Mono R Kamahl

Kamahl was one of the first legends I was exposed too. He came in the Tenth Edition precon for red, and thats when I learned to play the game. Recently I wanted to forge a deck around him, but I didn't want to go traditional burn-to-the-face. I opted to use burn as creature removal, and put  a sub-theme of elemental tokens into play. Another sub-theme is high-power low-toughness, which I just think is cute to use. It's a lot of fun to play, and at its worst is just REALLY good at removing blockers!

x4 Kamahl, Pit Fighter
x2 Rakka Mar
x4 Spitebellows
==
x4 Elemental Appeal
x2 Flame Slash
x2 Rough//Tumble
x4 Pyroclasm
x4 Rift Bolt
x4 Seal of Fire
x4 Fire Diamond
==
x2 Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
x20 Mountain

White-Matters Knights

This deck was originally x4 Northern/Southern/Pentarch/Paladin en-Vec, but it wasn't too  good. The flavour was wonderful, as they were excellent colour hosers, but if I didn't get them out early i was easily over-whelmed. Expanding on the them to include more knights I broke down and let in the non-paladins, but excellent red and black hatred in White/Silver Knight. All of the spells also have a very pro-white slant, and while the deck is hurt some by it in certain match-ups the trade off for how it feels is more then worth it.

x4 White Knight
x4 Silver Knight
x4 Paladin en-Vec
x2 Northern Paladin
x2 Southern Paladin
x3 Pentarch Paladin
x1 Lightwielder Paladin
==
x3 Light from Within
x4 Sunlance
x1 Armored Ascension
x2 Mass Calcify
x3 Marble Diamond
x3 Inheritance
==
x23 Plains
x1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin

DRAKESTORM!!!!!!!!!

For this deck, the title HAS to be said like that - think of how the commercials yelled 'Bonestorm!!!!' on the Simpsons for Christmas of '95 (I'm so damn old). It came to be since I really thought the cycle of counter-drakes was just a cool idea, and using those three creatures as a shell I went about figuring what else to do with the deck. It was originally going to be a straight control with drake beatdown, but the Cloudstone Curio + Kobold's plan to ramp up a storm caught my attention. I wasn't running any storm decks, and with the drakes to counter any removal or counters on my creatures I made a fun, effective casual deck. It would be better mono-U, but splashing R made it a little lighter on the budget.

x2 Spiketail Drake
x4 Spiketail Drakeling
x4 Spiketail Hatchling
x4 Drift of Phantasms
x4 Crookshank Kobolds
==
x4 Muddle the Mixture
x4 Rune Snag
x2 Think Twice
x2 Cloudstone Curio
x2 Sleep
x4 Grapeshot
==
x4 Tolaria West
x4 Mountain
x16 Island

R/B Self-Esteem

'Self-Esteem' was originally a Lor-TS-Xth standard deck I developed, focusing pulling out burn spells to outrace your opponent. It was never too successful, but was a lot of fun to play. It was centered around Maralen of the Mornsong, who's ability negated the ability to draw cards and instead at the beginning of each upkeep a player would lose three life and get to search their library for a card. This made it very dangerous to play, as often the opponent would simply pick what they needed to win or give them the edge, most of the time before you could. Still, in red and black, the flavour of this deck was spot-on. Yes, you may gain some advantages, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get what I want.

I eventually stopped playing standard, and soon after Mindlock Orb came to be and using that for a potential lock with Maralen was all the rage (in mostly bad decks that didn't win anything of note). Since I was no longer restricted, I added more efficient burn, replacing Shock with Lightning Bolt, and adding spells like Flame Rift. It's not the best thing I run, but it's certainly a pet deck.

As for the name, it comes from The Offspring. Self-Esteem is a song where a man keeps letting a woman walk all over him and hurt him, and I thought it was cute considering how Maralen does the same to me, and just like in the song I refuse to stay away from her. The full current version of the deck is listed below, so I hope you enjoy it and I'm always more then happy to explain card choices or hear new suggestions*!

*Even though I ignore most of them XD

x4 Maralen of the Mornsong

x4 Sleeper Agent

x4 Mogg Fanatic

x4 Keldon Marauders

==

x4 Flame Rift

x4 Lightning Bolt

x4 Incinerate

x4 Blightning

x2 Volcanic Fallout

x1 Colfenor's Plans

x1 Flame Javelin

x1 Terminate

x1 Doom Blade

x1 Soul Spike

==

x9 Swamp

x5 Mountain

x4 Graven Cairns

x3 Sulfurous Springs