Mono Black Aggro

[dpaine88]

I ran thrill kill at gameday and was pretty happy with it.

Amazing vs the most popular deck right now. Hard to argue.

[Pedros]

Bw guy in GP Australia played 4 pain seers and 4 thrill kills. He didnt play rats. It also gave him solid option of playing necromancer in sb.

[mutantcrock]

Interesting. I dropped pack rat for spiteful returned, which has been a pretty nasty card. I like the versatility similar to Herald in that it can be a 2 or a 4 drop, which the deck lacked. TKA, Seer, and a couple DD may just be better though.

With 4 spiteful and 4 herald, however, Agent of the fates is arguably better at the 3 drop than Lifebane.

[mutantcrock]

As a sidenote, I noticed that one of the main reasons for losing was flood at 24 land. I noticed a lot of the recent lists dropping it to 23 land, which I did as well.

I may even test 22.

[Longtoe]

Is there any way to shore the burn/red matchup? I am currently using a whip in the board. The board is very hard to manipulate at this point. The gift of orzhova seems okay, but doesn't really put a lot of creatures out of burn range. I am still very much in favor of pain seer as it has won me games when I mulligan down a card or two.

[mutantcrock]

TKA helps that matchup a lot since it dodges shock and MJ.

[Tyrael]

Bw guy in GP Australia played 4 pain seers and 4 thrill kills. He didnt play rats. It also gave him solid option of playing necromancer in sb.

Not running rats seems like a mistake since they are your most reliable win condition vs removal lite decks

Plus, you run enough discard to protect them vs removal heavy decks too

[Xanatos]

Conley Woods was crushing MTGO this week with the following list:

[deck]
Creatures:
3 Rakdos Cackler
4 Tormented Hero
2 Pack Rat
3 Pain Seer
4 Spiteful Returned
4 Herald of Torment
3 Agent of the Fates
3 Mogis's Marauder
2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Lands:
19 Swamp
4 Mutavault

Spells:
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Bile Blight
4 Thoughtseize
1 Ultimate Price

Sideboard
2 Dark Betrayal
2 Devour Flesh
1 Doom Blade
2 Duress
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Pack Rat
2 Pharika's Cure
[/deck]

The speed of the deck, particularly with Marauder was blisteringly fast. I'm missing quite a few of the cards and not particularly eager to shell out for Mutavaults/Thoughtseizes (I'm a miser) but daaaaaayyyuuuum.

[rcwraspy]

Played in a TCG $5k today. 8 rounds with cut to top 8. I took the following:

[deck]
Creatures - 26
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Tormented Hero
4 Pack Rat
4 Pain Seer
4 Herald of Torment
4 Lifebane Zombie
2 Desecration Demon

Instants/Sorceries - 12
4 Thoughtseize
4 Ultimate Price
4 Hero's Downfall

Land - 22
4 Mutavault
18 Swamp

Sideboard - 15
3 Duress
3 Dark Betrayal
3 Thrill-Kill Assassin
2 Doom Blade
2 Devour Flesh
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
[/deck]

I started out pretty bummed but ended up 6-2 for 21st place and in the money. $30 to play, won $50 and a playmat.

Round 1: B/W Devotion. Lost 1-2
Game 1 I got a pretty good nut draw on Pack Rat and when he was at 10 and I had 2 Rats and 3 lands he scooped. I thought it was kind of odd, but didn't think much about it. Turns out it was strategic - I hadn't seen anything white yet so put him on mono black. Sided out my Lifebanes. Games 2 and 3 (I
stupidly didn't put Lifebane back in) I got beat by runner runner Blood Barons. 5 Blood Barons among 2 games and only 1 Devour Flesh.

Round 2: Random horrible deck. 2-0.
This was really weird. He was a nice enough guy, but his deck was a small number of B/W creatures, a TON of auras, and, get this, 80 cards main deck. Yep. I felt bad beating him so easily, and tried to nicely give him some tips. Like stick to 60 cards...

Rounds 3, 5-8: Mono Black.
Seriously, other than Round 4 the rest of my games were mono black devotion with no splashes. I lost round 3 to a few misplays, including not taking my opponent's Thoughtseize with mine. I won out the rest of the way

Round 4: Jund Monsters 2-0
This deck just picks that deck apart. There really wasn't anything worthwhile to say here - thoughtseize, lifebane, and all the kill spells just pick it apart, and there's not much other than overloaded Mizzium Mortars that they can do about Pack Rat once it gets online.

So I went 1-2 and then
won out from there. Not horrible, though I was really worried early on.

I really like where the deck is at right now in the meta. It seems really strong against G/R, Jund Monsters, and Mono Black Devotion. I haven't gotten the Mono Blue Devotion matchup in a tournament yet, but I'd assume that's an ok matchup too, though many are now splashing white and using Detention Sphere, which hoses Pack Rat.

I really like the sub of Demon for Marauder. Other than his ETB, Marauder is just such a sub-par creature. There are certainly situations where Demon isn't amazing, but they certainly can't ignore him, and he's much better on a clear board.

I'm likely playing in a PTQ tomorrow. It's a rescheduled event from a PTQ that got canceled after 5 rounds a few weeks ago due to a snow storm (which really wasn't very bad, but the venue decided to close). I had the Marauder version of the deck then and was 3-2 after 5. We'll see how I fare (assuming I go).

[Lightning_Dolt]

For your reading pleasure: http://www.channelfireball.com/home/bre ... gro-to-11/

[JdubCT]

From trying out the various decks here I can't imagine playing without Mogis Marauder. It's just such a good card and really your only way to take advantage of haste. Conley's list looks a lot like where I'd like to see the deck taken.

[mutantcrock]

For your reading pleasure: http://www.channelfireball.com/home/bre ... gro-to-11/

I like the list a lot. It is pretty similar to where I was going with my list. I don't like the single Nighthowler so I'll probably test a 2nd pack rat or a gift.

[Lightning_Dolt]

For your reading pleasure: http://www.channelfireball.com/home/bre ... gro-to-11/

I like the list a lot. It is pretty similar to where I was going with my list. I don't like the single Nighthowler so I'll probably test a 2nd pack rat or a gift.

My thoughts exactly.

[JohnnyfnB]

I'm glad there is a thread on this deck. I have been playing with this build for 2 months now and this is my current build. It's a lot of fun and when people first play it, they don't know how to deal with it or what to expect. I will be tuning this build and taking it to FNM within the next week or two.

x4 Shadow Alley Denizen
x4 Spiteful Returned
x4 Pack Rat
x4 Mogis's Maurauder
X3 Lifebane Zombie
x4 Herald of Torment
x3 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

x4 Heroes Downfall
x4 Thoughtseize
x4 Ultimate Price

x2 Mutavault (only own two) (I did experiment with Temple of Nyx and it gave decent results, but removed them)
x 20 Swamp

x2 Doom Blade
x2 Bile Blight
x3 Devour Flesh
x4 Dark Betrayal
x4 Duress

Even though Shadow Alley Denizen does just 1, her ability pays off in the end. It's redundant with Mogis's Marauder, but there are times he doesn't come out. I play Gray over Desecration Demon,
because I usually have a loaded board. I have just done table top games with this build, but have played and beat consistently a Jund deck that just placed 11th last Saturday.

[amcfvieira]

Can anyone help me with this deck. This weekend I finally can finish my playset of Thoughtseizes and Pain Seers, and are so close of have all the deck in paper. I want to try this to make a refresh from last months Red deck. Can anyone help me with the sideboard swaps, please. I'm thinking in playing something like you aprove in this article.
Thanks in advance.

[Aodh]

3-1 at MNM for $15. 2-0 vs. RDW, 2-0 vs. BW Midrange, 0-2 vs. Wb Devotion (rolled game 1, close game 2), 2-0 vs. UW Control.

Still sick; will reread notes tomorrow for future alterations.

[mutantcrock]

I have been testing essentially Conley's list. I opted to test a 2nd pack rat in place of the Nighthowler. I am reconsidering my pack rat aversion and rather now just thinking that 4 was too many for this deck but 2 provides an excellent second win condition. I also prefer the very minor change of 3 downfall and 3 UP to his 2/2/2 (bile blight). I think either combination is fine but I like BB in the board.

The deck runs very smoothly at 22 land. It is starting to feel very tuned. I really like 2 pack rat main, 4 mogis, and the low land count.

Speaking of mogis, I tested with 2 and 3 in earlier variations and was underwhelmed but 4 seems to really change how you play with him. I never felt like I needed to "save" him for a better opportunity and typically would run him out quicker rather than later.

The remaining questions to me are:
Pain Seer vs. Thrill-Kill (Originally, I leaned TKA but I'm back
on the fence again. It is close imo.)
Try to get a 3rd LBZ in the mb. I think I would cut the 4th Herald for this.

[rcwraspy]

This deck is still good. It plays the 2 most powerful cards in standard - thoughtseize and mutavault - and lifebane zombie is absolutely ridiculous in the meta right now.

Went 2-1-1 at WNM last night, the draw being an ID in the 4th round because I wanted to get home at a reasonable hour. It turns out he was on G/W hexproof, so that may have been either easy if I drew Thoughtseize and Lifebane or very difficult if I drew removal. The wins were against Esper Control R1 and Naya aggro R2, losing to UWR Control R3. Game 1 I aggro'd him out so quickly that all I saw were 2 boros lands and a Mizzium Mortars, so I didn't put him on blue at all. Bad side-boarding because of that for game 2 and was a blowout, and he had the nuts in game 3.

[mutantcrock]

I'm having problems with esper aggro. The lyevs slow me down too much before they get demons and lbz out to ruin my alpha strikes.

[ADarkConfidant]

I first started with this as a cool rouge Agent of the Fates deck. Post-BNG this is the list I run.

3x Bile Blight
4x Herald of Torment
3x Mogis's Marauders
4x Mutavault
4x Pack Rat
4x Pain Seer
4x Rakdos Cackler
18x Swamp
4x Thoughtseize
4x Thrill-Kill Assassin
4x Tormented Hero
4x Ultimate Price


Sideboard: 1x Bile Blight
4x Dark Betrayal
3x Duress
4x Lifebane Zombie
3x Xathrid Necromancer

[ADarkConfidant]

Having trouble posting this, but here goes nothing.

This deck got 6th at the SCG Open last weekend when piloted by Jackson Knorr.
He flooded out a bit too often in my opinion, and I think 24 lands might have been too much.
Also, the Whip of Erebos, IMHO is not a good 4-drop. 8 mana for a creature wins sometimes, but I don't think it's meant for this aggro deck.

[deck]Creatures (24)

3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Mogis's Marauder
4 Pack Rat
3 Pain Seer
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Tormented Hero
4 Herald of Torment
Lands (24)

20 Swamp
4 Mutavault
Spells (12)

3 Bile Blight
4 Hero's Downfall
1 Ultimate Price
4 Thoughtseize
Sideboard

2 Desecration Demon
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Devour Flesh
2 Doom Blade
1 Whip of Erebos
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
3 Duress[/deck]

[Lightning_Dolt]

Pretty much where we all started this season lol.

[Link]

you don't have triple black costs or anything, I definitely can see going down to 22-23 lands total

[Link]

With no scry its probably better.


I still don't like pain seer as a card in an aggro deck =/

[Lightning_Dolt]

why?

[Tyrael]

Because it's a bear

dropping a 2/2 without haste on turn 2 is pretty slow for an aggro deck (I love Pain Seer but if you look at it from a damage standpoint he's clearly lacking)

I still think the card advantage is worth it though

[Lightning_Dolt]

What better options do you have?

[Purp]

Thrillkill is fairly hard for burn players to deal with.

[mutantcrock]

I have been messing with a blue splash and it has been really fun to play. There are a lot of card interactions with Faerie Impostor that help our endgame. For example, bouncing a Mogis and recasting for another alpha strike or bouncing a blocked Spiteful Returned and bestowing it on the Faerie. I have also used it on Thrill-Kill in board states where I'd rather he not be unleashed. It is also nice at times to bounce Pacification or other negative enchantments.

I was skeptical about Rapid Hybridization but tested it anyway. It is an extremely versatile card that I am really never unhappy to see. It kills everything. It is a great staller. It can ground a flier. It allows us to get more damage through via intimidate. On the flip side, I also love using it on a tapped Hero and then blocking with the token and killing my opponents attacking creature.
It is great to use in response to opponent removal as well.

You get access to some good sideboard cards as well but I haven't nailed down my exact sideboard yet.

[deck]Creatures
4 Tormented Hero
4 Faerie Impostor
4 Thrill-Kill Assassin
4 Spiteful Returned
4 Mogis's Marauder
4 Lifebane Zombie
4 Herald of Torment
Spells
4 Thoughtseize
4 Rapid Hybridization
2 Ultimate Price
Land
10 Swamp
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Watery Grave
2 Mutavault
2 Island
[/deck]

[Lightning_Dolt]

Thrillkill is fairly hard for burn players to deal with.

Not really, they can just ignore it and race.

[ADarkConfidant]

After more testing and research, this is the list that I've come to. I'm very confident in the mainboard, but I'm not too sure about the sideboard mix.
Pack Rat has made the cut, though it ends up being surprisingly slow in a lot of matchups. So I went down to 2 copies mainboard, and try playing it lategame, or when I get flooded.
Pain Seer is also a surprisingly good anti-flood card. Aggro never gets card advantage, but because the "confidant curve" is low, I never have problems with losing life from it.
I also really like having just 2 Hero's Downfall. It's a good universal removal, and good against planeswalkers, but I don't expect to need it more than once per game and it'll be sideboarded out for more deficient removal anyway.

Overall, if I were to write a "State of the Deck Archetype" address, it would highlight that Black Aggro has so many( and maybe too many) solid 3 drop
spells.
So, for future consideration, I'll be testing out Nighthowler, Gift of Orzhova (again), and Agent of the Fates(again); only so many 3 drops can fit in this deck, sadly.

Here's the current build.

[deck]Sorcery
4x Thoughtseize
Instant
2x Bile Blight
2x Hero's Downfall
2x Ultimate Price
Land
4x Mutavault
18x Swamp
Creature
4x Herald of Torment
2x Lifebane Zombie
4x Mogis's Marauder
2x Pack Rat
4x Pain Seer
4x Rakdos Cackler
4x Spiteful Returned
4x Tormented Hero
Sideboard
2x Dark Betrayal
3x Devour Flesh
2x Doom Blade
4x Duress
2x Lifebane Zombie
2x Pack Rat[/deck]

[ADarkConfidant]

Got 4-0 in Standard. This is good stuff.

[Deht]

Lengthy FNM Report - 4-0, 1st place with Mono Black Aggro, roughly 64 person event. All of my opponents were 3-1, so I had the best opponents match win precentage by around 20%. Deck is more or less the standard build, Ultimate Price & Bile Blight are a 2/2 split and the creature counts are tweaked a little. Running Mogis Marauder because I like to win. Sideboard has 4 of Devour Flesh because I didn't want to get blown out by Hexproof or Blood Baron.

Round 1 Wu Devotion 2-1

---

- White Devotion Splash Blue for Ephara, D-Sphere.
G1 Was going great, chipped away a bunch and had lethal on board but had a huge punt and forgot about the Spear of Heliod (really bad punt) and swung in to put him at 3 and leave no blockers. Opponent looked a little confused and just swung back and 14'd me. Really bad punt. If I would've left one attacker back I would have stayed alive and had lethal on board.

nPulled out 2 Cacklers, 2 Tormented Heroes, 1 Bile Blight for 2 Doom Blades, 2 Desecration Demons, 1 Whip

G2 - Mulligan to 6 for us both, Thoughtseize brought him down to 5 cards (goodbye Spear), T2 Pack Rat. T3 Lifebane Zombie to take Reckoner. Rat plan and Lifebane Zombie get me there.

G3 - Again, both Mulligan to 6. Pain Seer was my turn 2 draw, after he had dropped Imposing Sovereign, free inspire trigger? Sure. I was skeptical about this card because I have never even been able to use it, it always gets removed. But holy crap it did work during this game. Eventually I had the Pain Seer and Herald of Torment going, dropped a Whip to offset the life loss and took it to victory.

Round 2 GU Devotion - 2-0

---

- I thought for sure this was Maze's End at first as you rarely see a T1 Simic Guildgate, haha. Anyways, this deck is all about ramping into huge monsters (Arbor Colossus, Polukranos, etc etc).

G1 - T1 Tormented Hero, T2 Thoughtseize
removed his Caryatid, despite 2 Polukranos in hand. Opponent looked surprised, I had 2 ultimate price, 1 Hero's Downfall in hand. Killing his ramp set him back enough to let me get the board presence in place. Win was from Mogis Marauder + Tormented Hero, Cackler, and Mutavault

Pulled some of my small guys, 2 Demons, 2 Doom Blades.

G2 - Thoughtseized away Courser of Kruphix, I believe, developed the board with a rat and Pain Seer and just started attacking in each turn with Pain Seer (hitting into Caryatid) and drew cards. Mostly pulled land and small stuff, but I ended up doing more damage to myself than he did to me. Made a rat flying with Herald but Cyclonic Rifted the rat. He eventually landed a Polukranos and hit me once, next to Mogis Marauder again, swing with the team for lethal. Herald of Torment trigger on my turn dropped me to 2 (haha).

Round 3 5-color - 2-0

---

- Basically, all the best creature cards supported by Mana Dorks and
Courser of Kruphix. Even runs Chromanticore. This guy sees a lot of success with the deck basically because he can sideboard into the matchups very well, basically the core of the deck is Jund Monsters and plays very similar to it.

G1 - He Kept a 2 lander, one Forest one Stomping Ground, but had a mana dork, plus Domri plus Courser. Bile Blight'd his turn one dork, and he got stuck on just RG for 2 turns. I took his Courser with Lifebane Zombie and just chipped away with my 2/2's and then removed anything he dropped. He did mortars my Pain Seer when I tried dropping it (aw...). He eventually drew lands but it was just too late

Sideboarding was weird. This guy has so many assorted threats that it is hard to board against. I ended up pulling in Demons as he seemed a little weak to air attacks, Erebos (no life gain please), Doom Blades. Pulled the bile blight completely as the only thing that I saw which it would event touch was his 1/1 mana elf. I also the tormented hero

G2 -
He Mulligans to 6. T2 Thoughtseize punished him for it, removed his Caryatid and he was stuck on 1 land, 1 mana dork for a draw and then shortly later had 2 Caryatids. Pain Seer went off again this game, and ran into his Caraytids and drew me cards. I ended up doing a lot of damage to myself with Pain Seer and Herald. Win after a bit.

We played another game for fun afterwards pre-sideboard. He stabilized at 10 and had Chromanticore on board, couldn't get Hero's Downfall to take it out, until I was at 2 life, and Pain Seer flipped it. Hahaha... We discussed sideboarding strategies for him against Mono Black Aggro

Round 4 RW Burn SCG Seattle List - 2-0

---

- Table 1. This is an tough matchup. I've played against it a bunch from the RW Burn side of things and it is a cakewalk for RW Burn. I figured that I wasn't going 4-0 tonight but I managed to get there, but I think it might've been more from my opponents familiarity with the Burn deck, he said he
was giving it a swing for something different (he usually plays UW Control). So, I think once I started dropping cheap creatures he began trying to take them out, which led to my G1 win. That being said, this guy did 2-0 all of his other opponents.

G1 - Tormented Hero T1, T2 Pain Seer, which he killed immediately (I was hoping for that!). T3 Lifebane Zombie steals his Reckoner, T4 Herald of Torment Plus Thoughtseize (taking Stormbreath Dragon), he goes into full defense mode but only has Phoenix & Mutavault, we trade Mutavaults (I had two) my Herald trades with his Phoenix (Boros Charm double strike), He ends up locking up the board pretty solid, but forgets that Lifebane Zombie has intimidate, it swings in for the last damage.

I really don't remember my sideboard strategy other than bringing in Duress, Erebos (no life gain, please), Whip (lifegain for me, please), I pulled Pain Seer and a couple Heralds as I didn't want to be taking
extra damage.

G2 - I rip up his hand with Thoughtseize and Duress. Start beating down with Lifebane Zombie (which also takes a Reckoner), he Warleader's Helix's my face and Magma Jet's the Lifebane. I end up racing him with Mogis Marauder and a Mutavault, and he keeps top decking Boros Charms doing 4 to me then I do 4 to him while I top deck lands. He has me at 4, top decks a Lightning Strike, I'm at 1, I attack to bring him to 2. He top decks a land. I win.

What I liked ---

Mogis Marauder - I faced a lot of Green based decks and no other black creature decks so my experience is skewed a bit, basically he is just the "win" card for pushing through the last bit of damage and ignoring their huge creatures. The only match where he wasn't cast for an immediate win was game 2 of the burn matchup.

Lifebane Zombie - This guy exiled so much good stuff from my opponent's hands. Green is incredibly
popular right now and a lot of popular multi-colored creatures are partly green or white. If anything the peek alone is worth it.

Pain Seer - If he sticks and can attack it is awesome, everyone loves to draw cards. My favorite play was casting him with Imposing Sovereign on the board. He's also great at drawing out removal and then being able to drop in another threat (Lifebane, Pack Rat).

Hand Disruption - Mainboard it is 7 peeks / hand disruption. After sideboards it can go up to 10. Great for punishing 2 or 3 color decks or at the very least a peek. Thoughtseize and Duress are both so good right now.

What I didn't like ---

Creatures are really fragile - This deck needs to have you extend into the board as much as possible to win against non-control builds. I think I was very lucky and my opponents never really got to establish enough of a board presence lock it down and by the time they had something blocking the way
I had enough land out for removal or would just intimidate right by them. But then again straight aggro decks are going for early wins, so... Ignore this one I guess!

Too many lands - I was flooded badly a few games (luckily Pain Seer was active during those games). I need more testing but I would want to cut a land (to 23) to see how it performs, is 23 too greedy with 4 Heralds when you're expecting to bestow asap?

RW Burn, Mono Red, Naya Aggro & Naya Hexproof matchups are terrible - I was REALLY lucky that my RW Burn opponent wasn't more familiar with the RW Burn deck. Though I will say the more creature heavy version of the RW Burn deck is weaker against Mono Black Aggro.

Whip of Erebos - I really want this card to be something, I threw it in there just in matchups that I figured would last a long time or I'd need extra life (no plans on whipping anything back other than maybe Marauder or Lifebane Zombie). So maybe
dump this? I thought about (don't laugh!) Staff of the Death Magus.. OK --- you can laugh

[ADarkConfidant]

Too many lands - I was flooded badly a few games (luckily Pain Seer was active during those games). I need more testing but I would want to cut a land (to 23) to see how it performs, is 23 too greedy with 4 Heralds when you're expecting to bestow asap?

Whip of Erebos - I really want this card to be something, I threw it in there just in matchups that I figured would last a long time or I'd need extra life (no plans on whipping anything back other than maybe Marauder or Lifebane Zombie). So maybe dump this? I thought about (don't laugh!) Staff of the Death Magus.. OK --- you can laugh

Down to 23 is greedy? Now I
want to see your list, because the list I went 4-0 with had 22(, though I didn't bestow anywhere as nearly as I'd like to, so I might try 23).
Pain Seer helped me hit my 3rd-5th lands, but I always felt nearly mana screwed with it.

Also, I tested for the longest( since December) with the Whip. It wasn't until I stopped using it that I realized how little of an effect it had on games, and that it wasn't worth the mana investment.

[Aodh]

I went 3-1-1 into T8, then won into T4, then lost. I took the following list:

[deck]Creatures
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Tormented Hero
4 Pain Seer
4 Thrill-Kill Assassin
4 Herald of Torment
4 Lifebane Zombie

Spells
4 Thoughtseize
4 Hero's Downfall
2 Bile Blight
2 Ultimate Price
1 Duress

Lands
19 Swamp
4 Mutavault

Sideboard
3 Duress
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
2 Far // Away
4 Doom Blade
1 Gift of Orzhova
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Dark Betrayal[/deck]

Round 1: 2-0 vs. Junk Good Stuff
Round 2: 2-1 vs. Jund Monsters
Round 3: 2-1 vs. Jund Monsters
Round 4: 0-2 vs. Boros Burn
Round 5: ID vs. Unknown
Top 8: 2-0 vs. American Control
Top 4: 0-2 vs. Gruul Monsters.

[ADarkConfidant]

This deck got top 4 at Grand Prix Cincinnati, piloted by Clyde Martin.

[deck]
Main Deck


4 Mutavault
19 Swamp


3 Desecration Demon
4 Herald of Torment
4 Lifebane Zombie
2 Mogis's Marauder
4 Pain Seer
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Tormented Hero


2 Bile Blight
2 Devour Flesh
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Thoughtseize


Sideboard
4 Dark Betrayal
2 Devour Flesh
4 Doom Blade
4 Duress
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
[/deck]

[dpaine88]

Very interesting... Can't help but feel that Maurader is kinda wasted here since they are only playing 1 2-drop and Lifebane/Herald/Demon have evasion.

Wonder what the rest of the decks were like? Where did you find the list?

I'm going to be running MBA in a TCG 5k this weekend and it seems like the tough decisions are really Demon and Mogis Maruder

[rcwraspy]

DPaine some people are running Mogis Marauder main and Demon side.

If you didn't want to go all the way to Hartford, there's a standard tournament in Framingham this weekend. First place gets an Unlimited Mox Pearl. Next weekend, April 5th, there's a tournament in Methuen where first place gets a Black Lotus. Also standard.

[Pendulum]

The fall of Demon in a more aggressive, creature-based version of Mono-black doesn't surprise me, frankly even in the decks where you were packing 20+ removal there were too many times where decks could play around him. Marauder is a fine replacement, IMMHO, getting in a free swing with Pain Seer seems like it in and of itself would be worth it. What does cause me to raise an eyebrow is the similar falling out of Grey Merchant, though: the life swing in an aggro build seems like a clinching play, even if the shaved-down mana base does mean you might have to wait a turn or 2 to get him out.

[dpaine88]

DPaine some people are running Mogis Marauder main and Demon side.

If you didn't want to go all the way to Hartford, there's a standard tournament in Framingham this weekend. First place gets an Unlimited Mox Pearl. Next weekend, April 5th, there's a tournament in Methuen where first place gets a Black Lotus. Also standard.

Sweeet thanks for the heads up!! I am actually staying at my girls parents house right near Hartford so it worked out pretty well. The one on the 5th didnt know about nwill probably do!!

The fall of Demon in a more aggressive, creature-based version of Mono-black doesn't surprise me, frankly even in the decks where you were
packing 20+ removal there were too many times where decks could play around him. Marauder is a fine replacement, IMMHO, getting in a free swing with Pain Seer seems like it in and of itself would be worth it. What does cause me to raise an eyebrow is the similar falling out of Grey Merchant, though: the life swing in an aggro build seems like a clinching play, even if the shaved-down mana base does mean you might have to wait a turn or 2 to get him out.

[/quote]


I personally am edging towards Jacksonn Knorr's top8 SCG list.

Fast, consistent etc.

I did play some with the demon and I'm not sure how great it is in this deck.

[deck]Creatures (24)

3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Mogis's Marauder
4 Pack Rat
3 Pain Seer
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Tormented Hero
4 Herald of Torment
Lands (24)

20 Swamp
4 Mutavault
Spells (12)

n3 Bile Blight
4 Hero's Downfall
1 Ultimate Price
4 Thoughtseize

Sideboard

2 Desecration Demon
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Devour Flesh
2 Doom Blade
1 Whip of Erebos
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
3 Duress[/deck]

I like this list a lot, it's more my style. I want to cut 1-2x Pack Rat and 1-2x Swamp probably for more Lifebane and Maurauder.

Also, I think the removal could be better and more like a 2/2/2 split between the kill spells.