bump in the night is a black lighting bolt to the face with a red flashback

@gyratingllama, that is true, and I remember seeing this when building the deck, but it is also not instant speed and it cannot target creatures. Since I need to run enough red mana to guarantee the Burning Inquiry (and because mana fixing is expensive from a money standpoint), I thought lightning bolt wouldn't be a bad addition to both control the board AND to smack the player. In testing, it's pretty handy being able to blow-up something small before it gets scary or annoying.

I meant to add it in as an addition to be more aggressive. Use both to target the player and try to kill with the enchantments with discard

Also with discard you are trying to make them get rid of their threats from the beginning but might not always work out.

gyratingllama Ahh, I see what you are saying. I have messed around with a bunch of different ideas making it more direct burn oriented (and adding things like Pain Magnification or Blightning. I also wanted to see how good Quest for Pure Flame combo-ed with the Pain Magnification and all the other burn. This would also make a three card combo with Megrim, making it so nearly any damage burn spell turns into a discard hand spell.), but I've found most of those options didn't really aid to shut down the opponent any better or really do much more damage over the course of the (usually very short) game. By turn 3 with this deck, I would expect to easily do 10 or more damage in a turn from triggers alone, and if not I would expect to have a flooded board with plenty of options and a full hand. It is very likely that either on turn 3 or 4, the opponent would have no cards in hand, and any copies of Shrieking Affliction out would deal 3 damage each turn after anyway.

yeah i like the deck how it is though really cool and later if it is in your budget pick up thoughtseize and Inquisition. Also, what about black mail and duress for one cmc discard spells instead of the little creatures. Even cooler though is pack rat but that works well with ensnaring bridge and really isn't the part of your strategy.

Along the same lines as Pack Rat, I was thinking about something that could exploit the fact that I can make lots of 2/2 zombie tokens as well, but once again all of those options seemed to be a little too much mana (all modern zombie lords cost 3 or more, and most of the good enchantments seemed to be 4 or more) to play in the deck, or at least in how the deck works right now. Although, in an earlier version I did have Typhoid Rats as a turn one stall card until I could get some combos off, so maybe Pack Rat would be a good pick up if I put those back in... I'll test those ideas in another deck.

A creature I was seriously considering for this deck is Nyxathid. It is another win condition when the opponent has no hand and if I don't have Shrieking Afflictions or Waste Nots available. It would at least be a reasonable draw after turn 3, but the problem would be that I would have to give up some removal or one of the creatures which are in there because they cause discard. Basically, it's the same reason why I don't have Quest for the Nihil Stone or The Rack. They both would be good (although, both are a little worse than Shrieking Affliction for subtle but relevant reasons), but I need the slots! Maybe some of those would be good sideboards? (Perhaps Megrim and Dreadbore aren't as valuable on the sideboard)

About all the one drop "you pick" discard cards (Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, etc.), I think those are great control cards and are almost always worthwhile to have turn 1 or 2. However, when I play this deck, I rarely care about actually picking the cards my opponent has to discard. After turn 2, whatever was in their hand will almost always not be there anymore. If anything, I would run more Raven's Crimes to raise the probability that I can drop the excess lands in my hand for more "I really don't care what card you pick to discard" discards.

4 Dark Deal

micah1, I thought a lot about putting that card in, and a couple of things have stopped me from doing it. (1) I will most likely never need to play it. Usually, the opponent is out of cards by the time I would see playing this (They would try to hover around 2 trash cards in hand, to make my discard less effective but not burn from Shrieking Affliction), and the most I can get out of it would be just about as good as a Mind Rot (For instance, if they had 3 or fewer cards in hand). (2) If I do get it off effectively (let's say they have more than 3 cards in hand), I will, more than likely, end up milling the crap out of myself. My hand almost always has 5 or more cards in it, and playing this card will force me to dig very deep into my deck. Let's say I have a full hand, I will draw 6 more, and I will draw more from any of the draw triggers on Waste Not. If I have 2 Waste Nots out, that will give me 2 more draws for each non-land non-creature card the opponent had. That alone could be 6 more draws. Moreover, I am guaranteed to lose all the cards I would try to keep in my hand with this card.

In summary, it has negative value with previously played discard, and I really don't need to go through my deck any faster.

Regardless, I think that Dark Deal has the potential to be a crazy given the right game; Turn 2 I play Liliana's Caress or Waste Not, turn 3 I potentially can Dark Deal for 6 to 10 damage or I get a bunch of value and just combo out for a win. I think I'll stick this on a maybeboard and put it in if I can think of more ways to make sure it can work (Maybe something with Barbed Shocker or the like). I think it would be a required pickup if I was running a Blue Black variation of this deck (for instance, as more of a combo/control deck), I could potentially combo bounce or draw with this and guarantee large returns.

They will probably discard 2 or 3 cards to it on turn three. Also, there is Wrench Mind which was surprising to see lacking.

micah1, they probably will, but I will still discard my hand in the process. It's not that 2 or 3 discards is bad, it's just that I already have 8 cards in my deck that can do that without as strong of a downside for me.

Wrench Mind is a great card, but I don't think I need more discard. That said, is it better in this deck than the discard I already have for it? I think that's up for debate.

Currently, I have 18 cards that discard: 8 creatures that discard 1 when played, 10 sorceries which are effectively one drops, and 2 of those are Raven's Crime, causing all the lands in my deck to also potentially be discard (meaning in probably more than half my games, I actually will have a healthy 38 discard cards). Moreover, 12 of them do not target, so they are completely unaffected by things like Leyline of Sanctity. I think that it is fair to assume answers like that since it isn't too uncommon to see storm and burn around.

The 8 creatures are there to stall in case I do not get an enchantment immediately and to answer early tempo plays or in case I'm playing against someone with enchantment/permanent removal (So, I play the creature, and try to combo the turn I get the enchantments out). Hypnotic Specter is comparable to Liliana's Specter, but I like the "hit the board" effect over the combat effect to work better with Waste Not, although both do not target (Although, I will probably change out some Specters for 2 of Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip... but I don't think this would remain to be a budget deck at that point). I could be wrong, but I feel like Liliana's Specter is worth the extra 1 colorless over Wrench Mind to be a 2/1 flyer on the board, even though the opponent discards one less card most of the time. Ravenous Rats, although it is a pretty weak card, perfectly fits the role of being either a chump blocker I can almost always play if I don't have anything set up or a discard when I do have enchantments up. The two black mana cost of Wrench Mind and the fact that it cannot play the role of a blocker without Waste Not up are probably why I like the rats just a little bit more.

The other 10 discard cards seem to be much more powerful in the deck than Wrench Mind. Burning Inquiry is cheaper, discards more cards, and they are randomly discarded (so my opponent can't save good cards and pick what I get out of Waste Not). Tasigur's Cruelty will almost always be 2 or less mana since I will be playing a lot of spells and Burning Inquiry puts even more stuff in the graveyard. Moreover, Tasigur's Cruelty does not target either, which is a bonus. Raven's Crime is one mana for one discard, and turns all my lands into that as well as long as it somehow finds itself in the graveyard.

I think if I was going to put more discard in, I would add in more Raven's Crimes just to make it so that it would be more likely for me to turn all my lands into discard as well.

I think my suggestion won't be so good because of Raven's Crime (discarding lands), but have you tried Suffer the Past?

crosleydr that is a really cool card! I think you're right that it would not be great because I would not be consistently keeping lands, but also I think that it probably would not work because my deck does not guarantee that much ramp. I think that I might be able to pull off X=4 or 5 some games (in which case I would very much want the card in my hand for the 10 health differential if they were out of cards), but other games I might just hit a bunch of creatures with my discard and only get 2/2s with my Waste Nots. I think it would at least be worth a try, considering that I don't have all that much sustainability and their graveyard is something I could use AND it's a burn spell.

How's Dream Salvage working for you?

Dream Salvage is actually pretty nuts. If it's a turn after playing Burning Inquiry or Dark Deal, it's usually the card people begin to scoop after seeing me play it.

Really good budget build, well done. A few questions, though - you have 16 Enchantments and about 14 discard spells to activate them, does that balance work? It seems like Megrim and Lili's Caress might want a bit more fuel to finish off the game. How do you play it? If you're waiting to get a couple enchantments down to cast one of the bigger card-movers, why not more Dark Deal, since your big move can't really come before Turn 3 anyway? I may have been biased in figuring out how to play optimally - as I playtested this, I resolved turn 4 Dark Deal for 28 damage with 2 enchantments on the board - hysterical. I'm really curious because I may consider a similar build - this looks like a lot of fun for under $80.

formayor, that's why I'm running 4 Raven's Crimes and so many lands considering how fast the deck can be. I usually stop playing lands around the 4th or 5th one (2 swamps, 2 mountains usually) and keep the left overs as Raven's Crime fuel and as buffers for Burning Inquiry and Dark Deal. If I have Waste Not out with maybe a Shrieking Affliction, Raven's Crime, and a bunch of lands in my hand, I usually win the game from that point.

Also, as far as individual card ratios go, I'm still working on what I feel like I like more. Dark Deal is great, but it's also really expensive and doesn't have the magic 2 or less mana cost that lets me free play it with a good Waste Not tick, as well as the problem of it becoming not nearly as good if the opponent drops their hand. However, it might be worth it to swap in 2 more regardless. (But honestly I'm not entirely sure what would be good to swap out... Maybe 2 Megrims?)

As far as how I play it, it really comes down to if I have Shrieking Affliction, Waste Not, or Liliana's Caress/Megrim. If I only have Shrieking Afflictions, I pretend I'm playing a 4-rack kind of game where I do as much as I can as soon as I can to disturb their hand and make them discard it, which can include Burning Inquiry if they are clearly holding onto answers and/or I want to try to activate Tasigur's Cruelty. If I don't have the Affliction but I have a few Waste Nots, I play 1 or 2 of them (Depending on how fast I think the opponents deck is), and then win off of combo filling the board with 2/2 zombies, endless free-drawing, and just playing everything I can, which includes just playing any discard I can manage each turn after playing the Waste Nots. If I only have the Liliana's Caresss and Megrims, I wait for the One Turn Kill, meaning play two/three of them, and then Dark Deal/Burning Inquiry plus any other discard I can get to.

As far as knowing if playing more Enchantments are better for a given turn, it's just thinking about "Will this enchantment do anything for me right now or in the near future," "Do I need to play this now regardless because of mana," and "If I play a Dark Deal/Burning Inquiry, what are the chances that if I cycle this card, it will get me a better card?"

Thanks for the thorough response. That all makes plenty of sense. I think some complicated decision making and multiple strategies make the deck all the more appealing to pilot. Seems a ton more interesting than budget 8-rack.

About Raven's Crime - true that it works over and over. From playing Loam decks, I can tell you that Dakmor Salvage works wonders with it, especially when you get so many extra draw triggers.

I see what you mean about trying to hit the 2-mana spot. Maybe extra Dark Deal on the sideboard? It's obviously not great against a few decks that offload their hand quickly, but devastating in other matchups. Maybe just one, in fact, as you're unlikely to have to play it more than once.

My only other bit of feedback is that you probably can run a slightly more diverse sideboard if you pack more mass removal like Pyroclasm or Anger of the Gods, and less targeted removal. Those cards are faster than Zenith, and can also work in conjunction with it on subsequent turns, or give your Bolts a boost for big guys. Also, Surgical Extraction seems like it could be a bit of a swiss army knife from the sideboard, since you dump so many targets into the graveyard. Just food for thought. Really interested to see how the deck goes, good luck.

formayor, I really like those suggestions. I didn't even think of Dakmor Salvage, but that would be very very good with both Raven's Crime and Tasigur's Cruelty. I like the Pyroclasm slightly more than Anger of the Gods simply because the single 1R is so much better than 1RR, but I think both are very sideboardable depending on your area's meta. The main reason that I have Black Sun's Zenith is to deal with indestructible/gross control cards, and it's only occasionally when I really have to pay any great attention to the board state beyond Lightning Bolting the annoying/unblockable small stuff and Dreadboreing or Terminateing the large plays.

Also, yes Surgical Extraction! The only downside is that I've been attempting to keep it more budget than not, and Surgical Extraction is floating around 5 dollars right now.

I was looking at this deck a while ago and forgot to comment, then someone gave you credit for this deck inspiring this deck so anyway +1, I really like the core of this deck (Burning Inquiry, Waste Not, Liliana's Caress). If you have room and the budget Blightning might fit really well here.

electromancer I was thinking of putting Blightning in at some point, but for 1BR it would make it the hardest card to play in the deck. I've actually updated and tested the deck somewhat recently, and I wanted to put in my modifications. With some scry lands and a few Sulfurous Springs, I was able to get the mana fixing and the constancy up to par. With a few other adjustments, the deck is actually pretty competitive. Going 2-1 against a Boros Burn deck and 4-1 against a Delver/Tarmogoyf deck, I feel pretty confident about it.

I really like this deck. I want to build something very similar. Have you looked at Sire Of Insanity I know he costs a lot but he could work very well in late game

rrow0485 I have looked at Sire Of Insanity. True, he would work good in late game, if there was a late game for this deck. I find that the opponent will never have any cards by around turn 5, and I can usually make that happen turn 4 and sometimes even on turn 3. Also, at least the way that I play this deck, I almost never play more than 4 lands so I can save them for Raven's Crime or as buffers for any other discard that I would do on myself. I think this deck probably could be modified to put in Sire Of Insanity, but I don't think it would work as it stands right now.