The idea is surviving long enough until you cast Rooftop Storm so you could bring on the Halloween spirit to the table. Geralf's Mindcrusher, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and Havengul Lich lets you mill a ton of cards: Grimgrin eats the Mindcrushers to make them re-enter the battlefield with their undying triggers (10 total cards milled), then eats them again to send them to the graveyard. The Lich brings back the Mindcrusher to life from the yard for just 1 mana. Grimgrin is still hungry, so he will eat and eat until the enemy's library is completely gone. 10 cards per 1 colorless mana that you can spend.
Heartless Summoning is there because accelerating into the creatures isn't a bad plan either, though the mill plan would be out of the table until you resolve Rooftop Storm and assembling the other cards. Forbidden Alchemy and especially Jarad's Orders help in doing that.
With all the Thragtusks running around, I think this is better than the versions that try to attack the life total using perhaps Geralf's Messengers and/or Diregraf Captains. It also doesn't fall apart completely if the storm gets Slaughter Games because you're still playing large creatures when you can't combo off anymore.
Pretty much every BR deck i've been seeing right now is running 3-4. Only three if they're playing an Olivia or an Archwing Dragon main. I think Olivia is a pretty good six drop. Leaving her as a 3/3 with no way to pump is dangerous against aggro decks with all the Searing Spears and Brimstone Volleys. However, against midrange decks she's one of the best 4 drops if not THE best.
I would look at Jarad's Orders. I run Clone on my list and it's the one that is usually get sent to the bin. Often I would just get a Clone and a Thragtusk, or a Thragtusk and a Havengul Lich. It means that if my Lich survives i'm reanimating a creature next turn. Maybe it's too slow for aggro decks, though. But it's a way to actually find cards that you need if you don't have them yet.
Do you think the gates would be beter as a 3 Evolving Wilds, 1 Forest split? Both would come in tapped anyway, but wilds could get a much needed swamp for mutilate.
Also, how are Golgari Keyrunes working for you? I'd love to splash red just for the Rakdos Keyrune and Pillar of Flame, but seems sketchy to add a colour to the deck.
Not the person you were replying to, but I do agree with the Evolving Wilds over guildgates. As for the Keyrunes, Rakdos Keyrune is so much better than Golgari it's not even close. I really love Keyrunes and planeswalkers like Garruk in decks that run Mutilate because you don't get affected by your sweeper that much. I'd even consider just running 4 Blood Crypts + 1 mountain just to play Rakdos Keyrune over the Golgari one. It does make you less consistent if you don't have the green mana yet, but the thing is you don't really need access to red mana very early in the game since you're not running Pillar of Flame, so you can use your first Evolving Wilds to grab a forest instead of a mountain if you need the green.
Adding a few red sources isn't really that bad unless you also want to run Garruk, Primal Hunter or Vorapede. In that case i'd probably run Rootbound Crags alongside the Blood Crypts.
Seems like increasing the top end is the key to the red decks now. Playing a couple more lands to comfortably hit Thundermaw Hellkite mana is worth it. I play two in the main, and then board in 2 Zealous Conscripts against Thragtusk decks. Only thing I don't like about mono red, as opposed to rakdos are these reasons :
1. Hellrider sucks because it doesn't fly. It gets blocked by the popular cards against aggro decks like Centaur Healer, Thragtusk, Restoration Angel and Fog Bank.
2. Archwing Dragon doesn't set you up for devastating turn 5 plays in which you use Zealous Conscripts on their Thragtusk and you swing for 12 with your turn four 4 power guy (Aristocrat in Rakdos decks).
Only reason to mono red now is being able to cast Ash Zealot reliably, but that card isn't even that great and gets trumped easily. I'm trying out Lightning Maulers and Markov Blademaster right now.
I think 4 Crippling Blight AND 4 Nightbird's Clutches might be a bit excessive. I'd rather have Bump in the Night than Uncanny Speed if you just want some damage. You already have a lot of hasty guys. Most of your creatures are 2cmc+ so if you're using the speed for value, you need to spend 4 mana and two cards, as opposed to just playing Aristocrats or Hellriders. Instead of Pyreheart Wolf, i'll look at Fervent Cathar instead.
I'm really not impressed with Deathrite Shaman and Vampire Nighthawk. They're so prone to removal, and most decks run a lot of it because aggro and creature based decks are rampant. Nighthawk is the prime offender. There's nothing more terrible than playing a Nighthawk and then it just gets hit by searing spear. Also not a fan of mutilating my own guys for no value at all.
I used to just play the deck creatureless, but I realized that Sign in Blood becomes a dead card very quickly without life help from Thragtusk, and Nighthawks don't perform enough for me.
War Falcon is one of the best 1 drops you can have in an aggro white deck. It trades with the one drops in other colors, and putting a Rancor on it often wins games by itself. Falcon to Knight of Glory is also a strong early play if they can't deal with it.
Without Farseek or any other kind of mana fixing, wouldn't it be hard to get the black mana for Slaughter Games? Evolving Wilds is an option, but I don't think it's enough.
I don't think Huntmaster is good enough right now. Chandra is there because I have dreams of reverberating Farseek on a calm board, or burn spells in a punch. Sigarda seems like hell for this deck. I don't know what to do about that. Would also like to mention that Farseek is really good at getting all the Steam Vents to get more pings with Nivvy. I wouldn't play him without it.
How is the match up against GB control decks? There's so many dead and inefficient cards against them. The O-rings and Spheres seem terrible, especially against creatureless decks and hexproof is no problem to them most of the time.
Do not use Hellion Crucible. It looks good on paper, but the risk of getting stuck with a 2 land game with no double red for your Ash Zealot is so terrible.
4 Geralf's Mindcrusher
4 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
4 Havengul-Lich
2 Thragtusk
2 Undead Alchemist
4 Rooftop Storm
4 Heartless Summoning
Instant
4 Forbidden Alchemy
Sorcery
4 Jarad's Orders
4 Farseek
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Woodland Cemetery
4 Forest
6 Island
2 Thragtusk
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Golgari Charm
2 Cremate
4 Negate
3 Duress
The idea is surviving long enough until you cast Rooftop Storm so you could bring on the Halloween spirit to the table. Geralf's Mindcrusher, Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and Havengul Lich lets you mill a ton of cards: Grimgrin eats the Mindcrushers to make them re-enter the battlefield with their undying triggers (10 total cards milled), then eats them again to send them to the graveyard. The Lich brings back the Mindcrusher to life from the yard for just 1 mana. Grimgrin is still hungry, so he will eat and eat until the enemy's library is completely gone. 10 cards per 1 colorless mana that you can spend.
Heartless Summoning is there because accelerating into the creatures isn't a bad plan either, though the mill plan would be out of the table until you resolve Rooftop Storm and assembling the other cards. Forbidden Alchemy and especially Jarad's Orders help in doing that.
With all the Thragtusks running around, I think this is better than the versions that try to attack the life total using perhaps Geralf's Messengers and/or Diregraf Captains. It also doesn't fall apart completely if the storm gets Slaughter Games because you're still playing large creatures when you can't combo off anymore.
Not the person you were replying to, but I do agree with the Evolving Wilds over guildgates. As for the Keyrunes, Rakdos Keyrune is so much better than Golgari it's not even close. I really love Keyrunes and planeswalkers like Garruk in decks that run Mutilate because you don't get affected by your sweeper that much. I'd even consider just running 4 Blood Crypts + 1 mountain just to play Rakdos Keyrune over the Golgari one. It does make you less consistent if you don't have the green mana yet, but the thing is you don't really need access to red mana very early in the game since you're not running Pillar of Flame, so you can use your first Evolving Wilds to grab a forest instead of a mountain if you need the green.
Adding a few red sources isn't really that bad unless you also want to run Garruk, Primal Hunter or Vorapede. In that case i'd probably run Rootbound Crags alongside the Blood Crypts.
1. Hellrider sucks because it doesn't fly. It gets blocked by the popular cards against aggro decks like Centaur Healer, Thragtusk, Restoration Angel and Fog Bank.
2. Archwing Dragon doesn't set you up for devastating turn 5 plays in which you use Zealous Conscripts on their Thragtusk and you swing for 12 with your turn four 4 power guy (Aristocrat in Rakdos decks).
Only reason to mono red now is being able to cast Ash Zealot reliably, but that card isn't even that great and gets trumped easily. I'm trying out Lightning Maulers and Markov Blademaster right now.
Here's an idea for an super quick deck.
2 Fervent Cathar
4 Gore-House Chainwalker
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak
4 Stromkirk Noble
3 Vexing Devil
3 Brimstone Volley
3 Searing Spear
3 Bump in the Night
3 Pillar of Flame
4 Dragonskull Summit
13 Mountain
3 Reckless Waif
2 Rakdos Charm
3 Flames of the Firebrand
2 Killing Wave
3 Traitorous Blood
I used to just play the deck creatureless, but I realized that Sign in Blood becomes a dead card very quickly without life help from Thragtusk, and Nighthawks don't perform enough for me.
4 Golgari Keyrune
Creature (4)
4 Thragtusk
Enchantment (2)
2 Dead Weight
Instant (4)
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Ultimate Price
2 Diabolic Revelation
4 Farseek
4 Mutilate
1 Sever the Bloodline
3 Sign in Blood
3 Garruk Relentless
2 Liliana of the Veil
3 Vraska, the Unseen
Land (24)
4 Evolving Wilds
1 Forest
4 Overgrown Tomb
15 Swamp
2 Bloodgift Demon
2 Curse of Death's Hold
2 Golgari Charm
1 Tragic Slip
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Liliana of the Veil
3 Duress
My list:
4 Knight of Glory
4 Precinct Captain
3 Silverblade Paladin
3 Sublime Archangel
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 War Falcon
4 Rancor
Spells
3 Selesnya Charm
2 Faith's Shield
Planeswalker
2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
Lands
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Gavony Township
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove
12 Plains
3 Centaur Healer
2 War Priest of Thune
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Rest in Peace
2 Garruk Relentless
Here's a list i'm working on :
3 Borderland Ranger
2 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
4 Thragtusk
Instant
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Syncopate
2 Izzet Charm
1 Thoughtflare
4 Farseek
4 Mizzium Mortars
4 Pillar of Flame
Planeswalker
1 Chandra, the Firebrand
4 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Land
3 Desolate Lighthouse
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
2 Forest
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Blood Crypt
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Rolling Temblor
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
3 Slaughter Games
2 Fog Bank
I don't think Huntmaster is good enough right now. Chandra is there because I have dreams of reverberating Farseek on a calm board, or burn spells in a punch. Sigarda seems like hell for this deck. I don't know what to do about that. Would also like to mention that Farseek is really good at getting all the Steam Vents to get more pings with Nivvy. I wouldn't play him without it.
Do not use Hellion Crucible. It looks good on paper, but the risk of getting stuck with a 2 land game with no double red for your Ash Zealot is so terrible.