MTG Salvation

turn 1: Mountain + Flameblade Adept
turn 2: Blooming Marsh + Noose Contrictor, swing for 1 with Flameblade (sneaky Menace so good)
turn 3: Land + Pump Constrictor by discarding your hand, then Shadow of the Grave to get them all back and discard them again, Flameblade and Constrictor get +8 on the play or +10 on the draw, use last mana to cast Fiery Temper / Distemper of the Blood / Blossoming Defense to push through damage/kill blocker/blank removal, hit for somewhere between 18 and 25 dmg in perfect wombo Christmasland.

Random assortment of thoughts on the potential of this deck:

• Shadow of the Grave with Bomat Courier's mana ability on stack, so you get all the cards you exiled as well as all the cards you discarded. In most instances this will be draw 1-3 cards for 1BR. Also, sac Bomat to turn on Hazoret the Fervent, swing, Shadow of the Grave (SotG) to get all the cards back after combat?
• SotG with Collective Brutality lets us Duress an instant/sorcery from opponent's hand, give their create -2/-2, and deal 2dmg to them while we gain 2 life for 2BB.
• Our pump spells and discard/pump synergies can easily turn on Rhonas The Indomitable. Hazoret + Rhonas = best friends as well. 4-5 mana, 1 or fewer cards in hand, and Rhonas + Hazoret on the field sounds fine to me. Rhonas' mana ability can pump Haz, Haz can turn on madness for Temper and Distemper for either 5dmg to face or 2dmg face and +2/+2 trample for 2RR. Not to mention indestructible fogs most popular std removal.
• Scrapheap Scrounger's graveyard reanimation can definitely steal games and has great synergy with our deck because we don't mind it dying or being discarded. Another good pump target as well.
• Cycling Lands can help us midgame (which is our late game really) and synergize with our creatures.
• Why Distemper of the Blood over Invigorated Rampage? 2 reasons: The synergy with our discard outlets is better because of the reduced cost, and sometimes that 1 mana less will be very important. Rarely will we ever be casting Distemper as a sorcery. The other reason is the +2 toughness offers more protection for Flameblade, who is more easily removed since its toughness does not buff per discard like Constrictor.
• Mana base may need tweaking, but even at optimal levels 3 color aggro decks can receive some awful luck.
SIDEBOARD

• Chandra helps in grindier creature based matchups. Don't forget, Noose Constrictor has Reach, so he can favorably block for her as well.
• Dissenter's Deliverance and Kari Zev's Expertise go in for both Vehicles and Aetherworks Marvel matchups. Dissenter's cycling has good synergy, and Turn 3 stealing an opponent's creature, pumping Constrictor by discarding hand, casting SotG for free, and then pumping again is such a satisfying Johnny line of play, who doesn't wanna do that at least once? Also steals big creatures Marvel can dump out.
• Heroic Intervention is an auto include against sweepers.
• Magma Spray[/card} replaces Shock against graveyard decks.
• Glorious End has so many uses in a number of matchups, the question is typically when to use it, and often it will be used to counter a very aggressive turn 3 or 4, or a turn 3 or 4 wrath, but we have to win immediately afterwards, but thanks to Hazoret being our top end, 8 burn/pseudo burn cards, 8 pump spells, and plenty of creatures we should be able to have some combination of things that allows us to push through enough damage with our final chance. This could honestly be a maindeck card but idk what i'd cut.
MAYBEBOARD

• Khenra Charioteer seems fantastic here, but to include him the deck would make a significant shift more towards a midrange deck than an aggro deck. Seems like he'd just fit better in a different version of this deck, or a different deck altogether.
• Key to the City would be AMAZING in this deck, but again it would need a different strategy. Perhaps more of a RB with a splash of green deck, with more artifact synergies like Unlicensed Disintegration and a different top-end. Again, slows the deck down more as well.
• Collective Defiance + Shadow of the Grave is just hilarious, but it deserves to be in some midrange Rakdos deck with big Chandra. Please someone figure out a Rakdos midrange deck that benefits from discarding things, that sounds too fun with all the graveyard recursion in the colors. Grixis would rule too.
• Insult // Injury is so close to making sense in this deck but isn't quite there I think. Aftermath has great synergy with our deck because we don't care if it gets discarded, the damage doubling seems very 50/50 to me, as in 50% of the time it's just a "win more" card and thus not needed, but 50% it will steal you a win either out of surprise or margins. The main problem is, again, it is just a bit slow and expensive in our deck.
• Fling and Heart-Piercer Manticore both feel wrong in this archetype as well. Maybe more of a GR Pummeler build. Although Fling feels like a possibility (chump block the 10/10 Constrictor? fine, take 10 to face anyway), it is too do-nothing by itself, and like Insult/Injury, feels like win-more card. Manticore is cool, and the Embalm would be a great lategame option since we don't mind discarding it, but again it is too expensive and slow. Maybe Manticore would fit in Rakdos midrange with Collective Defiance.

Anyone have some ideas or thoughts on this?

EDIT: Thought SotG would return Madness cards if you chose not to cast them, but it seems this is wrong due to the playzone rules. Can tweak Fiery Tempers and Distempers to other cards, possibly Unlicensed Disintegration and Rush of Adrenaline?

This deck is a ton of fun and can win out of nowhere at times. I've made a few experimental personal tweaks in my online playing: Nagging Thoughts in place of Tormenting Voice and -1 Wandering Fumarole -1 Highland Lake for 2 Drownyard Temples. I haven't run into any colorfixing issues and I have had luck with Nagging Thoughts, either casting with Madness or sometimes casting it normally when I don't have enough cards to discard for Cathartic Reunion. I wish I had a slight bit more card draw at times, so I may experiment with an extra Voice/Thoughts in place of a Visions or something, but the deck as is performs well enough to render my experimental refinements moot. Really fun deck, thanks for the primer!

Also interested in any sideboard refinements!

This is an idea I had once I saw Second Harvest, I'm not sure if it would actually work though. The idea is to flood the board with either scions or thopters, and then Second Harvest to double them. Then you can either go wide with the thopters/scions/plants thanks to Nissa, ramp with the scions, or sac them to Westvale Abbey as a finisher. Of course Zulaport Cutthroat will also have a role in pinging/life differential the whole way, and the majority of boardwipes we'd fear would either help us trigger things, or be countered by our Warping Wails. Virulent Plague is also a target for World Breaker, should they have it. Hallowed Moonlight would be a pain, though.



I'm also considering Carrier Thrall, Mindwrack Demon, Bone Splinters, Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Traverse the Ulvenwald, Vile Redeemer, and even Collected Company. Not sure of the numbers of everything as well, Evolutionary Leap may need to be more From Beyonds, etc. Does anyone have any thoughts?