Originally Posted by
Mr. Safety
Veil is actually not that common right now, it shows up as maybe a 2-of in some sideboards. It's a metagame dependent card: if people get blown out from Veil of Summer they adapt, then Veil of Summer gets worse, then people trim down on copies, then it opens up the door for black disruption again.
I've been on Lantern Pox for a few months now, albeit with no serious testing, and I love it. Smallpox synergizes with that strategy perfectly by denying resources and getting me hellbent so I can leverage Ensnaring Bridge and the Lantern/Mill rock combo. My one real issue with the deck is its lack of velocity; I can usually play around disruption and lock up the game with Bridge and Ashiok, Dream Render but I don't always draw into them. The Lantern/Mill rock engine can really churn through my top-decks nicely, but it doesn't give me what I really need which is some sort of cantrip-like filtering. I could always splash green for Ancient Stirrings, Abrupt Decay, and Sylvan Library again but I wasn't super happy with that setup.
Any suggestions for ways of gaining velocity in mono-black? I already have 1x Castle Locthwain in the list, which is decent, but all of the velocity currently is in the mid-late game. I'm looking for something early, like turns 1-3.