Dies to Removal

I don't like Vexing Devil here at all. In a dedicated burn list, sure, but in a deck like this I prefer to have consistency in my cards.

I still have to think about Mogg Fanatic. Last time I played him was when damage went on the stack. The more I think about it he seems deceptively good for all the reasons LP mentioned.

Mogg Fanatic is amazing. I'd been playing him in Goblins for the last couple months. I'm honestly surprised he's just now catching on.

My response a few days ago to Frank Lepore's question on Facebook:

Frank T Lepore
May 22 at 7:37pm ·

Can someone smarter than me at red decks in Modern explain the recent addition of Mogg Fanatics? Patrick Sullivan, Larry Swasey, etc.)

Justin K Alderman It's a card that not a lot of opponents expect or respect. It's a form of early pressure with the threat of removal against a mana dork, a Pestermite, a Signal Pest, or even something the delivers the final blow to a Spellskite after a Bolt or Searing effect. It's also a much needed aggressive turn 1 play if you intend to follow up with Eidolon of the Great Revel.

In Red Deck Wins you have to aggressively fight for every point of damage in order to push through and win. It's not always about turn 3 kills and taking advantage of an opponent's mana screw. Sometimes you get grindy. Mogg Fanatic represents 1 + X damage in a long game.


I've earned 15 likes!
woot.

Also, I do like Vexing Devil in the deck. It has that deals that magic number of 4, which is the sweet spot in Modern.

VD has been surprisingly clutch not only as a damage dealer, but by providing adequate food for the lava man.

He attacks into things too. Like Spellskite and shit.

He attacks them in the mouth!

He kicks things right in the pussy.

He vexes them in the mouth!

[deck=Nicholas Heal's RDW]Creatures (20)
4 Goblin Guide
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Vexing Devil
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel

Lands (20)
11 Mountain
4 Arid Mesa
1 Keldon Megaliths
4 Scalding Tarn

Spells (20)
2 Shrine of Burning Rage
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Searing Blaze
2 Forked Bolt
4 Molten Rain
4 Rift Bolt

Sideboard 15
2 Dragon's Claw
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Blood Moon
2 Dismember
2 Smash to Smithereens
1 Shattering Spree[/deck]

Help me dissect the sideboard:
2x [card]Dragon's Claw[/card] for Zoo, Mirror, Burn and Storm
4x Pyrite Spellbomb for ProRed creatures (infect, Robots) decent spell vs Control (gets under counters and cantrips)
2x Relic of Progenitus Graveyard hate (its a auto-include in modern - good vs Jund, Pod, Gifts, Living End, many many more)
n2x Blood Moon You autowin vs most of the modern field
2x Dismember mainly for twins
2x Smash to Smithereens Robots and Tron
1x Shattering Spree Robots

Is this correct? if you cut the Claws would it be for magma spray pillar (I typed spray without thinking ) or extra shrines?

I would cut the claws for pillar of flame since it has tthe option to go upstairs or remove pesky kitchen finks. OR, you can remove Forked Bolt entirely, replace it with Pillar, and then replace the Claws with 2 Shrines. Doing that will let you swap out the Pillars for Shrines against UWR.

But, yes, you are correct with all the sideboard stuff. Also know that Shattering Spree is your magic bullet against Chalice decks since the original spell would get countered while the copies still stick around to kill the Chalice.

Just a thought, if dismember is mainly for Twin (you wouldn't use it against goyf right?) wouldn't Combust be just better or does Spellskite and Battleskull from twins board justify the dismember?

[deck=Nicholas Heal's RDW]Creatures (20)
4 Goblin Guide
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Vexing Devil
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel

Lands (20)
11 Mountain
4 Arid Mesa
1 Keldon Megaliths
4 Scalding Tarn

Spells (20)
2 Shrine of Burning Rage
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Searing Blaze
2 Forked Bolt
4 Molten Rain
4 Rift Bolt

Sideboard 15
2 Dragon's Claw
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Blood Moon
2 Dismember
2 Smash to Smithereens
1 Shattering Spree[/deck]

Help me dissect the sideboard:
2x [card]Dragon's Claw[/card] for Zoo, Mirror, Burn and Storm
4x Pyrite Spellbomb for ProRed creatures (infect, Robots) decent spell vs Control (gets under counters and
cantrips)
2x Relic of Progenitus Graveyard hate (its a auto-include in modern - good vs Jund, Pod, Gifts, Living End, many many more)
2x Blood Moon You autowin vs most of the modern field
2x Dismember mainly for twins
2x Smash to Smithereens Robots and Tron
1x Shattering Spree Robots

Is this correct? if you cut the Claws would it be for magma spray pillar (I typed spray without thinking ) or extra shrines?

Why run fetches in a mono colored deck that doesn't even play Plated Geopede (which is a mistake imo)? Is thinning out your deck THAT important?

(serious question, I'm new to modern)

Grim Lavamancer.

@MDU: In the matchup where you want, dismember, life doesn't really matter, so I generally like it over combust since it's more versatile.

I played Heal's list at a modern FNM and went 4-0. Beating Affinity, Twin and UWR. I wasn't a fan of molten rain since there aren't alot of UWR decks at my LGS. I decided to use Flame Javelin in its place as per Val's build a few pages back. Its really nice having a maindeck kill for exarch. I removed Dragon's claw from the board for Pillar of Flame. Never had need to side it in tho. To reiterate things people have said, Mogg Fanatic and Forked bolt are amazing, Vexing Devil is pretty sweet and t2 Eidolon is hilarious vs most of the format

Sounds logically enough, I like how Flame Javelin doesn't trigger Eidolon of the Great Revel.

I should note that Molten Rain is quite good vs Jund (manlands), Tron, Scapeshift and Robots (kinda) not just UWr.

[deck=Nicholas Heal's RDW]Creatures (20)
4 Goblin Guide
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Vexing Devil
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel

Lands (20)
11 Mountain
4 Arid Mesa
1 Keldon Megaliths
4 Scalding Tarn

Spells (20)
2 Shrine of Burning Rage
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Searing Blaze
2 Forked Bolt
4 Molten Rain
4 Rift Bolt

Sideboard 15
2 Dragon's Claw
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Blood Moon
2 Dismember
2 Smash to Smithereens
1 Shattering Spree[/deck]

Help me dissect the sideboard:
2x [card]Dragon's Claw[/card] for Zoo,
Mirror, Burn and Storm
4x Pyrite Spellbomb for ProRed creatures (infect, Robots) decent spell vs Control (gets under counters and cantrips)
2x Relic of Progenitus Graveyard hate (its a auto-include in modern - good vs Jund, Pod, Gifts, Living End, many many more)
2x Blood Moon You autowin vs most of the modern field
2x Dismember mainly for twins
2x Smash to Smithereens Robots and Tron
1x Shattering Spree Robots

Is this correct? if you cut the Claws would it be for magma spray pillar (I typed spray without thinking ) or extra shrines?

Why run fetches in a mono colored deck that doesn't even play Plated Geopede (which is a mistake imo)? Is thinning out your
deck THAT important?

(serious question, I'm new to modern)

Grim Lavamancer and Searing Blaze landfall activations at instant speed.

Does this deck have a legit chance to win a PTQ?

Does this deck have a legit chance to win a PTQ?

Heal won a PTQ with that very deck.

Ok cool.

Noob to modern: What do you play Turn 1, GG or Vexing Devil?

Ok cool.

Noob to modern: What do you play Turn 1, GG or Vexing Devil?

I would always lead with the Guide. Board presence and early pressure is crucial. Next turn would probably come Vexing Devil or Rift Bolt.

At least that's what I'd do on the play.

On the draw, I'd probably lead with a Rift Bolt if I had one in hand, especially if they had a turn 1 play, as it has the potential to clear away a blocker for my Goblin Guide.

@MDU yea its really good vs tron and decent vs jund. I tested it vs robots and hated it tbh. The threats in affinity aren't (normally) the lands, i'd rather be killing signal pests/overseers/skirges and have the javelin to close out the game quickly. Most of all, i just like that flame javelin deals 4 dmg lol

Played the deck again today. Went 3-1 this time. Got my ass handed to me by merfolk . Beat robots, pod and storm tho. I drew 6 lands in game one and only 2 in game 2, couldn't activate my shrine. So i guess the loss was just due to variance, altho the rate at which they produce creatures with vial/reejery combo is scary. Not sure if i had decent hands it would have made a difference.

@LP: are you still testing the deck? what are your thoughts on Gigex's Flame Javelin over Molten Rain plan.

Actually how good is Molten Rain in modern?? Is it really MD'able??

I've maindecked Molten Rain before and it's great against Affinity, Jund, UWR control, Pod, Twin...pretty much every good deck. Without having played this iteration of the deck I think I prefer it over Flame Javelin. This isn't a burn deck, it's RDW.

The deck is good. Unfortunately there is a lot of burn on MTGO and running into that can cause a headache.

I don't think because a deck includes Javelin it makes it a "burn" deck. Javelin answers some important stuff in modern, exarch, spellskite, goyf (most of the times)..............players on 4 or less life lol. In MY experience I found that the other matchups where u'd use molten rain (matches other than UWR/tron/jund), it isn't THE card that wins you the match. Against affinity for example, i've found forked bolt and mogg fanatic do alot more work. My decision to substitute for Flame Jav is purely a meta choice tho, and if my meta had a significant amount of tron/uwr/jund then i'd prlly maindeck the Molten Rain, but blood moon out the board works just as good if not better vs those decks.

Gigex you run extra blood moon in board to compensate for the lack of molten rains?

molten rains great. It's not really necessary to manascrew people, it fucks up there tempo and sets them behind.

Yeah, I have 3 SB and i cut the single shattering spree

@Longtoe: Is the Burn MU really that bad, even with Dragon Claw?

@ALL: Anyone get anymore testing in, how is Relic of Progenitus are you guys using it against Pod and Jund as well (if so how is it)? or is it just for Living End and Gift decks.

Hi everybody

I recently started playing this deck (Nicholas Heal's version) and already got some good results at local tournaments. I'm seriously thinking about playing it at PTQs this season, but since I've never played RDW before I still have to understand how to play with some of the cards. Especially Vexing Devil. Well, it's not a secret that this guy is best in the early game, but my concern is when (if at all) I should sideboard it out. Could anyone help me with that?

Also, Heal told in his deck tech that Molten Rain and Rift Bolt are metagame depended slots* and the first one was pretty obvious to me. I was siding it out against most of aggressive creature strategies (i'm not completely sure if should do that against Affinity). On the other hand Searing Blaze and Forked Bolt where first to go against creatureless decks. But I wonder if there's something more to understand about SB strategy. I already mentioned
Vexing Devil and second card in this context is Shrine of Burning Rage. When I think about it I would like to keep it in MD against almost everything, maybe besides Storm. Is this correct?

*in the video he talks about them at 5:50 and it seems to me that he mentions some other possible cards in these slots but i can't understand what is he saying, could anyone write down this part?:)
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4OmqPFy74E

@MDU: if you get to the dragon's claw it is a bye. Also early shrine helps some. They are just faster in regards to the burn matchup. The relics seem like flex slots in the board if you ask me. I think they seem like over kill against storm. I do like they against any snap deck. I haven't tried them much against pod, but it seems like it is just hurting your ability to kill faster. Against jund they are fairly good in regards to shrinking goyf and getting rid of ooze food. My board currently is identical to heal's except scratch one spellbomb add an additional smash to smithereens. Shrine is terrifying to most decks. presidentmustache: Devil stays in most m/u. I don't usually mess with him. The best card in the deck is molten rain thus far in my testing. If you have any board presence and resolve it on T3 you can win very easily. The deck can actually grind fairly well. I have played long games with decks that
should outclass this pile and still end up winning. Post board blood moon is an allstar as well. Rift bolt seems like the biggest piece of shit in the deck, but it works well with shrine. I think that is where we should be testing other cards.

Rift bolt seems like the biggest piece of shit in the deck, but it works well with shrine. I think that is where we should be testing other cards.

Agreed. I want to try Searing Blood in its place.

I'd hate to have a full set of Searing Blood and Searing Blaze maindeck against more than a couple of prevalent Modern decks.

I'd hate to have a full set of Searing Blood and Searing Blaze maindeck against more than a couple of prevalent Modern decks.

Then don't run it.

I'd hate to have a full set of Searing Blood and Searing Blaze maindeck against more than a couple of prevalent Modern decks.

Then don't run it.

Oh come on. I was setting you up for the sweet Forbidden Orchard tech!

I'd hate to have a full set of Searing Blood and Searing Blaze maindeck against more than a couple of prevalent Modern decks.

Then don't run it.

Oh come on. I was setting you up for the sweet Forbidden Orchard tech!

That's.....actually pretty hilarious!