I have recently started playing again and I found the unleash mecanic very interesting, so I built this burn/quick win aggression deck around it. All help, input and comments would be greatly appreciated! :D
http://deckbox.org/sets/389363

Try Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=369055

and Lightning Bolt http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=234704?

are you planning to keep the deck standard? are you playing it casually or taking it to tournaments?

korruptseraphim wrote:Try Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=369055

and Lightning Bolt http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=234704?

I have 2 Blood witches but I was unsure wether or not it was a bit late that I got it down compared to the speed of the other cards, also I already have haste on most of the cards but you might be right. The lightning bolt is really strong but as far as i know not allowed in standard tho I think I might just go for modern so I'll look into it.

Also, could you look at the sideboard? Those are my "maybe" cards :)

elpablo wrote:are you planning to keep the deck standard? are you playing it casually or taking it to tournaments?

I was planning on keeping it standard but I might change that to just be modern (allows me to do so much more and in my area there are tournaments for that too). What do you have in mind?

Would appreciate if you looked at my sideboards since they are "maybe" cards, especially http://deckbox.org/mtg/Falkenrath%20Aristocrat with the heavy amount of humans in the deck as it is now. I have also considered vexing devil but it might be out of my budget currently tho I might add it later.

elpablo wrote:are you planning to keep the deck standard? are you playing it casually or taking it to tournaments?

Actually, I think I might wanna stay standard for the time being, it seems I would have more tournament option (yeah I would like to go to tournaments with) Also I feel it would be a lot cheaper to have a competitive standard deck than modern :) Thoughts?

Unleash is a good mechanic but there are creatures out there that are just as good as the unleash ones or better for about the same cost. I'll list a few below. Cackler being the exception probably, it's a pretty solid one drop.

Falkenrath is a superb card and should be main deck. If you like the black red stuff, then I would suggest looking into black/red zombies. A quick google search should come up with a few decks. Exava is an okay replacement for falkenrath but in the format falkenrath is the better card. The zombies deck doesn't even really care if she sacked a human it's more about the interaction with gravecrawler and keeping her on the field.

If you just want to do a regular aggro deck splashing black then you'll need more 1 drops. Cackler is good, you'll need stromkirk nobles, diregraph ghoul is okay too. Spike jester is a great 2 drop fro BR ash zealot is great too. Alternately you can use burning tree emmissary and lightning mauler, doesn't match up as well with zealot and spike jester. For 3 drops you could even use boros reckoner even though he's 3 red in the deck. You can run falkenrath or hellrider.

Remember aggro decks are like pyramids. One drops make your base then 2 drops then 3, then a very few 4 drops, and depending on the deck a couple 5 drops like thundermaw helkite. Alternately the 5 drops can be 1 2 or 3 drops. The strategy is to increase the likely hood you'll have a turn 1 play and subsequent plays on the following turns. Below is the layout for a 30 creature aggro deck. That gives you about 8 cards worth of spells/removal and 22 lands.

55
4444
333333
22222222
1111111111

Consider this
Spike jester = Shredfreak
Ash Zealot = Chainwalker, 2/2 with first strike haste and a useful ability against decks that cast from the graveyard.
Boros Reckoner = splaterthug (3/3 for 3 without unleash and it can have first strike and it gets a damage redirect ability, much better than splater thug).
Falkenrath = exava (flying to get accross, haste, can sack to be indestructible and/or add counters, much more damage potential than exava)
Hellrider (haste, 3/3 makes all your attackers do extra damage)

Some cards to consider removing.

Dark Favor, if they remove the creature you put it on then you lose the enchant and the creature so your investment in the enchant went for nothing. We call this a 2-for-1.

Cryptborn horror, the other 3 drops are just better. Hellhole flailer is a consistent 4/3 with a good ability and doesn't require a conditional circumstance like the horror. Really a reckoner would be better here, but I know they do cost $$.

Rakdos charm, just bad here. It's not going to help you enough to include in the deck let alone 4. You're much better off just adding more dudes.

Shred Freak, for the cost and colors spike jester is just better. Get some of those to put in its place.

elpablo wrote:Unleash is a good mechanic but there are creatures out there that are just as good as the unleash ones or better for about the same cost. I'll list a few below. Cackler being the exception probably, it's a pretty solid one drop.

Falkenrath is a superb card and should be main deck. If you like the black red stuff, then I would suggest looking into black/red zombies. A quick google search should come up with a few decks. Exava is an okay replacement for falkenrath but in the format falkenrath is the better card. The zombies deck doesn't even really care if she sacked a human it's more about the interaction with gravecrawler and keeping her on the field.

If you just want to do a regular aggro deck splashing black then you'll need more 1 drops. Cackler is good, you'll need stromkirk nobles, diregraph ghoul is okay too. Spike jester is a great 2 drop fro BR ash zealot is great too. Alternately you can use burning tree emmissary and lightning mauler, doesn't match up as well with zealot and spike jester. For 3 drops you could even use boros reckoner even though he's 3 red in the deck. You can run falkenrath or hellrider.

Remember aggro decks are like pyramids. One drops make your base then 2 drops then 3, then a very few 4 drops, and depending on the deck a couple 5 drops like thundermaw helkite. Alternately the 5 drops can be 1 2 or 3 drops. The strategy is to increase the likely hood you'll have a turn 1 play and subsequent plays on the following turns. Below is the layout for a 30 creature aggro deck. That gives you about 8 cards worth of spells/removal and 22 lands.

55
4444
333333
22222222
1111111111

Consider this
Spike jester = Shredfreak
Ash Zealot = Chainwalker, 2/2 with first strike haste and a useful ability against decks that cast from the graveyard.
Boros Reckoner = splaterthug (3/3 for 3 without unleash and it can have first strike and it gets a damage redirect ability, much better than splater thug).
Falkenrath = exava (flying to get accross, haste, can sack to be indestructible and/or add counters, much more damage potential than exava)
Hellrider (haste, 3/3 makes all your attackers do extra damage)

Some cards to consider removing.

Dark Favor, if they remove the creature you put it on then you lose the enchant and the creature so your investment in the enchant went for nothing. We call this a 2-for-1.

Cryptborn horror, the other 3 drops are just better. Hellhole flailer is a consistent 4/3 with a good ability and doesn't require a conditional circumstance like the horror. Really a reckoner would be better here, but I know they do cost $$.

Rakdos charm, just bad here. It's not going to help you enough to include in the deck let alone 4. You're much better off just adding more dudes.

Shred Freak, for the cost and colors spike jester is just better. Get some of those to put in its place.

Thank you so much for the amazing feedback and excellent ideas! :D I see your points and I'm looking into them, even tho I find the zombie idea rather appealing as the reason why I chose to do a deck like this (It was based on a starter deck) was that I love the black, they just appeal so much to me so the more black I can get in the better and in a zombie deck I seem to be getting a lot more of that! So I will definently have a look at that!

Would you have any other ideas for decks that include black? As far as I can tell in the current standard monocolor is a bit weaker, but what could I mix black with? Preferably black heavy, thank you in advance :)

Well, it depends on where you're playing. If you just want a casual deck then what you have is probably okay. If you want to do things like gamedays and FNM, then you probably want something a little more competitive, like the BR zombie decks out there. They run a fair amount of black, but the red in them is important for various reasons.

Mono color right now isn't a good idea (assuming you aren't heavily budget restricted) just because the best cards are often in multiple colors. 2-3 and sometimes even 4 color decks are the norm in the current format. Sticking with one color really limits your card selection.

Below is one example of a B/R "zombie" deck.

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1112290

It includes a lot of strong black cards, vampire nighthawk, geralf's messenger, gravecrawler.

There's also potential for a BG zombie deck, using cards like lotleth troll, blood scrivener and varolz. I'm working on building something in that vein, but I'm not sure how competitive it will be.

JUND is a strong combination, that's Black Green Red, but the mana base will set you back quite a bit, you'd need the pain lands and tap lands to be able to consistently cast your spells. If you google jund aggro or go to starcity games and look at the standard tournament deck lists you'll get a good look at what works. And like I tell most newer players, the guys that go to and win those tournaments are some of the best players around and you'd be hard pressed to build a deck that's better than theirs when you're just starting out. Chances are someone has already thought of the deck.

elpablo wrote:Well, it depends on where you're playing. If you just want a casual deck then what you have is probably okay. If you want to do things like gamedays and FNM, then you probably want something a little more competitive, like the BR zombie decks out there. They run a fair amount of black, but the red in them is important for various reasons.

Mono color right now isn't a good idea (assuming you aren't heavily budget restricted) just because the best cards are often in multiple colors. 2-3 and sometimes even 4 color decks are the norm in the current format. Sticking with one color really limits your card selection.

Below is one example of a B/R "zombie" deck.

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck.asp?deck_id=1112290

It includes a lot of strong black cards, vampire nighthawk, geralf's messenger, gravecrawler.

There's also potential for a BG zombie deck, using cards like lotleth troll, blood scrivener and varolz. I'm working on building something in that vein, but I'm not sure how competitive it will be.

JUND is a strong combination, that's Black Green Red, but the mana base will set you back quite a bit, you'd need the pain lands and tap lands to be able to consistently cast your spells. If you google jund aggro or go to starcity games and look at the standard tournament deck lists you'll get a good look at what works. And like I tell most newer players, the guys that go to and win those tournaments are some of the best players around and you'd be hard pressed to build a deck that's better than theirs when you're just starting out. Chances are someone has already thought of the deck.

I would hope to at least for fun be able to play tournaments, FNM and such
As you suggested I looked up BR zombies and found a deck that I then imported to deckbox http://deckbox.org/sets/390500 and I feel like it has a lot of really strong cards and a lot of potential as a burn/aggro deck but maybe it's a bit to early game focused?

well, it's supposed to be a bit early game focused. That's the whole point of your thread right? An aggro deck? :)

In the current environment if you play aggro you need to be able to get in a win in 5 turns or less (potentially). There are cards in the deck that make it more resilient - falkenrath + blood artist + messenger + gravecrawler make for a good combo, life gain/loss and damage.

Also, keep in mind that there isn't really a "burn" deck that's competitive right now. You really can't just damage people enough with spells to win. There are a couple exceptions, but they don't count on the burn to win, it's more of a bonus/finisher.

elpablo wrote:well, it's supposed to be a bit early game focused. That's the whole point of your thread right? An aggro deck? :)

In the current environment if you play aggro you need to be able to get in a win in 5 turns or less (potentially). There are cards in the deck that make it more resilient - falkenrath + blood artist + messenger + gravecrawler make for a good combo, life gain/loss and damage.

Also, keep in mind that there isn't really a "burn" deck that's competitive right now. You really can't just damage people enough with spells to win. There are a couple exceptions, but they don't count on the burn to win, it's more of a bonus/finisher.

Yeah the point is to be early game focused! My point was just maybe my idea had a bit too many one and two drops and not the creatures that are a bit more powerful, on the other side I dont suppose I actually need them with the combination ran here. What do you think about it as an aggro deck? How well do you think it could work? I can always do some tweaks and change something around + add a sideboard but just roughly?

it works fine and was a top tier deck for a while. However this is an older version of the deck. I'm sure there are updated versions of it. I would search for a version you like and then build it and make changes as you go.

Some cards to consider adding, could be... dreadbore, blood scrivener, perhaps a sire of insanity (a bit costly at six, but one or two wouldn't be too bad,and you could up your land count by 1 or 2). Stromkirk noble might be a good addition as well, naya blitz runs a lot of humans.

elpablo wrote:it works fine and was a top tier deck for a while. However this is an older version of the deck. I'm sure there are updated versions of it. I would search for a version you like and then build it and make changes as you go.

Some cards to consider adding, could be... dreadbore, blood scrivener, perhaps a sire of insanity (a bit costly at six, but one or two wouldn't be too bad,and you could up your land count by 1 or 2). Stromkirk noble might be a good addition as well, naya blitz runs a lot of humans.

I gotta thank you so much for all this help! I will look into it and I will look into the cards mentioned :D I might post or message you with the final deck if you don't mind giving it a look over? :) But thanks a lot no matter what! You are a real bro! :D

Good luck. Glad I could help. :)