Allllrighty now, Version 5 of the decklist has arrived! When WILL this decklist stop? Never. It will never stop.
Fortunately, this time around the changes are fairly minor, as the previous decklist was generally on the right track, the biggest change this time around being a downshift to lower costed cards to let us dump our hand as quickly as possible, with a downfocus on removal to the sideboard. Removal is everywhere, and we are not equipped to stop it, so we want to put our head down and charge headlong into whatever they think they have and hopefully come out on the other side in better shape than they do.
- Landbase -
We cut the total lands down to 18, which is dangerously low, but our average drops are also dropping to the two slot, so it should be okay. The Ruins are the best dual land we have access to, and the higher mountain count reflects our primarily red nature.
- Discard Outlets -
Three of these outlets are evasive, so they should get in for at least SOME damage before going down, and while the Bloodseeker is strictly inferior to
Olivia's Dragoon
, it is a red drop, which makes it more reliable. The two copies of lightning axe provide excellent removal and a 1 cost discard outlet.
- Discard Payoffs -
All kinds of payoffs here -- do note the Gorger is not a payoff in itself, but instead makes everything else a payoff, which, in itself, is quite the payoff. The Visitor and Bloodmad have made it onto the list due to their sheer power, so the opponent pretty much HAS to block them. Priest and the Youths are our highest drops on the curve, but they bring enough power to warrant their 3 drop slot, while Fiery Temper is staple removal for our kind of deck. Visitor also has the upside of reliably drawing us cards in this variant of the deck, since we should always be able to dump out multiple cards per turn.
- What isn't here and why -
I have tried and tried with this card, but it is simply too slow for what we want to do. She is not a discard outlet on her own, she doesn't have Madness, the
Heir of Falkenrath
already provides a 3 power flyer, and you realistically NEED 4 mana for Olivia's ability to be of any value to you, as you won't be able to reliably drop a creature then pay the Madness cost to bring in whatever you discard otherwise. It ISN'T a bad card for the deck, mind you, but it doesn't fill the role I need from my top end, and something like
Drana, Liberator of Malakir
or even the
Rakish Heir
or
Stromkirk Captain
from the previous Innistrad sets would have been more ideal capstones.
Great in theory, especially on a
Furyblade Vampire
, but these cards can be dead draw sometimes and the former doesn't leave a lasting impact on the board, and it really leaves you open to 2-for-1s if someone chucks removal at whatever you target. It is almost always better to chuck a Madness creature on the board instead.
