Seeing as there isn't a thread for this archetype yet, I figured I'd start it up. (I realize that there is a Vampire agro thread, but the two decks are distinct in enough ways that they really belong seperate)
The premise of the deck is, as it is for all agro decks, to reduce an opponent to 0 in the shortest amount of time. MBA, however, is not a true agro deck: It is Agro-Tempo. It seeks to exploit the synergies of of Edict creatures (Fleshbag Marauder, Gatekeeper of Malakir) with cards that benefit from cards being put into the graveyard (Quest for the Gravelord or cards that can turn cards like Bone Splintersand Fleshbag Marauder into 1-1's or 2-1's.
The desired result from this is that after t2, a good amount of your creatures will kill an opponent's creature on the way in, which will hopefully keep thim in a constantly destabilized state, as you build counters on Bloodchief Ascension(a threat which will need to be adressed by an opponent who wants to live) and Quest for the Gravelord (which devalues opposing removal and counteracts the tempo you wold lose from a sweep).
Bloodchief ascension is the star of this deck, I have found from my testing of it. Once it becomes active, it is incredibly difficult for opponents to win, and the deck's construction makes it very likely it will become active within the first 5 turns, and they will at or below 10 at this point. Using Hideous End over the more cost efficient doom blade allows one to "cheat" a counter onto it without attacking, and Sign in Blood occasionally will be best served putting the final counter on this potent enchantment
The use of primarily edict based removal also allows for the circumvention of several cards which otherwise would cause serious problem for this deck, such as the chief offenders, Great Sable Stag and Wall of denial
Bloodghast and Quest for the Gravelord are excellent at beating wrath. Often, control decks playing against this deck will not want to wrath on t4, as it will result in a fat zombie giant lugging their way, or in bloodghast's case, do absolutely nothing.
As for the sideboard, It needs work. The Disfigures are excellent, and sided in against any other agro deck/ramp deck using mana dorks or Lotus Cobra They are arguably maindeck includable, but in a world where 3 drops can be 3/4's or 5/4's, they really do not always cut the mustard. Duress, of course, is a tried and true tool against control/combo.
Which leaves 7 slots to fill. I considered Sadistic Sacrament, but I rarely want to play it at any point, useful though it may be against the new control decks which keep Cruel Ultimatum as a Wincon. I looked at Blood Seeker as an anti-tokens measure, but the card isn't worth it. Mind sluge, or more Malakir witches (for MWC and other agro) are possibilities.
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What I did not Include that might be includable
Vampire Nighthawk: Good card, not a wonderful 3 drop for an agro deck. I don't care about gaining life, and have edict effects to deal with wall of denial. If wall of reverence becomes hugely popular, maybe
Blade of the Bloodchief: While it could be powerful in this deck, it is unreliable and is nightmarishly poor vs. Decks running wrath, RFG removal, and lots of removal which is effective on small black creatures. Perhaps as a SB card for the mirror or some kind of agro deck. It's explosive potential with something like fleshbag marauder or bone shards makes it a possible MD inclusion, though I remain skeptical. If anyone has tested this, I'd like to hear about it
Doom blade: Weirdly, it doesn't do what I want often enough. The edict removal is better, and the 2 hideous end were much more useful
Marsh Casualties: Will become a sideboard card if tokens/elves/ too many mana dorks see play.
Tendrils of Corruption: Too slow. Maybe as a sideboard card for the mirror. Again, I do not care about gaining life.
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Matchups/Strategy
At the time, there isn't any way to discuss Matchups and strategy for them, and trying to predict anything is pointless, so I will say only this, realizing how irrelevant and ubiquitous the statement is: This deck beats the crap out of mill and Warp World (Note: Warp world and mill players, this is NOT your cue to tell me about how you go 40-0 every day or how you beat every single deck like this every time you play it. I base this upon my own fairly extensive play of the deck, and if you wish to argue that the match up favors your deck, please do so in a reasonable and thought-out way, and preferably not in this thread. [PM me if you feel the aforementioned statement is so absurdly slanderous you cannot function as long as it remains in this thread]).
You should run it over vampires because it works better. I have tried vampires, and I have tried this deck, and I greatly prefer this one. I kill my opponents more consistantly, I am rarely thwarted by protection, and my deck runs smoothly and can handle pretty much anything I've faced so far.
Vampires is running things like Nighthawk, Blade, tendrils of corruption. These are too slow and unreliable. I see little to no lists running Bloodchief ascension, which has won me about 50% of my games, typically dealing over 8 damage as my opponents struggle to stabilize.
Vampires has the same vulnerabilities, but Mono black agro handles protection creatures better. Mono black agro plays a much more versatile removal suite, using only 2 spells which cannot target black, and no copies of problematic conditional cards like feast of blood. And, as I emphasized in my original post, it has 7 edict effects.
And of course, it's internal synergies are constructed to go beyond tribal interactions. I listed several of these in the original post.
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4 Verdant Catacombs
15 Swamps
3 Vampire Nocturnus
3 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Malakir Bloodwitch
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Bloodghast
3 Sign in Blood
4 Bloodchief Ascension
2 Bone Splinters
3 Quest for the Gravelord
2 Hideous end
4 Disfigure
4 Duress
7 Undetermined
Hey.
Seeing as there isn't a thread for this archetype yet, I figured I'd start it up. (I realize that there is a Vampire agro thread, but the two decks are distinct in enough ways that they really belong seperate)
Card/Deck choices discussion
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The premise of the deck is, as it is for all agro decks, to reduce an opponent to 0 in the shortest amount of time. MBA, however, is not a true agro deck: It is Agro-Tempo. It seeks to exploit the synergies of of Edict creatures (Fleshbag Marauder, Gatekeeper of Malakir) with cards that benefit from cards being put into the graveyard (Quest for the Gravelord or cards that can turn cards like Bone Splintersand Fleshbag Marauder into 1-1's or 2-1's.
The desired result from this is that after t2, a good amount of your creatures will kill an opponent's creature on the way in, which will hopefully keep thim in a constantly destabilized state, as you build counters on Bloodchief Ascension(a threat which will need to be adressed by an opponent who wants to live) and Quest for the Gravelord (which devalues opposing removal and counteracts the tempo you wold lose from a sweep).
Bloodchief ascension is the star of this deck, I have found from my testing of it. Once it becomes active, it is incredibly difficult for opponents to win, and the deck's construction makes it very likely it will become active within the first 5 turns, and they will at or below 10 at this point. Using Hideous End over the more cost efficient doom blade allows one to "cheat" a counter onto it without attacking, and Sign in Blood occasionally will be best served putting the final counter on this potent enchantment
The use of primarily edict based removal also allows for the circumvention of several cards which otherwise would cause serious problem for this deck, such as the chief offenders, Great Sable Stag and Wall of denial
Bloodghast and Quest for the Gravelord are excellent at beating wrath. Often, control decks playing against this deck will not want to wrath on t4, as it will result in a fat zombie giant lugging their way, or in bloodghast's case, do absolutely nothing.
Vampire Hexmage Allows this deck to deal with opposing quests and planeswalkers (something the deck can struggle with) with great efficiency, and doubles as a beater/(goblin guide/hellspark elemental/ball lightning/elemental appeal) hoser.
Vampire Nocturnus and Bloodwitch will often provie the final boost that will kill an opponent or bring them low enough for a Bloodchief Ascension lock out
As for the sideboard, It needs work. The Disfigures are excellent, and sided in against any other agro deck/ramp deck using mana dorks or Lotus Cobra They are arguably maindeck includable, but in a world where 3 drops can be 3/4's or 5/4's, they really do not always cut the mustard. Duress, of course, is a tried and true tool against control/combo.
Which leaves 7 slots to fill. I considered Sadistic Sacrament, but I rarely want to play it at any point, useful though it may be against the new control decks which keep Cruel Ultimatum as a Wincon. I looked at Blood Seeker as an anti-tokens measure, but the card isn't worth it. Mind sluge, or more Malakir witches (for MWC and other agro) are possibilities.
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What I did not Include that might be includable
Vampire Nighthawk: Good card, not a wonderful 3 drop for an agro deck. I don't care about gaining life, and have edict effects to deal with wall of denial. If wall of reverence becomes hugely popular, maybe
Blade of the Bloodchief: While it could be powerful in this deck, it is unreliable and is nightmarishly poor vs. Decks running wrath, RFG removal, and lots of removal which is effective on small black creatures. Perhaps as a SB card for the mirror or some kind of agro deck. It's explosive potential with something like fleshbag marauder or bone shards makes it a possible MD inclusion, though I remain skeptical. If anyone has tested this, I'd like to hear about it
Doom blade: Weirdly, it doesn't do what I want often enough. The edict removal is better, and the 2 hideous end were much more useful
Marsh Casualties: Will become a sideboard card if tokens/elves/ too many mana dorks see play.
Tendrils of Corruption: Too slow. Maybe as a sideboard card for the mirror. Again, I do not care about gaining life.
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Matchups/Strategy
At the time, there isn't any way to discuss Matchups and strategy for them, and trying to predict anything is pointless, so I will say only this, realizing how irrelevant and ubiquitous the statement is: This deck beats the crap out of mill and Warp World (Note: Warp world and mill players, this is NOT your cue to tell me about how you go 40-0 every day or how you beat every single deck like this every time you play it. I base this upon my own fairly extensive play of the deck, and if you wish to argue that the match up favors your deck, please do so in a reasonable and thought-out way, and preferably not in this thread. [PM me if you feel the aforementioned statement is so absurdly slanderous you cannot function as long as it remains in this thread]).
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So, let's discuss how this can be improved, especially what the sideboard should look like.
Other than that, cool decklist.
GBGB AggroGB
Modern
GBRWDeath's ShadowGBRW
UBWRAffinityUBWR
GRTitanshiftGR
URBGrixis ControlURB
Legacy
BUGTrue Name BUGBUG
UBRGrixis DelverUBR
BUGShardless BUGBUG
BUGElvesBUG
Why should I run this over Vampires?
Vampires is running things like Nighthawk, Blade, tendrils of corruption. These are too slow and unreliable. I see little to no lists running Bloodchief ascension, which has won me about 50% of my games, typically dealing over 8 damage as my opponents struggle to stabilize.
Vampires has the same vulnerabilities, but Mono black agro handles protection creatures better. Mono black agro plays a much more versatile removal suite, using only 2 spells which cannot target black, and no copies of problematic conditional cards like feast of blood. And, as I emphasized in my original post, it has 7 edict effects.
And of course, it's internal synergies are constructed to go beyond tribal interactions. I listed several of these in the original post.