That's Gotta Be Kane!
If you're looking to chokeslam your opponents into oblivion then The Big Red Machine is that Standard deck for you. If you haven't seen Big Red floating around the internet, it is a mono red control deck that is all removal and tops off with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. We have every good red removal spell in Standard and solid card advantage pieces. Today we'll be inspecting how this machine runs and paying tribute to in my opinion, the most underrated performer of the Attitude Era, Kane. Also, Kane is better than the Undertaker. Come at me!
Going Big
Ugin is, for the most part, the biggest thing you can be doing in Standard. Being in red allows us to pair it with Irencrag Feat to potentially slam it down on turn five. Ugin is a polarizing card in Standard and can swing the game in your favor the turn it comes down. It can be a board wipe with the minus ability, it can close out the game with the Lightning Bolt +2, and of course the ultimate is insane and should get a concession from the opponent on the spot. However, Irencrag Feat does more than just fuel Ugin. It pairs very well with Shatterskull Smashing for massive damage across two creatures, and it gets explosive with Crawling Barrens which is our sneaky win condition. Solemn Simulacrum deserves some love as it holds the deck together. It fetches lands into play to help us cast Ugin naturally, and it even draws a card when it dies. Setting The Board on Fire
This deck is absolutely loaded with the best red removal spells Standard has to offer. We're running a two-two split of Scorching Dragonfire and Fire Prophecy, as they both have their own utility. Dragonfire has the benefit of dealing with both creatures and planeswalkers, and exiles the target when it dies. Fire Prophecy only hits creatures and doesn't exile, but it can help smooth things out by letting us put an unwanted card from our hand on the bottom of the library to draw a new one. This ability really helps when we need an extra look at an answer we desperately need. Bonecrusher Giant is continuing to be outstanding as one of the best red cards printed in the past five years. Stomp gets rid of cheap creatures and having a creature spell attached helps to prevent the deck from running out of things to do. For mass removal, we have Storm's Wrath to clean up the board, and it can also hit planeswalkers which is a nice bonus. We also have a single copy of Soul Sear to hit big creatures and Shredded Sails as a three-of. Both modes on Sails are relevant in this current meta, and the cycling ability reduces the risks of playing it in the main deck. We also have tons of removal in our manabase with Shatterskull Smashing and Spikefield Hazard. Spikefeild Hazard is great at picking off small creatures like Fervent Champion, but against decks with Yorion, it is just a slow mountain. Consider sideboarding some of these out in those matchups. Smashing is fantastic with Irencrag Feat as we mentioned earlier and is a solid two for one. Card Advantage
Mazemind Tome has been the card advantage source of choice for many control strategies in Standard. It is very important to the function of the deck and is something we always want to have on the board. For the most part, you always want to be drawing cards to get ahead, with the scrying ability only being used to help look for a specific answer when we're falling behind. Mazemind Tome eventually gains us life when we hit four page counters to help us stabilize our life total. Ox of Agonas helps refuel our hand after trading one for one with the opponent. We can escape it pretty easily with so many removal spells and escape cards get bonkers against the mill decks running around Standard. Mana Base
Our mana base has plenty of utility with all of the module lands, but we also have three copies of Radiant Fountain to gain us life. Between the 8 red module lands and the 13 mountains, we have 21 red mana sources, so the risks of running Radiant Fountain is minimal. Crawling Barrens is another win condition and it's not hard to pump with all of the extra lands we have in play, and we can do this on the opponent's end step. Over the span of a couple of turns, we'll have a land capable of attacking for lethal. Barrens makes the late game Irencrag Feat top decks better as we can dump the mana into Barrens for the land beatdowns. Sideboard
This deck struggles with Yorion decks so we have lots of slots dedicated to putting pressure on them. For this, we have four copies of Robber of the Rich and three copies of Phoenix of Ash. Both are hasty threats with Robber stealing us cards, and Phoenix coming back from the graveyard. For extra removal, we have single copies of Soul Sear, Scorching Dragonfire, and Redcap Melee. Our deck is very good against mono-red aggro so the one Melee is all we need. For the graveyard, we have three copies of Soul-Guide Lantern, and two copies of Chandra, Heart of Fire for grindy matchups.
The Big Red Machine is one of the most fun decks running around standard at the moment and has very positive matchups against the general meta. Gruul Aggro and Mono-Red Aggro are our most favorable matches, with Yorion decks being our biggest struggle. If you like the deck then you can import the list we have down below and go check out the video for it on our YouTube channel. Gives us a like and subscribe and leave us a comment to let us know that you were there. Follow us on Twitch where we'll be streaming tonight at 7:00 Pm EST. Also, follow us on Instagram for updates to our content schedules. Lastly, hop in our Discord to keep the conversation going and let us know what deck you're currently running in Standard. Thanks so much for reading and joining the Fellowship!
Deck
4 Bonecrusher Giant (ELD) 115
13 Mountain (KLR) 298
2 Ox of Agonas (THB) 147
4 Solemn Simulacrum (M21) 239
2 Scorching Dragonfire (ELD) 139
3 Shredded Sails (IKO) 136
1 Soul Sear (M21) 160
4 Spikefield Hazard (ZNR) 166
3 Irencrag Feat (ELD) 127
4 Shatterskull Smashing (ZNR) 161
3 Storm's Wrath (THB) 157
4 Mazemind Tome (M21) 232
4 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon (M21) 1
3 Radiant Fountain (M21) 248
4 Crawling Barrens (ZNR) 262
2 Fire Prophecy (IKO) 116
Sideboard
1 Soul Sear (M21) 160
3 Phoenix of Ash (THB) 148
1 Scorching Dragonfire (ELD) 139
1 Redcap Melee (ELD) 135
4 Robber of the Rich (ELD) 138
3 Soul-Guide Lantern (THB) 237
2 Chandra, Heart of Fire (M21) 135
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