An old hand, wanting to return...what's good in Red?

[WickedBoy6]

...I guess the title says it all. I used to play a hell of a lot back in the day, but I wanted to start playing again. I'm not entirely sure what's good in my favorite color - Red - anymore. I used to run a nice red beatdown with four copies of the best direct damage spells, along with Ball Lightnings, Erons, and anything else with high attack and haste. It's been a good three years since I've heard of any Magic cards, so I'd like to know: What's the best cards for a nice Red direct damage deck using the current run of cards (read: Type II, though I play casual).

 

[Oversoul]

I don't really pay attention to Standard. Ordinarily I'd just leave your post alone based on that, but this board has been so dead that I will instead tell you all about red in Legacy. But don't worry, some new card are used there!

The only red deck I've played in Legacy lately (as in less than a few years ago) has been Burn. It's pretty simple and a lot of it would still be recognizable to you: Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Fireblast, and also fetchlands (I use Scalding Tarn and Arid Mesa, but the end result is the same), Lava Spike, and Rift Bolt if you remember those. Oh, and Price of Progress, Flame Rift, and Sulfuric Vortex, although those are mostly there to bring the deck up to 60 cards. Some new additions are Shard Volley (a bit extreme alongside Fireblast with my low landcount, but I've yet to play the deck in a metagame with any non-basic land destruction whatsoever and I'd rather be consistently fast than resilient against a nonexistent archetype), Keldon Marauders (better than the Mogg Fanatics I used to use, which are hosed by the new rules anyway), and Goblin Guide (one of the best red attackers ever and the only purely attacking creature I will even consider for Burn right now, although I've seen other people use Hellspark Elemental in Burn). So yeah, Goblin Guide. Goblin Guide is your new best friend.

Really, a lot of those are the same cards that used in decks that rely on creatures attacking to win, although I don't know why anyone would want to play such a deck. Grim Lavamancer, which you probably remember, is another good one.

Of course, my favorite red deck is Belcher, which uses a little green too, but whatever. Belcher can also go black, but with Manamorphose, Desperate Ritual, Rite of Flame, Seething Song, and Simian Spirit Guide, red has sort of become the ultimate mana acceleration color and Empty the Warrens can act as an alternate kill. In fact, I'm not sure why you'd want to play any other red deck. I know I don't.

If you insist on using attacking with creatures to win, there's Dragon Stompy, with powerhouses like Rakdos Pit Dragon and Magus of the Moon.

Monored also has Imperial Painter, a deck that uses the Painter's Servant/Grindstone combo alongside Imperial Recruiter.

And of course, Goblins exist and are powerful.

 

[WickedBoy6]

Checked out those cards, and yeah. Definitely some adds into the deck. Rite of Flame and Seething Song are definitely some mana speeders I could use. I'm impartial to the old standby of Mana Flare, but I don't know if it's current still. Even though there's a one-turn delay, I like Rift Bolt, and Shard Valley looks like a good mid- to late-game punch. Sulfuric Vortex is an awesome countdown clock, and I'm willing to try out Goblin Guide. When I find the list of my old red deck, I'll post it and show what I used to run all the time.