Honestly, I feel like Wild Guess might be better for you than Faithless Looting .

shrug

I would suggest Olivia Voldaren . I have been playing around with a Rakdos heartless summoning deck and she is great for removal. Turn four Olivia, pay 2 to do 1 damage and offset heartless summoning's -1/-1. It's great.

Yea I accidentally typed Thundermaw Hellkite instead of Olivia Voldaren , I will fix that error.

zandl why would you suggest he replace a turn one play with a turn 2 play that's difficult to cast due to it's heavy color cost.

Chaos Imps seems nice

I used Chaos Imps in an old version of this deck, however they just did not offer a lot to the deck as a whole so I dropped them.

I would strongly encourage Thundermaw Hellkite over Balefire Dragon . I love Balefire in a vacuum, but Thundermaw is just straight-up better. Costing 5 instead of 7 is massive - that's two turns at least, and in my experience the difference between 5 and 7 mana is often more like 3-4 turns. Then there's the prospect of casting Thundermaw on turn 3 or 4. Balefire also has to actually connect with the opponent to Wrath things, so his ability as a board wipe isn't something you can just count on.

Balefire will never be able to wipe a board of Lingering Souls , for instance, since they'll just chump block the dragon with them. But think about running a Thundermaw into a board with Souls...

Essence Harvest is a card I've never considered good. I tried it a couple times in draft and it left a bad tastes in my mouth. Draft is different than constructed, though, so I don't really know. Have they been working for you? I feel like those two slots might just serve much better as two more Brimstone Volley s or Searing Spear s.

I don't like Increasing Ambition much either, but I haven't gotten to play with it. It feels too slow for this deck, though.

Overall I like this deck. Charmbreaker Devils is one of my favorite cards ever - they're just so much fun.

You posted right as I checked for an update so there is that.

Anyway yea I think that I am going to just going to go for Thundermaw Hellkite over Balefire Dragon and put another Rakdos, Lord of Riots over Increasing Ambition (honestly I dismissed it as too expensive but I was urged to test it out).

On Essence Harvest , the card works wonders in this deck. Even though Charmbreaker Devils is only a base 3/3 its second ability synergizes with Essence Harvest really well. I often end up recycling Searing Spear , kill their last/only blocker with that, then Essence Harvest ing for 11 (+4/+0 from spear and another from harvest), then swinging for a grand 22 and that is game.

Does only having twelve creatures work for you with Heartless Summoning ? It seems like a small amount, but it's probably alright I guess.

Surprisingly only having twelve creatures works, I have enough draw in here that it is not that it is a problem. I really wish red and black had more cantrip cards though.

Have you considered Bloodgift Demon and Zealous Conscripts ? Both could benefit greatly from Heartless Summoning and bloodgift demon especially will provide card advantage.

i like Bloodgift Demon in this deck alot. The card advantage it will give you completely makes up for the BB casting cost. Essence Harvest just isn't that good. I understand what your trying to do with it in this deck but all in all it would be better to just have more copies of brimstone volley and searing spear. If life gain was what you were trying to accomplish with the harvest just throw in a griselbrand then throw in a few Liliana of the dark realms to help you ramp into it.

I'm trying to figure out why Rakdos is in this. He gets no benefit from Heartless Summoning (actually, he's hurt by it) and Bloodgift Demon is just better than he is anyways.

Now that I think about it I don't even remember why I put Rakdos, Lord of Riots in and removed Bloodgift Demon . This is why I post here because I end up on some train of thought and end up with something confused and it takes someone else to point out that something doesn't make since. So, I will drop Rakdos and put Blood gift back in.

Essence Harvest on the other hand is staying, despite what you may think it wins games suddenly and violently. Friday night, for example, it won me five out of my six wins, dealing a minimum of eight and a maximum of fifteen.

So I just typed out a huuuuge explanation and my browser froze and deleted it. Yay. -.-

The jist of it is this:~2x Essence Scatter is good. Way better than Griselbrand + Liliana of the Dark Realms .~I would -1 Mountain , -1 Swamp , +1 Bloodgift Demon , +1 Thundermaw Hellkite . Then again, I've never played the deck, so if you the lands are more important than upping your creature count a bit, your call.

Great deck, though. I love it. =)

@TehPlutoKiss - Gotta stop using Internet Explorer.

What about rakdos returns instead of essence harvest?

@TehPlutoKiss - I might drop the extra mountain for an extra Bloodgift Demon which would not hurt. It is that or an extra burn or draw spell.

@ckim777 - I know it seems hard to believe but Essence Harvest is a very valuable card in this deck. At its worst, which I would have to be really hard pressed to do, it deal 4 damage. On average it deals 7-11 damage for three mana! Then in a perfect storm is can deal upwards of twenty damage. Charmbreaker Devils synergizes with the card extremely well and putting something like card:Rakdos's Return would hinder me because of a lack of mana to pull off a nice haymaker. I don't want to seem like I don't appreciate the suggestions, but that is something I am pretty set on because it works extremely well for me.

How is your match up against zombies? I remember a friend of mine ran a similar deck, and it folded pretty hard to zombies because they could continually sac gravecrawler and undying monsters to tap Desecration Demon.

Pillar of Flame takes care of Gravecrawler and card:Geralf's Messenger that and no one at my card shop runs zombies anymore really.

I actually like the deck alot, and i finally get what your doing with essence harvest too :). The only thing is you may need is to possibly lower the lands, but if the land count works then nvm.

On another note, Necropolis Regent is a card i have always wanted to see in a constructed deck. But do you think it would it work in this deck?

so I've been testing your deck and one of the worst matchups I had was against control. I see you have Duress and Appetite for Brains in your sideboard but often that just isn't enough. I would suggest running a card:Rakdos's Return sideboard. The card is just devastating to those decks that hold on to cards for a while. Even if you are just casting it for 2 after they have tapped out for Jace, Memory Adept that is still 2 cards that they can't use against you any time soon. Plus if it had a Duress or 2 before it then you can completely strip your opponent of counter magic. Oh and Bloodgift Demon was actually the strongest creature I had against control. Consider adding another sideboard.

Alright, I will throw in a few card:Rakdos's Return for sideboard agains control and the 25th land that had a purpose at some point is getting replaced with an extra Bloodgift Demon

Well I made a few changes and I think this will make it function better.

Hm, it feels a little on the slow side if you get a hand full of noncreatures, or creatures with no Heartless, but seems like it works when it works though. I dig it.

I'd consider a couple more bodies and a couple fewer burn spells.

Also, you'll definitely want some Lightning Bolts.

I'd lose the 4x Pillar for 4x Lightning Bolt, and 2x Searing Spear for another good 4- or 5- drop creature. Maybe Indulgent Tormetor (3BB 5/3 Flying, Upkeep: Draw a card unless target opponent sacs a creature or pays 3 life)? It benefits your other "pressure the opponent or else I'll hit you with this big undercosted ridiculous thing" synergies, too.

Here's a good card for your sideboard: Ob Nix, Unshackled (4BB Flying, Trample, Whenever an opponent searches their library, they lose 10 life, Whenever another creature dies, Ob Nix gets a +1/+1 counter).