Mono Shadow Aggro

So this is my third list posted here, please enjoy.

Mono Shadow Aggro
So a friend of mine started playing a few weeks ago and was hooked. So far he has not spent any money on any of the cards but has earned a box worth of boosters in the lead up to FoA. After playing forge and gauntlet to death, he is ready to try ranked, and asked me if I had a list i could suggest for him to try. After looking over his collection this is what i came up with.
He had most of these cards and would only need to craft two of the rares (four cards in total).

Basic Strat
Buff up your sludges and beat face, lifesteal to pad life total, and Recursion for key units.

Early game- The idea behind this deck is to maintain a good board presence through the early game with Sewer Sludge and Xenan Lifespeaker, a Sludge that can last a few turns should buff up nicely and it maintains those buffs in the void so recurring it later is nice. the Lifespeaker is a great early play that can buff up turn four if nothing else and makes all other units you draw pad your life total.
Ripknife Assassin is another great card for this deck. with both warcry and deadly it makes awkward blocks for your opponent and at the very least nets your next creature (or weapon) a stacking +1/+1. Many times this guy is a great deterrent to big creatures.
Finally slamming Piercing Griefs only to have them revenge later is very nice for your sludges netting +2/+2 from the same creature. A staple card in numerous shadow lists.
Mid game- For the mid game your three and four drops are pretty solid. Cabal Countess is a nice EoT play, avoiding slow removal and dropping a counter block mid swing has proven useful. A neat trick is to wait til the opponent swings with something one point tougher then your sludge to is able to kill then drop one of these for that last minute buff.
Shadowlands Guide can recur both Sludge and Lifespeakers getting more use out of them. as a side bonus recuring Lifespeakers this way refreshes their ultimate adding another +3/+1.
Lethrai Provocateur and Mazag, the Waking Terror happened to be what he pulled so I added them here. They're not bad cards but are not necessary. Looking into budget replacements.
End Game- So if you haven't killed your opponent by mid game there are a few options i added to finish them. In the Five slot are Ashara, the Deadshot and Umbren Reaper. Ashara is a 6/3 with quickdraw and deadly meaning again she can buff your sludges late game but primaraly forces trades or answers. U.Reaper is a 5/1 flyer with a nasty entomb, must be answered other wise presses in with a 10 hp gap (-5 for opponent +5 for you).
The last Unit is Dizo, Cabal Chairman his inclusion is two fold. 1. late game he can be a nice one-two hit with maddness and his spell can be game changing either giving you gas or slaming a 14 hp swing (again -7 op +7 you). 2. a 4/6 unblockable body is very nice.

For this deck your curve really stops at 5 power. There are 8 recursion tools to get back your key units, as an added bonus Surgeon's Saw also adds Lifesteal. Amethyst Monument and Cabal Standard for mid to late game so as to lower the chance of dead draws.and Amethyst Waystones to help keep you in gas. As a side note I added Devour for the madness+devour combo.

Pros and Cons
Given that this is a deck mostly composed of pack draws and forge pulls I personally know that this is not a high tier competitive or serious deck, That being said it isn't that bad either.
Pros
- An ok early game that can roll right into early mid (3-4 power).
- Plenty of lifesteal to keep your head above water.
- Decent amount of recursion to keep your threats coming back over and over again.
- Mono color makes influence a non-issue
Cons
- Low removal can make it hard to deal with big units .
- Unit win-con makes for a hard game against removal piles and control.
- No real hard game enders

While i am sure there is more that can be said about this deck i am going to leave it for now. I would like to hear any suggestions for replacements or substitutions both budget and non-budget options. Personally I would like to make cuts for some card filtering with either Cull the Deck or Scheme and some additional hard removal though i am not sure what to cut. Anyway thanks for the look and any suggestions.

Duel Well
Methin

Edit 7-16-18: So after play testing more i have decided that the deck needs more consistency, ergo i removed the Countess and Dizo to make room for Cull the Deck andScheme. Secondly I noticed with all the recursion in the deck adding Xenan Cultist is just super good. Lastly i removed the clunky legendaries in favor of more removal, often in to many games i wouldn't draw in to answers for key units my opponents played. Now for another round of Play testing.