The Saturday Brew: Mono Red Humans in Standard

By Philip E Crouse

As we edge nearer and nearer towards the time of the year when Standard gets a little makeover, I want to try to give Innistrad some last looks at before those cards are not Standard legal anymore.

For this deck, I took my Red Blitz idea and start throwing Humans at it. Silver-Inlaid Dagger is pretty nifty, too. I'm not sure how this deck would do in an actual tournament, but I would like to think that it would be fun to play!

Lands: 20
18x Mountain
2x Mutavault

Creatures: 28
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
4x Firefist Striker
4x Ash Zealot
4x Kessig Malcontents
4x Lightning Mauler
4x Reckless Waif
4x Stonewright

Other Spells: 12
4x Searing Spear
4x Madcap Skills
4x Silver-Inlaid Dagger

Sideboard: 15
4x Burning Earth
3x Mark of Mutany
4x Volcanic Strength
3x Pillar of Flame
1x Mountain

This deck is not a powerhouse build into a deck. But if my other Red Blitz deck can win, I don't see why not with this one.

The first thing I like is that Ash Zealot is the only card that cannot be cast off of Burning-Tree Emissary. This means that we should always have something to do with our free mana if we have a turn two Emissary. Even playing a one drop and Dagger off of Emissary would not be the end of the world. The Mutavaults and Daggers can help use up extra mana you have sitting around in the middle and late game. With only two Mutavaults, I feel like there should never really be a time when you cannot play Burning-Tree Emissary on turn two.

Stonewright might not be the best choice since you might not have much extra land free thanks to Mutavault and the dagger. I would run Legion Loyalist, but he's not a Human. Also, splashing is something I do not want to do either.

Kessig Malcontents seems at home in a build with a lot (all) humans. Doing damage equal to a player equal to the number of humans you control could allow you to have a lot of reach that did not exists before. Also, three power for three is not the worst I could imagine. I know a lot of people do not consider this creatures "playable", but when has that ever stopped my from sleeving anything up.

Burning Earth in the Sideboard makes me happy. Its an easy way to punish these multicolor decks that are everywhere. Just to make sure I can play them though, I want to add in another land too.

I feel like this could have potential to be a really fun casual deck. Before these awesome creatures rotate out of Standard, I want to this deck at a tournament.