One of my favorite aspects about Pauper is how open the format is. Even with its "Legacy light" power level, given enough care and attention you can make a lot of strategies work. The Mono-Red Heroic deck we're looking at today has components from an old Khans Standard deck that capitalized on aggressive Heroic synergies for very explosive starts. Obviously new additions have been added over time, which allows us to add the new Red Heroic flavor to the format.
Like many other aggro decks in the format, this deck is a "synergy aggro" deck. This means that we rely less on stand alone threats like in Mono-Green Stompy, and we're hoping to draw the right combination of cards to bring our strategy together. Much like how the Mono-White Heroic decks want a threat, auras, and then protection, we also want a mixture of threats and auras, but we care less about protection and more about going straight for the kill.
Akroan Crusader and Satyr Hoplite are our only Heroic creatures and they're both explosive but in different ways. Akroan Crusader allows us to go wide with hasty Soldier tokens, while Satyr Hoplite goes tall with +1/+1 counters. We also have Gingerbrute chilling in the deck and it works very with pump spells since we can make it unblockable with the activated ability.
Champion of the Flame doesn't have Heroic but it does get +2/+2 for each aura attached to it. This boosts the power level of cards like Dragon Mantle as a cantrip that gives Champion fire breathing for one mana. Champion doesn't make the post of our non-aura spells like Infuriate and Mutagenic Growth, but these still add up to lethal when we have a couple of auras already in play.
The rest of the deck is dedicated to mostly auras and pump spells, and a little bit of utility.
Dragon Mantle makes the deck much more consistent since it cantrips to help us find more action. Infuriate is an amazing card on rate with +3/+2 for a single red mana, and it actually equates to more damage when you add the +1/+1 counter from Satyr Hoplite or the 1/1 Solider from Akroan Crusader. Mutagenic Growth is our other pump spell of choice and you can't get a better rate than +2/+2 for zero mana.
Madcap Skills is a source of pseudo evasion by granting menace before granting menace was even cool. +3/+0 is an aggressive bonus and with Champion of the Flame it grants an additional +2/+2. Some of our most aggressive starts include Madcap Skills on either Satyr Hoplite or Champion of the Flame.
For a little bit of spice we added two copies of Hammerhand. I absolutely love Hammerhand as removing a blocker for a turn can be super deadly. Playing this on a Champion that already has a Madcap Skills on a board when your opponent only has two creatures means that Champion can't be blocked that turn. The haste bonus on Hammerhand is also huge and can help us set up a huge attacker out of nowhere if we need to. Hammerhand is super spicy but during my testing I did actually find myself wanting even more copies. Removing a blocker for one mana makes our most explosive starts even better so it might be correct to add copies three and four in future updates.
For that extra bit of utility we have a pair of Thrill of Possibility for some card selection if we're struggling to set up the kill, and we have two Lightning Bolts. Bolts can act as removal in aggro mirrors or they can be that bit of extra reach by spending it to the opponent's face.
Alternatives
During my deck building process I make it a priority to explore as many options as possible. This allows us to find potential gems that give us more robust options. Also the more you play the deck the more sensitive you become to the decks needs, and this leaves you to cards that may have not been obvious at first. Expedite and Maximize Velocity are cards that I have on my radar. Having more cantrips like Dragon Mantle would make the deck even more consistent and Expedite fits the bill. Granted, just giving haste is more narrow than what Dragon Mantle brings to the table, but having two copies of Expedite could be something we want. Maximize Velocity grants the same effect but gives us value from our graveyard and we can pitch lands if we're flooded. If you want to make the deck more explosive then you can't top Temur Battle Rage. Perhaps the deck is a little conservative with cards like Thrill of Possibility and Lightning Bolt, and you would rather just kill the opponent on the spot with Battle Rage. Fling is could be an amazing one of in the main deck. Imagine using it in response to a Cast Down on your massive Champion to send that otherwise wasted power straight upstairs! This was my take on Mono-Red Heroic for Pauper. Akroan Crusader, Dragon Mantle, and Hammerhand were all in the Mono-Red Standard deck used way back in like 2014 to win my first FNM. Geez I miss playing paper Magic! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the deck and If you're looking for more pauper content then browse the site for more articles like this one, and you can find additional content on our YouTube channel. For links to that and other awesome stuff like our Twitch and Discord then head over to the homepage of the site for all of that good stuff. Thanks so much for reading and joining the Fellowship! See you next Monday for a new EDH deck tech. Have an awesome day!
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