Finnish Nationals - Playing Aggro

[Nastaboi]

Some time ago Wizards announced that card shop owners, even ones with partial ownership, can't participate in their own premier events. For my friend Markus "Vlad" Lehtinen than meant two things. First, he lost all interest on tournament Magic. Second, he put all his energy on Highlander and Cube, and started brewing decks like there's no tomorrow. I joined forces with him and we started testing for HL Nationals. One of our early brews was a ramp deck focused on Primeval Titan.

Lands: 36

Ancient Tomb
Arid Mesa
Bloodstained Mire
Cavern of Souls
Copperline Gorge
Dryad Arbor
Fire-Lit Thicket
Flooded Strand
Kessig Wolf Run
Misty Rainforest
Polluted Delta
Raging Ravine
Rootbound Crag
Scalding Tarn
3 Snow-Covered Forest
Snow-Covered Island
6 Snow-Covered Mountain
Steam Vents
Stomping Ground
Taiga
Treetop Village
Tropical Island
Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Verdant Catacombs
Vesuva
Volcanic Island
Wasteland
Windswept Heath
Wooded Foothills

Ramp:  18

Search for Tomorrow
Explore
Into the North
Farseek
Grim Monolith
Lotus Cobra
Nature's Lore
Overgrown Battlement
Rampant Growth
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Three Visits
Vine Trellis
Wall of Roots

Coalition Relic
Cultivate
Kodama's Reach
Worn Powerstone

Solemn Simulacrum

Other creatures: 19

Phantasmal Image
Scavenging Ooze
Wall of Blossoms

Eternal Witness
Kitchen Finks

Bloodbraid Elf
Flametongue Kavu
Huntmaster of the Fells
Obstinate Baloth
Oracle of Mul Daya
Phyrexian Metamorph
Thrun, the Last Troll

Acidic Slime
Arc-Slogger
Siege-Gang Commander

Inferno Titan
Primeval Titan
Wurmcoil Engine

Avenger of Zendikar

Other stuff: 27

Brainstorm
Ponder
Preordain
Sensei's Divining Top
Worldly Tutor

Desperate Ravings
Sylvan Library

Beast Within
Compulsive Research
Firespout
Slagstorm

Fact or Fiction
Foresee
Garruk Relentless
Garruk Wildspeaker
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Harmonize
Natural Order
Scapeshift
Summoner's Pact

Batterskull
Garruk, Primal Hunter
Primal Command

Karn Liberated

Earthquake
Green Sun's Zenith
Rolling Earthquake

The list has massive amounts of ramp and enough tutoring power to get that Primeval Titan every game. Blue spells give you just enough filtering to keep drawing business throughout the game. The deck has been well tuned and there are not many spells I would change, but I'd alter the mana base a little. I lent the deck to Pro Tour regular Ilkka-Aleksi "Overrun" Yliajo, who made top eight with it. We could not find Summoner's Pact for the tournament and he wanted to play Plow Under, though that was clearly not optional.

We started testing for the event months before (though we got to play together like only once a week) and tested mainly different UW builds with more or less black added. At some point Vlad got to know he could not attend the tournament himself, but we continued testing, though we were not satisfied with any version of our deck. Vlad had an Rb aggro deck with every possible one mana, two power guy in it, and we switched to it. After hours and hours of durdling, we settled on the following deck for me to play in the tournament:

Lands: 33

Arid Mesa
Badlands
Barbarian Ring
Blackcleave Cliffs
Blood Crypt
Bloodstained Mire
Dragonskull Summit
Graven Cairns
Marsh Flats
Mishra's Factory
11 Mountain
Mutavault
Polluted Delta
Rishadan Port
Scalding Tarn
Shadowblood Ridge
Sulfurous Springs
2 Swamp
Teetering Peaks
Verdant Catacombs
Wasteland
Wooded Foothills

Creatures: 30

Carnophage
Diregraf Ghoul
Figure of Destiny
Frenzied Goblin
Fume Spitter
Goblin Guide
Gravecrawler
Grim Lavamancer
Jackal Pup
Mogg Fanatic
Pulse Tracker
Sarcomancy
Stromkirk Noble
Tattermunge Maniac
Vampire Lacerator

Dark Confidant
Dauthi Horror
Ember Hauler
Goblin Deathraiders
Kargan Dragonlord
Keldon Marauders
Porcelain Legionnaire
Stormblood Berserker

Magus of the Moon
Dauthi Marauder

Blistering Firecat
Falkenrath Aristocrat
Flametongue Kavu
Hellrider
Hero of Oxid Ridge

Burn 'n stuff: 37

Black Vise
Burst Lightning
Chain Lightning
Dismember
Lightning Bolt
Reckless Abandon
Reckless Charge
Rift Bolt
Thunderous Wrath

Ankh of Mishra
Arc Trail
Demonic Tutor
Fire Ambush
Incinerate
Magma Jet
Price of Progress
Searing Blaze
Shrine of Burning Rage
Smash to Smithereens
Terminate
Volcanic Hammer

Blood Moon
Brimstone Volley
Char
Dark Tutelage
Fire Covenant
Flame Javelin
Hit // Run
Mark of Mutiny
Molten Rain
Perish
Staggershock
Sulfuric Vortex
Tangle Wire
Traitorous Blood

Koth of the Hammer

Fireblast

Here are some cards that we tested but didn't make cut this time:

Anathemancer
Ashenmoor Gouger
Auntie's Hovel
Ball Lightning
Blightning
Boggart Ram-Gang
Bump in the Night
Cryoclasm
Duress
Flame Rift
Flames of the Blood Hand
Hellspark Elemental
Hell's Thunder
Inquisition of Kozilek
Keldon Champion
Lava Spike
Plated Geopede
Pulse of the Forge
Reckless Waif
Shambling Remains
Shard Volley
Thoughtseize
Vexing Devil
Winter Orb

We cut all direct damage spells that can't hit creatures relatively early. We even added removal that can't damage an opponent, though we could have went slightly overboard with it. We removed then all RRR casters to make the mana base more reliable. Note that there are no BB casters either. The plan was to maximize damage from one drops and then burn the rest.

On individual cards:

Fume Spitter was added when we realized that killing mana dudes is the key in some matches. Frostling is also an option if you want to go real deep.

First turn Pulse Tracker (followed by Vampire Lacerator) caused some confusion among my opponents. Clearly they were not expecting me to play Vampire Tribal Aggro.

Dauthi guys were great repeatable sources of damage, though I never drew Marauder during the tournament.

Porcelain Legionnaire was MVP, often holding an opponent's whole board if I had mana up.

There even are some humans for Falkenrath Aristocrat in the deck. Mutavault counts too, if you missed it. Definitely better than Giant Solifuge.

During the tournament, I drew Thunderous Wrath two times when spoiling, and once as my first card when on the draw. I cast it total zero times with miracle or otherwise.

Dark Tutelage was eventually too slow. Someone suggested Skeletal Scrying, but I'm not sure if card drawing is even what this deck wants, unless it's attached to a cheap body or a burn spell.

Fire Covenant was insanely good. At quarterfinals I was playing against a midrange Naya deck which had had mana problems but then found Noble Hierarch. I let him untap with it, and he played Huntmaster of the Fells, Gaea's Cradle and Tarmogoyf. End Step I paid 10 and wiped his board. Perish would have resulted the same here, but it's more a metagame card and was a dead draw more than once. Perish was also multiple times good but never great, while Covenant was always great. I have to reconsider Perish, but Covenant has earned its spot.

Two threatens were something we added to deal with situations where an opponent plays Wurmcoil/Baneslayer/Titan and tries to stabilize with it. I never got into a situation they were good, and this experiment didn't yield any positive results. I have to figure out another plan for Wurmcoils and such.

In the tournament I won against UW aggro control, Naya aggro, Rg burn and Bant tapout control, split matches against Naya midrange and Monored (as I played against them in both Swiss and elimination rounds) and lost against Grixis control to some really bad draws. The deck was not really suited for this particular metagame, but I made it up by making fewer mistakes than my opponents. The most difficult decisions were how to mulligan and how to use Demonic in early turns, and I can't say I made the right decisions here. Other than that, I think I played pretty well considering I'm not used to aggro decks – they are oftentimes more difficult to play optimally than control decks.

One card I should have played is Torch Fiend. It's both two drop and instant speed artifact removal, both of which are needed. Pillage is also an option. Sorcery speed makes it less good, but Stone Rain half is the one you'll be using more anyways. I'm also testing Forked Bolt (those Legacy players got to be up for something, right?) and along with M13 comes another incinerate.

More questions and suggestions are welcome as usual.

[JunioRcmf]

Did you test Bitterblossom in the BR build? It is one of the best two drops for black aggro decks and very good early turn tutor target for Demonic (especially against control decks). It can be a bad draw in the late game but I still think that it is powerful enough to deserve a slot.

[Tiggupiru]

Did you test Bitterblossom in the BR build? It is one of the best two drops for black aggro decks and very good early turn tutor target for Demonic (especially against control decks). It can be a bad draw in the late game but I still think that it is powerful enough to deserve a slot.

BB is easily one of the most over-rated cards in the format despite it not seeing that much play. It needs synergy like there's no tomorrow. Faeries were full of it and the format was much more forgiving if you had a permanent that pings you every turn. There even were slow control decks for it to devour pretty much all by itself. None of these traits apply here.

[W0lf]

Bitterblossom is the best black card after Demonic Tutor in HL.
It should be in your deck for obvious reasons....

[MMD]

Thanks for your detailed and enlightened report. I really like your deck list because of its intransigence, although I would never play such a deck by myself because it is not using Islands  . I will use your design to pass the aggro test of my decks in future.

Bitterblossom: IMHO a very mediocre card in a 100/1 format. I have not found a home for this card until today. The place of the second best black card is aready reserved for Mystical Teachings 

[Nastaboi]

Thanks for kind comments! I will also keep Rb deck built and updated for testing purposes. We briefly considered Bitterblossom but it is just SOOO slow.