Laser's Mono Black Aggro 2021

[Laser Brains]

These mana variance reasons are exactly the reason to play Blackbloom Rogues with Stompy mana.

Stompy shells have worse card selection than most Legacy decks and tend to risk either lack of colored mana sources (due to colorless lands like Ancient Tomb & Wasteland) or mana flood (if running a high basic count to get colored mana, but then having no card selection to filter draws). With 30/60 cards as mana, each draw step has 50% chance to be mana so you have high risk of flood. Double-faced lands like Blackbloom Rogue are major tech here, giving colored mana in the early game and then business as topdecks. Reeplcheep tested this a lot and always runs 4 now (Pelakka Predation or Hagra Mauling make more sense for Curses, but Blackbloom seems better for your aggro). You could also consider 1-2 Agadeem's Awakening in those slots, since you actually have good low CMC creatures to return.




Check with Reeplcheep and his decklists for that. Curses runs both Dark Rit and Mox, but it also has a higher curve than you with more 4-5 cmc spells.

T1 Dark Rit -> Trinisphere or Dark Rit -> Opposition Agent are both monster plays that can steal games. But running both Rit + Mox does mean more card disadvantage, so you may want to keep a draw engine like Bob. Curses is more able to take that card disadvantage gambit since it runs hard-to-remove 1-card win-cons (Karn, Curse, Helm) and only needs to resolve one. Aggro may need to resolve multiple creatures, and each can be answered by 1-mana spells (StP, Terminus, Push), so card disadvantage may bite you a lot more. You may have to pick between Ritual and Mox.




If you're looking at Braids in Black Stompy, then can you find room for Crucible of Worlds? It negates Braids' drawback and also lets you Wastelock greedy mana. Then you can save Sinkhole for basics and really manascrew them.

All of that makes sense. The Blackbloom and Hagra are pure gold! If we use your mana base we get two open slots to boot.

I like the Crucible in the Braids version and I did think about that, but I honestly don't even think we really even need it because every card in the deck is a permanent. I noticed that once you get your access to four mana you're set on mana. Each additional land you draw (or duplicate Trinisphere, Tangle etc..) can be sacked to Braids, and you can just plop a permanent into play every turn to sac. Decks like Delver and Burn that don't run a ton of permanents are going to get screwed because they have to sac one of their only permanents in play which is usually going to be one of their precious lands.

Those two slots that opened up I'm thinking the 4th Voidwalker should / could be there. The one sided Rest in Peace is really good against a ton of relevant decks. Plus of course he has evasion and his other ability which I've seen become absolutely game winning in some decks I've played against in the past.

The other open slot could be Braids, but maybe it needs a removal creature like I was saying earlier. Not sure if Chupacabra is good enough but killing a creature and gaining a creature is pure card advantage.

Just realized Cursed Scroll wouldn't work with Chalice, but another old school thought is Masticore, and it's probably better anyway. Since you're already going to be hellbent his "discard a card" drawback isn't bad at all. He's easily cast, he's a big 4/4 beater and his ability to munch up weenies should fit very nice. The icing on the cake, which you will probably rarely use, is that he regenerates.

Maybe you are right though. Crucible might be the correct card. Another one I'd like to squeeze in is the 3rd Trinisphere.

So maybe something like this:

Beatz (18)
4x Dauthi Voidwalker
4x Opposition Agent
3x Plague Engineer
4x Rotting Regisaur
2x Masticore
1x Braids, Cabal Minion

Mana Denial: 14 (22 counting Op Agent and Wasteland)
4x Chalice of the Void
4x Sinkhole
4x Tangle Wire
2x Trinisphere

Land / Ramp (28)
4x Chrome Mox
3x Blackbloom Rogue
1x Hagra Mauling
3x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Castle Locthwain
7x Swamp
4x Ancient Tomb
4x Wasteland

We could: +1x Braids and -1x Masticore here too, or: -1x Masticore +1 Trinisphere

God, these cards like Braids and Masticore look really stupid since they're never ran in Legacy, but I think that in this deck they actually make sense. Maybe there's something else out there that fits better but they are appealing in this deck.

[FTW]

Masticore has "discard a card OR suicide", which is a lot worse than Rotting Regisaur's "discard a card". If you're Hellbent, Masticore dies.

-2 Masticore
+2 anything else?

[Laser Brains]

Masticore has "discard a card OR suicide", which is a lot worse than Rotting Regisaur's "discard a card". If you're Hellbent, Masticore dies.

-2 Masticore
+2 anything else?

Ouch! Your right. That's too bad. So no Masticore unless your in a position where you're confident that he'll win you the game. In that case he's too risky. Perhaps, if we go the Braids route, a Crucible could fill one or two of those slots.

If we don't go the Braids route I do like the Ravenous Chupacabra, he's essentially a Palace Jailer minus the monarch token. He can target a creature, unlike Braids which gets your opponent's least desired permanent. I also don't like that Braids is a legend. Karakas is ubiquitous, and that might be why Chupacabra is the better choice. More targeted removal seems good. Maybe even another Hagra wouldn't be bad. It could smooth out the removal package while ensuring you get your double black mana for cards like Sinkhole and Voidwalker.