Results 1 to 11 of 11

Thread: [Deck] MBC, Smallpox meets Suicide.

  1. #1
    Site Contributor

    Join Date

    Feb 2011
    Posts

    234

    [Deck] MBC, Smallpox meets Suicide.

    Let me first introduce myself: Laurens, from the Netherlands. I’ve been playing magic for about 1.5 years now, after my break in my early days back in the onslaught block. When I picked up magic again I wanted something more out of it and decided to look around in the tournament scene, specifically legacy. Vintage is way too expensive and I don’t like the rotating system of standard/extended and above all, I like to have a lot of cards available. Since then I’ve been reading a lot on this forum and started playing Dredge. Cheap but able to put up results. But playing the same deck over and over again starts to get boring and creating new decks is one of the things I like most about magic, so I started to tinker around with a mono black controlish deck. After some testing on MWS I’ve come up with a pretty decent decklist:

    The Deck – Putting the suicide into Black
    // Lands
    4 Wasteland
    4 Mishra's Factory
    3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
    4 Marsh Flats
    7 Swamp

    // Creatures
    4 Dark Confidant
    4 Bloodghast
    2 Tombstalker
    4 Death's Shadow

    // Spells
    4 Smallpox
    4 Thoughtseize
    4 Innocent Blood
    3 Sensei's Divining Top
    3 Snuff Out
    3 Chrome Mox
    3 Bitterblossom

    // Sideboard
    SB: 3 Duress
    SB: 4 Chalice of the Void
    SB: 2 Nihil Spellbomb
    SB: 4 Pithing Needle
    SB: 2 Relic of Progenitus


    Playing the deck – quick strategy overview
    The main goal of this deck is simple: gain control over your opponents board by destroying each creature/thread that they play at the cost of life loss. This deck usually drags the game to mid/late game where it finishes the opponent slowly by beating with multiple 1 or 2 power creatures when your opponent is out of resources. While it might be frustrating for your opponent, I just love the deck and it’s interactions. Having full control over your opponent and knowing you’re just winning while at 3 vs 20 life is awesome. Though it might seem as nothing new, I haven’t yet faced anything specifically like this deck. I think that combining Smallpox and Suicide black really gives the best of both worlds. Another big plus of the deck is it’s consistency. Once in a while you need to mulligan to 6 cards, most often to find specific hate cards. I rarely mulliganed to 5 cards since pretty much every hand is keepable.

    Deck history – How it became the current list
    When I started with the MBC deck, I focused on mana denial since legacy decks have a very greedy mana base. Using ideas from both Pox and Suicide black I started off with 4 Sinkhole, 4 Wasteland and 4 Smallpox. Furthermore it included 4 Hymn to Tourach, Mox diamond etc. It was actually very off from the current list.
    After playing some games on MWS (unfortunately I do not own the deck in real yet) I noticed that my deck was very, very heavy on the 2 drops. The card discussion about sinkhole opened my eyes and I very happily dismissed it (the price tag wasn’t very attractive). Though I love the card it was just too slow and most of the time I wanted to play Bloodghast, Bob or Smallpox instead of sinkhole. Also the lack of dedicated removal was a problem. When my opponent had enough creatures they could easily sacrifice Hierarchs, birds, pridemages etc. to protect the big guys like Tarmogoyf and knights of the reliquary. I started looking around for new ideas and came up with a very heavy suicide orientated deck list, starting with Death’s Shadow.
    This card is just amazing. Playing both wasteland and smallpox doesn’t allow for creatures with very high CMC and this creature is about the biggest creature you can get for a single mana. It offers the possibility of playing suicide black and increasing the thread level as you keep losing more life. It already works great with strong cards with only a life loss drawback. Thoughtseize, Marsh Flats, Dark Confidant and Smallpox turn their worst disadvantage into an advantage. From here, I started to work on a very fast, suicide black deck. Taking control in the first few rounds at the cost of life, which makes it possible to play Death’s Shadow in the early to midgame. Nobody likes to see a 4/4 for 1 mana when their board is constantly being nuked. This was made possible by Snuff Out. At first the life loss seemed a little heavy to me, but playing Death’s Shadow resolved this problem. It also solved the dedicated removal problem of the first list. The only thing that is bad about Snuff Out is the mana cost of 4. Showing this card with Bob hurts, very much. Here is where top shines of course. I cut the card in the suicide build, but it is so good in mid/late game that I definitely wanted to put it back. After some more tweaking I came up with the current decklist.

    Card choice – quick explanation
    Even though the highest mana cost you often pay is 2, running 22 is absolutely necessary. Wasteland and Smallpox make this deck mana heavy, often leaving you with only 1-2 lands in play (and favorably your opponent with less). It makes keeping hands with only 1 land easier and makes it easier to recur Bloodghast or prevent you from loosing life to Bob using top. I started with 20 lands, but the moment I tested 22 I never wanted back. I think the land choices are pretty standard and require no explanation.

    Dark Confidant – One of the best black creatures in my opinion. Card advantage, life loss, beating for 2. One of the main reasons I started to toy with mono black.

    Bloodghast – An absolute power house. Combines great with Innocent Blood and even better with Smallpox. Nothing better than playing smallpox on turn 3, discard Bloodghast and play a land.

    Tombstalker – When the little dudes fall short and you’re losing control. I feel like 2 is the right number. Once killed myself at 15 life by showing both Tombstalkers in 2 consequent turns for Bob. Not very cool, so no more than 2. Most of the time our graveyard is full of stuff: (fetch) lands, creatures, sorceries etc. So 4 is the absolute max you ever pay for him.

    Death’s Shadow – He is just so cool. Letting a 5/6 Tarmogoyf hit you to be able to bring in this guy and see it growing every subsequent turn is priceless. My opponents were most of the times like: “What the hell is this? I must get rid of it NOW!”. Great card for turning the tide, also very strong finisher.

    Thoughtseize – Playing 4 discard effects is just fine. I used to run Duress, but there is just no more room for them mainboard. Being able to remove enchantments or artifacts (or emrakul/jace etc.) is pretty handy, because once in play, this deck has like zero answers, so I keep a few mainboard. Also nice with Death’s Shadows.

    Smallpox – Probably the best card in the deck. Great synergy with Bloodghast and Bitterblossom (losing a 1/1 token for a Goyf/Knight is pretty ok).

    Innocent Blood – Duh.

    Sensei’s Divining Top – Great synergy with Bob and makes mid/lategame topdecking a lot easier. I have played many games where we had both 0 cards in hand, no creatures and only 1-2 lands in play. Having top wins the game at those moments.

    Snuff Out – Great dedicated removal, but at a high cost. Synergy with Bob is bad, so cutting this to 3 is not to bad.

    Chrome Mox – This used to be Mox Diamond, but for budget reasons (I own chrome mox, but not Mox Diamond) I switched to Chrome Mox and have not regretted it for a single moment. Mox Diamond was only playable with hands that already had a lot of mana, but those hands were never that good, because you lacked other necessary cards. Chrome mox makes it possible to keep 1 land hands which is a much more common problem. They are included for the speed on turn one. Almost no deck likes to see Bitterblossom or Bob on turn 1. Also, you are more resilient to destroying your own lands.

    Bitterblossom – This is actually the last card added to the deck, while it seems so obvious. When starting with the deck lists I completely forgot about this card. Now I run 3 and it works just great. Making either a lot of blockers (with flying!) or evasive attackers and losing life gradually for the shadow is strong. Only downside is that sometimes I’m putting myself on a bit tight clock because the life loss from the blossoms are not controllable, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to take. Adding this card was pretty hard, but I decided to cut 1 Snuff Out and 1 Chrome mox and it works just fine.

    The sideboard is pretty straight forward: you just need 4 chalices, 4 gravehate and 4 needles. Only debatable option is Duress, which I will discuss later.

    Cards considered or have been played
    Because the deck has seen multiple builds I have already played some cards which were just not good enough. As mentioned before, Sinkhole was to slow and didn’t add up for anything. Hymn to Tourach was another card that was pretty quick removed from the list. I just had the feeling that it did nothing. While it is nice your opponent discards two random cards, he is still able to drop threads, lands etc. Also, it just sucks mid/late game, which is what you are aiming for with this deck. I chose for a more reactive than proactive strategy which fits the deck fine. It might be considered to put Hymn in the sideboard instead of Duress in order to battle combo/enchantment decks (see matchups).
    I’m considering Jixlid Jailer against dredge and lands etc. instead of the relic. Mainly because it can beat for 2 and isn´t anticipated on. Though it is a full turn slower, this deck is really good at slowing down the opponent, so that shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

    Vampire Lacerator seems like a solid 2/2 for one, the drawback is hardly a drawback at all. The problem with this guy is that he is just a 2/2. He doesn’t generate card advantage, is not able to recur and there are just much better one drops for this deck (needle, top, thoughtseize).
    I also want to keep the curve low. Cards in general with cmc 3 or higher are just too slow. When you have 3 mana you almost always want to cast multiple spells or attack with mishra instead of playing a more expensive creature. And though it is black suicide, you don’t want to kill yourself with the confidants (duh).

    Matchups

    The most favorable matchups are decks that use a few strong creatures with a control/counter backup, such as the Rock, Bant, New Horizons and Merfolk. Decks that can spam creatures and use Vial are difficult to play to and though I thought (storm) combo would be beatable, I got crushed by it. During my online testing I encountered many different decks and shall discuss them here:

    As stated above, Merfolk is a pretty favorable matchup. This deck just plays too many threads for them to counter them all. Most of the games versus Merfolk they just run out of resources faster than you do, giving you the edge in midgame so you can crush them. One of their best cards against this deck is Standstill (which I didn’t see) handing them a fresh hand of resources. Postboard I found this matchup 70-30, preboard it doesn’t change much. They don’t have real answers (more counters) and we can bring in Pithing needle to stop Aether Vial, because that card really is a nuisance for this deck.

    Control decks are also pretty favorable. I’ve encountered a few U/G decks running Jace and Tarmogoyf and won most of them. Preboard we have the advantage. Those decks tend to drag the game to mid/late game and this deck is just better here. Bloodghast is a real powerhouse here, being uncounterable and Bitterblossom is must counter. Postboard the bring in EE or so, which you should be aware of. The best permanents are CMC 2 so they will just Planar Cleansing you’re board if you’re not careful. Pithing needle is great in this matchup, stopping the (already mediocre) Jace, EE etc. The same goes for control decks like Lands. The only problem are enchantments such as solitary confinement, which you really should avoid. Hymn could make a difference here, but Duress also does the trick.

    The decks this deck really eats for breakfast are control orientated creature decks. Decks using big (slow, i.e. cmc >2) creatures, equipments and some removal/discard are often easily disrupted early game. Since these decks are very mana intensive Smallpox and Wasteland are very strong here, giving them no chance of playing multiple creatures at the same time which increases the power of our removal.

    Decks like Zoo and Goblins are not hard to win preboard. They often play too many dudes for the Innocent Blood and Smallpox to remove them all. Also, their removal just kills every blocker we play. Bitterblossom shines here, but is often not good enough on it’s own. Pre board we can shut Zoo down with Vial on 1. Zoo is often slowed down enough to gain the advantage in the mid game and kill them (their only answer being Pridemage), leaving your dudes intact since their removal all cost 1. Goblins is handled with the needle on vial. Without Vial they are just slow. T1 Lackey isn’t much of a problem since we have enough answers for it. Ringleaders showing a lot of dudes are a problem, especially when they hit play through vials. No easy matchups, but still winnable.

    Countertop is, contrary to other control decks, a nightmare. The curve of this deck fits perfectly into Countertop’s and when top + counterbalance is online this deck just loses, not being able to resolve any spell except for Tombstalker, which most likely will meet something like daze or FoW. This makes game one very unfavorable since you have nothing to stop this (mono black just lacks the possibilities to destroy enchantments/artifacts). Preboard you must hope for Pithing needle and them not having Top and balance. It is winnable, but It won’t be better than 50-50 preboard with 20-80 postboard. I think that changing Duress into Hymn would improve the matchup somewhat preboard, but nonetheless it’s not very pleasant to face Countertop.

    Combo is in the same spot as Countertop. They are just too fast. Maybe the guy I tested against was lucky, but Thoughtseize + Chalice just didn’t stop him. Hymn would definitely help here, buying us a lot of time. The problem is that Storm is hard to disrupt during the game, so they can gradually tweak their hand before going for the kill. Also, suiciding isn’t much of a help here.

    Dredge is another problem. I once made the mistake of using 4 Spellbombs as anti-grave hate, but never again. The single pithing needle costed me the game. G1 they just win, though it is not as bad as some other decks do against dredge. Iona just kills the deck so we need to win before she hits the table. Pithing Needle and Gravehate and land destruction should strecht the game long enough to win, but it will never be favorable.

    Overall I put up positive results and think I won 60-70% of all matches, which is pretty decent. The deck is much less random then Dredge so for me it’s a welcome switch. It is a very consistent deck, disrupting the opponent in early game and kill them once board control is established and above all, fun to play :).

    It took me some time to write all this and I hope at least some of you enjoyed it. For me I really like playing this deck and I hope some of you can give me hints, tips, tricks or other comment to improve the deck and mainly improve it’s worse matchups. So please don’t hesitate to shout card options. Since I’m fairly new to the game I don’t nearly know all the played cards (for example, I completely forgot about Bitterblossom in the beginning) so I appreciate every comment. Just take it for a spin and share your thoughts. Thanks!

  2. #2
    Member
    perm's Avatar
    Join Date

    Oct 2009
    Location

    altered states of america
    Posts

    630

    Re: [Deck] MBC, Smallpox meets Suicide.

    I think you just have too much lifeloss for thoughtseize. With all yoru creature-sac, why got go duress? Also, have you considered gatekeeper of malakir?
    I will make use of every tool that fate presents.

  3. #3
    Site Contributor

    Join Date

    Feb 2011
    Posts

    234

    Re: [Deck] MBC, Smallpox meets Suicide.

    The life loss from thoughtseize has almost never been a problem, but now you mention it, I rarely choose creatures with it. Good point, I will test Duress mainboard instead of thoughtseize. I don't feel like putting thoughtseize in the sideboard would be the right call, I think Hymn would be better here. I forgot to mention that I considered Inquisition of Kozilek, but the 3 CMC limit is just annoying. I want to be able to remove random things like Moat and of course FoW. So +4 Duress, - 4 Thougtseize and 3 Hymn to Tourach instead of Duress in the sideboard it is.

    Gatekeeper has crossed my mind, but I find it slow. Also, I don't see anything I could cut for it. Innocent Blood is just so much faster (for example, it can answer T1 Lackey) that I don't want to cut it. Any suggestions on what to cut and I might test it. I just think it is slow and the 2/2 body is not really impressive after entering the battlefield.

  4. #4
    Member

    Join Date

    Feb 2009
    Location

    Sweden
    Posts

    52

    Re: [Deck] MBC, Smallpox meets Suicide.

    Infernal contract anyone?

  5. #5
    *
    DarthVicious's Avatar
    Join Date

    Jun 2010
    Location

    Central NY
    Posts

    358

    Re: [Deck] MBC, Smallpox meets Suicide.

    I like the ideas you have in here, mostly because I have a soft spot for Death's Shadow myself. I'd love to run it, but I believe you will win more games making your deck the deck that needs to be answered, instead of the deck with all the answers. No deck can answer everything.

    On that note... black has a decent capability to wipe the board with pestilence-style effects, which would help your aggro matchups. As far as CounterTop, well... try Shriekmaw. Along with a bunch of other cards you can cast for less than their Mana cost. Can't think of any others at the moment.

  6. #6

    Re: [Deck] MBC, Smallpox meets Suicide.

    Just wanted to say nice intro, well thought out explanations... and testing?!? What? People actually test ideas they bring to the New and Developmental forum? Mind blown...

    A couple of thoughts:

    Anytime I see Death's Shadow I immediately think of how best to abuse Lurking Evil. It might have a home in your deck... might not. Still a consideration. And have you considered Jitte? While I'd probably guess it wouldn't make the cut, it's still a good option. It can help you stabilize your life when you're down around 3, equips great on your small creatures like Bitterblossom tokens or Bloodghast. Rarely ever not a card you want. Last, I think you may be crazy for cutting Hymn. If you're wondering why your combo match-up is suffering, this is the number 1 reason. It's rarely ever wrong to get 2 of your opponents cards for 1 of yours... at the price of 2 mana! Your deck space is really tight, but there's a reason every single mono-black control or mono-black aggro variant runs this card.

    Good luck!

  7. #7
    Member
    Gui's Avatar
    Join Date

    Nov 2006
    Location

    Brasil
    Posts

    1,073

    Re: [Deck] MBC, Smallpox meets Suicide.

    This deck looks a little like The Gate, although if you post it there, people will bash you saying it is not even close (so don't :P ). Despite that, there are a few things you can probably try, from The Gate lists: Abyssal Persecutor and Gatekeeper of Malakir.

    Also, with the new printing of Go for the throat, you could make use of it, since it is probably the best black removal so far. I dislike the interaction between Snuff Out and Dark Confidant. If playing the last one, I'd play Vendetta instead, because a Snuff Out might mean 8 life to remove a creature with low resist, which vendetta would do for way less.

    Also, Thoughtseize can be switched by Inquisition of Kozilek with almost no harm if you find the life loss to be too big, since most legacy cards are @0, 1, 2 and 3 casting cost. Or, if playing Persecutor, you can use Cabal Therapy.
    If you fail to explain the reason behind your choice, technically, it's the wrong choice.

    Quote Originally Posted by Tacosnape View Post
    It's one of the ten strongest cards in Legacy. And in truth, in any deck you design, you really need to have a good reason -not- to run Wasteland.
    Zerk Thread -- Really, fun deck! ^^

  8. #8
    Site Contributor

    Join Date

    Feb 2011
    Posts

    234

    Re: [Deck] MBC, Smallpox meets Suicide.

    Thanks for all the comments and suggestions! I will definitally try some out. For now I'm going to test a 3-1 split Duress-Thoughtseize to test whether or not I need Thoughtseizes. Inquisition is out of the question, I really want to have the option to remove FoW or other more costly cards. Since I'm aiming for a long game I can't outrace them, so having the option to discard them is nice to have.

    Go for the throat costs too much for me, but I certainly like the Vendetta! Glad I posted this thread because these are just the cards I hoped for to hear. My main objection to Snuff Out was indeed that it is very bad with Dark Confidant. It's major advantage is of course it's free casting cost. Vendetta will be tested :).

    I'm not so sure of Abyssal Persecutor. Maybe I can replace it for Tombstalker, because saccing it is allmost never a real problem. Hmm, now I'm thinking of it, it should be pretty awesome as replacement for the stalker. Will give it a spin. Gatekeeper and Jitte seem too slow and mana intensive. I've never felt the need for Jitte since aggro is already my best matchup. Though Jitte is pretty strong against this deck, Needle takes care of it most of the times.

    The 20th of Februari there is a large Tournament here and I hope that I can bring the deck for a real test. I will keep you guys noted.

  9. #9
    Site Contributor

    Join Date

    Feb 2011
    Posts

    234

    Re: [Deck] MBC, Smallpox meets Suicide.

    So I finally played my first tournament with the deck, although with a slightly different decklist:

    // Lands
    4 Wasteland
    4 Mishra's Factory
    3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
    2 Marsh Flats
    2 Verdant Catacombs
    7 Swamp

    // Creatures
    4 Dark Confidant
    4 Bloodghast
    2 Tombstalker
    4 Death's Shadow

    // Spells
    4 Smallpox
    2 Inquisition of Kozilek
    1 Duress
    1 Thoughtseize
    4 Innocent Blood
    2 Sensei's Divining Top
    1 Pithing Needle
    2 Snuff Out
    1 Vendetta
    3 Chrome Mox
    3 Bitterblossom

    // Sideboard
    SB: 3 Hymn to Tourach
    SB: 4 Chalice of the Void
    SB: 2 Ratchet Bomb
    SB: 2 Pithing Needle
    SB: 3 Ravenous Trap
    SB: 1 Relic of Progenitus

    The pithing Needle mainboard was kinda lame, because I discovered at the tournament that I had 59 cards in my deck. One Sensei’s Top was still in my EDH deck. Luckily this was before presenting the deck to my first opponent so I was allowed to put a different card in this slot of my choice. Since I had nothing except my sideboard 1 Needle went mainboard and I added the Relic.

    The Splitting of Kozilek/Duress/Thoughtseize was because I didn’t want to play 4x Thoughtseize and wanted to test whether Duress/Kozilek was better (and because my Duress was foil). The Ratchet Bombs were mainly in de sideboard against enchantments/artifacts I could otherwise not destroy in any way. This was actually the worst card in the deck, most of the times I could use the card I felt it was pretty useless and redundant.

    So on to the tournament:

    First round versus Goblins. I apologized to my opponent because of the f*ck up with 59 cards but he didn’t really care. It was his first tournament in some time and he was just here to get back in the format. Game 1 was pretty ridiculous. He opened (after a mulligan) with wasteland, vial and after that never saw a single mountain. His ringleader (after 5-6 turns) showed 4 goblins, but even that did not find him the necessary mountains in the subsequent turns. I had a lot of land and almost no pressure, but eventually was inevitable that I’d win. I didn’t write down sideboarding, but I know that I boarded the bombs in to blow up lackey’s/vials.
    Game 2 was rather disappointing. He crushed me totally since I had no pressure at all and he went pretty nuts.
    For game 3 we only had 5 minutes left. This was the only game of the tournament my deck was so insane. Everything went right and a very quick Tombstalker made him loose the game just in time.

    1-0

    The next game was against my friend who borrowed my (LEDless) dredge deck. He started with Gemstone mine, carefull study, discarding a golgari grave troll. I wasted his land and from that moment on he dredged complete garbage. This game was solely won by pure luck. He had 3 bridges in the final 20 cards, toghether with narcomoeba’s and black creatures to feed on Ichorid. He had a graveyard full of useless things. Dread return and Cabal Therapy are nice, but without bridges/creatures they are completely useless.
    Game 2 we both made huge mistakes, but he made a few more. He could have won the second match by dread returning Stormtide Leviathan (I wouldn’t be able to attack and we were already in extra time) but he instead recurred only 2 ichorids and didn’t have enough creatures, after which he died in my turn. It was his first legacy tournament so I can’t blame him, but winning 2-0 from dredge is still nice.

    2-0

    Next up was some sort of UGr threshold deck. Before we started my opponent (also the tournament organizer) said that he had some cards in his deck that were pretty good versus mine. I didn’t really care and started to just play the match. This game is were the deck absolutely shined. We both went into topdeck mode after only a few turns, but my recurring bloodghasts killed him easily. Game 2 I boarded pithing needles in and dropped them on lavamancer. First thing he plays is a lavamancer after which he draws a second. His topdeck skills were pretty poor indeed. Versus blue small pox is so strong. You could easily say that a resolved small pox is almost an instant win (when you have bloodghast in hand). He forced it, pitching force, making his hand empty again. We both went into topdeck mode again which my deck does a lot better than most other decks. 3-0

    From this point I was really excited. My first tournament with the deck and I was already at 3-0! I knew my luck would break since I had to face countertop (meta call, 6 out of 18 were combo decks) with moat, humility, thopter/sword, jace etc. Not really favorable. The first game I win suprisingly since he had a pretty awkward hand (2x swords, 2x counterspell and some other stuff). When he tapps out to play counterbalance my tombstalker was able to join in and crush him soon. The second game I make my third mistake that day by seeing the second card from my deck while attempting to draw. Together with the missing card and a missed Bob trigger before this meant a game loss… Yes, pretty lame and stupid. The third game was a nightmare. Everything got removed/countered and I couldn’t lay pressure on him. Innocent blood/Smallpox were very nice in this matchup for killing his nimble mongooses.

    3-1

    I was still very able to top 4, but game four broke my luck for the rest of the 2. Next 2 matches were ANT. The first player gets a turn 1 kill (this was my first this day! Yeah… great). The second game I made a huge mistake by putting chalice in my hand instead of putting it on top of my deck (saw it with top). He thoughtseized me and could remove my chalice after which he killed me in his next turn. If only it was on the top of my deck I would have drawn it and played it for 1 (another was already at 0) winning me the game pretty sure.

    3-2. I needed to win the last one to make top 4 since I had the highest tiebreakers. The first match I made it pretty hard for him, but he won nonetheless. The second game my chalice on 1 shut him down completely resulting in a win for me. The third game I opened a shitty 7. A mulligan showed me 1 chalice, 1 land and some other stuff like small pox. I didn’t want to mulligan to 5 but with only one land I would never make it. Since I play 22 lands I was pretty confidant I could find a land in time. My first draw is a second chalice so I played my land and chalice on 1. This slowed him down somewhat, but when I started drawing my third chalice and a lot of 2 drops the game eventually ended. Never saw that second land. Shame, could have made top 4… 3-3 after 3-0 start is lame, I can tell you that.

    I think this deck has definitely potential to make some decent results, though the sideboard was pretty poor. Combo is a very hard matchup and I really wanted more discard. Funny thing was that I never drawn the mainboard pithing needle so at least that was nice. For the sideboard I’ve been also thinking about engineered plague and perish, though I think these are just too conditional and the matchup against decks I plan on using these is already pretty good. Only against thopters the plague would be nice, but I guess that’s just a lost match. The best card of the deck was definitely smallpx. This card was so amazing, especially when combined with bloodghast. I had a lot of compliments on the deck (Death’s Shadow is cool :p) so that was very nice. Best kill was game 1 versus the goblin player. He managed to get out so much goblins with his single vial because I was so slow, that he almost won the game. I was able to kill his first gangbang commander squad, but his second would be very likely fatal. I really struggled here, but saw in the last moment that his life total was 2 and I had 4 mana open for 2x smallpox. After the first he was like, yeah sure (he didn’t really care, I killed my own blockers) but when I casted the second he checked his life total and smiled. Best kill of the day!
    On the deck: the discard package mainboard was fine. I still haven’t decided which one is better, so I will leave it the same for now. I would love some more input on the sideboard though. I think -2 ratchet bomb + 1 hymn + 1 duress? should be a good idea I guess (the relic will of course be switched for the Needle in the main).

    Hope you liked it. Comments are welcome!

  10. #10
    Member
    Qweerios's Avatar
    Join Date

    Dec 2010
    Location

    Montreal
    Posts

    1,024

    Re: [Deck] MBC, Smallpox meets Suicide.

    Bitterblossom and Bloodghast screams for Cabal Therapy. Percy would also be most fitting with Therapy, Innocent Blood, and Smallpox. I also agree on Jitte if you are to use Blossoms and Bobs.

    May I suggest Phyrexian Obliterator over Tombstalker, Ghastly Demise over Vendetta, and Crucible of Worlds over Snuff Out?
    Do you know what assuming does? It makes an ass out of you and me.
    Get it...? Ass, u, me?

    ... ffs I was trying to be funny...

  11. #11
    Site Contributor

    Join Date

    Feb 2011
    Posts

    234

    Re: [Deck] MBC, Smallpox meets Suicide.

    I took the deck for another tournament, finishing 6th at a 22 man GPT, with the following list:


    // Lands
    4 Wasteland
    3 Mishra's Factory
    3 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
    4 Verdant Catacombs
    7 Swamp
    1 Forest

    // Creatures
    4 Dark Confidant
    4 Bloodghast
    2 Tombstalker
    3 Death's Shadow

    // Spells
    4 Smallpox
    1 Inquisition of Kozilek
    2 Thoughtseize
    3 Innocent Blood
    3 Sensei's Divining Top
    2 Snuff Out
    1 Vendetta
    3 Chrome Mox
    3 Bitterblossom
    3 Hymn to Tourach

    // Sideboard
    SB: 4 Chalice of the Void
    SB: 4 Surgical Extraction
    SB: 4 Pithing Needle
    SB: 3 Krosan Grip


    On the overall result I'm happy with the deck, but I got the feeling it needs a few tweaks to be ready for the GP in Amsterdam.

    My first round was versus DDANT. He misplayed g1 giving me the game. G2 he finished me quite easily even though I had chalice on 1 (he was on the play and it just came too late). G3 I opened with a T1 chalice on 1. With his hand consisting of brainstorms and rituals I could finish him while he was stuck on 1 land (after smallpox and wasteland).
    1-0

    Second round was against Burn... BURN! I hate the deck. I tend to build decks that auto lose to burn, which makes it a very frustrating matchup. He was manascrewed game 1, but I made a huge mistake (let a price of progress resolve for 6 damage while I should have wasted my own lands to reduce damage and finish him a turn after) but luckily chalice on 1 sealed games 2 and 3. Tough matchup, though I don’t believe his build was fully optimal.
    2-0

    Third match was versus NOrug. I knew what he was playing, so I really tried to keep him without creatures or under 4 mana. I succeeded in both and it was quite a walk over, though possibly because he saw almost no counters.
    3-0

    Unfortunately I was down paired and wasn’t able to ID into the top 8 (yet). A deck check revealed my From the Vaults top was easily shuffled to the top and could be easily picked from the deck… Although it survived a previous deck check the judge was right to rule that I could take advantage from this, so I started with a 0-1 setback. I faced a U/B control Hexmage/depths deck, which is about a 50/50 matchup. Both games were rather ridiculous. He didn’t do anything game 1, but neither did I, both manashort after an early smallpox. After a while I was first to draw some action, finishing the game quick afterwards. The second game was similar for me, but he was able to stick a dark confidant, then 2 and after a while jace landed… Yeah, gg.
    3-1

    Round 5 I was able to ID in top 8, where I faced a Show and Sneak deck. I knew this deck would be hard to beat, even though I have plenty of cards that are strong versus this deck (innocent blood, smallpox and discard). Sneak attack would be a problem the first game, making emrakul very lethal. I managed to keep him from doing much g1, except resolving a sneak attack. Since my clock was rather slow I couldn’t finish him before he topdecked an Emrakul to sneak it in play. G2 I boarded a lot of hate for the sneak attacks, only to hear he boarded them out, expecting the hate… He managed to resolve SnT with Emrakul with counter backup, while I was doing nothing of importance this game. Again I lost the quarter-finals, but at least made top 8.

    The main change on the deck was moving the hymns to mainboard again and running krosan grips sideboard. Expecting a comeback of combo this seemed the proper choice. I really liked the hymns in all my matchups and plan to keep them in the mainboard. The sideboard was very solid, although I didn’t use the extractions so much. My main problem with the previous build was the lack of interaction with enchantments and artifacts so I decided to splash for the krosan grips. I didn’t need them, but saw at least one counterbalance deck with thopter foundry, which is very difficult to beat without them. (Tried it once…)
    The manabase was fine, only a few games I was in the need of lands, but that was mostly after a resolved smallpox (so much to my own fault). Cutting the death shadows from 4 to 3 seems the right choice (I needed space for the hymns) but the main concern of the deck was sometimes the lack of pressure. Once the board is empty and both decks are in top deck mode I often feel myself drawing land upon land, with no real threats presenting. Bloodghast is very strong with the right cards, but sometimes it’s just a mere 2/1.

    I don’t like therapy in this deck, for I have no idea what to cut. I feel the Thoughtseizes and inquisition are just better in almost every situation and I play already 10 discard spells total.
    Jitte seems so slow and is useless without creatures, but when I have creatures I rarely feel the need of pumping them. I like the idea of crucible, but what should I cut? Snuff Out is a very strong card and some dedicated removal is welcome. Some decks have just too much creatures to keep the board clean with only edict effects.
    And a more obvious question, what to cut for Liliana? I’m not sure whether she is in place in this deck, but she should at least be tested. Problem is that I already find myself low on threads, so I don’t want to cut creatures. I can see myself cut 1 innocent blood and maybe a snuff out and inquisition, but inquisition is strong against combo, where Liliana might be too slow.
    Also, any ideas on black threads? Persecutor proved to be meh in testing and Obliterator requires 4 black mana, which is not so easy with wastelands and smallpoxes. Thanks!

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)