As fun as Magic is to play, sometimes it can be a bit difficult to invest into certain formats. Standard’s rotation makes it tough to keep up with financially, and most non-rotating formats have very few budget-friendly competitive options.
Fortunately, one incredibly cheap archetype is starting to gain some traction in Pioneer. This deck is super fast and can be purchased in its entirety for under $60! Its recent top eight finish in a Magic Online Pioneer Challenge showcases its competitive viability. If you enjoy beating down and don’t want to spend a lot of money, mono-red Thud has you covered.
Threats
- Mana Value: R
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Stats: 1/1
- Card Type: Creature- Mouse Soldier
- MTG Sets: Bloomburrow
- Card Text: Valiant– Whenever Heartfire Hero becomes the target of a spell or ability you control for the first time each turn, put a +1/+1 counter on it. When Heartfire Hero dies, it deals damage equal to its power to each opponent.
The basis of this deck is rather simple: attack the opponent for boatloads of damage and reduce their life total as fast as possible. Every threat in the maindeck (as well as every spell) costs only one mana.
Not only does this ensure you can curve out quickly, but it also enables you to utilize Obosh, the Preypiercer as a Companion. Most games won’t last long enough for you to make use of the big Hellion Horror. Nonetheless, it’s a nice luxury to have versus Fatal Push decks that may have a tough time killing it.
Moving onto the threats, there are five major turn-one plays this deck is looking to make. At the top of the list, we have Kumano Faces Kakkazan. Kumano Faces Kakkazan has been a premium staple of red aggressive strategies for a while, and this deck is no exception.
Kumano paves the way nicely for your other threats as well. This includes Soul-Scar Mage and Monastery Swiftspear, two other strong plays that benefit from your high density of spells. Soul-Scar Mage isn’t as robust as creatures like Emberheart Challenger you’ll typically see out of Rakdos Prowess, but this deck is going to the extreme and values efficiency over raw power.
This becomes immediately evident when you notice the inclusion of Cacophony Scamp in conjunction with Heartfire Hero. By itself, Cacophony Scamp is mediocre at best. With enough support, though, it becomes an incredibly scary beater. And don’t worry, there are plenty of pump spells to get Cacophony Scamp going.
Spells
- Mana Value: R
- Rarity: Common
- Card Type: Instant
- MTG Sets: Duskmourn
- Card Text: Target creature gets +3/+0 until end of turn. When it dies this turn, manifest dread. (Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one of them onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature and the other into your graveyard. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it’s a creature card.)
Now that we’ve covered the primary threats in the deck, it’s time to take a look at the ways to make them more menacing. As we mentioned, there are a lot of pump spells in the deck, all of which fill a similar role.
Monstrous Rage is definitely the best of the bunch. Giving Trample makes it nearly impossible for your opponent to block in a profitable manner.
After that, we have Turn Inside Out. Turn Inside Out is a decent upgrade for this style of deck that’s all in on a handful of creatures to cross the finish line. This card has a lot more flexibility compared to a card like Built to Smash, which has appeared in similar shells before.
For example, if your opponent goes to Fatal Push your Heartfire Hero while you have a mana up, casting Turn Inside Out is a decent option. Not only does your opponent take a bunch of extra damage, but you also get a 2/2 for your troubles.
One of the weaknesses of a deck like this is that your opponent can leave you stranded with a bunch of useless pump spells if they successfully answer all your threats. Being able to cash in Turn Inside Out for some damage and another attacker is a big help. From there, Titan’s Strength and Infuriate give you a healthy slew of pump spells to help you rack up damage.
Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about Thud. Thud fulfills a similar purpose as Callous Sell-Sword. Following a big attack, you can sacrifice your biggest creature and finish off your opponent.
Thud is brutal in conjunction with Heartfire Hero and Cacophony Scamp especially. As long as you can make your copy of Heartfire Hero or Cacophony Scamp large enough, you can cast Thud, and your opponent will take a lot of damage both from the Thud itself as well as the creature’s death trigger. Thud lets you win the game as early as turn three.
Winning on a Budget
- Mana Value: R
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Stats: 1/2
- Card Type: Creature- Human Monk
- MTG Sets: Khans of Tarkir, Iconic Masters, Time Spiral Remastered, Double Masters 2022, The Brother’s War
- Card Text: Haste. Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
While red aggro decks are nothing new to Pioneer, it is unusual to see a deck this cheap have this level of success. The total cost of the deck is under $60. You can easily cut this cost down even further by trimming copies of Urabrask’s Forge from the sideboard.
This is also a perfect deck to start with on MTG Arena. The deck only plays 12 rares. Outside of Soul-Scar Mage and Obosh, the rares are pretty replaceable, too. With Pioneer now a supported format on Arena, you can craft this deck without investing many Wildcards.
Obviously, there are some downsides to playing this deck over the more traditional Rakdos Prowess builds. For instance, missing out on powerful options like Thoughtseize can make it a bit tougher to beat problematic answers such as Temporary Lockdown. Also, with such a high density of pump spells, Fatal Push decks are of higher concern.
That being said, there are some benefits to playing this build. The pump spells line up very well against damage-based removal, which is prevalent out of Izzet Phoenix and red aggro pseudo-mirrors. Having all your creatures cost one mana makes it even easier to race combo decks as well.
The biggest upside here, though, is that you don’t have to worry about constructing a pricy manabase. No dual lands of any kind are needed here. If cost is any concern, consider giving this deck a whirl.