When I first got back from the PTQ on Saturday night, what I built was this:

RatCloud Revision 2 (60)

Land (20)

• 11 Swamp
• 5 Mountain
• 4 Mirrodin’s Core

Mana (8)

• 4 Chrome Mox
• 4 Wayfarer’s Bauble

Creatures (12)

• 4 Chittering Rats
• 4 Emissary of Despair
• 4 Solemn Simulacrum

Other (20)

• 4 Devour in Shadow
• 2 Echoing Decay
• 4 Night’s Whisper
• 4 Death Cloud
• 2 Barter in Blood
• 2 Fireball
• 2 Shatter

Sideboard (15)

• 2 Scrabbling Claws
• 3 Detonate
• 3 Shatter
• 4 Terror
• 2 Fill with Fright
• 2 Greater Harvester

Essentially, what I wanted was to add Night’s Whisper as a way of getting closer to the Cloud when I needed to. I hadn’t been impressed with Guardian Idol as a two-of, and I figured I could lose a Shatter and an Echoing Decay. Now, though, I wonder if I couldn’t put Wrench Mind in there as an additional disruption card instead. If I did that, would I need Red at all? I could try something like this:

RatCloud Revision 3 (60)

Land (20)

• 20 Swamp

Mana (8)

• 4 Chrome Mox
• 4 Wayfarer’s Bauble

Creatures (12)

• 4 Chittering Rats
• 4 Emissary of Despair
• 4 Solemn Simulacrum

Other (20)

• 4 Devour in Shadow
• 4 Night’s Whisper
• 4 Wrench Mind
• 4 Death Cloud
• 2 Barter in Blood
• 2 Consume Spirit

Sideboard (15)

• 4 Shattered Dreams
• 4 Damping Matrix
• 4 Fill with Fright
• 3 Greater Harvester

It certainly looks a lot more consistent than the old list. It doesn’t have any defense against annoying artifacts, however. That’s definitely a disadvantage when I encounter things like Crystal Shard, Oblivion Stone, and Mindslaver.

So I think that I’ve made a mistake in trying to straddle two different kinds of control, the tempo-control of the Standard B/R RatCloud deck and a more traditional card-advantage-based control approach forced on me by the absence of both Stone Rain and Ravenous Rats in the MD5 environment. That being the case, I need to find a deck that is focused and able to exploit the current metagame.

The typical Black Control deck approach might actually provide a number of answers here, if I don’t get too caught up in trying to make Death Cloud work as the be-all and end-all.

MD5 RatCloud (60)

Land (22)

• 22 Swamp

Mana (4)

• 4 Wayfarer’s Bauble

Creatures (10)

• 4 Chittering Rats
• 4 Solemn Simulacrum
• 2 Greater Harvester

Other (24)

• 4 Consume Spirit
• 4 Wrench Mind
• 4 Fill with Fright
• 4 Night’s Whisper
• 4 Devour in Shadow
• 2 Echoing Decay
• 2 Barter in Blood

Sideboard (15)

• 4 Emissary of Despair
• 4 Shattered Dreams
• 4 Damping Matrix
• 3 Terror

Obviously, the deck is much, much weaker against Affinity here. Also, I begin to wonder if Promise of Power should come into it at all. But I don’t know where I’d put that, and it is a little risky against Big Red. I don’t think the deck can support both Promise of Power and Night’s Whisper.

The PTQ didn’t go so well, and I’m really wondering about the deck at this point. I had too many mulligans, and too many games where I thought things were in hand and they just didn’t work out. So now I’m trying to make it more consistent, and the first step is adding Night’s Whisper. But that isn’t proving amazing so far, and I’m trying to see if a fairly radical shift could make it better:

MD5 RatCloud 2.0 (60)

Land (20)

• 20 Swamp

Mana (8)

• 4 Wayfarer’s Bauble
• 4 Guardian Idol

Creatures (10)

• 4 Chittering Rats
• 4 Solemn Simulacrum
• 2 Greater Harvester

Other (20)

• 4 Death Cloud
• 4 Devour in Shadow
• 4 Echoing Decay
• 4 Night’s Whisper
• 2 Consume Spirit
• 2 Barter in Blood

Sideboard (15)

• 4 Emissary of Despair
• 4 Shattered Dreams
• 3 Scrabbling Claws
• 2 Terror
• 2 Fill with Fright

I’m also really tempted to see if replacing Chittering Rats with Conjurer’s Bauble in this build would be any good. That’s almost heretical, but hey.

I’m playing in a Mirrodin/Darksteel/Fifth Dawn PTQ tomorrow, and as a test of how this handles HTML formatting, here’s a decklist:

MD5 RatCloud (60)

Land (20)

• 11 Swamp
• 5 Mountain
• 4 Mirrodin’s Core

Mana (10)

• 4 Chrome Mox
• 4 Wayfarer’s Bauble
• 2 Guardian Idol

Creatures (12)

• 4 Chittering Rats
• 4 Emissary of Despair
• 4 Solemn Simulacrum

Other (18)

• 4 Devour in Shadow
• 3 Echoing Decay
• 4 Death Cloud
• 2 Barter in Blood
• 2 Fireball
• 3 Shatter

Sideboard (15)

• 3 Scrabbling Claws
• 3 Detonate
• 1 Shatter
• 4 Terror
• 2 Fill with Fright
• 2 Greater Harvester

The Standard version of this deck is definitely stronger, but if I encounter more anti-Affinity decks than Affinity decks, I have a pretty good chance. Except for Crystal Witness, which might be a beating. Sadly, I don’t know for sure, because my testing of the Block version has been minimal. I am, essentially, petdecking.

My sideboarding plan is below:

Against Affinity:

• −4 Jens
• +1 Shatter
• +3 Detonate

Against Big Red:

• −3 Shatter
• −3 Devour in Shadow
• −2 Emissary
• +2 Greater Harvester
• +4 Terror
• +2 Fill with Fright

Against monoGreen

• −3 Emissary
• −3 Shatter
• +4 Terror
• +2 Greater Harvester

Against Tooth & Nail, no Witness

• −4 Emissary of Despair
• +2 Greater Harvester
• +2 Fill with Fright

Against Tooth & Nail, with Witness

• −4 Emissary of Despair
• −2 Shatter
• +2 Greater Harvester
• +2 Scrabbling Claws
• +2 Fill with Fright

Against Tooth & Nail, with Blue (and Witness)

• −4 Emissary of Despair
• −2 Shatter
• +2 Greater Harvester
• +2 Scrabbling Claws
• +2 Fill with Fright

Against Tooth & Nail, with Mindslaver

• −4 Emissary of Despair
• +2 Greater Harvester
• +2 Fill with Fright

Against Tooth & Nail, with Shards and Stones

• −4 Emissary of Despair
• +2 Greater Harvester
• +2 Fill with Fright

(not sure about the Emissaries going out for the Harvesters here)

Against Crystal Witness

• −4 Emissary of Despair
• −1 Fireball
• +3 Scrabbling Claws
• +2 Fill with Fright

Against DC Green

• −3 Emissary of Despair
• −3 Shatter
• +4 Terror
• +2 Greater Harvester

Against U/W Pristine Angel

• −2 Emissary of Despair (?)
• +2 Fill with Fright

Against U/W Cog weenie

• −2 Fireball
• −1 Emissary
• +3 Scrabbling Claws

Against U/W Cog Angel

• −2 Fireball
• −3 Emissary
• +3 Scrabbling Claws
• +2 Fill with Fright

Against U/W March of the Machines

• −2 Devour in Shadow
• +2 Fill with Fright

Against KCI

• −2 Fireball
• −2 Devour in Shadow
• +1 Detonate
• +1 Shatter
• +2 Fill with Fright

Against Pristine Green

• −3 Shatter (I think. Depends on their acceleration)
• −1 Emissary of Despair
• −2 Devour in Shadow
• −2 Fireball (or Devour in Shadow?)
• +2 Fill with Fright
• +2 Greater Harvester (? not a good thing with the Angel out)
• +4 Terror