The Retired: We Bite

 I think it's fair to say that if I've been through a deck and am not more interested in playing than I was, it's worth retiring. 

3 Whispersilk Cloak

2 Stigma Lasher
3 Kris Mage
3 War Elemental
2 Blood Knight
2 Mogg Fanatic
3 Hazoret the Fervent
3 Stromkirk Occultist

4 Seal of Fire

4 Chain of Plasma
4 Fiery Temper
4 Fireblast

2 Forgotten Cave
21 Mountain

I still believe there's something to be said for the risk/reward of having almost no hand size; Hazoret the Fervent is a pretty great payoff. Seal of Fire is perfect for the theme, Stromkirk Occultist keeps the cards coming.

I think I have to admit that the card I want to build around, War Elemental, is the problem here. Big dumb dorks that don't have an impact on the board are not helpful for winning games of Magic and it's time I let this concept go. There are several cards that will be better served in decks with tighter themes or better lynchpins and I look forward to adding them. 

A Wolf's Endeavor

I feel alright about this. We Bite is in a good spot with enough synergies and fire to pull off games even against some challenging counterspell decks like blue/black faeries.

Control matchups become an exercise in patience, saving burn spells for the opponent's turn in order to draw out counterspells vs trying to advance my own board as quickly as possible.

The suggestion of Whispersilk Cloak has been a huge boon to the deck too, increasing the number of cards opponents have to deal with. As with any deck, the goal is to run the opponent out of answers and win with the one thing they can't handle anymore.

And We Bite definitely has the kind of threat density that I am hoping for.

Sure, sometimes I try and live the dream and use an unprotected War Elemental to win...and well, that usually ends the way one might suppose. However, the sense I get when I play this deck is that I have improved the odds, cleared out some deadwood and made a better build. Time to move on.

3 Whispersilk Cloak

2 Stigma Lasher
3 Kris Mage
3 War Elemental
2 Blood Knight
2 Mogg Fanatic
3 Hazoret the Fervent
3 Stromkirk Occultist

4 Seal of Fire

4 Chain of Plasma
4 Fiery Temper
4 Fireblast

2 Forgotten Cave
21 Mountain

Gore And Blood

A conversation I recently had with Jason regarding the Optimus Maximus deck we're trying to build.

Me: I especially think you don't want to run Roll Out: dead cards are bad news. Matrix of Leadership makes more sense in that slot.

J: Roll Out is not a dead card! I serves a big role. You can't play it but combat flips are huge, plan is huge, swapping for a green is huge. Give up a card you can play or Roll Out?

Me: >Roll Out is not a dead card!

or

>You can't play it

---------------------------------------

In multiple games with We Bite, I found myself with an extra Hazoret, the Feverent or War Elemental in hand I could not play. Either because I had no way to rid myself of the extra cards in time (Hazoret) or War Elemental was my only card in hand after my battlefield had been swept away.

This is the challenge of doing weird decks; there are dead cards sometimes: I can build around the War Elemental all I want and sometimes the deck just won't help me out. Still, I want to stick with it but what it's meant is that instead of running four of each of those Cutting one of each of them has allowed for me to run the copies of Whispersilk Cloak that I need.

Part of me doesn't like doing this, I hear a voice saying "You're diluting the concept! What's the point if you don't stick to it?" and that's not wrong. 

But what's the point of executing the concept if the result is perpetual fail states? 

So, instead of insisting that either I keep the concept or ditch the whole thing, I'm going to fudge it a bit and water down the concept as little as possible, while opening up better windows to win.

I'm Out To Get You

"So...it's a War Elemental deck," I tell Noah.

"It sure is."

"And that's the problem. You can just chump block it, no matter how big it gets."

"Well...maybe there's a way around that."

"In red there aren't many effects that give me trample, so I'm not...wait a minute."

Archetype of Aggression.

So there it is! A problem solved, right?

Weeeeellllllll...

First, Archetype isn't always useful whenever it shows up. That's a challenge, because again, as a less optimized deck, I can't really afford to add in cards that are only good occasionally.

Second, it's a creature and as such, to be really good it needs either a protective aspect to it, or an aggressive one, because otherwise it exists to be killed by removal. Archetype has neither haste, protection, or defensive stats that would keep it alive.

It was Caitlin who suggested Whispersilk Cloak to me.

The first time I rode a Stigma Lasher equipped with a Cloak to victory, I knew I had a winner. However, I cannot leave good enough alone, and after a few games with Noah-ones where I had either War Elemental or Hazoret in hand and no way to make them useful-he suggested Key To The City to me. Why not, right? It feeds into the Madness themes, it makes a creature unblockable and I can use any extra mana I have to draw cards.

Two problems quickly became apparent: First, 'extra mana' is a laughable concept in a deck using Fireblast. Every turn that We Bite is functioning even reasonably close to optimal, I'm using up all my mana on everything else to forward my gameplan of damaging my opponent to death.

Second: unblockability is not as useful as shroud. War Elemental and, as it turns out, Stromkirk Occultist, present serious threats when they cannot be targeted by removal. So Whispersilk Cloak gets the nod.

The other option would be Swiftfoot Boots, which I think I'll test next, to see if haste and the reduced mana cost help. While not making things unblockable, haste is a pretty sweet ability and the reduced cost might be very important in a deck that is so tight on mana use.

We Bite

Named after the classic Misfit's song, We Bite was developed well before the vampire tribe became a thing in Magic. The goal was to make a War Elemental deck-and I thought that the best way to manage that was to have a bunch of smaller creatures, larger ones that create static sources of damage like Obsidian Fireheart (which I love SO MUCH), and effects like Seal of Fire that can be used in response to War Elemental's trigger.
 
Quick rules thing: With a Seal of Fire out, one can cast War Elemental, and when the check 'did an opponent take damage this turn' goes on the stack, one can use Seal's ability to do damage. If you wait to do that, the War Elemental will not only have its 'enter the battlefield' conditions satisfied, but you'll get to place two counters on it, too!

There's a subtheme of discard to help with that damage, using Kris Mage, Chain of Plasma (you only have to get Fiery Temper off once and nobody triggers it again) and Hazoret, with Stigma Lasher there to prevent the problem that any mono-red deck has: lifegain.

Let's see what we got!

2 Stigma Lasher
3 Kris Mage
4 War Elemental
2 Blood Knight
2 Mogg Fanatic
3 Obsidian Fireheart
4 Hazoret the Fervent

4 Seal of Fire

4 Chain of Plasma
4 Fiery Temper
4 Fireblast

2 Forgotten Cave
20 Mountain
2 Smoldering Crater