Thunder Junction is officially here, and we are immediately seeing the effects of this very powerful set. The meta has shifted, some decks have gotten better, and some have gotten worse. We know that nothing in the format is solved this early, but there are some fun cards and decks that are standing out. In regards to card availability, the format is more complete than it has ever been - there are SO many cards! IF we went any longer without a rotation, this would almost start to feel like an eternal format. Thankfully we will have rotation soon, but until then, we will be experiencing a few months of this wild west meta from Thunder Junction. While there are many decks to go over and be aware of, what we will do today is have a look at two of the decks that I made as theory crafting builds, see how they performed, and see if they required any tweaks after some gameplay.
How is Rakdos Doing?
The Rakdos Joins Up deck is an incredibly fun time to play. Although I love playing mono black and there of course is a new one turn kill combo in that archetype, I have to admit that while playing this Rakdos deck, it has given me some of the most fun and unique interactions in MTG that I've had in a long time. I would venture to say that the gameplay from this deck from start to finish is more fun than mono black.
Changes to the Deck and Gameplay
I made some slight changes to the sideboard in this deck, but overall, the main deck itself stayed the same after crafting, and even after some gameplay. I had a great time playing this deck, and so far it has a 62% win rate. I have to admit, when people see Etali, Primal Conqueror come down onto that board and hit a relevant spell from their deck, it still results in a concession a lot of the time - just like it did when we first started to abuse this card. From the gameplay seen here , you can easily see that Etali is a phenomenal finisher in our deck, and we are able to reanimate the creature in a lot of different ways that generate tremendous value. Sometimes we can get it on the board on turn four or turn five.
There was another surprising combo in the deck that I discovered a little bit more via the gameplay. I knew that Drivnod, Carnage Dominus would be a legitimate card, but I almost forgot about how his triggered ability would set off the Rakdos Joins Up triggered ability two different times. That means just from him being reanimated with the enchantment and dying, it would do twenty damage. If he is sacrificed with the fling effect of Burn Together, it does thirty damage. In the gameplay seen here , you are able to see this combo being pulled off to win us game two, and then Etali brings it home in game three for a very flashy victory against the new mono green deck that has some serious power of it's own. Overall, I would say that this deck is incredibly fun to play, and it is not too difficult for it to pop off. Even when not winning, this deck is always a good time!
How is Mono Black Doing?
Let's just start off by saying that right now, nothing quite gives me a rush like casting Rush of Dread for lethal when Bloodletter of Aclazotz is on the board. It should be listed at the top of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Few feelings can top it. That being said, it is definitely something that everyone is aware of and is watching out for. There are a couple of infinite loop combos, or one turn kill combos that people have begun to build around. Because of this, I believe it is why the deck isn't doing quite as well as the Rakdos Deck, and is sitting around a 50% win rate. Some of that is also due to bad luck that particularly occurred tonight, as there were a lot of games where I had a tough time drawing mana. I made a few changes to the deck and sideboard, with the main change being that I added Deep-Cavern Bat and took out the Caustic Bronco and Binding Negotiation. I think with some more tweaking, we can still get this thing running well. It also appears to do a bit better in best of three when we have access to a sideboard. As you can see from the gameplay here , when the deck draws how it is supposed to, we can even beat an aggro deck such as mono red. I think with this deck since we are focused mainly on two particular cards working together, it is mostly about fine-tuning the consistency of it.
Possibilities for Improvement
I think our mono black deck would benefit from having more hand hate to see what our opponent is trying to do in order to play around their plan. We can either discard their threats, or at least use the information we know about to help us win more. Something else that is an obvious issue is the plethora of removal that is available. They don't care as much about losing half their life if Bloodletter is killed in response to us casting Rush of Dread. I believe that adding a card like Not Dead After All, or other spells similar to it could assist us in being more consistent. These are good sideboard options considering that not every deck will constantly have access to killing Bloodletter. For other decks we play, it may be more about playing around counterspells, and that is where the discard packages can come into play and get us where we want to be. Like I said earlier, the Rakdos deck from start to finish is more fun to play, but the Mono Black Combo deck has that immediate rush that is like no other. They are both incredibly fun in their own way, and I would recommend them to anyone looking for new decks to play that showcase the awesome new cards that we have from the set.
