Hello all and thanks for the advice

Adding another color would be tactically sound, I know. But the entire premise of this deck is the fact that it is mono black so taking another color on is out of the question.

Running 4 Dark Confidant I would not want to take in 4 Nights Whisper as well. But I agree that the deck needs to flow even better.

I would sooner cut Hypnotic Spectre than I would cut Mishra's Factory. The latter passes Dark Confidant for 0. But perhaps both of these creatures' time is up.

Negators are pretty bad in my reddish meta

Cutting the tutors is fine. Demonic Consulatation gets to stay, though. After all, you get your stuff at once, and it is only B.

Heeding most of the advice, how about this build:

///CREATURES: 16
4 Dark Confidant
4 Dauthi Slayer
3 Nantuko Shade
3 Braids, Cabal Minion
2 Masticore

///OWNAGE: 17
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
R Mind Twist
4 Sinkhole
3 Wasteland
R Strip Mine

///ODDS & ENDS: 7
3 Mask of Memory
2 Chainer's Edict
R Demonic Consultation
R Yawgmoth's Will

///MANA: 20
4 Dark Ritual
R Mox Jet
R Black Lotus
R Lotus Petal
2 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
9 Swamp

This is my mono Black casual deck. It packs a lot of power but performs pretty poorly compared to what you might expect. I am not entirely sure why though, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Money is really no object: I used to run Juzam Djinn but I am sorry to say that the old geezer just does not cut it anymore.

///CREATURES: 15
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Hypnotic Spectre
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Dark Confidant

///OWNAGE: 18
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
R Mind Twist
4 Sinkhole
4 Wasteland
R Strip Mine

///ODDS & ENDS: 8
3 Chainer's Edict
2 Null Rod
R Demonic Tutor
R Demonic Consultation
R Vampiric Tutor

///MANA: 18
4 Dark Ritual
R Mox Jet
R Black Lotus
R Lotus Petal
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
9 Swamp

Is running both discard and mana denial a faux pas?

Are there any better black creatures than the ones I am currently playing?

Can you play something else to get around playing Null Rod?

(IE Perhaps Dauthi Slayer + Mask of Memory?)

Suggestions and comments greatly appreciated.

I too have experienced the fact that R/G Beatz is not what it used to be.

I realized, that what wins R/G beatz games is really disruption, not a fast clock. Thus I decided to take the deck in a new direction:

///CREATURES: 20
4 Gorilla Shaman
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Kird Ape
4 Wild Mongrel
4 River Boa

///SPELLS: 11
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Magma Jet
4 Keen Sense

///DISRUPTION: 7
4 Root Maze
3 Null Rod

///MANA: 22
R Mox Ruby
R Mox Emerald
R Black Lotus
R Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Taiga
4 Stomping Ground
3 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Elvish Spirit Guide

///SIDEBOARD: 15
4 Meekstone
3 Pyroblast
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Ground Seal
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Naturalize

Here's an explantion of the decks internal synergies:

First of all, four Root Maze are pretty deciding regarding the other card choices Root Maze means:

- A two-turn delay for people fielding fetchlands.

- Time to break a Mox before it's ever tapped for mana.

- That Stomping Grounds are viable and very syngergetic, ideally dropping Root Maze turn 1 and Kird Ape turn 2.

- That Spirit Guides are better than Moxen once Maze is out. Spirit Guides can pull so many tricks off this deck, IE burn, regeneration, doing in a mox, dropping creature + wasteland, or even double as creature #21-26!

Also, we have 4 Meekstone in the sideboard. I even considered running these in the main. Meekstone means:

- Goodbye to DSC. If a Root Maze is out you do not even have to worry about the initial 11 damage.

- Reduced worries about Grunt (although he _is_ a though one).

- That Wild Mongrel can randomly dominate the table becomming 3/3 at times and still untapping the morning after.

- Running Keen Sense over Rancor. Rancor has possibly done more for R/G beatz than any card since Kird Ape. But with running Keen Sense, R/G Beatz has a reliable source of cards for the first time in its history. It's not that Keen Sense is better than Rancor off the bat, but with 4 possible Meekstones Rancor is pretty bad for syngergy.

Running 4 Keen Sense means:

- That you have a free card every turn if you slap it on a Lavamancer.

- That you can pitch even more cards to Wild Mongrel and then fuel Lavamancer. This is even better than it seems at a glance, as multiple Root Mazes and Null Rods are simply dead in your hand.

- That Magma Jet is probably better than Fire//Ice or Dead//Gone as it gives you even more library manipulation.

- That you need to prioritize evasion more than you usually do. River Boa is pretty good evasion in this format. Other contenders for two-drop #5-8 include: Mire Boa, Dryad Sophisticate, Fireslinger(!), or Radha Heir to Keld (I know she has no evasion but she fuels burn!).

Questions to ponder:

- Doing to the disruption-heavy extreme is a commitment of all-or-nothing proportions. Does Kird Ape need to go in favor of a one-drop with some kind of evasion or utility?

- Passing up Wild Mongrel means passing up the ability to utilize multiple Root Mazes or Fuel Lavamancer but the replacements mentioned above all have superior evasion or utility. At least on their own.

Now that we are in the business of suggesting cards that will probably never see play:

 Green Elemental Blast
Instant
Counter target blue or black spell.

Links down?

Hello

My name is (also) Ryan, from Copenhagen Denmark.

I am a highly analytical deckbuilder and strategist although sometimes an absent-minded player.

Vintage is my favorite format and I have won a tourney or two with rogue builds in my time.

Unfortunately Vintage is dying in all of Denmark so my hand is forced into playing Legacy.