Re-visiting Skred Red

A short while ago, just before the State Championship tournaments, this article space was dedicated to a goofy red deck centered around the snow mechanic which I was intending to bring to battle with me at the Iowa State Championships. At that time it was assumed the deck was good (or it wouldn't have taken up article space) but likely a one-trick pony that would simply be outclassed following Champs. For some reason, however, the deck struck a chord with players and it managed to earn spots in the Top 8 of tournaments all over the country as well as winning the championship in both Iowa and Nebraska. Since that time it has remained popular on Magic Online so it seemed, some two months later, appropriate for another look at Skred Red.

Deck Name: Skred Red
10 Snow-Covered Mountains
4 Tresserhorn Sinks
4 Scrying Sheets
4 Mouth of Ronom
2 Molten Slagheap
4 Coldsteel Heart

4 Stalking Yeti
4 Martyr of Ashes
4 Shriekmaw
3 Chandra Nalaar

4 Incinerate
4 Molten Disaster
3 Dead//Gone
2 Disintegrate
4 Skred

Where the heck is Stuffy Doll?

It's the first thing everyone to date has said of the new list, after their eyes stop bugging out of their head in shock. Yes Stuffy Doll was an integral part of the deck, originally, but the 0/1's time has come and gone (though as the metagame continues to cycle, it will become good again).

Let's be clear about one thing, first and foremost: Skred Red is not, nor has it ever been “a Stuffy Doll deck.” In the piece before States it was said, and bears repeating, “the deck is not a Stuffy combo deck, but a deck that combos with Stuffy.” At that point in time the format wasn't willing to consider the 0/1 indestructible creature a relevant threat, let alone prepare to beat it. Things have changed and Stuffy has gotten gradually worse.

First, nearly every deck with removal has removal that can kill Stuffy. Oblivion Ring, Nameless Inversion, Crib Swap, even Serrated Arrows are all waiting in the wings to bash the 0/1 to bits. How is that any different than at States? The answer is a bit complex. States often trends towards mid-range creature decks and mopey “big spell” decks that beat up on the untuned aggro and control decks, the first because they're not aggressive enough and the second because they're not certain what facets of the game they're supposed to be controlling. By the time Grand Prix-Krakow rolled around all that had changed. The aggressive decks had become either hyper-aggressive (like RG) or disruptively aggressive (UG Faeries). The control decks, meanwhile, had become entirely more focused.

So how does that make Stuffy Doll worse? Against the aggro decks you no longer have a marquee threat that shuts down their offense; instead you have a 5-mana turn-waster that eats their 2-3 mana removal spell while they put the final bash on until you stop twitching. The control decks, meanwhile, are happily countering your horrifically expensive spell or, God Forbid, stealing it with Guile. Game after game Skred Red would trade early burn for threats as it always had in the past, then play Stuffy ready to stabilize only to see that plan fall flat on its face and its life total quickly dwindle. Something had to be done.

Enter the Maw

One of the reasons Skred Red was so great headed into States was its particular resilience to the new kid on the Nekrataal block, Shriekmaw. It's almost comical, then, that we turn to exactly that card to replace Stuffy Doll, but it shouldn't be too surprising. Shriekmaw replicates what Stuffy did very well. Providing a win condition? Check, even if a 3/2 with fear isn't quite as exciting as comboing Skreds onto the ole' Stuffster. Nullifying Tarmogoyf? Check, but instead of having to stick around in play Shriekmaw actually justs bins the infamous 0/1 dealing with the problem whether your opponent has Nameless Inversion or not. All that and for less than half the price (in a pinch) and we're more than happy to make the switch.

The important thing to remember is that Skred Red is a control deck, even though it plays Mountains. Stuffy Doll provided you with a win condition that could halt an opponent's attack before turning the tide in your favor in an environment with little counter magic to speak of. That format no longer exists and as a result we need to find a card which does what Stuffy did but taking into account the new design constraints. Shriekmaw is an excellent solution, halting an opponent's attack in a different manner than Stuffy Doll while still providing us with a win condition. Is it as big and splashy? No. Does big and splashy inherently mean more wins at Magic? Of course not. So Shriekmaw it is.

The Matchups

Guile

At Grand Prix-Krakow the French players debuting the Guile deck, sometimes called Sonic Boom, felt they were favored in the Skred Red matchup. That might have been true at the time, but that no longer seems to be the case. There are two primary reasons for that and they are the Guile deck's painfully slow clock and Molten Disaster.

It's really rather simple. The Guile deck is seeking to stop its opponents plays with countermagic, Desert, and large threats like Teferi and Guile or by a bounce and re-counter with Venser. The majority of spells in Skred Red cost less to play than the counters from the blue mage and some of the most important card in the matchup are simply not counterable. Your draw engine (Scrying Sheets), your primary win condition (Molten Disaster), your big-mana engine (Molten Slagheap), even your answer to Teferi (Mouth of Ronom) are all outside the Arena in which Guile is trying to force you to interact in.

For these reasons Skred Red, unbelievable as it sounds, is the control deck. Your entire goal in the match is to create a life advantage, any life advantage (even just a single point!), then sit back keeping the board cleared, maintaining your lead, and then eventually split seconding a Molten D that puts the Island fiend out of their misery.

There are some key cards which allow you to do this, first and foremost the cards most likely to provide you with the life advantage: Martyr of Ashes and Incinerate. A first turn Martyr provides an attacking threat that sneaks in under the countermagic and must be answered with Desert. Incinerate is a great response to an early Think Twice while the Guile player is tapped out, or to set up an early Disintegrate/second Incinerate to resolve on your turn. That play comes up against a Guile player in the know in which you Incinerate them at the end of the second turn, they counter with Faerie Trickery or Rune Snag tapping themselves out, then you resolve the other burn spell safely on your turn.

Games usually play out with you posturing for advantage early, then sitting back and accruing cards and mana with Scrying Sheets and eventually Molten Slagheap, all the while holding off on things like Shriekmaw, Stalking Yeti, and Chandra until the time is right. Meanwhile the Guile opponent will attempt to build up their hand with Think Twice and Ancestral Visions, then eventually attempt a creature. It's important that you manage to stick a Mouth of Ronom with the requisite mana by this point to prevent getting Lightning Bolted by Teferi; while not impossible to battle through the 3-point swing in life, it's a whole lot easier to not have to. A resolved Martyr of Ashes will also provide security against the 3/4.

As the game goes longer and longer and manabases become more and more cluttered, you will begin to blank Rune Snag and weaken your opponent's ability to stop your threats. At some point, when Guile is NOT in play, you may attempt to resolve something like Chandra Nalaar or a medium sized Disintegrate in order to start getting ahead. The historical game plan of “unleash a bunch of burn end of turn, untap and resolve a large threat” for red versus blue is applicable here, and proves why the plan has been so successful in the past.

Your solutions to Guile are plentiful and efficient. You should not have creatures on the board when they play the 6/6 meaning a Spelljack on your Skred is worthless; the only legal target is their 6/6 and they certainly don't want that dead or they wouldn't be using counters. An evoked Shriekmaw is also a fine answer, and part of the reason the 3/2 made the cut into the deck. Terror costs less than Cryptic Command and Faerie Trickery and often Rune Snag is irrelevant by the time you're evoking so it's highly likely that if you need to kill Guile, Guile will be dead. Also, because Guile is still the only target for Shriekmaw and the comes-into-play effect is not optional, the blue player can't afford to counter your creature and replay it without trading their 6/6 in.

Mannequin

The matchup against Mannequin can be challenging, but isn't necessarily bad. Your long term plan is to control the flow of the game from the creature front while matching your opponent in cards with Sheets and two-for-ones, then resolving Chandra and charging her to eight. To accomplish this you must carefully utilize your resources. Try to trade Martyr of Ashes for Phyrexian Ironfoot or Teferi, save spot removal for flying threats and in particular Faerie Conclave, utilize Stalking Yeti and Shriekmaw on Venser, Riftwing Cloudskate, Mulldrifter, Shadowmage Infiltrator, and their Shriekmaws whenever possible (being aware that only the Yeti can handle the last two). Hold Mouth of Ronom and Skred for Phyrexian Ironfoot and Teferi (particularly Mouth for Teferi), and try not to Molten Disaster unless you must to maintain your life total. Sheets when you can and don't be afraid of your opponent using their mini-suite of bounce effects to return Chandra. She will resolve eventually and when she does, she will cause problems.

Typically you find yourself behind in this matchup only when your opponent lands an early Phyrexian Ironfoot and you struggle to find an answer. Yes they draw a fair amount of cards with Mulldrifter, but a single Drifter can be nullified by a Stalking Yeti + their removal spell and your draw engine, unlike theirs, costs only mana not cards. Over time you will outdraw them, you simply need to find ways to force the game to go long.

That said there are a few tricks it is important to remember against the deck. Reserve Disintegrate for their Epochrasites; the 1/1 can be problematic and the X-spell is your only permanent answer. If you fail to draw it, you're best off ignoring the little bugger and soaking up 1 damage each turn. Make sure to play around Makeshift Mannequin when possible as their board being clear does not equate to “swing away” with whatever 3-powered creature you manage to land as a Mannequin for Ironfoot can really throw a wrench in your plans. Finally, and most importantly, you must monitor your life total to guard against Profane Command. The X-spell is one of the most important developments to come out of States that has impacted Skred Red. Previously decks needed to play Mountains to have any reach against you with burn, but players who realized Profane Command's power bear that statement false. You can actually be at risk against the Mannequin player at a moderately high life total so once you establish control of the game, go to town on their life before they hit one of their two outs to do the same to you.

The Mirror

Unfortunately adapting to the new metagame means shifting away focus on some matchups in order to be favored in others. The Skred Red mirror is one in which you lose ground this time around. Not having Stuffy Doll is a huge blow in that it prevents you from benefiting from Molten Disaster, quickly comboing them with a fortunate Skred draw, and preventing them from utilizing the effects of Molten Disaster and Martyr of Ashes.

Still, we do have some tricks at our disposal to try to make a game of it, and the most important is Dead//Gone. Many Skred Red lists are removing the flexible Shock from their maindecks though that play seems entirely wrong. The flexibility of the spell is impossible to Recoup from something like Shock or Tarfire even if those two can go to the head, and it's one of the key cards to winning the mirror. Opponent played Stuffy Doll with a single red up? Slump dejectedly, then counter their Skred by bouncing Stuffy at the end of your turn when they excitedly try to 6 ya'. Or simply put the problematic artifact back into their hand so you can attack around it.

Aside from careful resource management in the first game (hold those Dead//Gones!), Skred Red is a matchup best evened out in the sideboard. An anti-burn package of 4 Bottle Gnomes and 4 Loxodon Warhammers for Skred Red and RG is something that has seen some success with Hammer serving to provide “evasion” for your creatures against Stuffy Doll and Bottle Gnome providing you an additional life cushion as well as another warm body to Hammer your opponent. Serrated Arrows was a card Brandon Scheel used for the mirror in the finals of the Iowa State Championships and one which is still relevant though perhaps more narrow than I'd like in other matchups (though it does kill Faerie Conclaves against Mannequin…). Flowstone Slide is another card that's been considered as it answers Stuffy Doll, Paladin en-Vec/Soltari Priest/Burrenton Forge Tender, and Albino Troll as well as occasionally allowing you to pump your team and swing for an unexpected win. The only problem is that it's very expensive though it does swap out nicely for Molten Disaster in the matchups in which that card is sub-par.

Pickles

The Pickles matchup has stayed about the same as it was for States, even with the addition of white. Your removal is simply too much for them to hope to lock you, moreso now with Shriekmaw, and for the most part you can play the matchup as you would against Guile. However as friend Blu McFarlane found out at States while playing Skred Red against Matt “Cheeks” Hansen and his Pickles list, you have to be a bit more careful than you would against Guile. Tapping out to use all your fancy lands at the end of turn could leave you red faced following a Teferi, then Brine and Shapeshifter lock. The moral of the story? Don't get greedy.

Instead, sit back accruing an advantage in land and cards with Scrying Sheets, Coldsteel Heart, and charge lands burning what creatures they play as they present themselves. Remember that Pickles as a deck has swapped counters for more creatures, good news for Skred Red as it's designed to win creature battles consistently while not as designed for the counter war. Over the long term you'll want to resolve Chandra and let that do the work for you, or else save up a huge Molten Disaster blast. Do not simply run Martyr of Ashes into play if your opponent is playing the white version as their removal (like Oblivion Ring) can nab the 1/1 which in turn is very good at cheaply wrathing the board. Unless, of course, you're running cover for Chandra in which case that play is just fine.

The Sideboard

Normally these articles come with a pre-set sideboard tested for an environment and ready to go. We've stayed away from that today and for a simple reason: the metagame, depending on what environment you're playing in, is pretty fluid right now. The professional community (aka “q'ed for Worlds”) might consider the deck a solid choice for their metagame which was filled with control decks the last time out (Grand Prix-Krakow). The online metagame is apparently more filled with, well, Skred Red in which case the above version of the deck is not the best choice and the sideboard of the deck would have to be built with that in mind, if not having the maindeck altered a bit. Finally potential new kids on the block like a return of red Storm decks could necessitate things like Thorn of Amethyst and/or handkill in the sideboard.

So what are some options? Against the control decks it still seems best to force them to play in an Arena they're not comfortable in and that means uncounterable threats/answers. What are some of the things that fall under this category? Redkroma, Detritivore's suspend effect, Urza's Factory, potentially even Shock and Tarfire which are hard for the control players to spend cards and mana answering though they are not technically uncounterable. Additionally other lands to help you accrue a lead on mana, particularly charage lands, provide you with the ability to get to your ultimate plan in these matchups: a huge Molten Disaster. The most important card, however, is probably Krosan Grip.

Wait…Krosan Grip? But you're not even playing green!

True, but we're not very far from doing so. A number of control players have begun recognizing the problematic cards in the Skred Red matchup with prime suspect numero uno being Scrying Sheets. Accordingly they have begun sideboarding Pithing Needle to put an end to those shenanigans, and for good reason. K Grip gives us an indefensible answer to the $20 rare plus a free excuse to run more charge lands in the sideboard in the form of Fungal Reaches. It might be prudent to run something like this, for right now:

4 Fungal Reaches
3 Krosan Grip

It is important to keep in mind in that scenario that Coldsteel Heart doesn't necessarily need to be set to either red or black, and that we should keep open the possibility of setting it to green if we're not there on mana. The cards to sideboard out depend on the matchup but usually the expensive stuff like Chandra and Stalking Yeti, neither of which do much against a deck like Guile, can go.

As for the creature matchups we've already alluded to the Skred Red mirror with the anti-burn package of Loxodon Warhammer and Bottle Gnomes. Both of those cards buy us some time and cushion that most precious of resources in those matchups: our life total. It's key to board the extra attacker in against burn to ensure someone is always willing to pick up a piece of equipment and charge across the red zone for a relevant amount of damage. For a time under this plan even Stuffy Doll would occasionally pick up the Hammer and go to town before the switch was made to Shriekmaw. Anything to counter the effects of burn, which leaves us with this sideboard:

Skred Red Bill Stark

Main Deck:
3 Chandra Nalaar
4 Martyr of Ashes
4 Shriekmaw
4 Stalking Yeti
4 Coldsteel Heart
3 Dead // Gone
2 Disintegrate
4 Incinerate
4 Molten Disaster
4 Skred
2 Molten Slagheap
4 Mouth of Ronom
4 Scrying Sheets
10 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Tresserhorn Sinks
Sideboard:
4 Bottle Gnomes
4 Fungal Reaches
3 Krosan Grip
4 Loxodon Warhammer

It remains to be seen if that's the best option or if there isn't something more nuanced that can do both jobs as good or better, but we've got a start.

Well, that's all for this week. Again, I'll see some of you at the PTQ in Chicago this weekend (feel free to say hi!) and if you're going to be at Worlds I'll be there doing coverage so feel free to look me up then as well.

Thanks for reading.

-Bill Stark
Assistant editor, TCGplayer.com