Looking at a lightly played mono-black aggro list in Standard that's currently going around, I thought of how awesome of an idea it could be in modern. So today I bring to you, Bad Moon aggro, revamped for recent modern meta!
A deck like this, according to all the research I've tried to do, hasn't been thought of for a very long time, and for good reason, there just weren't enough supportive cards. Our new standard brought us such cards as Tormented Hero, Gnarled Scarhide, Bloodsoaked Champion, Master of the Feast, and Ulcerate. Going back a little further with RTR and INN, and we have nearly the entire deck.
Anyway, moving on to the deck itself!
There are many, many 1 CMC 2/1's and 2/2's that are modern legal. So many, that I am runing a playset of 4 of them, and cut so very many more. The sheer amount of choice is terrifying. So, I've made a little list of them and why/why not they are in this deck. Please do not hesitate to give your own opinions, they are far more helpful than you think.
Bloodsoaked Champion - A really good pick. He can be brought back whenever you attack, which means he can help swarm your opponent with much more confidence knowing you can survive a wrath. Can't block, but if he's untapped in our opponent's turn he's either sick or we're dead.
Diregraf Ghoul - A pretty solid pick. She enters tapped, but its not like she will be blocking anyway, even though you theoretically could after your next turn. After her laughably minuscule drawback period ends, you're left with pure value. Nice.
Gnarled Scarhide - An alright pick. We run this guy because he costs 1 mana, not 4. It's nice to have as it can push through, but we definitely don't want to bestow him if it isn't absolutely profitable. As such, being a 2/1, he's pretty replaceable.
Gravecrawler - A more conditional version of Bloodsoaked Champion, albeit a little bit cheaper. isn't really as good in my mind. To re-animate him we either need another gravecrawler or rearrange our creature base to make him better, and that doesn't sit too right with me. Still though, pure gravy on yet another 2/1. Oh, he can't block? Boo hoo.
Guul Draz Vampire - A 1/1 until turned on, but a beast when she is. Still though, 1 less power is a lot in the first few turns I've noticed, so turning her on is a little difficult if she comes out early. It also feels more like a win-more card. IF we've gotten half way, we're doing just fine. The intimidate is really good too, but I'm not too sure about this one.
Pulse Tracker - a 1/1, but technically causes 2 damage. However, it still can't beat anything with more than 1 toughness. No thanks.
Rakdos Cackler - A 2/2 on the aggro plan, and a 1/1 if we somehow need to stall out for our big guys. Definitely a solid A card.
Tormented Hero - In some decks, a pure gravy 2/1. In ours, a vanilla 2/1. We can do better, but if you've got a few lying around and can't be bothered buying that last creature then go for it.
Vampire Lacerator - A 2/2 with a marginal downside. 2 or so life doesn't matter when you're beating down at such a blistering pace, and by the time the enemy even realises what hit them, the ability is irrelevant.
Now that was quite a few. Definitely enough redundancy to make the bulk of this deck. But on turns 3-5, we've got to be making use of our mana. Sure 1/1's are great, but our excess swamps should also be pulling their weight. Here is where the last few creatures come in.
Arrogant Bloodlord - 3 CMC 4/4, yes please. The drawback is pretty marginal considering this is modern we're talking about, but we have options to deal with it in case it becomes a problem. But seriously, this is definitely an overlooked card in my opinion.
Master of the Feast - Oh my lawd. This thing is a flying Phyrexian Negator with a far better drawback. Hell yeah. Now, giving our opponent extra cards might seem like a bad idea, but considering we've probably played 3 small dudes already, that's 11 damage on the turn they get their card. Bolt can't kill it either, which makes it all the more worth it. This thing turns turns your olympic 400m sprint team into a fleet of fighter jets gunning it to the finish line. It will end games.
Oh dear, I don't have dark confidant listed. Well, I'm poor. If you have access to them though, they are an instant 4-of here. No excuses.
Right, I've covered the creatures we could be running. Now for other things.
Defense against blockers -
Blockers are our worst enemy. They slow us down, 1 for 1 our creatures, and are generally a pain in the butt. So I've gone ahead and prepared a little suite of removal cheap enough to get us there all the while barely interrupting our beatdown strategy.I've also included potential picks because I keep tweaking this deck and I am far too lazy to edit this since barely anyone will read it anyway.
Wretched Banquet - But, Reareye, our creatures are so tiny! Shhh. Not on turn 2 they aren't. Goyfy is unlikely to be big enough already, Dark confidant, Young PZ, Delver, Scavenging ooze, all that good stuff have 2 power. Which just so happens to be tied for the least with our little guys, and thus valid targets for 1 mana removal. However, this is pretty easy to side out in slower matchups where the creatures get huge.
Smother - Huh. How many decks run creatures with over 3 CMC in modern? Uh. Well. There's pod, or, well, there was pod. Oh, and tron. And junk. Well they also have high power creatures. Screw those matchups anyway, we have other tech for them. But anyway, this card hits very hard against delver, twin and it's green variants, jund, quite a bit of junk, and that's all I can think of.
Vendetta - It's a cheaper doom blade that denies regeneration (irrelevant) and does a bit of damage to us (also irrelevant). Pretty basic, but that 1 mana is pretty darned important.
Devour in Shadow - For matches where that 1 mana really isn't as darned important as getting rid of your opponent's black creatures is. Also it is unconditional removal for 2 mana. In one colour. At instant speed. Yes.
Doom Blade + Go for the Throat - Doom blade suffers from vendetta's limitations, but for 1 mana protects your from damage. Up to you whether or not this is worth it, but remember than devour in shadow costs the same but also hits black creatures. Go for the throat is useless against affinity and not really that much else. Depending on your meta, it might be a very good call to run this card. Otherwise, don't risk it.
Murder + Hero's Downfall - Pfft, 3 mana? Next you'll want me to run Flesh to Dust. Funny.
Believe it or not, this deck contains even more!
Other stuff -
Inquisition of Kozilek - Because I am too poor for Thoughtseize. Otherwise I would run Thoughtseize.
Immortal Servitude - It feels pretty bad taking a pyroclasm and getting 5 for 1'd. Oh well, time to bring them all back for 4 mana.
Whip of Erebos - I am not too sure myself. But hey, lifelink is really good against other fast decks if you can get it out.
Bad Moon - Self explanatory. Please take this out against other black decks though. Seriously.
