Standard: Mono Red Aggro (2025) - Deck Tech and Sideboard Guide

Pro Tour Aetherdrift is over! A Top 8 without any Esper Pixies was a surprise to us all, as well as Domains' efficiency even in a meta full of Gruuls. In fact, Matt Nass and Co put 3 Domains in the Top 4, against all odds.

However, other archetypes outside this Bermuda triangle gave us interesting performances too. Zevin Faust's Golgari Graveyard (3-2 and 3-0), Kenta Harane's Jeskai Oculus (3-2 and 4-0), Lucas Duchow's Gruul Leyine (3-2 and 4-0), and Ian Robb's Mono Red Aggro (3-2 and 5-0) were all in the Top 8 as well, and performed really well on Day 2.

Today, we'll discuss Mono Red Aggro, which has yielded solid results ever since the rotation and has been one of the most popular decks around. Its popularity reached its peak at Worlds in the hands of Quinn Tonole, who was in the semifinals with Marcio Carvalho and his Golgari Midrange.

We'll show you the list Ian Robb piloted, discuss its strategies and key pieces, go through every different detail from the Worlds list to this one, as well as the best opening hands, the best sideboards, and why you should play this deck.

How Mono Red Aggro Works

This is a Gruul variation. In fact, it plays a very similar base of creatures, but lost cards like Innkeeper's Talent, Pawpatch Recruit, Snakeskin Veil, and Overprotect.

Our list in particular plays Monastery Swiftspear for turn 1, besides four copies of Rockface Village so you can activate your Mice's "Valiants" and deal more damage.

Another difference is the Burn package with Burst Lightning and Lightning Strike.

From Worlds to Pro Tour

Foundations and Aetherdrift brought more options not only to Mono Red, but also other well-established strategies. It also enabled new strategies, of course. Because these two sets created a new meta, this list had to adapt as well.

The main deck Quinn Tonole used isn't all that different from the most recent version by Ian Robb. He replaced Shock with Burst Lightning, and a few Mountains and 1 Witchstalker Frenzy with Soulstone Sanctuary, which made it more consistent.

As for the sideboard, he removed Urabrask's Forge because of how popular Authority of the Consuls is in sideboards for aggro decks.

He also removed Twisted Fealty, which became less efficient when decks focused on Demons and other big creatures became less popular.

The main additions were Sunspine Lynx and Ghost Vacuum. Lynx is a way to finish matches against decks that use too many nonbasic lands. It deals a lot of damage, particularly to Domain Overlords and Esper Pixie.

Ghost Vacuum is a critical answer against Abhorrent Oculus and Omniscience, as these decks often interact with the graveyard.

Strategy - Be Aggressive and Make the Most Out of Your Synergies

This list's main strategy is leaning on turn 1 threats and dealing as much damage as you can before your opponent can answer.

To do that, you'll need a few synergies:

Mouse/Valiant

The first great synergy in this deck is the Mice/Valiant dynamic. Just like in the Gruul version, you'll use Manifold Mouse and try to make the most out of Valiant, either with Heartfire Hero, to deal more damage, or with Emberheart Challenger, to find more resources.

Rockface Village is an alternative way to activate Valiant. It also buffs and gives haste to the Mice and Lizards in this deck.

You can use Soulstone Sanctuary's double strike to deal a lot of damage, as it has all creature types.

Prowess

The second main synergy in this list is prowess. You'll take advantage of your removals to deal even more damage with your creatures.

This strategy is incredibly efficient with Monstrous Rage.

Other Strategies

Hired Claw deals damage to your opponent directly when a Lizard attacks, so it's a great opener if you can put several copies of it in play.

Screaming Nemesis is how you'll prevent your opponent from gaining life. The most common way to do this is to use your burn on this creature itself. Burst Lightning is one of those ways, and Witchstalker Frenzy is a way to play around a removal to deal more burn damage and win.

Mulligan

Usually, you'll be putting pressure on your opponent first, so look for hands with at least 2 lands and action for the first few turns. Try to find a way to keep putting pressure on your opponent turn after turn.

Heartfire Hero and Manifold Mouse are excellent openers.

Hands with 3 lands can be viable if you have any utility lands, like Rockface Village or Soulstone Sanctuary. That way, you'll be able to progress your game plan and create an advantage with them. Still, your most important strategy is to use the first few turns to put pressure on your opponent.

You must mulligan hands with 4 or more lands. These lands won't be able to give you the fast pace you need early on, and your opponent will end up with a lot of life on later turns as a result. You'll have to rely on your topdeck to find resources and try to win.

You can only keep hands with 1 land if you're drawing first because then you'll have 2 chances to draw cards and find that other land. Otherwise, look for a "light" hand with many 1-cost cards. That way, you'll always have something to play, even if you need to wait a few turns to get more lands.

Hands without any creatures are terrible for this archetype, so just mulligan them. They're inefficient even if they have many removals.

Reactive Mulligan

Against other aggressive decks, whoever starts playing is the one who will keep putting pressure on the other player. When you're drawing first, you need to look for early game removals, and use your burn to deal with your opponent's threats.

Don't think twice before sending back a hand without any removals in this case!

Against Mono Red or Gruul, Screaming Nemesis becomes a wall. It makes your opponent's attacks quite inefficient, even if they have bigger creatures.

Against Boros Aggro, you have to protect yourself against Sheltered by Ghosts, which is one of this matchup's greatest issues. Playing around this removal is your way to win.

Gruul Mice/ Gruul Leyline/ Mono Red Aggro

Side In

Side Out

Domain Overlords

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Side Out

Esper Pixie

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Side Out

Jeskai Oculus

Side In

Side Out

This Mono Red version is similar to the Gruul version, as it is aggro, but it swaps protection and bigger creatures for more attack angles with burn and prowess.

Soulstone Sanctuary was a great addition, as this archetype needed a creature land to finish matches.

On the other side, you won't be able to deal with enchantments with this list, so you'll struggle to protect yourself and deal with removals like Leyline Binding and Temporary Lockdown.

Why Play Mono Red Aggro?

Mono Red is an extremely fast deck that kept the best of the Gruul synergy and combined it with Valiants. Now, it also uses prowess to deal even more damage.

You can use its removals as burn, and, this way, attack on multiple fronts. It is incredibly versatile in this sense.

You'll also easily be able to activate Screaming Nemesis' ability, and force your opponent to play with very little life left. Then, you can just finish with damage directly, either with Sunspine Lynx or even Hired Claw.

If that's not enough, this deck won 65% of the matches against Gruul Mice and Domain Overlord at the Pro Tour, and these two decks are one of the most popular decks in the entire format. Furthermore, it also won 56% of all its matches in the Pro Tour.

If your local metagame is dominated by Esper Pixie, however, Mono Red Aggro might not be the best choice, as it struggles quite a lot against this archetype.

What do you think of this list? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below!

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!