Prelude - How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Mono Red
Hi, I’m Max M., and I’m a Red Aggro player.
But, as all good things do, I also needed some time to accept that. If you are interested in this backstory, the following 2,200 words will give you a better idea. :^)
If not, please click here to skip to the Matchday-Report.
Starting my Pauper journey back in July 2023, I resisted playing a “meta-deck” for nearly half a year. Saprolings, Mono Green Stompy, BG Sacrifice Aggro and myriads of variations of the aforementioned were built, field-tested, and rebuilt - to more or less success.
Eventually I decided that I wanted to win more at tournament Magic. Thus, the inventing, fiddling around, the naivety of me rejecting the existence of a meta stopped. And during the train ride back from a Spirit of Pauper I progressed from my previous denial and bargaining straight to acceptance (skipping anger and depression), and ended buying the cards needed for my first, true meta-deck. Smart as I am, I of course settled on a beginner-friendly, easy-to-pilot one that would allow me to not only get better at Magic, but also to learn the ins and outs of the other meta decks: Golgari Gardens. Which, in hindsight, might not have been the best decision.
March 2024 came, and with it the first Paupergeddon that PttP would attend. Since this is a blog post about Mono Red and I’m still in the wrong year after ~200 words, I’ll cut to the chase: finishing 3-2-2 (including one bye) and knowing that I wouldn’t touch a control deck in a competitive environment until I was better (and faster) by about 150%, I again stood before an important decision regarding my deck of choice. Do I continue playing Gardens, or do I swap?
Like in the Monty Hall problem, swapping is the correct answer, even if it feels unintuitive. Luckily for this story, at this point, I decided correctly and went for a deck that allowed me to play more games against more decks, thereby learning more of the meta: It is now April 2024, and I started playing Kuldotha Red. And I enjoyed it. You might say I simply enjoyed winning more games of Magic, and this would be true to some extent, but the playstyle just immediately clicked for me and took me back to my early days with Mono Green Stompy: pressuring the opponent, trying to eke out every bit of damage, gambling on that 7% top deck, keeping (insanely stupid) one-landers in situations in which one should do everything except that- and being rewarded for it, keeping (still insanely stupid) one-landers in even more important situations and getting rightfully punished for it… All that while the deck would allow for lots and lots of self-expression in playstyle while also having enough decisions per match for it to not get boring.
Therefore, for nearly a year (with a short detour to Mono U Terror), I played nothing else in tournaments than my beloved, and it would thank me by helping me winning more. At the end of the first season of Lega Pauper Lipsia, I ranked as 5th, only to then drop out in the first round of the Top 8 due to stupidity. Thankfully, I didn’t repeat that mistake (maybe only once) during Paupergeddon Winter 2025, where Leipzig as a league finished 8th place out of 52 leagues competing.
This should also mark the high point of my Mono Red Journey, for what happened next would reset the five stages of grief for me again: the banning of Kuldotha Rebirth. And with it (and with the banning of both Deadly Dispute and Basking Broodscale), a new era of Pauper began.
Red, as a color, took a very hefty hit. After the dust settled, three survivors would emerge from the ashes:
- Mono Red Synthesizer/Pingers, a deck that existed before, but was always considered worse than Kuldotha, running Kessig Flamebreather, Thermo Alchemist and Lava Dart, while still relying on early board pressure with Goblin Tomb Raider, Clockwork Percussionist and Voldaren Epicure
- Mono Red Rally, trying to emulate the “go-wide and kick Goblin Bushwhacker” by combining Burning-Tree Emissary with Rally at the Hornburg and running Reckless Impulse/Wrenn’s Resolve to refill
- Mono Red Madness Burn, combining the madness “Draw 2 Discard” package with Guttersnipe, Kessig Flamebreather, Fireblast and Lava Dart for maximum damage in a single “kill-turn”
I tried them all, but in the end, my heart was still too heavy to play a red deck without Kuldotha. Therefore, I decided that after nearly a year of Mono Red, it might again be time for a change (and swapping should be correct, right?), maybe even a change back to a more control-y deck. With that, I began playing mainly Jund Wildfire, but really fell into a kind of indecisiveness, trying out and switching decks far too often.
We can cut that part short: a mediocre finish at the Common Cause in May, very little time to grind online, and, as the cherry on top, a disastrous 1-4 (incl. a Bye) at the first matchday of the freshly renewed LPL season 2 left me pretty disheartened one week before Paupergeddon Summer 2025. So I was faced yet again with the question: do I swap decks, or do I continue playing Jund, even if it means no toilet breaks under the scorching, Italian July sun? I decided that I was not ready for that and switched to play Mono Red Madness in Lucca, even if I had only little time left to prepare.
And prepared, I was not. The deck didn’t “feel” right, I wasn’t anywhere near prior confidence levels with it and its combo-y playstyle was not entirely my cup of tea; not to mention I still lost a lot of matches during preparation. Then, on Friday night, right before submitting the decklist, the glimmer of a thought crossed my mind: what if Madness just isn’t it? What if, against everything, swapping to Mono Red Synthesizer is the correct choice at this time, even if completely unprepared? I disregarded the thought, locked in Madness and went to bed.
Tournament day came, my first two opponents were on Synthesizer- and early Goblin Tomb Raiders quickly washed away my carefully built confidence since waking up. After gaining a bit of hope back against an Orzhov Blade pilot, I lost against Pactdoll Gardens- and was out. All of us were, only Ash decided strongly against it and probably delivered her best performance with High Tide ever, just barely not making Day 2. With a beer in hand, Moritz and I then scouted the top tables- full of Red Synthesizer. They were everywhere.
The realization hit: I should’ve just swapped. I registered for the same-day side-event, although now a lot more relaxed, the experience was the same: I failed at being a good pilot of the deck.
In the evening, I drew lessons from my previous mistake (and the high conversion rate of Synth in the main-event) and locked in Mono Red Synth for the Pauper Reloaded side-event. Without preparation nor a sufficient sideboard plan, I said “fuck it, we ball”. The tournament began, the first hand was drawn, I took my opponent from 20 to 18 while it was not their turn yet. My heavy heart rejoiced. I was back at home, back in cozy slippers. I won my first four matches that day and in the end finished the tournament with a positive 5-3.
Apparently, swapping in times of desperation really is the correct answer (thanks, Monty Hall). The second Paupergeddon of the year finally solidified what I already suspected: I’m a Red Aggro Player, and I enjoy opening hands consisting of those two cards especially:
Act 1 - A New (Red) Dawn
Back in Germany, the 2nd matchday was right around the corner. Bringing Mono Red Synth, I finished with a decent 3-2, losing to Quoc’s Altar Tron and Lucas’ Bogles out of nowhere (with a chair!). Around that time and shortly after, the Pauper meta shaped up to favor the explosiveness of Mono Red Rally and Mono Red Madness, while Mono Red Synth slowly disappeared and got replaced by either of the two. I got the memo and thus shortly after also focused on Rally, since I still think that Red Madness is an extremely good deck, but at the same time extremely fragile that needs a lot of training to play well. And, as I outlined earlier, I do enjoy creatures- especially those with haste.
In early August, I brought Rally to Berlin, just to look into Dennis’ beautiful White Weenie eyes in round 1. Yeah. Still, I managed to finish somewhat decently with 4-2, although a nagging feeling started to develop: the deck lacks something.
Of course, there are god hands that just win: Tomb Raider start into T2 BTE (Burning Tree Emissary) + Rally into T3 Bushwhacker does 20 damage theoretically. Combined with decent staying and comeback power in the form of Impulse-effects and enough reach to finish games, the deck earned its spot among the best decks in the meta.
The problem is: you are extremely dependent on a fast/aggressive opening hand. Not pressuring the board in the first two turns equals to losing the match more often than not, especially in a meta still dominated by Jund Wildfire. Therefore, the deck is one of extremes: you either have a strong opener with most times a fallback option, be it burn to face to finish or a Reckless Impulse/Wrenn’s Resolve to get back after the board has been wiped or locked by a Chrysalis, or you just lose. The gameplan is very linear and, therefore, easy to disrupt, since the explosiveness that made Kuldotha Rebirth + Goblin Bushwhacker so dangerous at any point during the game by putting 8 damage with haste on the board for 3 CMC total now needs one card more and costs one CMC more (for 1 theoretical damage more). Therefore, getting out of precarious situations is a lot harder to achieve, and if plan A, having a nut-hand fails, there is rarely a fail-proof plan B.
The flaw was of course known, and people started coming up with various solutions: more copies of Gingerbrute to be able to get through a locked board, more Impulse effects instead of Experimental Synthesizer, since there are too many 2 CMC cards in the deck, even going as far as cutting Synthesizers altogether- lots of fixes for a problem that, in my opinion, can’t really be fixed: the deck tries to mimic what got Kuldotha (rightfully) banned, and it is (sadly) not consistent enough to do that. In no way I say that Rally is a bad deck, but it lacks both consistency and resilience. It can win tournaments, it can achieve Top 4 in a 1250-person Paupergeddon- and yet it still is not a sufficient heir to the legacy of Kuldotha Red.
For the third matchday and in light of the then rising popularity of Spy Walls combo, I ran a version of Rally with 2 Chain Lightning and only 3 Reckless Impulse in main. Losing every diceroll and getting paired against Grixis Affinity, Jund Wildfire, Walls Combo, Jund Wildfire and Pactdoll Gardens, thus finishing with a 2-3, the aforementioned negatives of the deck became very obvious: if the main plan of the deck does not come together during the early turns, your chance of winning falls to near-zero.
And I did and do not enjoy that. In hindsight, I have to say that I also settled on the wrong configuration of the deck: the most recent lists that cut Synth, run Gingerbrutes and play 5-6 Impulse effects are a lot better and help with the deck’s flaws. Nevertheless, the main problem remains, which is why it was way overdue for an innovation. After a short rendezvous with Golgari Gardens (which I still think is an excellent meta choice right now!), somewhere, someone had an idea.
Act 2 - The Birth Melding of a Hybrid
Oh, wrong picture:
Enter Melded Moxite. And with it, the question of what happens when you take the best parts of the two dominant Mono Red decks and slam them together. The ingredients are simple:
- Early Creatures and board development from Rally
- Endurance in the form of Draw-effects and reach from Madness
Combined with the full suite of Red burn spells (16 in total when including Fiery Temper), 10 draw spells, and 12 valid T1 creatures, an abomination a true hybrid was created. The star of the show? Goblin Tomb Raider Four copies of Schnecke, providing an excellent discard with evasion that is very annoying to deal with for multiple decks and, on top of that, has built-in recursion.
If I can trust the data, the first time a configuration running Melded Moxite together with both Goblin Tomb Raider and Sneaky Snacker was seen at a tournament in Japan on 18.08., which was then followed by Datapusher picking it up, developing it further and getting multiple 4-1s and a 5-0 with it.
I was intrigued, but the final push was this comment:
I’m a simple man, I was sold, and started to playtest immediately. And the deck surprisingly just … worked? Both in paper and online, the short initial impression was far cleaner than expected. It’s still Magic, you still lose games, but the deck felt good. So good in fact, that I decided to (yet again) swap and bring it to Pauper Hassel #3 just two days later. Not yet used to drawing cards in a Mono Red deck, I made a few mistakes too many and ended up with a 3-2 score, but the deck passed the first real test, and I was even more sold after that - now also equipped with the motivation to tackle the hardships in decision-making that 10 draw spells bring to the table.
Knowing that I desperately needed positive results in the league in order to not fall behind the leading group, risks needed to be taken. Risks like playing Melded Moxite unironically in a Mono Red Aggro deck on matchday 4 that was just 7 days away.
Act 3 - Preparation and the Illusion of Choice
During the week, two in-paper testing sessions against Jund Wildfire / Mono U Terror and an evening full of Ash’s High Tide went by, and I also, finally, found time to play a few leagues on MTGO. While not getting a 5-0, some 4-1s and 3-2s as well as a decent win rate gave me the much-needed training and data for coming up with a sideboarding plan.
At this point, I want to thank both Datapusher and Walker for their help. Especially the idea of the latter to run Flame Slash in the sideboard showed me once again that I have a lot to learn.
At the end of the week, I had to make a decision: should I run 8 Blasts in the side to be better prepared for Blue or do I only play 5 and replace the other 3 with Cast into the Fire against Grixis Affinity, Jund Wildfire and everything that does not want its artifacts exiled?
After some thinking and some (completely wrong) predictions that Grixis could indeed make a comeback, and on top of that being afraid of Quoc (whom I knew would not be there, duh), I settled on the following:
- 4 End the Festivities
- 5 Blasts
- 3 Flame Slash
- 3 Cast into the Fire
In hindsight, 8 Blasts would have been the correct call, and I can consider myself lucky that I didn’t face one of the two Mono U Terror decks and that I found the needed Blasts when it mattered in the final two matches.
Either way, I felt decently prepared.
Act 4 - The Day and the Matches
Organizing a league is hard work, but luckily we are a great team and now, after three matchdays, good routines and structures before, during and after the tournaments have been established so that the amount of mental capacity needed on the matchday itself is manageable.
Unless you forget the key to the cash register and need to make a quick 25-minute trip back home, just to figure out that it was not locked at all.
Anyways, registration, despite my minor mishap, went smoothly, Lukas finally agreed on the raffle not being biased by winning one of its main prizes and after a mediocre performance from myself during the introductory speech, the games were about to begin. So I shuffled up, calmed my nerves in order to face the first meta d—
1. Slivers - OTD
G1
Yeah. That thing looked menacingly at me while I drew my seventh card. Since I had no idea what I was up against, I opted for a good mix of 6 cards including Goblin Tomb Raider. Slamming it on T1 might’ve been the correct decision, since on their T2 a Muscle Sliver entered for 2 CMC. I don’t remember exactly, but I think they attacked, I swung back, dropped a Clockwork Percussionist and said go, keeping up a Lightning Bolt for when they decide to play yet another buffing worm. They did, I Bolted the original one, but now a wall had been built and they somehow refused to attack. During my turn, another Goblin Tomb Raider entered. Moving to combat, I attacked with both, hoping they would block, so I could Bolt the lord and thus clear their board. Of course, I would also lose 2 damage, but it felt correct and therefore I went for it. They blocked, I Bolt the lord, and both Slivers died while both Tomb Raiders survived. I sadly can’t remember what happened after that (bolting more Slivers, drawing cards, swinging in), but getting rid of both Slivers during that early combat and preserving my board in the process sealed the game. 1-0
Sideboarding
Slivers was, very surprisingly, not on the sideboard sheet I prepared. Having no idea if there were any 1/1 Slivers, I boarded in 2 End the Festivities (EtF) and 2 Flame Slash for 4 Clockwork Percussionist, since I didn’t want to get into a situation in which I needed to block some buffed 8/8 worm and I also was sure that they would never connect. One could argue for boarding out the Sneaky Snackers, but I kept them as a “clean” discard target and blockers that come back (even though I knew that if I started blocking, the game would be pretty much over).
G2
Mulling to 6, I kept a hand with only one interaction piece, some early pressure plus a Draw2 + Snacker. I could therefore stop their early Slivers, but after a resolved Pulse of Murasa on one of the Lord Slivers and a board that now held 3 3/4 worms, I could not find enough firepower to cut through them and instead switched to prolonging the game to see more of their deck. Luckily, I spotted a Weather the Storm, which I otherwise would not have known about. 1-1
Sideboarding, Pt. 2
Since I didn’t see anything remotely close to 1/1s, I took out the EtFs and instead opted for 3 Flame Slashes for 3 Clockworks.
G3
I kept seven with Tomb Raider, Epicure, Snacker and a Draw2, thus having the best start possible. The draw found me burn that killed every Lord Sliver on sight, while my board snowballed out of control for them. At some point, I switched to ignoring their blockers and just turned everything sideways to finish the game before they could find the aforementioned Weather the Storm. They ultimately did, but I had enough burn for the kill in response. 2-1
2. Rakdos Madness - OTP
When I talked to my opponent about what would be a good call for Saturday after our gathering on Tuesday night, Grixis Affinity was a strong contender. However, neither Eric nor I went through with it, instead relying on good ol’ comfy decks.
I personally have a grudge against life gain, so I consider Rakdos a pain in the ass. In the past, Kuldotha could usually overrun and finish them before they started healing out of reach. With this iteration of Red, this plan got a lot harder. That said, pressuring with early creatures on the board against their often slow land base still works, and Schnecken are a good answer to Snackers.
What’s even more important in the matchup is winning the die roll, which I luckily did. Unluckily, Eric is very good with the deck.
G1
The notes I took the day after the tournament say “Snacker Wars”, and now that I’m writing about it, I fondly remember 5 Snackers on the board at one time. The problem Rakdos has (which is the same for Red Madness) is that they at some point have to answer my early board pressure, and thus cannot direct the burn spells toward my face- which I do like. Sure, Goblin Tomb Raider maybe connects only once or twice, but it also gets rid of a burn spell. Anyway, the game was close, but in the end I saw more draw spells, thus more Snackers came back on my side. I think my opening hand was also pretty decent. 1-0
Sideboarding
+4 End the Festivities to get rid of Snackers in order to push more damage, -4 Chain Lightning. Cast into the Fire is too slow.
G2
The mulligan to 6 didn’t really matter. I was simply outvalued and outhealed. GG 1-1
G3
I’m not sure if I was on 6 or 7, but my start was quite slow, since I kept an otherwise mediocre hand were it not for the sole End the Festivities. I waited patiently and finally caught 2 Snackers with it, to then push enough damage to bring Eric into lethal range. Being smart in one place seems to negatively affect another; I nearly threw the game away in the last, most important turn: Eric was at 3 post-combat and I strongly sensed an Alms of the Vein as his last card, with exactly two mana open and a Blood Token in play. Completely out of my mind, I immediately fired a Bolt as my last card post-combat instead of waiting for him to cast the Alms. Since I was at three life as well, I gave him two draws to find any burn spell… which, thank God, he didn’t. I don’t know what I thought, but I guess it was “let them have it” in combination with “what if I wait until his turn and he finds the burn spell on top of the Alms, casts the Alms, I try to kill in response and in response, he kills me? – better just fire it now!!!1” Wew. That was a hard match. 2-1
3. Mono Red Madness - OTD
My opponent and I knew of each other’s deck, so the plan for me was clear: develop the board as fast as possible, force them into killing my creatures and try to take as little damage as possible in the first four turns.
G1
Not an easy task on the draw, but the Magic Gods blessed me with an extremely good 7 that looked something like this:
Opening with Epicure T1 into T2 Tomb Radierer and a Bolt to kill the Kessig immediately, to then redraw and develop the board more with a Snacker is near perfect. Looking at the lifecounter block, I finished the game with just 3 life left - the matchup can still be scary, especially if the plan to develop the board fails. In the end, the hybrid only works if both the madness and the creature parts get online; you cannot rely on only one. Especially against the deck that does the madness part much better and is able to deal insane amounts of damage.
During the game, I was also faced with a situation that occurred before and that I don’t know a good answer to instead of “it depends”:
Say two Mountains are already in play and you have not made your land-drop yet. Do you apply more pressure by discarding the Moxite to cast Grab the Prize, hoping to draw another creature? Or do you hold onto Grab the Prize and discard the Mountain to cast Melded Moxite? There are a whole lot of factors playing into this decision, but what I noticed is that the decision of “do I discard another Draw2 to gain tempo or do I wait to get a better discard option” happens often while playing the deck. This is interesting, since there is no rule-of-thumb, straightforward answer and the decision always feels relevant and meaningful. You could say that this is just bad deck design and that this shouldn’t happen (you only play 8 clean discards and 10 Draw2, so of course this situation arises), and you wouldn’t be wrong, but maybe that is something where the deck indeed needs some tuning in the future. 1-0
Sideboarding
-2 Chain, +2 End the Festivities. Having two more answers to an early Kessig is worth the potential downside of the copy effect.
G2
If I remember correctly, my opponent took one or two mulligans, which put them into an unfavorable position. I can’t remember exactly, but the lifecounter reveals 1-2 damage per combat, while I took only 9 damage in total. Again, an early Tomb Raider here basically means a net life gain of 3 for me (or them using two mana for Searing Blaze), which is still okay-ish. Finally, I think that this matchup really depends on whether you are able to put threats on the table early or not, since, instead of Red Madness, the cards that you can draw once this plan is enacted all work in your favor. Nevertheless, their ignoring whatever you do and killing you on T4/T5 still is a real possibility, especially on the draw. More often than not, however, your developing the board is easier than their having the nut combo kill. 2-0
4. High Tide - OTD
Ah, High Tide. It was either Ash or Pit now, and after testing for around 3 hours against Ash on Tuesday, I was feeling a bit more ready for that matchup than for Tribe Combo. However, knowing her, the chances of getting combo’d T4, especially in G1, were very high.
Losing the die roll, I accepted my fate.
G1
In G1, I wanted the fastest clock possible in my opening hand. Mulling a slow 7 and keeping an okay 6 with Epicure, Snacker and a Draw2, I pressured enough for her to go for it in T4. I had zoned out and was annoyed with myself for not having boarded 8 Blasts, since my last two opponents would be on Blue decks, when she fizzled and needed to say go. A bit in disbelief, I finished the game over the next 3 turns and felt truly bad for her. 1-0
Sideboarding
Still a bit annoyed with myself, I boarded in +5 Blasts for -4 Chain and -1 Bolt.
G2
I was faced with an okay-ish 7, but once I heard that Ash went to 6, I gambled for an opening hand containing at least one Red Elemental Blast or Pyroblast and was rewarded with one that also included a Draw2. My clock was not fast, though, but I had high hopes on the Blast and on the Draw2. T1 Epicure, T2 play Land say go and look menacingly (having mostly lands, a blast and a Draw2 in hand). She played a Merchant Scroll and tapped out- I Blast it and got rid of a Mountain with the Blood in her end step- finding another Blast. In my T3 I draw a Tomb Raider, played it, swung in and passed the turn with two Red open- only for her to attempt to Gigadrowse my lands. I didn’t buy it, and let it resolve. Ash then Preordained in her next turn, put both on the bottom and passed back to me. I think I then developed a bit more, but kept at least one open for my last Blast. In my end step, she goes for a Brainstorm with just 2 or 3 cards in hand. I thought about it for quite some time but then decided to Blast it, since I knew that she was still missing core pieces and that her hand was not able to combo next turn, thereby not allowing her to see 3 more cards and give her a way back into the game. It turned out to be the correct line and I am able to finish the game quickly after that. 2-0
5. Mono U Fae - OTP
Ah, Fae. Probably the matchup I have played the most against as Mono Red. Sadly, Milan is one of the best Fae players I know and has been playing the deck since I began my Pauper journey two years ago. However, the meme of “Max doesn’t lose to Mono U Fae” is still a thing, so I have a reputation to protect.
Since I got exclusive Early Access to the VOD, I will go into a bit more detail for this match. I recommend watching the video of it first once it is online, but if you want to have my (very exhaustive) perspective as a near turn-by-turn recap, continue below.
G1
Against Fae, I look for some kind of early board presence as well as 1-2 burn spells, and, optimally, a refill option in my opening hand. My first 7 were:
If this were a 6, I probably would’ve kept, but without any early creatures, and being OTP, the hand could be a lot better, so I put it away. It turned out to be the correct decision, looking at the next 7 with both a T1 play, a Bolt and, on top of that, a refill in conjunction with Snacker. I bottomed a Mountain, and started the game.
During T2, I checked for Brinebarrow by attacking with Epicure, which came and got bolted. Since I drew another Bolt as my T2 card, I didn’t think much about other lines. Post-board, not attacking and saying go with two Red open would’ve probably been correct instead of checking for the Brinebarrow, but here with two answers in hand, I was confident in pressuring. On his T2, Milan played a land and passed. As the lucky bastard I am, I drew the third Bolt on my T3, now having Moxite, Snacker, Bolt, Bolt in hand with an Epicure and two Red on the board (and a Blood, of course, don’t forget). I swung in again, this time without seeing a Brinebarrow, and immediately passed. Under no circumstances did I want to lose my Draw2. Instead, my goal was to interact with Fae during their turn to then resolve it while they were tapped out. That’s also quite easy if you have two Bolts in hand, of course. Milan went into his T3, played an Island, said go. I drew yet again no land, but instead a Grab the Prize. Not really a yikes, but now with him being up on lands, I needed to be extra careful with my two Bolts. Therefore, I swung in blindly again - which, in hindsight, was quite a ballsy move and kind of a mistake - but I felt confident and also had a hunch that he didn’t have another Brinebarrow. Either way, I again passed. In my end step, he flashed in Illvoi Galeblade. I quickly decided against bolting it straight away, since what I really wanted in that situation was to resolve my Draw2 during my next turn. So bolting it now would mean Milan would have 3 or 4 open mana on his next turn and probably would again just say go (or play a Faerie Seer on top), further extending his lead on lands that now began to be a real problem. On his T4, he didn’t play a land before combat, so whatever he ninjutsus in, I would definitely interact with. It’s a Mooncircuit Hacker, which I immediately Bolt. Milan attempted to counter with his Spellstutter Sprite, which I also Bolt. Of course, Milan could’ve also had Spell Pierce or Force Spike, which would have been devastating for me, but I thought the chances for that were too low to not attempt the interaction. Anyway, I would have my Draw2 + Snacker in the next turn. In the end, getting rid of both the Ninja and the Spellstutter and also, luckily, Milan not getting his fourth land drop, swung the game immensely in my favor. I now could resolve my Grab the Prize during my next turn, finally developing the board more by introducing Sneaky Snacker while also finding my third land drop. A Voltaren Epicure entered due to me not finding another Bolt and also me now needing to push tempo after gaining the lead. During the next turn, Snacker ate a Bind the Monster and in my turn after that, the same Illvoi Galeblade got flashed in during the end step. Having Galvanic Blast, Fiery Temper and Demand Answers in hand, I again decided to not interact, since on my next turn I potentially had lethal. Faerie Seer got played, the turn was passed and I go for the Demand Answers with Fiery Temper, knowing that probably the Draw2 would get countered, which it then does. Drawing a Goblin Tomb Raider afterward and Milan only having one card left, there were no outs for him. 1-0
Sideboarding
Now I really wanted to have three more Blasts… But what can you do. Being on the draw, I boarded out -4 Clockwork Percussionist, -4 Fiery Temper and -1 Voldaren Epicure, with my whole plan post-board being to kill everything on sight. Resolving a Draw2 + Temper is a luxury and Chain Lightning is good enough. Post-board, I run 21 spells that kill Faeries. I therefore consider this matchup strongly in Mono Red’s favor, if played correctly. ;-) ;-) ;-)
G2
I saw no Draw2 in my opening seven, but the rest was quite okay- 3 lands, Epicure, Tomb Raider, Chain Lightning and probably another burn spell. After being greeted with an Island go, I casted an Epicure, which immediately got blasted. Afterward, in true Mono U fashion, Island go. My second Epicure resolved, and I passed the turn with one Red open- just to have a Deja-Vue with Illvoi Galeblade during my end step. Even if my hand does not look as good as in G1, I let it resolve, hoping to draw into something meaningful by cracking the Blood or trying to shoot one of Milan’s creatures and force him to tap out during his turn. Being stuck on two lands, and after playing a Faerie Seer and scrying 1 Top, 1 Bottom, he passed the turn. Knowing that I still have a Goblin Tomb Raider in hand that he really likes to have an artifact, I decided against fishing for cards and instead just went to my turn. I opened with the Tomb Raider, and after it resolved, I was quite sure that Milan did not have a Blue Blast in hand. Testing for Spell Pierce, I attempted Chain Lightning on the Galeblade, which also resolved, thus directly followed by another one on the Seer. Respecting a possible Brinebarrow, I swung in only with the Tomb Raider, which was answered with precisely that. Luckily, Milan did not find his third land again, and passed right back. Apart from attacking with Tomb Raider, I did the same, wanting to resolve a Demand Answers by discarding a Sneaky Snacker during his next end step (oh no…). A Harrier Strix entered, two cards were drawn with an Of One Mind, and the third land finally entered on Milan’s side. With one Blue up, Milan passed and I realized that I am indeed unable to count to three: of course I could play the Demand Answers and discard the Snacker, but I would only draw my second card in this turn, not my third. I felt very dumb, and rightfully so, and out of shame, I discarded a Mountain into the Blood. With Milan desperately needing lands, I thought that now might have been a good opportunity to go for the Demand Answers, even if he had one Blue up, the chances should have been in my favor of him not having a counter. It worked, I drew an End the Festivites and, knowing that he had no counter, swung in with both the Tomb Raider and the Epicure, hoping for a block from the Brinebarrow to then clear his board- which also happened, swinging the momentum in my favor. Milan passed, I now need to apply pressure and get rid of any Counterspells, so casting Grab the Prize by discarding Sneaky Snacker gets rid of one. In hindsight, I could’ve also waited and been more patient, not throwing away one of my safety nets so recklessly, especially when having another Galvanic Blast in hand. My board was very good with both Tomb Raider and Sneaky Snacker, so there was no real reason to play into the possibility of a Counterspell, besides maybe some crude tempo argument. At least I then killed the incoming Illvoi Galeblade with the Galvanic Blast due to him being tapped out. Still on three Blue and three hand cards, Milan passed, and I swung in to bring him to 8 and said go, now with only a Grab the Prize in hand. Milan, now in desperate need of a comeback, flashed in Spellstutter Sprite during my end step to set up a ninja. Mooncircuit Hacker entered during his turn, the Spellstutter went back to his hand and with 3 Blue open, he passed. I get lucky, again, and find a very nice discard candidate in the form of a Sneaky Snacker off the top of my deck. After I succesfully swung in to bring him to 4, I went for it, not believing that one of the two remaining, unknown cards would be a counter or a Blast. They were indeed not. I drew a Tomb Raider and a Galvanic Blast. The Tomb Raider gets correctly Spellstuttered, the Galvanic Blast is therefore not, and so I won. 2-0
In the end, I think I mostly played the match cleanly. However, Milan being stuck on two lands only in the second game and also not finding more Blasts also helped a lot. And, of course, a big portion of luck on my side. It’s still, as Zimone likes to say, Magic: the Gathering.
Act 5 - The End
If you are still with me, congratulations - you have successfully read about 16 pages, or around 7,300 words! I hope you had as much fun reading my ramblings as I did writing them. As you can guess from its size, I have wanted to do this blog post for quite some time now, but now I finally had a good enough reason.
With that, I want to take a moment and say thanks.
Thanks for all the awesome people who keep up with my control-freak nature during organizing the best Pauper League in the world. Thanks to the Judges and the Awareness Team. Thanks to all the new faces from Chemnitz, Dresden, Magdeburg, Berlin and from so many more places who join us once a month and thus create the best tournament-experience one could wish for. Thanks to Pauper to the People, for providing one of the most wonderful communities one could think of.
And, finally, thanks, Milan, for having put this group in motion years ago, and for continuing to keep everything organized. I’m extremely proud to be a part of what we have been able to build and will continue to give my best for it, not only at the table.
xoxo,
Max M.