MTG Salvation

I know this might not be as competitive but I'd appreciate any suggestions for my UB control infect deck. I enjoy playing a more controlling, slower version like this and am having pretty decent success, but I haven't played modern for a while so need some help mainly with what instants and sorceries to run.

4x Phyrexian Crusader
2x Phyrexian Vatmother (2 is maybe 1 too many?)
1x Skithiryx (Even though it's tough to get that much mana I still love the card and it wins games out of nowhere)

4x Serum Visions
4x Mana Leak
1x Spell Pierce
1x Cryptic Command

3x Night's Whisper
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Thoughtseize

1x Runechanter's Pike
4x Vampire's Bite (I like Unstable Mutation too, but the lifegain kicker has saved me many times. It's a tough choice)

1x Murderous Cut
1x Fatal Push
2x Victim of Night
2x Devour Flesh

2x Liliana of the Veil

4x Inkmoth Nexus
4x Darkslick Shores
4x Polluted Delta
3x Drowned Catacomb
1x Island
2x Swamp
1x Urborg
3x Watery Grave

Sideboard:
1x Thoughtseize
3x Negate
2x Fatal Push
3x Illness in the Ranks
1x Damnation
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Relic of Progenitus (can't decide between the spellbomb and relic)

The removal suite is where I'm having the most trouble with not only which kill spells I should be running, but what total amount as well. Thank you for any help with this list!

I like the list, I've experimented with some changes and it's done really well against a variety of decks. Here's what's worked well for me.

-1 Doom Blade
-1 Dismember
-1 Thought Scour (I've always had TONS of instants/sorceries in the yard running 2 scour, so 3 doesn't seem necessary, especially without Snapcaster)

+1 Liliana
+1 Negate
+1 Mental Misstep

I've found a little bit more control with these additions work better than the extra removal and scour.

For the SB, I'd switch out the 3 Corrosive Gale for 3 Ratchet Bombs unless you run into heavy Drogskol Captain decks, since the bombs are much more versatile. Speaking of bombs, you don't have any graveyard hate and I think 2 Nihil Spellbombs fit the bill nicely.

I also fit in a Sword of Body and Mind, Sword of Feast and Famine and an extra Liliana. I'm not sure the BSZ is useful unless you're against heavy swarm a lot, so I opted to leave those out.

I find 2 to be perfect for B/R zombies and I pretty much never side it out. It provides you a lot of possibilites.

Uh, you do realize the guy knew Mana Leak wouldn't work on Thrun? He was clearly just f'ing around because he knew the game was over since he had no out for Thrun.

He's wiping down his sword, which doesn't have any bearing on if he's right-handed or left-handed. I'm right-handed, but usually clean my katana while holding it in my left hand.

Bloodline Keeper is alright, but I've never been that impressed.

I bring in a couple of Celestial Purges from the SB to deal with a Skithiryx that slips by. As for the Crusaders, Liliana or DoJ is usually enough to deal with them.

I also love Curse against MBI and a couple other matchups. I find it a lot better than Elesh Norn since MBI has so much removal. I side two of them in and during one game, I had both in my hand. He got rid of one with Distress, but the other landed and won me the game.

Splashing black for removal is great, I've been doing it for a while now. What I don't understand though is playing cards like Olivia. She is too slow and goes against what RDW tries to accomplish.

IMO, splashing black for Doom Blade/Go for the Throat is better than splashing green for Ancient Grudge flashback. That of course would change if Tempered Steel becomes really popular, but that is not the case yet.

Waif is awesome against any type of control deck. She creates misplays. They'll often times Think Twice on their turn to prevent a morph, which allows you to cast a shrine, beserker, etc on your turn with no fear of counter magic.

Quote from EllE

Act of Aggression
1. Take angel token. Untap it
2. Block Geist
3. ???
4. Profit

Slagstorm does seem like it would help quite a bit.

5. Lose anyway since you're still probably taking 4 damage from phyrexian mana?

Act of Aggression seems like a waste to board in just for Geist when Traitorous Blood is so much better for every other matchup. Just race it or leave a blocker if you're really that behind. I've never had much of a problem with Geist.

Quote from urafever

NO -- definitely forget ratchet bomb. No, it isn't good against anything.

I direct you to any of LSV's videos or comments (you can look at his preworlds UB control testing, for example) for a longer explanation of why that card should not be played. Basically, it's just a really bad removal spell that is pretty much mediocre all of the time.

lol, what a load of crap. Ratchet Bomb is GREAT against token decks and it can be really good against Tempered Steel and many of those stupid Delver decks out there. I feel bad for anyone dumb enough to think Ratchet Bomb is not good against a meta filled to the brim with fast creature decks.

Think Twice is absolutely the better card to run in Solar Flare. We are not an aggressive tapout deck, we are a control deck. Does U/B control run Ponder? No.

I can't believe all of the people jumping on the Ponder bandwagon just because of one article. It's nonsense. I hope to see my opponents use it more when I face the mirror though.

lol at everyone thinking the mono red at worlds was some great epiphany. It's 95% the same as any other mono red list and many of us have cut Koth from our lists long before worlds.

I'd go with Noble. He puts the hurt on human and control decks.