For the sake of clarity, I'm talking about Mono Black Aggro here, no red splash.
So far, I really like the look of Moment of Craving and Grasping Scoundrel. Moment is great removal but maybe better in the sideboard against other aggro decks. Grasping Scoundrel would give this 16 (SIXTEEN!?!?!) one drops that "attack" for two.
Dusk Legion Zealot might also fit, possibly replacing Glint Sleeve Siphoner? I know some games she's good for all kinds of draw, both others she gets 0-1. This is the same premise but you get the card without all the risk. She also helped turn on Aethersphere Harvester, but it may be fine all on its own (with Aether Hub). This also completely looks past the Menace GSS has, which can win games.
Golden Demise might be a decent boardwipe for the sideboard depending on how the meta shapes up, but Bontu's Reckoning is still a great catchall so it might be irrelevant, especially since GD needs Ascend to not hit yourself.
The only thing beyond 3CMC I'd consider is Ravenous Chupacabra, but that seems like it's pushing past the low to the ground play this deck needs.
I appreciate your analysis of the potential cards going into the deck, but I disagree with basically all of them.
Moment of Craving doesn't really kill anything that Walk/Push don't already and it costs more than Push. It's best would be RR removal, and who knows what that deck will be now.
Grasping Scoundrel would be the worst of all the 1-drops since it has neither recursion nor damage from a trigger. Night Market is invaluable for it's crew trigger, Wanderer is a better every-other-turn blocker and has recursion and conquistador can at least ping for one damage in a suicide attempt. I don't even like 12 1-drops at is it is as Supernatural Stamina is a better card every turn after T1. I'm playing 10 1-drop creatures.
Dusk Legion Zealot is interesting, but a 1/1 is a far cry from a 2/1 menace when you're trying to apply pressure. If the deck wanted to run all Harvesters and a higher curve, maybe this card would work, but you're basically making a midrange monoblack deck when you're willing to put 2 mana 1/1s in it. I don't even play Siphoners, but I wouldn't begrudge those that do. I certainly would rather have Ruin Raiders as my card draw than this guy for my money.
Oathsworn Vampire is the most interesting card to me, but I don't see enough ways to turn it on and it's ETB keeping it from immediately crewing is a much bigger downside than it is for Wanderer as a 2-drop. It blocks better than Scrapheap, but I'm curious if that is your only metric for reliability. I'd say Scrapheap crews better, attacks better and recurs easier than the Vamp.
I've never played any versions with Reckoning so I can't comment on Golden Demise.
You are correct in that Cupacabra is probably too expensive for the deck. If I was running 4-drops, I think Gonti would be more interesting. Defends the ground and likely gets you either a removal spell or a higher quality threat from your opponent. This would again push the deck to be more midrangey. Mana is often more scarce than cards/removal for me, so a 4-mana removal spell that doesn't even deal with Hazoret/Scarab God is pretty inefficient.
I honestly think nothing in the set makes it into the deck until we see how the meta changes due to the bannings and even then it will be a different deck variation (like being more midrangey) rather than a de facto change to the deck.
As I was writing this, I knew most of this wouldn't fly, but it's good to play devil's advocate with new stuff, get some perspective.
I'm still not sure on Moment, but I agree with your analysis vs. Push. I wasn't suggesting replacing Push, though! It's just too good.
Night Market is very good, so he wasn't on the chopping block. I was considering Conquistador, but I think the 2 toughness is relevant as well as the trigger vs. the 2 power.
You'll notice I mentioned the menace, but Glint-sleeve is just super good as is. That menace does work for sure.
I missed the "if you gain life" trigger on Oathsworn. Had I not, I never would have claimed more reliability!
I play Reckoning out of the sideboard for creature heavy matchups (it's gross to sac something to Yahenni then wipe the board when your opponent has X>2 creatures out). Am I right in thinking that a creature leaving the battlefield when P/T is reduced to 0/0 is not the same as dying?
A creature having it's toughness reduced to 0 will have a death trigger the same as being destroyed. The problem is, that trigger goes on the stack after Yahenni is already a 0/0 and indestructible does not stop him from dying to 0 toughness. State-based effects are checked before the death triggers resolve and Yahenni will die too. Golden Demise could be an interesting card if you play a version that can reliably get to City's Blessing, but it doesn't really fit the previous synergy of Yahenni/Reckoning.
I definitely wouldn't replace Push with Moment. I figured Walk was probably the candidate. I guess my perspective was just that although Moment is 2cmc, it actually still just competes for targets with Push rather than Walk, so it's more of a weaker redundancy rather than a card that solves different problems like Walk does. Who knows though, maybe Merfolk will be a tier 1 deck now and Walk will be significantly worse. I actually didn't consider that the first time around so there's definitely the potential argument for some number of Moments over Walks.
Walk kills Glorybringers, Angels, 3-4cmc creatures without Raid and unsummons Scarab God.
Moments is probably better against Merfolk, red creatures (and the possibility of double moment for Hazoret but thats unreliable) and the mirror.
Deck isn't dead yet. Went 4-1 at my LGS yesterday. Normally don't post my results here, but I figured this first weekend matters.
My version is only slightly different.
+ 4 Kitesail Freebooter
+ 2 Moment of Craving
- Ruin Raider
- 1 Aethersphere Harvester
- 2 Walk the Plank
Zero Heart of Kiran
I played with a 2/2 split of Moment and Supernatural Stamina. I expected a lot of aggro for the first week, and I made a good meta call. I have been on and off on Ruin Raider over time. I don't necessarily think my version is "correct" or anything like that, but the meta was pretty diverse last night. Dinosaurs, Vampires. Gift, Merfolk, Pirates, and the new RDW were all present. There was one control deck. I have been very comfortable playing Freebooter in the main and just prefer it over raider, though I have won with Raider in the past.
I packed Harsh Scrutiny in the sideboard for Dinosaurs and any other big creature shenanigans. It did see some action. My only loss was to the R/B Pirate deck, which was much faster than me.
Round 1: Merfolk 2-0 Nothing crazy to report except Supernatural Stamina traded well early and I was glad Walk the Plank was in the sideboard.
Round 2: Pirates 0-2. This match was over in five minutes. He packed more one-drops and more creatures with Menace. I also had awful opening hands and had to mull.
Round 3: Janky vampires 2-1. It was a budget version of the deck but I kept Freebooter in because he was playing Call to the Feast. It helped. I lost a game because three straight Gifted Aetherborn is pretty good.
Round 4: RDW 2-0. Was over quickly. To be fair, he drew a lot of lands, but Moment of Craving came up big. Nothing too surprising to report at this point, except Path to Mettle doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would.
Top 8: Same Merfolk match from before, though the player was running hot and we played an epic game three. I needed Harsh Scrutiny because there is no way to get Kumena.
Split top 4.
I expected Merfolk to be a thing the first week, and probably for another week or two. My biggest concern with the deck is playing against Lifelink, so I am not too confident against Vampires. I don't foresee dinos being a problem. If I return to the same meta next week, four Gifted will replace the Freebooters.
Had success with this list but with Lightning Strike instead. I am going back to it. The Meta looks like it’s going to shift to four copies of Contempt everywhere... but this deck is much more efficient than regular mono black. I like being able to run Abrade out of the side against Vehicles.
list would work better if it had something to re-fill your hand like Bomat Courier
maybe you could run some Aether Hubs to help out your Siphoners
looks like you'll have lots of dead mana at some point; maybe Dreamstealer or an equipment
It does run card draw.
My son still plays this and went 4-1 last week. You have to aggressively side against red but you can definitely still win it.
4x essence extraction in the side helps
Siding out of wanderer and scrapheap helps too
Is your son's MB the same as above? What does his SB look like? I wasn't sure what upgrades it got in Dominaria. I will have to try Essence Extraction.
The trend seems to be to go very hard on aggressive one drops with just enough interaction to get home. There's a little bit of evasion with the Bone Pickers and the Night Market Lookout/Vicious Conquistador pings and a little bit of graveyard recursion to keep things rolling, but really you're just looking to get on board and smash in ASAP.
I'm a little surprised that Aethersphere Harvester has fallen out of favor. I thought it was a nice way to swing aggro matchups, but I guess there's just too much abrading going on out there for it to be worth it.
I thought it looked fun so I tried it out and had the easiest 5-0 in a friendly league that I've ever experienced. I played against Mono-U tempo (2-0), Mono-U tempo (2-0), Izzet Control (2-1), Esper Control (2-1), and mono-red goblins (2-0). This deck gets out of the gate quickly, gets a ton of value out of its creatures, and then starts pulling value from the graveyard once creatures start to die. Having access to just a little bit of hand disruption with the freebooters is also terrific.
It's always nice to get some mileage out of the old basic swamps.
Vraska's Contempt: when you need to kill planeswalkers (e.g. against control and BG)
Dread Shade: when you need to replace Orc Bob with a fattie (e.g. against red or white aggro)
Plague Mare: when you need to replace Orc Bob with a chainwhirler effect (e.g. against tokens)
Also, there are a lot of merfolk running around these days in mono-blue and in BG. Some number (maybe all) of the Walk the Plank should probably become Cast Down.
Doom Whisperer is not where this deck wants to be. This deck wants to stay low to the ground; get out fast with one drops and then maintain the board with removal and card draw, as well as recurring threats.
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So far, I really like the look of Moment of Craving and Grasping Scoundrel. Moment is great removal but maybe better in the sideboard against other aggro decks. Grasping Scoundrel would give this 16 (SIXTEEN!?!?!) one drops that "attack" for two.
Dusk Legion Zealot might also fit, possibly replacing Glint Sleeve Siphoner? I know some games she's good for all kinds of draw, both others she gets 0-1. This is the same premise but you get the card without all the risk. She also helped turn on Aethersphere Harvester, but it may be fine all on its own (with Aether Hub). This also completely looks past the Menace GSS has, which can win games.
Oathsworn Vampire is a two drop with recursion. I'd say he's more reliable than Scrapheap Scrounger, but SS is the only card that can drop in and crew Heart of Kiran right out the gate.
Golden Demise might be a decent boardwipe for the sideboard depending on how the meta shapes up, but Bontu's Reckoning is still a great catchall so it might be irrelevant, especially since GD needs Ascend to not hit yourself.
The only thing beyond 3CMC I'd consider is Ravenous Chupacabra, but that seems like it's pushing past the low to the ground play this deck needs.
Moment of Craving doesn't really kill anything that Walk/Push don't already and it costs more than Push. It's best would be RR removal, and who knows what that deck will be now.
Grasping Scoundrel would be the worst of all the 1-drops since it has neither recursion nor damage from a trigger. Night Market is invaluable for it's crew trigger, Wanderer is a better every-other-turn blocker and has recursion and conquistador can at least ping for one damage in a suicide attempt. I don't even like 12 1-drops at is it is as Supernatural Stamina is a better card every turn after T1. I'm playing 10 1-drop creatures.
Dusk Legion Zealot is interesting, but a 1/1 is a far cry from a 2/1 menace when you're trying to apply pressure. If the deck wanted to run all Harvesters and a higher curve, maybe this card would work, but you're basically making a midrange monoblack deck when you're willing to put 2 mana 1/1s in it. I don't even play Siphoners, but I wouldn't begrudge those that do. I certainly would rather have Ruin Raiders as my card draw than this guy for my money.
Oathsworn Vampire is the most interesting card to me, but I don't see enough ways to turn it on and it's ETB keeping it from immediately crewing is a much bigger downside than it is for Wanderer as a 2-drop. It blocks better than Scrapheap, but I'm curious if that is your only metric for reliability. I'd say Scrapheap crews better, attacks better and recurs easier than the Vamp.
I've never played any versions with Reckoning so I can't comment on Golden Demise.
You are correct in that Cupacabra is probably too expensive for the deck. If I was running 4-drops, I think Gonti would be more interesting. Defends the ground and likely gets you either a removal spell or a higher quality threat from your opponent. This would again push the deck to be more midrangey. Mana is often more scarce than cards/removal for me, so a 4-mana removal spell that doesn't even deal with Hazoret/Scarab God is pretty inefficient.
I honestly think nothing in the set makes it into the deck until we see how the meta changes due to the bannings and even then it will be a different deck variation (like being more midrangey) rather than a de facto change to the deck.
I'm still not sure on Moment, but I agree with your analysis vs. Push. I wasn't suggesting replacing Push, though! It's just too good.
Night Market is very good, so he wasn't on the chopping block. I was considering Conquistador, but I think the 2 toughness is relevant as well as the trigger vs. the 2 power.
You'll notice I mentioned the menace, but Glint-sleeve is just super good as is. That menace does work for sure.
I missed the "if you gain life" trigger on Oathsworn. Had I not, I never would have claimed more reliability!
I play Reckoning out of the sideboard for creature heavy matchups (it's gross to sac something to Yahenni then wipe the board when your opponent has X>2 creatures out). Am I right in thinking that a creature leaving the battlefield when P/T is reduced to 0/0 is not the same as dying?
I definitely wouldn't replace Push with Moment. I figured Walk was probably the candidate. I guess my perspective was just that although Moment is 2cmc, it actually still just competes for targets with Push rather than Walk, so it's more of a weaker redundancy rather than a card that solves different problems like Walk does. Who knows though, maybe Merfolk will be a tier 1 deck now and Walk will be significantly worse. I actually didn't consider that the first time around so there's definitely the potential argument for some number of Moments over Walks.
Walk kills Glorybringers, Angels, 3-4cmc creatures without Raid and unsummons Scarab God.
Moments is probably better against Merfolk, red creatures (and the possibility of double moment for Hazoret but thats unreliable) and the mirror.
My version is only slightly different.
+ 4 Kitesail Freebooter
+ 2 Moment of Craving
- Ruin Raider
- 1 Aethersphere Harvester
- 2 Walk the Plank
Zero Heart of Kiran
I played with a 2/2 split of Moment and Supernatural Stamina. I expected a lot of aggro for the first week, and I made a good meta call. I have been on and off on Ruin Raider over time. I don't necessarily think my version is "correct" or anything like that, but the meta was pretty diverse last night. Dinosaurs, Vampires. Gift, Merfolk, Pirates, and the new RDW were all present. There was one control deck. I have been very comfortable playing Freebooter in the main and just prefer it over raider, though I have won with Raider in the past.
I packed Harsh Scrutiny in the sideboard for Dinosaurs and any other big creature shenanigans. It did see some action. My only loss was to the R/B Pirate deck, which was much faster than me.
Round 1: Merfolk 2-0 Nothing crazy to report except Supernatural Stamina traded well early and I was glad Walk the Plank was in the sideboard.
Round 2: Pirates 0-2. This match was over in five minutes. He packed more one-drops and more creatures with Menace. I also had awful opening hands and had to mull.
Round 3: Janky vampires 2-1. It was a budget version of the deck but I kept Freebooter in because he was playing Call to the Feast. It helped. I lost a game because three straight Gifted Aetherborn is pretty good.
Round 4: RDW 2-0. Was over quickly. To be fair, he drew a lot of lands, but Moment of Craving came up big. Nothing too surprising to report at this point, except Path to Mettle doesn't hurt as much as I thought it would.
Top 8: Same Merfolk match from before, though the player was running hot and we played an epic game three. I needed Harsh Scrutiny because there is no way to get Kumena.
Split top 4.
I expected Merfolk to be a thing the first week, and probably for another week or two. My biggest concern with the deck is playing against Lifelink, so I am not too confident against Vampires. I don't foresee dinos being a problem. If I return to the same meta next week, four Gifted will replace the Freebooters.
Keep playing the deck. It's still fun!
I like the look of this list from SCG Philly: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=118580
I think I'm going to run this list with an altered SB at my first Standard Showdown this thursday.
Here is the SB I'm thinking with this list (mainly because I don't have some of the other cards :)):
2 Vraska's Contempt
1 Bontu's Last Reckoning
3 Cut
4 Duress
2 Doomfall
Would love to hear your thoughts or experiences playing heavy Black BR Aggro lists.
Cheers!
Used that list last month:
4 Ammit Eternal
4 Dread Wanderer
4 Fatal Push
4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
4 Gifted Aetherborn
4 Ifnir Deadlands
4 Night Market Lookout
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
2 Supernatural Stamina
16 Swamp
4 Vicious Conquistador
2 Walk the Plank
2 Fourth Bridge Prowler
4 Harsh Scrutiny
3 Kitesail Freebooter
2 Vraska's Contempt
Here is my current build. Haven't had a chance to play it much of late but am thinking about dusting it off.
4 Dread Wanderer
4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
4 Grasping Scoundrel
4 Night Market Lookout
2 Ruin Raider
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Vicious Conquistador
4 Fatal Push
3 Supernatural Stamina
3 Aethersphere Harvester
4 Ifnir Deadlands
15 Swamp
2 Walk the Plank
3 Doomfall
4 Duress
4 Gifted Aetherborn
2 Harsh Scrutiny
maybe you could run some Aether Hubs to help out your Siphoners
looks like you'll have lots of dead mana at some point; maybe Dreamstealer or an equipment
My son still plays this and went 4-1 last week. You have to aggressively side against red but you can definitely still win it.
4x essence extraction in the side helps
Siding out of wanderer and scrapheap helps too
SB is
4x Duress
4x Vraska's Contempt
2x Liliana
3x Ravenous Chup
2x Sorcerous Spyglass
If memory serves me
4 Dread Wanderer
4 Grasping Scoundrel
4 Night Market Lookout
4 Vicious Conquistador
4 Glint-Sleeve Siphoner
4 Graveyard Marshal
2 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Bone Picker
2 Supernatural Stamina
3 Walk the Plank
18 Swamp
4 Duress
4 Skulduggery
3 Gifted Aetherborn
4 Kitesail Freebooter
4 Dread Wanderer
1 Grasping Scoundrel
4 Night Market Lookout
4 Vicious Conquistador
4 Gifted Aetherborn
3 Graveyard Marshal
4 Scrapheap Scrounger
4 Bone Picker
4 Supernatural Stamina
3 Walk the Plank
18 Swamp
4 Duress
2 Fungal Infection
4 Scarab Feast
1 Skulduggery
1 Cast Down
1 Walk the Plank
2 Plague Mare
The trend seems to be to go very hard on aggressive one drops with just enough interaction to get home. There's a little bit of evasion with the Bone Pickers and the Night Market Lookout/Vicious Conquistador pings and a little bit of graveyard recursion to keep things rolling, but really you're just looking to get on board and smash in ASAP.
I'm a little surprised that Aethersphere Harvester has fallen out of favor. I thought it was a nice way to swing aggro matchups, but I guess there's just too much abrading going on out there for it to be worth it.
User ripple182 took this list to a 5-0 finish in a competitive league:
4 Vicious Conquistador
4 Graveyard Marshal
4 Kitesail Freebooter
3 Isareth the Awakener
4 Midnight Reaper
4 Ruin Raider
4 Ravenous Chupacabra
2 Dead Weight
23 Swamp
4 Duress
4 Dread Shade
3 Plague Mare
4 Vraska's Contempt
I thought it looked fun so I tried it out and had the easiest 5-0 in a friendly league that I've ever experienced. I played against Mono-U tempo (2-0), Mono-U tempo (2-0), Izzet Control (2-1), Esper Control (2-1), and mono-red goblins (2-0). This deck gets out of the gate quickly, gets a ton of value out of its creatures, and then starts pulling value from the graveyard once creatures start to die. Having access to just a little bit of hand disruption with the freebooters is also terrific.
It's always nice to get some mileage out of the old basic swamps.
I'm hardly an expert, but I think I have some reasonable rules of thumb.
What to take out:
Dead Weight: when there are no good targets
Walk the Plank: when there are no good targets
Vicious Conquistador: when the opponent clogs the ground
Ruin Raider: when the opponent comes hard after your life total
You can also shave Ravenous Chupacabra if the opponent looks truly creature free.
What to put in:
Duress: against control decks
Vraska's Contempt: when you need to kill planeswalkers (e.g. against control and BG)
Dread Shade: when you need to replace Orc Bob with a fattie (e.g. against red or white aggro)
Plague Mare: when you need to replace Orc Bob with a chainwhirler effect (e.g. against tokens)
Also, there are a lot of merfolk running around these days in mono-blue and in BG. Some number (maybe all) of the Walk the Plank should probably become Cast Down.
Abnormal Endurance
Chainer's Torment
Dire Fleet Ravager
Fraying Omnipotence
Moodmark Painter
Twilight Prophet
splash green for small Vraska
seems like a solid deck for basically 0 dollars
my imagination is seeing those Plague Mare doing awful things to enemy board states
So, Is Doom Whisperer not here because he costs $20 ?
Obvious cards - 2 Cost
Gifted Aetherborn
Graveyard Marshal
(Kitesail freebooter seems ok-ish - maybe sideboard?)
Obvious cards - 3 Cost
Dread Shade,
Isareth,
Ruin Raider
Obvious cards - 4 cost
Ravenous Chupacabra
Obvious cards - 5 Cost
Doom Whisperer
It is only really the One drops that seem weak.
Diregraf Ghoul
Grasping Scoundrel
Vicious Conquistador
This is what I played:
4 Vicious Conquistador
4 Graveyard Marshal
4 Kitesail Freebooter
3 Isareth the Awakener
4 Midnight Reaper
4 Ruin Raider
3 Ravenous Chupacabra
3 Dead Weight
23 Swamp
3 Duress
4 Dread Shade
3 Plague Mare
3 Vraska's Contempt
2 Plaguecrafter
Doom Whisperer is not where this deck wants to be. This deck wants to stay low to the ground; get out fast with one drops and then maintain the board with removal and card draw, as well as recurring threats.