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Oct 21, 2009 -- 2:29AM, Drecon84 wrote:

For the mana base you should look into Lotus Cobra. Not very budget but that guy is just so broken, it can pump out Baneslayer turn three.

Also I disagree with the statement in the article that Bloodbraid is the best card in standard. I think both cards I mentioned above are better.

Bloodbraid is the best budget card in standard though, no contest.

You do realise that 2 Lotus Cobras cost as much as the entire deck right?

Wow, basically the two most expensive cards in Standard are better than Bloodbraid Elf!?  How insightful!

Oct 21, 2009 -- 2:53AM, Dekz wrote:

Oct 21, 2009 -- 2:29AM, Drecon84 wrote:

For the mana base you should look into Lotus Cobra. Not very budget but that guy is just so broken, it can pump out Baneslayer turn three.

Also I disagree with the statement in the article that Bloodbraid is the best card in standard. I think both cards I mentioned above are better.

Bloodbraid is the best budget card in standard though, no contest.

You do realise that 2 Lotus Cobras cost as much as the entire deck right?

Wow, basically the two most expensive cards in Standard are better than Bloodbraid Elf!?  How insightful!

I disagree with Lotus Cobra being better than Putrid Leech in Standard. In Standard, Cobra is usually little more than a Duress on legs. Building your deck around a 2/1 with a huge target on its forehead is usually a good way to lose matches. The successful Jund decks (though topping out at a whopping 6cc with Broodmate Dragon) all played Leech over Cobra, and there's a reason for that. Leech completely dominates the field, and is hard to answer. Cobra might land a big guy early, anywhere else in the game it sucks, it is unreliable, and cascading into it sucks.

I disagree with Baneslayer Angel being better than Bloodbraid Elf. Angel is a great control finisher, and sees play in midrange, but not as a 4-of. Bloodbraid Elf is played in all aggressive, midrangish and even controlling builds that can pay for his colours. Usually as a four-of. It is quite probably the single best card in the current Standard.

On topic, I have been advicing Jund players to play Specter over Thrinax in Jund Aggro if they could make the mana work - it was always insane, but like Oona's Prowler held back by the amount of flying in the meta. I don't know about this many three-drops in the deck though - 10 is a lot, especially when adding Blightning to the mix. I do, however, agree that the deck really wants something to stop the powerful offense of creature-based decks these days, and Thrinax does that phenomenally.

I have also been a large proponent for playing 3-4 Ziggurats in creature-based builds. It can really hold a deck together - it just requires one thing: That you don't have expensive/colour intensive spells in your deck. I'm especially talking about Burst Lightning here - five mana becomes a lot if you have two Ziggurats out. Blightning also dislikes the land, because (unlike Lightning Bolt), you usually won't be playing both a creature and a Blightning in the same turn. Thinking of Blightning as a 4-drop in this deck is probably more realistic. Seeing as red and black are your main colours, the Ziggurat doesn't need to colour-fix your spells, though, which would otherwise be needed with colour intensive spells such as Terminate and Blightning (and with how Ziggurat won't help you unearth Specter).

I'm not completely sold on Madrush Cyclops. I really like the thought of playing a Specter after a Cyclops, but the curve doesn't work out all that well on that end - of course, you often have to just screw the curve and go for the blowout plays, which this deck certainly does.

I don't know how I'd build the deck, but I'll definitely be working on it. Meta-wise, I like how this combats Jund Aggro, which lives off of CA, by taking excactly that away from them. It obviously puts the hurt on control decks, but decks such as R/W Bushwhacker seem like they would be bad MU's. Vampires seem like they can be handled rather easily with this deck, given that the mana works out (!!). Off to the testing pits - thank you JVL, this is quite possibly the best article you have written.

I was just having a discussion YESTERDAY that Sedraxis Specter would be a good card to play.  I was looking through UBR cards for a Highlander deck, and came across it.  We started talking about how it was a Hippie that came back, and how the flying tokens were going away...  I mean this exact same discussion.

Cool.  I'm glad to see that I wasn't too far off with my thoughts. 

I think there is defintely run for Pulse probably for burst lightning and/or terminate.  I would probably drop the Ziggarauts for Fetchlands as well. 

What about the sideboard?

Clearly 4 Fallout and/or Pyroclasm.  Anything else people would include?  Bitumous Blast, Broodmate Dragon?  Goblin Ruinblaster would probably make it in for me.