Hey,
 

Well, I built this deck sometime ago, and honestly I need some help with it.

Some people might say I'm crazy for using the Thrull as my deck, but what

can I say I love me some Thrulls. Anywho, the problem I've been having with

the deck, is as you've guessed right, winning games. The deck on paper looks

great, when I play people, I end up losing. The deck can't win against

Goblins in a million years, or Elves, or control, or even combo for that

matter. It's not fast enough, so could you please help me with my deck, and

if possible leave it mono-coloured. Although if you feel it would be

benificial to my deck, then you can add colours.

 

20 Swamps

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
 

Creatures:

3 Mindstab Thrull

2 Thrull Champion

3 Necrite

4 Blood Pet

3 Basal Thrull

1 Ascendant Evincar

1 Crovax the Cursed

2 Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder

3 Thrull Surgeon

3 Gutless Ghoul

 

Other Spells:

 

3 Thrull Retainer e

2 Soul Exchange

3 Breeding Pit

1 Grave Pact

3 Bad Moon

2 Phyrexian Arena

 

Gratefully yours,

 

Christopher G.
 

Well, Christopher, it was a delightful trip down memory lane to see a thrull deck. Thrulls are a fun, if a bit morbid, tribe to play. After reading through your decklist, I think I see what direction we can take this to make it a bit more successful. As I'm sure you've noticed, a number of your thrulls like to sacrifice themselves. That works really well with Grave Pact to keep your opponent's board clear. Let's see if we can optimize this deck around that synergy. A couple of them, (Mindstab and Necrite) require them attacking and not getting blocked. To facilitate this, I recommend Cover of Darkness to give them fear, so they will be getting through more often than not.

 

+3 Grave Pact

+2 Cover of Darkness

 

The first thing we're going to do is take out some of the sub-par cards. Thrull Champion is a 3/3 for 5 mana that pumps up your other thrulls +1/+1 (I don't expect you'll be using that "gain control of a Thrull ability too often). By the time you get 5 mana, a 3/3 isn't too exciting, and Bad Moon can produce the +1/+1 effect just as well (unless your opponent is playing black - then it doesn't help much), even affecting your non-thrulls, for only 2 mana. Let's drop the Thrull Champ.

-2 Thrull Champion

 

Thrull Retainer isn't any good. I know it has "Thrull" in the name, but it doesn't fit in this deck. You don't need the regeneration - you're usually going to be sacrificing creatures, anyway. In it's place, I'd like to suggest one of the newer thrulls - Mourning Thrull. This guy makes a fine early creature that can chump block those annoying early Goblins while gaining you a life.

 

-3 Thrull Retainer

+3 Mourning Thrull

 

The next thing I'd like to suggest is dropping the Basal Thrulls. You're bordering on too many creature that sacrifice - you need something that sticks around to deal some damage! I'd like to suggest 2 copies of the biggest Thrull of all - Derelor. True, his drawback can hurt on occasion, but your deck is otherwise lacking in beef, so I think it's worth the cost.

 

-3 Basal Thrull

+2 Derelor

 

I would like to drop your Breeding Pits. I know it's fun spitting out little Thrull babies every turn, but at the cost of 2 black mana each turn, that could severely slow down your progress of getting out your better Thrulls. The little 0/1 babies aren't going to be doing much. Also, let's take out the Gutless Ghouls. I don't think you'll need help getting your Thrulls to die - they'll be dying pretty well on their own! Instead, let's kill one of their creatures and gain a bunch of life at once with a couple copies of Tendrils of Corruption. Also, for a great finisher, I would suggest Fallen Ideal. Try playing a couple Thrulls with Endrek Sahr out, producing 6 baby thrulls, and sacrificing them all to a Derelor with Fallen Ideal. Can you say "swing for 20 in the air for the win"? Of course - be cautious of them killing your creature in response. There's nothing worse than putting all your resources into one game-winning attempt only to have them take it all out with one card!

 

-3 Gutless Ghoul

-3 Breeding Pit

+2 Tendrils of Corruption

+2 Fallen Ideal

 

Now for your land. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth doesn't do anything since all your lands are already Swamps! Let's take it out and put in 2 more Swamps.

 

Here's what we've got now:
 

22 Swamps

 

Creatures:

 

3 Mindstab Thrull

3 Necrite

4 Blood Pet

1 Ascendant Evincar

1 Crovax the Cursed

2 Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder

3 Thrull Surgeon

3 Mourning Thrull

2 Derelor

 

Other Spells:

 

2 Soul Exchange

4 Grave Pact

3 Bad Moon

2 Phyrexian Arena

2 Cover of Darkness

2 Tendrils of Corruption

2 Fallen Ideal

 

I've gone against my own advice here a little bit, by having a lot of 2 and 3 of cards. The 2-of enchantments are there because they are things you really don't need to see more than one of in a game. The three-of creatures are there to give you what's called a bit of a toolbox feel - you've got several options of creatures that can do different things based upon what you need at the time.

 

Keep playing with your Thrulls and take careful note of which cards often work well and which ones sit there (in play or in your hand) without ever being useful. One potential problem I still see is that we may not have quite enough creatures.Try it first, but if that ends up being the case, you might drop the Soul Exchanges for a couple more copies of one of the creatures your already have.

 

Finally, let me throw out a couple more ideas in case you feel like trying something a little different:

 

Leige of the Pit: You should have no shortage of creatures to sacrifice to him, but then again, at 7/7, you don't need many turns! (Never pay full cost even if you can - always use the morph - it means sacrificing less creatures!)

 

Mortivore: There will be plenty of creatures in your graveyard to make him big. For added fun, add a Fallen Ideal!

 

Gloomdrifter: Quickly accelerate into 7 cards in your graveyard, and you can deal an often devastating -2/-2 blow to all non-black creatures.

 

Cabal Coffers: If you find you need more mana.

 

Plague Wind: Do I really need to explain how powerful this is? If you decide to go this route, I'd be sure and play the Cabal Coffers, and maybe even leave in the Basal Thrulls to give you enough mana.

 

Have fun!

 

-mattedesa