Deck construction is an exciting part of card games. It allows you to flex your creativity and experiment with cards you enjoy playing. In this series I will go through each colour and give you a starting point for different types of decks.
Introduction
Deck construction is an exciting part of card games. It allows you to flex your creativity and experiment with cards you enjoy playing. In this series I will go through each colour and give you a starting point for different types of decks.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Red specialises in dealing damage to the board and your opponents Orb. This is achieved with powerful event cards, the combat mechanic and cost efficient creatures. Red is the best colour to respond to the board from your hand using powerful single target and area of effect cards. Cards like Bomb Slinger and Garudan have tremendous influence on controlling the board. However, Red is weak to creatures with high health totals. Red responds in damage and creatures with high health are the most difficult to handle due to the resources Red has to invest into destroying them.
Strengths
- Direct Damage from event cards and creatures
- Cost efficient aggressive creatures
- Combat mechanic
Weaknesses
- High health creatures
- No hard removal
Red Rush aka Angry Red
Red has a strong card pool to support a rush strategy. The direct damage from event cards like Flame Burst and Seifer’s Wrath offers removal and extended reach to finish a game off quickly. These cards are supported by cheap, high attack stat creatures that have strong interactions with each other. Shedim Pest and Hate Seed benefit greatly from creatures with a higher attack than health and Red has plenty to choose from.
Shedim Pest’s power up allows the card to apply enormous pressure but also contest higher cost creatures. Cards like Axe Grinder and Seifer’s Fodder activate Shedim Pest but also reduce the cost of Hate Seed. Hate Seed can have its cost reduced to 0 making it a powerful tempo play when trying to overrun your opponent. This tool set allows rush decks to be cost efficient with the bonus of having creatures with threatening stats.
The Mid-Range
Shedim Pest’s power up allows the card to apply enormous pressure but also contest higher cost creatures. Cards like Axe Grinder and Seifer’s Fodder activate Shedim Pest but also reduce the cost of Hate Seed. Hate Seed can have its cost reduced to 0 making it a powerful tempo play when trying to overrun your opponent. This tool set allows rush decks to be cost efficient with the bonus of having creatures with threatening stats.
Controlling the Faeria wells is an important game plan for any mid-range deck. The best way to achieve this is by having strong but cheap creatures to defend your position. Groundshaker and Seifer both 5/6 creatures that cost 6 Faeria. Groundshaker offers damage with his Gift effect where as Seifer threatens to grow into an unmanageable creature with powerful stats.
Another style of mid-range to consider is based around the Combat ability. Gift of Steel offers your creatures a lot durability which results in their combat abilities getting more mileage. Creatures like Grim Guard and Underground Brigand become mid-range threats when given a Gift of Steel.
Control and Burn
Control and Burn share the same game plan, stall your opponent to find your win condition. Control decks achieve this in a similar fashion to mid-range, control the Faeria wells and overwhelm your opponent with late game threats. Burn decks play far more defensive, chipping away at their opponents over time until a Flame Burst or Hellfire can finish their opponents.
Both decks control the board with damage based removal. Bomb Slinger is one of the best removal cards in the game because you gain a 4/1 creature along with the removal effect. This gives the card the potential for a two-for-one exchange. Blood Singer allows your removal to go even further by dealing damage to your opponent when their creatures die. Over the course of a match this damage starts to add bringing you further to bursting your opponent down for a victory.
Red Control has access to one of the most powerful legendary’s in the game. Garduan incinerates his foes by dealing 3 damage to all enemies. He’s a 6/6 Flying creature with Charge 2 making him a great Faeria harvester or aggressor to help push damage.
Conclusion
Red offers an explosive play-style with the best damage based cards in the game. Red is best for players who prefer a mid-range style and enjoy controlling the tempo of the match. Red makes great use of the neutral cards. Cards such as Outland Ranger, Syland Horsemaster and King’s Faithful are powerful inclusions in a Red deck.