As the Standard format keeps on evolving, decks are adapting and re-adapting to fight the new threats in the metagame. We’ve seen Temur/4 color energy decks including weapons like 《Vraska, Relic Seeker》 or even 《Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh》 to beat the mirror match and decks like Tokens. Ramunap Red, however, is a monocolored deck that can’t really splash, so it counts on more limited options in that direction.

Not Today

It seems to me that Ramunap Red is going to be a solid tier 2 for the rest of the season. While monored is slightly underpowered compared to the energy decks, it can profit from Temur-like decks being the stand alone tier 1. The fact that every bomb Energy includes for the mirror match is quite bad against monored settles a decent low on how good Ramunap can be for a given tournament.

Today I’m going to talk about the different evolution lines we’ve seen of Ramunap Red in Standard during the last weeks.

The classic

Yam Wing Chung has proven in the last two Pro Tours that he knows how to play this deck, and last weekend he also made Top8 in Grand Prix Shanghai 2017 with the following:

This list is very similar to what we’ve been seeing since Ixalan’s release, and that’s why I call it “classic”. Playing the full set of 《Ahn-Crop Crasher》 is something you don’t really see in many decklists nowadays, but they have some merits. Looking at the list, Yam clearly wants to stay as aggressive as possible, even postboard, where he’s not playing any 《Glorybringer》 and only 2 copies of 《Chandra, Torch of Defiance》. While they are both very powerful cards, they are not really useful if you are just trying to attack in every single matchup.

Attack!!!

I love the change on the manabase, adding the 16th 《Mountain》 over the single 《Scavenger Grounds》. It makes a lot of sense in this deck that wants to go under, since the extra disruption that 《Scavenger Grounds》 provides doesn’t make up the fact that sometimes you’re going to be missing a red source. Being a fast tempo deck, playing two spells in one turn during the first stages of the game is crucial. Also, every time you only have one red mana source 《Hazoret》 gets very sad.

The spice of this deck resides on the sideboard, where we can find two copies of 《Invigorated Rampage》.

This technology, courtesy of Tomoharu Saito, is what this deck wants to use against decks that present a lots of blockers. Instead of going over with 《Glorybringer》 and 《Chandra》, the plan is getting through. This card is very hard to play around, and makes the 《Soul-Scar Mage》 actually decent on the matchup. If you board-in the big cards, the 《Mage》s are really unimpressive, but if you keep all the removal spells and add some combat tricks on top, they become a decent curve play even against Temur. 《Invigorated Rampage》 is obviously very bad if they kill every creature we play, but if we get to that point while playing an aggro plan that will mean that we are in a very bad spot anyway.

Conclusion

This is the most aggressive Ramunap Red you can play. The plan is almost always the same in terms of sideboarding, and because it’s the faster version it’s the one that profits the most of using cards like 《Earthshaker Khenra》 and 《Abrade》.

The Hateful

Two of the three 9-1 decks at Pro Tour Ixalan were Ramunap Red. However, between those two decks, combined, you can only find one 《Ahn-Crop Crasher》. What happened?

Here’s Daniel Fournier list from the Pro Tour.

《Rampaging Ferocidon》 and 《Harsh Mentor》 are the “hatebears” of the current Standard. While they are not great by themselves, they aim to attack specific cards or decks. 《Ferocidon》 is just the best thing we can do against decks like Tokens or 《God-Pharaoh's Gift》, since they just have to deal with it if they want to win the game, especially if it’s played on curve. Against cards like 《Whirler Virtuoso》 or 《The Scarab God》, 《Rampaging Ferocidon》 can deal a lot of damage if unanswered.

The downside is the potential tempo loss. If we play 《Ferocidon》 and they just 《Abrade》 it, we just lost one mana with a deck that is still based on tempo. With 《Ahn-Crop Crasher》 we can usually get some value before it dies as long as we play it carefully.

《Harsh Mentor》 is clearly targeting Temur/4 Color Energy. If unanswered, it will make their whole deck much worse. If we are attacking while having this creature on the battlefield, Energy decks are going to have a hard time having enough blockers without taking too much damage. 2 Damage per 《Virtuoso》 activation is very taxing. The main drawback I see on 《Harsh Mentor》 is that sometimes it makes the game longer, and that’s where Temur wants generally be, specially game1, where they have too many big spells. I’m not a big fan of 《Harsh Mentor》, but it has some merits.

Not knowing which version of Ramunap Red we play is going to result in our opponents making some playing mistakes, since it’s harder to play against it now. If our opponent is playing Temur and they have only one removal spell, are they supposed to cast it to kill our curve play, or should they hold it to kill our hate creatures? If we are playing 《Ferocidon》 or 《Mentor》 it’s probably correct to take 1-2 extra damage in order to answer that problematic threat. However, if we don’t have them and we just play 《Crasher》, holding that removal and taking the damage could easily change the result of the game in our favor.

Conclusion

This deck seems to be better against energy than the classic builds, but it gains less edge than what it looks, since being less fast makes cards like 《Glorybringer》 or 《Vraska, Relic Seeker》 better. Not playing 《Ahn-Crop Crasher》 makes you have more options in the sideboard, since you are playing 《Ferocidon》 maindeck freeing up 4 slots.

The Stark Special

While Ben Stark is most known for his Limited skills, this weekend he proved again he can also be a master with 60 card decks, ending 2nd at Grand Prix Atlanta 2017 with what coverage called Desert Red.

The most remarkable change to see on this deck compared to the rest of Ramunap decks is that it cuts the strongest card, 《Hazoret》, down to 1 copy maindeck.

I didn’t see that one coming.

Not only it doesn’t play the full playset of Gods, but they are replaced by cards like 《Treasure Map》 maindeck, which clearly indicates the kind of game Stark wanted to play with this deck.

The other missing star is 《Earthshaker Khenra》. Even though it’s a decent late game card because of Eternalize, I can see why it’s not in the deck. Instead of just rushing against Temur opponents, this deck aims to have a decent position on the midgame, and that’s where 《Earthshaker Khenra》 is worse. Even though this deck still includes a healthy amount of curve plays to punish a stumbling opponent, they are often going to be used as a value tool also.

《Bomat Courier》 doesn’t need you to be super aggressive if you use it as a card advantage source, and 《Soul-Scar Mage》 will make sure every removal counts. I do like the fact that the deck only has 3, since drawing multiples is often awkward.

This package is how this deck gets advantage on the midgame. While 《Earthshaker Khenra》 fails to be a good match against 《Whirler Virtuoso》, 《Sand Strangler》 leaves us with a 3/3 body against a 1/1 flying thopter. I like the fact that our creatures, particularly 《Rampaging Ferocidon》, will often take a removal spell clearing the way for our 《Glorybringer》s. Trying to win the game via value is the reason why this deck plays 《Dunes of the Dead》 over the 4th 《Sunscorched Desert》 that is often a lock in other red decks.

Value!

The removal suit is slightly different, including some 《Magma Spray》 over 《Shock》. In addition to efficiently dealing with resilient creatures like 《Earthshaker Khenra》 or 《Scrapheap Scrounger》, 《Magma Spray》 provides also a way to deal with 《The Scarab God》. Considering the gameplan of this deck I think having ways to answer 《The Scarab God》 is just more important than being able to 《Shock》 our opponent.

The sideboard is something I still don’t fully understand, but it seems clear to me that against other Ramunap decks Stark just wanted to sideboard into a more traditional version of the deck with 3 《Hazoret》 and 4 《Soul-Scar Mage》. I’m not sure if the sideboard 《Hazoret》s come in against non-aggro decks, but since the deck is weak to 《Chandra's Defeat》, they might help protecting us from that spell.

Conclusion

This is a very interesting approach, and I think it’s the best one against the Energy decks. The problem is that giving up win % in almost every other single matchup could be fatal in we move away from this Energy-heavy metagame. If the format stays this Energy-heavy I could see this kind of red being the way to go, though.

I am truly impressed by this deck. Even though some choices seemed very bad to me on the first glance, after thinking about it, they make a lot of sense. I do think the 2nd 《Hazoret the Fervent》 is likely maindeckable, but other than that, I like where this is going.

Which Ramunap Red is best for the next tournament is something that strongly depends on the metagame, but at least I’d give a try to Desert Red.

If you are not comfortable with going big, or it turns to be not very good once opponents know what’s going on, I think I’d stick with 《Ahn-Crop Crasher》s. Minotaurs are cool, after all.

Thanks for reading!

Javier Dominguez