Mono-black discard has always been a classic in MTG. Unfortunately, without dark ritual and hymn to tourach, T2 mono-black discard will never reach the power level of legacy. Nonetheless, it is fun and still can win FNMs.
I choose to do a less swamp-intensive build so I could fit in the grim discovery/quicksand and gargoyle castle combo. This meant I cut tendrils of corruption, which should probably be in a more swamp intensive build.
Since you are such a heavy discard focus deck, mind sludge isn't as strong except against slow control decks...where aren't exactly swarming in the format.
Mire's toll is actually a pretty nice card: at 1 swamp, it reads target player discards a card. At more swamps, you get to start plucking away at key cards including creatures (unlike duress)...this is especially nice when they have 3-4 cards in hand.
Now while it is no the Rack, Quest for the Nihil stone is extremely easy to activate in this deck, and the threat of it often keeps players from playing out their cards.
I really like Mind-Sludge and Tendrils both for this deck- Tendrils will help you take out some heavy hitters as well as net you some life back, which is a big deal. I like Mind Sludge because after the first few turns, it pretty much always reads : Target opponent discards their hand. It means that no matter what type of deck you're playing against, if you drop a Mind Sludge, Nihil stone gets activated. I'd def. add some swamps back in.
I think this could have some real strength as a B/R Bloodchief Ascension / Nihil Stone sort of deck. A single Blightning activates your Nihil stone, and gets you a counter for the Bloodchief Ascension as well.
I'm a big fan of Grim Discovery + Quicksand/Castle, though if a player decides to go with a swamp heavy build this def. means staying away from Mind Sludge and Tendrils. Dread Statuary fits in nicely with this as well.
IMO you need some more main deck removal. Try using Fleshbag Marauder which works nicely with Grim Discovery. I'd try dropping the Guul Draz specters for the marauders.
Fleshbag marauder could be an interesting choice for the board, but I haven't had a problem with removal yet. Since you are taking huge chunks out of their hand, they are usually in top-deck mode very soon. You just keep your gatekeepers in hand until they top-deck their bomb.
B/R is of course an option. I tested it and didn't like it is as much surprisingly. Now, the problem with adding bloodchief ascension AND quest for the nihil stone is you greatly increase the chances of top-decking either, both of which are terrible late game. I do love bloodcheif ascension, but this isn't the deck for it.
By turn 5, they usually have 1-2 cards in hand, in which case, your other discard cards will also do the job. If anything Bloodhusk Ritualistmight be a better choice for the deck.
I do like Tendrils, and might squeeze it back in here, we'll see.
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Over all, I've found B/R more effective than Mono-black discard, primarily because Blightning, terminate, and Slavering Nulls have won me a number of games. My luck with Nyxathid
has found it very awkward in conjunction with Quest for the Nihil Stone, primarily because it doesn't have evasion, and both cards reward your opponents for keeping cards in hand. Most importantly, Nyxathid doesn't force your opponent to discard.
Guul Draz Specter is more optimal if you want to take advantage of Quest for the Nihil Stone, because it forces your opponent into a no-win situation. In all honesty, the fact that it gets the pump from your opponent's empty hand isn't the real appeal. It's the fact that it is the happy medium between Nyxathid and Hypnotic Specter that makes it so awesome with the Quests. It has the same clock as Nyxathid and an active Quest, and it has the same synergy as Hyppie and an inactive Quest.
However if you are set on running Mono-Black, this is what I'd run:
The problem I found with R/B was that is was discarding much slower. I always wanted a T1 discard, a slavering nulls on t2, and blightning or hypnotic specter on t3, which never seemed to work for me.
Nyxathid is just huge undercosted beater or blocker. He's always been huge for me. They have 2 cards in hand, do they really want to play that one card out and make him larger?? Often opponents won't realize that since he is a 3/3 right now with your 4 cards in hand, that you still can't bolt him. The play is hilarious.
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"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made" - Immanuel Kant
The list looks pretty strong, except for your 4x Consume Spirit. I would only run 1 of these considering you only have 22x swamps (which I consider the minimum for this type of deck). I'd also probably sideboard Black Knight . This gives you 5x slots....you might want to consider gatekeeper of malakir and scepter of fugue.
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"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made" - Immanuel Kant
Four Duress. No exceptions. We don't have the luxury of Thoughtseize, and every deck runs non-creature spells. It may not be an ideal T1 play all the time against certain decks, but even if you nab a Lightning Bolt it's worth it. I run a 4/2 split of Duress/Toll, in the tradition of Legacy's MBA.
Issues: Quest for the Nihil Stone- while a really powerfull early play that wins games by itself, if I draw it late is pretty much a dead card because my opponent has no more cards to discard ! So four of in the deck is quite a liability.
Scepter of Fugue- Don't seem to need it. Although my deck is severely lacking 2 drops... If I'm lucky I get a turn one duress, other than deck the deck starts playing on turn 3.
Guul Draz Specter- I prefer Nyx for a beater and for the discard part I can do the same with Hippie for one less mana.
I'm playing the deck as a mid-range discard deck with a simple plan. Discard their hand to play Nyx (that's why I'm favoring rot over sludge), and beat their face to a pulp, by clearing whatever is in the way with removal. To defend just play a Nighthawk and let it sit there. If you know they have removal (duress), play a specter first to draw it out.
Haven't played many tier1 decks yet except Jund. Everything else I played I went 2-0, with Jund was 1-2, with a close third match, they had stag main. I didn't have this exact list but the idea was the same. Need to test again.
Shiku: glad you've been putting up some good results. I also am pretty impressed with the deck, which is why I posted it.
A few things: yeah, your 3-drop spot is severely crowded. This is the main reason I don't play knighthawk, though of course is a great utility creature. I would say something needs to be cut.
Personally, I would move scepter of fugue to the side at least instead of dropping it entirely. It is very strong versus control decks, which I think you will start seeing more of with Jace 2.0.
Also, why not just main-board gargoyle castle?? As you saw, great sable stag can be a problem for the deck...adding castles gives us additional answers over gatekeeper of malakir. As to its interaction with Mind Sludge, them discarding 4 instead of 5 cards on T5 is usually inconsequential anyway.
I think I am going to take my build to FNM this week. I'll post my results when I get them
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I finally took my build to FNM. I went a disappointing 2-2.
Match 1: I lost to summoning trap deck...game 1 he got 2x banelsayer on the board and then threw down a realm razor, game 2 he got 2x emeria out and then threw down a realm razor and then destroyed it, netting 14 birds. Pretty interesting deck. Game 3 for fun Malakir bloodwitch and Sorin tore him up....
Game 2: Mill.dec. He got me down to 10 cards game one, but Gatekeepers kept his creatures off the board, and scepter of fugue get his hand empty for nyxathid beats. Game 2, I got 2 active quests by t4 and it was a blow-out
Game 3: Eldrazi Green: mana screwed game one, and he came out of the gates swinging. It's a bad matchup anyway, so I side-boarded in 12 cards. Game 2, he got joraga warcaller out with 3 counters on it due to oran reif, and gained 20 life from Nissa. He kept getting 5/6 Nissa's chosens each turn...not much I could do
Game 4: Esper Transmuter Aggro: His mana cruve was quite high, and whenever he would finally drop a sphinx, gatekeeper said no.
Overall, the deck does very well against slower controlling decks as expected, but has some trouble with fast aggro. I'm thinking that main-board black knight and smother might be in order, although I'm not sure. The mind rots could come out for mind sludges, with more creatures early game, but then we are playing a game very much like vampires which is just better at it. I'm going to think over the options.
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"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made" - Immanuel Kant
There isn't really any reason to stay mono black. Terminate for bane slayers, blightning over mind rot, burning inquary can set a late game nihil stone active. Why stay mono black?
Also, it doesn't have to not be vamps. You could easily use all the great vampire creatures abilities to your benefit with a more heavy discard theme and nihil stone as the win instead of spending all that money on nocturnis. This too doesn't limit you to mono black.
Has anyone thought of using Cunning Lethemancer? Yeah we have to discard too, but at least it guarantees the opponents hand stays down. Use it with Scepter and they practically can't draw / keep anything in their hand making Nihil a lot more consistent.
I haven't tested it yet but he looks good to me. What do you guys think?
Cunning Lethemancer costs the same as hypnotic specter, has the same power/toughness, doesn't have evasion, isn't a random discard, and hurts you too. Cunning Lethemancer is awesome in a madness, reanimation, or unearth style deck but not when we don't gain any benefit from discarding.
Although I do like the idea of not focusing so heavily on discard spells and instead adding in creatures that have come into play effects making you discard.
Which means you're also putting threats on the board that they'll have to spend removal on to live. RDW will be out of cards in no time but the average Jund deck doesn't have but 3 cards in the entire deck that cost less then 3 mana so they usually don't have less then 6 or 7 cards in hand until after turn 3. What if we ran Rotting Rats, Sanity Gnawers, and Bloodhusk Ritualist? You could have them down 3 cards by turn 4 which would greatly hinder their development as well as ensure counters on the stone and provide us with some semblence of a board presence. Could be played in addition to Mire's Toll, Blightning, and Hypnotic Specter so the majority of the deck makes them discard putting them in stone range very quickly while releaving any fears of them keeping a card. Then literally 1/3 of the cards in your library make them discard when you play them while 1/2 at least still make them discard. It also takes the presure of running Mind Sludge off since you'll chip away at their hand every turn which opens up splashing red for blightning to help chip away at their life total taking the pressure off the stone. I'm all about spreading the pressure around.
Also - Mire's Toll is better then duress here because even if you have 3 non basic lands, a mountain, and a swamp, you can make them discard no matter what the card is.
I'm thinking of adding 2 more dragonskull, 2 Pithing Needle on the sideboard and maybe 2 slavering nulls, but besides that I have no more ideas fort the deck, my meta has a few junds, 2 or 3 control deck, 1 or 2 RDW and 1 or 2 vampires.
so thanks for any help I'll try to test the deck on tomorrow's FNM
Looks like something up my alley. Here's what I'd do:
-Drop the Gatekeeper of Malakirs entirely. Not worth the slot in this deck. Especially once the manabase is fixed.
-Drop the Nyxathids. Nyxathid is a card that looks really strong on paper, but in practice is less than stellar. My testing suggests that it is nothing but a 3 mana removal magnet that does little to advance the strategy.
have you thought of cunning lethemancer? he's auto discard every turn though he does hit you as well. but if you dont mind that him and rotting rats are good early drops creature wise.
I don't like tectonic for this deck, the lethermage maybe for a mono black build to be able to draw cards with sigin blood, I'll take out or to the sideboard sorin for the siavering nulls.
I find I personally seem to have the most trouble with fast aggro type decks, like Goblin Guide decks and the like, as well as some WW decks. The Wall of Bones are there to hopefully stop some of the early beats as well as the Slavering Nulls to get some quick bodies out to block, and the Scepter of Fugue helps against some control matchups.
I was surprised by how well this deck has done, especially vs. Jund. As long as you play around Maelstrom Pulse with the enchantments.
Any other suggestions of ideas would be great . Thanks !
Why aren't you running Duress in the MB. I feel like in a deck this heavily set toward's Discard that you should be running at least a couple of them as that first turn disruption is so handy.
i also feel like Liliana is not specialized enough for this set up. She has the one discard ability and the tutor is nice but I think you could better use that slot for something else. Maybe the duress could go in that slot and drop burning inquiry. Yes inquiry can be nice but it has just as much potential to hose you out of cards that you wanted as it does to get you closer to your kill. I don't know, that's just my thoughts
EDIT: why don't you have one or two thought hemoragges in your SB, I know there isn't much combo in the game but I feel like they could help to shutdown some of the annoying cards/decks that give us trouble (Pulse and the like).
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the user formerly known as isopsycho86
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Thanks to Megabug/Sgt Chubbz and Kracked Graphics for the Sig Legacy RUBFaithless Dredge
I'm currently at 61 cards cause I added a fourth Quest since not having them early REALLY seems to suck. I'm also thinking about adding some Burning Inquiry main deck because if you don't get a quest on early they're a big win... Especially playing something that can keep dropping cards once they're down to 0 in hand.
Why aren't you running Duress in the MB. I feel like in a deck this heavily set toward's Discard that you should be running at least a couple of them as that first turn disruption is so handy.
i also feel like Liliana is not specialized enough for this set up. She has the one discard ability and the tutor is nice but I think you could better use that slot for something else. Maybe the duress could go in that slot and drop burning inquiry. Yes inquiry can be nice but it has just as much potential to hose you out of cards that you wanted as it does to get you closer to your kill. I don't know, that's just my thoughts
EDIT: why don't you have one or two thought hemoragges in your SB, I know there isn't much combo in the game but I feel like they could help to shutdown some of the annoying cards/decks that give us trouble (Pulse and the like).
isopsycho86, thanks alot for the feedback, those are some great ideas.
Liliana has been 50/50 for me. Sometimes great, sometimes not so great, but the one thing i do like is that she can sometimes soak up some damage, as I have found that playing this deck I have to be comfortable getting fairly low on life points.
Thought Hemorrhage is an amazing idea, I will definitely be trying that out, thanks again!
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Mono-black discard has always been a classic in MTG. Unfortunately, without dark ritual and hymn to tourach, T2 mono-black discard will never reach the power level of legacy. Nonetheless, it is fun and still can win FNMs.
Here is my current deck-list:
2x Gargoyle Castle
2x Quicksand
2x Duress
2x Mire's Toll
3x Quest for the Nihil Stone
2x Grim Discovery
4x Sign in Blood
2x Scepter of Fugue
1x Dead Reckoning
3x Mind Rot
2x Tendrils of Corruption
2x Sorin Markov
3x Hypnotic Specter
3x Nyxathid
3x Guul Draz Specter
1x Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
3x Infest
3x Vampire Hexmage
2x Smother
2x Black Knight
2x Duress
2x Malakir Bloodwitch
1x Mind Sludge
I choose to do a less swamp-intensive build so I could fit in the grim discovery/quicksand and gargoyle castle combo. This meant I cut tendrils of corruption, which should probably be in a more swamp intensive build.
Since you are such a heavy discard focus deck, mind sludge isn't as strong except against slow control decks...where aren't exactly swarming in the format.
Mire's toll is actually a pretty nice card: at 1 swamp, it reads target player discards a card. At more swamps, you get to start plucking away at key cards including creatures (unlike duress)...this is especially nice when they have 3-4 cards in hand.
Now while it is no the Rack, Quest for the Nihil stone is extremely easy to activate in this deck, and the threat of it often keeps players from playing out their cards.
Other possible card choices in main or board:
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"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made" - Immanuel Kant
I think this could have some real strength as a B/R Bloodchief Ascension / Nihil Stone sort of deck. A single Blightning activates your Nihil stone, and gets you a counter for the Bloodchief Ascension as well.
I'm a big fan of Grim Discovery + Quicksand/Castle, though if a player decides to go with a swamp heavy build this def. means staying away from Mind Sludge and Tendrils. Dread Statuary fits in nicely with this as well.
B/R is of course an option. I tested it and didn't like it is as much surprisingly. Now, the problem with adding bloodchief ascension AND quest for the nihil stone is you greatly increase the chances of top-decking either, both of which are terrible late game. I do love bloodcheif ascension, but this isn't the deck for it.
By turn 5, they usually have 1-2 cards in hand, in which case, your other discard cards will also do the job. If anything Bloodhusk Ritualistmight be a better choice for the deck.
I do like Tendrils, and might squeeze it back in here, we'll see.
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"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made" - Immanuel Kant
Here's the list I've had a rather nice amount of success with:
8 Swamp
3 Mountain
4 Lavaclaw Reaches
4 Dragonskull Summit
3 Tectonic Edge
Creatures 15
4 Slavering Nulls
4 Guul Draz Specter
3 Hypnotic Specter
3 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Duress
4 Quest for the Nihil Stone
4 Blightning
3 Terminate
3 Mind Rot
3 Smother
3 Burst Lightning
3 Quicksand
3 Thought Hemorrhage
4 Wretched Banquet
3 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Earthquake
Over all, I've found B/R more effective than Mono-black discard, primarily because Blightning, terminate, and Slavering Nulls have won me a number of games. My luck with Nyxathid
has found it very awkward in conjunction with Quest for the Nihil Stone, primarily because it doesn't have evasion, and both cards reward your opponents for keeping cards in hand. Most importantly, Nyxathid doesn't force your opponent to discard.
Guul Draz Specter is more optimal if you want to take advantage of Quest for the Nihil Stone, because it forces your opponent into a no-win situation. In all honesty, the fact that it gets the pump from your opponent's empty hand isn't the real appeal. It's the fact that it is the happy medium between Nyxathid and Hypnotic Specter that makes it so awesome with the Quests. It has the same clock as Nyxathid and an active Quest, and it has the same synergy as Hyppie and an inactive Quest.
However if you are set on running Mono-Black, this is what I'd run:
20 Swamp
4 Tectonic Edge
Creature 16
4 Guul Draz Specter
3 Hypnotic Specter
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Bloodghast
4 Quest for the Nihil Stone
4 Duress
3 Tendrils of Agony
4 Smother
4 Mind Rot
2 Liliana Vess
The problem I found with R/B was that is was discarding much slower. I always wanted a T1 discard, a slavering nulls on t2, and blightning or hypnotic specter on t3, which never seemed to work for me.
Anyway, I like mono-black as T1 I will hit them with a duress, mire's toll, or the quest immediately. T2 I either sign in blood, scepter of fugue, or can again use duress and mire's toll. By the time I mind rot or Hypnotic Specter on three, there hand is almost empty already.
Nyxathid is just huge undercosted beater or blocker. He's always been huge for me. They have 2 cards in hand, do they really want to play that one card out and make him larger?? Often opponents won't realize that since he is a 3/3 right now with your 4 cards in hand, that you still can't bolt him. The play is hilarious.
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"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made" - Immanuel Kant
This is how my list is looking right now.
4 x Consume Spirit
4 x Hypnotic Specter
3 x Liliana Vess
4 x Mind Rot
4 x Mire's Toll/Duress
1 x Nightmare
4 x Nyxathid
4 x Quest for the Nihil Stone
2 x Smother
2 x Tendrils of Corruption
4 x Vampire Nighthawk
Would love to hear some comments and suggestions !!!
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"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made" - Immanuel Kant
Indeed the gatekeeper in coming in !! As for the scepter, I need to test it out.
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I run a similar list, except I have mainboard removal in the form of Smother and Tendrils of Corruption, and Mind Sludge in place of the Rots.
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"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made" - Immanuel Kant
Still have some development issues... This is my current list:
4x Nyxathid
4x Hypnotic specter
4x Gatekeeper of Malakir
4x Vampire Nighthawk
4x Duress
4x Mind Rot
Removal
3X Smother
3x Tendrils of Corruption
2x Consume Spirit
3x Liliana Vess
Land
23x Swamp
Issues:
Quest for the Nihil Stone- while a really powerfull early play that wins games by itself, if I draw it late is pretty much a dead card because my opponent has no more cards to discard ! So four of in the deck is quite a liability.
Scepter of Fugue- Don't seem to need it. Although my deck is severely lacking 2 drops... If I'm lucky I get a turn one duress, other than deck the deck starts playing on turn 3.
Guul Draz Specter- I prefer Nyx for a beater and for the discard part I can do the same with Hippie for one less mana.
Sideboard is looking something like this:
1x Smother
2x Infest
2x Gargoyle Castle
1x Hauting Echoes
I'm playing the deck as a mid-range discard deck with a simple plan. Discard their hand to play Nyx (that's why I'm favoring rot over sludge), and beat their face to a pulp, by clearing whatever is in the way with removal. To defend just play a Nighthawk and let it sit there. If you know they have removal (duress), play a specter first to draw it out.
Haven't played many tier1 decks yet except Jund. Everything else I played I went 2-0, with Jund was 1-2, with a close third match, they had stag main. I didn't have this exact list but the idea was the same. Need to test again.
Does anyone else have results !?!?
What Class Are You?
A few things: yeah, your 3-drop spot is severely crowded. This is the main reason I don't play knighthawk, though of course is a great utility creature. I would say something needs to be cut.
Personally, I would move scepter of fugue to the side at least instead of dropping it entirely. It is very strong versus control decks, which I think you will start seeing more of with Jace 2.0.
Also, why not just main-board gargoyle castle?? As you saw, great sable stag can be a problem for the deck...adding castles gives us additional answers over gatekeeper of malakir. As to its interaction with Mind Sludge, them discarding 4 instead of 5 cards on T5 is usually inconsequential anyway.
I think I am going to take my build to FNM this week. I'll post my results when I get them
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"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made" - Immanuel Kant
Match 1: I lost to summoning trap deck...game 1 he got 2x banelsayer on the board and then threw down a realm razor, game 2 he got 2x emeria out and then threw down a realm razor and then destroyed it, netting 14 birds. Pretty interesting deck. Game 3 for fun Malakir bloodwitch and Sorin tore him up....
Game 2: Mill.dec. He got me down to 10 cards game one, but Gatekeepers kept his creatures off the board, and scepter of fugue get his hand empty for nyxathid beats. Game 2, I got 2 active quests by t4 and it was a blow-out
Game 3: Eldrazi Green: mana screwed game one, and he came out of the gates swinging. It's a bad matchup anyway, so I side-boarded in 12 cards. Game 2, he got joraga warcaller out with 3 counters on it due to oran reif, and gained 20 life from Nissa. He kept getting 5/6 Nissa's chosens each turn...not much I could do
Game 4: Esper Transmuter Aggro: His mana cruve was quite high, and whenever he would finally drop a sphinx, gatekeeper said no.
Overall, the deck does very well against slower controlling decks as expected, but has some trouble with fast aggro. I'm thinking that main-board black knight and smother might be in order, although I'm not sure. The mind rots could come out for mind sludges, with more creatures early game, but then we are playing a game very much like vampires which is just better at it. I'm going to think over the options.
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"Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made" - Immanuel Kant
Also, it doesn't have to not be vamps. You could easily use all the great vampire creatures abilities to your benefit with a more heavy discard theme and nihil stone as the win instead of spending all that money on nocturnis. This too doesn't limit you to mono black.
I haven't tested it yet but he looks good to me. What do you guys think?
Although I do like the idea of not focusing so heavily on discard spells and instead adding in creatures that have come into play effects making you discard.
Which means you're also putting threats on the board that they'll have to spend removal on to live. RDW will be out of cards in no time but the average Jund deck doesn't have but 3 cards in the entire deck that cost less then 3 mana so they usually don't have less then 6 or 7 cards in hand until after turn 3. What if we ran Rotting Rats, Sanity Gnawers, and Bloodhusk Ritualist? You could have them down 3 cards by turn 4 which would greatly hinder their development as well as ensure counters on the stone and provide us with some semblence of a board presence. Could be played in addition to Mire's Toll, Blightning, and Hypnotic Specter so the majority of the deck makes them discard putting them in stone range very quickly while releaving any fears of them keeping a card. Then literally 1/3 of the cards in your library make them discard when you play them while 1/2 at least still make them discard. It also takes the presure of running Mind Sludge off since you'll chip away at their hand every turn which opens up splashing red for blightning to help chip away at their life total taking the pressure off the stone. I'm all about spreading the pressure around.
Also - Mire's Toll is better then duress here because even if you have 3 non basic lands, a mountain, and a swamp, you can make them discard no matter what the card is.
13x Swamps
3x lavaclaw reaches
2x dragonskull summit
4x akoum refuge
Creatures
3x gatekeeper of malakir
4x hypnotic Specter
4x Vampire Nighthawk
2x Guul Draz Specter
3x Nyxathid
4x Blightning
3x duress
Instant
2x Terminate
4x Lightning Bolt
Enchantment
3x Quest for the nihil stone
Artifacts
2x Scepter of fugue
Planeswalkers
2x Sorin Markov
2x Liliana Vess
2x Thought Hemorrhage
3x goblin ruinblaster
2x mind rot
3x Vampire Hexmage
2x Earthquake
1x Terminate
2x Empty Slots
so thanks for any help I'll try to test the deck on tomorrow's FNM
-Drop the Gatekeeper of Malakirs entirely. Not worth the slot in this deck. Especially once the manabase is fixed.
-Drop the Nyxathids. Nyxathid is a card that looks really strong on paper, but in practice is less than stellar. My testing suggests that it is nothing but a 3 mana removal magnet that does little to advance the strategy.
-Drop the Scepter of Fugue. Not worth the investment.
-I'd drop the Sorin Markov. He doesn't really help your deck at all.
-Drop 2 Akoum Refuge.
+I'd add 2 Guul Draz Specter.
+ Add a Duress and a Quest for the Nihil Stone
+ Add 2 Earthquake main deck.
+ Add 4 Slavering Nulls.
+ Add 2 Dragonskull Summit
In your side board, I'd drop the Ruinblasters for Tectonic Edge, which is a much better card, and add another Hexmage, maybe.
thanks for the replies
Here is the build I have been running
4 Dragonskull Summit
3 Akoum Refuge
14 Swamp
3 Lavaclaw Reaches
Creatures:
2 Gatekeeper of MAlakir
3 Guul Draz Specter
4 Nyxathid
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Quest for the Nihil Stone
3 Megrim
4 Blightning
4 Mind Rot
3 Mire's Toll
2 Doom Blade
2 Liliana Vess
1 Burning Inquiry
3 Wall of Bone
3 Smother
2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Scepter of Fugue
3 Slavering Nulls
1 Burning Inquiry
The main focus of the deck is trying to set up a win via Quest for the Nihil Stone and Megrim triggers. If you can get an opening hand with a couple Blightning, a Quest for the Nihil Stone, and a Megrim or a Mind Rot, this condition can win fairly quickly. Mire's Toll is also great for when they are holding a card in hand to turn off the quest or the Guul Draz Specter.
Also, Nyxathid has been wonderful for me, as he can grow quite large quickly, and many players make mistakes dealing with it and Guul Draz Specter. Burning Inquiry is a nice draw if you have some damage done already and the Mire's Toll/Quest for the Nihil Stone/Megrim setup hopefully to punch through the last 13 damage or so.
I find I personally seem to have the most trouble with fast aggro type decks, like Goblin Guide decks and the like, as well as some WW decks. The Wall of Bones are there to hopefully stop some of the early beats as well as the Slavering Nulls to get some quick bodies out to block, and the Scepter of Fugue helps against some control matchups.
I was surprised by how well this deck has done, especially vs. Jund. As long as you play around Maelstrom Pulse with the enchantments.
Any other suggestions of ideas would be great . Thanks !
i also feel like Liliana is not specialized enough for this set up. She has the one discard ability and the tutor is nice but I think you could better use that slot for something else. Maybe the duress could go in that slot and drop burning inquiry. Yes inquiry can be nice but it has just as much potential to hose you out of cards that you wanted as it does to get you closer to your kill. I don't know, that's just my thoughts
EDIT: why don't you have one or two thought hemoragges in your SB, I know there isn't much combo in the game but I feel like they could help to shutdown some of the annoying cards/decks that give us trouble (Pulse and the like).
DCI Judge L2 - Minneapolis
Thanks to Megabug/Sgt Chubbz and Kracked Graphics for the Sig
Legacy
RUBFaithless Dredge
4x Guul Draz Specter
4x Hypnotic Specter
4x Slavering Nulls
2x Bloodhusk Ritualist
Removal
3x Smother
3x Terminate
3x Burst Lightning
4x Blightning
3x Duress
2x Mire's Toll
3x Mind Rot
Other
4x Quest for the Nihil Stone
4x Akoum Refuge
2x Dragonskull Summit
4x Mountain
11x Swamp
I'm currently at 61 cards cause I added a fourth Quest since not having them early REALLY seems to suck. I'm also thinking about adding some Burning Inquiry main deck because if you don't get a quest on early they're a big win... Especially playing something that can keep dropping cards once they're down to 0 in hand.
Anyways, super fun deck I must say!
isopsycho86, thanks alot for the feedback, those are some great ideas.
I did initially have 4 Duress but dropped them for the Mire's Toll and the Burning Inquiry. But you do make a good point about the early disruption. I will try adding 2 or 3 and taking out Liliana Vess and Burning Inquiry.
Liliana has been 50/50 for me. Sometimes great, sometimes not so great, but the one thing i do like is that she can sometimes soak up some damage, as I have found that playing this deck I have to be comfortable getting fairly low on life points.
Thought Hemorrhage is an amazing idea, I will definitely be trying that out, thanks again!