Hey all, I'm trying to get the link for megrim in the description to show the stronghold printing, but am having some trouble.

Also, Geth's Grimoire is getting kicked for Waste Not ASAP.

Any help would be hot.

I personally love this play style, and have researched it a lot. Cards i would definitely run are:

Painful Quandary

Sangromancer

Quest for the Nihil Stone (this one is iffy)

I like those Barbed Shocker s, but i feel that with your small amount of removal, you might not get many hits with it.

I actually swapped out Quest for the Nihil Stone for the Shrieking Affliction , since they are useful no matter when I draw them, even after my opponent's hand is gone. Sangromancer is excellent, I will side board out the Shocker for her when I play against a creature heavy deck. Here's a thought: take out the Grimoires for two Dreadbore ?

I have a very similar deck: Put Those Cards Down Before You Hurt Yourself. I've run it for a couple of years now, and I've done some research, all of which comes to the same conclusion: Liliana's Caress , Geth's Grimoire , and Megrim do not belong in discard decks.

Why? Why not get out damage while you're making your opponent discard cards? The answer is that it slows you down. Every turn you're playing a Liliana's Caress is a turn you're not playing Blightning , Distress , Augur of Skulls , or Wrench Mind (some of my favorite discard spells). The real problem with that, though, is that you're giving your opponent time to play their cards. By the time you've got your Megrim on the table, they don't have any more cards in hand, so your discard spells don't do anything, which makes your Megrim useless, too. It's also a dead draw later in the game, because your opponent can play their cards as soon as they draw them. I would swap all 10 of those cards for more discard spells.

I don't like Sangromancer . You don't need to gain life, you need to make them discard cards. I would rather have a Guul Draz Specter . Lots bigger and works with your discard theme. Actually, most specters are good in a discard deck, the best probably being Hypnotic Specter .

I don't really like Barbed Shocker , either, because by the time you land it, hopefully they've discarded all their cards, and it does nothing without Megrim or Liliana's Caress .

Hope this helps!

Nice Ideas, +1 for your Deck.

But at the risk of being ornery, I'm keeping the Megrim gimmick. Why? Burning Inquiry . Even with just one Megrim, thats a solid six damage, and the way this deck runs, I usually see two or three Megrim/caress. Augur of Skulls is something that I hadn't even thought of, very nice.Thank you for your comment.

Thanks! Took me a long time.

Lol I did the exact same thing. It took about a month after I read tons of people saying that Megrim was bad for me to cut them, because of Burning Inquiry . Here's the thing. With Burning Inquiry , you will do 6 damage. You might screw up your hand, but you'll do it. However, if you make them discard all their cards so they can't do anything, you can crash in every single turn with any creature, say a Guul Draz Specter , and kill them anyway. You'll finish your game faster with Megrim and Burning Inquiry , but you'll finish it more consistently without it.

You are probably right. This deck is not very consistent, that's true, but I am unwilling to change my centeral idea. A few months ago I read this article by Jacob Van Lunen:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/boab/101

and have been trying to make a better Megrim deck for sinc then now.

All right, that's your decision. I never had Liliana's Caress , so I guess we can find out how it is. The first card I would add is Funeral Charm , all 4 of them. Since it's an instant, you can cast it in response to them drawing a card on their turn, hopefully getting in for 4-6 damage with your Megrim effects. Cut 2 Krenko's Command and 2 Barbed Shocker for that.

Next, I would try some Faithless Looting s. I love them in my deck. You can get rid of Megrim s if you have too many, toss lategame spells on turn 1, whatever you want. If you don't want that, maybe Read the Bones ? I always like to have some sort of draw spell in any of my decks.

Hope this helps!

Now Funeral Charm is a superb idea! That's the kind of card that will break the closer games. I might just cut the all four Barbed Shocker for it, though. Read the Bones works better for me, since I actually have a few of those.

Thanks for all your feedback!

What are you talking about? All of my ideas have been superb!

Yeah, Read the Bones is a good card, and I think it's better here than Sign in Blood . With Barbed Shocker , if your deck is working right, they should only be discarding/drawing one or two cards, and that's not a lot.

Need ideas? Look at mine : Violent Discard Rack

Yeah, I actually just came from there, lots of fun!

I always liked The Rack decks, since they use an opposite form of damage than this deck does; damage from an empty hand rather than a vanishing one.

+1 for you.

I've got a suggestion. How about Hypnotic Specter ?

Yea, I had thought about that, but I don't have any :(

Any cheaper equivalents? I'm kinda a budget nut.

Thanks for the comment tho'!

They're only $3 so they're actually quite cheap

Heres a question: Should I ditch Bloodchief Ascension ?

Ditch the Krenko's Command . They do not do anything at all to help.

Too true...

What should I do instead?

If you ever come across any, Rakdos's Return would be awesome. Thoughtseize too. Hymn to Tourach . Hypnotic Specter , probably my favorite card ever. Liliana's Reaver is also cool.

Ditch the Command, Add in the Specter as a 4 of.

@vincentgalbo Yea rakdos return is increadible, if I ever come across one, its going in.

Thoughtsieze is also great, but i have the same problem with rakdos return; $$$!

What were you thinking about Liliana's Reaver ? how does that fit?

@Kyle_mit Yea that'll do fine. its either that or Lightning Bolt , but i'll add the specter, at least for the online version.

See the Megrim /Liliana's Caress combo with Burning Inquiry otherwise. It's 3-4 mana for 6 damage. The advantage is that except white and green, it's hard to get enchantments removed fast. 2x Lightning Bolt do the same damage for 2 mana, that can be use as a removal too. Make use of your red mana man :P Terminate and Dreadbore are strong too.