I haven't actually looked at your deck list, so it was more of a general question. But I gather now that your primary strategy is card advantage and forcing an empty hand very quickly. Bounce for one or even two mana is better than burn that costs more for bigger creatures. Still, for smaller creatures it would seem burn (shock, dead weight) is better than bounce because your follow-up discard means more, no?

original version here: viewtopic.php?p=287194#p287194

updated to this:



Explanation on the changes.

By adding some early draw, I can reduce my need for mana fixing (+4 Think Twice). This also allowed for more consistent early games, and more guaranteed card draw than (-2) Graveborn Muse or (-2) Indulgent Tormentor could (-2 Armillary Sphere). I switched out (-4) Void Snare for Dead Weight. Although this makes the deck far more vulnerable to non-creature permanents, it makes it far less vulnerable to all of the 2/2 creatures (the worst for this deck was Goblin Rabblemaster, but they were all tough in their own ways). Finally, I had two open slots left (at the top of the curve) so I decided to use Rune-Scarred Demon, because Demon, Demon, Horror should win most games.

The deck seems much improved of the original. It's still the same concept, but just a bit better at doing what it was trying to do, which is make Monomania a killer card, destroy the opponent's hand, and win by forcing them to play my game.

Major Weakness GY decks. A Spikier version probably loses monomania (of course, sigh), and gains Sheoldred and a single Suffer the Past. Edit: maybe Shadowborn instead of Suffer, so you get that combo possible.

I switched out (-4) Void Snare for Dead Weight.

So burn over bounce in the end

I tried both versions of your discard deck DJ and TBH I liked the first version a lot better than the second one. The first version felt solid but this was not the case when I played the second version. Maybe I had bad luck or I am missing on something but I'll try to explain why.

Cards like Mind Rot (and Liliana's Specter but to a lesser extent) really run counter to what you are trying to do with Monomania. Since you don't have much board presence in the first turns besides Brain Maggot and Specters you are pretty much forced to play those cards early to start actually doing something in the first turns. In the first version you had a lot more removal/bounce spells which could help stalling the board and slow down your opponent until you can draw the big guns and actually start doing something.

Tribute to Hunger was great with all the bounce as you could force more easily the opponent to sacrifice the creature you want. The larger amount of bounce spells also made playing cards like Liliana's Specter less harmful to Monomania and you could actually start building a board state with it.

Although I managed to consistently empty my opponent's hand at some point, the main problems I had at every game were pretty much the same:

- Monomania often ending up as a dead card due to the above mentioned problems unless it is in my starting hand. If I have it in my starting hand I can at least plan in order to make it relevant. But then I still need to refrain from using some cards and sometimes lose tempo as a result.

- General difficulty in keeping up with my opponent's board state. Although bounce spells, Dead Weight and discard spells helped by the time my opponent at some point there was not much I could do against big creatures once my bounce spells are exhausted. And discard can't prevent the opponent topdecking some big wincon to pull the win when you think things are over. Talrand helped a lot in improving my board state when he sticked around but it's not always the case and with 2 in the deck you don't always see him.

- In the games I played Think Twice alone wasn't really enough to keep me afloat with cards. I think the deck needs another draw engine and probably bringing back the Muses could help.

- The 2 Rune-Scarred Demons and the 3 Dinrova Horrors weren't always sufficient to help closing the game. I think it would be better to have other late game threats, especially since you have few early creatures to start doing the job. Your idea of putting in Sheoldred for example could be the right call IMO since it can help offset the impact of topdeck removal on your big dudes in the late game and also bring back smaller creatures.

- The huge amount of taplands slowed the deck quite a lot IMO, which really didn't help. I can understand though why you would need many to cast the and spells but still in game it felt like a bit too much to me for a 2 color deck.

Interesting. Well it's possible that the original was the better idea. The core functionality is bounce, mind rot, and specters, with brain maggot as extra pain. And both versions have those cards, so it may be a matter of personal taste.

In my current build I've dropped Monomania entirely. I am running Sheoldred and Shadowborn Demon instead. I agree that it's hard to land Monomania, and as such, I've decided to drop it, in my competitive (non-theory crafted) version of the deck.

I had also considered the possibility of running peel from reality for bounce as well. This may actually be the right thing to do in the original build - and in any version that keeps monomania.

All of that said, I am fairly certain that you are having bad luck if this build is performing worse than the original for you. This version (even keeping monomania) has been much more consistent for me.

(on the subject of tap lands, most people will say that I run too many in every deck that I make. I have no problem with people removing a few of them, the mana balance is usually based on what I would run with real duals - we don't have real duals, so consequently I'm not really considering the 'comes into play tapped' aspect - this is an effect of years of building paper decks, and basically never using tap lands the whole time. Adjust as you see fit if you test the decks.)

I tried both versions of your discard deck DJ and TBH I liked the first version a lot better than the second one. The first version felt solid but this was not the case when I played the second version. Maybe I had bad luck or I am missing on something but I'll try to explain why.

Cards like Mind Rot (and Liliana's Specter but to a lesser extent) really run counter to what you are trying to do with Monomania. Since you don't have much board presence in the first turns besides Brain Maggot and Specters you are pretty much forced to play those cards early to start actually doing something in the first turns. In the first version you had a lot more removal/bounce spells which could help stalling the board and slow down your opponent until you can draw the big guns and actually start doing something.

Tribute to Hunger was great with all the bounce as you could force more easily the opponent to sacrifice the creature you want. The larger amount of bounce spells also made playing cards like Liliana's Specter less harmful to Monomania and you could actually start building a board state with it.

Although I managed to consistently empty my opponent's hand at some point, the main problems I had at every game were pretty much the same:

- Monomania often ending up as a dead card due to the above mentioned problems unless it is in my starting hand. If I have it in my starting hand I can at least plan in order to make it relevant. But then I still need to refrain from using some cards and sometimes lose tempo as a result.

- General difficulty in keeping up with my opponent's board state. Although bounce spells, Dead Weight and discard spells helped, at some point there was not much I could do against big creatures once my bounce spells are exhausted. And discard can't prevent the opponent topdecking some big wincon to pull the win when you think things are over. Talrand helped a lot in improving my board state when he sticked around but it's not always the case and with 2 in the deck you don't always see him.

- In the games I played Think Twice alone wasn't really enough to keep me afloat with cards. I think the deck needs another draw engine and probably bringing back the Muses could help.

- The 2 Rune-Scarred Demons and the 3 Dinrova Horrors weren't always sufficient to help closing the game. I think it would be better to have other late game threats, especially since you have few early creatures to start doing the job. Your idea of putting in Sheoldred for example could be the right call IMO since it can help offset the impact of topdeck removal on your big dudes in the late game and also bring back smaller creatures.

- The huge amount of taplands slowed the deck quite a lot IMO, which really didn't help. I can understand though why you would need many to cast the and spells but still in game it felt like a bit too much to me for a 2 color deck.

Looks horrible.

Settled on Talrand and Shadowborn for those last two spots eh?