Hiya! Joe here again with a look into how we can progress from a beginner collection to a competitive deck in Magic Arena. Today I’m taking a look at Mono-Red Aggro, which is probably the second least “expensive” deck to build a competitive version of (next to Mono-Blue Tempo). Note: The number of rares required for a competitive version of a deck goes up sharply outside of Mono-Blue Tempo, and even though Mono-Red Aggro is cheap compared to most of the other meta decks (due in large part to the easy mana base requirements), the number of rares you need for the final version of the deck is not trivial.

So, you’ve done your New Player Experience and have been playing for a while, and have racked up the ten free dual-color pre-constructed decks. Using only the cards from those NPE pre-cons, you can build a passable mono-Red deck…something like this one:

Budget Mono-Red Midrange

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Here’s a video of the deck in action:



This deck is going to help you rack up some wins, but isn’t going to get you very far in the Competitive game modes. Mono-Red Aggro is a more competitive build for Mono-Red, and even though we’ll end up replacing most of the cards in the deck, there are a lot of Commons and Uncommons we can quickly grind out for this deck, and we can do some initial upgrades before grinding out the rest of the rares.

First, let’s look at what cards we start with that we’re going to want to end up with in the finished (Competitive) version of the deck.



Ghitu Lavarunner fits into the deck’s payload of small, aggressive creatures. We have enough instants and sorceries in the deck that it will be “turned on” much of the time, giving us a hasty 2/2 for a single mana (which is awesome), and it also allows us to cast Wizard’s Lightning at a discount (eventually). We will want a playset of these in the main deck of the final version.







Viashino Pyromancer is another small, aggressive creature. The two damage that it deals when entering the battlefield means that even if the opponent deals with it immediately, it’s going to get in at least one “hit”, and if the opponent trades a counterspell with it to avoid the damage, the trade is likely to be in our favor. We will want a playset of these in the main deck, as well.







The next category of spell that forms the core of the Mono-Red Aggro deck is efficient burn spells that can go to the face. Lightning Strike is a great classic example of this, and another common that we are going to want a playset of in the main deck.







Lightning Strike‘s little sibling Shock is another card in the same category that we will eventually want a playset of for the main deck. You will often be able to Shock a blocker out of the way in the early game and play an “activated” Ghitu Lavarunner on the same turn, sneaking in extra damage (hopefully with another Ghitu Lavarunner already on the battlefield).







Fight with Fire is an efficient burn spell that can kill most problematic creatures in the game (barring Hexproof, of course), and gives us late-game reach in that you can target your opponent (or their Planeswalkers) directly if you kick it, potentially giving you away to finish of an opponent who has stalled the battlefield. This spell is a little to slow for the game plan of the final version of the deck, and will be relegated to the sideboard to be brought in when needed. It is powerful enough that we will want an entire playset in the sideboard, though.







Rekindling Phoenix is the top end of our curve. When playing against decks with a lot of damage- or creature-destruction-based removal, this gives as a big(-ish) reliable thread that is hard to deal with. It is almost always going to trade with at least two cards, and when playing against decks that stall the battlefield on the ground, it can fly over to finish off the opponent. In a pinch, it also plays the role of a repeatable chump-blocker, or even just to soak up damage from a large trampler. As was the case for Fight with Fire, Rekindling Phoenix is too slow for Aggro’s main game plan, and will be in the sideboard in the final version of the deck, probably three copies.





Next, let’s look at what other cards we’ll want in our main deck:



Together with Lightning Strike and Shock, Wizard’s Lightning fills out our complement of efficient burn spells that can go to the face. If we have a Ghitu Lavarunner on the battlefield, this plays the same as Lightning Bolt, the OG burn card, and generally considered too efficient for Standard, these days. We will want a playset of these.







Fanatical Firebrand is a card that only Mono-Red Aggro could love. It fits right into the small, aggressive creature strategy, and is surprisingly versatile in this deck. Besides chipping in for damage, it can trade with turn 1 Llanowar Elves, threat of activation can make it hard for your opponent to block Goblin Chainwhirler (which we’ll get to later) and Rekindling Phoenix, and when they are dead on a stalled battlefield, they can gang up on two-toughness creatures, or even just ping the opponent directly to help finish them off. Keep in mind that its activated ability can’t target Planeswalkers. We want a playset of these.







If you get down an early Runaway Steam-Kin and make it stick, it can really run away with the game. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger while you burn threats out of the way, and is a threat your opponent is forced to deal with. It can even provide mana for your slightly more expensive and/or kicked spells you may have brought in from the sideboard. We eventually want a playset of these.







Goblin Chainwhirler is a necessary main deck four-of in red-based aggro and midrange decks that want to be competitive. It provides a ton of value wiping the board clear of one-toughness creatures and helping small burn spells to finish off larger ones, all while pinging down the opponent and their Planeswalkers. Combined with instant-speed burn and Fanatical Firebrand, it can make combat very dicey for your opponent. Yes, main deck four of these.







One of the stumbling blocks that often makes Mono-Red strategies stumble is a lock of card draw. Especially in the case of an Aggro deck like this, it’s very easy to dump your hand onto the battlefield, and then get stuck top-decking cards that don’t match up power-wise to those being played by your opponent. That’s where cards like Risk Factor come in, giving your opponent a (bad) choice between taking a bunch of damage and possibly getting in kill range of your burn spells and small creatures, or refilling your hand for you. We will have a playset of these in the main deck. (Note: If this is played against you, you almost always want to choose to take the damage, unless that means you’re going to lose the game immediately.)







The Flame of Keld generally fills a similar role as Risk Factor, replenishing your hand as well as providing more bang for your Aggro buck on a following turn. You generally want this to be the last spell you play from your hand, and don’t really want to be discarding anything besides Mountains and other copies of The Flame of Keld to it, but sometimes you need to if you get completely mana screwed (kind of rare with this deck). It is vulnerable to enchantment removal, as well as removal that hits any permanent, so be mindful of that (especially when your opponent is playing Green). We will also play a playset of these in the main deck.





And finally, what other cards will we need to fill out the sideboard?



Vance’s Blasting Cannons is a source of card draw in Red, and if it transforms gives you a repeatable source of burn damage that is hard for the opponent to deal with. At four mana, this is too slow for straight-up Aggro, but can be pulled in from the sideboard against decks that the Aggro plan isn’t fast enough to beat to give us a source of effective card advantage. We’ll include two copies in the sideboard.







Experimental Frenzy can be a game-winner in certain match-ups. Effectively turning your deck into a second hand while you’re working on drawing into cards to replenish your actual hand. Once that happens, you can get rid of it (and hopefully finish off the opponent). This can lead to big blowouts, but since it’s four mana and has a high variance, we’ll just include a single copy in the sideboard. If you want to, you can also put a single copy of Experimental Frenzy in the main deck, replacing a The Flame of Keld.







Lava Coil is not our first choice of burn spell for this deck, since it can’t target your opponent (or their Planeswalkers), but since it deals four damage, it can deal with a wider range of creatures than our smaller burn spells can, and can be very effective against problem creatures such as ones that recur from the graveyard (such as Rekindling Phoenix in the mirror). We will include a playset of these in the sideboard, and will likely end up swapping them 1-for-1 with one of the other burn spells in the main deck in matches that call for it.





Open the spoiler here to see my preliminary sideboard guide for this deck:



Here’s the final version of the deck:

Mono-Red Aggro (Competitive)

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A couple of notes on transforming this deck from the Budget version to the Competitive version:

I test these decks in the Ladder “Play” mode when I’m working on them, since I believe that is where my target audience tends to play the most Constructed Magic (you’re probably not here if you’re already rocking a solid deck in the Competitive queues). When I started working on expanding the Budget version of the deck, one of the first things I did was to add in all of the commons that show up in the final version of the deck. It turns out that simply doing that convinces the deck-power-level match making algorithm that you’re playing the Competitive version of the deck, and you will immediately start being paired against Tier 1 decks that completely outclass that version of the deck. After toying around with it, I had success with gradually introducing a mix of different rarities. This means that you don’t necessarily end up putting all of the copies of all of the cards you collect at the same time, but it wasn’t that bad.

After my previous article in this “series” (Path to Mono-Blue Tempo), I had a request to include a list of one-to-one card swaps that can be done as you collect cards from the final version of the deck. I honestly tried doing that, but found it basically impossible (it worked for some of the spells, but not for the entire deck as a whole, for various reasons such as you want to gradually drop Mountains as you lower the curve, and the final deck has fifteen more cards than our starting point), so I’ve instead settled on a middle ground that I hope is at least somewhat helpful, outlining the changes I made in smaller batches of replacements (batches marked a “a” and “b” are ones I actually did together when testing, but can probably be broken up).

Batch 1

Out

1 Silverclad Ferocidons

1 Goblin Trashmaster

3 Goblin Instigator

2 Shivan Fire

1 Mountain

In

1 Vance’s Blasting Cannons

2 Wizard’s Lightning

1 Shock

4 Fanatical Firebrand

Batch 2(a)

Out

1 Shivan Fire

2 Charging Monstrosaur

2 Volcanic Dragon

1 Rowdy Crew

1 Spit Flame

1 Captivating Crew

1 Repeating Barrage

In

1 Vance’s Blasting Cannons

2 Wizard’s Lightning

2 Viashino Pyromancer

1 Ghitu Lavarunner

1 Rekindling Phoenix

2 Fight with Fire

Batch 2(b)

Out

1 Banefire

1 Etali, Primal Storm

1 Lathliss, Dragon Queen

1 Burning Sun’s Avatar

1 Demanding Dragon

1 Mountain

In

1 Experimental Frenzy

1 Lightning Strike

3 The Flame of Keld

1 Runaway Steam-Kin

Batch 3(a)

Out

1 Siege-Gang Commander

1 Fight with Fire (Moved to the Sideboard)

1 Experimental Frenzy (Moved to the Sideboard)

In

1 Rekindling Phoenix

1 The Flame of Keld

1 Goblin Chainwhirler

3 Lava Coil (Added to the Sideboard)

Batch 3(b)

Out

1 Mountain

1 Fight with Fire (Moved to the Sideboard)

In

2 Runaway Steam-Kin

1 Lava Coil (Added to the Sideboard)

Batch 4(a)

Out

2 Fight with Fire (Moved to the Sideboard)

2 Vance’s Blasting Cannons (Moved to the Sideboard)

In

1 Runaway Steam-Kin

3 Goblin Chainwhirler

Batch 4(b)

Out

3 Rekindling Phoenix (Moved to the Sideboard)

1 Mountain (Moved to the Sideboard)

In

4 Risk Factor

Here’s a video of the final deck in action:



If you’re interested in checking out some of the versions of the deck I played while doing this path for myself, you can find some more videos in the spoiler below.

Spoiler [collapse]

What deck would you like to see next (I don’t know if I can do a full path from Budget to Competitive for each of these, but I can at the very least do a deck tech with sideboard advice, etc.)?

Coming Soon What deck would you like to see next? Boros Angels Jeskai Midrange White Weenie Elfball Results Vote What deck would you like to see next? Boros Angels 38 ( 30.16 % ) Jeskai Midrange 31 ( 24.6 % ) White Weenie 41 ( 32.54 % ) Elfball 16 ( 12.7 % ) Back

What deck would you like to see next? Boros Angels 38 ( 30.16 % ) Jeskai Midrange 31 ( 24.6 % ) White Weenie 41 ( 32.54 % ) Elfball 16 ( 12.7 % ) Back

Hopefully you’ve found this deck breakdown useful. If you have any comments, questions, or criticisms, please feel free to contact me here in the comments, on Reddit, on Twitter via @DailyArena, or on Facebook on the @DailyArenaMTG page.

Peace.

Joseph Eddy is a Father, Husband, Son, Brother, Software Developer, and Gamer. Magic is his favorite hobby, and he’s looking forward to seeing you all on Arena. He streams Magic Arena on a weekly basis (or more), but currently is unable to keep to a set schedule.