Consume spirit is much better than exsanguinate, cause it lets you kill creatures too for the same cost. Exsanguinate is only better if you are worried about leyline of sanctity.
Great suggestions, thank you. I've adjusted the deck to pull in Royal Assassin and Vault Skirge. I ran it a couple times and you're right, I was unable to trigger Onyx Mage when I wanted to.
EDIT: I haven't found many reasons to draw, even with the Sign in Blood. I'll give Tezzeret's Gambit a try if I find myself needing it.
I'm new to playing organized Magic. I've been play testing a monoblack deck online. I'm getting ready to purchase this deck in real life but I'm not sure that I want to spend money on cards that will just rotate out in October (Zendikar block, Magic 2011) after I've only been playing for a little while. So I'm trying to develop a deck that will be legal post-October rotation. I am not asking for speculation about cards in future sets nor is this a budget discussion. I simply want to think about the future. I believe I am posting this in the correct forum. If I'm not, I'm sure I'll see some bold red text chastising me for it.
There's a good amount of rotation prone cards in this list. It's been fun to play and I'd like to keep it going if possible. However some cards (Nantuko Shade and Vampire Nighthawk) are difficult to replace. I've done my best and now I turn to the experts (as it were) to see if improvements can be made.
Nantuko Shade is impossible to replace with the criteria I've set forth. I do find that most often I'm using the Shade as a shield more than I'm tapping out to boost him up. So I chose Reassembling Skeleton to replace him. Gatekeeper of Malakir was most often used to control creatures so Geth's Verdict seemed like a natural choice to replace it. I believe Reassembling Skeleton's ability to return to the battlefield will help leave the slight blocking hole left by Malakir. Vampire Nighthawk is another card that has no rival in the other sets. You have to choose between Child of Night and Onyx Mage for the abilities. At 3cc you cannot replace that power and toughness. Again based off the games I've played, lifelink matters more than deathtouch. However the Mage's ability to give other creatures deathtouch is too good to pass up, so he went in. There is no replacement for Sign in Blood for the draw mechanic. So instead I slotted in a card I had removed from this deck before, Exsanguinate. It's 1cc more than Sign was for the same life loss but without the benefit of letting my opponent draw. It also gives me some life, something I lost with the removal of Nighthawk. The loss of Inquisition of Kozilek doesn't hurt much when you replace it with Despise. It's BB to cast but it lets you cast a wider net.
The sideboard is a bit spotty right now. It's not often that I end up using Vampire Hexmage so I looked for other 2cc creatures with an ability that might work. Nothing there had an ability that tickled me. So for now I put in Deathmark as a Generic Sideboard Card. My friends play a lot of white and green so it will work for now. I'll know more once I start playing Standard officially and know my meta better. Duress can come out of the deck altogether with the presence of Despise mainboard. Surgical Extraction looks like it could be of help against Tempered Steel decks so in to the sideboard it goes.
I hope I've explained my choices well enough. Feel free to ask questions, I'll be happy to answer them. Thanks for reading this far, I know it's quite a lot to sift through.
I think its noteworthy that in the last two SCG opens, this is the only version of RDW to crack the top 16. I think the main reason for this is that Wong decided to not include Koth. Personally, I think Koth, although a great card, is a trap for red mages at the moment. We have the card quality to make brutally fast sligh decks, and we should be taking advantage of it. Honestly, I think the format is just too fast and resilient for Koth to get the job done at the moment.
I have to agree. In the matches I've watched and the bit of play testing I've done online, seeing Koth in a hand is usually just a dead card. I'd rather tap that four mana for something else instead of Koth. I think Koth works well in a deck designed around Shrine but it seems to me in this meta, that kind of combination is too slow. Most of the successful RDW I've seen are based around Sligh more than anything.
Saw you play that deck today. I'm a pretty new Standard player so I didn't bother entering the tournament (I don't even have a DCI number yet). I thought it moved quite well but I agree 100% that Koth never a threat when he was in your hand (at least when I was watching you).
Has anyone else tried slotting in Blackcleave Cliffs or Dragonskul Summit to ease the pain of Dismember? I know Sligh doesn't typically worry about life totals but I'm curious to see if placing those lands in will have much of an effect. So far I find myself slotting Dismember in more often than not, so I thought it may not hurt. I haven't done a substantial amount of testing with this list yet but wanted to present it for criticism.
When coming up with this list, I had trouble deciding which card I liked more: Ember Hauler or Searing Blaze. So I put in two of each for now while I try to decide which I'd rather have access to. I'm leaning to Searing Blaze.
I am a relatively new Standard player. I will do my best to respond to questions you may have.
for the double red you need to play goblin bushwacker it almost seems better to just to wait a turn so you can drop capivating vampire, plus its hard to get that double red when 8 out of the 12 red mana producing lands come into play tapped on turn 2/3. so i suspect your only dropping bushwacker turn 2 out of luck, turn 3 seems like the latest you could drop him by.
at the same time you could just run signal pest and get a similar affect.
No one is doubting what you're saying; you're not understanding that your deck doesn't fit in this subforum.
2 Grave Titan
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
2 Royal Assassin
4 Vault Skirge
Artifacts
4 Lashwrithe
Other Spells
3 Despise
3 Dismember
3 Go for the Throat
3 Distress
4 Geth's Verdict
3 Consume Spirit
25 Swamp
3 Doom Blade
2 Deathmark
3 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Memoricide
1 Dismember
Great suggestions, thank you. I've adjusted the deck to pull in Royal Assassin and Vault Skirge. I ran it a couple times and you're right, I was unable to trigger Onyx Mage when I wanted to.
EDIT: I haven't found many reasons to draw, even with the Sign in Blood. I'll give Tezzeret's Gambit a try if I find myself needing it.
Here is the deck as I've been running it.
2 Grave Titan
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
2 Nantuko Shade
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Nighthawk
Artifacts
4 Lashwrithe
3 Despise
3 Dismember
3 Sign in Blood
3 Go for the Throat
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
Land
25 Swamp
3 Doom Blade
2 Vampire Hexmage
3 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Duress
3 Memoricide
1 Dismember
There's a good amount of rotation prone cards in this list. It's been fun to play and I'd like to keep it going if possible. However some cards (Nantuko Shade and Vampire Nighthawk) are difficult to replace. I've done my best and now I turn to the experts (as it were) to see if improvements can be made.
2 Grave Titan
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
2 Reassembling Skeleton
4 Onyx Mage
Artifacts
4 Lashwrithe
Other Spells
3 Despise
3 Dismember
3 Go for the Throat
3 Distress
4 Geth's Verdict
3 Exsanguinate
25 Swamp
3 Doom Blade
2 Deathmark
3 Black Sun's Zenith
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Memoricide
1 Dismember
Nantuko Shade is impossible to replace with the criteria I've set forth. I do find that most often I'm using the Shade as a shield more than I'm tapping out to boost him up. So I chose Reassembling Skeleton to replace him. Gatekeeper of Malakir was most often used to control creatures so Geth's Verdict seemed like a natural choice to replace it. I believe Reassembling Skeleton's ability to return to the battlefield will help leave the slight blocking hole left by Malakir. Vampire Nighthawk is another card that has no rival in the other sets. You have to choose between Child of Night and Onyx Mage for the abilities. At 3cc you cannot replace that power and toughness. Again based off the games I've played, lifelink matters more than deathtouch. However the Mage's ability to give other creatures deathtouch is too good to pass up, so he went in. There is no replacement for Sign in Blood for the draw mechanic. So instead I slotted in a card I had removed from this deck before, Exsanguinate. It's 1cc more than Sign was for the same life loss but without the benefit of letting my opponent draw. It also gives me some life, something I lost with the removal of Nighthawk. The loss of Inquisition of Kozilek doesn't hurt much when you replace it with Despise. It's BB to cast but it lets you cast a wider net.
The sideboard is a bit spotty right now. It's not often that I end up using Vampire Hexmage so I looked for other 2cc creatures with an ability that might work. Nothing there had an ability that tickled me. So for now I put in Deathmark as a Generic Sideboard Card. My friends play a lot of white and green so it will work for now. I'll know more once I start playing Standard officially and know my meta better. Duress can come out of the deck altogether with the presence of Despise mainboard. Surgical Extraction looks like it could be of help against Tempered Steel decks so in to the sideboard it goes.
I hope I've explained my choices well enough. Feel free to ask questions, I'll be happy to answer them. Thanks for reading this far, I know it's quite a lot to sift through.
I have to agree. In the matches I've watched and the bit of play testing I've done online, seeing Koth in a hand is usually just a dead card. I'd rather tap that four mana for something else instead of Koth. I think Koth works well in a deck designed around Shrine but it seems to me in this meta, that kind of combination is too slow. Most of the successful RDW I've seen are based around Sligh more than anything.
4 Arid Mesa
3 Dragonskull Summit
9 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Teetering Peaks
Creatures
2 Ember Hauler
4 Furnace Scamp
4 Goblin Guide
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Stormblood Berserker
4 Burst Lightning
3 Incinerate
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Searing Blaze
3 Staggershock
3 Manic Vandal
3 Vulshock Refugee
3 Act of Aggression
2 Combust
4 Dismember
When coming up with this list, I had trouble deciding which card I liked more: Ember Hauler or Searing Blaze. So I put in two of each for now while I try to decide which I'd rather have access to. I'm leaning to Searing Blaze.
I am a relatively new Standard player. I will do my best to respond to questions you may have.
No one is doubting what you're saying; you're not understanding that your deck doesn't fit in this subforum.