My Red/Black decklist any comments welcomed

HI All.
After spending some time looking at Timmy's decklist i thought it would be unfair of me not to do the same and list one of my decks for comment /criticism .
So here we go with the listing and my thoughts ( however misguided) about why the cards are there. When i first started playing magic ( not very long ago about 7 months in fact ) I
like a lot of new players i played RDW ( hell who doesn't like turning them sideways and sending burn at the dome ) having done this for a little while i began to notice ( as other more experienced players will no doubt have ) that RDW while it is great fun and very effective with the right cards in hand and being drawn,but it tends to run out of steam . So i thought what could i try and do to improve the situation ? the idea i came up with was to use black to reuse the cards in my graveyard again and ( thanks to shadowmoor) try and draw extra cards. so heres the listing ( please note that it runs more than the optimal 60 cards ( i couldn't find the heart to cut cards to make it 60 ).
Creatures:-
4 Karplusan Wolverine ( a good 1 drop attack with it every turn if possible and if blocked use its i damage against either your opponent or their creatures use it with conspire for giant baiting)
4 Sootstroke Kindler ( a hasty 2 drop can attack with the wolverine on turn 2 giving you 2 damage in early then used as an haste enabler with the bigger creatures and with conspire with baiting)
4 Keldon Marauders ( 1 of my favourite cards great value 3/3 for 2 mana played with haste from the kindler has the potential for 8 damage while its in play)
3 Inner-Flame Acolyte ( played for 1 red its a damage boost to other creatures played for 2 red/+1 other its a hastened 4/2)
3 Mudbrawler Cohort ( can be a hastened 2/2 with other red creatures in play which can upset the combat maths when you attack)
3 Chilling Shade ( pumpable evasive (flying) beats)
2 Mogg War Marshal ( played mainly to help with the conspire for giant baiting but the marshal itself is a good blocker if your opponent attacks on the turn after he comes into play you then don't have to pay the 1red +1 other col cost on your next turn .

Spells:-
3 Rift Bolt ( a nice suspended threat for 1 red also can gain you board position people aren't likely to cast a creature with less than 3 toughness on their turn knowing that it may be a target for Rift Bolt on your turn
4 Lash Out ( a good general purpose removal with a couple of extra's 3 damage to your opponent if you win the clash deck thining/stacking with the clash do you need the land or the creature exposed by clash ? if not then put it at the bottom of your deck and draw something else if you do you know whats coming on your next draw phase ( but so does your opponent
4 Recover ( gets your creature back ( hello again keldon marauders ) and draws you a card nice and simple ( good for me because when i play grim harvest i tend to forget to leave sufficent mana open for it and so loose it (
4 Giant Baiting ( probably the best value spell (when played with conspire) in red (shame its not an instant but you can't have everything ) potential 8 damage for 1red +2 other
4 Terror ( great removal against non black creatures baloths gathan raiders errant ephemerons ivory giants etc)
3 Scarscale Ritual ( draw 2 cards great if u can play it on giant baiting tokens or the keldon marauders before they leave play or target the war marshal on the same turn it comes into play saves you 2 mana next turn as well

Lands:-
13 Snow-Covered Mountains
7 Snow-Covered Swamps

Comments:- I used to play 4 Gathan Raiders ( which is a great card i know but to be a 5/5 your hand needs to be empty and seeing as the main purpose of this red/black deck is to get cards into your hand for you to play i didn't think it a good fit for this build. In the sideboard which is in flux at the moment there are 4 Skred ( great value creature removal if you have the lands in play ) 3 hurly burly (for saps weak elves and weak ww and goblin tokens in storm control) 4 empty the warrens ( yes i know its not an ideal fit with this deck but it gives me another option post sb) and 4 manamorphose to go with the warrens. A couple of cards i have considered using were intimidator initiate and mudbutton torchrunner what do you people think ?.
Anyway clanmates there it is warts and all any comments suggestions will be appreciated. I know there are some very innovative deck builders in our clan ( i have played against lots of you)
Regards
Harry

Hey wild.

Seems like you have the right idea about a lot of the cards you're using. There's a few things I'd like to share my opinion on though...

The first thing is the land. If you were to thin the deck down to as close to 60 as possible (I think you should) I would put at least 22 lands in there. As you're using more than one colour you want something to even your mana out as well (4X Terramorphic expanse). The mana curve on your deck is quite high with a lot of 3 drops and it is quite contolling with the recursion thing so i'd definatly want more land in. I'd go for 23.

Secondly, i don't like the 4X terror. I'd put those in sb as it's quite possible you could be facing decks with a lot of black creatures in so they might end up being useless. Instead i'd make the 4X skred you have in sideboard maindeck cards and do a straight swap. Skred will kill almost anything in the format, besides regenerating creatures (but even then it might help) and costs less than terror.

As you have recoursion I'd like to see more creatures with CIP abilities. I would try fitting 4X phyrexian rager in there. Maybe take out the chilling shades and 1 kindler. One thing to keep an eye on is how many X/1 creatures you have in your deck. There are quite a few cards in pauper that deal 1 damage to every creature, but much fewer cards that will deal 2. Most people will have some of those cards in their sb for matchups like goblinstorm, but if they notice that most of your creatures only have a toughness of 1 they will side them in game 2, and when used you will be at a serious card disadvantage.

I agree with your comments about Gathan Raiders, he's not a good fit if you're using recoursion and/or draw in your deck. I also like the idea of mudbutton torchrunner. Though he depends more on what you're trying to achieve with your deck.

The reason RDW wins is because it is fast. It can do lethal damage to an opponent quicker than he can stableize the board (thus ending his life loss). If you start using space in your deck to recour your creatures, then you are moving away from aggro and entering into the realms of control. When i say control, i don't just mean blue counter decks. I mean any deck that devotes a large portion of its cards to gaining a favourable board position. This can be done through drawing more cards then the opponent, using spells to target the relevant opposing creatures and destroy them, removing opposing creatures en mass, making the opponent discard, countering relevant opponent spells, playing bigger creatures than the opponent, and so on... For you to beat this, Wild, you need to have some way of hurting your opponent in the late game, something he can't simply block with a larger creature. You have lots of haste in your deck, which is good. But in the late game, which is where you're heading with your draw cards and recoursion, they will be easily dealt with by the more controlling deck. You need evasion and/or burn. Personally, i think that burn would be the better strategy of the two, because there's only one way to stop a burn spell to the dome, and that's a counter spell, while evasive creatures have far more vunerabilities.

Maybe what I'm going to sugguest here is a different deck entirely, but it might be worth trying. If you were to bump up your land count and include a couple of grim harvests in your deck, you could use creatures, which can burn the opponent. Then you could play a more controlling role in the game and recour your creatures for unlimited burn. Emberwild Agur, Mudbutton Torchrunner and Keldon Marauders could be used to do this. Possiblly use Martyr of Ashes to help you control things, and maybe Tendrils of Corruption to buy you time.

Well good luck with it anyway, let me know if you want to test

i agree with what andy says, least i think he said it.. i've had few beers... burn might be the best way for the deck to go... mono colored decks are much more stable. i sugguest the following...

Karplusan Wolverine
Sootstroke Kindler
Keldon Marauders
Inner-Flame Acolyte
Mogg War Marshal
mogg fanatic
Battlegate Mimic
Emberwilde Augur

rift bolt
lash out
grapeshot
seething song
gaint baiting
incinerate
shock

so this would be more then 60 cards for the deck... but this is where i would start... and now that i've looked up the cards i might just look to get them. some of the cards will rotate out in a few months. with red i wouldnt worry about trying to find a creatures with evation... just use the direct damage to remove whats in the way. as far as playing agains control i havent really seen much blue control so you spells should be safe.