GW is just a bad aggro deck with no reach, it's has all the same problems white weenie has always had and that have made it unplayable for years. I will be shocked if that's good, the strategy of GW beats is so fundamentally flawed that those colors would have to have an enormous advantage in raw card power to make it a tier 1 deck in any environment. Thalia is about the only good card in that deck. Somebody might manage to build a midrange GW deck that is designed to hose a good fast aggro deck like BR zombies with life gain and 4-toughness roadblocks, and there does seem to be the cards for that approach, but that kind of deck has no game against anything else in the field.
Does anybody know whether they have printed this block's lifegain hoser yet, and whether it does anything else of use?
Resto + thragtusk, or more commonly thragtusk + image/morph wrecked zombies pre-RTR. You simply did not beat Pod if that happened.
Pre-RTR you also had people killing themselves with multiple phyrexian spells, while there now will be the shocklands, don't expect people to take 4+ too often. Pre-RTR you also had mortarpod for closing off games.
To be aggro i think you're going to need a deck that can reliably deal 25+ dmg not just 20. T4 Thragtusk will be common enough that you can't just fold to it.
Hopefully, this is where RANCOR comes in giving your late game 2/2s, 3/2s, 2/1s enough power to at least trade if not break through.
GW is just a bad aggro deck with no reach, it's has all the same problems white weenie has always had and that have made it unplayable for years. I will be shocked if that's good, the strategy of GW beats is so fundamentally flawed that those colors would have to have an enormous advantage in raw card power to make it a tier 1 deck in any environment. Thalia is about the only good card in that deck. Somebody might manage to build a midrange GW deck that is designed to hose a good fast aggro deck like BR zombies with life gain and 4-toughness roadblocks, and there does seem to be the cards for that approach, but that kind of deck has no game against anything else in the field.
Does anybody know whether they have printed this block's lifegain hoser yet, and whether it does anything else of use?
Agree 100%.
They did. It's called Havoc Festival and costs 6 mana. The extra effect is pretty sweet though. Each player losing half their life rounded up each upkeep, so if you can deal any instant speed damage on their turn, you will win. Still costs too much for a traditional zombie deck.
You seem to have insecurity issues or a lack of reading comprehension ability. Nobody said zombies was a bad deck. Nobody even mentioned tier 1 or lack thereof. I had a problem with one players decklist and you're calling people haters, getting super-defensive for no reason, and making a claim that selesnya's unproven and zombies is proven even though we're in a completely different format.
Calm down. Nobody want's to discuss with a belligerent ******* who can't take criticism of there deck.
Maybe I am getting a bit defensive, but I feel like you mention zombies anywhere on these forums and people feel the need to list all kinds of hate cards which aren't nearly as bad as they seem. It gets old fast. And the other guy already admitted that he exaggerated in his post that set me off.
When I say "haters" what I meant was people who feel the need to downplay a decks potential without any actual testing. The guy said g/w would blow zombies out of the water. How is that not hating on the deck? You yourself starting criticizing archies list because it did not play brimestone volley, even though alot of zombie lists were dropping that card.
The issue I see with this is two-fold: firstly, if their on the play, there's a fairly decent chance they can Thragtusk prior to us hitting 4 mana. That's very, very bad. It also means we're using a turn for that over say, a Falkenrath Aristocrat, messing with our aggression. I feel like we need a more elegant solution. I'll admit though, I don't have an answer ATM, but I think slaughter games would hurt more then help.
Sideboarding a few despise might just do the trick. As a 3of, we would have drawn it by turn 3-4 most likely, giving us time to put in some aggression. Then when we have the opportunity, rip their biggest creature threat, giving us information on their game plan, and allowing us to continue the beats.
Some number of discard spells are necessary against them. A couple Bonfires may work, or a sweeper of some sort. Mutilate comes to mind, but with nearly half non swamps, it probably wouldn't be all that strong. There is also Cower in Fear, which could swing the tide of battle in our favor a lot since it is instant speed. Basically, we just need a one sided sweeper that is castable and effective.
LP, I'm checking your article out as well. Behind all of your swag is the brain of one of the most intelligent Magic players I've ever known. I guess that's one more thing for you to add to the wall of ego that is your Sally sig.
I can go with that. LK, you are the Mace Windu of red mages...cool, tempered logic in deliberation, but capable of just flat kicking tail when the situation warrants it.
I liked Appetite quite a bit pre-M13 (my one concern being that it didn't do anything about Slagstorm/Whipflares and Celestial Purge but all of those cards are gone now). It's definitely a lot better than Duress when people are trying to Thragtusk you as their way of stabilizing.
Still in progress, but this is where I'm at for now.
Aren't you at all concerned about flooding out with that list? I used to run 24 lands when I first started playing Zombies after DKA released and I always found 24 to be a bit too much. This was with Mortarpod in the deck as a mana sink too. The only real late game mana sink you have here are the Manglers' scavenge cost so it seems like you're going to lose quite a few games by not having enough to do with your mana when you inevitably do flood. I do think running 24 land is a fine idea for making your mana more reliable in Jund lists but I believe you also should play Sign in Bloods if you're doing that so you have more gas to actually use that extra mana with.
Not sure what the SB would look like. Something to hose mirror, delver and detain.
I feel this list is streamlined to keep the beats coming and providing reach in both spells and Rancor pumped creatures. Its a tight list, and doesn't seem to exploit any one deck, unfortunately, but more well rounded for an unknown field. Comments are welcomed.
*SB
4 Golgari Charm for Supreme Verdict and opposing zombies. Also rids yourself of RIP and opposing Rancor.
3 Pillar of Flame for opposing Undying
3 Mark of Mutiny for stealing blocking creatures, getting the best creature and detain
3 Tribute to hunger for Geist
2 Smelt pretty much speaks for itself. This could be replaced with Appetite for Brains. Thragtusk is going to be a pain to deal with. Also removes Supreme Verdict, Aristocrat, and any thing at 4 + that'll cause us problems.
Some points I noticed:
- Rancor is amazing.
- The lack of Mortarpod is very noticeable. It is sorely missed.
- At no point did I scavenge Mangler profitably. He was either dead, my manglers didn't hit the gy, or i had no attackers or i didn't have 5 mana.
- Rancor is amazing.
- Jarad is no Aristocrat. Tapping 4 for no immediate impact in this matchup was horrible. The 'burn' was relevant in a couple of games, but a lot of cards could have done the same thing. However, in other matchups where my guys don't get sent to detention or to the bottom of the library, a fattie with a burn ability should be quite useful.
- The 2 forests were definitely needed. You can't expect to reliably cast Rancor on T2 without them.
- Rancor is amazing.
- I was playing with 5 dead cards the entire time. Tragic Slip did nothing except kill my guy in response to terminus. Decay only had a couple of Spheres or Angel tokens as targets.
- I have 12 guys that ignore Wrath. That's pretty sick.
Results of matches: Probably 65% to me. Lose most games where Terminus gets miracled on T3-5 or double feeling of dread. Win most the others. T1 guy t2 rancor beats any non-feeling draw.
Do I wish i had access to red mana for Brimstone Volley, Aristocrat (and Dreadbore post-board)? YES
Do I want to give up the consistency of 4x Rancor?..not sure.
Been playing zombies a long time. Probably playing a zombie variant at States. I want to express some real concerns about Jund. This isn't to pick favorites or anything, simply a way of analyzing the decks weaknesses.
- By running Jund colors you are lowering the consistency of the deck. In the prior format we could improve consistency by running Sign in Blood. CAN you afford to run Sign in Blood in Jund Zombies? Between the shock lands and the aggresive format you risk hurting yourself significantly.
- Mana curve is still super important. Red gives you Volley, Flames of the Firebrand, and Falkenrath Aristocrat. All these cards are super powerful, but they are expensive! Can you afford to just drop your Tragic slips and 2 drops and expect these 3-4 mana cards to get there?
- How important is Pillar of Flame in the mirror? It was incredibly important pre R2R, but now your not just trying to kill Messenger and Gravecrawler. How does the mirror match play out now? What is the most important card?
Food for thought...
-Swizzie
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-Swizzie
Top 16 GP Miami 2013
Top 4 Florida States 2013
Several PTQ top 8's
Writer for South Florida Magic
I've tested almost this exact list on Cockatrice several times and I really like it. The only difference I think was Brimstone Volley in place of the Charms, (solely because I couldn't get them on Cockatrice yet) and -1 Abrupt Decay +1 Bonfire. I played with Slitherhead and liked it, but I think the Cackler is better.
This is the list that Gerry Thompson ran in his testing video last week. I think it's an excellent starting point - at least, it's where I will be going from. Cards I'm not sure about are the number of Rancor - I might like to make room for more. Possible cuts are a Cavern of Souls or the Dreadbore if it proves underwhelming. Flames of the Firebrand seems very good against what I'm anticipating will be a large amount of mana dorks and 1/1 Spirit tokens directly following rotation. I also have to try Blood Artist in the main instead of Shred-Freak, but Gerry's reasoning seemed sound to me: having the ability to put 4 points of damage on the table turn two is much more important. Shred-Freak may be underwhelming against Spirit tokens or the mirror, but not knowing what the matchup is game one, it is much more versatile than Blood Artist.
As for the board, I'm not so sure about Thragtusk - it seems very good in the mirror (i.e. can't be easily dealt with at all, in a match that often will come down to attrition), but at the same time the mirror may lean heavily on Pillar of Flame as it has in the past - killing Messengers and Gravecrawlers. Perhaps the mirror plan will change to include Pillars, and if Blood Artist finds itself in the maindeck, possibly even a couple of Annihilating Fire.
Quote from Swizzie2000 »
- By running Jund colors you are lowering the consistency of the deck. In the prior format we could improve consistency by running Sign in Blood. CAN you afford to run Sign in Blood in Jund Zombies? Between the shock lands and the aggresive format you risk hurting yourself significantly.
- Mana curve is still super important. Red gives you Volley, Flames of the Firebrand, and Falkenrath Aristocrat. All these cards are super powerful, but they are expensive! Can you afford to just drop your Tragic slips and 2 drops and expect these 3-4 mana cards to get there?
- How important is Pillar of Flame in the mirror? It was incredibly important pre R2R, but now your not just trying to kill Messenger and Gravecrawler. How does the mirror match play out now? What is the most important card?
-I haven't run into any issues with consistency in the manabase. Yes, the manabase can be painful. I suppose this may be a concern in mirrors against B/R or B/G versions of the deck, but I think that the improvement of the rest of the matchups is easily worthwhile.
-The mana curve is indeed important, but at least in the list above we still have 11 one-cost cards - there's nothing wrong with playing a second Gravecrawler or Diregraf Ghoul and Rancoring the first or Tragic Slipping a mana dork on turn two - if you don't hit one of the seven two-drop creatures.
-Pillar of Flame/mirror I somewhat addressed in the above section - we'll have to see how important Messengers and Gravecrawlers are post rotation, and how well Thragtusk works.
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Quote from ButteBlues18 »
OMG you stupid ****ing n00b... stfu and stop playing mtg because youre t3h suck!oneone
Not sure I'll ever drop Red again. It's just not there. So many games people could just stall out where Red could keep going. Not even at a low life total, just out-control your aggression, and then they have 7+ mana and you lose.
And that is why aggro decks should nearly always have red in them. It may turn out that Green isn't worth it, even though Rancor is a pretty solid card. Most of the green zombies except the Lotleth Troll are being talked down by people in this thread who've had time to test them. Red giving you both burn spells to topdeck your way into a win, and 4 power hasty fliers to do the same, seems like the kind of thing an aggro deck more traditionally wants. To me, the question becomes whether green is worth including largely just for Rancor and for having a much better two drop than BR has access to.
I also think if Green was dropped, Caverns could be cut entirely. I just can't imagine it's a good feeling to be staring down some 4 toughness beater or other roadblock on turn 2 or 3 and you're sitting there with a Cavern that can't make red mana for a removal spell. I also wonder if the presence of Cavern as mana-fixing is part of what is causing people to play what looks like too many creatures. I was expecting more lists with about 22 creatures, about 15-16 burn/removal/support, and 22 or 23 land.
I would run caverns still as a 2-3 of, just because people will want to try syncopate out. This will depend on how popular control is, but at least at first I would keep the caverns.
I've tested almost this exact list on Cockatrice several times and I really like it. The only difference I think was Brimstone Volley in place of the Charms, (solely because I couldn't get them on Cockatrice yet) and -1 Abrupt Decay +1 Bonfire. I played with Slitherhead and liked it, but I think the Cackler is better.
Thanks for the input! I've modified my list on my desk to reflect the -1 abrupt decay and the +1 Bonfire. It's silly to splash for red and not have a bonfire that is capable of miracling.
Been playing zombies a long time. Probably playing a zombie variant at States. I want to express some real concerns about Jund. This isn't to pick favorites or anything, simply a way of analyzing the decks weaknesses.
- By running Jund colors you are lowering the consistency of the deck. In the prior format we could improve consistency by running Sign in Blood. CAN you afford to run Sign in Blood in Jund Zombies? Between the shock lands and the aggresive format you risk hurting yourself significantly.
- Mana curve is still super important. Red gives you Volley, Flames of the Firebrand, and Falkenrath Aristocrat. All these cards are super powerful, but they are expensive! Can you afford to just drop your Tragic slips and 2 drops and expect these 3-4 mana cards to get there?
- How important is Pillar of Flame in the mirror? It was incredibly important pre R2R, but now your not just trying to kill Messenger and Gravecrawler. How does the mirror match play out now? What is the most important card?
Food for thought...
-Swizzie
For your first point, that's something people would have to determine through testing, and it will also depend just how aggressive the meta is. If the meta is full of durdly control decks then you can sign yourself as much as you want but if Zombies, RDW, and G/W/X aggro are predominant then it might not be such a good idea.
For your second point, I'm not really sure what you mean about dropping your Tragic Slips and 2 drops for those cards? You can run 3 Aristocrat and 3-4 Volleys just fine while still finding room for 3ish Tragic Slips and 3-4ish non-Blood Artist 2-drops or Sign in Bloods (if you look at many of the B/R lists from the past Standard season in fact you'll see those numbers were fairly standard).
For your third point the most important card in the mirror has been Blood Artist (ever since AVR hit) followed closely by Messenger. Whoever could stick the most Blood Artists and keep them around had a huge edge in the mirror in the past season. Messenger is the best card in the deck so he will always be important to the matchup too, and if you're playing Pillars you should be saving them for him specifically (and use your Slips and other removal on Artists). If Artist stops seeing play this may all change of course.
Desecration Demon has good synergy with Blood Artist, as it forces your opponent to make hard decisions. If he/she sacs a creature, he loses 1 life, a creature, the demon gets bigger. If he/she doesn't, a 6/6 demon will come crashing in.
Does anybody know whether they have printed this block's lifegain hoser yet, and whether it does anything else of use?
Pre-RTR you also had people killing themselves with multiple phyrexian spells, while there now will be the shocklands, don't expect people to take 4+ too often. Pre-RTR you also had mortarpod for closing off games.
To be aggro i think you're going to need a deck that can reliably deal 25+ dmg not just 20. T4 Thragtusk will be common enough that you can't just fold to it.
Hopefully, this is where RANCOR comes in giving your late game 2/2s, 3/2s, 2/1s enough power to at least trade if not break through.
They did. It's called Havoc Festival and costs 6 mana. The extra effect is pretty sweet though. Each player losing half their life rounded up each upkeep, so if you can deal any instant speed damage on their turn, you will win. Still costs too much for a traditional zombie deck.
Maybe I am getting a bit defensive, but I feel like you mention zombies anywhere on these forums and people feel the need to list all kinds of hate cards which aren't nearly as bad as they seem. It gets old fast. And the other guy already admitted that he exaggerated in his post that set me off.
When I say "haters" what I meant was people who feel the need to downplay a decks potential without any actual testing. The guy said g/w would blow zombies out of the water. How is that not hating on the deck? You yourself starting criticizing archies list because it did not play brimestone volley, even though alot of zombie lists were dropping that card.
The issue I see with this is two-fold: firstly, if their on the play, there's a fairly decent chance they can Thragtusk prior to us hitting 4 mana. That's very, very bad. It also means we're using a turn for that over say, a Falkenrath Aristocrat, messing with our aggression. I feel like we need a more elegant solution. I'll admit though, I don't have an answer ATM, but I think slaughter games would hurt more then help.
- whhhhhaaat?
Standard Decks:
UBRGrixis ControlRBU
Some number of discard spells are necessary against them. A couple Bonfires may work, or a sweeper of some sort. Mutilate comes to mind, but with nearly half non swamps, it probably wouldn't be all that strong. There is also Cower in Fear, which could swing the tide of battle in our favor a lot since it is instant speed. Basically, we just need a one sided sweeper that is castable and effective.
Drat! Hmm... well I'll have to think of something else. Distress just seems so much slower and worse. Oh wait, Distress rotated too...
Appetite for Brains handles Thragtusk and other torublesome creatures, as well as handling cards like Supreme Verdict and Curse of Death's Hold.
4 Diregraf Ghoul
2 Rakdos Cackler
3 Knight of Infamy
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Dreg Mangler
4 Geralf's Messenger
3 Falkenrath Aristocrat
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Flames of the Firebrand
2 Rancor
5 Swamp
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Blood Crypt
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Woodland Cemetery
4 Dragonskull Summit
Still in progress, but this is where I'm at for now.
Thanks Hero's of the Plane
Modern
-------------
xRxAffinityxRx
I liked Appetite quite a bit pre-M13 (my one concern being that it didn't do anything about Slagstorm/Whipflares and Celestial Purge but all of those cards are gone now). It's definitely a lot better than Duress when people are trying to Thragtusk you as their way of stabilizing.
Aren't you at all concerned about flooding out with that list? I used to run 24 lands when I first started playing Zombies after DKA released and I always found 24 to be a bit too much. This was with Mortarpod in the deck as a mana sink too. The only real late game mana sink you have here are the Manglers' scavenge cost so it seems like you're going to lose quite a few games by not having enough to do with your mana when you inevitably do flood. I do think running 24 land is a fine idea for making your mana more reliable in Jund lists but I believe you also should play Sign in Bloods if you're doing that so you have more gas to actually use that extra mana with.
Thanks Hero's of the Plane
Modern
-------------
xRxAffinityxRx
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Lotleth Troll
3 Blood Artist
2 Dreg Mangler
4 Geralf's Messenger
2 Falkenrath Aristocrat
3 Sign in Blood
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Brimstone Volley
2 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Blood Crypt
4 Woodland Cemetery
4 Dragonskull Summit
2 Cavern of Souls
5 Swamp
Not sure what the SB would look like. Something to hose mirror, delver and detain.
I feel this list is streamlined to keep the beats coming and providing reach in both spells and Rancor pumped creatures. Its a tight list, and doesn't seem to exploit any one deck, unfortunately, but more well rounded for an unknown field. Comments are welcomed.
*SB
4 Golgari Charm for Supreme Verdict and opposing zombies. Also rids yourself of RIP and opposing Rancor.
3 Pillar of Flame for opposing Undying
3 Mark of Mutiny for stealing blocking creatures, getting the best creature and detain
3 Tribute to hunger for Geist
2 Smelt pretty much speaks for itself. This could be replaced with Appetite for Brains. Thragtusk is going to be a pain to deal with. Also removes Supreme Verdict, Aristocrat, and any thing at 4 + that'll cause us problems.
4 Diregraf Ghoul
2 Slitherhead
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Dreg Mangler
4 Geralf's Messenger
2 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Rancor
2 Sign in Blood
2 Garruk Relentless
2 Forest
4 Woodland Cemetary
4 Overgrown Tomb
10 Swamp
Some points I noticed:
- Rancor is amazing.
- The lack of Mortarpod is very noticeable. It is sorely missed.
- At no point did I scavenge Mangler profitably. He was either dead, my manglers didn't hit the gy, or i had no attackers or i didn't have 5 mana.
- Rancor is amazing.
- Jarad is no Aristocrat. Tapping 4 for no immediate impact in this matchup was horrible. The 'burn' was relevant in a couple of games, but a lot of cards could have done the same thing. However, in other matchups where my guys don't get sent to detention or to the bottom of the library, a fattie with a burn ability should be quite useful.
- The 2 forests were definitely needed. You can't expect to reliably cast Rancor on T2 without them.
- Rancor is amazing.
- I was playing with 5 dead cards the entire time. Tragic Slip did nothing except kill my guy in response to terminus. Decay only had a couple of Spheres or Angel tokens as targets.
- I have 12 guys that ignore Wrath. That's pretty sick.
Results of matches: Probably 65% to me. Lose most games where Terminus gets miracled on T3-5 or double feeling of dread. Win most the others. T1 guy t2 rancor beats any non-feeling draw.
Do I wish i had access to red mana for Brimstone Volley, Aristocrat (and Dreadbore post-board)? YES
Do I want to give up the consistency of 4x Rancor?..not sure.
4x Gravecrawler
4x Diregraf Ghoul
2x Rakdos Cackler
4x Lotleth Troll
2x Blood Artist
4x Geralf's Messenger
4x Dreg Mangler
2x Falkenwrath Aristocrat
4x Tragic Slip
4x Abrupt Decay
3x Golgari Charm
Lands (23)
4x Overgrown Tomb
4x Blood Crypt
4x Dragonskull Summit
4x Woodland Cemetery
2x Cavern of Souls
5x Swamps
4x Pillar of Flame
4x Duress
4x Dreadbore
2x Blood Artist
1x Falkenwrath Aristocrat
- By running Jund colors you are lowering the consistency of the deck. In the prior format we could improve consistency by running Sign in Blood. CAN you afford to run Sign in Blood in Jund Zombies? Between the shock lands and the aggresive format you risk hurting yourself significantly.
- Mana curve is still super important. Red gives you Volley, Flames of the Firebrand, and Falkenrath Aristocrat. All these cards are super powerful, but they are expensive! Can you afford to just drop your Tragic slips and 2 drops and expect these 3-4 mana cards to get there?
- How important is Pillar of Flame in the mirror? It was incredibly important pre R2R, but now your not just trying to kill Messenger and Gravecrawler. How does the mirror match play out now? What is the most important card?
Food for thought...
-Swizzie
Top 16 GP Miami 2013
Top 4 Florida States 2013
Several PTQ top 8's
Writer for South Florida Magic
I've tested almost this exact list on Cockatrice several times and I really like it. The only difference I think was Brimstone Volley in place of the Charms, (solely because I couldn't get them on Cockatrice yet) and -1 Abrupt Decay +1 Bonfire. I played with Slitherhead and liked it, but I think the Cackler is better.
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Gravecrawler
4 Lotleth Troll
3 Rakdos Shred-Freak
4 Geralf's Messenger
3 Dreg Mangler
3 Falkenrath Aristocrat
Spells
1 Rancor
3 Sign in Blood
3 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Dreadbore
3 Tragic Slip
5 Swamp
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Blood Crypt
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Woodland Cemetery
2 Liliana of the Veil
4 Blood Artist
2 Thragtusk
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Dreadbore
1 Rakdos' Return
3 Duress
This is the list that Gerry Thompson ran in his testing video last week. I think it's an excellent starting point - at least, it's where I will be going from. Cards I'm not sure about are the number of Rancor - I might like to make room for more. Possible cuts are a Cavern of Souls or the Dreadbore if it proves underwhelming. Flames of the Firebrand seems very good against what I'm anticipating will be a large amount of mana dorks and 1/1 Spirit tokens directly following rotation. I also have to try Blood Artist in the main instead of Shred-Freak, but Gerry's reasoning seemed sound to me: having the ability to put 4 points of damage on the table turn two is much more important. Shred-Freak may be underwhelming against Spirit tokens or the mirror, but not knowing what the matchup is game one, it is much more versatile than Blood Artist.
As for the board, I'm not so sure about Thragtusk - it seems very good in the mirror (i.e. can't be easily dealt with at all, in a match that often will come down to attrition), but at the same time the mirror may lean heavily on Pillar of Flame as it has in the past - killing Messengers and Gravecrawlers. Perhaps the mirror plan will change to include Pillars, and if Blood Artist finds itself in the maindeck, possibly even a couple of Annihilating Fire.
-I haven't run into any issues with consistency in the manabase. Yes, the manabase can be painful. I suppose this may be a concern in mirrors against B/R or B/G versions of the deck, but I think that the improvement of the rest of the matchups is easily worthwhile.
-The mana curve is indeed important, but at least in the list above we still have 11 one-cost cards - there's nothing wrong with playing a second Gravecrawler or Diregraf Ghoul and Rancoring the first or Tragic Slipping a mana dork on turn two - if you don't hit one of the seven two-drop creatures.
-Pillar of Flame/mirror I somewhat addressed in the above section - we'll have to see how important Messengers and Gravecrawlers are post rotation, and how well Thragtusk works.
And that is why aggro decks should nearly always have red in them. It may turn out that Green isn't worth it, even though Rancor is a pretty solid card. Most of the green zombies except the Lotleth Troll are being talked down by people in this thread who've had time to test them. Red giving you both burn spells to topdeck your way into a win, and 4 power hasty fliers to do the same, seems like the kind of thing an aggro deck more traditionally wants. To me, the question becomes whether green is worth including largely just for Rancor and for having a much better two drop than BR has access to.
I also think if Green was dropped, Caverns could be cut entirely. I just can't imagine it's a good feeling to be staring down some 4 toughness beater or other roadblock on turn 2 or 3 and you're sitting there with a Cavern that can't make red mana for a removal spell. I also wonder if the presence of Cavern as mana-fixing is part of what is causing people to play what looks like too many creatures. I was expecting more lists with about 22 creatures, about 15-16 burn/removal/support, and 22 or 23 land.
Thanks for the input! I've modified my list on my desk to reflect the -1 abrupt decay and the +1 Bonfire. It's silly to splash for red and not have a bonfire that is capable of miracling.
For your first point, that's something people would have to determine through testing, and it will also depend just how aggressive the meta is. If the meta is full of durdly control decks then you can sign yourself as much as you want but if Zombies, RDW, and G/W/X aggro are predominant then it might not be such a good idea.
For your second point, I'm not really sure what you mean about dropping your Tragic Slips and 2 drops for those cards? You can run 3 Aristocrat and 3-4 Volleys just fine while still finding room for 3ish Tragic Slips and 3-4ish non-Blood Artist 2-drops or Sign in Bloods (if you look at many of the B/R lists from the past Standard season in fact you'll see those numbers were fairly standard).
For your third point the most important card in the mirror has been Blood Artist (ever since AVR hit) followed closely by Messenger. Whoever could stick the most Blood Artists and keep them around had a huge edge in the mirror in the past season. Messenger is the best card in the deck so he will always be important to the matchup too, and if you're playing Pillars you should be saving them for him specifically (and use your Slips and other removal on Artists). If Artist stops seeing play this may all change of course.