Fire and Steel

Although people have had some success with tribal brews, and the new Sultai Energy is a strong deck, Temur Energy, Ramunap Red and the improved U/B Control came out on top during the World Championship. As an avid red mage I’m very happy to see RDW as one of the top decks of the format, even if not everyone else agrees with me. However, while mono-red can be a lot of fun to pilot it can be very limiting in terms of answers to aggro hate. High toughness creatures, lifegain and heavy removal can all put a spanner in the works just when you think you have the game won. Some players have already wised up to these potential issues and have adjusted their decks accordingly. Donald Smith was one such person that tried to innovate Ramunap Red this past weekend at the World Championship. While his ‘Treasure’ Red deck didn’t do as well as he would have liked, it did inspire me to experiment with the concept of Treasure in an aggressive package. What I came up with was a brew that has all the aggression of RDW, but with control elements to handle problematic match ups. So, without further ado let’s have a look at Treasure Aggro in Standard.

 

The deck shares a lot of similarities with its more established cousin Ramunap Red, except for one key difference – splashing black for creature recursion and Artifact synergy. Playsets of Bomat Courier, Earthshaker Khenra, and Ahn-Crop Crasher join three copies Hazoret the Fervent in our creature package. We also include playsets of Shock and Lightning Strike for non-creature spells, as well as Ramunap Ruins and two copies of Scavenger Grounds in the mana base. The first change we make is to replace Soul-Scar Mage with Inventor’s Apprentice to beenfit from our density of Artifacts. 

Speaking of Artifacts we have a playset of Scrapheap Scrounger as a recursive threat to help pile on the pressure. Two copies of Captain Lannery Storm will finish off our creature package. While there is an argument to be made for the inclusion of Pia Nalaar in this slot, Captain Storm if far more aggressive and will help us ramp up to more devastating threats with the treasure she creates. Finally, we will throw in a playset of Unlicensed Disintegration for some unconditional removal, and some free damage if we have one of our many Artifacts laying around.

 

For the mana base we have the above mentioned Ramunap Ruins and Scavenger Grounds, as well as a playset of Dragonskull Summit and a couple of Canyon Slough. We round out the mana base with two Spire of Industry for additional fixing, with eight Mountains and a single Swamp for our basics. In the sideboard we take two Duress and two Lost Legacy to disrupt control decks, and a couple of Claim // Fame to recur our prominent threats. Three Glorybringer and two Chandra, Torch of Defiance allow us to play a later game should the need arise. Finally, a couple copies of Abrade and Rampaging Ferocidon help deal with Artifacts and lifegain respectively.

Creatures (25)
4x Bomat Courier
4x Inventor’s Apprentice
4x Earthshaker Khenra
4x Scrapheap Scrounger
4x Ahn-Crop Crasher
2x Captain Lannery Storm
3x Hazoret the Fervent

Instant (12)
4x Shock
4x Lightning Strike
4x Unlicensed Disintegration

Lands (23)
4x Dragonskull Summit
2x Canyon Slough
4x Ramunap Ruins
2x Scavenger Grounds
2x Spire of Industry
8x Mountain
1x Swamp

Sideboard (15)
2x Duress
2x Claim // Fame
2x Lost Legacy
3x Glorybringer
2x Abrade
2x Rampaging Ferocidon
2x Chandra, Torch of Defiance

And there you have Treasure Aggro for Standard! The deck has all the explosive power of Ramunap Red, with all the trickery of Black thrown in for good measure. Now there are a few cards that I haven’t included in the list above that could easily have made the cut, such as Pia Nalaar or Heart of Kiran, but this is the most aggressive version of the deck I have tested and I am confident in its power level. What do you think? Is this the kinda of deck you like? Would you change up anything if you were to take it to an FNM of PPTQ? Why not get in touch and let us know! If you have enjoyed today’s article and want to read more, then please subscribe as well as like and share on social media, it really does us help grow the site. But until next time remember, Good Luck and Have Fun.

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