I put together the Spoils MaskNought deck that Steve pres...

[SMR0079]

I put together the Spoils MaskNought deck that Steve presented in Starcitygames and felt something was missing.  Previously I had came to the conclusion that classic Suicide was far stronger as Bloody suicide with access to Blood Moon, Gorilla Shaman, and Rack & Ruin.  Being that Spoils Mask runs off the suicide skeleton while having obvious advantage in speed and shere power I felt red would also be the natural compliment to Mask Nought.

I am focusing on the the high powered matchups of Dragon, Keeper, wMud, and now Neo Academy builds called TPS/tentrix/Dutch Tendrils, oh and Fish too.

By adding red you weaken your mana base and become sucestible to strip effects, most notibly against Keeper, wMud, and Fish.

However, I feel the gain outweighs the loss.  At the moment I have done minimal testing but with positive results.

Four Bloodmoons maindeck give me another option for spoils of the vault, especially when I don't draw either Mask or Nought in my opening hand.  

I often attempt to drop the blood moon before going for the kill combo unless it is basically handed to me in the opening draw with the right peices of combo, search, and discard.

I have found the Bloodmoons have greatly improved the Keeper matchup, which I test against regularly, even though they can strip my lands now.

The slots I have removed to make room for the Bloodmoons have been the hyms and negators.  The loss of either hurt but could be made up for in the side board.

Another question is whether to run strip effects or not?

The main issues I am presenting to the community are
1) Is it worth it to splash Red in the first place?

2) What to remove to maindeck 4 Bloodmoons?

3) What kind of a Sideboard will address the high powered metagame? It might look something like this.
 - 3 Tormods Crypt (Dragon)
 - 2 Coffin Purge (Dragon)
 - 2 Rack and Ruin (wMud)
 - 4 Contaigon (wMud)
 - 3 Chains of Mephestophilies (Combo, Control)
 - 3 Chalice of the Void (Combo, Aggro)
 - 3 Lightning Greaves (Keeper, general speed and protection)

I realize this is over 15 just tossing out some ideas
 
Bloody MaskNought:

4 Mask
4 Nought

4 Blood Moon

4 Spoils of the Vault
1 D. Tutor
1 V. Tutor
1 Consultation
1 Necro ?
1 Yawgs Win

4 Duress
4 Unmask
4 Hym/Therapy

4 Dark Ritual
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Mana Crypt
4 Badlands
4 Fetchlands
7 Swamps (possibly add Strips?)

This list just swaps the Negators for the Bloodmoons but some combination of negators and disruption effects could be good.

I'm eager for any feed back positive or negative.

 
12/12 Beat Down!  Agggro-Combo Smashing Face!
 

[Smmenen]

The red splash could certainly be worth it.  BTW, just as a matter of consideration of cards you might not have though of - You can play with Goblin Welders in your SB and play then with no red mana under Mask .  It could also be very good against Dragon.  I think most of your questions need testing to resolve - I think Keeper is already one of your better matchups and Dragon isn't bad to start with either.  You may be inadvertently weakening the deck - especially the power of Unmask.  

Steve

[BreathWeapon]

When Spoils Mask first came out, I was to say the least unimpressed. Since then, i've learned that Spoils is flat out necessary to make the deck competitive ... good or bad. That said, I think a Splash is an ok idea given the right meta. However, MD Bloodmoon is probably a mistake. I would SB them along with Rack and Ruin and keep your Negators MD. I think Bloodmoon/R&R and Chains of Mephistophelese/Planar Void is a pretty disgusting sideboard for the new environment come Jan 1st.

If Chalice = 0 1st turn is common in your area, dumping some Moxen for ESG is a thought, and if your playing Proxie 5 hella tech.

Necro is worth keeping, 1st turn Ritual + Necro = Game.\n\n

[SMR0079]

Thanks for the replys.  I like the idea of running Welders in the side, especially against Workshops, but how to make room?  The side board has the potential to be devastating in the new meta, finding room for all this great hate will be difficult.  I will begin testing in the next week or so, I hope some others will do the same.  I was really worried WOTC was going to restrict Spoils, looks like they have a better sense than I thought.  Oh yeah, BTW? whats that?

Thanks
Sean

[Necrologia]

Internet Shorthand.

BTW = By the way.

On a more constructive note, is there any way to work an Anger into this? 1 less turn for the opponent to respond might be just enough. You can target yourself with both Therapy and Unmask, but I'm not sure if this deck can withstand that kind of card disadvantage. It also means that you're not targeting the opponent with the discard which defeats it's purpose entirely. Meh. I'm not sure how to work it out but it's an idea I suppose.

EDIT: Or we could just run Lightning Greaves which are significantly easier to get up and running than Anger. It's been a while since I read Smemmen's article so he might have very well shot them down already, but it's worth a try if he didn't.

[SMR0079]

Lightning Greaves is definitly an option.  The haste ability which theoretically should speed the kill actually becomes irelevant if you have spent a turn casting the greaves instead of using disruption and dropping the combo.  You would need 5 mana to go Mask/Nought/Greaves/attack, such as Swamp, Ritual, Mox, Mask, Nought, Greaves, leaving little room for disruption.  Except for these kind of ideal situations it generaly gives you protection but not as much speed as one might think.  

My problom has been finding room.  Choosing to splash red makes the sideboard reeeeal tight.  The wMud match has been giving me trouble latley with their Welders and Chalices.  Boarding my own set of Weldes to combat this would be nice as Steve sugested but once again a tight board.  

The Hyms need to go.  The classic opening of ritual, duress, hym can be powerful especially against blue control but they are counter productive against Dragon and wMud if they find a Welder.  Therapy seems like a better option in the ideal meta.  I have been toying with the idea of dropping my discard from 12 to 10 to free space to try different options.

@Breathe Weapon - You were right about the Negators, definitly maindecked.    

@Necrologia - running multiple angers doesn't seem worth it yet the probability finding one or two early on is to small.  I do like the synergy with Therapy, especially since they will probally take the place  of Hym.

My maineck is basically the same as in Steve's article but supportive of the red splash.  So heres the current board

3 Tormods Crypt
4 Bloodmoon
2 Rack & Ruin
3 Contagion (!@# Welders!!!)
3 Chains of Mephestophiles

Thanks: Sean

MaskNought: at least keeping the memorey of aggro alive  

[Soujiro The Tenken]

just a thought... i use withered wretches. seems to be pretty good in today's meta. it's good again't wmud, tnt, recter (if anyone still played it), tendrils (if anyone will play it), and of course dragon. u can also bluff with a phyrexian dreadnought and play it face down for 2 instead of 1. If they know your playing wretches they might think its a wretch. yeah... just a thought