Seeing Red

Primer by UnderSietch

*NEW* Check out the video of the final match of our 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 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 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 12-16 spells and it can take up to 50 minutes to finish. In my games, my opponents cast 7-10 spells and the game is over in 25 minutes.

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

This 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 by reacting 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 and your deserts will make it feel like you're doing much more than that but you're not. It's very simple and very deadly.

Turn by turn:

Mulligan:

Pitch any minions of 5 cost or greater. I'll cover why later in the BIG SECRET section. Also pitch the Kobolds or Saracen Raiders, you want to draw them later but they're clunky early on. 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.

Also make sure you have a Forge and at least one Desert in your hand, trust me.

Ideal hand:

Disintegrate, Vile Imp, 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 Vile Imp and step Tawny forward. You don't always get the genesis effect to land, that doesn't mean it's a bad play.

If you went second, drop 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.

(these are are possible examples, use your best judgement).

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

Turn 3: I love the Powries here, or even a Trinket on Tawny and Firebolts for removal or direct damage to the enemy avatar. 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.

(I am continuing to tweak this deck in another deck list copy, but have preserved this version to celebrate its tournament win.)

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.

(The rest of the larger minions are covered under THE BIG SECRET below.)

Turn 5: draw a spell and tap to draw a site.

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 Cone of Flame and Infernal Legion with this board state. If you have one of those spells in hand, hang on to it until you really need it. You'll know when. Cone of Flame is your BEST kill spell. it's very hard to avoid. But if you have to blast a 5 power minion with it and also hit the rest of their board with some damage too, that's not such a bad move.

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 could 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 4 or 5, 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 Cone of Flame 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.

THE BIG SECRET:

Did you see Morgana le Fay, Panorama Manticore, Askelon Phoenix or Infernal Legion?

I'll be honest: These cards are not going to do damage in this game. Although one day I dream of hitting my own Phoenix with Immolation and letting it hit for +7 (This is not actually possible, I have been told, due to a rules clarification). But, realistically, your opponent is going to want to spend all of their resources removing these threats as soon as you play them. Your damage comes from your small minions and fire spells from Tawny. You don't need these big characters to live very long. You need them to cause a big distraction and panic to call attention away from your Warhorses and Tawny carrying Trinkets and casting Firebreathing. I mean it, these cards are in the deck for your opponent to pay attention to, not you.

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 (more with Trinkets) on the same turn that you play it.

Boudicca on turn 4 when you have Tawny and maybe a War Horse and a Powries on the board? Do some math here, that's 15 damage if they all go unblocked to your opponent's sites.

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.

The Little Secret

Late in the game, Colicky Dragonettes and Quarrelsome Kobolds can add some value against large minions and enemy Avatars when you need it most. The late game is why these cards exist. Not to say you can't play the Dragonettes anytime early also. But late in the game that one projectile at the end of turn can be a kill just by dropping the card and moving your other threats out of the line of fire.

DID YOU GET LUCKY?

If you can cast Jihad on your opponent's side of the board, this deck gets very hard to deal with. This opens up all of your extra damage genesis and end of turn affects 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.

Dangers in the Meta:

Pebbled Paths and Impenetrable Copse. Use your Sinkholes or Smokestacks of Gnaak in a center position to make sure you can negate these nasty earth 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. 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.

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. I have since changed it up a bit myself to continue tuning it to be its most efficient and deadly self. 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

1st place NYC Cornerstone 2025 - Seeing Red

@UnderSietch