Select +1 to win
Posted by Derek_is_OP on 15/07/2019
- 3 2 Underground Brigand 2
- 3 1 Axe Grinder 2
- 3 2 Blood Singer 3
- 4 2 Grim Guard 2
- 6 3 Groundshaker 2
- 5 3 Firestorm 2
- 1 Time of Legends 1
- 4 3 Ignusi Ritualist 3
- 5 2 Underground Boss 2
- 5 2 Shedim Brute 2
- 3 1 Flame Spitter 2
- 5 3 Bomb Slinger 2
- 2 2 Seifer's Wrath 2
- 8 3 Ignus, the First Flam.. 1
- 4 2 Herald of War 2
This mono red deck isn't just fun and easy to play, but at the same time surprisingly strong against many other popular decks these days.
The core strategy is to get enough faeria ready to play Ignus together with 1 or more Ignusi Ritualist for the combo. All you have to do next is to clean up enemy creatures on the board and then select +1 until you win.
To set up this winning condition, your early game objective is to wear-out your opponent using your combat creatures. Grim Guard and Shedim Brute allow you to constantly deal 2 damage to your opponent, while Underground Brigand and Underground Boss help you gain faeria fast, as well as to get you ahead of your opponent easily. In mid game, your opponent should have less than 14 health due to combat damage. Now, it's time for the combo!
Your ideal first draw should contain at least 1 of these cards:
- Axe Grinder (4/3 that costs 3 faeria and 1 land, simply OP)
- Seifer's Wrath (destroy enemy collector early to snowball)
- Blood Singer (collector + extra damage)
- Underground Brigen (collect while push a side and combat)
- Grim Guard (collect while push a side and combat)
For removals, I found that Flame Splitter (1 damage), Groundshaker (1 damage to ALL), Seifer's Wrath (2 damage), Firestorm (3 damage AOE), and Bomb Slinger (4 damage), are good enough to handle most tough situations.
Other tips:
- Don't be afraid to play Ignusi Ritualist early for land control (both aggresive and defensive) if needed.
- Make sure you save enough faeria to play Ignus and Ignusi Ritualist on the same turn. This is to ensure you will at least deal 1 turn of damage even if your opponent has removal in hand.
- Be careful when calculating total faeria costs for your combo. Since you will select +1 multiple times during your combo, you actually need less faeria than you expected. For example, a full combo will require 17 faeria instead of 20 faeria as you will select +1 for 3 times.
Weakness:
This deck is weak against Big Green, simply because the big creatures are really hard to remove, plus Ruunin's Guidance can easily gain life back from your combat damage.