B/W Blossom Control

[MTG-Fan]

So everyone knows the Bitterblossom + Contamination combo, right?

I really like the mana denial potential of this combo, so I was thinking of ways to turn it into a deck. My first thought is to pair it with an E-Tutor package and some typical B/W Good Stuff like Vindicate, and the standard discard spells like Thoughtseize and Cabal Therapy. The backbone of the deck is obviously the 4 Bitterblossom, which can function as a win condition of its own.


4 x Chrome Mox

4 x Thoughtseize
2 x Cabal Therapy

4 x Swords
3 x Vindicate
3 x Damnation

4 x E-Tutor
4 x Bitterblossom
4 x Contamination

1 x Moat
1 x Engineered Plague
1 x Tormod's Crypt
1 x Chalice

2 x Tombstalker

2 x Kjeldoran Outpost
3 x Mishra's Factory
3 x Flooded Strand
4 x Scrubland
3 x Plains
7 x Swamp


SB:
3 x Wheel of Sun and Moon
3 x Engineered Plague
3 x Chalice
... other stuff


Any suggestions or thoughts? I think E-Tutor (with the silver bullets) is a very powerful strategy in this format, and Contamination can successfully lock out alot of decks. Combining the two can possibly make for a potent control deck. I just need to figure out the right configuration for this to work.

Should the Contamation be a 4-of or just 1-2 of tutorable? More discard or less? Is Damnation worth running?

[lavafrogg]

Ok, I love the deck. I really want Bitterblossom to be good in this format. One thing I have learned about the card is that it plays really well with ajani goldmane. Especially with the contamination out you can gain life and then win with an avatar.

Nihil Credo built a deck that completly amazes me for a salvation tourney that used all of the B/W hate cards and splashed blue for three fact or fictions. The deck also ran kitchen finks for unkillable dudes with ajani(bye bye persist). You can find the link about halfway back in the rock thread, it is hard to find.

Ha, I went and found the decklist:

3x Flooded Strand
3x Polluted Delta
4x Scrubland
2x Tundra
1x Underground Sea
3x Swamp
4x Plains
1x Volrath's Stronghold
4x Mishra's Factory

3x Sensei's Divining Top
3x Fact or Fiction

3x Kitchen Finks
3x Bitterblossom
2x Ajani Goldmane
2x Shriekmaw
1x Fleshbag Marauder
2x Pithing Needle
4x Thoughtseize
3x Cabal Therapy
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Vindicate
1x Chainer's Edict

Sideboard
2x Enlightened Tutor
3x Engineered Plague
3x Runed Halo
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Pithing Needle
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Extirpate

The problem is I have only lightly played the deck and dont understand what it is about enough to take cards out and offer suggestions.

[MTG-Fan]

Is splashing blue just for FoF really necessary?

[elof]

A few other cards that can be good:
Nether Spirit (I had an idéa about playing more of this and maindeck Relic of Progenitus, since it is a really good card on it's own anyway.)

Elsepth (Does also put out tokens for the "combo")

Humility (solves alot of painful critters, supplement to Moat (and also combo with Moat))

[Maëlig]

You might want to have a look at this : http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13763&highlight=blossom

[MTG-Fan]

You might want to have a look at this : http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13763&highlight=blossom

Thanks for the link. I definiltey want to focus more on Contamination though.

[sauce]

so if you are going for the mana screw w/ contamination, why not add sinkhole/wasteland to the package?

[Maëlig]

Tbh I think it's too slow and unreliable to be effective, but if you really want to go that way I'd suggest to pack more stuff to fuel contamination. From the top of my head, I'd say crucible (you already play factories, so that would fit nicely in) and nether spirit.

[Paradigm Shift]

I would suggest some form of CA that is in your colors (as opposed to splashing for FoF).

My suggestions are Confidant + Top or Night's Whisper. Obviously, both are painful, as card draw tends to be in black. However, Top gives you other benefits, and helps long game.

You could also try Gerrard's Verdict since it is both CA (assuming 2+ cards in opponent's hand) and is situationally lifegain, which is a plus with blossom.

I would suggest -3 Damnation, -4 Chrome Mox, -1 Chalice, +4 Confidant, +3 Sensei's Divining Top, +1 Ajani Goldmane (he really is awesome with blossom, either making your army alpha out of nowhere, or offsetting lifeloss from earlier. If you don't like Ajani, I would add the 4th Vindicate instead.

In the board, because of your wealth of 1 and 2 drops, I would replace the chalices with Pulse of the Fields (which is very good post-M10 because of mana burn changes, and can help you use Bitterblossom effectively in aggro-matchups. It also owns Burn.) I would suggest a combination of Rule of Law (tutorable!), more discard, and Orim's Chant to give you good combo hate in the absence of Chalice.

You could also probably turn 1 or 2 of the Contamination into more discard, Therapy or Duress, maybe Verdict. Or an extra Ajani. In the board, Plague seems better as a 1 or 2 of in the board to E Tutor for in conjunction with other tribal hate (a 1-of Ghostly Prison is wonderful Ichorid + Tribal hate).

A few COPs might go far in the board as well, specifically COP Red and COP Green (which can just totally beat unprepared Elves!/Thresh/Stompy/Rock opponents.)

Argivian Find is also worth considering, in that it can give you a second chance at Moating an opponent out of the game, as well as recycling Plague and T. Crypt.

[MTG-Fan]

sauce: Once you get the Contamination lock out, wouldn't Wasteland and Sinkhole just be redundant?

Maelig: Too slow and unreliable? That's why I have 4 E-Tutor to make sure I can always assemble the combo. And slow? Blossom is only 2 mana, and Contamination is 3. With artifact mana accel, you can get the lock pretty damn early.

Paradigm Shift:
Thanks for the tips.

Do you think it's safe to cut Damnation? I find it very useful in many matchups, and I run very few creatures myself, so it's almost always one-sided.

I'm definitely including 1 CoP:Red maindeck because it is just an auto-win against any burn strategy.

Also, I know Dark Confidant is the go-to source for CA in black, BUT he would be gone within seconds, as that would be the only creature in the deck and the #1 target for removal spells. If I can avoid running creatures, it will make their spot removal like StP dead draws. Do you think Phyrexian Arena would be worth looking into instead?

[Paradigm Shift]

I can't believe I didn't think of Arena. It seems very good, but you will need some good lifegain to counteract both BBlossom and Arena. Also, I just realized with those E. Tutors you should probably have at least 1 O. Ring maindeck to tutor for, and you could also consider Faith's Fetters in the main as a 1-of, or in the board to bring in again decks that use single large threats. It also is a great card versus things like Academy Ruins and Volrath's Stronghold.

Damnation seems like a metagame call. It obviously is a non-bo with your token generators, so it only seems needed if you keep facing decks where it can get you reliable 2 or 3 for ones, and is required to keep your opponent from overwhelming you. If you find those MUs bothering you, try Ghostly Prison to supplement your Moat. Also, you should probably have a 1-of Pithing Needle somewhere between the board and main. It's just too useful to not have access to. I'm sure there are plenty of other artifacts and enchantments worth boarding or running, but you get the idea (Runed Halo).

Man, adding E. Tutor to any deck immediatly makes me start adding Quinn-style stuff to it.

Also, Maelig is right, Crucible is good.

[MTG-Fan]

Man, adding E. Tutor to any deck immediatly makes me start adding Quinn-style stuff to it.


Heh. Well that's actually what I was kind of aiming for: a B/W Quinn (Dirty Eskimo?) with the Blossom+Contamination lock.

I'm definitely going to try to work without Damnation for a while; it seems as if I could really streamline the deck if I can figure out a way to wreck aggro without needing to run these.

[MTG-Fan]

Most recent list I've been testing and having some success w/:

// Lands
2 [ON] Polluted Delta
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
5 [CHK] Swamp (2)
3 [8E] Plains (1)
2 [AL] Kjeldoran Outpost
4 [A] Scrubland

// Creatures
4 [RAV] Dark Confidant
2 [LRW] Ajani Goldmane

// Spells
3 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
2 [LRW] Thoughtseize
4 [IA] Swords to Plowshares
2 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
2 [FNM] Gerrard's Verdict
1 [8E] Phyrexian Arena
3 [US] Contamination
1 [7E] Circle of Protection: Red
3 [MR] Chrome Mox
1 [LG] Moat
4 [7E] Duress
4 [6E] Enlightened Tutor
4 [MOR] Bitterblossom

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [GP] Leyline of the Void
SB: 2 [FUT] Yixlid Jailer
SB: 4 [AP] Vindicate
SB: 4 [DK] Tivadar's Crusade
SB: 1 [B] Circle of Protection: Black

[lavafrogg]

The blue splash for fact or fiction is for style points and also the deck seems to run low on gas until it sets up recursion( or if the engine has been dealt with) and FoF is pure power when you need to reload your hand.