This is a deck that I have been working on for a little while now. I think it has potential, as it has a very potent "reset button" for when ever the opponent can race you. This deck might look more like a combo deck, but it can play a control role with Thoughtseize and Wrath of God.
Without further delay, here is W/B Lich's Mirror
The idea of this deck is to loop Restore Balance and Lich's Mirror in order to eventually bring Nihilith into play and beat down with that. As I have done zero testing, any suggestions are very welcome
I really like this deck idea. I've always been into decks with a big ending that the entire deck is built around. But this one is really special to me for some reason. And from what I can see you made it pretty well. The only thing I could think to better is finding the Mirrors. The Gitaxian Probes and Street Wraiths that are in there make it easy to pay life (that you don't really care about) to cycle for them, but that just doesn't seem very solid to me. I might even consider throwing in a hard tutor like Diabolic Tutor(or something along those lines) to get things a little more solid. BUT note that this is just a suggestion.
Also, I would think about Angel's Grace. If you have enough mana, perhaps with some help from Lotus Blooms, Angel's Grace will combine with Ad Nauseam to draw as many cards as you need, then throw out a Lich's Mirror to save your booty, and if you still have Restore Balance or Nihilith on suspend, it will simply give you more time, and a new set of cards. It's also nice if anybody is really hitting you hard for damage and you don't have quite the right cards to handle it yet.
This is really all I could think to do wihtout totally changing the deck. You did a good job from what I can tell.
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I'm not very creative so just pretend this is funny.
A few things I'd like to point out that I noticed when trying to play with Lich's Mirror.
The first one is that you don't reset the game for your opponent. It's only you who resets. If they have a bunch of huge creatures and can kill you 1-2 turns after the Mirror resets it's pretty much a waste.
I do like that you've added Restore Balance to reset the other side of the table. After a Mirror reset this seems pretty strong. Only downside is that normally by those turns you're going to nuke your own hand with Balance, because the opponent will likely only have 2-3 cards in hand.
The other thing I wanted to point out is that if you're playing against infect Mirror doesn't do anything sadly. If you hit 10 poison the Mirror triggers and then after it resolves you still lose.
The only part that I don't like about this list is that really you only have 3 Nihilith for wincons. Mishra's Factory doesn't seem good as a wincon and neither does Street Wraith. I'm not sure what I'd add to make it better but the threat density seems too low.
Nice deck idea. Would be equally fun to play against this deck as it would to play with it. Your opponent would probably find it to be a fresh new challenge.
A few thoughts:
- Mishra's Factory isn't modern legal. Maybe consider Temple of Silence in place? There aren't any good manlands in BW
- I wonder if there is room to fit in U for better cantrips / dig so you don't need to run Street Wraith
- There's a lot of high CMC cards to be running Ad Nauseam. Again, dropping Street Wraith would help.
- Instead of running Wrath of God, run Damnation to remove the need for both 2x W and 2x B. Restore Balance becomes your only W spell and with enough fetches/fixing it doesn't become a problem.
Ad Nauseam seems like a poor choice. As far as I can tell you're not using it as a combo-kill, and outside of that all it is is a very inefficient and risky draw engine. I'll second replacing Wrath of God with Damnation--it's identical in function but way easier on your mana and makes it a lot easier to splash another color.
As some others have said your deck seems exceptionally threat-light, and I'd look into some other options. If you splash blue (which seems like a good idea--it gives cardselection and controlelements) Creeping Tar Pit is a solid clock that doesn't take up a spell slot.
I have to say, I love the nihilith. I would really consider splashing red, though, and considering greater gargadon as a second beater option. It will give you slightly more win conditions and it seems better than street wraith or serum powder?
With mirror you don't "gain" life. Your life just becomes 20.
10/1/2008: As part of Lich's Mirror's effect, it typically shuffles itself into your library. If it does, that means that if you'd lose the game *again* immediately after its effect is finished, it can't help you a second time. This can occur in a few different ways. For example:
-- Your life total is 0 or less and an effect says that you can't gain life. Since your life total can't be raised, it stays at whatever it is rather than becoming 20, and you'll lose the game the next time state-based actions are checked.
With mirror you don't "gain" life. Your life just becomes 20.
118.5. If an effect sets a player's life total to a specific number, the player gains or loses the necessary
amount of life to end up with the new total.
You end up very very still at 0 if something stops lifegain when lich's mirror's trigger resolves.
Also Serum Powder doesn't work with the mirror draws since you can't mulligan those if OP was thinking that worked.
I have to say, I love the nihilith. I would really consider splashing red, though, and considering greater gargadon as a second beater option. It will give you slightly more win conditions and it seems better than street wraith or serum powder?
Actually Greater Gargadon sounds like a fantastic idea now that you mentioned it. You could sac some of your perms into it in response to yourself dying with a Lich's Mirror in play.
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I'm not very creative so just pretend this is funny.
As for the Skullcrack / Infect problems mentioned earlier, I would maybe say that you can run sideboard cards such as Melira, Sylvok Outcast and Leyline of Sanctity and things like that in the event you play decks like burn and infect. Obviously I would keep some green splash lands either in the deck itself or the sideboard if you choose to play Melira.
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I'm not very creative so just pretend this is funny.
I don't know much about the Death's Shadow decks as I'd like to but is there a way to combine that basic basic shell with this so that you have multiple outs? That way you can kill with Death's Shadow and then if that fails you reset with Restore Balance and Lich's Mirror.
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Please put the colors of your suggestion in mana symbols prior to your suggestion in color-wheel order. To do this, put any of W, U, B, R, G, and/or C, whatever is applicable, with the word 'mana' inside [square bracets] before and the word '/mana' inside [square bracets] after the mana.
Without further delay, here is W/B Lich's Mirror
4 Lotus Bloom
3 Ad Nauseam
3 Thoughtseize
4 Restore Balance
3 Nihilith
4 Serum Powder
4 Pentad Prism
3 Street Wraith
3 Wrath of God
4 Gitixian Probe
4 Marsh Flats
4 Godless Shrine
4 Mishra's Factory
5 Plains
4 Swamp
The idea of this deck is to loop Restore Balance and Lich's Mirror in order to eventually bring Nihilith into play and beat down with that. As I have done zero testing, any suggestions are very welcome
Also, I would think about Angel's Grace. If you have enough mana, perhaps with some help from Lotus Blooms, Angel's Grace will combine with Ad Nauseam to draw as many cards as you need, then throw out a Lich's Mirror to save your booty, and if you still have Restore Balance or Nihilith on suspend, it will simply give you more time, and a new set of cards. It's also nice if anybody is really hitting you hard for damage and you don't have quite the right cards to handle it yet.
This is really all I could think to do wihtout totally changing the deck. You did a good job from what I can tell.
A few things I'd like to point out that I noticed when trying to play with Lich's Mirror.
The first one is that you don't reset the game for your opponent. It's only you who resets. If they have a bunch of huge creatures and can kill you 1-2 turns after the Mirror resets it's pretty much a waste.
I do like that you've added Restore Balance to reset the other side of the table. After a Mirror reset this seems pretty strong. Only downside is that normally by those turns you're going to nuke your own hand with Balance, because the opponent will likely only have 2-3 cards in hand.
The other thing I wanted to point out is that if you're playing against infect Mirror doesn't do anything sadly. If you hit 10 poison the Mirror triggers and then after it resolves you still lose.
The only part that I don't like about this list is that really you only have 3 Nihilith for wincons. Mishra's Factory doesn't seem good as a wincon and neither does Street Wraith. I'm not sure what I'd add to make it better but the threat density seems too low.
Good luck and props for the ingenuity.
A few thoughts:
- Mishra's Factory isn't modern legal. Maybe consider Temple of Silence in place? There aren't any good manlands in BW
- I wonder if there is room to fit in U for better cantrips / dig so you don't need to run Street Wraith
- There's a lot of high CMC cards to be running Ad Nauseam. Again, dropping Street Wraith would help.
- Instead of running Wrath of God, run Damnation to remove the need for both 2x W and 2x B. Restore Balance becomes your only W spell and with enough fetches/fixing it doesn't become a problem.
I'll give this idea a test to see how it plays.
Ad Nauseam seems like a poor choice. As far as I can tell you're not using it as a combo-kill, and outside of that all it is is a very inefficient and risky draw engine. I'll second replacing Wrath of God with Damnation--it's identical in function but way easier on your mana and makes it a lot easier to splash another color.
As some others have said your deck seems exceptionally threat-light, and I'd look into some other options. If you splash blue (which seems like a good idea--it gives card selection and control elements) Creeping Tar Pit is a solid clock that doesn't take up a spell slot.
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
With mirror you don't "gain" life. Your life just becomes 20.
"When you get your opponent down to 0 sanity, you win the game!"
10/1/2008: As part of Lich's Mirror's effect, it typically shuffles itself into your library. If it does, that means that if you'd lose the game *again* immediately after its effect is finished, it can't help you a second time. This can occur in a few different ways. For example:
-- Your life total is 0 or less and an effect says that you can't gain life. Since your life total can't be raised, it stays at whatever it is rather than becoming 20, and you'll lose the game the next time state-based actions are checked.
copy from mirror's faq
You end up very very still at 0 if something stops lifegain when lich's mirror's trigger resolves.
Also Serum Powder doesn't work with the mirror draws since you can't mulligan those if OP was thinking that worked.
Actually Greater Gargadon sounds like a fantastic idea now that you mentioned it. You could sac some of your perms into it in response to yourself dying with a Lich's Mirror in play.
Please put the colors of your suggestion in mana symbols prior to your suggestion in color-wheel order. To do this, put any of W, U, B, R, G, and/or C, whatever is applicable, with the word 'mana' inside [square bracets] before and the word '/mana' inside [square bracets] after the mana.
Freezing Point EDH series #1 (click through the other articles too!)