[Casual] BW pox balance control need advice

[klysandral]

First post on these forums! Used them a lot in the past for ideas, and perhaps one day soon I'll get serious about Legacy, but for now I play primarily in casual games with a circle of friends.
Concerning the topic I have build a control deck that seeks to compete against the most brutal beatdown and the quickest of combo deck in my circle of casual play. It's quite fun to play but will piss anyone off who is not also playing a cheap (not in cost) deck. In any case heres the decklist.

Land:
4x Godless Shrine
4x Marsh Flats
4x Gemstone Cavern
2x Strip Mine
1x Lake of the Dead
1x Swamp
1x Plains

Creatures:
3x Tombstalker
2x Abyssal Persecutor
2x Death's Shadow

Instants:
3x Dark Ritual
3x Extirpate
2x Surgical Extraction
3x Orim's Chant
2x Silence

Sorceries:
3x Small Pox
2x Pox
3x Balance
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Vindicate

Artifacts:
2x Chrome Mox
3x Isochron Scepter
2x Tormod's Crypt

General Strategy: This is a lay in wait kind of deck, mainly for one on one play but handles itself in up to four players fairly well, any more than that and you will usually get targeted by everyone and wiped out very early. It works on primarily being efficiently defensive with very little on the board, in fact the less you have usually work to your advantage. In a way it uses the opponents force against them. You wait for them to hardcast a crucial card, then negate it with the appropriate card combo (orim's chant/silence and cabal therapy work very well, as well as extirpating or crypting their graveyard). If they run away with the advantage its easy to pox or balance them back down. Then at the right moment play a beasty for cheap and beat them to the punch. One of the most fun parts of the deck is the gambles you have to take with your life total. The scepters come in handy against graveyard central deck and for hardlocking with the chants. All in all this deck is very fun but gets pretty well raped by goblin beatdowns and some turn 2 or 3 infinite combos, so I'm looking for some good ideas, and for some people who can tell me I'm and idiot for playing this or that.

Looking forward to advice from these forums and thanks in advance!

[Ryoku]

Balance is most certainly banned in Legacy play, as is Strip Mine.

[Rizso]

Want to play a deck as well with 2 Stripmins and 3 Balance! In case you didnt know thoes arent legal in legacy and in vintage they are restricted.

[klysandral]

perhaps one day soon I'll get serious about Legacy, but for now I play primarily in casual games with a circle of friends

I did preface with this statement, and this is a forum labeled casual. I'm 100% completely aware of what is legal in legacy and vintage, I was looking more for advice on how to make the deck more responsive to fast beatdown like goblins etc.

[rupus]

If you aren't playing with bans or anything why not max out on balance and strip mine? They are far and away the best cards in that list.

[klysandral]

Thanks for the input rupus. I currently only have that number of those cards exactly. I've thought about running 4 balances in it my only concern being that there are times when I draw that card and don't want or need it. This doesn't happen often however so I'll probably try running 4 and see how it goes. I think running more strip mines might be dangerous because I tread a thin line with my mana already, and with a lot of colored mana symbols in the deck strip mine rarely comes in hand as an actual land. I could cut a small pox for another but often times I need the creature/card in hand/life ability from it. I realize that if I were playing in the meta of legacy these cards would absolutely be worth 4, except that they're banned. In my casual play however things generally work a little differently. I will probably play test four of each of those and see how it goes however. Any suggestions on what to cut? Maybe a small pox or a crypt? Or an Iso maybe?

[mishrazz]

I did preface with this statement, and this is a forum labeled casual. I'm 100% completely aware of what is legal in legacy and vintage, I was looking more for advice on how to make the deck more responsive to fast beatdown like goblins etc.

You could cut the cabal therapys and balances for some Innocent Blood and Hymn to Tourach/Inquisition of Kozilek. Both Kozilek and Blood is a one mana removal against fast beatdown. And if you play mono black there is no reason to not play 4 Hymns in my opinion.