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BMoor's Magic The
Gathering
Deck Garage
Good
day,
and
welcome
to
BMoor's
Deck
Garage!
I
trust
everyone
had
a
good
winter
break,
as
did
I.
Now
I'm
ready
to
get
back
up
to
my
elbows
in
deck
lists
and
strategy.
and
to
start
off
the
new...well,
not
quite
year
yet....
I've
got
an
E-mail
here
that
brings
us a
deck
list
as
well
as
an
epic
tale
of
one
man's
struggle
to
stay
true
to
his
favorite
deck
through
dire
straits
and
years
of
underwhelming
results
and
peer
ridicule.
Hello Bmoor,
What an incredible story-- in the face of overwhelming odds, Jon here has stayed true to Thrulls right from Fallen Empires up until today. Is there anything I can do to lift the legacy of failure from this poor man's deck? One thing's for sure-- I can try!
Let's start, as usual, by looking at your creature selection. I'm not exactly sure why you listed breeding Pit as a creature, but that is all it does, so I guess it works. Now, if we count Breeding Pit, you have 20 creatures. Twelve of them have no ability but to be sacrificed for mana. I think that's probably the key to your problems, Jon-- your creatures are too eager to die. And for what? Some extra mana? You've got 12 sack thrulls, Dark Ritual, and Phyrexian Tower all ready to give you a quick burst of mana now in exchange for a loss of card advantage. What are you spending all this mana on? It's time to find some Thrulls that can stick around to do more than just die on command, Jon. Your opponent will want to kill your creatures. Don't help them do it.
Now, quick extra bursts of mana can be good. But you don't need 12 creatures plus a land and an instant. I'd say of your mana-producing Thrulls, drop all but Blood Pet. Blood Pet I like, since you can drop it on Turn One, and then on Turn Two use it to accelerate into a three-mana spell. What three mana spell? Well, I agree with you on adding Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII, or you could try a few Thrull Wizard if you can obtain a few copies. Thrull Wizard might be sideboard material though. I don't like Endrek Sahr so much though, since he'll die soon in a Thrull heavy deck. if you can splash in a few nonblack mana sources, you could try Ostiary Thrull or Rakdos Ickspitter, but that may be difficult in a deck so bent on having lots of black mana.
One Thrull who I'd definitely like to see maindeck, though, is Exhumer Thrull. Right now, you seem to be all about sacrificing creatures and all you have is Soul Exchange and Volrath's Stronghold to bring them back. Exhumer Thrull is not only one of the largest Thrulls in the game, weighing in at 3/3 and outsized only by Derelor, but it gives you two chances to get a creature back from the graveyard. Granted it can't be recovered itself due to Haunt, but that's okay-- you're essentially getting three creatures out of one card.
That cleans up your creature base, now about your other spells. Three Hatred is a solid inclusion, as is three Grave Pact (don't worry about having fewer sack creatures; this will still be useful-- especially in multiplayer). Soul Exchange is probably the smartest card in here, as you can Excange a Blood Pet or a token for a 5/5 Thrull Champion. And Demonic Tutor is an incredibly powerful card, even if you only have one. That leaves Dark Ritual and Ebony Charm. The charm is fairly useful for bestowing Fear, but not much else. And Dark Ritual just costs you an extra card to do nothing but get more mana for a turn-- not really the best deal. I think your overarching problem is that you're so concerned on your Thrulls and how to make them better, that you've neglected to include pure utility cards-- ways to disrupt your opponent. Well, here's a card you'll like-- Cry of Contrition. Forcing discard is one of Black's strongest weapons, as I'm sure Mindstab Thrull has taught you. Picture it-- Turn One, Blood Pet. Turn Two, play Cry of Contrition and Haunt your Blood Pet, then sack the Blood Pet for a two-mana spell and make them discard again. It's a Mind Rot for one mana, at the cost of your fist turn play (which was never intended to live anyway). Another card worth looking at is Feast of Flesh. This thing is useful in gaining you extra life while taking out chump blockers so that that Hatred-enhanced Thrull can make it through. Isn't that what Ebony Charm was meant to do anyway? Except a kill spell like Feast of Flesh will take out the creature for good. Also consider Douse in Gloom, or Assassinate, or good old fashioned Dark Banishing. That's the key to your history of failure, I'd bet-- failure to answer anything your opponent throws at you. I'd say drop a Grave Pact, the Dark Ritual, and probably the Ebony Charm for 4 Feast of Flesh (or Dark Banishing), 3 Cry of Contrition, and 2 Sudden Spoiling. Sudden Spoiling, if used correctly, can be practically a one-sided Wrath of God in that it makes what looked like a good attack agaist you into a suicidal one. Granted, your Thrulls still need to do 2 damage apiece to block and kill a Spoiled creature, but you should be able to manage something good with Thrull Champion out.
Finally, as for the matter of your lands, even your mana base is oo quick to sacrifice your creatures and itself for fast mana that you don't really need as much as you think you do. Every nonbasic land here except Volrath's Stronghold should be a Swamp. That, plus the Blood Pets and your low mana curve should see you through. If it doesn't, try Prismatic Lens, or Chromatic Star, or Fellwar Stone, or Mind Stone, or whatever mana artifact appeals to you most. You shouldn't need it too badly though.
And for your sideboard, all I'll say is that a creature wearing Whispersilk Cloak can't be targeted by Hatred, and you need more removal (creature destruction) and maybe soem more discard if that appeals to you. It all depends on what your friends are playing.
Okay, grasshopper, I've given you all the help I can with this deck. Take my words, take your deck, stand up, brush yourself off, and show the world what Thrulls are really made of! And no, I don't mean sacrifice them and show people their guts!
~BMoor
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