Last Tuesday I fixed a White damage prevention deck, and mentioned that while the deck could stay alive for a long time, it couldn't really finish off the opponent.  Some of you may be thinking that having no way to finish off the opponent sounds like an incredibly wimpy problem to have, and that only the pacifist White deck could ever find itself in that situation.  Surely an aggressive color like Black or red couldn't have that problem, could it?

My friend suggested that I send you an e-mail and ask for some help with my Type 1 Red/Black LD Deck. The point of the deck is to cripple the opponent's mana while keeping mine intact for the most part. It doesn't seem to do very well against quicker decks, I can't kill their creatures with mine. My creatures don't seem to be enough to win with.  I would prefer keeping it Red/Black,but if required I could change. I don't want to get rid of the Sinkholes or Rain of Tears, would prefer to keep the Strip Mines. If you could help me make it any faster, I'd appreciate it. Any suggestions would be welcome. Budget isn't much of a worry(I'd prefer to not spend a fortune though).

 

CREATURES (16):
4 - Festering Goblin
3 - Earthblighter
3 - Goblin Lackey
3 - Mogg Conscripts
3 - Siege-Gang Commander

 

NON-CREATURE SPELLS (20):
4 - Sinkhole
3 - Rain of Tears
3 - Molten Rain
3 - Pillage
4 - Stone Rain
3 - Crucible of Worlds

 

LANDS (24):
6 - Swamps
6 - Mountain
4 - Peat Bog
4 - Sandstone Needle
4 - Strip Mine

I have to say, the Earthblighter land destruction concept is something I hadn't seen before.  It looks powerful, but this deck has one big problem.  It can destroy opponent's lands to the point where they can barely play anything, but it can't do anything to kill them once that happens.  And since you can't reliably start destroying lands until Turn Three, anything they played up until then can kill you, even if it takes a while.  So you need what is known as a "win condition".  Anything that can pretty much win the game for you.  It could be a Dragon or a Demon, Fireball or Consume Spirit, just about any powerful card.  Now, in a few months' time, the third set of the Ravnica block will be released, and will bring with it lots of Red/Black multicolor cards.  I'm sure there'll be some cards there that this deck will love, including new land destruction spells and a massive win condition.  In the meantime, I'm going to drop Goblin Lackey and Mogg Conscripts for two copies each of Wildfire and Soul Feast.  Wildfire is not only a potent land destruction card, but also can rid the board of troublesome creatures.  And Soul Feast lets you completely ignore things like blockers, damage prevention, and Worship.  My first impulse was to go with big power gamer cards like Form of the Dragon and Plague Wind.  Then I was afraid that you might not have enough mana yourself, since I knew I wanted to put in a symmetrical land destruction spell to compliment your Crucible of Worlds.  Finally I decided to make the symmetrical land destruction spell one of your win conditions.

Now, for the rest of your noncreature spells.  All you've got is land destruction and Crucible of Worlds.  That's good, but it doesn't give you any utility with which to deal with any nonland card your opponent might play.  That's what I like about Wildfire, it stops those "fast creatures" that get into play before you can start your assault on lands.  Also, you've got 17 land destruction spells not even counting Earthblighter.  The average Magic game is over in about ten to twelve turns, so you don't really need that many land destruction spells.  I'd say drop Rain of Tears, since Sinkhole does the same for one less, Stone Rain doesn't need as much colored mana, Pillage can hit artifacts, and Molten Rain can do damage.  With the three slots from Rain of Tears and the two left over from dropping Goblin Lackey and Mogg Conscripts, we've got five slots to play with.  There's no end to what we could put in those five slots:
 

Volcanic Hammer

Last Gasp

Dark Banishing

Rend Flesh

Anarchist

Cruel Edict

Zombify

any of the wonderful cards that Dissension will no doubt bring.

Pick whichever ones you like.

Now, for your mana.  I understand what you're trying to do with Peat Bog, Sandstone Needle, and Crucible of Worlds, but the fact is that the "depletion lands" just aren't good enough, even when you can play them again from your graveyard.  They come into play tapped, and that's a problem.  Especially with this deck; on turn two you want to be able to play Sinkhole for BB, then on turn three you've got Molten Rain for 1RR.  This deck is very heavy on cards that need a lot of specific colors of mana, and as such is very vulnerable to color screw.  That's why I cut Rain of Tears.  You really should invest in four Sulfurous Springs for this deck.  I know they're expensive, but you did say budget wasn't a big deal.  And this deck can really benefit from them.  More than most of the decks I see come through here, actually.  In a few months you'll have Rakdos Signet, Rakdos bouncelands, and some Red/Black hybrid cards to take some of the pressure off, but even then I still advise in favor of the Springs.
 

All in all, I'm very happy about how this deck shaped up.  This is actually getting me excited about the Red/Black cards coming out soon, and I'm a Simic man myself.  Good luck!