03.21.02  -    I designed this deck to be a winner, by getting rid of the opponents land so they can't do anything then control the game form that. So here's the LD

     3 Braids, Cabal minion
     3 Night Scape Familiar
     3 Laquatus's Champion
     4 Blazing Specter

     4 Stone Rain
     3 Pillage
     4Racid Earth
     3 Voids
     4 Terminate
     3 Phyrexian Arena
     3 Yawgmoth's Agenda
     4 Duress

     2 Shadowblood Ridge
     10 swamps
     9 Mountains

           Please try and help this deck to make a winner

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Braids was one of the first rares I traded to get 4 of when Torment first arrived.  While only a frail 2 defense creature, this legends ability to force each player to sac a permanent EACH TURN is ripe for abuse.

So the key to abusing Braids is minimizing the effect she has on you while maximizing the drawback to the opponent.  Virtually any 187 creature will work well with Braids.  The short list of these includes Ravenous Rats, Flametongue Kavu, Phyrexian Rager, Blazing Spectre, Pardic Arsonist, Thunderscape Battlemage, Gravedigger, and I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting.  

While not a 187, Pyre Zombie would completely "negate" Braids drawback for just 6 mana each turn.

Other good recursion options include Yawgmoth's Agenda, Ichorid and Chainer Dementia Master.  Being able to recurse all those 187 creatures would be absolutely brutal in ANY matchup.

Speaking of brutal, as the deckbuilder above noticed Phyrexian Arena works well with Braids.  Not only will the Arena fuel Braids hunger, but Braids also gives you a way to get rid of the Arena when you can no longer take any damage from it!

Anyway... here's one way I'd play this deck!

4 Ravenous Rats
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Braids, Cabal Minion
3 Flametongue Kavu

4 Duress
4 Chainers Edict
3 Fire/Ice
4 Rancid Earth
2 Yawgmoths Agenda

4 Sulfurous Springs
4 Tainted Peak
16 Swamps

Notice that this deck has a heavy focus on Black spells and mana.  With the addition of "Tainted" lands it is very easy to build a black deck that just splashes for a few good cards from another color.  This is exactly what my deck does... being able to fully abuse the pump ability of Nantuko Shade because all your lands produce black mana but you can still play with red cards like FTK and Fire/Ice.  Splashing another color also makes the sideboard better, for example if you run into someone who also runs loads of non-basics (in other words... EVERY standard deck in the current environment)  siding in the cheap Lava Blister is a good idea.

Hope this helps... have fun!
Aaron

PS  Someone send me a Recoup deck!!  I wanna fix one next week.