Hi and welcome to the newest installment of Black Magic.  Last time we explored the omnipotent land Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and had some fun with it in extended.  Today we're going to focus on standard and see if it has any room for my new pet, Roiling Horror.  As you may know, Roiling Horror is the black suspend creature from Planar Chaos that has a triggered effect when you remove a time counter off its clock.  Two other suspend creatures have been getting a lot of hype lately and with good reason.  Aeon Chronicler and Detritivore are quickly becoming a huge part of the new standard and block metagame.

But what about the other suspensions?  Do they have a chance at showing up in future tier one decks?  Well, I can't speak for Fungal Behemoth and Benalish Commander, but I can say that Roiling Horror may have some potential.

Card advantage and a fatty.

Destroys current metagame manabases.

Steals one life at a time?

So whats so special about pinging your opponent for a measly one damage and gaining one health?  Assuming you suspend the horror for X=1 and you and your opponent are both at twenty life, he comes into play as a 2/2.  Big deal right?  Guess its time I showed you the deck list:

I think Soul Spike also needs a bit more explanation.  As I pointed out earlier, often times your opponent will have a decent to significant lead on you in life total.  When this is the case, they become more liberal with their life total when it comes to Temporal Extortion and Dash Hopes which lures them nicely into your trap.  Also, if they have a two or more life point lead, they will ignore your suspended Roiling Horror altogether and tap out even if they are playing countermagic.  That's when you hit them with a nicely timed Soul Spike and/or hit their only blocker with a Tendrils of Corruption.  Either will suprise them and swing the life contest well in your favor.  And if you happen to get the horror on board with a clear view at your opponents' skull, throw down a Temporal Extortion and let them decide how they want to die.

Another honorable mention, while it may seem like a random addition, is Mirri the Cursed.  She is the best sidekick a Roiling Horror can ask for.  She has haste, she flies, and she has FIRST STRIKE.  What does that mean for Syphonzilla?  That's an extra +3/+3 before he even gets to bash some heads in!  Phyrexian Arena can also seem like its more of a hinderance than a blessing but it does more good than bad in every situation I have played it so far.  It does give your Roiling Horror -1/-1 in the long run but it can also hand you two black cards to toss to Soul Spike or that much needed Damnation to clear a cluttered board.  Moonlight Bargain is also a nice option to dig up more pieces of your arsenal at the end of your opponents' turn.  This deck is played very similar to a draw go since all of its spot removal is at least instant speed. The Sideboard Leyline of the Void is for the Dredge or Solar Flare match up.  Be sure to side out Extirpate if you put in the leylines as it will not work with it out.  Shadow of Doubt is the Dragonstorm hoser and a viable option against Dralnu tutoring.  The Bottled Cloisters are there to help combat against the guy playing Persecute.  If an opponent gets one off naming black, it could take awhile to recover.  They can easily replace the three Phyrexian Arenas if need be.  Then it has its own Persecute when faced against those other mono-colored strategies such as Mono-Green Aggro.  Nightmare Void is one of the best control disruptors and Darkblast is just another removal option if they like to use a lot of weenies. Weaknesses The deck itself is pretty resilient to most everything your opponent can toss at you.  Unfortunately, as a control deck, disruption is a major problem.  Persecute is a very popular card in today's metagme and will wreck your whole hand.  If one of these gets pointed at you, sneak in an extra five life loss on your opponents' end with a Dash Hopes and toss away two other black cards to Soul Spike them for another four.  Countermagic is also another major show stopper (which is the whole point).  If your opponent is playing a ton of counters (i.e. Dralnu du Louvre), suspend Roiling Horrors with large X costs to keep a consistent two life swing in your favor every turn.  Its uncounterable (unless they want to Trickbind it for a turn >< ) and can give you enough space to wait for the right moment to strike.  Putting plenty of counters on your Dreadship Reefs can help contain this foe as well by allowing you to fling a bunch of spells at him all at once.  Very fast aggro can pose some problems if it gets a few large swings through your removal but usually they run out of gas before it can keep up with your life gain.  Land destruction is annoying but little more than that.  Even if your opponent can get a few lands and jump ahead with major card advantage, Soul Spike is almost always ready as a last ditch effort to completely change the situation.

Mirri is just angry that you didn't take Roiling Horror seriously enough.

Overview
Even though I gave the strategy of the deck in comparison with the top notch metagame contenders, I still advertise this deck as a casual deck.  In its current state, I don't think it has exactly what it takes to battle the likes of Dralnu du Louvre, Dragonstorm, etc. at a tournament level.  This deck definately needs two more copies of Damnation (I only own the two) and one more Phyrexian Arena.  Card advantage is very important with this deck and it just can't keep up with blue's Compulsive Research and the like.  Deathmark is another sideboard candidate; unfortunately, I don't own any.  Maybe someone will try and splash another color into the mix but with my build, an additional color is not optional due to all the double, triple, and even quadruple black mana costs.  In addition, mulligans are far and few because you will almost always catch at least two black mana to get things started.

Next time, I'll be reporting some test results as I attempt to tweak this deck to a more competetive level.  Any suggestions are welcome and if you want to play your standard deck against me to try and wreck it, feel free to /addbuddy Jinx_Talaris and send me a message.  I expect a rough fight with Lord Erman's Vore 2007 as well   In addition to playtest results, I would also like to post a new deck idea that fancies the johnny in me.  So if you have a black card or concept you would like me to attempt to build around, send the name of the card/concept to jinxtalaris@gmail.com.  Remember, it has to be johnnyesque and tied with black somehow (also try to keep the cost of the card below 1 tix please).  If it doesn't completely flop, I'll try to do something similar each week while I'm here in Afghanistan (11 more months to go!).