I don't even know how to start this thread, except to say that this deck is obejctively bad. Too fast to live, too crazy to die, does roughly what Stompy and Goblins do, but is way worse at it. It folds to an aggro player cornering it; it folds to a control player carrying sufficient removal.
But sometimes, you can untap on turn 2 with six power on the board. You've gotta try this.
First, here's my list. It could definitely use some work.
So the core game plan is to unload as many undercosted beaters as you can, before your opponent can do anything at all about them. Here's my rundown of what cards do that the best:
Kind of lame as creatures, but these guys can turn a turn 1 investment into a turn 2 explosion. Also, dumping black creatures into your graveyard has some upside.
Dark Ritual
Second fiddle to Ancestral Recall is still plenty good. Yes, using it to ramp out a permanent that's vulnerable to removal is card disadvantage. We're not trying to play the long game.
Lotus Petal
Pricy, but smoke 'em if you got 'em. They're mostly just plain better than lands in this deck.
The gold standard. A straight-up 1-bear is a uniquely excellent ratio of cost to power. Your life total doesn't matter - only the victim's.
Vault Skirge
A Flying Men with lifelink can be very helpful when we're paying so much life for everything.
Shadow Alley Denizen
This guy makes you very difficult to block, especially early on. You will want a very high creature count to make this work its best.
Not great. The Pulse Tracker isn't good at trading with blockers, and the GDV sucks until you're already in the kill zone.
Bump in the Night
Mostly it's a black Lava Spike. If you're around long enough to flash this back, you probably already lost.
Carrion Feeder
Appealing, but it can be difficult to feed him out of Flame Slash range. You should run a very high creature ratio to get maximum value out of him.
Rakdos Shred-Freak
Comes out on T2, yes, but attacks like he came out on T1! Decent off a T1 Dark Ritual. The single toughness is kind of a downer.
Duress was a lot better with Grapeshot around. Cry can trade two-for-three, depending on how you kill the creature it haunts.
Wrench Mind
The trick is to know when these are a guaranteed two-for-one. The answer, mostly, is "Burn and Stompy".
Marshmist Titan
New in BNG, this guy can be a 4/5 as early as turn 2 or 3. 5 toughness is a pretty magical number - red removal can't 1-for-1 him, he can step on Affinity's 4/4s, and a lot of black removal won't touch him at all.
Solid evasion makes high-priority targets for spot removal. Definitely want some removal resistance for these.
Order of the Ebon Hand
He eats your spare mana late-game, is hell on White Weenie's ground game, and can chew up Goblins pretty good if they can't find a burn.
There's a lot of 3/3's for 2. They are generally worse than 2/2's for 1, both in how much beatdown you get for your mana, and in terms of their drawbacks. Extra bodies are better than extra toughness in almost all cases.
Barrow Ghoul
There's only one 4/4 for 2. He will eat you out of house and home quite quickly, but you can possibly make your point by then.
Soulcage Fiend
Very expensive for this deck, but the size-to-mana ratio isn't bad, and the death trigger can occasionally clear a game.
Kjeldoran Dead
Comedy option. You will encounter decks that can't do anything about this guy. He's awful by himself, though.
Snuff Out
You really don't care about your life total, you just want that blocker out of the way.
Spinning Darkness
Can take a while to come online, but manaless life-gaining removal is pretty sweet.
Pit Keeper
I haven't tried this, yet, but re-buying a Carnophage doesn't seem terrible.
Unearth
I have a special fondness for this card. It's an extra copy of any of your creatures, for a single :symb:, and it cycles if you draw too many too early. They're especially good against discard and counterspells, and they make mill a suicidal proposition. All that said, it's NOT a creature, you CAN'T ritual out three of them on the first turn and beat down, so you CAN'T run more than three. Just don't.
Thrull Retainer
Black Totem Armor. A little clumsy if you need to regenerate in combat, since you lose the point of power; pretty solid against removal, though.
Undying Evil
Similar to Unearth. Mostly worse - you need to have mana open when your creatures are in danger, and you're going to be tapping out a lot trying to deploy quickly.
Mutagenic Growth
Free +2/+2 pump is not bad, even better if you're heavy on lifelink to make up the cost, or have a critical mass of guys who can trade with pumped guys.
Lastly, I have forgotten some cards. Reminders are invited.
Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Spinning Darkness is an option over Snuff out, and Drain Life can help close out games or provide creature removal when needed. I don't know if Rituals are needed, but you can include 1-2 copies of Grim Harvest to recover dudes, then sac again to Carrion Feeder to return the Harvest to your hand.
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Spinning Darkness is an option over Snuff out, and Drain Life can help close out games or provide creature removal when needed. I don't know if Rituals are needed, but you can include 1-2 copies of Grim Harvest to recover dudes, then sac again to Carrion Feeder to return the Harvest to your hand.
Spinning Darkness is a solid call, manaless removal is about all you can afford.
Grim Harvest is cute, but you should NEVER have enough mana or time to use it.
I encourage anyone to build and play with this deck, it's crazy even when it loses, and it'll teach you the card valuation - it is VERY different from Rats/MBC.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
I don't like the discard package or fume spitters (which are an anti-aggro card, not an effective removal for problematic blockers which is all you'd want). I think it needs some more dudes, the deck has to be all about threat density. Dauthi horror is another option for evasive beats, alternatively you could use bloodthrone vampire or the 3 mana +2/+2 cards (vampire aritstocrat or nantuko husk) which give effective reach around blockers. Predator's gambit is another interesting card, it's kind of like the black rancor without the recursion part, and bananas on a sac vampire if you can set it up. If you do use the sac vampire package, essence harvest becomes a pretty interesting finisher.
Chris Davis posted a few video series on channelfireball.com of Suicide Black aggro decks. His lists were more Zombie-based though, using Ghoulcaller's Chant and Ghoulraiser to create a lot of card advantage and resiliency. I took one of his lists for a spin myself in some practice room games and while it was a fun deck, like you said it's just a worse version of Stompy and Goblins as far as aggro goes.
A previous iteration of the deck ran Blind Creeper but having tried the card myself I can tell you it's completely awful. One of the neat interactions of the deck is the fact that Nameless Inversion counts as a Zombie card so it gets returned by Ghoulraiser and Ghoulcaller's Chant. Also keep in mind this is from pre-bans (hence why he's so overloaded on land destruction in the board for Storm decks).
Full out suicide, none of that messy CA stuff. I really like Porcelain Legionnaire in this deck, as he both swings for an aggressive 3 against control, or serves as a solid roadblock against aggro. His only disadvantage is that he doesn't activate Denizen, and, obviously, that he costs 2 life to play.
I also really like Barrow Ghoul as a 2 of... huge mid game beater.
Even though I have no etb effects, Unearth turns your GY into a toolbox of sorts (do you need a Denizen back to get intimidate, or get back an all important Barrow Ghoul, etc?). I don't think I'd ever want more than 2 in the deck.
Soulcage Fiend... every time I want to remove him, he seems to win out a game. I've also tried Corrupted Zendikon in his slot. On T3 he comes down as a hasted 3/3... though he does occupy one of your lands.
I like the call on spinning darkness... I would definitely try to find room for 1-2. Although, that means Barrow Ghoul would probably need to be removed as well...
I think Shred-Freak is definitely worth testing, especially in a build with Denizen.
No to the Slave - running 2 total demons is not enough to justify him, and you wouldn't want to run much more than 2 demons (because of the 3cmc cost). If I'd go after a drawback 3/3 for 2cmc, it would be Wretched Anurid.
Yes, I like the call on Bump in the Night. At minimum it should be a SB card to sub in for removal against post. In the MD, it would lower your creature density though, which hurts Denizen (I'm quite enamored with this card).
One build wants to splash to enable the back side of Bump in the Night (which would make a late-game Dark Ritual less disappointing) and probably to use both sides of Deviant Glee.
I'm sticking with the Sign in Blood/Bump in the Night build - less synergy, more get-there. (List in OP isn't too hot, I'll be sharpening it up over the weekend.)
Has anyone tried the Shepherd of Rot deck? It's a bit slower, due to tribal concerns, but operates on many of the same principles.
EDIT: Updated my decklist, I've really loving my new mainboard. Thrull Retainer is wicked.
Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Speaking of Vines and Infect, here's a G/B Infect list that someone ran at our last paper Pauper tourney, it took first place in a field of 8 players. I didn't get to see it in action, but I guess no one was prepared to deal with the GY recursion.
Soul Stair Expedition assumes we'll hit three additional land drops, which doesn't seem too likely on the Suicide Black plan.
Macabre Waltz is pretty much worse than Unearth unless you're holding a card you'd rather discard.
Overall I think the Infect direction is worth pursuing, though I'm not sure whether I'd use the green splash or not. 4x Lotus Petal is a good start for a splash, though.
I'm still working on my fast-deck matchups. Affinity can frequently block Intimidate, but they also run guys I can profitably Snuff Out. Stompy's Silhana Ledgewalker get really annoying - I have Geth's Verdict (and all the additional removal to single the ledgewalker out) and I'm wondering if I want something more insane, like Innocent Blood. Maybe some kind of deathtouch-granting instant? I'll look into it.
EDIT: I had suggested Thrull Retainer. It is surprisingly good.
VVVV
Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
The list is still pretty rough, but I have been having fun with it.
I got to play against this twice yesterday and it was impressive with its speed. Unfortunately, I was playing some super jank orzhov extort just to get some play time with the mechanic.
I don't like Demonic Appetite. It is understandably appealing for what it does in combat but it gave me the opportunity to three for one you in our second game and that is never good. No idea what you could replace it with and not have to step up to two mana.
The Rouse and Vampire's Bite seemed to play well and even though I was on black, Predator's Gambit seemed like it would play well too.
Here is a new version of the deck. This version is more tuned, and feels better to play. The lands where cut down 12. After testing various land sizes I found 12 to be the best. I also lost the Vector Asp. Vector Asp looks good on paper, but it really limits the spells you can play. Additionally it really isnt hard to get 2 or even 3 mana on turn to cast our dudes.
I got to play against this twice yesterday and it was impressive with its speed. Unfortunately, I was playing some super jank orzhov extort just to get some play time with the mechanic.
I don't like Demonic Appetite. It is understandably appealing for what it does in combat but it gave me the opportunity to three for one you in our second game and that is never good. No idea what you could replace it with and not have to step up to two mana.
After successfully play testing my Suicide Black deck in the 2 mans for a bit I decided to enter one of yesterday’s daily events. Since the deck is listed on Wizard’s website I wanted to post about it here in the hopes more people will give it a shot. I hope you enjoy.
The term "suicide" refers to the deck's single-minded purpose of killing the opponent in the minimum number of turns without any back-up plan or concern for card advantage in the late game.
Ostensibly Suicide Black is much faster than other Aggro decks. Having 3 to 5 power in play on turn one is reasonable. Having 6 power on turn one and attacking for 8 on turn 2 happens. The goal is to spend your first few turns attacking your opponent for as much damage as you can then finishing them with evasive creatures. The mana cost on your spells is negligible while the impact of your cards; both creatures and spells, is tremendous.
The Lands
Swamp - This card is totally broken. It enables all the great one drops this deck has and you can play more than 4 of them! Joking aside, you want to be fast. This means none of those fancy CITPT lands.
The Core Cards
Dark Ritual - Time truly is of the essence. With no late game to speak of you need to hit as hard and fast as you can. Dark Ritual, a card banned at one time in extended for “providing mana too easily” will do just that; grant you the speed you need to succeed. There are exceptions to every rule, but a hand with a Dark Ritual and a Swamp is always worth considering.
Vault Skirge - Another creature that can be played on turn one and trades with all those annoying faeries. It pays the toll on Carnophage & Lacerator, has evasion, can drop turn one, and likes to be equipped with...
Bonesplitter - The most aggressive equipment in the format. Cheap & powerful it enables your one drops to trade up with your opponent, and then moves to another creature. Placing this on one of your evasion creatures will end the game in a hurry.
Controlling the Board
The Suicide Black player uses their life total as a resource more than any other player. All those fast, cheap cards come at a price. Those precious 20 points won’t last long at the rate you want to spend them, so mitigation of damage while maintaining pressure on your opponent is essential.
Child of Night - On the surface Child of Night doesn’t look like much, the only other creature the deck runs with one point of toughness is Vault Skirge which has the courtesy to have evasion and the option of being cast on the first turn. However, looking beyond the surface yields hidden value. Child of Night trades with most other two drops in the format and nets you two points life. Played on turn one via Dark Ritual she will usually net you more than that. Equipping Bonesplitter on her and blocking a Carapace Forger or Myr Enforcer is the exact opposite of what the affinity player wants to happen. Against the burn deck, she may as well read “Target opponent discards a card, you gain 3 life.” Against Simic Post, an early Child of Night can put you well out of range of their Kaervek’s Torch. This presents a problem for the Simic Post player, namely they need more time to build up to lethal mana yet your aggression is putting them on a clock.
Erg Raiders - In the deck for its 3 toughness and 2 power. Notice I listed toughness first. This card plows through any other 2 power creature in the format short of Spire Golem. Played on the second turn it stops Goblins 2nd turn attack and forces Stompy to burn a pump spell. A 2nd turn Erg Raiders has what I like to call “Pseudo Evasion”; your opponent will usually let you hit them with it once or twice, until they can deal with it without having card disadvantage.
Mutagenic Growth - This has an incredible amount of usefulness in the deck. This unexpected surprise just kept your Child of Night alive for free, allowed your Erg Raiders to kill one of affinities 4/4 fatties, dropped a Spire Golem in combat, countered a removal spell, or stole the game. PROTIP: Tap out like a bad player prior to attacking if this is in your hand*
*Disclaimer: PROTIP may not be suitable in any situation.
Duress - What can I write about this card that hasn’t already been written in frustration about it? You get to discard your opponent’s answers. You see their options and can plan around them. You’ve disrupted what they thought they were going to do, you’ve proactively countered their counter, you’ve punished their mulligan.
The Finish
An aggro rush can only take you so far. Having the proper tools to take advantage of the havok you've wreaked on your opponent's life total in essential to closing out the game by knocking those last few points down.
Dauthi Slayer - A staple of Suicide Black since the deck’s inception. It’s fast, cheap, and in the current Pauper metagame there is nothing that will block it, period. Equipped with a Bonesplitter it will demolish your opponents remaining life points in a hurry. Dauthi Slayer slips through the shadows while the red zone is clogged up with creature stalemates. Keep it alive at almost all costs, your Mutagenic Growth was made for him.
Duskhunter Bat - Similar to Child of Night in that when I was originally considering it, I almost overlooked it. There are plenty of 2/2 flyers for double black. The advantage of Duskhuter Bat is that it doesn’t have a disadvantage. No life loss when it or another creature comes into play, and unlike the 3/2 Skittering Skirge, it’ll stick around when its friends stop by. Don’t be fooled by the printing on the bottom right of the card. This is always a 2/2 flyer. Between your one drops and Duathi Slayer's shadow, getting the Bloodthirst counter is incredibly easy. Once in play, this is either going to chisel away at your opponent’s life total, or stall the faerie aggression.
The Sideboard Choices
Knowing your meta is essential to having a good sideboard. You always have to be aware of this dynamic. Below are the cards that work for me now, but depending on future trends may change.
Contaminated Ground - I bring in versus the various incarnations of 8 Post and against Burn. 8 Post because DUH. Burn because they don’t run a lot of lands so it buys a couple of turns and most importantly it can stall out a Fireblast just long enough for you to win the game.
Dead Weight - This is to Atog as Raid is to roaches. Kill ‘em dead. Also used against Stompy to kill their creatures with no chance of them using a pump spell as a counter. It’s good against Goblins and small varmints west of the Mississippi.
Rathi Trapper - A card that comes in against any other aggro deck other than Stompy (due to Quirion Ranger's untap ability). In essence it stops their best creature and is also a body. It’s also fun to kill Phantasmal Bears and lock down Spire Golems with them.
Wrench Mind - Goes in against Burn faster than it took you to read this sentence. Useful against some aggro decks if you are on the play.
In Closing
I hope you give the deck a chance. It is a lot of fun to dump your hand on turn 1 and 2 and then follow up with more and more creatures before your opponent can stabilize. Like any deck, it has its bad draws and tough situations; however once you are familiar with the intricacies I hope you’ll enjoy the power of the dark side as much as I do.
After successfully play testing my Suicide Black deck in the 2 mans for a bit I decided to enter one of yesterday’s daily events. Since the deck is listed on Wizard’s website I wanted to post about it here in the hopes more people will give it a shot. I hope you enjoy.
Ostensibly Suicide Black is much faster than other Aggro decks. Having 3 to 5 power in play on turn one is reasonable. Having 6 power on turn one and attacking for 8 on turn 2 happens. The goal is to spend your first few turns attacking your opponent for as much damage as you can then finishing them with evasive creatures. The mana cost on your spells is negligible while the impact of your cards; both creatures and spells, is tremendous.
Time truly is of the essence. With no late game to speak of you need to hit as hard and fast as you can. Dark Ritual, a card banned at one time in extended for will do just that; grant you the speed you need to succeed. There are exceptions to every rule, but a hand with a Dark Ritual and a Swamp is always worth considering.
Bonesplitter is the most aggressive equipment in the format. Cheap & powerful it enables your one drops to trade up with your opponent, and then moves to another creature. Placing your Bonesplitter on one of your evasion creatures will end the game in a hurry.
Controlling the Board – Child of Night, Erg Raiders, Duress, Mutagenic Growth
The Suicide Black player uses their life total as a resource more than any other player. All those fast, cheap cards come at a price. Those precious 20 points won’t last long at the rate you want to spend them, so mitigation of damage while maintaining pressure on your opponent is essential.
On the surface Child of Night doesn’t look like much, the only other creature the deck runs with one point of toughness is Vault Skirge. Vault Skirge at least has the courtesy to have evasion and the option of being cast on the first turn. However, looking beyond the surface yields hidden value. Child of Night trades with most other two drops in the format and nets you two points life. Played on turn one via Dark Ritual, Child of Night will usually net you more than that. Equipping Bonesplitter on Child of Night and blocking a Carapace Forger or Myr Enforcer is the exact opposite of what the affinity player wants to happen. Against the burn deck, Child of Night may as well read “Target opponent discards a card, you gain 3 life.” Against Simic Post, an early Child of Night can put you well out of range of their Kaervek’s Torch. This presents a problem for the Simic player, namely they need more time to build up to lethal mana yet your aggression is putting them on a clock.
Erg Raiders is in the deck for its 3 toughness and 2 power. Notice I listed toughness first. This card plows through any other 2 power creature in the format short of Spire Golem. Played on the second turn it stops Goblins 2nd turn attack and forces Stompy to burn a pump spell. A 2nd turn Erg Raiders has what I like to call “Pseudo Evasion”; your opponent will usually let you hit them with it once or twice, until they can deal with it without having card disadvantage.
Mutagenic Growth has an incredible amount of usefulness in this deck. This unexpected surprise just kept your Child of Night alive for free, allowed your Erg Raiders to kill on of affinities 4/4 fatties, dropped a Spire Golem in combat, countered a removal spell, or stole the game. PROTIP: Tap out like a bad player prior to attacking if this is in your hand*
*Disclaimer: PROTIP may not be suitable in any situation.
What can I write about Duress that hasn’t already been written in frustration about Duress? You get to discard your opponent’s answers. You see their options and can plan around them. You’ve disrupted what they thought they were going to do, you’ve proactively countered their counter, you’ve punished their mulligan.
The Evasion – Dauthi Slayer and Duskhunter Bat
Dauthi Slayer has been a staple of Suicide Black since the deck’s inception. It’s fast, cheap, and in the current Pauper metagame there is nothing that will block it, period. Equipped with a Bonesplitter it will demolish your opponents remaining life points in a hurry. Dauthi Slayer slips through the shadows while the red zone is clogged up with creature stalemates. Keep it alive at almost all costs, your Mutagenic Growth was made for him.
Duskhunter Bat is similar to Child of Night in that when I was originally considering it, I almost overlooked it. There are plenty of 2/2 flyers for double black. The advantage of Duskhuter Bat is that it doesn’t have a disadvantage. No life loss when it or another creature comes into play, and unlike Skittering Skirge, it’ll stick around when its friends stop by. Don’t be fooled by the printing on the bottom right of the card. This is always a 2/2 flyer. Between your one drops and Duathi Slayer ,getting the Bloodthirst counter is incredibly easy. Once in play, Duskhunter Bat is either going to chisel away at your opponent’s life total, or stall the faerie aggression.
The Sideboard Choices
Contaminated Ground I bring in versus the various incarnations of 8 Post and against Burn. 8 Post because DUH. Burn because they don’t run a lot of lands so it buys a couple of turn and most importantly it can stall out a Fireblast just long enough for you to win the game.
Dead Weight is to Atog as Raid is to roaches. Kill ‘em dead. Also used against Stompy to kill their creatures with no chance of them using a pump spell as a counter. It’s good against Goblins and small varmints west of the Mississippi.
Rathi Trapper is a card that comes in against any other aggro deck other than Stompy (due to Quirion Ranger). In essence it stops their best creature and is also a body. It’s also fun to kill Phantasmal Bears and lock down Spire Golems with them.
Wrench Mind goes in against Burn faster than it took you to read this sentence. Useful against some aggro decks if you are on the play.
In Closing
I hope you give the deck a chance. It is a lot of fun to dump your hand on turn 1 and 2 and then follow up with more and more creatures before your opponent can stabilize. Like any deck, it has its bad draws and tough situations; however once you are familiar with the intricacies I hope you’ll enjoy the power of the dark side as much as I do.
Cheers!
Well your formatting could use some work, but welcome! You actually cleaned that post up a lot before I could even complain.
I'm glad to see this archetype isn't completely dead in the actual tournament environment! Due to schedule/patience concerns I am strictly a practice-room brewer.
It looks like you've been facing a bit less spot removal than I'm used to, which I suspect is a skew in the Tournament Practice room vs. actual tournaments; that and the fact that Delver usually runs very little and is very big right now.
Lots of interesting card choices, overall. I missed out on Erg Raiders, since I was only looking for power greater than two, and having that guy available really warps the valuation of some of your other options.
Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
If you're having trouble with Fissure try some land destruction spells (Rancid Earth, Icequake, Choking Sands are all valid, though Sands is probably the best). Blowing up their Cloudposts will slow them down and hopefuly give you enough time to kill them before they combo off. You'll probably need to run more lands to support this though as hoping to draw Swamp + Ritual + LD spell is pretty wishful thinking.
Sideboard is in flux. Snuff Out is great if they have blockers and aren't on black. Duress is fine. Geth's Verdict and Chainer's Edict both conflict with Paralyze, so it's gotta be one or the other.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Rakdos Shred-Freak definitely deserves to be in here somewhere. Its a 2/1 with Haste that does a pretty rad Goblin Guide impression with Dark Ritual. I also like 3-4 Bump in the Night as additional reach beyond Foul-Tongue.
If I were going to drop something I'd drop the Bonesplitter and/or Growth. I find I want more creatures than anything else to make sure I can take full advantage of Dark Ritual on turn 1.
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The following link is an invitation to join Pucatrade (card trading service though similar to TCGPLayer). If you follow the link then it awards me with tokens to exchange for actual cards. Thanks! https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/86097
I don't think I like a 2/1 with Haste as much as I like a 2/1 with Shadow. Like, not even close - I don't want them to have the option of scrabbling out a creature and trade-blocking. I want it to eat removal or deal damage. Also, the 1-butt is an issue, with Electrickery everywhere lately.
The ideal opening is always going to be ab out putting six damage on the table off a Dark Ritual. Bonesplitter accomplishes that.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
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But sometimes, you can untap on turn 2 with six power on the board. You've gotta try this.
First, here's my list. It could definitely use some work.
4 Carnophage
4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Pulse Tracker
4 Shadow Alley Denizen
4 Vault Skirge
Better Beats
3 Order of the Ebon Hand
Reload
4 Sign in Blood
4 Snuff Out
Anti-Removal
3 Thrull Retainer
Reach
3 Bump in the Night
Accelerant
4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
Land
13 Swamp
2 Bojuka Bog
4 Unearth
4 Echoing Decay
4 Geth's Verdict
3 Nihil Spellbomb
So the core game plan is to unload as many undercosted beaters as you can, before your opponent can do anything at all about them. Here's my rundown of what cards do that the best:
Kind of lame as creatures, but these guys can turn a turn 1 investment into a turn 2 explosion. Also, dumping black creatures into your graveyard has some upside.
Dark Ritual
Second fiddle to Ancestral Recall is still plenty good. Yes, using it to ramp out a permanent that's vulnerable to removal is card disadvantage. We're not trying to play the long game.
Lotus Petal
Pricy, but smoke 'em if you got 'em. They're mostly just plain better than lands in this deck.
The gold standard. A straight-up 1-bear is a uniquely excellent ratio of cost to power. Your life total doesn't matter - only the victim's.
Vault Skirge
A Flying Men with lifelink can be very helpful when we're paying so much life for everything.
Shadow Alley Denizen
This guy makes you very difficult to block, especially early on. You will want a very high creature count to make this work its best.
Not great. The Pulse Tracker isn't good at trading with blockers, and the GDV sucks until you're already in the kill zone.
Bump in the Night
Mostly it's a black Lava Spike. If you're around long enough to flash this back, you probably already lost.
Carrion Feeder
Appealing, but it can be difficult to feed him out of Flame Slash range. You should run a very high creature ratio to get maximum value out of him.
Rakdos Shred-Freak
Comes out on T2, yes, but attacks like he came out on T1! Decent off a T1 Dark Ritual. The single toughness is kind of a downer.
The fastest way to card draw, unsurprisingly, is paying more life. Ranger is a bit too expensive for what he does, but Sign is rock-solid.
Duress was a lot better with Grapeshot around. Cry can trade two-for-three, depending on how you kill the creature it haunts.
Wrench Mind
The trick is to know when these are a guaranteed two-for-one. The answer, mostly, is "Burn and Stompy".
Marshmist Titan
New in BNG, this guy can be a 4/5 as early as turn 2 or 3. 5 toughness is a pretty magical number - red removal can't 1-for-1 him, he can step on Affinity's 4/4s, and a lot of black removal won't touch him at all.
The "Skittering" drawback is pretty livable, I think, if you're running good removal resistance. The Skirge's flying is definitely appealing.
Erg Raiders
2/3 for 2 is pretty livable, especially if you bring something to buff his power. The drawback should essentially never matter.
Solid evasion makes high-priority targets for spot removal. Definitely want some removal resistance for these.
Order of the Ebon Hand
He eats your spare mana late-game, is hell on White Weenie's ground game, and can chew up Goblins pretty good if they can't find a burn.
Equipment! These are probably your best options - they need to start contributing to your beatdown ASAP.
Auras! I'm not a fan of taking any more card disadvantage than we naturally do, but these happen to be two power + conditional evasion.
Erg Raiders
The power is a bit wimpy, but he can trade with a 2/2 and his drawback almost doesn't exist.
There's a lot of 3/3's for 2. They are generally worse than 2/2's for 1, both in how much beatdown you get for your mana, and in terms of their drawbacks. Extra bodies are better than extra toughness in almost all cases.
Barrow Ghoul
There's only one 4/4 for 2. He will eat you out of house and home quite quickly, but you can possibly make your point by then.
Porcelain Legionnaire
The fast damage is good, but you should be limiting your 1-toughness dudes to outlast Electrickery.
Soulcage Fiend
Very expensive for this deck, but the size-to-mana ratio isn't bad, and the death trigger can occasionally clear a game.
Kjeldoran Dead
Comedy option. You will encounter decks that can't do anything about this guy. He's awful by himself, though.
Snuff Out
You really don't care about your life total, you just want that blocker out of the way.
Spinning Darkness
Can take a while to come online, but manaless life-gaining removal is pretty sweet.
Pit Keeper
I haven't tried this, yet, but re-buying a Carnophage doesn't seem terrible.
Unearth
I have a special fondness for this card. It's an extra copy of any of your creatures, for a single :symb:, and it cycles if you draw too many too early. They're especially good against discard and counterspells, and they make mill a suicidal proposition. All that said, it's NOT a creature, you CAN'T ritual out three of them on the first turn and beat down, so you CAN'T run more than three. Just don't.
Thrull Retainer
Black Totem Armor. A little clumsy if you need to regenerate in combat, since you lose the point of power; pretty solid against removal, though.
Undying Evil
Similar to Unearth. Mostly worse - you need to have mana open when your creatures are in danger, and you're going to be tapping out a lot trying to deploy quickly.
Mutagenic Growth
Free +2/+2 pump is not bad, even better if you're heavy on lifelink to make up the cost, or have a critical mass of guys who can trade with pumped guys.
Lastly, I have forgotten some cards. Reminders are invited.
Fires :symr:f Salvation
Spinning Darkness is a solid call, manaless removal is about all you can afford.
Grim Harvest is cute, but you should NEVER have enough mana or time to use it.
I encourage anyone to build and play with this deck, it's crazy even when it loses, and it'll teach you the card valuation - it is VERY different from Rats/MBC.
This is the second list he runs: http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/channel-cdavis-pauper-daily-event-23/#1
(for the lazy)
4x Carnophage
4x Vampire Lacerator
4x Wretched Anurid
4x Cuombajj Witches
1x Sangrophage
3x Dead Reveler
4x Ghoulraiser
4x Geth's Verdict
4x Nameless Inversion
4x Duress
3x Pit Keeper
4x Choking Sands
4x Rancid Earth
A previous iteration of the deck ran Blind Creeper but having tried the card myself I can tell you it's completely awful. One of the neat interactions of the deck is the fact that Nameless Inversion counts as a Zombie card so it gets returned by Ghoulraiser and Ghoulcaller's Chant. Also keep in mind this is from pre-bans (hence why he's so overloaded on land destruction in the board for Storm decks).
4 Dark Ritual
4 Shadow Alley Denizen
4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Carnophage
4 Pulse Tracker
3 Dauthi Horror
4 Porcelain Legionnaire
2 Barrow Ghoul
2 Unearth
4 Snuff Out
3 Geth's Verdict
Full out suicide, none of that messy CA stuff. I really like Porcelain Legionnaire in this deck, as he both swings for an aggressive 3 against control, or serves as a solid roadblock against aggro. His only disadvantage is that he doesn't activate Denizen, and, obviously, that he costs 2 life to play.
I also really like Barrow Ghoul as a 2 of... huge mid game beater.
Even though I have no etb effects, Unearth turns your GY into a toolbox of sorts (do you need a Denizen back to get intimidate, or get back an all important Barrow Ghoul, etc?). I don't think I'd ever want more than 2 in the deck.
Soulcage Fiend... every time I want to remove him, he seems to win out a game. I've also tried Corrupted Zendikon in his slot. On T3 he comes down as a hasted 3/3... though he does occupy one of your lands.
I like the call on spinning darkness... I would definitely try to find room for 1-2. Although, that means Barrow Ghoul would probably need to be removed as well...
And if you're playing Soulcage Fiend, is Raging Oni-Slave something to consider?
And what about Bump in the Night? Is it not worth playing if we're not running red to flash it back?
No to the Slave - running 2 total demons is not enough to justify him, and you wouldn't want to run much more than 2 demons (because of the 3cmc cost). If I'd go after a drawback 3/3 for 2cmc, it would be Wretched Anurid.
Yes, I like the call on Bump in the Night. At minimum it should be a SB card to sub in for removal against post. In the MD, it would lower your creature density though, which hurts Denizen (I'm quite enamored with this card).
It seems like we have a couple of mutants:
One build wants to be all creatures, to maximize Carrion Feeder and Shadow Alley Denizen.
One build wants to splash to enable the back side of Bump in the Night (which would make a late-game Dark Ritual less disappointing) and probably to use both sides of Deviant Glee.
I'm sticking with the Sign in Blood/Bump in the Night build - less synergy, more get-there. (List in OP isn't too hot, I'll be sharpening it up over the weekend.)
Has anyone tried the Shepherd of Rot deck? It's a bit slower, due to tribal concerns, but operates on many of the same principles.
EDIT: Updated my decklist, I've really loving my new mainboard. Thrull Retainer is wicked.
15 Swamp
Creatures(14)
4 Vector Asp
4 Plague Stinger
4 Ichorclaw Myr
2 Flensermite
Spells(31)
2 Lotus Petal
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Dark Ritual
4 Mutagenic growth
4 Vampire's Bite
4 Demonic Appetite
3 Predator's Gambit
4 Rouse
3 Disfigure
3 Doom Blade
1 Echoing Decay
2 Flensermite
1 Predator's Gambit
2 Thrull Retainer
3 Unearth
The list is still pretty rough, but I have been having fun with it.
Speaking of Vines and Infect, here's a G/B Infect list that someone ran at our last paper Pauper tourney, it took first place in a field of 8 players. I didn't get to see it in action, but I guess no one was prepared to deal with the GY recursion.
7 Forest
2 Swamp
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Glistener Elf
4 Ichorclaw Myr
2 Blight Mamba
3 Rot Wolf
1 Cystbearer
1 Corpse Cur
4 Mutagenic Growth
2 Gitaxian Probe
1 Groundswell
2 Soul Stair Expedition
4 Vines of Vastwood
4 Rancor
2 Prey Upon
3 Evolution Charm
2 Macabre Waltz
Macabre Waltz is pretty much worse than Unearth unless you're holding a card you'd rather discard.
Overall I think the Infect direction is worth pursuing, though I'm not sure whether I'd use the green splash or not. 4x Lotus Petal is a good start for a splash, though.
In other news, I took down a Hunger of the Howlpack'd Nettle Sentinel with a first-striking Order of the Ebon Hand and a timely Spinning Darkness. Spinning Darkness owns.
I'm still working on my fast-deck matchups. Affinity can frequently block Intimidate, but they also run guys I can profitably Snuff Out. Stompy's Silhana Ledgewalker get really annoying - I have Geth's Verdict (and all the additional removal to single the ledgewalker out) and I'm wondering if I want something more insane, like Innocent Blood. Maybe some kind of deathtouch-granting instant? I'll look into it.
EDIT: I had suggested Thrull Retainer. It is surprisingly good.
VVVV
I got to play against this twice yesterday and it was impressive with its speed. Unfortunately, I was playing some super jank orzhov extort just to get some play time with the mechanic.
I don't like Demonic Appetite. It is understandably appealing for what it does in combat but it gave me the opportunity to three for one you in our second game and that is never good. No idea what you could replace it with and not have to step up to two mana.
The Rouse and Vampire's Bite seemed to play well and even though I was on black, Predator's Gambit seemed like it would play well too.
12 Swamp
Creatures(14)
4 Plague Stinger
4 Ichorclaw Myr
4 Flensermite
2 Contagious Nim
Spells(34)
4 Lotus Petal
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Dark Ritual
4 Mutagenic growth
4 Vampire's Bite
3 Demonic Appetite
4 Predator's Gambit
4 Rouse
3 Thrull Retainer
1 Demonic Appetite
3 Diabolic edict
3 Doom Blade
1 Thrull Retainer
3 Unearth
4 Virulent Wound
Here is a new version of the deck. This version is more tuned, and feels better to play. The lands where cut down 12. After testing various land sizes I found 12 to be the best. I also lost the Vector Asp. Vector Asp looks good on paper, but it really limits the spells you can play. Additionally it really isnt hard to get 2 or even 3 mana on turn to cast our dudes.
Undying evil would be nice, but you usually dont keep mana open with the deck, which makes unearth and thrull retainer strictly better.
I can understand wanting to cut demonic appetite, but it is good because it enables much quicker wins, since it acts as vampire's bite 5-8. Our only other options basically unholy strength and deviant glee
After successfully play testing my Suicide Black deck in the 2 mans for a bit I decided to enter one of yesterday’s daily events. Since the deck is listed on Wizard’s website I wanted to post about it here in the hopes more people will give it a shot. I hope you enjoy.
Suicide Black 3-1 March 23rd
http://www.wizards.com/agic/Digital/MagicOnlineTourn.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/tourn/5196388
The term "suicide" refers to the deck's single-minded purpose of killing the opponent in the minimum number of turns without any back-up plan or concern for card advantage in the late game.
-Brian David-Marshall
18 Swamp
Creatures
2 Carnophage
4 Child of Night
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Duskhunter Bat
4 Erg Raiders
4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Vault Skirge
4 Bonesplitter
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Contaminated Ground
4 Dead Weight
3 Rathi Trapper
4 Wrench Mind
Why Play Suicide Black?
Ostensibly Suicide Black is much faster than other Aggro decks. Having 3 to 5 power in play on turn one is reasonable. Having 6 power on turn one and attacking for 8 on turn 2 happens. The goal is to spend your first few turns attacking your opponent for as much damage as you can then finishing them with evasive creatures. The mana cost on your spells is negligible while the impact of your cards; both creatures and spells, is tremendous.
The Lands
Swamp - This card is totally broken. It enables all the great one drops this deck has and you can play more than 4 of them! Joking aside, you want to be fast. This means none of those fancy CITPT lands.
The Core Cards
Dark Ritual - Time truly is of the essence. With no late game to speak of you need to hit as hard and fast as you can. Dark Ritual, a card banned at one time in extended for “providing mana too easily” will do just that; grant you the speed you need to succeed. There are exceptions to every rule, but a hand with a Dark Ritual and a Swamp is always worth considering.
Carnophage & Vampire Lacerator - These guys stand toe to toe with Goblin Cohort, Mogg Conscripts, Nettle Sentinel, Frogmite, and Phantasmal Bear. Left unopposed, they will drain your opponents life total very quickly.
Vault Skirge - Another creature that can be played on turn one and trades with all those annoying faeries. It pays the toll on Carnophage & Lacerator, has evasion, can drop turn one, and likes to be equipped with...
Bonesplitter - The most aggressive equipment in the format. Cheap & powerful it enables your one drops to trade up with your opponent, and then moves to another creature. Placing this on one of your evasion creatures will end the game in a hurry.
Controlling the Board
The Suicide Black player uses their life total as a resource more than any other player. All those fast, cheap cards come at a price. Those precious 20 points won’t last long at the rate you want to spend them, so mitigation of damage while maintaining pressure on your opponent is essential.
Child of Night - On the surface Child of Night doesn’t look like much, the only other creature the deck runs with one point of toughness is Vault Skirge which has the courtesy to have evasion and the option of being cast on the first turn. However, looking beyond the surface yields hidden value. Child of Night trades with most other two drops in the format and nets you two points life. Played on turn one via Dark Ritual she will usually net you more than that. Equipping Bonesplitter on her and blocking a Carapace Forger or Myr Enforcer is the exact opposite of what the affinity player wants to happen. Against the burn deck, she may as well read “Target opponent discards a card, you gain 3 life.” Against Simic Post, an early Child of Night can put you well out of range of their Kaervek’s Torch. This presents a problem for the Simic Post player, namely they need more time to build up to lethal mana yet your aggression is putting them on a clock.
Erg Raiders - In the deck for its 3 toughness and 2 power. Notice I listed toughness first. This card plows through any other 2 power creature in the format short of Spire Golem. Played on the second turn it stops Goblins 2nd turn attack and forces Stompy to burn a pump spell. A 2nd turn Erg Raiders has what I like to call “Pseudo Evasion”; your opponent will usually let you hit them with it once or twice, until they can deal with it without having card disadvantage.
Mutagenic Growth - This has an incredible amount of usefulness in the deck. This unexpected surprise just kept your Child of Night alive for free, allowed your Erg Raiders to kill one of affinities 4/4 fatties, dropped a Spire Golem in combat, countered a removal spell, or stole the game. PROTIP: Tap out like a bad player prior to attacking if this is in your hand*
*Disclaimer: PROTIP may not be suitable in any situation.
Duress - What can I write about this card that hasn’t already been written in frustration about it? You get to discard your opponent’s answers. You see their options and can plan around them. You’ve disrupted what they thought they were going to do, you’ve proactively countered their counter, you’ve punished their mulligan.
The Finish
An aggro rush can only take you so far. Having the proper tools to take advantage of the havok you've wreaked on your opponent's life total in essential to closing out the game by knocking those last few points down.
Dauthi Slayer - A staple of Suicide Black since the deck’s inception. It’s fast, cheap, and in the current Pauper metagame there is nothing that will block it, period. Equipped with a Bonesplitter it will demolish your opponents remaining life points in a hurry. Dauthi Slayer slips through the shadows while the red zone is clogged up with creature stalemates. Keep it alive at almost all costs, your Mutagenic Growth was made for him.
Duskhunter Bat - Similar to Child of Night in that when I was originally considering it, I almost overlooked it. There are plenty of 2/2 flyers for double black. The advantage of Duskhuter Bat is that it doesn’t have a disadvantage. No life loss when it or another creature comes into play, and unlike the 3/2 Skittering Skirge, it’ll stick around when its friends stop by. Don’t be fooled by the printing on the bottom right of the card. This is always a 2/2 flyer. Between your one drops and Duathi Slayer's shadow, getting the Bloodthirst counter is incredibly easy. Once in play, this is either going to chisel away at your opponent’s life total, or stall the faerie aggression.
The Sideboard Choices
Knowing your meta is essential to having a good sideboard. You always have to be aware of this dynamic. Below are the cards that work for me now, but depending on future trends may change.
Contaminated Ground - I bring in versus the various incarnations of 8 Post and against Burn. 8 Post because DUH. Burn because they don’t run a lot of lands so it buys a couple of turns and most importantly it can stall out a Fireblast just long enough for you to win the game.
Dead Weight - This is to Atog as Raid is to roaches. Kill ‘em dead. Also used against Stompy to kill their creatures with no chance of them using a pump spell as a counter. It’s good against Goblins and small varmints west of the Mississippi.
Rathi Trapper - A card that comes in against any other aggro deck other than Stompy (due to Quirion Ranger's untap ability). In essence it stops their best creature and is also a body. It’s also fun to kill Phantasmal Bears and lock down Spire Golems with them.
Wrench Mind - Goes in against Burn faster than it took you to read this sentence. Useful against some aggro decks if you are on the play.
In Closing
I hope you give the deck a chance. It is a lot of fun to dump your hand on turn 1 and 2 and then follow up with more and more creatures before your opponent can stabilize. Like any deck, it has its bad draws and tough situations; however once you are familiar with the intricacies I hope you’ll enjoy the power of the dark side as much as I do.
Cheers!
Well your formatting could use some work, but welcome!You actually cleaned that post up a lot before I could even complain.I'm glad to see this archetype isn't completely dead in the actual tournament environment! Due to schedule/patience concerns I am strictly a practice-room brewer.
It looks like you've been facing a bit less spot removal than I'm used to, which I suspect is a skew in the Tournament Practice room vs. actual tournaments; that and the fact that Delver usually runs very little and is very big right now.
Lots of interesting card choices, overall. I missed out on Erg Raiders, since I was only looking for power greater than two, and having that guy available really warps the valuation of some of your other options.
I reformatted the post for clarity.
Here's the link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/autocardanywhere/eobkhgkgoejnjaiofdmphhkemmomfabg?hl=en
- L
"The problem isn't when Scissors says Rock is overpowered, it's when Paper says it is."
-Mark Rosewater
All of the decks posted can achieve this. Thanks though..
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=496372
4 Carnophage
4 Dark Ritual
4 Doom Blade
3 Duress
4 Porcelain Legionnaire
4 Pulse Tracker
3 Raving Oni-Slave
2 Sangrophage
4 Snuff Out
17 Swamp
4 Vampire Lacerator
3 Wretched Anurid
Here's the link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/autocardanywhere/eobkhgkgoejnjaiofdmphhkemmomfabg?hl=en
4 Carnophage
4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Pulse Tracker
Big Dudes
4 Dauthi Slayer
3 Dauthi Horror
3 Gurmag Angler
4 Dark Ritual
4 Mutagenic Growth
3 Bonesplitter
3 Foul-Tongue Shriek
4 Sign in Blood
Removal
3 Paralyze
Land
17 Swamp
Sideboard is in flux. Snuff Out is great if they have blockers and aren't on black. Duress is fine. Geth's Verdict and Chainer's Edict both conflict with Paralyze, so it's gotta be one or the other.
If I were going to drop something I'd drop the Bonesplitter and/or Growth. I find I want more creatures than anything else to make sure I can take full advantage of Dark Ritual on turn 1.
https://pucatrade.com/invite/gift/86097
Bump in the Night is okay, but Bonesplitter is stellar, and Mutagenic Growth is about the only way to shake off a burn spell that doubles as a damage boost.
The ideal opening is always going to be ab out putting six damage on the table off a Dark Ritual. Bonesplitter accomplishes that.