Black & Red

[Captain Caveman]

Where are all the Black and Red decks?

Here is my attempt at one.

(Pitch spells and burn)
3 Shock
4 Seal of Fire
4 Snuff Out
4 Skizzik
4 Chimeric Idol
3 Vampiric Tutor
2 Addle
3 Unmask
1 Pyre Zombie
2 Forced March
1 Massacre
1 Urza's Rage
4 Dark Ritual

2 Urborg Volcano
2 Sulfurous Springs
8 Mountains
12 Swamps

 

[Gizmo]

4 Seal of Fire
3 Earthquake
3 Pillage
(10)

1 V.Tutor
2 Addle
4 Rain of Tears
4 Despoil
1 Snuff Out
1 Yawgmoth`s Agenda
(13)

2 Void
(2)

4 Flailing Ogre (random and awful?)
2 Trench Wurm
3 Thrashing Wumpus
(9)

2 Dust Bowl
4 Ports
2 R/B dual
4 Sulfurous Springs
4 Peat Bog
3 Mountain
7 Swamp
(26)

 

[PTQ]

Flailing Ogre can be quite nice in a land destruction deck. Trust me, I've tried it before.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Re: Gizmo

I guess thats the B/R LD deck you were talking about
in your Starcity column. It looks to slow but if it
was rough on you, than it must be good.

 

[galtwish]

I think a very strong part of the deck is the Agenda against Blue and the Wurm against non-Basic (naturally). I would favor a more Diamond/Break R/b deck, but the Wumpus is too tasty to ignore.

Erik

 

[Zadok001]

I've been working on one of these myself (my latest project). And I must say, based on my experience, Pyre Zombie is really, REALLY, _REALLY_ good. Like, slightly bent good. REALLY good. I know he's probably better in my version than in either Gizmo's or Caveman's, but he's like playing a whole big pile of Shocks. He acts like a Hammer that can block, which is never something to be ignored.

My version of B/R, aka 'How To Play With Way Too Much Removal'

Removal Spells
4 Shock
4 Seal of Fire
3 Urza's Rage
4 Scorching Lava
4 Seal of Doom
1 Void
3 Mage's Contest
1 Hammer

Creatures
1 Tsabo Tavoc
4 Pyre Zombie
1 Necrosavant
2 Chilling Apparition
1 Skizzik
2 Blazing Specter

Other
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Vampiric Tutor

Land
4 R/B Duals (Urborg Volcano)
4 R/B Pains (Sulferous Spring)
Basic land to taste

Yes, it looks quite random. The creature list is a bit odd right now (lots of one-of's), but that's for testing purposes. (What creature do I want now? Add more. What creature don't I want now? Remove some. Etc.) I'm still working on that. But, put simply, this deck WRECKS counter decks, Nether-Go, and Stampy. Obliterate wrecks this deck (working on that), and WW is a bit of a problem. Predator is a card I'm trying to make room for, since it'll beat all the Pro-creatures around right now.

But Pyre Zombie is AMAZING. I play one, and from that point on, I often don't really need any other spells. I still use 'em, but often enough, I would be able to win without them. The Zombie just wrecks house on Blue and Green, and the burn added in only aggravates the problem those decks have against this one. The Zombie also lets the deck survive even if its attack phase gets shut down by a powered Collective Restraint. It's more impressive than it looks, and I have nothing but good things to say about it so far. (Yeah, there's Hammer. But it's not nearly as versitile, and creatures right now tend to be X/2 or X/4, neither of which the Hammer is well suited to.)

(As a secondary issue, what does everyone think of Blazing Specter?)

 

[Gizmo]

Pyre Zombie is on the list of things to try, and you might want to add in a couple of Sandstone Needles (-1 Mountian, -1 Volcano) to run faster and with more red available to Pillage.
BTW, the Pillages are essential to kill Tsabo`s Webs.

 

[Zadok001]

I don't have any lands that die to Web. In fact, I'm of the school to RUN Webs. Let the _other_ guy deal w/ 'em.

 

[Cateran Emperor]

Drools, Trench Wuuuuurm...

God I love this guy. Pyre Zombie = Excellent, but surprisingly balanced. Blazing Specter = Excellent, but balanced. Note, I'm not saying the "but" with and sense of loss. Invasion R/B is excellent. I'm toying around with this:

4 Blazing Specter
4 Abyssal Specter
4 Ravenous Rats
2 Pyre Zombie
2 Trench Wurm

4 Dark Ritual
3 Void (this thing is just absurd!)
2 Urza's Rage
3 Pillage
4 Seal of Fire
2 Stupor


4 Urborg Volcano
4 Sulfurous Springs
10 Swamp
8 Mountain

SB:
4 Nether Spirit (Wrath, Rout, Counters)
3 Perish (Blastoderm)
3 Cremate (Nether Spirit)
3 Scorching Lava (Nether Spirit, River Boa)
2 ???

This is still highly experimental, but I tell you that so far Void is one of the best cards in the set by a lot. I usually do it for 0 (Saprolings), 2(Rebels), or 4 (Blastoderm)

Any thoughts? It's working very well so far, but the new Type II has no real "metagame" (hopefully it never will), so the deck will probably be restructured to use Tutors and more possible resonses. All I know is Abyssal Specter owns the mirror. "Go ahead, attack with your Blazing Specter! Shock away! Ho ho ho!"

 

[Duel]

Okay, his deck works nice. I've played Zadok, and Chump.dec died miserably to him. Too... much.... removal.....

I think he should run eartchquakes, and you guys should look for his deck to be a deck to watch out for.

Now he only needs a way to save his land. Mages contest is 1 solution, but running 4 is often impractical.