Mono- Red Equipment has been a brew that I've been cooking up over the past year. We got some interesting pieces such as Bladegraft Aspirant and we messed around with Burning-Tree Emissary. These were interesting innovations but I always felt like the deck was missing something better. Goblin Tomb Raider is the missing piece that I think brings this deck together. Now with Monastery Swiftspear we have a super aggressive list and it is feeling quite competitive. This is my finished list and I'm happy with all of the numbers, as they've been tuned and test over the year.
(Full Decklist on Moxfield)
The combination of Goblin Tomb Raider and Monastery Swiftspear gives the deck a consistant aggro start that helps pile up a lot of damage early. We can turn on Tomb Raider on T1 with Great Furnace and Bonesaw, and Swiftspear gets free prowess triggers off of the saw. Having these eight hasty one-drops plus a nineth in Gingerbrute lets us hit our opponent down to 15-16 by T2. Having haste creatures is important for match ups with lots of removal. You can rip these off the top and attatch all of your equipments to it and keep the pressure on. The most impactful element that Goblin Tomb Raider did for the deck was lower the curve. Capping off the mana curve at two mana helps us be efficient with our mana when we're deploying threats an equiping them.
These are our payoffs for running equipments. Goblin Gaveleer is also aggressive on T1, followed up by a Bonesaw and Monastery Swiftspear on T2. Having one toughness is means that it gets traded with often, but trample guarantees that we still get in for a huge chunk of damage. Cliffhaven Kitesail can help us fly over blockers and makes Gaveeler feel like a flipped Delver of Secrets that needs to be answered quickly. Champion of the Flame is our best creature and will win the game if unanswered. Leather Armor can help us protect it with Ward 1 and this goes crazy with Bonesplitter.
The ratios concerning the equipment spread is fairly specific. Bonesaw and Bonesplitter are both mandatory 4-ofs. They are the source of our agression and aren't situational. Leather Armor plays a lot better than it looks. Ward 1 is often relevant, but the Equip 0 is very powerful. There are plenty of turns where your threat gets answered and you need to move around your gear to build up the next one, and a 0 equip makes those turns smoother. Cliffhaven Kitesail is very powerful. A flying Goblin Gaveleer and Champion of the Flame ends the game quick. The free equip when it ETB's is amazing and we can deal with the Equip 2 if we have to. These don't stack well as they give no stat buff by itslef so we run 3 copies. In the late game it turns any creature into a flying beater that the oppoent has to answer. Boots of Speed is a great equipment in the longer match ups. Having this in play to give Champion of the Flame haste lets us keep up the tempo. Flayer Husk is a flex slot but it plays the role of both a creature and an equipment.
To round out the deck we have some removal and card advantage. Nothing crazy here, but Galvanic Blast is removal if you need it and it's extra reach when we can burn the opponent out. Reckless Impulse is a strong follow up when we run out of gas after the opponent answers our threats. Sometimes we have threat dense hands so we can use this to dig for equipments. Something to note with the play style of the deck is that you want to be pushing damage as much as posiible. With that in mind, do not keep a bad hand with Reckless Impulse in hopes to help sculpt your hand. That's a losing strategy in this fast paced meta, so you want to Impulse to keep the gas flowing, not to find it.
Sideboarding
This is one of those decks that sideboards very lightly. Our opening hands need a healthy mix of creatures and equipments. With that in mind we approach sideboarding with a light mentality. I'm not going to go over the specifcs in too much detail as some of the slots are pretty self explanitory (Pyroblast), and your sibeboarding needs may be different in your meta. I will mention which cards you typically swap out when boarding so that you don't dilute your main deck. Some number of Galvanic Blasts can get trimmed in some match ups and Flayer Husk is an easy cut. I trim a Boots of Speed in a fast and non interactive matches. I also trim a Goblin Tomb Raider in some play vs. draw situations.
Lost Caverns of Ixalan brought us plenty of new cards and I'm very excited that this list got improved enough that it's worth sharing with you. We'll be cooking a lot this season so if you like what we're doing then please browse the site for more content, and you can subscribe to our YouTube channel to see these decks in action in Leagues. You can also subscribe to our newsletter to get notified when a new deck drops. We have a Discord, something, something, call to actions, just explore the site. Thanks so much for reading and for joining the Fellowship!
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