With the new Magic: The Gathering card block releasing in full this Friday, many are wondering how to build a good, cheap red deck with Battle for Zendikar, Origins and the three Khans block cards. This game guide answers that question.
The first thing you need to decide on is on is whether you want to focus on casting instant and sorcery spells, or do you want to focus more on creatures? You'll need both to have a good deck, and with the wide variety of useful cards available on a budget, you can build an effective deck for standard play at your local Friday night Magic: The Gathering tournament. Please keep in mind, I'm staying away from some of the more expensive cards that may not be usable for those of us trying to save money. I'm ignoring a lot of rare and mythic cards that I would otherwise have in my deck.
Let's start off with some general information new MTG players may find helpful. You'll need to make sure you have several one and two mana cards to get started. There's a number of cheap cards which will make this easy. My personal favorite one mana red card is Fiery Impulse. Without any extras, it deals two damage to target creature, more than enough to kill almost any turn one and most turn two creatures your opponent may put out. Later in the game, that extra two damage can help kill large creatures that have just too much toughness to be taken out by your smaller creatures. Titan's Strength (still viable due to Origins) is another one mana card I've seen in most red decks. Giving a creature +3/+1 until end of turn is very powerful in itself, and as a bonus, you get to scry 1 (look at the top deck of your library and either keep it or put it on the bottom). Another buff card is Kindled Fury, providing +1/+0 and First Strike to a creature. For one mana creatures, my recommendations are Monastery Swiftspear, Kolaghan Stormsinger and Lightning Berserker. These are all creatures from the Khans blocks that cost one mana and are relatively cheap to acquire, if you don't already have them. These three allow you to attack on the first turn you put them out, potentially attacking on the very first turn of the game. Monastery Swiftspear has Prowess, which gives it +1/+1 whenever you cast a non-creature spell. Another pair of potentially useful cheap first turn cards are Lavastep Raider, and Bellows Lizard, both of which allow a player to "pump" them by spending mana to increase the damage they do. Of your standard 60 card deck, I recommend four cards each for Fiery Impulse and Titan's Strength, and you may also include Kindled Fury, depending on whether or not you include Monastery Swiftspear for the Prowess activation. Depending on what cards you have or wish to buy/trade for, I recommend picking only two or three of the one mana creature cards as you will want to make sure you have some larger, tougher creatures once you hit your four mana mark. Go with four of each of those creatures.
One of the trickiest parts of building a red deck is deciding what two mana and three mana cards you want to add in, especially if you are trying to build a cheap deck. Creature-wise, I'm quite fond of Makindi Sliderunner. It's a common card, but for only two mana you get a creature that benefits from the Landfall mechanic, giving it +1/+1 any time a land comes onto the battlefield under your control. It also has trample, so even if it's blocked by a tiny creature like an Eldrazi Scion, damage will still go through. Additionally, if it is blocked and you use Titan's Strength to make Makindi Sliderunner tougher or use Fiery Impulse to destroy the blocker, even more damage will go through, making this card a valuable addition to any deck. Another useful two mana creature is Kholaghan Aspirant, which deals one damage to a creature that blocks it (before combat damage is dealt). This makes it extremely useful early game when most creatures have only one or two toughness. Sure Strike is a two mana buff spell very similar to Kindled Fury mentioned earlier, except it gives +3/+0 and First Strike. It's more potent, and despite being twice the cost, an extremely useful card.
For instance, a turn three (with a land played) combination of Makindi Sliderunner (from the previous turn) with Titan's Strength and Sure Strike added to it give it a base 2/1 and trample, with +1/+1 from landfall, +3/+1 from Titan's Strength, and +3/0 and first strike from Sure Strike. This means on turn three, you could attack with a 9/4 with trample and first strike. It works. I've been hit with very similar combos.
Another useful two mana card is Dragon Fodder. It puts two 1/1 goblins onto the battlefield. While not powerful in themselves, they can be useful for blocking when you really don't want creatures with special abilities to get killed, and they can always provide an extra bit of damage should your opponent be late getting creatures on the field. While I personally shy away from decks that sacrifice creatures to deal damage, these guys are perfect for such a deck. Goblin War Paint (it is in standard again) works well to provide a permanent buff of toughness and attack power to a creature, while also allowing it to attack on the same turn. This is a very useful card just for the buff, but later in the game, when you have more mana, it can be used to throw out another attacker the same turn it's played. Mardu Scout has cost me a couple of games due to the Dash mechanic slamming a 3/1 into me on turn two. For removal, Roast is useful, but only somewhat so as it is a sorcery, not an instant, and can't necessarily be cast when you really want to. But it is great for clearing out defenders.
For three mana creatures, Firemantle Mage will help a lot. Your creatures have Menace until the end of turn; a creature with menace can't be blocked unless two or more creatures are blocking it. This will help your creatures get through much more easily, and whichever ones aren't blocked can be buffed up. The alternative is to buff up a blocked creature, giving it first strike and a lot of damage. This may allow it to kill off two defenders. You'll have to judge which will be result in you killing your enemy faster. Acolyte of the Inferno is the three mana version of Kholaghan Aspirant, except the Acolyte can get a +1/+1 counter if it deals damage and does two damage to a creature that blocks it. Akroan Sergeant is a 2/2 creature with First Strike and Renown (it gets a +1/+1 counter if it deals combat damage to a player). For spells, Act of Treason is one of the most fun spells I know. It gives you control of target creature until end of turn. I've beaten players with their own creatures before. It's quite satisfying.
With that, I'm going to stop. It's certainly possible to build decks with massive red creatures, like elementals, giants, or dragons, but the red decks I've found most challenging to beat were the fast, hard hitting decks that didn't let me get on my feet but rather pounded me into the ground in five or six turns.
I'll be doing additional deck guides with the other colors and combinations over the next few weeks as the upcoming cards from Magic: The Gathering: Battle for Zendikar get fully implemented into the standard format. If you have suggestions or a particular color(s) you'd like a guide to for a cheap deck, feel free to leave a comment below and check back every day. If I'm not swamped with requests, I'll design it.
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