Original Deck list / idea was lifted from a youtuber, Noxious. Playing in my local meta I've found tweaks and changes to help make this deck move.
The first big change I made was Detection Tower. This land alone makes things like cast down trade quite a bit better. Carnage Tyrants can now be hit as well as Knight of Grace. Being able to hit any target under Shalai, Voice of Plenty is quite helpful.
In the original build of the deck It ran 4x Vicious Conquistador. I cut those for the Stitcher's Supplier. Mainly because the Conquistador wasn't as impactful as I would like. The 1 cost is quite important but I did play with a version of the deck that ran Dire Fleet Poisoner in this slot. It could do ok. The flash deathtouch does catch people off guard and it can do some work in terms of people thinking they can block a Kitesail Freebooter and get their card back. Flash in a Poisoner and now their 2/2 they used to chump block your "mistake" is very dead and your kitesail is alive. Even if they pump their dork or use something bigger to get that card back, you almost always walk away with the trade and come out on top. The downside to Poisoner was the timing. The lack of aggression for it being a 2 drop and how it shares other slots with 2 drops that you normally want to progress your board state means this thing is used as either a gotcha trick with the other pirates on the swing or a flash deathtoucher but if on turn 2 you don't have a drop and you flash it in on the other guy's end step for no real value it would be better as a Stitchers. Death Baron was a possible slot, I'm going to test it but I feel that it pushes the deck more into mid range territory and I don't think it's set up to honestly support that.
I did move the removal around a bit. The original deck ran 4x Walk the plank. I took these out in favor for cast down. Golgari is a little prevalent in my meta and Walk the plank didn't hit what I needed it to hit.
So why Stitcher? Well I feel that the graveyard dump is helpful. Dumping targets for Isareth the Awakener or Graveyard Marshal to chew away helps. A problem I ran into with this deck is having the turn 2 Graveyard Marshal and turn 3 nothing to really play vs control and nothing my yard as a target. Some turn 3s I would legit play nothing and that feels bad when you want them on a clock. Also it has a very fun effect with Lotleth Giant in the side. I normally side out 1 of my Isareth's or a midnight reaper for the big boi and he can flat out win the game. Stitcher's mill and giant can steal games. The best way is via Isareth. They will hold a counter for the giant but they let Isareth through all the time. I don't understand it. Then when she attacks you pay her cost and because of how it's worded you don't cast it so it can't be countered and undergrowth still triggers. I've domed someone for 18 before with this play. It's magical. What is not fun is when you him off a Ruin Raider trigger and eat 7 to the face.
Draw. This deck has it. For mono black there is quite a bit of options. Ruin Raider and Midnight Reaper put in work. Both work pretty ok in multiple. Both have pros and cons. A Ravenous Chupacabra off a Raider hits you for 4. A Ravenous Chupacabra off a Reaper hits you for 1. Though a swamp or tower off a raider is nothing, while a reaper it's 1. I've toyed with the idea of Sword-Point Diplomacy but that does lower the creature count and overall isn't what the deck wants to do. It's like risk factor. It can cause them to let you draw the cards or take 9 but giving them the information of what you are drawing can be very hurtful to what the deck can do. That is why risk factor is better by miles. 4 damage or draw 3 unknowns. Too bad we are not in Red. Main board the deck runs 10 direct removal. It runs 3 deathtouch and 4 hand hate. Once the other guy starts see that you are aggressively cleaning the board you don't want them to have information. A single card in hand with that much removal means you can play the head games of "is that card removal" and more then likely it is. IF they know it's a swamp then you lose that power.
Sideboard: Ritual of Soot. I both love and hate this card. This card can cripple token decks. Sadly the moment yo side it you have to keep in mind that this hits every single card but your 4 drop and 7 drop, if you put him in. You can not commit too hard once you put this in. Golden Demise is a possible replacement however, this card requires you to get to 10 permanents on the field first before it becomes "good" and then it sill does not hit everything Ritual of Soot does. Knight of Autumn can get out of reach and so can a few other 3 drops. It is a double edge sword. I've been playing with Phyrexian Scriptures as a replacement. It is quite a bit slower. It is also open to removal, you normally get to keep 1 creature and it hits everything else so it does well there if it lands. Sadly because of the speed they can hold back and then next turn deploy a big threat they might not have if they walked into a standard board clear. Vona's Hunger is in the maybeboard for this reason. It could be the replacement we need. However, vs tokens they keep the things that matter and just sac said tokens.
Moment of Craving is an amazing card. It gains you back life lost to your own draw system and also can snatch the game from mono red. With Detection Tower this can even become removal for a Knight of Grace (4 cost but still).
This thing has become my baby. I Love playing it and as I make new builds and changes things around I'll try to keep the deck list updated.
Thank you,
~Dii
