Dies to Removal

Been playing another Sam Black special

[deck]
Creatures:
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Grim Haruspex
2 Jeering Instigator
4 Merciless Executioner
4 Qarsi HIgh Priest
4 Ruthless Ripper
4 Sultai Emissary
2 Underworld Cerberus
3 Tymaret, The Murder King
Spells:
1 Dictate of Erebos
4 Collateral Damage
Lands:
6 Mountain
10 Swamp
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Temple of Malice

Sideboard:
3 Outpost Siege
2 Hero's Downfall
3 Act of Treason
3 Arc Lightning
4 Thoughtseize
[/deck]

The idea is obviously to have creatures that don't mind dying so you can use them to continually apply pressure by manifest. Some of the odd looking cards like ripper and instigator get better in their manifest form and make it hard for your opponent to know what to play around. Cards like haruspex and Tymaret provide lots of card advantage to really grind an opponent out. Just played this to a 3-1 finish at my local fnm and started playing it online as well. I love the lines of play this deck offers and the ability to really go into a late game and still keep up. It's really one of those high synergy decks that looks weak but really is greater than the sum of its parts. I feel like this build has potential but like any new deck will need tuning over time. If anyone else is interested in this type of thing and is willing to work on this I would be grateful for the help.

I just got through with a few matches of testing with a build eschewing Underworld Cerberus to lower the curve a little. This deck is real, but it needs tuning. In particular, 4 Qarsi High Priest feels like too many. I've bumped it to two. Jeering Instigator has also been lackluster.

Bloodsoaked Champion + Qarsi High Priest is the nut though.

Val, have you considered going Mardu so you can add Athreos?

Saccing a manifested card to Athreos and getting it back in your hand seems like a nice synergy. Also opens up Butcher as a Sac outlet

This deck is first and foremost an aggressive deck. You need to set up your board very quickly to get ahead and stay ahead, and adding the third color makes this strategy a lot less consistent. The four temples slow things down enough as is!

So far I've not wanted for Athreos anyway. Winmore at best.

If you really want that kind of effect, Underworld Cerberus is the way to go. I'm going to test him out soon.

Yeah I tried brewing an Athreos version myself a few days ago and was pretty underwhelmed.

Deck overall looks really interesting, it looks cheap to brew so might give it a whirl on MTGO once the FRF cards are freely available

Alesha is another interesting option.

Yeah I got responses Val all of your thoughts on the deck are basically the same as I've come across while playing it. Instigator is too hard to set up and get value off of most of the time. About adding another color this deck really wants to get its engine out and online quickly, so any small benefit another color adds is probably not worth the loss of tempo. I did like Cerberus the few times I got to use it but it is expensive so maybe it just better as something like outpost siege. Anyway thanks for the input guys hopefully we can get this thing in shape. I've got some pptqs coming up and would love to be able to play this if possible.

I would love to play this at this week's pptq but I'm just not confident enough in it yet to give it a try. I'll run it online for the next few days but I don't expect to have an epiphany between now and then.

Just played a game where my opponent cast three Siege Rhinos on turns 4, 5, and 6 and I literally gave no fucks and steamrolled him.

This deck is good but not great. Definitely needs tuning. Anafenza is a real problem, and I like Dark Betrayal in the sideboard quite a bit. Outpost Siege also seems like it wants to be in the 60.

Is Ripper good in the deck, or would Outburst be better?

Ripper is deceptively powerful. It sucks in racing situations but is great against decks playing haymakers like Siege Rhino. Outburst would be a little hard on the mana and doesn't work well with manifest. Rabblemaster would be better.

That's realistic; obviously should have been the card I meant. I like ripper, but feel like we want more tempo-conscious sacrifice plays.

What about more of the Bestow creatures like Gnarled Scarhide or Herald of Torment? I realize that they don't play so much into the sacrifice theme, but they do blank most forms of removal when they're bestowed.

I think they're fine. The deck needs to be more aggressive. Not sure where the line is between synergy and power.

So, in playing around with this idea, I came up with this:

[DECK]
Lands (24)
10 Swamp
6 Mountain
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Temple of Malice

Creatures (30)
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
2 Qarsi HIgh Priest
4 Ruthless Ripper
4 Sultai Emissary
3 Tymaret, the Murder King
1 Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
4 Grim Haruspex
4 Merciless Executioner
1 Mogis, God of Slaughter
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
2 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury

Spells (6)
2 Murderous Cut
4 Collateral Damage

Sideboard
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Outpost Siege
2 Hero's Downfall
3 Act of Treason
3 Arc Lightning
4 Thoughtseize
[/DECK]

I dropped the Qarsi High Priests down to 2 to fit in Purphoros and Mogis. Purphoros will almost never activate as a creature, but the 2 damage from all the creatures entering in brings extra upside to Bloodsoaked Champion, Sultai Emissary, and the High Priest. Mogis, though, can sometimes activate from all the creatures entering, and provides either extra damage or creature removal. I took out the Instigators to fit in Alesha as an extra source of recursion, and I wanted more proactive removal with Murderous Cut. And I liked Kolaghan as extra damage and a hasty pump for the whole team, which helps with the damage output for the list.

I haven't had a chance to test it out yet. The gods might be a bit too cute, but I wanted to try them out regardless.

I think Purphoros is fine. Mogis is not. I would also suggest main deck Outpost Siege. In fact it might just go where Purphoros should.

I'll put Outpost Siege in Mogis's spot. It'd be fun to have Purphoros, Siege, and Tymaret out at the same time. Cast Champion, trigger Purph for 2 damage, then sac him with Tymaret for 2 damage, which then triggers Siege for 1 damage. Five damage for 3 mana casting Champion from the hand or 4 mana if returning Champion after an attack.

Even better would be to sac Sultai Emissary to the High Priest to trigger Siege for 1 damage, then get two creatures to trigger Purph for 4 damage, sac one creature to Tymaret for 2 damage, and then trigger Siege for 1 damage. Eight damage for 4 mana.

Crazy fun times.

I have been playing with Ashcloud Phoenix a bit. Mana is sometimes problematic but Ashcloud is so powerful vs green decks.

I also have Outpost Siege in the deck.

My list:

[deck]
Creatures - 31
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Ruthless Ripper
2 Qarsi High Priest
4 Sultai Emissary
2 Jeering Instigator
2 Tymaret, the Murder King
4 Merciless Executioner
4 Grim Haruspex
3 Ashcloud Phoenix
2 Brutal Hordechief

Spells - 6
4 Collateral Damage
2 Outpost Siege

Lands - 23
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Temple of Malice
1 Mana Confluence
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
5 Mountain
8 Swamp

Sideboard - 15
4 Thoughtseize
3 Hero's Downfall
3 Peak Eruption
2 Magma Spray
3 Lightning Strike
[/deck]

So, is it time to revisit this idea with new offerings from Dragons?

I'm thinking that [card]Kolaghan's Command[/card], Minister of Pain, Silumgar Assassin, Pitiless Horde, Ultimate Price, and Duress offer interesting possibilities.

Gentlemen! Behold!

[deck]
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Sultai Emissary
2 Tymaret, the Murder King
4 Merciless Executioner
4 Ashcloud Phoenix
2 Sidisi, Undead Vizier

4 Dragon Fodder
2 Roast
3 Foul-Tongue Invocation
2 Kolaghan’s Command
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Crux of Fate
1 Murderous Cut

4 Bloodfell Caves
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Mana Confluence
4 Mountain
6 Swamp
4 Temple of Malice

2 Kolaghan’s Command
2 Magma Spray
2 Minister of Pain
2 Outpost Siege
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
1 Scouring Sand
4 Self-Inflicted Wound[/deck]

My latest in Rakdos deck. Now I’ll be the first to admit that it looks pretty bad, but the deck has been performing well in my time in the MTGO tourney practice room. Now I haven’t really played many games with this yet but so far I think it performs quite well.

I will admit, that I think the Artaka Red match is a bit scary. Outside of the land, there is no way to gain any life. They can go wide and get us to low enough life before they finish us off with burn. The key here is to clog up the board really early and to play it defensively. Games two and three we want to see a minister of pain or scouring sands. Not much we can do about their burn, but sometimes a Kolaghan’s Command can hit something valuable from their hand. If anyone got any suggestions to make this match hurt less, I would like to hear from you.

Control is a walk in the park. Well for the most part anyways. The creatures in this deck are just way too resilient to removal. Eventually the game will go on and they will run out of spells because our guys just keep coming back. You still run a risk of over extending but long as you play it smart, there should be openings.

I did play some abzan matches. Although it was before I added crux and murderous cut. Anyways, I have only played against the agro version of the deck and it can be tricky. They have lots more creatures that can drop early and that can take over if left unchecked. Hitting the right removal is key. This match is what made me main those two roast and is making me think of having four. Anafenza is the most annoying creature they have since his ability really weaken our guys. Games two and three, we bring in more edicts though I’m left wondering if there is a better approach to this match.

That’s all I have so far. What you guys think?

Revisit this deck now that we have Hangarback Marauder and Merciless Executioner 5-8?

I don't think any deck wants more than 4 Fleshbag Marauder. I do think there's a deck somewhere in Standard for this kind of strategy, but it will at least be BG for Evolutionary Leap and probably Abzan for Abzan Ascendancy.