Last month saw the 2019 Challenger decks hitting the shelves of the FLGS. Last year when the initial ones came out they were a massive hit. They delivered big time on the promise of providing a standard legal deck that would be competitive at a FNM.

Would this years offerings continue to deliver on that promise? IMHO from the 3 I own and have played, the answer is a big yes.

In this post I’m going to look at the Lightning Aggro Challenger deck. It’s mono red. I don’t normally play mono red aggro. So I like that this Challenger deck allows me to try that deck without having to go out and track down all the cards. And like the rest of them it makes a great place to start and make the deck your own.

The WotC article (linked above) suggests that players look at adding Risk Factor and/or Skewer the Critics. They also talk about splashing a second colour and recommend cards in the colours suggested.

However I like the idea of sticking to mono red. So my inclination is to add one or two more copies of Rekindling Phoenix. Or at least having them in the sideboard. I love the card. A 4 CMC 4/3 that is nigh impossible to get rid of. Kill it and it’s back at the start of the next turn. It can be very annoying.

When I first saw Ilharg it didn’t grab me. But then I got this deck and pulled the card. I particular think it’s attacking ability is there to be abused. Chainwhirler and Pyromancer both have etb triggers that this allows us to repeat, a red flicker/blink effect? Plus as I saw at the weekend with Oketra once this is out on the battlefield even if your opponent does get rid of it, it’s back pretty quickly. I’m leaning to having a couple of these in the deck.

Tibalt is a sideboard card. And a situational one. It’s there for when the deck goes up against a deck like my Orzhov deck or the mono white United Assault Challenger deck. Basically any deck that relies on life gain. It switches them off.

Neheb is one to also consider, and could allow you to get Ilharg back even quicker. If I had to say one card I was unsure about then this would be it.

So that’s 6 cards I would consider for upgrading the Lightning Aggro deck. What do you think of these suggestions? What cards would you upgrade in this Cahllenger deck?