Mono Black Aggro

[Lightning_Dolt]

BW with Athreos?

[Self Medicated]

Yeah for some reason this deck just isn't getting there....no top8 results at all really.

I've been seeing it 3-1 a few dailies. There was a list on the 13th that went 4-0 and placed first in the daily. I don't think we're seeing any results at paper events because it's just not popular enough.

[Purp]

Yeah for some reason this deck just isn't getting there....no top8 results at all really.

I've been seeing it 3-1 a few dailies. There was a list on the 13th that went 4-0 and placed first in the daily. I don't think we're seeing any results at paper events because it's just not popular enough.

You don't see paper results because the deck is just not good enough.

[LP, of the Fires]

Played MBA last night to a 3-1 finishing losing to burn. Burn matchup was certainly winnable, but I left my Masters of Feast at home so my sideboard was only duress.

Was supposed to test the Rakdos deck, but those cards where ALSO left at home. Overall, not a very productive night as I didn't learn anything I didn't already know(Esper and Black are byes, burn is unwinnable).

So any thoughts on midrange rakdos?

Sorry to leave you hanging. I've been play testing this the past few days:

4 Herald of Torment
4 Thoughtseize
4 Mutavault
4 Swamp
4 Gnarled
Scarhide
2 Bile Blight
4 Prophetic Flamespeaker
4 Mogis's Warhound
4 Spike Jester
2 Dreadbore
4 Temple of Malice
4 Blood Crypt
4 Mana Confluence
4 Mountain
3 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
2 Stormbreath Dragon
3 Hero's Downfall
SB: 4 Duress
SB: 1 Dark Betrayal
SB: 1 Doom Blade
SB: 3 Master of the Feast
SB: 4 Lifebane Zombie
SB: 2 Ultimate Price

And think it's what I'm gonna play at states. The sideboard is basically the same as the MBA agro deck because I have no interest in threatens, or whatever red has to offer. I just want to play a couple guys and either rip hands apart or kill dudes.

Playing only scarhide for 1-drops has actually been fine and I definitely appreciate the much more powerful lategame plays. All the bestow is excellent, and I'm happy with all my matchups. The fact that this deck has haste actually makes the burn matchup way better then it was with mono-black despite all the extra damage we end up taking from lands.

Last couple decks in my gauntlet that I need
to test are Brave Naya and Junk, but I've done very well vs. everything else.

[Self Medicated]

Yeah for some reason this deck just isn't getting there....no top8 results at all really.

I've been seeing it 3-1 a few dailies. There was a list on the 13th that went 4-0 and placed first in the daily. I don't think we're seeing any results at paper events because it's just not popular enough.

You don't see paper results because the deck is just not good enough.

Ok, what about MTGO
results? Are those all just flukes? Granted, there's not very many, but MBA is only 1% of the meta.

[Purp]

MBA is poised to look good online when ~65% of its matches are mono black variants. There 100x more MBA variants not going 3-1/4-0 compared to those that are.

[LP, of the Fires]

MBA is a deck of extremes in terms of matchups. Your mono-black and UW/x control matchups are SO favorable as to be laughable. The problem? Your U matchup is mediocre and your burn and agro matchups are abysmal. Having said that, all those matchups get a LOT better with master of the feast since you can stabilize/race much better since you get to drop a fat ass demon down asap.

The Rakdos deck I'm playing solves most of the bad matchups by being able to finish better and by virtue of no loner to losing to 1 frostburn weird or Young Pyromancer like the mono-black version tended to do previously.

[Pedros]

WARNING - HUGE POST INCOMING


Cool I could help you a little with it

Is Mogis Warhound better than Spitefull Returned (probably yes as it is 4 drop for bestow)

How is Prophetic Flamespeaker working? I assume drawing cards is just an upside and real power is huge damage from bestowing guys on top of it?

I didnt calculate mana yet, however it looks good on first sight (16 red needed for dragon - check, 14 black needed for 1 drop - check (have 16), 20 colored needed for jester - check). One thing I am worried is double black and double red in slot 3 - you need 19 sources of each mana to cast cards on curve, and you only have 16. You have too many untapped turn 1 sources, I would love to exchange some number of basics with rakdos guildgates to help with mana.
n
Another thing if u want to consider is having Agent of the Fates somewhere in 75. Having a lot of cheap bestows makes it quite good.

I dont know if I like bile blight as a removal of choice in this build. First of all it is double black (need 20 color to get it on turn 2), and it is only good vs Pack Rats. Previously you didnt have removal for master of waves so I understood this purpose. However now when you settle on hero's downfall and dreadbore, I dont really understand this choice.

Personally I would like to have 2 Downfalls, 3 Dreadbores (dreadbore is cheaper, easier to cast, instant speed isnt as relevant as you have a lot of mana already used in main phase 1 with all bestow and haste you have) and some amount of burn - Lightning strike of Magma Jet (Lightning Strike is preferable as looks likes specter is comming back, otherwise I would use Magma jet).

Can you say something more on prophetic flamespeaker and master of the feast? Where do you like both of those cards? Both looks amazing.
n
24 Lands seems right, however 25 seems more preferable imo. You have 6 5 drops and 7 4 drops if u want to unleash full potential from those cards.

I would cut some number of mana confluences as you have 16 untapped sources for turn 1 play. Maybe use some rakdos guildgate? Just an option as you have only 8 turn 1 plays, that means you might want to put land tapped on turn 1 (however I understand that playing blood crypt tapped on turn 1 also prevents you from loosing life). Just a thought you might adress more closely after testing.

I dont understand your sideboard at all.

4 Duress - ok, no problem
4 Lifebane Zombies - ok, are good vs monsters and control.
3 Master of the Feast - no info

1 Dark Betrayal
1 Doom Blade
I Understand those 2 as cheap instant speed options.

2 Ultimate prices - This is what I dont understand. You didnt maximize on dreadbores and hero's downfalls. Vs what decks you want those 2 cards? When they are better than dreadbore / hero's downfal?

Hell, even No
mizzium mortars? another terror effect that have huge upside, and is your only way right now to kill blood baron. Going 1/1 split with ultimate price is another thing should be obvious.

For me this sb lacks some sort of card that would do something different. Rakdos's Return. Slaughter Games. Chandra. Whip of Erebos. Hammer of Purphoros. Toil Trouble. Erebos, God of the dead. Sire of Insanity. Harness by Force. Skullcrack. Wild Ricochet. Underworld connections.

List of cards I wrote could be categorized as attacking opponent from different angle. Sometimes creatures + discard doesn't do the work. Sometimes you need a reach (rakdos's return, toil / trouble, harness by force, skullcrack). Sometimes you need more discard (burst discard or removing 1 card that matters) (Rakdos's return. Slaughter Games, Sire of Insanity). Simetimes you need card advantage (Chandra, Whip, Hammer, Toil / Trouble. Erebos, Underworld connections). Sometimes you need lifegain prevention (Skullcrack, Erebos). Sometimes you
need lifegain (Whip of Erebos). Hell, sometimes you need narrow card that does the job (Wild Ricochet).

I understand, that you might dissagree, that you have not enough time to test all those choices (I will try to test as many of those as possible, had a lot of experience with them playing rakdos agro, midrange and devo last season), however doing something different than md is what sb is for. I dont like idea of just changing removal suite / creature suite.

[LP, of the Fires]

Great Post Pedros.

Rakdos guildgate is a good one. I only play 4(8) 1 drops now so I'm not losing much by running it and it greatly assists all of my colored issues, but I do really want to curve out from 2>5 so Having more then 6 CIPT lands is probably a no go. Still, I'll start with 2 and go from there.

Flamespeaker is a very skill testing card because often you have the option between cards and damage and it's usually a very critical choice, but yes, often it's something I use to just kill someone with by bestowing a warhound on or whatever. Additionally, late game, putting a herald of torment on is usually enough to win the game.

Master of the feast: this is basically my anti-aggro card. With all the haste/heavy hitters in my deck, unlike normal aggro decks I play, cards don't really matter, but life does so having a 5/5 that saves me life(they can't attack) is very valuable and I generally don't care
about them drawing more card. IT'S SO FUCKING BIG.

I take your point on the sideboard, and I admit it was built conservatively. I may cut 2 duress for 2 rakdos's return. The shell I borrowed for this deck had 2 in the sideboard, but I wasn't a fan since at the time it was a much different deck. In this build, the reach is very relevant and with flamespeaker+another land, I should be able to consistently hit 3 which is where the card starts getting good.

I can easily switch the numbers on downfall and dreadbore in the main. I wasn't really thinking about it but it makes sense.

Bile blight as a card is just the best other removal spell to play since it has the most upside. Lightning strike goes to the face yes, but blight: hits master of waves, answers pack rat cleanly, and is generally very good vs. aggressive strategies. The biggest thing is that it's not a card many people expect from a deck like this so you tend to get more two for 1's with it. Tuesday night, I managed to get a 3-4-1
followed up with a 2-4-1 and steamrolled my opponent laughably quickly.

The last two sideboard spots occupied by ultimate price are arguably up in the air. 1 think that became apparent in testing was that the 1 way I lost 2 Monsters was not being able to beat Scavenging ooze. 2 mana 8/8s that gain life are a real issue and there where several games where the opponent would stabilize at a low life total and claw back in. Adding rakdos return over duress would help since it doubles as reach and I usually bring in 2 copies of duress anyways to deal with there removal but price was basically another doom blade that I could bring in vs. mono-black. I could play a mizzium mortars instead though since it's killing ooze the majority of the time and has that afforementioned massive upside in the late game.

The other options you listed are largely unappealing since they're mostly only good vs. control and that matchup is as easy as play 2 dudes and 8 hand disruption spells. I might give whip, Erebos a try(
erebos was the last cut). Whip would make aggro a lot better in theory. Harness by force is a great card, but again, I think I'm already good in those matchups and it seems like unnecessary filler.

I really liked my mono-black aggro sideboard that was 4 doom blades, 4 dark betrayel, 4 duress, and erebos

Tl;DR:

-1 downfall, +1 dreadbore

-2...something, +2 rakdos guildgate.

-1 ultimate price, +1 Mizzium mortars.

MAYBE cut something else like a master of the feast for a whip of erebos.

[LP, of the Fires]

I could see cutting some combination of mutavault, mountain, or mana confluence.

[Self Medicated]

There 100x more MBA variants not going 3-1/4-0 compared to those that are.

The same could be said about every other deck in the meta.

[NerdBoyWonder]

Going to be trying your build LP. How are the 4 mana confluences feeling?

[Self Medicated]

Going to be trying your build LP. How are the 4 mana confluences feeling?

And how has the mana base been in general? Does having only 16 sources of each color ever affect your ability to cast stuff on curve?

[Pedros]

Thats why I sugested some number of rakdos's guildgates over basics / mutavault.

I think changing 1 mutavault, 1 swamp and 1 mountain for 3 rakdos's returns makes deck much stable color wise, however much less powerful.

[Aodh]

Could something stupid like Br bestow be viable?

12 1-drops, Jester Dog Spiteful Returned, Herald, TS HDF, 11 swamp 5 mountain 4 MC 4 Blood Crypt.

12-12-4 creature curve, 12-12-8-8-4 bestow and creature curve, 16-12-12-8-4 total curve. Seems like it could be super efficient, but super awkward as well...

[magicdownunder]

Proposed MonoBlack deck:

[deck=MDU's Bx Aggro]Lands 23
4 Mutavault
19 Swamp

Creatures 28
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Tormented Hero
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Thrill-Kill Assassin
4 Herald of Torment
4 Master of the Feast
4 Desecration Demon

Support 9
4x Thoughtseize
3x Hero's Downfall
2x Blight Bile

Sideboard 15
4 Duress
4 Lifebane Zombie
2 Dark Betrayal
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
3 Doom Blade[/deck]

Why Master of the Feast and Desecration Demon MD because I wanted too ensure my victory against Gx decks and Rx deck (including burn).
Why 12 one drops so I stand a chance against Bx and Control.

SB Plan:

Vs Bx:
Out: Master of the Feast, Desecration Demon
In: Duress, Erebos, God of the Dead and Dark Betrayal

Vs Control
Out: Master of the Feast, Desecration Demon and Blight Bile
In: Duress, Erebos, God of the Dead and Lifebane Zombie

Vs Aggro
Out: 4 Rakdos Cackler, 4 Tormented Hero
In: 3 Doom
Blade, 4 Lifebane Zombie, 1 Erebos, God of the Dead

Vs Burn
Out: 4 Thrill-Kill Assassin, 3 Hero's Downfall
In: 4 Duress, 3 Doom Blade

EDIT: Plan is based on ZERO testing... is Duress a good idea vs Bx Devo? are DD horrible vs Control and Bx?

[Pedros]

I always sb out thoughtseizes and didnt sb in duresses vs mono black.

[MonoBlackAssassin]

This is the version I'm on right now. I'm getting consistent results, I'm just not sure what they mean. The last two Fridays I've gone 2-0 then lost the last 3 rounds. On Saturday nights I've gone 3-1 two weeks in a row.

[deck]
Creatures
4 Tormented Hero
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Pain Seer
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak
4 Herald of Torment
4 Mogis's Marauder
3 Master of the Feast

Instants
2 Doom Blade
3 Ultimate Price
2 Hero's Downfall

Lands
18 Swamp
4 Mutavault

Sideboard
2 Bile Blight
2 Doom Blade
3 Pharika's Cure
4 Thoughtseize
4 Thrill-Kill Assassin
[/deck]

I don't run Dark Betrayal in the side because I think Ultimate Price covers all the same ground with the exception of Nightveil Specter and in that case I'm taking out [card]Hero's Downfall[/card] and bringing
in Bile Blight anyway. [card]Pharika's Cure[/card] has made my burn matchup really good for me. I'm able to kill Eidolon of the Great Revel without taking any damage. Unfortunately in my local meta there are a lot of "Pillowfort" decks popping up that are running Sphere of Safety. This matchup feels absolutely unwinnable, even with 4 Thoughtseize

[Pedros]

LP Are you going to play and develop rakdos midrange? Would be good if u could write deck and thoughts in RB thread.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Rb over Br?

[NerdBoyWonder]

LP Are you going to play and develop rakdos midrange? Would be good if u could write deck and thoughts in RB thread.

I'm assuming you are refering to his Prophetic Flamespeaker build with Herald of Torment and Stormbreath right?

[Pedros]

Yup. With 12 bestow creatures, exava and dragons.

It is RB, both colors are highly represented.

[NerdBoyWonder]

Yup. With 12 bestow creatures, exava and dragons.

It is RB, both colors are highly represented.

Going to be testing that deck this week and most likely taking it to game day. Will post notes over in that thread.

[Toddington]

I had a very good game day run with the following,

[deck]Creature (24)
4x Brain Maggot
4x Gnarled Scarhide
4x Herald of Torment
4x Lifebane Zombie
4x Rakdos Cackler
4x Tormented Hero

Instant (8)
2x Bile Blight
4x Hero's Downfall
2x Ultimate Price

Sorcery (5)
1x Duress
4x Thoughtseize

Land (23)
4x Mutavault
19x Swamp

Sideboard (15)
4x Dark Betrayal
4x Desecration Demon
4x Doom Blade
3x Duress[/deck]

I started putting this together in my head, until I released I wasn't being all that original...

http://www.channelfireball.com/home/owe ... ggro-cont/

I like the one-drops, I like the three-drops, I like the lands, and I like the sideboard.

Saying that, the meta I played in today was very Black (Devotion & Aggro) and Green (Mostly GR Monster) heavy. The sideboard
is put together with this in mind. I have found myself taking out the one-drops against everything not MBD or UWx (and boarding in DD), which makes me question why I'm even starting them. I'm gonna try MBD for a while, and see how far Pack Rat gets me. I feel very comfortable with this list though, it's just a pain transforming into bad MBD every game...

Brain Maggot is an absolute trooper, I like it a lot. I'm never unhappy to draw Hero's Downfall. I think four Herald is correct, because there are so any games where you'd just win on the spot if you top decked it. 1 maindeck Duress is nice. Desecration Demon is very large.

My least favourite part of the deck is the Bile Blight and Ultimate Price. If I'm going to have to play endless Caryatid decks, I might ram some Thrill Kill Assassin instead and see what happens. I don't think you can cut Bile Blight outright, so maybe Owen was just right (about Mono Black, who'd have thought it?) with his list's split.

[Toddington]

Why do people not like Pack Rat in MBA?

[Tyrael]

Believe it or not, it actually slows you down

[notap123]

At my game day a Bw variant made it to second. It played the full grip of enchantment creatures and some super tech : Ethereal Armor. The card was crazy good when it stuck generally making it read +2/+2 first strike. I was thinking of expanding on it playing keening apparition and spirit of the labyrith somewhere in the 75.

[Tyrael]

Sounds cool, care to post a report?

[notap123]

I didn't see his decklist but below is what I came to after putting it together and play testing against the field. I haven't gave this a whirl in a competiton yet (FNM is in modern mode til next Friday) but I went the goldfish route main and sideboard to shore up issues.

[deck]Creature (30)
2x Athreos, God of Passage
4x Gnarled Scarhide
4x Herald of Torment
4x Master of the Feast
2x Mogis's Marauder
4x Pain Seer
4x Spirit of the Labyrinth
2x Spiteful Returned
4x Tormented Hero
Land (22)
4x Godless Shrine
3x Mana Confluence
3x Mutavault
8x Swamp
4x Temple of Silence
Enchantment (5)
1x Banishing Light
4x Ethereal Armor
Instant (3)
3x Hero's Downfall

Sideboard (15)
2x Erebos, God of the Dead
3x Keening Apparition
4x Lifebane Zombie
2x Reprisal
4x Thoughtseize
[/deck]

[ADarkConfidant]

Why do people not like Pack Rat in MBA?

Pack Rat turns useful cards into aggression.
It takes 3 mana a turn and 1 card.
After done enough times, the ensuing rat tokens become profitable and far more valuable than any 3 mana for 1 card creature spell.

However, we are already playing all aggressive cards! This means that pack rat is throwing our cheap, low-commitment creatures into less profitable tokens for a few turns. In those very turns, we need to be taking over the game!
And that's if we have the mana and extra cards to maintain Pack Rat! We might not even get to three lands in time, and there's nothing worse than playing 2 mana for a 1/1 on turn 2, and then
doing nothing with it for turns. It either gets killed by removal from a control deck, or you get ran over by your opponents creatures because your 1/1 is too valuable to block with. You were better of throwing down either 2 1 drops or a good 2 drop like Pain Seer.

A good comparison is this.
(A "*" means they can attack.)

Rat plan: T1, T2 1/1, T3 2/2* + 2/2 (if we got extra land), T4 3/3* + 3/3* + 3/3

The 1/1 Rat probably can't attack if there are ANY blockers present, and the 2/2 rat can't either! We don't want to pay 3 mana, discard a card, just to trade a 2/2 for a blocker. Once they become 3/3s we're probably good to go, but those first three turns our valuable to us.

Let's convert to damage per turn, since we're a tempo-based deck.

Rat plan: T1 0, T2 0, T3 2, T4 6

My "graph" stops at turn 4, because even the most midrange-y of decks will have blockers and removal all over you by turn 4, so we can't guarantee damage to hit the player at that point.
In a
vacuum the following turns might be:
T5 12
It's just not reliable enough for an aggro deck to use. Control decks like the Mono Black "devotion" decks can afford to protect the rat with discard and removal before they even play it, and then later draw extra cards to replace ones lost to the rat. Even better, they can get rid of cards that aren't useful in the matchup or at the current stage of the match.
We ourselves can't play removal, because all of our mana and cards are becoming rat tokens! Almost all of our cards do the same thing( 2 damage per turn towards the opponent), meaning that the rats don't make our cards anymore useful.
Here's what we should rather do instead.

MBA plan: T1 0, T2 2, T3 4, T4 6-7, T5 9-10

Pack Rat just doesn't work that well in a deck running less than 24 lands, has no card advantage, and has little reach late game to recovery post Detention Sphere/Supreme Verdict.
This is why it didn't see constructed play until the current Black Control decks came
along. They have 25-26 lands, card advantage engines along with a diversity of cards to be gladly converted to rats without throwing out useful cards, and finally big effect late game creatures to finish a vanquished rat plan.

Hope this explained accurately why we don't tend to play the rat anymore. You can always test it yourself too.

[Toddington]

Yeah, I gave it more thought and came to realizations. Conley Woods sums it up nicely in one of his videos.

The two-drop slot was annoying me during deck construction, and Pack Rat is a good creature right? I like the idea of binning Cacklers etc. later on, but it's too slow. I've played with Underworld Connections more also, and a lot of the time that is a Pack Rat combo piece, if you know what I mean.

[dpaine88]

Looks like this deck is back on the map with two in top8 of SCG Open

[amcfvieira]

[deck=_Soku_ - 4-0 in DE 29/05/2014 (more than one 4-0 in DE that week) ]Lands 22
4 Mutavault
18 Swamp

Creatures 30
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Tormented Hero
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Pain Seer
4 Spiteful Returned
4 Herald of Torment
4 Lifebane Zombie
2 Mogis's Marauder

Other spells 8
4 Thoughtseize
2 Blight Bile
2 Hero's Downfall

Sideboard 15
2 Duress
3 Dark Betrayal
3 Doom Blade
4 Master of the Feast
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Whip of Erebo[/deck]

[deck=safe_haven - 4-0 in DE 29/05/2014]Lands 23
4 Mutavault
19 Swamp

Creatures 27
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Tormented Hero
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Pack Rat
3 Thrill-Kill Assassin
4 Herald of Torment
4 Master of the Feast

Other spells 10
4 Thoughtseize
1 Blight Bile
1 Ultimate Price
4 Hero's Downfall

Sideboard 15
4 Duress
3 Dark Betrayal
3 Doom Blade
1 Mogis's Marauder
4 Lifebane Zombie[/deck]

[deck=John
McCarthy - TOP4 - SCG 07/06/2014]Lands 22
4 Mutavault
18 Swamp

Creatures 26
4 Rakdos Cackler
3 Tormented Hero
4 Gnarled Scarhide
1 Deathrite Shaman
4 Spiteful Returned
3 Thrill-Kill Assassin
3 Herald of Torment
4 Mogis's Marauder

Other spells 12
4 Thoughtseize
3 Blight Bile
2 Ultimate Price
3 Hero's Downfall

Sideboard 15
4 Duress
3 Dark Betrayal
3 Doom Blade
3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Nighthowler[/deck]

[deck=Jason Ellis - TOP8 - SCG 07/06/2014]Lands 22
4 Mutavault
18 Swamp

Creatures 26
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Tormented Hero
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Spiteful Returned
2 Thrill-Kill Assassin
4 Herald of Torment
4 Mogis's Marauder

Other spells 12
4 Thoughtseize
3 Blight Bile
2 Ultimate Price
3 Hero's Downfall

Sideboard 15
4 Duress
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Deathrite Shaman
3 Doom Blade
2 Lifebane Zombie
1 Xathrid Necromancer[/deck]


I think this is a nice resume

[dpaine88]

Both SCG lists are very similar but I like the 3rd Thrill-Kill Assassin over 4th Herald myself. He is just so hard to block and only bad against control. He can be hard for Burn to kill, difficult on Monsters and Mono Black Devotion.

The Deathrite Shaman is interesting.

He does act as a nice top deck late game when you can't attack.

Tormented Hero is the worst one drop so only having 3 seems fine especially with Thoughtseize as another one drop in the deck.

Also I personally would run 3 Ultimate Price and 2 Bile Blight.

Just not sure how good Bile Blight really is.

[amcfvieira]

I like very much Bile Blight now. I think change by myself to a list with more creatures and less spells, when I see the lists from the DE I like that approach. I'm thinking in "curve" better the deck with the increase of 2 drops, but the 2 drops are the worst cards in the deck...
The list from SCG seems that work well in the "Curve" of the deck, but I can't see Lifebane in sideboard. He is too good now with the big number of green decks.
Another card that I have some doubts are Master of the Feast, seems that have a 5/5 at turn 3 in some matchups is a bye, but it kills the Curve of mana.

[dpaine88]

Why do you like BB so much?

What does it kill that is played that ultimate price doesn't?

Fleecemane, Voice, Satyr Token, Elspeth tokens(all), Nightvale spectre. Helps vs Frostburn weird. Pack Rat.

Yet Ultimate price hits Demon, Dragon, Polukranos, Angel, Ooze, Courser,

[LP, of the Fires]

The idea is that you're heavily favored vs. Green and Black decks to the point where you'd rather have the more situational removal spell that happens to let you win through an Elspeth.

When I played the deck, the only hard matchup(that was winnable, aka not burn) was Game 1 vs. Control since you had lots of dead draws and couldn't really beat an Elspeth without a bile blight.

[dpaine88]

Ok fair enough...

But I still think I prefer a 3/2 UP to BB split.

Least when I was playing with it and doing pretty well months back, it was 4 UP, 4 Downfall, 4 TS.

Mogis Marauder also wins through Elspeth too.

[dpaine88]

After some light testing...the one DRS has been awesome.

Another tool to help give the deck a little reach and close out a game.

[Aodh]

Took MBA out for a spin this Tuesday. 2-0 vs. Jund Monsters, 2-0 vs. Bant Control (opp. mull. to 5 G2), 2-0 vs. Dredge (opp. stuck on two land G2), 1-2 vs. MUD (both mull. to 6 G2 and punt by attacking into a known Rapid Hybridization; I mull. to 5 G3 and narrowly lose).

I ran 12 one-drops, 4 Pain Seer, 4 Spiteful Returned, 4 LBZ, 3 Marauders, 3 HDF, 2 UP, 1 BB, 4 TS, and 1 Hall of Triumph on 18 swamps and 4 Mutavaults. SB was 4 Master, 4 Dark Betrayal, 1 Whip, 3 Duress, 1 Erebos, 2 Doom Blade. Everything was very smooth; Hall of Triumph was very powerful the two times I saw it. Would LOVE to run more, but really wary about drawing two--does anyone have experience with the card? BB seems mediocre, but definitely would have helped me win the final game and seems like a good way to "get" MBD on the Pack Rat plan.

SB was -1 BB -1 Spiteful Returned +2 Doom Blade against Jund, -2 UP -1
BB -1 HF +3 Duress +1 Erebos against Bant Control, -3 Marauders -1 TS +4 Dark Betrayal against Dredge, -4 Tormented Hero -4 other spells +4 Master +2 Doom Blade +1 Erebos +1 Whip against MUD.