Oh Captain, My Captain!!!

First Strike!

Welcome one and all!  This is Captain Red Zone coming to you with the next Dual Color deck in my series for your viewing delight.  This week we go into Red and White, and I have to say these two colors are interesting when combined.  So Let’s look at the Legends and see where we’re headed!

Unlike last week, where we had only three to choose from, we have five choices here, so let’s find our leader.  Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer looks promising, but the Metalcraft ability feels like it wants a deck that’s more artifact than Red White, so we’ll put that one to the side for later.  Brion Stoutarm is great, but a little over used.  Razia, Boros Archangel looks like a good pick, but I like to be able to cast my Commander more than once a game.  Basandra, Battle Seraph is interesting by locking spells out of the combat phase, but I think I want her in the deck more than leading the deck.  Which leaves us with only…

Argus Kos is a general I could follow.  The man is basically a 5/5 for five that pumps other creatures you have as long as they’re in his colors.  He’s really aggressive and basically reads “If you’re not attacking on the front lines with me, GET OUT OF MY SQUADRON!”  Too bad his art sucks.  The guy looks like he’s taking a lunch break instead of smashing face.  So from now on just picture him as this instead…

So with that we can move on to a deck for our fearless leader full of the most battle ready fighters we can find!

Victory is in the Attack!

The main thing to remember about Agrus is his abilities are triggered abilities.  That means that they work when a certain condition is met.  In order for them to work, you have to be able to attack with him.  If something happens and you can’t attack with him, like he’s destroyed or tapped before you can declare attackers or enter your battle phase the effects don’t happen.

But on the other hand the effects do stack.  If you can, say, have him attack more than once a turn, his abilities will happen for each time he attacked.  Also, if we have other creatures with attack based triggers, we can chose what order they resolve.  One of the most recent card designs that showcase this is the Battle Cry cards from Mirrodin Besieged.

Accorder Paladin, Goblin Wardriver, Hero of Bladehold, Hero of Oxid Ridge, Loxodon Partisan, Kuldotha Ringleader, and Signal Pest: These guys are, with the exception of the Signal Pest, Red or White.  When they attack with Agrus, he will pump them and they will pump him.  One of the best examples for the ability stacking is Hero of Bladehold.  You can have the tokens go on the stack first, and then the Battle Cry.  Doing this will pump your other creatures except for the tokens if you just want two 1/1’s.  The other way is to put the Battle Cry first and then the token effect.  This put the tokens into play and then pumps them into 2/1’s.  With Agrus attacking, you can set it up where your tokens are 2/3’s while Agrus is a 6/5 and The Hero is a 3/6!  Now that is a lot of power bumping for just two cards and it gets even crazier for each Battle Cry creature you get out.

I’ll let you start doing the math with this list alone before we go any further. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

…

…

Ready?


Ok..

Chieftain en-Dal, Pianna, Nomad Captain, Rage Forger, Benalish Veteran, Renegade Warlord, Soltari Champion, Charging Paladin, and Victory's Herald: Now take all of that math and add a few abilities to it.  Things like the Chieftain en-Dal’s First Strike or Victory’s Herald Flying and Lifelink.  You could also use Pianna, Renegade Warlord, Benalish Veteran, and Soltari Champion’s Battle Cry like abilities, or Charging Paladin as a reverse Battle Cry.  If you can get a few +1/+1 counters on your guys you may be able to use Rage Forger’s ping ability.

Need more time?

…

…

Kinsbaile Balloonist, Preeminent Captain, and Springjack Knight: These three will only affect one guy at a time.  Kinsbaile gives out a little flying and the Knight may be able to give out a random doublestrike with its clash ability.  The Captain works better in a deck full of soldiers but in this deck there are around seven other soldiers, so I’m sure we can get to use him more often than not.

Alaborn Cavalier, Cho-Arrim Bruiser, Flanking Troops, Seasoned Marshal, Frenzied Goblin, Galepowder Mage, and Grotag Thrasher: With all of the attacking we plan on doing here these guys will help us clear the way a little.  Alaborn Cavalier, Cho-Arrim Bruiser, Flanking Troops, and Seasoned Marshal all tap down at least one guy when they attack.  Frenzied Goblin and Grotag Thrasher makes it so a creature can’t block which is almost as good as tapping it. Galepowder Mage can remove a creature from your opponents side of the field but you can also use him to blink out one of your creatures, like say a Titan or something.

Crested Craghorn, Goblin Grappler, and Lowland Tracker: These Provokers are a lot scarier when we can pump them up with all of our other guys.  That makes them removal for the creatures your opponents refuse to attack with.  I hope they weren’t too attached to their Fauna Shaman.

Dwarven Vigilantes, Goblin Grenadiers, Razia, Boros Archangel, Basandra, Battle Seraph, Mana-Charged Dragon, Flameblast Dragon, Cyclops Gladiator, Inferno Titan, and Sun Titan: Here we have a few more creatures with a variety of attack triggers.  With all of the mind numbing attack triggers here, after playing this deck you should have no problems with stacking abilities.  Just remember a lot of these are not may abilities so you have to make sure you keep track of them.

Hellkite Charger, Aggravated Assault, Breath of Fury, Fury of the Horde, Relentless Assault, Seize the Day, Waves of Aggression, and World at War: With all of the abilities we have that have some kind of attack trigger, we could use any extra attack phases we can get.  This package can quickly kill any one player… maybe more if you get good with your stacking of triggers.

Empty City Ruse, False Peace, and Moment of Silence: Hey, just because we’re going to be attacking a lot doesn’t mean we want the other guy to get into the red zone!  These here can keep those with a better board than our from switching gears on you.

Akroma's Memorial, Knighthood, Rise of the Hobgoblins, and Eldrazi Monument: Here we have a few more permanent effects.  We don’t have to attack all the time and these are good  on the offense and on the defense if we need it.  Flying, Vigilance, Trample, Haste, Protection from two popular colors, +1/+1, and Indestructible are great to give to all of your creatures… and that’s only two of these!  Also, with all the attacking we’re going to be doing, First Strike gets even better because it means we can kill just about anything in battle.

Darksteel Plate, Shield of Kaldra, Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of the Paruns, and Sword of War and Peace: You can’t go to war without a few weapons.  This package is here to give our troops a few pieces of live ammo to load up on.  I think we all know that just about every card that starts with the word Sword is good, so we’ll go to the Shield and Plate. Give these to one of your small guys to keep them alive after they run out into battle to keep them from dying. They are also indestructible so their not going anywhere.

Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Wrath of God, Day of Judgment, and Destructive Force: Removal is great to have and you should never leave home without it.  Board swipes and spot removal can really help you keep the game where you want it.

Ajani Goldmane and Ajani Vengeant: Goldmane is here because he can pump our guys and give them vigilance so they can attack and block for us in a pinch.  The Vengeant gives out a little removal while also adding some control to the mix.  Not much to say about the other abilities on these two, because they’re not important or the chances of pulling them off are very unlikely.

Fall In!

With 17 Mountains and 18 Plains we can call this tour complete. As always, my mana base here is just a starting point. At the bottom, you can check out the deck list. Next week we get into the last of the dual decks with Red and Blue.

As always thanks for the read and I will see you next week for another article!

Hope you had fun and please leave any comments or suggestions.  Until next time,

This is your Captain speaking… We’re heading into the Red Zone!!!

1 Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran
1 Razia, Boros Archangel
1 Basandra, Battle Seraph
1 Cyclops Gladiator
1 Accorder Paladin
1 Alaborn Cavalier
1 Benalish Veteran
1 Charging Paladin
1 Chieftain en-Dal
1 Cho-Arrim Bruiser
1 Crested Craghorn
1 Dwarven Vigilantes
1 Flameblast Dragon
1 Flanking Troops
1 Frenzied Goblin
1 Galepowder Mage
1 Goblin Grappler
1 Goblin Grenadiers
1 Goblin Wardriver
1 Grotag Thrasher
1 Hellkite Charger
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
1 Inferno Titan
1 Kinsbaile Balloonist
1 Kuldotha Ringleader
1 Lowland Tracker
1 Loxodon Partisan
1 Mana-Charged Dragon
1 Pianna, Nomad Captain
1 Preeminent Captain
1 Rage Forger
1 Renegade Warlord
1 Seasoned Marshal
1 Signal Pest
1 Soltari Champion
1 Springjack Knight
1 Sun Titan
1 Victory's Herald
18 Plains
17 Mountain
1 Aggravated Assault
1 Breath of Fury
1 Empty City Ruse
1 False Peace
1 Fury of the Horde
1 Moment of Silence
1 Relentless Assault
1 Seize the Day
1 Waves of Aggression
1 World at War
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Eldrazi Monument
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Shield of Kaldra
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of the Paruns
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
1 Wrath of God
1 Day of Judgment
1 Destructive Force
1 Knighthood
1 Rise of the Hobgoblins
1 Ajani Goldmane
1 Ajani Vengeant