Black/White control deck
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on June 1, 2016, 1:32 p.m. by Becarri
I have a B/W control deck put together already but I have found some cards I was thinking of putting in. Can I get opinions on the cards I'm wanting to add and the deck overall?
Cards in deck already:Solemn Simulacrum x4Wall of Omens x4Go for the Throat x4Path to Exile x4Oblivion Ring x4Day of Judgement x4Phyrexian Arena x2Debt to the Deathless x4Sorin's Vengeance x2Merciless Eviction x2Exquisite Blood x2Forsaken Sanctuary x3Bojuka BogFetid HeathGodless Shrine x4Isolated Chapel x4Kabira Crossroads x2Orzhov Guildgate x4Temple of Silence x4Vault of the Archangel
Potential cards:High Priest of PenanceBlood ArtistLingering SoulsBlind ObedienceSorin, Lord of InnistradDeathpact AngelGrave PactSorin MarkovDuressProfane Command
Why not make a decklist and post a link to it? That makes it easier for people to look into it, which in turn makes people more likely to help you.
Anyway, let me start by asking: how big is your budget? If you don't have too much money to spend on cards, I can understand some of your card choices, but if money isn't a problem... there are many, MANY better alternatives to what you're using. Let me go through the cards one by one:
Solemn Simulacrum: good.
Wall of Omens: good.
Go for the Throat: good, but may screw you up if you face an artifact-heavy deck like Affinity. You should never play 4 copies of a conditional removal spell; instead, try playing 4 different spells as singletons, each with a different limitation (e.g. 1x Go for the Throat, 1x Ultimate Price, 1x Victim of Night, 1x Smother). Or just replace them all with Dismember. Dismember rocks.
Path to Exile: good. If you have 4x Path in your main, you don't even really need the other ones.
Oblivion Ring: good, but play less copies of it. O-Ring is nice for dealing with noncreature permanents, but it costs 3 mana and is sorcery speed, so you don't want to see it all the time.
Day of Judgment: good, but Wrath of God and Damnation are better. And 4 copies is waaaay too much.
Phyrexian Arena: good. Dark Confidant is better, but Arena is fine. But again, don't play that many copies.
Debt to the Deathless: HORRENDOUS. There are much better, much faster ways of closing out games than spending 10+ mana on a glorified Lightning Helix. Take it out.
Sorin's Vengeance: better than Debt, but still awful.
Merciless Eviction: six mana for a boardwipe? That's never good. Mass exile and the other modes aren't relevant enough to justify the 6-mana cost.
Exquisite Blood: terrible. CMC is too high, enchantment hate isn't hard to come by and you have nothing to do with all that life anyway.
Forsaken Sanctuary, Kabira Crossroads, Orzhov Guildgate: all of these should go away. Don't play lands that ETB tapped unless they have some really good upside. You need Marsh Flats, Bloodstained Mire, Windswept Heath and the like - oh, and at least one Swamp and one Plains. You don't want to fold to Blood Moon or have the opponent's Path to Exiles to become even better than they already are, do you?
As for your potential cards:
High Priest of Penance: good, but there are better 2-drops out there (see below).
Blood Artist: good, but not in this deck. You barely run any creatures to exploit his triggered ability.
Lingering Souls: great. DEFINITELY include it.
Blind Obedience: not terrible, but not good enough. Most decks won't care much if you drop one of these on the board, especially control decks with few creatures and no artifacts (and there are quite a few of those in the current meta).
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad: good. Just don't play more than 2 copies of him and you'll be fine.
Deathpact Angel: atrocious. Look at how much mana you're paying for a 5/5 flyer that dies to most 1 and 2-mana removal. Sure, if it dies you get a way to reanimate it, but that'll cost you six MORE mana, not to mention that Cleric token is even EASIER to kill. This is one of the worst mythics ever printed, please don't play it.
Grave Pact: good, but not in your deck. Without creatures on your side of the board (and ways to exploit them), this becomes useless.
Sorin Markov: this is the worst Sorin in the game and one of the worst black planeswalkers. Enough said.
Duress: see below.
Profane Command: decent, but there's better ways to spend your mana. Especially since the second and fourth modes are dead in your almost creatureless deck.
And now, what you should be running:
Damnation, Wrath of God, Lingering Souls: already explained.
Dark Confidant: if you get rid of all the shitty high-CMC stuff in your deck and leave only 1, 2 and 3-mana cards (other than a couple boardwipes), it's pretty safe to play Bob. And Bob is an INSANE card advantage machine that demands immediate response, as you probably know. Play a full 4 copies, or as many as you can get.
Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek: you're playing black control, so you HAVE to play hand disruption. Duress is fine if you're on a budget, but TS and IoK are the ones you really should be running. 3-4 copies of each.
Shambling Vent: why not? It's a good, if not great, manland, and lifelink will help offset Thoughtseize and Dark Confidant life loss. 1-2 copies.
Night's Whisper, Sign in Blood, Read the Bones: control needs card draw, and these are the draw spells you have available in your colors.
June 1, 2016 2:37 p.m.
i agree pretty much entirely with square711 on this one for his card descriptions.
I must ask though. whats your win con? you look like you want to do some life gain to keep yourself alive until the late game where you...?? try and cast Debt to the Deathless for 8 mana with an Exquisite Blood out? (which by the way isn't even lethal unless you've already hit them with several other damaging spells).
note the win cons im about to suggest are if you keep Phyrexian Arena over Dark Confidant (Bob):
Batterskull: with some extra mana lying around, this thing is nearly unkillable. its a clock that can't be ignored.
Blood Baron of Vizkopa: big, comes with protection, has the power to end games. downside is the cost.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion: creates goons to both defend and attack. ultimate pretty much assures the win.
Elspeth, Knight-Errant: not as many soldiers as champ but comes out much quicker.
If you do switch to Bob i would suggest cards like:
Midnight Haunting type cards: they come in and allow you to get some beats in the air.
June 1, 2016 4:29 p.m.
Thank you for the help guys. I just have a couple more questions. What is Bob? And how do I link the deck in a thread?
June 2, 2016 1:31 a.m.
you can put [ [Deck name] ] without the spaces between the brackets. if that doesnt work, go to your deck's page and on the left side there should be abutton called "embedded code" and if you click it, it should tell you what your deck is exactly called.
Bob is short hand for Dark Confidant.
APPLE01DOJ says... #2
Link deck please
June 1, 2016 1:55 p.m.