(MTG) Red Deck, making do.

[Nightstalker]

Hey this is my first MTG deck and i only started playing the other week so heres my deck and a list of all the other cards i have that i can swap stuff in/out for, i'm just making do with what i have until i get some more stuff.

total: 64

lands: 20 (all mountain)

Creatures: 21
3x hellfire mongrel
3x vulshok replica
2x Akoum battlesinger
2x iron myr
1x grotag thrasher
1x goblin ballon brigade
1x skitter of lizards
1x goblin arsonist
1x earth servant
1x arc runner
1x incurable ogre
1x bladetusk boar
1x fire servant
1x conquering manticore
1x highland berserker

instants: 9
3x bull rush
3x chandras outrage
1x pyretic ritual
1x lightning bolt
1x searing blaze

sorceries: 7
2x demolish
1x lava axe
1x hellion eruption
1x dragon fodder
1x mark of mutiny
1x arc trail

Enchantments: 5
2x zektar shrine exebition
2x crusher zendikon
1x goblin war paint

Artifacts: 2 (barbed battlegear x2)
and heres all my other stuff that i can swap stuff in/out for

25x mountain

creatures: 52
molten ravanger x4
goblin roughrider x3
emrakuls hatcher x3
grotag siege-runner x3
goblin shotcutter x3
deathforge shaman x2
vulshok heartstoker x2
flameborn hellion x2
oxida scrapmelter x2
barrage ogre x2
murassa pyromancer x2
manic vandal x2
lagac lizard x2
battle-rattle shaman x2
vulshok berserker
pyrodigal pyromancer
hoard-smelter dragon
bloodcrazed goblin
geyser glider
akoum boulder foot
tuktuk scrapper
berserkers of blood ridge
battle rampart
kiln fiend
highland berserker
bloodpyre elemental
goblin tunneler
lavafume invoker
torch slinger
shatterskull giant x2
tuktuk grunts

enchartments: 14
claws of valakut x4
fissure vent x2
quest for the goblin lord x2
volcanic strength
lightning talons
electropotence
crusher zendikon
raid bombardment
goblin war paint

sorceries: 14
explosive revelation x2
rolling terrain x2
fireball x2
brood birthing
demolish
turn to slag
arc trail
lust for war
act of treason
wrap in flames
disaster radius

instants: 9
shatter x3
punishing fire x2
slaughter cry
spire barrage
fling

artifacts: 2

golem foundry
panic spellbomb

i know its gonna be annoying scrolling up and down constantly for you guys but i really want to get into this and i would really really appreciate your help, thanks!

 

[DonRoyale]

OK...*cracks knucles*

To start, this deck isn't Standard-legal. Standard consists of the last two years of box print, and cards from the Shards of Alara set aren't legal in Standard, so we have to cut Incurable Ogre and Dragon Fodder from the list, if you ever want to enter a Standard tournament.

Now, we have 62 cards left in the deck. Trust me, you want 60; when you're in a situation where you need to draw the one card that will help you get out of the situation you're in, every other card in your deck plays against you. So, we cut the two weakest cards in the deck:
-Goblin Balloon Brigade
-Pyretic Ritual

Brigade is going to be a 1/1 unless you put a billion Bull Rushes behind it, and even then, that card is bad because if your opponent kills your Brigade you've just wasted at least 2 cards to their 1, giving your opponent card advantage over you. Pyretic Ritual is just bad because it really doesn't DO anything, in the grand scheme of things.

Next, we take a look at the rest of your collection to see what you should be running. You have some pretty solid cards in your collection that can go above what you're currently using. Those cards are:

+Hoard-Smelter Dragon
+Kiln Fiend
+Turn to Slag
+Arc Trail
+Punishing Fire x2
+Spire Barrage

To me, those stand out as powerful cards your deck will want to have. You'll notice a large majority of those cards are damage spells. That's what you want in a red deck; spells that deal damage. There are going to be times where you fight troublesome creatures, and you'll want spells that can deal with them.

Hoard-Smelter Dragon is a powerful creature even when your opponent doesn't have any artifacts. By itself, without any help from your other creatures, it kills your opponent in four attacks. That has a lot of value, believe it or not.

So, that's 7 additions, bringing your deck to 67. We exchange those 7 spells for the 7 weakest cards in your deck:

-3 Bull Rush
-2 Demolish
-2 Akoum Battlesinger

Bull Rush is bad when you could just be running Burst Lightning or Galvanic Blast over it. Demolish is an unfun card. Anything that says "Destroy target land" is not fun. People will hate you for playing these cards. Don't play them unless they're named Tectonic Edge. Your Ally package is weak, because you have three Allies and Battlesinger will often just be Skitter of Lizards for 2, which is bad...because Skitter of Lizards should never be a 1/1.

Next, we take a look at upgrading the weaker cards in your deck to more solid, less answerable options. We look at options you have:

+2 Flameborn Hellion
+2 Shatterskull Giant
+4 Molten Ravager

And we then take out weaker, less stable cards your deck has:

-Goblin War Paint
-2 Crusher Zendikon
-3 Vulshok Replica
-Highland Berserker
-Lava Axe

Goblin War Paint is an Aura. Aura spells are notorious for the following play:

"I play my Aura, enchant my creature"
"I'll respond and kill your creature. Now that your creature is dead, your Aura has nothing to enchant and now just dies. =)"

Zendikons, Highland Berserker and Vulshok Replicas are too slow, frail, and die too easily. Lava Axe is just too clunky a card at 5 mana, Spire Barrage is better because it'll be doing much of the same thing.

Those are the fixes. Gimme a sec to look for things to suggest to you...

EDIT: Here are some common-rarity, solid red cards to look into. Good stores won't charge you more than $0.25 a pop for these, so they should be budget-friendly options:

-Galvanic Blast is the first and foremost. Galvanic Blast is probably the cheapest of these, since the current market of cards is flooded with Scars of Mirrodin cards (seeing as it's the latest released expansion and there have been a lot of opened boosters), and everyone should have their playsets (4 of them), so getting your hands on a playset should be easy. Ask some friends, ask a store owner, etc.; should be the easiest to get your hands on.

-Lightning Bolt. The innocuous. You need four. Period. It's the best thing a red deck has. It's the bread, butter, knife and toaster of a red deck. Seriously. Get four. Shouldn't be hard; they went from a $3 common from M10 to absolutely dirt-cheap after being reprinted not only in M11, but in the new Fire & Lightning deck (foil, no less!) as well, so they shouldn't be more than $0.49 a pop.

-Searing Blaze. You should be running at least two, if not more. Not many decks play them due to them being a very awkward draw when you have no lands to play alongside it, or no creatures to target alongside them. Shouldn't be too hard to pick up.

-Goblin Bushwhacker is a fast, aggressive creature at common rarity that most red deck players would want a playset of. They're a very powerful aggro creature, as, for two extra red mana, it gives whatever creature you just played haste, which is really relevant.

-Flame Slash is a powerful removal spell. Keep in mind, it's sorcery-speed, though. No decks play it due to that, so you should be able to pick a couple copies up no problem.

-Staggershock is a great way of dealing with multiple pesky small creatures (like most white decks, for example), and you can often find yourself nabbing 2 kills with this for the cost of one card, to gain card advantage over your opponent.

-Burst Lightning can be a very powerful way to end a game when you're running out of relevant cards to kill your opponent with. If you have five mana and they have 4 or less life, they're dead if you draw this, and that situation can and will happen a lot of the time...

Some uncommon options are:

-Cunning Sparkmage is all-around a solid creature. It can continuously deal 1 damage to an opponent, or kill their tiny utility creature (like a Lotus Cobra or something). There are a lot of things at 1 toughness this guy would love to ping to death.

-and Pyroclasm's a great answer to any deck beating you down with a massive swarm of small creatures (Elves and White Weenie in particular). Just drop this to burn all their dudes to a crisp. Watch you don't kill your own creatures in the process, though.

 

[Nightstalker]

ok, thanks will do, also ive made those changes and it looks great!, anything else?

 

[DonRoyale]

I'll suggest more expensive, but nonetheless very powerful options for the deck. Something for you to look out for, I guess...

-Goblin Guide is first and foremost, and is probably one of, if not the best red creature ever printed for one mana. They always get a few crucial points of early damage in, which can sometimes win games in the abstract.

-That guy in my display is a pretty cool guy. He says "Kill me or I win in two turns" and doesn't afraid of anything.

-Kargan Dragonlord can become very difficult to deal with very quickly. He gets out of Bolt range quickly and can dominate a game by itself.

-Inferno Titan is large and in charge. The damage ability is what helps push him over the top, since you can fry opponent's creatures before they're able to block.

-And Hellkite Charger is the most powerful budget-friendly option you can get your hands on. Often times, he threatens your opponent's doom on his own, as that ability can get out of hand quite quickly.

I hope I've helped. =)