by Lime Blue Cube

Created on: August 08, 2008   Last Updated: November 25, 2008

Welcome to this installment of Building on a Budget - Helium Edition. This series will specialize in creating excellent Magic: The Gathering decks, without any rares! That's right, none at all. These decks are intended to be the new magic player's first competitive deck. They should be relatively easy to assemble from both boosters and singles.

Todays format is Standard or Type 2. This means that only cards from Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, Future Sight, 10th Edition, Coldsnap, Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor and Eventide will be allowed. Today we will be building a Red Deck Wins variant. This means that it will use mostly cheap, red burn spells to deal damage to the opponent.

1 Drops:

The first is the classic Burn spell, Shock. It serves as a great first-turn play, and can quickly deal damage. We'll be including lots of cards like this in the deck.

But wait, there's another card that's virtually identical to Shock that's also in Standard. I speak of Lorwyn's Goblin Instant, Tarfire. That's right, we'll be playing, in essence, 8 Shocks.

This deck will play very few creatures, but there are a few that serve as cards that explicitly further the damage you can deal to your opponent. This first one is Mogg Fanatic. It comes down early, so you'll probably be swinging in for a few points of damage in the first few turns. When he becomes useless, you can sacrifice him to send one last point to your opponent.

Another burn spell that packs a lot of punch for a single mana is Shard Volley. Of course, you'll need to sacrifice a land, but this deck actually needs very few lands to win a game.

I'm classifying Rift Bolt as a one drop because most often you'll be playing it for the one mana suspend cost, so you can use your other lands to pay for even more burn. Waiting for just a single turn to get 3 damage is well worth the wait.

2 Drops:

Keldon Marauders is the only other creature we'll play, because in most cases, it will be 2 mana for 5 damage, and that's too good a deal to pass up.

Sudden Shock is a more expensive version of Shock. However, during the late game, your opponent will have saved up counterspells for those final burn points. With sudden shock, you don't have to worry about your opponent being able to dodge your last burn spell.

Incinerate is just another one of your standard burn spells that is included in every burn deck, so a playset of those is a must in our build.
3 Drops:

Browbeat is a card that is frowned upon by most of the Magic playing community. However, it will deal 5 damage or 3 more cards, which will deal a lot more than 5 damage. It's a win-win situation.

Flame Javelin is the biggest burn spell we have, and it can easily take a fifth of your opponent's life for a small 3-mana investments.

Lands:
Aside from some basic mountains, we'll play a playset of Keldon Megaliths so as to increase the rate of burn even after we've used all the cards in our hand.

And with that, here is the final decklist.

Mono-Red Deck Wins on a Budget: 60 Cards

Creatures: 8
Keldon Marauders x4
Mogg Fanatic x4

Other Spells: 32
Browbeat x4
Flame Javelin x4
Incinerate x4
Rift Bolt x4
Shard Volley x4
Shock x4
Tarfire x4
Sudden Shock x4
Tarfire x4

Lands: 20
Keldon Megaliths x4
Mountain x16

Have Fun, and Happy Gaming!

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