My plan for Saturdays is to deconstruct my FNM matches from the night before, but before I can do that you should know the deck I'm playing. After the first FNM with that starter deck, I bought the Theros event deck, which is a white/blue midrange deck. I played with that for a month or so, and slowly modified it with cards I accumulated over the weeks. I never had much success with it, though. A month ago I decided to go for a completely new deck with a different strategy. This is the deck I decided to try: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/deck/1399
Mono-red aggro? Yes, please. Only 17 lands? That's crazy and I have to try it! I already had most of the cards, and the ones I didn't have were cheap. Except for Mutavault, which I just didn't play. I put a Lightning Strike in that spot. I've played this deck at least 15-20 times with some success, and have modified it to fit my play style and the meta here:
Creatures
4 Akroan Crusader
3 Ash Zealot
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
2 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Foundry Street Denizen
3 Legion Loyalist
4 Rakdos Cackler
1 Stormbreath Dragon
Other Spells
3 Dragon Mantle
3 Lightning Strike
3 Madcap Skills
4 Shock
3 Titan's Strength
Land
19 Mountains
Sideboard
1 Burning Earth
3 Firedrinker Satyr
1 Lightning Strike
1 Pithing Needle
2 Satyr Firedancer
2 Scouring Sands
3 Searing Blood
2 Skullcrack
The general idea with this deck is to get lots of creatures out in the first three turns, overwhelming the board and getting in for tons of damage by turn four, ending the game by turn six. One of my favorite openers is a turn one Foundry Street Denizen, with pretty much any two creatures on turn two, and getting in for three damage, then up to nine damage on turn three. Another one I like is a turn one Akroan Crusader, turn two Dragon Mantle or Titan's Strength on the crusader, making a haste soldier, and Legion Loyalist, attacking with all three with first strike.
Fanatic of Mogis and Stormbreath Dragon are my late-game insurance. If my opponent stabilizes by turn four or five, I had almost no chance with the original decklist. I found myself in several stalemates, with both my opponent and myself putting creatures on the board but not attacking. Enter Fanatic of Mogis. If I find myself with a stalled board and several creatures on the board, he becomes the finisher, doing up to six or seven damage. Stormbreath Dragon is essentially the same. The ability to surprise my opponent with four flying damage can swing a game pretty quick. Also, the monstrosity ability is nice, but I don't think I'll ever actually have the mana for it.
The sideboard breaks down to two sections for me: against creatures with Lightning Strike, Satyr Firedancer and Searing Blood, and against control with Burning Earth, Firedrinker Satyr, Pithing Needle, Scouring Sands and Skullcrack.
Against creature decks, I need ways to clear a path for my creatures and these cards do exactly that, while also doing damage to my opponent. Another Lightning Strike is one less creature I have to deal with or three damage to the face. With Satyr Firedancer, I send all my Lightning Strikes and Shocks to my opponents face which means they also clear out creatures for me. What can be better than that? How about using Searing Blood and Satyr Firedancer together. Two damage to kill your creature, which then does three damage to your face, which then bounces and kills your other creature. Swing for lethal? Good game.
Control is tough for this deck. They have answers for everything in my hand. They also tend to run mostly scry and shock lands, which is punished by Burning Earth. I try to speed up my game even further with Firedrinker Satyrs, which do a decent amount of damage for their mana cost. Also, most board sweeping cards don't actually do damage, so I don't have to worry about the satyr's drawback. Pithing Needle blanks your Jace or Elspeth. But just in case you still get your Elspeth soldier horde, Scouring Sands gets rid of it, and helps me set up my next turn. Skullcrack punishes Sphinx's Revelation and any Fog effect.
I've been pleased with this deck. It plays quickly, and gives me some interesting choices against my opponents. The area I've been wanting to grow the most lately is learning how to attack well. This deck cannot survive is I make any mistakes in combat, and has been a bit of trial by fire. I have improved quite a bit since I first put the deck together, and I think this deck will continue to push me to be a better player.
