I was feeling a little spicy heading into our monthly and waited till the last minute to decide what to play. I’d been playing a bit of Mono Red Control at our casual meetups, and it’s done reasonably well. I always enjoy playing it.

Rather than going back to Moneyball or the Rock, which I’ve been tinkering with forever, I wanted to try something a bit unexpected.

The Deck

The list is pretty much what Neon Mushroom had been playing on his channel, with a few tweaks to the board.

The typical Premodern burn deck plays fast and goes straight to the dome. This deck is not that. It has a sizable burn package, but you’re not trying to win quickly. You’re trying to win eventually.

You also aren’t Ponza. You have [[Pillage]], [[Wasteland]], and [[Dust Bowl]], but it doesn’t feel all-in. The land destruction is more like light disruption that punishes greedy mana bases and nerfs busted lands.

You want the game to go long, use your sweepers to clear the way for manlands, and let the residual burn finish things off. When you win, you feel it, because you grinded it out.

# Main Deck

## Creatures
2 Shard Phoenix
1 Masticore

## Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
4 Pillage
4 Powder Keg
4 Nevinyrral's Disk
3 Firebolt
3 Slice and Dice
3 Phyrexian Furnace
2 Starstorm
2 Hammer of Bogardan

## Lands
12 Mountain
4 Ghitu Encampment
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Wasteland
2 Thawing Glaciers
1 Dust Bowl

# Sideboard

3 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Sulfuric Vortex
2 Pyroclasm
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Zuran Orb
1 Well of Life
1 Overload

Round 1: Josh on Enchantress

When you’re playing off meta, you need to get into a rhythm. Across from me was Josh, definitely on the big bad enchantress. Winning here could be the spark. Let’s go.

Game 1

I drew my seven and it was a snap keep when I saw [[Slice and Dice]], [[Nevinyrral’s Disk]], good mana and a [[Mishra’s Factory]]. If all went well (lol), I’d slice his [[Argothian Enchantress::Enchantress]] and start the pressure before he’s eventually back online - then [[Nevinyrral’s Disk::Disk]] away all the bullshit and grind it out.

No [[Exploration]], no [[Mirri’s Guile::Guile]], but he started doing his thing with an [[Argothian Enchantress::Enchantress]].

Perfect, [[Slice and Dice::Slice]] to slow him down and start chipping. But I’m greedy. He couldn’t use it straight away, and I had a feeling he was going to play another, so I held it up. Sure enough, he slams another one down and I’m able to nab them both. He does manage to get a [[Wild Growth]] down before I get priority, netting some cards.

Draw engine-less, I start burning and pressuring with multiple [[Mishra’s Factory::Factories]]. I get him down to 1 before he stabilizes with a couple [[Swords to Plowshares::Swords]] and a [[Seal of Cleansing::Seal]]. He assembles the [[Opalescence::Opal]] alpha strike, I fail to rip a burn spell, and he narrowly takes game 1.

This was a long, tense game and honestly felt like a win after having watched him get sliced on stream the night before. But it takes more than that to rattle Josh.

Game 2

With the amount of time left, I was already thinking the best I could do might be a draw.

I boarded in a fair bit. I went for 3x [[Ensnaring Bridge]], [[Tormod’s Crypt]], and 2x [[Sulfuric Vortex]]. Creatures out, no sense riding that wave. Drop some [[Nevinyrral’s Disk::Disks]] going all in on the you can’t attack with all your scary enchantment men.

I kept a hand on a [[Slice and Dice]], [[Nevinyrral’s Disk::Disk]], and a prayer. I doubted he’d walk into it twice, and he did not. This time he manages to assemble 3x [[Enchantress’s Presence]] and proceeds to take the most game actions. Let’s just say he’s discarding down to seven every turn.

I’m chipping in with burn spells, but it’s a ways out. Then he slams an [[Opalescence]] and swings for 11. I take it on the chin knowing I can hard cast [[Slice and Dice]] and rain on his parade.

He [[Replenish::Replenishes]] everything back, and I get to do it again. The second [[Slice and Dice]] followed by [[Tormod’s Crypt]] felt incredible.

From there, I’m holding my second [[Ensnaring Bridge::Bridge]] in case he has another [[Seal of Cleansing::Seal]], waiting for the right window to land [[Sulfuric Vortex]], start recurring [[Hammer of Bogardan::Hammer]], and finally burn him out.

Sadly, we go to time. Game 2 ends in a draw, with Josh narrowly keeping [[Solitary Confinement]] alive long enough to dodge what I still think was otherwise a dubya for the good guys.

Well fought, sir. We talked about it the rest of the night. Matches like this are what keep us coming back.

Record: 0-1 (0-1-1)

Round 2: Johnathan on Grow

First time meeting Johnathan. He’s been coming around for a while now, but we’ve never really gotten a chance to play.

He was actually playing Mono Red Control last monthly! Excellent opponent.

Game 1

It’s pretty clear he’s on Grow after racing out multiple [[Quirion Dryad::Quirion Dryads]].

I’m able to make quick work of them before they get out of reach. Then [[Psychatog]] comes down.

I was already building a [[Powder Keg::Keg]] and was able to get rid of it after a few points of damage.

Then another one comes down, and I let this one go because I was applying man land pressure while trying to build up enough mana to land a sweeper.

That sweeper was countered and I got Togged for 20. I think we were both a little surprised he had it, but after a clever [[Gemstone Mine]] sac, he certainly did.

Game 2

I brought in the obvious blue blasts, [[Tormod’s Crypt]]. I also reached for some life gain in [[Well of Life]] and [[Zuran Orb]] to throw off the Tog math.

I kept a hand with two [[Phyrexian Furnace::Furnaces]] thinking I could deplete his graveyard to neuter the [[Psychatog::Togs]].

He wisely took out the [[Quirion Dryad::Dryads]] and [[Swords to Plowshares::Swords]]. He landed a [[Psychatog::Tog]] again. I missed an opportunity to blast it, but it turned out he had [[Foil]] backup anyway, so it wouldn’t have mattered.

He cantripped his face off, but I kept the yard clean. He saw a few [[Seal of Cleansing]], which made my “artifacts that sit around” plan really awkward. He demonstrated amazing discipline and didn’t use them until the exact right moment.

He burns through the [[Phyrexian Furnace::Furnaces]] and eventually starts to build up a bit of a yard. I thought I had more time but after [[Gush]] into [[Gush]] I got Togged for 17.

Record: 0-2 (0-3-1)

Round 3: Jimmy on Suicide Black

Another new opponent!

I was hoping to play Suicide Black at the event. I just had a [[Dauthi Horror]] altered by Jeff Laubenstein and was dying to get it into play. Sadly, my [[Hatred::Hatreds]] didn’t arrive in time, and I didn’t make the time to put it together.

That’s all to say I was happy to see someone had it in action. Unfortunately it’s a rough go against Mono Red Control.

Game 1

I was on the play and kept a hand with a [[Lightning Bolt::Bolt]], [[Nevinyrral’s Disk::Disk]] and [[Powder Keg::Keg]]. He opens with [[Duress]], grabbing the [[Lightning Bolt::Bolt]] and I’m sweating. All my removal is slow now and he’s playing multiple copies of [[Hatred]].

He goes in on [[Skittering Skirge]] and cheats out some Zombies past the [[Skittering Skirge::Skirge]] via [[Sarcomancy]]. I take a beating but eventually draw into some burn and get a [[Powder Keg::Keg]] online.

I finally draw into some removal and burn down the [[Skittering Skirge::Skirge]]. I land a [[Masticore]] at the right time and am able to keep the board clean while I work on getting to lethal (which is not fast in this deck).

Game 2

[[Pyroclasm::Pyroclasms]], [[Zuran Orb]], and [[Well of Life]] in, swapping out [[Thawing Glaciers]] and some [[Pillage]] — no time for that.

He kept an absolutely terrifying [[Hatred]] hand. Two [[Dark Ritual::Dark Rituals]], [[Hatred]], loads of hand disruption to buy time. Just needed a threat.

Sadly, the deck did him dirty. Rather than bodies, he got lands.

So it goes sometimes. Fun match and good conversation.

Record: 1-2 (2-3-1)

Round 4 - JJ on Moneyball

Ah, Moneyball. One of my favorite decks to play, and I think this is just a good matchup for me. It’s very susceptible to sweepers and removal if you can get past the initial disruption — especially if I can start recurring cards.

Game 1

He opened with a [[Duress]], as you do, and stripped my [[Lightning Bolt::Bolt]] leaving me exposed until I could get a [[Powder Keg::Keg]] online.

He then lands [[Nantuko Shade::Shade]]. At this point he starts to flood a bit, so that [[Nantuko Shade::Shade]] could become a problem quickly.

Fortunately the [[Powder Keg::Keg]] came to the rescue and I was able to stabilize and draw into enough removal to keep the Oakland A’s at bay long enough to burn him down.

Game 2

We both kept land-light hands, so the game felt a bit wonky. I was able to dig out of it with [[Thawing Glaciers]] unlocking the sweepers.

Sweepers and spot removal did their thing and I was able to get there with man lands and burn.

Record: 2-2 (4-3-1)

Wrap up

31 people playing Premodern on a Tuesday. Just amazing.

Saw a handful of new faces, played new opponents, and holy shit was there a wide spread of decks — even overheard folks finding us from having watched Buckeye Brawl content!

The deck felt super strong into black, which there’s usually a decent amount of in our meta. I want to play the matchup a bit more, but going in cold I also felt like we had more game against enchantress than I expected.

There’s no delusion that Mono Red Control is suddenly going to put up top tier numbers every week. But without Parallax Tide in the mix, and with a little luck from the matchup gods, it can hang.

More importantly, it’s a blast to play.

Play more off-meta decks. It throws off the big guys, and it’s fun to be the underdog sometimes.