Mono White Heroic is well known archetype in the Pauper format and it puts up fairly decent results. Unlike Bogles, it isn’t quite an all in deck as it has many tricks to save their creatures. It can also be quite fast, but those fast wins are a little rare. Today, I want to talk about a different type of Heroic deck that wants to win quickly and get straight to the point.
The list we will be looking at today was part of the 5-0 dump posted on 3/16/2022 and piloted by the player Jordanscu. The topic of today is Mono Red Heroic. This build might not be the hero you were thinking of, but might just be the hero you need. Yes I know I am not funny, let’s just get to the list. By the way, it has Kiln Fiend
in it.
Akroan Crusader
and Satyr Hoplite
– Here are your one drops for the deck. Hoplite plays more like the traditional heroic creature that gets bigger whenever you target it, while Crusader doesn’t get bigger, but it creates a go wide element for you to use. One of the cool parts of Crusader is that the tokens have haste, allowing you to be very aggressive. As far as one drops go for this archetype, these are the only ones for mono red.
Kiln Fiend – Did you expect to not see this creature in this deck?
Immolating Souleater
– Souleater is an interesting one. You can actually win the game the next turn by going all in with your life total and using Temur Battle Rage
or a combination of spells to help finish your opponent off. This plan of course is highly dependent on the deck you are facing and the current situation, but at the end of the day, Souleater is just a really good threat for a deck like this and getting to pay life to use its ability makes it really good against the slower control and midrange decks where it won’t be blocked often and you can resolve more spells. At worst, it is a decent mana sink if need be.
Simian Spirit Guide
– Spirit Guide is here to help you accelerate and either play 2 one drops or play one of your 2 drops on turn 1. Honestly I forgot this card existed and should probably be in the other Mono Red Fiend decks I spoke about.
Brute Force
– It has been quite some time since I have seen this one. You see this over Lightning Bolt
because you want to be able to target your own creature with your spells and still win the game fast. In a way, this is kind of like playing a Lava Spike
.
Furor of the Bitten
– A permanent stat increase is great in an archetype like this. Only downside is that you have to attack and if your opponent has a bigger creature in play, sadly you just have to deal with that situation. Thankfully, you should have ways of winning the blocking step.
Lava Dart
– This one is great in a deck like this because it can trigger Kiln Fiend twice or it can possible deal with 2 of your opponents blockers. I would not go higher than 2 as you are very land light and it doesn’t do enough to warrant cutting other more important spells over it. As an example, Brute Force is more important because it saves your creature from Lightning Bolt like removal and it helps you win the game quickly. Lava Dart is a nice card normally, but in this archetype, doing only 2 damage and not being a pump spell is not all that helpful for this archetype.
Mutagenic Growth
– Basically a free pump spell you can cast when tapped out and that is huge. The more spells you can resolve in a turn, the better.
Apostle’s Blessing
– I think we all know this one very well. It can win the game by making your creature unblockable or by countering a removal spell. Blessing is just a really good card for archetypes like this.
Temur Battle Rage – This is your big win condition spell. You want to end the game quickly, here is usually how you do it.
The manabase is straight to the point. 18 Mountain and nothing else. I would not change the manabase as I think 18 is a good amount because you want to get to 3 lands and you do not want come into play tapped lands slowing you down. I say leave it as is.
The Sideboard
Flaring Pain
– Cards like Prismatic Strands
and Moment’s Peace
are your worst nightmare. I believe 2 or maybe 3 copies are mandatory for this decks sideeboard.
Gorilla Shaman
– Gotta have the Affinity hate in today’s meta.
Infuriate
– If you are up against an aggro deck or another combo deck where playing a solitaire like game and racing to the finish line is your main game plan, this is actually a really nice spell to have so that you can speed up the clock even quicker. Again the reason we do not see Lightning Bolt is because it does not target your own creatures for profit. One thing I would like to note is that the extra toughness from this card may be unnecessary. I think Titan’s Strength
might be better.
Pyroblast
– Take this you blue mages of doom!
Singe
– Other than being able to counter a card like Doom Blade
or Snuff Out
, I am unsure as to why this card is here. I will admit, I got nothing. I’d prefer something else like Electrickery
or maybe some graveyard hate.
Verdict and Conclusion
Man this deck is something. I like what is going on here and personally I think it might be more fun than the Mono White Heroic deck we are all used to. However, I think the fun category might be where this deck begins and ends.
This archetype has the same problem all the Kiln Fiend decks do. They are very much a glass cannon archetype. You will have really good games where your opponent didn’t stop you and then you will have really bad games where your deck just falters easily and early.
The reason the mono white archetype is so good is because you are not all in, you are able to protect your creatures over and over again, blanking or countering your opponents removal while growing your creatures to be too big to handle and win the game. This mono red version is very all in and the longer the game goes on, the worse it is for you. Now a big upside here to me is Akroan Crusader because it creatures a go wide element, but you don’t have a card like Rally the Peasants
to take advantage and Crusader is very weak with its stats so that plan will not always work and there are decks where it will never work period. Just keep these things in mind.
Do I think you should play this deck? For the leagues it can be fun, but will always be a coin toss. For the challenges I would personally stay away and play Mono White Heroic. I will say that this is an archetype that can evolve over time and one day may be very good, but now is now the time for it in my opinion.
However, with all this being said, as always, do remember my words are not gospel. I will always encourage you to try a deck that I bring you despite my personal feelings. Remember that results will vary and always remember to practice!
Would you like to compete in a free Pauper tournament with some great prizes? Head on over to Gatherling.com on Tuesday nights at 8pm EDT and play in our weekly Pauper Classic Tuesday's event! Join the chat #PCT to chat with us and feel free to find most of the competitors on Discord!
Thank you so much for reading. Best of luck to you in your next tournament and I’ll catch you all next time!
