@laccol: I made a version of this that splashed red with Rakdos's Return , Sire Of Insanity and Dreadbore . I also made it a little more devotion focused with some Gray Merchant of Asphodel s, and Underworld Connections . I added some Disciple of Phenax s because I found against aggro decks that put a lot of creatures on the board fast I was having trouble. They provide a mid game blocker that also adds to the discard plan. The deck's preformed pretty well. I've won about 4 games online and lost 1. However, I haven't played against any type of control decks yet.

Mutilate is an amazing board wipe against aggro matches :)

Mutilate isn't standard legal.

I think Nighthowler would have a nice place in this deck, at least against creature heavy decks :P

Love this deck so much I built it and am currently playtesting it. In preliminary games selesnya causes it some problems, especially if they have Loxodon Smiter. If they have the smiter they can keep it in hand just to prevent you from using Mind Rot. Tested it against Junk. It starts strong versus Junk but then this deck cannot keep any win condition on the board and eventually reaper of the wilds or blood baron is impossible to deal with. The deck has managed to pick up a fe games against mono-blue by picking off key cards, however sometimes the low cost flyers are hard to keep up with, especially if Jace or the Bident do hit from top decking.

Problem I'm finding is win conditions. Pack Rat in combination with mutavault and drainpipe vermin is your only chance to finish them off and then if your opponent can deal with your rats then you have no con. The creature pool needs to be more solid as to give some more outs. I think the red might be the way to go. A few cards that double as burn/removal, a creature bomb or two and maybe rakdos return might be an idea to test as others have suggested.

i love the combo with Erebos, God of the Dead and Devour Flesh where Devour Flesh makes them sac. and Erebos, God of the Dead does not allow them to gain the life.

This isn't really relative to this deck, but.. Erebos, God of the Dead+ Alms Beast. Wuuuuut.

Hey, really cool deck. I think the biggest threat to this deck, as has been said, is Sphinx's Revelation . Maybe splash blue and take out -4 Swamp , put in +4 Watery Grave and sideboard +3 Syncopate . That way, you just hold your syncopate and try to have 2 mana available at any given time against control. They tend to tap out when using Sphinx's Revelation to get the biggest effect, so you can just pay 2 to counter it with Syncopate . Or use Dissolve if you prefer.

I also liked the idea of splashing red for those nice cards that were mentioned (Slaughter Games , Sire Of Insanity , Rakdos's Return ), but don't like what it does to the curve, which is pretty sweet as it stands right now.

Homebrew, brutal, and can sub the expensive cards out for cheapers. So, so happy to see something from home win. This is a bastard deck, and I've never built a deck I saw online but dude, I gotta try this. +1

I would take out the Pharika's Cure altogether. Then add +1 Doom Blade and +1 Devour Flesh . I have been testing this deck, and late game drawing one cure, when I need a removal spell for that big creature, has been a mayor let down.

Also against esper/azorious control, Illness in the Ranks is the best card ever vs Elspeth, Sun's Champion !! Keep it in hand until they drop her and BOOM, nice 6 wasted mana man

Black white red, slaughter games side board, run sin collector 1 sire 1 underworld Cerberus 3 rootbourne defence, and like 2 blood barons or 2 Rakdos ringleaders since they regen and makethem discard at rrandom, gives you late game playability and they either deal with your rats or deal with it bombs

Thanks for all the views, upvotes, and great suggestions everyone!!! Very much appreciated. I have thought of splashing white for Sin Collector and have access to Blood Baron of Vizkopa as an alternate win con. Other idea is to splash red, as many of you have suggested, to replace most, if not all, the Mind Rot with Rakdos's Return . Red will also give me access to Dreadbore mainboard and allow for Sire Of Insanity as an alternate win con also.

keeping Pharika's Cure in the sideboard is a good call, it will likely be replaced by Ultimate Price or just more Devour Flesh mainboard as @Fizzz suggested. Though Pharika's Cure is an absolute must to sideboard in against white weenies and any creature aggro style deck. Creature heavy aggro decks are proving to be the hardest to beat.

I had Illness in the Ranks in my sideboard this past weekend for FNM, but never used it. Pithing Needle seems to be the better card in that spot. also will be adding the 1 Ratchet Bomb i have to the sideboard.

What do you guys think. Splash Red, White, or maybe even Green for Abrupt Decay Deathrite Shaman and maybe even a Reaper of the Wilds as a finisher?

Illness in the Ranks is your second Pithing Needle . While it can help you with one planeswalker, you could use that to directly counter elspeth.

I hope that Born of the Gods brings a good board wipe for black :)

splash red for sure and use anger of the gods or mizzium mortars, better than cure for sure, cure is crap man. and splashing green for reaper is meeeeeh... might as well run golgari charm? wipe the tokens and kill Elspeth, or regen through that board wipe or destroy that d sphere, reaper is just soso in your deck. but I think B/W/R is best setup for what your doing, stormbreaths vs control meaning they HAVE to save hate for it, you can use toil/trouble for draw and pretty much 7 damage for 3 mana vs control. celestial flare or even boros charm are great utility added to your deck from those colors for side board of course. but adding green for abrupt and reaper and deathrite is kinda meh imo, you figure you MIGHT use him turn 2 but your mana curve shows you may not even have the mana to spare till turn 4, so he seems dead. and reaper yes you CAN make it hard to kill him but your looking at a turn 6 drop since you cant drop him w/o the mana to make him hexproof. also if you are super bent on adding green, putrify > abrupt decay or even dark betrayl, yes its 1 mana or 2 mana but limited as shit so purtify is great though baron gets around that card, luckly mortars is an option in red.

@dizzzyme : I agree to some of your points, but you shouldn't forget that this deck isn't about to build the "next" B/x/x control/midrange deck, it's about small, nasty rats with discard. This deck is even able to handle Blood Baron of Vizkopa , just look at Thoughtseize / Devour Flesh , and potentially Lifebane Zombie and Ratchet Bomb in the sideboard. With playing Anger of the Gods or Celestial Flare you won't be able anymore to play 4 Mutavault on such a small land count. Pharika's Cure isn't crap at all, it just destroys any game plan of rdw.

@sharkudi , @ChiefBell : I am currently trying a red-splash, see B/r Hand Destruction . I started with 3 Shrieking Affliction , but as expected it turned out that it is much more powerful with Rakdos's Return , so I re-raised it to 4. The deck is working quite well against midrange/ control (won vs Jund, Esper and BWR), I might try a Master of Cruelties as alternative win condition (paired with Mutavault or Rakdos's Return ). Additionally, I increased the land count to 23 - Rakdos's Return is much more effective with more mana, and sometimes you just need the third land to copy Rat Pack on turn 3.

@laccol and @bradcoish23 you totally get what i'm trying to do with this deck. Thanks so much for the great ideas. I'm now going to splash Red. check it out.

Devour flesh... does not get anything unless they only have one creature.... I do get that you don't want it to be the next net deck or you wanna keep it out of the realm of normal decks but.... you want a deck that wins consistently... cool you made a deck outside of the meta and won 5/0 because it was un expected and no one knew what to do because it wasn't understood. you wont be able to do it again. take my land destruction 2.0 there and for the first fnm you will go 5/0 too then they learn the tricks of if then you have to use your brain. there is no way for you to win vs mono green or green/red devo, its way too fast. RDW should give you a lot of problems also because they are in top deck mode by turn 4 anyway. my only issue with the deck is its TOO hand hate heavy, why bother with double black if your gonna splash? lightning strike/shock are just as good and cost less and are not as harsh on mana cost.

@dizzzyme : I totally agree with you that the strength of this deck is that it plays some unexpected "combos". Nevertheless, I think it has the pontential to fight every kind of deck - okay, if green devotion lands a Garrruk, the game is definitely over :). But until then, the mix of removal, hand destruction, life gain (Devour Flesh , Pharika's Cure ) and other tricks (Slaughter Games , Pithing Needle ) makes it possible to gain control of game. Give it a try :)

im saying that you need draw, be it read the bones, underworld connections, or orobos, if the over all point of the deck is hand disruption it comes at a cost of your own hand. I fully understand your idea and like it, im saying in any real competitive play it wont last, i tried every idea people have gave me over the net and locally, even if i didn't think it fit the "theme" i tried it and it unlocked more doors, as long as you stay with the core concept it can be an amazing deck i just seriously feel its underwhelming when a good player knows how to play around it. like i would hold a land or 2 in hand and a board altering card and make you blow ur spells then in response play said spell then you get nothing because i had lands, also ill eat that 1 damage all day from those rats until i had fodder to ditch its just a matter of timing, your only real threat is lily getting to her ult and rakdos, your pack rats can be abused in favor of your opponent and since your only instants are removal i know the majority of things your going to do are on your turn since they or aren't instant, also the idea is the same as any other control aspected deck, slow you down until you have the upper hand, so since you have no real threats its not a big deal and you can prevent top decks its soso, late game, and the deck isn't fast enough so you wont be playing more than 1 spell a turn until turn 4? you cant drop rats right off the bat because you have no way to salvage them out for more rats unless you do it at the cost of your own hand. and most of your hand disruption is 1-1 your relying on a rakos for any real hand disruption. since you don't have slaughter games a top deck jace, sphinx, opportunity are all going to blow your whole gig for draw or even a d sphere on your shrieking, or a verdict to wipe the board. control if played right will destroy you almost every time. don't take this negatively, i mean it constructively and want you to improve upon the idea. also 6 red sources is not enough to support the deck you need 4 guild gates at least.

Nice deck! I might build it!

-4 Pack Rat +4 Read the Bones -4 Dreadbore +2 Devour Flesh +2 Corrupt

Slaughter Games somewhere in sideboard

Just wondering... If you had to drop this deck to below $100, how would you do it? I can only build budget decks, but really want to build this one because it looks so good! I already have a couple somewhat more expensive cards, such as Erebos, God of the Dead , a Liliana of the Dark Realms , and I can probably muster up Pack Rat and a Thoughtseize or two... but definitely not the Mutavault .

On a side note, I played this against my budget Azorius Control Deck, and I managed to win 3/5 times after I threw in tons of counter spells (namely Negate ) and added more draw spells, such as Opportunity and Inspiration . All of your Pack Rat can fall victim to a well placed Divine Verdict or Detention Sphere , and a Council of the Absolute can take out Rakdos's Return or Shrieking Affliction to nullify your deck. In all Rakdos color decks, I think Slaughter Games would be great in your sideboard, as they can screw control decks over. And when you Pithing Needle AEtherling , all a control deck needs to do is Detention Sphere the Needle away. Overall, great deck, and I hope you can help me find a cheaper way to make this deck! +1 from me!

I ran this deck in standard at the start of RtR basically minus the Thoughtseize and it ran perfectly. And from my playtesting yes Shrieking Affliction is worth it because even if they hold a card back to avoid damage, that is STILL controlling their plays. Playing it they loose life per tern, dont play it and they are basically down a card they can use. +1 from someone who ran this and LOVED it.

@Ti22_HipHero spot on with the Shrieking Affliction control comment. I only cast it when i know it's gonna do damage next upkeep, thus also creating the control element. A truly powerful 1 drop indeed.

@Aakash.Barevadia not sure how to help you with budget. no Mutavault and Mind Rot over Rakdos's Return . Maybe also add Disciple of Phenax and Grey Merchant of Asphodel for more of a devotion theme? would love to playtest against your budget Azorius Control Deck, as i always play very conservatively against control decks, usually by not establishing a board presence until I've wiped out their hand. Usually results in wins for this deck.

@dizzzyme Thanks for the in depth thought you've put towards the deck. I'll take all of it into consideration. Had a hell of a time parsing out meaning from that long run on sentence btw. Also, I have played against a few very seasoned and successful control players in my area already (one was a Pro Tour Qualifier Top 8 Esper player) , and have won nearly every game (4-0 vs. full on Esper at FNM, only 2 losswa out of lots of casual play-testing against U/W and Esper) There is always a way to play around someone playing around your threats, and so on to infinity. This is one of the many reasons I, like you i assume, love M:TG. endless possibilities and multiple layers of strategy.

Thanks again for all the UPVOTES and Comments!!! Still looking for suggestions on how to deal with Green Devotion Ramp and Creature heavy Aggro decks.

Against aggro, here is what I would do:

-2 Liliana of the Dark Realms

-4 Hero's Downfall (mana intensive stuff)

+2 Pharika's Cure

+2 Doom Blade or Dark Betrayal

+2 Ratchet Bomb or +2 Devour Flesh

Shrivel is a spell that I would consider as well, since most of the aggro matches are against critters that have 1 toughness, like Dryad Militant and Boros Elite to name a few.