11.30.04  Nick writes in with a mono red rush deck,

 

Hey, this is Zack Rothman and this is my mono-fire deck. I'm still working out my deck but the strategy right now is pretty much just rushing my opponent and clearing out his/her field, then dropping down fatties later in the game. What I'm wondering about my deck is if I should add more volcanic arrows and searing waves and/or take out some of the high cost cards or the many low cost cards in my deck. I would also like to know if I should look for any specific cards that would help my deck. Thanks a lot for the help!

 

1 Flametropus

1 Metalwing Skyterror

4 Tornado Flame

4 Mini Titan Gett

1 MagmaRex

2 Magma Gazer

4 Crimson Hammer

1 Volcanic Arrows

2 Bolshack Dragon (more of these? less?)

4 Baby Zoppe

1 Searing Wave

3 Brawler Zyler

2 Rumble Gate

4 Deadly Fighter Braid Claw

1 Astrocomet Dragon

1 Armored Cannon Balbaro (filler until I get Valdios)

4 Immortal Baron, Vorg

2 Rothus, the Traveler

1 Super Explosive Volcanodon

3 Snip Striker Bullraizer

1 Onslaughter Triceps

1 Blaze Cannon

1 Gatling Skyterror

1 Explosive Fighter Ucarn

 

Total: 50 (should I make it 40?)

 

Addressing your first problem is yes, you should run as close to forty as possible. With red, your focus is speed, and what you're doing is taking away from it. Between fifty cards and the mess of fatties, it takes away from the speed big time. I have a friend at my store that runs Red/Black rush, and I have a ridiculously hard time beating him, so he is good, but it does get a bit boring to play him. ^_^. Anyways, I would like to toss in some Black, because with it you get cheap blockers, and cheap destruction. Lets look at the fatties:

 

Metalwing Skyterror

Bolshack Dragon

Astrocomet Skyterror

Gatling Skyterror

Explosive Fighter Ucarn

 

Something that I have been thinking of doing recently, with the new four NYC Ucarns added to my collection, is basing a deck around him. (BTW, I'm just kidding about the NYC Ucarns..teehee) Watching my friend playing his Red/Black Deck notice that he only need 2-4 mana to survive, which means Ucarn doesn't hurt him much at all. Its a devestation on turn five, a Double Breaker with 9000 attack is difficult to destory. But you have to worry about an opponents Corile, Unicorn Fish, Spiral Gate, or anything that recycles your Ucarn. You could always try that if you want, but I wouldn't suggest running it as your maindeck. All in all, I don't like the fattie idea, as a deck that wants to rush should stick to rush.

 

With that in mind, lets look at your weenies: (don't do it..yeah you know)

 

Mini Titan Gett

Baby Zoppe

Deadly Fighter Braid Claw

Brawler Zyler

Immortal Baron Vorg

Snip Striker Bullraizer

 

I really don't like the Mini Titan, but it's all in personal preference, so I'll leave him in. Baby Zoppe will not work well with a tossed in Black, so I'll leave him out. Braid Claw is lovely, so we'll keep him. I love any turn one creature. Brawler Zyler is great, and he will work doubly well with the addition of our Black Blockers. Immortal Baron is straight up two for two, with is good, so hes in. Snip Striker has the chances of just sitting there, so nope on him. In rush, I suggest you max out all of the weenies, since you want to stack them up.

 

 

Now with Shadowclash, we have the wonderful addition of that Kamikaze Chainsaw dude, I think thats his name. :p He's a shield trigger monster, with two mana cost and 1000 attack. Woot?

 

Now we have:

 

4x Vorg

4x Braid Claw

4x Mini Titan

4x Zyler

4x Chainsaw Dude

 

Thats good for the red monster lineup. Onto the new addition.

 

Black will just be support for the reds, excluding one guy.

 

Heres what I'm thinking:

 

4x Marrow Ooze

4x Horrid Worm

4x Bloody Squito

 

Ooze is a quick shield, or a quick blocker, so versatile, hes just not worth leaving out. Bloody Squito owns other rush decks, along with a spell I want to add.. And Horrid Worm keeps their hand small, and gets rid of devestating evos like Paladin and Lancer. (Should it go to turn 6)

 

So for the monsters we have:

 

4x Mini Titan

4x Vorg

4x Braid Claw

4x Zyler

4x Chainsaw Dude

4x Marrow Ooze

4x Horrid Worm

4x Bloody Squito

 

that puts us at twenty eight, leaving us twelve spell slots.

 

Lets see what you had..ok. You basically ran some power up spells with a little creature kill. Tsk tsk tsk...lol. J/k

 

You need to run some hand control, and some field control. Don't worry about power ups, because your opponent's monsters will most likely be to big for you to handle despite powerups, by the time they gain a little control. Here's what I think.

 

4x Volcanic Arrow

4x Snake Attack

4x Ghost Touch

4x Searing Wave

 

Oh but NFG! You're going over forty cards! No need to worry kids, that A-OK. It's too important to miss out on the power of these spells. Arrow is the cheap destruction you need, unlike the costly Terror Pit, remember kids, its OK to kill a shield. Next is Snake Attack, which is definetly better than his old cousin Magma Gazer, since he gives the whole family a Double Breaker effect. Ghost Touch gets rid of evos, which is a huge enemy to rush. Then we have Searing Wave, which of course owns other rush decks, and those pesky Mono Yellow decks that seem to pile up on little blockers. It also hurts the popular Green Blue decks.

 

Well Zack, I hope this helps.

 

And remember kids, KEEP ON TRUCKIN'!