@imopen: Overlord was one of the tougher cuts I made when I was building; originally, the choice was between him and the second
Sylvan Primordial, and I decided to go with the Primordial as a way to give me more reach vs. an opposing Whip or PWs, as well as the fact that there's no guarantee you're really going to have that much black devotion when he comes out. I feel that was correct, as Primordial does a great job saving your ass, but with the rise of Monsters as a deck I'll be watching Overlord closely.
Alternatively, you could easily pull a Deadbridge or Nemesis for him, but I face enough aggro in my local meta that I didn't want to reduce the chances of that sweet, sweet turn 3 5/5 that they have such a problem playing around.
@Scralty: I wanted to get away from the Junk version of this deck. First, I was entirely unimpressed with Obzedat in the deck; even with "the Whip trick,&
quot; he's just a good guy who doesn't move your game plan forward any faster than, say, Overlord. Blood Baron, on the other hand, is
amazeballs right now, and I was hesitant to cut him, but overall in playtesting the CIPT lands and shocklands lost more games vs. aggro than Blood Baron could justify. I would definitely consider the Junk version once the format calms back the fuck down from this "OMG 14 damage turns!" bender the whole of the Magic world seems to be on right now. If nothing else, I'm excited for the tools that Nyx will be bringing to the deck (the B/G scry land, at least).
@Xanatos:
Varolz - is terrible here. On curve, he's completely outclassed by several different 5/5's or bigger, and pulling creatures out of your graveyard is worse than just leaving them there for fuel.
Pack Rat - this guy, on the other hand, is great in the deck, and was by far the closest shave I made. Originally, I had him in place of
Deadbridge Goliath[/c:
23u7vh8u] as a 2-of, and in playtesting he often dominated the game (and 2 of them is all you need, really). Deadbridge made the cut over him for 2 reasons: 1) Pack Rat is a boogeyman, and it's pretty common to say "Hey, how to we answer Pack Rat?" when building a deck, and people are used to either having that answer or playing around him, and 2) I'm totes in love with dropping 5/5's on the 3rd turn to answer aggro (especially with a whip the following turn, how does aggro even win against that?). You mentioned taking over a locked-up board, if you're worried about that over getting aggro'd out Pack Rat should be your go-to there, imo. That being said, there are times when you won't have something good to chuck to Rat; yeah, you can bring Demon & co. back with whip but a lot of the time you'll want to just cast them and win instead.
Jarad, Lotleth - there's another version of the deck that I came across that I really like:
[deck]Judge Dredge[/deck]
{Approximation. If you don't want the white, substituting [c]Nighthowler for Sin Collector and any good guy for Blood Baron would be okay, I think; also, Shadowborn isn't nearly as good here so his slots are up for grabs if you want)
This version of the deck sacrifices dig for (a lot more) aggression, and requires a little more luck to hit what you need when you need it, but maintains the deck's inherent stability and playability. Turn 1 Elf turn 2 Lotleth-pitch-pitch-pitch-maybe regenerate turn 3 Nemesis (or pitch-nemesis-mana back to regenerate) or turn 3 Jarad should be enough on board to win you the game right there. I'm hesitant to switch over to this version myself, because I'm used to getting screwed over by the luck of the draw, but this is a very strong deck in and of itself. One last comment, though,
I've found that having a stalled board state isn't very common with the deck... you're usually going to have enough board presence to keep punching through 5+ damage a turn once you're rolling.
Edit- one suggestion, if you find yourself in a situation where you don't have the elf turn 1 it's still probably correct to drop the Lolteth turn 2 even if you can't regenerate him. Even if they do have the removal, he just another guy in the GY for you to use later.
I've seen a few people who have had RIP in their SB just for the same problem we're having, their SB is just a big ol' pile once you get past the 4-8 spells they bring in every single time. Ooze has been more problematic, but I'm starting to get comfortable enough with the deck to make playing him awkward.. landing an early threat outclasses him, and if he comes down too late he just dies.
