So Gerry Thompson over at SSG posted an article titled "How to Kill Everything" on the 27th of April with a BW control list from a Magic Online Daily event, and the list really intrigued me. With catch-all answers like Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Utter End, and Thoughtseize, these colors have the absolute best removal in the format. You can also afford to play 7 sweet Divination effects with life-reset buttons to eliminate the downside of those cards. Elspeth is also still one of the premier finishers in the game. The gameplan for this deck is pretty straight-forward: murder everything with strong one for one removal, hand disruption, and sweepers, then pull ahead on card parity with draw-2 effects, and end the game with hard-to-handle finishers like Elspeth or Palace Siege. The deck also has very good mana compared to other control decks like Esper. There's obviously a lot of potential here, but I figured the list could probably use some tuning, so I modified it slightly and playtested some games, and the archetype definitely seems to have some legs... and now I'm here to share (and potentially receive some consensus-style fine-tuning)!
The name is clearly fitting. With all of these Suicide Black cards, it's clear that you're also trying to kill yourself! Obviously the person playing this Daily list got lucky with their match-ups or survived to drop Resolute Archangel every game, since that's their only way to recoup lost life. The deck is also clearly leaning pretty hard on Ugin, the Spirit Dragon with 2 maindecked and a Haven to recur him. Personally, I think that if you're going the grindy, inevitability route, you can just play Palace Siege to solve both problems. This also provides a win-condition that can't be solved with a Hero's Downfall.
The mana base also clearly needed working on. Running Bloodstained Mire with no delve cards and no mountains is questionable at best. The Nomad Outpost is also a weird inclusion. If you're looking to provide both delve fuel and mana fixing at the cost of CiPT tempo, Evolving Wilds seems fine. A few (maybe even a full 4) Radiant Fountain also seems prudent to help with the life loss of our spells.
As far as the other card choices, Perilous Vault is... perilous. It's terribly clunky against most decks. If you're worried about exiling problematic permanents, Utter End should be fine (and is probably the reason to run BW control, frankly). Upping the Silence the Believers count can also help clear up annoying Deathmist Raptors. The deck was also lacking sufficient early interaction and looked pretty easy to run over with an early rush of goblins and the like. Going to a full playset of Bile Blight seems prudent. Perhaps some number of maindecked Ultimate Price would be wise as well. Playing something with delve also seems mandatory with all of the cheap removal spells flying around, and if ever there existed a shell to support a game-winning Empty the Pits, this would be it.
Making these changes, the list looks a little something like this:
Targeted Removal - Hero's Downfall is the premier removal spell in the format. Mandatory 4-of. Silence the Believers is very good at getting a 2 or even 3 for 1, and can take care of resilient creatures like Ashcloud Phoenix or Deathmist Raptor. Utter End is pricey, but hits everything. A pretty great card to have at your disposal. Bile Blight helps put a damper on Jeskai Tokens, Abzan Aggro, and Atarka Red. Interchangeable with Ultimate Price in some number. Ultimate Price is an efficient way to handle everything from Foundry Street Denizen to Stormbreath Dragon. Loses effectiveness in the main with the prevalence of Abzan Aggro.
Board Sweeps - End Hostilities punishes opponents who try to outpace the one-for-one removal. An argument could be made for a third in the maindeck. Crux of Fate is just a worse version of End Hostilities if you don't have dragon synergies. Perilous Vault comes with a lot of strings attached. It's clunky, and playing it means that you can't play long-game permanents like Palace Siege. If you aren't playing finishers like Pearl Lake Ancient and you have access to better sweepers, there's little argument to be made in favor of it. Drown in Sorrow is a very effective mini-sweeper against RDW and Tokens, but loses effectiveness against a savvy opponent after board. Play it, but don't think that it auto-wins games 2/3 against RDW.
Discard effects - Thoughtseize is one of the best cards in MTG across every format. Lets you match up your removal with perfect information and rip problem cards out of the opponent's hand. Duress is a nice sideboard card to play as a supplement for Thoughtseize in control matches and as a replacement effect against RDW and other all-in aggro strategies.
Card Draw - Sign in Blood is pretty great if you can afford to play tap-out control and recoup the lost life later on. 2 cards for BB is a great rate. Read the Bones is another strong effect that gives both filtering and card advantage. It's very easy to overload on these effects, however, and 7 or 8 is probably more than enough.
Finishers - Elspeth, Sun's Champion is still lights-out for most decks. What more needs to be said? Palace Siege is an overlooked card that can make life miserable for opponents. A 10 turn clock is glacial, but the life gain makes it surprisingly hard to race when coupled with piles of disruption. If you choose to play it, make sure you prioritize taking Dromoka's Command out of an opposing hand with a Thoughtseize prior to jamming it. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. He cleans up a board like an immediate Perilous Vault and sticks around to threaten a back-breaking advantage after. If your opponent isn't playing Hero's Downfall, dropping him is GG. Empty the Pits is pretty cute if your opponent isn't playing Bile Blight. Thankfully, with Ultimate Price in the format, that particular card is seeing less play than it used to, so delving away your entire graveyard late in the game to make 10+ zombies out of nowhere is actually feasible now. Not many decks can support the BBBB requirement on this card, and nobody plays this card anyways, so this presents a very odd angle of attack for an opponent. Even if your opponent plays Bile Blight, if they're leaving that in as an answer after board, you should be feeling alright about that. Resolute Archangel just closes games out against aggro decks. Resetting your life total in the late game is worth giving them a live target for stranded removal spells, since it 187's so many decks.
Sideboard Guide -
1. Have a plan for control mirrors. Mastery of the Unseen or other inevitable finishers like Risen Executioner are important for opponents who can handle planeswalkers. Esper is still the top dog. Duress can also help take away their answers and card draw. Don't get caught without a plan.
2. Have a plan for the other end of the spectrum. All-in aggro strategies like RDW can punish you for playing so many life-loss effects and the durdle strategy in game one. You need to be able to confidently take games 2 and 3. That means packing at least half a sideboard worth of hate cards. Good choices here are Drown in Sorrow, Ultimate Price, Nyx-Fleece Ram, Arashin Cleric, Duress, Surge of Righteousness, Pharika's Cure, etc. There are a lot of options here.
3. Bullets. If a particular deck is a problem, BW has decent answers available. There are good color hosers like Glare of Heresy, Self-Inflicted Wound, Dark Betrayal, and Surge of Righteousness. Erase is always solid, though far less necessary with Utter End in the main. There are more bullets available than can be listed.
So there it is. Let me know what you guys think.
Put it together and playtest.
Change up some cards.
Play something the metagame hasn't seen.
But most importantly, have fun killing everything!
Evolving Wilds doesn't do anything for you other than give you a card for Empty the Pits, and often in games it'll only contribute to half a zombie, so it's not worth it to have yet another land that comes into play tapped and is slow. I have a B/W deck and I almost never have a problem fixing mana beyond the typical mana screw that non-mono decks run into.
What you'll find is that U/B Control and Esper Control will eat you alive, especially the Dragons variant. Merciless Executioner is a good SB card against them, especially paired with Palace Siege. But you still need more threats than answers to get through their kill spells and counters.
Evolving Wilds doesn't do anything for you other than give you a card for Empty the Pits, and often in games it'll only contribute to half a zombie, so it's not worth it to have yet another land that comes into play tapped and is slow. I have a B/W deck and I almost never have a problem fixing mana beyond the typical mana screw that non-mono decks run into.
What you'll find is that U/B Control and Esper Control will eat you alive, especially the Dragons variant. Merciless Executioner is a good SB card against them, especially paired with Palace Siege. But you still need more threats than answers to get through their kill spells and counters.
I suppose replacing the Evolving Wilds with more Caves of Koilos would be fine. 10 CiPT lands aren't really a big deal for a grindy control deck, if that's what you're worried about. The fixing is always necessary though. 16 white sources is where you need to be to consistently hit a turn 5 End Hostilities, so we're actually 1 shy of that, even with the fixing of Wilds. 21 black sources is pretty great (above Karsten's recommended 20) for consistently having turn 2 Bile Blight or Sign in Blood.
As far as the control match-up, I don't think it's really that big of a deal. I think aggressively mulling for a turn 2 Mastery of the Unseen or being patient and waiting to Duress and Thoughtseize away all of their counters to land a Palace Siege is the best bet. You're aren't going to beat them with creatures, barring perhaps Risen Executioner. Getting a Silumgar off the board isn't worth running Merciless Executioner, considering they run Haven of the Spirit Dragon.
Edit: Wait, are you suggesting that you recur Merciless Executioner every turn with Palace Siege on Khans mode? While that's hilarious and all (it's effectively The Abyss), the Executioner also kills himself with the Innocent Blood CiP trigger. Why wouldn't you just play Dragons mode and drain them to death in 10 turns?
This deck deals a significant amount of damage to itself, has no early game at all, and no guarantee to get to end game. This deck is going to struggle hard vs. aggressive decks; especially things like Abzan. Utter End and Silence the Believers are great cards, but cost a lot of mana for removal. I would not run more than 1 of each mainboard and swap the rest out for cheaper removal like Ultimate Price, Murderous Cut, or Duress to help you stay alive. I think this is a very dangerous deck as is and I am not confident that running that much damage and no lifegain is a smart choice.
This deck deals a significant amount of damage to itself, has no early game at all, and no guarantee to get to end game. This deck is going to struggle hard vs. aggressive decks; especially things like Abzan. Utter End and Silence the Believers are great cards, but cost a lot of mana for removal. I would not run more than 1 of each mainboard and swap the rest out for cheaper removal like Ultimate Price, Murderous Cut, or Duress to help you stay alive. I think this is a very dangerous deck as is and I am not confident that running that much damage and no lifegain is a smart choice.
Notice that GFabs is only playing 3 Bile Blight and no other 2 CMC removal? The more narrow removal spells you add (like Ultimate Price), the greater the chances of drawing a dead removal spell off the top deck. I think adding 1 Murderous Cut and 1 Ultimate Price is a fine call if you want to move a little faster with your removal suite (probably pulling an Utter End and a Silence the Believers), but you don't want to overload on those cards.
This just doesn't seem that good. I don't think orzhov is really positioned well at the moment. This feels slow and poorly positioned against fast decks, but not really gaining a huge edge vs control decks either. To me, it seems it would JUST do well vs midrange, which doesn't cut it.
This just doesn't seem that good. I don't think orzhov is really positioned well at the moment. This feels slow and poorly positioned against fast decks, but not really gaining a huge edge vs control decks either. To me, it seems it would JUST do well vs midrange, which doesn't cut it.
Fair enough. I'll get some playtesting in, run FNM and probably a SSG IQ this weekend before I try to refute your assertions
Haha I do wish you the best of luck. I understand brewing is hard, I'm brewing RB dragon attrition myself so I get it's an uphill battle. I dunno, I just feel this deck needs more of a hook to it. Give a REASON to not splash blue for a stronger control match up. Do you have any data on match ups vs Esper Dragons? There just doesn't seem to be much you can do vs that.
Evolving Wilds doesn't do anything for you other than give you a card for Empty the Pits, and often in games it'll only contribute to half a zombie, so it's not worth it to have yet another land that comes into play tapped and is slow. I have a B/W deck and I almost never have a problem fixing mana beyond the typical mana screw that non-mono decks run into.
What you'll find is that U/B Control and Esper Control will eat you alive, especially the Dragons variant. Merciless Executioner is a good SB card against them, especially paired with Palace Siege. But you still need more threats than answers to get through their kill spells and counters.
I suppose replacing the Evolving Wilds with more Caves of Koilos would be fine. 10 CiPT lands aren't really a big deal for a grindy control deck, if that's what you're worried about. The fixing is always necessary though. 16 white sources is where you need to be to consistently hit a turn 5 End Hostilities, so we're actually 1 shy of that, even with the fixing of Wilds. 21 black sources is pretty great (above Karsten's recommended 20) for consistently having turn 2 Bile Blight or Sign in Blood.
As far as the control match-up, I don't think it's really that big of a deal. I think aggressively mulling for a turn 2 Mastery of the Unseen or being patient and waiting to Duress and Thoughtseize away all of their counters to land a Palace Siege is the best bet. You're aren't going to beat them with creatures, barring perhaps Risen Executioner. Getting a Silumgar off the board isn't worth running Merciless Executioner, considering they run Haven of the Spirit Dragon.
Edit: Wait, are you suggesting that you recur Merciless Executioner every turn with Palace Siege on Khans mode? While that's hilarious and all (it's effectively The Abyss), the Executioner also kills himself with the Innocent Blood CiP trigger. Why wouldn't you just play Dragons mode and drain them to death in 10 turns?
You only need one Palace Siege on Dragons mode. Recurring Merciless Executioner is to keep Ojutai from stomping you to death. Palace Siege kills in 10, Ojutai kills in four. That's how these Dragons decks play now - to put Ojutai on the field and close out the game much faster than U/B Control normally does. It also protects your Elspeth from Silumgar, who otherwise would absolutely eat her alive and essentially make her a dead card in your hand. You recur them because they'll counter it the first time you play it. No big deal; you just cast it again until they run out of counters.
Something that I've been working for the last weeks, probably going to try it in a PPTQ.
It is a more midrangey build of BW.
Here we aim to put down some early creatures in Brimaz, Seeker or dragonslayer and remove everything till we put an elspeth or wingmate roc in the field.
I've been testing it against all flavors of abzan and it is very effective, monoR after board is a good match and esper dragons still requires some testing.
Cards that I was thinking about trying:
Dictate Of Erebos, good in any of the current matchups besides monoR (if you resolve this against esper it almosts locks them)
Damnable pact, allong with secure the wastes it provides a flood insurance and can always be used to fireball someone.
Palace Siege + Merciless Executioner, recursion and a great way to deal with hexproof dragons
Overral this deck seemed to play very similar to the old RW, you stick a seeker or brimaz into play and start removing every threat until you finish your opponent with a planeswalker or secure the wastes.
Against Esper Dragons Palace Siege + Merciless Executioner just locks them out of the game.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So Gerry Thompson over at SSG posted an article titled "How to Kill Everything" on the 27th of April with a BW control list from a Magic Online Daily event, and the list really intrigued me. With catch-all answers like Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, Utter End, and Thoughtseize, these colors have the absolute best removal in the format. You can also afford to play 7 sweet Divination effects with life-reset buttons to eliminate the downside of those cards. Elspeth is also still one of the premier finishers in the game. The gameplan for this deck is pretty straight-forward: murder everything with strong one for one removal, hand disruption, and sweepers, then pull ahead on card parity with draw-2 effects, and end the game with hard-to-handle finishers like Elspeth or Palace Siege. The deck also has very good mana compared to other control decks like Esper. There's obviously a lot of potential here, but I figured the list could probably use some tuning, so I modified it slightly and playtested some games, and the archetype definitely seems to have some legs... and now I'm here to share (and potentially receive some consensus-style fine-tuning)!
Here's the original list:
2 Resolute Archangel
Planeswalkers (6)
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Liliana Vess
2 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Artifacts (3)
3 Perilous Vault
Instants (9)
4 Hero's Downfall
2 Bile Blight
1 Silence the Believers
2 Utter End
Sorceries (14)
1 Damnable Pact
2 End Hostilities
4 Thoughtseize
3 Read the Bones
4 Sign in Blood
7 Swamp
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Caves of Koilos
1 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
1 Nomad Outpost
4 Scoured Barrens
4 Temple of Silence
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Risen Executioner
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
2 Bile Blight
3 Drown in Sorrow
3 Duress
The mana base also clearly needed working on. Running Bloodstained Mire with no delve cards and no mountains is questionable at best. The Nomad Outpost is also a weird inclusion. If you're looking to provide both delve fuel and mana fixing at the cost of CiPT tempo, Evolving Wilds seems fine. A few (maybe even a full 4) Radiant Fountain also seems prudent to help with the life loss of our spells.
As far as the other card choices, Perilous Vault is... perilous. It's terribly clunky against most decks. If you're worried about exiling problematic permanents, Utter End should be fine (and is probably the reason to run BW control, frankly). Upping the Silence the Believers count can also help clear up annoying Deathmist Raptors. The deck was also lacking sufficient early interaction and looked pretty easy to run over with an early rush of goblins and the like. Going to a full playset of Bile Blight seems prudent. Perhaps some number of maindecked Ultimate Price would be wise as well. Playing something with delve also seems mandatory with all of the cheap removal spells flying around, and if ever there existed a shell to support a game-winning Empty the Pits, this would be it.
Making these changes, the list looks a little something like this:
2 Resolute Archangel
Planeswalkers (3)
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Enchantments (2)
2 Palace Siege
Instants (14)
4 Bile Blight
4 Hero's Downfall
3 Utter End
2 Silence the Believers
1 Empty the Pits
Sorceries (13)
4 Thoughtseize
4 Sign in Blood
3 Read the Bones
2 End Hostilities
4 Scoured Barrens
4 Temple of Silence
2 Evolving Wilds
2 Caves of Koilos
2 Radiant Fountain
8 Swamp
3 Plains
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Mastery of the Unseen
1 End Hostilities
3 Drown in Sorrow
4 Arashin Cleric
2 Ultimate Price
3 Duress
Targeted Removal -
Hero's Downfall is the premier removal spell in the format. Mandatory 4-of.
Silence the Believers is very good at getting a 2 or even 3 for 1, and can take care of resilient creatures like Ashcloud Phoenix or Deathmist Raptor.
Utter End is pricey, but hits everything. A pretty great card to have at your disposal.
Bile Blight helps put a damper on Jeskai Tokens, Abzan Aggro, and Atarka Red. Interchangeable with Ultimate Price in some number.
Ultimate Price is an efficient way to handle everything from Foundry Street Denizen to Stormbreath Dragon. Loses effectiveness in the main with the prevalence of Abzan Aggro.
Board Sweeps -
End Hostilities punishes opponents who try to outpace the one-for-one removal. An argument could be made for a third in the maindeck.
Crux of Fate is just a worse version of End Hostilities if you don't have dragon synergies.
Perilous Vault comes with a lot of strings attached. It's clunky, and playing it means that you can't play long-game permanents like Palace Siege. If you aren't playing finishers like Pearl Lake Ancient and you have access to better sweepers, there's little argument to be made in favor of it.
Drown in Sorrow is a very effective mini-sweeper against RDW and Tokens, but loses effectiveness against a savvy opponent after board. Play it, but don't think that it auto-wins games 2/3 against RDW.
Discard effects -
Thoughtseize is one of the best cards in MTG across every format. Lets you match up your removal with perfect information and rip problem cards out of the opponent's hand.
Duress is a nice sideboard card to play as a supplement for Thoughtseize in control matches and as a replacement effect against RDW and other all-in aggro strategies.
Card Draw -
Sign in Blood is pretty great if you can afford to play tap-out control and recoup the lost life later on. 2 cards for BB is a great rate.
Read the Bones is another strong effect that gives both filtering and card advantage. It's very easy to overload on these effects, however, and 7 or 8 is probably more than enough.
Finishers -
Elspeth, Sun's Champion is still lights-out for most decks. What more needs to be said?
Palace Siege is an overlooked card that can make life miserable for opponents. A 10 turn clock is glacial, but the life gain makes it surprisingly hard to race when coupled with piles of disruption. If you choose to play it, make sure you prioritize taking Dromoka's Command out of an opposing hand with a Thoughtseize prior to jamming it.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. He cleans up a board like an immediate Perilous Vault and sticks around to threaten a back-breaking advantage after. If your opponent isn't playing Hero's Downfall, dropping him is GG.
Empty the Pits is pretty cute if your opponent isn't playing Bile Blight. Thankfully, with Ultimate Price in the format, that particular card is seeing less play than it used to, so delving away your entire graveyard late in the game to make 10+ zombies out of nowhere is actually feasible now. Not many decks can support the BBBB requirement on this card, and nobody plays this card anyways, so this presents a very odd angle of attack for an opponent. Even if your opponent plays Bile Blight, if they're leaving that in as an answer after board, you should be feeling alright about that.
Resolute Archangel just closes games out against aggro decks. Resetting your life total in the late game is worth giving them a live target for stranded removal spells, since it 187's so many decks.
Sideboard Guide -
1. Have a plan for control mirrors. Mastery of the Unseen or other inevitable finishers like Risen Executioner are important for opponents who can handle planeswalkers. Esper is still the top dog. Duress can also help take away their answers and card draw. Don't get caught without a plan.
2. Have a plan for the other end of the spectrum. All-in aggro strategies like RDW can punish you for playing so many life-loss effects and the durdle strategy in game one. You need to be able to confidently take games 2 and 3. That means packing at least half a sideboard worth of hate cards. Good choices here are Drown in Sorrow, Ultimate Price, Nyx-Fleece Ram, Arashin Cleric, Duress, Surge of Righteousness, Pharika's Cure, etc. There are a lot of options here.
3. Bullets. If a particular deck is a problem, BW has decent answers available. There are good color hosers like Glare of Heresy, Self-Inflicted Wound, Dark Betrayal, and Surge of Righteousness. Erase is always solid, though far less necessary with Utter End in the main. There are more bullets available than can be listed.
Put it together and playtest.
Change up some cards.
Play something the metagame hasn't seen.
But most importantly, have fun killing everything!
What you'll find is that U/B Control and Esper Control will eat you alive, especially the Dragons variant. Merciless Executioner is a good SB card against them, especially paired with Palace Siege. But you still need more threats than answers to get through their kill spells and counters.
I suppose replacing the Evolving Wilds with more Caves of Koilos would be fine. 10 CiPT lands aren't really a big deal for a grindy control deck, if that's what you're worried about. The fixing is always necessary though. 16 white sources is where you need to be to consistently hit a turn 5 End Hostilities, so we're actually 1 shy of that, even with the fixing of Wilds. 21 black sources is pretty great (above Karsten's recommended 20) for consistently having turn 2 Bile Blight or Sign in Blood.
As far as the control match-up, I don't think it's really that big of a deal. I think aggressively mulling for a turn 2 Mastery of the Unseen or being patient and waiting to Duress and Thoughtseize away all of their counters to land a Palace Siege is the best bet. You're aren't going to beat them with creatures, barring perhaps Risen Executioner. Getting a Silumgar off the board isn't worth running Merciless Executioner, considering they run Haven of the Spirit Dragon.
Edit: Wait, are you suggesting that you recur Merciless Executioner every turn with Palace Siege on Khans mode? While that's hilarious and all (it's effectively The Abyss), the Executioner also kills himself with the Innocent Blood CiP trigger. Why wouldn't you just play Dragons mode and drain them to death in 10 turns?
If you want to play more cheap removal instead of blanket removal, that's fine. Just look at this list first: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=83703
Notice that GFabs is only playing 3 Bile Blight and no other 2 CMC removal? The more narrow removal spells you add (like Ultimate Price), the greater the chances of drawing a dead removal spell off the top deck. I think adding 1 Murderous Cut and 1 Ultimate Price is a fine call if you want to move a little faster with your removal suite (probably pulling an Utter End and a Silence the Believers), but you don't want to overload on those cards.
The removal actually matches up pretty well with Abzan as is, however. Against Meme Rhino and friends, they're curving out every turn with a fat threat. You want to match them, card for card, answer for threat. Ultimate Price is useless against: Fleecemane Lion, Anafenza, the Foremost, Rakshasa Deathdealer, and Siege Rhino. Probably not where you want to be.
As far as the life gain is concerned, you have Scoured Barrens, Radiant Fountain, Palace Siege, and Resolute Archangel in the main, with Arashin Cleric and possibly Nyx-Fleece Ram in the side. What more could you possibly want? Duress is not main-deckable.
Fair enough. I'll get some playtesting in, run FNM and probably a SSG IQ this weekend before I try to refute your assertions
You only need one Palace Siege on Dragons mode. Recurring Merciless Executioner is to keep Ojutai from stomping you to death. Palace Siege kills in 10, Ojutai kills in four. That's how these Dragons decks play now - to put Ojutai on the field and close out the game much faster than U/B Control normally does. It also protects your Elspeth from Silumgar, who otherwise would absolutely eat her alive and essentially make her a dead card in your hand. You recur them because they'll counter it the first time you play it. No big deal; you just cast it again until they run out of counters.
It is a more midrangey build of BW.
Here we aim to put down some early creatures in Brimaz, Seeker or dragonslayer and remove everything till we put an elspeth or wingmate roc in the field.
I've been testing it against all flavors of abzan and it is very effective, monoR after board is a good match and esper dragons still requires some testing.
Cards that I was thinking about trying:
Dictate Of Erebos, good in any of the current matchups besides monoR (if you resolve this against esper it almosts locks them)
Damnable pact, allong with secure the wastes it provides a flood insurance and can always be used to fireball someone.
Palace Siege + Merciless Executioner, recursion and a great way to deal with hexproof dragons
Advice and criticism is welcome
https://deckstats.net/decks/16362/247275-bw-midrange/pt
https://deckstats.net/decks/16362/247275-bw-midrange/pt
Playing against:
RUG Dragons (2-0)
RG Dragons (2-1)
MonoR (2-0)
RUG Dragons (1-2)
Esper Dragons (2-1)
Esper Dragons (1-1) (ID)
Abzan Control (2-0)
Mardu Dragons (0-2)
Overral this deck seemed to play very similar to the old RW, you stick a seeker or brimaz into play and start removing every threat until you finish your opponent with a planeswalker or secure the wastes.
Against Esper Dragons Palace Siege + Merciless Executioner just locks them out of the game.