Suicide Storm

Legacy* Budget Combo Mono-Black Storm Suicide Black

rayzoredge

Card Advantage (20)

• 4x Cruel Bargain
• 2x Diabolic Tutor
• 4x Infernal Contract
• 3x Sign in Blood
• 3x Skullclamp
• 4x Street Wraith

Land (6)

• 6x Swamp

Mana Producers (31)

• 4x Blood Pet
• 4x Cabal Ritual
• 4x Culling the Weak
• 4x Dark Ritual
• 4x Lotus Petal
• 3x Overeager Apprentice
• 4x Priest of Gix
• 4x Songs of the Damned

Win Con (3)

• 3x Tendrils of Agony

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Suicide black featuring storm with Tendrils of Agony . Because life is cheap!

And the deck itself is less than $100! =)

The Play

Tweaked the deck a bit to try to maintain consistency without having to hope for that perfect hand.

This is kind of complicated to explain without playing it, but the main point is to:

• cast your mana producing spells to fill up your mana pool
• pay life to draw as many cards as you can
• use all of these spells to storm into Tendrils of Agony

You can win as early as T1, but this typically wins before T4.

Make sure your opening hand has these essentials:

• Dark Ritual
• Swamp and/or Lotus Petal , but not more than two Swamp s
• Sign in Blood and/or Infernal Contract / Cruel Bargain , but not more than 3 of any combination
• at least one creature ( Priest of Gix / Blood Pet / Overeager Apprentice ), but prefer Blood Pet

Most winning hands I've started with included:

• At least three mana-producing cards ( Dark Ritual (~90% of starting hands), Swamp (~64%), Lotus Petal (~55%), Culling the Weak (~72%), and/or Songs of the Damned (~18%).
• At least one card that allows you to draw three cards ( Infernal Contract / Cruel Bargain (~82%)).
• At least one creature ( Blood Pet (~64%) and/or Priest of Gix (~9%)), although I've won games without a creature in my opening hand ~27% of the time.

Avoid having dead start cards like Skullclamp , Diabolic Tutor , and Tendrils of Agony in your opening hand, although I've still won many games with just one of them in my starting hand.

Knowing what makes a good hand, I've had a ~55% of winning on T1. (Win percentage may be higher... I got these chances from a rather small sample of 20 games and that's also trying to learn what a winning hand looked like.)

Example T1 Wins

Example #1

• Opt to go second so you draw a card. Let's say you have two Blood Pet s, Dark Ritual , Culling the Weak , Swamp , Cabal Ritual , Cruel Bargain , and draw Songs of the Damned .
• Play a Swamp .
• Tap your Swamp for a Dark Ritual , floating . (Storm 1)
• Cast your Blood Pet , then sac it to Culling the Weak and end up with . (Storm 3)
• Cast your Cruel Bargain , then draw 4 cards ( Culling the Weak , Priest of Gix , Skullclamp , and Diabolic Tutor ) and have 10 life and left. (Storm 4)
• Cast your other Blood Pet , then sac it to your other Culling the Weak and end up with . (Storm 6)
• Cast your Priest of Gix and continue to float . (Storm 7)
• Cast Skullclamp , then equip it to your Priest of Gix to kill it and draw two cards ( Cabal Ritual and Infernal Contract ) and have left. You will now meet threshold with 7 cards in your graveyard. (Storm 8)
• Cast Cabal Ritual , then cast Infernal Contract to draw four cards ( Street Wraith , Blood Pet , Priest of Gix , Overeager Apprentice ) and have and 5 life left. (Storm 10)
• Cast Blood Pet and Priest of Gix , netting you . (Storm 12).
• Cast Overeager Apprentice , then sac it and discard the Street Wraith (since we're at 5 life and we could use that more effectively with our Infernal Contract s and Cruel Bargain s). You'll have floating. (Storm 13)
• Equip your Skullclamp to your Priest of Gix to kill it and draw two cards ( Songs of the Damned and Lotus Petal ).
• Sac your Blood Pet , then cast Songs of the Damned and Lotus Petal , netting you . (Storm 15)
• At this point, you can use your Diabolic Tutor to search for a Tendrils of Agony , cast it, and hit your opponent in the face with 32.

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Example #2

• Opt to go second so you draw a card. Let's say you have two Lotus Petal s, Dark Ritual , Songs of the Damned , Sign in Blood , Cabal Ritual , Street Wraith , and draw another Sign in Blood .
• Cast both Lotus Petal s. (Storm 2)
• Cycle Street Wraith to draw Cabal Ritual . You're now at 18 life.
• Sac both Lotus Petal s to cast Dark Ritual . You're now floating and have 4 cards in your graveyard. (Storm 3)
• Cast Sign in Blood to draw two Culling the Weak . You're now at 16 life, floating , with 5 cards in graveyard. (Storm 4)
• Cast Cabal Ritual with no threshold (yet). with 6 cards in graveyard. (Storm 5)
• Cast Songs of the Damned . Still at , but now meeting threshold with 7 cards in graveyard. (Storm 6)
• Cast Cabal Ritual for floating. (Storm 7)
• Cast Sign in Blood to draw Priest of Gix and Sign in Blood . You're now at 14 life and . (Storm 7)
• Cast Priest of Gix . (Storm 8)
• Sac Priest of Gix to cast Culling the Weak , netting you . (Storm 9)
• Cast Sign in Blood to draw Cabal Ritual and Infernal Contract , with 12 life and left. (Storm 10)
• Cast Cabal Ritual , netting you . (Storm 11)
• Cast Infernal Contract to draw Cabal Ritual , Tendrils of Agony , Cruel Bargain , and Songs of the Damned , leaving you with 6 life and . (Storm 12)
• Cast Cabal Ritual , netting you . (Storm 13)
• Cast Infernal Contract to draw Skullclamp , Street Wraith , Dark Ritual , and Lotus Petal . You're now at 3 life, . (Storm 14)
• Cast and sac Lotus Petal , then cast Dark Ritual and Songs of the Damned to net you . (Storm 17)
• Tired of typing, so I say at this point, you cast Tendrils of Agony to drain for 34. GG.

Even More T1 Wins

Example #3

Opening Hand: 2x Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Culling the Weak, Infernal Contract, Swamp, and Blood Pet + Cruel Bargain.

• Play Swamp.
• Cast both Dark Rituals. Float . (Storm 2)
• Cast Blood Pet, then cast Culling the Weak and sac the Pet. You have left. (Storm 4)
• Cast Cruel Bargain to draw Lotus Petal, Sign In Blood, Cabal Ritual, and Swamp. and 10 life left. (Storm 5)
• Cast Sign In Blood to draw Dark Ritual and Priest of Gix. with 8 life left. (Storm 6)
• Cast Priest of Gix and Dark Ritual. . (Storm 8)
• Cast both Cabal Rituals, then cast Infernal Contract to draw Songs of the Damned x2, Cabal Ritual, and Infernal Contract. . (Storm 11)
• Cast Cabal Ritual, then Infernal Contract to draw Culling the Weak, Tendrils of Agony, Street's Wraith, and Blood Pet. and 2 life left. (Storm 13)
• Cast Blood Pet, then Culling the Weak and sac your Priest of Gix. Then sac your Blood Pet for B. Then cast both Songs of the Damned. You'll have 15 mana. (Storm 17)
• Cast your Tendrils of Agony and smash face for 36.

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Example #4

Opening Hand: Culling The Weak, Infernal Contract, Street Wraith, Blood Pet, Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, and Sign In Blood + Cabal Ritual

• Cast Lotus Petal, then sac it to cast Dark Ritual. floating. (Storm 2)
• Cycle Street Wraith. 18 life left.
• Cast Blood Pet, then sac it to Culling The Weak. . (Storm 4)
• Cast Cruel Bargain and draw Culling The Weak, Infernal Contract, Dark Ritual, and Cabal Ritual. (Storm 5)
• Cast Dark Ritual, then both Cabal Rituals, then Infernal Contract to draw Tendrils of Agony, Blood Pet, Cruel Bargain, and Lotus Petal. and 4 life left. (Storm 9)
• Cast Lotus Petal, then Blood Pet, then sac the Lotus Petal, then cast Culling the Weak and sac your Blood Pet to it. floating. (Storm 12)
• Cast Cruel Bargain to draw Street Wraith, Overeager Apprentice, Infernal Contract, and Swamp. and 2 life left. (Storm 13)
• Play your Swamp, tap it, then cast Infernal Contract to draw Sign In Blood, Tendrils of Agony, Blood Pet, and Songs of the Damned. with 1 life left. (Storm 14)
• Cast Blood Pet, then sac it, then cast Overeager Apprentice then sac it and pitch Street Wraith to it. left. (Storm 16).
• Cast Songs of the Damned. You're now at 1 with 10 mana. (Storm 17)
• Cast Tendrils of Agony for 34 points of agony.

Card Choices

Mana-producing spells:

• Cabal Ritual : With the amount of cards hitting the graveyard, we achieve threshold easily. On the first turn, try to hold off on casting it until you attain threshold. (Almost every game where I've attempted to use it without threshold, I ran out of mana... so I highly recommend you ONLY use this with threshold.)
• Culling the Weak : Use with your Blood Pet s, Priest of Gix s, and/or Overeager Apprentice s.
• Dark Ritual : Classic mana producer. This is a crucial card.
• Lotus Petal : These are essential as they allow you to have more than on T1. They are expensive being $7 a pop, but the mana advantage you get on T1 is essential, so I couldn't cut this out for budget reasons. This is a crucial card.
• Songs of the Damned : Even if you are casting this to net just one more additional , it can be worth it. Useful with Blood Pet s and Street Wraith s and the sacrifice requirement for Culling the Weak .

Card advantage:

• Cruel Bargain : Four cards for half your life? It stinks the first time, but definitely manageable as you get lower in life total. They are expensive being $8 a pop, but the card advantage is essential, so I couldn't cut this out for budget reasons. A crucial card.
• Infernal Contract : Same as Cruel Bargain , but not as expensive to buy. Sign me up! Another crucial card.
• Sign in Blood : Two for two ain't bad. Use these early to bring your life total down so Cruel Bargain and Infernal Contract don't hurt as badly. Be careful of using it when your life total gets too low. I've only included 3 in the decklist since it becomes a dead card if your life gets too low. You can also use this for direct life loss in a pinch in case you don't quite kill someone by T1.
• Skullclamp : It relies on having a creature, but you can clamp it to anything, since it will kill Blood Pet and Priest of Gix and Overeager Apprentice can sacrifice itself. Kept this to 3, and if it's a dead card in your hand, you can pitch it to Overeager Apprentice .

Supporting Cards:

• Blood Pet : Essentially feeds storm and great Skullclamp and Culling the Weak fodder. I picked this over free 0-drops like Ornithopter because you can sacrifice it for its ability to feed Songs of the Damned and threshold for Cabal Ritual .
• Priest of Gix : Basically, a free creature. Works well with Culling the Weak and Skullclamp .
• Street Wraith : You will only use this for its cycling ability to draw a card and feed the graveyard for Songs of the Damned and threshold for Cabal Ritual . This basically turns your 60-card deck into 56 will make things a bit more consistent. Diabolic Tutor : I miss Demonic Tutor , but this ensures you get what you need if you don't draw into it. At , it is expensive, but you would only use this near the end of your combo run to feed storm or grab a Tendrils of Agony . Watch how much you'll have left after casting this... you don't want to come up short. Only two copies as it is expensive to cast, but as unlikely as it is NOT to draw into what you need, it has saved me a few times. Overeager Apprentice : A pretty darn good addition to support. It acts as a Priest of Gix and can make use of dead cards in your hand for AND feed threshold AND be used in conjunction with Culling the Weak and Skullclamp .

The Weaknesses

A single Pact of Negation can stop you. A first-turn card: Leyline of Sanctity will ruin this as well. Burn like a simple Lightning Bolt can instantaneously kill you as you bring your life total down to 1, which you will most commonly do to attempt your T1 win.

Another problem is that you need a good mix of card draw AND mana-producing spells. Without either, your combo runs out of steam and your storm count amounts to nothing. My success rate for T1 wins with this has been ~45%.

The Credit

Inspired by YT korlash3000. Watch his video to see how his version is played.

Original decklist:

• 4x Cabal Ritual
• 4x Culling the Weak
• 4x Dark Ritual
• 4x Demonic Tutor
• 4x Infernal Contract
• 4x Lotus Petal
• 4x Necropotence
• 4x Night's Whisper
• 4x Ornithopter
• 4x Phyrexian Walker
• 4x Songs of the Damned
• 2x Soul Spike
• 4x Street Wraith
• 6x Swamp
• 4x Tendrils of Agony

I obviously made substitutions to bring the deck price down by a LOT.

• Demonic Tutor : $35 a pop wasn't sitting well for me. It is a powerful card to assist with storm and getting what you need for only , but a playset of these more than doubles the price of this entire deck. I wish these were affordable, since it is a powerful card for only and ensures you get exactly what you need to keep steam.
• Necropotence : I did not like the inclusion of Necro only because it felt "slow" for what this deck is trying to do. It is a very powerful card, but hurts that you can't draw anything until the end step. However, this can seal a T2 or T3 win more consistently if you can get it out by T1 and have Spellbook or Reliquary Tower .

This doesn't always go off on T1 (~45% chance), but I'm still working to see if I can get this to work more consistently in a budget-ish way.

Possible Options:

• Decree of Pain : Possible dual use card as for only , you can essentially cause life loss, requiring less Storm for your Tendrils of Agony , or draw 4 cards.
• Read the Bones : A better option for card draw with Scrye, but also a bit slower and it's not as preferable to our 4-card draws for CMC 3.
• Skeletal Scrying : This could be a powerful option mid-way into the combo, but warrants testing since you have to pay , and we need our precious mana.

Last updated 20171009.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Legacy legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 8 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 26 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.19
Folders	Current Decks