Creatures - 14
2 Festering Goblin
4 Onyx Mage
3 Bloodgift Demon
1 Shadowborn Demon
1 Harvester of Souls
1 Reaper from the Abyss
1 Lord of the Void
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
Other Spells - 21
1 Innocent Blood
4 Diabolic Edict
2 Doom Blade
2 Hideous End
2 Damnation
1 Diabolic Servitude
1 Mutilate
1 No Mercy
2 Tendrils of Corruption
2 Harrowing Journey
2 Promise of Power
1 Corrupt
Lands - 25
25 Swamp
Heartless Summoning is a very polarizing card for players using Lords of Darkness. Those in favor of Heartless Summoning say it allows you to play bigger demons sooner, also allowing you to cast a big demon and have mana available for a removal spell the same turn, and Heartless Summoning also lets you have a higher end mana curve, including some of the 8 mana demons like Reiver Demon. Those points are all valid, and I’m not taking away anything from them. Playing big demons on turn 3 and 4, or having mana for a removal spell after casting a big demon is certainly a powerful strategy.
So then, why am I not using Heartless Summoning? Consistency. Playing bigger demons sooner than normal is a powerful strategy, and the -1/-1 from Heartless Summoning is mostly negligible. But what happens when you don’t draw Heartless Summoning? Answer: You sit there hoping your (usually) 2-3 removal spells (sometimes less) is enough to hold off your opponent until you can start dropping demons on turn 5, the turn you’d normally start playing them in a non-Heartless Summoning build. With HS, playing the deck feels like too many cards need to fall into place in order for it to go well. To further the consistency problem, having more of the bigger costing demons in your deck hurts even more during the times when you don’t have HS available. Heartless Summoning is a powerful strategy, but it wasn’t consistently powerful enough for my tastes.