Hey guys's and gal's. I'm back again to talk about my favorite standard archetype; Mono-Black Aggro(MBA, Thug life, etc). I Know I've touched on this subject a few times before but some big things have been happening regarding the deck and I really wanted to get this out there while it's still relevant and I'm still experiencing some success with the deck.
So, as you know I put the deck back together for the first week of standard after the release of Dragons of Tarkir. The reason for that is because I felt it regained a solid foothold after Tomaharu Saito's near top 8 finish at GP memphis with a tribal iteration of the deck and showed us non-believers that the tools are still there for those willing to use them. So I heeded the call and built Saito's deck on magic online and started grinding. This of course being the version with obelisk of Urd. After testing the deck and reading some primers and reviews I started to make some changes. As some of you know, this list was featured in Starcity Game's CVM VS BBD versus video. BBD piloted it to a staggering 4-1 victory over CVM playing his revered G/R aggro, which was and is still a very popular archetype. After the match BBD stated; The Obelisk of Urd were awkward in his opening hands and he feels the slot in the deck would have been better served being a brutal hordechief. So, that's what I did. I replaced the playset of obilesk and played the chief and that's what I sleeved for the first FNM of the new format.
Obelisk V.S. Hordechief
Okay, I tried both ways. On paper and online and had success with both. One thing about Hordechief is; you don't have to take a turn off to cast him. With Obelisk, the most powerful use of this card is to convoke it out on turn three after starting 1drop on turn one into double 1drop on turn two and turn three convoke into a team of 4/3's and 3/3's to swing on turn four. Sounds great right? Well, not really and let me break it down.
The deck ran 14-16 one drops. The team of choice being:
Bloodsoaked Champion
Mardu Shadowspear
Ruthless Ripper
Tormented Hero
So, this crew is a deadly one. Bloodsoaked and Tormented hero being 2/1 for 1b(One black mana), Shadowspear being pseudo 2/1 with the life loss trigger and Ripper being the weakest as a 1/1 deathtouch but can drain life for two in a pinch late game. So let's assume you have a prime Obelisk hand.
Bloodsoaked Champion, Bloodsoaked Champion, Ripper, Obelisk, Swamp, Swamp, bile blight.
This is an average but good hand and would be sequenced like this:
Turn One:
Swamp into bloodsoaked Champion. Pass turn.
Turn Two:
Attack with Champion, Second Main phase: Swamp into Bloodsoaked + Ripper)Or other 2/1 if drawn).
Turn Three: assume we draw a swamp
Play swamp, Convoke team into Obelisk naming Humans. Pass turn
We now have two 4/3's and 3/3. Which is great but, if you break down the damage here
Turn Two 2dmg with Champion
Turn 3 would have been 5 damage if we attack or 7 damage with a marauder or 5dmg plus putting additional threats in play.
Now with that what is the pay off of Obelisk? It gives our team +2/+2. That is a total additional damage of 6 assuming nothing dies before we get to combat. So it evens out or is more which is great right? Sure, except you are an aggro deck. You have to kill quickly. Most games end by turns 4-6 is everthing goes correct and that's a win percentage of 80ish % if ended by turn 6. Each turn after 4 we lose at least a 10% chance of victory as the deck does not have the tools to deal with mid game bombs like Siege Rhino, tasigur, Elspeth, Stormbreath dragon ETC.
So, Let's look at the math replacing Obelisk with Brutal Hordechief in our opener.
Turn One Swamp, Bloodsoaked champion
Turn two, Attack for 2dmg, play bloodsoaked+Ripper
Turn three Attack for 5dmg + play a pain seer let's say.
Turn four play Brutal Hordechief, Attack for 7dmg plus a life drain of four from horde chief. Total 11 Damage. That would have our opponent in the single digits and dead any unblocked creatures or the Hordechief drain if he lives. I descided this was better than obelisk and testing showed it to be the case as with this list I took down the following undefeated:
First FNM of new standard format (First Version)
The following Thursday Night Competitive standard. (First Version)
Four different 8-4 single elimination standard 8mans on MTGO (Split between Old and Current list)
4-0 Finish in a 100+ player standard on MTGO (Old Version)
Second FNM the Friday before The "Real" Idaho State Championships. (New Version)
Old Version (Pre-Dragons of Tarkir)
Creatures:28
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Mardu Shadowspear
4 Tormented Hero
4 Pain seer
4 Mogis's Marauder
4 Brutal Hordechief
Spells:10
4 Ulcerate
4 Bile Blight
2 Hero's Downfall
Lands:22
2 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
16 Swamp
That is the main 60 I ran for about 2-3 weeks before dragons released.
With dragons came some sweet new additions to the deck:
Duress was huge for the list. Control was already favorable but with access to eight total hand disruption spells against them, it kept the match favorable, despite the upgrades to the archetypes.
Ultimate Price was also a huge addition as well. The card is arguably narrow, sure. But it solved a huge problem for us as previously, we couldn't kill anything with higher than 3 toughness without stretching our mana to fit hero's downfall. Very welcome addition.
Last we have the big daddy Pitiless Horde. To be honest he is a glass Cannon. Dies to everything except Wild slash and magma jet, but, He has a specific role to play thanks to his dash mechanic.
He is Wrath of God insurance/Punishment. He never gets played on turn 3 and is dashed near 100% of the time and only when my opponent is tapped out and that's usually after playing a siege rhino or destroying the board with end hostilities or crux of fate. Five damage uncontested is big game and to be honest, after a turn 5 crux of end hostilities, ends the game on the spot. He also Forces your opponent to trade their rhino or lose 1/4 of their life (Which to this point I haven't seen an abzan player willing to do that).
With those additions, here is the total 75 I brought to States and is as it sits, sleeved and in my deck box right now:
Current Version:
Creatures: 27
4 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Mardu Shadowspear
4 Tormented Hero
4 Pain Seer
4 Mogis's Marauder
3 Pitiless Horde
Spells: 11
4 Foul-Tongue Shriek
3 Bile Blight
2 Ultimate Price
2 Hero's Downfall
Land: 22
2 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
16 Swamp
Sideboard:
4 Duress
2 Dark betrayal
2 Self-Inflicted Wound
4 Herald of Torment
3 Brutal Hordechief
As I stated I played this list at FNM the Night before the state championship. There was a last minute trial for the state championship being held at the same time as FNM. I would have played in that but I was working at the Wizard Den as Nick and Ariel were required to run the trial and played at the shop for that reason. I wasn't expecting high turn out and we had 10 people for 4 rounds of standard swiss. The crew consisted of a few Rogue T3ch members, Matthew Petro and William Lotz(Who had a top 4 finish the following day) and a few regulars who had to miss the Championships due to work or family obligations but all solid players, some I consider to be higher skilled players than myself so my 4-0 wasn't given to me by any stretch as I start the night against my worst matchup: Mono-red aggro, followed by Abzan Control. and then R/W aggro and capped off with a pseudo mirror with B/W warriors.
It's actually kind of funny, William Lotz was playing Abzan Control and because of being beaten by me 2-0 he chose to change decks to R/G aggro on the drive home to have a better game against me. We didn't get paired but it was the correct change given his finish and despite the popularity of the archetype, there were no copies of Abzan Midrange or control in the top 8 on saturday. (You're welcome Will. P.S. I love you).
My "Real" State Championship experience.
With my running success with the deck you must be asking yourself "If this is as good as he says it is, why did he only finish 25th going 3wins 3 loses on saturday?" Well, that is a great question and here's my best answer given my matches:
Round One
I am paired against Grae Gradzinski. A solid local player and a super sweet dude to say the least. He was playing Esper control (Esper Dragons as it's being called now, I guess). I knew this match-up very well as Teammate and Trial Winner William Pickett has been on the deck for a few weeks now. From the 100+ Games we jammed during the week I knew the match was very Play/Draw dependent as I was taxed with getting in enough damage that I could kill him in 1-2 turns following a turn 5 End hostilities. Of course I lost the die roll but thanks to some poor draws by my opponent and strong opening by me I was able to take game one. I opened Bloodsoaked champion into second Bloodsoaked + tormented hero backed by Marauder on 3 to finish him off turn 4 or 5 with an unanswered board. Phew, Through the fire but he was on the play and Had 4 drown in sorrows with my name on it. I boarded the following:
Out:
3 Bile Blight 2 Ultimate Price 2 Hero's downfall 2 foul-tongue shriek
In:
4 Duress 4 Herald of torment 1 Self-inflicted Wound
The Removal is dead except for after an attack with Ojutai so was an obvious cut. There are arguments for downfall but I don't care about Ashiok, so there's that. I Just wanted hand disruption and more threats to tax his removal, plus herald dodges drown in sorrow being a 3/3. The Self-inflicted wound was a gamble. If it hit the Ojutai, I was king for a day. If it didn't, It was a waste of space. I was able to not over extend into drown in sorrow while developing the early game and Duress on turn 5 to confirm he didn't have a wrath and jam damage until he died. Sweet, starting the event 1-0 and the match 2-0 felt good. Let's keep doing that!
Round Two
I was not familiar with the player although he did know me by name, which was strange but cool. Overall courteous and respectful dude. He too was on Esper Dragons/Control and proceeded to crush me 2-0. There were some strong differences between His and Grae/Will Pickett's list. Mainly he had mainboard ashiok and jammed it on turn 3(He was on play). Also, he Mainboarded 4 Ojutai's command, which due to some early stumbling with a slower draw from me, he was able to counter my turn four play and gain four life, Followed by cycling 2 more copies on turns 5 and 6 to gain a total of 12 life over 3 turns followed by an Ojutai with counter/removal backups to close out game one. Game two was similar except instead of ashiok he utilized the playset of Surge of Righteousness he brought out of the board to shut out my early plays and Cycles Ojutai's command to take the game out of reach.
I'm now 1-1. Tough beats, But still in the game!
Round 3
Round 3 is upon me and I'm paired against Casey Robbins. I Believe I won the die roll but it hardly mattered as he took a mulligan to 5 and played a shivan reef. He never saw a second land that game. Game two, I had no Idea what he was on so just boarded in 2-3 duress as I saw blue. He was on jeskai tokens and played a Brimaz on curve backed by an anger the gods and that's all she wrote. With that, I replaced some shriek's and Downfalls with Hordechief and Self-inflicted wound. I can't recall the game exactly but I know it was close. I drew runner-runner bile blights that closed out the game and knocked Casey out of top 8 contention (Sorry Bro, but had to be one of us).
Round 4
Paired against another unknown player and he was on Abzan control. Game one was unfortunate for him as he played four "Enters the battlefield tapped" lands and died before he could use them all. Game two I knew the match and sideboarded like this:
Out:
2 Ultimate Price 1 Gnarled Scarhide 1 Tormented hero 1 Bile Blight 1 Pain Seer 2 Foul-Tongue shriek
In: 4 Duress 2 Dark Betrayal 2 Self-Inflicted wound.
He was on the play and went Tapped land into caryatid. I Opened Scarhide into Self-Inflicted wound, swing for 2. He followed with a string of fleeceman lions. I got through with Mogis's Marauder untill we ended in a big board stall. I had 5 creatures totaling 10power on board and he had 3 Lions, caryatid and Satyr wayfinder at 6 life. I Have a foul-tongue shriek and dark betrayal in hand. I Draw a tormented hero. Swing and Shriek for 5 before blocks taking him to 1 life and lost my board. Followed by Tormented hero, target with dark betrayal for the win. Sick rip on my part and another win taking me to 3-1. Phew, almost there!
Round 5
I'm at one of the top tables and Paired against (Now State Champion) Ryan Courtouis. I know Ryan pretty well and had tested the Abzan Aggro matchup a little bit. I won the die roll and felt confident despite this being a bad matchup for my deck historically. I Opened strong and had him at 2 life by turn 5. We were both hellbent and I had 2 power on board to his 0. He then draws Warden of the first three and makes it a 3/3. I draw land #5 and pass. He gives it lifelink and plays a land and passes. I draw land #6 and pass. He makes it an 8/8 lifelink and destroys me. Tough beats. On to sideboard.
Out:
4 Foul-tongue Shriek, 1 Pain seer, 2 ultimate price
In:
2 dark betrayal, 2 Self-inflicted wound, 3 duress
On the play I came out strong, Drew enough removal to clear a hole and deal with his threats and took it very quickly and we're in game 3. I Sideboard again.
Out:
1 Swamp 1 Duress
In:
2 Herald of torment
I wanted to lower the chance of Flood and up my threat count on the draw as he would have access to kill them before they can deal damage being on the play. I mulligan to 6 and keep a removal heavy hand, which, being on the draw seemed correct as he would most likely be the aggressor. We proceeded to trade 1-1 with everything eachother played untill we were both hellbent and top decking. He was low, at 3 life and I was still at 20 but I knew I was screwed as his top decks trump mine by a lot. I was drawing 2/1's that couldn't block and he had Siege rhino, Tasigur, Sorin etc in his deck. Like game one, he drew into a Warden of the First Tree and Gave it lifelink and counters almost immediately and beat me into oblivion. I ended with 9 swamp in play. Bummer. Flood happens but it's my fault for keeping a super-reactive 6 card hand. Bad beats and out of top 8 I go.
Round 6
My opponent and I didn't really play. I was on the draw and kept a bad hand. He kept a bad hand as well as we new we were out of top8 and wanted to have fun. He was on Jeskai tokens and didn't make a token 'till turn 8 or something. I had 13 swamp in play when I lost game one.
Neither of us sideboarded and neither mulliganed our terrible hands (6 lands and hero's downfall is what I kept LOL) Anyway, he beat me. We had some good laughs and ended the event on a good note. He took 13th and I fell to 25th but I didn't care about prize payout so I was fine.
Finished 3-3.
Played against:
Esper control - Esper Control- Jeskai Tokens- Abzan Control- Abzan Aggro- Jeskai Tokens
Beat 50% and lost 50% across the Archetypes. Had good beats and Bad. I don't regret any choices about my deck. Maybe should have taken a mulligan a few times when I didn't but overall I am satisfied with my finish and how we as team performed.
To those who took my list to the Event, Thank's for indulging me and following my articles.
To those seeing this, sorry for making it a novel but I love the deck and wanted to go in-depth for those who were curious or those looking for something to play in standard. I will continue to play the deck I already took down a standard 8-man today and it has yet to disappoint me.
So I'll continue to "Win fast or Die trying."
Until next time,
Christian
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