Fallerup, thanks for the very interesting suggestion. Village Messenger  ^Flip surely would not be the card to go. I don't get to flip it often and that's okay-- it's a 1/1 with haste, and that's the value I need. Getting it flipped is just a bonus. Haste is too valuable to let it go. You have no idea how often I do damage turn 1 with that silly card.

It's an interesting enough idea to require some tinkering to see how it might work. Thank you very much for the thoughtful commentary and suggestions! Well worth considering.

Thanks for the upvote!

you can also just forget about the Foreboding Ruins but then you can't bring Scrapheap Scrounger back from the Grave Yard as that needs black mana, but it is an aggro creature, and a 3/2 for 2 mana. it's all about attack, it's a little bit strange it doesn't have haste though, but with battlements out, you can just pay and it gains haste that way.

Fallerup, I did think about just adding it because it's a 3/2 for , and that's not a bad idea. I could just leave the Foreboding Ruins out and not worry about the recursion. Thanks for the follow-up suggestion!

Also, I don't see your upvote in the list of people who upvoted! If you are so inclined to upvote, I do sincerely appreciate it! Thanks again!

I think Scrapheap Scrounger is worth running Foreboding Ruins, even if the latter sometimes comes in tapped. Scrounger is a very aggressive 2-drop, and recurring it will help you use all your mana after you've emptied your hand. The worst-case scenario is where Ruins is the only land in your opening hand, but so what? You're only really missing out on 1-2 damage by playing it tapped. The 3-damage per swing from Scrounger should more than make up for that.

Jut my 2 cents. Nice deck, though! Very classic.

BlaineTog, it is indeed worth the thought. I'll tinker with Scrapheap Scrounger over the next week or so and see whether it has a good place. just the value of a 3/2 for seems like it will have a nice place in this deck. Foreboding Ruins, yeah, still unsure on that one. I get what you're saying, but not getting 1 to 3 damage in may be critical. By turn 5 or 6 that adds up, so I need to be able to hit from turn 1 if at all possible. Aggro is a thing in the current meta, so it's not uncommon to run into decks that can almost keep pace. That "almost" means that every single point of damage is critical to get in before it's too late...

Thanks for the input! I'm definitely considering these cards as viable options.

if you want more evasion then Giant Spectacle is something to consider, as it is also a boost spell/aura.

sweet deck idea, not sure why you only play 2 Hanweir Garrison instead of 4, which is a bomb even when not melded

kortioznikas, until last night there were 4x Hanweir Garrison. However, having 4x was occasionally slowing me down. I cannot get 2 or 3 of those in hand at the same time or it gums up the works. 2x as an occasional bomb seems to be far better so far in playtest.

Thanks for the comment!

Something else occurred to me: have you considered a copy or two of Westvale Abbey  ^Flip? It's actually quite reasonably priced these days and you'd actually have a fairly easy time flipping it. Might be a nice, low-opportunity-cost option to help finish off games that have unexpectedly gone long.

BlaineTog, I did consider Westvale Abbey  ^Flip when first made the deck, but I was running 4x Hanweir Battlements and didn't want more colorless mana in the deck because of the need for speed. However, now that I have cut back a bit on the Hanweir Battlements, it might be worth trying to slip 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip into the deck. I reduced the total mana to 18 and it functions well at this number, so I don't want too many colorless mana or I could get mana screwed very quickly.

Thanks for the suggestion!

I had a chance to playtest the build today and it was great! I lost just a couple of games but no matches. Couldn't make it to FNM because of other obligations this evening and the distance (closest is 75 miles away), but I played against a variety of decks and won easily.

I think this is ready for a test drive at FNM next week, if the weather permits here in the Dakotas.

Thanks to all for your suggestions and comments. I think this is a very competitive deck and that is due largely to this great community of MtGers who love the game and want to help others! Thanks!

Up. When I just see "mono red budget" I just know there is lot of fun and i wans't wrong. Thanks for job.

Have you thought about Reckless Bushwhacker? The thing can be used for some huge swings on t3. For instance, here's an example:

T1 - Bomat Courier, swing 1

T2 - Any two one drops, or two more couriers, swing for 1-3

T3 - Falkenrath Gorger or any other 1 drop + Reckless Bushwhacker, swing at face for 10-16

Excellent results and progress! Love what's evolving into. Obviously I'm sure most of the commentators are pleased to see 4x Copter. I'm also happy to see Courier is doing very well. He has nice little synergies here for sure. Neonate really looks like a great menace pest that can bring together little weenies nicely.

I'm looking at Drasgonmaster Outcast. Other than the obvious late finisher it seems awkward if the deck is trying to rush opponents into oblivion. Especially with 18 lands. However I do see u have a healthy amount of cantrips and looting. Mind breaking down how it plays in a game?

Not a real expert with aggro but has Key to the City been mentioned? Possible SB option. Mentioned because of Lupine synergy. And Hanweir of course.

I personally think Scrapheap Scrounger deserves some slots. He wins me so many games in my W/B token and R/B artifact-aristocrat decks. As your land is now at 18 it would seem Lupine becoming a creature becomes less likely to activate. Perhaps a split of 2 Scrounger and 2 Lupine. Scrounged also has synergy with Neonate and Copters looting.

Another consideration is cutting some Impalers. He's a fun mana sink at 1CC. But Scrounger looks much more resilient and a continuously bigger body. But I get 1CC creatures is what makes this deck viable.

Leads me back to Outcast. He feeds off a longer game. And does it well. Perhaps Scrounger would do the same effect except doing more overall.

Never mind about Scrounger. Forgot he was

Hi HairyManBack, per the "How to play the deck," above:

"Play Dragonmaster Outcast with reckless abandon. It's not in this deck to generate dragons-- it's in the deck to be a 1/1 that is annoying and can be the target of Skin Invasion  ^Flip and can crew the Smuggler's Copter. If you try to wait until you have 6 mana, you will likely lose. Just play the card like any other card. If it manages to still be around when you have six mana, so much the better, particularly if it has a Skin Invasion  ^Flip on it, because then your opponent has to pick their poison, a 5/5 dragon or a 3/4 insect horror. Most will choose the non-flying horror."

I think that this is a common problem with weenie decks-- people focus on particular abilities of cards and ignore the CMC and power/toughness. Dragonmaster Outcast is the card that I will side out if/when necessary, because it is a "vanilla" 1/1 (i.e., no abilities that are important to the deck). However, to not include a 1/1 for in a color with limited options in the 1/1 for or range would be silly. Don't read the text on that card-- just look at the CMC and power/toughness. Would another Bomat Courier or Insolent Neonate be better? Perhaps, and those options are definitely on the table to consider. Those might actually prove to be better than the 2x Dragonmaster Outcast, and may be where the deck ends up going.

Luton, I have considered the bushwhacker, but I have tried to limit the 2 mana creatures as much as possible. Indeed, now only Smuggler's Copter and Lupine Prototype have a CMC = 2. I like Reckless Bushwhacker, but I think he's just a tad slow. Good power/toughness early game, but not for 3 mana. I do get why you (and others) have suggested it, and I have tried it in an earlier version of the deck. It just doesn't go as well as one would hope.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions! It's awesome people like you who have helped get this deck as high as #2 on TappedOut.net! Thank you!

Just a head's up: SaffronOlive just posted a video of him running a deck very similar to this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QYK7TY4Izs. No spoilers, but I think you might enjoy it.

BlaineTog, pretty interesting. The Furyblade Vampires and Scrapheap Scroungers seemed to do some work for him, and the combos are interesting. Thanks for sharing the vid! Much to ponder!

Have you considered Furyblade Vampire, it is 2 mana but it helps get cards out for Lupine Prototype and is a big trampler when you discard to it. Also, how do you deal with Flaying Tendrils?

I posted my comment before I reloaded and saw your comment on furyblade, my bad.

viperfang4, no worries! Good question about Flaying Tendrils. The answer is that I don't do anything about it. In limited playtesting I have not run across it, nor have I run across Biting Rain. Smuggler's Copter and Lupine Prototype are about the only answers I have-- and Skin Invasion  ^Flip, as that would flip as a result of the damage. It takes until turn 3 to get Flaying Tendrils out, so I am hoping to just get in damage before then and hopefully I won't see it...

With the release of Aether Revolt, Yahenni's Expertise will also be terrible for this deck. Every deck has its weakness, I suppose, and blanket removal is definitely a problem for this deck.

Thanks for the comments/suggestions!

Yeah, i was thinking forward about Yahenni's Expertise too, I already have an esper control deck designed around it, but may experience quite a few changes based on cards released. I think the mana for that card though will be a little slow against you, but tendrils is not. The Lupine Prototypes survive and so would an Ormendahl off Abbey. You might want to side in something big enough to survive, Sanguinary Mage also comes to mind as the prowess puts it out of range. You only have 1 Skin Crawler now, which might go up. Otherworldly Outburst helps, but could flaying tendrils could be cast off yahenni's. 2 Bedlam Reveler could help as well.

HairyManBack, I removed (again) Dragonmaster Outcast. I upped Bomat Courier and Insolent Neonate to 4x each. This seems to work well. I get more value out of the haste and menace of those two cards.

Currently testing Scrapheap Scrounger with 4x Foreboding Ruins (and 14 Mountains and zero Hanweir Battlements). I seem to keep getting multiple 2 drop creatures in my hand from the draw, and this is slowing me down. This will need a lot of playtesting.

Nice work. I'm debating on Scrapheap here myself. Maybe a meta call? Idk. On paper it certainly doesn't seem to add up in this list. A reason I could see Scrapheap being in here is more graveyard synergies and/or Harnessed Lightning MB with some number of Aether Hub. Yet somehow I fear that will be venturing off in a different deck altogether.

On a similar note you inspired me to make a somewhat similar aggro deck. At least in concept as it's a artifact/clue deck built mostly for Confront the Unknown. I've started with 4x Neonate and Courier and they work well with the right assistance.

I think the reason the rakdos zombies deck is so popular and good is the resiliance and synergy in the deck to keep coming back and keep the threats coming, it also gives you things in the side like harsh scrutiny and transgress the mind to get rid of the cards i mentioned above that would hurt this deck.