I'm having a bit of success with the following list. I know I'm missing 1 cards but I don't remember off my head at the moment. It may be removals, but not 100% sure, will update when I get home. I'm a relatively new player so my analysis may be a bit off, so feel free to chime in.
Some thoughts:
Pain seer: Isn't really working out so well for me, I've found it hard to get it through and getting me card advantage. I can see the value but I may drop 1 and add an Erebos in the sideboard for card adv where necessary.
Mogis Marauder: Simply incredible. That, combined with a late Nighthowler or Desecration Demon is often a blowout and/or game.
Herald of Torment: it's a 3 of because I'm missing a 4th. The last one will definitely go in soon.
Desecration Demon: 6/6 Flyer for 4 is very strong, obviously. The downside is that it can be shut down. Against creature heavy decks, this can be a huge tempo loss, and turn 4 is a pretty critical turn as we want to be getting close to finishing them off. It has been successful for me mainly due to the combination with Mogis's Marauder.
Pack Rat: Not sure how I feel, as I haven't drawn it ever just yet. I can see some value as we don't really need the later land, and work well with mutavault.
Gray Merchant: Typically a lot of people don't like to dump 5 mana for a 2/4 in an aggro deck, and people are saying if you have the devotion for this you are probably winning anyways. I agree, but it does provide amazing value vs aggro/burn. Against other aggro we are often racing, and this (as well as whip/gift) can help swing the game, and against burn this may be that last turn you need to push in the damage for the W. May go to the sideboard though.
Nighthowler: Can be huge considering out cheap creatures, taken in after suggestions in the channel fireball article. I'm not convinced at the moment, I think I rather have a DD...but I will need to test it further.
Problems
Blood Baron: Very difficult to deal with, especially in a G/B/W deck I've been seeing at my LGS. Blood Baron in control decks are equally problematic (but fortunately we typically get there before it comes down, or close enough). I am considering 2 more Lifebane zombie for it, and LBZ is a strong card in general. I try to thoughtseize this away when I can but when they top deck this, well, it's a big issue. It's big, it's lifelink, and we can't evade it through intimidate (our primary source of evasion through mogis/LBZ). Gift of Orzhova is our best bet to trade with it. Gift on a bigger beater like Herald or gift+nighthowler can save vs blood baron. Perhaps I need to consider devour flesh (it works vs BB right?)
Sideboard
vs control: Not much problems, I side in 4 durress and our with bile blights/removals. I keep a hero's downfall vs planeswalkers but I honestly typically ignore them and go for the face. Cheaper beaters and mutavault typically ends it after they go for a couple 1/2 desperation sphinx's rev.
vs aggro: The fact that we main removals swing this in our favor, against the non black variants. After board it's a little more difficult, I side in drown in sorrow, which can be a huge blow out if they spend a bunch of cards disabling your small creatures (red typically brings in some burn/hate to remove creatures, and white can have things like pacifism. With no enchantment removal you can consider that creature basically dead anyways). Need to be careful when to use drown, but considering we have bigger creatures like DD/howler, drown can work in our favor.
vs midrange: Difficult match up in my opinion. We have a lot of removal which is great, and LBZ is relevant vs both orzhov and gruul midrange/monster which is the prevelent decks in this format. Definitely going to give 4x LBZ a try when I get them. Gift of Orzhova is a big factor in this matchup as we can't trade as effectively creature wise, so we need more forms of evasion. Lifelink is the difference between a win and a loss very often.
vs burn: Can be difficult as well, as we have a lot of self inflicted damage. I side out all the thoughtseizes for duress (just as relevant), and pain seers/removals, bringing in whip and gifts. Burn is a really complicated math game and you gotta count carefully. Be very careful about Heralds as it is very strong, but it can cause a loss because every life matters vs burn.
This is what I call Mono Black Blitz
It can be Human Blitz or Rat Blitz, depends on how you play the deck
The human part is due to the possibility of Xathrid Necromancer
As far as I am concerned, planning on having your board wiped is not a good thing
I'd rather try to cast thoughtsieze on the opponent as soon as they tap out at any turn to avoid that
And just plan on beating their face in
This deck runs on unblockability via Shadow Alley Denizen and Mogis's Marauder
Typically the best creature to send through and spend Boon of Erebos on is going to be Pain Seer
Boon of Erebos serves several purposes
It protects your best creature
It wins combat math
It can finish the game at instant speed
It even makes fights with Domri Rade bad for your opponent
Might make Thrill-Kill Assassin a good card in this deck
Honestly, if I could afford thoughtseizes, this deck would be sleeved up already in irl
But as far as I am concerned, aggro decks that have Brave the Elements or Mogis's Marauder have the same advantage red has
Good reach
All of the aggro archetypes suffer from board wipes
So play this deck and force them to play Drown in Sorrow, Anger of the Gods and Supreme Verdict
Then Sideboard Xathrid Necromancers and Dark Prophecy
and get through anyway.
I am uncertain about the sideboard
Most of it is for control
But lifebane zombie is a must
Since there are so many 3 drops here
I thought maybe swap out some Dark Prophecy for some swamps
To up the curve when you side in more 3cmc slots
I don't like it though
The maindeck is almost streamlined so well to wreck that I don't think a sideboard is ever needed
For a budget version of the deck, just swap Thoughtseize for Duress, because removal spells are all we care about anyway.
I played around a lot with the mono black aggro for about a month and a half. Had great success with the deck at FNM, ran 4-0 a whole bunch of weeks, 3-1 one week. Last tally I had was something like 15-1. With a lot of them being 2-0 victories. Usually ran 2-2 or 3-1 at the store with prior decks.
Final version was similar to the list from SCG
Main board was different -- 3 Pack Rat, 2 Spiteful Returned, 2 Bile Blight, 2 Ultimate Price, one less swamp (got flooded horribly a lot)
Sideboard was always changing week to week, but the last revision had something like 2 Gift of Orzhova, 3 Devour Flesh, 3 Duress, 2 Erebos, 2 Doomblade, 1 Dark Betrayal, 2 Demon
Comments about specific cards
Tried versions without Pack Rat at all (went Thrill Kill Assassin in its place, Spiteful Returned in its place), but found that Pack Rat, while not really in line with the plan of the deck, really helped with mid/late game wins and was clutch against decks that just clogged up the ground when I couldn't get my evasive threats on board. Proved to be really good against the monsters decks which at the time were extremely popular at my local store.
Spiteful Returned unbestowed or alone was crap, it needs to be bestowed or have something bestowed on it to even be worth your time, when bestowed though it is great for pushing through that last damage.
Thrill kill was great for pushing through decks that clogged up the ground or putting a body in front of decks that drop bigger creatures than you, really a utility card, doesn't win games for you.
I found that Pain Seer was amazing if it could stick on the board. It took a good 2 weeks for me to even cast him and have him stick for a turn. Even when it wasn't drawing relevant cards it was helping get pesky extra lands out of the way which was huge in longer matches. Only downside with the card is that it really needs some sort of life gain support if you are in a game going long.
Mogis's Marauder is basically the "kill" card. Against any deck not running black it more or less reads "Pay 3 mana, win the game if you have any board presence at all." I love seeing this card in my opening hand and just sand bagging it until I have lethal ready to go.
Worst matchups were definitely mono red aggro and RW Burn. RW Burn is basically unwinnable unless your opponent doesn't know how to play the deck or keeps a bad hand and you get the god draw. Luckily I dodged the RW Burn lists, but after SCG Seattle I did beat one burn deck in the finals of an FNM as game 1 he kept a slow hand and game 2 I disrupted his hand too much after he mulligan'd to 6 (my hand was 2 Duress, 2 thoughtseize, swamp, mutavault, cackler), top of the deck had another swamp and then a mixture of more disruption and more creatures). Bx Devo decks were a tougher matchup, but winnable.
The Achilles heel of the deck is that the 3 drop spot is just flooded with good stuff. But other than that I found that almost every deck I played against I had a good chance of victory
The black one drop is auto-in, I think and the 5/5 Demon is a possible replacement for Desecration Demon. This archetype in general seems like it'll be great through rotation, just needs another removal spell and some more fuel for the 2 drop spot to ease up the pressure on the 3 drop spot.
The only things that will really "hurt" this deck will be the loss of Mutavault at rotation and, to a lesser extent, Lifebane Zombie (which may or may not matter depending how things pan out over the next months), building this up now will give you something that'll be competitive for the through rotation
The only things that will really "hurt" this deck will be the loss of Mutavault at rotation and, to a lesser extent, Lifebane Zombie (which may or may not matter depending how things pan out over the next months), building this up now will give you something that'll be competitive for the through rotation
That's not for another 3 months. I wouldn't worry too much about it quite yet. I agree that losing Mutavault will not be an issue. Lifebane Zombie going away will also hurt several other decks, not just MBA.
Honestly I don't want to run 4 Mutavault in any mono color aggro deck. I don't like having 2 Mutavault + 5 other great cards in my opening hand that I can't cast. I always use 3.
The only things that will really "hurt" this deck will be the loss of Mutavault at rotation and, to a lesser extent, Lifebane Zombie (which may or may not matter depending how things pan out over the next months), building this up now will give you something that'll be competitive for the through rotation
That's not for another 3 months. I wouldn't worry too much about it quite yet. I agree that losing Mutavault will not be an issue. Lifebane Zombie going away will also hurt several other decks, not just MBA.
Honestly I don't want to run 4 Mutavault in any mono color aggro deck. I don't like having 2 Mutavault + 5 other great cards in my opening hand that I can't cast. I always use 3.
Actually 5 months, M14 and M15 are legal with each other until October.
The only things that will really "hurt" this deck will be the loss of Mutavault at rotation and, to a lesser extent, Lifebane Zombie (which may or may not matter depending how things pan out over the next months), building this up now will give you something that'll be competitive for the through rotation
That's not for another 3 months. I wouldn't worry too much about it quite yet. I agree that losing Mutavault will not be an issue. Lifebane Zombie going away will also hurt several other decks, not just MBA.
Honestly I don't want to run 4 Mutavault in any mono color aggro deck. I don't like having 2 Mutavault + 5 other great cards in my opening hand that I can't cast. I always use 3.
Actually 5 months, M14 and M15 are legal with each other until October.
Yeah so Lifebane is still a very good option until then. Maybe M15 will have a good replacement like Scavenging Ooze was for Flinthoof Boar in Gruul Aggro.
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Still qualifies as devotion due to Mogis's Marauder and Erebos, so this seems like as good a place as any.
3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Mogis's Marauder
4 Pack Rat
3 Pain Seer
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Tormented Hero
4 Herald of Torment
20 Swamp
4 Mutavault
Spells (12)
3 Bile Blight
4 Hero's Downfall
1 Ultimate Price
4 Thoughtseize
2 Desecration Demon
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Devour Flesh
2 Doom Blade
1 Whip of Erebos
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
3 Duress
Some thoughts:
Pain seer: Isn't really working out so well for me, I've found it hard to get it through and getting me card advantage. I can see the value but I may drop 1 and add an Erebos in the sideboard for card adv where necessary.
Mogis Marauder: Simply incredible. That, combined with a late Nighthowler or Desecration Demon is often a blowout and/or game.
Herald of Torment: it's a 3 of because I'm missing a 4th. The last one will definitely go in soon.
Desecration Demon: 6/6 Flyer for 4 is very strong, obviously. The downside is that it can be shut down. Against creature heavy decks, this can be a huge tempo loss, and turn 4 is a pretty critical turn as we want to be getting close to finishing them off. It has been successful for me mainly due to the combination with Mogis's Marauder.
Pack Rat: Not sure how I feel, as I haven't drawn it ever just yet. I can see some value as we don't really need the later land, and work well with mutavault.
Gray Merchant: Typically a lot of people don't like to dump 5 mana for a 2/4 in an aggro deck, and people are saying if you have the devotion for this you are probably winning anyways. I agree, but it does provide amazing value vs aggro/burn. Against other aggro we are often racing, and this (as well as whip/gift) can help swing the game, and against burn this may be that last turn you need to push in the damage for the W. May go to the sideboard though.
Nighthowler: Can be huge considering out cheap creatures, taken in after suggestions in the channel fireball article. I'm not convinced at the moment, I think I rather have a DD...but I will need to test it further.
Problems
Blood Baron: Very difficult to deal with, especially in a G/B/W deck I've been seeing at my LGS. Blood Baron in control decks are equally problematic (but fortunately we typically get there before it comes down, or close enough). I am considering 2 more Lifebane zombie for it, and LBZ is a strong card in general. I try to thoughtseize this away when I can but when they top deck this, well, it's a big issue. It's big, it's lifelink, and we can't evade it through intimidate (our primary source of evasion through mogis/LBZ). Gift of Orzhova is our best bet to trade with it. Gift on a bigger beater like Herald or gift+nighthowler can save vs blood baron. Perhaps I need to consider devour flesh (it works vs BB right?)
Sideboard
vs control: Not much problems, I side in 4 durress and our with bile blights/removals. I keep a hero's downfall vs planeswalkers but I honestly typically ignore them and go for the face. Cheaper beaters and mutavault typically ends it after they go for a couple 1/2 desperation sphinx's rev.
vs aggro: The fact that we main removals swing this in our favor, against the non black variants. After board it's a little more difficult, I side in drown in sorrow, which can be a huge blow out if they spend a bunch of cards disabling your small creatures (red typically brings in some burn/hate to remove creatures, and white can have things like pacifism. With no enchantment removal you can consider that creature basically dead anyways). Need to be careful when to use drown, but considering we have bigger creatures like DD/howler, drown can work in our favor.
vs midrange: Difficult match up in my opinion. We have a lot of removal which is great, and LBZ is relevant vs both orzhov and gruul midrange/monster which is the prevelent decks in this format. Definitely going to give 4x LBZ a try when I get them. Gift of Orzhova is a big factor in this matchup as we can't trade as effectively creature wise, so we need more forms of evasion. Lifelink is the difference between a win and a loss very often.
vs burn: Can be difficult as well, as we have a lot of self inflicted damage. I side out all the thoughtseizes for duress (just as relevant), and pain seers/removals, bringing in whip and gifts. Burn is a really complicated math game and you gotta count carefully. Be very careful about Heralds as it is very strong, but it can cause a loss because every life matters vs burn.
3 Pain Seer
3 Herald of Torment
4 Tormented Hero
4 Rakdos Cackler
1 Pack Rat
2 Lifebane Zombie
4 Mogis's Marauder
4 Spiteful Returned
1 Nighthowler
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Desecration Demon
2 Bile Blight
1 Hero's Downfall
2 Ultimate Price
4 Thoughtseize
Land (22)
18 Swamp
4 Mutavault
4 Duress
2 Doom Blade
1 Ultimate Price
1 Whip of Erebos
3 Gift of Orzhova
1 Drown in Sorrow
3 Dark Betrayal
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Tormented Hero
4 Shadow Alley Denizen
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak
4 Pain Seer
4 Pack Rat
4 Mogis's Marauder
4 Thoughtseize
4 Boon of Erebos
4 Ultimate Price
Lands (20)
4 Mutavault
16 Swamp
This is what I call Mono Black Blitz
It can be Human Blitz or Rat Blitz, depends on how you play the deck
The human part is due to the possibility of Xathrid Necromancer
As far as I am concerned, planning on having your board wiped is not a good thing
I'd rather try to cast thoughtsieze on the opponent as soon as they tap out at any turn to avoid that
And just plan on beating their face in
This deck runs on unblockability via Shadow Alley Denizen and Mogis's Marauder
Typically the best creature to send through and spend Boon of Erebos on is going to be Pain Seer
Boon of Erebos serves several purposes
It protects your best creature
It wins combat math
It can finish the game at instant speed
It even makes fights with Domri Rade bad for your opponent
Might make Thrill-Kill Assassin a good card in this deck
Honestly, if I could afford thoughtseizes, this deck would be sleeved up already in irl
But as far as I am concerned, aggro decks that have Brave the Elements or Mogis's Marauder have the same advantage red has
Good reach
All of the aggro archetypes suffer from board wipes
So play this deck and force them to play Drown in Sorrow, Anger of the Gods and Supreme Verdict
Then Sideboard Xathrid Necromancers and Dark Prophecy
and get through anyway.
Good Day
4 Xathrid Necromancer
4 Lifebane Zombie
4 Duress
3 Dark Prophecy
I am uncertain about the sideboard
Most of it is for control
But lifebane zombie is a must
Since there are so many 3 drops here
I thought maybe swap out some Dark Prophecy for some swamps
To up the curve when you side in more 3cmc slots
I don't like it though
The maindeck is almost streamlined so well to wreck that I don't think a sideboard is ever needed
For a budget version of the deck, just swap Thoughtseize for Duress, because removal spells are all we care about anyway.
Follow the link for nice cheap clothing.
Playing:
Death's Shadow Jund
Played:
Kiki Chord, Zoo variants, Goblins, Burn
Final version was similar to the list from SCG
Main board was different -- 3 Pack Rat, 2 Spiteful Returned, 2 Bile Blight, 2 Ultimate Price, one less swamp (got flooded horribly a lot)
Sideboard was always changing week to week, but the last revision had something like 2 Gift of Orzhova, 3 Devour Flesh, 3 Duress, 2 Erebos, 2 Doomblade, 1 Dark Betrayal, 2 Demon
Comments about specific cards
Tried versions without Pack Rat at all (went Thrill Kill Assassin in its place, Spiteful Returned in its place), but found that Pack Rat, while not really in line with the plan of the deck, really helped with mid/late game wins and was clutch against decks that just clogged up the ground when I couldn't get my evasive threats on board. Proved to be really good against the monsters decks which at the time were extremely popular at my local store.
Spiteful Returned unbestowed or alone was crap, it needs to be bestowed or have something bestowed on it to even be worth your time, when bestowed though it is great for pushing through that last damage.
Thrill kill was great for pushing through decks that clogged up the ground or putting a body in front of decks that drop bigger creatures than you, really a utility card, doesn't win games for you.
I found that Pain Seer was amazing if it could stick on the board. It took a good 2 weeks for me to even cast him and have him stick for a turn. Even when it wasn't drawing relevant cards it was helping get pesky extra lands out of the way which was huge in longer matches. Only downside with the card is that it really needs some sort of life gain support if you are in a game going long.
Mogis's Marauder is basically the "kill" card. Against any deck not running black it more or less reads "Pay 3 mana, win the game if you have any board presence at all." I love seeing this card in my opening hand and just sand bagging it until I have lethal ready to go.
Worst matchups were definitely mono red aggro and RW Burn. RW Burn is basically unwinnable unless your opponent doesn't know how to play the deck or keeps a bad hand and you get the god draw. Luckily I dodged the RW Burn lists, but after SCG Seattle I did beat one burn deck in the finals of an FNM as game 1 he kept a slow hand and game 2 I disrupted his hand too much after he mulligan'd to 6 (my hand was 2 Duress, 2 thoughtseize, swamp, mutavault, cackler), top of the deck had another swamp and then a mixture of more disruption and more creatures). Bx Devo decks were a tougher matchup, but winnable.
The Achilles heel of the deck is that the 3 drop spot is just flooded with good stuff. But other than that I found that almost every deck I played against I had a good chance of victory
The black one drop is auto-in, I think and the 5/5 Demon is a possible replacement for Desecration Demon. This archetype in general seems like it'll be great through rotation, just needs another removal spell and some more fuel for the 2 drop spot to ease up the pressure on the 3 drop spot.
It seems quite challenging, but is also really competitive. Come rotation i would bet it is a top tier aggro deck
That's not for another 3 months. I wouldn't worry too much about it quite yet. I agree that losing Mutavault will not be an issue. Lifebane Zombie going away will also hurt several other decks, not just MBA.
Honestly I don't want to run 4 Mutavault in any mono color aggro deck. I don't like having 2 Mutavault + 5 other great cards in my opening hand that I can't cast. I always use 3.
Actually 5 months, M14 and M15 are legal with each other until October.
Dega midrange 1-0
Yeah so Lifebane is still a very good option until then. Maybe M15 will have a good replacement like Scavenging Ooze was for Flinthoof Boar in Gruul Aggro.