Much Abrew About Nothing: Skred Red (Modern)
Hello, everyone! Welcome to the new and improved Much Abrew About Nothing. Last week in our Instant Deck Tech voting, Skred Red in Modern came out on top by a fairly wide margin. As a result, we are heading to Modern this week to play what is essentially a mono-red Blood Moon control deck that plays a whole bunch of Snow-Covered Mountains to power up Skred for removal and Scrying Sheets for card advantage. Where does Skred Red rank among the best Blood Moon decks in Modern? Let's try to find out!
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Skred Red: Instant Deck Tech
Skred Red vs. Blue Moon (Match 1)
Skred Red vs. Infect (Match 2)
Skred Red vs. Jund (Match 3)
Skred Red vs. Grishoalbrand (Match 4)
Skred Red vs. Breach Titan (Match 5)
Skred Red (Wrap Up)
Discussion
- All in all, this was one of the more disappointing Much Abrew decks in a while, mostly because I love Blood Moon decks and really wanted this one to be good, but we only ended up winning two of our five matches.
- That said, I don't think the problem is Skred Red in general. While I'm not sure the deck is great, I think that this build in specific had a few problems. First and most importantly, for a Blood Moon deck, it simply doesn't have enough Blood Moons. Many builds of Skred Red play all four Blood Moons and then two or three Magus of the Moon to make sure they have access to the effect on Turn 3, and I think this is likely correct. Then, once we add in more Blood Moons, it probably makes sense to trade in a couple copies of Mind Stone for Simian Spirit Guide to increase our chances of casting a Blood Moon on Turn 3.
- Also, running what essentially amounts to six copies of Pyroclasm (between literal Pyroclasm and Volcanic Fallout) is risky. In some matchups, these cards are great; in others, they do next to nothing. While I think three or four are probably necessary, having six leads to some really clunky draws where we flood out on reactive removal spells and don't draw enough threats.
- Speaking of flooding out on removal, another way of fixing this problem is to play some number of Boros Reckoner, which turns Skred from a just a strong removal spell into one of the craziest burn spells ever printed.
- The good news is we actually got to Boil someone all the way down to one land, which was awesome. Now, I want to play some sort of Sea's Claim / Spreading Seas Boil deck for Against the Odds.
- As far as the creatures, the Godo, Bandit Warlord package is cute but not without risk. Sometimes, I wished it were just another copy of Wurmcoil Engine.
- So, should you play Skred Red in Modern? I think the answer is yes, but I wouldn't want to play this exact build again. Instead, I'd look to maximize our Blood Moons and cut back on some of our more conditional removal spells. With these changes, I think the deck could be solid, although it will will still struggle against fast combo decks, especially those that don't get severely hampered by having their basic lands turn into Mountains.
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. Don't forget to vote for next week's deck by liking, subscribing to, and commenting on Instant Deck Tech videos! As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
