Aggressive, black “suicide”-style decks have always been on the fringe of Legacy and Vintage, usually played by pilots transitioning from casual play to the competitive world. They’re cheap to build, have the fun of Dark Ritual-fueled starts and are moderately competitive. It’s also not a strategy that’s taken seriously by competitive players, which leads to all sorts of groaning when one loses to such a deck. They’re demoralizing to play against, and the “Swamp, Dark Ritual, Duress, Hymn to Tourach” start can tear even the strongest hands apart. Though the deck concept has been around since Alpha, it doesn’t get played very much in Legacy, which is a shame because it’s actually pretty good.
Witness, for example, the two Black decks in the Top 8 of GP: Chicago. Check out two more from GP: Columbus and see that the deck can survive long tournaments, thanks to some very strong cards. The Suicide archetype isn’t played very much in Legacy, but in the hands of a good player who knows how to rightly value threats, it can be devastating. I talk about valuing threats because one of the keys in the deck is knowing whether to Sinkhole or Hymn to Tourach the opponent on the second turn, or whether to lay Nantuko Shade or Tarmogoyf at a critical point. The deck, by and large, has no real drawing power to it, so it needs a strong pilot who can recognize when to mulligan. For example, a hand with Wasteland and Sinkhole is great against a Counter-Top deck, where it’s next to useless against a Merfolk opponent. Knowing the value of cards and hands in specific matches results in wins (and Hymn to Tourach helps).
I compiled a spreadsheet of 20 Black-Green Suicide decks (sometimes referred to as “Eva Green”) to determine what qualities all of these decks shared. The lists came from Top 8s at medium and large events and represent the untouchables in the deck and showcase what can go in the last few slots of every deck. You may remember from my Merfolk deck breakdown article a few weeks ago that I was surprised at the consistency of the builds I ran into, and with BG Suicide, this resurfaced. You’ll see a very stable deck shell, packed with powerful disruption and creatures. Let’s get into the info:
The Creatures
The following list represents how many decks were running the creature out of the total number of decks. Unless I mention otherwise, all of the creatures were run in full sets:
Tarmogoyf 20/20
Tombstalker 19/20
Nantuko Shade 19/20
Hypnotic Specter 17/20
Dark Confidant 9/20
The top four creatures are pretty obvious for the deck — some of the strongest beasties ever printed. Hypnotic Specter pairs well with Dark Ritual on the first turn and is also a fine threat when you have to actually tap three lands to play it. I noticed a very interesting phenomenon involving Dark Confidant and Tombstalker, however. Bob Maher must not like it when Tombstalker shows up to the event, because he hits you for nearly half your life whenever you flip it, making it an incredibly dangerous card to run in a deck with no control over what it draws. When players opted to run Dark Confidant, they cut down to 2 Tombstalkers from the regular four, a good compromise when one wants to run two insane but incompatible creatures. I noticed that this split was always present when a player ran Dark Confidant, which makes me think it’s intentional (as opposed to a player running less Tombstalkers because they’re harder to cast in the deck than other options).
BG Suicide absolutely needs strong creatures to win, because its disruption is only a temporary slowdown and cannot prevent winning topdecks. Thus, it’s absolutely imperative to get Nantuko Shade eating life after the initial disruption blizzard, because BG Suicide cannot stop long-term strategies like Moat, recurring Engineered Explosives or other plays that only matter when the opponent gets a chance to rebuild. With Tombstalker and Tarmogoyf, the pressure ideally prevents the opponent from recovering and limits their time to get back in the game. I mention this because another historic line of thinking with Suicide decks is to pack them with creatures like Withered Wretch and Mesmeric Fiend, both of which are pretty bad at attacking but are great utility dorks. BG Suicide decks categorically avoid these creatures and instead, opt for big, one-dimensional attackers.
The Disruption
Characteristic of Suicide decks have been the presence of these three cards:
Hymn to Tourach 20/20
Thoughtseize 20/20
Sinkhole 17/20
Paul Rietzl said, in his Top 8 interview in Chicago, that he wanted a deck that played Hymn to Tourach. It’s basically the reason to run the archetype and one of the few shining spots in Fallen Empires. A dozen years later, the sorcery is still incredible, since it serves as land destruction and creature-kill in one convenient package, assuming that it’s cast in the early turns. As an aside, which picture do you prefer on the card? Black Velvet Wolf Painting is my go-to, but I’ve also seen players gravitate towards Angry Santa or Yet Another Drew Tucker Blob. Nobody likes Looking Down on People Singing, apparently.
Thoughtseize replaces the staple Duress in all of the decks, forming a one-two punch on the first turn when combined with just about anything else in the deck as a follow-up. Several players ran Duress in addition to Thoughtseize, but I only suggest this when you know you’ll be facing down creature-light decks like combo, burn and various control builds all day long. Thoughtseize also sucks up a bit of life, and with Snuff Out making universal appearances, another skill a BG player needs to manage is maintaining a healthy (as in, above zero) life total. All players ran four copies of the card, showing that card access wasn’t a problem.
Finally, the vast majority ran Sinkhole as well. Like Hymn, it’s incredible in the early game and awful when drawn on turn 8 when you’d rather have a creature. The early-game disruptive power of Sinkhole, coupled with some utility from blasting Academy Ruins and Mishra’s Factory, give it a rightful home in BG Suicide. A few players also ran Extirpate maindeck, which can be downright lethal against opponents who rely on Tropical Island to cast Tarmogoyf or similar situations.
The Utility
In addition to hand/land destruction and beaters, the decks often ran creature-killing spells and/or general utility and removal.
Snuff Out 17/20
Diabolic Edict 9/20
Umezawa’s Jitte 8/20
Seal of Primordium 5/20
Snuff Out has gained a lot of steam in Legacy recently. The four life isn’t as important as being free, as some mana is significantly more than none (I feel like I’ve won the Obvious Award several times already in this article). Good black removal starts at two mana, and that’s another creature, two more points of damage from Nantuko Shade or another disruptive spell. The deck would rather spend four life to kill a blocker so that it can get five damage in than spend mana on the same goal. In this way, I look at Snuff Out as a spiritual successor to Flesh Reaver, taking pain to give pain. Lately, some BG decks have also adopted Diabolic Edict, perhaps out of fear because of a Progenitus lurking on the horizon. I don’t think they’re necessary, since if the opponent can resolve Natural Order, you’ve probably already lost. The best application, I think, is killing opposing Tombstalkers. Also surprisingly, I found only one deck ran Smother. I take this as evidence that Snuff Out is definitely the right removal choice for the deck. The players who ran Edicts often did so because they were also running two Dark Confidants, making another 8-point lifeloss a real liability.
Umezawa’s Jitte rounds out some lists as another 2-cost card that will Ruin Your Day. It and Seal of Primordium go a long way to giving the deck staying power, as they can contain the lategame cards that other decks play. Both are fine choices and I’d be happy to have a pair of each in a list I would play. Other options included Pithing Needle, Extirpate, Duress, Reanimate and Night’s Whisper. None of these really excite me as much as Seal and Jitte do, though.
The Manabase
The following is, almost universally, the exact manabase every deck ran:
4 Dark Ritual
4 Wasteland
3 Bayou
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
6 Swamp
I was a little surprised that Bayou didn’t show up as a 4-of, but with only one green spell in the maindeck to resolve, it can be a liability against other decks packing Wasteland. With eight fetchlands to get the mana going, it’s easy to find a Bayou if need be. The damage from the lands also contributes to the life-loss problem I alluded to earlier, which makes the deck’s match against Merfolk and Goblins that much easier to lose. I’d wager that it’s often better to just sit on fetches in this deck than activate them to thin your remaining deck of lands. None of the players ran a basic forest either, though some ran utility one-ofs like Volrath’s Stronghold.
Sideboards in BG Suicide were fairly consistent, as you’ll see from these data:
Choke 19/20
Leyline of the Void 19/20
Engineered Plague 13/20
Umezawa’s Jitte 11/20
Pernicious Deed 9/20
Krosan Grip 8/20
Yikes, that’s a lot of Chokes! The 2G Enchantment is a gamebreaker against decks with Counterbalance and are critical in that match; since BG Suicide is so reliant on 2-cost spells, an early CounterTop lock can seriously hamper the deck. Similarly, decks like Landstill can sufficiently delay losing to the point where they have the upper hand. Choke gives BG Suicide another “must-counter” that can be boarded in when Snuff Out hits the bench. Krosan Grip and Pernicious Deed also remove cards like Counterbalance and Vedalken Shackles, though I’d be wary of diluting the deck’s power in post-board games by siding in too many “answer” cards.
BG Suicide also runs 4 Leyline of the Void as a stopper to Dredge-based strategies like Ichorid and Life from the Loam-centric decks. I’m not sure that Leylines are necessary, though. I’d look at Extirpate instead, since we want a sideboard with cards to bring in against a combo match. I don’t see many graveyard-reliant decks put up results, and I get the feeling that some players put Leylines on their board because it’s a “safe” option. I’d seriously consider whether I could get more sideboard utility out of those four slots.
We’ve also got significant Engineered Plague representation, a historically great way to contain Goblins and especially strong in this deck. To beat two Engineered Plagues, Goblins needs to hit them with Krosan Grip, meaning that they have to side them in. They’re bringing in a card that is only good against 4-6 cards in our deck, while Plague is good against over half of their deck. That results in less dead draws for us and more dead draws when Goblins draws the Grip but doesn’t have a target for it. It’s like we get a discard spell on them for free sometimes! That said, Merfolk is becoming much more common and Engineered Plague does little against the 8 Lords that the Blue Man Group packs. I think more cheap removal in this slot, cards like Ghastly Demise, would actually be better than blanket cards like Plague, especially when we really need 2 on the table to make a difference in postboard games.
The Final List
I’d be comfortable bringing this deck, a composite of my research, to an event:
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Tombstalker
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Thoughtseize
3 Snuff Out
4 Dark Ritual
4 Sinkhole
2 Seal of Primordium
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
4 Wasteland
3 Bayou
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
6 Swamp
Sideboard:
3 Choke
4 Extirpate
4 Engineered Plague
2 Krosan Grip
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Pernicious Deed
We’ve also got this card coming our way, spoiled from Alara Reborn:
Putrid Leech
BG
Creature — Leech
Pay 2 life: Putrid Leech gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Play this ability only once each turn.
2/2
A virtual 4/4 for 2 mana is a great deal, even in Legacy. BG Suicide loses enough life already that I don’t see this going in for any other creature, as it’s just not strong enough. However, it packs a lot of punch in the early game and doesn’t suck up mana like Nantuko Shade does. Perhaps it will be played in one or two copies in one of the Nantuko Shade spots, giving the deck a slight edge earlier on while giving up the lategame power of a fueled-up Insect.
I suggest you give the deck a try, as it’s one of the most underrated decks in Legacy and is completely capable of taking down a tournament. The deck can produce free wins from Dark Ritual and isn’t difficult to master. Further, I rate it as being strong against a random field, since discard and land destruction tends to hurt just about everyone. Thanks for joining me, and have fun Tombstalking!
Until next week…
PS: I have set up an email account for this column, so if you have questions or feedback that you want to send directly to me, article ideas or new deck tech, please direct it to legacysallure -at- gmail dawt com.