Modern has changed. We must change with it. Mono red phoenix is dead. Faithless looting being banned means that there is no longer a consistent way to dump Phoenixes then reanimate them. However, Mono Red Phoenix's little brother, Mono red prowess, lives on. Not only does this deck live, I'm of the oppinion that it Thrives in the new, slower meta. The popular decks strugle to stop it before it's too late. The controling decks use up their recourses too fast to handle bedlam reveler and arcanist, and the fringe decks aren't set up to succeed against an ever growing attacker. Let's Break it down.
How the deck works
Mono red prowess has one goal.: Cast cheap spells that trigger your creatures prowess ability, then swing out for massive chunks of damage each turn. Most spells are damage centric, but about a third of them represent card draw in some sort of way, so losing gas isn't much of a concern. Typically, you look to win by swinging in with a creature that has become a 5/6 or bigger, but it's not unlikely to burn your opponent out with bolts and spikes. This flexibility puts your opponent in an awkward spot where they're never quite sure which line they should take. This deck works well because it is built around exploiting the synergies of burn spells and the prowess mechanic. That being said let's look at the creature package.
The Creatures
Swiftspear and soulscar mage have the same job just to slightly different effects. Swifspear is better to play later turns because it can attack right out of the gate (duh). Soulscar's second line of text typically doesn't matter, but on occasian, it winds up winnning the game or saving us from a potentially lethal attacks. Got a 'Goyf? It's puny now. Swinging for lethal? Not anymore. The -1/-1 counters are surprisingly useful late in the game...if it lasts that long.
Bedlam Reveler is here for the grind. If the game is going long this is a way to refill your hand. The fact that it gets cheaper makes it a really effective mid-game tool also. Got dead cards? Reveler them away. It's also an effective attacker.
Dreadhorde Arcanist is a red snapcaster mage. Especially in this deck. Arcanist has one toughness A very large majority of this decks spells are CMC one, meaning you can flashback a card for free at least once a combat assuming your arcanist lives to combat. Wors cas scenario you play this card and your opponent uses a precious removal or counter spell on this instead of on a prowess threat or burn spell. This is insane. Casting a bolt on your mainphase then casting it again at attacks is utterly ridiculous. The icing on the cake though is menace. This means that a majority of the time our opponent has to decide to either let a prowess creature hit them or double block to take down our spell recursion. Both options are suboptimal. This card is a dream come true for our archetype. To be fair though, this only works so well in our deck because of the spell package. This leads me too...
The Spells
The meat of our spicy sandwich. Our deck does not work without these spells, and nearly didn't without Faithless looting (may she rest in peace). So lets start with the replacement. Magmatic insight is great here. What feel worse than drawing a land? Not drawing a card at all perhaps, but that's beside the point. Looting was typically a two of already and in this deck was mostly used as a way to dig with the convinent upside of flashing back. Insight fixes the dig issue. It lets us drop that dead land and draw two for only one mana. One mana? Yes, one. It can be flashed back with arcanist! Keep in mind though you do need a land to pitch to make this happen so it's not as brilliant as you think it is.
Lightning Bolt is...what more do I need to say? You're playing Mono red of course you use Bolt. Lava Spike carries a similar role, but since it can only hit face it's not as versitile. What's best about these is the fact that both these spells can be flashed back by Arcanist.
Lava Dart is one damage for one mana. Not the best spell by any players book What's great about it is it's "Free" second cast. Sacing a mountain to do it again isn't bad at all, and it triggers your prowess creatures when it's cast from the grave yard so it's an extremely versitile trick. Dart is also an instant, so it makes your creatures very hard to block too. If your oppenent goes for a favorable block, you sack a mountain, ping that creature for one and suddenly they're losing a key peice of their board state. This card is absurd when pared with a soulscor or swifspear. The synergies are mindboggling.
Manamorphose nearly breaks this deck. Two mana gives you a free spell. Literally free. It gives you the mana back, and draws you back the card. Any turn with a manamorphose garuntees you at least three prowess triggers. Sometimes more depending on how many lands you have and how many more manamorphose you have in hand. This is likely the best card in this deck, and the glue that holds it all together.
Mutagenic growth is a free Combat trick. What elese do you want or need in a deck that cares about casting spells? In this deckyou might aswell read this card as target creature gets +3/+3. A neat interaction to be considered is with dreadhorde arcanist. By pumping it, you can pump up more spells in your graveyard including...
Light up the stage. Oh light up the stage. It can be awkward everynow and then, but it's well worth it. One mana gets us a prowess trigger, then draws us two yes, you read that right two cards. The best part? These cards can't be taken from us. They are in exile. Yes, our opponent gets information, but they can't take those cards. This type of card advantage is everything you've ever wanted in a red deck.
Finale of Promise is a new toy from war of the spark. It's very powerful, but it's cost makes it so I can't justify having more than one. For three mana we get three prowess triggers. You cast this for three, then target a one mana instant and one mana sorcery from your grave yard then cast those. Yes, cast. Cast means prowess trigger, which means bigger creatures.
Finally we have our "are you sure you want to block that?" spells. Warlord's fury makes blocking a dumb idea because they lose their creature while we live on. And it draws us a card. This incentive to avoid blocking pushes the whole purpose of our deck. Swing with big prowess creatures. A single crash through means that even if you do block, you die anyways.
Lands
Mono red means mountains. The new horizon lands are good for filtering, but not a complete necesity. If you're on a budget it's not a huge problem if you can't afford them.
Side board
Young pyromancer is here for the games that are going to grind. Replace the arcanists typically. The main reason to use this card is to combat decks with an infinte number of counters. Dreadhorde can't help you there, but if you create a token even if they counter, it doesn't matter in the long run.
Smash to Smithereens is here for stoneforge decks. Destroying the artifact, dealing three, and a prowess triger is really good value for two mana. Typically you take out the spikes to put these in. It's well worth the extra mana. The only downside is that Arcanist can't flash them back.
Pyroclasm is an anti-token measure. It won't kill our creatures becasue on cast our creatures become 3 toughness. It will take out dorks, and that's what we want. The less chump blockers they have the better, and that's why this is here.
Gutshot should be brought in against mirrors, or other aggro deck. What you cut is matchup dependant. It's just a free spell that can ping a dork or the oppenent to speed up our clock.
One more Crash through for the token match up where they have infinte chump blockers. Just a way to force damage through.
Finally two mutagenic growths to be brought in with decks that can block our big creatures. Typically against hollow one and death's shadow. More free combat tricks makes their creatures less likely to stop us dead in our tracks.
The wrap up
Mono red spellslingers is really well positioned in the meta. It's got a good matchup against the popular decks like burn and jund, and an even if not slightly favored matchup with the secondary decks like humans and Stoneforge decks. Even the decks it struggles against still have issues adapting to our flexibility. This is why I think you should be playing this deck. The best part is it's price. Compared to the popular decks in modern this is child's play. A cool One hundred fifty to two hundred dollars for a competitive decK? I'll take that any day!
