MTG Salvation

Hello all,

I built a deck the other day and I'm wondering if and how it can be made any better. The main theme is based around penalties meaning that if my opponent wants to doing anything they first have to pay a price. I'm doing this with the cards Seizures, Propaganda, Lost in Thought, Isolation Cell and Wand of Ith. Also, with creatures such as Indulgent Tormentor

Another annoyance is to return cards back to my opponents hand. This is achieved by using Unsummon and Silent Departure .

Further, I've got Telepathy and Persecute in there to help out.

Mostly, I have chosen only creatures that are unblockable such as Shadowmage Infiltrator, Ogre Marauder,Benthic Infiltrator, and Invisible Stalker.

The other creatures I have chosen without Fear or Unblockable are still make my opponent have to pay some sort of penalty along with my attack. For example, with Suq'Ata Assassin and Shriekgeist.

I'd really like to know what I can do to improve this deck. I built it quite quickly (on paper) and ran off to my local mtg shop to buy the cards, so I'm sure it can be tuned up to be stronger overall. Any thoughts? Thanks!

I know that I have over 60 cards. What should I add and get rid of?

Well, one thing I noticed is that I should get rid of Shriekgeist because it's putting cards in my opponents graveyard and thus helping them disable the ability on Lost in Thought .

Any other ideas?

Hi,

My two cents:

1.
The deck isn't strong because you don't play strong cards.
You should get rid of the worst cards.

- 2 Wand of Ith: This card actually reads:
: target opponent loses one life.
This really isn't enough for a 4/7-cc spell.

- 1 Telepathy
Telepathy doesn't really do a thing. Half of the time you know what the opponent does/has anyways. It is a card for combos where you name cards. Cabal Therapy and Meddling Mage.
Since you play black, just stick to Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek or the more affordable Duress. You also get to see what your opponent does, and you get to discard something. This is really important because black and blue aren't very strong against artifacts, enchantments. The choice to make for persecute is usually given away by the lands. And if your opponents mana doesn't match his spells -> don't complain. :-D

- 4 Isolation Cell
You pay four mana to get 2-4-6 damage through. Not good enough.

- 4 Lost in Thought
Blue may have a hard time dealing with creatures. But black doesn't. Why pay 1U to temporary detain something at sorcery-speed, while black has the goodies like Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, Ultimate Price, Smother, Murderous Cut and Hero's Downfall?
You really want instant speed removal with propaganda. Let your opponent pay the tax on attacking, then whack their creature.

- 4 Seizures
Your opponent will simply not tap the enchanted creature.


2.
Your deck will work a lot better if you focus more.
Right now you have a single poison card, some unblockable creatures and some milling. This is really not what you want. A good deck will go all-in on one strategy.
The current deck is built to lose after having milled ten cards, done ten damage and donated two poison counters.
My suggestion is to pick one strategy, or build three different decks.

3.
If you want to bounce, you should make sure that you can really force your opponent to discard. Bounce gets so much stronger if you follow it by discard.
Bottomless Pit, Hypnotic Specter...


4.
I think you have done a good job spreading the mana cost of the spells in your deck.




Here an example of a midrange BU-deck, might need something to put mana in. But Nightveil does that too. Big finishers are generic, I just put some suggestions here.



If you want to mill, there aren't a lot of viable strategies.
Most involve combos. Grindstone / Painter Servant is a classic.
Mesmeric Orb is a very strong miller.
UB mill is an archetype that passes by the casual forum often: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/casual-related-formats/597079-blue-black-mill-deck-casual-help

For poison -> best to have a really aggressive deck.
This means no Propaganda, but unblockables, pump, and small creatures with poison.

Feel free to disagree.

After I saw 4 Lost in Thought, I thought that you could go a completely different route in UB.

Leyline of the Void exiles graveyards. This combos with Web of Inertia to stop all creatures from attacking you. It also works with Lost in Thought to lock down creatures or activated abilities. Leyline is also useful in conjunction with discard, so that opponent can't make use of cards sent to the graveyard.

As for better punisher cards, consider:
-Rhystic Study (for multiplayer) and/or Mystic Remora (for 1v1)
-Rishadan Brigand
-Fade Away
-Pendrell Mists (if you don't have many creatures)
-Frozen Aether (slows down opponent's plays)
-Invoke Prejudice (this doubles the manacost of his creatures!)
-Monastery Siege (if opponent plays a lot of targeted stuff, Dragons is useful. If not, the other mode is never bad)
-Polluted Bonds (especially in slower multiplayer games)
-Tainted Aether (amazing if you go creatureless, especially with bounce)


Here's an example of what I would play

Hi,

Thanks for the reply! I'm not really interested in a mill deck. I like the idea of making my opponent "pay." Also, while cards like Hypnotic Specter are cool, I'd rather exile someones card completely from the game instead of it being available in their graveyard for use if they have the means to do so. Obviously, Nightveil Specter would be a great card to include.

Seizures is cool, but you're right. While those cards cannot attack, they can still block without tapping. Not ultra effective.

Propaganda I'll keep for sure and I'll include go for the throat instead of Lost in Thought.

I'll definitely grab Circu, Dimir Lobotomist. This seems like a great card to have.

Baleful Strix is cool, but what about Vampire Nighthawk or both. It comes with the added Lifelink. I also like Blood Seeker as well. It fits into the theme of my deck. Granted, in this case my opponent would have to "pay" by losing life.

That being said, as far as creatures are concerned I wanted to go with ALL unblockables. Why did you suggest otherwise? Or if I go your route, how do you feel about including something like Mask of Riddles in there to gain fear?

Not to sound redundant, but I'd like the main theme to be this: Whether it's me doing something or my opponent does something, they have to pay somehow.
Are there any cards that require my opponent to sacrifice cards? I know Phyrexian Obliterator is awesome, but I'm on a budget and that's pretty pricey.

Quote from endofnight »

Not to sound redundant, but I'd like the main theme to be this: Whether it's me doing something or my opponent does something, they have to pay somehow.

Did you check out the list of cards I suggested? (not the ones in the deck, but the other ones in my post).
ALL of them make the opponent pay to do things.

Are there any cards that require my opponent to sacrifice cards? I know Phyrexian Obliterator is awesome, but I'm on a budget and that's pretty pricey.

Tainted Aether does. The card link doesn't work because the stupid search only recognizes the name if I type the A-E together, and I am too lazy to do that. But please look up that card. Use www.google.com or gatherer.wizards.com and look up the card.

Not to sound redundant, but Rishadan Brigand, Fade Away, and Pendrell Mists all make the opponent pay and/or sacrifice. Also Rishadan Cutpurse, Killing Wave, Pendrell Flux, Smokestack, and many other cards.

Yes, I read your post! haha It was super helpful and relevant. I was actually responding to Quilt. I don't know how that happened. Everyone has been helpful so far.

Sorry for the confusion. I started that post and then had to stop and I didn't finish it until the next day so it might seem off. Also, I think I was just stressing my point again - Wasn't trying to call anybody out or anything.

Thanks again!