Rakdos has always been an under appreciated archetype in standard for the last couple years. With the new additions of Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Goblin Dark-Dwellers, and the best planes walker in Standard in Chandra, Flamecaller, this archetype is set to grind out your opponents. We lose the dragon package but this color combination gives us the best removal of the format and recursion spell with Kolaghan's command. Rakdos will always be viable so don't let Bant company, Humans, and Aristocrat decks shy you away. This version of B/R is the most defined and positioned compared to other versions such as Vampires or madness.
Land Base Smoldering Marsh : 4 Each- The basics Foreboding Ruins : 4 Each- The basics Cinder Barrens : 3 Each. Gets us both colors, Evolving wilds could be used here. Blighted Fen : 2 Each- Game goes long and having access to a sac effect is huge. Mountain : 6 basics Swamp : 7 basics
Creature Choices Hangarback Walker : 0-4 Each- Gives us early game and useful against aggro. Pia and Kiraan Nalar : 0-2 Each- 3 creatures for 1 and able to shock is great! Also great with Hangarback Walker. Kalitas, Traitor go Ghet : 0-3 Each- Excellent against Aristocrats and source of life gain. Goblin Dark-Dwellers 4 Each : Easily the best card in the deck. Menace and able to 2-1 again and again.
Other Creature Options Thunderbreak Regent : 4/4 body with bolt upside but lost its contribution card of Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury. Dragonlord Kolaghan : Good in some situations but Chandra competes with this spot. Sin Prodder : Speculation that this was good. But overall it is very lackluster and not right for this deck. Mindwrack Demon : 4/5 Trample Flyer is great but this deck doesn't use delirium enough to make this see play.
The Spells/ Walkers Chandra, Flamecaller : 2-3 Each- Fantastic card and one of the best cards in Standard Ob Nixilis, Reignited : 0-1 Each- Great way to get pure card advantage and kill opposing creatures. Fiery Impulse : 3 Each- Gives us early removal against Humans and Company decks. Grasp of Darkness : 2-4 Each- Great answer to get around Avacyn and kills almost everything in the meta. Ultimate Price : 2-4 Each- Another Great answer to remove creatures Ruinous Path : 3 Each- Great for answering any problematic threat with awaken upside. Languish : 0-2 Each- The premier sweeper of the format. Transgress the Mind : 2-3 Each- Early hand disruption and great to exile cards they can't get back. Read the Bones : 3 Each- Best card drawn engine for our colors and can recur with GDD unlike Painful Truths Kolaghan's Command : 3 Each- Excellent utility and combined with GDD again will help out 2 for 1 your opponent.
Made some changes to the deck after further testing and it feels a lot smoother. Added mindwrack demon and and moved on noxilis to the board. Here's an updated list so far
Looks pretty cool. I was toying with a list that I havent full completed yet but posted a bit about in the Dark Eldrazi primer.
Basically its Stoopid amounts of hand-hate on curve into a Thought-Knot Seer into a Reality Smasher. It was mono-black in my mind originally, but I toyed with splashing Green for Pulse of Murasa, or Red for Kolaghan's Command.
It would have the following cards in it at least.
4x Duress - T1 discard ftw.
4x Transgress the Mind - T2 discard ftw, and exiles!!!
4x Tormenting Voice - Cheap card draw, and discards extra hand-hate we dont need.
4x Kolaghan's Command - Instant speed discard, yes please. Burn/Removal, yes please. Return creatures, yes please.
** 4x Pick the Brain - Rofls, now its getting mean. Probably a SB card if we run Rakdos.
** 4x Infinite Obliteration - Probably more of a SB card, but would be funny in most matchups.
4x Thought-Knot Seer - Good Creature AND a discard? dang... fits theme, curve, and acts as finisher.
4x Reality Smasher - Our finisher, survives Languish, very resilient against targeted removal due to all our hand-hate, especially Kolaghan's Command which can instant speed discard in response to them targeting if they have another card in hand.
Probably a playset of Grasp of Darkness too. Matter Reshaper helps with card advantage and helps boost the lower creature count to get Delirium. You'd probably want some lifegain to combat aggro, From Under the Floorboards could help, though I almost prefer Grotesque Mutation, decent early on a Matter Reshaper to trade and gain some life, also an Instant which we are shorter on. Dead Weight also helps fuel delirium, IF we need it, which is only for PtB. Languish is good, it triggers Matter Reshaper, we lose TKS, but are fine with RSmasher.
Not sure abbot fits here. I've considered the idea but this deck doesn't really have a lot of early plays besides either a kill spell/hangarback. If he were to make the cut I think he would only be a 2 of to recure some value late game but the deck feels like it doesn't need Abbot. I don't see him getting bigger than an 4/3 which is something competing with either mindwrack or kalitas.
I like the list and the addition of mindwrack. I've been a fan of read the bones and I could see going up to 3 if you are looking to cut something. I'm not a fan of hangarback, but demon makes it better.
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I've been testing hangarback and I think it's the weakest card in the deck. It does make mindwrack better and gives us something to play and pump if we need to play something on 2. I considered a third read the bones and it might be right to go up to 3 but already have Goblin Dark Dwellers it's like we run 4 read the bones anyways. Mindwrack/ Hangarback might not end up making the cut but we can see what happens this weekend's standard event. Reanimator seems to be a problem but maybe a necromatic summons will help. It will let us target their creature before they can summon it themselves.
I'm curious to see what turn is the critical turn for transitioning from taking the damage to not taking it. Like when is the boardwipe or removal critical. Traditionally I believe its around T4, and I feel like Black has one of the best T4 wipes in Languish, but with a huge Discard (and thus information) suite, it gives us the advantage to know if we need it earlier or later. I'm not big on Flaying Tendrils or Kozilek's Return (without an eldrazi), but I personally would like to play more of a discard/hand-hate style control than kill control. Do you think this deck can last until T4 in this standard without removal/lifegain on T1-T3?
That's an interesting thing to think about. Yes we do have a premier board wipe in the form of languish which is why 1 is mainboard as a catch all answer and another in the sideboard. The reason for Kozilek's return is for the more aggressive matchup to kill multiple things at instant speed. Your opponent can try to play a dashed zurgo or lightning beserker which is why it's their if we can't find a kill spell. Too much discard is kind of an overkill since we won't be able to play a creature or play a removal speed in the first couple turns. It could be that this deck could last till turn 4 but it would be very hard if up against an aggressive deck where transgress the mind is not a very good card/idea to do on turn 2. Information is great but also having tons of removal and creatures to help you grind your opponent is going to help you win games. It will be interesting to see what happens this weekend and what decks pop up. Maybe mono red eldrazi is the deck for you if you want to go bigger.
I can tell you with 100 million % certainty it doesn't belong in this deck, suspect if it belongs in any deck honestly.
And I've been testing out your list OP because B/R is just what I always tend to play and I like it a lot, the one problem I've been having is green based midrange decks, it seems like after the grindfest is over they come out ahead with the card that returns things with different CMC from the graveyard or what have you.
I can confirm that sin prodder does not fit in this deck. I originally had 2 but cut them because it did not do much and died to every removal spell. Some might say but it was a "threat" but it didn't feel right. B/ R has been my go to color for standard but it's interesting that it's struggling against a midrange green deck. Can you give me a couple more thoughts about what you are playing against. I played a couple games against a G/B delirium deck and didn't seem to have a problem with the new updated list. I've put a necromatic summons I'm the board for a reanimator match ups which seems hard so we can draw it and reanimate something of theirs before they can. Not sure if that's too cute but it seems to have helped.
Fiery Impulse was never worth it for me. Kalitas is only good against certain decks in others he instantly dies because anything below 4 toughness in this meta is going to be easiest to kill with languish becoming a big board wipe. Mindwrack is a 4 of, insanely powerful card. Pie and K are better MB than Kalitas but I switch them out together usually. Kozi's Return can wreck CoCo hitting Jace, but not all their cards. Does great against humans by t3 unless they have a god draw you can wipe a decent board.
If you're facing one of the strange mill decks or U/R fevered visions decks, you want to take out mindwracks and bring in all your hand disruption and dragonmaster outcasts/ob nix etc. because they don't play very many creatures. Grasp needs to be a 4 of because it takes care of almost every major threat in standard during the early - middle levels of the game.
I don't think hangarback fits in this deck at all, I wouldn't really want to pump it because I want to be doing this to disrupt them during their turn and then further my board state. A regular game goes t1 dead weight a human or something, t2 transgress/grasp t3 kcommand, ruinous, read the bones, t4 mindwrack or P&K, t5 flashback a spell and win the game because GDD is ultimate value.
Your B/R control looked sweet so i also printed it out and made a little gauntlet between these 3 decks.
I played 13 games against U/W humans with your deck 7 times B/R on the play and U/W humans on the play 6 times. All games were without sideboard.
U/W humans matchup thoughts:
Without sideboard U/W humans really seems to have the upper hand, unless they have a really clunky start.
Every win by B/R were in a situation where i was hoping the opponent won't top deck an Avacyn, since i was winning while having 1-4 life usually.
Your list doesn't handle Archangel of Tithes too well, only 1 Ruinous Path that takes care of it 1 for 1; sacrifice effects might hit it sometimes, but the humies does have a lot of board presence fast, so the sacrifice effects aren't that reliable.
Transgress the Mind was great against humans to take care of Archangel of Tithes, but i don't think it's enough. Ultimate Price would answer this threat.
Chandra and Kozilek's Return are okish, but if they hit Always Watching they are dead draws most of the time. I really wanted 1-2 Languish in main for this match up rather than Kozilek's Return.
Goblin DD was a house, always a good play on the curve or later.
Mindwrack Demon was kind of a good play, since it blocks most of the opponents creatures except Avacyn if they have Always Watching.
But the problem with Mindwrack Demon is, that it doesn't do enough against the Humans.. Either it gets clued* (*declaration in stoned) or it gets Reflector Maged which just destroyes us if they have creatures to attack us with after that. And since we don't have that many targets for Declaration in Stone, they usually have it for the Demon..
Pia and Kiran Nalaar were great for buying time and dodging Declaration in Stones and Reflector Mages, two seemed ok.
B/W Eldrazi Thoughts:
0 wins with B/R. 3 games on the play, 3 games on the draw, i felt like this match up is a bye for B/W at least in game 1.
They just out value us hard..
They have removal for every win con in our deck, they play Thought-Knot Seer that makes our hand weak.
If the game goes long, Eldrazi Displacer makes our spot removal hard to resolve, Sorin is a huge beathing, Shambling Vent is a problem, Gideon is a problem.
Again i was screaming for languish in this matchup also, it kills everything in their deck, while Kozilek's Return and Kolaghan's Command kills only non-relevant creatures (Hedron Crawler, Matter Reshaper, Knight of the White Orchid).
Kolaghan's Command is still good because of the discard.
This deck needs to have Languish mainboard i would say just because white is so powerful in this standard it seems.
Languish hits everything but Archangel of Tithes or Linvala, the Preserver in white and your deck doesn't really rely on having a huge density of creatures on board.
Ultimate Price / Ruinous Path seems something i would add more to this deck, just because how miserable those 5+ toughness creatures are for this deck.
Mindwrack Demon seems sweet, but if your meta has nothing but Declaration in Stones / Anguished Unmaking / Reflector Mage, i think i would rather try to find another creature that gives value before it dies.
Maybe try Thought-Knot Seer ?
Not having access to languish feels bad. The inclusion of my list has 1 main and 1 sideboard. I have yet to test the humans matchup and feel like having more access to fiery impulse over deadweight is needed. With mindwrack demon I don't think 4 is correct. It's a good card but 2-3 feel correct. Kalitas is such a strong part of the deck and should be mainboard des. This will help clog the board and gain some life. For the Eldrazi matchups, having access to roast in the board should help a little with infinite obliteration cleaning up something and then buyback with GDD. KolaghanKolaghan's command seems good but in a field of eldrazi or ramp it doesn't kill anything so having 2 feels right over 3.
http://decks.deckedbuilder.com/d/183991
This is my particular version that I made. I really wanted to get a lot of value from Kolaghan's command with Goblin Dark-Dwellers(or GDD for short) so my kill spells and draw spells of choice are great on their own and work well when "castback" from the graveyard. Looping GDD's can just out value just about any deck.
I tried Hangarback walker and was not too impressed with it. There is not much value from it when it is exiled and that happens often. At least with GDD and Pia and Kiran Nalaar(or Chandra's Parents for short) you have some decent come into play abilities.
The card I wanted to try instead was Dragonmaster Outcast. I don't know if 3 is the right number, but in my testing it has worked well so far. You can deploy it early and not really care if it chumps, attacks for one or just gets removed. Its value is late game, where you can start to take over a game with making dragons. None of my opponents wanted to kill it when I had more problematic permanents to deal with. It is also a decent target for kolaghan's command late game.
The list I played the first Friday it was legal was the same as above, only I had hangarback walkers instead of Dragonmaster. I also had a different board, with no languish. I'll add an FNM report later.
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Your B/R control looked sweet so i also printed it out and made a little gauntlet between these 3 decks.
I played 13 games against U/W humans with your deck 7 times B/R on the play and U/W humans on the play 6 times. All games were without sideboard.
U/W humans matchup thoughts:
Without sideboard U/W humans really seems to have the upper hand, unless they have a really clunky start.
Every win by B/R were in a situation where i was hoping the opponent won't top deck an Avacyn, since i was winning while having 1-4 life usually.
Your list doesn't handle Archangel of Tithes too well, only 1 Ruinous Path that takes care of it 1 for 1; sacrifice effects might hit it sometimes, but the humies does have a lot of board presence fast, so the sacrifice effects aren't that reliable.
Transgress the Mind was great against humans to take care of Archangel of Tithes, but i don't think it's enough. Ultimate Price would answer this threat.
Chandra and Kozilek's Return are okish, but if they hit Always Watching they are dead draws most of the time. I really wanted 1-2 Languish in main for this match up rather than Kozilek's Return.
Goblin DD was a house, always a good play on the curve or later.
Mindwrack Demon was kind of a good play, since it blocks most of the opponents creatures except Avacyn if they have Always Watching.
But the problem with Mindwrack Demon is, that it doesn't do enough against the Humans.. Either it gets clued* (*declaration in stoned) or it gets Reflector Maged which just destroyes us if they have creatures to attack us with after that. And since we don't have that many targets for Declaration in Stone, they usually have it for the Demon..
Pia and Kiran Nalaar were great for buying time and dodging Declaration in Stones and Reflector Mages, two seemed ok.
B/W Eldrazi Thoughts:
0 wins with B/R. 3 games on the play, 3 games on the draw, i felt like this match up is a bye for B/W at least in game 1.
They just out value us hard..
They have removal for every win con in our deck, they play Thought-Knot Seer that makes our hand weak.
If the game goes long, Eldrazi Displacer makes our spot removal hard to resolve, Sorin is a huge beathing, Shambling Vent is a problem, Gideon is a problem.
Again i was screaming for languish in this matchup also, it kills everything in their deck, while Kozilek's Return and Kolaghan's Command kills only non-relevant creatures (Hedron Crawler, Matter Reshaper, Knight of the White Orchid).
Kolaghan's Command is still good because of the discard.
This deck needs to have Languish mainboard i would say just because white is so powerful in this standard it seems.
Languish hits everything but Archangel of Tithes or Linvala, the Preserver in white and your deck doesn't really rely on having a huge density of creatures on board.
Ultimate Price / Ruinous Path seems something i would add more to this deck, just because how miserable those 5+ toughness creatures are for this deck.
Mindwrack Demon seems sweet, but if your meta has nothing but Declaration in Stones / Anguished Unmaking / Reflector Mage, i think i would rather try to find another creature that gives value before it dies.
Maybe try Thought-Knot Seer ?
Wow, thanks for piloting the deck that much! I've since played a lot of different decks in a gauntlet with it (U/R Todd Anderson.dec, Mono Black Eldrazi, G/x Humans) and I agree that especially Eldrazi is an almost instant loss. I struggled to beat a very good friend of mine and his Eldrazi list I'd say at best it was 60/40 in his favor. I can only imagine access to how strong white is would have made it worse. If I was to go against that deck I would want 3 To the Slaughter to deal with PW and some of their value creatures. I think To the Slaughter is an AMAZING removal spell when combined with the removal suite we currently have and I consistently want to see more in my hand or the graveyard to recur. I think it depends on what they know of the deck. That's not really a good enough defense but I did blow him out before he could see my list. After he knew what I was doing and we went to SB it became more difficult because he took out most removal and brought in hand disruption and easily out-curved me with Thought Knot Seers, Transgress, and Duress. I had access to Languish, Kalitas, Roast, Ob Nix, and Dragon Master Outcast though.
I really like playing mind-wrack demon and he is an allstar...against very certain decks. Other decks he can be a huge liability...pretty much anything that can clue him makes it very difficult. It's the first thing I side out for Kalitas (really valuable against decks where I know the life gain and my spot removal will shine) and Dragonmaster Outcast (late game bomb like mindwrack but constant threat that they might have to waste strong removal on).
I'm not sure if this will catch on or not but a card that TRULY blows this deck completely out of the water is Infinite Obliteration. My friend piloting the monoblack Eldrazi deck sided them in against me and if he drew it and named GDD it was EXTREMELY difficult, if not impossible to recover. Not only that but he could then name Mindwrack and I'm down to very little threats to even win the game.
Is our creature package a big enough threat? Should we be thinking about adding in exquisite firecraft or fiery impulse to burn our opponent with flashback for the win? Should we splash green for Sylvan Advocate and Den Protector and Pulse of Murasa for probably the strongest recursion package that Standard has seen in a very long time?
At this point I still love the deck and it's performing considerably well against a majority of the field still, but it's closer to a coin flip than I would like sometime. This deck still did really well against the Bant CoCo deck for me (their threats are all easily removed with our removal).
Going forward there's some serious changes to make - I think that Languish is a mandatory MB card after the Open and going forward in this format, if something is below 4 toughness we will always have a phenomenal out to it. At the same time - we only have Mindwrack in theory right now to avoid a languish. Ultimate Price seems weak MB because it's a completely dead draw against Eldrazi, already one of the worst match ups of the deck. Angel of Avacyn is difficult for us to deal with but at least we are in line with the rest of standard in finding it hard to deal with her.
Just let me know what you think you would change. I'm strongly thinking of splashing green just to increase the amount of creatures we can play. Our creatures are so based on value that if they get Declaration in Stone'd it's really hard to come back from that. Also we can't recur them with KCommand afterwards. Is playing hand disruption/removal really enough to get us to turns 4-6, and once we are in the mid game is our deck strong enough to maintain a lead on the board and in card advantage?
Let me know what you guys think. Thanks again for testing the deck.
Languish is a necessity and maybe going up to 2 is correct. I'd favor that over Kozilek's return for now as it will hit more creatures. Adding a third color will dilute the deck by making it harder to cast grasp of darkness or ruinous path early. Check out the Jund primer and see what you find. It will change the deck completely by having less GDD and value creatures. Mindwrack demon is a good card however as I mentioned earlier I think 2-3 is correct and Kalitas is needed. It will help us stabilize against aggressive decks and stop recursion from den protector and deathmist raptor.
From your current list I would take out:
1 Grasp of darkness
1 Transgress the mind
1 Kolaghans command
2 Kozilek's return
2 Mindwrack demon
Add:
1 Ultimate Price
1 Ruinous path
2 Languish
3 Kalitas, a Traitor of ghet
I think you are trying to have a different game plan than the ones above. If you are going to go with this deckles maybe add a pyromancers googles to get the added bonus of effects. Drawing 4 cards off Tormenting voice or 6 damage with Fiery Temper. Also, you should run Smoldering Marsh in your deck.
After further testing with the deck, matchups seem 50/50 at least and requires a lot of work to play the deck right. Bant company seems 50/50 depending on which half of the deck you draw. One game I drew nothing but removal and had GDD and thopters to close the game out. Hangarback walker is going to make the cut for 2 more Mindwrack demons, a Third Kalitas and another Transgress the mind.
Match 1 vs 5 color Jank.
I hate to say it but I got an easy win from this. He was jeskai colors and had some black cards in the board, but did not do much of anything either game. Not worth talking about.
Game one it seems he is on regular blue white humans. I killed each creature that he played for the first couple of games. Then he played Dragonlord Ojutai followed by an Always Watching, Archangel of Tithes and Archangel Avacyn. I did not have answers for any of those so I lost. I expected him to be lower to the ground and not have so many 4 and 5 drops.
Game two we play draw go for a while. The first play of the game is Dragonmaster Outcast, which gets reflector maged. I follow up with Kalitas which gets declaration of stoned, then I cast outcast again, which gets reflector maged again. He plays always watching and starts to beat me down. I play languish which gets countered by negate. His turn he plays Archangel of Tithes and beats in with the reflector mages.
I kill archangel of tithes, reflector mage and stick Dragonmaster Outcast again. I can then follow up with Dragonlord Kolaghan. He plays Ojutai and beats in with the mage. I untap, make a dragon and attack my Kolaghan. Here is the vital turn. He kills my untaped dragon, attacks with lord and plays Archangel of Tithes, which would have made it so I could not win the next turn. However he did not realize that he lost 10 life from Kolaghan's second ability, then died. Kicking himself, we shuffle up for the next game.
Game 3 I see some disruption multiple Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Chandra, Flamecaller and Kolaghan, which wins me the game. Me getting lucky in game 2 is what helped me win the match.
These matches are not very notable. I got paired down and I win easily in two. The most interesting play is Chandra's middle ability with Ob Nixilis, Reignited's emblem in play. He took 16 from my turn alone, and died during his drawstep.
His deck does a lot, spitting out a lot of guys, anthems and getting lots of damage in early. I stabilize at 5 life with a Languish, which I follow up with Chandra, Flamecaller which wins me the game alone.
Game 2 is similar to game one. He does a lot of damage, I make it to turn 4 with languish, then kill him with Dragonmaster outcast and Goblin Dark-Dwellers. He's annoyed that he played right into languish. He could have played an anthem instead of two more guys, so he would be able to follow up my board wipe with more threats.
Game 1 takes such a long time, as he gets the combo going on. He spent most of his turns playing multiple Nissa's Renewal. I just had an Ob Nixilis who went up after killing his Kalitas.
Essentially how the combo works is you cast Dark Petition with spell mastery searching for Season's past. Then you cast it at a discount, getting back the petition and whatever other cards you need. Since season's past goes on the bottom of the library, you can do it again next turn. My deck is usually built to grind out long games, but he looped the cards about 4 times. I conceded as I had no way to win with him destroying my planeswalkers and creatures, and ripping my hard apart with Transgress the mind. The highlight of the game was Dragonlord Kolaghan hitting him for 6 and dying. I used the command with Goblin Dark-Dwellers to bring it back to my hand, cast it again and attack for 6 again, as he killed my dark dwellers. He killed it once more, and if I could have hit another command I could have won.
Game 2 I keep a really loose hand with lands, transgress the mind and a kolaghan's command. I figured he would have disruption and the game would go long, both which were true. He goes and rips my hand apart but does not have any follow up or action. I manage to stick a couple of goblin dark-dwellers, screw with his hand and we move on to game three.
Game 3 is just about a repeat of the first one. So much so that we ended up drawing. The deck has several ways to stay alive, but not many ways to win.
Match 4 vs Mardu control. We intentionally drew as we were locked Top 8 vs GB aristocrats.into top 8.
Game one is pretty sweet. I don't have the best match up game one versus the deck but I managed to kill the important creatures like Liliana and Zulaport Cutthroat. I get to six mana and beat down with Dragonlord Kolaghan. Unfortunately his last card in hand is top-decked Collected Company, hits some creature and Nantuko Husk, and kills me.
Game two is even better. I stick a Kalitas which he did not expect. We hit a stalemate as he can't do anything against my field of Kalitas, Dragonmaster Outcast with 5 lands and Goblin Dark-Dwellers. I can't attack with Kalitas because of his Hissing Quagmire. He flips Westvale Abbey and attacks in. I get 5 zombies for the trouble. I can win the game easily if I had hit my 6th land drop as I had Kolaghan and Chandra to beat him. I attack for a lot of damage and gain some life with Kalitas. He untaps, attacks and plays both Blisterpod and Nantuko husk. If I draw the sixth land then I can play the Chandra or the dragonlord and win. If I hit a removal spell then I can kill his husk gain some life and live another turn but I can't and so he wins the match. It was a good tournament and a good game but sadly I lost. If we can go to game three I'm certain that I can win since after board I can interact him with.
Dragonlord Kolaghan did a lot of work for me today. It turned out to one of the threats that the deck needed in order to pressure players and planeswalkers. I liked everything in the 75. The only card I might think about is Pick the Brain. If seasons passed deck becomes a thing I will have to worry about that combo, as if it goes off I'm not beating it. It just felt very powerful, though I had a small chance to beat it.
As a whole I am very pleased with the deck. If someone has questions let me know.
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Good stuff dude. While I prefer the 14-20 creature mid range dragon centric version, i think B/R has a good matchup in this meta. We just need more people to play it and develop the most efficient version.
The mainboard is situated to take on aggro. 4x Mindwrack Demon means aggro games can go south very fast without the proper interaction. Dead Weight usually comes out in non aggro matches. Often I change up the removal package to have 4x slaughter as it is absurd vs quite a bit of the meta. against some decks it's not very useful. The card that has actually been performing spectacularly has been Kolaghan's Command. This deck does a great job of enabling the creature return mode making it pretty much a guarenteed 2 for 1 and with a lot of goggles running around it is a very effective mainboard card. Pick the Brain has been very good as well. Sometimes it doesn't feel amazing to cast it, but when you flash it back in the late game with delerium it can destroy opponents game plans. I've been very impressed with my games against BG seasons control. I suppose this is a delerium deck, but more so than that it is a toolbox deck. Milling your library gives you more options for flashing back with dark dwellers. Honestly a 4th copy of darkdwelers would not be a bad plan. It really is a house. I have been okay with just 3 so far since kologan's command almost makes it like the deck runs 5.
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This version did ok at states until I decided to forget how to beat G/B Aristocrats and severely punted the match. Beat G/B Seasons and G/W humans. Lost to B/W Walker control and the aforementioned G/B Aristocrats of which I feel is an extremely good match for us.
For those who are going to ask Olivia, Mobilized for War is actually quite good at giving the deck some inevitability if not controlled. Swinging with a 5/5 hasted Thunderbreak Regent on T4 feels quite good and Dragonlord Kolaghan tends to end games fast. Plus she allows us to get our big threats out of Languish range. Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Kolaghan's Command allow us ways to get the pitched cards back with good regularity. Dragons, though? Yup, cuz Draconic Roar is still really good right now and the reveal trigger still catches people off guard. That coupled with the HIGH level of evasion the creature package offers really puts weenie strategies on their heels. You also get to run pretty much the same spell package, just basically swapping Dragon's for Walker's.
Ruminate, postulate, lemme know what you contemplate for changes.
Also, the 2 Oblivion Strike's are in the SB right now as considerations for Westvale Abbey control and the possible Ulamog that might pop up.
Flipdipple already knows this but I like this style deck too. If not for D Roar, I think the dragons, while good, are just a hair shy of other red and or black threats but being able to consistent kill a creature and bolt to the face is amazing value. Then recast T5 with GDD.
Not saying Dragons is the only way to go but right now, but all the testing is done without major tournament support, which means all the spikes who only play what the pros do aren't testing it, so we have to rely on MTGO and local reports until the pros realize how good R/B is situated in the meta right now.
Right now, our way around Ormendhal is to just not let him get summoned. If he is, the 9 point life swing alone basically ends the game against any R/B deck. If life gain starts dominating the meta tho, tainted remedy is a wicked hate card which basically negates their ormendhal or lantern scout.
I have most of the pieces for the R/B deck and am just waiting for Kalitas Online to come back down to earth in price. Online prices tendy to be extremely swingy, whereas paper, he has been increasing in price for about 3 months solid.
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Rakdos has always been an under appreciated archetype in standard for the last couple years. With the new additions of Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Goblin Dark-Dwellers, and the best planes walker in Standard in Chandra, Flamecaller, this archetype is set to grind out your opponents. We lose the dragon package but this color combination gives us the best removal of the format and recursion spell with Kolaghan's command. Rakdos will always be viable so don't let Bant company, Humans, and Aristocrat decks shy you away. This version of B/R is the most defined and positioned compared to other versions such as Vampires or madness.
4 Hangarback Walker
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
4 Goblin Dark Dwellers
3 Planeswalkers
2 Chandra, Flamecaller
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
18 Spells
3 Fiery Impulse
3 Transgress the Mind
2 Ultimate Price
3 Grasp of Darkness
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 To the Slaughter
2 Ruinous Path
2 Read the Bones
4 Smoldering Marsh
4 Forboding Ruins
2 Cinder Barrens
2 Evolving Wilds
1 Blighted Fen
6 Mountain
7 Swamp
1 Dragonmaster Outcast
1 Languish
3 Duress
3 Tears of Valakut
3 Kozilek's Return
2 Roast
2 Infinite Obliteration
Land Base
Smoldering Marsh : 4 Each- The basics
Foreboding Ruins : 4 Each- The basics
Cinder Barrens : 3 Each. Gets us both colors, Evolving wilds could be used here.
Blighted Fen : 2 Each- Game goes long and having access to a sac effect is huge.
Mountain : 6 basics
Swamp : 7 basics
Creature Choices
Hangarback Walker : 0-4 Each- Gives us early game and useful against aggro.
Pia and Kiraan Nalar : 0-2 Each- 3 creatures for 1 and able to shock is great! Also great with Hangarback Walker.
Kalitas, Traitor go Ghet : 0-3 Each- Excellent against Aristocrats and source of life gain.
Goblin Dark-Dwellers 4 Each : Easily the best card in the deck. Menace and able to 2-1 again and again.
Other Creature Options
Thunderbreak Regent : 4/4 body with bolt upside but lost its contribution card of Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury.
Dragonlord Kolaghan : Good in some situations but Chandra competes with this spot.
Sin Prodder : Speculation that this was good. But overall it is very lackluster and not right for this deck.
Mindwrack Demon : 4/5 Trample Flyer is great but this deck doesn't use delirium enough to make this see play.
The Spells/ Walkers
Chandra, Flamecaller : 2-3 Each- Fantastic card and one of the best cards in Standard
Ob Nixilis, Reignited : 0-1 Each- Great way to get pure card advantage and kill opposing creatures.
Fiery Impulse : 3 Each- Gives us early removal against Humans and Company decks.
Grasp of Darkness : 2-4 Each- Great answer to get around Avacyn and kills almost everything in the meta.
Ultimate Price : 2-4 Each- Another Great answer to remove creatures
Ruinous Path : 3 Each- Great for answering any problematic threat with awaken upside.
Languish : 0-2 Each- The premier sweeper of the format.
Transgress the Mind : 2-3 Each- Early hand disruption and great to exile cards they can't get back.
Read the Bones : 3 Each- Best card drawn engine for our colors and can recur with GDD unlike Painful Truths
Kolaghan's Command : 3 Each- Excellent utility and combined with GDD again will help out 2 for 1 your opponent.
3 Hangarback Walker
3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
Planeswalkers (3)
2 Chandra, Flamecaller
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
Lands (26)
4 Foreboding Ruins
4 Smoldering Marsh
3 Cinder Barrens
7 Swamp
6 Mountain
2 Blighted Fen
3 Fiery Impulse
2 Grasp of Darkness
2 Ultimate Price
3 Ruinous Path
2 Languish
2 Transgress the Mind
3 Read the Bones
3 Kolaghan's Command
1 Dragonmaster Outcast
1 Crumble to Dust
1 Languish
1 Dark Petition
1 Dragonlord Kolaghan
2 Infinite Obliteration
2 Transgress the Mind
3 Duress
3 Pitiless Horde
This archetype is the most defined out of all the other B/R decks. Combining a third color is definitely viable to either go: Jund : http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/established-standard/684158-primer-jund-midrange
Grixis : http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/established-standard/692561-grixis-control
Mardu :http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/deck-creation-standard/690400-mardu-control
Feel free to make suggestions and share your success with this archetype.
4 Hangarback Walker
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Mindwrack Demon
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
4 Goblin Dark Dweller
2 Planeswalkers
2 Chandra, Flamecaller
18 Spells
3 Fiery Impulse
2 Transgress the Mind
2 Ultimate Price
3 Grasp of Darkness
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 To the Slaughter
2 Ruinous Path
2 Read the Bones
1 Languish
4 Smoldering Marsh
4 Foreboding Ruins
4 Evolving Wilds
1 Blighted Fen
6 Mountain
7 Swamp
1 Dragonmaster Outcast
1 Ob Nixilis, Reignited
1 Dark Petition
1 Tainted Remedy
1 Languish
1 Dragonlord Kolaghan
1 Read the Bones
2 Crumble to Dust
2 Duress
2 Kozilek's Return
2 Infinite Obliteration
Basically its Stoopid amounts of hand-hate on curve into a Thought-Knot Seer into a Reality Smasher. It was mono-black in my mind originally, but I toyed with splashing Green for Pulse of Murasa, or Red for Kolaghan's Command.
It would have the following cards in it at least.
4x Duress - T1 discard ftw.
4x Transgress the Mind - T2 discard ftw, and exiles!!!
4x Tormenting Voice - Cheap card draw, and discards extra hand-hate we dont need.
4x Kolaghan's Command - Instant speed discard, yes please. Burn/Removal, yes please. Return creatures, yes please.
** 4x Pick the Brain - Rofls, now its getting mean. Probably a SB card if we run Rakdos.
** 4x Infinite Obliteration - Probably more of a SB card, but would be funny in most matchups.
4x Thought-Knot Seer - Good Creature AND a discard? dang... fits theme, curve, and acts as finisher.
4x Reality Smasher - Our finisher, survives Languish, very resilient against targeted removal due to all our hand-hate, especially Kolaghan's Command which can instant speed discard in response to them targeting if they have another card in hand.
Probably a playset of Grasp of Darkness too. Matter Reshaper helps with card advantage and helps boost the lower creature count to get Delirium. You'd probably want some lifegain to combat aggro, From Under the Floorboards could help, though I almost prefer Grotesque Mutation, decent early on a Matter Reshaper to trade and gain some life, also an Instant which we are shorter on. Dead Weight also helps fuel delirium, IF we need it, which is only for PtB. Languish is good, it triggers Matter Reshaper, we lose TKS, but are fine with RSmasher.
—Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
I can tell you with 100 million % certainty it doesn't belong in this deck, suspect if it belongs in any deck honestly.
And I've been testing out your list OP because B/R is just what I always tend to play and I like it a lot, the one problem I've been having is green based midrange decks, it seems like after the grindfest is over they come out ahead with the card that returns things with different CMC from the graveyard or what have you.
2 P&K
4 Goblin Dark Dwellers
4 Mindwrack Demon
PW:
2 Chandra, Flamecaller
Spells:
3 Dead Weight
4 Grasp of Darkness
4 Transgress the Mind
2 Ruinous Path
1 To the Slaughter
2 Kozilek's Return
3 K-Command
3 Read the Bones
4 Smoldering Marsh
4 Foreboding Ruins
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Blighted Fens
5 Mountain
7 Swamp
2 Dragonmaster Outcast
1 Virulent Plague
2 Kalitas
3 Duress
2 Ultimate Price
1 Ob Nix
2 Languish
2 Roast
Fiery Impulse was never worth it for me. Kalitas is only good against certain decks in others he instantly dies because anything below 4 toughness in this meta is going to be easiest to kill with languish becoming a big board wipe. Mindwrack is a 4 of, insanely powerful card. Pie and K are better MB than Kalitas but I switch them out together usually. Kozi's Return can wreck CoCo hitting Jace, but not all their cards. Does great against humans by t3 unless they have a god draw you can wipe a decent board.
If you're facing one of the strange mill decks or U/R fevered visions decks, you want to take out mindwracks and bring in all your hand disruption and dragonmaster outcasts/ob nix etc. because they don't play very many creatures. Grasp needs to be a 4 of because it takes care of almost every major threat in standard during the early - middle levels of the game.
I don't think hangarback fits in this deck at all, I wouldn't really want to pump it because I want to be doing this to disrupt them during their turn and then further my board state. A regular game goes t1 dead weight a human or something, t2 transgress/grasp t3 kcommand, ruinous, read the bones, t4 mindwrack or P&K, t5 flashback a spell and win the game because GDD is ultimate value.
Not having access to languish feels bad. The inclusion of my list has 1 main and 1 sideboard. I have yet to test the humans matchup and feel like having more access to fiery impulse over deadweight is needed. With mindwrack demon I don't think 4 is correct. It's a good card but 2-3 feel correct. Kalitas is such a strong part of the deck and should be mainboard des. This will help clog the board and gain some life. For the Eldrazi matchups, having access to roast in the board should help a little with infinite obliteration cleaning up something and then buyback with GDD. KolaghanKolaghan's command seems good but in a field of eldrazi or ramp it doesn't kill anything so having 2 feels right over 3.
This is my particular version that I made. I really wanted to get a lot of value from Kolaghan's command with Goblin Dark-Dwellers(or GDD for short) so my kill spells and draw spells of choice are great on their own and work well when "castback" from the graveyard. Looping GDD's can just out value just about any deck.
I tried Hangarback walker and was not too impressed with it. There is not much value from it when it is exiled and that happens often. At least with GDD and Pia and Kiran Nalaar(or Chandra's Parents for short) you have some decent come into play abilities.
The card I wanted to try instead was Dragonmaster Outcast. I don't know if 3 is the right number, but in my testing it has worked well so far. You can deploy it early and not really care if it chumps, attacks for one or just gets removed. Its value is late game, where you can start to take over a game with making dragons. None of my opponents wanted to kill it when I had more problematic permanents to deal with. It is also a decent target for kolaghan's command late game.
The list I played the first Friday it was legal was the same as above, only I had hangarback walkers instead of Dragonmaster. I also had a different board, with no languish. I'll add an FNM report later.
—Dr. Doom
-My approach to building decks. Sometimes it works.
Wow, thanks for piloting the deck that much! I've since played a lot of different decks in a gauntlet with it (U/R Todd Anderson.dec, Mono Black Eldrazi, G/x Humans) and I agree that especially Eldrazi is an almost instant loss. I struggled to beat a very good friend of mine and his Eldrazi list I'd say at best it was 60/40 in his favor. I can only imagine access to how strong white is would have made it worse. If I was to go against that deck I would want 3 To the Slaughter to deal with PW and some of their value creatures. I think To the Slaughter is an AMAZING removal spell when combined with the removal suite we currently have and I consistently want to see more in my hand or the graveyard to recur. I think it depends on what they know of the deck. That's not really a good enough defense but I did blow him out before he could see my list. After he knew what I was doing and we went to SB it became more difficult because he took out most removal and brought in hand disruption and easily out-curved me with Thought Knot Seers, Transgress, and Duress. I had access to Languish, Kalitas, Roast, Ob Nix, and Dragon Master Outcast though.
I really like playing mind-wrack demon and he is an allstar...against very certain decks. Other decks he can be a huge liability...pretty much anything that can clue him makes it very difficult. It's the first thing I side out for Kalitas (really valuable against decks where I know the life gain and my spot removal will shine) and Dragonmaster Outcast (late game bomb like mindwrack but constant threat that they might have to waste strong removal on).
I'm not sure if this will catch on or not but a card that TRULY blows this deck completely out of the water is Infinite Obliteration. My friend piloting the monoblack Eldrazi deck sided them in against me and if he drew it and named GDD it was EXTREMELY difficult, if not impossible to recover. Not only that but he could then name Mindwrack and I'm down to very little threats to even win the game.
Is our creature package a big enough threat? Should we be thinking about adding in exquisite firecraft or fiery impulse to burn our opponent with flashback for the win? Should we splash green for Sylvan Advocate and Den Protector and Pulse of Murasa for probably the strongest recursion package that Standard has seen in a very long time?
At this point I still love the deck and it's performing considerably well against a majority of the field still, but it's closer to a coin flip than I would like sometime. This deck still did really well against the Bant CoCo deck for me (their threats are all easily removed with our removal).
Going forward there's some serious changes to make - I think that Languish is a mandatory MB card after the Open and going forward in this format, if something is below 4 toughness we will always have a phenomenal out to it. At the same time - we only have Mindwrack in theory right now to avoid a languish. Ultimate Price seems weak MB because it's a completely dead draw against Eldrazi, already one of the worst match ups of the deck. Angel of Avacyn is difficult for us to deal with but at least we are in line with the rest of standard in finding it hard to deal with her.
Just let me know what you think you would change. I'm strongly thinking of splashing green just to increase the amount of creatures we can play. Our creatures are so based on value that if they get Declaration in Stone'd it's really hard to come back from that. Also we can't recur them with KCommand afterwards. Is playing hand disruption/removal really enough to get us to turns 4-6, and once we are in the mid game is our deck strong enough to maintain a lead on the board and in card advantage?
Let me know what you guys think. Thanks again for testing the deck.
From your current list I would take out:
1 Grasp of darkness
1 Transgress the mind
1 Kolaghans command
2 Kozilek's return
2 Mindwrack demon
Add:
1 Ultimate Price
1 Ruinous path
2 Languish
3 Kalitas, a Traitor of ghet
3x Duress
3x Languish
2x Pick the Brain
2x Ruinous Path
3x Tormenting Voice
2x Fiery Temper
3x Ultimate Price
Creature (12)
3x Goblin Dark-Dwellers
3x Mindwrack Demon
2x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4x Sin Prodder
2x Sinister Concoction
Land (25)
4x Evolving Wilds
4x Foreboding Ruins
7x Mountain
10x Swamp
3x Corrupted Grafstone
I don't remember much at the IQ, but here is a link to that list.
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=101226
I took some notes about how today went, so here is what all I played.
R/G land fall win
blue white aggro win
mono white aggro win
seasons past combo Draw
mardu control Draw
gb aristocrats Loss
http://decks.deckedbuilder.com/d/189820
Match 1 vs 5 color Jank.
I hate to say it but I got an easy win from this. He was jeskai colors and had some black cards in the board, but did not do much of anything either game. Not worth talking about.
I board in Flaying Tendrils, To the Slaughter, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and cut some read the bones.
Game two we play draw go for a while. The first play of the game is Dragonmaster Outcast, which gets reflector maged. I follow up with Kalitas which gets declaration of stoned, then I cast outcast again, which gets reflector maged again. He plays always watching and starts to beat me down. I play languish which gets countered by negate. His turn he plays Archangel of Tithes and beats in with the reflector mages.
I kill archangel of tithes, reflector mage and stick Dragonmaster Outcast again. I can then follow up with Dragonlord Kolaghan. He plays Ojutai and beats in with the mage. I untap, make a dragon and attack my Kolaghan. Here is the vital turn. He kills my untaped dragon, attacks with lord and plays Archangel of Tithes, which would have made it so I could not win the next turn. However he did not realize that he lost 10 life from Kolaghan's second ability, then died. Kicking himself, we shuffle up for the next game.
Game 3 I see some disruption multiple Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Chandra, Flamecaller and Kolaghan, which wins me the game. Me getting lucky in game 2 is what helped me win the match.
Game 2 is similar to game one. He does a lot of damage, I make it to turn 4 with languish, then kill him with Dragonmaster outcast and Goblin Dark-Dwellers. He's annoyed that he played right into languish. He could have played an anthem instead of two more guys, so he would be able to follow up my board wipe with more threats.
Essentially how the combo works is you cast Dark Petition with spell mastery searching for Season's past. Then you cast it at a discount, getting back the petition and whatever other cards you need. Since season's past goes on the bottom of the library, you can do it again next turn. My deck is usually built to grind out long games, but he looped the cards about 4 times. I conceded as I had no way to win with him destroying my planeswalkers and creatures, and ripping my hard apart with Transgress the mind. The highlight of the game was Dragonlord Kolaghan hitting him for 6 and dying. I used the command with Goblin Dark-Dwellers to bring it back to my hand, cast it again and attack for 6 again, as he killed my dark dwellers. He killed it once more, and if I could have hit another command I could have won.
Game 2 I keep a really loose hand with lands, transgress the mind and a kolaghan's command. I figured he would have disruption and the game would go long, both which were true. He goes and rips my hand apart but does not have any follow up or action. I manage to stick a couple of goblin dark-dwellers, screw with his hand and we move on to game three.
Game 3 is just about a repeat of the first one. So much so that we ended up drawing. The deck has several ways to stay alive, but not many ways to win.
Match 4 vs Mardu control. We intentionally drew as we were locked Top 8 vs GB aristocrats.into top 8.
Game two is even better. I stick a Kalitas which he did not expect. We hit a stalemate as he can't do anything against my field of Kalitas, Dragonmaster Outcast with 5 lands and Goblin Dark-Dwellers. I can't attack with Kalitas because of his Hissing Quagmire. He flips Westvale Abbey and attacks in. I get 5 zombies for the trouble. I can win the game easily if I had hit my 6th land drop as I had Kolaghan and Chandra to beat him. I attack for a lot of damage and gain some life with Kalitas. He untaps, attacks and plays both Blisterpod and Nantuko husk. If I draw the sixth land then I can play the Chandra or the dragonlord and win. If I hit a removal spell then I can kill his husk gain some life and live another turn but I can't and so he wins the match. It was a good tournament and a good game but sadly I lost. If we can go to game three I'm certain that I can win since after board I can interact him with.
Dragonlord Kolaghan did a lot of work for me today. It turned out to one of the threats that the deck needed in order to pressure players and planeswalkers. I liked everything in the 75. The only card I might think about is Pick the Brain. If seasons passed deck becomes a thing I will have to worry about that combo, as if it goes off I'm not beating it. It just felt very powerful, though I had a small chance to beat it.
As a whole I am very pleased with the deck. If someone has questions let me know.
—Dr. Doom
-My approach to building decks. Sometimes it works.
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Smoldering Marsh
4 Foreboding Ruins
5 Swamp
6 Mountain
3 Drownyard Temple
Creatures 16
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
2 Olivia, Mobilized for War
3 Sin Prodder
4 Mindwrack Demon
3 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
2 Chandra, Flamecaller
3 Duress
2 Kolaghan's Command
2 Read the Bones
1 Exquisite Firecraft
2 Lightning Axe
3 Fiery Temper
1 Ruinous Path
2 Dead Weight
2 Virulent Plague
2 Pick the Brain
2 Languish
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
4 To the Slaughter
1 Transgress the Mind
2 Ultimate Price
1 Read the Bones
The mainboard is situated to take on aggro. 4x Mindwrack Demon means aggro games can go south very fast without the proper interaction. Dead Weight usually comes out in non aggro matches. Often I change up the removal package to have 4x slaughter as it is absurd vs quite a bit of the meta. against some decks it's not very useful. The card that has actually been performing spectacularly has been Kolaghan's Command. This deck does a great job of enabling the creature return mode making it pretty much a guarenteed 2 for 1 and with a lot of goggles running around it is a very effective mainboard card. Pick the Brain has been very good as well. Sometimes it doesn't feel amazing to cast it, but when you flash it back in the late game with delerium it can destroy opponents game plans. I've been very impressed with my games against BG seasons control. I suppose this is a delerium deck, but more so than that it is a toolbox deck. Milling your library gives you more options for flashing back with dark dwellers. Honestly a 4th copy of darkdwelers would not be a bad plan. It really is a house. I have been okay with just 3 so far since kologan's command almost makes it like the deck runs 5.
3x Cinder Barrens
4x Foreboding Ruins
2x Haven of the Spirit Dragon
7x Mountain
4x Smoldering Marsh
5x Swamp
Sorcery (8)
2x Duress
3x Read the Bones
3x Ruinous Path
2x Dragonlord Kolaghan
4x Goblin Dark-Dwellers
3x Hangarback Walker
3x Olivia, Mobilized for War
4x Thunderbreak Regent
Instant (11)
4x Draconic Roar
2x Grasp of Darkness
3x Kolaghan's Command
2x Ultimate Price
2x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3x Languish
2x Oblivion Strike
2x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2x Rending Volley
2x To the Slaughter
2x Transgress the Mind
This version did ok at states until I decided to forget how to beat G/B Aristocrats and severely punted the match. Beat G/B Seasons and G/W humans. Lost to B/W Walker control and the aforementioned G/B Aristocrats of which I feel is an extremely good match for us.
For those who are going to ask Olivia, Mobilized for War is actually quite good at giving the deck some inevitability if not controlled. Swinging with a 5/5 hasted Thunderbreak Regent on T4 feels quite good and Dragonlord Kolaghan tends to end games fast. Plus she allows us to get our big threats out of Languish range. Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Kolaghan's Command allow us ways to get the pitched cards back with good regularity. Dragons, though? Yup, cuz Draconic Roar is still really good right now and the reveal trigger still catches people off guard. That coupled with the HIGH level of evasion the creature package offers really puts weenie strategies on their heels. You also get to run pretty much the same spell package, just basically swapping Dragon's for Walker's.
Ruminate, postulate, lemme know what you contemplate for changes.
Also, the 2 Oblivion Strike's are in the SB right now as considerations for Westvale Abbey control and the possible Ulamog that might pop up.
Current Decks
Standard : WB Orzhov Vampires BW GUB Sultai Constrictor BUG
Brawl : GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons BG
Modern : GB Golgari Elves BG GR Atarka Goblins RG
Pauper : W Heroic W GB Delve BG
Flipdipple already knows this but I like this style deck too. If not for D Roar, I think the dragons, while good, are just a hair shy of other red and or black threats but being able to consistent kill a creature and bolt to the face is amazing value. Then recast T5 with GDD.
Not saying Dragons is the only way to go but right now, but all the testing is done without major tournament support, which means all the spikes who only play what the pros do aren't testing it, so we have to rely on MTGO and local reports until the pros realize how good R/B is situated in the meta right now.
Right now, our way around Ormendhal is to just not let him get summoned. If he is, the 9 point life swing alone basically ends the game against any R/B deck. If life gain starts dominating the meta tho, tainted remedy is a wicked hate card which basically negates their ormendhal or lantern scout.
I have most of the pieces for the R/B deck and am just waiting for Kalitas Online to come back down to earth in price. Online prices tendy to be extremely swingy, whereas paper, he has been increasing in price for about 3 months solid.