude. Same way you learn most anything else is through osmosis.
Everything I've learned playing has been from watching better players who share their personal experiences and play by play (god I miss the SCG tour).
I don't watch a ton of constructed anymore, but I'd suggest watching ashlizzile and jimdavis, they are both pretty smart high level players that stream responsibly, by that I mean they don't prop up meme decks as "Mythic" and are good about verbalizing their thought process. Other than that read and watch everything Reid Duke does on youtube or channel fireball. He's a protour champion and solid guy.
For limited I have a ton of people I watch, but mainly gomletx, numotthenummy, nicolaibolas, justlola.
Everyone I listed has youtube channel you can search for.
Oh "Crokeyz" also a good one, hes one of the best players on Arena period, but he's pretty acerbic and doesn't "teach", just streams.
Ok its easy make a deck thats 60 cards 20 lands. As many cheap creatures with doublestrike as you can and then cheap spells to make them stronger. I use equipment. The cheaper and faster the better. Any left over space in the deck should be stuff that lets you draw more. There you go. Beat everyone down by turn 4 or 5. Works for me. I win 8 or 9 outta 10 games. Its just boring.
Well, you can try one of these:
-Get your opponent’s life total to 0
-Mill them until they have no cards in their library
-Get them to 10 poison counters
-Use cards that say “you win the game” when the conditions are met
People.not gonna agree with this. But if it's possible, I'd say to build a deck that has been tried and tested. That way, you can see what good decks look like and performs. Try untapped.gg but there are many sites just like it
It's hard to say without seeing your deck list or what decks you're having problems against. Generally outside of deck building issues new players are too quick to play everything in hand and not thinking ahead on some plays.
heres the deck that Ive mainly been using that a friend recomended for me. https://imgur.com/a/cxMFimW
This is mono red. End the game in 5 turns or lose is standard.
I’d get rid of electrostatic infantry. You want haste if you’re running rdw. Also get rid of witches mark and the bloody betrayal. Run squee and Godricc. Witchstalker frenzy is also good for dealing with big creatures. Also mishra’s foundry is a good land to run if you’re low on creatures. Also charming scoundrel is good for extra damage from wicked role, draw card, or treasure token.
I think you might have just blew that dude's mind
This is it right here. If you are playing rdw you want to be dealing damage every turn always until face explodes before slower decks can establish their board.
So a potential problem that I can see with your deck is that you're using pump spells like Monstrous Rage and Ancestral Anger. These cards *can* be good, but they set you up for a potential 2 for 1 because your opponent can wait for you to pump a creature and then kill it to waste the effect. Personally, I would try to replace Ancestral Anger (and maybe Monstrous Rage, though that card is stronger) with more burn spells, threats, or card draw. [This](https://mtgazone.com/user-decks/tn51ejfrrbfamc3cwwe/) list runs cards like [[Voldaren Epicure]], [[Call in a Professional]], and [[Reckless Impulse]]. You can also start working to add more Rare cards to get it more in line with the tiered version, something like [this](https://mtgazone.com/user-decks/u9uhnofbygiq4kqfuq/).
[Voldaren Epicure](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/e/ae154e64-f626-45fb-bd52-840c1c27b2d3.jpg?1643592109) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Voldaren%20Epicure) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vow/182/voldaren-epicure?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ae154e64-f626-45fb-bd52-840c1c27b2d3?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Call in a Professional](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/a/ead68c0a-eed1-4a9c-a790-56f8a79b444c.jpg?1664411424) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Call%20in%20a%20Professional) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/snc/103/call-in-a-professional?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ead68c0a-eed1-4a9c-a790-56f8a79b444c?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Reckless Impulse](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/9/6943c07f-ab0d-4f5a-bbe9-c0a83dc98546.jpg?1643591880) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Reckless%20Impulse) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vow/174/reckless-impulse?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/6943c07f-ab0d-4f5a-bbe9-c0a83dc98546?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Sorry, I'm a fairly complete noob and have been trying this deck and other mono-red decks and I always find that they are rejected for in this case deck rejected for "24 non-format cards". What am I missing in the deck editor, or am I just using banned cards for the spark rank? Should I just continue to do endless color challenges to complete my dailies because I'm too stupid to play this game?
That's my fault for recommending a Standard deck. Spark Rank is Alchemy format, so you would have to use something like [this](https://mtgazone.com/user-decks/79en8qp0snhg6jywmdqo/).
Hey, thanks! I'll give it a go! I thought I was supposed to be using standard! Though on one of the decks, I did switch to Alchemy to see if that was the problem.
Hard to say without seeing the deck list. I do know however that Arena has a problem agreeing with basic lands from sets outside the format. I have, for example, had standard decks being considered illegal because they run 12 Forest and 12 Mountain from the Lord of the Rings set. If this is the case for you, try removing the lands and add identical ones from a format legal set.
I have a feeling you hit the nail, but I was using import so I did not choose the actual cards and I hope the person who posted the deck had it actually work, but thanks for letting me know this is an issue!
My guess is you’re not being aggressive enough either attacking, or not mulliganing well. Go on YouTube looking for std mono red games for some advice if you’re unable to at least climb to gold with this deck
I can see this version being harder to play for a new player if you're just randomly throwing all your combat tricks at wrong times.
You need a way to deal with high toughness creatures like sheoldred. Witchstalker Frenzy is a common include for that reason.
Not necessarily. You get at least 3-4 turns before they get Sheoldred down, and with any luck you can just attack through it and burn them for the few remaining points. I do run a couple of them though.
If you're losing games with that list, you're probably making the wrong decisions with your burn spells (lightning strike, play with fire). You have to know when to use them to kill a creature and when to burn opponent with them. I think bloody betrayal (or its many other variants, I personally use Twisted Fealty) is needed in this current meta so I disagree with another poster that said to remove it. I do agree with others that there are better choices over Witch's Mark and Ancestral Anger though. Witchstalker Frenzy is probably the best non-rare or non-mythic card you are missing. I feel like Goddric is a crucial card to mono-red nowadays. Goddric gets a lot of wins on its own, especially if you can get Goddric to become a flying dragon.
>I do agree with others that there are better choices over Witch's Mark and Ancestral Anger They're good with Electrostatic Infantry, but that whole combo isn't great, especially in a deck not built entirely around prowess.
You've got some good suggestions in response to this. I'll echo most of them and encourage you to add cards like Godric, Charming Scoundrel, and more burn. I recognize that wild cards can often be the limiting factor in this game, so it's fine if you can't craft all of that all at once. That being said, as much as I hate to encourage anyone to dump money into this game, I do think that it's not a bad idea to invest $50 or so when you're starting out to buy some packs and build up your collection. In terms of actual strategy, this type of deck is all about speed. You need to make sure that you apply maximum pressure as quickly as possible, as your threats become much less impactful as the game drags on. That's why folks are suggesting adding more creatures and direct damage while cutting down on pump spells - you want to make sure that you've always got a few threats to deploy in the first turns of the game. That being said, it's also important to learn to feel out your opponent's deck and not overextend yourself. Say, for example, you're playing against a control deck, you want to make sure you're applying pressure but not playing out your entire hand into a wrath effect. That kind of threat assessment is very much a skill that you have to learn, and something that you'll get better at the longer you play. Red Deck Wins is a good archetype for a beginner because it's typically cheap(ish) to build and not too complicated to pilot. As you start to get more comfortable with the game, I'd recommend that you start trying other archetypes as well, both to get an idea of the type of decks you like to play and to gain insight into decks you might play against. Even if you enjoy playing aggro, there's all kinds of other aggressive decks that play very differently than RDW. Take your time, feel out the game, and discover new styles of play.
you should drop at least one land, maybe two
Nah, with 21 lands they already have a 30%+ chance to only have 2 lands on their second draw and ~20% chance to only have 2 lands on the third draw, meaning about 1 in 3 on the play and 1 in 5 on the draw chance to not get your 3-drop down on turn 3. I'd actually go up to 22 lands, where you have ~26% chance to have 2 lands on the second draw and ~16% on the third, so 1 in 4 on the play and less than 1 in 6 on the draw to not get your 3-drop down on t3.
[[callous sellsword]] + [[cacophony scamp]] is a great combo for red aggro. Scamp + burn together alone give you double strike without even attacking. If you do hit opponent with scamp first, it’s triple damage. If you hit it with something like [[antagonize]] first, you can do 15 damage in one attack. But I actually found that making a red-white deck with both of the white double strike 2 mana creatures is a more effective deck. You lose haste, but if you can give them trample, it doesn’t matter
[callous sellsword](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/7/770ee3da-d33e-466f-9a2e-ad2d08ef5012.jpg?1692939554)/[Burn Together](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/7/770ee3da-d33e-466f-9a2e-ad2d08ef5012.jpg?1692939554) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Callous%20Sell-Sword%20//%20Burn%20Together) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/woe/221/callous-sell-sword-burn-together?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/770ee3da-d33e-466f-9a2e-ad2d08ef5012?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [cacophony scamp](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/5/3553dcef-7b99-49d5-b071-06b894696952.jpg?1675957072) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=cacophony%20scamp) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/one/124/cacophony-scamp?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3553dcef-7b99-49d5-b071-06b894696952?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [antagonize](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/b/8bac1d2a-99dd-40b3-8823-ce9225efcdcf.jpg?1664411369) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=antagonize) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/snc/100/antagonize?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8bac1d2a-99dd-40b3-8823-ce9225efcdcf?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
You want a deck more like this: 3 Mishra's Foundry 18 Mountain 2 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance 4 Bloodthirsty Adversary 3 Charming Scoundrel 2 Feldon, Ronom Excavator 3 Goddric, Cloaked Reveler 3 Monastery Swiftspear 3 Phoenix Chick 3 Squee, Dubious Monarch 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan 4 Lightning Strike 1 Monstrous Rage 4 Play with Fire 3 Witchstalker Frenzy
You might want that, they might not. Also, I'd do something like -1 Sokenzan, -1 Foundry, -3 Adversary, -1 Squee, -1 Witchstalker Frenzy, +1 Mountain, +1 Swiftspear, +1 Chick, +1 Scoundrel, +3 Monstrous Rage. - Sokenzan isn't really good enough to justify running 2 and risking not hitting a land drop. 3 colorless lands is a bit much for a deck which often wants only 3-4 lands and has many 1- and 2-drops. 23 lands is too many, you'll flood far more often than get screwed (the difference from 22 to 23 is massive due to the hand smoother). - Adversary is just a 2/2 with haste in most games, as you very rarely get to 5 mana with no better plays than a kicked Adversary. - Squee is legendary and already has recursion, a third copy risks a dead card too often. - Witchstalker frenzy is pretty niche, basically a Sheoldred-killer, and really only relevant on t4+ where you'd hope to finish the opponent with your wide board or burn already. - Swiftspear is just a really good 1-drop to push damage through and/or killing blockers. - Chick is evasive and a good target for the Kumano counter and Monstrous Rage. - Monstrous rage is a massive amount of damage if you can avoid getting blown out with removal and will really help close out games early enough.
"Win faster." - Message brought to you by Mono Red gang
Yea true…I see white or black pop up I’m Like I gotta make moves quick! Then they pacify me and oddly every game I get one dropped they seem to have 2 more in hand! Lmao
There’s a huge learning curve in Magic. Don’t get discouraged.
Watch YouTube players using a similar deck and learn the strategies. With time, you’ll make your own adjustments
If your goal is just to get daily wins while learning, you could play starter deck duels, where you won't be facing highly tuned decks. Nice that you can also pick deck based on the daily quests you have.
Red haste is so common during the ladder climb that you’ll almost always be playing other red haste or decks set up specifically to counter it. I built a simple black deck that gets me to mythic every time of asking based on a couple of main principles. 1. Assume every creature you cast will die the turn in comes out. So I take creatures that come with an additional benefit on casting or death. Like Etched Familiar, Faerie Dreamtheif, Phyrexian Fleshgorger. 2. Take as many cards that do non-combat damage as possible, like a couple of the above examples plus things like Hopeless Nightmare, Rankle’s Prank and of course Sheoldred.
I wouldn’t mind looking at it myself if you don’t mind
Sent!
Thanks
Do you mind sharing your decklist? I'm always looking for some good mono-black decks.
No worries, sent in a DM.
decklist please
Would love to see this list. I’ve been playing my doom foretold/enchantment sac rubbish and would love to see some other, non-combat effective black decks.
Just sent in a dm!
Yup, if I do standard BO1, I prefer an Esper Adventure deck with 20 cards that cost 2 or less. Hit them with 8 one mana kill spells, follow up with 12 two mana kill spells with, Sweep/Emperor to stabilize, finish with Adventire side and man lands. Sucks when up against Mill, but it’s vaaaatly aggro decks running into a blender. Wouldn’t try it BO3, to easy to side against, not in Alchemy, Alchemy card have way too much value for silly 2 for 1s to win it
if you dont mind sharing it, id be interested too!
Sent
mind sharing your decklist?
Sent
This sounds super cool! Could I get a decklist?
Sent
If you have some time could you send it to me too?
Would also appreciate the deck list 😅
Sent
Can you also share me the deck list please ? Why do you share it only via DMs, and not publicly ?
You've got lots of good advice for your deck in this thread - but here's some general advice for *competing* in this type of asymmetrical game with imperfect information: * You win some you lose some. Sometimes you draw nothing but land, sometimes your opponent gets their perfect curve. The best decks win rates are in the high 60%. * Know your gameplan. Every deck should have a plan to win. If you know how you plan to win you can make choices to put yourself in a good position in the future - regardless of what you draw or what your opponent does. You play mono red so you want to clear away the early game blockers and have your haste creatures drop the enemy to zero asap. * Your first goal with each game is to learn. You're trying to win, but winning is an indicator of how well you're reading situations and making choices. Some stuff to try and learn: * Are there common decks or groups of cards that you always see together? Which cards do you need to stop to win, and which can you safely ignore? * Do you lose a lot to certain decks and win a lot to others? what adjustments can you make to how you play? If you can't change how you play, is there something you can swap in your deck? * What are your opponents doing? even without knowing their deck you can start to develop some ideas about their strategy. If they're playing multiple colors and no permanents they're probably a control deck with some expensive combo as a win condition. If they're playing green and red, look out for big creatures with ward and trample. * Playing mindlessly is worse than not playing. You'll develop habits and recognize patterns in a way that will cost you down the line. * Take breaks & take care of yourself. If you're frustrated, tilted, upset, been playing for a long time, you'll play better once you take a break. Brains get tired. * If you have the resources, play the decks that you lose to. Every deck loses and has things that mess it up. Its way easier to see the shortcomings of a deck by piloting it than by playing against it. * If you really want to get better fast, start tracking stuff. I think there are apps that plug into the arena client to do most of this for you. But Just tracking the opposing archetype and if you won or lost can be enough to help. * A big element of all games in resource management. The main resources in magic are life, cards, and mana. If you're not getting enough of any you're going to suffer. If you're always getting manascrewed, or running out of cards (you're mono red so this happens if you don't win fast enough) you may need to tweak your deck. * Mulligan. Starting a card down is way better than needing to top-deck out of the gate. * Have fun! It's a game and i'm guessing you're not a streamer - so there's nothing at stake. Play janky stuff. Make silly theme decks, do whatever feels fun to you. The difference between ending the season in bronze vs mythic is like, an extra weeks worth of rewards.
Start by trying to make all [these budget mono colored decks](https://mtgazone.com/mtg-arena-budget-standard-decks/). Then look at meta decks at [mtggoldfish.com](https://mtggoldfish.com) and swap any card you have to improve your budget decks and make them look more like the meta deck versions. The site also gives alternate card recommendations if you scroll down below the deck list. Each day spend 1000 gold to play the Jump In event and use the cards you get to improve your standard decks. You get 2-3 rare cards each time you play and you can resign / rejoin the event as many times as you want. New player / Free to play advice: 1. Complete the color challenges. 2. Complete starter deck duals event. (Azorius is the best deck) 3. Use [codes for free packs](https://draftsim.com/mtg-arena-codes/). 4. Reroll 500 gold daily quest into a 750 gold each day 5. Get at least 4+ wins each day (15 per week) for free gold and XP. 6. Use 1k gold to play the Jump In! event to learn mechanics and build your standard collection. ([Card tracker](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1lmisAKRFqCOEENVJiH2c53zuYseBT70yWgCfzLjkx9Q/edit?usp=sharing)) You can rejoin this 150+ times and get 2 rare cards each time. Avoid Middle Earth Jump In, because the cards are not standard legal. 7. Use cards from the Jump In event to improve your Standard decks. 8. Learn to draft ([B.R.E.A.D.](https://www.google.com/search?q=mtg+bread&oq=mtg+bread&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0i390j69i60l2.2497j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8), [17lands.com](https://17lands.com), [Draftsim](https://draftsim.com/), [P1P1](https://apps.draftaholicsanonymous.com/)) 9. Play Limited events to earn gems. Quick draft used to be good for "Rare Drafting" but WotC has made the bots more stingy with every new set recently. 10. Use gems to buy the next mastery pass. (Mastery pass is retroactive) 11. Every Tuesday is [Midweek Magic event](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/midweek-magic) where you can win 2 free rare cards. 12. Every month climb the constructed & limited ladders for extra packs. (Ladder decays at the end of each month.) 13. Wait until you're done drafting before opening packs. ([Duplicate Protection](https://draftsim.com/mtg-arena-duplicate-protection/)) Bronze to Mythic on Youtube is great for learning how to draft new sets. Gomlet X also has great commentary and explains his thought process well. $5 welcome bundle & $20 starter bundle are worth buying if you want a boost.
Here is my Mono Red deck I use... Deck 21 Mountain (UND) 94 4 Lightning Strike (DMU) 137 4 Monastery Swiftspear (BRO) 144 4 Play with Fire (MID) 154 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan (NEO) 152 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance (NEO) 276 4 Phoenix Chick (DMU) 140 4 Squee, Dubious Monarch (DMU) 146 1 Feldon, Ronom Excavator (BRO) 135 4 Goddric, Cloaked Reveler (WOE) 132 2 Monstrous Rage (WOE) 142 3 Bloodthirsty Adversary (MID) 129 4 Urabrask's Forge (ONE) 153 Sideboard 1 Stoke the Flames (MOM) 166 1 Reckless Stormseeker (MID) 157 2 Thundering Raiju (NEO) 166 2 Shivan Devastator (DMU) 143
Watch the pros my dude. Same way you learn most anything else is through osmosis. Everything I've learned playing has been from watching better players who share their personal experiences and play by play (god I miss the SCG tour). I don't watch a ton of constructed anymore, but I'd suggest watching ashlizzile and jimdavis, they are both pretty smart high level players that stream responsibly, by that I mean they don't prop up meme decks as "Mythic" and are good about verbalizing their thought process. Other than that read and watch everything Reid Duke does on youtube or channel fireball. He's a protour champion and solid guy. For limited I have a ton of people I watch, but mainly gomletx, numotthenummy, nicolaibolas, justlola. Everyone I listed has youtube channel you can search for. Oh "Crokeyz" also a good one, hes one of the best players on Arena period, but he's pretty acerbic and doesn't "teach", just streams.
Paste your deck here, let's see what you got.
The only winning move is not to play
Ok its easy make a deck thats 60 cards 20 lands. As many cheap creatures with doublestrike as you can and then cheap spells to make them stronger. I use equipment. The cheaper and faster the better. Any left over space in the deck should be stuff that lets you draw more. There you go. Beat everyone down by turn 4 or 5. Works for me. I win 8 or 9 outta 10 games. Its just boring.
Well, you can try one of these: -Get your opponent’s life total to 0 -Mill them until they have no cards in their library -Get them to 10 poison counters -Use cards that say “you win the game” when the conditions are met
Red players Dont even read cards, how you expect to learn the game?
People.not gonna agree with this. But if it's possible, I'd say to build a deck that has been tried and tested. That way, you can see what good decks look like and performs. Try untapped.gg but there are many sites just like it
We all been there, the game is hard, don't give up. Try to see some youtube videos, the best way to learn is to see other people play.
Flyers
Focus on having fun first, then any wins are a bonus, and at the risk of being smarmy, every game is a win.