Why don't red decks save blockers?

[Lord Tony]

I never understood this the only thing preventing me from killing them next turn if they save a blocker

yet they always swing with everything even if I have blockers that can kill their stuff without them being able to kill my stuff

[Winter Wolf]

The deck philosophy is generally "all-in". That means they don't bother worrying about their life total, hoping to focus you out of the game before it matters. The alpha striking into bigger blockers? Probably just someone who isn't very good or experienced.

Win more games and you should probably see less opponents like that.

[The_Dybbuk_King]

Originally posted by Winter Wolf:

The deck philosophy is generally "all-in". That means they don't bother worrying about their life total, hoping to focus you out of the game before it matters. The alpha striking into bigger blockers? Probably just someone who isn't very good or experienced.

Win more games and you should probably see less opponents like that.

This.

RDW doesn't win by blocking. RDW can't just give up attackers for nothing either. Every single point of damage matters.

Want to beat RDW? Gain (on average) 6 life. You drop the Red deck's win % by double digits immediately.

[Darkclaw3050]

Additionally, sometimes people may attack bluffing that they could cast a spell to supersize their creature, you call their bluff and they lose it.

[srpetrinec]

Currently there's a strong mono-red and an even stronger red-green deck out there at least in alchemy, but for the average red goblin deck I have had about a 65-35% win rate with a general mono white pretty sure Azoreus build, but with modifications. I do need to update it though, as those current decks found a way around mine. Oh, it will NOT shut down blue-red or blue-green. but does pretty well against the typical mono red aggro and mono black... do a net search,the basic builds are there, just adapt them with what you have, and what you have seen works.

[anaris]

bad play is extremely common, you probably do many examples of it yourself; RDW is *particularly* transparent when you play badly, though, because the gameplay is so focused on doing points of damage with creatures turned sideways. Conversely, we don't see the misplays like bad land choices or misuse of limited spells that are the main misplays in other deck types because the information is in the hand rather than in front of us with big glowing arrows. It should always be your first theory for things like this where they lost a game because of something you don't understand (Note: this is a dangerous assumption to make before they've lost)

the other big possibility, though, is that RDW players who are good at the deck know when they've lost, and not everybody concedes in that circumstance - especially if there's a chance that if you assigned blockers wrong or forgot to they would have won instead. They may have gone "my only chance of winning is if my opponent is stupid about assigning blockers" and then rolled the dice on that happening, because it's RDW so it's a 2 minute game and what's one extra turn.

[Tom the Mime Artist]

Originally posted by Winter Wolf:

The deck philosophy is generally "all-in". That means they don't bother worrying about their life total, hoping to focus you out of the game before it matters. The alpha striking into bigger blockers? Probably just someone who isn't very good or experienced.

Win more games and you should probably see less opponents like that.

Sometimes it's just playing to your outs as well. For example, RDW will often gladly lose their entire board in attacks that don't kill any of your opponents creatures if it drops the opponent from 6 life to 4. There's a good chance the attacks are never going to be more favourable and staying back to block just lets your opponent stabilise so your odds get worse. The best use of the creatures in that circumstance is a kamikaze attack so that if you do topdeck a burn spell, you can win.

[srpetrinec]

Originally posted by Tom the Mime Artist:

Originally posted by Winter Wolf:

The deck philosophy is generally "all-in". That means they don't bother worrying about their life total, hoping to focus you out of the game before it matters. The alpha striking into bigger blockers? Probably just someone who isn't very good or experienced.

Win more games and you should probably see less opponents like that.

Sometimes it's just playing to your outs as well. For example, RDW will often gladly lose their entire board in attacks that don't kill any of your opponents creatures if it drops the opponent from 6 life to 4. There's a good chance the attacks are never going to be more favourable and staying back to block just lets your opponent stabilise so your odds get worse. The best use of the creatures in that circumstance is a kamikaze attack so that if you do topdeck a burn spell, you can win.

Agreed. Noticed in some of my own games, both sides are drawing out building armies instead of attacking, and when the other guy knows he has something coming that is definitely a mistake! Did it myself waiting too long to go on the offensive and forcing a block,instead ended up on the losing end. A fun loss, got to see exactly what was in store for me, but the game might have had a better turnout, or at least a closer loss, than it did had I simply attacked when I had a couple creatures with large point advantage. At least there would have been a fight for the win

[Winter Wolf]

Originally posted by Tom the Mime Artist:

Originally posted by Winter Wolf:

The deck philosophy is generally "all-in". That means they don't bother worrying about their life total, hoping to focus you out of the game before it matters. The alpha striking into bigger blockers? Probably just someone who isn't very good or experienced.

Win more games and you should probably see less opponents like that.

Sometimes it's just playing to your outs as well. For example, RDW will often gladly lose their entire board in attacks that don't kill any of your opponents creatures if it drops the opponent from 6 life to 4. There's a good chance the attacks are never going to be more favourable and staying back to block just lets your opponent stabilise so your odds get worse. The best use of the creatures in that circumstance is a kamikaze attack so that if you do topdeck a burn spell, you can win.

That's what I meant by "focus you out of the game".