I finally got a playset of Geralf's Messenger and decided to have some fun.
I took the underlying mechanics from an Aristocrats deck and smashed it into Mono-Black Devotion, and ended up with a super-aggro deck that's filled with shenanigans.
Yahenni, Undying Partisan and Bontu the Glorified act as sack outlets for value creatures:
Bloodghast, Bloodsoaked Champion, and Geralf's Messenger are all great sac targets.
Blood Artist and Blade of the Bloodchief pull extra value off the sacrifice.
The old Aristocrats builds would want to get some kind of infinite-sac combo in play, and would run a full playset of Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat, but here Blood Artist is mainly meant to clean up after a few rounds of attacking. Often after a good aggro start you'll get to a point where your opponent has 3 or 4 life on turn 4 or 5. Then, with a Yahenni, Undying Partisan on the board, you can just sac your board and push through the last few points of damage.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel is the strongest finisher in the deck.
Mogis's Marauder seems good too. He's very aggro and pushes through damage, which is exactly what this deck wants.
I'm also running Demon of Catastrophes. I know he's pretty janky, but he happens to fit pretty well here.
He's a great turn 4 on a line leading to Grey Merchant with either a Bloodghast or a Geralf's Messenger in play, and he gives this deck a fatter butt in case the game stalls out.
...plus I have those swanky full art promos and they are pretty.
It's a pretty simple strategy: play a bunch of creatures, turn 'em sideways, and get great value, but it does some silly things, plays some cards some people might not be used to seeing, and it's pretty fun to play.
Suggestions Rock!
