NOTICE: I need help, guidance, and suggestions for the peasant part and sideboard part of this primer! Help is greatly appreciated!
Flavor: As I'm sure you all know, Yawgmoth was the creator of Phyresis. It was the embodiment of all things of Black mana. Power at any cost was his motto. You are one of his most trusted mages. Reading books? No, your knowledge comes straight from the essence of Phyrexia itself. You command an army of the undead and the accursed. Who needs friends when you can overrun everyone with your thrulls, skirges, zombies, and horrors? You take your own life essence and pour it into your armies. It weakens you, but that doesn't matter, inevitability is on your side. This is old phyrexia, not this newfangled infect stuff. Ask your enemies,"Ever been beaten into a bloody pulp before?"
Intro: For actually piloting the deck, even when it's not totally geared towards a suicide aggro, you will be facing some disadvantages from your cards, but thats ok, because we have...
DARK RITUAL: This is what really, truly, ultimately, makes a black aggro deck stand up against decks that do not have evil creatures punching themself and THEN the opponent.
General Strategy: First play creatures with evasion or pump abilities, then pump them, then turn everything sideways while muttering under your breath with a slight smile, "Zerg rush..."
Creature Choice
1 CMC
Carrion Feeder: The best sacrifice outlet there is! Use it for an awesome beater. It eats your own creatures for breakfast, and your opponents for lunch.
Carnophage: Best one drop probably. Why did they print it? Couldn't tell you. This guy has serious speed! Don't need to attack or block with it? Ok, let him tap. No damage to you! This guy is a 10 out of 10, I would use him in all aggro with black in it.
Kjeldoran Dead: Potentially powerful in decks that sacrifice, but overall not worth it.
Nightshade Stinger: Has evasion, but is very squishy. Maybe with lots of equipment?
Pulse Tracker: Presents a dilemma. Squishy, but with a Hellrideresque damage with every attack. No evasion but he could be included in some decks.
Shadow Alley Denizen: Never played with this card but it certainly looks good. I can't imagine him in any of my decks though.
Tormented Soul: If you have little to no pump, don't use it.
Typhoid Rats: I don't know, I suppose it could go in a sideboard. Deathtouch is certainly nice, but he lacks the P/T, that should be in Black Aggro cards.
Vault Skirge. Drop this guy first turn and follow up with Bonesplitter and you'll never have to worry about your life total again. He'll race other aggro decks all by himself for you.
Daggerdrome Imp: Has evasion and lifelink. I like to think of him as a watered down Vampire Nighthawk. He excels once pump hits the field. It's a nice relief from the lifeloss.
DAUTHI SLAYER and DAUTHI HORROR: Good evasion, good P/T.
Erg Raiders: This guy chumps like a pro. Also he's a classic!
Fledgling Djinn: This card is probably just worse than the Dauthi.
Order of the Ebon Hand: This card, is very, very good. It is an auto-include in decks that aren't sacrifice or pump.
Porcelain Legionnaire: First strike is highly relevant. This bad boy takes out all sorts of nasty, hateful bad guys.
Ravenous Rats: No! Stop! Bad Mono-Black Control cards! Bad!
Sangrophage: I don't like this card; too much life loss. You really can't justify adding him in. 1 CMC is where your totally suicide stuff goes.
Wei Ambush Force: Is sort of like a 3/1 for two. I've never used it however.
Wicked Akuba: It has its own form of pump. I think if it had evasion, I would use it more but for now, I'll use other things.
3 CMC
Crypt Rats: Is a useful sideboard card, I wouldn't main-deck him though.
Devouring Swarm: I might use it in sacrifice, It's a bit too expensive though.
Phyrexian Rager: Is slow. However, he provides card advantage.
Spells
Instants
1 CMC
Dark Ritual: USE IT! This card allows you to represent six power, on turn one. Nobody else can do that. Include it as a four of.
Disfigure and Dead Weight: Is a nice removal spell. It does some serious disfiguring of the opponents strategy. One of the few usable removal spells.
Ghastly Demise: Can be a dead card, but after just a few turns it is a deadly removal.
Bump in The Night: Lava Spike, for black. Flashback is irrelevant. In suicide, it could help you deal damage that keeps you ahead in the scheme of things.
Snuff Out: This card was just recently brought to my attention. I might include it as a one of but probably no more than that.
Diabolic Edict: Is a very good kill spell, you can force a sacrifice at instant speed. May not want too many though, because usually people have lots of creatures.
White offers the Mono Black Aggro some interesting options. With all the lifelink and lifegain spells you can play your spells that cost life without having all that much doubt on whether it will be you or your opponent that will take you down to zero. It will also play a little bit slower that just black (to be expected)
Creatures
Kingpin's Pet: Nice evasion, and comes with extort. There are better options but if you have it, its a nice addition.
Mourning Thrull: See Daggerdrome Imp. This has nice synergy with other cards though.
Nip Gwyllion: Meh. That's what I say when I see this card. Just, meh.
The real reason to splash for white. Add in some hybrid or just plain W/B creatures into your deck.
Other
Castigate: If you're playing any kind of targeted discard, use this.
Mana Curve
You will always want about twenty lands, give or take. Then twenty one drops and twenty two drops. You want your deck to have at least fifteen creatures and six removal spells.
Sideboard, dealing with MBA's weaknesses
Against Mono Blue Control or Tempo, or other control types.
Any discard. Duress, Hymn to Tourach, and it's ilk will be your best bets here, as long as you don't give them a choice as to what they discard. This cripples their ability to counter your stuff
Against Infect or Mono-Green Stompy
Same with the discard, but also removal so they waste their pump.
Against 8-Post/Tron Chocking Sands or Befoul will force their hand or just utterly prevent them from doing stuff. Against FlickerPost, use discard
Against Goblins or other swarm strategies Nausea, Shrivel, but mostly Echoing Decay. As long as you are careful about how much you use them and don't kill yourself. Also, Dead Weight does wonders against Goblin Sledders.
This deck just comes roaring out. Play creatures, play a free spell, do more stuff, play creatures. Lotus Petal is mentioned no where else in the primer because usaully the Dark Rituals are good enough to mana accelerate you into anything, but this needs as much acceleration as possible.
This deck takes card advantage, and straps on some card advantage. However, it is much, much slower than a suicide or sacrifice list, so watch out against any kind of Stompy or Affinity
Peasant-ification
Lands
Mishra's Factory Is a great addition. It's the fastest, most aggresive, cheapest manland out there, its also the best.
Hypnotic Specter: Great disruption, plus evasion, I would probably include him in a meta with lots of disruptive control or hateful white weenies.
Nantuko Shade: Comes with pump! An excellent way to turn dead, late-game Dark Rituals into damage!
Vampire Nighthawk: Cool it has flying! Oh wow, lifelink too... DEATHTOUCH! This guy, it's usually between him and Hypnotic Specter, they're both awesome, but chose whichever one your meta calls for. Nighthawk for more aggro, Specter for more control or combo.
Spells
Instants
Darkblast: Good in decks with Barrow Ghoul. It's a nice combat trick and I like it's dredge ability to put stuff into the graveyard.
Sorceries
Demonic Tutor: Personal Note: It's a great card, not sure if it's useful enough to be worth ten bucks in a peasant deck but, your choice. It tutors up your removal, amazing creatures, Bonesplitter. FOR TWO MANA!
Hymn to Tourach: Eats your opponents hands for breakfast. Sometimes considered a common, sometimes an uncommon. Talk to your playgroup.
BBB Well, thanks for reading, hopefully you will see this and take it to the next level! Its not infestation or corruption, its perfection. BBB
Good stuff with the flavor, I always like seeing that. Try using descriptive adjectives to embellish your phrases. I personally don't particularly enjoy the rhetorical questions; it makes it sound like a monologue or some sort of pep rally!
In some of your card descriptions, I'm left wondering what you actually think of them. For example, you wrote for Guul Draz Vampire: "A late game card. Late game? What late game?" I think you're implying that you won't use him, but I'm not entirely sure. Let us know what you think of each card by comparing it with other similar cards and in what situations they might be good. This lets us make up our own minds on how useful they are, all the while sharing your own experience with them.
I was always under the impression that Phyrexian Rager was a staple in sui and aggro lists for the reasons you mentioned: he's great for card advantage. Once in play, he has no strings attached, he's just a 2/2 beatstick. Would you recommend ritualing into him first turn? What do you think of Liliana's Specter? I've seen her in many winning lists and it just seems like an overall powerful card and another way of generating card advantage! Don't discount Festering Goblin so quickly! Combined with a Carrion Feeder you can take out opposing 1/1s, or even attack with the goblin and take down two creatures or a 2/2. He can be a pain to block.
You also forgot to mention one of the most important 2 drops of the deck : Vault Skirge. Drop this guy first turn and follow up with Bonesplitter and you'll never have to worry about your life total again. He'll race other aggro decks all by himself for you.
In the same Phyrexian vein, you should also mention Porcelain Legionnaire. This two drop is incredibly strong in combat, especially when equipped or enchanted with stuff that increases his power.
Instead of dividing your spells by card type, I think it would better if you divided your cards by their function (ie removal cards, ramp cards, draw cards, etc.). We would get a clearer idea of where cards are situated with the others and you/we could compare them more easily. You separate your pump, so why not separate everything else?
In the land department where you simply indicated swamps, I think you could add Bojuka Bog and perhaps Barren Moor. Although they come into play tapped, the first suggestion could be useful as a 1-of, or maybe in the sideboard. The latter suggestion could be a 2-of in the deck, so that it can be cycled in the mid-game to give you more juice.
Spinning Darkness is really good, and Suff Out has been a staple of the sui-black archetype since its' printing. Geth's Verdict can be added to your list. Although I like Diabolic Edict the best, many people choose to run Geth's just for the additional lifeloss. I think Lose Hope deserves a mention as well. It can kill off an X/1 or help kill bigger creatures in conjunction with you creatures, and the Scry 2 can really make a huge difference in such a redundant deck as yours.
As for sideboard suggestions, adding discard is never a bad idea versus control decks. Versus Hexproof (a deck that will give you trouble), you can add more edict effects like Diabolic Edict and Geth's Verdict. Unearth has a place in the sideboard when many creature you run have "enters the battlefield" effects. Unearthing a Phyrexian Rager is a beautiful thing.
Good stuff with the flavor, I always like seeing that. Try using descriptive adjectives to embellish your phrases. I personally don't particularly enjoy the rhetorical questions; it makes it sound like a monologue or some sort of pep rally!
In some of your card descriptions, I'm left wondering what you actually think of them. For example, you wrote for Guul Draz Vampire: "A late game card. Late game? What late game?" I think you're implying that you won't use him, but I'm not entirely sure. Let us know what you think of each card by comparing it with other similar cards and in what situations they might be good. This lets us make up our own minds on how useful they are, all the while sharing your own experience with them.
I was always under the impression that Phyrexian Rager was a staple in sui and aggro lists for the reasons you mentioned: he's great for card advantage. Once in play, he has no strings attached, he's just a 2/2 beatstick. Would you recommend ritualing into him first turn? What do you think of Liliana's Specter? I've seen her in many winning lists and it just seems like an overall powerful card and another way of generating card advantage! Don't discount Festering Goblin so quickly! Combined with a Carrion Feeder you can take out opposing 1/1s, or even attack with the goblin and take down two creatures or a 2/2. He can be a pain to block.
You also forgot to mention one of the most important 2 drops of the deck : Vault Skirge. Drop this guy first turn and follow up with Bonesplitter and you'll never have to worry about your life total again. He'll race other aggro decks all by himself for you.
In the same Phyrexian vein, you should also mention Porcelain Legionnaire. This two drop is incredibly strong in combat, especially when equipped or enchanted with stuff that increases his power.
Instead of dividing your spells by card type, I think it would better if you divided your cards by their function (ie removal cards, ramp cards, draw cards, etc.). We would get a clearer idea of where cards are situated with the others and you/we could compare them more easily. You separate your pump, so why not separate everything else?
In the land department where you simply indicated swamps, I think you could add Bojuka Bog and perhaps Barren Moor. Although they come into play tapped, the first suggestion could be useful as a 1-of, or maybe in the sideboard. The latter suggestion could be a 2-of in the deck, so that it can be cycled in the mid-game to give you more juice.
Spinning Darkness is really good, and Suff Out has been a staple of the sui-black archetype since its' printing. Geth's Verdict can be added to your list. Although I like Diabolic Edict the best, many people choose to run Geth's just for the additional lifeloss. I think Lose Hope deserves a mention as well. It can kill off an X/1 or help kill bigger creatures in conjunction with you creatures, and the Scry 2 can really make a huge difference in such a redundant deck as yours.
As for sideboard suggestions, adding discard is never a bad idea versus control decks. Versus Hexproof (a deck that will give you trouble), you can add more edict effects like Diabolic Edict and Geth's Verdict. Unearth has a place in the sideboard when many creature you run have "enters the battlefield" effects. Unearthing a Phyrexian Rager is a beautiful thing.
Phyrexian Rager. Has a place in some lists, but I don't quite know where exactly to put it in.
Vault Skirge: Hmmm... Fits the flavor and the strategy. I'll include that in lists!
On ETBT lands: You are arguing for a very, very dangerous thing. I have never had success with them. I will add Bojuka Bog into the sideboard section.
Spinning Darkness: Well, I'll put it into the primer, but uh, not sure where it could fit in a list.
Lose Hope: Will go in as a one of in the sacrifice which has more combo like elements.
Edicts: I don't use too many, considering the swarmy-ness of pauper. I find it hard to really hit stuff. Geth's Verdict though. Looks nifty. Again, don't know where I should deck list it.
maindeck discard. Look at XBM Yosho's Rats list. Chittering Rats and Ravenous Rats are excellent creatures to play and gain card advantage.
I would agree, and again suggest the RATS deck for aggro-control as that is essentially the entire basis behind the deck. It utilizes both creature and card disruption all the while swinging away until the inevitable Crypt Rats kill.
Geth's Verdict is clearly better than Edict in any deck not running manlands/multicolor (and you shouldn't run multicolor in pauper suicide aggro). Good old Erg Raiders seem plausible in the 2 drop spot, once you've filled up on Dauthi dudes; he's big enough that he just eats bears and can knock over an Affinity 4/4 with the help of a Disfigure or something. I love Pit Keeper but they're probably too slow and controlish for true suicide aggro.
Only notable kill spell I can think of that you missed is Nameless Inversion and that's only good in zombie tribal which is a bit different than what you're doing.
Pretty good Primer so far. All the advice given already will really help make this into a great Primer.
Vampire's Bite is a good quick pump and goes great if you already have Lifelink creatures. Big damage early and can give you life if you happen to run into late game.
Vendetta can be a removal choice too. Great with decks using life gain, but isn't great for Sui builds. It may have some drawbacks, but it's easy on the mana so it allows removal while letting you play more spells along with it.
My friend plays Wicked Akuba. It doesn't look like much, but its' ability can actually end up dealing quite a bit of damage (usually because you're trying to block a bigger creature). It's the Nantuko Shade of Pauper.
He also plays 3 Dark Rituals and not 4. I think he may be right on this, as they are very bad top decks and aren't really necessary to get a good start in the game.
That's actually a pretty neat card, he can come into play turn 3 or sooner if you have a Dark Ritual and if you aren't facing artifacts or black he is unblockable. The 3/2 body is slightly underwhelming but it is a nice card none the less.
Dross Golem seems good, but also awkward in a way. he costs three mana when you have two, and two mana when you have three (which might be too, little, too late). I don't think I would ritual into it either. I'd prefer playing 2-3 2/2s or shadow guys. the three power certainly is interesting, though.
Dross Golem seems good, but also awkward in a way. he costs three mana when you have two, and two mana when you have three (which might be too, little, too late). I don't think I would ritual into it either. I'd prefer playing 2-3 2/2s or shadow guys. the three power certainly is interesting, though.
I like the Affinity Golems, and Dross is pretty good too, but overall I'd have to agree with Obermeir. There are better uses for Dark Ritual. If you happen to run into later game turns is when it will probably shine since you'll be able to drop him for next to nothing and can optimize your mana/turn for other plays. That being said, if you're going into later turns you're doing something wrong. Definitely test with it though and let me know how it works out.
I'd go ahead and take out 2 Swamps since this deck can definitely run with 18 swamps. Then you will have space for some more removal like Geth's Verdict or Doom Blade if you want to target creatures.
I put together a Rogue take on MBA to take advantage of Morsel Theft which is excellent, especially in activating Guul Draz Vampire and stopping lifeloss from Vampire Lacerator... and so I could literally play a Rogue deck
I like it so far, and MBA in general. For my SB, I have cards to either make the deck more resilient to removal (against any slower deck) or to transform it into a control deck (needed against faster aggro decks).
I like the matchups so far in my limited testing (also, I play on MTGO... but the primer is only here in the paper section). I've run into Delver, Elves, Tron, Hexproof, and Affinity, and so far only Affinity went poorly (but I also made a major mistake in thinking I was faster than them; I'll try to sideboard in as control next time).
I put together a Rogue take on MBA to take advantage of Morsel Theft which is excellent, especially in activating Guul Draz Vampire and stopping lifeloss from Vampire Lacerator... and so I could literally play a Rogue deck
I like it so far, and MBA in general. For my SB, I have cards to either make the deck more resilient to removal (against any slower deck) or to transform it into a control deck (needed against faster aggro decks).
I like the matchups so far in my limited testing (also, I play on MTGO... but the primer is only here in the paper section). I've run into Delver, Elves, Tron, Hexproof, and Affinity, and so far only Affinity went poorly (but I also made a major mistake in thinking I was faster than them; I'll try to sideboard in as control next time).
Deathcult Rogue is pretty good and fits the flavor, but he's pretty high cmc compared to all your other creatures, so I could see why you might not use him.
I put together a Rogue take on MBA to take advantage of Morsel Theft which is excellent, especially in activating Guul Draz Vampire and stopping lifeloss from Vampire Lacerator... and so I could literally play a Rogue deck
I like it so far, and MBA in general. For my SB, I have cards to either make the deck more resilient to removal (against any slower deck) or to transform it into a control deck (needed against faster aggro decks).
I like the matchups so far in my limited testing (also, I play on MTGO... but the primer is only here in the paper section). I've run into Delver, Elves, Tron, Hexproof, and Affinity, and so far only Affinity went poorly (but I also made a major mistake in thinking I was faster than them; I'll try to sideboard in as control next time).
Deathcult Rogue is pretty good and fits the flavor, but he's pretty high cmc compared to all your other creatures, so I could see why you might not use him.
I had him in there in the first incarnation, along with Faerie Macabre and Thieving Sprite, but 3 CMC was indeed too slow for my tastes. Cutting them out let me drop the land count to 16, too.
Tormented Soul is certainly better, even considering it doesn't activate Morsel Theft. I'll probably try him out and cut down to 2 Morsels, maybe upping Bonesplitter to 4. Thanks for the tip.
I had him in there in the first incarnation, along with Faeries Macabre and Thieving Sprite, but 3 CMC was indeed too slow for my tastes. Cutting them out let me drop the land count to 16, too.
Tormented Soul is certainly better, even considering it doesn't activate Morsel Theft. I'll probably try him out and cut down to 2 Morsels, maybe upping Bonesplitter to 4. Thanks for the tip.
I would do just that, with four Bonesplitters you have a higher chance to get yourself a 3/1 unblockable and realistically that is pretty damned powerful in the world of Pauper. In addition he can end up being a main power house for your deck because you also have Predator's Gambit.
From my previous lists, I took out a few cards because they just seemed sub-optimal, setting up 2 for 1s or just being a dead card sometimes.
First, I ditched Morsel Theft. With only 8 rogues in there, it was sometimes a 4-mana spell... which is horrible and usually dead.
Next, I took out Dark Ritual and Predator's Gambit. While fast, they aren't game-winning fast like DelverFiend decks. In a format heavy with removal, this often just means you're getting 2 for 1'd, giving opponents a much easier time blunting your assault.
Finally, I got rid of Geth's Verdict mainboard. With only 7 removal spells, this is basically never killing what you want to kill. Geth's only belongs vs. hexproof/protection and in a more controlling version (which you can sideboard into) with enough removal so they only have one creature and no choices when you play this card.
In
To replace them, I tested out life loss cards that all play really well with each other, keep up the aggro strategy, and activate Guul Draz Vampire or calm your Vampire Lacerators down. These were Bump in the Night, Soul Reap, and Dash Hopes. Bump is the black Lava Spike (you don't even need the flashback), and Soul Reap attaches it to a creature kill spell if you can lead into it with one of your 27 one-drops (conveniently helped by Bump). Its drawback is minor, making it only really dead against Stompy (not played much now that MBC is on the rise again) and Hexproof (where all targeted removal is dead anyway).
Dash Hopes, combined with your aggro creatures and other life-loss spells, gives opponents a very tough choice and is often very unexpected. It's also not uncommon for it to be an outright black Counterspell with your opponent at 5 life or below. I was very impressed in testing, but I would only ever play 3. This is the card you want to be holding back after dropping all your creatures, looking to protect them or counter a big late game spell that would let your victim stabilize while on his last 25% of the life meter. You don't really want it for the early, early game where you are looking to develop your board and apply more pressure.
Dark ritual is inherent card disadvantage. In order for it to be worth it, the gain in board position must compensate for that in either killing speed or future card advantage.
MBA's use is for killing speed... but in this removal-heavy meta, it is simply not fast enough. A Dark Ritual opening will still, even without interaction and in an ideal hand, need 3 turns to kill someone (very rare) and will often need 5+. That gives control decks far too much time to stabilize, and there are far more consistent aggro decks (DelverFiend) that will usually win the race, with or without Dark Ritual.
Therefore, I concluded that it isn't worth it. It actually hurts our game against control (letting them stabilize by answering one fewer card more often than it would kill them), and it does not significantly help against other aggro decks with a faster, more consistent clock than ours. Also, as mentioned above, it's horrible to top-deck into one.
2. No flyers
The creatures are very, very aggro; we do not care about blocking. If we are the control, our defense only comes from removal spells. All we care about for our aggressive creatures is evasion, and shadow is generally much better for that than flying since there are a lot of guys with flying or reach in this meta that can stop them.
It may be worth testing some flyers (Vault Skirge or Nightshade Stinger) into the SB to swap out Guul Draz Vampire since he isn't nearly as good against Affinity or MBC. They could even main-board replace Pulse Tracker since he can only get one point of damage through/ he dies without trading to any 2+ toughness creature out there (though he shines in more removal-heavy versions that can keep the lanes blocker-free). I hadn't actually thought about taking them out before because I still had Morsel Theft in there and needed those 8 rogues to activate it. Since that's gone, it's a good time to re-evaluate.
Dark ritual is inherent card disadvantage. In order for it to be worth it, the gain in board position must compensate for that in either killing speed or future card advantage.
MBA's use is for killing speed... but in this removal-heavy meta, it is simply not fast enough. A Dark Ritual opening will still, even without interaction and in an ideal hand, need 3 turns to kill someone (very rare) and will often need 5+. That gives control decks far too much time to stabilize, and there are far more consistent aggro decks (DelverFiend) that will usually win the race, with or without Dark Ritual.
Therefore, I concluded that it isn't worth it. It actually hurts our game against control (letting them stabilize by answering one fewer card more often than it would kill them), and it does not significantly help against other aggro decks with a faster, more consistent clock than ours.
It seems like you are grossly under-estimating Dark Ritual. You're saying it's a disadvantage to play 2-3 creatures in your opening turn than to play one creature due to removal? What removal will kill 3 creatures turn 1? If you say Dark Ritual isn't fast enough, then what is?
If you're on the play you can get 4-5 damage on the board, add in a turn 2 Bonesplitter then you have 6-7 damage. Assuming your opponent has turn one removal in their deck (Vapor Snag, Lightning Bolt or Disfigure being the main culprits) then you will only lose one creature on your turn 2 attack and still hit for 2-3 damage. Without Dark Ritual you play one creature first turn then that creature is dead second turn then you have no damage dealt until at least 3rd turn, but under your logic they still have enough removal, so there's goes turn 3 and possibly 4. You aren't running discard so removal will tear through your deck no matter what, but Dark Ritual gives you early pressure that can be completely answered until turn 3. If you assume they'll have answers against your opening Dark Ritual, then they will also have those answers for the same play spread out over your first few turns, so you lost either way. Even against Aggro putting out that many creatures first turn is good so then you'll have room to keep open mana for removal.
If you don't have the space or you don't want to play Dark Ritual, then that's fine, but don't try and dissuade other players from it with incorrect assumptions.
The creatures are very, very aggro; we do not care about blocking. If we are the control, our defense only comes from removal spells. All we care about for our aggressive creatures is evasion, and shadow is generally much better for that than flying since there are a lot of guys with flying or reach in this meta that can stop them.
It may be worth testing some flyers (Vault Skirge or Nightshade Stinger) into the SB to swap out Guul Draz Vampire since he isn't nearly as good against Affinity or MBC. They could even main-board replace Pulse Tracker since he can only get one point of damage through/ he dies without trading to any 2+ toughness creature out there (though he shines in more removal-heavy versions that can keep the lanes blocker-free). I hadn't actually thought about taking them out before because I still had Morsel Theft in there and needed those 8 rogues to activate it. Since that's gone, it's a good time to re-evaluate.
If you don't want a flyer because Shadow is better then that's fine. a 2/2 unblockable is better than a 1/1 partial unblockable, but if you are thinking about using one in the sideboard, don't go with Nightshade Stinger. Vault Skirge is better in every way. It's a turn one play that can block and gains life.
Vault Skirge is great main deck in a lot of ways though. He regains the health you lost from your suicide creatures. He also helps you fight and race against aggro, which you mentioned you have trouble racing against.
One suggestion with your new list is to drop Bump in the Night and add another Dash Hopes and replace the rest with Sign in Blood. You're gonna run out of steam and Sign in Blood helps you keep your momentum.
NOTICE: I need help, guidance, and suggestions for the peasant part and sideboard part of this primer! Help is greatly appreciated!
Flavor: As I'm sure you all know, Yawgmoth was the creator of Phyresis. It was the embodiment of all things of Black mana. Power at any cost was his motto. You are one of his most trusted mages. Reading books? No, your knowledge comes straight from the essence of Phyrexia itself. You command an army of the undead and the accursed. Who needs friends when you can overrun everyone with your thrulls, skirges, zombies, and horrors? You take your own life essence and pour it into your armies. It weakens you, but that doesn't matter, inevitability is on your side. This is old phyrexia, not this newfangled infect stuff. Ask your enemies,"Ever been beaten into a bloody pulp before?"
Intro: For actually piloting the deck, even when it's not totally geared towards a suicide aggro, you will be facing some disadvantages from your cards, but thats ok, because we have...
DARK RITUAL: This is what really, truly, ultimately, makes a black aggro deck stand up against decks that do not have evil creatures punching themself and THEN the opponent.
General Strategy: First play creatures with evasion or pump abilities, then pump them, then turn everything sideways while muttering under your breath with a slight smile, "Zerg rush..."
Creature Choice
1 CMC
Carrion Feeder: The best sacrifice outlet there is! Use it for an awesome beater. It eats your own creatures for breakfast, and your opponents for lunch.
Carnophage: Best one drop probably. Why did they print it? Couldn't tell you. This guy has serious speed! Don't need to attack or block with it? Ok, let him tap. No damage to you! This guy is a 10 out of 10, I would use him in all aggro with black in it.
Deathgreeter: Got a lot of sacrifice?
Festering Goblin/Fume Spitter: These cards are also more for a recursion strategy. I would not use them.
Flayer Husk: A "strictly better" Leonin Scimitar because it comes with a stick.
Guul Draz Vampire: A late game card. Late game? What late game?
Kjeldoran Dead: Potentially powerful in decks that sacrifice, but overall not worth it.
Nightshade Stinger: Has evasion, but is very squishy. Maybe with lots of equipment?
Pulse Tracker: Presents a dilemma. Squishy, but with a Hellrideresque damage with every attack. No evasion but he could be included in some decks.
Shadow Alley Denizen: Never played with this card but it certainly looks good. I can't imagine him in any of my decks though.
Tormented Soul: If you have little to no pump, don't use it.
Typhoid Rats: I don't know, I suppose it could go in a sideboard. Deathtouch is certainly nice, but he lacks the P/T, that should be in Black Aggro cards.
Vampire Lacerator: See Carnophage. My personal preference is Carnophage but, you could use either or both.
Vault Skirge: He's pretty amazing. One mana for a lifelink with flying? Heck yes!
2 CMC
Blind Creeper and Skittering Skirge You wanna be playing a creature every turn. Probably a bad bet.
Bloodthrone Vampire The second best card for sacrifice decks printed.
Daggerdrome Imp: Has evasion and lifelink. I like to think of him as a watered down Vampire Nighthawk. He excels once pump hits the field. It's a nice relief from the lifeloss.
DAUTHI SLAYER and DAUTHI HORROR: Good evasion, good P/T.
Erg Raiders: This guy chumps like a pro. Also he's a classic!
Fledgling Djinn: This card is probably just worse than the Dauthi.
Order of the Ebon Hand: This card, is very, very good. It is an auto-include in decks that aren't sacrifice or pump.
Porcelain Legionnaire: First strike is highly relevant. This bad boy takes out all sorts of nasty, hateful bad guys.
Ravenous Rats: No! Stop! Bad Mono-Black Control cards! Bad!
Sangrophage: I don't like this card; too much life loss. You really can't justify adding him in. 1 CMC is where your totally suicide stuff goes.
Vampire Interloper: Has evasion, but not like the Dauthi.
Wei Ambush Force: Is sort of like a 3/1 for two. I've never used it however.
Wicked Akuba: It has its own form of pump. I think if it had evasion, I would use it more but for now, I'll use other things.
3 CMC
Devouring Swarm: I might use it in sacrifice, It's a bit too expensive though.
Phyrexian Rager: Is slow. However, he provides card advantage.
Spells
Instants
1 CMC
Dark Ritual: USE IT! This card allows you to represent six power, on turn one. Nobody else can do that. Include it as a four of.
Disfigure and Dead Weight: Is a nice removal spell. It does some serious disfiguring of the opponents strategy. One of the few usable removal spells.
Ghastly Demise: Can be a dead card, but after just a few turns it is a deadly removal.
Bump in The Night: Lava Spike, for black. Flashback is irrelevant. In suicide, it could help you deal damage that keeps you ahead in the scheme of things.
Snuff Out: This card was just recently brought to my attention. I might include it as a one of but probably no more than that.
Tragic Slip: Probably too conditional
Undying Evil: Is a good SB card for facing a mirror match or MBC.
2 CMC
Diabolic Edict: Is a very good kill spell, you can force a sacrifice at instant speed. May not want too many though, because usually people have lots of creatures.
Doom Blade, Grasp of Darkness and Victim of Night: I will always have four of one of these in my decks. They can be SB-ed out in favor of each other as well.
Hymn to Tourach, Use it for discard if your playgroup decides it's a common!
>2 CMC
Unmake: Pow. Goodbye Guardian of the Guildpact!
Snuff Out: This card was just recently brought to my attention. I might include it as a one of but probably no more than that.
Spinning Darkness: Wow. It's, interesting. I don't know how often you'll be able to cast it but if you can, it's sure as heck useful!
Sorceries
Dry Spell: Can rid your life of a swarm of evil little goblins. Be careful however, many of your creatures are vulnerable to this kind of thing.
Duress: Amazing when facing any kind of control.
Geth's Verdict: Life loss and sacrifice on your opponent.
Grim Discovery: I might include one of these just for kicks, but I don't usually ever use any recursion.
Sign in Blood: Four of, otherwise, you'll probably run out of steam.
Unearth: Situational but good.
Pump
Predator's Gambit: Bonesplitter 5-8
Dark Favor: A little costly, in life and other, but other than that, it's a solid card.
Leonin Scimitar: This gives modest pump to power and toughness.
Lands
Swamp:
Bojuka Bog: Sideboard card
Barren Moor: Probably too slow.
Splashing
White
White offers the Mono Black Aggro some interesting options. With all the lifelink and lifegain spells you can play your spells that cost life without having all that much doubt on whether it will be you or your opponent that will take you down to zero. It will also play a little bit slower that just black (to be expected)
Creatures
Kingpin's Pet: Nice evasion, and comes with extort. There are better options but if you have it, its a nice addition.
Mourning Thrull: See Daggerdrome Imp. This has nice synergy with other cards though.
Nip Gwyllion: Meh. That's what I say when I see this card. Just, meh.
Edge of the Divinity
The real reason to splash for white. Add in some hybrid or just plain W/B creatures into your deck.
Other
Castigate: If you're playing any kind of targeted discard, use this.
Mana Curve
You will always want about twenty lands, give or take. Then twenty one drops and twenty two drops. You want your deck to have at least fifteen creatures and six removal spells.
Sideboard, dealing with MBA's weaknesses
Against Mono Blue Control or Tempo, or other control types.
Any discard. Duress, Hymn to Tourach, and it's ilk will be your best bets here, as long as you don't give them a choice as to what they discard. This cripples their ability to counter your stuff
Against Infect or Mono-Green Stompy
Same with the discard, but also removal so they waste their pump.
Against 8-Post/Tron
Chocking Sands or Befoul will force their hand or just utterly prevent them from doing stuff. Against FlickerPost, use discard
Against Goblins or other swarm strategies
Nausea, Shrivel, but mostly Echoing Decay. As long as you are careful about how much you use them and don't kill yourself. Also, Dead Weight does wonders against Goblin Sledders.
Against White Weenies
Unmake takes out their greatest assets, the protection guys.
Against Affinity
Black can not deal with artifacts, so you'll have to remove their creatures or make them discard their artifacts.
Do not use, Serrated Arrows, Wring Flesh, or Innocent Blood, under any circumstances! Too mana intensive, too useless, and too self destructive!
Decklists
Mono-Black Suicide Hyper Aggro
4 Dark Ritual
2 Lotus Petal
Expedient Death Bringers
4 Porcelain Legionnaire
4 Vault Skirge
4 Carnophage
4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Pulse Tracker
4 Wicked Akuba
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Snuff Out
3 Spinning Darkness
Land
16 Swamp
This deck just comes roaring out. Play creatures, play a free spell, do more stuff, play creatures. Lotus Petal is mentioned no where else in the primer because usaully the Dark Rituals are good enough to mana accelerate you into anything, but this needs as much acceleration as possible.
4 Festering Goblin
4 Kjeldoran Dead
1 Barrow Ghoul
4 Carrion Feeder
4 Carnophage
3 Altar's Reap
3 Doomblade
3 Ghastly Demise
4 Dark Ritual
3 Vile Rebirth
2 Sign in Blood
2 Barren Moor
WARNING: This decklist is untested. It tries to play creatures and then get advantages from sacrificing them.
Mono Black Aggro (minimal suicide)
19 Swamp
Pump
4 Bonesplitter
4 Predator's Gambit
One Drop Creatures
4 Carnophage
3 Vampire Lacerator
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Dauthi Horror
4 Vault Skirge
Spells
4 Sign in Blood
4 Doom Blade
2 Disfigure
4 Dark Ritual
This tries to pump up the dudes with evasion while beating face or chump blocking with the one drop guys.
Aggro Control Rats (By XBM Yosho)
2 Augur of Skulls
4 Chittering Rats
3 Crypt Rats
4 Fume Spitter
4 Phyrexian Rager
14 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Barren Moor
4 Polluted Mire
Spells (21)
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
3 Dead Weight
4 Geth's Verdict
1 Grim Harvest
1 Snuff Out
3 Spinning Darkness
4 Sign in Blood
4 Unearth
This deck takes card advantage, and straps on some card advantage. However, it is much, much slower than a suicide or sacrifice list, so watch out against any kind of Stompy or Affinity
Peasant-ification
Lands
Mishra's Factory Is a great addition. It's the fastest, most aggresive, cheapest manland out there, its also the best.
Creatures
Diregraf Ghoul: Swap out some Vampire Lacerators for this.
Hypnotic Specter: Great disruption, plus evasion, I would probably include him in a meta with lots of disruptive control or hateful white weenies.
Nantuko Shade: Comes with pump! An excellent way to turn dead, late-game Dark Rituals into damage!
Vampire Nighthawk: Cool it has flying! Oh wow, lifelink too... DEATHTOUCH! This guy, it's usually between him and Hypnotic Specter, they're both awesome, but chose whichever one your meta calls for. Nighthawk for more aggro, Specter for more control or combo.
Spells
Instants
Darkblast: Good in decks with Barrow Ghoul. It's a nice combat trick and I like it's dredge ability to put stuff into the graveyard.
Demonic Tutor: Personal Note: It's a great card, not sure if it's useful enough to be worth ten bucks in a peasant deck but, your choice. It tutors up your removal, amazing creatures, Bonesplitter. FOR TWO MANA!
Hymn to Tourach: Eats your opponents hands for breakfast. Sometimes considered a common, sometimes an uncommon. Talk to your playgroup.
My lame attempt at humor...
Why does everyone in Bant hate the Lord of Riots? 'Cause they're all, Rakdos-intolerant! Awwww, yeah...
A few corrections.
Under 2 CMC Creature Choice
You have merged Blind Creeper and Skittering Skirge with a comma, so they do not show up in the info pop up.
You have merged Dauthi Slayer and Dauthi Horror with a comma, so they do not show up in the info pop up.
Under 1 CMC Instant Spell Choice
You have merged Disfigure and Dead Weight with a forward slash, so they do not show up in the info pop up.
Under 2 CMC Instant Spell choice
You have merged Doom Blade, Grasp of Darkness and Victem of Night with forward slashes, so they do not show up in the info pop up.
Deck suggestion, RATS.
Your typical tier 2-3 deck. Sits about halfway between aggro and MBC.
2 Augur of Skulls
4 Chittering Rats
3 Crypt Rats
4 Fume Spitter
4 Phyrexian Rager
Lands (22)
14 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Barren Moor
4 Polluted Mire
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
3 Dead Weight
4 Geth's Verdict
1 Grim Harvest
1 Snuff Out
3 Spinning Darkness
4 Sign in Blood
4 Unearth
2 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Liliana's Specter
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Reaping the Graves
3 Distress
4 Duress
W White Weenie
EDIT: Rats is too slow to come into this Primer. Once someone makes an MBC primer you could notify them. Sorry.
My lame attempt at humor...
Why does everyone in Bant hate the Lord of Riots? 'Cause they're all, Rakdos-intolerant! Awwww, yeah...
Good stuff with the flavor, I always like seeing that. Try using descriptive adjectives to embellish your phrases. I personally don't particularly enjoy the rhetorical questions; it makes it sound like a monologue or some sort of pep rally!
In some of your card descriptions, I'm left wondering what you actually think of them. For example, you wrote for Guul Draz Vampire: "A late game card. Late game? What late game?" I think you're implying that you won't use him, but I'm not entirely sure. Let us know what you think of each card by comparing it with other similar cards and in what situations they might be good. This lets us make up our own minds on how useful they are, all the while sharing your own experience with them.
I was always under the impression that Phyrexian Rager was a staple in sui and aggro lists for the reasons you mentioned: he's great for card advantage. Once in play, he has no strings attached, he's just a 2/2 beatstick. Would you recommend ritualing into him first turn? What do you think of Liliana's Specter? I've seen her in many winning lists and it just seems like an overall powerful card and another way of generating card advantage! Don't discount Festering Goblin so quickly! Combined with a Carrion Feeder you can take out opposing 1/1s, or even attack with the goblin and take down two creatures or a 2/2. He can be a pain to block.
You also forgot to mention one of the most important 2 drops of the deck : Vault Skirge. Drop this guy first turn and follow up with Bonesplitter and you'll never have to worry about your life total again. He'll race other aggro decks all by himself for you.
In the same Phyrexian vein, you should also mention Porcelain Legionnaire. This two drop is incredibly strong in combat, especially when equipped or enchanted with stuff that increases his power.
Instead of dividing your spells by card type, I think it would better if you divided your cards by their function (ie removal cards, ramp cards, draw cards, etc.). We would get a clearer idea of where cards are situated with the others and you/we could compare them more easily. You separate your pump, so why not separate everything else?
In the land department where you simply indicated swamps, I think you could add Bojuka Bog and perhaps Barren Moor. Although they come into play tapped, the first suggestion could be useful as a 1-of, or maybe in the sideboard. The latter suggestion could be a 2-of in the deck, so that it can be cycled in the mid-game to give you more juice.
Spinning Darkness is really good, and Suff Out has been a staple of the sui-black archetype since its' printing. Geth's Verdict can be added to your list. Although I like Diabolic Edict the best, many people choose to run Geth's just for the additional lifeloss. I think Lose Hope deserves a mention as well. It can kill off an X/1 or help kill bigger creatures in conjunction with you creatures, and the Scry 2 can really make a huge difference in such a redundant deck as yours.
As for sideboard suggestions, adding discard is never a bad idea versus control decks. Versus Hexproof (a deck that will give you trouble), you can add more edict effects like Diabolic Edict and Geth's Verdict. Unearth has a place in the sideboard when many creature you run have "enters the battlefield" effects. Unearthing a Phyrexian Rager is a beautiful thing.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Phyrexian Rager. Has a place in some lists, but I don't quite know where exactly to put it in.
Vault Skirge: Hmmm... Fits the flavor and the strategy. I'll include that in lists!
On ETBT lands: You are arguing for a very, very dangerous thing. I have never had success with them. I will add Bojuka Bog into the sideboard section.
Spinning Darkness: Well, I'll put it into the primer, but uh, not sure where it could fit in a list.
Lose Hope: Will go in as a one of in the sacrifice which has more combo like elements.
Edicts: I don't use too many, considering the swarmy-ness of pauper. I find it hard to really hit stuff. Geth's Verdict though. Looks nifty. Again, don't know where I should deck list it.
Lilliana's Specter: Hmmph. Cool card...
Porcelain Legionnaire: w00t! Just in time for the white splash section!
You have revealed to me that I need yet another archetype to include. Aggro-Control is the perfect place for some of these cards. Me gusta.
However, I'll have to wait for tomorrow to make the changes. Any more ideas for Aggro-Control?
My lame attempt at humor...
Why does everyone in Bant hate the Lord of Riots? 'Cause they're all, Rakdos-intolerant! Awwww, yeah...
maindeck discard. Look at XBM Yosho's Rats list. Chittering Rats and Ravenous Rats are excellent creatures to play and gain card advantage.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
I would agree, and again suggest the RATS deck for aggro-control as that is essentially the entire basis behind the deck. It utilizes both creature and card disruption all the while swinging away until the inevitable Crypt Rats kill.
W White Weenie
My lame attempt at humor...
Why does everyone in Bant hate the Lord of Riots? 'Cause they're all, Rakdos-intolerant! Awwww, yeah...
Vampire's Bite is a good quick pump and goes great if you already have Lifelink creatures. Big damage early and can give you life if you happen to run into late game.
Vendetta can be a removal choice too. Great with decks using life gain, but isn't great for Sui builds. It may have some drawbacks, but it's easy on the mana so it allows removal while letting you play more spells along with it.
He also plays 3 Dark Rituals and not 4. I think he may be right on this, as they are very bad top decks and aren't really necessary to get a good start in the game.
Also, Sinister Strength seems just plain better than Dark Favor.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
My lame attempt at humor...
Why does everyone in Bant hate the Lord of Riots? 'Cause they're all, Rakdos-intolerant! Awwww, yeah...
That's actually a pretty neat card, he can come into play turn 3 or sooner if you have a Dark Ritual and if you aren't facing artifacts or black he is unblockable. The 3/2 body is slightly underwhelming but it is a nice card none the less.
W White Weenie
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
I like the Affinity Golems, and Dross is pretty good too, but overall I'd have to agree with Obermeir. There are better uses for Dark Ritual. If you happen to run into later game turns is when it will probably shine since you'll be able to drop him for next to nothing and can optimize your mana/turn for other plays. That being said, if you're going into later turns you're doing something wrong. Definitely test with it though and let me know how it works out.
I'd go ahead and take out 2 Swamps since this deck can definitely run with 18 swamps. Then you will have space for some more removal like Geth's Verdict or Doom Blade if you want to target creatures.
I put together a Rogue take on MBA to take advantage of Morsel Theft which is excellent, especially in activating Guul Draz Vampire and stopping lifeloss from Vampire Lacerator... and so I could literally play a Rogue deck
I like it so far, and MBA in general. For my SB, I have cards to either make the deck more resilient to removal (against any slower deck) or to transform it into a control deck (needed against faster aggro decks).
I like the matchups so far in my limited testing (also, I play on MTGO... but the primer is only here in the paper section). I've run into Delver, Elves, Tron, Hexproof, and Affinity, and so far only Affinity went poorly (but I also made a major mistake in thinking I was faster than them; I'll try to sideboard in as control next time).
16 Swamp
4 Dark Ritual
Creatures
4 Dauthi Horror
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Nightshade Stinger
4 Guul Draz Vampire
4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Pulse Tracker
2 Geth's Verdict
4 Disfigure
Pump
4 Predator's Gambit
3 Bonesplitter
Rogue-ness!
3 Morsel Theft
4 Diabolic Edict
1 Soul Reap
2 Apostle's Blessing
2 Geth's Verdict
2 Victim of Night
4 Undying Evil
Deathcult Rogue is pretty good and fits the flavor, but he's pretty high cmc compared to all your other creatures, so I could see why you might not use him.
I personally do not like Nightshade Stinger. He isn't as good as Tormented Soul so I feel you should make the switch. The problem with Nightshade Stinger is that it can be blocked, where as Tormented Soul flat out cannot. In addition they both have evasion but Tormented Soul has the better version.
W White Weenie
I had him in there in the first incarnation, along with Faerie Macabre and Thieving Sprite, but 3 CMC was indeed too slow for my tastes. Cutting them out let me drop the land count to 16, too.
Tormented Soul is certainly better, even considering it doesn't activate Morsel Theft. I'll probably try him out and cut down to 2 Morsels, maybe upping Bonesplitter to 4. Thanks for the tip.
I would do just that, with four Bonesplitters you have a higher chance to get yourself a 3/1 unblockable and realistically that is pretty damned powerful in the world of Pauper. In addition he can end up being a main power house for your deck because you also have Predator's Gambit.
W White Weenie
18 Swamp
Creatures
4 Dauthi Horror
4 Dauthi Slayer
4 Guul Draz Vampire
4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Pulse Tracker
4 Tormented Soul
3 Disfigure
4 Soul Reap
Pump
4 Bonesplitter
Life loss
4 Bump in the Night
3 Dash Hopes
4 Diabolic Edict
4 Geth's Verdict
3 Victim of Night
4 Undying Evil
Out
From my previous lists, I took out a few cards because they just seemed sub-optimal, setting up 2 for 1s or just being a dead card sometimes.
First, I ditched Morsel Theft. With only 8 rogues in there, it was sometimes a 4-mana spell... which is horrible and usually dead.
Next, I took out Dark Ritual and Predator's Gambit. While fast, they aren't game-winning fast like DelverFiend decks. In a format heavy with removal, this often just means you're getting 2 for 1'd, giving opponents a much easier time blunting your assault.
Finally, I got rid of Geth's Verdict mainboard. With only 7 removal spells, this is basically never killing what you want to kill. Geth's only belongs vs. hexproof/protection and in a more controlling version (which you can sideboard into) with enough removal so they only have one creature and no choices when you play this card.
In
To replace them, I tested out life loss cards that all play really well with each other, keep up the aggro strategy, and activate Guul Draz Vampire or calm your Vampire Lacerators down. These were Bump in the Night, Soul Reap, and Dash Hopes. Bump is the black Lava Spike (you don't even need the flashback), and Soul Reap attaches it to a creature kill spell if you can lead into it with one of your 27 one-drops (conveniently helped by Bump). Its drawback is minor, making it only really dead against Stompy (not played much now that MBC is on the rise again) and Hexproof (where all targeted removal is dead anyway).
Dash Hopes, combined with your aggro creatures and other life-loss spells, gives opponents a very tough choice and is often very unexpected. It's also not uncommon for it to be an outright black Counterspell with your opponent at 5 life or below. I was very impressed in testing, but I would only ever play 3. This is the card you want to be holding back after dropping all your creatures, looking to protect them or counter a big late game spell that would let your victim stabilize while on his last 25% of the life meter. You don't really want it for the early, early game where you are looking to develop your board and apply more pressure.
1. No Dark Ritual:
Dark ritual is inherent card disadvantage. In order for it to be worth it, the gain in board position must compensate for that in either killing speed or future card advantage.
MBA's use is for killing speed... but in this removal-heavy meta, it is simply not fast enough. A Dark Ritual opening will still, even without interaction and in an ideal hand, need 3 turns to kill someone (very rare) and will often need 5+. That gives control decks far too much time to stabilize, and there are far more consistent aggro decks (DelverFiend) that will usually win the race, with or without Dark Ritual.
Therefore, I concluded that it isn't worth it. It actually hurts our game against control (letting them stabilize by answering one fewer card more often than it would kill them), and it does not significantly help against other aggro decks with a faster, more consistent clock than ours. Also, as mentioned above, it's horrible to top-deck into one.
2. No flyers
The creatures are very, very aggro; we do not care about blocking. If we are the control, our defense only comes from removal spells. All we care about for our aggressive creatures is evasion, and shadow is generally much better for that than flying since there are a lot of guys with flying or reach in this meta that can stop them.
It may be worth testing some flyers (Vault Skirge or Nightshade Stinger) into the SB to swap out Guul Draz Vampire since he isn't nearly as good against Affinity or MBC. They could even main-board replace Pulse Tracker since he can only get one point of damage through/ he dies without trading to any 2+ toughness creature out there (though he shines in more removal-heavy versions that can keep the lanes blocker-free). I hadn't actually thought about taking them out before because I still had Morsel Theft in there and needed those 8 rogues to activate it. Since that's gone, it's a good time to re-evaluate.
It seems like you are grossly under-estimating Dark Ritual. You're saying it's a disadvantage to play 2-3 creatures in your opening turn than to play one creature due to removal? What removal will kill 3 creatures turn 1? If you say Dark Ritual isn't fast enough, then what is?
If you're on the play you can get 4-5 damage on the board, add in a turn 2 Bonesplitter then you have 6-7 damage. Assuming your opponent has turn one removal in their deck (Vapor Snag, Lightning Bolt or Disfigure being the main culprits) then you will only lose one creature on your turn 2 attack and still hit for 2-3 damage. Without Dark Ritual you play one creature first turn then that creature is dead second turn then you have no damage dealt until at least 3rd turn, but under your logic they still have enough removal, so there's goes turn 3 and possibly 4. You aren't running discard so removal will tear through your deck no matter what, but Dark Ritual gives you early pressure that can be completely answered until turn 3. If you assume they'll have answers against your opening Dark Ritual, then they will also have those answers for the same play spread out over your first few turns, so you lost either way. Even against Aggro putting out that many creatures first turn is good so then you'll have room to keep open mana for removal.
If you don't have the space or you don't want to play Dark Ritual, then that's fine, but don't try and dissuade other players from it with incorrect assumptions.
If you don't want a flyer because Shadow is better then that's fine. a 2/2 unblockable is better than a 1/1 partial unblockable, but if you are thinking about using one in the sideboard, don't go with Nightshade Stinger. Vault Skirge is better in every way. It's a turn one play that can block and gains life.
Vault Skirge is great main deck in a lot of ways though. He regains the health you lost from your suicide creatures. He also helps you fight and race against aggro, which you mentioned you have trouble racing against.
One suggestion with your new list is to drop Bump in the Night and add another Dash Hopes and replace the rest with Sign in Blood. You're gonna run out of steam and Sign in Blood helps you keep your momentum.