B/U discard deck help plz

[willhale]

I have been playing magic for a while and I enjoy the game but it took me a while to start playing competitively in tournies and such. I was one of those ppl that would play life gain elf or some thing like that but that was before I was introduced to Black magic. I have been playing this discard deck for a while but I want to change it up. The deck I have now is this.

Lands
4 x Mishra's Factory
15x Swamps

Creatures
2x Dauthi Slayer
4x Plague Spitter
4x Hypnotic Specter

Spells
1x Blackmail
4x Dark Ritual
3x Duress
3x Funeral Charm
3x Ghastly Demise
4x Diabolic Edict
4x Hymn to Tourach
4x Spinning Darkness

Artifact
4x The Rack
2x Umezawa's Jitte

Side Board[U/]
2x Meekstone
3x Cabal Therapy
1x Ghastly Demise
2x Desperate Research
2x Kiku's Shadow
3x Weathered Wretch
2x Dauthi Mindripper

There were 3 blackmails but I took two out for the Jitte's.

Now you might look at this deck and say that doesn't win but it does. I have gone 4-0 and 3-1 on a regular basis. Some times I have a really crappy night though and go 0-4. Its not perfect but it does win 76% of the time (Roughly).

So now you have seen my current deck. What I want to build is a deck that will draw lots of cards for both me and my opponent. Then have them discard and take damage while I keep my cards. I was thinking a B/U deck. Lots of draw in blue and discard in black. I would need to have mana excelerents to get the things going too. I have made a list of things I am considering but most of it is not concrete.

[U]Draw
Brainstorm
Nights Whisper
Accumulated Knowledge
Serum Visions
Phyrexian Arena
Desperate Research
Plunge Into Darkness
Dark Confidant

Draw (For me and opponent)
Magus of the Jar
Howling Mine
Anvil of Bogardan

Discard
Hymn to Tourach
Nezumi Shortfang
Blackmail
Duress
Psychotic Episode
Unmask
Cursed Rack (make them draw at the end of there turn) :confused:

Damage
Megrim
Underworld Dreams
The Rack

Mana excelerents
Dark Ritual
Lotus Petal
Lion's Eye Diamond
Lotus Bloom

As you can see I have long way to go. I need a way to deal more damage or have them discard before they have much of a chance to get there stuff going. Any help would be great. :smile: I would like to try and make a competitive deck. Thank you for any help you can provide

[xsockmonkeyx]

First, Welcome to the source. :smile:


Im not sure you are playing enough swamps. I would play at least 16-17 to ensure you have enough black mana.

Go ahead and add the 4th duress and drop the single blackmail.

I question the use of Dauthi Slayer especially as a 2 of and they can probably go too.

Dark Confidant should go in for sure. The guy is a card drawing machine and you can strap a jitte to him if it comes down to it.

Look into Wastelands and Sinkholes. Land disruption plays well with discard if you can stifle your opponant's development and keep cards in their hand.

One last thing, You have 2 jittes and 10 creatures. I would probably up your creature count a bit to ensure you can use your jitte.

EDIT: Rotting Giant seems decent in here. Looks like you are going to have a full graveyard, no?

[Cavius The Great]

I've kinda been saving this idea for myself, but have you considered Quicken with sorcery speed discard? An instant speed Hymn to Tourach during your opponent's draw phase is kind of sweet.

[Galroth]

Discard, as I tend to mention almost whenever I post, is my favourite deck. I've played it along time, particularly the mono-black builds. For legacy, I've considered a b/u build, I eventually ditched it though as the mono-black build seemed to do better.

A couple of key cards I think you absolutely need! in b/u discard.

Dimir Cutpurse - I was only running 2 to keep my mana curve low as possible. This guy is hyppie 5 and 6... oh, and card draw. He doesn't have the evasion of hyppie, but with the amount of removal that you're running, that's hardly a problem. And considering that you are playing discard, the amount of removal they are running will be... yup, topdeck only.

Trinket Mage - This is the impetus for me considering running b/u. Discard can be noticeably low on threats, and blacks lack of a good available tutor since the last b/r list hurt discard alot. Trinket Mage is a body, and it lets you find the rack, which in my opinion, is your best kill. If you run Trinket Mage (I recommend 3), I'd also suggest cursed scroll as a 1 of. It helps against aggro/weenie which is traditionally your hardest matchup.

*concerning Quicken - while it could potentially lead to some cool situations, it is not good for two reasons: 1) discard is a deck looking for card advantage;and quicken, even when paired with hymn, does not net you a card, at best it increases card quality. 2) Quicken is too condition dependent. It may be awesome when it happens, but I severely doubt that awesomeness makes up for the number of times you wish you had something else in hand.

These changes would probably force you to cut plague spitter. It's a shame because plague spitter is awesome against your worst match-ups. But plague spitter has horrible synergy with everything else.

*I've posted on discard previously. If you run a search you can probably find it lurking somewhere in past forums. It notes some of the more theoretical ideas behind discard which might help you in some of your decisions. Good luck with the deck.

[willhale]

Thank you xsockmonkeyx for the nice welcome to the source. I have heard alot from 2 friends of mine that this is the place to go for answers. They have been debating about a slivers deck for the past few weeks. I have to say it has been fun watching them post here. I will have to add those ideas to my deck. thanks