MTG Salvation

I am interested in building a BRGW control deck. Seems like it would be a bunch of fun to control the board with great removal spells like Crackling Doom, Hull Breach, Terminate, and Vindicate and eventually win with creatures that also can control the board (Inferno Titan, Noxious Gearhulk, Balefire Dragon, etc.).

My only problem is I am having trouble finding sources of card advantage for the list. I don't plan on running a lot of creatures, so I don't want to rely on cards like Skullclamp, Triumph of Ferocity, Shamanic Revelation or Rishkar's Expertise. I am avoiding Necropotence because BBB seems too difficult to consistently meet in a BRGW list. I am also trying to stay away from cards with a high converted mana cost (i.e. Staff of Nin, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth)

Here is a list of spells that provide card advantage that I am strongly considering running:

Sylvan Library
Painful Truths
Phyrexian Arena
Harmonize
Deathreap Ritual
Bloodgift Demon

It's a decent list, but I would like to run a few more spells (maybe a total of about 10 or so).

Read The Bones and Night's Whisper are also worthy of consideration but I am not sure if they are strong enough. I do not want to run tutors.

What are some underrated sources of card advantage that are not blue that I can consider running that would work well in a control build?

DOnt discount read the bones and nights whisper. They are surprisingly good. The scry from read the bones is really solid and 2 mana for 2 cards is solid from nights whisper. Also, if you are running original Thalia, Painful truths can draw you 4. I saw it in legacy once.

Reds impulse draw from the 4 mana Chandra's can be really good, but otherwise is a bit risky. You can Oblation your own commander as an awkward divination.

There is a lot of colorless draw but it's all really mana intensive.

Red offers the Wheel of Fortune effects, though given that they do recoup your opponent's hands that might not be where you want to be.
Underworld Connections is a weaker albeit slightly more flexible Phyrexian Arena.
Red also has a few cards like Outpost Siege. True the effect is only temporary but it's there, and some cards of that vein can help if you don't plan on playing instant-speed too often.
The "small Black draw spells" like Night's Whisper are definitely good cards. I run a pretty big selection of them in Olivia and I'm never unhappy to see them.
Damnable Pact and Promise of Power cost some life to work, but Pact can be used as a killspell as well and Promise of Power has a good alternate effect should you need it.
Finally, Erebos, God of the Dead and Greed are useful cards. Greed is better for the card draw but Erebos features some extras that are definitely worth it.

Of course, with all this you'll really want some dedicated lifegain too.

Great recommendations, please keep them coming.

Alright, I will run Night's Whisper and Read the Bones, but I will pass on Sign In Blood because the double black is tricky early game. Those two spells, plus Oracle of Mul Daya along with the original spells I shared brings the total to 9 card advantage sources. Not bad.

Yeah, I'm certainly running some life gain in my list to not only make up for the black draw spells that are good but also to compensate for the aggressive mana base with fetches and shocks. I am running stuff like Lightning Helix, Noxious Gearhulk and Wurmcoil Engine.

I'm on the fence about Outpost Siege but I am leaning towards not playing it. Deathreap Ritual seems much better for the same CMC. Promise of Power is also nice, but BBB is tough to swing (and 5 life is nothing to sneeze at either.

Is Mirri's Guile worthy of consideration? It's basically a worse Sylvan Library and doesn't stack with it, but it's still a decent ability with a lot of ramp and fetch spells.

It's only really pseudo-draw like Outpost Siege but Chandra, Pyromaster comes down early and gives the same effect for no net loss os loyalty. Obviously she has other options too.

Ancient Craving, Ambition's Cost and Promise of Power. Dark Tutelage. I know you don't want creatures but Tireless Tracker is Landfall. Wheel of Fortune, Wheel of Fate, Dark Deal, Reforge the Soul

Sword of Fire and Ice is an expensive but good suggestion.

One card I initially overlooked is Syphon Mind. In a game with 3 or more players it seems worthy but I don't like how as the game progresses and players are eliminated it gets worse.

Yawgmoth's Will is basically card advantage and late game it can do a lot of work.

I am not too fond of planeswalkers because in my meta they are over targeted and seen as more of a threat then they often actually are. If I were to run one if'd probably be Nissa, Vital Force.

Decree of Pain seems right up your alley. Controls the board and draws you a bunch of cards.

Also, instead of just drawing cards, you might want to look at multi-regrowth type cards, namely Praetor's Counsel or Seasons Past. Getting to reuse all your best spells again is often better than drawing a similar number of random cards off the top.

I understand that you said you wanted to stay away from high CMC cards, but unfortunately most of the best card advantage spells are expensive to cast, but they're usually worth it.

Staff of Nin and Mind's Eye can get you some cards as well. If you are going to play Sylvan Library might I suggest playing Abundance as well. They pair together nicely.

Porphyry Nodes is also card advantage in that you kill one creature in your upkeep every turn it is on the board. It's cheap to play and makes your opponents either waste removal on it or fight politically to not have the smallest creature or to gain your favor if there is a tie.

Coercive Portal

With Sensei's Divining Top banned in legacy, price drop might happen and you can always include one in your deck.

Greed or Erebos, God of the Dead can be "Necro lite". (Actually, Yawgmoth's Bargain was intended to be a "better Greed" rather than a "fixed Necro". In fact, its playtest name was Intolerance, referencing two of Maro's favorite silent movies.) There's also Ambition's Cost, Read the Bones, Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood, that sort of thing.

Green has Tireless Tracker. Also, it's a meta call, but I'm really fond of Viridian Revel.

If you're using a lot of enchantments, green and white both have a lot of enchantresses. I've done it with Ghave before because I noticed just how many enchantments Ghave uses. It works, not as well as in a dedicated enchantress deck, but you have it.

Also, consider Alhammarret's Archive. It's almost a Thought Reflection plus a Boon Reflection for a much cheaper (and colorless!) mana cost.

courser of kruphix and vizier of the menagerie are also sort of sources of card advantage, though the latter is creature related, as you said you don't want. If you have a lot of enchantments in the deck, green and white are rife with enchantress effects

Couple of slightly more random suggestions:

Temporal Aperture is LOTS of fun. And gets around high CMCs.

Scroll Rack could do some work. More filtering than draw per se, but it can be very useful.

Scry effects can be good too. Don't ever underestimate the power of a simple Crystal Ball. The price is right too.

Since you're playing a control deck, any of your cards that deal with more than one of your opponents cards is considered card advantage. Hence,

• wrath of god
  
• damnation
  
• wave of vitriol
  
• blasphemous act
  
• shatterstorm
  
• shattering pulse
  
• sylvan reclamation
  
• innocent blood
  
• decimate

would be examples of cards that all meet your requirements.

Also, you're in the colors of some most excellent planeswalkers that do lots of things for card draw and/or removal. In particular, I like freyalise, llanowar's fury and ob nixilis reignited for what you are doing since they keep up the board control while also acting as other sources of draw, etc. while

Quote from cyberium_neo »

With Sensei's Divining Top banned in legacy, price drop might happen and you can always include one in your deck.

And if it doesn't drop, the Mirri's Guile already mentioned is a very underrated green card. It can't draw you a card when you might need it to, but the top deck manipulation is very valuable.

I double on the Scroll Rack and Land Tax, on multiplayer its a very very strong combination. If you don't have any ramps, which looks like the case, almost always land tax will be on, this together basically means, {1} T: Draw X+3 cards putting X unwanted cards back, its incredibly strong, even if they are by themselves they can represent either C.A or filtering, which is what is still very good for a control deck, and the the limited basic lands don't actually end your interactions since you can just shuffle them alway every time and have this neat synergy as long as someone has more lands (In multiplayer a LOT of times)

Other things to consider is if you plan on keeping your opponents off having creatures any card that makes you the monarch from Conspiracy 2 would be good recurring CA.