MOM's Daily Deck Tech: Budget Burn and Jet-Set Red

We conclude our daily deck tech series on a double feature about two very different monored decks. Both are Standard decks, both are aggressive, and admittedly they share a few cards too. But their endgame differs by a lot, and each is appealing in its own way. More burn or more beatdown? You have the choice!

invasion - sword

This doesn't just mark the end of daily March of the Machine articles. It also marks the end of a deeply crimson-colored week, after Monday's monored Commander entry, Tuesday's token shenanigans, Wednesday's card draw frenzy, and Thursday's Phoenix action.

If you're running the red in Standard these days, there's no way around , , , , , and . These cards alone can easily cut an opponent's life total in half within the first few turns. How you take the other half is what's up for discussion. The cheapest and most direct option is—now, thanks to March—direct damage: Cast one each of and , and that's 8 life right there. Add , and it's 10.

The Flamebreather has surpassed all expectations in my testing. In the burn build it routinely acts like a that costs a mere two mana. Being a creature has its disadvantages of course, but once you tap the 1/3 for convoke you'll come to cherish the advantages too. Speaking of pings, the neatest advantage of them all must be Invasion of Regatha's ability to deal 1 to one's own Feldon. 4 damage to the opponent for three mana as a cantrip? That's positively preposterous!

The burn deck is the best choice for quotidian Arena play in multiple respects: Games rarely take longer than a handful of minutes, the whole main deck requires all of six rare wildcards at most, and it's basically impossible to lose certain matchups—or to lose at all on certain draws on the play.

However, if you want to do well in tournaments, you might want to invest in a few more rares, as evidenced by Swiftclaw_'s success at the first Standard Challenge in the new format. They combined with eight fliers, an additional , and eleven instants/sorceries for two or fewer mana.

Both decks are extremely unfair in their own regard. Enjoy!

Monored Burn, Standard
Main Deck
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Monored Swordbearers by Swiftclaw_, 4th at Standard Challenge, April 22
Main DeckSideboard
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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, not of Cardmarket.