[Deck Testing] Black Attack!

[Disturbedone0777]

Creatures
Phylactery Lich x3
Bloodthrone Vampire x4
Vampire Aristocrat x4
Vampire Hexmage x2
Vampire Nighthawk x2
Gatekeeper of Malakir x3
Abyssal Persecutor x3

Removal
Tendrils of corruption x4

Support
Whispersilk Cloak x1
Blade of the BloodChief x4
Awakening Zone x4
Crystal Ball x3

Lands
Verdant Catacombs x4
Evolving Wilds x4
Swamp x13
Forest x2

Sideboard
Sadistic Sacrament x4
Plummet x3
Naturalize x4
Duress x4


This deck formed because of the lich and the Blade of the blood chief. I noticed that there are 8 basically of the same creature that can get +4/+4 from sacrificing just one creature. In hopes to abuse this combo I have made it so that there is enough creature's coming out to pay for the sacrifice cost. Should I not be able to keep one of the vampires out long enough I've got the lichs which are hard to kill off. The whispersilk cloaks are to make a few of those lichs very annoying problems. I splashed in green to bring out the Awakening Zone to really abuse the combo. Then as a nice additive, I have the single copy of Demon of Death's gate to allow for a quick sacrifice of smaller monsters to get him out and try to swing.

Since I already saw removal is a big issue with the deck I threw in the nighthawks for decent defense, Gatekeepers to eat away at creatures with more annoyance, and the Hexmages to deal with Pesky planeswalkers. Since this deck relies pretty heavily on combo, I wanted to make sure I'm getting a decent draw each turn. The 3 Crystal Balls will hopefully assist in making sure I can get what I need a little sooner then the deck wants to give it to me. I haven't tested this deck yet, but intend to when I get home from work today. I'll let you guys know the results.

[Disturbedone0777]

I just got through running this deck three times. I went (1-2-0) in the games. Because of the two match up's I lost though I know a few things about the deck. First off it plays out just fine. Every part of the deck functioned just how I was expecting it too. THe lifegain actually balances out the loss and I'm able to come back from a pretty bad beat down.

Game one I went against a land deck. It played all lands, sac lands, lotus cobra's, and primeval titan. From what I could tell that is all that it ran. It was a pretty decent match. I keep killing off his lands with my deathtouch, but when it came down to it, he just overpowered me with creatures. It wasn't that I lacked the removal, it was that since it was based around the man lands, I couldn't use Malakir to get rid of it. Most of the removal that I was drawing was in the form of creatures and I couldn't deal. He wound up getting me but it was a decently close game.

The second game I won. And boy did the deck work like a charm. Opening hand I had a forest and two swamps, the lich, crystal ball, and Gatekeeper Malakir. Needless to say turn 4 I had a 5/5 indestructable lich he didn't have an answer for with his mono-green deck. He couldn't get things out fast enough to stop the tendrils, Gatekeeper, and the swarm of vamps to follow. I wound up winning by a landslide.

The third game was probably the most difficult yet fun. I played a guy who was running red deck wins. This is the deck that I was expecting to not beat and I sure came close for what he was doing to me. In the end though he burned out any creature that I could get out and was hitting me to the face with the rest. I lost 7-0 in life nearly taking the guy out. Couldn't quite deal though.


The deck plays pretty well. It could stand for some more testing but I"m happy with the results of the games. Each game I was able to get the one green mana I needed and each game I had stuff already happening on turn 2/3. It ran a lot better then most of my Theory decks.


-Updated-
8/5/2010

This deck has now been tested a couple more times, this time again some of the deck being played at tournaments. First off I fought RDW. The deck that i really was fearing to have to play. Honestly as a whole this deck is not equipped to fight RDW, so I had to rely on playing my opponent. I wound up going 2-0 in these matches. The first match he got me down to 1. What was nice is he spent a large amount of time and mana trying to stop my lich from hurting or killing him. He couldn't out kill the lich since he was dropped turn 3 and by turn 4 had two of the blades on him eating creatures causing him to grow. lHaving Ball of lightening against a deck using Blade of the Bloodcheif isn't as good as you would think. Either way I wound up getting him because of his difficulty in removing the lich.

Second game we played I did't get the lich goodness early on like in the first game. He started out burning me lightly but seen he had a problem when I dropped a nighthawk followed by equiping him with the blade. he tried to burn it out with Lightning bolt, but in response I sacrificed my now obsolete Gatekeeper to bring the nighthawk above bolt range, and swung for the win the following turn. Though I would say that's a win by mis-play, I was still impressed with how well this deck functioned against the deck I thought would eat it.

[Disturbedone0777]

Alrighty, I'm working on the sideboard now as I have determined that this deck functions well enough to play a few FNM's with. There is a charity event going on at a card store about an hour and a half from my house. I'm going to be playing there with this deck but I need some ideas for the sideboard. Any thoughts? I'm not sure what meta to expect. I know I would like to keep in the 3 sadistic sacrament because it allows me to ruin the combo decks I know excist. Pulling out the right cards wrecks so many peoples strats. I'm liking the idea of playing plummet since i never have an issue getting the green land I need, and it's such an effective card at removing fliers. I still need ideas for enchantment destroy. I realized that a good oblivion ring drop will kill my lich and whatever he is attached to, so I'm looking for a means of getting rid of that.

-update-

Got a quick idea for what I want in my sideboard. I was thinking Duress and Sadistic Sacrament for the removal of spell decks that are destroying me. If I run across Eldrazzi Ramp like Browncoat built then I have the artifact destruction in Naturalize. Back to nature might get taken out of the board since I"m not sure how many decks there are that really play tons of enchantment. I'm thinking it might be better if instead I sub in more nighthawks. Should the opponent not use planeswalkers or or haste red deck, then the hexmages see's little use outside of being fed to my vampires where the nighthawk would be able to threaten creatures as well as give me some life swing. On the other hand I could also use more hexmages as the first strike and sac would be helpful against planeswalkers control (Something I'm not really expecting to see). Any thoughts?

[Disturbedone0777]

8/12/10

I made some more modifications to prepare for some suspected challenges I'm going to facing. I removed the Back to Nature since I haven't seen too many builds features the enchantments to justify having them in the SB. I decided instead to level off Duress and Sadistic Sacrament to four of's. Honestly paid off. I just got through playing RDW. I discovered that the lich's weakness against that deck is not it's ability to not die, it's a combo of Mark of Mutiny and Fling. I discovered also that the vampirse with sacrifice creature abilities work as defense against certain spells as well. The second time this combo was attempted on me, I was able to sacrifice the lich and prepare to swing the next turn with a larger aristocrat. I decided that since I had yet to even cast Demon of Death's Gate I would remove him, one lich, and one Gatekeeper to put in Abyssal Persecutor x 3. What an awesome card to have in this deck. Forgot I could sac it to eight of the other creatures in the deck to get rid of it once it's done it's thing and it's the perfect front man to have. He screams to be removed early or else to be made never to be removed.

The changes I made caused the decks effectiveness to go up in my play testing but I still feel that some more changes could make the deck stronger. I love the vampire nighthawks as they are extremely scary with the blade of the bloodchief on them and they work great as defense stand alone, but I would like to see if it's possible to fit something else in that two slot. I'm trying to determine if it's better to keep plummet in the sideboard or if it would be better to have more Vampire Nighthawk and Vampire Hexmage since I have a few solutions to fliers. The extra hexmage are awesome vrs RDW and Planeswalker based decks, and the nighthawks make a great addition against any aggro creature deck.