If you like making sure that your opponent's creatures drop dead or leave nothing but a pile of ashes, this deck is for you. If you like skipping the middle man and sending lethal damage directly to the dome, this deck is for you. If you like burning things in your mom's basement just to hear the pretty flames talk to you... this deck is for you... but you MAY need to go talk to a professional.
"You've convinced me. What do we play?"
There is a long list of spells and creatures we could be playing. First, I'll start with the Land.
--
LAND BASE
Mountain and Swamp - You can't go wrong with basic land. This is especially vital if you come across Ghost Quarter hitting your non-basics.
Stensia Bloodhall - If you've got mana at the end of turn and nothing to spend it on, 3RB for a shock can sometimes get you there. This taps for colorless mana, so running a full play set isn't a good idea. 1-2 is best.
Ghost Quarter - With the fall of Zendikar man-lands, this card isn't as vital as Tectonic Edge was. However, Inkmoth Nexus is still around and can put the hurting on. Run 0-2 as you see fit.
CREATURES
Grim Lavamancer - Extends the life of your pyromania. A solid choice.
Chandra's Pheonix - This hasty creature is especially good when you consider the amount of burn we are running. Other tricks include using Liliana of the Veils +1 to discard it and get it back after an incinerate to be discarded again. Also very useful in the control matchup.
Entomber Exarch - The toolbox cleric. He offers hand disruption or a creature back from your graveyard. Great in the mirror.
Olivia Voldaren - Olivia is another toolbox creature. She offers minor burn to pick of pesky x/1s. She also provides some control in taking other creatures that must be answered. If left unchecked, she is a finisher on her own.
Bloodgift Demon - I hear Phyrexian Arena is good. I hear 5/4 fliers for 5 are good. This is both. Win!
Grave Titan and Inferno Titan - The finishers. Grave Titan is clearly stronger as a "must answer now" bomb, but Inferno has his own special way of clearing a field or getting the extra damage across.
Sheoldred, the Whispering One - She is great... but I feel as though she is way too expensive for what we are doing.
Vengeful Pharaoh - While he can be a clever trick, I don't think he doesnt merit a spot here.
Incinerate - A solid 3 damage. Bitter aftertaste after 2 seasons of Lightning Bolt... but still good.
Gut Shot - There are quite a few x/1s out there, and this allows you to be tapped out and still get there. However, there are better uses of your 75.
Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, Victim in the Night - Two mana cost removal. Of the three, (right now) GffT is the strongest. Until the meta settles, we wont know exactly which of the three is best.
Dismember - Not sure if there's a place for this in the build. Anything you want to kill can probably be dead without the 3cmc or 4 damage.
Act of Aggression - With the death of Twin, this may be going away. May end up a decent sideboard card.
Altar's Reap - Card draw is good... and the trick of saccing a Solemn or Pheonix is always fun.
Brimstone Volley - 3 damage for 3... 5 if a creature died. While 5 damage for 3 is fantastic, it is very unreliable requiring the morbid trigger.
SORCERIES
Past in Flames - Give everything you are casting flashback? Yeah, seems good. Just be sure you have enough mana to cast the stuff on top of paying for this.
Despise - Its no Inquisition of Kozilek... but it serves as a 1-drop discard as well as looking at the opponent's hand. Never underestimate that advantage.
Distress - At 2 CMC, it allows for anything to be discarded. I'm not a fan.
Night Terrors - This I like. I know, I don't like Distress at 2, but I like this at 3. The reason? It exiles. This allows you to get rid of pesky flashback stuff... or even a recurring threat.
Bump in the Night - This is a very solid card. 3 damage for B is good, and the flashback can sometimes get there.
Devil's Play - Remember liking to burn things? Yeah.. this is how you get it done. A blaze with flashback.
Black Sun's Zenith - You will need board sweepers and they don't get much better than Zenith. Avoids protection and indestructibility. Also, if you can't quite kill their big threat, you can severly weaken it to buy yourself some time.
Red Sun's Zenith - Similar to Devil's Play... without flashback... but with reshuffling. I prefer Play to this, but it may be a personal choice.
PLANESWALKERS
Liliana of the Veil - She offers a good hand disruption in the discard, non-targetted removal... and if she gets her final ability, you can set yourself up for the win.
Chandra the Firebrand - +1 for a ping or extra reach. -6 for a one sided Inferno. But the gem is really the -2 to be able to Fork your Devil's Play.
Why would you play Bump in the Night? It's good for an aggressive deck, but even if you do have the mana to flash it back, you're better off with more Devil's Play or Red Sun's Zenith.
Slagstorm is pretty much better than Black Sun's Zenith every time.
Victim of Night has a restrictive cost, so Incinerate, Dismember, or Doom Blade would probably be better picks here.
Brimstone Volley is OK, but I don't think you'll be able to use this effectively until turn 5 or even later. Despise and Shock are good options here.
Ghost Quarter doesn't do anything worth while.
And lastly, you deck has a problem with having too few creatures. Your opponent just needs one removal spell for each of your demons and titans, and then you'll lose the game. You don't have any extra draw or any way of protecting your creatures. You could fix that with cards like Skinrender, Entomber Exarch, Phyrexian Rager, Manic Vandal, etc.
Thank you for the input... like I said, its a rough start and I want to mold it into something workable.
Entomber Exarch is an amazing suggestion. You get 2 cookies.
Ghost Quarter was my heart going out to Tec Edge and mourning it's loss. However, it DOES put some hurting on Inkmoth Nexus that the U/W Blade and Steel decks run. Maybe cut to just a 2 of?
You're right about Brimstone Volley, i'd be better off just increasing the number of Shocks or Red Sun's Zenith.
Stensia Bloodhall should not be a 4 of at all. A 1-2 of at most. Your deck is very color hungry. The entire set actually gets spoiled at midnight tonight. =) So just wait an 3 hours and a half and we can revisit this!
What about bloodline keeper? He can make free blockers while you work your mana into titans and, if the game stalls for too long, can transform and finish in one blow.
The original build did have Brimstone Volley... but 3 mana for 3 damage with a conditional 5 damage.. is sub-par to a standard incinerate in this deck... as I have no real way of ensuring Morbid without offing one of my own dudes.
What is olivia Voldaren going to be doing for you? I mean you have so much removal that her 1 damage ability isn't going to hit anything. The only thing I am seeing her as is a 3/3 flyer for 4. Maybe some card draw could help a bit more...the new black card draw Alter's Reap could help Sac a Solemn draw 3? seems decent. Also could you fit Chandra in here? forking any of your burns could help you out.
I think this deck could use some extra card draw. With your more creature heavy deck i would try the Alter's Reap. For the spell heavy deck, maybe Tezzerets gambit? forking tezz gambit gives you 4 cards and 2 loyalty counters back on chandra. Maybe try putting Bloodgift demon back into you 2nd list somehow. Hope this helps.
Bloodgift Demon - Phyrexian Arena on a 5/4 flying demon. 3BB is a reasonable cost for a 5/4 flier that does stuff.
Altar's Reap - Instant speed sac a dude and draw 2 cards. Has synergy with Chandra's Pheonix and Solemn Simulacrum. Dead card without creatures to sacrifice.
Tezzeret's Gambit - Draw 2 cards and proliferate for the cost of 3 and 2 life. Forking it with Chandra allows for extra shenanigans.
Caress of Phyrexia - Draw 3 cards, Lose 3 Life, Get 3 Poison counters for 3BB ... Not sure I like this option, seems expensive... even forking it and hitting an opponent seems like a bad play here.
--
I think I'll try to work in 2 or 3 Tezz's Gambit ... or 2 Bloodgift Demon into the second build.
Here's my notes from playing around with various builds of this deck:
Tezzeret's gambit is very good here. Forking it is obviously amazing, even moreso with a Liliana on the field. Keeping Liliana healthy is pretty important. The deck I started building with ran 4 Phoenixes, 2 Pharoahs, and a varying number of flashback cards and Reassembling Skeletons... and what I found out was that often the best play with Liliana is to do nothing. Tezzeret's gambit offers a really good one-two punch with her: it gives you cards which you MIGHT use to fuel her +1, but it automatically allows you to at least get another edict out of her, which is pretty nice.
Reassembling Skeleton I am on the fence about. It's nice to have another card that you aren't worried about tossing to liliana, and the ability to get board presence at the end of an opponent's turn is pretty nice. Unfortunately, the creature itself is almost always just going to chump block, and there aren't a lot of good ways to power him up that synergize with the rest of the deck. Sword of Feast and Famine is one option, and isn't a bad one. Batterskull also does pretty well here. Bonehoard is another interesting option.
Vengeful Pharoah is nifty. Free removal is pretty decent and it's hard to get effectively locked out especially if you can manage a Liliana.
Smallpox could see play here? The mana costs on the cards are mostly low... obviously it has anti-synergy with any X spells but i think it'd be tough for a lot of decks to come back from forked smallpox if you've got your walkers out.
I have always argued for Dismember over Doom blade variants even in Mono-black decks because of its versatility. The ability to not commit any sideboard slots to cards like disfigure , the ability to cast this off of any land, it's just such a good card. For the rest of the removal, i'd probably use some burn that will turn on my Chandra's Phoenixes before I would run blades, but maybe that's a bad call.
Distress is pretty good... we've been spoiled by IoK. Despise isn't that interesting because we can probably deal with creatures. There's a lot of pesky non-critter stuff to worry about, that isn't so easy to deal with.
Altar's Reap is interesting... when I can cast it to good effect (or at least fork it), it's really solid. For a little while I played Act of Aggression, and the advantage you can get off those two spells in unison for 5 mana is pretty high. But it's dead a LOT of the time, and leaving that mana up for a convenient time is hard with some of our high drops.
I'll post my general core here in a second but the actual list has been very in flux.
Ok, here's my current list, which suffers from too many finishers, none of which I can bring myself to cut.
Grave Titan is just good stuff, and he's pretty tough to stop. You all know why he's good.
Vengeful Pharaoh is cheaper while still pretty big and (slowly) recurs himself, as well as providing an interesting interaction with Liliana. I find people attack into him (in the grave) to try to screw me out of a draw... whether or not this is something that can be exploited is something that waits to be seen. Free(?) removal isn't something I'm likely to overlook.
Batterskull makes use of the tremendous number of recurring creatures while being a not insignificant body on its own. Less impressive when he's not being windmill slammed off of SFM, but still good value.
Reassembling skeleton is pretty bad most of the time. He can stall forever, but if that's the best you can do with 2 mana, you're losing. He's decent at carrying batterskulls and being tossed to Liliana, though perhaps something like Devil's Play would be more appropriate. This is my most-questioned card in the deck right now. Dropping him for either Grim Lavamancer or some more problematic 2-drop seems likely.
Sphere of the Suns works well with Tezz's Gambit, and provides a nice piece of ramp... especially into stuff like Monomania in the side. T4 Monomania makes other control decks unhappy, and lets us keep them in topdeck with Lili. Also allows us to play ancient grudge as our artifact destruction, which is rad. Right now, it seems like the better choice over Manalith, but that could change. I think some kind of mana rock is necessary.
Arc Trail could be Incinerate. Not really sure ATM since Arc Trail can kill a dude AND pop back some phoenixes , as well as 2-for-1 versus fast aggro (which I believe to be real) but Incinerate is generally better as an instant, or in a field with less aggro.
I don't like to have to wait with mana open to draw the cards. I also don't like to be locked out of using my draw spell by not having the board position to sacrifice. Too often it was kill skeleton, altar's reap, reassemble, which is 4 for 2 cards... given the prolif's bonus to my walkers, I think gambit is just stronger. Maybe i'll be shown up.
Most of the good GY interactions dont involve casting from the GY. Maybe if they "reprint" chainer's edict, or a fb duress, or a fb tutor, or something, it'll be worth doing, but atm the only FB spells I really consider are Devil's Play, Moan of the Unhallowed, and uh
Played this in Scars Block. EVERY deck ran artifacts, thus 3 MD Scrapmelters. Its more Midrange than control, but it does the job against aggro decks.
It had good game against Tempered steel if it could draw GFTT or Dismember to kill off Hero of Bladehold before it attacked.
Infect was also big, thus maindeck Burn the Impure's. Even in TS, a Burn the Impure was great against their inkmoth's.
The worst match up was against Control Tezzeret decks where if they arnt playing anything, neither are you and your 2-for-1 Scrapmelters even out when your forced to kill Wellsprings.
Figured I would add this list into the discussion.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Currently Playing:
Standard: RWB Dega Burn RWB
Modern: 1 Top Control 1
Legacy: XU Manaless Blue Dredge XU
EDH: Edric, Spymaster of Tres 1UG
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy 1UBR
Enoch: Your build is vastly different than what I was working on, but I like some of your choices, looks like it has good interaction... more focused on Liliana.
Bryce: Any changes you're going to make to that list for Innistrad?
First of all, -4 basic lands, +4 Dragonskull Summit.
Its a little hard to change it not knowing Teir 1 decks that we will have to aim to beat. Burn the impure will likely come out unless infect is rampant. Same with Scrapmelter unless artifacts are as dominant like in Scars block.
In what looks like to be a slower format, Galvanic blast could become Brimstone Volley. Slagstorm may also warrent a place in the sideboard against Werewolf.dek.
Entomber Extarch is a way to beat the control decks that I didnt think of when originally building the deck. It would take the place of Skinrender. Kruin Outlaw im also liking to look of for a more midrange deck.
Moltensteel should also be a Titan. Not sure which one would be better.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Currently Playing:
Standard: RWB Dega Burn RWB
Modern: 1 Top Control 1
Legacy: XU Manaless Blue Dredge XU
EDH: Edric, Spymaster of Tres 1UG
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy 1UBR
"Why should I play B/R Control?"
If you like making sure that your opponent's creatures drop dead or leave nothing but a pile of ashes, this deck is for you. If you like skipping the middle man and sending lethal damage directly to the dome, this deck is for you. If you like burning things in your mom's basement just to hear the pretty flames talk to you... this deck is for you... but you MAY need to go talk to a professional.
"You've convinced me. What do we play?"
There is a long list of spells and creatures we could be playing. First, I'll start with the Land.
--
LAND BASE
Blackcleave Cliffs and Dragonskull Summit - Both of these are very useful as mana fixing. Run 4 of each, no question.
Stensia Bloodhall - If you've got mana at the end of turn and nothing to spend it on, 3RB for a shock can sometimes get you there. This taps for colorless mana, so running a full play set isn't a good idea. 1-2 is best.
Ghost Quarter - With the fall of Zendikar man-lands, this card isn't as vital as Tectonic Edge was. However, Inkmoth Nexus is still around and can put the hurting on. Run 0-2 as you see fit.
CREATURES
Solemn Simulacrum - Mana fixing and card draw, what's not to love?
Chandra's Pheonix - This hasty creature is especially good when you consider the amount of burn we are running. Other tricks include using Liliana of the Veils +1 to discard it and get it back after an incinerate to be discarded again. Also very useful in the control matchup.
Entomber Exarch - The toolbox cleric. He offers hand disruption or a creature back from your graveyard. Great in the mirror.
Olivia Voldaren - Olivia is another toolbox creature. She offers minor burn to pick of pesky x/1s. She also provides some control in taking other creatures that must be answered. If left unchecked, she is a finisher on her own.
Bloodgift Demon - I hear Phyrexian Arena is good. I hear 5/4 fliers for 5 are good. This is both. Win!
Grave Titan and Inferno Titan - The finishers. Grave Titan is clearly stronger as a "must answer now" bomb, but Inferno has his own special way of clearing a field or getting the extra damage across.
Sheoldred, the Whispering One - She is great... but I feel as though she is way too expensive for what we are doing.
Vengeful Pharaoh - While he can be a clever trick, I don't think he doesnt merit a spot here.
INSTANTS
Incinerate - A solid 3 damage. Bitter aftertaste after 2 seasons of Lightning Bolt... but still good.
Gut Shot - There are quite a few x/1s out there, and this allows you to be tapped out and still get there. However, there are better uses of your 75.
Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, Victim in the Night - Two mana cost removal. Of the three, (right now) GffT is the strongest. Until the meta settles, we wont know exactly which of the three is best.
Dismember - Not sure if there's a place for this in the build. Anything you want to kill can probably be dead without the 3cmc or 4 damage.
Act of Aggression - With the death of Twin, this may be going away. May end up a decent sideboard card.
Altar's Reap - Card draw is good... and the trick of saccing a Solemn or Pheonix is always fun.
Brimstone Volley - 3 damage for 3... 5 if a creature died. While 5 damage for 3 is fantastic, it is very unreliable requiring the morbid trigger.
SORCERIES
Despise - Its no Inquisition of Kozilek... but it serves as a 1-drop discard as well as looking at the opponent's hand. Never underestimate that advantage.
Distress - At 2 CMC, it allows for anything to be discarded. I'm not a fan.
Night Terrors - This I like. I know, I don't like Distress at 2, but I like this at 3. The reason? It exiles. This allows you to get rid of pesky flashback stuff... or even a recurring threat.
Bump in the Night - This is a very solid card. 3 damage for B is good, and the flashback can sometimes get there.
Devil's Play - Remember liking to burn things? Yeah.. this is how you get it done. A blaze with flashback.
Black Sun's Zenith - You will need board sweepers and they don't get much better than Zenith. Avoids protection and indestructibility. Also, if you can't quite kill their big threat, you can severly weaken it to buy yourself some time.
Red Sun's Zenith - Similar to Devil's Play... without flashback... but with reshuffling. I prefer Play to this, but it may be a personal choice.
PLANESWALKERS
Chandra the Firebrand - +1 for a ping or extra reach. -6 for a one sided Inferno. But the gem is really the -2 to be able to Fork your Devil's Play.
--
The Builds:
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Olivia Voldaren
3x Bloodgift Demon
2x Grave Titan
1x Inferno Titan
INSTANT/SORCERY: 18
4x Incinerate
2x Go for the Throat
2x Doom Blade
3x Despise
1x Night Terrors
4x Devil's Play
2x Black Sun's Zenith
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Dragonskull Summit
2x Stensia Bloodhall
2x Ghost Quarter
7x Swamp
6x Mountain
3x Dismember
3x Chandra's Pheonix
3x Manic Vandal
3x Torpor Orb
2x Entomber Exarch
1x Wurmcoil Engine
4x Chandra's Pheonix
2x Olivia Voldaren
2x Grave Titan
INSTANT/SORCERY: 24
4x Incinerate
4x Bump in the Night
3x Past in Flames
2x Go for the Throat
1x Doom Blade
3x Geth's Verdict
3x Brimstone Volley
2x Devil's Play
2x Black Sun's Zenith
3x Chandra, the Firebrand
LAND: 25
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Dragonskull Summit
2x Stensia Bloodhall
2x Ghost Quarter
7x Swamp
6x Mountain
3x Bloodgift Demon
3x Grim Lavamancer
3x Manic Vandal
3x Torpor Orb
2x Entomber Exarch
1x Wurmcoil Engine
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
6x Mountain
9x Swamp
4x Dragonskull Summit
2x Stensia Bloodhall
2x Grave Titan
2x Vengeful Pharaoh
4x Chandra's Phoenix
4x Reassembling Skeleton
Spells
2x Batterskull
4x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Dismember
2x Black Sun's Zenith
3x Sphere of the Suns
3x Arc Trail
3x Chandra, the Firebrand
3x Liliana of the Veil
4 Perilous Myr
4 Necrogen Scudder
4 Skinrender
3 Oxidda Scrapmelter
3 Precursor Golem
2 Moltensteel Dragon
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Artifacts:
4 Sphere of the Suns
4 Galvanic Blast
2 Burn the Impure
3 Arc Trail
1 Go for the Throat
2 Dismember
Lands:
10 Mountain
10 Swamp
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Dismember
1 Into the Core
1 Oxidda Scrapmelter
3 Liquidmetal Coating
2 Burn the Impure
3 Shatter
1 Arc Trail
2 Hoardsmelter Dragon
--
Please post your ideas, decks, critique to get this deck to go the distance.
Vorel of the Hull Clade
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (MTGO)
Lavinia of the Tenth (MTGO)
Slagstorm is pretty much better than Black Sun's Zenith every time.
Victim of Night has a restrictive cost, so Incinerate, Dismember, or Doom Blade would probably be better picks here.
Brimstone Volley is OK, but I don't think you'll be able to use this effectively until turn 5 or even later. Despise and Shock are good options here.
Ghost Quarter doesn't do anything worth while.
And lastly, you deck has a problem with having too few creatures. Your opponent just needs one removal spell for each of your demons and titans, and then you'll lose the game. You don't have any extra draw or any way of protecting your creatures. You could fix that with cards like Skinrender, Entomber Exarch, Phyrexian Rager, Manic Vandal, etc.
You can find me on MTGO. My username is gereffi.
Entomber Exarch is an amazing suggestion. You get 2 cookies.
Ghost Quarter was my heart going out to Tec Edge and mourning it's loss. However, it DOES put some hurting on Inkmoth Nexus that the U/W Blade and Steel decks run. Maybe cut to just a 2 of?
You're right about Brimstone Volley, i'd be better off just increasing the number of Shocks or Red Sun's Zenith.
Manic Vandal in the sideboard for sure.
Let's see... how does 2.0 look:
4x Entomber Exarch
4x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Olivia Voldaren
3x Bloodgift Demon
2x Grave Titan
1x Inferno Titan
INSTANT/SORCERY: 18
4x Incinerate
2x Go for the Throat
2x Dismember
3x Despise
1x Night Terrors
2x Devil's Play
2x Slagstorm
2x Red Sun's Zenith
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
4x Dragonskull Summit
2x Stensia Bloodhall
2x Ghost Quarter
7x Swamp
6x Mountain
3x Doom Blade
3x Act of Aggression
3x Manic Vandal
1x Wurmcoil Engine
That's a shaky 60, but off to a good start.
Vorel of the Hull Clade
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (MTGO)
Lavinia of the Tenth (MTGO)
That said, if UB control still exists post rotation (which it likely will), then your deck would have a very very difficult matchup against that deck.
Because clearly I'm very bad at paying attention... wow... that's... 29?
And yes, UB control will most likely still be a deck. What do you see as the downfalls, and where can I improve?
Vorel of the Hull Clade
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (MTGO)
Lavinia of the Tenth (MTGO)
Any thoughts on additions/modifications?
Vorel of the Hull Clade
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (MTGO)
Lavinia of the Tenth (MTGO)
Vorel of the Hull Clade
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (MTGO)
Lavinia of the Tenth (MTGO)
--
See if I can get the curve visually...
1 Drops - 0 (0%)
2 Drops - 11 (31.4%)
3 Drops - 3 ( 8.5%)
4 Drops - 11 (31.4%
5 Drops - 3 (8.5%)
6 Drops - 3 (8.5%)
and then 4 X cost. (11.4%)
Definitely midrangy.
--
5 Spots left in the sideboard.
Vorel of the Hull Clade
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (MTGO)
Lavinia of the Tenth (MTGO)
Also too many 4-drops. Either exarch or solemn needs to go, probably exarch. He's good in sb against control though.
Devil's play is better than red zenith any time. Dunno why you want to play both.
-4 Entomber Exarch (2 moved to Sideboard)
+4 Grim Lavamancer
3 Torpor Orb put into Sideboard. (For them Pod players)
Thinking Act of Agression may be unnecessary now that Twin is dead.
Lets get this beast going, I've got until Oct 1st to have a deck ready for a SCG Invitational Qualifier.
Vorel of the Hull Clade
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (MTGO)
Lavinia of the Tenth (MTGO)
And Bump in the Night is really growing on me.
Vorel of the Hull Clade
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (MTGO)
Lavinia of the Tenth (MTGO)
Vorel of the Hull Clade
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (MTGO)
Lavinia of the Tenth (MTGO)
is another option and forking that to your opponent could work as well lol
Bloodgift Demon - Phyrexian Arena on a 5/4 flying demon. 3BB is a reasonable cost for a 5/4 flier that does stuff.
Altar's Reap - Instant speed sac a dude and draw 2 cards. Has synergy with Chandra's Pheonix and Solemn Simulacrum. Dead card without creatures to sacrifice.
Tezzeret's Gambit - Draw 2 cards and proliferate for the cost of 3 and 2 life. Forking it with Chandra allows for extra shenanigans.
Caress of Phyrexia - Draw 3 cards, Lose 3 Life, Get 3 Poison counters for 3BB ... Not sure I like this option, seems expensive... even forking it and hitting an opponent seems like a bad play here.
--
I think I'll try to work in 2 or 3 Tezz's Gambit ... or 2 Bloodgift Demon into the second build.
Vorel of the Hull Clade
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (MTGO)
Lavinia of the Tenth (MTGO)
Tezzeret's gambit is very good here. Forking it is obviously amazing, even moreso with a Liliana on the field. Keeping Liliana healthy is pretty important. The deck I started building with ran 4 Phoenixes, 2 Pharoahs, and a varying number of flashback cards and Reassembling Skeletons... and what I found out was that often the best play with Liliana is to do nothing. Tezzeret's gambit offers a really good one-two punch with her: it gives you cards which you MIGHT use to fuel her +1, but it automatically allows you to at least get another edict out of her, which is pretty nice.
Reassembling Skeleton I am on the fence about. It's nice to have another card that you aren't worried about tossing to liliana, and the ability to get board presence at the end of an opponent's turn is pretty nice. Unfortunately, the creature itself is almost always just going to chump block, and there aren't a lot of good ways to power him up that synergize with the rest of the deck. Sword of Feast and Famine is one option, and isn't a bad one. Batterskull also does pretty well here. Bonehoard is another interesting option.
Vengeful Pharoah is nifty. Free removal is pretty decent and it's hard to get effectively locked out especially if you can manage a Liliana.
Smallpox could see play here? The mana costs on the cards are mostly low... obviously it has anti-synergy with any X spells but i think it'd be tough for a lot of decks to come back from forked smallpox if you've got your walkers out.
I have always argued for Dismember over Doom blade variants even in Mono-black decks because of its versatility. The ability to not commit any sideboard slots to cards like disfigure , the ability to cast this off of any land, it's just such a good card. For the rest of the removal, i'd probably use some burn that will turn on my Chandra's Phoenixes before I would run blades, but maybe that's a bad call.
Distress is pretty good... we've been spoiled by IoK. Despise isn't that interesting because we can probably deal with creatures. There's a lot of pesky non-critter stuff to worry about, that isn't so easy to deal with.
Altar's Reap is interesting... when I can cast it to good effect (or at least fork it), it's really solid. For a little while I played Act of Aggression, and the advantage you can get off those two spells in unison for 5 mana is pretty high. But it's dead a LOT of the time, and leaving that mana up for a convenient time is hard with some of our high drops.
BBB Mono-Black Vat BBB
GGG Mono-Green Infect GGG
Vorel of the Hull Clade
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (MTGO)
Lavinia of the Tenth (MTGO)
Ok, here's my current list, which suffers from too many finishers, none of which I can bring myself to cut.
Grave Titan is just good stuff, and he's pretty tough to stop. You all know why he's good.
Vengeful Pharaoh is cheaper while still pretty big and (slowly) recurs himself, as well as providing an interesting interaction with Liliana. I find people attack into him (in the grave) to try to screw me out of a draw... whether or not this is something that can be exploited is something that waits to be seen. Free(?) removal isn't something I'm likely to overlook.
Batterskull makes use of the tremendous number of recurring creatures while being a not insignificant body on its own. Less impressive when he's not being windmill slammed off of SFM, but still good value.
Reassembling skeleton is pretty bad most of the time. He can stall forever, but if that's the best you can do with 2 mana, you're losing. He's decent at carrying batterskulls and being tossed to Liliana, though perhaps something like Devil's Play would be more appropriate. This is my most-questioned card in the deck right now. Dropping him for either Grim Lavamancer or some more problematic 2-drop seems likely.
Sphere of the Suns works well with Tezz's Gambit, and provides a nice piece of ramp... especially into stuff like Monomania in the side. T4 Monomania makes other control decks unhappy, and lets us keep them in topdeck with Lili. Also allows us to play ancient grudge as our artifact destruction, which is rad. Right now, it seems like the better choice over Manalith, but that could change. I think some kind of mana rock is necessary.
Arc Trail could be Incinerate. Not really sure ATM since Arc Trail can kill a dude AND pop back some phoenixes , as well as 2-for-1 versus fast aggro (which I believe to be real) but Incinerate is generally better as an instant, or in a field with less aggro.
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
6x Mountain
9x Swamp
4x Dragonskull Summit
2x Stensia Bloodhall
2x Grave Titan
2x Vengeful Pharaoh
4x Chandra's Phoenix
4x Reassembling Skeleton
Spells
2x Batterskull
4x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Dismember
2x Black Sun's Zenith
3x Sphere of the Suns
3x Arc Trail
3x Chandra, the Firebrand
3x Liliana of the Veil
BBB Mono-Black Vat BBB
GGG Mono-Green Infect GGG
Most of the good GY interactions dont involve casting from the GY. Maybe if they "reprint" chainer's edict, or a fb duress, or a fb tutor, or something, it'll be worth doing, but atm the only FB spells I really consider are Devil's Play, Moan of the Unhallowed, and uh
Ancient Grudge out of the side?
BBB Mono-Black Vat BBB
GGG Mono-Green Infect GGG
4 Perilous Myr
4 Necrogen Scudder
4 Skinrender
3 Oxidda Scrapmelter
3 Precursor Golem
2 Moltensteel Dragon
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Artifacts:
4 Sphere of the Suns
4 Galvanic Blast
2 Burn the Impure
3 Arc Trail
1 Go for the Throat
2 Dismember
Lands:
10 Mountain
10 Swamp
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Dismember
1 Into the Core
1 Oxidda Scrapmelter
3 Liquidmetal Coating
2 Burn the Impure
3 Shatter
1 Arc Trail
2 Hoardsmelter Dragon
Played this in Scars Block. EVERY deck ran artifacts, thus 3 MD Scrapmelters. Its more Midrange than control, but it does the job against aggro decks.
It had good game against Tempered steel if it could draw GFTT or Dismember to kill off Hero of Bladehold before it attacked.
Infect was also big, thus maindeck Burn the Impure's. Even in TS, a Burn the Impure was great against their inkmoth's.
The worst match up was against Control Tezzeret decks where if they arnt playing anything, neither are you and your 2-for-1 Scrapmelters even out when your forced to kill Wellsprings.
Figured I would add this list into the discussion.
Standard: RWB Dega Burn RWB
Modern: 1 Top Control 1
Legacy: XU Manaless Blue Dredge XU
EDH: Edric, Spymaster of Tres 1UG
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy 1UBR
I miss casting Snapcaster Mage + Rampant Growth
Bryce: Any changes you're going to make to that list for Innistrad?
(I'll add both lists to the first page)
Vorel of the Hull Clade
Reki, the History of Kamigawa (MTGO)
Lavinia of the Tenth (MTGO)
Its a little hard to change it not knowing Teir 1 decks that we will have to aim to beat. Burn the impure will likely come out unless infect is rampant. Same with Scrapmelter unless artifacts are as dominant like in Scars block.
In what looks like to be a slower format, Galvanic blast could become Brimstone Volley. Slagstorm may also warrent a place in the sideboard against Werewolf.dek.
Entomber Extarch is a way to beat the control decks that I didnt think of when originally building the deck. It would take the place of Skinrender. Kruin Outlaw im also liking to look of for a more midrange deck.
Moltensteel should also be a Titan. Not sure which one would be better.
Standard: RWB Dega Burn RWB
Modern: 1 Top Control 1
Legacy: XU Manaless Blue Dredge XU
EDH: Edric, Spymaster of Tres 1UG
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy 1UBR
I miss casting Snapcaster Mage + Rampant Growth