Okay. Cruel to be kind.
1. A 3c deck?
Lets take out the blue. First thing - get rid of it. Blue doesn`t really bring very much to the beatdown feast since it lost Unstable Mutation. The evasion is good, but we can do without that I think, and I`d rather be heavier in red for more direct damage. The difference being that the burn spells are more useful in damaging your opponent if he has no creatures to remove, or if you are topdecking to kill.
2. Monsters
Monsters are good, monsters are our friend. They are also the most important thing in the deck because they will deal 70% fo the damage for us. We are looking for cards that are:
a) cheap (anythig over 3cc should be REALLY fast or REALLY big)
b) big, certainly we want nothing that has power less than it`s casting cost unless it has a really nifty ability. Generally we are looking for cards that break the parity (such as a 3/1 for 2cc). However because we want to be casting spells every turn anything that 'pumps' is going to slow us down really badly.
c) evade. We need at least something that will make your opponents duck and cover. An offense can eaily be blunted by the arrival of a 3/3 groundpounder on your opponent`s side, having some evasion stops that sort of thing getting in the way.
And that`s a problem, because if we look at the creatures available in our colours nothing really applies. Black gets some 2-power Mercenary guys, and I guess red has some dodgy 2-power Goblins, but nothing outstanding. Blue similarly has nothing except Lord Of Atlantis and Cloudskate. So why are we in black then All black gives us that is worth sticking around for is support spells, but unfortunately red spells are also currently support spells (lots of cheap burn, but no really good monsters).
Hmm, rethink.
Let`s use Green. There`s good monsters in green.
4 Llanowar Elf
4 River Boa
4 Elvish Archer
4 Kavu Titan
4 Blastoderm
2 Skizzik
3. Spells
If the spell doesn`t hurt my opponent, I need to have a damn good reason for using it. Fish decks, with their countermagic and their Sleeper`s Robes, just aren`t aggro enough for my liking. I want damage or defense-removal, and I want it now!
We can just add red on top for removal and direct damage
4 Seal Of Fire
4 Scorching Lava
4 Rhystic Lightning
4 Urza`s Rage
+22 Land
There - that` s a very average R/G deck.
YAWN - DULL!
Let`s go back to look at B/R for a bit...
What monsters
can we use?
4 Cateran Persuader (2-for-2cc)
4 Mindless Thug (2-for-2cc)
4 Shivan Zombie (2-for-2cc)
4 Kavu Aggressor (3-for-3cc)
4 Blazing Spectre (haste, evasion, disruption)
2 Skizzik (5-for-5cc, haste, evasion)
But all those are roughly 2/2. We need something to give them muscle and hitting power. We don`t want too many of this sort of card, because they are vulnerable to your opponent killing both spells by killing the creature under it, but as the monsters are black we are only really scared of burn, and the enchantment should make it too big to remove. The two best options are Parallax Dementia (+3/+2 for a couple of turns) or Maniacal Rage(+2/+2 cannot block).
As the Rage gives roughly the same bonus, is permanent, and can be used in an emergency to stop an opponent from blocking (I won a PTQ once with precisely that trick), I think it has to be favourite.
4 Maniacal Rage
And that took up 26 slots. Leaving us with 12 for burn spells.
4 Seal Of Fire
4 Shock
4 Rhystic Lightning
Because our deck is so heavy at 2cc spells it is important to use plenty of 1cc stuff here. This allows us to not only cast a spell on the first turn, but more importantly gives us the opportunity to make a 2cc spell AND a Shock on the third turn. Being able to play spells at a faster tempo than your opponent can match is one of the keys to playing a succesful beatdown deck.
4. Calculating the Mana Base
Red spells: 26, of which 2 require RR
Black spells: 16, of which 4 require BB, and they are 2cc as well.
Hmm. This is bad. Can we get rid of the Persuaders because it might be hard to get BB on the second turn? What can we use: Skittish Kavu, Goblin Elite Infantry, Whipstitch Zombie, Hate Weaver, Nakaya Shade...
Hold on a second - Hate Weaver is amazing, surely? Not only is it a 2-for-2cc, but it`s got an excellent ability for this deck. Okay, so we swap the Persuaders for Weavers, and that makes our mana easier.
26R/16B - approx 65/35%. But because both require only 1 of the mana to run, we can afford to balance it a little more because we have no need to see a lot of red mana.
4 Sulfurous Springs go straight in, no-brainers.
2 Urborg Volcano follow, because we don`t have much to do for 1cc, so they won`t hurt our curve too much.
3 Rishadan Port, because we can as our mana base is not too strict.
7 Mountain
6 Swamp
There was that critique detailed enough for you Griffith_Se?
For more basic info I long ago wrote some rough primers on beatdown play:
Beatdown 101
http://members.tripod.co.uk/candiman/strategy2.htm
Card Advantage for Beatdown players
http://members.tripod.co.uk/candiman/strategy1.htm
Good luck!
