I’ve written about my love of Cloudpost decks at least once or twice and I’m always trying to find a better version of the deck with the help of Brew Corner’s Aaron Gazzaniga. With the printing of Kozilek’s Return I really wanted to give it a try in post because it has a lot of value in the deck. I figured Red/Green Tron is a thing—why can’t I make Red/Green Post a thing? So after a little bit of fiddling around Aaron handed me the following:
Red/Green 12Post
You’ll notice the overall shell of the deck is very much the same. The lands are slightly different obviously to accommodate red. In addition, it still is running Ancient Stirrings, Crop Rotation, Pithing Needle, Sensei’s Divining Top, and Candelabra of Tawnos just like the mono-green variant to ramp you quickly and smoothly. It’s also still running Emrakul, Kozilek, Ulamog, Ugin and Primeval Titan so the deck’s top end is extremely similar to the mono-green variant. It’s what you’re doing in the middle that is a bit different from what you’re doing in the mono-green build.
My favorite addition that red brings to the deck is Mina and Denn, Wildborn, a card I’m sure most people don’t expect to see much standard play from, never-mind legacy play, but in Post this card is gas. For those unfamiliar with the Post/Burn match-up, it can be a real struggle. Your best bet game one is to try to play as many Glimmerposts as possible and ramp into a Prime Time to beat down while fetching out Glimmerposts and Vesuva to buy time. Mina and Denn lets you bounce Glimmerposts back to your hand and replay them for extra value while in the meantime giving your guy trample. The best part is she is a 4/4 so if Burn wants to kill her they’re dumping two spells into her (or their fireblast which I’m more than happy to have them waste). She’s a four drop so you can get her out pretty quickly without having to worry about dying before getting her on the ground. Being able to give any of your creatures trample and having a 4/4 that gives you an additional land drop isn’t bad on its own either. When I was playing the deck I was handily beating Burn. It was quite liberating to not struggle so much in this match-up.
Arlinn Kord was added by my request. I’m in love with her and was looking for any excuse to play her and so far she’s been surprisingly great in this deck. The early game can be really hard for Post and this really helps speed that up, making even your Courser of Kruphix an effective beater. I only got to play with her for one night but there was never a point I was disappointed to cast her.
The last two additions to the deck were also personal, but were extremely effective additions to the Post shell. I’m a huge fan of Bonfire of the Damned. You have Sensei’s Divining Top to set it up and Post has no problem making a significant amount of mana to make it a very effective sweeper or even kill spell. The last card added to the deck is the reason it really exists, Kozilek’s Return. This card is easily the best sweeper that post can run. I found that it’s great when earlier on it wipes your opponent’s board and then later on when you drop your big guy it wipes their board again making it easy for whatever creature you cast to get through. This card is my absolute favorite and I feel it is extremely underrated. My only struggle with Kozilek’s Return was remembering the trigger. Fortunately most of Post’s top end creatures are so good forgetting it didn’t ever make me lose the game, but there were a few aggro games where remembering it was in there gave me that one extra turn I needed to win the game.
Post can really struggle in extremely aggro match-ups and splashing red really helps shore that problem up. With Mina and Denn, then postboard with Pyrostatic Pillar, Burn became a MUCH easier match-up. If they have an Eidolon of the Great Revel out all of their spells become extremely more painful for them. In aggro creature match-ups like Elves or Merfolk you have multiple sweepers that will clear their board and buy you the time you need to drop a bunch of creatures. Plus in those extremely aggro-match-ups there is the ability to sideboard into a Natural Order plan that has Elderscale Wurm. The only remaining painful match-up the deck has is Storm, a problem easily solved with the sideboard Pyrostatic Pillar, Sphere of Resistance and Surgical Extraction to deal with them. Between those and your ability to gain a lot of life the match-up becomes instantly harder for them.
I’ve never been a fan of playing red at all, it’s just not my style (I’m sure weekly readers have figured out that I’m a green mage) but this deck is easily one of the best versions of Post that I’ve ever played. It’s consistent, has dig and has answers to decks that Post traditionally really struggles against. If you enjoy Post or have been avoiding it because your local metagame didn’t seem accommodating, I strongly recommending tooling around with this list.
Kate hails from Worcester MA and also does a bit of Card Altering. Check her Stuff out on Facebook! She mainly plays legacy and modern though will occasionally find herself playing EDH. She has recently succumbed to MTGO.