Oh Captain, My Captain!!!

Kid Napster!
Welcome one and all!  This is Captain Red Zone coming to you once again with the next part of my new deck series for Tri-Colors for your viewing delight. This week, we’re going into Red/White/Blue A.K.A Numot. This is another color combination where our Commander options are really low. There really are only three to pick from. You have Numot, who we’re not going to use for the same reason we didn’t use the other Elder Dragons. The next one is the Norse God of Magic… Ruhan!!!

I really want to do a deck with Ruhan!!! I don’t care what you say he just seems to be the most bad ass of the new Commanders to me. I could do a deck about him with equipment, a chaos deck, or just a deck designed to try to control where he goes.  I feel like all of that could be interesting but due to the fact that I can’t decide which to do I’ll just have to hold on to it for another time. Maybe later, just not right now. So with only three to pick from and two already sitting on the side that leaves us with…

Zedruu is here to show us how to show us how sharing can be fun and profitable. So let’s get to it!

It’s More Fun To Share!

First, this deck falls into a similar category as my previous article, “Tis’ The Season to Give!”, with a more “helping the table” kind of feel. But I like to think of this as more of an American help. I’m giving your hungry rice, while I eat a cheeseburger. But first…

Ruhan of the Fomori, Numot, the Devastator, and Bazaar Trader: Zedruu may need a little help with the giving process and one of the best cards for that is Bazaar Trader. Ruhan and Numot are more here as bodyguards. Numot is the air force while Ruhan will be group control.

So let’s look at the “rice” of this deck if you will…

Bronze Bombshell, Steel Golem, Hollow Warrior, Exalted Dragon, Craven Giant, Mogg Conscripts, Mogg Flunkies, Hulking Goblin, Goblin Glider, Bloodcrazed Goblin, and Monstrous Hound: Bronze Bombshell is the funniest thing I’ve seen outside of an UnSet. Steel Golem is usually given to the Uril decks. Hollow Warrior usually plays fair; it won’t attack unless something else decides to not to. Giving a player a 5/5 flying Dragon is usually a bad thing, but at least Exalted Dragon cost them a land for every attack. Craven Giant may die easily but at least it will deal out four points of damage before it goes, usually. Mogg Conscripts, Mogg Flunkies, Bloodcrazed Goblin, Hulking Goblin, Goblin Glider, and Monstrous Hound make for interesting creatures to give out because of the attack/block restraints.

Now that that’s done let’s try something a little different. Zedruu is usually so giving, but it is also in the colors that like to take things the most… Blue and Red. So let’s see if this monk is as good at taking as she is at giving…

Abduction, Dominus of Fealty, Traitorous Blood, Aura Graft, Magus of the Unseen, Callous Oppressor, Preacher, Debt of Loyalty, Act of Treason, Aladdin, Cytoplast Manipulator, Grab the Reins, Word of Seizing, Aura Thief, Insurrection, Brand, , Unwilling Recruit, Dominate, and Mind Control: Act of Treason, Word of Seizing, Traitorous Blood, and Grab the Reins are good one shot usage spells while Abduction, Mind Control, and Treachery makes for a great way to take creatures as we want in a more permanent role. Dominus of Fealty gives us a free Threaten during each of our upkeeps while Aladdin and Magus of the Unseen give us a little artifact control. Callous Oppressor is horrible against decks that use only one type of creature, but it’s great for taking the other creatures at the table. Would you look at that! Even White wants a piece of the give-me-that pie with Debt of Loyalty and Preacher. Cytoplast Manipulator loves to see creatures with +1/+1 counters and Aura Thief is as greedy as they come when you’re dealing with enchantment theft. Unwilling Recruit and Dominate are our two X controlling spells. Aura Graft is an interesting way to change our Mind Control effects to newer targets. Brand is one of the only effects that will let us get all we have given back if we ever need to and Insurrection is one of the best win conditions in red there is.

Now what to do with all of those stole…. Um borrowed creatures, we need to find something to do with them. Ahh I’ve got an idea…

Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Helm of Possession, Altar of Dementia, Phyrexian Vault, Martyr's Cause, and Shivan Harvest: Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar will turn those creatures into some much needed mana after their no longer useful. Helm of Possession lets us kill creatures we steal so we can steal more creatures. Altar of Dementia can help mill a player who seems to be ready to Dredge himself to an early grave. Phyrexian Vault, Martyr's Cause gives us some was to prevent damage while Shivan Harvest brings us some permanent land hate.

Mind Stone, Mana Prism, Boros Signet, Azorius Signet, Ur-Golem's Eye, Izzet Signet, Everflowing Chalice, Coalition Relic, Gilded Lotus, Mana Vault, and Sol Ring: This color combination has some of the worst ways to generate mana. So we’re going to need a lot of mana rocks for this thing. Almost every usable mana rock I could think of is here from Signets to Sol Ring. This should be enough to help pay for things in case we needed pass of a land or two to get Zedruu running earlier.

Blazing Archon, Ensnaring Bridge, Collective Restraint, Ward of Bones, Ghostly Prison, Grand Abolisher, Propaganda, and Windborn Muse: Come on. If our main goal is to pass around our stuff while taking others stuff, we’re asking to be attacked. Unless we’re holding on to a few cards like these to keep people off of us. Blazing Archon is a straight up stop sign when it comes to being attacked while Windborn Muse is more of a toll booth keeper with Propaganda and Ghostly Prison being where she’s stationed. Ensnaring Bridge can keep things locked down for the whole table until you empty your hand. Collective Restraint is an effect like Propaganda but it gets better the later the game goes and if you can find a way to gain control of a few off color basic lands it could cost your opponents up to five mana per creature just to attack you. Ward of Bones can slow the game down to your speed while Grand Abolisher will keep your opponents from trying to surprise you on your turns.

One For You! One For Me!

With 13 Mountains, 13 Plains, and 13 Island I’d say we’re ready to start passing around some cards. As always, my mana base here is just a starting point. At the bottom, you can check out the deck list. Next week we’re going Black/White/Red with our last part of the Tri-Color Deck. Feel free to leave any comments you have and you can always hit me up at CaptainRedZone@gmail.com. You can also find me on OffColorCast.com where I podcast with Cassidy Silver and Christian Renoe. Just a heads up, OffColorCast.com may not be work safe. 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 Zedruu the Greathearted

1 Ruhan of the Fomori

1 Numot, the Devastator

13 Island

13 Plains

13 Mountain

1 Ensnaring Bridge

1 Ward of Bones

1 Bronze Bombshell

1 Steel Golem

1 Hollow Warrior

1 Blazing Archon

1 Exalted Dragon

1 Craven Giant

1 Mogg Conscripts

1 Mogg Flunkies

1 Hulking Goblin

1 Goblin Glider

1 Bloodcrazed Goblin

1 Monstrous Hound

1 Grand Abolisher

1 Abduction

1 Dominus of Fealty

1 Traitorous Blood

1 Aura Graft

1 Magus of the Unseen

1 Callous Oppressor

1 Preacher

1 Debt of Loyalty

1 Act of Treason

1 Aladdin

1 Cytoplast Manipulator

1 Grab the Reins

1 Word of Seizing

1 Aura Thief

1 Insurrection

1 Brand

1 Treachery

1 Unwilling Recruit

1 Dominate

1 Mind Control

1 Bazaar Trader

1 Mind Stone

1 Mana Prism

1 Boros Signet

1 Azorius Signet

1 Ur-Golem's Eye

1 Izzet Signet

1 Everflowing Chalice

1 Coalition Relic

1 Ashnod's Altar

1 Gilded Lotus

1 Mana Vault

1 Phyrexian Altar

1 Helm of Possession

1 Altar Of Dementia

1 Phyrexian Vault

1 Martyr's Cause

1 Shivan Harvest

1 Sol Ring

1 Collective Restraint

1 Ghostly Prison

1 Propaganda

1 Windborn Muse

Oh Captain, My Captain!!!

The Beast Within!

Welcome one and all!  This is Captain Red Zone coming to you once again with the next part of my new deck series for Tri-Colors for your viewing delight. This week, we’re going big with Green/White/Red or Naya for those of you in the know. The commander pool in these colors is fairly deep, but I already picked the one we’ll be dealing with today. Not saying that the other options are bad, far from it. I just saw this card and wanted to give it a day in court. So this week we’re dealing with…

When it comes to this elf, size does matter. Another part about this color combination, during the Alara block Naya had a 5 power or greater theme in it. It was pretty cut and dry, you get an effect for having a huge creature or an effect that only target huge creature gets. Mayael is one of my favorite types of Commanders. Over the years, this game has had a ton of mechanics, themes, and abilities that for the most part go ignored. Let’s play a quick game: pick a set you have played a lot. Now name every mechanic, theme, and ability that’s used one at least five or more cards. Now go look it up online and see if you hit them all. Don’t worry. I’ll wait.
….
….
….
Done? No. Ok.
….
….
For those of you that named them all good for you. But I’m sure that for every homerun hitter that got them all, there are at least three or more people who missed some theme. Mayael falls into a group of Commanders that have an ability that is closely linked to a group of cards. I hate that fact that there are no legendary creatures with persist or wither. Or that there are only nine creatures with Ninjutsu. Yes, two of them are legendary, but both are only in a single color so to build a deck with them comes down to Mono blue with three Ninjutsu creatures or mono black with four Ninjutsu creatures. Yes, this may create more creativity in deck building but these are abilities that may never be reprinting. I understand that these are from sets before Commander was a thing, but there are so few on theme legends with cards that back them up for me to skip Mayael.

Sorry for that little rant.

So... um… Let look a deck for this elf!

Hungry for Life! Thirsty for Naya!

Just out of my own personal curiosity, this deck is all Permanents. No Instants. No Sorceries. Also, just for fun, no Planeswalkers. Let’s see where this is going. We’ll start with the smaller cards that want to see the size of your… top deck.

Sensei's Divining Top, Mirri's Guile, Crystal Ball, Gilt-Leaf Seer, and Cream of the Crop: We want Mayael to have the best possible target when we use her ability. These are here to make sure that top five has something worth our time. Sensei's Divining Top, Mirri's Guile, and Crystal Ball gives us a early game that can fix any bad top decks. Gilt-Leaf Seer falls into the same area but has two benefits. One it can attack and block if needed. And two, it’s an elf which may matter a little later. Cream of the Crop is going to be really interesting here. Just dropping a creature with five power gets you a free look at the top five. With this card you never have to worry about your opponents tucking Mayael because you will see almost every card in your deck.

With all this top deck manipulation, let’s start looking at what we’re manipulating for…

Johan, Terastodon, Greater Gargadon, Avatar of Slaughter, Godsire, Hydra Omnivore, Celestial Force, Engulfing Slagwurm, Magmatic Force, Pelakka Wurm, Verdant Force, Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, Rampaging Baloths, Vigor, Meglonoth, Windbrisk Raptor, Steel Hellkite, Oversoul of Dusk, Spearbreaker Behemoth, Rhox, Baneslayer Angel, Avenger of Zendikar, Spellbreaker Behemoth, Hearthcage Giant, Bull Cerodon, Elvish Soultiller, Roughshod Mentor, Woolly Thoctar, Vagrant Plowbeasts, Paleoloth, Rakeclaw Gargantuan, Bellowing Tanglewurm, and Mosstodon: Johan brings a vigilance-ish effect for your big beaters. Terastodon brings noncreature removal while Avatar of Slaughter brings a serious beating to the table. Greater Gargadon is just a huge 9/7 I could pay one for. Godsire is great for attacking but better for tokens making seeing as how the tokens it makes are 8/8s. Let me say that again: 8/8 tokens. Hydra Omnivore and Engulfing Slagwurm make attack phases interesting. Magmatic Force, Verdant Force, and Celestial Force are all great targets for Mayael because they generate free, every turn effects that you can use to come back with. Pelakka Wurm’s ability to draw a card when it dies makes it easy for you to attack freely. Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is one of the best targets for Mayael because of the mana you get out of it can go to a second use of Mayael if you can get her untapped.


Wooo… this is taking a lot longer than I figured it would. Time for a breif intermission...

 Alright. Now we're back...




Avenger of Zendikar, Hearthcage Giant, and Rampaging Baloths are just token generators but are also great as a beatsticks. Vigor is also a good 6/6 trampler but this the ability to convert damage into +1/+1 counters is the real cream for this pie. Spellbreaker Behemoth, Spearbreaker Behemoth, Paleoloth, Vagrant Plowbeasts, Rakeclaw Gargantuan, and Mosstodon care about your huge creatures and are here to give them some backup support in various forms. Elvish Soultiller serves as a way to recur your creatures from the grave. With 35 out of the 44 creatures in this deck being green, Roughshod Mentor and Bellowing Tanglewurm just seem like auto includes. Meglonoth is great for dealing with creatures and, when blocking, can trade up with anything with 12 defense. Windbrisk Raptor provides a way to gain some life points back and when most of our creatures are 5 power or bigger that can be a lot of life. Steel Hellkite is here for some board clearing and Rhox is here for fun. Baneslayer Angel, Woolly Thoctar, Oversoul of Dusk, and Bull Cerodon are just really well costed beaters.




Ok. now that we're out of that, let's look at the rest of this deck...







Magewright's Stone, Thousand-Year Elixir, and Puppet Strings: These will allow us to use Mayael the Anima a few extra times a turn. They also pair up nicely with our other creatures to give them a kind of vigilance when we really need a blocker.

Mayael's Aria and Mighty Emergence: Mayael’s Aria can make our creatures even bigger, gains us life, and can even be a win condition if left unchecked. Mighty Emergence can help our Aria by getting our big guys a little added bump.

Nemesis Mask: the mask can be pretty scary when it’s on an Engulfing Slagwurm and it’s pretty good on most of our massive creatures.

Thran Turbine, Coalition Relic, Mirari's Wake, Thran Dynamo, Knotvine Mystic, Skyshroud Elf, Bloom Tender, Druid of the Anima, Elvish Harbinger, Viridian Joiner, Umbral Mantle, and Sacellum Godspeaker: we need a lot of mana for this to work out right. So here are some of the best mana guys and artifacts in these colors. I’m not going to go over all of these but I do want to say that we can use Skyshroud Elf to filter all of these into the colors we need.

Wirewood Herald: A lot of our smaller creatures are elves and our commander is one too. Wirewood Herald is good for finding Mayael if she gets tucked or just looking for a mana fixer.

Mosswort Bridge, Windbrisk Heights, Spinerock Knoll, Contested Cliffs, Terrain Generator, and Wirewood Lodge: Mosswort Bridge, Windbrisk Heights, and Spinerock Knoll have conditions that are easy to meet with this deck and they will give us some additional ways to drop creatures. Contested Cliffs will help our bigger creatures kill off smaller, annoying creatures that don’t attack as often. Terrain Generator is good for getting extra lands out so we can pay for our creatures if it comes to that. Wirewood Lodge is here as another way to untap Mayael for fun and profit.

Fauna Shaman, Survival of the Fittest, and Wheel of Sun and Moon: I think the Wheel doesn’t get the kind of respect it needs. With it we can freely use our creatures to attack with and, if they die,we can use Fauna Shaman and Survival to get them back.

Unleash the Beast!

With 11 Mountains, 11 Forests, and 11 Plains we’re now stomping with the big dogs! As always, my mana base here is just a starting point. At the bottom, you can check out the deck list. Next week we’re going Red/White/Blue with our next Tri-Color Deck. Feel free to leave any comments you have and you can always hit me up at CaptainRedZone@gmail.com. You can also find me on OffColorCast.com where I podcast with Cassidy Silver and Christian Renoe. Just a heads up, OffColorCast.com may not be work safe. 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 Mayael the Anima
1 Johan
11 Forest
11 Mountain
11 Plains
1 Terastodon
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Avatar of Slaughter
1 Godsire
1 Hydra Omnivore
1 Celestial Force
1 Engulfing Slagwurm
1 Magmatic Force
1 Pelakka Wurm
1 Verdant Force
1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
1 Rampaging Baloths
1 Vigor
1 Meglonoth
1 Windbrisk Raptor
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Oversoul of Dusk
1 Spearbreaker Behemoth
1 Rhox
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Spellbreaker Behemoth
1 Hearthcage Giant
1 Bull Cerodon
1 Elvish Soultiller
1 Roughshod Mentor
1 Woolly Thoctar
1 Vagrant Plowbeasts
1 Paleoloth
1 Rakeclaw Gargantuan
1 Mosstodon
1 Mayael's Aria
1 Mighty Emergence
1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Mirri's Guile
1 Crystal Ball
1 Gilt-Leaf Seer
1 Cream of the Crop
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Windbrisk Heights
1 Spinerock Knoll
1 Nemesis Mask
1 Contested Cliffs
1 Terrain Generator
1 Thran Turbine
1 Skyshroud Elf
1 Bloom Tender
1 Druid of the Anima
1 Elvish Harbinger
1 Viridian Joiner
1 Sacellum Godspeaker
1 Coalition Relic
1 Mirari's Wake
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Knotvine Mystic
1 Magewright's Stone
1 Thousand-Year Elixir
1 Puppet Strings
1 Umbral Mantle
1 Wirewood Lodge
1 Wirewood Herald
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon

Oh Captain, My Captain!!!

Stops Copying Me! Stops Copying Me!

Welcome one and all!  This is Captain Red Zone coming to you once again with the next part of my new deck series of Tri-Colors for your viewing delight. This week, we’re going into Red/Blue/Green or Intet for those of you that want to put a name to these kind things. In these colors there’s really only three picks. You have Intet, of course, but this card has been around for a while so we’re not going to use it as a commander this time around. The next one is Animar, which has really come into its own since the release of the Commander product it was in. I could do a deck about him but, I feel like that may not be to interesting at the moment due to the large following it has built. Maybe later, just not right now. So that leaves us with…

That is a brick of text but the quick end is cast an instant/ sorcery/creature then you may pay two mana, of the correct colors, to make a copy of it. When I look at this I think of a show I watch called Metalocalypse. Why? Because there is a character named Skwisgaar Skwigelf. He’s the lead guitarist and writes the music for the whole band. But the funny part is that there is also another character named Toki Wartooth who also plays guitar for the band. Toki is not as good as Skwisgaar but he wants to be seen as just as important. So Toki has a tendency to copy Skwisgaar whenever he can. For just a taste here’s a link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nvbhljcCjs&feature=related

So today we’re going to be both Skwisgaar and Toki while we copy ourselves. Sounds fun? Well let’s get to it!

Whys You Got to Always Copys Me Alls The Time!

Riku has a very unique ability of copying stuff as you cast it. So unique in fact that I could only find one card that does something kind of similar. So…

Minion Reflector: Sure we lose the token at the end of the turn but hey at least if we have this, Riku, and enough mana, we could make two copies of the creature we cast.

So let’s move on to what things we want to copy. We want to have as much mana as we can for copying so we need creatures we can cast while still having mana up. If only there was some kind of effect we could use…hmm…

Greater Gargadon, Keldon Halberdier, Riftwing Cloudskate, Shivan Sand-Mage, Veiling Oddity, Viscerid Deepwalker, Infiltrator il-Kor, Giant Dustwasp, Errant Ephemeron, Durkwood Baloth, Deep-Sea Kraken, Aeon Chronicler, and Epochrasite: That’s right! Suspend can work! We pay a little early, wait a turn or two and BLAM creatures! Hey, even when the things we suspend effect happens it act as if we casted the cards from our hand. This will allow us to copy these with our Riku! Durkwood Baloth and Greater Gargadon are vanilla creatures with suspend but paying only one mana but with Riku out you basically pay three mana for two 5/5 or 9/7 creatures. Giant Dustwasp and Errant Ephemeron are your flyers and when copied gives you two 3/3 or 4/4 for four mana repeat fully. What about copying Keldon Halberdier for 2 4/1 firststrikers for three mana or Riftwing Cloudskate for two 2/2 flyers that bounces two permanents for four mana? Veiling Oddity may not be worth copying for effect but copying it is like paying it original casting cost and getting two copies of the same creature. Three mana gets you two 2/3 creatures with a built in pump effect with Viscerid Deepwalker or four mana for two 3/1 unblockable creatures with Infiltrator il-Kor. Hey, if you’re down with unblockable creatures, copying Deep-Sea Kraken gives you two 6/6 unblockable for five mana! Don’t spend your mana trying to copy Aeon Chronicler or Epochrasite because Aeon won’t work to well and Epochrasite would be four mana a 1/1 token and a 4/4 creature. Copying Shivan Sand-Mage gets you two 3/2 creatures but it also gives you a chance to remove or add up to four time counters from you suspended creatures. This gives you the chance to bring out your other bigger creatures, if you have the extra mana to copy them or you just want more board presents. You could also add time counters if you want to wait for another couple turns, where your mana might not be tied up.

This leads to our next step here where we will add a few cards to try to play around with the suspend mechanic. So without further ado…

Jhoira of the Ghitu, Jhoira's Timebug, Rift Elemental, Timebender, Fury Charm, and Clockspinning: Jhoira of the Ghitu can be used to turn anything we add later without suspend into a suspend card. Also with her not being the commander for this deck, she should get a lot less heat because the table feels like they can just kill her once and be done. Jhoira's Timebug, Rift Elemental, and Timebender provide us with a way to twist and turn the time counters on our suspended creatures so we can cast them when we need them. Fury Charm brings diversity with instant artifact hate, a +1/+1 pump, or some time counter removal.  I would like to say that you should hold onto Clockspinning until you can add the buyback mana. That way you can keep a way to remove time counters in case of an emergency.

But creatures with suspend aren’t the only creatures with time counters so let’s look at some of these other creatures really quick.

Soultether Golem, Chronozoa, and Deadwood Treefolk: So first we have Soultether Golem is a 3/3 that basically dies at the beginning of your next turn dies, but if a creature you control enters the battlefield it gets a time counter. Remember the copies you make counts as entering the battlefield so the Golem gets two time counters. Chronozoa is a creature you actually want to remove the time counters from so you can get the copies it makes. But the best part is the tokens are exact copies, so if you can remove the counters from the tokens they will die and make more tokens! Deadwood Treefolk is pretty costly for a 3/6 but you can use it, and any copies you make of him, to get a second chance to cast any creature of yours that died.

Intet, the Dreamer: We won’t be making copies of Intet or anything like that, but at least we get to use it as a way to find a few cards off the top.

Arc Blade, Plunder, Reality Strobe, Search for Tomorrow, Shivan Meteor, and Wheel of Fate: Arc Blade was a personal favorite from awhile back. It and Reality Strobe were a part of a cycle of spells that you could suspend for three turns. On turn three they would be casted and then, instead of going to the graveyard, suspend themselves for three turns again. I liked to cast them one turn after another because you would get one turn of Arc Blade, followed by a turn of a Reality Strobe, followed by a turn of whichever one I casted again. Sure here we don’t have a three one because I don’t want the green version here. You could end up pumping an opponent’s creature if you don’t have one. Plunder brings a chance for some artifact/land removal for four mana while Search for Tomorrow is here for some mana fixing. Shivan Meteor and Wheel of Fate are great targets for copying with Riku but better targets for…

Radiate: You use this with Shivan Meteor for mass creature destruction, with Plunder for mass land and artifact destruction, or with Reality Strobe to bounce every permanent on the board… that last one was kind of harsh. Ignore that.

Cultivate, Explosive Vegetation, Harrow, Journey of Discovery, Kodama's Reach, and Rampant Growth: Mana! We’re going to need a package like this to keep as much mana open for copying. Even copying these may seem a little much but it will gain us that much more mana in the long run.

Tezzeret's Gambit, Frantic Search, Harmonize, and Concentrate: These are great copy targets because we get card draw at a discounted price. Harmonize and Concentrate alone, with the copying of course, equals pay six mana, draw six cards. Really? I would pay that price all day in a group game.

Hull Breach, Decimate, Crash, Deconstruct, and Beast Within:  Here are some various spells that can be used to destroy different things. There’s not much in the form of creature removal in this color combination, so we’ll just have to work with what we got.

Ancient Grudge, Deep Analysis, Deep Reconaissance, Gnaw to the Bone, Cackling Counterpart, Think Twice, and Memory's Journey: Suspend is not the only way to get a chance for some spells. Flashback counts a casting the card when activated from the grave.

Swiftfoot Boots, Champion's Helm, and Lightning Greaves: These are here to protect Riku from removal spells and tucks. Not much to see here… moving on.

Chandra, the Firebrand and Jace, the Mind Sculptor: Chandra can copy spells for us while Jace is just busy bee Jace. What more can you ask from him?

Library of Leng, Spellbook, Reliquary Tower, and Venser's Journal: Just in case copying all those draw spells leads to us having too many cards in hand. Cause you never know right?

I Don’ts Aways Copys You Alls the Time!

With 13 Mountains, 13 Forests, and 13 Islands we can copy ourselves until we can’t take it anymore! As always, my mana base here is just a starting point. At the bottom, you can check out the deck list. Next week we’re going Red/Green/White with our next Tri-Color Deck. Feel free to leave any comments you have and you can always hit me up at CaptainRedZone@gmail.com. You can also find me on OffColorCast.com where I podcast with Cassidy Silver and Christian Renoe. Just a heads up, OffColorCast.com may not be work safe. 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 Riku of Two Reflections
1 Intet, the Dreamer
12 Island
13 Forest
12 Mountain
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Keldon Halberdier
1 Riftwing Cloudskate
1 Shivan Sand-Mage
1 Veiling Oddity
1 Viscerid Deepwalker
1 Infiltrator il-Kor
1 Giant Dustwasp
1 Errant Ephemeron
1 Durkwood Baloth
1 Deep-Sea Kraken
1 Aeon Chronicler
1 Epochrasite
1 Jhoira of the Ghitu
1 Jhoira's Timebug
1 Rift Elemental
1 Timebender
1 Minion Reflector
1 Fury Charm
1 Clockspinning
1 Soultether Golem
1 Chronozoa
1 Deadwood Treefolk
1 Arc Blade
1 Plunder
1 Reality Strobe
1 Search for Tomorrow
1 Shivan Meteor
1 Wheel of Fate
1 Radiate
1 Cultivate
1 Deep Reconnaissance
1 Explosive Vegetation
1 Harrow
1 Journey of Discovery
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Rampant Growth
1 Tezzeret's Gambit
1 Frantic Search
1 Harmonize
1 Concentrate
1 Hull Breach
1 Decimate
1 Crash
1 Deconstruct
1 Beast Within
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Deep Analysis
1 Gnaw to the Bone
1 Cackling Counterpart
1 Think Twice
1 Memory's Journey
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Champion's Helm
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Chandra, the Firebrand
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Library of Leng
1 Spellbook
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Venser's Journal