abzan ascendancy and voice of resurgence are also cards you might want to consider. They used to be a pretty fundamental part of the deck a while back. Power level on voice and the token it creates can give you that beat down creature you were looking for.
@Lyvefire
So I'm assuming that the mana makes it tough, but I think bloodghast would be a really good recurable creature for your deck with all the dredge and discard effects. Between stitcher and faithless looting you won't even be paying his mana cost most of the time, and you can sac him over and over again with out sacrificing valuable mana. Another card I think that has been overlooked for this deck is Yahenni, undying partisan. Free sac outlet and that thing is a powerhouse if you can get some counters on him.
I like the idea of using, liliana heretic healer because it's going to flip all the time, the walker is great, and the body by itself if you're top decking it late game is not bad with the 3 toughness and lifelink.
I like the idea of having a beatdown baddy backup plan with the gargadon. I play something similar to that in the form of phyrexian obliterator
I think playing 5 colors is super risky with the number of decks playing blood moon. It is likely you will not be able to set up before blood moon drops, so you will be forced to deal with it.
I've recently thought about playing ghostly prison as a way to just stall the board. Havn't tried it yet, but it would take care of your lingering souls concerns.
I won't pick on them because I'm not sure what a better replacement would be, but insolent neonate and blisterpod feel meh. I have recurrable guys like bloodsoaked champion and dread wanderer in my deck, but I don't love them. It's hard to play anything really meaningful for 1 mana, but that's just how it goes.
Just figured I'd give you some feedback. I don't play the rally version, but that's what I think at first glance.
I'll post my decklist soon, I change my mind with it every 5 minutes and it probably won't look similar to anyone elses here.
Dang, haven't visited this thread in a while, but it seems like most people are all in on the Rally strategy. Don't you guys get wiped out by graveyard hate? I'm not saying that to poo poo the rally builds or as someone brand new to the deck. I've been playing my own home brews of aristocrats for several years now and habitually come back, try new cards, get frustrated, and then move to something else.
So I tend to try and create my own decks from scratch and I'm very stubborn and dislike netdecking for myself. What I will say, is that if you don't netdeck, prepare to get very frustrated when you've spent a lot time and money putting together a deck only to realize that it just can't compete with certain strategies. When I played more paper magic it would take me weeks to get the cards together and then I would have to buy a ton of different options (some expensive) if I wasn't a hundred percent sure on the final build. That way I could change them last minute if need be. For the most part decks live and die on their ability to disrupt each other's game plans, not on their linear abilities. So you have to know the meta really well to build a deck that's going to be successful.
My biased suggestion would be to start building your deck on Magic Online. A lot of the rares will be way cheaper, you don't have to wait for stuff to ship, if you want to make changes to the deck or buy cards you get them immediately. If you need to sell your cards back to get money to purchase other cards, you can do this within minutes. You also get a chance to play decks in the meta as the meta changes, meaning you'll see newer decks before you would at your LGS. A lot of people make the mistake of using their LGS as the testing grounds for bigger tournaments and it's just not a good representation. I say decide on a deck after playing with it for a while online, that way you don't waste you're money on a bunch of decks that don't work. I'm always playing on a budget and I've found this to be the best way to do that.
So not sure whether my deck belongs in this thread, aristocrats,or in a deck of it's own, but I've been grinding with this thing for a few weeks now on MTGO. I've had some success, but it still needs work. The core of the deck has worked out really well when I get a combination of those components.
I've found that although Bitterblossom does exactly what I would want it to do ideally, it's actually kind of slow and there are a few decks I can't afford the life loss to. I was thinking about upping the number of plunge into darkness to find answers, to add a sac outlet, and to gain life. I was thinking about swapping out Blasphemous act for Bontu's last reckoning. Only issue I have with Bontu's last reckoning is it limits my ability to play spells the same turn. Dropping a blood artist then playing a 1 mana Act to win the game is usually pretty clutch. I've tried really hard to make most of the deck playable with under 3 lands. I think goblin rabblemaster might be a good addition, but I'm not crazy about the attacks each turn if able part, but he is good for enter the battlefield triggers and death triggers for blood artist. Lingering souls was an obvious choice, but I'm not really sold overall on what it will do for the deck, plus in order to keep pace with other decks strategies, i usually need to be playing more than one spell on turn 3 if possible.
Things this deck wants to accomplish is either to fill the board to get enter the battlefield triggers or to blow it up for death triggers.
I don't know, maybe I should have zulaport cutthroat in the deck, but the lack of recursion on that many guys who do the same things scares me a little. I like to close out the game with my death triggers.
If you feel this deck doesn't belong here, let me know and I will move elsewhere. The most successful engine in the deck though is Norin and Genesis Chamber. If I can get a chamber out I'm usually golden.
Is this a list that you've played yourself? I'm surprised you wouldn't have bloodghasts in there especially with all the discard effects. I'm not really sold on the Haakon, Stromgald Scourge strategy. I don't think recursion that you have to pay for every time is really what the deck needs.
Has anyone tried playing Vampires as a slightly more midrange deck taking advantage of cards like Blood Baron of Vizkopa, Champion of Dusk or the sorin planeswalkers sorin, solemn visitor and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. They fill up the board themselves, but I guess the issue with them is that they do too little too late. The deck is slower than other aggro decks already without interuption. I'm just finding that while the lords are great, it's very hard to keep them alive. I wondered if upping the disruption and the curve a little for power might help with that. After turn 3 cards like Vampire cutthroat and Vampire lacerator are basically dead cards unless you're playing against a creatureless deck with no answers in hand. Love to know any vampire veterans' thoughts.
How does that equal modern? There would be no scapeshift, no blood moon, no breach, no cryptic command, no remand, no affinity, no ad nauseum, no tarmogoyf, no tron, no ensnaring bridge, no dark confidant, Burn and Zoo would both lose alot. Almost every deck would need to adapt and adopt cards that probably wouldn't have been playable before. The only truely big problems I could see right off the bat would be having both thoughtseize and inquisition. Really though I don't care about price of entry, I just want a new format to brew in. There are a ton of fun cards and strategies that will never see play simply because something strictly better exists.
I would be into frontier if it included just a little more. It at least needs RTR for a 4 mana sweeper among other things. I don't think M15 is enough and as people have said before more recent years have come to favor creatures and tokens just ramming against each other.
I like the idea of a new format, but I don't think this is it. I personally think that M10 and on would be a better concept. The beginning of the return cycles with Scars of Mirrodin would not be a bad starting point either. I mean it's the set that modern starts with. Honestly, I feel like the only people really rallying for this format are newer players (1-2 years) who want their recently rotated cards to be playable again. I'm sure that's not everyone,but M15 and Khans is a not a good point to start from in my opinion. I'm not going to stop anyone else from playing it, but you won't see me sleeving up for it.
I'm thinking about going Grixis to add Alms of the vein and Noxious gearhulk, but won't add it until I've played with my current version a little longer. In playing it I have to say it's really strange the decisions people make in regard to conbustible gearhulk. Some people will just refuse to give you the 3 cards and it sometimes just kills them ouright.
I used to play a deck very similar to this one, obviously without Nissa. The issue was always that it was too slow and the threats were not resilient enough. You might need Emrakul or Ulamog in the deck, but then you might as well just be playing GR ramp. I will say though that undergrowth champion is very underrated, best card in the deck.
I think the true reason I stopped playing it though was because I was getting completely stomped by fevered visions decks on MTGO at the time.
Chandra is a build around card and I think because she does not fit into any obvious archetypes other than ramp she isn't finding a home right now. Anybody saying she isn't crazy powerful is being silly. The first week of new standard formats are usually dominated by preexisting strategies and obvious aggro decks. Not saying that she will be played in control, but doesn't control usually develop in response to an existing format. That's usually why solid control decks don't usually emerge until around the pro tour.
There are a lot of tools that take down spirits pretty easily. In green their take down take down which avoids rattlechains, there is make obsolete now at instant speed, and there is savage alliance and Kozilek's return. Ishkanah is pretty much a road block and so is liliana. There is enough hate to go around for spirits. I think they will be competitive, but definitely won't be tier 1. They are that deck that will sneak by for a win in tournaments when no one is prepared to play against them.
Also fastlands are like an upgrade to painlands, so Bant shouldn't have an issue in that area.
I think these are pretty safe bets, but nothing is really certain. The power level of the gearhulks are definitely going to change things a bit.
I believe GR Ramp will definitely be a thing with the support of the new Chandra.
I think GW tokens still has the core of it's engine. Nissa and Gideon will be an awesome team as long as they are in standard.
Some variant of BW control will probably be tier 1 with the new noxious gearhulk and fumigate. Also with dromoka's command rotating, Statis Snare becomes probably the best removal spell in the format. They really didn't lose a whole lot.
So I'm assuming that the mana makes it tough, but I think bloodghast would be a really good recurable creature for your deck with all the dredge and discard effects. Between stitcher and faithless looting you won't even be paying his mana cost most of the time, and you can sac him over and over again with out sacrificing valuable mana. Another card I think that has been overlooked for this deck is Yahenni, undying partisan. Free sac outlet and that thing is a powerhouse if you can get some counters on him.
I like the idea of using, liliana heretic healer because it's going to flip all the time, the walker is great, and the body by itself if you're top decking it late game is not bad with the 3 toughness and lifelink.
I like the idea of having a beatdown baddy backup plan with the gargadon. I play something similar to that in the form of phyrexian obliterator
I think playing 5 colors is super risky with the number of decks playing blood moon. It is likely you will not be able to set up before blood moon drops, so you will be forced to deal with it.
I've recently thought about playing ghostly prison as a way to just stall the board. Havn't tried it yet, but it would take care of your lingering souls concerns.
I won't pick on them because I'm not sure what a better replacement would be, but insolent neonate and blisterpod feel meh. I have recurrable guys like bloodsoaked champion and dread wanderer in my deck, but I don't love them. It's hard to play anything really meaningful for 1 mana, but that's just how it goes.
Just figured I'd give you some feedback. I don't play the rally version, but that's what I think at first glance.
I'll post my decklist soon, I change my mind with it every 5 minutes and it probably won't look similar to anyone elses here.
My biased suggestion would be to start building your deck on Magic Online. A lot of the rares will be way cheaper, you don't have to wait for stuff to ship, if you want to make changes to the deck or buy cards you get them immediately. If you need to sell your cards back to get money to purchase other cards, you can do this within minutes. You also get a chance to play decks in the meta as the meta changes, meaning you'll see newer decks before you would at your LGS. A lot of people make the mistake of using their LGS as the testing grounds for bigger tournaments and it's just not a good representation. I say decide on a deck after playing with it for a while online, that way you don't waste you're money on a bunch of decks that don't work. I'm always playing on a budget and I've found this to be the best way to do that.
4x Norin the wary
4x Genesis Chamber
4x Impact Tremors
4x Blood Artist
2x Blasphemous Act
2x Yahenni, undying partisan
2x Bitterblossom
4x Bloodghast
4x Nether traitor
3x Dread Wanderer
1x tymaret, the murder king
3x Faithless looting
1x plunge into darkness
22 Lands
I've found that although Bitterblossom does exactly what I would want it to do ideally, it's actually kind of slow and there are a few decks I can't afford the life loss to. I was thinking about upping the number of plunge into darkness to find answers, to add a sac outlet, and to gain life. I was thinking about swapping out Blasphemous act for Bontu's last reckoning. Only issue I have with Bontu's last reckoning is it limits my ability to play spells the same turn. Dropping a blood artist then playing a 1 mana Act to win the game is usually pretty clutch. I've tried really hard to make most of the deck playable with under 3 lands. I think goblin rabblemaster might be a good addition, but I'm not crazy about the attacks each turn if able part, but he is good for enter the battlefield triggers and death triggers for blood artist. Lingering souls was an obvious choice, but I'm not really sold overall on what it will do for the deck, plus in order to keep pace with other decks strategies, i usually need to be playing more than one spell on turn 3 if possible.
Things this deck wants to accomplish is either to fill the board to get enter the battlefield triggers or to blow it up for death triggers.
I don't know, maybe I should have zulaport cutthroat in the deck, but the lack of recursion on that many guys who do the same things scares me a little. I like to close out the game with my death triggers.
If you feel this deck doesn't belong here, let me know and I will move elsewhere. The most successful engine in the deck though is Norin and Genesis Chamber. If I can get a chamber out I'm usually golden.
How does that equal modern? There would be no scapeshift, no blood moon, no breach, no cryptic command, no remand, no affinity, no ad nauseum, no tarmogoyf, no tron, no ensnaring bridge, no dark confidant, Burn and Zoo would both lose alot. Almost every deck would need to adapt and adopt cards that probably wouldn't have been playable before. The only truely big problems I could see right off the bat would be having both thoughtseize and inquisition. Really though I don't care about price of entry, I just want a new format to brew in. There are a ton of fun cards and strategies that will never see play simply because something strictly better exists.
I would be into frontier if it included just a little more. It at least needs RTR for a 4 mana sweeper among other things. I don't think M15 is enough and as people have said before more recent years have come to favor creatures and tokens just ramming against each other.
4 Combustible Gearhulk
4 Lightning Axe
4 Incendiary flow
4 Fiery Temper
4 Collective Defiance
4 Fateful Showdown
4 Madcap Experiment
24 Lands
4 Sin Prodder
4 Galvanic Bombardment
3 Revolutionary Rebuff
4 Radiant Flames
I'm thinking about going Grixis to add Alms of the vein and Noxious gearhulk, but won't add it until I've played with my current version a little longer. In playing it I have to say it's really strange the decisions people make in regard to conbustible gearhulk. Some people will just refuse to give you the 3 cards and it sometimes just kills them ouright.
I think the true reason I stopped playing it though was because I was getting completely stomped by fevered visions decks on MTGO at the time.
Also fastlands are like an upgrade to painlands, so Bant shouldn't have an issue in that area.
I believe GR Ramp will definitely be a thing with the support of the new Chandra.
I think GW tokens still has the core of it's engine. Nissa and Gideon will be an awesome team as long as they are in standard.
Some variant of BW control will probably be tier 1 with the new noxious gearhulk and fumigate. Also with dromoka's command rotating, Statis Snare becomes probably the best removal spell in the format. They really didn't lose a whole lot.