Welcome back (well hopefully) and welcome all you glorious new readers! I really want this column to be weekly, published on Fridays, but with my current schedule that may prove to be difficult at times. Please don't worry loyal reader! When I miss a week, I will write even more for the following week.



Topics: Standard, Legacy, and Ramblings




As I am sure it has become clear, I am quite the standard junkie. It is probably due to the limited amount of time I actually get to play, and as standard is the clear favorite of the masses, being standard prepared means I am ready to play at a moments notice, which can be important with a hectic schedule.

When I saw Boros Reckoner, I nearly flipped my lid, that card is crazy! I was like, "Yes, the three drop I have been dreaming of, and what is this, Skullcrack, did they really just give me both of the cards I had been wanting for RDW." Leading up to the Gatecrash release, my local populace can attest to the amount of RDW I played, and I got real comfortable with the feel of the deck. So naturally, I decided to go ahead and revamp my RDW for post-Gatecrash standard. But then I saw this beauty, Saito knows how to build an aggro deck.

After modifying it ever so slightly, I took it to my local shop, CM Games, for some testing. CM Games offers a free standard tourney on Monday that gives out $100 dollars in store credit. With a little bit of money on the line, plenty of local players show-up sporting tournament caliber decks for a chance to get in on the loot. There are some less than up-to-snuff decks that show-up also, but overall a good place to get your "game on." Needless to say, I finished 4th losing in the last round to 5 color control packing all the main deck goodies for beating up on red players. I took it to 3 games, but the hate, bad sideboarding, and bad mulliganing (and the force) made it really hard to do much in the way of winning. I am, however, very glad I got to play that match-up. I learned a ton about what works and what doesn't. I also got a good education on which cards were bad for me and which ones I could ignore. A greatest hits list of bad cards for your average RDW player:

Blind Obedience
Terminus (miracles of course on turns 2-3)
Rhox Faithmender
Centaur Healer
Cathedral Sanctifier
Thragtusk
But most of all, everyone of them in the same deck :(

Enough of my belly aching, let's get to the updated list:

RDWs
Suggested by Matthew Norton

Creature (31)
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Stromkirk Noble
2 Stonewright
2 Gore-house Chainwalker
4 Lightning Mauler
4 Ash Zealot
4 Burning Tree Emissary
1 Pyreheart Wolf
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Hellrider

Spells (11):
2 Skullcrack
2 Pillar of Flame
2 Volcanic Strength
4 Searing Spear
1 Thunderous Wrath

Land (18):
18 Mountains

One of the other lessons I have learned, I play a deck before I tweak it at all. I have learned that most deck lists have a fair amount of time and energy already invested in them.