I harp on about red being the best cube colour a lot. Well, it just got even better. Amonkhet brought a lot of valuable tools that really push the aggressive strategies in red. The new cards helping are Soul-Scar Mage, Firebrand Archer, Harsh Mentor and Insult / Injury. There are many other nice cards in red from the two sets as well but they are not quite so significant in empowering the colour. They offer it depth and options rather than directly making it a lot better and what it does best. Soul-Scar and the Archer empower red not with being insane themselves but by adding in high quality cards that offer redundant effects to other high powered cards. This has the effect of greatly improving the value of the various support cards you play with those cards. Given that your support cards are burn and burn is the best thing in magic it is a pretty winning combination.
Harsh Mentor and Insult / Injury are not quite so directly involved in the synergies but they are just both so mentally powerful that they have notably upped the power level of the archetypes. Harsh Mentor is a hate bear and as such shouldn't expect to be empowered by your things instead drawing its value from the opponents goings on. It just so happens to be one of the most playable and well rounded hate bears ever printed that works in an entirely on theme way.
Insult / Injury was the big surprise. Imagine an elf deck that had no Overrun or pump effects at all. Then imagine adding in that Craterhoof, Wildspeaker or original Overrun to that elf deck. It would be a lot better, it would have something it was working towards, a big payoff, the I win button. It would feel like the perfect match! Insult going in RDW feels exactly like this imaginary scenario. You fear the red deck at 3 mana not because of Sufuric Vortex but because they can just kill you. It is not at all hard to goldfish a turn 3 kill and as such you cannot hope to win against a RDW now unless you have decent interaction in the first few turns. Any one who keeps a keen eye on my cube tutor list will have noticed a lot of things like Oust, Disfigure and Sunlance (re)entering my cube recently. This is a direct response to the new and improved threat of RDW. You used to just run a bit of lifegain, a Kitchen Finks and a Thragtusk would usually be enough to neuter a RDW. Good luck getting to cast that five drop with any consistency now...
Insult has a pretty good overlap in terms of synergy and support cards with the prowess things. Cheap and free spells that do damage such as Fireblast, Lava Dart and even Gut Shot are the ideal pairings. You cannot go too overboard on pure support cards as you are still a red deck. Too many things like Gut Shot in your list and you will be worse off on average. It is not worth lowering your decks performance floor for a mild increase in ceiling. Below is the ideal core for the new version of RDW. It is ten cards containing the best support and synergy tools. On to this list, or even this list minus a few of the cards, you just build it up with the best RDW cards you have in your pool. That is the joy of these new cards, they don't change anything about what you were doing, they just add more on top of it. I will say that you do want a slightly higher burn count with this kind of list. The Firebrand Archer is effectively a spellpower minion from Hearthstone! Turns out Kobald Geomancer is a great card in RDW! When packing spell power it makes sense to include spells (burn)!
Monastery Swiftspear
Soul-Scar Mage
Seal of Fire
Lava Dart
Mutagenic Growth / Gut Shot
Firebrand Archer
Thermo-Alchemist
Insult / Injury
Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
Fireblast
Chandra is well worth it in this list likely over the mighty Sulfuric Vortex. Chandra offers burst and synergy and that is exactly what this style of deck wants most. You also want to keep a low curve to enhance your burst potential. It is common to kill with four mana using Insult combined with a one mana burn spell for that extra reach. If you made a Chandra on your turn three you are going to be able to do stupid amounts of damage with her. Her output is so immense and hard to stop without removal that you can easily power through life gain with her. She offers more synergy and way more damage than Vortex while also being a counter to life gain. The only advantage the Vortex has is being a little harder to remove (and I guess triggering prowess). Chandra brings enough damage on her own that you can do a quick and easy win with her much like you do with Injury. They are the finishers and they complement everything well.
Here is a completed version of the Insult Red list filled out with cube staples. The ratios and curve are about right for this prowess heavy style. There are plenty of great cards for this deck such as Mogg Fanatic that I have not included as they are not so commonly available in cubes. Perhaps this style of deck will be enough to return certain cards to the fold like the little goblin.
25 Spells
Monastery Swiftspear
Soul-Scar Mage
Zurgo Bellstriker
Satyr Firedrinker
Bomat Courier
Goblin Guide
Seal of Fire
Lava Dart
Mutagenic Growth / Gut Shot
Lightning Bolt
Chain Lightning
Burst Lightning
Forked Bolt
Firebolt
Wild Slash
Faithless Looting
Harsh Mentor
Young Pyromancer
Firebrand Archer
Thermo-Alchemist
Abbot of Keral Keep
Insult / Injury
Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
Stoke the Flames
Fireblast
15 Mountains
This list is pretty close to the best version of the best deck possible in unpowered cube. This list would still be one of the best in a powered one and may even remain the best if you swapped a Mountain for a Mox Ruby. If you want to win or if you just want to toast things this is the way to go. I recall when Baneslayer Angel first entered my cube and caused a massive shift not just in the meta but in the viable cards and general value of cards. It is a little like when Flametongue Kavu was in standard/block creatures needed to pass the FTK test. This meant having 5 toughness or at least being cheap and affording value or some protection from the card. This is turning into an inception simile.... So anyway, I already feel like Insult is having this Baneslayer effect on cube. It is changing the value of cards and the style of deck construction. You have to keep on top of the red deck or they will explode and kill you in places you felt totally safe before. While it is not just the Insult but also the increase in prowess effects value there is still much more of a "does this pass the red test" effect now in cube. Red has so much reach and burst than previously meaning you just can't afford to take a couple of early hits from a one drop as that alone can put you well in range. Red has upped the game and I expect a period of urgent readjustment in the typically meandering pace of cube evolution. .
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