Linsky89 Um...well without Tasigur's ability, he is just a 4/5 that I could play on maybe turn 3, but more likely turn 4. Erebos's Titan can do that better. Gurmag Angler is just as effective. Hell, I'd rather get a 3/3 flier with Sultai Scavenger.

And I'd rather not drop $150 to get a slight edge with 8 fetches...I think a good point about this deck is that it doesn't use fetches. People seem to like that. So I'm not about to up this deck 150 bucks for that. This deck already borders on having mana problems, I'd rather not have 16 cards equal 8 lands.

I proxy and sleeved the deck to give it a try but in testing, it does seem to be very variable on mana. If you dont get the early mana, the game is over.

Also, not so much a fan of the angler. Was thinking about 2 hangerbacks instead of 1. Maybe Duress? Do you have an idea of preferred casting priority?

Alakai Be my guest. I've been toying with the idea of dropping the Angler, so go ahead and put in the other Hangarback.

Also, ya the mana is something I've been also thinking about. I was thinking about dropping the Blighted Fens for swamps and then adding 1 more swamp, making it 22 lands total.

Duress in the main board I feel is a waste of a 1 drop that could be a creature. There is nothing more frustrating then casting Duress with nothing for them to discard.

Obviously the creatures are the casting priority, but for other decks that like to drop creatures, sometimes I'll hold the Drana (or whatever it is) on turn 3 and cast a Ruinous Path, or a Ultimate Price on turn 2 instead of a 2-drop. If I have 3 one drops in my hand, I'll usually make sure I want all 3 down before I get rid of one of their creatures. Remember that this is pure in your face aggro, so sometimes my turn 2 creature kill will be trading my Bloodsoaked Champion for their Warden of the First Tree or Hangarback Walker, but most of the time they won't be blocking it.

I've been playing this a lot the last few days and what i've seen is the Angler is almost always a dead card in my hand. The Despoiler of Souls also isn't much of a threat. I dropped all three and I'm currently trying 3 Mardu Strike Leader. I feel like him and the token both being warriors can cause even more frustration with Blood-Chin Rager. I haven't used any of the non basic lands at all, but I could see how they could be useful. Mana hasn't been an issue though really. I won a game with just two swamps. Aha.

I played the deck for about a while last night here is what I had noted.

Control deck with no creatures but plenty of counters and stasis snares and other exile enchantments: Beat me more often than not. The removal cards are dead and were sideboarded after 2 losses with Duress. Won 1 and lost another.

Attarka: Burn kills "our" creatures too easily, again Duress went in to help. Same results won one lost another. There is a card that is deal 1 damage to opponent creatures? crushed my face.

Other than those, the deck is fun to play but I have to agree with reptarjesus in that the Angler is coming out. Thinking of trying it with the modifications he made with the Strike leader as well. Hope it helps, I will post results in prep for FNM

People, can we up those Transgress to 4 already? That discard hit almost every problematic card in the meta.

Crackling. Rhino. Anafenza. Mantis. Walkers.

Transgress is even mainboard material in my humble opinion. Better shut it down before they even play the cards. And it doesnt feed graveyards.

jsansoldo No mainboard for mine, that's for sure. I don't like potentially dead cards in my hand in this deck, and I'd rather be playing the creatures. Sideboard? Of course.

Also, this deck already has an answer to all those creatures you mentioned with Infinite Obliteration and Self-Inflicted Wound. I put a couple Trangress in because after playtesting I find they are better than Despise, but I need to be convinced for a playset. And I don't want to get rid of the Duress because they simmer down Atarka Red and enchantments, which are by far the biggest threat to this deck, way more than Abzan or Jeskai (this deck was originally made to combat Abzan, after all)

Further testing this deck, which I love. The Grave strength card seems to be whiffing more often then not with nearly 29 / 60 cards working against us. I try casting it as early as possible to buff post=sickness creatures to maximize the damage done as quick as possible.

Is your inclusion of it for more late game use when our graveyard has more "casualties"?

Alakai Mainly yes. Sometimes if I'm on turn 2 and all I can play is Grave Strength on a 1-drop, I usually will. Sometimes it will completely whiff, sometimes you get 3 +1/+1 counters, and most of the time it will get you 1 or 2 coutners.

But ya, that is definitely a mid-late game card.

Oh also, I tested against both Atarka Red and White Enchantments, and while I did have some losses, with the newest revisions on average I came out winning more. Upping the Duress to 4 and adding Transgress the Mind definitely helped.

I think that should be good, tonight I am sure to come up against a red burn deck, Attarka and aristocrats with lots of direct damage. Just getting back into the game but I still think that speed is the key as players are using the 3-4 color decks and going full mid range. Guess we will have to see tonight. Good Luck to all!

I'm also playing this deck tonight (With my Drana Game Day playmat of course) so we will see how it goes!

I'm going to play this deck tonight, I will also be running 2 Hangarbacks and 4 polluted deltas.Happy Tappin'!

Drana + Hangarback = Game over.I highly recommend 4 hangarbacks.

I was 2-0 then I conviently faced both White/Black enchantment control and Atarka red and ended up going 2-2. No chance against the enchantments deck. The Atarka deck was more evenly matched, going into game 3 with 5 life left each. Other 2 decks I swept. So lukewarm results, of course I faced this decks 2 biggest enemies. Thinking about what I need to change.

Similar results asElvishSpirit, thinking Duressor something like it needs to be mainboarded. I am going to try it and removing Mardu Skullhunter. I feel this is the weakest card in the deck right now. Also considering testing with Transgress the Mindto cover more options that the opponents have.

-3 Mardu Skullhunter+3 Coat with Venom

D.Bauer338 nice, I'm thinking about another creature though. I did -2 Foul-Tongue Shriek and +2 Transgress the Mind but can see putting in that Coat with Venom as a nice trick. I also tried Duress also. The way I see it, either we are winning outright and with speed or we are battling and racing. If we are winning outright, the Foul-Tongue is not very good since we are playing it normally at normally a 3-3 benefit. If we are racing or going mid-range territory, we are prob gonna lose anyway since that's not how our deck is geared.

I played for a solid 3 hours today with about 5 decks. Our mono black deck struggled with the devoid deck that drops 1/4s and control decks. Everything else it crushed, sometimes pretty bad.

Gurmag Swiftwing?

I just can't get past that Gurmag Swiftwing only deals 1 damage. It looks greats, flying, haste, first strike. But it still only equals 1 point. The only other creatures in this deck who do that are the Ripper who can deal 3, and the Graveblade who could easily deal more than 1.

Foul-Tongue Shriek is not the card to blame. That card has won me quite a few games in a race. It deals that extra 3 or 4 to lock the game down in that turn, as opposed to taking it another 1-2 turns.

If anything, I'm considering dropping the Grave Strengths, who at one point served me a good purpose but now with Drana in the deck just doesn't seem to matter all that often.

Planeswalkers/Enchantments kill this deck, which is making me want to up the Ruinous Path to 4 and throw in a couple Duress in the main. (Transgress the Mind should never be mainboard in this deck, as all of our threats are non-creature, making Duress a mana cheaper)

Coat with Venom might be a nice sideboard card, but I'd rather play Foul-Tongue Shriek to rack up more damage.

Also Mardu Skullhunter has been a great card to me in this deck, so I don't see why it is on the chopping block. I think a 2 drop 2/1 with discard is something this deck needs.

Why are people so die hard not to see Transgress the Mind true value? Siege Rhino is a MAJOR treat to this deck. Tasigur, the Golden Fang is a colossal problem to this deck. Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip is a headache. Turn 3 Mantis Rider? Nightmare.

Transgress the Mind have a flexibility Despise doesnt, specially since the really powerful removals of the moment are cost 3 or more, like Crackling Doom, Ojutai's Command and Kolaghan's Command.

People are abusing extra powerfull multicolored spells with big costs in 80% of the meta. Why not make them pay for it?

What about card drawings? A pair of Bitter Revelations or Ob Nixilis?

ElvishSpirit Understand your hesitation on the Swiftwing, I am thinking that whilst you are correct that it only does 1 damage, it is hastey AND has flight so it is more often then not going to get in earlier that the Skullhunter. My issue with the skullhunter is that I have cast him without being able to activate his Raid ability too often. Also, all of the -1/-1 spells out there kill him along with the tokens and 1/1s we drop. I'll give it a try and let you know.

The Grave Strength was a card I was not sure about for a while but I cast it twice yesterday giving my creature +4/+4 because of creatures already in graveyard. THEN I got Bloodsoaked back from the graveyard and pulled wins. Card is working in this deck for me anyway.

The battle between Duress and Transgress the Mind is about options to me. Duress does hit the instants that crush us, BUT when I was going against the 1/4 devoid/artifact deck it halts us right away. The dragons that play that do -1/-1 every attack was very bad and is why I sided in transgress and the Swiftwing. Transgress gives me the option early and late game to remove the cards that sweep the board or fuel the opponents. My head is more worried about creatures than instants right now.

Card Draw? For me, absolutely NO Ob Nixilis, opponent played it on me and it was absolute junk. No way, no how for me 5 cost get a card and pay a life? To Ultimate him he would cost me 3 life?? Removal at -3? not worth it at all imo.

jsansoldo Transgress is a good sideboard. This deck can beat Abzan and Jeskai most of the time, where all those creatures come from. We have plenty of kill spells in the main and sideboard. Infinite Obliteration, Self-Inflicted Wound, and Ruinous Path alone kill the Rhino and the Rider.

This deck needs to worry about Atarka and White control, and I know this because hell, I made the deck! And I've taken in to a few FNMs. It has beaten Abzan, both in test and real life. Same with Jeskai, Megamorph, Scales, and Temur. This deck is already built to punish greedy manabase players with full on in your face aggro.

I like Gurmag Swiftwing with Coat with Venom to block and kill those pesky Mantis Riders. Not only does it kill rider but our creature survives. Coat with Venom is very cheap removal to get any large creature off their feild. If you don't go go with Gurmag Swiftwing I'd bump up the number of Hangarback Walker, Gives you nice Air support after you blow him up. If you don't need to block with the thopters and have Drana, Liberator of Malakir on the feild your swinging with a pile of 2/2 Flying Thopters. Also I agree to run a play set of Ruinous Path.