This is a decent low mana drop that typically comes down on turn 2 and can either lay down the beats or trade 1 for 1 with an opponents creature resulting in you drawing a card. Typical lists don't usually run enough CMC 3 or less permanants to take full advantage of the reshaper's ability, but drawing a card or putting a land into play is always welcome.
One of the cores of this deck. A huge body combined with grabbing the opponents best nonland card is absolutely amazing. This card is Tidehollow Sculler 4.0.
Our primary beater. Trample and haste with a 5/5 body for 5 mana? That just screams value. Plus you have the built in pseudo-hexproof forcing a two for one if the opponent wants to kill it. Combined with our discard spells, this option usually works out in our favor. This card is larger than the most common creatures in modern: tarmogoyf, siege rhino, tasigur, the golden fang, and on par with gurmag angler. This card is our finisher.
This card has a huge butt and is not to be trifled with. Unfortunately, we do not run any cards to put cards from our opponents graveyard to exile, therefore I am looking for other options.
Since our deck is primarly and with a splash of white and the lack of fetchable colorless lands, this makes figuring out the right mana configuration tricky. I am basing all of the conclusions on how many mana sources we need from Frank Karsten's article here.
Ideally we would need:
19 sources limited by having a 90% chance on casting Liliana of the Veil on turn three.
13 sources to cast the colorless creatures on turn two.
12 sources to have a 90% chance to cast lingering souls on the third turn.
Since we don't have any man lands avaible, unless you want to run Shambling Vent, this card will draw us gas when the games go long and are in a top deck war.
Interesting card, with the ability to copy our removalspells as well as a thought-knot seer this card is worth looking at. This card is still under the testing phase with this deck.
This card is defiantly worth considering. Just make sure that you have another colorless source on the battlefield if you would like to cast an uncounterable Eldrazi. Mana leak, spell pierce, and remand are cards that slow down this deck.
Interesting card. Our creatures are usually larger than our opponenets, therefore dealing 1 addtional damage is not something we usually want. If tokens are a problem, this land is definatly an option for to fill a flex spot.
Thinning out our deck as well as grabbing basic lands to avoid blood moon shenanigans makes this an auto-include. A decent budge option option would be Esper Panorama or Evolving Wilds.
This cards seems amazing for our deck, having the ability to tap their creatures before their attack step allowing us to have a clear field to attack the following turn is something that we need. The utility of flickering opponents creatures gives us a better matchup against decks that run delver of secrets, jace, vryn's prodigy (in response to the flip trigger), young pyromancer's tokens, lingering souls, and spectral procession.
I have had some decent success with this deck. I brought a very similar version to SCG in Atlanta last weekend and went 4-3-1 with my losses due to very dumb errors on my part. I feel that this deck is really strong and wanted to open it up to discussion in order to improve it.
I took down a lower attendance than usual Saturday modern at my local shop with a record of 3-0-1.
Round 1:
I played against a combo elves deck that relied on summoner's pact, nettle sentinel, cloudstone curio, heritage druid, and evolutionary leap to cast Emrakul multiple times. Game 1 he mulled down to 6, keeping a sub-par hand. I was able to dismember key elves and keep on the pressure with lingering souls and reality smasher. Game 2 he over extended himself and languish on turn 4 sealed my victory. 2-0
Round 2:
Jund
We are heavily favored in this match-up. There worst nightmare is lingering souls and they have so many bad cards against us that my opponent sided in 11 cards for game 2. 2-0
Round 3:
Temur Delver
Game 1 I had an opening hand of 3 lingering souls, two lilianas, and two lands. He was able to spell pierce lingering souls on turn 3 and 4 and pick away at my life with a flipped delver and when I finally stabilized, creeping tar pit killed me.
Game 2 I had a good start, with hand disruption and removal to deal with a delver.
Game 3 This was a grindy game where he eventually had a couple hooting mandrills out and a goyf, but obilivion sower has such a large butt that he kept them from attacking. 1-1-1
Round 4:
A green ramp deck with some new eldrazi cards.
I felt in control for both games. Thought-knot seer and reality smasher were really tough for him to deal with since obstinate baloth and goyf were smaller creatures. Matter Reshaper was a pretty decent card in this match-up, really showing it's power when it died. 2-0
Edit: Next week I am going to try and get my hands on some spatial contortion because it seems made for this deck. It has the versatility of either killing an opponents creature or as a giant growth for our creatures.
After much thought, I have decided to cut eye of ugin from this deck. It might be nice to cast thought-knot and reality smasher on turn 2 or turn 3, but it really slows down casting lingering souls or liliana on turn 3. I have been testing this deck for the past couple months, here are some conclusions on some cards:
Vesuva
I am still neutral on this card. Having the ability to copy your ghost quarters, eldrazi temples, or basic land (if blood moon is in play) is nice, but I would rather just run some more fetches.
Ghost quarter
This card is only really good against infect and tron. Sacrificing a land before turn 4 really slows this deck down. I moved all of them to the sideboard.
As usual, after a key pieces of a deck is banned, the mods and I move the deck to deck creation or lock the thread if it cant exist anymore. We do this because when a deck loses a core piece, the deck is arguably different than what it was before, thus in many cases deserves its own thread or to be reevaluated to see if it can retain its old success. This is still the case here. The ban may have shifted the deck to older stratagies used, or maybe new ones entirely. But we have left the thread open for people to brew.
The OP must, however, be changed to reflect the new outlook of the deck and not give old information.
While I love reality smasher, I feel with AV being unbanned that this deck should really try out wasteland strangler. I am not the biggest fan of tidehollow sculler since it is horrible against aggro decks, feeds 'goyf twice, and kolaghan's command but I am willing to give it another shot. Here is where I am at right now:
The weakness of the deck above is primarly
(1): Life loss due to fetch lands, pain lands, and anguished unmaking. It is somewhat offset with shambling vent, vault of the archangel, and sorin, solemn visitor, but it can still be really painful against fast aggro decks.
(2): Lack of additional card draw. Mind stone makes up for this somewhat and it also helps us against blood moon.
(3): Weak against remand and counterspells.
One of the best parts of this iteration of the deck is there are now 13 targets for when matter reshaper dies.
I have been really impressed with anguished unmaking. Tonight I was able to beat RG tron 2-0. I expect that the mono blue tron is a much worse matchup. During the match I was able to beat a turn 3 karn liberated (which I anguished after he +4), followed by a Conduit of Ruin into a ulamog putting me down to an eldrazi temple and a mind stone. I pathed his two creatures and he flooded out. I am starting to think that I can even cut ghost quarters from my sideboard. Since tron lost eye of ugin, they don't have much resilience after their main threat is dealed with.
I have been trying to figure out if this current iteration of the deck with tidehollow and wasteland strangler is better than just running 4 reality smashers and some more removal. Here are some pro's and con's of running the tidehollow / strangler deck:
Pros:
It gives another chance to look at the opponents hand. I can take their last or greatest threat. There are now 9 ways to look at the opponents hand to see if it is clear for the important drops.
Curving into tidehollow then strangler is great against aggro decks.
It eats a removal and clears the way for my actual threats
I finally got to play again after being busy for two weeks. I played in two local modern tourneys, both times going 4-0. Here is my updated deck-list for reference:
I keep going back and forth on tidehollow sculler, but I think that the card is pretty decent right now. Having the ability to look at the opponents hand and process the exiled card with wasteland strangler really helped my aggro match-ups.
I finally got my hands on a fetid heath and it really helps the mana out. I am also testing out batterskull to help gain some life back and have a creature that is pretty resilient. Unless the opponent plays kolaghan's command. That card wrecks batterskull, and tidehollow.
I cannot remember all of the match-ups from a few weeks ago but here are some mach-ups that I played against two weeks ago and tonight:
Abzan companany: I feel like the matchup is just fine unless they get a gavony township, then they have an avantage. I have several sideboard cards just for that matchup (torpor orb, flaying tendrills) that are mediocre in other match-ups.
Grixis delver: If they land a turn 1 delver and flip in on turn 2, that could be a problem. Otherwise I played against this deck several times and we have a favoriable match-up. Lingering souls, and thought-knot seer pull a lot of weight in this match-ups. As does tidehollow sculler to see if the coast is clear. Over the past few months I have played ~10 games against this deck with this brew. They are really fun swingy games.
Jund: This deck pretty favored against jund. Everytime I play agasint the guy he says that it is a very unfavorable matchup for him. We have lingering souls, a decent amount of spot removal, liliana, and enough creatures that are out of abrupt decays range.
Bushwacker zoo: The aggro decks worry me a bit, but I won 3 out of 4 match-ups against this deck. The addition of wasteland strangler helps. Curving into a tidehollow then processing the card with wasteland strangler feels great. I added several sunlances to the sideboard since I have been playing a lot of BW death and taxes online and I am starting to really like the card for BW decks. Even though I won the majority of the games against this deck, I feel like the chances to win game 1 are ~40% and ~60% game 2. Lingering souls chump blocks for days.
I won't be able to make it to the huge GP weekend next Saturday, but I hopefully will make it to a larger tourney in a couple weeks to really test this deck out.
I have two more events under my belt and I went 4-0 then 3-1. I ended up cutting Liliana from the deck for Eldrazi Displacer and it gave the deck a HUGE boost. With displacer and tidehollow or thought-knot seer on the battlefield I can flicker one of those creatures during the opponents draw step to effectively lock them out of the game. Displacer will also help against decks that run gavony township, which was really good against this deck. Displacer also helps protect reality smasher. Here is my updated list:
So far with this deck, I have gone 21 - 3, which is pretty decent but I need a lot more testing. After talking to people at my local shop they reminded me of the card hallowed moonlight. I really need to get my hands on a few because the card will help with against gyro's vengance, through the breach, collected company, and nahiri, the harbinger. Plus it is never a dead draw with displacer on the battlefield, but I do feel that it is a sideboard type of card.
I do need to fix the manabase up a bit since I added displacer and cut liliana. I am thinking about cutting a godless shrine for a utility land such as ghost quarter, sea gate wreckage, mutavault or a couple cavern of souls.
Hi herfs, cheers mate! I am curious about your deck: How would you characterize the trade-offs between your 60 and the Processors list? I'd expect that the graveyard decks matchups (Living End, Storm, Dredge) get harder but combo gets easier with all the hand disruption. Personally I think that Relic is good even without processing in the current meta because of all the Goyfs and Snapcasters and Eternal Witnesses floating around. Any matchup notes to offer?
We both run very similar lists now that eye is banned. You guys transitioned over to a lower mana curve while still keeping the relics for wasteland strangler and blight herder. I feel that blight herder doesn't do enough anymore for the mana requirement. It was a great card when you could ramp into Ulamog or search your library with eye of ugin, but now it just provides 1/1s that can help against blood moon. So, if you cut blight herder is it worth running relics just for wasteland strangler? I would say no and let me tell you why.
Wasteland strangler shines against aggro decks and (usually) gets progressively worse as time progresses. This is just due to the creatures getting larger as more mana is available. One of the best possible scenarios is this situation is to cast relic turn 1, exile a card, then cast strangler on turn 2 or turn 3 killing one of their creatures leaving wasteland strangler up as a blocker. With the 3 power it provides, strangler will usually trade with another one creature. Which is perfect against aggro decks! The problem is, that the aggro decks can easily play around this making strangler just a 3/2 and a relic a dead card in your hand that you will have to commit 2 mana to cantrip. (I know that you guys run discard spells, but I am just ignoring right now this since having 3 specific cards in your hand is pretty rare).
But relic is great against: Living end, storm, dredge, goyf, snapcaster, scavenging ooze, and eternal witness.
Living end: This is not hard to play around if you know it is coming. I just end up holding onto my removal, actively try to fill up my graveyard, and do not over commit to the board. After they cast living end, I still have a turn to get enough of a board presence and my creatures are usually larger.
Storm: The deck is not very consistent in modern and is not that popular. With 13 ways to get into their hand, it is not too difficult to grab the relevant spells.
Dredge: This matchup can be unwinnable if they have a very aggressive start. However, I have been about 50-50 against them since their creatures are just smaller than mine. I have only played against the new dredge a couple of times though.
The decks that run goyf, one is basically a bye (Jund) because our creatures have a lot of value and lingering souls is the best card in the matchup by far. I will admit that raging ravine is much, much better than shambling vent though. The other matchup (junk or abzan) can be a pain. It seems like whoever resolves lingering souls first, wins. I can chump block goyf for days or I can just get rid of it with removal. Scavenging ooze is better than goyf against me.
The decks that run snapcaster have not been a problem. I am happy to see them cast bolt - snap - bolt against thought-knot seer everytime. Blue decks are just not well suited to handle all of the hand disruption and large creatures.
Eternal witness is the most annoying card of the bunch. The deck has so much value with witness, collected company, and chord of calling that it is somewhat difficult to play against. I have won every time they have not started activating gavony township though. Usually the matchup is pretty even then they will just pull ahead in top deck mode. I have not played against them since I have added eldrazi displacer though. I think displacer will really help out against gavony township.
Therefore, I feel that relic is great (for my deck) against:
Scaving ooze :: But this is usually just a 2-of in the decks that run it. I can just run an additional kill spell instead.
Living end, dredge :: These matchups are where I really want gravyard hate. Having it mainboard game 1 would be nice.
So, would I mainboard in relic for two not too popular decks, a creature that eats my removal, or against the aggro decks which can just not fill their gravyard?
I just don't think it is worth it where I could run another anguished unmaking to help out against tron or just run more eldrazi creatures. Therefore, I am trying out the more proactive route by playing a few tidehollow scullers instead. I like the tidehollow/thought-knot and eldrazi displacer draw step lock that this deck has, it feels real good when it happens.
I am probably going to pick up some hallowed moonlights for the sideboard since the card helps out against nahari, coco decks, dredge, living end, and pairs with eldrazi displacer if I have enough mana. I haven't come up against a deck where I thought the matchup was unwinnable though or felt completely outclassed. Wait, I take that back. Playing against the Land destruction deck is really, really tough. Thankfully, hardly anybody plays it.
The BWC processor and the CBW midrange decks are pretty much the same 60 ish cards now. I just have tidehollow and displacer while you guys run relic and blight herder. I feel like the decks were vastly different back in January when I started this forum thread, but you guys transitioned away from oblivion sower to reality smasher and thought-knot. That is when I felt the bw processor deck started to loose the main processing theme and move more to a midrange deck like mine. Now we have this spot where our decks are different by about 6 cards and the primary reason to process is to give a creature -3/-3. Which is totally fine by me.
That is a great response. Thanks! I'm impressed with your huge B/W availability, 17 of each by T2 is awesome. I have largely given up on BB, BW, or WW spells (with a few exceptions) because my manabase won't support it. Personally I am completely sold on having three Ghost Quarters in my deck for manlands, Gavony Township, Tron, etc.
I agree that the RG Land Destruction decks are a nightmare. So hard to beat. I get that from the varied Valakut builds too.
I have to say that I love this CBW Eldrazi deck. I especially love being the only person around who is running it, and consistently getting top results with it at local FNMs and at larger, competitive REL events (of which I have only played a handful, truth be told). I am still loving the Blight Herders--I have often neutralized Kalitas or Wurmcoil for three turns by chump/sac before damage, but even the 4/5 body is very useful all by itself sometimes... and I can cast it off of any five lands I hold, even of they're all Mountains. But I totally get the attraction of the Displacers and Scullers, too.
Thanks for stopping by the Processors thread, hope to hear more of your experiences and perspective in the future1
In your list of cards under consideration, I would put in a couple of copies (or at least 1) of collective brutality.
Since you don't have any main deck ways to exile you might consider cutting eternal scourge and replacing it with matter reshaper. Matter reshaper is amazing. It applies a lot of pressure and trades with pretty much every creature in the format. It is also nice bait for an opponents path to exile which clears the way for a thought-knot seer or reality smasher. Your deck has a lot of CMC 3 or less drops that it can hit also.
For your sideboard, you should include some sweepers since decks that go really wide can be a problem. Languish is a good option as well as the typical damnation or wrath of god.
I like the aven mindcensor tech. I have a huge problem with scapeshift and tron and have found lost legacy to be underwhelming.
This is great, I think that a lot of the eldrazi are annoying for opponents since they either need to be removed a specific way or are very efficient creatures.
Eternal scourge: Great against decks with spot removal, but not great against decks that run a lot of creatures. Good when paired with relic of progentius for the long game. Matter reshaper: Generates card advantage for us or eats a path to exile. The 3 power kills a lot of creatures in modern. Thought-knot seer: You get to grab their best card and have a 4/4 body. Reality smasher: This card is amazing. Such a good finisher.
I would cut blessed alliance,move it to the sideboard, and cut surgical extraction from the side. Surgical extraction is okay if you have a lot of combo in your meta, but the card is just card disadvantage. Yes, it can be amazing when paired with a ghost quarter against tron, but the odds of you getting those card in your hand for that to happen are pretty low.
Your list is also interesting since you are playing B but only running 2 discard spells. I usually like to run about 6, but maybe a more creature oriented deck is the right way to go.
Thank you wizards for printing fatal push! This is exactly what this deck needs. It gives a fighting chance against some of the toughest matchups for the CBW eldrazi midrange archtype:
Merfolk
Zoo
zoo + a bunch a burn spells
And we can finally "bolt the bird" since "pathing the bird" was never a good option.
With the recent bannings, I feel that dredge too a pretty big hit and running main-deck graveyard hate is not really necessary. Here is the deck that I am going to try out later this week:
However, I am strongly considering cutting sorin (and a couple of other cards) for 3x liliana, the last hope. The mana also needs some work. Ideally, I would have 12 C sources, 20 B, and 20 W sources.
Here is my version which is built more around exiling/processing effects but is rather creature heavy (the main strength of Eldrazi decks are the creatures, right ?):
Here is my version which is built more around exiling/processing effects but is rather creature heavy (the main strength of Eldrazi decks are the creatures, right ?):
Nice list! The strength of eldrazi is definitely the creatures and you are running a lot! What decks have you tested this deck against? Have you thought about putting in aether vial? How is Kambal, Consul of Allocation working out for you? I have tried out the eternal scourge and relic combo a few months ago. Here is where you can watch me playing Shaun McLaren with an older processor list running eternal scourge (I did misclick about an accidentally attacked with a creature that I wasn't supposed to but I was fairly new to MTGO at the time). I found the combo to be basically the equivalent of a man land and it was too slow at the time. With the printing of fatal push I expect the format will slow down a bit and the combo will be pretty strong. What is your experience with the eternal scourge and relic combo?
Currently, this deck is at a weird place. Some people using BW processor deck (here) have been cutting relics and running the tidehollow sculler / wasteland strangler combo. The other prevalent bw eldrazi deck is death and taxes. All of these decks (bwc processor, bwc eldrazi taxes, and bwc midrange basically have the same 45-ish cards) and it is hard to say which one is clearly the best. For me, I am thinking that the bwc midrange deck can have a more enter-the-battlefield creature base such as:
As you said, eldrazi displacer has a lot of synergy with the BW archtype and this creature base can certainly exploit that. The main problem with this creature base is mana requirements of tidehollow sculler. You basically need 19 B and 19 W sources in order to reliably cast tidehollow sculler on turn 2. And you need 11 C sources to cast thought-knot seer. Since each list should run 4 eldrazi temple and 4 caves of koilos you still need 15 BW dual lands and 3 more C producing sources. This is pretty much impossible without running a mana rock (such as mind stone).
Which is a lot less stressing on the mana. Creature base 2 requires only 12C sources and 12 W sources so we could run more utility lands. This creature base would be better in a heavy control meta because you can run 3-4 cavern of souls.
I played in a local regionals tournament with a list very similar to the one above (liliana of the veil instead of last hope) and went 2-3 drop. I played against affinity twice (loss and win), burn (win), skred (got destroyed), and uw spirits (lost). Overall I felt the deck was competitive it just depended on how much gas I drew and how good my opponents hand was. I feel that I should go down to 23 lands and add something that will help me filter my draws.
I'm not sure if this thread is still alive, but I lose nothing trying… Im a lover of b/w, most of my decks have the Orzhov colors in them. This is, by far, my favorite color combination. I have been playing b/w planeswalker and even if im sad to not play smallpox in this deck, I really want to cast powerful spells.
I want to start playing this deck just so I can cast TKS and Liliana in the same deck, is it too much to ask??
Im not playing on a budget since I have all the expensives b/w cards. Here is the list I plan on testing as soon as I get my hand on the eldrazi cards :
Side
3 stony silence
3 nihil spellbomb
1 pithing needle
3 fulminator mage
1 fragmentize
1 kembal, consul of allocation
1 Collective brutality
2 Damnation
Now I will go over some of my choices
Creatures
4 of all the overpowered eldrazi and 2 displacer. Im not sure about these 2, maybe Endbringer would be straight better, but it's a bit expensive at 6 mana. Still, this deck have no card draw and have a hard time dealing with tokens, so maybe 2x Endbringer is what we need as a top end?
I want to live the dream of getting my reshaper killed and get a free liliana of the veil
0 tidehollow sculler. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Sculler (wich have one of my favorite artwork in mtg) but I find it underpowered in this list and hard to cast. With so many removals in the format, our opponent will likely get his card back and I feel like with all our discard, having a weak 2drop is not where i want to be
0 Wasteland stranger. Powerfull card when it's working, very bad when it's not. As a midrange deck, i don't to rely on synergy. Also, this card put some pressure on the deck building because we need more exile effects to make him worth it (path and relic). If I wanted to play this card, i would go for Eldrazi Processor.
Instant and Sorcery
4 push, 2 path, 2 brutality. Tota of 8 removals. Priority on path because i want to rely less on white mana on the early turn. Still the best removal spell. There is, i think, no reason to not play it in this deck. Dismember is an option (im loving the card in 8 Rack) but path is a clean answer.
3 Inquisition, 3 Thoughtseize. Im not sure about this split, but 6 discard spells (8 with brutality, 12 with lili and 16 with TKS) seems enough.
4 lingering souls. Best card in the deck, one of my favorite on the whole format. Even better when it's basically free discard with brutality and liliana.
Planeswalkers
4 veil, 1 last hope. Veil is overpowered, wich is why I can't see myself not running it. Last hope is great to deal with opponents tokens and to get us back eldrazi. I could see a 3-2 split depending on the meta.
0 sorin, gideon. 4 mana planeswalker is not where i want to be. We don't have enough tokens to make sorin solemn visitor +1 very good. Also, they don't go into the battlefield with reshaper.
Manabase
Damn it was hard to build! So many possibilities.
3 ghost quarter for tron players and man land. They could be field of ruins, but i don't like the fact i can just get T3 karn on the draw because field of ruins cost 2 to activate
2 Urborg. Better consistency for the BB spells. Can also bluff on turn 1 that we are on some pox build. Only 2 because we don't want dead cards in hand and being abble to play our eldrazi on time is key.
1 sea gate wreckage. I already said we don't have card draw, that's why i included it. It still might not be good enough…
0 ifnir deadland. Seems good, basically a 2 colors land in our deck. But i think we need more removals.
0 vault of thr archangel. I would like to play this card to break the midrange mirror. Maybe instead of the third ghost quarter
2 fetches for blood moon, but only 3 basic. We are very greedy with our mana haha… I Like it
Side
3 stony silence. This is the reason i have no mind stone in the main. This card is too good to pass against Affinity, lantern and tron.
3 nihil spellbomb. Cantrip and exile graveyard. I chose it over rest in peace because of lingering souls.
3 fulminator mage. For tron, control and valakut. Especially good with last hope.
1 kembal, 1 Collective brutality. For burn and storm.
1 pithing needle. For a variaty of matchup, from Affinity to control to lantern.
1 fragmentize. For white leyline, lantern and Affinity. Maybe I will play 2 (over the needle) depending of the meta.
2 Damnation. For aggro matchup.
Building a sideboard is very hard when you never actually played the deck. This is a rought draft.
I'm not sure if this thread is still alive, but I lose nothing trying… Im a lover of b/w, most of my decks have the Orzhov colors in them. This is, by far, my favorite color combination. I have been playing b/w planeswalker and even if im sad to not play smallpox in this deck, I really want to cast powerful spells.
I want to start playing this deck just so I can cast TKS and Liliana in the same deck, is it too much to ask??
Im not playing on a budget since I have all the expensives b/w cards. Here is the list I plan on testing as soon as I get my hand on the eldrazi cards :
Side
3 stony silence
3 nihil spellbomb
1 pithing needle
3 fulminator mage
1 fragmentize
1 kembal, consul of allocation
1 Collective brutality
2 Damnation
Now I will go over some of my choices
Creatures
4 of all the overpowered eldrazi and 2 displacer. Im not sure about these 2, maybe Endbringer would be straight better, but it's a bit expensive at 6 mana. Still, this deck have no card draw and have a hard time dealing with tokens, so maybe 2x Endbringer is what we need as a top end?
I want to live the dream of getting my reshaper killed and get a free liliana of the veil
0 tidehollow sculler. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Sculler (wich have one of my favorite artwork in mtg) but I find it underpowered in this list and hard to cast. With so many removals in the format, our opponent will likely get his card back and I feel like with all our discard, having a weak 2drop is not where i want to be
0 Wasteland stranger. Powerfull card when it's working, very bad when it's not. As a midrange deck, i don't to rely on synergy. Also, this card put some pressure on the deck building because we need more exile effects to make him worth it (path and relic). If I wanted to play this card, i would go for Eldrazi Processor.
Instant and Sorcery
4 push, 2 path, 2 brutality. Tota of 8 removals. Priority on path because i want to rely less on white mana on the early turn. Still the best removal spell. There is, i think, no reason to not play it in this deck. Dismember is an option (im loving the card in 8 Rack) but path is a clean answer.
3 Inquisition, 3 Thoughtseize. Im not sure about this split, but 6 discard spells (8 with brutality, 12 with lili and 16 with TKS) seems enough.
4 lingering souls. Best card in the deck, one of my favorite on the whole format. Even better when it's basically free discard with brutality and liliana.
Planeswalkers
4 veil, 1 last hope. Veil is overpowered, wich is why I can't see myself not running it. Last hope is great to deal with opponents tokens and to get us back eldrazi. I could see a 3-2 split depending on the meta.
0 sorin, gideon. 4 mana planeswalker is not where i want to be. We don't have enough tokens to make sorin solemn visitor +1 very good. Also, they don't go into the battlefield with reshaper.
Manabase
Damn it was hard to build! So many possibilities.
3 ghost quarter for tron players and man land. They could be field of ruins, but i don't like the fact i can just get T3 karn on the draw because field of ruins cost 2 to activate
2 Urborg. Better consistency for the BB spells. Can also bluff on turn 1 that we are on some pox build. Only 2 because we don't want dead cards in hand and being abble to play our eldrazi on time is key.
1 sea gate wreckage. I already said we don't have card draw, that's why i included it. It still might not be good enough…
0 ifnir deadland. Seems good, basically a 2 colors land in our deck. But i think we need more removals.
0 vault of thr archangel. I would like to play this card to break the midrange mirror. Maybe instead of the third ghost quarter
2 fetches for blood moon, but only 3 basic. We are very greedy with our mana haha… I Like it
Side
3 stony silence. This is the reason i have no mind stone in the main. This card is too good to pass against Affinity, lantern and tron.
3 nihil spellbomb. Cantrip and exile graveyard. I chose it over rest in peace because of lingering souls.
3 fulminator mage. For tron, control and valakut. Especially good with last hope.
1 kembal, 1 Collective brutality. For burn and storm.
1 pithing needle. For a variaty of matchup, from Affinity to control to lantern.
1 fragmentize. For white leyline, lantern and Affinity. Maybe I will play 2 (over the needle) depending of the meta.
2 Damnation. For aggro matchup.
Building a sideboard is very hard when you never actually played the deck. This is a rought draft.
Please comment
Thx all!
Hi MeleeQC2! You can definitely play thought-knot seer and liliana of the veil in the same deck! I haven't played this deck in a while, but here are some of my findings (an answers to your questions).
I agree, one of the main problems with this deck is the lack of card draw and plethora of CMC3+ drops. This deck is mana greedy I could see adding cards like simian spirit guide to the main 60.
I would lower your mana curve a bit. Shave off a reality smasher and cut some 3-drops.
You might want to think about cutting all of the inquisitions since you have enough removal and adding a few night's whisper for some added card draw. Possibly add another thoughtseize to combat all of the jace's and bloodbraids that will be running around. Your deck has 8 discard spells plus 4 more tacked on to thought-knot seer.
I would change up your manabase a bit. It is very difficult to have enough black sources to cast liliana on turn 3 reliably. Check the primer for more information. Blood moon can also be a total beating if you don't have any C through a wastes or a mind stone. I spent a better part of a year optimizing a manabase found in posts #19 and #20 in this sub, you can start from there if you would like.
I wouldn't worry about optimizing your manabase for tron unless it is prevalent in your meta. There whole decks revolves around them setting up tron, it is far more effective to disrupt their hand, removing a relevant threat, and proceed to be as aggro as possible.
So after falling in love with the BW Processor deck, and seeing the power of the Colorless Eldrazi deck, it got me thinking about a BW Midrange... and what to my surprise, here is a thread all about it! I've only started brewing but it's core concepts borrow from the aforementioned decks. The idea being to combine disruption and removal with powerful threats:
A few points about this list -- it's very obviously a budget(ish) build. Right off the bat there are upgrades I want to make but will take time to save up for first (Thoughtseize instead of IoK for instance). The SB is very much in the works, I included it just to showcase my thinking but feel it will ultimately change significantly. Now on to my thoughts about the cards:
Eternal Scourge: A never-ending nightmare for opponents. This card never stays dead long in this deck. Even if killed in combat, or countered on casting, you can recur it very easily (see extirpate/relic). Run 4.
Inverter of Truth: This one I'm iffy on, but a 6/6 Flyer that can be cast as early as Turn 3 isn't something to turn your nose up at either. Recurring your graveyard isn't a negative either as there isn't much in this deck you wouldn't mind seeing again. Flex spot.
Thought-Knot Seer: It's TKS, if you're playing eldrazi it's simply a must-have. Run 4.
Blight Herder: He's big but costly and his bonus effect is only good after we've exiled a few of our opponents' cards. That said, it's an on-cast trigger meaning even if they counter we're getting 3 more bodies (mana makers at that). A flex spot, but I don't think I'd ever run a full 4.
Reality Smasher: Brutal, brutal card. If they don't counter it on cast, it can quickly win a game. Resistant to removal, virtually a 3 for 1 card once it hits the field. Run 4.
Oblivion Sower: The most expensive body by far, but comes with a big ass and decent power. It's biggest advantage is the on-cast trigger. It puts not just lands from the 4 it exiles, but also ANY lands exiled from your opponent (so for instance, any you've GQ'd earlier). Testing it at 2 because of the cost however.
Extirpate: Most people assume this is one of the budget cards when they see it in a deck. In this deck I'd argue it's strictly better than Surgical Extraction however. Split Second is amazing. Not only can't it be countered, it can't be responded to. This is one of our secret weapons. It has incredible value against our opponents decks (taking out combo pieces, removing a Tron land we've GQ'd, etc). But it they've made the mistake of putting an Eternal Scourge in the yard, we cast this and target it. They can't counter it; cant sac their own relic/blow up their Scavenger Grounds; can't do anything at all until it resolves. Meaning we've just turned it into Squadron Hawk. Run 4.
Inquisition of Kozilek: Running this for budget reasons. Thoughtseize is strictly better and if you have it, use it instead. We don't have cheap creatures which means we need early interaction to buy time. Run 4.
Path to Exile: Run 4. For the same reason we run 4 IoK/Thoughtseize - we need to stall until we're ready to cast our threats.
Relic of Progenitus: MB Relic is the most beautiful thing in the world. Modern has so many decks that derive value from their graveyard that this puts a hurt on, or even out-right wrecks many dekcs once it hits the field. It's twice as valuable in our deck though because those same cards we exile turn into food/mana from our Blight Herder and Oblivion Sower later on in the game. Additionally, it lets us recur our Eternal Scourge any time it's put in the yard. Run 4.
Smuggler's Copter: Still very iffy on this. Using our threats to crew feels bad, but at the same time being able to filter through our deck is very useful when we're otherwise drawing dead cards (and remember, anything we dump in the yard can be recurred with the Inverter). Being so very much cheaper than Endbringer however makes it much more appealing to use for that purpose. Testing at 2 for now.
Cave of Koilos: We need many B/W sources, and this pulls double-duty by giving us C when we need it. Run 4.
Vault of the Archangel: Flex spot. Having lifelink is nice, having lifelink AND deathtouch is brutal. Especially if we have out Reality Smashers out.
Wastes: Same reason we run 1 Plains and 1 Swamp. Run 1.
Kambal, Consul of Allocation: Hates on Burn and Storm. Considering running 2 but being legendary makes me question that.
Fatal Push: This is the card I might cut most easily of all for something else. We have decent removal already and without Fetches we can't reliably turn on Revolt. That said it's unarguably premium removal so for the moment I'm including 2.
Ratchet Bomb: Budget choice. We have 2 color sources so running Engineered Explosives over it makes sense. That said, the most we can ever cast it for is 2 so Ratchet has the advantage of being able to blow up things with higher CMC if we need it to.
Spatial Contortion: Pumps our guys. Kills theirs. Not sold on it, but at the moment 2 seems good.
Stony Silence: Hurts our relic, but also the best answer to affinity that you can run in White.
Lingering Souls: For when we need to go wide/have earlier interaction. Being able to flash it back gives it extra value against control because even if countered we can still get bodies out of it.
Gideon's Intervention: Started as a budget choice, but has grown on me. 4 CMC means it's slow as hell but the trade off is being able to prevent damage from whatever we name which can be really helpful at times. When I get to upgrading my SB I'd seriously consider alternatives but don't even know what I'd replace it with.
Witchbane Orb: Budget Leyline of Sanctity. With our manabase, hitting WW for the leyline isn't as much of an issue, but that said being able to cast with any color mana does make this appealing in the instances when we're manascrewed. Then again, if you're bringing in the leyline, you are probably doing so because you absolutely need it in which case you may be better off mulling into it.
You might want to think about cutting Extirpate from the main board and cut your curve down a little. Extirpate is card disadvantage and I feel that it just conflicts with the gameplan. Ideally, you would play it on turn one but with a curve like what you have you will be conflicted on if you should play a creature or play extirpate and leave some mana open. I would also seriously consider some simian spirit guide to accelerate your mana. Eldrazi's are amazing, if you get them out early.
The midrange version differs from the processor version enough that having fuel for them isnt overly important. In fact in my most recent version (change outlined below) I've cut them entirely. SSG provides ramp but we're not looking to ramp anything out early anyways, and losing the space in our deck for that effect isn't worth the benefit of dropping something a turn early. For similar reasons, extirpate MB is more powerful than it seems at a glance. We're never looking to cast it T1 to begin with (the earliest we're going to want it is in something like a Tron matchup - in an ideal scenario T1 we want to GQ their Urza land and then T2 extirpate it). T1 we want, ideally, disrupt their hand with IoK (or Thoughtseize for those of us less budget constrained). If we cant do that, then our next best play is to drop Relic on T1.
Matter reshaper I've gone back and forth on. Ultimately I don't think it offers the right kind of value for this deck, though I'm not 100% convinced of that and may bring it in to a future version. It's good card advantage but we can gain more from other options like lingering souls. Unlike the Resahper, if lingering souls is countered we can still cast from the graveyard; and if uncountered means we can cast it twice.
My current version of the deck makes the following changes:
-2 Oblivion Sower
-2 Blight Herder
-2 Smugglers Copter (Moved to SB)
-1 Concealed Courtyard
+4 Lingering Souls
+2 Inverter of Truth
+1 Marsh Flats
A few notes on the changes:
I cut the Sower because it simply takes too long to get on the field, and I've found the extra lands we get from our opponent doesn't provide as much benefit as I'd hoped. Herder I cut for the same reasons you mention about bringing in more ways to exile cards - when I cast it, it's most often just a body. And the times I do cast it with the trigger, the extra bodies usually don't pull enough weight to be worth how late we end up casting it. Moving the Copter to SB definitely hurts, losing the card advantage it provides slows us down. But doing so makes space for board advantage via the lingering souls. Inverter turned out to be much more powerful than I'd realized, 6/6 flying on T4 usually shifts things in my favor even if I'm a little behind, and on T3 is often enough to dominate my opponent (I'm not sold on 4 of but am trying it for the moment, might go to 3 of and 1 of Copter in future versions). I forgot I had a Marsh Flats, and after cutting the Courtyard for it, I'd make the suggestion that if you have the budget, cut at least 2 courtyards for it (might even be worth going up to 4 and replacing them entirely but I wont be able to say for sure until my budget allows ;P).
I tested FoR in my early versions but found it too slow. The land parity is nice, but being able to destroy a land and leave mana up for other things has proven the better route in my testing (and against Tron it hurts even more than most other decks because if they're on the play they'll be able to activate Tron before we can destroy a piece).
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What is <>Bw Eldrazi Midrange?
This deck is able to grind out midrange games by stripping the opponents hand and sticking a threat or is able to come out explosive with a turn 2 thought-knot seer followed by a turn 3 reality smasher. A typical line of play is turn 1 discard, turn 2 ramp spell or creature then turn 3 liliana of the veil, matter reshaper, lingering souls, or thought-knot seer. This deck is different than the Eldrazi processor lists since it doesn't rely on the opponents graveyard to exile cards with relic of progenitus to cast blight herder and ramp into a ulamog, the ceaseless hunger, but is more of a midrange / aggro deck. This deck is primarly and with a splash of for lingering souls, path to exile, and exceptional sideboard options.
Core Cards
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
4 Lingering Souls
3 - 6 Inquisition of Kozilek or Thoughtseize
4 - 8 Kill spells
2 Anguished Unmaking
3 Liliana of the Veil
Card Choices
Matter Reshaper
This is a decent low mana drop that typically comes down on turn 2 and can either lay down the beats or trade 1 for 1 with an opponents creature resulting in you drawing a card. Typical lists don't usually run enough CMC 3 or less permanants to take full advantage of the reshaper's ability, but drawing a card or putting a land into play is always welcome.
Thought-Knot Seer
One of the cores of this deck. A huge body combined with grabbing the opponents best nonland card is absolutely amazing. This card is Tidehollow Sculler 4.0.
Reality Smasher
Our primary beater. Trample and haste with a 5/5 body for 5 mana? That just screams value. Plus you have the built in pseudo-hexproof forcing a two for one if the opponent wants to kill it. Combined with our discard spells, this option usually works out in our favor. This card is larger than the most common creatures in modern: tarmogoyf, siege rhino, tasigur, the golden fang, and on par with gurmag angler. This card is our finisher.
Endbringer
This card is too expensive. It is usually better to play an additional dismemeber or anguished unmaking
Oblivion Sower
This card has a huge butt and is not to be trifled with. Unfortunately, we do not run any cards to put cards from our opponents graveyard to exile, therefore I am looking for other options.
Lingering Souls
Behind thought-knot seer this is the second best card in the deck.
Optimizing Your Manabase
Since our deck is primarly and with a splash of white and the lack of fetchable colorless lands, this makes figuring out the right mana configuration tricky. I am basing all of the conclusions on how many mana sources we need from Frank Karsten's article here.
Ideally for our deck, we would like to be able to cast these cards:
Turn 1:
Inquisition of Kozilek
Thoughtseize
Turn 2:
Matter Reshaper
Turn 3:
Thought-Knot Seer
Lingering Souls
Liliana of the Veil
Turn 4:
Reality Smasher
Ideally we would need:
19 sources limited by having a 90% chance on casting Liliana of the Veil on turn three.
13 sources to cast the colorless creatures on turn two.
12 sources to have a 90% chance to cast lingering souls on the third turn.
Eldrazi Temple
This is the best land in the deck. Not only does it provide double the mana for all of our creatures, it can also tap for colorless mana.
Sea Gate Wreckage
Since we don't have any man lands avaible, unless you want to run Shambling Vent, this card will draw us gas when the games go long and are in a top deck war.
Mirrorpool
Interesting card, with the ability to copy our removal spells as well as a thought-knot seer this card is worth looking at. This card is still under the testing phase with this deck.
Cavern of Souls
This card is defiantly worth considering. Just make sure that you have another colorless source on the battlefield if you would like to cast an uncounterable Eldrazi. Mana leak, spell pierce, and remand are cards that slow down this deck.
Ghost Quarter
Amazing card.
Encroaching Wastes
Ghost quarter is much better for us. Destroying an opponents land on turn 5 means that we are probably behind.
Esper Panorama and Evolving Wilds
This is a budget option for Marsh Flats. Evolving wilds is better since it can fetch a wastes.
Desert
Interesting card. Our creatures are usually larger than our opponenets, therefore dealing 1 addtional damage is not something we usually want. If tokens are a problem, this land is definatly an option for to fill a flex spot.
Miren, the Moaning Well
Sacrificing your creature to gain life is counter-productive.
Gemstone Caverns
Such a limited ability to actually produce colored mana. This is not what we need.
Gemstone Mine
It is possible that we would want this, but there are better and lands.
Isolated Chapel
This is not what the deck needs.
Godless Shrine
Fetchable plains or swamp, include several.
Marsh Flats
Thinning out our deck as well as grabbing basic lands to avoid blood moon shenanigans makes this an auto-include. A decent budge option option would be Esper Panorama or Evolving Wilds.
Caves of Koilos
This is our only tri-color land. Auto include 4.
Fetid Heath
Shambling Vent
It comes into play tapped, but it helps us with the long grindy matches and it will net us some life.
Additional cards worth consideration
Eldrazi Displacer
This cards seems amazing for our deck, having the ability to tap their creatures before their attack step allowing us to have a clear field to attack the following turn is something that we need. The utility of flickering opponents creatures gives us a better matchup against decks that run delver of secrets, jace, vryn's prodigy (in response to the flip trigger), young pyromancer's tokens, lingering souls, and spectral procession.
Sample Deck:
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
3 Oblivion Sower
Planeswalkers (3):
3 Liliana of the Veil
Spells (15):
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
2 Dismember
3 Path to Exile
2 Warping Wail
Artifact (2):
2 Mind Stone
4x Eldrazi Temple
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Ghost Quarter
4x Marsh Flats
4x Godless Shrine
4x Caves of Koilos
1x Llanowar Wastes
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Wastes
3x Rest for the Weary
2x Languish
1x Ratchet Bomb
2x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Pithing Needle
1x Tormod's Crypt
2x Stony Silence
2x Disenchant
I have had some decent success with this deck. I brought a very similar version to SCG in Atlanta last weekend and went 4-3-1 with my losses due to very dumb errors on my part. I feel that this deck is really strong and wanted to open it up to discussion in order to improve it.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
Round 1:
I played against a combo elves deck that relied on summoner's pact, nettle sentinel, cloudstone curio, heritage druid, and evolutionary leap to cast Emrakul multiple times. Game 1 he mulled down to 6, keeping a sub-par hand. I was able to dismember key elves and keep on the pressure with lingering souls and reality smasher. Game 2 he over extended himself and languish on turn 4 sealed my victory. 2-0
Round 2:
Jund
We are heavily favored in this match-up. There worst nightmare is lingering souls and they have so many bad cards against us that my opponent sided in 11 cards for game 2. 2-0
Round 3:
Temur Delver
Game 1 I had an opening hand of 3 lingering souls, two lilianas, and two lands. He was able to spell pierce lingering souls on turn 3 and 4 and pick away at my life with a flipped delver and when I finally stabilized, creeping tar pit killed me.
Game 2 I had a good start, with hand disruption and removal to deal with a delver.
Game 3 This was a grindy game where he eventually had a couple hooting mandrills out and a goyf, but obilivion sower has such a large butt that he kept them from attacking. 1-1-1
Round 4:
A green ramp deck with some new eldrazi cards.
I felt in control for both games. Thought-knot seer and reality smasher were really tough for him to deal with since obstinate baloth and goyf were smaller creatures. Matter Reshaper was a pretty decent card in this match-up, really showing it's power when it died. 2-0
Cards worth their salt tonight:
Reality Smasher
Thought-knot Seer
Oblivion Sower
Under performers:
Warping Wail
Edit: Next week I am going to try and get my hands on some spatial contortion because it seems made for this deck. It has the versatility of either killing an opponents creature or as a giant growth for our creatures.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
Vesuva
I am still neutral on this card. Having the ability to copy your ghost quarters, eldrazi temples, or basic land (if blood moon is in play) is nice, but I would rather just run some more fetches.
Shambling vent
I am happy with running 3 mainboard.
Ghost quarter
This card is only really good against infect and tron. Sacrificing a land before turn 4 really slows this deck down. I moved all of them to the sideboard.
Decent matchups:
Aggro matchups, Jund, UW Eldrazi, Infect, coco elves.
Bad matchups:
Decks that run blood moon mainboard
Merfolk (spreading seas hurts)
Here is my current decklist (I already made room for anguished unmaking):
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Reality Smasher
Planeswalkers (4):
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Spells (18):
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Lingering Souls
3 Dismember
3 Path to Exile
1 Zealous Persecution
2 Anguished Unmaking
2 Mind Stone
Lands (24):
4x Eldrazi Temple
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Marsh Flats
4x Godless Shrine
4x Caves of Koilos
3x Shambling Vent
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Wastes
3x Rest for the Weary
2x Languish
3x Ghost Quarter
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Stony Silence
2x Disenchant
1x Torpor Orb
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
I am also looking to find more good two drops. I think that I can easily cut a dismember or two, but I don't know what to add. I could add
mind stone
expedition map
auriok champion
ayli, eternal pilgrim
bearer of silence <---- This card looks decent
eldrazi mimic
elsewhere flask
gatekeeper of malakir
talisman of dominance
spatial contortion
tidehollow sculler
Possible changes:
-1 Urborg
-3 Dismember
+1 Cavern of souls
+2 Bearer of silence
+1 Inquisition of Kozilek
What does everybody else think?
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
The OP must, however, be changed to reflect the new outlook of the deck and not give old information.
Thanks everyone,
Lantern
3 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Wasteland Strangler
3 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Reality Smasher
Planeswalkers (4):
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Spells (16):
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Lingering Souls
1 Dismember
3 Path to Exile
2 Anguished Unmaking
2 Mind Stone
Lands (24):
4x Eldrazi Temple
1x Cavern of Souls
4x Marsh Flats
4x Godless Shrine
4x Caves of Koilos
3x Shambling Vent
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Wastes
The weakness of the deck above is primarly
(1): Life loss due to fetch lands, pain lands, and anguished unmaking. It is somewhat offset with shambling vent, vault of the archangel, and sorin, solemn visitor, but it can still be really painful against fast aggro decks.
(2): Lack of additional card draw. Mind stone makes up for this somewhat and it also helps us against blood moon.
(3): Weak against remand and counterspells.
One of the best parts of this iteration of the deck is there are now 13 targets for when matter reshaper dies.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
3 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Wasteland Strangler
3 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Reality Smasher
Planeswalkers (4):
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Spells (16):
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Lingering Souls
1 Dismember
3 Path to Exile
2 Anguished Unmaking
2 Mind Stone
Lands (24):
4x Eldrazi Temple
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Marsh Flats
4x Godless Shrine
4x Caves of Koilos
3x Shambling Vent
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Wastes
I have been really impressed with anguished unmaking. Tonight I was able to beat RG tron 2-0. I expect that the mono blue tron is a much worse matchup. During the match I was able to beat a turn 3 karn liberated (which I anguished after he +4), followed by a Conduit of Ruin into a ulamog putting me down to an eldrazi temple and a mind stone. I pathed his two creatures and he flooded out. I am starting to think that I can even cut ghost quarters from my sideboard. Since tron lost eye of ugin, they don't have much resilience after their main threat is dealed with.
I have been trying to figure out if this current iteration of the deck with tidehollow and wasteland strangler is better than just running 4 reality smashers and some more removal. Here are some pro's and con's of running the tidehollow / strangler deck:
Pros:
Cons:
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
3 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Wasteland Strangler
3 Matter Reshaper
4 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Reality Smasher
Planeswalkers (4):
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Spells (15):
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Lingering Souls
1 Dismember
3 Path to Exile
2 Anguished Unmaking
2 Mind Stone
1 Batterskull
Lands (24):
4x Eldrazi Temple
1x Fetid Heath
4x Marsh Flats
4x Godless Shrine
4x Caves of Koilos
3x Shambling Vent
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Wastes
2x Sunlance
1x Flaying Tendrils
3x Rest for the Weary
1x Torpor Orb
2x Disenchant
1x Anguished Unmaking
1x Day of Judgment
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
I keep going back and forth on tidehollow sculler, but I think that the card is pretty decent right now. Having the ability to look at the opponents hand and process the exiled card with wasteland strangler really helped my aggro match-ups.
I finally got my hands on a fetid heath and it really helps the mana out. I am also testing out batterskull to help gain some life back and have a creature that is pretty resilient. Unless the opponent plays kolaghan's command. That card wrecks batterskull, and tidehollow.
I cannot remember all of the match-ups from a few weeks ago but here are some mach-ups that I played against two weeks ago and tonight:
Abzan companany: I feel like the matchup is just fine unless they get a gavony township, then they have an avantage. I have several sideboard cards just for that matchup (torpor orb, flaying tendrills) that are mediocre in other match-ups.
Grixis delver: If they land a turn 1 delver and flip in on turn 2, that could be a problem. Otherwise I played against this deck several times and we have a favoriable match-up. Lingering souls, and thought-knot seer pull a lot of weight in this match-ups. As does tidehollow sculler to see if the coast is clear. Over the past few months I have played ~10 games against this deck with this brew. They are really fun swingy games.
Jund: This deck pretty favored against jund. Everytime I play agasint the guy he says that it is a very unfavorable matchup for him. We have lingering souls, a decent amount of spot removal, liliana, and enough creatures that are out of abrupt decays range.
Weird brew with valakut, the molten pinnacle, through the breach, primeval titan, emrakul, the aeons torn, and Nahiri, the Harbinger. Unfortunately my opponent wasn't able to really get going both games. I grabbed some of his ramp spells keeping him off of mana and he never really recovered. I don't know if this is a favorable matchup or not.
Bushwacker zoo: The aggro decks worry me a bit, but I won 3 out of 4 match-ups against this deck. The addition of wasteland strangler helps. Curving into a tidehollow then processing the card with wasteland strangler feels great. I added several sunlances to the sideboard since I have been playing a lot of BW death and taxes online and I am starting to really like the card for BW decks. Even though I won the majority of the games against this deck, I feel like the chances to win game 1 are ~40% and ~60% game 2. Lingering souls chump blocks for days.
I won't be able to make it to the huge GP weekend next Saturday, but I hopefully will make it to a larger tourney in a couple weeks to really test this deck out.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
3 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Wasteland Strangler
3 Matter Reshaper
3 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Reality Smasher
Planeswalkers (1):
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Spells (15):
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
4 Lingering Souls
1 Dismember
3 Path to Exile
2 Anguished Unmaking
2 Mind Stone
Lands (24):
4x Eldrazi Temple
1x Fetid Heath
4x Marsh Flats
4x Godless Shrine
4x Caves of Koilos
3x Shambling Vent
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Swamp
1x Plains
1x Wastes
2x Sunlance
1x Flaying Tendrils
2x Rest for the Weary
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Disenchant
1x Anguished Unmaking
1x Day of Judgment
2x Rest in Peace
2x Stony Silence
1x Engineered Explosives
So far with this deck, I have gone 21 - 3, which is pretty decent but I need a lot more testing. After talking to people at my local shop they reminded me of the card hallowed moonlight. I really need to get my hands on a few because the card will help with against gyro's vengance, through the breach, collected company, and nahiri, the harbinger. Plus it is never a dead draw with displacer on the battlefield, but I do feel that it is a sideboard type of card.
I do need to fix the manabase up a bit since I added displacer and cut liliana. I am thinking about cutting a godless shrine for a utility land such as ghost quarter, sea gate wreckage, mutavault or a couple cavern of souls.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
We both run very similar lists now that eye is banned. You guys transitioned over to a lower mana curve while still keeping the relics for wasteland strangler and blight herder. I feel that blight herder doesn't do enough anymore for the mana requirement. It was a great card when you could ramp into Ulamog or search your library with eye of ugin, but now it just provides 1/1s that can help against blood moon. So, if you cut blight herder is it worth running relics just for wasteland strangler? I would say no and let me tell you why.
Wasteland strangler shines against aggro decks and (usually) gets progressively worse as time progresses. This is just due to the creatures getting larger as more mana is available. One of the best possible scenarios is this situation is to cast relic turn 1, exile a card, then cast strangler on turn 2 or turn 3 killing one of their creatures leaving wasteland strangler up as a blocker. With the 3 power it provides, strangler will usually trade with another one creature. Which is perfect against aggro decks! The problem is, that the aggro decks can easily play around this making strangler just a 3/2 and a relic a dead card in your hand that you will have to commit 2 mana to cantrip. (I know that you guys run discard spells, but I am just ignoring right now this since having 3 specific cards in your hand is pretty rare).
But relic is great against: Living end, storm, dredge, goyf, snapcaster, scavenging ooze, and eternal witness.
Living end: This is not hard to play around if you know it is coming. I just end up holding onto my removal, actively try to fill up my graveyard, and do not over commit to the board. After they cast living end, I still have a turn to get enough of a board presence and my creatures are usually larger.
Storm: The deck is not very consistent in modern and is not that popular. With 13 ways to get into their hand, it is not too difficult to grab the relevant spells.
Dredge: This matchup can be unwinnable if they have a very aggressive start. However, I have been about 50-50 against them since their creatures are just smaller than mine. I have only played against the new dredge a couple of times though.
The decks that run goyf, one is basically a bye (Jund) because our creatures have a lot of value and lingering souls is the best card in the matchup by far. I will admit that raging ravine is much, much better than shambling vent though. The other matchup (junk or abzan) can be a pain. It seems like whoever resolves lingering souls first, wins. I can chump block goyf for days or I can just get rid of it with removal. Scavenging ooze is better than goyf against me.
The decks that run snapcaster have not been a problem. I am happy to see them cast bolt - snap - bolt against thought-knot seer everytime. Blue decks are just not well suited to handle all of the hand disruption and large creatures.
Eternal witness is the most annoying card of the bunch. The deck has so much value with witness, collected company, and chord of calling that it is somewhat difficult to play against. I have won every time they have not started activating gavony township though. Usually the matchup is pretty even then they will just pull ahead in top deck mode. I have not played against them since I have added eldrazi displacer though. I think displacer will really help out against gavony township.
Therefore, I feel that relic is great (for my deck) against:
Scaving ooze :: But this is usually just a 2-of in the decks that run it. I can just run an additional kill spell instead.
Living end, dredge :: These matchups are where I really want gravyard hate. Having it mainboard game 1 would be nice.
So, would I mainboard in relic for two not too popular decks, a creature that eats my removal, or against the aggro decks which can just not fill their gravyard?
I just don't think it is worth it where I could run another anguished unmaking to help out against tron or just run more eldrazi creatures. Therefore, I am trying out the more proactive route by playing a few tidehollow scullers instead. I like the tidehollow/thought-knot and eldrazi displacer draw step lock that this deck has, it feels real good when it happens.
I am probably going to pick up some hallowed moonlights for the sideboard since the card helps out against nahari, coco decks, dredge, living end, and pairs with eldrazi displacer if I have enough mana. I haven't come up against a deck where I thought the matchup was unwinnable though or felt completely outclassed. Wait, I take that back. Playing against the Land destruction deck is really, really tough. Thankfully, hardly anybody plays it.
The BWC processor and the CBW midrange decks are pretty much the same 60 ish cards now. I just have tidehollow and displacer while you guys run relic and blight herder. I feel like the decks were vastly different back in January when I started this forum thread, but you guys transitioned away from oblivion sower to reality smasher and thought-knot. That is when I felt the bw processor deck started to loose the main processing theme and move more to a midrange deck like mine. Now we have this spot where our decks are different by about 6 cards and the primary reason to process is to give a creature -3/-3. Which is totally fine by me.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
I agree that the RG Land Destruction decks are a nightmare. So hard to beat. I get that from the varied Valakut builds too.
I have to say that I love this CBW Eldrazi deck. I especially love being the only person around who is running it, and consistently getting top results with it at local FNMs and at larger, competitive REL events (of which I have only played a handful, truth be told). I am still loving the Blight Herders--I have often neutralized Kalitas or Wurmcoil for three turns by chump/sac before damage, but even the 4/5 body is very useful all by itself sometimes... and I can cast it off of any five lands I hold, even of they're all Mountains. But I totally get the attraction of the Displacers and Scullers, too.
Thanks for stopping by the Processors thread, hope to hear more of your experiences and perspective in the future1
2 Eternal Scourge
2 Aven Mindcensor
3 Eldrazi Displacer
3 Wasteland Strangler
3 Reality Smasher
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Tidehollow Sculler
Spells (13):
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Lingering Souls
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Dismember
4 Path to Exile
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Mind Stone
Lands (24):
1 Bojuka Bog
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Eldrazi Temple
1 Fetid Heath
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Godless Shrine
3 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
2 Shambling Vent
1 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Sea Gate Wreckage
1 Disenchant
2 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Lost Legacy
1 Pithing Needle
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Zealous Persecution
1 Relic of Progenitus
I consider putting:
Athreos, God of Passage
more Dryad Militant
Collective Brutality
Brain Maggot
In your list of cards under consideration, I would put in a couple of copies (or at least 1) of collective brutality.
Since you don't have any main deck ways to exile you might consider cutting eternal scourge and replacing it with matter reshaper. Matter reshaper is amazing. It applies a lot of pressure and trades with pretty much every creature in the format. It is also nice bait for an opponents path to exile which clears the way for a thought-knot seer or reality smasher. Your deck has a lot of CMC 3 or less drops that it can hit also.
For your sideboard, you should include some sweepers since decks that go really wide can be a problem. Languish is a good option as well as the typical damnation or wrath of god.
I like the aven mindcensor tech. I have a huge problem with scapeshift and tron and have found lost legacy to be underwhelming.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
Lost Legacy has been very effective against combos deck, but did not look for if there was a better option.
Eternal Scourge has pleased me very much, has been very annoying for opponents, but I can do some tests also with Matter Reshaper.
I have tested the list with 2 Kambal, Consul of Allocation too, but used it in a game a few times.
This is great, I think that a lot of the eldrazi are annoying for opponents since they either need to be removed a specific way or are very efficient creatures.
Eternal scourge: Great against decks with spot removal, but not great against decks that run a lot of creatures. Good when paired with relic of progentius for the long game.
Matter reshaper: Generates card advantage for us or eats a path to exile. The 3 power kills a lot of creatures in modern.
Thought-knot seer: You get to grab their best card and have a 4/4 body.
Reality smasher: This card is amazing. Such a good finisher.
I would cut blessed alliance,move it to the sideboard, and cut surgical extraction from the side. Surgical extraction is okay if you have a lot of combo in your meta, but the card is just card disadvantage. Yes, it can be amazing when paired with a ghost quarter against tron, but the odds of you getting those card in your hand for that to happen are pretty low.
Your list is also interesting since you are playing B but only running 2 discard spells. I usually like to run about 6, but maybe a more creature oriented deck is the right way to go.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
With the recent bannings, I feel that dredge too a pretty big hit and running main-deck graveyard hate is not really necessary. Here is the deck that I am going to try out later this week:
3 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Wasteland Strangler
3 Matter Reshaper
3 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Reality Smasher
Planeswalkers (1):
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Spells (15):
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
1 Collective brutality
4 Lingering Souls
2 Dismember [Soon to be fatal push]
3 Path to Exile
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Mind Stone
Lands (24):
4x Eldrazi Temple
1x Sea Gate Wreckage
4x Caves of Koilos
1x Fetid Heath
3x Marsh Flats
4x Concealed Courtyard
3x Godless Shrine
2x Shambling Vent
1x Swamp
1x Plains
However, I am strongly considering cutting sorin (and a couple of other cards) for 3x liliana, the last hope. The mana also needs some work. Ideally, I would have 12 C sources, 20 B, and 20 W sources.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
4x Tidehollow Sculler
4x Eldrazi Displacer
4x Eternal Scourge
4x Wasteland Strangler
4x Thought-Knot Seer
4x Reality Smasher
Instant (6)
4x Path to Exile
2x Anguished Unmaking
Sorcery (3)
3x Lingering Souls
4x Relic of Progenitus
Land (23)
4x Marsh Flats
3x Godless Shrine
4x Caves of Koilos
4x Eldrazi Temple
3x Shambling Vent
2x Ghost Quarter
1x Sea Gate Wreckage
1x Plains
1x Swamp
1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
2x Blight Herder
2x Blessed Alliance
1x Ratchet Bomb
2x Declaration in Stone
1x Anguished Unmaking
2x Lost Legacy
4x Thoughtseize
I couldn't find room for both Lingering Souls and Matter Reshaper as I couldn't cut:
Wasteland Strangler, Eldrazi Displacer and Eternal Scourge since they have so much synergy in the deck.
Nice list! The strength of eldrazi is definitely the creatures and you are running a lot! What decks have you tested this deck against? Have you thought about putting in aether vial? How is Kambal, Consul of Allocation working out for you? I have tried out the eternal scourge and relic combo a few months ago. Here is where you can watch me playing Shaun McLaren with an older processor list running eternal scourge (I did misclick about an accidentally attacked with a creature that I wasn't supposed to but I was fairly new to MTGO at the time). I found the combo to be basically the equivalent of a man land and it was too slow at the time. With the printing of fatal push I expect the format will slow down a bit and the combo will be pretty strong. What is your experience with the eternal scourge and relic combo?
Currently, this deck is at a weird place. Some people using BW processor deck (here) have been cutting relics and running the tidehollow sculler / wasteland strangler combo. The other prevalent bw eldrazi deck is death and taxes. All of these decks (bwc processor, bwc eldrazi taxes, and bwc midrange basically have the same 45-ish cards) and it is hard to say which one is clearly the best. For me, I am thinking that the bwc midrange deck can have a more enter-the-battlefield creature base such as:
Creature base 1
As you said, eldrazi displacer has a lot of synergy with the BW archtype and this creature base can certainly exploit that. The main problem with this creature base is mana requirements of tidehollow sculler. You basically need 19 B and 19 W sources in order to reliably cast tidehollow sculler on turn 2. And you need 11 C sources to cast thought-knot seer. Since each list should run 4 eldrazi temple and 4 caves of koilos you still need 15 BW dual lands and 3 more C producing sources. This is pretty much impossible without running a mana rock (such as mind stone).
A sample deck would look like this:
3 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Wasteland Strangler
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Reality Smasher
Planeswalkers (3):
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Liliana of the Veil [or Liliana, the last hope]
Spells (15):
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
1 Collective brutality
4 Lingering Souls
2 Fatal Push
3 Path to Exile
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Mind Stone
Lands (24):
4x Eldrazi Temple
1x Sea Gate Wreckage
4x Caves of Koilos
1x Fetid Heath
3x Marsh Flats
4x Concealed Courtyard
3x Godless Shrine
2x Shambling Vent
1x Swamp
1x Plains
We could go with a more eldrazi-centric creature base without the tidehollow / strangler option though. Something like:
Creature base 2
Which is a lot less stressing on the mana. Creature base 2 requires only 12C sources and 12 W sources so we could run more utility lands. This creature base would be better in a heavy control meta because you can run 3-4 cavern of souls.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
4 Matter Reshaper
4 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Reality Smasher
Planeswalkers (3):
1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
2 Liliana, the last hope [or Liliana of the Veil]
Spells (16):
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
1 Collective brutality
4 Lingering Souls
3 Fatal Push
3 Path to Exile
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Mind Stone
Lands (24):
4x Eldrazi Temple
1x Sea Gate Wreckage
1x Vault of the Archangel
1x Fetid Heath
4x Caves of Koilos
3x Marsh Flats
4x Concealed Courtyard
3x Godless Shrine
1x Wastes
1x Swamp
1x Plains
I played in a local regionals tournament with a list very similar to the one above (liliana of the veil instead of last hope) and went 2-3 drop. I played against affinity twice (loss and win), burn (win), skred (got destroyed), and uw spirits (lost). Overall I felt the deck was competitive it just depended on how much gas I drew and how good my opponents hand was. I feel that I should go down to 23 lands and add something that will help me filter my draws.
Maybe one of these cards would work:
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
I'm not sure if this thread is still alive, but I lose nothing trying… Im a lover of b/w, most of my decks have the Orzhov colors in them. This is, by far, my favorite color combination. I have been playing b/w planeswalker and even if im sad to not play smallpox in this deck, I really want to cast powerful spells.
I want to start playing this deck just so I can cast TKS and Liliana in the same deck, is it too much to ask??
Im not playing on a budget since I have all the expensives b/w cards. Here is the list I plan on testing as soon as I get my hand on the eldrazi cards :
Black/white eldrazi
Creatures (14)
4 matter reshaper
2 Eldrazi displacer
4 thoughtknot seer
4 reality smasher
Planeswalker (5)
4 liliana of the veil
1 liliana the last hope
Instant et Sorcery (18)
2 path to exile
4 Fatal push
3 inquisition of kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
2 Collective brutality
4 lingering souls
Lands (23)
4 eldrazi temple
4 cave of koilos
3 ghost quarter
1 sea gate wreckage
2 swamp
1 plain
2 marsh flats
2 fetid heath
2 Urborg, tomb of yawgmoth
2 godless shrine
Side
3 stony silence
3 nihil spellbomb
1 pithing needle
3 fulminator mage
1 fragmentize
1 kembal, consul of allocation
1 Collective brutality
2 Damnation
Now I will go over some of my choices
Creatures
4 of all the overpowered eldrazi and 2 displacer. Im not sure about these 2, maybe Endbringer would be straight better, but it's a bit expensive at 6 mana. Still, this deck have no card draw and have a hard time dealing with tokens, so maybe 2x Endbringer is what we need as a top end?
I want to live the dream of getting my reshaper killed and get a free liliana of the veil
0 tidehollow sculler. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Sculler (wich have one of my favorite artwork in mtg) but I find it underpowered in this list and hard to cast. With so many removals in the format, our opponent will likely get his card back and I feel like with all our discard, having a weak 2drop is not where i want to be
0 Wasteland stranger. Powerfull card when it's working, very bad when it's not. As a midrange deck, i don't to rely on synergy. Also, this card put some pressure on the deck building because we need more exile effects to make him worth it (path and relic). If I wanted to play this card, i would go for Eldrazi Processor.
Instant and Sorcery
4 push, 2 path, 2 brutality. Tota of 8 removals. Priority on path because i want to rely less on white mana on the early turn. Still the best removal spell. There is, i think, no reason to not play it in this deck. Dismember is an option (im loving the card in 8 Rack) but path is a clean answer.
3 Inquisition, 3 Thoughtseize. Im not sure about this split, but 6 discard spells (8 with brutality, 12 with lili and 16 with TKS) seems enough.
4 lingering souls. Best card in the deck, one of my favorite on the whole format. Even better when it's basically free discard with brutality and liliana.
Planeswalkers
4 veil, 1 last hope. Veil is overpowered, wich is why I can't see myself not running it. Last hope is great to deal with opponents tokens and to get us back eldrazi. I could see a 3-2 split depending on the meta.
0 sorin, gideon. 4 mana planeswalker is not where i want to be. We don't have enough tokens to make sorin solemn visitor +1 very good. Also, they don't go into the battlefield with reshaper.
Manabase
Damn it was hard to build! So many possibilities.
3 ghost quarter for tron players and man land. They could be field of ruins, but i don't like the fact i can just get T3 karn on the draw because field of ruins cost 2 to activate
2 Urborg. Better consistency for the BB spells. Can also bluff on turn 1 that we are on some pox build. Only 2 because we don't want dead cards in hand and being abble to play our eldrazi on time is key.
1 sea gate wreckage. I already said we don't have card draw, that's why i included it. It still might not be good enough…
0 ifnir deadland. Seems good, basically a 2 colors land in our deck. But i think we need more removals.
0 vault of thr archangel. I would like to play this card to break the midrange mirror. Maybe instead of the third ghost quarter
2 fetches for blood moon, but only 3 basic. We are very greedy with our mana haha… I Like it
Side
3 stony silence. This is the reason i have no mind stone in the main. This card is too good to pass against Affinity, lantern and tron.
3 nihil spellbomb. Cantrip and exile graveyard. I chose it over rest in peace because of lingering souls.
3 fulminator mage. For tron, control and valakut. Especially good with last hope.
1 kembal, 1 Collective brutality. For burn and storm.
1 pithing needle. For a variaty of matchup, from Affinity to control to lantern.
1 fragmentize. For white leyline, lantern and Affinity. Maybe I will play 2 (over the needle) depending of the meta.
2 Damnation. For aggro matchup.
Building a sideboard is very hard when you never actually played the deck. This is a rought draft.
Please comment
Thx all!
Hi MeleeQC2! You can definitely play thought-knot seer and liliana of the veil in the same deck! I haven't played this deck in a while, but here are some of my findings (an answers to your questions).
I agree, one of the main problems with this deck is the lack of card draw and plethora of CMC3+ drops. This deck is mana greedy I could see adding cards like simian spirit guide to the main 60.
I had a lot of success back in the day with tidehollow sculler + wasteland strangler or tidehollow sculler + eldrazi displacer, but have always had a love/hate relationship with tidehollow. Currently, tidehollow is not good since lightning bolt is making a comeback and kolaghan's command is being played more than ever. It would be nice if there was a decent other 2-drop for us to play.
Some suggestions:
Let me know how your testing goes! Have fun!
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
2 Inverter of Truth
4 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Blight Herder
4 Reality Smasher
2 Oblivion Sower
4 Extirpate
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Path to Exile
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Smuggler's Copter
4 Concealed Courtyard
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Godless Shrine
4 Ghost Quarter
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Wastes
1 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
2 Fatal Push
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Spatial Contortion
2 Stony Silence
2 Lingering Souls
2 Gideon's Intervention
2 Witchbane Orb
A few points about this list -- it's very obviously a budget(ish) build. Right off the bat there are upgrades I want to make but will take time to save up for first (Thoughtseize instead of IoK for instance). The SB is very much in the works, I included it just to showcase my thinking but feel it will ultimately change significantly. Now on to my thoughts about the cards:
Eternal Scourge: A never-ending nightmare for opponents. This card never stays dead long in this deck. Even if killed in combat, or countered on casting, you can recur it very easily (see extirpate/relic). Run 4.
Inverter of Truth: This one I'm iffy on, but a 6/6 Flyer that can be cast as early as Turn 3 isn't something to turn your nose up at either. Recurring your graveyard isn't a negative either as there isn't much in this deck you wouldn't mind seeing again. Flex spot.
Thought-Knot Seer: It's TKS, if you're playing eldrazi it's simply a must-have. Run 4.
Blight Herder: He's big but costly and his bonus effect is only good after we've exiled a few of our opponents' cards. That said, it's an on-cast trigger meaning even if they counter we're getting 3 more bodies (mana makers at that). A flex spot, but I don't think I'd ever run a full 4.
Reality Smasher: Brutal, brutal card. If they don't counter it on cast, it can quickly win a game. Resistant to removal, virtually a 3 for 1 card once it hits the field. Run 4.
Oblivion Sower: The most expensive body by far, but comes with a big ass and decent power. It's biggest advantage is the on-cast trigger. It puts not just lands from the 4 it exiles, but also ANY lands exiled from your opponent (so for instance, any you've GQ'd earlier). Testing it at 2 because of the cost however.
Extirpate: Most people assume this is one of the budget cards when they see it in a deck. In this deck I'd argue it's strictly better than Surgical Extraction however. Split Second is amazing. Not only can't it be countered, it can't be responded to. This is one of our secret weapons. It has incredible value against our opponents decks (taking out combo pieces, removing a Tron land we've GQ'd, etc). But it they've made the mistake of putting an Eternal Scourge in the yard, we cast this and target it. They can't counter it; cant sac their own relic/blow up their Scavenger Grounds; can't do anything at all until it resolves. Meaning we've just turned it into Squadron Hawk. Run 4.
Inquisition of Kozilek: Running this for budget reasons. Thoughtseize is strictly better and if you have it, use it instead. We don't have cheap creatures which means we need early interaction to buy time. Run 4.
Path to Exile: Run 4. For the same reason we run 4 IoK/Thoughtseize - we need to stall until we're ready to cast our threats.
Relic of Progenitus: MB Relic is the most beautiful thing in the world. Modern has so many decks that derive value from their graveyard that this puts a hurt on, or even out-right wrecks many dekcs once it hits the field. It's twice as valuable in our deck though because those same cards we exile turn into food/mana from our Blight Herder and Oblivion Sower later on in the game. Additionally, it lets us recur our Eternal Scourge any time it's put in the yard. Run 4.
Smuggler's Copter: Still very iffy on this. Using our threats to crew feels bad, but at the same time being able to filter through our deck is very useful when we're otherwise drawing dead cards (and remember, anything we dump in the yard can be recurred with the Inverter). Being so very much cheaper than Endbringer however makes it much more appealing to use for that purpose. Testing at 2 for now.
Cave of Koilos: We need many B/W sources, and this pulls double-duty by giving us C when we need it. Run 4.
Concealed Courtyard: We need B/W sources. Run 4.
Eldrazi Temple: Casts our Eldrazi early. Always, always, run 4.
Godless Shrine: We need B/W sources. Run 4.
Ghost Quarter: Blows up anything we want. Can even fetch us our own basics if we need them (e.g. grabbing a Wastes against Bloodmoon).
Plains: PtE is a thing. So is GQ. Run 1.
Swamp: Same reasons as 1 Plains. Run 1.
Vault of the Archangel: Flex spot. Having lifelink is nice, having lifelink AND deathtouch is brutal. Especially if we have out Reality Smashers out.
Wastes: Same reason we run 1 Plains and 1 Swamp. Run 1.
Kambal, Consul of Allocation: Hates on Burn and Storm. Considering running 2 but being legendary makes me question that.
Fatal Push: This is the card I might cut most easily of all for something else. We have decent removal already and without Fetches we can't reliably turn on Revolt. That said it's unarguably premium removal so for the moment I'm including 2.
Ratchet Bomb: Budget choice. We have 2 color sources so running Engineered Explosives over it makes sense. That said, the most we can ever cast it for is 2 so Ratchet has the advantage of being able to blow up things with higher CMC if we need it to.
Spatial Contortion: Pumps our guys. Kills theirs. Not sold on it, but at the moment 2 seems good.
Stony Silence: Hurts our relic, but also the best answer to affinity that you can run in White.
Lingering Souls: For when we need to go wide/have earlier interaction. Being able to flash it back gives it extra value against control because even if countered we can still get bodies out of it.
Gideon's Intervention: Started as a budget choice, but has grown on me. 4 CMC means it's slow as hell but the trade off is being able to prevent damage from whatever we name which can be really helpful at times. When I get to upgrading my SB I'd seriously consider alternatives but don't even know what I'd replace it with.
Witchbane Orb: Budget Leyline of Sanctity. With our manabase, hitting WW for the leyline isn't as much of an issue, but that said being able to cast with any color mana does make this appealing in the instances when we're manascrewed. Then again, if you're bringing in the leyline, you are probably doing so because you absolutely need it in which case you may be better off mulling into it.
You might want to think about cutting Extirpate from the main board and cut your curve down a little. Extirpate is card disadvantage and I feel that it just conflicts with the gameplan. Ideally, you would play it on turn one but with a curve like what you have you will be conflicted on if you should play a creature or play extirpate and leave some mana open. I would also seriously consider some simian spirit guide to accelerate your mana. Eldrazi's are amazing, if you get them out early.
Here are some additional ideas for your brewing:
-X Eternal Scourge. Yeah this card is a pain for opponents but is only really good in a stalled board state. Matter reshaper, on the other hand, can accelerate mana drops. Opponents never feel good about giving you an additional card.
-X Oblivion Sower or Blight Herder
-2 Smuggler's Copter
-4 Extirpate
+2-4 more discard spells (thoughtseize, duress, etc). Getting cards in their graveyard is the key to processor synergy.
+3-4 matter reshaper
+0-2 night's whisper
+2 Fatal Push
+0-2 faerie macabre can exile cards or play as a creature.
Let me know how your testing goes!
Has anybody had a chance to test out field of ruin instead of ghost quarter?
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
Matter reshaper I've gone back and forth on. Ultimately I don't think it offers the right kind of value for this deck, though I'm not 100% convinced of that and may bring it in to a future version. It's good card advantage but we can gain more from other options like lingering souls. Unlike the Resahper, if lingering souls is countered we can still cast from the graveyard; and if uncountered means we can cast it twice.
My current version of the deck makes the following changes:
-2 Oblivion Sower
-2 Blight Herder
-2 Smugglers Copter (Moved to SB)
-1 Concealed Courtyard
+4 Lingering Souls
+2 Inverter of Truth
+1 Marsh Flats
A few notes on the changes:
I cut the Sower because it simply takes too long to get on the field, and I've found the extra lands we get from our opponent doesn't provide as much benefit as I'd hoped. Herder I cut for the same reasons you mention about bringing in more ways to exile cards - when I cast it, it's most often just a body. And the times I do cast it with the trigger, the extra bodies usually don't pull enough weight to be worth how late we end up casting it. Moving the Copter to SB definitely hurts, losing the card advantage it provides slows us down. But doing so makes space for board advantage via the lingering souls. Inverter turned out to be much more powerful than I'd realized, 6/6 flying on T4 usually shifts things in my favor even if I'm a little behind, and on T3 is often enough to dominate my opponent (I'm not sold on 4 of but am trying it for the moment, might go to 3 of and 1 of Copter in future versions). I forgot I had a Marsh Flats, and after cutting the Courtyard for it, I'd make the suggestion that if you have the budget, cut at least 2 courtyards for it (might even be worth going up to 4 and replacing them entirely but I wont be able to say for sure until my budget allows ;P).
I tested FoR in my early versions but found it too slow. The land parity is nice, but being able to destroy a land and leave mana up for other things has proven the better route in my testing (and against Tron it hurts even more than most other decks because if they're on the play they'll be able to activate Tron before we can destroy a piece).