Nightfall Aggro

Nightfall Aggro/Tempo

An aggressive deck that gains an advantage by doing additional night damage.

The basic plan
Play a Darkveil Agent or Dusk Raider on turn 2, then keep playing nightfall cards for the rest of the game. This should do an extra 5-10 damage, which combined with the aggro damage from cheap creatures is too fast for most deck to deal with. It also gives some extra damage that can't be blocked with aegis which gives us some reach in the mid-late game.

Kill or stun everything your opponent plays. Our creatures are not good, we don't want to get bogged down in a fair fight. We need to get in as much damage as possible as early as we can, then let night damage finish the job.

Our creatures and spells are all cheap so we will be able to make use of the extra night cards by playing multiple cards each turn. If you opponent is playing a slow deck they will often only be able to play one card a turn and die with 7 or more cards in hand.

It usually better to only play one nightfall card per turn, to keep doing night damage for longer (once you have a Nychtophobia this becomes backbreaking for your opponent). Use the remaining power to kill/stun your opponent's creatures.This also synergises nicely with Backlash, we play one nightfall card a turn and hold up power to counter our opponent's harsh rule - and do two more damage in the process.

Card Choices

Permafrost, Winter's Grasp - These are functionally hard removal spells in this deck. Your goal with this deck is to keep the battlefield empty so that your cheap creatures can get through for early damage.

Suffocate, Annihilate, Ice Bolt - Again, your goal is to keep the battlefield empty for the first few turns. So kill anything your opponent plays. In general I would rank them like this Suffocate < Annihilate < Ice bolt. But obviously that is match up dependent.

Dazzle - Pretty much a strict upgrade over Backlash. Basically perfect for this deck - protects you against sweepers, removes most blockers so you can swing for lethal, prevents damage from one of your opponents attackers so you kill them on the swing back. The plunder ability comes up occasionally, usually to find a shadow sigil.

Shakedown - You are mainly playing this because it is a one power nightfall card. In the early game take their creatures - particularly with lifesteal or high toughness. In the late game take removal/ boardwipes.

Twilight Raptor A evasive 2/2 flier, ideally this card comes down turn 1, attacks every turn, gets in 4-8 points of damage before you opponent can put up any defense. The one cost is great - it allows to you to efficiently use your power (casting this alongside a cheap nightfall creature is great) or deploy a credible threat while using removal, holding up Dazzle[card]

Darkveil Agent, Dusk Raider - These cards are basically the same - a two power 2/2 with summon:Nightfall. The upsides (aegis and berserk) can sometimes be relevant but that is not why you are playing them. And sometimes an opponent will kill them instead of a Lethrai Darkstalker or Miris Nightshade, because they are worried about the passive ability (this is almost always a mistake).

Lethrai Darkstalker, Bloodscent Avisaur, Rindra, the Duskblade - A three power 4/4, an evasive three power 3/3 and a four power 5/5 with lifesteal and overwhlem. Not a lot to say here either. Play them as early as a possible and attack every turn.

Miris Nightshade - Depending on the stage of the game this is 2 power 4/3 beater or a 6 drop 'finisher'. Since this is the only creature that does not have innate Nightfall you should play this as late a possible so that you can activate the ultimate straight away.

Maul - I did not put this in the deck originally, I was worried that 6 power was too much for an aggro deck. But it turns out if you are drawing 2 cards a turn hitting power each turn is easy and this gives you a path to victory if you opponent has a board of bigger creatures (or a single sandstorm titan) that you can not attack through.

Changes
Backlash -> Dazzle Pretty much a strict upgrade - being able to freeze a blocker is almost always better than the occasional 2 extra damage / aegis pop.

Cull the Deck -> Maul You don't usually need the card draw, and randomly head-shotting your opponent for 14 is great.