Overview of the Deck
BW or Orzhov Control is a black-white control deck for those who enjoy a more proactive and aggressive approach to control style play in Modern. The deck focuses on combining hand/mana disruption with creature removal before closing out the game with powerful planeswalkers. What separates this deck from other “BW Control” variants, such as BW Tokens and BW Superfriends (all of whom have great threads btw), is that we don’t go all in on the tokens plan and our Planeswalkers are chosen based upon control aspect ability, ie Sorin. The spell selection also varies, focused more on disrupting your opponents gameplan and taking us from a typical midrange deck to a slower play style seen in more classic control decks. While there are many reasons to play this deck, it does have it’s flaws. Here are some reasons to play the deck, as well as reasons why it’s not for everyone.
Reasons to play:
-You enjoy playing control decks in Modern
-You prefer a more tap out style of control with a focus on being proactive rather than reactive
-You like an adaptive gameplan and are willing to learn and modify your deck based on the current meta
-You would rather a less painful mana base built around two colors
-Black and white are arguably the two most powerful colors currently in the format when considering main deck staples and flexible sideboard answers
-If you wish to play a lesser known deck with a high amount of potential
-You enjoy utilizing powerful Planeswalkers as your primary wincon
Reasons not to play:
-While it is more budget-friendly than other decks in modern, it is not cheap
-If you prefer more established/high tier decks. UW and Jeskai are the elite control decks at the moment and should be the control decks of choice if you wish to consistently get results at higher end tournaments
-You prefer Aggro or Combo type decks
-If you are a fan of draw-go/permission style of play
Similar to most control decks, we generally run few creatures, if any. Creatures are not required for the build as we can create our own through tokens or swing with planeswalkers. If you do decide to play creatures, however, these are the most common ones that have seen play.
Wall of Omens - An 0/4 body for two mana is mediocre. An 0/4 body for two that draws you a card is fantastic and the main reason that Wall has become a staple in many control builds. The fact that it can help protect your planeswalkers while dodging most removal is a big plus. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet :rate3.0: - You get a nice bang for your buck with Kalitas. Besides being a 3/4 with lifelink who can get +1/+1 counters for more value, she doubles as graveyard hate and creature generator, as whenever a non token creature your opponent controls dies, the card is exiled and you get a zombie. This is fantastic against decks like dredge and turning the tide against an opponent post wrath. The only problem is she still dies to push, path, and your wrath, which isn't ideal, especially for her casting cost. Overall, one of the better creatures for this deck. Baneslayer Angel - For five mana, your creature better be a powerhouse in modern. A 5/5 lifelink with evasion and first strike fits that description. Baneslayer has seen play in this deck, however she suffers from basically the same downsides as Kalitas. There’s usually better value these days for 5 mana. Cryptbreaker - This card is very build dependent. Usually we don’t want to just be discarding our hand, especially if we already have cards that can efficiently churn out tokens like Elspeth and Gideon, Ally. It is nice in builds where you may have dead cards in hand (Souls, Leyline, etc.) and have the resources to turn them into card draw or tokens. Fulminator Mage - This is one of the premier sideboard cards in modern and can really put a hurt on Tron and mana cheat decks. There have been builds that main deck this card, however it most likely won’t stay on the board very long and we generally have enough land hate built into the deck already.
Planeswalkers are a key component to this deck and one of the main reasons to choose this build. This deck usually runs a high amount compared to most decks, and they are our primary wincons. BW has some of the most powerful Planeswalkers printed and many are tailor made for control style play. Below are the cards that have been the most effective in the deck.
Liliana of the Veil - One of the premiere cards in modern period. If you’re playing in black, you need to be playing at least one. She is one of the few three drop planeswalkers available and her abilities are absolute bonkers. Having said that, she has recently seen play as a 1-2 of, or even as a sideboard slot, as we do not want to be discarding valuable cards early on depending on your build. She is fantastic in certain matchups but can be detrimental to us as well in others. Overall, I recommend at least one in the 75. Liliana, the Last Hope - She sees play in this deck mainly because she’s a three drop that can protect with her first ability. Her second ability is irrelevant in this deck but her ultimate just wins the game. While she’s good, she isn’t necessary for the deck to perform optimally and can otherwise be omitted entirely. Gideon of the Trials - Lil Giddy helped bring back control in modern. He is an absolute powerhouse and for only three mana. He fogs, he attacks, but most of all, he can straight up beat entire decks with his ultimate. A must have for the deck and makes all your other Giddies relevant. Sorin, Solemn Visitor - Sorin SV is a sneaky good card and highly recommended for the deck. He makes all our creatures good with his first ability, turning them into at least three power lifelinkers, highly relevant in the late game, against decks like burn, or if you run a draw heavy build. His second ability nets you a flying vampire token and his ultimate is backbreaking for the opponent, helping you to quickly stabilize the board if you haven’t already. Against the creature based decks prevalent in today’s meta, the emblem spells gg. Sorin, Lord of Innistrad - Sorin, LOI is SV Lite. He makes lifelink tokens that don’t fly and has a fairly weak anthem. His ultimate is only relevant on a board of powerful planeswalkers and creatures. One of the weaker options at planeswalkers, I would add him only if you really have a thing for life gain. Elspeth, Knight Errant - Elspeth is a boss, period. She is one of the most underplayed, unappreciated planeswalkers, despite her power level. She makes tokens, pumps them up with an absurd +3/+3 while granting them additional evasion, and then makes nearly everything you own indestructible. Oh Elspeth, how we miss you. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar - Gideon, AoZ is here because of Lil Giddy. On his own, his ability to make 2/2 tokens and swing for 5 is relevant, but with a Lil Gideon emblem on the board, relevant becomes essential. A key cog in our gameplan and helps protect and be aggressive in equal parts. Gideon Jura - Big Gideon is the OG and one of my favorite cards. He fogs an entire board, assassinates problem cards, and hits for a whopping 6. Unfortunately he is not indestructible and can die to opponent removal and costs five mana. That aside, if you are able to curve into him, he can quickly earn you the win. In Gideon heavy builds, he is quite valuable. Ob Nixilis Reignited - Another sneaky good card, Old Obby helps you draw cards, although at a price. He also kills troublesome creatures and his ultimate can put your opponent on a fairly short clock depending on the state of the game. Use only if you have lifegain available and are willing to pay his mana costs. He is worth the price in some matchups, especially if resolved early enough. Sorin, Grim Nemesis - I will be the first to admit, I absolutely underrated this card. Especially in the current meta, a resolved Sorin GN can flat out turn the tide quickly. His first ability allows you to draw cards while hurting your opponent, and with our heavy CMC costs, it’s usually a nice perk. His minus gets rid of troublesome PW and creatures while gaining you life. I’ve only used his ultimate once and that was just overkill. Simply put, while he may be one of the first cards I board out, I never regret playing him and think he is one of the more undervalued cards in our deck. Elspeth, Sun’s Champion - Lets get this out of the way. I don’t personally run her because she costs six and I try to go no higher than five CMC. Having said that, I’ve never played a game of Magic that I did not win whenever I resolved an Elspeth SC. She’s that good, and I will defend her to the death.
Where would control decks be without the best instant and sorcery speed spells to fuel them. These cards are the reason we choose to play control, and are vital to your build. The spells you select and their select quantities should be built around your meta and should be flexible. Some are absolute staples and should be in every deck while others can be added for spice or to suit your play style. However, remember that the goal of this deck is to win through disruption and removal. Be very selective in the cards you choose to help your Planeswalkers get the win.
Fatal Push - Few cards that have recently been printed can claim to have changed the landscape of modern. Fatal Push can easily boast this claim as it has become a must have spot removal in black decks. Unconditional removal in black for one mana wasn’t a thing until this card and it’s ability to kill creatures four mana and below for no pain is a game changer. This is an essential card. Inquisition of Kozilek - Inquisition has its drawback. It can only take something three CMC or below. However it doesn’t cost you life, can take any type of card, costs only one, and is in a format dominated by powerful cards...3CMC and below. Consider this another must. Mana Tithe - This is one of those sneaky “gotcha” cards that will drive your opponents mad when it actually works. Unfortunately the 1 time out of 10 it actually works is nowhere near worth justifying its inclusion. Play if your build is big on counters and if you’re okay with dead cards in your hand during the late game. Path to Exile - Whites premiere removal card is a modern staple throughout formats. One mana, exile a creature. Sure it ramps your opponent a basic, but it’s ability to remove creatures from the game, including indestructible ones, can’t be overstated. A must have. Rebuff the Wicked - This card counters a spell targeting a permanent you control, allowing you to save your Planeswalkers from removal. Again, while useful, this is more towards a counter build. BW generally likes run a tap out gameplay, so this is more build specific. Thoughtseize - Inquisition without condition. At the cost of one mana and two life, sabotage your opponent while gaining knowledge of their gameplan. Yes, please. Collective Brutality - A relatively new card that has become important in black decks, I compare it to blue’s Cryptic Command in terms of what it means to the deck: powerful versatility. It cost two mana and let’s you discard dead cards for more value. You can disrupt opponents’ hands while killing their creature and gaining you life. A fantastic card. Dash Hopes - Again, more for the counterspell build. It will make your opponent really consider whether or not their spell is worth playing. Unfortunately, if it is, they will gladly pay 5 life if it means they win within the following few turns. The card can help lower their life total but you better be prepared to take advantage of it. Dawn Charm :rate2.0: - It’s all about versatility, and this is another good counter build card. You can fog to buy you a turn, regenerate your blocking creature, or counter your opponent’s Lightning Helix or Boros Charm. A solid card. Night’s Whisper :rate3.0: - This is probably the best black sorcery card draw. While card draw is not essential in these builds, it is recommended. For two mana and two life, you get two shots at finding an answer. I’ll take those odds. Unfortunately the deck really needs card selection as well, which this does not provide. Lingering Souls :rate5.0: - If you’re playing BW in any deck, it’s hard to find a reason why you’re not playing this. It’s straight value and has no real downside. Play it for three to get two 1/1 flyers, then play it from the graveyard for two mana and two more. The amount of decks this absolutely hoses is ridiculous, as they will block, attack, and force your opponents to waste removal to stop them from grinding out matches. This card is big game. Damnation - This is a creature heavy format in which the board is usually flooded with troublesome creature by turn 4. Destroy all creatures. They can’t regenerate. Need I say more? Settle the Wreckage - The first and only instant speed wrath. This is what happens if PTE had a baby with ***. Don’t worry about the mana ramp. If you’re using this spell, trust me, they have all the mana they need already. Wrath of God - See Damnation Day of Judgement - See above but has the drawback of still being able to regenerate. Bontu's Last Reckoning - While a three mana wrath is big game, the drawback of not untapping with mana can be a big blow. Would only use as a one of and only if necessary.
Honestly, only a few builds use artifacts, but then again they have had success. Not my cup of tea, but that is more based around your personal meta.
Relic of Progenitus - Graveyard hate + card draw. Good in some decks but way too situational. Fantastic sideboard but not so hot in the main, unless you’re expecting a lot of Dredge and Snapcasters your way. Orzhov Signet - This is strictly Blood Moon hate. And now I guess it’s Blood Sun hate as well. Thanks, Wizards.
Again, this is more build dependent, but these enchantment can pack a wallop if resolved. Depending on your matchups, some can straight up win the game.
Bitterblossom - Ideal for BW tokens deck, this is best used in that archetype in which you can basically go all in on the tokens plan. This strays away from BW control and becomes more BW Midrange, an archetype unto itself. Contaminated Ground - This is black's Spreading Seas. Instead of card draw, you give the opponent the pleasure of shocking themselves whenever they tap the land to play a spell. Trust me, these down early can change a game drastically. Cut them off a color, take out their manlands, beat Tron. Life is good. Runed Halo - A sideboard superstar, control builds have recently found success adding this to the mainboard. It can help halt a difficult creature or completely stop a combo deck dead in its traps. Yeah, I'm looking at you Valakut and Grapeshot. Phyrexian Arena - A slightly higher cost, more difficult to remove, and less painful Dark Confidant. Use if you really want more card draw and have maindeck ways to gain life. Leyline of Sanctity - Very powerful but very situational. One of the best sideboard cards in the format that sees mainboard play in builds that value discarding dead cards. Leyline of the Void - See LoS.
There's not much to say here. You should be playing between 23-25 lands based on how high your CMC count is for your particular build. Concealed Courtyard, Godless Shrine, Isolated Chapel, and Marsh Flats are essential and should all be included in your land count. The rest are optional but highly recommended depending on your preferences.
Fetid Heath - This card is very good at fixing your mana and can help you pay for all the cards in the deck pain-free. Can make your life a lot easier when drawn early. Field of Ruin - My land destruction of choice. Helps blow up a non basic land card, and while it allows them to search up an untapped basic of their own, it allows you to do the same, without time walking yourself. In the current meta, with decks running so few basics, this card pairs fantastically with Contaminated Ground. Ghost Quarter - FoR that only needs to tap itself rather than two lands. It can also destroy a basic land, which is great. Unfortunately they can still tutor up another basic land, while you cannot. Shambling Vent - The BW manland and a great card for this deck. It's another wincon and effective creature, gaining us life while swinging/blocking for 2. Should be in every build. Techtonic Edge - Blow up their land and don't let them get another. This is great but has the downside of needing to wait for your opponent to have enough lands to activate it and not getting a land back. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Another great mana fixer, similar to fetid heath but much cheaper in paper.
Guide to Playing the Deck
This deck, like most control decks, requires tight play and complex thinking in order to determine the best lines of play. Control, in general, is a style that requires patience and a cool head to ensure victory. A lot of the time, the games go long and you are playing from behind. Do not panic and start to worry. If built correctly, your deck will have the answers that you need to pull out the win. For the most part, BW plays very few creatures. Those that are chosen are usually because they provide valuable protection for your Walkers with upside built in, such as Wall of Omens or Kalitas. The main “creatures” used are tokens our Walkers make and our Lingering Souls. These creatures force your opponent to overcommit, allowing us to wrath the board.
In the early turns, it is important to implement our gameplan of being aggressive in disrupting what the opponent is trying to do. Discard spells, like Inquisition and Thoughtseize are used to look at their gameplan and start to strategize how to beat it. Follow up discard spells strip them of their essential cards, while mana disruption through enchantments and land destruction sets them back further. We use spot removal when needed to take out troublesome creatures and keep the board clear while we wait for the time to resolve our Planeswalkers.
One of the more difficult parts of the deck is determining when to turn the corner and start resolving Planeswalkers. Once a Planeswalker is in play, opponents have a very difficult time dealing with them and keeping pace with their value. Usually resolving two or three can be backbreaking, especially with the synergies between those we play. Skilled pilots will identify the earliest opportunity to become the aggressor while either bluffing or holding interaction, ie discard, removal, or wrath. While BW Control is built to grind your way towards victory, Modern is still a format that can punish durdling. When playing this deck, you are ideally using your first three turns to hit your land drops and disrupt through spot removal and discard. The next few turns are critical in determining whether to wrath, force an overcommitment from your opponent through Lingering Souls or PW prior to wrath, or going directly for the PW resolve. Experience and matchup will determine the correct line to choose and will become easier to identify over time.
While it is important to understand how to play the deck, perhaps the greatest skill lies in deckbuilding and properly identifying a metagame. When big mana decks like Tron are dominant, cards like Contaminated Grounds are clutch, while Runed Halo can shut down decks like Scapeshift or Storm. Understanding your Metagame and adapting your deck is critical to success. Just as important is knowing your deck. Play, play, play. Be consistent. Know your deck inside and out. It will be a slog at first, but soon you will understand your matchups and how best to play them as your deck becomes second nature to you. Most of all, have fun and enjoy playing the best game on earth!
Matchups
The followings analysis is based on my experience playing against these decks, but obviously strategies may vary. One of the best things about Modern is how wide open the field is, but unfortunately it does make it more difficult to assess all the decks you are likely to see. I have written on the top 12 decks in the current meta between online and paper forms based on Mtggoldfish. I will update periodically if new shifts are seen and a particular deck achieves a top their status.
Deck: Jund
Favored: Yes
Strategy: This isn't as scary a matchup as you would think. The main thing with Jund is that their creatures are value. They only run about 15 but they can pack a punch with what they're in the deck to do. Confidant is great card advantage, Goyfs get huge fast, Oozes are very versatile and annoying, and BBE is their all star at the moment. They use both 3 mana Lillis to good effect in this deck which is all about stripping our resources with discard and spot removal. Because we also run discard and removal, our advantage is due to the huger CMC cards we run, tokens (although this deck does have good answers to them), and more powerful PWs. Expect a grind fest with this MU and very tight play is needed. Our removal is all viable against them and discarding their PWs and annoying creatures early is nice. Get rid of Bob early, he can give them the upper hand real quick if unanswered. Wrath effects and holding up an answer to BBE elf is always good to have as well. Keep in mind, they also only run about three basics, so it's not a bad idea to cut them off of red. Your PWs are key to outvaluing/outgrinding this deck to victory.
Sideboard: Graveyard hate (Surgical, Spellbomb, RiP) is valuable, as are Leylines. Dedicated cards PW hate, like Pithing Needle and Sorcerous Spyglass, is also good. While they may eat an Abrupt Decay, that's one less that your Gideon OtT has to worry about. Also, while you don't want Lilli otV to tick up too much, The Last Hope can be more annoying as she takes out our tokens.
Deck: Humans
Favored: Yes
Strategy: This is about as straightforward as it gets. This deck runs almost no basics so feel free to disrupt their mana base especially if they're not hitting their land drops. All of our removal hits their creatures and our discard is brutal against them. Vials can make the game annoying but not unbeatable by any means. Disrupt early, take out any problem creatures like Meddling Mage, and force them to overcommit before wrathing the board. A well timed wrath combined with a PW on deck will pretty much win you the game.
Sideboard: Not too much to board out here, maybe get rid of Sorin GN or another high CMC PW as this game is usually determined by turn 4-5. Liliana plays well here and artifact hate (Stony Silence, Spyglass, Fragmentize, etc.) to stop Vial shenanigans.
Deck: Burn
Favored: 50/50 initially, yes post sideboard
Strategy: Survive. That is the key word here. The first game is a toss up. Plain and simple, Burn is very fast and their entire plan is built around emptying their hand asap. While discard and spot removal hurts their gameplan by slowing them down, they are more than capable of top decking their win the next turn. Inquisition and Push are good early game and keep us alive, but only four cards really get us to win in G1- Gideon otT, Shambling Vents, Collective Brutality and Sorin SV. All three modes of Brutality are absolute beatings for Burn, hands down. Gideon's ultimate and the lifegain from the other two are key to taking this deck down.
Sideboard: Leyline pretty much *****s them down. Combined with life gain cards like Blessed Alliance, Timely Reinforcements, and Kor Firewalker, the MU becomes fairly straightforward and significantly easier
Deck: Mono G Tron
Favored: No
Strategy: There are certain MU that our deck is just not built to beat, and this is easily our Achilles heel. They ramp quickly and have so many relevant top decks that simply win against us when resolved. The MU is a delicate balance between knowing what cards to have them discard, when to blow up their lands, and how quickly you can put out a threat to close out the game. The key play here is to make sure that if they have two of their Tron pieces already in play, you must destroy one of them on their turn. Field of Ruin is great to have here, as they usually only run one basic. When you are looking to discard, if you can get rid of Ancient Stirrings or Sylvan Scrying early, it makes it more difficult for them to get Tron by turn 3. If you're looking to discard their bigger threats, Ugin, Karn, and Oblivion Stone are all good takes. Path can get rid of Wurmcoil and Ulamog. If you can keep them from getting Tron early through discard and mana disruption, you have a chance to get a PW or Lingering Souls out there to start beating down. You need to try and put the game out of their reach quickly because once they have Tron online, nearly every topdeck can win them the game.
Sideboard: This is still a tough MU post board. Stony Silence, Surgical, Fragmentize, and Lilliana are good here, as well as PW hate like Pithing, Spyglass, and Anguished Unmaking. Artifact hate stops them from tutoring most their lands and O Stoning, while Lilli helps discard and reset their board. Surgical may be the best card against this deck. If you blow up one of their Tron lands, you can surgical all those lands away into exile, making the mana combo impossible.
Deck: U/R Gifts Storm
Favored: 50/50 throughout
Strategy: This is an interesting MU, as their deck is basically non-interactive. They want to combo off and they want to do it as soon as possible. Our job is to disrupt their hand early and often, killing off any resolved mana reducers immediately, and quickly provide a clock. Making them discard tutors like Gifts Ungiven and Pieces of the Puzzle and any mana ramps is the key to slowing them down. You will want to keep up a spot removal in case they resolve a mana reducer, but ideally by turn three you have a threat on board to create a clock. G1 is a race to make sure they don't topdeck their combo in time.
Sideboard: Runed Halo, Leyline, graveyard hate, surgical extraction and cranial extraction are all clutch. Our wraths are fantastic if they Empty the Warrens and the other cards help prevent Grapeshot, though you will probably want to resolve two in case they hit you with Echoing Truth. Cranial can pretty much end their game if you get the chance to use it.
Deck: Boggles
Favored: No, but honestly depends on if they have Leyline in opening hand
Strategy: If they open with a Leyline, the match is pretty much gg. We can't disrupt them at that point and just hope we can wrath before they place a totem armor on a hexproof or that they just draw Kor Spiritdancers. The good news is that this deck runs only 13 creatures. The bad news is that 8 are hexproof, so can only be wiped away with a wrath, which is fine unless they get a totem armor on them or draw the nuts and kill you before then. What we want to do is basically disrupt their hand to either take away what few hexproof creatures they have or take away the most difficult to handle enchantment. We can stall them with tokens until we find a wrath, which you should do immediately. If their board is empty, we are free to resolve a PW and get their clock rolling as they usually only have 2 Path to Exiles.
Sideboard: Lilli otV, Blessed Alliance, Surgical, Fragmentize, Fracturing Gust, Cranial Extraction are all game changers in this MU. A quick enchantment hate is a must if they start off with a Leyline. Runed Halo naming one of their hexproofs is also a good, lesser used tactic.
Deck: B/R Hollowed One
Favored: 50/50 throughout
Strategy: I honest still struggle with this MU currently, as it is decided by a literal role of the dice. They could discard your good cards, they could discard their good cards, who knows? Game 1 you could cruise through the matchup barely encountering any resistance, or you could get a turn 2 Hollowed One x 2 followed by a Gurmag Angler. All I can recommend is making sure you discard any Anglers or Hallowed Ones you see in their hand, have plenty of wraths and Lingering Souls in hand, and prepare for the grind. May the odds be ever in your favor.
Sideboard: Graveyard hate is big here and makes our wraths much better. Cards that help get rid of their trouble cards for good, like Cranial or Surgical, are also okay
Deck: Affinity
Favored: Yes
Strategy: Similar to the Burn deck, our plan is survival. This is a deck that goes off extremely quickly with very powerful cards. They synergize extremely well and can kill you very quickly. Their game plan is basically to overextend themselves and get everything out of their hand as quickly as possible in order to beat you in the first few turns. The benefit of our deck is the fact that we run so many wraths. Once they commit and empty their hand, a wrath can pretty much spell gg, can being the operative word. Three cards make this difficult for us- their two manlands and Cranial Plating. Use your spot removal and land destruction to kill off their lands and beware of getting duped by Cranial and Ravager. Affinity is a complicated deck and a competent pilot and kill you out of nowhere.
Sideboard: Artifact hate like Stony Silence, Fragmentize, and Fracturing Gust. More Stony Silence. Also, did I mention Stony Silence?
Deck: Jeskai Control
Favored: 50/50
Strategy: This and UW is a mental workout so be prepared for the long haul. Tight play all around is needed to gain the upper hand and the more you play against it, the better you'll get a feel for what they're trying to do. Knowing when to disrupt their hand is important, as well as knowing when to play around counters (also when/what to sacrifice to their counters in order to play your "real" card). They have a hard time dealing with Lingering Souls and a resolved PW, so try to do so early. Make sure you don't walk into a path and protect your PW advantage. Save your Field of Ruin for their Collenades and Azcantas as well. Try to take away their counters and Jaces when disrupting.
Sideboard: Surgical is nice to have on their Cryptic Commands or their Snapcasters. PW hate, like Pithing and Spyglass, is also good here.
Deck: Eldrazi Tron
Favored: Yes
Strategy: Between our discard and removal this is very much in our favor. Try to keep them off mana ramp as much as possible by blowing up their Temples and Tron pieces early as they don't have great ways to fetch their land. Our Lingering Souls and tokens are tough for them to deal with and if we have Vault of the Archangel up, they pretty much have no answer. An early Thought Knot Seer is usually the biggest issue for our deck as well as the haste of Reality Smasher. Go heavy on the discard and creature removal in this MU and you should have a clear path for our PWs to win the game.
Sideboard: Artifact hate like Stony Silence is big against this deck and can help destroy a resolved Chalice. Liliana is also good against them. Have an answer to PW like Karn and Ugin. Surgical their Tron piece and this game is significantly more difficult for them. Runed Halo is also good if named against TKS.
Deck: Dredge
Favored: No, yes post sideboard
Strategy: Honestly, you should probably concede Game 1 once you realize you're playing Dredge. Unless you're maindecking graveyard hate or have the deck to race them, all decks should probably do so, not because it's impossible but to save time. They are heavy favorites game 1 and if you drag the game out too long and lose, you're going to lose the match to time. Unless you're packing a ton of Paths and they sleepwalk into a Settle the Wreckage, it's going to be a rough one.
Sideboard: All the graveyard hate comes in. A Rest In Peace shuts down their gameplan hard but be warned that they will bring in answers of their own to that. Disrupt their hand to strip away answers and have a backup handy. Surgical and Cranial can also assist with this. Runed Halo can buy you time but really it's about wrecking their graveyard and protecting your enchantment/artifact
Deck: Death's Shadow
Favored: Yes
Strategy: This can range from "laughably easy" to "what the heck just happened" depending on the skill level of your opponent. This deck likes to disrupt early, ping themselves to a low life quickly, and fill up their graveyard. They can then drop a hard to answer creature, like Tasigur, Angler, or Death's Shadow. They have counters, Battle Rage, and burn spells to make our lives more difficult, as well as Snapcaster to bring them back. If you're not careful, things can get messy quick. They run only 2 basics, so cut them off red. Discarding their counters and Snapcasters makes our removal more effective, and they have a hard time with our tokens and resolved PWs.
Sideboard: Graveyard hate, small mana removal like Condemn or Blessed Alliance, Lilli otV, and Leyline are all good
Sideboard Card Choices
Properly sideboarding is one of the most underrated skills in Magic. Over half your matchups are played with your sideboarded cards, so it's vital that you are extremely selective in your 15. Each one should have multiple purposes designed to give you the edge against the decks in your meta. Your sideboard should be fluid and flexible. Don't be afraid to make a change if you need to and make sure you're very deliberate with why certain cards make the cut. Understand that you can't sideboard for everything, and there's are some decks we will just lose to. That's the beauty and frustration with Modern, and all we can do is give ourselves the best chance for success!
Kor Firewalker- One of the finest choices available against burn-centered decks. Protection from red and lifegain basically stops them dead in their tracks. Fulminator Mage- see Creature section. Duress- Snags everything except creatures and lands, no exceptions, no pain. All for one mana. Extirpate- Solid graveyard hate that removes important cards from their deck completely. Very good against Snapcaster Mage. Surgical Extraction- Another great graveyard hate card, it’s a slower (relatively) Extirpate but for no cost. Highly recommended in any deck. Blessed Alliance- Modern is all about versatility, and despite only two of its modes being relevant, life gain + creature removal at instant speed is great. Particularly good against burn and hexproof. Celestial Purge- Exiles problem red and black cards in the format at instant speed. The key word permanent makes this playable. Disenchant- You don’t see too many maindeck enchantments these days, so having artifact removal built in to blow them up quickly is nice. Anguished Unmaking- Exile a nonland permanent for three mana. The unconditional wipe out is fantastic, but the only thing keeping it from seeing more play is the color requirement and three life loss, which isn’t bad. Flaying Tendrils- It’s black’s Anger of the Gods. Especially good against tokens and a board full of powerful x/2s. This card makes Dredge sad. Hero's Downfall- Kill a creature, but more importantly kill a Planeswalker. Pretty straightforward. Lost Legacy- This is a card that can win you games if resolved. This is basically Surgical at sorcery speed, except for the key fact that the card doesn’t need to hit the graveyard. This shuts down combo decks like you wouldn’t believe. Unfortunately the card has two drawbacks on that it can't hit artifacts and it potentially draws your opponents cards. Timely Reinforcement- life gain with annoying blocking creatures attached. Burn does not like this. Fractured Gust- 5 mana instants that destroy all artifact and enchantments don’t seem very good and will likely have you dead the following turn. Unless you’re playing Affinity or an enchantment heavy deck like Boggles. Oh yeah, 2+ life gain for each one destroyed. That’s a winner. Engineered Explosives- Great against tokens or decks that run a lot of low cost permanents...so pretty much every deck. Relic of Progenitus- See Artifacts. Torpor Orb- This is Humans hate, period. Also good against Snapcaster. Bring in against any ETB heavy decks. Pithing Needle- This is a powerful one drop against Planeswalkers and any permanent that needs to be activated. Shut them down early. Grafdigger's Cage- This card stops graveyard shenanigans early. Dredge, Storm, Living End, and Snapcaster are not a fan. Runed Halo- See Enchantments. Leyline of Sanctity- See Enchantments. Leyline of the Void- See Enchantments. Stony Silence- This card is useful in a variety of ways, shutting down Affinity decks, Vials, and artifact land tutors in Tron. Rule of Law- Storm and Ad Nauseum hate at its finest. Play this against any deck that needs multiple casts on their turn to win and watch how salty they get. Oblivion Ring- This is a semi-permanent fix to any problem non-land permanent. Fragmentize- This is a one mana answer to some of the most troublesome enchantments and artifacts in the format. While the fact that it can only be cast at sorcery speed isn't ideal, it is a great card against decks like Affinity, Tron, Boggles, etc. Disenchant- Similar to Fragmentize, but for one many more, can be cast at instant speed Cranial Extraction- Lost Legacy has two big drawbacks that make it difficult to choose over this card. The fact that for one mana more, you can take out artifacts and don't gift your opponents a card makes this a key choice in taking apart combo decks Sorcerous Spyglass- In a PW heavy meta, this is a great choice. It allows us a turn 2 glimpse into their game plan while shutting down any trouble cards on the same turn. Also good against certain combo MUs. Nihil's Spellbomb- A graveyard hate card that only hits your opponent while drawing you a card is great. The single yard exile is what makes this worth choosing over the others and card draw is always good. Rest in Peace- This is the premier graveyard hate of choice if you're okay with your Souls being exiled. Otherwise it isn't that detrimental to our deck, while shutting down your opponents game plan.
Thank you for the post MrDude! The deck is a blast to play and from what I've been reading, appears to have something behind it enough to warrant further testing. I've actually checked out the thread posted, and while BW Superfriends is definitely a close variant on BW Control, there's enough there to consider them different builds, as per the article Frank and Craig wrote on. The typical BW Superfriends deck also varies a bit from the thread's interpretation, which leaned more towards a BW tokens/lower CMC/Midrange style of play. I've been testing different land counts lately and have settled on 24, which has allowed me to play some of the more higher cost Planeswalkers like CharkAttacks successfull build. Here are the cards I'm playing so far, with the expectation that my sideboard will be undergoing changes soon:
I’m a few days away from having the full deck in paper, but I’ve been practicing this latest iteration online the past few days and have been pleased with my results thus far. Aside from the times the MTGO shuffler decides to give me the middle finger, the deck seems to flow quite smoothly since I went up to 24 lands to play the three 5+ CMC Walkers. Despite my initial reservations, I have to say, they have been quite good when I’ve drawn them. Sorin, Grim Nemesis is the one I’m still not sold on at the moment and would be the first to go if I don’t see his benefits. I would most likely side him out for a third Wall of Omens or the fourth Contaminated Ground, which has been fantastic for me so far. Also, I am thinking of removing Pithing Needle and Relic of Progenitus from the sideboard for 2 Rest in Peace. I have been managing to win my matchups against Dredge and Hallowed One decks at the moment, but each one feels like it’s been down to the wire.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UWAzorius Titan ControlUW BWOrzhov ControlBW
After two weeks of playing consistently with this deck online and developing a strong win percentage, I felt confident enough in the deck to try out a Friendly league on MTGO. Unfortunately, the results were incredibly disappointing, not because of how the deck performed, but rather how poorly the client ran. Usually I’m comfortable taking the blame for my losses, rewatching my games and seeing my misplays, but this was difficult to do on this occasion:
UW Approach (0-2)
This was my first time playing against this deck and I was thinking I was against traditional UW Control. I had played well against them and managed to stabilize the board, resolve my Gideon AoZ, and beating them down to a two turn clock. Unfortunately they resolved an Approach, and proceeded to Opt multiple times at the end of my end step and serum vision on their turn to draw/resolve it again. Game 2 was a straight land flood, in which I only saw two spells from my opening hand until turn 11. Seriously, turn 11. Needless to say, I lost.
UR Breach (0-2)
The opening hand was a Wall, a Thoughtseize, an Inquisition, and four lands, which looked like a good keep. The shuffler proceeded to then give me thoughtseizes and Inquisitions back to back until turn 5. My entire decks worth. I literally apologized to my opponent, who probably thought my deck was the absolute worst. On turn 6 they got an Ulamog, and turn seven they drew Breach. GG. Game 2 I had to mull to 5 due to no land hands. The keep was one land, a field of ruin. After three turns of not drawing a land, I just scooped when they resolved a Young Pyromancer.
Bant Eldrazi (2-0)
When the deck actually plays like it’s supposed to in real life, it’s ridiculously powerful. Our matchup against Eldrazi decks is fantastic and through previous MU during testing I knew that this would be close to a free win. Between our removal, wraths, And land disruption, they can’t keep up. Won both games handily and felt that this would be the turning point.
BR Prison (0-2)
I was wrong. Turn 3 Blood Moon turned off all my lands, ensnaring bridge on 4, and every land I drew was non basic. Game 2, I kept a hand with a basic, a dual land, and a FoR. Opponent dropped another Turn 3 Blood Moon and I literally drew no lands the rest of the game, which lasted to turn 9.
Mono Red Madcap Emperion (1-2)
I destroyed this deck Game 1 as they have no shot against PtE, hand disruption, and PWs. Again, I felt this was mine to lose. Game 2 I kept a two land hand that had great action between disruption and Souls. I wound up breaking my previous record. 10 turns. 0 lands. Game 3 was the exact opposite as all my lands decided to show up one after another after I kept a four land hand to start. After I hit yet another land around turn 9, Emperior was on deck and it was GG.
I think this deck is favored for a majority of these MUs but man this league was rough. Afterwards I took my paper deck and tried to see what my draws would look like and they were waaaaay better than the trash I kept getting online. I really hope to continue testing the deck in online leagues but this weekend really left me tilted regarding this shuffler. Oh well, can’t win em all.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UWAzorius Titan ControlUW BWOrzhov ControlBW
I also watched the Modern Pro Tour this weekend on Twitch, which was so good to finally see back again! One thing that got me thinking about this deck was the power of Collective Brutality. Gerry Thompson used it to great effect this weekend as a great way to get some additional mainndeck reach to his Mardu Pyromancer deck. If I lean away from Big Sorin, I may add another Brutality to the deck in its stead.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UWAzorius Titan ControlUW BWOrzhov ControlBW
After watching the Pro Tour I am wanting to start testing around with the deck again as well. I kind of put it on the shelf for a while after GP OKC.
Here is what I played at the time:
A few things I learned, Liliana of the Veil is awesome, Liliana, the Last Hope is good, but I could never say she won me a game either. Gideon Jura never really did alot for me.
So I think I'm going to make the following changes.
Taking out
I'v but in some thought on Sorin, Grim Nemesis and Elspeth, Sun's Champion and don't know if 1 is really needed. But I like the idea of both.
Going to make these changes and see how it plays.
@MrDude, I'm liking the list. Liliana of the Veil is a staple in my opinion. The only reason I haven't thought of running another is the cost, but she is great. While she is powerful, I agree that in our deck, The Last Hope isn't as effective as we need. I'm still on Big Giddy for now, although I could be convinced otherwise. His +1 has saved my hide in several games so Ive kept him in for the time being. Do you think going down to 23 lands will negatively affect the deck with it running higher cost cards? Sorin, SV and Elspeth, KE have both been awesome for me, although I'll give Sorin the edge due to his versatility. Ive sadly only been able to cast Sorin, GN once this far, so I still have a lot more testing to go before I can figure out if he's good or not. Keep me posted on how testing is going! Would love to collaborate with people on this deck!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UWAzorius Titan ControlUW BWOrzhov ControlBW
With out going into the numbers I think now that I am going down 1 of my 2 five mana drops, I can go down to 23 lands and be okay.
If I find that I am getting Ob Nixilis Reignited in my hand and not getting the 5th land to cast him I will change it up.
I've been quite happy with the current maindeck list but definitely still feel that I need to playtest a lot more before knowing whether or not some of the cards warrant their spot in the 75. Some cards I'm considering:
- a second Collective Brutality in the main
- a maindeck Relic of Progenitus
- Fracturing Gust in the sideboard
- Leyline of the Void vsRest in Peace
The hardest part is deciding which cards in the main aren't pulling their weight or are too redundant, and what's the correct land count. I'm also worried that too much tweaking will affect the core of the deck, so right now I'm okay with continuing to grind with my current list until I get a strong, definite pull to make a change.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UWAzorius Titan ControlUW BWOrzhov ControlBW
As for my matches, was a little disappointed. I'll do a quick over view.
Round 1: vs GW Value Town: Win- I don't think my opponent ever really got off the ground. Both games I had Fatal Push and Path to Exile and just took over the game with Plains Walkers and Tokens. One time he got about 3 dudes on the board and I had a Damnation to clean them all away.
If you was watching it seemed almost unfair.
Round 2: vs Eldrazi Tron: Loss- This always seems to be the hardest match. I squeaked out a win in one game. But then he was able to over run me the other games. This is always bad for me when play testing this match as well.
Round 3: vs Red/White Control (Sun&Moon): Win- Most of the cards in there hand was dead cards. They don't really have a way to deal with plainswalkers,kind of a easy win. In the Sideboard you bring in ways to deal with ensnaring bridge and the rest was easy.
Round 4: vs Humans : Loss- this was the disappointing part of the night. Our deck has every answer for this match, but first game I got to 3 mana and never seemed to be able to draw 4th for my Wrath of God effects. Game 2 I was able to hold him off at the start, played some Plainswalkers to slow him down, then never drew a wrath. Thats just the luck sometimes in the this game.
Over all still happy with the deck but I had a 2-2 end to the night.
Thanks for the result update MrDude, glad to hear the new PWs are shaping up well!
Rough night at the FNM last night. This was the first time running the full list on paper, and despite playing well overall, I wasn’t able to win my matches. I felt like every game I had a chance but things didn’t break my way unfortunately:
1-2 Jeskai Control
This was a blast to play surprisingly. I won game 1 after slowly grinding through his counter magic picking apart any loose threats he managed to resolve. Once I got two PW down, it was over. Due to time, the next two games were speed magic, which Jeskai has the upper hand on. I wasn’t drawing my disruption spells and with hands full of counters and Snapcaster Mages I couldn’t find them in time to stop him from dropping an Elspeth, Sun’s Champion on curve both games. That card is bonkers and was a quick win for him.
0-2 Counters Company
This has always been one of the tougher matchups for me if I don’t have enough disruption or wraths in my hand early. Game 1 I had spot removal in my opening hand which helped me pick apart the Devoted Druid and Duskwatch Recruiter that he was resolving, but the Paths just ramped him into a quick Collected Company which got him what he needed to win the following turn. Game 2 was a wild ride. Turn three, I hit him with Lost Legacy, taking out his Viziers and dropped a Stony Silence to negate his Ballista. I managed to hold him off for quite some time between hand disruption and spot removal, slowly attacking with my manlan. He had six creatures on deck by the time I had resolved my first PW, Gideon AoZ, to which he chorded in a Phyrexian Revoker, which I pathed. He then topdecks a Pithing Needle. Next turn he uses Gavony Township to pump his dorks and swing for the win. I hit him with a Settle which made me think this was the win. I then proceed to draw four straight lands while he Collected Companys and rebuilds his board to kill me. Rough loss.
0-2 G Tron
My opponent is also winless and tells me he hasn’t had any luck drawing lands tonight. Apparently his luck changed once he met me lol. If you still don’t know why Tron is incredibly broken, he got a turn 3 Karn despite having a Contaminated Ground on one of his Tron lands. GG. Game 2, I had land disruption for days: Field of Ruin, 2x Contaminated, and Ghost Quarter. Surely this was a win. Turn 5 I had Lingering Souls and a Gideon AoZ on deck, Turn 7 I got an All is a Dust to the face. Turn 8 was Endbringer, Turn 9 was Karn.
Overall, except for my last match I never felt like the games couldn’t be won.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UWAzorius Titan ControlUW BWOrzhov ControlBW
Some things I’ve been thinking about from my recent results:
-Been reading some articles to determine the correct number of land I should be running in my build. Here are good reads for those who are interested. How Many Lands? How Many Lands Do You Need to Consistently Hit Your Land Drops?
Seems like 24 is the way to go for me.
-While I’m not a fan of his, Sorin GN seems like a necessary evil in games where direct attacks aren’t an option (ie prison decks, lantern) or aren’t profitable. Having him on deck in control MU is a big blow to them if they don’t have an option ready. That being said, he’s still on the shortlist.
-Runed Halo is going back to SB. While it’s a free win some games, I don’t always draw it when I need it
-Been considering running no creatures. Wall of Omens is great but looking to see how the deck feels without the creature spells.
-I definitely want another Brutality in the main and might go up an Inquisition. For this deck to function I need hand disruption early and often.
I moved Runed Halo to the SB, went down a land, removed the Wall of Omens and added another Inquisition, Brutality, Lingering Souls, and Contaminated Grounds. I also brought in Nihil Spellbomb and Fracturing Gust to the SB as well. I’ve been playing this deck over the past few days, and I have to say I am loving it. Every opening hand has an opportunity to disrupt my opponents through their hand and/or manabase and I’m able to effectively throw them off while landing my PWs to gain more advantage. There’s quite a few wincons in this deck and so far my Collective Brutality and Contaminated Grounds have really shone in recent matchups. I look forward to further testing!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UWAzorius Titan ControlUW BWOrzhov ControlBW
Thalia's lancersHeart of Kiran
Loving this list im running a similiar one but gideon beatdown based. I want to say that you all should try Thalias lancers in the deck at least as a 1 of. With the new legendary rule the lancer allows you to tutor whatever planeswalker you want!
Also heart of kiran is pretty much great in any planeswalker based deck as its activated by loyalty points. (turn 2 kiran and turn 3 gideon +1 fog and swing).
I also noticed alot of you don't run Night's whisperas a 4 of in your list. It is absolutely an awesome card and has given me the advantage in many games. Running white and black it is the only real card advantage aside from wall.
Hey roguetacticss! Welcome to the thread, and happy to have you! A pet peeve of mine is when moderators shoot down card suggestions and don’t provide much feedback so I appreciate suggestions and new looks, as the deck must always be flexible to the meta. As for the cards you brought up, I had some thoughts: Heart of Kiran
Pros
-Evasive flyer with vigilance
-4/4 for 2 is nothing to sneeze at
-Rather than crew, can be activated by PW loyalty point
Cons
-Comes down on turn two but does nothing until the next turn
-Needs to be crewed by a creature the next turn which is tricky. Lingering Souls won’t do it the next turn so that means you have to resolve a PW that turn, either exposing it too early, or causing it to lose a loyalty point and leaving it open to a removal spell like Lightning Bolt
-Dies to Fatal Push, Abrupt Decay Thalia’s Lancers
Pros
-4/4 first strike
-Tutors your PW
-Fantastic blocker
-Dodges most removal
Cons
-Costs 5 mana, which is steep for any creature in Modern
-Exposes your gameplan a turn early
-Can’t play the PW the same turn, giving them time to find an answer
-As a one of, may be easier to find a more cost effective tutor or just have an extra PW
-Very similar to Djeru, With Eyes Open, who may be useful in your list as a tutor/protector
I have run between 2-4 Night’s Whisper in the past and found out two things: By being more selective in my card choices, card draw stopped being an issue and my hands are usually great throughout the game (in real life at least.Mtgo shuffler likes to mess with me a lot lol) and that with the quantity of disruption available to me, black based control decks don’t need card advantage generally because of our ability to make our opponents stumble during their turns.
I like your list and hope you’re enjoying it! Have you been playing it often in local events/online? Keep us posted on how it’s doing and any additional thoughts!
Also, quick thoughts @roguetacticss:
-May be beneficial to substitute a Wrath for Damnation. With the Humans deck being one of the most played archetypes currently played, Meddling Mage is a real thing and can hurt one of our main outs if he correctly names one of our wraths. Having variety in the main helps play around that and can win the game.
-I like Blessed Alliance and think it's an underplayed card at the moment
-Baneslayer Angel is a popular card for our deck and a quality creature for five. Worth the higher casting cost due to the high value upside if you're able to untap with her.
-Why Spyglass over Pithing Needle? Due to opponent hand reveal?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UWAzorius Titan ControlUW BWOrzhov ControlBW
Chantu9y
I currently have the deck in paper and have been play testing it at several FNM. I mainly play 5C humans at more competitive events and totally agree with 1 damnation. At the most recent FNM event I went 3/2/0 with 3 wins against UB thopter Whir (2/0), G tron (2/1), Burn (2/1). Loses CoCo/Chord infinite combo (1/2), Storm (2/0). Notable hard matchups in the past (jeskia control, 5C humans, Lantern control, tron, Death and taxes)
I am somewhat iffy on the Thalia's lancers, but I like it over Djeru because it allows me to tutor my heart of kiran as well. It's replacement would be baneslayer angel, which to me has seemed to be a win more card, as a resolved Gideon Jurahas almost always been a victory.
As far as Heart of Kiran goes I have play tested the card a lot and it has done fairly well.
The matches with bolt can be rough, but I sideboard in ley lines for burn situations and kiran gets boarded out against a jeskia control.
The Pro's i've seen to kiran through testing:
vigilance, puts a fast clock on the opponent and is able to block for your planeswalker
With multiple planeswalkers on board, forces your opponent to deal with kiran rather than a gideon or liliana.
Flying, evasive as you stated (shuts down mantis rider)
Vehicle, allows you to board wipe and keep presence (although can be win more with gideons in play, it's still very helpful with creature lands)
Control, allows you to use controlling abilities of planeswalkers (token, fog, destroy etc.) while still keeping an aggressive clock.
Cons (most you covered pretty well) with the use of loyalty being risky at times and having a dead card turn 2/3 not being good at all. I have considered going down to a 1 of heart of kiran.
As far as sorcerous spyglass over Pithing needle it is due to the hand reveal. I find that having the information is very important and we really wanna needle/glass turn 3/4 (karn, ugin, oblivion stone, Jace etc). Although we run plenty of hand reveal cards, we typically play them turn 1 and may not have another. I find the reveal is really necessary in seeing whether our opponents gonna play a karn, ugin, or oblivion stone next turn, as well as give us information on whether or not we are okay to play something.
Hey, all! So I haven't been testing this as much as I should, but I've been tuning a grindy Orzhov Midrange/Control list that I'd like to work on in the future. I'm missing quite a few of the cards, but I still need to test if buying any of them is even worth it, so I don't mind waiting and testing with proxies first. Anyway, here's my list so far.
So obviously there's a bunch of jank going on here, but I've been enjoying the synergies that I built this deck to abuse quite a lot! I'll break a few things down real quick:
-Sculler-
In many other decks, he's a weak discard effect, as he can't attack after he's taken a card. In this deck, he can crew after taking that card.
-Pain Seer-
Safe Bob! Use him to crew something, draw a card. Great value, and forces an answer against control decks, as he can actually afford to attack against them, and then draw you extra cards every turn. Still janky and situational, but works well in the deck so far.
-Bontu-
Terrible card, does nothing. It can crew any of my vehicles, though, as well as survive my Wrath effects. It's very easy to sac Souls tokens or other weenies I don't need to push through an extra 5 damage, as well. You can even respond to Sculler's EtB trigger by saccing the Sculler to Bontu to remove a card from their hand permanently, and then hit them for heavy damage! Lastly, it combos with Porphyry Nodes to keep it on the field indefinitely.
-Porphyry Nodes-
A play-around card in many instances, hence the singleton, but against aggressive decks, it's a 1-mana Wrath. They either play into it and lose creature after creature (and you can manipulate which ones die using Push or Path and the like), or they back off and give you breathing room. Completely win-win in such cases. Amazing when backed with Bontu, as the opponent then needs to play a 5-power or greater threat, or they lose it, and it never goes away. Pro-tip: kill the 5-power creatures they play, and keep enjoying your soft-lock.
Anyway, that's most of the janky stuff in there, but I'll answer any questions. And yeah, I'm definitely still working on my SB, as well as tweaking my MD list as I continue testing.
Crimson Lancer, welcome to the thread! Interesting deck list, definitely more creature and artifact heavy than most. I had a few thoughts regarding card choices and deck design:
Cards
Tidehollow Sculler- Sculler is a powerful magic card in creature centered decks. It allows the card to be a Thoughtseize that can attack when needed. It allows us a chance to disrupt their hand and take a look at their game plan on turn two. The downside to this card is that it is highly susceptible to remove in the format and usually a nonfactor during combat unless crewing a vehicle. It is also a terrible card on board if you need to wrath, which can be a major part of our game plan. I like this card in creature decks that are focused on disruption and putting the opponent on a fast clock.
Pain Seer- This card is a type of Dark Confidant that allows you to draw extra cards when its untapped at a cost of life. You’re using artifacts to do this, which is nice, as well as lower CMC cards, which is crucial. This card will rarely be seen attacking unless it’s crewing and is also susceptible to easy removal and our wrath effects. Careful that you’re deck is fast/aggressive enough that the life loss doesn’t hurt more than it helps, especially if you’re grinding/getting into the late game, which is why most control don’t play Confidant. Have you looked at Asylum Visitor?
Bontu the Glorified- This card can be a beating. Menace and indestructible on a 4/6 for 3 is great. There is a reason he doesn’t see Modern play though, as his cost to attack and block is pretty steep. Between Bontu and Nodes, your other creatures are dying quickly, especially if you’re opponent is a combo deck, playing cheap powerful spells like Gurmag Angler or playing control. Hes a win on that the deck needs to be built around.
Bontu’s Last Reckoning- Sorcery speed wrath for three that makes you stumble the next turn. Unfortunately not much upside here.
P Nodes- This is actually a powerful card in the right build. Generally those decks are built around its interaction and play multiple copies. This is, as D90Dennis14 put it, situationally useful but can be more detrimental than not in decks where this is not a huge part of their gameplan. While you are correct that this can be powerful against cheap Aggro deck creatures, you need to have it in your opening hand or turn two at the latest, otherwise you’re dead to those decks regardless, especially with one copy.
Deck Design
Artifacts- Interesting synergy with Sculler and PSeer. I’ve run 2-3 copies of Smugglers Copter in my deck as well in the past. Super underrated card in Modern and very powerful. Evasive attacker, solid blocker, card advantage is all great. Unfortunately, while it’s easier to crew, it suffers from much of the same issues I had discussed with Heart of Kiran. Quite often I would crew it, only for Lightning Bolt or Fatal Push to get it, effectively setting me back two turns. Let us know if you have success running this number of the two.
Card advantage vs hand disruption- I wrote before regarding blacks preference to disrupt over card advantage and its ability to be just as effective as the latter. Between Nights Whisper, PSeer, Thraben and Copter, you have quite a bit of card advantage generators. I’m curious to know your experience with either helping or hindering your gameplan as you playtest, if you feel it it helped you win or wasn’t necessarily effective overall.
PW Choices- Also curious to see how these two perform in the deck. Lilli can help you get rid of dead cards in hand and Giddy AoZ helps you in a variety of ways with your build. Do you feel it needs any others?
Life loss- With some of the card advantage spells and fetches in your deck, you will be losing life. Are the 3 Shambling Vents doing well with keeping you from falling too far behind?
Keep us posted with your testing!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern Decks: UWAzorius Titan ControlUW BWOrzhov ControlBW
Leyline key here to stop a lot of discard and liliana.
shambling vents put in work + lifelink is key, along with timely reinforcements to gain +6
gideon emblem forces them to redirect affliction,rack damage
hold up lingering souls for discard and flashback
disenchant or gust is a must for ensnaring bridge, although sometimes spirits can get through.
felt extremely favored for me post board
Green Tron (2/1/0 Me)
Pre board. We seem very unfavored pre-board, it is hard to deal with an early resolved karn/ugin game 1
game one was over turn 5/6 with resolved world breaker and karn
Inquisition/thoughtsieze is pretty key turn one in seeing possibilities for tron and finishers. Target card should be sylvan scrying/expidition maps or ancient stirrings (unless of course they have hard tron and finisher take the karn)
I found nights whisper to be alright in helping me find paths to exile for ulamog/worldbreakers
being able to turn 3 field of ruin and surgical tron really allows us to establish a presence. Getting multiple hand disruption is key to slow them down
a turn 2 stony silence resolved is also awesome along with hand disruption
Nights whisper felt really good here as I mainly used it to search for exile effects for eldrazi or works.
+ gideon to FOG worm is amazing in making thier lifelinker/deathtouch useless while you go wide with tokens
Fracturing gust seems okay but the cost is really too high
post board the match seems to be still favored for them, but we do much better
Some interesting things:
- Only 1 Nights Whisper. This seems like a card you'd want more than a singleton of, or none at all. Especially with the high curve of the deck.
- 1 main deck Leyline of Sanctity. This seems inconsistent and unnecessary to me.
- Lots of Gideon's. Nothing too crazy, but I feel like you might want to shift it around to at least accommodate 2 Liliana if nothing else.
- Sorin, Grim Nemesis is a great Jace killer now. Eat a Jace then start ticking up for card advantage *and* a clock.
- The wrath split is very likely just for Meddling Mage.
- Accomidating Field of Ruin is great, especially if big mana decks try and take over. Worst case it's an uncounterable main deck answer to a flipped Search. Also randomly triggers Revolt.
Overall, given the unbans I think BW has the means to solidly compete against both BBE decks, Jace decks, and their linear responses.
Red should be burn, Goblins, Dragons, draw/discard, and Standard-unplayable 5CMC cards with insane, lengthy effects that take 10 minutes to figure out what they do and another 20 to actually make their effects work on the field.
I dislike the 1 leyline mainboard and I'm also not a huge fan of bontus. I've considered running slaughter the strong for pesky fast boards so we get enough value and don't give a free time walk. We run enough paths/discard/pushes to remove early threats.
I also think we should go up to 4 thoughtseize and 2 inquisition over 3/3 with jace and BBE.
Another card I'm hard on trying as a 2 of is bitterblossom.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: 5C humans, BW control, Mono W Taxes
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Modern BW Control
Overview of the Deck
BW or Orzhov Control is a black-white control deck for those who enjoy a more proactive and aggressive approach to control style play in Modern. The deck focuses on combining hand/mana disruption with creature removal before closing out the game with powerful planeswalkers. What separates this deck from other “BW Control” variants, such as BW Tokens and BW Superfriends (all of whom have great threads btw), is that we don’t go all in on the tokens plan and our Planeswalkers are chosen based upon control aspect ability, ie Sorin. The spell selection also varies, focused more on disrupting your opponents gameplan and taking us from a typical midrange deck to a slower play style seen in more classic control decks. While there are many reasons to play this deck, it does have it’s flaws. Here are some reasons to play the deck, as well as reasons why it’s not for everyone.
Reasons to play:
-You enjoy playing control decks in Modern
-You prefer a more tap out style of control with a focus on being proactive rather than reactive
-You like an adaptive gameplan and are willing to learn and modify your deck based on the current meta
-You would rather a less painful mana base built around two colors
-Black and white are arguably the two most powerful colors currently in the format when considering main deck staples and flexible sideboard answers
-If you wish to play a lesser known deck with a high amount of potential
-You enjoy utilizing powerful Planeswalkers as your primary wincon
Reasons not to play:
-While it is more budget-friendly than other decks in modern, it is not cheap
-If you prefer more established/high tier decks. UW and Jeskai are the elite control decks at the moment and should be the control decks of choice if you wish to consistently get results at higher end tournaments
-You prefer Aggro or Combo type decks
-If you are a fan of draw-go/permission style of play
Zyrnak’s MTGO #1 Competitive Modern League Decklist
2 Gideon Jura
3 Gideon of the Trials
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
Spells
1 Bontu's Last Reckoning
2 Collective Brutality
1 Damnation
1 Day of Judgment
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
1 Night's Whisper
2 Thoughtseize
2 Wrath of God
3 Fatal Push
3 Path to Exile
3 Field of Ruin
2 Godless Shrine
2 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
6 Plains
3 Shambling Vent
3 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Westvale Abbey
2 Cranial Extraction
3 Fragmentize
3 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Rest in Peace
1 Rule of Law
2 Stony Silence
Card Choices
Similar to most control decks, we generally run few creatures, if any. Creatures are not required for the build as we can create our own through tokens or swing with planeswalkers. If you do decide to play creatures, however, these are the most common ones that have seen play.
Wall of Omens - An 0/4 body for two mana is mediocre. An 0/4 body for two that draws you a card is fantastic and the main reason that Wall has become a staple in many control builds. The fact that it can help protect your planeswalkers while dodging most removal is a big plus.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet :rate3.0: - You get a nice bang for your buck with Kalitas. Besides being a 3/4 with lifelink who can get +1/+1 counters for more value, she doubles as graveyard hate and creature generator, as whenever a non token creature your opponent controls dies, the card is exiled and you get a zombie. This is fantastic against decks like dredge and turning the tide against an opponent post wrath. The only problem is she still dies to push, path, and your wrath, which isn't ideal, especially for her casting cost. Overall, one of the better creatures for this deck.
Baneslayer Angel - For five mana, your creature better be a powerhouse in modern. A 5/5 lifelink with evasion and first strike fits that description. Baneslayer has seen play in this deck, however she suffers from basically the same downsides as Kalitas. There’s usually better value these days for 5 mana.
Cryptbreaker - This card is very build dependent. Usually we don’t want to just be discarding our hand, especially if we already have cards that can efficiently churn out tokens like Elspeth and Gideon, Ally. It is nice in builds where you may have dead cards in hand (Souls, Leyline, etc.) and have the resources to turn them into card draw or tokens.
Fulminator Mage - This is one of the premier sideboard cards in modern and can really put a hurt on Tron and mana cheat decks. There have been builds that main deck this card, however it most likely won’t stay on the board very long and we generally have enough land hate built into the deck already.
Planeswalkers are a key component to this deck and one of the main reasons to choose this build. This deck usually runs a high amount compared to most decks, and they are our primary wincons. BW has some of the most powerful Planeswalkers printed and many are tailor made for control style play. Below are the cards that have been the most effective in the deck.
Liliana of the Veil - One of the premiere cards in modern period. If you’re playing in black, you need to be playing at least one. She is one of the few three drop planeswalkers available and her abilities are absolute bonkers. Having said that, she has recently seen play as a 1-2 of, or even as a sideboard slot, as we do not want to be discarding valuable cards early on depending on your build. She is fantastic in certain matchups but can be detrimental to us as well in others. Overall, I recommend at least one in the 75.
Liliana, the Last Hope - She sees play in this deck mainly because she’s a three drop that can protect with her first ability. Her second ability is irrelevant in this deck but her ultimate just wins the game. While she’s good, she isn’t necessary for the deck to perform optimally and can otherwise be omitted entirely.
Gideon of the Trials - Lil Giddy helped bring back control in modern. He is an absolute powerhouse and for only three mana. He fogs, he attacks, but most of all, he can straight up beat entire decks with his ultimate. A must have for the deck and makes all your other Giddies relevant.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor - Sorin SV is a sneaky good card and highly recommended for the deck. He makes all our creatures good with his first ability, turning them into at least three power lifelinkers, highly relevant in the late game, against decks like burn, or if you run a draw heavy build. His second ability nets you a flying vampire token and his ultimate is backbreaking for the opponent, helping you to quickly stabilize the board if you haven’t already. Against the creature based decks prevalent in today’s meta, the emblem spells gg.
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad - Sorin, LOI is SV Lite. He makes lifelink tokens that don’t fly and has a fairly weak anthem. His ultimate is only relevant on a board of powerful planeswalkers and creatures. One of the weaker options at planeswalkers, I would add him only if you really have a thing for life gain.
Elspeth, Knight Errant - Elspeth is a boss, period. She is one of the most underplayed, unappreciated planeswalkers, despite her power level. She makes tokens, pumps them up with an absurd +3/+3 while granting them additional evasion, and then makes nearly everything you own indestructible. Oh Elspeth, how we miss you.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar - Gideon, AoZ is here because of Lil Giddy. On his own, his ability to make 2/2 tokens and swing for 5 is relevant, but with a Lil Gideon emblem on the board, relevant becomes essential. A key cog in our gameplan and helps protect and be aggressive in equal parts.
Gideon Jura - Big Gideon is the OG and one of my favorite cards. He fogs an entire board, assassinates problem cards, and hits for a whopping 6. Unfortunately he is not indestructible and can die to opponent removal and costs five mana. That aside, if you are able to curve into him, he can quickly earn you the win. In Gideon heavy builds, he is quite valuable.
Ob Nixilis Reignited - Another sneaky good card, Old Obby helps you draw cards, although at a price. He also kills troublesome creatures and his ultimate can put your opponent on a fairly short clock depending on the state of the game. Use only if you have lifegain available and are willing to pay his mana costs. He is worth the price in some matchups, especially if resolved early enough.
Sorin, Grim Nemesis - I will be the first to admit, I absolutely underrated this card. Especially in the current meta, a resolved Sorin GN can flat out turn the tide quickly. His first ability allows you to draw cards while hurting your opponent, and with our heavy CMC costs, it’s usually a nice perk. His minus gets rid of troublesome PW and creatures while gaining you life. I’ve only used his ultimate once and that was just overkill. Simply put, while he may be one of the first cards I board out, I never regret playing him and think he is one of the more undervalued cards in our deck.
Elspeth, Sun’s Champion - Lets get this out of the way. I don’t personally run her because she costs six and I try to go no higher than five CMC. Having said that, I’ve never played a game of Magic that I did not win whenever I resolved an Elspeth SC. She’s that good, and I will defend her to the death.
Where would control decks be without the best instant and sorcery speed spells to fuel them. These cards are the reason we choose to play control, and are vital to your build. The spells you select and their select quantities should be built around your meta and should be flexible. Some are absolute staples and should be in every deck while others can be added for spice or to suit your play style. However, remember that the goal of this deck is to win through disruption and removal. Be very selective in the cards you choose to help your Planeswalkers get the win.
Fatal Push - Few cards that have recently been printed can claim to have changed the landscape of modern. Fatal Push can easily boast this claim as it has become a must have spot removal in black decks. Unconditional removal in black for one mana wasn’t a thing until this card and it’s ability to kill creatures four mana and below for no pain is a game changer. This is an essential card.
Inquisition of Kozilek - Inquisition has its drawback. It can only take something three CMC or below. However it doesn’t cost you life, can take any type of card, costs only one, and is in a format dominated by powerful cards...3CMC and below. Consider this another must.
Mana Tithe - This is one of those sneaky “gotcha” cards that will drive your opponents mad when it actually works. Unfortunately the 1 time out of 10 it actually works is nowhere near worth justifying its inclusion. Play if your build is big on counters and if you’re okay with dead cards in your hand during the late game.
Path to Exile - Whites premiere removal card is a modern staple throughout formats. One mana, exile a creature. Sure it ramps your opponent a basic, but it’s ability to remove creatures from the game, including indestructible ones, can’t be overstated. A must have.
Rebuff the Wicked - This card counters a spell targeting a permanent you control, allowing you to save your Planeswalkers from removal. Again, while useful, this is more towards a counter build. BW generally likes run a tap out gameplay, so this is more build specific.
Thoughtseize - Inquisition without condition. At the cost of one mana and two life, sabotage your opponent while gaining knowledge of their gameplan. Yes, please.
Collective Brutality - A relatively new card that has become important in black decks, I compare it to blue’s Cryptic Command in terms of what it means to the deck: powerful versatility. It cost two mana and let’s you discard dead cards for more value. You can disrupt opponents’ hands while killing their creature and gaining you life. A fantastic card.
Dash Hopes - Again, more for the counterspell build. It will make your opponent really consider whether or not their spell is worth playing. Unfortunately, if it is, they will gladly pay 5 life if it means they win within the following few turns. The card can help lower their life total but you better be prepared to take advantage of it.
Dawn Charm :rate2.0: - It’s all about versatility, and this is another good counter build card. You can fog to buy you a turn, regenerate your blocking creature, or counter your opponent’s Lightning Helix or Boros Charm. A solid card.
Night’s Whisper :rate3.0: - This is probably the best black sorcery card draw. While card draw is not essential in these builds, it is recommended. For two mana and two life, you get two shots at finding an answer. I’ll take those odds. Unfortunately the deck really needs card selection as well, which this does not provide.
Lingering Souls :rate5.0: - If you’re playing BW in any deck, it’s hard to find a reason why you’re not playing this. It’s straight value and has no real downside. Play it for three to get two 1/1 flyers, then play it from the graveyard for two mana and two more. The amount of decks this absolutely hoses is ridiculous, as they will block, attack, and force your opponents to waste removal to stop them from grinding out matches. This card is big game.
Damnation - This is a creature heavy format in which the board is usually flooded with troublesome creature by turn 4. Destroy all creatures. They can’t regenerate. Need I say more?
Settle the Wreckage - The first and only instant speed wrath. This is what happens if PTE had a baby with ***. Don’t worry about the mana ramp. If you’re using this spell, trust me, they have all the mana they need already.
Wrath of God - See Damnation
Day of Judgement - See above but has the drawback of still being able to regenerate.
Bontu's Last Reckoning - While a three mana wrath is big game, the drawback of not untapping with mana can be a big blow. Would only use as a one of and only if necessary.
Honestly, only a few builds use artifacts, but then again they have had success. Not my cup of tea, but that is more based around your personal meta.
Relic of Progenitus - Graveyard hate + card draw. Good in some decks but way too situational. Fantastic sideboard but not so hot in the main, unless you’re expecting a lot of Dredge and Snapcasters your way.
Orzhov Signet - This is strictly Blood Moon hate. And now I guess it’s Blood Sun hate as well. Thanks, Wizards.
Again, this is more build dependent, but these enchantment can pack a wallop if resolved. Depending on your matchups, some can straight up win the game.
Bitterblossom - Ideal for BW tokens deck, this is best used in that archetype in which you can basically go all in on the tokens plan. This strays away from BW control and becomes more BW Midrange, an archetype unto itself.
Contaminated Ground - This is black's Spreading Seas. Instead of card draw, you give the opponent the pleasure of shocking themselves whenever they tap the land to play a spell. Trust me, these down early can change a game drastically. Cut them off a color, take out their manlands, beat Tron. Life is good.
Runed Halo - A sideboard superstar, control builds have recently found success adding this to the mainboard. It can help halt a difficult creature or completely stop a combo deck dead in its traps. Yeah, I'm looking at you Valakut and Grapeshot.
Phyrexian Arena - A slightly higher cost, more difficult to remove, and less painful Dark Confidant. Use if you really want more card draw and have maindeck ways to gain life.
Leyline of Sanctity - Very powerful but very situational. One of the best sideboard cards in the format that sees mainboard play in builds that value discarding dead cards.
Leyline of the Void - See LoS.
There's not much to say here. You should be playing between 23-25 lands based on how high your CMC count is for your particular build. Concealed Courtyard, Godless Shrine, Isolated Chapel, and Marsh Flats are essential and should all be included in your land count. The rest are optional but highly recommended depending on your preferences.
Fetid Heath - This card is very good at fixing your mana and can help you pay for all the cards in the deck pain-free. Can make your life a lot easier when drawn early.
Field of Ruin - My land destruction of choice. Helps blow up a non basic land card, and while it allows them to search up an untapped basic of their own, it allows you to do the same, without time walking yourself. In the current meta, with decks running so few basics, this card pairs fantastically with Contaminated Ground.
Ghost Quarter - FoR that only needs to tap itself rather than two lands. It can also destroy a basic land, which is great. Unfortunately they can still tutor up another basic land, while you cannot.
Shambling Vent - The BW manland and a great card for this deck. It's another wincon and effective creature, gaining us life while swinging/blocking for 2. Should be in every build.
Techtonic Edge - Blow up their land and don't let them get another. This is great but has the downside of needing to wait for your opponent to have enough lands to activate it and not getting a land back.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth - Another great mana fixer, similar to fetid heath but much cheaper in paper.
Guide to Playing the Deck
This deck, like most control decks, requires tight play and complex thinking in order to determine the best lines of play. Control, in general, is a style that requires patience and a cool head to ensure victory. A lot of the time, the games go long and you are playing from behind. Do not panic and start to worry. If built correctly, your deck will have the answers that you need to pull out the win. For the most part, BW plays very few creatures. Those that are chosen are usually because they provide valuable protection for your Walkers with upside built in, such as Wall of Omens or Kalitas. The main “creatures” used are tokens our Walkers make and our Lingering Souls. These creatures force your opponent to overcommit, allowing us to wrath the board.
In the early turns, it is important to implement our gameplan of being aggressive in disrupting what the opponent is trying to do. Discard spells, like Inquisition and Thoughtseize are used to look at their gameplan and start to strategize how to beat it. Follow up discard spells strip them of their essential cards, while mana disruption through enchantments and land destruction sets them back further. We use spot removal when needed to take out troublesome creatures and keep the board clear while we wait for the time to resolve our Planeswalkers.
One of the more difficult parts of the deck is determining when to turn the corner and start resolving Planeswalkers. Once a Planeswalker is in play, opponents have a very difficult time dealing with them and keeping pace with their value. Usually resolving two or three can be backbreaking, especially with the synergies between those we play. Skilled pilots will identify the earliest opportunity to become the aggressor while either bluffing or holding interaction, ie discard, removal, or wrath. While BW Control is built to grind your way towards victory, Modern is still a format that can punish durdling. When playing this deck, you are ideally using your first three turns to hit your land drops and disrupt through spot removal and discard. The next few turns are critical in determining whether to wrath, force an overcommitment from your opponent through Lingering Souls or PW prior to wrath, or going directly for the PW resolve. Experience and matchup will determine the correct line to choose and will become easier to identify over time.
While it is important to understand how to play the deck, perhaps the greatest skill lies in deckbuilding and properly identifying a metagame. When big mana decks like Tron are dominant, cards like Contaminated Grounds are clutch, while Runed Halo can shut down decks like Scapeshift or Storm. Understanding your Metagame and adapting your deck is critical to success. Just as important is knowing your deck. Play, play, play. Be consistent. Know your deck inside and out. It will be a slog at first, but soon you will understand your matchups and how best to play them as your deck becomes second nature to you. Most of all, have fun and enjoy playing the best game on earth!
Links to helpful videos and articles:
Modern BW Control with Frank Lepore
Modern BW Superfriends with Frank Lepore
Modern Orzhov Control with Craig Wescoe
Modern Orzhov Planeswalker Control
Modern BW Planeswalker Control with Dave Dame
Modern BW Control with Seth Manfield
Matchups
The followings analysis is based on my experience playing against these decks, but obviously strategies may vary. One of the best things about Modern is how wide open the field is, but unfortunately it does make it more difficult to assess all the decks you are likely to see. I have written on the top 12 decks in the current meta between online and paper forms based on Mtggoldfish. I will update periodically if new shifts are seen and a particular deck achieves a top their status.
Deck: Jund
Favored: Yes
Strategy: This isn't as scary a matchup as you would think. The main thing with Jund is that their creatures are value. They only run about 15 but they can pack a punch with what they're in the deck to do. Confidant is great card advantage, Goyfs get huge fast, Oozes are very versatile and annoying, and BBE is their all star at the moment. They use both 3 mana Lillis to good effect in this deck which is all about stripping our resources with discard and spot removal. Because we also run discard and removal, our advantage is due to the huger CMC cards we run, tokens (although this deck does have good answers to them), and more powerful PWs. Expect a grind fest with this MU and very tight play is needed. Our removal is all viable against them and discarding their PWs and annoying creatures early is nice. Get rid of Bob early, he can give them the upper hand real quick if unanswered. Wrath effects and holding up an answer to BBE elf is always good to have as well. Keep in mind, they also only run about three basics, so it's not a bad idea to cut them off of red. Your PWs are key to outvaluing/outgrinding this deck to victory.
Sideboard: Graveyard hate (Surgical, Spellbomb, RiP) is valuable, as are Leylines. Dedicated cards PW hate, like Pithing Needle and Sorcerous Spyglass, is also good. While they may eat an Abrupt Decay, that's one less that your Gideon OtT has to worry about. Also, while you don't want Lilli otV to tick up too much, The Last Hope can be more annoying as she takes out our tokens.
Deck: Humans
Favored: Yes
Strategy: This is about as straightforward as it gets. This deck runs almost no basics so feel free to disrupt their mana base especially if they're not hitting their land drops. All of our removal hits their creatures and our discard is brutal against them. Vials can make the game annoying but not unbeatable by any means. Disrupt early, take out any problem creatures like Meddling Mage, and force them to overcommit before wrathing the board. A well timed wrath combined with a PW on deck will pretty much win you the game.
Sideboard: Not too much to board out here, maybe get rid of Sorin GN or another high CMC PW as this game is usually determined by turn 4-5. Liliana plays well here and artifact hate (Stony Silence, Spyglass, Fragmentize, etc.) to stop Vial shenanigans.
Deck: Burn
Favored: 50/50 initially, yes post sideboard
Strategy: Survive. That is the key word here. The first game is a toss up. Plain and simple, Burn is very fast and their entire plan is built around emptying their hand asap. While discard and spot removal hurts their gameplan by slowing them down, they are more than capable of top decking their win the next turn. Inquisition and Push are good early game and keep us alive, but only four cards really get us to win in G1- Gideon otT, Shambling Vents, Collective Brutality and Sorin SV. All three modes of Brutality are absolute beatings for Burn, hands down. Gideon's ultimate and the lifegain from the other two are key to taking this deck down.
Sideboard: Leyline pretty much *****s them down. Combined with life gain cards like Blessed Alliance, Timely Reinforcements, and Kor Firewalker, the MU becomes fairly straightforward and significantly easier
Deck: Mono G Tron
Favored: No
Strategy: There are certain MU that our deck is just not built to beat, and this is easily our Achilles heel. They ramp quickly and have so many relevant top decks that simply win against us when resolved. The MU is a delicate balance between knowing what cards to have them discard, when to blow up their lands, and how quickly you can put out a threat to close out the game. The key play here is to make sure that if they have two of their Tron pieces already in play, you must destroy one of them on their turn. Field of Ruin is great to have here, as they usually only run one basic. When you are looking to discard, if you can get rid of Ancient Stirrings or Sylvan Scrying early, it makes it more difficult for them to get Tron by turn 3. If you're looking to discard their bigger threats, Ugin, Karn, and Oblivion Stone are all good takes. Path can get rid of Wurmcoil and Ulamog. If you can keep them from getting Tron early through discard and mana disruption, you have a chance to get a PW or Lingering Souls out there to start beating down. You need to try and put the game out of their reach quickly because once they have Tron online, nearly every topdeck can win them the game.
Sideboard: This is still a tough MU post board. Stony Silence, Surgical, Fragmentize, and Lilliana are good here, as well as PW hate like Pithing, Spyglass, and Anguished Unmaking. Artifact hate stops them from tutoring most their lands and O Stoning, while Lilli helps discard and reset their board. Surgical may be the best card against this deck. If you blow up one of their Tron lands, you can surgical all those lands away into exile, making the mana combo impossible.
Deck: U/R Gifts Storm
Favored: 50/50 throughout
Strategy: This is an interesting MU, as their deck is basically non-interactive. They want to combo off and they want to do it as soon as possible. Our job is to disrupt their hand early and often, killing off any resolved mana reducers immediately, and quickly provide a clock. Making them discard tutors like Gifts Ungiven and Pieces of the Puzzle and any mana ramps is the key to slowing them down. You will want to keep up a spot removal in case they resolve a mana reducer, but ideally by turn three you have a threat on board to create a clock. G1 is a race to make sure they don't topdeck their combo in time.
Sideboard: Runed Halo, Leyline, graveyard hate, surgical extraction and cranial extraction are all clutch. Our wraths are fantastic if they Empty the Warrens and the other cards help prevent Grapeshot, though you will probably want to resolve two in case they hit you with Echoing Truth. Cranial can pretty much end their game if you get the chance to use it.
Deck: Boggles
Favored: No, but honestly depends on if they have Leyline in opening hand
Strategy: If they open with a Leyline, the match is pretty much gg. We can't disrupt them at that point and just hope we can wrath before they place a totem armor on a hexproof or that they just draw Kor Spiritdancers. The good news is that this deck runs only 13 creatures. The bad news is that 8 are hexproof, so can only be wiped away with a wrath, which is fine unless they get a totem armor on them or draw the nuts and kill you before then. What we want to do is basically disrupt their hand to either take away what few hexproof creatures they have or take away the most difficult to handle enchantment. We can stall them with tokens until we find a wrath, which you should do immediately. If their board is empty, we are free to resolve a PW and get their clock rolling as they usually only have 2 Path to Exiles.
Sideboard: Lilli otV, Blessed Alliance, Surgical, Fragmentize, Fracturing Gust, Cranial Extraction are all game changers in this MU. A quick enchantment hate is a must if they start off with a Leyline. Runed Halo naming one of their hexproofs is also a good, lesser used tactic.
Deck: B/R Hollowed One
Favored: 50/50 throughout
Strategy: I honest still struggle with this MU currently, as it is decided by a literal role of the dice. They could discard your good cards, they could discard their good cards, who knows? Game 1 you could cruise through the matchup barely encountering any resistance, or you could get a turn 2 Hollowed One x 2 followed by a Gurmag Angler. All I can recommend is making sure you discard any Anglers or Hallowed Ones you see in their hand, have plenty of wraths and Lingering Souls in hand, and prepare for the grind. May the odds be ever in your favor.
Sideboard: Graveyard hate is big here and makes our wraths much better. Cards that help get rid of their trouble cards for good, like Cranial or Surgical, are also okay
Deck: Affinity
Favored: Yes
Strategy: Similar to the Burn deck, our plan is survival. This is a deck that goes off extremely quickly with very powerful cards. They synergize extremely well and can kill you very quickly. Their game plan is basically to overextend themselves and get everything out of their hand as quickly as possible in order to beat you in the first few turns. The benefit of our deck is the fact that we run so many wraths. Once they commit and empty their hand, a wrath can pretty much spell gg, can being the operative word. Three cards make this difficult for us- their two manlands and Cranial Plating. Use your spot removal and land destruction to kill off their lands and beware of getting duped by Cranial and Ravager. Affinity is a complicated deck and a competent pilot and kill you out of nowhere.
Sideboard: Artifact hate like Stony Silence, Fragmentize, and Fracturing Gust. More Stony Silence. Also, did I mention Stony Silence?
Deck: Jeskai Control
Favored: 50/50
Strategy: This and UW is a mental workout so be prepared for the long haul. Tight play all around is needed to gain the upper hand and the more you play against it, the better you'll get a feel for what they're trying to do. Knowing when to disrupt their hand is important, as well as knowing when to play around counters (also when/what to sacrifice to their counters in order to play your "real" card). They have a hard time dealing with Lingering Souls and a resolved PW, so try to do so early. Make sure you don't walk into a path and protect your PW advantage. Save your Field of Ruin for their Collenades and Azcantas as well. Try to take away their counters and Jaces when disrupting.
Sideboard: Surgical is nice to have on their Cryptic Commands or their Snapcasters. PW hate, like Pithing and Spyglass, is also good here.
Deck: Eldrazi Tron
Favored: Yes
Strategy: Between our discard and removal this is very much in our favor. Try to keep them off mana ramp as much as possible by blowing up their Temples and Tron pieces early as they don't have great ways to fetch their land. Our Lingering Souls and tokens are tough for them to deal with and if we have Vault of the Archangel up, they pretty much have no answer. An early Thought Knot Seer is usually the biggest issue for our deck as well as the haste of Reality Smasher. Go heavy on the discard and creature removal in this MU and you should have a clear path for our PWs to win the game.
Sideboard: Artifact hate like Stony Silence is big against this deck and can help destroy a resolved Chalice. Liliana is also good against them. Have an answer to PW like Karn and Ugin. Surgical their Tron piece and this game is significantly more difficult for them. Runed Halo is also good if named against TKS.
Deck: Dredge
Favored: No, yes post sideboard
Strategy: Honestly, you should probably concede Game 1 once you realize you're playing Dredge. Unless you're maindecking graveyard hate or have the deck to race them, all decks should probably do so, not because it's impossible but to save time. They are heavy favorites game 1 and if you drag the game out too long and lose, you're going to lose the match to time. Unless you're packing a ton of Paths and they sleepwalk into a Settle the Wreckage, it's going to be a rough one.
Sideboard: All the graveyard hate comes in. A Rest In Peace shuts down their gameplan hard but be warned that they will bring in answers of their own to that. Disrupt their hand to strip away answers and have a backup handy. Surgical and Cranial can also assist with this. Runed Halo can buy you time but really it's about wrecking their graveyard and protecting your enchantment/artifact
Deck: Death's Shadow
Favored: Yes
Strategy: This can range from "laughably easy" to "what the heck just happened" depending on the skill level of your opponent. This deck likes to disrupt early, ping themselves to a low life quickly, and fill up their graveyard. They can then drop a hard to answer creature, like Tasigur, Angler, or Death's Shadow. They have counters, Battle Rage, and burn spells to make our lives more difficult, as well as Snapcaster to bring them back. If you're not careful, things can get messy quick. They run only 2 basics, so cut them off red. Discarding their counters and Snapcasters makes our removal more effective, and they have a hard time with our tokens and resolved PWs.
Sideboard: Graveyard hate, small mana removal like Condemn or Blessed Alliance, Lilli otV, and Leyline are all good
Sideboard Card Choices
Properly sideboarding is one of the most underrated skills in Magic. Over half your matchups are played with your sideboarded cards, so it's vital that you are extremely selective in your 15. Each one should have multiple purposes designed to give you the edge against the decks in your meta. Your sideboard should be fluid and flexible. Don't be afraid to make a change if you need to and make sure you're very deliberate with why certain cards make the cut. Understand that you can't sideboard for everything, and there's are some decks we will just lose to. That's the beauty and frustration with Modern, and all we can do is give ourselves the best chance for success!
Kor Firewalker- One of the finest choices available against burn-centered decks. Protection from red and lifegain basically stops them dead in their tracks.
Fulminator Mage- see Creature section.
Duress- Snags everything except creatures and lands, no exceptions, no pain. All for one mana.
Extirpate- Solid graveyard hate that removes important cards from their deck completely. Very good against Snapcaster Mage.
Surgical Extraction- Another great graveyard hate card, it’s a slower (relatively) Extirpate but for no cost. Highly recommended in any deck.
Blessed Alliance- Modern is all about versatility, and despite only two of its modes being relevant, life gain + creature removal at instant speed is great. Particularly good against burn and hexproof.
Celestial Purge- Exiles problem red and black cards in the format at instant speed. The key word permanent makes this playable.
Disenchant- You don’t see too many maindeck enchantments these days, so having artifact removal built in to blow them up quickly is nice.
Anguished Unmaking- Exile a nonland permanent for three mana. The unconditional wipe out is fantastic, but the only thing keeping it from seeing more play is the color requirement and three life loss, which isn’t bad.
Flaying Tendrils- It’s black’s Anger of the Gods. Especially good against tokens and a board full of powerful x/2s. This card makes Dredge sad.
Hero's Downfall- Kill a creature, but more importantly kill a Planeswalker. Pretty straightforward.
Lost Legacy- This is a card that can win you games if resolved. This is basically Surgical at sorcery speed, except for the key fact that the card doesn’t need to hit the graveyard. This shuts down combo decks like you wouldn’t believe. Unfortunately the card has two drawbacks on that it can't hit artifacts and it potentially draws your opponents cards.
Timely Reinforcement- life gain with annoying blocking creatures attached. Burn does not like this.
Fractured Gust- 5 mana instants that destroy all artifact and enchantments don’t seem very good and will likely have you dead the following turn. Unless you’re playing Affinity or an enchantment heavy deck like Boggles. Oh yeah, 2+ life gain for each one destroyed. That’s a winner.
Engineered Explosives- Great against tokens or decks that run a lot of low cost permanents...so pretty much every deck.
Relic of Progenitus- See Artifacts.
Torpor Orb- This is Humans hate, period. Also good against Snapcaster. Bring in against any ETB heavy decks.
Pithing Needle- This is a powerful one drop against Planeswalkers and any permanent that needs to be activated. Shut them down early.
Grafdigger's Cage- This card stops graveyard shenanigans early. Dredge, Storm, Living End, and Snapcaster are not a fan.
Runed Halo- See Enchantments.
Leyline of Sanctity- See Enchantments.
Leyline of the Void- See Enchantments.
Stony Silence- This card is useful in a variety of ways, shutting down Affinity decks, Vials, and artifact land tutors in Tron.
Rule of Law- Storm and Ad Nauseum hate at its finest. Play this against any deck that needs multiple casts on their turn to win and watch how salty they get.
Oblivion Ring- This is a semi-permanent fix to any problem non-land permanent.
Fragmentize- This is a one mana answer to some of the most troublesome enchantments and artifacts in the format. While the fact that it can only be cast at sorcery speed isn't ideal, it is a great card against decks like Affinity, Tron, Boggles, etc.
Disenchant- Similar to Fragmentize, but for one many more, can be cast at instant speed
Cranial Extraction- Lost Legacy has two big drawbacks that make it difficult to choose over this card. The fact that for one mana more, you can take out artifacts and don't gift your opponents a card makes this a key choice in taking apart combo decks
Sorcerous Spyglass- In a PW heavy meta, this is a great choice. It allows us a turn 2 glimpse into their game plan while shutting down any trouble cards on the same turn. Also good against certain combo MUs.
Nihil's Spellbomb- A graveyard hate card that only hits your opponent while drawing you a card is great. The single yard exile is what makes this worth choosing over the others and card draw is always good.
Rest in Peace- This is the premier graveyard hate of choice if you're okay with your Souls being exiled. Otherwise it isn't that detrimental to our deck, while shutting down your opponents game plan.
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/783550-bw-superfriends
Hope with further discussion and tuning this deck can really take off. I loved playing it at GP Oklahoma City!
Maindeck (60)
Creatures
2 Wall of Omens
Planeswalkers
3 Gideon of the Trials
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Gideon Jura
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
Spells
3 Fatal Push
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Path to Exile
3 Thoughtseize
1 Collective Brutality
3 Lingering Souls
1 Damnation
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Wrath of God
3 Contaminated Ground
1 Runed Halo
Lands
2 Concealed Courtyard
1 Fetid Heath
3 Field of Ruin
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
3 Plains
3 Shambling Vent
3 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Lost Legacy
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Torpor Orb
2 Stony Silence
2 Ghostly Prison
1 Rule of Law
2 Leyline of Sanctity
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
UW Approach (0-2)
This was my first time playing against this deck and I was thinking I was against traditional UW Control. I had played well against them and managed to stabilize the board, resolve my Gideon AoZ, and beating them down to a two turn clock. Unfortunately they resolved an Approach, and proceeded to Opt multiple times at the end of my end step and serum vision on their turn to draw/resolve it again. Game 2 was a straight land flood, in which I only saw two spells from my opening hand until turn 11. Seriously, turn 11. Needless to say, I lost.
UR Breach (0-2)
The opening hand was a Wall, a Thoughtseize, an Inquisition, and four lands, which looked like a good keep. The shuffler proceeded to then give me thoughtseizes and Inquisitions back to back until turn 5. My entire decks worth. I literally apologized to my opponent, who probably thought my deck was the absolute worst. On turn 6 they got an Ulamog, and turn seven they drew Breach. GG. Game 2 I had to mull to 5 due to no land hands. The keep was one land, a field of ruin. After three turns of not drawing a land, I just scooped when they resolved a Young Pyromancer.
Bant Eldrazi (2-0)
When the deck actually plays like it’s supposed to in real life, it’s ridiculously powerful. Our matchup against Eldrazi decks is fantastic and through previous MU during testing I knew that this would be close to a free win. Between our removal, wraths, And land disruption, they can’t keep up. Won both games handily and felt that this would be the turning point.
BR Prison (0-2)
I was wrong. Turn 3 Blood Moon turned off all my lands, ensnaring bridge on 4, and every land I drew was non basic. Game 2, I kept a hand with a basic, a dual land, and a FoR. Opponent dropped another Turn 3 Blood Moon and I literally drew no lands the rest of the game, which lasted to turn 9.
Mono Red Madcap Emperion (1-2)
I destroyed this deck Game 1 as they have no shot against PtE, hand disruption, and PWs. Again, I felt this was mine to lose. Game 2 I kept a two land hand that had great action between disruption and Souls. I wound up breaking my previous record. 10 turns. 0 lands. Game 3 was the exact opposite as all my lands decided to show up one after another after I kept a four land hand to start. After I hit yet another land around turn 9, Emperior was on deck and it was GG.
I think this deck is favored for a majority of these MUs but man this league was rough. Afterwards I took my paper deck and tried to see what my draws would look like and they were waaaaay better than the trash I kept getting online. I really hope to continue testing the deck in online leagues but this weekend really left me tilted regarding this shuffler. Oh well, can’t win em all.
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
Here is what I played at the time:
1 Gideon Jura
3 Gideon of the Trials
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
2 Damnation
1 Day of Judgment
1 Wrath of God
2 Fatal Push
3 Path to Exile
1 Collective Brutality
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Lingering Souls
3 Night's Whisper
3 Thoughtseize
1 Isolated Chapel
3 Godless Shrine
3 Marsh Flats
4 Plains
3 Shambling Vent
4 Swamp
4 Tectonic Edge
1 Collective Brutality
1 Disenchant
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Fulminator Mage
2 Leyline of the Void
2 Stony Silence
A few things I learned, Liliana of the Veil is awesome, Liliana, the Last Hope is good, but I could never say she won me a game either. Gideon Jura never really did alot for me.
So I think I'm going to make the following changes.
Taking out
and adding
I'v but in some thought on Sorin, Grim Nemesis and Elspeth, Sun's Champion and don't know if 1 is really needed. But I like the idea of both.
Going to make these changes and see how it plays.
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
If I find that I am getting Ob Nixilis Reignited in my hand and not getting the 5th land to cast him I will change it up.
100% agree. I think this deck can be something amazing. Needs a little tuning and playing around with the cards.
- a second Collective Brutality in the main
- a maindeck Relic of Progenitus
- Fracturing Gust in the sideboard
- Leyline of the Void vsRest in Peace
The hardest part is deciding which cards in the main aren't pulling their weight or are too redundant, and what's the correct land count. I'm also worried that too much tweaking will affect the core of the deck, so right now I'm okay with continuing to grind with my current list until I get a strong, definite pull to make a change.
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
Also I went to a small local even yesterday with the changes I posted above. I found that Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Sorin, Solemn Visitor, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant are awesome. That was 100% the right call on my part. They was great every time I seen them show up.
As for my matches, was a little disappointed. I'll do a quick over view.
Round 1: vs GW Value Town: Win- I don't think my opponent ever really got off the ground. Both games I had Fatal Push and Path to Exile and just took over the game with Plains Walkers and Tokens. One time he got about 3 dudes on the board and I had a Damnation to clean them all away.
If you was watching it seemed almost unfair.
Round 2: vs Eldrazi Tron: Loss- This always seems to be the hardest match. I squeaked out a win in one game. But then he was able to over run me the other games. This is always bad for me when play testing this match as well.
Round 3: vs Red/White Control (Sun&Moon): Win- Most of the cards in there hand was dead cards. They don't really have a way to deal with plainswalkers,kind of a easy win. In the Sideboard you bring in ways to deal with ensnaring bridge and the rest was easy.
Round 4: vs Humans : Loss- this was the disappointing part of the night. Our deck has every answer for this match, but first game I got to 3 mana and never seemed to be able to draw 4th for my Wrath of God effects. Game 2 I was able to hold him off at the start, played some Plainswalkers to slow him down, then never drew a wrath. Thats just the luck sometimes in the this game.
Over all still happy with the deck but I had a 2-2 end to the night.
Rough night at the FNM last night. This was the first time running the full list on paper, and despite playing well overall, I wasn’t able to win my matches. I felt like every game I had a chance but things didn’t break my way unfortunately:
Creatures (2)
2 Wall of Omens
Planeswalkers (11)
3 Gideon of the Trials
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Gideon Jura
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
Spells(19)
3 Fatal Push
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Path to Exile
3 Thoughtseize
1 Collective Brutality
3 Lingering Souls
1 Damnation
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Wrath of God
3 Contaminated Ground
1 Runed Halo
Lands (25)
2 Concealed Courtyard
1 Fetid Heath
3 Field of Ruin
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
3 Plains
3 Shambling Vent
3 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Lost Legacy
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Torpor Orb
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
2 Ghostly Prison
1 Rule of Law
2 Leyline of Sanctity
1-2 Jeskai Control
This was a blast to play surprisingly. I won game 1 after slowly grinding through his counter magic picking apart any loose threats he managed to resolve. Once I got two PW down, it was over. Due to time, the next two games were speed magic, which Jeskai has the upper hand on. I wasn’t drawing my disruption spells and with hands full of counters and Snapcaster Mages I couldn’t find them in time to stop him from dropping an Elspeth, Sun’s Champion on curve both games. That card is bonkers and was a quick win for him.
0-2 Counters Company
This has always been one of the tougher matchups for me if I don’t have enough disruption or wraths in my hand early. Game 1 I had spot removal in my opening hand which helped me pick apart the Devoted Druid and Duskwatch Recruiter that he was resolving, but the Paths just ramped him into a quick Collected Company which got him what he needed to win the following turn. Game 2 was a wild ride. Turn three, I hit him with Lost Legacy, taking out his Viziers and dropped a Stony Silence to negate his Ballista. I managed to hold him off for quite some time between hand disruption and spot removal, slowly attacking with my manlan. He had six creatures on deck by the time I had resolved my first PW, Gideon AoZ, to which he chorded in a Phyrexian Revoker, which I pathed. He then topdecks a Pithing Needle. Next turn he uses Gavony Township to pump his dorks and swing for the win. I hit him with a Settle which made me think this was the win. I then proceed to draw four straight lands while he Collected Companys and rebuilds his board to kill me. Rough loss.
0-2 G Tron
My opponent is also winless and tells me he hasn’t had any luck drawing lands tonight. Apparently his luck changed once he met me lol. If you still don’t know why Tron is incredibly broken, he got a turn 3 Karn despite having a Contaminated Ground on one of his Tron lands. GG. Game 2, I had land disruption for days: Field of Ruin, 2x Contaminated, and Ghost Quarter. Surely this was a win. Turn 5 I had Lingering Souls and a Gideon AoZ on deck, Turn 7 I got an All is a Dust to the face. Turn 8 was Endbringer, Turn 9 was Karn.
Overall, except for my last match I never felt like the games couldn’t be won.
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
-Been reading some articles to determine the correct number of land I should be running in my build. Here are good reads for those who are interested.
How Many Lands?
How Many Lands Do You Need to Consistently Hit Your Land Drops?
Seems like 24 is the way to go for me.
-While I’m not a fan of his, Sorin GN seems like a necessary evil in games where direct attacks aren’t an option (ie prison decks, lantern) or aren’t profitable. Having him on deck in control MU is a big blow to them if they don’t have an option ready. That being said, he’s still on the shortlist.
-Runed Halo is going back to SB. While it’s a free win some games, I don’t always draw it when I need it
-Been considering running no creatures. Wall of Omens is great but looking to see how the deck feels without the creature spells.
-I definitely want another Brutality in the main and might go up an Inquisition. For this deck to function I need hand disruption early and often.
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
Planeswalkers (10)
2 Gideon of the Trials
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Gideon Jura
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
Spells (22)
3 Fatal Push
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Path to Exile
3 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
4 Lingering Souls
1 Damnation
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Wrath of God
4 Contaminated Ground
Lands(24)
2 Concealed Courtyard
1 Fetid Heath
3 Field of Ruin
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Godless Shrine
1 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
3 Plains
3 Shambling Vent
3 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Hero's Downfall
1 Lost Legacy
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Fracturing Gust
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Runed Halo
1 Stony Silence
2 Ghostly Prison
1 Rule of Law
2 Leyline of Sanctity
I moved Runed Halo to the SB, went down a land, removed the Wall of Omens and added another Inquisition, Brutality, Lingering Souls, and Contaminated Grounds. I also brought in Nihil Spellbomb and Fracturing Gust to the SB as well. I’ve been playing this deck over the past few days, and I have to say I am loving it. Every opening hand has an opportunity to disrupt my opponents through their hand and/or manabase and I’m able to effectively throw them off while landing my PWs to gain more advantage. There’s quite a few wincons in this deck and so far my Collective Brutality and Contaminated Grounds have really shone in recent matchups. I look forward to further testing!
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
Loving this list im running a similiar one but gideon beatdown based. I want to say that you all should try Thalias lancers in the deck at least as a 1 of. With the new legendary rule the lancer allows you to tutor whatever planeswalker you want!
Also heart of kiran is pretty much great in any planeswalker based deck as its activated by loyalty points. (turn 2 kiran and turn 3 gideon +1 fog and swing).
I also noticed alot of you don't run Night's whisperas a 4 of in your list. It is absolutely an awesome card and has given me the advantage in many games. Running white and black it is the only real card advantage aside from wall.
1 Thalia's Lancers
Artifacts
2 Heart of Kiran
Spells
4 Lingering Souls
3 Path to exile
3 Fatal Push
3 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of kozilek
2 collective brutality
4 Night's whisper
2 Wrath of God
Planeswalker
4 Gideon of the Trials
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Gideon Jura
1 Liliana of the Veil
2 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Marsh Flats
4 shambling vent
4 concealed courtyard
4 Godless Shrine
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Field of Ruin
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Relic of progenitus
2 surgical extraction
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 disenchant
1 Stony Silence
1 anguished unmaking
1 timely reinforcements
1 Settle the wreckage
1 Fracturing gust
2 Kor firewalker
Current cards for maybe board are
Heart of Kiran
Pros
-Evasive flyer with vigilance
-4/4 for 2 is nothing to sneeze at
-Rather than crew, can be activated by PW loyalty point
Cons
-Comes down on turn two but does nothing until the next turn
-Needs to be crewed by a creature the next turn which is tricky. Lingering Souls won’t do it the next turn so that means you have to resolve a PW that turn, either exposing it too early, or causing it to lose a loyalty point and leaving it open to a removal spell like Lightning Bolt
-Dies to Fatal Push, Abrupt Decay
Thalia’s Lancers
Pros
-4/4 first strike
-Tutors your PW
-Fantastic blocker
-Dodges most removal
Cons
-Costs 5 mana, which is steep for any creature in Modern
-Exposes your gameplan a turn early
-Can’t play the PW the same turn, giving them time to find an answer
-As a one of, may be easier to find a more cost effective tutor or just have an extra PW
-Very similar to Djeru, With Eyes Open, who may be useful in your list as a tutor/protector
I have run between 2-4 Night’s Whisper in the past and found out two things: By being more selective in my card choices, card draw stopped being an issue and my hands are usually great throughout the game (in real life at least.Mtgo shuffler likes to mess with me a lot lol) and that with the quantity of disruption available to me, black based control decks don’t need card advantage generally because of our ability to make our opponents stumble during their turns.
I like your list and hope you’re enjoying it! Have you been playing it often in local events/online? Keep us posted on how it’s doing and any additional thoughts!
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
-May be beneficial to substitute a Wrath for Damnation. With the Humans deck being one of the most played archetypes currently played, Meddling Mage is a real thing and can hurt one of our main outs if he correctly names one of our wraths. Having variety in the main helps play around that and can win the game.
-I like Blessed Alliance and think it's an underplayed card at the moment
-Baneslayer Angel is a popular card for our deck and a quality creature for five. Worth the higher casting cost due to the high value upside if you're able to untap with her.
-Why Spyglass over Pithing Needle? Due to opponent hand reveal?
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
I currently have the deck in paper and have been play testing it at several FNM. I mainly play 5C humans at more competitive events and totally agree with 1 damnation. At the most recent FNM event I went 3/2/0 with 3 wins against UB thopter Whir (2/0), G tron (2/1), Burn (2/1). Loses CoCo/Chord infinite combo (1/2), Storm (2/0). Notable hard matchups in the past (jeskia control, 5C humans, Lantern control, tron, Death and taxes)
I am somewhat iffy on the Thalia's lancers, but I like it over Djeru because it allows me to tutor my heart of kiran as well. It's replacement would be baneslayer angel, which to me has seemed to be a win more card, as a resolved Gideon Jurahas almost always been a victory.
As far as Heart of Kiran goes I have play tested the card a lot and it has done fairly well.
The matches with bolt can be rough, but I sideboard in ley lines for burn situations and kiran gets boarded out against a jeskia control.
The Pro's i've seen to kiran through testing:
As far as sorcerous spyglass over Pithing needle it is due to the hand reveal. I find that having the information is very important and we really wanna needle/glass turn 3/4 (karn, ugin, oblivion stone, Jace etc). Although we run plenty of hand reveal cards, we typically play them turn 1 and may not have another. I find the reveal is really necessary in seeing whether our opponents gonna play a karn, ugin, or oblivion stone next turn, as well as give us information on whether or not we are okay to play something.
I will definitely post updates as i play more.
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Thraben Inspector
2 Pain Seer
1 Bontu the Glorified
Planeswalkers
3 Liliana of the Veil
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Artifacts
3 Smuggler's Copter
2 Heart of Kiran
1 Porphyry Nodes
Spells
4 Lingering Souls
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Path to exile
2 Fatal Push
2 Night's Whisper
1 Collective Brutality
1 Bontu's Last Reckoning
1 Wrath of God
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Godless Shrine
2 Swamp
3 Field of Ruin
3 Plains
3 Shambling Vent
4 Concealed Courtyard
4 Marsh Flats
So obviously there's a bunch of jank going on here, but I've been enjoying the synergies that I built this deck to abuse quite a lot! I'll break a few things down real quick:
-Sculler-
In many other decks, he's a weak discard effect, as he can't attack after he's taken a card. In this deck, he can crew after taking that card.
-Pain Seer-
Safe Bob! Use him to crew something, draw a card. Great value, and forces an answer against control decks, as he can actually afford to attack against them, and then draw you extra cards every turn. Still janky and situational, but works well in the deck so far.
-Bontu-
Terrible card, does nothing. It can crew any of my vehicles, though, as well as survive my Wrath effects. It's very easy to sac Souls tokens or other weenies I don't need to push through an extra 5 damage, as well. You can even respond to Sculler's EtB trigger by saccing the Sculler to Bontu to remove a card from their hand permanently, and then hit them for heavy damage! Lastly, it combos with Porphyry Nodes to keep it on the field indefinitely.
-Porphyry Nodes-
A play-around card in many instances, hence the singleton, but against aggressive decks, it's a 1-mana Wrath. They either play into it and lose creature after creature (and you can manipulate which ones die using Push or Path and the like), or they back off and give you breathing room. Completely win-win in such cases. Amazing when backed with Bontu, as the opponent then needs to play a 5-power or greater threat, or they lose it, and it never goes away. Pro-tip: kill the 5-power creatures they play, and keep enjoying your soft-lock.
Anyway, that's most of the janky stuff in there, but I'll answer any questions. And yeah, I'm definitely still working on my SB, as well as tweaking my MD list as I continue testing.
I'd suggest throwing out: Bontu and his Reckoning and P.Nodes as those cards just aren't particulary good and situationally useful at best.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-w-b-zombies
I'd look at this recent BW Zombie build that makes good use of the combination of: Copter, Liliana and Sculler.
Gravecrawler and Bloodghast are really good in the deck and can even see a case for playing Prized Amalgam in the deck (over the lackluster Dread Wanderer) for a critical mass of threats that come back from the GY (and throwing in a blue shockland to hardcast it isn't that big of a deal).
Cards
Tidehollow Sculler- Sculler is a powerful magic card in creature centered decks. It allows the card to be a Thoughtseize that can attack when needed. It allows us a chance to disrupt their hand and take a look at their game plan on turn two. The downside to this card is that it is highly susceptible to remove in the format and usually a nonfactor during combat unless crewing a vehicle. It is also a terrible card on board if you need to wrath, which can be a major part of our game plan. I like this card in creature decks that are focused on disruption and putting the opponent on a fast clock.
Pain Seer- This card is a type of Dark Confidant that allows you to draw extra cards when its untapped at a cost of life. You’re using artifacts to do this, which is nice, as well as lower CMC cards, which is crucial. This card will rarely be seen attacking unless it’s crewing and is also susceptible to easy removal and our wrath effects. Careful that you’re deck is fast/aggressive enough that the life loss doesn’t hurt more than it helps, especially if you’re grinding/getting into the late game, which is why most control don’t play Confidant. Have you looked at Asylum Visitor?
Bontu the Glorified- This card can be a beating. Menace and indestructible on a 4/6 for 3 is great. There is a reason he doesn’t see Modern play though, as his cost to attack and block is pretty steep. Between Bontu and Nodes, your other creatures are dying quickly, especially if you’re opponent is a combo deck, playing cheap powerful spells like Gurmag Angler or playing control. Hes a win on that the deck needs to be built around.
Bontu’s Last Reckoning- Sorcery speed wrath for three that makes you stumble the next turn. Unfortunately not much upside here.
P Nodes- This is actually a powerful card in the right build. Generally those decks are built around its interaction and play multiple copies. This is, as D90Dennis14 put it, situationally useful but can be more detrimental than not in decks where this is not a huge part of their gameplan. While you are correct that this can be powerful against cheap Aggro deck creatures, you need to have it in your opening hand or turn two at the latest, otherwise you’re dead to those decks regardless, especially with one copy.
Deck Design
Artifacts- Interesting synergy with Sculler and PSeer. I’ve run 2-3 copies of Smugglers Copter in my deck as well in the past. Super underrated card in Modern and very powerful. Evasive attacker, solid blocker, card advantage is all great. Unfortunately, while it’s easier to crew, it suffers from much of the same issues I had discussed with Heart of Kiran. Quite often I would crew it, only for Lightning Bolt or Fatal Push to get it, effectively setting me back two turns. Let us know if you have success running this number of the two.
Card advantage vs hand disruption- I wrote before regarding blacks preference to disrupt over card advantage and its ability to be just as effective as the latter. Between Nights Whisper, PSeer, Thraben and Copter, you have quite a bit of card advantage generators. I’m curious to know your experience with either helping or hindering your gameplan as you playtest, if you feel it it helped you win or wasn’t necessarily effective overall.
PW Choices- Also curious to see how these two perform in the deck. Lilli can help you get rid of dead cards in hand and Giddy AoZ helps you in a variety of ways with your build. Do you feel it needs any others?
Life loss- With some of the card advantage spells and fetches in your deck, you will be losing life. Are the 3 Shambling Vents doing well with keeping you from falling too far behind?
Keep us posted with your testing!
UWAzorius Titan ControlUW
BWOrzhov ControlBW
8 rack (4/0/0 me)
Pre board
Post board
-3 path, -2 Wrath of god, -1 fatal push
+3 leylines, +1 timely reinforcements, +1 disenchant, +1 Fracturing Gust
Green Tron (2/1/0 Me)
Pre board. We seem very unfavored pre-board, it is hard to deal with an early resolved karn/ugin game 1
Post board
Some interesting things:
- Only 1 Nights Whisper. This seems like a card you'd want more than a singleton of, or none at all. Especially with the high curve of the deck.
- 1 main deck Leyline of Sanctity. This seems inconsistent and unnecessary to me.
- Lots of Gideon's. Nothing too crazy, but I feel like you might want to shift it around to at least accommodate 2 Liliana if nothing else.
- Sorin, Grim Nemesis is a great Jace killer now. Eat a Jace then start ticking up for card advantage *and* a clock.
- The wrath split is very likely just for Meddling Mage.
- Accomidating Field of Ruin is great, especially if big mana decks try and take over. Worst case it's an uncounterable main deck answer to a flipped Search. Also randomly triggers Revolt.
Overall, given the unbans I think BW has the means to solidly compete against both BBE decks, Jace decks, and their linear responses.
I also think we should go up to 4 thoughtseize and 2 inquisition over 3/3 with jace and BBE.
Another card I'm hard on trying as a 2 of is bitterblossom.