This deck aims to play a mix of efficient (Gurmag Angler) and resilient (Bloodghast + Lingering Souls) creatures, and drain your opponents of resources through hand disruption, land destruction, Liliana of the Veil and cheap removal (i.e. Smallpox and friends). An unexpected Smallpox mainboard leads to some free wins but once they know what you're on you need to wring out every bit of value from your cards to win. That said, the better I get with this deck the more I believe it's Jund-esque in that you're not a serious dog in any match-ups - except BW Tokens :(.
This midrange-control or attrition deck aims to create an easily repeatable board state/situation that is difficult for opponents to overcome because it has 2 separate and resilient lines of attack, both of which are supported by the incidental burn from Lightning Bolt and sideboard cards:
Going Wide: This is usually some mix of Bloodghast and Lingering Souls tokens. Both are very difficult for control decks and midrange decks to deal with.
Going Big: Early Gurmag Angler. The idea here is to land a fast fatty against decks that don't have spot removal and/or rely on attacking you quickly. If you're smart about allowing them to block this guy becomes nigh un-killable except by Terminate.
Smallpox and Faithless Looting are the key cards in the deck. Each has 3 principle uses. You should almost certainly not play the card if you aren't in 1 of these 3 situations (or it's late game and you have no other options).
Faithless Looting:
As sorcery speed Ancestral Recall: If you have 2 cards you can use from your graveyard you should play it for card advantage. Sometimes it's fine with just 1 and you treat it like Divination. This can also be an aggressive play as you can play it turn 1 and turn 2 have a Bloodghast and 2 Lingering Souls tokens.
As Dark Ritual, kind of: This card helps you cast Gurmag Angler on turn 2. I try not to do this unless I Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek them on turn 1 or can see from turn 1 that they aren't running spot removal that can kill them. Make sure you think you can win through tempo before doing this since you're incurring card disadvantage.
To keep 1 land hands: If you have 1 land, Faithless Looting, and 1 card you can play from the graveyard you can avoid the mulligan and come out on top - especially on the draw.
Chance you can use Faithless Looting in 1 of the first 2 ways by turn 4 on the play, 3 on the draw = 79%
Smallpox:
When you can 3 for 2 them: If 2 of these situations exist it's a good time to play Smallpox for virtual card advantage - a) they have a creature and you don't (or you have Bloodghast/tokens); b) you can discard a card with graveyard recursion; d) you have Flagstones of Trokair in play.
As Dark Ritual, kind of: Same as above but on turn 3.
It will utterly destroy their plan: If you know from Thoughtseize that they're stuck on lands; they're playing G/R Tron or Scapeshift; etc. It's best to think through how you're going to take advantage of this because if you can't they'll draw out of the land screw eventually.
Chance you can use Smallpox in 1 of the first 2 ways by turn 4 on the play, 3 on the draw = 86%
The Sideboard: I've been testing for over 8 months now, but only about 4 matches a week. The bad match-ups, other than BW tokens which is impossible to beat, are against decks with a critical mass of 2 for 1 creatures - especially Kitchen Finks, Eternal Witness, Collected Company, Thragtusk, and
Huntmaster of the Fells
. I'm finding that it's better to take their best cards with hand disruption and then get as aggressive as possible. The sideboard is designed accordingly. Remand is also quite good against you since you run a lot of 3 drops and it's amazing against Lingering Souls flashback.
Lightning Helix - this is part tech against burn, part spot removal against decks that need synergy, and also a tool to make your deck more aggressive against the 2 for 1 creature decks.
Slaughter Pact - this card is not just for twin. It also really helps you be able tap out on turn 3, which this deck really wants to do or against a deck with threats that don't die to Lightning Bolt.
Blood Moon - This is your plan against Tron, Amulet Bloom, Eldrazi, and Abzan. If you bring this in you also want to improve your ability to put a clock on your opponent with Avaricious Dragon. Faithless Looting works well with this card since it helps you bin cards you can't cast.
Avaricious Dragon - This buddy is easy to cast under Blood Moon, puts a clock on your opponent, and let's you discard Bloodghast or Lingering Souls when you can't cast it. It's also good against Jund and Grixis - just don't bring it in against Splinter Twin.
Anger of the Gods - all decks that want to go wide against you; Elves, Abzan CoCo, Zoo, Merfolk and the aforementioned 2 for 1 creatures.
Stony Silence - Affinity and Tron variants. Really it's just for Affinity. Turn 2 or 3 is an auto-win.
Wear / Tear. This is extra artifact removal, mostly for Aether Vial, but also works well against decks bringing in graveyard hate against you and against Splinter Twin.
Sorin, Solemn Visitor. This guys is good against burn and decks that struggle against planeswalkers. It's also very aggressive in my deck because of the tokens and Bloodghast.
Tombstalker. Delve fatties are your best way to put a clock on aggro decks and great against Twin since they can be cast with Terminate up.
Notable Ommisions/New cardsKalitas, Traitor of Get. I'm really looking forward to trying this card. The lifelink is relevant against aggro; the first ability has strong synergy with the deck's 13 removal spells and hoses Kitchen Finks, Voice of Resurgence, Arcbound Ravager, etc.; and the second ability works great with Bloodghast. He would probably replace Sorin, Solemn Visitor.
Kolaghan's Command: You must think I'm crazy for not playing this card. I did for a long time but found it's not good in my deck for 2 reasons: 1. You only have 4 Gurmag Angler as viable targets for the return creature from GY to hand function and even then you can't always delve him back out again.
- You blow up your lands with Smallpox so you want to keep your curve very low and minimize the number of 3 drops. This deck rarely has the luxury of holding up 3 mana.
Comments are most welcome.
