@@nikhilchhagan7371 Knight would also be open to removal. Since this deck does not run creatures, in game 1 their spot removal are dead draws. This would give them a target.
Could add Rakdos Charm to the side board. Every mode is relevant for this deck: destroys shadowspear and constructs, punishes flooding the field with creatures and shuts off Murktide and Living End as well as other graveyard fueled decks.
I kinda feel like sword point diplomacy was a big reason for why the deck was always too slow. Spending your turn 3 dealing zero damage doesn't feel like it can keep up with what the deck was supposed to do. I'd probably try to play vampire's kiss instead as a way to both filter through lands or chancellors while also dealing damage and gaining life.
Yeah, I think Sword-Point Diplomacy might be worth cutting. Three mana is a ton in the deck and even when we cast it it's more medium than good usually
@@MTGGoldfish Sword-Point would be better as 4 copies of Nurturing Peatland; it helps with the mana while being an uncounterable draw. After that, it just feels bad to counter anything in this deck since they are all "bad" burn spells. Alternatively, it could be some split of Night's Whisper/Nurturing Peatland, or just 4 copies of Night's Whisper. This deck is so awesome since there are so many ways to make it better. Would love to see a more tuned version of it at some point.
@@MTGGoldfish The other aspect of sword point diplomacy is that its 'best' case scenario when the opponent chooses, its minimum floor, is just draw 3 for 3. Which is supposed to be above the curve but simply isn't as good as you'd think, not in a format like modern. Even standard right now has Inspired Idea, and the only drawback is hand size which makes it largely irrelevant as a 2-of in a deck with a low curve like this- just in blue. Not saying you'd want to splash blue for it, just saying that drawing 3 for 3 isn't even that great to include.
@@Sean-gx1sf vampires kiss + alms of the vein instead of sword-point, you can pitch alms to the blood tokens to drain plus it can pitch collective brutality as well; like wim said kiss is amazing in this deck
As mentioned below, tainted remedy against lifegain is decent. You can also play erebos and/or everlasting torment. Infernal reckoning might be good against constructs (cheap, gains you a ton of life).
With a 20 land manabase with a few swamps, maybe a castle, shocks and horizon lands, this deck may be really strong. Also, Thoughtseize and Needle may be good in the sideboard
Glad to see Sleeper Agent finally getting some love, been one of my favorites for a while! That and my favourite wincon, T1 Bump in the Night then flashback for the win when the opponent has forgotten about it for a flavour win!
I honestly think Dash Hopes is better. It's similar to Sword Point Diplomacy in that it lets the opponent decide if they want life or to give you card advantage, but it's a lot more efficient and can shut off combo decks by tricking them into thinking it's worth it to take the 5 to keep their card, then BAM soul spike them for lethal.
Dash hopes, damping sphere, splashing green for something like Crime/Punishment for the artifacts. Would probably help a lot. Take out sword point diplomacy for Vampires kiss. Loots and is immediate burn. Those are some changes to the deck I'd make without changing the budget too much.
If you keep the red in your deck you could play roiling vortex or run artifact hate like a brotherhood’s end. If you keep with the silent clearings and have white in your deck, go for vindicate or some other generic artifact hate. In monoblack, maybe run more discord to rip it out of their hand and play some surgical extractions to get rid of em all?
I can't recall seeing a Magic gameplay video where I was cheering at the screen and pumping my fists as you were winning these games like I was watching this one. So fun!
Feels like the deck definitely wants to maybe go down 2x Sword Point for 2 more lands. Could go for 2 of the Rakdos pain+draw lands or maybe some utility like Castle?
Sick deck list. I absolutely love black burn. After watching the video, I unironically think Dash Hopes would be a decent sideboard option. Dash will put the opponent into a tricky position, especially when Soul Spike can be cast for free. The opponent may think they can get away with paying the life to combo and get blown up.
I know what you're thinking, "He cast Dash Hopes with 3 cards in hand. Is one of them a Soul Spike?" But being this is black burn, the most powerful deck in the world, and that a Soul Spike you would blow your head clean off, you've gotta ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?
@@MTGGoldfish if you remember timspiral block constructed there was a deck that had a similar feel. Mono black shadow creatures and temporal extortion. In a higher land count version with dash hopes in the sideboard maybe temporal extortion could do something?
Especially when you talk about lands. On MTGO the fetch and shock lands are ridiculously cheap and if you’re playing Modern, they are super reusable. In paper, they’re expensive, but again if you’re a serious Modern player you might own them already and only have to buy the other cards.
What would we think of Black's "Counterspell" that could be gotten around by taking five damage instead? It may not have a lot of instants to leave mana up but if you're burning them down and then give them the choice between seeing something countered or taking another five that could be a challenge.
I play dash hopes mainboard in my modern deck and it is a true counterspell about 75% of the time and a 5 damage burn spell about 25% of the time. But that is just my local meta.
@@christianbarrett3040 The question could be "are you happy with the results either way?" If they're not bothering you are you really supposed to be able to stop another spell without blue?
I think the thing that turns me off of Dash Hopes is that if I had a monoblue deck with a bunch of burn spells I wouldn't want to play Counterspell instead of another burn card. For dash hopes to be good here, the opponent has to misplay and take 5. Sometimes they do that. Sometimes they don't, and one more of your cards isn't advancing your burn gameplan. That's my read of the dash hopes situation at least.
Probably a dumb suggestion (and pretty memey): trying Knight of Dusk's Shadow in the sideboard against lifegain (instead of adding another color to the deck). It doesn't stop the gain life part of Sovereign Bite, Chancellor etc because is says "opponents can't gain life" and costs only 2 mana
weirdest way to fight shadowspear would be to add contaminated ground or evil presense to the board to take out Urza's Saga, I mean, you know you're going to run into it.
I played this deck at an fnm, had a lot of fun with it. In one of the rounds game 3 I was on the play my opening hand was 3 Chancellors and 2 Soul spikes. 1 Silent Clearing and 1 bump. Almost drawn the nuts which would be 2 soul spikes and 4 Chancellors. If on the play you could win easily before they play a land. (If you get this nut draw best to Soul Spike them on their upkeep to play around Force of Negation)
Whenever I played Rakdos burn, I used to run 2 Rain of Gore and 1 Tainted Remedy in my sideboard. Rain of Gore was super good in the Boros burn matchups because of Lightning Helix but doesn't work vs lifelink and Tainted Remedy was an auto-win against Bogles since they were running the 2 stacking lifelink effects and would make their Slippery Bogle hit themselves for double damage.
Feed the swarm kills Urza saga for 2 mana, and can still kill creatures, it's sorcery speed isn't great, but it snipes saga before it can search, and can disrupt hammer times Sigarda's aid occasionally. Filigree Sylex is neat, is a ratchet bomb with more text. So 1 of those with your ratchet bombs makes it harder to pithing needle your answer to Shadow spear. (Plus it's cheaper than ratchet bomb right now) Tainted Remedy makes life gain decks kill themselves, which is awesome. Pithing needle, is pithing needle. Alms of the vein works really well with Collective brutality, and lets you run bone shards for Planeswalker removal. Fruit of Tizerus is a cheaper card to cast from the Graveyard, and since 4 mana isn't impossible if you go up to 18 land it can give nice end game reach. With several ways to easily activate spectacle Drill Bit can act as stand in thoughtseize.
If you keep the fetches, is it worth running an Overgrown Tomb and trying to use Crime // Punishment? (For the Sagas and Tokens). Needle is probably a good choice for the spear. Ratchet Bomb could be good. I like Thoughtseize, and I think Chalice (for 0) would be stupendous for buying a turn against Amulet and the Cascade decks. Of course, Chalice is taking the deck way above budget territory, but if we’re looking to make it competitive, I believe that is a way. Awesome list! This was fun to watch!
To your Q at 32:09 from what you had in your side, it seems you should have borded in your board wipe that cares about 2cmc or less (hits the construct). Also considering you have access to red seems like you could reasonably run blood moon and your deck would be less affected by it (even if you have to go down some non-basics)
And absolutely pithing needle. Hammer time is arguably the best deck in the format right now and runs a lot of cards similar to the match you lost to. Otherwise more hand attack, Inquisition orr since you're already on some rogue tech you could try Dreams of Steel and Oil
go up 2 land 6 fetchs 6 swamp 2 crypt 4 clearing. cut 2 soul point main. then you have access to some red sideboard cards and bump flashback if you flood
You're already playing silent clearing, fracture or some white spell could work. Or portable hole, abrupt decay, random charm, etc. Ensnaring bridge could help too, especially vs sleeper agent.
Hi seth! Regarding your comment about urza’s saga, force of despair could be a good answer. EDIT: Dunno if it’s legal, but shadow of doubt also deals with urza’s saga and replaces itself.
At 17:40 seth could have played silent clearing and cracked it to draw a second black card to exile to soul spike, kill the ledger shredder and gain 4 to live
Wait, ignore my last post.. Sword Point Diplomacy needs replacing with Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord! Drop your Chancellor's in on T3, swing with them T4, then tick up Sorin to sac them for another 3. Assuming Chancellor was in your opening hand thats 12 damage alone and 12 life gained!! Might even be able to find some space somewhere for Bloodghast too!
I've been playing mono black burn in modern for a year now. Best answer to lifegain and in particular shadowspear off Urza's Saga is a few Tainted Remedies and Rakdos Charms in the sideboard. My one gripe with this version of the deck is not running 18 lands. Getting to 3 lands for Sword-Point Diplomacy, building up to the possibility of playing two spells on turn 4 is usually enough to finish the opponent off. And you can add some Damnations to the sideboard. Plus I'm not sure if Collective Brutality is good enough for the cost. 3 or 4 Fatal Pushes with all the fetches, Gontis and Okibas is usually better. Really interesting take on the deck though. I'm going to start experimenting with Sleeper Agents, Soul Spike and Chancellor.
@@eosakizo yeah I run trespassers curse in the side cause my meta is creature aggro heavy. The pauper list also includes serated scorpion which is fantastic against control decks. If you have it in your opening hand it's often 5 to 8 points of free damage cause it's more of a pain for your opponent to kill it and suddenly it's in for damage every turn. I find my okiba reckoner raid eats removal much more often
I played a similar deck a few years back, but my secret tech was… DASH HOPES! It seriously HOSED people. They always paid the 5, which was perfect! Love black burn.
I have had the skeleton of this deck built for years. I call it Brutality (for the obvious reason). My current version is an Aristocrats deck with a bunch of the one drops that have your opponent lose a life on tap/attack (Mardu Shadowspear, Night Market Lookout, Pulse Tracker, Vicious Conquistador). It also runs some fetches with a couple copies of Retreat to Hagra. I replaced Soul Spikes with Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord (instead of exiling the Chancellors, cheat them into play)! I used to love the original version with Soul Spikes and Chancellors: "Okay, I'll start the game at 30, you start at 10. Good luck!" But my latest deck is a lot less susceptible to Leyline of Sanctity. But now that I've seen the decklist, it's time to watch the video!
For answers to Shadowspear and other nasty artifacts: Budget - Rakdos Charm Not Quite as Budget - Kolaghan's Command Just Plain Silly - Emissary of Despair
I just built this deck in paper. And ended up doing pretty decently at FNM. Had a pretty memorable game against Four Color control. I was stuck on one land but ended up just getting there with sleeper agents.
You could have brought in path of peril(s) to deal with the constructs or if you're still running the fetches and blood crypts you could run Tibalt, Rakish Investigator in the sideboard
I’m gonna run this at my FNM and I’m suggesting to also run enchantment hate in the sideboard. Feed the swarm is still budget friendly and thoughtsieze doesn’t get rid of it if it’s in their opening hand.
They can't equip Shadowspear during an attack at instant speed! Bring in those fatal push from sideboard and wait to kill construct on declare attacks please Seth
I'm in love with this deck idea however Sword Point Deplomacy as a 3 mana do nothing at four copies in burn doesn't feel correct to run. But that's my first impression as a Boros burn player. I can't wait to test this out. Without playing any games yet, but with what I know about deck construction, I would start with these changes: 1 Serrated Scorpion 4 Okiba Reckoner Raid 4 Sleeper Agent 4 Chancellor of the Dross 4 Bump in the Night 4 Collective Brutality 4 Gonti's Machinations 4 Sign in Blood 4 Soul Reap 4 Soul Spike 4 Sovereign's Bite 8 Swamp 3 Nurturing Peatland 4 Silent Clearing 4 Blightstep Pathway
Because you have red and white mana with your lands you have options for smash to smithereens or wear/tear or the red/black command to deal with shadow spear but it would require a slight change to add 1-2 more blood crypts
Alternative considerations for Sword Point Diplomacy: Geralf's Messenger, Alms of the Vein, Nettling Curse, Prying Questions, Sedgemoor Witch, Soulcage Fiend?
Could always have a couple copies of creeping chill for turbo mill decks, although I think the soul spike and the chancellor is enough to make it a good matchup already by eating up most of Tasha's hideous laughter
Vs the shadowspear, I think you needed fatal pushes to stop the lifegain for a turn, then pushing through afterwards. You needed one more turn on both cases. You don't need to beat the shadowspear, you need to beat the 7 lifegain.
This was such a sweet list, really enjoyed this one. I agree with the general comment consensus that more Sleepers and fewer Sword Point Diplomacy is good. Optimizing this list seems like an interesting experiment sometime too for sure
Down 2 soul spike (2 will remain for the mega nut possibility) up 2 temporal extortion. Down sword point diplomacy up alms of the vein or fruit of tizerus?. For side board I love ratchet bomb and pithing needle. Idk thoughts?
I love this card, but always hear people say it's a lava axe when you want a counterspell and a counterspell when you want a lava are. This might be the kind of deck where that doesn't matter.
Love this deck, definitely want to see the concept explored further. I feel like a great card for this deck would be Shrouded Lore. It's a scalable Regrowth in black, perfect for an archetype that can struggle with not quite reaching the finish line of 20+ points of burn, especially in the late game?
I feel like shrouded lore would be too mana intensive to ensure that we got a relevant card when they are likely to just keep giving us our fetch lands back or our soul spike.
@@christianbarrett3040 problem can be mitigated by replacing fetchlands with Nurturing Peatland as Seth suggested. I definitely like Shrouded Lore as a card more than something that is very win-more like Sword-Point Diplomacy
@@AricHaldan0782 Not Modern and not this deck. I’m talking the Idea of MonoBlack Burn and trying to make it work within the arena formats. I think Helios decks might pose an issue but with Innistrad remastered maybe we get some pieces to help.
Run a few Urborg alongside a playset of Ghost Quarter. Doesn’t really go with the budget thing but it sure does stop Urza’s Saga playing pseudo wasteland.
I think that Force of Despair is an underrated card. It might help against your opponent playing a lot of creatures. You can wipe the board if they cascade into Living End or Rhinos without keeping mana open.
The answer to shadowspear/urza saga IMO is to go rakdos for the cookie cutter staple burn spells + the ability to destroy artifacts thru Abrade, Vandalblast, or Rakdos Charm. Also allows you to experiment with stuff like Blightning?
a deck ive been trying out i like to call rat storm uses karumonix rat king, pyre of heroes, rat colony and bontus monument. The deck is nuts when it pops off
Before Faithless Looting got banned, I used to play a Rakdos burn deck with Fiery Temper and Almes of the Veins. It was fun at the time and with additions like Rootwalla, Darcy, and others since, the deck would be very good if it existed today with Faithless Looting
What's funny is I had an idea for this deck or something similar to it back in Shadows over Innistrad and was told I might as well play monored burn and that this was a dumb idea.
This deck's sideboard would love a Rakdos Charm tbh. Its castable off your Crypt, is Artifact and Grave hate and thanks to Sleeper Agent it always do at least 1 dmg as a burn spell.
For artifact hate, what about splashing green with the horizon lands to run Witherbloom Command? It can pick off a problematic Shadowspear/artifact and drain the opponent.
How about engineered explosives? you can play it for 0 to get the constructs or for 1 to get the shadowspear. Pitchning needle or ratchet bomb are also good.
watching tier 1 decks die to sleeper agent makes me absolutely giddy
You may say that the card is a... sleeper.
:')
If only i can like the video more than once.
Our opponent has Ragavan! Our opponent has death's shadow! but it seems we have the more powerful one drop! actually, our opponent has that too...
Same
Lol, me too!
Black might not kill artifacts, but it has cards that deny lifegain. You could run Knight of Dusk's Shadow in the sideboard for instance.
Tainted Remedy.
@@CacophonyScamp too much mana and too slow. Knight would be much befter
@@nikhilchhagan7371 Knight would also be open to removal. Since this deck does not run creatures, in game 1 their spot removal are dead draws. This would give them a target.
@@MegaJayRizz Man plan them then. No reason to run Knight main. After they side out all their removal is the perfect time for the Knight to come in.
@@lloydlineske2642 That's a fair point. They may keep removal to get rid of sleeper however.
Could add Rakdos Charm to the side board. Every mode is relevant for this deck: destroys shadowspear and constructs, punishes flooding the field with creatures and shuts off Murktide and Living End as well as other graveyard fueled decks.
Or smash to smitherings.
ITS BACK!!! WE HAVE A VIDEO ABOUT IT!!!! :DDDD
I kinda feel like sword point diplomacy was a big reason for why the deck was always too slow. Spending your turn 3 dealing zero damage doesn't feel like it can keep up with what the deck was supposed to do. I'd probably try to play vampire's kiss instead as a way to both filter through lands or chancellors while also dealing damage and gaining life.
Maybe Tasigur over Diplomacy? All you need to do is switch the Horizon Lands.
Yeah, I think Sword-Point Diplomacy might be worth cutting. Three mana is a ton in the deck and even when we cast it it's more medium than good usually
@@MTGGoldfish Sword-Point would be better as 4 copies of Nurturing Peatland; it helps with the mana while being an uncounterable draw. After that, it just feels bad to counter anything in this deck since they are all "bad" burn spells. Alternatively, it could be some split of Night's Whisper/Nurturing Peatland, or just 4 copies of Night's Whisper. This deck is so awesome since there are so many ways to make it better. Would love to see a more tuned version of it at some point.
@@MTGGoldfish The other aspect of sword point diplomacy is that its 'best' case scenario when the opponent chooses, its minimum floor, is just draw 3 for 3. Which is supposed to be above the curve but simply isn't as good as you'd think, not in a format like modern. Even standard right now has Inspired Idea, and the only drawback is hand size which makes it largely irrelevant as a 2-of in a deck with a low curve like this- just in blue. Not saying you'd want to splash blue for it, just saying that drawing 3 for 3 isn't even that great to include.
@@Sean-gx1sf vampires kiss + alms of the vein instead of sword-point, you can pitch alms to the blood tokens to drain plus it can pitch collective brutality as well; like wim said kiss is amazing in this deck
As mentioned below, tainted remedy against lifegain is decent. You can also play erebos and/or everlasting torment. Infernal reckoning might be good against constructs (cheap, gains you a ton of life).
Infernal reckoning would be some nice spicy tech
With a 20 land manabase with a few swamps, maybe a castle, shocks and horizon lands, this deck may be really strong.
Also, Thoughtseize and Needle may be good in the sideboard
Glad to see Sleeper Agent finally getting some love, been one of my favorites for a while! That and my favourite wincon, T1 Bump in the Night then flashback for the win when the opponent has forgotten about it for a flavour win!
I honestly think Dash Hopes is better. It's similar to Sword Point Diplomacy in that it lets the opponent decide if they want life or to give you card advantage, but it's a lot more efficient and can shut off combo decks by tricking them into thinking it's worth it to take the 5 to keep their card, then BAM soul spike them for lethal.
For two Mana, Knight of Dusk's Shadow turns off lifegain for opponents. For three Mana, Tainted Remedy turns lifegain for opponents into burn.
Dash hopes, damping sphere, splashing green for something like Crime/Punishment for the artifacts. Would probably help a lot. Take out sword point diplomacy for Vampires kiss. Loots and is immediate burn. Those are some changes to the deck I'd make without changing the budget too much.
If you keep the red in your deck you could play roiling vortex or run artifact hate like a brotherhood’s end. If you keep with the silent clearings and have white in your deck, go for vindicate or some other generic artifact hate. In monoblack, maybe run more discord to rip it out of their hand and play some surgical extractions to get rid of em all?
I can't recall seeing a Magic gameplay video where I was cheering at the screen and pumping my fists as you were winning these games like I was watching this one. So fun!
Feels like the deck definitely wants to maybe go down 2x Sword Point for 2 more lands. Could go for 2 of the Rakdos pain+draw lands or maybe some utility like Castle?
There is no rakdos horizon land
Sick deck list. I absolutely love black burn. After watching the video, I unironically think Dash Hopes would be a decent sideboard option. Dash will put the opponent into a tricky position, especially when Soul Spike can be cast for free. The opponent may think they can get away with paying the life to combo and get blown up.
I really want to try a Dash Hopes deck. If any deck can make it work its this one.
@@MTGGoldfish would love to potentially see more of this deck with some of the lessons learned from this league
I know what you're thinking, "He cast Dash Hopes with 3 cards in hand. Is one of them a Soul Spike?"
But being this is black burn, the most powerful deck in the world, and that a Soul Spike you would blow your head clean off, you've gotta ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk?
Would really like to see a version running dash hopes in the side board.
@@MTGGoldfish if you remember timspiral block constructed there was a deck that had a similar feel. Mono black shadow creatures and temporal extortion. In a higher land count version with dash hopes in the sideboard maybe temporal extortion could do something?
After so many years of budget magic, I think we can raise the threshold to 150
Especially when you talk about lands. On MTGO the fetch and shock lands are ridiculously cheap and if you’re playing Modern, they are super reusable. In paper, they’re expensive, but again if you’re a serious Modern player you might own them already and only have to buy the other cards.
he has a lot of budget decks I think are very cool that wouldve been much better and more consistent with an extra $30-50 spent on the mana base
Nah go ultra budget. Reduce by 50.
Something something this economy something something
@@jakecollin5499 Exactly! It pains me when he plays Snarls in Pioneer when the same Shock lands are actually cheaper on MTGO.
Can't remember who I saw doing this but Needle bite trap + Grove of the burn willows is sick, I think it was Jim Davis, almost the exact same deck
LutVitOboSoulNeedlePoint-DiplomoBurn | Modern Magic: the Gathering (MTG) - YT Title - Channel: MTGGoldfish Replay!
Seth also played that deck on twitch a while back: ruclips.net/video/rSEYOYkHxhY/видео.html
All the streamers have been doing this
Seth has streamed the deck
@@OuterCraft can you send me a link to the stream or a decklist?
Would love to see the rakdos version with Groves and Needle bite trap. This decks looks super fun!
He played that deck on stream a few weeks ago ruclips.net/video/rSEYOYkHxhY/видео.html
With Rakdos you just play Bolts and that's a real deck... We don't play real decks here :')
Also Smash to Smithereens is great against the "Shadow Sphere."
With sleeper agent, adding vampiric link could be amazing. Also they seriously need dash hopes.
You beautiful bastard thats magnificent
Cool idea. But in practice it probably just means they won't attack with sleeper agent. Still gaining 2 a turn I guess...
"There is no way we ever ever beat that draw" Seth playing the deck with a hypothetical turn 0 kill
What would we think of Black's "Counterspell" that could be gotten around by taking five damage instead? It may not have a lot of instants to leave mana up but if you're burning them down and then give them the choice between seeing something countered or taking another five that could be a challenge.
I fuckin love Dash Hopes
I play dash hopes mainboard in my modern deck and it is a true counterspell about 75% of the time and a 5 damage burn spell about 25% of the time. But that is just my local meta.
@@christianbarrett3040 The question could be "are you happy with the results either way?"
If they're not bothering you are you really supposed to be able to stop another spell without blue?
I also love Imp's Mischief. Oop looks like you killed your own creature instead of the Sleeper Agent, how careless of you 😂
I think the thing that turns me off of Dash Hopes is that if I had a monoblue deck with a bunch of burn spells I wouldn't want to play Counterspell instead of another burn card. For dash hopes to be good here, the opponent has to misplay and take 5. Sometimes they do that. Sometimes they don't, and one more of your cards isn't advancing your burn gameplan. That's my read of the dash hopes situation at least.
Probably a dumb suggestion (and pretty memey): trying Knight of Dusk's Shadow in the sideboard against lifegain (instead of adding another color to the deck). It doesn't stop the gain life part of Sovereign Bite, Chancellor etc because is says "opponents can't gain life" and costs only 2 mana
You should definitely play 4 grief across the 75, 4 sword-points, maybe 18 lands in this deck. Awesome to see how black burn got here.
Apparently the best way to save money on mana base is to just play less lands
weirdest way to fight shadowspear would be to add contaminated ground or evil presense to the board to take out Urza's Saga, I mean, you know you're going to run into it.
I think that on match 3 you could side in fatal pushes to deal with lifelink tokens at instant speed and prevent life gain
I played this deck at an fnm, had a lot of fun with it. In one of the rounds game 3 I was on the play my opening hand was 3 Chancellors and 2 Soul spikes. 1 Silent Clearing and 1 bump. Almost drawn the nuts which would be 2 soul spikes and 4 Chancellors. If on the play you could win easily before they play a land. (If you get this nut draw best to Soul Spike them on their upkeep to play around Force of Negation)
Whenever I played Rakdos burn, I used to run 2 Rain of Gore and 1 Tainted Remedy in my sideboard. Rain of Gore was super good in the Boros burn matchups because of Lightning Helix but doesn't work vs lifelink and Tainted Remedy was an auto-win against Bogles since they were running the 2 stacking lifelink effects and would make their Slippery Bogle hit themselves for double damage.
Feed the swarm kills Urza saga for 2 mana, and can still kill creatures, it's sorcery speed isn't great, but it snipes saga before it can search, and can disrupt hammer times Sigarda's aid occasionally.
Filigree Sylex is neat, is a ratchet bomb with more text. So 1 of those with your ratchet bombs makes it harder to pithing needle your answer to Shadow spear. (Plus it's cheaper than ratchet bomb right now)
Tainted Remedy makes life gain decks kill themselves, which is awesome.
Pithing needle, is pithing needle.
Alms of the vein works really well with Collective brutality, and lets you run bone shards for Planeswalker removal.
Fruit of Tizerus is a cheaper card to cast from the Graveyard, and since 4 mana isn't impossible if you go up to 18 land it can give nice end game reach.
With several ways to easily activate spectacle Drill Bit can act as stand in thoughtseize.
If you keep the fetches, is it worth running an Overgrown Tomb and trying to use Crime // Punishment? (For the Sagas and Tokens). Needle is probably a good choice for the spear. Ratchet Bomb could be good.
I like Thoughtseize, and I think Chalice (for 0) would be stupendous for buying a turn against Amulet and the Cascade decks. Of course, Chalice is taking the deck way above budget territory, but if we’re looking to make it competitive, I believe that is a way.
Awesome list! This was fun to watch!
Dash Hopes might be a good fit for the deck? No-one expects a black counterspell, and can also hit the burn plan.
To your Q at 32:09 from what you had in your side, it seems you should have borded in your board wipe that cares about 2cmc or less (hits the construct). Also considering you have access to red seems like you could reasonably run blood moon and your deck would be less affected by it (even if you have to go down some non-basics)
And absolutely pithing needle. Hammer time is arguably the best deck in the format right now and runs a lot of cards similar to the match you lost to. Otherwise more hand attack, Inquisition orr since you're already on some rogue tech you could try Dreams of Steel and Oil
So you might say sleeper agent is kinda like a 1 mana Sheoldred???
Put in one Godless Shrine and an extra Blood Crypt, then run three Wear Tear and three Blood Moon in the side board. But, definitely a fun deck👍
go up 2 land 6 fetchs 6 swamp 2 crypt 4 clearing. cut 2 soul point main. then you have access to some red sideboard cards and bump flashback if you flood
Why does the opponent surrender in game 2 at 23.15?
You're already playing silent clearing, fracture or some white spell could work. Or portable hole, abrupt decay, random charm, etc. Ensnaring bridge could help too, especially vs sleeper agent.
Hi seth!
Regarding your comment about urza’s saga, force of despair could be a good answer.
EDIT:
Dunno if it’s legal, but shadow of doubt also deals with urza’s saga and replaces itself.
I was checking to see if anyone else mentioned Force of Despair. It seems like it buys you a turn against the Amulet Titan deck.
I am 3:00 deep into the video and it is already my favourite so far.
At 17:40 seth could have played silent clearing and cracked it to draw a second black card to exile to soul spike, kill the ledger shredder and gain 4 to live
Wait, ignore my last post.. Sword Point Diplomacy needs replacing with Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord! Drop your Chancellor's in on T3, swing with them T4, then tick up Sorin to sac them for another 3. Assuming Chancellor was in your opening hand thats 12 damage alone and 12 life gained!! Might even be able to find some space somewhere for Bloodghast too!
I've been playing mono black burn in modern for a year now. Best answer to lifegain and in particular shadowspear off Urza's Saga is a few Tainted Remedies and Rakdos Charms in the sideboard. My one gripe with this version of the deck is not running 18 lands. Getting to 3 lands for Sword-Point Diplomacy, building up to the possibility of playing two spells on turn 4 is usually enough to finish the opponent off. And you can add some Damnations to the sideboard. Plus I'm not sure if Collective Brutality is good enough for the cost. 3 or 4 Fatal Pushes with all the fetches, Gontis and Okibas is usually better.
Really interesting take on the deck though. I'm going to start experimenting with Sleeper Agents, Soul Spike and Chancellor.
This is great. A modern version of a pauper deck. And most of the cards that are burn in this version are the same in the pauper version
Such a great pauper deck. Been really fun to play.
@@Pizza_force i may try to build it and run it in my next pauper event. Any tips?
@@eosakizo yeah I run trespassers curse in the side cause my meta is creature aggro heavy. The pauper list also includes serated scorpion which is fantastic against control decks. If you have it in your opening hand it's often 5 to 8 points of free damage cause it's more of a pain for your opponent to kill it and suddenly it's in for damage every turn. I find my okiba reckoner raid eats removal much more often
"Shadowsphere" gets me every time
I was gonna play the Seth mis-pronounces a magic card drinking game but I would be dead right now if I had for this episode
I played a similar deck a few years back, but my secret tech was… DASH HOPES! It seriously HOSED people. They always paid the 5, which was perfect! Love black burn.
I mean, sinkhole can remove Urza's saga, but I'm not sure about the shadowspear
I have had the skeleton of this deck built for years. I call it Brutality (for the obvious reason). My current version is an Aristocrats deck with a bunch of the one drops that have your opponent lose a life on tap/attack (Mardu Shadowspear, Night Market Lookout, Pulse Tracker, Vicious Conquistador). It also runs some fetches with a couple copies of Retreat to Hagra. I replaced Soul Spikes with Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord (instead of exiling the Chancellors, cheat them into play)!
I used to love the original version with Soul Spikes and Chancellors: "Okay, I'll start the game at 30, you start at 10. Good luck!" But my latest deck is a lot less susceptible to Leyline of Sanctity. But now that I've seen the decklist, it's time to watch the video!
Super fun deck, can't wait to see a revisit (maybe without budget concerns?)
For answers to Shadowspear and other nasty artifacts:
Budget - Rakdos Charm
Not Quite as Budget - Kolaghan's Command
Just Plain Silly - Emissary of Despair
Try adding Disposess to the sideboard for artifact hate and maybe path of peril to clean up construct tokens.
Crazy how similar this is to pauper monoblack burn
I just built this deck in paper. And ended up doing pretty decently at FNM. Had a pretty memorable game against Four Color control. I was stuck on one land but ended up just getting there with sleeper agents.
You could have brought in path of peril(s) to deal with the constructs or if you're still running the fetches and blood crypts you could run Tibalt, Rakish Investigator in the sideboard
Should add in 1 Corrupt and 3 Drain Life, dual hatted long games and creatures plus life gain. Down side is the additional mana required.
I’m gonna run this at my FNM and I’m suggesting to also run enchantment hate in the sideboard. Feed the swarm is still budget friendly and thoughtsieze doesn’t get rid of it if it’s in their opening hand.
Heeeeello everyone, it's Sleeper Agent. Probably better known as Emo Goblin Guide.
This has been a deck in pauper too
They can't equip Shadowspear during an attack at instant speed! Bring in those fatal push from sideboard and wait to kill construct on declare attacks please Seth
I'm in love with this deck idea however Sword Point Deplomacy as a 3 mana do nothing at four copies in burn doesn't feel correct to run. But that's my first impression as a Boros burn player. I can't wait to test this out.
Without playing any games yet, but with what I know about deck construction, I would start with these changes:
1 Serrated Scorpion
4 Okiba Reckoner Raid
4 Sleeper Agent
4 Chancellor of the Dross
4 Bump in the Night
4 Collective Brutality
4 Gonti's Machinations
4 Sign in Blood
4 Soul Reap
4 Soul Spike
4 Sovereign's Bite
8 Swamp
3 Nurturing Peatland
4 Silent Clearing
4 Blightstep Pathway
running the "not a mountain" swamps for black burn is a nice touch
I think infernal reckoning is the tech for urza's saga if you're trying to stay mono black. Otherwise red splash for smash to smithereens?
I know it probably wouldn't come up much, but your V2 didn't have any red to flashback Bump in the Night.
Because you have red and white mana with your lands you have options for smash to smithereens or wear/tear or the red/black command to deal with shadow spear but it would require a slight change to add 1-2 more blood crypts
Alternative considerations for Sword Point Diplomacy: Geralf's Messenger, Alms of the Vein, Nettling Curse, Prying Questions, Sedgemoor Witch, Soulcage Fiend?
Feed the swarm to hit creatures but also urza’s saga. Pithing needle to hit walkers along with the shadow spear.
Sideboard in "contaminated ground" for urza's saga shenanigans, tron, and titan maybe go down 3 needletraps for it? or 2 needletraps 1 duress?
Could always have a couple copies of creeping chill for turbo mill decks, although I think the soul spike and the chancellor is enough to make it a good matchup already by eating up most of Tasha's hideous laughter
Vs the shadowspear, I think you needed fatal pushes to stop the lifegain for a turn, then pushing through afterwards. You needed one more turn on both cases. You don't need to beat the shadowspear, you need to beat the 7 lifegain.
If you're splashing green with the Horizon lands, a good catch-all for the side would be something like Abrupt Decay or Assassin's Trophy.
Orzhova Church of Deals in the manabase for that 1 last point of uncountable damage in scenarios like the Living End matchup?
Maybe add white, since you have Silent Clearing, and have aven mindcensor and disenchant in the board?
This was such a sweet list, really enjoyed this one. I agree with the general comment consensus that more Sleepers and fewer Sword Point Diplomacy is good. Optimizing this list seems like an interesting experiment sometime too for sure
Rakdos Charm can replace the Nile spellbomb for artifact destruction and has graveyard hate... good for overrun token decks as well
Half the deck is from the Pauper version of this and I love it. But I guess so does Mono R Burn
Down 2 soul spike (2 will remain for the mega nut possibility) up 2 temporal extortion. Down sword point diplomacy up alms of the vein or fruit of tizerus?. For side board I love ratchet bomb and pithing needle. Idk thoughts?
No Alms of the Vein? Also for artifacts there is Bedevil or Kolaghan's Command.
If you're looking to buy one extra turn...
Is it crazy to suggest running one or two copies of DARKNESS?
I like the idea of dash hopes.. counter your big thing or take 5 damage.
I love this card, but always hear people say it's a lava axe when you want a counterspell and a counterspell when you want a lava are. This might be the kind of deck where that doesn't matter.
Can someone explain why the opponent conceded at 23:00. Seth was at 2 against a 3/3 drc at 4 life...
Seth had gonti's machinations and 2 charges so he could sac to drain opponent for 2 plus sleeper agent is 4 life
He had enough energy to activate Gonti's Machinations
Love this deck, definitely want to see the concept explored further. I feel like a great card for this deck would be Shrouded Lore. It's a scalable Regrowth in black, perfect for an archetype that can struggle with not quite reaching the finish line of 20+ points of burn, especially in the late game?
Also, copies of Darkness in the sideboard to help blank opposing creatures in combat would be funny as hell
I feel like shrouded lore would be too mana intensive to ensure that we got a relevant card when they are likely to just keep giving us our fetch lands back or our soul spike.
@@christianbarrett3040 problem can be mitigated by replacing fetchlands with Nurturing Peatland as Seth suggested. I definitely like Shrouded Lore as a card more than something that is very win-more like Sword-Point Diplomacy
This deck is awesome. I actually want to try and build this idea on Arena.
sadly I doubt we'll get modern on Arena for several years. And a lot of pieces aren't available in explorer or historic.
@@AricHaldan0782 Not Modern and not this deck. I’m talking the Idea of MonoBlack Burn and trying to make it work within the arena formats. I think Helios decks might pose an issue but with Innistrad remastered maybe we get some pieces to help.
Run a few Urborg alongside a playset of Ghost Quarter. Doesn’t really go with the budget thing but it sure does stop Urza’s Saga playing pseudo wasteland.
Needed push in against thopter sword, answer the attacking spear holder to stop the life gain
I think that Force of Despair is an underrated card. It might help against your opponent playing a lot of creatures. You can wipe the board if they cascade into Living End or Rhinos without keeping mana open.
32:48 The only answer to Urza's Saga is a ban.
i lost it when he said "play a mountain".
The answer to shadowspear/urza saga IMO is to go rakdos for the cookie cutter staple burn spells + the ability to destroy artifacts thru Abrade, Vandalblast, or Rakdos Charm.
Also allows you to experiment with stuff like Blightning?
I guess everyone was sleeping on the agent, uh
a deck ive been trying out i like to call rat storm uses karumonix rat king, pyre of heroes, rat colony and bontus monument. The deck is nuts when it pops off
Rakdos Charm in the sideboard? Destroys artifacts, massive burn against go-wide decks, and exiles graveyards. Seems pretty good to me.
This is gold, please play more of this deck
At 36:45 you were supposed to cycle clearing in response to architects to try and draw something you can use before they stack your deck.
your answer to shadowspear could be pithing needle ? if you name it with needle they cannot equip it
Before Faithless Looting got banned, I used to play a Rakdos burn deck with Fiery Temper and Almes of the Veins. It was fun at the time and with additions like Rootwalla, Darcy, and others since, the deck would be very good if it existed today with Faithless Looting
What's funny is I had an idea for this deck or something similar to it back in Shadows over Innistrad and was told I might as well play monored burn and that this was a dumb idea.
This deck's sideboard would love a Rakdos Charm tbh. Its castable off your Crypt, is Artifact and Grave hate and thanks to Sleeper Agent it always do at least 1 dmg as a burn spell.
For artifact hate, what about splashing green with the horizon lands to run Witherbloom Command? It can pick off a problematic Shadowspear/artifact and drain the opponent.
Needs Alms of the Vein to synergize with collective brutality
How about engineered explosives? you can play it for 0 to get the constructs or for 1 to get the shadowspear. Pitchning needle or ratchet bomb are also good.
With the sleeper agent and his big bodies ensnaring bridge seems like it gets a ton of value
Sword Point Diplomacy!!! Deck looks lovely, thanks for the video!