Vengevine seems ripe for the pickin'. VV is somewhat midrange, which means you want some form of disruption to go with it. Blue looks pretty weak, and Black looks fantastic. Hence, BG Vengevine. Vengevine is a strong card to build around, and Bloodghast seems to fit nicely into whatever BG deck can abuse Vengevine as well.
Here's a take on BG Vengevine:
// Lands - 21
4 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Marsh Flats
1 Dryad Arbor
// Mana Dudes - 6
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Elves of Deep Shadow
// Discard Outlets - 10
4 Oona's Prowler
4 Fauna Shaman
2 Zombie Infestation
// The "Build Around" Cards - 8
4 Vengevine
4 Bloodghast
// Additional ToolBox - 7
3 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Shriekmaw
1 Eternal Witness
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Viridian Zealot
// Hand Destruction - 8
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
// Sideboard
SB: 4 Nature's Claim
SB: 4 Duress
SB: 1 Shriekmaw
SB: 1 Fleshbag Marauder
SB: 1 Big Game Hunter
SB: 1 Brain Gorgers
SB: 1 Kitchen Finks
SB: 1 Phyrexian Revoker
SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
It should perform acceptably against combo, and it has its own combo to try and race aggro and recursion can win attrition wars. The recursion of the deck performs admirably against control as well.
peace,
4eak
Maybe consider Life from the Loam. Any deck with the ability to abuse Zombie Infestation should be able to get an engine going. If its strictly used one or 2 times to drop ghasts or vines into the yard, its not all that useful.
I have worries about both Fauna Shaman and Zombie Infestation. The problem is that there aren't a lot of alternative discard outlets that I like. Prowler is pretty sweet becomes you activate it multiple times a turn, you can use it the turn it comes into play, and it is dangerous enough on its own. Fauna can be 'meh' in some matches (and, in others, it is godly) -- being unable to dump cards because of removal sucks -- Zombie Infestation shines where Fauna fails. You also want to have more than 8 discard outlets, I think.
Infestation is one of the first cards I would cut (which makes Loam less useful in this case). I don't know what to do about it. Perhaps going for a slightly better manabase is preferable, as hardcasting VV and BG is common enough.
peace,
4eak
Loaming Shaman seems like a a strong SB choice - I wonder, why so few GSZ lists abuse him. I realize 3G maybe too slow against Dredge.dec, but it's quick enough against Loam.dec and friends.
Putrid Imp might be an okay replacement for Infestation.
I'm not sold on 8 Duress effects with Shriekmaw being your only creature removal. Postboard 12 is just overkilll. If you wanna fight combo/control there are better weapons. You should add Bayous (well in theory) and be able to support Hymns.
Either way -2 MD discard spells + 2 Smother looks solid - keep in mind that you wanna be able to stall against aggro until Vengevines hit the scene.
I'm missing a Thrun somewhere among those 75 too.
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Just my 2 Pence.
Hymn, Bayou, Putrid Imp are not legal. (Remember, this is the Modern Format Forum)
Dredge is probably dead (DR banned). Loaming Shaman was originally in the list, but until I see major reasons to run him (I don't just yet), I'll be leaving him out.
Thrun is interesting, I will try it.
I'd still rather have more Shriekmaw than Smother -- they activate VV, pitch to Fauna, and they fly for beats when hardcast.
Discard also looks quite important against the various combo decks out there. It should buy enough time to race.
peace,
4eak
The banning of GSZ forced me to change the deck, but because I still have Fauna shaman, I'm still more comfortable running 1-of's than usual.
Decklist:
// Lands - 22
4 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Marsh Flats
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Dryad Arbor
// Mana Dudes - 6
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Elves of Deep Shadow
// Discard Outlets - 9
4 Oona's Prowler
4 Fauna Shaman
1 Zombie Infestation
// The "Build Around" Cards - 8
4 Vengevine
4 Bloodghast
// Additional ToolBox - 5
1 Eternal Witness
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Shriekmaw
1 Kitchen Finks
// Hand Destruction - 9
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
1 Raven's Crime
// Lonely Loam - 1
1 Life from the Loam
// Sideboard
SB: 2 Shriekmaw
SB: 1 Fleshbag Marauder
SB: 1 Big Game Hunter
SB: 1 Gatekeeper of Malakir
SB: 1 Vampire Nighthawk
SB: 1 Phyrexian Revoker
SB: 4 Nature's Claim
SB: 3 Kitchen Finks
SB: 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
Loam is surprisingly good in this deck. The deck can get mana-hungry, and it allows you to recur for use with Crime, Infestation, and Arbor (which is useful for activating both VV and BG).
peace,
4eak
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