To be honest I was playing a more token oriented version, but I'm thinking of going the straight control route. Decklist in Spoiler.
Lavaclaw Reaches just pisses me off with how bad it is compared to the other manlands in the cycle. I'm waiting for the RW and WB manlands then I will go all out Chaos Control.
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
To be honest I was playing a more token oriented version, but I'm thinking of going the straight control route. Decklist in Spoiler.
Lavaclaw Reaches just pisses me off with how bad it is compared to the other manlands in the cycle. I'm waiting for the RW and WB manlands then I will go all out Chaos Control.
Agreed, having only Lavaclaw Reaches is a huge liability. All I want is something like a white/black land that costs 1WB to animate for a 2/4 with lifelink. Is that really too much to ask? Also, I would really advise Chaos Control. It basically feels like playing Tron with strong aggro and Splinter Twin matchups and more resilience to hate.
Then I guess you'll be posting some 4-0 results shortly on MTGO, eh?
Unfortunately not, I'm running this in paper. Hopefully this will work as well as planned at the Chicago and Milwaukee Premier IQs and at PPTQs over the next few months.
*Edit* Any consideration for Young Pyromancer to give you some early game, non-removal action?
That could work. The only problem is that it doesn't work well if we draw it late since we aren't running cantrips to draw into more action. However, that reminds me that Pack Rat could work really well. Like Young Pyromancer, it is a strong early creature, but it is much more resilient to removal and is very strong in the late-game. It is also cheap enough to be effective against WUR Control and Twin's counterspells. Thoughts?
Hmmmm. I think I like it. It essentially serves the role of a finisher in your deck, while also providing a tidy outlet for when your massive removal suite might not be ideal. You may not have as much built in synergy as other Pack Rat style decks, but it does make Lingering Souls look a bit more attractive and can give you some options, which you currently don't have in surplus.
Oh I agree. I think after we a few more tools this deck will be a force in the meta.
If WOTC reprints Innocent Blood man this deck would destroy everything lol.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Then I guess you'll be posting some 4-0 results shortly on MTGO, eh?
Unfortunately not, I'm running this in paper. Hopefully this will work as well as planned at the Chicago and Milwaukee Premier IQs and at PPTQs over the next few months.
*Edit* Any consideration for Young Pyromancer to give you some early game, non-removal action?
That could work. The only problem is that it doesn't work well if we draw it late since we aren't running cantrips to draw into more action. However, that reminds me that Pack Rat could work really well. Like Young Pyromancer, it is a strong early creature, but it is much more resilient to removal and is very strong in the late-game. It is also cheap enough to be effective against WUR Control and Twin's counterspells. Thoughts?
Hmmmm. I think I like it. It essentially serves the role of a finisher in your deck, while also providing a tidy outlet for when your massive removal suite might not be ideal. You may not have as much built in synergy as other Pack Rat style decks, but it does make Lingering Souls look a bit more attractive and can give you some options, which you currently don't have in surplus.
I'm going to test 3 Pack Rats instead of Sorin (even though Sorin giving lifelink to 3 3/3 Pack Rats sounds sweet). Another reason to run it over Young Pyromancer is that Young Pyromancer doesn't do much against decks that our removal is bad against since we will have no targets for our instants and sorceries.
Oh I agree. I think after we a few more tools this deck will be a force in the meta.
If WOTC reprints Innocent Blood man this deck would destroy everything lol.
Definitely. Another 1 mana removal spell, a better manland, or a pinpoint discard spell that isn't a bad topdeck would be enough to make this deck easily tier 1. I actually think that it might be able to get tier 1 with enough people playing it already though. Most of our bad matchups see little or no play and if we need to beat Amulet or Burn we easily can sideboard for them (not so much for Tron, but most control decks have to pretend that they aren't ever going to play against Tron anyways). While working on the matchups section, I have been testing how sample hands of my list do against the best possible hands of other decks and it has actually been doing surprisingly well even against god starts like Thoughtseize, Tarmogoyf, Liliana of the Veil, Huntmaster of the Fells, Tasigur+Tarmgoyf and Thought Scour, Tasigur, Deceiver Exarch, Deceiver Exarch+Spell Pierce, Deceiver Exarch+Remand.
Let's say you ran Thoughtseize or Phyrexian Arena in this list (not saying you should, just theorycrafting). Would Tribute to Hunger be a consideration, if only to offset the lifeloss? Gets around shroud/hexproof dudes, and something like Thrun would probably give you hell so its nice to have an out.
I've mentioned before my disdain for brewing, but one thing I love to do is tune a deck (I'm very much a tuner vs. being a brewer), and I actually like this concept, so you've got my interest. Hell I just like playing reactively and killing everything on the board and making sure nothing lives. I'm definitely on board as far as trying to tune a proper list if that's fine with you.
Let's say you ran Thoughtseize or Phyrexian Arena in this list (not saying you should, just theorycrafting). Would Tribute to Hunger be a consideration, if only to offset the lifeloss? Gets around shroud/hexproof dudes, and something like Thrun would probably give you hell so its nice to have an out.
Tribute to Hunger might be worth playing if the deck was playing more cards that made it lose life. Fortunately we don't need to run it right now since Thrun and Geist of Saint Traft aren't seeing that much play currently.
I've mentioned before my disdain for brewing, but one thing I love to do is tune a deck (I'm very much a tuner vs. being a brewer), and I actually like this concept, so you've got my interest. Hell I just like playing reactively and killing everything on the board and making sure nothing lives. I'm definitely on board as far as trying to tune a proper list if that's fine with you.
Sure, more input is always good, as long as you are ok with me not taking all of your advice.
Really like the look of this deck, I always wondered why Mardu wasn't a competitive color combination in Modern - you get almost all the good removal, seriously. Don't like the name to be honest lol. How long have you been playing the deck and how much success have you had with it?
Really like the look of this deck, I always wondered why Mardu wasn't a competitive color combination in Modern - you get almost all the good removal, seriously.
Exactly. The main problem is that everyone is trying to play it like a Midrange deck when green and blue have all of the best creatures for that. Red, White, and Black have amazing finishers, which means that it is best suited as a Control deck.
Don't like the name to be honest lol.
I couldn't think of anything better. Besides, Sonic the Hedgehog is a classic and chaos fits red and black perfectly (white, not so much, but that is how wedges work).
How long have you been playing the deck and how much success have you had with it?
I haven't actually played it yet. I started making the primer the day I ordered the cards off of ebay. I should have the deck within the next 2 weeks though. Most of my knowledge about this has been testing sample games of it against other decks, and so far it is doing great.
I have played this deck as well as more midrange mardu decks. Tron is actually not that difficult, Valanarch you have not lived until you Deflecting Palmed an Emrakul
For hexproof use Crackling Doom to ruin them completely.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
I have played this deck as well as more midrange mardu decks. Tron is actually not that difficult, Valanarch you have not lived until you Deflecting Palmed an Emrakul
That sounds great, but how do we consistently survive until then? If they could cast Emrakul on turn 4, it would actually be a lot better.
For hexproof use Crackling Doom to ruin them completely.
Yep. If Bogles became a bigger part of the meta I would definitely run it.
If you can stop Karn and Ugin, then you will survive until Emmy comes out. Wurmcoil is a joke to us with so much removal, I never had a problem dealing with the worm.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
I run a similar deck but with demigod of revenge instead of the blood baron and blightning instead of lightning helix, which works better against control and combo decks but loses some potency against aggro. I also run liliana of the veil (1 of, but will switch to 2 once i get another) instead of gideons, gives you more game g1 against bogles and control but requires a slightly more black-heavy manabase.
I definitely think that Blood Baron is better than Demigod. Demigod is just a clock. Blood Baron not only kills your opponent but it stops them from killing you.
Your maindeck seems nice but i would shuffle the SB a bit. I'd cut the leylines to 2-3 and add some chalice of the void, which gives you slightly more width (useful against delver and possibly affinity while also still stopping burn and discard).
We want to be able to use our Bolts and Paths against Delver and Leyline also stops Scapeshift and works better against WUR Control.
I also agree with others that at least SB discard would be nice (you can cut 1-2 of slaughter games+smth else), with either thoughtseize or inquisition of kozilek to hinder combo, control and tempo/midrange.
Discard is something that we actively don't want except against Combo. Why stop your opponent from playing cards when you can let them play them and then kill them?
Then something like wrath of god or anger of the gods would also be great against swarm decks like affinity, elves, CC etc.
If Abzan Company becomes tier 1 Anger in the sideboard might be a good idea, but until then we don't need sweepers. Affinity and Elves only have a few cards that actually matter. It is easy to just kill those creaturescwith spot removal.
[/quote]I agree that pack rat is the bomb, impossible to get rid of, turns late game dead draws (lands + discard) into more tears and he can even be dropped T2 against control.[/quote]
Agreed, from my early testing it works pretty well.
What i'm interested in though is how the murderous cuts have been working out for you. Have you consistently been able to cast them cheaply? Do you ever wish it could be another terminate when you draw it? ive been on the fence about trying them out.
I wish they could be more Terminates, but I am already tunning 4 Terminates. They are consistently 2-3 mana by turn 3.
If you can stop Karn and Ugin, then you will survive until Emmy comes out. Wurmcoil is a joke to us with so much removal, I never had a problem dealing with the worm.
Exactly. Karn and Ugin are really hard to deal with though.
Yeah they are. Discard + Dreadbore can slow them down.
I predict we will get more cards that deal with walkers in the next couple of sets.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Don't forget, you could also just Slaughter Games away every single one of their threats so they have literally nothing left to ramp into.
Is it possible to rework the mana base to make room for some number of Ghost Quarters?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
EDH GWSelvala and the Return to HumanityGW UWDragonlord Ojutai, Control's Elder DragonUW UBGTasigur, the God-Pharaoh's Gift to EDHUBG UBRNicol Bolas and his SuperfriendsPawnsUBR
Modern UWUW Control/Midrange/Bad JundUW WUBRGHumansWUBRG BGMidrangeBG
Good point. I have 50 cents worth of Ghost Quarters in my current deck.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Level 1 Judge
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU "Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR "The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Yeah they are. Discard + Dreadbore can slow them down.
I was also thinking about Hero's Downfall, possibly instead of Murderous Cut. While Cut usually is cheap enough, we still are usually playing it on turn 3. At that point it is only better if we are casting multiple spells in 1 turn, which often isn't necessary. Though for 3 mana, Mardu Charm and Crackling Doom might be more useful overall.
[/quote]I predict we will get more cards that deal with walkers in the next couple of sets.[/quote]
Me too. All I want is a Maelstrom Pulse in our colors, even if it didn't kill multiple permanents.
Valanarch, how has Pack Rat done in testing? Personally I've enjoyed Sorin 3.0 for its Lingering Souls syngeries and life cushion, but I was wondering if Rats was a better way to go.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
EDH GWSelvala and the Return to HumanityGW UWDragonlord Ojutai, Control's Elder DragonUW UBGTasigur, the God-Pharaoh's Gift to EDHUBG UBRNicol Bolas and his SuperfriendsPawnsUBR
Modern UWUW Control/Midrange/Bad JundUW WUBRGHumansWUBRG BGMidrangeBG
Just a few points of interest from the last flurry of posts:
Quote from "Valanarch" »
Discard is something that we actively don't want except against Combo. Why stop your opponent from playing cards when you can let them play them and then kill them?
I can't tell if you were making a joke, but I'll proceed as if you were serious. Cards is the key word here. You don't actually kill cards. You kill only creatures (and planeswalkers, to a lesser extent). But there are a lot of threatening non-creature cards you can face in modern. Stopping them before they get a chance to play them is better in the overwhelmingly vast majority of situations, and it's the reason why black is so prevalent in modern.
Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek are like modern's version of Force of Will, keeping the format in check. I'm not saying you should or should not run them. I'm just saying that letting your opponent play creatures and then killing them is frequently less mana efficient, sometimes impossible (vs. hexproof, for instance), or plain ol' disadvantageous (vs. enters the battlefield triggers) rather than forcing them to discard it, in which case you also get to see their hand for further added value.
Quote from "Lil_Bolas" »
Wurmcoil is a joke to us with so much removal, I never had a problem dealing with the worm
Seriously? I mean, if you have the Path to Exile, sure. Otherwise he is one of the worst kinds of creatures a deck like this can face. Maybe your token version could chump him effectively until you found it? Either way, using three removal spells to deal with one card isn't a winning recipe for any deck.
Re: Slaughter Games. Val already touched on it sometimes being too slow, but it's a card that ends up in the sideboard all the time, and almost never lives up to the imagined potential. I can't think of many successful decks that employed it.
As for Pack Rat (keep in mind TribalElfMage, Valanarch isn't actually testing this against live competition, so if you have a version of this deck sleeved up, you're probably in a better position to provide feedback by testing it out), I think I'd rather see it take up Gideon's spots first, rather than Sorin's. I mean, Gideon is an awesome tool that control decks have used for a long time, but this isn't your average control shell. The sheer amount of creature kill makes me think Gideon might just end up being an overcosted beater half the time. I'm also a tad worried that the Pack Rat won't have enough fuel to be really scary, but I like how early he comes down, and against some decks it seems like a ringer.
Lavaclaw Reaches just pisses me off with how bad it is compared to the other manlands in the cycle. I'm waiting for the RW and WB manlands then I will go all out Chaos Control.
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Arid Mesa
2 Marsh Flats
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Blood Crypt
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Plains
1 Godless Shrine
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Graven Cairns
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
4 Thoughtseize
4 Lingering Souls
2 Crackling Doom
2 Lightning Helix
2 Dreadbore
2 Castigate
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Threats
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Monastery Mentor
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Tajic, Blade of the Legion
4 Hide // Seek
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Wear // Tear
2 Deflecting Palm
2 Rakdos Charm
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Agreed, having only Lavaclaw Reaches is a huge liability. All I want is something like a white/black land that costs 1WB to animate for a 2/4 with lifelink. Is that really too much to ask? Also, I would really advise Chaos Control. It basically feels like playing Tron with strong aggro and Splinter Twin matchups and more resilience to hate.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Hmmmm. I think I like it. It essentially serves the role of a finisher in your deck, while also providing a tidy outlet for when your massive removal suite might not be ideal. You may not have as much built in synergy as other Pack Rat style decks, but it does make Lingering Souls look a bit more attractive and can give you some options, which you currently don't have in surplus.
If WOTC reprints Innocent Blood man this deck would destroy everything lol.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
I'm going to test 3 Pack Rats instead of Sorin (even though Sorin giving lifelink to 3 3/3 Pack Rats sounds sweet). Another reason to run it over Young Pyromancer is that Young Pyromancer doesn't do much against decks that our removal is bad against since we will have no targets for our instants and sorceries.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Definitely. Another 1 mana removal spell, a better manland, or a pinpoint discard spell that isn't a bad topdeck would be enough to make this deck easily tier 1. I actually think that it might be able to get tier 1 with enough people playing it already though. Most of our bad matchups see little or no play and if we need to beat Amulet or Burn we easily can sideboard for them (not so much for Tron, but most control decks have to pretend that they aren't ever going to play against Tron anyways). While working on the matchups section, I have been testing how sample hands of my list do against the best possible hands of other decks and it has actually been doing surprisingly well even against god starts like Thoughtseize, Tarmogoyf, Liliana of the Veil, Huntmaster of the Fells, Tasigur+Tarmgoyf and Thought Scour, Tasigur, Deceiver Exarch, Deceiver Exarch+Spell Pierce, Deceiver Exarch+Remand.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
I've mentioned before my disdain for brewing, but one thing I love to do is tune a deck (I'm very much a tuner vs. being a brewer), and I actually like this concept, so you've got my interest. Hell I just like playing reactively and killing everything on the board and making sure nothing lives. I'm definitely on board as far as trying to tune a proper list if that's fine with you.
Tribute to Hunger might be worth playing if the deck was playing more cards that made it lose life. Fortunately we don't need to run it right now since Thrun and Geist of Saint Traft aren't seeing that much play currently.
Sure, more input is always good, as long as you are ok with me not taking all of your advice.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Ok, then good luck with the deck! If we tune this enough I am confident that it can be a strong deck.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Exactly. The main problem is that everyone is trying to play it like a Midrange deck when green and blue have all of the best creatures for that. Red, White, and Black have amazing finishers, which means that it is best suited as a Control deck.
I couldn't think of anything better. Besides, Sonic the Hedgehog is a classic and chaos fits red and black perfectly (white, not so much, but that is how wedges work).
I haven't actually played it yet. I started making the primer the day I ordered the cards off of ebay. I should have the deck within the next 2 weeks though. Most of my knowledge about this has been testing sample games of it against other decks, and so far it is doing great.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
For hexproof use Crackling Doom to ruin them completely.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
That sounds great, but how do we consistently survive until then? If they could cast Emrakul on turn 4, it would actually be a lot better.
Yep. If Bogles became a bigger part of the meta I would definitely run it.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
I definitely think that Blood Baron is better than Demigod. Demigod is just a clock. Blood Baron not only kills your opponent but it stops them from killing you.
We want to be able to use our Bolts and Paths against Delver and Leyline also stops Scapeshift and works better against WUR Control.
Discard is something that we actively don't want except against Combo. Why stop your opponent from playing cards when you can let them play them and then kill them?
If Abzan Company becomes tier 1 Anger in the sideboard might be a good idea, but until then we don't need sweepers. Affinity and Elves only have a few cards that actually matter. It is easy to just kill those creaturescwith spot removal.
[/quote]I agree that pack rat is the bomb, impossible to get rid of, turns late game dead draws (lands + discard) into more tears and he can even be dropped T2 against control.[/quote]
Agreed, from my early testing it works pretty well.
I wish they could be more Terminates, but I am already tunning 4 Terminates. They are consistently 2-3 mana by turn 3.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Exactly. Karn and Ugin are really hard to deal with though.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
I predict we will get more cards that deal with walkers in the next couple of sets.
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
Is it possible to rework the mana base to make room for some number of Ghost Quarters?
GWSelvala and the Return to HumanityGW
UWDragonlord Ojutai, Control's Elder DragonUW
UBGTasigur, the God-Pharaoh's Gift to EDHUBG
UBRNicol Bolas and his Super
friendsPawnsUBRModern
UWUW Control/Midrange/Bad JundUW
WUBRGHumansWUBRG
BGMidrangeBG
Level 2 in progress...
UUU Merfolk UUU
"Above the waves you may be mighty indeed, but down here you belong to me."
-Empress Galina
UBR Cruel Control UBR
"The essence of every world, every spell, and every thought is power. Nothing else matters, because nothing else exists."
-Nicol Bolas
I was also thinking about Hero's Downfall, possibly instead of Murderous Cut. While Cut usually is cheap enough, we still are usually playing it on turn 3. At that point it is only better if we are casting multiple spells in 1 turn, which often isn't necessary. Though for 3 mana, Mardu Charm and Crackling Doom might be more useful overall.
[/quote]I predict we will get more cards that deal with walkers in the next couple of sets.[/quote]
Me too. All I want is a Maelstrom Pulse in our colors, even if it didn't kill multiple permanents.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Slaughter Games helps, but a 4 mana spell is often too slow against them.
In a Tron or Amulet heavy meta you should do that, but outside of that it isn't worth it as it makes Terminate and Dreadbore very hard to cast.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Slaughter Games helps, but a 4 mana spell is often too slow against them.
In a Tron or Amulet heavy meta you should do that, but outside of that it isn't worth it as it makes Terminate and Dreadbore very hard to cast.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
GWSelvala and the Return to HumanityGW
UWDragonlord Ojutai, Control's Elder DragonUW
UBGTasigur, the God-Pharaoh's Gift to EDHUBG
UBRNicol Bolas and his Super
friendsPawnsUBRModern
UWUW Control/Midrange/Bad JundUW
WUBRGHumansWUBRG
BGMidrangeBG
I can't tell if you were making a joke, but I'll proceed as if you were serious. Cards is the key word here. You don't actually kill cards. You kill only creatures (and planeswalkers, to a lesser extent). But there are a lot of threatening non-creature cards you can face in modern. Stopping them before they get a chance to play them is better in the overwhelmingly vast majority of situations, and it's the reason why black is so prevalent in modern.
Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek are like modern's version of Force of Will, keeping the format in check. I'm not saying you should or should not run them. I'm just saying that letting your opponent play creatures and then killing them is frequently less mana efficient, sometimes impossible (vs. hexproof, for instance), or plain ol' disadvantageous (vs. enters the battlefield triggers) rather than forcing them to discard it, in which case you also get to see their hand for further added value.
Seriously? I mean, if you have the Path to Exile, sure. Otherwise he is one of the worst kinds of creatures a deck like this can face. Maybe your token version could chump him effectively until you found it? Either way, using three removal spells to deal with one card isn't a winning recipe for any deck.
Re: Slaughter Games. Val already touched on it sometimes being too slow, but it's a card that ends up in the sideboard all the time, and almost never lives up to the imagined potential. I can't think of many successful decks that employed it.
As for Pack Rat (keep in mind TribalElfMage, Valanarch isn't actually testing this against live competition, so if you have a version of this deck sleeved up, you're probably in a better position to provide feedback by testing it out), I think I'd rather see it take up Gideon's spots first, rather than Sorin's. I mean, Gideon is an awesome tool that control decks have used for a long time, but this isn't your average control shell. The sheer amount of creature kill makes me think Gideon might just end up being an overcosted beater half the time. I'm also a tad worried that the Pack Rat won't have enough fuel to be really scary, but I like how early he comes down, and against some decks it seems like a ringer.