While mono blue may be all the rage right now, I’m here to tell you that the best way to play mono color is not blue, but red! This deck is remarkably strong, and in my opinion certainly a tier one deck. I have maintained an 80% winrate in constructed gauntlets over 150 games, and am currently sitting at skill rating 71 using mainly this deck.

DECKLIST LINK

So why should you go mono red? It is mainly to do with consistency. You never have to worry about hero colors, or have your opponent kill one hero and lock you out of half your deck.

Since you have more red heroes, you also have more options when it comes to Primal Roar targets. This is critical because Primal Roar is such an amazingly powerful late game card, and casting it in the right spot wins so many games on its own.

The deck has a very powerful early game with the heroes and creeps, resiliency through the mid game by using health items and even more creeps. Then we can use initiative from Kraken’s Shell to deny the opponent using Primal Roar, Enough Magic, Berserker’s Call and Tidehunter’s Ravage. Time of Triumph and the siege damage from Red Mist Maul close out the game.

Hero Choices

Axe, Legion Commander, Bristleback, and Beastmaster are heroes that you always want to play. The first three are simply the best heroes for fighting the opponent, and Beastmaster’s Primal Roar is a big payoff of playing mono red.

The 5th hero is a bit more flexible. I have tried Tidehunter, Ursa, and Centaur Warrunner. I like Tidehunter the best because his active is extremely useful against all decks, but especially blue decks. They tend to have smaller board presence so it is more likely you will hit their hero with his stun, and one extra turn is devastating against blue decks. Additionally, you want to include initiative cards in your deck anyway, so the fact that his signature card gives initiative means you clear up spots for more useful cards.

Ursa is better vs. Green decks where he can get multiple hits of on the same hero and doesnt die right away himself. His signature card Enrage is lackluster against most decks, but helps vs opposing red decks.

Centaur Warrunner is fine against opposing red decks, since his signature card can be cast on the opposing heroes who are being blocked by creeps to give them -8 armor. But overall he much worse vs the other colors, where his signature card is just a situational burn spell.

CORE CARDS

Bronze Legionnaire, Mercenary Exiles, Stonehall Elite, and Legion Standard Bearer

You want to play a full set of these early creeps since gaining and maintaining early board control is critical to your gameplan. If you need to cut some of them, I would cut Mercenary Exiles first as they are the weakest of the bunch. Legion Standard Bearer is one of my favorite cards because it allows creeps to trade into heroes, or just push lots of damage. He gets even crazier when you put two side by side!

Marrowfell Brawler, Ogre Conscript, Red Mist Pillager

Once you get into the mid game, you want more creeps, to keep the pressure up and push tower damage. I like Marrowfell Brawler a bit more than Ogre Conscript, but because of how much health he has, but both are fine. Red Mist Pillager is a card that I am happy to have one of, but rarely want more. Normally there is at most one lane where they would really shine, and even then, they are not the hardest card to answer with all the AOE running around, or even just unlucky creep spawns.

In the late game, you have you powerful spells like Time of Triumph and Enough Magic. You always want three Time of Triumph if you have them, and I think two Enough Magic is sufficient.

FLEXIBLE CARDS

Smash their Defenses is a card I normally like two of, since it is so good vs Blue decks. But since it is lacklust against other red decks, and most versions of red/black, I don’t want to overload on it.

Tresdin’s Standards is great to keep your heroes and creeps alive in early combats, which snowballs into more damage and more board control. It can be a fairly weak effect, only adding one damage and preventing one damage per use, but a unit that survives at one health is still in the fight for next turn!

Spring the Trap is a great cross lane play in the late game, and I like one or two of them. If you are missing Time of Triumphs due to budget issues, consider adding an extra one.

Burning Oil is a card that I don’t play, but it seems reasonable. It can devastate a Blue deck that uses Dimensional Portal or Prey on the Weak if they don’t have Demagicing Maul to answer it. It also has uses against red black aggro decks that use Disciple of Nevermore. It is a little worse vs those decks since they often have Smash their Defenses to answer it, and since it is our only improvement, they won’t be Smashing anything else.

Alternative Build

DECKLIST LINK

This was an alternative build of mono red by VinKelsier that did well in the WePlay Open Qualifiers this past weekend. It is much more focused on early game, packing Rising Anger, Timbersaw, Centaur Warrunner, and Poised to Strike to have the most low cost cards possible. It is predicated on winning the early game consistently then closing out the game before things like Primal Roar or Time of Triumph really matter.

I cannot speak to the effectiveness of this deck, as I have not tested it extensively myself, but I know one player did well with it, so maybe there is something to this version. Look for some videos of me trying this out coming soon.

A quick note on the card Routed: Some people have asked my why I don’t include it, and I see some other mono red lists using it. I don’t really like it since it requires some set up and uses you mana on a lane where you would probably prefer to be impacting the board. If you draw it a turn or two later, it is essentially blank as the game will be over before it is relevant. I would rather have a card that is always useful and impacts the board, like Marrowfell Brawler or Ogre Conscript.

GAME PLAY TIPS

In the early game, try not to use Duel early on, even on Luna, it is far more impactful later in the game. Mercenary Exiles are better on later lanes so you have a chance to generate gold that round. Bronze Legionnaire and Stonehall Elite are great on a lane with Kanna to keep the creeps under control.

During the mid game, buy health items and healing items very highly, keep your heroes in the fight!

Try to time opponent’s hero deaths so that they don’t respawn on critical turns, like a Blue hero on mana 6.

Use Enough Magic to deny powerful plays on critical turn like Star’s Align into an 8 cost card.

Put Tidehunter into a lane to stall, then buy a Blink Dagger for him to Ravage a critical lane.

In the late game, playing for initiative is the most important thing. You have powerful plays like Primal Roar, Ravage, and Berserker’s Call, but they need initiative to work best. Also note that this deck rarely kills the ancient, so make sure you have pressure on at least two lanes in order to win.

MATCHUP SPECIFIC TIPS

Vs. Mono Blue

Probably the most popular deck at the moment, mono blue has a fairly weak early game, but a devastating late game. You do not want to use your Duels early, as they are much more powerful later on to stop a key hero from using removal. You want to maintain pressure on all three lanes, if the opponent only has to fight in two lanes, they will have enough removal and tempo to beat you. Don’t get discouraged by the Kanna protecting one lane with the endless stream of creeps, keep pushing that lane, and deploy most of your Bronze Legionnaires, and other creeps to that lane. You can still take that tower after yours goes down, because they will rarely want to Annihilate a lane with lots of their own creeps in it. Use Red Mist Maul and Time of Triumph Siege damage to push through.

In the mid game, you want to think about where and when you need to Duel and Berserker’s call and pre-play your weapons on your heroes so that you can fight first action and kill the opposing hero.

Although it is not in our item deck, Vesture of the Tyrant is extremely strong against Blue decks, so hold it and buy it if it comes up in the Secret Shop and your gold allows for it.

Try to keep your towers above 20, the magic number for Bolt of Damocles. If you can stop their chip damage to keep it above 20, do it, but don’t worry about a few points of chip damage below 20.

Finally, this is a race against mana. Prioritize damage to towers over hero kills. Their heroes will respawn and stall you out. Use your spells and creeps for tower damage first, rather than just racking up kills.

Vs. Red/Green Ramp

This matchup is a bit tougher, since you don’t run over them early, and they can ramp out their late game before you. Use your Smash their Defenses and Enough Magics to deny their mana ramp, cards like Unearth Secrets and Mist of Avernus are lower priority to get Smashed. If they get a ramp unanswered, quickly abandon that lane and race on the other two lanes. If you waste resources trying to fight an Emissary of the Quorum, you won’t kill the other two lanes in time. Finally, in the late game, use your Primal Roars to displace their heroes, especially those with Time of Triumph to push through the final blows.

Vs. Red/Black Aggro

This covers any of the Sorla Khan based aggro decks, but some of the tips also apply to any Red/Black deck, like the Lich decks running around.

Make sure you contest every lane, the Sorla Khan decks will quickly kill an ancient if you leave them alone.

This is a big one, on the first deployment phase, DO NOT put your hero into a lane that has a black hero like Bounty Hunter or Phantom Assassin if you have a later lane that can die to a Gank. They will put their Sorla Khan into that later lane, Gank your only hero in that lane, and now you have a 2 vs. 0 in lane one, but they have a 2 vs. 0 in lane three, and they WILL out race you.

Even outside of the first few turns, be wary of cross lane plays like Gank, Pick Off, or March of the Machines. Buy and use health and healing items to keep heroes up and contesting the board.

Finally, stalling a tower kill for a turn perhaps by sacrificing a hero or playing an extra spell or creep is normally worth it, especially earlier on, say mana 7 or earlier. This denies them a turn of hitting the ancient, and may enough remove ancient pressure entirely, if it is late enough in the game. See my article on Ancient Pressure.

Thanks for reading!!!

I hope you enjoyed this deck tech, and learned a trick or two. Take this deck into constructed gauntlets and start crushing you opposition. Be sure to check out the video version of this deck tech, as well as many game play videos on my YouTube. Also, check out my Twitch stream for gameplay of this and many other decks.