Epic Experiments Mono Red Tron WRITTEN BY Caleb Yarbrough

[PucaTrade welcomes young new writer Caleb Yarbrough, with his first of hopefully many Epic Experiments!]

UrzaTron is a well-known archetype in Modern. Mono-Blue, Blue-White, Red-Green, and the occasional Blue-Green variants on the big mana strategy show up at tournaments all the time. And yet, there is still room to innovate.

Urza's Rage Urza's Bauble Urza's Factory Urza's Engine For a long time, UrzaTron has been one of my favorite archetypes. I have had a lot of fun playing the Mono-Blue Control version. I've made several Pauper versions. I am even considering putting them in some of my Commander decks. The thing that bothers me, however, is how poorly most of the UrzaTron decks fit Urza's persona. He is a red mage. He likes to burn things and gets angry easily, hence. He also really likes artifacts (, et cetera). So why not make a big mana Red artifacts Tron deck?

Trash for Treasure Sundering Titan Wurmcoil Engine Trash for Treasure Flavor was part of my inspiration. The rest was. I know that it is often referenced as the archetypal card that Timmies unsuccessfully try to build with, but it is still just begging to be abused. I can imagine a lot of different decks it could fit in, but Tron is top of the list. Why? Because it provides another way to get out big guys fast. Being able to deploy a turn three or fourvia Urza lands ORincreases the consistency of the deck. It also combos wonderfully with these standard Tron artifact creatures:

Trash for Treasure Wurmcoil Engine = Get 2 wurm tokens

Faithless Looting Oblivion Stone Pyroclasm Ichor Wellspring Trash for Treasure Divination Trading Post To get my artifacts into my graveyard, I had a lot of options, the best of which is. If this was a dedicated reanimator deck, I would find more alternatives, but since the Tron engine is also available, I only run the best. I also would need some board control against aggressive decks, so I includedand. To give me more card draw, I found(which serves the dual purpose of turning ainto a) and(which doesn't end up making the cut, but is interesting enough to mention).

Path to Exile Banefire Comet Storm Banefire Reverberate I could tell something was missing from my current vision. It only had one win condition, and just seemed too vulnerable to that control player with a bunch ofs. So I widened my search. What other things could be done in Red, especially with control in mind? Red is good at Burn, right?andare incredible cards when you have lots of mana.in particular is excellent at taking out a Control player in a way they can't stop. But it is difficult to get up to 20 mana or more to take out a player's entire life total. So I would need cards to copy my Burn cards.seemed like an obvious inclusion. With my new and improved wincons, I suited up to test the deck.

UrzaTron Red Artifacts/Burn (Version 1)

Artifacts: 12

Sorceries: 14

Instants: 7

Creatures: 5

Lands: 22

Mountain 10

Sundering Titan Sundering Titan The first thing I noticed during testing is how amazing a copied [[Trash for Treasure is]]. To get 2 big artifacts out of the graveyard is really amazing. The thing I noticed immediately afterwards is how hard it is to continue playing after getting several triggers off ofand losing all of my Mountains, while some of my opponent's nonbasic lands are still on the field. So I knew I needed to go 100% nonbasic if I wanted to keep. I looked at my options and found the following:

Mono-Red UrzaTron Artifacts/Burn (Version 2)

Lands: 23

Creatures: 7

Sorceries: 15

Artifacts: 10

Instants: 2

Planeswalkers: 3

Karn Liberated Sundering Titan Sundering Titan Mountain This version had pretty big problems as well. I had spent too long trying to stay “cutesy;” not playing some of the staple pieces in a Tron deck, namely Urza's silver time-traveling golem:. This card is at a much better spot on the curve than, and it lets us deal with permanents Red can't normally deal with. This improves the combo matchup greatly.was great while it lasted, and is a popular Tron piece, but our deck can't afford to run all the tapped lands, nor can we afford to lose all of ours to the Titan's triggers. I needed the deck to run smoother, dig more, and be more flexible. So after some fine-tuning, I got this list:

Mono-Red UrzaTron Artifacts/Burn (Version 3)

Sorcery (15)

Planeswalker (5)

Creature (5)

Artifact (12)

Land (23)

Mountain 11

Sideboard (15)

The new list does everything right. It has less card disadvantage and more opportunities for card advantage, it has more capability to combat combo decks and has great matchups against most Midrange decks as well.

Karn Liberated Trash for Treasure Steel Hellkite Spellskite (NOTE: The deck did go up almost $200 in price from the last version, so anyone looking to play on more of a budget should replace the 3with anotherand 2 more(which is great for removing permanents and sinking mana late-game). Thes can only go if you are willing to give up your match against most combo decks and Infect. Hopefully both of them will go down in price once they (fingers crossed) get printed in Modern Masters 2015.)

The deck is complex deck to play, and the choices you make vary greatly depending on your opening hand and the deck you are facing. It has many routes to victory, but it doesn't always let you choose which one to go after. In general, it is important to remember that speed is of the essence, and you want to dig as much as possible.

Here are some guidelines for playing the deck against the 4 major archetypes:

AGGRO:

MIDRANGE:

Tarmogoyf Liliana of the Veil Dark Confidant Banefire Scavenging Ooze Trash for Treasure Anafenza, the Foremost Thoughtseize Karn Liberated Phyrexian Obliterator Birthing Pod Oblivion Stone Midrange is an odd archetype in Modern. A lot of midrange decks have some sort of combo or unusual wincon, so the list of Midrange decks can be somewhat controversial. Our matchups vary drastically against these decks, and they tend to be very grindy.is, sadly, a tough card to beat due to the way we often pitch artifacts early, adding a point of power and toughness the $125 creature doesn't often get. Midrange matchups are hard, but we have a generally even matchup against them. BGx decks are good for us, asactually helps us pitch stuff andoften gets them into easyrange., however, is a card we need to watch out for, as it basically shuts down ourroute (as does), so we will often sideboard it out. Unfortunately, we are vulnerable to other forms of hand disruption, such as. If they are playing the just BG version, we very much rely onto kill theirs, but other than that we do fairly well. Melira Pod is a favorable matchup, especially post board, when we can bring in any number of ways to remove theirand disrupt their combos. GW Auras is another sort of Midrange deck. Our best card here is Wurmcoil Engine, as it can deter attackers as well as effectively race them.is also great here. Midrange sideboard choices vary widely, depending on what deck we are playing, what wincons are most reliable, etc.

CONTROL:

Banefire Banefire Guttural Response Banefire Pithing Needle Sowing Salt Spellskite Oblivion Stone Pyroclasm Path to Exile Control is our best, and simplest, matchup.wins us games. We can try to get other threats out, most reliably the Planeswalkers, but we pretty much rely onto seal games. We always sideboard inand, as well as the occasional, and, depending on the wincons/control methods they are using. We always remove(and others depending on the version) to make room for these cards. These matchups are almost always favorable, especially the decks not running white, asdoes still mess us up a bit.

COMBO:

This is where things can get shaky. Some decks, like Storm, are hard to interact with. For most other combo decks, we have some form of hate.

Sowing Salt Spellskite Scapeshift:comes in, andsaves us games.

Pithing Needle Spellskite Splinter Twin and Kiki-Pod: we bring inand

Jeskai Ascendancy Spellskite Pyroclasm Jeskai Ascendancy : we bring in. We usually sideboard outhere, except against

Banefire Overall, combo matchups are where speed matters, and hate for the combo matters even more. If we can kill them before they win, or render their combo dead, then we can win; if we don't, we lose. These matchups aren't exactly unfavorable, but they are very swingy and can go either way.is a great and unexpected way to steal a game, as it basically acting as its own combo. We have to focus on setting up smoothly, sacrificing speed only to disrupt an opponent's combo at a key moment.

Conclusion: Urza is also a Blue Mage

Thirst for Knowledge Repeal Remand Treasure Mage Gifts Ungiven Trash for Treasure A lot of you are probably wondering why this deck is not Izzet. We could add, and a bunch of other great cards! The answer is simple: I wanted to stay Mono-Red. I knew that by including blue, I would start to move towards control rather than the current somewhat midrange/combo(ish) build. There are too many things I would have to cut that are essential to the strategy and a lot of fun. While this deck is not tier 1, nor is it cut out to be, it is reasonably placed in the metagame, has a decent test record, and is a blast to play. Its flexible and varied win conditions, ability to effectively combat control and stabilize aggro, and rogue factor help it to be a reasonable choice for a mid-level tournament. With some more testing, improvement, and maybe some support from upcoming sets, this could be a truly formidable deck. If anyone has their own rogue UrzaTron orbrews, please tell me about them! I love to see what players are coming up with in Modern these days. Keep Experimenting!

Caleb Yarbrough is a high school student that has been playing since Zendikar. He loves Modern, Standard, Commander, and Pauper. When he isn't playing Magic, he is writing about it, thinking about it, or, well, doing homework.