Rejoice red mages... Mono-Red Control exists!
Please playtest and +1 and comment if you like it!
It's still in progress, but I think this may just be as good as it gets. Please comment if you wish to tell me otherwise, and I'll be happy to hear your opinion!
Card Explanation of the Mainboard by CMC:
Lands:
Darksteel Citadel: Since it's an Artifact Land, you can search it with Hoarding Dragon if you're land stuck and need the extra land to play your hand ideally.
Radiant Fountain: Lifegain in a land. What more could you ask for in a mono-color deck?
2:
Frostburn Weird
: Useful for early blocking and pushing through damage. 2 of these on an otherwise empty board is a 3-turn clock
Lightning Strike, Mizzium Mortars: Burn spells. Note that Mortars has a powerful overload mode.
3:
Anger of the Gods: Your board wipe vs. aggro. Only creature in your deck that it hits is Prophetic Flamespeaker, which can replace itself anyways.
Hammer of Purphoros: Turns dead lands into creatures, yay! The haste is also relevant and it can be searched by Hoarding Dragon if you're getting mana flooded and 3/3s with haste are useful (They almost always are)
Prophetic Flamespeaker: Our repeatable draw engine that does double duty as an early blocker. It does die to Anger, but hopefully you can use its ability before then. If not, you can try to hold it in hand.
Seismic Strike
: A burn spell that kills almost everything in Standard, I killed an opponent's
Scuttling Doom Engine
with this once and got control of the board. Keep in mind that it only counts Mountains, and that there are 2 lands in this deck that are not Mountains. That being said, play your lands wisely, and the non-Mountains shouldn't make too much of an impact.
4:
Aggressive Mining
: It's a +2 in card advantage assuming you can afford to lose 2 lands and not play any more. Very powerful card, but ideally play it when at 8+ lands.
Chandra, Pyromaster
: This Planeswalker is a huge part of the deck, for a variety of reasons. Her +1 can remove blockers from the picture, help clear the board in tandem with burn spells, and the 0 is a repeatable draw engine. The Ultimate is good, but not what you want to be aiming for unless they're low on life and you scryed a Lightning Strike beforehand.
Haunted Plate Mail
: When you play Hoarding Dragon you typically either search for
Scuttling Doom Engine
or this. (You can also search for Hammer of Purphoros if you're facing aggro and flooded, or any other target in the deck if the situation calls for it). This can be either a big pump or a 4/4 creature that beats face like a pro if you have no creatures. You can also activate it before casting a creature so that you get an extra 4/4 for a turn. You can also activate it in response to your own Harness by Force postboard.
Perilous Vault: Your board wipe vs. midrange and Superfriends.dek that Hoarding Dragon can also search. Note that it typically takes a turn to come online.
5:
Hoarding Dragon: THE bread and butter of the deck, this dargon (yes, DARGON) can search almost any relevant late game card in your deck, Chandra and Mining excluded. While it only actually fetches the card upon death, it's still a 4/4 flier in life, which is very good for a 5-drop (I'm looking at you, Stormbreath Dragon)! If they don't kill it, it's a 5-turn clock. If they do, they have to stare down whatever he fetched when he came in the next turn, which can be potentially much, much worse. THE single best card in this deck AND what makes the deck viable.
6:
Scuttling Doom Engine
: Typically the best search target for Hoarding Dragon, this puts them on a quick clock, and is very hard to stop once it gets rolling. I even finished the game the turn I cast it thanks to Hammer of Purphoros giving it Haste! At worst, it's 6 to the face for 6 and maybe one of their creatures, at best, it wins the game easily with its evasion ability.
With a deck this good, you'd think the sideboard would suck... but it doesn't even come close!
Sideboard Explanation:
Anger of the Gods and
Searing Blood
for most aggro decks.
Circle of Flame
for Sligh-ish decks. 2 of these on board vs. them=gg
Fated Conflagration
for Monsters and Walkers decks. The scry can be relevant, but don't force yourself to wait so you can scry.
Harness by Force for Monsters. Keep in mind Strive is actually possible.
Skullcrack vs. Lifegain and Sphinx's Rev.dek
Tormod's Crypt for Dredge and other graveyard shenanigans. It can even be searched by Hoarding Dragon in a pinch!
Maybeboard Explanation:
1x
Aggressive Mining
: Would be nice to have a second, but space is tight.
1x
Ember Swallower
and 1x
Flame-Wreathed Phoenix
: Nice 4 drops, but
Haunted Plate Mail
beats them both at that game.
3x
Goblin Kaboomist
and 3x
Wall of Fire
: Both post-rotation replacements for
Frostburn Weird
. I haven't decided which one I like more yet.
4x Magma Jet: Will probably replace Mizzium Mortars because aggro decks will be a thing post-rotation.
1x Radiant Fountain: Could replace Darksteel Citadel if I find that searching a land isn't relevant.
2x
Soul of Shandalar
My finisher before
Scuttling Doom Engine
made itself known to me, as it is just much better than this.
