Thanks for the comment! With Dark Tutelage in my deck I don't need thinning. I need land, to keep my deck's per-card average CMC as low as possible to keep the damage I take over the course of the game as low as possible.

Ok there's the answer. Now I'm going on a rant again. Thanks for the opportunity and in advance: I'm sorry. :)

The whole 'deck thinning' thing is situational. I know everyone talks about it like its sacroanct but the math just doesn't add up.

Its beautiful in decks that have the two types of land the fetch allows you to get. In 3+ color decks its a must for mana fixing. In landfall deck's its a no-brainer.

It is alos good for helping you shuffel if game play requires you to get something off of the bottom of the library.

But that's about it.

In decks that run one color, or any two colors not on a single fetch land, you're just shooting yourself in the foot. What you're doing when you play a fetch on the first turn is trading 5% of your life for a .3% less chance to draw a land on your second turn. Why would you want that? Mid game it gets even worse, as you could draw a fetch when you NEED a land and you have to end up paying 10%, 20% or even 50% of your life just to get that land...that you could have already had if you had just left your fetches at home.

And usually, when you're in a situation where you CAN thin your deck, what that means is running the number of lands you need plus the 4 fetches. That way, you have fewer card slots and there more efficiency and consistency in your play. Its all about avoiding mana flood. Usually when someone suggests running fetches they're talking about running 16-18 land and 4 fetches, which is the opposite of thinning your deck. That's just thinning your land.

I wish I was at home, then I could find the link to an article I read explaining the math. w/o it, nobody ever believes me.

I love the combo of this deck, and that unlike many combo decks it's not all control & stalling but instead focuses on keeping on the pressure!

I definitely want to go play a deck like this now, lol the deck I play the most is a Pyromancer Ascension deck so I seem to have an affinity.

Kudos for building such a great deck that has a total cost less than 1 copy of Jace, the Mind Sculptor !

@insertcleverID, I totally believe you. I have read many different articles about it, and no one can seem to agree on what is the truth. You know what that tells me? That tells me it doesn't really matter. Stick with the swamps. Since you are running so many swamps, you may want to look into Lashwrithe for another win condition.

P.S. have you had any problems with go-for-the-throat? Have you considered sideboarding two doom-blades? I also think dismember, as mentioned earlier, would be a good choice. I love the blistergrub edition, I am glad to see he found a home somewhere. The only other thing I am curious about is Consuming Vapors . How is it working in your deck? With all the low mana-cost spells, it just seems to be a little out of place, but I could be wrong about that. Plus, if you draw into it with dark tutelage, you lose 4 life. If an opponent only has small creatures you may wind up getting nothing from it.

Cool combo. I'm sure you've considered this but mono black can always play obliterator... It would give you another win condition.

@infectorus thanks for the comments. I do dig Lashwrithe but the deck already has 3 things going on. Removal/hand disruption, creatures and a combo, and I took out Blade of the Bloodchief a while ago to help make that balance work. That said Lashwrithe is definitly getting tested.

I like Consuming Vapors . It works pretty well, better than card:Geth's Verdict, anyway. It's kind of fun to take two free swings in a row for the cost of 1 spell, but that's pretty situational.

@simpsonetti Right now his IS my secondary wincon. But for the moment I SB'd him for Consuming Vapors .

Good point about the Doom Blade s though. I dropped Vampire Hexmage for them. I think the Despise should be enough to deal with plainswalkers for the most part. Then I could just remove all the blockers for those that sneak by.

Very good deck! +1

Played against my BOLT's Burn, i hate Vampire Nighthawk its a great card!

I think you may have near perfection here. I would just play test like crazy, and I wouldn't make any big changes unless totally necessary. If your deck was a woman I would propose. :)

Hey there quit eyein' my girl, buddy!

Thanks tho.

One thing I changed last night that I just updated is I dropped the land count to 20, and it worked a lot better. I found I was never in need of land. This let me put in 1 more Pulse Tracker and one more Dark Tutelage , which I just wasn't seeing enough of.

Another thing I'm considering is dropping Mindcrank down to 3. This is because I've found that most often I don't want to cast it until I'm sure Bloodchief Ascension is ready to go. I don't know tho, we'll have to see.

Woot!!! 50 VOTES!!! Thank you so much, everyone that voted, for getting this deck to this milestone! Your comments and suggestions have been so helpful!

I have to give props to you bro, this is an awesome deck. SO much so I made a variant of this deck list and tweaked it to my meta. Lets just say I finally beat my friend's naya zoo running the baddest beasties around.

+1!!!

I really love how this deck is designed. My only suggestion would be to add Hideous End to give the opponent damage during their own turn. The Ascension says 'each' end step, not just yours...

+1

Hideous End is in the SB!!! Thank you!

A lot of people are really into this deck dude, clearly you're doing something right.

One thing though: The fact that you run 2 Blistergrub s mainboard in a constructed deck is insane. I like it a lot, but honestly, if you don't run a full set of nighthawks that's pretty much illegal, so at least take out one grub to fill them up. Flying is better evasion than swampwalk is, and he's got lifelink and deathtouch to boot! And triggers Kalastria Highborn too.

If you say 20 lands is enough, so be it, i don't really believe that in a deck with this many 3cmc and some 4 cmc cards (i count the gatekeepers as 3) and would go for 22, maybe 21 if i were pushed :P (one grub for a land if you catch my drift).

Hope this helps!

sign in blood AND dark tutelage is a little redundant, i would suggest cutting the signs. If you make room for Bloodghast and Viscera Seer it can give you a khalstria highborn combo that can turn on ascension, on top of just straight up killing your opponent, it also could be just me but i really dont like consuming vapors.

Im testing a variant of this deck with 2 dauthi slayers...to try to get 2 damage across consistently....see how it goes tommorow

@ razmaru GL let me know how it goes. Due to work and vacation schedules I will not be able to tourny for two weeks :/

@omgyoav Thanks for the tip, I love that idea. That would give me a lot of 2 point-pinging and draw power. But that would put me at 20 creatures if I keep the Vampire Nighthawk s and Gatekeeper of Malakir but drop the Pulse Tracker s (which haven't been as useful since I dropped card:Geth's Verdict), and leave me with very little forced sacking Board control to proc the Bloodchief Ascension was the first idea for the deck. I have a feeling that that might tip the deck too closely to an aggro style of play that isn't really the deck I want to play. However, I will playtest and see how it goes.

Also, the Sign in Blood is also a last resort to deal two damage to an opponant.

I'd swap out Consuming Vapors for Geth's Verdict. It has synergy with Pulse Tracker and its at instant speed. In combination with Go for the Throat its pretty nasty. I'm running a mono black deck as well, it may give you a different perspective. Solid deck tho. It will have trouble with mono white Puresteel paladin for sure. You may have trouble with decks with larger threats.

Yeah I had card:Geth's Verdict in there from the start. But it was pointed out that every other source of damage in the deck does 2 points, and that is synergistic with Bloodchief Ascension . But good point with the pulse tracker, as I can swing to deal one, and even if he doesn't his I can still do one with the verdict.

I want Consuming Vapors to be good, but might be too expensive for this deck.

That looks really fun, props. :) Consider some Pirahna Marshes? (sorry, I don't know how to do card tags). Extra damage and still black mana.

Drop a single card:Geth's Verdict (you have the gatekeepers to keep you up to par) and a single Dark Tutelage . that will allow you to add in at least 2 Sign in Blood s, witch is great card draw, and if need be, damage to set off the ascension.

Lol I know. I just took them out to free up a card slot, figuring that 3xDark Tutelage = 2xSign in Blood + 2xDark Tutelage .

I am currently testing the deck against known decks in my meta, so the lineup should change quite a bit over the next few days.

Thanks for the comment. Keep em' coming!

UPDATE: Put Phyrexian Obliterator back in because I just wanted to see him in too many times late-game.

added Rust Tick to SB because he deals with so many things in my meta, from Tez Control to Birthing Pod decks to almost anything.

Added Lashwrithe as a bit of extra "Omph!" or "KaZAAm!" or "BAM!" if you will.

Mostly dropped 1 and 2 drops for these new cards. When I'm running this deck, there are few cards that should be question cards. Most of them should be played as answers. I think the result will be better board control, more options, a larger hand end of turn, and the chance to only cast Dark Tutelage after I've lost control instead of first thing.

It seems to work better. Thoughts?

Vampire Hexmage seems to be completely missing from all discussion. And you have a Hex parasite mainboard.... DUDE, IT'S VAMPS, ZAWMAHGAWD.

Also, more Lashwrithe , and maybe another Hideous End . I'm pretty sure it's infallibly the most surprising counter the ascention will get.

personally i think Blind Zealot deserves an honorable mention in this deck too has intimidate for evasiveness is a 2/2 and has a sack ability that destroys target creature when it deals combat damage to your opponent so if they aren't playing artifact creatures or black (depending on your meta) then you can destroy really big creatures or keep using it for the 2 damage for your quest.