Standard Deck - RW Control

[Killer Joe]

I'm running a non-sanctioned Standard tournament on the 21st. of this month and I have no idea what to play. I basically skipped Kamigawa block and never got the "power cards" from that set so I am actually, for the first time since my UG Erratic Spikes deck, venturing out on my own with this list:

R/W Control
4 Shard Phoenix
3 Lightning Helix (I only have three)
4 Volcanic Hammer
3 Char (I only have 3)
4 Wrath of God
4 Ghostly Prison
2 Honden of Infinite Rage
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Honden of Cleansing Fire
4 Chastise
2 Blaze
4 Boros Signet
6 Plains
6 Mountain
4 Boros Garrison
3 Battlefield Forge
4 Tendo Ice Bridge
1 Sacred Foundry

It had creature control and direct damage. I'm putting Demystify or something like that in the sideboard for enchantments. Maybe Razia, too.

I need a little help in the way of an alternate kill method with white just in case I can't take care of a CoP: Red.

 

[Limited]

Excruciator?

 

[Killer Joe]

Can't be prevented but can be blocked, right?
He's good but he'll be SB:// material.

 

[Limited]

He's too expensive to be any good, but it gets around circle of protection:red

He can still be blocked, but how many chumpblockers is someone going to have after Shard Phoenix or something like that hits the board?

(Remember, The Excruciator also kills creatures with protection from red.. )

 

[Mikeymike]

I pretty sure Boros Fury Shield gets around CoP: Red, though I'm assuming the "it" in the damage reference is referring to the Shield and not the creature. I like it in here anyway, since it helps you handle bigger creatures before you get the WoG.

I'd lose the Honden's. With your current counts you've got a slim chance of getting 1 of each in play, and by themselves the affects are too small/slow IMO.

You can use more Divining Top's, this deck seems to want more card efficiency/advantage/etc.

Razia, or another bomb, is likely a good idea.

 

[Killer Joe]

I haven't drew a Honden yet by turn 7. Out go the Hondens (good idea btw, thanks) in go 3 more Tops.

Maybe one copy of Razia in the main and one in the side.

Fury Shield? I'll look it up.

 

[Mikeymike]

In fairness, I have terrible biases towards both Boros Fury Shield and the lovely Razia

 

[Force of Will Smith]

OH man... you should totally run searing meditation with the honden of cleansing..
gain 2 life a turn and deal 2 damage....
mm..

 

[Killer Joe]

I guess the Red/White synergy is within the "Boros" aggressiveness. While I was looking up possible toughness of two ground creatures I noticed several small white flying creatures and thought maybe a R/W weenie deck might better fit the current flavor of Ravnica Red/White for new standard.

Maybe this might work:
Flyers
4 Suntail Hawk
4 Kami Lantern
4 Leonin Skyhunter
4 Charging Pegasus
4 Skyknight Legionnaire

4 Shock
4 Volcanic Hammer
4 Lightning Helix

4 Glorious Anthem
4 Sunforger (Art Equip: +4/+0 for Equip {3})

X Battlefield Forge
X Sacred Foundry
X Mountain
X Plains

 

[Limited]

uhm.. Standard right? Umezawa's Jitte?

I am also missing a Rally the Righteous..
Perhaps the new Double Striker is worth considering (Boros Swiftblade); especially in a deck with four Sunforgers. (is four really necessary?)

Creatures (20)
4 Suntail Hawk
4 Kami Lantern
4 Boros Swiftblade
4 Charging Pegasus
4 Skyknight Legionnaire

Spells (20)
4 Shock
4 Lightning Helix
2 Rally the Righteous
4 Glorious Anthem
3 Sunforger (Art Equip: +4/+0 for Equip {3})
3 Umezama's Jitte

Land (20)
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Sacred Foundry
7 Mountain
9 Plains

 

[YoungBeard]

It's funny, Killer Joe, since you emailed me and all about going to the same game. And tonight I threw together a R/W deck out of some Boros cards Jim had gotten (I don't have any of my own Ravnica cards yet) my Kamigawa block and stuff reprinted in 9th. Then I come here and find out you're planning to play R/W Standard too. LOL! My pile:

2 War-Torch Goblin
2 Goblin Balloon Brigade
4 Frostling
2 Boros Recruit
1 Boros Guildmage
3 Boros Swiftblade
1 Sparkmage Apprentice
4 Hearth Kami
4 Skyknight Legionnaire
2 Ronin Houndmaster
1 Hunted Dragon -- just 'cause he is cool

4 Shock
2 Lightning Helix (all I could find)
3 Guerilla Tactics
2 Barrel Down Sokenzan
1 Rally the Righteous

1 Sunforger (all I could find)
1 Ronin Warclub
0 Umezawa's Jitte (don't have any)

and a pile o' land that sucks because I have no R/W pain. 10 mountan, 6 plains, 2 Boros Garrison, a Tendo and a Sunhome.

Mine's redder than yours, I have more creatures, but you have better creature boosters and better bolts, BUT some of my createres are bolts... They're both pretty aggro decks...It'll be interesting to see how they match up. Wish I had more Sunforgers; it is such a sweet looking card!

Chris

 

[depolarization]

All flyers is hot. Basically a nice aggressive WWr build.

Though why take out Char? I don't know if you need that many sunforgers either because they do cost a bit to play and equip. Instead of having 4 of those, I've found my WWr builds to deliver the fllying damage fast with rally the righteous. I'd rather spend mana on that or Char-izzal to burn their flyers down instead. Don't know if you neeed the glut of one drop flyers either. I'd probably pare the lanterns anthems and the forgers down to 3 each and put in some char and rally the righteous instead of so many volcanic hammers either (your 3 chars and 3 rallys should be cool). I like instant burn and options and the instants shouldn't mess with your mana curve too much, as much as I think the sunforger would hurt it. Hopefully this would deliver the win by turn 5 unless there's some control headed your way. And I think char does a good job of handling those beef problems that may come your way by turn five in the late game. I'd rather burn a threat down than hold a creature back...unless of course I just used rally the the righteous to flap over and then get ready for the counter attack with all of my folks untapped.

Of course if you find you get your results faster with your build, by all means go with it (though in my hands, I'd like to play Limited's).

Do you have the 4 Sunforgers so you can always have an instant/sorcery in hand? Seems mana intense since you have to budget 3 a turn to do it. Late game it's great though. Do you expect to go that long?

I Would like to know your match-ups because I'm curious about FNM again to see how it behaves in that setting.

 

[Limited]

Of course if you find you get your results faster with your build, by all means go with it (though in my hands, I'd like to play Limited's).

Thanks!

Do you have the 4 Sunforgers so you can always have an instant/sorcery in hand?

You can only play instants, but you can look through your library.. there should always be an instant in there..

 

[Killer Joe]

It's funny, Killer Joe, since you emailed me and all about going to the same game. And tonight I threw together a R/W deck out of some Boros cards Jim had gotten (I don't have any of my own Ravnica cards yet) my Kamigawa block and stuff reprinted in 9th. Then I come here and find out you're planning to play R/W Standard too. LOL! My pile:

2 War-Torch Goblin
2 Goblin Balloon Brigade
4 Frostling
2 Boros Recruit
1 Boros Guildmage
3 Boros Swiftblade
1 Sparkmage Apprentice
4 Hearth Kami
4 Skyknight Legionnaire
2 Ronin Houndmaster
1 Hunted Dragon -- just 'cause he is cool

4 Shock
2 Lightning Helix (all I could find)
3 Guerilla Tactics
2 Barrel Down Sokenzan
1 Rally the Righteous

1 Sunforger (all I could find)
1 Ronin Warclub
0 Umezawa's Jitte (don't have any)

and a pile o' land that sucks because I have no R/W pain. 10 mountan, 6 plains, 2 Boros Garrison, a Tendo and a Sunhome.

Mine's redder than yours, I have more creatures, but you have better creature boosters and better bolts, BUT some of my createres are bolts... They're both pretty aggro decks...It'll be interesting to see how they match up. Wish I had more Sunforgers; it is such a sweet looking card!

Chris

I haven't ruled out my Dimir Discard deck, I do have four Glimpse the Unthinkable and one of them is a foily which puts 20 cards into the graveyard, maybe....

 

[YoungBeard]

I still want to play you Boros vs. Boros even if you don't play it in the tournament.

 

[Killer Joe]

I played YB last night in a tournament I went with RW Weenie and he had waaaay more burn than I did but his "Bad Draws" and my decks low mana curve (nothing over 3cc) gave me a match win (2-1), the second game was all his, though.

 

[YoungBeard]

All in all, they were good games. If I had any R/W painlands at all it might've gone better for me... Darn Plains

 

[sageridder]

Of course the Sunforger do love the Overblaze, once damage is on the stack
unattach Sunforger and Overblaze to double the fun.

 

[YoungBeard]

I'm working on a more controllish version of my deck that should make good use of Sunforgers (and not need the expensive pain lands so bad, I hope)....

 

[Limited]

Of course the Sunforger do love the Overblaze, once damage is on the stack
unattach Sunforger and Overblaze to double the fun.

Wow!

Too bad it doens't also combine with Double Strike.. or else an equipped Boros Swiftblade would be lethal..

huh..

from Gottlieb's article:
"Stick with a reasonable Sunforger combo, like Sunforger + Overblaze + Boros Swiftblade"

Go figure..