Haste, Double Strike, and Trample!

Introduction

This is the second version of my budget red aggro deck centered around Picnic Ruiner. In this version, I have replaced Blazing Crescendo with Felonious Rage from Murders at Karlov Manor.

The idea of the deck is to pump up your own creatures instead of killing the opponent and their creatures with damage spells. The deck is pretty fast, able to kill the opponent on turn 3.

The deck has no rares or mythic rares in it, wherefore it is very cheap to craft.

There's no green or black mana in the deck, wherefore you cannot cast the adventure side of Picnic Ruiner or the creature side of Callous Sell-Sword. But this is only a minor inconvenience.

Format

• The deck is for the Standard format with Murders at Karlov Manor being the last legal set.
• The deck is probably Tier 1.5 or Tier 2 caliber.
• The deck can be played in Bo1.
• The deck is pretty fast, and thus it's suitable for quickly grinding a large number of wins in the MTG Arena ladder.

Source

This is my own brew.

Previous Version

• Budget Picnic Ruiner (No-Rare, LCI)

Strategy

Main Principles

The idea of the deck is pump up your creatures, especially Picnic Ruiner, which gains double strike. It's also important to give your big hitters trample with one of the spells that do it. All in all, the deck is capable of killing the opponent on turn 3 with a good draw.

As a backup plan, you can boost up Phoenix Chicks, which hopefully deal unblockable damage to the opponent.

Main Deck Synergies

Picnic Ruiner

It's important to pump up Picnic Ruiner (or another creature) to 4 power before attacking, so that Picnic Ruiner gains double strike. Then, during the attack, you can pump up Picnic Ruiner more with, let's say, Monstrous Rage, giving it trample and more power. Monstrous Rage is great for giving permanent trample. Note that Ancestral Anger is a sorcery, wherefore, you need to cast it before combat.

Cacophony Scamp

You can pump up Cacophony Scamp, hit the opponent, and then sacrifice it with Burn Together. This way it deals damage 3 times its power to the opponent.

Burn Together

The adventure side of Callous Sell-Sword is a great finisher and it fits well into this deck. If you get to pump up Picnic Ruiner to 7 power, it deals 14 damage, and then you can sacrifice it with Burn Together to deal the missing 6 points of damage. This is achievable on turn 3, if you have Picnic Ruiner in play and Monstrous Rage, Mirran Banesplitter, and Burn Together in hand.

Felonious Rage

Felonious Rage is great for giving haste to Picnic Ruiner and Cacophony Scamp. Felonious Rage also works very well with the sacrifice ability of Cacophony Scamp — and why not Burn Together too (even though it's usually a finisher) — giving a 2/2 creature token out of the deal.

Change Log

21st March 2024

• -1 Mountain
• +1 Wrenn's Resolve