Been testing a BWu version and found that without HS the deck just plays out like a slow top-heavy deck. In order to counter that I've tried to mix in a few Solar Flare elements like Liliana of the Veil, Forbidden Alchemy and Unburial Rites as a secondary way of playing cheap creatures. If we get a HS in our opening hand then great, we play our cheap fatties and ride them to victory but if we don't then we can just pitch them to the yard with Liliana or Forbidden Alchemy and then reanimate. Here's a list I've been testing. Go easy on it, it's very rough.
Was running 4 Mana Leak and an extra Sun Titan before but found that my early game is incredibly lackluster without a HS out so I decided to cut them for 5 targeted removal to deal with early creatures until I can set up. I've mostly only fished this and so far it's looking to be decent. Do you guys have any suggestions on how to improve this?
Just finished testing a 10-game set against Tempered Steel, went 5-5, which I think is really good considering how much better we get after sideboarding. Here's the list I was using:
Bloodgift Demon was the MVP! He's great against Steel b/c he blocks flyers, and he's great against control b/c he draws cards if he somehow manages to stick around. Moving up to 4.
Despise was ok if I was going 1st, but if going 2nd, it sometimes didn't even get anything. Definitely side all of them out on the draw. I know it's one of our few answers to Liliana, but I'm going to cut two copies
Black Sun's Zenith, as expected, was amazing.
It sucks only having 4 dual lands. That fact, plus a few too many 1-land hands mean I'm going to add a land. I was trying to cheat with 23 since I have 4 Rampant Growth, 4 Summoning, and 4 Jens, but you can't cast those with only one land (or two of the wrong color).
I think this is about as extreme as I can make the deck against Temepered Steel in the main, it's great, as I have 4 bad cards (2 Despise, 2 Sheoldred) which I can then easily side out for 4 Creeping Corrosion. The rest of the SB will be used to figure out the control matchup, which I still have no clue how to fix other than to hope and pray.
I am going to be helping a friend build a BUG Heartless Summoning Deck here soon. We're thinking of going heavy on the land destruction. Obvious staples would be Heartless Summoning, Acidic Slimes, Phantasmal Images, Phyrexian Metamorphs, 1 or 2 Evil Twin, and definitely 2-3 Frost Titans for additional lock down.
I am going to be helping a friend build a BUG Heartless Summoning Deck here soon. We're thinking of going heavy on the land destruction. Obvious staples would be Heartless Summoning, Acidic Slimes, Phantasmal Images, Phyrexian Metamorphs, 1 or 2 Evil Twin, and definitely 2-3 Frost Titans for additional lock down.
definitely post on how that tests. metamorph was something i hadnt considered for the HS Pox build but it could actually have a good deal of power with HS since you can cast it for 1 but have it come in as a noncreature artifact, thereby eliminating the -1/-1 downside of HS, very cool indeed.
I love evil twin too, very anti-titan and legend, easily a 2 of in UB or at the least 2 of in the board.
definitely post on how that tests. metamorph was something i hadnt considered for the HS Pox build but it could actually have a good deal of power with HS since you can cast it for 1 but have it come in as a noncreature artifact, thereby eliminating the -1/-1 downside of HS, very cool indeed.
I love evil twin too, very anti-titan and legend, easily a 2 of in UB or at the least 2 of in the board.
Will do. I'm testing out RDW personally, but after proposing the idea of BUG Landlock, I was turned on a little bit.
I don't like the inkmoth nexus as it dies instantly to the summoning. I'd rather use buried ruin because it would always be useful.
Hmm, this deck looks like it works, even without the HS. I guess its just a tempo deck since there's zero removal until turn 6. What does his board look like? BSZ would have to be there to stop aggro builds
Was trying to think of a way I could happilly use Altar's Reap, which meant either going for a token strategy, packing lots of creatures into one deck, or playing creatures I didn't mind losing. Heartless Summoning was the easiest enabler for the second of those, and my own Johnny tendencies have a love for "X on stick" creatures, especially removal spells smushed on to bodies. So Heartless Summoning feels about perfect to the purpose of being able to play Massacre Wurm, Skinrender, Blind Zealot, and Perilous Myr in the same crowd. (And Morkrut Banshee loves a free dead myr or a sacked Blind Zealot).
The plan is simple, bury the opposition in a combined pile of creatures, preferably cheapened by Heartless Summoning, and card advantage via the army o' removal on sticks, Altar's Reap, and Bloodgift Demon (yet another awesome spell on a stick).
Edit: Also wondering why none of the artifact lists are running Palladium Myr. Becomes a one mana dork that taps for just enough to cast a Myr Superion on top of all the other means.
I think the best way is to have a secondary notion. Having only a Heartless summoning deck i believe is wrong and leads to bad deck building. However it is a powerful card.
What we need is a list of the types of decks to see what is the best. So far we have:
I like this deck a lot but feel that the best colors are BRG. It opens up so many choices for creatures/ramp. The ramp helps get out those big creatures if you dont draw a Heartless Summoning right away.
Criticism welcome. Havent thought of sideboard yet. Gonna wait till after metagame settles down again. Caravan is a tech card I am trying out. If it doesnt work out then I will cut like this: -2 Caravan Vigil +1 Priest of Urabrask +1 Viridian Emissary
I think the best way is to have a secondary notion. Having only a Heartless summoning deck i believe is wrong and leads to bad deck building. However it is a powerful card.
What we need is a list of the types of decks to see what is the best. So far we have:
Probably Heartless Landlock. I see alot of builds playing Pox and acidic slimes since you dont need much land to play your creatures and almost all the decks seem to be playing Solemn Simulacrum. Im not sure what the Reanimator one is though.
I guess the Sylvok Replica main hits Birthing Pods, Tempered Steel, and swords... but what about the reanimator matchup? Reanimate Sheoldred, GG?
That's the problem; if they reanimate Sheoldred, it's usually gg even if you have removal for it. You usually need to kill any given creature of theirs at least 2, sometimes 3 times, b/c Unburial Rites gives it to them twice when they reanimate. So even if I were to run Phyrexian Metamorph or Go for the Throat instead, the chances of me being able to actually deal with it are very slim. That's why I feel this matchup is so terrible. We have little card draw, little card advantage spells, and have 8 cards that are neither threats nor deal with threats (HS and Rampant Growth).
The good news is that most Solar Flare lists only run 1 Sheoldred, and 1 Grave Titan, so the chances of them seeing those cards are a little worse, although they run a ton of card filtering.
Sylvok Replica is def. the loosest card in this list. The reasons I like Sylvok Replica are that it lets me kill Tempered Steel the turn they would play it on the play if I had a Rampant Growth or HS the turn before, which is huge. Against Solar Pox, it at least gets O-Rings and acts as creature buffer against Liliana, and against Red, it blocks or eats a burn spell. But maybe I should switch it to something else, or even a naturalize :/
Was trying to think of a way I could happilly use Altar's Reap, which meant either going for a token strategy, packing lots of creatures into one deck, or playing creatures I didn't mind losing. Heartless Summoning was the easiest enabler for the second of those, and my own Johnny tendencies have a love for "X on stick" creatures, especially removal spells smushed on to bodies. So Heartless Summoning feels about perfect to the purpose of being able to play Massacre Wurm, Skinrender, Blind Zealot, and Perilous Myr in the same crowd. (And Morkrut Banshee loves a free dead myr or a sacked Blind Zealot).
The plan is simple, bury the opposition in a combined pile of creatures, preferably cheapened by Heartless Summoning, and card advantage via the army o' removal on sticks, Altar's Reap, and Bloodgift Demon (yet another awesome spell on a stick).
Edit: Also wondering why none of the artifact lists are running Palladium Myr. Becomes a one mana dork that taps for just enough to cast a Myr Superion on top of all the other means.
I like your list. Have you considered adding 2-3 Mimic Vat? You seem to have a lot of creatures that have good synergy with it. Agree on Palladium Myr too, since this deck wants to run some pretty steep costed creatures it seems reasonable to want something that can help you ramp if you don't get HS out.
And it with HS in play it's almost like having a Sol Ring that you have to wait a turn for.
I like your list. Have you considered adding 2-3 Mimic Vat? You seem to have a lot of creatures that have good synergy with it. Agree on Palladium Myr too, since this deck wants to run some pretty steep costed creatures it seems reasonable to want something that can help you ramp if you don't get HS out.
And it with HS in play it's almost like having a Sol Ring that you have to wait a turn for.
It's been exceptionally amusing in testing so far, as most creature strategies can't keep up with it and control has been a mixed bag. If I can keep any card advantage engines rolling I can usually out-do control without a hitch, otherwise it tends to be whoever gets the bomb to stick first... which is usually me too.
Edit: Alternatively Lashwrithe is looking like a heavilly overlooked card in the mono-black lists (including my own). It does a nice job of making our cheap meat that much more devastating, even if it isn't cheapened itself.
He's fighting for a place with Blind Zealot, Phyrexian Rager, and Skinrender. The Render does just about everything I want in the deck, so its no contest there. The trouble lies in the others. I don't generally find myself needing more land so the blank card advantage (or at least, card replacement) from Phyrexian Rager for one less mana with the same P/T often wins out for me, which just leaves Blind Zealot who is probably on the chopping block.
A deck with almost 30 creatures shouldn't be playing BSZ, imho. Against aggro, just block. You have a ton of creatures to do so.
It doesn't always work that way and with things like the mono-white hummies running around with all ther P/T pumps against our own negative P/T the early game can quickly be all we ever see if not running some mass removal game two.
Main board sun is silly, sideboard sun is practically a must have.
After last nights FNM i went 3-1 losing to tempered steel 2-1 in last round. The real champs were Frost titan and Bloodgift demon. Adjusted mana base for more consistancy. Glissa was not the champ i expected and with her perilous myr was only good for a 1-1 trade so i decided to take that package out. Adding treasure mage to drop wurmcoil count by 1. All the other creatures performed as i expected if not better. Revised list is below.
So what is everybodies Consensus about Heartless Summoning Decks so far? I know its still early but I know people have been testing and some even played at FNM.
Ill just go ahead an say Bloodgift Demon is a beast, the Phyrexian Arena on a flying body is just too good to pass up.
If youre running 4+ mana cost creatures then I think Solemn Simulacrum is auto include in case you cant get the Summoning down early enough and its colorless mana so no one should have a problem with it.
I run 2 Phyrexian Metamorph and 2 Wurmcoil Engines and 4 Solemn Simulacrums, so I added 2 Buried Ruins to my build and honestly I loved them just so much getting back my Wurmcoil to play again or even Metamorph and Simulacrum which I would mind getting both of those back.
I added Elesh Norn and Sheoldred as Singletons to my deck as Bombs and trust me they are, I wouldnt run more than 1 of each though.
I originally had 4 Small Pox but it was about 50/50, it all depended on my other cards and if I had summoning or not to take advantage of low land counts.
Since I run mostly creatures with Higher costs I decided to add 1 Black Sun's Zenith, and extra spot Removal for early game just incase.
All in all im liking Heartless Summoning but remember you need to build a deck so that it doesnt rely too heavily on it unless you have tutors or things that might let you dig into your deck.
only problem i saw was with white winnie build the 3 mana pro green/black is nasty to deal with. Thank god i had perilious myr or i would have been dead so fast to keep him attacking. It got even more brutal when he got swords on him and perilious myr couldnt contain him anymore. My only out was playing bramblecrush and beast within since i was playing a b/g deck. Altar draw card is insane with emissary and solemn. I liked using glissa with myr but it wasnt consistant. Blood demon is good if they dont dismember it in response. Which happened to me a few times. I think using that land that brings back artifacts is solid and am gonna include it in my list. Wurmcoil is a beast and i was thinking of puting in metamorph to copy it.
I played Ponders in the deck and I really did not like them. My adjusted list is in my signature.
The reason I didn't like Ponders is because it just didn't do enough. It also made me really want to keep bad hands that I shouldn't have kept, sort of similarly to Preordain. Thus, I just replaced 4 Ponder for 2 Think Twice and 2 Forbidden Alchemy. A little unsure which I will like more, but I have to say that Think Twice is quite undervalued. It's quite good.
The trick was to find a balance of creatures that wouldn't be dead weight without Heartless Summoning...to that end, Moltensteel Dragon was a clear choice. It's already easy to get him discounted for 4 mana and 4 life, and dropping that down to potentially only two mana is insane for a 3/3 firebreathing flyer. Masticore was another clear winner, providing another removal outlet. Metamorph becomes a 1-drop copy of anything out, and Priest of Urabrask is a red Dark Ritual with Summoning out. I'm still hammering out the sorceries and instants, but I thought that straight up removal would never be a bad idea. Slagstorm tossed in as the defacto mass removal choice.
Urabrask is the guy that makes this deck terrifying. If you curve into him following a Heartless Summoning on T3, the opponent is likely to be screwed if they can't kill him before your next turn, at which point you could drop a hasted 5/5 Inferno Titan or a potentially gigantic hasted Moltensteel Dragon.
Sheoldred is on the high end of the mana curve, but it's a terrifying possibility to see on Turn 5.
Dunno if this is the exact thread to post in, But it has Heartless Summoning so I guess it's a variant. I'm making a Jund Pod deck with Heartless Summoning. hope is that both work well together, plus still work well if you only draw one, plus it creates a lot of threats for decks packing hate. This is the list so far:
4x Darkslick Shores
4x Isolated Chapel
2x Glacial Fortress
5x Swamp
3x Plains
2x Island
3x Phyrexian Rager
3x Bloodgift Demon
2x Consecrated Sphinx
2x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Sun Titan
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4x Liliana of the Veil
4x Forbidden Alchemy
3x Unburial Rites
3x Doom Blade
1x Go for the Throat
1x Dismember
Was running 4 Mana Leak and an extra Sun Titan before but found that my early game is incredibly lackluster without a HS out so I decided to cut them for 5 targeted removal to deal with early creatures until I can set up. I've mostly only fished this and so far it's looking to be decent. Do you guys have any suggestions on how to improve this?
4 Despise
4 Rampant Growth
4 Heartless Summoning
4 Doom Blade
3 Sylvok Replica
2 Black Sun’s Zenith
4 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Acidic Slime
3 Bloodgift Demon
4 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Sheoldred, Whispering One
8 Forest
9 Swamp
4 Woodland Cemetery
2 Buried Ruin
DCI Level 1 Judge
8 Island
2 Swamp
1 Phyrexia's Core
3 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Darkslick Shores 4
Creatures
4 Grand Architect
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
4 Treasure Mage
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Myr Superion
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Platinum Emperion
1 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Heartless Summoning
4 Sphere of the Suns
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Mindslaver
1 Contagion Engine
I don't like the inkmoth nexus as it dies instantly to the summoning. I'd rather use buried ruin because it would always be useful.
definitely post on how that tests. metamorph was something i hadnt considered for the HS Pox build but it could actually have a good deal of power with HS since you can cast it for 1 but have it come in as a noncreature artifact, thereby eliminating the -1/-1 downside of HS, very cool indeed.
I love evil twin too, very anti-titan and legend, easily a 2 of in UB or at the least 2 of in the board.
Will do. I'm testing out RDW personally, but after proposing the idea of BUG Landlock, I was turned on a little bit.
DCI Level 1 Judge
Hmm, this deck looks like it works, even without the HS. I guess its just a tempo deck since there's zero removal until turn 6. What does his board look like? BSZ would have to be there to stop aggro builds
4 Perilous Myr
3 Blind Zealot
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Skinrender
2 Morkrut Banshee
4 Bloodgift Demon
4 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Massacre Wurm
2 Grave Titan
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
4 Heartless Summoning
4 Altar's Reap
Land:
24 Swamp
4 Spellskite
4 Dismember
3 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Memoricide
1 Blind Zealot
Was trying to think of a way I could happilly use Altar's Reap, which meant either going for a token strategy, packing lots of creatures into one deck, or playing creatures I didn't mind losing. Heartless Summoning was the easiest enabler for the second of those, and my own Johnny tendencies have a love for "X on stick" creatures, especially removal spells smushed on to bodies. So Heartless Summoning feels about perfect to the purpose of being able to play Massacre Wurm, Skinrender, Blind Zealot, and Perilous Myr in the same crowd. (And Morkrut Banshee loves a free dead myr or a sacked Blind Zealot).
The plan is simple, bury the opposition in a combined pile of creatures, preferably cheapened by Heartless Summoning, and card advantage via the army o' removal on sticks, Altar's Reap, and Bloodgift Demon (yet another awesome spell on a stick).
Edit: Also wondering why none of the artifact lists are running Palladium Myr. Becomes a one mana dork that taps for just enough to cast a Myr Superion on top of all the other means.
What we need is a list of the types of decks to see what is the best. So far we have:
1) Architect/Heartless Summoning Deck
2) Heartless Pod?
3) Heartless Aggro
4) Heartless Reanimator
Anything else I'm missing??
Thanks Hero's of the Plane
Modern
-------------
xRxAffinityxRx
3 Acidic Slime
2 Grave Titan
3 Inferno Titan
3 Priest of Urabrask
2 Sheoldred, Whispering One
2 Urabask the Hidden
3 Viridian Emissary
3 Bloodgift Demon
3 Myr Superion
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Dismember
2 Caravan Vigil
4 Heartless Summoning
Lands:24
4 Blackcleave Cliff
4 Woodland Cemetery
5 Mountain
4 Swamp
4 Forest
3 Ghost Quarters
Criticism welcome. Havent thought of sideboard yet. Gonna wait till after metagame settles down again. Caravan is a tech card I am trying out. If it doesnt work out then I will cut like this: -2 Caravan Vigil +1 Priest of Urabrask +1 Viridian Emissary
Probably Heartless Landlock. I see alot of builds playing Pox and acidic slimes since you dont need much land to play your creatures and almost all the decks seem to be playing Solemn Simulacrum. Im not sure what the Reanimator one is though.
BUG
Spells(14)
2x Dismember
2x Go for the throat
4x Heartless summoning
4x mana leak
2x Rampent growth
Creatures(24)
3x Acidic Slime
2x Bloodgift demon
2x Frost titan
2x Glissa, the Traitor
2x Myr superion
4x perilous myr
3x phyrexian rager
1x sheoldred, whispering one
2x viridian emissary
3x wurmcoil engine
4x Drowned Catacomb
3x Forest
3x Hinterland harbor
4x Swamp
4x Island
4x Woodland cemetery
15x cards
RB Heartless aggro
Spells(14)
3x Dismember
2x Go for the throat
4x Heartless summoning
4x shock
2x incinerate
Creatures(24)
3x Bloodgift demon
3x inferno titan
2x manic vandal
2x Myr superion
3x perilous myr
4x phyrexian rager
2x Olivia voldaren
2x Urabrask the hidden
2x wurmcoil engine
4x Blackcleave cliffs
4x Dragonskull summit
6x mountain
8x Swamp
15x cards
Decks Im Playing:
Ghost ride the whipRWB
Modern:
Creatureless loamRGBW
TronU
Enduring RenewalW
BurnR
Legacy:
PoxB
Nic-fit GWB
Junk GWB
BurnR
That's the problem; if they reanimate Sheoldred, it's usually gg even if you have removal for it. You usually need to kill any given creature of theirs at least 2, sometimes 3 times, b/c Unburial Rites gives it to them twice when they reanimate. So even if I were to run Phyrexian Metamorph or Go for the Throat instead, the chances of me being able to actually deal with it are very slim. That's why I feel this matchup is so terrible. We have little card draw, little card advantage spells, and have 8 cards that are neither threats nor deal with threats (HS and Rampant Growth).
The good news is that most Solar Flare lists only run 1 Sheoldred, and 1 Grave Titan, so the chances of them seeing those cards are a little worse, although they run a ton of card filtering.
Sylvok Replica is def. the loosest card in this list. The reasons I like Sylvok Replica are that it lets me kill Tempered Steel the turn they would play it on the play if I had a Rampant Growth or HS the turn before, which is huge. Against Solar Pox, it at least gets O-Rings and acts as creature buffer against Liliana, and against Red, it blocks or eats a burn spell. But maybe I should switch it to something else, or even a naturalize :/
I like your list. Have you considered adding 2-3 Mimic Vat? You seem to have a lot of creatures that have good synergy with it. Agree on Palladium Myr too, since this deck wants to run some pretty steep costed creatures it seems reasonable to want something that can help you ramp if you don't get HS out.
And it with HS in play it's almost like having a Sol Ring that you have to wait a turn for.
Yeah, i'm thinking -2 Morkrut Banshee +2 Mimic Vat.
It's been exceptionally amusing in testing so far, as most creature strategies can't keep up with it and control has been a mixed bag. If I can keep any card advantage engines rolling I can usually out-do control without a hitch, otherwise it tends to be whoever gets the bomb to stick first... which is usually me too.
Edit: Alternatively Lashwrithe is looking like a heavilly overlooked card in the mono-black lists (including my own). It does a nice job of making our cheap meat that much more devastating, even if it isn't cheapened itself.
He's fighting for a place with Blind Zealot, Phyrexian Rager, and Skinrender. The Render does just about everything I want in the deck, so its no contest there. The trouble lies in the others. I don't generally find myself needing more land so the blank card advantage (or at least, card replacement) from Phyrexian Rager for one less mana with the same P/T often wins out for me, which just leaves Blind Zealot who is probably on the chopping block.
It doesn't always work that way and with things like the mono-white hummies running around with all ther P/T pumps against our own negative P/T the early game can quickly be all we ever see if not running some mass removal game two.
Main board sun is silly, sideboard sun is practically a must have.
After last nights FNM i went 3-1 losing to tempered steel 2-1 in last round. The real champs were Frost titan and Bloodgift demon. Adjusted mana base for more consistancy. Glissa was not the champ i expected and with her perilous myr was only good for a 1-1 trade so i decided to take that package out. Adding treasure mage to drop wurmcoil count by 1. All the other creatures performed as i expected if not better. Revised list is below.
Spells(14)
2x Dismember
2x Go for the throat
4x Heartless summoning
4x mana leak
2x Rampent growth
Creatures(24)
3x Acidic Slime
4x Bloodgift demon
4x Frost titan
2x Myr superion
3x phyrexian rager
1x sheoldred, whispering one
2x viridian emissary
3x Treasure mage
2x wurmcoil engine
4x Drowned Catacomb
3x Forest
4x Hinterland harbor
4x Swamp
5x Island
2x Woodland cemetery
4x Despise
2x dismember
2x nihil spellbomb
2x surgical extraction
3x sylvok replica
2x steel sabotage
Decks Im Playing:
Ghost ride the whipRWB
Modern:
Creatureless loamRGBW
TronU
Enduring RenewalW
BurnR
Legacy:
PoxB
Nic-fit GWB
Junk GWB
BurnR
Ill just go ahead an say Bloodgift Demon is a beast, the Phyrexian Arena on a flying body is just too good to pass up.
If youre running 4+ mana cost creatures then I think Solemn Simulacrum is auto include in case you cant get the Summoning down early enough and its colorless mana so no one should have a problem with it.
I run 2 Phyrexian Metamorph and 2 Wurmcoil Engines and 4 Solemn Simulacrums, so I added 2 Buried Ruins to my build and honestly I loved them just so much getting back my Wurmcoil to play again or even Metamorph and Simulacrum which I would mind getting both of those back.
I added Elesh Norn and Sheoldred as Singletons to my deck as Bombs and trust me they are, I wouldnt run more than 1 of each though.
I originally had 4 Small Pox but it was about 50/50, it all depended on my other cards and if I had summoning or not to take advantage of low land counts.
Since I run mostly creatures with Higher costs I decided to add 1 Black Sun's Zenith, and extra spot Removal for early game just incase.
All in all im liking Heartless Summoning but remember you need to build a deck so that it doesnt rely too heavily on it unless you have tutors or things that might let you dig into your deck.
The reason I didn't like Ponders is because it just didn't do enough. It also made me really want to keep bad hands that I shouldn't have kept, sort of similarly to Preordain. Thus, I just replaced 4 Ponder for 2 Think Twice and 2 Forbidden Alchemy. A little unsure which I will like more, but I have to say that Think Twice is quite undervalued. It's quite good.
4 Molten-Tail Masticore
4 Moltensteel Dragon
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Priest of Urabrask
2 Sheoldred, Whispering One
3 Urabrask the Hidden
4 Go for the Throat
4 Heartless Summoning
2 Slagstorm
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Dragonskull Summit
8 Mountain
8 Swamp
The trick was to find a balance of creatures that wouldn't be dead weight without Heartless Summoning...to that end, Moltensteel Dragon was a clear choice. It's already easy to get him discounted for 4 mana and 4 life, and dropping that down to potentially only two mana is insane for a 3/3 firebreathing flyer. Masticore was another clear winner, providing another removal outlet. Metamorph becomes a 1-drop copy of anything out, and Priest of Urabrask is a red Dark Ritual with Summoning out. I'm still hammering out the sorceries and instants, but I thought that straight up removal would never be a bad idea. Slagstorm tossed in as the defacto mass removal choice.
Urabrask is the guy that makes this deck terrifying. If you curve into him following a Heartless Summoning on T3, the opponent is likely to be screwed if they can't kill him before your next turn, at which point you could drop a hasted 5/5 Inferno Titan or a potentially gigantic hasted Moltensteel Dragon.
Sheoldred is on the high end of the mana curve, but it's a terrifying possibility to see on Turn 5.
3 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Acidic Slime
2 Inferno Titan
2 Bloodgift Demon
3 Skinrender
1 Primordial Hydra
4 Priest of Urabrask
3 Viridian Emissary
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Sheoldred, the Whispering on
4 Heartless Summoning
4 Birthing Pod
3 Dismember
2 Go for the Throat
Land
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Woodland Cemetary
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Rootbound crag
4 Swamps
4 Forests
1 Mountain
4 Ancient Grudge
3 Arc Trail
8 ?
Am I right to think that Primordial Hydra gets a bonus from Heartless Summoning? What do you guys think?