That's very cute, but seems fairly slow. Not much to stop them from killing the notion thief in response to your Madness if you drop it on turn 5 after having thiefed the turn before.
Falkenrath is certainly a big-ass house, but if they're not an option for budgetary reasons, do you think Exava makes a reasonable replacement?
I've been fiddling with her for awhile, and while the haste to freshly scavenged dudes trigger is so rare as to be completely irrelevant, she's still a 4 power first-strike hastey beater. Most of the other 4-slot options feel too slow.
I'd really like to give Basilisk Collar a shot in aggro vampires - lifelink gives you more staying power against other aggro, and Deathtouch on Hexmage is the crazyness.
It USED to be that lifelink was triggered, and thus the opposing player would die before it occurred. They changed it with the M10 rules, so now lifelink occurs at the same time as damage, and their lifetotal never actually hits zero.
I've seen several folks trying to splash red for bolt, but no love for Maelstrom Pulse.
Pro
It's black, triggers Nocturnus.
Can hit multiple permanents under the right circumstances
Nukes enchantments - including Luminarch Ascension, Honor of the Pure, etc.
Kills any creature, does not suffer from doomblade syndrome.
Most decks are already running fetches, tossing in a 2-3 forests for them to hit does little to mess with your consistency.
Con
Doesnt kill great sable stag
Puts a small dent in the power of Tendrils and Mind Sludge should you choose to run them.
3cc.
Green splash also lets you run your own stags from the board for the mirror.
on aristocrat + bloodghast: the synergy there is a far cry from the husk combo back in kamigawa, and aristocrat is quite terrible without the bloodghast (or lots of tokens) around.
I like it as an out when they try to path/oring/journey/celestial purge/lightcaster my Bloodghasts. White has entirely too much RFG these days.
I'm strongly of the opinion that Pulse should be an auto 4-of. It kills everything that doom blade does and then some, it takes out artifacts and enchantments that may prove a hassle - and in mono black you're not going to get any other answers to. It's incredibly versatile, and you only need one forest to run it. 2 forests and 4 fetchland and you're golden.
Something I've been tinkering with. Ideally you stick a Bloodchief or two in the first two turns, bolt/shock/anathemancer/blightning your opponent on your turn (and theirs) turns 3 or 4, and then go into full control mode and just burn out anything they play. Remember that Bloodchief Ascension triggers off cards going into the graveyard from ANYWHERE, not just from the hand, so killing off their dudes is just as good as milling them. Late game Chandra empties their hand and fills yours with goodies when you run out of gas.
Pyromancer ascension was mostly just to try it out, but it's surprisingly easy to turn on, and does sick sick things with Blightning.
Man, I love that spider. Reach, a possible 2 for 1 and possibly better depending on the situation.
The quest is also silly good, but really shows what changing the combat rules has opened up. Where you could have used this to save your creature before, now it's just a new (albeit better) seal of strength, once it's charged up.
Only if it had first strike, which you can still do if there is a chance for effects between first strike and regular combat damage.
So, if you play Final Fortune, then skip the turn provided by it, do you still lose the game? That seems to be the way to abuse the waterveil thing, take extra turns that are crummy via final fortune, savor the moment, etc, then skip them for a REAL extra turn.
It's a marketing ploy. "Oooh, look! These are even MORE rare! That makes you want to buy more packs right?!"
Screw that crap. Then they rotate Wrath out of M10 and then reprint new wrath with such a tiny difference in the text - exactly enough to make you have to buy new ones but not affect the game in any significant way. I can understand wizards wants to make money, but it's insulting.
Unfortunately he's much better against the aggro match than the control.
I've been fiddling with her for awhile, and while the haste to freshly scavenged dudes trigger is so rare as to be completely irrelevant, she's still a 4 power first-strike hastey beater. Most of the other 4-slot options feel too slow.
Pro
It's black, triggers Nocturnus.
Can hit multiple permanents under the right circumstances
Nukes enchantments - including Luminarch Ascension, Honor of the Pure, etc.
Kills any creature, does not suffer from doomblade syndrome.
Most decks are already running fetches, tossing in a 2-3 forests for them to hit does little to mess with your consistency.
Con
Doesnt kill great sable stag
Puts a small dent in the power of Tendrils and Mind Sludge should you choose to run them.
3cc.
Green splash also lets you run your own stags from the board for the mirror.
I like it as an out when they try to path/oring/journey/celestial purge/lightcaster my Bloodghasts. White has entirely too much RFG these days.
4 Dragonskull Summit
7 Mountain
7 Swamp
// Creatures
3 Anathemancer
4 Black Knight
// Spells
2 Chandra Ablaze
4 Bloodchief Ascension
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Volcanic Fallout
2 Pyromancer Ascension
4 Burst Lightning
4 Burning Inquiry
4 Blightning
3 Bituminous Blast
4 Veinfire Borderpost
Pyromancer ascension was mostly just to try it out, but it's surprisingly easy to turn on, and does sick sick things with Blightning.
Only if it had first strike, which you can still do if there is a chance for effects between first strike and regular combat damage.
Go go mana snake.
Screw that crap. Then they rotate Wrath out of M10 and then reprint new wrath with such a tiny difference in the text - exactly enough to make you have to buy new ones but not affect the game in any significant way. I can understand wizards wants to make money, but it's insulting.