Hey Y'all!

BPRadiant here with what may be my last writeup before the new set cause it'll be hard to top this one that's for sure. I'll probably end up posting some other decks but I'm not sure if I'll focus on that or something else till we get a bit closer to the new set. We are talking today about Rem Karolus, Stalwart Slayer or Karl from this point on.

Deck Tech

Karl is a deck that focuses on being an aggressive strategy that can get under control with creatures then use burn to directly finish them after they stabilize the board. Karl works against midrange by using that burn to slow down the enemies board presence while chipping away at them the same way. And against other aggro decks Karl can use AOE burn spells like Crush the Weak to create a one sided board wipe to devastate our opponents. This deck has legs against most other decks with few direct weaknesses in the current meta game. I'll go more into what the deck is weak to at the end.

The basis for the deck was to use both parts of Rem Karolus, Stalwart Slayer to let us survive a damage board wipe and our opponents to lose to it. This works with Rem and not Tajic, Legion's Edge because Rem has 3 toughness which means that all the two damage board wipes like Fiery Cannonade and Volcanic Fallout don't kill him. Something else he has over tajic is that he also turns these into 3 damage against your opponents creatures. Which is usually that magic *dies to lightning bolt* number that makes stuff so hard to keep out. The fact he protects our own creatures at the same time is just amazing. This can lead to some really bonkers blow outs into other aggro decks or ways to clean up mana and utility creatures our opponents have.

Starting Hand

You ideally want two red pips and one white pip. Don't be afraid to mulligan to 6 or keep a two lander with playable cards. Worst case you have to think of this like other hyper aggro decks with low curves on arena. You win or lose fast.

The Creatures

We run pretty much all the strong aggro creatures that are going to generate long term damage or value in Red and White. Cards like Kari Zev, Skyship Raider and Robber of the Rich can provide damage that really adds up over a game. I don't think I have to tell you why cards like Runaway Steam-Kin and Legion Warboss can run away with a game. Nothing is really gonna come at much of a shock. The few I need to explain are going to be Esper Sentinel giving us even 1 card or slowing our opponent down to tax them while not taxing us at all is great and generates value or eats removal since people tend to treat it like a bolt the bird scenario. Guttersnipe is generally not a card we put out early but one we hold onto to use its triggered ability the turn we cast it to try to generate reach with our burn. Inferno of the Star Mounts is a really great way to most of the time get in an uncounterable 6 damage from no where to close out games or put the squeeze on opponents to have an answer.

The Burn

The burn is going to be our best pieces in the color combo with Lightning Bolt, Shock, Frost Bite, Play With Fire, and Shock all serving as 1 mana for more than 1 damage cards these give us a really strong back to play from. We also have Sacred Fire, Rip Apart, and Lightning Helix to generate a little bit of burn in our two drop slot as well though we do try to keep it mostly creatures that we are playing on t2. Our 3 drop slots mostly include out AOE spells to let us continue to control the board. Though two honorable mentions for burn have to be Magic Missile being really flexible and potentially 6 damage for 3 mana is an outrageous rate. Solar Blaze being our one way to deal with bigger creatures. There is an argument to just make this a wrath effect since Karl doesn't prevent the damage from this spell but it did allow us to leave a few of our creatures like Karl, Haktos, or Kari Zev alive through it so I wanted to keep it to maintain some form of board advantage after our wrath.

The Tech

Our tech cards are few and far between. Curse of Silence is an incredible card allowing us to really mess with decks that we know need a specific card or commander to function. Getting this card early has really hosed a few decks like Acerak combo, Yawgmoth, Codie, and Sythis just to name a few. Generally if you have a way to get rid of the card you don't want to take the draw two as you can then just double tax the opponent. It can also be used to try to stop a sweeper or with Elite Spellbinder after you've seen their hand. Moonveil Regent and Experimental Frenzy act as card advantage when they come down since we run hot and fast with our hand. Fiery Emancipation hasn't seen any play for me but I like having the option is as a bomb that helps me close the game out faster with the burn and haste threats we have. Though there is an argument for it to just be Rest in Peace to hose graveyard decks. The last tech was running Banefire over something like Play with Fire. Besides just wanting the Raymond Swanland art in I value the uncounterable aspect quite highly when it comes to a piece I'm trying to close the game out with.
Wrap Up

That's all there really is to say about the deck. I've had a blast piloting this as I think that to a certain degree aggro has legs in the format especially right now the last few weeks of the set. It just feels like you're one of the better forms of aggro out there. The biggest weakness of the deck can be the mirror matchup specifically if they go a bit more midrange than you. Its really hard to deal with say a Lyra or a Baneslayer Angel that gets dropped. But boros as a color pair outside of Winota feels so rare to me that I wouldn't really stress it. Currently rocking a 76% winrate with the deck over 50 games and I'm very pleased with it. The deck is the first to go 5-0 in our Radiant Laboratory series so if you want to watch those games you can do it at the video above.

Hope y'all have a great weekend and happy spoiler season. The frog already has me brewing ideas up.

Be Radiant!