Seeing Red

Primer by UnderSietch

*UPDATE*

I’ve updated this decklist to reflect the one I played in the SCG CON Baltimore 2025, where I took 1st place. I've also update the primer for the new list and added more specific examples of how I play special cards, artifacts and auras in addition to the turn by turn card flow breakdown. Thank you for your interest and your feedback!

*NEW*Video of the Championship Match at SCG CON in Baltimore 2025

Interview on Common Sense Sorcery Podcast about my win at SCG CON Baltimore

Team Covenant play-tests this deck on their YouTube channel ahead of SCG CON Houston! (gameplay at 50 mins)

Check out the video of the final match of the NYC King of the Realm cornerstone!

Introduction:

I'm typically a very whimsical deck builder. I like the story and the artwork and the intricate interactions between the weirdest and coolest cards. I often even write a little bit of lore to explain the narrative of the "characters" in my deck and how they came together to do battle against strange and ominous enemies. What can I say? I'm a nerd.

But with the tournament season approaching, I've been noticing an uptick in a more competitive and aggressive play-style all around me. This deck is a response to getting my butt relentlessly kicked over and over by some very good players and deck builders in my local community, who were tuning their tournament decks at our casual meetups. The calculated and efficient competition deck is a new adventure and mindset for me. And I think a good amount of beginners luck, mixed with being thrown to the wolves (sometimes literally) again and again, led to my winning our NYC cornerstone recently. I had been so tilted, so often, that I was literally SEEING RED.

Philosophy:

I decided that I wanted to make my games as short and sweet as possible. I don't want to allow other decks to get set up and start to hit me with big, intricate plays. My goal is to get my opponent in a reactive space, having to spend their precious few actions each game removing my threats and adapting to my board position, rather than imposing their will.

Playstyle:

I chose Mono-Fire because it's a fast and nasty suit. There are plenty of places to find extra damage for removal and to lower my opponents life total, while leaving me in an advantageous board-state. And it's very low cost!

I chose the Druid as my avatar for one reason: An immortal, airborne spellcaster, TAWNY. Flying around and dealing Fire's unblockable Area of Effect (AoE) damage to both remove enemy threats and deal damage to enemy avatars simultaneously.

The basic idea behind the deck is to combine the sometimes self-destructing damage from tawny, and genesis damage from deserts, with genesis and end-of-turn bonus damage from fire minion cards to remove enemy threats and deal damage without spending mana or losing my minions in a fight.

For example:

Opponent plays an Autumn Unicorn on turn 3.

I attack it with Tawny (she dies, but there's one damage), I play a desert (one damage and summon Tawny again, she's back!), and I play a vile imp for 2 mana and the genesis damage removes the Unicorn and leaves my Imp and Tawny alive. The board now has two threats on it for me and none for them.

Tawny's bonus damage also works in the reverse. You can cast an AoE spell, then attack with Tawny to deal one damage to an enemy minion THEN cast a desert to deal one additional damage and summon Tawny again for no cost.

For example:

Opponent drops a Atlas Wanderers on turn 4 due to a Mana boost from a Gothic Tower.

I cast Firebolts with Tawny, then attack the Atlas Wanderers with Tawny dealing a 4th damage, then I tap my Druid to play a Desert nearby, dealing the Atlas Wanderers a 5th and fatal damage and summoning Tawny again for no cost.

This allows me to destroy my opponents 5-cost drop with a total expenditure of 2 mana.

The last and most important note I'll make about our magical owl friend is that she's actually the perfect foil to your Druid opponents. By using a Torshammar Trinket, you can still have Tawny fly around near your opponent's avatar when they are Flipped and Bruin is active. Now that she's a 2 power, she can take steps nearby your opponents Druid and not die from their special ability. Then, she can cast a kill spell.

Use your owl. Give it a Torshammar Trinket and hit your opponents sites as often as possible. Cast Boudicca and give Tawny a Trinket and hit your opponent's sites with your owl for 5 damage. Be very active and rude with your bird friend. If your opponent is spending cards and mana removing your owl, you are winning. They are spending time, energy and resource on something that you get for free. Try your best to get them to react to your owl.

For me? The Bruin is a "smash in case of emergency" card. I want to spend most games not needing it. I want to be able to cast tawny by playing a site all game long. She's that important.

How and when to play:

You need to be patient!

(read that again)

This deck allows you to win FAST. I've observed that, in many games, Sorcery players cast anywhere from 12-18 spells and it can take up to 50 minutes to finish. In my games, my opponents cast 7-10 spells and the game can be over in 25 minutes.

(Which resulted in a very nice long break between rounds for me at the tournaments)

That doesn't mean that you play all of your cards out fast, however. Quite the contrary. It means you need to make every point of damage count. Hit their sites and Avatars early and as often as possible, yes. BUT DO NOT EMPTY YOUR HAND. You are leading the action while tactically responding to their drops. Find ways to remove their drop and increase your board presence AND deal them a little damage each turn. It's very possible. But you are most likely playing only one spell per turn. Your owl, deserts, genesis effects and end of turn effects will make it feel like you're doing much more than that but you're not. It's very simple and very deadly. And you'll need spells in your hand if your opponent manages to slow the game down and draw things out.

Turn by turn:

Mulligan:

You want a removal or control spell like Disintegrate, Immolation or Infiltrate in your hand ideally, and at least one cheap minion and one fire damage spell. Having three minions isn't the end of the world. You can have a War Horse, Colicky Dragonettes and Saracen Raiders and play forward from a really good place. The removal and fire magics will show up when you need them.

Make sure you have a Forge and at least one Desert in your hand, trust me. If you can't do that, make sure you have two fire threshold in your opening hand. Sinkholes and Wizard's Dens are awesome, don't mulligan them unless you have multiples in hand.

Ideal sample hand:

Disintegrate, War Horse, Minor Explosion

Forge, Red Desert, Poison Well

Turn by turn breakdown:

Turn 1: play the forge, make the lance, create Tawny and have her pick up the lance.

Turn 2: If you went first, Play a Bonfire or a Funeral Pyre or something forward toward your opponent and drop the War Horse and step Tawny forward to hand the lance off to your other minion. You don't always get the charge or genesis effects of minions and sites to land, that doesn't mean it's a bad play. Remember you're increasing your board presence with each drop and they'll have to spend resources to clear those spells, which you'll replace with more powerful ones as you draw them. Of course the best sites to play forward in a central position would be a Sinkhole, Smokestacks or Vesuvius. But we can't always get what we want.

If you went second, try dropping that Poisoned Well and get a hit on their life total, if they played forward toward you. Or play a Sinkhole forward to prepare for any unwanted sites. Wizard's Den is also a fantastic starting site, or a drop on turn three on your back row to get the extra spell draw.

Going second also means you can bring the lance up from Tawny, hand it off to the War Horse and immediately step forward to deal 3 first-strike damage to either a minion or, ideally, your opponent's site.

NOTE: You will draw spells and play the sites from your hand on the first three turns.

Turn 3: I love the Redcap Powries here, or even a Trinket on Tawny and Firebolts for removal or direct damage to the enemy avatar (that's 5 damage turn 3). When in doubt, Minor Explosion is the best, most effective card in this deck. I honestly have considered adding a 4th copy recently. Explode everything all of the time. Do not hesitate to do damage. It's your whole job. Do it often. Colicky Dragonettes are good here. Save your Kobolds for later unless there's an obvious play that maximizes their end of turn strike ability.

Turn 4: You will draw and play a site. This leaves you with four sites on the board and three or four spells in hand. Great cards open up on this turn: Saracen Raiders is an awesome free 3 damage on an unprotected and unsuspecting opponent's site. Infiltrate becomes an option, but I typically save this until my opponent drops something that seems like a game-changing bomb. Think Pudge Butcher or Seirawan Hydra. These are the things you want to take and tap down and keep them out of the game. Redcap Powries with a Torshammer Trinket is a favorite of mine to remove a 4 power minion or strike a site for 4. Boudicca opens up on Turn 4, but don't drop her on the board unless Tawny and/or another minion can undoubtedly strike a site freely. Her ability is too good to waste. If you play Boudicca back and away from the fray, you may get multiple turns with her ability in play and swing the game heavily in your favor.

Turn 5: draw a spell and tap to draw a site. The only reason you would draw a site to play here is if you already have Rebecks in your hand and you see a good opportunity to use your charge giant to get a big hit in on your opponent. Otherwise, stick to the plan so you can have 5 sites next turn.

Turn 6: Draw a spell and play your 5th site. This should leave you with 3 or 4 spells in hand and five sites on the board. You can play everything in the deck besides Infernal Legion with this board state. This is where the world opens up to you. Try to spread your minions out as much as possible so that they're more difficult to remove. Your opponent is going to scratch and claw to stabilize. There may be temptation at times to play multiple cards from your own hand. Only do this if it lands your opponent at death's door or decisively swings the game toward your win.

Turn 7: Draw a spell and tap to draw a site. Now you have all of the sites that you'll ever need and you have three or 4 spells in hand. This is what I mean by BE PATIENT. You'll find yourself in a remarkable board state with plenty of spells in hand. If you can leverage your extra damage well, you might still have two or three threats on the board at this point.

How to Deal Damage:

Every time that you can, play a minion with charge and hit your opponent's sites. Every time that you can, cast fire spells that hit their avatar or groups of minions. By turn 5 or 6, you may have taken half of their life total away by chipping away with Tawny, fire damage and minions hitting sites.

I usually find that I'm holding more immediate damage threats than my opponent. If I consistently am hitting them once per turn for 3+ damage, I get them a little off their game and they start to have to waste resources and dig for answers.

Try not to win more. Win just enough. You really want those three spells in hand to deal with some of the game's inherent big swings.

How to win:

You didn't flip your Druid, did you? Good. Being able to summon Tawny (and maybe put a Trinket on her) and get her into position to deal a Minor Explosion, Firebreathing, Lava Flow, Firebolts or Firebreathing is your ticket to victory. Good players keep a kill in their hand when they can. If you can hold onto one of these spells and not use it until you get your opponent to death's door, you'll have a tidy and efficient victory on your hands.

Remove their threats when they're on death's door. Get rid of their minions, and clear your path. Sometimes you don't have the fire spell and you need superior numbers of minions to get a strike in. Don't forget to remove their blockers to make a charge minion very deadly.

Sometimes, walking your druid forward and then flipping for Bruin and your special ability, can pin their Avatar down when it's on deaths door and keep it from being able to run away from your fire damage. In this case only, you don't need Tawny, because your Avatar is your spellcaster.

Special cards and their uses:

Your damage (most of it) comes from your small minions and fire spells from Tawny. But sometimes you need to be able to flex into a more midrange role and become a bigger beast to seal the deal against a powerful opponent.

There are a few HUGE drops in this deck that help you out a lot.

Rebecks is my favorite card here, dealing 4 damage to an opponent's site on the same turn that you play it. Pair him with a Torshammer Trinket or Jihad for a bigger swing. Have him ride a warhorse to get him into a deeper and more problematic position for an opponent. On a later turn, use a fire spell to clear out a blocker before dropping Rebecks to get a free hit on your opponent's site.

Boudicca on turn 4 when you have Tawny and maybe a War Horse and a Redcap Powries on the board? Do some math here, that's 15 damage if they all go unblocked to your opponent's sites. Normally I play her very carefully away from the battle. But sometimes she can create a very welcome distraction. While your opponent focuses on removing her, you can keep hitting for 2-5 damage per turn on their life total. Remember the goal is to get them to door and ping them for the win. If you lose cards and life along the way, so be it. Don't win more! Just win. Never waste resources to save a special card.

Siege Giants are amazing. These guys are why I don't have to play Blaze or Mad Dash in this deck. I get all of the movement I need from these dudes. They can throw 21 of the cards in this deck (including Avatar and Tawny), to any nearby site without having to tap for the ability. They can even throw a War Horse that they themselves are riding. READ THAT AGAIN. They can saddle up on a horse, throw that horse diagonally, then both the horse and the giant still can take a step and declare an attack. Use Siege Giant to spread your damage out far and wide, like a joyful flaming trebuchet.

Monstrous Lion's job is actually as a removal spell. I use it to deal a surprise and tidy four damage to an enemy that's on my border or in my territory. Sometimes a BattleMage or some other antsy Avatar gets too close and catches a lion to the face. Don't expect the Lion to live for more than one turn very often. Add a Torshammer Trinket on turn 5 or later for extra Lion.

Askelon Phoenix is in the deck to provide air support and fire resistance. You'll very rarely use its ability to power it up. But it takes no damage from fire spells, minions or abilities. It survives a poison nova. Heck, it survives a direct strike from Ignis Rex holding Crown of the Victor. It's a good card, and is usually a sort of turret or defensive/support play for me, more so than a beatdown.

Infernal Legion has never been invited to a party. Nobody likes to see this thing hit the board. It's an absolutely enormous problem for most opponents. But be careful, it's also trouble for you if you don't play it right. This is another card I'd qualify as a late game or defensive bailout play.

Artifacts and Auras:

The Ring of Morrigan is the most efficient card in the game. I think it has to go in any deck right now. Its overall effect is that of a desert that can be triggered every turn and gains you life for each damage you do with it. Enjoy your bling.

Torshammer Trinket is very powerful. There is absolutely an argument for playing a third one of these in the deck and playing at 52 cards. Your opponent cannot interact with it unless they make you discard it from your hand. It can be placed on any minion or avatar in order to increase its power by 1 on your turn. Another little added single damage to reinforce the soul of the deck. Happy smashing.

Mask of Mayhem is a very tricky play. Be careful. I'd recommend dropping it when you have 2-3 minions nearby each other. Maybe one of them removes a large minion and the other two get a free hit that's big. If you can wipe the board and maybe follow it up with some Saracen Raiders or another charge minion? Go ahead. But be hyper aware that this also benefits your opponent. Battlemages love this being on the board and so do Avatars of Earth.

Drums of Doom is the one big defensive card I have in the deck. If all goes to heck and you need to protect yourself from minions, put Drums on your Avatar and flip for Bruin. Your thorns ability will now deal lethal damage to any potential nefarious trespassers.

Jihad - If you can cast Jihad on your opponent's side of the board, this deck gets very hard to deal with. This aura opens up all of your extra damage genesis and end of turn affects from minions, hitting the enemy's avatar the very first turn they're played. Don't hesitate to do damage to their life total. Take them to death's door as quickly as you can while not emptying your hand.

NOTE: I prefer to cast Jihad covering two of my opponent's sites and two of my own, so that I can summon non-charge minions and still receive the +1 power benefit.

The Great Famine very specifically removes the strongest minion in a four-square area at the end of your turn. Very often, the minions in this deck are less powerful than the average minion my opponent is wanting to cast. You can survive a turn or two under its protection and force your opponent to forego summoning in order to wait out your aura's duration. This is also our answer when someone has a big problem underneath of a site. This card also carries a very important word for our success in its text box: "occupying". This means that The Great Famine (and also Lava Flow!) can remove threats that are burrowed or submerged. So if you're struggling to remove anything from a Root Spider to a Great Old One with confidence, this is your huckleberry.

Dangers in the Meta:

Pebbled Paths, Bottomless Pit, Perilous Bridge, Troll Bridge, Gnome Hollows and Impenetrable Copse. Use your Sinkholes or Smokestacks of Gnaak in a center position to make sure you can negate these nasty sites.

Archimago. I don't know what to tell you. You will lose sometimes to someone who can cast Divine Healing 6 times during a game and then Craterize you twice. Get them to deaths door asap so that they can't benefit from healing.

Enchantress. I don't know about this one really, I'm just very afraid of how this avatar completely flips the physics of the board state. Control tends to trump aggro in these games. Speed is your best friend.

Water players or Steam Druids with Polar Explorers and Ruler of Thul. It's very hard to rush forward when you have to watch your back. I recommend sticking to the game plan and holding on to some AoE fire spells and Monstrous lions to deal with whoever decides to come in the back door with bad intentions.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

You're going to take damage during this game. Don't get me wrong, lots of time you'll be playing way ahead of slower decks. But I also won a lot of games in this tournament on double-death's door. Try to keep your cool. You've usually got more damage in hand than your opponent. Stay vigilant and trust that you can win. Stay ahead by a turn. Get your opponent to door first and use fire to finish it. Don't worry about the score, just the result.

One game, I went down to door when my opponent (another fast air/earth Druid) still had 12 life. I was so disheartened and I was sure my day was over. But he had played all of his cards that could deal damage to my Druid, which was safely nestled on my back row. I was able to infiltrate his Pudge Butcher and leave it ineffective while I flooded the board with spells from my hand. I still had 3 or 4 spells in hand and I had 6 sites down so I could drop two spells a turn to put the pressure back on him. It was a close one, and the high-heart-rate monitor on my watch went off twice. But I came back and won it.

Another game, an opponent stole my Infernal Legion using Infiltrate, then played a Grim Guisarme and Warp Spasm the next turn to hit me for 24 with it. Before this play, though, the score had been 20-2 in my favor. The Legion died and he had played all of his cards. I was able to stabilize and win in two turns.

In the finals of the Crossroads tournament final, I was down 18-2. And the 2 damage he had taken, he did to himself. Talk about a blowout. I managed the win because I stayed the course and made the best, most efficient plays. Eventually, I cleared his board and played enough threats of my own to deal two big swings and get to double death's door. The deck has your back. Trust it, and trust that no game is over until it's over.

Conclusion:

You have one job. Burn. Do not spend time entertaining or even considering your opponent's intentions, actions or feelings.

Just. Do. Damage.

Quickly and consistently lower their life total while leaving yourself some spells in hand as options for future plays.

If you want to play with feelings, play with water. If you want to play with finesse, play with air. If you want to play with muscle, play with earth. But if you want to leave your enemy in ashes, play with fire!

;0)

I hope that you enjoy playing this deck and your own variations. Please let me know how it goes for you when you try it? Looking forward to hearing from you and seeing you at an event sometime soon!

-UnderSietch

Seeing Red - 1st place SCG Con Baltimore and NYC Cornerstone 2025

@UnderSietch