BW Smallpox is a Black based control deck that is built around the card Smallpox for early disruption. Since it's a symmetrical effect we need a way to break that symmetry to get full value off of our signature spell. We play lands like Flagstones of Trokair and cards like Lingering Souls to break the symmetry of Smallpox. Smallpox punishes early starts and can set our opponent back a turn. Flagstones is very important for the deck to function since we can set our opponent back while staying on curve. Our threats are most often planeswalkers and tokens which help us get around the draw backs of Smallpox. Playing creatures is possible but it can make your smallpoxes even more awkward than they usually are.
The general game plan of BW Smallpox is to disrupt our opponent early and win through small advantages over a long game often backed up by a big planeswalker. The most exciting play the deck has is casting Smallpox on turn 2 with a Flagstones of Trokair in play and a card we want to discard such as Lingering Souls in hand. Smallpox will destroy an opponent's creature, land, and a card in hand, while we get a land back from Flagstones and put Lingering Souls in the graveyard putting us down one card while opponent is down 3 (If you like 2-for-1s you'll love 3-for-1s!).
Similar to BGx decks and 8rack, we play a lot of removal and hand disruption. Since we can only play 4 Smallpox we supplement it with the usual black disruption cards. Our primary win conditions are meant to dodge the drawbacks of Smallpox: Planeswalkers and Tokens. Since we are focused on slowing the game down powerful white sideboard cards are key to winning a lot of match ups.
The core of the deck usually looks something like:
Each of these walkers serves a different purpose. Sorin Solemn Visitor is usually accompanied by more small creatures making the deck look more like a tokens deck:
Both of these cards are a bit contentious in the community since neither card is ideal for a majority of match ups but one or the other is usually played alongside Sorin Solemn Visitor to end the game.
Thoughts on Casting Smallpox:
Smallpox is a very tricky card to cast because it's a symmetrical card. If you put it in the average deck it would often be a 3-for-4 (as in your opponent loses three cards and you lose four since you are casting smallpox) that's why we need to specifically build around it. As I mentioned above the best case scenario is a 3-for-1 but be aware that there are other scenarios that are also favorable. Most of our wincons are single cards that can win without any support besides time to set up. This means it's favorable for us to 1-for-1 and trade resources. Thoughtseize and Fatal Push are clear examples of 1-for-1s. Collective Brutality can sometimes be a 2-for-2 or against Burn a virtual 3-for-3. These are often very good for us. Examples where 1-for-1ing our opponent isn't favorable are Tron and Dredge. These decks create a lot of advantage from single cards so they are harder for us to interact with.
Smallpox isn't always a 3-for-1 so here are some examples of when it's still a good card to cast. When you have dead cards in hand discarding them to Smallpox is mostly free. This includes extra copies of planeswalkers, your 5th or 6th land, and a dead Thoughtseize against an opponent with an empty hand. Be sure to still pay attention to if you will have enough lands after casting smallpox. Usually this means having three lands but depending on your hand or build you may need to stay on four lands. Often If my opponent plays a turn 1 mana dork such as Noble Heirarch I get more interested in a turn 2 Smallpox. Hitting any mana source your opponent was planning on for their next turn is valuable but hitting two mana sources is great. Trading a souls token for a relevant creature is also a good trade to make when casting smallpox. Be sure to consider the value of a token and the value of your opponent's worst creature to determine if that's a reasonable trade. I often value my spirit tokens as half a card or even less but often your opponent's creatures can be very low value as well. Examples include weak creatures with ETB triggers and late game mana dorks.
For the most part, any Smallpox that trades cards 1-for-1 or better is a good smallpox to cast assuming you aren't sacrificing any vital resources. The more you play with the card the better your understanding of it will be. It's important to remember that you lose a lot when you cast a smallpox but attrition is our primary game plan against most decks so smallpox tends to favor us.
Typically we run 24-25 lands. This is to support our expensive 4 mana cards as well as having extra lands to sacrifice and discard to Smallpox when we can't find our prefered cards like Flagstones and Lingering Souls. We have plenty of other discard outlets to discard extra lands so it's suggested to play a few more lands than you think you'll need. Even a deck like Jund runs 24 lands and they don't sacrifice their own lands. It's OK to run a lot of "man lands" or other utility lands but we want a high land density.
Flagstones of Trokair: the graveyard trigger is the most important part of this card. The legend rule doesn't matter too much here since we get to search for a plains when it's destroyed. We almost always run 4 of this card because staying ahead on lands after a pox is an amazing tempo swing. It's good to note that it interacts unfavorably with RIP after sideboarding. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: This card makes Flagstones into a swamp, enabling a turn 2 Smallpox. We should not play 4 because we need to hit four lands and the legend rule can be painful. Most lists have 3. Fetid Heath: This lets us produce double black on turn 2 with a Flagstones, enabling turn 2 Smallpox. I've seen decks with anywhere from 2-4 copies. The more you play the more you risk having a clunky land base just like with Urborg. Another reason to not run all 4 is that if you have a flagstones, fetid heath, smallpox in hand you don't get to make a turn one play most of the time. When the deck was initially created missing your turn 1 for turn 2 smallpox was fine. In the current meta I find that I almost always want to be making a turn 1 play so Fetid Heath has gone down in value compared to Urborg. Shambling Vent / Mutavault: These are our "man lands" that give us threats when we draw too many lands. Shambling Vents fixes our colors but Mutavault can attack sooner and more often. Since the deck is so color hungry shambling vents is the man land of choice. Godless Shrine: Our usual fetch target with Flagstones and sometimes Marsh Flats. We need more shock lands than the average 2 color deck because we sort of run 8 "fetch lands" if you include Flagstones. 3 is the usual number to run. Plains: Another fetch target. Works great with Urborg. Most lists play just 1 because we already have too many white sources and 4 other mono white lands: Flagstones. Marsh Flats: Triggers revolt and fetches basics against Blood Moon decks. The rationale of Tom Ross for not auto including all 4 is because sometimes we want the land density when we are liberally sacrificing and discarding our lands. Usually 3-4 are played. Swamp: Most of our deck is black so we want a good number of basic swamps. We want to take very little damage from our mana base so I often will turn 1 fetch basic swamp. This depends heavily on the other lands and spells in your hand. Silent Clearing: This is another good use for our extra lands. Late game we can sacrifice a land we don't need. 2-3 is a good idea.
This is the most common way for us to take over the game after a smallpox. Planeswalkers generate long term value and help grind the game out.
Liliana of the Veil: the most important walker in our deck, kills things and discards cards. Resource denial is our primary game plan and Liliana supports that strategy. I find it hard to imagine playing less than 4 but some metas make her very weak. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: Gideon is a great way to close out games. He can also make tokens and can pump our tokens. Being double white is only a problem against blood moon. Sorin, Solemn Visitor: Very strong with lots of tokens and can create a Vampire in a pinch. Sorin is pretty bad by himself but when we have a few tokens he is almost always game winning. If you are running Bitterblossom or Bloodghasts (or other go-wide cards) he is worth playing. If you are creature light he is much worse. Sorin, Lord of Innistrad: Can make more tokens than Solemn Visitor but doesn't give lifelink when pumping our team so it's played less. Still a very powerful option against grindy decks. His ult can be devastating in the right circumstances. Kaya, Orzhov Usurper: Very powerful in the right meta. Most decks have cheap permanents or graveyard value cards so she will usually do something and can be considered a main deck card. It's a bit harder for her to win the game so I would consider her more like an extra Liliana of the veil than a true win condition. Serra the Benevolent: Serra is relatively new while I write this but she has been amazing in the phoenix / humans meta. a 4/4 flying vigilance is exactly what we want against hasty 3 power fliers. She's a meta call though because her +2 and ult are weaker than our average planeswalker.
Inquisition of Kozelik / Thoughtseize: Our most common turn 1 play. These cards let us slow our opponent down and help us time our other spells against counters / creatures / etc. Smallpox: the cornerstone of the deck. We have ways to negate the symmetry of each effect on this card. Land screwing our opponent is valuable but not the only mode on the card. Timing your smallpox is the hardest part of playing this deck. Collective Brutality: This is the closest to Smallpox 5-8 we have access to. It lets us discard cards that want to be in the graveyard for extra effects. Depending on the meta we can play any number of this card. It's always nice to have a couple though. Lingering Souls: Our first choice when discarding cards to Liliana / Smallpox / Brutality. Tokens protect our walkers and with our anthems they can turn into a win con. We always play 4. Damnation: Board Sweeper that we can use when we are falling behind. We don't want to overload on this since we end up with a lot of tokens but it's a good tool to have. It's often in the sideboard but depending on the meta can be in the main. Never // Return: This is a card that, like Lingering Souls, has value in the graveyard. It is very slow and Return is very weak so it is not a common choice but I included it since it was in the original deck.
Fatal Push: The most efficient Black removal spell. We usually play 4 of these. Mana Tithe: Major blow outs are possible with this card. It fills a similar role as our targeted discard does so it fights for slots there. Our smallpoxes keep this relevant for longer than the average deck can but we can't hold it forever. There are many people that play 4 to great success. Other people play 0 Mana Tithe so it's a pretty contentious card. It's a difficult card to evaluate but basically it's a high risk / high reward card. Dismember: This is a removal spell for certain metas. It's most useful for delve threats like Gurmag Angler. Cast Down: This is a removal spell for certain metas. This is useful against big creatures like Primeval Titan. Murderous Cut: Another removal spell that can be useful in certain metas just watch out for gy hate. Anguished Unmaking: This is a painful catch-all that's usually a sideboard card. It's good for planeswalkers / artifacts / enchantments, a lot of which can cause us problems. Kaya's Guile: This card is extremely flexible and gives us very solid mainboard graveyard hate. If you have room at 3cmc I would play a couple in most metas. Path to Exile: I want to mention this card here because it seems like an auto include in any white deck. This card is pretty bad in our deck because smallpox is meant to get rid of lands. Giving your opponent a land is a real cost that shouldn't be ignored like it is in some other white decks. It is suggested to NOT play this card without a good reason.
Bloodghast: This is a great card to discard to Liliana / Pox / Brutality. Recently many decks have moved away from Bloodghast because of its low impact. It's a very easy card to block and many decks have a plan to take care of it. Dark Confidant: This is one of our few ways to generate card advantage but it does not play nicely with Smallpox or our expensive curve. Some people play it but it's not an auto include.
Bitterblossom: It's a great way to make a bunch of tokens. A common replacement for Bloodghast in recent builds.
The primary match ups we are concerned about with our sideboard are Graveyard decks and decks that don't play many creatures. The few cards in this section are recommended for most metas. There are many more viable sideboard cards meant to stop different decks. More sideboard cards can be found in the Budget and Alternate Card Choices section.
Leyline of the Void / Rest in Peace / Nihil Spellbomb: Graveyard hate is a must currently in the meta and our discard and removal spells sometimes aren't very effective at slowing these decks down. Different metas require different answers. Nihil Spellbomb can also be a good mainboard card if the meta calls for it. Many people will argue for either Leyline or RIP as the "hard" graveyard hate of choice and both are fine options. Leyline is fast, free, and leaves our Flagstones and Lingering Souls open. RIP can be protected by a turn 1 Thoghtseize to check for any enchantment hate making it more likely to stick. The choice of hate depends on the decks in the meta. Stony Silence: Great against Affinity and Artifact combos. Also very powerful against Tron. Fulminator Mage: supports our land destruction plan and helps against UWx control and Tron. Surgical Extraction: More graveyard hate and also helps against combos. Zealous Persecution: Great against tokens where our edicts are bad. We can also win combat with tokens against aggro decks or just use it as an anthem. Very versatile card. Damnation / Bontu's Last Reckoning: Good against go-wide decks. Can be mainboard or sideboard. Many players prefer Bontu's because 4 mana can be difficult to hit in a timely manner. Anguished Unmaking / Disenchant / Celestial Purge: These cards helps us beat problem permanents like Blood Moon, Ensnaring Bridge, and Liliana, the Last Hope. Force of Despair: good against go wide strategies where our edicts are weaker. Plague Engineer: good against tribal decks Generous Gift: Like Path to Exile this card potentially gives our opponent too much for free. Against Tron and UW where Land Destruction is key this can be very powerful but the match ups where it's useful are narrow.
Concealed Courtyard: Produces colored mana turn 1 but it likely means we aren't running fetchlands. The main drawback is that it can't be untapped on turn 4 which is still an important turn to have untapped mana. This is usually a budget replacement for our fetches but it can work in non-budget lists. Caves of Koilos: Another budget replacement for fetchlands. Ghost Quarter / Field of Ruin: More land destruction is always good. The deck is very color hungry so it's tough to put many of these in. Vault of the Archangel: Usually a good card in token decks but it costs too much to make me want to play it. It's also a colorless land which hurts
Myth Realized: This is a great turn 1 play but gets much worse as the game progresses. It's fine in slower metas but can sometimes be a difficult tempo loss when played turn 1 against aggro. Be wary of cards like Cryptic Command that can bounce it and remove all of your progress. Without card advantage I fear this card is too weak. Smuggler's Copter: good with tokens, helps filter past top decking lands. A bit awkward if we don't have tokens. Heart of Kiran: This card works well with our planeswalkers providing a great attacker and blocker. This is a pretty awkward card when we don't have planeswalkers since it would be hard to crew with tokens. Tombstalker: Having one or two delve creatures can give us a powerful late game threat as we tend to fill our graveyard. We can't get these out as quickly as other decks so playing Tombstalker is almost free since it's just one extra mana. Flying is very relevant in the meta too. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet: One of our best sideboard creature threats. There are other options such as Baneslayer Angel and other similar creatures.
Start // Finish: a bit slow but it combos nicely with our self discard. This could be used as Lingering Souls #5. Condemn / Oust: We can't play Path to Exile for the most part because we play Smallpox to disrupt our opponent's lands. Non-graveyard removal is good and the life gain generally isn't terrible but both cards have major draw backs as well. Wrath of God / Day of Judgment: These cards are budget replacements for Damnation. Rain of Tears: Budget Fulminator Mage. It also works nicely with Nether Spirit. Aven Mindcensor: Some builds include this and Fulminator Mage mainboard to disrupt greedy mana bases. Timely Reinforcements: Another great white sideboard card that can be useful in aggro metas. Blessed Alliance: This is another white sideboard staple. It can come up in various match ups. Most of its effects are found on other cards but sometimes putting those cards together is useful.
Night's Whisper: The deck lacks card advantage / selection for the most part so any option is worth considering. The life loss is very relevant and only getting two cards is very fair for modern. Phyrexian Arena: Another source of card advantage. Very effective against slow decks but most of modern is very fast currently.
In general BW Smallpox is good against decks that have a few "puzzle pieces" they try to fit together because of the resource denial aspect of the deck. Decks that play a pile of "good cards" are generally more difficult to deal with. Decks that gain a lot of advantage out of the graveyard are also difficult to deal with game 1.
Positive. We are able to deal with their low threat count fairly easily. We can keep their hand under pressure with all of our hand disruption spells keeping [/card]Arclight Pheonix[/card] at bay. Most graveyard hate is good in the match up. Kaya's Guile is great. There aren't many bad cards in our mainboard in the match up but cutting a big planeswalker or two may be beneficial because of how fast the game moves. Very minimal sideboarding should be done in this match up, maybe bringing in graveyard hate and any exile removal you have.
Positive. This match up is closer to Burn than UR Phoenix. Graveyard hate is good but I wouldn't go all in on it (just like with UR). Be sure to cut Thoughtseize and Bitterblossom.
Positive. Again, the deck has a very low threat count so our edicts are great. The games we lose are usually because of a timely Temur Battle Rage or Stubborn Denial. After sideboarding they bring in Liliana, the Last Hope so you should bring in Anguished Unmaking. A little bit of graveyard hate can be useful as well. Most other Shadow decks function in a similar way but it's important to know what each color brings to the table for shadow.
Positive. Inquisition of Kozilek and Collective Brutality put us very far ahead plus we have a lot of incidental life gain from things like Shambling Vent. Be sure to side out Thoughtseize and Bitterblossom for just about anything. It's possible to cut the opponent off white so I'll bring in Fulminators at times but too many 3 drops gets clunky really fast.
Even. This match up is very draw dependent and is close to even. Game 1 it's important (and quite difficult) to keep pace with your opponent's threats. The tempo game plan of cards like Spell Queller are very effective against us so timing is critical. After sideboarding we should have more board sweepers which help a lot. You will want to board out hand disruption as they tend to dump their hand quickly.
Even. This match up is very similar to the Spirits match up. They have less card advantage so it's easier as long as your have a good amount of removal. Again, board in sweepers and take out some hand disruption.
Bad to Even depending on how prepared you are. Game 1 our targeted discard is very strong but non-targeted discard only helps them. Be sure to take out most or all of your Smallpox and Liliana of the Veil because they give our opponent a choice of which card to discard. Keep in your Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize. These will take your opponent's acceleration and sideboard cards. Board in any graveyard hate you have. Be aware that your opponent will have cards like Assassin's Trophy to destroy your Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void. Do not mulligan too low in this match up. Sometimes your opponent just has to keep a bad hand. Dredge tends to "lose to itself" once in a while.
Even. Usually a Thoughtseize or two will buy you a lot of time. Be sure to take their Primeval Titan and tutors as you can. Try to time your smallpox so it hits a karoo land such as Simic Growth Chamber. This puts our opponent way back on mana. The main way we lose the game is if our opponent gets to cast a Titan. This puts them way ahead on cards and it's tough to come back from that. Having a fast clock is important. Bring in land hate and discard if you have any in the board. Surgical Extraction is also very good.
Positive. Our deck is very similar to theirs with a little more disruption and more planeswalkers. The planeswalkers are the key to this match up: any incremental advantage puts us very far ahead. Smallpox is also very useful as it can cripple risky hands and slow down our opponent's 4 drops. Your opponent will have Liliana, the Last Hope so you will want Anguished Unmaking. You want to board out some amount of hand disruption but keep the Thoughtseize for cards like Bloodbraid Elf.
Positive. There are some hands we can't keep up with but a few bits of hand disruption and removal and your opponent will slow way down. Graveyard hate is very good in this match up. Bring in board sweepers because of Empty the Warrens.
Bad. Being able to keep our opponent low on lands is vital because they can't cast their important spells. Fulminator Mage helps a lot but now that they have 3cmc walkers as well as 4 and 5 cmc it's really tough to cut them off the lands they need. If you have a fast start it's very likely you can win the game but you need a near perfect hand or a lot of luck.
Bad. Smallpox isn't quite enough land disruption to slow them down. If your opponent knows what's coming they will lead on non-Tron lands to sacrifice to pox. Buy a turn can be nice but often isn't enough. After sideboards the match up can be almost Even with cards like Stony Silence and Fulminator Mage. Be sure to keep some hand disruption to take Nature's Claim. It's possible to be favored in the match up but it is often too taxing on our sideboard to be worth it.
Even. A well timed Smallpox can be enough to cut them off Tron (unlike G Tron) and our discard and removal tend to be more relevant against them. With more Land Destruction out of the board the match up is pretty good for us. The best we can hope for is that our opponent plays one threat per turn and we can accrue planeswalker advantage over time.
Good. If they are all in on the combo that's very good for us. Thoughtseize and Fatal Push are amazing at breaking up what they're doing. If they have a "value" plan B or sideboard plan the match up is a bit more difficult but still very manageable. Be sure to discard Kitchen Finks and Eternal Witness if you can as these cards cause major issues.
Looking at the creatures 3 snapcaster is good but the other guys are probably not the best in your build. Scarab God and Titan are only good in the grindy match ups. I'm not sure about your meta but over all you won't run into too many of those decks. Gurmag is an option but I think tasigur is better.
Looking at the lands I think you want 2 more field of ruin and more basics. I would cut Catacombs and Darkslick Shores for the most part. Darkslick isn't great in a slow deck like this and Catacomb gets worse the more you have.
I'm not a fan of Mind Stone because I'm going to suggest you cut all the expensive cards in your deck.
The instants look pretty good but Remand is a bit strange. You'll want at least 3 Cryptic.
You should cut Beacon and Army of the Damned. Neither are modern playable. They are just way too expensive.
Ob is also quite expensive but he can be good in the right match ups.
For the sideboard, these are all good cards. I would play the Damnations mainboard. It's tough to know what sideboard cards you should run without knowing your meta better though.
So after the changes I would play something like this:
The KCI deck was banned today so looking at your match ups there are now 5 good match ups and 9 bad match ups. That means she is probably a sideboard piece. So does she beat out any sideboard cards we already have? That depends a lot on your specific build and meta.
One thing missing from your points is timing. Kaya can't come down until turn 3 and she doesn't really affect the board in big ways when she does come down so it's tough to play her on turn 3. The big reason she is so bad against Humans is that exiling their 1 cmc permanents is not the job of your 3 drops but your 1 drops. We should be pushing the hierarchs when we can.
Against the graveyard decks exiling two cards on turn 3 doesn't get you very far against their fast starts. It could be a piece to a working plan though.
Overall she doesn't seem to really shine in any match up so it's hard to justify her as a sideboard piece. At the same time she's never a dead card, but often really underwhelming in the majority of match ups so it's hard to justify playing her mainboard. I'm going to test her once I can get my hands on one but I'm skeptical.
I'm convinced that this Deck is easily Tier 2, but its not seeing any big tournament results since there is no Reason for a pro Player to pick this deck above Jund which is Tier 1 atm.
Depends what you mean by "tier". Most of the time tier means popularity, not power level. Since the deck isn't popular it's not tier 2 by any means. Talking in terms of power I'm not sure. There are certainly decks it beats but I'm not sure your 5-0 is a representative sample of the meta by any means.
The big issue with the deck I see is that it's so reliant on 4 drops. wraths and planeswalkers at 4 are clunky and sometimes bad against a good chunk of the meta. Also you're playing 12 4/5 drops with no ramp or card selection. I just don't see how that can be competitive against such a fast format. 14 1-drops helps I suppose but your curve looks really bad. Maybe something like mind stone would help you cast your cards a bit faster, idk, I just can't get behind a deck with that kind of curve.
Just to be clear, I was already playing 5 colorless lands. So I'm transitioning from 4 Urborg / 5 Colorless to 3 Urborg / +1 Swamp / 5 Colorless. So that's 87.1 -> 86.6. Which is such a small difference compared to 10.3% of hands with double Urborg vs 5.6%. I'm not claiming that every double Urborg hand is bad, but if some of my double Urborg hands were 1 Urborg / 1 Swamp hands I think more of those hands are keepable and not mulligans. For example I think 2 Urborg / 5 spell hands should be mulliganed in most circumstances.
We certainly have ways to mitigate double urborg hands. Like you said 20% of our deck is built to leverage it, but I think 1 Urborg / 1 Swamp is always better than 2 Urborg. Or at least better 95+% of the time.
Also, I'm not trying to say that 3 Urborg is clearly superior. I think the numbers point to 3 Urborg potentially being better and the only way to confirm this is to test 3 Urborg decks. So hopefully someone out there tests this and comes back with results. Like you said, calculations don't necessarily translate to win percentage in real life.
I apologize to those of you have seen this a couple times now... just want to make sure everyone can see it.
Basically, it seems like Urborg is less relevant than many people thought. I calculated how often we hit BB on turn 2 on the draw and Urborg only affects our 80 odd percent chance by 1-2% (in other words, we only get 1 Urborg / 0 Swamp / 1+ Colorless land hands ~2% of them time). This means we may want to cut the fourth Urborg to save ourselves a real chance of getting legend ruled (with 4 urborg 10% of opening hands have 2 or more Urborg. with 3 Urborg that number drops to about 5%).
Here are the tables, though they are formatted better on reddit:
I don't want to suggest anything too specific, I'll let you make your own judgments based on the numbers, but I'm interested in trying out 3 urborg and pushing the 5th colorless land (maybe a ghostquarter). Let me know what you think.
I think this deck could use targeted discard and more threats. Stuff like Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek help fill your graveyard early. And I think 4 Serum Vision is important too. Liliana of the Veil does not work very well with counterspells so I would cut one of those two groups of cards. If you keep Liliana I think spell pierce is good since it's great early and can be discarded later. I think cutting Liliana is fine though since lots of counters works well with your delve creature plan. I've been playing Tombstalker in a different deck and it's been pretty good. Flying has been very relevant. but you have a lot of removal so maybe it's less important.
I would play a few more Planeswalkers as threats like Jace.
I agree that Hero's downfall is important. 1 or 2 is all I would want. Otherwise your fast creature match ups get worse.
Yea I've seen it. I guess in my head I was thinking that 10 would be ok since I wouldn't always be able to cast it on turn 2 (need to play removal, hand disruption etc.) but thats probably not sound deckbuilding. I agree that damnation is probably the first thing to go as it's the only double black card in the list. I haven't really found the time at all to even test the deck so will put it on hold till I can. Appreciate the second opinion though.
Ya, it's only a splash so only put as many sources in as you can support. But I've cast a lot of turn 2 SfAs and that's the best time to cast it. And it seems like the deck is missing a good turn 2 play so you want it to be available when it fits the curve since it doesn't affect the board at all.
I think I could get away with 10 or so. Will have to find the time to proxy and test now. Not really sold on ashiok as its a grind engine and grind engines aren't really what the deck needs more of.
It has suggestions on how many sources of each color you should include to reliably cast spells. "Reliably" is a subjective word but I generally agree with the author. At 10 sources of blue that means you'll be casting SfA on cuve 85% of the time which is not great. You're more likely casting it closer to turn 4. SfA is much better on turn 2 than 4. Obviously missing a few times isn't game breaking but keep it in mind.
Still working off the article, lets say you want to support Gideon of the Trials / Thoughtseize / SfA in terms of color (since I think you'll want to drop damnation to save yourself room in your mana base). That's 18 W 14 B and 13 U. So something like:
You still have room for a couple FoR and a good amount of basics. But this is predicated on dropping the double Black spells so any more black and you'll have to shuffle some things around. Hopefully that helps you get started on making a mana base.
Ya, Ashiok is just another grind card. The nice thing is that it's at 3 mana but that's probably not an issue for this deck.
If you only play 2 shocks and a basic you'll need a lot of fetch lands. You need at least 13 Blue sources to reliably cast SfA. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but it's certainly not trivial on the mana base.
Ashiok is a card I would suggest for a U splash too. She's very powerful and underplayed. with all the board wipes she should be easy to defend.
Sure, NW helps you draw more lands. but it also costs you life and it fills your hand turn 2 when you already have a full hand. Look at UW control: they really don't play much card advantage outside of planeswalkers, just cantrips. Sphinx's Rev used to see play but that's because it's a win condition, not because the deck needs card advantage to keep the game under control. They didn't put it in as a curve filler, it's a curve topper to steal the game late when you run out of cards.
Liliana Ultimate is very unreliable. She will become a target before that happens. If she doesn't, awesome, but I wouldn't count on it.
Spending Mana to search for cards for Lili to dump is anti-synergy.
Exactly. So why are you saying we should play NW?
You don't need card draw to win with a control deck. PW value and Souls are good ways to grind out games. There are many decks that will fall way behind after a couple liliana activations. There are many decks that fall way behind after a couple gideon activations. You might lose against GW Valuetown but that's just the nature of that deck. And GW isn't even that popular. I'm more worried about beating Tron and KCI than I am about how I'm going to out grind BGx.
Introduction:
BW Smallpox is a Black based control deck that is built around the card Smallpox for early disruption. Since it's a symmetrical effect we need a way to break that symmetry to get full value off of our signature spell. We play lands like Flagstones of Trokair and cards like Lingering Souls to break the symmetry of Smallpox. Smallpox punishes early starts and can set our opponent back a turn. Flagstones is very important for the deck to function since we can set our opponent back while staying on curve. Our threats are most often planeswalkers and tokens which help us get around the draw backs of Smallpox. Playing creatures is possible but it can make your smallpoxes even more awkward than they usually are.
We have created a discord to have more real-time discussion about the deck. https://discord.gg/C6pe9rb
Decklists:
OG decklist that placed in a GP: https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=15927&d=298107
4 Fetid Heath
4 Flagstones of Trokair
3 Godless Shrine
3 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
4 Shambling Vent
2 Swamp
3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Creatures (4)
4 Bloodghast
Instants and Sorceries (23)
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Collective Brutality
1 Damnation
4 Fatal Push
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
4 Smallpox
3 Thoughtseize
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Liliana of the Veil
2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Collective Brutality
2 Damnation
1 Darkblast
2 Fulminator Mage
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Shadow of Doubt
2 Stony Silence
1 Surgical Extraction
Tom Ross's List: http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/115634
MTGO Modern Challenge decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-white-black-smallpox-59590#paper
My personal decklist that placed in a PPTQ: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1334554#paper
My 5-0 decklists from mtgo: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/competitive-modern-constructed-league-2019-05-07#old-bag-o-bones_-
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-league-2019-08-23#old-bag-o-bones_-
Two 5-0s from Discord user penach010: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-league-2019-07-02#penach_-
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-league-2019-06-28#penach_-
Overview:
The general game plan of BW Smallpox is to disrupt our opponent early and win through small advantages over a long game often backed up by a big planeswalker. The most exciting play the deck has is casting Smallpox on turn 2 with a Flagstones of Trokair in play and a card we want to discard such as Lingering Souls in hand. Smallpox will destroy an opponent's creature, land, and a card in hand, while we get a land back from Flagstones and put Lingering Souls in the graveyard putting us down one card while opponent is down 3 (If you like 2-for-1s you'll love 3-for-1s!).
Similar to BGx decks and 8rack, we play a lot of removal and hand disruption. Since we can only play 4 Smallpox we supplement it with the usual black disruption cards. Our primary win conditions are meant to dodge the drawbacks of Smallpox: Planeswalkers and Tokens. Since we are focused on slowing the game down powerful white sideboard cards are key to winning a lot of match ups.
The core of the deck usually looks something like:
4 Smallpox
4 Liliana of the Veil
6-8 Targeted Discard (Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek)
4 Fatal Push
These cards are the backbone of our disruption.
One weakness of the deck is that we don't have a well defined threat package. Almost every deck runs:
4 Lingering Souls
But that's where the cohesion usually ends. To finish our threat package we often play Some number of planeswalkers:
0-2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
0-2 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
0-2 Serra the Benevolent
0-2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Each of these walkers serves a different purpose. Sorin Solemn Visitor is usually accompanied by more small creatures making the deck look more like a tokens deck:
0-4 Bloodghast
0-3 Bitterblossom
Both of these cards are a bit contentious in the community since neither card is ideal for a majority of match ups but one or the other is usually played alongside Sorin Solemn Visitor to end the game.
Thoughts on Casting Smallpox:
Smallpox is a very tricky card to cast because it's a symmetrical card. If you put it in the average deck it would often be a 3-for-4 (as in your opponent loses three cards and you lose four since you are casting smallpox) that's why we need to specifically build around it. As I mentioned above the best case scenario is a 3-for-1 but be aware that there are other scenarios that are also favorable. Most of our wincons are single cards that can win without any support besides time to set up. This means it's favorable for us to 1-for-1 and trade resources. Thoughtseize and Fatal Push are clear examples of 1-for-1s. Collective Brutality can sometimes be a 2-for-2 or against Burn a virtual 3-for-3. These are often very good for us. Examples where 1-for-1ing our opponent isn't favorable are Tron and Dredge. These decks create a lot of advantage from single cards so they are harder for us to interact with.
Smallpox isn't always a 3-for-1 so here are some examples of when it's still a good card to cast. When you have dead cards in hand discarding them to Smallpox is mostly free. This includes extra copies of planeswalkers, your 5th or 6th land, and a dead Thoughtseize against an opponent with an empty hand. Be sure to still pay attention to if you will have enough lands after casting smallpox. Usually this means having three lands but depending on your hand or build you may need to stay on four lands. Often If my opponent plays a turn 1 mana dork such as Noble Heirarch I get more interested in a turn 2 Smallpox. Hitting any mana source your opponent was planning on for their next turn is valuable but hitting two mana sources is great. Trading a souls token for a relevant creature is also a good trade to make when casting smallpox. Be sure to consider the value of a token and the value of your opponent's worst creature to determine if that's a reasonable trade. I often value my spirit tokens as half a card or even less but often your opponent's creatures can be very low value as well. Examples include weak creatures with ETB triggers and late game mana dorks.
For the most part, any Smallpox that trades cards 1-for-1 or better is a good smallpox to cast assuming you aren't sacrificing any vital resources. The more you play with the card the better your understanding of it will be. It's important to remember that you lose a lot when you cast a smallpox but attrition is our primary game plan against most decks so smallpox tends to favor us.
Common Card Choices:
Flagstones of Trokair: the graveyard trigger is the most important part of this card. The legend rule doesn't matter too much here since we get to search for a plains when it's destroyed. We almost always run 4 of this card because staying ahead on lands after a pox is an amazing tempo swing. It's good to note that it interacts unfavorably with RIP after sideboarding.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth: This card makes Flagstones into a swamp, enabling a turn 2 Smallpox. We should not play 4 because we need to hit four lands and the legend rule can be painful. Most lists have 3.
Fetid Heath: This lets us produce double black on turn 2 with a Flagstones, enabling turn 2 Smallpox. I've seen decks with anywhere from 2-4 copies. The more you play the more you risk having a clunky land base just like with Urborg. Another reason to not run all 4 is that if you have a flagstones, fetid heath, smallpox in hand you don't get to make a turn one play most of the time. When the deck was initially created missing your turn 1 for turn 2 smallpox was fine. In the current meta I find that I almost always want to be making a turn 1 play so Fetid Heath has gone down in value compared to Urborg.
Shambling Vent / Mutavault: These are our "man lands" that give us threats when we draw too many lands. Shambling Vents fixes our colors but Mutavault can attack sooner and more often. Since the deck is so color hungry shambling vents is the man land of choice.
Godless Shrine: Our usual fetch target with Flagstones and sometimes Marsh Flats. We need more shock lands than the average 2 color deck because we sort of run 8 "fetch lands" if you include Flagstones. 3 is the usual number to run.
Plains: Another fetch target. Works great with Urborg. Most lists play just 1 because we already have too many white sources and 4 other mono white lands: Flagstones.
Marsh Flats: Triggers revolt and fetches basics against Blood Moon decks. The rationale of Tom Ross for not auto including all 4 is because sometimes we want the land density when we are liberally sacrificing and discarding our lands. Usually 3-4 are played.
Swamp: Most of our deck is black so we want a good number of basic swamps. We want to take very little damage from our mana base so I often will turn 1 fetch basic swamp. This depends heavily on the other lands and spells in your hand.
Silent Clearing: This is another good use for our extra lands. Late game we can sacrifice a land we don't need. 2-3 is a good idea.
Liliana of the Veil: the most important walker in our deck, kills things and discards cards. Resource denial is our primary game plan and Liliana supports that strategy. I find it hard to imagine playing less than 4 but some metas make her very weak.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: Gideon is a great way to close out games. He can also make tokens and can pump our tokens. Being double white is only a problem against blood moon.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor: Very strong with lots of tokens and can create a Vampire in a pinch. Sorin is pretty bad by himself but when we have a few tokens he is almost always game winning. If you are running Bitterblossom or Bloodghasts (or other go-wide cards) he is worth playing. If you are creature light he is much worse.
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad: Can make more tokens than Solemn Visitor but doesn't give lifelink when pumping our team so it's played less. Still a very powerful option against grindy decks. His ult can be devastating in the right circumstances.
Kaya, Orzhov Usurper: Very powerful in the right meta. Most decks have cheap permanents or graveyard value cards so she will usually do something and can be considered a main deck card. It's a bit harder for her to win the game so I would consider her more like an extra Liliana of the veil than a true win condition.
Serra the Benevolent: Serra is relatively new while I write this but she has been amazing in the phoenix / humans meta. a 4/4 flying vigilance is exactly what we want against hasty 3 power fliers. She's a meta call though because her +2 and ult are weaker than our average planeswalker.
Smallpox: the cornerstone of the deck. We have ways to negate the symmetry of each effect on this card. Land screwing our opponent is valuable but not the only mode on the card. Timing your smallpox is the hardest part of playing this deck.
Collective Brutality: This is the closest to Smallpox 5-8 we have access to. It lets us discard cards that want to be in the graveyard for extra effects. Depending on the meta we can play any number of this card. It's always nice to have a couple though.
Lingering Souls: Our first choice when discarding cards to Liliana / Smallpox / Brutality. Tokens protect our walkers and with our anthems they can turn into a win con. We always play 4.
Damnation: Board Sweeper that we can use when we are falling behind. We don't want to overload on this since we end up with a lot of tokens but it's a good tool to have. It's often in the sideboard but depending on the meta can be in the main.
Never // Return: This is a card that, like Lingering Souls, has value in the graveyard. It is very slow and Return is very weak so it is not a common choice but I included it since it was in the original deck.
Mana Tithe: Major blow outs are possible with this card. It fills a similar role as our targeted discard does so it fights for slots there. Our smallpoxes keep this relevant for longer than the average deck can but we can't hold it forever. There are many people that play 4 to great success. Other people play 0 Mana Tithe so it's a pretty contentious card. It's a difficult card to evaluate but basically it's a high risk / high reward card.
Dismember: This is a removal spell for certain metas. It's most useful for delve threats like Gurmag Angler.
Cast Down: This is a removal spell for certain metas. This is useful against big creatures like Primeval Titan.
Murderous Cut: Another removal spell that can be useful in certain metas just watch out for gy hate.
Anguished Unmaking: This is a painful catch-all that's usually a sideboard card. It's good for planeswalkers / artifacts / enchantments, a lot of which can cause us problems.
Kaya's Guile: This card is extremely flexible and gives us very solid mainboard graveyard hate. If you have room at 3cmc I would play a couple in most metas.
Path to Exile: I want to mention this card here because it seems like an auto include in any white deck. This card is pretty bad in our deck because smallpox is meant to get rid of lands. Giving your opponent a land is a real cost that shouldn't be ignored like it is in some other white decks. It is suggested to NOT play this card without a good reason.
Dark Confidant: This is one of our few ways to generate card advantage but it does not play nicely with Smallpox or our expensive curve. Some people play it but it's not an auto include.
Leyline of the Void / Rest in Peace / Nihil Spellbomb: Graveyard hate is a must currently in the meta and our discard and removal spells sometimes aren't very effective at slowing these decks down. Different metas require different answers. Nihil Spellbomb can also be a good mainboard card if the meta calls for it. Many people will argue for either Leyline or RIP as the "hard" graveyard hate of choice and both are fine options. Leyline is fast, free, and leaves our Flagstones and Lingering Souls open. RIP can be protected by a turn 1 Thoghtseize to check for any enchantment hate making it more likely to stick. The choice of hate depends on the decks in the meta.
Stony Silence: Great against Affinity and Artifact combos. Also very powerful against Tron.
Fulminator Mage: supports our land destruction plan and helps against UWx control and Tron.
Surgical Extraction: More graveyard hate and also helps against combos.
Zealous Persecution: Great against tokens where our edicts are bad. We can also win combat with tokens against aggro decks or just use it as an anthem. Very versatile card.
Damnation / Bontu's Last Reckoning: Good against go-wide decks. Can be mainboard or sideboard. Many players prefer Bontu's because 4 mana can be difficult to hit in a timely manner.
Anguished Unmaking / Disenchant / Celestial Purge: These cards helps us beat problem permanents like Blood Moon, Ensnaring Bridge, and Liliana, the Last Hope.
Force of Despair: good against go wide strategies where our edicts are weaker.
Plague Engineer: good against tribal decks
Generous Gift: Like Path to Exile this card potentially gives our opponent too much for free. Against Tron and UW where Land Destruction is key this can be very powerful but the match ups where it's useful are narrow.
Budget and Alternate Card Choices:
Caves of Koilos: Another budget replacement for fetchlands.
Ghost Quarter / Field of Ruin: More land destruction is always good. The deck is very color hungry so it's tough to put many of these in.
Vault of the Archangel: Usually a good card in token decks but it costs too much to make me want to play it. It's also a colorless land which hurts
Smuggler's Copter: good with tokens, helps filter past top decking lands. A bit awkward if we don't have tokens.
Heart of Kiran: This card works well with our planeswalkers providing a great attacker and blocker. This is a pretty awkward card when we don't have planeswalkers since it would be hard to crew with tokens.
Tombstalker: Having one or two delve creatures can give us a powerful late game threat as we tend to fill our graveyard. We can't get these out as quickly as other decks so playing Tombstalker is almost free since it's just one extra mana. Flying is very relevant in the meta too.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet: One of our best sideboard creature threats. There are other options such as Baneslayer Angel and other similar creatures.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant: Very similar to Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Sorin, Solemn Visitor but it could be useful in certain builds.
Gideon Jura / Ob Nixilis Reignited: Potentially useful in certain metas but they are quite expensive so they shouldn't be used in the average build.
Condemn / Oust: We can't play Path to Exile for the most part because we play Smallpox to disrupt our opponent's lands. Non-graveyard removal is good and the life gain generally isn't terrible but both cards have major draw backs as well.
Wrath of God / Day of Judgment: These cards are budget replacements for Damnation.
Rain of Tears: Budget Fulminator Mage. It also works nicely with Nether Spirit.
Aven Mindcensor: Some builds include this and Fulminator Mage mainboard to disrupt greedy mana bases.
Timely Reinforcements: Another great white sideboard card that can be useful in aggro metas.
Blessed Alliance: This is another white sideboard staple. It can come up in various match ups. Most of its effects are found on other cards but sometimes putting those cards together is useful.
Phyrexian Arena: Another source of card advantage. Very effective against slow decks but most of modern is very fast currently.
Match ups and Sideboarding:
In general BW Smallpox is good against decks that have a few "puzzle pieces" they try to fit together because of the resource denial aspect of the deck. Decks that play a pile of "good cards" are generally more difficult to deal with. Decks that gain a lot of advantage out of the graveyard are also difficult to deal with game 1.
Creature (7)
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 The Scarab God
1 Grave Titan
2 Gurmag Angler
Enchantment (2)
2 Search for Azcanta
Land (24)
4 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Darkslick Shores
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Field of Ruin
3 Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
3 Mind Stone
Instant (14)
3 Fatal Push
4 Mana Leak
1 Negate
3 Remand
1 Hero's Downfall
2 Cryptic Command
Sorcery (7)
3 Serum Visions
2 Collective Brutality
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Army of the Damned
Planeswalker (3)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Spell Snare
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Countersquall
1 Hero's Downfall
2 Collective Brutality
2 Damnation
Looking at the creatures 3 snapcaster is good but the other guys are probably not the best in your build. Scarab God and Titan are only good in the grindy match ups. I'm not sure about your meta but over all you won't run into too many of those decks. Gurmag is an option but I think tasigur is better.
Looking at the lands I think you want 2 more field of ruin and more basics. I would cut Catacombs and Darkslick Shores for the most part. Darkslick isn't great in a slow deck like this and Catacomb gets worse the more you have.
I'm not a fan of Mind Stone because I'm going to suggest you cut all the expensive cards in your deck.
The instants look pretty good but Remand is a bit strange. You'll want at least 3 Cryptic.
You should cut Beacon and Army of the Damned. Neither are modern playable. They are just way too expensive.
Ob is also quite expensive but he can be good in the right match ups.
For the sideboard, these are all good cards. I would play the Damnations mainboard. It's tough to know what sideboard cards you should run without knowing your meta better though.
So after the changes I would play something like this:
Creature (6)
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Artifact (1)
1 Nihil Spellbomb
Enchantment (2)
2 Search for Azcanta
Land (24)
4 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Drowned Catacomb
4 Field of Ruin
5 Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
4 Fatal Push
1 Cast Down
2 Mana Leak
2 Countersquall
1 Remand
1 Hero's Downfall
3 Cryptic Command
Sorcery (10)
4 Serum Visions
2 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
2 Damnation
Planeswalker (3)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Spell Snare
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Countersquall
1 Hero's Downfall
3 Unmoored Ego
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
I had to fill in some slots so let me know if you have any questions on my choices.
Seems like you have a good start but there are some weird cards (Doomfall / bauble / tormod's crypt) that you should probably cut.
One thing missing from your points is timing. Kaya can't come down until turn 3 and she doesn't really affect the board in big ways when she does come down so it's tough to play her on turn 3. The big reason she is so bad against Humans is that exiling their 1 cmc permanents is not the job of your 3 drops but your 1 drops. We should be pushing the hierarchs when we can.
Against the graveyard decks exiling two cards on turn 3 doesn't get you very far against their fast starts. It could be a piece to a working plan though.
Overall she doesn't seem to really shine in any match up so it's hard to justify her as a sideboard piece. At the same time she's never a dead card, but often really underwhelming in the majority of match ups so it's hard to justify playing her mainboard. I'm going to test her once I can get my hands on one but I'm skeptical.
Depends what you mean by "tier". Most of the time tier means popularity, not power level. Since the deck isn't popular it's not tier 2 by any means. Talking in terms of power I'm not sure. There are certainly decks it beats but I'm not sure your 5-0 is a representative sample of the meta by any means.
The big issue with the deck I see is that it's so reliant on 4 drops. wraths and planeswalkers at 4 are clunky and sometimes bad against a good chunk of the meta. Also you're playing 12 4/5 drops with no ramp or card selection. I just don't see how that can be competitive against such a fast format. 14 1-drops helps I suppose but your curve looks really bad. Maybe something like mind stone would help you cast your cards a bit faster, idk, I just can't get behind a deck with that kind of curve.
I think you need 1 drops to keep up with the aggro decks.
Just to be clear, I was already playing 5 colorless lands. So I'm transitioning from 4 Urborg / 5 Colorless to 3 Urborg / +1 Swamp / 5 Colorless. So that's 87.1 -> 86.6. Which is such a small difference compared to 10.3% of hands with double Urborg vs 5.6%. I'm not claiming that every double Urborg hand is bad, but if some of my double Urborg hands were 1 Urborg / 1 Swamp hands I think more of those hands are keepable and not mulligans. For example I think 2 Urborg / 5 spell hands should be mulliganed in most circumstances.
We certainly have ways to mitigate double urborg hands. Like you said 20% of our deck is built to leverage it, but I think 1 Urborg / 1 Swamp is always better than 2 Urborg. Or at least better 95+% of the time.
Also, I'm not trying to say that 3 Urborg is clearly superior. I think the numbers point to 3 Urborg potentially being better and the only way to confirm this is to test 3 Urborg decks. So hopefully someone out there tests this and comes back with results. Like you said, calculations don't necessarily translate to win percentage in real life.
I apologize to those of you have seen this a couple times now... just want to make sure everyone can see it.
Basically, it seems like Urborg is less relevant than many people thought. I calculated how often we hit BB on turn 2 on the draw and Urborg only affects our 80 odd percent chance by 1-2% (in other words, we only get 1 Urborg / 0 Swamp / 1+ Colorless land hands ~2% of them time). This means we may want to cut the fourth Urborg to save ourselves a real chance of getting legend ruled (with 4 urborg 10% of opening hands have 2 or more Urborg. with 3 Urborg that number drops to about 5%).
Here are the tables, though they are formatted better on reddit:
*4 Urborg*
Colorless | 23 lands | 24 lands
3 | 88.7% | 90.6%
4 | 86.8% | 89.0%
5 | 84.7% | 87.1%
6 | 82.4% | 85.0%
*3 Urborg*
Colorless | 23 lands | 24 lands
3 | 88.5% | 90.4%
4 | 86.5% | 88.6%
5 | 84.2% | 86.6%
6 | 81.7% | 84.4%
I don't want to suggest anything too specific, I'll let you make your own judgments based on the numbers, but I'm interested in trying out 3 urborg and pushing the 5th colorless land (maybe a ghostquarter). Let me know what you think.
I'm not sure if it qualifies as "UB Control" but it seems to be a much slower Fae list.
I would play a few more Planeswalkers as threats like Jace.
I agree that Hero's downfall is important. 1 or 2 is all I would want. Otherwise your fast creature match ups get worse.
Ya, it's only a splash so only put as many sources in as you can support. But I've cast a lot of turn 2 SfAs and that's the best time to cast it. And it seems like the deck is missing a good turn 2 play so you want it to be available when it fits the curve since it doesn't affect the board at all.
Good luck with the deck!
have you seen this article? https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/how-many-colored-mana-sources-do-you-need-to-consistently-cast-your-spells-a-guilds-of-ravnica-update/
It has suggestions on how many sources of each color you should include to reliably cast spells. "Reliably" is a subjective word but I generally agree with the author. At 10 sources of blue that means you'll be casting SfA on cuve 85% of the time which is not great. You're more likely casting it closer to turn 4. SfA is much better on turn 2 than 4. Obviously missing a few times isn't game breaking but keep it in mind.
Still working off the article, lets say you want to support Gideon of the Trials / Thoughtseize / SfA in terms of color (since I think you'll want to drop damnation to save yourself room in your mana base). That's 18 W 14 B and 13 U. So something like:
4 Marsh Flats
3 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
2 Godless Shrine
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
4 Plains
2 Swamp
1 Island
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Shambling Vent
2 Field of Ruin
You still have room for a couple FoR and a good amount of basics. But this is predicated on dropping the double Black spells so any more black and you'll have to shuffle some things around. Hopefully that helps you get started on making a mana base.
Ya, Ashiok is just another grind card. The nice thing is that it's at 3 mana but that's probably not an issue for this deck.
Ashiok is a card I would suggest for a U splash too. She's very powerful and underplayed. with all the board wipes she should be easy to defend.
Liliana Ultimate is very unreliable. She will become a target before that happens. If she doesn't, awesome, but I wouldn't count on it.
Exactly. So why are you saying we should play NW?
You don't need card draw to win with a control deck. PW value and Souls are good ways to grind out games. There are many decks that will fall way behind after a couple liliana activations. There are many decks that fall way behind after a couple gideon activations. You might lose against GW Valuetown but that's just the nature of that deck. And GW isn't even that popular. I'm more worried about beating Tron and KCI than I am about how I'm going to out grind BGx.