First thing that catches my eye is the Pharaoh. Aside from sideboard worthy removal like Celestial Purge, he's basically an unkillable bomb that kills your opponents bombs. That seems downright ridiculous. As such, I really want to go with black. Let's look at the playables in black:
Vengeful Pharaoh- Everything I said above. Has great synergy with an off color bomb.
Duskhunter Bat- A flying 1/1 for 2 is playable, albeit mediocre. A flying 2/2 for 2 in black, though? That's definitely worth putting in the deck. We've got 2 of these guys, so let's keep an eye for cards that help us activate bloodthirst early.
Blood Seeker- Dude was a beast in Zendikar limited, but that was a very different format. I dunno how he'll play out here.
Wring Flesh- killing x/1s was great in Scars block, but core set dorks tend to be much bigger. Can still kill as a combat trick/fog at worst. Probably going in if we go black.
Reassembling Skeleton- The blocker that doesn't die. Also has synergy with a major bomb in another color, so I'm thinking he'll go in.
Consume Spirit- Amazing in mono-black, good in 2 color, playable in 2 color plus splash. It's removal/reach, so it's going in.
Doom Blade- Do I really need to say anything here?
Gravedigger- A bear with some value seems fine to me. Also has synergy with the aforementioned off color bomb.
Bloodrage Vampire- These guys are super aggressive, but vulnerable. Easily turned on by our double bats and the copious amounts of burn in our pool. They'll die to any blocker, but, on the bright side, they'll probably kill it in the process. That's playable enough for me.
I'm not a fan of duress type effects in limited, where they're absolutely awful top decks and not even guaranteed to hit gold in your opening hand. The fact that distress can't even be cast turn 1 makes me more wary. We could always sb it in if we see that our opp has a very hard to deal with bomb, though. Dark favor is an aura that doesn't really do enough for me. The goliaths are playable if we don't have anything better but, given our pool, that seems unlikely. Child of Night could be playable, but I'm hoping we'll have something better there as well. So, here's what I'm thinking if we go black:
1cc
Wring Flesh
2cc
Duskhunter Bat x2
Blood Seeker
Reassembling Skeleton
Doom Blade
Consume Spirit (in cmc, at least) x2
3cc
Bloodrage Vampire x2
4cc
Gravedigger
5cc
Vengeful Pharaoh
That's 11 playables, ranging from solid to great, with 8 creatures. Definitely seems good enough to be one of our colors.
Green stands out to me only as the weakest color of our pool. Weeding down which of the 4 decent colors we'll want to play seems hard enough to me as is, so I think I'll write green off entirely.
Red has sick bombs in Flameblast Dragon and Fireball, as well as 3 other burn spells- one of which is conditional. Shock and Incinerate have pretty good synergy with our bats and vamps in addition to being good as is, so that's another plus. The pool gets pretty shallow after that, though. Manic vandal is a sb only card and, with red definitely being a secondary color at best, the hellhounds are out. Wall of Torches seem good in a controlling late game deck, but given how aggressive the rest of the red is, as well as our black, I dunno if we want them. As a result, I think our red playable pool is:
Flameblast Dragon
Fireball
Incinerate
Shock
~Wall of Torches x2
The burn spells could be splashed as a third color, but I dunno about the Dragon. He's such an amazing bomb that I really want to run him. I just don't know if I can justify it. I'll look at the other colors first before deciding.
Well, obvious thing in blue is Jace. Not only is he a tempting mythic pw, he's also one of the best pws ever printed for limited. 3 activations of his 0 ability kills your opponent and his first ability is perfectly fine on its own. How is the rest of the color though?
Phantasmal Image- Seems great to me. A really cheap clone effect that dies to something that would probably kill it anyway. Side out against lawkeepers/crowns/etc. but keep it in against the rest.
Chasm Drake- 3/3 flyers for 5 are fine. The bonus evasion for another guy is gravy.
Divination- Playable.
Merfolk Looter- Looters have always been fine in limited.
Belltower Sphinx- A flying 2/5 for 5 is slightly undercurve on power, but this dude walls the sky like no other and has great synergy with Jace.
Jace's Erasure- Normally, this thing is unplayable, but, given that we have the man himself available and that we have FOUR of these, they definitely seem viable.
Mana Leak- Playable.
Blue doesn't do much for our black or red, but it does present an appealing chance to go mill. Jace and the Sphinx are obviously amazing/solid on their own, but I am pretty wary about running 4 cards that essentially do nothing unless I hit the jackpot and pull Jace/run the game long enough. There's a mill deck that's about as good as you can ever hope for in sealed here, but I dunno if I want to take it. Let's take a peek at the last color: white.
Day of Judgment is the real deal here. Great on its own and even better with our Pharaoh, Skeleton, and Gravedigger. Once again, we gotta check out the rest of the pool:
Serra Angel- Power creep has robbed her of constructed potency, but the angel is still a limited haymaker.
Arbalest Elite- Expensive and slow, but very good at killing the bigger dudes pingers normally can't. I'd play him.
Assault Griffin- Aggressive flyer that's perfectly fine.
Stormfront Pegasus- Another aggressive flyer. Comes down at just the right time to get our vamps online.
Gideon's Lawkeeper- Tappers are always playable and this guy is a bargain. If you drop him turn 1, he can also activate our bats.
Stave Off- one of the few combat tricks in the set I'd like to play
It's also worth mentioning that Celestial purge is a fantastic sideboard card.
After review, I think white is our second strongest color, despite red's amazing dragon. Here's what my build currently looks like:
1cc
Gideon's Lawkeeper
Wring Flesh
Stave Off
2cc
Duskhunter Bat x2
Blood Seeker
Reassembling Skeleton
Stormfront Pegasus
Doom Blade
Consume Spirit (in cmc, at least) x2
3cc
Bloodrage Vampire x2
4cc
Gravedigger
Assault Griffin
Arbalest Elite
Day of Judgment
5cc
Vengeful Pharaoh
Serra Angel
That's 19 playables, with 13 creatures. We'll look to splashes and the artifacts to round out our build.
The sword, boots, and manalith are all playable. I think we definitely throw the boots in. We don't really need ramp, but if we want to splash red, I think the manalith is good include. We'll throw in fireball for sure and I think our curve is low enough that, with the manalith included, we can go 16 lands instead of the more traditional 17. Incinerate will get the last spot.
Here's my final build:
1cc
Gideon's Lawkeeper
Wring Flesh
Stave Off
Fireball
2cc
Duskhunter Bat x2
Blood Seeker
Reassembling Skeleton
Stormfront Pegasus
Doom Blade
Incinerate
Consume Spirit (in cmc, at least) x2
Swiftfoot Boots
3cc
Bloodrage Vampire x2
Manalith
Greatsword
4cc
Gravedigger
Assault Griffin
Arbalest Elite
Day of Judgment
5cc
Vengeful Pharaoh
Serra Angel
16 lands. (1 or 2 of which we'll be mountains)
Luckily.