Maybe side out Ruinous Path for Sinister Concoction. It seems costly at first but is much faster, can be cast at instant speed if already in play, and is a madness outlet for Fiery Temper (which can target planeswalkers if you really need to kill one).

I'm playing a similar deck with only 3 Olivia, she makes it to the board early every game. 4 copies feels like too many for a legendary.

I think I see where you're going with Call the Bloodline + Indulgent Aristocrat . Maybe find space for Stensia Masquerade or use those slots for something faster, possibly Olivia's Bloodsworn, or even Incorrigible Youths?

I haven't played with Avacyn's Judgment, but Lightning Axe is simply amazing. I may have paid the extra 5 one time in 10 games, and rarely does the discard not get cast for madness. (Fiery Temper + Lightning Axe for 2 red...)

I really like this deck though, good luck at game day!

here's mine if you want to take a look Why spill blood if not for the pleasure of it?

vvmk, I have been back and forth on Ruinous Path and Sinister Concoction. I decided to settle on Ruinous Path MB because of the potential increase of Planeswalkers. Control Decks will likely be running Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip and/or Jace, Unraveler of Secrets. I also believe RG Decks will concentrate around Arlinn Kord  ^Flip and even Nissa, Voice of Zendikar. Black-based decks will have Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip, Ob Nixilis Reignited, and/or Sorin, Grim Nemesis. So, I would rather have the Paths MB to be proactive against these threats.

I could also start with the Paths in the Sideboard and MB the Concoctions - swapping between games as needed - but I settled with Grasp of Darkness in SB after seeing a lot of Indestructible-granting cards.

Certainly, Concoction enables madness - which I have a great deal of here - but I need to temper what I discard since this plays on a very tempo-heavy run. I discard too much to fast, I'll run out of gas and rely a bit too heavily on top decks to win.

Avacyn's Judgment is basically a finisher for board stalls. I may put the Lightning Axes in the SB in place of Rending Volley if the balance calls for it.

They are all still thoughts in my mind however. We'll see how FNMs go, and I may likely make these fixes before Game Day if really needed.

So, after playing a few practice games Monday night as well as seeing the SCG Baltimore results, I made a few tweaks:

Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip is out. Though she was a one-of for finisher by setting up madness, it looks as though she will not be effective enough to include.

Avacyn's Judgment was intended as a finisher, however I need to tune down the curve and play more removal, so it has been replaced with Lightning Axe.

I still think Ruinous Path is effective for this deck, but it a bit too present when not needed, so I moved one to the SB. I have also split Grasp of Darkness between the MB and SB to hold more removal. Might be tough hitting double black very early since a majority of my 1-drop creatures for T1 are Red.

I am now looking at the idea of reducing Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet to 2 for reasons similar to Liliana, and I may also reduce Kolaghan's Command to 1 to focus on bigger removal options. Right now I see my weaknesses being against enchantment-based removal and Westvale Abbey  ^Flip. If my opponent can draw me into a mid- or late-game run, these cards will easily take me down. Unfortunately, there isn't much in the way of cheap spells in R/B that let me answer these problems.

I have had this weird curiosity regarding 1 of Dragonlord Kolaghan for this deck. Thoughts?

noblevegas, I've been thinking about adding a Kolaghan. I don't have any to actually test with, but I've been asking around. The "right" answer seems to be that he just comes in too late for an aggro deck.

On that note, I've been playing with one Chandra main as a placeholder and rarely does she not get pitched to give Drana or kalitas +1/+1 haste on turn 4 or 5 (or just never sees top deck). That being said, the handful of times I've played her, she was the difference between a win and a loss.

If you have one, test it out and let me know how it goes.

That is what I figured as well, but with so many Humans decks going around drawing you into a late game I thought it would be nice to have it as an intervening threat in similar fashion to their use of Archangel Avacyn  ^Flip.

So, it likely wouldn't be terrible to have a one-of in the deck. If you time it right you can cause a fairly devastating rift in the game for them, and if you never get it, your still doing what you did before anyway.

I'd have to steal a copy from my Jund Dragons deck, but it's entertaining to think what could happen since those decks are rather creature heavy.

Its an idea worth testing for sure. There are sure to be games where he goes down turn 6 and just wreaks havoc. Even if you manage to get a Jace or ojutai in the graveyard early and delay a second one for a turn or two that could be huge.

90% of the time though I see him being an expensive removal sponge or just pitched, if he shows up at all.

It would certainly have a big impact, but in order to ensure that happens, 2 cards would have to go instead of a 1-on. He would just be too rare to even consider. Why did Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury have to rotate out? lol

yep. And at that point you're just taking spots from something cheaper that could kill a second Jace or ojutai or whatever outright. It's tempting but...just use the space for removal lmao

Hi noblevegas. I have two questions for you.

In my deck I reduced the Smoldering Marsh and Foreboding Ruins to 3 each to prevent having too many lands enter the battlefield tapped some amount of the time. Have you experienced much of this? Can you reliably bring those lands into play untapped?

Then the Languish in the sideboard. That would kill all of your creatures also? I have run Languish in a control deck before, but never in a aggressive deck that relies on creatures that would die to Languish before. How is that working for you when you bring it in? In what scenarios would you bring it in? Against Archangel Avacyn  ^Flip only?

Chatora:

Foreboding Ruins has rarely been a problem. Since you can reveal any other land except another Foreboding Ruins or the one Evolving Wilds, you're almost certain to bring it in untapped. I have yet to play one ETB tapped in the first 3 turns. I am sure it will happen but so far it has not.

Smoldering Marsh does come in tapped about 15-25% of the time in the first 3 or 4 turns. Usually this is because I have it in hand with Foreboding Ruins and not enough basics. When it does come that way I use it for my Foreboding Ruins first so they can be ETB untapped. This buys me time to draw the basics I need. I usually get there but sometimes I just miss. Rarely slows down the deck though.

Languish has the potential to take out many of my creatures yes, but the idea here is for it to be a late-game boardwipe on my opponents in the first Main Phase leading into an Attack Phase with a large Drana, Liberator of Malakir or Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, and/or Olivia, Mobilized for War. Each of these creatures has some way of getting or giving the counters and wouldn't need many to move out of Languish's range. There is also some assistance in the Call the Bloodline + Indulgent Aristocrat combo to feed this track as well as enable Madness at the same time - all for relatively little mana cost.

I would typically board in Languish against token generator decks or other weenie-type decks. Anything that attempts to "Go Wide" on me or generate fair-sized creatures with some sort of protection. While my deck has the capability of going wide, my primary focus is to actually go big with a couple creatures, clear out any obstacles, and smash away.

Been a bit delayed in getting this updated, but for those who might have been interested, I went 3-0-1 at Game Day during the round robin only to lose in the first round. Hey, I got my Top 8 Promo, which is all I was really after.

I've done a pair of FNMs and performed well, winning one and splitting on the other. It'll see more play here in the near future as I will be taking it to GP Charlotte for Side Events. It will also be back at FNM again, too. So far the deck is still very powerful and versatile. I'm hoping this will be an archetype that will stick around for Eldritch Moon, too.

So, I made a quick change to the deck before participating in the SCG Super IQ Plus for Standard. I went to 3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet since he has performed very strongly for this deck. I took out the Blighted Fen since it was doing stone nothing for me and 22 Land seemed effective enough. This change really helped as Kalitas regularly played in as a win condition at GP Charlotte events.

At the Super IQ, the first two rounds went poorly (bad draws paired with bad matchups), I did rebound to finish 3-3. I placed 27th overall out of 58 players. I think the deck can do better, but it may be some time before I can find another event at this level, so for now it's back to FNM to play test new ideas and await the release of Eldritch Moon for new possibilities.

Yeah, I also find that in my deck I only ever need 4 lands in play. The rest can be discarded as part of a cost. As long as I have and maybe one or two I am usually fine because I can cast Drana, Liberator of Malakir, Olivia, Mobilized for War, and of course Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. Blighted Fen kept forcing me to go up to 6 lands, one of them being the Fen itself.

I am trying out a slightly new build for my deck now. Including two Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip's, more Indulgent Aristocrats and more Call the Bloodlines. Hope it works out.

I started with Lili and I found her either too disruptive or just wasn't necessary. Of course, I said the same thing of 3 Kalitas and now I'm back to that count as well.

I'm going to move in a slightly different direction. I want to test removing the Aristocrats and the Call the Bloodline and insert Transgress the Mind. Typically, the only two issues I have run into have been mana fixing - of which there isn't much I can do - and my opponent getting to lethal a bit too quickly. I want to see if Transgresses can help pick off the trouble pieces and potentially disrupt their tempo enough for me to just beat in faster.

Another idea I have is to go with is Tormenting Voice. Madness enabler with card draw. I had a few opponents that were able to keep up that troubling tempo because of it. Having that discard outlet into a madness enabler means better board/game state and card advantage. I'm intrigued with both. We'll see what works and I'll post my FNM results with that next week.

It's time for Eldritch Moon Updates!

I hate that Vampire Cutthroat can be blocked and killed by that stupid Thraben Inspector. Unless a Stromkirk Condemned can pump him after blockers have been declared.

Also, I previously asked you about the Languish in the sideboard, and I see that it has since been replaced by Biting Rain. Do you ever use this? Does it not damage your own creatures just as much, if not more than your opponent's creatures? These aggressive vampires tend to have very low toughness.

Anyway, I have come up with my own Eldritch Moon variant of a Vampires deck. Would love if you could have a look at it and perhaps give me some tips / comments on the deck.

Standard B/R Madness Vampires in EMN

On the other hand, with the Vampire Cutthroat, you can attack through a Sylvan Advocate, and then pump your whole team with Stromkirk Condemned for 2 lifelink damage.

So I guess it depends on your local meta-game.

Chatora, Languish was meant for board-wipes against "go wide" decks. Biting Rain did replace it since it was a smaller loss gap while also allowing for instant speed usability in the Madness cost. I have used it against Prowess and Bant Humans decks with some rather marked success. While I do tend to lose my smaller toughness guys like Asylum Visitor and Falkenrath Gorger, I still am able to keep around Drana, Liberator of Malakir, Olivia, Mobilized for War, and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. Typically, Biting Rain is played when the last one is on the battlefield. The potential for multiple zombies is a great upside.

As for Vampire Cutthroat, I want to see if it's more beneficial to have an almost-unblockable lifelinker. there is a fair possibility I go back to Indulgent Aristocrat instead for the pump capability. Perhaps I can make them SB interchangeable for decks with Thraben Inspector.

Have you considered dropping to 3 Olivia, Mobilized for War and 2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. Only because I have been playing with these cards for a ton of games and I almost always have one of these sitting in my hand that I can't ply cause they are legendary and you can only have one on the board, I've even had to discard them, that's card disadvantage and in a deck that you wanna get as much as you can out of madness. it's a waste. I'd also consider Bloodhall Priest, a 4/4 for 3 madness is really good and you will be top decking a lot in this deck from my XP, having extra damage from it is huge, I'd cut the Olivia's Dragoon for it. Id also consider finding a home for Stromkirk Condemned, it's a game changer because it gives you a ton of advantage on blocking and attacking.

Modson, When I initially built the deck that is where I started. However, my local metagame is very aggressive and removal-happy. Olivia, Mobilized for War was 4-of because I wanted the best chance at having her for T3 into a T4 hastened Drana, Liberator of Malakir into T5 hastened Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. You would be surprised the frequency I have been able to make such above happen, and it is straight brutal for my opponent as they often never recover from such - especially when the discards are killing their creatures as well. Similarly, this is why I went to 3 Kalitas - he saw more hate than anyone, and I wanted to be sure I could fix my curve as best as possible.

Bloodhall Priest is not a favorable card in my opinion. It is an offense-only-styled card that is not better than other cards at the same CMCs who have better value on defense. Currently, I played four copies of Asylum Visitor in the deck for the card draw capability. This still required hellbent but from either player - upside. I did not have it that often nor did my opponent, but when I did, I was typically drawing for answers with better value than Bloodhall Priest.

In the early game on curve at 4 drop Kalitas is far and away a better option. At a Madness cost of 3, this causes a log jam with Olivia and Drana; those two being the better options to play.

In the mid-game Bloodhall Priest provides marginal upside in my opinion. I first need to be hellbent to use the ability. So, I have to now rely on my opponent having no more answers for this to work. The board state is typically developed at this point, and my opponent likely had answers to get here. So having a 4/4 that doesn't fly or have another form of evasion means trading on the attack. If you are down in the game or are unlikely to kill a creature of their's, this is a bad move. I would likely be down a creature and with no guarantee of being 2 points closer to a win.

In the late game this is a dead card. At this point I am more likely to need bigger answers. Drawing this means I have a 4/4 blocker to shock something or someone. Typically, if I am drawn into a late game I am already in serious trouble and Bloodhall Priest is not going to be the card to save me.

Olivia's Dragoon is a trial run to see if it's a better option for Heir of Falkenrath  ^Flip. I have had games where I am in search of more discard outlets for madness. Olivia's Dragoon is to see if that helps or hurts me.

I would like to find a spot for Stromkirk Condemned and will keep searching. I feel it is strong as well, but with the activated ability only allowed once with an EOT effect, I have some reservations. I have struggled in the past to fix double black when needed, too. I'm not running that for now, but I know that will change. It's just a matter of timing and what comes out for its inclusion - likely the Dragoons unless I find they do good work.

I can confirm that in my SOI version of the deck I would also often struggle to get reliably when I need it to cast a Drana, Liberator of Malakir or something on curve. That said, I think that pumping every vampire on your side of the battlefield could be worth it. I have canted my EMN deck more towards black than the SOI version was to compensate though. This should also hopefully allow me to madness out Voldaren Pariah  ^Flip.

I have also run into situations where I just wish I had a free discard outlet before. Most decks want to maybe discard once to flip a Heir of Falkenrath  ^Flip or something, but in these madness vampire decks you want do be able to discard frequently. Therefore I am also including Olivia's Dragoon.

Chatora, You may want to also consider 2x of Geier Reach Sanitarium. Discard outlet off a draw to allow yourself more cards. It also does allow your opponent to loot as well, so that could be either good or bad. It does cost 2 to activate, so it's more of a mid or late game play so be careful on its usage, too.

If I do include Geier Reach Sanitarium it will not be more than 1 or 2.