Grenzo's back, baby:
I've got to thank Dead President for making me re-evaluate cards for this change; he is starting up his own
Marchesa thread and I gave the advice that he should be looking for cards that draw more than one card. So maybe I should follow my own advice. He's digging for Combo Pieces but I'm drawing to just keep the pressure up on my opponents.
Grenzo's Saboteur trigger means I could be drawing a boatload of cards. Sure, I won't be able to keep them, but there might be some good stuff for me to play. It gives me late game staying power as I can cast those 5+ drops but I don't need to clog my deck up with them. More importantly, if he comes down turn 2, I might be able to Exile a card on Turn 3 that'll guarantee I'll be able to cast Marchesa, the deck has a lot of stressful keeps as I need to be able to make Black, Blue and Red while also having relevant threats. There's also a lot of nasty Combo or just annoying cards in the meta - it'll be nice to leave them Exiled just so I don't have to deal with that nonsense. Lastly, I can just Goad my opponents into killing each other - there have been a few games of late where nobody attacks each other, otherwise I might be able to take advantage of the changing life totals. I can quite easily swarm the board and have every Creature Goaded; this reduces lethal crackback potential, my opponents Creatures are probably tapped so my 'get-in-there' factor is high, each of their Creatures will be doing my work for me and it'll stop those stalled out board states as everybody puts shields up.
Grenzo has only have gotten better since his last run with the deck because Rogues Lives Matter with
Robber of the Rich being an additional card that cares about Rogues; prior to Grenzo's return it was just
Oona's Blackguard. The Blackguard's Counter is going to be great, as while this isn't an Aristocrat deck, I can do some abusive loops during each player's turn with Grenzo coming back with a +1/+1 Counter as a Lamb. With Robber giving me more cards and Blackguard taking them away from my opponents, I have a pseudo fashion of gaining more card advantage against a hostile table.
Nicol Bolas, the Ravager and
Rankle, Master of Pranks have increased my ability to pressure people's hands. Grenzo's Goblin nature also encourages
Goblin Rabblemaster. Lastly, I've since added
Desecrated Tomb,
Sifter of Skulls,
Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin and
Anax, Hardened in the Forge as 'bodies-in-a-can', so Grenzo's Goad and Exile Saboteur triggers will be pulling double duty.
Why did Grenzo originally leave? I cut him back in November 13th 2018 for
Graveyard Marshal. Yeah, I don't know what meth I smoked. Well, no, I do know. My friends stopped playing Magic when I played Marchesa; they would no longer try to win the game but do every silly, stupid thing they could to make sure that when Marchesa hit the bin, she would stay there. We're talking
Stifle on her return trigger and other nonsense. So, that's when I started adding more and more ways to remove cards from my own Graveyard:
Dawn of the Dead was one of the more fun, flashy cards but Graveyard Marshal was another. The memery stopped after I consistently had ways to get her out of the 'yard, so I was able to slowly cut cards that got Marchesa out of the yard and Marshal was replaced by
Sygg, River Cutthroat who has stayed in the deck, is a Rogue and incidentally draws me cards.
Why axe Loyal Drake? Well, as the meme goes, these drakes aren't loyal. It was more of looking at my other 'single draw' Creatures and I found Loyal Drake lacking.
Smuggler's Copter,
Benthic Biomancer Mindblade Render and Sygg, River Cutthroat are the other 'single draw' candidates I looked at. At first glance, all of these and Loyal Drake look like single draws, but the cards that dodged the axe this time around each have a key distinction. Mindblade Render triggers whenever an opponent is hit by a Warrior, there's enough random Warriors and Changelings running around that I've gotten those random draw triggers. Sygg is just looking for three life loss for his trigger and people will randomly do that, whether it is losing
Mana Crypt's trigger, Fetching a Shock or just hitting another player. That leaves the Biomancer and Copter.
Benthic Biomancer can save himself with two mana that also draws me a card. Biomancer is also a Wizard, which means he smooths over my draws when cast with
Path of Ancestry and he can turn into Lamb fodder with either a
Sage of Fables or
Metallic Mimic. This means he's Looting every time he comes back into play with those out, but I'm also accruing value off of whatever Sac Outlet I'm feeding him to. Copter is great because it is already bulky and dodges Wraths, which means its late game scaling can be absurd - I've had 8/8 or 9/9 Copters punch in with flying. A lot of my Creatures also liked to be 'primed', in that they do something on the battlefield but I don't have too many ways of giving them Haste; the Copter gives them something to do with Crew when I swing in. There's little point declaring attacks with
Grim Haruspex or
Midnight Reaper in my hand.
In comparison, Loyal Drake doesn't guarantee me a draw. It draws me a card if Marchesa's in play, which isn't all of the time. The drake doesn't have a relevant Creature type nor does it provide me with late game scaling. The final nail in the coffin for my decision was when I looked at all of my static, draw once-per-turn cards, I noticed they all costed two mana. Curve shaving is important, even moreso in Aggro builds. With that, the Loyal Drake gets the axe.