General Stategy: BR Aggro-Discard looks to put a quick clock on the opponent while destroying and discarding any defense that the opponent might try.
The deck has a low curve, and looks to play early creatures, disrupt the opponent while getting damage in, and use burn spells to dome the opponent for the game if necessary.
The deck has three major types of cards: 1. Aggressive Creatures 2. Discard Spells
2a. Draw spells 3. Removal (Burn)
Using the three types of cards, you wish to play aggressive creatures, discard your opponent's hand, and remove any speed bump that your opponent puts in the way. Obviously, the best cards in this archetype are those that fulfill two of these three roles. (For example, Nekrataal and Faceless Butcher fulfill 1 and 3, Hypnotic Specter and Okiba-Gang Shinobi fulfill 1 and 2, and Blightning fulfills 2 and 3.
Top Picks (the nuts): Dark Confidant: This dude will get in for two damage while keeping you way ahead in the card race. Since your curve is low, you will take minimal damage, and drawing extra cards while making your opponent discard theirs is insane.
Mind Twist: The grand-daddy of all discard spells, this spell comes out on Turn 4 and nukes your opponent's hand.
Hypnotic Specter: More beta goodness. As I said earlier, the best cards in this deck fulfill two of our strategies.
Blazing Specter: Hyppie #2, comes right out of the gates swinging and taking cards.
Blightning: A great card for this deck. Quickens the clock and gets two more of their cards.
Flametounge Kavu: Comes down on four, blasts any defense that your opponent might have mustered, and then starts swinging for four.
Profane Command: Acts as a game ending X-spell, removal spell, or brings one of your awesome cheap creatures back, or two of these!
Demonfire: Ends the game for five damage, or knocks out a weenie. One damage off of Bob.
There are other good cards for this archetype. Here's other 'types' of cards to look out for:
Spot Removal: You don't want too many of these (since your burn will do the same role), but you want some, and playing BR, you get the best. Diabolic Edict, Terminate, etc.
Burn: Put all the best in your deck. Gets rid of creatures, and will finish the game more often than not. X spells are the best, and are nice reveals for Confidant. Examples: Banefire, Magma Jet, Flame Javelin, Rekindled Flame, Incinerate, etc.
Agressive Creatures: Anything that is cheap and does damage fits here. You don't really need the best creatures, and you can play the "suicide" creatures as well. Black Knight variants are fine, but make sure you have good fixing to play your burn. Examples: Bitterblossom, Dauthi Slayer, Jackal Pup, Ashenmoor Gouger.
Curve and Colors:
You want your curve to be very low in this deck. I had 3 five-drops between my last two decks of this archetype. Most of your spells should be in the 2-3 range, with your "better" spells at 4-5 cost.
As for your colors, this deck can ideally operates as "mono-black" for the first two turns, and then branches into red when it wants to play its burn and red creatures. This allows you to drop some agressive creatures with BB costs (Knights, Hyppie) and then start playing red cards (Blightning, Demonfire, etc.) As such, your manabase should be around 60% black. Also, you generally want to avoid cheap spells that cost RR (No Blood Knights, Stigma Lasher, Suluric Vortex, etc.) However, in the later game RR spells are fine (Kumano, etc.)
Fixing is pretty important in this archetype, but not terribly so. You want to avoid spending mana or turns fixing, but do so if you must. For example, I don't really like playing Signets or Rakdos Carnarium, but Blood Crypt, Badlands, and Bloodstained Mire are high picks. Do whatever it takes to hit BB, then R.
Drafting the Deck
This deck is not hard to draft, but you need to see the discard spells and the colors have to be open. A lot of this deck's cards will wheel, especially discard spells, but since you want a lot of high-quality spells, you want to be being passed the best BR cards. As long as you're seeing plenty of aggro, plenty of burn, and plenty of removal, you'll be fine.
Sample Play:
Hand: Bloodstained Mire, Swamp, Swamp, Bitterblossom, Char, Nekrataal, Hypnotic Specter
T1: Mire, Getting Blood Crypt into play tapped.
T2: Swamp, Bitterblossom. (Drawing Blightning)
T3: Swamp, Hypnotic Specter. (Drawing Mountain, Opponent 19)
T4: Mountain, Blightning, attack. (Draw Sygg, Opponent 12, -3 Cards)
T5: Char a Blocker, play drawn Urborg, attack. Play Sygg, draw Incinerate. (Opponent 7, -4 Cards).
T6: Nekrataal blocker, Attack and Incinerate to the dome.
Matchups:
Good: Anything slow/blue based. Your clock and discard punish them very hard. UB and UW control and 5CC are good matchups for you.
50-50: Midrange decks. You need to get out ahead and discard their doorstops, and remove their blockers to get damage in before they take control of the board. These matchups will probably end with you on your heels hurling burn.
Bad: Weenie, graveyard-based Rock. Weenie is terrible, since their creatures outclass and sometimes have protectiong from yours. Your spot removal is bad against a bunch of creatures and tokens, and your discard does not disrupt their strategy like other decks. Rock can generally outclass your creatures, and their decks will fish their discarded cards back out of the graveyard.
Any suggestions for the primer? I will happily update it. I love this archetype, and I have had the pleasure of forcing it twice after a first-pick Bob.
I play B/R quite a bit, and I actually disagree with the "small aggressive creatures" bit. B/R is much better when it plays evasive beaters, sources of card advantage, and fatties.
The specters are obviously good, but I tend to find cards like Kumano, Ancient Hydra, Phyrexian Plaguelord, and fatties like Flameblast Dragon and Visara the Dreadful are much better then Jackal Pups.
Also, this is the deck that takes every single red/black sweeper it sees, especially the ones based off of damage or -x/-x. Nothing encourages a player to play out the cards in his hand like a Hypnotic spector, so they often overextend and set themselves up for Wildfire or Rolling Earthquake. Your creatures tend to be a bit bigger then your opponents, so they have a good chance of surviving, also.
Do cards that destroy lands also play a part in this archetype for disruption effects?
I've found that the answer is generally no. An exception can be made for Wildfire though - That card wrecks face. Playing Visara on turn 5 off a signet and Wildfire on Turn 6 is a pretty great way to end the game, especially if you've discarded a few of their cards with Hymn or Blightning.
I play B/R quite a bit, and I actually disagree with the "small aggressive creatures" bit. B/R is much better when it plays evasive beaters, sources of card advantage, and fatties.
The specters are obviously good, but I tend to find cards like Kumano, Ancient Hydra, Phyrexian Plaguelord, and fatties like Flameblast Dragon and Visara the Dreadful are much better then Jackal Pups.
Also, this is the deck that takes every single red/black sweeper it sees, especially the ones based off of damage or -x/-x. Nothing encourages a player to play out the cards in his hand like a Hypnotic spector, so they often overextend and set themselves up for Wildfire or Rolling Earthquake. Your creatures tend to be a bit bigger then your opponents, so they have a good chance of surviving, also.
Um... isn't the thread title B/R Aggro? This is not at all what you just described.
This thread is discussing the power of Aggressive creatures backed-up with removal and discard (and perhaps LD, which I think belongs in BR Aggro personally). You're talking about BR control (which is an archetype that I really like too) but is completely different from the discussion/strategy for this thread.
Basically you just said: "I disagree with the aggro side of BR Aggro. I'd swap the Aggro cards out for Control cards. Then, your BR Aggro will be better."
Blazing Specter: Hyppie #2, comes right out of the gates swinging and taking cards.
This card has been amazing for me every time I've drafted it. Hippy usually gets killed before he does anything relevant, but Blazing Spectre gets in there and starts ripping out cards right away. I don't think I've ever taken fewer than 2 cards with a Blazing Spectre. Two cards and 4 damage for 2BR? Seems fair.
Also, Pyre Zombie has been surprisingly good in B/R for me, though that's more of a control card than an aggro card.
Me too. LD is a huge part of my decision on weather or not I'll play BR aggro. I don't really like playing black/red without at least 3 or 4 Land Destruction spells (unless the Burn/Speed/Discard is really, really savage). The CC-heavy control cards are just too good for BR aggro to compete w/out LD, IMO.
General Stategy: BR Aggro-Discard looks to put a quick clock on the opponent while destroying and discarding any defense that the opponent might try.
The deck has a low curve, and looks to play early creatures, disrupt the opponent while getting damage in, and use burn spells to dome the opponent for the game if necessary.
The deck has three major types of cards:
1. Aggressive Creatures
2. Discard Spells
2a. Draw spells
3. Removal (Burn)
Using the three types of cards, you wish to play aggressive creatures, discard your opponent's hand, and remove any speed bump that your opponent puts in the way. Obviously, the best cards in this archetype are those that fulfill two of these three roles. (For example, Nekrataal and Faceless Butcher fulfill 1 and 3, Hypnotic Specter and Okiba-Gang Shinobi fulfill 1 and 2, and Blightning fulfills 2 and 3.
Top Picks (the nuts):
Dark Confidant: This dude will get in for two damage while keeping you way ahead in the card race. Since your curve is low, you will take minimal damage, and drawing extra cards while making your opponent discard theirs is insane.
Mind Twist: The grand-daddy of all discard spells, this spell comes out on Turn 4 and nukes your opponent's hand.
Hypnotic Specter: More beta goodness. As I said earlier, the best cards in this deck fulfill two of our strategies.
Blazing Specter: Hyppie #2, comes right out of the gates swinging and taking cards.
Blightning: A great card for this deck. Quickens the clock and gets two more of their cards.
Flametounge Kavu: Comes down on four, blasts any defense that your opponent might have mustered, and then starts swinging for four.
Profane Command: Acts as a game ending X-spell, removal spell, or brings one of your awesome cheap creatures back, or two of these!
Demonfire: Ends the game for five damage, or knocks out a weenie. One damage off of Bob.
There are other good cards for this archetype. Here's other 'types' of cards to look out for:
Spot Removal: You don't want too many of these (since your burn will do the same role), but you want some, and playing BR, you get the best. Diabolic Edict, Terminate, etc.
Other Discard Spells: Obviously, you want a decent number of these. Mind Shatter, Hymn to Tourach, Persecute, etc.
Burn: Put all the best in your deck. Gets rid of creatures, and will finish the game more often than not. X spells are the best, and are nice reveals for Confidant. Examples: Banefire, Magma Jet, Flame Javelin, Rekindled Flame, Incinerate, etc.
Agressive Creatures: Anything that is cheap and does damage fits here. You don't really need the best creatures, and you can play the "suicide" creatures as well. Black Knight variants are fine, but make sure you have good fixing to play your burn. Examples: Bitterblossom, Dauthi Slayer, Jackal Pup, Ashenmoor Gouger.
Curve and Colors:
You want your curve to be very low in this deck. I had 3 five-drops between my last two decks of this archetype. Most of your spells should be in the 2-3 range, with your "better" spells at 4-5 cost.
As for your colors, this deck can ideally operates as "mono-black" for the first two turns, and then branches into red when it wants to play its burn and red creatures. This allows you to drop some agressive creatures with BB costs (Knights, Hyppie) and then start playing red cards (Blightning, Demonfire, etc.) As such, your manabase should be around 60% black. Also, you generally want to avoid cheap spells that cost RR (No Blood Knights, Stigma Lasher, Suluric Vortex, etc.) However, in the later game RR spells are fine (Kumano, etc.)
Fixing is pretty important in this archetype, but not terribly so. You want to avoid spending mana or turns fixing, but do so if you must. For example, I don't really like playing Signets or Rakdos Carnarium, but Blood Crypt, Badlands, and Bloodstained Mire are high picks. Do whatever it takes to hit BB, then R.
Drafting the Deck
Sample Deck:
Here is a fairly good deck:
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Blood Crypt
1 City of Brass
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
7 Swamp
6 Mountain
Creatures (12)
1 Carnophage
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Sygg, River Cutthroat
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Nantuko Shade
1 Oona's Prowler
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Blazing Specter
1 Nekrataal
1 Flame-Tounge Kavu
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Torchling
1 Duress
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Bitterblossom
1 Terminate
1 Terror
1 Incinerate
1 Magma Jet
1 Blightning
1 Char
1 Mind Twist
1 Banefire
Hand: Bloodstained Mire, Swamp, Swamp, Bitterblossom, Char, Nekrataal, Hypnotic Specter
T1: Mire, Getting Blood Crypt into play tapped.
T2: Swamp, Bitterblossom. (Drawing Blightning)
T3: Swamp, Hypnotic Specter. (Drawing Mountain, Opponent 19)
T4: Mountain, Blightning, attack. (Draw Sygg, Opponent 12, -3 Cards)
T5: Char a Blocker, play drawn Urborg, attack. Play Sygg, draw Incinerate. (Opponent 7, -4 Cards).
T6: Nekrataal blocker, Attack and Incinerate to the dome.
Matchups:
Good: Anything slow/blue based. Your clock and discard punish them very hard. UB and UW control and 5CC are good matchups for you.
50-50: Midrange decks. You need to get out ahead and discard their doorstops, and remove their blockers to get damage in before they take control of the board. These matchups will probably end with you on your heels hurling burn.
Bad: Weenie, graveyard-based Rock. Weenie is terrible, since their creatures outclass and sometimes have protectiong from yours. Your spot removal is bad against a bunch of creatures and tokens, and your discard does not disrupt their strategy like other decks. Rock can generally outclass your creatures, and their decks will fish their discarded cards back out of the graveyard.
Any suggestions for the primer? I will happily update it. I love this archetype, and I have had the pleasure of forcing it twice after a first-pick Bob.
Mad props to Spiderboy at HighLight for the sig!
Check out my drafting vids at MTGOvideos!
I used to write cube articles on StarCityGames, now for GatheringMagic and podcast about cube (w/Antknee42.)
The specters are obviously good, but I tend to find cards like Kumano, Ancient Hydra, Phyrexian Plaguelord, and fatties like Flameblast Dragon and Visara the Dreadful are much better then Jackal Pups.
Also, this is the deck that takes every single red/black sweeper it sees, especially the ones based off of damage or -x/-x. Nothing encourages a player to play out the cards in his hand like a Hypnotic spector, so they often overextend and set themselves up for Wildfire or Rolling Earthquake. Your creatures tend to be a bit bigger then your opponents, so they have a good chance of surviving, also.
I've found that the answer is generally no. An exception can be made for Wildfire though - That card wrecks face. Playing Visara on turn 5 off a signet and Wildfire on Turn 6 is a pretty great way to end the game, especially if you've discarded a few of their cards with Hymn or Blightning.
Currently 62/265 cards.
Thanks to a_passer_bye for an incredible signature banner!
Trade with me!
Currently 62/265 cards.
Um... isn't the thread title B/R Aggro? This is not at all what you just described.
This thread is discussing the power of Aggressive creatures backed-up with removal and discard (and perhaps LD, which I think belongs in BR Aggro personally). You're talking about BR control (which is an archetype that I really like too) but is completely different from the discussion/strategy for this thread.
Basically you just said: "I disagree with the aggro side of BR Aggro. I'd swap the Aggro cards out for Control cards. Then, your BR Aggro will be better."
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!
Sorry for being ambiguous. I meant that Wildfire goes into many different archetypes, most of which win with a resolved Wildfire.
Thanks to a_passer_bye for an incredible signature banner!
Trade with me!
This card has been amazing for me every time I've drafted it. Hippy usually gets killed before he does anything relevant, but Blazing Spectre gets in there and starts ripping out cards right away. I don't think I've ever taken fewer than 2 cards with a Blazing Spectre. Two cards and 4 damage for 2BR? Seems fair.
Also, Pyre Zombie has been surprisingly good in B/R for me, though that's more of a control card than an aggro card.
My Eternal Cube on CubeTutor| |My Reject Rare Cube on CubeTutor| |My Peasant Cube on CubeTutor
I used to write for MTGS, including Cranial Insertion and cube articles. Good on you if you can find those after the upgrade.
and so on...
Keeping them off lands and cards just seems to win games :P.
EDH: Whatever 99 BWG cards I feel like playing from my cube.
Legacy: MUC, MBStax, Zoo/Goyf Sligh, Esperzoa (8SeaDrake.dec), WhiteWeenie
My Trade Thread
Tempe, AZ Cube
My 630 Card Powered Cube
My Article - "Cube Design Philosophy"
My Article - "Mana Short: A study in limited resource management."
My 49th Set (P)review - Discusses my top 20 Cube cards from MKM!