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TheWhiteDragon
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« Reply #30 on: April 18, 2014, 02:37:00 pm » |
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@ the new rogue merfolk, we already had prickly boggart, which is essentially the same thing. The only playable creatures that could block are revoker/bob, and I'd gladly trade a boggart for either of those if an opponent wants to block!
I tried a BG shell, so I could run decays. The U was nice for countering blowout cards (deluge), but misstep/thoughtseize/rogues with blackguard pump took care of the threats in hand already, missteps handled plow/bolt, and the manabase was MUCH smoother without killing me slowly. I didn't have access to invisible stalker, but I used Silhana Ledgewalkers which were typically just as good. Vintage lacks for flyers at the moment, so it was essentially the same card - and decay/liliana of the veil/dismember could clear the skies if needed. Good equips were very tempting with fliers (blackguard, bitterblossom) and unblockables (Ledgewalker), but in the end, I cut them. I also cut the bitterblossoms since the deck is stuffed with critters and a token maker was really unnecessary I found.
Here's what I had made so far:
// Lands
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Forest (4a)
5 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Strip Mine
4 Bayou
2 Wasteland
// Creatures
4 Oona's Blackguard
4 Earwig Squad
4 Frogtosser Banneret
4 Stinkdrinker Bandit
3 Silhana Ledgewalker
// Spells
4 Thoughtseize
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
3 Null Rod
3 Mental Misstep
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
SB: 1 Null Rod
SB: 4 Leyline of the Void
SB: 1 Emissary of Despair
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Perish
SB: 2 Dystopia
SB: 4 Grafdigger's Cage
Some card choices...
No demonic or vampiric. I had them both in, but really, what is this deck looking for? Tutoring for earwig means you aren't dropping a critter with that mana or casting disruption. You have 4 decay and a pulse to remove problems G1, and 2 liliana to handle tinkerbots and other troublesome critters, so you will draw answers instead of tutoring for them. The only target there really is would be null rod, and clogging the deck with 2 tutors for a virtual 5 null rods (which isn't THAT great vs many decks anyway) wasn't worth it.
Misstep, but no duress. Seize grabs critters to clear a path and you play all your mana at sorcery speed anyway (or are holding BG for decay), so missteps got the nod. They handle any great 1cc when on the draw or when the opponent luck-sack topdecks it anyway. Key, ancestral, plow, bolt, delver are the cards this deck hates to see anyway. You're often tapped out each turn anyway, so you need a free answer spell.
Stinkdrinker Bandit. Holy nutsack, why is nobody talking about this guy??? With flying critters, unblockable critters, hasty critters, and gigantic critters, a +2/+1 for EVERYTHING unblocked is stupid good. Ive had turns where my opponent attacked me (counting the damage I had on board), then dropped this guy in of a cavern (not prowl) and added 6-8 to my attack FTW! Even off a turn 1 frogtosser, this guy prowls in really cheaply and is an unholy strength for your whole deck. Drop 2, and you can win fast with only a couple evasive guys. A single ledgewalker beats like a juggernaut when prowling 2 of these guys in.
No nemesis/shardless agent Obviously, I need blue for these guys - but one reason I cut down to BG was because I didn't see their need so much. With stinkdrinkers pumping silhanas and fliers, they ALL became 3/x attackers. With removal (esp liliana), there wasn't so much concern over immortal blockers. Shardless was terrible flipping into a misstep/decay (with no target)/frogtosser/duplicate null rod/moxen with an active rod, and is an overcosted 2/2 with no evasion anyway.
No card draw. I like Edric, but there's just so much redundancy here that you rarely need refills (esp since caverns makes your stuff resolve). I would consider necropotence as it is an awesome refiller and can then be decayed to get back your draw step. I also considered jitte or SoFI if I did want to add more draw/utility (but rod hurts that). Yawg will is too slow in this deck with no rituals.
Of all of these, I think the best add is necropotence (which may necessitate Vamp/DT again), but what to cut?
This deck isn't too bad against shops, despite the lack of direct artifact hate. It is fast and frogtossers are antispheres. Caverns ignore chalice. You can often race their clock with stinkdrinkers, and a 3 mana 5/3 is really good vs golems. Emissary in the board is an extra fast clock vs shops, and the 3 (4th in board) rod smacks metalworker builds (as well as really hurts storm and bomberman) You get a bit more punch vs oath with decay over main cages, and earwig is also brutal vs oath, but you get to clear blockers with decay which grafdigger can't help.
Thoughts?
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"I know to whom I owe the most loyalty, and I see him in the mirror every day." - Starke of Rath |
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MTGFan
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« Reply #31 on: April 18, 2014, 03:09:12 pm » |
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it seems the 5cc mana base is pretty flawed i agree especially when you start adding bitterblossoms and thoughtseizes to the mix...
I still think you definitely need more than UB colors.
BUG seems nice since it gives you nice rogues (edric + shardless agent, the only ones that will give you card advantage) and nice removal (nature's claim + Abrupt decay). Also the Edric + oona's blackguard + bitterblossom triangle seems pretty strong, at least in a vacuum anyway.
Blackguard, Thada Adel, Notion Thief all give card advantage as well, and Invisible Stalker and TNN virtual card advantage by blanking removal. |
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MTGFan
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« Reply #32 on: April 18, 2014, 03:14:55 pm » |
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@ the new rogue merfolk, we already had prickly boggart, which is essentially the same thing. The only playable creatures that could block are revoker/bob, and I'd gladly trade a boggart for either of those if an opponent wants to block!
The new rogue is strictly better than any 1 drop rogue we already have. Unblocked is the best possible evasion, so he's better than Merfolk Spy. He's blue, so he pitches to FoW which makes him better than Prickly Boggart and the like. He might be better than Stalker if your environment is removal-light. I tried a BG shell, so I could run decays. The U was nice for countering blowout cards (deluge), but misstep/thoughtseize/rogues with blackguard pump took care of the threats in hand already, missteps handled plow/bolt, and the manabase was MUCH smoother without killing me slowly. I didn't have access to invisible stalker, but I used Silhana Ledgewalkers which were typically just as good. Vintage lacks for flyers at the moment, so it was essentially the same card - and decay/liliana of the veil/dismember could clear the skies if needed. Good equips were very tempting with fliers (blackguard, bitterblossom) and unblockables (Ledgewalker), but in the end, I cut them. I also cut the bitterblossoms since the deck is stuffed with critters and a token maker was really unnecessary I found.
Here's what I had made so far:
// Lands
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Forest (4a)
5 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Strip Mine
4 Bayou
2 Wasteland
// Creatures
4 Oona's Blackguard
4 Earwig Squad
4 Frogtosser Banneret
4 Stinkdrinker Bandit
3 Silhana Ledgewalker
// Spells
4 Thoughtseize
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
3 Null Rod
3 Mental Misstep
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
SB: 1 Null Rod
SB: 4 Leyline of the Void
SB: 1 Emissary of Despair
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Perish
SB: 2 Dystopia
SB: 4 Grafdigger's Cage
Some card choices...
No demonic or vampiric. I had them both in, but really, what is this deck looking for? Tutoring for earwig means you aren't dropping a critter with that mana or casting disruption. You have 4 decay and a pulse to remove problems G1, and 2 liliana to handle tinkerbots and other troublesome critters, so you will draw answers instead of tutoring for them. The only target there really is would be null rod, and clogging the deck with 2 tutors for a virtual 5 null rods (which isn't THAT great vs many decks anyway) wasn't worth it.
Misstep, but no duress. Seize grabs critters to clear a path and you play all your mana at sorcery speed anyway (or are holding BG for decay), so missteps got the nod. They handle any great 1cc when on the draw or when the opponent luck-sack topdecks it anyway. Key, ancestral, plow, bolt, delver are the cards this deck hates to see anyway. You're often tapped out each turn anyway, so you need a free answer spell.
Stinkdrinker Bandit. Holy nutsack, why is nobody talking about this guy??? With flying critters, unblockable critters, hasty critters, and gigantic critters, a +2/+1 for EVERYTHING unblocked is stupid good. Ive had turns where my opponent attacked me (counting the damage I had on board), then dropped this guy in of a cavern (not prowl) and added 6-8 to my attack FTW! Even off a turn 1 frogtosser, this guy prowls in really cheaply and is an unholy strength for your whole deck. Drop 2, and you can win fast with only a couple evasive guys. A single ledgewalker beats like a juggernaut when prowling 2 of these guys in.
No nemesis/shardless agent Obviously, I need blue for these guys - but one reason I cut down to BG was because I didn't see their need so much. With stinkdrinkers pumping silhanas and fliers, they ALL became 3/x attackers. With removal (esp liliana), there wasn't so much concern over immortal blockers. Shardless was terrible flipping into a misstep/decay (with no target)/frogtosser/duplicate null rod/moxen with an active rod, and is an overcosted 2/2 with no evasion anyway.
No card draw. I like Edric, but there's just so much redundancy here that you rarely need refills (esp since caverns makes your stuff resolve). I would consider necropotence as it is an awesome refiller and can then be decayed to get back your draw step. I also considered jitte or SoFI if I did want to add more draw/utility (but rod hurts that). Yawg will is too slow in this deck with no rituals.
Of all of these, I think the best add is necropotence (which may necessitate Vamp/DT again), but what to cut?
This deck isn't too bad against shops, despite the lack of direct artifact hate. It is fast and frogtossers are antispheres. Caverns ignore chalice. You can often race their clock with stinkdrinkers, and a 3 mana 5/3 is really good vs golems. Emissary in the board is an extra fast clock vs shops, and the 3 (4th in board) rod smacks metalworker builds (as well as really hurts storm and bomberman) You get a bit more punch vs oath with decay over main cages, and earwig is also brutal vs oath, but you get to clear blockers with decay which grafdigger can't help.
Thoughts?
Nice list... It's like suicide black with rogues now. Blue less is definitely worth investigating because Abrupt Decay and natures claim are very good. But right now I'm predisposed to UB because ARecall and FoW and TNN and Thada Adel are just so good for me in testing. |
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xouman
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« Reply #33 on: April 18, 2014, 06:19:04 pm » |
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What I like about switching from blue to green is how MUD and Oath improve imho. They were probably the worse pairings but get better. However losing blue means losing defence against removal, specially mass removal (could be tragic to get a 3x1). It's probably a metagame call.
About stinkdrinker, I said I'd probably play 1-2. Not 4 because it's a card you want to see after some evasion guys, you don't want 2 of them and no other rogues in play.
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TheWhiteDragon
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« Reply #34 on: April 18, 2014, 06:58:47 pm » |
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What I like about switching from blue to green is how MUD and Oath improve imho. They were probably the worse pairings but get better. However losing blue means losing defence against removal, specially mass removal (could be tragic to get a 3x1). It's probably a metagame call.
About stinkdrinker, I said I'd probably play 1-2. Not 4 because it's a card you want to see after some evasion guys, you don't want 2 of them and no other rogues in play.
Oath was certainly the toughest matchup I had found, so GB just adds a bunch. Common fish decks also cause trouble though, since tarm and friends will eat up your frogtossers and sometimes even earwigs. Merfolk was troublesome as they had an army of 4/4s fairly soon and I couldn't do crap about it with UB. Now there's pulse and decays to kill the lords and surprise block with a 2/x. As far as evasion, I have 3 silhana (maybe 4 is okay) and 4 oona. Those usually connect (and vintage isn't exactly overloaded with critters in the sky). Also, my opponent can swing and then for prowl+B, I can drop a frogtosser, swing, then prowl for reduced cost. They usually don't hold back a blocker for fear of froggy, and if they don't, I go to town - and if they do hold back, I'm buying time walks on the threat of froggy. As far as defense, yes I lose FoW, but there's still seize to pull clutch spells, and misstep which handles most common removal (bolt/plow). A deluge is a kick in the nuts, but I have a TON of creatures. If they cast late to sandbag me, I've already hammered for damage and probably triggered earwig. If they play it early to cut me off prowl, then the best they're doing is a 2-for-1 at the cost of life and their plays for the turn (3 mana sorcery). Their best hope is a 3-for-1 if I play something like froggy, oona, bandit off prowl, and have only beat them for 3 by then. Shit happens - but then they're down 1 removal spell and basically passed the turn back to me without doing anything else for me to land my other 16 critters (maybe a froggy + earwig in the same turn at that point). Other than deluge, there's not much I'm worrying about with BG, whereas with UB, I am fighting uphill vs shops (1UU vs spheres is tough) and a fast oath basically shuts me out. Also, a regular fish deck has a better chance of racing me since with UB you're swinging with 1/1s and 3/1s, unable to counter and unequipped with removal - but with BG, you can decay the path clear of their best threats, and then race with your bandits making everything flying or ledgewalking into a 3/1 (or more). I tried Stinky as a 2 of, then a 3 of, then quickly went to 4 of. He's really that good. As I said, I've been able to swing games by dropping a stinker and having 3 attackers going. Even 2 attackers over a couple turns is 10 damage (+4 on the turn you play stinkbomb, 6 the next when he attacks himself). Even if he gets blocked, the others get through and get their +2 before he dies. And as far as having 2 stinky and no other rogues (highly improbable) - let's say I can turn 1 seize, turn 2 decay their first threat, turn 3 liliana away their second critter, then turn 4 drop a stinky. Tuurn 5 is just 2 damage, but now I have prowl. at 4 mana, I can decay again and then prowl in the same turn. So turn 5 was low damage, but now I have 2 stinkys that if you let swing will hit for 12 by themselves! Now also imagine if I drop a frogtosser off my topdeck - now that's 17 in one turn. Stinky wasn't great in goblins because you wanted to be tapping out for ringleaders and chieftans and such...but with evasive guys that goblins never had, he's really good - and good in multiples. Even if they mount a defense, a single silhana will start pounding for 5 with a couple stinkers. That's considerably better than 20 turns off 1 silhana. I'm open to suggestion on what other options (in BG) are good. I'd also like to know how to squeeze in a necropotence and possibly a 4th misstep (really good in this deck). Pulse I could see going, but I like the extra decay effect, the occasional tarmwipe 2-for-1, and the ability to hit smokestack/golem/hellkite. I'm pretty convinced from testing that BG is the superior color combo (for decay which I LOVE, and silhana since you lose blue). I could see BR as having speed and better shops game, but then you roll to oath. BW seems to add nothing. A couple other cards I tinkered with: Rathi trapper - stops BSC and helps the unblocked-> prowl plan. Mindbreak Trap - better as a SB card overall Prickly boggart - a turn faster than silhana, but bolt fodder. Usually, my prowl cost needs 3 mana anyway (except stinky). Too many X/1s also open the door for fire/ice effects. Dismember - Pulse seems more versatile, but could be good vs golem. My SB is kinda wide open too. I do like dystopia as an ace vs human-type decks and doubles as oath kill. Suggestions welcome. |
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"I know to whom I owe the most loyalty, and I see him in the mirror every day." - Starke of Rath |
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MTGFan
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« Reply #35 on: April 19, 2014, 09:54:59 am » |
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Against Oath, with the UB version I've found that 4 Thoughtseize, 2-3 Spell Pierce, 4 Force of Will MainDeck and 4 Grafdigger's Cage SB is often enough to slow their combo down. And then, if Earwig Squad hits before they get to activate Oath, it's usually GG.
And I used to have problems vs. other aggro decks like Merfolk, RUG Delver, and Humans, but ever since I've put Darkblast, Disfigure AND Dismember in the SB (which are also good vs Shops and such), I just board them all in and almost always win g2 and g3. I don't auto-lose g1, but it's tough without removal.
I like the "win from nowhere" aspect of Stinkdrinker Bandit, but too often in testing I'd have him just him in play, or have to play him for Prowl and miss a chance to pump combat, or if I wanted to pump combat I'd have to play him for 3B. And in Vintage, damage is less important than disruption.
I think I'm going to test out the BG version the next few days and see how I like it. The thought of having access to Decay is definitely intriguing.
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« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 10:00:50 am by MTGFan »
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TheWhiteDragon
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« Reply #36 on: April 23, 2014, 03:15:07 pm » |
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Any testing results with BG rogues? It's been decent for me. It gets beat by some of my homebrews, but has been holding up well vs most things. Turn 1 lodestone when I'm on the draw has been toughest, but I don't imagine that is easy times for most decks.
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"I know to whom I owe the most loyalty, and I see him in the mirror every day." - Starke of Rath |
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xouman
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« Reply #37 on: January 13, 2016, 06:57:13 am » |
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First of all, sorry for necromancy the topic, but open a new thread would have little sense.
I have recovered in cockatrice this list:
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
3 Null rod
3 Earwig Squad
4 Looter il-kor
4 Oona's Blackguard
1 Stinkdrinker Bandit
3 bitterblossom
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 brainstorm
3 gush
4 preordain
1 treasure cruise
4 Force of Will
4 mental misstep
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
2 island
1 swamp
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
SB:
3 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Nihil spellbomb
3 annul
2 umezawa's jitte
2 hurkyl's recall
2 arcane laboratory
1 notion thief
My results have been bittersweet. I'm having mana problems and it's hard to answer properly most of the time. However keeping a blackguard alive is often a win several turns later.
the idea is to play a "tempo" role: use wastes and rods to slow opponent, play my creatures and disrupt the plan with earwig and/or blackguard. That should work against combo and control.
Against oath try to play earwig as early as possible (hopefully T3) to take creatures.
against mud rely on destroying their lands+null rod to slow them and let evasive creatures kill them. rod is great stopping ravager and triski. use earwig to take duplicants and fatties and trade it with golems.
against mentors try to empty their hand, they would be much less fearsome. the slower the game, the better.
against delver it's hard because they have lot of removal and quick aggro. early bitterblossom can stabilize, wastes and 4 missteps can slow them. Again try to play the long game.
card choices:
-earwig squad: no comments. Just 3 because of heavy draw and filter. Maybe it should be 4 but I was tired of having 2 dead in hand.
-oona's blackguard: it's even better in multiples, since the effect is cumulative. having 2 in play means discarding 2 card, having 3 means discarding 6 (haven't happened yet, but it's possible). 4 always.
-looter il-kor. unblockable (great with blackguard and activating prowl), card quality, pitches to fow. seems weak but eats lot of removal. however is terrible against notion thief.
-bitterblossom. Slow, maybe too much, but it has wonderful synergy with blackguard and squad. it can win alone matches against control or aggro decks.
-stinkdrinker bandit: just 1 of. awesome with all those evasive critters, but terrible alone.
-null rod + 5 wastes: try to win tempo using those so the opponent cannot empty the hand. that way blackguard+friends can start discarding hands and squad has time to take the bombs.
-4fow+4misstep: misstep wants to protect our creatures and cut cantrips. fow wants to prevent us from losing too early.
-4 preordain: probably too much, but I had problems playing something on T1 and digging for the right configuration of cards. One could be third underground sea.
-3 gush: draw engine, nice for getting the third mana and saving lands from wastes. Not always easy to get, but with 6 fetchlands and 5/6 islands plus preordains and kor looting shouldn't be the hardest thing to achieve.
-walk, recall, cruise: no comment
-4 caverns: although now there are just 11 creatures (the original list played 18 or more) you want them to enter play. however the original list didn't had gushes and it could be wise to swap some caverns for islands. If delver plays only humans and does not play caverns, why should we?
-6 fetches. no comment
-2 underground sea. It should be 3 or 4, I just test with 2 because I own 2.
-2 island, 1 swamp. I always want basic lands. the list needs black mana, however all creatures can be paid with cavern so only bitterblossom needs black non-cavern mana
Side:
3 annul: mud, oath, landstill and storm. does not bounce but hitting enchantments is nice.
2 hurkyl's: having 3 rods makes hurkyl's a bit redundant in certain pairings. besides we cannot win in the next turn so it's not game winning
2 jitte: aggro hate
3 cages: no comments
2 nihil: maybe is better to play ravenous trap. it conflicts with rod against storm, but trap is bad against storm.
2 arcane laboratory. even more storm hate, and to stop fast decks to deploy their hand before i can make them discard
1 notion: also a rogue, a bit high on mana but nice effect
Omissions:
DTT, demonic: this deck has no bombs and they are a bit of tempo lose, but they could find a place, specially if I drop gush. vampiric shouldn't be here.
selkie: was bad on testing (I faced lots of non-blue decks), and slow. Great with blackguard and stinkdrinker though.
thada adel: against is great against blue, bad otherwise. had one and dropped her.
oona's prowler: aggro oriented. played 3 and was happy, could make a comeback.
fluster, pierce: playing creatures often means to tap on my turn, but would help
targeted removal: I miss something. I'd like darkblast in the main (notion hurts, pyromancer too), or maybe dismember
mass removal: dangerous since I already play creatures.
bouncers: I should play bouncers in the main, specially since I expect to force opponent to discard. echoing? repeal is too expensive for a non-powered deck. some ideas?
edric: green opens space to claim, edric and other beauties. Edric makes bitterblossom even better and my rogues already have evasion. However I don't like going to 3 colors, and edric is quite dead alone.
invisible stalker: I prefer looter il-kor most of the time. while it can be killed and facing a notion is awful, card quality is usually good.
Triton Shorestalker: cheaper rogue, also unblockable. still I like the looting from looter.
Alternative paths:
A) Make it more aggresive. Oona's prowler, stinkdrinker bandit. Adding red bolts could make Sygg appear.
B) More controlish. More countermagic, less creatures (drop some or all il-kors) and center in mana denial.
C) Add combo??? With black there is space for some combo, maybe something as naive as fayden + notions. Or just add vault + key as a stupid combo.
Ideas?
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MaximumCDawg
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Posts: 2172
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« Reply #38 on: January 15, 2016, 01:54:58 pm » |
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I tried this build a few times a year or two back, and I kept crashing and burning. It's just not fast enough to really get ahead of decks that either combo out or swarm the board before you can do much.
Give us Eye of Rogues land or something like that, and we'll talk. As it is, I never got it to work.
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MTGFan
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« Reply #39 on: January 15, 2016, 02:43:55 pm » |
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The viability of this deck is a function of how popular decks like Oath and Storm are, because the primary focus of this deck is to land an Earwig Squad (often uncounterable) and just neuter their gameplan of finding one of their 2-3 win conditions.
I'd focus on playing black discard spells like Thoughtseize to augment the creatures and the blue countermagic.
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RecklessEmbermage
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« Reply #40 on: January 26, 2016, 10:00:27 pm » |
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I used to play cabal therapy in goblin lists, since it has strong synergy with earwig squad (resolving one informs you of how to use the other). One of the limitations with goblins is that it requires too high of a creature density to really support gitaxian probe (which should be good with earwig squad too). Rogues offers some additional synergy between therapy and looter.
This construction is missing cement though. I don´t want to be playing with oona´s blackguards and bitterblossoms. If young pyromancer was a rogue, the deck would be set. For now, waiting for another quality 1-2cc rogue or goblin that is good outside a 25+ goblins deck.
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xouman
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« Reply #41 on: January 27, 2016, 05:57:18 am » |
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Probe and therapy are great cards. However this list intends to make opponent discard to blackguard+friends (and that should be pretty fast once the critters are in play).
I have played the deck a dozen games or so. My initial thoughts:
-It's really nice to open with a looter, but normally you don't want the second. However between fows, preordains and its own ability you should be able to keep just 1 in play/hand.
-Blackguard is nothing alone, but awesome coupled. I see it as a lord of atlantis with evasion.
-Bitterblossom is great provided you have time. It dies to token hate, although I don't know what would happen if you have a blackguard in play and face illness in the ranks...
-Earwig... well, it's the reason to play this deck. But better play 3 than 4.
-Null rod and wastes are underplayed currently.
-Manabase is usually robust, unless the opponent gets 2-3 wastes in a row. Preordains, gushes and looter help getting extra lands if needed.
-Jitte was replaced with engineered plague. It's better in most situations, specially against delvers, mentors or hatebears.
-Combo (storm, belcher) is a good pairing between 8 relevant counterspells and mana denial. Annuls in the sb are also really relevant here.
Problems of the deck:
-Notion REALLY hurts us, and there is nothing maindeck to fight it other than mana denial, discard with the swarm of hypnotic specters or exile them.
-The deck loses miserabily against izzet staticaster, engineered plague or triskelion. Anything that can ping our nimble creatures needs to be answered or lose.
-Aggro is hard to beat. A discontrolled pyromancer or mentor usually wins the game.
Possible additions:
-Daze: nice with wastes and null rods. Couples well with bitterblossom, kind of tempo play.
-Dark ritual: most decks welcome explosive starts, and this deck is no different. Having BBB in first turn is nothing special, however having BBB1 is a different world: means 2 spells, being essentially a time walk. Postboard is even better, with nihils, plagues, cages...
-A third color (green, white, red) would provide some advantages, but IMHO is better to stay at 2 colors. MUD would be the best reason to add a third color, but playing strong manabase+countermagic plus hurkyl's and annuls in the sb could be enough.
-Bouncers are really welcome with wastes, rods and hypnotic specters. I just couldn't find the optimal one (echoing, repeal, mistblade shinobi...)
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