Big Red (Mono-R Sneak Attack)

[Kid]

i think best cards against tegg are pyroclasms and our lovely titans
bonfire of tha Damned is a powerfull card but if we wanna use it as a win condition is necesary to play back again SDT no?

I never stopped playing SDT :p

[philo4079]

Has anyone tested Big Red against Imperial Painter ?
Is it a matchup in our favor ? Chalice could help, and Emrakul is good :-), but vs ensnaring bridge ...

[hdeck12]

Has anyone tested Big Red against Imperial Painter ?
Is it a matchup in our favor ? Chalice could help, and Emrakul is good :-), but vs ensnaring bridge ...

This is one of the strangest matchups. It can get long, grindy and gross! So the thing is, game 1 they can't really win. But they can get into a position where it's hard to lose too. Your options are 1. win before bridge comes down. 2. stall until you find pyromancy. 3. remove their creatures with titan and beat down with spirit guides. Games 2 and three can be different depending on what they have in their board. It's pretty hard to lose though since they don't really have counter magic online before we can go off, and their win condition never works on the first try. I'm X-0 in these matches over a LOT of tournaments, not something I've ever worried about...yayyy graveyard shuffle effects!

[philo4079]

Ok thnks!
I'll play the deck this sunday in big tournament. I'll give you some feedback if I fight against Painters..
Regarding the sideboard, I currently have 2 Chaos Warp, and I was wondering if it wouldn't be better testing Ashen Rider instead..
As we basically play chaos warp to remove bridge or other blocking cards, Ashen would do the same, twice :-), and hit for 5 ...

[whienot]

Ok thnks!
I'll play the deck this sunday in big tournament. I'll give you some feedback if I fight against Painters..
Regarding the sideboard, I currently have 2 Chaos Warp, and I was wondering if it wouldn't be better testing Ashen Rider instead..
As we basically play chaos warp to remove bridge or other blocking cards, Ashen would do the same, twice :-), and hit for 5 ...

If you're thinking of playing Ashen Rider, you should just play Woodfall Primus instead. It hits twice and sticks around.

I'd stick with Chaos Warp though; it hits Humility and Gaddock Teeg.

[Koby]

Ok thnks!
I'll play the deck this sunday in big tournament. I'll give you some feedback if I fight against Painters..
Regarding the sideboard, I currently have 2 Chaos Warp, and I was wondering if it wouldn't be better testing Ashen Rider instead..
As we basically play chaos warp to remove bridge or other blocking cards, Ashen would do the same, twice :-), and hit for 5 ...

That sounds like a good swap. It doesn't address Humility, but I haven't seen anyone use that recently anyway; and definitely not in the SCG meta anyway.

[Darkenslight]

If you're thinking of playing Ashen Rider, you should just play Woodfall Primus instead. It hits twice and sticks around.

I'd stick with Chaos Warp though; it hits Humility and Gaddock Teeg.

OF course, but Ashen Rider means that they can't really get their hate back, and it also works twice outside of exceptional circumstances.

[whienot]

Ah, fair. I missed that Rider exiles instead of destroying.

[kingtk3]

Yesterday night I looked at my list for the first time in a while after the many changes of the last month. This is what I'm running at the moment:

Plan A
4 sneak attack
4 through the breach

Monsters
3 griselbrand
4 worldspine wurm
4 emrakul, the aeons torn

Plan B
3 inferno titan
1 pyromancy
1 heretic's punishment

Locks
4 chalice of the void
3 blood moon

Manipulation
2 crystal ball

Mana
4 simian spirit guide
4 seething song
8 mountain
4 ancient tomb
3 city of traitors
4 sandstone needle

SIDE
Combo - tempo - controll (to some extent)
3 trinisphere

Control - tempo
1 defense grid

Creature decks
3 pyroclasm

Grave - GSZ decks
2 grafdigger's cage
2 surgical extraction

Blue hate
2 red elemental blast

Catch all
2 chaos warp

The main seems ok, with barely 5 flex slots being the crystal balls, pyro/punishment and one copy of titan. After some considerations I ditched the trinispheres in the side in order to play more threats: I prefer to be on the aggressive in this meta full of BGx decks.

However, no matter how I look at the side it seems all over the place. The cards, taken singulary, seem good, but:

• I hate playing 1 CMC spells with Chalice in the main
• I feel the side needs more tweak to helps against the problematic matchups

So, basically, I need sideboard plans.

I start making some assumptions, like

• if the meta is combo heavy then blood moon should be replaced by trinisphere
• a side card with CMC of 1 can be played only if the chalices are sided out in that matchup

Matchups Analisys
I tend to say that our worst matchup is Reanimator because is a combo faster than us that runs both counters and discard. Against us they loose the S&T plan obviously, but can bring in 3-4 pithing needle to stop us in addition to the aforementioned disruption package.

I don't have much experience against Storm (ANT, TES and Belcher to some extent), but I feel that is a rush for them to combo off before we play a lock piece: If they have to spend time and resources to dispose of trinisphere or chalice we should have the time to kill them.

S&S cannot cast S&T against us because our monsters will attack before theirs; moreover with our mana base we can play around Spell pierce or flusterstorm. The important spells are only Force and Sneak.

Even Omniscence decks cannot freely play S&T because we could have a trinisphere (which prevents them from going off) or chalice@1 to prevent their cantrips to find Enter.

Elves can be faster than us but is also severely hindered by chalice and a fast titan is GG.

The fair decks can be divided in four main categories: the ones with counters, the ones with discard, the ones with counters & discards and the others. The fourth are the easiest, the third the thoughest and the first two are manageable.

Side Plans
Now I should list what to side in and out in the various matchup, but since I'm not sure on my side (trinispheres and pyroclams apart) it would be quite pointless.

Could you help me with the side and the plans against the various matchups? I would like to read your opinions before giving you mine.

Thanks a lot guys!

[glimpse70]

I think trinisphere is necessary in main; i most of cases is a 3xTime Walk and also helps against force and 1cc counters.

[kingtk3]

I think trinisphere is necessary in main; i most of cases is a 3xTime Walk and also helps against force and 1cc counters.

I agree with your analisys. However if you don't find a way to capitalize those turns trinisphere becomes quite manageable by mid-range decks.
On the other hand, a turn one or two blood moon can be GG against many fair decks, which my LGS is infested right now.

Given a meta where mid-range strategies are predominant over combo, would you still play trini over moon main deck?

[glimpse70]

I agree with your analisys. However if you don't find a way to capitalize those turns trinisphere becomes quite manageable by mid-range decks.
On the other hand, a turn one or two blood moon can be GG against many fair decks, which my LGS is infested right now.

Given a meta where mid-range strategies are predominant over combo, would you still play trini over moon main deck?

I currently use the "channel fireball" list with 3xtrini, 3xblood and 4xchalice.

[kingtk3]

What have you cut to make room for 1 blood moon and 3 trinisphere main?

[glimpse70]

What have you cut to make room for 1 blood moon and 3 trinisphere main?

i have "only" 13 creatures:

4: emrakul
4: grise
3: titano
2: wurm

and zero pyromacy main deck

[glimpse70]

Let's try to compile a guide for sideboarding:

what you side in/out against:

1. miracle?

2. u/r delver | young pyromancer?

3. landstill?

4. maverik?

[cadaver]

What is the best creature package to use? I loveee this deck and have finally built it. I currently use
4x Emmy
3x wurm
3x Gris
2x titan
1x hellcarver
I have had very good success with this package so far but I wonder how/If you guys have found other combinations more successful. I hear blight steel is a house vs some decks.

[Koby]

Let's try to compile a guide for sideboarding:

what you side in/out against:

1. miracle?

2. u/r delver | young pyromancer?

3. landstill?

4. maverik?

1. Miracles
+REB/Pyros +Trinisphere +Chaos Warp
-Seething Song (you have time) -Faithless Looting -Inferno Titan (low impact)

2. Delver
+REB/Pyro +Pyroclasm
-Seething Song (Daze) -Faithless Looting -Griselbrand (Stifle)

3. Landstill
+REB/Pyro
-Seething Song (you have time)

4. Maverick
+Pyroclasm
-Griselbrand (legends are bad...)

What is the best creature package to use? I loveee this deck and have finally built it. I currently use
4x Emmy
3x wurm
3x Gris
2x titan
1x hellcarver
I have had very good success with this package so far but I wonder how/If you guys have found other combinations more successful. I hear blight steel is a house vs some decks.

I've had the best success by focusing on the 15/15's -- Emrakul and Worldspine Wurm, each 4 ofs.
Griselbrand is better than Hellcarver since activating its draw 7 is better than "sac everything, play top 6 cards".

Titan is a nice Plan B that can also buy a lot of time. Even with sneaking him in, he deals 12 damage alone; making him better than Griselbrand in terms of damage.

Blightsteel Colossus is only effective against non-creature, non-removal decks. It does not interact well with the other creatures.

[claudip]

Hi all,

Im testing this agresive version of Big Red:

Lands:

2 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
11 Mountain
1 Crystal Vein

18 Lands

Creatures:

4 Griselbrand
3 Inferno Titan
4 Dragon Tyrant
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Woodfall Primus

16 Creatures

Other Spells:

4 Sneak Attack
4 Through the Breach
4 Seething Song
4 Desperate Ritual
2 Lotus Petal
4 Faithless Looting
4 Blazing Shoal

26 Other Spells


Opinions?

[igri_is_a_bk]

You added a combo that only works after you've successfully used the original combo. That's terribad.

[xdavisx]

Let's try to compile a guide for sideboarding:

what you side in/out against:

1. miracle?

2. u/r delver | young pyromancer?

3. landstill?

4. maverik?

agreed, the primer should be updated.