When i first saw mindcrank I isntantly thought of comboing it with bloodcheif ascension because if you get 3 counters on that and mincrank is out there, any damage or them putting a card to their graveyard is instant win but then i started thinking how is this deck going to look. You have to have 4 ascensions because obviously the faster you put one out, the faster you can win the game, however drawing one of these past turn 2 is basically a dead card, as it takes 3 turns for it to become active. Mindcrank is only good if this card has 3 counters on it, plus mindcrank is an artifact so most likely even if this does manage to resolve, it will be blown up. This leaves you with 8 cards that are basically dead unless this combo manages to resolve and go off. Another problem I see with this deck is you have one win condition as your creature selection is for lack of a better word, terrible. Vampire lacerator is by far the worst vampire out there. Kiln fiend is pretty useless and easy to kill and chandras spitfire is just a joke. There is no way these creatures will ever win you a game given the deck your playing against has actual cards in it. Also if you are running black and you don't have sign in blood, then there is something seriously wrong as that is by far the best card draw you are going to get for the price. I think that bloodcheif ascension is a great card but it provides many disadvantages to overcome for it to be good and the fact that that card is basically your only win engine means a couple of removals makes you very weak. Check out my Mono Red New Pheryxia deck and give me your thoughts on strenghts and weakness'. http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=190725
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Yeah, let's say that given a perfect opponent, say one that has zero removal or creatures, how are you gonna win the game? Any mono red deck burns you to the ground before you can even get anything out there. Your deck is so slow and needing so many perfect draws to even give it a chance to go off that you might as well consider this deck idea junk. One is that the only thing this deck will do consistent is be very inconsistent, and inconsistency is a fast track to losses. Check out my deck idea and please comment. Open to positive and negative ones! http://www.mtgvault.com/ViewDeck.aspx?DeckID=190725
I've always loved combo decks because when they go off they make you feel like the smartest man alive but I have also learned that decks that require one card to win, your's being rage extractor which is an artifact means that 9/10 this card will either not be resolved or destroyed right away. Mind crank is also a card that I see that is a great in combination with bloodcheif ascension but why do you have it here? mindcrank is a mill card, this isn't a mill deck nor do you have ascension with it so it's not an auto-win once it goes off.
At first glance, this deck has lots of card draw and it has ways to combo off the quest for gravelord but it honestly seems like that is your only real threat as everything else except Shade is pretty weak. Now after looking at this deck for a little longer you have way too much card draw ability and creature that dies is so important that you need gravedigger to bring it back? I would replace moriok replica with Sign in blood, and probably take out 1 or two ragers. I don't really thing blind zealot is all that great. Instead I would put in the obliterators as that card is a hoss and an Immediate threat once thrown out there. Also I would take out gravedigger and child of the night. also no need for grasp, i would probably throw in kozi's as they are more versatile.
After thinking about this I might actually take back my thoughts on spikeshot eldar in general. I would never add this card as it is just not very efficient. Looking at my mana curve I might look to take out like 1 searing blaze and add 1 inferno titan. Or maybe just cut my mana down to 22-23 and add a couple more creatures/burn. I think that tezzeret's gambit is just too good a card to take out as it 1. Finally gives red card draw. 2) The proliferate will work on shrine or koth or both depending on the situation. 3) compared to a card like volt charge, volt charge is only playable/efficient if you have something to proliferate otherwise your paying 3 mana for a lightning bolt while gambit doesn't need shrine or koth for it to be efficient. When looking at the land I decided to add valakut because of another angle of attack but looking as how the current meta has tec edge in about every deck it might be more efficient to just replace with 2 mountain and put inferno titan in or take the valakut out and add 2 more creature/spells. This is obviously a decision that would have to be made based after many games played vs various decks. I think the tectonic edge is a must have giving the current meta. Sideboard When looking at the sideboard there are your obvious- Mark of Mutiny,arc trail, and ratchet bomb. But here you will notice instead of combust I add dismember. Reason for this is because in the long run, dismember will be more effecient and playable. Against splinter-twin obviously combust is better as you want to shoot down exarch but other than that, it really has no viable other targets because cawblade decks now have new sword that gives pro red so if thats equipped combust is dead. Batterskull completely dodges it and will most likely beat this deck down unless instantly taken care of. Dismember targets everything(cept pro-black) and while it costs 4 life, it lets you take down Batterskull, exarch, any titan with the help of one additional spell, and Kor firewalker, which completely shats on red. Now you may say that spellskites can redirect this spell to them and that is true, but looking at the meta, most decks running spellskites effeciently will be to protect their swords' and or batterskulls. That is where crush comes in as it completely dodges skite, and blows up batterskull and the swords. Only thing i can think of ratchet bomb being there for is incase white decks want to start running leyline of sanctity, in which case I say that with the launch of m12 in july, they hopefully give red a destroy enchantment card or make a colorless spell that does it.