While everyone has been drooling over dragons, the pieces and parts of an old archetype have been reassembling themselves quietly in the background. We're only a blood artist or cartel aristocrat away from a competitive build. Let's look at some pieces that we have so far and a decklist or two to see the big picture.
bloodsoaked champion is an recurring, aggressive 2 power 1 drop that helps define the decks's aggressive nature. zurgo bellringer and tormented hero are two other candidates to fill the 1 slot. While Zurgo is more powerful, we cannot afford to draw multiples. At the 2 slot, we have an old gem from the dollar bin, Tymaret, the Murder King, who is more than willing to cash in dudes for shocks. His recurring ability is both a great mana sink and a good form of inevitability. Although not optimal, there is also the new doomed traveler, sultai emissary. The manifests have a bit more bite behind them due to the high creature count. If we decide to go the mardu route, chief of the edge is a synergistic anthem. There's three options that stand out at the 3 slot. Alesha, who smiles at death is an interesting first striker that can rebuy lots of creatures in the deck, although for 2 mana. There's not too many first strikers running around, so hopefully it's enough to help this legend that doesn't do anything when it enters the battlefield. Then there's good old goblin rabblemaster. There's not going to be enough removal to support him, so there's a very real chance he just sits there and poops out a value goblin every turn. Finally, we have bloodchin fanatic. Now go ahead and read the creature types of every card thus far - they're all warriors. This could be one of the missing pieces to make this deck coherent, although the activation cost is certainly a factor here. Just as the original aristocrats deck had a human sub-theme, I can see this guy and maybe chief of the edge being enough if a payout to stick to a warrior subtheme. If you do decide to go to 4 drops, I have 3 in mind. brutal hordechief plays into the "burnout" theme of the deck. His activated ability is game-breaking against the attrition-based creature decks looking to gum up the ground. In the mardu version, we have the closest thing to falkenrath aristocrat, butcher of the horde. This huge warrior is a FREE sac outlet and could really be the synergistic, hard-hitting top end that this deck is looking for. Finally, there's outpost siege. Unlike most red decks these days, this deck can take full advantage of the goblin bombardment mode as well as the grindy mode.
Some problems that I forsee with this archetype include:
There's too many synergy pieces that are bad on their own.
There's very little room for quality removal.
The most popular creatures these days ALL outclass our ground guys, gain life, and/or fly.
Many of the deck's best creatures are legendary, creating deckbuilding tensions.
That being said, let's experiment with a straight r/b list.
bloodsoaked champion is an recurring, aggressive 2 power 1 drop that helps define the decks's aggressive nature. zurgo bellringer and tormented hero are two other candidates to fill the 1 slot. While Zurgo is more powerful, we cannot afford to draw multiples. At the 2 slot, we have an old gem from the dollar bin, Tymaret, the Murder King, who is more than willing to cash in dudes for shocks. His recurring ability is both a great mana sink and a good form of inevitability. Although not optimal, there is also the new doomed traveler, sultai emissary. The manifests have a bit more bite behind them due to the high creature count. If we decide to go the mardu route, chief of the edge is a synergistic anthem. There's three options that stand out at the 3 slot. Alesha, who smiles at death is an interesting first striker that can rebuy lots of creatures in the deck, although for 2 mana. There's not too many first strikers running around, so hopefully it's enough to help this legend that doesn't do anything when it enters the battlefield. Then there's good old goblin rabblemaster. There's not going to be enough removal to support him, so there's a very real chance he just sits there and poops out a value goblin every turn. Finally, we have bloodchin fanatic. Now go ahead and read the creature types of every card thus far - they're all warriors. This could be one of the missing pieces to make this deck coherent, although the activation cost is certainly a factor here. Just as the original aristocrats deck had a human sub-theme, I can see this guy and maybe chief of the edge being enough if a payout to stick to a warrior subtheme. If you do decide to go to 4 drops, I have 3 in mind. brutal hordechief plays into the "burnout" theme of the deck. His activated ability is game-breaking against the attrition-based creature decks looking to gum up the ground. In the mardu version, we have the closest thing to falkenrath aristocrat, butcher of the horde. This huge warrior is a FREE sac outlet and could really be the synergistic, hard-hitting top end that this deck is looking for. Finally, there's outpost siege. Unlike most red decks these days, this deck can take full advantage of the goblin bombardment mode as well as the grindy mode.
Some problems that I forsee with this archetype include:
There's too many synergy pieces that are bad on their own.
There's very little room for quality removal.
The most popular creatures these days ALL outclass our ground guys, gain life, and/or fly.
Many of the deck's best creatures are legendary, creating deckbuilding tensions.
That being said, let's experiment with a straight r/b list.
Edit: with a critical mass of free sac effects, it's possible to play traitorous blood effects as removal